Every American needs to consider this new evidence about Hillary and how her campaign is helping to hide her poor health from voters unless of course, the only reason you re planning to vote for Hillary is because you like her VP candidate, Tim Kaine Why does Hillary reject a bottle of water for a glass of water during her coughing fit in front of press on her new campaign plane? Why does Hillary have a stool and GLASS OF WATER next to her at all times during public appearances? Why does Hillary tell press she s suffering from allergies when allergens aren t even high in the specific region where she s speaking? Why is Hillary resting while Donald Trump is out running circles around her on the campaign trail? Why does the media cover for her lies and MOST IMPORTANTLY, why is anyone supporting this woman who is clearly not well enough to even campaign for the highest office in our nation???During the Republican National Convention last June, two Secret Service agents approached InfoWars and asked to speak to them about Hillary s health. The Secret Service contacted me. They said that Hillary Clinton has Parkinson s disease. They [Hillary s people] spent over a quarter million dollars on these stairs to allow her to step down from the vehicle to the ground because she has trouble walking. They [Secret Service] said that any kind of flashes or strobes will set her off into a seizure, and that s why they wanted to come us.They wanted to contact us and give us information because they knew we [InforWars] would be able to get this out. [Unlike the MSM,] we wouldn t be scared to do it. And you know it really makes a lot of sense when you watch all these videos. The fact that she s refusing to do these news conferences. Hillary had not done a press conference for 8 months. Her last press conference was on December 4, 2015.DOES HILLARY HAVE PARKINSON S DISEASE?As a neurological disorder, Parkinson s disease (PD) has been shown to affect motor skills in the limbs, inhibit muscle coordination, and sometimes contribute to dysphagia.1 Dysphagia is the medical term for difficulty swallowing. Thickened liquids are often used in the management of dysphagia to improve bolus control and to help prevent aspiration. A range of starches and gums has historically been used to thicken liquids. Although thickened liquids improve swallow safety, they appear to have a great potential for unintended physiological consequences.Like this unintended physiological consequence maybe? Why does Hillary always have a stool and GLASS OF WATER at every public appearance? Don t most people in this day and age drink from a bottle of water?Again the stool and the GLASS OF WATER And again On Feb. 4, WND reported Hillary Clinton has been prescribed Armour Thyroid, a natural medication made from desiccated pig thyroid glands, for her hypothyroid condition and Coumadin a brand name of warfarin, which initially was developed as a well-known rat poison for her congenital tendency to form blood clots.WND also reported the medication Clinton has taken since 1998 to deal with her blood-clotting problems may have side effects that are hazardous to her health, including blurred vision and confusion, both of which she has experienced. And a California physician warned Coumadin could be more life-threatening to her than the possibility of a recurring blood clot.Bill Clinton, during a question and answer session at the Peterson Foundation in Washington, on May 14, 2014, told the audience that the concussion Hillary suffered required six months of very serious work to get over. On Nov. 16, 2015, in an exchange between Hillary Clinton s aides Huma Abedin and Monica Hanley dated Jan. 26, 2013, regarding Clinton s schedule, the aides said it was very important to go over phone calls with Clinton because the former secretary of state was often confused. Clinton s five-minute bathroom break at the third Democratic debate in Goffstown, New Hampshire, on Dec. 19, 2015, initially attributed to the distance of the woman s bathroom from the stage, was reported to have caused a flare up of problems from brain injury that required Clinton to sit in a chair off-stage to recover from fatigue, dizziness and disorientation.WND just last week reported that at least 10 prominent physicians have been questioning Hillary Clinton s health.Based on publicly available information, the following physicians have raised concerns: Dr. Jane Orient, M.D., executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, said images of Clinton being helped up stairs and propped up, and videos showing odd, seizure-like head movements require an explanation to voters, she contends. The author of Emerging Diseases: Protecting Your Family from Pandemics, Viral Threats, and Rogue Vaccines noted the vituperation and anger that she s faced for raising questions. I m not making a diagnosis, she told WND on Monday. But I can look at the video. You can look. She said for a medical professional to simply ignore the evidence would be completely reckless. Meeting someone with these symptoms personally would require a How are you? she said. These are not ridiculous questions. Dr. Lee Hieb, author of Surviving the Medical Meltdown: Your Guide to Living Through the Disaster of Obamacare, agreed. They made a huge deal about [Sen. John] McCain because of his melanoma, she told WND. Melanoma doesn t give you dementia! She said the images and videos are evidence that should be reviewed and explained to voters, contending Clinton is not being forthcoming. If she doesn t want the American people informed we know where she stands. Citing Clinton s previous concussion, Hieb said such injuries can cause long-term side effects, seizures, personality changes and cognitive deficits. The Fox News medical A-Team of Dr. Marc Siegel and Dr. David Samadi had questions. In 2008 I looked over a thousand pages of John McCain s records because of a melanoma he had 10 years ago. What about Hillary? In 2009, a severe fall. She breaks her elbow. In 2011, she boards a plane, falls. In 2012, she has a severe concussion which Bill Clinton says took her six months to recover from, Siegel said. He continued: Then she ends up with a blood clot in the brain and a lifetime of blood thinners. Just that point alone if she s prone to falling, you can see from that picture up there that it looked like she can barely get upstairs without two people carrying her. Guess what if she falls and hits her head? She ll get a blood clot. Dr. Drew Pinsky s television show on the HLN cable network, Dr. Drew on Call, was canceled after he raised questions about Clinton s health in an interview on KABC-AM in Los Angeles. Alt-Right fanatics and conspiracy theorists immediately questioned her health is she ok? And concerns over Hillary s worst coughing fit ever was raised by MSNBC.But as Paul Josepth Watson reports, MSNBC regurgitated claims by Hillary s campaign aides that, Allergens were high in Northeast Ohio on Monday, before asserting that there is no evidence to indicate she is unwell. Whore press already running defense for #HackingHillary, blaming pollen. What about the 10 previous times? pic.twitter.com/lwDNYjhEhI Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) September 5, 2016The problem for that propadandist line is It was a complete fabrication.As numerous websites that track daily allergen levels confirmed, grass pollen was low, tree pollen was low and ragweed pollen was moderate.


It sounds like a perfectly legitimate reason it s likley NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton has claimed it is hard to hire more black cops because so many of them have spent time in jail. We have a significant population gap among African American males because so many of them have spent time in jail, he told The Guardian. And, as such, we can t hire them. Partially to blame for the pool of eligible officers that is much smaller than it might ordinarily have been is the NPYD s controversial stop and frisk policy that was shut down in 2013, said Bratton.The NPYD commissioner said stop and frisk had unfortunate consequences as it resulted in a number of young black men receiving summons for minor misdemeanors.Stop and frisk, which allowed police to question and potentially search someone if they had so-called reasonable suspicion that person was committing an offense, was ruled unconstitutional in August 2013 by Judge Shira A Scheindlin.Scheindlin said the program was a violation of both black and Hispanic people s right to equal protection, as they were being stopped at much higher rates than those who were white.Both demographics made up 84 percent of the people who were stopped by officers using the policy, according to a report by the Public Advocate s office and cited by the Washington Post.Fifty-three percent of that figure was made up of black people.Black recruits made up only 6.86 percent of this year s police academy, according to another Guardian report, in a city where they represent 22 percent of the population.The NYPD stopped supporting the policy when Bratton returned as commissioner in 2014, after serving in Los Angeles.But he continued to defend a policy he had New York adopt in the early 1990s, dubbed broken windows, which some of his critics say is where the the real blame should lay.Robert Gangi, the director of the Police Reform Organizing Project in New York, said stop and frisk was not at the heart of the problem but a symptom of broken windows blatant racist policing .


MIT professor Jonathan Gruber, a well-known architect of President Obama's Affordable Care Act, tells CNN that the law known as 'Obamacare' is working exactly as intended.  Full transcript, via CNN:  JONATHAN GRUBER: Obamacare's not imploding. The main goal of Obamacare was two-fold. One was to cover the uninsured, of which we've covered 20 million, the largest expansion in American history. The other was to fix broken insurance markets where insurers could deny people insurance just because they were sick or they had been sick. Those have been fixed, and for the vast majority of Americans, costs in those markets have come down, thanks to the subsidies made available under Obamacare…  The 22% increase [in health care premiums], let's remember who that applies to. That applies to a very small fraction of people, who have to buy insurance without the subsidies that are available.  85% of people buying insurance on the exchanges get subsidies. And for those people, this premium increase doesn't affect them.  Now, for those remaining people, that is a problem, and that's something that we need to address, but it's not a crisis. It doesn't mean the system's collapsing. And most importantly, it doesn't affect the 150 million Americans who get employer insurance, who have actually seen their premiums fall dramatically, relative to what was expected before Obamacare.  CAROL COSTELLO, CNN: OK. So let's talk about how exactly you can fix Obamacare. And I just need you to be specific, because I think people really want answers. So Hillary Clinton says she can fix Obamacare. So what would be one fix that would drive premiums down.  GRUBER: Look, once again, there's no sense of oh it just has to be fixed. The law is working as designed; however, it could work better, and I think probably the most important thing experts would agree on is that we need a larger mandate penalty. We have individuals who are essentially free riding on the system. They're essentially waiting until they get sick and then getting health insurance. The whole idea of this plan which was pioneered in Massachusetts was that the individual mandate penalty would bring those people into the system and have them participate. The penalty right now is probably too low and that's something ideally we would fix.  COSTELLO: So somebody who is president could go to congress and say, "You know what, lawmakers, this is a fix. Can you pass this?" Is that what would have to happen to put that fix into place?  GRUBER: Basically, it's hard to know what dramatic fix we could do without congress participating in the process. We could do things like a stronger mandate is one. We could do things like increasing the pressure on states to expand their Medicade programs, a horrible act of political malpractice where states have left millions of people of their lowest income citizens uncovered. We could do things like that, but a lot of that would involve congressional participation. It's hard to know what you can do just on your own as a new administration.  COSTELLO: What about the insurers who have fled the system? How do you convince them to come back or new companies to sign on? GRUBER: Once again, I think the press here has been misleading. Some insurers are leaving. Other insurers are thriving. I think what you have is a system where we've shaken up the status quo, exactly what we expect of new innovation, disruptive innovation if you will, to do. Insurers who were thriving in the old system are finding this new system sort of hard for them. Other insurers are doing really well and what's going to happen is the natural process as the market evolves. These premiums are going to increase. That's going to allow profitable opportunities for new insurers to enter they are(ph) and bring premiums back down. So we're just seeing the ups and downs of a new market. What you have to remember is that premiums in 2014 came in way below what we expected. In fact, where they are today is exactly where they thought they'd be today. It's just they came in lower than we thought and they rose faster than we thought. And that's just some of the unpredictability of a new market. That will settle down over time. And new insurers will enter.  COSTELLO: OK. So hindsight is 20/20, right?  GRUBER: Yes.  COSTELLO: Looking back, is there one thing that you wish was done differently?  GRUBER: I think there's really probably two things I wish was done differently. One is I wish the mandate penalty was stronger. The other, I wish the federal government had done more to get states to expand their Medicaid programs. I think that this is a fundamental flaw in our system that states are leaving so many systems uncovered and citizens who are sick who are coming into this exchange pool and making it more expensive.  COSTELLO: So realistically, you know, after the next president is put into office, what do you think will happen with Obamacare?  GRUBER: I think nothing much is going to happen, to be honest. I think that basically a system that largely works , that the flaws your seeing now or the premium increase you're seeing now are just the natural dynamics of a market as it transitions to its new state, and I think that we're just going to let it go for a couple years and it's going to get better on its own. And basically I think it's a system which largely works.  COSTELLO: What if Donald Trump becomes president, he has a republican congress, and he does repeal it? What happens then?  GRUBER: Well, first of all he won't repeal it. Remember, the whole argument and public debate against this law is that people didn't get to keep insurance they liked. Well, you're going to have 20 million Americans or more who are now getting insurance that they like. You're not going to take that away from them. And let's be clear, there is no replace. There is only repeal. There is no Republican alternative to this law, and the reason is because this is fundamentally a bipartisan legislation that was originally drafted on Republican principles, to be honest. And so there is no Republican alternative. And so his repeal and replace is just repeal and leave people uninsured. That's not going to happen.


The White House named a new adviser to President Barack Obama on climate and energy at the National Security Council, a spokesman said on Wednesday. The adviser, John Morton, was previously the chief operating officer at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. He replaces Paul Bodnar, who helped push for cooperation between the United States and China on climate and for a global agreement at climate talks in Paris last year. Morton, who began his career at the World Bank, takes the job after the Supreme Court this month put a hold on Obama's Clean Power Plan to cut emissions from power plants, a major part of the president's strategy to fight climate change. The death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia four days later may have opened a path for the rule's survival. But the administration's plan could face other legal hurdles from Republicans and fossil fuel interests during Obama's last year in office.


// <![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]>Gitmo detainee, who said he would kill Americans if he was released, has just been freed Posted by Fox & Friends on Tuesday, 12 January 2016Representative Louie Gohmert (R-TX) eviscerates Obama and his regime for the release of this terrorist:


An outspoken deputy of Cambodia s detained opposition leader fled the country on Tuesday, saying she feared for her safety after Prime Minister Hun Sen threatened further arrests of opposition politicians. Kem Sokha, leader of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was arrested on Sept. 3 and charged with treason in a widening crackdown on critics of Hun Sen, which his opponents say is a ploy to win an election next year. Without a true opposition and with the wide level of fear, there s no hope for free and fair elections in 2018, Mu Sochua, 63, told Reuters after leaving Cambodia, adding that she did not feel safe . Democracy in Cambodia is very rapidly eroding to a point where no other opposing forces are left to fight dictatorship, she said. Government spokesman Phay Siphan said Mu Sochua had left of her own choice and he did not know whether authorities had planned to arrest her. Known internationally for campaigns to fight sex trafficking and assert women s rights, Mu Sochua had been among the most vocal opposition politicians in Cambodia since Kem Sokha was arrested and accused of plotting to take power with U.S. help. She told Reuters last week that around half the CNRP s members of parliament had fled the country in fear. Hun Sen, who has ruled for more than three decades, threatened more arrests of opposition politicians on Monday, attacking them as rebels in the city bent on staging a colour revolution despite past failures. Western countries have condemned the arrest of Kem Sokha and called for his release, saying the credibility of next year s election is in doubt, but they have given no sign of taking measures against the government. Meanwhile, China has voiced support for the government of Hun Sen, 65. He is a former commander in the Khmer Rouge who later defected from the group whose genocide devastated Cambodia in the 1970s. Strong gains by the CNRP at local council elections in June had pointed to a tough battle for Hun Sen in next year s general election. Despite years of annual economic growth of around 7 percent that have helped transform Cambodia from a failed state, popular anger has grown over inequality and accusations of cronyism. In his first comments since his arrest, Kem Sokha said in a Facebook posting on Monday that he was seeking positive change in Cambodia through the ballot box and not through revolution as charged. One of his three deputies remains in Cambodia. The evidence presented against Kem Sokha so far is a video from 2013 in which he tells supporters that he has support from unidentified Americans for a plan to gain power.


A dam in Puerto Rico weakened by heavy rains from Hurricane Maria was in danger of failing on Sunday, posing a flood threat to thousands of homes downstream as the storm-battered U.S. island territory struggled through a fifth day with virtually no electricity. Some 70,000 people who inhabit a river valley below the Guajataca Dam in the northwestern corner of the island have been under evacuation orders since Friday afternoon, when authorities first warned that the earthen structure was in danger of imminent collapse. The fear of a potentially catastrophic dam break added to the pandemonium facing disaster relief authorities in the aftermath of Maria, which has claimed at least 29 lives across the Caribbean, according to officials and media reports. Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello personally urged residents of the area to heed evacuation orders after surveying damage to the dam on Saturday, telling reporters that a fissure in the structure has become a significant rupture. The dam, which stands about 120 feet (37 meters) tall, was built in 1929 and supplies the surrounding region with hydropower, drinking water and irrigation supplies. The National Weather Service in San Juan, the island s capital, extended a flash flood watch for communities along the rain-swollen Guajataca River below the dam through midday Sunday. If the dam were to fail, flooding would be life-threatening, the Weather Service warned. Stay away or be swept away, it said. Maria, the second major hurricane to savage the Caribbean this month and the most powerful to strike Puerto Rico in nearly a century, carved a path of destruction through the island after plowing ashore early on Wednesday. Arriving as a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale, with top winds of up to 155 mph (249.5 kph), Maria ripped roofs from buildings, turned roads into gushing debris-strewn rivers and knocked out power across the entire island, home to 3.4 million people. We lost our house, it was completely flooded, said resident Carmen Gloria Lamb, a resident near the rain-swollen Guajataca. We lost everything; cars, clothes, everything. Puerto Rico officials have officially confirmed 10 storm-related fatalities on the island, and the hurricane was blamed for at least 19 other deaths across the Caribbean, the bulk of them on the devastated island nation of Dominica. Severe flooding, structural damage to homes and the loss of all electricity, except from backup generators, were three of the most pressing problems facing Puerto Ricans, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, whose state is home to many of Puerto Rican descent, said during a tour of the island. It s a terrible immediate situation that requires assistance from the federal government, not just financial assistance, he said on CNN on Saturday. Even the island s medical facilities have been left in precarious shape, with many hospitals flooded, strewn with rubble and running critically low on diesel fuel needed to keep generators operating. Evacuation to the U.S. mainland is the only option for some patients. Signs of the strain on Puerto Ricans were evident throughout San Juan, the capital. Drivers had to wait up to seven hours at the few filling stations open on Saturday, according to news reports. Water rationing also began on Saturday. Signs posted throughout San Juan s Old Town informed residents that service would return for two hours until further notice. Telephone service also was unreliable, with many of the island s cell towers damaged or destroyed. On Sunday morning, the governor told reporters that officials would continue to clear roads and bridges blocked by the storm and that he would be joining a supply delivery mission to Caguas, a small city in the mountains south of San Juan. The storm caused an estimated $45 billion of damage and lost economic activity across the Caribbean, with at least $30 billion of that in Puerto Rico, said Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler at Enki Research in Savannah, Georgia. Maria, which was hundreds of miles (km) east of Florida over the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday, has been downgraded to a Category 2 storm and was expected to weaken further as it moves north in the Atlantic off the East Coast over the next two days. Maria hit Puerto Rico about two weeks after Hurricane Irma, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record, killed more than 80 people in the Caribbean and the United States. The two storms followed Hurricane Harvey, which also killed more than 80 people when it struck Texas in late August and caused flooding in Houston.


A Texas judge identified by Donald Trump on Wednesday as one of 11 people he would consider nominating to the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly mocked the presumptive Republican presidential nominee on social media. Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett last month likened Trump to "Star Wars" villain Darth Vader in a Twitter post. "'We'll rebuild the Death Star. It'll be amazing, believe me. And the rebels will pay for it.' —Darth Trump," Willett tweeted last month with a photo of the Death Star, the giant spherical spaceship built to carry a planet-destroying weapon in the first "Star Wars" movie. Willett also linked Trump to liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. "Can't wait till Trump rips off his face Mission Impossible-style & reveals a laughing Ruth Bader Ginsburg," Willett posted on Twitter last August. Last June he mocked Trump's judgment on picking a nominee to the high court. "Donald Trump haiku— Who would the Donald Name to #SCOTUS? The mind reels. *weeps—can't finish tweet*" tweeted Willett (@JusticeWillett) on the same day Trump launched his candidacy. SCOTUS refers to the Supreme Court of the United States. Asked to comment on Willett's Twitter remarks, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said, "Mr. Trump's sole focus is considering the best potential individuals based on their constitutional principles." Alabama U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions, a key Trump backer, was asked on Fox News Channel about the judge's Twitter posts, replying, "I doubt he cares." Sessions said it was more important to ask whether Willett "follows the Constitution," is a good scholar, has integrity and meets the high standards expected of a Supreme Court justice. Willett's enthusiastic tweeting would be a pivot from the current social media presence of Supreme Court justices. None of the eight sitting justices has a verified Twitter account. Willett did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment.


As the Deseret News said on Saturday, they haven t endorsed a candidate in 80 years, but they made it clear who shouldn t be president in a damning editorial Trump supporters are going to hate. We are neutral on matters of partisan politics, the editorial began. We do, however, feel a duty to speak clearly on issues that affect the well-being and morals of the nation. Accordingly, today we call on Donald Trump to step down from his pursuit of the American presidency. Unlike some evangelical conservative Christian leaders like Tony Perkins and Ralph Reed, who still support Trump even after his lewd comments about groping women dropped like a bombshell on Friday, the Mormon-owned newspaper roundly condemned Trump and called for him to resign his candidacy, citing his lack of character.The idea that women secretly welcome the unbridled and aggressive sexual advances of powerful men has led to the mistreatment, sorrow and subjugation of countless women for far too much of human history.The notion that strength emanates from harsh, divisive and unbending rhetorical flourish mistakenly equates leadership with craven intimidation.The belief that the party and the platform matter more than the character of the candidate ignores the wisdom of the ages that, when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. (ProverbsThe editorial pointed to Trump s history of making misogynistic comments about women and said that Trump has failed time and time again to demonstrate the ethical behavior that presidents need to govern a nation with compassion, understanding, and respect. And then the editorial took aim at Trump s supporters.In the face of these revelations, it is disheartening to see otherwise decent individuals now attempting to defend Trump s talk, dismissing it as mere locker room bravado. At the time of the audio recording, Trump was not a hormonal teenage athlete, but rather a 60-year-old husband of an expectant mother and the father of four children.America s locker rooms deserve better.The Deseret News concluded by calling on Trump to resign but if he doesn t, Americans need to stand against him in November.This is one of those rare moments where it is necessary to take a clear stand against the hucksterism, misogyny, narcissism and latent despotism that infect the Trump campaign even as we hope for a more auspicious future of liberty, prosperity and peace for the nation.And it looks like the people will have to take that stand in November because Donald Trump has vowed to stay in the race. Let s just hope voters reject him by a landslide so that Republicans are never stupid enough to nominate someone like him ever again.Featured Image: Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images


The FBI, the DHS's Customs and Border Protection, the Secret Service, and the Israelis are in cahoots ‹ › Jonas E. Alexis graduated from Avon Park High School, studied mathematics and philosophy as an undergraduate at Palm Beach Atlantic University, and has a master's degree in education from Grand Canyon University. Some of his main interests include the history of Christianity, U.S. foreign policy, the history of the Israel/Palestine conflict, and the history of ideas. He is the author of the new book , Christianity & Rabbinic Judaism: A History of Conflict Between Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism from the first Century to the Twenty-first Century. He is currently teaching mathematics in South Korea. He plays soccer and basketball in his spare time. He is also a cyclist. He is currently writing a book tentatively titled Zionism and the West. Alexis welcomes comments, letters, and queries in order to advance, explain, and expound rational and logical discussion on issues such as the Israel/Palestine conflict, the history of Christianity, and the history of ideas. In the interest of maintaining a civil forum, Alexis asks that all queries be appropriately respectful and maintain a level of civility. As the saying goes, "iron sharpens iron," and the best way to sharpen one's mind is through constructive criticism, good and bad. However, Alexis has no patience with name-calling and ad hominem attack. He has deliberately ignored many queries and irrational individuals in the past for this specific reason—and he will continue to abide by this policy. By Jonas E. Alexis on November 4, 2016 "Over the last decade, the NSA has significantly increased the surveillance assistance it provides to its Israeli counterpart, the Israeli SIGINT National Unit (ISNU; also known as Unit 8200), including data used to monitor and target Palestinians." …by Jonas E. Alexis  My dear friend Mark Dankof has recently sent me an article which documents that a 17-year-old Israeli firm named Cellebrite Mobile Synchronization has been working with the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Secret Service, and DHS's Customs and Border Protection since 2009. There is more:  "U.S. state and local law enforcement agencies use Cellebrite's researchers and tools as well, as does the U.S. military, to extract data from phones seized from suspected terrorists and others in battle zones.  "In July, months after the unknown third party provided the FBI with a method for getting into the San Bernardino phone — an iPhone 5C running iOS 9 — Cellebrite announced that it had developed its own technique for bypassing the phone's password/encryption lock. And the company is confident that it will be able to deal successfully with future security changes Apple may make to its phones in the wake of the San Bernardino case…  "Data extracted from phones has eclipsed data extracted from desktop and laptop computers in recent years, since the former can yield not only detailed logs about a user's activities, interests, and communications, but also, in many cases, map the user's whereabouts over weeks and months to produce a pattern of life." [1]  Bloomberg itself confirmed that Cellebrite Mobile Synchronization has indeed been working with the FBI. [2] CNN calls Cellebrite "the mysterious 'outside party'…" [3]  This shouldn't be a surprise at all, for we know that the NSA and the Israelis are almost two sides of the same coin. The New York Times itself agrees with the prevailing view that "the N.S.A. was routinely passing along the private communications of Americans to a large and very secretive Israeli military organization known as Unit 8200." [4] One can reasonably say that Israel has a way in which the NSA is loused up: "Over the last decade, the NSA has significantly increased the surveillance assistance it provides to its Israeli counterpart, the Israeli SIGINT National Unit (ISNU; also known as Unit 8200), including data used to monitor and target Palestinians. In many cases, the NSA and ISNU work cooperatively with the British and Canadian spy agencies, the GCHQ and CSEC. The relationship has, on at least one occasion, entailed the covert payment of a large amount of cash to Israeli operatives." [5]  Solomon Ehrmann, a Viennese Jew, would have been pleased with what Israel has been doing. In a speech delivered at the B'nai B'rith in 1902, Ehrmann envisioned a future in which "all of mankind will have been jewified and joined in union with the B'nai B'rith." When that happens, "not only the B'nai B'rith but all of Judaism will have fulfilled its task." [6]  Baruch Levy, one of Karl Marx's correspondents, would have agreed. He declared: "The Jewish people taken collectively shall be its own Messias…In this new organization of humanity, the sons of Israel now scattered over the whole surface of the globe…shall everywhere become the ruling element without opposition…. "The governments of the nations forming the Universal or World-Republic shall all thus pass, without any effort, into Jewish hands thanks to the victory of the proletariat…Thus shall the promise of the Talmud be fulfilled, that, when the Messianic epoch shall have arrived, the Jews will control the wealth of all the nations of the earth." [7]  Well, Judaism is seeking to fulfill "its task" through the state of Israel, which we all know by now is based on the Talmud. [8] But Solomon, Levy, and others could not understand that no force is strong enough to impede the triumph of Logos in history. Julian the Apostate tried but failed miserably. Voltaire, Helvitius, d'Holbach, D'Alembert, Lametrie, Diderot, and nearly all the leading lights of the French Revolution tried. Not a single one of them succeeded because they were essentially fighting against the moral and political order, which is based on reason.  If Hegel is right, that reason will triumph in the end, then Solomon, Levy and their minions cannot win. Their evil work is actually drawing them closer and closer to destruction. These people will continue to fail because they are blind to higher realities. They cannot not see that ultimate reason is the beginning and end of human history. They should have at least read Hegel's position on the philosophy of history.  World history, Hegel tells us, "is governed by an ultimate design…whose rationality is not that of a particular subject, but a divine and absolute reason," [9] and sometimes this divine and absolute reason has a cunning way of working itself out in history, irrespective of what evil men intend to do. This "divine and absolute reason," says Hegel will "realize its end" in due time. [10]  The carnal man simply cannot understand this "cunning of reason" because he is again blind to higher metaphysics. Higher realities goes back to Heraclitus, Plato and Aristotle and was refined by people like Aquinas. It states that there is a mathematical, philosophical, moral, and political order in the universe and it is bigger than human beings.  Heraclitus wrote: "Listening not to me but to the Logos…" [11] According to scholar Eva Brann, Heraclitus "directs us not to intellectual self-reliance, not to seek some truth, but to comprehend and follow this truth: that said b the Logos." [12] This Logos, according to Heraclitus, is both "a maxim and Wisdom Inarnate." According to Brann's interpretation of Heraclitus, "This great Logos has a wisdom, or rather it is the Wise thing, and this Wise Thing has a maxim, or rather it is that practical principle which guides everything through everything, relates all things to all things…" [13]  What Heraclitus and others of that era were trying to establish is that there is an order in this universe, which is undeniable. There is a mathematical, philosophical, esthetic, political and moral order. Any deviation from that order has serious consequences, including intellectual death. And anyone who studies the universe from a rational and truthful standpoint can recognize that order.  Even physicists and mathematicians like P. C. W. Davis, Sir Fred Hoyle, John D. Barrow, Frank J. Tipler, Sir Martin Rees, among others, have come to realized that the mathematical order in the universe demands an explanation. [14] That explanation cannot be attributed to chance at all. [15]  Rees himself argues that there are basically six numbers that sustain the physical properties of the entire universe. If you change any one of those six numbers (such as the strong nuclear force, gravitational force, etc.) "even to the tiniest degree, there would be no stars, no complex elements, no life." Rees adds, "Had these numbers not been 'well tuned,' the gradual unfolding of layer upon layer of complexity would have been quenched." [16]  Well, these numbers are "well tuned" because they were based on what the Greeks and St. John call the Logos, which the carnal mind ultimately rejects. This "absolute reason," says Hegel, will bring about the end of history.  But looking at all the evil and chaos in this world, obviously the carnal man would think that there cannot be an "infinite power, which realizes its ends." But Hegel would respond by saying that this is why this "infinite power" is "cunning" and is more powerful than human beings.  This "infinite power," according to scholar Robert C. Tucker's interpretation of Hegel, "fulfill its ulterior rational designs in an indirect and sly manner. It does so by calling into play the irrational element in human nature, the passions." [17]  The carnal mind simply lacks vision and insight to understand all this because he limits himself only to the primitive idea that the material universe, as Karl Sagan hubristically propounded, "is all that is or was or ever will be." [18]  The carnal mind cannot see that the materialist position lacks intellectual rigor to explain simple things like love, hate, justice, truth, hatred, etc. The best that the carnal mind can offer here is to posit that those things are simply illusions. As Nobel Laureate Francis Crick put it years ago in his book The Astonishing Hypothesis : "The Astonishing Hypothesis is that 'You,' your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules." [19]  Richard Dawkins makes the same assumption when he argues that the universe is "just electrons and selfish genes," therefore "meaningless tragedies…are exactly what we should expect, along with equally meaningless good fortune." [20]  The word "meaningless" itself implicitly assumes something called "meaningful." And both words again assume that there is a "law" by which to differentiate what is "meaningful" and "meaningless." And a law assumes a "lawgiver." That's what the carnal mind like Dawkins is promiscuously trying to deny! Perhaps people like Dawkins need to think goodness that they have never met people like Kant.  [1] Kim Zetter, "When the FBI Has a Phone It Can't Crack, It Calls These Israeli Crackers," The Intercept , November 1, 2016.  [2] Yaacov Benmeleh, "FBI Worked With Israel's Cellebrite to Crack iPhone," Bloomberg , March 30, 2016.  [3] Jose Pagliery, "Cellebrite is the FBI's go-to phone hacker," CNN , April 1, 2016.  [4] See James Bamford, "Israel's N.S.A. Scandal," NY Times , September 16, 2014.  [5] Glenn Greenwald, "Cash, Weapons, and Surveillance: The U.S. Is a Key Party to Every Israeli Attack," The Intercept , August 4, 2014.  [6] Quoted in Albert S. Lindemann, Esau's Tears: Anti-Semitism and the Rise of the Jews (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 331.  [7] Quoted in E. Michael Jones, The Jewish Revolutionary Spirit and Its Impact on World History (South Bend: Fidelity Press, 2008), 1066.  [8] Marissa Newman, "Netanyahu reported to say legal system based on Talmud," Times of Israel , May 8, 2014.  [9] George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of World History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), 28.  [10] Ibid., 35.  [11] Quoted in Eva Brann, The Logos of Heraclitus: the First Philosopher of the West on Its Most Interesting Term (Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books, 2011), 15.  [13] Ibid., 21.  [14] See for example John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler, The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988); Martin Rees, Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape The Universe (New York: Basic Books, 2000); Paul Davis, The Goldilocks Enigma: Why Is the Universe Just Right for Life? (New York: Mariner Books, 2006); Fred Hoyle, Evolution from Space (New York: Touchtone, 1984); Fred Hoyle, The Intelligent Universe (New York: Rinehart, 1988).  [15] See Dean L. Overman, A Case Against Accident and Self-Organization (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1997).  [16] Martin Rees, Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape The Universe (New York: Basic Books, 2000), 161.  [17] Robert C. Tucker, "The Cunning of Reason in Hegel and Marx," The Review of Politics , Vol. 18, NO 3, July 1956: 269-295.  [18] Carl Sagan, Cosmos (New York: Ballantine Book, 1980 and 1013), xxii.  [19] Francis Crick, The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), 3.  [20] Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life (New York: Basic Books, 1995), 132. Related Posts:


Former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic is the epitome of evil and his conviction on Wednesday for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes was a momentous victory for justice , U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra ad al-Hussein said. Mladic is the epitome of evil, and the prosecution of Mladic is the epitome of what international justice is all about, Zeid said in a statement. Today s verdict is a warning to the perpetrators of such crimes that they will not escape justice, no matter how powerful they may be nor how long it may take.


Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump behaved extravagantly during his campaign because he represented ordinary voters and wanted to get his message across. "He has chosen a method to get through to voters' hearts," Putin told foreign policy experts in southern Russia. "He (Trump) behaves extravagantly of course, we see this, but I think there's a reason for this."


The Washington Post on Wednesday called on Maine Governor Paul LePage to resign, following a series of incidents in which the two-term Republican made racially charged statements and threatened a Democratic lawmaker in an obscenity-laden email. LePage, whose term extends through 2018, last month lashed out at a state lawmaker who criticized his comments blaming black and Hispanic people from out of state for the heroin trade in Maine. In an editorial titled "Maine's unhinged governor," the newspaper wrote "LePage threatens to remake his state's image from a vacation paradise of surreal natural beauty to a hotbed of hatred." LePage had told reporters he had collected a three-ring binder of people arrested for trafficking drugs in the state and that 90 percent of those in it were black or Hispanic. The governor released the binder this week and a review by local media found that closer to one in three arrestees in it matched LePage's description. Maine legislative leaders last month briefly considered convening a special session to reprimand LePage for the outburst, but the effort collapsed with the two parties unable to agree on whether they wanted to censure him or pursue impeachment. A spokeswoman for the governor dismissed the editorial as biased. "The Post did not contact anyone from the governor's office to fact-check this biased piece of propaganda," spokeswoman Adrienne Bennett said in an email. "Clearly, the Post editorial board is exempt from reporting facts." Asked about what factual inaccuracies in the editorial concerned the governor, Bennett challenged the Post's description of LePage declining to attend a 2011 Martin Luther King Jr. Day event hosted by the state's NAACP chapter, noting that he had instead attended a Rotary Club event honoring the slain civil rights activist. At the time that he declined the NAACP's invitation, in his first month as governor, LePage said that critics of his decision could "kiss my butt."


Former CIA Director Robert Gates rips into Obama for his refusal to say the troops are in a combat role in the Middle East. Obama s doing a great disservice to our troops! Ever since American forces have been deployed to fight ISIS, the White House has said that they are not there in a combat capacity, even though three Americans have been killed fighting the terror group.


Results of Baltimore's primary election were ordered decertified on Thursday by the Maryland elections board, which cited irregularities in the April 26 vote that may have influenced a tight mayoral race. The state panel will begin a precinct-by-precinct review of voting in the overwhelming Democratic city. The Baltimore elections board will pull its certification this evening, state board administrator Linda Lamone said. The state review could cast doubt on the narrow victory by state Senator Catherine Pugh in the mayoral primary, where she defeated former Mayor Sheila Dixon. Pugh had backed law enforcement reform as Baltimore recovers from April 2015 rioting sparked by a black man's death from an injury in police custody. Three City Council races were determined by a few hundred votes. Lamone said officials had found 80 provisional ballots that had not been checked to see whether they were cast in the right precinct or the voters were registered. Unusually high numbers of voters also checked in at polling places but never cast ballots, she said. That issue was not cleared up when the city board certified the election this week. "There were enough discrepancies in that reconciliation (on the number of voters) that made me determine we need to review everything more," Lamone said. A group of activists has questioned the fairness of the election. Victory in the Democratic primary means an almost certain win in the November general election.


— Brad Thor (@BradThor) October 28, 2016 Men ruin everything with their dicks https://t.co/vFLzBWDEpO  This FBI-investigation-into-Hillary-plot just got a whole lot thicker, so to speak: NYT alert: new emails were discovered while investigating into ANTHONY WEINER SEXTING SCANDAL.  — Andrew Clark 🎃 (@AndrewHClark) October 28, 2016  Wait, what? New emails tied to the FBI's Clinton inquiry were discovered during the investigation into Anthony Weiner's sexting https://t.co/FMHEkn03B0  Dude: Federal law enforcement officials said Friday that the new emails uncovered in the closed investigation into Hillary Clinton 's use of a private email server were discovered after the F.B.I. seized electronic devices belonging to Huma Abedin, an aide to Mrs. Clinton, and her husband, Anthony Weiner. … In a letter to Congress, the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, said that emails had surfaced in an unrelated case, and that they "appear to be pertinent to the investigation." Mr. Comey said the F.B.I. was taking steps to "determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation." He said he did not know how long it would take to review the emails, or whether the new information was significant. Clinton picks up @nytimes  — David Rutz (@DavidRutz) October 28, 2016  What more can you say about this?  — Kemberlee Kaye (@KemberleeKaye) October 28, 2016 Oh my god https://t.co/Qa8JRQuO8f


Donna Hubbard, a flight attendant who lives outside Atlanta, has no problem speaking forcefully about the issue of human trafficking in the United States. But her voice begins to falter when she talks about her own life — how years of exploitation shattered her confidence and turned her life upside down. "For many years, I couldn't talk about being an addict," she said. "I couldn't talk about being imprisoned. I couldn't talk about getting on my feet, getting my life back, getting my children back. " She paused to fight back tears. "I could not talk about that part of me where I was victimized. " But having realized that airline employees are perfectly positioned to stop human traffickers and their victims in transit, Ms. Hubbard has found her mission: teaching other flight attendants to spot and report cases of human trafficking. The nonprofit organization she joined in 2015, Airline Ambassadors International, trains workers at airlines and airports how to spot, and report, cases of human trafficking. It also delivers humanitarian aid around the world and transports sick children who need medical care. It was founded in 1996 by Nancy Rivard, who was then a flight attendant. "We just did it on our own as a public service because we had the personnel," Ms. Rivard said, noting that the organization began focusing on human trafficking in 2009 and has held 52 training sessions in the United States and abroad since 2011. There were 8, 042 reported cases of human trafficking in the United States last year — the most ever, according to a report released last week by the nonprofit organization Polaris. Most of those came through calls to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, which was established by the federal government in December 2007 and is operated by Polaris in a partnership. The number of reported cases has been rising every year since the hotline was established. But it is not all bad news, said Bradley Myles, Polaris's chief executive. "We don't necessarily want to give the impression that just because we're learning about more cases, the crime is increasing," Mr. Myles said. "It's actually possible that the response is getting more sophisticated. " Encouragingly, he added, more and more of these reports are coming directly from trafficking victims, which suggests a growing awareness among those who need it most that the hotline exists. Ms. Hubbard sees victim outreach as vital to her work, but she is hesitant to give details about her own ordeal. She entered an arranged marriage at 16, she said, but the worst abuses did not start until her early 20s, when she described being "bought and sold, traded and bartered. " "Usually, the traffickers play on people's ignorance and naïveté," she said. "Traffickers exploit people who are vulnerable. " That is part of the lesson she imparts to airline personnel, along with practical advice on how to spot people who may be traveling against their will — often young passengers who look disoriented, refuse to make eye contact or act oddly subservient to a traveling companion. American Airlines, Ms. Rivard's former employer, offers free miles to the volunteers of Airline Ambassadors International. American's employees already undergo training on human trafficking, led by the Department of Homeland Security, according to a company representative. Ms. Rivard said airlines' existing programs are not enough. She cited instances in which she said airline staff failed to take signs of trafficking seriously, and added that she wished more resources were available to her organization. "It doesn't cost much. We try to raise about $3, 000 per training" from individual donors, she said. An Airline Ambassadors International training session in late January in Houston, just before the Super Bowl there, was filled to capacity. "It was an amazing event," Ms. Hubbard said. "I give kudos to the city of Houston and to the agencies that are doing the work on the ground. " Though human trafficking gets more attention during major sporting events like the Super Bowl, there is little hard evidence — from Polaris or elsewhere — to suggest a major spike in trafficking during large events. "We don't think it's useful to somehow give the impression that there are new victims and new types of trafficking that only happen around that time," Mr. Myles said, though he added that major events might lure criminals who were already operating in other areas. The Houston Police Department has been revamping its approach to human trafficking for years, said Capt. Dan Harris, of the department's vice division. It now offers training on human trafficking for officers as well as assistance for survivors. "We had the processes, the procedures and the relationships already in place," Captain Harris said. "The only thing we really did for the Super Bowl was work more hours in order to go after, mainly, the johns. " While law enforcement agencies and charities work to address the problem on the ground, Ms. Hubbard and other flight attendants plan to keep an eye on things in the air. "If someone is being held against their will, then a crime is being committed inside my airplane," she said. "So it is my responsibility to make sure that these people — whose lives are in my hands while they're on board my aircraft — are safe. "


The centerpiece of President Barack Obama's climate change strategy faced a key test on Tuesday as conservative appeals court judges questioned whether his administration overstepped its legal authority under an air pollution law to make sweeping changes to the U.S. electric sector. Twenty-seven states led by coal-producer West Virginia and industry groups are challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan rules before 10 judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. They argue that the EPA overstepped its regulatory authority under the federal Clean Air Act when the agency issued rules to curb greenhouse emissions mainly from coal-fired power plants. The U.S. Supreme Court has put the regulations on hold while the case is litigated. Tuesday's highly anticipated arguments drew a crowd of hundreds at sunrise to watch the opponents face off against the EPA, 18 states and some supportive power companies. The EPA told the judges that the agency had the power under the Clean Air Act to craft the rule, and that it was cost-effective and achievable. The challengers could face an uphill battle to win over a majority of the 10 judges, six of whom are Democratic appointees. Judge Brett Kavanaugh, appointed by former President George W. Bush, said while he understands the political and moral obligation to address global warming and the importance of the United States to international climate action, the Clean Power Plan's impact on the U.S. economy and on certain coal-reliant communities should require Congress to have a say. "This is a huge case. It has huge economic consequences," said Kavanaugh. He added that climate change does not give the EPA a "blank check" to use the Clean Air Act flexibly. Judge Thomas Griffith, another Bush appointee, questioned: "Why is this (debate) not going-on on the Congress floor but in front of a room full of unelected judges?" The EPA argued before that the Supreme Court has already given the EPA authority in previous cases to use the section of the Clean Air Act at issue to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Justice Department lawyer Eric Hostetler, representing the EPA, said the agency designed the rule to be cost effective and "deepen" the shift already taking place toward cleaner energy. "The EPA looked at what was going on in the real world," he said, noting that most states are already shifting the make-up of their electric generation. In comments indicating support for the government's position, Judge Judith Rogers, appointed to the court by former President Bill Clinton, said the EPA should not close its eyes to trends in the electric sector which have seen utilities diversify their energy mix. "You can't survive in this market unless you do that," she said. Some of the other Democratic appointees voiced similar sentiments indicating they did not think the regulations constituted a major shift as the challengers argue. The Clean Power Plan was designed to lower carbon emissions from U.S. power plants by 2030 to 32 percent below 2005 levels. Power plants are the largest source of U.S. carbon emissions. The Clean Power Plan is the main tool for the United States to meet the emissions reduction target it pledged to reach at U.N. climate talks in Paris last December. The fate of the Clean Power Plan was thrown into question on Feb. 9 when the Supreme Court made a surprise 5-4 decision to grant a request by the challengers to put the rule on hold while the appeals court considered the matter. The eventual appeals court ruling could decide the case, even if it goes to the Supreme Court. The Feb. 13 death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia left the court ideologically split with four conservatives and four liberals. A 4-4 ruling by the high court would leave in place the appeals court ruling. The case is being heard by 10 judges rather than 11 because the court's chief judge, Merrick Garland, has recused himself from the case. Garland is Obama's nominee to replace Scalia. A 5-5 ruling would leave the regulations in place. A ruling is unlikely before the end of the year and possibly not until after Obama leaves office on Jan. 20. The outcome of the Nov. 8 presidential election could be pivotal for the regulations. If Republican Donald Trump wins, the government could reverse the rules or decline to appeal to the Supreme Court should the appeals court strike them down. If Democrat Hillary Clinton is elected, the losing side in the appeals court ruling could be expected to take the case to the Supreme Court. If the case does reach the high court, it may not make it in time for the justices to hear it during the court term that begins next Monday and ends in June.


Sunday night's episode of "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" played less like a breezy record of the demimonde than a documentary. Early in the episode, Kim Kardashian West was called to action by her husband, Kanye West, after audio of him angrily referring to Taylor Swift as "fake" leaked in February. Over and over again, she reiterated how she felt that Mr. West was portrayed unfairly in public, by Ms. Swift and others. As the episode goes on, Ms. Kardashian West's ire rises — clearly, she is plotting her moves. At the end, she seeks advice from her mother and manager, Kris Jenner. Ms. Jenner suggests calling Ms. Swift to smooth things over. Ms. Kardashian West says no, thanks. Just as the episode ended on the East Coast, Ms. Kardashian West released on Snapchat several video clips of a phone conversation between Mr. West and Ms. Swift in which he appears to get her support — mostly enthusiastic, perhaps slightly hesitant — for provocative lyrics that refer to her on his song "Famous," from his album "The Life of Pablo," released in February. Not long after, Ms. Swift released a statement on Instagram stating that she had not approved of the song and that Mr. West had not delivered on a promise to play her the final version before its release. "While I wanted to be supportive of Kanye on the phone call, you cannot 'approve' a song you haven't heard," she wrote. These are the latest salvos in the running squabble between Ms. Swift and Mr. West, a gripping but unfortunate beef that puts two of the leading pop stars of the day at loggerheads. The first phase of their disagreement dates from the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, when he crashed her acceptance speech for best female video, in a show of support for Beyoncé, whom she had beaten. They didn't publicly reconcile until the 2015 Grammys, and the road since has been bumpy. On "Famous," he rapped, in familiar hyperbolic style, that they "might still have sex," and that he was responsible for her success. Shortly thereafter, she lashed out at him (without using his name) from the Grammy stage. The video for "Famous," released last month, features a Swift along with other celebrity topless in bed with Mr. West and Ms. Kardashian West, an jolt of beatific erotica. Ms. Swift and Mr. West couldn't be more different: Ms. Swift is a covert operator, Mr. West a namer of names. Ms. Swift is as careful a crafter of narrative, both in song and in life, as anyone in pop. Mr. West shoots from the hip it's the source of much of his charm. Throughout this battle, each has accused the other of dishonesty. There is a fundamental layer of falseness and contrivance to all public images: Celebrity culture relies on that layer not being disrupted. Part of the power of the video Ms. Kardashian West released is it appeared to show that Ms. Swift's public presentation and private machinations were at odds. The Ms. Swift in those video clips is — "I'm, like, this close to overexposure," she said — in a way she often isn't in public, and she is also willing to disrupt her image in unexpected ways. But her stern response to the song's release served as a reassertion of the old order. It also extended a narrative in which Mr. West, who is black, is painted as the predator and Ms. Swift, who is white, as the prey, a story with uncomfortable racial overtones. In the excerpts, though, Mr. West is solicitous and warm. "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex," he says, enunciating each word of the lyric carefully, with Ms. Swift on speakerphone. Rhythmically, it sounds like perhaps he's workshopping one of two options with her. Later, he says: "I want things that make you feel good. I don't want to do rap that makes people feel bad. " (The clips are short and choppy, and clearly excerpts. On Twitter in February, Mr. West said the call with Ms. Swift had been an hour long.) "I just really appreciate it," Ms. Swift said. "I never would have expected you to tell me about a line in your song. " "Relationships," Mr. West tells her, "are more important than punch lines. " Seeking permission for a lyric is an extraordinary step, especially for Mr. West, whose loose tongue is his greatest asset. Ms. Swift, by contrast, has generally avoided identifying the subjects of her songs, though after the 2009 V. M. A. s, she released the rather patronizing "Innocent" — including the words "Who you are is not what you 're still an innocent" — which she described in a 2010 interview with MTV as not a song about Mr. West but one "to" him. (Her song "Dear John" is widely believed to be about John Mayer, to whom Ms. Swift was romantically linked. It is one of the most effective and ruthless eviscerations of a fellow celebrity in pop history, and it seems unlikely that Ms. Swift ran it past Mr. Mayer for approval.) Given the seemingly genial nature of the conversation between Ms. Swift and Mr. West, what agitated Ms. Swift remains unclear. The release of video clips of the call is a clear violation of trust and raises possible legal issues. (The legality of recording phone calls varies from state to state a representative for Mr. West did not respond to an inquiry about where the rapper had been at the time of the call.) In an interview with GQ released last month, Ms. Kardashian West mentioned that Ms. Swift's legal team knew about the recorded conversation "and then they sent an attorney's letter like, 'Don't you dare do anything with that footage,' and asking us to destroy it. " The statement issued by Ms. Swift's representative when Mr. West's "Famous" came out said that Ms. Swift had "cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message," but that does not appear to be in line with what she expresses in these video clips. The statement also said, "Taylor was never made aware of the actual lyric, 'I made that bitch famous. '" The video clips on Ms. Kardashian West's Snapchat do not show Mr. West asking about that line. And so, if this conflagration turns on the interpretation of that epithet, then what may be at play is a contextual misread, or perhaps a clash of value systems. Mr. West comes from the world of where use of that term to refer to women can be so pervasive as to dull its pejorative meaning. In 2012, Mr. West unveiled the song "Perfect Bitch" — it was about Ms. Kardashian West, then his girlfriend. But though it has become a catchall term, it still carries undeniable historical baggage. Perhaps Ms. Swift didn't like hearing herself referred to in that fashion, regardless of the context. Maybe she was concerned about her young female fan base and the word's effect on them. Maybe she simply got cold feet. Whatever the case, both sides have opted for public escalation over private reconciliation. Mr. West and Ms. Kardashian West are armed with selectively edited documentation optimized for social media distribution. They are primed for battle. Meanwhile, Ms. Swift and her team increasingly transmit an air of fatigue. After Ms. Kardashian West's GQ interview, Ms. Swift's representative released a statement that concluded, "Taylor cannot understand why Kanye West, and now Kim Kardashian, will not just leave her alone. " And Ms. Swift's latest reply concludes with a similar sentiment, though this time from her directly: "I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative, one that I have never asked to be a part of, since 2009. " But this bespeaks a misunderstanding of how public storytelling unfolds. It is crowdsourced, not written from the top down. In the past, Ms. Swift's refusal to name the subjects of her songs or any of her personal antagonists also robbed them of their opportunities to respond, keeping the narrative tidy. But that's not an option when the two main characters are equally famous. Ms. Swift's revulsion only amplifies the situation: The farther from Mr. West she tries to pull, the more tightly they are bound.


A Turkish judge ordered four prominent journalists and senior staff from the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper to remain in jail for at least two more months during their trial, accused of supporting the organizers of last year s failed coup. Editor in chief Murat Sabuncu, attorney Akin Atalay, correspondent Ahmet Sik and accountant Emre Iper, some of whom have already been detained for 14 months, were ordered to be jailed until the next session of their trial on March 9. Prosecutors say Cumhuriyet was effectively taken over by supporters of Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric blamed by the government for last year s failed coup. The newspaper and staff have denied the charges and say they are being targeted to silence critics of President Tayyip Erdogan. Monday s hearing included drama in court, when the judge ordered Sik removed from the hearing for making political comments. Sik, who wrote a book critical of Gulen s movement at a time when it was an ally of the government, described Turkish authorities as an authoritarian regime dedicated to cruelty , according to the newspaper. After he was ordered out, Sik said the case itself was political. The days will come where you will be tried, do not forget this, he said, according to Cumhuriyet. I hope you won t be tried in a court like yours. The court said the next hearing will be held in Silivri courthouse, the site of a large prison about 60 km (40 miles) west of Istanbul, to ensure security and order. The Turkish authorities have launched a crackdown since the failed 2016 coup, which they blame on followers of Gulen, who denies involvement. More than 150,000 police, teachers, university lecturers, journalists and other professionals have been sacked or suspended from their jobs and 50,000 people have been arrested.


The U.S. government is poised to approve two long-delayed sales of Boeing Co fighter jets to Qatar and Kuwait, and could announce the multibillion-dollar deals during President Barack Obama's visit to the Gulf this week, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Both deals have been stalled amid concerns raised by Israel that equipment sent to Gulf states could fall into the wrong hands and be used against it, and by the Obama administration's broader decision-making on military aid to the Gulf. However, the Pentagon and the State Department both have signed off on the sale of some 36 F-15 fighter jets to Qatar and 24 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets to Kuwait, both built by Boeing. The White House is expected to follow suit shortly. The sale to Kuwait is worth about $3 billion and the one to Qatar is probably close to $4 billion, sources familiar with the matter said. "The last hurdle now is getting approval from the National Security Council and the White House," said one of the sources. The Pentagon had no immediate comment. A senior Obama administration official said it was the administration's policy not to comment on potential arm sales until it has formally notified Congress of an intent to sell something. But, the official said, the United States is committed to the security and stability of the Gulf region and defense sales "fit into the overall U.S. regional diplomatic strategy." Expected approval of the fighter jet sales comes as the White House seeks to shore up relations with Gulf allies as they increase their military capabilities amid growing fears that Washington is drawing closer to Iran in the aftermath of the nuclear deal with that country. Senior U.S. officials, including Navy Secretary Ray Mabus have publicly urged approval of the weapons sales, which will help maintain production of the fourth-generation Boeing fighter jets, while the newer and more advanced Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jet enters service in coming years. One senior U.S. defense official said the Pentagon is keen to see the Boeing F-15 and F/A-18 production lines in St. Louis continue and does not want to "foreclose any options on fourth-generation aircraft at this point." Boeing already is spending "hundreds of millions" of dollars to buy long-lead materials such as titanium to prepare for a possible Kuwaiti order for F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and a separate U.S. Navy order for 12 jets put on the service's "unfunded priorities" list submitted to Congress. The Navy is hoping that Congress will provide the funding to pay for the Boeing jets in fiscal 2017, although the planes were not included in its base budget request. It already has earmarked funding for more F/A-18E/F jets in fiscal 2018. A larger concern now is the Boeing F-15 line, which is set to end in 2019 after Boeing completes work on a large order for Saudi Arabia, unless a follow-on order is approved.


If you listen to conservatives, big money interests like the banks have been unfairly attacked by progressives like Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. According to them, the system isn t rigged and progressives are just being conspiracy theorists.But now a massive plot inside one of America s biggest banks has been exposed, and the Obama administration is going to make them pay for what they ve done.5,300 Wells Fargo employees are going to be fired, after it was exposed that they have been secretly signing up thousands of customers for accounts they didn t ask for. They did it so they could collect fees and add to their earnings. From CNN Money:The phony accounts earned the bank unwarranted fees and allowed Wells Fargo employees to boost their sales figures and make more money. Wells Fargo employees secretly opened unauthorized accounts to hit sales targets and receive bonuses, Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said in a statement.Now, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a government agency created by President Obama and in part credited to Senator Warren, is stepping in to make the bank pay. Wells Fargo will have to pay full restitution to the victims of its greed, including annual fees, interest charges, and overdraft-protection fees that it deceitfully collected.The bank has entered into an agreement with CFPB to pay $185 million in fines, and $5 million in a refund to its customers.It s worth remembering that Republicans backed by donations from the banking and financial industry have tried repeatedly to attack and defund CFPB. Despite the agency being solely dedicated to consumer rights (as opposed to industry concerns, as in other government departments like the notoriously pro-industry Department of Interior), the supposedly populist right has still opposed it.To his credit, not only has Obama defended CFPB, he has argued again and again that Congress should fund it and allow it to stand up for consumers.


There is no deadlock in divorce talks between Britain and the European Union, EU summit chair Donald Tusk said on Friday, adding he was very cautious, but optimistic that negotiations could move on to the next phase in December. The EU wants to have the main elements of a divorce agreement with Britain on the financial settlement, citizen s rights and the lack of a physical border between Northern Ireland and Ireland before it moves on to talks on a future trade agreement which is key for British-based businesses. So far progress in the three areas has been insufficient, raising the prospect that divorce talks will drag on to next year without starting discussions on a future relationship, as companies need to make strategic business decisions now. There is no deadlock, Tusk told reporters on the sidelines of an EU leaders meeting in the Swedish city of Gothenburg where he also held talks with British Prime Minister Theresa May. I feel much better, safer after my meeting with Theresa May, everything is possible, Tusk said. There was very visibly goodwill on both sides. We still have a chance to achieve our first goal to achieve the finalization of the first phase of negotiations. I am very cautious, but optimistic. He said he will meet May again next Friday, Nov. 24, to consult on progress during another EU meeting in Brussels.


The current occupant of the White House traveled overseas and met with President Andrzej Duda of Poland at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, then continued to embarrass our country by bashing the media, refusing to say outright that Russia meddled in our 2016 presidential election. He then went on to tout his economy even though he s only been on the job for 167 days.On Thursday, the former reality show star Trump bragged about the U.S. economy, saying everyone else is getting rich.Trump spoke of U.S. stock market gains since he was elected, according to The Hill. Personally, I ve picked up nothing, he said. Everyone else is getting very rich. That s ok, I m very happy. On the 4th of July, Trump tweeted, Really great numbers on jobs & the economy! Things are starting to kick in now, and we have just begun! Don t like steel & aluminum dumping! Really great numbers on jobs & the economy! Things are starting to kick in now, and we have just begun! Don't like steel & aluminum dumping! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2017While on the campaign trail, Trump said, I will be the greatest jobs producer that God ever created but that promise hasn t been kept. 594,000 jobs have been created since Trump took office and that s a dismal number if you compare it to Obama s record. And of the jobs created by the Trump administration, most of those can be attributed to Obama s economy. Businesses that were bleeding jobs unleashed the longest streak of job creation on record, Obama wrote in a letter to the American people.The economy added jobs for 75 straight months.As for Trump bragging about jobs, the US employment growth is actually slowing.Trump says he hasn t made money but that, too, is a lie. Trump and his family members are shamelessly profiting from his so-called presidency. Trump said that everyone is getting rich but a quick visit to my bank online just showed me that that is not true.For the record, 11.3 million new jobs were created under President Obama. Trump did accomplish one thing, though. He managed to disparage the U.S. media while on foreign soil. That s got to be a first.Photo by Olivier Douliery Pool/Getty Images.


The top Republican in the U.S. Congress dimmed hopes that lawmakers might end the embargo on Cuba after President Barack Obama leaves office, saying on Tuesday he intends to keep the trade restrictions in place. "As the past two years of normalizing relations have only emboldened the regime at the expense of the Cuban people, I fully intend to maintain our embargo on Cuba," U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement. The Obama administration has been easing restrictions on dealings with Cuba since the surprise announcement in 2014 by Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro that the long-time foes would move toward more normal relations. On Friday, the White House announced new measures to further ease trade, travel and financial restrictions, including allowing American travelers to bring home more of the country's coveted cigars and rum. But the half-century-long embargo can only be lifted fully by Congress, which is controlled by Ryan's Republicans. While some join most of Obama's fellow Democrats in backing the new policies, party leaders have opposed legislation to ease restrictions. Some lawmakers had hoped attitudes in Congress might soften after Obama leaves office in January, even if Democrats do not win majorities in the House and Senate, especially with Americans accustomed to two years of freer travel and business. Cuban relations often come to the fore during U.S. election campaigns. Pro-embargo Cuban-Americans are an important Republican voting bloc in Florida, which often has close congressional races and is one of the swing states that can decide presidential elections. Ryan termed Obama's actions "efforts to appease the oppressive regime" in Cuba. He said they would strengthen its government and endanger U.S. companies' intellectual property rights. Backers of Obama's policy say half a century of restrictions on trade and travel have not ended Cuban communism, and are not worth denying U.S. citizens freedom of travel and U.S. companies the chance to do business there.


Truthstream MediaOut of 88 potential horrors this batch of 1,500+ Americans were asked to rank in regard to their personal level of fear in 2015, you ll never guess what the number one thing people are most afraid of in this country Or perhaps you will. What an amazingly sad statement on modern America and the times we are living in.The survey can be found here.Americans Deepest FearsAre Americans today afraid of criminals with guns or a government that would seek to disarm its citizens?The impositions of the system now rank higher among worry than hyped factors like terrorism with distrust at very high levels among citizens and consumers alike. People are becoming disconnected from the wealth and prosperity they once knew, and instead are facing a collapsing system that wishes to loot from its populace as the ship goes down.Dearly held rights in the American tradition are under threat today of vanishing, of being upended by a machine with secret designs.Corporate schemers, conniving bankers and corrupt government insiders are driving perpetual wars, a damaged economy, disappearing jobs and diminishing chances of achieving the American dream.Please share this article and story.Permission to repost or republish with attribution (to Truthstream Media) is granted under creative commons license.READ MORE SOCIAL ENGINEERING NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire SE Files


Should you embrace new age practices you deny Me Saturday Dec 06, 2014 at 02:20 pm My dearly beloved daughter, how is it that those who do not accept My Existence, or the Divinity of My Eternal Father, are so willing to embrace false gods all of their own making?When My Presence is felt by souls who reject My Existence, they feel a need to retaliate without compunction. They will scoff, ridicule, mock My Presence, whether this be in My Church, in books; in the Word or when I Am Present in other souls. The Presence of God is Omnipotent and it is felt in the most painful way by those souls who are in darkness. This is why they react with such venom to any mention of Me. These people have a deep ingrained hatred of Me and they fail to see how they can hate someone Who, in their eyes, does not exist.I warn those who embrace false spirituality and who idolize or obsess about anything that does not come from Me. If you open your souls to any spiritual realm, not of My Making, you will open the door to demons, who will cunningly entice you into their dark world. Whatever peace you believe you receive from new age practices will be short-lived. And as you seek more, you will then enter into a state where your conscience will be taken over by those enemies of God, until you are unable to release yourself from their domain. You will never find peace when you idolize false gods.The world is infiltrated with false doctrines, gods and religions. There is only one True God and you can only come to Him by recognising the Great Sacrifice He made when He sent Me, His only Begotten Son, to bring you salvation from the snares of the evil one.To those who do know Me, but who dabble in other doctrines, know this. Should you embrace new age practices, you deny Me. Should My Church acknowledge other creeds, that are not of Me, then they betray Me.The time when My birth is celebrated, by showing allegiance to other religions, that are not of Me, will be one of the greatest betrayals of the Truth.


Another day, another Trump supporter commits an atrocity, weakening America s morale one by one. This time, it s a double whammy Trump supporters who happen to be members of the Ku Klux Klan.William Hagen, grand dragon of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (who organized a White Lives Matter rally), and Klan leader Chris Barker, were arrested in North Carolina after the two stabbed another Klansman, who eventually escaped with wounds to the chest.According to the New York Times:The attack took place hours before a Ku Klux Klan parade on Saturday in Roxboro, N.C., billed as a celebration of Mr. Trump s victory Mr. Hagen was in North Carolina to attend that parade, the authorities said. Mr. Barker was arrested before the parade, and Mr. Hagen after, during a traffic stop, Captain Rose said.Hagen was charged with attempted murder and Barker was charged with aiding and abetting an assault.So far, no motive or reason has been released as to why the stabbing took place. But when it comes to the insanity of the reasoning used by Klansmen to justify violence, does it really matter? Since the rise (and election) of Donald Trump, violence and white nationalism not coincidentally has been on a rise in the United States. Today in North Carolina, the two came head-to-head.The victim, Richard Dillon, is being treated for his injuries and his attackers are being held without bail.Once again, the question needs to be asked: is Donald Trump going to denounce this kind of behavior? These men supported him, organized a rally in his honor, and voted for him. They ve been in the news as organizers for his campaigns, and now they have unsuccessfully tried to murder another human being (albeit one with deplorable qualities).The violence, hatred, and deplorabiltiy continues under Donald Trump, who gave new purpose to worst drudges of society.


Dressed in a thick jacket and wool hat on a cool winter evening, counting the coins for his bus fare, Hedi Hammami looks like any other Tunisian on his way to work. But he walks with a limp and sometimes pauses midspeech and screws up his face in pain. "That's Guantánamo," he explains. After eight years as a detainee in the United States detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, he says he still suffers from headaches, depression and anxiety attacks from the torture and other mistreatment he says he suffered there, even six years after his release. Married with two children now and employed as a nighttime ambulance driver, Mr. Hammami, 47, seems to have rebuilt his life. Yet the pressures of living in Tunisia's faltering democracy, under harassment and enduring repeated raids by the police, have driven him to make an extreme request. "It would be better for me to go back to that single cell and to be left alone," he said recently. "Two or three weeks ago I went to the Red Cross and asked them to connect me to the U. S. foreign ministry to ask to go back to Guantánamo. " The Red Cross refused to take his request, he said, but he insists nevertheless that at this point, that would be best for him. "I have lost my hope," he says. "There is no future in this country for me. " When he was first released from Guantánamo in 2010, Tunisia was still a dictatorship under the rule of President Zine Ben Ali and notorious for torturing prisoners, in particular Islamists. Deemed no longer a threat to the United States, Mr. Hammami was sent to the former Soviet republic of Georgia. After the popular uprising in 2011 that overthrew Mr. Ben Ali and set off the Arab Spring, Mr. Hammami negotiated his return to Tunisia. He timed it well, benefiting from a national amnesty for political prisoners and a program of compensation that gave him a job in the Ministry of Health. "I hoped very much that after the revolution everything would get better," he said in one of several interviews in his rented home in a suburb of Tunis. Yet, soon after he began work in 2013, the police raided his apartment with dogs at 3 a. m. breaking the door and hauling him down to the police station. "They made me crawl on all fours down the stairs," he recounted. At the police station they said they just wanted to get to know him, and let him go after 15 minutes. "That was just the beginning. " Since then, Mr. Hammami has lived under a constant regimen of police surveillance, raids and harassment. His cellphone and computer were confiscated. When he moved to a new house, the police followed him, turning up at all hours to question him. In December 2015 he was placed under house arrest, told he no longer had the right to work and ordered to sign in at the police station morning and evening for six weeks. He remains under "administrative control," and the police enforce the order at will. He cannot travel outside Tunis. Every so often, like on Sept. 11, the police order him to sign in with them. "I feel someone is doing it for revenge," he says. The police have also scared landlords from renting to him, forcing him to move six times in three years. His Algerian wife's residency card was confiscated, preventing her from working to supplement his meager salary. The family is barely managing, she said, asking not to be named for fear of further police harassment. Stress and tension from the police actions have intensified the psychological problems Mr. Hammami brought with him from Guantánamo. "I feel too much pressure," he said, rubbing his temples. "All that blackness comes back. " Rim Ben Ismail, a psychologist working for the World Organization Against Torture in Tunisia, who has counseled 12 Tunisians who were detained in Guantánamo, says Mr. Hammadi's wish to return to his cell is fairly typical of the Guantánamo detainees. "They lived with suffering, physical suffering," she said in an interview. "But now there is a psychic suffering, and often they say, 'Take me back there. '" "Because of their past they are all presumed guilty and it is unlivable for all of them and their families," she added. "The families are being threatened and harassed. " Parents in particular fear the Tunisian security forces and say they think their sons would be safer in Guantánamo, she added. Raids have often been needlessly violent, she said police officials break down doors and wake a suspect with a gun to his head, often in front of his wife and children. "Everything is being done to create aggression in a person," she said. "They do not need to raid the house at 2 a. m. " One of her former Guantánamo patients was harassed so relentlessly by police that he became suicidal and ran off to Syria, where he was killed. "He was such a gentle person," she said sadly. "By treating these people like this you create a climate of revenge and the sense that they have no place at home. " There is no doubt that Tunisia has a terrorism problem. It has been grappling with attacks from Al groups since 2013. The violence escalated to spectacular attacks in 2015 and 2016 that killed more than 70 people, many of them foreign tourists at a national museum and at a beach resort hotel. Moreover, Tunisians reportedly make up the largest number of foreign fighters to have joined the Islamic State and other extremist groups in Syria and Iraq, and some have been encouraged to conduct attacks when they return home. After an attack killed 12 members of the presidential guard in November 2015, the government imposed a state of emergency. At least 139 Tunisians have been placed under house arrest since, according to Human Rights Watch, which documented the cases in a report released in September. The sanctions have been justified in the context of countering terrorism but have "left people facing stigmatization and unable to pursue studies and work," it stated. International human rights officials have voiced growing concerns of abuses resurfacing in Tunisia. In a report released this week, Amnesty International accused the Tunisian police and security forces of employing repressive measures used by past dictatorships, including torture, deaths in custody, arbitrary house raids and often unlawful harassment of suspects, their families and communities. Ben Emmerson, the United Nations special rapporteur for human rights while countering terrorism, said during a recent visit to Tunisia that human rights should be central to counterterrorism operations, noting that torture and other repressive measures fuel radicalism. Mr. Hammami says he feels the police are pushing him that way. The son of a farmer from Tunisia's poor northwest, he says he originally left for Italy in 1986 in search of work. There he fell in with an Islamic missionary group, Tablighi Jamaat, and later traveled to Pakistan, where he obtained refugee status. He was arrested in Pakistan and handed over to the American military in 2002 and transferred to Guantánamo, where he was accused of training in Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. The Americans also say they found his identification papers in Tora Bora, the last redoubt of Osama bin Laden in the country, according to papers released by WikiLeaks. Mr. Hammami, who denies going to Afghanistan or having any links to Qaeda or terrorism, was eventually released without charge. Whatever his past, he says after nearly 20 years away, he just wants to live quietly. "I never committed a crime," he said. "I don't have a record, no theft, no ethics problems, nothing. " "My only demand is to be stable, but they don't let me live my life in stability," he said. "They are pushing you towards death. "


On April 29, Los Angeles marks the 25th anniversary of the riots that engulfed the city in 1992 following the acquittal of four Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers who were videotaped beating motorist Rodney King. [Three of the four officers were white King, who died in 2012, was black. (Two officers were later convicted in a federal civil rights trial.) As Bay Area public radio station KQED recalls: Fury over the acquittal — stoked by years of racial and economic inequality in the city — spilled over into the streets, resulting in five days of rioting in Los Angeles. It ignited a national conversation about racial and economic disparity and police use of force that continues today. … The acquittals were announced around 3 p. m. less than three hours later, the unrest began. Residents set fires, looted and destroyed liquor stores, grocery stores, retail shops and fast food restaurants. motorists — both white and Latino — were targeted some were pulled out of their cars and beaten. The reaction to the acquittal in South Central Los Angeles — now known just as South Los Angeles — was particularly violent. At the time, more than half of the population there was black. Tension had already been mounting in the neighborhood in the years leading up to the riots: the unemployment rate was about 50 percent, a drug epidemic was ravaging the area, and gang activity and violent crime were high. During the riots, a white trucker, Reginald Denny, was nearly beaten to death by gang members, and footage of the beating was captured overhead. Four black bystanders intervened and saved Denny by driving him to the hospital. In the years since then, there has been significant improvement in the relationship between the LAPD and minority communities in the city. For that reason, the marches of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2014 caught many observers by surprise. During the riots, King pleaded for calm: "I just want to say — you know — can we all get along?" Joel B. Pollak is Senior at Breitbart News. He was named one of the "most influential" people in news media in 2016. He is the of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak


U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged Southeast Asian foreign ministers on Thursday to do more to help cut funding streams for North Korea's nuclear and missile programs and to minimize diplomatic relations with Pyongyang. In his first ministerial meeting with all 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Tillerson also called on nations with competing claims in the South China Sea to cease all island building and militarization while talks aimed at creating a maritime code of conduct were under way. Patrick Murphy, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia, said Tillerson stressed Washington's security and economic commitment to the region, amid doubts raised by President Donald Trump's "America First" platform and withdrawal from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact. Tillerson called on ASEAN countries to fully implement U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang, which is working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the United States, and to show a united front on the issue, Murphy said. "We think that more can be done, not just in Southeast Asia," he told reporters. "We are encouraging continued and further steps across all of ASEAN." Last week, Tillerson called on all countries to suspend or downgrade diplomatic ties with Pyongyang, saying that North Korea abuses diplomatic privileges to help fund its arms programs. Tillerson also warned that Washington would sanction foreign firms and people conducting business with North Korea if countries did not act themselves. All ASEAN members have diplomatic relations with North Korea and five have embassies there. Murphy said Washington was not encouraging ASEAN states to formally cut ties, but to examine the North Korean presence "where it clearly exceeds diplomatic needs." He said some countries were already doing this and also looking at the presence of North Korean workers, another significant revenue earner for Pyongyang. Some officials of ASEAN members, speaking to reporters, acknowledged concerns about North Korea, but also cited concerns about trade relations with the United States. Philippine acting Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo, whose country currently chairs ASEAN, said of the U.S. call to minimize relations with Pyongyahng, "We haven't really discussed that among the ASEAN countries, so that's probably something we will look at. "Our immediate concern is to try and ensure the tension on the peninsula doesn't increase. ... The last thing we would like to see is to have a conflict break out due to some miscalculation," Manalo said. Singapore's foreign minister, Vivian Balakrishnan, said sanctions would have to be fully implemented, but North Korea's presence in his country is already minimal.Asked if that could be further reduced, he said: "I won't say never, but at this point in time that's not the issue - we will stick with the U.N. Security Council's resolutions." Balakrishnan, whose country signed the TPP, stressed the importance of U.S.-ASEAN business ties - annual trade of $100 billion supporting half a million U.S. jobs and $274 billion of U.S. investment. "Southeast Asia is replete with economic opportunities and it's too big to miss out on," he said. His remark highlighted growing concern in Asia that Trump has ditched former President Barack Obama's economic "pivot" to the region by abandoning the TPP, something analysts say has led to more countries being pulled into China's orbit. Murphy said Tillerson stressed that ASEAN remained a "very important ... strategic partner," which is shown by Trump's commitment to attend regional summits in the Philippines and Vietnam in November. Manalo called the meeting with Tillerson and Trump's travel plans "encouraging" signs. Washington wants ASEAN countries to crack down on money laundering and smuggling involving North Korea and to look at restricting legal business too. It has been working to persuade China, North Korea's neighbor and only major ally, to increase pressure on Pyongyang. U.S. officials are also asking China to urge more China-friendly ASEAN members, such as Laos and Cambodia, to do the same. U.S. efforts have included a flurry of calls by Trump to the leaders of the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore. Diplomats say U.S. pressure has caused some irritation in ASEAN, including Malaysia, which has maintained relations with Pyongyang in spite of the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's estranged half brother at Kuala Lumpur International airport in February/ On the issue of the South China Sea, ASEAN has adopted a cautious approach recently, with a weekend summit avoiding references to China's building and arming of artificial islands there. This stance coincided with moves by China and ASEAN to draft a framework to negotiate a code of conduct. Murphy said Tillerson had stressed that this process needed "room and space" through avoiding fortifying existing claims. The United States has conducted freedom of navigation operations to challenge South China Sea claims, angering China, but not yet under Trump. Murphy said such operations would continue, but declined to say when the next might occur.


U.S. President Barack Obama said the European Union and United States must move forward with a trade free trade accord still under negotiation which supporters say could boost each economy by some $100 billion. "It is indisputable" that free trade has strengthened the U.S. economy and also has brought enormous benefits to countries that engage in it, Obama said. The U.S. president spoke at a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of his closest allies in dealing with a shaky global economy and security crises in the Middle East and Ukraine.