21st Century Wire says Since the late 1960 s, it s become accepted as a fact of political life that the faculty and administrations of America s universities have a heavily ingrained liberal bias, but to see them now actively working to cleanse their campuses of any pro-Trump and conservative voices demonstrates that their progressive values have progressed far beyond what used to be considered as liberal and into the realm of political fascism and Marxist-style identity politics. The liberal reaction to the US Election result not only marks a low ebb of American culture, but it also proves beyond any doubt that the US university system is failing to teach life s basics Last week s US Presidential Election result has accentuated this phenomenon, bringing many hardcore radical campus political ideologies out of their academic shells, and into the open, in all of their ugliness. Some university heads around the country have called for safe spaces on their campuses where traumatized Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders student supporters can go to retreat from any mention of Donald Trump, and to protect them from hearing any speech in support of President Elect Trump. Quite rightly, because of frequent incidents like this, many are now viewing American academia as one giant institutionalized brainwashing mill where political correctness is not only encouraged, it s also being legislated.RELATED: DePaul University Threatens to ARREST Conservative editor Ben Shapiro if He Stepped on CampusThis is the danger of a liberal America which appears to desire not only a single party state, but also a sanitized monoculture where speech and expression are heavily regulated and also self-policed by progressive mobs. This leftist culture of extreme intolerance to any opposing views where students will demand protection from the state and administrative bodies from even hearing any opposing opinions in public is heading dangerously close to Mao s Amerika Glenn Reynolds USA TodayOne of the more amusing bits of fallout from last week s election has been the safe-space response of many colleges and universities to the election of the wrong candidate. But on closer examination, this response isn t really amusing. In fact, it s downright mean.Donald Trump s substantial victory, when most progressives expected a Hillary Clinton landslide, came as a shock to many. That shock seems to have been multiplied in academia, where few people seem to know any Trump supporters or, at least, any Trump supporters who ll admit to it.The response to the shock has been to turn campuses into kindergarten. The University of Michigan Law School announced a post-election self-care event with food and play, including coloring sheets, play dough (sic), positive card-making, Legos and bubbles with your fellow law students. (Embarrassed by the attention, UM Law scrubbed the announcement from its website, perhaps concerned that people would wonder whether its graduates would require Legos and bubbles in the event of stressful litigation.) IN NEED OF SAFE SPACES : Hillary Clinton supporters struggling to cope with the reality of democracy (Image Source: Fellowship of the Minds)Stanford emailed its students and faculty that psychological counseling was available for those experiencing uncertainty, anger, anxiety and/or fear following the election. So did the University of Michigan s Flint campus.Meanwhile, even the Ivy League wasn t immune, with the University of Pennsylvania (Trump s alma mater) creating a post-election safe space with puppies and coloring books:Student Daniel Tancredi reported that the people who attended were fearful about the results of the election. For the most part, students just hung out and ate snacks and made small talk, Tancredi told The College Fix. Of course, that was in addition to coloring and playing with the animals. Yale had a group scream. At Tufts, the university offered arts and crafts, while the University of Kansas reminded students that there were plenty of therapy dogs available. At other schools, exams were canceled and professors expressed their sympathy to traumatized students.It s easy to mock this as juvenile silliness because, well, it is juvenile silliness of the sort documented in Frank Furedi s What s Happened To The University? But that s not all it is. It s also exactly what these schools purport to abhor: an effort to marginalize and silence part of the university community.In an email to students, University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel wrote: Our responsibility is to remain committed to education, discovery and intellectual honesty and to diversity, equity and inclusion. We are at our best when we come together to engage respectfully across our ideological differences; to support all who feel marginalized, threatened or unwelcome; and to pursue knowledge and understanding. But when you treat an election in which the wrong candidate wins as a traumatic event on a par with the 9/11 attacks, calling for counseling and safe spaces, you re implicitly saying that everyone who supported that wrong candidate is, well, unsafe. Despite the talk about diversity and inclusion, this is really sending the signal that people who supported Trump and Trump is leading the state of Michigan, so there are probably quite a few on campus aren t really included in acceptable campus culture. It s not promoting diversity; it s enforcing uniformity. It s not promoting inclusion; it s practicing exclusion Continue this story at USA TodayREAD MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE NOW & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV


President Donald Trump has invited Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to visit his private Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida over the weekend after the two leaders meet on Friday in Washington, the White House said on Tuesday. "This is a testament to the importance the United States places on the bilateral relationship and the strength of our alliance and the deep economic ties between the United States and Japan," White House spokesman Sean Spicer said at a White House press briefing.


By David Haggith, the Great Recession Blog .  As we near Halloween, the US stock market looks like it's whistling past the graveyard near the end of a year that I predicted would be the dawn of "the Epocalypse." (By that, I meant an economic apocalypse, the likes of which we've never seen.)  So far, however, that prediction has not manifested. In fact, the market's fibrillating heartbeat in this graph exhibits a preternatural and eery calm. But it is too calm — too calm to be natural. The stock market plunged on my predicted schedule at the start of the year in what turned into the worst January in the US stock market's history. Then, suddenly, it was resurrected, great death defied; but, after a rapid recovery it lost consciousness and now behaves more like the walking dead.  I have never seen a more rigged looking stock market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) has been flatlining in the narrowest range possible for almost four months. Coincidence, or has the Fed clandestinely set a threshold below which it will not let the market fall, just like it does openly for inflation — in order to make sure that nothing happens economically that would push voters toward Donald Trump? Is the Federal Reserve rigging the stock market in order to drag itself through this monstrous election cycle alive?  While the Fed is barred by law from buying stocks, it has been creating money for its banking proxies to buy stocks ever since the Great Recession hit. It's common knowledge and also confessed this year by Fed officials , that the Fed has been pumping up the stock market; but I'm asking are they taking new extraordinary measures behind the scenes? The market now looks like it has been pushed as high as it will go and is being held against that ceiling by some mysterious levitating force.  Donald Trump recently made it clear that he'd love to put a stake in the heart of the Federal Reserve by firing Janet Yellen … if he could. The prospect of such an acrimonious relationship with a president, telegraphed so clearly by a candidate with a strong chance of winning, surely puts the Fed in a fearful state of self-preservation. All creatures in a state of self-preservation — especially the hideous ones — will do nearly anything to survive.  I can't say that I know the Fed is doing anything new or different than what it has done for the past seven years; but I can say with certainty that this stock market doesn't look like anything we've seen in the past seven years … or even that I've seen anytime in my career.  John Rubino of DollarCollapse.com calls it "The Boredom Before the Storm" and observes …  With all the surprising and disturbing things going on – Brexit, China's soaring debt, US/Russia/China saber rattling, the unique US presidential race, the cyber attack that shut down big parts of the US Internet – you'd think that an unsettled world would be reflected in skittish financial markets. Instead we're getting the opposite, with stock price movements becoming more and more placid as the year goes on.  Indeed. Like Rubino, I find it strange that, with so much disturbing news around the world, the stock market looks like a sea that is a smooth as glass (compared to how the market's ups and downs have looked at any other time). You'd think there was never a season more calming to the nerves of investors than the last four months, even as Wall Street daily screams out its fears about a possible Trump victory.  In case you don't think the above graph looks highly suspect, consider that the Dow has now closed below its fifty-day moving average every day without falling below its two-hundred-day moving average for thirty-two sessions. That may not sound like any technical big deal, but what that means is that the Dow has traded within the range of those two averages for the longest time in twenty-seven years ! In fact, the current stretch is three days longer ( and running ) than what the Dow managed back in 1989. (That's just as far back as I had time to research to try to find a period that came close.) Is the White House also in on the fix … if a fix it is?  At a time when Barrack Obama has been boasting that his administration brought the national deficit down (and when I suspect the Obama Admin. would like to tamp it down as much as possible to make Democrats look good for the election), Federal government spending just leaped 67% in August over the month before and 23% over the year before. Another way of saying that is that this spending surge created a deficit for August that was 40% higher than last August's deficit.  Why would the Obama administration risk losing its bragging rights over lowering the deficit so close to the election unless something more important than those bragging rights was at stake? (The president can, after all, do things by executive order to slow spending.) It could, of course, simply be that the King Pin and his henchmen recognized no one was buying their story, so they gave up maintaining the charade. Or … it could be that the economy began sinking so badly that massive efforts were needed to shore things up behind the scenes. Or … ?  While I don't know the reasoning for the spending explosion at a time when the Obama wants to firmly establish his legacy as our savior from the Great Recession, I will note that there is nothing like a massive burst of last-minute government spending on top of whatever the Feral Reserve might be doing to superficially float the economy a little longer. If your boat starts leaking badly and you're only a hundred yards from shore, the best solution is to power quickly toward shore, not spend time trying to make lasting repairs. No October surprise this October … so far … boo!  October has a reputation for being a nasty month for the stock market. It's the month in which you had usually better buckle your seatbelt because October has seen more stock market crashes than any other month. Sixty-percent of the largest one-day drops in the US stock market have happened in October.  This Halloweenish month has broken more volatility records than any other month. That makes it especially odd that the VIX, which tracks market volatility, hasn't been this steady in any month since the months that preceded the Great Recession. (Everyone thought everything was fine then, too.)  As short volatility market positions continue to build – largely as a consequence of central banks suppressing volatility to prevent recessions – maverick money manager Jesse Felder is warning the end result of the volatility trade could be a very painful lesson for investors with significant stock market repercussions. Having started out at Bear Stearns before co-founding his own multi-billion-dollar hedge fund, Jesse Felder is now more at home educating the masses on the truth in financial markets through his blog The Felder Report …. Felder expresses his concern that the lack of volatility will inevitably create more volatility, the likes of which have never been seen before. "I'm not calling for a stock market crash … but if you want to look at what's the probability of that type of an event, it's probably got to be as high as it's ever been." ( Business Insider )  Felder also says in a television interview that another sign of "way too much complacency" in the stock market is that…  …we're seeing financial stress; everybody's dismissing it…. It's big-time denial.  Investor complacency or even irrational exuberance are the hallmarks of the final days before a stock-market bust because markets crash when people are most blind. (If they weren't blind, they'd see the problem coming and avert catastrophe.) Everyone was complacent in 2007 about all warnings, just as no one now seems to care that the market has plowed its mushy head into a ceiling that is slowly squishing down upon it.  This October looks more sloppy than choppy, and that's … in spite of just entering another reporting period of fairly weak earnings, in spite of the European Central Bank talking about backing away from quantitative easing, in spite of the US national debt hitting twenty-trillion dollars, in spite of the Federal Reserve edging toward a possible interest-rate hike now that inflation and employment have met the Fed's stated targets, in spite of the Bank of Japan holding back on its QE, in spite of China looking like another round of collapse is imminent, in spite of the largest and oldest banks in Europe teetering on collapse, in spite of the great European unwind called "Brexit," in spite of a proxy war between the US and Russia flaring up in the Middle East, and in spite of that scary, red-haired Chucky doll named Trump.  Hmm. Is history's calmest stock market in the midst of all that a sign of peak complacency or irrationality? Or is it a sign that the market is being firmly fixed in place by the Fed and the government? Either way, looks like a crash is imminent. You decide. I'll just note that the market looks as calm as the eye in the middle of the hurricane that is, itself, surrounded by hurricanes.  While the ride has been mysteriously quiet for the last four months, note that the trend over those months is ever so gradually downward. So, if the fix is in, it is a fix that is barely holding, despite all the Fed and the government can throw at it.  Are investors just treading water, as some commentators explain, waiting until the election decides who is president. If so, that's something they have not done with this level of calm in any previous election cycles. Or are the Fed and the Gov lifting with all their combined might in hidden ways to try to hold up a lowering ceiling so that no one will suspect the Obama-praised Obama recovery is already dead?  I don't actually know. I just want to make the stinking peculiarity of this zombie economy abundantly clear.


The fundamental transformation of America continues . But one photo emerges that defies Barack and Michelle Obama s hateful and divisive narrative.In the latest chapter of the outcry over the Confederate flag issue in South Carolina, an unexpected scene emerged from rallies involving the Ku Klux Klan and black supporters this weekend a photo of a black police officer helping a white supremacist at the Capitol in Charleston.Members of the Loyal White Knights of the KKK were protesting the state s recent decision to remove the flag from the statehouse grounds. Black advocates held their own rally, and a clash among the two parties ensued.IN THE MIDST OF SO MUCH HATE, ONE HOPEFUL PHOTO EMERGED: It didn t take long for the photograph taken by Rob Godfrey, the deputy chief of staff for South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley to spread on the Internet. Not an uncommon example of humanity in SC: Leroy Smith helps white supremacist to shelter & water as heat bears down, Godfrey wrote in posting the photo on Twitter.Officer Leroy Smith was helping the man find shade and water on a hot day in Charleston, when temperatures reached the upper 90s. About 2,000 people attended the rallies. He was assisting with crowd control on the stairs where the KKK was rallying, spokeswoman Sherri Iacobelli said of Smith.As might be expected, the general public largely fell into one of two camps applauding the photo, or questioning it. This kindness chokes me up. How do SC people find that well of caring in the midst of so much hatred? one person replied in the photo s comment thread. Amazing! I couldn t find it in my heart and I am white, another remarked. Just curious. Put this in reverse. Would that White Supremacist have done that for Officer Smith at a Black Panther rally? countered one tweet. Being nice didn t save those 9 people [at the Charleston church shooting] though, posted another.Thursday, Haley encouraged people to stay away from the KKK rally. The strength and grace the people of South Carolina have shown over the last three weeks have inspired our family, our neighbors and the entire world, she wrote on her Facebook page. Our family hopes the people of South Carolina will join us in staying away from the disruptive, hateful spectacle members of the Ku Klux Klan hope to create.


As 21WIRE said last year, the Russian hacking, or Russiagate story was a political hoax from the start. What this story can now demonstrate, is that for the last 18 months, the entire mainstream media has been promulgating a highly politicised, and relentless campaign of fake news designed to implicate Russia in an imaginary scandal. Leading the pack are former papers of record The New York Times and The Washington Post, flanked by America s premier broadcast TV propaganda outlet CNN.Last week, we revealed how powerful politicians in Washington had pressured Facebook executives to come up with any evidence to support the Democratic Party s theory of Russian meddling, demonstrating clear collusion between the Obama Administration and Silicon Valley corporation Facebook, with the goal of fabricating a scandal in order to scapegoat Vladimir Putin and the Russians for the electoral collapse of Hillary Clinton last November.As a result, US-Russian relations have been sacrificed at the altar of petty partisan politics and a failing deep state agenda.It certainly begs the question: with so much at stake, why would Washington and MSM lie and risk pushing global tensions closer to a world war level confrontation? If they are prepared to lie about this, what else are they prepared to lie about?Consortium News Exclusive: The U.S. mainstream media is determined to prove Russia-gate despite the scandal s cracking foundation and its inexplicable anomalies, such as why Russia would set up a Facebook puppies page.By Robert ParryWhat is perhaps most unprofessional, unethical and even immoral about the U.S. mainstream media s coverage of Russia-gate is how all the stories start with the conclusion Russia bad and then make whatever shards of information exist fit the preordained narrative.For instance, we re told that Facebook executives, who were sent back three times by Democratic lawmakers to find something to pin on Russia, finally detected $100,000 worth of ads spread out over three years from accounts suspected of links to Russia or similar hazy wording.These Facebook ads and 201 related Twitter accounts, we re told, represent the long-missing proof about Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election after earlier claims faltered or fell apart under even minimal scrutiny.In the old days, journalists might have expressed some concern that Facebook found the ads only under extraordinary pressure from powerful politicians, such as Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a leading legislator on the tech industry. But today s mainstream reporters took Warner s side and made it look like Facebook had been dragging its heels and that there must be much more out there.However, it doesn t really seem to matter how little evidence there is. Anything will do.Even the paltry $100,000 is not put in any perspective (Facebook has annual revenue of $27 billion), nor the 201 Twitter accounts (compared to Twitter s 328 million monthly users). Nor are the hazy allegations of suspected links to Russia subjected to serious inspection. Although Russia is a nation of 144 million people and many divergent interests, it s assumed that everything must be personally ordered by President Vladimir Putin.Yet, if you look at some of the details about these $100,000 in ads, you learn the case is even flimsier than you might have thought. The sum was spread out over 2015, 2016 and 2017 and thus represented a very tiny pebble in a very large lake of Facebook activity.But more recently we learned that only 44 percent of the ads appeared before Americans went to the polls last November, according to Facebook; that would mean that 56 percent appeared afterwards.Facebook added that roughly 25% of the ads were never shown to anyone. For 50% of the ads, less than $3 was spent; for 99% of the ads, less than $1,000 was spent. So, as miniscule as the $100,000 in ad buys over three years may have seemed, the tiny pebble turns out really to be only a fraction of a tiny pebble if the Russians indeed did toss it into the 2016 campaign.What About the Puppies?We further have learned that most ads weren t for or against a specific candidate, but rather addressed supposedly controversial issues that the mainstream media insists were meant to divide the United States and thus somehow undermine American democracy.Except, it turns out that one of the issues was puppies.As Mike Isaac and Scott Shane of The New York Times reported in Tuesday s editions, The Russians who posed as Americans on Facebook last year tried on quite an array of disguises. There was even a Facebook group for animal lovers with memes of adorable puppies that spread across the site with the help of paid ads. Now, there are a lot of controversial issues in America, but I don t think any of us would put puppies near the top of the list. Isaac and Shane reported that there were also supposedly Russia-linked groups advocating gay rights, gun rights and black civil rights, although precisely how these divergent groups were linked to Russia or the Kremlin was never fully explained. (Facebook declined to offer details.)At this point, a professional journalist might begin to pose some very hard questions to the sources, who presumably include many partisan Democrats and their political allies hyping the evil-Russia narrative. It would be time for some lectures to the sources about the consequences for taking reporters on a wild ride in conspiracy land.Yet, instead of starting to question the overall premise of this scandal, journalists at The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, etc. keep making excuses for the nuttiness. The explanation for the puppy ads was that the nefarious Russians might be probing to discover Americans who might later be susceptible to propaganda. The goal of the dog lovers page was more obscure, Isaac and Shane acknowledged. But some analysts suggested a possible motive: to build a large following before gradually introducing political content. Without viewing the entire feed from the page, now closed by Facebook, it is impossible to say whether the Russian operators tried such tactics. [Seriously, this is what the New York Times is passing off as journalism now]The Joe McCarthy of Russia-gateThe Times then turned to Clinton Watts, a former FBI agent and a top promoter of the New McCarthyism that has swept Official Washington. Watts has testified before Congress that almost anything that appears on social media these days criticizing a politician may well be traceable to the Russians Continue this story at Consortium NewsREAD MORE RUSSIAGATE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Russiagate FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV


Ellis Morning Editor  An Anonymous source sends us some Java code with really special variable naming conventions. I can only assume this came from a plucky startup hoping to attract venture capital. import java.util.*; import java.awt.*; import javax.swing.*; import java.awt.event.*; public class Array implements ActionListener, MouseMotionListener, MouseListener { int $$_, _$$, $$$,$_$; JFrame $$$__$$$ = new JFrame(); boolean draw = true; JButton $$1 = new JButton("Line"), $$2 = new JButton("Rectangle"), $$3 = new JButton("Clear"); ArrayList = new ArrayList<>(); JPanel aa$$aa = new JPanel(), _$$_$_ = new JPanel(), $0$0$ = new JPanel() { @Override public void paintComponent(Graphics g) { super.paintComponent(g); for (Shape i : ) { if (i.$s$ == true) { g.setColor(Color.green); g.drawLine(i.$$_,i._$$,i.$$$,i.$_$); } else { g.setColor(Color.red); g.fillPolygon(new int[] {i.$$_,i.$$_,i.$$$,i.$$$}, new int[] {i._$$,i.$_$,i.$_$,i._$$}, 4); } } if (draw) { g.setColor(Color.green); g.drawLine($$_,_$$,$$$,$_$); } else { g.setColor(Color.red); g.fillPolygon(new int[] {$$_,$$_,$$$,$$$}, new int[] {_$$,$_$,$_$,_$$}, 4); } } }; public Array () { aa$$aa.setLayout(new BoxLayout(aa$$aa, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS)); _$$_$_.add($$1); $$1.addActionListener(this); _$$_$_.add($$2); $$2.addActionListener(this); _$$_$_.add($$3); $$3.addActionListener(this); $0$0$.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(200, 200)); aa$$aa.add($0$0$); $0$0$.addMouseListener(this); $0$0$.addMouseMotionListener(this); aa$$aa.add(_$$_$_); $$$__$$$.add(aa$$aa); $$$__$$$.setSize(new Dimension(400, 400)); $$$__$$$.setVisible(true); $$$__$$$.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE); } public static void main(String[] args) { new Array(); } public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) { if (e.getSource() == $$1) { draw = true; } else if (e.getSource() == $$2) { draw = false; } else if (e.getSource() == $$3) { .clear(); } $$_ = 0; _$$ = 0; $$$ = 0; $_$ = 0; $$$__$$$.repaint(); } public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) { $$_ = e.getX(); _$$ = e.getY(); $0$0$.repaint(); } public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e) { $$$ = e.getX(); $_$ = e.getY(); .add(new Shape($$_,_$$,$$$,$_$, draw)); $$_=0; _$$=0; $_$=0; $_$=0; $$$__$$$.repaint(); } public void mouseEntered(MouseEvent e) { $$$__$$$.repaint(); } public void mouseExited(MouseEvent e) { $$$__$$$.repaint(); } public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e) { $$$__$$$.repaint(); } public void mouseMoved(MouseEvent e) { $$$__$$$.repaint(); } public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent e) { $$$ = e.getX(); $_$ = e.getY(); $$$__$$$.repaint(); } class Shape { int $$_,_$$,$$$,$_$; boolean $s$; Shape(int xx, int yy, int x$, int y$, boolean tp) { $$_ = xx; _$$ = yy; $$$ = x$; $_$ = y$; $s$ = tp; } public String toString() { return ""+$$_+" "+_$$+" "+$$$+" "+$_$; } } } [Advertisement] Infrastructure as Code built from the start with first-class Windows functionality and an intuitive, visual user interface. Download Otter today!


The Swedish identity will be wiped out in 20-30 years. This is sadly, a look into the future for all of Europe As a current resident of Sweden, I sometimes find myself questioning my own sanity. All these problems I blog about are right there in the open for anyone to see and getting worse by the year, yet media and politicians act as if everything is hunky-dory. Most people on the street also appears to be completely oblivious to details like the enormous increase of burning cars in the ghettos, the 1472% increase in rapes and the ever bolder gangs choking their enclaves with drugs and violence.So I find myself wondering, am I missing something? Why aren t people reacting? Is it really reasonable that so many are in a state of denial? Or am I somehow misinterpreting all this?That s why it s oddly reassuring that the neighboring Nordic countries are in the same boat. Denmark has voiced concerns about the utterly weak background check of immigrants from the middle east, fearing radical Islamists entering Sweden as asylum seekers with the intent of building Scandinavian terror cells. My very first post on this blog was about a Danish politician openly pleading for Sweden to come to its senses.Norway isn t too pleased either, and they dare speak openly about the problems brewing in the cities of their neighbor.In a new report called Oslo 2022, the Norwegian police explicitly use Sweden in general and the town of S dert lje as a warning example. This prompted Aftonposten, one of the major Norwegian newspapers, to do two articles on Sweden s out-of-control immigration.In the first part, Norwegian reporters traveled to S dert lje outside Stockholm. Entitled We all live in the same town, but not in the same world, the article chronicles a town in complete segregation where the immigrants gain ground every year and everyone who can escapes. Violence, drugs, lawlessness and decay eats away at the town like a cancer. Why is this allowed to happen? the reporter asks. Because the Swedes are weak, says 36-year old Simon Melkemichel. The Swedish identity will be wiped out in 20-30 years. The second part is called Sweden has lost control over their immigration and has representatives for the Norwegian government comment on the fact that, well, Sweden has lost control over their immigration. What makes it noteworthy is the difference in tone compared to the Swedish political debate.As in Denmark, the Norwegian leftist worker s party have a very different view on immigration than the Swedish sister party Socialdemokraterna (currently in power). In Norway and Denmark, they make a point of restricting the inflow and checking the backgrounds carefully.In Sweden, there are literally no limits, and any background check beyond scratching the surface is considered racist and shut down by management as has been repeatedly revealed by bloggers like Merit Wager.Not surprisingly, the police report and the articles have ruffled quite a few feathers in Sweden s political and medial elite. But equally predictably, the Swedish response is not to acknowledge the problems, but to whine about the mean Norwegian pseudo-fascists having the gall to criticize Sweden s enlightened stance.While it doesn t do squat to fix anything, it s at least reassuring that I m not the one losing my mind.


President Donald Trump renewed his spat with the sports world on Sunday, again calling for National Football League owners to fire players who protest during the U.S. national anthem. In an early morning tweet, Trump suggested fans could boycott NFL games in order to pressure teams to discipline players who protest the anthem. "If NFL fans refuse to go to games until players stop disrespecting our Flag & Country, you will see change take place fast," Trump wrote on Sunday. "Fire or suspend!" In a second tweet, Trump said that the "league should back" fans who are upset about the protests. Trump is spending the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, and held no public events on Saturday. On Saturday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Trump's first statements on the matter, which came during a political rally in Alabama on Friday, revealed an "unfortunate lack of respect" for the NFL and its players. At the rally, Trump suggested any protesting football player was a "son of a bitch" and should lose his job. "Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, 'Get that son of a bitch off the field right now ... He is fired'," Trump said on Friday at a rally for Alabama Senate Republican candidate Luther Strange. Trump said in Twitter messages later on Saturday that, if NFL players wanted "the privilege" of high salaries, they "should stand for the National Anthem. If not, YOU'RE FIRED. Find something else to do!" Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick stirred a polarizing national debate in 2016 after refusing to stand during pre-game renditions of the "Star Spangled Banner". Instead, Kaepernick put one knee to the ground to protest against police violence against African-Americans. Several players have since made similar gestures of protest before games. As commissioner, Goodell reports to NFL owners, some of whom have supported Trump in the past. New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, a major Trump presidential campaign donor, was confirmed by the Senate last month as Trump's pick to serve as U.S. ambassador to Britain. The union representing professional football players also rejected Trump's comments, saying it would defend their right to freedom of expression. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the matter. National Basketball Association players also struck back against comments by the president on Saturday after Trump clashed with one of the biggest stars in the NBA. In an early morning Twitter message on Saturday, the president rescinded a White House invitation to Stephen Curry, who had said he would "vote" against the planned visit by the NBA champion Golden State Warriors. "Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team. Stephen Curry is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn!" Trump tweeted. Curry told a news conference in Oakland, California: "It's beneath the leader of a country to go that route." "It's not what leaders do," he said. The Oakland-based Golden State Warriors said in a statement the team had intended to meet to discuss the potential visit at the first opportunity on Saturday morning. "We accept that President Trump has made it clear that we are not invited," the team said. LeBron James came to Curry's defense, disputing Trump's assertion that visiting the White House was an honor. "Going to White House was a great honor until you showed up!" James, a prominent supporter of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential elections, said on Twitter. Singer Stevie Wonder appeared to evoke protests by Kaepernick and other athletes when he put one knee to the stage during a concert at the Global Citizen Festival in New York City on Saturday. "Tonight, I'm taking a knee for America," Wonder told the audience as his son, Kwame Morris, helped him down. Wonder then put his other leg down so that he was kneeling and facing the cheering crowd, with his son doing the same. "I'm taking both knees," Wonder said. "Both knees in prayer for our planet, our future, our leaders of the world and our globe."


With the news dropping that supposedly Trump isn t under an investigation for obstruction of justice, we re all scratching our heads. Especially since Trump admitted he s under investigation himself.ABC This Week with George Stephanopoulos has an idea of what s going on. The President wants to take down Bob Mueller. His lawyer wants to take down Bob Muller and the question is why? And I think the answer is they wanna lay the foundation to discredit whatever Bob Mueller comes up with, Stephanopoulos said in a video posted on Twitter.Given that Trump himself has admitted on Twitter that he is under investigation and that it s a witch hunt , it sounds like a very plausible answer.Stephanopoulos goes on to say that They re essentially engaging in a scorched-earth litigation strategy that is beginning with trying to discredit the prosecutor. He closes the video by saying that Mueller is just doing his job and is only just getting started, so we shouldn t just automatically dismiss Mueller or that Trump is being investigated.Stephanopoulos has a point. It does seem likely that Trump and his team would try to cover an investigation up. They don t want the public to know it would damage his reputation (not that he has a glowing one in the first place).Why shouldn t we believe what Trump tweets? He knows what he s tweeting. Why shouldn t we believe the other sources?An excerpt of This Week shows Pierre Thomas, ABC News Senior Justice Correspondent saying Now, my sources are telling me he s begun some preliminary planning. Plans to talk to some people in the administration. But he s not yet made that momentous decision to go for a full-scale investigation. If that s the case, it s possible that Mueller is backing off on the idea of investigating Trump. Why?Obviously, something is going on behind the scenes. Stephanopoulos may have just given us the real answer.Photo by Lorenzo Bevilaqua/ABC via Getty Images


This is the Man Militarized Police at Standing Rock are Working For Nov 15, 2016 0 0  The months long Dakota Access Keystone XL pipleine protest at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation by Native Americans and those sympathetic to protection of our water supply has been met with heavy-handed and brutal clamp down by police and national guard. Militarized goons in battle dress have stormed protector camps with LRAD sonic weapons, attack dogs , tear gas, tazers , and even live ammunition ( killing horses ), while politicians and mainstream media do their best to ignore this growing atrocity, hoping to wait it out until the protestors give up.  But, as the saying goes, Water Is Life , and the issue of life and death is at the root of this protection movement, therefore, for people concerned with life, giving up on this is simply unthinkable. The root issue justifying state oppression of the protest is capitalism, and the perception that money is more important than life itself. When the police and national guard attack U.S. citizens on private property to protect corporate interests, who are they really working for?  The corporate dream of the Keystone XL pipeline is to create a profit stream for a small number of people at the expense of the natural world and anyone in the way. At the top of this pyramid of profit is Texas billionaire Kelcy Warren, CEO of Energy Transfer Partners, the company responsible for the project.  So who is Kelcy Warren?  A native of East Texas and graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington with a degree in civil engineering, Warren worked in the natural gas industry and became co-chair of Energy Transfer Equity in 2007. With business partner Ray Davis, co-owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team, Warren built Energy Transfer Equity into one of the nation's largest pipeline companies, which now owns about 71,000 miles of pipelines carrying natural gas, natural gas liquids, refined products and crude oil. The company's holdings include Sunoco, Southern Union and Regency Energy Partners.  Forbes estimates the 60-year-old Warren's personal wealth at $4 billion. Bloomberg described him as "among America's new shale tycoons" — but rather than building a fortune by drilling he "takes the stuff others pull from underground and moves it from one place to another, chilling, boiling, pressurizing, and processing it until it's worth more than when it burst from the wellhead." [ Source ]  Shockingly, in 2015 the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, appointed Warren to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission which is an insult to environmentalists working to protect Big Bend National Park and surrounding sacred tribal lands from another $770 million pipeline project .  "According to the governor's office, the state parks and wildlife commission "manages and conserves the natural and cultural resources of Texas," along with ensuring the future of hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation opportunities for Texans." [ Source ]  This glaring conflict of interest has inspired Environmental Science major at UTSA and former Texas State Park Ambassador Andrew Lucas to begin a drive to have Warren removed from this environmental post. His petition is described here :  Most people may know Kelcy Warren as the man behind the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline. The Dallas-based billionaire and CEO of Energy Transfer Partners has been making headlines for fast-tracking a 1100 mile crude oil pipeline across the Midwest and under the Missouri River, just north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. No environmental impact assessment, no respect for cultural sites, and no regard for the local and widespread communities living along the river. A similar story is unfolding out in West Texas, where Warren's company has split through the pristine Big Bend region with the 200 mile Comanche Trail Pipeline and nearly-complete 143 mile Trans Pecos Pipeline. These Pipelines mark the way for massive natural gas and oil developments in the Trans Pecos region.  With untold damages unfolding for cultural and environmental resources at the hands of Energy Transfer Partners, it would surprise most to know that nearly a year ago, Texas Governor Greg Abbott appointed Kelcy Warren for a 6 year term as 1 of the 10 commissioners who preside over Texas Parks And Wildlife… Why? Probably the $550,000 in campaign contributions Abbott received from Warren.  Footage of militarized police using the Long Range Acoustic Device ( LRAD ) crowd control weapon against protectors at standing rock on October 27th, 2016: Final Thoughts  Warren is listed as number 150 on Forbes list of wealthiest Americans with an estimated net worth of $4.2 billion in September of 2016. He is the head of the Dakota Access Pipeline snake.  If you are scratching your head wondering why militarized police and private security contractors are beating, gassing and attacking peaceful resistors, including women, children and the elderly, the answer is, they are doing it to protect the interests of Kelcy Warren and others invested in this pipeline project.  About the Author  Isaac Davis is a staff writer for WakingTimes.com and OffgridOutpost.com Survival Tips blog. He is an outspoken advocate of liberty and of a voluntary society. He is an avid reader of history and passionate about becoming self-sufficient to break free of the control matrix. Follow him on Facebook, here . This article ( This is the Man Militarized Police at Standing Rock are Working For ) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Isaac Davis and WakingTimes.com . Vote Up


Several dozen women in Kenya said police officers attacked them during this year s election season and some said they were raped by men in uniform, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday. More than 70 people were killed in an election in August, later nullified by the Supreme Court, and a repeat presidential poll in October won by President Uhuru Kenyatta. The opposition boycotted the repeat poll and said it would not be fair. The sexual attacks, mostly on women, occurred over this period in some of Nairobi s slums and in two opposition strongholds, Kisumu and Bungoma, in western Kenya, HRW said in a report. Kenyan police dispute rights groups allegations that officers used excessive force to quell election-related unrest. They did not respond to a request from Reuters for comment on the report. One 28-year-old woman in the Nairobi slum of Mathare told Reuters: Four men in police uniforms burst into my home and my children were sleeping, they pulled my husband out. One grabbed my neck, the other pulled off my clothes, another beat me with a stick, and the other forced sex on me. The woman who declined to be identified said she was four months pregnant and miscarried shortly after the rape. I was bleeding and confused afterwards, she said. Another woman, aged 26, said: Two men dragged me away from my friend, stripped off my clothes and one raped me as another one held me down. Kenyan women who have been raped - they are lonely and abandoned and ashamed, said HRW researcher Agnes Odhiambo. It s the Kenyan government who should feel shame for failing to protect them and help them get medical treatment. Kenyan rights groups accuse police of brutality and extrajudicial killings. A government civilian watchdog tasked to oversee the police exists, but few officers are charged and convictions are extremely rare. The sexual violence mirrored widespread violations against women after a disputed 2007 vote, when 1,200 people were killed, HRW said. At the time, the group documented at least 900 cases of sexual violence but said this was likely an underestimate. The new cases related to the August and October 2017 elections demonstrate a disturbing continuum, Tina Alai, a lawyer with New York-based Physicians for Human Rights. Police have continued to perpetrate sexual violence against civilians they are obligated to protect, she said.


Ted Cruz proudly announced the latest endorsement of his presidential bid. It comes from Pastor Mike Bickle, founder and director of the International House of Prayer of Kansas City. Bickle is a figure well known for his attack on on same sex-marriage, calling it a sign of the end of times. He has also blamed the Jews for the Holocaust. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hE_AOR2JBE]In a 2011 speech, Bickle suggested that millions of Jews were exterminated during the Holocaust because they didn t accept God s gift, Jesus Christ. He quoted Jeremiah 16:16 from the Bible to explain why Hitler murdered millions of Jews. He said: The Lord says, I m going to give all 20 million of them the chance to respond to the fishermen. And I give them grace. And he says, And if they don t respond to grace, I m going to raise up the hunters. And the most famous hunter in recent history is a man named Adolf Hitler. It doesn t get more anti-Semitic than this guy. His statement not only blames Jews for the Holocaust, but also justifies it: because Jews didn t accept Jesus, they deserved to die.Bickle also says that in the coming end of days, Jews will be put in prison and death camps. When all is said and done, 2/3rds of the Jewish population will be destroyed and off to hell because they didn t accept Jesus. Thus, not only were they murdered for not accepting Jesus, the Jews will be murdered again for continuing their rejection of Jesus.Ted Cruz is excited about the endorsement of the genocidal Bickle. He said: Through prayer, the Lord has changed my life and altered my family s story. I am grateful for Mike s dedication to call a generation of young people to prayer and spiritual commitment. Heidi and I are grateful to have his prayers and support. With the support of Mike and many other people of faith, we will fight the good fight, finish the course, and keep the faith. Cruz and Bickle are of the same ilk and ideology when it comes to religion and so it should come as no surprise to all of us that Cruz would be proud of this endorsement. Bickle s statements are not only anti-Semitic, but they are also genocidal. To actually believe that Jews have been and will be exterminated because they don t believe in Jesus (whatever that means) justifies the Holocaust and also justifies a future one for millions of so-called Christians.Featured Image Via Wikimedia Commons.


South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has accepted President-elect Donald Trump's offer to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, NBC News reported on Wednesday, citing a source familiar with the transition process. Haley, the daughter of immigrants from India, had backed Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz during the Republican battle for a White House nominee.


President-elect Donald J. Trump s economic advisor Steve Moore told Neil Cavuto the incoming administration may introduce two separate tax bills to increase chances of prompt Congressional approval. Moore says Trump s tax reform plan should primarily focus on slashing the corporate tax rate to somewhere between 15% and 20%.


Spain s state prosecutor has asked for a custodial sentence for the head of the Catalan police service Josep Lluis Trapero, who is facing charges of sedition, a spokesman for the High Court said on Monday. Trapero has been put under formal investigation for sedition after failing to order to rescue Civil Guard police who were trapped inside a Catalan government building in Barcelona by tens of thousands of pro-independence protesters in September. A Spanish judge will decide later on Monday whether Trapero will be held in custody without bail, the spokesman said.


Email  Democratic U.S. vice-presidential nominee Tim Kaine announced Saturday that he believes the Catholic Church will change its position on same-sex marriage. The Virginia senator said that just like he had changed his opinion on the issue, the Catholic Church is also likely to follow suit. Speaking at the 20th Annual Human Rights Campaign's National Dinner in Washington, the Roman Catholic senator reportedly said, "I think it's going to change because my church also teaches me about a creator who, in the first chapter of Genesis, surveyed the entire world, including mankind, and said, 'It is very good.'"  "And besides," he continued, "we are talking here about a country that was based and founded on democracy as a core value. By definition, that means that every single person and every single citizen is able – no, scratch that – encouraged to practice his civil, religious, and above all, sexual liberties to the best of their abilities. And I'm sorry that some people don't like it, but to deny same-sex marriage in a country that should be the first one to accept it is just pointless. And the Catholic Church should also be accepting it instead of condemning it, which is what it's doing right now."  Kaine also added that, if all else fails, "there are ways of making the Catholic Church listen to the voice of reason," which is how he dubbed all those who advocate LGBT equality. "At the end of the day, you know, we're a civilized people, of course the first thing we'll do is act nicely and ask nicely," he said. "Then, if that doesn't work, we'll use our law and our legal system to enable ourselves to be who we are, or rather the LBGT community will do that – and it has. The Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriage was a crucial milestone in our legal system that proves it works, it actually functions."  "So, what I'm saying here," he argued, "is that, while I respect the Catholic Church as I'm sure millions of Americans do, you know, at some point it is going to start acting contrary to the Christian faith, and we're talking about an institution that's supposed to be the first one on the front line defending it. So, when that happens, and that's what's happening with condemning LGBT rights, we'll state an ultimatum. The United States of America, more precisely, the future President of the United States of America, Hillary Clinton, will state an ultimatum. And that ultimatum will be to either change its stance on same-sex marriage or pack its bags and get out of America. And yes – the President of the country can do that."  "And in case anybody's wondering – no, Donald Trump won't do the same because he doesn't care about anyone other than Donald Trump. On the other hand, Hillary Clinton is a shining example of honesty, integrity and democracy, and you can rest assured she will do everything in her power as the president to make sure gays and lesbians throughout America are loved, respected and viewed as equals during her presidential term. What happens after that is not our problem," Kaine concluded.


Donald Trump loves beautiful women. We know that because he s told us that, repeatedly. In fact, he once called hot women his alcoholism, especially if they are 17 or 18. Salma Hayek is undeniably beautiful. It s no wonder Trump tried to ask her out. It s also no wonder that she said no. What Trump did after that, though was pure Donald Trump.When I met that man, I had a boyfriend, and he tried to become his friend to get my home telephone number, she said, describing meeting Trump early in her career before she was well-known. He got my number and he would call me to invite me out. When I told him I wouldn t go out with him even if I didn t have a boyfriend, [which he took as disrespectful], he called well, he wouldn t say he called, but someone told the National Enquirer, Hayek continued, adding that she never went out with him. Someone told the National Enquirer I m not going to say who, because you know that whatever he wants to come out comes out in the National Enquirer. It said that he wouldn t go out with me because I was too short, she said. Later, he called and left me a message. Can you believe this? Who would say this? I don t want people to think this about you, she said. He thought that I would try to go out with him so people wouldn t think that s why he wouldn t go out with me. Like most things that come out of Trump s mouth, his denial didn t ring true, especially after it was revealed that he paid $120,000 from Trump Foundation money for a prize that included dinner with Hayek.Hayek has never particularly been a fan of Trump. In August, she compared him to a first grader.She is a strong supporter, though, of Hillary Clinton. Just days ago, she made a Spanish language video in support of the Secretary of State.I guess we ll have to wait and see what Trump has to say about Hayek in his next 3:00 Twitter rant.Featured image of Selma Hayek via Mike Coppola/Getty Images | Featured image of Donald Trump via Gerardo Mora/Getty Images.


New Yorkers flooded the streets of Manhattan on Saturday aiming to send a message to President Trump that his hometown would be a center of resistance during his administration. The mayor's office estimated that 400, 000 people took part in the march, which was in concert with other Women's March rallies across the country. With huge crowds along Fifth Avenue near Trump Tower, a large slice of Manhattan came to a standstill for much of the day. Participants booed Mr. Trump and hoisted signs mocking both his hair and his relationship with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. It was a moment of both catharsis and camaraderie in a city that was, for the most part, shocked and disappointed by Mr. Trump's ascendance to the presidency. Holding a "Nasty Woman" sign, Grace Huezo, 20, was buoyed by the huge turnout and the joyful mood. "I'm hopeful to see so many people that are not giving up and they're keeping their spirit," she said. "We're all just going to stick together over the next four years. " Ms. Huezo, a student at Hunter College, said she was marching with her sister to defend women's rights. She said she was appalled by the 2005 recording of Mr. Trump's lewd comments about women that emerged during the campaign. "We're here saying, 'No, people do not have permission to grab women without our permission,'" she said. The march began with a rally near Trump World Tower on the East Side, where Chirlane McCray, the wife of Mayor Bill de Blasio, led the crowd in urging Mr. Trump not to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. "New York City has always been the center of progressive America, and that will never change," she said. The actress Whoopi Goldberg suggested it would be the first of many marches while Mr. Trump was in office. Hinting at the debate over diversity leading up to the marches, one speaker said she wanted equal pay, and "not just for white women. " Throughout the day, marchers clogged city streets and overwhelmed subway stations. Men and women wore pink "pussy hats" and held signs that read, "You lost here, Donald," and "I'm Still With Her. " Around 4 p. m. near Trump Tower, a wall of police officers tried to keep people moving as protesters chanted, "Black Lives Matter. " Alice Bucaille said she wanted to bring her two daughters to the march, but decided against it because of violence on Friday after the inauguration ceremony in Washington. Ms. Bucaille said she would have welcomed women with views that differed from hers on abortion, and added that Democrats could no longer live in a bubble. "We need to open the discussion and understand where people are coming from," she said. "Being inclusive is part of the conversation. " Plenty of children attended the march with parents and grandparents. Along the route, Annabel Lui, 6, stood on a bench proudly holding a sign that said: "Little Donald, you've been a bad boy. Now go to your room for the next four years. " stopped to watch as she chanted, "Trump has to go!"


November 3, 2016 - Fort Russ News -  - Alexander Boyko, in Konsomolskaya Pravda , translated by Tom Winter -  "No need for Ukrainian youth in migrant-saturated Europe, but it's easy to find earnings in Russia"  From the "Square:" a mass exodus of Ukrainians to Russia  The symbol of the new year in Ukraine may be a Cossack Vakula* that flies over precincts in St. Petersburg. Or a deserted farm near Little Russian Dikanka, a hut where the wind sings through the windows. Ukrainians are rushing to Russia not for overseas slippers, but for daily bread. They run from the country with their families, together with their farm neighbors, leaving forever.  1/4 WON'T RETURN  Members of the International human rights organization Human Rights Action (HRA) said that over the past year in Ukraine, where over the last 10 years the population has decreased from 48 to 42 million, more than three million people have left for Russia! And according to European researchers the depopulation going on in the Ukraine is about to cause a social explosion.  This is what the Prime Minister of Ukraine Vladimir Groisman acknowledged at one of the recent sessions of the government. In the session there was talk that Ukraine in the next year may be deprived of its last support - the agricultural sector. The land will soon have no one to work it, as it's the elderly who remain in the villages.  Ukrainian youth are not needed in the Europe that is now supersaturated with migrants, but it is easy to find earnings in Russia.  Kiev media also are actively discussing the warning of Oleksandr Okhrimenko, President of the Ukrainian Analytical Center. He made the forecast that in the next year the migratory flow from the Ukraine could grow by half, and a quarter of those who left would change citizenship, and will work in Russia.  20 MILLION LEAVE  The Russian Interior Ministry notes a sharp increase in the flow of migrants from Ukraine. It is expected that in the second half of October 25-30 thousand migrant workers more than usual will arrive in Russia from Ukraine. Already 80-85 thousand Ukrainian citizens arrive per week. Basically they come to us in search of work. At the same time, it is no longer about the residents of the Donbass, who fled from the war. It is very real ethnic Ukrainians, from the western regions.  In Ukraine, some experts are trying to support the version of this as a seasonal phenomenon: it is said, the potato harvest is done on the farms and now they have gone to earn some cash on Russian construction sites. But experts at "KP" argue that it's not just that.  - The economic crisis has gotten worse in the Ukraine, as people are looking for any stable earnings and Poroshenko has once again shown that Ukrainians are not needed in Europe. They are not needed either as migrant workers or as visa-free visitors, Yuri Moskovski told the correspondent of "Komsomolskaya Pravda." Moskovski is chairman of the National Affairs Council in the Government of Moscow, and the Foundation projects director, international relations for the Neighbourhood Foundation.  "They always find their niche on the Russian labor market. Our task is to receive them, place, and help them to adapt. The migration from the Ukraine will continue to grow."** When the Zaporozhye army swore oaths to Russia, about 700 thousand people lived there. When Ukraine left the Soviet Union, there were more than 50 million citizens, and now in fact - 38. But Bandera said in his time time that for the Ukraine to establish a national state a population of 20 million would do. His successors have chosen his path. They are stubbornly headed to depopulation.  There are several reasons why the citizens of Ukraine began to recuse their nationality, and leave for Russia with their families. Though last year the Ukrainians were free to come to Russia and work, while remaining in the background with other migrants virtually invisible to law enforcement, the migration rules have become stricter this year.  Under the current legislation a migrant from Ukraine is obliged to register, acquire an INN (Taxpayer ID Number), health insurance, pass an exam on the Russian language, to acquire a work permit, is given a month to get a contract of employment, and has to pay 4000 rubles a month on the permit. Violators are fined, and forcibly expelled with a re-entry restriction for 5-10 years.  In addition, the Federal Migration Service of Russia, which was engaged in the control of illegal migration, has recently been abolished. The functions of this department were turned over to the Interior Ministry of Russia, a Ministry, which will not only supervise but also achieve results with forceful measures.  It is because the Ukrainians are in a rush to move to Russia, to obtain residence permits, and Russian citizenship, which gives the right to work without restrictions and additional fees.  Poroshenko recently added to this determination among his constituents. He put pressure on his people by means of prohibitions on Russian payment systems, and fears of an introduction of a visa regime with Russia. All within the format of the chosen policy: Team Poroshenko clearly is following the precepts of Bandera.  *Vakula the Smith: character from a Gogol story, common in porcelan; also an opera .  **The quotation marks are placed by the translator: The quoted passage is plainly from Moskovski, but the original writer has no quotation marks at all, so it is unclear where Moskovski leaves off and the writer tacks on -- Tr.   Follow us on Facebook!     Follow us on Twitter!     Donate!


Arizona Senator Jeff Flake can t vote for Donald Trump. He said so on CNN. He won t vote for Hillary, either (boo), but he also can t make himself vote for someone as full of pond scum as Trump. So, true to form, Trump took to Twitter to blast Flake for having the gall to say something so horrible about him:The Republican Party needs strong and committed leaders, not weak people such as @JeffFlake, if it is going to stop illegal immigration. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2016 The Great State of Arizona, where I just had a massive rally (amazing people), has a very weak and ineffective Senator, Jeff Flake. Sad! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2016The GOP s former House Policy Chief, Evan McMullin, isn t having any of this at all. He unleashed a firestorm of tweets in response to Trump over his skin that s as thick as a single layer of gauze. Nobody who is, or was, a Republican, hits The Donald over the head for his repeated attacks on fellow Republicans better than McMullin just did:.@realDonaldTrump demonstrates his fragility once again by attacking @JeffFlake, one of America s most courageous leaders. Evan McMullin (@Evan_McMullin) September 4, 2016 Important leadership truth: Strong, conservative leaders like @JeffFlake unify us while weak, petty men like @realdonaldtrump divide us. Evan McMullin (@Evan_McMullin) September 5, 2016I refuse to accept a bully president.https://t.co/15zpelBRKf Evan McMullin (@Evan_McMullin) September 5, 2016 .@realDonaldTrump is a weak, fragile, and petulant man who cannot stomach dissent or criticism. https://t.co/l0woBG3qwY Evan McMullin (@Evan_McMullin) September 5, 2016McMullin, who linked to a blog post he wrote about Trump in the above tweets, then finished his tweetstorm with this series:This election isn t about me, and at this point it isn t just about who will sit in the Oval Office in January. https://t.co/nMymQM2C4a Evan McMullin (@Evan_McMullin) September 5, 2016 It s about the character of our nation: who we are and who we aspire to be. https://t.co/1LGqrmjpVS Evan McMullin (@Evan_McMullin) September 5, 2016It s so important that we not only defeat @realDonaldTrump in November Evan McMullin (@Evan_McMullin) September 5, 2016 but that we stand up, every day, to his unacceptable attacks on our nation s most courageous leaders. https://t.co/j7DtAyNrSU Evan McMullin (@Evan_McMullin) September 5, 2016McMullin s Twitter profile says he s now an independent candidate for President, but he seems to know that he doesn t have a chance in hell of winning. He s a Never Trumper, and he praises other Never Trumpers for being Never Trumpers before it was cool. In his blog post about Trump s ridiculous attack on Flake, he fleshes out some of his tweets a little better: But Donald Trump is a weak, fragile, and petulant man who cannot stomach dissent or criticism. Even as he promises to be a uniter who will bring the country together, he lashes out against leaders within his own party courageous, principled conservatives like Arizona Senator Jeff Flake. [emphasis in original post]He s got it right. Other Republicans and conservatives who can t stomach a Trump presidency have it right, too. Some will vote for Hillary. Some will probably vote for Gary Johnson. But McMullin just put the man with the onion-paper thin skin in his place.Photo of McMullin by George Frey/Getty Images. Photo of Trump by Ralph Freso/Getty Images. Photos merged by Rika Christensen


By Jon RappoportCNN is already claiming the whole Susan Rice scandal is a tempest in a teapot, and the Trump team is exaggerating it to distract the public from something. Fill in the blank yourself.For example: Trump isn t actually the president, he cheated his way into the Oval Office, while acting as a secret agent for his handler, Vladimir Putin, who in turn was operating on behalf of aliens from Jupiter.The Susan Rice scandal is out in the open. She, Obama s national security advisor, led an effort to spy on legal phone calls the Trump team was making during the presidential campaign, in order to gain intelligence on the enemy. The Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) spoke with Col. (Ret.) James Waurishuk, an NSC [National Security Council] veteran and former deputy director for intelligence at the U.S. Central Command. Waurishuk said: many hands had to be involved throughout the Obama administration to launch such a political spying program It s unbelievable of [sic] the level and degree of the [Obama] administration to look for information on Donald Trump and his associates, his campaign team and his transition team. This is really, really serious stuff . Michael Doran, former NSC [National Security Council] senior director, told The DCNF Monday that somebody blew a hole in the wall between national security secrets and partisan politics . This was a stream of information that was supposed to be hermetically sealed from politics and the Obama administration found a way to blow a hole in that wall , he said. Yes, serious stuff. A felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.Obama, of course, will have plausible deniability if the Susan Rice scandal blows up into a Watergate. He didn t know. He didn t order the spying. He was playing golf that day. Or any day.And if a Congressional investigation of Rice and her antics reaches a fever pitch, somebody can play the race card. That s always an option. If Rice were white, this never would have happened to her. The Trump people are all over her like white on Rice. Meanwhile, CNN, in alternating segments, can say a) Rice and her people never spied on anybody, and b) everybody spies on everybody all the time, it s not a big deal and then some on-air goofball will add, In fact, we here at CNN are spying And the TV screen will go blank, then display colored stripes, then come back and the goofball will be gone, and an anchor will say, We had a technical problem for a moment. Continue this article at John Rappoport s websiteREAD MORE RUSSIAN HACK NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Russian Hack Files


BOMBSHELL: Hillary Clinton's Leaked Audio Proves She Rigs Elections Posted on October 30, 2016 by Dawn Parabellum in Politics Share This  Astonishing, newly released leaked audio of Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has just surfaced, and what it reveals is damning. In her own voice, we hear the corrupt Democrat telling reporters that elections can and should be rigged to ensure who wins. This throws the validity of every government on earth in the shredder because she isn't only talking about rigging American presidential elections.  Since the FBI reopened their investigation into the criminal Democrat and Hillary seeks a powerful position to dictate the lives of others, it's important to hear this audio. She is blatant when she say elections shouldn't take place unless we make "sure that we did something to determine who was going to win."  Hear it from her own mouth:  Hillary clearly said, "I do not think we should have pushed for an election in the Palestinian territories. I think that was a big mistake. And if we were going to push for an election, then we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win. "  This conversation took place in 2006 during a discussion with Eli Chomsky, an editor and staff writer for the Jewish Press. At the time, Hillary Clinton was running for a "shoo-in re-election" as a U.S. senator.  Her trip, making the rounds of editorial boards, brought her to Brooklyn to meet the editorial board of the Jewish Press. Her conversation was secretly recorded, and the audio hasn't been released until now.  According to Chomsky, this little audio clip has only been heard by the small handful of Jewish Press staffers in the room. He claims his copy is the only copy and no one has heard it since 2006 — until now. Election rigging Democrat, Hillary Clinton  It proves she is willing to do whatever it takes to win. With massive amounts of voter fraud already being reported in favor of the most criminal and corrupt politician of our time, in combination with this audio, it's hard to deny that Hillary wouldn't rig the election to win.  Luckily, Americans are wising up to her disturbing antics. We all saw her cheat during the debates , and the proof came out in leaked emails, thanks to WikiLeaks.  It's important to hear this, coming directly from Hillary herself, and we can all tell that it is her voice. We all know she's rigging this election to beat Donald Trump, but she obviously has had her hands in rigged elections before.  It is hard to say how many elections across the globe she has influenced or just stolen. Hillary Clinton will stop at nothing to grab even a small amount of power, and she continues to prove she is as corrupt as they come.


The irony in this situation is pretty huge. Prince didn t like meddling in his music or business but now the government will be taking over half of his life s earnings in taxes. The problem is that Prince wasn t married if he d been married the estate would have gone to his wife. Pretty sad scenario of death and then taxes .If Prince were married, he could have passed on the entirety of his estate to his spouse tax free. However, without a spouse, only $1.6 million of Prince s estate will be free from Minnesota s death tax and only $5.45 million will escape the federal death tax. Prince, the iconic pop star who once was The Artist Formerly Known As Prince in protest of the record labels, unexpectedly died last week and he didn t have a will. He also wasn t married, so the government will get most of the proceeds of his massive estate.Since his death I ve read that he was a closet conservative, and I ve read that he was a big liberal. So I don t know what his political leanings were, but what does seem clear is that he wasn t a fan of others profiting off of his musical genius. So it s kind of sad that the government will take more than fifty percent of his life s work.Both the federal government and Minnesota s state government will assess so-called death taxes or estate taxes on Prince s assets, taking away more than half his estate. Between his physical assets cash, investments, home, etc. and his future royalties, Prince s estate has been estimated to be between $300 and $500 million. If Prince were married, he could have passed on the entirety of his estate to his spouse tax free. However, without a spouse, only $1.6 million of Prince s estate will be free from Minnesota s death tax and only $5.45 million will escape the federal death tax.The combination of Minnesota s top death tax rate of 16 percent, plus the federal government s 40 percent rate, means that over 50 percent of Prince s estate will go to the government.


On the night that Donald Trump won his second straight primary (with a massive lead), a despondent Glenn Beck decided it was time to take action to support his favored candidate, Ted Cruz. He announced on his Facebook page that he would begin fasting on Monday to push Ted Cruz to victory in the upcoming Nevada Republican Caucus somehow.In the post, which raised eyebrows and made eyes roll, the ever melodramatic Beck told his fans: I would like to ask you to join me and my family Monday in a fast for Ted Cruz, our country and the Nevada caucus. https://www.facebook.com/GlennBeck/posts/10153969800938188He also said he would be spending every waking hour until the caucus on February 23 devoted to promoting Cruz. He s not kidding. On Sunday, Cruz will leave behind the guy from Duck Dynasty and replace him with Beck, who will host an event for the candidate in Las Vegas. On Monday, Beck will again join Cruz, this time in Reno.Beck s support for Cruz seems to come singularly from his disdain for Donald Trump. For reasons that remain unclear, Beck has a seething hatred for Trump that borders on obsessive. It s odd because in so many ways bigotry, race-baiting, xenophobia the two are very much alike.In a hilarious show of how little self-awareness he possesses, Beck infamously declared that any Tea Party supporter who favored Trump was actually just a racist.While he questioned whether Trump s supporters are genuine Tea Partiers, Beck said of them, If you were a Tea Party person, then you were lying. You were lying. It was about Barack Obama being black. It was about him being a Democrat. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. Beck is no doubt right that much of the Tea Party movement was based in racism, but supporting Trump isn t contrary to that movement. It s the logical conclusion.It s unclear what Beck hopes to accomplish by starving himself and his family in order to help Ted Cruz get elected. Yet again it appears that Beck is trying to explicitly tie religious ceremony into the race. And fasting appears to be Beck s go to way of getting God s attention. Just last summer, he went on a six day fast to get ready for an appearance in Birmingham. He told his fans: Join us in fasting and prayer that we may all be humble enough to not only hear the path of The Almighty but we may be willing to walk it with honor, Courage, Love and unity. Last week he boldly declared that God killed Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in order to ensure Ted Cruz became president. Apparently unwilling to let go and let God, Beck now hopes to nudge Him along a little bit more with his mass hunger strike.


There s just something about Shrillary that almost makes you wonder if everything she does has to be staged Watch how differently Marco Rubio is able to handle an impromptu interview with this TMZ reporter vs Hillary Clinton (below): h/t IJ Review


FERGUSON, Mo. — Unrelenting protests over the death of an unarmed black teen here last summer thrust this St. Louis suburb and its 21,000 residents into an international spotlight and ushered in a year of national changes. Ferguson Police officer Darren Wilson, who is white, fatally shot Michael Brown Jr., a black 18-year-old, on Aug. 9, 2014. The encounter lasted just two minutes, but the shooting led to months of massive and, at times, violent protests. The world watched as crowds hurled bottles and looted liquor stores, while police in military gear threw tear gas and clashed with those on the streets. Under the slogan #BlackLivesMatter, Ferguson protesters kicked off a movement around alleged incidents of police misconduct leading to rallies in several cities with such cases. Although a grand jury did not indict Wilson and the Justice Department declined to bring criminal charges against the officer, Brown's violent death prompted a national look at alleged racial profiling, police brutality and the relationship between police officers and communities of color. "A year later, all I can say is that Mike Brown, his death, his murder, have given me a new sense of purpose in life and that is to always be a truth teller and to stay true to why I came out on Aug. 9," says Johnetta Elzie, 26, who emerged as leader in the Black Lives Matter movement as the protests developed. "I didn't come because there was an organization that asked me to come. I came because I was tired of seeing black people dead in the street by the hands of police officers." #BlackLivesMatter coalesced into a partnership of leaders and organizations. Last month, in Cleveland, hundreds of protests came together for the inaugural Movement for Black Lives Convening. Elzie and others regularly fly to cities where a fatal police encounter has occurred to support local protesters. Brown's death and the protests that followed also turned the spotlight on other controversial deaths, including Tamir Rice, 12, shot while playing with a toy gun on Nov. 22 by a Cleveland police officer; Walter Scott, 50, shot on April 4 by a North Charleston, S.C., police officer while allegedly running away; and most recently, Samuel DuBose, 43, shot on July 19 during a traffic stop by a University of Cincinnati police officer. "Hearing statistics of police brutality incidents can be jarring, but seeing new cases every few days forces you to acknowledge the pervasiveness of police brutality," said Keisha Bentley-Edwards, a professor at the University of Texas-Austin who studies race, adolescence and academic and social development. "Seeing the impact on an actual person, their families and their communities personalizes these incidents beyond numbers," she said. In Ferguson, the police chief, a local judge and a city manager, who are all white, resigned after a Justice Department review found that the Ferguson Police Department engaged in a broad pattern of racially biased enforcement that permeated the city's justice system, including the use of unreasonable force against black suspects. Two of the city's new leaders, interim Police Chief Andre Anderson, who began work July 22, and Interim City Manager Ed Beasley, who was hired June 9, are black. Ferguson's population is 67% black. Police departments elsewhere sought to buy body cameras, while other departments added training on diversity, community engagement, bias and how to de-escalate tense encounters. At the national level, President Obama created a Task Force on 21st Century Policing and banned the sale of some kinds of military equipment to local law enforcement agencies. "Policing has taken a hard look at itself," said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum. "There has been a renewed emphasis on looking at how we hire, how we train, how we investigate, how we release information to the public. All of these aspects have had a seismic impact on policing." Darrel Stephens, executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs, said police departments are studying the findings of President Obama's task force and looking at ways to implement its recommendations. "It's safe to say police officers are a little bit more cautious about what they are doing and how they approach their work today," Stephens said. Yet police are also frustrated, he said. Police budgets have remained flat, making it impossible for some departments to modernize equipment, boost training and increase salaries to retain and recruit the best people, he said. Some police officers have grown weary of constant comparison to those police officers who abuse their power. Fear of provoking the next Ferguson has made some officers unwilling to be aggressive at their jobs, said James Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police. Pasco credits aggressive policing tactics for making communities much safer and lowering crime rates over the past 20 years. "(Darren Wilson) will be forever scarred and forever affected by this and so will every other officer every time they think of the event," Pasco said. "It's going to have a chilling effect on their willingness to undertake that kind of appropriately aggressive policing." For Elzie, one of the Black Lives Matter organizers, the changes have yet to go far enough. This year, she will work toward legislation passed to hold police accountable for any misconduct. "I hate that it keeps happening and we have to keep paying attention to these deaths," Elzie said. "That is depressing."


A transgender student at UC Berkeley has penned an open letter to Breitbart's MILO declaring that when he arrives to give a talk at the university, protesters will be "waiting here to strip you of your gay identity. "[Neil Lawrence, a female to male transgender student, opens her column for The Daily Californian by saying that she "ought to sue" MILO for "misleading the public," saying that the "world is full of very dangerous faggots, but you are not one of them. " Lawrence adds that although she suffers from "terrible period cramps," she's a "bigger fag than you'll ever be," adding that she is "probably a better top than you. " "I've hated you for a long time — being compared to you by some commenter on my column sent me into a rage for several hours — but the stunt you pulled against that young woman in Milwaukee was the last fucking straw," she continues. The stunt in question was when MILO called out a transgender student who had been forcing his way into men's bathrooms under the guise of being a woman at UC Milwaukee. The student later left the university. "When you get here on Feb. 1, we will be waiting here to strip you of your gay identity. You can have sex with all the men you want, but you're not gay anymore. You've used your sexual orientation as an excuse to spit bile and galvanize cowards for long enough. Put your badge and gun on my desk. The community rejects you. You have never been one of us," Lawrence said. "You never should have booked this UC tour, Milo. But you want to come to my town? I say, welcome to Berkeley, motherfucker. I'm the meanest gay on this coast. I was assigned to raise hell at birth. You come through me," she continued. Technology entrepreneur Peter Thiel, who endorsed Donald Trump's candidacy, also had his event cut short whilst delivering a keynote at UC Berkeley, as protestors stormed the venue. LGBT activists have also claimed that Thiel, who is openly gay, cannot be a real homosexual due to his support for Trump. MILO's visit to UC Berkeley will take place Wednesday, February 1. You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart. com


A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday suspended a July 19 ruling by a federal judge that struck down parts of Wisconsin's voter ID law, the Department of Justice said. Under the ruling by U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman, Wisconsin voters who did not have photo identification would have been able to vote in the Nov. 8 presidential election. A Justice Department statement said that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit issued a stay concluding "both that the district court's decision is likely to be reversed on appeal and that disruption of the state's electoral system in the interim will cause irreparable injury." Wisconsin is one of several Republican-led states that have passed voter ID laws in recent years amid fear of fraudulent voting by illegal immigrants and others. The nine states with the strictest laws, insisting on state-issued photo identification for voters, include Texas, Virginia, Indiana and Georgia. Republicans say voter ID laws are needed to prevent voter fraud. But Democrats say the laws are really intended to make it more difficult for poor African-Americans and Latinos, who skew Democratic in their politics, to vote. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, a Republican, called Wednesday's appeals court decision "a step in the right direction." "Voters in Wisconsin support voter ID, and our administration will continue to work to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat," Walker said in a statement. In a separate but related case, another federal judge on July 29 struck down a string of Wisconsin voting restrictions passed by the Republican-led legislature and ordered the state to revamp its voter identification rules, finding that they disenfranchised minority voters. U.S. District Judge James Peterson, ruling in a legal challenge to the laws by two liberal groups, said he could not overturn the entire voter ID law because a federal appeals court had already found such restrictions to be constitutional.


U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name Wilbur Ross, a billionaire known for his investments in distressed industries, to head the Commerce Department, a Republican source familiar with the decision told Reuters on Tuesday. An announcement on Ross to lead the department, which pursues anti-dumping cases against cheap foreign imports, could come as early as Wednesday, NBC News said. Ross declined to comment to Reuters on Tuesday. Ross, 78, a staunch supporter of Trump and an economic adviser, has helped shape the Trump campaign's views on trade policy, blaming the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico and the 2001 entry of China into the World Trade Organization for causing massive U.S. factory job losses. "I think there's a big difference between the impact of trade agreements on corporate America and the impact on Mr. and Mrs. America," Ross told CNBC in an interview earlier this year. "Corporate America has adjusted to them by investing lots of capital offshore." Ross, whose net worth was pegged by Forbes at about $2.9 billion, heads the private equity firm, W.L. Ross & Co in New York. Ross' connections to Trump date back to 1990, when as a turnaround expert for Rothschild and Co he worked on behalf of bondholders to help engineer a restructuring of hundreds of millions of dollars in debt owed on Trump's Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In 2002, by then in charge of his own private equity firm, Ross formed International Steel Group to consolidate several bankrupt steelmakers, including Bethlehem Steel, Acme Steel and LTV Steel. He sold the company in a $4.5 billion deal two years later to Mittal Steel. Ross retains a stake in what is now part of the world's largest steel company, Arcelor Mittal, and sits on its board of directors. His various business interests, which also include automotive components and textiles, could make avoiding conflicts of interest a complicated prospect as the head of an agency with broad influence over trade cases and U.S. industrial policies. Arcelor Mittal has benefited from several recent anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties imposed by the Commerce Department against a wide range of steel products from China, South Korea, Japan, Britain, Turkey and other countries. Those have helped lift domestic steel prices, boosting the company's bottom line. Ross may also face questions from lawmakers over the January 2006 Sago coal mine disaster in West Virginia that killed 12 miners in an explosion and collapse. Owned by a subsidiary of one of his companies, International Coal Group, the mine had been cited for more than 200 safety violations International Coal was sold for $3.4 billion in 2011 to No. 2 U.S. coal miner Arch Coal, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January amid plummeting coal prices. He could be questioned as well over a $2.3 million fine his firm agreed to pay in August to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle accusations it did not properly disclose some fees that it charged investors.


Sweden and Britain on Monday requested a closed-door United Nations Security Council meeting on the deteriorating situation in Myanmar s Rakhine state, home to the majority-Buddhist nation s Rohingya Muslims, diplomats said. The meeting would likely be held on Wednesday, diplomats said. I think it will be a private meeting but with a public outcome of some form, British U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft told reporters on Monday. It s a sign of the significant worry that Security Council members have that the situation is continuing to deteriorate for many Rohingya who are seeking to flee Rakhine state in Burma and move into Bangladesh, Rycroft said. The United Nations top human rights official slammed Myanmar earlier on Monday for conducting a cruel military operation against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state, branding it a textbook example of ethnic cleansing. The Security Council discussed the situation behind closed doors on Aug. 30. In a rare letter to the council earlier this month, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern the violence could spiral into a humanitarian catastrophe. Rights groups informally briefed Security Council diplomats on the Myanmar violence on Friday. Russia and China did not send any diplomats, according to people at the meeting. Myanmar has said it is was counting on China and Russia to protect it from any Security Council censure.


ESPN just made an amazing stand against bigotry on the airwaves, by firing one of it s top name hosts for being anti-transgender. Curt Schilling just got handed his pink slip.Schilling has worked for the network since 2010 and is one of baseball s best-known commentators and analysts. But recently, Schilling decided to share a Facebook post in support of an antitransgender bill passed in North Carolina.The post insisted of an image, featuring a man in a wig, his T-shirt cut to expose breasts, and a bizarre black outfit of women s clothing. The image was accompanied by text which read: LET HIM IN! to the restroom with your daughter or else you re a narrow-minded, judgmental, unloving racist bigot who needs to die. Former player Schilling then added: A man is a man no matter what they call themselves. I don t care what they are, who they sleep with, men s room was designed for the penis, women s not so much. Now you need laws telling us differently? Pathetic. ESPN later issued a statement claiming Schilling s unacceptable conduct violated their policy of inclusiveness: ESPN is an inclusive company. Curt Schilling has been advised that his conduct was unacceptable and his employment with ESPN has been terminated. Of course, for those in conservative circles, this was another attack of political correctness which prejudices conservatives from exercising their rights of free speech. According to David Hookstead at The Daily Caller, Schilling s firing was part of some exodus of conservative media pundits:The former Red Sox pitcher has been very open about his conservative views in the past. He was previously suspended by ESPN for comparing ISIS to the Nazis.ESPN might have no problem getting rid of conservative pundits, but the network has tolerated extreme liberal positions in the past without firing anybody. ESPN employee Tony Kornheiser compared the Tea Party to ISIS and insinuated the Tea Party was attempting to establish a caliphate. Kornheiser is still cashing pay checks from ESPN.What Hookstead leaves out is that the Tea Party is a billionaire-backed political movement with the express goal of creating a theocracy in the United States that is federal and state law based on biblical law. On top of this, the vast majority of domestic terrorism in the US comes from white supremacists and Christian zealots. These groups have murdered LGBT people for being gay who have lynched non-whites and non-Christians. It is entirely comparable.However, using a caricature of a cross-dresser to invoke fear about transgender people using the gender identity appropriate bathroom is plain bigotry. One could just as readily argue the opposite, as transmen did en masse with the hashtag Using the hashtag #WeJustNeedToPee. Bearded transmen posted pictures of themselves in the women s bathroom, next to women entering cubicles and doing their makeup.Michael Hughes, from Minnesota, posted the picture below, asking: Do I look like I belong in a women s bathroom?Under the North Carolina law, Michael would be legally-compelled to use the women s bathrooms despite the fact that he would clearly cause some degree of confusion and worry by doing so.Surely the long term answer is to remove the gender apartheid from toilets altogether? Plenty of countries around the world do just fine using mixed bathrooms. Why not us?


Weakness invites aggression and it s hard to imagine we could have a weaker, more apathetic President. So this news should come as a surprise to no one. North Korea on Sunday defied international warnings and launched a long-range rocket that the United Nations and others call a cover for a banned test of technology for a missile that could strike the U.S. mainland.Whatever motives Pyongyang may have about using its rocket launches to develop nuclear-tipped long-range missiles, it now has two satellites circling the Earth, according to NORAD, the North American Aerospace Command, which monitors all satellites in orbit.Both of the Kwangmyongsong, or Shining Star, satellites complete their orbits in about 94 minutes and based on data released by international organizations tracking them, the new one passed almost right over Levi s Stadium about an hour after the Super Bowl ended. It passed almost directly overhead Silicon Valley, which is where I am and where the stadium is, tech watcher Martyn Williams said in an email to The Associated Press. The pass happened at 8:26 p.m., after the game. I would put it down to nothing more than a coincidence, but an interesting one. The game in Santa Clara, California, ended at 7:25 p.m. local time.North Korea claims Sunday s successful satellite launch was its fourth.The first two have never been confirmed by anyone else, but experts worldwide agree it got one into orbit in 2012 and NORAD, which is hardly a propaganda mouthpiece for Pyongyang, now has both that and the satellite launched on Sunday on its official satellite list.Kwangmyongsong 4, the satellite launched Sunday, has the NORAD catalog number 41332 and Kwangmyongsong 3-2, launched in 2012, is 39026. They are described as Earth observation satellites, and weigh about 100 kilograms (220 pounds) apiece.Their main applications, according to Pyongyang, are monitoring the weather, mapping natural resources and forest distributions and providing data that might help farmers improve their crops.North Korea s state-run media quoted scientists and researchers at the North s State Hydro-Meteorological Administration as saying Sunday they are are delighted at the news of the launch. Its deputy director, Ryu Pong Chol, reportedly said it will give a big boost to North Korean weather forecasters.That remains to be seen.No signals from the previous satellite, which North Korea claimed transmitted the Song of General Kim Il Sung and Song of General Kim Jong Il after achieving orbit, have ever been confirmed by outside observers. That might be because it was never stable enough to transmit anything back home.Signals from the new satellite had also yet to be detected. Amateurs and experts alike are doing their best to listen in around the world, but it is unclear exactly what frequency the satellite is supposed to be using, or what it will be transmitting.


Britain s foreign minister Boris Johnson was accused by cabinet colleagues on Sunday of backseat driving on Brexit after setting out his own vision of the country s future outside the European Union. Only days before Prime Minister Theresa May is due to speak in Italy about Britain s planned EU departure, Johnson on Saturday published a 4,300-word newspaper article that roamed well beyond his ministerial brief and, in some cases, the approach set out by the government. Interior minister Amber Rudd said it was absolutely fine for the foreign secretary to intervene publicly but that she did not want him managing the Brexit process. What we ve got is Theresa May managing that process, she s driving the car, Rudd told the BBC s Andrew Marr on Sunday. Asked if Johnson was backseat driving, she replied: Yes, you could call it backseat driving, absolutely. Johnson s article re-ignited speculation that he would challenge May for the leadership of the Conservative Party. Rudd, however, said she did not think Johnson was laying the groundwork to challenge May. I think that he, like I, supports the prime minister at this difficult time as we try to conclude the negotiations with the EU, she said. May s deputy, Damian Green, also weighed in, saying that Johnson had written a very exuberant article but it was absolutely clear to everyone that the driver of the car in this instance is the prime minister . It is the job of the rest of us in the cabinet to agree on a set of proposals and get behind those proposals and get behind the prime minister, Green told BBC TV. Johnson wrote in the Daily Telegraph that Britain would not pay to access the EU market in the future. Once out of the EU, the country should borrow to invest in infrastructure, reform the tax code and set immigration levels as it sees fit, he said. Johnson also repeated the Brexit campaign claim that the government would be 350 million pounds ($476 million) a week better off outside the EU. Government officials criticized Johnson for repeating the claim, saying the figure does not take into account the funding Britain receives back from Brussels. David Norgrove, of the UK Statistics Authority, said he was surprised and disappointed that Johnson was still quoting a figure that confused gross and net contributions. It is a clear misuse of official statistics, Norgrove said in a letter to Johnson on Sunday. Johnson said in reply that Norgrove s letter was based on what appeared to be a wilful distortion of the text of my article and asked the official to withdraw it. The timing of Johnson s article published a day after a bomb injured 30 people on a train in London also drew criticism from some colleagues. Reacting to the furor his article had generated, Johnson tweeted on Saturday: Looking forward to PM s Florence Speech. All behind Theresa for a glorious Brexit.