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Britney Spears strives mightily to be on “Glory,” her ninth studio album. But Ms. Spears has plenty of back story she’s a working mother, the headliner in her own Las Vegas spectacle and a performer who has weathered teenage fame, backlash, public meltdowns and wave after wave of tabloid headlines. “Glory,” her first album since 2013, is her latest attempt to reclaim her place on the pop charts, which are now crowded with younger performers who have studied her the way Ms. Spears studied Madonna. Her latest strategy is relentless and unambiguous: Stick to sexy. Ms. Spears’s albums in the 2000s, like “Blackout” and “Femme Fatale,” showed that she and her advisers know something about the dynamics of celebrity and media, as she toyed with provocation and selective revelation. Hits like “I’m a Slave 4 U” and “Toxic” teased at the power dynamics of lust and romance. But “Glory” has shallower aims it’s all and promises of pleasure, as if the only intimacies that matter are physical ones. “To know each other your love all over me,” she coos in “Invitation,” the breathy, Janet Glass enticement that opens the album. For songwriting and production, Ms. Spears drew from the talent pool that also supplies material for her pop peers and rivals, among them Selena Gomez, Nick Jonas, Fifth Harmony, Demi Lovato and, yes, Madonna. Her vocal producer, Mischke, has a résumé stretching from Michael Jackson and the Spice Girls to Gwen Stefani. Unlike Will. i. am, the producer who filled Ms. Spears’s 2013 album “Britney Jean” with clichés, her new collaborators make musical space for her. They look toward the melting tones, echoey hollows and constructions of recent releases by Ms. Gomez and Justin Bieber. Heavy bass lines and kick drums are all but banished, perhaps to return in remixes. Instead, syncopations are sketched in the midrange by handclaps, keyboard chords, electronic plinks or bits of guitar. The album’s peppiest song, “What You Need,” matches a track that sounds like Motown to a vocal that flaunts its electronic warbles. Throughout the album, Ms. Spears’s voice — no doubt still processed, but far less obviously robotic — has emphatically returned to the foreground. In verses, she recalls the flirty singer, with the knowing scratch in her voice, who conquered 1990s pop. She sounds more involved, more present, than she has in a decade. Choruses, like those in “Make Me … ” sometimes layer her voice into an ecstatic choir. Yet even with her voice upfront, Ms. Spears isn’t singing anything particularly personal. “Glory” is one long, often catchy, announcement of availability. Ms. Spears declares “nobody should be alone if they don’t have to be” in the “Do You Wanna Come Over?” “Slumber Party,” which eases into a chorus, promises, “We ain’t gonna sleep tonight. ” In “Love Me Down,” she says, “You say we don’t talk any more ’m thinking we talk too much,” preferring communication by touch. A song on the deluxe version of this album, “Change Your Mind (No Seas Cortés),” sets out to seduce a guy who is “trying to be a gentleman” and doesn’t want to “cross the line” by urging, in Spanish, “don’t be polite,” adding “I’m desperate. ” And often, behind the sleek electronics and the tidy vocals, a certain desperation comes through. “Just Luv Me,” one song, begs. Ms. Spears’s previous album, “Britney Jean,” was her commercial nadir, and the singles preceding the release of “Glory” — “Make Me. .. ” and “Pretty Girls,” a collaboration with Iggy Azalea that’s not on this album — weren’t smashes. Another preview, “Private Show,” was introduced alongside a new perfume of the same name. It casts the singer as a stripper: “Slide down my me spin it and twerk it. ” Working for others, the songwriters behind “Glory” have come up with other messages, particularly for female singers. Teen pop now abounds with messages of doubts overcome, of pride, of confidence, of empowerment that doesn’t depend on pleasing a guy. Ms. Spears, with turbulent decades of experience, might connect her life with her songs, as divas do, and find herself forging a stronger bond with listeners. But “Glory” doesn’t make that reach. It’s as if, after all her fans and fame, Ms. Spears can still only present herself as that most generic pop commodity: a sexpot.

Inside the Invisible Government; War, Propaganda, Clinton & Trump Inside the Invisible Government; War, Propaganda, Clinton & Trump By 208 The American journalist, Edward Bernays, is often described as the man who invented modern propaganda. The nephew of Sigmund Freud, the pioneer of psycho-analysis, it was Bernays who coined the term “public relations” as a euphemism for spin and its deceptions. In 1929, he persuaded feminists to promote cigarettes for women by smoking in the New York Easter Parade – behaviour then considered outlandish. One feminist, Ruth Booth, declared, “Women! Light another torch of freedom! Fight another sex taboo!” Bernays’ influence extended far beyond advertising. His greatest success was his role in convincing the American public to join the slaughter of the First World War. The secret, he said, was “engineering the consent” of people in order to “control and regiment [them] according to our will without their knowing about it”. He described this as “the true ruling power in our society” and called it an “invisible government”. Today, the invisible government has never been more powerful and less understood. In my career as a journalist and film-maker, I have never known propaganda to insinuate our lives and as it does now and to go unchallenged. Imagine two cities. Both are under siege by the forces of the government of that country. Both cities are occupied by fanatics, who commit terrible atrocities, such as beheading people. But there is a vital difference. In one siege, the government soldiers are described as liberators by Western reporters…

Friday, 4 November 2016 Nobel Prize recipients will be able to go to the drive thru window to get their awards. After accruing millions of dollars in debt, the Nobel prize committee will forgo a lavish award ceremony in favor of a webcast hosted by Carrot Top from a drive thru coffee kiosk. Nobel Committee head Jørgen Myklebust is putting his experience in marketing for Supermac's to the task with the new drive thru format for this years award ceremony. He explained the decision when he talked to reporter Rance Penning of the Daily Maul. "This will be the first year in a decade we don't lose money: the webcast costs us virtually nothing and Carrot Top has agreed to MC the award ceremony in exchange for a Nobel prize in chemistry. And having Carrot Top as the host is already giving us a boost with advertisers." Myklebust further explained: "The nominees will be able to stream the webcast while in the parking lot at NK Stockholm, and the winners will drive up to the kiosk window to get their awards." When Penning asked if the entire Nobel operation was moving to the kiosk, Myklebust dismissed the question as silly. "You know, it's not serious to ask if we are keeping our offices in the kiosk, of course our whole staff will not fit in a kiosk. For those who are curious, we'll continue to maintain our office space in a camping tent outside Tom Schuyler's house." This reporter visited with Carrot Top to talk about the new gig. I had a few minutes with him in his Las Vegas dressing room as his assistants made him up for that nights show. "I can't wait to go to Sweden," said Scott Thompson (Carrot Top's real name). "I can go incognito, you know, I don't stand out as a ginger there." When asked about props for the webcast, the beloved orange one jumped up and grabbed some vials and a butane torch from a toy box. "Oh, yeah! Since my Nobel prize is in chemistry, I'm bringing my Meth Lab Jr.™ chemistry set, I should probably save that for the end of the show in case I blow anything up!" "And for sure I'm bringing my tip jar!" At which point Thompson showed this reporter an actual glass jar with a credit card reader embedded in it. Make XRhonda Speaks's day - give this story five thumbs-up (there's no need to register , the thumbs are just down there!)

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. The presidential race gained new intensity as both candidates faced increased scrutiny. For Hillary Clinton, it’s about her embrace of a strategy of counterattack on women who said during Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign that they’d had sexual encounters with him. And for Donald Trump, tax documents from 1995 show that he declared a loss so big that it might have allowed him to avoid paying taxes for the next 18 years. (Our reporter found the documents in her mailbox.) Separately, his foundation has also been ordered to stop soliciting donations in New York because it is not registered to do so. ____ 2. The candidates will be tasked with defending their running mates during Tuesday’s debate, which will be their lone this election. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia has already faced some tough questions about Mrs. Clinton, but he hasn’t been forced to play cleanup the way that Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana has for Mr. Trump. But it may just come to down to this: “Don’t screw up — that’s the goal of a V. P. debate,” a Republican communications specialist said. ____ 3. The United States formally suspended its talks with Russia about the war in Syria. Secretary of State John Kerry threatened to do so last week as Russia and Syria carried out a brutal bombing campaign in parts of Aleppo, where 275, 000 civilians — including about 100, 000 children — are trapped. Plans for jointly targeting jihadists have also been shelved. ____ 4. President Obama’s health care law, the Affordable Care Act, will almost certainly have to change to survive — even Mr. Obama has acknowledged that more work is needed. But how it will change is dependent on the election. Both parties agree that for too many people, insurance plans are too expensive and inaccessible. Mrs. Clinton wants to increase government involvement in an effort to change that Mr. Trump would seek to decrease it. ____ 5. A surprise defeat of a referendum on a peace deal left Colombia in shock, but both the government and the rebel group it warred against for decades vowed they would not go back to fighting. Many Colombians felt that the deal was too lenient on the rebels, known as the FARC. “There’s no justice in this accord,” said one voter. ____ 6. The first Nobel Prize of the year was awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi, above, a Japanese cell biologist. He won the physiology or medicine prize for deciphering how cells recycle their content, a critical process that led to a new field and inspired hundreds of researchers around the world. Five more Nobel Prizes will be awarded this week and next. We talked to eight previous winners about how they received the good news: Many were asleep, thanks to a time difference. One relayed that his mother said to his wife, “That’s very nice, but don’t let it go to his head. ” ____ 7. In the Caribbean, people are bracing for Hurricane Matthew, above, to bring flash floods, mudslides and winds up to 140 miles per hour. The Category 4 hurricane is expected to hit Haiti by Monday night and then continue north, threatening other Caribbean nations and potentially the U. S. too. And Hurricane Sandy caused enormous damage when it slammed the East Coast in 2012, but one lasting impact may be positive. The storm surge opened a passage between the ocean and Great South Bay, on New York’s Fire Island, bringing in new life. ____ 8. Major League Baseball is taking the night off. The regular season wrapped up on Sunday, playoff matchups are set and the postseason will kick off Tuesday. The Toronto Blue Jays will host the Baltimore Orioles in the A. L. game on Tuesday. The Orioles lost the A. L. Championship Series in 2014. The Blue Jays lost it last year. And on Wednesday, the Mets will host the National League game against the San Francisco Giants at Citi Field. ____ 9. Bad news for kids (and parents): There’s no nasal spray version of the flu vaccine this year. Get ready for the needle. Federal officials pulled the spray vaccine (the brand name is FluMist) because it has been less effective in the past couple of flu seasons. Experts say that distracting children remains “the most proven technique” for making shots easier. Distraction remains your briefing writer’s vaccine technique, too. ____ 10. Our media columnist, Jim Rutenberg, has been accused on Twitter of soiling his pants out of fear of a Trump presidency and been harassed for being dumb, and a Jew, among other things. But still, he writes, “I don’t know what it’s like to be really savaged by Twitter. ” His latest column asks whether the hate speech frequently encountered on the social network could be driving users away and suggests that all players could benefit from a robust discussion on standards and the public interest. ____ 11. “In every good marriage, it helps sometimes to be a little deaf. ” In one of our most popular stories today, the Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg shared general life advice and talked about the challenges facing women in the workplace. One great nugget: She said that advice on marriage, given to her by her on her wedding day, had helped in her career as well. ____ 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 the weekend briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an effort in Puerto Rico to allow public utilities there to restructure $20 billion in debt, striking down a 2014 Puerto Rico law. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority in the decision, said the law was at odds with the federal bankruptcy code, which bars states and lower units of government from enacting their own versions of bankruptcy law. Puerto Rico is struggling with $72 billion in debt and has argued that it needs to restructure at least some of it under Chapter 9, the part of the bankruptcy code for insolvent local governments. But Puerto Rico is not permitted to do so, because Chapter 9 specifically excludes it, although it is unclear why. In 2014, the island tried to get around that exclusion by enacting its own version of a bankruptcy law, intended for its big public utilities, which account for about $26 billion of the total debt. But that attempt, called the Recovery Act, ran afoul of the part of the code that says only Congress may enact bankruptcy laws. Puerto Rican officials had argued that the Recovery Act addressed a gap in the way its debts are treated. Under the bankruptcy code, they said, states may authorize their cities, counties, public utilities and other branches of government to restructure their debts under Chapter 9 of the code. But that law excludes Puerto Rico and all branches of its government, including its public utilities. Utility creditors challenged the Recovery Act in federal court, arguing that the bankruptcy code displaced, or it. The justices agreed. The federal law, Justice Thomas wrote, “bars Puerto Rico from enacting its own municipal bankruptcy scheme to restructure the debt of its insolvent public utilities. ” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Stephen G. Breyer and Elena Kagan joined him. Justice Thomas wrote that the decision was compelled by a straightforward reading of the federal law. In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, said the majority’s approach was too mechanical and failed to take into account the purpose of the bankruptcy law and the impact of its decision. The Recovery Act, she wrote, “is the only existing legal option for Puerto Rico to restructure debts that could cripple its citizens. ” “The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and its municipalities are in the middle of a fiscal crisis,” she wrote. “The combined debt of Puerto Rico’s three main public utilities exceeds $20 billion. These utilities provide power, water, sewer and transportation to residents of the island. ” “With rising interest rates and limited access to capital markets, their debts are proving unserviceable. Soon, Puerto Rico and the utilities contend, they will be unable to pay for things like fuel to generate electricity, which will lead to rolling blackouts,” Justice Sotomayor added. “Other vital public services will be imperiled, including the utilities’ ability to provide safe drinking water, maintain roads and operate public transportation. ” The majority’s approach ignores those realities, she wrote, “rejects contextual analysis in favor of a syllogism” and leaves Puerto Rico “powerless and with no legal process to help” its citizens. Pedro Pierluisi, Puerto Rico’s nonvoting member of Congress, said: “The practical significance of the court’s holding is crystal clear. Only Congress can provide the Puerto Rico government with the authority to restructure its debts. ” He said action by Congress “is essential if the territory is going to overcome its severe — and worsening — economic, fiscal and demographic crisis. ” The case has been vexing for all parties because when Congress amended the bankruptcy code to exclude Puerto Rico, in 1984, it left no written record explaining why. Yet the rule barred the island from the only way under United States law that a debtor can legally reduce debt over the objections of creditors. Besides passing its own bankruptcy law in 2014, Puerto Rico tried to persuade Congress to delete the 1984 exclusion. It said the provision was inexplicable and may have been inserted by mistake. Those arguments did not sway Congress. But last year lawmakers realized the United States Constitution gave them the power to “make all needful rules and regulations” for territories, including Puerto Rico. Using that approach, the House of Representatives passed a bill this month that would apply to all territories (though only Puerto Rico is in dire need at the moment). Obama administration officials have expressed hope that the Senate will take up the measure quickly and enact it before July 1, when Puerto Rico is supposed to make debt payments totaling nearly $2 billion. It is expected to default, which would normally prompt creditors to sue. As now drafted, the bill would stay such lawsuits, put Puerto Rico under federal oversight and give it other legal powers similar to those found in bankruptcy. In the majority opinion, Justice Thomas noted that Puerto Rico had also been seeking help from Congress. “After the parties briefed and argued these cases,” he wrote, “members of Congress introduced a bill in the House of Representatives to establish an oversight board to assist Puerto Rico and its instrumentalities,” adding that “the bill does not amend the federal bankruptcy code. ” Justice Sotomayor responded that “the government and people of Puerto Rico should not have to wait for possible congressional action to avert the consequences of unreliable electricity, transportation and safe water — consequences that members of the executive and legislature have described as a looming ‘humanitarian crisis. ’”. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. recused himself from the cases, Puerto Rico v. Franklin California Trust, No. and v. Franklin California Trust, No. . As is the court’s custom, he did not explain why.

Donald J. Trump’s intensifying battle with his own party is tearing open the nation’s political map, pulling Republicans across the country into a feud that could imperil dozens of lawmakers in Congress and potentially throw states into Hillary Clinton’s column. Democrats are moving swiftly to exploit Mr. Trump’s crumbling position in the presidential race, aiming to run up a big margin of victory for Mrs. Clinton and extend their political advantage into the congressional elections next month. Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has concluded that at least two traditionally Republican states, Georgia and Arizona, are realistic targets for her campaign to win over. And Republican polling has found that Mr. Trump is at dire risk of losing Georgia, according to people briefed on the polls, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Mrs. Clinton now holds such a strong upper hand that Priorities USA, a “super PAC” backing her campaign, may direct some of its war chest into Senate races, two people said, and may begin broadcasting ads for those contests as soon as next week. Congressional Democrats also hope to persuade Mrs. Clinton to continue pouring money and campaign resources into states like Virginia and Colorado, where they believe her victory is assured, in order to lift other Democratic candidates. In a signal of Democrats’ growing focus on the House and Senate, Mrs. Clinton used a visit on Tuesday to Miami to attack both Mr. Trump and Senator Marco Rubio, whom Mrs. Clinton blasted for what she described as his indifference to climate change. “We need to elect people up and down the ballot, at every level of government, who take it seriously,” Mrs. Clinton said, adding, “It is an unacceptable response for Marco Rubio, when asked about climate change, to say, ‘I’m not a scientist. ’” Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman, John D. Podesta, told reporters that she would continue to call out Republicans. Mr. Rubio is among the Republicans whom Priorities USA may seek to defeat, if the group decides to intervene in Senate races, one strategist said. Increasingly anxious Republicans have not come up with a unified strategy for containing the damage from Mr. Trump’s embattled candidacy, and several strategists and party officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity said they were awaiting a new round of polling before settling on a course. But, in a sign that Republicans now view the presidential race as a lost cause, several Senate candidates are preparing ads asking voters to elect them as a check on Mrs. Clinton in the White House. Yet Mr. Trump himself, having been rejected in recent days by dozens of Republican elected officials, has indicated that he will make any separation an exceptionally messy and painful ordeal for the party. Mr. Trump lashed out publicly on Tuesday morning at two of his critics: Senator John McCain of Arizona, who withdrew his endorsement of Mr. Trump over the weekend, and Paul D. Ryan, the speaker of the House, who informed congressional Republicans on Monday that he would no longer defend Mr. Trump. Seething on Twitter, Mr. Trump attacked Mr. Ryan as “weak and ineffective” and described Mr. McCain as “very foul mouthed. ” And in a Fox News interview, Mr. Trump mocked both men as disloyal, reserving special venom for Mr. Ryan. “Paul Ryan opened borders and amnesty and bad budgets,” Mr. Trump said. He declared himself a liberated man, writing on Twitter:. “It is so nice that the shackles have been taken off me and I can now fight for America the way I want to. ” Should Mr. Trump continue deriding the leaders of the institutional Republican Party, it could have profound consequences down the ballot, potentially depressing turnout by demoralizing the party or leading Mr. Trump’s ardent supporters to deny their votes to Republicans who abandoned him. But there is little Republicans can do to control Mr. Trump’s behavior: The party’s donors have no leverage over him, he is relying largely on small donors and, at 70, he is not mindful of any future campaign. The emerging dynamic may be especially toxic for Republicans in swing states that are also home to competitive races for the House and Senate, where the party’s candidates must choose between two unpalatable options: alienating much of their party’s base, or standing behind a nominee who is unacceptable to most mainstream voters. The voting bloc that especially concerns Republican officials are the voters who usually favor Republican candidates but cannot abide Mr. Trump. These voters can make up anywhere between a quarter to a third of the party’s electoral coalition. “That voter is clearly not going to vote for Donald Trump,” said Josh Holmes, a Republican strategist who is working on several Senate races. “But if they don’t vote at all, it’s catastrophic for us. ” The nightmare possibility for the party is that swing voters punish the party because of Mr. Trump, the Republicans stay at home and Mr. Trump’s base casts a ballot for him and then leaves the polls. Under those conditions, Senate races in places like Pennsylvania and North Carolina could fall to Democrats, while Senate and House races in places like Missouri, Arizona and Kansas could move to the center of the battlefield. Already, Republicans view Mr. Trump’s sharp downturn in the presidential race as having jeopardized their majorities in Congress. A poll published on Tuesday by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal found Mr. Trump trailing Mrs. Clinton by nine percentage points nationally and drawing just 37 percent of the vote. No nominee since World War II has received a smaller share of the vote. But in an illustration of the bind Republicans are in, the poll found that of Republicans believed their candidates should stay loyal to Mr. Trump. In Nevada, the Republican candidate for Senate, Representative Joe Heck, withdrew his support from Mr. Trump over the weekend, and is facing a furious backlash. Sandie Kirwin, a Las Vegas retail manager supportive of Mr. Trump, said she might now vote for a Democrat over Mr. Heck in a critical Senate race. “I think of Joe Heck the same I do of any Republican not supporting Donald Trump,” said Ms. Kirwin, 52. “I will never support any of them, and I will do what I can to get them out of office. ” But other voters say they may punish those who fail to denounce Mr. Trump. Several Republicans in difficult Senate races have criticized Mr. Trump in strong terms without coming out in opposition to his candidacy, including Senators Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania, Richard M. Burr of North Carolina and Mr. Rubio. In Pennsylvania, Jaye Steuterman, a registered Republican and a real estate agent in Doylestown, said she was still undecided on which presidential candidate to vote for. She said she was deeply unsettled by Mr. Trump’s past comments about forcing himself on women, but that might not be enough to stop her voting for him. “I don’t know what’s more important to me — that, or the fact that Hillary is a liar,” Ms. Steuterman said. In the Senate race, she is inclined to vote for Mr. Toomey because he is a Republican, but her decision could depend on whether he supports Mr. Trump. Even the drastic step of denouncing Mr. Trump may not be enough to shield Republicans from his unpopularity. In a conference call on Tuesday with the Democratic caucus, Representative Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said that party polling found voters drawing scant distinction between Republicans who endorsed Mr. Trump and those who abandoned him out of political expediency, according to people who participated in the call, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it was supposed to be private. On the same call, Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the House Democrat, expressed concern that Mrs. Clinton might abandon states that she is all but sure to win, but where Democrats are still locked in competitive races. Mr. Clyburn asked Representative Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader, to contact Mrs. Clinton’s campaign to ensure it would not withdraw resources from Virginia and Colorado. “Most people think the House now could be in play,” said Representative John Yarmuth of Kentucky. “There’s a little bit of scrambling going on to identify races that could flip if the presidential race somehow gets to a margin. ” Like their Republican counterparts, Democrats do not plan to make final strategy decisions until they receive new polling. But they have already begun aggressively attacking Republicans, even as those officials retreat from Mr. Trump. Three Democratic congressional candidates have started running ads this week that showcase footage of Mr. Trump describing sexual assault in graphic terms, from a 2005 recording. Gov. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, who is challenging Senator Kelly Ayotte, used the footage in a campaign video on Tuesday, saying Ms. Ayotte recently denounced Mr. Trump only to “protect herself. ” And outside groups supporting congressional Democrats have begun to reallocate their spending to take advantage of the shifting environment. The House Majority PAC, the principal outside group supporting House Democrats, this week made a $1. 2 million reservation to contest the suburban Philadelphia seat held by Representative Michael G. Fitzpatrick, who is retiring. In affluent, suburban areas, which were already trending strongly toward Democrats after the first presidential debate, Republican survival may depend on the willingness of voters to separate their feelings about the presidential race from their voting behavior in all other elections. Outside a ski shop on Tuesday in Aurora, Colo. Sharon and Les Sparks said they were disappointed by Republicans pulling away from Mr. Trump, whom Mr. Sparks described as “spoiled little entitled brats. ” Among those lawmakers is Representative Mike Coffman, a congressman who has been critical of Mr. Trump for months and recently called on him to end his campaign. Still, Mr. and Ms. Sparks said they would vote for Mr. Coffman, despite their frustration. “They need to unite,” said Ms. Sparks, 49, a project manager in the health industry. “If you’re going to be in the Republican Party, you need to start standing behind the party. ”

Home / Badge Abuse / WATCH: California Cops Rob Every Penny from Innocent Family, Including their Children WATCH: California Cops Rob Every Penny from Innocent Family, Including their Children Claire Bernish November 2, 2016 Leave a comment San Diego, CA — James Slatic took every precaution possible to ensure his California medical marijuana business was in full compliance with local, state, and federal laws — and that appropriate taxes and fees, hundreds of thousands each year, were always paid on time. But despite conducting business professionally and legally, nearly 30 heavily armed San Diego police and DEA agents broke into and destroyed Med-West Distribution, stole all the legal products inside, confiscated his computers and servers — and proceeded to clean out his entire family’s life savings, including the accounts of his high school and college-aged daughters, and his 84-year-old mother’s safety deposit box. By obstinately refusing to acknowledge Med-West’s legal status, law enforcement used highly contentious federal civil asset forfeiture (CAF) law to rob the Slatics of everything they’d earned — including $324,000 in proceeds from the lucrative medical cannabis business, according to the Institute for Justice (IJ). “This case is not about crime fighting,” IJ attorney Wesley Hottot, who now represents the Slatics, explained. “This case is about policing for profit, and it illustrates the abusive power of civil forfeiture at its worst.” As countless families and individuals around the country have been shocked to learn, the State can rob you blind, taking everything of value — bank accounts, vehicles, electronics, and even houses, etc. — without proof any crime has been committed. James Slatic has never been convicted or charged with any wrongdoing in the matter — but the nightmare of civil asset forfeiture doesn’t end with a lack of charges or conviction. In fact, attempting to reclaim property and cash can be a nightmare of red tape, court appearances and legal fees — and, even then, isn’t always a successful venture. And like so many others, Slatic had not been familiar with this legal, policing-for-profit scheme prior to his firsthand encounter. “I’ve done nothing wrong,” he told the Institute for Justice. “It’s beyond frustrating that my family’s money was taken without any criminal charges being filed. My wife and teenage daughters had nothing to do with my business whatsoever, and the District Attorney took their college savings accounts. This is not just wrong; it is unconstitutional.” While he certainly might be right, CAF is federal law — a brief reprieve in January, when the Department of Justice suspended the program, only lasted through early April — because the ability of police to steal people’s stuff and either use it or the proceeds from its sale is just too damned profitable. Indeed, police and other agencies — particularly the Drug Enforcement Agency — make a killing in this legalized State robbery sham, and many departments have come to rely on CAF profiteering to bolster their funding. “Civil forfeiture is one of the greatest threats to property rights in the nation,” said IJ attorney Allison Daniel, also representing the Slatic family. “Civil forfeiture takes the American principle of innocent until proven guilty and flips it on its head, treating property owners worse than criminals by making them prove their innocence.” At 7:30 in the morning on January 28, 2016 — as surveillance cameras outside and inside Med-West captured on video — the San Diego Joint Narcotics Task Force used a sledgehammer to break down the door of Slatic’s legal business, and stormed in, pointing automatic weapons at the heads of innocent employees inside. Needlessly and recklessly, around 28 officers took everything of value inside, destroying and scattering property in the process. As Slatic told IJ, in addition to assets stolen from the business, the greedy cops cleared family bank accounts of over $100,000 — leaving his daughters scrambling to pay for school supplies, like college textbooks, while putting their tuition and fees in jeopardy. Annette Slatic, James’ wife, who works as a nurse at the Veterans Administration, found out about the raid and financial seizure when she tried to pay for groceries that morning and had her card declined. Then her daughter, Penny, a high-schooler, tried to pay using her ATM card — and was also declined. Without notice, the Slatics suddenly found themselves essentially penniless and unsure how to afford basic needs. Now they’re fighting to get everything back, since under California law, “probable cause” a crime has been committed must be established before officers can use civil asset forfeiture to seize property and cash. As the Institute for Justice explains, “Because police and prosecutors ignored Med-West’s status as a legal marijuana business, they did not have probable cause to seize the Slatics’ money. Even if Med-West had been an illegal operation (and it was not), the Slatics’ personal money is not connected to the business.” Perhaps the Slatics will have better luck in getting justice than innumerable others who have been unfortunate enough to be victims of legalized robbery. Despite massive controversy surrounding the program — and one of its creators now denouncing the policing-for-profit scheme it has become — civil asset forfeiture won’t be going anywhere soon. While some states have severely curtailed cops’ ability to take your stuff, by implementing strictures requiring a conviction and similar limits, others have taken CAF to new levels. Oklahoma Highway Patrol began using a device called an ERAD , which scans bank and prepaid cards — right from a person’s wallet — to seize all cash in an individual’s account during a traffic stop if an officer even suspects a person of committing a drug-related offense. “Three decades ago, I helped create our civil asset forfeiture system,” wrote Brad Cates in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal , “now it’s time to end it.” This is what it’s like to run a legal business, pay taxes, and follow the law in a Police State: Share

As Donald Trump turns his attention to Hillary Clinton, he’s trying out new attack lines. In his victory speech Tuesday evening, it was that “the only card she has is the women’s card. ” He said that “if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don’t think she would get 5 percent of the vote. ” In his telling, the women’s card confers an enormous advantage. Indeed, current polls between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump have her with 55 percent of the vote, suggesting that he believes the women’s card is worth 50 points. That’s nearly enough to assure any female candidate of victory. Yet this appears to be inconsistent with available data. Over the past decade, women have been elected to 17. 5 percent of House seats, meaning that they’re outnumbered by men by roughly five to one. In fact, the women’s card appears to be particularly unhelpful in the United States. Women’s success in politics — at least as measured by the proportion of seats they hold in the House compared with equivalent lower chambers in other nations — ranks below that of nearly every other rich country. The United States is positioned between Greece and Bangladesh. Of course, Mr. Trump might object that he’s not talking about House seats, but rather the presidency. Even there, the women’s card appears quite unhelpful, as The Upshot’s extensive search through United States data failed to locate a single woman who had ever been president.

Russia’s Most Potent Weapon: “Hoarding Gold” 11/02/2016 SHTFPLAN.COM This article was written by Jay Syrmopoulos and originally published at The Free Thought Project . Editor’s Comment: He who holds the gold makes the rules? Fresh attempts at containing Russia and continuing the empire have been met with countermoves. Russia appears to be building strength in every way. Putin and his country have no intention of being under the American thumb, and are developing rapid resistance as the U.S. petrodollar loses its grip and China, Russia and the East shift into new currencies and shifting world order. What lies ahead? It will be a strong hand for the countries that have the most significant backing in gold and hard assets; and China and Russia have positioned themselves very well. Prepare for a changing economic landscape, and one in which self-reliance might be all we have. Russia is Hoarding Gold at an Alarming Rate — The Next World War Will Be Fought with Currencies by Jay Syrmopoulos With all eyes on Russia’s unveiling their latest nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which NATO has dubbed the “SATAN” missile , as tensions with the U.S. increase, Moscow’s most potent “weapon” may be something drastically different. The rapidly evolving geopolitical “weapon” brandished by Russia is an ever increasing stockpile of gold, as well as Russia’s native currency, the ruble. Take a look at the symbol below, as it could soon come to change the entire hierarchy of the international order – potentially ushering in a complete international paradigm shift – and much sooner than you might think. image: http://thefreethoughtproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/bankofrussia-e1475520013798.png The symbol is the new designation of the Russian ruble, Russia’s national currency. Similar to how the U.S. uses the dollar sign ($), the U.K. uses the pound sign (£), and the European Union uses the euro symbol (€), Russia is about to begin exporting its symbol internationally. After the failed “reset” in U.S./Russian relations by the Obama administration, and the continued deterioration of the countries relationship, Washington began targeting entire sectors of the Russian economy, as well as specific individuals, meant to impose an economic burden so severe that it would force Moscow into compliance. Instead of decimating Russia, what it precipitated was a Russian response of gradually weaning themselves off of the hegemony of the U.S. petrodollar, and working with China to create an alternative to the SWIFT payment system that isn’t solely controlled by Western interests (see Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank , New Development Bank). According to the Corbett Report : New reports indicate that China is ready to launch its SWIFT alternative, and for those who have their ear to the ground this is the most significant move yet in the unfolding process of de-dollarization that is seeing the BRICS-led “resistance bloc” breaking away from the financial stranglehold of the US-led “Washington Consensus.” For those who don’t know, SWIFT stands for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication and is shorthand for the SWIFTNet Network that is used by over 10,500 financial institutions in 215 countries and territories to transmit financial transaction data around the world. SWIFT does not do any of the clearing or processing for these transactions itself, but instead sends the payment orders that are then settled by correspondent banks of the member institutions. Still, given the system’s near universality in the financial system, it means that virtually every international transaction between banking institutions goes through the SWIFT network. This is why de-listing from the SWIFT network remains one of the primary financial weapons wielded by the US and its allies in their increasingly important financial warfare campaigns. Recently, financial guru Jim Rickards, author of the book “Currency Wars,” wrote that “Russia is poised for a major comeback in its economy. Russian bonds and stocks and the Russian currency, the ruble, will all benefit.” Rickards believes a “strong turnaround” is coming within Russia, and that this comeback will benefit the ruble. While still suffering from the economic warfare being waged by the U.S., Russia has realized that as long they are subservient to the petrodollar, there remains a clear and present danger of the Russian economy being devastated by the whims of Washington. The Bank of Russia, that nation’s central bank, is extremely clear about its mission, and monetary policy declaring on its website: Monetary policy constitutes an integral part of the state policy and is aimed at enhancing well-being of Russian citizens. The Bank of Russia implements monetary policy in the framework of inflation-targeting regime, and sees price stability, albeit sustainably low inflation, as its priority. Given structural peculiarities of the Russian economy, the target is to reduce inflation to 4% by 2017 and maintain it within that range in the medium run. In layman’s terms, that means that monetary policy, similar to nuclear weapons and the military, are “an integral part of the state policy” in Russia. While many analysts have noted the increased build-up in Russia’s military arsenal, seemingly few have highlighted the massive build-up of Russian gold reserves over the past decade. Below is a chart showing Russian gold reserves between 1994 and last year, 2015: Since 2006, there has been a year-on-year increase that reveals a significant upward trend. The chart clearly reveals that Russia’s state policy of increasing state monetary assets, in the form of gold. Additionally, the Russian government has been converting state rubles into gold assets. From 2006 to 2015, Russia’s state holdings of gold tripled. Within just the past year Russia has substantially increased its gold holdings According to the Business Insider : In July of this year, the central bank of Russia added 200,000 ounces of gold to its reserves. The one-month uptick in Russian gold reserves — 200,000 ounces — is approximately equal to the entire annual output of Barrick Gold’s Turquoise Ridge gold mine in Nevada. At that same rate — 200,000 ounces per month — in a mere five months, Russia would add to state gold reserves the equivalent of the entire annual output of Barrick’s massive Goldstrike mine in Nevada. Currently, Russian gold reserves rank seventh in the world. It’s clear that there is a concerted effort by Russian authorities to build up the country’s gold reserves as part of a national strategy to negate the effects of economic warfare waged by the United States. Rickards, in his 2011 book “Currency Wars,” theorized that Russia and China could combine their gold reserves to form a global gold-backed currency to compete against the U.S. dollar. Currently, Russian reserves stand at roughly 1,500 tonnes, with Chinese reserves totaling over 1,800 tonnes (according to China — it’s likely more), which would amount to a combined total of roughly 3,300 tonnes of gold. The U.S. is about to lose overarching control of policymaking within the International Monetary Fund (IMF), thus the U.S. lockup on global gold is about to vanish, according to Business Insider. Imagine for a moment the distinctly real possibility that Russian-Chinese alliance could exercise indirect (or even direct) control over the IMF’s gold reserve of over 2,800 tonnes. Russian, Chinese and IMF gold combined would equal roughly 6,100 tonnes, and would allow for direct competition with the U.S. gold reserves, estimated at 8,100 tonnes. Russia and China have realized that the petrodollar is wielded by Washington as it’s weapon of choice when opposing a well-armed state, and clearly see the writing on the wall – thus working together to create a new global financial paradigm. The reality is that the United States is $20 trillion dollars in debt, and eventually the time will come when the U.S. economy begins to implode — and all the fiat currency people are stuck holding will essentially be worth nothing more than the paper it’s printed on. Hard assets, such as gold and silver, should be bought and taken custody of while there is still an opportunity to do so, as a means of hedging against the potentially disastrous results of the U.S. using the petrodollar as a “weapon.” Ultimately, the United States, Russia and China are all controlled by centralized power-hungry tyrants attempting to command powerful global bureaucracies like the IMF, the World Bank, SWIFT, New Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. It’s not Russian nuclear weapons that people should fear, as the policy of mutually assured destruction essentially voids any benefit of a state launching a first-strike nuclear attack. The true threat to America is our economic house of cards, built upon the back of a neoliberal trade policy that puts the “rights” of corporations over that of people . This article was written by Jay Syrmopoulos and originally published at The Free Thought Project .

No stopping him now! Dr. Duke will be in the debate tonight at 8 Eastern Time November 1, 2016 at 10:47 pm No stopping him now! Dr. Duke will be in the debate tonight at 8 Eastern Time Dr. Duke’s epic debate will be broadcast by C-SPAN at 8PM Eastern Time. (Not C-SPAN2 or C-SPAN3, but original C-SPAN. This is the big leagues, baby!) It will also be on C-SPAN radio. C-SPAN’s website has live TV streaming , although you may need to sign in, so give yourselves plenty of time to figure that out. C-SPAN radio does not require sign in. Click on Image to Donate! And please spread this message to others.

A group known in Arizona for assisting illegal aliens through the desert after they cross the border forced U. S. Border Patrol agents to obtain a warrant to search for migrants in their camp. The agents later arrested four Mexican nationals. [Border Patrol agents assigned to the Tucson Sector used technology surveillance to detect four suspected illegal aliens who crossed the border along a known human smuggling route. The four individuals were wearing camouflage as they walked northward from the Mexican border, according to information provided to Breitbart Texas by U. S. Border Patrol officials. Other agents working near Arivaca, Arizona, tracked the four migrants to a No Mas Muertes (No More Deaths) Camp. No Mas Muertes is an organization that assists illegal aliens in their march through the Arizona desert. When agents contacted camp officials to search for the alleged illegal border crossers, the officials refused. “Tucson Sector Border Patrol reached out to No Mas Muertes Camp representatives to continue a positive working relationship and resolve the situation amicably,” Border Patrol officials stated. “The talks, however, were unsuccessful. ” Agents subsequently sought and obtained a warrant to search the camp and question the four suspected illegal aliens. Agents found the migrants and questioned them about their citizenship and legal right to be present in the U. S. Satisfied that the four people were illegally present in the country, agents took them into custody. A similar incident occurred a month earlier, officials stated. Agents detected eight individuals entering the camp. The negotiations with camp officials, in that case, were successful. Agents arrested the eight illegal aliens and subsequently learned that at least two of the foreign nationals had significant criminal histories from previous illegal entries into the U. S. Two other illegal aliens were in need of medical attention. Those migrants were transported to an area hospital for evaluation and treatment. Camp officials reacted harshly to this week’s arrest of illegal aliens in their camp. “Today’s raid on the medical is unacceptable and a break in our agreements with Border Patrol to respect the critical work of No More Deaths,” Abuse Documentation and Advocacy Coordinator Kate Morgan stated in an article published on the group’s website. They claim to operate their camps “as a medical facility under the International Red Cross Standards, which the say gives them the right to refuse cooperation with Border Patrol agents. “The Border Patrol acknowledged that they tracked a group for 18 miles, but only after the migrants sought medical treatment did the Border Patrol seek to arrest them,” No More Deaths Founder John Fife claimed. “The choice to interdict these people only after they entered the No More Deaths camp is direct evidence that this was a direct attack on humanitarian aid. At the same time, the weather forecast is for deadly temperatures. ” While the group’s website claims their goal is to help the illegal aliens in their efforts to enter the U. S. at least one of article posted on their site could place migrants in more danger. The article written by Aljazeera America, titled “For migrants in Arizona who call 911, it’s Border Patrol on the line,” appears to warn migrants in distress in the desert against calling 911. “When most people dial 911 due to a medical emergency, they don’t expect to talk to Border Patrol,” the group states. “But that’s exactly what happens to many undocumented migrants who call for help from Arizona’s southern desert. ” The article continues: When 911 calls come in to BORSTAR, supervising agent John Redd said, quite often callers in distress don’t realize they have been transferred to Border Patrol. And the agency doesn’t inform them, according to Redd: “[W]e don’t tell them it’s the Border Patrol, because we’re trying to preserve life. But the fact is we’ve got another job to do, too. If we do tell them it’s Border Patrol, when we get there, they’re going to be gone. ” If agents manage to find migrants in distress, they stabilize them medically and then book them, Redd said. Advocates for migrants say this system prioritizes the apprehension and deportation of migrants and leads to needless deaths. Calls from migrants in distress sometimes bounce from one agency to another, with no mechanism to ensure accountability or track how cases are handled. Determining whether a caller is an undocumented migrant is at the discretion of the 911 dispatcher who picks up the phone call and is often based on racial profiling, said Cristen Vernon, the project coordinator with Derechos Humanos, an immigration advocacy group in Tucson. However, Breitbart Texas has reported regularly on illegal aliens in distress that are rescued by Border Patrol agents and BORSTAR rescue teams. Earlier this month, Pima dispatchers notified Border Patrol of a 911 call from a distressed alien in the desert. Border Patrol agents found the man struggling for his life. BORSTAR agents responded with their emergency medical training, giving him immediate help. Agents called a Life Flight evacuation helicopter for transport. Life Flight flew the illegal migrant flown to a Tuscon hospital for treatment. Had the man not called 911 and had Border Patrol agents and BORSTAR not responded, the man likely would have died alone in the desert. In May, Border Patrol agents rescued five other illegal aliens near the Ajo Station. On balance, it is the ruthless human smugglers who put these illegal aliens at risk in the desert. If a person being smuggled falls behind for any reason, such as dehydration, injury, or exhaustion, the coyotes will simply leave them behind to die in the desert. In May, U. S. Customs and Border Protection officials issued a warning about the dangers of crossing the border in the heat of the summer. “Unscrupulous smugglers often abandon migrants in the desert who fall behind. ,” CBP officials stated. “As a result, many perish every year. Border Patrol officials encourage anyone in distress to call 911 or activate a rescue beacon before becoming a casualty. In the fiscal year 2016 Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents rescued over 1, 400 persons with many of those rescues conducted in the western Arizona region. ” Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.

Как пишут Вести.ру, стало известно, что в голосовании не смогут принять участие 3,2 миллионов человек, находящихся под следствием или судимых, и 2,6 миллионов уже отбывших наказание. Об этом в своем заявлении сообщил директор Бюро по демократическим институтам и правам человека (БДИПЧ) ОБСЕ Михаэль Георг Линк. Со своей стороны, наблюдатель ОБСЕ за американскими выборами от Германии Юрген Клинке указала на несоответствие американских выборов международным нормам. В частности, из-за разницы часовых поясов результаты выборов в одних штатах будут объявлены тогда, когда голосование в других штатах еще не завершится. По словам Клинке, это является "неоправданным влиянием на избирателей". Следить за ходом выборов в США российские наблюдатели могут по линии БДИПЧ ОБСЕ , заявил пресс-секретарь Белого дома Джош Эрнест. Прочие запросы американские власти считают "подозрительными", учитывая "действия России в киберпространстве". Отвечая на просьбу прокомментировать сообщения о недопуске российских наблюдателей на выборы в некоторых штатах США, Эрнест сказал: "Неясно, что именно в этом случае русские собирались делать. Понятно, что люди могут быть подозрительными относительно их мотивов. Или эти мотивы могут отличаться от тех, о которых объявлено публично, с учетом их активности в киберпространстве". Как пояснил Эрнест, после получения таких запросов от иностранных государств Госдепартамент перенаправляет их властям того или иного штата, оставляя решение на их усмотрение. Ранее в ряде СМИ появились сообщения о том, что Россия направила запрос официальным властям США с просьбой разрешить наблюдателям из РФ присутствовать на выборах в Луизиане, Оклахоме и Техасе, однако получила отказ. "Есть также процесс, организованный по линии ОБСЕ, которая наблюдает за американскими выборами. В прошлом мы успешно сотрудничали с ними. У России была возможность отправить лиц для наблюдения за выборами в США в качестве членов делегации ОБСЕ. Россия отказалась участвовать в таком формате", - сказал Эрнест. Читайте последние новости Pravda.Ru на сегодня Поделиться:

Ever ready to spout off about things political, Dallas Mavericks owner and billionaire Mark Cuban now wants to shore up Obamacare, pushing the idea that the U. S. Constitution should be changed to proclaim health care as an American “right. ”[Speaking to reporter Nicholas Ballasy of PJ Media, Cuban tried to explain his desire to implement nationalized, single payer health care. While on one hand Cuban doesn’t agree with hospitals, on the other he thinks people should have a “right” to health care. “I think health care should be a right. If there’s a legitimate way to modify the Constitution, I literally think there should be an amendment to the Constitution for healthcare for chronic illnesses and serious injury. We all play the genetic lottery,” Cuban said according to Ballasy. “I think all of the talk about Trumpcare vs. Obamacare really just avoids the ultimate question, which is, is health care a right or not?” Cuban added. “But I’ve had friends who have had cancer, we’ve all had people who have had severe illnesses and if they didn’t have insurance. In a couple cases, I’ve since paid for them because they didn’t have insurance or enough insurance. I think that’s wrong — that’s a cost we all should share. ” Unfortunately for Cuban, the idea of turning healthcare into a “right” works against the whole concept of rights. In the American system, a right is the inviolable ability to act without the permission of other people. In addition, one may exercise his rights as long as the rights of another person are not violated in the doing. A right is something available equally to all citizens, something that can’t be taken away by government. But it is also something that isn’t granted by government. In the American tradition, a right is something given to individuals by God, not government. And, since a right is something that does not require action by others to be fulfilled, therein lies the rub when it comes to health care. If health care became a right, it would require the labor of doctors, nurses, and other care providers. Therefore, we would essentially turn healthcare providers into slaves of the state, forcing them to care for people despite their personal desires and feelings on the matter. After all, if it is our right to get health care, how can any doctor refuse us? Therefore, health care simply cannot be a right. Your right of free speech does require me to do anything for you to exercise it. Your right to life only requires that others don’t try and kill you. Your freedom of religion only demands that everyone else just leave you alone. But, if healthcare became a right, your “right” would force others to make sure you stay healthy. Compelling others to do something violates the very idea of a right. Indeed, as a nation we had this discussion way back in the 1940s when President Franklin Roosevelt tried to pass his “Second Bill of Rights” to make education, housing, health care, and other things a new American right. Even in 1944 people realized that forcing health care workers to take care of people despite their personal desires would be a form of servitude to the state. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com.

By: John Vibes via thefreethoughtproject.com In the midst of deepening tension between US allies NATO and Russia, NATO is planning the largest military buildup along the Russian border since the cold war. NATO called on allied governments this week to contribute whatever troops and equipment they can to the effort. According to Reuters, thousands of troops are expected to arrive in the coming days and weeks. It was reported that Italy, France, Denmark and other European states are expected to join the NATO military divisions that will be led by the United States along Russia’s border. On Wednesday, Britain announced it is sending hundreds of soldiers and hardware to Russia’s borders as part of a huge military deployment. A total of 800 troops, drones and tanks are moving to Estonia as part of the biggest military build-up of NATO troops on Russia’s borders since the Cold War. In addition to the forces allocated for his specific operation, NATO has an army of over 40,000 ready to be called up to fight at any time. The US military claims that this threatening move is meant to act as a “deterrent” to the Russian military, but this is obvious a move that will escalate tensions and push towards a possible third world war.

MINNEAPOLIS — Terence Newman usually views film of the Vikings’ next opponent at the island in his kitchen, but on this night, three days before Minnesota was to host the Arizona Cardinals, he had relocated to a more comfortable spot. Lounging in an oversize leather chair, his legs dangling over the edge, Newman cradled a digital tablet containing hours of video clips. He pulled up the plays Arizona had run this season. Even though Newman, as a cornerback, is charged with making receivers disappear, on every snap he also studies the habits of running backs, tight ends and quarterbacks and how they work in concert. Once, he figured out that a team would pass whenever one of its receivers fiddled with his gloves before the snap, and now he was hunting for another subtle hint to tip off what might be coming next. “Ooh!” Newman said. He blurted an expletive and rewound the play he had just watched three, four, five times. “I just picked up something,” he said. “Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, baby. See that?” Motioning for a visitor to come closer, Newman cued up the clip again. The play, from just before halftime of Arizona’s Week 8 loss at Carolina, featured four receivers, two on each side of the formation, with quarterback Carson Palmer lined up in the shotgun. As some of Carolina’s players realigned, Palmer glanced right and then left while twirling his index fingers in the air like helicopter blades. “It’s the same signals both sides,” Newman said. “And they’re both running the same routes. ” The outside receivers bolted across the middle, and the inside receivers, crossing in front to disrupt the coverage, darted toward the back pylons. No defenders followed, both outside receivers came open, and Palmer, with his pick of either, threw left for the touchdown. Earlier, Newman had seen Palmer make that same gesture, but he needed a recurrence to feel confident jotting his discovery, in small and neat penmanship, into a notebook. “That,” Newman said, “was superconfirmation right there. ” These revelations often occur when he is alone, in the sanctity of his apartment in the vibrant Uptown neighborhood here, where he lives by himself. His kitchen counter is speckled with the foodstuffs of a bachelor — cans of vegetable soup, a loaf of old bread, a bag of dried mango — and those who know Newman well credit his longevity in part to his having never been married. By 38, most N. F. L. cornerbacks have retired or, in far fewer cases, switched to the less physically demanding position of safety, no longer as capable of chasing bigger, stronger and faster receivers around the field. Newman is the oldest cornerback in the league by nearly five years, and by at least some measures, he is also one of the best. According to the analytics website Pro Football Focus, which rates him sixth over all, he has allowed the fewest yards (0. 64) per coverage snap. As Newman acknowledged, his freedom to do what he wants when he wants has prolonged his career. It has enabled him to obey what he called an intuitive understanding of his body, nurturing it with as much sleep, exercise and sustenance as he feels it needs. He keeps himself in such good shape that Minnesota’s strength and conditioning coach, Brent Salazar, said Newman would be ready to play a game in June. It also helps — and Newman shuddered, fearful of being jinxed, when this was mentioned — that through nearly 14 seasons he has managed to avoid the sort of devastating injury that has ended or curtailed the careers of many of his peers. Newman remains an incredible athlete. But as his speed, power and quickness have deteriorated, he has relied ever more on his cognitive skills. His capacity for decoding opponents’ tendencies through film study has mitigated his physiological decline. His aptitude for processing those tidbits and applying them on the field has preserved his livelihood. “He can think about what’s going to happen and get his body to do it,” Vikings safety Harrison Smith said. “He can make plays with his mind. ” Mike Zimmer, now Minnesota’s coach, witnessed that gift up close when he served as Newman’s defensive coordinator with Dallas from 2003 to 2006 and with Cincinnati from 2012 to 2013. Zimmer endorsed signing Newman, then 36, before the 2015 season, confident that he would be an asset in the Vikings’ secondary and a positive influence on the team’s young cornerbacks. They have spent two seasons absorbing his wisdom, accepting his red wine recommendations and poking fun at the old guy, presenting him with adult diapers, a walker and a cane that Newman keeps in his kitchen. But they have yet to take his job. A few minutes after 11 a. m. on a recent Tuesday, a day off for the Vikings, Newman walked into the makeshift auditorium at the team’s complex in nearby Eden Prairie. It is cordoned off by black curtains in a corner of the indoor practice field. Accompanied by cornerbacks Mackensie Alexander and Trae Waynes, Newman set down his daily cup of black tea, the only caffeine he ingests, on a table in the front row. He could be mistaken for an eager pupil if he were not the stern teacher. It was the first such tutorial for Alexander, who was told the previous day by the secondary coach Jerry Gray to watch film with Newman. “I want to soak up as much knowledge before he’s gone,” Alexander said. Newman prefers to study solo, or with people who respect his intensity and his mandate for silence. The only time he wears glasses is during these sessions. “I want that clarity,” Newman said. “When football comes on, my senses are at their peak. I want my brain to be able to process and diagnose all the information and then retain it. ” He sat before a computer and clutched a remote that linked to a large projection screen that loomed on a stage. Newman clicked on Arizona’s and pass plays and went through them in his favored manner, from most frequent to least, one formation at a time. He developed this methodology soon after entering the N. F. L. in 2003, taken fifth over all in the draft by the Cowboys, for whom he made two Pro Bowls. Teammates like Mario Edwards, Roy Williams and Darren Woodson mentored him, helping Newman expand his scope to focus on nuances like body language. He recognized that a team would run every time a receiver kept his hands on his knees, and he learned to eliminate certain routes if a receiver aligned with his outside foot up rather than his inside foot. “You see how their bodies move and how their feet are,” Newman said. “You understand there’s only certain places you can go. ” Early on in Dallas, Zimmer would give Newman homework: Return with all the routes a team ran out of a formation. He would watch every piece of footage to report his findings, and over the years he simplified his approach. Soon, he detected patterns. “By the end of the week, he’d know everything about everybody,” Mark Carrier, Newman’s position coach in Cincinnati, said in a telephone interview. For instance, by watching every play in sequence that a team has run when two receivers line up on each side of a formation, Newman can divine concepts and combinations. He scrutinizes how close each receiver lines up to the quarterback. He notices what routes they run when they line up on the bottom of the numbers — the digits that denote increments — compared with the top. He examines if the quarterback is under center or in the shotgun. If a tight end is in, Newman scans to see if routes go toward or away from him. There are finite possibilities, he knows, and soon they mesh in his mind, categorized by down and distance. He backs up those mental files in his notebook, which devotes two pages to every opponent. Reminders are written beneath a general heading and more detailed logs of personnel and formations organized by downs. “I’ve always been a person where if I could see something, I pretty much remember it,” Newman said. Over dinner at a downtown steakhouse, he demonstrated his recall. The conversation shifted to Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis, whom Bengals receiver A. J. Green had beaten for a long touchdown in the teams’ season opener. Newman cited the details, from the length of the play (54 yards) to the route that Brandon LaFell had run across the middle to paralyze the safety who was supposed to assist Revis, as if he were on the sideline that September afternoon. How many times did Newman watch that play? “Just once,” he said. In training camp, Minnesota teammates playfully accused Newman of conspiring with Norv Turner, then the Vikings’ offensive coordinator. He called out routes so many times that they assumed Turner had told him the plays in advance. He had not. Newman just knew them — or rather, he had deciphered them. Now his fellow cornerbacks sat observing as Newman cycled through one play after another, pausing only to rewind or scrawl a note. He said little, if anything. A few other players appeared, and the chatter increased. Newman pulled the hood of his sweatshirt over his bald head. When the session ended, he packed up his gear and walked out, off to receive treatment. Because Newman knew this above all: No matter how diligently he prepares watching film, his discoveries are useless if he is not healthy enough to employ them. After last season, Vikings General Manager Rick Spielman had something to tell Newman. Also, to ask him. “You’re going to be 38 coming up, and you played at a high level this year,” Spielman said he told him. “I did not expect what you were able to do for us. How does your body feel? Do you think you can go another year?” Minnesota’s analytics, Spielman said, revealed that Newman was an outlier. Based on data culled over the last two decades, Newman had defied what Spielman called a “critical age,” when cornerbacks’ effectiveness almost always declines. Players who endure deep into their 30s, and even into their 40s, are mostly specialists — long snappers, punters and kickers, like Adam Vinatieri, Indianapolis’s marvel — or quarterbacks, like Tom Brady, because they tend to absorb fewer collisions. Few cornerbacks last that long because the position is just too taxing, demanding of its practitioners exceptional speed, quickness, athleticism, anticipation, footwork and technique. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the cornerback in the league is Tramon Williams of the Cleveland Browns. Newman is the first corner to start at least eight games at 38 since Otis Smith in 2003, according to Elias. “You do the most unnatural thing, which is running backward, turning and then sprinting,” Newman said. “How many people do you know that can run backward as somebody’s running full speed at you?” Mark Verstegen, the founder and president of EXOS, which operates training centers nationwide, has for 16 years served as the director of performance for the National Football League Players Association. He called the action Newman described — acceleration to deceleration to reacceleration — the most stressful on a player’s body beyond collisions. “The amount of pure mileage that he has put on his body — it’s immeasurable,” Verstegen said in a telephone interview. Comparing Newman to a racecar, Verstegen added, “But if you’re taking care of your car really well and you know how to drive it smarter, you’re still going to win the checkered flag even if you might have less horsepower and a little less tread on the tires. ” Newman takes an iconoclastic approach to his wellness. For one thing, he does not use a nutritionist. In maintaining his muscular 195 pounds, the Newman does not deprive himself — at the steakhouse, he ordered lamb chops and a Caesar salad with anchovies — but he rarely indulges. With few exceptions, he limits his movement between team headquarters, where he eats a smart breakfast ( eggs without the yolk, half a waffle, oatmeal with berries) and lunch, and his apartment, which is near a tangle of food options. He orders the same food at the same restaurants on the same night (crab leg Wednesdays! ). At the Japanese place where he dines on Thursdays, he sits at the same seat, on the far edge of the bar, to await what the bartender calls Newman’s usual: a teriyaki chicken bowl (sauce on the side) and a lava roll (shrimp tempura and avocado topped with yellowfin tuna and sauce) complemented by a healthy pour of pinot noir. “I try to pay attention to some of the stuff that I put in my body now that I’m older,” said Newman, who also takes multivitamins, fatty acids and supplements promoting joint and health. “I don’t know if my metabolism is going to get superslow. But I’ve still got abs and stuff. How many have abs?” Newman has never tested positive under the league’s policy and is so fastidious about what he puts in his body that he does not understand how players get caught. “You have all the tools to find out what’s good and what’s bad you got an app to tell you all that,” he said, adding, “It’s simple. ” In the he does not follow the team’s strength and conditioning program and for the past few years has not even worked out regularly with a trainer. He enjoys the spontaneity of tapping thoughts into his phone at breakfast and then amending the plan, if necessary, at the LA Fitness he visits five minutes from his residence in Dallas. “I’ve worked out all my life, so I’ve learned all this free information,” Newman said. “I know I need to do whatever they ask after a certain period of time, so I work on the things I feel like I need to work on. ” His goal, when he was younger, was just “to get big. ” He realized the fallacy of that strategy when a misdiagnosed knee injury in his second N. F. L. season affected his strength and mobility for several years, even if it took until his fifth season for him to miss a game. He loves doing squats, and his former Bengals teammate Leon Hall, who is now with the Giants, said he rued that he would always have to remove weight plates if he after Newman. But Newman concentrates on working the smaller, stabilizing muscles around his joints. A former champion sprinter at Kansas State, Newman now runs as fast as he needs to. The winner of the shuttle drill, which evaluates lateral movement and skills, at the 2003 scouting combine, Newman now is as quick as he needs to be. He will never regain those attributes. But in the spring and summer, he wards off regression with pickup basketball games, three times a week, against former N. B. A. and college players, a cardiovascular workout that he modifies to fulfill his needs. Newman reaps no physical benefits from scoring. He channels his energy into suffocating defense. He guards the opposition’s best offensive player. “They understand why I’m there,” Newman said. To work on quickness, many cornerbacks set up cones every 5 yards and then backpedal and break, again and again. That drill is popular, Newman said, but not functional. “That’s not reactive,” Newman said. “Our sport is 100 percent reactive. ” He continued: “I do the same things, just in a different way. In football, you turn and you reach out with your hand, use your arms, but in basketball you can’t do that you use all feet. You pick up a guy full court, you shuffle back, and then you’re breaking, turning and opening and cutting him off, trying to stay in front. If he gets by, you’ve got to cut him off and take the right angles. It’s literally the same thing as a corner. ” As he has gotten older, Newman has not dedicated additional time to recovery. But he has a standing appointment with the Vikings’ contracted acupuncturist, Hilary Patzer, on Tuesday mornings even though he hates needles — or rather, he hated them until Patzer treated his tight back. “I thought she was a witch at first, from Salem,” Newman said, laughing. “But I’ve never looked back. ” Newman considers this hour, which also includes the ancient Chinese healing method known as cupping, a vital part of his weekly recovery. Depending on how much hitting he did in the previous game, pain often does not set in until Wednesday, when practice resumes. It usually dissipates by Thursday. “Out of nowhere, I’ll feel like I’m 26 again,” Newman said. He devotes part of his afternoon a few days a week to napping, this on top of the eight hours of sleep — up at 7:20 a. m. in bed by 11 p. m. — he makes sure he gets. Instead of braving traffic, he remains at the complex an extra 30 to 45 minutes, sitting in the massage chair or donning compression boots to facilitate leg circulation. When he returns the next day, he invariably hears some younger teammates talking about their aches. And this is what he tells them: “You’re walking around like I’m supposed to be walking around. You feel like I’m supposed to feel. ” Newman said he had not decided when he would retire. Could be after this season, or maybe next, depending on the demand for his services. But it will be soon, which saddens Gray, his secondary coach, who said he had seen no evidence that Newman’s body or mind was betraying him. Asked for an example of Newman’s mastery, Gray offered two, each of which resulted in an interception. The first came in a Week 10 victory last season at Oakland. Newman was supposed to thwart Amari Cooper’s release and then linger on the outside. But knowing he had a chance to undercut Cooper, Newman trusted his intuition and swooped inside. “I’m watching and thinking there’s no way,” Gray said. “I knew he knew that play because I know I didn’t coach him. ” The second example reflects Newman’s acumen. Late in the third quarter of a Week 3 win at Carolina this season, Newman matched up against Ted Ginn Jr. Trying to gain separation, Ginn ran tight with him for about 13 yards before making a move intended to force Newman to turn his hips in the opposite direction. It did not fool him. He knew that Ginn would come back, and when he did, Newman dashed in front to grab the ball along Carolina’s sideline. “It’s kind of like batters looking for pitches,” Newman said. “You try to see the ball coming out of their hand and see where the release point’s at. For us, though, it’s not as as that. ” At the line of scrimmage, he tries decrypting the quarterback’s cadence and audibles. He uploads receivers’ mannerisms. When the ball is snapped, the play unfolds, to him, in slow motion. He begins expecting a catalog of possible routes, all of which are predicated on timing, and based on the receiver’s release or the depth of the quarterback’s drop, he starts winnowing them down. Zimmer favors an aggressive defensive scheme that often asks cornerbacks to play press coverage, denying the receiver a free release off the line. Newman rides receivers, feeling the route, aiming to run it better than they can. But when he plays off coverage, leaving space between him and the receiver, Newman cheats, he said, by watching the first three steps of the quarterback’s drop — and sometimes even the first five. From studying the quarterback, Newman knows exactly how he receives the ball, steps, plants and turns his shoulders to throw. There are plays, Newman said, when he knows precisely what will happen. As he spoke, he happened to look up at the television in his apartment, which was showing a Monday night game between the Giants and the Bengals. Based on where Green, his former Cincinnati teammate, lined up, Newman predicted he would run a stop, a slant or, more likely, a screen (which is was Green did). Once Newman thought he had cracked Palmer’s copter signal from his armchair, he wanted to delve a bit into some of Arizona’s receivers. He prompted a snippet of Michael Floyd running a comeback, a basic route in which a receiver runs, stops and turns toward the quarterback. Only the most adept can stop without having their momentum drive them downfield. Many receivers, particularly bigger ones, slow themselves by making rapid chopping movements with their hands and dropping their bodies. “I’m not watching his hips I’m watching his entire frame,” Newman said. “When I see the body go from high to low, I know he’s making his move. That’s when I start to break. ” Newman moved on to Larry Fitzgerald, who lined up behind other receivers at the top of the screen. As Fitzgerald went in motion, Newman correctly posited that he was getting a jump on his over route, an angled dash across the middle. Newman did not know whether he would be defending Fitzgerald, but generally speaking, he said, he prefers playing taller receivers like Fitzgerald off the ball so that he can counter their height with his quickness. “It’s knowing what I do well versus what they don’t do as well,” Newman said. That is the essence of Newman’s preparation, the hours he invests scouring film, surveying weaknesses, searching for clues that will sustain his value to the Vikings. His pursuit consumes him, and no matter how often he talks on FaceTime with his “kind of girlfriend” in California, in those spare moments away from his teammates — or the restaurant staff members who know him, or the apartment building concierge who invited him to watch the Vikings play, not realizing Newman would be busy that day — loneliness still descends. “Football’s like my escape,” Newman said. “It’s my everything. ” He yawned. His tablet needed recharging, and so did he. Newman has many hobbies — golfing, traveling, flying drones — but as a budding oenophile, he is perhaps most passionate about wine: strictly red, usually cabernet sauvignon or pinot noir. When he drifts off to sleep, exhausted, his mind is blank, he said, blissfully uncluttered by routes and formations, quarterbacks and receivers, his football mortality. Except for one thing. “I just think about grapes,” he said.

AMSTERDAM — Geert Wilders, the politician who is seen as a likely contender to become prime minister when Dutch voters go to the polls next year, was convicted on Friday of inciting discrimination and of insulting a group for leading an chant at a political rally in the Netherlands. The judiciary panel found that Mr. Wilders, the leader of the Party for Freedom, violated Dutch law with his remarks on March 19, 2014, but it elected not to convict him of inciting hatred, and it imposed no punishment, rejecting the prosecutors’ request to fine him 5, 000 euros, or about $5, 300. Mr. Wilders was found to have violated laws on inciting discrimination and group offense when he led a crowd at a political rally around the time of municipal elections in The Hague in chanting, “Fewer, fewer” to the question “Do you want more or fewer Moroccans in this city and in the Netherlands?” The court, however, said that Mr. Wilders was not guilty of charges in connection with comments he made about Moroccans in a nationally broadcast TV program recorded at a public market a week before the rally. The effect of the verdict on Mr. Wilders and on his party’s chances when the Dutch elections are held in March is unclear, but the trial seems to have improved his party’s standing, rather than diminishing it, among voters. If the Party for Freedom wins the most seats in the elections, Mr. Wilders could become prime minister, and he would then have to form a coalition government with other willing parties. Prime Minister Mark Rutte, leader of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, said a year ago that he would refuse to join such a coalition unless Mr. Wilders retracted his comments about Moroccans. Mr. Rutte confirmed that sentiment at his weekly news conference on Friday, The Associated Press reported. Mr. Wilders, whose defense team said he would appeal the decision next week, was not present when the verdict was read by the chief judge, Hendrik Steenhuis, at a secured courtroom on a military base near Schiphol Airport, outside Amsterdam. The site was chosen to protect Mr. Wilders, who has been under constant guard because of death threats related to a long history of inflammatory comments, as well as the judge and prosecutors. “The most important thing is that he is found guilty of group insult and inciting discrimination,” said a spokesman for the public prosecution service, Frans Zonneveld. “For now, we’re very satisfied that he has been found guilty of these two charges. ” In their ruling, the judges said that Mr. Wilders’s comments at the rally had contributed to the further polarization of Dutch society by using “nationality as an ethnic designation” and that mutual respect was imperative in the “pluralistic” Netherlands. “He said that he was supported by millions of people and therefore was not to blame of offending a group,” Judge Steenhuis said. “It’s important to answer the question of whether he was guilty of this. That question is answered in our court system. We state that you cannot offend groups of people and discriminate against them. ” Mr. Wilders, who has taken a page out of Donald J. Trump’s playbook — he adopted the campaign slogan “Make the Netherlands Great Again” and attended the Republican convention in the United States — has repeatedly made vitriolic and inflammatory remarks about Islam, the Quran, immigrants and Dutch minority groups. Since the election of Mr. Trump, the Party for Freedom has been surging in the polls. “I still cannot believe it, but I have just been convicted because I asked a question about Moroccans,” Mr. Wilders said in a video that was posted online. “The Netherlands have become a sick country,” he added. “I have a message for the judges who convicted me: You have restricted the freedom of speech of millions of Dutch and hence convicted everyone. No one trusts you anymore. ” Peter Kanne, a pollster with IO Research, an independent Dutch polling organization, said the most recent data, released on Nov. 25, indicated that the Party for Freedom had gained support and was currently about even with the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, the leading party. “A lot of people mentioned that they’re really getting angry that he is being accused and judged only for what he said,” Mr. Kanne said. “They think that he said something that is true, and they’re very angry that a politician cannot say that in a society where there is freedom of speech. ” After Mr. Wilders’s comments about Moroccans in 2014, more than 6, 400 Dutch citizens filed complaints against him at local police offices. Of those complaints, 41 became individual claimants in the criminal trial, asking for up to €500 in “immaterial damages” per person. None will receive compensation from Mr. Wilders in the case, the panel ruled. Michiel Pestman, a lawyer representing some of the claimants, said that his clients were “happy with the results” but added that it was rare for criminal courts in the Netherlands to convict someone without imposing a penalty. “It’s a bit weird,” he said, but “the principled nature of the decision is more important than the compensation. ” He added, “The judge has ruled for the first time in the Netherlands that there are limits to what even a politician can say. ” Just before the official court proceedings began on Oct. 31, Mr. Wilders said on his blog that he would boycott what he called “a travesty” against freedom of speech, but he changed his mind and testified during the defense’s closing arguments. Regardless of the verdict, he said, “no one will be able to silence me. ”

percent of Americans say race relations are generally bad, one of the highest levels of discord since the 1992 riots in Los Angeles during the Rodney King case, according to the latest New York News poll. The poll, conducted from Friday, the day after the killing of five Dallas police officers, until Tuesday, found that six in 10 Americans say race relations were growing worse, up from 38 percent a year ago. Racial discontent is at its highest point in the Obama presidency and at the same level as after the riots touched off by the 1992 acquittal of Los Angeles police officers charged in Mr. King’s beating. Relations between black Americans and the police have become so brittle that more than half of black people say they were not surprised by the attack that killed five police officers and wounded nine others in Dallas last week. Nearly half of white Americans say that they, too, were unsurprised by the episode, the survey found. Despite President Obama’s insistence at a memorial service for the fallen officers that the races in the United States are “not as divided as we seem,” the poll found that black and white Americans hold starkly different views on race, particularly regarding the treatment of by the police. Asked whether the police in most communities are more likely to use deadly force against a black person than a white person, of answered yes, and only about half as many white people agree. percent of whites said that the race of the suspect made no difference in the use of force only 18 percent of black Americans said so. When asked to rate the job their local police department was doing, four in five whites said excellent or good a majority of blacks answered fair or poor. More than of black people say the police in their communities make them feel more anxious than safe. By wide margins, whites and Hispanics say the police make them feel safer. “I have been in situations where the police have made situations worse rather than better,” Ayesha Numan, 22, a black woman living in Kansas City, Mo. said in a interview. “That’s not to say that I write them off as all bad. I just have to be cautious of how they’re acting around me. ” Mr. Obama on Tuesday spoke at a memorial service in Dallas honoring the officers killed when Micah Johnson, a black Army veteran, opened fire at a protest last Thursday. Last week was among the most wrenching since the Black Lives Matter movement began three years ago: On days, videos were released showing the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile at the hands of the police, and the Dallas attack followed a day later. Black and white opinion is sharply divided on the aims and the approach of the Black Lives Matter movement. Seventy percent of are sympathetic to the movement, compared with only 37 percent of whites. Among all Americans, 41 percent agree with the movement, 25 percent disagree and 29 percent do not have an opinion either way. Support for Black Lives Matter correlates directly to age, with 50 percent of all adults younger than 30 saying they agree with the movement, compared with 20 percent who disagree with it. Among those 45 and older, 36 percent agree and 29 percent disagree. “The Black Lives Matter movement has given a younger generation a voice in civil rights,” Marc Morial, the president of the National Urban League, said. “The police are a flash point. The broader situation is always the underlying issues: the criminal justice system being broken, the higher unemployment among the slower recovery from the recession, the assault on voting rights and voter suppression. ” The nationwide News Poll was conducted July 8 to 12 on cellphones and landlines with 1, 600 adults, including 171 black respondents and 1, 207 whites. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points for all adults, three points for whites and nine points for blacks. percent of Americans have heard or read at least some news about the last week’s racially tinged violence — the shootings in Dallas and deaths of Mr. Castile and Mr. Sterling. Some feel skeptical of what they have seen and heard of police shootings. “A lot of the times you see video, and most of it’s after the altercation. You really don’t see what happens before that,” said Roger Boulanger, 46, who is white and lives in Mendon, Mass. He said that race relations were generally bad, but he did not perceive them as being worse recently. “I don’t want to say it’s 100 percent that every time someone gets shot, it’s just the police being racist,” he said. “I don’t think that. ”

Sometimes, something bad happens, and it creates huge financial market swings and economic ripples. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were an example, as was the 2011 Japanese nuclear disaster. But the Brexit is different. The immediate financial downturn after Britain voted Thursday to leave the European Union resembles the fallout from those disasters. But the other events were largely disconnected from the broader economic currents of their time. They were events, at least in terms of their economic ramifications. What makes Brexit so concerning is that it accentuates and deepens global forces that have been building for years. So far, governments have been unable to limit any of it. And those forces have dimensions that make it a particularly perilous time for the global economy, even though the type of panic that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 looks unlikely. Britain accounts for less than 4 percent of world G. D. P. Most people on Earth don’t really have a rooting interest in the exact details of the nation’s trade relationship with the rest of Europe. But its decision to leave the European Union is making more powerful six interrelated forces that already weigh on the global economy: Low inflation There is a glut of global commodities, particularly oil. There is a glut of labor, with elevated unemployment in much of the world. Inflation has been persistently below the 2 percent mark that major central banks aim for, and shows little sign of rising. And since the Brexit decision, markets are signaling that those forces have become even more energized. The price of oil fell 7. 5 percent from Thursday to Monday’s close, despite little reason to think that the British referendum will cause any major changes in, for example, the supply of oil from oil reserves that the nation controls. And bond markets are priced at levels that imply the years ahead will have lower inflation that was priced in before the Brexit news. While high inflation is often seen as the greater threat, in the last few years economists have viewed inflation — which can discourage spending and investment and make debts more onerous — as the more pressing concern. In the United States, bond market prices imply that investors now expect annual inflation of 1. 37 percent a year through 2026, down from 1. 55 percent on Thursday before the vote’s results, a drop of 0. 18 of a percentage point in Germany, the drop was 0. 13 of a point and in Japan 0. 10 of a point. (The one exception: Britain itself, which will almost certainly see much higher inflation in the coming years because of a drop in its currency. Strong dollar The United States dollar has been on a tear. The dollar index, measuring its value against six other major currencies, is up more than 20 percent in the last two years. Some of this reflects good health: The United States economy is reasonably strong, with steady growth since 2009 and a 4. 7 percent unemployment rate. That has led the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates once and contemplate further moves. Some of the dollar rally reflects a more negative global outlook. The economies of Europe, Japan and many emerging markets have remained exceptionally weak, making the United States look comparatively fantastic. Factor in the United States’ traditional role as the beacon of stability in turbulent times, and American assets look more attractive than their underlying economics would suggest. Most worrisome is that there are some feedback loops between the strong dollar and economic weakness abroad. Many international companies, especially in China and emerging markets, owe debt in dollars, so a stronger dollar makes their debts more onerous and creates spillover economic weakness. And the stronger dollar is undermining American exporters, slowing growth in the United States. Brexit is only accentuating this. The dollar index is up 3 percent since Thursday, most significantly because of the collapse in value of the British pound, but it is also up against the euro. Impotent monetary policy The world’s central banks are well aware of these forces, of course, and are trying to combat them. The European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan are in the middle of huge programs to try to pump money into their financial systems by buying assets. The Federal Reserve and the Bank of England have been delaying interest rate increases in hopes of achieving higher inflation and more solid growth. So far it hasn’t been enough to get inflation persistently up to 2 percent or achieve sustained strong growth. And it is an open question if more of the same will change anything, particularly given that the economic challenges emanating from Britain are more because of existential questions of national identity than because of a business slowdown. Nonetheless, in the aftermath of Brexit, analysts and financial markets are now pricing in even slower interest rate increases for the Fed and the Bank of England, and a real possibility of yet more easing programs by the E. C. B. and the Bank of Japan. Low interest rates Remember back in December when the Federal Reserve raised interest rates? That day, Treasury bonds were yielding 2. 3 percent. Those bonds had fallen to 1. 74 percent by Thursday (the Fed controls interest rates directly, but rates are set in the open market). In the two trading days since the Brexit vote, that rate has fallen to 1. 44 percent. Other bond markets, including across Europe and in Britain itself, have also experienced falling rates. Germany, Switzerland and several other European countries even have negative interest rates, meaning a person who buys a bond and holds on to it will lose money. That’s very much related to the decline in investors’ expectations for lower inflation and more central bank activism. But it may also reflect a “fear premium” as investors throw money into anything that seems safe — even if it means they are guaranteed to lose money. Weak growth This is the underlying story behind all of these other market currents. Europe is only now returning to its 2007 level of economic output Japan’s growth is so low it is constantly bouncing in and out of recession status. In developing markets, Brazil is in recession and China is slowing. Britain and the United States are doing better, but only by the diminished global standards of the 21st century. You can have endless debates about the underlying causes. Is this the inevitable result of a lull in productivity growth, a result of bad policy or bad luck, or some mix? Either way, the reality is that the global economy seems locked into lower growth than had been the norm in the decades before 2007. Britain’s E. U. vote raises the risk of further dragging down that growth rate, particularly if there is a prolonged period of uncertainty around the country’s fate or a permanent breakdown in the trade ties that make an economy richer. Political instability All of this is creating a toxic political environment in much of the advanced world, driving greater polarization and the flocking of voters to candidates outside the mainstream. Brexit is the most recent example, supported as it was by Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson. The rise of nationalist parties in Continental Europe is another prime example, as are the popularity of Donald J. Trump and Bernie Sanders in the United States Jeremy Corbyn in Britain and the Podemos party in Spain. Of course, less conventional politicians could turn out to succeed at generating stronger economic conditions where parties of the center have failed. But if nothing else, the widening of the ideological spectrum creates a wider range of possible outcomes — including some that would surely be very negative for financial markets and the global economy. Again, none of these stand in isolation. Each is deeply related — either as cause, effect or both. And each has been pushed further by Britain’s choice. Where the cycle ends, and when, no one knows.

By Paul Craig Roberts on November 3, 2016 Hillary’s crimes might cost her the election, but she won’t go to jail. by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts The Federal Bureau of Investigation is reviewing another slew of emails related to Hillary Clinton’s private server. Aren’t you surprised that Hillary and the presstitutes haven’t blamed Putin for FBI director Comey’s reopening of the Hillary email case? But the presstitutes have done the next best thing for Hillary. They have made Comey the issue, not Hillary. According to US Senator Harry Reid and the presstitutes, we don’t need to worry about Hillary’s crimes. After all, she is only a political woman feathering her nest, just as political men have done for ages. Why all this misogynist talk about Hillary? The presstitutes’ cry is that Comey’s alleged crime is far more important. This woman-hating Republican violated the Hatch Act by telling Congress that the investigation he said was closed is now reopened. A very strange interpretation of the Hatch Act. During an election it is OK to announce that a candidate for president is cleared but it is not OK to say that a candidate is under investigation. In July 2016 Comey violated the Hatch Act when he, on orders from the corrupt Obama Attorney General, announced Hillary clean. In so doing, Comey used the prestige of federal clearance of Hillary’s violation of national security protocols to boost her standing in the election polls. Actually, Hillary’s standing in the polls is based on the pollsters over-weighting Hillary supporters in the polls. It is easy to produce a favorite if you overweight their supporters in the poll questions. If you look at the crowds attending the two candidate’s public appearances, it is clear that the American people prefer Donald Trump, who is opposed to war with Russia and China. War with nuclear powers is the big issue of the election. Hillary’s problem has the ruling American Oligarchy, for which Hillary is the total servant, concerned. What are they going to do about Trump if he wins? Will his fate be the same as John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, George Wallace? Time will tell. Or will a hotel maid appear at the last minute in the way that the Oligarchy got rid of Dominique Strauss-Kahn? Dominique Strauss Kahn indicted by Grand Jury and out on six million dollar bailout, but could he have been set up? All of the American and Western feminists, progressives, and left-wing remnant fell for the obvious frame-up of Strauss-Kahn. After Strauss-Kahn was blocked from the presidency of France and resigned as Director of the IMF, the New York authorities had to drop all charges against Strauss-Kahn. But Washington succeeded in removing Strauss-Kahn as a challenge to its French vassal, Sarkozy. This is how the American Oligarchy destroys those it suspects might not serve its interests. The corrupt self-serving Oligarchy makes sure that it owns the government and the media, the think tanks and increasingly all of the major universities, and, of course, through the presstitutes, Americans’ minds. The Oligarchs are now hard-pressed to rescue Hillary as US president, so let’s see if the Oligarchs can once again deceive the American people. While we wait, let’s concern ourselves with another important issue. The Clinton crime syndicate in the closing years of the 20th century allowed a small handful of mega-corporations to consolidate the US media in a few hands. This vast increase in the power of the Oligarchy was accomplished despite US anti-trust law. The media mergers destroyed the American tradition of a dispersed and independent media. But really, what does federal law mean to the One Percent. Nothing whatsoever. The One Percent’s power makes them immune to law. Hillary’s crimes might cost her the election, but she won’t go to jail. Not content with 90% control of the US media, the Oligarchy wants more concentration and more control. Looks like they will be getting it, thanks to the corrupt US government. The Federal Trade Commission is supposed to enforce US anti-trust law. Instead, the federal agency routinely violates US anti-trust law by permitting monopoly concentrations of business interests. Because of the failure of the federal government to enforce federal law, we now have “banks too big to fail,” unregulated Internet monopoly, and the evisceration of a dispersed and independent media. Not so long ago there was a field of economics known as anti-trust. Ph.D. candidates specialized in and wrote dissertations about public control of monopoly power. I assume that this field of economics, like the America of my youth, no longer exists. In the article below, Rahul Manchanda, explains that “yet again another huge media conglomerate is being swallowed and acquired by another huge media conglomerate, to create another gargantuan media outlet, in another consolidation of the enormous power, money, wealth, intimidation, conspiracy and control” that eviscerates the US Constitution and the First Amendment.

Email Donald Trump’s campaign debuted a dark new attack ad on Tuesday, looking to further its portrayal of Hillary Clinton as a corrupt politician and doubling down on allegations that she grew wealthy through “pay-to-play politics.”The TV spot hits Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, on controversies related to her family’s foundation, stating that “staggering amounts of cash poured into the Clinton Foundation from criminals, dictators, countries that hate America” and that “Hillary cut deals for donors.” Clinton’s charitable foundation has faced intense scrutiny this election over concerns about possible conflicts of interest because it took in money from corporations and foreign governments. Clinton has repeatedly denied, however, that her work as secretary of state was compromised by the foundation’s work or that she gave any special privileges to its donors.The Clintons have also said that the foundation, which contributes to AIDS relief abroad, among other charitable causes, will cease taking money from corporations and foreign governments if she is elected president.Still, the ad from the Republican nominee claims that Clinton “sold out American workers, exploited Haitians in need, she even gave American uranium rights to the Russians.”“Hillary Clinton only cares about power, money and herself,” its voice over concludes.The advertisement is another instance of Trump, an embattled candidate in an already divisive race, going on the offensive as the presidential campaign enters its final weeks. As Trump trails in the polls and high-profile Republicans abandon him, he has attacked Clinton and her husband’s character, going so far as to bring women who had accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct to watch the second debate in St. Louis last weekend.Some Republicans had called for him to drop out of the race after a 2005 recording emerged showing him bragging about sexual assault last week. But, attacking even Republican establishment figures like Speaker Paul Ryan and Arizona Sen. John McCain, Trump has promised to plow forward, and some observers suggest he has little to lose.“It is so nice that the shackles have been taken off me and I can now fight for America the way I want to,” he tweeted on Tuesday.

Unconfirmed reports of gunfire at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday caused panic in the airport and on social media as passengers fled outside and the police raced to respond. About an hour after the first panicked reports appeared on social media, Andy Neiman, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department, wrote on Twitter that the reports had been caused by “loud noises only. ” Terminals 1, 2, 3 and 5, as well as the Tom Bradley International Terminal, were evacuated by the police, the airport said. There was a “self evacuation” from Terminal 4, said Rob Pedregon, a spokesman for the airport police, who referred to those who fled as “panicked passengers. ” The airport said in a statement that it had closed several levels of its central terminal area, though it had not confirmed the reports of shooting. The episode was remarkably similar to one that occurred two weeks earlier, when unconfirmed reports of gunfire at Kennedy International Airport in New York led the police to evacuate two terminals there, causing hysteria among passengers whose fears were exacerbated by unconfirmed reports spread on social media. Video from the airport posted to social media from Los Angeles on Sunday showed travelers running outside the airport as police cruisers rushed by in the opposite direction. The interior of the terminal appeared to have been abandoned by civilians as the police searched for any sign of a shooter. Just as at Kennedy, the fear felt by travelers in Los Angeles was a reminder of recent attacks at airports in Istanbul and Brussels, and the way those episodes can prompt a panic response to the threat of violence in public spaces. Responding to the episode at Kennedy, Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York asked last week that the Department of Homeland Security conduct a formal investigation. “In the age of terror attacks, it is a national priority to make sure targets, like our airports, are best prepared to recognize, diffuse and professionally handle the very real threats that confront us,” he said.

On Sunday’s broadcast of NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Sen. Lindsey Graham ( ) said President Donald Trump should “back off” and stop tweeting or comment about the investigation into Russian interference into the 2016 presidential election. Partial transcript as follows: GRAHAM: Well, I think we need to have Comey come before the Judiciary Committee and clear the air. Did the president ever say anything to the director of the FBI that would be construed as trying to impede the investigation? The president called me about the firing and he referenced the Comey testimony last week and the judiciary committee about how bad it was. So, that’s all I know. But I think it’s time to call the FBI director before the country at large and explain what happened at that dinner. If there are any tapes, they have to be turned over. You can’t be cute about tapes. If there are tapes of this conversation, they need to be turned over. I doubt if there are. But we have to clear the air there also. TODD: Let me put up that tweet where the president put the word tapes in quotes. so, we don’t know quite what that means. but did — did you think that constituted a threat to Comey? GRAHAM: I think it was inappropriate. I think it requires somebody like me, a Republican, to call Comey before the Judiciary Committee to let him explain that conversation. Right now, I do not believe President Trump is a target or subject of any investigation regarding collusion with the Russians. That’s what I believe. But this tweet has to be answered. I would advise the president not to tweet or comment about the investigation, as we go forward. The russians did interfere in our election. I don’t think they changed the outcome. I have no evidence of collusion. But the president needs to back off and let the investigation go forward. ( The Hill) Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

Dienstag, 22. November 2016 Facebook geht gegen Fake-News vor: Alle Meldungen von Bild.de und Focus.de gelöscht Menlo Park (dpo) - Hunderttausende Facebook-User dürften sich heute Morgen verwundert die Augen gerieben haben: Das soziale Netzwerk hat durch eine Änderung seines Algorithmus sämtliche Meldungen von Bild.de und Focus.de mit sofortiger Wirkung aus seiner Timeline verbannt. Ziel der Maßnahme sei es, die massenhafte Verbreitung von Fake-News einzudämmen, teilte das Unternehmen heute mit. Auch die Facebook-Seiten der Fake-News-Seiten Bild ( https://www.facebook.com/biId/ ) und Focus ( https://www.facebook.com/focus-onIine/ ) wurden gelöscht und sind nicht mehr erreichbar. "Desinformation ist kein Kavaliersdelikt", so Facebook-Boss Mark Zuckerberg. "Zwei der schlimmsten Sünder haben wir aus dem Verkehr gezogen. Weitere werden folgen." Hier und da könne zwar immer noch eine Nachricht durchrutschen, so der Facebook-Gründer. "Wir arbeiten aber mit Hochdruck daran, dass das in Zukunft nicht mehr passiert." Sollten User noch einzelne Bild - oder Focus -Nachrichten in der Timeline haben, helfe nur eines. "Ignorieren!" Typische "Meldungen" auf Focus Online und Bild Falsche Nachrichten waren in den vergangenen Tagen und Wochen von vielen Beobachtern für den Wahlsieg von Donald Trump mitverantwortlich gemacht worden. Auch die Bundestagswahl 2017 läuft möglicherweise Gefahr, von Fake-Nachrichtenportalen massiv beeinflusst zu werden. Angeblich sollen einschlägige Falschnews-Verbreiter wie Bild.de und Focus.de sogar ganze Redaktionen beschäftigen, die täglich Hunderte Fake-Meldungen ausstoßen – der Schaden für die Gesellschaft ist noch gar nicht abschätzbar. "News" Bei Bild.de, einem der größten Player, ist man selbst überrascht über die Gutgläubigkeit des Publikums. "Dass das so lange gut gegangen ist, hätten ich nie gedacht", so Julian Reichelt, der sogenannte Chefredakteur der Seite. "Keine Ahnung, warum so viele Menschen unsere Meldungen zu Pietro und Sarah Lombardis Trennung oder das neueste Tattoo von Sophia Thomalla für Nachrichten gehalten haben." Er muss jetzt neue Wege finden, um seine Fake-News im Internet zu verbreiten. In der "Redaktion" von Focus Online wiederum ist man sogar froh über die Löschung. "Wir schreiben ohnehin immer nur Bild-Artikel minimal um und veröffentlichen die dann mit einer Clickbait-Überschrift oder einem fiesen Spruch gegen Migranten neu. Wenn wir nicht auf Facebook sehen, was gerade gut auf Bild.de läuft, wissen wir eh nicht mehr, worüber wir berichten sollen", so Focus-Chef Daniel Steil, der beim Standesamt einen Antrag eingereicht hat, seinen Namen in Julian "wie mein zweiter Vorname lautet, wird Sie überraschen" Reichelt ändern zu lassen. Medienexperten raten Usern im Netz prinzipiell zur Vorsicht – und zur Skepsis. Seriöse Nachrichtenportale, deren Meldungen man ernst nehmen kann, erkenne man vor allem an ihrer schlichten Schwarz-Weiß-Optik. Sie hätten in der Regel ein Posthorn und Steckenpferd im Logo (oder beides, das ist noch glaubwürdiger!) und seien langjährig am Markt erfolgreich, zum Beispiel schon seit 1845. swo, ssi, dan

Ten years or so ago, as the actor Alec Baldwin remembers it, the gallery owner Mary Boone sent him an invitation to a show of work by the painter Ross Bleckner, an artist whom she represented and he had befriended. The card featured a reproduction of Mr. Bleckner’s “Sea and Mirror,” a work from 1996, when the artist was at the height of his popularity. So began Mr. Baldwin’s love affair with the painting — an infatuation that has ended with Mr. Baldwin, who occupies a central role in New York’s cultural life, now pitted in a bitter dispute with two formidable players in the city’s rarefied world of art and money — Ms. Boone, a prominent art dealer, and Mr. Bleckner, one of her notable talents. This has, to say the least, become awkward. For years, Mr. Baldwin said he carried the image of “Sea and Mirror” in his shoulder bag, alongside a picture of one of his daughters and his father. In 2010, he asked Ms. Boone to find the collector who owned it and pry it away. “There was a kind of beauty and simplicity” to the work, Mr. Baldwin recalled in an interview this month. Happily, she reported back, the collector would sell — but at a premium. Mr. Baldwin put up the $190, 000. “I love this thing so much,” he said in a 2012 speech about support for the arts at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, proudly recounting his quest. “Three months later it was hanging in my house, in my apartment in New York. ” But Mr. Baldwin said that something about the painting always gave him unease. The colors weren’t quite the same. It smelled, somehow, new. In fact, he said, just a few months ago he discovered that he had not bought the painting he pined for. Instead, he said, for reasons that remain disputed, Ms. Boone sent him another version of the painting. He claims she passed it off as the original. “I thought she had made my dream come true,” Mr. Baldwin said. Instead, he said he believed that Ms. Boone, frustrated that the collector would not agree to sell, persuaded Mr. Bleckner to take an unfinished work from the same series, finish painting it and sell it to him without saying a word. Mr. Bleckner’s office said he could not be reached for comment. Ms. Boone, through her lawyer, disputed Mr. Baldwin’s account, asserting he was never misled about the identity of the work. “He’s wrong that the painting is a copy it’s an original and very fine work of art by Ross Bleckner,” Ms. Boone’s lawyer, Ted Poretz, said in a statement. Mr. Baldwin, however, has emails that buttress parts of his account. The Boone gallery also stamped a number — 7449 — on the back of the painting it sold to Mr. Baldwin, the same number it had listed next to the work it had said it was pursuing from the collector. Mr. Baldwin said he met with the Manhattan district attorney’s office this summer but was told that a criminal case could not be made. Ms. Boone’s lawyer declined to address in full the issues raised by the emails or the number next to the painting. “The gallery never likes to have unhappy clients,” Mr. Poretz said in his statement, “and it has turned cartwheels to try to satisfy Alec Baldwin. It has repeatedly offered Alec Baldwin a full refund, among other things. ” The interaction is hardly the first to end badly in an opaque, largely unregulated art market. It raises questions about why works created in one era by an artist, operating under one set of motivations, are sometimes different in value and reputation, compared with works that were perhaps created by the same artist in another era. But to Mr. Baldwin, the concerns are not nearly so esoteric: He contends he was betrayed. “Ross was a kind of friend of mine,” Mr. Baldwin said. He continues to be a Bleckner supporter. Mr. Baldwin’s foundation helped to underwrite an exhibition this month on Long Island that featured Mr. Bleckner’s paintings. He owns five of Mr. Bleckner’s works. Mr. Baldwin said that the flamboyant, outspoken Ms. Boone, from whom he sometimes bought art, admitted this year that she had switched the works. “She said, ‘I didn’t want to disappoint you,’” he said. Mr. Baldwin, who met Mr. Bleckner at parties in the Hamptons, where the actor owns a home, became an admirer of his work in the 1990s. Mr. Bleckner, who had a Guggenheim retrospective in 1995 at 45, had been an ascendant art star of the 1980s. He belonged to a stable of young artists who helped Ms. Boone build her reputation in the ’80s, though two of her stars from that time, Eric Fischl and David Salle, have since left for rival dealers. Mr. Baldwin bought his first Bleckner from Ms. Boone in 2010, and during that transaction mentioned that he really wanted “Sea and Mirror. ” The painting had sold at auction at Sotheby’s in 2007 for $121, 000. Ms. Boone told Mr. Baldwin in an email that the collector now sought $175, 000 for it. “The Gallery normally charges ten to twenty percent for this kind of transaction,” she wrote. “To make this a friendly deal, we would charge you even less — $190, 000,” before adding, “I know Ross is so thrilled for you to have a painting and so am I. ” Mr. Poretz said that shortly afterward Mr. Baldwin was told that, in fact, he was getting a different version of “Sea and Mirror. ” “By the time Alec Baldwin paid for the painting and it was delivered to him, he should not have misunderstood what he purchased,” Mr. Poretz said in his statement. Mr. Baldwin denies he was ever told he would be receiving a different work. He said that when he received the canvas, he noticed the composition lacked a feathery quality in the brush strokes he had admired in the photos of the work sold at Sotheby’s, and seemed brighter. Ms. Boone told him, he said, that it had been newly cleaned as a courtesy. This year, his suspicions growing, he sent emails to Mr. Bleckner and Ms. Boone inquiring about the collector from whom he had bought the painting and about the cleaning. According to copies of the emails, Mr. Bleckner responded that he did not know the name of the collector. Mr. Baldwin says Mr. Bleckner did not point out that that transaction had never gone through. Mr. Bleckner also discussed how he might have done the cleaning. “I would usually do that,” he wrote to Mr. Baldwin, “although I don’t actually remember. ” Mr. Baldwin finally had a Sotheby’s expert compare his painting to a catalog image from the 2007 auction. The expert said, “This is not that painting,” Mr. Baldwin recalled. He then confronted Ms. Boone and Mr. Bleckner. He said they acknowledged having given him another work. Mr. Baldwin has an email in which Mr. Bleckner is deeply apologetic but does not directly address about what. “im so sorry about all of this,” he wrote. “I feel so bad about this … what can I do to make this up to you?” He said Mr. Bleckner told him that he had started the painting in 1996 and finished it in 2010, though he had dated it 1996. “I don’t know what Ross knew,” Mr. Baldwin said. “Ross may have been instructed to make a copy. I don’t know. ” This summer, as Mr. Baldwin complained to Ms. Boone, he gave her an ultimatum. “Deliver to me the painting that I bought. The one you sold me,” he wrote in an email. Ms. Boone again asked Sotheby’s to contact the owner of the painting sold at auction in 2007, according to an email supplied by Mr. Baldwin. The collector, whose identity remains a mystery, was still not interested in selling. Ms. Boone’s lawyer, Mr. Poretz, also contacted Mr. Baldwin to try to settle the matter. In an interview, Mr. Baldwin acknowledged that the work he has was created by Mr. Bleckner and that it looks quite similar to the painting he coveted. But he said it was not the work he had fallen in love with — not a painting, in his view, created when the artist was at the peak of his fame. Still, he told Ms. Boone in a recent email, he did not want to hurt Mr. Bleckner. “I’m less worried about you, Mary,” he wrote, “as you are more of an armadillo and I’m sure you have been blasting your way out of corners like this on more than one occasion. ” Ms. Boone wrote back to say that she was working to get him the work he wanted. “I am not an Armadillo however,” she added.

President Obama said Monday that Colin Kaepernick, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback, was “exercising his constitutional right” by refusing to stand during the national anthem, a decision that has fostered considerable controversy since he first took the action on Aug. 26. While noting the significance of the flag and the national anthem, the president said there was a long history of sports figures making political statements. “I think he cares about some real, legitimate issues that have to be talked about,” President Obama said during a news conference in China. “And if nothing else, what he’s done is he’s generated more conversation around some topics that need to be talked about. ” It was the first time that the president had weighed in on Kaepernick’s actions, which many have criticized as being disrespectful to the United States. Kaepernick, who is biracial and was adopted by white parents, first caused an uproar late last month when he remained seated before a 49ers preseason game with the Green Bay Packers. He said afterward that he would not “stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. ” Last Thursday, before the team’s final preseason game, in San Diego, Kaepernick chose to kneel during the anthem. He later said he intended to continue his protest into the regular N. F. L. season. The 49ers play their first game next Monday. “Once again, I’m not ” Kaepernick said Thursday. “I love America. I love people. That’s why I’m doing this. I want to help make America better. I think having these conversations helps everybody have a better understanding of where everybody is coming from. ” Not long ago, Kaepernick was one of the game’s top players, leading the 49ers to the Super Bowl in the 2012 season and to the N. F. C. championship game the next year. But he was benched halfway through last season and will start the 2016 season as the backup to Blaine Gabbert. Kaepernick was frequently booed during the team’s final preseason game, and the police union in Santa Clara, Calif. has threatened to stop working 49ers home games this season because of Kaepernick’s actions. Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, is among those who have denounced him. Nevertheless, his stance has also led to numerous expressions of support, with backers arguing that his protest is a worthy statement on the troubled status of race relations in the United States. And even though he is a backup quarterback, his jersey is now the seller at the N. F. L. ’s official online store. Seattle defensive back Jeremy Lane said he would continue to sit for the national anthem when the Seahawks’ regular season begins Sunday at home, The Associated Press reported. After Lane sat during the anthem in the Seahawks’ preseason game last Thursday, he said, Kaepernick reached out to thank him for his support and his gesture. Megan Rapinoe, one of America’s most prominent soccer players, knelt during a National Women’s Soccer League match on Sunday in support of Kaepernick. She told espnW that she was disgusted by how Kaepernick has been treated, and would continue to kneel throughout the season. “Quite honestly, being gay, I have stood with my hand over my heart during the national anthem and felt like I haven’t had my liberties protected, so I can absolutely sympathize with that feeling,” she said. Tim Kaine, the Democratic nominee, told ABC News that Kaepernick’s rationale “didn’t really make that much sense to me,” but supported his right to protest. “You’ve got to respect people’s ability to act according to their conscience, so I wouldn’t presume to tell him what to do,” he said.

Sheldon Silver, who rose from the Lower East Side of Manhattan to become one of the state’s most powerful and feared politicians as speaker of the New York Assembly, was sentenced on Tuesday to 12 years in prison in a case that came to symbolize Albany’s culture of graft. The conviction of Mr. Silver, 72, served as a capstone to a campaign against public corruption by Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, which has led to more than a dozen state lawmakers’ being convicted or pleading guilty. But none had the power, cachet or longevity that Mr. Silver, a Democrat, had enjoyed, and prosecutors sought to make an example of him. They asked that he receive a sentence greater than the terms that had been “imposed on other New York State legislators convicted of public corruption offenses. ” The longest such sentence cited by the government was 14 years, the term imposed last year in the case of another former Democratic assemblyman, William F. Boyland Jr. who was tried and convicted in federal court in Brooklyn. Judge Valerie E. Caproni of Federal District Court in Manhattan noted that even before Mr. Silver’s arrest, when some of his fellow legislators had been arrested on corruption charges, he remained undeterred. “One would think that the image of Mr. Silver’s colleagues being arrested and led off to jail would have caused someone who was basically honest to reappraise what was going on,” Judge Caproni said. Instead, she said, Mr. Silver “stopped nothing,” continuing to lie to his staff and to the press while holding himself out as “a paragon of virtue. ” Judge Caproni said that there had been an “incalculable, intangible harm” to the people of New York, and that the cumulative effect of public corruption “makes the public very cynical. ” She then listed some of Mr. Silver’s misdeeds and addressed him directly: “Mr. Silver, those are not the actions of a basically honest person. ” In court, Carrie H. Cohen, an assistant United States attorney, had asked that Mr. Silver’s sentence “reflect the massive damage caused to the public by his crimes. ” The sentence, Ms. Cohen continued, should send a message that this is not the way “business is done in Albany, or at least that it shouldn’t be, and that no one, including Sheldon Silver, is above the law. ” Mr. Silver briefly addressed the court before his sentence was delivered, saying he had let down his constituents, family and colleagues. “I’m truly, truly sorry for that,” he said. Mr. Silver was convicted on Nov. 30 of charges that included honest services fraud, money laundering and extortion. Upon his conviction, he forfeited his Assembly seat. Two weeks later, Dean G. Skelos, who as majority leader had been Mr. Silver’s Republican counterpart in the State Senate, was also convicted of corruption. Mr. Skelos is to be sentenced on May 12 a week later, John L. Sampson, a former leader of the Senate Democrats, will face his own sentencing. Prosecutors’ scrutiny of New York lawmakers continues: Several inquiries are now focused on possible wrongdoing connected to the administrations of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, both Democrats. To date, however, Mr. Silver’s precipitous fall has no recent rival in the world of New York politics. In a statement issued moments after the sentencing, Mr. Bharara said that the “stiff sentence is a just and fitting end to Sheldon Silver’s long career of corruption. ” Mr. Silver had served for more than two decades as the Assembly speaker, imposing his will on matters large and small he had a reputation as a staunch defender of New York City, a shrewd negotiator in budget talks and, at times, a recalcitrant opponent of anything he disliked. But during a trial last fall, a different side of Mr. Silver emerged. Evidence showed that he had obtained nearly $4 million in illicit fees in return for taking official actions that benefited a prominent cancer researcher, Dr. Robert N. Taub, at Columbia University, and two real estate developers, Glenwood Management and the Witkoff Group. Mr. Silver had expressed regret that his actions made the State Capitol the object of ridicule. In a letter sent last month to Judge Caproni, he offered an emotional apology, saying that he had “failed the people of New York. ” His lawyers had argued that the former speaker should be allowed to use his “unique talents” to benefit others, and that a sentence that incorporates “extensive community service and little — if any — incarceration could do that. ” Mr. Silver’s lawyers had suggested that he could work with the Fortune Society to help current and former inmates find jobs. One of Mr. Silver’s lawyers, Joel Cohen, told the judge that his client had been “devastated” and “crushed” by everything that had happened. Notwithstanding everything he has done, Mr. Cohen said, “his obituary has already been written. ” Another prosecutor, Howard S. Master, on Tuesday questioned the authenticity of Mr. Silver’s contrition, noting he had insisted that he would be exonerated “until the very moment of the jury’s verdict. ” Judge Caproni, citing Mr. Silver’s age, said she would not adhere to sentencing guidelines that recommended a term of roughly 22 to 27 years, calling such a sentence “draconian and unjust. ” The court’s probation office had recommended a sentence. The judge ordered that Mr. Silver forfeit more than $5 million in proceeds from his crimes and pay a $1. 75 million fine. She rejected a defense assertion that Mr. Silver’s actions had not caused “discernible harm. ” She said the specter of corruption made it impossible to know whether government officials were making decisions for the right reasons or for personal financial gain. His crimes “cast a shadow over everything he has done and has thrown into doubt every difficult decision any legislator has ever made,” the judge said. Mr. Silver must surrender himself by noon on July 1 his lawyers have requested that he serve at the Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, N. Y. a prison known for its familiarity with the housing of prisoners who, like Mr. Silver, are Orthodox Jews. Governor Cuomo said on Tuesday: “Today’s decision sent a simple message that officials who abuse the public’s trust will be held accountable. Justice was served. ” Last month, prosecutors, in a written submission to the judge, offered what they said was additional evidence of the ways Mr. Silver had abused his office “for personal benefit,” by helping two women with whom he had conducted extramarital affairs. One of the women had regularly lobbied Mr. Silver on behalf of clients with business before the state he had “used his official position,” prosecutors said, to help the other woman get a state job. Mr. Silver’s lawyers said after the hearing that his case would be appealed. Mr. Silver, addressing a crowd of reporters, said, “I believe in the justice system in this nation, and we’ll pursue whatever remedies the system makes available. ”

Print version Font Size On Wednesday, October 26, Russian President Vladimir Putin took part in the plenary session of "Forum for Action. Crimea" in Yalta. Putin paid special attention to urgent problems for residents of the peninsula.The forum is organized by the All-Russian People's Front with over 300 people participating - People's Front activists, federal and regional experts, representatives of executive authorities and journalists.Putin reminded that the People's Front was the first public association to have started working in the Crimea after the referendum on the status of the peninsula. A lot has been done since then, but there is even more to do, the Russian president said. According to Putin, one needs to focus on sensitive issues in the first place. It goes about such issues as the modernization of social infrastructure, transport sector update and creation of new jobs."I hope that activists of the People's Front will continue their work to monitor and analyze most pressing problems that the people of the Crimea worry about most," said Putin. Previous forums ("Forum for Action" took place in Stavropol and Yoshkar-Ola this year - ed.) have shown that such events provide an opportunity not only to exchange views, but also to find ways to solve problems.Putin spoke about the measures to overcome attempts to blockade the peninsula .According to him, the issues of energy and water blockade of the peninsula have been solved and removed from the agenda within the shortest period of time possible. The construction of the transport passage across the Kerch Strait continues according to schedule, the president added. "I hope that all approaches to the bridge and all the necessary infrastructure will be ready on time and with quality," he added.In the future, the Crimean bridge will allow to transport up to 14 million travelers and 13 million vehicles a year.Those who try to blockade the Crimea are "amazing idiots," Putin said. "Did they think that the people would kneel and beg in front of them? Amazing idiots," Putin said. "With regard to the termination of water or electricity supplies - all this stands on the verge of a crime against humanity. Let's take a sufficiently large region with many millions of people living in it - 2.6 million people live in the Crimea - and cut the region from water and electricity supplies in winter," the president said. "It appears that our human rights organizations have swallowed their tongues and sown up their mouths and do not say a word, but as a matter of fact, it goes about a serious crime," Putin stressed out. Putin stressed out the importance of the process of the rehabilitation of Crimea's indigenous people. The federal program of development of the peninsula will assign ten billion rubles for the purpose. "First of all, we are talking about the socio-economic support, because political issues have been resolved. It goes about language, culture and education in people's mother tongue," Putin said.The president noted that many villages of the Crimean Tatars remain in a deplorable state and lack even essential merits of civilization, such as electricity and roads. This resource, the president said, is limited and would only embrace the indigenous peoples who live on the peninsula at the moment."Any funds allocated by either the Russian Federation or a republic, or by Sebastopol should be kept under public control," the president said.Vladimir Putin has the right to visit any Russian regions, including the Crimea, official spokesman for the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, said commenting on a note of protest from Kiev. Ukraine sent a note of protest to Moscow in connection with Vladimir Putin's visit to the Crimea. "Ukraine traditionally protests, as we traditionally do not take these protests into account. The President visits the regions of the Russian Federation that he considers necessary to visit. This is an internal affair of Russia, and it does not concern any other state, including Ukraine," Peskov added. According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, the visits of Russian top officials to the Crimea demonstrate Russia's disregard of the state sovereignty of Ukraine. The Crimea became part of Russia as a result of the referendum held on March 16, 2014. According to the electoral commission, 95% of the population of the Crimea voted to reunite with the Russian Federation. Anton Kulikov

While James Clapper said his “dashboard warning light was clearly on” in regards to evidence of collusion between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia, the former Director of National Intelligence repeated Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he is yet to see any “smoking gun” evidence. “[F]rom a theoretical standpoint, I will tell you that my dashboard warning light was clearly on, and I think that was the case with all of us in the intelligence community, very concerned about the nature of these approaches to the Russians,” Clapper told host Chuck Todd. “If you put that in context with everything else we knew the Russians were doing to interfere with the election, and just the historical practices of the Russians, who typically are almost genetically driven to coopt, penetrate, gain favor, whatever, which is a typical Russian technique, so we were concerned. ” He later added, “I have to say, at the time I left, I did not see any smoking gun certitude evidence of collusion. But it certainly was appropriate given all the sign, certainly appropriate and necessary for the FBI to investigate. ” ( Daily Caller) Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent

problèmes sociaux , infrastructure , initiatives sociales , oural Cuillères de caramel par des mamies de l’Oural Gouzel Sanjapova, entrepreneure du village de Mali Tournich, situé dans l’Oural, a signé un contrat de vente de cuillères à café remplies de caramel pour la marque Lipton avec le grand groupe international Unilever, informe Interfax . Service de presse Muse du projet, une mamie du village de Mali Tourich. Service de presse Cuillères de caramel par des mamies de l’Oural. 1 / 2 Des mamies locales participeront à la fabrication : elles recouvriront des herbes et des baies de caramel, puis les consommateurs pourront tremper la cuillère dans leur thé pour lui donner un parfum d’été. « Mon village est un lieu qui m’est cher : je suis née ici, j’ai travaillé dans un kolkhoze, il y a beaucoup de fraises sauvages et d’autres baies ici , raconte la muse du projet, une mamie du village de Mali Tourich. J’aime beaucoup le miel, depuis mon enfance, je me rappelle comment on en fabriquait dans mon village ». Il faut préciser que les confiseries savoureuses et saines préparées par les mamies de l’ Oural ont été testées avec succès par le laboratoire d’Unilever et un laboratoire national. « Le premier lot test portera sur 15 000 kits promotionnels Lipton. La boite de Lipton Yellow Label contiendra 100 sachets et 3 cuillères à café , indique Anastasia Lander, responsable des relations publiques chez Unilever Russie à Interfax . Elle précise que les cuillères seront commercialisées dès début novembre. Lire aussi : Les « Mamies de Bouranovo » signent un clip pour le Mondial 2018 Nouvelle infrastructure À l’avenir, l’entrepreneure de l’Oural envisage de construire une usine de caramel dans son village. « Les mamies du village fabriqueront du miel aux baies, des cuillères à café et des bonbons naturels. Nous comptons également lancer la production de dragées- peut-être des sucettes ou du caramel » , affirme Gouzel Sanjapova. Sucettes fabriquées par des mamies de l’Oural. Crédit : Service de presse L’expansion de la production permettra de créer de nouveaux emplois dans le village. La nouvelle usine pourra employer 20 personnes, alors que Mali Tournich ne compte que 50 habitants. La récolte des fonds pour financer le projet est assurée par le biais d’un site Internet de collecte de fonds. La superficie de l’usine s’élèvera à 216 m2. Selon les estimations préliminaires, le coût total de la mise en œuvre du projet s’élève à 88 000 euros, 15 000 euros ont déjàété récoltés. Lire aussi : Un dentifrice russe à la conquête du marché mondial Un lieu de travail et de rencontres La construction de l’usine devrait radicalement changer le niveau de vie des villageois. Pour l’entrepreneure, la nouvelle usine « sera un lieu de travail, mais aussi un lieu de rencontres » . Un espace sera aménagé au sein de l’entreprise pour permettre aux habitants locaux d’échanger. Pour les mamies impliquées dans la production de cuillères à café, la participation au projet est déjà un moyen de socialiser et non seulement une occasion d’obtenir un revenu. « Il faut travailler, s’occuper et bouger plus, parler aux gens » , nous dit la mamie-muse de l’Oural à propos de ses priorités dans la vie. « Le bonheur c’est d’avoir de quoi manger, de quoi s’habiller et de ne pas pleurer. D’être ensemble » , voici la sagesse qu’elle partage avec nous. Lire aussi :

This is the man in question, holding up his signs: Homeless Trump supporter guards @realDonaldTrump 's star on Hollywood Blvd. against all SJWs #BasedSentinel #MAGA3X https://t.co/BjGcFO0du5 ? pic.twitter.com/nrMqnbW5UK — PeterDuke MAGA3X🇺🇸 (@peterdukephoto) October 27, 2016 The man sat on Trump’s star with the sign as people gathered around him, as you can see. Needless to say, there weren’t any liberals with sledgehammers showing up to do anything to Trump’s star this time. Advertisement - story continues below However, unfortunately, liberal thugs had already done quite a bit of damage with the sledgehammer: Donald Trump's Walk of Fame star destroyed, police investigate https://t.co/xFfCOdz1iZ pic.twitter.com/qJOsbbjTHp — FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) October 27, 2016 This is liberal tolerance: If you disagree with someone, it’s all right to destroy property to express your displeasure. It’s OK to spend money that could be spent on Americans on illegal immigrants, just so long as those immigrants fit the liberal agenda. This is what liberals are all about: intentions. Never mind consequences. Consequences are for the heartless. Ignore the fact that our national debt is spiraling out of control, millions of Americans can’t afford health care and the Middle East is in chaos. Advertisement - story continues below

Cast Your Vote: What Was Most Significant in Shaping the 2016 Election? Posted on Nov 4, 2016 Are you voting on November 8? ( Flickr / CC 2.0 ) In four days, the unprecedented political chaos that is the 2016 presidential election will ( hopefully ) come to a close. Looking back on the past year, we see innumerable instances of political turmoil that may shape Tuesday’s outcome. Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has faced his share of obstacles. Most notably, a leaked tape from Access Hollywood almost derailed his campaign in October. Hillary Clinton’s campaign, meanwhile, has been marred by the FBI’s investigation into her use of a private email server while secretary of state—a topic that has yet again become a focus of national attention because of FBI Director James Comey’s timing . Outside the two main-party candidates’ own woes, other crucial issues have absorbed the nation throughout the election season: The battle over the Dakota Access pipeline . The changing role of third-party candidates . A renewed focus on racial inequality . And of course, the trove of information given to us by WikiLeaks. As we look toward Tuesday, the finale of an increasingly tight race to the White House, we at Truthdig turn to our readers to ask: What was the most significant story of the 2016 election season? Note that our poll is not intended as a scientific evaluation, but rather as a chance for readers to express their opinions and expand upon their answers in the comment section of this post. Let us know in the poll below. Vote early but not often: One vote per person, please. Several possible answers are offered, but you can also choose “Other” and type in your own—we want to know what we’ve missed! (Make your selection and then click on “Vote.” To see how others have weighed in, click on “Results.”) Which event was most significant in shaping the 2016 election? The allegations of sexual assault against Donald Trump following his leaked “lewd remarks” The FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server The battle over the Dakota Access pipeline The presence of third-party candidates like Jill Stein and Gary Johnson A renewed focus on America’s racial inequality The “Podesta Emails” released by WikiLeaks Other

Home › POLITICS › BIGGEST ELECTION FRAUD IN HISTORY DISCOVERED IN THE UNITED STATES: BREAKING NOW BIGGEST ELECTION FRAUD IN HISTORY DISCOVERED IN THE UNITED STATES: BREAKING NOW 1 SHARES [10/31/16] INFOWARS – Bev Harris, the country’s leading vote fraud expert, joined the Alex Jones Show Monday to reveal the results of a bombshell investigation into “vote shaving” software. Used in precincts all across the country, the software – deemed “the most devastating election theft mechanism yet found” – allows votes to be fractured and rounded up or down to sway the results for any candidate. According to Harris, a member of the non-partisan Black Box Voting investigative team, this latest discovery constitutes the “missing piece” that blows the lid off of wide-scale voter fraud. “It was put in the system in 2001 but it came into wide use in 2006,” Harris said. “It took someone with a special set of skills to know what to look for.” A mini-documentary by Black Box Voting on the discovery shows real-time demonstrations with the secretive software. “It can give contract signing authority to whoever the user chooses,” the video’s description states. “All political power can be converted to the hands of a few anonymous subcontractors.” “It runs silently, invisibly, and can produce plausible results that really pass for the real thing.” Further analysis on the malicious software provided by Alex Jones reveals how this revelation ties into the 2016 presidential election. Post navigation

INCHEON, South Korea — Until recently, Beyond Cosmetics could not fill Chinese orders fast enough for its Green Piggy Collagen Jella Pack, a creamy beige substance containing pig collagen, or its Carbonated Bubble Clay Mask, which leaves the user’s face covered with foam. Then, in November, international politics struck this South Korean maker of skin care products. As China’s ire grew over plans by Washington and Seoul to park a missile defense system on South Korean soil, sales of the two beauty aids fell to of Beyond Cosmetics’ sales, from . Now, as the deployment of the system begins this week and China threatens to punish South Korea further, companies like Beyond Cosmetics have been bracing for worse. The intensifying diplomatic ruckus is exposing deep cracks in South Korea’s economic success story and forcing the nation to confront its dependence on China, its largest trading partner. Even before the current crisis, Beyond Cosmetics had started to look beyond China, where it was increasingly running into problems like tougher government rules and rising homegrown competition. “We thought we could do something better with our time than attempt to go further into the Chinese market,” said Kim the company’s vice president, adding that he traveled regularly to promote products in Malaysia, a predominantly Muslim country, and matte lipsticks that can withstand the humidity in Thailand. An export powerhouse that began its upward trajectory decades before Beijing embraced capitalist economics, South Korea has long benefited from China’s rise. Chinese factories are major buyers of components. A growing Chinese middle class embraced Korean devices, cosmetics, television shows and music, often in shopping trips across the Yellow Sea. All of that may be in jeopardy now. Consumer boycotts have hit Korean chain stores in China. shows there have been canceled. Just last week, the Chinese National Tourism Administration ordered regional travel agencies to halt sales of package tours to South Korea. But even before China began lashing out at South Korea, the economic relationship between the industrial giants had started to shift. China is increasingly a competitor as much as a customer for South Korea. Chinese companies have improved product quality and can compete on price, both at home and abroad, in everything from complex components to cosmetics to smartphones. That presents major challenges for a country where a bribery scandal has engulfed both the country’s president and the de facto chief of its biggest conglomerate, Samsung, and raised questions about whether an economy driven by exports and close ties between officials and big business have reached their limit. To thrive long term, experts say, South Korea needs to consider overhauls that will help empower entrepreneurs and spread wealth domestically. “A key question is whether Korea is going to be able to make a shift away from a and growth model that brought them dramatic economic success,” said Mark W. Lippert, who recently left Seoul as the American ambassador to South Korea. Chinese manufacturers have started to make the parts and components that South Korean companies have been selling into China, where factory workers assemble them into products destined for European or American consumers. This intermediary trade currently accounts for about of all of South Korea’s exports to China. Chinese companies are also making more of their own consumer goods such as cars, phones and television screens. Samsung, which commanded a 20 percent share of the Chinese cellphone market in 2012, now has only 6 percent, according to GfK, the market researcher. The top four cellphone brands in China, according to IDC, the technology research firm, are now made by Chinese companies. Mr. Kim, of Beyond Cosmetics, says Chinese cosmetics manufacturers have wooed South Korean research employees with salaries that are three times higher than what his company can offer, in addition to benefits like housing and cars. In 2015 and 2016, South Korea’s exports fell for the first time in close to 60 years, the Korea International Trade Association said. Last year, exports to China slid 9. 3 percent compared with a year earlier as the Chinese economy slowed down, though those figures were up in the first two months of this year. “Regardless of the industry, Korea has depended on China too much,” said Kang professor of trade and economic studies at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy. Beijing has protested South Korea’s agreement to host the missile defense system — called the Terminal Area Defense system, or Thaad — and the Chinese state news media have been calling for a boycott, affecting everything from South Korean pop stars and television programs to supermarkets. This week, alarmed by the most recent test of ballistic missiles by North Korea, the United States began to deploy the system. That is affecting an effort by South Korea to reap more economic power from its popular culture. Several musical events featuring its performers in China have been canceled, and South Korean dramas have been pulled from Chinese online video services. Lotte, a South Korean conglomerate that is providing land for the Thaad deployment, has reported that its online stores in China have been hacked and that half its shops have been shut down for reported fire code violations. Although Lotte is reluctant to blame the Thaad backlash, Chinese consumers seem ready to do so. Over the weekend, hundreds of angry protesters, waving Chinese flags and singing, assembled outside Lotte shops and demanded that the public boycott South Korean products. In Incheon, a port city less than 250 miles from the nearest port in China, visiting Chinese consumers arrive by ferry to snap up items like rice cookers, toilet seats, food and makeup. Still, local merchants are experiencing what they say is a slowdown in tourist activity from China. Incheon officials said that this month, several large Chinese businesses that were planning to send thousands of employees to company workshops in the city canceled the visits. Although the number of Chinese visitors to Incheon rose in 2016 over a year earlier, when an outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome caused tourism to plunge, the numbers have not returned to 2014 levels. Yoo Incheon’s mayor, said in an interview at city hall, “If we didn’t have these geopolitical security issues, I think these 2016 figures would have been much higher. ” Lee 65, owner of a small dealer of rice cookers, said he used to sell about 30 cookers a day to Chinese visitors. On a recent Wednesday, he was unable to sell even one and cited the Thaad deployment as the biggest factor. In the underground Sinpo International Market, a warren of small retail stalls selling clothing, handbags and used cellphones, business was sluggish on a recent visit. “Things are really bad right now,” said Kim 52, owner of Mirae Mobile, where he sells recycled cellphones and iPads. “But to be honest, what can the government do? This is such a sensitive political issue. ” Down the hall, at a tiny skin care salon, Kim 57, the owner, sat alone on a small stool waiting for a customer to stop by. An ethnic Korean who was born in China, Ms. Kim opened her stall two years ago. About half of her business came from Chinese visitors, including a steady stream of cruise ship and ferry workers who wanted facials. Now, she’s lucky to get one or two customers a day. Ms. Kim never thought she would need to pay so much attention to politics. “I think the politicians have not done well,” she said. “Because for the economy to be good, we have to have a relationship with China. I think Korea should be smarter by trying to cooperate with China. ”

Print Side-by-side of Bill Clinton and Danney Williams NEW YORK –YouTube on Wednesday suspended the account of Danney Williams, the 30-year-old who has claimed since the 1990s to be the black son of former President Bill Clinton. YouTube, citing “repeated or severe violations of our Terms of Use and/or Community Guidelines,” declared the account “cannot be restored.” The YouTube decision blocked the nine-minute feature “BANISHED – The Untold Story of Danney Williams,” which had received 1.2 million views since Williams posted it last week. Produced by filmmaker Joel Gilbert, it drew nearly 100,000 views per day and more than 1,000 viewer comments, with the overwhelming majority expressing support for Williams and outrage at the Clintons for not being willing to allow a DNA test to determine paternity. Like the reporting you see here? Sign up for free news alerts from WND.com, America’s independent news network. “My YouTube account has been deleted, but the same video appears in 50 other places on YouTube alone,” Williams said on his Facebook page after being notified of YouTube’s decision. “[YouTube] can’t handle the truth! Please share #BillClintonSon.” Twitter also continues to allow Williams to post the “Banished” video on Danney Williams’ page , but the Twitter link to YouTube displays the message : “This video is no longer available because the YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated. Sorry about that.” The video is still running on Danney Williams-Clinton’s Facebook page , as well as on the YouTube channel operated by Gilbert. Attempt to silence Danney Williams? Gilbert told WND he helped Williams file an online appeal form on YouTube asking why the account was suspended and demanding it be immediately reinstated. “The behavior of YouTube/Google in suspending Danney’s account is outrageous! There have been absolutely zero violations of any kind let alone a severe one of any YouTube terms or guidelines,” Gilbert said. Gilbert was outspoken in charging YouTube with partisan political motives for the suspension. “The only possible explanation is that the Clinton campaign requested YouTube/Google to silence Danney, ‘to run him off the plantation’ as Danney said Hillary Clinton did to him and his aunt when he was a small child and they were chased off the grounds of the Arkansas governor’s mansion in 1990,” Gilbert said. “Danney cannot be silenced any longer,” he continued. “Hillary may try to sweep Danney Williams under the rug, but it’s not going to work this time. His story is out there, and every day more and more people understand Bill and Hillary Clinton banished this young man from their family because of the color of his skin.” See the Danney Williams video feature: WND reported Oct. 19 that in the hours before the third and final presidential debate, attorneys for Williams were in Las Vegas to announce their intention to file a paternity suit demanding DNA evidence from the former president. Accompanying the dramatic announcement was a rap music video celebrating Williams that went viral on the Internet. No definitive DNA test WND reported that no DNA test was conducted in 1999, despite media reports to the contrary when Williams’ claim first surfaced. Clinton defenders since 1999 have contended the tabloid Star Magazine conducted a “DNA showdown” proving Bill Clinton was not Williams’ father, citing Star Magazine editor Phil Bunton saying at the time, “There was no match, nothing even close.” But in an interview, Bunton told WND that no blood sample was obtained from Clinton and Star Magazine never published a story documenting a laboratory test. “I don’t remember ever seeing any laboratory test that was done on Clinton’s DNA,” Bunton told WND. Bunton is now the owner of the Rivertown Magazine in Haverstraw, New York. He affirmed to WND that the tabloid relied on the DNA evidence for Clinton published by independent counsel Kenneth Starr, extracted from the infamous Monica Lewinsky blue dress. “We got a lot of phone calls from several people in the media, including the New York Times, wanting to know when we were going to get the DNA back,” Bunton recalled to WND. “We thought it was going to turn out to be his son, but when the DNA came back there was no story there even to write.” The DNA test released by Kenneth Starr was the second of two DNA laboratory tests the FBI had run on Clinton, but the public record leaves no doubt that Starr withheld the more robust test conducted by the FBI. ‘Twitter rules’ Many other figures who have challenged the Democratic Party or the left-leaning media narrative also have run into trouble with social media outlets, including James O’Keefe and his Project Veritas, which has exposed Clinton campaign voter fraud and agitation in a series of hidden-camera videos. Just as O’Keefe was preparing to release new revelations of voter fraud Oct. 13, Twitter shut down his account , claiming violations of “Twitter Rules.” The notice said he “must delete the tweets that are in violation of our rules, which prohibit: harassing other users, threatening other users, disclosing other users’ private information” or violating “other rules.” In a statement, O’Keefe said he relies on social media to “bypass the media and directly reach the public.” On Monday, O’Keefe wrote in a tweet Project Veritas was unable to upload its third video in the series to YouTube, calling the apparent block “bizarre.” Earlier this month, O’Keefe was forced to delete a tweet critical of a Hillary Clinton staffer to regain use of his account after it was suspended for a day. His account was suspended in the hours before a release of a new hidden-camera video that exposed a Clinton ally saying she could use executive action on guns, the Daily Caller reported . Project Veritas posted an undercover video Oct. 17 proving Hillary Clinton supporters were inciting violence at Donald Trump rallies to gain negative media coverage. Millions of viewers watched the video in just a few hours, but it didn’t show up on Google’s “trending” list on YouTube, which Google owns, noted SilenceisConsent.net . It did, however, trend on Twitter, which Google does not own. Breitbart blogger Milo Yiannopoulos was suspended permanently by Twitter minutes before his “Gays for Trump” party at the Republican National Convention. For some 11 months, the makers of the new movie “I’m Not Ashamed,” about the first victim of the Columbine killers in Colorado in 1999, were unable to promote their movie through YouTube. The trailer was taken down late in 2015, and the movie’s entire channel was suspended . Among the conservatives censored by Facebook : Conservative activist and Trump supporter Lauren Southern received a 30-day ban from Facebook because she complained about a friend’s account being censored. Facebook locked a 12-year-old black middle schooler’s account for posting a video supporting Rudy Giuliani’s comment that Obama “doesn’t love America.” The admin of a pro-Trump group was banned for saying Trump is not anti-Muslim, but anti-ISIS.

Top doctors: Chemotherapy one of dozens of procedures shown to 'give no benefit' Thursday, October 27, 2016 by: Vicki Batts Tags: cancer , chemotherapy , ineffective medicine (NaturalNews) Chemotherapy is arguably one of the medical industry's biggest frauds . Perhaps that's why it recently landed on a list of ineffectual treatments drawn up by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AMRC).The list was created by 11 top specialists, who were each asked to think of five treatments they felt provided little to no patient benefits. And surprise, surprise – chemotherapy was one of them. Doctors from the AMRC said that chemotherapy cannot cure terminal cancer, and may bring unneeded distress in the final months of life. The Guardian reported:"The treatment is 'by its very nature toxic', the college said. "Therefore, the combination of failing to achieve a response and causing toxicity can 'do more harm than good.'"Do more harm than good? You don't say.Research has shown that in some hospitals, up to 50 percent of cancer patients are dying, not from their disease, but from chemotherapy drugs. For the first time ever, researchers actually looked at the numbers of patients who were dying within 30 days of chemotherapy administration , which could indicate that the treatment was the cause of death rather than the cancer. What they found was horrifying.The study, which was conducted by Public Health England and Cancer Research UK, found that the average 30-day mortality rate across England was about 8.4 percent for lung cancer and 2.5 percent for breast cancer. But, in some hospitals, those numbers were much higher. For example, at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, the 30 day mortality rate for palliative chemotherapy for lung cancer was 28 percent. In Milton Keynes, the death rate for lung cancer treatment soared up to 50.9 percent.The research revealed that the death rate for lung cancer patients was higher than average in several areas, including Blackpool, Coventry, Derby, South Tyneside, Surrey and Sussex.The data also revealed that about 1-in-5 people who underwent palliative care for breast cancer at Cambridge University Hospitals died because of chemotherapy treatment.Of course, the industry was quick to defend their practices, with doctors suggesting that these occurrences could simply be the outcome of data problems, noting that even a few deaths could skew statistics.However, no one really argued with the fact that chemotherapy is indeed a toxin. It doesn't discriminate; it kills cancerous cells and healthy cells – and therein lies the rub. It may kill the cancer, but not without increasing your risks of getting cancer again in the future.A 2004 study also found that cytotoxic chemotherapy does very little towards enhancing cancer survivors' 5-year survival rates. The research, which was led by scientists from the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Northern Sydney Cancer Centre of the Royal North Shore Hospital, located in Sydney, Australia, raised serious questions about the actual efficacy of curative and adjuvant chemotherapies.What they found was that in Australia chemo only contributed 2.3 percent to the 5-year survival rate in adults, and in the U.S., that number dropped to 2.1 percent. These findings suggest that overall, chemotherapy truly provides very little benefit to any patient's survival. In their conclusion, the study authors wrote, "As the 5-year relative survival rate for cancer in Australia is now over 60%, it is clear that cytotoxic chemotherapy only makes a minor contribution to cancer survival. To justify the continued funding and availability of drugs used in cytotoxic chemotherapy, a rigorous evaluation of the cost-effectiveness and impact on quality of life is urgently required."The AMRC urges doctors and patients to question whether or not particular treatments are necessary. After all, unwarranted and harmful treatments are truly anything but medicine . Sources:

Marches have been the theme of the past couple weekends. There was the women’s march in Washington and around the world two weekends ago. And last weekend there was the March for Life, an annual protest against abortion. The Times called the people who marched in the latter march, “ marchers” in two headlines, to the ire of several readers. On the home page, the link to the briefing of the story read: “Pence Addresses March for Abortion Foes. ” We went to Phil Corbett, the associate managing editor for standards, for his reply. Last weekend there were also protests in response to President Trump’s executive order to ban refugees. The headline for The Times’s first story initially read: “Trump Bars Syrian Refugees Indefinitely to Keep Terrorists Out. ” It was then changed, 30 minutes later, to: “Trump Bars Refugees and Citizens of 7 Muslim Countries. ” We asked Peter Blair, a copy desk supervisor, for a reply. The public editor’s take: A clear, straightforward reply from the copy desk. (More on how the machinery of editing works in my Sunday column.) In describing Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s remarkable new role on the National Security Council, The Times used a word that a reader felt was gratuitous. We went back to Corbett on this point. The public editor’s take: I think the standards editor describes well the challenges of finding the right phrases and avoiding the wrong ones. And I think for the most part editors and reporters work hard to do that. In the case of “hatch,” though, I think it does carry a negative tone, not just of secrecy but something rather sinister too. Last October, the public editor’s column addressed The Times’s purchase of a website called The Wirecutter and its sister site The Sweethome, which are in the business of recommending products to customers and making money when customers purchase those products through “affiliate links” like, say, Amazon. com. Through its purchase of these websites, The Times hopes to tap a new source of revenue as print advertising rapidly declines. The column argued that this model could be of value to The Times, but urged the paper to proceed carefully. “I hope The Times will move cautiously, not merely assuming readers will view this as a useful new service but actually asking them whether they do,” it said. “The Times has a lot to gain. And also to lose. ” This week, our office received our first email as the new arrangement began to make itself seen on The Times’s site. We asked Sam Sifton, the food editor, for his response. The public editor’s take: Hopefully, Sifton’s answer helps explain the arrangement to readers and answers concerns about potential conflicts. My earlier post gives my thoughts, but as this is more fully implemented, I will be watching closely, and I welcome comments from readers. Since November, several dozen readers have asked us if there is any way they could contribute extra money to The New York Times, in addition to purchasing a subscription. Friday The Times announced a new program for doing just this: Subscribers, and others who are interested, can now sponsor subscriptions for students in public schools. Those interested can find more information here. Finally, some readers, understandably, are feeling overwhelmed by the amount of news the past few weeks. The Times’s Christopher Mele tried to tackle this growing issue in a story this week. “If all else fails, and you still feel bouts of news fatigue,” he concluded, “you can turn to Twitter for photos of cute animals. ” That’s what we’re doing.

Sanders calls Trump a 'political coward' over voter suppression report Sanders calls Trump a 'political coward' over voter suppression report By 0 60 Former US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders has denounced Republican nominee Donald Trump as a “political coward” over a voter suppression report. Sanders condemned Trump after a report that the Republican’s presidential campaign has three “voter suppression” drives intended to lower turnout for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, and to help Trump winning the White House. “Anybody who is suppressing the vote because they know that those people will vote against them is a political coward,” the Vermont senator tweeted. “If you don’t have the guts to run for office on your ideas @ realDonaldTrump , then you shouldn’t run for office at all,” he said in another tweet. A senior adviser to Trump acknowledged in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek that the Republican team has “three major voter suppression operations underway.” Sanders – a former primary rival of Clinton – suspended his campaign in…

Leslie Jones, a of this year’s “Ghostbusters” movie who has been besieged in the past month by online abusers who have targeted her appearance and her race, was victimized again on Wednesday when her personal website appeared to have been hacked. The hackers inserted a picture of the gorilla Harambe on the site, and exposed what appeared to be explicit photos of the actress, along with pictures of her driver’s license and a passport, and images of her with stars like Rihanna, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West. The website was taken offline after the hack, which was initially reported by TMZ. An email to a representative for Ms. Jones was not immediately returned on Wednesday. The website, which had contained information about her comedy career and her past work in film, appeared to have been retooled to display the personal photos and information. There was no way to independently confirm that the photos were of Ms. Jones and whether the identification documents were real, but the address on the driver’s license appeared to correspond with information about Ms. Jones that is available through public records. Ms. Jones, 48, had spent much of the past month battling online trolls who sent her a stream of racist imagery, pornography and abusive language. She briefly left Twitter, but later returned to tweet about the Rio Olympics. In the hours after Ms. Jones’s site was taken offline, defenders offered public support. “These acts against Leslie Jones are sickening,” the musician Questlove wrote in a post on Twitter. “It’s racist sexist. It’s disgusting. This is hate crimes. This ain’t ‘kids joshing round.’ ” Others, including Paul Feig, the director of the “Ghostbusters” film, the comedian Patton Oswalt and the singer Katy Perry defended the actress on Twitter. Brendesha Tynes, a professor of education and psychology at the University of Southern California who specializes in social media and cyberbullying, said in an interview that part of what was fueling the attacks against Ms. Jones was a “serious woman problem in the U. S. ” Dr. Tynes noted the criticism levied at the Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas while she was competing in Rio, and said, “Even the slightest perceived infraction leads people to get bullied. ” Ms. Jones herself had stood up for Ms. Douglas while in Brazil. Sameer Hinduja, the of the Cyberbullying Research Center and a professor of Criminology at University, applauded Ms. Jones for standing up to those who have victimized her over the past several months. “She was an advocate for others that have been victimized and haven’t spoken up, and that has led to more attention, and has, perhaps indirectly, led to policy change on Twitter’s part,” he said in an interview, referring to the company’s taking action against some of the accounts that had hurled racist insults at Ms. Jones. He added that Ms. Jones’s willingness to remain an active presence may have made her a more tempting target for bullies and hackers. “Some of those that cyberbully attempt to identify something that you’re particularly sensitive about, and because they know that it will get under your skin,” Dr. Hinduja said. “Or they’re just biased and intolerant, as perhaps was the case considering the racial hatred in some of the attacks on Leslie Jones. ” Dr. Tynes said that the hack on Wednesday felt particularly harrowing after Ms. Jones had seemed to prevail over those who attacked her earlier this summer, elevating her public presence by using social media sites such as Twitter and Snapchat prolifically during the Olympics. “I have to say, as a human being, it’s heartbreaking,” Dr. Tynes said. “As a researcher, I haven’t seen in the adolescents I study anything this heinous. ” She said that attacks like these could have serious consequences on a victim’s mental health, including symptoms of depression and anxiety. “I’m hoping that people will once again rally behind her, show her love, and hopefully serve as a buffer against some of the potentially negative consequences,” Dr. Tynes said. “I’m at a loss for words, but I do know that people will rally behind her once again. ”

Aya and Ahmad, twins, were among the 86 people killed in Tuesday’s gas attack in Khan Sheikhoun, Syria. Their father, Abdul Hameed asked a photographer to take pictures as he held their bodies. He turned the babies’ faces toward the camera and said, “tell them, ‘goodbye dad. ’” In an interview with a local activist, Mr. described the start of the airstrikes at 7 a. m. “I took my wife and children and left the house,” he said, through choking sobs. “As we were leaving, just about five minutes later, we started to smell nasty smells. ” He said his children began to cough and he handed them to their mother and told her to flee the town. He went to check on his brothers and their children. They were struggling to breathe. He saw people fall in the street and begin foaming at the mouth before losing consciousness himself. Later, he found out his wife and babies had died. And he buried them. He walked through the graves, calling out the names of other family members who were also killed and buried in the graveyard, pausing at each, and sobbing. After the burial, “I saw Ahmad and Aya, and carried them close to my heart,” Mr. said in the interview. “We buried them, I took Ahmad and Aya and buried them. I buried my own children. ” He said he had lost at least 25 members of his extended family in the attack.

Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz subpoenaed two agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to appear before his committee in connection with the Obama Administration’s program, Fast and Furious. Firearms from the former president’s scheme were allegedly involved in the 2011 murder of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico. [Chaffetz, who serves as chairman of the House Oversight Committee issued the subpoenas after the two ATF agents failed to appear voluntarily before the committee. “I’m tired of hearing from just [Justice Department] management, I want to hear from the people that actually are on the front lines doing this,” Chaffetz told Fox News. Chaffetz wants to hear directly from ATF Agent William Temple, special agent in charge of the Dallas Field Division, and Associate Director Ronald Turk. The hearing marks the first effort by Congress to the investigation into President Obama’s Fast and Furious gun trafficking scheme since he left office in January. ICE Agent Zapata was killed by one of the guns involved in this program, and Special Agent Victor Avila was injured during the attack in Mexico. Following the attack on the two ICE agents, Breitbart News reported: Agent Zapata’s partner Victor Avila spoke out about the attack that left Agent Zapata dead and him wounded. His twin sister Magdalena spoke for him in the Univision special on Fast and Furious. Avila is so scared and hurt by the attack he did not speak out until he knew he was in a secure location. No one knows for sure why Agent Zapata and Agent Avila, assigned to the US Embassy, were asked to travel on road 57, a road controlled by the Zeta Cartel and extremely dangerous. They didn’t even know why they were given the mission to retrieve electronic surveillance equipment. The urgency made it even more suspicious. Agent Zapata and Agent Avila met with American consulate agents in Monterrey and received 14 boxes of equipment. They did stop for something to eat on road 57 before heading back to Mexico City. About a half hour after leaving the restaurant they noticed two cars closely following them. Within seconds the vehicles surrounded them and 14 heavily armed men formed a circle around their car. Unfortunately, Agent Zapata put the car in park, which forced the doors to automatically open. Agent Avila said they thought their diplomatic plates would protect them and the screamed they were American agents. The men didn’t care and demanded them to exit the vehicle. The agents refused to leave their vehicle. They frantically tried to relock the doors, but instead Agent Avila accidentally lowered his window. A rifle and handgun came in through the small opening and the man opened fire. Agent Avila pressed the emergency satellite button, but it did not work. He also tried to place an emergency call to the embassy, the Mexican capital, and the First Post of the Regional Security Command. They told Avila a Mexican Federal Police helicopter would be there in 40 minutes. 90 bullets were fired. Five hit Agent Zapata and three hit Agent Avila in his right leg. Agent Zapata turned to Agent Avila and said, “I am going to die. ” Agent Avila responded, “No, you are not going to die. Be strong, help is on the way, you are not going to die. While in the rescue helicopter Agent Avila was informed Agent Zapata did, in fact, die. On Thursday, the two ATF officials failed to appear before the committee looking into the assault on the agents. ATF Thomas Brandon, an Obama Administration holdover appointed in 2015, claims he did not order the two ATF officials to skip the hearing Fox News reported. However, he said he agreed with their decision to bypass the Oversight Committee’s hearing. The failure of the two ATF officials to voluntarily appear before Congress sparked the issuance of a subpoena and sharp rebukes from both sides of the aisle. “That puts us in a kind of awkward position. We got the boss, ‘OK guys, you don’t have to show up.’ And that sends a hell of a message. That’s a problem,” Elijah Cummings ( ) the ranking Democrat on the committee, said. Chaffetz complained that the ATF “continues to insist” that his committee should not speak directly with the two officials. Assistant U. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas John Craft also failed to appear. Chaffetz said his committee issued the invitation to Craft late and he would not be issuing a subpoena for him at this time. Fox News reported on an ATF Inspector General report that was completed in 2012 but not released until March 1, 2016. Fox reported: The IG said the ATF were aware in 2010 that Osorio and his brother might be trafficking firearms to Mexico, but they did not follow up or further investigate until after Zapata’s death. Otilio Osorio and Riendfliesh were arrested in late February 2011 after the ATF confirmed weapons used in Zapata’s murder had been purchased by them. The report faulted ATF for its handling of the case, saying there was “probable cause” to arrest Osorio and his brother “after ATF witnessed the Osorios complete a transfer of 40 firearms on November 9, 2010. ” The IG said: “Overall, we found numerous problems with ATF’s assimilation of information concerning [the suspects] … and the timeliness of ATF’s response to mounting evidence that they were committing firearms offenses. ” The report states that two weapons used in the murder of Agent Zapata and wounding of Agent Avila traced back to a gun show purchase by Otilio Osorio, and a purchase by Robert Riendfliesh at a gun store in Beaumont, Texas. The report continues, stating the ATF suspected the two men were trafficking firearms to Mexico but failed to further investigate the purchases until after the murder of Agent Zapata. ATF agents eventually arrested the two men in connection with the purchases. Despite the length of time since the incident, the creation of the report, and its issuance, Director Brandon told Chaffetz he was not prepared for the hearing. “That’s a bunch of crap,” Chaffetz snapped at the ATF acting director. Chaffetz responded that he received a draft of the report in December. The murder of U. S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010 is also connected to the Fast and Furious scheme. Two guns involved in Fast and Furious were found at the scene of his murder. Terry and other members of his elite Border Patrol BORSTAR team engaged a group of Mexican bandits. The bandits opened fire. Terry was shot in the back and died before reaching the hospital. The Terry family met with candidate Donald Trump several times during the campaign. In an exclusive interview with Breitbart Texas, the Terry family expressed hope that President Trump would get to the answers their family has been searching for over the past six years. “I want people to grow a conscious and come clean as to what transpired, what was covered up and what the hell were they thinking,” Terry’s sister, Kelly told Breitbart Texas. She said she had heard many promises by many people. “If Mr. Trump can get those skeletons out and expose the truth then my family can finally get closure and justice for Brian,” Kelly explained. “I think there are a lot of people scared that just might happen. It may take time, and we will be patient, but the truth always reveals itself. I hope Trump can make that happen. ” On Friday, Terry’s brother, Kent Terry, spoke out about the new hearing and the subpoena issued to the two ATF officials. “We have the House, Senate, and the White House now,” Kent Terry said. “There should be absolutely no reason we should fail to get the answers and accountability for the deaths of Agent Zapata and my brother. Their mothers have been put through Hell since these murders occurred. They deserve to know why their sons, who served every day, were killed by criminals armed by our government. ” “Enough time has gone by,” an exasperated Kent Terry explained. “I respect their hands were tied with the Obama Administration’s executive privilege taken on the Fast and Furious documents. But why hasn’t the Oversight Committee gone after the ATF agent who no longer works there? Why hasn’t the committee asked why who has been fired in connection with the program?” The full report on the hearing held by the committee on March 9 is available on the Oversight Committee’s website. The committee is expected to hear from the two ATF officials under subpoena later this month. Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook. Editor’s Note: Fox News Channel incorrectly attributed a comment to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz and incorrectly described an exchange between him and Chaffetz. Breitbart Texas used this reference in this article. Fox News corrected their article to reflect the correct attribution to ATF Brandon. Breitbart Texas has updated this article to reflect the corrected attribution from Fox News.

Share on Facebook A trip wire alarm system is made of a wire or some other mechanism that when activated or disturbed will set off an alarm of some kind that will detect an intruder or deter an intruder. The trigger is usually similar; a wire, a fishing line, a string or twine. But the mechanism of alarm is a varied as there are ideas. In this case, when activated, a spark by a battery causes wires to burn. I don't know why they wouldn't attach a firecracker or some kind of explosive device. Making a trip wire alarm system... After watching this I'm going to assume that this trip wire device is incomplete. What good are the burning wires? It doesn't alarm anyone. Rather, I'd like to see some kind of device that makes a loud noise. I think we're going to get some fires started with this thing. Related:

We’re resurfacing this article in light of President Trump’s recent comments on Nafta. After calling it the “worst trade deal,” he seems to be softening his stance. It was a deal that created a deeply intertwined economy stretching from the Arctic to Central America and a generation of mostly warm relations between the United States and its two neighbors. It has also contributed to the loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States and added to discontent in the communities that lost them. That, in turn, helped propel a sharp critic of the deal to the White House. So with Donald J. Trump in charge, what happens now to the North American Free Trade Agreement? It’s one thing to assail it as the “worst trade deal ever” as the president did during the campaign. It’s quite another to come up with an arrangement that is more advantageous to American workers and businesses. “Nafta is logically the first thing for us to deal with,” said Wilbur Ross, the president’s nominee to be commerce secretary, in his confirmation hearing. It will be, he said, a “very, very early topic in the administration. ” So what might that actually mean? What can the president actually do, what benefits might be attained for the United States and what could go wrong? Trade experts say there really is room to make major change in the agreement. A renegotiation could well lead to a better deal for all three countries. But it will require the United States to make concessions that the Trump administration may be wary of offering. If not approached carefully, revamping an agreement that has created the economic underpinning of major industries would risk American jobs as well as higher prices for consumers. And the closer the Trump administration gets to blowing up the deal, the larger those risks loom. Before diving into what could go wrong — and right — as President Trump looks to rework Nafta, it’s worth starting with the basics. What is Nafta? On Oct. 7, 1992, President George H. W. Bush stood in San Antonio flanked by the president of Mexico and the prime minister of Canada. “This meeting marks a turning point in the history of our three countries,” he said. “We are creating the largest, richest and most productive market in the entire world. ” Mr. Bush’s successor, Bill Clinton, was the one to push the North American Free Trade Agreement through a divided Congress. By 1994, the three countries were entwined in a trade deal that, in its 22 chapters covering 309 pages, lashed their economies together. It eliminated most tariffs on goods traded between the nations, and set in place processes to get rid of regulatory and other barriers. The idea was that over time a company in Ohio could do business with a firm in Ontario as easily as it did with one in Indiana. What have been its results? As the election showed, whether Nafta was a good thing for voters in the United States or a bad one continues to be argued. But there are some things most people who study these things can agree upon. The North American economy really does work as an integrated whole. United States exports to Mexico, for example, are now 3. 5 times their 1993 level when adjusted for inflation. They have risen more than twice as fast as the overall economy. Trade between the United States and Canada has been pretty well balanced over time, but the United States has had about a $60 billion per year trade deficit with Mexico, importing more than it exports. In the auto industry, for example, supply chains crisscross North American borders, with work of different complexity done in different countries. Your Ford made in Michigan might contain a dashboard made in Juarez and a transmission made in Windsor, Ontario. This complex supply chain has helped make the U. S. auto industry competitive with manufacturers in Asia and Europe, which also contain both and countries with different specialties. The impact on jobs and incomes in the United States is less clear. Economists broadly supportive of free trade deals argue that Nafta essentially encouraged a shift of jobs in the United States toward more productive work, raising wages and having negligible impact on the total number of jobs. Those more skeptical of the deal view it as having created competition across the border in Mexico that accelerated the loss of manufacturing jobs. (See a more detailed explanation of the competing views here and here.) One way to reconcile those two views: Nafta may have increased overall G. D. P. and average incomes in the United States — but at the same time contributed to the decline in U. S. manufacturing jobs that tended to be concentrated in certain cities and among certain groups of people, mostly men. Can President Trump kill the deal? In theory, yes. But it would be a mess, particularly if he tried to do it right off the bat. Article 2205 of Nafta says that a country can withdraw from the agreement six months after giving notice. But if President Trump did that, it would unleash disarray in major industries ruin the ability to have negotiations with Canada and Mexico and most likely cause a legal showdown with Congress (which passed Nafta all those years ago and wouldn’t want it abrogated without a say). That doesn’t sound like what the Trump administration has cooked up. It’s more likely to reopen the deal. “I’m optimistic that we can renegotiate the deal that’s both advantageous to us and advantageous to Mexico, that’s a for both countries,” said Steve Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary nominee, in his confirmation hearing. Will Canada and Mexico come to the table for a renegotiation? Sure looks that way. The White House has announced plans to meet separately with the leaders of both countries, and all signals are that they’re up for new talks. In the case of Mexico, President Enrique Peña Nieto has said he wants talks to cover a wider gamut than trade alone — implicitly threatening to become less cooperative on fighting drug trafficking and other frontiers if the Trump administration is excessively punitive in trade talks. And, of course, Mr. Trump’s announcement today that he will build a wall on the border — and that Mexico will eventually pay for it — could cause Mexico to rethink its outlook on trade negotiations altogether. So what is the United States going to ask for? We don’t know for sure, but some hints have emerged. One strong possibility would be to focus on “rules of origin” governing what counts as an automobile or other finished good produced within the free trade area. For example, a steering wheel might be assembled in Mexico but include parts made in China the rules of origin state how many of those parts can come from China while still counting as a Mexican steering wheel and thus enjoy the benefits of the free trade zone. If the required share of North American parts were increased — from its current 62. 5 percent for many auto parts to 75 percent, for example — it would give an advantage to manufacturers in the United States and reduce competition with the countries of Asia. Another example of a possible United States priority: asking Canada and Mexico to be more liberal in allowing goods to be shipped into their countries with no taxes and little paperwork. (To be precise, asking them to raise the value of what would count as a “de minimus” shipment exempt from the usual customs process). That would be good news for American companies looking to sell into those countries. The United States has long complained that the tribunals that settle trade disputes among the three countries are stacked against U. S. interests, and it could seek changes. Those sure seem like perfectly normal things for trade deals to focus on. They are. But there was one more goal for the United States that Trump argued for during the campaign, and it would be a bigger source of friction if his negotiators chose to pursue it. Mr. Trump characterized the tax that both Mexico and Canada have as unfair to U. S. companies. The tax is 16 percent in Mexico when a Mexican firm exports goods to the United States, it receives a rebate for the tax it paid, and when a U. S. firm exports to Mexico, a comparable adjustment is added. Mr. Ross, the Commerce secretary nominee, and Peter Navarro, a Trump White House trade adviser, argued in a white paper during the campaign that this amounts to an unfair export subsidy that penalizes the United States. Canada and Mexico aren’t likely to see it that way, and will resist if the United States seeks a change to the rules so that a VAT adjustment is no longer added to U. S. exports into their countries. In their view — and that of mainstream economists — their approach to taxing is the only way to avoid unfairly penalizing their domestic companies. The VAT is similar to a sales tax, and to the Mexican government, the Trump position will sound like the equivalent of Massachusetts demanding that it be able to sell its goods in Connecticut without a sales tax slapped on them. So if that issue ends up at the center of the negotiation, things could get rocky. But a deal should get done, right? Maybe. But keep in mind: This won’t be a street. Both Canada and Mexico expect concessions from the United States in return for concessions they make. And some of the things that the Mexican government most covets will rankle many Trump supporters. For example, Mexico wants better access to a program, widely enjoyed at the Canadian border, in which shippers that pass a security review are allowed to cross the border with a less intensive customs process (this is the international trade equivalent of the “T. S. A. PreCheck” security line at the airport). Mexico also seeks more favorable treatment for Mexican citizens with advanced skills seeking visas to work temporarily in the United States. Needless to say, making it easier for Mexican trucks and Mexican workers to get into the United States isn’t exactly what Trump campaigned on. But that’s the kind of concession that may be needed to get a trade deal. Is there a chance Nafta completely blows up? There is — though not necessarily in catastrophic fashion. Gary Clyde Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, lays out a possibility in which the Trump administration does eventually withdraw from Nafta, but in a context in which it has worked out separate deals with Mexico and Canada that maintain most of the trade arrangements codified in Nafta. President Trump and his advisers have often spoken of a preference for bilateral deals instead of big multicountry trade deals. It is potentially a pathway for Trump to be able to proclaim that he ended a trade deal he assailed on the campaign trail, without wrecking the economy. Even that wouldn’t necessarily be painless, however. “It would be like ” Mr. Hufbauer said. “There will be firms and communities in the U. S. that will be adversely affected, that will close down if you disrupt these supply chains. That won’t make for good newspaper coverage, and presumably the Trump team will want to avoid that. ” Just how urgent is renegotiating Nafta? Campaign promises aside, even some people who have been opposed to Nafta and other trade deals don’t view this as a priority. U. S. trade with Canada is reasonably well balanced, and the trade deficit with Mexico is smaller than that with some giant Asian economies. Robert E. Scott, the director of trade and manufacturing policy at the liberal Economic Policy Institute, sees more to be gained by rethinking the trade relationship between the United States and China, Japan, South Korea and even Germany. “Those are accountable for 80 percent of job losses over the last 20 years,” he said. “To me, Nafta is not a top priority. ” “There are much bigger fish to fry,” he added.

The Pentagon cast substantial doubt on a possible role for Turkey in the assault on Raqqa, the Islamic State’s capital in Syria, during a press conference in Iraq on Wednesday. [“We have made clear … that we are open to a Turkish role in the continued operations to defeat ISIS in northern Syria. We haven’t come to an agreement about what that role will be or if there will be one,” Dorrian said, “but we talk to Turkey through military channels and I believe at diplomatic levels every day,” said spokesman Col. John Dorrian, as quoted by the Washington Examiner. Fighting ISIS savages to the death in the cramped streets of downtown Raqqa is probably not a prospect Turkey relishes, but it is very eager to keep the Syrian Kurds and their military alliance out of the battle. Turkey links the Syrian YPG Kurdish militia to the violent PKK separatists it has been battling at home and fears Kurdish territorial gains in Syria could lead to the Kurds carving out Turkish territory for an independent state or at least exacerbating the PKK problem. “I think I’d like to leave it at we would expect Kurds to be involved. And that’s probably about where we’re at,” said Dorrian. He noted the U. S. wants Raqqa liberated by a force that is demographically consistent with its historic population, which includes a fair number of Kurds. That won’t go over well in Ankara, as the Washington Examiner recalls Senate Armed Services chair John McCain warning last week. “I’m not sure there’s an understanding of how seriously Erdogan views this issue, and I’m not sure we appreciate the importance of the role Turkey plays in our effort to retake Raqqa, particularly in the use of Incirlik and other activities that require Turkish cooperation,” said McCain. “I foresee a train wreck here. I think there’s a possibility of an impending conflict between Turkey and the Kurds. ” Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Isik said in February that the Trump administration would not insist on a Kurdish role in the battle of Raqqa. “If we want the Raqqa operation to be successful, then it should be carried out with Arab forces in the region and not the YPG. The new U. S. administration has a different approach to the issue. They are not insisting anymore that the operation should definitely be carried out with the YPG. They haven’t yet made up their minds,” Isik said on that occasion. Writing for the Associated Press, Sarah El Deeb suggests Turkey has annoyed both the U. S. and Russia by constantly denouncing, and occasionally shooting at, the Kurds. The Syrian government is even more irritated because some of the artillery shells Turkey fired at Kurdish forces have hit Syrian positions instead. “As a result, Ankara has effectively unified Russia and the U. S. in the goal of limiting Turkish expansion in the north. Syria experts say Ankara has lost influence to realize its aim of pushing the Kurdish forces back to the east of Manbij across the Euphrates. Moreover, Washington is pushing ahead with partnering with the forces in the planned attack on Raqqa, despite Turkish opposition,” El Deeb writes. She sees the capture of Manbij by Syrian Democratic Forces units, a major military ally of the United States, as the event that pushed Turkey into a more aggressive posture. The Turks may be hoping that keeping Manbij in their sights will oblige the Kurds to commit SDF forces to its protection, leaving them less manpower to invest in Raqqa. Turkey would then offer its own forces to take up the slack. U. S. forces flying highly visible American flags are now parked between the Turks and Kurds outside Manbij, while Russia created another buffer zone with Syrian government troops, but it won’t be possible to keep them safely separated for much longer. As American Lt. General Stephen Townsend put it, all of the forces converging on Raqqa are now “within range of each other. ” “All of this is a reminder of the risk in a rushed attempt to get to Raqqa If Turkish interests are not at least placated to some extent,” Noah Bonsey of the International Crisis Group told the AP. “There is a lot that can go wrong. ”

Click on the image to begin the download process This Movie Reveals the Greatest Threats to the American People- If the movie did not make it to your neighborhood, you can order your copy of the DVD. Order your copy by clicking here.

0 131 TRNN Replay: Public housing, renters issues, and homelessness are among the topics discussed in this 2014 panel moderated by Marc Steiner Visit …

Source: Global Research Is a war in the making — a third world war? If there is much talk about such a possibility, it is mainly because of the tensions between the United States and Russia. Tensions between the two most powerful nuclear states in the world have never been this high since the end of the Cold War in 1989 and the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991. There are at least two flash points, one more dangerous than the other. In Eastern Ukraine, Russian backed rebels will not surrender to the US supported regime in Kiev because they see US control over Ukraine as part of a much larger agenda to expand NATO power to the very borders of Russia. This has been happening for some years now. But it is the Washington-Moscow confrontation in Allepo, Syria which portends to a huge conflagration. The US is protective of major militant groups such as Al-Nusra which has besieged Eastern Allepo and is seeking to overthrow the Bashar al-Assad government. Washington has also set its sight on ‘regime change’ in Damascus ever since the latter’s determined resistance to Israeli occupation of the strategic Golan Heights in Syria from 1967 onwards. The drive for regime change intensified with the US-Israeli quest for a “new Middle East” following the Anglo-American invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003. It became more pronounced in 2009 when Bashar al-Assad rejected a proposal to allow a gas pipe-line from Qatar to Europe to pass through his country, a pipe-line which would have reduced Europe’s dependence upon Russia for gas. Russia of course has been a long-standing ally of Syria. Together with Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah, it is helping the Syrian government to break the siege of Eastern Allepo and to defeat militants in other parts of Syria. It is obvious that in both instances, in Ukraine and Syria, the US has not been able to achieve what it wants. The US has also been stymied in Southeast Asia where its attempt to re-assert its power through its 2010 ‘Pivot to Asia’ policy has suffered a serious setback as a result of the decision of the new president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, to pursue an independent foreign policy that no longer adheres blindly to US interests. At the same time, China continues to expand and enhance its economic strength in Asia and the world through its One Belt One Road (OBOR) projects and the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and via its leadership of BRICS. China’s regional and global economic role is leading to its pronounced presence in security and military matters. As a result of all this, the US’s imperial power has clearly diminished. It is a hegemon in decline. Source of image: lhvnews.com It is because it is not prepared to accept its decline that some US generals are threatening to demonstrate US’s military might. If a hegemon is a danger to humankind when it is at its pinnacle, it becomes an even greater threat to peace when its power is diminishing. Like a wounded tiger, it becomes even more furious and ferocious. A new US president may be inclined to give vent to this frustration through an arrogant display of military power. How can we check such wanton arrogance? There will be elements in the elite stratum of US society itself who would be opposed to the US going to war. We saw a bit of this in 2013 when those who were itching to launch military strikes against Syria based upon dubious “evidence” of the government’s use of chemical weapons were thwarted by others with a saner view of the consequences of war. It is also important to observe that none of the US’s major allies in Europe wants a war. Burdened by severe challenges related to the economy and migration, the governments know that their citizens will reject any move towards war either on the borders of Russia or in Syria and West Asia. This also suggests that a self-absorbed European citizenry may not have the enthusiasm to mobilise against an imminent war. Let us not forget that it was in European cities from London to Berlin that the biggest demonstrations against the war in Iraq took place in 2003. Anti-war protests will have to be initiated elsewhere this time. Governments in Moscow and Beijing, in Tehran and Jakarta, in Pretoria and La Paz, should come out openly against war. They should encourage other governments in the Global South and the Global North to denounce any move towards a war that will engulf the whole of humanity. Citizens all over the world should condemn war through a variety of strategies ranging from signature campaigns and letters to the media to public rallies and street demonstrations. In this campaign against an imminent war, the media, both conventional and alternative, will have a huge role to play. It is unfortunate that well-known media outlets in the West have supported war in the past. It is time that they atone for their sins!

On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” during the panel discussion about the news that the White House will not release visitor logs and President Donald Trump not release his tax returns, host Chris Wallace declared that Trump “thinks transparency is overrated. ” “There was another change this week by this president, not a change in his policy, but from the previous presidents,” Wallace said. “He now says that this White House is no longer going to routinely release visitor logs showing who’s coming to the White House, who they’re meeting with, as President Obama did. And another interesting development this weekend, there were massive marches across the country, people protesting. These were called tax marches. People demanding that President Trump releases his tax returns as presidents have routinely since Jimmy Carter. And that was the subject of a tweet this morning from President Trump. Let’s put it up on the screen. The president apparently not liking those marches. He says, “I did what was an almost impossible thing to do for a Republican, easily won the electrical college. Now tax returns are brought up again? Gillian, this president apparently thinks transparency is overrated. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

Was HRC +2 in Sept 2way: HRC 47, Trump 39 – was HRC +1 in Sept Oct 20-24, LVs — Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) October 26, 2016 The AP-GfK Poll has Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by 14 points nationally 51%-37%, “The AP-GfK poll finds that Clinton has secured the support of 90 percent of likely Democratic voters, and also has the backing of 15 percent of more moderate Republicans. Just 79 percent of all Republicans surveyed say they are voting for their party’s nominee.” Earlier in the day, two Bloomberg polls that had Trump leading Florida by 2 points, and cutting Clinton’s New Hampshire lead in half gave Republicans a bit of hope that the presidential election might be tightening, but the reality is that voting is already underway in 37 states. There are very few undecided voters remaining. Outside of tracking polls, Donald Trump hasn’t had a polling lead since July . Besides his brief July bump, Trump hasn’t led Clinton in national polling since May. What the media and Republicans don’t want to tell you is that this presidential election has been remarkably consistent. There is nothing in the polling to suggest that the election is tightening, or that Trump has significantly improved his odds of winning. Those who are looking for a tightening in the polls should keep dreaming, because right now, it’s not happening.

JERUSALEM — The fate of just one Israeli soldier was hanging in the balance. But for many Israelis, the guilty verdict announced on Wednesday was a critical turn in the battle for the character of the state. When the military judges convicted Sgt. Elor Azaria of manslaughter for shooting a Palestinian assailant in the head as he lay wounded on the ground, they were ruling not just on his conduct but also on the host of ethical and political issues it raised. Since the shooting in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron in March, the case has polarized Israelis and rocked the pedestal on which the military normally stands. With the 50th anniversary of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank approaching, the highly charged trial had fueled a debate about military ethics and the place of the army in Israeli society. The verdict did little to heal the rifts the trial had exposed: Hours after it was rendered, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined a chorus of voices calling for the soldier to be pardoned. “This is a difficult and painful day for us all,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a Facebook post supporting a pardon, which can be granted by Israel’s president or the army’s top officials. Referring to the Israel Defense Forces, he added, “The soldiers of the I. D. F. are our sons and daughters, and they need to remain above any dispute. ” Prof. David Enoch, an expert in the philosophy of law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said he thought the manslaughter conviction was “justified” but added, “I’m not sure this verdict will be welcomed by many of the soldiers and much of the public. ” The military’s rules make clear that assailants must be quickly incapacitated, but that once the threat is neutralized, they should not be killed. Rights groups and other critics have accused Israeli soldiers and police officers of being too quick to pull the trigger, particularly in response to a recent spate of deadly stabbings, shootings and car attacks by Palestinians. The Hebron killing, caught in chilling completeness in a video that quickly went viral worldwide, for many critics crystallized the question of excessive force, and even military leaders said Sergeant Azaria acted without justification. But in Israel, a country where military service is a part of national identity, many Jews called for backing up young soldiers sent on dangerous missions and said that Sergeant Azaria had been in an impossible situation and had little chance of an acquittal, since that would have put his commanders in a bad light. Israel’s defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, called Wednesday’s decision “a tough verdict. ” “The first thing I ask of all of us — those who like the verdict and those like me who like it much less — we are all obligated to respect the court’s decision,” Mr. Lieberman said. “We are obligated to maintain restraint. ” Mr. Lieberman, as a member of the parliamentary opposition before his cabinet appointment, had attended the military court to support Sergeant Azaria and called the legal proceedings a “theater of the absurd. ” But on Wednesday, he said, “We must keep the army above and beyond all political argument. ” Politicians to Mr. Netanyahu’s right and left have also called for a pardon, including the education minister, Naftali Bennett, and Shelly Yacimovich of the Labor Party, who said that “Azaria’s shoulders are too narrow to bear the entire weight of the fissure” the case has exposed. Some Israeli experts compared the Azaria verdict to the Kafr Qassem ruling of more than 60 years ago, after border police officers fatally shot 49 Arab men, women and children as they returned from work in the fields, unwittingly breaking a curfew. The murder convictions of officers in that case established that security forces must refuse to follow a “patently illegal order” that carries a “black flag” of criminality. It helped shape the army’s ethos. Now, some fear that in the lower ranks, it has begun to erode. In a measure of the tensions, the verdict was handed down in a special court inside the walled and heavily guarded compound of the military’s headquarters in Tel Aviv, rather than in the courtroom where the trial was held, to keep demonstrators at bay. Video footage showed Sergeant Azaria smiling as he entered the courtroom to applause, and he was embraced by his family and friends. Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the compound, shouting slogans like “free the boy. ” Col. Maya Heller, one of the military judges, spent more than two and a half hours delivering the verdict. She systematically rejected the main points of the defense and said there had been “no justification” for the shooting, according to reports from the courtroom. Describing Sergeant Azaria’s telling of the event as “twisting” and “evolving,” the judge said the defense had tried to “hold the rope at both ends. ” On one hand it asserted that the victim, Abed appeared to pose a danger because he was still moving, and on the other it brought medical witnesses who contended that he was dead by the time Sergeant Azaria shot him in the head. The judge seemed to give great weight to statements Sergeant Azaria, a medic who was 19 at the time, made at the scene, indicating he had acted not out of fear but for revenge. A soldier testified that before the shooting, Sergeant Azaria had said, “How is it that my friend was stabbed and the terrorist is still alive?” After the shooting, a commander who was at the scene recalled Sergeant Azaria saying, “The terrorist deserved to die. ” Ilan Katz, one of Sergeant Azaria’s lawyers, vowed to appeal. The military’s high command had denounced the shooting immediately after it happened, calling it a grave breach of proper military conduct. But Israeli society was divided against the backdrop of continued Palestinian attacks, many politicians and celebrities, along with Jewish parents of soldiers, hailed Sergeant Azaria as a hero. Mr. Netanyahu first condemned Sergeant Azaria’s actions, then phoned the soldier’s family to offer sympathy and reassurances that he would be treated fairly. Local television stations frequently showed images of Sergeant Azaria’s distraught parents hugging him in court. Appealing to public sentiment in a country blighted by wars and terrorism, and where most Jewish are conscripted for up to 32 months of military service, his supporters portrayed him as “everybody’s child. ” In remarks recorded before the verdict, the military’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, tried to puncture that narrative. “An in the Israeli Army is not ‘everybody’s child,’” he said. “He is a fighter, a soldier who must dedicate his life to carry out the tasks we give him. We cannot be confused about this. ” The episode began when two Palestinian men stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint in Hebron. Israeli soldiers killed one and wounded the other, Mr. Sharif, 21. Sergeant Azaria arrived at the scene about six minutes later. The video showed calm had been restored. Yet 11 minutes after the initial attack, he cocked his rifle and shot Mr. Sharif as he lay on the road. Lawyers representing Sergeant Azaria said he had acted to save his comrades, in the belief that Mr. Sharif, who was still moving, might have been concealing an explosive belt under his jacket. But Sergeant Azaria did not warn the other soldiers or the medical staff nearby to move away. During the trial, Sergeant Azaria’s company commander, Maj. Tom Naaman, said he “did not feel any danger” from Mr. Sharif, undercutting the defendant’s claims. Yusri Mr. Sharif’s father, told reporters that the verdict was “a good step” but that he hoped there would be no lenience in the sentencing, which is scheduled for Jan. 15. Ahmad Tibi, an Arab member of the Israeli Parliament, said on Twitter that dozens of soldiers and commanders who killed Palestinians should have been convicted. “Fifty years of occupation add up to much more than one Azaria,” Mr. Tibi wrote.

Rights? In The New America You Don’t Get Any Rights! By Michael Snyder, on January 9th, 2012 One of the unique things about the Constitution of the United States was that it guaranteed certain rights for its citizens. Those rights provided the foundation for an era of freedom and prosperity that was pretty much unprecedented in human history and dozens of other nations eventually copied many of the ideas contained in our Constitution and Bill of Rights because they worked so well. Of course our system never functioned perfectly, but when you compare it to what has gone on for most of human history, it truly was a bright light in a sea of oppression and totalitarianism. Unfortunately, our rights are now being systematically taken away from us. In America today, the politicians have convinced most of us that in order to keep us all “safe” we must give up many of our rights and move toward becoming a totalitarian police state. In the “new America”, you don’t get any rights. They tell us that giving people rights is too dangerous. Instead, you get some limited “privileges” which can be revoked at any time by the authorities. Sadly, most Americans have become so dumbed-down that they don’t even realize what is happening. How many Americans do you think have actually read the Constitution? Personally, I went through high school, college and even law school without ever being required to read the Constitution of the United States. Isn’t that amazing? Most Americans don’t even understand that they have rights because they have never even read the documents that grant them those rights. You can find the text of the U.S. Constitution right here . If you have never taken the time to read the whole thing, you really should. According to the U.S. Constitution, the following are some of the rights that we are supposed to have…. -Freedom of religion -Freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures -The right to due process of law -The right to a speedy and public trial -Freedom from cruel and unusual punishments Unfortunately, all of those rights are under attack in America today. In most cases, a right is not taken away all at once. Instead, opponents of these rights take what is known as an “incremental approach”. For example, we are told that there are certain limits on the freedom of speech. We are told that we cannot yell “fire” in a crowded theater and we accept that because it sounds reasonable. But then once everyone agrees that there are “limits” on that right, the control freaks that run things just keep trying to tighten those limits in thousands of different ways until our freedom of speech is whittled away to almost nothing. It is imperative that we stand up for our liberties and freedoms. If we don’t defend them now, eventually they will be gone for good. The following are some examples of how our rights are under attack in America today…. The federal government has become absolutely obsessed with monitoring everything that Americans say. This chills free speech because it gives people the feeling that there is always somebody “watching”. It has recently been revealed that the Department of Homeland Security plans to monitor social media outlets on the Internet. If you use the wrong “keywords” or if you are a key “influencer” on the Internet, there is no doubt that someone from the federal government will be keeping tabs on you. The following comes from a recent RT article …. Under the National Operations Center (NOC)’s Media Monitoring Initiative that came out of DHS headquarters in November, Washington has the written permission to retain data on users of social media and online networking platforms. Specifically, the DHS announced the NCO and its Office of Operations Coordination and Planning (OPS) can collect personal information from news anchors, journalists, reporters or anyone who may use “traditional and/or social media in real time to keep their audience situationally aware and informed.” In particular, the powers that be seem to have become absolutely fascinated with Facebook, Twitter and blogs. As I have written about previously , the Federal Reserve has decided to start monitoring social media sites and blogs in order to keep track of what is being said about them. And as a recent Fox News article detailed, the Department of Homeland Security is also developing such a system…. Though still in development, DHS is looking to establish a system for monitoring “forums, blogs, public websites and message boards.” The idea is to gather and analyze publicly available information, and then use that information to help officials respond to disasters and other situations. So why do they have to spend so much time, energy and money keeping track of what we are all saying on the Internet? Why don’t they just let us be? One would think that the federal government has bigger problems to deal with at this point. Unfortunately, this trend toward endlessly snooping on American citizens is not likely to reverse any time soon. So could what you say on the Internet get you labeled as a “trouble-maker” or as a “potential terrorist”? Recently, Barack Obama signed a new law which allows the U.S. military to arrest “potential terrorists” on U.S. soil, hold them indefinitely without trial and even ship them off to Guantanamo Bay for endless “interrogation” sessions. The insanity of this new law was detailed in a recent article by Henry Blodget …. The reason this law is horrifying is not that terrorists deserve to be handled with kid gloves. They don’t. The reason it’s horrifying is that, without due process, it is too easy for the government to just declare someone a terrorist who isn’t actually a terrorist. It’s too easy, in other words, for government employees to do what everyone else does: Make mistakes. If you don’t think it’s possible for the government to mistakenly assume that someone is a terrorist who isn’t, read this story by Lakhdar Boumediene , who was just held as a terrorist by the U.S. government in Guantanamo for 7 and a half years. At Guantanamo, Boumediene says he was tortured for not telling his U.S. captors what they wanted to hear–that he was a terrorist. He was only eventually freed after his case went to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court ruled that it might be a good idea to ask the government to present the evidence that led it to believe that Boumediene was a terrorist (the government didn’t present any). Sadly, according to Obama this new law just reaffirms what he already had the power to do. In his signing statement, Obama stated that he already had the authority to arrest American citizens, hold them without trial and ship them off to prison camps. Of course that would come as a complete shock to the original drafters of the U.S. Constitution, but very few Americans seem concerned with what the U.S. Constitution actually says these days. Now there is a new bill before Congress that would even give the federal government the power to instantly strip individuals of citizenship if they are suspected of being “hostile” to the United States. It is known as the Enemy Expatriation Act, and you can read this new bill for yourself right here . According to the bill, you can be stripped of your U.S. citizenship for “engaging in, or purposefully and materially supporting, hostilities against the United States.” So what does it mean to “materially support” hostilities against the United States? Does simply criticizing the government fall under that category? Unfortunately, when you have a law that is really vague it gives authorities the leeway to do pretty much whatever they want. At least we still have the Internet where we can communicate with one another and share all of this information, right? Well, maybe not for long. As I have written about previously, a new law under consideration by Congress would permanently change the Internet forever and could potentially silence thousands of important voices. That is why we must stop SOPA . It is a horrible law which could be used to brutally censor the Internet. Some of the biggest names in the Internet community are speaking out against SOPA. For example, a recent CNN article contained some stunning quotes about SOPA from one of the co-founders of Google…. Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, has been outspoken against the efforts. The bills “give the U.S. government and copyright holders extraordinary powers including the ability to hijack DNS (the Internet’s naming system) and censor search results (and this is even without so much as a proper court trial),” Brin wrote last month on his Google+ page as Congress was considering the measures. “While I support their goal of reducing copyright infringement (which I don’t believe these acts would accomplish), I am shocked that our lawmakers would contemplate such measures that would put us on a par with the most oppressive nations in the world.” Everywhere you turn these days, our liberties and our freedoms are being attacked. There is a relentless assault on everything that it means to be an American. No matter how hard you try, it just seems like you can’t get away from it. For example, many of us have been so disgusted with the TSA that we simply do not fly anymore. Well, the TSA is not content to just monitor airports anymore. Now they are bringing their own special brand of “security” to thousands of other locations across the country as the Los Angeles Times recently detailed …. The Transportation Security Administration isn’t just in airports anymore. TSA teams are increasingly conducting searches and screenings at train stations, subways, ferry terminals and other mass transit locations around the country. “We are not the Airport Security Administration,” said Ray Dineen, the air marshal in charge of the TSA office in Charlotte. “We take that transportation part seriously.” The TSA’s 25 “viper” teams — for Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response — have run more than 9,300 unannounced checkpoints and other search operations in the last year. Department of Homeland Security officials have asked Congress for funding to add 12 more teams next year. So even if you never fly again, there is still a good chance that you will get the “rubber glove treatment” from a TSA “viper team” at some point. Without a doubt, this country is slowly becoming a giant prison . And one group that gets targeted by the government almost more than anyone else is Christians. In America today, there is a war against Christianity. The Christian faith is being attacked in hundreds of different ways , and under the Obama administration this attack has only just intensified. There seems to be an obsession with pushing Christianity out of every single shred of public life in this country. For example, family members were recently banned from bringing Bibles to wounded veterans at Walter Reed National Medical Center. The following is from a recent CNSNews article …. In a Sept. 14 policy memorandum, Col. Chuck Callahan, chief of staff of Walter Reed National Medical Center, banned family members from bringing Bibles and other “religious items” when visiting wounded military personnel at the facility. Thankfully, this policy was later reversed after a tremendous national outcry, but there are dozens and dozens of other “policies” like this that have not been reversed. They say that we still have “freedom of religion” in this country, but there is a non-stop effort to push it into a box that is getting smaller and smaller with each passing day. Our 2nd Amendment rights area also being brutally assaulted. Restrictions on gun owners keep getting tighter and tighter and tighter. Things have gotten so bad that now even gun manufacturers don’t even know what is legal and what is not. The following comes from a recent article in the Washington Times …. Despite overseeing an industry that includes machine guns and other deadly weapons, ATF regulations for the manufacture of weapons are often unclear, leading to reliance on a secretive system by which firearms manufacturers can submit proposed weapons for testing and find out one at a time whether they comply with the law, critics say. The ATF recommends that manufacturers voluntarily submit weapons for case-by-case determination. But those judgments are private and, it turns out, sometimes contradictory. Critics say nearly identical prototypes can be approved for one manufacturer but denied for another. But it is not just the federal government that is becoming incredibly oppressive. We are seeing state and local governments all over the country also move in the direction of totalitarianism. Here are just a couple of examples that have been brought to my attention in recent days…. *Up in Massachusetts, police were recently sent to collect an overdue library book from a 5-year-old girl . *In St. Louis, a proposed law would make it mandatory to spay or neuter all cats and dogs and would make it mandatory to microchip all cats and dogs. When you step back and look at the bigger picture, a clear trend emerges. As 2012 began, over 40,000 new laws went into effect all over America. Some of these new laws are good, but most of them are about restricting the liberties and freedoms of individual Americans. We have become a nation of control freaks. In the final analysis, we don’t have any absolute rights anymore. Instead, what we have are “privileges” that are being systematically stripped away. But this is not how America was supposed to be. We were supposed to be the freest nation on the face of the earth. So what in the world happened to us? Mainstream Media Lies: 23 Things That Are Not What They Seem To Be On Television » A Dodgy Bloke I hate to sound like a broken record but much of the deterioration of our rights has it’s genesis with George “He kept us safe” Bush, after 9/11. Now the chickens have come home to roost, add to that the start of financial repression, and dark hungry days are ahead. I have a thesis why this is happening Government has one duty to stay in power. The Powers that be know unstable times are coming if you have a stable of loosely written laws on the books you can lock up anybody when the SHTF who gets frisky. I know this falls into the “Alex Jones” FEMA camps the tin hat crowed. Personally I think civil war or revolution is a real possibility people revolt on thier knees not on thier backs. Also another FYI watch the retirement plans of state county and city workers. How do you think those cops in the last photo will react when they find out thier retirement went up in smoke. If you don’t know what I’m talking about go back to sleep. Kevin A Dodgy Bloke Your correct that the first job (and one can say by extension only job) of government is to protect government. I think your incorrect regarding the pensions of the “security forces”. They will tax the rest of us to keep them financially secure for our “protection” of course. Kevin A Doggy Bloke Your correct with laws that are so written as to be used at will against whoever they want. In Jamaica marijuana is illegal yet you smell it everywhere. Count the minuets from the time you get through customs until your offered some to purchase and you won’t make an hour. It’s in essence rope that the masses collectively tie around their necks awaiting the government to rein in political opposition. My name is Christina Ziegler I think you should start the revolt Gutter Economist EXECUTIVE ORDER 10990 – allows the government to take over all modes of transportation and control of highways and seaports. EXECUTIVE ORDER 10995 – allows the government to seize and control the communication media. EXECUTIVE ORDER 10997 – allows the government to take over all electrical power, gas, petroleum, fuels and minerals. EXECUTIVE ORDER 10998 – allows the government to seize all means of transportation, including personal cars, trucks or vehicles of any kind and total control over all highways, seaports, and waterways. EXECUTIVE ORDER 10999 – allows the government to take over all food resources and farms. EXECUTIVE ORDER 11000 – allows the government to mobilize civilians into work brigades under government supervision. EXECUTIVE ORDER 11001 – allows the government to take over all health, education and welfare functions. EXECUTIVE ORDER 11002 – designates the Postmaster General to operate a national registration of all persons. EXECUTIVE ORDER 11003 – allows the government to take over all airports and aircraft, including commercial aircraft. EXECUTIVE ORDER 11004 – allows the Housing and Finance Authority to relocate communities, build new housing with public funds, designate areas to be abandoned, and establish new locations for populations. EXECUTIVE ORDER 11005 – allows the government to take over railroads, inland waterways and public storage facilities. EXECUTIVE ORDER 11051 – specifies the responsibility of the Office of Emergency Planning and gives authorization to put all Executive Orders into effect in times of increased international tensions and economic or financial crisis. EXECUTIVE ORDER 11921– allows the Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency to develop plans to establish control over the mechanisms of production and distribution, of energy sources, wages, salaries, credit and the flow of money in U.S. financial institution in any undefined national emergency. It also provides that when a state of emergency is declared by the President, Congress cannot review the action for six months. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has broad powers in every aspect of the nation. General Frank Salzedo, chief of FEMA’s Civil Security Division stated in a 1983 conference that he saw FEMA’s role as a “new frontier in the protection of individual and governmental leaders from assassination, and of civil and military installations from sabotage and/or attack, as well as prevention of dissident groups from gaining access to U.S. opinion, or a global audience in times of crisis.” FEMA’s powers were consolidated by President Carter to incorporate the… EXECUTIVE ORDER 11310 – grants authority to the Department of Justice to enforce the plans set out in Executive Orders, to institute industrial support, to establish judicial and legislative liaison, to control all aliens, to operate penal and correctional institutions, and to advise and assist the President. EXECUTIVE ORDER 11049 – assigns emergency preparedness function to federal departments and agencies, consolidating 21 operative Executive Orders issued over a fifteen year period. EXECUTIVE ORDER 12148 – created the Federal Emergency Management Agency to interface with the Department of Defense for civil defense planning and funding. An “emergency czar” was appointed. FEMA has only spent about 6 percent of its budget on national emergencies. The bulk of their funding has been used for the construction of secret underground facilities to assure continuity of government in case of a major emergency, foreign or domestic. EXECUTIVE ORDER 12656 – appointed the National Security Council as the principal body that should consider emergency powers. This allows the government to increase domestic intelligence and surveillance of U.S. citizens and would restrict the freedom of movement within the United States and grant the government the right to isolate large groups of civilians. The National Guard could be federalized to seal all borders and take control of U.S. air space and all ports of entry. EXECUTIVE ORDER 12919 – Collects EOs 10995, 10997, 10998, 10999, 11000, 11001, 11002, 11003, 11004, 11005 and 11051 together into one new Executive Order. National Security Act of 1947 – allows for the strategic relocation of industries, services, government and other essential economic activities, and to rationalize the requirements for manpower, resources and production facilities. 1950 Defense Production Act – gives the President sweeping powers over all aspects of the economy. Act of August 29, 1916 – authorizes the Secretary of the Army, in time of war, to take possession of any transportation system for transporting troops, material, or any other purpose related to the emergency. International Emergency Economic Powers Act – enables the President to seize the property of a foreign country or national. These powers were transferred to FEMA in a sweeping consolidation in 1979. For more information, goto http://www.infowars.com/deliberately-engineered-economic-collapse-in-usa-leading-to-martial-law/ Ameen WOW!! DB200 “International Emergency Economic Powers Act – enables the President to seize the property of a foreign country or national.” Does this mean that all gold stored in Fort Knox, belonging to foreign countries, can be seized legally by the USA? Does this also mean that when China and the USA go to war with each other, China stands to lose quite a lot of investments? Observer There is NO gold in Fort Knox! Ask any local resident, many of whom have military family members stationed there. They are guarding an empty coffer. Kevin I thought they needed to pull this off before the conforming generations (born previous to 1946) were still a major voting block. While I see it before my eyes one would think the people that came of age in the 1960s would know better then to surrender rights to the government. Apparently I was mistaken. thomas jefferson “All laws which are repugnant to the Constitution, are null and void.” Chief Justice Marshall, Marbury v. Madison i will NEVER submit to this TYRANNY! give me Liberty or give me death and you can BET your sweet A** i WILL NOT go down without a fight Freedom isnt Free- But damnit its worth dying for- especially for my children- they WILL NOT live under a totalitarian regime as long as i have a breath Joshua10 If you don’t know your rights…You Don’t Have Any! Tamara Do not, in your frustration, deny ANY man or woman or child their rights! As frustrating as their ignorance is, they have been lied to and are as the weak in their ignorance. The good protects the weak from the wolves. The wolves are gathering…. REED RICHARDS Michael, As Gutter Economist has outlined it, Rights? The masses have no rights! And they never did. But don’t worry. The masses could care less about freedom. And they never did. Evidence that the masses don’t care about freedom? Ron Paul is not the frontrunner by a very wide margin in the presidential race. He is the only candidate who is running to restore civil liberties, ending senseless, grinding people into hamburger wars, and restoring sanity to fiscal and monetaruy policy. Is that what the masses want? Of course not. But they will finally get a taste of the iron fist when the FEMA Camp roundups begin DB200 What is a FEMA Camp? Observer FEMA was empowered to set up camps, mostly in highly unpopulated areas in the western US, where populations could be moved to ostensibly save them from extreme danger from such things as earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, other natural disasters, that threaten their homes & communities. Each camp can hold thousands of people. Knowing the propensity of our government to “protect” us from ourselves, these camps are also capable of holding all those rounded up who are in opposition to anything the government wants at any given time. They are the modern version of the Japanese internment camps employed during WWII. Citizens opposed to government policies and practices are prime targets for placement in these camps, especially now that the NDAA says that US citizens even simply suspected of ‘terrorist’ thoughts or activities (and who defines what a terrorist is? – the government, of course) can be indefinitely held, without charge or trial. Anyone who thinks ANY current administration is wrong can now be branded a terrorist, and 99% of the commenters here, if found, could also be sent to the FEMA camps. The powers that be are just waiting for the one major calamity it would take to execute the FEMA camp orders ~ and that calamity is most probably going to be an economic one, with natural disaster (with concomitant economic collapse) a close secondary excuse to round up We, The People, who need Big Brother’s ‘help.’ Only God can help those who believe in “Live Free or Die” ~ armed insurrection will be met with instant execution, so there’ll be no need for internment at FEMA camps. Once the believers in the 2nd Amendment are exterminated, the entire geography of the United States will comprise one extremely large FEMA camp. Igos Do You People Know What Lies Out West??? Do You?!?! YELLOWSTONE SUPER VOLCANO! The Camps Are There So The Government Can Commit Massive Genocide. Unlike Hitler Whom Killed 6 Million The Camps Out West Will Hold Numbers So Massive It’ll Put Hitler To Shame….

The Bible offers up some really good advice as we enter into the final week of the “selection” process. ” Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” (Revelation 18:4) Whether it be casting your vote in an utterly broken and corrupt election process, or sending your kids to public school to have USDA stamped on their ass as they are sent down the “drone” assembly line, you provide legitimacy to these systems simply by participating. REAL ID is going to end up being a real headache for travelers, and don’t eat beans before getting laser surgery! Watch on YouTube Sources: Feds Ramp Up REAL ID Bullying Tactics The Clinton Presidency Is Going to Be a Miserable Slog Number of Home-Schooled Students Has Doubled Since 1999, New Data Shows Hospital Patient Seriously Burnt After ‘Farting’ During Cervix Surgery and Causing Laser to Burst Into Flames Delivered by The Daily Sheeple We encourage you to share and republish our reports, analyses, breaking news and videos ( Click for details ). Contributed by The Daily Sheeple of www.TheDailySheeple.com . This content may be freely reproduced in full or in part in digital form with full attribution to the author and a link to www.TheDailySheeple.com.

« Previous - Next » The First Space Photo Of Earth - Shot From A Third Reich Rocket In 1946 Prior to 1946, the highest pictures that had ever been taken of the Earth were from the Explorer II balloon in 1935. At 13.7 miles up, the photos were understandably vague. At this point, our view of Earth was largely based on science, with a bit of support from the Explorer II photos. However, nothing was clear enough to be confirmed. In October of 1946, the ideas of many scientists were confirmed, as new heights were reached. Something astonishing occurred at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Using a V2 rocket that had been captured from Nazis and brought to White Sands in 300 rail cars after the war, a camera was shot into space. The first rocket reached what is now a measly height of 65 miles. At nearly five times the height of previous photos, researchers now had their first view from space. While the camera was destroyed, plummeting back to earth at nearly 500 feet per second, the film had been protected by a steel case, completely untouched . Fred Rulli recalls after the recovery of the film, “when they first projected them onto the screen, the scientists just went nuts”, speaking of the photos in 1946. He speaks of his friend, who realized the importance of the day, saying “Do you realize what’s going on here?” Many may not have. They had no idea that in the years following that spectacular day, the V2 rockets would reach even greater heights, traveling over 100 miles up. Hundreds of photos were taken and researchers were ecstatic at what they had discovered. Today, when millions of people watch pictures of the Earth from cameras in outer space every day, it seems a perfectly natural thing. Since the V2 rockets, photos have been taken from the moon during the Apollo 8 mission, from space beyond Neptune in 1990 from the Voyager 1, and more recently from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. It seems as though there is not much left to discover when it comes to the surface of the Earth and the photos we have captured of it. However, there will always be something greater. There will always be something new to be found, always a new way to capture beautiful, more technological photos of the surface of our Earth. This article (The First Space Photo Of Earth - Shot From A Third Reich Rocket In 1946) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with full attribution and a link to the original source on Disclose.tv Related Articles

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — When you are born in Miami, your hurricane experiences tend to start early. Mine began in utero — my mother was pregnant with me when Hurricane Cleo touched down in Miami. Two weeks before my arrival, Hurricane Isbell set its sight on the Everglades. And just as I neared my first birthday, she hurriedly pushed my baby carriage down the street with my brother and sister to seek shelter at my godfather’s house. Hurricane Betsy, a doozy, was headed to Miami (It landed in Key Largo). Now, I’m waiting for Hurricane Matthew at a Homewood Suites hotel here about 100 miles north of Miami. I’m not one to be overly cavalier about powerful hurricanes. They can be wildly underestimated, although in today’s news cycle of breathless reports, that seems impossible. Most people I have talked with here are already shuttered away in their homes, surrounded by ice, food, generators, flashlights, radios, fuel and water. This is a new experience for many Floridians, given the uncharacteristic paucity of major storms over the last decade and the influx of newcomers to the state. But they should all know that in a really bad storm, preparation goes only so far. That became all too clear when I rode out Hurricane Andrew on Aug. 24, 1992, inside a Comfort Inn in Florida City, about 28 miles south of Miami, ground zero for the monumental Category 5 storm. The hurricane destroyed the southernmost parts of Dade County. It also demolished the Comfort Inn. Ending up in Florida City was the luck of the draw. I was a reporter at The Miami Herald at the time. The editors tossed out assignments. My fellow reporter and boyfriend (now my husband) Don Van Natta Jr. and I shrugged and headed out to the last city before the Florida Keys. A photographer for the paper, Carlos Guerrero, drove us there in his car, the only one headed south when we arrived around 10 p. m. There were 18 tourists, some from as far away as Japan, inside the motel, the kind with rooms opening to the outside. It was calm for a few hours. We assumed a good story had passed us by. People called into radio stations from Miami, shouting about the ferocious winds. We debated toasting our first hurricane together with some beer. We opened our Comfort Inn door, and all was still. Until it wasn’t. The sounds were the first clues. Nearby electrical transformers started exploding, streaking the night with blue and green light. Then our power went out. Another hour passed. We could hear the sound of glass shattering and metal being sheared off the roof or scraping the pavement. A chunk of the motel roof flew off. We took a deep breath and dashed for the next room. A group of us huddled together. Flashlights and candles glowed. We talked a little but mostly listened to the hurricane’s groans. When ceilings started leaking, we changed rooms. Just past 5 a. m. our ears popped from the drop in barometric pressure. The sound of twisting and crashing metal intensified. The storm’s eye approached, bringing the briefest of lulls. It was pitch black outside, but we could spy the cars in the parking lot. They looked banged up. Windshields were shattered. We could live with that. But, like any good suspense story, the second half tumbled into terrifying. The motel manager, an man, persuaded everyone to move to the motel’s north side because he knew the winds would shift after the eye passed. He very likely saved our lives. We didn’t know the wind around us was punching at 165 miles an hour. But we could feel its power. We ran from room to room with our hurricane friends. In one room, the ceiling started to crack, crumble or fly off in chunks. Just as the ceiling threatened to collapse, the door wouldn’t open. The pressure had sealed it shut. We were trapped. Nine of us crowded into the bathroom. We heard a boom. Something nearby had exploded. Water started leaking into the bathroom. One man crawled under the sink. A few people stood in the bathtub. Someone cried. One woman, panic in her voice, shouted for air. Everyone pressed together. We prayed out loud. Don and another man struggled to hold up the sagging ceiling. Plaster tumbled. Everything talked to us — the toilet and ceiling, the pipes and the walls. We tried the door again, but it still wouldn’t yield. That’s when we heard an even more frightening sound — the rumble all around us. After what felt like an eternity, the door opened and we dashed to Room 240. The manager was there with a few other guests. The ceiling seemed secure. Still shaking, we exhaled. Dawn approached, and with it the storm gradually began to subside. We opened the door and peered out just as the sun rose. The Comfort Inn was nearly entirely blown away. All I could see around me was rubble and debris. We found a German tourist under a mattress in his roofless room, petrified and shaking. One of the guests, wearing military fatigues and carrying a long gun, started to loot a gas station nearby. Our room was mostly in pieces. Our suitcases were gone. I ventured into the bull’ — Florida City — the first reporter on the ground. Stunned and soaked residents stumbled out of their badly mangled houses. One older man, carrying a small bundle of clothes, could barely speak. Frightened dogs roamed in packs (soon the monkeys unleashed from Monkey Jungle, a local tourist attraction, would join them). Ninety percent of the town was destroyed. Neighboring Homestead was trampled, too. No landmarks remained. People got lost in their own neighborhoods. Soon the National Guard would arrive, tent cities would rise, people would guard their houses with shotguns, and an army of roofers and insurance adjusters would arrive. Our reporting done, we climbed into the photographer’s car. The engine actually started. We covered our faces with towels to avoid the shattered windshield glass that flew at us. We headed north, bypassing downed poles, trees and power lines. We walked into The Miami Herald and filed our stories. In my pocket, I stashed one keepsake: the beige key to our Comfort Inn room, No. 216.

WASHINGTON — President Obama poked fun at Hillary Clinton’s lack of appeal among young people Saturday night, joking at the annual White House press corps dinner that Mrs. Clinton was like an aging relative who cannot figure out how to use Facebook. “Did you get my poke? Is it on my wall?” he said, imagining Mrs. Clinton trying to use the popular social media site. “I’m not sure I’m using this right. Love, Aunt Hillary. ” Mr. Obama also needled Mrs. Clinton for paid speeches she gave for Goldman Sachs. He noted that if his comedy routine, during his final appearance at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, was successful, he could earn “serious Tubmans” — a nod to Harriet Tubman, the American abolitionist whose image will be printed on future $20 bills. He referred to Senator Bernie Sanders, who was in the audience, as “comrade,” a reference to his political status as a democratic socialist. But the president reserved his most biting commentary for the Republicans running for president, repeatedly turning to the party’s chaotic nominating contest for comedic fodder. Mr. Obama mocked Senator Ted Cruz for calling a basketball hoop a “basketball ring” while campaigning in Indiana. “What else is in his lexicon?” Mr. Obama asked, working hard to contain a broad smile. “Baseball sticks? Football hats?” He paused, then added: “But sure, I’m the foreign one. ” The president showed a picture of Gov. John Kasich of Ohio eating pancakes as he noted that “some candidates aren’t polling high enough to qualify for their own joke tonight. ” And he tweaked Republicans in the audience for their search for an alternative candidate, noting that the options for dinner were steak or fish. “A whole bunch of you wrote in Paul Ryan,” he said. “You may not like steak or fish. But that’s your choice. ” And then there was Donald Trump. Mr. Obama riffed at length about Mr. Trump, the who was not in attendance. The president wondered aloud why Mr. Trump had chosen not to be there. “You’ve got a room full of reporters, celebrities, cameras, and he said no,” Mr. Obama said. “Is this dinner too tacky for the Donald?” He joked that Mr. Trump had some foreign policy experience because “he has spent years meeting with leaders from around the world: Miss Sweden, Miss Argentina, Miss Azerbaijan. ” And he noted that Mr. Trump may be the best person to succeed in closing the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. “Trump knows a thing or two about running waterfront properties into the ground,” Mr. Obama said. The president delivered his remarks with deft comic timing in a lengthy monologue that was both ironic and introspective. Members of the news media did not escape the president’s acerbic sense of humor. He joked that the movie “Spotlight,” about The Boston Globe’s investigation into sexual abuse by Catholic priests and holding the powerful accountable, was “the best fantasy film since ‘Star Wars. ’” And he tweaked the news media for giving Mr. Trump “the appropriate amount of coverage, befitting the seriousness of his candidacy. ” Mr. Obama’s most personal jab at a journalist was aimed at Jake Tapper, the host of “The Lede” on CNN. He noted that several journalists had left the White House beat in recent years, and then added: “Jake Tapper left journalism to join CNN,” prompting Mr. Tapper to raise a wine glass. As has been his habit, Mr. Obama made fun of himself. He joked about his age — and the common maladies that afflict men over 50 — suggesting that he felt far older than he did when he became president. “Hillary once questioned whether I’d be ready for a 3 a. m. phone call,” he recalled. “Now I’m awake anyway because I’ve got to go to the bathroom. ” He also noted that he had spent two days in London recently having lunch with Queen Elizabeth II, playing golf with Prime Minister David Cameron, and seeing a Shakespeare performance at the Globe Theater. “Just in case anyone is debating whether I’m black enough, that should settle the debate,” he said. Perhaps the most surprising moment of the president’s appearance came in a video produced by the White House showing Mr. Obama considering how to spend his time after leaving office. In the video, Mr. Obama first turns to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. for advice. But then the president decides to call someone else for help — former House Speaker John A. Boehner, a Republican who was once a fierce adversary. The video shows the president and Mr. Boehner sitting in the White House movie theater watching the ending of “Toy Story. ” Mr. Boehner notes that he finally got the “grand bargain” that had eluded the two leaders during budget talks. “On a sweet Chevy Tahoe,” Mr. Boehner says, pulling out a pack of cigarettes and offering one to Mr. Obama, who has spent his presidency chewing nicotine gum to try to kick his smoking habit. The president’s eyes go wide. Mr. Obama closed his appearance on a serious note, saluting Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post reporter who had been held in an Iranian prison, and who attended the dinner Saturday night. He promised that his administration would “continue to fight” for journalists held against their will. And he praised the Washington press corps for trying to resist the commercial pressures to dumb down journalism, saying that “there are so many of you who are pushing against those trends. ” He then offered just two words: “Obama out. ” He dropped his microphone, and turned from the podium.

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 18:02 UTC © nsnbc international Serena Shim, American journalist October 19 marks two years since the very sudden and suspicious death of American journalist Serena Shim near Suruç, Turkey, close to the Syrian border. Although all signs point to foul play, indeed murder, by Turkish intelligence, until now the US government has neither conducted nor demanded an inquiry into the events of the alleged car accident which Turkish officials say was the cause of Shim's death, let alone offer condolences to the family. Serena Shim was at the time reporting on Ayn al-Arab (Kobani), from the Turkish side. She was, in her own words, one of the first, if not the first, on the ground to report on ,"Takfiri militants going in through the Turkish border". These include not only ISIS but also terrorists from the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA). As Shim's sister Fatmeh Shim stated in 2015 , "She caught them bringing in ISIS high-ranked members into Syria from Turkey into camps, which are supposed to be Syrian refugee camps." Serena Shim's January 2013 expose , Turkey's Pivotal Role in Syria's Insurgency: PressTV Report from Inside Turkey, showed footage of what she estimated to be 300 semi-trucks "awaiting militants to empty them out"; included testimony explaining how Turkey enables the crossing of foreign terrorists "freely" into Syria; spoke of the funneling of arms via the Incirlik US Air Base in Turkey to terrorists in refugee camps or on through to Syria; and highlighted the issue of terrorist training camps portrayed as refugee camps, guarded by the Turkish military. Shim named the World Food Organization as one of the NGOs whose trucks were being used to funnel terrorists' arms into Syria, and stated this in her last interview, just one day before being killed. Notably, in that interview she also explicitly stated that she feared for her life because Turkish intelligence had accused her of being a spy. She told Press TV: "Turkey has been labeled by Reporters Without Borders as the largest prison for journalists, so I am a bit frightened about what they might use against me... I'm hoping that nothing is going to happen, that it's going to blow over. I would assume that they are going to take me in for questioning, and the next hope is that my lawyer is good enough to get me out as soon as possible." Two days later, Press TV announced her death , stating: "Serena was killed in a reported car accident when she was returning from a report scene in the city of Suruch in Turkey's Urfa province. She was going back to her hotel in Urfa when their car collided with a heavy vehicle." This was the official version of her death, although in subsequent versions the story changed. In a report one month later, Russia Today (RT) spoke with Shim's sister, who said: "There's so many different stories. The first was that Serena's car was hit by a heavy vehicle, who proceeded to keep on driving. They could not find the vehicle nor could they find the driver. Two days later, surprisingly, they had found the vehicle and the driver, and had pictures of the heavy vehicle hitting my sister's car. Every day coming out with new pictures of different degrees of damages that have happened to the car." "Serena and my cousin who was the driver of the car were taken to two different hospitals. She was reported first dead at the scene. Then coming out with later reports that she passed away at the hospital 30 minutes later from heart failure?! " POLITICAL BLACKOUT, MEDIA BLACKOUT When on November 20, 2014, at a Daily Press Briefing, RT journalist Gayane Chichakyan twice pressed Director of Press Office, Jeff Rathke, for updates on Shim's death, he unsurprisingly gave none: Chichakyan: "It's about the journalist Serena Shim, who died in Turkey under very suspicious circumstances. Did her death raise suspicions here at the State Department?" Rathke: "Well, I think we've spoken to this in the briefing room several weeks ago, after it happened. I don't have anything to add to what the spokesperson said at the time, though." Chichakyan: "But then she died several days after she claimed she had been threatened by the Turkish intelligence. Have you inquired about this? Have you asked questions? Is there really nothing new about this?" Rathke: "Well, I just don't have any update to share with you. Again, this was raised shortly after her death. The spokesperson addressed it. I don't have an update to share with you at this time." Chichakyan: "I just want to go back to Serena Shim. You rightly said the State Department commented on her death several weeks ago, and you say there is no update. Why is there no update? A U.S. citizen dies days after she said she'd been threatened by the Turkish intelligence." Rathke: "Well, I simply don't have any information to share at this time. I'm happy to check and see if there's anything additional. We spoke out about it, as I said, at the very start several weeks ago after her death, so I - but I don't have anything with me right now to offer. I'm happy to check and see if there's more that we can share." Of course, neither he nor any US government official has followed up . Last year, Shim's mother, Judy Poe, replied to me in a message: "There is no doubt in my mind that my daughter did not die in a car accident. There was not one single scratch on her there was no blood absolutely anywhere. I have tried to contact the American Embassy in Turkey with the cell phone numbers they gave me originally when I was going to get my daughter. Absolutely no response from the American Embassy in Turkey, including via personal cell phones." Shim's sister in her RT interview stated, "We've got no support whatsoever, nor have we got condolences." None of the major journalist organizations have pursued a just investigation into Shim's murder, much less lamented it. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) turns up zero results when Shim's name is searched on their website . Yet, the CPJ does have a list of journalists killed in Turkey since 1992, and as recent as Feb 2016, obviously minus Shim's name. Likewise, a search on the Reporters Without Borders website turns up zero results . A December 19, 2014 article at the Greanville Post does have a CPJ spokesperson stating: "The Committee to Protect Journalists has investigated the events surrounding Serena Shim's death in Turkey and at this time has found no evidence to indicate that her death was anything other than a tragic accident. Unless her death is confirmed to be in direct relation to her work as a journalist, it will not appear on our database. In the event that new evidence comes to light, CPJ would review her case." The article Greanville Post notes, "As of February 2016, the CPJ has not changed its position." The International Federation of Journalists does have a short entry on Shim: "Serena Shim, the female correspondent for Press TV in Turkey was killed in a car accident on the Turkish-Syrian border. She was returning from an assignment in Suruç, a rural district of Şanlıurfa Province of Turkey when her car collided with a truck." But no call for inquiry and no questioning of official narrative. In a November 21, 2014 article at Shim's death, RT noted that, "the office of the Representative on Freedom of the Media at the OSCE told RT that Turkey is carrying out an investigation." It cited OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Gunnar Vrang, as saying: "The representative has been following the case since the first reports appeared about the car accident that claimed the life of journalist Serena Shim. According to information available to her office, the Turkish authorities have started investigation into the details of the car accident." Searching the OSCE for Serena Shim's name also results in zero hits. On February 5, 2016, Judy Poe tweeted: Clearly the representative went with the Turkish rendition of events. Few in corporate media have looked into Shim's suspicious death. In one surprising exception, Fox News reported on Shim's death, citing a US State Department spokesperson as saying the State Department "does not conduct investigations into deaths overseas." Given that Turkish intelligence threatened Shim, according to her testimony, and that Turkey is notorious world-wide for its imprisonment and murder of journalists, the US State Department's lack of concern is incriminating in itself. In stark contrast to the silence around Shim's death, John Kerry at least twice publicly mourned the death of James Foley, lauding as a hero the journalist who snuck into Syria via Turkey to report embedded with al-Qaeda and other terrorists, and giving sincere condolences to his family. Without a trace of irony, in August 2014, Kerry said of Foley , and never of Shim, "We honor the courage and pray for the safety of all those who risk their lives to discover the truth where it is needed most." In September, 2014, Kerry directly contradicted the above-mentioned words of the State Department spokesperson, saying: "When terrorists anywhere around the world have murdered our citizens, the United States held them accountable, no matter how long it took. And those who have murdered James Foley and Steven Sotloff in Syria should know that the United States will hold them accountable too, no matter how long it takes." On the media and political blackout around Serena Shim's suspicious death, Shim's former colleague, Afshin Rattansi, host of RT's Going Underground posited: "There were a few press reports, but nothing like the kind of reporting about a brave young journalist that one would expect. Was this because the story she was covering was so dangerous that a NATO ally like Turkey should be cooperating with ISIS... was that the reason that this story has not been more widely broadcast? We don't know." Indeed, this would not be the first time the US administration has not pursued justice for the murder of one of its citizens by an ally. Rachie Corrie's March 16, 2013 murder by an Israeli soldier driving a bulldozer was not only witnessed by numerous rights activists with Corrie in Rafah, occupied Palestine, but was filmed. There is no denial that the Israeli soldier saw Corrie, drove his dozer over her and then reversed back, crushing her twice. Yet, in spite of the efforts of her family and supporters, the US has never pursued justice for this American citizen either. Judy Poe said that Serena's favourite motto was: "I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees." Shim lived the motto. She was 29, with two children, when killed. Eva Bartlett is an independent writer and rights activist with extensive experience in Syria and in the Gaza Strip, where she lived a cumulative three years (from late 2008 to early 2013). She documented the 2008/9 and 2012 Israeli war crimes and attacks on Gaza while riding in ambulances and reporting from hospitals. From June-August 2016, she visited Syria for her fifth time. Her writings can be found on her blog, In Gaza (www.ingaza.wordpress.com) Comment: It seems evident Shim was too close to revealing the true situation and the players involved. It is a tragedy that the price was her life.

The Patriot News Agency website popped up in July, soon after it became clear that Donald J. Trump would win the Republican presidential nomination, bearing a logo of a red, white and blue eagle and the motto “Built by patriots, for patriots. ” Tucked away on a corner of the site, next to links for Twitter and YouTube, is a link to another social media platform that most Americans have never heard of: VKontakte, the Russian equivalent of Facebook. It is a clue that Patriot News, like many sites that appeared out of nowhere and pumped out hoaxes tying his opponent Hillary Clinton to Satanism, pedophilia and other conspiracies, is actually run by foreigners based overseas. But while most of those others seem be the work of young, apolitical opportunists cashing in on a conservative appetite for viral nonsense, operators of Patriot News had an explicitly partisan motivation: getting Mr. Trump elected. Patriot News — whose postings were viewed and shared tens of thousands of times in the United States — is among a constellation of websites run out of the United Kingdom that are linked to James Dowson, a political activist who advocated Britain’s exit from the European Union and is a fan of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. A vocal proponent of Christian nationalist, movements in Europe, Mr. Dowson, 52, has spoken at a conference of leaders in Russia and makes no secret of his hope that Mr. Trump will usher in an era of rapprochement with Mr. Putin. His dabbling in the American presidential election adds an ideological element that has been largely missing from the landscape of websites and Facebook pages that bombarded American voters with misinformation and propaganda. Far from the Macedonian teenagers running fake news factories solely for profit, Mr. Dowson made it his mission, according to messages posted on one of his sites, to “spread devastating memes and sound bites into sections of the population too disillusioned with politics to have taken any notice of conventional campaigning. ” “Together, people like us helped change the course of history,” one message said, adding in another: “Every single one of you who forwarded even just one of our posts on social media contributed to the stunning victory for Trump, America and God. ” In a recent email interview from Belgrade, where he has met with Serbian nationalists, Mr. Dowson explained how his decision to establish an American social media presence was similar to the move into European markets by Breitbart News, the conservative provocateur media operation run by Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s chief strategist. “Simple truth is that after 40 years of the right having no voice because the media was owned by the enemy, we were FORCED to become incredibly good at alternative media in a way the left simply can’t grasp or handle,” Mr. Dowson said. “Bottom line is: BREXIT, TRUMP and much more to follow. ” While it is easy to overstate the influence of fringe elements whose overall numbers remain very small, the explosion of fake news and propaganda sites and their possible impact on the presidential election have ignited alarm across the American political spectrum. A recent study found that most people who read fabricated stories on Facebook — such as a widely circulated hoax about Pope Francis endorsing Mr. Trump — were inclined to believe them. Then there is the added element of Russian meddling. The Central Intelligence Agency has concluded that Moscow put its thumb on the scale for Mr. Trump through the release of hacked Democratic emails, which provided fodder for many of the most pernicious false attacks on Mrs. Clinton on social media. Some of those attacks found a home on Russian websites such as the one for Katehon, a Christian think tank aligned with Mr. Putin. Katehon recirculated conspiracies under headlines like “Bloody Hillary: 5 Mysterious Murders Linked to Clinton. ” Another Russian site that urged support for Mr. Trump, called “Just Trump It,” is linked to the International Russian Conservative Forum, an annual gathering of leaders in St. Petersburg that has featured Mr. Dowson, among others, as a speaker. The site, which seems mostly aimed at selling Trump was registered to an individual at a Russian company that trademarked a logo used to certify that merchandise was not made with migrant labor. Some analysts see danger signs in the nexus of Russian interests and agitators in Europe and the United States. Social media can amplify even the most obscure voices, giving them a stage from which to broadcast a distorted message to credulous audiences. “These messages seep into the mainstream,” said Alina Polyakova, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a nonpartisan international affairs institute in Washington. “They may have been extreme or fringe at one point in time, but they have been incredibly influential in shaping people’s views about key geopolitical events in a very specific direction. ” Russia is particularly adept at playing this game, Ms. Polyakova said. “Moscow specifically encourages and facilitates” the spreading of propaganda through proxies, she said, as well as through events like the Russian conservative forum, which showcases views and narratives favored by the Putin government. At the inaugural forum in March 2015, Mr. Dowson praised Mr. Putin as a strong defender of traditional values, while belittling President Obama and the United States itself as “feminized men. ” In the email interview, Mr. Dowson said he was not supported by Russia in any way, and he accused critics of trying to tar conservatives as dupes of Moscow. “I look on this rebirth of hysteria by the LEFT as a hilarious reaction born out of the left’s inability to realize THEY elected Trump, not me, not the Russians, not even the right,” he said via email. A colorful if somewhat enigmatic figure in Britain — The Times of London recently described him as “the invisible man of Britain’s far right” — Mr. Dowson, at first blush, would not be an obvious mouthpiece for Russia. Formerly a church minister in Northern Ireland and the father of nine, he became involved in campaigns, joined the British National Party in the and, later, founded Britain First, a stridently group opposed to what it called a creeping Islamic threat to traditional British values. He publicly split with the group in 2014 after some of its leaders started invading mosques and threatening Muslims, which he criticized as and counterproductive. While involved with Britain First, Mr. Dowson made deft use of social media and websites to promote its work and convey the impression of a mass following. A British watchdog group called Hope Not Hate, which has tracked Mr. Dowson’s online activities, concluded that he has “a rather canny knack for building up protest groups and movements on the basis that it was your Christian duty to follow his work. ” Mr. Dowson claims to have reached millions of Americans across all of his online platforms in the to the November presidential election, a number that could not be verified, in part, because he would not confirm all of his sites. Online visits to Patriot News did not come close to that, although when combined with several other sites that appear to be connected to Mr. Dowson, the total number edges above a million most viewers were in Britain. Whatever the precise numbers, there is little question that postings on the sites and Facebook pages linked to him were viewed and shared hundreds of thousands of times. Many of the postings appear to be lifted from other conspiracy websites, repackaged and launched back into the social media maelstrom. Another site that trafficked heavily in news was run by Knights Templar International, a militant religious group that Mr. Dowson is involved in, which has recently supported militias patrolling border areas in Bulgaria and Hungary. For Mr. Dowson, such activities are in keeping with his philosophy that traditional Christian values are under siege because of feckless leadership by America and European powers. The success of Mr. Trump, he said, is the logical result of voters’ rejection of the weakness of global elites. Mr. Dowson has long been optimistic about the effectiveness of social media. During the 2015 conservative forum in Russia, he spoke presciently about the looming online battle for the attention of American voters. “We have the ability to take a video from today and put it in half of every single household in the United States of America, where these people can for the first time learn the truth, because their own media tell lies, they tell lies about Russia,” Mr. Dowson said then. “We have to use popular culture to reach into the living rooms of the youth of America, of Britain, France, Germany, and bring them in,” he said. “Then we can get them the message. ”

Angela Merkel warned Germans should not take freedom for granted, in a speech aimed at countering a rising tide of populism on Friday night. [Speaking at a party conference in Saarlouis, the chancellor called on Germans to show respect for other people’s opinions, but said right wing groups opposed to mass migration have no right to “exclude” anyone from the benefit of belonging to the nation. Putting a twist on “We are the people” a chant popular with movement PEGIDA, Merkel said “All of us, we are all the people”. The chancellor, under whose rule German police have raided homes and made hundreds of arrests for online posts critical of mass migration, urged people to back values of ‘freedom and democracy’. Merkel said freedom of speech and religion, freedom of the press and freedom of travel are “not gifts that you don’t have to work for”. “Sometimes you have to make it clear that you are in favour of freedom” she added, warning, “I am convinced that we are again living in such a time”. Looking ahead to the general election due to be held in Germany later this year, Merkel said the notion of “prosperity for all” will be central to her campaign. “We want as many people as possible in Germany to be able to have a job with fair pay” Merkel said, and underlined that companies should operate in such a way that they “invest in Germany and not elsewhere. ” Since the chancellor opened Germany’s borders in 2015 to nearly two million migrants, most of whom are from the Middle East and Africa, the populist and Euroskeptic Alternative for Germany has eroded support for Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party. Public anger at the decision to house the influx of newcomers at taxpayers expense triggered a crackdown on ‘hate speech’ with the state using an organisation run by a former Stasi agent to patrol Facebook in bid to stamp out “xenophobic” comments.

Genetically modified (GM) crops have infiltrated human food and animal feed in increasing amounts since they were commercially released in 1996. It is now normal for a large portion of pigs to have a complete GM diet. Human beings have become desensitized to inhumane animal practices. Not only do we consume the flesh of a living, breathing, feeling, intelligent sentient and loving being, we do it in mass amounts, and do it after they have been fed with feed that contributes in making human beings sick as well. It’s no coincidence that the same financial institutions that hold majority stock in both the food/ biotech industry also hold major stock in the pharmaceutical/health industry. GMO testing on animals is inhumane, and is really not needed with all of the evidence already available to show how GMOs are very hazardous to human health. advertisement - learn more A study by scientist Judy Carman, PHD that was recently published in the peer reviewed journal Organic Systems outlines the effects of a diet mixed with GMO feed for pigs, and how it is a cause for concern when it comes to health (1). Scientists randomized and fed isowean pigs either a mixed GM soy and GM corn (maize) diet for approximately 23 weeks (nothing out of the ordinary for most pigs in the United States), which is unfortunately the normal lifespan of a commercial pig from weaning to slaughter. Equal numbers of male and female pigs were present in each group. The GM diet was associated with gastric and uterine differences in pigs. GM pigs had uteri that were 25% heavier than non-GM fed pigs. GM-fed pigs had a higher rate of severe stomach inflammation with a rate of 32% compared to 125 of non-GM fed pigs. The study concluded that pigs fed a GMO diet exhibited a heavier uteri and a higher rate of severe stomach inflammation than pigs who weren’t fed a GMO diet. Because the use of GMO feed for livestock and humans is so widespread, this is defiantly another cause for concern when it comes to GMO consumption. Humans have a similar gastrointestinal tract to pigs, and these GM crops are consumed widely by people, especially in the United States. Although GM fed pigs seem to be the norm across North America, it’s unnecessary to use animals for testing. Although animal testing does provide information, it is simply not needed, and extremely inhumane. Again, we do not need any more studies to show that GMOs are harmful to the health of all. It’s not natural, world hunger and food shortage is a scam. We could easily feed the entire planet, and have multiple ways to do it. There should be no debate on the subject. There is a worldwide genocide happening right under our nose, if we don’t speak up for these animals, who will? How can we consume these beings? It seems we have drifted so far away from our souls voice. How can we feed them GMO feed, and then feed that to ourselves? Any being foreign to this world would have a hard time looking upon it without feeling sick and hurt. We kill billions of animals for consumption every year. You can read more about the worldwide genocide on animals here . GMOs are gaining a lot of attention worldwide. The chinese government recently destroyed multiple shipments of GM corn, you can read more about that here . Japan and South Korea rejected U.S. wheat found to be polluted with GMOs, you can read about that here and here . Recently, a hidden viral gene that’s harmful to human health was discovered in GMO crops, you can read more about that here . Scientists also discovered that Bt toxins found in Monsanto crops damage red blood cells, which you can read about here . Feel free to browse through our site for more information on GMOs. All of these studies show that when it comes to GMOs the body is not meant to take them in. Much Love.

retail giant Amazon is among the seven online food retailers that will soon start accepting food stamps, as part of a pilot program instituted by the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). [The program, set to launch this summer, will test online ordering and payment methods. The USDA, which oversees the $74 billion food stamp program, also known as SNAP or the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, says it plans to expand the online program nationwide and eventually add more retailers. Participating retailers include Safeway, ShopRite, Hart’s Local Grocers, and Dash’s Market, and will serve food stamps recipients in seven states: Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, Iowa, and Oregon. However, Amazon is by far the largest online food distributor participating in the federal government’s new program. “Amazon is excited to participate in the USDA SNAP online purchasing pilot,” the Seattle, company said in a press release. “We are committed to making food accessible through online grocery shopping, offering all customers the lowest prices possible. ” For years, government watchdog groups have demanded tighter regulations as food stamp fraud remains a common and costly problem. The USDA, seemingly aware of the risks for fraud, says “online payment presents technical and security challenges that will need to be examined and fully addressed before it is offered nationwide. ” News of the USDA’s pilot program comes as a new report reveals Americans used food stamps to buy more than $600 million worth of “sweetened beverages,” and bought hundreds of millions more of junk food and sugary snacks. Overall, $1. 3 billion in food stamps were spent on “sweetened drinks, desserts, salty snacks, candy, and sugar,” which accounted for about 20 cents of every dollar spent on food items purchased by 26. 5 million households in 2011, according to a recently released report from the USDA. What’s more, the USDA’s plan to allow tens of millions of food stamps recipients to purchase products from Amazon is the latest example of profiting from poverty. Big banks like J. P. Morgan have made millions providing electronic benefits transaction (EBT) services for state governments and their respective food stamps programs. “Since 2004, 18 of 24 states who contract with J. P. Morgan to provide welfare benefits have contracted to pay $560, 492, 596. 02,” an investigation by the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) found. Christopher Paton, the company’s former managing director of treasury services, told Bloomberg News in 2011: This business is a very important business to JP Morgan. It’s an important business in terms of its size and scale. We also regard it as very important in the sense that we are delivering a very useful social function. We are a key part of this benefit delivery mechanism. Right now volumes have gone through the roof in the past couple of years or so … The good news from JP Morgan’s perspective is the infrastructure that we built has been able to cope with that increase in volume. Walmart, which wasn’t selected to participate in the USDA pilot program, hopes to be added to the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service online purchasing program in the future. “We look forward to working with FNS as they continue to explore this opportunity,” the company said, CBS reports. “We’ve expanded our highly popular online grocery service from five markets to more than 100 markets over the past 18 months in both large and small communities across the country. ” Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson

Professor Dr. Mujahid Kamran, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Punjab, on the Suspension without Pay of Prof. Tony Hall 1 Shares 1 0 0 0 Professor Mike Mahon President and Vice Chancellor Lethbridge, Canada Dear Professor Mike Mahon, It is with a sense of great sadness that I have learnt of the suspension, without pay, of Professor Anthony Hall, one of the most distinguished scholars, not only of the , but a researcher and writer who is recognised and respected globally. In a country like Pakistan, which is far behind Canada in term of education, research and scholarship, no teacher, or non-teacher, of any university can be suspended without pay. When someone is suspended, he or she is entitled to draw full pay for the period of suspension. If Canada is doing better than us on various scales, then one would expect that suspension without pay puts Canada behind us in terms of due process and in terms of requirements demanded by the principles of justice and fair play. I may add respectfully that in Pakistani universities no one is generally suspended unless a fact finding committee has first looked into the matter thoroughly and found prima facie evidence of wrong doing. The decision of the administration also destroys the concept of a tenured appointment. From his writings, that I have read over a period of time, it is evident that Professor Anthony Hall is a scholar whose work exposes the crimes and conspiracies of those who are taking the world headlong into a global war and simultaneously transforming it into a global slave state. His analysis is impeccable and his grasp of facts masterly. And his writings are devoid of any prejudice against any ethnic group or nation. , or any university for that matter, should have been proud to have Professor Hall on its faculty. His suspension creates an impression, even from this distance from where I write, that certain powerful interests that aim destroying free speech, have targeted people like Professor Anthony Hall, who speak out for democracy, decency, peace and justice. I have found out from the internet that B’nai Brithis behind this movement against shutting down free speech. It is quite evident that the charge that Professor Anthony Hall has created a discriminatory atmosphere is highly dubious. To the contrary, it appears that an anti-Muslim bias has been created in your institution by Professor Hall’s unfortunate suspension.There is also a strong impression that B’nai Brith has taken over the administrative decision making at Lethbridge. MORE... Suspension of Tenured Professor Lacks Due Diligence Toxic Mind Control Contaminates The Public Sphere Irish human rights activists against freedom of speech? B’nai Brith attack on Canadian professor has roots in Zionist false flag tactics It is also worrying that B’nai Brith have now targeted Canadian universities and Canadian society. If this is the case then the situation is disturbing, not just for Lethbridge and Canada, but for all freedom loving people worldwide. When I was a young student at University of Edinburgh, Scotland in the 1970s, I used to meet many Canadian students and I found that they invariably stood for freedom of speech and for tolerance and justice. The suspension of Professor Hall is inconsistent with my image of the Canadian people that I had then formed. On behalf of the academic community of the University of the Punjab (established 1882) I urge you to kindly reconsider your decision to suspend Professor Hall. It will go a long way in rehabilitating the impression of people worldwide about the upholding of free speech, academic freedom, and genuine scholarly discourse at Lethbridge. With my humble regards and very best wishes Professor Dr. Mujahid Kamran Vice Chancellor University of the Punjab (since January 2008) Author of a dozen books including: Einstein and Germany 2009 The Grand Deception: Corporate America and Perpetual War 2010 The Inspiring Life of Abdus Salam 2013 9/11 & The New World Order 2013 International Bankers, World Wars I, II and Beyond 2015 Winner Abdus Salam Prize 1985 (this prize was instituted from Salam’s Nobel Prize money) Presidential Pride of Performance Award 1999 Awarded Sitara- e -Imtiaz (i.e. Star of distinction, awarded by Government of Pakistan) 2015, etc

1 teaspoon of wheatgrass powder (or any other green powder) Mix ingredients in a blender until smooth. Using cilantro essential oil can help enable the body to flush out any heavy metals that might be disturbing your health. The toxins will exit your body via urine and you will feel an increase in energy and health. I always drink water with a drop of cilantro oil to hasten elimination. Ariana Marisol is a contributing staff writer for REALfarmacy.com. She is an avid nature enthusiast, gardener, photographer, writer, hiker, dreamer, and lover of all things sustainable, wild, and free. Ariana strives to bring people closer to their true source, Mother Nature. She graduated The Evergreen State College with an undergraduate degree focusing on Sustainable Design and Environmental Science. Follow her adventures on Instagram.

Hamilton creator Miranda came out against President Donald Trump’s executive order temporarily suspending the U. S. Refugee Admissions Program, calling it “deeply . ”[“I keep seeing ‘Immigrants, We Get The Job Done’ on placards at every march, at every protest. I can’t tell you what that does to me as a writer to see a line [I wrote]. And what it means for the conversation, in this moment in history,” Miranda told The Huffington Post on Thursday. The also said Trump’s order is “against the fundamental freedom of religion in our constitution. ” President Trump signed an executive order last week which suspended the U. S. Refugee Admissions Program for 120 days. The order prohibits the arrival of Syrian refugees into the United States and halted entry of citizens from failed state, countries including Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Libya. Miranda, who campaigned heavily for Hillary Clinton, also pledged his support for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) a agency Trump has promised to defund. “The importance of the NEA ― I can not tell you how many studies and findings find that arts lift up every other score in education,” Miranda said. “When you learn music, you use both hemispheres of your brain. It helps you with the math and it helps you with the arts. It’s so important that the arts have attention in our education. It certainly saved my life. I don’t know where I would be without the amazing arts education I got at a public school. I certainly wouldn’t be talking to you. So, we’re going to have to fight to protect it. ” Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson

Obama himself denied any knowledge of the server, I should believe him because he said we could keep our same Doctor and its called Affordable Care Act Yup I should believe him

Email US President Barack Obama and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton “founded” the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group in the Middle East region, according to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Addressing supporters at a rally in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, on Wednesday, Trump said Daesh is "honoring President Obama." “He’s the founder of ISIS. He's the founder! He founded ISIS,” the real estate tycoon said, using an alternative acronym for the terrorist group. “I would say the co-founder would be ‘Crooked’ Hillary Clinton,” Trump added. He went on to criticize Obama’s decision to withdraw American military forces from Iraq and leaving behind a void for Daesh terrorists to fill. “We should never have gotten out the way we got out,” he said. “We unleashed terrible fury all over the Middle East." “Instead of allowing some small forces behind to maybe, just maybe, keep it under control, we pulled it out,” he continued. Daesh terrorists, many of whom were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, still control parts of Iraq and Syria. They have been engaged in crimes against humanity in areas under their control. They have been carrying out horrific acts of violence such as public decapitations and crucifixions against all communities, including Shia and Sunni Muslims, Kurds, and Christians. In a statement last week, Mike Pence, Trump’s vice presidential candidate, also said that the policies of Obama and Clinton led to the rise of Daesh. He blamed Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for the “disastrous decisions” that led to the death of Captain Humayun Khan in Iraq. On July 28, Captain Khan’s father, Khizr Khan, addressed the Democratic National Convention, denouncing Trump as unpatriotic and selfish over his statements against immigrants and Muslims.

Argentina president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner had her thyroid gland removed, but test results showed she did not have cancer. Image source . by Paul Fassa Health Impact News Suppose you went to a doctor for low energy and a raspy throat. You vaguely suspect your thyroid is weak, maybe hypothyroidism. But after a series of tests, tiny nodules were found on your throat and the doctor determined you needed to have your thyroid removed, a thyroidectomy, to determine whether or not the nodules are cancerous. Then you are told not to worry, there are medicines that will be prescribed to replace the missing thyroid’s hormone production. You would have to take them for the rest of your life. You figure anything is better than dying from cancer spreading from the thyroid to elsewhere or undergoing chemotherapy, so you go for it. Nipping it in the bud, they say. Then after the procedure, you discover that those nodules weren’t cancerous and there was no threat of cancer. You’ll have to take those synthetic pharmaceutical drugs forever, but at least you know you’re cancer free now. After several months of taking those drugs, you discover your complaints and symptoms prior to the surgical procedure have been worsening. This unfortunate medical procedure is harming people far too often, leading some doctors to declare it needs to stop. Real Life Examples of Those Possible Scenarios The first part of my fictitious question was international news in 2011 . That’s when Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner underwent a thyroidectomy to preclude the possibility of cancer that could spread into her neck’s lymph glands and brain. The biopsy of El Presidente’s thyroid tissues proved the earlier detected nodules were not cancerous at all. Despite cover-up controversy and corruption surrounding Cristina’s tenure as Argentina’s president, she had many adoring fans who breathed a sigh of relief. The song lyric “don’t cry for me Argentina” was evoked with that discovery. Of course, there was no follow-up on how Cristina fared with her daily dose of synthetic thyroid hormones. But a less prominent case concerning a patient of Dr. Jeffrey Dach (pronounced dash) a holistic M.D. in South Florida, provides a perfect example of what to expect after partial or total thyroidectomies used for biopsies. Here is Dr. Dach’s explanation: The surgery had disturbed her recurrent laryngeal nerve leaving her with a chronic hoarseness, cough and voice change. The surgery also removed the parathyroid glands leaving her at risk for osteoporosis. The radioactive iodine treatment caused salivary gland damage, leaving her with a chronic dry mouth and bad taste. I explained to Lisa that her symptoms of hypothyroidism were due to the small dose of Synthroid, … which contains only T4, does not completely replace the function of her missing thyroid gland. A natural thyroid medication made from desiccated porcine thyroid gland containing T3, T4 and Calcitonin is a far better alternative. Lisa was switched over to her natural thyroid medication, … and 3 weeks later called the office to report a dramatic improvement with relief of chronic fatigue and improved energy levels. Dr. Dach mentioned that 36 year old Lisa’s procedures were done “just to make sure.” At first, her doctor perceived a small lump in her neck by touch (palpating) and recommended a thyroid ultrasound, which imaged a 9 mm nodule or lump on her thyroid. Then an ultrasound guided needle biopsy was ordered that determined “papillary carcinoma of the thyroid.” Approximate total cost of the procedures was over $20,000 not including her lifetime prescription of synthetic pharmaceutical thyroid hormones needed once her thyroid gland was removed. This life of pharmaceutical hormones is demanded for even partial thyroidectomies that are impaired from optimum operations. A Few Practitioners Argue Against this Aggressive Diagnostic Procedure Almost all thyroid cancers found with ultrasound scanning and needle biopsy are the small occult (almost invisible) papillary carcinoma , or OPC, a relatively benign tumor with a 30 year survival rate of 95 percent without treatment. A 1985 Finnish study of autopsies from deaths unrelated to thyroid issues or cancers determined what a few have suspected all along, that people live with OPCs and die from other causes without thyroid cancer diagnosis’. From that study: Apparently the great majority of the tumors remain small and circumscribed and even from those few tumors that grow larger and become invasive OPCs only a minimal proportion will ever become a clinical carcinoma. … OPC can be regarded as a normal finding which should not be treated when incidentally found. In order to avoid unnecessary operations [emphasis added] it is suggested that incidentally found small OPCs (less than 5 mm in diameter) were called occult papillary tumor instead of carcinoma. (Abstract source) Whether the programmed fear of death from cancer motivates aggressively attacking OPCs or simply cancer treatments’ high profits, most likely some combination of both, there are those within mainstream medicine who have expressed disdain over the current OPC approach. Radiologist John J. Cronan, M.D., posed this question in his editorial published in the June 2008 issue of Radiology, “ Thyroid Nodules: Is It Time to Turn Off the US Machines? ” From the patient perspective, we have hung the psychologic stigma of cancer on these patients and the dependency for daily thyroid supplementation …We accept all these consequences to control a cancer with a 99% 10-year survival. … Realizing the outcome of screening the thyroid, it well might be better to turn off the US machines. In summary, we need to develop an evidence-based strategy that will permit us to escape this flood of nodules. (Source) In a 2007 JAMA ( Journal of American Medical Association ) article, neck surgeon Dr. Keith Keller, M.D., a veteran of 1,000 thyroid sugeries over his 28 year career, made this claim: I do not believe that this [thyroid cancer] epidemic is real. It is due to improved diagnostic scrutiny, ultrasonography, and other imaging studies and the increasing use of ultrasound-guided FNAB. We may be diagnosing and treating cancers that have no clinical significance. (Emphasis added) We have embarked on a quixotic quest to rid our patients of microscopic and probably clinically unimportant thyroid cancer. We need to refocus our efforts, not to detect more occult disease, but to identify and cure those few patients whose disease is likely to shorten their lives. We need to improve our accuracy in the evaluation of the indeterminate thyroid nodule. We are performing far too many unnecessary thyroidectomies. [Emphasis added] (Source) Safeguarding Against Thyroidectomies and the Resultant Synthetic Hormones The reason behind this is all the diagnostic studies Dr. Keller mentioned are inconclusive for diagnosing truly malignant thyroid cancer that could spread into lymph glands and other areas. The only reason for partial or total thyroidectomies is to determine whether the nodules are not cancerous. A minority of courageous mainstream M.D.s have suggested a wait-and-see policy before proceeding to the stage of using a thyroidectomy to determine cancer. The nodules are usually benign after all. Some think over 1 mm is time to cut into the thyroid, most of those concerned consider over 5 mm as the time to surgically probe, while Dr. Yasuhiro Ito of Japan recommends extending the wait-and-see approach to 10 mm. That would have spared Lisa all the suffering from which Dr. Dach rescued her. Patient advocate and author of several books on thyroid and hormonal issues, Mary Shomon, thinks the latest extension of testing for thyroid cancer might eliminate a lot of unnecessary thyroid removals. The Afirma Thyroid FNA Analysis extends the ultrasound guided FNA (Fine Needle Aspiration) with a series of tests to confirm or rule out malignancy. Currently lab facilities are limited and many doctors may not know of this extended procedure. The procedure runs around $3500, considerably less than the 15 to 20,000 dollars dolled out for the surgical biopsy that usually renders one’s thyroid gland useless or no longer there and puts one on a lifetime prescription of synthetic hormone drugs. An easy way to safeguard yourself from thyroid problems is by supplementing iodine heavily, much more than the FDA recommended dosage of 150 mcg to 300 mcg daily. One should boldly move into the milligrams per dose range, even over 12.5 mg daily to compensate for iodine deficiency. (Source) It’s also very important to avoid fluoridated and chlorinated water as well as most commercial pastries and breads commonly made with bromide or sodas that are brominated. All of these compounds block your thyroid’s ability to absorb the iodine fuel it needs. If you or a loved one unfortunately undergoes a thyroidectomy to lose that gland’s hormonal activity, at least get off the synthetic hormones and use naturally animal derived desiccated hormones (bovine or porcine) such as Armour. A friend of ours lost her life one year after a thyroidectomy that she stubbornly pursued. Her loss of life was not from cancer, it was from complications of the procedure and her forced use of synthetic thyroid hormones. Sources :

Global markets were not lacking in precarious unknowns. Italy just added another. As voters on Sunday emphatically rejected constitutional changes aimed at streamlining government and making it easier to revive a moribund economy, they enhanced concerns that Italy’s banks could spiral into a disaster. They reinvigorated worries about the endurance of the euro currency and broader European economic integration. And they amplified the sense that Europe is a land of disappointing growth, political dysfunction and seething populism. “Existential crisis” had not been on the ballot, but that was essentially the result. The lopsided tally against the reforms — nearly 60 percent rejected them — prompted the resignation of Italy’s prime minister, Matteo Renzi, leaving Europe’s economy without clear leadership. As world markets absorbed the result, investors soured on Italian banking stocks. Shares in Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which was involved in Italy’s grandest banking fiasco, surrendered 4 percent on Monday on expectations that a private sector rescue devised by Mr. Renzi had been killed. Investors initially pushed down the euro before it recovered. They cut the price of Italian government bonds, lifting the yield — a sign that investors will demand greater reward for the heightened risks of lending to Italy. Investors also unloaded Spanish and Portuguese government bonds. The widening spread between German bonds and those issued by European countries amounts to a flashing indicator that investors see risks for the southern periphery. These market moves were muted because the results had been anticipated. Indeed, for Europe and the rest of the world, this dynamic was uncomfortably familiar. For nearly a decade, the 19 nations sharing the euro have lurched from one crisis to the next, with no effective fix. A currency designed to unite the adversaries of World War II has instead generated fresh divisions — between creditor and borrower Northern Europe and the Mediterranean. In a year in which Britain voted to abandon the European Union and the American electorate selected Donald J. Trump as the next president, Italy offered its own contribution to the global populist insurrection. Against this backdrop, the basic contours of the world economy are now uncertain. The British vote to exit Europe — Brexit, in common parlance — threatens to cleave the geography of the world’s largest single marketplace. The American elevation of Mr. Trump hands authority over the world’s largest economy to a man who has threatened a trade war with the China. The fall of Mr. Renzi creates an opening for the populist Five Star Movement, a party that seeks to free Italy of the euro and its strictures on government spending. Even that possibility threatens Europe with trouble. If investors worry that Italy may leave the euro, they will demand greater rewards for continued lending. Those with the greatest debt burdens — Greece, Spain and Portugal — could see their borrowing costs rise beyond their ability to pay. For now, such grim scenarios appear remote. The referendum maintains the power of the Italian legislature’s upper chamber, a potent check on the Five Star Movement, or any government pursuing radical change. The most immediate consequences fall on the Italian banking system, now choked with some 360 billion euro, or about $385 billion, in suspect debts. Mr. Renzi tried and failed to inject public funds into Monte dei Paschi, the perpetual locus of fears about an financial conflagration. The European Union, led by Germany, effectively forbade that step, citing new rules barring taxpayer bailouts to limit the temptation of bankers to engage in reckless lending. Mr. Renzi instead forged a plan that has Monte dei Paschi scrambling to secure €5 billion from private investors. “For Monte dei Paschi, it’s going to be extremely hard to close the capital raise by end of the year,” said Nicola Borri, a finance professor at Luiss Guido Carli University in Rome. “The political future is so uncertain. ” Most experts assume a caretaker Italian government will wind up seeking permission from European authorities for some form of a rescue of Monte dei Paschi, while agreeing to wipe out the investments of a thin slice of bondholders. The consensus is that Italy can patch immediate holes in the banking system. But the referendum has destroyed what momentum existed to address the condition that is both cause and effect of the banking problem — a dire lack of economic growth. Italy’s banks are stuffed with uncollectable debts in part because the country’s economy is smaller than it was a decade ago. Bad loans on bank balance sheets reflect that millions of people have lost jobs, eliminating spending power, while companies have seen sales evaporate. Mr. Renzi pursued reforms aimed at spurring companies to invest. He made it easier for companies to terminate workers to eliminate a chief impediment to hiring them in the first place — the fear that giving someone a job was akin to adopting them as a dependent forever. He sought to speed civil processes in the notoriously inefficient court system to make it easier for banks to recoup bad debts by collecting collateral. The constitutional changes he sought were aimed at clearing another blockage to reform. They would have trimmed the powers of the upper chamber of the legislature, a place where proposals die. Voters clearly did not trust Mr. Renzi to wield greater power. Now, they will be represented by someone with less power where it matters a great deal: Brussels and Berlin. nations in Europe have long argued that their burdens would be lighter if they could spend more money to spur faster economic growth. But the European Union — anchored by Germany — has cited rules limiting the spending of member governments with big debts. Instead, Brussels and Berlin argue, such countries must deliver structural reforms, stripping away labor protections and trimming pension benefits. In a testament to the severity of this creed, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble effectively threatened to banish Greece from the euro if Athens did not deliver on reforms it promised as a condition of successive European bailouts. “Athens must finally implement the needed reforms,” Mr. Schäuble told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper in an interview published on Sunday, a day before eurozone finance ministers convened to court the participation of the International Monetary Fund in the Greek bailout. “If Greece wants to stay in the euro, there is no way around it. ” Mr. Renzi was a rare leader who carried credibility in such quarters. He gained modest relief from European spending strictures in part by pointing at his reforms. “Renzi is the only leader in recent history who has advanced a structural reform agenda,” said Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at the Eurasia Group, a risk consultancy. Now, Mr. Renzi is gone, along with his reform trajectory. What is most palpably still here is an Italian economy that is growing anemically, soon to be presided over by a caretaker government with a limited mandate. “What chance does a less effective prime minister overseeing a caretaker government have of getting a hearing in Brussels and Berlin?” Mr. Rahman said. “It’s just not possible. ” Italy has no fuel for growth. It has no clear way to extricate itself — or the other parts of the planet connected to money — from the perils of its grinding banking crisis. And the one reinforces the other.

SAN FRANCISCO — For the last six years, Instagram has been a repository for users’ most picturesque moments. But 2016 has been a year of reinvention for the social network, which has broadened what it lets people do with their images. Now Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, is rolling out two more new features. On Monday, the company is unveiling one feature focused on live video and one on ephemeral messaging. Both tap into a type of sharing popularized in recent years by companies like Snap Inc. which runs Snapchat, and Twitter, in its video app Periscope. “We want Instagram to be a place where you can share all of your moments, to create a space to do so,” Kevin Weil, head of product at Instagram, said in an interview. Mr. Weil said this philosophy, and the feature choices that stem from it, would encourage people to use Instagram for more than the selected, highly polished feeds for which it is known. The new features thrust Instagram more directly into competition with Twitter and into a heightened rivalry with Snap, which is particularly notable as Snap recently filed paperwork to go public. Instagram has steadily been introducing features to compete with Snap. This year, it unveiled a feature called Instagram Stories, which mimics a Snapchat feature called Snapchat Stories, in which people can organize their photos into a story line. Instagram’s feature will be released to a small test group on Monday a wider rollout is planned for the weeks to come. The feature lets Instagram users broadcast live video to their followers through the Stories section of the app. Much as in Twitter’s Periscope, friends and followers watching Instagram live videos can comment and send cartoon hearts to the broadcaster during the stream. But live Instagram videos are meant to be fleeting and cannot be saved to watch later. That gives broadcasters room to express themselves more fully, Mr. Weil said, without the added pressure of the raw video sticking around indefinitely. Instagram’s other new feature, disappearing photos and videos within the company’s private messaging tool, will be available to all its users. While an ephemeral live broadcast may be seen by many, disappearing messages are for the few, usually friends or family in a tighter circle than the wider audience of followers. Disappearing messages were made famous by Snapchat, which was able to draw a generation of young regular users. Snapchat rose to prominence in a era of social media, one in which people grew fond of the idea that their digital history did not have to follow them around the internet in perpetuity. Mr. Weil defended the company’s move into ephemeral sharing and pointed to improvements and product adjustments that he said highlighted Instagram’s innovation with the format. “The format is definitely something that Snapchat innovated on,” Mr. Weil said. “But it’s just like how hashtags started on Twitter and are used everywhere. I think this particular format is one that we will see adopted everywhere else. ”

Same people all the time , i dont know how you can fix this corruption http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/10_09_01_krongard.html

6 Views November 01, 2016 GOLD , KWN King World News Ahead of tomorrow’s Fed meeting, there are some very strange things happening. By Bill Fleckenstein President Of Fleckenstein Capital October 1 ( King World News ) – Overnight bond markets continued their recent losing ways again last night, with 10-year German bunds now yielding a massive 18 basis points. That doesn’t sound like much, but it is a long way from the -15 bps it yielded a couple of months ago. Meanwhile, world equity markets more or less looked the other way, although they were slightly lower. The early going here saw the market modestly weaker as well, and acting funky enough that I put on a few shorts… IMPORTANT: To find out which company Doug Casey, Rick Rule and Sprott Asset Management are pounding the table on that already has a staggering 18.1 million ounces of gold that just added another massive deposit and is quickly being recognized as one of the greatest gold opportunities in the world – CLICK HERE OR BELOW: Sponsored Around midday the leakage accelerated somewhat and the market was 0.5% lower by early afternoon. With a couple of hours to go, when I had to leave, the decline was about 0.75% (but it felt like it might accelerate, so check the box scores). Away from stocks, green paper was a bit weaker, led by a bounce in the euro, oil lost 1%, fixed income was a bit lower, and the metals came to life, led by silver, which popped 3% to gold’s 1%. The miners similarly had a pretty strong day, just as they did yesterday. I didn’t note Monday’s action because I was suspicious it might have something to do with end-of-the-month tape painting, but obviously that was not the case. Gold Dog, New Tricks Given the fact that the Bank of Japan did nothing new and the Fed is expected to make hawkish comments tomorrow regarding a December rate hike, it was an interesting time for the metals to pop. I’m sure today’s action has a number of people scratching their head as to how this could be. And I have to admit, I thought there was little chance for gold to start moving until we got past tomorrow’s promise from Fed heads to hike rates, assuming the data continues to be, in their words, “strong enough” (a phrase that is naturally open to subjective interpretation on their part). Having said that, I don’t feel there is going to be a hike because I don’t think the stock market or the economy are going to cooperate. Make It Stop There is also the wild card of the election next week and despite the mainstream media and the polls suggesting that Trump is a long shot, I think the tally will be much closer and his chance of winning is nontrivial, although certainly not expected. I mention that because, were Trump to win, I think a lot of markets would be put in motion. The stock market has been an accident waiting to happen, and considering how much Wall Street seems to be enamored of a Clinton victory, an upset would probably be enough of a catalyst to send the indices tumbling, which by extension would be a positive for gold — and take a rate hike off the table. On the other hand, in the event Hillary wins, I don’t think the stock market could really go up much. In any event, I don’t want to get into too much of a discussion about what is liable to happen, as we will have the data in a few days and can decide exactly what to do in the wake of it from a stock market perspective. Besides, a precious metals position can do well under any number of potential scenarios we may see, and they may have already discounted a rate hike, which we probably won’t get. Included below are three questions and answers from the Q&A’s with Bill Fleckenstein. Bonus Q&A Question: If the bond market has “topped”, isn’t it irrelevant who wins the Presidency. In other words the bond market will be in full control and politicians will be late and simply be responding with desperate measures? Answer from Fleck: “ Yes, the President is irrelevant to a large degree versus the bond market.” Question: Dear Bill, Happy Halloween! If you were going to dress as something scary for Halloween would it be– a) deflation, b) a creepy clown, or c) one of the presidential candidates. Of course b) and c) aren’t mutually exclusive, since clowns can be either gender… Answer from Fleck: “ If I was going out to a party, I would dress as Mr. Politically Incorrect, and I’d try to wear a small bit of any/every costume that is deemed to be “offensive,” (i.e. part Chinese, Japanese, black, Arab, gay, trans, Indian, Mexican, angry clown, Hitler, etc.) I am so sick of microagression and related censorship. We have a right to free speech in this country, but there is no right to “not be offended.” People need to get over themselves. We have far bigger problems in this country than being offended.” Question: Yesterday you wrote “as the belief that the central planners have accomplished what they set out to, nothing can go wrong, and the election will go whichever way it needs to for us to live happily ever after.” I think the S&P 500 being flat for 22 months with fits and starts says something doesn’t it? Frustrating for bulls and bears alike. Answer from Fleck: “ Yeah, it does say something, which is, “without QE, the stock market can’t go up.” *** To subscribe to Bill Fleckenstein’s fascinating Daily Thoughts CLICK HERE. ***KWN has now released the remarkable audio interview with Nomi Prins CLICK HERE OR ON THE IMAGE BELOW. ***ALSO RELEASED: Today’s Upside Move In Gold Is Nothing Compared To What Is Coming CLICK HERE. ***KWN has also released Rick Rule’s timely audio interview CLICK HERE OR ON THE IMAGE BELOW. © 2015 by King World News®. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. However, linking directly to the articles is permitted and encouraged. About author

Right. Well that clears that up.

Here Are Six ‘Miracle’ Drugs Big Pharma Now Regrets Posted on Oct 29, 2016 By Martha Rosenberg / AlterNet Shutterstock Are you depressed? It may have less to do with your mood than your birth control pills, high blood pressure pills, antibiotics or even anti-hair-loss drug according to new research. New risks have also emerged with popular gastroesophageal reflux disease medicines and even the top-selling painkiller Tylenol. There are two reasons the risks associated with popular drugs seem to trail their aggressive promotion. Certainly, as millions use brand name drugs, dangerous side effects and adverse events are seen that did not emerge in much smaller clinical trials. Who knew? But also, as AlterNet has noted before, dangerous side effects that might be considered major drawbacks to prescribing the drugs often emerge only when drugs have gone “off patent” and all their profit potential is realized. For both reasons, drug safety activists recommend waiting five years before taking a “new” drug—until it is not “new” anymore. Advertisement Here are drugs and drug classes that have raised new concerns. 1. Proton Pump Inhibitors One of Pharma’s most successful gambits has been its proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) like Nexium (the “Purple Pill”) and Prilosec that reduce stomach acid. To sell the drugs, Pharma aggressively raised “awareness” of gastroesophageal reflux disease or GERD a rare condition which, over time, can change the lining of the esophagus and lead to cancer. Actually, most PPI users have simple heartburn. Even babies are now given PPIs for “baby reflux” because they spit up 71 times a day—a normal occurrence that has been pathologized. The medical establishment has deplored PPI overuse, pointing out that heartburn can exist without esophageal damage and vice verse and calling PPIs “purple crack.” Now it turns out they are right—acid reducers are addictive. “Once a patient has taken a PPI for longer than a few weeks, acid hypersecretion can occur on discontinuation,” says a recent article in Pharmaceutical Journal. “This causes rebound symptoms, and frequently establishes a vicious cycle of drug reinitiation and long-term continuation.” Adverse effects of long-term PPI use are well documented from the risks of the dread intestinal infection Clostridium difficile (“C Diff”), bone thinning and fractures and vitamin and mineral deficiencies to chronic kidney disease and heart attacks. Now there is a new reported risk: dementia. A study earlier this year in JAMA Neurology of 73,?679 people 75 or older with no dementia and taking PPIs found the patients “had a significantly increased risk of incident dementia compared with the patients not receiving PPI.” Other studies have also found a link. 2. Antibiotics AlterNet has frequently written about underreported antibiotic dangers, most recently of the fluoroquinolone class which includes Cipro and Levaquin. Even as the FDA tries to curtail use of antibiotics on the nation’s farms to make animals grow faster (a use which accounts for most U.S. antibiotic sales) drug use on the farm is actually increasing. The FDA’s 2014 Summary Report on Antimicrobials Sold or Distributed for Use in Food Producing Animals reveals that cephalosporin sales increased by 57 percent between 2009 through 2014, sales of antibiotics like clindamycin increased by 150 percent and sales of antibiotics like gentamicin, a dangerous drug class, increased by 36 percent. Antibiotics have a probable role in obesity—why wouldn’t they when they add pounds to livestock? In 1974, Navy recruits were given antibiotics to see if they would gain weight, and after only seven weeks, they did. Similar results were seen in children in Guatemala and in babies . But making people fat or encouraging antibiotic resistant microbes like MRSA are the least of the risks, it turns out. We now know that the bacteria in our gut, the microbiome, which antibiotics compromise as they kill the “bad” bacteria, are responsible for much more than good digestion. Antibiotics also affect the brain and “influence our mood and temperament,” says food expert Michael Pollan. “If you transplant the gut microbiota of relaxed and adventurous mice into the guts of timid and anxious mice they become less stressed and more adventurous.” Antibiotic-affected microbiomes may also be behind asthma and autoimmune diseases, acne and even autism, say published reports. 3. Birth Control Pills You know the long list of side effects and warnings at the end of drug ads? Telling you the drug may cause you to bleed to death or have a stroke while you look at images of sunsets and puppies? We have women’s health advocates to thank for the disclosures. Fifty years ago when the Pill first became available, there was no “disclosure.” Women did not know what effects birth control pills would have on their bodies—or even think it was theirright to know—and were supposed to take them anyway. By 1970, after The Doctors’ Case Against the Pill by Barbara Seaman was published, Wisconsin senator Gaylord Nelson held hearings about clear links between the Pill and depression, blood clots and decrease in libido cited nowhere on the label. No women were asked to speak at the hearings, moving Alice Wolfson, a co-founder of the National Women’s Health Network, to say, “It must be admitted that women make superb guinea pigs. They don’t cost anything, they feed themselves, they clean their own cages, pay for their own pills, and remunerate the clinical observer. We will no longer tolerate intimidation by white-coated gods antiseptically directing our lives.” Why were feminists so angry about a drug that let them control their reproduction? Because the Pill caused 50 additional physiological changes besides stopping pregnancy, some of which were and are life-threatening. Women were told by the the male-dominated medical establishment not to worry their pretty heads about what the drugs were doing to their bodies, while men were spared any responsibility or medical risks. Fast-forward to this year, when medical studies again confirmed links between birth control pills and depression. A Danish study of more than a million women found links between birth control pills and depression, especially in young women, and corresponding higher use of antidepressant drugs. Women’s health advocates were finally vindicated. “The risk of depression has been recognized since women were able to get their hands on oral contraceptives,” says Cindy Pearson of the National Women’s Health Network. “It’s been reported by women for 50 years.” A 2013 book called Sweetening the Pill: or How We Got Hooked on Hormonal Birth Control might also be vindicated, writes Lara Prendergast. The book was called “a dishonest anti-Pill treatise” because the author “dared to point out that hormonal contraceptives are ranked by the World Health Organization as a class-one carcinogen alongside tobacco and asbestos,” she writes. 4. Propecia Two years ago, AlterNet told readers about Propecia, a popular treatment for male pattern baldness linked to disturbing side effects in men including sexual dysfunction and actual reduction in penis size. At the time, Propecia’s label assured users that sexual side effects “went away in men who stopped taking Propecia”; however, the current label warns about sexual dysfunction like “erectile dysfunction, libido disorders, ejaculation disorders, and orgasm disorders; male infertility and/or poor seminal quality” that continues after discontinuation of treatment. A September study in BMJ found “the risk of erectile dysfunction was not increased for users of finasteride 1mg compared with unexposed men with alopecia [hair loss],” but reports of the disturbing side effects abound in medical j ournals and popular magazines. “Emerging research and a slew of lawsuits suggest that finasteride may be more dangerous than previously believed, with side effects — inability to orgasm, painful erections, chronic depression, insomnia, brain fog, and suicidal thoughts — that can last long after patients stop taking the pill,” wrote Men’s Journal last year. Despite the life-changing side effects, Propecia/finasteride is still aggressively sold with warnings about its use downplayed and hard to find. In fact, “As of Sept. 26, the World Health Organization Program for International Drug Monitoring’s database of adverse drug reactions contained 13,546 finasteride ADRs [adverse drug reactions], including 3,577 sexual function and fertility disorders, 1,526 depressed mood disorders and disturbances, and 67 completed suicides,” writes the Post-Finasteride Syndrome Foundation . 5. Tylenol Tylenol may be one of the most widely used pain relieving drugs in the world but new safety concerns continue to emerge. The risk of liver damage with Tylenol (acetaminophen) that can occur from taking even a slightly higher dose than directed moved Tylenol maker, Johnson & Johnson to increase warnings in 2014. Unintentional acetaminophen overdoses cause as many as 26,000 hospitalizations and 458 deaths per year reported the FDA. Soon after the increased warnings, medical journals linked acetaminophen to birth defects in the children of women taking the drug such as poor motor development, behavior problems and language delays. A study in JAMA Pediatrics identified an increased occurrence of ADHD by the age of seven in children whose mothers took acetaminophen. A study in the International Journal of Epidemiology found children more likely to have behavior problems and slow motor development by the age of three if their mothers had taken acetaminophen. Not all medical voices concur. Some said the studies were poorly designed or that fevers , for which the mother presumably took acetaminophen, are responsible for the birth defects. In recent years, acetaminophen has been found to have psychological and mental effects not before described. The pain reliever may “blunt individuals’ reactivity to a range of negative stimuli in addition to physical pain,” says one study. Another study found acetaminophen reduced the psychological pain caused by social rejection. 6. Beta Blockers One out of three American has high blood pressure and beta-blockers like atenolol (Tenormin), carvedilol (Coreg), metoprolol, propranolol (Inderal), sotalol (Betapace) and timolol (Timoptic) which treat the condition have been linked to depression for many years. As early as 1967, the British Medical Journal reported that hypertensive patients treated with propranolol for cardiac arrhythmias experienced a rise in the incidence of depression. Still, it has not been known if patients’ depressions were caused by the actual actions of beta blockers (like blocking the effects of epinephrine/adrenaline and slowing heart rate) or mood conditions associated with the diseases for which beta blockers are prescribed such as hypertension and congestive heart failure. Now, the evidence is tipping toward the drugs. An October study in the journal Hypertension found that beta blockers “may have a role in the pathogenesis or course of mood disorders” and increased hospital admissions for mood disorders. A “bidirectional relationship between depression and cardiovascular disease” exists, says the study , “because of the overlapping pathophysiological processes that underlie both conditions.” “There is a lot of data that depression and cardiovascular disease are related ... but current hypertensive practices do not consider depression,” said the study’s lead author Sandosh Padmanabhan. “There could be some people who are predisposed to depression who we should not be giving these drugs.”

PHILADELPHIA — The Federal Reserve, mindful of unexpectedly weak job growth last month, has abandoned hope of raising interest rates at its next meeting in June, but Fed officials say they are still thinking seriously about raising rates in July or September. Janet L. Yellen, the Fed’s chairwoman, said a few weeks ago that she expected the Fed to raise its benchmark interest rate “in the coming months,” but she omitted those words from a Monday speech, indicating the reported weakness of job creation in May has caused the Fed to rethink its plans. Still, Ms. Yellen delivered a generally upbeat assessment of economic conditions. While describing the May jobs report as “concerning,” she also emphasized that it was just one piece of data and that other economic indicators, including wage growth, paint a considerably brighter picture. “I see good reasons to expect that the positive forces supporting employment growth and higher inflation will continue to outweigh the negative ones,” she told the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia. Investors have all but written off the chances the Fed will increase rates at its next meeting on June 14 and 15, and Ms. Yellen did not try to change their minds. Her speech was the last public appearance by a Fed official before the meeting. But she added that she still expected economic growth — and she still expected rate increases. “If incoming data are consistent with labor market conditions strengthening and inflation making progress toward our 2 percent objective, as I expect, further gradual increases in the federal funds rate are likely to be appropriate,” she said. Some Fed officials have delivered a similar message since the May report. Loretta Mester, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, has sounded relatively confident in recent months, indicating that the economy was ready for a rate increase. In Stockholm on Saturday, she said that the May jobs report, while disappointing, had not changed her overall economic assessment. Others have emphasized that there is no reason to rush, suggesting that the Fed should wait for stronger data before moving to raise rates. “There would appear to be an advantage to waiting until developments provide greater confidence,” Lael Brainard, a Fed governor, said in a speech on Friday. In her judgment, Ms. Brainard said, the risks of moving too soon significantly exceeded the dangers of waiting a little too long. Daniel Tarullo, a Fed governor who shares Ms. Brainard’s caution, said on Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg that he was still looking for “an affirmative reason to move. ” The government estimated last week that the economy added 38, 000 jobs in May, well below market expectations and the pace of hiring so far this year. The Fed entered the year predicting quarterly rate increases, only to back away from a first increase in March when the economy showed unexpected signs of weakness. Fed officials in recent weeks insisted they were thinking about raising rates in June. Now it seems that too has passed. Ms. Yellen did not offer a new plan, and that was intentional. “I know market participants really want to know exactly what’s going to happen,” she said at one point. “There is, as I said about 18 times, no preset plan. ” She devoted much of her speech to the economic uncertainties confronting the Fed. Among them, she numbered the inconsistency of recent economic data and Britain’s coming referendum on whether to remain in the European Union. She said a breakup would be economically disruptive. “The uncertainties are sizable, and progress toward our goals and, by implication, the appropriate stance of monetary policy will depend on how these uncertainties evolve,” she said. But reasons for optimism were also on display Monday. After her speech, Ms. Yellen met with workers at a program in West Philadelphia. During her first year as Fed chairwoman, round tables with workers in Chicago and Chelsea, Mass. brought together many attendees who were struggling to find jobs. The tone of Monday’s round table was notably more upbeat — the seven people who met with Ms. Yellen all had jobs or, if they were in training programs, were optimistic about finding steady work. Mark Gay spent nearly two years looking for work before he found a job with a landscaping business run by the University City District, the nonprofit group that hosted the meeting. Asked whether life was improving for people in his West Philadelphia neighborhood, he paused before answering. “I would have to agree,” he said. “Yes, a lot of people in my community have gained employment since 2012. ” Sarah Davis, director of development for University City District, says its program has about 110 graduates a year. She said the percentage of those finding jobs has climbed steadily over the last five years to about 95 percent, and demand from potential employers now exceeds the supply of workers the program can offer. “We’re getting daily calls from potential employer partners,” Ms. Davis said. Yet Ms. Yellen noted in her speech that unemployment remained widespread among minorities and people. There were also signs the labor market is no longer healing as quickly. The economy has added 125, 000 jobs per month this year, compared with a monthly average of 229, 000 last year. The Fed’s labor market conditions index, devised to summarize a wide range of labor market data, has declined each month since the Fed raised interest rates in December. “The Fed’s current course is driven not by the state of the economy, but by a desire to get interest rates and its balance sheet back to what is considered normal,” Narayana Kocherlakota, the former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, wrote in a Bloomberg opinion piece last week criticizing the Fed’s desire to raise rates. Ms. Yellen responded indirectly to that critique during a session after her speech on Monday. She said the Fed was focused on its mandates of maximizing employment and stabilizing inflation. Raising rates was not an end but a means, she said. She noted that the economy should benefit from a virtuous loop of increased employment and rising incomes. “If the May labor report was an aberration or reflects a temporary slowdown resulting from the weakness in economic activity at the start of the year, then job growth should pick up and support further gains in income,” Ms. Yellen said. On the other hand, she noted, “the less favorable possibility” was that a slowdown in corporate investment had translated into a slowdown in job growth. How long will it take to tell the difference? On Monday, Ms. Yellen wasn’t offering any predictions. “My colleagues and I will be wrestling with these and other related questions going forward,” she said.

0 Add Comment THE WORLD’s leading scientists have hastily revised Earth’s life expectancy after taking on board new data which has just come to light in the last 24 hours. Huge, cataclysmic tremors felt on North America faultlines have led scientists from leading institutions to report that the planet, once estimated to live on for some 4 billion years in one form or another, may not live as long as once predicted. “We are compelled to alter our projections for Earth’s life expectancy dramatically,” explained lead researcher at the Institute of Studies, Professor Thalia Ambrosio. “While Earth’s vital signs initially looked normal enough, we’re now looking at 4 years tops,” Prof. Ambrosio added. “We’re raising the end of the world alert level from red to a tanned, leathery orange”. This startling news has had a profound effect on the Earth’s population, with many asking what they can do to prolong the life of the planet. However, scientists were quick to point out that the cut in life expectancy is not something that is likely to change. “We know people are keen to help, but honestly, some people are under the impression moving to Canada will somehow help the planet which we must point out doesn’t really do anything,” Prof. Ambrosio concluded. The group of scientists confirmed they could go into specific details about just how the world will come to an end in the coming years, but will resist doing so because ‘you look worried enough as it is’.

0 комментариев 3 поделились Фото: АР Как сообщили ТАСС в пресс-службе надзорного ведомства, подробности дела уточняются. В ходе надзорных мероприятий прокуратура выяснит, в какой организации пожилая женщина взяла заем, и какой фактический долг установлен на текущий момент. Ведомство также оценит действия сотрудников коллекторского агентства на предмет соблюдения законодательства. Прокуратура взяла на контроль результаты доследственной проверки по факту нанесения телесных повреждений женщине. Угрозы и нападения коллекторов на Урале происходят не впервые. В августе коллекторы довели жительницу Челябинска до отравления уксусной кислотой из-за кредита в 732%. По словам уполномоченного по правам человека в Челябинской области, из-за угроз Фарида Ибрагимова отравилась уксусной кислотой и скончалась в больнице. "Равиля Ибрагимова и ее внучка Эльвира уже два года подвергаются давлению со стороны коллекторов. В июне 2014 года жительница Челябинска Фарида Ибрагимова в одной из местных микрофинансовых организаций взяла 5 тысяч рублей. Через две недели она должна была вернуть 6 500 рублей. Процентная ставка по кредиту составила 2% в день или 732% годовых. Погасить долг полностью Ибрагимова не смогла," — сообщает омбудсмен области Маргарита Павлова. После чего начались телефонные звонки с угрозами на телефон женщины, на домашний телефон матери, а затем и дочери Эльвире в социальных сетях начали поступать сообщения с угрозами. Несколько раз коллекторы стреляли по окнам квартиры Ибрагимовых. Семья трижды обращалась в правоохранительные органы, но в возбуждении уголовного дела им отказывали. В 2015 года Фарида попыталась покончить с собой, выпив 70% уксусную кислоту. Ибрагимова целый год провела в больнице, но поправиться не смогла. После смерти Фариды коллекторская фирма требует уже более 200 тысяч рублей у матери и дочери погибшей. Ранее Pravda.Ru писала, что вступление в силу закона, который обязывает коллекторов с 1 января 2017 года состоять в государственном реестре, могут отложить на полгода из-за того, что чиновники до сих пор не могут договориться с Минфином о выделении бюджетных средств на регулирование деятельности по взысканию долгов. Как сообщал "Коммерсантъ", работа по формированию реестра так и не начата, нет официально установленного перечня критериев, которым должны соответствовать участники рынка взыскания долгов. Минюст не сможет приступить к составлению списка, пока не выйдет соответствующее постановление правительства и на него не выделят деньги. Напомним, в июле Владимир Путин подписал закон о коллекторской деятельности. Документ устанавливает правовые основы деятельности по возврату просроченной задолженности граждан и порядок их взаимодействия с кредиторами и взыскателями долгов. Закон запрещает коллекторам применять физическую силу и угрожать ее применением, причинять вред здоровью и имуществу, оказывать психологическое давление и вводить в заблуждение. Звонить должнику коллектор сможет не чаще двух раз в неделю, а проводить личные встречи — не чаще одного раза в неделю. Общение с должником ночью — с 22.00 до 8.00 в будни и с 20.00 до 9.00 в выходные — запрещено. Взыскатель долгов при взаимодействии с должником не вправе скрывать информацию о номере телефона и адресе электронной почты, с которых он звонит и отправляет сообщения. Читайте последние новости Pravda.Ru на сегодня Новый закон научит коллекторов вежливости Поделиться:

Now Hillary Makes Conspiracy Theory Credible: 50% Believe 28, 2016 Half Of Americans Believe 9/11 Conspiracy Theories … “The United States is a strongly conspiratorial society.” … A majority of Americans believe that the government is concealing information about the 9/11 attacks, one new survey suggests. And that’s not the only conspiracy theory believed by a wide swath of Americans: Around 40 percent believe the government is hiding information about aliens, the John F. Kennedy assassination and global warming. – The Huffington Post Before, those who believed in 9/11 conspiracy theories hovered around 20-30 percent according to the mainstream media. Now it’s up to 50 percent, according to this article. Hell, it’s probably more like 60-70 percent anyway. There is perhaps a hard core of 30 percent of people living in the US who will likely never acknowledge anything wrong with the system or people in power. But for most citizens, we’ve long suggested the current election is destroying the credibility of the ruling classes and their facilities. Whatever in government that was supposed to be credible, from the IRS, to the FBI, to the Justice Dept., Congress and the presidency itself, has been visibly damaged by Hillary’s election campaign. You’d have to be virtually blind – or a staunch partisan of a mythical “USA”– not to notice that the Democratic front-runner has committed actions for which anyone else would have been significantly punished. And not just Hillary of course but those surrounding her including Bill Clinton and the Foundation that allows them to trade political favors for cash. Then there’s the mainstream media. The media has investigated little or none of the malfeasance and worse (murders?) surrounding the Clintons, and thus newspapers, magazines and TV, already deprived of viewers and ad revenue, have been further damaged by an obvious, ongoing lack of credibility. More: Conspiracy theories about the JFK assassination abound, and scientists say these ideas have become embedded in the very culture surrounding his death, with heaps of TV shows, books and movies on them. “We found clear evidence that the United States is a strongly conspiratorial society,” study lead author Christopher Bader, a sociologist at Chapman University in California, said in a statement. In order to denigrate suspicion of the government, the study suggests that people’s views regarding conspiracies have to do with their own emotional makeup. In other words, “paranoid” people believe in “conspiracies.” This canard worked better when the number of those voicing conspiracy theories was in the single digits, according to surveys. When half or more than half of the public begins to believe in them, something else is going on. Neither the article nor the study (presumably) acknowledges that the CIA came up with the idea of calling people “conspiracy theorists” if they advance theories that the US government is corrupt and secretly tyrannical. The conduct of this past campaign and the Clinton’s evident criminality has reinforced all that is wrong with the US in the views of many and, additionally, has made it clear that even the deepest suspicions of how the US operates are justified. We can come away with two realizations from this. The first is that despite Hillary’s possible election, the US as a valid and valuable entity is shattered in the eyes of many. This is actually a good development in our view given that the US (and its British controllers) has not been positive for freedom or peace in the world at least since the end of the Civil War. The second conclusion, which is not a popular one but which we have voiced before, is that the disaffection of the American public was SUPPOSED to be heightened by the Hillary campaign. The idea here is that chaos and paranoia is supposed to be endlessly increased until the US, like other nation-states, virtually shatters and more aggressive globalism can be introduced in the wake of the disintegration. Western nation-states currently have strong cultures. These cultures need to be torn down if true globalization is to be introduced. The banking elites of this world, mostly located in the City of London, are determined to introduce this chaos, it seems. In Europe chaos is mounting thanks to the introduction of the artificial “immigration crisis.” In the US, Hillary has served in the place of immigration, cracking the US culture as thoroughly as millions of young Muslim males. Next on the agenda? Possible economic collapse and “world-war” style military activities. Conclusion: Yes, it sounds grim … and even conspiratorial. But there is much you can do to secure your safety and prosperity – and that of your family’s and even your community’s. You have to realize the civil society you believe in is vanishing (or never existed). And you have to act.

The latest round of mass layoffs for cereal maker Kellogg’s has hit Kansas City, where nearly 200 workers will lose their jobs, the company says. [The layoffs of 185 workers are part of a program euphemistically labeled “Special K,” a scaling back of distribution centers all across the country, the Kansas City Business Journal reported. “As the distribution shifts from our network to our retailers’ networks, so too will the work,” Kellogg’s spokesman Kris Charles said, adding: We’ve been actively engaged in conversations with some of our biggest retail partners who have expressed strong interest in hiring these employees for roles once the transition is complete. As a result, we are optimistic that our employees will find similar employment once this transition is complete. The new distribution model is already in use for many of Kellogg’s snack product lines, including Pringles, crackers, its frozen foods products, and others. “The new model will be transformational for Kellogg, reducing complexity and cost structure while driving growth and profitability for the company and its retail partners,” Charles added. “While this is the right move for the company to achieve our objectives, it was a difficult decision because of its impact on employees. ” Kellogg’s has been struggling the last few years, and customer confidence in its brand name has fallen from sixtieth to place during the last four years. The layoffs in Kansas City are but a small part of the string of job losses the company announced. Just last week, a distribution center in Florida was informed that 246 employees were going to lose their jobs, nearly 300 were fired in facilities in New York early in May, and only a week later, another 219 lost their jobs in Minnesota. The cuts came on the heels of several announcements by the cereal maker that it was slashing its workforce. The company’s financial struggles coincided with Kellogg’s decision last year to cease advertising with Breitbart News, whose 45, 000, 000 readers, Kellogg’s said, are not “aligned with our values as a company. ” While Kellogg’s decision to cease advertising had no impact on Breitbart. com’s revenue, it did represent an escalation in the war by leftist companies like Target and Allstate against conservative customers whose values propelled President Donald Trump into the White House. After the cereal maker turned its back on conservative customers, Breitbart News launched its #DumpKelloggs petition, which more than 450, 000 people signed. Finally, according to advertising industry watchdog Adweek, Kellogg’s decision to pull advertising from Breitbart News and the ensuing controversy over the move inflicted damage to the cereal company’s online brand. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com.

HIGH POINT, N. C. — Parrish Clodfelter, a retiree who lives on a central North Carolina farm, professes opinions about transgender people that might get him fired if he worked for a multinational corporation, though for many here, they constitute simple country wisdom. “A man wants to change to a woman, he’s got a mental problem,” Mr. Clodfelter said on Wednesday over lunch at Spiro’s Family Restaurant, where posters by the door advertised classes on carrying concealed weapons and a “Hillbilly Sunday” Pentecostal church service. But Mr. Clodfelter has a different kind of problem. As a longtime Republican, he wants to support Pat McCrory, North Carolina’s Republican governor, in his bid. At the same time, he is worried about the boycotts and lost jobs resulting from the law the governor signed in March that limits transgender bathroom access and eliminates antidiscrimination protections for gay and transgender people. If the backlash continues, Mr. Clodfelter said, he will consider voting for Mr. McCrory’s Democratic opponent, Roy Cooper, who supports the law’s repeal. “I’m afraid if they don’t change it,” he said, “it’ll hurt the state. ” Even before the law tapped into a national debate about transgender rights, privacy and political correctness, North Carolina, the rare Southern state that is evenly split between liberals and conservatives, was considered to be up for grabs in the November presidential race, particularly if Donald J. Trump tops the Republican ticket. Now the law, and the backlash against it, have introduced a different kind of volatile energy to state politics here, roiling a governor’s race that could be the nation’s most competitive. It is also affecting other crucial contests, including that of Senator Richard Burr, who hopes to fend off a vigorous Democratic challenge from Deborah K. Ross, a former State House member and former state director of the American Civil Liberties Union. Last week, Mr. Burr, who has defended the law, came under attack from Democrats who have leapt at the chance to transform a cultural issue into an economic one, as the state has suffered the retreat of protesting companies, including PayPal, which canceled a plan to bring more than 400 jobs to Charlotte. On Thursday, the N. B. A. commissioner, Adam Silver, said the league would move its 2017 Game from Charlotte if the law were not changed. Thus far, the uproar may be doing the most harm to Mr. McCrory, an affable former mayor of Charlotte who has struggled, since taking office in 2013, to maintain his reputation as a moderate in the face of a legislature that is considerably more conservative than he is. An Elon University poll conducted from April 10 to 15 showed Mr. Cooper, the state’s longtime attorney general, leading Mr. McCrory 48 percent to 42 percent among registered voters. It was Mr. Cooper’s largest lead in the five polls that Elon has conducted in the last year. But November is a long way off, and social issues reverberate in complex ways in a state that has a reputation for moderation but also produced Jesse Helms, the United States senator. Carter Wrenn, a longtime political strategist who worked with Mr. Helms, said Democrats had been winning arguments over the law of late. But he said Republicans would have time to make the case to voters that the law helps ensure privacy and security in public restrooms. “We’re not sure how this is all going to turn out,” Mr. Wrenn said. The issue is particularly troublesome for Mr. McCrory. Exit polls from 2012 show that he received the support of 49 percent of voters who described themselves as moderate and 19 percent of liberals. Mr. McCrory, 59, last week could barely contain his irritation that the law had taken center stage in the election, siphoning attention from his central message: that he has been a wise steward of the economy who had engineered what he and his team have branded the “Carolina Comeback. ” This hornet’s nest, he argued, was first kicked not by him, but by the Democratic City Council in Charlotte, which passed a nondiscrimination ordinance in February allowing transgender people to use men’s or women’s bathrooms. Before it passed, he said, he emailed the Council to warn it that if it changed “basic restroom and locker room norms,” he would be forced to support a state law overriding them. On Thursday, he said he suspected that the entire matter had been orchestrated by Democrats and the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay rights group, to give Democrats an advantage in a tight governor’s race. The backlash, he said, has allowed for no dialogue on “a very complex issue. ” Dissenters to the position, he said, were being intimidated. Mr. McCrory used the word “Orwellian” twice. “You’ve got to be politically naïve if you think this is not coordinated by a very effective — a very effective — group,” he said. Mr. McCrory preferred to talk about the improved state of the economy since he took over from Gov. Beverly Perdue, a Democrat. She had declined to seek after a single term in which North Carolina struggled through the recession and in which she clashed over tax policy with a legislature that Republicans won full control of in 2010. The state’s comeback, Mr. McCrory argues, was bolstered by his ability to deliver $4. 4 billion in tax relief, including what his campaign literature describes as “one of the largest income tax cuts in state history. ” “I inherited a broken government and a broken economy,” he said. “So, we were the unemployment rate in the country when I came into office: 9. 4 percent unemployment. And we’ve had one of the biggest rebounds in the United States of America. ” Unemployment in the state is now 5. 5 percent. At a cafe in Raleigh last week, Mr. Cooper, who has served as attorney general since 2001, argued that the Carolina Comeback was a myth, saying that there had been an “overall improvement in the economy across the country. ” “It’s not a Carolina Comeback for everyday working people,” he said. “Most people are working longer, and harder, and for less money than they did before the recession. ” Mr. Cooper, 58, said his favorite North Carolina governor was Jim Hunt, the Democrat who served two stints in office beginning in 1977 and represents, to many liberals here, a homegrown progressivism that struck a balance between corporate interests and investments in the public good, especially public education. Mr. Cooper has criticized Mr. McCrory for not expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. On Thursday, he criticized the income tax Mr. McCrory instituted in 2013 as disproportionately favoring the rich. The law on gender and restrooms, Mr. Cooper said, “is a discrimination issue and an economic issue, and, particularly, you have Governor McCrory trying a political ploy that blew up, and is now hurting people and our economy. ”

yet another proof of "wrong touchscreen calibration" page: 1 now, i don't agree with their claim about such equipment not needing a calibration - touchscreen devices need it, but this really had to be done on purpose to favor one side and not the other. "coincidence", you say. if someone can grab it and upload it to youtube, that would be great - it may disappear from 4chan. i don't have the link for that thread there, but judging by the names on the screen, it's from Virginia. yet another place. Somehow ATS will not let me upload a GIF. But here: damn, i've jumped the bandwagon. mods, 404 or hoax it, that video isn't from 2016. a reply to: jedi_hamster Aah... Then so am I . Damn.. And I promised myself to stay out of this political garbage... I now know why.. edit on 26-10-2016 by EartOccupant because: (no reason given) damn, i've jumped the bandwagon. mods, 404 or hoax it, that video isn't from 2016. Hi JH, how do you know its not from 2016? just curious as i am not in that neck of the woods Thanks now, i don't agree with their claim about such equipment not needing a calibration - touchscreen devices need it, but this really had to be done on purpose to favor one side and not the other. "coincidence", you say. if someone can grab it and upload it to youtube, that would be great - it may disappear from 4chan. i don't have the link for that thread there, but judging by the names on the screen, it's from Virginia. yet another place. Direct link EDIT: This video was actually taken back in 2014 in Virginia, during the 2014 congressional elections (see it on YouTube here.) The reason listed for the issues that arose in the video was a calibration error; not entirely out of the realms of possibility given the number of touchscreen devices used during the elections across the United States that year. edit on 26-10-2016 by kelbtalfenek because: more information and a quote

What took them so long? That’s the only question for the Nobel committee that finally chose Bob Dylan to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature this year. It’s not as if some new work suddenly clinched the deal. Mr. Dylan has been recognized by anyone who cares about words — not to mention music — since the 1960s, when he almost immediately earned an adjective as his own literary and musical school: Dylanesque. His most recent album of his own songs was “Tempest,” back in 2012 since then he has been paying tribute to the Great American Songbook of pop, like “Shadows in the Night,” his 2015 album of songs Frank Sinatra had sung. [ Bob Dylan wins the Nobel Prize in Literature| Our book critic on Bob Dylan, the writer ] But there’s no question that Mr. Dylan has created a great American songbook of his own: an e pluribus unum of and narrative and imagistic, erudite and earthy, romantic and cutting, devout and iconoclastic, and oracular, personal and universal, compassionate and pitiless. His example has taught writers of all sorts — not merely poets and novelists — about strategies of both pinpoint clarity and anyone’ free association, of telegraphic brevity and ambiguous, kaleidoscopic moods. A longtime stumbling block for Mr. Dylan’s literary recognition — which eventually didn’t matter to the Pulitzers (2008) or the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2013) and now to the Nobels — has been that he is a songwriter, so his words are best heard with his music. Another is that his voluminous output includes some clinkers and throwaways. Both are absolutely true, and so what? Mr. Dylan’s good stuff, in all its abundance, is the equal — and envy — of countless writers who work strictly on the page. He’s a grandmaster of verbal strategies. He can tell stories in a cascade of images, like “Tangled Up in Blue” he can come at an elusive emotion from all sides and then twist the knife, as he does in “Desolation Row” he can be the kindliest of confidants, as he is in “To Make You Feel My Love” and “Forever Young” or he can be the most savage of adversaries, as in “Positively 4th Street” or “Pay in Blood. ” As much as any literary figure to emerge in the 20th century, he has written words that resonate everywhere: quoted by revolutionaries and presidents, hurled by protesters, studied by scholars and taken to heart in countless private moments: thoughts like “When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose. ” That line, like so much of Mr. Dylan’s work, speaks to the marginalized: to underdogs, outsiders, misfits. “To live outside the law,” he advises, “You must be honest. ” Like many an academically beloved poet — say, Ezra Pound or T. S. Eliot — Mr. Dylan has always placed himself on a literary continuum where allusions focus and amplify meaning. But half a century ago, when guardians of culture were diligently policing boundaries between the purportedly high and low, Mr. Dylan drew his allusions not only from Western literature but also from the blues and the news, gleefully knocking their heads together in “Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again,” he put Shakespeare in the alley. He pointed directly toward some of his sources: Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, Arthur Rimbaud, the Bible, the Beats and, above all, the anonymous writers and transmitters of folk songs who told the stories they had to tell. He gathered and implied countless others, making him a postmodern pioneer and, eventually, something like a internet. Mr. Dylan soon emerged as a fountainhead of allusions and aphorisms himself — he’s got more life lessons than Aesop. Behind his sunglasses, slinging his electric guitar, he became a writer other writers would build upon until, generations later, his wild innovations were just part of an American heritage. It’s a commonplace — but a true one — that there’s a Dylan line for every occasion, and another commonplace that a stray line of an old Dylan song can suddenly nail a situation decades after it was written: Through the years, his riddles have become prophecies. Meanwhile, the fact that Mr. Dylan’s words are written to be sung, that they are physical emanations of breath and pitch and articulation, often adds an additional discipline: the rigorous edit that is built into an oral tradition. There’s no place for parentheses, footnotes or explanations — but there are, of course, rhymes. Lines like these, from “Isis” (written with Jacques Levy) combine the tone of film noir with the rigor of a mathematical proof: Mr. Dylan’s songs do get more mileage, and more shades of meaning, with every inflection he brings to them onstage on his tour. He can sharpen their barbs, tease out their mixed emotions and infuse them with passion or irony, constantly rescuing them from their own familiarity — constantly recharging his reputation, as if he hadn’t already earned it all. But amid the vast repertoire that Mr. Dylan has written, any song has to be strong, almost monumental, to deserve a place in a set list at all. Mr. Dylan’s place in literature — the way he drew his very individual, radicalism from folk music’s memory, its imaginative preservation of tradition — was clear long before the literary establishment deigned to recognize him. The Nobel doesn’t have to certify Mr. Dylan half a century of literature and songwriting have heard him and responded. Long before the prizes started rolling in, he had already rewired our minds. Still, better late than never.

A look at the political math in six states where tight races could determine control of the Senate: NORTH CAROLINA Senator Richard Burr, a Republican, was thought to be a safe bet for against Deborah Ross, his Democratic challenger, who is a former state representative and head of the state’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. But North Carolina has been roiled by a fight over bathroom rights for transgender people that has affected almost every campaign. The national Republican Party has swooped in to try to save Mr. Burr’s bid. _____ PENNSYLVANIA Katie McGinty, a Democrat, is trying to become Pennsylvania’s first female senator with a bid to unseat Senator Patrick J. Toomey, a Republican who has managed to keep a moderate image around the state because of a (failed) gun safety bill that bore his name. Hillary Clinton’s coattails — and Donald J. Trump’s anvil — have made a difference here. _____ NEW HAMPSHIRE Senator Kelly Ayotte, a Republican, is suffering from an uncomfortable association with Mr. Trump, most notably when she had to release a statement walking back her suggestion during a debate that Mr. Trump was a role model for children. Gov. Maggie Hassan, her Democratic challenger, is getting major assistance from national party figures like Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Senator Bernie Sanders in what is widely viewed as the closest Senate race in the country. _____ MISSOURI Senator Roy D. Blunt was on no lists of endangered incumbents. Then his Democratic challenger, Jason Kander, an Afghanistan veteran who is Missouri’s secretary of state, conjured up an ad in which he assembled an assault rifle blindfolded while speaking of gun rights. It was a clever way to both fend off attacks over gun control and underscore Mr. Blunt’s Vietnam deferments in a very state. Mr. Blunt’s decades of service in Washington are also out of style this year. _____ INDIANA Evan Bayh, a Democrat, is trying to reclaim his Senate seat but is finding that his time as a Washington insider is a serious liability. Representative Todd Young, with the help of millions of dollars in outside money, is painting a dark picture of Mr. Bayh as a greedy lobbyist who abandoned his voters, and Mr. Bayh’s lead has shrunk significantly. Indiana is Trump country, and Mr. Bayh, who was once a very popular governor, is going to need Republican voters who remember him fondly to split their tickets. _____ NEVADA For a while, it did not seem that Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat who is a former state attorney general, would catch up to Representative Joe Heck, a Republican who seemed a good fit for his state and this cycle. But Mr. Heck, by turning away from Mr. Trump after the presidential candidate was heard bragging about sexual assault in a 2005 recording, began to lose some of his base support, living every Republican candidate’s nightmare. The Hispanic vote, important here, is hard to poll. But Ms. Cortez Masto is now narrowly ahead in the race, a battle for the seat of Senator Harry Reid in which the retiring Democratic leader has unleashed his political machine in support of her.

BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip — In her new home, finally finished after she lived two years in a trailer across a dirt road, Samaher 40, showed a video on her cellphone of a cute preschooler: her son Majdi. He was singing: “I am a son of Palestine, I have a right and a cause … Even if they shoot me and I die as a martyr, I will not forget the cause. ” Majdi, who was 6, lived through two Gazan wars, though his old family house was toppled by bulldozers in the 2014 fighting with Israel. But the day after he ended kindergarten last year, he caught his hula hoop in a metal door in the trailer. The door was heavy, the frame shoddy. It fell on him and crushed his skull, killing him. “Something is missing,” his mother said eight months later, in the living room of her house, built on the plot of the old one. “You asked me if this is better. Yes, it’s better. But I’m missing him. His bedroom was waiting for him. ” So it is in Gaza, outwardly rebuilding and moving on from war, inwardly far from recovered. Gaza seems at a loss for what might be next. After so many years of isolation, residents of Gaza find themselves ever further from Palestinians in the West Bank, their future clouded by rising doubts that they could ever unite and work toward a lasting peace. Two million tons of rubble have been cleared — about a ton for each person who lives in this cramped coastal strip. of the 160, 000 damaged homes have been rebuilt, as have half of the 11, 000 that were destroyed. Roads are better, travel faster. People gawk at their first real mall, with a food court and 12 escalators, both rarities in Gaza. But they are not buying much. Unemployment is high, especially among the many young people graduating from college. In all, 50, 000 people remain displaced. Electricity and water supplies are still near crisis levels. Hamas, which governs Gaza, elected a new leader. Tunnel building goes on (and, presumably, so does the construction and smuggling of weapons). On the Israeli side, the political right talks of a new war in the spring over Hamas’s rearming and expresses a desire to inflict a decisive blow. As has been the case for a decade, the strip remains encircled. Israel tightly controls most going in and out: food, building supplies, people. Two children died recently for lack of drugs or medical access, one of cancer, the other of a heart problem. “The blockade of Gaza is something I can compare to the Middle Ages and the besieged castle that can fall at any moment,” said Dr. Fadel Ashour, a psychiatrist in Gaza since 1994. “People in Gaza are not satisfied with who governs this castle. They lack the tools to change it. They live with armed militias, and the institutions are not clear as they are in the West Bank. They know they are paying a price for something they don’t want. Or deserve. This increases their depression and hopelessness. ” It is unclear how the flickers of change elsewhere in the conflict will ripple to Gaza, which is surrounded by Israel on two sides, by Egypt to the southwest and by the Mediterranean. With President Trump in office in the United States, Israel’s right seems to feel empowered and is likely to push more settlements in the West Bank, even to toy with annexation, despite Mr. Trump’s call to slow the pace. The Palestinian Authority, which has wide backing in the West, seems to be looking abroad for ways to push its immediate future, including persuading the world to recognize a state of Palestine, threatening action in the United Nations and encouraging Israeli boycotts. Leaders of Hamas, considered a terrorist group by the United States and by many other countries, do not have the same backing from the West. Interviews with political and business leaders, academics and ordinary people can divine only a basic strategy: improve the lives of frustrated residents as its leaders put off as long as possible what they see as the next inevitable war, then fight when it happens. (Life could be better, Hamas’s critics contend, if the group spent less on war preparations.) Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas official, said that with years of failed talks, settlements expanding across the West Bank and Mr. Trump’s apparent ambivalence about a Palestinian state, “You have two options: either to cooperate with the occupation or the resistance. There is no option,” he said. “Where is the solution?” Interviews make it clear that there is a growing distance between Gaza and the West Bank — a central reason cited by Israelis for the impossibility of negotiations. Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006 and took control of Gaza in 2007. “Now, Gaza is something and the West Bank is something else,” said Ibrahim a columnist for the news outlet Al Risala. “It’s a fact. You can’t connect the two realities. You will get lost. Things have changed. ” Mr. Madhoun and several others raised a possibility, a very long shot, one that could conceivably be acceptable to Israel’s far right: Someday Gaza — with defined borders, no Israeli occupation and no settlers — could become the basis for a Palestinian state as settlements gnaw away at the West Bank. “If there is going to be a Palestinian state, it’s going to be Gaza,” said Mkhaimar Abusada, associate professor of political science at University in Gaza. “Politically speaking, it’s not right. But this is what’s coming. ” Otherwise, he said, “I don’t think there is a grand strategy where Gaza is in 10 years or 20 years. I know Hamas will never want to give up Gaza as long as it is capable of keeping control. ” Residents say they are focusing on getting by. Industrious and, for the most part, educated, they have cleared and rebuilt to the point that in places it is hard to tell there have been three wars in six years. One giveaway is that the concrete on the houses is fresh dark gray, rather than and weathered. Qatar and Saudi Arabia have underwritten minicities, as caravans and tents slowly empty. The Islamic University has patched the two buildings bombed in two wars and, with great effort, installed an impressive array of 450 solar panels on the science building, even though there is a fear the panels and the building might make a big target in the next war. Capital Mall opened in January, with four floors of upscale shops. One woman lifted her niqab briefly for a photo in front of a Valentine’s Day flower display. Another posed for her husband, who is in an Israeli jail. “I feel happy here,” Sana Shanghan, 50, said, visiting with some of her 13 children. “Here, I feel I’m outside Gaza. I forget about Gaza’s problems. ” The feeling was similar inside the steamy domes of Hamam Gaza’s only remaining bathhouse, heated with olive wood and, its owners say, predating Islam’s arrival over a millennium ago. “People are tired, kids and old people,” said Salim Abdullah 66, who runs the house for his family. “More and more come here for psychological support. ” He added: “There is no progress. It’s just survival. ” Mona Ghalayini is betting on more than just survival. One of Gaza’s few businesswomen, Ms. Ghalayini, 46, has built a small empire that began with a shop in 2003. For most people in Gaza, the sea is simply a place where fishermen work waters constricted by Israeli patrol boats. But she sees potential in the current stability, recently buying two seaside hotels. “We have brains,” she said, inhaling from a shisha on the patio of one of her hotels. “We have smart people. We can survive, even with the blockade. But we need connection. We don’t want isolation. ” Tourism is the future, she said. Then she reconsidered. “Who visits Gaza?” she asked. “No one. ”

President Trump’s claim on Twitter early Saturday that he had “just found out” that “President Obama was tapping my phones in October,” an accusation for which he offered no evidence, has set off another spasm surrounding his young administration. On Sunday, Mr. Trump’s spokesman said the administration was asking Congress to investigate the president’s allegation. There is ample reason for caution because Mr. Trump has a history of making and politically explosive claims that have no basis in fact. As things stand, a plausible explanation is that Mr. Trump was merely riffing off a March 3 article on the website Breitbart. com. It laid out a theory circulating in some conservative circles that President Barack Obama sought to sabotage Mr. Trump through surveillance. The episode has heightened interest in several related surveillance issues. Can a president order the wiretapping of an American? Not legally. There are two lawful ways that allow government officials to target people in the United States for surveillance and to collect the contents of their phone calls and emails: criminal wiretaps, called “Title III” warrants, and national security wiretaps, called Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, orders. Both types of wiretapping are ordered by federal judges, after applications from the Justice Department. If there was a wiretap order targeting Mr. Trump or his associates, what would that mean? If it was a criminal wiretap, it would mean that the Justice Department had gathered sufficient evidence to convince a federal judge that someone using the phone number or email address probably committed a serious crime. If it was a national security wiretap, it would mean a federal judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had a basis to believe the target was probably an agent of a foreign power, like Russia. Could a judge have approved tapping something at Trump Tower for another reason? Yes. For example, FISA orders have two parts. After determining that there is probable cause to believe that the target is a foreign agent, a judge also has to approve directing surveillance at a particular “facility,” like a phone line or an email address, that the target is probably using to communicate. So in theory, if there was reason to believe that some other lawful target was communicating from Trump Tower, a judge could have authorized surveillance at a facility there for that reason. What about the computer server registered to Trump Tower? Several news media outlets have reported that investigators last year were puzzled by data transmissions between a computer server registered to Trump Tower and a computer server associated with a Russian bank. Although Mr. Trump on Twitter talked about his “phones,” in theory a judge might determine that the computer address of the server was a facility being used by a foreign power, Russia, to communicate, and authorize surveillance of it. Isn’t there a report about an October surveillance court order involving that server? Yes. The Breitbart story relied heavily on a Nov. 7 article by a British writer on the news and opinion website HeatStreet. It claimed that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had approved a “warrant” in October in connection with activity between Russian banks and the server, which it said — and Breitbart repeated — was in Trump Tower. It further stated that “it is thought in the intelligence community” that this purported warrant permitted the collection of emails and other communications of Americans connected to the server investigation, which “thus covers Donald Trump. ” As things stand, there are reasons to be skeptical. HeatStreet had vague sourcing — two “sources with links to the counterintelligence community” — and it does not regularly publish investigative stories about American intelligence or law enforcement operations. To date, reporters for The New York Times with demonstrated sources in that world have been unable to corroborate that the court issued any such order. (Computer specialists have also pointed out that the server in question does not appear to be located in Trump Tower.) On Sunday, James Clapper, who was the director of national intelligence until Jan. 20, denied to NBC News that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had approved monitoring at Trump Tower. What about wiretapping Michael Flynn’s calls with the Russian ambassador? In a related matter, some conservatives have raised alarms about why the government eavesdropped on the phone calls about sanctions between the Russian ambassador and Michael Flynn, who resigned last month as Mr. Trump’s national security adviser. But national security specialists say it is routine that counterintelligence officials would monitor the Russian ambassador, who is a clearly an agent of a foreign power, and so would “incidentally” pick up Mr. Flynn, too. The rules generally require officials to “minimize” the privacy intrusion by masking the names and data of incidentally intercepted Americans before sharing reports or transcripts of those calls more widely within the government. However, there is an exception if the conversation constituted foreign intelligence and the American’s identity is necessary to understand its significance, as would be the case with Mr. Flynn’s discussion of sanctions. Did Obama loosen rules for sharing surveillance? Yes. In January, the Obama administration changed the rules governing how the National Security Agency may share raw surveillance it intercepts abroad, where the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act does not apply and the agency may vacuum up private communications in bulk. Previously, only analysts at the agency were permitted to search through the raw trove of this information, applying “minimization” rules to information about Americans before sharing anything more widely in the government. Now, analysts from the other 16 intelligence agencies — including the F. B. I. — can sift through certain streams of raw intercepts themselves, applying “minimization” rules afterward. Some conservative commentators, like Fox News’s Sean Hannity, have floated the theory that news media leaks about contacts between people affiliated with Mr. Trump and Russians may be attributable to this change, asking why Mr. Obama opened the door to many more officials across the government having access to raw National Security Agency intercepts. Several factors complicate that insinuation. The change did not affect collection on American soil under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which several agencies were already able to share in raw form. Moreover, the recent change had been in the works for years. President George W. Bush set it in motion in 2008, and the bureaucratic deliberations were well developed long before it became clear that Mr. Trump would become president.

PARIS — The German director Maren Ade’s breakout film, “Toni Erdmann,” has won over audiences and racked up awards across Europe. An uncharacterizable story that’s also about neoliberal economic reforms in Romania and the clash between the generation of 1968 and its capitalist children, the film is exceptional for another reason: It’s hilarious. Germany has generally not been known for exporting comedies — and, to outsiders, has a perhaps undeserved reputation for humorlessness — but “Toni Erdmann,” which has been sold around the world, upends that. “I said to my producer, ‘I’m sorry, this will not be a comedy, this will be a very long and sad film,’” Ms. Ade said in a recent interview. “But we were very happy that the comic aspect came out while editing. ” The film, which opened recently in New York, has been loved by critics since its debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May. It won no prizes there but recently made the shortlist for the Academy Award, has been nominated for a Golden Globe, and won every top prize at the European Film Awards. (The New York Times’s chief film critics, A. O. Scott and Manohla Dargis, included it in their year’s best lists.) It tells the story of Ines (Sandra Hüller) a workaholic German management consultant posted to Bucharest, who receives an unexpected visit from her father, Winfried (Peter Simonischek) a music teacher and practical joker who eventually assumes the persona of “Toni Erdmann,” a life coach, and deploys a wig, fake teeth and whoopee cushions in a complex subterfuge to bring Ines back to her old self. In Germany, where “Toni Erdmann” has been a success for an film, Ms. Ade (pronounced ) 40, is seen as an outlier whose sui generis vision doesn’t fit into any established comic traditions. She herself has said that her inspirations include the American comic Andy Kaufman, as well as the Hollywood films of Ernst Lubitsch and Billy Wilder, and the Berlin theater troupe Gob Squad. “In Germany, mainstream comedies are rather vulgar,” said Katja Nicodemus, the film critic at Die Zeit, a German weekly. “Maren Ade, for me, is closer to Wilder and Lubitsch than to contemporary German comedy because she’s closer to that deep humanism — the masquerades, the salaciousness, the wit, the social critique of those comedies, in a subconscious way. ” “For me, what makes the film so exceptional is that it’s a tragedy, where in this tragedy the father plays the comedy,” Ms. Nicodemus added. While most German comedies tend toward slapstick humor, “Toni Erdmann,” which is 162 minutes long, makes use of repetition and time, drawing out awkward moments to the point of comic discomfort. The film’s kooky humor stands in contrast to Germany’s top box office hit of the year, “Welcome to the Hartmanns,” a mainstream comedy about a wealthy Bavarian family adopting a Nigerian refugee — touching on a issue in Germany, where an influx of migrants has been testing society and the political establishment. Written and directed by Simon Verhoeven, that film has received mixed reviews (as well as criticism for posters that omitted Eric Kabongo, who plays the Nigerian) but it has also been praised for pulling off a complex feat. Mr. Verhoeven “undertakes something that is very rarely achieved in German cinema,” Wolfgang Höbel wrote in Der Spiegel. “He treats as uproarious entertainment a political and social conflict that has split the country into two somewhat irreconcilable camps: the and those who are enemies of Angela Merkel’s ‘We can do this’ slogan,” Mr. Höbel added, referring to the statement by Ms. Merkel, the German chancellor, that Germany could handle the refugees. In an interview, Mr. Verhoeven agreed that his film was critical of Ms. Merkel. “It definitely is, because I am critical of her,” he said, “not so much because I’m critical of the basic direction that she led the country in, but I was in so many refugee homes, I saw how much people were struggling and how many people tried to help refugees, but there wasn’t a master plan. There wasn’t a vision of how it’s going to work. ” “Welcome to the Hartmanns” has not received distribution overseas yet, and it’s rare for a German comedy to find international success. Those that have include Tom Tykwer’s 1999 hit, “Run, Lola, Run,” which isn’t, strictly speaking, a comedy Sandra Nettelbeck’s 2002 romantic comedy, “Mostly Martha,” which was later remade by Hollywood with Catherine Zeta Jones and Wolfgang Becker’s 2004 “Good Bye, Lenin!” Ms. Ade is the first director in what has been called the Berlin School — a loose affiliation including Christian Petzold and other filmmakers who came of age in the 1990s and make closely observed dramas — to delve into comedy. One of the great comic moments in “Toni Erdmann” is a party scene in which Ines, on the spur of the moment, transforms a “team building” brunch into what she calls “a naked party” — stripping off her clothes and telling her guests, including her boss, to get naked, too. “Standing in a bright room naked is really the worst thing that can happen to you,” Ms. Ade said. “That was really courageous. I had a feeling the character is at a point where it’s almost physically not possible for her to put on her clothes and go into that role again. ” She added: “This nakedness doesn’t lower her status. She discovers while doing this that it raises her status it makes her independent again. ” While “Welcome to the Hartmanns” directly tackles a tough contemporary issue, “Toni Erdmann” is also slyly political, about the differences between those in Winfried’s generation, who came of age in the ’60s and rebelled against parents from the Nazi era, and those of Ines’s generation, who grew up in a War capitalistic society. “They’re very political they raised their children with a lot of human values,” Ms. Ade said of Winfried’s generation. “He wanted her to be free, . They believe in a world without borders. Then he’s confronted with things turned into the opposite. ” In using comedy, the film takes a new approach to German history. “The big myth in German cinema is that you have to wear a Nazi uniform to talk about the past, and it’s more complicated,” said Ms. Nicodemus, the Die Zeit film critic. “Toni” also represents a change from the German films that normally appear on the international festival circuit: works by directors from the 1968 generation, including Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders. “When the international film community thinks about German films, there are these old big ’68 moviemaker heroes, and they stand for a certain seriousness and dealing with historic issues in Germany,” said Tobias Kniebe, the chief film critic at Süddeutsche Zeitung, a daily in Munich. Ms. Ade’s film “kind of broke a mold,” Mr. Kniebe added. “To be able to make this kind of movie with that kind of complexity and accuracy and still get the big laughs and be the toast of Cannes, and sell it to more than 100 countries, that’s kind of like saying now, if you’re German, you can do anything. It’s up to you, there’s no prejudice anymore. ”

A New York City police officer who five years ago chased an unarmed teenager into his Bronx home and fatally shot him resigned from the Police Department on Sunday. The officer, Richard Haste, 35, quit after he was found guilty on Friday in a Police Department disciplinary review in connection with the shooting of Ramarley Graham, 18, the police said. A deputy commissioner who oversaw the case ruled that Officer Haste, who had been on the force since 2008, had used poor tactical judgment and recommended his dismissal. In a hearing in January on departmental charges, police prosecutors said Officer Haste had made many mistakes when he and other officers in a narcotics unit followed Mr. Graham from a bodega into his apartment building in February 2012. Mr. Graham locked himself in his apartment, at which point, the prosecutors said, the officers should have retreated. But they barged into his home. Officer Haste spotted Mr. Graham at the end of a hallway, followed him into a bathroom and fatally shot the teenager. At the hearing, the officer said he had had no choice but to fire his gun after Mr. Graham ignored commands and reached into his pants. Officer Haste faced accusations of wrongdoing only from the Police Department he was not charged with a crime. A grand jury indicted him on manslaughter charges in 2012, but a judge later dismissed those charges, and another grand jury decided not to charge him, causing tensions to flare and stirring accusations of racism. Mr. Graham was black, and Officer Haste is white. Mr. Graham’s mother, Constance Malcolm, said Sunday night that it was wrong that Officer Haste had not been fired previously. She placed the blame on the Police Department and Mayor Bill de Blasio. “This is just another example that the de Blasio administration doesn’t care about justice and accountability,” Ms. Malcolm said in a statement. Mr. de Blasio said in a statement that he agreed with the judge’s ruling in the disciplinary hearing and that the Police Department had taken steps to try to reduce similar shootings. Officer Haste was informed of the ruling by the deputy commissioner, Rosemarie Maldonado, through his lawyer, Stuart London, who received a call on Friday from her office. “Officer Haste’s actions were all performed with a good faith basis,” Mr. London said in an email on Sunday. “He should have never be forced to resign based on tactics alone. ” Officer Haste previously rejected a plea deal that would have allowed him to avoid the disciplinary hearing and resign with a small pension. In 2015, the city settled a lawsuit with Mr. Graham’s family for $3. 9 million.

‘Steve Star’ Posted at 9:03 Joshua Green and Sasha Issenberg have a new piece out today for Bloomberg Politics that sure to make a few waves today. For the article, Green and Issenberg were given access to the Trump campaign’s data operation, which has been likened to a “political death star”: My takeaway from this @JoshuaGreen / @sissenberg joint: Steve Star https://t.co/kX7sPMaDqz — Blake Hounshell (@blakehounshell) October 27, 2016 This is actually a startling level of access, right? Especially with “12 days to go.” This seems like Trump has allowed Dems to see his actual playbook and what he’s going to do in these final days: 1. @sissenberg + I got exclusive access for our new @bw cover, “Inside the Trump Bunker, With 12 Days to Go” https://t.co/SW0StqXRep — Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) October 27, 2016 2. Trump camp shared strategy, polling, ads, fundraising + showed off secret data ops, code-named “Project Alamo” https://t.co/SW0StqXRep — Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) October 27, 2016 Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has emerged as a huge player in all of this: 3. Led by Kushner, Trump team drew data from RNC, Cambridge, FB to make Alamo small-donor money machine w/list of 12 million names, BUT… — Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) October 27, 2016 But Trump knows he’s behind: 4. Trump campaign’s own internal election models show results “similar to” Nate Silvers — i.e. they know they’re losing badly. Single digits — Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) October 27, 2016 Team Trump does see a path to victory, however, with targeted negative ads: 5. They’ve ID’d 13.5 million persuadable voters in 16 battleground states + say they think they can still win — but not by going positive. — Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) October 27, 2016 This is the quote we’ll be hearing on every cable network today: “We have three major voter-suppression operations under way”: 6. Trump advisor: “We have three major voter-suppression operations under way,” including one targeting African-American voters: pic.twitter.com/Oz6UggoWal — Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) October 27, 2016 The campaign intends to use targeted Facebook ads to reach these folks, and by their own words, suppress the vote: 7. So Trump camp is targeted Facebook "dark posts" at Dem-leaning, but infrequent black voters to discourage them into staying home. — Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) October 27, 2016 Green and Issenberg go on to speculate on the future of Trump TV, arguing that what the Trump campaign has built fits perfectly into a new media launch of some sort: 8. Another takeaway from our story is possible plan for future Trump TV network. Trump's spending campaign $ to build massive support list. — Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) October 27, 2016 9. He'll have 12-14 million emails, 2.5 million donors + because paid for with campaign funds, he'll own it — a future audience for TrumpTV — Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) October 27, 2016 10. Bannon, on the record: "This is the pipe that makes the connection btwn Trump + the people…connects him to an ever-expanding audience" — Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) October 27, 2016 Trump TV is being compared to a U.S version of Britain’s UKIP party: 11. If Trump loses, here's nightmare GOP scenario: he merges with Bannon to start a political-media movement, an American UKIP. Sound crazy? — Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) October 27, 2016 12. Breitbart's London editor, Raheem Kassam, just quit to run for leader of UKIP. His slogan: "Make UKIP Great Again." — Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) October 27, 2016 According to the article, the idea for Trump TV started as a sort of threat to Roger Ailes because of what Trump thought was negative coverage, but it’s morphed into something more realistic: 13. From the piece: "Trump TV" was Kushner's idea, posed as a threat to Roger Ailes during primaries when Trump was unhappy w/Fox coverage — Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) October 27, 2016 14. But idea has taken off, and five media companies have expressed interest pic.twitter.com/yod5XhCylY — Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) October 27, 2016 15. Bottom line: Trump ain't walkin away empty-handed, has grifted GOP + donors to build list worth as much as $112 million that he now owns — Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) October 27, 2016 Here’s the kicker — The RNC helped build it: Oh, I should add that the RNC also played a big role in all this –> pic.twitter.com/RYusrjZ4sW — Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) October 27, 2016 *** Trending

Leave a reply Alexandra Bruce – Celebrated author Graham Hancock explains why Atlantis existed. Hancock specializes in theories involving ancient civilizations, stone monuments or megaliths, altered states of consciousness, ancient myths and astronomical/astrological data from the past… SF Source Forbidden Knowledge TV

Freitag, 18. November 2016 "Gaagnagna" zum Babywort des Jahres 2016 gewählt München (dpo) - Das Babywort des Jahres 2016 heißt "Gaagnagna". Das gab der Langenscheidt-Verlag heute bekannt. Das Kompositum aus "Gaaaa" und "Gnagnagna" meint in der Babysprache jeden beliebigen Menschen, der sich über ein Kind beugt und mit ihm interagiert. Auch Gegenstände, Geräusche oder Emotionen können als "Gaagnagna" bezeichnet werden. "Der Begriff 'Gaagnagna' beschreibt punktgenau die Selbstverständlichkeit vieler Babys im Umgang mit absolut beliebigen Menschen oder Gegenständen, die ihr Interesse wecken", erklärt Jurorin Ulrike Reichwein. "Es hat sich damit absolut verdient gegen 'pfffrrtz' und 'huwäääh, huwäääh, huwääh' durchgesetzt. Im vergangenen Jahr hatte die Jury den Begriff "amamamama" zum Babywort des Jahres gekürt; 2014 machte "b " das Rennen. Die Kriterien für das Babywort des Jahres sind sprachliche Kreativität, Originalität, Verbreitungsgrad sowie gesellschaftliche oder kulturelle Ereignisse, die die Sprache der Babys beeinflussen. dan, ssi; Foto: Shutterstock; Hinweis: Erstmals erschienen am 13.11.15; an 2016 angepasst. Artikel teilen:

On Wednesday, for the second time this month, someone called the Jewish community center outside Wilmington, Del. and said a bomb was on the property. For the second time this month, children were evacuated from schools, gym patrons had their workouts interrupted and police dogs searched the campus. And for the second time this month, it turned out to be part of a frightening nationwide hoax targeting Jewish facilities. “It’s concerning, it’s frustrating,” said Seth J. Katzen, the chief executive of the Jewish Federation of Delaware, whose staff trains several times a year for emergencies. “But as in any J. C. C. across the country, safety and security is our primary concern. ” There were as many as 27 bomb threats on Wednesday at Jewish centers in 17 states, according to the J. C. C. Association of North America. Last week, 16 Jewish facilities received bomb threats. No injuries were reported, but nerves were rattled and routines disrupted. As in other places, the police in Delaware said they were investigating and were in contact with the federal authorities. An F. B. I. official said the bureau and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division were investigating “possible civil rights violations in connection with threats” to Jewish community centers across the country, but declined to provide further details. Jewish leaders called the threats a sickening sign of the times, but said individual centers had trained to address them. Both Wednesday and last week, a national alert system for leaders of Jewish centers was activated as the menacing calls poured in. After the threats last week, Jewish leaders said they had held an online training session with law enforcement officials that included tips on how to respond to bomb threats. Jewish community centers “have prepared for situations like this,” said David Posner, a vice president with the J. C. C. Association who helps local centers refine their security protocols. “It’s unfortunate, but it’s necessary. ” In Birmingham, Ala. where a call about a bomb led to an evacuation on Wednesday, Betzy W. Lynch said the wave of threats “reinforces the importance of the work” of the centers across the country. “We are required to look at these things and take these threats very, very seriously, but at the same time, our goal is to improve the world and build relationships with people,” said Ms. Lynch, the executive director of the Levite Jewish Community Center in Birmingham. Lt. Sean Edwards, a spokesman for the Birmingham Police Department, said that the call on Wednesday appeared to be a robocall and that he believed federal officials were investigating. He said the Birmingham authorities had not increased patrols around the center. “We’re keeping our eye on it,” Lieutenant Edwards said, adding that new intelligence from the F. B. I. could lead to changes. The threats led to calls for heightened awareness at Jewish facilities. The League issued a security advisory and urged Jewish institutions “to take these threats extremely seriously. ” Mr. Posner, of the J. C. C. Association, said local leaders were heartened by the law enforcement response but were still rattled by the experience. “They can do damage without actually even having to plant a bomb, which I believe is what they are looking to try to do,” he said. Leslie M. Sax, the executive director of the Gordon Jewish Community Center in Nashville, which, like the center in Delaware, has received two threats in two weeks, acknowledged that the calls had been unnerving. “If their goal is to incite fear and disrupt our business, they’ve done that,” she said. Ms. Sax, who declined to discuss specific security procedures in Nashville, said officials remained uncertain of whether the threats signaled troubles that might linger. “We’ve had two in two weeks, so we’re starting to question, ‘Is this the new norm?’ But we don’t know that,” she said. “We haven’t had enough time to even talk about it, but I think people are disheartened and a little frustrated. ”

PARIS — He was beaten in the last presidential election, his presidential term was considered a failure, and he has been the subject of numerous judicial inquiries. In most other political systems, he would be a . Yet in a France under terrorist threat, Nicolas Sarkozy may be the man of the moment in a presidential race picking up steam. By hammering on the idea that France’s “identity” is being challenged at a moment of deep unease over terrorism, the mercurial Mr. Sarkozy may be on to something with the electorate. This past week, his new book put “identity” front and center in his new campaign. It quickly climbed to the top of a popular list, outpacing even the season’s novels. As is typical with such instant books, Mr. Sarkozy used his hastily written extended pamphlet to announce his candidacy. He will run in his party’s November primary, he said. And he is consistently strong in polls. At a rally in a sweltering auditorium in France’s south late last month, his first of the campaign, Mr. Sarkozy got his loudest cheers when he conflated the fight against terrorism with the fight for France’s identity. “France is under threat,” he told the crowd. “France is a target. War is war. We’ve got to win. We’ve got to crush our enemies, render them harmless. ” As the crowd in Châteaurenard cheered, Mr. Sarkozy announced, “Our identity is under threat. ” By “our identity,” it is clear he means France. Mr. Sarkozy is positioning himself as its No. 1 defender against weak Socialists and competitors on the right. With his exclamations, Mr. Sarkozy is all about ensuring that next year’s presidential campaign will be fought largely over the threat from Islam, real and perceived. Already, he has touched a nerve with voters. For months, the calm, cerebral and moderate mayor of Bordeaux, Alain Juppé, with his soothing talk of a France at ease with what he calls its “happy identity,” has been considered the easily pushing Mr. Sarkozy and the bedraggled Socialist president, François Hollande, way back in polls. Mr. Juppé is still the favorite, but he is losing ground in his own party. The new polling numbers suggest as much: Mr. Sarkozy gained four points last week in one widely watched measure and two points in another, nipping steadily at Mr. Juppé’s heels. In one of the polls, he was nearly 40 points ahead of Mr. Juppé among voters in their party, the Republicans. Mr. Sarkozy recently said he would introduce a law banning the burkini, the swimsuit worn by some Muslim women, and it has not hurt him. Anything but. Even on the French left, the burkini has few defenders. The Socialist government’s female ministers have been quick to say they are against it, even when they do not support a total ban feminists have published diatribes against it in the French news media. Mr. Sarkozy characteristically pushes it a step further. “The burkini is a political, militant act, a provocation,” he told Le Figaro magazine. He calls for locking up, Muslims who are potential security threats, with thousands of them in the government’s files. Mr. Juppé’s appeal, to preserve republican values and the rule of law, seems less in tune with the voters in France’s moment of sustained tension. With Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Front, oddly silent after its defeat in local elections in December and largely absent from public debate, Mr. Sarkozy seems intent on scooping up both the Front’s xenophobic electorate and more centrist voters who, like much of France, are still in a state of shock after a wave of terrorist attacks. So far, he appears to have the wind in his sails. How is it that Mr. Sarkozy — a politician who left France’s chronic economic problems intact after five years in office, embarrassed it with a messy personal life, and wound up being interrogated by investigators over party finances and other matters — appears to be coming back so strongly? Much of it has to do with France’s political system, said Gérard Grunberg, a political scientist at the Institute of Political Studies. Such a system leaves little opening for outsiders and newcomers. Those who are strong in their parties can almost always be guaranteed a long political life. If you are already in the club, you stay in it. Even in defeat, Mr. Sarkozy maintained firm control of his Republicans, not stepping down from their leadership until he announced his candidacy on Aug. 22. And although the French president is directly elected, not chosen by Parliament, the office exists in the shadow of the country’s long parliamentary tradition, Mr. Grunberg said. In that tradition, “the fact of having been beaten did not mean the end,” he said, with prime ministers and other top leaders often recycling themselves after losing crucial votes. But perhaps more important, Mr. Sarkozy may be the politician most in tune with the country’s unease. He is certainly the loudest, pounding even more explicitly than Ms. Le Pen the themes of secularism and the need to oppose the influence of Islam. “The Republic has retreated too far,” Mr. Sarkozy says in his book. “Nobody should be allowed any external sign of religious affiliation. ” He adds that it is “not with religions that the Republic has problems, but with one of them. ” In the face of the terrorist attacks, Mr. Sarkozy projects aggression and pugnacity where Mr. Hollande merely looks stricken and concerned. Among the voters, “Sarkozy responds to a demand for authority” in a “very tense, dangerous situation,” Mr. Grunberg said. “He’s decided to go very far to the right. And Juppé hasn’t said anything, though now he is beginning to speak. ” Whether Mr. Juppé’s “tranquillity” in the face of the threat can sway voters — Mr. Grunberg believes it might — is an open question. Mr. Sarkozy, he pointed out, remains unpopular with a broad portion of the electorate.

President Donald Trump told reporters that a “big fat beautiful negotiation” was underway on the proposed house health care bill, after a growing number of conservatives have voiced dissent with the effort. [“We’re negotiating with everybody,” Trump said. “It’s a big fat beautiful negotiation and hopefully we’ll come up with something that’s going to be really terrific. ” Trump made his remarks during a meeting with his cabinet at the White House — although four of them have yet to be confirmed by the Senate. During remarks to reporters, Trump thanked Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for working “around the clock” on the effort to replace the Obamacare bill. “I think that ultimately the big beneficiary will be the American people,” Trump said. A handful of Republican Senators have signaled that they will not support the bill, raising questions about the bill’s ability to pass. Members of the House Freedom Caucus have also signaled that they will not vote for the bill as it currently stands. Trump spent the morning meeting with Americans affected by skyrocketing premiums, higher deductibles, and less coverage from Obamacare. “It’s not okay, it’s a disaster, and people understand that. It’s failed and it’s imploding,” Trump said, adding that if it was allowed to continue, it would “doubly implode. ”

Print Whispers of “payback” are being directed at Hillary Clinton after she decried as “unprecedented” the surprise FBI revival of its probe of her email scandal. That’s because 24 years ago, as former President George H.W. Bush was surging back against challenger Bill Clinton, a special prosecutor raised new charges against Bush in the Iran-Contra probe, prompting Clinton to claim he was running against a “culture of corruption.” Many Republicans claimed that the indictment made by special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh against former Reagan-era Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger the weekend before the 1992 election cost Bush a second term. The indictment, later thrown out, challenged Bush’s claim that he did not know about a controversial arms-for-hostages deal that dogged the Reagan-Bush administration. When it came, Clinton seized on it, saying for example, “Secretary Weinberger’s note clearly shows that President Bush has not been telling the truth when he says he was out of the loop.” Clinton added, “It demonstrates that President Bush knew and approved of President Reagan’s secret deal to swap arms for hostages.”

Next Prev Swipe left/right This dad’s tweets about Halloween with his young daughters are brilliant Comedy writer James Breakwell , also known as @XplodingUnicorn , is a very popular guy over on Twitter, largely due to his hilarious tweets about family life, mostly involving his four young daughters. In a series of recent tweets, James has illustrated some of the challenges brought about by Halloween. Here are eight of them for you to enjoy. 1. 4-year-old: Can I wear my wizard costume today? Me: No. You’ll ruin it before Halloween. 4: I'll use magic to fix it. Checkmate. — James Breakwell (@XplodingUnicorn) October 28, 2016 2. 4-year-old: How come we only trick-or-treat on Halloween? Me: People won't give you candy on other days. 4: Have you tried? — James Breakwell (@XplodingUnicorn) October 27, 2016 3. Me: I'm heading to the grocery store. 6-year-old: Why? We're about to get Halloween candy. Me: You need other food, too. 6: Maybe YOU do. — James Breakwell (@XplodingUnicorn) October 28, 2016 4.

This post was originally published on this site sott.net/news © Bashir Khan Safi / Agence France Presse An Afghan man carries the dead body of a child following a NATO coalition airstrike on the outskirts of Kunduz on November 3, 2016. Scores of civilians, including children, have reportedly been killed in US airstrikes supporting a ground operation in Kunduz, Afghanistan, officials and media report. NATO forces in Afghanistan said the airstrikes were “to defend friendly forces under fire.” Earlier on Thursday, United States Forces Afghanistan released a statement, saying that two US servicemen had died “as a result of wounds sustained during operations” in Kunduz. “The service members came under fire during a train, advise and assist mission with our Afghan partners to clear a Taliban position and disrupt the group’s operations in Kunduz district,” the statement said. Resolute Support, a NATO-led training mission in Afghanistan, tweeted that the airstrikes in Kunduz had been carried out to defend “friendly forces under fire.” Brigadier General Charles Cleveland, a spokesman for the United States military in Afghanistan, said that he couldn’t say whether the civilian deaths near Kunduz and the attack on US soldiers were related, but noted that the deceased American servicemen had been as advisers to an Afghan military operation. “We have no evidence at this point of any civilian casualties, but we take all allegations very seriously,” he said, as cited by the New York Times . “Although this was an Afghan operation advised by US forces, US aircraft were used to defend all of the friendly forces.” Afghan officials told Reuters that there had been heavy fighting between Taliban fighters and the US military about five kilometers from the city center. The US then reportedly called in airstrikes that resulted in numerous casualties. Local activists shared photos of what they say are dead bodies of the airstrike victims with RT. RT cannot independently verify the authenticity of the images. General Qasim Jangalbagh from the Kunduz police said the air raid had resulted in the deaths of about 26 people, AP reported. Kunduz’s provincial spokesman, Mahmood Danish, told AFP that the airstrikes had killed 30 civilians, including women and children. “Afghan forces and coalition troops conducted a joint operation against the Taliban insurgents. In the bombardment 30 Afghan civilians were martyred and 25 others were wounded,” he said. Police spokesman Mahmoodullah Akbari gave similar toll to AFP, saying that infants as young as three months old were among the dead. Local activists shared photos of what they say are dead bodies of the airstrike victims with RT. RT cannot independently verify the authenticity of the images. “They were asleep when their house came under attack by coalition troops,” Akbari said. Safiullah Amiri, a member of the Kunduz Provincial Council, said at least 30 civilians had been killed in a series of airstrikes on the village, the NYT reported. The paper also cited Islamuddin Timoori, a representative of the protesters from Kunduz, who said that the bombing had been carried out by the US, killing 27 people and wounding 70. According to Pajhwok, “the airstrikes and ground offensive” were conducted by “Afghan and foreign forces” in the Pul Achin and Poz Kandahari areas on the outskirts of Kunduz. Pajhwok reported that the airstrikes had prompted the citizens of Kunduz to take to the streets in protest. The protesters reportedly were carrying the bodies of people killed in the attack, including those of the children. Photos of the corpses of the alleged victims have been circulating on social media. “I was working on the farm when suddenly the bombardment started in our area. When I came to my house seven members of my family, including women and children, were killed,” Kunduz resident Taza Gul told Pajhwok Afghan News. Bilal Sarwary, a local journalist citing sources in the Afghan government, reported that at least 31 civilians had been killed during an Afghan-NATO special forces operation on Thursday night. Citing Afghan government sources, he tweeted that “Afghan and US Special forces were surrounded and were taking heavy fire when the airstrike was called.” Related

The New York Times Magazine won three National Magazine Awards on Tuesday, tying New York Magazine for the most awards for any publication this year. The winning stories showcased a wide range of reporting and storytelling, at home and abroad: • In the Public Interest category, “Worlds Apart,” by our staff writer Nikole tells the story of ’s own process of finding a school for her daughter in New York City, among the most segregated public school systems in the country. Expertly weaving together the personal and the historical, supported by a wealth of research and data, made the case that — more than 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education — the majority of poor black and Latino children received a separate and unequal education. • The winning story in the Feature Writing category, “I Have No Choice but to Keep Looking,” by our contributing writer Jennifer Percy, visits the coast of Japan, where more than five years after the tsunami that killed tens of thousands, the families of the dead still search the sea for their loved ones — a heartbreaking testament to love and devotion in the face of unimaginable loss. • In the category, “David’s Ankles,” by our staff writer Sam Anderson, explores Anderson’s obsession with the history of Michelangelo’s David statue and its flaws while unspooling a meditation on the nature of imperfection itself.

Remember the last debate when the internet blew up because Donald Trump said he wouldn’t necessarily accept the results of the election ? People were bemoaning him as a fascist and no one in the mainstream wanted to admit that our election process is entirely rigged . The trouble is, voter fraud on a grand scale can be tough to prove . As it turns out, voter fraud on a smaller scale has been detected in 6 locations already, according to today’s Drudge Report . But don’t worry. These are just “glitches” or “too few to make a difference.” 1) Chicago In the Windy City, the dead have been voting for decades. Two investigators have admitted finding proof of this, but they refuse to say that there is fraud. Relatives of the Voting Dead feel differently. They say that they’ve reported the deaths of their loved ones repeatedly, but that the names have not been removed from the rolls. But that isn’t the worst of it – not only are these people on the rolls – they’ve repeatedly voted since their deaths. Don’t worry, though. It’s just a few hundred dead voters that they’ve been able to confirm. No biggie. ( source ) 2) Philadelphia Chicago is not alone with the dead folks voting.There are also reports from Philadelphia that people are making their voices heard from beyond the grave. *cough* Local station Action News 6 investigated and found that a stunning number of people have been deemed “active voters” for many years since their deaths. Don’t worry, though. The local voting board says these mistakes are simply “human error” and that there aren’t enough dead voters to actually sway the election. ( source ) 3) Hollywood, Maryland A woman in Maryland has reported another incidence of “vote flipping.” She voted a straight Republican ticket, then checked after it was submitted. Her vote for Trump had been switched to a vote for Clinton. Don’t worry, though. The election officials there told her to just vote again. Of course, this would “undo” the vote for Clinton, but would it really count as a vote for Trump? I’m sure it’s fine. The election officials would want to be scrupulous about something like that. ( source ) 4) Miami-Dade County, Florida Two women have been charged with felony counts of tampering with the election. One, a temporary election worker, was caught marking ballots by her co-workers. The other was caught filling out voter registration paperwork for people who did not exist. Don’t worry, though. These were isolated incidents that have been dealt with. In the words of State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle, a Democrat, “Anyone who attempts to undermine the democratic process should recognize that there is an enforcement partnership between the elections department and our prosecution task force in place to thwart such efforts and arrest those involved. Now we need to move forward with the election.” ( source ) 5) Alexandria, Virginia A guy in Virginia who was formerly employed by the New Virginia Majority, an advocacy group aligned with the Democratic party, was caught using fake names to fill out voter registration applications. But don’t worry. Commonwealth Attorney Bryan Porter said, “Since the fraudulent applications involved fictitious people, had the fraud not been uncovered the risk of actual fraudulent votes being cast was low.” ( source ) 6) Lots of places in Texas Much like the report in Maryland, voters in various locations in Texas have reported that when they chose a straight Republican ticket, the voting machines opted for Clinton/Kaine instead of Trump/Pence . Voters in Amarillo, Arlington, Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Cypress, Mesquite, and El Paso have all reported vote flipping from Trump to Clinton. But don’t worry. Election officials in the state say it’s not a problem with the equipment . It’s just those silly voters who don’t know how to use it. ““Typically, we’ve found it’s voter error with the equipment. Sometimes they vote straight party and then click on other candidates … or do something with the wheel….There is not an issue with the equipment.” ( source ) If you’re worried about election fraud… You can add a smartphone app by True the Vote called VoteStand to report incidents of fraud. Don’t let anything slide. If you are voting, make sure your choice is accurately recorded. Courtesy of Daisy Luther Don't forget to follow the D.C. Clothesline on Facebook and Twitter. PLEASE help spread the word by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks. Share this:

Famed attorney and retired Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz told Breitbart News a New York Times story published on Saturday that he has been hired “to help the defense” in the Michigan female genital mutilation case is “misleading” and “another example of fake news by The New York Times. ”[On Saturday, the Times reported, “Recently, the an organization overseeing smaller Shiite Muslim sects, hired two lawyers, Alan Dershowitz and Mayer Morganroth, to help the defense, The Associated Press reported. ” “Misleading,” Dershowitz said of the Times report. “I’ve written a letter to The Times correcting its story,” Dershowitz told Breitbart News. “Another example of fake news by The New York Times. I hope they’ll print my letter, but you never know,” Dershowitz told Breitbart News in a phone interview from Vienna, Austria on Monday morning. “So here’s the story. This group rejects female genital mutilation. I agreed to consult with them and to work toward an acceptance of merely a symbolic pin prick, not even of the clitoris, but just of the clitoral hood, which is the equivalent of the foreskin,” Dershowitz said of his consulting agreement with the the governing body that oversees members of the Dawoodi Bohra sect of Islam. He went on to say: The idea really is the functional equivalent of what Jews do. If a kid were circumcised at birth, as many are, but didn’t have a bris, didn’t have a religious circumcision, and he wants to convert to Judaism, or his parents want to convert him to Judaism, he has a little symbolic pin prick, it draws one tiny bit of blood, and that takes the place of a circumcision, and that’s what I’ve proposed&gt, World wide, there are about one million members of the Dawoodi Bohra sect, which is based in Mumbai, India. Muffaddal Saifuddin is the current spiritual leader. The sect has at least six mosques in the United States, located in Michigan, Houston, Chicago, New Jersey, Washington, D. C. and Fremont, California. While it is not known exactly how many adherents of the sect currently reside in the United States, at least three of them have run afoul of the law recently in Michigan. “Dr. Fakhruddin Attar was arrested in the Detroit suburb of Livonia, Michigan Friday, accused, along with his wife Farida Attar, of involvement in the same female genital mutilation conspiracy that led to the landmark arrest last week of Dr. Jumana Nagarwala,” Breitbart News reported in April. “All three defendants are part of a small community known as the Dawoodi Bohra, which was at the center of an Australian prosecution that sent three people to prison in 2015,” the Detroit Free Press reported: In the wake of the case, an organization that oversees the Dawoodi Bohra community in Detroit has defended the group, stating: “The Dawoodi Bohras do not support the violation of any U. S. law, local, state or federal. We offer our assistance to the investigating authorities. Any violation of U. S. law is counter to instructions to our community members. It does not reflect the everyday lives of the Dawoodi Bohras in America. … We take our religion seriously but our culture is modern and . ” Dershowitz again stated that The New York Times got the story wrong and that he is not helping the defense of the individuals charged with committing the federal crime of female genital mutilation in Michigan: I’m consulting — The Times mischaracterized my role — I’m not representing any of the people who are charged. I’m just consulting with the group in an effort to try to create a world wide alternative to female genital mutilation. If we can get everybody in the world who today practices female genital mutilation, this group does not, every group in the world who practices it, if we can get them all to substitute the symbolic pin prick, which is the equivalent, for example of a 15 year old kid having your ear pierced, which is legal, it causes just about the same amount of harm to have your ears piereced as to have a tiny prick on the labial hood, that to me would be a great accomplishment. It would also help resolve the conflict between religious freedom and the interests of the state in preventing child harm. So that’s my role in the case, as a consultant to try and move the world away from female genital mutilation toward a much more benign sterilized pin prick. “They don’t practice FGM, lets be clear about that,” Dershowitz said of the group adding: My goal is to help create a model all over the world for groups that do practice, to be able to comply with the law. What I want to do is get the U. S. government to agree that a sterilized benign symbolic pin prick would not violate the law. I think that if we can do that we would have accomplished a great deal. Breitbart News asked Professor Dershowitz if this is just a false flag to create the impression there is widespread use of the symbolic pin prick as an alternative to female genital mutilation when in fact the traditional barbaric practice of female genital mutilation will continue as before. “I’m not concerned about this group,” Dershowtiz said. He went on: This group wants to obey the law, and has been trying to obey the law. They will do everything in their power to obey. This group never practiced clitoral cutting or anything of the kind, so I am very comfortable representing this group and trying to get the law to change, or really to get the law to recognize our position, which is the law doesn’t apply to the pin pricking. If we can get the U. S. government to accept that, we think we’re going to improve both the situation facing young girls today and the freedom of the religion of the group. So for me this presents the possibility of a a win for the first amendment and a win for young girls who would no longer be exposed to anything beyond the symbolic pin prick. I want to emphasize the pin prick is literally no different than ear piercing and in virtually every state in the union today, parents have the right to have their 10 year old, 8 year old, 6 year old have their ears pierced. There’s no medical good that comes from that, but there’s also no medical harm. If you can do it for cosmetic purposes you can certainly be able to do it for religious purposes. Dershowitz told Breitbart News he first became interested in the issue of female genital mutilation when he got a call from this group. “I had read a few things about it. I had read works by Richard Schwader, who is a liberal anthropologist, and who has been pushing very hard for this pin prick approach. I was influenced by his advocacy as well. I met with him and met with the group and came away believing this would be the best overall solution,” he said. Dershowitz also said he has no idea how prevalent the pin prick procedure he advocates as an alternative to female genital mutilation is in those countries where female genital mutilation is a documented health problem for women. “I would never ever ever under any circumstances defend the practice of female genital mutilation and I want to state that on the record. I would never ever ever under any circumstances defend or support the practice of female genital mutilation. I’m not doing that here,” he added. The New York Times was not the only media outlet to get Dershowitz’s consulting relationship with wrong. “Famed constitutional law scholar and attorney Alan Dershowitz has joined the defense team in the nation’s first female genital mutilation case in federal court,” The Detroit Free Press reported on June 1.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) is being sued by a privacy group for failing to disclose information about a “secretive” facial recognition program. [The Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law filed the lawsuit after the NYPD allegedly refused to comply with a Freedom of Information Law request. “As of 2016, the NYPD is reported to have conducted ‘8, 500 facial recognition investigations, yielding 3, 000 possible matches, and leading to almost 2, 000 arrests.’ In January 2016, the Center sent a FOIL request to the NYPD seeking records relating to the department’s acquisition and use of face recognition technology,” explained the group in a press release. “Despite extensive evidence of an advanced and frequently used face recognition system, the NYPD disclosed only a single document responsive to the request for procedures relating to facial recognition technology. The department refused to disclose contract and purchasing records, and claimed that no other records could be found. ” Despite the fact that there are currently no laws against the use of facial recognition by law enforcement in New York, the Center claims that it is illegal for the NYPD to keep the records surrounding it from the public. “Face recognition is too powerful, and its price on privacy and civil liberties too high, to not be controlled by robust policies and training guides,” said the Center’s Clare Garvie, who filed the original request. “If these records do in fact exist, it is against both New York law and the interests of the public to keep them secret. ” “The NYPD has been using face recognition for over five years. New Yorkers have a right to know how it’s using face recognition technology,” added David Vladeck, the Faculty Director of the Center. “The department’s claim that it cannot find any records about its use of the technology is deeply troubling. ” “If no records exist, that means that there are no controls on the use of face recognition technology and we ought to worry about that,” he continued. “If there are records, then why did the Police Department say that it couldn’t find them? The lawsuit we’ve filed aims to get to the bottom of those questions. ” The lawsuit can be viewed in full online. Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.

TEL AVIV — Wednesday’s rocket fire on the Israeli resort city of Eilat was “a natural reaction” to alleged Israeli involvement with the Egyptian army’s clampdown on Sinai militants, Abu Baker Almaqdesi, a jihadist who fought for the Islamic State, told Breitbart Jerusalem in an interview. [Late on Wednesday, four rockets were launched toward the southern city, three of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system. No damage or injuries were reported. Earlier on Thursday, the Islamic State Sinai Province posted an online statement taking credit for the rocket salvo aimed at Eilat. Almaqdisi previously fought for IS in Syria and Mosul in northern Iraq, where he says he was injured. Without offering evidence, Almaqdesi claimed that in recent days Israel Air Force drones have taken part in raids on chapters of Wilayat Sinai, the Islamic State’s Egyptian affiliate. Some of the casualties, he claimed, were Gazans. Breitbart Jerusalem submitted a request to the Israel Defense Forces for comment on the allegations of drone strikes in the Sinai. Using language, Almaqdesi, who spoke to Breitbart Jerusalem in Arabic, claimed that “the Jewish entity” — referring to Israel — “never stopped assisting the Egyptian army of infidels in their war against the mujahedeen, and tonight’s salvo on Umm Rashrash [Eilat’s Arabic name] was a natural reaction to those crimes. ” The jihadist claimed the Eilat rocket attack wasn’t a precedent. “Earlier this month, we fired at the Elojah crossing [between Egypt and Israel]. Our brothers are determined to continue to react to the crimes of the Jews, and we’ll continue to launch rockets at Israel despite their airborne operations and despite the strain of the Egyptian army of infidels. ” Almaqdesi claimed that only three days ago, an Israeli drone fired at a house in the Egyptian Sinai, which happened to be empty and therefore no injuries were caused. “The Jewish enemy continues its attack on the mujahedeen and innocent civilians, so they should anticipate more from our brothers the Sinai mujahedeen. ” Asked whether they plan attacks on Israel, Almaqdesi said: “It’s the decision of the brothers in the leadership, but it is clear to all that the Jewish entity is just one player in the war on Islam. Though a major one. Therefore, no option is off the table. It’s true that the Jewish police arrest our mujahedeen even inside Palestine and the forces of the treacherous collaborator Abu Mazen do it too, and even those who are falsely called Muslims in Gaza fight against us. But our organization proved that we could strike anywhere in the world. I can tell you that our weapons are now aimed at Israel more than ever before. ” The Islamic State Sinai Province on Thursday released a statement taking credit the Eilat rocket attack: “A military squad fired a number of Grad rockets at communities of Jewish usurpers in the town of Eilat. ” The group said the rocket attacks were meant “to teach the Jews and the crusaders a proxy war will not avail them of anything. ” “The future will be more calamitous with Allah’s permission,” the statement said. In a interview last March, Abu a Salafist movement senior official in the Gaza Strip allied with IS, threatened that it is only a matter of time before the Islamic State’s branch in the Egyptian Sinai carries out a “big operation” in the Israeli resort town of Eilat and other parts of southern Israel. Ansari was speaking on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio. ” He has since been arrested by Hamas and is reportedly in a jail in the Gaza Strip. Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio. ” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.

Photo by Mark Hodgins | CC BY 2.0 It’s the perfect time to be an affluent white and politically correct North Side Lakefront – or other kind of – Liberal and sports fan in the Chicago area. Think about it. Your beloved Chicago Cubs are finally going to their first World Series since 1945 and they will be doing a battle against a team with the worst racist Native American logo in major U.S. professional sports: the Cleveland Indians – yes, the “Indians.” The Indians’ Chief Wahoo – a wild grinning caricature – is the single most offensive, politically incorrect image in sports today. It’s enough to make folks forget that the Cubs are owned by a politically active right-wing Republican family, the Ricketts, one of whom recently contributed $1 million to the racist and sexist bigot Donald Trump. And that the Cubs’ storied ballpark Wrigley Field will be jammed with rich white people who can swallow up secondary market World Series tickets selling for as high as $18,000 . And that the Cubs owe no small part their ability to overcome their “ Billy Goat curse ” (proclaiming that they’d never go again to the final championship series) largely to massive infusions of big Ricketts money required to purchase free-agent veterans to go along with their younger stars. Meanwhile, the liberals’ party has a presidential candidate Hillary Clinton who is about to become the national government’s first female chief executive after trouncing the aforementioned bigot Trump in the November 8 th election. The insane, politically incorrect spectacle of Trump has helped people forget that Mrs. Clinton is herself a “right-wing fanatic” and a “lying neoliberal warmonger” – and here I am quoting two left intellectuals who counsel folks to vote for her. Hillary’s Wall Street-friendly arch-corporatism and hawkish militarism are well understood in very predominantly white establishment business and imperial circles, where she is by far and away the preferred candidate. This is true even among many normally Republican members of the economic, political, policy, and – in a word – power elite. Identity politics provides cover for, and diversion from, class rule and from the deeper structures of class, race, gender, empire, and eco-cide that haunt American and global life today – structures that place children of liberal white North Side Chicago professionals in posh 40 th -story apartments overlooking scenic Lake Michigan while consigning children of felony-branded Black custodians and fast food workers to cramped apartments in crime-ridden South Side neighborhoods where nearly half the kids are growing up at less than half the federal government’s notoriously inadequate poverty level. Most of the Black kids in deeply impoverished and hyper-segregated neighborhoods like Woodlawn and Englewood (South Side) or North Lawndale and Garfield Park (West Side) can forget not only about going to a World Series game but even about watching one on television. Their parents don’t have cable and the Fox Sports 1 channel. There’s few if any local restaurants and taverns with big-screen televisions in safe walking distance from their homes. Major League Baseball ticket prices being what they are, few of the South Side kids have even seen the White Sox – Chicago’s South Side American League team, whose ballpark lacks the affluent white and gentrified surroundings of Wrigley Field. (Thanks in no small part to the urban social geography of race and class in Chicago, the White Sox winning the World Series in 2005 – their first championship since 1917, marking an overcoming of the Black Sox Curse – was a smaller deal in the city than the Cubs going to the World Series this year.) The World Series might be playing out before a national and even global audience just miles away in hyper-Caucasian Wrigley Ville, but for tens of thousands of Black and Latino kids on the city’s South, West, and (in fact) North Sides (there are significant stretches of minority poverty west and north of the Cubs’ storied ballpark), the games are being played in another universe. Hillary, a Cubs fan from the affluent northern white Chicago area suburb of Park Ridge (though also a self-declared Yankee fan during her years “representing Wall Street as a Senator from New York” [her own words]) isn’t going to remotely change any of that. She has a long record as a vanguard neoliberal Democrat (a de facto “moderate” Republican) going back to the Clintons’ days in Arkansas, where and when she played a key role in helping move the Democratic Party ever further away from its last lingering commitments to social, racial, and environmental justice and decency. I may be a “far left radical” stamped as a White Sox fan by family upbringing and a childhood on the South Side. Still, I am going to make the most both of the Cubs going to the World Series and of Hillary trouncing Trump. Much as I wish the Sox were headed for their second championship in eleven year (they held first place in the American League Central Division for a few weeks last spring), I have to admit that nothing can beat the heartwarming story of the “lovable losers” the Cubs going to the October Classic when it comes to boosting the profile of baseball relative to that of the sadistically violent, brain-mashing blood sport called U.S. football. It is a telling tragedy that the beautiful pastoral game of baseball has been trounced by the vicious, fascist-lite spectacle that is U.S. football as the nation’s favorite sport in the neoliberal era. Plus, I have nice memories of my father taking me up to enemy territory to watch National League baseball in Wrigley Field in the late 1960s, before it became a Yuppie playground and a tourist attraction. You could sit in Wrigley’s bleachers for $1.50. Like all good leftists, I hate the Clintons, including the ones with two x chromosomes – and that includes young Chelsea, with her noxious $10 million condo complex in Manhattan Still, I do not await a Hillary Clinton administration with undiluted trepidation. The presence of a Democrat in the nominal top U.S. job can be usefully instructive for young workers and citizens. It helps demonstrate the richly bipartisan nature of the American plutocracy and Empire. The people need to see and experience how the intolerable misery and oppression imposed by capitalism and its evil twin imperialism live on when Democrats hold the White House. At the same time, the presence of a Republican in the White House tends to fuel the illusion among progressives and others that the main problem in the country is that the wrong party holds executive power and that all energy and activism must be directed at fixing that. It just feeds the electoral and candidate obsessions that do so much to divert us from building and expanding the kinds of rank and file social movements required to bringing about an actually progressive transformation. There is, yes, I know, the problem of Democrats in the White House functioning to stifle social movements and especially peace activism (the antiwar movement has still yet to recover from the Obama experience). But there’s more good news here about a Hillary presidency. Not all Democratic presidents are equally good at shutting progressive activism down. As the likely Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein (for whom I took five minutes to early vote in a “contested state” three weeks ago) noted in an interview with me last April (when the White Sox still held first place in their division), Hillary Clinton will have considerably less capacity to deceive and bamboozle progressive and young workers and citizens than Barack Obama enjoyed in 2007-08 . “Obama,” Stein noted, was fairly new on the scene. Hillary,” by contrast, “has been a warmonger who never found a war she didn’t love forever!” Hillary’s corporatist track record – ably documented in Doug Henwood’s book My Turn: Hillary Clinton Targets the Presidency (her imperial track record receives equally impressive treatment in Diana Johnstone’s volume Queen of Chaos: The Misadventures of Hillary Clinton ) – is also long and transparently bad. All that and Mrs. Clinton’s remarkable lacks of charisma and trustworthiness could be useful for left activism and politics in coming years. For what it’s worth, the first and most urgent place to restore such activism and politics is in the area where Barack Obama has been most deadening: foreign policy, also known (when conducted by the U.S.) as imperialism. When it comes to prospects for World War III, it is by no means clear that the saber-rattling, regime-changing, NATO-expanding, and Russia-baiting Hillary Clinton is the “lesser evil” compared to the preposterous Trump. That’s no small matter. During a friend’s birthday party the night the Cubs clinched the National League pennant, I asked fellow celebrants and inebriates if they were prepared for the fundamental realignment of the space-time continuum that was coming when the North Siders won the league championship. That was a joke, of course, but there’s nothing funny about the heightened chances of a real downward existential adjustment resulting from war between nuclear superpowers when the “lying neoliberal warmonger” Hillary Clinton gets into office and insists on recklessly imposing a so-called no-fly zone over Russia-allied Syria. Postscript : Meanwhile, could we save some love for the poor and mostly working class sports fans of Cleveland? They didn’t vote for their one and only Major League Baseball team to be named the Indians and bear a noxious racist logo. Until LeBron James delivered on his basketball promise last spring they hadn’t won a major sports professional championship in fifty-two years. In the years since 1948, the last time the Indians won the World Series, Cleveland has had two such champions: the football Browns in 1964 and the basketball Cavaliers earlier this year. Over the same period, Chicago has accumulated four National Hockey League (NHL)/Stanley Cup championships (1961, 2010, 2013, 2015), six NBA (basketball) championship (the 1990s Michael Jordan Bulls), two NFL (football) championships (the Bears in 1963 and 1985-86), and one World Series (the officially unlovable White Sox in 2005). That’s Chicago 13, Cleveland 2 (9 to 2 if you subtract hockey since Cleveland has never had an NHL team). That said, I’m still rooting for the Cubs for three reasons: (1) I may be from the South Side but I’m also from Chicago and have lived on the North Side at different times; (2) the Cubs becoming a dynasty (a distinct possibility given the talent and youth of their team the money behind it) will be good for baseball versus football (3) the truly disgusting atrocity that is Chief Wahu. Check it out .

Deutsche Bank LIVES: Shock profits posted in Q3 October 27, 2016 A green traffic light is seen next to the logo of Germany's largest business bank, Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, Germany, October 27, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach Deutsche Bank chief John Cryan has shocked the financial sector by posting a quarterly profit after expectations sent economists running for the hills Wednesday. Deutsche Bank posted an unexpected quarterly profit, likely due to staff and bonus cuts. Deutsche announced an unexpected net profit of 278 million euros ($303 million) in the third quarter. Profit attributed to a modest rebound in bond trading that boosted all Wall Street banks. Cryan: The quarter had been overshadowed by talks over the DOJs settlement proposal relating to sales of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS). Uncertainty had also taken its toll on "financial planning and strategy execution”. Cryan’s letter to Deutsche staffers: The situation "will stay difficult for a while,” and I am working to finalize the settlement "as soon as possible”. Deutsche will also intensify major restructuring to counter a deteriorating environment for EU banking. Top ten shareholder: "Fixed income is still oversized in terms of cost and on group level there are still 10,000 staff too many." Deutsche Bank's CFO Marcus Schenck: Expect the fourth quarter trading business overall to exceed last year's performance. Cryan: Spending at least an hour a day explaining the bank's position to clients. "To dispel any myths, I don't just sit poring over spreadsheets". In Deutsche Banks retail and wealth management: Had assets of almost 440 billion euros, clients withdrew 9 billion euros in the third quarter. Deutsche has liquidity reserves of 200 billion euros, down from the 215 billion outlined on Sept. 30, and 223 billion euros in June. Deutsche increased their litigation reserves to 5.9 billion from 5.5 billion at the end of June. Deutsche revenue grew slightly at 7.5 billion euros, with bond trading earnings up 14 percent. Morgan Stanley analysts: "Top down, revenues were stronger and the bank is delivering on costs with this quarter being a fourth consecutive one of declining operating expenses.” In contrast: Barclays on Thursday reported a 40 percent spike in its business. (FRANKFURT, GERMANY) Deutsche Bank chief John Cryan pledged to redouble restructuring efforts on Thursday, warning that it faces tough times finalizing talks with U.S. justice authorities over a multi billion dollar fine. Germany's biggest lender earlier posted an unexpected quarterly profit, benefiting from a modest rebound in bond trading, but failed to dispel the cloud of uncertainty that drove clients to withdraw billions of euros. Cryan said on a conference call that the quarter had been overshadowed by talks over the U.S. Department of Justice’s settlement proposal relating to sales of RMBS (residential mortgage-backed securities) which had caused uncertainty. As well as having an impact on investor and client views of the bank, this uncertainty had also taken its toll on "financial planning and strategy execution", Cryan added. Cryan warned Deutsche Bank employees in a letter that the situation "will stay difficult for a while" and said he was working to finalize the settlement "as soon as possible". Deutsche Bank would also intensify a major restructuring to counter a deteriorating environment for banking in Europe and elsewhere, Cryan said. However, a top ten shareholder called on the bank's management to make deeper cuts in its trading activities. "Fixed income is still oversized in terms of cost and on group level there are still 10,000 staff too many." Despite weeks of negative headlines, Deutsche was able to announce an unexpected net profit of 278 million euros ($303 million) in the third quarter, lifted by a surge in bond trading that boosted all Wall Street banks. This sent its shares to a more than one-month high, but they retreated in line with the market to be down 0.3 percent. Deutsche Bank's Chief Financial Officer Marcus Schenck also struck a positive note, saying he expects the fourth quarter trading business overall to exceed last year's performance. SPREADSHEET MYTH Cryan said he was spending at least an hour a day explaining the bank's position to clients, adding: "To dispel any myths, I don't just sit poring over spreadsheets". Negotiations over a $14 billion demand from the U.S. DoJ for misselling toxic mortgage-backed securities before the 2007-2009 financial crisis have set a bleak backdrop for Cryan. Thursday's results gave some insight into how this demand has rocked confidence in Deutsche Bank, which plays a critical role in financing some of Germany's biggest companies. In retail and wealth management, which had assets of almost 440 billion euros, clients withdrew 9 billion euros in the third quarter, Deutsche Bank revealed. Outflows had since abated, it said, although its global markets trading business was also hit. Cryan said the bank had liquidity reserves of 200 billion euros, a fall from the more than 215 billion he had outlined on Sept. 30. In June, the bank had 223 billion euros. Deutsche Bank set aside more money for its legal bill for numerous past missteps. Litigation reserves rose to 5.9 billion from 5.5 billion at the end of June. However, Deutsche Bank has so far not made a specific proposal for what it would be willing to pay to settle the RMBS case and has therefore not upped its provisions for it. It had hoped to settle the case for about $3 billion. Revenue grew slightly at 7.5 billion euros, ahead of analysts' expectations, mainly driven by Deutsche's trading, while business declined in other operating areas. "Top down, revenues were stronger and the bank is delivering on costs with this quarter being a fourth consecutive one of declining operating expenses," analysts at Morgan Stanley noted. Its bond trading, which has volatile earnings and tough capital requirements to meet, revenues were up 14 percent. But the rebound was less pronounced than at peers because of cuts Deutsche has made to the division. Barclays on Thursday reported a 40 percent spike in its business. In equities trading, Deutsche saw revenue fall as low stock market volatility gave investors less reason to trade, while revenue from corporate and investment banking fell by 1 percent. ($1 = 0.9173 euros) This article was contributed by Reuters Please contact TRUNEWS correspondent Edward Szall with any news tips related to this story. Email: | Twitter: @EdwardSzall | Facebook: Ed Szall DOWNLOAD THE TRUNEWS MOBILE APP on Apple and Google Play ! Donate Today! Support TRUNEWS to help build a global news network that provides a credible source for world news We believe Christians need and deserve their own global news network to keep the worldwide Church informed, and to offer Christians a positive alternative to the anti-Christian bigotry of the mainstream news media Top Stories