Analyses The Saker  by GH Eliason  Whether you are for Hillary Clinton or against her, the problem with Hillary Clinton isn't her lack of experience. Almost the entire political establishment is behind her. Throughout all the bumps and scandal in this whole election cycle, Republicans and former presidents are coming out of the woodwork supporting her. According to the LA Times she may well be one of the most experienced candidates in US history, while even accounting for severe conflicts of interest inside the Clinton Foundation. Neither friend or foe doubt Hillary Clinton's experience after 30 years in politics.  The problem is even Hillary Clinton's friends say she has a history of acting without thinking, of making bad decisions. According to Neera Tanden : "Almost no one knows better than me that her instincts can be terrible."  Does Hillary Clinton show bad instincts and terrible decision-making skills, and if she does, how will this affect the USA?  According to journalist Robert Parry "the people that will be taking senior positions and especially in foreign policy believe "This consensus is driven by a broad-based backlash against a president who has repeatedly stressed the dangers of overreach and the need for restraint, especially in the Middle East… Taken together, the studies and reports call for more aggressive American action to constrain Iran, rein in the chaos in the Middle East and check Russia in Europe."One of the lead organizations revving up these military adventures and also counting on a big boost in military spending under President Clinton-45 is the Atlantic Council, a think tank associated with NATO that has been pushing for a major confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia."  The Atlantic Council is the think tank for the CEEC which is associated with NATO. The CEEC (Central and Eastern European Coalition) has only one goal. At the beginning of the presidential campaign they put out a small list of questions for the candidates to decide who they would support for the president.  The first question was essentially "Are you willing to go to war with Russia?" Hillary Clinton has answered that question and received their unqualified support throughout the campaign. Who is the CEEC?  The Central and Eastern European Coalition represent the various Central and Eastern European countries to the US government. What makes them special in an election is that they control a 20 million person strong bloc vote in key states across the country and sway elections by themselves. The price of a Clinton win is war with Russia.  If that seems a little too much to be believable, reconsider the Iraq war. All it took was for the Iraqi diaspora to develop strong ties with like-minded people from "The Project for the New American Century" that wanted regime change in Iraq. Many of the people associated with the PNAC crossed over into the Bush administration . They pushed the invasion together.  " Walt Vanderbush's essay, "The Iraqi Diaspora and the US Invasion of Iraq" (chapter 9), traces the collaboration between leaders of the Iraqi diaspora and neoconservative Americans, many of them linked to the Iraqi National Congress (INC) and the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), to convince the US government to wage war and bring about "regime change" in Iraq… The INC claimed credit for placing 108 articles in the news media, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Times (of London), during a nine-month period before the war."  It wasn't terror, Osama, or even oil that the Iraq war was fought for. It was a guy named Ahmed Chalabi who was the only victor of the Iraq war.  American-emigre groups use their strategically settled populations in key battleground states, deep pockets, and unbridled political ambition to gain control over their home "old" countries. Even more insidious is the influence they exert over the United States to destroy old enemies.  Do we want senior cabinet and policy positions filled by people that think starting WWIII is a good goal? Let's take a look at the make-up and politics of some of these.  Starting at the top let's look at the Ukrainian emigres which lead the CEEC and the Atlantic Council. One thing anyone represented by the UCCA (Ukrainian Congressional Committee of America) or the UWC (Ukrainian World Congress) has in common is Axis-political heritage and beliefs. The OUN is the political grouping of Ukrainian nationalists and it would vote for Adolf Hitler if he was running in a heartbeat.  Unless real Nazi political views (not neo-nazi) found a way to survive all these years with this group of people, the statement is just insulting. Anyone reading should be insulted because that level of offensiveness in a politically charged environment is wrong.  Nazism or Axis-Nazism are political beliefs and principles that structure your government the same as Republican or Democratic control would. The only difference is the "ism." The "ism" means everything you do in your life revolves around your politic so it's not just political or social guides or guidelines. It's your lifestyle and everything wraps around it. Anything or anyone that goes against it is an enemy of the state, and it is personal.  From their own words in the Ukrainian Weekly, real, active political Nazi's are alive, kickin' and ready for a Clinton win! It is the sheer number of groups self-identifying as practicing real Nazi beliefs in the US gaining policy and cabinet positions under a Clinton win that is incredible.  The Ukrainian World Congress with its affiliates in over 40 countries and others work tirelessly in trying to keep Ukraine and the Ukrainian spirit front and center.  "We have had a minister of finance, Natalka Jaresko, in the Cabinet. We now have Ulana Suprun as acting minister of health. We have many from the diaspora assisting with strategizing, reforming and supporting the overall cause. We have a highly successful program in Patriot Defence. We are out to change the way business is done.  Unity to act when required has been the diaspora's mantra – this cannot be disputed.  As time moves on, we see that things take a natural course. We see that two wings of the OUN – (OUNb)Banderivtsi and (OUNm)Melnykivtsi – are working actively on the international level, working in partnership and currently are in strong negotiations about becoming a single entity again."  With all you've heard about Stepan Bandera's OUN since the Maidan coup in Ukraine, I'll bet you didn't know they call New York, Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia home.  The UCCA and the UWC still celebrate their Nazi SS because they are still Axis-nazis. The OUN were the vile Holocaust murderers during and after WWII and their politics live on in their children today. This is no different from the children of other Waffen-SS leaders or if Hitler had surviving children that stood up and ran other countries based in Hitler's policy. These American kids are sent to Ukraine to learn how to copy and act like Stepan Bandera before they come back to America and get involved in policy making.  " OUNb leader Ivan Kobasa also took responsibility of making sure the Ukrainian-Americans received the proper secondary education at Ukrainian nationalist schools(MAUP) in Ukraine. From the mid-2000's enrollment in this educational system has skyrocketed. Today almost all members of the current Ukrainian government are graduates of this ideological system that was taught to them by moderates like David Duke who is also a graduate of the MAUP system."  While American media criticizes David Duke's support for Donald Trump, they say nothing about Hillary's strongest supporters hiring David Duke as a professor to teach their children college level history. Is Hillary Clinton too far right for David Duke? After all, he has no plans to conquer Russia.  When you look at her campaign coffers and the most active political activists supporting Hillary Clinton, many are groups whose politics are not republican or democrat, but old-world nationalist. They are spread across America and still idolize their Waffen SS heroes, literally. They have statues and holidays and children's groups across America in cities like New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago celebrating some of the vilest mass murderers in history. And they teach their children to idolize them and grow up using them as role models. They also bring up their children in the same political mold of ultra-nationalism.  Now they want an America that will do the same. Over the last 30 years, the old world nationalists have moved into media and policy positions to make this happen. If that wasn't enough they control a 20 million person bloc vote in key states and swing states in important cities across America.  I am not using the word nazi as an insult, this isn't neo-nazi or even a nazi revival. These groups have been the most extreme political activists in the USA over the last 50 years and are a continuation of what their parents were in the 1930's. In their own words, they never assimilated into American culture. They assimilated the culture to them. In the words of the CIA, they are political animals. Today, their wagons are circled around a Hillary Clinton presidency.  The OUN were the guards at the Holocaust prison camps, Waffen SS, and volunteer brigades that were famous for torture and murder. In Ukraine, they killed over 3 million people and conducted the first act of Holocaust at Babi Yar.  The funny part if there was one is that with every fiber of your being, you want to argue against these facts. The OUN on the other hand featured at least one of my articles on their rise in American politics even though I called them devils. The fact they find me credible shouldn't get lost on you.  When these good friends of Hillary Clinton from the CEEC start getting tapped for advisory posts, and cabinet positions through the Atlantic Council or Project for a new American Century, will they automatically become Democrats or Republicans?  Does America want a war with Russia so the losers of WWII can settle old scores?  For the first time, under a Clinton presidency, America will have unbridled Axis-nazis/old world nationalists/ nazis in most of the cabinet and policy positions. They are getting the positions because they are delivering donations, bloc votes, political propaganda, and hard activism in battleground states.  The results for the Clinton campaign in emigre dominated states is the same as it was when they first got together. Clinton is up by 11 points in important emigre bloc voting districts.  …In last month's heavily publicized Pennsylvania Senate race. Ukrainian and Baltic groups, protesting the administration's attempts to prevent the break-up of the USSR, supported the Democratic candidate, Harris Wofford. This position contributed to the defeat of Dick Thornburgh, a former attorney general in the Bush administration…."The Ukrainian Weekly, December 8, 1991, No. 49, Vol. LIX  In a Ukraine Weekly interview with candidate Bill Clinton-"For the last 40 years, many Ukrainians have been supporters of the Republican Party. However, Mr. Bush severely damaged his relations with Ukrainians with his "Chicken Kiev" speech, and by his unwillingness to see Ukraine's point of view in disputes with Russia. How will your party seek to secure the goodwill of voters concerned by this issue?" …  Clinton's answer…"The Bush administration has had a spotty record abroad…including the president's insulting warning against "suicidal nationalism" made before proindependence forces in Kiev in the summer of 1991 — and a failed economic record at home. We hope Ukrainian Americans will join our effort to put people first." – Interview with Candidate Bill Clinton-Ukrainian Weekly Issue 43, 1992  In what has become the ultimate pay to play scheme, the Clinton's gave over Ukraine to OUNb nationalists to run as they saw fit. This was payment for political support and bloc votes that won the 1992 elections for Bill Clinton. American citizens were given a country to run and represent in any manner they chose to do it.  According to Ukrainian nationalist scholar Taras Kuzio , the Axis- nazi political beliefs started to be taught to children in Ukraine after the OUNb took the reins. This was the preparation for what would become a nationalist coup in 2014 Ukraine.  This pattern follows the Clinton-NATO expansion and every CEE (Central and Eastern European) country freed by the Clintons followed suit. In Croatia, Croatian-Americans have more parliamentary seats and representation than any group from Croatia.  Other than American-emigre groups gaining rule and representing the "home country" in the US, there is only one other universal factor each of them revived. Axis- nazi politics and political views became normal in their home countries. In Croatia, they even revived the Waffen SS Battalions.  The people at the CEEC are behind the Atlantic Council and PNAC will be making the domestic and foreign policy decisions in a Clinton administration. While I would not call Hillary Clinton a Nazi, the people she surrounds herself with actively are. There is very little doubt that Victoria Nuland, a Ukrainian-American brought up in these beliefs will be Secretary of State under a Clinton Administration.  To get an understanding of what that means, the same people that are deciding Ukrainian domestic and foreign policy will be sending their people to those cabinet positions.  The one thing for sure is even publications that support her candidacy wonder about Hillary Clinton's lack of judgment and surrounding herself with nationalist war-hawks that want war with Russia.  According to the WEEK "At first, Obama went over the top of public opinion to avenge American honor against ISIS. Slowly, America's mission has crept to include some form of regime change with the ouster of Assad. Now Clinton is selling the American people on greater military interventions so that the U.S. can challenge Putin. Clinton seems unable to distinguish between what is of vital interest to the Russians and peripheral interest to America. She combines this with her bias toward always taking action — of any sort, for good or ill. The combination is dangerous."  The article ends in the hope that Clinton is once again lying. Both current president Obama and Hillary Clinton are trying to sell America on the idea that there are moderates fighting a civil war in Syria. We are arming and training them. Are there moderates in Syria worth supporting? Do we have any business there to begin with? The article goes as far as stating the US is determined to overthrow every country that is friendly to Russia.  Right now Clinton wants to establish a no-fly-zone to protect her moderates. Who are they? US Special Forces on the ground are adamant that Clinton wants to give US military support to ISIS even if it means starting an open war with Russia.  " Nobody believes in it. You're like, 'Fuck this,'" a former Green Beret says of America's covert and clandestine programs to train and arm Syrian militias. "Everyone on the ground knows they are jihadis. No one on the ground believes in this mission or this effort, and they know they are just training the next generation of jihadis, so they are sabotaging it by saying, 'Fuck it, who cares?'" "I don't want to be responsible for Nusra guys saying they were trained by Americans," the Green Beret added.  Since 2014, Ukraine has fully supported al Nusra and at the beginning of the civil war pulled 200 ISIS fighters to the Ukrainian front lines. These fighters are jihadis from Crimea. They have also set up an ISIS training camp near Mariupol. Like all other volunteers, they don't receive government support and rob to make a living.  Before this, the Kosovo example looms large. Does inviting indicted mass murderers and people preparing for illegal organ trade (crimes against humanity) trials to your national party convention as special guests qualify as good judgment? Does it showcase Hillary Clinton's good instincts to be president?  Welcome to the 2016 Democratic National Convention. Hillary Clinton's special guest from Kosovo took time-out from preparing for his crimes against humanity case to give support and wish her well.  "Invited as a guest to the 2016 Democratic National Convention is none other than Kadri Veseli, the Speaker of the Kosovo Assembly. Veseli is a former Kosovar Albanian leader of the KLA and its spy organization SHIK. He's being indicted along with the current president of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci for small things like organ trafficking and crimes against humanity .'  The main witness against Clinton friends, Veseli and Thaci, is a man that was ordered to cut the heart out of another man that was begging for mercy. In a 1998 interview with the BBC , US special envoy to the Balkans, Robert Gelbard had this to say about Veseli and Thaci; "I know a terrorist when I see one and these men are terrorists."  Clinton's relationship with the Albanian and Kosovo killers stretches back to the first Clinton election in 1992. During the campaign season the Clinton duo found out quickly how powerful the emigre national vote was in America. In one fell swoop, the Albanians and the KLA after them went from what the USA definitely recognized as Islamic terrorists to victims we were going to war for.  The Clinton humanitarian bombing in the Balkans drove victims into the waiting clutches of the KLA, and the spread of Islamic terrorism worldwide.  In what became her first executive decision, first lady, Hillary Clinton brow-beat the unwilling president Clinton into bombing the Balkans and creating a humanitarian catastrophe. Today, as a result of this, ISIS is setting up training camps in what is widely referred to as Clinton country.  "On the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, the local police detained three militants of so-called "Islamic State" (a terrorist organization banned in Russia), is going to organize a series of terrorist attacks in Serbia." Terrorists LIH (IGIL/ISIS) break through the Balkans to Western Europe March 2016  Clinton's jihadi bloc vote in America remains central to her winning this election along with the rest of the CEEC. Does America want people advising the president that openly support genocide like the Kosovars, Albanians, or Ukrainians?  Hillary Clinton is not an Islamist. Hillary Clinton is not a Nazi. But the question remains. Why is she surrounded by and listening to people that are? Is that her best judgment?  The Quasi-Legal Coup-Hillary Clinton Information Operations In Election 2016  "The purpose of " Inform and Influence Operations" is not to provide a perspective, opinion, or lay out a policy. It is defined as the ability to make audiences "think and act" in a manner favorable to the mission objectives. This is done through applying perception management techniques which target the audiences emotions, motives, and reasoning.  These techniques are not geared for debate. It is to overwhelm and change the target psyche.  Using these techniques information sources can be manipulated and those that write, speak, or think counter to the objective are relegated as propaganda, ill-informed, or irrelevant."  What if the strife, rumor, and clamor were part and parcel of an Inform and Influence Operation against Americans to determine the election outcome? Bear with me for a moment as I lay out the proofs. The quote above is from an early 2015 article with the practitioner showing what it could look like in the civilian world.  " What would we do? Disrupt, deny, degrade, deceive, corrupt, usurp or destroy the information. The information, please don't forget, is the ultimate objective of cyber. That will directly impact the decision-making process of the adversary's leader who is the ultimate target." – Joel Harding  IO or IIO (Inform and Influence Operations) as defined by the US Army includes the fields of psychological operations and military deception. All of this is used in the civilian world the same way by private contractors.  In this election, private contractors were hired to focus their capacity to influence the American population. This is proven and you deserve a step by step look at it if you are voting.  What Project Veritas shows is damning evidence of what I have been documenting in the emigre series articles since spring 2016.  By using mainstream media, they started an integrated approach which includes influencing their political opponent's decision making. Media is given messages that follow the same themes and fill the entire information space by using an across the board effort. The effort drowns out any other message.  According to the Observer, this has been happening throughout the election cycle to benefit Hillary Clinton. " Rather than informing voters to enrich democracy , the mainstream media has developed a feedback loop between support for particular candidates and the political agenda they intend to support. The freedom of the press is necessary for a democracy to function." The article further points out that it was the media that helped rig the primaries against Bernie Sanders.  Wikileaks has clearly shown the interplay between mainstream media and the Clinton campaign. And they have shown clearly that most of the mainstream media are working to influence the election . This goes beyond partisan electioneering. All of this follows the exact pattern, a well planned Information Operation against the American public .  As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton was also the Ex-Officio Board Member of the BBG . The BBG (Broadcasting Board of Governors) run RFE/RL (Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty). Most of the 8-member board, appointed by the President of the United States, are the who's who of powerful media moguls in film, news, print, and radio. Appointment to the BBG is like being awarded an ambassador position for the media industry. It's also why big media carries the same line or themes.  The 7th member of the board of directors which runs RFE/RL is Mathew Armstrong . He is a longtime friend and mentor to retired Brigadier general Joel Harding. He provides Harding a lot of access and influence in media. Armstrong's background is public relations. He is an expert in IO and IIO operations. His bio: Author, lecturer, and strategist on public diplomacy and international media . He has worked on traditional and emerging security issues with both civilian and military government agencies, news organizations, think tanks, and academia across several continents.  In what appears to be a conflict of interest, at least two BBG board members are working actively for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.  Karen Kornbluh is helping refine and to get Hillary Clinton's message out. " All of them are names to watch if Clinton wins — and key jobs at the FCC and other federal agencies are up for grabs."  According to her bio : Karen founded the New America Foundation's Work and Family Program and is a senior fellow for Digital Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. Karen has written extensively about technology policy, women, and family policy for The Atlantic , The New York Times and The Washington Post . New York Times columnist David Brooks cited her Democracy article "Families Valued," focused on "juggler families" as one of the best magazine articles of 2006.  Michael Kempner is the founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of MWW Group, a staunch Hillary Clinton supporter, and may get a greater role if she is elected . Kempner is a member of the Public Relations Hall of Fame. Michael Kempner hired Anthony Weiner after the sexting scandal broke in 2011.  Jeff Shell, chairman of the BBG and Universal Filmed Entertainment is supporting a secondary role by being an honor roll donor to the Atlantic Council . While the BBG is supposed to be neutral it has continuously helped increase tensions in Eastern Europe. While giving to the Atlantic Council may not be illegal while in his position, currently, the Atlantic Council's main effort is to ignite a war with Russia. This may set up a major conflict of interest.  According to journalist Robert Parry "The people that will be taking senior positions and especially in foreign policy believe "This consensus is driven by a broad-based backlash against a president who has repeatedly stressed the dangers of overreach and the need for restraint, especially in the Middle East."  Parry goes on to say that at the forefront of this is the Atlantic Council, a think tank associated with NATO. Their main goal is a major confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia.  The Atlantic Council is the think tank for the CEEC (Central and Eastern European Coalition) which is associated with NATO. The CEEC has only one goal. The question to candidates that mattered is "Are you willing to go to war with Russia?" Hillary Clinton has received their unqualified support throughout the campaign.  The Central and Eastern European Coalition represent the various Central and Eastern European countries to the US government. What makes them special in an election is that they control a 20 million person strong bloc vote in key states across the country and sway elections by themselves. The price of a Clinton win is war with Russia.  While the rest of the BBG board support Clinton's proposed policy of closing Syrian airspace, the CEEC wants it because it will mean direct conflict with Russia. Hillary Clinton's first foray into Islamic politics led to genocide and made the way for ISIS setting up training camps in Kosovo. Hillary Clinton has been friendly with jihadists for as long as she has had a national political career. According to US Special Forces on the ground in Syria training the moderates, there are NO moderates to train .  Green Berets are forced to train jihadis that they know will eventually attack us. Support our troops? Give them good, honorable missions. They deserve better, don't they?  As you go through the above links, the information is staggering. Shown are large groups of people strategically located in swing states that will do anything to get her elected. The question is why?  Politically, we have a two party system. If you say you are Republican, people have at least a general idea of what you mean. For Democrats, it's no different. There are different kinds of politics that fit easily under each umbrella. But the point is they are recognizable and we know where they stand on issues.  Tell me, what are OUNb beliefs? OUNb is a political party and set of beliefs just like Republican or Democrat. The reason I am asking is that you can't tell me. The odds are you haven't heard about it before. When the Atlantic Council or The Project for the New American Century takes all the senior positions in the Clinton White House, it will be filled with OUNb and similar political partisans for the first time without dissenting voices.  "Unity to act when required has been the diaspora's mantra – this cannot be disputed .  As time moves on, we see that things take a natural course. We see that two wings of the OUN – (OUNb)Banderivtsi and (OUNm)Melnykivtsi – are working actively on the international level, working in partnership and currently are in strong negotiations about becoming a single entity again."  The OUNb political party started under Stepan Bandera and their political beliefs are quite literally Nazi. In the 1930's they swore undying loyalty to Adolf Hitler and the Diaspora was directing Waffen SS battalions from America secretly even as other Ukrainian emigres were fighting them. The UCCA is the head of OUNb thought in America and now they want America to celebrate their totalitarian beliefs with them. If you disagree with totalitarian politics, you are the enemy. After a brief description of what kind of beliefs the people have from the Atlantic Council that are taking up cabinet positions, the proof it is happening now follows.  The OUNb were the SS that manned the concentration camps during the Holocaust. They successfully murdered 3 million war prisoners by starving them to death. The OUNb killed over 250,000 Jews, 500,000 Ukrainians, and committed the first Holocaust at Babi Yar. Today the UCCA is funding and running the volunteer battalions raping and killing in Donbass the same way.  They and the other emigre group leaders are also behind buying the media headlines and reach, damage control, and the Information Operation against Americans today. If you want to know what American politics will look like within a few years, look at Ukraine.  There are people who live abroad, who do not feel fully accepted as a minority, and here there is a phenomenon which I call long-distance nationalism. . .The members of the diaspora create for themselves an image of the home land, which is a stronger emotional investment than the country in which they live…One negative consequence of the diaspora experience is the emergence of what Ander-son calls non-responsible politics: diaspora participation in the politics in the country with which they identify can often be toxic, and their impact can be felt through the funding of particular political figures, nationalist propaganda, and even weapons…-Multiculturalism, memory, and ritualization: Ukrainian nationalist monuments in Edmonton, Alberta- Pers Anders Rudling  With the field day the Emigres and paid media had with Donald Trump over David Duke, they forgot to tell you that Ukrainian emigres supporting Hillary Clinton hired Duke in Ukraine as a professor of history and sent their American kids to learn there. Almost all Ukrainian politicians have been through this fascist education system known as MAUP . The Ukrainian American and other likeminded ethnics are the people that will fill the senior foreign and domestic cabinet positions.  " OUNb leader Ivan Kobasa also took responsibility of making sure the Ukrainian-Americans received the proper secondary education at Ukrainian nationalist schools(MAUP) in Ukraine. From the mid-2000's enrollment in this educational system has skyrocketed into the hundreds of thousands. Today almost all members of the current Ukrainian government are graduates of this ideological system that was taught to them by moderates like David Duke who is also a graduate of the MAUP system."  "I do care about social and economic issues affecting every American, but given the war in Ukraine, there is only one issue that we as Ukrainian Americans must focus on: Ukraine .  The Ukrainian issue "trumps" all other personal issues!  A vote for Trump is a vote against Ukraine!  When it comes to U.S. elections, Ukrainian Americans are a statistically minor, divided, unorganized voting group. The Central and East European Coalition is a coalition of U.S.-based organizations that represent their countries of heritage, a voting group of over 20 million people. The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America and the Ukrainian National Association are member organizations of the CEEC. Americans of East and Central European heritage can make a significant difference and influence the election result if their attention is focused." Ukraine Weekly The Presidential Election: Can We Make A Difference  Hillary Clinton's response is she will defend Ukraine's borders! Even though it has no eastern or northern border to defend. She has guaranteed to start a war with Russia if she is elected.  Not only is Clinton buying the media through these second parties, but they are hiring professional, former military psyops professionals to deny pertinent information from voters and disrupt her political opponents message. At the same time, they are paying an across the board mainstream media to simultaneously publish articles and video that lift her campaign up, disrupt, destroy, and drown out alternate messages.  Wikileaks noted this when it exposed the Clinton campaign's program to incite violence and obfuscate the point. The Huffington Post example of this is" Editor's note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar , rampant xenophobe , racist , misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S".  " We understand the Clinton camp has hired beaucoup and Zwanzig (a lot) of trolls, we also understand the Kremlin has done the same. We just do not know if Trump has followed suit. From a counterintelligence perspective, this is confusing as heck.  One of the really neat things about this election is seeing all my information operations and information warfare friends on social media, contributing and commenting, looking darned intelligent! Theirs is normally the voice of reason, maturity, and intelligence." Joel Harding  By systematically and continually attacking the voter's psyche, Americans are being treated in the same way our government treats countries they overthrow . The right to make an informed vote has been denied to support any particular candidate.  What does an Inform and Influence Operation entail against the American public? Read the following carefully. The term "anti-western" refers to anyone that disagrees with whom he is working for. In this case, he works for the Ukrainian Emigres. This also covers Syria. Every media outlet or journalist writing about these subjects that aren't carrying the line he lays out is the enemy. These are the tactics being used today during the election.  "I am building a database of planners , operators, logisticians, hackers, and anyone wanting to be involved with special activities I will call 'inform and influence activities'. I have received a few different suggestions to help organize operations – of all sorts – against anti-Western elements. No government approval, assistance or funding. This skirts legalities. This is not explicitly illegal and it may not even be legal, at this point. That grey area extends a long way. I am only trying to assess the availability of people willing to participate in such efforts. Technology, equipment and facility offers are also appreciated. If you would like to be included in my database, please send a tailored resume to joel_harding@"  If you don't think this is possible , this has been going on around you for a long time. look at the credentials of retired Brigadier General Joel Harding and decide for yourself. But first look at what he promises he can do for you when you hire him.  " Information operations and warfare, also known as influence operations, includes the collection of tactical, operational and strategic information about a competitor as well as the dissemination of information and propaganda in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an competitor or adversary in the corporate, government or military realm.  It is our job to maximize your advantages over your competitor while minimizing your competitor. We work on the national level down to the individual level. We seek to give you every advantage possible in order to advance your position, increase your reputation, and maximize your standing in your field."  " Bio- Joel Harding spent 26 years in the Army ; his first nine years were spent as an enlisted soldier, mostly in Special Forces, as an SF qualified communicator and medic, on an A-Team. After completing his degree, Joel then received his commission as an Infantry Officer and after four years transitioned to the Military Intelligence Corps.  In the mid 1990s, Joel was working in the Joint Staff J2 in support of special operations, where he began working in the new field called Information Operations. Eligible Receiver 1997 was his trial by fire, after that he became the Joint Staff J2 liaison for IO to the CIA, DIA, NSA, DISA and other assorted agencies in the Washington DC area, working as the intelligence lead on the Joint Staff IO Response Cell for Solar Sunrise and Moonlight Maze. Joel followed this by a tour at SOCCENT and then INSCOM, working in both IO and intelligence.  Specializing in Russian Information Warfare for the past 30+ months. Consultant, advisor and subject matter expert on Information Operations, Strategic Communication and Public Diplomacy with more than 19 years practical, policy in IO, SC and PD. 35 years experience in broader defense and national security matters. I have lectured all over the world about Information Warfare and Cyberwar and have spoken at numerous conferences. I am currently focusing on the Ukraine/Russia information war with a simultaneous heavy emphasis on the accompanying hybrid war. I currently teach classes about Russian Information Warfare and a second class on Propaganda/Agitprop. Specialties: Information Operations/Information Warfare, Public Diplomacy, Strategic Communication, Counter-Disinformation, Electronic Warfare, Deception, Operational Security, Cyberwar, Intelligence, Special Forces and Special Operations. Primary author Ukraine National Strategy for Information Policy, submitted in 2015 and again in 2016."  With his resume, no guess work is needed to understand how effective his friends are. Before going further, ask yourself if this is what elections are supposed to be?  As a litmus test take Hillary's name out and put down what is known just through Wikileaks in a list. Put McCain's name, Kucinich, Paul, Bush, and ask yourself would this be an acceptable candidate? Add what's been shown here. Is there an acceptable candidate?  If any of them would be acceptable, sorry like many others you drank the kool-aid already.  " I've seen how our heroes, activists , journalists, and celebrities have completely sold their souls to support something no person with an iota of morality would do. I've seen them say and do things to derail candidates who would have been a million times better for those less fortunate around us. It's unfortunate most pretend to fight the establishment, to act like they love the people more than they love the struggle and the relevance that it brings them. I am not one of those and I won't continue to be until the good Lord takes me." Cesar Vargas  Hillary Clinton is not a Nazi. But every position of relevance will be filled with people that really are political Nazis. They are technically integral nationalists. They look down on democracy in any form. At least now you know what kind of government you are voting for.  Regardless of who wins, there are 2000 tanks, artillery, and rockets pointed my way, waiting for this election to be over. I am an American that lives in Donbass, and wrote many of the early breaking stories and much of the background about the conflict in Ukraine.  If you cannot objectively look and see a more sophisticated version of what happened here through 2014 is going on, I can't help you. Soon the OUNb will order the volunteer battalions to start killing civilians on a large scale again. I will go back to reporting on the war.  If all these things weren't being done, I would keep it simply about policy. Russia is not an enemy of the United States. Instead, I believe I am witnessing a quiet coup that demands legality in America.  If this Information Operation is allowed to win the 2016 presidency, then elections are fruitless. Every other election will be based on the same strategy. They will have to be for any candidate to win.  Your voice, your views, your informed choice will no longer matter. The IIO practitioner kills dissent. That's their job. They're only doing their job.  The Essential Saker: from the trenches of the emerging multipolar world $27.95


Trump has been on a 48-hour freak out with the hosts of MSNBC s Morning Joe and his clear incoherence has everyone from mental health experts to average Americans once again concerned that the president is seriously mentally ill. The evidence that our president is indeed mentally unfit for office is circumstantial but persuasive and Trump keeps digging the hole deeper.Most people would agree that a man who can t stop himself from fabricating a rumor of a bleeding facelift to publicly attack the host of a cable show he doesn t like is unfit for office. In normal times, that alone would be grounds for invoking the 25th Amendment s clause on the president s mental capacity. For Trump, that s only the tip of the iceberg, the latest in a seemingly unending string of incidents that should raise serious concerns.The White House seems to be painfully aware that the questions swirling around his stability are undermining the credibility of his role as president. Consequently, and for the first time in U.S. history, the White House has to run with the narrative that you cannot question the president s mental health. Trump is sane because they say he is sane and shut up about it.Just hours after Trump got into a public fight with the hosts of Morning Joe on Twitter while he watched the show live, Kellyanne Conway went on ABC s Good Morning America to say it was unpatriotic to ever question whether Trump has lost his mind. Even while he continues to provide evidence that he has had some sort of mental breakdown.After summarizing an (incomplete) list of the things Trump has been called online, Kellyanne said: It doesn t help the American people to have a president covered in this light. I m sorry. It s neither productive nor patriotic. The toxicity is over the top. In short, Kellyanne wants us to believe Trump is the victim in all of this. Meanwhile, he continues to play the part of the bully.Worth remembering: Trump s favorite network, Fox News, once aired Glenn Beck claiming Obama hated white people. Its star anchor, Sean Hannity, repeatedly accused Obama of being a pathological narcissist. And its resident mental health expert, repeatedly diagnosed both Barack and Michelle Obama with various pathologies, including once saying Michelle needed to lose weight. None of that irrational hatred or vitriol caused Obama to live-tweet a rant about Fox News hosts or personally smear them on social media.But then, Obama wasn t mentally ill, so why would he?


Russia has suspended its diplomatic presence in Yemen and all its staff have left the country due to the situation in the capital Sanaa, the RIA news agency cited Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying on Tuesday. The Russian ambassador to Yemen and some diplomatic staff will be working temporarily out of the Saudi capital Riyadh, the Interfax news agency cited the ministry as saying. Yemen s conflict, pitting the Houthi movement against a Saudi-led military alliance which backs a government based in the south, has unleashed what the United Nations calls the world s worst humanitarian crisis. A Russian plane evacuated embassy staff and some Russian nationals from Sanaa earlier on Tuesday, Saudi state news agency SPA said, citing the Saudi-led military coalition fighting against the Houthi movement that controls the Yemeni capital. The agency quoted an official source in the coalition as saying it had received a request for permission for a Russian plane to evacuate the personnel, and that the plane had left Sanaa airport.


Gaza s merchants and consumers are reaping early rewards from reconciliation moves by the enclave s dominant Hamas Islamists and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA). Israeli border restrictions, including a nearly blanket ban on exports from Gaza, and three wars since 2008 have imposed severe hardship in the territory. Israel says its rules are driven by security concerns, accusing Hamas of having used imported material to build weapons including rockets that have been fired at its cities. Since Hamas ceded Gaza s border crossings with Israel - the main gateway for commercial imports - to the Authority on Nov 1 under an Egyptian-brokered unity deal, many prices in the territory have dropped. The main reason for the decrease: the Authority has canceled surcharges, sometimes as high as 25 percent, that Hamas collected in cash from merchants in Gaza. Businesses, in turn, have passed on some of those savings to customers: a 2017 Kia Picanto compact car, for example, now sells for $20,000 instead of $22,500, and a kilo of beef costs 40 shekels ($11), down from 50 ($15). And this week, the PA, which takes its own tax in an arrangement agreed with Israel, allowed the import of cigarettes costing eight shekels a pack compared with the usual 21 shekels for other brands, through Israel s Kerem Shalom commercial crossing for the first time. Cigarettes used to come in only via smuggling tunnels under the Egyptian border but the PA is seeking understandings with Hamas and Cairo to choke off that channel. (Hamas s fees) led to a weakening of sales power because the people in Gaza live under bad economic conditions and because of the Israeli blockade and the loss of jobs, said Tareq Al-Saqqa, who owns an electrical goods company in Gaza, where unemployment tops 40 percent. Citing security concerns, Israel and Egypt maintain tight restrictions at their Gaza borders. Hamas, regarded by the West as a terrorist group, seized the enclave in fighting in 2007 against forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israel s limits on Gaza s import of so-called dual use material, such as steel and cement, that it fears could be used by Hamas to make weapons or fortifications are unlikely to change soon. But hundreds of truckloads of food and a wide variety of consumer goods move into Gaza daily via Israel. Hamas, which handed administrative control of Gaza to the Authority under the reconciliation agreement signed in Cairo on Oct. 12, has spurned Israel s demand it disarm. Israel said it would deal with the new administration in Gaza but in the way that would not allow Hamas and other factions to develop their military capabilities, which means it will continue to ban essential materials, said Mohammad Abu Jayyab, a Gaza economist. He and other local economic experts cautioned against any hopes of a rapid revival of Gaza s economy unless Israel s restrictions were fully removed. Responsibility for security in still an open issue in Gaza, where Hamas, which is still policing the territory, has what analysts say are at least 25,000 well-equipped fighters. Further unity talks are scheduled for Nov. 21 in Cairo. Keeping pressure on Hamas, Abbas has yet to lift economic sanctions he imposed in Gaza in June that included a cut in salaries the Authority paid to 60,000 civil servants. Abbas recently sent nearly 15,000 of them into early retirement. (This version of the story corrects spelling of surname, paragraph 12)


Turkish police have detained 17 people as part of an investigation related to gold trader Reza Zarrab, who is cooperating with prosecutors in a U.S. trial, state-run Anadolu news agency said on Tuesday. Police detained three of Zarrab s employees on suspicion of delivering documents from the network of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen to U.S. prosecutors, Anadolu said. Ankara says U.S. prosecutors have based their case on documents fabricated by Gulen s followers, who it also blames for orchestrating last year s failed coup in Turkey. Zarrab, a Turkish and Iranian national, has pleaded guilty to charges that he schemed to help Iran evade U.S. sanctions, and is testifying for U.S. prosecutors against an executive from a Turkish state-owned bank for related charges. The executive has pleaded innocent and the bank has said all of its transactions complied with international regulations. The case has strained ties between the United States and Turkey, both members of the NATO military alliance. It has infuriated President Tayyip Erdogan, who has cast the trial as an attempt to undermine Turkey and its economy. It is right that there is a plot allegation in the trial s indictment, but it is a plot against Turkey, not against the United States, Erdogan told members of his ruling AK Party in parliament. This trial is an international coup attempt, a process at the center of which is FETO, he said, using the Turkish government s term for Gulen s network. Gulen, who has lived in the United States since 1999, has denied charges he was behind the coup, and condemned the military intervention. Police searched the houses of the three employees and found electronic copies of documents, Anadolu said. It said fourteen more people had been detained as part of the investigation. No one was immediately available for comment at Istanbul police headquarters. Last week the Istanbul prosecutor s office decided to seize the assets of Zarrab and those of his acquaintances as part of the investigation, Anadolu reported.


Humans Are Free The Pacific Ocean — in fact almost one-third of the Globe — is thought to have been contaminated from the leak out from the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), seeking to promote the peaceful use of Nuclear Power , in 2011 established with the Regional Cooperative Agreement (RCA) Member States, a joint IAEA Technical Cooperation (TC) project in the region of the Pacific Ocean.  It was established after the Fukushima disaster when a tsunami caused by a major earthquake on 11 March 2011, disabled the power supply and cooling of three Fukushima Daiichi reactors, causing a nuclear accident.  As a result, a large quantity of radioactive material was admitted into the Pacific Ocean. A field study found that two filter cartridges were coated, which showed elements of cesium, a radioactive substance.  Of no surprise, this caused great concern to countries based around the Pacific Ocean due to the potential economic and environmental implications. The TC project's aim was therefore, to monitor the presence of radioactive substances in the marine environment.  The first annual review meeting held in August 2012 demonstrated predictive hydrodynamic models and they predicted that the strong current, known as the Kuroshio Current and its extension, had the ability to transport the radioactive substances across the Pacific Ocean in an easterly direction.  However, the concentration of radioactivity was not as high as originally thought.  The massive expansion of ocean had diluted it substantially so radioactivity remained at low levels but there was still concern over contamination of seafood even at these low levels.  The marine monitoring project was therefore, established to ensure that the seafood of the region was safe for consumption and to maintain a comprehensive overview and full facts of the situation, considering its grave implications. Documents Say Navy Knew #Fukushima Dangerously Contaminated the USS Reagan: http://t.co/hUomqT92e2  — trutherbotred (@trutherbotred) July 9, 2015  The TC is due to conclude this year. A few results have caused concern.  A field study they conducted on 2 July 2014, revealed from two sets of seawater samples, found that two filter cartridges were coated, which showed elements of cesium, a radioactive substance.  Then recently, trace amounts of cesium-134 and cesium-137 turned up in samples collected near Vancouver Island in British Columbia .  The samples collected were separate from the monitoring project set up by IAEA but it is thought the only possible source of these radioactive elements is Fukushima, according to the Integrated Fukushima Ocean Radionuclide Monitoring (InFORM) Network.  This is the first time that traces of cesium-134 had been detected near North America.  While these are trace amounts, the danger of radioactive material in any amount cannot be underestimated. However, the experts say that these levels detected cannot really harm us, they are still lower than those we could be exposed to from a dental x-ray for instance.  Having said that, every possible exposure, in any small amount, adds up. The problem with nuclear energy and fallout, the radiation and radioactive materials can travel far and wide with the wind and with the sea.  Therefore, we should aim on a global level to keep these levels at zero. In any event the continuous monitoring of oceans will need to be conducted, according to Ken Buesseler, a marine chemist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute .  What Buesseler says should be taken on board beyond 2015, particularly since the advice from the IAEA is to dump even more contaminated water into the sea. This is apparently more desirable than holding it in tanks.  Any discharge will have to be controlled and continuous monitoring would be needed, in particular near the plant to improve data reliability.  This is causing concern and not just to state authorities. Consider the fishermen. Every time they catch fish in the ocean, the fish need to be tested for radioactivity.  Before any further dumping is done, the IAEA and Tokyo Electric Power Co., who control the plant, need to consider not only the environmental impact but socio-economic impact as well.  Livelihoods could be affected as well as long-term health of the region and global community eventually.


Just when you thought there was nothing Barack Hussein Obama could do to shock you this Christian pastor s story is revealed. How much money does an American who spends 3 1/2 years in an Iranian prison leave with? Enough for a one-way ticket home to the U.S?Iranian president Hassan Rouhani spoke before the United Nations General Assembly Thursday despite protests from Iranian-Americans who feel Iran s human rights situation has worsened after sanctions were modified earlier this year.Pastor Saeed Abedini, one of four American hostages released from Iran in January, shared his disbelief of Rouhani s annual speech during an interview with FOX Business Network s Trish Regan. I was just telling people that imagine leader of ISIS come to the United States after 30 years of all the executions that they did and leaders of the world shaking his hand. It s unbelievable, Abedini said.Iranian-American Pastor Saeed Abedini, who spent three-and-a-half years in Iranian prisons before being released in January, claims that the United States government wouldn t pay for a return flight home even though his family faced serious financial issues.Abedini said he and other hostages were left to fend for themselves after flying from Iran to Germany when they were released after the Obama Administration s $400 million payment to Iran.The United States sent Iran $400 million in debt plus $1.3 billion in interest, and the money was disbursed as a ransom payment for four American hostages of the Islamic regime, a top Iranian commander said Wednesday afternoon. Therefore, the U.S. paid the Iranian regime $425 million dollars per American hostage, according to the commander.After spending a few days in a hospital in Germany, Adedini was surprised to hear that he needed to buy his own plane ticket home. We were actually all shocked because I came out; I just had prison clothes and [they] just told us you need to buy your own ticket. Abedini said he was physically and psychologically tortured in the Iranian prison to the point where his stomach was bleeding for months from all the beatings. The whole last three to five years that I was there, it was just torturing, it was so hard, Abiding said.


The White House said it supports legislation, aimed at helping Puerto Rico dig out of its $70 billion debt crisis, that is set for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday. However, the Obama administration does oppose provisions in the bill "on minimum wage and overtime that put in jeopardy important protections for workers, do nothing to address the crisis, and further exacerbate the economic disparities between Puerto Rico and the mainland United States," the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement.


CNN host Anderson Cooper apologized for a crude remark directed at President Trump supporter Jeffrey Lord during his show on Friday, calling his comment unprofessional. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, THE VIDEO IS BELOW THIS VIDEO OF THE APOLOGY.BTW, here's @anderscooper's on air apology for what he said were "crude" comments@realJeffreyLord still having a laugh about it pic.twitter.com/1gWuHqLPjY Salvador Hernandez (@SalHernandez) May 20, 2017 During a segment on AC360, Cooper verbally sparred with Lord, a CNN political commentator, over revelations that Trump reportedly told Russian officials that former FBI Director James Comey is a nut job who was adding pressure to the ongoing investigation of possible interference in the 2016 election. Clearly frustrated with Lord s response to the matter, Cooper interrupted the conservative pundit and interjected with a not-so-subtle jab. If he took a dump on his desk, you would defend it, Cooper told Lord. I don t know what he would do that you would not defend. IN CASE YOU MISSED THIS HORRIBLE TV MOMENT:"If he took a dump on his desk you would defend it." @andersoncooper what? pic.twitter.com/nD8ZfZKtVN Salvador Hernandez (@SalHernandez) May 20, 2017 First it was the childish eye roll to Kellyanne Conway and now it s potty humor How professional!


Pope Francis issued a stinging new critique of the Vatican s top administration on Thursday, saying traitors stood in the way of his reforms and made any change as hard as cleaning Egypt s Sphinx with a toothbrush . For the fourth year running, Francis used his annual Christmas greetings to the Roman Catholic Church s central bureaucracy, or Curia, to lecture the assembled cardinals, bishops and other department heads on the need for change. Reforming Rome is like cleaning the Sphinx of Egypt with a toothbrush, he said, quoting a 19th-century Belgian churchman. The phrase did not evoke much laughter when the pope read it in the frescoed Clementina Hall of the Vatican s Apostolic Palace. Since his election as the first Latin American pope in 2013, Francis has been trying to reform the Italian-dominated Curia to bring the Church s hierarchy closer to its members, to enact financial reforms and guide it out of scandals that marked the pontificate of his predecessor, former Pope Benedict. But he has encountered resistance, particularly as some departments have been closed, merged or streamlined. Francis said some in the bureaucracy - the nerve center of the 1.2-billion-member Church and whose members are entrusted with carrying out the pope s decisions - were part of cliques and plots . Francis called this unbalanced and degenerate and a cancer that leads to a self-referential attitude . In his address on Thursday, he spoke of those traitors of trust who had been entrusted with carrying out reforms but let themselves be corrupted by ambition and vainglory. When they are quietly let go, he said, they erroneously declare themselves to be martyrs of the system ... instead of reciting a mea culpa (Latin for my fault ). Francis did not cite any specific examples. Last June the Vatican s first auditor general resigned suddenly. He later said he was forced to step down because he had discovered irregularities but the Vatican said he had been spying on his superiors. Earlier this month, the Vatican bank s deputy director was fired under circumstances that have not been explained. In July, in a major shake-up of the Vatican administration, Francis replaced Catholicism s top theologian, a conservative German cardinal who has been at odds with the pontiff s vision of a more inclusive Church. Francis said the overwhelming majority of Curia members were faithful, competent and some saintly. Later, in a separate meeting with lay Vatican employees and their families, Francis asked forgiveness for the failings of some Church officials. He spoke hours before the funeral of Cardinal Bernard Law, the ex-Archbishop of Boston who resigned in disgrace after covering up years of sexual abuse of children by priests and whose name became a byword for scandal in the Catholic Church.


Senate Republicans announced plans to vote next week on their latest bid to scuttle Obamacare even as a popular comedian who has become part of the U.S. healthcare debate denounced the bill and former President Barack Obama on Wednesday warned of "real human suffering." President Donald Trump, who has expressed frustration at the Senate's failure thus far to pass legislation dismantling Obama's signature legislative achievement, said "47 or 48" Republicans back the bill, which needs 50 votes for passage in the 100-seat Senate, which his Republican Party controls 52-48. "We think this has a very good chance," Trump, who made replacing Obamacare a top 2016 campaign promise, told reporters during an appearance with Egypt's president in New York. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul opposes the bill. At least five other Republicans are undecided on it: Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, John McCain of Arizona and Jerry Moran of Kansas. Republican Senator John Thune on Fox News said: "We're a handful of votes short of having the 50 that we need." As they worked to gather enough votes to win, after prior legislation failed in July, congressional Republicans and the White House were on the defensive after Jimmy Kimmel used his late-night TV show to blast the proposal and call Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, one of its two sponsors, a liar. "This guy, Bill Cassidy, just lied right to my face," Kimmel said on his show on Tuesday night, referring to the senator who since May had touted a "Jimmy Kimmel test" of standards any Obamacare replacement would need to possess. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who was noncommittal on Tuesday about scheduling a vote, now intends to bring it to the Senate floor next week, said his spokesman David Popp. Republicans are using the measure Cassidy is sponsoring with fellow Senator Lindsey Graham to make one last push this year to pass legislation to roll back the 2010 Obamacare law, a goal of theirs for seven years, facing a Sept. 30 deadline. Avalere Health, a healthcare consultancy to hospitals and insurers, forecast that the bill would slash federal funding to states by $215 billion through 2026, with 34 states facing cuts. Hit hard would be Democratic-governed California and New York, which expanded the Medicaid insurance program for the poor and disabled under Obamacare, while Republican-governed Texas, which did not expand Medicaid, would be a winner, Avalere said. It remained unclear if the bill, opposed by Democrats and top medical groups and hospitals, can attract the 50 votes needed for passage, with Vice President Mike Pence ready to cast a tie-breaking vote. In a speech in New York, Obama defended the Affordable Care Act, known informally as Obamacare, which expanded medical insurance to 20 million Americans. "So when I see people trying to undo that hard-won progress for the 50th or 60th time, with bills that would raise costs or reduce coverage or roll back protections for older Americans or people with pre-existing conditions ... it is aggravating," the Democratic former president said. "And it's certainly frustrating to have to mobilize every couple of months to keep our leaders from inflicting real human suffering on our constituents." Cassidy defended his bill, which would divvy up healthcare money as block grants to states, let them opt out of some Obamacare consumer protections and waive requirements that insurers cover certain benefits. It also would end Obamacare's Medicaid expansion. Kimmel entered the healthcare debate after revealing on his show in May that his newborn son had undergone life-saving emergency surgery for a congenital heart condition, and pleaded that no family be denied medical care because they cannot afford it. Cassidy appeared that month on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" "He said he would only support a healthcare bill that made sure a child like mine would get the health coverage he needs no matter how much money his parents make," Kimmel said on Tuesday. "Stop using my name, OK? Because I don't want my name on it. There's a new 'Jimmy Kimmel test' for you. It's called the lie detector test. You're welcome to stop by the studio and take it any time," he said to cheers from his audience. Cassidy, a gastroenterologist who represents Louisiana, gave a measured response to Kimmel's remarks, telling reporters on Capitol Hill, "It was a personal attack and I can't help that." Graham blasted the comedian. "I bet he looked at some liberal talking point, bought it hook, line and sinker, and went after Bill Cassidy without talking to him. And I think that's unfair," Graham said on Fox News Channel's "Fox & Friends" show. Cassidy said his proposal would protect people who are already ill, although it does let states waive an Obamacare mandate that insurers cannot charge people who have pre-existing medical conditions more than those who are healthy. "There is a specific provision that says that if a state applies for a waiver, it must ensure that those with pre-existing conditions have affordable and adequate coverage," Cassidy told CNN. Trump, in a tweet late on Wednesday, said he would not sign the bill if it did not include coverage of pre-existing conditions. "It does! A great bill," Trump said.


President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday picked Reince Priebus, a Washington insider who heads the Republican National Committee, as White House chief of staff, signaling a willingness to work with Congress to advance his agenda when he takes office in January. But while giving the influential post to the low-key Priebus, Trump handed another senior White House job to rabble-rousing conservative media figure Stephen Bannon, his campaign chairman who helped engineer his surprise victory on Tuesday over Democrat Hillary Clinton. Priebus is a friend of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, who distanced himself from Trump during the campaign but embodies the Republican establishment in Washington and will play a critical role in shepherding Trump's agenda in Congress. Both Priebus and Ryan are from Wisconsin. But Bannon, former head of the right-wing Breitbart News website, has been fiercely critical of Ryan. Trump's statement announcing the appointments said Bannon and Priebus would be "working as equal partners to transform the federal government," with Bannon serving as chief strategist and senior counselor to the president. The White House chief of staff serves as a gatekeeper and agenda-setter for the president, but Trump's statement mentioned Bannon's job first. "I am thrilled to have my very successful team continue with me in leading our country," Trump said in a statement. "Steve and Reince are highly qualified leaders who worked well together on our campaign and led us to a historic victory. Now I will have them both with me in the White House." Before joining Trump's team, Bannon spearheaded Breitbart's shift into a forum for the "alt-right," a loose online confederation of neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semitics. Bannon's hiring by Trump's campaign this year signaled the businessman's dedication to operating outside the norms of Washington. Under Bannon's leadership, the Breitbart site presented a number of conspiracy theories about Clinton as well as Republicans deemed to be lacking in conservative bona fides. Critics have accused Bannon of harboring anti-Semitic and white nationalist sentiments. In a 2007 court filing during divorce proceedings, Bannon's former wife accused him of making anti-Semitic comments on at least three occasions. As head of Breitbart, he repeatedly attacked the Republican Party establishment including Ryan, alienating many veteran Republicans. Bannon showed his willingness to engage in brutal political tactics when he instigated the appearance before a presidential debate of three women who said they had been sexually abused by his Democratic rival's husband, former President Bill Clinton. Trump, who will succeed Democratic President Barack Obama on Jan. 20, has been contemplating the candidates for top jobs in the White House and in various Cabinet positions since Tuesday's victory. Priebus' appointment could anger some hardline Trump supporters who were counting on Trump to keep his campaign promise to "drain the swamp" of business-as-usual Washington insiders. Priebus is a longtime Wisconsin political operative who was credited with marshaling party resources for Trump's White House bid. The Republican National Committee stepped in and ran most of the party's get-out-the-vote effort this year in the absence of such an operation by the Trump campaign. While some Republicans fled from Trump during the campaign, Priebus was unwavering in his backing for the New York real estate developer. Priebus frequently traveled with Trump on the campaign trail and was seen as a positive force who helped rein in the unpredictable Trump in the closing weeks. Trump made his high regard for Priebus known on election night when he pulled him to the microphone to take a bow for his campaign efforts. Trump and his advisers already have hedged on some of his major campaign promises, including on immigration, healthcare and appointing a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton. Trump, in an interview that aired on Sunday, backed away from his promise to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border, saying some areas could instead be "fencing." Trump, whose pledge to force Mexico to pay for a border wall was a centerpiece of his White House, said in "certain areas" he would accept fencing instead of a brick-and-mortar wall, according to his interview with the CBS program "60 Minutes." "But certain areas, a wall is more appropriate. I'm very good at this, it's called construction, there could be some fencing," he said. In the "60 Minutes" interview, Trump said Americans alarmed by his election had nothing to fear. "Don't be afraid. We are going to bring our country back. But certainly, don't be afraid," he said. Demonstrators in major U.S. cities took to the streets on Sunday for a fifth straight day to protest against Trump. Trump said in the interview that once he takes office, he would remove immigrants with criminal records who are in the country illegally. During the campaign, Trump said he would deport the estimated 11 million immigrants in the country illegally, most of whom are Hispanic. Ryan on Sunday backed away from Trump's promise during the campaign of a "deportation force" to round up and deport immigrants in the country illegally. "We are not planning on erecting a deportation force. Donald Trump's not planning on that," Ryan told CNN's "State of the Union" program. "I think we should put people's minds at ease. That is not what our focus is. That is not what we're focused on. We're focused on securing the border."


Local officials in Wisconsin will decide for themselves how to carry out a presidential election recount after a state judge on Tuesday rejected a lawsuit by former Green Party candidate Jill Stein to have the ballots counted by hand. A recount of Wisconsin's three million votes is set to begin on Thursday after Stein's campaign requested the audit and paid the state's $3.5-million filing fee, state election officials say. Dane County Circuit Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn ruled that Wisconsin's 72 county clerks will not be required to count ballots by hand as Stein requested in a lawsuit filed on Monday, Attorney General Brad Schimel said in a statement. Bailey-Rihn said Stein's lawsuit, backed by the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, fell short of Wisconsin's legal standard to ban use of ballot machines in a recount and failed to show enough evidence of fraud or other issues, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said. "I follow the law. That's who I am, despite my personal opinions," said Bailey-Rihn, the Journal reported. "It's (the counties') decision. It's their discretion. I may disagree with it … but I must follow the law." The ruling will not deter Stein's efforts, a lawyer for her campaign recount effort said, referring to the hand counting of ballots as the "gold standard." "We are calling on all counties to respect the will of Americans across the country and across the political spectrum, and follow the recommendation of the judge, and conduct a hand recount to ensure the accuracy, security, and integrity of this election," Matthew Brinckerhoff said in a statement. Stein has also sought a recount in Pennsylvania on Monday, just hours before the state's deadline, and her campaign said she would file a similar request in Michigan by its deadline on Wednesday. "Election integrity experts have independently identified Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as states where 'statistical anomalies' raised concerns," her campaign said on its website, seeking donations to pay for recount filing fees. Donald Trump's stunning victory in the presidential contest has unleashed talk of recounts, with the Republican president-elect contributing a surprise twist. On Sunday, Trump tweeted that "serious voter fraud" occurred in California, New Hampshire, and Virginia, states that Clinton won. All three states rejected Trump's claim, and the White House on Monday said there had been no evidence of widespread election fraud in the presidential contest. (This version of the story corrects the number of votes in paragraph 2)


This summer s box office numbers were the worst they ve been in over 25 years, and now this KNOCK, KNOCK! Who s there? Karma Adjustments might take a little of the sting out of the news that Sunday night s Emmy telecast was a ratings catastrophe, but any adjustment will only make the nightmare a little less nightmarish. Instead of being the lowest-watched Emmys in its 69-year history, Sunday night s telecast might be able to squeak into the second-lowest.As of now, though, it looks as though all that promised Trump-hating resulted in a record low, which is especially shocking (at least to bubbled Hollywood) because last year everyone was certain the bottom had been hit.Regardless, the die is cast. Last night was yet-another ratings flop for Hollywood s Beautiful People. As of now, it looks as though fewer than 11.3 million viewers tuned in to watch host Stephen Colbert s hate-fest. That would mean the 69th Emmy telecast had fewer viewers than last year s 68th, which currently holds the all-time low ratings record.What we do know for sure is that the 8.2 overnight rating is lower than 2016 s 8.4. Even in the coveted 18-49 age group, TVs Greatest Night flopped with a pathetic 2.8, which proves that even young people are tired of watching rich elites publicly work through their inability to come to terms with losing the 2016 presidential election.This news, of course, comes just days after the ratings for the MTV Awards hit their own record low.What has to be especially galling to Colbert and his fellow social justice glitter-warriors, is that in a country of 330 million, fewer than five percent tuned in, cared to watch even a minute of the show, was not in the least interested in their Big Thinks on issues n stuff, including President Trump who, despite the unrelenting hate campaigns from the media and Hollywood, still holds (if you believe the polls) a 40% approval rating. We all know it is higher, especially in the only states that matter.As Hollywood has gotten more political, more divisive, more bigoted towards Normal People, and more hateful, take a look at the nuclear fallout. America is more red, more Republican-led than at any time since Reconstruction. On every level, Democrats have been wiped out of electoral office. Breitbart NewsAnd the best part is President Donald J. Trump continues to live rent-free in these small-minded celebrities heads.


We Are Change  In the fourth undercover video from the guerilla journalists at James O'Keefe's Project Veritas, Democratic operative Robert Creamer claims to be on daily calls with the Clinton campaign — and accepts a foreign donation. In the newly released footage, Creamer admits to working directly for the Clinton campaign — overseeing Donald Trump events.  "I mean frankly I spend most of my time overseeing the Trump event rallies, I mean that's what I do for the Clinton campaign," Creamer states.  In previous video releases from Veritas, Democratic operatives reveal how they had been working to incite violence at Trump rallies, using a tactic called "bird-dogging." An operative also reveals to the undercover journalists their step-by-step voter fraud strategy.  The Clinton campaign originally denied working with Creamer and his firm, Democracy Partners. O'Keefe then released a video of Creamer stating that their "Donald Ducks" effort was at the request of the candidate herself.  "Every morning I am on a call at 10:30 that goes over the message being driven by the campaign headquarters … I am in this campaign mainly to deal with what earned media with television, radio, with earned media and social media, not with paid media, not with advertising," Creamer says in the latest video.  He also admits to working directly with Barack Obama, statements that are backed up by his 340 logged visits to the White House — where he met with Obama 45 times.  "I do a lot of work with the White House on their issues, helping to run issue campaigns that they have been involved in. I mean, for immigration reform for the… the health care bill, for trying to make America more like Britain when it comes to gun violence issues."  To gain access and trust, O'Keefe reveals that he had provided a $20,000 donation to the Americans for United for Change super PAC from Belize.  "The more money that was promised to Creamer, the more access Project Veritas Action journalists seemed to get," Project Veritas said in their release . Following the release of the first Veritas videos last week, the PAC suddenly returned the donation — stating that they were concerned it may have been illegal.  "In an unexpected twist, AUFC president Brad Woodhouse, the recipient of the $20,000, heard that Project Veritas Action was releasing undercover videos exposing AUFC's activities. He told a journalist that AUFC was going to return the twenty thousand dollars," Project Veritas explained. " He said it was because they were concerned that it might have been an illegal foreign donation. Project Veritas Action was pleased but wondered why that hadn't been a problem for the month that they had the money."  O'Keefe has filed a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission against both Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee based upon the shocking revelations that his team has uncovered.  During a rally in Gettysburg on Saturday, Trump promised that he would also be suing the DNC for inciting violence at his rallies, based on what he saw in the Project Veritas videos.  The post Another Project Veritas Bombshell: Pro-Clinton PAC Accepts Foreign Donations appeared first on We Are Change .


Newsweek s Kurt Eichenwald, who also serves as a senior editor at Vanity Fair and goes hard at conservatives in his reporting, is an avid Twitter user. He also has epilepsy, and some deplorable fuckwits have taken advantage of that and his Twitter presence to literally harm him they ve sent him tweets with strobe effects specifically intended to induce an epileptic seizure.What kind of a black-hearted animal does someone have to be to do something like this? It s not bad enough that these deplorables were threatening Eichenwald s kids following his on-air brouhaha with Fox News Tucker Carlson? They have to go after him and literally harm him?Epileptic seizures are not a joke. They can be very serious. And make no mistake, intentionally inducing a seizure in someone, especially as harassment, ought to be considered assault under the law if it isn t already. In fact, Eichenwald s wife took to Twitter on his account to call this jackass out on that:@jew_goldstein This is his wife, you caused a seizure. I have your information and have called the police to report the assault. Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016@jew_goldstein s account was suspended at the time of this writing, but that s a mere slap on the wrist for what they did.Another horribly sick thing here is all the responses to Ms. Eichenwald s tweet. Right-wing nutjobs clearly don t give a damn about what happened. Take a look at a sampling, if you can (this writer s heart is breaking):@kurteichenwald @jew_goldstein Yes, Police, I d like to report an assault by JEW GOLDSTEIN' AltRight_GOP (@WeDaGOPNow) December 16, 2016@WeDaGOPNow @Trump_a_right @jew_goldstein @kurteichenwald His tweets loud like a bomb I was traumatized TheRightStuff (@ThaRightStuff) December 16, 2016@ThaRightStuff @WeDaGOPNow @Trump_a_right @jew_goldstein @kurteichenwald finally someone is actually literally shaking Sally Baker (@SallyBakerCake) December 16, 2016@kurteichenwald @jew_goldstein BWAHAHAHAH THIS IS THE FUNNIEST AAAARRGH cough aaaaackkk ..DAMMIT NOW IM HAVING A SEIZURE! HELP! Alpha Mike Foxtrot (@AlphaMikeFox2) December 16, 2016@TrumpetyTrumpet @kurteichenwald @TuckerCarlson Can you lead with this tomorrow? Also, an explicit mention of the maestro, @jew_goldstein tx Bill Smith #7933 (@Trump_a_right) December 16, 2016The Dallas Morning News reported earlier that Eichenwald is taking a short break from Twitter, which is confirmed in his own tweetstorm over this incident. Eichenwald says that this specific tweet read, You deserve a seizure, in addition to containing the strobe video. His break from Twitter is for self-protection. His tweetstorm over this is below and contains a warning to anyone else who might consider doing this to him. Here s hoping there are actually consequences and he doesn t ever have to worry about this again.For self-protection, I am taking a short twitter break. I will be spending that time with my lawyers & law enforcement going after 1 of u Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016Last night, for the second time, a deplorable aware I have epilepsy tweeted a strobe at me with the message you deserve a seizure on it Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016 it worked. This is not going to happen again. My wife is terrified. I am disgusted. All I will be tweeting for the next few days are Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016 copies of documents from the litigation, police reports etc. Once we have the lawsuit filed, we will be subpoenaing Twitter for the Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016 identity of the individual who engaged in this cross-state assault. At this point, the police are attempting to determine if this is Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016 a federal crime because it appears to be cross state. This kind of assault will never happen again without huge consequences. This Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016 individual will be going to court, and he will be paying a price. And if any of you others ever try this again, I will make sure it Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016 happens to you. Online anonymity does not protect criminals. Thats why subpoenas exist. You are facing a criminal investigation and a Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016 lawsuit. So if any of you others think about trying this cute prank, consider the consequences. They will be severe. Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016Again, I will not be seeing your comments or tweeting for awhile except to upload copies of litigation and police documents. Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016Otherwise, I ll be back once it is clear from the paperwork i will be tweeting that this is not a joke. See you soon. Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016Featured image by Charles Eshelman via Getty Images


Last night at a rally in San Diego, California, actress Rosario Dawson gave the best introduction speech for Bernie Sanders since rapper Killer Mike introduced him in Atlanta several months ago. Ms. Dawson, who has appeared in movies such as Sin City, Clerks II, Death Proof, Grindhouse, and Men In Black II, ripped into the DNC and emphasized how important the stakes are in this presidential race. I am so happy that you re here, Ms. Dawson told the crowd of over 7,000 Bernie Sanders supporters. Unfortunately the mass media said, don t even bother, but I m glad you showed them what s up. Ms. Dawson is referring to the overwhelming lack of media coverage Bernie Sanders has received from mainstream media outlets compared to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. A report on the first eleven months of 2015 conducted by the Tyndall Report found Hillary Clinton received 113 minutes of coverage on CBS, ABC, and NBC nightly news broadcasts, with an additional 88 minutes dedicated to controversies surrounding her involvement in Benghazi and her private e-mail server as Secretary of State, which helped fuel her Democratic support base.In contrast, Senator Bernie Sanders received only ten minutes of coverage. While the mainstream media is partially to blame for the rise of Donald Trump as it has overwhelmingly focused on him so much that he doesn t even need to spend money on campaign marketing and advertising, they are also partially to blame for Hillary Clinton s victories with age demographics who receive the majority of their news from mainstream media (i.e. baby boomers). The youth has been on the right side of history on every issue. They talked about those hippie college kids when they were protesting against Vietnam. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who Bernie Sanders walked with, couldn t have done what he had done if it wasn t for high school students who said, I m not afraid to do a sit-in. They didn t listen to us when we said no on the bailout. They didn t talk about how beautiful and remarkable it was when people around the World marched for peace before the Iraq War, added Ms. Dawson.She concluded the Bernie Sanders movement isn t about Democrats versus Republicans, its about the 99 percent rising up and saying enough is enough to the one percent. The Democratic Party, we haven t left them, they left us. This is an opportunity to turn the tide and change history. Do we really want someone who condoned mass incarceration? Who thinks the death penalty is OK? Who hesitates on environmental injustices and issues? Who thinks that regime change is an idea for foreign policy? No. What we need is bold leadership from a great leader whose time has come. That leader is Senator Bernie Sanders. Featured image courtesy of Flickr


The Left has been organizing for decades, and George Soros has been funding them. From the chaos of Occupy Wall Street to Black Lives Matter, wherever there is chaos and anarchy in America, George Soros and the Democrat Party are usually behind it. There have been reports for several years of voter fraud efforts, in which it has been suggested that George Soros is involved. This is just another example of his involvement in a scheme to effect the results of our elections in America by using his vast global network A new campaign, touted as the October surprise that will end Trump , is seeking to mobilise a secret swing state of more than 8 million mostly unregistered global citizens and progressive Americans living abroad to vote in the U.S. election.The 8 million Americans abroad almost never vote. This dead easy tool can fix that but only if we make it famous: https://t.co/z4l7lekdub Avaaz (@Avaaz) September 13, 2016The initiative was launched in London in the United Kingdom on Wednesday by Avaaz , a registered U.S. charity and one the world s largest and most powerful activist groups linked to globalist billionaire George Soros. Campaigners toured from the University College London down to Parliament blasting Bruce Springsteen s Born in the USA while chanting Don t Vote Trump from an open top bus.While illegal for registered U.S. charities to work with or for presidential candidates, a spokeswoman for Avaaz denied any connection to the Hillary campaign when quizzed. Campaigners with Avaaz however, were recorded shouting, Vote for Hillary! during the demonstration.A huge 88 per cent of Americans living abroad did not register to vote in the last presidential election, and Avaaz points out that this massive untapped voting block is much more likely to be progressive because 56 per cent of us [in the UK] have masters degrees and overwhelmingly donated to Democratic candidates in the last three presidential primaries.Does anybody really believe this get out the vote effort is to register LEGAL American citizens? This effort has fraud written all over it. And with only a little over a month to go before our general election, where is the manpower to pour through all of these new incoming registrations going to come from? If I didn t know better, I d think George Soros and Hillary planned to to overwhelm our system with last minute foreign votes that can t be properly vetted before the election kinda like their Muslim refugees The view for the top of the @Avaaz Stop Trump battle bus in London. American music, balloons, flags & chanting @LBC pic.twitter.com/slsTFdQti3 Rachael Venables (@rachaelvenables) September 21, 2016 Avaaz has created the world s first, global, citizen s get-out-the-vote drive , Ms. Alexander added. The more people that share it on Facebook, the more Americans abroad will see it, and the more we will be able to stop the global threat of Trump .The group chose London for the launch as the UK has the largest concentration of US expats outside of North America , and at the event several Americans registered to vote before the media to prove how easy it is with Avaaz s new tool. For months, the world has sat on the sidelines, horrified by Trump s hate. Now, global citizens have a way to fight back , Emma Ruby-Sachs, Deputy Director of Avaaz added.The charity s website encourages people to email potential U.S. voters in other countries, giving them a template that reads: 8 million Americans abroad could defeat Trump if they vote! I wanted to make sure you saw this new overseas registration tool that makes voting dead-easy. It literally takes a few minutes :) .Their efforts don t stop in the UK, they are also putting out a call to Mexicans to register to vote. Who will be checking the validity of millions of votes coming in at the last minute? From their register to vote for Hillary campaign in Mexico:1 million Americans in Mexico can stop #Trump's wall! #GringosAVotar campaign kicks off Sun 9/25 in Mexico City: https://t.co/Q68FjjJk7d pic.twitter.com/6tv7CES8Cy Avaaz (@Avaaz) September 21, 2016ENGLISH:Over 1 million US citizens live in Mexico, and their participation in this election is key to stopping Trump and his beautiful wall. This Sunday we re meeting at the Angel de la Independencia on Paseo de la Roma, in the heart of Mexico City, to spread the word and register US voters on site.There will be music, great people, and media. Come take a picture of yourself in front of a massive artistic model of Trump s wall to say: #GringosAVotar united against Trump! RSVP and share widely with friends.If you are a US passport holder and want to register to vote there on site, make sure to bring a scanned copy of your passport with you. US voters in Mexico can also register directly here: www.avaaz.org/GringosAVotarSomething tells me if Johnny Cash were alive today, he would not approve of these clowns using his music to promote the destruction of America in a foreign land:


(Want to get this briefing by email? Here's the .) Good evening. Here's the latest. 1. Floodwaters have begun to recede in Louisiana, where at least 13 people are dead, tens of thousands more have been displaced and 40, 000 homes are damaged. These photos and maps show the scale of the disaster. Emergency officials and ordinary citizens are going to offer help, 1, 000 Red Cross workers joined aid efforts and shelters were packed. "The sheltering effort is actually greater than what we saw for Hurricane Katrina," a local official near Baton Rouge said. _____ 2. Donald Trump shook up his campaign with moves that suggest he intends to stick with his aggressive style. He brought in a combative media executive as campaign manager: Stephen Bannon, from the conservative website Breitbart News. Paul Manafort, whose efforts to shift Mr. Trump to a more presidential tone were hobbled by concerns over his own business dealings in Ukraine, retains the title of campaign chairman. Mr. Trump also received his first classified briefing, at the F. B. I. 's Manhattan field office and held his own national security roundtable, above, at Trump Tower. _____ 3. Hillary Clinton flew to Cleveland to offer a granular critique of Mr. Trump's tax policies and promised to shift more of the tax burden upward. "We're going to tax the wealthy who have made all of the income gains in the last 15 years," she said. "The corporations, Wall Street, they're going to have to invest in education, in skills training, in infrastructure. " Our election model currently gauges Mrs. Clinton's likelihood of winning at 88 percent to Mr. Trump's 12 percent. _____ 4. U. S. intelligence agencies are scrambling to determine if the National Security Agency was hacked, after code used to break into foreign systems showed up on websites this week. Edward Snowden tweeted from exile in Moscow that Russia was a likely suspect, and that the disclosures might be intended to "influence the calculus of wondering how sharply to respond to the DNC hacks. " Here's what we know about the cyberattacks on Democratic officials. _____ 5. At the Rio Olympics, the host country, Brazil, goes for a fourth gold tonight (11 p. m. Eastern, NBC) with the beach volleyball team above, pictured after beating the U. S. in the semifinal. The U. S. women's water polo team advanced to the final after beating Hungary. Check out our interactive on just how brutal the sport can be. The Brazilian authorities found evidence contradicting parts of Ryan Lochte's account of a gunpoint robbery and pulled two U. S. swimmers, Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz, off their flights home. Mr. Lochte had already left the country. And several boxing referees and judges were barred from Olympic service a day after an Irish bantamweight, Michael Conlan, raged over losing a fight that he, and the crowd, thought he had won. _____ 6. France's battle over the burkini swept in a top government official. Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the swimsuit worn by Muslim women reflected the "enslavement of women. " But Muslim women, reacting to bans by several mayors, have complained to community groups that they are being singled out, and their choice of swimwear is now a dividing line in France's increasingly fraught relationship with its Muslim population, Europe's largest. France, with its determinedly secular government, already bans veils in public and headscarves in schools. _____ 7. A team of researchers at the University of Chicago cast light on one of the big puzzles in evolution. They found a surprising biological link between the fin and the human hand, in the form of genes that tell a clump of embryonic cells to end up at the far end of an appendage. "Honestly, you could have knocked me over with a feather," one scientist said. _____ 8. A wildfire near San Bernardino, Calif. "hit hard, it hit fast, it hit with an intensity that we haven't seen before," the county fire chief said. High winds, high temperatures and low humidity in the state's fifth year of drought drove the flames to flare from five acres to 30, 000 in less than 24 hours. Officials ordered the evacuation of about 82, 000 residents in an estimated 34, 500 homes. Experts say wildfires are getting bigger and more destructive. _____ 9. The latest headlines about "The Birth of a Nation," the slavery revolt film due in 1, 500 theaters on Oct. 7, are not about its chances to prevent another #OscarsSoWhite debacle. Instead, the attention is on details of a rape case involving Nate Parker, the film's writer, director and star. Vitriol has poured out on social media, and in Los Angeles, promotional posters of Mr. Parker as Nat Turner were altered to read, "Rapist?" _____ 10. Michelangelo's David is having joint trouble. More specifically, his ankles have become riddled with cracks, leaving the masterpiece at risk of collapse in the eventuality of a serious earthquake — a real possibility in Florence. In one of our most popular stories today, our magazine writer, mulling over his long obsession with the statue and the concept of perfection, notes that Italy has stalled on the known solution: an antiseismic base. _____ 11. Finally, Americans, especially those avoiding gluten, are increasingly turning to ancient grains like quinoa, amaranth and millet. Now there's a surge of interest in teff, a staple for Ethiopia's legendary distance runners. It is high in protein and iron, has more calcium and vitamin C than almost any other grain and is rich in a beneficial form of starch. Try it in pancakes or as polenta. _____ Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don't miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here's last night's briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com.


Many U.S. Senate Democrats are seeking to block a confirmation vote on Neil Gorsuch, the federal appellate judge nominated by President Donald Trump to become a Supreme Court justice, but it is unclear whether they will get the necessary votes. The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote on sending the nomination to the Senate floor. Republican Senate leaders hope to confirm Gorsuch on April 7. As of Friday morning, 37 of the 46 Democrats and the two independents who align with them in the 100-seat Senate have publicly announced opposition to Gorsuch. Of those, 35 have said they would back an effort to block a confirmation vote via a procedural hurdle called a filibuster. Democrats need 41 votes to sustain a filibuster. Two Democrats, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, have announced support for Gorsuch. Republicans control the Senate 52-48, meaning they need to win over eight votes to block a filibuster. The confirmation vote itself would require a simple majority of 51 votes. Eight Democrats and one independent, Angus King of Maine, have yet to announce whether they would vote against Gorsuch or support a filibuster. Here is a look at these senators: Michael Bennet of Colorado. Gorsuch is a fellow Coloradoan. Bennet introduced Gorsuch last week at his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. In the introduction, Bennet criticized Republicans' refusal last year to consider former President Barack Obama's nominee to the same Supreme Court seat Gorsuch would occupy if confirmed. But Bennet said that "two wrongs never make a right." Chris Coons of Delaware. He has indicated he may support a deal to avoid a filibuster. Joe Donnelly of Indiana. Up for re-election in 2018 in a state Trump won in 2016. Position unclear. Dianne Feinstein of California. The senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee that oversaw Gorsuch's confirmation hearing. Angus King of Maine. The senator is an independent who normally votes with Democrats. Position unclear. Claire McCaskill of Missouri. Up for re-election in 2018 in a state Trump won in 2016. Position unclear. Bob Menendez of New Jersey. Position unclear. Jon Tester of Montana. Up for re-election in 2018 in a state Trump won in 2016. Position unclear. Mark Warner of Virginia. Position unclear.