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Leaked Emails Reveal Hillary Can’t Speak for Very Long Without a Podium… So Were the Debates Rigged?

admin

The Daily Sheeple October 26, 2016 Wikileaks continues to be a treasure trove of info about the behind-the-scenes rigging of what is turning out to be the most infamous presidential election in American history. Remember the first debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and the conspiracy surrounding “podiumgate” ? Hillary required a specially built podium under the pretext that she didn’t want to appear shorter than Trump. After the debate was over, however, a sneaky “cleaner man” was caught on tape approaching Hillary’s podium multiple times, removing various items and looking as shady as possible while doing it. What could also clearly be seen was what appeared to be a lit screen dimming specifically in her podium and not in Trump’s just after the debate officially ended. This led to lots of speculation on whether or not Hillary cheated during the first debate against Trump and other debates as well, having her comments fed to her. Well, if the Wikileaks Podesta emails are any indication, it’s very possible. Why? A d v e r t i s e m e n t Because apparently Hillary can’t give long speeches without a podium. In fact, these emails (and this isn’t even all of them, but enough for you to get the picture) prove her team is well aware of the fact that everything has to be kept “short and sweet” unless Hillary has a podium. So how are we supposed to believe she was able to speak at the 90-minutes debates without prepared notes being fed to her somehow? Especially that final debate where she appeared to be reading more than writing, looking down all the time at some sort of lit screen embedded in the podium as pointed out in other debates, as shown in the video above. This article was posted: Wednesday, October 26, 2016 at 6:05 am Share this article

Top Radio Host Michael Savage: “We’re Being Invaded Right Now”

Selwyn Duke

Email Not all invasions are hot — not all invaders come with guns and bombs. And Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and other Western leaders are “invading their own countries,” says radio host Michael Savage, using a foreign army introduced under the banner of “immigration,” “illegal migration” and “refugee status.” Writes WND.com , “History isn’t about tolerance or peace or understanding. History is about war. History is about conflict. History is about invasions — and the most consequential invasion in human history is well underway.” WND isn’t talking about just an American problem, a German problem, a Swedish problem, or a French problem, but one that threatens to extinguish all of the greatest civilization ever to grace our planet: Western civilization. And this is effected via what’s euphemistically called “demographic change.” Consider the United States. In 1965, close to 90 percent of Americans were of European descent, were of the Western tradition. That percentage now stands at 62 — and falls further each passing day. What happened? The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 happened. Introduced by Congressman Emanuel Celler (D-N.Y.) and aggressively promoted in the Senate by Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), it created a situation in which legal immigration would swell from an average of 250,000 immigrants a year to approximately one million, causing the rate of immigration to exceed the rate of assimilation. Moreover, 85 percent of these new immigrants would come from the Third World, leading to rapid demographic change. Note that this is something Kennedy had promised would not occur . And now, though the United States is teeming with unassimilable foreigners, and citizens must press buttons to conduct business in their native language. Obama has accelerated the process by inviting waves of illegals into our nation and granting “refugee status” gratuitously. As WND tells us, quoting Savage and discussing his new book on the subject, Scorched Earth : “We’re being invaded from the south. We’re being invaded from the north, from the east and from the west. You might say, ‘Well, that’s the way of things,’ and you might get used to it. They’re here, they’re near, they’re everywhere. The question is, why are liberals so quick to embrace this invasion, and why are traditionalists and conservatives like myself so resistant to erasing the borders, language and culture of this great nation?” [said Savage][.] More than 3 million foreigners came to the United States in 2014 and 2015 according to a new report from the Center for Immigration Studies. The foreign-born population in the United States, now standing at 43.3 million people, is at an all-time high. Immigrants now make up almost 14 percent of the population, the highest percentage in 105 years. Of course, liberals aren’t only quick to embrace this invasion, they’ve authored it. Why? Power. Seventy to 90 percent of the Third World and Muslim immigrants in the United States vote for leftists upon being naturalized. This pattern holds throughout the Western world. For instance, in France, where Islamic immigration has become a contentious issue, approximately 90 percent of Muslims voted for socialist president Francois Hollande in 2012. Leftists know this and joyfully import voters. As Andrew Neather, former advisor to ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair, confessed in 2009, the massive immigration into the United Kingdom over the previous 15 years was designed by his Labour Party to “rub the Right's nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date.” But it’s rendering Western civilization “out of date,” a fact that hasn’t escaped hostile foreign entities. As late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said in 2006 while commenting on the “cold invasion,” “We have 50 million Muslims in Europe. There are signs that Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe — without swords, without guns, without conquest — will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades.” And the “enemy within,” as Savage would put it, celebrates this rending of the West with a demonic hatred of what should be their own culture. Just consider that Swedish multiculturalist social engineer and Social Democrat politician Mona Sahlin actually said in 2001 that "the Swedes must be integrated into the new Sweden; the old Sweden is never coming back." Of course, if a corresponding sentiment had been expressed by a backwoods tribesman about his own tribe, it would be viewed as most odd; many would call him a traitor. And when a rainforest-dwelling tribe is overwhelmed by outsiders — or when the Tibetans are inundated with ethnic Chinese, which has been happening — anthropologists will condemn it as demographic and cultural genocide. In the West, though, it’s marketed as “multiculturalism.” And we’re told, “Our strength lies in our diversity.” Obama knows precisely what he’s doing, too, says Savage, and is purposely deconstructing our nation. “Obama is invading his own country. He’s destroying it from within, like a worm in an apple,” said the radio host. No doubt. In fact, Obama stated last year that over the long term he was “pretty optimistic” that conservatism would be extinguished “because this country just becomes more and more of a hodgepodge of folks.” Even more damningly, it was alleged in 2015 that there’s a secret Obama administration plot to use the new illegal aliens as “seedlings” that will develop a “country within a country”; these foreigners will “navigate, not assimilate” as they eventually “take over the host,” coming “out of the shadows” and “pushing the citizens into the shadows,” the report informed . In this vein, WND mentions that at issue isn’t just the massive number of im/migrants, but also their nature. The site further points out that this creeping Third Worldism has already turned states such as California into socialist bastions that vote reliably Democrat. For sure. As I wrote in 2010, placing the matter in perspective: If we imported millions of Scandinavians — who have created the most liberal governments on Earth — would we expect them to magically change their ideology upon seeing American terra firma? If not, why would we expect otherwise with south-of-the-border socialists? If they choose Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales types below the Rio Grande, why wouldn’t they above it? Geography doesn’t change ideology. It doesn’t change jihadist zeal, either. Referring to the recent influx of Muslim migrants into the United States — Obama has welcomed more than 13,000 almost exclusively Muslim “Syrian refugees” already this year — Savage mentioned that these individuals cannot actually be vetted and thus are unknown quantities. Moreover, he points out that Obama is preventing border-patrol agents and the police from enforcing immigration law, as the president “invades his own country with a de facto army from other nations,” as the radio legend put it. He characterizes Obama as “dangerous” and as a “psychopath” bent on replacing the population of his own country. Of course, Obama did telegraph his intentions in 2008, promising “fundamental change.” Note that “fundamental” means “ serving as, or being an essential part of, a foundation or basis .” If a man says his wife requires fundamental change, he doesn’t just mean she needs a new hairdo or wardrobe, or even cosmetic surgery. He means that he doesn’t like the very essence of what she is and wants her transformed into a completely different person. As for the Left’s destruction of the West, it will continue unless and until Western voters enforce fundamental change — and divorce leftism, permanently, from their cultures and governments. Photo of Michael Savage: AP Images Please review our Comment Policy before posting a comment Thank you for joining the discussion at The New American. We value our readers and encourage their participation, but in order to ensure a positive experience for our readership, we have a few guidelines for commenting on articles. If your post does not follow our policy, it will be deleted. No profanity, racial slurs, direct threats, or threatening language. No product advertisements. Please post comments in English. Please keep your comments on topic with the article. If you wish to comment on another subject, you may search for a relevant article and join or start a discussion there.

Kim Davis Could Pay As Much As $225,000 In Legal Costs For Her Publicity Stunt

James DeVinne

Comments Kim Davis, the infamous marriage-denying county clerk from Kentucky, could be facing more than $225,000 in legal fees. Davis, who claimed she was acting “under God’s authority” and quickly became a hero for many religious conservatives, has been hit with an appeal seeking to have her pay her opponents’ legal fees, which total $233,058. Davis’ legal troubles began soon after her stunt last summer when four couples (two same-sex and two straight) sued her for her refusal to carry out national law. The case gained national attention after Davis was briefly imprisoned for contempt of court and made a martyr of herself. The suit itself was ultimately resolved earlier this year after Kentucky’s governor changed state law to the effect that county clerks no longer authorize marriage licenses. Davis has not been responsible for her own legal fees, as the anti-LGBT non-profit Liberty Counsel has offered her pro bono services. Now, however, she may finally be forced to pay up as the ACLU, on behalf of the four plaintiff couples, is appealing to US District Judge David Bunning seeking an order allowing them to recoup their legal expenses. Rowan County, which Davis serves as county clerk, has already stated that it will not pay the costs, arguing that Davis was acting on her own behalf rather than the county’s. It remains to be seen how the appeal will play out. According to William Sharp, the ACLU of Kentucky’s legal director, “ Courts recognize that when successful civil rights plaintiffs obtain a direct benefit from a court-ordered victory, such as in this case, they can be entitled to their legal expenses to deter future civil rights violations by government officials. By filing today’s motion, we hope to achieve that very objective — to send a message to government officials that willful violations of individuals’ rights will be costly” Liberty Counsel, however, is contesting the appeal on the grounds that Davis did not technically lose the case since it was resolved by a change in state law.

Ethics Complaint Filed Against Rep. Jason Chaffetz for Releasing Comey Clinton Email Letter

Jason Easley

An ethics complaint has been filed against Representative Jason Chaffetz for releasing information provided to him in a letter from FBI Director James Comey. The Democratic Coalition Against Trump announced the complaint in a statement: The Democratic Coalition Against Trump filed a complaint against Representative Jason Chaffetz on Monday morning with the Office of Congressional Ethics for his role in releasing information provided to him by FBI Director James Comey. “Representative Chaffetz, in an ill-planned partisan attempt, released information that compromised the integrity of the FBI, when he irresponsibly tweeted out that the case investigating Secretary Clinton’s emails had been reopened, when in fact it had not been. Members of Congress are elected to make our country a safer, better place- not to use their power to work with leaders such as Comey in a partisan fashion. I hope that both are held accountable for their actions,” said Scott Dworkin, Senior Advisor to the Democratic Coalition Against Trump. Director Comey is already facing a complaint that was filed with Department of Justic e accusing him of violating the Hatch Act by using his position as a federal employee to influence the outcome of an election. The Comey letter couldn’t have gone much worse for Republicans. What the GOP originally hoped was an election shifting moment had become a Republican scandal that Democrats are strongly suggesting will inspiring hearings if they win back the Senate majority . Thanks to Chaffetz, House Republicans have already their credibility for future Clinton investigations, a s the Utah Republican’s spin of Comey’s letter was debunked in a matter of hours. It’s all gone wrong in short order for Republicans. Comey and Chaffetz are facing complaints, and Hillary Clinton remains on course to be elected the next President Of The United States.

Kunst am Werk: Wie UralMasch zur Bilder-Galerie wurde

Denis Tarasow

Audio-Slideshows Kunst am Werk: Wie UralMasch zur Bilder-Galerie wurde Der Ural und die Schwerindustrie sind seit Urzeiten untrennbar miteinander verbunden. Bis heute ist die Region so etwas wie Russlands Ruhrpott. Doch die Zeiten ändern sich. Die Kunst hält Einzug in stillgelegte Industriegebiete – wie etwa in die gigantischen Werkshallen von UralMasch. Einst war der Maschinenbauer das Flaggschiff der Sowjetindustrie. Heute ist es ein Eldorado für Künstler und Kreative. Scrollen Sie nach unten um mehr zu sehen Denis Tarasov Von den späten Sechziger- bis in die Neunzigerjahre arbeitete bei UralMasch ein gewisser Gennadij Wlassow. Geboren wurde Wlassow 1943 in Swerdlowsk – heute Jekaterinburg, Hauptstadt der Ural-Region. Denis Tarasov 1961 absolvierte er die UralMasch-Handelsschule und wurde beim Maschinenbauer übernommen. Sein Verantwortungsbereich war die interne Unternehmenskommunikation: Er schrieb Wandzeitungen, entwarf Slogans und zeichnete informativ-satirische Poster. Denis Tarasov In den Achtzigern entdeckte er ein neues Format, um den Industrie-Alltag der Belegschaft zu verschönern: Er fing an, Landschaftsbilder berühmter russischer Künstler auf den Werkzeugspinden in den Werkshallen nachzumalen. Denis Tarasov Unter den berühmten Werken, die er kopierte, war zum Beispiel das „Mädchen mit dem Tragejoch“ und die „Heuernte“ von Arkadij Plastow. Der Sowjetkünstler stellte Alltagsszenen aus dem Dorfleben im Stil des sozialistischen Realismus dar. Zugleich entwarf Wlassow auch Eigenkreationen. Denis Tarasov Irgendwann fingen die UralMasch-Arbeiter an, sich bestimmte Motive für die Werkzeugboxen auszusuchen. Meist waren das Naturlandschaften – in der Spätphase der Industrialisierung war die Kunst eine Möglichkeit aus dem grauen Fabrikalltag auszubrechen. Denis Tarasov Bis heute wirken die malerischen Landschaften wie ein frischer Windzug durch das Riesenreich gewaltiger Maschinen, die zum Schweigen verdammt sind. Denis Tarasov Vor wenigen Jahren tauchten einige dieser Bilder im Internet auf und fielen einer Gruppe von Galeristen ins Auge. Die Liebhaber zeitgenössischer Kunst hatten Wlassows Spinde in ein Projekt verwandelt, das sie im Rahmen einer Biennale in Jekaterinburg vorstellten. Denis Tarasov Die Werkzeugspinde sind ein Beispiel dafür, wie alltägliche Gegenstände zu Kunst werden können, sobald sie in Szene gesetzt sind. Denis Tarasov „Wir waren jahrelang hier und haben uns an den Bildern sattgesehen“, lachen ehemalige UralMasch-Mitarbeiter beim Anblick einer Gruppe, die die Wlassow-Ausstellung besucht. Denis Tarasov Wobei „Ausstellung“ leicht übertrieben ist: Außer dass Kuratoren, Kunstkritiker und Journalisten vorbeikommen, hat sich in den Werkshallen nichts verändert. Facebook

Tony Romo’s Star Is Eclipsed by Another Feel-Good Story - The New York Times

Juliet Macur

FRISCO, Tex. — The Dallas Cowboys’ new headquarters is sparkly and showy and so that it makes the team’s longtime base of operations — in Irving, about 20 miles southwest of here — look like your grandparents’ rec room. The complex is like an airy, marbled museum, with reminders, maybe every 10 steps, that the Cowboys once were a dynasty: Super Bowl rings, Super Bowl trophies and hagiographic displays of all five of the franchise’s Super Bowl victories. But the shiniest part of the Cowboys these days was not in the complex’s blueprints: It’s Dak Prescott, who came out of nowhere to become the team’s new franchise quarterback. Prescott, a rookie drafted in the fourth round out of Mississippi State, led the team to 11 victories in a row before Sunday’s visit to New Jersey to face the Giants, a feat that not even Troy Aikman or Roger Staubach can claim. But in a visit to Frisco last week, it became even more clear how much Prescott’s ascent, like the team’s gleaming new home, is yet another reminder of one man the Cowboys have left behind: Tony Romo. “I know he wants to play and I know he wants to be out there, but he’s been really good about everything,” Prescott said of Romo. “He’s telling me about and things he sees with a defense, or things he has seen in the past. He’s great. ” The Great Tony Romo? You’ll have to think back a while to remember how great. Romo was the undrafted rookie who became a Pro Bowl player, leading the Cowboys to four playoff berths and posting only two losing seasons after taking over as the starter in 2006. But while his career propelled the Cowboys forward year after year, it is also sometimes remembered for what Romo did not do when it mattered most. There was the botched hold on a attempt that probably cost the Cowboys a chance for a playoff win at Seattle in 2007. The loss to the Giants in the postseason a year later that spoiled a season. The fades. The poorly thrown balls and the dozens of sacks. And then there were the injuries, which continue to thwart him. Prescott is starting at all only because Romo broke a bone in his back in the preseason — after his 2015 season ended early, to boot. Now Romo, 36, is stuck in a position that’s dreaded by every top athlete who knows the clock is ticking on his career: He’s watching the young Prescott lead the greatest Cowboys team in years to the playoffs, and knowing that wherever they go, he will only be along for the ride. “He’s earned the right to be our quarterback, as hard as it is for me to say,” Romo said of Prescott in what amounted to an official concession speech last month. “What is clear is that I was that kid once. ” When Romo was that kid, it was all so much fun. He sang Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” at his locker, and he joked with the reporters who scribbled down his every word. Even when he was injured, he would brush off his physical problems because he was absolutely positive that he would come back, even better than ever. Most of the time, he was right. “When things don’t go your way,” he once told me, “you just have to come right back and say: ‘Let’s try this again. Let’s have some fun. ’” Romo doesn’t look as if he’s having any fun now. The black vinyl seat at his locker was empty when I visited Texas last week. Next to it was a pile of papers with information about the Giants, and how the Cowboys would match up. Romo had scribbled notes in the margins, knowing full well that it was unlikely that he would play. He doesn’t need to talk with reporters, and so, generally, he doesn’t. It’s a jarring change. When I covered the Cowboys for The Dallas Morning News in 2003, just after Romo was signed as a rookie free agent, I could always find him on the blue leather couches in the locker room, a motivational book in hand, the dimple on his left cheek showing because he was nearly always smiling. For three seasons, Romo sat and watched the Cowboys burn through quarterback after quarterback: Quincy Carter, Drew Henson, Vinny Testaverde, Drew Bledsoe. Romo, a friendly son of Wisconsin, seemed to know his time would come. And just like that, midway through the 2006 season, it did. He came in for Bledsoe against the Giants, and he never looked back. O. K. that’s an exaggeration. He’s probably looking back now. And who would blame him for being nostalgic? Now likely closer to his 40th birthday than he is to starting in a Super Bowl, he must wonder if he will ever take a snap for the Cowboys — for anyone — again. Others on the team must be wondering the same thing, though they won’t admit it. “I want to do what gives us the best chance to have Tony contribute to a championship,” the owner Jerry Jones said on his radio show last week. “Tony’s ready to go Tony’s not done,” said Scott Linehan, the Cowboys’ offensive coordinator. Tight end Jason Witten, Romo’s close friend and his favorite receiver, struggled to even consider the idea that Romo might never throw him another pass. He fidgeted as he considered his answer and admitted that he didn’t really want to give one. He and Romo were rookies together. They became the franchise players together. They even became fathers at about the same time. “We’ve kind of grown up together and went from being kids to being men at the same time,” Witten said. “I know that Tony’s always going to be the same guy, no matter what situation he’s dealing with, and I also believe he can still get it done on the field. ” He paused for a moment before adding, “But this game doesn’t slow down for anybody, and Tony understands that. ” Walking through the locker room in Frisco on Thursday, Romo looked less like an N. F. L. starter and more like someone who had just rolled out of bed. Tousled hair. Unshaven face. Baggy sweatpants. Head down and silent. Across the room, Prescott engaged a crowd of reporters. He is now the star of the show.

As America Sleeps, Donald Trump Seethes on Twitter - The New York Times

Michael Barbaro, Maggie Haberman and Alan Rappeport

The tweets started around 3:20 a. m. on Friday. Inside Trump Tower, a restless figure stirred in the predawn darkness, nursing his grievances and grabbing a device that often lands him in hot water. On his Android phone, Donald J. Trump began to tap out bursts of digital fury: He mocked Alicia Machado, a former Miss Universe and a popular Latin American actress, as a “con,” the “worst” and “disgusting. ” In a final flourish, before the sun came up, the Republican presidential nominee claimed — without offering any evidence — that she had appeared in a “sex tape. ” The tirade fit a pattern. It is when Mr. Trump is alone with his thoughts, and untethered from his campaign staff, that he has seemed to commit his most acts. “There has always been this dangerous part of him that will go too far and do something that backfires,” said Michael D’Antonio, the author of “The Truth About Trump,” a new biography of the real estate mogul. “His worst impulses,” he added, “are . ” Over the past few days, those instincts have been on vivid display. In quick succession, Mr. Trump has repeated his critique that Ms. Machado gained a “massive amount of weight” after she won the Miss Universe crown in 1996 suggested that former President Bill Clinton’s infidelities are fair game for campaign attacks and urged his followers to “check out” a sex tape that may not exist. (Ms. Machado appeared in a risqué scene on a reality television show, but have discovered no sex tape.) The eruptions could further damage Mr. Trump’s reputation with women and Latino voters at a time when he can scarcely afford to alienate either group, five and a half weeks before Election Day. Yet for close students of Mr. Trump’s career and campaign, it all has a familiar ring. Over the years, he has issued a stream of needlessly cruel and seemingly insults — both on and off social media — that have inflamed the public. He declared on Twitter that Kim Novak, a reclusive actress at the time, “should sue her plastic surgeon,” sending her into hiding. He derided the appearance of a rival, Carly Fiorina, angering female voters by asking: “Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?” And he criticized the mother of a slain American soldier, musing that as a Muslim woman, she was not “allowed” to speak. Such fulminations have almost always arisen from Mr. Trump’s wounded pride, after he has been attacked or has suffered a setback. And they have frequently played out on Twitter, at hours of the day when much of America is asleep. The tweets about Ms. Machado were a reminder, said the Republican strategist Charles Black, that Mr. Trump “cannot let something drop until he proves he’s right, and it’s beside the point who’s right. ” Around midnight one night during the primary campaign, he posted an unflattering photo of Heidi Cruz, the wife of a Republican rival, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. Early one morning, he alleged a sexual affair between two television anchors who had criticized him. Early one Saturday, he distributed an image of Mrs. Clinton, surrounded by falling cash and a star that many said was a Star of David and was . And at 11 one evening, he shared a digitally altered image of Jeb Bush appearing to pick his nose. “Late night Donald is back at it!” an aide to Mr. Bush replied at the time. On Friday, Mr. Trump was at it again between 3:20 and 5:30 a. m. issuing a series of indignant messages that mocked Ms. Machado and Mrs. Clinton, who raised the experience of the former beauty queen to hurt Mr. Trump during the debate. Mrs. Clinton, he wrote, “was duped and used by my worst Miss U. Hillary floated her as an ‘angel’ without checking her past, which is terrible!” A few minutes later, Mr. Trump theorized — again, without offering any evidence — that Mrs. Clinton had helped Ms. Machado become a United States citizen so that the Democratic nominee could mention the beauty queen in the debate to hurt Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump, in an interview on Friday afternoon, said he remained proud of his tweets. “Why would I have regrets? I’m a very truthful person, and I’m telling the truth. Now people understand it. And before the tweets, people didn’t understand it. ” It is unusual for a major party presidential nominee to directly control any online communications, let alone issue provocative, unsubstantiated claims without the filter of a campaign aide. But Mr. Trump is fixated on Twitter. He has nearly 12 million followers and has reveled in watching his stray thoughts become viral sensations on the social media platform. He has been fond of quoting a fan on Twitter, who described him as “the Ernest Hemingway of a hundred and forty characters. ” So like a car careening down a highway with no guardrails, Mr. Trump on Friday sent out one message after another. His suggestion of a sex tape featuring Ms. Machado sent his most zealous followers hunting for images. A few of them posted pornographic images of women who they believe resembled Ms. Machado. Ms. Machado on Friday called Mr. Trump’s online assault “cheap lies with bad intentions” and said that she would not be intimidated. Aides to Mrs. Clinton, who have long warned of his reckless ways on Twitter, said Mr. Trump’s behavior had once again bolstered their argument that he is mentally unfit for the presidency. “I mean, his latest Twitter meltdown is unhinged, even for him,” Mrs. Clinton said on Friday. “Really, who gets up at 3 o’clock in the morning to engage in a Twitter attack against a former Miss Universe?” she asked. Many wondered aloud on Friday whether Mr. Trump’s erratic behavior is the result of disorienting insomnia, since he regularly boasts of needing only a few hours of sleep. But Mr. Trump quickly rejected that theory. “For those few people knocking me for tweeting at three o’clock in the morning, at least you know I will be there, awake, to answer the call!” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. Not everyone in his life seems so sure. Asked this year which habit she wished her husband would quit, Melania Trump gave a answer: tweeting.

OPEC, Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi: Your Wednesday Evening Briefing - The New York Times

Karen Zraick and Sandra Stevenson

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. Donald Trump announced on Twitter that he would take steps to separate from his business empire. The Office of Government Ethics said only a divestiture of his financial stake in his real estate business would resolve ethical concerns about conflicts of interest. Mr Trump also unveiled his economic team of investment titans. His secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, above, promised sizable corporate tax cuts in an appearance on CNBC. Sarah Palin is being considered for Veterans Affairs. Next up: Rallies in states that were crucial to his victory, beginning in Cincinnati. One of the stops will be at a plant in Indiana run by Carrier, which decided against moving about 1, 000 jobs to Mexico after pressure from Mr. Trump. ____ 2. Do we have to report everything Mr. Trump tweets? Typically, hold news conferences after the election. Mr. Trump has not, instead exhibiting an unprecedented reliance on social media. Editors and reporters said they planned to apply the same news judgment to tweets they would to any statement by a powerful leader. But they acknowledged that the medium allows Mr. Trump to reduce complicated subjects to snappy and sometimes misleading slogans. ____ 3. Nancy Pelosi retained her post as the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, but about a third of House Democrats voted for her challenger, Tim Ryan, a Ohioan from a district. After a dismal Election Day for Democrats, the fight for the role had become a proxy battle for the future of the party. ____ 4. A Charlotte, N. C. police officer will not face charges in the fatal shooting in September of a black resident, Keith Lamont Scott, above. The killing set off days of unrest. Mr. Scott’s wife recorded the confrontation, in which she yells that he is unarmed. But prosecutors said Mr. Scott was, after all, carrying a handgun. ____ 5. OPEC agreed to cut oil production for the first time in eight years. But for the deal to work, member Russia must cooperate. While the announcement sent oil prices soaring, they’re nowhere near historic highs. Above right, the Saudi energy minister at the group’s meeting in Vienna. ____ 6. The chartered plane that crashed in Colombia, killing almost all aboard, including members of a Brazilian soccer team, may have run out of fuel. In a recording circulating on Colombian media, the pilot pleaded for immediate landing rights, telling an air traffic controller that the plane was “in total failure, total electrical failure, without fuel. ” Above, a tribute to the team at its stadium in Chapeco, Brazil. ____ 7. Drug regulators approved clinical trials to study MDMA, the illegal party drug better known as Ecstasy, as treatment for stress disorder. “It changed my life,” said the veteran above, who had PTSD after three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. “It allowed me to see my trauma without fear or hesitation and finally process things and move forward. ” ____ 8. Snapchat’s parent company, Snap, is headed for a blockbuster I. P. O. It has overtaken Twitter in terms of daily users, and its new gadget is selling fast: sunglasses, above, that record video clips. The service is still frequently dismissed by people over 25. If you are one of them, our tech writer says it’s time to reconsider. ___ 9. We asked five writers and showrunners who have worked on programs like “Homeland” and “Quantico” about whether TV can be fair to Muslims. The takeaways: There’s an oversize appetite for stories about terrorism, and not enough diversity in the industry. “When are writing for some characters, it either becomes they’re terrorists or they’re so P. C. that they end up writing sanctified characters, who are so good and so ” said the actor Aasif Mandvi, formerly of “The Daily Show. ” ____ 10. Chronic insomniacs, take heart. New online programs that use cognitive behavior therapy helped more than half of the subjects in a study within weeks. ___ 11. Finally, British vegetarians are furious. The Bank of England confirmed that tallow, which is made from beef or mutton fat, was used in the more durable bills it introduced recently. “Being forced to pay taxes to contribute to animal products is a breach of rights,” one vegan wrote on Twitter. “Shut. up. omnivores. You have no say in this. ” Photographs may appear out of order for some readers. Viewing this version of the briefing should help. Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s last night’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com.

Pro-life Group Praises GOP Health Bill Defunding Planned Parenthood — Reaffirms ‘Commitment to Life’  - Breitbart

Penny Starr

The March for Life issued a statement on Thursday praising the passage of the American Health Care Act in the House — legislation that, if it becomes law, would defund Planned Parenthood Federation of America and other abortion providers for one year. [The statement says: The March for Life congratulates the U. S. House of Representatives for passing the American Healthcare Act and for reaffirming their commitment to life. Abortion is not healthcare, and in light of that — this bill provides protections and redirects funding away from … America’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, to community health centers that offer comprehensive women’s care, and already outnumber Planned Parenthood clinics by 20 to 1. The text of the bill states: “(Sec. 103) For one year, certain federal funds may not be made available to states for payments to certain family planning providers (e. g. Planned Parenthood Federation of America). ” It continues: This decision our understanding that medical services should reflect the consensus in America that abortion is not healthcare and that taxpayer funding should not pay for abortion. As this bill moves to the Senate, we urge our U. S. Senators to follow the House’s lead and ensure that protections and the redirection of Planned Parenthood funding remain, because without it — this bill will fail. According to its latest annual report ( ) Planned Parenthood provided 323, 999 abortions between and and was given $553. 7 million in health services grants and reimbursements. Although federal law prohibits the direct funding of abortion, the fungibility of funds makes following the money in Planned Parenthood operations virtually impossible.

Car Thief Leads Police on Slow-Speed Chase Because He Can’t Drive Stick Shift

Warner Todd Huston

A car thief in Birmingham, Alabama, who led police on a chase, later admitted that he never got past because he could not figure out how to use a manual transmission. [Jefferson County Chief Deputy Randy Christian told AL. com that the chase lasted 16 miles and only stopped when the transmission of the stolen vehicle finally conked out. Police engaged in the chase after reports came in that Randy Dewayne Vert had stolen a Kenworth flatbed delivery truck. Officers arrested the Pinson resident, who now faces a list of charges, including resisting arrest and fleeing a police officer. Vert was also charged with theft of property and reckless endangerment. He remains in the Jefferson County Jail with bonds amounting to $5, 900. Chief Deputy Christian joked that he was glad Vert could not figure out how to use the truck’s stick shift. “Thank God he couldn’t find second gear, the pursuit could have gotten all the way up to 35 mph,” the officer said. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com.

Sex Bombshell Exposed After Hillary Couldn’t Hide What She Did Back In 2011

Robert Rich

Sex Bombshell Exposed After Hillary Couldn’t Hide What She Did Back In 2011 Posted on October 31, 2016 by Robert Rich in Politics Share This Hillary Clinton is backpedaling these days, but her past isn’t making things any easier on her. In fact, it seems that her dirty deeds from 2011 just came to the surface in the form of a sex bombshell – and not even she could hide it forever. With the FBI reopening its investigation into Hillary’s emails and private server, on account of another case into Anthony Weiner’s sexting of an alleged minor, it seems that there are some startling details coming forward. Although we all know that Weiner is a long-time pervert and sexual predator, it looks like things have been going on for longer than we thought – and Hillary knew about it all along. Everyone who knew Anthony Weiner targeted underage girls back in 2011: John Podesta, Neera Tanden, and Hillary Clinton (left), and Jennifer Palmieri (right) According to Mail Online , Hillary’s camp knew that Weiner was talking to and sending sexually graphic images to an underage girl all the way back in 2011, yet they did nothing to stop him. In fact, Jennifer Palmieri, the campaign communications director in 2011, sent an email to John Podesta, now chair of Clinton’s presidential campaign, and Neera Tanden, another Clinton adviser, detailing Weiner’s predatory and criminal behavior. Married to Hillary’s current top aide, Huma Abedin, at the time, Weiner’s indiscretions were made public knowledge to Hillary’s camp and only met with a mere “oof” from Podesta. Further reports indicate that police were sent to the 17-year-old girl’s home at the time to interview both the child and her parents. Anthony Weiner and his sex pics Of course, as we all know now, Weiner has come under official investigation after sending lewd messages to a different 15-year-old girl more recently. However, one can only wonder if Weiner’s most recent victim could have been spared if his predatory behavior was addressed back in 2011 rather than swept under the rug. Although he’s been widely deemed the black sheep of the political realm, it certainly appears that his divorce and early resignation was the least of concern pertaining to the fallout of his behavior. Seeing how the most recent of Weiner’s consequences just slapped Hillary, it doesn’t take much to imagine the hell he’s living in right now. Anthony Weiner and steamy messages he sent to a woman other than his wife However, it is good to have these things out in the open as it helps show the true Hillary Clinton – the one she never wanted you to know about. There’s no question that Hillary would do whatever it took to remain in power, but this is just ridiculous. Because of her neglect and the blind eye turned by her staff, an underage girl was allowed to be victimized because the truth would have a negative effect on them. There really is no jail cell that’s suited for what Hillary deserves but she will most certainly have to answer for her misdeeds after she’s dead and gone from this earth – and suffering for an eternity sounds rather fitting for the vile things she’s done.

Celebrities Rage at House Obamacare Repeal: ’F*ck All Y’all’

Daniel Nussbaum

Republican leaders and President Donald Trump celebrated a legislative victory Thursday as the House passed the American Health Care Act, which, if it clears the Senate and is signed into law, will repeal former President Obama’s signature achievement, 2010’s Affordable Care Act. [But the reaction was substantially different in Hollywood, as celebrities took to social media Thursday afternoon to voice their displeasure with the new bill and to urge fellow liberals to donate to Democratic politicians ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. Politically outspoken celebrities including Katy Perry, Amy Schumer, John Legend, George Takei, and Mark Ruffalo all tweeted about the bill, while TV personality Andy Richter called House Republicans “soulless pimps” and comedian Patton Oswalt vowed to make the 2018 midterm election a “ nightmare for the GOP. ” “The American people are coming for all of you,” tweeted Beauty and the Beast star Josh Gad. Below, see Hollywood’s reaction to the House passage of the American Health Care Act. 🚨ALERT🚨 House just voted to repeal the ACA ”defund” @PPFA. Call your Senators to stop the bill→ https: . #IStandWithPP, — Katy Perry (@katyperry) May 4, 2017, Has someone put together a list of dem challengers I can donate to to oust republicans in swing districts? — John Legend (@johnlegend) May 4, 2017, FUCK ALL Y’ALL. https: . — Andy Richter (@AndyRichter) May 4, 2017, This administration might as well wipe its ass with our flag. Our country’s reputation and legacy is being sold out by soulless pimps. https: . — Andy Richter (@AndyRichter) May 3, 2017, 🚨ALERT🚨 House just voted to repeal the ACA ”defund” @PPFA. Call your Senators to stop the bill→https: . #IStandWithPP, — Amy Schumer (@amyschumer) May 4, 2017, Dear #Maga Americans. Making people die without insurance while the rest of the world enjoys coverage doesn’t Make America Great Again. https: . — Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) May 4, 2017, ”Today we took a poopy and put a gold star on it. we did a win! peeple will die but we keppt promise pleeze vote 4 us.” pic. twitter. — josh groban (@joshgroban) May 4, 2017, Congress, save those sheets for the sick people you are leaving without coverage. https: . — Full Frontal (@FullFrontalSamB) May 4, 2017, Pregnant women giving birth is literally the definition of the existence and continuation of the human race. #AHCA is all harm, no help. https: . — Elizabeth Banks (@ElizabethBanks) May 4, 2017, This new healthcare bill is a low blow to the American People. Sad Sad Sad ##AHCA, — octavia spencer (@octaviaspencer) May 4, 2017, This administration is rolling back human rights in America it should come as no shock to anybody that they don’t care about it globally. https: . — Patricia Arquette (@PattyArquette) May 4, 2017, Shame on GOP Congress. Read how health bill stiffs ppl. Call your Reps before Senate be sure they know how you feel — Mia Farrow (@MiaFarrow) May 4, 2017, I feel like every single nauseating day these felons hold power is a test to see how far we need to fall before we wake. Me? Fighting mad. — Ron Perlman (@perlmutations) May 4, 2017, ”Hi hon. How was work? ””Pretty good. Voted to make rape a condition. ””That’s nice. ””I’m going to go wash up. ””You should.” — Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) May 4, 2017, And ”we” do something about it (aka on ) nothing will change. #resist https: . — Don Cheadle (@DonCheadle) May 4, 2017, The #MAGA C. H. U. D. S. on Twitter right now, cheering the #AHCA being passed. Cattle cheering McDonald’s. — Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) May 4, 2017, I’ll do what I can to make November 6, 2018 a nightmare for the GOP. Fuck these smirking, entitled frauds. Tick tick tick. — Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) May 4, 2017, And never forget this moment. And the fact that they trucked in beer to celebrate. The American people are coming for all of you. https: . — Josh Gad (@joshgad) May 4, 2017, Congrats @GOP! Thank you red staters for sacrificing your health so that people like me might get a tax break. pic. twitter. — Kal Penn (@kalpenn) May 4, 2017, Nice healthcare you got there, Congressman. Would be a shame if anything happened to it. pic. twitter. — George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) May 4, 2017, Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum

Foreign Policy Names Floated By Trump Transition Undermine Campaign Promises

Dan Wright

President-elect Donald Trump ran a thoroughly anti-establishment campaign. Some of those in the establishment who felt his wrath were the neoconservatives and liberal interventionists, as Trump thoroughly tore apart the Iraq War and the belligerent rhetoric of both Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton. For the average voter, the message was clear: a vote for Trump was a vote against trying to remake the world in America’s image through force. Or was it? Because the nominees being floated so far for key positions in the incoming Trump Administration are completely at odds with a more realist and humble foreign policy. One of the names being floated for secretary of state is former UN Ambassador John Bolton, a man so hawkish that even a Republican Senate would not confirm him for the post after his recess appointment by President George W. Bush. Part of the reason was Bolton was on record claiming, “ There is no such thing as the United Nations,” and fully endorsing unilateralism. Bolton is a neocon through and through. If he runs the State Department, expect an aggressive US posture in the world. Another one of Trump’s foreign policy advisors is former CIA Director James Woolsey. Woolsey is an arch-neocon who pushed some of the most weakly-sourced talking points in the run up to the Iraq War, including that Iraq was connected to the 9/11 attack. Unlike Trump, Woolsey does not believe the war was a mistake and defended the decisions as recently as 2015. Bolton? Woolsey? Why does Trump want to bring in the architects of the Iraq War into his administration? While it is true no official nominations or appointments have been made, that these people are even being considered is arguably a betrayal of Trump’s campaign promise to change course on foreign policy. It also completely contradicts Trump’s famous line that the problem with US foreign policy is that it’s run by “stupid people.” Guess what Trump? John Bolton and James Woolsey are exactly the stupid people you were talking about. The post Foreign Policy Names Floated By Trump Transition Undermine Campaign Promises appeared first on Shadowproof .

A Vegetable Tart, but Nothing Too Dainty - The New York Times

Melissa Clark

Savory tarts can be dainty things, eaten on your finest china with a pinkie in the air. But not this one. Loaded with roasted vegetables and cheese on a crust, it’s a hearty meal that you can eat out of hand, with your pinkie occupied by holding the slice. It’s gorgeous, too. With a mixture of velvety butternut squash, earthy mushrooms and sweet green leeks, this tart makes for an especially pretty yet satisfying vegetarian meal. The crust is made with yeast, which is what really makes this tart rustic, rather than refined. If working with yeast makes you nervous, this recipe is a good place to begin. The dough is so simple you can mix it by hand with a wooden spoon and then knead it for just a few minutes, until it starts to spring back when you pull it. It should be somewhat elastic but not bouncy. Think Silly Putty rather than Spaulding. Then set the dough aside to rise. The warmer your room, the less time it will take to double in bulk. In a cold room it could take two or three hours, whereas a warm room gets the job done in half that amount of time. Or let it rise in the fridge overnight. It’s a very adaptable recipe. The flour in the dough gives it heft, along with a gentle nuttiness. I like either or rye flour here, but you can substitute spelt or einkorn. Just be sure to use a flour with gluten in it. In this particular recipe, flours (brown rice, millet, oat) won’t bake up as pleasingly chewy. I’ve topped the tart with mushrooms, leeks and winter squash, all roasted before they meet the crust. This is an important step. You want to roast the vegetables until they are almost, but not quite, caramelized. They should be pale golden at the edges and tender in the center when you pull them from the oven, but not thoroughly browned because they will continue to cook when you bake them on the crust. You can roast the vegetables up to eight hours in advance, but the tart itself is best made within an hour or two of serving. That’s when the crust is at its most crisp and the cheese still soft and oozing. That said, you can still enjoy the tart the next day, especially if you reheat it. Leftover and cold, eaten wrapped in a napkin on your way out the door, this robust tart can hold its own. Recipe: Roasted Mushroom and Butternut Squash Tart And to Drink . .. This savory tart presents a challenge. Mushrooms go beautifully with red wines, while leeks, squash and cheese all cry out for whites. Pick whichever you prefer, but avoid tannic reds and oaky whites. In reds, I would look for something fruity and balanced: Pinot noir would be great, as would Beaujolais, young Riojas and the more restrained American grenaches and carignans. You could try monastrells and other wines from southeastern Spain, and Valpolicellas from Italy. Among whites, I would look at dry chenin blancs from the Loire Valley, unoaked chardonnays and possibly rieslings from Austria or Alsace. A dry sparkling wine would also be excellent. ERIC ASIMOV

¿Quién es quién en el nuevo Consejo de Ministros?

Tomás Fuentes

Objetivos: El tema catalán, que intentará resolver contando chistes de mariquitas. De él han dicho: “A veces, la belleza no está en el Interior”. Experiencia previa: Exalcalde de Sevilla. Consiguió reparar la reputación de la ciudad después de que se adoptara a Curro como mascota en la Expo del 92. Polémicas: Investigado por la adjudicación a dedo de la empresa que pintó Sevilla de un color especial. Ministro de Economía, Industria y Competitividad Alias: ‘El Buque’, ‘Don Parné’, ‘Fermín Panoja’. Edad a la que se quedó calvo: 11 años. Trauma: Estuvo a punto de rescatar España pero al final no pudo. Después de aquello, se dio a la bebida y a la vida nocturna. Sus compañeros le dicen reiteradamente que no se fustigue, pues no fue su culpa, pero Luis no puede olvidar los ojos de España, cuando falló en su misión y él la vio caer. Ministra de Defensa Alias : Boeing AH-64 Apache. Precedentes : Antes que ella ya hubo una mujer en Defensa, Carme Chacón. Podría decirse que es la primera mujer de derechas en el cargo pero, de nuevo, ya lo fue Carme Chacón. Primera medida en el cargo : Cambiar la cartera ministerial por un macuto militar. Archienemigos : El Daesh y Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría. Ministra de Empleo y Seguridad Social Número de nuevos empleos creados : 6. Reformas laborales llevadas a cabo : Creación del concepto “juernes” e impulsora del hashtag #FelizLunes. Otras facetas menos conocidas : Sus videotutoriales para aprender a maquillar las imperfecciones de los datos del paro. ETT favorita : Explotalia. Íñigo Méndez de Vigo Ministro de Educación, Cultura y Deporte De él han dicho : “Sí, claro, va a venir el gordito este a hablarnos de deporte”. Hitos al frente del Ministerio : No se le escapó la risa en una exposición de Yoko Ono. Objetivos : Recuperar el nivel de educación, recortando el sueldo a los profesores tratándolos de usted. Ministro de Hacienda y Función Pública Sistema Operativo : Linux. Súperpoder : Es capaz de oír la frase “No hace falta factura” a 200 km a la redonda. Perfume : Brummel con unas gotitas de sangre de autónomo. Isabel García Tejerina Ministra de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación y Medio Ambiente Tamaño de su tarjeta de visita : Din-A3. Objetivo : Unir los departamentos de Alimentación y Medio Ambiente comiéndose los presupuestos con patatas. Crisis durante la anterior legislatura : Se bañó en una playa nudista para demostrar que no te puedes quedar embarazada. Puntuación máxima en el Candy Crush : 2.000.000 puntos. Ministro de Justicia Alias : “Ah, sí, sí, creo que ahora le pongo cara…” Experiencia previa : Juez de Miss Camiseta Mojada en la disco pub Glamour en los años 2001, 2002 y 2004. Fracasos : Su mala posición en el certamen Miss Camiseta Mojada en el disco pub Glamour, en el año 2003. Propuesta estrella : Poner WiFi en las mazas de todos los jueces de España. Ministro de Asuntos Exteriores y Cooperación Previsión de Puntos Iberia a final de la legislatura : 4829482911. Experiencia previa : Excelente diplomático europeo, le dijo a Merkel que aquellos pantalones le hacían tipín. Porros fumados en su etapa de embajador en los Países Bajos : 1, para poder decir que los ha probado. Curiosidades : Fue el 50% del dúo de música bakalao Dastis & Buenri.

Breitbart News Daily: Ryancare Vote - Breitbart

Breitbart News

On the Wednesday edition of Breitbart News Daily, broadcast live on SiriusXM Patriot Channel 125 from 6AM to 9AM Eastern, Breitbart Alex Marlow will continue our discussion of President Trump’s first 100 days. [Rep. Thomas Massie ( ) will discuss the latest developments regarding House Speaker Paul Ryan’s Obamacare replacement bill, which is coming under intense criticism from all quarters and has been dubbed “Ryancare,” “ ” and “ ” by critics. The bill is expect to face a House vote this week. Rep. Massie will also discuss President Trump’s recent trip to Kentucky and the president’s proposed budget. Bestselling Reagan historian Craig Shirley will discuss the latest book in his Reagan anthology, Reagan Rising: The Decisive Years, . Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy will discuss Trump’s immigration executive order, the theft of the Secret Service laptop, and FBI director James Comey and NSA director Adm. Michael Rogers’ recent testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. Pete Hoekstra, former Michigan Congressman and Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, will also weigh in on Comey and Rogers’ testimony on Capitol Hill. Veteran pollster Pat Caddell will discuss the second day of the Senate confirmation hearings for Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch. Live from London, Rome, and Jerusalem, Breitbart correspondents will provide updates on the latest international news. Breitbart News Daily is the first live, conservative radio enterprise to air seven days a week. SiriusXM Vice President for news and talk Dave Gorab called the show “the conservative news show of record. ” Follow Breitbart News on Twitter for live updates during the show. Listeners may call into the show at: .

US Calls On Saudi Arabia To End Airstrikes Against Yemen

Jason Ditz | Antiwar.com

Videos US Calls On Saudi Arabia To End Airstrikes Against Yemen A top Human Rights Watch director noted that the call would’ve carried a lot more weight if the US wasn’t providing the bombs the Saudis are dropping on Yemen in the first place. | November 1, 2016 Be Sociable, Share! A Houthi rebel man holds a US-made cluster bomb fragment after a Saudi-led airstrike in Yemen’s capital, Monday, April 20, 2015. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed) After a solid 19 months of endorsing the Saudi war in Yemen, selling the Saudis massive amounts of arms, and refueling Saudi bombers over Yemen’s airspace, the Obama Administration today called on the Saudis to halt airstrikes against Yemen, and accept that there is no military solution. A top Human Rights Watch director noted that the call would’ve carried a lot more weight if the US wasn’t providing the bombs the Saudis are dropping on Yemen in the first place, though former US officials say its almost certain this won’t include any dial back in US arms sales. The call likely reflects the UN’s peace plan being presented to both sides and immediately rejected by the pro-Saudi officials. Huge civilian death tolls in recent Saudi attacks have added up to make the US a bit more gunshy than usual about supporting the Saudi war publicly. At the same time, the US “opposition” to the air war is slim indeed, with the US Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, insisting even in the announcement of their opposition to further strikes that the US supports Saudi Arabia’s right to “self-defense,” which in this case included an outright invasion of a neighboring country. The US has insisted Saudi aid is “under review” since a recent attack on a funeral. That said, there is no sign that any real changes in US policy were made, and the expectation is that, as always, US interest in growing arms exports will win out.

US Airstrike Kills Four Iraqi Troops Near Mosul

Jason Ditz

Nine Others Wounded in 'Friendly Fire' Attack by Jason Ditz, October 29, 2016 Share This As Iraqi forces continue to struggle to get closer to the ISIS city of Mosul during the ongoing invasion, a US friendly fire incident has been reported in the town of Tal-Kayf, a town which fell quite some time ago and in which recent fighting hadn’t been reported. According to Iraqi military officials, the US airstrikes against the town killed at least four Iraqi soldiers and wounded nine others . The details are still scant on what happened, and the US has yet to comment on the incident at all. Iraqi officials are chalking it up as a mistake, but it is unclear why the town would be struck by US planes in the first place, as the Iraqi troops had been there for almost a week and there did not appear to be ISIS forces in the immediate vicinity. Iraqi forces confirmed the incident amid an announcement of more villages captured in the area west of Mosul. Many of the villages more than 5 km from the city have already fallen, and ISIS appears to be only sparsely defending those that remain, with the vast majority of their fighters hunkered down in Mosul itself, prepared for a major battle. Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz

This Is The Best Picture In Human History | Daily Wire

This Is The Best Picture In Human History By: November 10, 2016 This is the best picture in human history. It is the best picture in human history because it tells the entire tale of both parties, the republic, and why we are where we are. On the left side of this picture, we have Donald Trump – a reality television star and lifelong vulgarian, the new president-elect of the United States. He points his fingers and smiles that Apprentice smile as he makes a point. On the right side of this picture, we have Barack Obama – a man who considered himself a paragon of dignity and rectitude, who thought of himself as a transformative figure and an intellectual giant. He sits next to the man who maintained for years that his birth certificate was a fraud, the man who has the opportunity to undo virtually his entire agenda within the first month of his assumption of office. And Obama, rightly, looks like a man with a pole shoved so far up his rectum that the glint of steel is visible behind his eyes. Behind Obama sits a bust of Abraham Lincoln, his eyes downcast, mourning for his country. Yep. Greatest picture ever. This is a picture of justice done and karma ascendant. Barack Obama’s image of himself is not accurate – to Americans, Obama is a reality TV show star. He transformed the presidency from a dignified office into a selfie-stick, celebrity-ridden sinkhole of Hollywood glitterati, hobnobbing with Glozell and Macklemore, cracking wise about the presidency with Jimmy Kimmel before saying that a reality star like Trump could never be president. This picture looks like the chickens coming home to roost, as Obama’s former pastor might put it. And then there’s Lincoln. Lincoln, who gave his life and spent his presidency building the groundwork for racial toleration, mourning behind Barack Obama, who has spent his presidency polarizing for electoral gain. Lincoln, who represented wisdom, mourning behind a clown as the clown gestures to the assembled crowd. Given Republicans’ domination of the Senate and the Congress, I have hopes for Trump’s presidency – I hope he keeps his promises and that he becomes a better man and a wonderful president, and believe he has every obligation to fulfill his conservative campaign promises – but Trump occupying Lincoln’s office is, at best, a jarring visual. That’s the picture.

Experts: Obama Helped Trump With Illegal Database

dailouk

Home | World | Experts: Obama Helped Trump With Illegal Database Experts: Obama Helped Trump With Illegal Database By Carlos Mohón 15/11/2016 09:43:43 ARIZONA – USA – As the Obama administration encouraged illegal immigrants to come over the border, Donald Trump wants to stop this, and send them back. Thanks to Obama’s initiative to acquire a database of illegal immigrants in America, and a pledge of amnesty , which allowed many to sign up, Donald Trump now has a complete list of people to be deported from America. Every year many people try to gain entry into the United States utilising legal channels of entry, and millions are denied. It is therefore wrong that many others who wish to come to America can just walk across a border, and were encouraged to do so under the Obama administration. Trump has already outlined a plan to deport 2-3 million illegals who arrived illegally from South American countries and who pose a serious danger to the populace. The deportation of illegals with criminal records and links to gangs will be a first step, however there are still approximately 12 million known illegal aliens residing within the U.S.’s border, and these will be rounded up and deported in the next year or so. The logistics of rounding up these people and putting them on secure buses back to the border will be enormous. Some advisers are saying that there will be elements who try and flee from immigration control officers, however, they will have no place to go. They will not be able to work, or rent out a place to sleep, once they are caught they too will be rounded up and thrown out of the country. Many illegal immigrants are now going underground or fleeing back across the border, so Trump has a big job in front of him, that is if he does not go back on his word. Share on :

Donald Trump Rushed Off Staged After Major Security Event at Reno Rally

Truth Broadcast Network

18 mins ago 2 Views 0 Comments 0 Likes New Zealand's country's entire east coast and urged residents in low-lying areas to evacuate and seek higher ground. Waves of up to two meters (6 feet) could be possible for up to two hours, it said. Anna "That's reasonably significant so people should take this seriously," she told Radio New Zealand. New Zealand's Geonet revised up its estimated magnitude of the quake to 7.5, from 6.6 earlier. USGS Zealand's South Island. A 6.3 quake there in February 2011 killed 185 people and caused widespread damage. The "The whole house rolled like a serpent and some things smashed, the power went out," Chris Hill, a fire officer in Cheviot, a coastal town near the quake's epicenter, said officials had gone door to door evacuating residents. Learn More: https://www.yahoo.com/news/magnitude-7-4-earthquake-strikes-near-christchurch-zealand-112145924.html http://quakes.globalincidentmap.com/ https://twitter.com/i/moments/797788639014989826 http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/#%7B%22autoUpdate%22%3A%5B%22autoUpdate%22%5D%2C%22basemap%22%3A%22grayscale%22%2C%22feed%22%3A%221day_m25%22%2C%22listFormat%22%3A%22default%22%2C%22mapposition%22%3A%5B%5B-45.736859547360474%2C-192.777099609375%5D%2C%5B-38.410558250946075%2C-175.198974609375%5D%5D%2C%22overlays%22%3A%5B%22plates%22%5D%2C%22restrictListToMap%22%3A%5B%22restrictListToMap%22%5D%2C%22search%22%3Anull%2C%22sort%22%3A%22newest%22%2C%22timezone%22%3A%22utc%22%2C%22viewModes%22%3A%5B%22list%22%2C%22map%22%5D%2C%22event%22%3A%22us1000778i%22%7D https://www.essentialdrugstore.com/ B Rich: https://twitter.com/Brian_T33NO https://www.youtube.com/c/BRichOfficial Erick M: https://twitter.com/letmeexplainit https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcwB6XtfJtyWW4DXKoZVn5A ToBeFree: https://twitter.com/da52true https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvdTd5-p_sBE8oTjUOqPpPg EnterThe5t4rz: https://twitter.com/Enterthe5t4rz https://www.youtube.com/user/Enterthe5t4rz Save On Official DAHBOO7 Gear with Code "5off" http://dahboo7.deco-street.com http://foodforliberty.com/dahboo7/ You can also cut cable bills forever and save $75 with code "tigerstream75" https://tigerstream.tv/go/tigerstream7/

Sperm Banks Accused of Losing Samples and Lying About Donors - The New York Times

Tamar Lewin

MONTECITO, Calif. — Even as she mourned the death of her husband from a rare genetic disorder, Sarah Robertson was comforted by knowing that six vials of his sperm were safely stored at the Reproductive Fertility Center — in Tank B, Canister 5, Cane G, Position 6, Color Blue — waiting until she was ready to have the baby they had both longed for. But 10 years later, when she was ready to use the sperm from her husband, Aaron, she got devastating news. All six vials were missing. “I’d been completely focused on having something of Aaron’s live on, and now there was nothing,” said Ms. Robertson in an interview at her ’ home in Montecito. Now she and her are suing the Los Angeles clinic, and its owner, Dr. Peyman Saadat, accusing them of negligence, fraud, breach of contract and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The suit, filed in May, also says the clinic misappropriated Mr. Robertson’s sperm — which had a 50 percent chance of carrying Marfan syndrome, the disorder that killed him — and used it to supply other patients who would not know to undergo testing to ensure their babies did not inherit the disorder. The Robertsons’ case is part of a new wave of lawsuits against sperm banks, highlighting claims of deception and negligence, and adding an array of challenges beyond the longstanding issue of undetected genetic problems. Dr. Saadat declined to be interviewed, but denied the accusations in a statement. Frozen sperm has become a major industry, dominated by a few large sperm banks, but with smaller stocks of sperm maintained at hundreds of centers nationwide. The Food and Drug Administration requires that donor sperm be tested for infectious diseases. Beyond that, sperm banks are lightly regulated. Several states require health department licensing of the labs, but only New York conducts routine inspections. Some of the new cases accuse sperm banks of careless or mishandling or misappropriation of sperm banked for a client’s personal use. Others say the banks use hyped, misleading descriptions to market their donors. Several cases accuse a Georgia facility of marketing sperm as belonging to a neuroscientist with a I. Q. who turned out to be a schizophrenic felon, and who has fathered at least 36 children. “Even in New York, when they inspect, they’re looking at hygienic conditions not ” said Arthur Caplan, a bioethics professor at New York University. “Nobody confirms that you have what you say you have. ” “It’s absurd that we have these materials so valuable that people pay to store them, but we run it like a grocery,” he continued. “Cryopreservation has historically operated in a casual environment, where people were just supposed to trust. ” Sperm banks are not required to verify the information provided by donors, and lawyers familiar with the industry say many do not. They set their own limits on how many children a donor can sire, but unless the mothers voluntarily report the births, they may not know how many are out there. Some, including the two largest, California Cryobank in Los Angeles and Fairfax Cryobank, headquartered in Virginia, test for many genetic conditions, while others test for very few. So it is — for people banking their own sperm for personal use after cancer treatment, and for those relying on a sperm bank’s description of an anonymous donor. Sean Tipton, a spokesman for the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, said his group did not see a need for further regulation and believed that the industry was generally reliable. “All indications are that sperm donation has been a terrific way to help people start a family even if, as with anything that involves humans, there are mistakes and some actors,” he said. In the past, few problems with sperm came to light, because most families were unwilling to discuss such an intimate matter in public. But that is changing, with a demographic shift in sperm buyers. Once, sperm banks mostly served heterosexual married couples in which the husband had a fertility problem, but today about of the buyers are either lesbian couples and single women, who are more open about their children’s origins. With genetic testing widely available and relatively cheap, the concept of donor anonymity is increasingly open to question. “I can personally attest that there are more cases than you ever hear about, but almost all settle before they get to court,” said Andrew Vorzimer, a California fertility lawyer representing the Robertsons. Wendy Kramer, of the Donor Sibling Registry, which helps families connect with others who used the same donor, says she hears a steady stream of problems, including lost records and genetic issues reported to the sperm bank but never shared with all the donor’s offspring. “People think it’s a medical industry, it must be regulated and trustworthy, but it’s just sperm sellers,” said Ms. Kramer, whose registry, founded in 2000, has more than 50, 000 members, and has connected more than 13, 000 relatives. “They can say whatever they want. ” In Florida, California, Canada and England, lawsuits are pending against Xytex, the Georgia facility that sold sperm from Donor 9623, James Christian Aggeles. The lawsuit claims the sperm bank described Mr. Aggeles as a neuroscientist with bachelor’s and master’s degrees who was pursuing a Ph. D. in neuroscience engineering. Instead, according to court papers, Mr. Aggeles did not have a college degree, had a history of psychiatric hospitalizations and had an arrest record that included burglary. Many of the families that used Mr. Aggeles’s sperm had already found each other before Xytex sent an email that accidentally included his email address, prompting intense internet sleuthing by the mothers to discover his identity. “We found out a lot of things about him from public information,” said Angie Collins, an Ontario woman with a son fathered by Mr. Aggeles. “Xytex could have done that, too, if they’d wanted to. I think sperm banks should be required to get the donor’s medical records, and run a criminal background check. ” Xytex would not discuss the case but Ted Lavender, a lawyer for the company, said in a statement that Xytex “complies with all industry standards. ” Jennifer Cramblett, a white Ohio mother who mistakenly got sperm from a black donor, is suing the Midwest Sperm Bank in Downers Grove, Ill. on the grounds of negligence. She and her partner had been sent vials from Donor 330, an donor, rather than Donor 380, the white donor they had chosen, according to her lawsuit. No one at the Midwest Sperm Bank would discuss the case. Dr. Saadat, who was sued by Ms. Robertson, also faces a suit by Justin Hollman, a California man who froze five vials of his sperm before undergoing chemotherapy for testicular cancer at age 20. Years later, Mr. Hollman wanted his sperm transferred to his wife’s fertility doctor. When he was presented with paperwork, his lawsuit says, he noticed that it authorized the destruction of his sperm instead of the transfer. After refusing to sign, the court papers say, Mr. Hollman got a call from Dr. Saadat later that day telling him the samples had been destroyed as a result of “human error. ” Mr. Hollman declined to discuss the case, and repeated calls to Dr. Saadat’s center and to his lawyers were not returned. The Robertsons’ lawsuit also claims there was deception by the center, which on different occasions said the sperm either had never been stored there or had been destroyed in a fire. When Ms. Robertson initially asked for the sperm, according to court papers, the center told her that five of the six vials were missing. The complaint went on to say that Dr. Saadat urged her to try to get pregnant with the sixth vial, but the clinic’s manager later emailed that the sixth vial, too, was gone. “When I got that email, I stood up and screamed,” said Ms. Robertson, who is a nurse practitioner. The Robertsons still wonder what sperm Dr. Saadat would have used if Ms. Robertson had agreed to use the purported last vial to get pregnant. “Was he just going to take someone’s sample at random?” Ms. Robertson asked. “It’s terrifying to imagine a health care business being operated so recklessly. ”

Comment on Obamacare Architect Gruber Demands “Larger Mandate Penalty” by marlene

marlene

Posted on October 27, 2016 by Paul Joseph Watson Bureaucrat who said “stupidity” of Americans helped get law passed doubles down Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber – the bureaucrat who once bragged that the “stupidity” of the American people was crucial for passing the health care law in the first place – told CNN that the “fix” for Obamacare was to impose a “larger mandate penalty”. CNN’s CAROL COSTELLO: “So let’s talk about how exactly you can fix Obamacare. I just need you to be specific because I think people really want answers. So Hillary Clinton says she can fix Obamacare. So what would one fix that would drive premiums down?” JONATHAN GRUBER: “Look, once again, there’s no sense it has to be fixed. The law is working as designed. However, it could work better. And I think, probably the most important things experts would agree on is we need a larger mandate penalty“… Gruber’s arrogance is incredible. Even after the Obama administration acknowledged that premiums are set to skyrocket next year, Gruber thinks that the answer is to financially punish Americans to an even greater degree. Gruber is essentially admitting that Obamacare is designed to make Americans destitute. “ObamaCare was never designed *not* to overwhelm you with the shifting of massive costs. ObamaCare was designed to crush you in costs,” points out the Conservative Treehouse blog . His comments shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given what Gruber thinks of the American people. A series of videos that emerged in 2014 featured Gruber admitting that Obamacare was deceptively crafted in order to fool “stupid” Americans into not realizing that it would mean massive price hikes and that the law’s “lack of transparency (was) a huge political advantage” in selling it.

Wall Street Journal: Democrats Trying to Squelch Susan Rice Unmasking Story - Breitbart

Kristina Wong

The Wall Street Journal in an editorial over the weekend said Democrats are trying to squelch the story of Susan Rice’s unmasking of Trump campaign officials, and the House and Senate Intelligence committees should investigate the former national security adviser. [“The House and Senate Intelligence committees should investigate what she did and why,” the Wall Street Journal argued in an April 28 piece. Last month, blogger Mike Cernovich and other news outlets reported that Rice had unmasked, or identified the names, of Trump campaign officials caught up during surveillance of a foreign target. The piece said Democrats raised a fuss in 2005 over Bush official John Bolton doing the same thing but with far more justification, due to the job he held, but are now “going all in to squelch” the story. “Then Senators Joe Biden and Chris Dodd kicked up a fuss that, as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, Mr. Bolton had 10 times over four years asked for the names of American officials who were swept up in National Security Agency monitoring. ” “Democrats and their press allies are going all in to squelch the Susan Rice ‘unmasking’ story, insisting that the decision by Barack Obama’s national security adviser to seek the name of at least one Trump campaign official was routine and no big deal,” it said. For example, it said, “House Intelligence Committee Democrat Adam Schiff released a tutorial on why unmasking is ‘lawful.’ ‘Susan Rice Did Nothing Wrong,’ said an NBC headline, quoting no one on the record. ” The Wall Street Journal editorial also pointed out that while Rice and Democrats have defended her actions as “not uncommon,” Democrats and the media in 2005 characterized it as unusual. At that time, Dodd claimed unmasking was “rarely requested” and “infrequently” by “political appointees such as Mr. Bolton. ” The New York Times also reported that requests to unmask “are not common, particularly from policy makers. ” The editorial also argued that there was no apparent reason for Rice to have requested the unmasking of Trump campaign officials’ names, contrary to her explanations. “Ms. Rice had no direct intelligence duties in her NSC post, and no Democrat has provided a valid reason that Ms. Rice might have needed to unmask anyone associated with the Trump presidential campaign,” the editorial said. Rice has denied doing anything “untoward” with the intelligence she received, as did Bolton. But Democrats had drawn up a list of 36 individuals that he clashed with and called on National Intelligence Director John Negroponte to rule out they were the target of Bolton’s unmasking. And while House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes ( ) has stepped aside from his committee’s Russia probe after complaints from activist groups that he discussed unmasking in public, Democrats in 2005 “couldn’t stop talking to the press,” the piece said. The piece also pointed out that names unmasked by Bolton have still never made it out to the public, in contrast with the illegal leaking in February of phone conversations held by former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. “Twelve years on, not one of the 10 individuals unmasked by Mr. Bolton has had his or her identity leaked. By contrast, the Washington Post reports that no fewer than nine Obama appointees or career officials leaked or confirmed the identity and conversations of unmasked former Trump adviser Michael Flynn. “If John Bolton’s unmasking was questionable, then Mrs. Rice’s was more so. The House and Senate Intelligence committees should investigate what she did and why. ” Rice is expected to be among witnesses asked by the House intelligence committee to testify in its ongoing probe of Russian interference in the elections.

Lessons in the Delicate Art of Confronting Offensive Speech - The New York Times

Benedict Carey and Jan Hoffman

What if Billy Bush had just changed the subject? As unlikely as that may sound to anyone who has heard the infamous 2005 tape of Donald J. Trump boasting about sexually accosting women to the chuckling encouragement of Mr. Bush, an “Access Hollywood” host at the time, it just might have stifled the celebrity billionaire. A body of psychological research shows that even mild pushback against offensive remarks can have an instant effect — as difficult as that can be, especially with a boss, a friend or a celebrity. It is research worth considering in a political season when ethnic, racist and sexual slurs, not to mention general insults, seem to have become part of everyday chatter. Polls show that people are increasingly unhappy with the tenor of the national debate but unsure what to do about the decline in civility. Researchers have detailed the difficulty of confronting prejudice, but they have also found that even the politest of objections — or subtle corrections to loaded words — can almost instantly curb a speaker’s behavior. With a clearer understanding of the dynamics of such confrontation, psychologists say, people can develop tactics that can shut down the unsavory talk without ruining relationships, even when the offender has more status or power: a fraternity president, say, or a team captain or employer. The alternative is passive complicity, psychologists say. “When we hear this egregious, uncomfortable talk and we don’t speak up, what’s actually happening is that the person speaking is getting a green light,” said Sharyn J. Potter, of the Prevention Innovations Research Center, at the University of New Hampshire. “It encourages them. ” It hardly takes a psychologist to explain the difficulty inherent in any such confrontation. “Simply saying, ‘I don’t appreciate that comment,’ or ‘That’s not cool’ — well, people aren’t going to like you very much after that,” said Linda Tropp, a professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. “But they do get defensive, and change their behavior quickly. ” It is important to realize that you don’t have to make a dramatic, principled stand. “We don’t want bystanders to think they have to fly in with their Superman cape,” said Dr. Potter, who is also an associate professor of sociology. There are many approaches people can use to stop talk they find noxious, say experts in what is known as bystander education. Among them: distraction, such as abruptly changing the subject. “Even in the locker room, guys can change the conversation, they can spray people with water, or crank up the music,” Dr. Potter said. Rather than calling out the speaker and shaming him or her publicly, which can carry the risk of retaliation, you could make it about you. “You could say: ‘This is bothering me. One of my good friends was raped. ’” Dr. Potter said. “If you put it on yourself, that might feel safer. ” Or you can try humor. Gail Stern, an educator and a of Catharsis Productions, which gives sexual violence prevention training on college campuses and in the military, said that one deft approach might be to assume that the speaker is being outrageous on purpose, and to respond with something like this: “I love satire. It’s so weird that people believe that for real and it’s so cool you called that out. ” She calls that tactic “verbal aikido,” after the Japanese martial art whose practitioners defend themselves by redirecting an opponent’s attack. An essential component of bystander intervention training is to get participants to imagine their own responses to scenarios. The goal is to get people to arm themselves with approaches that feel natural and innate, rather than outfitting them with model scripts. “If you have a plan in your head, then you can use it,” Dr. Potter said. Psychologists who study the effects of such confrontation divide offensive behavior into two loose categories. One includes strangers acting out — a mother who slaps a toddler, a boy who punches his girlfriend — and bystanders, when they react, tend to do so viscerally and quickly. The other category includes offensive jokes or references among people who know one another, like friends or . In those cases, there are more gray areas, as well as personality factors to consider and often a relationship at stake. Objections, if they come, often take a little longer than bystander intervention does. Deborah Cameron, a professor of language and communication at the University of Oxford, said that sexual banter often takes place among men who are friends, and that “the function of it is to promote bonding. ” Men may feel that if they challenge conversation they find tasteless, or simply don’t join in, “they’re spoiling the mood at a minimum and possibly putting their relationship to the group at risk,” she said. And sometimes they worry that “it will raise doubts about their masculinity or heterosexuality,” or that they will become targets of bullying, said Ms. Cameron, author of “The Myth of Mars and Venus: Do Men and Women Really Speak Different Languages?” Yet subtle objections can stop people in midsentence, in some cases prompting later reflection, psychologists have found. In one type of experiment, for example, study participants guess the occupations of people based on a photograph and limited information, like “spends most of his days walking the streets” or “does regular housework. ” Most of these profiles are ethnically neutral. But some are ringers. The photo of a black man who “walks the streets” often prompts guesses of “homeless” rather than mail carrier and a black woman who depends on money from the government gets identified as a welfare mom instead of a government employee or a student with loans. Then the researchers, under the guise of fellow participants, push back. “We confront them in a variety of ways, sometimes harshly — ‘That’s racist!’ — and sometimes much less so, appealing to equality: ‘Shouldn’t everyone be treated the same? ’” said Alexander Czopp, director of the Center for Research at Western Washington University. “Depending on how the confrontation is done, the participants might show different levels of defensiveness and anger right away but they usually show less attitudes on tests we do later. ” David Fleischer, director of the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Leadership Lab, often sends gay and transgender people into socially conservative districts to do canvassing. “We have to handle these situations all the time,” said Mr. Fleischer, now canvassing in Cleveland. “We are seeking out people who are prejudiced, and they’re using offensive language. And if you correct that language, just use different words yourself, and your tone and demeanor are kind, people are very responsive, and you don’t have to get into a screaming match. ” In a recent study, Mr. Fleischer and other researchers found that this kind of canvassing can soften the views of some 10 percent of voters — a large shift when it comes to political behavior, and one that has prompted wider training in such cordial, respectful “correcting” of language. Of course, most people never get any training they make judgments on the fly, about costs, tactics and personal integrity. And some are more likely to speak up than others, new research suggests. Aneeta Rattan, an assistant professor of organizational behavior at the London Business School and Carol Dweck of Stanford found in a recent study that people who are optimistic and believe that others can change — that a bigot, with time, can change stripes — are more likely than the pessimists to say something. “In that sense,” Dr. Rattan said, “this work suggests that your belief system about others can either be a barrier or a staircase where you can take that first step — even if it’s just saying, ‘I disagree. ’”

For our freedom and yours

Kaitlyn Stegall

November 4, 2016 For our freedom and yours IF EUROPEAN history once seemed to have arrived at its terminus in 1989, it has sped off in a new direction in Poland. After winning the country’s first post-1989 outright majority in elections one year ago, the populist Law and Justice party (PiS) immediately set about undermining independent checks on its power, from the constitutional court to public media. Such antics would disqualify an aspirant from membership of the European Union, but it is harder to punish miscreants once they are inside. Surrounded by problems outside its borders, from Russia to Turkey to Libya, the EU now confronts a particularly chewy one within. Outsiders sometimes lump Poland’s government in with the other populists making the running in much of western Europe. But while it shares their hostility to outsiders and taste for economic statism, PiS is a very Polish phenomenon. Its chairman, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who runs the country from the party’s headquarters (the prime minister, Beata Szydlo, is a cipher who does her leader’s bidding), is fixed on completing what he considers an unfinished revolution. Mr Kaczynski believes the Polish state was captured by a cosy, treacherous elite after 1989, with the connivance of the EU. His aim is to overturn and replace it.

Dustin Johnson Withdraws From the Masters With a Back Injury - The New York Times

Bill Pennington and Karen Crouse

AUGUSTA, Ga. — The last player to win the Masters while ranked No. 1 in the world was Tiger Woods in 2005. That streak is safe for at least another year after Dustin Johnson withdrew on Thursday because of a lower back injury he sustained in a fall down the stairs of his rental home near the course on Wednesday afternoon. Minutes before he was expected on the first tee to begin his first round, he was still telling fellow competitors he was going to play. Or at least try. “Standing next to the practice putting green, I still was expecting to give it go,” Johnson said after withdrawing. “But even on the putting green, I was taking a few easy swings and my back was so tight. “I was only swinging 80 percent and I couldn’t get through the ball all the way. The backswing was fine but at impact and moving through, it hurt. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to compete. It’s terribly disappointing” On a windy day, Charley Hoffman used nine birdies to surge to the top of the leader board with a 65. He has a lead over William McGirt, who is playing his first Masters at age 37. Lee Westwood is at and Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose are part of an group that is . Johnson had an extended session before his tee time just after 2 p. m. He hit dozens of balls on the practice range but also took numerous breaks to go inside at the Augusta National Golf Club to have work done on his back. Nonetheless, about five minutes before his tee time, he began walking toward the first tee and practice putting green. “It’s really too bad — it feels like in two days I’ll be fine,” Johnson said, standing alongside the first tee after his withdrawal. Johnson offered a few more details about the mishap at his rented home in the Augusta area. He said his son, Tatum, was on his way back from day care, and he was going to move the car. “I slipped down the stairs, and there were only three stairs,” Johnson said. “It would have been better if it was a full staircase because I might have slid more. Instead, I just kind of stopped and hit. ” He landed on his elbow and lower back. He said the elbow was swollen but did not inhibit his swing. His back remained a problem even after he had medical personnel treat it for hours on Wednesday night. “I was up all night and didn’t really sleep,” said Johnson, last year’s United States Open champion. “It got better, but not really better enough. ” Before the fall, Johnson’s coach, Butch Harmon, who is doing commentary for Sky Sports, suggested on the air that this Masters was Johnson’s to lose. “He’s probably playing the best he has ever played in his life,” Harmon said. “He absolutely loves this place and finished fourth here last year so has to be the favorite. But that means nothing once Thursday starts. ” Johnson, 32, who supplanted Jason Day at No. 1 in February, arrived here with victories in his last three starts. He was the pretournament consensus favorite to become the first player since Jimmy Demaret in 1940 to make the Masters his fourth consecutive P. G. A. Tour win. On Tuesday, Johnson was asked about going into the Masters as the favorite. His response foreshadowed this unexpected turn of events. “I’ve got a lot of confidence in my game right now, especially with the way I’ve been playing the last few tournaments,” he said. “But, you know, anything can happen. ” This is the second time in the past six years that an injury kept Johnson from competing in the Masters, which is about a drive from Columbia, S. C. where he was born. In 2012, Johnson withdrew two days before the first round with a back injury, which he said he got from lifting a Jet Ski. Fred Couples, whose World Golf Hall of Fame career has been disrupted by chronic back issues, said he was disappointed to hear that Johnson hadn’t been able to start. “It’s a bummer,” he said, adding, “But I didn’t fall down any stairs. Maybe that would have helped my back. ” Follow the Masters leader board here.

DHS Officers Humiliate Judges by Enforcing Immigration Laws, Declares Judge - Breitbart

Neil Munro

Judges are humiliated and dehumanized whenever they must enforce the nation’s immigration laws, according to a senior judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. [The judge’s cry of outrage came when he could not block the orderly repatriation of an illegal immigrant who has two drunk driving convictions, plus a U. S. wife and three children. “We are unable to prevent [Andres] Magana Ortiz’s removal, yet it is contrary to the values of this nation and its legal system,” complained Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who wishes to extend citizens’ rights to illegal foreign migrants. He said: We are compelled to deny Mr. Magana Ortiz’s request for a stay of removal because we do not have the authority to grant it. We are not, however, compelled to find the government’s action in this case fair or just. … The government’s decision to remove Magana Ortiz diminishes not only our country but our courts, which are supposedly dedicated to the pursuit of justice. Magana Ortiz and his family are in truth not the only victims. Among the others are judges who, forced to participate in such inhumane acts, suffer a loss of dignity and humanity as well. I concur as a judge, but as a citizen I do not. The judge, who was appointed — not elected — in 1980 and is married to a former top leader in the ACLU, also lamented the authority of ordinary DHS agents to enforce the law despite protests from “civil rights” lawyers: On January 25, 2017, the President [Donald Trump] signed a series of executive orders dismantling the system of priorities that had previously guided Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol in determining whom to deport. The orders also gave far greater authority to individual agents and officers, who are now removing simply because they are here illegally, regardless of whether they have committed any offense. In light of the breadth of these orders and the lack of any apparent limit on agents’ discretion, the undocumented must now choose between going to work, school, hospitals, and even court, and the risk of being seized. In contrast, the new Supreme Court Justice appointed by Trump, Neil Gorsuch, has a more humble vision of his job as a judicial referee, saying in a 2013 award ceremony that: As my daughters remind me, donning a [judicial] robe doesn’t make me any smarter … It serves as a reminder of what’s expected of us — what [Irish philosopher Edmund] Burke called the “cold neutrality of an impartial judge. ” It serves, too, as a reminder of the relatively modest station we’re meant to occupy in a democratic society. In other places, judges wear scarlet and ermine. Here, we’re told to buy our own plain black robes — and I can attest the standard choir outfit at the local uniform supply store is a good deal. Ours is a judiciary of honest black polyester. The judges on Reinhardt’s Ninth Circuit are expected to release soon a decision blocking Trump’s Executive Orders limiting the entry of people from six Muslim countries. The decision is based on a Hawaiian case, in which an Islamic cleric claimed his constitutional rights were infringed by Trump’s efforts to reduce Islamic jihad in the United States. The court’s decision may have been delayed by the bloody attacks in Manchester and London, at least one of which was conducted by the sons of Muslim refugees and migrants from Libya. Reinhardt’s intemperate language, said Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge, suggests that the court’s decisions are political biased. “There is no ‘cold neutrality’ in the Ninth Circuit’s ruling,” Arthur wrote about the court’s preliminary ruling in the Hawaii case. “It is personal, visceral, and vindictive. ”

Trump warns of World War III if Clinton is elected

Email Donald Trump warned in an interview Tuesday that Hillary Clinton's policies as president to address the Syrian conflict would lead to World War III, arguing the Democratic nominee would draw the US into armed confrontation with Russia, Syria and Iran. "What we should do is focus on ISIS. We should not be focusing on Syria," Trump told Reuters on Tuesday morning at his resort in Doral, Florida. "You're going to end up in World War III over Syria if we listen to Hillary Clinton." The Republican nominee, who has called for a rapprochement with Russia in order to jointly combat ISIS, argued that his Democratic rival's calls for taking a more aggressive posture in Syria to bring the conflict there to an end and combat ISIS will only draw the US into a larger war. Trump's remarks come as he trails Clinton in most national and key battleground state polls just two weeks from Election Day. "You're not fighting Syria anymore, you're fighting Syria, Russia and Iran, all right? Russia is a nuclear country, but a country where the nukes work as opposed to other countries that talk," he said. Trump: I'd 'love' to fight Biden Trump has not laid out a clear strategy for combating ISIS or addressing the globally destabilizing conflict in Syria, which has killed hundreds of thousands and pushed millions more to flee their homes. He has suggested the US should allow ISIS, anti-government rebels and the Syrian government to fight it out and more recently has focused on joining forces with Russia -- which has aided the Syrian regime in the bombing of civilians and US-allied rebels -- to combat ISIS. "Assad is secondary, to me, to ISIS," Trump told Reuters of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom US officials have argued must step down. Clinton has called for establishing a no-fly zone over Syria to help bring the five-year civil war to an end, a proposal top Republicans in Congress have championed, which President Barack Obama and others have opposed due to the risk of entering into conflict with Russia. A US-enforced no-fly zone would mean the US could shoot down a Russian jet should it enter Syrian airspace. Clinton addressed those concerns in the final presidential debate, arguing that it would "save lives and hasten the end of the conflict," while cautioning that "this would not be done just on the first day." "This would take a lot of negotiation and it would also take making it clear to the Russians and the Syrians that our purpose is to provide safe zones on the ground," Clinton said during the debate earlier this month. "I think we could strike a deal and make it very clear to the Russians and Syrians that this was something that we believe the best interests of the people on the ground in Syria. It would help us in the fight against ISIS." Trump has additionally called for establishing safe zones in Syria to protect civilians -- as has Clinton -- which could also put the US in conflict with the Syrian government or Russia should they oppose the policy. The Clinton campaign later Tuesday pushed back against Trump's rhetoric. "National security experts on both sides of the aisle have denounced Donald Trump as dangerously ill-prepared and temperamentally unfit to serve as commander-in-chief," Clinton spokesman Jesse Lehrich said. "Once again, he is parroting Putin's talking points and playing to Americans' fears, all while refusing to lay out any plans of his own for defeating ISIS or alleviating humanitarian suffering in Syria. Moreover, this incendiary attack is aimed at a policy that his own running mate, Mike Pence, strongly supports." Poll: Most see a Hillary Clinton victory and a fair count ahead While Clinton has accused Trump of being Putin's "puppet," Trump knocked Clinton for her criticism of the Russian strongman, asking, "How she is going to go back and negotiate with this man who she has made to be so evil." And just two days after he tied the successful enactment of his agenda as president to the election of Republican majorities in Congress, Trump also returned to his more typical complaints of a lack of Republican unity weighing down his candidacy. "If we had party unity, we couldn't lose this election to Hillary Clinton," he told Reuters. That complaint didn't put Trump in more of a bipartisan mood, though, as the Republican nominee also told Reuters he would not consider putting any Democrats in his cabinet -- a departure from recent presidents, who have sought to post at least one member of their rival party in a top administration post.

Shock Video: Gunman Ambushes Police Inside Arizona Walmart

Warner Todd Huston

Shocking surveillance video of two police officers ambushed by a gunman inside an Arizona Walmart has been release. It demonstrates how officers barely escaped death, yet stopped the assailant. [The video shows Chandler officers Joshua Pueblo and Daniel Colwell casually walking into a Walmart after being called about a suspicious person who was trespassing. Without warning, the suspect, who was lurking near the McDonald’s counter, opened fire, striking both officers, according to the Daily Mail. The suspect, later identified as Mitchell Oakley, is seen running past the officers to escape the store, but drops his gun and then Officer Colwell shoots him. In the video, Officer Pueblo is seen hitting the ground immediately after being shot in the face, while officer Colwell, who was shot twice at close range, is seen diving across the entryway, drawing his service weapon, and returning fire as the suspect runs by. After the suspect drops his firearm as he exits the store, Officer Colwell’s additional shots fell him as he scrambles back to retrieve his gun. Chandler police spokesman Seth Tyler said that the incident “sounds like an ambush to me. ” Officer Pueblo is on medical leave recovering from wounds to the face and arm, but officer Colwell was able to return to duty, presumably because his vest absorbed the blows he received from the killer’s firearm. Customers were shocked and badly frightened by the sudden storm of lead flying around the store. Walmart employees reported that customers were rounded up and led to the opposite side of the store for safety as police investigated the scene of the attack. This is not the only recent shooting in an Arizona Walmart. Two men were shot by an unknown attacker in a Glendale Walmart on December 7. Neither shooting victim sustained injuries. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com.

Cyprus: Why One of the World’s Most Intractable Conflicts Continues - The New York Times

Sewell Chan

LONDON — It is home to the peacekeeping mission in United Nations history. It has been called a diplomatic graveyard, having frustrated generations of negotiators. It has been compared — in complexity and duration, not bloodshed — to the conflict. Cyprus has effectively been partitioned since 1974, its Greek and Turkish communities — and its capital, Nicosia — separated by a buffer zone known as the Green Line. But unlike most conflict zones, Cyprus is more or less at peace, and a popular tourist destination. Hundreds of thousands of people have crossed the line since travel restrictions were eased in 2003. The following year, the country joined the European Union. So why has the conflict defied so many efforts at resolution? The answer has as much to do with domestic politics on both sides of the island as with pressures from Turkey and Greece as well as Britain, the ruler of Cyprus, James a scholar at the London School of Economics and the author of several books on the Cyprus conflict, said in a phone interview. On Monday, the Greek Cypriot leader, Nicos Anastasiades, and the Turkish Cypriot leader, Mustafa Akinci, began five days of talks brokered by the United Nations at Mont Pèlerin, a Swiss resort. The secretary general, Ban urged them “to do their utmost in order to reach a settlement within 2016,” and said “the prospect of a solution in Cyprus is within their reach. ” Such hopes have been dashed before. In 2004, the Greek Cypriot community rejected a peace plan brokered by Mr. Ban’s predecessor, Kofi Annan. “Society just wasn’t ready for a deal,” Mr. said. “What we’re seeing now, though, is that the two leaders are much more aligned. The question is whether they can bring their communities along with them. ” Some answers to basic questions about the conflict: Cyprus has 1. 1 million inhabitants, about the same as Rhode Island, but in an area around three and a half times the size. About 78 percent are Greek Cypriots (most of them Orthodox Christians) and about 18 percent are Turkish Cypriots (most of them Sunni Muslims). The country has three officially recognized Christian minorities — Maronites, Latins (Roman Catholics) and Armenians — and a small Roma, or Gypsy, community. The internationally recognized government of the Republic of Cyprus controls only the southern of it. The remaining third is the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognized only by Turkey. Cyprus came under British control in the late 19th century, during the decline of the Ottoman Empire. Many Greek Cypriots supported the political union of all Greeks living under Turkish rule within a sovereign Greek nation, while many Turkish Cypriots favored a partition of the island between Greece and Turkey. In the late 1950s, a guerrilla group, the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters, rebelled against British rule. As Cyprus slid toward war, the United States and Britain feared that the conflict could open the door to Soviet dominance in the eastern Mediterranean. Archbishop Makarios, the longtime Greek Cypriot leader, agreed to independence as an alternative to union with Greece. The new country’s Constitution, ratified on Aug. 16, 1960, provided for a Greek Cypriot president, a Turkish Cypriot vice president, and a Civil Service 70 percent Greek Cypriot and 30 percent Turkish Cypriot. Britain, Greece and Turkey pledged to maintain the “sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence” of Cyprus, and Britain kept two sizable military bases there. But after Archbishop Makarios, as president, proposed amendments to the Constitution, fighting between the two communities broke out. Turkish Cypriots say their side was expelled from the government Greek Cypriots say Turkish Cypriots left the government to form a parallel administration. The pivotal year was 1974. That summer, the leader of Greece’s military junta, which controlled a guerrilla group in Cyprus, ousted Archbishop Makarios, who went into exile. Turkish officials believed that a Cypriot union with Greece was imminent. In July, Turkey invaded to protect Turkish Cypriots. The junta in Greece collapsed, but during peace talks Turkey sent in a second wave of troops in August, overrunning the north. Turkish settlers also descended on the north, while about 160, 000 Greek Cypriots were displaced. Over the years, support for political union with Greece has dissipated. Since the late 1970s, leaders on both sides have agreed in principle on a “bizonal, bicommunal federation” as the basis for reunification, but have different understandings of that term. The disagreements affect key issues, including the return of displaced Cypriots and the handling of their property, repatriation of Turkish settlers, demilitarization of the island and the future role of Greece, Turkey and Britain. For most Greek Cypriots, a new federation means two tightly linked federal units, neither defined mainly in ethnic terms for many Turkish Cypriots, maintaining control over a strongly autonomous region is key. Land is also a key issue. Turkish Cypriots control 36 percent of the island’s area, and by most estimates, that proportion will decline to between 26 percent and 29 percent under any lasting peace deal. But the percentage is in dispute, as is where to draw the boundaries. Mr. Annan, the previous secretary general, proposed a plan, along with a compromise on former Greek Cypriot property. The plan also allowed a limited right of return for displaced members of both communities, and gradual reductions of Greek and Turkish troops. Momentum for the deal was considerable. In 2003, the Turkish Cypriot authorities relaxed travel restrictions, and within two weeks, 200, 000 people had crossed the Green Line. Turkey’s new prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, supported the talks. One major incentive was the Republic of Cyprus’s candidacy for membership in the European Union. But in April 2004, a week before the country formally joined the European Union, Greek Cypriots rejected the deal in a referendum, while Turkish Cypriots voters approved it. The two leaders are fairly new — Mr. Anastasiades, a lawyer, took office in 2013, and Mr. Akinci, an architect, last year — and seem open to compromise. Unlike past Turkish leaders, Mr. Erdogan is not seen as being personally invested in Cyprus the Greek government, for its part, is dealing with a lingering economic crisis. The legal landscape has shifted. The European Court of Human Rights opened the way for lawsuits from Greek Cypriots who lost property by one reading, even ordinary tourists to the north could potentially face fines for staying at hotels or eating on restaurants built on Greek Cypriot land. That could have a potentially disastrous economic impact in the north. Putting pressure on the Turkish Cypriots, they may soon be outnumbered by the settlers who arrived after the 1974 invasions, and their descendants. The pressure on the Greek Cypriots to negotiate is less clear. While some now believe a de facto partition is permanent, the mainstream view is that reunification is the best outcome, although substantial disagreements remain over what it should look like.

PICS: Thousands March Through London in Last Anti-Brexit Protest before Article 50

Nick Hallett

Several thousand people on Saturday joined the last protest to take place before Britain formally begins the process of leaving the European Union. [The United for Europe March called for Britain to stay in the EU despite the result of last June’s referendum, with protesters marching just days before Prime Minister Theresa May formally triggers Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. The demonstrators marched along Piccadilly, Pall Mall and Whitehall, waving European flags and banners, before listening to speeches outside Parliament. The march comes just days after the Westminster terror attack, resulting in a heavier police presence than usual. Some of the protesters brought along yellow flowers to lay at the memorial to the victims. The organisers said in a statement: “We will not be intimidated. We will stand in unity and solidarity. We will march on the heart of our democracy and reclaim our streets in honour and respect of those that fell. “We will be observing a minute of silence and remembrance at the start of the rally. We would encourage all attendees to bring with them some symbol of respect and to act in the appropriate fashion on the day. ” Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron addressed the crowd, saying: “Our job is to win hearts and minds over these coming months, to win support for a referendum on the deal, to change the direction of the debate and to change the direction of our country. ”

Pentagon Lied To Re-Enlist Soldiers, Thousands To Repay Bonuses

IWB

Pentagon Lied To Re-Enlist Soldiers, Thousands To Repay Bonuses by IWB · October 26, 2016 by Edmondo Burr The US Military enticed many soldiers to re-enlist in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars by offering them cash bonuses of over $15,000. Now many years later, the Pentagon is asking thousands of veterans to pay back the “improper” bonuses that they accepted in good faith, because of mismanagement and corruption in the California National Guard. AntiMedia reports: Shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon hired Bell Pottinger, a London-based PR agency. The PR firm was tasked with promoting what the Pentagon called “democratic elections” in Iraq, ultimately earning over a hundred million dollars yearly. Part of the firm’s job included producing “ fake al Qaeda propaganda films, ” the Bureau of Investigative Journalism recently reported . Despite the PR operation’s hefty price tag, the Pentagon seemed to have no issue allocating taxpayer resources to have these videos produced. But over ten years after the Iraq invasion, the Pentagon is now concerned about its past appropriations — at least part of them, anyway. Ten years after promising $15,000 bonuses to soldiers willing to re-enlist in 2006 and 2007, the Pentagon is now forcing California veterans to pay the bonuses back. In California, the Los Angeles Times reports , “ officials signed up soldiers in assembly-line fashion ” in 2006 and 2007, outlining the “ generous terms available for six-year reenlistments ” to those willing to sacrifice their safety, leaving their homes, once again, to fight abroad in exchange for a large bonus. Now, the Pentagon wants their money back. To Get Soldiers to Re-enlist, the National Guard Lied In 2008, the movie “ Stop-Loss ” highlighted a reality few members of the public were informed about. With the growing involvement of U.S. military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers who had already served in Iraq and Afghanistan for several tours were being asked to reenlist. Sometimes, these soldiers’ term duties were extended forcefully via the government’s controversial stop-loss policy , which allows the government to extend the period a soldier must spend on active duty involuntarily. In California, the state’s National Guard began promising thousands of soldiers that they would receive $15,000 bonuses for going back to war. Now, nearly 10,000 soldiers who took the National Guard’s promise at face value are being ordered to pay the bonuses back plus interest charges. In some cases, their wages are being garnished to fund the payments. This issue was first brought up when veterans “ whose only mistake was to accept bonuses offered when the Pentagon needed to fill the ranks ” were the target of an investigation launched in 2010. After receiving reports of improper payments, a federal probe found “ thousands of bonuses and student loan payments were given to California Guard soldiers who did not qualify for them, or were approved despite paperwork errors. ” As a result of the investigation, Army Master Sgt. Toni Jaffe, who also served as the California Guard’s incentive manager, pleaded guilty to filing false claims totaling $15.2 million in 2011. He was sentenced to spend 30 months in federal prison, and three other officers who also pleaded guilty to fraud were put on probation. Breaking the National Guard’s promise to soldiers whose reenlistment depended on the bonus distribution, the California Guard “ assigned 42 auditors to comb through paperwork for bonuses and other incentive payments given to 14,000 soldiers. ” In September 2016, these auditors finalized the investigation, finding roughly 9,700 current and retired soldiers who had been given “ improper ” bonuses. These soldiers have been told “to repay some or all of their bonuses” since the probe was launched and the first cases were discovered. According to the California National Guard, these repayments have recovered more than $22 million so far, compromising veterans like Robert Richmond, who now works for a construction company in Texas. He was an Army Sergeant First Class living in Huntington Beach when in 2006, he was asked to reenlist. “ I signed a contract that I literally risked my life to fulfill, ” Richmond explained, adding that he only agreed to go back to war because he was told he qualified for a $15,000 bonus as a special forces soldier. The veteran had gone through a divorce after being deployed to Afghanistan in 2002 and 2003. Asked to consider the bonus to reenlist, Richmond thought the money was going to give him “ breathing room, ” so he agreed. In 2007, he was sent to Iraq’s “ Triangle of Death, ” an area a few miles south of Baghdad known for intense fighting. In one of the hundreds of missions against insurgents he was a part of, Richmond sustained permanent back and brain injuries after his vehicle triggered a roadside bomb. In 2014, the California Guard headquarters contacted him, letting the former special forces soldier know he was being urged to repay the $15,000 bonus he received in 2006. If he failed to make the payment, the letter said, he would face “ debt collection action. ” Richmond refused to give the government any money back, filing appeal after appeal. “ [Impacted soldiers] want somebody in the government, anybody, to say this is wrong and we’ll stop going after this money, ” he said. ‘Support the Troops!’: Code for ‘Don’t Question War?’ In Washington, D.C., lawmakers have condemned the Pentagon, saying the soldiers were not at fault for accepting a bonus they were promised. Promising to open an investigation into the enlistment bonus problem, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) called the Pentagon’s demands “ disgraceful. ” “ The Department of Defense should waive these repayments, ” McCarthy said in a statement . “ The House will investigate these reports to ensure our soldiers are fully honored for their service, ” he added. Rep. McCarthy says the government should not be demanding any money back from veterans in his statement. The California Republican and also argued that “ we are the ones who owe a debt for the great sacrifices our heroes have made — some of whom unfortunately paid the ultimate sacrifice. ?” Instead of using this opportunity to highlight the importance of safeguarding our soldiers and keeping them from engaging in unconstitutional wars that are only successfully sold to the American public because administrations lie , McCarthy celebrates these very soldiers’ sacrifices. Using this discussion to repeat the traditional “support the troops” line, lawmakers like McCarthy steer the debate away from what’s causing these soldiers so much pain and distress, acting as if relentless war hasn’t been the reason they were lied to. Instead, McCarthy and others are pushing the government to keep its promise without reevaluating how the U.S. government goes about irresponsibly sending these men and women abroad to fight insurgents who didn’t pose a threat to Americans at the time . In the 1964 film, “ The Americanization of Emily, ” which was based on a novel written by a veteran who had been a SeaBee officer on D-Day, character Lt. Comdr. Charles E. Madison gives a short speech explaining that “ [those] who make heroes of our dead and shrines of our battlefields … perpetuate war by exalting its sacrifices. ” Failing to discuss the real costs of war with the American electorate while exalting the sacrifices made by those who serve in the military is part of an ongoing campaign — deliberate or otherwise — to keep America involved in perpetual war. Don’t believe me? Don’t take my word for it. Instead, read what journalist Randolph Bourne had to say about the country’s thirst for war in 1918: “ In times of peace, we usually ignore the State in favour of partisan political controversies, or personal struggles for office, or the pursuit of party policies. It is the Government rather than the State with which the politically minded are concerned. The State is reduced to a shadowy emblem which comes to consciousness only on occasions of patriotic holiday. … “With the shock of war, however, the State comes into its own again. The Government, with no mandate from the people, without consultation of the people, conducts all the negotiations, the backing and filling, the menaces and explanations, which slowly bring it into collision with some other Government, and gently and irresistibly slides the country into war. ” War, Bourne concluded , “ is the health of the state. ” This is not because all individuals involved with governing enjoy death and destruction per se, but because “ it is … in war that the urgency for union seems greatest, and the necessity for universality seems most unquestioned, ” which forces the public to unite behind the state no matter what — especially if the occasion leading to war is “ terrifying ” the public. While veterans whose bonuses are being questioned ten years later should be heard and protected from government abuse, we must not forget it was government’s own thirst for war that initiated this cycle of deception. Let us not ignore the reasons why we should support our troops — and how we should go about it; simply claiming to be interested in celebrating U.S. soldiers for their sacrifice does nothing for them. By Allice Salles / theAntiMedia.org The US Military Lied to Thousands of Soldiers — and Now Veterans Are Paying for It

Donald Trump Tackles ‘Totally Biased’ Today Show on NBC for ‘Fake News’ - Breitbart

Charlie Spiering

Donald Trump lashed out against NBC’s Today show after they reported that the recent job announcements from major companies were already being created in the United States anyway. Totally biased @NBCNews went out of its way to say that the big announcement from Ford, G. M. Lockheed others that jobs are coming back. to the U. S. but had nothing to do with TRUMP, is more FAKE NEWS,” he wrote on Twitter. “Ask top CEO’s of those companies for real facts. Came back because of me!” Trump was reacting to a “Fact Check” segment on the Today show this morning about the jobs. “How much credit should the be actually taking?” asked Today host Matt Lauer. MSNBC’s Ari Melber reported that companies like GM said that their decision to announce the new jobs wasn’t because of Trump, but rather part of their already planned expansions. Trump has met or spoken with several CEOs of major companies who have announced big job plans in America after his election, even before his inauguration as president. Melber said that Trump’s impact on the jobs announcements were “very small or nonexistent” “There’s a fantasy football aura to all of this,” he said, suggesting the companies were serving shareholders first, not responding to Trump. But Trump signaled frustration with Today, a show that he has appeared on frequently during his career and presidential campaign. “No wonder the Today Show on biased NBC is doing so badly compared to its glorious past,” Trump wrote. “Little credibility!” Big Government, Ari Melber, CEO, Matt Lauer, NBC, Today Show

Trade Agreements or Political Independence: A False Choice

Ryan McMaken

Ryan McMaken https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/trade-agreements-political-independence-false-choice/ The rejection of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) by Beligium is a bittersweet affair. But, it’s always worth remembering that intergovernmental trade agreements are not equivalent to free trade, and in fact are purported to bring about a reduction in the ease of trade and an increase in costs favorable to some particularly well-connected interest groups to the detriment of consumers. Carmen Elena Dorobăț explains . 10:23 am on October 28, 2016

The Political World After Trump’s Win

Consortiumnews.com

The Political World After Trump’s Win November 13, 2016 The Democratic Party’s long sojourn into corporate-friendly politics – and neglect of its old working-class base – has led to the shocking result of an erratic and untested outsider becoming President. But is there a route back, asks Joe Lauria. By Joe Lauria A new political force in America was unleashed on Tuesday and how the Democratic Party reacts to it could determine its future as a major party. Millions of discontented Americans who have lost out to the computerization and the globalization of the economy – and who have been disproportionately called on to fight America’s “regime change” wars – have made clear that they aren’t going to take it anymore. And any party or politician going forward better listen or they will be tossed out, too, including Donald Trump if he doesn’t deliver. This election has struck what should be a fatal blow to the Clintons’ Democratic Leadership Council movement. Bill Clinton moved the Democratic Party to the center-right at about the same time that Tony Blair did with the British Labour Party. Both parties cut many of their traditional ties to labor unions in the 1990s to embrace the economic neoliberalism of their 1980s predecessors Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: welfare reform, deregulation of the financial sector and “free trade.” The run-down PIX Theatre sign reads “Vote Trump” on Main Street in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. July 15, 2016. (Photo by Tony Webster Flickr) The effect on workers across the old industrial belts has been devastating. Millions have been pushed out of a middle-class lifestyle. They have seen their plants close and jobs shipped to cheap labor markets overseas. Or they have lost out to robotics. They’ve also seen the economy shift from production to financial speculation. And they’ve seen the greatest transfer of wealth in decades to the obscenely rich. Wealthy liberals who’ve benefited from this shift often act as if they are morally superior to the system’s “losers” who hear Hillary Clinton put them in a “basket of deplorables.” On Tuesday, these downwardly mobile workers spoke out, giving Trump the votes he needed in the Rust Belt states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin to put him over the top in the Electoral College (although Clinton appears headed toward a plurality of the votes nationally.) That someone as eminently unqualified (at least in the traditional sense) could flip the electoral map in this way was stunning. But is the Democratic Party listening and can it adapt to reflect the interests of these Americans? The future of the party may depend on it. For the past two decades, Democrats have relied on the support of these Rust Belt states as a bulwark for their national candidacies. These states voted twice for Barack Obama. But many of these blue-collar workers were counting on a significant change to their circumstances, but Obama had failed to deliver that and Clinton only vaguely addressed their concerns with a variety of mostly small-bore policy ideas. Many of these voters judged that the Democrats couldn’t or wouldn’t deliver. So, they rudely slapped the party in the face. Parallel political trends are playing out in Great Britain, where a discontented working class spearheaded the Brexit withdrawal from the European Union and where Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is fighting to dismantle Blair’s so-called New Labour movement and trying to restore the Labour Party’s historic ties to the working class. Last week , we learned in a leaked speech that Bill Clinton gave last year that he denigrated Corbyn, saying Labour “went out and practically got a guy off the street to be the leader” of the party. “When people feel they’ve been shafted and they don’t expect anything to happen anyway, they just want the maddest person in the room to represent them.” Bill Clinton’s remarks were typical of the Democrats’ smugness and their contempt for ordinary people. So there was some satisfaction in seeing the humiliation of these careerist and corporatist Democrats on Tuesday. Now, the Democratic Party had better figure out how they can serve the interests of those blue-collar workers or the party can expect more of the same. So far they are blaming everyone and everthing for having created this workers’ backlash: sexism, the media, FBI Director James Comey (Clinton pinned it specifically on him), Vladimir Putin, Green Party candidate Jill Stein and even Clinton cheerleader Bernie Sanders (for “poisoning the youth vote”). A former Clinton operative speaking on Fox News said the day after an election loss is a time to engage in the “blame game.” He said “everybody is being blamed but Secretary Clinton.” Pursuing Solutions There are solutions to economic injustice but few in power pursue them because it’s not in their self-interest. And politicians of any party act primarily on self-interest these days, which usually translates into the interests of their wealthy financial backers and is thus inimical to real democracy. President Bill Clinton Without a sharp turn to the left to regain workers’ support, the Democratic Party risks becoming totally irrelevant. A new batch of Democratic Party leaders committed to workers must emerge. They have four years to prepare. Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren tarnished themselves as leaders who can achieve this by supporting a center-right candidate in Hillary Clinton. They failed to acknowledge that Clinton was too alienated from many blue-collar workers (especially whites) who in the end abandoned the party to gamble on Trump. Sanders, an independent who chose to run in the Democratic primaries, had been offered the top of the Green Party ticket. The party’s Jill Stein, who was willing to give up that spot, said he never answered her. Had they run together they might have gotten the 15 percent in the polls to enter the debates where Sanders would have been a lofty alternative to Clinton and Trump – though had Trump still won on Nov. 8, Sanders surely would have been denounced as a “sore loser” and blamed for “dividing the anti-Trump vote.” As it turned out, the Democrats managed to lose the White House to Trump on their own. Though the Democratic leadership won’t admit it, they now know that Sanders was running the right campaign to defend workers’ interests and would have been the right messenger to carry that message. However, to protect their own privileged class interests and those of their donors, establishment Democrats left the country open to the dangerous victory of Donald Trump. Rust Belt working-class voters can’t be blamed for the choices they were given. Without Sanders – and with the Democrats offering one more establishment candidate – these alienated voters instead sent a demagogue to the White House, clinging to the hope that he might keep some of his promises: to end ruinous trade deals, bring back manufacturing jobs to the U.S., create jobs by rebuilding the infrastructure, avoid new wars and clean the D.C. swamp of corruption. Judging by the people being mentioned for his Cabinet, it’s already looking dodgy: the usual cast of right-wing Republicans – the likes of Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani – who have been part of the problem going back decades. Yet, if Trump fails to fulfill his promises to improve the economy for common Americans, the voters he so skillfully riled up might well send him packing in 2020 unless, of course, the Democrats put up another corporate choice. That leaves the notoriously difficult path for a third party that could represent the interests of ordinary Americans. But that possibility showed little traction in 2016, with marginal vote totals for both the Libertarian and Green parties. Media Also Repudiated On the positive side, this election became a repudiation not only of the Democratic Party insiders, but also of establishment Republicans, Wall Street, celebrity culture (with famous people flocking to Clinton) and the mainstream news media. The Pentagon, headquarters of the U.S. Defense Department, as viewed with the Potomac River and Washington, D.C., in the background. (Defense Department photo) The shock to the American political system also is prompting admissions one would never have imagined hearing. On Fox News the morning after the election, a group of personalities (calling themselves “journalists”) were suddenly talking about class in America, a normally taboo subject. One of them said journalists didn’t understand this election because none of them know anyone who makes less than $60,000 a year. Apparently, these pampered performers don’t even mix with many members of their own profession. I can introduce them to plenty of journalists making less than that, let alone Rust Belt workers. Will Rahn of CBS News accused the media of missing the story “after having spent months mocking the people who had a better sense of what was going on. This is all symptomatic of modern journalism’s great moral and intellectual failing: its unbearable smugness .” Rahn said working-class people have “captured the imagination of journalists, who have come to talk about them like colonial administrators would talk about a primitive inland tribe that interferes with the construction of a jungle railway: They must be pacified until history kills them off.” These are stunning admissions that would never have happened without this election result. But one wonders how long such introspection in the corporate media will last. After the mainstream media got the Iraq WMD story wrong and contributed to the disastrous 2003 invasion, there were a few halfhearted mea culpas but very little accountability. For instance, Washington Post editorial-page editor Fred Hiatt, who repeatedly wrote as flat fact that Iraq was hiding WMD and who mocked the few dissenting voices trying to warn Americans about the flimsiness of the evidence, is still the editorial-page editor of The Washington Post. So, not surprisingly – with almost none of the “star journalists” suffering any career setbacks – the corporate media was soon joining more propaganda campaigns for more wars, which are mostly fought by young working-class men and women who actually do suffer. The difference now is that this new political force of fed-up voters – who “came out of nowhere” as far as the Democrats and the media were concerned although these voters were staring them in the face – might now force a re-evaluation. That’s because these voters are likely still to be there four years from now. Joe Lauria is a veteran foreign-affairs journalist based at the U.N. since 1990. He has written for the Boston Globe, the London Daily Telegraph, the Johannesburg Star, the Montreal Gazette, the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers. He can be reached atjoelauria@gmail.com and followed on Twitter at @unjoe .

Art-House Fare Hopes for an Oscar-Nod Push, as ‘Split’ Rules North America - The New York Times

Brooks Barnes

Nominations for the 89th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, and movie marketers will be ready to pounce with ads that try to coax more people into seats: The establishment is swooning! Get to a theater! It works. Research indicates that Oscar nominations often result in tens of millions in additional ticket sales, particularly for films. Among the movies counting on awards attention to find a bigger audience is “Moonlight. ” Seen as a leading contender for best picture, this euphorically reviewed drama about a young black man in Miami started strong but has stalled. It has taken in about $15. 8 million over 14 weeks. For “Silence,” Martin Scorsese and Paramount desperately need the academy to help their drama from becoming a financial washout. Costing $50 million to make, “Silence,” a passion project for Mr. Scorsese as director, has collected $5. 2 million since its arrival on Dec. 23. “Lion,” a set largely in India, is a Weinstein Company film that has earned $16. 4 million — a solid result for an art film of its type but still a long way from Weinstein awards hits in recent years. (Another Weinstein movie, “The Founder,” about the start of the McDonald’s empire, arrived to $3. 4 million in ticket sales over the weekend.) “20th Century Women,” a comedic drama about a quirky mother (Annette Bening) in the late 1970s, has taken in $2. 3 million. An Oscar nomination for Ms. Bening would help give it momentum. As for the weekend, “Split,” the latest thriller from M. Night Shyamalan and Blumhouse Productions, was the No. 1 movie in North America. Expertly marketed by Universal Pictures, which leaned on digital promotions, “Split” sold an estimated $40. 2 million in tickets, far surpassing prerelease analyst expectations. “Split” cost just $9 million to make, with Mr. Shyamalan personally footing the bill. Arriving as a distant second was “XXX: The Return of Xander Cage” (Paramount) which managed roughly $20 million — an underwhelming start for a film that cost at least $125 million to make and market and was designed to revive an action series that had been dormant for 12 years. Instead, “The Return of Xander Cage,” starring Vin Diesel, who tried to rally his 101 million Facebook followers, will likely become more evidence that Americans have little appetite for movie franchises that have been on ice for more than a few years. (See: “Independence Day: Resurgence” and “Zoolander 2. ”) Paramount, which offset its financial risk by bringing in partners, said the film collected an additional $50. 5 million in partial release overseas and called it “the No. 1 movie in the world. ” Rounding out the top three, “Hidden Figures” (20th Century Fox) continued to ride strong word of mouth, taking in roughly $16. 3 million, for a domestic total of $84. 2 million, according to comScore, which compiles ticketing data.

Treason: Clinton Sold State Secrets To Middle East Via Huma Abedin

Sean Adl-Tabatabai

Breitbart.com reports: Long-time political operative Roger Stone told Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Stephen K. Bannon Wednesday of Hillary Clinton confidant Huma Abedin, “Most of the experts I’ve spoken to conclude, looking at the various facts regarding Huma–her rise, where she came from, her family background, her various connections–conclude that she is most likely a Saudi spy, which is my own conclusion.” Stone also discusses the “clear, deep, inarguable, indisputable connections between Huma Abedin and a Saudi Arabian official named Abdullah Omar Naseef … one of the founders of the Muslim World League (MWL). …. The MWL is directly tied to the Rabita Trust, a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist Entity,” which Stone previously discussed : Naseef, the Muslim World League, and the government of Pakistan created the Rabita Trust in 1988. Naseef was a sponsor and financial supporter of Syed Abedin’s IMMA. Just a month after the 9/11 jihadist attack left thousands dead and brought down the World Trade Center, President George W. Bush’s Executive Order designated the Rabita Trust as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Entity and the Treasury Department froze its assets on October 12, 2001. Naseef founded the Rabita Trust and remains involved with it to this day. A Treasury Department press release issued when Rabita Trust’s assets were frozen indicated that Rabita Trust is headed by Wa’el Hamza Jalaidan, one of the founders of al-Qaida with bin Laden. He was the logistics chief of bin Laden’s organization and fought on bin Laden’s side in Afghanistan. Jalaidan himself was branded a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Entity by the United States Treasury Department, and his assets have been frozen, as well. Stone also contended that much of what the Clintons have done via their foundation is “treasonous.” “They have taken money from the Chinese, the Russians, the Saudis and they’d sold our country’s secrets. They’ve sold our country’s decisions.” Stone delved into some of the emerging details involving Hillary confidant Huma Abedin previously with Breitbart News: Huma Abedin is Vice Chair of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. But Huma is more, much more than that. She is the person closest to the most powerful woman in American politics and perhaps the next President. Huma has been described variously as Hillary’s “body woman,” a sort of glorified go-to personal maid, gentle confidant, and by others as an Islamic spy. She may be all of these things, because as we shall see, Huma Abedin has an interesting and complex career history. Politico and several other Beltway media outlets followed up on Stone’s previous appearance on Breitbart News Daily: “ Trump Ally: Clinton Aide Could Be ‘Terrorist Agent’ ”: In the wake of Sunday’s deadly terrorist shooting in Orlando, Donald Trump’s longtime friend and informal adviser wants the presumptive Republican nominee to hit Hillary Clinton even harder, suggesting the former secretary of state’s top aide Huma Abedin could be a “Saudi spy” or a “terrorist agent.” Only Trump, Roger Stone said on Sirius XM’s “Breitbart News Daily,” will be able to draw the necessary amount of attention to the theories, which have drawn significant blowback from Democrats and Republicans alike. “I also think that now that Islamic terrorism is going to be front and center, there’s going to be a new focus on whether this administration, the administration of Hillary Clinton at State was permeated at the highest levels by Saudi intelligence and others who are not loyal Americans,” Stone said. “I speak specifically of Huma Abedin, the right-hand woman, now vice-chairman or co-chairman of vice—of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.”

Jackie Mason: GOP Needed 8 Years to Fix Obamacare, Give Me 10 Minutes

Daniel Nussbaum

In these trying times, Jackie Mason is the Voice of Reason. [In this week’s exclusive clip for Breitbart News, Jackie takes Republicans to task for what he claims is severe dysfunction surrounding their effort to repeal and replace Obamacare. “There was supposed to be a doctor for every person, and you could keep your doctor … turns out, your doctor’s now a plumber, and you can’t find him, and if you find him, he has nothing to say to you because you’re getting on his nerves, because he’s working for practically nothing,” Jackie says. “And you could keep your doctor … but you’ll have to keep him in the basement because otherwise he’s gettin’ the hell out of there. ” Jackie says that now that Republicans have the White House and Congress, they can finally make good on their promises to the American people to overhaul the health law. Only problem is, they don’t know how. “In eight years you can’t figure out what to replace it with?” he asks. “I could tell you in ten minutes. Give me fifteen. Do I need eight years? And then at the end of eight years, I have no idea what the hell I wanted to talk about?” “Stop criticizing if you have nothing to do. And if you were gonna do something, let’s hear what. And if you don’t know what, keep your mouth shut. ” Still, Jackie does want one provision written into any new healthcare law, and it’s got to do with Nancy Pelosi. Watch the full video above. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum

Vive la Révolution – Marine Le Pen France’s New Jeanne D’Arc

dailouk

Home | World | Vive la Révolution – Marine Le Pen France’s New Jeanne D’Arc Vive la Révolution – Marine Le Pen France’s New Jeanne D’Arc By Gaston 21/11/2016 13:17:50 ORLÉANS, – France – Like a Phoenix from the flames, soon France may find liberty and freedom again from the stifling octopus grip of the socialists and EU unelected swine. Au revoir Sarko, you have had your day. Marine Le Pen is sweeping to the helm of the right wing candidates and Fillon will be swept aside too in the upcoming French election in May, 2017. To be set free from the shackles of euro slavery, and for her economy to shoot up into the outer reaches of space, can the French maiden let loose from the darkness and reach her hand into the light to free France once and for all? Could this be another Trump/Brexit moment at the polls? The EU and its ludicrous Schengen policy has stifled France, muffled her voice and condemned her to the wild tax mad ramblings of the clinically insane Francois Hollande — a puerile man whose idea of economic embellishment is to categorically destroy everything with socialistic punitive taxes and burdensome mass unfettered migration. Can the rising Joan of Arc save France from being marginalised forever? The French are understandably fed up with the EU communist entity and will do or vote for a saviour from the filthy dank EU prison. The boulevards of Paris may once again be something to be proud of, instead of a stinking piss filled camp of degradation. The Bastille gates will be breached and the EU technicians taken to the guillotine for some swift justice. Vive La France, they will shout as the heads roll into the baskets, these bringers of EU monstrosities onto a land that once coined the phrase Liberté, égalité, fraternité, only to be given Contraite, inégalité, haine. Share on :

Kleiner Vorgeschmack: Erdogan lässt Warnflüchtling in Richtung EU los

noreply@blogger.com (Der Postillon)

Freitag, 25. November 2016 Kleiner Vorgeschmack: Erdogan lässt Warnflüchtling in Richtung EU los Ankara (dpo) - Der Konflikt zwischen der EU und der Türkei spitzt sich zu: Zur Unterstreichung seiner jüngsten Drohung, den Flüchtlingsdeal platzen zu lassen und die Grenzen seines Landes zu öffnen , ließ der türkische Präsident Recep Erdogan heute einen ersten Warnflüchtling in Richtung EU los. "Dieser Flüchtling ist nur ein kleiner Vorgeschmack auf das, was der EU droht, wenn sie weiterhin mit dem Gedanken spielt, die Beitrittsgespräche mit der Türkei abzubrechen", erklärte Erdogan heute auf einer Pressekonferenz. "Wo der herkam, gibt's noch mehr. Jetzt kann jeder sehen, dass ich es ernst meine." Der Bürgerkriegsflüchtling aus Syrien befindet sich derzeit in einem kleinen Ruderboot zwischen der türkischen Küste und der griechischen Insel Kalymnos und kommt laut griechischer Küstenwache direkt auf die EU zu. Beobachter fürchten, dass er frühestens im Januar Mitteleuropa erreichen und die dortige Zivilbevölkerung und Politik in Angst und Schrecken versetzen wird. Die EU berät derzeit, wie auf den Warnflüchtling zu reagieren ist. Während einige Experten raten, umgehend einzulenken, fordern viele Hardliner, so schnell wie möglich einen EU-Flüchtling in die Gegenrichtung zu schicken. ssi, dan; Foto: Shutterstock

The Red Pill Masterpiece That Predates Them All

Jean-Batave Poqueliche

Like me, you now sigh every time you skim-read the synopsis of the new LGBT agenda-approved blockbuster that the septic tank of Hollywood releases which usually stars: An anorexic AIDS ridden cowboy teams up with a love-starved transexual on a fabulous journey to the Open Borders Districts of America. Carpet muncher falls in love with female tortured artist or heroin addict next door A female remake of Ghostbusters sponsored by Cheetos and Whiskas, a Clinton-approved work of art and recipient of the IngSoc Academy award. Should have put the muzzle on his balls for more self-inflicted humiliation Where are the mythical heroes, triumphing against all odds? Now Mad Max waits patiently in the car while a bonehead empowered you go grrrrl takes the decisions. It seems that we have to turn towards Russia once more for our recommended daily dose of normal masculinity. As red pill and cold-blooded as it gets “Brother” (“Brat” in Russian) is a 1997 movie directed by Alexey Balabanov. It is seen by many as the one of the greatest gangster movie of all time and changed forever the image of the traditional justice-seeking hero. It has been a few years at least that I want to share my discovery of this film with our readers. It had a tremendous impact on the way I see the world and the attitude I have towards life. I was convinced of its quality, of the impact it could have on the disciples of the red pill and that a few lines cannot do justice to this giant of Russian cinema culture. It entirely deserves an article of its own. My brother, the criminal Enter Danila Bagrov, played by the stellar Sergey Bodrov, who died at 28, at the peak of his meteor-like career. Many called him the Russian James Dean. After serving in the bloody war theatre of Chechnya, young veteran Danila returns home, in the sleepy provincial town of Tula. Needing money and without any solid prospects, he joins his brother Vytia who works as a hitman for the local “well-dressed businessman” in Saint Petersburg. Being an expert in making rudimentary weapons and with his quick capacity of reaction and frugality, Danila adapts marvelously to his new occupation. After seeing the risk of a gifted concurrent stealing their livelihood, the city’s gangsters soon put a price on his head and send a few professionals to tie up this loose end. But even after being betrayed by a mix of greed and cowardice, young Danila Bagrov decides to take on the mob single handedly. An epitome of the Russian alpha. Hard and unforgiving, sober in words and in behaviour, for whom nothing counts more than the bonds of blood and brotherhood. To err is human His one soft spot is the faith he has in human nature, convinced that if he does good, his fellow man will be virtuous in return. He could not be more wrong, especially with women. He discovers very fast that beta moves like buying them gifts and helping them only brings him trouble or ungratefulness. What is rare and makes Danila stand out is his loyalty, a cornerstone of the definition of masculinity and a value that progressively vanishes nowadays. His brother will do the unthinkable. But after the storm clears and Danila emerges victorious, he proves once more his quality as a man by being magnanimous and giving him a second chance. No fancy green screen or politically correct themes Brat is good because it is painfully real and does not embellish the lawless chaos that was early post-Soviet Russia. This is how it felt when the Wall came down. Everyone was trying to survive the best way they could. The odd, low-quality orange filter used in the film reminds us of this period where everything was made from what people could find when the shelves where empty. You cannot go wrong with a good revenge movie and Danila is an example of bravery. Alone and against all odds, he takes on the mafia that wronged him and will make them pay. The man says it like it is His analysis of the city and its perverse influence on men is brutally accurate: Danila: You told me about the city, about its strength. But here, everyone is weak. Hoffman: The city is a great and terrible force. It sucks the life force out of the strong – turns them weak. It takes away your power. And you fell right in the middle of it. His opinion about the abuse of power and the corrupt elites that would kill mother and father for their own profit and the final victory of truth applies especially well to today’s political and social context. American, what’s your power? Is it really money? My brother says it’s money. You’ve got lots of money – so what? Truth is a real power. Whoever is right is strong. You cheated on a man and took away his money. Did it make you stronger? No, it did not, ’cause you are not right, and the person you cheated on is. That means he’s stronger. Right? “Brother” also drops lethal truths about women and their ways. After spending all his roubles buying drinks and dope for a young interchangeable skank, she tells Danila: Kate: Do you have condoms? Danila: Why? Kate: ‘Why? You really think I will give you back your money? Come here… Two brothers for two majestic films The second volume, simply titled “Brother 2”, breaks the stereotype that sequels are always awful and is at least as good, if not better than the original. Same characters are followed but this time, Danila’s brother in arms has been played by a crooked American businessman, in touch with the Muscovite mafia. They attacked his brothers once more and he will have this time to cross the Atlantic to reclaim what is rightfully his. Again, the movie is realistic, gritty but has a lighter outlook on life. Whereas in the first volume, the main character showed a sheer hatred for everything that came from America and corrupted his country, the sequel that involves Danila’s adventures and clueless discovery of American culture often results in hilarious encounters. Un film qui prend aux tripes If the red pill was a religion, Danila Bagrov could be its patron saint. You can watch it legally following this link which includes English subtitles. The firm KinoKompania STV that produced the film decided to release it online, the film being such a household name in Russia and worldwide. Needless to say that you have watch it in the original Russian. The second opus can also be found online with English subtitles and Russian audio. Don’t miss out on these monuments of Russian cinema. Read More: You’ve Already Seen One Of The Greatest Red Pill Movies Ever Made

It Begins! Ten Kushner Scandals: Media Ramp Up Attacks on President’s Democrat Manhattanite Son-in-Law

Tony Lee

If Jared Kushner did not realize that the establishment press and Democrats will never give him or President Donald Trump a free ride after Democrats politicized Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey, he is now learning how viciously the antagonistic press can pile on when seeking to destroy their opposition. And it looks like the establishment media are just getting started. [After the Washington Post named Kushner as the “person of interest” in the FBI’s Russia investigation, Kushner, in just a matter of days, as Fox News’s Howard Kurtz wrote, “has become the media’s biggest target — that is, right after his . ” Kushner may have thought firing Comey would be a “win” for Trump because Democrats blamed Comey for costing Hillary Clinton the election. But the media never granted Trump a honeymoon period and will not give him automatic “wins” because they consider him an illegitimate outsider. And, as Kushner is finding out, because he is regarded as Trump’s top adviser, Kushner will always be in the media’s crosshairs no matter how much he tries to “moderate” Trump or court and charm the media. After media outlets initially reported that a White House official in Trump’s inner circle was a “person of interest” in the FBI’s Russia investigation, the Washington Post last Friday dropped a supposed “bombshell” report naming Kushner as the “person of interest” who allegedly wanted a “back channel” to communicate with Russian officials. But as Breitbart Joel Pollak noted, nothing in the Post’s article was new: “The meeting with Kislyak was reported nearly three months ago. The meeting with the banker was reported two months ago. And stories about a potential ‘back channel’ were reported almost two months ago. ” In fact, Kushner is reportedly not even a “target” of the investigation. There is also no smoking gun proving Kushner colluded with Russia or did anything illegal, for that matter, as former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper emphasized on Sunday. But the media have treated Kushner, like they do with nearly every Republican who does not have favored status with them, as if he is guilty until proven innocent. The establishment press have largely brushed aside the notion that Kushner may have wanted to set up the “back channel” to discuss Syria policy, especially if he feared that the Obama administration may have been spying on Trump’s campaign team. Fox News reported that the idea for a “back channel” was not even Kushner’s idea in the first place. The media have also downplayed the fact that Russians often embellish things to engage in disinformation campaigns. Take CNN’s report, based on leaks from two anonymous former intelligence officials and even a congressional source, about the Russians having potentially “derogatory” information on Trump and his top aides. CNN reported that the Russians believed they had “leverage” on Trump’s inner circle, especially regarding financial issues. It is only until after the sensational claims are made that the outlet points out that this information “could have been exaggerated or even made up” because “the Russians could be overstating” things. There are certainly more questions that need to be answered — like whether Kushner met with Russian banker Sergey Gorkov as a representative of his private company or as a representative of Trump’s transition team. But the controversy surrounding Kushner, which the media have ginned up with their anonymous leakers from the Deep State intent on undermining Trump, has given the media an excuse to damage Kushner politically. As if the media had many of these stories in their back pockets for the perfect time, the media immediately blitzed Kushner with an onslaught negative pieces. Here are ten ways the antagonistic press, with help from Deep State officials, have recently ganged up on Kushner. 1. Romney Redux: Kushner Depicted as Soulless Slumlord, The establishment media never investigated Obama’s top confidante and adviser Valerie Jarrett’s real estate holdings to depict her as a slumlord despite a body of evidence that was right in front of them. But nearly four months into Trump’s presidency, the media suddenly had the resources and the wherewithal to find former tenants who lived in Kushner’s properties to depict Trump’s as a seedy slumlord. ProPublica and the New York Times collaborated on an extensive story about Kushner’s real estate holdings and depicted Kushner as a seedy and greedy slumlord. The piece was titled, “The Beleaguered Tenants of ‘Kushnerville. ” They found former tenant Kamiia Warren, who reportedly moved out of her East Baltimore townhouse when a neighbor started acting strangely — like shouting through and banging on the walls at night, which often woke up her child. According to the report, “Warren sent a letter reporting the problem to the complex’s property manager” and “submitted the requisite form giving two months’ notice that she was transferring her Section 8 voucher — the federal subsidy that helped her pay the rent — elsewhere. The complex’s manager signed the form a week later, checking the line that read ‘The tenant gave notice in accordance with the lease. ’” Three years later, according to the report, she was sued for $3, 014. 08 by JK2 Westminster LLC, Kushner’s real estate company, and the lawsuit “claimed she owed the money for having left in advance of her lease’s expiration, though she had received written permission to leave. ” The establishment media are at their best when depicting Republicans (or even Democrats like Kushner who are now associated with Republicans) as heartless (see: Mitt Romney). The report points out that “Warren was raising three children alone while taking classes for a bachelor’s degree in health care administration” and paints Kushner and his associates as villains who preyed on an innocent single mother. According to the report, Warren lost her first appeal because “she did not have a copy of the form the manager had signed. The judge ruled against Warren, awarding JK2 Westminster the full sum it was seeking, plus court costs, attorney’s fees and interest that brought the judgment to nearly $5, 000. ” Kushner’s company has reportedly pursued such actions against “hundreds” of past tenants over the last five years. When Warren could not afford to pay the judgment, Kushner’s company “filed a request to garnish her wages from her elder care job. Five days earlier, Warren had gone to court to fill out a handwritten motion saying she had proof that she was given permission to leave Cove Village in 2010 — she had finally managed to get a copy from the housing department. ” But since she did not know that she had to attach a copy of her form to the motion, it was denied. Warren’s bank account was ultimately “zeroed out” and when she returned to court with all of the proper paperwork, her case was reportedly dismissed again without explanation. One of Kushner’s lawyers reportedly told her, “This is not going to go away. You will pay us. ” Soon after, according to the report, “the court sent notice of a $4, 615 lien against Warren. ” 2. Kushner Threw Trump Under Bus, Claimed Thinks GOP Base Is ‘Stupid’ When a former Kushner employee ( York Observer editor) claimed that Kushner once told her that Trump was promoting “birtherism” even though “he really doesn’t believe it” because “he knows Republicans are stupid and they’ll buy it,” the press jumped on the comments as proof that Trump is a “man with no real morals, no real beliefs, but who is willing to peddle any sort of hatred or monstrous thought if he thinks that it will help him toward the nebulous goal of ‘winning. ’” 3. Media Report Trump ‘Angry’ at Kushner, Relationship Showing ‘Unmistakable Signs of Strain’ Though Trump went on the record to publicly support Kushner, the media did their best to undercut Trump’s comments with stories about how Trump was losing confidence in Kushner’s judgment and political acumen. Trump explicitly told the New York Times that “Jared is doing a great job for the country” and “I have total confidence in him. He is respected by virtually everyone and is working on programs that will save our country billions of dollars. In addition to that, and perhaps more importantly, he is a very good person. ” Yet, media outlets pointed out that Trump was not that close to Kushner before Kushner joined his campaign and quoted anonymous sources who said that Trump has yelled at Kushner in recent meetings. The Times reported that Trump has even made snide and disparaging comments about Kushner’s family after Kushner’s sister reportedly tried to peddle her brother’s access in the White House and “dangled the availability of visas to the United States as an enticement for Chinese financiers willing to spend $500, 000 or more” to invest in Kushner’s real estate holdings. 4. Huffington Post: Marrying Ivanka on Calculating Kushner’s ‘Checklist’ to ‘Rehabilitate’ Family Name, According to the Huffington Post, “when Charles Kushner was heading to federal prison in 2005 for illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering, his son Jared got some advice from Howard Rubenstein ― the dean of New York damage control ― on how to rehabilitate the Kushner name, Charles would later tell a family friend”: Step one: Buy a New York newspaper. Don’t be too particular, Rubenstein told Jared, according to the family friend’s recounting of their conversation with Charles. Any newspaper will do. Step two: Buy a big Manhattan building. Any building will do. Step three: Marry the daughter of a rich New York family. Anyone will do. The Huffington Post notes that Jared Kushner “went on to do just that. He bought the New York Observer in 2006, made a $1. 8 billion purchase of 666 Fifth Ave. in 2007 and married Ivanka Trump in 2009. ” “Whether or not Kushner was indeed working through a checklist, his actions during those years have served him well,” the “story” points out. “They also laid the groundwork for the meticulous public relations strategy that has made possible Kushner’s current paradoxical role in the press, as a blameless yet uniquely powerful member of the Trump administration. ” Kushner’s spokesman reportedly denied the account and Rubenstein told the outlet that the account was “preposterous” and “I never said that or anything like that. ” But when it comes to making Trump’s look bad, such a story is too good for outlets like the Huffington Post not to print. 5. Former Kushner Employees Smear Jared: ‘Vindictive Sh*thead’ Media outlets who were uncurious for eight years about former employees of top Obama administration officials suddenly started interviewing former employees and editors of Kushner’s newspaper — the New York Observer. Of course, the media found those who were all too eager to smear Kushner. An “anonymous” editor described to the Washington Post that Kushner was insistent on getting a “hit job” on a banker who would not help Kushner refinance one of his buildings. Kushner was reportedly still upset when the paper’s editors — even after assigning three different reporters to find dirt on the banker — decided that “there’s no story there. ” Politico spoke to another former Kushner employee — Harleen Kahlon — who claimed that Kushner asked her to “take one for the team” and forego her performance bonus based on meeting “agreed upon metrics on page views and audience growth. ”: Kahlon abruptly quit. Ever since, whenever she sees him on TV or on the streets of New York, she points him out to people as: “the guy that stole my money. Just before the election, Kahlon described her former boss on Facebook thusly: “We’re talking about a guy who isn’t particularly bright or doesn’t actually know anything, has bought his way into everything ever (with money he got from his criminal father) who is deeply insecure and obsessed with fame (you don’t buy the NYO, marry Ivanka Trump, or constantly talk about the phone calls you get from celebrities if it’s in your nature to ‘shun the spotlight’) and who is basically a shithead. ” 6. Officials Claim Kushner Guilty of Espionage, May Even Be Russian Agent, Though Obama’s former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said that his “dashboard warning light was clearly on” when he found out about Kushner’s dealing with Russian agents, he emphasized that there is “no evidence of collusion. ” But the media rushed to get former Deep State officials who were all too eager to slam Kushner. Former intelligence agent Malcolm Nance suggested Kushner may be guilty of espionage and called for Kushner’s security clearance to be revoked immediately. Former double agent Naveed Jamali went as far to say he thought Kushner was actually a Russian agent, a comment which even shocked an MSNBC host. 7. Media Suggest Kushner Family Want to Profit off Trump Presidency, Media outlets hinted that Kushner and his family may be more interested in using Trump’s presidency to pad their bottom lines and enhancing their images. They pointed to the fact that a day before Kushner’s sister sought funding from Chinese investors through the investor visa program, Trump extended the program when he signed the most recent spending bill, “raising many eyebrows. ” Even the suggestion that Kushner and his family may be trying to profit off Trump’s name has made Trump livid, according go the Times. The Times pointed out Kushner’s sister’s pitch to Chinese nationals “violated two major rules: Politically, it undercut his immigration crackdown, and in a personal sense, it smacked of profiteering off Mr. Trump — one of the sins that warrants expulsion from his orbit. ” 8. Kushner Is ‘Naive,’ ‘Unqualified’ and Dumb … Establishment media outlets used comments from former intelligence officials to push the narrative that Kushner was “in over his head” and naive to handle foreign affairs. When asked about Kushner’s alleged action, Michael Hayden, the former CIA and NSA Director, told CNN, “right now, I’m going with naïveté, and that’s not particularly comforting for me. ” “What manner of ignorance, chaos, hubris, suspicion, contempt would you have to have to think that doing this with the Russian ambassador was a good or an appropriate idea? ,” he asked. Former KGB spy Jack Barsky told CNN that Kushner was “naive” and “completely unqualified” to deal with the Russians because of the “inexperience he has in international affairs. ” He called Kushner’s alleged actions “ . ” 9. … Or Maybe ‘Desperate’? The Atlantic’s David Frum suggested that perhaps Kushner was not naive but rather desperate to get financing for his family’s Manhattan tower. “Maybe Kushner was desperate, not dumb … His family faced a huge hike in its debt servicing costs in December 2016. ” Frum wrote. He cited a Bloomberg News report that claimed a Manhattan tower that Kushner’s family “has been losing money for three years and faces increasing loan fees in 2017, which may explain why the family has been negotiating with Chinese insurance behemoth Anbang on new financing”: The fees, at 666 Fifth Avenue, kicked in last month and escalate with each payment until the loan is repaid, a 2011 refinancing agreement shows. December brings another hurdle: Interest paid on the bulk of about $1. 1 billion of loans jumps to 6. 35 percent, more than double what it was after the debt was refinanced in 2011. And as the city’s biggest office construction boom in a quarter century creates a glut of supply, the property’s occupancy rates are falling. Seventy percent of the building was filled as of September, filings by LNR Partners, the loan managers, show. This is well below 91 percent for the New York metro area reported at year’s end by Reis, the firm, said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jeffrey Langbaum. 10. Media: ‘Miserable,’ ‘Unhappy’ Distraught Kushner May Want to Go Back to NYC, After Kushner was named as the “person of interest,” the media quickly reported that Kushner has been “miserable,” “unhappy” and “frustrated” with his job as he has come under more scrutiny. It is as if they had these paragraphs already written, ready to be fired off at the best possible moment. The Times cited anonymous “friends” who told the outlet that Kushner “and his wife, Ivanka Trump, have made no commitment to remain by Mr. Trump’s side, saying they would review every six months whether to return to private life in New York. ” Politico reported that there is a “sense of uncertainty about how long Kushner and Ivanka Trump — who associates say likes, but doesn’t love, Washington — are planning to stick it out. Some have noted that they rent their Kalorama mansion, which allows them to keep their options of moving back to Manhattan more open. ” On Wednesday, the Times reported that Trump “has not ruled out the possibility” that Kushner and Ivanka “would return to New York this year. ” Writing in the Guardian, Walter Shapiro predicted that Kushner’s “life in the coming months and maybe years will be a study in misery” because “he will probably spend more time with his personal lawyer, Clinton justice department veteran Jamie Gorelick, than with Ivanka or his children. Whether it is an appearance under oath on Capitol Hill or the inevitable FBI interview, every sentence Kushner utters will bring with it possible legal jeopardy. ” Shapiro, citing Kushner’s sister’s visa exploits, wrote that perhaps “Kushner just calculated that all the hype surrounding his White House role was a family branding opportunity. ” He also suggests that Kushner may end up behind bars, if he is not careful, like his father: “the worst thing that can happen to an real estate investor (as Trump himself knows well) is bankruptcy. When the FBI and special prosecutor Robert Mueller get involved, the penalties can theoretically involve steel bars locking behind you. ” If Kushner did not realize it already, he should be well aware by now that the Democrats, the institutional left, and the establishment media seek to destroy, do not give an inch, and play for keeps. And they may just be warming up.

Trump to Seek $54 Billion Increase in Military Spending - The New York Times

Michael D. Shear and Jennifer Steinhauer

WASHINGTON — President Trump put both political parties on notice Monday that he intends to slash spending on many of the federal government’s most politically sensitive programs — relating to education, the environment, science and poverty — to protect the economic security of retirees and to shift billions more to the armed forces. The proposal to increase military spending by $54 billion and cut nonmilitary programs by the same amount was unveiled by White House officials as they prepared the president’s plans for next year’s federal budget. Aides to the president said final decisions about Medicare and Social Security would not be made until later in the year, when he announces his full budget. But Sean Spicer, his spokesman, cited Mr. Trump’s campaign commitments about protecting those programs and vowed that “he’s going to keep his word to the American people. ” In effect, Mr. Trump appears determined to take sides in a generational struggle between older, sicker Americans who depend on the entitlement programs, and their younger, poorer counterparts whose livelihoods are shaped by the domestic programs likely to see steep cuts. He also set up a battle for control of Republican Party ideology with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, who for years has staked his reputation on the argument that taming the budget deficit without tax increases would require that Congress change, and cut, the programs that swallow the bulk of the government’s spending — Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. “I don’t know how you take $54 billion out without wholesale taking out entire departments,” said Bill Hoagland, a longtime Republican budget aide in the Senate and now a senior vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center. “You need to control it in the area of the entitlement programs, which he’s taken off the table. It is a proposal, I dare say, that will be dead on arrival even with a Republican Congress. ” Speaking to governors at the White House, Mr. Trump said his spending demands would be at the core of the speech he gives Tuesday night to a joint session of Congress. “This budget follows through on my promise to keep Americans safe,” he said, calling it a “public safety and national security” budget that will send a “message to the world in these dangerous times of American strength, security and resolve. ” In the first part of the speech, Mr. Trump will recount “promises made and promises kept,” said the aides, who requested anonymity during a briefing with reporters. The rest of the speech will focus on how he will help people with their problems and how he intends to protect the nation. The president’s budget proposals — which were short on detail but are said to exempt not just Medicare and Social Security but also veterans’ benefits and law enforcement efforts — would lead to deep reductions in federal programs that touch millions of lives. The White House signaled that it would begin with agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, the Internal Revenue Service and social programs. A budget with no entitlement cuts and one that does not balance most likely has no chance of passing the House, and could be rejected by Senate Republicans as well. Mr. Trump’s proposals are too far to the right in terms of domestic cuts and too far to the left in terms of balance. Their failure could have practical implications for the White House. If Congress fails to pass a budget blueprint for the fiscal year that begins in October, Mr. Trump’s promise to drastically rewrite the tax code could also die, since the president was counting on that budget resolution to include special parliamentary language that would shield his tax cuts from a Democratic filibuster. Without it, any tax legislation would have to be bipartisan enough to clear the Senate with 60 votes. But beyond legislative considerations, the fate of Mr. Trump’s proposal will go a long way toward determining how significantly his brand of economic populism has changed Republican orthodoxy. Mr. Trump repeatedly said during the campaign that Republican promises to transform Medicare and slash entitlement spending were the reason the party lost the White House in 2012, helpfully Mr. Ryan, who sat at the bottom of the ticket that year, in his analysis. Social Security, health care and net interest now comprise nearly 60 percent of all federal spending, and that figure is expected to soar to 82 percent over the next 10 years. “Paul Ryan’s budget plans with cuts to Social Security and Medicare are not that popular with most voters, and what helped elect Donald Trump was the promise not to cut benefits and programs,” said Douglas Elmendorf, the recently departed director of the Congressional Budget Office and current dean of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. “That is an unresolved tension. ” White House officials said the broad outlines of a spending plan represented the logical culmination of Mr. Trump’s efforts to make good on his campaign pledges to prune what he considers wasteful government spending even as he expands what he considers an underfunded military. “It will show the president is keeping his promises and doing exactly what he said he was going to do,” said Mick Mulvaney, the president’s budget director. “We are taking his words and turning them into policies and dollars. ” Mr. Trump’s advisers said aid to foreign governments, which makes up a tiny fraction of federal spending, was one such target. The budget for the I. R. S. which was the target of Republican criticism during Barack Obama’s administration, would be slashed by 14 percent, according to documents obtained by The New York Times. The Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, which provides grants for community banks and local development, would be all but eliminated. The White House blueprint calls for a 24 percent cut to the E. P. A. ’s budget, according to a person who had seen the document but was not authorized to speak on the record. That would amount to a reduction of about $2 billion from the agency’s annual budget of about $8. 1 billion, reducing its spending to levels not seen since Ronald Reagan’s presidency. But it is far from clear whether Congress will approve such steep cuts in popular programs. While congressional Republicans have long targeted the E. P. A. ’s regulatory authority, they are also aware that about half the agency’s annual budget is passed through to popular programs, like converting abandoned industrial sites into sports stadiums and other public facilities, which lawmakers of both parties are loath to cut. And most of the agency’s federal office spending goes toward funding programs that are required by existing laws. Last year, even as congressional Republicans railed against the Obama administration’s E. P. A. regulations, they proposed cutting only $291 million from the agency’s budget. Environmental advocates denounced the proposed cuts, saying they would devastate environmental protection and public health programs while doing little to increase national security. “The assault on human health begins now with President Trump’s plan to slash the E. P. A. ’s resources, which are vital to protecting Americans’ drinking water and air from pollution,” said Scott Faber, vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group. But the information to emerge about the budget raises more questions than it answers. Democrats, of course, will be no friend, either. “Democrats will make crystal clear the misplaced priorities of the administration and the Republican majority,” said Representative Nita M. Lowey of New York, the Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, “and we will fight tooth and nail to protect services and investments that are critical to American families and communities across the country. ” But the budget may be the most striking example in Mr. Trump’s young presidency of the ways in which he is challenging the orthodoxy of his own party. Since the start of his insurgent campaign, Mr. Trump has opposed the Republican Party’s positions on a range of policies, including free trade, how to deal with Russia and the future of government entitlement programs. Republicans in Congress had hoped that the influence of the two former Republican House members in Mr. Trump’s cabinet — Tom Price, head of health and human services, and Mr. Mulvaney — would have led to new conclusions about the need to address entitlement programs that are swelling drastically with baby boomers’ retirement. Instead, Mr. Trump appears intent on extracting the savings he needs for military spending from the one part of the budget already most squeezed, domestic discretionary spending.

The Battleship Debate

Michael Shrimpton

By Michael Shrimpton on October 30, 2016 Some Battleship Myths Busted The comments on last week’s column (Aberfan – Disaster Or Attack?) threw up some unexpected comments about battleships, and the causes of World War I. As you can tell, it was a wide-ranging discussion! It also showed that that a number of myths about battleships, not to mention the causes of World War I, are still prevalent. First however, some comments on the exciting presidential race. Trump or Clinton? I’m still predicting a win for Trump. The polls have tightened, which is not good news for Hillary, and the first straws in the wind suggesting a landslide for Trump have appeared. Some polls are still showing a lead for the Democrat, but the most reliable ones seem to be showing Trumpy ahead by 1 or 2 points. A delighted Washington Post predicted this week that Trumpy has “next to zero” chance of winning. I’m not sure that’s true even if you accept the polls as accurate. The polls are suggesting a tight race. However pollsters have a history of getting it wrong when it comes to races involving conservatives. The margin of error in favor of liberal positions differs from one pollster to another, but between 2.5 and 5% seems about right. Since the last two Republican candidates were scarcely conservatives, the reasonably good performance of most polling organisations in 2008 and 2012 has to be viewed with reserve. Polling performance breaks down when you have serious conservative opposition. They can be still an indicator, however, of momentum. The FBI (Photo credit: Hurricane Bianca) I have heard of October surprises , indeed the Democrats sprang one over Bimbogate, or at least gave it the good old college try. It might have been better choosing bimbos who had actually met the Republican candidate, or at least met him without witnesses present, but there it is. Having the FBI act with integrity when the suspect is the Democratic candidate for president and polling day is less than two weeks away wasn’t so much an October surprise as an October shock, no offense to the Fibbies intended. Assuming – just assuming – that this wasn’t part of a deal between Mr O and Mr T, whereby Mr T agreed to keep quiet about Mr O’s Kenyan/Zanzibari origins in exchange for Mr O backing off the FBI, the timing of the FBI’s move was extraordinary. They are saying that it was due to fresh evidence coming into their possession, so it can’t have been that. It is just possible that the boys in the Hoover building (that’s Hoover as in J Edgar, BTW, not as in the vacuum cleaner) were not aware of the large sums of money slushing, sorry finding, its way to the wife of their Deputy Director from the Clintons. It’s a bit of a mystery, and I don’t pretend to know the answer. Astonishing as it may sound, with respect, it may even be that the FBI have finally started to act with integrity and good faith. If so, that would be a positive development, although don’t expect the CIA to follow suit! If they did, the world really will have turned upside down. The CIA and Wikipedia WWI People sometimes ask me why I write for VeteransToday, given the lousy pay (!) The short answer is that they are good people and don’t interfere with my freedom of expression. VT is also something of an intelligence clearing house, however. I hope readers learn something from my weekly columns (that’s why I write ‘em), but I also learn things. One of the things I learnt this week via VT is that the CIA have a thing going with Wikipedia. I thought I was dealing with operatives – it was strange that so-called volunteer editors responded within minutes to any attempt by me to balance the Wikipedia attack piece on me. Turns out the CIA have an active interest in about 10% of Wiki sites, including mine. Given that Director Brennan is an enemy of mine, with Jesuit connections, I helped expose the role of the Jesuit Order in providing the pretext for World War I and the Agency are heavily penetrated by my bitter enemies the DVD, via the Correa/COREA Group in Frankfurt, that would make sense. The next installment in my WikiWar should be mediation. Goodness knows who they’ll suggest as a mediator – Angela Merkel probably, or the President of the European Commission. The mediator will definitely be driving a Volkswagen. The Naval Race Rear Admiral Sir Christoper Cradock I’m inter alia an intelligence historian , so it’s nice to turn to an historical topic. It is incredibly important to get history right – otherwise we just repeat the same mistakes. A number of commenters last week seemed to be laboring under the delusion, no offense intended, that World War I was started by the naval race between the British and German Empires. This nonsensical view, widely propagated since 1918 by German Intelligence and their allies, is still recycled on the BBC and by liberal faculty members, i.e. just about all of them. World War I was not started by the British Admiralty, nor by accident. It was started by the Germans, who set up the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his lovely wife Sophie on June 28th 1914. The German army was already mobilising, implementing a war plan drawn up years before. The build-up of the Imperial German Navy had similarly been underway for years, for purely offensive purposes. The German Navy was not designed to protect German interests abroad – its capital ships lacked the range and the habitability for that. It was aimed at bringing the Royal Navy’s Atlantic and Channel Fleets to battle in the North Sea (the famous Grand Fleet was only formed on the outbreak of war). There is no way the German Navy could have matched the rapid, hemispheric deployment of a battlecruiser squadron to the farthest reaches of the South Atlantic in 1914, e.g., after the destruction of a weak British squadron under Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock at the Battle of Coronel. Vice-Admiral Sturdee’s great victory in the Battle of the Falkland Islands was of course made possible by the Naval Intelligence Department. The boys had spotted that the First Sea Lord, von Battenberg, was a German spy and had deliberately refused to reinforce Cradock’s squadron. Von Battenberg was left in place and fed false position reports – no wonder the sight of the fighting tops of a British battlecruiser squadron in Port Stanley harbor so rattled the Hun commander, Graf von Spee, who was the runner-up in the battle which followed. The true position was stated millennia ago by the Roman general Vegetius: si vis pacem, para bellum. If you wan’t peace, prepare for war. Great Britain did not encourage the First World War by taking the limited steps that she did to prepare for it. We needed more battleships and battlecruisers, not fewer. Sadly, the Liberal government decided to encourage German aggression by holding back spending on the Royal Navy. Had we been stronger, the Hun would not dare have invaded Belgium and Luxembourg in a flanking attack on the French army. Next Myth HMS Barham The next myth propagated last week was that battleships were vulnerable to U-Boats. The truth is that the only British battleships sunk by U-Boat in both world wars, HMS Barham and HMS Royal Oak, were betrayed. Royal Oak was sunk because the First Sea Lord Sir Dudley Pound was being blackmailed by Jerry and agreed to hold up the badly-needed block-ships requested for Scapa Flow by the C-in-C Home Fleet. Had the block-ships been in place, as requested, Gunther Prien wouldn’t have got within five miles of Royal Oak. It is not even clear that the dear old Barham was actually sunk in November 1941 by U-331. It is more likely that her magazines were detonated by a radio-controlled IED set off by a German agent on the battleship ahead, which happened to have a cameraman ready to film the sinking. All battleships after the turbine-powered Dreadnought were too fast for submarines, which until the advent of the first true submarine, the German Type XXI, had limited underwater speed and endurance. Forget the headline figure for underwater speed – at top speed a U-Boat’s batteries would be drained quickly. This made achieving a firing solution difficult. Battleships were also usually too well screened by destroyers. They were such difficult targets that in practice only a U-Boat lying in wait could torpedo them. Then there was the difficulty in sinking them. Older battleships could indeed be sunk by a single submarine, even a single torpedo, ditto battleships whose design was held back by the absurd limitations in the Washington Treaty, designed to make the next world war winnable for the Bad Guys. It is, however, intellectually dishonest to compare the latest subs with older battleships, or battleships, like the King George V class, designed to artificial limits. In World War II modern battleships designed without reference to the Washington Treaty, such as the wonderful Iowa class, incorporated excellent anti-torpedo protection. A single Jap sub, e.g. would have had trouble hitting an Iowa class fast battleship with enough torpedoes to sink her. The King George V classic were a classic illustration of the dangers posed by the Washington Treaty. To save weight their outer prop-shafts weren’t armored, a weakness which proved fatal when HMS Prince of Wales was struck by a Japanese aerial torpedo in December 1941. In practice battleships were much less vulnerable to torpedo attack than any other type of warship. That is why all Japanese submarine attacks on American battleships in World War II failed, indeed the Japs only ever managed to sink American battleships in harbor in peacetime, and even then they only actually sank two. The other battleships damaged at Pearl Harbor were repaired, modernised and went on to avenge their sisters. Third Myth HMS Repulse The vulnerability of battleships to air attack in World War II has also been greatly overstated. They were of course invulnerable to air attack in World War I, as no aircraft could carry an armor-piercing bomb heavy enough to sink them. No German or Italian battleship was sunk at sea by airpower in the whole of the war. No American battleship was sunk at sea in either war, period. Only one British battleship, HMS Prince of Wales, was sunk by airpower in World War II, and she was betrayed. HMS Indomitable, the carrier designated as her escort, had been run aground, on Pound’s orders, whilst working up out of Kingston Harbour in Jamaica. Attacking as they did outside fighter range, without combat equipment such self-sealing tanks, the Jap bombers would have been very vulnerable to Indomitable’s cannon-equipped fighters. As I explain in Spyhunter, Force Z’s course had been betrayed to the Japanese in Saigon, via radio, by the German spy Rear-Admiral Palliser. Had Palliser not betrayed the British squadron it’s unlikely that the Japs would have found them. They had poor air reconnaissance, limited fuel reserves and could not just stooge around the South China Sea trying to find them. HMS Repulse was a battlecruiser, not a battleship. Unlike her sister Renown, she had not been modernised. In particular, she lacked Renown’s modern 4.5” Dual Purpose (DP) battery, much more effective in the AA role than Prince of Wales’s DP fit. Bismarck firing at HMS Hood HMS Hood , blown-up during the course of the Battle of the Denmark Strait, was also a battlecruiser and, like Repulse, she had not been modernised. The Chamberlain government and the Treasury denied the Admiralty the funds for her much-needed modernisation, precisely in order to make her easier for Jerry to sink. As I explain in Spyhunter, it is very doubtful that Hood was actually sunk by KMS Bismarck and much more likely that she was blown up by an IED in either a 4” magazine, leading to secondary detonation of a main magazine, or a main magazine. None of the broadsides fired by either Bismarck or her accompanying heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen is a good candidate for the alleged fatal shot. Prinz Eugen’s main battery was only 8”/60 caliber – her 270 lb shells were too small to have penetrated Hood’s heavy belt armor. For decades, we have been favored with nonsense from pro-Germans about Hood’s main deck armor being much weaker than Bismarck’s (the true figures are 3” over the magazines for Hood and 4.7” for Bismarck) and Bismarck sinking her with plunging fire at long range. Bismarck, however, was photographed firing at Hood from the Prinz Eugen. As you can see from the photo, Bismarck’s main battery is nowhere near maximum elevation. The Hun-loving editors of Wikipedia, BTW, still cannot bring themselves to acknowledge that the Bismarck was sunk by the Royal Navy. She was in fact finished off by torpedoes from the heavy cruiser HMS Dorsetshire, sinking shortly after the last torpedo hit, which Wikipedia would have us believe was a strange coincidence. HMS King George V As I have mentioned, the King George V class , of which Prince of Wales was a member, suffered from design limitations imposed by the Washington Treaty. They also suffered from several design flaws, which would not have been repeated in later classes and partly flowed from the lack of cash given to the Admiralty in the 1930s. They sacrificed AA firepower for spotter aircraft. Whilst the planes were well-protected in an armored hangar, it would have been better to rely on more powerful spotter/recon aircraft flown from escorting carriers. The 5.25” DP secondary armament was an excellent anti-destroyer weapon, probably the best ever deployed on a battleship, but had too poor a rate of fire (around 12-16 rounds per minute) to be an effective weapon against aircraft. The dedicated AA gun, the multiple 2-pounder ‘pom-pom’, was the best in the world when it came into service in the late 1920s, but had been overtaken by the 40-mil Bofors. The mounts were not tri-axially stabilized and the class lacked tachymetric AA fire-control. These specific weaknesses however afford no grounds for saying that battleships generally were unduly vulnerable to aircraft. So far to the contrary, they were better able to stand up to bombs and torpedoes than carriers, were more stable gun platforms, had better firing arcs (this was particularly true of the US Navy – the Iowa class had superb firing arcs for their secondary and AA armament, e.g., whereas the firing arcs on the Essex-class carriers were limited) and better fire-control. Unsurprisingly, US fast carrier task forces in the Pacific used battleships to protect carriers against aircraft. HMS Inflexible Of the five British capital ships sunk during World War II, two were unmodernised battlecruisers, two were probably sunk by IEDs and all five were betrayed in one way, shape or form. Without the assistance of the Abwehr, including interference by political assets in Number 10, the Cabinet Office and the Treasury with their design or modernisation, probably none of them would have been sunk at all. The US Navy had the right idea. What was needed was balanced all-arms task forces, combining battlewagons, carriers, cruisers and destroyers. Admiral Henderson of the Royal Navy had in fact come up with the idea of fast carrier task forces protected by capital ships in the Mediterranean in the 1930s, but the Royal Navy lacked enough fast battleships and carriers to really make it work until 1945, with the British Pacific Fleet Oh yes, we were in the Pacific alright , although the lack of defense expenditure and serious planning for war by pro-German weanies in Downing St before the war meant that it took three years for us to get there. Apart that is from our fine armored carrier HMS Victorious, which served briefly in the Pacific in 1943, flying USN squadrons, an episode which would make a fine war movie, if a movie-maker could be found with the guts to make it. President Reagan also had the right idea in reactivating the Iowa class in the 80s. Had the Royal Navy not been forced to scrap HMS Vanguard, our last battleship, by the German asset Harold Macmillan, it is doubtful that General Galtieri would even have started the war. HMS Vanguard Falklands War The very thought of that elegant and powerful fast battleship , virtually immune from the Exocet sea-skimming missiles (her belt armor was too strong for an Exocet to penetrate) emerging from the gloom of the South Atlantic to pulverise the Argentine Fleet or smash up Argentine forces ashore, would have given the Argies the willies. Vanguard’s deck armor, BTW, would have been too strong for any bomb the Argentine Air Force could carry. No ship in the Argentine Navy could have remained operational after a single accurate broadside from HMS Vanguard, and she had fully-synthetic fire-control, i.e. could land her main battery guns on target whilst maneuvering. She was a formidable surface combatant. This Week’s Movie Review: Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016, dir. Edward Zwick) This movie is huge fun . The first Jack Reacher movie, also starring Tom Cruise, was also huge fun, with the Bad Guys getting whacked all over the place. It’s always nice to see dirty cops getting their come-uppance! We could do with Jack Reacher in Thames Valley. No jury would convict. Unusually for a sequel, this movie is as good as the original. If anything, it’s even better. Tom Cruise is excellent as the lead, although it was a disappointment for me that Robert Duvall was not retained. He’s one of my all-time favorite actors. Robert Knepper, as General Harkness, provides strong support, however, as does Cobie Smulders, who I think we’ll be seeing again. The plot, based around bent military contractors, is more believable than most of the anti-military, anti-American rubbish emerging from liberal Hollywood, and the heroes come from the military. The movie moves at a cracking pace, and you are kept in suspense until the end about whether Jack is a father or not. I’m not going to spoil it for you by revealing the plot! It’s well worth going to see.

Thomas Frank Explores Whether Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party Will Address Inequality

Thomas Frank Explores Whether Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party Will Address Inequality Posted on Nov 1, 2016 By KiMi Robinson Robert Scheer and Thomas Frank. Thomas Frank’s writing about electoral politics and and its impact on American culture has been published for decades in places like Harper’s Magazine, The Wall Street Journal and his 2004 novel, “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” In his latest book, “Listen Liberal: Whatever Happened to the Party of the People?” the journalist and political analyst tackles the question of what changed within the Democratic party to make it become a “ liberalism of the rich .” “The Democratic Party itself has changed,” Frank told Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer during an episode of “ Scheer Intelligence ” this year. “What’s changed about them is the social class that they answer to, that they respect, that they come from.” The trend has gotten worse. “Democrats look at Wall Street, and they see people like themselves,” he said in an interview with Scheer during the Democratic National Convention in July. Advertisement Square, Site wide On Tuesday night, Frank will join Scheer at the University of Southern California to discuss “Listen Liberal” and his analysis of Hillary Clinton during this election cycle, from her public views on inequality in United States to her promises to tamp down greed on Wall Street. The conversation will be live streamed on our Facebook page at around 7 p.m. PDT. In March, Frank summarized his complex investigation of the Democratic Party and the answers he found: And you know, we call it inequality; it is the one great problem that we have. And so my, the question in the book is […] the Democrats have been talking about inequality forever. This is why they exist as a party, is to take this on. Why haven’t they been able to do anything about it? And the answer isn’t what you think. You know, it’s not just because Republicans are so diabolically clever and stop them all the time. And it’s also not just because of the money that is sloshing around in politics, although that’s […] a huge part of the story. But the answer is because the Democrats aren’t who we think they are. You know, they talk about inequality, but their heart really isn’t in it. Income inequality is really not something that they have cared about for a very long time. You know, there are individuals here and there who do, but you talk about people like the Clintons—I mean, Hillary Clinton, her concern for inequality is, this is, I would say is almost completely feigned. Frank also joined Scheer earlier this week to promote “Listen Liberal.” Watch a portion of the discussion below: </p><p>

For Paul Ryan, a Long, Labored Path Leading Away From Donald Trump - The New York Times

Jennifer Steinhauer

WASHINGTON — He didn’t see it coming. Speaker Paul D. Ryan was in a hotel room in Cincinnati last May when he learned that Donald J. Trump — a man he barely knew, with no institutional ties to his party and a mouth that had already clacked his nerves — had secured the Republican nomination for president. Mr. Trump had recently lost the Wisconsin primary, which Mr. Ryan and other Republicans in the state thought would presage the reality television star’s demise. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas had made strides, and Mr. Ryan thought the campaign would snake into the summer. But he badly miscalculated. The ensuing path, from Mr. Trump’s securing the nomination to Mr. Ryan’s decision not to have the nominee appear with him at a rally in Wisconsin a month before Election Day, has been jagged and treacherous, marked by brief moments of hope that Mr. Trump could be controlled, followed by the sinking realization that he could not. Mr. Ryan heard the persistent — at times desperate — appeals of Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee and a fellow Wisconsinite, and the angry calls from his rank and file, and neither could move him closer to Mr. Trump. Now, Mr. Ryan finds himself in a singular abyss, desperate to maintain the voter enthusiasm needed to preserve Republican control of Congress, yet unable to defend his party’s presidential nominee. If Mr. Trump is defeated on Nov. 8 — as Mr. Ryan has all but conceded — but Republicans maintain their House majority, it will fall largely to Mr. Ryan to piece the rubble of his party back together. There is, of course, the question of whether House members would let him do so. The Republicans’ crisis would have an early reckoning with the House decision on whether the speaker should be Mr. Ryan — whose beliefs in free trade, tolerance toward immigration, changes to entitlement programs and conservative governance have long been Republican orthodoxy — or a new brand of leader who embodies Trumpism. Democrats have moved quickly to paint Mr. Ryan as spineless and calculating for not outright rescinding his endorsement of Mr. Trump, while the right flank in his own party has taken a polar opposite view, saying Mr. Ryan should not publicly criticize the nominee. On Saturday, Mr. Ryan’s office added to that criticism of Mr. Trump, if indirectly, trying to tamp down the nominee’s talk of a “rigged” election. “Our democracy relies on confidence in election results, and the speaker is fully confident the states will carry out this election with integrity,” said AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Mr. Ryan. For his part, Mr. Trump has been unsparing in his disparagement of Mr. Ryan. Last week, in a series of Twitter posts, he called Mr. Ryan “our very weak and ineffective leader,” who was lending “zero support” and “should spend more time on balancing the budget, jobs and illegal immigration and not waste his time on fighting Republican nominee. ” For now, the speaker spends his days treating Mr. Trump like a disgruntled former employee bent on Twitter revenge, essentially ignoring him. Instead, he gives speeches about the tax credit and the evils of Hillary Clinton, while furiously raising money for suddenly endangered House Republicans. “Right now his objective is crystal clear,” said Representative Tom Cole, Republican of Oklahoma, “to retain the Republican majority in the House. In that effort he has helped members of the Freedom Caucus as well as those in the Tuesday Group and everyone in between,” he said, referring to the most conservative and most moderate members. “We will worry about our internal differences after the election. Right now we are in a bar fight and every Republican is worth saving. ” That Mr. Ryan and Mr. Trump were never natural allies is understandable. They had met only once before the business tycoon decided to run for the White House, an encounter at a in New York during the 2012 campaign. Mr. Ryan was Mitt Romney’s running mate. Their paths would not cross again. “Trump really wasn’t on Paul’s radar screen,” said A. Mark Neuman, a Ryan friend for two decades. “Before this presidential race, there was almost no intersection in their lives,” he said, noting that Mr. Trump did not share Mr. Ryan’s passions for the Green Bay Packers, hunting, church, intense workouts and Midwest life with children. The relationship showed strains from the start, with Mr. Ryan alarmed by Mr. Trump’s rhetoric and nationalistic appeals. The speaker decided to offer a policy agenda with no connection to Mr. Trump for other Republicans to embrace, a move almost during a presidential campaign. “If we try to play our own version of identity politics and try to fuel ourselves based on darker emotions, that’s not productive,” he said. He made calls to several of the Republican presidential candidates to outline the agenda Mr. Trump feigned mild interest but they did not speak again. (The Trump campaign did not return emails with questions for this article. Mr. Ryan also declined to be interviewed.) Mr. Ryan had hoped that Mr. Trump would eventually embrace his plan. When Mr. Trump clinched the nomination in May, Mr. Ryan was rattled, said several people who talked to him that day. “The conventional wisdom among the people we talked to here was, ‘Don’t worry, this will end,’” said Charlie Sykes, a former conservative talk radio host in Milwaukee and a friend of Mr. Ryan’s. “So it was a huge shock. I think a lot of us here believed we were going be the firewall in Wisconsin, that there would be an outbreak of rationality. ” With campaign rhetoric getting increasingly contentious, Mr. Ryan made the unusual choice of announcing that he was not ready to endorse Mr. Trump. None of this pleased Mr. Priebus, who prided himself on building the modern Republican Party in Wisconsin and longed for unity going into the race against Mrs. Clinton. In text messages and phone calls, Mr. Priebus tried to persuade Mr. Ryan — who was relishing his independence — to accept Mr. Trump, said numerous officials with knowledge of the exchanges who requested anonymity to discuss internal party matters. Mr. Trump would yell at Mr. Priebus and in turn Mr. Priebus would needle Mr. Ryan. When that did not work, Mr. Trump claimed Mr. Ryan had agreed to endorse him before a visit to Capitol Hill to try to woo fellow Republicans, a claim Mr. Ryan viewed as a serious breach. “That was the first realization that Trump wasn’t just a public persona,” said a Republican involved in planning the meeting, who insisted on anonymity so as not to alienate Mr. Trump, “but that his staff does not deal in good faith. ” In June, after a period of relative silence on Mr. Trump’s part, Mr. Ryan finally felt comfortable enough to endorse him. Staff members of both men began to coordinate for the Republican National Convention. But days later Mr. Ryan aggressively criticized Mr. Trump for his remarks about a Hispanic judge. Another outburst, and another brick on the wall was laid. “He was genuinely just outraged after all those comments,” Mr. Sykes said. A bright spot came in July, when Mr. Trump chose Indiana’s governor, Mike Pence, who has long been close to Mr. Ryan, as his running mate. Privately, Mr. Pence tried to assure skeptical Republicans that he would impose Mr. Ryan’s policy agenda if he and Mr. Trump captured the White House. Then in August, Mr. Trump toyed with endorsing Mr. Ryan’s opponent in a primary. Mr. Ryan, for his part, went on with his summer, serving as the chairman at the convention, where his role was unusually diminished. He watched Mr. Trump’s acceptance speech from a sky box. Mr. Trump called Mr. Ryan a handful of times after the convention, once to tell him about his choice of Mr. Pence, and to seek debate advice, which Mr. Ryan said focused on preparation. (Not heeded.) By the fall, Mr. Ryan had basically stopped speaking Mr. Trump’s name. The nominee made a request through the R. N. C. to campaign with Mr. Ryan, whose team agreed to invite Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence to an event this month in Wisconsin. Then came the tape of Mr. Trump making vulgar and lewd comments about women in 2005. Mr. Sykes let Mr. Priebus know via text that Mr. Trump was no longer welcome in Wisconsin. Mr. Sykes said Mr. Priebus responded: “I am the guy trying to fix this! I am in tears over this. ’” (A spokeswoman for Mr. Priebus acknowledged that he was upset, but denied any tears.) Mr. Ryan agonized over his options. Ultimately, he chose not to withdraw his endorsement to keep Republicans motivated to vote, which still angered some of his conference. “I think they ask far too much of the speaker,” said Representative Jason Chaffetz, Republican of Utah, who has renounced Mr. Trump. “His job is to help House Republicans. Period. ” Mr. Ryan will soon find out if those members of his party who support Mr. Trump might come after him in the next speaker election. “We knew they had extreme views and you kind of rolled your eyes and said they were on our team,” Mr. Sykes said. “How much damage could they do?”

Brzezinski: Trump ’Has ADD or Something,’ Not Shaking Hands With Merkel ’Buffoon-Like’ - Breitbart

Ian Hanchett

On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Mika Brzezinski stated that she thinks President Trump “has ADD or something, and he’s just not even there. ” Fellow former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough stated, “I find it spectacularly clumsy, some might even say stupid to not shake the hand of the — your most important ally in Europe. ” During Scarborough’s criticism of Trump, Brzezinski interjected, “ ?” She further stated, “And he can’t say he didn’t hear it. Just for the record, it wasn’t just her saying would you like to do a handshake. Was he out of it, somewhere else?” After Washington Post columnist David Ignatius argued Trump refused the handshake to “stick it to” the Germans, Brzezinski responded, “I honestly don’t think he thinks that hard. ” She added, “I have a different hypothesis. I think he’s thinking about what he’s going to eat for dinner. I don’t think he’s even there, honestly. I think he has ADD or something, and he’s just not even there. He was out of it. ” ( Mediaite) Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

Fuck you! I am not a doormat!

Lucy Van Pelt

Fuck you! I am not a doormat! Go home mama's boy! Mail with questions or comments about this site. "Godlike Productions" & "GLP" are registered trademarks of Zero Point Ltd. Godlike™ Website Design Copyright © 1999 - 2015 Godlikeproductions.com Page generated in 0.008s (8 queries)

Realities Faced by Black Canadians are a National Shame

Anonymous

Tweet Widget by Robyn Maynard Canada, including its French-speaking regions, is home to much the same kind of systemic racism as its southern neighbor, according to a United Nations Working Group report. Black women’s poverty rates are “almost five times higher than that of white Canadian women.” In Montreal, “a 2008 study found that black girls are three times more likely than white girls the same age to have been arrested two times or more.” Realities Faced by Black Canadians are a National Shame by Robyn Maynard This article previously appeared in the Montreal Gazette . “ Black Montrealers continue to experience dehumanizing treatment across institutions.” After holding consultations in Quebec, Nova Scotia and Ontario last month, the United Nations Working Group on People of African Descent issued a statement that sheds light on realities, too-often invisible to most Canadians, that should be seen as a national shame. The group’s preliminary findings confirm what is already well known in Canada’s black communities: that systemic discrimination has subjected black people to racial profiling by law enforcement, soaring incarceration rates, disproportionate poverty and poor health, the over-apprehension of black children by child welfare agencies and lower graduation rates. Black women, they note, face a rate of poverty that is almost five times higher than that of white Canadian women, and are one of the fastest-growing groups in federal prisons. Underlying these injustices, the UN Working Group has made clear, is systemic racism. The UN is right to be concerned, and Montreal is by no means exempt from this criticism: Both its historical and contemporary realities are defined by a systemic anti-blackness that goes too frequently un-named. The enslavement of black (and indigenous) persons was not an uncommon practice in New France, and indeed was legal until 1834. The fact of slavery remains all around us: acclaimed art historian Charmaine Nelson reminds us that many present-day Montreal streets, buildings and institutions are named after white businessmen like James McGill and John Redpath who traded in plantation crops worked by slave labor. Enslavement may be over, but centuries later black Montrealers — the largest visible minority in the city — continue to experience dehumanizing treatment across institutions. A 2010 study by sociologists Léonel Bernard and Christopher McAll found that it was over-surveillance, and not the rates of so-called “black crime,” that accounted for up to 60 per cent of the over-incarceration of black youth in Montreal. “The enslavement of black (and indigenous) persons was not an uncommon practice in New France, and indeed was legal until 1834.” A report commissioned by the Montreal police, leaked to La Presse, found that in St-Michel and Montréal-Nord, up to 40 per cent of black youth were stopped in 2006-2007, a rate that indicates a high degree of racial profiling by police officers. Much of this heightened policing was justified to the public as curbing “gang activities,” when in reality, in 2009, only 1.6 per cent of crimes were gang related. High profile cases of police abuse of black Montrealers and alleged abuse continue to surface, including the recent case of Veckqueth Stevenson, a legally blind black man in his 50s, who has accused the police of using excessive force and unjustly arresting him, ironically, while he was at Nelson Mandela Park. Black women and girls are not exempt, though we hear even less about their experiences locally; the case of Majiza Philip, a black woman who says she had her arm broken by police in 2014, is one example, however. A 2008 study found that black girls in Montreal are three times more likely than white girls the same age to have been arrested two times or more. Beyond the criminal justice system, numerous studies have demonstrated that black children are apprehended from their homes by child welfare at alarming rates in Montreal, and this, too, can be attributed to racism. The UN Working group is not the first to point out these injustices, nor are they the only ones proposing solutions. Black Lives Matter-Toronto and other black activist groups in Toronto, Kingston, Ottawa, Vancouver and Montreal have been steadily mobilizing to address anti-black racism. Across cities, black communities have denounced, among other issues, the recent deaths of Abdirahman Abdi in Ottawa, and Bony Jean-Pierre in Montreal, both at the hands of police in 2016. If Canada intends to genuinely reckon with its still-living legacy of black enslavement, the injustices brought to light by the UN — alongside those highlighted by black activists around the country — need to be both addressed and redressed. Robyn Maynard is an activist and writer living in Montreal, author of the forthcoming book Policing Black Bodies (2017).

Why Did Four Googles Kill This White?

Andrew Anglin

Migrant Crisis Disclaimer We here at the Daily Stormer are opposed to violence. We seek revolution through the education of the masses. When the information is available to the people, systemic change will be inevitable and unavoidable. Anyone suggesting or promoting violence in the comments section will be immediately banned, permanently. Daily Stormer Presents: Dr. David Duke © Copyright Daily Stormer 2016, All Rights Reserved

Bill Clinton’s ‘Son’ Danney Williams has Youtube Channel Restored

Infowars.com

Bill Clinton’s ‘Son’ Danney Williams has Youtube Channel Restored Youtube had deactivated channel hosting popular documentary linking Williams to Bill Clinton Infowars.com - October 27, 2016 Comments Youtube has decided to reverse its ban on a channel registered by a man who claims to be Bill Clinton’s long-lost son. “Your YouTube account was suspended due to repeated or severe violations of our Terms and our Community Guidelines, and as such cannot be restored,” the company wrote earlier this week to Danney Williams after he filed an appeal to restore his channel. For decades, Williams has been on a mission to reunite with the person he believes to be his biological father, the 42nd President of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton. The most popular video on the channel , a nine-minute mini-documentary posted two weeks ago produced by filmmaker Joel Gilbert, features the 30-year-old Williams recounting memories from his childhood which prompted the search for his father. Arguing the channel had “absolutely zero violations of any kind,” Gilbert places blame for the suspension squarely at Google and the Clinton campaign’s feet. “It’s obvious to me that the fix is in!” Gilbert wrote in a statement. “The only possible explanation is that the Clinton campaign requested YouTube/Google to silence Danny, ‘to run him off the plantation’ as Danny said Hillary Clinton did to him and his aunt when he was a small child and they were chased off the grounds of the Arkansas Governor’s mansion in 1990.” Youtube later restored Williams’ channel early Thursday morning claiming a review confirmed it was not in violation of its Terms of Service. Last week, Danney went to Las Vegas – the site of the third US presidential debate – where he held a press conference alongside his lawyers announcing his intention to seek a DNA sample from Bill Clinton in order to settle the paternity dispute. Danney and his lawyers claim a previous DNA test carried out by the tabloid Star Magazine failed to obtain a blood sample from Clinton, an assertion confirmed by one of Star’s former editors to World Net Daily . “I don’t remember ever seeing any laboratory test that was done on Clinton’s DNA,” former Star Magazine editor Phil Bunton stated to WND. Watch Infowars’ exclusive in-studio interview with Danney Williams from earlier in October. NEWSLETTER SIGN UP Get the latest breaking news & specials from Alex Jones and the Infowars Crew. Related Articles

A Presidential Golf Outing, With a Twist: Trump Owns the Place - The New York Times

Julie Hirschfeld Davis

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Black plastic covered the doors and windows in an ornate suite at one of President Trump’s resorts on Saturday, as he bonded with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan over a round of golf on a pristine day. The covering blocked American and Japanese journalists from capturing a glimpse of the leaders on the lush private course in Jupiter, Fla. But Mr. Trump’s aides snapped their own picture of the friendly tableau, posting a photo of the men sharing a with an American flag waving majestically in the distance, to the president’s social media accounts for his millions of followers to see. “Having a great time hosting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the United States!” Mr. Trump’s post said. This, after all, was the point of inviting Mr. Abe to his resort in Palm Beach: a chance to have a weekend hosting a foreign leader with whom he has said he wants to develop a close relationship. It allowed Mr. Trump to capitalize on some unscripted moments after an initial period in office marred by antagonistic exchanges with some foreign leaders. The news media blackout was nothing unusual in the annals of presidential free time. President Barack Obama routinely played golf out of sight of the press pool that traveled with him, only occasionally allowing a glimpse of him taking a swing or interacting with his partners. But it was the latest reminder that Mr. Trump’s presidency is mixing his official role with the business that bears his name. Mr. Abe’s visit was the first of what Mr. Trump’s top aides say will be many in which he uses the and castle on Florida’s Gold Coast, as a setting for forging relationships with important world leaders. That is likely to mean that the property — along with Trump golf courses nearby in Jupiter and West Palm Beach, where the president squired Mr. Abe on Saturday, along with the professional golfer Ernie Els — will draw increased attention and prominence, with all the potential for additional profit that brings. has doubled its initiation rate for new members, to $200, 000. “We got to know each other very, very well” on the golf course, Mr. Trump told reporters Saturday evening as he stood beside Mr. Abe and their wives on the way to dinner at . Nearby, a line of clubgoers in formal wear maneuvered Bentleys and into the driveway as a full moon rose over the palm trees. The administration said that Mr. Trump was hosting Mr. Abe and his wife as a “gift” to the Japanese leader and has said that any profits earned from the stays of members of foreign governments at Trump properties during his presidency would be donated to the United States Treasury, to avoid the appearance that he was cashing in on his office. It may be a frequent arrangement. Mr. Trump, his aides say, believes in getting to know foreign leaders with whom he will be spending time and taking their measure in informal settings outside Washington. “President Trump is a deal maker, and his coin of the realm is personal relationships and trying to convince people to negotiate a certain way in his favor, so this is what he does,” Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a scholar at the Brookings Institution who has studied presidential travel, said. Mr. Trump is not the first president to make use of a personal retreat to engage in informal diplomacy. George W. Bush hosted foreign leaders at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, while Bill Clinton used Camp David, the official presidential retreat near Thurmont, Md. as an informal backdrop for diplomacy, including efforts to forge peace in the Middle East. But for Mr. Trump, his retreat is also a club that benefits his family business, from which he has declined to divest. “It’s just one more example of using public office for private gain,” Richard W. Painter, a White House counsel to Mr. Bush who is an expert on government ethics, said. “He’s going to Trump this, Trump that — it’s clearly designed to raise the value of the brand and send the message to foreign leaders that you ought to patronize Trump properties if you want to get in good with the president. ” On Saturday, Mr. Trump appeared to have taken some steps to separate the personal from the political. While Mr. Trump and Mr. Abe shuttled from resort to resort in the armored presidential limousine known as the Beast, the flags that normally flutter on the front and the presidential seals that usually adorn the doors were absent, an indication that these were not official stops. There were other reminders that the visit was unfolding almost exclusively on Mr. Trump’s own turf. At the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, journalists traveling with him were admonished not to take pictures or video. “It’s a private club,” an aide explained.

Donald Trump’s Self-Funding Includes Payments to Family and His Companies - The New York Times

Alan Rappeport

Donald J. Trump regularly boasts that he is his presidential bid, but new campaign finance filings show that he is also shifting plenty of money back to himself in the process. According to documents submitted to the Federal Election Commission, Mr. Trump, whose campaign has just $1. 3 million cash on hand, paid at least $1. 1 million to his businesses and family members in May for expenses associated with events and travel costs. The total represents nearly a fifth of the $6 million that his campaign spent in the month. The spending raised eyebrows among campaign finance experts and some of Mr. Trump’s critics who have questioned whether the presumptive Republican nominee, who points to his business acumen as a case for his candidacy, is trying to do what he has suggested he would in 2000 when he mulled making an independent run: “It’s very possible that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it. ” “He could end up turning a profit if he repaid himself for the campaign loans,” said Paul S. Ryan, a campaign finance expert with the Campaign Legal Center. “He could get all his money back plus the profit margin for what his campaign has paid himself for goods and services. ” While most candidates list an array of vendors providing goods and services on their filings, Mr. Trump’s is packed with payments to his various clubs and buildings, his fleet of planes and his family. The billionaire is required by law to account for his spending this way to prevent his companies from making illegal corporate donations to his campaign. In 2015, about $2. 7 million was paid to at least seven companies Mr. Trump owns or to people who work for his real estate and branding empire, repaying them for services provided to his campaign. In May, the item was Mr. Trump’s use of the Club, his Florida resort, which was paid $423, 000. The campaign paid $350, 000 to TAG Air for his private airplanes, $125, 000 to Trump Restaurants and more than $170, 000 to Trump Tower, the Manhattan skyscraper that houses the campaign’s headquarters. Mr. Trump’s family also profited from the campaign last month, with his son Eric’s Virginia wine business taking in about $1, 300. And Mr. Trump, who has said he will not take a salary if he is elected president, paid himself $3, 085 in May. The disbursements are related to travel expenses, according to the filings. Mr. Ryan said that the extent to which Mr. Trump was utilizing his own businesses for his run was unprecedented and that because of his unique financial circumstances, he was wading into territory that went beyond the commission’s guidance. “We don’t have clear answers,” Mr. Ryan said. “Historically, candidates would separate themselves from their business interests when running for office. Trump has done the opposite by promoting his businesses while running for office. ” While candidates often gain recognition from running for president, they are barred from enriching themselves directly from their campaigns. When a campaign buys copies of a candidate’s book in bulk and distributes them, for example, the candidate cannot accept royalties from the purchases. However, Mr. Ryan notes that the election commission does allow candidates who own commercial property to rent it from themselves at fair market rates, as Mr. Trump has regularly done. Mr. Trump’s use of his branded water and steaks falls into something of a gray area. Ciara an election law expert at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, said that Mr. Trump did not appear to be violating any campaign finance laws, but that he could face more scrutiny over the use of his businesses for campaign purposes now that he is more explicitly asking supporters to donate money to the campaign. “It is something to keep an eye on,” she said, “because as soon as you start using campaign money that has come in from donors, not just the money that he has loaned to himself, and he uses it for something that he will personally keep, or his family will personally keep, that is what crosses the line. ” Whether Mr. Trump could end up profiting from his campaign remains a subject of speculation some have questioned if he will eventually ask for the more than $40 million that he has lent to his campaign to be repaid. The eventual effect of the campaign on Mr. Trump’s personal brand, which he has said represents a large part of his wealth, also remains unclear. Democrats on Tuesday tried to seize on the payments Mr. Trump made to his businesses as evidence of hypocrisy. Commenters on the liberal website Daily Kos ridiculed Mr. Trump for running a “scampaign” and overstating the personal investment he was making in his campaign by funneling the money back to his empire. Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee and Mr. Trump’s main rival this fall, also piled on, taking to Twitter on Tuesday to jab him over the expenditures and his relatively paltry sum in one swipe. “What is Trump spending his meager campaign resources on?” she said. “Why, himself, of course. ”

No More American Thanksgivings

Glen Ford

Thanksgiving by Glen Ford “The core ideological content of the holiday serves to validate all that has since occurred on these shores – a national consecration of the unspeakable, a balm and benediction for the victors, a blessing of the fruits of murder and kidnapping, and an implicit obligation to continue the seamless historical project in the present day.” No More American Thanksgivings by Glen Ford This article originally appeared in the November 27, 2003 , issue of The Black Commentator, which Glen Ford co-founded and edited. Nobody but Americans celebrates Thanksgiving. It is reserved by history and the intent of “the founders” as the supremely white American holiday, the most ghoulish event on the national calendar. No Halloween of the imagination can rival the exterminationist reality that was the genesis, and remains the legacy, of the American Thanksgiving. It is the most loathsome, humanity-insulting day of the year – a pure glorification of racist barbarity. We at are thankful that the day grows nearer when the almost four centuries-old abomination will be deprived of its reason for being: white supremacy. Then we may all eat and drink in peace and gratitude for the blessings of humanity’s deliverance from the rule of evil men. Thanksgiving is much more than a lie – if it were that simple, an historical correction of the record of events in 1600s Massachusetts would suffice to purge the “flaw” in the national mythology. But Thanksgiving is not just a twisted fable, and the mythology it nurtures is itself inherently evil. The real-life events – subsequently revised – were perfectly understood at the time as the first, definitive triumphs of the genocidal European project in New England. The near-erasure of Native Americans in Massachusetts and, soon thereafter, from most of the remainder of the northern English colonial seaboard was the true mission of the Pilgrim enterprise – Act One of the American Dream. African Slavery commenced contemporaneously – an overlapping and ultimately inseparable Act Two. The last Act in the American drama must be the “root and branch” eradication of all vestiges of Act One and Two – America’s seminal crimes and formative projects. Thanksgiving as presently celebrated – that is, as a national political event – is an affront to civilization. Celebrating the unspeakable White America embraced Thanksgiving because a majority of that population glories in the fruits, if not the unpleasant details, of genocide and slavery and feels, on the whole, good about their heritage: a cornucopia of privilege and national power. Children are taught to identify with the good fortune of the Pilgrims. It does not much matter that the Native American and African holocausts that flowed from the feast at Plymouth are hidden from the children’s version of the story – kids learn soon enough that Indians were made scarce and Africans became enslaved. But they will also never forget the core message of the holiday: that the Pilgrims were good people, who could not have purposely set such evil in motion. Just as the first Thanksgivings marked the consolidation of the English toehold in what became the United States, the core ideological content of the holiday serves to validate all that has since occurred on these shores – a national consecration of the unspeakable, a balm and benediction for the victors, a blessing of the fruits of murder and kidnapping, and an implicit obligation to continue the seamless historical project in the present day. The Thanksgiving story is an absolution of the Pilgrims, whose brutal quest for absolute power in the New World is made to seem both religiously motivated and eminently human. Most importantly, the Pilgrims are depicted as victims – of harsh weather and their own naïve yet wholesome visions of a new beginning. In light of this carefully nurtured fable, whatever happened to the Indians, from Plymouth to California and beyond, in the aftermath of the 1621 dinner must be considered a mistake, the result of misunderstandings – at worst, a series of lamentable tragedies. The story provides the essential first frame of the American saga. It is unalloyed racist propaganda, a tale that endures because it served the purposes of a succession of the Pilgrims’ political heirs, in much the same way that Nazi-enhanced mythology of a glorious Aryan/German past advanced another murderous, expansionist mission. Thanksgiving is quite dangerous – as were the Pilgrims. Rejoicing in a cemetery The English settlers, their ostensibly religious venture backed by a trading company, were glad to discover that they had landed in a virtual cemetery in 1620. Corn still sprouted in the abandoned fields of the Wampanoags , but only a remnant of the local population remained around the fabled Rock. In a letter to England, Massachusetts Bay colony founder John Winthrop wrote, "But for the natives in these parts, God hath so pursued them, as for 300 miles space the greatest part of them are swept away by smallpox which still continues among them. So as God hath thereby cleared our title to this place, those who remain in these parts, being in all not 50, have put themselves under our protection." Ever diligent to claim their own advantages as God’s will, the Pilgrims thanked their deity for having “pursued” the Indians to mass death. However, it was not divine intervention that wiped out most of the natives around the village of Patuxet but, most likely, smallpox-embedded blankets planted during an English visit or slave raid. Six years before the Pilgrim landing, a ship sailed into Patuxet’s harbor, captained by none other than the famous seaman and mercenary soldier John Smith , former leader of the first successful English colony in the New World, at Jamestown, Virginia. Epidemic and slavery followed in his wake, as Debra Glidden described in IMDiversity.com : In 1614 the Plymouth Company of England, a joint stock company, hired Captain John Smith to explore land in its behalf. Along what is now the coast of Massachusetts in the territory of the Wampanoag, Smith visited the town of Patuxet according to "The Colonial Horizon," a 1969 book edited by William Goetzinan. Smith renamed the town Plymouth in honor of his employers, but the Wampanoag who inhabited the town continued to call it Patuxet. The following year Captain Hunt, an English slave trader, arrived at Patuxet. It was common practice for explorers to capture Indians, take them to Europe and sell them into slavery for 220 shillings apiece. That practice was described in a 1622 account of happenings entitled "A Declaration of the State of the Colony and Affairs in Virginia," written by Edward Waterhouse. True to the explorer tradition, Hunt kidnapped a number of Wampanoags to sell into slavery. Another common practice among European explorers was to give "smallpox blankets" to the Indians. Since smallpox was unknown on this continent prior to the arrival of the Europeans, Native Americans did not have any natural immunity to the disease so smallpox would effectively wipe out entire villages with very little effort required by the Europeans. William Fenton describes how Europeans decimated Native American villages in his 1957 work "American Indian and White relations to 1830." From 1615 to 1619 smallpox ran rampant among the Wampanoags and their neighbors to the north. The Wampanoag lost 70 percent of their population to the epidemic and the Massachusetts lost 90 percent. Most of the Wampanoag had died from the smallpox epidemic so when the Pilgrims arrived they found well-cleared fields which they claimed for their own. A Puritan colonist, quoted by Harvard University's Perry Miller, praised the plague that had wiped out the Indians for it was "the wonderful preparation of the Lord Jesus Christ, by his providence for his people's abode in the Western world." Historians have since speculated endlessly on why the woods in the region resembled a park to the disembarking Pilgrims in 1620. The reason should have been obvious: hundreds, if not thousands, of people had lived there just five years before. In less than three generations the settlers would turn all of New England into a charnel house for Native Americans, and fire the economic engines of slavery throughout English-speaking America. Plymouth Rock is the place where the nightmare truly began. The uninvited? It is not at all clear what happened at the first – and only – “integrated” Thanksgiving feast. Only two written accounts of the three-day event exist, and one of them, by Governor William Bradford, was written 20 years after the fact. Was Chief Massasoit invited to bring 90 Indians with him to dine with 52 colonists, most of them women and children? This seems unlikely. A good harvest had provided the settlers with plenty of food, according to their accounts, so the whites didn’t really need the Wampanoag’s offering of five deer. What we do know is that there had been lots of tension between the two groups that fall. John Two-Hawks, who runs the Native Circle web site, gives a sketch of the facts: “Thanksgiving' did not begin as a great loving relationship between the pilgrims and the Wampanoag, Pequot and Narragansett people. In fact, in October of 1621 when the pilgrim survivors of their first winter in Turtle Island sat down to share the first unofficial 'Thanksgiving' meal, the Indians who were there were not even invited! There was no turkey, squash, cranberry sauce or pumpkin pie. A few days before this alleged feast took place, a company of 'pilgrims' led by Miles Standish actively sought the head of a local Indian chief, and an 11 foot high wall was erected around the entire Plymouth settlement for the very purpose of keeping Indians out!” It is much more likely that Chief Massasoit either crashed the party, or brought enough men to ensure that he was not kidnapped or harmed by the Pilgrims. Dr. Tingba Apidta, in his “ Black Folks’ Guide to Understanding Thanksgiving ,” surmises that the settlers “brandished their weaponry” early and got drunk soon thereafter. He notes that “each Pilgrim drank at least a half gallon of beer a day, which they preferred even to water. This daily inebriation led their governor, William Bradford, to comment on his people's ‘notorious sin,’ which included their ‘drunkenness and uncleanliness’ and rampant ‘sodomy.’” Soon after the feast the brutish Miles Standish “got his bloody prize,” Dr. Apidta writes: “He went to the Indians, pretended to be a trader, then beheaded an Indian man named Wituwamat. He brought the head to Plymouth, where it was displayed on a wooden spike for many years, according to Gary B. Nash, ‘as a symbol of white power.’ Standish had the Indian man's young brother hanged from the rafters for good measure. From that time on, the whites were known to the Indians of Massachusetts by the name ‘Wotowquenange,’ which in their tongue meant cutthroats and stabbers.” What is certain is that the first feast was not called a “Thanksgiving” at the time; no further integrated dining occasions were scheduled; and the first, official all-Pilgrim “Thanksgiving” had to wait until 1637, when the whites of New England celebrated the massacre of the Wampanoag’s southern neighbors, the Pequots. The real Thanksgiving Day Massacre The Pequots today own the Foxwood Casino and Hotel , in Ledyard, Connecticut, with gross gaming revenues of over $9 billion in 2000. This is truly a (very belated) miracle, since the real first Pilgrim Thanksgiving was intended as the Pequot’s epitaph. Sixteen years after the problematical Plymouth feast, the English tried mightily to erase the Pequots from the face of the Earth, and thanked God for the blessing. Having subdued, intimidated or made mercenaries of most of the tribes of Massachusetts, the English turned their growing force southward, toward the rich Connecticut valley, the Pequot’s sphere of influence. At the point where the Mystic River meets the sea, the combined force of English and allied Indians bypassed the Pequot fort to attack and set ablaze a town full of women, children and old people. William Bradford, the former Governor of Plymouth and one of the chroniclers of the 1621 feast, was also on hand for the great massacre of 1637: "Those that escaped the fire were slain with the sword; some hewed to pieces, others run through with their rapiers, so that they were quickly dispatched and very few escaped. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire...horrible was the stink and scent thereof, but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to enclose their enemies in their hands, and give them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an enemy." The rest of the white folks thought so, too. “This day forth shall be a day of celebration and thanksgiving for subduing the Pequots," read Governor John Winthrop’s proclamation. The authentic Thanksgiving Day was born. Most historians believe about 700 Pequots were slaughtered at Mystic. Many prisoners were executed, and surviving women and children sold into slavery in the West Indies. Pequot prisoners that escaped execution were parceled out to Indian tribes allied with the English. The Pequot were thought to have been extinguished as a people. According to IndyMedia , “The Pequot tribe numbered 8,000 when the Pilgrims arrived, but disease had brought their numbers down to 1,500 by 1637. The Pequot ‘War’ killed all but a handful of remaining members of the tribe.” But there were still too many Indians around to suit the whites of New England, who bided their time while their own numbers increased to critical, murderous mass. Guest’s head on a pole By the 1670s the colonists, with 8,000 men under arms, felt strong enough to demand that the Pilgrims’ former dinner guests the Wampanoags disarm and submit to the authority of the Crown. After a series of settler provocations in 1675, the Wampanoag struck back, under the leadership of Chief Metacomet, son of Massasoit, called King Philip by the English. Metacomet/Philip, whose wife and son were captured and sold into West Indian slavery, wiped out 13 settlements and killed 600 adult white men before the tide of battle turned. A 1996 issue of the Revolutionary Worker provides an excellent narrative. In their victory, the settlers launched an all-out genocide against the remaining Native people. The Massachusetts government offered 20 shillings bounty for every Indian scalp, and 40 shillings for every prisoner who could be sold into slavery. Soldiers were allowed to enslave any Indian woman or child under 14 they could capture. The "Praying Indians" who had converted to Christianity and fought on the side of the European troops were accused of shooting into the treetops during battles with "hostiles." They were enslaved or killed. Other "peaceful" Indians of Dartmouth and Dover were invited to negotiate or seek refuge at trading posts – and were sold onto slave ships. It is not known how many Indians were sold into slavery, but in this campaign, 500 enslaved Indians were shipped from Plymouth alone. Of the 12,000 Indians in the surrounding tribes, probably about half died from battle, massacre and starvation. After King Philip's War, there were almost no Indians left free in the northern British colonies. A colonist wrote from Manhattan's New York colony: "There is now but few Indians upon the island and those few no ways hurtful. It is to be admired how strangely they have decreased by the hand of God, since the English first settled in these parts." In Massachusetts, the colonists declared a "day of public thanksgiving" in 1676, saying, "there now scarce remains a name or family of them [the Indians] but are either slain, captivated or fled." Fifty-five years after the original Thanksgiving Day, the Puritans had destroyed the generous Wampanoag and all other neighboring tribes. The Wampanoag chief King Philip was beheaded. His head was stuck on a pole in Plymouth, where the skull still hung on display 24 years later. This is not thought to be a fit Thanksgiving tale for the children of today, but it’s the real story, well-known to the settler children of New England at the time – the white kids who saw the Wampanoag head on the pole year after year and knew for certain that God loved them best of all, and that every atrocity they might ever commit against a heathen, non-white was blessed. There’s a good term for the process thus set in motion: nation-building. Roots of the slave trade The British North American colonists’ practice of enslaving Indians for labor or direct sale to the West Indies preceded the appearance of the first chained Africans at the dock in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. The Jamestown colonists’ human transaction with the Dutch vessel was an unscheduled occurrence. However, once the African slave trade became commercially established, the fates of Indians and Africans in the colonies became inextricably entwined. New England, born of up-close-and-personal, burn-them-in-the-fires-of-hell genocide, led the political and commercial development of the English colonies. The region also led the nascent nation’s descent into a slavery-based society and economy. Ironically, an apologist for Virginian slavery made one of the best, early cases for the indictment of New England as the engine of the American slave trade. Unreconstructed secessionist Lewis Dabney’s 1867 book “ A Defense of Virginia ” traced the slave trade’s origins all the way back to Plymouth Rock: The planting of the commercial States of North America began with the colony of Puritan Independents at Plymouth, in 1620, which was subsequently enlarged into the State of Massachusetts. The other trading colonies, Rhode Island and Connecticut, as well as New Hampshire (which never had an extensive shipping interest), were offshoots of Massachusetts. They partook of the same characteristics and pursuits; and hence, the example of the parent colony is taken here as a fair representation of them. The first ship from America, which embarked in the African slave trade, was the Desire , Captain Pierce, of Salem; and this was among the first vessels ever built in the colony. The promptitude with which the "Puritan Fathers" embarked in this business may be comprehended, when it is stated that the Desire sailed upon her voyage in June, 1637. [Note: the year they massacred the Pequots.] The first feeble and dubious foothold was gained by the white man at Plymouth less than seventeen years before; and as is well known, many years were expended by the struggle of the handful of settlers for existence. So that it may be correctly said, that the commerce of New England was born of the slave trade; as its subsequent prosperity was largely founded upon it. The Desire , proceeding to the Bahamas, with a cargo of "dry fish and strong liquors, the only commodities for those parts," obtained the negroes from two British men-of-war, which had captured them from a Spanish slaver. Thus, the trade of which the good ship Desire , of Salem, was the harbinger, grew into grand proportions; and for nearly two centuries poured a flood of wealth into New England, as well as no inconsiderable number of slaves. Meanwhile, the other maritime colonies of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and Connecticut, followed the example of their elder sister emulously; and their commercial history is but a repetition of that of Massachusetts. The towns of Providence, Newport, and New Haven became famous slave trading ports. The magnificent harbor of the second, especially, was the favorite starting-place of the slave ships; and its commerce rivaled, or even exceeded, that of the present commercial metropolis, New York. All the four original States, of course, became slaveholding. The Revolution that exploded in 1770s New England was undertaken by men thoroughly imbued with the worldview of the Indian-killer and slave-holder. How could they not be? The “country” they claimed as their own was fathered by genocide and mothered by slavery – its true distinction among the commercial nations of the world. And these men were not ashamed, but proud, with vast ambition to spread their exceptional characteristics West and South and wherever their so-far successful project in nation-building might take them – and by the same bloody, savage methods that had served them so well in the past. At the moment of deepest national crisis following the battle of Gettysburg in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln invoked the national fable that is far more central to the white American personality than Lincoln’s battlefield “Address.” Lincoln seized upon the 1621 feast as the historic “Thanksgiving” – bypassing the official and authentic 1637 precedent – and assigned the dateless, murky event the fourth Thursday in November. Lincoln surveyed a broken nation, and attempted nation-rebuilding, based on the purest white myth. The same year that he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, he renewed the national commitment to a white manifest destiny that began at Plymouth Rock. Lincoln sought to rekindle a shared national mission that former Confederates and Unionists and white immigrants from Europe could collectively embrace. It was and remains a barbaric and racist national unifier, by definition. Only the most fantastic lies can sanitize the history of the Plymouth Colony of Massachusetts. ”Like a rock” The Thanksgiving holiday fable is at once a window on the way that many, if not most, white Americans view the world and their place in it, and a pollutant that leaches barbarism into the modern era. The fable attempts to glorify the indefensible, to enshrine an era and mission that represent the nation’s lowest moral denominators . Thanksgiving as framed in the mythology is, consequently, a drag on that which is potentially civilizing in the national character, a crippling, atavistic deformity. Defenders of the holiday will claim that the politically-corrected children’s version promotes brotherhood, but that is an impossibility – a bald excuse to prolong the worship of colonial “forefathers” and to erase the crimes they committed. Those bastards burned the Pequot women and children, and ushered in the multinational business of slavery. These are facts. The myth is an insidious diversion – and worse. Humanity cannot tolerate a 21st Century superpower, much of whose population perceives the world through the eyes of 17th Century land and flesh bandits. Yet that is the trick that fate has played on the globe. We described the roots of the planetary dilemma in our March 13 commentary, “ Racism & War, Perfect Together. ” The English arrived with criminal intent - and brought wives and children to form new societies predicated on successful plunder. To justify the murderous enterprise, Indians who had initially cooperated with the squatters were transmogrified into "savages" deserving displacement and death. The relentlessly refreshed lie of Indian savagery became a truth in the minds of white Americans, a fact to be acted upon by every succeeding generation of whites. The settlers became a singular people confronting the great "frontier" - a euphemism for centuries of genocidal campaigns against a darker, "savage" people marked for extinction. The necessity of genocide was the operative, working assumption of the expanding American nation. "Manifest Destiny" was born at Plymouth Rock and Jamestown, later to fall (to paraphrase Malcolm) like a rock on Mexico, the Philippines, Haiti, Nicaragua, etc. Little children were taught that the American project was inherently good, Godly, and that those who got in the way were "evil-doers" or just plain subhuman, to be gloriously eliminated. The lie is central to white American identity, embraced by waves of European settlers who never saw a red person. Only a century ago, American soldiers caused the deaths of possibly a million Filipinos whom they had been sent to “liberate” from Spanish rule. They didn’t even know who they were killing, and so rationalized their behavior by substituting the usual American victims. Colonel Funston , of the Twentieth Kansas Volunteers, explained what got him motivated in the Philippines: "Our fighting blood was up and we all wanted to kill 'niggers.' This shooting human beings is a 'hot game,' and beats rabbit hunting all to pieces." Another wrote that "the boys go for the enemy as if they were chasing jack-rabbits .... I, for one, hope that Uncle Sam will apply the chastening rod, good, hard, and plenty, and lay it on until they come into the reservation and promise to be good 'Injuns.'" Last week in northern Iraq another American colonel, Joe Anderson of the 101st Airborne (Assault) Division, revealed that he is incapable of perceiving Arabs as human beings. Colonel Anderson, who doubles as a commander and host of a radio call-in program and a TV show designed to win the hearts and minds of the people of Mosul, had learned that someone was out to assassinate him. In the wild mood swing common to racists, Anderson decided that Iraqis are all alike – and of a different breed. He said as much to the Los Angeles Times . "They don't understand being nice," said Anderson, who helps oversee the military zone that includes Mosul and environs. He doesn't hide his irritation after months dedicated to restoring the city: "We spent so long here working with kid gloves, but the average Iraqi guy will tell you, 'The only thing people respect here is violence…. They only understand being shot at, being killed. That's the culture.' … Nice guys do finish last here." Col. Anderson personifies the unfitness of Americans to play a major role in the world, much less rule it. "We poured a lot of our heart and soul into trying to help the people,” he bitched, as if Americans were God’s gift to the planet. "But it can be frustrating when you hear stupid people still saying, 'You're occupiers. You want our oil. You're turning our country over to Israel.'” He cannot fathom that other people – non-whites – aspire to run their own affairs, and will kill and die to achieve that basic right. What does this have to do with the Mayflower? Everything. Although possibly against their wishes, the Pilgrims hosted the Wampanoag for three no doubt anxious days. The same men killed and enslaved Wampanoags immediately before and after the feast. They, their newly arrived English comrades and their children roasted hundreds of neighboring Indians alive just 16 years later, and two generations afterwards cleared nearly the whole of New England of its indigenous “savages,” while enthusiastically enriching themselves through the invention of transoceanic, sophisticated means of enslaving millions. The Mayflower’s cultural heirs are programmed to find glory in their own depravity, and savagery in their most helpless victims, who can only redeem themselves by accepting the inherent goodness of white Americans. Thanksgiving encourages these cognitive cripples in their madness, just as it is designed to do.

Hillary Clinton Speaks to the Dead For ‘Therapeutic Release’

Cassandra Fairbanks

We Are Change As disturbing revelations about Hillary Clinton’s inner circle come to light thanks to the Wikileaks revelations, it seems like an appropriate time to remind everyone that the former First Lady speaks to the dead for “therapeutic release.” Clinton’s bizarre pastime was detailed in the 1996 book “The Choice” by Bob Woodward. Some of the candidate’s favorite dead friends include Eleanor Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi. When it was suggested by one of her advisers, Jean Houston, the co-director of the Foundation for Mind Research, that she try speaking to Jesus Christ instead. Clinton refused and stated that speaking to Jesus would be “too personal.” “Most people in the White House did not know about Hillary’s sessions with Houston. … To some of the few who did, the meetings could trigger politically damaging comparisons to Nancy Reagan’s use of astrology,” Woodward wrote. Clinton has not been very secretive about her penchant for speaking to the dead, either. In the 90s, she wrote about a discussion she had with Eleanor Roosevelt, and what she claims the spirit told her. “She usually responds by telling me to buck up, or at least to grow skin as thick as a rhinoceros,” Mrs. Clinton wrote in a column about her seeking advice from the dead former First Lady. Bill Clinton even spoke about his wife’s conversations with the dead during a speech in 2012. On Friday, it was revealed that her campaign chairman John Podesta was invited by his brother to attend a “ Spirit Cooking ” dinner. The Podestas' "Spirit Cooking" dinner? It's not what you think. It's blood, sperm and breastmilk. But mostly blood. https://t.co/gGPWFS3B2H pic.twitter.com/I43KiiraDh — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) November 4, 2016 In a shocking video, the woman who invited them, performance artist and occultist Marina Abramovic is seen painting the recipe for these “spirit dinners,” using what appears to be thickly coagulated blood. The recipe read, at one point, “mix fresh breast milk with fresh sperm, drink on earthquake nights.” @CassandraRules #SpiritCooking #podestaemails27 #WikiLeaksPhase3 #PodestaEmails #SatanicHillary #wikileaks28 #WikiLeaks #MAGA3X pic.twitter.com/rwAOpo8FaS — Aussies For Trump ?? (@DeplorableDan2) November 4, 2016 The revelation sparked massive concerns that the candidate’s inner circle, and perhaps even herself, are participating in some very dark things. A woman involved in occult blood rituals was invited to Hillary's campaign launch. #SpiritCooking https://t.co/hVbiefAvIt pic.twitter.com/5cW8nw6AZs — Johnny Ringo (@JR4Trump) November 4, 2016 Abramovic donated the maximum amount of $2,700 to Clinton’s campaign, and was personally invited to attend her campaign launch. The post Hillary Clinton Speaks to the Dead For ‘Therapeutic Release’ appeared first on We Are Change .

Koala gets so excited it runs head-first into a tree

Poke Staff

Next Swipe left/right Koala gets so excited it runs head-first into a tree Mason, a baby Koala at the Port Stephens Koala sanctuary in Australia, gets so excited he runs head-first into a tree.

Rubio on Russia Probe: ’I Wouldn’t Use the Term Witch Hunt’ - Breitbart

Pam Key

Sen. Marco Rubio says he wouldn’t use the term “witch hunt” because “these questions need to be answered” #CNNSOTU https: . On Sunday’s broadcast of on CNN’s “State of the Union,” when asked about President Donald Trump’s tweet claiming the naming of a special counsel is part of “single greatest witch hunt” in American political history, Sen. Marco Rubio ( ) said he wouldn’t use the term “witch hunt” to describe the investigation into possible ties between President Trump’s campaign and Russia. Rubio said, “I wouldn’t use the term witch hunt. ” He added, “I want to know the truth, I want to know the entire truth, I want us to put it in a report and I want to share it with you and the whole country so people can reach their own conclusion. ” ( The Hill) Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

Trump’s Opponents See Normal Americans as Deplorables — Paul Craig Roberts

pcr3

Trump’s Opponents See Normal Americans as Deplorables Paul Craig Roberts I guess we have all noticed that the holier-than-thou groups who whined that Trump wasn’t going to accept the outcome of the election refuse to accept it themselves. Because I was critical of the George W. Bush regime, the liberal-progressive-leftwing and homosexual/transgendered rights groups have me on their mailing lists. And it is unbelievable. The entirety of “the other America” refuses to accept the people’s decision. They think that their concerns are more important than the concerns of the American people, who they regard as nothing but a collection of racist homophobic rednecks. Unless they provoke him beyond reason, Trump is not going to bother any of these people. Trump wants to bring middle class jobs back to Americans, including for all those paid to protest him. In order to avoide nuclear war, Trump wants to restore normal relations between the major nuclear powers. When there are no jobs for Americans that pay enough to support an independent existence, Trump doesn’t see the point of massive legal and illegal immigration. This is only common sense. Yet “the threatened people” see it as fascism. Who are “the threatened people?” As always, the most powerful. Tell me, what lobby is more powerful than the Israel Lobby? You can’t. But the Jewish Lobby, J Street, has sent me a hysterical email at 5:11pm on 14 November. Unless “we all come together and oppose Trump’s appointment of Breitbart editor Stephan Bannon as chief strategist and senior counselor” a “wave of hate will sweep across the land,” consuming “Jews, Muslims, African-Americans, LGBT peoople (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered), immigrants, Hispanics, women and other groups.” Really now! So is Trump’s chief strategist, whatever position that is, going to attack the Jews and those with unusual sexual impulses with drones and cluster bombs, like the zionist neoconservatives who controlled the Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama regimes did to millions of slaughtered and displaced peoples in 7 countries, and like Israel does to Palestinians? Or is the former Breitbart editor going to round them all up and torture them in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo like Bush and Obama did. And like Netanyahu does in Israel? Or will Trump simply shoot them down in the streets like Netanyahu does to the Palestinian women and children. How come J Street and the Oligarchy-funded fronts are only concerned with nonexistent threats and ignore all of the real threats? According to J Street, the main concern is that Trump has appointed an “Alt-Right” person to advise him. Dangerous tensions between nuclear powers? A collapsing American middle class? These concerns, if present, are in the peripheral vision of the “threatened people.” According to the front group known as the Southern Poverty Law Center, Trump’s election by fly-over America has resulted in “over 250 reports of hate crimes around the country.” Is the Southern Poverty Law Center including the brutal beating of a white man by a gang of blacks? How many innocents has Trump slaughtered and put into concentration camps? How many countries has he invaded? The corrupt American media and oligarchic front groups have created “the new Hitler” before he is even inaugerated. The Klingon Clintons and neoconed Bush/Cheney and Obama killing regimes have murdered more people and invaded more countries than Hitler, and the holier-than-thou group doesn’t care. Yet, the all-powerful Israeli Lobby thinks a Breibart editor is going to target the Jews, immigrants, the transgendered and homosexuals, women, Muslims, Hispanics, “and other groups.” What a change this will be. Only non-immigrant, white, heterosexual males will be in the protected group known as the “preferred minority.” We must hope that Donald Trump understands the state of moral, cultural, legal, and political collapse that America is in. Two years ago at the Valdai International Discussion Club, Russian President Vladimir Putin said: “Many of the Euro-Atlantic countries are actually rejecting their roots, including the Christian values that constitute the basis of Western civilization. They are denying moral principles and all traditional identities, national, cultural, religious, and even secular. They are implementing policies that equate families with same-sex partnerships, worship of God with worship of Satan. I am convinced that this opens a direct path to degradation and primitivism, resulting in a profound demographic and moral crisis.” Ordinary Americans know what he means. They are forced to accept blasphemous films about Jesus Christ and shameless newspaper caricatures of the Virgin Mary, but if one of them calls a homosexual a pervert, he has committed a hate crime. America is a country without an honest media. A country wihout an honest judiciary. Without an honest government. Without an honest legislature. Without honest schools and universities. A country whose morals are confused by propaganda. A country whose elites believe that they are entitled to all the income and wealth and that normal American people are the “deplorables,” to use Hillary’s term for ordinary Americans. The post Trump’s Opponents See Normal Americans as Deplorables — Paul Craig Roberts appeared first on PaulCraigRoberts.org .

Coulter Calls Out ’Beta Males’ for Threatening ’Rodney King Riots’ Over Berkeley Speech - Breitbart

Jeff Poor

Thursday on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” conservative commentator Ann Coulter, author of “In Trump We Trust: E Pluribus Awesome!” took aim at what she described as “beta males” behind what could be “Rodney King riots” staged to protest a speech she has pledged to give next week at the University of California in Berkeley, CA. After having her speech canceled by officials due to safety concerns and then only to have those same officials propose an alternate date for her speech, Coulter dismissed the claim security as a reason for any cancellation. She labeled the protesters as “beta males” with weapons behind what could be “Rodney King riots” allowed by the local police department. “[N]one of this has to do with security,” she said. “After acceding to all their requirements, which were also arbitrary and silly, and they claimed it was on the basis of safety, I suggested two measures that actually would allow free speech to exist on Berkeley if they wanted it to. And that was one thing to announce that any students caught engaging in violence, mayhem, or disrupting an invited speaker’s speech would be expelled. And number two, to have a little talk with the Berkeley chief of police, who is allowing these Rodney King riots to go on whenever conservative speaker speaks. ” “I mean, it is anarchy when you are only enforcing the law in order to allow liberals to speak,” she continued. “But, no, we’ll let these masked rioters show up with weapons and start — I mean, they are all little beta males, but with a weapon, even a beta male can do some damage, especially to a girl. To have them stepping in, those private individuals, according to courts, are acting under color of state law. And for the police to refuse to protect even offensive speech and by the way, and I’m the author of 12 New York Times . This has damaged my reputation for them to be acting like I’m David Duke out there. But courts have found, even somebody out burning an American flag, the police cannot stand by and let skinheads beat them up. That is viewpoint discrimination. And they are all liable. ” ( RCP Video) Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor

‘The Bodies Are Decomposing’ After Mudslide in Colombia - The New York Times

Nicholas Casey

José Estrella pulled a handkerchief to cover his face as he began to speak. The air around the morgue in Mocoa was filled with the smell of the dead, he said, who included his sister and two nephews. “Now the bodies are decomposing because they are in open air,” said Mr. Estrella, his voice cracking as he spoke by telephone. He was unable to retrieve the bodies, he said the morgue, overloaded with the dead, was understaffed. The bodies were piling up on Monday morning in Mocoa, a Colombian city where mud and debris had made it impossible in places to see that anyone had ever lived there. Rescue workers continued to scour the rubble for the dead. And family members, like Mr. Estrella, pleaded for the bodies of loved ones so they could offer them a proper burial. The provincial capital in the southern mountains of the country was devastated by a flood of water and debris on Saturday that has so far claimed at least 262 lives. The heavy rains caused nearby rivers to rise, generating a torrent that leveled homes and neighborhoods. “The putrefaction is beginning,” said Nixon Piaguaje, a local radio journalist. Rescue teams, some covered in mud, waded through a landscape of stone and earth in what in many cases had become a search for bodies rather than survivors. Hundreds of relief workers arrived in the town to distribute supplies. President Juan Manuel Santos acknowledged “bottlenecks” in the relief process, but said more help would be arriving soon and promised a full reconstruction of the city. Edgar Ruiz, an indigenous leader, expressed frustration in a phone interview after trudging through the mud searching for lost members from his community, the Siona people. So far, he said, he had located six families alive from his group, but eight more were unaccounted for. “We went to the health centers and the morgue as well, but they were nowhere,” he said. Mr. Santos said that at least 43 of the dead were children. “We send our prayers to all of them,” he said. “To their families we send condolences and the sympathy of the entire country. ” Colombian television transmitted images of loved ones still searching for lost children in the rubble. “I did everything that was possible: I told my son don’t let go, and he said he wouldn’t,” Yuri Narváez told Colombian television station Caracol TV. “But the current came and we lost him. ” Mr. Piaguaje, the radio journalist, said there were so many bodies that there was no one to bury them all. “When someone finds a cadaver, they take them to the cemetery and just leave them there,” he said. He said scores of bodies were still lying in open air. On Monday afternoon, Mr. Estrella, the man who was unable to get the bodies of his relatives in the morgue, recalled rushing to the neighborhood of San Miguel after hearing the mudslide to see if his family members were still alive. Instead he looked on as rescue workers pulled out their bodies: First his sister, who lay near the ruins of her home, then her two daughters, one 8, the other just 5 months. He said he had since been haunted by the smell of the dead. “You smell it for hundreds of feet,” he said. “There are people who faint when they open the bags and the bodies are putrefied. ”

3 Effects of Substance Abuse on Individual, Family and Community

Heather Callaghan

Drug and substance abuse has ruined and taken the lives of many. Substance addiction or abuse happens to be a complicated and complex disease which gradually gnaws the addict of their physical,...

Doctors prescribe deadly opioid for pain-related issues that aren’t even legal

D. Samuelson

Doctors prescribe deadly opioid for pain-related issues that aren’t even legal share in: Big Pharma , FDA , Harmful medicine , Health , medical marijuana , Pharmaceutical Drug Addiction Corruption. Bribery. Death. All three are examined in various news reports on a little known “specialty pharmaceutical company” called Insys Theraputics. They are currently under legal fire for Subsys, a controversial sublingual spray that disperses fentanyl, a very fast acting opioid that is “80 times more potent than morphine.” The under the tongue delivery allows the fentanyl to bypass the gastrointestinal system and deliver the opioid directly into the blood stream. The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) has ruled that Subsys can only be prescribed to help cancer patients gain relief from “sudden spikes of excruciating pain.” Sarah Fuller was a 32 year old woman who suffered from anxiety and fibromyalgia . She didn’t have cancer. But that didn’t stop her doctor from prescribing Subsys for her aches and pains. The fentanyl acted quickly with Sarah’s already prescribed Xanax, a benzodiazepine. She died. Her family is suing the manufacturer. But why did Sarah’s doctor prescribe a drug that wasn’t approved? That’s easy to answer. Just follow the money. As Stat reports, the sales of Subsys grew to $331 million precisely because physicians give it to patients that don’t have cancer, like Sarah Fuller. Doctors get big dollars to simply talk about the drug over dinner, or lunch. Over $6 million dollars have been paid to doctors and health practitioners for this word of mouth activity. Take the example of nurse practitioner Heather Alfonso from Illinois. She was paid $83,000 to “go to dinner with a few people,” and in response, prescribed $1.6 million dollars of Subsys scripts to patients that weren’t suffering with cancer pain. She didn’t contest the allegations against her. Getting paid to speak isn’t automatically a bribe, but it appears to be a consistent theme when it comes to Susbys marketing methods. Alabama prosecutors built a case against Nancy Reed Perhacs, who used to be a sales representative for Insys Theraputics. Ms. Perhacs coordinated speaking fees for a doctor friend, provided he prescribed Subsys. Her take was $700,000. Other investigations about similar practices are ongoing in Kansas, Rhode Island, New York, Oregon, Michigan, Florida and New Hampshire. The chief executive, founder and chairman of Insys Theraputics is billionaire John Kapoor. He’s been around the block with other controversial pharmaceutical start ups. Kapoor thinks doctors are “all ethical.” His new FDA approved drug is a chemically created synthetic tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) called Syndros. As states legalize the real medicine in cannabis , THC and CBD oil , this is an important pharmaceutical to boycott. Sources:

The Forgotten Man

Judge Andrew Napolitano

The forgotten man decided the presidential election. Donald Trump persuaded the forgotten man to repose his anger and frustration and power into Trump’s hands. Who is the forgotten man? What does he want from government? Why did he vote for Trump? When the tide began to turn against Hillary Clinton on Tuesday night, I planned to write this column about the unwarranted and unlawful injection of the FBI into the political process. At the time, I was seated with the Fox News number crunchers and generally was exposed to trends and vote totals — and the number crunchers’ lucid explanation of them — long before they were revealed on-air. I am more an ideas guy than a numbers guy. On Tuesday night, the numbers were so overwhelming it was clear that the FBI had nothing to do with the outcome of the presidential election. The numbers on Tuesday told a tale that needs to be related. What the FBI did and failed to do assaulted the rule of law, but that is for another column. Whatever the impression Trump may have given you — a carnival barker, a hero, a jerk, a courageous leader — he brilliantly tapped into a deep vein of millions of American men and women who believe they have been forgotten by the government they pay for. These good people have been alienated by the elites who dominate American government and culture and civic life. On Tuesday night, they found a home. The forgotten man believes that the Obama administration doesn’t care about him. The forgotten man knows that the government put into place regulations of economic activity that put him out of work or into a lower-paying job. These forgotten men and women resent the Obama administration’s telling them they must have health insurance or they will be taxed for it and then so incompetently manipulating the marketplace as to cause the cost of that insurance — often an unwanted product — to skyrocket. These good folks cringed when their family doctor told them that he could no longer afford to treat them because the feds had over regulated the practice of medicine. They simply couldn’t believe that their own government would make the practice of medicine so expensive that doctors in droves could not afford to stay in business. And they were outraged when their doctors told them the feds could see their medical records and dictate their medical treatment. The forgotten man has profound resentment for a government that is telling him how to live. The forgotten man’s union dues have shot up. His union leaders use his dues to support political candidates he doesn’t know or like. Yet he has usually voted for the Democrats — out of a traditional belief that the Democrats would think of him and his needs when framing federal legislation. They haven’t. The forgotten man speaks his mind but isn’t drawn to lofty arguments about the freedom of speech. The forgotten man wants the government to work but couldn’t tell you which aspects of its behavior are unconstitutional. The forgotten man wants elected officials who don’t and won’t forget him. The forgotten man hopes he never sees a judge in a courtroom, but if he does, he wants to be judged by someone who understands him. The forgotten man wants sexual freedom and privacy, but not babies being ripped from the womb for convenience. The forgotten man doesn’t want war but loathes military defeat even more. The forgotten man wants inexpensive goods but will pay more if they are made here by people like him. The forgotten man doesn’t want the government to take so much money from those who work hard that they lose their incentive to work or close up their businesses and kill jobs. The forgotten man wants everyone to be able to keep the lion’s share of what he earns. The forgotten man forgives but doesn’t forget. Trump got all that. Trump tapped into all that as no presidential candidate had since Ronald Reagan in 1980. The forgotten man viewed Clinton as having no interest in him. The forgotten man believed that Clinton would work for special interests and not for him. The forgotten man saw that what Trump grasped, Clinton overlooked; what Trump understood, Clinton ignored; and what Trump turned into votes, Clinton took for granted. I doubt that the forgotten man saw what I did recently. At the Al Smith dinner in New York City last month — a 1,500-person black-tie fundraiser for the Archdiocese of New York at which Trump’s speech was mediocre and Clinton’s was stellar — I tried to shake the hands of both of them but ran into a Secret Service roadblock around the head table. Trump waved to me with a twinkle in his eye. When I saw Clinton, I saw a lonely face without joy. On Wednesday morning, it dawned on me that she was doomed and she knew it. The forgotten man knew it, as well. COPYRIGHT 2016 ANDREW P. NAPOLITANO DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM

Chart Of The Day: Restaurant Performance Index Heading South

David Stockman

Chart Of The Day: Restaurant Performance Index Heading South

NFL Preview: Championship Match-Ups Prove Teams Without Elite QB’s Wasting Time - Breitbart

Daniel Leberfeld

The NFL is a league, so it should come as no surprise that the last four teams standing have elite . [Sunday’s conference championship games feature perhaps the NFL’s four best quarterbacks this season, Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers, Atlanta’s Matt Ryan, Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger and New England’s Tom Brady. A lot of head coaches and offensive coordinators were fired over the last few weeks. In most cases, they met their end due to the lack of an elite quarterback. In the NFL, it’s hard to be a great coach or offensive coordinator without a quarterback. So the four coaches left standing — Green Bay’s Mike McCarthy, Atlanta’s Dan Quinn, Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin and New England’s Bill Belichick are four very fortunate men. They have special quarterbacks. So many other NFL head coaches are spinning their wheels because they lack an elite player under center. Sunday’s two games should be special with this quartet of magnificent quarterbacks on the two fields of action. Here is a breakdown of the NFL’s two conference championship games: Green Bay Packers at Atlanta Falcons NFC Championship GameSunday, January 22, 3:05 PM on FOX Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Georgia, This game should be a classic NFL shootout, a of two quarterbacks, facing a pair of suspect defenses. No NFL team scored more points this past season than the Falcons. He threw 38 touchdowns in the regular season, and tossed three more in a playoff win over Seattle. He’s playing the best football of his career. The game’s other quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, is also playing on a very high level. Ever since his proclamation that the Packers would “run the table” after starting the season which they did, he’s been tearing up opposing defensive backfields. During the regular season, he threw a remarkable 40 touchdowns, and has added six more in two playoff wins. His interception last week in Dallas was his first in nine games. And Rodgers has destroyed some very good defenses over the last month, putting up 38 points against both the New York Giants and Minnesota Vikings, and 34 last week in Dallas. You could make a strong argument the Falcons’ defense isn’t as good as these three units. So the Packers’ offense could march through Atlanta like Sherman. But keep in mind, Falcons coach Dan Quinn has a record against Rodgers, as a defensive coordinator in Seattle and head coach (and de facto defensive coordinator) in Atlanta. So Quinn has a good feel for how to deal with Rodgers. Also, Rodgers currently has the flu, so he might be less than 100 percent during this game. Speaking of health issues, Falcons star receiver Julio Jones isn’t 100 percent, dealing with a painful toe injury that kept him out of practice on Wednesday and Thursday. This injury tends to get worse as the game progresses. The Packers also have some question marks at receiver with Jordy Nelson (ribs) Davante Adams (ankle) and Geronimo Allison (hamstring) all decisions. Expect two of the three to play. On Saturday, the Packers called up WR Max McCaffrey from the practice squad as insurance. This game is too close to call, and could come down to which team has the ball last. Pittsburgh Steelers at New England Patriots NFC ChampionshipSunday, 6:40 PM on CBS Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts, This is the 11th AFC Championship game appearance for Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. If the Steelers hope to keep him from his seventh Super Bowl appearance, they need to duplicate what the Denver Broncos did in last year’s AFC Championship game, put the Pats’ superstar QB on the ground a lot. In Denver’s win over New England on January 24, 2016, the Broncos sacked Brady four times, and had 17 QB hits. While it might be hard for the Steelers to duplicate what Denver did since they don’t have linebacker Von Miller, their pass rush really improved late in the season. Pittsburgh has won nine straight, and during that streak, they’ve have the most sacks in in the NFL. A big reason for Pittsburgh’s resurgent pass rush was the return of outside linebacker Bud Dupree, who didn’t play when New England beat Pittsburgh in Week Seven due to a hernia. The explosive Dupree, and veteran James Harrison on the other side, have been on a tear. They need that to continue this week if the Steelers hope to have any chance at winning this game. Brady was average by his standards in New England’s playoff win over Houston last week, but the Patriots still won by 18. This illustrates Brady’s greatness. A pedestrian performance by #12 is still better than most. “Pedestrian” would be a good word to describe Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger the last six games. In Pittsburgh’s playoff win over Kansas City last week, they had to settle for six field goals. Maybe his left knee is still a problem. On October 17, he had arthroscopic surgery. And not helping matters for Roethlisberger is Sunday’s game is on the road. In eight road games this season, “Big Ben” completed just 59. 4 percent of his passes, throwing just nine touchdowns to eight interceptions. In eight games at home, he completed 70. 8 percent of his throws, and threw 20 touchdowns to five interceptions with a 116. 7 rating. A big reason the Steelers have been able to win, despite less than stellar play from the franchise QB, has been the amazing play of tailback Le’Veon Bell, who has emerged as the NFL’s best runner. Not only is Bell a great player, but he’s playing behind the NFL’s best offensive line, which has further enhanced his game. Stopping Bell will be a herculean task for New England. But the Steelers will need more from Roethlisberger than they got last week at Arrowhead Stadium. You can beat Chiefs QB Alex Smith with six field goals, but not Brady. “We know that [Brady and Roethlisberger) are Hall of Famers one day,” said Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey said. “When that type of competition goes head to head against each other, it should be a show out there. ” It certainly should be, but it’s hard to pick against Brady at home in the playoffs. In the he’s in Foxboro. So there is a very good chance the Patriots win a game at Gillette Stadium.

President Trump’s Father’s Day Proclamation: Dads Have Responsibility to ‘Instill in Us Core Values’

Penny Starr

President Donald Trump officially declared today Father’s Day and in doing so sent a message about the responsibility fathers have to instill values and set examples for their children. [Trump also said children should thank their father for the “sacrifices” he has made for them. “Father’s Day is a special occasion that reminds us to pause and thank the men in our lives who have taken on the responsibility of raising children. As sons and daughters, we recognize the love they have given and the sacrifices they have made, and we celebrate the indispensable role fathers play in our lives and communities. “Fathers have the ability and responsibility to instill in us core values we carry into adulthood. The examples they set and the lessons they impart about hard work, dedication to family, faith in God, and believing in ourselves establish the moral foundation for success that allows us to live up to our full potential. We remember those fatherly moments big and small throwing a baseball, writing an essay, driving a car, walking down the aisle that have shaped us, and we thank our dads for being there with a helping hand and an open heart. Day in and day out, fathers put their children first, creating loving and supportive environments. Whether by birth, adoption, or foster care, today we honor the incredible fathers in our lives for all they have done and continue to do for us. Fathers inspire us to better ourselves and to be men and women of outstanding character. We recommit ourselves as individuals, families, and communities to promoting and supporting fatherhood, and take this day to express our love and appreciation for fathers across our country. ” Trump and his family are spending Father’s Day at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland. First Lady Melania Trump tweeted on Saturday about their Father’s Day weekend. Barron, @Potus and I enjoying beautiful Camp David! #family #sport #weekend pic. twitter. — Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) June 18, 2017,

Former Ambassador Andrew Young Calls for End to Water Fluoridation, “Civil Rights Issue”

Activist Post

By Brandon Turbeville Anti-fluoridation activists in Georgia received a major boost of support when former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under Jimmy Carter, Andrew...

Osama bin Laden’s older brother rents out luxury student flats in Scotland

Osama bin Laden’s older brother rents out luxury student flats in Scotland The older brother of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden is one of Scotland’s richest student landlords, it has emerged. Bakr Mohammed bin Laden, brother of the deceased Al-Qaeda chief, was identified as the owner of Glasgow’s Woodside House – a luxury student apartment complex. The building, which was opened earlier this year, sits on a site worth £1.5 million ($1.8 million) in the affluent Glasgow neighborhood of West End. Wealthy students are charged £13,000 per year to reside in the extravagant studio flats, while enjoying access to dinner party rooms, a private gym, and a cinema. The Saudi tycoon is one of the partners of Kelso Estates Ltd, which officially owns the property. “In addition to two other current officers, engineer Bakr Mohammed bin Laden is indeed named as a person with significant control of Kelso Estates Ltd,” said the building’s management company Collegiate AC Chief Executive Heriberto Cuanalo. Engineering student Chenhan Ye, from China, said he was “certainly surprised” to learn bin Laden owns the building he lives in. “I think people will see this as a risk,” Student housing campaign Rent Strike, which has been fighting against spiraling student rents, told RT the “story only furthers our longstanding belief that all landlords are b*stards.” “We look forward to damaging his profit margins in due course,” a spokesperson said. Bakr bin Laden is the owner of the billion dollar construction company Saudi Binladin Group, which is responsible for building Riyadh’s King Abdullah Financial District with a £816 million check. Sources describe bin Laden as “the true ruler of Jeddah,” but the billionaire keeps a very low profile. Share This Article...

WORLD WAR 3 ▲ Mr.President #004 ▲ xFrozenLPx

Pakalert

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HUMA ABEDIN SWORE UNDER OATH SHE GAVE UP ‘ALL THE DEVICES’ WITH STATE DEPT. EMAILS

Iron Sheik

Home › POLITICS | US NEWS › HUMA ABEDIN SWORE UNDER OATH SHE GAVE UP ‘ALL THE DEVICES’ WITH STATE DEPT. EMAILS HUMA ABEDIN SWORE UNDER OATH SHE GAVE UP ‘ALL THE DEVICES’ WITH STATE DEPT. EMAILS 0 SHARES [10/30/16] In a normal election year, a normal candidate’s close aide who caused even minor embarrassment to a campaign so near to Election Day would be whisked away as quickly as possible to avoid becoming a distraction. But Huma Abedin is not simply a close aide, she’s a critical member of Hillary Clinton’s tiny inner circle that protects and — at times — enables the deeply flawed and secretive Democratic nominee. So despite FBI Director James Comey’s announcement that the bureau is reviewing emails from Abedin’s time at the State Department reportedly found on a laptop she shared with her soon-to-be ex-husband Anthony Weiner (confiscated as a part of the FBI’s investigation into allegations he sexted with a 15-year-old North Carolina girl), the campaign made clear on Saturday that she’s not going anywhere. John Podesta, the chairman of the Clinton campaign, told reporters on a conference call that Abedin had been nothing but cooperative with investigators and sat for hours of depositions last summer as part of the civil lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch. “There’s nothing that she’s done that we think calls into question anything that she’s done with respect to this investigation… we fully stand behind her,” Podesta said. But the new information that the FBI found State Department-related email on her home laptop also calls into question whether Abedin in fact turned over all of the devices she used to send and receive email while working at State. On June 28, 2016, Abedin said under oath in a sworn deposition that she looked for all devices that she thought contained government work on them so the records could be given to the State Department. (These records were subsequently reviewed by the FBI.) “How did you go about searching for what records you may have in your possession to be returned to the State Department?” Attorney Ramona Cotca for Judicial Watch asked her. “I looked for all the devices that may have any of my State Department work on it and returned — returned — gave them to my attorneys for them to review for all relevant documents. And gave them devices and paper,” Abedin answered. Post navigation

Letsbereal

DYN's Statement on Last Week's Botnet Attack https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZJHKgFxcpE Oct 26, 2016 TWiT Netcast Network Steve Gibson details what is known, how he found out the problem and DYN's statement on last week's powerful attack. For the full episode, visit https://twit.tv/shows/security-now/episodes/583

beersession

Kinda reminds me of when Carter gave away the Panama Canal. Nothing but Chicoms there now. My wife is filipina, and it's not the people there but their corrupt government which is almost as corrupt as ours.

Australia to hunt down anti-vax nurses and prosecute them for disobeying the medical police state

Vicki Batts

Australia to hunt down anti-vax nurses and prosecute them for disobeying the medical police state Vicki Batts Tags: vaccination , Australia , medical police state (NaturalNews) Is there some sort of race to see which country can eliminate the rights of its people first? It is certainly beginning to feel like there must be something going on, since government overreach looks like it is reaching an all-time high across the world.While countries like Australia demonize other nations for their lack of progressiveness, recent developments suggest that its government is taking away people's freedom to think for themselves, slowly but surely chipping away at those who have dissenting opinions. The evidence? The newly released vaccination standards provided by The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia in response to what the organization described as, "a small number of nurses and midwives promoting anti-vaccination via social media."In their statement, they wrote that the board was merely taking the time to make its expectations in regards to vaccination and vaccination advice very clear to registered nurses, enrolled nurses and midwives. "The board expects all registered nurses, enrolled nurses and midwives to use the best available evidence in making practice decisions."This sentiment might have been acceptable, if it wasn't coupled with the organization also prompting people to tattle on each other. You see, the board is also urging members of the public to come forward and report nurses and midwives who may be expounding anti-vaccination beliefs. Surely anyone who goes against the grain deserves to be punished?If the medical industry was as strictly regulated as it purports itself to be, perhaps so many people wouldn't be dying each year from medical errors. An estimated 18,000 to 54,000 people in Australia lose their lives to medical mistakes each year – but the industry continues to insist that its those pesky thoughts that are really putting people in jeopardy. How dare anyone want to help people and think for themselves at the same time?In their statement, the board noted that any reports will not be taken lightly. "The board will consider whether the nurse or midwife has breached their professional obligations and will treat these matters seriously."To make matters worse, not only will these brave nurses and midwives be reported by people who may once have been their friends or colleagues, but the promotion of what the government deems "misleading or deceptive information" is a serious offense.And boy, will they take it seriously. Under national law, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency is able to prosecute anyone who commits such an act. While we all know that the true deception lies in the promotion of vaccines as a public health necessity, we also know that mainstream medicine will do anything to protect their precious immunizations.Dr. Hannah Dahlen, a professor of midwifery at the University of Western Sydney and the spokeswoman for the Australian College of Midwives, told The Guardian that nurses and midwives are respected individuals who play an important role in society, and that she believes that people take their advice quite seriously. She went on to say, "I agree that they have a very serious obligation to provide the best available evidence, and it is of course concerning that some are taking to social media in order to express a position not backed by science."But are concerns about what's in vaccines really not backed by science? Many people might say that continuing to ignore the evidence that there are horrible toxins like glyphosate and mercury in vaccines is what goes against science .In a rather ironic statement, Dahlen declared, "The worry is the confirmation bias that can occur, because people might say: 'There you go, this is proof that you can't even have an alternative opinion.' It might in fact just give people more fuel for their belief systems."Legislating dissenting opinions into extinction, and persecuting those who are raising awareness about a very real problem is proof that alternative opinions are not allowed. That's really all there is to it; it's biased, unjust and frankly, more befitting of the very governments Australia speaks out against. Sources:

Government Report: Islamists Building ’Parallel Society’ in Sweden Aided By PC Culture

Liam Deacon

Aided by a politically correct culture of “tolerance” the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is secretly building a “parallel” society in Sweden by infiltrating organisations and political parties, a government report has concluded. [Surprisingly, the document takes aim at “political elites” for fostering a doctrine of multiculturalism and silence, which can help and facilitate the nefarious ends of organisation like the Brotherhood. Somewhat predictably, however, the publication of such claims in Sweden — where open criticism of liberal, multicultural ideals is rare — has caused a row, with critics labelling the report “conspiratorial” and claiming it misrepresents Islam. Published Friday, the document was commissioned by Sweden’s Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) part of the country’s Ministry of Defence, which is responsible for civil protection and public safety. The paper’s authors claim the Brotherhood is working to increase the number of practicing Muslims in Sweden, encouraging tension with Secular society, and targeting political parties, NGOs, academic institutions and other civil society organisations. They also slam the “established structure of values among the country’s political elite [which] places a high value on ‘acceptance’ and ‘tolerance’ of citizens who are in some sense different from the mainstream”. In the report, the Islamism of the MB is described as a totalitarian political ideology born out of Islam, a religion. This can make it “difficult to oppose what on the surface appears to be (a vulnerable minority) religious rights” it explains. Critics, therefore, “run the risk of being called ‘racist’ or ‘Islamophobic’ and because of the situation in Swedish society such classifications endanger people’s careers”. The press was quick to label these claims inflammatory, and 22 academics and “experts” in religion have published a blog post questioning the methodology of the research. The academics — from many of Sweden’s leading universities — say it is “almost conspiratorial” to suggest criticism of Islamism is difficult in Sweden. They also insist the claim that the Brotherhood is building a parallel society is refuted in past research. In response to the blog post, the department has refuted the criticism of their methodology, and the report’s editor, Magnus Norell, told public service broadcaster SVT: “Had they smoked something before they read it? You just need to read the report. If someone doesn’t accept this, there’s not much I can do about it. It’s proven. ” Controversially in Sweden, the report also links Islamism and poor social integration to immigration. “Islamists aim to build a parallel social structure competing with the rest of the Swedish society the values of its citizens. In this sense, MB’s activists pose a challenge in terms of the country’s social cohesion” it states. Adding: “Migration from Africa and the Middle East is likely to continue in coming years, both in form of relatives and refugees … “Given that MB’s goal is to increase the number of practising Muslims in Swedish or European territory, there is a great likelihood that a ‘tug of war’ will occur between the majority community and the Islamic community with the MB’s encouragement … ” The authors of the blog post objected to this claim. “The [report’s] authors seem to conclude that Swedish Islam is a homogeneous phenomenon and that Swedish Muslims are led by the Muslim Brotherhood … ” they write. “It is a conclusion that goes against the overall research, which rather points towards the Muslim community being diverse and there being competition between Muslim groups … ” Founded in 1826, the MB aims to create a global, Sunni Islamic Caliphate by organising Muslims politically. It is arguably the largest Islamist organisation in the world and has links to the Muslim Council of Britain and many other mainstream European Islamic institution. The group has been accused of fostering links to militants and is considered a terrorist organisation by the governments of Bahrain, Egypt, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

How this WWII airman is helping veterans heal with the help of 4-legged friends

Arnaldo Rodgers

‹ › Arnaldo Rodgers is a trained and educated Psychologist. He has worked as a community organizer and activist. How this WWII airman is helping veterans heal with the help of 4-legged friends By Arnaldo Rodgers on November 10, 2016 veterans heal By Alexandra Zaslow Irwin Stovroff has received hundreds of thank-you cards since starting a nonprofit that pairs service dogs with veterans in need, but there’s one letter in particular that stands out to him. An Army veteran named Tyson (who prefers to keep his last name private), had severe post-traumatic stress disorder, and wasn’t paying much attention to his wife, Adrienne, or his children. He then welcomed a service dog named Argon into his home, and it had a profound impact. “When the days were so dark for Tyson, I wasn’t sure if I could get through to him,” his wife wrote in a recent letter addressed to Argon. “I am so glad you are here with us. You have brought life back into Tyson.” Read the Full Article at www.today.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 and its assigns. Notices Posted by Arnaldo Rodgers on November 10, 2016, With 0 Reads, Filed under Health , 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

Trump Campaign Says Hillary Supporter Tried Assassinating Trump – It Was A Republican With A Poster

Jameson Parker

Donald Trump was rushed from a rally stage by his Secret Service detail after someone in the crowd made a ruckus. Within minutes, his campaign was claiming it was a Hillary supporter with a gun trying to kill their candidate. Here’s Trump’s social media director spinning the tale: Trump social media director retweeted a tweet claiming this was an assassination attempt pic.twitter.com/TTUCH4Zbb8 — Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) November 6, 2016 Donald Trump Jr. followed suit, telling his followers on Twitter that his father had almost been assassinated. He offered zero evidence. And, in fact, absolutely none of those details were true. The protester which is believed to have incited the panic was not trying to harm Donald Trump, not carrying a gun, and wasn’t even a Hillary supporter . He was a Republican protesting Trump. Reporters tracked down the man, who says he was holding a sign and was attacked by Trump supporters after someone said he had a gun. This is the man who was ejected from the rally, sparking panic. He was holding a sign: "Republicans Against Trump" pic.twitter.com/bZ2JAZ2w88 — Paul Lewis (@PaulLewis) November 6, 2016 He says he's a Republican. He said he was terrified by how the crowd responded: "I was in survival mode. I knew I could die at that moment." — Paul Lewis (@PaulLewis) November 6, 2016 The Secret Service clarified what happened, and while their actions were understandable given the circumstances, the idea that the Trump campaign could leap from the small amount of details to a full-blown Hillary conspiracy is idiotic and reckless. Secret Service statement: "an unidentified individual shouted 'gun'…no weapon was found." pic.twitter.com/msH2CPcclE — Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) November 6, 2016 Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall hit the nail on the head. This rush to exploit a non-story by Trump’s campaign is cynical and disturbing. It also led to Trump’s fired up mob seeking to avenge their candidate by attacking reporters – a group Trump has repeatedly demonized. 4: Clinton supporter. When a CNN reporter went into the crowd to try to learn more he was assaulted by feral Trumpers still amped up … — Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) November 6, 2016 There is something cultish about the way Trump’s campaign relished the idea that someone would attempt to hurt their candidate. The minor detail that none of it was true didn’t seem to slow them down. They want to portray Trump as a martyr without any of the inconvenience of an actual martyrdom. Featured image via Scott Olson/Getty Images Share this Article!

Editor of Austria’s Largest Paper Charged with ‘Hate Speech’ over Migrant Article

admin

Breitbart October 26, 2016 An editor of Austria’s largest paper, Kronen Zeitung, is to be tried for hate speech over a commentary he wrote about the migrant crisis last year. On 25 October 2015, Christoph Biro wrote of the masses of migrants who were travelling through the Styrian countryside and remarked on the assaults and property damage committed by migrants, reports Kurier . Calling the majority of the migrants “testosterone-driven Syrians”, Mr. Biro recounted the multiple reports of migrants carrying out, in his words, “extremely aggressive sexual assaults”. He also detailed Afghan men had slashed the seats of the trains that were transporting them to Germany because they refused to sit where Christians had previously sat. This article was posted: Wednesday, October 26, 2016 at 6:12 am Share this article

This Is a Jobs Report That Democrats Can Boast About - The New York Times

Neil Irwin

There’s not much to say about the July jobs numbers beyond this: They’re good news across the board. More Americans are working, and they’re getting paid more money for their efforts. People who weren’t even looking for jobs now are, and they’re finding them. A blockbuster job growth number for June wasn’t downgraded with further analysis, but rather revised higher. It’s an election year, which means these numbers will inevitably be viewed through the prism of how they affect the chances of Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump to seize the White House. And to the degree a good economy (and good economic headlines) benefits the incumbent party, there’s no question this helps Mrs. Clinton. Political science research particularly points to changes in income as being predictors of how people vote, and the July data on average hourly earnings suggest American workers are being paid more: a 2. 6 percent gain over the last year, tied for the highest since 2009 and a comfortable gain in workers’ purchasing power in an era of roughly 1 percent annual inflation. So far in the campaign, Mrs. Clinton has resisted crowing about the strengths of the economy and instead has emphasized her plans to try to strengthen the areas where conditions remain weak. The unemployment rate among adults over age 25 without a high school diploma was 6. 3 percent in July, for example, far above the 2. 5 percent for those with at least a bachelor’s degree. And while the proportion of Americans who were in the labor force — either working or looking for work — ticked up in July, it has recovered only a tiny sliver of its decline since the 2008 recession (it was 66 percent in December 2007, bottomed out last year at 62. 4 percent, and has recovered slightly to 62. 8 percent). Part of this drop is because baby boomers are hitting retirement age, but some large portion is less well understood, driven by both men and women of prime working age who tell they’re not even looking for jobs. If you try to search the latest Labor Department numbers for bad news, the closest you’ll find is a rise in the number of people who have been unemployed for 27 weeks — in other words, people who may say they want work but are becoming increasingly unattached from the habits of holding down a job. So that creates a fascinating backdrop for the economic discussion during the homestretch of the election. The economy truly is growing, and job growth looks to be robust. Expect President Obama and his administration to celebrate (and seek credit for) the good numbers. Expect Mrs. Clinton to seek to show empathy for those who are being left behind even by this stronger recovery and to avoid claims that the economy is as robust as the headline numbers might suggest. And don’t be surprised if Mr. Trump repeats his claims that the economy is actually very weak. (He would have been on sounder footing using the poor G. D. P. report late last week to make that argument, but he was distracted by other battles.) Here’s an interpretation of the available data over the last several months that incorporates all these realities. You probably won’t hear it on the campaign trail, but if a candidate’s job was to provide nuance rather than get elected, this is what could be said: The United States economy is creating jobs at a rapid pace most people who say they want a job are able to find one, and employers are having a hard enough time finding workers that they’re having to pay higher wages. But large segments of the population, especially those without advanced education, left the labor force during the last several years, and relatively few of them are being pulled back in by this improving job market. Fixing that will be an important goal of the next president. Meanwhile, for reasons that aren’t fully understood, economic output is growing much slower than job creation, which will mean lower living standards in the future if that continues. That should be another big worry for whoever occupies the Oval Office in January. Not the stuff of boisterous campaign rallies, but that’s what the facts are telling us.

Christians in 2017 ’Most Persecuted Group in the World’

Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.

In many parts of the world, Christians gathering to celebrate Christ’s resurrection do so with the knowledge that any day their faith could cost them their lives as it has for thousands of their brothers and sisters. [On Palm Sunday, twin bombings by jihadists at two Egyptian churches killed at least 45 worshippers and wounded more than 100 others in the latest of a long string of deadly attacks targeting Christians throughout the world. The attacks were directed specifically to Christian in their houses of worship to avoid any ambiguity regarding the intent. As has been noted, this was “an attack on Christians simply because they are Christians. ” On Saturday, the Pakistan military said it has thwarted a “major terrorist attack” against Christians planned for Easter Sunday after a successful overnight raid just hours after Christians celebrated Good Friday services. On Easter Sunday 2016, an Islamist militant took the lives of more than 70 people and injured over 320 more after detonating his suicide vest in a park in Lahore that was full of Christian families celebrating the feast. Among the victims are more than 30 small children, who at the time of the blast were playing sports and outdoor games in the Park. During the last calendar year, some 90, 000 Christians were killed for their faith across the globe, making Christians by far the most persecuted group in the world, according to a study from the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR). The director of CESNUR, Dr. Massimo Introvigne, told Breitbart News that whereas atheistic communist regimes were the greatest persecutors of Christians in the last century, “Islamic ” has taken its place as the agent of persecution. The Center’s findings corroborate those of other scholars and human rights groups. According to the 2016 “World Watch List,” for example, published by the Open Doors organization, nine out of the top ten countries where Christians suffer “extreme persecution” had populations that are at least 50 percent Muslim. Their 2016 report revealed that “Islamic extremism is by far the most significant persecution engine” of Christians in the world today and that “40 of the 50 countries on the World Watch List are affected by this kind of persecution. ” During the year, nearly of the Christians killed for their faith were executed at the hands of Islamic extremists such as the Islamic State or Boko Haram. While tens of thousands of Christians are killed for their faith, Introvigne said, they are just the tip of the iceberg and much persecution takes place on a daily basis that never makes news. Along with the enormous number of deaths, a great many more Christians — as many as 600 million — were prevented from practicing their faith in 2016. On Easter 2015, Pope Francis reminded the world that there are more Christian martyrs in the present age than even in the first centuries, when the Roman Empire attempted to eliminate all followers of the nascent religion. Calling for “tangible help in the defense and protection of our brothers and sisters who are persecuted, exiled, killed, and beheaded just for being Christians,” Francis told a crowd of tens of thousands in St. Peter’s Square that today’s martyrs “are more numerous than in the first centuries. ” Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome

Florida Woman Charged in Death of Infant in ‘Co-Sleeping’ Case - The New York Times

Christine Hauser

Early on Oct. 6, Erin was awakened by the sound of her baby crying. She later told the authorities in Florida that she had picked him up from a bassinet, prepared some formula in a bottle and settled back into bed with him, propping him up with a pillow and nestling his head in the crook of her arm. Then she dozed off. Two and a half hours later, according to a Polk County sheriff’s affidavit, Ms. 25, woke up “in a panic. ” Blood was on her baby boy, Javier, who was less than a month old, and vomit was coming out of his mouth, she told officials. Ms. of Winter Haven in Central Florida, said she tried to revive the boy, and called 911. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital. When investigators interviewed Ms. about the baby’s death, according to the document, she said, “It happened again. ” Prosectors say it was the second time an infant died under Ms. ’s care: Her daughter, Angelina, died of suffocation in 2009. That was ruled an accident. A spokeswoman for the coroner’s office said Javier also died of accidental suffocation. In November, Ms. was charged with felony aggravated manslaughter of a child. But the police did not arrest her until Tuesday, after prosecutors reviewed the affidavit and reports. She was scheduled to appear on Wednesday before a judge, according to Polk County’s chief assistant state attorney, Brian Haas. It was not immediately clear whether she had a lawyer. The case touches on a pillar of parenting: how to get infants to sleep, especially for newborns who may require feedings. It also shines a light on in which parents share a room or a bed with their infants. The practice is considered controversial for medical and cultural reasons. Family is common in many parts of the world, but it is generally discouraged in Western cultures, where children traditionally sleep in cribs in separate rooms. Some parents say that helps to make babies more manageable at night, while others find the constant caregiving and interrupted sleep to be exhausting, a recent study found. Approximately 3, 500 infants die annually in the United States from deaths, including sudden infant death syndrome, accidental suffocation and accidental strangulation in bed, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. To reduce the risk of those deaths, the academy recommends positioning of babies supine in bed, using a firm sleep surface, sharing a room without sharing a bed, and avoiding soft bedding and overheating. The case presents prosecutors with the challenge of showing that was a form of neglect because the mother had been informed of the risks during both of her pregnancies. “These are very, very difficult cases,” Mr. Haas said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “We are not charging parents with crimes because accidents happen. There has got to be something more to it. ” Mr. Haas said that the case was still in the discovery phase, and officials were gathering more information about what happened in October. The affidavit charging Ms. said she had undergone counseling during both pregnancies. It said she had received information while she was pregnant with her first child about the “dangers” of with babies, and of the importance of placing infants on their backs to sleep. But on Dec. 4, 2009, about two weeks after she had given birth to her baby girl, Ms. fell asleep while in bed, only to wake up and find the baby “cold and stiff to the touch” next to her, the sheriff’s affidavit said. The baby died of asphyxia from “probable overlay” and “” according to the medical examiner. When Ms. learned she was pregnant in 2016, she received training through the Healthy Start program about and putting an infant to sleep safely, documents show. Her mother and doctor also advised her, the affidavit said. In July, while pregnant, Ms. was arrested on a charge of possessing methamphetamine, the sheriff’s office said in a statement. The felony charge in Javier’s death was based on his being “killed in the same manner as her first child, Angelina, due to her own culpable negligence and without lawful justification,” according to the affidavit. A spokeswoman for the coroner’s office, Sheli Wilson, said the death certificate called it an accidental suffocation, but she added that an autopsy had not been finalized. Relatives of Ms. could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

Time is Running Out to Stop Kratom Ban – Need Comments to DEA

Heather Callaghan

By Brandon Turbeville When the DEA announced that it was backing off o f its decision to go through emergency procedures to place kratom on the Schedule 1 list of controlled substances, kratom...

The Fix Is In: NBC Affiliate Accidentally Posts Election Results A Week Early: Hillary Wins Presidency 42% to Trump’s 40%

The Doc

Home » Headlines » World News » The Fix Is In: NBC Affiliate Accidentally Posts Election Results A Week Early: Hillary Wins Presidency 42% to Trump’s 40% NBC affiliate WRCB TV in Chattanooga, Tennessee has inadvertently posted election night results exactly 1 week early. It appears The Fix Is In: From Mac Slavo, SHTFPlan : NBC affiliate WRCB TV in Chattanooga, Tennessee has inadvertently posted election night results. The results page appears to be similar to what mainstream news networks display on election night, including Presidential and Congressional results, the popular vote count, electoral votes, and percentage of precincts reporting. The page, a screen shot of which has been sourced from internet archive site The Wayback Machine , is posted below and shows totals for the upcoming Presidential race. It announces Hillary Clinton as the winner. As Jim Stone notes, the page was pulled directly from the WorldNow.com content management platform utilized by major networks like NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox and appears to be a non-public staging area for news and election results. The original page has since been reset. ( Click here for full size image ) Though the results information appears on an FTP server at WorldNow.com, media companies like NBC’s WRCB TV utilize the platform, also know as “Frankly,” to power their news content. This can be verified directly a the WRCB web site by scrolling to the very bottom of the page footer which notes that it is, “Powered By Frankly.” In addition to national results, Jim Stone has identified another page at the WorldNow.com FTP server that appears to show the State-By-State Presidential election results. This page is also accessible in archive format at WayBack Machine with a line by line breakdown available at Stone’s website. Of interest is that the State-By-State results indicate a Hillary Clinton win in states like Texas (42% to 40%), Florida (44% to 40%) and Pennsylvania (44% to 40%) which have all been identified as states Clinton must steal to win the election . Do these latest election “results” confirm that the fix is in and the vote is rigged? If so, then we are no longer looking at an election where our votes will count, but rather, a selection where the winner is determined by those who count the votes.

Samsung, Kim Jong-un, Rex Tillerson: Your Morning Briefing - The New York Times

Charles McDermid

Good morning. Here’s what you need to know: • A South Korean court announced the arrest of the de facto leader of Samsung, Lee on bribery accusations connected to the corruption scandal that had engulfed the government. Above, Mr. Lee as he arrived at a detention center ahead of the court’s decision. Prosecutors say Samsung paid almost $38 million to groups connected to a presidential friend and adviser, Choi to win the government’s backing for a merger of two Samsung units. _____ • The crisis facing the White House over questions about its connections to Russia made for an awkward inaugural trip abroad for Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson. Conventional joint statements with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, at a gathering in Germany could not overshadow the growing distance with European counterparts on immigration, refugees, defense and trade. In Washington, President Trump held a news conference that turned into an extraordinarily raw bemoaning “the false, horrible fake reporting” on his administration. Here’s the video. _____ • Mr. Trump’s plans to have Stephen A. Feinberg, above, a billionaire investor with no intelligence experience, review the U. S. intelligence agencies has the agencies’ top officials on edge. They were already worried by Mr. Trump’s response to reports of contacts over the last year between Trump aides and Russian intelligence officials: trying to focus public attention on the source of intelligence leaks rather than their content. Today’s episode of The Daily podcast asks, did the Trump campaign collude with Russia? Listen from a computer, on an iOS device or on an Android device. _____ • The investigation into the apparent assassination of the half brother of North Korea’s leader Kim is widening. The Malaysian police detained two more people — a woman with an Indonesian passport, above, and her Malaysian boyfriend — and said they were looking for four male suspects. Airport surveillance images showed how one suspect ended up waiting at a taxi stand. Mr. Kim’s body is expected to be sent to North Korea. It’s not clear whether the Malaysian autopsy results will be made public. _____ • In environmental news, a Greenpeace report tied the toxic waves of air pollution sweeping northern China to an increase in already excessive steel production last year, made counter to promised cuts. Scientists are also coming to understand the crucial importance of the vast, and endangered, seagrass meadows that surround every continent except Antarctica. And Mr. Trump’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, heads to a confirmation vote today amid an extraordinary wave of protest from former E. P. A. staff members. _____ • Snapchat’s parent company is aiming for a valuation of more than $20 billion as it nears what’s expected to be the biggest initial public offering in the tech world since Alibaba and Facebook. • Speaking of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg posted a update of his founder’s statement that expressed alarm over growing rejections of globalism and argued that “progress now requires humanity coming together not just as cities or nations, but also as a global community. ” • Asian financial conglomerates, including SoftBank of Japan or HNA Group of China, are scouring the U. S. for management expertise to help them invest their cash stockpiles. • European markets ended a rally. Here’s a snapshot of global markets. • The Islamic State claimed a suicide attack on a dance celebration at a Sufi shrine in Pakistan’s Sindh Province that killed at least 70 worshipers and injured more than 250. It was the worst act of terrorism in the country in months. [The New York Times] • ISIS also claimed the deadliest attack in Baghdad in at least a month, a car bombing in a crowded Shiite Muslim neighborhood that killed more than 50 people and injured scores. [The New York Times] • The Catholic Church in Australia has paid more than $200 million in compensation, treatment, legal and other costs in sexual abuse cases since 1980, according to information presented to a government investigation. [BBC] • In China, a ethnic Korean faces prison for criticism of the authorities that included posting a photo of himself in a calling President Xi Jinping “Xitler. ” [The New York Times] • Tens of thousands of nomadic herders in Mongolia face hunger and another bout of the extreme winter conditions known as a “dzud. ” [Reuters] • South Africa is debating whether a minimum wage of about $1. 50 an hour would help reduce poverty and inequality or worsen already high unemployment. [The New York Times] • The cute Kumamon stuffed bear racked up more than $1 billion in sales last year, partly thanks to a surge of supportive purchases after its home prefecture, Kumamoto, was struck by earthquakes. [The Asahi Shimbun] • Cake for breakfast? Yes, please. • A cat named Tammany was living at New York’s City Hall in the 1930s. Then came talk of eviction proceedings — but the cat emerged victorious. • Recipe of the day: End the week with these simple fish tacos. • For 17 years, Hugh Jackman has been synonymous with Wolverine, a mutant with a metal skeleton and a tormented past. But the Australian actor may be popping the ’s adamantium claws for the final time. • In Taipei, a growing number of restaurants are riding the “eat local” movement. That can mean cured mullet roe, lily stems, purple taro and honeycombed pong tang (that’s candy). • Ready for “cutthroat” golf? This week in Australia, the Perth World Super 6 is debuting a format — a last round, with match play and a special hole — to adapt the sport to changing times. Happy Birthday to Michael Jordan. The basketball legend turns 54 today. He won’t be competing at this weekend’s N. B. A. dunk contest, but three decades ago he helped elevate the competition with slams from the line. Jordan’s seemingly effortless flights to the basket made him one of the most instantly recognizable faces in the world. Years later, he even managed to dunk from in the partly animated movie “Space Jam. ” C. G. I. though, wasn’t needed in 1984 to capture Jordan leaping, legs in an airborne split. “It may be the most famous silhouette ever photographed,” Time Magazine said as it designated the image one of the 100 most influential of all time. The image lives on as the inspiration for the logo of Nike’s Air Jordan shoes. Jordan, who is now a billionaire, and his brand have thrived despite his lackluster second career in baseball, criticism over his reluctance to discuss politics (though he spoke last year about police brutality) and the popularity on social media of the Crying Jordan meme, which our culture writer says “takes one of America’s biggest sports stars and makes him small. ” “Michael actually thinks it’s funny,” his spokeswoman said. Des Shoe contributed reporting. _____ Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings. What would you like to see here? Contact us at asiabriefing@nytimes. com.

Comment on World Heaves Sigh of Relief after Trump’s Victory by Debbie Menon

Debbie Menon

Finian Cunningham has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. Many of his recent articles appear on the renowned Canadian-based news website Globalresearch . He is a Master’s graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in journalism. He specializes in Middle East and East Africa issues and has also given several American radio interviews as well as TV interviews on Press TV and Russia Today. His interests include capitalism, imperialism and war, socialism, justice and peace, agriculture and trade policy, ecological impact, science and technology, and human rights. He is also a musician and songwriter. Previously, he was based in Bahrain and witnessed the political upheavals in the Persian Gulf kingdom during 2011 as well as the subsequent Saudi-led brutal crackdown against pro-democracy protests. The author and media commentator was expelled from Bahrain in June 2011 for his critical journalism in which he highlighted many human rights violations by the Western-backed regime. For many years, he worked as an editor and writer in the mainstream media, including ,The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent. Originally from Belfast, Ireland, he is now based in East Africa where he is writing a book on Bahrain and the Arab Spring. World Heaves Sigh of Relief after Trump’s Victory By Finian Cunningham on November 9, 2016 A reflection of how disconnected the political class are from their own people. SPUTNIK The election of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the US certainly sent shockwaves around the world. But perhaps the uppermost sense is one of huge relief that Hillary Clinton was kept out of the White House. For most ordinary citizens around the world, Clinton, her multi-billion-dollar election campaign and the fawning corporate media coverage represented everything that is perceived as fundamentally wrong in Western politics. Her cronyism goes so far that she would not hesitate to start a world war with Russia, or whoever, in order to appease her corporate sponsors and indulge her deluded notion of “exceptional liberalism”. Trump’s stunning victory is a victory for common people and common sense. Despite the Western media’s systematic shielding of Clinton from criticism, a good number of ordinary Americans and other nationals around the world could clearly see her irredeemable flaws. She is a self-enriching puppet for Big Finance and the military-industrial complex. And, as her email scandal shows, a consummate liar on top. Donald Trump is a billionaire property tycoon with a big mouth and uncouth manner. He has never held an elected office before. It is unprecedented that he should become the president of the US. Will he really “make America great again”? Will he really deliver on massive infrastructure investments to regenerate impoverished working-class communities across America? We don’t know if he just an opportunist conman, or if he really does have a humble heart to reach out to all the “forgotten people” that he speaks about. One can hope. But one thing is for sure. Trump is no warmonger. And he doesn’t seem to be a puppet that can be pushed around. “We will deal fairly with everyone” In one of the live TV debates with Clinton during the campaign, Trump surprised many viewers when he said, apparently sincerely, that he would never commit a first-strike nuclear attack against any nation. It took a lot of guts and moral integrity to say that. Clinton didn’t answer the question, but her past record as Secretary of State shows that she has no hesitation about launching illegal wars and murdering foreign heads of state. Trump has also spoken several times about restoring friendly relations with America’s biggest nuclear rival Russia. He took a lot of heat for that from the Clinton campaign and the biased US media, who accused him of being a “stooge” for Russian President Vladimir Putin. To his credit, Trump did not cave in to the anachronistic “Russian baiting”, which has been a staple of American politics for decades. During his acceptance speech as President-elect, Trump repeated his oft-mentioned desire for the US to base its foreign relations on “partnership” instead of “hostility and conflict”. Notably, Russia’s Vladimir Putin was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Trump on winning the White House. Reciprocating goodwill, Putin said he hoped to work with Trump so that Russia and the US can “restore relations from their current critical condition”. Surely, this is the point. To replace outmoded ideological stereotypes and animosity with a pragmatic mutual respect to cooperate. Russia and its leader are not the enemy of the US, Europe nor the rest of the world – unless you are a terrorist network seeking illicit regime change. Architects of Endless “Regime Change” wars The people who have demonized Russia are ideologues in Washington and their surrogates among European governments and the Western corporate media. That negative image of Russia does not match reality as ordinary people perceive it, including many ordinary Americans. Russia did not destabilize Ukraine. It did not annex Crimea. Russia was not involved in shooting down a civilian airliner. It is not massacring civilians in Syria. In Syria, it is helping a sovereign state defeat terrorist mercenaries in a US-sponsored covert war for regime change. Russia is not a sports-drug pariah. It is not hacking computer systems nor subverting foreign democracies. These are all just false ideological constructs manufactured by the Western establishment and its subservient media. Ordinary citizens around the world, especially those in the US, know that. Their real-world concerns are dealing with poverty, unemployment and crumbling societies. This stuff about “Putin being the new Hitler” and “threatening the free world” is just so much baloney. Maybe because Trump is not a career politician or a Washington insider he knows all that too. And he knows that ordinary Americans are not being listened to by the establishment. That’s why Trump’s victory comes as such a shock. The political class have been so wrong on almost every issue, whether it was the Brexit and discontent with the European Union, or foreign relations with Russia, or Trump’s chances of winning the presidency. The Western political class have gotten it so wrong on so many issues because it is divorced from the reality as it affects most people. Aloof, elitist, out of touch and undemocratic. Yet this Western ruling class, as embodied by Hillary Clinton, would be prepared to start even more wars around the world than they already have, based on their own twisted self-serving logic. Consider these figures just released by the Pentagon. Under President Obama – who advocated for Clinton – US military exports to Saudi Arabia and other Mideast despots are double the amount under George W Bush. This weapons supply has gone towards arming jihadi terror groups. Clinton approved of this arms bazaar for terrorists when she was in office as part of Washington’s regime-change schemes. Yet these people like Obama and Clinton spout all sorts of “humanitarian” and “moralistic” mumbo-jumbo. They are liars. And they are the most cynical of corrupt politicians. The very breed of politician-puppets that ordinary decent people around the world have come to despise. Americans Not Fooled by ‘Presidential Campaign Tricks’ Trump, for all his personal flaws, is in a different category. He is astute enough to know that the pain of ordinary citizens stems from a badly broken economic system. The main good thing about Trump is that he is a pragmatist who at least appears to be on the side of ordinary people and on the side of restoring peaceful relations with other nations, Russia in particular. The prominent people dejected about Trump are the political class both in the US and Europe and their media echo chambers. It is notable that Germany’s Merkel and France’s Hollande both affected an air of disapproval over Trump’s victory – unlike Putin who magnanimously congratulated. Hollande said he would be “vigilant” in his future dealings with Trump. What is he talking about? That’s why Merkel and Hollande will be next to get kicked out of office in forthcoming elections. Like Obama, Clinton and the American establishment, the pro-US European ruling parties are so out of touch with reality. The demonization of Russia is a reflection of how disconnected the Western political class are from their own people. Ordinary people around the world want jobs, prosperity and peace. They know they can’t afford futile hostilities with Russia as have been foisted on them by their rulers, while such urgent social needs go neglected. Crazy as it may seem, Trump’s win may be a chance for the US to redeem. And for the world to heave a huge sigh of relief. See:

Ann Coulter: How to Provide Universal Health Care Using This One Easy Trick

Ann Coulter

The first sentence of Congress’ Obamacare repeal should read: “There shall be a free market in health insurance. ”[Right there, I’ve solved the health insurance crisis for 90 percent of Americans. Unfortunately, no one can imagine what a free market in health care looks like because we haven’t had one for nearly a century. On NBC’s “Meet the Press” this weekend, for example, Chuck Todd told Sen. Tom Cotton that his proposal to create affordable health care that would be widely available, “sounds good,” but “do you understand why some people think that’s an impossible promise to keep?” (The “do you understand … ?” formulation is a condescension reserved only for conservatives, whose disagreement with liberals is taken as a sign of stupidity.) Todd continued: “To make it affordable, making it wider, I mean, that just seems like — you know, it seems like you’re selling something that can’t be done realistically. ” Dream Sequence: Chuck Todd on Russia’s “Meet the Press” after the fall of the Soviet Union: “Do you understand why some people think that’s an impossible promise to keep? To make bread affordable, making it wider, I mean, that just seems like — you know, it seems like you’re selling something that can’t be done realistically. ” It turns out that, outside of a communist dictatorship, all sorts of products are affordable AND widely available! We don’t need Congress to “provide” us with health care any more than we need them to “provide” us with bread. What we need is for health insurance to be available on the free market. With lots of companies competing for your business, basic health insurance would cost about $50 a month. We know the cost because Christian groups got a waiver from Obamacare, and that’s how much their insurance costs right now. (Under the law, it can’t be called “insurance,” but that’s what it is.) Even young, healthy people would buy insurance at that price, expanding the “ pools” and probably bringing the cost down to $20 or $30 a month. In a free market, there would be an endless variety of plans, from catastrophic care for the to extravagant plans for the . You know — just like every other product in America. You should visit America sometime, Chuck! The orange juice aisle in a Texas grocery store knocked the socks off Russian president Boris Yeltsin. (Imagine how cheap a double screwdriver must be in America!) Just as there are rows of different types of orange juice in the grocery store — and loads of grocery stores — there will be loads of health insurance plans and insurance companies offering them. Americans would finally be able to buy whatever insurance plans they liked, as easily as they currently buy TVs, cellphones and — what’s that product with the cute gecko in its commercials? I remember now! CAR INSURANCE! Evidently, insurance is not impervious to the iron law of economics that every product sold on the free market gets better and cheaper over time. The only complicated part of fixing health care is figuring out how to take care of the other 10 percent of Americans — the poor, the irresponsible and the unlucky. And the only reason that is complicated is because of fraud. Needless to say, the modern nanny state already guarantees that no one will die on the street in America. The taxpayer spends more than a trillion dollars every year on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security disability insurance so that everyone’s health is taken care of, from cradle to grave. Unfortunately, probably at least half of that sum is fraud. Policing fraud is difficult because: (1) the bureaucrats dispensing government benefits believe there is no fraud and, if there is, it’s a good thing because it redistributes income and (2) we keep bringing in immigrants for whom fraud is a way of life. (See “Adios, America! The Left’s Plan to Turn Our Country Into a Third World Hellhole. ”) Consequently, after the first sentence establishing a free market in health insurance, the entire rest of the bill should be nothing but fraud prevention measures to ensure that only the truly deserving — and the truly American — are accessing health care programs. I’d recommend sending as much as possible back to the states, and also paying bounties to anyone who exposes a fraud against Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security. Anyone caught committing health care fraud should get 10 years. Not in prison, in a Medicaid doctor’s waiting room. But I’m sure you guys in Congress have come up with lots of great ideas for policing fraud in the SEVEN YEARS you’ve had to think about it. (Hello? Is he breathing? Dammit, I’m not getting a pulse! !) Then, Congress can start removing all the bad stuff from the U. S. Code, such as: — the requirement that hospitals provide “free” care to anyone who shows up (how about separate health clinics for poor people with the sniffles?) — the exemption of insurance companies from the antitrust laws (where all our problems began) and, — the tax breaks only for health insurance (viciously and arbitrarily punishing the ). The goal of “universal health care” is very simple to achieve, just as the goal of “universal wearing of clothing” seems to have been taken care of. The government can provide for those who can’t provide for themselves, but the rest of us need to be allowed to buy health insurance on the free market — an innovation that has made America the richest, most country in the world. It’s taken 50 years, but, thanks to Hillary’s losing the election, we finally have liberals on the record opposing the Soviet Union. Can’t all of Washington come together and end our soviet health care system?

Government Forces Advancing at Damascus-Aleppo Highway in Eastern Ghouta

#FROMTHEFRONT #MAPS 22.11.2016 - 1,361 views 5 ( 7 votes) Government Forces Advancing at Damascus-Aleppo Highway in Eastern Ghouta 5 out of 5 based on 7 ratings. 7 user reviews. Government Forces Advancing at Damascus-Aleppo Highway in Eastern Ghouta Donate Click to see the full-size map Syrian government forces are advancing to expand a buffer zone along the Daraa-Damascus-Homs-Aleppo Highway (M5) in the Eastern Ghouta region of Rif Damascus Province. The Syrian army and the National Defense forces have made a series of attacks on Jaish al-Islam positions north of the Abu Zeid Hill and east of the militant controlled town of Harasta (a shaky ceasefire is ongoing there). If the army and the NDF are able to secure the M5 Highway in Eastern Ghouta this will positively impact the logistic capabilities of government forces around the Syrian capital. Donate

Sally Yates Won’t Say If Trump Was Wiretapped - Breitbart

Ian Mason

Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates declined to say any Presidential candidates had their communications intercepted by American intelligence during the 2016 campaign Monday. [“Was there any incidental collection, where our intelligence community collects information involving a presidential candidate, on either side of the aisle, during 2015 or 2016,” Sen. Lindsay Graham’s ( ) asked Yates and fellow witness before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Clapper answered that he was not aware of any such collection, but Yates was less categorical. She declined to answer, noting that FBI Director James Comey had done so to the same question and that doing so comported to DOJ policy. “Again you should not draw from that that my answer is yes, but rather that the answer would require me to reveal classified information,” Yates told the Committee. President Donald Trump made headlines with his March allegation that he and his staff had been “wiretapped” at Trump Tower. Senator Graham has expressed his grave concern of the implications if Trump himself had been recorded in intelligence operations conducted under the Obama administration. Graham phrased his initial question to refer also to presidential staff and campaign members, but narrowed his focus the candidates themselves before the witnesses gave their answers. Monday’s hearing was held to discuss the investigation conducted by four U. S. intelligence agencies, and ordered in December by former President Barack Obama, into Russia’s attempts to influence the elections. The finding which led to the resignation of National Security Advisor and Trump campaign confidant General Michael Flynn were a major focus of the hearing.

Maine’s Gov. LePage Threatens To ‘Investigate’ College Students For Fraud If They Vote (VIDEO)

Joe Clark

Google Pinterest Digg Linkedin Reddit Stumbleupon Print Delicious Pocket Tumblr On Monday, Paul LePage, Maine’s infamous racist Governor, issued a statement which basically threatened any out-of-state student attending college in his state with an investigation should they decide to vote. LePage’s statement came on the eve of Election Day, and many believe it was designed to scare Democratic leaning college students away from the polls. The governor complained about Democrats encouraging out-of-state students to commit voter fraud by voting in both their home state and the state where they are attending college. He also said that “there is no way to determine” if a person has cast his or her ballot in two states. The Washington Post : “Democrats for decades have encouraged college students from out of state to vote in Maine, even though there is no way to determine whether these college students also voted in their home states,” LePage said in a statement. “Casting ballots in two different states is voter fraud, which is why Maine law requires anyone voting here to establish residency here. We welcome college students establishing residency in our great state, as long as they follow all laws that regulate voting, motor vehicles and taxes. We cannot tolerate voter fraud in our state.” LePage continued, “After the election, we will do everything we can that is allowed under state and federal law to verify college students who voted here are following Maine law, which is clearly displayed on the Secretary of State’s website.” However, Maine’s Secretary of State, Matthew Dunlap, says that they do have a system in place to detected that kind of voter fraud, and they’ve yet to find evidence of this being a real issue. Dunlap told WMTW ABC 8: “People are not voting in two different jurisdictions. In fact, the Secretary of State’s office back in 2011 did just such an investigation of over 200 students who were from out of state, and who had registered and voted in Maine to see if they had voted in their home state, and nobody did.” Along with the Governor’s statement, college students at Bates College received a mysterious orange flyer informing them that if they are out of state, students that they must change their driver’s license and re-register their vehicle (which the flyer claimed cost “usually hundreds of dollars in total”). The flyer included an official government website address, as well as references to several state statutes regarding the registration of personal motorized vehicles in Maine. College students in Maine: This flyer is FALSE. You may use your dorm as your legal address to vote. pic.twitter.com/jOE6MvH02s — Maine College Dems (@MECollegeDem) November 7, 2016 To the average college student, this flyer would probably seem legit. However, as the above tweet states, college students are allowed to use their dorm address as their permanent residence while attending school in the state. Maine’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has requested that the Justice Department step in to investigate. “The governor’s statement seems designed to make college students afraid to vote,” Zachary Heiden, legal director at the ACLU of Maine, said in a statement. “Voter intimidation and harassment is illegal, and we call on the Department of Justice to investigate the intent of the governor’s comments. “College students who live in Maine have the right to vote in Maine, and they are not subject to different laws than anyone else. Many of these young people are voting for the first time in a presidential election. The governor should be encouraging that civic participation, not doing everything in his power to undermine it.” Maine’s Democratic party is calling this a classic case of GOP voter suppression efforts aimed at minority groups whom they feel will vote Democratic. “The false information contained in these fliers is a deliberate attempt to suppress the millennial vote,” Maine Democratic Party Chairman Phil Bartlett said in a statement. “There is nothing in Maine law that states that college students must change their driver’s licenses in order to vote. “In fact, the Secretary of State’s office has made explicitly clear that a dorm can be a student’s legal voting residence, and that paying out-of-state tuition does not preclude a student from voting. Maine also has same-day voter registration, so students who are not registered to vote in Maine can still register on Election Day. We urge all Bates students to spread the word to their fellow classmates about their voting rights here in Maine.” Despite their best efforts, numerous states are reporting record turnout numbers, which traditionally doesn’t bode well for Republicans who prefer low voter turnout for any group that’s isn’t non-educated, white, and male. Featured image via YouTube

Sen. McConnell: The Supreme Court Vacancy Was Key to President Trump’s Win - Breitbart

Warner Todd Huston

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, KY) recently insisted that the open seat on the U. S. Supreme Court just filled by Justice Neil Gorsuch was a key factor in President Donald Trump’s White House victory last November. [Speaking of the the Supreme Court vacancy, Sen. McConnell told the Washington Examiner, “At the end, this issue more than any other elected Donald Trump, because, at the end, you had two candidates who were overwhelmingly unpopular. ” McConnell noted that blocking President Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to fill the Supreme Court seat suddenly left vacant after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February of 2016 was important. As Obama’s remaining months in office wound down last year, he made the uncommon move of nominating a replacement for Scalia instead of waiting for the results of the election and allowing the next president to make a nomination. As leader of the Senate, McConnell decided not to allow the Garland nomination to move forward, arguing that since the election was so close, the next president — whether it be Trump or Clinton — should be allowed the nomination. According to McConnell, the possibility that a Republican could get the next nomination energized the drive to elect Trump. “Nobody was predicting Trump would get 90 percent of the Republican vote just like Mitt Romney did [in 2012,] but he did,” McConnell said. “And the single biggest reason was, they wanted him to make the Supreme Court appointment, not Hillary Clinton. ” “This call was made in February,” McConnell concluded. “We didn’t know who our nominee was going to be yet. What I did not predict was that we would nominate somebody who a lot of Republicans questioned whether he was a Republican. I mean, after all, Donald Trump was having fundraisers for [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer four or five years ago. ” Before his election, Donald Trump met with several groups of conservatives and asked for their recommendation as to whom he should pick for the Supreme Court and then made the unusual move of publicizing his list of possible picks. Trump’s move brought in many voices of support for his campaign that he may not otherwise have won. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com

Nikki Haley Blasts U.N. Human Rights Office for ‘Unfair Bias’ Against Israel in Latest Report

Adam Shaw

U. S Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has blasted a new U. N. report that attacks Israeli actions in the Middle East, in what she says is the latest sign of the U. N.’s “unfair bias” in how it handles the conflict. [The report, from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, was submitted in response to a resolution by the Human Rights Council — a body which Haley has repeatedly criticized for its own bias and the questionable human rights record of some of its members. The report, titled, “Ensuring accountability and justice for all violations of international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem,” evaluates Israel’s compliance with a number of U. N. resolutions and reports, including demands to deconstruct its security barrier on the West Bank, which has been credited with massively reducing terrorist attacks. The report adds: The High Commissioner notes the repeated failure to comply with the calls for accountability made by the entire human rights system and urges Israel to conduct prompt, impartial and independent investigations of all alleged violations of international human rights law and all allegations of international crimes. Furthermore, the High Commissioner calls upon Israel to ensure that all victims have access to remedies and reparation. The report also notes previous recommendations, including an boycott call for “investigations of the activities of companies and financial institutions profiting from Israeli settlements, and for such practices to be ended and for reparation to be provided to Palestinians affected. ” Haley took issue with the report’s focus on Israel, noting that it “brushed over” terror attacks by Hamas and other terrorist groups attacking Israel, and ignored the human rights abuses of other countries. “This report is just the latest example of the Human Rights Council singling out Israel rather than focusing on the world’s actual human rights abusers,” she said in a statement. “Not only does it undermine the credibility of the Human Rights Council on human rights issues, but it once again highlights the unfair bias of the UN when it comes to the conflict,” she said. Haley also took issue with the recommendation that the U. N. General Assembly ask the International Court of Justice to issue an advisory opinion on Israel, something her office says is out of the purview of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Israel’s Ambassador to the U. N. Danny Danon also condemned the report, saying, “This obsession with Israel has crossed all lines. ” Danon accused the office of offering to “advise and support” efforts to create what he called a “blacklist” database of companies working in the region so that the international community could threaten a boycott. The latest report comes a week after Haley visited the Human Rights Council’s headquarters in Geneva and warned that the U. S. could leave the council if it didn’t reform its voting and bias against America’s ally in the Middle East. The same week, Breitbart News reported on an upcoming report by the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia and submitted in the name of Secretary General Antonio Guterres, blaming Israeli settlements for a host of Palestinian grievances for everything from excessive use of force to building parks in the West Bank so as to “entrench” Israel’s presence. Adam Shaw is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY

Lawyer Who Kept Hillary Campaign Chief Out of Jail in DOJ Hillary Probe

Daniel Greenfield

Lawyer Who Kept Hillary Campaign Chief Out of Jail in DOJ Hillary Probe November 1, 2016 Daniel Greenfield Peter Kadzik kept Hillary's campaign chief out of jail. And he hopes to do the same for her. Hillary's people have gone on the warpath against the FBI. Their allies are Obama's political appointees at the DOJ. And this is who is in their corner. The Justice Department official in charge of informing Congress about the newly reactivated Hillary Clinton email probe is a political appointee and former private-practice lawyer who kept Clinton Campaign Chairman John Podesta “out of jail,” lobbied for a tax cheat later pardoned by President Bill Clinton and led the effort to confirm Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Peter Kadzik, who was confirmed as assistant attorney general for legislative affairs in June 2014, represented Podesta in 1998 when independent counsel Kenneth Starr was investigating Podesta for his possible role in helping ex-Bill Clinton intern and mistress Monica Lewinsky land a job at the United Nations. “Fantastic lawyer. Kept me out of jail,” Podesta wrote on Sept. 8, 2008 to Obama aide Cassandra Butts, according to emails hacked from Podesta’s Gmail account and posted by WikiLeaks. Kadzik’s name has surfaced multiple times in regard to the FBI’s investigation of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for using a private, homebrewed server. After FBI Director James Comey informed Congress on Thursday the FBI was reviving its inquiry when new evidence linked to a separate investigation was discovered, congressional leaders wrote to the Department of Justice seeking more information. Kadzik replied. “We assure you that the Department will continue to work closely with the FBI and together, dedicate all necessary resources and take appropriate steps as expeditiously as possible,” Kadzik wrote on Oct. 31. Kadzik had been an attorney with Dickstein Shapiro LLP for 18 years before he represented Podesta in the Clinton/Lewinsky investigation. He was hired in 2000 as a lobbyist for tax cheat Marc Rich, who was controversially granted a pardon by President Bill Clinton during Clinton’s final days in office. Kadzik got the job “because he was ‘trusted by [White House Chief of Staff John] Podesta,’ and was considered to be a ‘useful person to convey [Marc Rich’s] arguments to Mr. Podesta,’” according to a 2002 House Oversight Committee report. Marc Rich? Funny you should mention his name. FBI boss Comey was the prosecutor in that case. And the FBI recently released material from the investigation into that case. So there's a lot of Clinton history coming full circle here.

Jakarta Bombing Kills Three Police Officers, Linked to Islamic State

John Hayward

Two suicide bombers attacked a bus station in Jakarta on Wednesday, killing three police officers and wounding at least a dozen people. The Indonesian government believes the Islamic State was responsible. [The attack was carried out in the Kampung Melayu area of Indonesia’s capital by a pair of suicide bombers who detonated themselves about five minutes apart, according to Reuters. The New York Times noted that the large police presence at the bus station was due to a parade, part of Jakarta’s festivities leading up to the beginning of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan on Saturday. Another possible factor in the timing of the attack was the formal resignation of Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, a Christian of Chinese heritage who is currently serving a jail sentence for blasphemy against Islam. Ahok’s trial and conviction inflamed both racial and religious tensions. He abandoned his appeal against the blasphemy sentence on Tuesday and resigned his office on Wednesday. In addition to the Ramadan parade, the New York Times noted that “thousands of Muslims” celebrated the governor’s resignation on the streets in the hours leading up to the suicide bomb attack. Another theory, advanced on Indonesian television by National Police spokesman Awi Setyono, is that Indonesian extremists might have been “triggered” by the ongoing clash between ISIS forces and the government of the Philippines, and by the bombing of the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. “These victims are known to us. They are police. They are bus drivers. They are motorcycle taxi drivers and grocers. I have ordered the police to hunt the terrorists and get to the root of this attack,” declared Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Widodo advised citizens to “keep calm and keep cool” because “we Muslims are preparing to enter the month of Ramadan for fasting. ” He ordered police to “thoroughly investigate the networks of the perpetrators and hunt them to the roots. ” Although no group has made a formal claim of responsibility, ISIS involvement is suspected by both Indonesian officials and analysts. “The Islamic State remains the main driver of attacks in Indonesia, and the threat posed by militants linked to the group is likely to escalate in the country,” Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Center analyst Otso Iho told CNN. Iho noted that “experienced militants” who fought for ISIS in Iraq and Syria are returning to their home countries, increasing the threat level dramatically. Only a few hundred Indonesians are believed to have traveled to the “caliphate” to fight for ISIS, but the terror state’s recruiting efforts in the world’s largest Muslim nation have been disturbingly effective with potential homegrown operatives. Indonesian police said the weapons appeared to be bombs carried in backpacks. A police inspector said that “aluminum, nails, buckshot, and receipts for purchasing rice cookers” were found at the scene of the attack. The Associated Press reports that Indonesian squads raided two houses believed to be owned by the bombers, identified as Ichwanul Nurul Salam, 40, and Ahmad Sukri, 32. Several of their relatives were also taken in for “questioning and DNA tests,” according to the chief of the squad. Salam’s wife reportedly told investigators that the bombs were assembled by another militant known as “Agus,” who is now sought by police and considered “at large and dangerous. ” A similar bomb, also believed to have been designed by Agus, was detonated in February by a member of an Indonesian extremist network called Jemaah Anshorut Daulah that has pledged allegiance to ISIS.

Idiot Who Destroyed Trump Hollywood Star Gets EXACTLY What He Deserves

Robert Rich

Share This Although the vandal who thought it was “cool” to destroy Donald Trump’s Hollywood star looked pretty comfortable making a video from the comfort of his own home, that can’t be said for him today. In fact, it seems that the idiot just got exactly what he deserved – and that’s not even the real kicker. Yesterday, Mad World News reported on James Otis, the man who was recorded destroying Trump’s star on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, California and stealing the two plaques that were in the concrete. Of course, he later stated that the two stolen objects would be auctioned off on election day with the proceeds promised to Trump’s so-called “victims.” Proving to be a cocky moron, Otis gave an itinerary, saying that he wanted to deliver a few remarks at the location of his crime at 9:30 this morning. Unfortunately for him, things didn’t go according to plan as the man just got exactly what he deserved. Donald Trump’s Hollywood star before (left) and after (right) James Otis destroyed it Although Otis had promised to turn himself in today, Deadline reports that police tracked him down and arrested him before he could use the incident to further himself any more. Unfortunately for him, the news got even worse when he was officially slapped with a felony vandalism charge. Oh, and that little “auction” he was going to have isn’t going to happen since police confiscated at least one of the plaques, which they found stashed in Otis’s car: Police confiscated at least one part of the plaque (Source: TMZ ) The real kicker came next, though. Since damages were valued at over $400 , Otis is facing up to 3 years in jail and more than $10,000 in fines. Of course, Otis didn’t seem to mind facing the consequences – until, that is, he heard what he’d actually earned. James Otis In fact, he only made himself out to be more of an idiot during an interview with the Los Angeles Daily News when he said, “I was just so fed up, so saddened and fed up by Mr. Trump and how he continues to denigrate women, and he continues to joke and make fun about sexual violence and his own exploits against women.” Clearly uninformed on the truth, he then added , “It’s just a big joke to him. I have children; I have many women in my life who don’t think it’s a joke. But he does.” He continued, “He lies about it, he shuffles and I don’t see, there’s no reason to believe at all that it will ever stop now. He’ll continue to do this, he’ll continue to make women suffer. So that’s what I’d tell him. “You need help. Please understand that.” Trump’s star is already being repaired (Source: Breitbart ) Otis doesn’t even understand that what he did wasn’t really any big deal. As of right now, the star is being replaced. Furthermore, destroying that property didn’t do a darn thing to Trump since it wasn’t his property – it was the states. In short, he just cost the American taxpayer more money because now we have to fix it. That’s the problem with the entitled mentality these days – it doesn’t matter to them who they hurt in the process. Of course, coming off looking like an idiot sure can’t feel good, but he’ll get a nice long time to think about that while he’s rotting in prison for a few years.

Trump: Putin ’Very Smart’ to Not Retaliate over Obama Sanctions - Breitbart

Lee Stranahan

Donald Trump took to Twitter Friday to praise Vladimir Putin for his decision to delay his response to President Obama’s new sanctions against Russia for the country’s alleged interference in the 2016 U. S. election. [Great move on delay (by V. Putin) — I always knew he was very smart! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia would not seek the expulsion of U. S. diplomats, but condemned the U. S. sanctions against Russia, calling them a “provocation aimed to further undermine relations. ” President Obama’s retaliation, including the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats, comes just three weeks shy of Donald Trump being sworn in as President. Media outlets like NBC News have reported that the “CIA has concluded that the interference was intended to help Donald Trump win, and NBC News has reported that intelligence officials believe ‘with a high level of confidence’ that Putin was personally involved,” but neither the intelligence community nor the Obama administration has produced any substantive proof that clearly links the Russian government to the hacking. Given Obama’s executive order of sanctions against Russia, the lack of public disclosure of any proven link between Russian intelligence or Vladimir Putin and the hacking is troubling, but adding to the lack of accountability is the fact that members of the House Intelligence committee have also been stonewalled by the Obama administration. As Breitbart News reported on Thursday, a source with knowledge on this matter told Breitbart that members of the committee were told they had to wait for an Obama report to Congress to be issued first. Reuters reported that Senator Ron Johnson said, “It is disappointing that the CIA would provide information on this issue to the Washington Post and NBC but will not provide information to elected members of Congress” after being denied a briefing by the CIA. Russia has repeatedly denied the hacking charges. At a press conference Thursday, a spokesman for Vladimir Putin called Obama’s executive order “unpredictable” and “aggressive” and said they believed the Obama administration’s action were meant “to further harm ties, which are at a low point as it is, as well as, obviously, to deal a blow to the foreign policy plans of the incoming administration of the . ” Trump said many times during the election that he favored a better relationship with Russia, including working with them to defeat ISIS. Lee Stranahan makes you smarter about the news every day with his free email newsletter The Stranahan Report start your day smarter, sign up at Stranahan. com.

Rapper T.I.: Trump a ’Poster Child For White Supremacy’

Jerome Hudson

Rapper T. I. unloaded on black celebrities who met with Donald Trump after the election, saying they failed to challenge the president for disrespecting and degrading black voters during the campaign. [The Atlanta — based artist told the of The View Thursday that he took issue with talk show host Steve Harvey, Kanye West, and football Hall of Famer and civil rights champion Jim Brown meeting with Trump. “Before you stand and smile and say this is a good man and take pictures, what about addressing the disrespect and disregard for our community that was done?” T. I. said, adding “And what about him being the poster child for white supremacy and standing for the people who look to devalue our lives?” The star of the VH1 reality show T. I. Tiny: The Family Hustle also defended fellow rapper Snoop Dogg, who recently starred in a music video that sees the “Doggystyle” rapper pull a gun on and “shoot” a parody clown version of President Donald Trump. “Whatever Snoop said, he had the right to say. He’s protected by the Constitution in saying it,” T. I. said. “We have to protect our legends. We have to protect our heroes and the people who mean something to us and our community and our culture. ” The View Sunny Hostin suggested that Trump advisor Omarosa Manigault has stated the administration’s intention to “bridge the gap” between the White House and the black community, to which T. I. responded with a personal insult. “She can’t even bridge the gap in her teeth,” the rapper said. T. I. had originally defended Snoop Dogg and his controversial video in an Instagram message, calling Trump a “f*cking tangerine tanned muskrat scrotum skin, lacefront possum fur wig wearing, alternative fact, atomic dog diarrhea face ass man [sic]. ” Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @JeromeEHudson

N.F.L. Playoffs: Schedule, Matchups and Odds - The New York Times

Benjamin Hoffman

When the Green Bay Packers lost to the Washington Redskins in Week 11, dropping to Aaron Rodgers vowed to “run the table” in a march to the playoffs. With a victory over the Detroit Lions on Sunday night, the team fulfilled Rodgers’ promise. Much of the drama of the matchup between division rivals was eliminated earlier in the day when the Redskins lost to the Giants, thus guaranteeing both the Packers and Lions would be playoff teams, but the N. F. C. North bragging rights, and a home game in the first round of the playoffs, were sufficient motivation for Green Bay to push hard enough to secure the team’s sixth consecutive win and the third consecutive loss for Detroit. Pundits had spent the week deciphering all of the wild scenarios that could play out for positioning among the remaining teams. But when all was said and done, ten of the teams that were in line for a playoff spot remained in the same seeding order. No. 6 Detroit Lions at No. 3 Seattle Seahawks Time: 8:15 p. m. Eastern SATURDAY on NBC The Seahawks’ title hopes took a crushing blow when Earl Thomas was lost for the season with a broken leg. After the injury, the Seahawks went with the wins coming with major asterisks as they came against the Rams and 49ers. That collapse paled in comparison to the Lions, who lost their final three games, blowing what had been a large division lead against Green Bay. Line: Seahawks ( : 43) No. 5 Giants at No. 4 Green Bay Packers Time: 4:40 p. m. Eastern SUNDAY on Fox Thanks to playing in the N. F. C. East, home of the Dallas Cowboys, the Giants managed to tie Atlanta for the record in the N. F. C. but got stuck with the No. 5 seed in the playoffs and a road game against a Packers squad that won its final six games. The good news for the Giants is that superstitious fans will note that the last two times they played the Packers on the road in the playoffs, they not only won the games but went on to win the Super Bowl both times. Line: Packers ( : 44. 5) Bye weeks: Dallas, Atlanta No. 5 Oakland Raiders at No. 4 Houston Texans Time: 4:35 p. m. Eastern SATURDAY on ESPN Line: Texans ( : 37) The Texans were the least inspiring of the N. F. L. ’s division champions and that was complicated further when Tom Savage, whom the team had elevated to starting quarterback after the benching of Brock Osweiler, was forced to leave Week 17’s loss to Tennessee with a concussion. As bad as that sounds, it may still be enough against a reeling Oakland squad that lost Derek Carr to a broken leg in Week 16, Matt McGloin to a shoulder injury in Week 17, and fell all the way from the No. 2 seed in the A. F. C. to No. 5. It is unclear at this point if McGloin or rookie Connor Cook will start at quarterback against Houston. No. 6 Miami Dolphins at No. 3 Pittsburgh Steelers Time: 1:05 p. m. Eastern SUNDAY on CBS The Dolphins were a contender when the team’s quarterback, Ryan Tannehill, was lost in Week 14 with injured ligaments in his left knee. Thanks to backup quarterback Matt Moore, and Jay Ajayi, the team’s running back, they won two of three games and secured a berth. But going up against a offense like Pittsburgh is a tough test for Miami’s middling defense, even if Tannehill’s knee heals enough to allow him to return. Line: Steelers .5 ( : 47. 5) Bye weeks: New England, Kansas City With four teams vying for two N. F. C. playoff spots, all eyes were on the game on Sunday. A Redskins victory could have caused movement in the seedings, with the Lions and Packers playing a evening matchup. The Giants, who had already locked up the No. 5 seed and had nothing to gain, threw a wrench in the Redskins’ plans, eliminating their division rivals with a decisive victory. With the drama essentially taken out of the N. F. C. all of the playoff movement Sunday occurred in the A. F. C. where there was a at the top of the standings in the A. F. C. West. Just a week after losing Derek Carr, the team’s quarterback and a legitimate candidate for most valuable player, to a broken leg, the Oakland Raiders were crushed by the Denver Broncos. That, combined with the Kansas City Chiefs’ victory over the San Diego Chargers vaulted the Chiefs from a spot all the way to the No. 2 seed in the A. F. C. which comes with a bye in the playoffs. The loss for Oakland added to the misery of the Raiders, who have gone from Super Bowl contenders last week to a team that will play on the road in Houston next week potentially with a quarterback under center as Carr’s backup, Matt McGloin, injured his shoulder in the loss to the Broncos. Beyond the switch to the Chiefs as the No. in the A. F. C. it was business as usual for the teams that will get bye weeks in the playoffs. The New England Patriots secured the No. 1 spot in the A. F. C. with a win over Miami, the Dallas Cowboys were already guaranteed the No. 1 spot in the N. F. C. before their loss to Philadelphia, and the Atlanta Falcons held onto the No. 2 seed in the N. F. C. with a win over New Orleans. The only remaining chance for a minor was for the Packers, who led their division by virtue of a tiebreaker, to lose to the Lions, which would have forced them to play on the road in the round of the playoffs. But the aspect of the de facto N. F. C. North championship went away when the Redskins lost to the Giants, which eliminated the Redskins from contention. While most of the races were straight forward, one of the crazier playoff scenarios that had been discussed before the week was the possibility that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers could find themselves in the playoffs. They simply had to shoot the moon by beating the Carolina Panthers, having the Redskins tie the Giants, the Packers lose to the Lions, and should all of that happen they simply required wins by Indianapolis, Dallas, Tennessee and San Francisco to top the Packers in strength of schedule. Tampa Bay took care of their end by beating the Panthers early in the day, but they were eliminated officially when Dallas lost to Philadelphia.

Macy’s Is Said to Receive Takeover Approach by Hudson’s Bay - The New York Times

Michael J. de la Merced and Rachel Abrams

The Macy’s of today grew from the union of several great names in American retailing, including its namesake chain, Bloomingdale’s and Marshall Field’s. But the ambitious owner of Saks Fifth Avenue has broached the idea of taking the union even further, combining with Macy’s to create a department store juggernaut at a time when the industry is reeling. Hudson’s Bay Company, the Canadian owner of Saks, has approached Macy’s about a potential takeover, people briefed on the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly said on Friday. Talks between the two companies are at an early stage and may still fall apart or lead to a partnership of some kind rather than a sale. While it is unclear whether a deal will happen, a combination could lift the fortunes of Macy’s, the country’s biggest department store, which has been struggling. Investors certainly appeared to see it that way. Shares of Macy’s rose as much as 12 percent on Friday, its biggest intraday gain since Aug. 11, according to data from Bloomberg. Once a retail titan, Macy’s has struggled to remain relevant as and discount retailers have decimated the traditional business. Last month, Macy’s announced plans to cut more than 10, 000 jobs and close some of its 880 stores. Terry Lundgren, its chief executive and the architect of Macy’s last big merger, is expected to step down by the end of March. He will be succeeded by the company’s president, Jeffrey Gennette. Since the recession, shoppers have grown accustomed to hunt for bargains and to not pay full price. Discount stores and outlet malls have flourished. Traditional stores have been compelled to respond by trimming prices, which cuts into their margins. Departments stores have been hit especially hard, particularly as shoppers migrate away from malls. What has emerged, analysts say, is a virtual race to the bottom. That has been particularly difficult for Macy’s, born of a series of mergers over the past two decades that made it a juggernaut in the industry. A stalwart of the middle tier of retail, the company has neither the advantages of retailers like HM nor the stores. In addition, Macy’s faces increasingly fierce competition online from sites like Amazon and elsewhere. Macy’s troubles have drawn the attention of a prominent activist hedge fund, Starboard Value, which has urged the company to generate cash by selling the real estate beneath its stores. Starboard, which held just under 1 percent of Macy’s shares as of Sept. 30, had previously estimated the value of that land at about $21 billion. On Friday, analysts at Citigroup estimated that Macy’s holdings could be worth at least $18 billion. Macy’s market value, by comparison, was just under $11 billion as of Friday morning. Macy’s has taken some steps to sell or redevelop stores, and last year, it added an expert on real estate transactions to its board. But the company has largely resisted more ambitious efforts to divest its real estate, including deals, in which a company sells the underlying land beneath its stores and then rents it back. The company’s suitor, Hudson’s Bay Company, is far smaller — its market value was about 1. 9 billion Canadian dollars, or $1. 5 billion — but is known for its bold steps. Hudson’s Bay Company has assembled a growing empire that includes the Hudson’s Bay department store chain, Lord Taylor and its crown jewel, Saks. And the governor and executive chairman of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Richard Baker, has shown little fear of using debt: In November 2014, the company borrowed nearly $4 billion against the Saks flagship in Midtown Manhattan. He has spoken often of retailers’ need to highlight the value of their real estate. Financing a bid for Macy’s may be trickier, however, because the it carries about $6. 5 billion in debt. That may mean that the Hudson’s Bay Company will have to bring in a partner or borrow against more of its real estate holdings. A spokesman for the Hudson’s Bay Company declined to comment on the talks, which were reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal. “We do not comment on rumors and speculation,” a representative for Macy’s said. A representative for Starboard Value did not respond to a request for comment. Some analysts said that they saw the merit of a potential combination, particularly given Macy’s operational woes and Mr. Baker’s expertise in wringing money out of real estate. “There is a clear logic, despite disparity in cap” between Macy’s and Hudson’s Bay Company, Craig Johnson, the president of Customer Growth Partners, a research firm, said in a note. Referring to Macy’s stock ticker symbol, he added, “The retail market has been changing faster than M has been able to keep up with, whether the flight from the mall or the migration online. ”

NATO, Russia To Hold Parallel Exercises In Balkans

Alex Ansary

NATO, Russia To Hold Parallel Exercises In Balkans 11/02/2016 PRESS TV Russia’s military and NATO forces are holding parallel military exercises in two neighboring Balkan countries. Russian troops will participate in war games in Serbia while NATO is conducting military drills in Montenegro, media reported on Monday. Russian forces’ 13-day military exercise in Serbia is named “The Slavic Brotherhood 2016” and begins on Wednesday. It will include 150 Russian paratroopers, 50 air force staffers, three transport planes and an unspecified number of troops from Serbia and Belarus, Russia’s Defense Ministry said. The five-day NATO drill in Montenegro started on Monday and involves responding to floods and chemical attacks. It will involve 680 unarmed personnel from seven NATO countries and 10 partner states. In the past both Serbia and Montenegro were constitutional republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Both countries are socialist republics and traditional Russian Christian Orthodox allies. In 2003 this state union was re-formed into Serbia and Montenegro, and in 2006 the two became independent states. Since their split, the two Balkan neighbors seem to have headed in different directions strategically. Montenegro has taken a pro-Western stance which has been awarded by NATO with an offer to join the Northern Atlantic Alliance. The NATO invitation to Montenegro has met strong opposition from Russia. Meanwhile, Montenegrin officials have accused Russia of staging an alleged coup in October to topple its pro-Western government because of the NATO accession bid. Serbia, a NATO partner, has held exercises with the Western alliance, but not such a large one or with foreign troops and equipment participating on its soil.

What Keeps the F-35 Alive

David Swanson

David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is a 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.com and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org . He hosts Talk Nation Radio . Talk Nation Radio is on VT Radio and is syndicated by Pacifica Network. The show also airs on WTJU, Charlottesville, VA; WCSX-Detroit, MI; KGHI, Westport, WA; WHUS, Storrs, CT; WPRR, Grand Rapids, MI; KRFP-LP, Moscow, ID; KZGM, Cabool, MO; KMUD, Garberville, CA; WAZU, Peoria, IL; WXRD, Crown Point, IN; Geneva Radio, Geneva, NY; KKRN, Round Mountain, CA; KSKQ-LP, Ashland, OR; WUOW-LP, Oneonta, NY; No Lies Radio, Pinole, CA; WYAP-LP, Clay, WV; The Detour, Johnson City, TN; WZRD, Chicago, IL; WEFT, Champaign, IL; WXPI, Pittsburgh, PA; WDRT, Viroqua, WI; Veracity Now, online; Liberty and Justice Radio, Shirley, MA; Ithaca Community Radio, Ithaca, NY; WMCB, Greenfield, MA; PRX.org; KAOS 89.3fm, Olympia, WA; WUSB 90.1 FM, Stony Brook, NY; WOOL-FM, Bellow Falls, Vermont; WSLR-LP 96.5 in Sarasota, Florida. He also blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org And is a prolific author. His latest books are; War Is A Lie , Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union , and When the World Outlawed War Swanson holds a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including press secretary for Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, media coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as communications coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Read his full and complete biography at DavidSwanson.org and also visit book site at War Is Crime . What Keeps the F-35 Alive By David Swanson on October 31, 2016 Petition to Stop F-35 Going Global by David Swanson Imagine if a local business in your town invented a brand new tool that was intended to have an almost magical effect thousands of miles away. However, where the tool was kept and used locally became an area unsafe for children. Children who got near this tool tended to have increased blood pressure and increased stress hormones, lower reading skills, poorer memories, impaired auditory and speech perception, and impaired academic performance. Most of us would find this situation at least a little concerning, unless the new invention was designed to murder lots of people. Then it’d be just fine. Now, imagine if this same new tool ruined neighborhoods because people couldn’t safely live near it. Imagine if the government had to compensate people but kick them out of living near the location of this tool. Again, I think, we might find that troubling if mass murder were not the mission. Imagine also that this tool fairly frequently explodes, emitting highly toxic chemicals, particles, and fibers unsafe to breathe into the air for miles around. Normally, that’d be a problem. But if this tool is needed for killing lots of people, we’ll work with its flaws, won’t we? Now, what if this new gadget was expected to cost at least $1,400,000,000,000 over 50 years? And what if that money had to be taken away from numerous other expenses more beneficial for the economy and the world? What if the $1.4 trillion was drained out of the economy causing a loss of jobs and a radical diminuition of resources for education, healthcare, housing, environmental protection, or humanitarian aid? Wouldn’t that be a worry in some cases, I mean in those cases where the ability to kill tons of human beings wasn’t at stake? What if this product, even when working perfectly, was a leading destroyer of the earth’s natural environment? What if this high-tech toy wasn’t even designed to do what was expected of it and wasn’t even able to do what it was designed for? Amazingly, even those shortcomings do not matter as long as the intention is massive murder and destruction. Then, all is forgiven. The tool I’m describing is called the F-35. At RootsAction.org you can find a new petition launched by locally-minded people acting globally in places where the F-35 is intended to be based. Also at that link you’ll find explanations of how the tool I’ve been decribing is the F-35. The petition is directed to the United States Congress and the governments of Australia, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Israel, Japan and South Korea from the world and from the people of Burlington, Vermont, and Fairbanks, Alaska, where the F-35 is to be based. This effort is being initiated by Vermont Stop the F35 Coalition, Save Our Skies Vermont, Western Maine Matters, Alaska Peace Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks Peace Club, North Star Chapter 146 Veterans For Peace, World Beyond War, RootsAction.org, Code Pink, and Ben Cohen. The petition reads: The F-35 is a weapon of offensive war, serving no defensive purpose. It is planned to cost the U.S. $1.4 trillion over 50 years. Because starvation on earth could be ended for $30 billion and the lack of clean drinking water for $11 billion per year, it is first and foremost through the wasting of resources that this airplane will kill. Military spending, contrary to popular misconception, also hurts the U.S. economy ( see here ) and other economies. The F-35 causes negative health impacts and cognitive impairment in children living near its bases. It renders housing near airports unsuitable for residential use. It has a high crash rate and horrible consequences to those living in the area of its crashes. Its emissions are a major environmental polluter. Wars are endangering the United States and other participating nations rather than protecting them. Nonviolent tools of law, diplomacy, aid, crisis prevention, and verifiable nuclear disarmament should be substituted for continuing counterproductive wars. Therefore, we, the undersigned, call for the immediate cancellation of the F-35 program as a whole, and the immediate cancellation of plans to base any such dangerous and noisy jets near populated areas. We oppose replacing the F-35 with any other weapon or basing the F-35 in any other locations. We further demand redirection of the money for the F-35 back into taxpayers’ pockets, and into environmental and human needs in the U.S., other F-35 customer nations, and around the world, including to fight climate change, pay off student debt, rebuild crumbling infrastructure, and improve education, healthcare, and housing. Add your name . David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org . Swanson’s books include War Is A Lie . He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org . He hosts Talk Nation Radio .He is a 2015 and 2016 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee. Follow him on Twitter: @davidcnswanson and FaceBook . Help support DavidSwanson.org, WarIsACrime.org, and TalkNationRadio.org by clicking here: http://davidswanson.org/donate .