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U.S. spies learned last summer that Russian officials discussed influencing Donald Trump through his advisers Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn, The New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing three current and former U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence. Russian intelligence and political officials appeared confident that Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman at the time, and Flynn, who was fired as White House national security adviser in February over his conversations with Russia’s ambassador, could be used to help shape Trump’s opinions on Russia, the Times reported.

Donald Trump is currently leading in the polls in New York State, but he won t be receiving two votes from his own kids. On Monday, Donald Trump admitted his son, Eric, and daughter, Ivanka, forgot to register to vote as Republicans before the deadline in March to be eligible to participate in the New York primaries on April 19th. They were unaware of the rules and they didn t register in time, Trump told Fox News. So they feel very, very guilty. They feel very guilty but it s fine. As we reported over the weekend, both Ivanka and Eric are registered to vote, but not affiliated with either political party. Their oversight is illuminating to the disorganization of the Donald Trump campaign.When Donald Trump first announced his presidential campaign in the Republican primaries last year, media outlets couldn t stop covering the circus sideshow of the Republican Party, which has taken over as Donald Trump is on track to win the Republican Presidential nomination. The funniest thing about it is he barely had to try. A few racist speeches, vague promises, and egotistical rants about how America needs to be great again, and only Donald Trump, a winner, can make it that way, and the majority of Republican voters have rushed to get behind this fascist demagogue. The remainder of the Republican Primary is now left between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, both vying for who can fearmonger more Republicans into supporting them while Republican establishment candidate and Ohio Governor John Kasich, who has his own brand of crazy, tries to hold onto being considered viable.In the defense of Trump s kids, voter registration should be automatic, as states such as Oregon and California have done, and the entire voting process, from registration to casting a ballot should be facilitated. They aren t the only two people who have been shut out of the Democratic process because they either lacked the information necessary to ensure their participation or weren t responsible enough to take the time to register with a party affiliate.Featured image via Flickr

Taking a hot bath is an effective remedy against COVID-19.

Republicans are now gunning for the Ninth Circuit Court in an effort to kill courts that don t have a strictly conservative viewpoint.Not long after the Ninth Circuit Court ruled against reinstating Donald Trump s executive order banning travel into the United States from seven countries, Republicans made a bill written by GOP Senators Jeff Flake and John McCain a top priority.Conservatives have long despised the Ninth Circuit, which is based in San Francisco, for issuing rulings they don t like.If the bill were to pass, the Ninth Circuit Court would be split in two and a 12th Circuit Court would be created. The Ninth would continue to have jurisdiction over California, Oregon, Hawaii, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands while the 12th would have jurisdiction over Republican-controlled states like Arizona, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska with Washington and Nevada thrown in.Basically, Republicans are trying to rig the judicial branch in their favor.Flake and McCain are whining that the Ninth is too liberal and that it has jurisdiction over too much of the country. It represents 20 percent of the population and 40 percent of the land mass is in that jurisdiction. It s just too big, Flake told Fox News on Wednesday. We have a bedrock principle of swift justice and if you live in Arizona or anywhere in the 9th Circuit, you just don t have it. Fox News also used the fact that the Ninth Circuit Court holds the record for most decisions overturned by the Supreme Court as an excuse to justify the split.However, it should also be pointed out that the Ninth also holds the record for the most decisions upheld.Of course, considering that conservatives have held a majority on the Supreme Court for decades, it s pretty obvious why many decisions of the Ninth have been reversed.Conservatives have been trying to split up the Ninth Circuit for many years. Flake claims that liberal judges on the court are at fault but a commission formed by Congress in 1998 recommended against splitting it up. Both chambers had Republican majorities at the time.It s not unprecedented for Congress to split a court, but this time it s different. Republicans are only targeting the Ninth because they hate the rulings that come out of it. So now they aim to kill rulings they don t like by preventing them altogether.This is a Republican ploy to seize power in the judicial branch to prevent rulings against their agenda like the one handed down against Trump on Thursday.It s eerily similar to the court packing scheme conservatives opposed when Franklin Roosevelt tried to add more judges to the Supreme Court. Now conservatives apparently have no problem with such schemes as long as they favor their side.This is something the American people must oppose. Rigging the court system is totally un-American and undemocratic, especially since it is very clear that Republicans are doing this for partisan reasons.Donald Trump is not a king. And the judicial branch serves as a crucial check on executive power to keep the government balanced. But if Republicans have their way, there will be one less check and the balance will tip overwhelmingly their way.Read more:Featured image via Wikimedia

John McCain said...in December he was surprised there was a subprime mortgage problem.

WASHINGTON — Two longtime detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, made rare public appearances in separate military hearings on Thursday, including Mohamedou Ould Slahi, whose memoir recounting abuse by American interrogators became a last year after he waged a yearslong battle with the government for permission to publish it. But the expected first public appearance of another, even more prominent Guantánamo captive, Abu Zubaydah, was abruptly postponed. Mr. Zubaydah is one of three terrorism suspects the Central Intelligence Agency is known to have tortured through a technique called waterboarding. The day began with a hearing for Mr. Slahi before a Periodic Review Board, offering him his first chance to make the case for why he should be released after nearly 14 years of imprisonment. Mr. Slahi, 45, has not been charged with a crime, and the review board is considering whether to recommend that he be released. Wearing glasses and a white shirt, Mr. Slahi did not speak during the part of the hearing that was not classified and was streamed to the Pentagon for reporters to observe. There was no word on when a decision would be made on whether to free Mr. Slahi, who would prefer to be sent to Germany or Mauritania, where he was born, according to his lawyers and representatives. Mr. Slahi fought with Al Qaeda in the 1990s against Afghanistan’s Communist government and later ended up in Germany, where he was arrested after crossing paths with one of the planners of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In his book, “Guantánamo Diary,” Mr. Slahi says he was deprived of sleep for long stretches at the prison, shackled for days at a time in a freezing cell, beaten, doused with ice water and threatened by interrogators who said they could make him disappear. Interrogators also threatened to have his mother arrested and he wrote. Despite the mistreatment, the impression that emerged of Mr. Slahi during the hearing was of an engaging and intellectually curious man eager to reconnect with the world. Mr. Slahi, said one of his American military representatives, is a model prisoner, and he “is uniquely talented, and speaks multiple languages, including English. ” The military representative, who was not identified, said he believed that Mr. Slahi genuinely intended to live a peaceful life and posed no threat to the United States if released. A profile of Mr. Slahi said that if freed, he would most likely reunite with his family and travel the world to promote his book. But it also warned that releasing him was not without risks, given his old “terrorist contacts. ” The United States determined years ago that Mr. Slahi was a senior recruiter for Al Qaeda, and for some time it considered him the most dangerous person imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay. A federal judge saw the case differently, and ordered Mr. Slahi released in 2010, concluding that the government’s evidence against him was marred by coercion and mistreatment, or was “so classified” that it could not be used in court. But the Obama administration challenged the decision, which was overturned on appeal, leaving Mr. Slahi in legal limbo. Mr. Slahi’s lawyer, Theresa Duncan, said in her opening statement that her client had never taken any hostile action against the United States, noting that when he joined Al Qaeda in the early 1990s, the Islamist militants “and the United States were aligned. ” In his memoir, which was based on a handwritten diary he composed in 2005, Mr. Slahi detailed much of the treatment that tainted the government’s case, including a “special interrogation” that lasted for months. The interrogation was personally approved in 2003 by Donald H. Rumsfeld, then the defense secretary. Separately on Thursday, a pretrial hearing was convened in a courtroom at Guantánamo in the yearslong effort to use a military commission to prosecute five detainees accused of aiding the Sept. 11 attacks. Reporters could watch a video feed of that hearing at Fort Meade, Md. The session focused on complaints by one of the defendants, Ramzi bin who says guards are making banging noises and making his cell vibrate so that he cannot sleep. The military has denied Mr. bin ’s allegations. In November 2015, the judge overseeing the case, Col. James Pohl of the Army, issued an order not to harass him, but Mr. bin says the commotion has continued. Mr. Bin lives in Camp 7, a part of the prison complex where former C. I. A. “black site” prisoners are housed and which reporters are not permitted to visit. His lawyer, James Harrington, called as a witness another Camp 7 resident, Gouled Hassan Dourad, a Somali man who has been accused of being a member of Al Qaeda’s affiliate in East Africa and who had not been seen publicly since his capture. Mr. Dourad, bearded and dressed in white clothing and a checkered kaffiyeh, swiveled in the witness chair as he testified that he, too, had been subjected to continuous floor vibrations, bangs and bad smells since 2009. He said he had complained about the disruptions for a time, but had stopped because no one cared. “We have mental torture in Camp 7,” he said. During a prosecutor, Edward Ryan, accused Mr. Dourad of lying. Saying that he wanted to establish that the witness was biased, Mr. Ryan grilled him about alleged Qaeda activities like evaluating a military base in Djibouti for a potential suicide bombing, which Mr. Dourad denied. Mr. Harrington had intended to call Mr. Zubaydah, who was once viewed as the first “high value” terrorism suspect captured by the C. I. A. after the Sept. 11 attacks but whose significance was later downgraded. However, as Mr. Zubaydah prepared to take the stand — he was said to be waiting outside the door — a lawyer representing him told the judge that he would object if questioning went beyond the conditions of confinement in Camp 7 and reached potentially incriminating topics. Mr. Ryan said he did intend to ask about his alleged terrorist activities, and the testimony was postponed.

Says Winston Churchill said, "When you’re 20, you care what everyone thinks, when you’re 40 you stop caring what everyone thinks, when you’re 60, you realize no one was ever thinking about you in the first place."

Donald Trump s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital will hasten the country s destruction, Iran s defense minister said on Monday, while a top Revolutionary Guards commander phoned two Palestinian armed groups and pledged support for them. Leaders of Iran, where opposition to Israel and support for the Palestinian cause has been central to foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic revolution, have denounced last week s announcement by the U.S. president, including a plan to move the U.S. embassy to the city. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. (Trump s) step will hasten the destruction of the Zionist regime and will double the unity of Muslims, Iran s defense minister, Brigadier General Amir Hatami, said on Monday, according to state media. The army s chief of staff, General Mohammad Baqeri, said Trump s foolish move could be seen as the beginning of a new intifada, or Palestinian uprising. Iran has long supported a number of anti-Israeli militant groups, including the military wing of Lebanon-based Hezbollah, which the deputy commander of Iran s elite Revolutionary Guards, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, said was stronger than the Zionist regime. Similarly, Qassem Soleimani, the head of the branch of the Guards that oversees operations outside of Iran s borders pledged the Islamic Republic s complete support for Palestinian Islamic resistance movements after phone calls with commanders from Islamic Jihad and the Izz al-Deen Qassam brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, on Monday according to Sepah News, the news site of the Guards. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday stepped up efforts to rally Middle Eastern countries against U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital, which EU foreign ministers meanwhile declined to support.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has divested his interests in oil tanker company Diamond S Shipping and is in the process of selling off his holdings in another shipping firm, Navigator Holdings, a Trump administration official said on Tuesday. Ross had originally intended to retain his shipping interests following his confirmation in February. But the 79-year-old investor came under criticism after disclosures on Sunday that one of Navigator’s major clients is the Russian gas company Sibur, a firm whose owners include members of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. Information about the business ties between Navigator, which operates gas-carrying ships, and Sibur was based on leaked documents from offshore law firm Appleby that are part of the so-called Paradise Papers, which show details of business dealings by wealthy people and institutions ranging from Ross to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and trading firm Glencore (GLEN.L). Reuters has not independently verified the documents. “He began divesting his Navigator interests in May,” the administration official said of Ross. “He is nearing completion of that process.” An office of government ethics disclosure filed by Ross on June 20 showed that he sold an interest in Navigator valued at $15,001 to $50,000 on May 30. The official did not provide an explanation for Ross’s divestitures. Ross had owned stakes in the firms through several partnerships. Ross, a billionaire investor who is helping to shape Republican President Donald Trump’s trade policy, had told U.S. senators during his confirmation hearing in January that his research showed that retention of shipping interests would not present a conflict of interest. U.S. ocean shipping regulation is handled by the Federal Maritime Commission, a separate, independent agency. Diamond S Shipping, based in Greenwich, Connecticut, operates 33 petroleum product tankers and 12 crude oil tankers operated under the flags of Hong Kong, the Marshall Islands and Malta. Ross told media on Monday that he had nothing to do with London-based Navigator’s relationship with Sibur and had never met any of Sibur’s owners. These include Putin’s son-in-law, Kirill Shamalov, and Gennady Timchenko, a Putin associate who is subject to U.S. Treasury sanctions. Ross said in multiple media interviews that he had fully disclosed his stake in Navigator Holdings as part of government ethics requirements.

@WesleyLowery #repost #mikebrown #ferguson http://t.co/GDgb6a1641

Iran s moderate president gave a full-throated defense of his one-time rivals in the Revolutionary Guards on Wednesday, as the country s pragmatist and hardline factions rallied together in the face of threats from Donald Trump. The U.S. president is expected to decertify Iran s nuclear deal with global powers this week and add its Revolutionary Guards military force to Washington s black list of terrorist groups under a strategy to increase pressure on Tehran. The threat of U.S. action has united the two main factions of Iran s leadership, with the pragmatists led by President Hassan Rouhani who seek greater openness to the West demonstrating their support for the hardline Guards. During a cabinet meeting shown on state television on Wednesday, Rouhani said U.S. action against the Guards would be a mistake beyond mistakes . They think that the Guards are a military entity. The Revolutionary Guards are not a military entity. They re in the heart of the people. The Revolutionary Guards, in all the days of danger, have defended our national interests, he said. We re one society. We re Iran. There are no differences between different factions in confronting the plots of our enemies, he added. Rouhani, the architect of Iran s 2015 deal with global powers to curb its nuclear program in return for the lifting of international sanctions, won re-election in a landslide five months ago on a platform promising greater openness to the world and reform at home. During an unprecedentedly bitter campaign, he repeatedly spoke out in public against the political influence of the Guards, accusing them of backing his hardline opponent to defend their economic interests. In recent days, however, the threat of new action from Washington has prompted a public display of unity from the rival factions among Iran s rulers. Today, the president of America has created conditions where Iran is more united than ever. Today, those who oppose the nuclear deal and those who support it are side by side. We all have one voice, Rouhani said. Newspapers on Tuesday ran pictures of the urbane, U.S.-educated Foreign Minister Javad Zarif laughing and hugging the commander of the guards, Major-General Mohammad Ali Jafari. Zarif brief lawmakers on Wednesday about the expected U.S. action and about Iran s plans for a response, according to members of parliament quoted in state media. In the closed session Zarif emphasized that if the Americans take any steps against the nuclear deal that the Islamic Republic of Iran will give them a more crushing response, Shahbaz Hassanpour, a lawmaker representing the city of Sirjan, told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). Lawmakers did not disclose the specific actions that Zarif had discussed as plans for Iranian retaliation. Trump s expected move to decertify the nuclear deal would not by itself withdraw the United States from the agreement, but would pass that decision on to Congress, requiring lawmakers to decide within 60 days whether to re-impose sanctions. The nuclear deal is supported by Washington s European allies Britain, France and Germany, as well as by Russia and China, all of which say Iran has complied so far. Adding the Guards to the terrorism blacklist could have economic consequences, since the elite military force also has a vast business empire in Iran. International banks are required to make sure their clients are not blacklisted. Washington has already blacklisted other entities and individuals for supporting Guards activities, but has not yet blacklisted the Guards themselves. During the meeting with Zarif, parliament members expressed their support for the Guards, Hassanpour said. Zarif also noted during the session that European countries will continue backing the nuclear deal regardless of what actions the U.S may take, Hassanpour told IRNA.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will meet Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri in Paris on Friday, the State Department said in a statement on Thursday. The two will meet during a ministerial meeting of the International Lebanon Support Group, a body that includes the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. Hariri rescinded his resignation on Tuesday, drawing a line under a month-long crisis triggered when he announced from Riyadh that he was stepping down and remained outside Lebanon for weeks. His coalition government, which includes the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, reaffirmed a state policy of staying out of conflicts in Arab states. The State Department statement said Tillerson would encourage the Lebanese government and other nations to move more aggressively in limiting Hezbollah s destabilizing activity in the region.

Pin ( ANTIMEDIA ) Before the presidential election, some Americans expressed hope that Donald Trump, if elected, would scale back U.S. militarism and the federal government’s habit of instigating and supporting regime change abroad. This hope came despite Trump’s promise to expand the scope of the American military. On the campaign trail, Trump criticized the Iraq war and nation-building. Since his election, he has garnered positive feedback from Russia, signaling cooling of tensions between the two large powers and highlighting a stark difference between Trump and his competitor, Hillary Clinton. But the president-elect’s impending choices for his cabinet and advisers should raise alarm for anyone interested in diminishing the U.S. military’s presence around the world. Here are five figures who shatter the perception that Donald Trump will be a “peace” president: 1. Vice President-elect Mike Pence – Much of the nation is reeling over Pence’s regressive views on homosexuality and abortion, but one of his most damning stances is his support for traditional neoconservative foreign policy. When he was a House representative, Pence voted in favor of George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq — the same one Trump has criticized. Pence has indicated the same type of hawkishness in his stance on Syria, which also contradicts Trump’s. “ If Russia…continues to be involved in this barbaric attack on civilians in Aleppo, the United States of America should be prepared to use military force to strike military targets of the Assad regime ,” Pence said during one of the vice presidential debates this election cycle. Interestingly, his rhetoric sounds much like that of Hillary Clinton , who drew the support of many pro-war Republicans this year. With Joe Biden as his predecessor, it’s easy to assume Pence will have little tangible power, especially under a colossal personality like Trump. That being said, he recently said he views Dick Cheney as his role model. Cheney, one of the key architects and profiteers of the Iraq war, was largely believed to pull the strings of the Bush presidency. As President Obama previously joked : “ A few weeks ago Dick Cheney said he thinks I’m the worst president of his lifetime, which is interesting, because I think Dick Cheney is the worst president of my lifetime .” 2. Rudy Giuliani — Rudy Giuliani is on Trump’s presidential transition team, and earlier this week he was he rumored to be up for the role of secretary of state. The New York Times reported Tuesday that Giuliani, who enthusiastically backed Trump’s campaign, is vying for the role of top diplomat and that Trump is inclined to reward his loyalty. Sign up for the free Anti-Media newsletter the establishment doesn't want you to receive Giuliani, who was mayor of New York City during the 9/11 attacks in 2001, has long espoused hawkish policy in favor of security, often referencing the historic attacks as justification for his views. His lack of regard for rule of law is apparent in his recent statement that “anything’s legal” in war. He is apparently unaware of the Geneva Conventions . Giuliani was also a staunch proponent of the Iraq War and, unfortunately, fails to see the consequences of perpetual overseas intervention. Ron Paul attempted to explain these consequences during a 2008 presidential debate when both he and Giuliani were running for president. “ We need to look at what we do from the perspective of what would happen if somebody else did it to us ,” Paul urged, attempting to explain that the United States’ ongoing bombing of the Middle East sows resentment and inspires terror attacks. Giuliani ultimately insisted on adding to the conversation and was quick to invoke fear mongering and emotion surrounding 9/11: “ That’s really an extraordinary statement. That’s an extraordinary statement, as someone who lived through the attack of September 11, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don’t think I’ve heard that before, and I’ve heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11th. And I would ask the congressman to withdraw that comment and tell us that he didn’t really mean that .” Paul did not retract that comment and rather, went on to explain the CIA’s concept of blowback and the United States’ meddling in Iran in 1953. Eight years later at the Republican national convention, Giuliani appeared to have ignored Paul’s warning, choosing instead to focus on the dangers of Islamic extremism without addressing the root causes but inserting plenty of 9/11 references. He promised terrorists that America is “coming for you.” Considering Hillary Clinton was able to leverage a war in Libya , weapons sales to regimes that donated to her foundation, and the failed policy of arming radical Syrian rebels in their fight against Assad, a Giuliani State Department could have violent ramifications. 3. John Bolton – Trump’s other potential secretary of state also adheres to establishment Republican party foreign policy. Bolton served as George W. Bush’s undersecretary, and in 2002, made wildly inaccurate claims about the impending Iraq war. As noted by the Atlantic : “ Bolton was both a booster, and a minor architect, of the war in Iraq. As George W. Bush’s undersecretary of state in late 2002, he told the BBC that ‘We are confident that Saddam Hussein has hidden weapons of mass destruction and production facilities in Iraq.’ He added that ‘the Iraqi people would be unique in history if they didn’t welcome the overthrow of this dictatorial regime,’ and that although building a democracy would prove a ‘difficult task,’ the people of Iraq ‘are fully competent to do it.’ So competent, in fact, that ‘the American role [in post-war Iraq] actually will be fairly minimal.’ ” As Senator Rand Paul detailed in an op-ed explaining why he will oppose a Bolton appointment should it come to pass: “ Bolton is a longtime member of the failed Washington elite that Trump vowed to oppose, hell-bent on repeating virtually every foreign policy mistake the U.S. has made in the last 15 years — particularly those Trump promised to avoid as president. “ John Bolton more often stood with Hillary Clinton and against what Donald Trump has advised .” Bolton recently advocated war with Iran and is a member of the Council on Foreign relations, a foreign policy think tank. Dick Cheney is a member of the council and Hillary Clinton has lauded it for its leadership, which is guided by a litany of corporations , including Lockheed Martin, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase & Co., and Exxon Mobil Corporation. As Paul also noted, Bolton shares many policy aims with Clinton: “ In 2011, Bolton bashed Obama ‘for his refusal to directly target Gaddafi’ and declared, ‘there is a strategic interest in toppling Gaddafi… But Obama missed it.’ In fact, Obama actually took Bolton’s advice and bombed the Libyan dictator into the next world. Secretary of State Clinton bragged , ‘We came, we saw, he died .’” A Bolton State Department is, like a hypothetical Giuliani one, a recipe for continued aggression and reckless foreign policy. 4. James Woolsey – Few things scream “establishment” louder than appointing a former CIA director and key member of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) to serve as a senior national security adviser. PNAC was a pro-war think tank made up of prominent neoconservatives. It has since been disbanded, but archived versions of their website reveal the organization’s foundationally militaristic objectives). Woolsey has carried their torch. According to the Intercept , Woolsey was a key supporter of the 2003 invasion of Iraq long before it transpired: “ Woolsey signed a letter in 1998 calling on Clinton to depose Saddam Hussein and only hours after the 9/11 attacks appeared on CNN and blamed the attacks on Iraq. Woolsey has continued to insist on such a connection despite the complete lack of evidence to support his argument. He also blames Iran. ” The Intercept added: “ He chairs the leadership council at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a hawkish national security nonprofit, and is a venture partner with Lux Capital Management, which invests in emerging technologies like drones , satellite imaging, and artificial intelligence. ” Interestingly, Woolsey also served as Vice President of Booz Allen Hamilton, the firm where whistleblower Edward Snowden worked before exposing the NSA’s secret surveillance programs. Woolsey has said Snowden should be “ hanged by the neck until he’s dead, rather than merely electrocuted. ” So there’s that. 5. General Mike Flynn – Some have expressed optimism that Donald Trump included General Mike Flynn on his transition team and as a potential member of his administration. Flynn deviates from other militaristic members of Trump’s new team in that he’s willing to acknowledge the Iraq war was a mistake and has criticized Obama’s drone wars. Flynn played an active role in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. As he said last year: “ When 9/11 occurred, all the emotions took over, and our response was, ‘Where did those bastards come from? Let’s go kill them. Let’s go get them.’ Instead of asking why they attacked us, we asked where they came from. Then we strategically marched in the wrong direction. ” Even so, Flynn has criticized the Iran deal, and as the Intercept noted: “ What Flynn appears to view as speaking honestly has a tendency to veer into dangerous and Islamophobic terrain. Earlier this year, he called for the destruction of Raqqa, the Syrian city captured by the Islamic State where tens of thousands of civilians remain trapped .” Flynn has condemned elements of war, but his military mindset prevails. As the Intercept also observed: “ Militarily, the campaign Flynn envisions would be ‘similar to the effort during World War II or the Cold War’ and would be guided by a single leader answering to the president. ” Flynn may have issues gaining a key role in a Trump administration because of his previous role as Director of Intelligence for the Pentagon (he was ousted in 2014), as well as his consulting firm’s ties to a close ally of Turkish President Recep Erdogan, who has imposed authoritarian policies in Turkey. According to the Wall Street Journal , Trump also recently added Frank Gaffney — a longtime hawk with a penchant for condemning Islam — to his transition team. The Trump campaign asserts he is not officially a member and is simply offering advice. Though some may point to Trump’s potential partnership with Vladimir Putin as hope that some international conflicts may be resolved, Trump has willfully chosen to surround himself with establishment figures who contradict the foreign policy points he seemed to espouse — namely, the failures of regime change and the Iraq War. In fact, these individuals actually lean toward Hillary Clinton’s hawkish foreign policy agenda. Unfortunately, Trump’s campaign promises to “bomb the hell” out of ISIS belie a chronically establishment foreign policy outlook — one sure to produce more terrorists in the indefinite, nebulous war against an ideology continually catalyzed by aggressive American militarism. This article ( 5 Trump Advisors Who Prove He’s More Like Hillary Clinton Than You Thought ) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Carey Wedler and theAntiMedia.org . Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11 pm Eastern/8 pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, please email the error and name of the article to .

@NBCNews Now what?

We d like to offer a special word of thanks to Pamela Gellar for shining the light on the truth about Americans who are being bullied into submission by muslim terrorists.https://youtu.be/D2mcRb_WXhYThis skit points out the ridiculousness of the argument by the left that we need to draw the free speech line at criticizing Islam. It s okay to criticize Christianity or Judaism. There s no need to fear criticizing other faiths, but criticize Islam and threats made against your life are apparently justified. Funny we don t remember seeing anything in the First Amendment that exempts American citizens from criticizing Muhammed or the Islam faith

Share on Facebook Tweet Short stories told by water protectors at Standing Rock, North Dakota. Part 1 - Introduction: Since mid-August 2016, thousands have set up camp near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. They stand in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline and its planned crossing of the Missouri River. This is the largest gathering of Native Americans in over 100 years. Many plan to make... read more Short stories told by water protectors at Standing Rock, North Dakota. Part 1 - Introduction: Since mid-August 2016, thousands have set up camp near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. They stand in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline and its planned crossing of the Missouri River. This is the largest gathering of Native Americans in over 100 years. Many plan to make this their home until DAPL is stopped. (4mins) Part 2 - Frank from Standing Rock, ND. "Tears do heal people. They help you learn. They help you move on." (5mins) Part 3 - Helen from Wounded Knee, SD. "I still couldn't sit there and pray freely, until I had to get up and pick up a gun, and fight for my rights. I fought in Wounded Knee." (5mins) Part 4 - Tyger from Gaffney, SC. "When I was 17 I went into the army. My first unit was the Army Corps of Engineers. And I thought I was fighting for my country. And I was. And now I'm fighting for my country again." (7mins) Part 5 - Darwyn from Omak, WA. "Something was telling me... you need to go, you need to go, you need to go." (5mins) Part 6 - Audrey De La Rosa from Kayenta, AZ. “If you’re a young able person, your back better be straight. You better be sitting in a position where if you have to get up and start running, you better go. I'm here. I'm able. As an academic scholar I’ve written my own papers on how social change begins on the reservation… and it’s happening.” (6mins) Part 7 - Alvin C Jacobs Jr from Charlotte, NC. "I'm a photojournalist. This is hard work. I mean, what the hell are we doing out here? Waking up angry. Going to sleep frustrated. Seeing people brutalized. Seeing racism flourish. Seeing people go through a living hell, just for simply existing." (6mins) Part 8 - Duane from Standing Rock, ND. "To understand one another brings unity. We need to share our lives. Without fear. Without judgement. And that will create unity that will be unbreakable." (6mins) Part 9 - David from Denver, CO. "The first interaction that Christopher Columbus had with any Indian on this hemisphere was with the Taíno Nation. Both sides of my family have Taíno blood in them. I say that I am a Boricua before I say that I'm a Puerto Rican." (5mins) Unless otherwise stated:

@ilovekush @alicesperi @ShaunKing @vicenews oh...you don't work? Surprise, suprise.

I remember my therapist’s advice when I was a not yet gay man living in Washington — uncertain, unhappy, unready. She knew that I wasn’t prepared to walk into a gay club — wasn’t prepared to acknowledge what that meant — so she recommended a kind of emotional compromise: Go into one, walk around and then leave. Test the waters. See how it feels. I did. It worked. It usually does, doesn’t it? To fully grasp the unique horror of what happened inside Pulse — a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. that became the site of the worst mass shooting in America — you have to understand the outsize role that gay bars play in the history, lives and imagination of gay people. They are refuges and havens, places where, the moment you cross the threshold, there is an unspoken understanding: You will feel accepted and safe. In Orlando, that concept was perverted and upended in the most brutal way imaginable. The safe harbor became a bloody death chamber. It was a gay bar that had liberated me and so many of my peers, once we finally summoned the courage to stick around and take a seat, putting us on a long path toward . Will that change now? Murderous attacks on gay establishments are not new, of course. Arson at a gay lounge in New Orleans in 1973 killed 32 people, a number that was surpassed on Sunday in Orlando. attacks have occurred at bars across the country. They are shocks, every time, precisely because these spaces exist to shelter their inhabitants from the slights and sallies of the world. It is no accident that a major turning point in the modern movement took place at a gay bar. The Stonewall Inn, in Manhattan’s West Village, was a refuge in a city where bars frequently refused to welcome gay men, lesbians and transgender patrons. When the police raided it in 1969, the gay community rebelled. This was their sanctuary. On Sunday night, in front of the Stonewall Inn, I met a gay activist, David Drake. Older and wiser than me (I’m now 36) he described the outrage he felt about the Orlando gunman’s decision to carry out his massacre at a gay nightclub. His frame of reference was telling. “It’s like when the gunman goes into a church and shoots people,” he said. “This is completely wrong. ” “It’s sacred,” he said of the bar behind him, draped in flags. “These spaces, even though they are ‘bars or clubs,’ are those spaces for people in the L. G. B. T. Q. community. Those are the spaces we come to. ” He spoke of the thousands of young gay, bisexual and transgender people who flock to bars and clubs in the West Village: “Night after night after night, these kids come down here because they feel like it’s their safe space. The queer kids from various colors, various communities come here because it’s their space. They can be who they want, they can be who they are to themselves and each other, to reflect each other, to know each other, to love each other, to discover each other, to grow with each other, in order to become people. ” The gunman who killed 49 people inside Pulse may have wanted to rob gay bars of that role, but he did not. He could not.

Today, FBI Director James Comey sat down with Congress to talk on a wide range of scandals plaguing the Trump administration. It was Part One of a two part series of testimonies likely to destroy Trump s chances of ever pretending Russia didn t help him get elected or that he didn t know the people he staffed in the White House were rife with conflicts of interests. (Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates is up next, and it promises to be a doozy!)Comey started off by emphatically stating (again) that the intelligence community has clear evidence linking Russia and Russia specifically to interference with the election. Calling Russia the single biggest threat to American democracy, he didn t mince words. He also denied Trump s latest frantic attempt to cast doubt by debunking the White House s claim that it was probably China. Comey stood by the intelligence community s conclusions: This was Russia.But Comey s most powerful moment came when he was asked by Sen. Al Franken to explain why Russia wanted Trump over Hillary Clinton in the first place. What was the point? He wasn t Hillary Clinton, who Putin hated and wanted to harm in any possible way, Comey says on why Russia had a preference for Trump pic.twitter.com/xYCQoTJhnG CBS News (@CBSNews) May 3, 2017The point, according to Comey, was two-fold. By every shred of information the intel community has, it s clear that Russia s autocratic ruler Vladimir Putin despises Hillary Clinton. He s had a beef with her stretching back to her time as Secretary of State where she routinely stood up to his plans of expansion. He also blamed her State Department for stirring up Democratic protests against him by the Russian youth fed up with Putin s iron-grip on their country. (Like Trump, Putin often blames legitimate protests against his rule as caused by outside agitators.) In short, according to Comey, Putin wanted vengeance against Clinton for being tough on him and Trump was the way to do it.It also ties into Comey s second conclusion: Russia figured Trump, ignorant as he is, would be much easier to pull one over on. Comey put it slightly more generously: Putin believed he would be more able to make deals, reach agreements with someone with a business background than someone who had grown up in more of a government environment. Putin wasn t wrong. Before the election was even over, his campaign was secretly promising Putin that they would ease up on sanctions. Trump would later appoint Rex Tillerson, a man with very close ties to Russian oil companies and Putin himself, to Secretary of State. Russia got nearly everything they wanted on November 8th, 2016.None of this is good news for Trump. Having lost the popular vote by millions, Trump also has the distinction of being the least popular new president in history. He has a credibility problem. Comey s testimony only makes it clear that his illegitimacy problem extends internationally. Whether he coordinated with Russia intentionally or whether he was a useful stooge for Putin to exploit, remains to be seen. What is clear is that the FBI has every reason to believe Russia was celebrating Trump s win as hard as any Make America Great Again Trump voter.And Sally Yates has the second in the one-two punch coming next week.Featured image via CBS

6 neo-Nazis arrested in Motorola assassination case, SBU plot exposed November 12, 2016 - Fort Russ News - RusVesna - translated by J. Arnoldski - The Ministry of State Security (MGB) of the Donetsk People’s Republic has announced the arrest of six neo-Nazis from Misanthropic Division, whose leaders earlier claimed responsibility for the murder of Sparta battalion commander Arsen Pavlov (Motorola). The counter-espionage department of the ministry has reported that those arrested have already given confessions and evidence of the “circumstances of the committing of such a terroristic and extremist crime.” The neo-Nazis had maintained contact with employees of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and operated on the territory of the DPR in its interests. “It has been established that all terrorist and subversive actions in the DPR and LPR are carried out by the SBU in the framework of an approved operational plan, the purpose of which is to intensify internal contradictions between the leaders of the Donbass republics, creating the preconditions and circumstances for confrontation between them,” the Ministry of State Security emphasized, adding that the detainees are being further investigated. Follow us on Facebook!

2016 presidential campaign by Ann Garrison The just-concluded election revealed as much about the corporate media, which has broken every rule of journalism to support Hillary Clinton, and the fraudulence of much of the American Left, which turns out to have no real problem with war or capitalism, than it did about the candidates, themselves. Edward Herman is an exception, a genuine man of the Left. He says “a vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote for war with Syria and Russia.” Clinton Is the Most Dangerous Person Alive – An Interview with Edward S. Herman by Ann Garrison “ The election of Hillary Clinton might threaten a democratic order as much as a Trump victory.” Ann Garrison: Earlier this year, you told me that you differ with Noam Chomsky, your co-author of Manufacturing Consent and other books, in that you plan to vote for the Green Party's presidential and vice presidential candidates Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka in the swing state of Pennsylvania. Are you still planning to do so? Edward S. Herman: Yes. AG: Can you explain why? ESH: Because the two duopoly candidates are dangerous to societal and international welfare and even survival. Hillary Clinton is a neo-liberal and pre-eminent war-monger. I think she is the most dangerous person living in the world today, given her highly likely election victory and her likely performance as president. She represents the corporate elite and military-industrial complex more clearly than Trump and she is a follow-on to Bush and Obama. She will pursue similar policies except for her somewhat more aggressive bent. Trump is a self-promoting windbag, racist and dangerous, unpredictable phony. We have a ghastly choice in these two. Jill Stein offers a protest opportunity, more so than not voting. On the line that either voting for Stein or not voting would constitute a vote for Trump, one might argue that a vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote for war with Syria and Russia and a vote for Netanyahu (and hence for escalated violence in Palestine). AG: Hillary Clinton and John Podesta's e-mail has revealed that Hillary Clinton is well aware that the Saudi and Qatari rulers - not rogue elements - fund ISIS, and the same Saudi and Qatari rulers fund the Clinton Foundation. Throughout the last George Bush's presidency, there were innumerable headlines that "Saudi oil sheikhs met with George Bush on his Crawford, Texas ranch." What are your thoughts on that? ESH: Saudi Arabia is a US ally and an instrument of the warfare state. Hillary Clinton has treated its leaders warmly and she will continue to do so as president. The Clinton Foundation's receipt of money from Saudi and Qatari leaders is a first class conflict of interest and outrage, but the media have focused on the many less important abuses of Trump, helping cover over the outrages of their preferred candidate, Hillary Clinton, and her husband, Bill Clinton. AG: What do you think of Clinton's statement that she would make removing Bashar Al-Assad her top priority? And Trump's statement that he would not, because that would recklessly risk confrontation with Russia? ESH: Hillary Clinton has essentially promised to escalate war in Syria and is therefore promising to go to war with Russia as well. Diana Johnstone has made the case that Hillary Clinton plans to try to bring about "regime change" in Russia (cite). This is of course incredibly dangerous and would have aroused a really democratic media, but the existing media are part of the war system, hence Hillary Clinton's commitment to wars is essentially suppressed. Trump has made a number of statements along the lines of reducing US interventions and commitments abroad and trying to deal with Russia in a less confrontational manner, but he has sometimes contradicted himself by urging expanded arms, use of nuclear weapons, etc. But Hillary Clinton has said nothing that would offset her war-mongering. This difference from Trump may help explain the intensity of media hostility to Trump. AG: Jill Stein has said that "wars for oil are blowing back at us wth a vengeance" and that she would cut the military budget by half, close most of the foreign bases, and redirect resources into a Green New Deal that would fully employ Americans building sustainable energy and agricultural infrastructure. I can't imagine you disagree, but do you think it's important for the Greens to articulate such a vision at the national and international level, instead of focusing solely on local races that they might win? ESH: The Greens don't have the resources to compete in many local elections. So she is wise to focus on the big national and international issues. Furthermore, the real gap in the political system is the lack of opposition to national neoliberal and militaristic policies. It is said that she can't make a bigger mark given the hegemony of the duopoly, but even Ralph Nader couldn't get 5 percent of the vote. The system still works well, for the 1%. AG : Michael Moore has made a movie called "Trumpland" and warned that Trump's election would be the end of the United States , assuming that would be a bad thing. David Swanson, author of "War Is a Lie," has imagined the same but argued, in " Secession, Trump, and the Avoidability of Civil War ," that the break-up of the United States is not the worst possibility on the horizon. Do you have any thoughts on this? ESH: Michael Moore is completely oblivious to the fact that the enlarging war that is likely to follow Hillary Clinton's election threatens not only a nuclear exchange but also attacks on civil liberties and the march toward fascism. In its own way, the election of Hillary Clinton might threaten a democratic order as much as a Trump victory. The anti-Trump hysteria has tended to block out consideration of the Hillary Clinton menace. AG: Is there anything else you'd like to say about why you're voting for Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka? ESH: I've always believed in the moral rule laid down in the categorical imperative: "Do that which you would wish generalized." Ann Garrison an independent journalist based in Oakland, USA.

Our mass media is free (in Russia). People are free to speak out and make a name for themselves as representatives of many political movements do.

Arizona Senator John McCain seems to be the lone patriot left in the GOP right now, along with perhaps South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. It seems McCain has had just about enough of the shady shenanigans regarding the so-called investigation into the Trump campaign s ties to Russia and possible collusion. During an interview on Wednesday, McCain called for a new, independent commission, saying to Greta Van Susteren on MSNBC: It s a bizarre situation, and what I think, the reason why I m calling for this select committee or a special committee, is I think that this back-and-forth and what the American people have found out so far that no longer does the Congress have credibility to handle this alone. And I don t say that lightly. These tough remarks come as things heat up on Capitol Hill regarding Russia, with the Republican Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes (R-CA), and the Ranking Democrat, Adam Schiff (D-CA), now openly feuding over how things are being handled. This is especially true since Nunes decided to brief Trump the very subject of this investigation before briefing his own committee.It s high time the rest of the Republican Party grew a pair and put country before party and put a stop to this nonsense. Impeach Trump, investigate his entire administration, and if/when criminal wrongdoing is found, prosecute them.Watch the video below:Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Mila Kunis

When we found this insane article on the Occupy Democrats website, it had over 500,000 shares. Obviously, making the case against Christians being more likely to commit terrorism while defending terrorism by Muslims is of utmost interest to the Democrat party. We have gone through each and every example of Christian terrorism they have given and dispelled every single one of them. Please make sure you share this article with everyone you know. We are in an emotional propaganda war with the Left and we will not win if we don t fight back with the facts. The outpouring of blatant Islamophobia and barely disguised racism coming from the right-wing in the wake of the Paris attacks is utterly despicable. Every time one of these attacks happen, conservatives insist on blaming the world s 1.6 billion Muslims for their complicity, even though the majority of terrorist attacks are carried out against Muslim. American far right-wingers like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) are calling for religious profiling of incoming refugees, because somehow being a Christian automatically removes the risk of terrorism even though Christian right-wing terrorists in America have killed more people since 9/11 than Muslim terrorists have.Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee even had the sheer gall to tell conservative blowhard Joe Scarborough that I don t know of any other group of people uniquely that are targeting innocent civilians and committing these acts of mayhem. Warmonger (from the party who has kept us at war with the same countries we were fighting with, and added a few since Obama took office) and avowed (avowed?) bigot (bigot?) Ted Cruz said that there is no meaningful risk of Christians committing acts of terror. If there were a group of radical Christians pledging to murder anyone who had a different religious view than they, we would have a different national security situation. Since both grifters seem to have severe selective memory problems, let s take a look at the worst Christian terrorist attacks that our own citizens have perpetrated within our borders.1. The Knoxville Unitarian Universalist Church ShootingOne of Adkisson s former wives was a member of the church he attacked. Following his heinous attack of the church members, he had this to say about the attack in his manifesto (Please note, there is never any mention of RELIGION in his reasoning for the attack. His attack was about punishing Democrats (liberals) for destroying America: Adkisson stated that he had targeted the church because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country s hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of major media outlets. Adkisson made statements that because he could not get to the leaders of the liberal movement that he would then target those that had voted them into office. Adkisson stated that he had held these beliefs for about the last ten years. Adkisson s manifesto[10] also cited the inability to find a job, and that his food stamps were being cut. Here is a screen shot of his manifesto listing all 3 reasons he committed this horrible crime against innocent people. We are not condoning his behavior, we are simply exposing the lies of this Democrat publication who would attempt to frame this act of violence as being motivated by Christianity:Jim David Adkisson, a devout Christian and anti-abortion right-winger, walked into a Knoxville church on July 27th, 2008, and began firing a shotgun at children who were performing Annie Jr. He killed two and wounded seven, targeting the church because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country. 2. The Campaign of Terror Against Abortion DoctorsThis article references the well-known case of abortionist killer, Scott Roeder. We d like to set the record straight about how desire to take the life of abortionist, George Tiller was really about workplace violence and had NOTHING to do with Christianity.Abortion lovers were clearly salivating when word got out that a man walked into George Tiller The Killer s former abortion facility with a bomb in his backpack earlier this week. It turns out that, in fact, the guy was looking for a job, like so many Americans under Obamistake. He wanted to be a canvasser for Live Fetal Organ Dispensary Inc., otherwise known as Planned Parenthood.The media-reported bomb was, in fact, a pill bottle-sized firework. No one was harmed, thank God, but the incident is just one of a too-long string of MSM bigotry against conservatives.In 1993, Dr. Richard Gunn was shot dead by an anti-abortion protester. In 1994, Drs. John Britton and James Barrett were shot to death by Reverend Paul Jennings. In 1998, Dr. Barnett Sleipan was shot dead in his home by a Christian terrorist. In 2009, Dr. George Tiller was shot by Scott Roeder in a church. The ability for Christian right-wingers to justify cold-blooded murder in the name of their pro-life beliefs is a colossal hypocrisy worthy of a terrorist group like ISIS. According to the National Abortion Federation, there have been 17 attempted murders, 383 death threats, 153 incidents of assault or battery, 13 wounded, 100 butyric acid attacks, 373 physical invasions, 41 bombings, 655 anthrax threats, and 3 kidnappings committed against abortion providers since 1977. Terrorist groups like the Taliban and ISIS are very fond of acid attacks and chemical weapons like anthrax; apparently Christian right-wing terrorists share that same preference.3. The 1995 Oklahoma City Bombings(Note, there is no mention of Christianity in McVeigh s explanation of why he bombed the Murrah Fed Building.)In Timothy McVeigh s own words:I explain herein why I bombed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. I explain this not for publicity, nor seeking to win and argument of right or wrong. I explain so that the record is clear as to my thinking and motivations in bombing a government installation. I chose to bomb a federal building because such an action served more purposes than other options. Foremost, the bombing was a retaliatory strike; a counter attack, for the cumulative raids (and subsequent violence and damage) that federal agents had participated in over the preceding years (including, but not limited to, Waco.) From the formation of such units as the FBI s Hostage Rescue and other assault teams amongst federal agencies during the 80 s; culminating in the Waco incident, federal actions grew increasingly militaristic and violent, to the point where at Waco, our government like the Chinese was deploying tanks against its own citizens.Knowledge of these multiple and ever-more aggressive raids across the country constituted an identifiable pattern of conduct within and by the federal government and amongst its various agencies. (see enclosed) For all intents and purposes, federal agents had become soldiers (using military training, tactics, techniques, equipment, language, dress, organization, and mindset) and they were escalating their behavior. Therefore, this bombing was also meant as a pre-emptive (or pro-active) strike against these forces and their command and control centers within the federal building. When an aggressor force continually launches attacks from a particular base of operation, it is sound military strategy to take the fight to the enemy.Additionally, borrowing a page from U.S. foreign policy, I decided to send a message to a government that was becoming increasingly hostile, by bombing a government building and the government employees within that building who represent that government. Bombing the Murrah Federal Building was morally and strategically equivalent to the U.S. hitting a government building in Serbia, Iraq, or other nations. (see enclosed) Based on observations of the policies of my own government, I viewed this action as an acceptable option. From this perspective, what occurred in Oklahoma City was no different than what Americans rain on the heads of others all the time, and subsequently, my mindset was and is one of the clinical detachment. (the bombing of the Murrah building was not personal , no more than when Air Force, Army, Navy, or Marine personnel bomb or launch cruise missiles against government installations and their personnel.)I hope that this clarification amply addresses your question.Sincerely, Timothy J. McVeigh USP Terre Haute (IN)Timothy McVeigh, America s most notorious domestic terrorist, was obsessed with the Seventh-Day Aventist splinter group known as the Branch Davidians, who resisted an ATF raid on their citadel at Mount Carmel in 1993. He travelled to Waco, Texas during the Waco Siege and heavily supported the religious extremists within it. Two years later, he detonated a fertilizer bomb at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing a hundred and sixty-eight people, including nineteen children, and wounded 648 others. This Christian specifically targeted innocent civilians and committed horrific acts of violence to make his political point heard something Mr. Huckabee believes he should be incapable of, since he s not a Muslim.4. Everything The Ku Klux Klan Has Ever Done(The KKK was not founded on Christian principles and actually changed their focus in the second wave of the KKK to addressing the supposed threat of the Catholic Church, using anti-Catholicism and nativism. Its appeal was directed exclusively at white Protestants; it opposed Jews, blacks, Catholics, and newly arriving Southern European groups such as Italians.)Since its creation after the American Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan has been terrorizing Americans in the name of Protestantism and racial purity. Known for their terrifying costumes and hoods, they wrought have fear and violence against blacks, Jews, immigrants, gays, and Catholics for hundreds of years, responsible for countless massacres, lynchings, rapes, and bombings that have killed thousands. In the modern day, it still has a membership of 5,000 to 8,000 terrorists that operate in individual chapters. Just two weeks ago, Frazier Glenn Cross, the leader of the Carolina Knights of the KKK, was sentenced to death by lethal injection for murdering a fourteen year old girl and two seniors outside the Overland Park Jewish Community Center in Kansas City. The man gave the Hitler salute during his trial and declared that Jews are destroying the white race. None of his victims were Jewish.5. The Massacre At Zion Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C.(Maybe we missed it, but as far as we can tell, this attack had nothing to do with the attacker being a Christian. Liberal logic however, makes it okay to blame this heinous act on Christianity even though the VICTIMS were the CHRISTIANS in this case.)On Wednesday, June 17th of this year, a man rose from a pew in the historically black Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC, and opened fire with a .45 caliber pistol, killing nine worshipers, including pastor and State Senator Clementa Pickiney. The shooter has been photographed wearing patches representing the racist apartheid regimes in Southwest Africa, had a Confederate license plate on his vehicle. All signs points to this being a hate crime- not only is it the oldest black church in the South, it was a symbol of resistance against slavery, and a survivor reported that the shooter yelled I have to do it. You rape our women and you re taking over our country. And you have to go. Roof was a member of a local Lutheran church, yet somehow his baptism didn t prevent him from gunning down innocent people in a house of worship, defiling a sacred place with hate and murder.So the next time one of your conservative friends tries to school you on the evils of Islam, just name a couple items from this list. The rampant xenophobia that has taken hold of the Republican Party is an affront to everything this nation stands for. Terrorism spawns from the desperation of humankind, and for that, we are all guilty.The original article was published by Occupy Democrats on November 17, 2015 and is titled: The Top Five Attacks On America Committed By Christian Terrorists, Not Muslims

If there was ever any doubt that Vladimir Putin orchestrated a complex attack on our democracy with the express goal of getting Donald Trump elected, that s gone now.Recent reports have indicated that Russian hackers managed to breach voter databases and this is important alter data as well as steal the information of nearly 90,000 voters in Illinois alone. The stolen data included drivers license numbers, social security numbers, and other important sensitive information.But it goes much farther than efforts to undermine Americans confidence in our electoral system. The Washington Post reports that the CIA captured Putin s specific instructions to install Donald Trump in the Oval Office:Inside was an intelligence bombshell, a report drawn from sourcing deep inside the Russian government that detailed Russian President Vladi mir Putin s direct involvement in a cyber campaign to disrupt and discredit the U.S. presidential race.But it went further. The intelligence captured Putin s specific instructions on the operation s audacious objectives defeat or at least damage the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, and help elect her opponent, Donald Trump.At that point, the outlines of the Russian assault on the U.S. election were increasingly apparent. Hackers with ties to Russian intelligence services had been rummaging through Democratic Party computer networks, as well as some Republican systems, for more than a year. In July, the FBI had opened an investigation of contacts between Russian officials and Trump associates. And on July 22, nearly 20,000 emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee were dumped online by WikiLeaks.At this point, it is clear that Donald Trump given his repeated attempts to distract from, interfere with, and dismiss the investigation worked with Vladimir Putin in some capacity to undermine our democracy.The only question that remains is when will Republicans grow a pair and impeach the orange traitor?Read the full report here.Featured image via Getty Images

KATHMANDU, Nepal — The second time the overloaded bus stalled, passengers stayed put. They had already exited once to push. With the bus stuck on a mountain dirt road, its occupants stuffed inside and on the roof amid luggage and rice sacks, the driver backed up first to regain uphill momentum. But something was horribly wrong: The bus kept going in reverse. The accident that killed 27 and injured 38 on Monday was not just another tragedy for Nepal, a poor Himalayan country where vehicles careening off unpaved roads are not uncommon. For this was no ordinary bus trip. Many of the passengers piled into the bus were on a journey of recovery after the devastating 2015 earthquake that killed 9, 000 people and destroyed more than 700, 000 homes. After months of waiting, many were en route to their village, Madan Pudari, 55 miles from Kathmandu, to sign agreements required to release government grant money to help rebuild their wrecked homes — and lives. Because of widespread confusion, some mistakenly thought only a few days remained before a window to sign the agreements expired. Others thought, in error, that they were nearing a deadline to receive the money, which will not be released until later. Now, those who survived face another round of recovery, physical and emotional — and the bureaucratic quandary of having to find or duplicate lost documents needed to gain access to the grants of about $1, 900, a lot of money for a Nepalese homeowner. “We thought we would get the grant today, so we left yesterday, both me and my husband,” Radhika Pariyaar, 43, said through an oxygen mask on Tuesday at the National Trauma Center in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital. “But where are our belongings now? Where are our victim identity cards?” Recounting the accident, Ms. Pariyaar said people panicked as the bus inexplicably started accelerating backward. “The passengers were screaming: ‘What is happening? Why isn’t the driver hitting the brakes? ’” she said, recalling how she somersaulted twice before blacking out as glass shards pierced her head. Tumbling at least 1, 000 feet, the bus, carrying more than twice its limit, ripped into pieces. It took the police and Nepalese soldiers more than an hour to arrive. They then worked with local volunteers to pull bodies from the wreckage with ropes in the rain. Some said the driver, who survived, was found in a tree. Sushant Adhikari, the deputy police superintendent in the area, said it was unclear how the driver had lost control and why the brakes had failed. “Talking to other people, the bus couldn’t climb the inclined road, so it reversed downhill,” he said. Devnath Gautam, who lives near the accident site and was among the first to call the police for help, said, “There were dead bodies all over the place. ” Nepal’s National Reconstruction Authority, an agency established to distribute earthquake aid, offered assurances on Tuesday that survivors would still be able to get the grants. But the agency is known for giving contradictory and confusing information, much of it conveyed by word of mouth. Some Nepalese mistakenly thought this week was a deadline set by the agency to get their rebuilding money. The real deadline, said Sushil Gyawali, the agency’s chief executive, is Sept. 18. Mr. Gyawali said survivors would need to get duplicate victim identity cards from their local Village Development Committees. “Those people who have victim identity cards and sign their agreements, the money will be transferred in the bank,” Mr. Gyawali said. Under the earthquake compensation system, victims have to shuttle from their home villages to Kathmandu, then back to their villages, to fill out all the paperwork, even if they are not able to reside in the villages until their homes are livable again. Asked if the agency had needlessly complicated life for villagers who have limited access to transportation, telephones and the internet for information, Mr. Gyawali said he did not think so. “The process is easy,” he said. For many on the bus, this was the final push to recover enough money to at least partly rebuild. After more than a year of living in a shed of donated tin, Ms. Pariyaar said she and her husband, who is also being treated at the National Trauma Center, had been looking forward to obtaining the reconstruction money. In Kathmandu, they had filled out their application and made photocopies of their earthquake victim identity cards. They had planned to claim the grant the day after the bus ride. Ms. Pariyaar said she and her husband, along with his brother and his brother’s wife, had been sitting at the back of the bus. Her did not survive. Jay Bahadur Pariyaar, 31, a survivor who had been riding on the roof and is not related to the other Pariyaar couple, said he had read about the deadline for signing the grant agreements in a newspaper. He criticized the government for taking so long. “They should have given this grant earlier, but we cannot blame the government for this accident,” he said at the trauma center, where he was treated for a head injury. Mr. Pariyaar said he owned two homes, one of which collapsed the other was unlivable. He had already taken out a small loan to finance reconstruction, but with a family of eight, he said, the reconstruction money would be a big help. Recalling how the bus tipped over, Mr. Pariyaar said he had been flung from the roof like a “catapult,” knocking him out. “When I regained consciousness, I saw people and parts of the bus below me,” he said. “People were screaming and crying. ” Ramesh Bardewa, whose wife, Sita, was killed, broke down in shock as he prepared to identify her body. The couple, with two children, had hoped the grant money would be enough to rebuild their home. “She was going to get the grant,” he said, “but that same grant killed her. ”

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - The bodies of five Argentine men killed in a truck attack in New York City last week arrived at their hometown of Rosario on Monday. A police escort accompanied the bodies of the men as they were transported from Buenos Aires Ezeiza International Airport in a motorcade to Rosario, Argentina s third-largest city. Other officers on horseback saluted as the cars carrying the victims passed through the streets of Buenos Aires early in the morning. The motorcade reached a funeral home in Rosario several hours later. The victims are Hern n Ferruchi, Diego Enrique Angelini, Hern n Diego Mendoza and Ariel Erlij, all 48, and Alejandro Dami n Pagnucco, 49. The five, who were businessmen or architects, were among eight people killed on Tuesday in the truck attack as they rode bicycles on a pedestrian path in Lower Manhattan along the Hudson River. The Argentines were part of a group of 10 friends who had traveled to New York to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their high school graduation. Uzbek immigrant Sayfullo Saipov, 29, was charged in a federal court on Wednesday with driving the truck down the bike trail, crushing pedestrians and cyclists, in support of Islamic State. Argentine President Mauricio Macri and first lady Juliana Awada joined New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio at the site of the attack on Monday, where they laid flowers and paid tribute to the victims. Terrorism does not distinguish or limit countries, nor nationalities, Macri said. Argentines confirm that we want to be part of this battle, that we all have to give in this world to coexist in peace and with love. Macri is in New York for a previously planned trip to meet with investors and business executives. De Blasio said the five Argentines visit to New York was an affirmation about all that is good about life. We live 5,000 miles apart, but we feel a tremendous sense of unity and a deep connection right now, De Blasio said. Rosario mourned for three days after the deadly attack. The victims high school, where administrators said lifelong friendships are common among students, is counseling students and observing a weeklong mourning period. Friendship moves the world, said 65-year-old Rosario resident Adriana Sorzoli, and I am very sad.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Some of the most controversial proposals Donald Trump made while running for U.S. president disappeared from his campaign website on Thursday, but a spokesman said what some observers took as a softening of Trump’s policies was due to a technical glitch. The link to Trump’s Dec. 7 proposal titled: “Donald J. Trump statement on Preventing Muslim Immigration,” in which he called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” vanished temporarily from the website but later reappeared. So too did a list of Trump’s potential Supreme Court justice picks as president and certain details of his economic, defense and regulatory reform plans. “The website was temporarily redirecting all specific press release pages to the home page,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in an email. Links to Trump’s policy proposals, including the Muslim ban, were working again by 3:30 p.m. EST (2030 GMT). The links, which had redirected readers to a campaign fundraising page, appeared to have been removed around Election Day on Tuesday, when Trump won a historic upset against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, according to a website that records historic snapshots of web pages. In an appearance on CNBC on Thursday, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal praised Trump for removing the Muslim ban proposal from his website and also said Trump had deleted statements offensive to Muslims from his Twitter account. The prince could not be reached for comment after the links were restored. Several tweets attacking Muslims that Trump sent while campaigning for president remained in his feed on Thursday, including a March 22 tweet in which Trump wrote: “Incompetent Hillary, despite the horrible attack in Brussels today, wants borders to be weak and open-and let the Muslims flow in. No way!” After initially praising the removal of the Muslim ban proposal at a news conference with other civil rights leaders on Thursday, Samer Khalaf, president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said in a follow-up interview the group was hoping to see better behavior from Trump. “False hope just came over us,” Khalaf said, but “we didn’t really think it was monumental that they took down the language.” Khalaf said Trump’s policies were more important than any statements. “He’s elected, he said some horrible things, now we have to see what his policies are. If they’re good policies we’re going to commend him for it. If they’re horrible policies we’re going to challenge him on it.” Despite the temporary glitch, most of Trump’s core policy positions had remained on his website, including his central immigration promise to build an “impenetrable physical wall” on the border with Mexico and make Mexico pay for its construction. It was not the first time the Trump campaign blamed technical difficulties for changes to its website. The campaign this year also replaced the part of the site describing Trump’s healthcare policy with a different version. When contacted about it by Reuters in September, the campaign put the original page back up.

"While introducing Donald Trump, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani omitted the September 11, 2001, strikes as a ‘successful’ terrorist attack during the eight years before President Obama’s 2008 election."

‹ › Arnaldo Rodgers is a trained and educated Psychologist. He has worked as a community organizer and activist. Spirit to thank veterans at annual Veterans Day Parade By Arnaldo Rodgers on November 2, 2016 Veterans Day By spiritaero.com Spirit AeroSystems is proud to sponsor the annual Spirit AeroSystems Veterans Day Parade scheduled Saturday, Nov. 5, in downtown Wichita. Spirit employees and their families will take part in the parade to show appreciation and support for the men and women who have served the United States and protected freedom around the globe. The parade is scheduled at 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 5, in downtown Wichita. The parade will begin near 11 th and Main Street and conclude with a celebration remembrance event at WaterWalk. Employees and the general public are invited to attend the festivities, which are presented in partnership with USD259 JROTC. This year, the parade commemorates the National Defense Act of 1916. Read the Full Article at www.spiritaero.com >>>> Related Posts: No Related Posts The views expressed herein are the views of the author exclusively and not necessarily the views of VNN, VNN authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors, partners, technicians or the Veterans Today Network and its assigns. Notices Posted by Arnaldo Rodgers on November 2, 2016, With 0 Reads, Filed under Veterans . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 . You can leave a response or trackback to this entry FaceBook Comments You must be logged in to post a comment Login WHAT'S HOT

Tuesday 8 November 2016 Daily Mail forced to lie down in darkened room after confirmation Prince Harry’s girlfriend is mixed-race The Daily Mail has been forced to go and lie down in a darkened room for a while after learning that Prince Harry’s new girlfriend is one of those ‘brown ones’. Doctors were called after the newspaper reported feeling faint at reading the Kensington Palace statement confirming the relationship. The Daily Mail explained, “I know we’ve been reporting the relationship for days, but we’d hoped against hope it wasn’t really true. “Sure, we’ve trawled her entire career and social feeds going back years to find video clips and photos that might make her look unsuitable as a girlfriend for a member of our royal family, all without ever saying it’s just because she’s a brown foreigner – but you kinda knew that, right? “I mean, we can’t just say we don’t like her because she’s brown and foreign. Otherwise, we’d probably find our editor Paul Dacre being reported to himself in his other role at the Press Complaints Commission. That wouldn’t be good for anyone. “But now it’s bloody well confirmed she’s definitely going out with him, and.. well… oh hear, I’m coming over all faint again. “Do you realise that any child they might have would be 6th in line to the throne?! Can you imagine, a BROWN king!!” At that point the doctors asked us to leave so they could administer an emergency sedative.

Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Jonathan Ferrell... and now #MikeBrown. Who is next?http://t.co/zgxUC7N7TJ #Ferguson http://t.co/QHDkP8BFIJ

A study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, and Dartmouth concluded that Medicaids value to its beneficiaries is significantly lower than the actual cost of the program.

It s Black History Month and before Tuesday, Donald Trump s only acknowledgement seemed to be telling a female African-American reporter to set up a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus, you know, because black people all know each other and working women are all secretaries.On Tuesday, though, Trump finally visited the African-American History section of the Smithsonian. He delivered some platitudes, but he also took the opportunity to brag about himself and his win and he complained about the cost of the museum.First, the not so horrible: It s a privilege to be here today, Trump said at the museum. This museum is a beautiful tribute to so many American heroes, heroes like Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Rosa Parks, the Greensboro students and the African-American Medal of Honor recipients, among so many other really incredible heroes. Source: Talking Points MemoTrump also made a vow to fight bigotry, intolerance and hatred in all of its very ugly forms. Of course, he could say that to his supporters rather than to victims of bigotry, intolerance and hatred, but still, the sentiment, sincere or not (it wasn t), was there.It didn t take long for Trump to start in with his usual bragging, though.Trump also thanked Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) for joining him at the museum. A friend of mine, a great, great senator from South Carolina. I like the state of South Carolina, he said. I like all those states where I won by double, double, double digits. Nothing earth shattering there. Trump loves his winning states and hates the states that dared exercise their democratic right to vote against him. It was the last part that hasn t been reported much in the media, but was particularly eye opening.He wrapped up his speech by saying that the museum was built with tremendous love and passion, not to mention lots of money. I just have to say that what they ve done here is something that can probably not be duplicated. It was done with love and lots of money. Trump said. Lots of money. We can t avoid that. To be fair, the museum did cost about $540 million half of it paid from private donors. As for the taxpayer funded portion, it only represented about .00007 percent of the federal budget. It s also approximately the cost of us sending the Trumps to Mar-A-Lago every weekend for about two years.Featured image via Pool/Getty Images

Not much to say after this classic response from Kid Rock to a watchdog group who accused him of an election violation. The left is desperate to end his candidacy before it even begins. Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow has been fundraising and fear mongering off of the possibility of a Kid Rock candidacy.Here s Kid Rock s Epic Response:The Detroit Free Press reported:The group Common Cause says the Detroit musician violated the law by declaring himself a candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in Michigan but not registering his candidacy or reporting campaign contributions. They filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission and also asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to investigate whether the musician whose real name is Robert Ritchie has violated election law.

When the anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a bombshell lawsuit accusing the Fox News chairman Roger Ailes of sexual harassment, Fox’s corporate masters moved fast. A major law firm was hired to investigate. Two weeks later, Mr. Ailes was gone, ousted from the network he ran for two decades. Rupert Murdoch stepped in as chairman, sending a clear message: This is a fresh start. But the grim tales about life under Mr. Ailes keep coming. More women have come forward — the latest was a former daytime host, Andrea Tantaros — describing a culture of intimidation and misogyny, and telling of settlements they received to leave the network. Some of Mr. Ailes’s top deputies who remain in charge at Fox News have been accused of aiding his behavior. Inside the newsroom, employees are still on edge about what new stories might surface and which executives could be ensnared. If the Murdoch family wanted to leap ahead of this scandal, it is now at risk of falling behind. Some people at Fox News are asking if meaningful change can occur inside a workplace still stocked with loyalists to Mr. Ailes. “People are waiting to see,” one staff member said. Leaders at 21st Century Fox, eager to contain the fallout from Mr. Ailes’s departure — and keep the profitable news network humming during a election — have remained quiet amid the new accusations. The company is also facing scrutiny over whether it knew, or should have known, about Mr. Ailes’s alleged behavior. “What this has illustrated quite well is, if it wasn’t understood before, there was clearly a corporate control problem with respect to Fox News,” said Brian Wieser, a media industry analyst at Pivotal Research in New York. A spokesman for 21st Century Fox, Nathaniel Brown, said in a statement on Wednesday, “The fact is, we have a robust compliance structure and strong controls embedded across our company. ” In response to questions about the claims of a hostile work environment made by other female employees after Ms. Carlson filed her lawsuit, Mr. Brown said: “We have demonstrated a willingness to act. ” The calculus for Mr. Murdoch and his management team is, to say the least, complex. Officials at 21st Century Fox think that removing Mr. Ailes sent an unequivocal signal — to employees and the outside world — that the company is taking harassment concerns seriously. They say that lawyers from Paul, Weiss are pursuing an aggressive internal investigation. Investigators so far have been focused on accusations of improper behavior by Mr. Ailes, not by others, according to people briefed on the inquiry. But the people have said the investigation is also looking at others who might have known of that behavior and not acted on it. Several women who have come forward with accusations said that investigators had not contacted them. In an interview, Ms. Tantaros, a former daytime host, said that the former chairman, in meetings, complimented her figure, asked questions about her dating life and requested a hug, making her uncomfortable. Ms. Tantaros said that Fox News managers dismissed her complaints, then demoted her. Fox News officials denied this, saying that Ms. Tantaros was removed after publishing a book without previous approval, a breach of contract. “The real issue that makes women so fearful and so afraid is what comes next,” she said. “At Fox, you have a company that not only sexually harasses, but is willing to empower its executives and use company resources to carry out ongoing harassment in the form of retaliation. ” Complicating matters for 21st Century Fox, Ms. Tantaros claimed that several Ailes lieutenants ignored her concerns, including the current general counsel, Dianne Brandi, and Bill Shine, a veteran producer who is now overseeing Fox’s newsroom alongside Mr. Murdoch. Ms. Tantaros said in the interview that she complained about Mr. Ailes’s behavior and subsequent retaliation to Mr. Shine, who she said told her, “Don’t fight this. ” Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Shine replied: “Andrea never made any complaints to me about Roger Ailes sexually harassing her. ” Ms. Brandi also disputed Ms. Tantaros’s assertion. Mr. Shine is a popular figure with some of the network’s veteran anchors. Removing Mr. Shine, temporarily or not, could reagitate the newsroom just as the fall presidential campaign begins, with tens of millions of dollars in advertising on the line. Corporate governance and ethics experts say that 21st Century Fox and its board ought to have been aware of problems involving sexual harassment accusations at the network, as well as any payouts related to them. If the parent company was unaware of the settlement, it would indicate “lax oversight,” Lucy P. Marcus, a corporate governance expert, wrote in an email. “If they had been aware of it, they should have investigated it years ago. The board and executive team needs to dig deeper into the culture to root out the cliques and culture that allowed this to carry on for so long. ” Of particular issue is a $3. 15 million settlement that Laurie Luhn, a former booker at the network, said she received in 2011. In an interview with New York magazine, Ms. Luhn said that Mr. Ailes forced her into a yearslong sexual relationship. Executives at 21st Century Fox have said they were only made aware of the settlement recently. On Wednesday, when asked to clarify exactly when it learned of it, the company declined to respond. “One would hope that a $3 million settlement for sexual harassment would flow up the line to somebody in corporate management,” said Kirk O. Hanson, executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. “At least today, that kind of settlement should come to the attention of the audit committee of the board. ” Mr. Hanson added: “The question is, did they have procedures in place to look at issues like this? And secondly, did they have someone try to report this that was then quashed by Rupert Murdoch or anyone else?” Fox News officials said that Ms. Tantaros reported accusations of sexual harassment — and not directed toward Mr. Ailes — only after she was informed that she was in breach of contract for publishing a book, featuring a provocative cover, without advance approval. Barry Asen, an outside counsel for Fox News, said in an interview that the network investigated her claims and found them baseless. “We wound up interviewing 12 or 15 people, all of whom denied everything she was alleging,” Mr. Asen said. Ms. Tantaros maintains that she was within the terms of her contract and that the network is using it as an excuse to diminish her complaints about sexual harassment. Fox’s parent, 21st Century Fox, is a global corporation, with $27. 3 billion in revenue and thousands of employees. Some on Wall Street have appeared unbothered by the scandal, which merited little mention on a recent earnings call. “Most investors would just hope that there wasn’t a bigger problem and move on to the next thing,” said Mr. Wieser, the media analyst. The company’s stock closed on Wednesday at $25. 58 a share, down nearly 8 percent since Mr. Ailes’s ouster.

The Government offered an economic bonus for those households that consumed less electrical energy. The process reflected problems and due to some amendments, the bond changed its objective.

Dakota Pipeline Protests Are Working! One Bank May Pull Funding of Pipeline Build While all eyes have been on the recent election results, protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline achieved a quiet victory. One bank may be pulling its investments in the project, leaving the Dakota Access Pipeline with very little money to continue its build. DNB, Norway’s largest bank, has reportedly loaned $350 million to Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) for the construction of the pipeline.The bank is worried that Indigenous rights are being overlooked by Energy Transfer Partners. DNB states that it will take initiative and use its position to try to find a constructive solution to the conflict. If the bank finds that these initiatives do not give appeasing answers or results, DNB will consider ending its involvement in financing the project. Violence by police against protesters drove the bank to review its investment in the controversial pipeline. As knowledge about what is going on in North Dakota reaches international countries, corporations are forced to question their own involvement in the pipeline build. Standing Rock Sioux Tribe members, Indigenous peoples from First Nations around the planet, activists, and even well-known reporters and move stars are all speaking out against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Protesters have occupied several camps along the Missouri River near Cannon Ball, and North Dakota. The protests have a history of police violence against peaceful protesters. ETP hired private security mercenaries who were untrained. These employees unleashed vicious dogs on crowds of unarmed protesters and at least 6 were mauled. Since then, militarized police with tanks have replaced mercenaries. Activists have been pepper-sprayed, maced, beaten, shot with bean bag projectiles and rubber bullets, tasered, blasted by LRAD and sound cannons, and have been strip-searched, detained in dog kennels, had their arms marked with numbers, and more. Police violence and tactics have been so bad that even representatives from the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues have been amassing testimony from witnesses and victims about excessive force, unlawful arrests, and mistreatment in jail. Amnesty International USA brought human rights observers to monitor the situation. ETP has brazenly ignored requests by President Obama and several federal officials for ETP to halt construction until a tribal lawsuit and permit reviews conclude. During the chaos of Election Day, ETP announced it will be moving forward with drilling to begin installation of the pipeline beneath Lake Oahe in only two weeks, hinting that it would do so with or without appropriate permits. DNB views these acts as unacceptable and will likely revoke its financial support if ETP continues to ignore Indigenous requests. If DNB withdraws its financial support, the bold move could inspire other major investors to follow suit, especially if the public continues to apply pressure. Ariana Marisol is a contributing staff writer for REALfarmacy.com. She is an avid nature enthusiast, gardener, photographer, writer, hiker, dreamer, and lover of all things sustainable, wild, and free. Ariana strives to bring people closer to their true source, Mother Nature. She graduated The Evergreen State College with an undergraduate degree focusing on Sustainable Design and Environmental Science. Follow her adventures on Instagram.

Arnold Schwarzenegger won’t be back on NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice. [The actor and former governor of California said Friday he would not return next season to helm the reality television show made popular by his predecessor and now president Donald Trump. “I loved every second of working with NBC and Mark Burnett. Everyone — from the celebrities to the crew to the marketing department — was a straight 10, and I would absolutely work with all of them again on a show that doesn’t have this baggage,” Schwarzenegger told Empire magazine in an interview. “Even if asked [to do it again] I would decline,” he added. “With Trump being involved in the show people have a bad taste and don’t want to participate as a spectator or as a sponsor or in any other way support the show. It’s a very divisive period now and I think this show got caught up in all that division. ” Schwarzenegger took the helm of the reality show in January after NBC severed its business ties with Trump due to his presidential campaign. The rebooted show debuted to poor ratings and lackluster reviews, and the show struggled with ratings through the entirety of its run. On Thursday, the Wrap reported that at least five of the show’s twelve corporate sponsors had decided to withdraw from participating in the show next season. The sponsors were reportedly targeted by a campaign called #GrabYourWallet, which boycotts brands and individuals associated with President Trump. Though Trump no longer hosted the show, he retained an executive producer credit and his name appeared in the titles. “When people found out that Trump was still involved as executive producer and was still receiving money from the show, then half the people [started] boycotting it,” Schwarzenegger told Empire. NBC has not yet announced whether it will bring back Celebrity Apprentice for next season. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum

On Wednesday, Senate Democrats held a shadow hearing to hear what the American people have to say about the GOP health care bill. It was an emotional scene, with story after story about how much harm the American Health Care Act will cause. After listening to one particularly heartbreaking story, Sen. Tim Kaine was so moved that he was unable to hold back his tears.I remember standing at the mailbox with my tiny baby she was still under 10 pounds at 11 months old cradled in my arms, and opening an envelope from the children s hospital with a bill inside for $64,000, more than my husband s annual salary, for merely renting the surgical room and equipment used during her heart surgery the month before, said Cyndi Johnson, a math teacher from Bloomington, Indiana.Johnson continued, explaining that before the Affordable Care Act became the law of the land, the medical costs she found herself paying out of pocket for her baby were spiraling with no end in sight. In order to provide around the clock care for her daughter, Johnson had to quit her job. But Obamacare changed all that. She explained that if the ACA hadn t removed the lifetime cap, her daughter would have reached it before her fifth birthday.As a parent, absolutely nothing else matters when your child is sick, Johnson said. Your world shrinks and everything else just falls away. I would have sold my house, my car, done literally anything to keep my daughter healthy and no family should have to make that horrible choice. All the senators had the hearing were moved by Johnson s testimony, but Tim Kaine choke back his tears.Mrs. Johnson, tears just started rolling down my face, Kaine said. The people who passed this law couldn t care less what any of you think or what any of your experiences are. Just think, instead of Mike Pence, who can t wait to snatch health care away from sick babies, we could have had Tim Kaine as our vice president. But, her emails.Featured image via Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

CAIRO — The last days of the government of Hosni Mubarak and the turbulent revolution that followed were tense, occasionally times for many in Egypt. But for gay and transgender Egyptians, it was also a period of unaccustomed freedom. They socialized in bars and sidewalk cafes and met partners over cellphone dating apps with a greater degree of openness and comfort than they had known. But that era came to an abrupt end with the return of military rule. Since the 2013 military intervention that established former Gen. Abdel Fattah as the country’s ruler, at least 250 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people have been arrested in a quiet crackdown that has shattered what had been an increasingly vibrant and visible community. Through a campaign of online surveillance and entrapment, arrests and the closing of businesses, the police have driven gay and transgender people back underground and, in many cases, out of the country. Before the crackdown, “there was no deliberate campaign of arrest and monitoring,” said Dalia Abdel Hameed, a researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. “But now the police are going out of their way to arrest gay men and trans women. ” Between the unraveling of the Mubarak government and the overthrow of Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people faced little threat from the police, who were focused on other matters and largely ignored what happened at house parties or bars in Cairo’s crumbling, bohemian downtown. The crackdown began in earnest when a military curfew imposed after the removal of Mr. Morsi ended in fall 2013, said Scott Long, a human rights activist who lived in Egypt for many years and wrote a landmark report for Human Rights Watch on the last major crackdown. At the time, control of Egypt’s streets was passing from the army, a relatively trusted institution, to the police, a hated symbol of the Mubarak government. “Somebody in the Ministry of Interior realized this was a way to get good publicity for the police,” Mr. Long said. The arrests signaled the return of an aggressive approach by the morality police division, which has participated in a larger crackdown that has jailed tens of thousands of people since 2013. Using tools last deployed in a campaign against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people over 10 years ago, the division has reasserted the authority lost by the police before and during the revolution. Other branches of the security forces have also flexed their muscles since the return of military rule, arresting protesters or clamping down on unlicensed street vendors, activists said. “The police want to show they have a strong grip on society,” Ms. Abdel Hameed said. “So this is the morality police having their own campaign to arrest L. G. B. T. people. ” There is no law in Egypt specifically banning homosexual acts, so gay and transgender people are charged with “habitual debauchery” under a 1961 law that is used to prosecute men for homosexuality and women for prostitution, Ms. Abdel Hameed said. So far, the sentences have ranged from two to 12 years. The crackdown has primarily targeted gay men and transgender women, some of whom have been arrested in raids on private homes or picked up on the street if their appearances raised suspicions. (Transgender women are usually prosecuted as men because the police, courts and news media in Egypt, unlike those in the West, make no meaningful distinction between gay men and transgender women, activists said.) Most, however, have been arrested after officers entrapped them on dating apps like Grindr, which now greets its users when they log in with a warning message about a possible police presence on the site. Ms. Abdel Hameed said the police used the apps to flirt with people, engaging in sexual banter and asking for risqué photos that could be used as evidence in court before asking them out on dates. When the unsuspecting targets of the stings arrive for the dates, they are swiftly arrested. This is not the first time these tactics have been used against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Egypt. A crackdown that began in 2001 is still remembered for a raid on the Queen Boat, a nightclub where the police arrested dozens of men accused of being gay. Their trials dominated Egypt’s headlines for months and sent a wave of terror through gay circles. “There was the Queen Boat and its aftermath, then there was our normal life, and now this is the biggest crackdown after the Queen Boat,” Ms. Abdel Hameed said. Perhaps the crackdown’s greatest physical manifestation is in the proliferation of police checkpoints in downtown Cairo and the closings of cafes and other businesses that were gathering spots for activists, intellectuals and gay people during the heady days of political upheaval. One gay man, who asked to be identified by only his middle name, Ali, for fear of arrest, said the police campaign had devastated his community. “Everything leads to getting arrested,” Ali said. “The huge threat is being arrested or losing your friends to prison, because after the failed revolution there was a huge crackdown on the downtown community, especially. This is my community, and it is being destroyed. ” Many gay and transgender people who are able to leave the country have done so or still hope to, Ali said, adding that he wanted to move to Europe or North America. “I am running out of friends because they are all being arrested or they are leaving Egypt,” he said. The police also seize detainees’ phones and “search their data to find others,” Ms. Abdel Hameed said. When they find them, they often torture them to produce lists of gay friends and former sex partners. Detainees are also subjected to forced anal examinations, a form of torture that the police believe can prove if a person has engaged in homosexual conduct, a contention that Egyptian jurists have said is false. Mr. Long said that online entrapment had become especially effective in the last two years, because the shutdown of spaces had left many with no place to go. “There aren’t many queer places left in downtown or in the rest of the city, so people become more reliant on apps and social networks,” he said. “People are lonely and they meet someone who seems like they’re interested, and bang, they’re arrested. ” Ali agreed that despite the dangers, the internet was one of the few public spaces left for gay and transgender people. “There is no other way,” Ali said. “It is Egypt. ”

These leftist actors are so darn funny. You know what isn t funny? They never mention the 4 Americans Hillary left to die in Benghazi. They never mention that she has put our nation and the national security of our nation at risk with her personal unsecured email server. You know what else isn t funny? That they never mention the person they re supporting, because she has a vagina and a D after her name, has been under criminal investigation for most of her adult life. But let s hear how funny it is that some nit-wit actress who is supported by the general public (not just Democrats) wanted to track down Trump to make a video attempting to humiliate him. I m actually sorry she never found him, it would ve been an amazing career ending move. The 25-year-old Oscar-winning actress joined fellow actors Johnny Depp and James McAvoy on the Graham Norton Show Friday night, where she revealed that she once attended a concert at which the Republican presidential frontrunner was also present. I was at a concert that I heard he was attending, so I had my full security, I was like, Find Donald Trump, Lawrence told Norton. Because I was adamant on finding him and then making a video of me going, Hey Trump, f*ck you! I wouldn t rest until he was found, the actress continued over the audience s enthusiastic applause. He knew I was looking for him. WATCH:Meanwhile, Depp told Norton about his experience playing Trump in left-wing comedy website Funny or Die s Art of the Deal movie in February, and even offered up some on-the-spot impressions of the GOP candidate. Both Lawrence and Depp have predicted apocalyptic disaster if the Republican presidential hopeful were to win in November.During a red carpet appearance at the premiere of his latest film Alice Through the Looking Glass earlier this week, Depp said that a President Trump would be America s last president. If Donald Trump is elected president of the United States of America, in a kind of historical way it s exciting, Depp said, because we will see the actual last president of the United States. Via: Breitbart News

Reports from several sources revealed on November 22 that Clinton campaign chief John Podesta was taking meetings with a group claiming it had discovered irregularities in several counties of some of the states that Trump won.Apparently a group of prominent computer scientists and election lawyers met with Podesta to express their belief that they found persuasive evidence that results in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania may have been manipulated or hacked, according to New York magazine.In order to overturn the election, these challenges would have to succeed in multiple counties and multiple states all at the same time to swing the Electoral College to Clinton, so it certainly seems like a desperate long shot.It is such a long shot that even the left s favorite numbers guru, Nate Silver, essentially dismissed the effort.To follow: some *very* quick analysis which suggests the claim here of rigged results in Wisconsin is probably BS: https://t.co/SYlE76bnmQ Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 23, 2016

Tom Reed "has actually voted for every single trade deal that has ever come before him in any form."

House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, commenting on Sunday’s mass shooting in Orlando, said: “As we heal, we need to be clear-eyed about who did this. We are a nation at war with Islamist terrorists.” Ryan, the top elected U.S. Republican, also said in a statement he had ordered flags above the Capitol to be flown at half-staff in honor of the victims of the attack. (spkrryan.us/1U8a60L)

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed President Donald Trump to broadly implement a ban on refugees entering the country from around the world. The justices granted a request from the Trump administration to block a federal appeals court decision that, according to the Justice Department, would have allowed up to 24,000 additional refugees to enter the United States than would otherwise have been eligible. The Supreme Court ruling gives Trump a partial victory as the high court prepares for a key October hearing on the constitutionality of Trump’s controversial executive order, which banned travelers from six Muslim-majority countries and limited refugee admissions. The March 6 order suspended travel for people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days and locked out most aspiring refugees for 120 days in a move the Republican president argued was needed to prevent terrorist attacks and allow the government to put in place more stringent vetting procedures. The order took effect in late June, following a Supreme Court ruling that narrowed the scope of lower court rulings. In a ruling last week, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins of legal U.S. residents would be exempt from the travel ban. The Justice Department opted not to appeal that part of the 9th Circuit decision. However, the 9th Circuit also ruled that Trump’s refugee policy was too broad, and the court allowed entry to refugees from around the world if they had a formal offer from a resettlement agency. The Justice Department appealed, and the full Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with the administration in a one-sentence order. Naureen Shah, Amnesty International USA’s senior director of campaigns, said the refugee ban is inherently cruel. “The Supreme Court today has dealt yet another devastating blow to vulnerable people who were on the cusp of obtaining safety for themselves and their families,” she said. “They continue to be subjected to unimaginable violence and fear while their lives are in limbo.” Earlier on Tuesday the state of Hawaii, which challenged the policy, said in a court filing that the U.S. government could still “bar tens of thousands of refugees from entering the country.” All the 9th Circuit ruling did is “protect vulnerable refugees and the American entities that have been eagerly preparing to welcome them to our shores,” Hawaii’s lawyers added. Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin said he respected the Supreme Court’s decision and is preparing for the hearing there on Oct. 10.

=By= Jimmie Moglia Editor's Note The mechanism of control of the population is hiding in plain sight. It is the unwavering focus on self. Whether it is self-help, self-exploration, the inner self, the inner child, the focus is inward and a lifetime of training in narcissism. However, it is the planting of a seed that roots so deep that is on one hand and uncertainty of self, and on the other is a gut level distrust of the world. Then it is all muxed so thoroughly that there is a constant need of reassurance and the psycho babble self help self first over all. Welcome to faux individualism twenty-first century style. “… I talk of dreams, which are the children of an idle brain, begot of nothing but vain fantasy, Which is as thin of substance as the air And more inconstant than the wind Romeo and Juliet, act 1, sc. 4 W e know of the war on drugs, the war on terror, the war on crime and sundry others. Less known is the war on common sense. It is waged daily on the victims and preys of the Self-help and Actualization Movement, or SHAM. It is a 9 billion $/year industry selling verbal fluff, illusion and fraud with total impunity. The impunity is guaranteed by the implicit and indirect association of the self-help industry with organized religion. The difference being that whereas religion sells happiness in the next life, self-help sells success in the current, under the guise of fulfilling the customer’s dreams. For, taking issue with the claims of the former is unthinkable. Hence organized religion provides a wide umbrella for all kinds of activities promising results without proof of delivery. The army of the self-help salesmen consists of instructors with over-inflated and/or non existing credentials, veritable “riddling merchants for the nonce,” (1) promising to buyers that the winter of their discontent (2) will bloom into the summer of their satisfaction, if they purchase their advice at a considerable price. They flatter the imagination with glittering ideas of wealth, power and ultimate fulfillment, easily obtainable by just wishing for them. Their ‘recipes’ for self-help are like Polonius’ “ springes to catch woodcocks ” (3) and those woodcocked by television, tabloid magazines and infomercials. The self-help “instructors” are thousands – they deliver their pearls of wisdom, with statements like, for example, “Ya gotta want it!” The utterer of this profound truth was Tommy Lasorda, an ex baseball player turned helper for the self-helpless. He charges or charged $30,000 an hour for advice as follows, “The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.” The encyclopedia of platitudes and nonsense-in-drags supplied by self-help providers would be thick – I can only quote some examples. Here is an extract from the manual “Stop Selling, Start Partnering – The New Thinking About Finding and Keeping Customers.” Customers learn the new mode of thought at the Pecos River Learning Center in New Mexico. The three-day course combines classroom-style learning with physically challenging outdoor activities, such as falling off walls and descending mountain walls attached to a rope. Other similar centers include self-confidence building by resisting starvation or thirst. But here is a winning ticket from the Pecos River Learning Center (italics as in the original) “Playing to Win. We called this spirit, visit life strategy, playing to win. Playing to Win is the alternative strategy to playing not to lose. Playing to Win has nothing to do with the conventional understanding of winning, which is that if I win, someone else has to lose. Playing to win is a personal strategy defined as going as far as you can with all that you’ve got. The underlying tenet of blank to win is that life is about growing, accepting challenges, and never giving up. The most fulfilled, productive, and loving lives are those in which people have overcome challenges, have grown as a result, and constantly go as far as they can with everything they’ve got. Make no mistake. Playing to win is by far the more difficult strategy, because we often need to endure a short term pain to achieve long-term gain. For example saying you want to start your own business. That usually means you must quit your current job, get a second mortgage on your home, run the risk of failing, and struggle for a few years before it pays off. In the end, if it does stay off, you get to enjoy feelings of fulfillment and success. Yet, most people, when considering the choice, shy away from commitment, from the risk and the possibility of discomfort.” Anyone can see that “Playing to win” compounds obviousness with emptiness. Here, and in hundred similar cases, we are witnessing evidence that “The empty vessel makes the greatest sound.” (4) And yet, it is emptiness that survives even death. When the founder of the “Pecos River Learning Center” died, in his obituary it was possible to read, “Larry Wilson, who provided training through Wilson Learning and Pecos River Learning Center to a wide range of organizations that included Disney, the Minnesota Vikings and the CIA, has died.” Unsaid was, however, that after the Minnesota Vikings undertook the extremely expensive training, the team arrived last in the championship of that year. We must shudder to think what results the CIA achieved, after mastering the art of “Playing to Win.” The Pecos River Learning Center was later sold to another similar conglomerate for 16 million $. Self-Help organizations, or self-helper individuals posing as organizations are in the thousands. I choose at random the “Option Institute.” Among many different “courses” here is the “Inner Strength Boot Camp” – a week-long program that will lighten the purse of each student of 4,650 dollars. Baffled about a boot camp for “Inner Strength”? No problem. Here is the explanation, quote We’re all familiar with the term “boot camp.” An intensive, no-holds-barred, all-out, 8-cylinder experience where participants walk through the fires of deep personal challenge. And, in the end, they have rebuilt themselves into something – someone – vastly stronger and more powerful. Inner Strength BOOT CAMP takes this concept deeper. In truth, we can go through an “outer” strength boot camp, but no amount of physical exercise prepares us for the heavy lifting we face in our lives – financially, with our health, in our relationships, and within our careers. In the end it all comes down to Inner Strength – creating a way for ourselves to think and feel so that we have an unwavering, unstoppable, indestructible sense of our own strength, confidence, self-acceptance, and clarity. To accomplish this, we’ve constructed a course that powers through nine straight days of intensive work on you. (But you’re still only away for one workweek.) In this course, we help you to dig deep into every aspect of yourself. Once you’ve done that, we can (lovingly and non-judgmentally) challenge you to build who you are into the version of yourself that you always wanted to be, always thought you could be, but haven’t quite seen yet. In the end, we may not be able to control everything. But we can become people who determine how we handle everything. We can gain the tools to construct a core of strength, confidence, and clarity on the inside that’s impervious to events on the outside. We can be our own rock. And that’s why Inner Strength BOOT CAMP isn’t about changing the world. It’s about changing YOUR world. Would you like to: *** Remain truly relaxed and unfazed in the face of the judgments and criticism of others? *** Know who you are – without taking what others do personally or needing them to validate you? *** Create more loving relationships with the people that matter most to you? *** Overcome the obstacles that keep you from being present to what’s really important in your life? *** Speak authentically without fear? *** Sustain a sense of peace and comfort with an unpredictable world? *** Stay strong in what you believe and what you want? *** Understand exactly how you work…so you can change and rebuild the parts that don’t? If so, Inner Strength BOOT CAMP is for you. The way it works is that you arrive on Friday night, and then go full-blast from Saturday until the next Sunday. You will be shocked at how far you can get by taking a course in this totally immersive style (while still only being away for one workweek). Some special methods unique to Inner Strength BOOT CAMP: *** The Inner Strength Diary:A unique method of tracking your changes – and keeping yourself accountable *** Happiness Interaction Training Tactics (HITTS): Practical strategies getting people to treat you the way you want to be treated while living what you’ve learned *** The Book:The most powerful interactive exercise we’ve ever taught for learning to be totally present and focused *** The Two Sides of You: A special activity where we use digital enhancement technology to show you sides of yourself you might never have imagined *** What If???:A navigational path we help you create for yourself that allows you to completely trust your ability to take care of yourself – no matter what *** The “Ask Anything” Project: A method allow you to to get to know your fellow participants – and anyone else in your life – in a unique way unquote And, should you still have doubts about the uniqueness of all this obviousness, there is an abundance of “testimonials.” People providing them span the range of human characters and are engaged in all pursuits that swarm upon the earth, from chef/caterers to software engineers. Here is the testimonial from a chef/caterer. quote I signed up for Inner Strength with a feeling that if it didn’t help, I’d be lost. Not only did the program give me practical, easy-to-use tools to help build my inner strength, it also helped me discover strengths I did not know I had. I’m now equipped to face anything in my path, and to deal with all issues with clarity and happiness. My life is no longer a battleground – it’s a playground! unquote But where are the roots and which are the reasons for the extraordinary success of this ultimate industry of fluff? It is a case of “Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied…” (5) For, the idea of obtaining instructions on the ways of the world is as old as the Bible, the Greeks and the Romans. In my view, the best “self-help” manual ever written is still Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius’ “Meditations.” More recently, in 1937 Dale Carnegie published “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” The appeal of the book, in my view, consists not so much in the advice, which is sound, but in making the reader feel better emotionally. In fact, though by and large people do not behave at all as the manual suggests, the reader realizes that cultivating humanitarian and genteel feelings towards others has some kind of official sanction – even if, in practice and too often, kindness and openness are rated as symptoms of weakness. Unless, of course the “influenced people” see profit in being influenced. The same considerations apply to N.V. Peale’s “The Power of Positive Thinking.” It is amply proven that when man is no longer cold, hungry or fearful, he becomes unhappy. It is “… the unseen grief that swells with silence in the tortured soul.” (6) The book suggests measures to alleviate the symptoms. Nevertheless, the seminal event, triggering the chain reaction of self-help mania, was the 1967 book “I’m OK – You are OK.” Which, by the way, prompted the much more realistic publication of “I am dysfunctional, you are dysfunctional.” Yet, “There is occasions and causes why and wherefore in all things.” (7) It is not by chance that the blossoming of the self-help industry coincided with the de-industrialization of the country, the “downsizings”, the “consolidations” and the explosive growth of part-time jobs. In essence, the factual impoverishment of the country paralleled the enrichment of the financial industry, which essentially is air, or rather paper, for practical reasons. Paper can be more easily manhandled, maneuvered, hidden, stolen and monopolized, hence the dramatic divergence in prosperity between the 1% and the rest. Unable to fight back, “the miserable have no other medicine but only hope.” (8) Searching for solutions, large sections of the populace became the natural target (or victims) of the self-help industry. Whose psychological modus operandi is as follows: Dissecting the meaning of basic ideas such as right and wrong, good and bad, winning and losing etc. Giving alternative new connotations to words and concepts, e.g. family, love, discipline, blame, excellence and self-esteem. Afterwards, or as a result of this lexical sleigh-of-hand, the ‘market’ is split into two segments: The victims, whose motto is “It’s not my fault”, and The empowerers, whose motto is “I think, therefore I win, I daydream, therefore I accomplish.” The victimhood syndrome has found acceptance even outside the realm of the self-help industry. As I was writing this article, the daily newspaper of where I live, told the story of a criminal just condemned to 10 years in jail. He had stolen someone’s car, and a few days later, by chance, the rightful owner of the car spotted it in the parking lot of a store. Having another set of key, he opened the door of his car. Whereupon the thief reached him, threw him to the ground, stomped on his head and almost killed him – leaving him permanently disabled. I think the sentence was lenient. But the defendant, with a 30-year long career in crime, brought up in his defense, his troubled childhood (i.e. “It’s not my fault.”) But I digress. The victimhood syndrome has also successfully instilled into people, especially women, worry, guilt, insecurity and inadequacy, turning an otherwise (possibly) uneventful life into a permanent winter of discontent. The empowerers, or rather the sense of empowerment has convinced people that simply aspiring to do something is the same as achieving it. “Feeling good” about oneself and “positive self-worth” are more important than the much more challenging task of acquiring the skills required to gain recognition. The “self-help” mania has a kind of counterpart, for example, in the “Jesus Festivals” held by prosperous and opulent preachers in the mega-churches of the US Bible Belt. Yet, the desire to unquestionably accept the unbelievable runs deep in the American soul. In 1830, Frances Trollope, mother of the successful English novelist Anthony Trollope undertook a 2-year voyage to America, followed by the publication of a fascinating book, “The Domestic Manners of the Americans,” in which she also describes a religious “revival.” “The preacher described with ghastly minuteness, the last feeble fainting moments of human life, and then the gradual progress of decay after death, which he followed through every process up to the last loathsome stage of decomposition… Suddenly he bent forward as if to gaze on some object beneath the pulpit… And the preacher made known to us what he saw in the pit that seemed to open before him. The device was certainly a happy one for giving the effect to his description of hell. Repeatedly he invited and exhorted the young girls of the congregation not to be ashamed of Jesus, but to put themselves upon “the anxious benches” and lay their heads on his bosom. After that, three priests walked down and began whispering to the poor girls seated at the “anxious benches”. These whispers were inaudible to us, but the sobs and groans increased to a frightful excess. Young creatures, with features pale and distorted, fell on their knees on the pavement and soon sunk forward on their faces; the most violent cries and shrieks followed, while from time to time a voice was heard in convulsive accents exclaiming, “Oh Lord, Oh Lord Jesus, help me Jesus” and the like. Violent hysterics and compulsions seized many of them, and when the tumult was at the highest, the priest who remained above, again gave out a hymn as if to drown it.” Trollope concludes, “It was a frightful sight to behold innocent young creatures, in the gay morning of existence, thus seized upon, horror-struck and rendered feeble and enervated for ever. … For myself, I confess that I think the coarsest comedy ever written would be a less detestable exhibition for the eyes of youth and innocence than such a scene.” Returning to the present, the self-help movement has evolved from the personal realm to include the political. It is a contributing factor, for example in the adherence to the so-called political correctness, daughter of both victimization, or the culture of blame, and the self-esteem movement, a product of empowerment. But, inspired by the vision of large profits at little or no cost, self-help (in the sense of platitudinal advise sold at high price), has branched even into hospitals and universities. The World Health Organization now defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Starting from this platform, any reader can deduce that the sky is the limit. The Organization allocates funds to “wellness-based” models, which include research on loneliness and special after-school play programs, all aimed at achieving the ‘state of perfect health.’ Through the same reasoning, public health official have invested millions in so-called “outreach programs” for drug abusers. Here is a declaration by an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health, on the subject of women of color contracting HIV from dirty needles and unprotected sex, “In response to daily assault of racial prejudice and denial of dignity, women may turn to readily available mind-altering substance for relief. Seeking sanctuary from racial hatred through sexual connection as a way to enhance self-esteem, also may offer rewards so compelling that condom use becomes less of a priority.” It’s pure victimization at work, and out go the millions for other self-help programs, as their respective deliverers laugh all the way to the bank. Even mid-sized companies engage high-priced lecturers to inspire motivation through ‘positive thinking,’ though there is no evidence of any positive effect. Considering that often, the company promoters of these program are the very ones who contradict the principles that the programs are supposed to inspire. Or take the case of the sales seminar where the trainer tells 250 real-estate professionals from the same company that all of them could be the number one salesmen of the year. Self-help can even defy the most simple of mathematics. One of the salesmen will be, the others won’t. Self-help has surreptitiously changed at large the general outlook on life. From, “The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill go together: our virtues would be proud, if our faults whipped them not, and our crimes would despair, if they were not cherished by our virtues” (9) to the philosophy embodied in the popular bumper sticker ‘BADASSE’ – Blame All Disappointments And Setbacks On Someone Else.” By default, design, skill or luck, the self-help industry has found the formula for ‘success.’ Familiar sounding words applied in a different context puzzle the will (as in the example above, “Inner Strength Boot Camp.”) And hyperbolical images that fire the imagination prompt the willing victim to believe the unbelievable rather than accepting the inherent uncertainties of life. In the end, self-help makes cowards of its victims, whose hue of resolution is sicklied over by the pale cast of thought, (10) or rather, by the evanescent and ridiculous promises destined to melt into air, into thin air. While the baseless fabric of the self-help visions, (11 ) the promised successes, praises, glories, wealth and happiness, dissolve, and leave only expensive bills behind. And, as writer Steve Salerno has aptly concluded in his book SHAM, from where I extracted some of the examples, “The Self Help Industry has made America Helpless.” ** 1. King Henry IV, part 1 ** 2. from King Richard III ** 3. Hamlet

@AmyMek good morning!! So sad that our country is divided, it breaks my heart. We r too preoccupied w race, gender & class. #Tragic

SANTO DOMINGO/CARACAS (Reuters) - Members of Venezuela s leftist government and opposition coalition began a new round of talks in the Dominican Republic on Friday aimed at resolving the OPEC nation s long-running and often bloody political standoff. Various mediation efforts have failed in recent years: foes accuse President Nicolas Maduro of exploiting dialogue to buy time, while he says the opposition prefers violence. Few Venezuelans expect a breakthrough this time, with opponents demoralized at seeing Maduro consolidate power and position himself for possible re-election in 2018. The Democratic Unity coalition - which failed to dislodge Maduro in months of street protests this year that led to about 125 deaths - is pressing primarily for a guarantee of free and fair voting next year. It also wants a foreign humanitarian aid corridor to alleviate one of the worst economic crises in modern history, as well as freedom for several hundred jailed activists, and respect for the opposition-led congress. We ve come to seek solutions to Venezuela s problems: food, medicines, free elections, and the need to restore democracy, lead opposition negotiator Julio Borges said. It s a difficult path. The opposition s bargaining power has been weakened by a surprising defeat in October gubernatorial elections. Furthermore, the multi-party group is divided, with more militant sectors opposing the talks. The dialogue they are planning to start is a parody ... an instrument for the regime to gain time and keep itself in power, said Antonio Ledezma, an opposition leader who escaped house arrest this month to seek asylum abroad. Maduro has instructed negotiators to focus on opposition to U.S. sanctions against his government. He was strengthened by the October vote and anticipates another win in mayoral elections set for December, which the opposition is mainly boycotting. President Donald Trump has slapped individual sanctions on a raft of officials for alleged rights abuses, corruption and drugs crimes, as well as economic measures intended to stop the Venezuelan government issuing new debt. Maduro wants any potential deal with the opposition to include joint pressure on Washington to back off. He has blamed the U.S. measures for Venezuela s economic problems, which in fact began several years ago amid failed statist policies and a plunge in global oil prices. We came to demand the immediate end of the economic aggressions against Venezuela, said chief government negotiator and Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez. There is no indication, however, that Trump would be prepared to ease pressure on Maduro, whom he has called a bad leader who dreams of becoming a dictator. On the contrary, U.S. officials say Washington could strengthen sanctions unless Maduro enacts democratic changes. The government also wants recognition for Venezuela s Constituent Assembly, an entirely pro-Maduro superbody elected in July despite an opposition boycott and widespread international condemnation. With an eye to its push to refinance more than $120 billion in foreign debt, Maduro would like the opposition-led congress to agree to approve any negotiations with bondholders, a potential loophole to get round the U.S. sanctions. Foreign ministers from Chile, Mexico, Bolivia, Nicaragua and host Dominican Republic were acting as guarantors at the talks over two days at the Foreign Ministry building in Santo Domingo. Major near-term breakthroughs remain unlikely given the complexity of issues on the table and the distance between each side s preferences, said Eurasia group consultancy.

Rudy is the best! He stays on message and was there when the Trump speech and comment happened. BASED RUDY: Rudy Giuliani on Hillary's campaign inviting Omar Mateen's father and MSM's orchestrated narrative pic.twitter.com/k94FbotmWA Viktor Fiel (@ViktorFiel) August 10, 2016

Kit Harington Auditions for Six Different Game of Thrones Characters

$23 Russell Brand’s Back on ‘The Trews’ and He’s Got Quite a Bit to Say About the U.S. Elections (Video) Posted on Nov 2, 2016 The comedian and political activist reveals his views on both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, neither of which he thinks should be president, and posits that both of their campaigns, with their ultimately meaningless slogans, are nothing but reality TV.

The fix is in. If the latest flurry of emails from the Clinton Camp prove anything, it’s that Hillary’s organization has been actively manipulating and rigging the Presidential election from the get-go. We know for a fact that she colluded with Democratic National Committee to marginalize Bernie Sanders. We know her mainstream media cohorts gave her debate questions ahead of time. We know that she actively hired and organized actions in Chicago and elsewhere to make it look like Trump supporters were violent. And we know from recently released John Podesta emails that they have been tampering with polls through over sampling. We also know that dead democrats all over the country are voting in the Presidential election. Thus, it stands to reason that if there’s any way to rig actual election outcomes either through hacking electronic voting systems or other ballot machinations, the Clinton campaign will do everything in their power to take advantage of it. In the video below The Daily Sheeple’s Weekly Word explains that there are five key states that are actively being target for election fraud: Watch at Youtube Get regular news updates at The Daily Sheeple Youtube Channel : Also Watch: Did Hillary Cheat at the Final Debate? 5 Big Fat Lies Hillary Told at the Final Presidential Debate 5 Wikileaks Revelations That Should’ve Tanked Hillary’s Campaign

Kenya s opposition leader Raila Odinga said on Tuesday he wants an interim government to run the country for six months while the constitution is reviewed to curb the president s authority. Odinga told Reuters in an interview that he was open to talks with President Uhuru Kenyatta over a constitutional review aimed at lowering the risk of violence from minority groups who feel excluded from power. Kenyatta was re-elected with 98 percent of the vote on Oct. 26 after Odinga boycotted the election, saying it would not be fair. The repeat presidential vote followed an election in August, which Kenyatta also won but which was nullified by the Supreme Court on procedural grounds. Odinga s supporters have repeatedly protested against the results, and at least 51 people have been killed in the turmoil since August, generating an atmosphere of uncertainty in East Africa s richest economy. A pure presidential system enhances ethnicity because each community believes that they are not safe unless their man is at the top, Odinga said in the interview in his office. Three of Kenya s presidents since independence from Britain in 1963 have been from the Kikuyu ethnic group and one has been from the Kalenjin group, although there are 44 recognized ethnic groups in the nation. The current president is a Kikuyu and his deputy is a Kalenjin, and many of Odinga s supporters, who are largely drawn from other ethnic groups, say they feel excluded from power. The 2010 constitution devolved some power and money to Kenya s 47 counties, spreading the opportunities for power and political patronage. But most of the budget and the power is still in the hands of the central government, something Odinga wants to change. We had a new constitution that we enacted in 2010; we think that now it is time to revisit it, he said. A constitutional review could strengthen institutions like the election board and cut down the powers of the presidency, he said. We think that maybe six months will be required to carry out all these changes that we need in this country. Odinga served as prime minister in a coalition government that was crafted in 2008 after two months of violence following a disputed election killed 1,200 people. After the Oct. 26 election, Odinga s opposition alliance called for civil disobedience, including protests and a boycott of products and services by firms friendly to Kenyatta s government, to force reforms. The opposition did not challenge Kenyatta s Oct. 26 victory at the Supreme Court and there has been no protest action, but voter and rights activists lodged cases on Monday. The court has 14 days to review them.

Lara Trump Implies FBI Letter Politically Motivated –‘My Father-In-Law Forced Their Hand’ (AUDIO) By Carrie MacDonald on October 29, 2016 Subscribe The latest “revelation” from the FBI just gets more and more curious by the hour. Now we have audio of Lara Trump, wife of Eric Trump and daughter-in-law of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, saying she believes her father-in-law was behind the latest letter from FBI Director James Comey. Lara Trump: ‘My Father-In-Law Forced Their Hand’ In an interview on WABC Radio with Rita Cosby, Lara Trump came right out and said, proudly, that she believes Donald Trump was one of the people behind this whole thing: “I think my father-in-law forced their hand in this. You know, he has been the one since the beginning saying that she shouldn’t be able to run for president, and I commend him on that.” Anyone who has been paying attention over the past 12 hours or so knows that this “scandal” died before it even had a chance to really breathe. The conservative media has, of course, attempted to spin this into something real, given the fact that their candidate’s chances of winning are less than 10 percent. But the emails are not from Clinton nor are they from Clinton’s server. Not only that, but Comey’s motivations behind sending the letter seem more and more likely to be politically motivated. Former DOJ Official: ‘You Don’t Do This’ Comey’s actions are unprecedented for an FBI Director. In a piece discussing that very fact, Jane Mayer wrote for The New Yorker : “… His latest action is stirring an extraordinary level of concern among legal authorities, who see it as potentially affecting the outcome of the Presidential and congressional elections. ‘You don’t do this,’ one former senior Justice Department official exclaimed. ‘It’s aberrational. It violates decades of practice.’ The reason, according to the former official, who asked not to be identified because of ongoing cases involving the department, ‘is because it impugns the integrity and reputation of the candidate, even though there’s no finding by a court, or in this instance even an indictment.'” There was also the tweetstorm from former DOJ spokesperson Matthew Miller, in which he eviscerated Comey’s actions. He also wrote a more cohesive piece for the Washington Post , in which he said : “With each step, Comey moved further away from department guidelines and precedents, culminating in Friday’s letter to Congress. This letter not only violated Justice rules on commenting on ongoing investigations but also flew in the face of years of precedent about how to handle sensitive cases as Election Day nears.” All of this makes one wonder – what is Comey’s motivation here? Comey, a Republican appointed by President Obama, is breaking rules of tradition left and right. And Trump’s own daughter-in-law is on record saying that she believes the Republican nominee “forced their hand.” No matter the motivation, the “scandal” is dead in the water, no matter how much the Republicans and the Trump campaign wish it were truly the “October surprise” they’ve been waiting for … rather than another woman coming forward and accusing their nominee of sexual assault. That number stands at 12 and counting. The Clinton campaign, to their credit, is calling for complete transparency from the FBI in the matter. Listen to Lara Trump gleefully say she believes The Donald is behind this: Featured Image via screenshot from YouTube video About Carrie MacDonald Carrie is a progressive mom and wife living in the upper Midwest. Connect

corbett comments what the government giveth the government taketh away like that money in your wallet do you really think its yours if so the people of india would like to have a word with you oh havent you heard in case you missed the story during the din and clatter of the us selection circus all hell has broken loose in india it all started on november th when indian prime minister narendra modi made a surprise television address to the nation as you might have guessed this was no stale policy speech instead modi sent shockwaves through the country and the region by announcing that as of midnight that evening existing and rupee notes would no longer be accepted as legal tender the tax cattle would have until december th to trade in their and rupee notes at post offices and banks and just like that the bits of colored paper in everyones wallets were revealed aswell useless bits of colored paper for free access to this editorial please click here for full access to the subscriber newsletter and to support this website please become a member only site members can access this content already a member

. MMR Vaccines Cause 340% Increased Risk of Autism in African American Infants Vaccines do cause autism, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been lyi... Print Email http://humansarefree.com/2016/11/mmr-vaccines-cause-340-increased-risk.html Vaccines do cause autism, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been lying about this fact for years, according to newly uncovered information. As it turns out, the CDC fudged some numbers in a 2003 study it conducted on the MMR vaccine that, if honestly reported, would have revealed of autism among male African American infants.But the CDC instead shrunk down the sample size of this study to conceal any possible correlation between MMR and autism, in the end publishing what amounts to fraudulent data that has repeatedly be used as "evidence" that vaccines do not cause autism. To the contrary, there are major effects of the MMR vaccine that at least three CDC officials who supported the bogus study are now culpable for withholding from the public, possibly resulting in untold thousands of cases of autism .The Focus Autism Foundation (FAF), a nonprofit group committed to raising awareness about autism, broke the news after speaking with a CDC whistleblower who at first came forward in anonymity but has now been revealed as epidemiologist Dr. William Thompson. Dr. Thompson helped lead several studies, including the one in question, that were used by the CDC to conceal autism.In an interview with the FAF's Dr. Brian Hooker, the father of a child with vaccine-induced autism, Dr. Thompson broke down the history of deception within the CDC dating back to the days of the Tuskegee experiment, which involved government officials withholding treatments from African American men with syphilis as part of a medical experiment.According to Dr. Thompson, a 2003 CDC paper on autism, which was published in the peer-reviewed journal Pediatrics the following year, intentionally obscured data showing that MMR significantly increases a child's risk of autism, particularly when administered before the age of three. And African American boys, he says, have the highest overall risk. "It's the lowest point in my career, that I went along with that paper," confessed Dr. Thompson. "I went along with this; we didn't report significant findings." CDC has known since at least 2001 that age when MMR is given affects autism risk Dr. Thompson's bold confession is rocking the health world, a significant portion of which bought into the CDC lie that vaccines do not cause autism: case closed. In truth, the CDC has engaged in a massive fraud against the American people, and really the entire world, by falsely claiming that scientific data debunks the vaccine-autism connection, when it actually shows the exact opposite.It is what famed gastroenterologist Dr. Andrew Wakefield tried to tell the CDC and other government officials more than a decade ago, only to be slandered and falsely accused of fraud himself. But as he explains in a new film, top CDC officials had actually vindicated his original findings, only to eventually succumb to political pressures seeking to bury all evidence of a connection "Over a decade ago, Dr. Scott Montgomery and I put forward a hypothesis for MMR vaccine and autism," explains Dr. Wakefield in the film. "The age that you receive the vaccine influences the risk. This makes sense. For some infections like measles, the age of infection changes the outcome. We shared this hypothesis with vaccine officials.... "A group of senior vaccine safety people at the CDC studied it. It panned out. We were right." "By November 9, 2001, nearly 13 years ago, senior CDC scientists knew that younger age of exposure to MMR was associated with an increased risk of autism. In 2004 they published, but they hid the results." Be sure to watch Dr. Wakefield's film here . By Jonathan Benson

Florida Senator Marco Rubio actually knows something the rest of us know for once: That there aren t enough racists in America or even the Congress to pass Donald Trump s new immigration bill. The bill would curb even legal immigration, setting a completely arbitrary limit on how many total people could come to America through traditional methods.Last Wednesday, Trump trotted out that annoying kid from the Comey hearing, Tom Cotton, and human stegosaurus David Perdue to unveil the RAISE Act, a singularly horrible piece of legislation that would among other things require proficiency in English, advanced degrees, and/or high-paying job offers in order to legally immigrate to this country. Team Trump called it merit-based immigration, but as an online quiz posted almost immediately by Time highlighted, even most Americans wouldn t have enough merit to apply for a visa.The real question is, if people without degrees, skills, or merit, as Trump said, are the ones coming to America, how are they stealing all of our jobs?Now Marco Rubio is on the record setting Trump and his lackeys (from two of the states that would suffer the most by curtailing immigration) straight on this bill s chances:That bill s not going to pass. I think the White House knows that you don t have 60 votes for that in the Senate.Rubio, a Cuban-American from Miami, has some pretty understandable differences with Trump and other Republicans when it comes to immigration. After all, the unspoken fact is that every immigration bill is primarily aimed at Spanish-speaking would-be immigrants.But lest you think Marco is some kind of hero for breaking with the president on this, you have to remember he is still a Republican:Where I probably have a big difference of opinion with this bill is that it sets an arbitrary cap on the number of people that are able to come through with a green card. I don t think that should be an arbitrary cap, that number should be driven by demand.I see. So we just let in as many as we want here. And what about the idiotic idea of advancing a 19th-century meritocracy?In 2013 the very controversial Gang of Eight, four Democrats and four Republicans, proposed moving legal immigration to a merit-based system.But Wasn t Marco one of the four Republicans he s talking about? So Marco Rubio still wants horrible, backwards immigration policy. Just not quite as horrible and backwards as Donald Trump s.It s good to know you have standards, Senator.Read more:Featured image via Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

France accused the Syrian government on Wednesday of obstructing U.N.-led peace talks with its refusal to return to Geneva and called on Russia not to shirk its responsibilities to get Damascus to the negotiating table. Talks on ending the war in Syria resumed on Wednesday, but with no sign of President Bashar al-Assad s negotiators returning to the table in Geneva. The process began last week. But after a few days with little apparent progress, the U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura said the Syrian government delegation led by Bashar al-Ja afari was returning to Damascus to consult and refresh . France condemns the absence of the delegation of the regime and its refusal to engage in good faith in the negotiations to achieve a political solution, French foreign ministry deputy spokesman Alexandre Georgini told reporters. This refusal highlights the obstruction strategy of the political process carried out by the Damascus regime, which is responsible for the absence of progress in the negotiations, he added. He said Russia, as one of President Bashar al-Assad s main backers, needed to assume its responsibilities so that the Syrian government finally entered the negotiations. De Mistura had said he expected talks to resume around Tuesday Dec. 5, but Ja afari said before leaving that he might not come back because the opposition had stated that Assad could not play a role in a future interim government. During last week s sessions, de Mistura shuttled between the representatives of the two warring sides, who did not meet face-to-face. He had planned to continue the round until Dec. 15.

@gretawire #whatever!

Where did all the rocker guys go? In recent years, women have almost completely taken over the most highly visible gig in American pop: the Super Bowl halftime show, 12 minutes of music beamed worldwide. It is a ratings magnet, a marketing tool, a sponsor’s flagship, a cultural event and, of course, a live performance with no second chances, to be applauded or ruthlessly dissected, virtually in real time, via every internet resource. This Sunday, the halftime for the 51st Super Bowl belongs to Lady Gaga, along with, if preview video clips can be trusted, dozens of dancers for a set that will include “Bad Romance. ” Lady Gaga has neither revealed any guests nor ruled out the possibility. Nor has she telegraphed whether her set will have any direct political messages. Lady Gaga has plenty to prove. Her 2016 album, “Joanne,” made a show of being more vulnerable and less glossy than her previous pop albums, bringing back the rock guitars she had welcomed on “Born This Way,” in 2011, and set aside on “Artpop,” in 2013. “Joanne” entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1 but faded fast its lead single, “Perfect Illusion,” fell short of the Top 10. But Lady Gaga is the kind of performer the Super Bowl has relied on since 2011: a veteran hitmaker who can put on a spectacle. It’s a job category dominated by women. Women have all but taken over the Super Bowl since the Who — working hard, looking weary — headlined in 2010. Female pop stars might seem to offer the yin to football players’ yang, but in the era, these women’s work requires its own athleticism, timing, discipline and unerring performance under pressure. Katy Perry, Madonna and Beyoncé have all presented themselves at the Super Bowl — as they do in their arena tours — as strong women, attended by masses of dancing disciples. Coldplay was the nominal headliner last year, but the N. F. L. hedged its bet on the band’s earnest British rock: It brought back Bruno Mars, who played in 2014, for part of the set and added 2013’s headliner, Beyoncé. And when Beyoncé strutted onto the field, performing “Formation,” with her dancers wearing Black berets and Afros, Coldplay’s performance might as well have vaporized rock was forgotten. (Beyoncé and her dancers also leveraged the Super Bowl exposure by posting photos with references to the Black Lives Matter movement and fists raised in the Black Power salute, roiling social media.) For much of the preceding decade, the radio format for most Super Bowl headliners had been classic rock: Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney, along with the Prince in 2007. The N. F. L. had decided to treat the Super Bowl halftime as a stadium concert, and these were acts with plenty of experience headlining stadiums. The Super Bowl simply added more lights and fireworks as the rockers performed a fraction of a concert. Besides Coldplay, the only other male headliner since the Who has been Bruno Mars (joined by the even more Red Hot Chili Peppers) who played halftime as a throwback to older stadium shows. The string of rockers in the early 2000s was also a reaction to the show in 2004 with Janet Jackson’s indelible “wardrobe malfunction,” which revealed less than what might have been seen any night on HBO, or on some red carpets, but which set off a moral panic. (Moral panics are part of the Super Bowl fun M. I. A. Madonna’s guest in 2012, started one by raising her middle finger to the camera.) Grizzled classic rockers, the N. F. L. might have reasoned, were less likely to be separated from their tops (though the Red Hot Chili Peppers arrived in 2014). But a major part of the impact of a stadium rock concert comes from being there as part of the crowd: feeling the power chords vibrating the bleachers, joining the singalongs, smelling the beer. But for the millions of viewers not in the stadium, the television experience is one of distance, and the perspective that of a more detached observer. The halftime show, unlike the game, doesn’t work best as a documentary of extreme physical exertion. Musicians are expected to work hard, too, but the N. F. L. came to realize that the halftime show is not so much a as a music video shot in one take — and pop stars, far more than rockers, have both the timing and the pizazz to please the camera as well as the local stadium audience. The Black Eyed Peas (led by Will. i. am but featuring the female singer Fergie) inaugurated the Super Bowl’s new pop era with a platoon of fluorescent, robotic dancers. Since then, female Super Bowl headliners have made it their business to take over not just a big stage but also the entire field, filling it with dancers and bestriding it with outsize processions. Filling the giant field also fills the home screen. Could Lady Gaga be the one to merge the Super Bowl stadium rock concert with the pop parade? It’s an ambition she has flirted with for years, and one that on “Joanne. ” Lady Gaga’s hits have been flamboyant, dance tunes, but she has never been shy about unleashing the kind of belting she brought to songs like “The Edge of Glory. ” On Sunday the Super Bowl may also rock again — with a lady at center stage.

by BAR Tens of thousands have demonstrated against the election of Donald Trump. Some are activists, continuing the struggle. Others are Democrats that are just “mad.” “The Black movement against police terror didn’t need a Donald Trump waiting in the vestibule of the White House to get “mad.” For those who fear Trump’s “fascism,” the threat level “depends on how he uses the arsenal of repressive tools bequeathed to him by the Obama administration.” None of Them Have Ever Been My President by BAR “You can’t scare people with a specter if they have already been in combat with the real thing.” As a revolutionary Black nationalist whose socialism predates my facial hairs, I have no problem saying Donald Trump is not my president. Neither is the current occupant of the White House, nor were any of the Democrats, Republicans and Whigs that preceded him. On a chilly November day in 2009 a newly-created coalition, of which I was a co-founder, marched on the White House to denounce and renounce Barack Obama as a tool of white supremacy and the imperial war machine. “Obama, Obama, you can’t hide – We charge you with genocide,” we shouted, indicting the First Black President for the crimes he was busily committing in service to his masters on Wall Street. The Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations had been formed less than two months before, largely to demonstrate that not all Black people were bamboozled by the slick corporate politician from Chicago, elected one year earlier in the nation’s first billion dollar presidential campaign. As the Coalition’s founding press release stated : “Black and Brown people continue to suffer the brunt of un/under-employment and predatory loan scandal crises. Military spending under Obama has increased as have the warfare this nation continues to export to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Venezuela and Colombia. Mass incarceration, police brutality and political imprisonment remain rampant...” The Black is Back Coalition warned of the “traps set by Obama’s so-called ‘post-racial’ politics that perpetuates the same oppressive militarist agenda well known during the Bush regime.” To paraphrase Fidel Castro, history has vindicated us. “Obama joined George Bush and Bill Clinton in perpetuating the 20 year-long slaughter in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has claimed more than six million lives.” Obama mobilized NATO air forces and jihadist proxies to destroy Libya, which had previously enjoyed the highest living standard in Africa. He redeployed these same al Qaida terrorists to Syria, killing 400,000 people, displacing half the surviving population and bringing the U.S. to the very brink of nuclear war with Russia. This so-called “Son of Africa” has effectively occupied most of the continent through a U.S. Military Command (AFRICOM) that was less than a year old when Obama was sworn into office. The African Union provides diplomatic cover for the CIA-run “peace keeping” mission in Somalia, while U.S. conventional forces have infiltrated the militaries of all but two African nations. The holdouts, Eritrea and Zimbabwe, are under constant threat of regime change. Obama joined George Bush and Bill Clinton in perpetuating the 20 year-long slaughter in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has claimed more than six million lives, the worst genocide since World War Two (“Obama, Obama, you can’t hide, We charge you with genocide!”) With the eager assistance of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Obama baldly abetted a Nazi-spearheaded coup against the elected government in Ukraine -- and then blamed Moscow when Russian-speaking Ukrainians resisted, provoking a “New Cold War” that could turn hot in an instant. At the same time, Obama “pivoted” to militarily confront China, whose economy is already, by some measures, larger than the U.S. The jihadist war in Syria should also be seen as a theater of imperialism’s last ditch offensive to encircle “Eurasia” in hopes of preserving U.S.-based multinational corporate domination of a “rigged” system of dollar-based world trade. Just as the Black is Back Coalition warned, Barack Obama was the Black face of imperialism -- a change of color without a difference. He tried to hand off the controls to Hillary Clinton, who got six million votes less than he did, and lost. Back in 2007, when Obama and Clinton were pretending to be ideological opponents -- as cookie-cutter corporate Democrats often do -- we at Black Agenda Report wrote that “ There’s not a dime’s worth of difference ” between the two. Every decent, peace-loving person on Earth should be glad to be rid of both of them. Humanity would probably not survive another year of either one. “Barack Obama was the Black face of imperialism -- a change of color without a difference.” Donald Trump is also a danger to humanity, like every other U.S. chief executive since Truman nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If words mean anything, Trump starts off posing less of a doomsday international menace, since he claims to want to establish talking, rather than shouting, threatening, nuke-rattling relations with Russia and China, while Clinton’s version of “reset” was an armed confrontation with Russia over the skies of Syria. Of course, all that could quickly change. Trump may be a “party of one” among Republicans in Congress and even in his own cabinet. For those who fear Trump’s “fascism,” the threat level depends on how he uses the arsenal of repressive tools bequeathed to him by the Obama administration. These legal, infrastructural and technological instruments of the national security state are fascist in their intent; they were made for the purpose of tracking, disorganizing, neutralizing and locking up dissidents, and disinforming the public at large. Thus, President Obama and his predecessors were fascist- minded , whether you call their administrations operatively fascist or not. The Obama administration would not have pushed a bill through Congress allowing the U.S. military to detain American citizens without trial or charge if he had not anticipating using it. He would not have feverishly upgraded an omnipresent national and global surveillance apparatus if he did not anticipate putting it to the task of martial rule. Fascist-minded is all that can be said of Trump, at this point, as well. Black Lives Matter activists have been under FBI surveillance since day one. Ever since Ferguson, the federal government has taken the lead in over-charging “rioters” in rebellious cities. New York City cops have used social media surveillance as the basis for conspiracy charges against groups of more than 100 young Black people in separate sweeps in Manhattan and The Bronx. The “fascism” that correctly described Jim Crow rule in the pre-Civil Rights South lives on at the core of the mass Black incarceration regime put in place with the crushing of the Black Liberation Movement, two generations ago. The current movement against police terror, which ultimately demands Black community control of the police, put activists in direct confrontation with the coercive arm of the State. There is no retreat from this response to the demands of Black people “on the street,” who bear the daily brunt of repression and are also among the most effective organizers. “Obama would not have feverishly upgraded an omnipresent national and global surveillance apparatus if he did not anticipate putting it to the task of martial rule.” The Black movement against police terror didn’t need a Donald Trump waiting in the vestibule of the White House to get “mad.” The movement has already crossed the Rubicon of confrontation with the State. The moment occurred in the second term of the First Black President, when a new generation learned that liberation cannot be vicariously experienced. The 21 st century Black movement emerged with the knowledge that Black corporate Democrats are not their allies, nor are Black police chiefs, or Black preachers whose real loyalties are to the Democratic Party and its Wall Street patrons. If the Black movement were afraid of the likes of Donald Trump, it never would have gone up against the militarized police that occupy Black communities. You can’t scare people with a specter if they have already been in combat with the real thing. To the extent that electoral activity is useful to the movement, it should be employed with special vigilance close at hand, against misleaders like the 32 members of the Congressional Black Caucus who failed to support the Grayson Amendment that would have halted Pentagon transfers of weapons and equipment to local police departments. These “ Treasonous 32 ”, comprising 80 percent of full-voting Black Democrats in the House, cast their shameful votes in June, 2014, just two months before Michael Brown was shot down in Ferguson, Missouri. (Rep. William “Lacy” Clay, representing Michael Brown’s district, was among the 32.) If the movement is to have any special targets for electoral vengeance, it is these homegrown enemies, who turn Black people’s votes against themselves. Trump or no Trump, the Black movement must continue to press and refine its demands -- or Power will concede nothing. On November 6, after their annual march on the White House, the organizations of the Black is Back Coalition ratified a 19-point document that puts self-determination at the heart of the broadest range of issues confronting Black America: “Every central demand, every strategy of struggle, must be formulated with the goal of self-determination in mind. Otherwise, the movement will allow itself to be drowned in reformist schemes and projects that bind Black people even more tightly to structures of outside control.” The points range from “Black Community Control of Police,” to “Halting Gentrification,” to “Nationalization of the Banks.” The points were compiled during Barack Obama’s time in the White House, and they will remain relevant under a President Donald Trump. We’ve been mad. Let’s get organized, and get free.

GENEVA (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday Iraq must stand on its own in the face of Iranian influence, while recognizing that the two states shared a long border and legitimate economic interests. Tillerson, who held talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Baghdad this week, was asked by reporters in Geneva about blunting Iran s influence. What we are saying to the Iraqis is you must develop the capacity to stand on your own, he said. The United States remained very concerned about the fighting that has erupted between Iraqi security forces and the Kurdish peshmerga militia over the Kurdish independence referendum, Tillerson said. He said that the United States was disappointed that the parties have been unable to reach an entirely peaceful resolution and that he had encouraged Abadi to accept Erbil s (the Kurdistan regional government s) overtures for talks on the basis of the Iraqi constitution .

Dem Sherrod Brown and GOP Senator Orrin Hatch go at it! They were discussing the tax plan and Hatch let Brown know he doesn t appreciate the class warfare propaganda THE MIDDLE CLASS WINS WITH TRUMP TAX PLAN:The Senate s plan to rewrite the tax code would go much further than a competing House proposal toward making good on Republican promises to focus on the middle class, a new report shows.Moderate-income people would consistently see the largest percentage declines in their tax bills, according to an analysis released late Saturday by the official, nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation.In 2019, people in the middle of the income spectrum, earning between $50,000 and $70,000, would see their taxes fall by 7.1 percent. Those earning between $20,000 and $30,000 would see a 10.4 percent decline, the report shows, while millionaires would get a 5.3 percent tax cut.Unlike with the House plan, that trend holds up throughout the period over which JCT analyzed the Senate proposal. In 2027, for example, millionaires would get a 2.8 percent tax cut from the Senate plan, compared with a 6.1 percent decline for people in the middle and a 10.3 percent reduction for those earning between $20,000 and $30,000.How Republicans tax plans would affect people in different income groups has been a hotly contested issue in Congress, with the GOP contending its plans are aimed at the middle class while Democrats call them a giveaway to the rich.The House proposal would have a muddled impact on people in different income groups, JCT found earlier this month. At first, modest-income people would be its biggest winners, but the outlook changes after the first few years. Some modest-income people would face tax increases under the House plan, JCT found, and by 2027, millionaires would be its biggest winners.The analysis of the Senate plan, which the Finance Committee plans to formally take up on Monday, shows people in every income cohort receiving a tax cut on average, though it did not examine whether some people within those groups would face tax increases.

South Korea President Moon Jae-in said he hoped a visit by U.S President Donald Trump would be a turning point in efforts to defuse tensions over North Korea s nuclear program as the two leaders met in Seoul on Tuesday. The state visit in the South Korean capital was billed as an opportunity for Trump and Moon to present a united front, despite differences over how to confront North Korea s nuclear threat, as well as Trump s complaints over the two countries trade agreements. Besides vowing to prevent North Korean leader Kim Jong Un from developing nuclear weapons and missiles that can effectively strike the mainland United States, Trump has also threatened to pull out of a free trade pact between the two countries.

LONDON — The actor Samuel L. Jackson has sidled into a debate about the roles for black actors on both sides of the Atlantic. In an interview with the radio station Hot 97 posted online on Monday, Mr. Jackson questioned the casting of the black British actor Daniel Kaluuya in the film “Get Out,” about a black American’s encounter with his white girlfriend’s creepy family. Mr. Jackson suggested that “an American brother” might have brought a deeper perspective to the role, and suggested that black Britons had endured less racism than . He noted that British actors often secured American roles because they are less well known and therefore paid less, and because many of them are valued for their classical training. Jordan Peele, the writer and director of “Get Out,” has acknowledged that he was hesitant to cast a British actor, given that the film focuses on the experience. Mr. Jackson said on Wednesday that his intention had been to comment on Hollywood, not to “slam” Mr. Kaluuya. And while his comments have been criticized by many black commentators — American and British — some British performers do seem to find it easier to get roles in the United States than at home. Here is what some British minority actors who have worked in the United States have said about the issue. Mr. Boyega, who is from South London, plays Finn in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens. ” While the role is not American per se, given that the film unfolds in a distant galaxy, Finn speaks with an entirely convincing American accent. In a tweet on Tuesday, Mr. Boyega appeared to dismiss Mr. Jackson’s comments: “Black brits vs African American,” he wrote, saying that the conflict was “stupid” and one “we don’t have time for. ” It’s not just black British actors who have found success in the United States. Mr. Ahmed, a British actor of Pakistani descent, has slipped into several American roles, including the lead character, Nasir, on HBO’s series “The Night Of,” and a philandering surfing instructor on “Girls,” also on HBO. He recently addressed Parliament about a lack and misrepresentation of minority characters in the arts, suggesting that the problem might even be driving young Britons toward extremist beliefs. “We end up going to America to find work,” Mr. Ahmed said. “I meet with producers and directors here and they say, ‘We don’t have anything for you all our stories are set in Cornwall in the 1600s. ’” Ms. Harris, who plays Paula, the mother of the lead character, Chiron, in the “Moonlight,” is from London. She had to film her scenes in the movie in just three days, because of issues securing a visa to the United States. “I definitely think that for my career to have continued I definitely had to go to America, and I’m really glad that I did there is just a lot more material,” Ms. Harris told reporters at the premiere of “Moonlight” at the London Film Festival last year. Mr. Ejiofor portrayed Solomon Northup, a free who was abducted and enslaved in the century. He has made an acting career with a foot on both sides of the Atlantic. In a 2015 interview with Time Out, he seemed to shy from discussion of the role race had played in his career, but suggested that the notable success that British actors of all races have enjoyed in the United States may have to do with different career expectations. “We all wanted to be theater actors,” he said of his fellow Britons. “It’s less glamorous much more about the work. You have to get on with it. You have to know when something’s not working. And you have to hone your craft. Maybe that gives us an advantage. ” Mr. Oyelowo, who is based in the United States, toiled in smaller roles before landing the part of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 2014 drama “Selma. ” In a speech on diversity in London last year, Mr. Oyelowo pleaded with members of the British film industry to create more roles for minorities in Britain, noting that many actors felt obliged to move to the United States. “Please stop this talent drain,” he said. “You have to change the demographics of the people who are making these decisions. ” Mr. Elba grew up in London and broke into the American market with his starring role as the Baltimore drug lord Stringer Bell on HBO’s “The Wire. ” In an address to Parliament last year, Mr. Elba called on media representatives to make more room for minorities. “The Britain I come from is the most successful, diverse, multicultural country on Earth,” Mr. Elba said. “But here’s my point: You wouldn’t know it if you turned on the TV. ” Sophie Okonedo described herself as a Jewish, Nigerian Brit when accepting her 2014 Tony Award for playing the character Ruth Winger in “A Raisin in the Sun” on Broadway. She told The Guardian in 2014 that she saw far more opportunities for roles in the United States than in Britain. “I do notice that — over the last year — I’ve had maybe two scripts from England and tens and tens from America,” she said. “The balance is ridiculous. ”

British foreign minister Boris Johnson said on Friday it was appalling that Russia had blocked a U.S.-drafted resolution to renew an international inquiry into who is to blame for chemical weapons attacks in Syria. It is appalling that the UN Joint Investigative Mechanism has been closed down, Johnson said in a statement. The United Kingdom will not let the end of the Joint Investigative Mechanism stop work with international partners to identify and hold accountable those responsible for using chemical weapons. The vote at the United Nations on Thursday sparked a war of words between Russia and the United States in the Security Council.

17 mins ago 1 Views 0 Comments 0 Likes Drone footage shows the devastation caused by twin earthquakes that rocked Borgo Sant'Antonio, near Visso, which left buildings reduced to rubble or partially collapsed. Central Italy was struck twice in quick succession the previous day, with the first tremor hitting it at around 19:11 local time (17:11 GMT). The quake measured 5.5 on the Richter scale and could be felt as far as Rome some 240 km (149 miles). Shortly after a second quake of 6.1-magnitude, struck at around 21:18 local time (19:18 GMT). Buildings were shaking, some parts even caving in, and residents fled into the street to save themselves. Several dozen people have been treated across the region for light injuries, while four are said to have been seriously hurt. COURTESY: RT's RUPTLY video agency, NO RE-UPLOAD, NO REUSE - FOR LICENSING, PLEASE, CONTACT http://ruptly.tv Subscribe Like Leave a Reply Login with your Social ID Your email address will not be published. Name

VIENNA (Reuters) - An international nuclear test-ban body that runs a global network of listening posts designed to check for secret atomic blasts detected an unusual signal underwater last week near where an Argentine submarine went missing, it said on Thursday. The Vienna-based Comprehensive nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) runs monitoring stations equipped with devices including hydrophones - underwater microphones that scan the oceans for sound waves. Two of its monitoring stations detected the unusual signal, the CTBTO said in a statement, adding that it was passing the information on to the Argentine authorities coordinating the search for the ARA San Juan, which had 44 crew on board when it went missing last week. An Argentine navy spokesman said earlier on Thursday that an abnormal sound detected near the submarine s last known position in the South Atlantic was consistent with an explosion , but the CTBTO was more guarded on the possible cause. It could be consistent with an explosion but there is no certainty about this, CTBTO hydroacoustic engineer Mario Zampolli told Reuters. He agreed with the navy spokesman s description of the signal as unusual and short, adding that the cause was non-natural. We can also calculate the time when the event happened in that location and that time is about three and a half hours after the last contact that the sub apparently had, according to what s out in the news, he said. The stations that detected it are far apart, in the Atlantic and Indian oceans, he added.

The London terror attack was a horrific scene with injured bodies strewn everywhere after a vehicle plowed into pedestrians on the Westminster Bridge. While some simply walked by bodies on the street, others got down on their hands and knees to either administer CPR or to just offer encouragement and comfort for the victims until paramedics arrived.A heroic Team GB boxing coach jumped over a fence before fighting in vain to save a police officer killed in the London terror attack, it was revealed today.Tony Davis, who was visiting the Houses of Parliament for a press conference, put PC Keith Palmer in the recovery position and tried to resuscitate him.The coach from Darlington, County Durham, also revealed on TV how he put his raincoat underneath the officer to try to stem the blood as much as he could.Mr Davis was due to be at the Commons with students from the Hammersmith Boxing Academy in West London to launch a community project.And the former Army staff sergeant, who is a coach for the British Lionhearts boxing team, told ITV s This Morning how he reacted to the horrifying attack.Mr Davis, who served 22 years in the military, was leaving the press event with a group of boxers when he saw the attack taking place.He told the program: We were leaving the exit parallel to where the crash happened, I had my phone out to take footage for social media about the event. All of a sudden I saw a large chap brandishing two knives come through the gates and start attacking the policeman. At that point instinct kicked in, I leaped over the fence because that guy needed assistance. The police were holding their ground and that is when poor Keith got attacked. You start moving back with adrenaline pumping in.PC Palmer was one of at least four people who died in the terrorist attack at Westminster yesterday afternoon, which left 29 others injured.An unnamed attacker mounted the pavement on Westminster Bridge, mowing down pedestrians before he stabbed PC Palmer and was shot dead by police.As the maniac ploughed along the bridge in his two-ton Hyundai SUV, frequently mounting the crowded pavement, he mowed down pedestrians like ninepins.Of those who managed to dive out of his path, one woman ended up under a bus and at least two more leapt over the bridge parapet in a desperate bid to escape.Among those struck were three police officers returning from a commendation ceremony. Three French teenagers on a school visit were also targeted.A bloodied man who was injured on Westminster Bridge is comforted by a group of peopleThree were killed and many were left with catastrophic injuries amid a scene of horrifying carnage. The killer began his rampage at the south side of the bridge.A man appeared to have either jumped or been thrown from the bridge, and had fallen to concrete steps about 18ft below. He lay motionless with a dark pool of blood around his head and his leg obviously broken.Moving along the bridge, a bald man lay on the white line between the bus lane and main carriageway, clutching his head. One of the most harrowing scenes was the sight of a woman s legs poking out from under the wheel of a London double-decker bus. It appeared she was either struck by the terrorist or may have tried to dodge him, only to run into the path of the No 53.For entire story:Daily Mail

Katie Couric took to Twitter to call out Charlottesville, VA protesters who allegedly sprayed urine at two of her producers. What leftist hack Katie Couric doesn t mention is that the protesters who sprayed her producers with urine were actually ANTIFA protesters. By leaving that little factoid out of her tweet, she has clearly attempted to mislead anyone reading her tweet into believing that the offending protesters were part of the white nationalist group. While we strongly condemn any group that believes they are superior because of their race or skin color, these people actually obtained a permit to protest, and until Antifa showed up, their protest was peaceful.Two of my producers just got sprayed with urine. Lovely. Hard to keep your cool. Katie Couric (@katiecouric) August 12, 2017Citizen journalist and lawyer Mike Cernovich called out Katie Couric for attempting to mislead her Twitter followers:ANTIFA, a left wing organization, threw urine on a left wing media outlet. https://t.co/xMxHwqGSfJ Mike Cernovich (@Cernovich) August 12, 2017Another person on Twitter verified what Mike Cernovich reported:AntiFa has been hyper aggressive at the #UniteTheRight rally. Throwing urine, feces, paint, chemicals, smoke canisters, & pepper spraying. Millie Weaver (@Millie__Weaver) August 12, 2017THEY'RE NOT ACTIVISTSThey're DOMESTIC TERRORISTSThey're #Antifa & #BLMAnd THEY'RE the ones provoking violence in #Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/TWJmnwuh5S Boca Vista (@bocavista2016) August 12, 2017Fox News reported about the #UniteTheRight (no affiliation with conservative Americans who think of themselves as being right of center) having permits to protest in Charlottesville, VA:#UniteTheRight had rec'd proper permits to be assembled. #Antifa was Violent pic.twitter.com/HnIl1V2IfR TrumpsBlonde Angie (@TrumpsBlonde) August 12, 2017A couple of hours ago, a car drove down one of the streets where protesters were walking and drove into several people. Numerous people were injured. Some of the protesters reportedly have life-threatening injuries. Reports are coming from people who are at the rally that an Antifa member was driving the vehicle that smashed into protestors.https://twitter.com/polNewsForever/status/896429441588629506

Edmondo Burr in Sci/Environment // 0 Comments Yesterday the sun erupted with a huge solar flare sending streams of particles bombarding towards Earth. A solar storm can wreak havoc on electricity power lines and technologies that rely on satellites. People are warned to prepare for the worst in coming days. The Daily Express reports: Solar storms can affect technology here on Earth as the radiation thrown at our planet heat the outer atmosphere, resulting in it expanding. As a result, satellite communications struggle to penetrate the atmosphere, essentially blocking communications which could lead to a lack of GPS navigation, mobile phone signal and satellite TV such as Sky. Furthermore, higher currents in the magnetosphere – the Earth’s magnetic field – could result in a surge of electricity in power lines, which can blow out electrical transformers and power stations leading to a temporary loss of electricity in a region – although this usually only occurs in areas that are in high altitude. The solar storm is predicted to carry on until October 27 and officials are telling citizens to prepare for the worst. The US Space Weather Prediction Center said: “Voltage corrections may be required, false alarms triggered on some protection devices. “Drag may increase on low-Earth-orbit satellites, and corrections may be needed for orientation problems”. The storm was originally described as a “serious” G3 level storm, although it was later downgraded to a G2. The UK Met Office said: “Elevated solar winds are expected throughout the period, with G1-G2 minor to moderate geomagnetic storms forecast.” Greenland However, on the plus side, solar storms can lead to the Northern Lights being visible. As the magnetosphere gets bombarded by solar winds, stunning blue lights can appear over the upper reaches of the Northern hemisphere and the lower parts of the southern hemisphere.

Dakota Access Pipeline: More Than 100 Arrested as Protesters Ousted From Camp 11/01/2016 NBC NEWS Authorities used pepper spray and fired bean bags at activists demonstrating against a controversial North Dakota oil pipeline as the standoff there reached a new peak Thursday, according to officials. Armed soldiers and police in riot gear removed the demonstrators using trucks, military Humvees, and buses Thursday afternoon, according to The Associated Press. Two helicopters and an airplane scanned the operation from the air. At least 141 protesters were arrested as of midnight Thursday (1 a.m. ET) after law enforcement slowly closed in and tensions escalated, the Morton County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. Seven protesters used “sleeping dragon” devices, which typically involve PVC or other pipe, to attach themselves to items, and fires were set on a highway and improvised fire bombs were thrown at law enforcement, the Morton County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. One woman allegedly fired three shots from a revolver at police, an emergency services official said. No one was hit. The chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe criticized law enforcement’s “militarized” response to the camp and called for demonstrations to remain peaceful, but stressed that activists would not give up their cause. “Militarized law enforcement agencies moved in on water protectors with tanks and riot gear today. We continue to pray for peace,” Dave Archambault II said in a statement Thursday evening. “We won’t step down from this fight,” he added. “As peoples of this earth, we all need water. This is about our water, our rights, and our dignity as human beings.” Archambault also called on activists to “remain in peace and prayer.”“Any act of violence hurts our case and is not welcome here,” he said. Law enforcement were holding a line north of the Backwater Bridge early Friday morning, the sheriff’s department. A woman who was being arrested pulled a .38 caliber revolver and fired three shots at law enforcement, “narrowly missing a sheriff’s deputy,” North Dakota State Emergency Services Spokeswoman Cecily Fong told NBC News. The woman was taken into custody and no shots were fired by law enforcement, she said. The protesters were ousted from the camp that authorities said was on private property in the path of the pipeline late Thursday afternoon, Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier told the AP. The sheriff said that while the camp was secure, officers were still dealing with protesters in the surrounding area, according to the AP. Kirchmeier added that authorities would maintain a presence in the area for the time being to keep protesters off the land. Fong confirmed to NBC News that the camp was cleared. Protesters allegedly started two fires on the Backwater Bridge protest site and threw Molotov cocktails at law enforcement Thursday night, Fong said. About 250 protesters had gathered at the camp and another 80 demonstrators with a dozen horses were at the site of a county road, according to a statement from the Morton County Sheriff’s Department. Protesters on horseback galloped toward the law enforcement line before wheeling around and some had begun throwing objects at the officers, Fong said. Demonstrators also allegedly set four DAPL construction vehicles ablaze, Fong said Thursday evening. “They’ve definitely escalated, they’re throwing rocks and debris,” she said. A handful of officers suffered minor injuries, she said. Officers fired bean bag rounds and used pepper spray on protesters, Fong said. Authorities also used a long-range acoustic device with a high-pitched tone to disperse the protesters, who set tires on fire on the highway Thursday afternoon, according to a post on the Morton County Sheriff’s Department Facebook page . Demonstrators stand next to burning tires as armed soldiers and law enforcement officers assemble on Oct. 27, 2016, to force Dakota Access pipeline protesters off private land where they had camped to block construction. The pipeline is to carry oil from western North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to an existing pipeline in Patoka, Ill. Mike McCleary / The Bismarck Tribune via AP The department said they repeatedly told the demonstrators they were “free to go,” asking them to move to a separate camp further south and let authorities put out the flames. The protesters also set an area on fire near a bridge on a county road, according to a statement from the sheriff’s department. The protesters, comprised of a group that includes Native Americans and environmental activists, had been camped on private property since Sunday near the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, near the town of Cannon Ball. The 1,172-mile pipeline would run within a half-mile of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. Opponents of the project say the pipeline could adversely impact drinking water and would disturb sacred burial sites. Hundreds of protesters from Standing Rock and other tribes have set up camp for months in protest a few miles away from where Thursday’s confrontation occurred, close to where the Missouri and Cannonball rivers meet. Thursday’s incident came less than a week after more than 80 people were arrested and authorities used pepper spray on demonstrators. The arrests came during a five-hour conflict with police and around 300 protesters, some of whom stubbornly parked cars on the highway near the camp to block authorities from reaching them, according to the AP. They also set a small fire at one of two blockades they set up on the highway. The majority of the protesters were retreating from the area of confrontation on the highway outside the camp, but had not fully left the area of private land, according to the AP. About 200 protesters remained in the area, listening to tribal elders speak and praying as authorities continued to approach. Play Authorities used pepper spray and fired bean bags at activists demonstrating against a controversial North Dakota oil pipeline as the standoff there reached a new peak Thursday, according to officials. Armed soldiers and police in riot gear removed the demonstrators using trucks, military Humvees, and buses Thursday afternoon, according to The Associated Press. Two helicopters and an airplane scanned the operation from the air. At least 141 protesters were arrested as of midnight Thursday (1 a.m. ET) after law enforcement slowly closed in and tensions escalated, the Morton County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. Seven protesters used “sleeping dragon” devices, which typically involve PVC or other pipe, to attach themselves to items, and fires were set on a highway and improvised fire bombs were thrown at law enforcement, the Morton County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. One woman allegedly fired three shots from a revolver at police, an emergency services official said. No one was hit. The chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe criticized law enforcement’s “militarized” response to the camp and called for demonstrations to remain peaceful, but stressed that activists would not give up their cause. “Militarized law enforcement agencies moved in on water protectors with tanks and riot gear today. We continue to pray for peace,” Dave Archambault II said in a statement Thursday evening. “We won’t step down from this fight,” he added. “As peoples of this earth, we all need water. This is about our water, our rights, and our dignity as human beings.” Archambault also called on activists to “remain in peace and prayer.”“Any act of violence hurts our case and is not welcome here,” he said. Law enforcement were holding a line north of the Backwater Bridge early Friday morning, the sheriff’s department. A woman who was being arrested pulled a .38 caliber revolver and fired three shots at law enforcement, “narrowly missing a sheriff’s deputy,” North Dakota State Emergency Services Spokeswoman Cecily Fong told NBC News. The woman was taken into custody and no shots were fired by law enforcement, she said. The protesters were ousted from the camp that authorities said was on private property in the path of the pipeline late Thursday afternoon, Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier told the AP. The sheriff said that while the camp was secure, officers were still dealing with protesters in the surrounding area, according to the AP. Kirchmeier added that authorities would maintain a presence in the area for the time being to keep protesters off the land. Fong confirmed to NBC News that the camp was cleared. Play Protesters allegedly started two fires on the Backwater Bridge protest site and threw Molotov cocktails at law enforcement Thursday night, Fong said. About 250 protesters had gathered at the camp and another 80 demonstrators with a dozen horses were at the site of a county road, according to a statement from the Morton County Sheriff’s Department. Protesters on horseback galloped toward the law enforcement line before wheeling around and some had begun throwing objects at the officers, Fong said. Demonstrators also allegedly set four DAPL construction vehicles ablaze, Fong said Thursday evening. “They’ve definitely escalated, they’re throwing rocks and debris,” she said. A handful of officers suffered minor injuries, she said. Officers fired bean bag rounds and used pepper spray on protesters, Fong said. Authorities also used a long-range acoustic device with a high-pitched tone to disperse the protesters, who set tires on fire on the highway Thursday afternoon, according to a post on the Morton County Sheriff’s Department Facebook page . Demonstrators stand next to burning tires as armed soldiers and law enforcement officers assemble on Oct. 27, 2016, to force Dakota Access pipeline protesters off private land where they had camped to block construction. The pipeline is to carry oil from western North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to an existing pipeline in Patoka, Ill. Mike McCleary / The Bismarck Tribune via AP The department said they repeatedly told the demonstrators they were “free to go,” asking them to move to a separate camp further south and let authorities put out the flames. The protesters also set an area on fire near a bridge on a county road, according to a statement from the sheriff’s department. The protesters, comprised of a group that includes Native Americans and environmental activists, had been camped on private property since Sunday near the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, near the town of Cannon Ball. The 1,172-mile pipeline would run within a half-mile of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. Opponents of the project say the pipeline could adversely impact drinking water and would disturb sacred burial sites. Hundreds of protesters from Standing Rock and other tribes have set up camp for months in protest a few miles away from where Thursday’s confrontation occurred, close to where the Missouri and Cannonball rivers meet. Thursday’s incident came less than a week after more than 80 people were arrested and authorities used pepper spray on demonstrators. The arrests came during a five-hour conflict with police and around 300 protesters, some of whom stubbornly parked cars on the highway near the camp to block authorities from reaching them, according to the AP. They also set a small fire at one of two blockades they set up on the highway. The majority of the protesters were retreating from the area of confrontation on the highway outside the camp, but had not fully left the area of private land, according to the AP. About 200 protesters remained in the area, listening to tribal elders speak and praying as authorities continued to approach. Play Law enforcement officials began taking steps to remove roadblocks and protesters of the Dakota Access Pipeline near Highway 1806 at around 11:15 a.m. local time (12:15 p.m. ET), Kirchmeier said in a statement. “Protesters’ escalated unlawful behavior this weekend by setting up illegal roadblocks, trespassing onto private property and establishing an encampment, has forced law enforcement to respond at this time,” he said in the statement. “I can’t stress it enough, this is a public safety issue,” the sheriff said. “We cannot have protesters blocking county roads, blocking state highways, or trespassing on private property.” The protesters had created a camp in the pipeline’s path on private property known as the Cannonball Ranch on the side of the highway and set up the roadblocks along on Sunday, according to the statement. Highway 1806 remained closed Thursday between Fort Rice and Cannonball, according to the sheriff department’s statement. Various counties, cities, state agencies and out-of-state law enforcement were helping the Morton County Sheriff’s Department, the statement said. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign weighed in on the protests Thursday evening. “From the beginning of this campaign, Secretary Clinton has been clear that she thinks all voices should be heard and all views considered in federal infrastructure projects,” Spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa said in a statement. “Now, all of the parties involved — including the federal government, the pipeline company and contractors, the state of North Dakota, and the tribes — need to find a path forward that serves the broadest public interest,” Hinojosa said. “As that happens, it’s important that on the ground in North Dakota, everyone respects demonstrators’ rights to protest peacefully, and workers’ rights to do their jobs safely.” Protest camp coordinator Mekasi Horinek told NBC affiliate KFYR on Wednesday that the protesters had no plans of leaving their encampment. “We don’t have any plans on retreating. If they’re going to come in here and they’re going to arrest one of us, they’re going to arrest every one of us,” Horinek said. “We’re going to stand in unity, we’re going to stand in prayer, we’re going to stand in peace.” Standing Rock Sioux Tribe chairman Dave Archambault II told NBC News on Sunday the tribe had asked the U.S. Department of Justice to intervene in the escalating situation with law enforcement. “The DOJ should be enlisted and expected to investigate the overwhelming reports and videos demonstrating clear strong-arm tactics, abuses and unlawful arrests by law enforcement,” Chairman Dave Archambault II said.

The people of Palatine, Ill. a suburb of Chicago marked by generic strip malls and tidy had not spent much time debating the thorny questions of transgender rights. But in late 2013, a transgender high school athlete, so intent on defending her privacy that she is known only as Student A, took on her school district so she could use the girls’ locker room. After the federal Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights ruled in her favor last fall, the two sides cut a deal: Student A could use the locker room and the school would install private changing areas. Some in the community denounced the arrangement others joined the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which represented the girl, in declaring a victory for civil rights. Now the whole nation is in a pitched battle over bathroom access, with the Obama administration ordering all public schools to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms of their choice. Across the country, religious conservatives are rebelling. On Friday, lawmakers in Oklahoma became the latest group to protest, proposing one measure to effectively overturn the order, and another calling for President Obama to be impeached over it. How a clash over bathrooms, an issue that appeared atop no national polls, became the next frontier in America’s culture wars — and ultimately landed on the desk of the president — involves an array of players, some with law degrees, others still in high school. The sweeping directive to public schools seemed to come out of nowhere. In fact, it was the product of years of study inside the government and a highly orchestrated campaign by advocates for gay and transgender people. Mindful of the role “Whites Only’’ bathrooms played in the civil rights battles of more than half a century ago, they have been maneuvering behind the scenes to press federal agencies, and ultimately Mr. Obama, to address a question that has roiled many school districts: Should those with differing anatomies share the same bathrooms? The lobbying came to a head, according to people who were involved, in a hastily called April 1 meeting between top White House officials — led by Valerie Jarrett, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser and one of his closest confidantes — and national leaders of the gay and transgender rights movement. North Carolina had just become the first state to explicitly bar transgender people from using the bathrooms of their choice. “Transgender students are under attack in this country,” said Chad Griffin, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, a advocacy group that is active on the issue, summing up the message he sought to convey to Ms. Jarrett that day. “They need their federal government to stand up for them. ” Ms. Jarrett and her team, he said, listened politely, but “did not reveal much,” including the fact that a legal directive on transgender rights that had been in the works for months was about to be released. When — or precisely how — Mr. Obama personally weighed in is not clear the White House would not provide specifics. But two days before that meeting, scores of advocacy groups sent Mr. Obama a private letter, appealing to his sense of history as he nears the end of his presidency, in which he has already advanced gay and transgender rights on multiple fronts. “Too many students — including every single transgender, intersex, and student in North Carolina — will go to sleep tonight dreading the next school day,” the groups wrote, telling him that “your legacy will be defined by the tone you have set and the personal leadership you have shown on these issues. ” The dispute in Palatine came amid increasing confusion for school districts over how to handle questions about bathroom access for transgender students. Officials at the Department of Education said it had received hundreds of requests for guidance — so many that advocates for gay and transgender rights, frustrated by the Obama administration’s failure to issue specific policy guidelines, decided to act on their own. In August, several groups seeking protection for transgender people — including the Human Rights Campaign, the National Education Association and the National Center for Lesbian Rights — issued a guide for schools, hoping to provide a blueprint for the White House. At the Department of Education, Catherine E. Lhamon, 44, a former civil rights litigator who runs the agency’s Office of Civil Rights — and has made aggressive use of a federal nondiscrimination law known as Title IX — was taking the lead. The department’s ruling in favor of Student A in November was the first time it had found any school district in violation of civil rights over transgender issues. For Student A, the federal intervention has been life changing. Her mother, who requested anonymity to protect the privacy of her daughter, said she was close to finishing her junior year and had just gone to the prom with a group of friends. (She wore a “nice, expensive dress” with a lot of sparkles, her mother said.) Student A is starting to think about which college she might attend. “She’s in her own teenaged world right now,” her mother said. The ruling in Palatine reverberated across the Midwest. In the South Dakota Legislature, Republicans were so alarmed by the situation in Palatine that, in February, they passed a measure restricting bathroom access for transgender students — similar to the one that later became law in North Carolina. Opponents sent transgender South Dakotans to meet with Gov. Dennis Daugaard, a Republican, and they believe that influenced his veto of the bill. Among the visitors was Kendra Heathscott, who was 10 when she first met Mr. Daugaard, then the executive director of a social services organization that treats children with behavioral problems. In his office to lobby against the bathroom measure, she reintroduced herself. “He remembered me as a little boy,” she said. In Wisconsin last year, another bathroom bill began to work its way through the Legislature, but was beaten back by transgender rights activists, many of them teenagers. In rural Florida, a retired veterinarian and cattle rancher named Harrell Phillips was alarmed one evening in March, when his son reported over dinner that he had encountered a transgender boy in the high school bathroom. “I marched myself down to the principal,” said Dr. Phillips, who believes that “you are born into a sex that God chose you to be. ” The principal, and later the school superintendent, citing advice from lawyers, said there was nothing they could do. So Dr. Phillips turned to his best friend, a lawyer in Jacksonville, who introduced him to Roger Gannam of Liberty Counsel, an Christian organization. Mr. Gannam represented Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses last year. Mr. Gannam had just helped block a proposed ordinance in Jacksonville, with an argument religious conservatives have been lately using to powerful effect: It would endanger women and young girls by allowing men — and even sexual predators — to pose as transgender and enter women’s bathrooms. Ocala, where Dr. Phillips’s son attends school, is now embroiled in a fight much like the one that engulfed Palatine. The school board, at Mr. Gannam’s prodding, voted in April to require transgender students to use bathrooms that correspond with their biological sex. One transgender young man there has been suspended for using the boys’ bathroom. The A. C. L. U. of Florida sued the day before the White House issued its directive, and last Sunday night, transgender activists and their allies held a strategy session in a church — with a sheriff’s deputy standing guard outside because attendees feared for their safety. “It’s separate but equal, so they might as well put black and white up on the bathrooms, too,” said Beth Miller, the mother of Mathew Myers, formerly Madison, an R. O. T. C. student in Ocala who came out as transgender this fall by asking his sergeant to permit him to switch from a women’s uniform to one for men. The sergeant accommodated Mathew on the uniform, but the school required him to use the bathroom in the nurse’s office. “I go to the guy’s bathroom all the time out in public, and no one cares,” Mathew said. Dr. Phillips, who like many Americans was not focused on the issue until recently, vows to take his fight to the Supreme Court. He believes that Mr. Obama “should be impeached” and is furious at “the liberal left trying to push this down our throats. ” Though North Carolina was the first state to adopt a law explicitly barring all transgender people from using public facilities of their choice, many say the current debate has its roots in Houston. In November 2015, voters there repealed the city’s measure, after a campaign in which the law’s opponents boiled their message down to a slogan. It appeared on yard signs, banners, and ominous ads on TV, radio and the Internet: “No Men in Women’s Bathrooms. ” More than 200 cities across the United States had adopted similar laws by the time Houston went to the polls Minneapolis expanded civil rights protections to transgender people back in 1975. But in Houston, the vote took place less than five months after the Supreme Court victory for marriage. Social conservatives were energized. Religious conservatives say that broad civil rights protections for transgender people are unnecessary — a solution to a problem that, they argue, does not exist. Jeremy Tedesco, the lead counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, an conservative advocacy group, argues that ‘‘when it comes to locker rooms and restrooms, separating the sexes is a matter of common decency. ” The repeal of the Houston ordinance rattled national gay rights leaders. “I think they have now created a campaign in a box that we are going to see shipped from city to city and state to state,” Mr. Griffin, of the Human Rights Campaign, said in an interview at the time. Mr. Griffin was correct Alliance Defending Freedom has a website, www. safebathrooms. org, that went live two weeks ago, and its video has been viewed more than 300, 000 times. But the Human Rights Campaign and its allies have a playbook of their own, one patterned after their strategy for marriage equality, in which they fought the battle for acceptance state by state. After the defeat in Houston, their next targets were Jacksonville, Fla. and Charlotte, N. C. — Southern cities where the advocates worked aggressively to elect politicians who would push the cause of gay and transgender rights. In Charlotte, an ordinance failed in February 2015 after that, the Human Rights Campaign and other gay rights leaders poured money into a new organization — Turnout Charlotte. The goal was “to identify and support and ask candidates, ‘Where are you on this issue?’ ’’ said LaWana Mayfield, an openly gay City Council member. With heavy backing from the activists, three new council members were elected last fall, tilting the balance on the council, which passed the ordinance in February. Religious conservatives, who had adopted the “No Men in Women’s Bathrooms’’ message from Houston, were taken aback. “It’s outrageous to have a big Washington, D. C. organization come into the state to influence the public policy of a major city,” said Tami Fitzgerald, the executive director of the North Carolina Values Coalition, an advocacy group. Republicans in the legislature responded with the bathroom bill, which Gov. Pat McCrory signed into law on March 23. Nine days later, the advocates had their audience with Ms. Jarrett. The North Carolina law, they argued behind closed doors, had created an untenable conflict. “The schools were put in this weird situation by Governor McCrory,” said Mara Keisling, the executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, who was at the meeting. “And it just sped this whole thing up. ”

@alisaspeaks this current position is a mish-mash after years of siding with propagandists and professional secularists @ShekharGupta

Turkey told U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday he could not buy its support in a United Nations vote on Jerusalem, and said the world should teach the United States a very good lesson by resisting U.S. pressure. Trump has threatened to cut aid to countries that support a draft U.N. resolution calling for the United States to withdraw its decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said in Ankara U.N. member states should not let their decision in Thursday s vote at the U.N. General Assembly be dictated by money. Mr. Trump, you cannot buy Turkey s democratic will with your dollars, he said. The dollars will come back, but your will won t once it s sold. That is why your stance is important. Trump s announcement two weeks ago that he was recognizing Jerusalem as Israel s capital broke with decades of U.S. policy and international consensus that the city s status must be left to Israeli-Palestinian talks. Last week Erdogan hosted a special meeting of the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation, which condemned Trump s decision and called on the world to respond by recognizing East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine. Jerusalem, revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, has been at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades. Israel captured Arab East Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it in an action not recognized internationally. Trump s Jerusalem move led to harsh criticisms from Muslim countries and Israel s closest European allies, who have also rejected the move. A draft resolution calling for withdrawal of Trump s decision was vetoed at the United Nations Security Council by the United States on Monday. Following that vote, opponents of the U.S. decision called for the vote in the General Assembly. I hope and expect the United States won t get the result it expects from there and the world will give a very good lesson to the United States, Erdogan said.

If there s one thing Donald Trump wants, it s positive press about himself and everything that he is doing. Clearly knowing that his new travel ban Executive Order wasn t going to shine him in the best light, or he was simply afraid of reporters asking him questions he d be forced to give an answer to, Trump didn t allow the press into the Oval Office for the signing. The White House did, however, offer a photo of the signing, but CNN refuses to show it.CNN s John King explains why they won t show the image of Trump holding the Executive Order: We won t show you the picture of the president signing the executive order that s incredibly important to his administration, it s a very important policy debate in our country we will not show you the picture because we have a policy that you cannot have canned press release pictures from a White House. You have to let the reporters in. The president is a big boy. He doesn t have to answer questions if they re shouted at him, but they wouldn t let anyone in because of the other issue that is the president saying he believes his predecessor someone wire tapped him during last year s campaign. Hopefully, all news media outlets do the same.Trump will undoubtedly be upset by this, but honestly too bad. He needs to own what he s doing, answer questions about it, and be an actual leader. Not the elusive dictator he s appearing to become more and more each day.Watch here:Featured Photo by Aude Guerrucci-Pool/Getty Images HT Raw Story

German Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives hope to draw the Social Democrats (SPD) into coalition with offers on healthcare and employment, one of her ministers said, but the two camps remain far apart on tax issues. Merkel s CDU/CSU alliance won a national election in September, but she has so far failed to agree terms with other parties on a coalition that would enable her to serve a fourth term. Her best chance now appears to be a reboot of the grand coalition with the centre-left SPD that ran Germany from 2013 to 2017 and continues to govern in a caretaker capacity. Peter Altmaier, acting finance minister and Merkel s chancellery chief, told newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung he thought such an alliance was again possible. The SPD had previously said it intended to go into opposition after suffering its worst election result in more than eight decades. But Germany s two biggest political groups are now set to start exploratory coalition talks next month and hope to decide by Jan. 12 whether to open full-blown negotiations. Asked what offers the conservatives would make, Altmaier said: We ll of course talk with the SPD about problems in hospitals and nursing care, improvements for families and children, broadband expansion, qualification for new jobs and how we can reach full employment. There is overlap with the SPD on these areas, he said, adding that helping Germany s 900,000 long-term unemployed needed to be a key project

Entitled Customer Slams Restaurant On Yelp, What Happens Next Is Sheer Badassery By Tiffany Willis on October 11, 2014 Subscribe A customer ( Yelp name Sonal B) was visiting Kansas City for a conference when she decided to try to get take-out food from Voltaire , “an upscale restaurant across the street from her conference building. The only problem with that is that Voltaire doesn’t offer take-out and they never have, by policy.” The customer pitched a fit, threatened to get her “lawyer” husband involved (and did), and threatened the manager with a bad Yelp review, which she did minutes after leaving the restaurant. But Voltaire’s owner responded. And it was fabulous. The Yelp review: Most unfriendly and arrogant restaurant in KC. Just called Voltaire to try to order some food because we’re in a late business meeting across the street. First, they refused to answer our question about what type of broth is used in the risotto. Then they said they won’t pack food to go. My husband spoke to the manager and explained that we’re in a conference room across the street, and asked if they can pack our dinner (which we would pick up). The hostess flat-out refused to answer our question about the food or to try and work with us so we could get food in our meeting. My husband asked to speak with the manager. The manager, Jamie, said, “our food is plated beautifully, and we can’t put it in a ‘to go’ container.” So thanks, Jamie, we’ll just starve. (What the manager said is just not true by the way we’ve eaten there before, and they did pack our food to go.) When my husband said that he was going to post a Yelp review about the way the restaurant was treating us, the manager questioned, “Are you a grown man and an adult?” Yes, Jamie, we are grown adults, and we do not do business with people who behave like you do. We regularly travel to NYC and eat at a variety of restaurants, which are more than happy to accommodate people by packing food to go. This restaurant thinks they’re too good for their customers. They will soon learn that if you ignore your customers, they’re going to start ignoring you. I would not even give this place one star after this experience, and I’m dismayed by their unprofessional and arrogant behavior. The owner’s response: I sincerely apologize that we don’t offer ‘take-out’ food at our restaurant. Being a Yelp user, I’m sure you were aware that on our Yelp business page, on the right side of the screen, it lists details about our establishment. There is an item listed ‘Take-Out : No.’ We have never offered take-out food as we believe the food we prepare should be presented as we see fit, (usually) on a plate inside the dining room. As for the risotto, its made with a vegetable stock – this dish is vegetarian, and I’m certain that who you were speaking with wanted to make extra certain the information provided to you was accurate. On your previous visits, you say you have witnessed dishes being boxed up as proof that we provide ‘take-out’ food. Although we do allow our guests to take their uneaten food with them in to-go boxes after they have dined with us, we have never offered ‘take-out’ food. If you were actually starving, as in a life threatening condition requiring nutritional sustenance, we would be happy to assist you..we do make exceptions for emergency situations. Our general manager did question the age/maturity of your husband after he became combative and threatened us with a negative Yelp review if we did not alter our operational practice and provide him with ‘take-out’ food. 15 minutes later you indeed came through with this threat. I can assure you that we don’t offer ‘take-out’ food because we feel we are ‘too good’ for our customers; we just prefer to have our guests dine with us, allowing for the proper presentation (and temperature) of their fare that has been skillfully prepared by our kitchen. I am very pleased that you frequent New York. We travel often as well. And I can assure you that there are many restaurants in NYC that do not offer ‘take-out’ food. Although there are many other options that do – in Kansas City as well (Go Royals!). It was made REPEATEDLY clear in the conversation with your husband that he is a lawyer. Let me provide the following analogy/role reversal-it may assist in clarifying your request. YOU: I want to hire you to handle my divorce. ME: But, I’m a tax lawyer. YOU: I don’t care I want you to handle my divorce. ME: Sorry, but I don’t practice that form of law. YOU: Just handle my divorce, I’ll pay you-it will be fine. ME: I don’t feel comfortable providing my services as a divorce lawyer, as I am a tax lawyer. You won’t receive the service you are wanting or that I am willing to provide. YOU: Well, I travel to NYC often, and in NYC, Tax lawyers handle my divorce litigation all the time. I don’t know what the problem is. I’ve told you I’m a chef, right? ME: Well, that’s nice sir, but I really can’t help you. It goes against my business practice. YOU: If you don’t represent me in my divorce, I’m going to post it all over the [most frequented social media review of lawyers] that you refused to provide me with the service I requested, and make baseless allegations about how you are very pretentious, arrogant and unprofessional. I will also try to prevent you from getting any additional business by damning you on said social media platform. Now will you represent me? ME: I don’t take kindly to threats. Thanks for your feedback. We will let you know if we decide in the future to practice divorce law, I mean, provide ‘take-out’ food. Let us know your thoughts at the Liberal America Facebook page . Sign up for our free daily newsletter to receive more great stories like this one. h/t NextShark About Tiffany Willis Tiffany Willis is a fifth-generation Texan, a proponent of voluntary simplicity, a single mom, and the founder and editor-in-chief of Liberal America. An unapologetic member of the Christian Left, she has spent most of her career actively working with “the least of these" -- disadvantaged and oppressed populations, the elderly, people living in poverty, at-risk youth, and unemployed people. She is a Certified Workforce Expert with the National Workforce Institute , a NAWDP Certified Workforce Development Professional, and a certified instructor for Franklin Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens . Follow her on Twitter , Facebook , or LinkedIn . She also has a grossly neglected personal blog , a Time Travel blog , a site dedicated to encouraging people to read classic literature 15 minutes a day , and a literary quotes blog that is a labor of love . Find her somewhere and join the discussion. Click here to buy Tiff a mojito. Connect

Elderly Woman Spots Drone Above Property… Her Next Move Leaves Operators STUNNED Hough recalled waking up to the sound of glass breaking and footsteps inside his home as the intruder used a rock to smash out a sliding glass door. “It was a strong guy, a big guy,” Hough said, referencing his broken door. “I wouldn’t have been able to kick that out.” Grabbing his revolver, Hough took up a defensive position at the top of the stairs and waited until he saw the man who had broken into his home. “I knew pretty much where he was,” he explained. “He came across my dining room and to the foot of my stairway. I had a revolver and fired at him twice.” Though he didn’t hit the burglar with his two shots, they were more than enough to send the punk scrambling back out the broken glass door and away from what turned out to be a well-defended home. “I missed, obviously, but I think I scared him,” Hough added, pointing to the bullet holes in his wall. “He certainly didn’t expect to see me.” The armed homeowner used his cellphone to call the police, who responded promptly despite the raging hurricane going on around them.

@PenguinUKBooks @alexa_chung Should be on T-shirts and posters #EveryWhere,esp.,Paris today.

Rosemarie Aquilina

Thomas Markle Asked Why Meghan 'Won't Speak to Me'

MANILA — The Philippines’ highest court ruled on Tuesday that the dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos may be granted a hero’s burial, resolving a divisive issue in a country where passions over his brutal rule still run high. A spokesman for the Supreme Court, Theodore Te, said the justices voted 9 to 5 to turn down a petition submitted by rights groups opposed to the reburial of Mr. Marcos, who died in 1989. The decision clears the way to carry out an order by President Rodrigo Duterte to bury Mr. Marcos in the national Cemetery of Heroes in Taguig City, a part of greater Manila. In a narrow ruling that did not touch on the crimes or merits of the Marcos government, the court decided that “there is no law that prohibits the burial,” Mr. Te said. The Marcos family, which for years has lobbied for the reburial, applauded the decision, saying it would help the country move forward. “It is our sincerest hope that this will lead the nation towards healing,” Mr. Marcos’s son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in a statement. “I think this will be the beginning of bringing the country together. ” The groups that petitioned to stop the burial, which included many people who were tortured under Mr. Marcos’s rule, argued that the decision was part of an effort to whitewash an ugly period of history. Senator Risa Hontiveros said the decision would “effectively wipe the Marcos slate clean and negate the sacrifices of the thousands of brave souls who fought and suffered under the brutal dictatorship. ” The court, she said, had “miserably failed the test of history and broken our hearts. ” The Marcos government is believed to have killed more than 3, 000 political opponents and tortured tens of thousands. A government commission estimated that members of the Marcos family and their associates plundered about $10 billion from the country while millions of Filipinos lived in dire poverty. Mr. Marcos was ousted in a popular uprising in 1986 and died in the United States three years later. His body was repatriated in 1993 and has been stored in a refrigerated crypt in his hometown, Batac, in Ilocos Norte Province. His family has since achieved something of a political comeback. In addition to his son, a former senator who ran for vice president this year, his widow, Imelda, is a member of Congress, and one of his daughters, Imee, is governor of Ilocos Norte. Mr. Duterte has been a strong public supporter of the family and said he received a campaign contribution during this year’s election from Imee Marcos. She has denied making a contribution. Loretta Rosales, 77, a leftist politician who was tortured during martial law in the 1970s, said Mr. Duterte had been “very clear about his alliances. ” The court ruling, she predicted, would be “closely linked to schemes that may be made to restore the Marcoses back to power. ” Mr. Duterte’s chief legal counsel, Salvador Panelo, said the ruling was expected, as the law accords military veterans like Mr. Marcos the right to be buried in the Cemetery of Heroes. “It validates our theory that the law and the regulations are clear in the matter of burial of and soldiers,” he said. “It’s about time that the nation moves on and confront the more pressing concerns of the country rather than linger on an emotional issue that is as unproductive as it is divisive. ”

ISIS Takes Out M1A Abrams Tank with American TOW Missile (video) ‹ › Dr. Kevin Barrett, a Ph.D. Arabist-Islamologist, is one of America’s best-known critics of the War on Terror. He is Host of TRUTH JIHAD RADIO ; a hard driving weekly LIVE call in radio show. He also has appeared many times on Fox, CNN, PBS and other broadcast outlets, and has inspired feature stories and op-eds in the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Chicago Tribune, and other leading publications. Dr. Barrett has taught at colleges and universities in San Francisco, Paris, and Wisconsin, where he ran for Congress in 2008. He currently works as a nonprofit organizer, author, and talk radio host. Top 10 reasons to be a holocaust denier By Kevin Barrett on October 29, 2016 It is possible not only to survive, but to actually thrive as a “holocaust denier.” Here are the top ten benefits of being so labeled. By Kevin Barrett , Veterans Today Editor It is very, very easy to become a “holocaust denier.” I have never denied any holocausts. All I did was say that it looked like Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld and their friends did 9/11. Out of nowhere, the ADL and B’nai Brith and their ilk all started screaming at me: “Why are you saying THAT, you anti-Semitic holocaust denier?!” I was labeled a “supporter of holocaust deniers” on my Wikipedia page, even though I knew nothing about the “holocaust deniers” that some blogger claimed I supported. That was roughly from 2006 to 2013. For all those years I couldn’t get my Wikipedia entry changed, even though it was absurdly false and referenced an unknown blogger as the source. Remove the lie, and it would be back up in hours, if not minutes. Then I was officially labeled a “holocaust denier” myself – for the first time as far as I know – by Jonathan Kay in his book Among the Truthers . Kay cites no evidence whatsoever that I have ever denied any holocausts. Like Professor Anthony Hall—who was suspended from his tenured Full Professorship at the University of Lethbridge because someone planted a “genocidal holocaust denying” image on his Facebook page —I support open debate on all holocausts , and all other issues as well. Let me repeat: I don’t deny anything. I just support open debate. So, using ADL/B’nai Brith nomenclature, I guess that makes me (in their eyes) a “holocaust denier.” Since I had better make the best of it, here is a list of the most wonderful things about being a “holocaust denier.” Top 10 Reasons to Be a Holocaust Denier 10) Incessantly bombarded with holocaust memorials, holocaust museums, and holocaust references in popular culture, you won’t have to get angry and gloomy and depressed and feel guilty (if you are not a Jew) or paranoid (if you are a Jew) but instead can shrug your shoulders and say, “It probably wasn’t quite THAT bad” and go about your business in a normal frame of mind. The cumulative effect of missing out on all that depression, anger, and guilt will add at least ten years to your life expectancy. 9) You can retire early and enjoy hobbies and gardening, since YOU WILL NEVER WORK IN THIS TOWN AGAIN. With all that extra life expectancy, you will have a very long and productive retirement. 8) The good news is that when holocaust denial finally becomes “cool” you will have gotten there first. The bad news is that your retirement may have to continue for many decades for you to live so long. 7) Holocaust denial is rapidly growing industry with openings for authors, documentary filmmakers, persecution victims, and false flag provocateurs for the ADL (the latter being by far the best-paying category). 6) You will lose all your “friends” who were neither terribly smart nor your friends. Good riddance! 5) You may get a chance to rub shoulders with famous people whose lives have recently been glamorized by Hollywood, such as David Irving. 4) When you become an erudite and prolific holocaust denying scholar, you can get a job in the field of Holocaust Studies. Since it is in Iran, you will need to be fluent in Farsi. 3) You can visit David Cole and partake of some of the stash he saved from his Republican Party Animal days . But be careful, since it seems to cause 9/11 truth denial and other symptoms of possible brain damage . 2) Your intrepid holocaust denying utterances will thrill your friends and mortify your enemies. 1] European governments will love you so much that next time you take a vacation there, they will insist that your vacation continue indefinitely, and they will even provide you with free food and housing. Related Posts:

Minneapolis mayoral candidate Raymond Dehn proposes disarming cops in wake of Damond shooting. Only one year ago, the FBI named Minneapolis, MN as one of the most dangerous cities in America. Minneapolis is also home to the largest Somali refugee population in America. According to the Star Tribune, Minnesota remains near the top among states for refugee resettlement, measured as a share of state population. It is also the top destination for refugees who move from the state where they were originally resettled. Of the 2,338 total, almost 45 percent hailed from Somalia.In the wake of the shooting death of Australian Justine Damond, Raymond Dehn, a candidate in the race for Minneapolis mayor has proposed disarming police officersThe Australian woman was shot dead by police officer Mohamed Noor after calling 911 to report a suspected sexual assault. Officers don t need to carry a gun on their person all the time, said Raymond Dehn, one of the frontrunners in the mayoral race and who currently serves in the Minnesota House of Representatives. Currently, officers carry all sorts of assault weapons in their cars. So why can t one of those weapons be the side arm (such as a baton that sits on a holster)? It s important that we begin to have a conversation, and I would say that all things are on the table. We live in a culture where guns are pervasive. Cops carrying guns is part of a larger conversation about guns in our society, he said, according to the Star Tribune .Better yet, how about just disarm the cops who, like Mohamed Noor, are only on the force to demonstrate Minneapolis commitment to diversity, rather than because they re competent to be police officers?Even better still, how about hire and fire cops based on merit, rather than for their value as trophy Muslims or Somalis on the force?Nah that would be Islamophobic. Jihad Watch

@AustinGrigori @OpFerguson @JJohnsonKMOV Local media's not covering?

MT @TarekFatah Didn't take that long. 1st Pakistani to say, #CharlieHebdo massacre has nothing to with Islam, emerged http://t.co/veuhJBff0p

Obama’s Prime-Time Press Briefing

A bunch of thugs, a bunch of creeps, criminals, race hustlers with a scattering of law abiding people converged in this area and ripped the town up again. I would ve like to think this phony (#BlackLivesMatter) Movement Would ve Come Back To Apologize To The Good Law-Abiding People Of Ferguson, MO, but instead, we get this whole phony movement. In the first round there was an over-reliance by the police on avoiding confrontation. Look, the police are not looking for confrontation, but if someone s gonna bring the fight, then they have to respond quickly. If there s looting, if there s gun fire like last night, if there s rioting, if there s other sort of criminal behavior, law enforcement needs to use the resources they have. Respond quickly and crush it. And give the impression to these individuals that this stuff is not gonna stand. They re (the left) gonna keep this thing going and it s an unfortunate thing. Because look, this isn t Selma, Alabama this isn t Montgomery, it isn t the civl rights movement. Mike Brown was engaged in felonious conduct.This is a slap in the face to people like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. They oughta go back and study Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I don t remember gun fire and rioting breaking out at a protest that he held.

A U.S. federal judge in Seattle on Friday granted a nationwide temporary restraining order on President Donald Trump’s executive order made last week that temporarily barred entry to the United States to citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries. The ruling is the broadest to date against Trump’s directive.

Monday, 14 November 2016 New addition to Boy Scout camping equipment Special to TPN - Boy Scouts of America president Randall Stephenson announced that President-elect Donald Trump will become an honorary scoutmaster at the organization's National Jamboree to be held in July 2017. "Mr. Trump exemplifies all those characteristics we hold dear in scouting," said Stephenson. "These include being courteous and kind, among others. Without these qualities, his Republican comrades never would have flocked to him in his hour of need." Stephenson also said that in recognition of the President-elect's expertise in two fields of endeavor that all scouts aspire to, Gambling and Misogyny will be added to the long list of merit badges scouts can earn. "Both badges need little in the way of equipment, and we urge all dads to take their sons to a Trump casino to sharpen their skills. By contrast, Misogyny can be practiced at home on their mothers and sisters. Dad can help here as well." To accommodate Trump while at the jamboree, a huge Winnebago motorhome is being outfitted with a hair salon and mirrored paneling. It will be designated RV-1, which will be embossed on the sides in gold lettering. Trump is also being fitted for a scoutmaster uniform with five gold stars stitched onto both shoulder epaulettes. His official title will Master of the Masturbators. In other news, Bernie Sanders was rumored to have joined an ISIS cell in New Hampshire. - By Bill Britton Make BillBritton's day - give this story five thumbs-up (there's no need to register , the thumbs are just down there!)

Caitlyn Jenner: Trump 'relentlessly attacking' trans people

Jamie Oliver wants to end his long-running feud with Gordon Ramsay

Thanks to actions by the Milwaukee County Board on the 2013 budget, the amount of county taxes on the average home in the city of Milwaukee would be a $19 decrease.

This man deserves a medal for his courage, his honesty and his ability to articulate how many black Americans really feel, but are afraid verbalize when confronted by angry black domestic terrorists I want freedom I want actual freedom You will LOVE this guy!

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Republican Donald Trump’s selection of Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate cheered the U.S. energy industry and dismayed green advocates, with both sides citing Pence’s support for coal mining and defiance of President Barack Obama’s climate-change agenda. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has called climate change a hoax and promised to gut U.S. environmental regulations in order to help the ailing oil and coal sectors. A Trump-Pence ticket will quash any expectation that the New York businessman might soften that stance heading into the Nov. 8 election. “Governor Pence has been a vocal opponent of the administration’s Clean Power Plan,” said Laura Sheehan, spokeswoman for the Washington-based lobby group American Council on Clean Coal Electricity. “We would hope to see a continuation,” she said. Trump announced Pence as his running mate in a Twitter post on Friday morning, ending days of speculation over the choice ahead of the party’s national convention in Cleveland next week. [nL1N1A10HR] Pence, 57, is listed on Obama’s “call out the climate change deniers” website for arguing that the science behind climate change has not yet been resolved. In June 2015, Pence wrote to Obama saying that Indiana, America’s eighth largest coal-producing state, would not comply with the Clean Power Plan regulating power plant emissions, calling it “ill-advised.” Indiana is one of more than 25 states that have challenged the centerpiece of the Democratic president’s environmental agenda. In 2014, Pence alarmed local environmental groups by overturning an energy efficiency program enacted by his Republican predecessor, Mitch Daniels, saying it was too expensive for the state’s manufacturers. The Indiana Public Utility Commission had estimated the program would create more than 18,600 jobs. “The choice of Pence shows Trump has little interest in appealing to anyone outside of his extremist base and Big Polluters,” said Clay Schroers, a director at the League of Conservation Voters environmental group. Trump has long signaled his support of traditional energy production - part of his broader appeal to blue-collar American voters. He outlined plans in May to sweep away environmental regulations ushered in by Obama, scrap the Paris Climate Accord, and revive the Keystone XL pipeline proposal – moves that would reverse years of gains by the green movement. Trump’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, in contrast, has promised more stringent regulation of the energy sector, efforts to boost renewable fuels use, and a commitment to join other nations to combat global climate change. Pence ran for governor in 2012 after serving in the U.S. Congress. His campaign for governor received more than $850,000 from the energy sector, about 3 percent of the total, according to campaign finance disclosures. More than $300,000 of that came from the billionaire Koch brothers, strong advocates of small government and fiscal conservatism who took a liking to Pence. Both David and Charles Koch have said they will not support the Trump ticket. Trump has alarmed many Republican establishment figures with his fiery rhetoric on immigration and trade. But a former high-ranking operative in the Koch political organization who is close to both brothers said Pence could help make the donor network more receptive to Trump’s campaign.

Elizabeth Warren went on the attack against Donald Trump again on Sunday and you can bet that the Republican nominee is fuming about it.During a rally in Colorado, the Massachusetts Senator called out the alleged billionaire for bragging about sexual assault, being a failed businessman, and for being too scared to release his tax returns. In this election, I am proud to be a Democrat, Warren began. I am proud that we are a party that doesn t debate who has the smallest hands. Warren talked about the years between 1935 and 1980 when the economy worked for all Americans before Ronald Reagan became president and helped Republicans push through an agenda that reversed that prosperity and gave it to the wealthy.Then she turned her ire back on to Trump, calling him a small insecure moneygrubber who only cares about himself because when the housing crash happened he rooted for it because he wanted to swoop in like a vulture and buy the properties on the cheap.Warren then took aim at Trump for stiffing the people he made contracts with to build his resorts, people like plumbers and painters who didn t get paid because Trump is a pathetic cheapskate who screws over the little guy when it suits him.Then she brought up Trump s refusal to release his tax returns, which could confirm that he paid no federal income taxes for 20 years. The big brave Donald Trump is too chicken to release his tax returns, she said before clucking like a chicken daring Trump to not be a coward.But she saved most of her anger for the way Trump has treated women and how he has bragged about sexually assaulting women. Some people say it makes them sick to hear Donald Trump talk like that, Warren told the crowd. Well not me. Donald Trump s words don t make me sick anymore. They make me furious. Here s the full speech via YouTube.Donald Trump has never been able to pick a fight with Elizabeth Warren and win so it would be inadvisable for him to attack her on social media again. But because Trump is so thin-skinned, we should be expecting a temper tantrum any time.Featured Image via screencap

“He’s either going to be fantastic — or dead. ” That was the verdict of some of opera’s keenest vocal judges a decade ago when they awarded Michael Fabiano, an explosively talented tenor who was 22 at the time and pushing himself hard, a win at the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. A decade later, he is one of the most exciting, singers in the world — but the fatalistic warning was still ringing in my ears a few Sundays ago when Mr. Fabiano, who likes to pilot planes on his days off, took me for a flight. As we buckled into a small Piper Archer at Essex County Airport in New Jersey, near his childhood home, Mr. Fabiano rattled off a battery of safety instructions that went well beyond the usual flight attendant script: where to find the fire extinguisher, how to brace yourself over the instrument panel if necessary, how to unlatch the door in case of a crash landing. He cried “Clear prop!” then started the propeller, and up we went. I found myself wondering if I would have felt safer flown by a singer who was not quite as for — or perhaps by a baritone, or anyone other than an impassioned tenor. “Safe never wins,” Mr. Fabiano, 32, said in an interview, explaining the philosophy that has guided everything from his choice of roles to his decision to act on a lifelong dream and get his pilot’s license, despite the dangers. “I’m very, very big on preparation. I take prepared gambles. ” These are heady days for Mr. Fabiano, whose voice abounds in the pinging quality opera buffs sometimes call “squillo. ” He is currently singing in Verdi’s “La Traviata” at the Met opposite the soprano Sonya Yoncheva, a production that will be simulcast to cinemas around the world on March 11. This summer he will sing his first Don José in Bizet’s “Carmen” in a new staging at the Festival in France. And, in a sign of his arrival as an international star, he will open the season at the Royal Opera House in London, in a production to be announced next month. But at nearly every step, Mr. Fabiano has been dogged by questions like the ones that the National Council judges raised a decade ago — about whether he was biting off too much, too soon. It is a dilemma many young singers face: Push hard and risk damaging your voice, or err on the side of caution and chance missing your moment. I witnessed one of his more remarkable gambles two years ago. The Met phoned him one afternoon while he was home in Philadelphia and asked if he would step in for an ailing tenor in Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor” six and a half hours later, in a staging he had never seen, let alone rehearsed. I happened to be at the opera house that day reporting another article. Despite the pressure he was facing — he had zipped up on Amtrak — he let me tag along as he got hastily fitted for costumes and raced through a battery of rehearsals. By 11:05 p. m. he was basking in a standing ovation, and nursing a head wound from a cut he got exiting the stage. His exploit made international news. Reminded of the old “fantastic or dead” paths suggested by the National Council judges (in a scene captured in “The Audition,” a documentary about the competition) Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, said, “He seems to have gone towards the fantastic. ” Mr. Gelb’s plans include mounting a revival of Verdi’s “I Lombardi,” which Mr. Fabiano has sung to tumultuous acclaim, for him in the season. “Everyone wants to be the next Domingo,” Mr. Gelb said. “The question for him is being careful and selective, and not blowing his voice out by taking on roles that are too much for him. ” As the plane floated above New Jersey, the Willowbrook Mall visible down below, Mr. Fabiano turned toward Lincoln Park, where he lived as a child. “Do you see that red roof?” he asked, gesturing down below. “That was my home. ” Opera was not always in the cards for Mr. Fabiano, whose family moved to Minnesota when he was 11, but whose accent is still more Jersey than Twin Cities. He comes from a musical family — an aunt was an opera singer — and he sang in high school, but as a teenager he was more interested in debate, mock trial and being a baseball umpire. (Mr. Fabiano, who cuts a trim, muscular figure now, took to umpiring rather than playing in part because he was overweight in his youth he shed 80 pounds the year he turned 20.) It was not until he got into the University of Michigan and began studying with George Shirley, a tenor who was one of the first men to sing leading roles at the Met in the 1960s, that he became serious about singing. Mr. Shirley said that Mr. Fabiano was on a fast track from the start. “He sings with such passion — that’s one of the things that makes people concerned,” he said in a telephone interview. “Because whatever Michael does, it’s 3, 000 percent. There’s no backing off. That’s his personality. But so far, so good. He walks to the beat of his own drummer, and so far, the beat is solid. ” Some of Mr. Fabiano’s advisers warned him against taking on the taxing title role in Verdi’s “Don Carlo” last season at the San Francisco Opera, one of his main artistic homes in recent years. But he studied the role for three and a half years and nailed it. During the run last June, we got together at the Presidio, at a favorite spot of his overlooking the Pacific Ocean. “I always think that the great performances are the performances where you think a singer is going right to the edge,” said Mr. Fabiano, who will return to San Francisco next season to star in Massenet’s “Manon,” opposite Nadine Sierra. “When a singer has gone right to the edge, either they just make it or they break slightly and you think, that’s it. ” A dramatic fog rolled in off the ocean as we spoke. Then we headed back to the War Memorial Opera House in his black BMW Mr. Fabiano, who is on the road 11 months a year, had it shipped across country as a taste of home. As the traffic thickened, he began aggressively weaving in and out, explaining that he did not believe in defensive driving. “There are a lot of defensive singers,” he said, a dismissive edge in his voice, “who pursue their careers defensively. ” These are tricky times for an opera star. Many companies are struggling financially singers’ fees have been cut in many places the recording industry is not what it was. Mr. Fabiano said that when he decided to make opera his career, he carefully mapped out the steps he needed to succeed. “I felt like a businessman, not like an artist,” he said. “I know so many people don’t want to hear that. I’m a businessman at the core. ” Some gambles paid off, some did not — looking back, he said, it was a mistake to sing at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan at 23, saying he was “too green” to make it a success. But he is constantly trying new things: Last fall, he and some friends started a foundation, ArtSmart, to give free voice lessons to teenagers who lack access. Its pilot program, at Newark East Side High School in New Jersey, reaches about a dozen students, and he plans to expand the program to Philadelphia and San Francisco. “We teach the kids any genre of music that they want to focus on,” he said, “but we do give them a base curriculum — stretching, breathing, vocal exercises, how to read music. ” We began our descent, the runway getting closer and closer. “Get down, honey,” he said, and a few seconds later the plane’s tires hit the tarmac. “If I only listened to my elders and did exactly what they prescribed, I wouldn’t be who I am today,” he said, after the plane had taxied to a stop. “I might not be flying a plane, because most people told me it’s too dangerous to do, and you shouldn’t do it, and blah, blah, blah. Well, I love to fly. I will never take the careful route. ” “I don’t want to live a kind of cloistered life,” he added. “There are singers that can sing for 50 years, and there are singers that sing for 30. I’ll fall somewhere in between that. Maybe not at the high end, maybe not at the low. But somewhere. ”