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PressTV-UK PM ‘bluffing’ about no-deal Brexit: Labour MP

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Nov 8, 2018: 12:45 am
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A senior member of Britain’s Labour Party says that talks of a no-deal Brexit are simply a trick by the UK government to persuade the opposition and others to vote for a deal that would come out of the current Brexit negotiations.

Keir Starmer, a Labour MP and shadow Brexit minister, said Wednesday that Prime Minister Theresa May was bluffing about no-deal Brexit, saying her suggestions that Britain was ready for contingencies arising out of the scenario were not true.

“I honestly don’t believe any prime minister would seriously consider taking the decision to crash the UK out of the EU without an agreement,” said Starmer.

“The no-deal rhetoric from the government is a bluff and we shouldn’t fall for it,” he added.

May is in the final phases of talks with Brussels on clinching a deal that could guarantee a smooth Brexit and ensure that there would be no hard border between the two sides on the island of Ireland.

However, the…

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Russia & China Invest in Infrastructure; U.S. Instead Spends on Military.

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Eric Zuesse
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Nov 8, 2018: 12:38 am
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Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org

China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” is famous as an extension of their domestic infrastructure investments, but Russia is also investing heavily in infrastructure. Both countries need to do it in order to improve the future for their respective populations, and both Governments have avoided the Western development model of going heavily into debt in order to pay for creating and maintaining infrastructure. Both are, in fact, exceptionally low-debt Governments.

According to the “Global Debt Clock” at Economist, China has a public debt/GDP of 17.7%, and Russia’s is 8.0%. For comparison, America’s is 93.6%. (Others are: Germany 85.8%, Spain 91.2%, Italy 122.6%, Greece 147.1%, India 54.2%, Pakistan 47.0%, and Brazil 55.0%.)

The United States isn’t going into public debt in order to finance building or maintenance of infrastructure, but instead to finance expansions of its military, which is already (and by far) the world’s largest (in terms of its costs, but not of its numbers of troops).

While the U.S. Government now spends around half of the world’s military expenditures and plans to conquer Russia, China, and all countries (such as Iran and Syria) that cooperate with those ‘enemies’ (and please click onto a link wherever you question the truthfulness of an allegation made here), Russia and China plan to improve their infrastructures, in order to boost their national economies and to minimize the impacts that (the mainly U.S.-caused) global warming will have. These infrastructure projects are optimistic and long-term expenditures, which are being planned and built only because the countries that the U.S. aristocracy are targeting to conquer, expect the U.S. aristocracy to fail to achieve its clear #1 goal, of controlling the entire world and conquering them — of America’s rulers finally achieving the global fascist empire that, in World War II, Hitler and the other Axis powers had been hoping to become.

By contrast, U.S. infrastructure is rotting; and, while every recent U.S. President has promised to reverse that decline, none has done anything significant to repair this nation’s rotting infrastructure — it has always been just talk and empty promises. A nation that spends over a trillion dollars a year on ‘national defense’ can’t have much left over to spend on things that ‘can wait’ — such as repairing its bridges, roads, etc. — and so those repairs do wait, while even more money, than before, becomes devoted to purchases of new weaponry, such as the F-35 program.

Meanwhile, Russia and China prepare for their future, and hope it won’t be war.

On November 1st, Russian Television bannered “Russia, India & Iran want to create alternative trade route to Suez Canal – report” and described “The 7,200-kilometers long corridor [that] will combine sea and rail routes”:

The route will make it possible to deliver cargoes from India to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. Then, the goods will be transported by land to Bandar Anzali, Iran’s port on the Caspian Sea. After that, goods will be shipped to the Russian southern port of Astrakhan, from where they will move to Europe by rail. The new transport artery will potentially reduce the time and costs of shipping by up to 40 percent.

A linked news-report there headlined “Top of the world: Russia to build world’s northernmost railway in Arctic”, and another headlined “Japan turns to Trans-Siberian Railway to test potential connection with Russia, China & S. Korea”.

If the U.S. Government’s plans to destroy Russia succeed, then any of these new or extended infrastructures will either be destroyed or else be taken over by the U.S. and its allies. (If taken over, then presumably Japan’s aristocracy will be part of the new regime there that does so.) Consequently, building and extending these new infrastructures is Russia’s bet — and a concrete testimonial to the bet — that outright war by the destroyers can be avoided. The nations that America and its allies want to conquer are looking to the future, not to conquest or any type of war (though they must also be prepared for war, if the U.S. does invade). Right now, the U.S. and its NATO allies are holding the largest war-games in history, and these preparations to invade Russia are occurring all along and near Russia’s borders, in the countries that formerly were the Soviet Union’s Warsaw Pact military alliance. Though the U.S. and its allies say that Russia and China are threatening to them, these massings of soldiers and of tanks and planes on Russia’s borders are aggressions, not defensive at all as claimed. How would we Americans feel if Russia were doing this along America’s borders? Would we feel that Russia is defending itself, then? Russians have sound reason to be terrified by the U.S. and its allies. Americans were terrified by the Soviets when the issue was Soviet missiles located in Cuba only a hundred miles from the U.S. This country then threatened: if you do that, then we’ll launch war against you. Russia isn’t responding similarly, even though America’s threat to them is much bigger than that threat to the U.S. was in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

All that today’s U.S. Government wants is to conquer the world, which now especially means Russia, China, and countries that do business with those ‘enemies’. Iran is also a major target of the U.S., because the U.S. aristocracy’s main allies are the Sauds and Israel, both of which hate and crave to destroy Iran. Though those three targeted countries want to avoid being conquered by the U.S. Government, most of their expenditures are for their own domestic economies, instead of for defending against the U.S. and its allies. (However, the U.S. and its allies are clearly and consistently the aggressor since 1991, and expanded their NATO alliance up to Russia’s borders; Russia didn’t expand its Warsaw Pact alliance up to America’s borders, but ended the Warsaw Pact in 1991. None of Russia’s expenditures are for conquering foreign countries, such as the U.S. alliance now is trying to do in countries such as Syria and Yemen, and perhaps soon in Iran, too; so, the U.S. Government has no excuse whatsoever in this matter, but pure guilt in it, pure aggression.)

There really is a difference between “The West” and “The East” in our era, but it’s more like the difference between The Axis powers in WW II versus The Allies, than it is between democracy versus dictatorship; and, in fact, the U.S. Government is the world’s only Government that has been scientifically analyzed to determine whether it is a democracy or instead a dictatorship, and it has consistently been found, in these rigorous studies, to be a dictatorship, against the public, by its billionaires, the aristocrats, and not a democracy, at all. Furthermore, the preponderance of the major outcome-indicators of the extent to which a given nation is a dictatorship or even a police-state, or is instead a democracy that’s ruled by its public, are showing that the U.S. is a dictatorship or even a police-state, and that the nations it calls its ‘enemies’ are more toward the democratic side — serving their respective public, instead of any such narrow and exclusive elite as the owners of “the military-industrial complex.” (U.S.-allied propaganda to the contrary alleging that the U.S. and its allies are the ones which are ‘democracies’, like this piece from the U.S. stooge-nations that constitute the EU, are always based on ranking — without clearly explaining how — the mere formalities of ‘democracy’, no authentic measures of democracy itself, but only the associated formalities, which often are mere fronts, behind which the given nation’s aristocracy control that given country.)

The U.S. has emerged into the very model of the modern dictatorship, relying maximally upon a coordination between deceit and military power. This is the reason why it now spends half of the world’s military costs — to serve its aristocracy, who have perfected Joseph Goebbels’s system of calling good bad, and bad good, and of otherwise imposing what the novelist George Orwell subsequently called “Newspeak” in its ‘news’-reporting and commentaries, to serve the controlling aristocracy, “Big Brother.” It’s here, and now. On November 1st, Jonathan Cook at Global Research headlined “Bolsonaro: A Monster Engineered by Our Media” and he explained how even the “liberal” aristocrats in the U.S. and its allied countries have brought back racist fascism, the ideology known as nazism, as a globally spreading plague now.

Here is how America’s master of Newspeak, Barack Obama, represented, to West Point Military Academy’s graduating cadets on 28 May 2014, the new, American, version, of Adolf Hitler’s beloved “Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, über alles in der Welt”:

The United States is and remains the one indispensable nation. [Every other nation is therefore ‘dispensable’; we therefore now have “Amerika, Amerika über alles, über alles in der Welt”.] That has been true for the century passed and it will be true for the century to come. … America must always lead on the world stage. If we don’t, no one else will. … Russia’s aggression toward former Soviet states unnerves capitals in Europe, while China’s economic rise and military reach worries its neighbors. From Brazil to India, rising middle classes compete with us. [He was here telling these future U.S. military leaders that they are to fight for the U.S. aristocracy, to help them defeat any nation that resists.] … In Ukraine, Russia’s recent actions recall the days when Soviet tanks rolled into Eastern Europe. But this isn’t the Cold War. Our ability to shape world opinion helped isolate Russia right away. Because of American leadership, the world immediately condemned Russian actions; Europe and the G7 joined us to impose sanctions; NATO reinforced our commitment to Eastern European allies; the IMF is helping to stabilize Ukraine’s economy; OSCE monitors brought the eyes of the world to unstable parts of Ukraine.

Actually, his — Obama’s — regime, had conquered Ukraine in February 2014 by a very bloody coup, and installed a racist-fascist anti-Russian Government there next door to Russia, a stooge-regime to this day, which instituted a racial-cleansing campaign to eliminate enough pro-Russia voters so as to be able to hold onto power there. It has destroyed Ukraine and so alienated the regions of Ukraine that had voted more than 75% for the democratically elected Ukrainian President whom Obama overthrew, so that those pro-Russia regions quit Ukraine. What remains of Ukraine after the U.S. conquest is a nazi mess and a destroyed nation in hock to Western taxpayers and banks.

Furthermore, Obama insisted upon (to use Bush’s term about Saddam Hussein) “regime-change” in Syria. Twice in one day the Secretary General of the U.N. asserted that only the Syrian people have any right to do that, no outside nation has any right to impose it. Obama ignored him and kept on trying. Obama actually protected Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate against bombing by Syria’s Government and by Syria’s ally Russia, while the U.S. bombed Syria’s army, which was trying to prevent those jihadists from overthrowing the Government. Obama bombed Libya in order to “regime-change” Muammar Gaddafi, and he bombed Syria in order to “regime-change” Bashar al-Assad; and, so, while the “U.S. Drops Bombs; EU Gets Refugees & Blame. This Is Insane.” And Obama’s successor Trump continues Obama’s policies, regarding not only Ukraine, but regarding also Yemen and Syria, and much else, except that Trump goes even more nazi than Obama did. The change from Obama to Trump was from soft nazi to hard nazi. That’s all. Trump is the U.S. regime’s going wild.

Every day, the U.S. regime murders lots of people in foreign lands. Today, as this is being written, on November 3rd, Syria News, which I’ve found to be far more reliably truthful about the situation in Syria than is for example the New York Times, headlined “US-Led Coalition Murders 15 Civilians in a New Bombing in Hajin”, and reported that, “Under the guise of fighting ISIS, the US and its cronies, are trying to establish a de facto barrier on the Syrian-Iraqi border which is run by ISIS and SDF, who both receive support from the US and both have occasional clashes [against each other] in between.” Aggression (and lying about it) is normal for the U.S. Government.

On January 19th, U.S. ‘Defense’ Secretary James Mattis said that “great power competition, not terrorism, is now the primary focus of U.S. national security,” and this means war by the U.S. against both Russia and China, and perhaps also Iran; but if the people of Europe don’t rise up against that plan, then not only will they have even more refugees from America’s “regime-change” bombs, but they will soon have Russia’s bombs retaliating against Europe itself for being a part of America’s aggression, via the NATO military alliance, an alliance that should have ended when the Warsaw Pact military alliance did, back in 1991. Either End NATO Now, or else join the carnage that America’s aristocracy are clearly determined to impose upon the world in order to conquer it. The choice is that simple.

The only ways that the global public can effectively fight back against the U.S.-and-allied aristocracies’ plan to enslave the entire world to their coercive and sanctions-laden ‘free market’ are:

(1) to boycott America’s brands and, as much as possible, conduct all international transactions in any other type of currency than the U.S. dollar; and,

(2) to vote against any politician who has endorsed America’s invasions, such as of Iraq 2003, Libya 2011, Syria 2012-, Yemen 2015-, and U.S. coups, including its coup that conquered Ukraine in 2014 and installed a nazi Government there. And,

(3) to organize marches, if possible, against any U.S. military base occupying their nation. The occupying power needs to be expelled in order for the given nation’s public to control their own country.

Otherwise, the U.S. aristocracy can simply continue with its pillage of our planet. The global public needs to do its part, not to leave it to the targeted countries alone to try to put down this global resurgence of fascism, by America’s oligarchs. This also means abandoning the two aristocracies that work the most closely with America’s: Israel’s and Saudi Arabia’s (both of which target Iran and its allies, even more than they target Russia and its allies). The listed three steps are the only path toward a survivable planet: isolating and publicly shaming the nazis.

Also the Newspeak needs to end, right now, because without honesty, no type of progress is even possible.

All of these measures are not only morally right; they are necessary, because the present path leads to not only profound injustices, but a hellish global future.

Unfortunately, the U.N. cannot do any of these essential things. But only the global public can — and will, if there is to be continued life of this planet, and lives here that are worth living.

PS: For anyone who might consider odd that an American (the present writer) views Russia as a core ally of the American people, and views recent American Presidents (starting with George Herbert Walker Bush on 24 February 1990) as traitors to America — as being enemies of the American people and of the entire world — please consider the following historical facts:

According to Jan Ludvík’s “The Poverty of Statistics: Military Power, Defence Expenditure and Strategic Balance”, in the January 2014 Central European Journal of International and Security Studies (p. 157), the relative expenditures in order to win World War I were Russia 24%, UK 22%, U.S. 21%, France 20%, and Italy 13%. Russia spent the most of all the allies. In WW II, the relative expenditures in order to win were Russia 58%, UK 20%, U.S. 12%, France 10%. Yet again — and this time overwhelmingly — Russia spent the most of all the allies, 58% of the total allied cost. The only country that spent more on that war was Germany, which of course was on the losing (“Axis”) side, and which spent 37% more to lose that war than Russia spent to win it. During WW II, Germany spent 75% of its side’s entire costs; Japan spent 17%, and Italy spent 8%. So: WW I was mainly between Russia and Germany, and so was WW II. And that’s clear also from another calculation:

The same source (p. 159) indicates that Russia’s troops were 46% of those fighting on the winning side of WW I (and #2 on that was France with 20%), and were 55% of the troops fighting on the winning side of WW II. (France was #2 again in WW II, also 20%.)

Furthermore, in WW I, Russia’s troops were 38% more (in numbers) than both Germany’s and Austria’s put together; and, in WW II, Russia’s troops were 4% less than Germany’s, Japan’s and Italy’s combined, but were twice as many as Germany’s number.

So: by far the biggest contributions to the winning not only of WW II, but also of WW I, were made by one and the same country, both times: Russia. America’s contribution was much smaller, on both occasions. And, now, America’s leaders and their foreign allies have become nazis, heirs of Hitler’s tradition, who call Russia an “enemy,” for refusing to do what these nazis demand.

Of course, there were also other nations on each side of each of those wars (for example, Wikipedia lists over a dozen “Allies of World War I”), but Ludvik calculated the numbers only for these, the main ones, on both sides.

So: everyone who can should now become active on this!

—————

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.

The Libertarian Face of New Media

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Nov 8, 2018: 12:35 am
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Shop all books by Tom Woods

JEFF DEIST: Tom, you grew up in Boston. Your dad was a blue collar guy and also a Teamster. So, tell us a little bit about him and your childhood.

TOM WOODS: He was a Teamster for 18 years, and worked as a forklift operator in a food warehouse for a grocery chain that no longer exists. I wouldn’t say he was a Reagan Democrat because he was never a Democrat. He was a blue-collar Reagan Republican. That was the kind of household I grew up in. My father had very strong political opinions.

At that time he had not finished high school. He was very self-conscious about not having a high school diploma, so he spent a lot of time reading about a wide variety of topics. You could talk to him about a great many things and he would have something intelligent to say. He wound up going back to get his GED when he was in his 40s.

On politics, he was the one who introduced me to the evils of communism and the merits of low taxes and things like that. It was fairly conventional Republican stuff, but for all that, if it hadn’t been for him telling me those things, I could easily see myself having fallen into conventional leftism. And why not? If you have poor people, why not give them money, and if you have some problem, why not appoint regulators to solve it? It all seems so simple. He challenged that narrative in ways that were very productive for me.

33 Questions About Ame…
Thomas E. Woods
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JD: Isn’t that interesting how America used to have blue-collar-working-class guys who were well read in poetry or history or philosophy? Now, even people with advanced degrees don’t know as much.

TW: It is kind of funny. I took a bit of that from him in…

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Billionaires, corporate money swing toward Democrats

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Nov 8, 2018: 12:27 am
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Billionaires, corporate money swing toward Democrats

By
our reporter

7 November 2018

The 2018 midterms have been the most expensive congressional elections in US history, with an estimated $5.2 billion raised and spent by Election Day, according to data collected and reported by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP). The total not only rose 35 percent over the previous midterm record in 2014, it exceeds the money spent on congressional races during the 2016 presidential election year.

Significantly, the Democratic Party and affiliated political action committees raked in the lion’s share of the record fundraising. Of the $4.7 billion spent by the latest reporting period, Democrats accounted for $2.5 billion, compared to $2.2 billion for Republican candidates and committees. Republicans have traditionally enjoyed a massive fundraising edge.

Democrats enjoyed a huge fundraising advantage in the contests for 435 seats in the House of Representatives, raising $951 million compared to $637 million for the Republicans, who held the majority of seats, 242 to 193. The Democratic advantage was particularly notable in the 29 seats considered “toss-ups,” where Democratic candidates raised an average of $5.5 million apiece, nearly twice the $3 million average for the Republicans.

Democrats also held the fundraising advantage in the Senate, $513 million to $361 million, but that was a smaller edge than in the House and actually represents a significant gain for the Republicans, since the Democrats had the advantage of incumbency in 26 of the 35 Senate seats that were at stake.

Overall, spending by the Democratic Party and associated groups was projected by the CRP to rise 44 percent over 2014, while the Republican Party and associated groups boosted their spending by only 21…

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Prison Planet.com » Journalist in Saudi Arabia ‘is killed during torture while in custody of the regime’ after he was accused of exposing violations committed by the royal family

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Nov 8, 2018: 12:02 am
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Daily Mail
November 7, 2018

Another dissident journalist has reportedly been tortured and killed in Saudi Arabia.

Turki Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Jasser is said to have been murdered in jail a month after Jamal Khashoggi was slaughtered in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate.

News site The New Khaleej reported Al-Jasser’s death on Saturday quoting human rights sources. The report has not been confirmed.

Human rights groups say the Saudi government believed Al-Jasser secretly ran a Twitter account called Kashkool, which exposed human rights violations by officials and the royals.

Saudi spies in Twitter’s regional HQ in Dubai unmasked him and he was arrested in March, according to reports.

The spy ring was said to be run by Saud al-Qahtani, Crown Prince Mohammad’s ‘thuggish’ aide who was demoted after being blamed for the Khashoggi crisis.

If true, the revelations that Saudi Arabia is still killing journalists even after the uproar caused by the Khashoggi scandal will dismay the West.

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This article was posted: Wednesday, November 7, 2018 at 7:46 am

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Video: Border patrol hold drills on US-Mexico bridge

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Nov 7, 2018: 11:57 pm
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Officers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection march in unison as part of a drill at an international bridge connecting the U.S. and Mexico at Hidalgo, Texas …

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Sessions Firing Shows Trump Demands Loyalty, Not Independence, from Attorney General

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Nov 7, 2018: 11:12 pm
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Equal measures of hope and heartbreak from a long night. With results still coming, the House will look more like America – brown, black, young, female, gay, Native – and the Senate will be even more white, male, old, rich. Despite grievous, slim losses for Andrew Gillum, Beto O’Rourke and likely Stacey Abrams, Gillum still insists on their/our seat at the table. “We will not be pushed into the shadows anymore,” he said. “We’re here to stay.”

Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-‘Trump won’t face major setbacks despite losing House’

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Nov 7, 2018: 11:00 pm
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US President Donald Trump is not likely to face major setbacks in the second half of his presidency despite losing the House of Representatives to Democrats in the midterm congressional elections, says an American analyst.

Initial results of the frenzied midterm elections on Tuesday projected Democrats as the next majority party in the House, with NBC News reporting a 230-205 makeup.

By winning the House, Democrats will have the opportunity to frustrate Trump’s legislative plans and ramp up their “obstructionist” approach, as the president would like to call it.

Early results also confirmed that the Senate will stay Republican, thanks to a strong campaign push by Trump.

Speaking to Press TV on Wednesday, Eugene Michael Jones, editor of Culture Wars Magazine, said Democrats could do little to impeach Trump given that Republicans maintained control of the Senate.

The analyst predicted that while Trump had little chance to push…

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Video: Democrats use Russian meddling rhetoric just to overturn midterms – Daniel McAdams

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Nov 7, 2018: 10:56 pm
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Daniel McAdams, executive director at the Ron Paul Institute, talks to RT on Trump Administration raising the alarm over foreign interference in the midterms.

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Banksy recreates divisive West Bank wall in London (PHOTOS) — RT UK News

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Nov 7, 2018: 10:48 pm
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Famous street artist Banksy has recreated a piece of the separation wall between Palestine and Israel for a London world travel exhibit to promote Palestinian tourism.

The artist painted a replica of the 400-mile wall built by Israel along the West Bank. He erected the exhibit at the Palestine stand in the World Travel Market on Tuesday, urging art lovers to “pretend to be a travel agent” and attend the two-day event at London’s Excel Center.

The Palestine stand, one of the smallest exhibits at the event, was thronged with Banksy fans queuing to catch a glimpse of the artwork which features two cherubs, one representing Palestine and the other Israel. Banksy posters, Palestinian scarves and traditional Palestinian food were handed out to those waiting in line.

READ MORE: New Banksy? ‘Yuge’ anti-Trump murals appear on West Bank separation wall

“Opening my first ever stall at a trade fair next week. I’ve painted a replica separation barrier to promote the Walled Off hotel, ironically the neighbours have complained it’s too tall,” Banksy wrote on Instagram, referencing the hotel he is linked to that opened in Bethlehem in March 2017 to attract tourists to Palestine.

At the time Banksy promoted the hotel as the “the worst view of any hotel in the world, thanks to its location overlooking the 400-mile wall that cuts through the West Bank and divides Israel and Palestine.”

The travel market exhibitor event is visited by more than 50,000 travel executives and employees annually.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigns from DOJ on Trump’s request — RT US News

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Nov 7, 2018: 10:46 pm
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US President Donald Trump has requested – and received – the resignation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The Department of Justice will be led by his chief of staff Matthew Whitaker until a permanent replacement is nominated.

“We thank Attorney General Jeff Sessions for his service, and wish him well!” Trump said on Twitter Wednesday afternoon, after announcing the appointment of Whitaker.

We are pleased to announce that Matthew G. Whitaker, Chief of Staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the Department of Justice, will become our new Acting Attorney General of the United States. He will serve our Country well….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2018

There is a potential problem with Whitaker’s appointment over the head of the current deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, who has been in charge of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into allegations of Trump-Russia “collusion” during the 2016 presidential election. Rosenstein was confirmed to his post by the Senate, whereas Whitaker was not.

Also, Whitaker would be taking over from Rosenstein the oversight of the Mueller investigation.

“The Acting Attorney General is in charge of all matters under the purview of the Department of Justice,” DOJ spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores told reporters on Wednesday.

The sacking of Sessions and the appointment of Whitaker have alarmed Democrats, who are concerned that Trump is making moves to shut down the Mueller probe. Prior to becoming Sessions’ chief of staff in September 2017, Whitaker worked as a legal commentator for CNN, and at one point argued that Mueller’s investigation was becoming a “witch hunt.”

Given his previous comments advocating defunding and imposing limitations on the Mueller investigation, Mr. Whitaker should recuse himself from its oversight for the duration of his time as acting attorney general.

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) November 7, 2018

There have already been calls by Democrats in Congress for Whitaker to recuse himself from the Russia probe.

Anyone who attempts to interfere with or obstruct the Mueller inquiry must be held accountable. This is a red line. We are a nation of laws and norms not subject to the self interested actions of one man.

— Eric Holder (@EricHolder) November 7, 2018

After opposing Sessions’ appointment as AG and criticizing him for enacting Trump’s policies at the DOJ for the past two years, many Democrats are now decrying his firing as obstruction of justice.

President Trump just removed Jeff Sessions. He wants an Attorney General to serve his interest, not the public.

Mueller’s investigation and the independence of the DOJ must be protected. Whitaker and any nominee must commit to doing both.

We will protect the rule of law.

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) November 7, 2018

Old and busted: “Jeff Sessions must resign as AG” because he can’t be trusted.
New hotness: Trump is corrupt for asking Sessions to resign.

Same guy. pic.twitter.com/vSMHTyPtJv

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) November 7, 2018

Sessions, a senator from Alabama at the time, joined the Trump campaign early on and was considered a favorite to take over the Department of Justice in the new administration. He was immediately forced to recuse himself from any probes into “Russiagate,” due to his role in the campaign, however.

Since then, Trump has frequently clashed with Sessions over the DOJ’s handling of the Russia probe. The DOJ’s refusal to comply with congressional oversight requests to turn over documents related to the FBI’s spying on the Trump campaign also caused increasing frustration at the White House, prompting the president to declare at one point, “I have no attorney general!”

“I’m not happy at the border, I’m not happy with numerous things,” including the Russia probe, Trump told The Hill in September. “I’m very disappointed in Jeff. Very disappointed.”

Sessions has maintained his loyalty to Trump and the president’s law and order agenda, even in the resignation letter.

In his resignation letter, SESSIONS writes, “we have restored and upheld the rule of law — a glorious tradition that each of us has a responsibility to safeguard.” pic.twitter.com/w47dnvNc3X

— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) November 7, 2018

With Republicans picking up seats in the Senate in Tuesday’s midterm elections, despite losing a majority in the House of Representatives, Trump was widely expected to reshuffle his Cabinet in the near future, though the speed with which Sessions was ushered out was unexpected in Washington.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-Female paramedics forced to sex in UK: Report

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Nov 7, 2018: 10:44 pm
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A new report shows that women staffers in a major British ambulance service were forced into giving sexual favors and watching pornography at work.

The female paramedics working in the South Western Ambulance Service Foundation Trust (SWASFT) were called “fresh meat” when they start the job, with male colleagues often asking for sexual favors, The Sun newspaper revealed in a report on Wednesday.

The independent probe showed that SWASFT was mainly dominated by a “boys club” mentality, where sexual banter was “commonplace” and interviewees recounted repeated cases of inappropriate and abusive behavior against them.

Female employees also said managers threatened them if they refused to offer sexual favors, telling them they would get “spanked”.

The respondents to the inquiry also said that managers “openly” flirted with new employees in an attempt to exert power and control.

“It was made clear to me that if I wanted to…

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Prison Planet.com » Trump declares ‘Big Victory’ in midterm elections

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Nov 7, 2018: 10:01 pm
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Washington Examiner
November 7, 2018

President Trump declared the 2018 midterm elections a “big victory” Wednesday morning, and said the federal government can “get back to work” now that the elections are over.

“Received so many Congratulations from so many on our Big Victory last night, including from foreign nations (friends) that were waiting me out, and hoping, on Trade Deals,” Trump posted to Twitter Wednesday. “Now we can all get back to work and get things done!”

Received so many Congratulations from so many on our Big Victory last night, including from foreign nations (friends) that were waiting me out, and hoping, on Trade Deals. Now we can all get back to work and get things done!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2018

As predicted, Democrats are projected to take back the House majority as Tuesday night’s election results roll in. They already hold 219 seats and are expected to pick up several more. But Republicans are projected to grow their majority in the Senate — they had 51 seats locked up Wednesday morning, and could win another three.

Trump said those who lost did so because they didn’t embrace him.

Those that worked with me in this incredible Midterm Election, embracing certain policies and principles, did very well. Those that did not, say goodbye! Yesterday was such a very Big Win, and all under the pressure of a Nasty and Hostile Media!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2018

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This article was posted: Wednesday, November 7, 2018 at 7:49 am

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Voters Expand Medicaid While Defeating GOP House That Tried to Destroy It

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Nov 7, 2018: 9:57 pm
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Health care touched the 2018 midterm elections at nearly every level last night. The issue, according to many polls, is the top concern for Americans, and this sentiment was credited by many for the biggest headline of the night: the Democrats reclaiming the House of Representatives. It was, of course, the House GOP Caucus that passed arguably the most regressive health care bill in US history this term with its version of Trumpcare.

“Health care and pre-existing conditions won the Democrats the House,” said Chris Matthews to a group of agreeable hosts on MSNBC not long after they called the House for the Democrats. The point was made many times over the course of the evening.

While health care played a role in thousands of elections across the country last night, it played the most central role in several important ballot initiatives across the country. Medicaid expansion, most notably, was on the ballot in four deep-red states and won in three of them: Idaho, Nebraska and Utah. Another Medicaid expansion bill, which was complicated by a tobacco tax, was defeated in Montana. Medical marijuana initiatives also won in Missouri and Utah. An otherwise good night for progressives was tempered by the defeat of proposals for nursing staffing minimums in Massachusetts and a program for elder care in Maine, which was to be paid for with a tax on the wealthy.

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In sum, advocates for health care justice felt a message was sent to politicians last night.

“This election proves that politicians who voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act got it wrong. Americans want to live in a country where everyone can go to the doctor without going bankrupt. Expanding access to health care isn’t a blue-state value or a red-state value; it’s an American value,” said Jonathan Schleifer, executive director of The Fairness Project, in a statement sent to Truthout this morning. The project supports many ballot…

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Video: Scuffle breaks out as Miss BumBum contestants ‘debate’ realness of their butts

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Nov 7, 2018: 9:56 pm
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READ MORE: https://on.rt.com/9i0x An outraged contestant stormed the stage of the final Miss Bumbum pageant in Brazil and seized the winner’s sash, saying …

Via Youtube

US Americans Are Not the Only Americans

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Nov 7, 2018: 9:47 pm
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Photo Source Fibonacci Blue | CC BY 2.0

The migrant caravan that originated in Honduras is currently making its way northward through Mexico towards the US border. Who are these people who have fled their homeland in a desperate search for a better life” If we are to believe President Donald Trump, many of them are “hardened criminals.” But the men, women and children in the migrant caravan are not hardened criminals as President Trump would have us believe. They are people fleeing from economic hardship and violence that has resulted in part from the foreign policy of the US government. Furthermore, they are Americans.

In 2009, the Obama administration supported the military coup that overthrew the democratically-elected government of President Manual Zelaya. Even since the coup, the country has suffered from rampant violence as well as neoliberal economic reforms that have impoverished millions of Hondurans. In response, tens of thousands of Hondurans, including those currently travelling in the migrant caravan, have fled their homeland. These people are not only Hondurans, they are also Americans whose lives have been impacted by US government policies.

But how can they be American if they are not US citizens? For most people in the English-speaking world, particularly in the United States, Canada and Britain, an ‘American’ is a citizen of the United States of America. And this is true. But it also not true, by omission. Because people throughout Latin…

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The Banality of Evil Creeps into those Who Believe They Are Good

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Nov 7, 2018: 9:33 pm
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You can have my social worker credentials when you pry them from my cold dead hands!

I was at a city hall meeting in Beaverton, Oregon, the other day when a few questions I had for the presenters dropped jaws. We’ll get to that later, the jaw-dropping effect I and those of my ilk have when we end up in the controlled boardrooms and chambers of the controllers – bureaucrats, public-private clubs like Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, and both political operatives and those who liken themselves as the great planners of the world moving communities and housing and public commons around a giant chessboard to make things better for and more efficient in spite of us.

Look, I am now a social worker who once was a print journalist who once was a part-time college instructor (freeway flyer adjunct teaching double the load of a tenured faculty) facilitating literature, writing, rhetoric classes, and others. The power of those “planners” and “institutional leadership wonks” and those Deanlets and Admin Class and HR pros and VPs and Provosts to swat down a radical but effective teacher/faculty/instructor/lecturer isn’t (or wasn’t then) so surprising. I was one of hundreds of thousands of faculty, adjunct, hit with 11th Hour appointments, Just-in-Time gigs and called one-week-into-the-semester with offers to teach temporarily. Then, the next logical step of precarity was when a dean or department head or someone higher got wind of a disgruntled student, or…

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PressTV-Trump claims Republicans beat Democrats in midterms

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Nov 7, 2018: 8:59 pm
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US President Donald Trump insists his Republican Party has won the 2018 midterm congressional elections despite losing the House of Representatives to Democrats, threatening the opposition party against using their newly found power in the lower chamber of Congress to hinder his political agenda.

The Republican head of state took to Twitter on Tuesday to take credit for his party’s success in widening their narrow majority in the Senate by winning more seats in midterms.

Those that worked with me in this incredible Midterm Election, embracing certain policies and principles, did very well. Those that did not, say goodbye! Yesterday was such a very Big Win, and all under the pressure of a Nasty and Hostile Media!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2018

While Democrats were never projected as the favorites to flip the Senate, it is still surprising to see how they failed to make a splash despite receiving intense support from…

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Video: Syrian nun slams West for arming radicals, talks plight of Syria’s Christians (Going Underground)

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Nov 7, 2018: 8:54 pm
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Mother Agnes, a nun from Syria, slams Western governments for funding ‘radicals’ and discusses the plight of Syria’s Christians during the Syrian civil war, the …

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‘Gammon’ could become Collins Dictionary Word of the Year — RT UK News

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Nov 7, 2018: 8:46 pm
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‘Gammon,’ a word which has been widely used as an insult to describe middle-aged men who tend to go pink in the face when angry, has officially made it into the Collins Dictionary Word of the Year 2018 shortlist.

Historically, it is more commonly recognised as a cured pork meat which many British families like to enjoy as part of their Sunday roast. Now, ‘gammon’ has now entered an English dictionary with a completely new definition, largely due to a combative political debate.

READ MORE: Transgender soldier celebrated as first UK woman on frontline duty ‘seduced comrade’s wife’

Collins’ additional definition of ‘Gammon’ is: “a person, typically male, middle-aged, and white, with reactionary views, especially one who supports the withdrawal of Britain from the European Union.”

The word has been particularly popular with left-wing political commentators and ardent Remainers, who have enjoyed causing a stir in using what they see as a playful put-down. Though they have often had to fend off accusations that the word is racist against white people.

Try mass incarceration, police brutality, deportations, street harassment, front page moral panics, poor housing and healthcare outcomes. Then talk to me again about how white men calling other white men gammon is racist. https://t.co/hQW35WQDsq

— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) May 14, 2018

No one is born a gammon Toby, it’s not racist. Would have been nice to see you call out the Islamophobia of Melanie Phillips in the Times last week with at least as much vigour

— Matt Zarb-Cousin (@mattzarb) May 14, 2018

Quite remarkable hearing the broadcast gammon declare that fast food, bar and hospitality workers don’t merit a living wage.

Honest question – when was the last time Nick Ferrari did a day of physical work? Before I was born? Shameful coverage of #mcstrike by @lbc in particular

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) October 4, 2018

Despite the ongoing debate over exactly how offensive ‘gammon’ really is, It’s made the Collins Dictionary Word of the Year shortlist.

READ MORE: ‘Bored s***less’: Cameron threatens to return to politics, Twitter urges him to ‘stay in the shed’

‘MeToo’ and ‘Plogging,’ a term originating from Sweden, which describes a recreational activity that combines jogging with litter picking, also made the list.

Other shortlisted Collins Dictionary Words of the Year 2018

Backstop: a system that will come into effect if no other arrangement is made

Floss: a dance in which people twist their hips in one direction while swinging their arms in the opposite direction with fists closed

Gaslight: to attempt to manipulate (a person) by continually presenting them with false information until they doubt their sanity

MeToo: denoting a cultural movement that seeks to expose and eradicate predatory sexual behaviour, especially in the workplace

Plogging: a recreational activity, originating in Sweden, that combines jogging with picking up litter

Single-use: made to be used once only, commonly referring to disposable plastic items such as straws and bottles

VAR: abbreviation for video assistant referee

Vegan: a person who refrains from using any animal product whatever for food, clothing or any other purpose

Whitewash: to cast a white actor in the role of a character from a minority ethnic group, or to produce a film or play using white actors to play characters from a minority ethnic group

Helen Newstead, Head of Language Content at Collins, said: “This has been a year where awareness and often anger over a variety of issues has led to the rise of new words and the revitalisation and adaptation of old ones.

“It’s clear from this year’s Words of the Year list that changes to our language are dictated as much by public concern as they are by sport, politics, and playground fads.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Navy disciplines sailors for LSD ring aboard nuclear-powered aircraft carrier — RT US News

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Nov 7, 2018: 8:44 pm
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14 sailors working in the nuclear reactor department aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan face disciplinary action for using and distributing LSD, the latest embarrassment for the Navy’s scandal-ridden 7th Fleet.

Ten of the sailors have already been disciplined on “LSD related charges,” a 7th Fleet spokesman told Navy Times. Two sailors are in more serious trouble, and are heading to court-martial for using, possessing, and distributing the hallucinogenic drug, while the Navy is considering charging another three as well.

All 14 worked on the carrier’s nuclear reactors, and were described as “senior personnel.” Two Westinghouse nuclear reactors power the 101,000 ton behemoth, which has a staff of almost 6,000 personnel and can remain at sea for over 20 years. Despite the sailors’ proclivity for hardcore hallucinogens, the Navy said that the reactors “remain safe.”

The two court-martialed sailors are charged with using, possessing and distributing the drug between January and February of this year. One is also charged with possession of anabolic steroids.

The Navy has been investigating the drug ring since February, when it received a tip off about one sailor using LSD.

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Based in Yokosuka, Japan, the 7th Fleet is the US Navy’s largest fleet, with 20,000 sailors and 50 to 70 vessels. The LSD scandal is one of several to have rocked the fleet this year. Another sailor aboard the Ronald Reagan was found guilty in August of attempting to sexually assault a 14-year-old girl, and sending explicit messages to another 7-year-old girl in Japan.

Scores of the fleet’s officers have also been charged with soliciting bribes from a Malaysian defense contractor, Leonard Glenn ‘Fat Leonard’ Francis. One, a retired master chief pleaded guilty in September to inflating invoices for port services from Leonard’s company, in exchange for lavish gifts and cash kickbacks.

The fleet has also been struck by a series of tragic mishaps as of late. The USS Fitzgerald – a guided missile destroyer – collided with a Philippine container ship in June 2017, killing seven crew members. Earlier that year, the USS John McCain – another guided missile destroyer – hit a merchant ship off the coast of Singapore. Ten crewmen lost their lives and another five were injured.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Some Breakfast Foods Contain More Glyphosate

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Nov 7, 2018: 8:34 pm
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Concerns over the health effects of glyphosate — the active ingredient in Roundup and other weed killer formulations — continue to rise as evidence of harm and widespread exposure keeps accumulating.

In recent years, researchers have discovered it may affect your body’s ability to produce fully functioning proteins, inhibit the shikimate pathway (found in gut bacteria) and interfere with the function of cytochrome P450 enzymes (required for activation of vitamin D and the creation of nitric oxide and cholesterol sulfate).

Glyphosate also chelates important minerals; disrupts sulfate synthesis and transport; interferes with the synthesis of aromatic amino acids and methionine, resulting in folate and neurotransmitter shortages; disrupts your microbiome by acting as an antibiotic; impairs methylation pathways; and inhibits pituitary release of thyroid stimulating hormone, which can lead to hypothyroidism.^1,²

Roundup has also been linked to certain cancers.³ In March 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified glyphosate as a “probable carcinogen” (Class 2A),⁴ based on “limited evidence” showing the weed killer can cause Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and lung cancer in humans.

Fat for Fuel: A Revolu…
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Since then, thousands of individuals have filed suit against Monsanto, blaming Roundup for their Non-Hodgkin lymphoma.⁵ The first case to go to jury trial resulted in a stunning guilty verdict, and Monsanto was ordered to pay the plaintiff, Dewayne Johnson, $289 million in damages.⁶

According to the ruling, Monsanto “acted with malice or oppression” and was responsible for “negligent failure” by not…

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Prison Planet.com » Media Sides With Acosta After Physical Confrontation With Female White House Staffer

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Nov 7, 2018: 8:00 pm
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Imagine if the roles were reversed

Paul Joseph Watson
PrisonPlanet.com
November 7, 2018

The establishment media instantly sided with CNN activist in chief Jim Acosta after he became involved in a brief physical confrontation with a female White House staffer during today’s Trump press conference.

Acosta once again tried to make himself the center of attention with a series of rants directed at Trump that were dressed up as questions.

When Trump attempted to move on, Acosta refused to give up the platform.

A female White House aide whose job it is to hand the microphone to journalists then walked up to Acosta in a bid to retrieve it.

The two then engaged in a brief physical confrontation, with Acosta wrestling back control of the mic.

NBC News reported the incident as follows;

BREAKING: White House aide grabs and tries to physically remove a microphone from CNN Correspondent Jim Acosta during a contentious exchange with President Trump at a news conference. pic.twitter.com/fFm7wclFw2

— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 7, 2018

“White House aide grabs and tries to physically remove a microphone from CNN Correspondent Jim Acosta during a contentious exchange with President Trump at a news conference.”

“This doesn’t describe what happened properly at all. It was her job to move the mic to the next person and he wouldn’t surrender it,” responded John Podhoretz.

This doesn’t describe what happened properly at all. It was her job to move the mic to the next person and he wouldn’t surrender it. https://t.co/e5K5g6KNUy

— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) November 7, 2018

Imagine this had happened under Obama with the journalist being a conservative. The media would have undoubtedly reported the man as the aggressor.

One wonders whether or not Acosta would have tried to wrestle this woman if she’d been more insistent in trying to retrieve the microphone.

And how would the media…

Read more

Prison Planet.com » Media Sides With Acosta After Physical Confrontation With Female White House Staffer

Newswire

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Nov 7, 2018: 8:00 pm
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Imagine if the roles were reversed

Paul Joseph Watson
PrisonPlanet.com
November 7, 2018

The establishment media instantly sided with CNN activist in chief Jim Acosta after he became involved in a brief physical confrontation with a female White House staffer during today’s Trump press conference.

Acosta once again tried to make himself the center of attention with a series of rants directed at Trump that were dressed up as questions.

When Trump attempted to move on, Acosta refused to give up the platform.

A female White House aide whose job it is to hand the microphone to journalists then walked up to Acosta in a bid to retrieve it.

The two then engaged in a brief physical confrontation, with Acosta wrestling back control of the mic.

NBC News reported the incident as follows;

BREAKING: White House aide grabs and tries to physically remove a microphone from CNN Correspondent Jim Acosta during a contentious exchange with President Trump at a news conference. pic.twitter.com/fFm7wclFw2

— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 7, 2018

“White House aide grabs and tries to physically remove a microphone from CNN Correspondent Jim Acosta during a contentious exchange with President Trump at a news conference.”

“This doesn’t describe what happened properly at all. It was her job to move the mic to the next person and he wouldn’t surrender it,” responded John Podhoretz.

This doesn’t describe what happened properly at all. It was her job to move the mic to the next person and he wouldn’t surrender it. https://t.co/e5K5g6KNUy

— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) November 7, 2018

Imagine this had happened under Obama with the journalist being a conservative. The media would have undoubtedly reported the man as the aggressor.

One wonders whether or not Acosta would have tried to wrestle this woman if she’d been more insistent in trying to retrieve the microphone.

And how would the media…

Read more

Prison Planet.com » Media Sides With Acosta After Physical Confrontation With Female White House Staffer

Newswire

admin
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Nov 7, 2018: 8:00 pm
0

Imagine if the roles were reversed

Paul Joseph Watson
PrisonPlanet.com
November 7, 2018

The establishment media instantly sided with CNN activist in chief Jim Acosta after he became involved in a brief physical confrontation with a female White House staffer during today’s Trump press conference.

Acosta once again tried to make himself the center of attention with a series of rants directed at Trump that were dressed up as questions.

When Trump attempted to move on, Acosta refused to give up the platform.

A female White House aide whose job it is to hand the microphone to journalists then walked up to Acosta in a bid to retrieve it.

The two then engaged in a brief physical confrontation, with Acosta wrestling back control of the mic.

NBC News reported the incident as follows;

BREAKING: White House aide grabs and tries to physically remove a microphone from CNN Correspondent Jim Acosta during a contentious exchange with President Trump at a news conference. pic.twitter.com/fFm7wclFw2

— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 7, 2018

“White House aide grabs and tries to physically remove a microphone from CNN Correspondent Jim Acosta during a contentious exchange with President Trump at a news conference.”

“This doesn’t describe what happened properly at all. It was her job to move the mic to the next person and he wouldn’t surrender it,” responded John Podhoretz.

This doesn’t describe what happened properly at all. It was her job to move the mic to the next person and he wouldn’t surrender it. https://t.co/e5K5g6KNUy

— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) November 7, 2018

Imagine this had happened under Obama with the journalist being a conservative. The media would have undoubtedly reported the man as the aggressor.

One wonders whether or not Acosta would have tried to wrestle this woman if she’d been more insistent in trying to retrieve the microphone.

And how would the media…

Read more

PressTV-Nuclear talks between US and North Korea postponed

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Nov 7, 2018: 7:57 pm
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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has abruptly canceled plans to meet a top official from North Korea in New York, throwing stalemated diplomacy over the North’s nuclear weapons into further uncertainty.

The US State Department said in a short statement Wednesday that Pompeo and Kim Yong Chol would meet later “when our respective schedules permit.” It offered no reason for the cancellation.

The talks between the top US diplomat and the North Korean delegation, which had been due on Thursday, “will now take place at a later date,” State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

“We will reconvene when our respective schedules permit,” she added in a statement.

The State Department had just one day earlier confirmed that Pompeo would meet in New York with Kim to discuss progress toward a denuclearization pact and to work to arrange a second summit following landmark talks between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim…

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Video: Iraqi troops & militia deployed to secure Syrian border from ISIS

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Nov 7, 2018: 7:53 pm
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Up to 30000 Iraqi troops and militia units have been deployed to defend Iraq’s western border with Syria against possible attacks from forces of the …

Via Youtube

Video: Iran holds nationwide defense drills amid US sanctions

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Nov 7, 2018: 6:52 pm
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Iran shows off its latest air defense systems in a massive drill, the same day the US reinstates sanctions. READ MORE: https://on.rt.com/9hxq RT LIVE …

Via Youtube

Royal Mint rejected Roald Dahl centenary coins over anti-Semitism — RT UK News

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Nov 7, 2018: 6:45 pm
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The UK’s Royal Mint rejected plans to mark the centenary of the birth of hugely popular children’s author Roald Dahl over his anti-Semitic views, it has been revealed.

The minutes from a Royal Mint committee meeting held in 2014, obtained by The Guardian via a freedom of information request, showed that the proposal to issue a commemorative coin were axed as Dahl was “associated with antisemitism and not regarded as an author of the highest reputation.”

READ MORE: Twitter cheers as Roald Dahl’s Matilda faces off against Trump (PHOTOS)

Beatrix Potter, herself an author of children’s literature among other work, and master playwright and poet William Shakespeare were chosen for commemorative coins instead.

In 2012, the Royal Mail honored Dahl with a series of commemorative stamps celebrating his books including Matilda, Fantastic Mr. Fox, the BFG and the world-famous Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, all of which have been made into film adaptations.

Dahl’s anti-Semitism is often overlooked during commemorative events despite how open he was about his beliefs.

“There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity, maybe it’s a kind of lack of generosity towards non-Jews. I mean, there’s always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason,” Dahl told The New Statesman in 1983.

READ MORE: Beer made with yeast from Roald Dahl’s chair & belongings to be served up at ‘Dinner with the Twits’

He openly declared his anti-Semitism in a 1990 interview with the Independent. After stating that he felt the “primarily Jewish-owned” media had hushed up the some 20,000 civilian casualties during the Israeli bombing of Beirut, Dahl then doubled down on his beliefs.

“I’m certainly anti-Israeli and I’ve become antisemitic in as much as that you get a Jewish person in another country like England strongly supporting Zionism,” he said. “It’s the same old thing: we all know about Jews and the rest of it.”

The Roald Dahl Company has not responded to media requests for comment.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Royal Mint rejected Roald Dahl centenary coins over anti-Semitism — RT UK News

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Nov 7, 2018: 6:45 pm
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The UK’s Royal Mint rejected plans to mark the centenary of the birth of hugely popular children’s author Roald Dahl over his anti-Semitic views, it has been revealed.

The minutes from a Royal Mint committee meeting held in 2014, obtained by The Guardian via a freedom of information request, showed that the proposal to issue a commemorative coin were axed as Dahl was “associated with antisemitism and not regarded as an author of the highest reputation.”

READ MORE: Twitter cheers as Roald Dahl’s Matilda faces off against Trump (PHOTOS)

Beatrix Potter, herself an author of children’s literature among other work, and master playwright and poet William Shakespeare were chosen for commemorative coins instead.

In 2012, the Royal Mail honored Dahl with a series of commemorative stamps celebrating his books including Matilda, Fantastic Mr. Fox, the BFG and the world-famous Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, all of which have been made into film adaptations.

Dahl’s anti-Semitism is often overlooked during commemorative events despite how open he was about his beliefs.

“There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity, maybe it’s a kind of lack of generosity towards non-Jews. I mean, there’s always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason,” Dahl told The New Statesman in 1983.

READ MORE: Beer made with yeast from Roald Dahl’s chair & belongings to be served up at ‘Dinner with the Twits’

He openly declared his anti-Semitism in a 1990 interview with the Independent. After stating that he felt the “primarily Jewish-owned” media had hushed up the some 20,000 civilian casualties during the Israeli bombing of Beirut, Dahl then doubled down on his beliefs.

“I’m certainly anti-Israeli and I’ve become antisemitic in as much as that you get a Jewish person in another country like England strongly supporting Zionism,” he said. “It’s the same old thing: we all know about Jews and the rest of it.”

The Roald Dahl Company has not responded to media requests for comment.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Trump threatens Senate probes into Dems, as House investigations loom — RT US News

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Nov 7, 2018: 6:44 pm
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Donald Trump threatened the Democrats with Senate probes into alleged leaks of “classified information,” while the party that has just taken over the House vows to hold the president “accountable.”

Trump warned the Democrats against “wasting” taxpayer money on House investigations into his administration, issuing a thinly-veiled threat on Twitter.

Read more

“If the Democrats think they are going to waste Taxpayer Money investigating us at the House level, then we will likewise be forced to consider investigating them for all of the leaks of Classified Information, and much else, at the Senate level. Two can play that game!” Trump tweeted. The president stopped short of naming the exact leaks he meant.

The presidential “warning” follows the midterm election success of the Democrats, who secured a majority in the House of the Representatives. The Republicans, however, retained the upper hand in the Senate.

The House victory seems to have inspired the Democrats, as several of them have already vowed to launch probes into Trump’s activities. Representative Elijah Cummings, who is expected to lead the House Oversight Committee, promised to finally hold the administration “accountable.”

“The most important thing for the Oversight Committee to do is to get back to regular order by obtaining documents and interviewing witnesses, and actually holding the Trump administration accountable to the American people,” Cummings told Reuters.

The probes will be conducted in a proper fashion, and no, the Democrats’ activities won’t resemble a medieval inquisition, according to Rep. Gerry Connolly. Securing the majority will restore checks and balances in the government, which has entirely lacked “oversight and accountability” for the past two years, he added.

READ MORE: Blue wave? Democrats win House, but it looks more like a trickle

“We can’t look like Torquemada in the Spanish Inquisition. It has to be fact-based, methodical, meticulous and well-grounded. And judicious. But I believe we are more than capable of doing that. We’ve done it before,” Connolly told CNN.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Peace Candidates Win Elections

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Nov 7, 2018: 6:11 pm
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WASHINGTON – Peace Action, the nation’s largest grassroots peace organization, works each election cycle to help elect pro-peace candidates to Congress. In the 2018 election cycle, Peace Action endorsed dozens of candidates for Congress, many of whom won their races and others are still counting votes. You can see a list of Peace Action’s featured candidates here, and a full list of Peace Action’s endorsements here.

Following initial results of the 2018 midterm elections, Paul Kawika Martin, Peace Action’s PAC Director and Senior Director for Policy and Political Affairs, commented, “Peace Action went all out in this election cycle to support pro-peace candidates for Congress; sending out experienced organizers to work on campaigns, bundling and donating directly to campaigns, phone banking, recruiting volunteers, and shouting our support from the rooftops. As most results are in, it’s clear that many incoming members of the House are strongly pro-peace.”

“Our endorsed candidates for Congress ran unabashedly pro-peace campaigns, supporting diplomacy and a fully funded State Department, highlighting the need for Congress to reclaim its authority to debate and vote on war, and backing spending priorities that invest in our communities instead of arms industry profits,” Martin continued. “Peace Action’s candidates took principled stands in support of maintaining our international commitments from the Paris Climate Accord to the Iran Nuclear Agreement, and against reckless militarism like U.S. support for the disastrous Saudi-led war in Yemen.”

Speaking to the potential implications of this election on congressional action on peace issues, Martin remarked, “As a grassroots lobbying and advocacy organization, we’re excited to welcome the 116th Congress into session this January knowing that the legislative body has moved closer to representing the American people’s desire for peace. The incoming members of Congress we supported will help shift the tide of American foreign policy away from reckless interventionism and towards the pro-diplomacy, pro-peace agenda so many Americans long for. Perhaps most importantly, they’re ready to fight to reclaim Congress’ war powers from an administration that’s grown accustomed to ignoring them. That could prove particularly important as the lame duck Congress prepares to vote on whether or not to end unauthorized U.S. military support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. If this Congress fails to take action to end our illegal role in the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, the incoming Congress may move quickly to force votes on the issue again.”

Highlighting the pro-peace credentials of some of Peace Action’s endorsed candidates who won their races, Martin concluded:

“Mike Levin (D-CA-49) wants to hold Washington accountable to the American people, from fighting for campaign finance reform to free our political system from the corrupting influence of mega-donors and corporate interests, to ensuring the wars being fought in our name are debated and voted on by the people’s representatives in Congress.

“Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) is committed to defending our nation’s true interests, from her staunch opposition to dangerous and discriminatory policies like President Trump’s Muslim ban, to her support for legislation to ensure no president can launch a nuclear first strike without Congress.

“Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) is a true believer in the pursuit of a planet free from the tyranny of nuclear weapons and in a foreign policy built on diligent diplomacy instead of reckless interventionism.

“Tom Malinowski (D-NJ-07) has an impressive career of defending our nation’s interests and fighting for human rights, and he has the experience, the passion, and the principles that will make him a formidable advocate for peace and human rights in Congress.

“Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA-06) is a strong advocate of using diplomacy to address international tension and conflict, whether seeking to end wars in the Middle East or to prevent wars with Iran and North Korea.”

###

Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

MSNBC’s Scarborough Shocked That Americans Support “Overtly Bigoted, Racist” Trump

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Nov 7, 2018: 5:56 pm
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“I do wonder how do you exactly square that in your mind”

Steve Watson
Prison Planet.com
November 6, 2018

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough spent the morning expressing shock that Americans would support President Trump by essentially handing the Republican Party a seal of approval in the mideterm elections.

While Democrats took control of the House of Representatives, the GOP bested the historical average for midterm elections, prompting Trump to declare a “big victory”.

Received so many Congratulations from so many on our Big Victory last night, including from foreign nations (friends) that were waiting me out, and hoping, on Trade Deals. Now we can all get back to work and get things done!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2018

The Morning Joe crew were apoplectic that the results did not represent the so called ‘blue wave’ they had been predicting for months.

“A lot of Americans decided to go out and vote,” Scarborough said, adding “to support a man who spent the last month of the campaign not making subtle appeals to racism, but making overtly bigoted racist statements, attacking brown people, attacking people who were the others.”

“And you could look at the lies. Again, this is — what was he lying about? The answer? Everything.” Scarborough continued.

The host then repeated the attack on Trump and those who supported him in the midterms.

“And I do sit here this morning and I do wonder how do you exactly square that in your mind that you went out specifically to support a guy that gained the praise of David Duke, that gained the praise of white nationalists that acted the way he did in the last month of the campaign?” he said.

The President followed up his ‘victory’ tweet with another promising that those Republicans who refused to get on board with his agenda would be disappearing soon:

Those that worked with me in this incredible…

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Video: Footage of baby turtles drowning in plastic is going viral & raising awareness

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Nov 7, 2018: 5:51 pm
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Footage of baby sea turtles struggling through plastic in Honduras by photographer Caroline Power is gaining popularity on the net & raising awareness about …

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Prosecutor points to UAW “culture of corruption” as union officials face sentencing

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Nov 7, 2018: 5:26 pm
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Prosecutor points to UAW “culture of corruption” as union officials face sentencing

By
Shannon Jones

7 November 2018

A top ranking former United Auto Workers official convicted in the ongoing federal corruption investigation into illegal payoffs to the union by Fiat Chrysler is due to be sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty to his role in the affair.

Keith Mickens has asked the court for lenient treatment, citing enormous pressure by the UAW apparatus to engage in corrupt activities sanctioned by upper echelon union officials. Mickens pleaded guilty to using credit cards supplied by the UAW-Chrysler National Training Center (NTC) in Detroit to make personal purchases in violation of federal labor law banning such activities.

So far seven people, including senior UAW and Chrysler officials, have been convicted in the scheme involving the diversion of upwards of $9 million in NTC funds to obtain favorable contract terms for Fiat Chrysler in national labor agreements. According to a report in the Detroit Free Press published Monday, more individuals could face federal charges soon in the federal investigation that has reached the top of the UAW.

In a sentencing memorandum filed October 31 relating to Mickens’ role, federal prosecutors noted the ongoing investigation has “revealed that there was a culture of corruption in the senior leadership of the United Auto Workers union. Leaders of the UAW viewed the National Training Center as a mechanism to take apparently unlimited and illegal payments from Fiat Chrysler for their own personal benefit, for the benefit of the union itself, and their own lavish entertainment.”

It notes that Mickens, the third highest official in the UAW’s Fiat Chrysler department, “became ensconced in that culture of corruption where…

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Video: Top U.S. & World Headlines — November 7, 2018

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Nov 7, 2018: 5:24 pm
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Visit https://democracynow.org to watch the full independent, global news hour, read the transcript, search our archive and to make a donation to support us.

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Video: US midterm elections: RT’s special coverage

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Nov 7, 2018: 4:50 pm
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US #midterm #elections: RT’s special coverage #midterms RT LIVE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFAcqaNzNSc Check out http://rt.com Subscribe to RT!

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MI6 knew that terror-suspect was tortured into giving false Iraq-Al-Qaeda info

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Nov 7, 2018: 4:44 pm
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UK ministers relied on questions from a tortured terror suspect to make their case for the Iraq War, the Middle East Eye (MEE) has claimed. British spies fed questions to the suspect even though they knew of his mistreatment.

According to redacted documents, seen by the MEE, an MI6 officer knew that Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi was placed inside a sealed coffin by the CIA at a US-run Afghanistan based prison. Al-Libi – alive inside the coffin – was then taken, aboard a truck, to an aircraft that was to fly to Egypt.

The MI6 officer and his colleagues reported the incident to their department’s London HQ, stating that they “were tempted to speak out” on behalf of al-Libi, but failed to do so, adding: “The event reinforced the uneasy feeling of operating in a legal wilderness.”

Once al-Libi was in Egypt, a country with a well-documented history of human rights abuses, both MI6 and MI5 fed questions to the detainee, receiving reports from his Egyptian interrogators.

READ MORE: British govt urged to come clean on ‘links to torture’ after Iraq invasion

Al-Libi, under torture, told his jailers that Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda had links to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s nuclear weapons program. The claim was cited as fact by US President George W. Bush as he made the case for war.

Upon being returned to the CIA, al-Libi stated that he had lied to avoid further torture. By that point the US, along with the UK, had already invaded Iraq.

As well as Bush, al-Libi’s false information was cited by then-US Secretary of State Colin Powell in his infamous speech advocating for war at the UN Security Council on February 5 2003. On the same day, then-UK Prime Minister Tony Blair told parliament there were “unquestionably” links between Al-Qaeda and Iraq.

“There is evidence of such links. Exactly how far they go is uncertain. However… there is intelligence coming through to us the entire time about this,” Blair said.

The US had been keen to link Iraq to Al-Qaeda in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. In evidence disclosed to the Chilcot Inquiry, Bush had raised the issue in a phone call with Blair, who is said to have replied that he couldn’t accept it without seeing compelling evidence.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

US voters re-elect lawmakers facing criminal indictments & corruption charges, because why not? — RT US News

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Nov 7, 2018: 4:42 pm
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Embarrassing social media photos could easily sink a congressional campaign, but several lawmakers have shown that you can be charged with corruption and embezzlement and still win re-election.

American voters took partisan politics to a whole new level on Tuesday, after Republican congressmen Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins – both of whom face federal indictments for crimes including embezzlement and securities fraud – won re-election. As long as the Democrats don’t win, right?

Another big takeaway tonight: Being under federal indictment is no bar to winning re-election! Just ask Chris Collins and Duncan Hunter. #Midterms2018

— Ben White (@morningmoneyben) November 7, 2018

Hunter, a five-term congressman from California, was charged along with his wife in August of misusing campaign funds totaling more than $250,000.

The Hunter household found remarkably creative ways to spend the embezzled cash – even using the funds to purchase a $600 airline ticket for their pet rabbit. The congressman also used the money to reportedly carry out extramarital affairs and to take vacations to Hawaii, London, and Las Vegas. On top of that – he put the blame on his wife.

The 60-count indictment includes allegations of conspiracy, wire fraud, and falsification of records.

Hunter’s electoral success can be attributed to a number of factors. For starters, the politician enjoys a peculiar kind of name recognition: Hunter’s father, also named Duncan, held the House seat for 28 years before him. The legacy congressman also employed some below-the-belt attacks against his opponent, Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar. Hunter’s campaign even suggested that Campa-Najjar, who is a Latino Arab-American, was a security risk because of alleged family links to terrorism.

Hey, CA’s 50th congressional district: you are aware that the man you re-elected, Duncan Hunter, was INDICTED over the summer for misuse of campaign funds, right? FEDERAL INDICTMENT. pic.twitter.com/JUmnLUO9ax

— Abraham Lim (@realabrahamlim) November 7, 2018

Collins, who represents New York’s 27th District, was also indicted in August – but his charges are not quite as entertaining. The three-term incumbent is accused of insider trading. Prosecutors claim that the Republican congressman tipped off his son about a failed drug trial by the Australian pharmaceuticals company Innate Immunotherapeutics. Collins was serving on the company’s board at the time. His son then allegedly sold his shares before news of the drug trial sent the price of the stock into freefall. Collins suspended his campaign in August after being arrested. He re-launched his campaign in mid-September after the Republican Party failed to replace him on the ballot. He defeated his Democratic opponent, Nate McMurray, by about one percent.

The New York congressman may be a crook, but apparently he has a political crystal ball: He was the first House member to endorse the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump.

Republicans weren’t the only ones to cash in big on the mindless Red vs. Blue paradigm, however. Voters appeared to be equally forgiving on the other side of the aisle. Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, who represents New Jersey, was victorious in Tuesday’s elections despite being charged with corruption in 2017. The Justice Department eventually dropped the case.

This is a country where indicted Chris Collins & Duncan Hunter get elected, but Beto O’Rourke & Andrew Gillum don’t.

Something really sad about that.#ElectionNight

— Jim Heath (@JimHeathTV) November 7, 2018

Even though polls showed that voters didn’t think Menendez was trustworthy, they nonetheless held their noses and gave him another term.

“They apparently valued sending a Democrat to the Senate to stand up to President Donald Trump and Republicans more,” Vox noted.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

The Sociopaths in Politics – LewRockwell

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Nov 7, 2018: 4:33 pm
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There are at least seven characteristics that define a sociopath, although I’m sure the list could be extended:

Sociopaths completely lack a conscience or any capacity for real regret about hurting people. Although they pretend the opposite.

Sociopaths put their own desires and wants on a totally different level from those of other people. Their wants are incommensurate. They truly believe their ends justify their means. Although they pretend the opposite.

Sociopaths consider themselves superior to everyone else, because they aren’t burdened by the emotions and ethics others have – they’re above all that. They’re arrogant. Although they pretend the opposite.

Sociopaths never accept the slightest responsibility for anything that goes wrong, even though they’re responsible for almost everything that goes wrong. You’ll never hear a sincere apology from them.

Sociopaths have a lopsided notion of property rights. What’s theirs is theirs, and what’s yours is theirs too. They therefore defend currency inflation and taxation as good things.

Sociopaths usually pick the wrong target to attack. If they lose their wallet, they kick the dog. If 16 Saudis fly planes into buildings, they attack Afghanistan.

Sociopaths traffic in disturbing news, they love to pass on destructive rumors, and they’ll falsify information to damage others.

They’re chronic, extremely convincing, and even enthusiastic liars, who often believe their own lies. That means they aren’t easy to spot, because normal people naturally assume another person is telling the truth. They rarely have handlebar mustaches or chortle like Snidely Whiplash. Instead, they cultivate a social veneer or a mask of sanity that diverts suspicion. You can rely on them to be…

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Sneak Attack

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Nov 7, 2018: 3:56 pm
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Psssttt! While you’re here we need your help.

Since Donald Trump took office, progressive journalism has been under constant attack and companies like Facebook and Google have changed their policies to limit your access to sites like Truthout.

The result is that our articles are reaching fewer people at a time when we need genuinely independent news more than ever.

Here’s how you can help: Since Truthout doesn’t run ads or take corporate or government money, we rely on our readers for support.

By making a monthly or one-time donation of any amount, you’ll help us publish and distribute stories that have a real impact on people’s lives.

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Prison Planet.com » Trump Threatens Reciprocal Leak Probe If Dems Launch More Witch-Hunts

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Nov 7, 2018: 3:54 pm
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Zero Hedge
November 7, 2018

President Trump on Wednesday tweeted a warning to Democrats who have threatened to investigate him upon reclaiming a majority in the House of Representatives:

“If the Democrats think they are going to waste Taxpayer Money investigating us at the House level,” Trump said, “then we will likewise be forced to consider investigating them for all of the leaks of Classified Information, and much else, at the Senate level.”

If the Democrats think they are going to waste Taxpayer Money investigating us at the House level, then we will likewise be forced to consider investigating them for all of the leaks of Classified Information, and much else, at the Senate level. Two can play that game!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2018

Last December, President Trump’s son, Don Jr. called on the House intelligence Committee to investigate information that was leaked from his closed interview the week before.

“This committee should determine whether any member or staff member violated the rules by leaking information to the media concerning the interview or by purposely providing inaccurate information which led to significant misreporting,” said Trump Jr.’s attorney, Alan Futerfas.

In addition, his letter charges that members of the House committee “began disseminating wildly inaccurate information” to reporters that formed the basis of an erroneous CNN report on an email that Mr. Trump and other members of the Trump campaign received in September 2016.

The CNN report relied on two unnamed sources who described an email purporting to show that Mr. Trump and other campaign officials had received advance notice about a cache of hacked Democratic documents that were about to be posted by WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group. In fact, the email had been sent the day after the cache was posted publicly. CNN later corrected its story. –

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Video: And blast off! Arianespace Soyuz 2 rocket launches MetOp-C satellite

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Nov 7, 2018: 3:49 pm
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An Arianespace Soyuz rocket, designated flight VS19, was launched from Korou, French Guiana at 00:47 GMT on Tuesday. MetOp-C is the third and final …

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The Imperialist Project in Latin America and Its Epigones

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Nov 7, 2018: 3:46 pm
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Photo Source vaticanus | CC BY 2.0

Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela are today threatened by US imperialism. The first salvo of the modern Age of Imperialism started back in 1898 when the US seized Cuba along with Puerto Rico and the Philippines in the Spanish-American War.

The Age of Imperialism, as Lenin observed, is characterized by the competition of the various imperial powers for dominance. That inter-imperialist rivalry led to World War I. Lenin called those putative socialists who supported their own national imperialist projects “social imperialists.” Social imperialism is a tendency that is socialist in name and imperialist in deed. Imperialism and its social imperialist minions are still with us today.

US Emerges as the World’s Hegemon

The United States emerged after World War II as the leading imperialist power. With the implosion of the Socialist Bloc around 1991, US hegemony became even more consolidated. Today the US is the undisputed world’s hegemon.

Hegemony means to rule but even more so to dominate. As the world’s hegemon, the US will not tolerate neutral parties, let alone hostile ones. As articulated in the Bush Doctrine, the US will try to asphyxiate any nascent counter-hegemonic project, no matter how insignificant.

In the Caribbean, for instance, the US snuffed out the leftist government of Grenada in 1983 in what was code named Operation Urgent Fury. Grenada has a population smaller than Vacaville, California.

The only powers that the…

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Why Is Israel Afraid of Khalida Jarrar?

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Nov 7, 2018: 3:33 pm
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When Israeli troops stormed the house of Palestinian parliamentarian and lawyer, Khalida Jarrar, on April 2, 2015, she was engrossed in her research. For months, Jarrar had been leading a Palestinian effort to take Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Her research on that very evening was directly related to the kind of behavior that allows a group of soldiers to handcuff a respected Palestinian intellectual, throwing her in jail with no trial and with no accountability for their action.

Jarrar was released after spending over one year in jail in June 2016, only to be arrested once more, on July 2, 2017. She remains in an Israeli prison.

On October 28 of this year, her ‘administrative detention’ was renewed for the fourth time.

There are thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, most of them held outside the militarily Occupied Palestinian Territories, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

However, nearly 500 Palestinians fall into a different category, as they are held without trial, detained for six-month periods that are renewed, sometimes indefinitely, by Israeli military courts with no legal justification whatsoever. Jarrar is one of those detainees.

Jarrar is not beseeching her jailers for her freedom. Instead, she is keeping busy educating her fellow female prisoners on international law, offering classes and issuing statements to the outside world that reflect not only her refined intellect, but also her resolve and…

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PressTV-US midterm voters see Biden as Trump’s rival in 2020

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Nov 7, 2018: 2:53 pm
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Midterm voters say former US Vice President Joe Biden has the most chance among potential Democratic nominees to defeat Republican President Donald Trump in 2020, an Election Day opinion poll has found

The Reuters/Ipsos exit poll found that 29 percent of voters supported a Biden nomination, putting him at top of the list of Democratic runners for the upcoming presidential election.

Finishing second in the hypothetical field with 22 percent was Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent whose 2016 candidacy was allegedly sabotaged by Democrats in favor of former First lady Hillary Clinton.

Tying the rest of the poll were Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kamala Harris of California.

On the Republican side, 65 percent of midterm voters said they would like to see Trump run for a second term in 2020.

Another 11 percent said they would prefer a presidential push by Vice President Mike Pence and 12…

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Video: Split govt: Republicans projected to keep Senate, Democrats regain House

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Nov 7, 2018: 2:49 pm
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Americans have cast their ballots in crucial midterm elections – amid deep divisions in the country… READ MORE: …

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Video: Split govt: Republicans projected to keep Senate, Democrats regain House

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Nov 7, 2018: 2:49 pm
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Americans have cast their ballots in crucial midterm elections – amid deep divisions in the country… READ MORE: …

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Has Google Maps exposed a sunken plane off Scottish coast? (PHOTOS, VIDEO) — RT UK News

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Nov 7, 2018: 2:43 pm
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One keen-eyed Google Earth user was floored to discover an ‘underwater plane’ off the British coast via the satellite imagery service, in what at first glance appears to be an intact submersion of a big airliner.

Robert Morton, 55, discovered what looked to be the wreckage of a plane entirely underwater while sleuthing the surrounds of the Scottish city of Edinburgh using the open-access satellite imagery service.

“It looks like it is underwater,” Morton told The Mirror.

The sub-aquatic airliner appears on Google Earth just seven miles off the Scottish coast and nine miles from the nearest airport, sparking Morton’s curiosity even further.

“I have never heard of any aircraft crashing leaving Edinburgh or that area,” Morton, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire said. Upon closer inspection, however, Morton had a breakthrough: perhaps it was just a digital trick of the eye.

“I know the picture of the plane isn’t really in the water, it’s probably the satellite looking down on it through thin cloud giving it that appearance.”

READ MORE: Bermuda Triangle explorer finds ‘alien craft’ using maps made by NASA astronaut Gordon Cooper

The world has been captivated by aircraft mysteries since the 1937 disappearance of Amelia Earhart. Theories abound regarding the mysterious Bermuda Triangle and amateur detectives are still using Google Earth to try and track down the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 to this day.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Dead brothel owner wins seat in Nevada state assembly — RT US News

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Nov 7, 2018: 2:41 pm
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Brothel owner Dennis Hof has been elected to Nevada’s state assembly – despite having died last month. The dead pimp soundly defeated his living Democratic opponent, triggering a complicated process to fill the now vacant seat.

Hof, 72, was running as a Republican in Nevada’s deeply-red Assembly District 36, which includes his hometown of Pahrump. The businessman humorously referred to himself the “Trump of Pahrump.” But Hof’s name could not be removed from the ballot after his sudden passing at his Love Ranch legal brothel last month.

Here’s the polling notice in Pahrump today informing voters that GOP Assembly candidate Dennis Hof is deceased but still appears on the ballot. If Hof wins, county commissions from the 3 counties that the district covers will appoint a replacement from the same party #nvleg pic.twitter.com/p8mjPBIwzz

— Riley Snyder (@RileySnyder) November 6, 2018

Instead, polling stations were plastered with signs reminding voters that the Republican candidate was dead – apparently to no effect, as Hof received a decisive 68.3 percent of the vote. His breathing Democratic opponent, Lesia Romanov, mustered only 32 percent.

Hof’s victory wasn’t unexpected, however. His own campaign urged voters to support the dead candidate in order to prevent the Democrats from controlling the seat.

In answer to the big question we’re being asked: If the Democrat wins on Nov. 6, Republicans will lose this seat despite a 2-1 GOP registration advantage. If Dennis still wins, then a Republican will be appointed by the 3 country commissions in the district to serve out his term.

— Friends of Hof (@ElectHof) October 17, 2018

His post-mortem electoral triumph triggers a rare and complex procedure which involves county commissions nominating a person to fill the seat. The chairmen of these commissions will then cast votes proportional to the size of their respective constituencies.

The controversial businessman, who wrote an autobiography called ‘The Art of the Pimp’, won over many sceptical voters by making local water issues central to his campaign, demanding compensation for those whose water supply had been contaminated by a local nuclear facility.

Chuck Muth, Hof’s campaign manager, told ThinkProgress on the eve of the election that Tuesday’s vote would be “bittersweet.”

“It’s kind of like Moses,” Muth said. “He’s not going to make it to the promised land with us… but we hope he’s watching from the great beyond.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Prison Planet.com » GOP Video Mocks Dems For “Blue Wave” That Never Appeared

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Nov 7, 2018: 1:53 pm
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More like a blue ripple

Paul Joseph Watson
PrisonPlanet.com
November 7, 2018

A new video released by the GOP trolls Democrats by illustrating how the long predicted “blue wave” never actually materialized.

Despite Democrats taking control of the House, their margin of victory was far shorter than many predictions, while Republicans increased their control of the Senate.

All four of the candidates Barack Obama campaigned for lost, while the GOP out-performed the historical average for the president’s party in mid-terms.

The compilation clip released by the GOP features numerous talking heads admitting that the ‘blue wave’ was more of a ripple, with some having previously asserted that “an enormous tsunami-like blue wave” was coming.

‘Blue wave’ turned out to be as genuine as “Russian collusion”. pic.twitter.com/OErJjIl5Xj

— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) November 7, 2018

“There was some hope that the Democrats would have a wave election, it’s not going to be a wave election,” said Democratic strategist James Carville as the results came in.

“This is not a blue wave….Democrats did hope for a big blue wave, that is not happening,” acknowledged CNN’s Jake Tapper.

“Democrats are not winning in the way they were hoping to win earlier in the night,” said another commentator.

“It’s a red wave on the Senate side at least,” added another MSNBC host.

Just like every other fever dream of the anti-Trump “resistance,” the blue wave’ turned out to be as genuine as “Russian collusion”.

Hardly a blue wave, but congrats to Dems on winning the House.

Difference being, Trump supporters won’t react by screaming, rioting and inventing gigantic baseless conspiracy theories about a foreign country secretly meddling in the vote.

— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) November 7, 2018

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PressTV-US midterm elections in photos

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Nov 7, 2018: 1:51 pm
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The 2018 US midterm elections turned to an opportunity for American voters to pass judgment on President Donald Trump two years after his surprise election in November 2018.

While the Republican Party managed to tighten its grip over the Senate, Trump suffered a predictable upset at the hands of Democrats in the House of Representatives.

The outcome of the wild November 6 races will shape the future of US politics for the next two years.

Here are some memorable moments of the campaign captured in photographs.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Representative Ben Ray Lujan (D-MN) celebrate a projected Democratic Party takeover of the House of Representatives during a midterm election night party hosted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on November 7, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP)

A woman prepares to vote at an Orange County polling station during the mid-term elections in Huntington Beach, California on…

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Video: Military parade commemorates 1941 Red Square march

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Nov 7, 2018: 1:47 pm
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Thousands of soldiers and a wide range of military equipment parade on Moscow’s Red Square on Wednesday, November 7, commemorating the 77th …

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What We Believe In Still Holds True

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Nov 7, 2018: 1:10 pm
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Futher Column – By Abby Zimet, Staff Writer

Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-Democrats celebrate ‘checks and balances’ on Trump

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Nov 7, 2018: 12:50 pm
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US Democrats celebrate their return to power after they took control of the House of Representatives in a midterm election that was widely seen as a referendum on President Donald Trump.

“Thanks to you, tomorrow will be a new day in America,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told supporters after walking on stage Tuesday night. “Remember this feeling. Know the power to win.”

Democrats have been projected to win enough seats to take control of the lower chamber of Congress after eight years of Republican rule.

Pelosi, who is expected to seek the top job of House speaker, said House Democrats will use their newly won majority to pursue a bipartisan agenda and work for “solutions that bring us together.”

“In stark contrast to the GOP Congress, a Democratic Congress who will be led with transparency and openness so that the public can see what’s happening and how it affects them, and that they can weigh in with the members of Congress, and…

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Video: ‘I’ve lived through a lot of elections, but I’ve never been through one like this’ – Larry King

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Nov 7, 2018: 12:46 pm
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Larry King shared his insights on the Midterms with RT America. READ MORE: https://on.rt.com/9hyr RT LIVE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFAcqaNzNSc …

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Company ‘gagged’ from criticizing May in wake of Grenfell fire — RT UK News

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Nov 7, 2018: 12:42 pm
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The company hired to test flammable cladding on government-built buildings – in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire – have been ‘gagged’ from criticizing Prime Minister Theresa May.

Engineering firm WSP signed a UK government contract worth more than £100,000 (US$131,500) to carry out testing of cladding on buildings, 12 days after the Grenfell Tower fire in which 72 people died. A prerequisite of the deal was WSP having to sign a gagging clause preventing the company from being able to create “adverse publicity” for or “embarrass” PM May and her Cabinet Office, the Times reports.

READ MORE: Five arrested over Grenfell Tower effigy burning

The deal was agreed at a time when the prime minister was receiving criticism for her handling of the disaster, much of which was related to her failure to meet residents and survivors of Grenfell Tower in the immediate aftermath and her refusal to sack her chief-of-staff, Gavin Barwell.

Former Housing Minister Barwell was accused of “sitting on” on a review into building regulations at tower blocks after a deadly fire in south London in 2009 killed six people.

The revelations have been met with a mixture of disbelief and outrage on social media from across the political spectrum. Labour MP David Lammy, whose friend Khadija Saye died in the fire, said the gagging clause demonstrated “unforgivable cowardice” on the part of May. The Sun’s deputy political editor, Steve Hawkes, claimed it was an “awful look” for the UK government.

.@theresa_may, why did you gag firms and charities from criticising you in these investigations that followed Grenfell fire?

This shows unforgivable cowardice. If you respected the 72 that died, you would have let firms follow the truth wherever it led.https://t.co/Y2RYDY1zkk

— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) November 6, 2018

Imagine this Tory Government gagging firms from criticising the Prime Minister Theresa May in a Grenfell safety deal, banned!? That is a new low… just unbelievable!! part of a £25Bn Deal?! https://t.co/xoK2PWEmVL

— ARTIST TAXI DRIVER (@chunkymark) November 6, 2018

The gag was one of hundreds imposed by the government on contractors. The Times claims cabinet ministers have banned 40 charities and over 300 companies since 2015 from publicly criticizing them, their departments, or the PM, as part of contracts costing the British taxpayer £25 billion.

The government had already come under fire for using the controversial clauses after it emerged the Department for Work and Pensions had forced as many as 22 groups working on the implementation of the Universal Credit welfare program to sign contracts forcing them to “pay the utmost regard to the standing and reputation” of Esther McVey, the Work and Pensions secretary.

READ MORE: ‘Huge’ amount of potentially carcinogenic toxins found near Grenfell Tower site – expert

The Cabinet Office signed the deal with WSP to advise officials on whether cladding used by the government estate complied with building regulations, on June 26, 2017. The company has expertise in cladding and fire safety and worked on the structural engineering for One World Trade Center in New York and the Shard in London.

Grenfell United campaign group, which offers support for survivors and bereaved families, said that companies should not be “deterred” from speaking out.

“The focus at every level of government must be to get to the truth about how and why Grenfell happened. No one should be deterred from speaking out.” they said.

The government claims the contracts do not prevent individuals from campaigning on particular issues or acting as whistleblowers. A spokesman told the Times: “Standard contracts in the public and the private sector contain provisions to protect the commercial interests of government and its suppliers in a reasonable way.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

‘Subpoena-Congress’? Dem-controlled House should focus on issues, not witch hunts, analysts tell RT — RT US News

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Nov 7, 2018: 12:40 pm
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After taking back the House, the Democrats will be able to subpoena Trump’s aides and force officials to testify. But broad investigative powers is a double-edged sword that might backfire in 2020, analysts told RT.

As largely expected, the Democrats took back the House in the highly anticipated midterms on Tuesday. Republicans, meanwhile, retained control over the Senate, even flipping several seats, including in Indiana, where Republican Mike Braun defeated Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly.

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Ned Ryun, founder and CEO of the American Majority NGO, believes that the outcome of the vote is no more than a “historical reset.”

“It’s typical for a president to lose 24-28 seats on average in the first midterms,” Ryun told RT.

The most important question is whether the Democrats will be able to actually profit from their majority in the House. If the Democrats get bogged down in the Russia probe in a bid to frame Trump, they might find themselves on the losing end in 2020, Ryun said.

“The big question I have is this: ‘When Democrats come into power, what are they going to do? Are they going to actually legislate or is it going to be two years of just investigation after investigation, because I think that plays exactly into Trump’s hands for 2020.”

READ MORE: Blue wave? Democrats win House, but it looks more like a trickle

The risk of this actually happening is high, he said. With key House committees likely changing hands, hardline liberals such as Maxine Waters (D-CA) in the Committee on Financial Services, Jerry Nadler (D-NY) in the Judiciary Committee, and Adam Schiff (D-CA) in the Committee on Intelligence can lead a potential investigative blitz.

“They will not be able to help themselves” and “they are going to be extremely aggressive,” Ryun predicted.

Rick Ungar, senior political contributor at Forbs, agreed, warning the Democrats against overusing their much-coveted investigative carte blanche.

“Obviously, there’s an opportunity there for a lot of investigation, I think it’s going to be ‘subpoena-Congress’. Let’s not kid one another. It’s going to be there.

“The Democrats could overdo it. You don’t want to make the next two years all about investigating this president. This is going to bite them in the you-know-what come 2020,” Ungar told RT.

READ MORE: Clinton bots more talkative & influential than Trump bots around 2016 debates, study finds

The analyst believes that while the nationwide Democratic gains are definitely not a bad result, it can hardly be described as a blue “tsunami.”

Ungar argued if and how well the Democrats are able to legislate depends entirely on “whether or not President Trump decides he wants to work with the Democrats in Congress or not.”

While it seems that the GOP and Dems spar on almost every topic, Ungar said he believes the two parties might focus on more mundane and less divisive issues, such as upgrading infrastructure, which seems to be in the interest of both.

“Democrats support infrastructure – that could be a heck of a good place to start.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

An Ethiopian Ethnomedicine Found – LewRockwell

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Nov 7, 2018: 12:32 pm
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Scientists have established that the bracted bugleweed (Ajuga remota) is able to significantly reduce blood sugar levels, supporting its traditional use as a treatment for diabetes. The study, published in BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, analyzed the phytochemical composition of the herb and examined its anti-diabetes ability in vivo.

The bracted bugleweed is a plant common in East Africa, but it also grows widely in the Middle East as well as East Asia. In Ethiopian traditional medicine, the plant is used to treat conditions ranging from toothaches and stomach pain to high blood pressure and even diabetes. The leaves are known to be especially bitter; thus, honey is added to make it easier to consume and to store it for later use. Multiple studies have been done on other species of the genus Ajuga, with researchers noting its anti-inflammatory, anti-depressant, antiviral, and anti-malarial properties, to name a few. For some studies, in particular, scientists have linked certain health benefits to the presence of bioactive components in the plant. An initial study of the bracted bugleweed revealed that it has similar phytochemicals with other species in the genus, but there is little evidence of its anti-diabetes potential available.

“The aim of this study was to find out the scientific basis of the use [of] A. remota in the management of diabetes used by traditional practitioners,” the researchers wrote in their report.

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For the study, researchers obtained extracts from powdered dry leaves of the bracted bugleweed. The team used two extracts: One with 70 percent ethanol; and an…

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Majority of Americans Think Republicans Will Retain the House

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Nov 7, 2018: 11:53 am
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Prediction has come true every time since 1946

Paul Joseph Watson
PrisonPlanet.com
November 6, 2018

Despite almost every poll predicting that Democrats will win the House today, a final Gallup survey finds that the majority of Americans believe Republicans will retain control of Congress.

Respondents were asked, “Regardless of how you, yourself, plan to vote, which party do you think will win control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the congressional elections this fall?”

According to the results, 50% of Americans think Republicans will retain control of the House, compared to 44% who think Democrats will win enough seats to gain victory.

Every single prediction Americans have made over the last 10 such midterm election years between 1946 and 2014 has come true.

The poll also found that 61% of Americans think Republicans will retain the Senate compared to 33% who think Democrats will take control.

As we reported yesterday, the Real Clear Politics average of polls has Democrats 7.3 points ahead in the race for Congress, however, a shock Rasmussen poll contradicted all others by putting Republicans one point ahead.

This is drastically different to other polls, such as one published by CNN, which has Democrats 13 points ahead.

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor at large of Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com.

This article was posted: Tuesday, November 6, 2018 at 6:35 am

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Video: What do 2018 midterm results mean for US foreign policy?

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Nov 7, 2018: 11:46 am
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Democrats have already surpassed the 23 seats they need to win control of the House of Representatives, flipping 26 seats to the Republicans’ two as the day …

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Video: Oversized head, skinny legs & small body: Bizarre statue of Mo Salah raises eyebrows

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Nov 7, 2018: 10:45 am
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A bronze statue of Egyptian and Liverpool footballer Mohamed Salah was displayed at the World Youth Forum in Sharm el-Sheikh, in Egypt’s northeastern Sinai …

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Girl Scouts sue Boy Scouts for becoming a little too gender-inclusive — RT US News

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Nov 7, 2018: 10:39 am
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The Girl Scouts are suing the new gender-inclusive version of the Boy Scouts, claiming the 107-year-old youth group’s rebranding is confusing potential members and cutting into its market share.

Using the marketing tagline ‘Scout Me In’, the Boy Scouts announced in October 2017 they would start letting girls join in 2019 under the organization’s new name, Scouts BSA. The Girls are crying foul, claiming the campaign makes it sound like the Boy Scouts now have sole purview over all scouting-related activities.

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The Girl Scouts have no problem with the Boys opening their doors to a wider range of people, but they don’t want them poaching in their territory, according to the suit, which alleges trademark infringement, unfair competition, and dilution. The ‘scouts’ branding is at issue – where it concerns boys, the Boy Scouts can do what they like with it, but where it concerns girls, Boys Keep Out!

In addition to confusing parents and kids alike, the rebranding is demoralizing and threatens to “marginalize” the Girl Scouts’ “movement by causing the public to believe that GSUSA’s extraordinarily successful services are not true or official ‘scouting’ programs.”

Since the Boy Scouts announced their new gender-inclusive policy, parents have gotten mixed messages from the media and scout troops alike. Some are being told the Boy and Girl Scouts have merged, while others mistakenly signed their daughters up to girls’ programs within Boy Scout troops in several states. The Boy Scouts aren’t helping matters by making use of the Girl Scouts’ trademarks, including quotes from their founder, the suit alleges.

READ MORE: Boy Skirts of America: Century-old youth club caves to PC police

Even before the rebranding, Girl Scouts President Kathy Hopinkah had long suspected the Boy Scouts might try a move like this, according to a letter she sent in August 2017, in which she accused the Boy Scouts of “surreptitiously testing the appeal of a girls’ offering to millennial parents” in order to shore up their declining numbers, which had dropped to 2.3 million in 2016 from a 1972 peak of 6.5 million members. She also accused the group of bullying and making “disparaging and untrue remarks about Girl Scout programming.”

The Boy Scouts’ response to the lawsuit attempted to placate the Girl Scouts, claiming the rebranding was the result of “years of requests from families who wanted the option of the BSAs character- and leadership-development programs for their children – boys and girls.”

The Boy Scouts’ name change was endlessly mocked on social media last year, and this lawsuit has inspired some clever responses.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Worker injured in explosion at ArcelorMittal steel mill in Indiana

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Nov 7, 2018: 10:24 am
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Worker injured in explosion at ArcelorMittal steel mill in Indiana

By
Jessica Goldstein

7 November 2018

A worker was injured in an explosion that occurred around 4:30 p.m. Monday at ArcelorMittal’s Indiana Harbor steel mill in East Chicago, Indiana. The explosion ignited a fire that East Chicago firefighters and ArcelorMittal’s in-house fire department took two hours to extinguish, according to press reports. The blast was big enough that smoke was seen billowing outside of the giant steel mill.

East Chicago Fire Chief Anthony Serna told the Northwest Indiana Times that the worker suffered burns from the blast, which occurred in a basic oxygen furnace. The injured worker has been taken to East Chicago Hospital, and at this time neither his condition or identity have been released, nor his proximity to the explosion.

According to ArcelorMittal’s website, the Indiana Harbor mill is the largest integrated steelmaking facility in North America, capable of producing 9.5 million tons of hot-rolled steel annually. The Luxembourg-based corporation, the largest steelmaker in the world, reported $899 million in net earnings in the third quarter, down slightly from $1.2 billion the previous year. The profits have been extracted from workers who have faced relentless speedup, years of wage freezes and cost-cutting measures imposed through the collaboration of the United Steelworkers (USW) union.

USW union locals 1010 and 1011, which cover workers at the Indiana Harbor mill, gave no public comments on the industrial accident nor did they release any information about the injury on their Facebook or website pages. The USW international also ignored the injury on its web page.

A veteran worker at ArcelorMittal’s Burns Harbor mill, 30 miles from Indiana Harbor, told the World…

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New Evidence Shows Texas Senate Race Is Vulnerable to Manipulation

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Nov 7, 2018: 9:55 am
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“Watchers have observed that there is a voting systems computer, in the central counting station … and it had wi-fi connectivity, and emails were being sent from that computer,” election security advocate Laura Pressley told Truthout in an exclusive phone interview, raising the alarm about vote-counting security in Dallas County, Texas.

Pressley, an engineer with a Ph.D. in chemistry and physics, worked for years as a device engineering manager in the semiconductor industry. She’s the founder of a non-partisan group called True Texas Elections that is monitoring elections all across the state – focusing especially on electronic voting machines and tabulators.

Pressley is not the only one concerned about wireless internet networks being anywhere near a voting machine or tabulator. Texas state law specifically prohibits it, mandating that “No voting system is ever connected to the internet at any point — either when votes are being cast or when they are being counted.”

That’s because wi-fi and internet connectivity are some of the easiest ways for malware to be introduced into a voting machine or tabulator. Once introduced, that malware could change election results on that voting machine, or on other voting machines infected via memory cards. The malware could then make its way into the vote tabulating system itself, potentially infecting the main election management system’s computers. If a wi-fi signal is in the tabulating room, the malware could get into the system that counts the votes quickly and easily, bypassing all of the other steps, and rapidly change the results of an entire county.

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That’s why, Pressley says, “We are very concerned about that.”

Photo taken directly outside the tabulation room of Dallas County elections.
True Texas Elections Observer

She is concerned that the results in the contentious and high-profile contest between Republican incumbent Sen….

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Prison Planet.com » How Trump’s helped people with pre-existing conditions and major health issues

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Nov 7, 2018: 9:51 am
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NY Post
November 6, 2018

Democrats have tried to make Tuesday’s elections about health care.

As with most issues, they equate government spending with success — liberals claim they care more than conservatives because they spend more of other people’s hard-earned money.

Full disclosure: My husband, Russ Vought, is deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. But speaking strictly as the mother of a child with a life-threatening genetic disease, I know that other policy changes can make a critical impact on the lives of sick patients without government spending.

And so does the Trump administration, which has taken several vital steps to reorient the federal bureaucracy toward the chronically ill and individuals with pre-existing conditions.

First, the administration has made expanded access to prescription drugs a top priority. In the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, the Food and Drug Administration OK’d 971 generic drugs — a record, breaking the old mark of 937 approvals set just last year. Compare that to the 651 green-lighted in 2016 and the 492 the year before under President Barack Obama.

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This article was posted: Tuesday, November 6, 2018 at 6:37 am

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Democrats take House from Republicans

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Nov 7, 2018: 9:47 am
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US Democrats are set to take control of the House of Representatives for the first time in eight years, a crucial victory that spells trouble for President Donald Trump in the second half of his first term in office.

To win the House, all Democrats needed to do was to flip 23 Republican seats, a task that proved too easy for the opposition party.

While the Senate was a lost cause from the get-go, Democrats were highly optimistic that they would win back the lower chamber of Congress.

Initial results of the frenzied midterm elections projected Democrats as the next majority party in the House, with NBC predicting a 230-205 makeup.

People cheer while watching election results during a midterm election night party hosted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee November 6, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP)

By winning the House, Democrats will have the opportunity to frustrate Trump’s legislative plans and ramp up their…

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The Ultimate General Strike: a Revolution of Failures

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Nov 7, 2018: 9:46 am
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In “The Postmodern Condition” the philosopher Jean-François Lyotard painted a picture of the future neoliberal order as one in which “the temporary contract” supplants “permanent institutions in the professional, emotional, sexual, cultural, family and international domains, as well as in political affairs.” This temporal relationship to people, things, institutions and the natural world ensures collective self-annihilation.

– Chris Hedges, The Rule of the Uber-rich….

People who are capable of dissent but incapable of disobedience are often uncomfortable challenging the very legitimacy of that authority to wield power. In contrast, genuine anti-authoritarians are comfortable with both dissent and disobedience when they deem authority to be illegitimate.

– Bruce E. Levine, Vital Ignored Truths In Milgram’s… Studies

If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground….The struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both, …but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never did and it never will….

– Frederick Douglass (quoted in Zinn’s People’s History)

When I taught public speaking I frequently had students view a commencement address given by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. Though I’ve not read her books, I knew many students knew Harry Potter through books and…

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A Badge of Shame: The Government’s War on America’s Military Veterans

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Nov 7, 2018: 9:31 am
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by John W. Whitehead / November 6th, 2018

For soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, coming home is more lethal than being in combat.

― Brené Brown, research professor at the University of Houston, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead, September 11, 2012.

Not all heroes wear the uniform of war.

In the United States, however, we take particular pride in recognizing as heroes those who have served in the military.

Yet while we honor our veterans with holidays, parades, discounts at retail stores and restaurants, and endless political rhetoric about their sacrifice and bravery, we do a pitiful job of respecting their freedoms and caring for their needs once out of uniform.

Despite the fact that the U.S. boasts more than 20 million veterans who have served in World War II through the present day, the plight of veterans today is America’s badge of shame, with large numbers of veterans impoverished, unemployed, traumatized mentally and physically, struggling with depression, suicide, and marital stress, homeless, subjected to sub-par treatment at clinics and hospitals, and left to molder while their paperwork piles up within Veterans Administration offices.

Still, the government’s efforts to wage war on veterans, especially those who speak out against government wrongdoing, is downright appalling.

Consider: we raise our young people on a steady diet of militarism and war, sell them on the idea…

Read more

PressTV-Trump’s party maintains control over US Senate

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Nov 7, 2018: 8:46 am
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First results of the heated 2018 US midterms congressional elections are out and it is confirmed that the Senate will stay Republican, thanks to a strong campaign push by President Donald Trump.

It took the Republican Party a few hours after votes closed to reach the required 50-seats majority.

Trump was quick to brag about the victory.

Tremendous success tonight. Thank you to all!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2018

The Republicans, who headed to the elections with a narrow 51-47 majority are now projected to open an even bigger gap.

So far they have won two of the 26 Democratic seats that were up for grabs.

In the State of Indiana, one of Trump’s three stops on the Election Eve, Republican challenger Mike Brawn defeated incumbent Democratic Senator John Donnelly by a healthy margin of almost 10 points (52.8 percent to 43.2 percent).

Republicans won big in North Dakota, as Kevin Cramer managed to knock seating…

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UK govt blasted over RAF training of 102 Saudi pilots as Yemen war rages on — RT UK News

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Nov 7, 2018: 8:40 am
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The RAF trained dozens of Saudi pilots in the past ten years, the UK admits, despite the Gulf country’s controversial role in the Yemen war. The disclosure prompted accusations that the government may have ‘blood on its hands.’

Britain’s Royal Air Force trained 102 Saudi pilots at its bases across the country in the past ten years. The figure has been recently revealed by Armed Forces Minister Mark Lancaster in an answer to a parliamentary question by Carmarthen East and Dinefwr’s MP Jonathan Edwards.

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The figure comes amid ongoing concerns over UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia as the latter has been carrying out a bombing campaign against the Houthi rebels in Yemen for the past three years. Human rights organizations allege Saudi Arabia is targeting civilian infrastructure, something which would constitute a war crime, while there is fear UK arms are being used in the conflict.

News of the RAF training the Saudi pilots prompted Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry to urge the Tory government to “come clean” on its role in the war.

“When they are not just selling Saudi Arabia the planes and bombs it is using to kill civilians in Yemen, but training the pilots who are flying those planes and dropping those bombs, the government needs to be asked: is the blood of Yemen’s children on your hands?”, Thornberry said, the Mirror Online reports.

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt on Monday called on the UN Security Council to come up with a peace deal that can put an end to the war which has cost the lives of thousands and left millions in need of assistance. Hunt said the UK would agree to a UN-brokered resolution after previously rejecting it and being accused of siding too much with Saudi Arabia during the conflict.

The appeal, which followed the UN claiming Yemen is on the brink of the world’s worst famine in 100 years, prompted fresh calls for London to quit selling arms to the Gulf Kingdom. Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) claims the UK has licensed almost £5 billion worth of arms sales to Saudi Arabia since the Yemen war broke out.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

1.4mn former felons will vote again in Florida — RT US News

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Nov 7, 2018: 8:38 am
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The passing of Florida’s Amendment 4 will restore over a million former felons’ right to vote in future elections. While activists are claiming victory, others are left with serious concerns that the changes are too forgiving.

Alongside voting politicians in and out of office, Wednesday’s midterms include a number of direct amendments to state law. In Florida, one controversial amendment has passed and been added to the state constitution which will restore voting rights to felons who have completed their sentences, given that they were not incarcerated for murder or a sex offense.

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The 1.4 million people affected make up nearly a tenth of Florida’s voting age population, implying potentially serious changes for the 2020 elections in this critical swing state. The Amendment will bring about the largest expansion in voting rights since the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibited racial discrimination in voting.

Until Wednesday’s initiative passed, Florida had some of the strictest laws in the country regarding a criminal’s ability to vote; in turn, leaving Florida with one of the highest disenfranchisement rates in the country. Whereas most states prohibit people currently in prison from voting and some extend this to probation or parole, Florida was one of four states where felon status permanently removed one’s voting rights. While there was already a process in place in Florida for former felons to regain their rights, it was incredibly arduous, required personal approval from the state governor, and had a very low rate of success.

In terms of impact on the 2020 election, the result of the vote on Amendment 4 in Florida today could have a bigger impact than anything else being voted on today. https://t.co/xlwAhStOAc

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) November 6, 2018

Amendment 4 activists gathered the signatures of over 800,000 registered voters to get the amendment on the ballot, assisted by celebrity supporters including John Legend and Rihanna. Interestingly, both the conservative Koch brothers and the American Civil Liberties Union contributed money to the campaign. Supporters say that the Amendment will provide much-needed reform to an overly-punishing system which disproportionately affects African Americans: around 17.9 percent of potential black votes in Florida.

Opponents, such as Florida Governor Rick Scott, say that the change will make it too easy for criminals to reacquire their rights. While some opponents of the amendment are still in favor of speeding up the process, they claim that Amendment 4 will allow former felons to regain their voting rights automatically, without any process. “If you are a convicted felon, part of what you did is you lost your rights,” Governor Scott argued earlier, going on to defend the appeal process which was already in place.

If you like this story, share it with a friend!

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

A Badge of Shame – LewRockwell

Newswire

admin
-

Nov 7, 2018: 8:31 am
0

“For soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, coming home is more lethal than being in combat.” ― Brené Brown, research professor at the University of Houston

Not all heroes wear the uniform of war.

In the United States, however, we take particular pride in recognizing as heroes those who have served in the military.

Yet while we honor our veterans with holidays, parades, discounts at retail stores and restaurants, and endless political rhetoric about their sacrifice and bravery, we do a pitiful job of respecting their freedoms and caring for their needs once out of uniform.

Despite the fact that the U.S. boasts more than 20 million veterans who have served in World War II through the present day, the plight of veterans today is America’s badge of shame, with large numbers of veterans impoverished, unemployed, traumatized mentally and physically, struggling with depression, suicide, and marital stress, homeless, subjected to sub-par treatment at clinics and hospitals, and left to molder while their paperwork piles up within Veterans Administration offices.

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Still, the government’s efforts to wage war on veterans, especially those who speak out against government wrongdoing, is downright appalling.

Consider: we raise our young people on a steady diet of militarism and war, sell them on the idea that defending freedom abroad by serving in the military is their patriotic duty, then when they return home, bruised and battle-scarred and committed to defending their freedoms at home, we often treat them like criminals merely for having served in the military.

The government even has a name for its war on America’s…

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Retaking Control of House, Democrats Will Demand IRS Hand Over Trump’s Tax Returns: Report

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Nov 7, 2018: 8:09 am
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Equal measures of hope and heartbreak from a long night. With results still coming, the House will look more like America – brown, black, young, female, gay, Native – and the Senate will be even more white, male, old, rich. Despite grievous, slim losses for Andrew Gillum, Beto O’Rourke and Stacey Abrams, Gillum still insists on their/our seat at the table. “We will not be pushed into the shadows anymore,” he said. “We’re here to stay.”

Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

‘Our heads are set at getting to the United States’

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Nov 7, 2018: 7:50 am
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American Mirror
November 6, 2018

A third caravan of migrants mostly from El Salvador continue to trudge north to the United States after circumventing the standard process for entering Mexico and wading across Guatemala’s Suchiate River instead.

Video published by The Guardian shows about 1,000-1,500 migrants making their way across a shallow portion of the river after officials at crossing bridge into Mexico demanded passports and visas and limited groups to 50 for processing. It’s the same gate where the first mob of migrants pummeled Mexican police with rocks and ravaged the facility until officials relented and let them through a few weeks ago.

On Friday, many in the third caravan avoided the conflict and simply hoisted their bags over their heads to easily wade across the river.

“It’s been tiring, but it’s worth it because my nephew wasn’t killed,” an obese woman told the camera as she strolled across a sand bar, flip flops in hand. “He didn’t want to join and get involved in the problems of the mara (gangs).”

“I’m here with him to try to save his life,” she said.

The third caravan remained more than 1,000 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border over the weekend, while two others creep closer.

A d v e r t i s e m e n t

The first group is now in Mexico City, where officials have prepared places for them to stay in the Jesus Martinez Palillo stadium. Locals donated food and clothing, and the city is prepared with large water tanks, to help the migrants refresh for the roughly 600-mile trek north.

So far, about 500 mostly men and boys have reached the Mexican capital, through city officials are anticipating women and children will soon follow, BBC reports.

“Our heads are set at getting to the United States, go fulfill the American dream,” Mauricio Mancilla told the news site. “We have faith in God that we will do this, whatever the circumstances.”

Mexico…

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'More political polarization if Democrats win House'

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Nov 7, 2018: 7:45 am
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How could Democrats’ victory impact Trump’s Presidency? Read more

Video: Ohio Governor’s Race: Kucinich Attacks Cordray’s ‘Left’ Credentials

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Nov 7, 2018: 7:09 am
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Tuesday is the Ohio primary for governor of Ohio, in which Rep. Dennis Kucinich faces off against former CFPB director Richard Cordray. Kucinich says that …

Via Youtube

Video: Bristol mayor Marvin Rees 2018 State Of City Address [comments open] 17 Oct 2018

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Nov 7, 2018: 7:03 am
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BRISTOL MAYOR MARVIN REES GIVES HIS ANNUAL STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS: Bristol remains a city of challenges. We remain a wealthy city, the only …

Via Youtube

US voters deciding if GOP holds Congress

Newswire

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Nov 7, 2018: 6:44 am
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Polls have closed in a number of US states as Americans vote in midterm congressional elections, with deficiencies in the election process and infrastructure reported across the country.

American voters headed to the polls on Tuesday to elect candidates for the 435-seat US House of Representatives and a third of the 100-seat US Senate. In addition, 39 state and territorial governorship as well as numerous other state and local elections will be contested.

Early results have begun to come in as the decisive campaign comes to an end but it would take hours before a full picture emerges.

A Democratic victory in either chamber would pave the way for potentially launching a probe into President Donald Trump as well as affording them more scope to oppose his policies.

Democratic Senators Bob Menendez of New Jersey, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Benjamin Cardin of Maryland, Tom Carper of Delaware, and Sheldon…

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Blue wave? Democrats win House, but it looks more like a trickle — RT US News

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Nov 7, 2018: 6:38 am
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Democrats may have won control of the House of Representatives, but the promised ‘blue wave’ to wash away President Donald Trump hasn’t quite arrived.

Democrats have already surpassed the 23 seats they need to win control of the House of Representatives, flipping 26 seats to the Republicans’ two as the day came to a close with votes still being tallied. They didn’t fare as well in the Senate, failing to flip a single seat while Republicans gained four and held onto their majority.

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Some of the most closely-watched races also left Democrats disappointed. Despite raising a record amount of campaign cash – $38 million – Beto O’Rourke failed to unseat Republican Senator Ted Cruz. Republican Rick DeSantis narrowly edged out Andrew Gillum, the black mayor of Tallahassee championed by many progressives, to replace Rick Scott as governor of Florida.

Taking over one house of Congress gives Democrats some of the leverage they have been seeking against President Trump, though it remains to be seen whether they’ll actually attempt the impeachment they’ve been blustering about since before Trump was inaugurated.

Among the historic wins for the Democrats were Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who both became the first Muslim women elected to Congress, Deb Haaland (D-NM), the first Native American woman elected to Congress, Jared Polis, the first openly gay governor in US history, and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), the youngest congresswoman ever at 29.

Voters turned out in record numbers for the midterms, which many in and out of government saw as a referendum on Trump’s presidency.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Blue wave? Democrats win House, but it looks more like a trickle — RT US News

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Nov 7, 2018: 6:37 am
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Democrats may have won control of the House of Representatives, but the promised ‘blue wave’ to wash away President Donald Trump hasn’t quite arrived.

Democrats have already surpassed the 23 seats they need to win control of the House of Representatives, flipping 26 seats to the Republicans’ two as the day came to a close with votes still being tallied. They didn’t fare as well in the Senate, failing to flip a single seat while Republicans gained four and held onto their majority.

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Some of the most closely-watched races also left Democrats disappointed. Despite raising a record amount of campaign cash – $38 million – Beto O’Rourke failed to unseat Republican Senator Ted Cruz. Republican Rick DeSantis narrowly edged out Andrew Gillum, the black mayor of Tallahassee championed by many progressives, to replace Rick Scott as governor of Florida.

Taking over one house of Congress gives Democrats some of the leverage they have been seeking against President Trump, though it remains to be seen whether they’ll actually attempt the impeachment they’ve been blustering about since before Trump was inaugurated.

Among the historic wins for the Democrats were Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who both became the first Muslim women elected to Congress, Deb Haaland (D-NM), the first Native American woman elected to Congress, Jared Polis, the first openly gay governor in US history, and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), the youngest congresswoman ever at 29.

Voters turned out in record numbers for the midterms, which many in and out of government saw as a referendum on Trump’s presidency.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Democrats Should Be Ready to ‘Throw a Punch’

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Nov 7, 2018: 5:49 am
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Free Beacon
November 6, 2018

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) said last week that Democrats should be ready to “Take a punch and throw a punch” in the political arena while discussing the 2018 midterms.

Pelosi participated in an interview at the Bentzen Ball in Washington, D.C. when she made the comment, according to audio flagged by the Republican National Committee.

“So the point is that what we are trying to do is just speak to them, not about where we disagree, but where we agree that they need to have a bigger paycheck and lower health care costs and that there voice should be stronger rather than a special dark interest money being spent,” Pelosi said.

She went on to say that when Democrats “win,” Congress will be “transparent,” adding that legislation will meet the needs of people and that she will push for bipartisanship.

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This article was posted: Tuesday, November 6, 2018 at 6:39 am

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PressTV-Europe expresses regret at US anti-Iran sanctions

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Nov 7, 2018: 5:43 am
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Robert Carter
Press TV, London

European powers have issued a joint statement expressing regret at the US decision to impose new sanctions against Iran. The statement also vowed to preserve and maintain effective financial channels with Iran, and the continuation of Iran’s export of oil and gas. Press TV’s Robert Carter reports.

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Video: Top U.S. & World Headlines — November 6, 2018

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Nov 7, 2018: 5:12 am
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Visit https://democracynow.org to watch the full independent, global news hour, read the transcript, search our archive and to make a donation to support us.

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National Commission on Military Service To Release Interim Report in January

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Antiwar
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Nov 7, 2018: 5:01 am
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Brigadier General Joe Heck, US Army Reserve, former Member of Congress and current chair of the NCMNPS, addresses the Commission’s public meeting in Los Angeles. Photo by Edward Hasbrouck.

No matter what happens in today’s voting, it won’t end the bipartisan support for war or the need for antiwar activism outside the sphere of electoral politics.

Case in point: The bipartisan National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service is continuing to work toward recommendations to Congress and the President on whether draft registration should be ended, extended to women, modified to include people with skills in special demand by the military (health care, foreign languages, tech, etc.), and/or replaced with a compulsory national service scheme with both military and civilian components.

The Commission completed its initial round of stage-managed public meetings in September 2018. Here’s more on the activities of the Commission including records of its closed-door meetings and invited briefings, released in response to my ongoing Freedom Of Information Act requests. I will continue to post more Commission documents at Resisters.info as I receive them.

The Commissioners are part-time federal employees, generally meeting for a couple of days each month. Following closed meetings in October, November, and December 2018, the Commissioners plan to release an interim report in January 2019 laying out several possible policy options with respect to the Selective Service System, to test public reaction and set the terms of public debate.

The likely extent of resistance to conscription and the (un)feasibility of enforcement of expanded draft registration or compulsory service aren’t likely to be considered in the interim report, since the Commission hasn’t done any research or invited any testimony on these issues.

At its closed meeting in October 2018, the Commission invited legal scholars to discuss the Constitutionality of compulsory national service. One participant described the panel as “focusing on mandatory civilian service, not just the military kind”.

Just after this meeting, an op-ed was published in The Hill which appears to be a trial balloon for at least some of the Commissioners who support a compulsory national service program for all young people.

The Commission plans more formal hearings in 2019 with testimony by invited experts on the issues the Commission thinks are important. Members of the public can still submit comments through the Commission’s Web site or by e-mail, but it’s not clear to what extent they will be considered.

The Commission is dragging its feet on releasing the comments it has already received, saying it will take more than another year to process my FOIA request for them. I assume the reason it doesn’t want to disclose the responses to its request for public comment is that they are overwhelmingly opposed to military conscription or compulsory service.

(There are, of course, supporters…

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PressTV-Meet Oumuamua, probably 1st alien tech seen

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Nov 7, 2018: 4:43 am
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Harvard researchers have suggested a mysterious interstellar object that was spotted floating in space in 2017 could be an “alien” spacecraft sent on a reconnaissance mission to probe the Earth.

The cigar-shaped asteroid or comet – dubbed Oumuamua – was discovered in October last year by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii.

Given its high speed and unusual trajectory, the dark-red object was believed to have come from outside our solar system but its flattened and elongated shape as well as the way it accelerated on its way utterly distinguished it from other conventional asteroids.

Two Harvard researchers, Professors Abraham Loeb and Shmuel Bialy, raised the possibility in a paper that the reddish object, which is 10 times as long as it is wide and traveling at a speed of 196,000 miles per hour, might have an “artificial origin.”

Oumuamua, named after the Hawaiian term which means “a messenger from afar arriving first,” is…

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CNN slams ‘schizophrenic moment’ Fox’s Hannity joins Trump on stage — RT US News

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Nov 7, 2018: 4:36 am
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TV news is losing its mind after Sean Hannity hugged and praised the president on stage at a rally Monday night, breaking a cardinal rule of political journalism, but the Fox News host’s support for Trump isn’t exactly a surprise.

Despite a pre-rally tweet stating he was only interviewing President Trump for Fox and not campaigning with him onstage at the Missouri event, Hannity mounted the stage when the president called him up by name. He recited a list of Trump’s achievements after calling his fellow media “fake news” and sparking a backlash from Trump arch-nemesis CNN.

In spite of reports, I will be doing a live show from Cape Girardeau and interviewing President Trump before the rally. To be clear, I will not be on stage campaigning with the President. I am covering final rally for my show. Something I have done in every election in the past.

— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 5, 2018

News organizations are not supposed to endorse candidates, and while Fox is generally considered a right-wing news organization, it always strived to be perceived as more news organization than right-wing. Still, its political coverage is solidly pro-Trump, and it’s doubtful that any viewers were surprised to see Hannity embracing the president.

After Hannity spoke, Jeanine Pirro, another Fox News personality, joined the president on stage. A spokesperson for Fox News said the network had addressed the “unfortunate distraction,” but did not reveal whether the two commentators were disciplined.

CNN panelists expressed shock at Hannity’s utter disregard for the agreed-upon rules of the game. Alisyn Camerota, herself a former Fox News reporter, wondered aloud if Fox could even still be called a “news organization.” “They’re having a schizophrenic moment over there trying to figure out what their role is going to be with the Trump presidency,” Camerota said on CNN.

This isn’t the first time Fox has reprimanded Hannity about his political activities, though as cable news’ most popular host, he’s arguably just giving the audience what they want. He appeared in a 2016 Trump campaign video and was forced to cancel a 2010 appearance at a Tea Party fundraiser when the network learned of his planned participation.

What I said in my tweet yesterday was 100% truthful. When the POTUS invited me on stage to give a few remarks last night, I was surprised, yet honored by the president’s request. This was NOT planned.

— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 6, 2018

Hannity defended his actions, claiming he was “surprised, yet honored” to be invited onstage and that the stunt was not planned. Angelo Carusone of Democratic watchdog group Media Matters for America proposed a celebrity-enhanced attack campaign to punish Fox News for its partisanship.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Chaos Reigns in the Trump Administration

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Nov 7, 2018: 4:30 am
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Sanctions may indeed be coming but will they have the bite that Donald Trump is hoping for? It’s a good question as we open November with a flurry of edicts from Trump’s State and Treasury Departments.

Let’s go over them all and see just how contradictory they are while at the same time acceding to the reality of just how much the world has changed in the six years since President Obama first went nuclear on Iran with sanctions.

It starts with Trump’s tweet that “Sanctions are Coming.” Okay, fine we knew this. But sanctions don’t account for much if the State Department is handing out 180 day waivers to countries.

Next up was Pompeo saying on the same day that no less than eight countries would be exempt from sanctions for buying oil from Iran.

A little news for Mike Pompeo, Halloween was last week.

Contrast this with 2012 where India, for example, to get around the sanctions had to essentially barter to get much needed Iranian oil, because no such exemption was forthcoming.

South Korea and Japan were also denied waivers then, but according to the Financial Times they are all among the countries to be exempted.

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Mr. Pompeo did not name the eight jurisdictions, but Turkey’s energy minister said his country had been given an exemption. India, South Korea, Japan and Iraq are among other US allies that experts expect to benefit. China is also expected to be a beneficiary. The list will be announced on Monday.

Mr. Pompeo pushed back on suggestions that the US was being lenient to Iran or that the Trump administration had failed to deliver a hard line in the absence of European backing. He said two of the eight jurisdictions…

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Video: 36 Million in U.S. Cast Early Votes, Shattering Records for Young People & People of Color

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Nov 7, 2018: 4:11 am
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https://democracynow.org – Millions of voters head to the polls today for a midterm election that’s widely seen as a referendum on Donald Trump’s presidency, …

Via Youtube

New Evidence Shows Texas Senate Race Is Vulnerable to Manipulation

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Nov 7, 2018: 3:53 am
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“Watchers have observed that there is a voting systems computer, in the central counting station … and it had wi-fi connectivity, and emails were being sent from that computer,” election security advocate Laura Pressley told Truthout in an exclusive phone interview, raising the alarm about vote-counting security in Dallas County, Texas.

Pressley, an engineer with a Ph.D. in chemistry and physics, worked for years as a device engineering manager in the semiconductor industry. She’s the founder of a non-partisan group called True Texas Elections that is monitoring elections all across the state – focusing especially on electronic voting machines and tabulators.

Pressley is not the only one concerned about wireless internet networks being anywhere near a voting machine or tabulator. Texas state law specifically prohibits it, mandating that “No voting system is ever connected to the internet at any point — either when votes are being cast or when they are being counted.”

That’s because wi-fi and internet connectivity are some of the easiest ways for malware to be introduced into a voting machine or tabulator. Once introduced, that malware could change election results on that voting machine, or on other voting machines infected via memory cards. The malware could then make its way into the vote tabulating system itself, potentially infecting the main election management system’s computers. If a wi-fi signal is in the tabulating room, the malware could get into the system that counts the votes quickly and easily, bypassing all of the other steps, and rapidly change the results of an entire county.

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That’s why, Pressley says, “We are very concerned about that.”

Photo taken directly outside the tabulation room of Dallas County elections.
True Texas Elections Observer

She is concerned that the results in the contentious and high-profile contest between Republican incumbent Sen….

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Prison Planet.com » Henry Kissinger ‘Fairly Optimistic’ China, U.S. Can Avoid Catastrophe

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Nov 7, 2018: 3:48 am
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Bloomberg
November 6, 2018

Henry Kissinger, the 95-year-old foreign policy guru to world leaders, said he was “fairly optimistic” the U.S. and China could avoid a wider conflict that would devastate the current world order.

Speaking at Bloomberg’s New Economy Forum in Singapore on Tuesday, Kissinger said that U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators should avoid getting bogged down in details and first explain to each other what objectives they are seeking to achieve, and what concessions they can and cannot make.

“If the world order becomes defined by continuous conflict between the U.S. and China, sooner or later it risks getting out of control,” said Kissinger, who brokered the U.S. rapprochement with China as former president Richard Nixon’s secretary of state more than four decades ago and has advised U.S. presidents ever since.

“Some disagreements are inevitable but the objective needs to be that both countries recognize that a fundamental conflict between them will destroy hope for the world order,” he said. “I think that that objective can be achieved and I am in fact fairly optimistic that it will be achieved.”

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This article was posted: Tuesday, November 6, 2018 at 6:40 am

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Why Iran Needs a War Economy

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Nov 7, 2018: 3:44 am
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Photo Source Blondinrikard Fröberg | CC BY 2.0

Faced with the relentless U.S. economic war, Iran needs a war economy. Indeed, the plan of a war economy should not be very difficult for Iran to implement since it has a relatively successful experience of carrying out such a plan: during the 8-year war with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, Iran embarked on an extensive state-guided economic management that effectively provided for both its military and civilian needs. Because of the revolutionary atmosphere of the time, and because of the corresponding spirit of generosity, selflessness, social cohesion, and national unity the country was able to effectively withstand both the military and economic wars launched against its territory and its people. Despite the extremely costly war, both in terms of blood and treasure, and despite the fact that Iran’s total output, or national income, at the time was only a fraction of what it is today, its people did not experience nearly as much economic hardship as they do today. Why? Mainly because its national resources were at the time distributed relatively equitably—unlike today where those resources are monopolized and plundered by a clique of financial oligarchs and economic mafias.

To embark on a war-economy route, Iran needs, first and foremost, to revive the real (value-producing) sector of its economy, that is, manufacturing and agricultural activities. These real-value and employment generating activities, which are the…

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PressTV-‘US midterms all about fate of a liar’

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Nov 7, 2018: 3:41 am
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Senator Bernie Sanders has once again launched into a tirade against US President Donald Trump amid the country’s midterm congressional elections, calling the American head of state a person who “lies every day about every imaginable thing.”

In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, the Vermont senator lashed out at Trump’s credibility and said the US midterm elections would be a referendum on whether Americans were comfortable with a president who is a “pathological liar,” and lies about every possible thing.

“What this election is really about is whether we feel comfortable about having a president who is a pathological liar, who lies every day about every imaginable thing,” Sanders told CNN.

US Senator Bernie Sanders gives a speech at a campaign event on November 4, 2018 in Burlington, Vermont. (Photo by AFP)

“And whether we as Americans are comfortable having a president who tries to divide us up, divide us up based on the color of…

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Pittsburgh in the Jewish Press: Solidarity or Bothsidesism

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FAIR
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Nov 7, 2018: 3:25 am
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by Ari Paul

After the first Shabbat to pass since a right-wing maniac murdered 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, there’s been a search by the Jewish press for meaning in the terrorism. Tablet, however, took the unusual step of downplaying the factors leading to the massacre, and sought instead to blame the political left.

Shortly after the deadliest antisemitic attack in US history was carried out by anti-immigration extremist, Tablet (11/3/18) argued that “the left has just as much of a Jew-hatred problem on its hand, if not a much bigger one.”

The online Jewish magazine came out at first with sobering reportage of the event, with obituaries for the two brothers with developmental disabilities killed in the attack and examination of the degree to which the Christian Identity movement plays into American antisemitism. It was almost as if the publication, despite an overtly Zionist political compass, was going to put hasbara aside in the wake of the terror and report the story down the middle. Then staff writer Liel Leibovitz (11/3/18) jumped in.

A week after the attack, a Brooklyn synagogue was forced to cancel a political event after a young black man, who had worked for Democratic politician Christine Quinn, put up threatening antisemitic graffiti inside. Leibovitz seized the opportunity to remind the world that it wasn’t just the right who harbored antisemitism, but also the left, as evidenced by the recent graffiti. “If the left is honest,” he said,

it will spend the coming days and weeks asking how someone educated at a fine liberal university, on a scholarship from a fine liberal newspaper, could graduate from a job with a fine liberal politician—helping curb hate crimes, no less—to trying to intimidate and incinerate Jews.

There’s a lot to unpack in the sloppy reporting. For starters, Leibovitz made the quick assumption that the vandal’s motivation must come from his liberal background, but failed to mention his history of substance abuse and mental illness. He also made the false accusation that no one on the left has tackled the questions of legitimate antisemitism on the left. Jacobin, for example, has run several pieces on the subject.

But worse is that it engages in the dubious art of “bothsidesism,” the notion that in order to condemn right-wing anti-Jewish violence, one most come up with a reason to bash the left as well. The Brooklyn case is indeed terrifying, but it’s hardly in the same category of 11 dead bodies.

The New York Daily News (10/29/18) also admonished “the left” for the Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan’s antisemitic rhetoric, even though he hasn’t inspired the kind of violence that the Trump administration has (such as the MAGA bomber), and most responsible writers would find most left-wing activists pay the NOI little heed. It’s not exactly a straw man argument, but it’s close. (The use of Farrakhan as a poster child for left-wing antisemitism is complicated by the NOI leader’s quasi-endorsement of Trump during the 2016 campaign: “Not that I’m for Mr. Trump, but I like what I’m looking at,” he said, claiming the candidate had turned down money from the “Jewish community.”)

To the Wall Street Journal (10/31/18), the mass murderer in Pittsburgh was “less dangerous” than “the vicious movement to boycott Israel.”

The Wall Street Journal (10/31/18) contrived that despite the body count caused by right-wing fanaticism, the “real” antisemitism was criticism of Israel. While the Journal was right to assert that antisemitism can exist in all political ideologies, it ignored the current moment, in which the recent orgy of right-wing violence centers on Jew-hatred, a far cry from a few uncomfortable conversations about Palestine on college campuses.

The “it’s both sides” rhetoric dangerously ignores this context to the Pittsburgh attack. The Pittsburgh attack happened days after another white supremacist, unable to enter a black church in Kentucky, killed two black people at a grocery store instead. At the same time, a pro-Trumper sent mail bombs to several targets, including George Soros, often used as an antisemitic dog whistle for the right. And less than a week after the Pittsburgh attack, a Florida man inspired by the alt-right “InCel” (involuntary celibate) movement, who raged against interracial dating and the “invasion” from Central America, killed two women at a yoga studio. The Pittsburgh attack didn’t take place in vacuum—it is part of an ongoing wave of right-wing, racist violence. It is journalistic malpractice to say otherwise.

This hasn’t been a general problem in the Jewish press’s coverage of the Pittsburgh massacre. The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz (11/4/18) castigated Israeli leadership for its lack of empathy toward the victims, for showing more solidarity with the Trump administration than with those on the receiving end of MAGA-inspired terrorism; it suggested that this could mark a turning point for American Jewish opinion of Israel. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (11/2/18) reported that former Anti-Defamation League chief Abraham Foxman made the unusual move of protesting the Israeli government’s choice to politicize the tragedy by “stand[ing] in solidarity with the President of the United States” rather than “in solidarity with the American Jewish community in a time of pain and anguish and tragedy.” And reporters both inside (Forward, 11/4/18) and outside the Jewish press (Huffington Post, 11/3/18; New York Times, 11/3/18) made the link between the Pittsburgh attack and the 2015 Charleston shooting, where nine African-American churchgoers were murdered by a white supremacist, and described how different faith groups were coming together in solidarity with Jews in mourning.

Tablet’s choice to come out swinging against the left—even though the left was also a target in the Pittsburgh attack, since the shooter was particularly angry at the synagogue’s support for refugee resettlement—is a telling deflection. If Tablet were to firmly place the Pittsburgh victims alongside other minority targets of far-right and fascistic terror, it would have to accept that the rhetoric of the Trump administration—or at least of its more zealous supporters—shares some responsibility for the carnage. It would also force Tablet to paint Israel in a bad light, as the Israeli government appears more invested in maintaining good relations with Washington than with the US Jewish community; the Israeli ambassador to the US (Fox News, 10/28/18) went out his way to protect the administration by drawing a false equivalence between organized right-wing violence against Jews and the perception of too much support for Palestinians on college campuses.

The Jewish press is more important now more than ever, in a time of rising antisemitism from Pittsburgh to Hungary to Ukraine. Many are rising to the occasion, asking the uncomfortable questions and confronting narratives that may have once been off limits. Tablet, among others, does do that at times, but falling back on partisan hand-wringing over Israel only constrains a necessary outlet for reporting and analysis on right-wing racist violence.

It’s understandable that for Leibovitz and Tablet’s political project, it’s not easy to acknowledge these things. But a journalist’s job is to report the facts and the context as they are, not as one wants them to be.

This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission from FAIR.

Chinese president denounces “law of the jungle” on trade

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Nov 7, 2018: 3:23 am
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Chinese president denounces “law of the jungle” on trade

By
Nick Beams

6 November 2018

China’s president Xi Jinping has again attempted to position Beijing as the defender of free trade in opposition to the US, denouncing the “law of the jungle” in a major speech delivered yesterday.

Xi was speaking at an international business fair in Shanghai at which he cast China as an importing nation. It was an attempt to secure allies in the intensifying trade and economic war with the US, ahead of a scheduled meeting with US President Donald Trump at the G20 summit meeting at the end of the month.

“China has a big market of over 1.3 billion people and it is our sincere commitment to open the Chinese market,” he said. The audience included representatives of major global corporations, some heads of governments and delegates from international organisations, including the World Trade Organisation and the International Monetary Fund.

However, the speech did not contain any new initiatives to win support for China in its conflict with the US. It was largely a repeat of his earlier statements in support of globalisation since the coming to power of Trump.

“As globalisation deepens,” he said, “the practices of ‘law of the jungle’ and ‘winner-take-all’ are a narrowing road that leads to a dead end. Inclusion and reciprocity, win-win and mutual benefits are a widening and correct path.”

In an indirect reference to the US and its criticism of China’s trade policies, Xi said: “Each country should work hard to improve its own business environment. One cannot always beautify oneself while criticising others, and one can’t shine a flashlight on other people without looking at oneself.”

Xi said the economic and social well-being of countries was increasingly…

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Video: “Smoking Gun” Evidence Shows Trump Admin’s Top Anti-Immigrant Officials Trying to Rig the Census

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Nov 7, 2018: 3:10 am
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https://democracynow.org – We look at a federal trial underway in New York City that could overturn the Trump administration’s plans to put a citizenship question …

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Georgia Voters File Last-Minute Lawsuit to Stop Republican Brian Kemp From Counting Ballots in His Own Race

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Nov 7, 2018: 3:08 am
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Accusing Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp of exploiting “the official powers of his office to interfere in the election to benefit himself and his party,” a group of Georgia voters filed a last-minute lawsuit just before polls closed on Tuesday seeking to bar Kemp from overseeing the vote count in his own race against Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams.

“This violates a basic notion of fairness—that a man should not be a judge in his own matter—and it has had the predictable results.”
—Protect Democracy

“Kemp is a candidate for governor in Georgia. He is also the Secretary of State of Georgia, charged with fairly administering the state’s elections,” reads the suit, which was filed on behalf of five voters by the advocacy group Protect Democracy. “This violates a basic notion of fairness—that a man should not be a judge in his own matter—and it has had the predictable results.”

Among the results the suit cites is Kemp’s evidence-free “investigation” of Georgia’s Democratic Party over an alleged “hack” of voter registration files. The probe has been denounced as completely bogus and more befitting of a Banana Republic than a democracy.

“There is not and never was any basis for Defendant Kemp to accuse the Democratic Party of Georgia of seeking to hack into the state’s election systems,” the suit declares. “Rather, Defendant Kemp used the resources of his office and the official Secretary of State website to make these accusations to deflect blame for his own failures to address flaws in the election system and to falsely harm his opponents.”

Plaintiffs seek a temporary restraining order barring Sec. Kemp from being involved in counting of votes, certification of results, or any runoff or recount procedures that would normally be exercised by Secretary of State’s Office or the Board of Elections, on which he also sits https://t.co/ftTU4npM23

— Courtney Norris (@courtneyknorris) November 6, 2018

In addition to his baseless investigation of his political opponents, Kemp also purged hundreds of thousands of registered voters from the rolls ahead of Tuesday’s midterms, a move civil rights groups decried as a blatant attempt to suppress the vote ahead of a critical election.

“As a result of Defendant Kemp’s conflict of interest and actual bias,” the lawsuit concludes, “it would be improper, unfair, and contrary to the due process of law for Defendant Kemp to have the power to certify the winners of the 2018 elections, to administer a run-off of the 2018 election, to adjudicate any challenges to the administration of the 2018 election, or otherwise to oversee the reporting of the 2018 election results.”

Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

The West is Failing Julian Assange – Consortiumnews

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Consortium News
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Nov 7, 2018: 2:46 am
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While the media focused on Julian Assange’s cat rather than his continuing arbitrary detention, evidence shows that Britain worked hard to force his extradition to Sweden where Assange feared he could then be turned over to the U.S., as Stefania Maurizi explains.

By Stefania Maurizi
Special to Consortium News

Let’s start with the cat. You never would have thought one of these beloved felines would play a crucial role in the Julian Assange case, would you? And yet look at the latest press coverage. The mainstream media’s headlines weren’t about a man who has been confined to a tiny building in the heart of Europe for the last six years with no end insight, they were about orders from Quito to feed his cat. There you have a man who is at serious risk of being arrested by the UK authorities, extradited to the U.S. and prosecuted for his publications. A man who has been cut off from any human contact, with the exception of his lawyers, and whose health is seriously declining due to prolonged confinement without even an hour outdoors. Considering this framework, wasn’t there anything more serious to cover than the cat?

But there’s a story to be told behind Assange’s cat. One of the last times I was allowed to visit Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, before the current government of Lenin Moreno cut off all his social and professional contacts, I asked the founder of WikiLeaks whether his cat had ever tried to escape from the embassy given that, unlike his human companion, he can easily sneak out of the building without the risk of being arrested by Scotland Yard.

Assange didn’t take my question with the lightness with which it was intended, quite the opposite, he became a bit emotional and told me that when the cat was small, it had in fact made some attempts to escape from the building, but as it had grown, it had become so accustomed to confinement that whenever Assange had tried to give the cat to some close friends so the animal could enjoy its freedom, it showed fear of wide open spaces. Confinement has a deep impact on the behavior and health of all creatures, animal and human.

Strength

I have worked as a…

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Democrats must do more than Trump-bashing if they want to win – analysts — RT US News

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Nov 7, 2018: 2:35 am
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If Democrats want a blue wave to crash down on Republicans and roll till 2020, they must talk about things they can do to improve the lives of their constituents rather than vilify US President Donald Trump, analysts told RT.

Trump has cast the midterm elections as a referendum on himself. While the Republican president is not on the ballot, the campaign has been indeed largely about him, with Democrats missing no opportunity to tear into the administration’s immigration policies, branding the president racist and even comparing him to Osama bin Laden.

LIVE UPDATES: US midterm elections kick off as country polarized along party lines (WATCH LIVE)

Some Democrats think that Trump-bashing is not enough of a platform to stand on, however. Richard Goodstein, former advisor to the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, told RT that if the Democrats want to bring about the ‘Blue Wave’ they must focus on their own agenda.

“Democrats, if they’re going to win tonight and if they’re going to win in 2020, have to have an affirmative, positive agenda, having nothing to do with President Donald Trump,” Goodstein said.

Daniel McAdams, executive director at the Ron Paul Institute, agrees, noting that the Democrats “ran a horrible campaign” under the slogan “Trump is racist, vote for me.” McAdams believes that Democrats failed to offer an “alternative narrative” and that might hurt them at the ballot box.

Goodstein, however, still believes that Trump “is uniquely disfavored” and many of the voters who strongly disapprove of Trump will take to the polls, allowing the Democrats to regain the House of Representatives.

‘Russiagate’ not high on election agenda, but will be back if Democrats win’

The long-running “Russia collusion” probe has been sidelined in the election debate as purely domestic issues such as economy and health care have taken center stage. The midterms have even been dubbed the “health care election.” About three-quarters of the registered voters named health care as in important issue to their vote, according to recent Pew research.

READ MORE: All over US, polling places freeze when faced with the unexpected: voters

Goodstein called health care “the fundamental issue that separates the two parties.”

“Most [Democratic candidates] were talking about the fact that if Donald Trump is in charge, Americans who have preexisting conditions or any kind of health challenge for themselves or their family, won’t be able to buy health care,” he said. However, Goodstein believes that the relative silence over the alleged links between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia will be broken again as soon as the Democrats take over the House.

McAdams also noted the silence on the Russia issue – though he believes it proves that Democrats have never believed their own claims in the first place.

“If the Democrats really believe that this President is controlled by Russia, then why do they say nothing about it? The fact is they do not believe it, they just use it as a way to try to overturn the elections. They are not going to put their money where their mouths are because they know there’s nothing there,” he told RT.

‘Very little’ real difference between Republicans and Democrats

Tensions have been running high ahead of the midterms, with Democrats calling to shed civility and Republicans branding their opponents left-wing socialists. But are the two parties so wide apart politically? McAdams believes that Republicans and Democrats are effectively the same.

READ MORE: Deja vu? Was the New Yorker just inspired by an old soviet cartoon on US elections?

“This is the real story of this election. On the substantive things beyond the manufactured outrage of all of the Kavanaugh and all of this sort of thing, in real substantive areas, there really is very little if any difference between the two parties,” he said.

Goodstein, on the other hand, still believes in the good old two-party system and the checks and balances that are at the core of the American political life.

“An American voter is not happy with one party being in charge,” he said. “Americans, by and large, like the idea of checks and balances under our constitution and our system, and with Republican House, Senate and White House, this is a feeling that this has gone out of whack. I think the public will repudiate him [Trump] by voting in a Democratic-controlled House of Representative, because they do want a check.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Women of Color Hope to Make History in 2018 Election with Wins in Congress and Governor’s Races

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Nov 7, 2018: 2:09 am
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https://democracynow.org – A historic number of women of color are running for public office in today’s election. At least 255 women are on the ballot as …

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‘The Most Important Election Of Our Lifetime!’ – Ron Paul Asks: Does It Really Matter?

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Nov 7, 2018: 2:00 am
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There was plenty of noise in the run up to today’s mid-term election in the US, but were there any real differences when it comes to substantive issues? Or was it all about manufactured outrages designed to motivate people to support this or that tribe with no real thought? Was there any real debate on war? Privacy? NSA spying? None at all! The most important election in our lifetime? Ha! Tune in to today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

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Prison Planet.com » Are You Prepared For Lockdown? How To Stay Safe When All Hell Breaks Loose In America

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Nov 7, 2018: 1:47 am
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Daisy Luther
The Organic Prepper blog
November 6, 2018

Tensions are incredibly high in the United States right now.

I realized that over the past three years, I’ve written that they’re “at an all-time high” far too many times. So, I’ll just say, they’re high enough that all hell could break loose at any moment given the right (wrong) application of fuel to the flame. The number one thing you can do for this situation to keep your family safe is to be prepared for lockdown.

Pretending that it isn’t happening or hoping to hug it out is not a rational response to the chaos that is coming. I know that some cling to their misguided views on the way the world works with the ferocity of a mother bear protecting cubs, but for the rest of us, there’s this thing called reality. When we accept it, we can prepare for it.

People near the border are quite reasonably concerned that if thousands of immigrants push through our border illegally, they and their families could be at risk. People in other parts of the country are concerned about the aftermath of whatever happens when these people arrive at the border. Regardless of what occurs, somebody is going to be unhappy. Add in the fiercely-fought midterm elections and the threat of civil unrest is high.

Are you prepared for lockdown?

Which leads me to a very important subject. As the situation in the United States devolves, how prepared are you really? If you had to go into lockdown mode and keep your family safely at home, how long would you last with the supplies you have on hand? If the answer is “a few days” or “a couple of weeks” you need to work on that. Immediately.

By planning ahead, we can avoid the fear, panic, and confusion that leads people to rush to the store and clear the shelves like a horde of hungry locusts. We can stay away from the angry masses, the rioters who will use any excuse to steal, and the…

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Video: Florida’s Amendment 4 Would Restoring Voting Rights to 1.4 Million People with Nonviolent Felonies

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Nov 7, 2018: 1:08 am
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https://democracynow.org – Florida voters are preparing to vote on Amendment 4, a measure that would restore voting rights to 1.4 million people with nonviolent …

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PressTV-US exempts Iran’s Chabahar from sanctions

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Nov 7, 2018: 12:38 am
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The United States has approved a sanctions exemption for Iran’s southeastern port city of Chabahar, citing Afghanistan’s economy.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signed off on the exception Tuesday, a day after the Trump administration imposed sanctions against Tehran.

“After extensive consideration, the secretary has provided for an exception from the imposition of certain sanctions under the Iran Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act of 2012 (IFCA) with respect to the development of Chabahar Port and the construction of an associated railway and for the shipment of non-sanctionable goods through the port for Afghanistan’s use, as well as Afghanistan’s continued imports of Iranian petroleum products,” a State Department spokesperson said.

Indian officials had said in their talks with the Americans that they would emphasize the importance of Chabahar to economically stabilize Afghanistan.

“The president’s South Asia strategy…

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voters — RT US News

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Nov 7, 2018: 12:34 am
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American midterm elections are normally sleepy affairs, but 2018’s hyper-partisan atmosphere has voters turning out in record numbers. Polling places were unprepared for the onslaught and machines broke down all over the country.

In New York City, broken and jammed machines thwarted thousands of voters from Brooklyn to the Upper East Side and the Bronx, leaving voters lined up waiting in the rain – where they made matters worse by getting the ballots wet, according to Board of Elections rep Michael Ryan. Poll watchers were shocked at the dysfunction and NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson demanded Ryan’s resignation, calling the mess “unacceptable and unfair to voters.”

Every election is like Groundhog Day: long lines, polling site issues, huge problems. Now we’re blaming the weather? It’s unacceptable & unfair to voters. Michael Ryan should resign & we should begin a top to bottom review of how this happened. It’s time for new leadership at BOE https://t.co/nxl5swtCeb

— Corey Johnson (@CoreyinNYC) November 6, 2018

This is not the first election New York has flubbed. Thousands of names went missing from voter rolls during the 2016 primaries, a phenomenon which was repeated to a lesser extent during this year’s primaries.

North Carolina voters had their own issues, with machines failing to read the new, larger ballots. Wake County Board of Elections Director Gary Sims blamed the humidity and instructed frustrated voters to place their ballots in “emergency bins,” where they would be counted later.

The lines were just as long in Georgia, where voters in downtown Atlanta had to wait for hours to cast their ballots after the county delivered just three voting machines. Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson actually visited the precinct in an effort to keep people’s spirits up and encourage them not to leave.

Some voters in New Jersey showed up at the polls only to be turned away because of a new law regarding mail-in ballots. Residents who had previously voted by mail were told they had to opt out before they could return to voting in person.

In South Carolina, voters claimed machines were flipping their votes to parties they did not want to select, sometimes more than once. Richland County Elections Director Rokey Suleman blamed a “calibration issue.” Other officials said the vote-flipping was only the start of their problems – some machines wouldn’t even plug in.

Texas voters had a similar experience last week. Voting machines reverted to Republican Ted Cruz when people attempted to vote for Democrat Beto O’Rourke, or to no candidate at all when they tried to vote for Cruz. Around the same time, the Georgia NAACP claimed they were experiencing similar issues with their gubernatorial candidates.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-UK Islamophobe escapes terror charges

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Nov 7, 2018: 12:32 am
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Prosecutors in Britain have decided to downplay threats posed by a senior Islamophobic figure who touted attacks against Muslims and immigrants, saying evidence against the man, who allegedly built explosive devices in his home for a planned attack on Muslims, was “insufficient” to charge him with terror-related offences.

The Independent newspaper said in a report on its website on Tuesday that Matthew Glynn, 37, had not been charged with terror offences because the prosecution did not allege that Glynn was planning to use the homemade bombs in an attack.

However, there has been sufficient evidence from Glynn’s activity online suggesting that he was in fact planning a fatal attack on Muslims, especially in Bristol, where he lives.

The independent said Glynn’s Facebook posts had indicated anti-Muslim and extreme right-wing views while he shared numerous videos from the anti-Islam Britain First, an extremist group which is now banned…

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WATCH: How We Viewed Measles

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Nov 7, 2018: 12:29 am
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The way Measles is discussed in today’s world, you’d think it was similar to the black plague. We tout vaccinations for saving millions of people’s lives when it comes to the measles, and it’s likely if you were born after the measles vaccine came into the picture, you might assume the measles commonly killed people.

But are the measles truly as diseases like Ebola for example? Could we view this more as a routine childhood illness?

You’ve heard of it, a news report comes out terrifying the public about new measles outbreak that has affected 17 children in an area populated in the millions. For weeks, reporters go on about how this could spread across the entire country, affecting millions, all because someone didn’t vaccinate. Yet, that’s not the cause for the spread. It was actually the vaccinated that caused the spread. Why all the fear? Why the hysteria? Is measles even that dangerous?

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I recall asking my parents and people from even older generations about the measles and what it was like when they were younger. All seemed to say it was a pretty standard and harmless childhood illness that would last a few days to a week. Some red dots, a fever maybe, and a couple days home from school In some cases, I was told stories about how it was commonplace for people to bring their kids around other kids who had measles so they could contract it themselves and be immune to it from there forward. What? They actually wanted their kids to get the measles? Indeed.

Yet today, thanks to irrational advertising, poorly educated doctors and misinformed parents, the measles are seen as an extremely dangerous illness that…

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Video: Oil & Gas Industry Giants Spend Millions in Attempt to Defeat Anti-Fracking Proposition in Colorado

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Nov 7, 2018: 12:07 am
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https://democracynow.org – Colorado voters have managed to get a statewide anti-fracking measure on the November ballot. Proposition 112 would require …

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Prison Planet.com » Illegal “VOTE STRAIGHT DEMOCRAT” Sign Posted at Polling Station in Pittsburgh

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Nov 6, 2018: 11:46 pm
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Sign is a violation of law prohibiting campaign material closer than 150 feet

Paul Joseph Watson
PrisonPlanet.com
November 6, 2018

Video footage out of Pittsburgh shows illegal campaign material appearing at a polling station.

The clip shows a sign that reads “VOTE STRAIGHT DEMOCRAT” posted on the door leading into the building.

The sign appeared at a polling station in war 19 of district 19 in Pittsburgh.

“THIS IS ELECTION TAMPERING,” writes the Twitter user who posted the original video. “I was sent this video by a friend who wishes to remain anonymous, I have blurred the reflections to obscure their identity. The attendant told this person “Don’t go making a fool of yourself”, after they complained… THIS MUST GO VIRAL.”

THIS IS ELECTION TAMPERING. I was sent this video by a friend who wishes to remain anonymous, I have blurred the reflections to obscure their identity. The attendant told this person “Don’t go making a fool of yourself”, after they complained… THIS MUST GO VIRAL. pic.twitter.com/Nsp0vsIkWS

— Carpe Donktum🔹 (@Carpedonktum) November 6, 2018

The user then added that the people working inside of the polling station were aware of the sign and that it was illegal, but didn’t care.

Posting a Second video from the same source, the attendants inside the polling place appear to KNOW who put the sign up, that it is illegal, and they don’t care. Faces have been blurred to protect their identities. pic.twitter.com/jiNigo0uU3

— Carpe Donktum🔹 (@Carpedonktum) November 6, 2018

Every state has laws that create campaign-free buffer zones around polling stations, with the partisan material being prohibited closer than 150 feet of a polling station.

SUBSCRIBE on YouTube:

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor at large of Infowars.com and

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Scott Horton: ‘New Media & The Terror Wars’

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Nov 6, 2018: 10:59 pm
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Antiwar.com Editorial Director Scott Horton delivered this talk on November 3, 2018 in Lake Jackson, Texas. He shared the stage with Lew Rockwell, Ron Paul, Daniel McAdams, et. al.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yQgqsoAIXk&w=560&h=315]

The post Scott Horton: ‘New Media & The Terror Wars’ appeared first on Antiwar.com Blog.

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Indiana police filmed beating handcuffed suspect as mayor’s cop son looks on (VIDEO) — RT US News

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Nov 6, 2018: 10:34 pm
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The mayor of Elkhart, Indiana has admitted that “in hindsight” the officers who were caught on CCTV beating a handcuffed suspect should have been given a harsher punishment by the police chief.

Earlier this year, a man was arrested by Elkhart police for felony domestic battery in front of a child as well as battery on a police officer, public intoxication, disorderly conduct, and resisting law enforcement.

CCTV footage from the police station shows the suspect spitting at officer Cory Newland before he and another cop, Joshua Titus, repeatedly punch the handcuffed man in front of two other officers – including the mayor’s son. The man was subsequently wheeled out of the station on a stretcher.

Speaking about the January 12, 2018 incident, Mayor Tim Neese told ProPublica that on reflection, Police Chief Ed Windbigler should have been tougher on the cops involved.

When asked whether the other officers present, including his son, could have done more to intervene, Neese conceded, “Some officers could have done more, and some officers probably could have done less.”

The mayor also admitted the case was only sent to the prosecutor’s office in October after a reporter for the South Bend Tribune asked for a copy of footage of the incident.

READ MORE: Florida police defend punching of 14yo girl lying on ground during arrest (VIDEO)

Upon investigation, the police administration found the officers used excessive force against the handcuffed suspect, and turned the inquiry over to the Elkhart County Prosecutor’s Office for further review on October 26.

On Friday, the prosecutor’s office said the two cops would be charged with criminal battery, a class A misdemeanor. They have both been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Indiana police filmed beating handcuffed suspect as mayor’s cop son looks on (VIDEO) — RT US News

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Nov 6, 2018: 10:34 pm
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The mayor of Elkhart, Indiana has admitted that “in hindsight” the officers who were caught on CCTV beating a handcuffed suspect should have been given a harsher punishment by the police chief.

Earlier this year, a man was arrested by Elkhart police for felony domestic battery in front of a child as well as battery on a police officer, public intoxication, disorderly conduct, and resisting law enforcement.

CCTV footage from the police station shows the suspect spitting at officer Cory Newland before he and another cop, Joshua Titus, repeatedly punch the handcuffed man in front of two other officers – including the mayor’s son. The man was subsequently wheeled out of the station on a stretcher.

Speaking about the January 12, 2018 incident, Mayor Tim Neese told ProPublica that on reflection, Police Chief Ed Windbigler should have been tougher on the cops involved.

When asked whether the other officers present, including his son, could have done more to intervene, Neese conceded, “Some officers could have done more, and some officers probably could have done less.”

The mayor also admitted the case was only sent to the prosecutor’s office in October after a reporter for the South Bend Tribune asked for a copy of footage of the incident.

READ MORE: Florida police defend punching of 14yo girl lying on ground during arrest (VIDEO)

Upon investigation, the police administration found the officers used excessive force against the handcuffed suspect, and turned the inquiry over to the Elkhart County Prosecutor’s Office for further review on October 26.

On Friday, the prosecutor’s office said the two cops would be charged with criminal battery, a class A misdemeanor. They have both been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-Brexit deal at any cost unacceptable: British PM

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Nov 6, 2018: 10:31 pm
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British Prime Minister Theresa May has said that she is not seeking a deal on her country’s withdrawal from the European Union at any cost, saying more time is needed to conclude the talks with Brussels on reaching a comprehensive Brexit agreement.

May’s spokesman said Tuesday that the premier had reiterated during a cabinet meeting earlier in the day that she still hoped to reach an imminent deal with the EU on how the future relations with the bloc would be after March 29, 2019, which is the official date for Britain’s departure from the EU.

The spokesman added, however, that reaching a divorce deal with the EU would “not be done at any cost,” meaning that there was still a huge chance Britain will simply crash out of the EU, a highly undesirable scenario which many believe would deeply hurt the two sides as many issues in trade, economy and security will be left unregulated.

Britain and the EU had expressed hope that their Brexit…

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Read Tim Berners-Lee’s Global Declaration for a Humane and Democratic Internet

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Nov 6, 2018: 10:07 pm
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The web was designed to bring people together and make knowledge freely available. Everyone has a role to play to ensure the web serves humanity. By committing to the following principles, governments, companies and citizens around the world can help protect the open web as a public good and a basic right for everyone.

The Contract Principles are available to read in Español, Français, Português and عربى.

Governments will

Ensure everyone can connect to the internet
So that anyone, no matter who they are or where they live, can participate actively online.

Keep all of the internet available, all of the time
So that no one is denied their right to full internet access.

Respect people’s fundamental right to privacy
So everyone can use the internet freely, safely and without fear.

Companies will

Make the internet affordable and accessible to everyone
So that no one is excluded from using and shaping the web.

Respect consumers’ privacy and personal data
So people are in control of their lives online.

Develop technologies that support the best in humanity and challenge the worst
So the web really is a public good that puts people first.

Citizens will

Be creators and collaborators on the web
So the web has rich and relevant content for everyone.

Build strong communities that respect civil discourse and human dignity
So that everyone feels safe and welcome online.

Fight for the web
So the web remains open and a global public resource for people everywhere, now and in the future.

Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Thirty-Six Million Early Votes Shatter Records for Youth and People of Color

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Nov 6, 2018: 9:52 pm
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Millions of voters head to the polls today for a midterm election that’s widely seen as a referendum on Donald Trump’s presidency, with both houses of Congress and 36 governor’s races in the balance. In fact, millions have already voted: A record 36 million Americans voted early this year, with participation high among young people and people of color. That’s up from 27 million four years ago, leading many to predict a record turnout for a midterm election. “If you look at the numbers, early voting is shattering records among young people, among people of color,” says Ari Berman, senior writer at Mother Jones. “We’re seeing a lot more people that typically sit out midterm elections going and showing up because they believe these races are so important.”

AMY GOODMAN: Millions of voters head to the polls today for a midterm election that’s widely seen as a referendum on Donald Trump’s presidency, with both houses of Congress and 36 governor’s races in the balance. In fact, millions have already voted. A record 36 million Americans voted early this year, with participation high among young people and people of color — record numbers. That’s up from 27 million four years ago, leading many to predict a record turnout for this midterm election today.

This comes as Politico is reporting glitches with voting machines in Texas and Georgia have caused some votes for Democrats to be switched for the Republican candidate or deleted. Experts have said the error is a technical malfunction. Voters and civil rights groups in Texas and Georgia have filed complaints in what are two of the most closely watched states this midterm election.

For more, we’re joined by Ari Berman, senior writer at Mother Jones, reporting fellow at The Nation Institute, author of Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America.

Don’t miss a beat

Get the latest news and thought-provoking analysis from Truthout.

So, I want to talk to you about where you were yesterday,…

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Prison Planet.com » Iran Is Preparing For A Long Siege As The Global Squeeze Begins

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Nov 6, 2018: 9:45 pm
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Elijah Magnier
Al Rai Media
November 6, 2018

On Monday the harshest and highest level economic and energy sanctions that can be imposed on any country have been imposed unilaterally on Iran. The US establishment will try its best to bring the Islamic Republic to its knees and Tehran will do its best to cross the US minefield. Whatever the outcome, Iran will never submit to Washington’s twelve conditions.

Iran is not a fledgling country ready to collapse at the imposition of the first tight sanctions, nor will Iran allow its oil exports to be frozen without reacting. In fact, US and UN sanctions against Iran date to the beginning of the Islamic Revolution and the fall of the Shah in 1979.

No doubt the Iranian economy will be affected. Nevertheless, Iranian unity today has reached new heights. President Trump has managed to bring reformists and radicals together under the same umbrella!

Iranian General Qassem Soleimani has said to President Hassan Rouhani: “You walk and we stand ahead of you. Don’t respond to Trump’s provocations because he is insolent and not at your level. I shall face him myself”. Rouhani believes “US policy and its new conspiracy will fail”. All responsible figures in the Iranian regime are now united under the leadership of Imam Ali Khamenei against the US policy whose aim is to curb the regime.

Under the previous worldwide sanctions regime, Iran began developing missile technology and precision weapons. Iran has never yielded in support of its allies because these alliances are an integral part of its ideology.

Today, Tehran is not standing alone against the US and is waiting to see what course global sanctions will take before reacting. Officials in Tehran, convinced that Trump will win a second term, are preparing for a long siege.

A d v e r t i s e m e n t

Sayyed Ali Khamenei said his country will never strike any deal with the US and won’t be a…

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The Rogues’ Gallery

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Nov 6, 2018: 9:43 pm
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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLLw1oURuvg]

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Capitalism Is Killing Patients… And Their Physicians

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Nov 6, 2018: 9:29 pm
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Photo Greanville Post

Physician burnout, depression, and suicide increasingly invade discussions within the medical field. Depression and suicide are more common among male and female physicians, with suicide rates 1.41 and 2.27 times greater than that of the general male and female populations, respectively. Though, the insults to the mental health of physicians begins much earlier in their career.

While the numbers may vary from study to study, some 28 percent of medical residents experience a major depressive episode during their training compared to 6 to 8 percent of the general population. These numbers are important, not only because suffering physicians are suffering humans in their own right, but also because this epidemic leads to poor patient care.

As a recent study out of the Stanford School of Medicine suggests, burnout and depression in physicians can lead to medical error and death. Many have tried to explain the causes of the epidemic, referencing everything from unmanageable workloads and work inefficiency, to lack of meaning in work and lack of work-life balance. Films are now being produced to shine light on the issue. In her TED talk “Why Doctors Kill Themselves,” Pamela Wible points to a medical school culture of hazing and bullying that continues into residency, along with a professional culture that hinders physicians from obtaining mental health treatment.

These factors certainly contribute to the epidemic, but when discussing physician…

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Video: Migration not a ‘human right’: Austria pulls out of UN-backed pact

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Nov 6, 2018: 9:28 pm
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Austria has announced that it would back out of a UN pact on international cooperation on migration, arguing that the document is inadequate for managing …

Via Youtube

Video: Migration not a ‘human right’: Austria pulls out of UN-backed pact

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Nov 6, 2018: 9:28 pm
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Austria has announced that it would back out of a UN pact on international cooperation on migration, arguing that the document is inadequate for managing …

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‘Charleston and Tree of Life Are Connected Struggles’ – CounterSpin interview with Audrey Sasson on antisemitism, racism and resistance

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Nov 6, 2018: 9:24 pm
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Janine Jackson interviewed Audrey Sasson about antisemitism, racism and resistance for the November 2, 2018, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

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MP3 Link

Janine Jackson: On October 5, Fox host Maria Bartiromo asked Sen. Chuck Grassley if he thought George Soros was “behind” public criticism of Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination—or, as she put it, “paying these people to get you and your colleagues in elevators or wherever they can get in your face.” Grassley responded:

I have heard so many people believe that. I tend to believe it. I believe it fits in his attack mode, and how he uses his billions and billions of resources. I think it promotes incivility in American society.

An hour later, Trump tweeted:

The very rude elevator screamers are paid professionals only looking to make Senators look bad. Don’t fall for it! Also, look at all of the professionally made identical signs. Paid for by Soros and others.

Neither Bartiromo nor Grassley nor Trump noted that George Soros is Jewish. They don’t need to. References to a billionaire secretly pulling the strings of disruptive, unpatriotic activists draw on decades, even centuries, of antisemitic ideas—ideas that can fuel violence, as painfully shown by the October 27 killing of 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.

That the horror of Jews being killed because they were Jews came shortly after two black people were killed because they were black, in a Kentucky grocery store, seemed to encourage some to think about the relationship between antisemitism and the white supremacy rearing its head in Trump-era public life. Others have been seeing those connections—and acting on them—for many years now. We’re joined now in studio by Audrey Sasson, executive director of Jews for Racial & Economic Justice. Welcome to CounterSpin, Audrey Sasson.

Audrey Sasson: Thank you so much; it’s a pleasure to be here.

JJ: Let’s start with the mythology around philanthropist George Soros, an actual, complex human being, deserving of scrutiny, like any other powerful person. It’s hard to overstate how large Soros looms in the minds of the right and far right. He was also sent a pipe bomb, along with other frequent Trump targets. Tell us about the Soros myth, and how it fits with what we know about how antisemitism works.

George Soros featured in Donald Trump ad

AS: I want to actually lift up, not only was he sent one of the bombs, he was sent the first bomb that went out to the political opponents. And that, I think, is significant. At JFREJ, we have for a long time, of course, been critical of the accumulation of capital and wealth, and how that is creating an unequal society, and we’re very invested in trying to push back against that.

But the case of Soros is troubling and obviously dangerous, for a lot of reasons. George Soros is Jewish, he is an immigrant and he is the face, really, of what is considered the typical conspiracy theory about Jewish power, Jewish globalism, Jewish puppet mastery over social movements.

And this is not new; this goes back centuries, as you mentioned. And in Trump’s campaign, it also came up early on. So I don’t know if you remember this, but Trump’s final campaign ad, that he did right before the election, included an image of Soros, talked about the elite globalists who are controlling everything.

And this idea of Jews controlling the economy, controlling popular disruption and unrest, basically does two things: It delegitimizes the message and it delegitimizes the messenger. And so when there are popular movements that are united, that are multiracial, that are cross-gender or cross-class, these movements get interrupted. And the idea here is that the people who are organizing don’t have the chops to do it on their own, they don’t have the agency to do it on their own. Oftentimes black and brown folks [who] are basically told—or in the case of Kavanaugh, women—that they don’t have the agency, so that they can’t really do this, but also that it is in the interest of these global elites to control what’s going on. And so it creates a very convenient target and scapegoat.

JJ: It’s saying that these these people, all of these people, could only be pawns, because they couldn’t possibly have these goals and the agency to act on them on their own, if they weren’t being puppet-mastered.

Well, the idea that Jews corrupt the “true citizens” of a nation, that also explains why Tree of Life was targeted, not just for their religion, but for their relationship with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. That’s why a guest on Fox Business accused Soros of masterminding the group of Central Americans struggling to seek asylum to the US. It has to do with bringing other people in, right?

AS: It’s the undesirables, exactly. So it is no coincidence that there was a direct link there, made by the shooter, between the synagogue and HIAS. The president, 45, has been talking about the caravan and the migrants in ways that would have evoked that, and so it was no surprise to see that there was a link being made there.

And so I think what it does is, it calls on us to actually double down on the fact that we are united and we won’t be divided. And what these attempts are, are really attempts to divide our movements, and we have to remain vigilant against that.

JJ: I wanted to just underscore one thing that former executive director of JFREJ Dove Kent wrote recently, that it isn’t “just antisemitism on its own, but antisemitism deployed against the left that gives the lie about Soros its cultural power.”

We can connect, you know, “the Koch brothers are funding this group and that group,” and it doesn’t have the same impact, because the Soros story feeds on all these other ideas…

Antisemitic flyer from 1950s

AS: Lies. We’ve seen it in the history. The civil rights movement is another example where this was done. I recently saw this totally amazing—I’m mean, it’s in our book as well, we have a guide called Understanding Antisemitism that we invite people to check out—and it has an example of this leaflet that was out in the ’50s, basically blaming the Jews for the civil rights movement; they are the puppet masters behind that, and that essentially the black community would not be rising up on its own without it.

The reason that it’s so important to connect the dots between white supremacy and antisemitism—and we’re seeing more and more understanding and acknowledgement of this, thanks to a lot of really good writing and analysis that’s being circulated right now—is that if people are dealing with a bad economy, inequality on so many levels–racial and economic inequality–and they’re looking for something to blame for that, we “punch up” against the Jews to “punch down” against the people of color and the immigrants and others. So that there’s sort of this space created where white Christian nationalists can basically say, “This is our home. This is our nation. You all, whether you’re Jewish on one side of this—and you’re not white, no matter how white you may look, you’re not white to us—you’re the ones that are basically responsible for this uprising by people down below us.” Then that creates an “us and them,” and it really paves the way towards the fascism that we see moving forward.

JJ: That’s a great point.

Of course, there’s another side to the linkage, which is the positive of the links. You almost sense some surprise on some of the media’s part, like, “Would you believe the first folks who came out in solidarity with the Jews in Pittsburgh were Muslims?” But this sort of solidarity among and across communities that face discrimination is itself not new and has its own long history.

AS: Absolutely. It has been incredibly powerful to be able to see that manifest and materialize, because we know; JFREJ has been in relationship with a lot of these groups, here for the last three decades, and across history, like you mentioned. We know that white Christian nationalism is coming after all of us; we see that. At our vigil on Saturday night, that JFREJ held to honor the memories of those fallen in Pittsburgh—and in Kentucky, frankly—we had Muslim allies come out, and they were the ones who named the centrality of antisemitism to white supremacy. We didn’t have to say that; they knew that they were coming arm-in-arm with us because we share—I don’t want to say “enemy”—but it’s really our shared purpose. Our shared purpose is to overcome that together, to build a world where we can all be in our multiracial splendor together!

LA Times (10/30/18)

JJ: Let me ask you about media. There was a thing in the LA Times, and it said, I’ll just read you this quote:

Activists said Trump’s vilification of liberal philanthropist George Soros, whom he has accused of hiring people to protest conservative causes, has played into conspiracy theories about wealthy Jews.

So we don’t know from this if Soros has hired protestors; it’s just something [Trump] claims. We don’t know whether Trump’s vilification of Soros actually plays into conspiracy theories. Not to mention that this quote is followed up with, “Trump’s supporters deny that he has stoked hate,” I just feel like this kind of reporting, “Activists claim there are conspiracy theories that target Jews,” I think the time for that has passed.

AS: Thank you for saying that. I couldn’t agree more. There’s a sort of “both sides” thing going on here. The dangers and the stakes are so high, the threats are escalating, we’re in a proto-fascist moment. And for the media to not be able to name that is at best just a willful ignorance, and at worst, it’s pushing an agenda that’s really not paying attention to the fact that there’s a context here for all of these dog whistles and all of these statements.

When Trump says he’s a nationalist and not a globalist, what is he saying? What is he saying right there? He’s doing two things. He has double duty right there.

He’s saying to his white Christian base that might not be neo-Nazis, he’s saying to them, “We’re together. We can build our white Christian nation together. I am with you. We are the ‘majority’”—according to him. And to the neo-Nazis out there, he’s saying, “I see you. I understand. Those Jews out there, they’re the problem. They’re the ones who are causing all this trouble for us by riling up the masses.”

And that foments violence. and that’s why we end up with the hate violence, the political violence—I don’t even want to say “hate.” It is political violence, and it’s political violence because it is targeted, it has a political purpose, and that purpose is to push us even further into this “us versus them,” white Christian nationalist state.

Twitter (10/30/18)

JJ: And there’s no reason for media to allow any sort of deniability there. Maybe, in terms of signals, this might be more subtle: Washington Post White House bureau chief Philip Rucker tweeted:

Remarkable protest seen in Squirrel Hill. Demonstrators are neither yelling nor chanting. They don’t seem angry. Old and young, they are walking peacefully, singing softly and letting their very presence (and placards) deliver their message.

I am not denying that he was moved, and that there is something powerful about quiet protest. But I can’t help but get a vibe there that, “They aren’t making noise like the…ahem…black people,” you know? That this is the “correct” way to protest: just weep quietly in the street. I really think we have to resist that policing of grief, for one thing.

I’m not really trying to accuse him of anything. I just think that any sort of thing that seems to hold some of our movements against others, that appears to contrast the Jewish resistance to the shooter in Pittsburgh—”It’s not like a Black Lives Matter march”—I think we’ve got to push back against that.

AS: A hundred percent, yeah. And of course JFREJ has been arm-in-arm with Black Lives Matter from the get-go, and our membership is multiracial, and we see these things as connected. Just today, someone called up the office and said, “I wanted to check in, because I think I heard there was a vigil tonight that was going to be honoring the Pittsburgh victims at the same time as the Kentucky victims, and I think that’s exactly what we need to be doing.” This was a Jewish woman up on the Upper West Side who saw what was going on and connected the dots and was like, “This is all of it.”

Charleston and Tree of Life, these are connected, these are connected struggles. We are all in this together. So yeah, any attempt to divide us, and any attempt to terrorize us into that isolation, is something we have to resist. We have to be mindful of the threats, we have to be real about all of that. But we have to resist the attempt to divide our communities.

Wall Street Journal (10/7/18)

JJ: Well, I was going to ask you where you see hope, and I think you just said it, really, with that increasing recognition. I meant, also—coming out of that Washington Post thing—I guess I really meant to just sort of say, what sorts of things would you like to see more or less of from media? So you can connect those two things, if you like, in your final thoughts.

AS: Yeah, I mean certainly, for the media to be a little bit more attentive to these sort of dog whistles, and to put them in context and to not let politicians be able to skate on these things. When someone says “incivility” or—there are certain terms that are clearly signaling an agenda that we shouldn’t let them get away with. You know, there was a Wall Street Journal piece a while back, when the tweets about Soros starting coming out, and there was a response saying that it’s antisemitic, and that we weren’t going to fall for it. Of course JFREJ said, “We’re not falling for this!” But there was a piece that really legitimized these things, like you said, creating, sort of, “What is the argument for or against calling Soros to task for funding these movements?”

The part that I want to also lift up is that we live in a world where there are going to be people who fund our movements, and that is not the same thing as paying protestors. Obviously, we shouldn’t have to explain that. But it was really strange, because the article is just like, “They even had a table set up with markers at the Kavanaugh hearing.” Like, “Clearly someone is paying for this and they’re going out of the way….”

And I want to just say, from a personal perspective: so I know intellectually and theoretically and from an organizing perspective, why all of that is totally messed up, and we need to be vigilant and we need to be mindful and we need to not buy into it.

And I was like, “Those women! The agency that it took to go out there, the courage it took for people to go and speak their truth, their vulnerable truth. And how dare you? How dare you take that away?”

To me, that was one of the most insidious things about it, that you would strip that agency away from people who are putting everything on the line in order to speak truth to power. Same with Pittsburgh, with anywhere where our movements are stepping into the line of fire, stepping into the really scary moment that we’re in. To take that away is just… How dare you?

Audrey Sasson: “I think we need to double down on what we have been doing, which is building multiracial coalition…understanding isolation is our enemy and the only way through this is together.”

And we all need to be doing more of, I think we are doing it, I am seeing it. I think we need to double down on what we have been doing, which is building multiracial coalition, building multifaith and multiracial coalition, understanding isolation is our enemy and the only way through this is together.

We are the majority. It’s not just that we are against all of these bad things. We also are the majority that are for so much good. Like the ideas, the organizations and the people on the ground that are fighting for Medicare for All, that are fighting against increasing concentration of wealth and power, that are fighting against entrenched racism within policing. We have a vision of a future where we can actually all have shared prosperity and power.

And shared prosperity and power is the only thing that is really going to push back against antisemitism and is going to push back against white supremacy. Those are the things that are going to get us there. I think that that is what we do share, and I think that we have to just leverage that and bring that to the front. I think we know what to do.

JJ: We’ve been speaking with Audrey Sasson, executive director of Jews for Racial & Economic Justice. They’re online at JFREJ.org, and that’s where you can find their resource, Understanding Antisemitism. Audrey Sasson, thank you so much for joining us today on CounterSpin.

AS: Thank you so much for having us.

This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission from FAIR.

Deja vu? Was the New Yorker just inspired by an old soviet cartoon on US elections? — RT US News

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Nov 6, 2018: 8:33 pm
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A new cartoon published by the New Yorker depicting voter suppression in the US has drawn comparisons with an old Soviet propaganda poster about electoral fraud and disenfranchisement in 1950s America.

The New Yorker cartoon published on Monday showing a whole series of obstacles in the way of American voters; a barbed wire fence, rings of fire, a crocodile — and finally, President Donald Trump arranging traffic cones in front of a ballot box at the end of the obstacle course.

Maria Antonova, an AFP Moscow correspondent was first to tweet the New Yorker cartoon alongside the 1950s Soviet poster by Veniamin Briskin, which likewise lists various barriers to voting over time, including voter intimidation, bribery, racism and sexism.

Today, Democrats and Republicans still frequently accuse each other of voter suppression and voter fraud — with Democrats complaining that Republicans support voting rules and policies that would prevent minorities (who lean Democrat) from voting, while Republicans claim that significant numbers of illegal immigrants vote in elections while Democrats turn a blind eye.

It might seem a bit rich for Soviet Russia to be satirizing American democracy, but what is uncanny about the 1950s poster is just how many of the criticisms are still being used as voters go the polls for the midterm elections today. In fact, the only thing really missing from the Soviet poster is a banner with the phrase “fake news”.

READ MORE: Nazis, racists, terrorists & thieves: Meet the scandals of the US congressional midterms

The Soviet Union made propaganda posters a specialty, and many have become art objects in their own right. In fact, with a new Reds under the Bed and anti-Russia scare underway, could the Briskin poster be not the only one that could potentially still apply?

The label on the socket panel in this Brezhnev-era poster reads “Anti-Soviet hysteria.”

While this classic from 1949 talks about the crime rate – citing US media stating that a felony is committed every 21 seconds.

Another poster from 1970 shows the US domestic policy in one eyeglass reflection, and its foreign policy in the other.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-Britain to open military base in Oman

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Nov 6, 2018: 8:31 pm
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UK Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson has announced that a joint military training base will be opened in Oman in March 2019, in a bid to shore up Britain’s trading relationships in the run up to its withdrawal from the European Union next year.

Williamson released the news on Monday as part of a trip to Oman in which he had talks with the Sultan of Oman and his Omani counterpart over civil cooperation and defense.

“Our relationship with Oman is built on centuries of cooperation and we are cementing that long into the future with the opening of our new joint base,” said Williamson, claiming that setting up the joint military base in Oman was an effort to counter states in the region that “seek to undermine stability and subvert the rules based order on which we all rely.”

The announcement follows Britain opening a permanent military base in Bahrain earlier this year.

UK Troops will begin training in March and will be trained…

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Censorship and Gun Control – LewRockwell

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Nov 6, 2018: 8:29 pm
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Sadly, but not unexpectedly, the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh is being used to justify new infringements on liberty. Of course, opponents of gun rights are claiming this shooting proves America needs more gun control. Even some who normally oppose gun control say the government needs to do more to keep guns out of the hands of the “mentally ill.” Those making this argument ignore the lack of evidence that background checks, new restrictions on the rights of those alleged to have a mental illness, or any other form of gun control would have prevented the shooter from obtaining a firearm.

Others are using the shooter’s history of posting anti-Semitic comments on social media to call for increased efforts by both government and social media websites to suppress “hate speech.” The shooter posted anti-Semitic statements on the social media site Gab. Gab, unlike Twitter and Facebook, does not block or ban users for offensive comments. After the shooting Gab was suspended by its internet service provider, and PayPal has closed the site’s account. This is an effort to make social media websites responsible for the content and even the actions of their users, turning the sites’ operators into thought police.

Swords into Plowshares
Ron Paul
Best Price: $5.19
Buy New $15.99
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Some social media sites, particularly Facebook and Twitter, are eager to silence not just bigots but those using their platforms to advocate for liberty. Facebook has recently banned a number of libertarian pages— including Cop Block, a site opposing police misconduct. Twitter has also banned a number of conservatives and libertarians, as well as critics of American foreign policy. Some libertarians…

Read more

Censorship and Gun Control – LewRockwell

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Nov 6, 2018: 8:29 pm
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Sadly, but not unexpectedly, the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh is being used to justify new infringements on liberty. Of course, opponents of gun rights are claiming this shooting proves America needs more gun control. Even some who normally oppose gun control say the government needs to do more to keep guns out of the hands of the “mentally ill.” Those making this argument ignore the lack of evidence that background checks, new restrictions on the rights of those alleged to have a mental illness, or any other form of gun control would have prevented the shooter from obtaining a firearm.

Others are using the shooter’s history of posting anti-Semitic comments on social media to call for increased efforts by both government and social media websites to suppress “hate speech.” The shooter posted anti-Semitic statements on the social media site Gab. Gab, unlike Twitter and Facebook, does not block or ban users for offensive comments. After the shooting Gab was suspended by its internet service provider, and PayPal has closed the site’s account. This is an effort to make social media websites responsible for the content and even the actions of their users, turning the sites’ operators into thought police.

Swords into Plowshares
Ron Paul
Best Price: $5.19
Buy New $15.99
(as of 08:45 EST – Details)

Some social media sites, particularly Facebook and Twitter, are eager to silence not just bigots but those using their platforms to advocate for liberty. Facebook has recently banned a number of libertarian pages— including Cop Block, a site opposing police misconduct. Twitter has also banned a number of conservatives and libertarians, as well as critics of American foreign policy. Some libertarians…

Read more

Video: Ukraine court extends Russian journalist’s detention, sparking protest rally in Moscow

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Nov 6, 2018: 8:26 pm
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A Ukrainian court has prolonged the detention of a Russian journalist until just before the new year. Kirill Vyshinsky, who has dual Russian-Ukrainian nationality, …

Via Youtube

Video: Ukraine court extends Russian journalist’s detention, sparking protest rally in Moscow

Multimedia

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Nov 6, 2018: 8:26 pm
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A Ukrainian court has prolonged the detention of a Russian journalist until just before the new year. Kirill Vyshinsky, who has dual Russian-Ukrainian nationality, …

Via Youtube

PressTV-Pentagon rejects military boost in Persian Gulf

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Nov 6, 2018: 8:25 pm
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The Pentagon has rejected a request issued by the US Central Command (CENTCOM) for deployment of additional troops to the Persian Gulf following the re-imposition of sanctions against Iran.

The American broadcaster CNN on Tuesday cited two military officials claiming the request for additional troops was made by CENTCOM in response to the US concerns that Iran could potentially launch an attack against American forces after the anti-Iran sanctions took effect on Monday.

The officials said the Pentagon had no intelligence indicating Iranians were planning retaliatory military operations against the US forces based in in the Persian Gulf.

Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, indicated that the Pentagon’s inventory fell short of demand in terms of military resources such as troops and equipment.

“That is one of the more important tasks we face, is to prioritize and allocate resources in accordance with the…

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The specter of Marx haunts the American ruling class

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Nov 6, 2018: 8:22 pm
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White House report on socialism

The specter of Marx haunts the American ruling class

6 November 2018

Last month, the Council of Economic Advisers, an agency of the Trump White House, released an extraordinary report titled “The Opportunity Costs of Socialism.” The report begins with the statement: “Coincident with the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth, socialism is making a comeback in American political discourse. Detailed policy proposals from self-declared socialists are gaining support in Congress and among much of the younger electorate.”

The very fact that the US government officially acknowledges a growth of popular support for socialism, particularly among the nation’s youth, testifies to vast changes taking place in the political consciousness of the working class and the terror this is striking within the ruling elite. America is, after all, a country where anti-communism was for the greater part of a century a state-sponsored secular religion. No ruling class has so ruthlessly sought to exclude socialist politics from political discourse as the American ruling class.

The 70-page document is itself an inane right-wing screed. It seeks to discredit socialism by identifying it with capitalist countries such as Venezuela that have expanded state ownership of parts of the economy while protecting private ownership of the banks, and, with the post-2008 collapse of oil and other commodity prices, increasingly attacked the living standards of the working class.

It identifies socialism with proposals for mild social reform such as “Medicare for all,” raised and increasingly abandoned by a section of the Democratic Party. It cites Milton Friedman and Margaret Thatcher to promote the virtues of “economic freedom,” i.e., the unrestrained operation…

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Prison Planet.com » Obama closes out campaign by talking about himself 89 times during Chicago appearance

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Nov 6, 2018: 7:42 pm
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American Mirror
November 6, 2018

Barack Obama is ending the midterm campaign by the way he started: Talking about himself.

A lot.

During a Sunday appearance in Chicago, the former president referred to himself no fewer than 89 times during a roughly 46-minute speech.

“First of all, you notice my throat is a little iffy,” Obama began, lamenting about the amount of campaigning he’s been doing this season.

Noting he was trying to sing backstage with an opening act, Obama said, “I realize now I’m not a professional singer.”

Being back in Chicago, he said, “I have some amazing friends I haven’t seen in a while.”

A d v e r t i s e m e n t

He couldn’t help but talk about his own election a decade ago, saying it was 10 years to the night that he had “a small event in Grant Park, and you had just elected me the 44th President of the United States.”

“The victory didn’t belong to me, it belonged to you,” he claimed.

Recalling his time in office, he said Republicans left him a mess, “And I had to grab a broom.”

Talking about a previous campaign stop earlier in the day, he said, “I was telling some folks in Gary (Indiana), you know, Michelle come home and I’m like, doing the dishes. And Michelle be like, and I’m like, look honey, I’m doing the dishes. And she went ‘Boy, you haven’t done the dishes in a month. What did you do wrong?’ Cause she knows I’m trying to put some spin on something.”

This article was posted: Tuesday, November 6, 2018 at 6:45 am

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Video: US athletes decry WADA’s decision to reinstate Russia, USADA threatens to cut funding

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Nov 6, 2018: 7:25 pm
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Western sports officials & athletes have criticized the World Anti-Doping Agency’s decision to reinstate Russia earlier this year. They made some emotional pleas …

Via Youtube

PressTV-American elections are a farce: Analyst

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Nov 6, 2018: 7:21 pm
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US elections are a farce because they are not representative of the desires of the majority of American people, according to Myles Hoenig, an American political analyst and activist.

Hoenig, a former Green Party candidate for Congress, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Tuesday as Americans voting in the 2018 midterm congressional elections that mark the first major voter test of Donald Trump’s presidency.

At stake in the elections are all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 35 seats in the 100-member Senate, 36 governor posts and seats in state legislatures across the country.

“American elections are a farce. A scam. Rigged. Unrepresentative of the desires of the people. A show for main stream media to justify their existence,” Hoenig told Press TV.

“Even if today’s election has a larger than expected turnout, it still is unlikely to represent a majority of eligible voters. Those who do not vote are not…

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Moneybags Blair claimed £1m in British taxpayers’ money over last decade — RT UK News

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Nov 6, 2018: 6:31 pm
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Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has claimed more than £1m in public funds since leaving office in 2007, as part of a previous confidential arrangement , it has been revealed.

A freedom of information tribunal last month, as first reported by The Sunday Times, revealed that Tony Blair has received £1,077,888 ($1.4m) over the last 10 years. The release of the information also showed former PMs John Major, Gordon Brown and David Cameron all claiming the allowance.

Read more

All past prime ministers since Major, who established the arrangement in 1991, have been entitled to claim the public duty cost allowance (PDCA) of up to £115,000 a year, to cover costs of ongoing public arrangements when they step down from office.

The most recent figures show that in period 2016-17, Blair and Major both claimed the maximum possible of £115,000, while Brown claimed £114,838 and Cameron £50,227.

Tony Blair was said to be worth £60m in 2015. His property empire was worth an estimated £27m in 2016 and he reportedly earns up to £229,000 ($300,000) per speech as part of his public speaking arrangement. It begs the question, does an individual who has amassed such huge wealth really need taxpayers’ money?

According to The Independent, officials at the Cabinet Office have bullishly tried to prevent any receipts and evidence for the PDCA from coming out into the public domain. Civil servants have insisted the total amount each politician had claimed each year should be published, but the details of what each former PM claimed for, should not be made known.

The hearing on October 22 was told that the Cabinet Office, which runs the allowance scheme, did hold evidence submitted by the other former premiers; Blair’s supporting evidence was provided for inspection but not retained by the Cabinet Office.

A spokesman for Blair said: “Tony Blair receives what is given to former prime ministers in exactly the same way as his predecessors, including reimbursement for costs associated with his former role.”

Sharon Carter, head of the propriety and ethics team at the Cabinet Office, told the hearing in a witness statement: “There has been no expectation that the information provided in support of the claims for the PDCA would be made public.”

“The total amounts claimed have been published for some years and the expectation of the former prime ministers was that this was an appropriate level of transparency.”

READ MORE: Tony Blair Institute confirms it received funding from Saudi Arabia

After stepping down as prime minister in 2007, Blair took on several roles, including his highly criticized job as Middle East envoy for the UN, which he held for eight years. He also formed Tony Blair Associates to give “strategic advice” to a myriad of clients, which included governments in Kuwait, Kazakhstan and Mongolia, as well as oil companies.

More recently, critics have urged him to cut ties with the Saudi regime, in light of the ongoing war in Yemen that has seen thousands of civilians die, and the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Blair’s Institute for Global Change reportedly signed a deal worth £9 million ($11.6 million) with the Saudi government earlier this year, in order to “support the change program” in the country.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

MSNBC declares Dem victory in Florida governor election… day before voting begins — RT US News

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Nov 6, 2018: 6:29 pm
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MSNBC can now boast of being the first news outlet to break results from Tuesday’s midterm elections – hours before voting began. The network said it “misfired” after airing a fake vote tally from Florida’s gubernatorial race.

Viewers watching MSNBC’s election coverage on the eve of nationwide midterms were likely puzzled to learn that Democrat Andrew Gillum had already been declared the next governor of Florida. With 99 percent of the votes counted, Gillum had purportedly triumphed over his rival, Republican Ron DeSantis, by 0.6 percentage points, MSNBC reported almost a full day before voting was set to begin.

MSNBC accidentally shows false results of Tomorrow’s election that has not happened in Florida showing socialist Gillum in slight lead against ⁦@RonDeSantisFL⁩. Wishful thinking? What do you think https://t.co/IHaTFIAYEq

— Sara A. Carter (@SaraCarterDC) November 6, 2018

Host Chris Hayes quickly clarified the prophecy, blaming the fictitious tally – which was briefly flashed on screens across the US – on a system “misfire.”

“Quick clarification here,” Hayes announced during the election eve broadcast. “Just want to say, earlier this hour we showed a graphic of the Florida gubernatorial race. May have caught your eye because our system had inadvertently populated some test numbers.”

He added that “obviously” the network does not have vote totals the night before the election. Not everyone was satisfied with Hayes’ innocuous explanation, however, with some even speculating that something extremely nefarious was afloat.

“That’s not a misfire. That’s a case-in-point example of why Americans don’t trust the media — why President Donald Trump’s labeling of the press as the enemy of the people resonate with the people,” Washington Times columnist Cheryl K. Chumley wrote in a piece published by the conservative paper. She went on to question how MSNBC’s graphics software could have “gone rogue” without some sort of human input.

Social media reactions varied widely. The mishap is proof of a dark conspiracy, or an example of harmless human error, depending on whom you ask on Twitter.

This is a blatant attempt to influence the election. DeSantis should sue MSNBC for every penny they have

— Publius (@Publius7) November 6, 2018

Republicans don’t watch MSNBC anyway, what difference will it make? But for Republican pundits crying about it, surely no more than a few hundred Republicans in the entire state of Florida probably saw it.

— Fascist Insect (@JeffGuidry3) November 6, 2018

Moral of the story? If you prefer election coverage without “misfires”, tune in to RT! Our election results coverage begins at 10 PM EST.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: US political branding tradition: ‘Troika of tyranny’ takes over from ‘axis of evil’

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Nov 6, 2018: 6:24 pm
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America’s National Security Adviser has announced fresh sanctions against Cuba and Venezuala. John Bolton said the two Latin American states, along with …

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Prison Planet.com » 12,000 Inside Trump/GOP Chattanooga Rally As Leftists Chant Against America Outside

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Nov 6, 2018: 5:41 pm
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Weasel Zippers
November 6, 2018

One side loves America, the other hates it.

WATCH: this is what it’s like at a #MAGA rally packed with 12,000 people when VP @mike_pence comes on stage in Chattanooga to introduce President @realDonaldTrump. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/L4HF0WMX6J

— Marc Lotter (@marc_lotter) November 5, 2018

Democrats take a knee outside a Republican Rally in Chattanooga, Tennessee, during the the National Anthem.

They yell out “Racist song! Racist country!” at one point one protesters yells out “F*** this song!”

Excuse me, but absolutely no one is stopping you all from moving out! pic.twitter.com/jEAkpFkVVT

— Cali-Conservative🇺🇸 (@CaliConsrvative) November 5, 2018

This article was posted: Tuesday, November 6, 2018 at 6:49 am

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Video: Faces of WWII: Archeologists find film revealing image of Soviet fighters

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Nov 6, 2018: 5:23 pm
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A camera dating back to the Second World War has been recovered from a trench in southern Russia. And, against all the odds, one frame from the roll of film …

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UK ‘heading for a no deal’ Brexit – DUP Chief Whip puts fear in Remainers’ hearts — RT UK News

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Nov 6, 2018: 4:30 pm
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The UK will crash out of the EU with a no deal Brexit, the Chief Whip of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) – the Tories’ Westminster ally – has warned.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson tweeted, Tuesday, that a UK-EU deal was unlikely, criticising the Irish government and warning them that a no-deal Brexit would mean “serious consequences” for their economy.

Ireland and the UK are locked in talks over the ‘Irish backstop’ – a proposal that would temporarily keep the UK in the customs union, following Brexit – in order to prevent a hard-border between the North and the Republic which would undermine the Good Friday Agreement.

READ MORE: No-deal Brexit is ‘more likely than ever,’ Donald Tusk tells EU leaders

Brussels and Dublin rejected the proposal from beleaguered Brexit Secretary, Dominic Raab, for the UK to have a right to unilaterally pull out of the backstop.

Ireland’s foreign minister, Simon Coveney, tweeted: “…a backstop that could be ended by the UK unilaterally would never be agreed to by IRE or EU,” prompting Donaldson’s response.

Looks like we’re heading for no deal. Such an outcome will have serious consequences for economy of Irish Republic. In addition, UK won’t have to pay a penny more to EU, which means big increase for Dublin. Can’t understand why Irish Government seems so intent on this course. https://t.co/1L4WF1n85N

— Jeffrey Donaldson MP (@J_Donaldson_MP) November 6, 2018

The threat of losing DUP support is a constant worry for Theresa May, without the Ulster unionists’ support the Tories would be unable to guarantee a majority in parliament threatening any potential Brexit deal.

Downing Street says Theresa May has told the Cabinet, on Tuesday, she is confident of reaching a withdrawal agreement with the EU and wanted to do so as soon as possible but it must “not be done at any cost.”

Her optimism was immediately dampened by the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, who said that a deal on the Irish border was not “close” and that a “real point of divergence” on the issue remains.

The EU’s proposal that Northern Ireland would remain in the customs union and in the single market for goods, has been rejected by London. May is worried that accepting the deal would lead to a rebellion from the hard-Brexit faction in her party.

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Helpinksi? White House commemorative coins from Trump-Putin Helsinki summit get a few things wrong — RT US News

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Nov 6, 2018: 4:29 pm
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The White House clearly did not employ the services of a copy editor before releasing commemorative coins from Donald Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, which contain no less than three typos.

NPR business reporter Alina Selyukh, a Russian native, tweeted pictures of the grammatically botched coins, pointing out that the word ‘Helsinki’ itself was spelled incorrectly in Russian and actually read ‘Helpinski’.

Help? Maybe it’s some kind of coded message from the Trump administration? Surely there is a conspiracy theorist who could look into this immediately.

Got a chance to see the White House commemorative coin from Trump’s meeting with Putin in Helsinki. So far spotted 3 typos in the Russian inscriptions, including in the word “Helsinki.” pic.twitter.com/yhZapuL1sN

— Alina Selyukh (@alinaselyukh) November 5, 2018

There seems to actually be three mistakes, including incorrect grammar on the phrase “new era” and another very avoidable error on the word ‘Diplomatic’ which actually read “DDiplomatic.”

Never mind a Russian-speaking copy editor, even a quick run through Google Translate would probably have been enough to fix that one.

ХЕЛЬПИНСКИЙ (Helpinsky) instead of Хельсинский (Helsinsky) (adjective of Helsinki)
НОВОЕ ЭРА (neuter adjective with feminine noun) instead of Новая эра
ДДипломатическая история (two “d”s at the beginning of the word) instead of Дипломатическая история

— Michele A. Berdy (@MicheleBerdy) November 6, 2018

No executive branch in the history of our great nation, has ever need a copy editor, more.
The double д in “ддипломатичный” just hurts.
Admittedly, the acronym for “Make Official Written Statements Grammatically Correct Again” doesn’t make for a strong hashtag or trucker’s cap.

— Todd Breasseale (@TBreassealeDHS) November 5, 2018

There’s clearly a deliberate Trump strategy to troll eggheads by stupidly misspelling things, right? Even in Russian? Here we have “ddiplomacy”, “Helpinsky”, and the gender is wrong on “new era”. https://t.co/kExtBsKURJ

— Matt Steinglass (@mattsteinglass) November 5, 2018

Twitter users were quick to make fun of the mistakes, noting that the beautiful city of ‘Helpinksi’ is a lovely place to visit at this time of year, particularly if you’re on a ‘ddiplomatic’ mission.

I hear Helpinski is beautiful this time of year.

— Irina (@IrinaMikhale) November 5, 2018

But it wasn’t just accurate Russian spelling and grammar that eluded the coin designers. Selyukh also noticed that the inscribed Trump quote — “the past does not have to define our future” — actually comes from his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a month earlier.

READ MORE: Writer-in-chief? Internet ‘pours over’ Trump Twitter typo

The typo-laden coins, which are part of the White House’s ‘Historic Moments’ series, can be yours for the reasonable price of $100. Also available for pre-order is ‘A Study In Genius — The Presidency of Donald J. Trump’ — if you have $175 to spare.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Helpinksi? White House commemorative coins from Trump-Putin Helsinki summit get a few things wrong — RT US News

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Nov 6, 2018: 4:29 pm
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The White House clearly did not employ the services of a copy editor before releasing commemorative coins from Donald Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, which contain no less than three typos.

NPR business reporter Alina Selyukh, a Russian native, tweeted pictures of the grammatically botched coins, pointing out that the word ‘Helsinki’ itself was spelled incorrectly in Russian and actually read ‘Helpinski’.

Help? Maybe it’s some kind of coded message from the Trump administration? Surely there is a conspiracy theorist who could look into this immediately.

Got a chance to see the White House commemorative coin from Trump’s meeting with Putin in Helsinki. So far spotted 3 typos in the Russian inscriptions, including in the word “Helsinki.” pic.twitter.com/yhZapuL1sN

— Alina Selyukh (@alinaselyukh) November 5, 2018

There seems to actually be three mistakes, including incorrect grammar on the phrase “new era” and another very avoidable error on the word ‘Diplomatic’ which actually read “DDiplomatic.”

Never mind a Russian-speaking copy editor, even a quick run through Google Translate would probably have been enough to fix that one.

ХЕЛЬПИНСКИЙ (Helpinsky) instead of Хельсинский (Helsinsky) (adjective of Helsinki)
НОВОЕ ЭРА (neuter adjective with feminine noun) instead of Новая эра
ДДипломатическая история (two “d”s at the beginning of the word) instead of Дипломатическая история

— Michele A. Berdy (@MicheleBerdy) November 6, 2018

No executive branch in the history of our great nation, has ever need a copy editor, more.
The double д in “ддипломатичный” just hurts.
Admittedly, the acronym for “Make Official Written Statements Grammatically Correct Again” doesn’t make for a strong hashtag or trucker’s cap.

— Todd Breasseale (@TBreassealeDHS) November 5, 2018

There’s clearly a deliberate Trump strategy to troll eggheads by stupidly misspelling things, right? Even in Russian? Here we have “ddiplomacy”, “Helpinsky”, and the gender is wrong on “new era”. https://t.co/kExtBsKURJ

— Matt Steinglass (@mattsteinglass) November 5, 2018

Twitter users were quick to make fun of the mistakes, noting that the beautiful city of ‘Helpinksi’ is a lovely place to visit at this time of year, particularly if you’re on a ‘ddiplomatic’ mission.

I hear Helpinski is beautiful this time of year.

— Irina (@IrinaMikhale) November 5, 2018

But it wasn’t just accurate Russian spelling and grammar that eluded the coin designers. Selyukh also noticed that the inscribed Trump quote — “the past does not have to define our future” — actually comes from his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a month earlier.

READ MORE: Writer-in-chief? Internet ‘pours over’ Trump Twitter typo

The typo-laden coins, which are part of the White House’s ‘Historic Moments’ series, can be yours for the reasonable price of $100. Also available for pre-order is ‘A Study In Genius — The Presidency of Donald J. Trump’ — if you have $175 to spare.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-UK arrests 5 men for tasteless Grenfell Tower gag: Video

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Nov 6, 2018: 4:27 pm
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UK police have arrested five men in relation to an online video that shows a cardboard model of Grenfell Tower set ablaze, mocking last year’s tragic inferno that destroyed the West London apartment building killing 72 of its residents.

London’s Metropolitan Police said Monday that the men aged between the 19 and 55 and were suspected of a “public order offense” as investigation continued into the video.

The suspects handed themselves into South London police late on Monday.

The harrowing video, which has now gone viral, shows a group of people placing a cardboard Grenfell Tower with residents painted in some of its windows in the center of a bonfire.

The anonymous clip then shows onlookers mimic the screams of the residents who were killed in the huge fire that engulfed the housing tower block in June 2017.

As the effigy starts to catch fire, bystanders can be heard on the video shouting in a mocking manner “Help me, help me,” while one…

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The Libertarian Quest – LewRockwell

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Nov 6, 2018: 4:24 pm
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“To historians is granted a talent that even the gods are denied – to alter what has already happened!”
(David Irving)

It is no secret that I am not a Hayekian. Still, I consider Hayek a great economist – not in the same league as Mises, but few if any economists are. Hayek’s fame in the public mind, however, has less to do with his economic writings but stems largely from his writings in political theory, and it is in this area where I consider Hayek as mostly deficient. Not even his system of definitions here is internally consistent. His excursions into the field of epistemology are quite ingenious, yet also here he falls short of the accomplishments of his teacher Mises. Nonetheless, owing to his wide-ranging interdisciplinary oeuvre, which contains a treasure trove of keen insights into many issues, I consider Hayek one of the 20^th century’s outstanding intellectuals writing in the social sciences.

As a reflection of this esteem, Hayek was also quoted in the programmatic statement of the PFS. “We must make the building of a free society once more an intellectual adventure, a deed of courage. What we lack is a liberal Utopia, a programme which seems neither a mere defence of things as they are nor a diluted kind of socialism, but a truly liberal radicalism which does not spare the susceptibilities of the mighty…, which is not too severely practical and which does not confine itself to what appears today as politically possible. We need intellectual leaders who are prepared to resist the blandishments of power and influence and who are willing to work for an ideal, however small may be the prospects of its early realization. They must be men who are willing to stick to principles and to fight for their full…

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Video: Inferno secretary: BoJo effigy set ablaze at the stake on Bonfire Night

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Nov 6, 2018: 4:22 pm
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An effigy of the UK’s ex-foreign secretary Boris Johnson was set ablaze in Edenbridge, Kent, on Saturday, as part of the Edenbridge Bonfire Society’s …

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PressTV-Americans start voting in critical midterm elections

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Nov 6, 2018: 4:18 pm
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US citizens have started voting in the 2018 midterm congressional elections in which 35 million early votes have already been cast.

Polling stations opened at 6:00 am (1100 GMT) Tuesday on the East Coast, Republicans were keenly aware that losing their majority will hamstring his divisive, nativist political agenda over the next two years.

Republican President Donald Trump has warned voters that a Democratic victory in the elections destroys the American economy and makes way for a “socialist nightmare.”

At stake in the elections are all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 35 seats in the 100-member Senate, 36 governor’s posts and seats in state legislatures across the country.

Americans will elect lawmakers for all 435 seats in the House of Representative and 35 seats of the 100 seats in the Senate will be contested. In addition, 39 state and territorial governorship as well as numerous other state and local elections will…

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Trump’s War on the Fed

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Nov 6, 2018: 3:51 pm
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October was a brutal month for the stock market. After the Fed’s eighth interest rate hike on September 26^th, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 2,000 points and the NASDAQ had its worst month in nearly 10 years. After the Dow lost more than 800 points on October 10^th and the S&P 500 suffered its first weeklong losing streak since Trump’s election, the president said, “I think the Fed is making a mistake. They are so tight. I think the Fed has gone crazy.” In a later interview on Fox News, he called the Fed’s rate hikes “loco.” And in a Wall Street Journal interview published on October 24th, Trump said he thought the biggest risk to the economy was the Federal Reserve, because “interest rates are being raised too quickly.” He also criticized the Fed and its chairman in July and August.

Trump’s vocal criticisms are worrisome to some commentators, who fear he is attempting to manipulate the Fed and its chairman for political gain. Ever since the 1970s, the Fed has declared its independence from government, and presidents are supposed to avoid influencing its decisions. But other Fed-watchers think politicians should be allowed to criticize the market manipulations of an apparently out-of-control central bank.

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Why the Frontal Attack?

Even if the president’s challenges are a needed check on the Fed, it has been questioned whether he is going about it in the right way. Challenging the central bank in public forces it to stick to its guns, because it must maintain its credibility with the markets by showing that its decisions are based on sound economic principles rather than on political influence. If the president really wants the Fed to back off on interest rates, it has been argued, he should do it with a nod and a nudge, not a frontal attack on the Fed’s sanity.

True, but perhaps the president’s goal is not to subtly affect Fed behavior so much as to make it patently…

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Pablo’s Ghost

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Nov 6, 2018: 3:43 pm
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Fernando Botero’s portrayal of Escobar’s death in one of his paintings, detailing the violence seen in Colombia.

Roberto ‘Cubby’ Escobar is the 71-year old, former accountant of the defunct Medellín drug cartel and the curator of the Pablo Escobar Museum, which he established after his release from prison in 2006. The museum honors the memory of Colombia’s most famous criminal, who is his brother. Housed in a former hideout, it capitalizes on the growing stream of foreign tourists who want to know more about the notorious drug lord, and Cubby is the bobble-headed dashboard adornment of the vehicle bearing the late capo’s decontaminated image to them.

Once known as the ‘King of Cocaine,’ Pablo Escobar is now more popular than ever, even though he died in 1993. His name is associated with a multi-million dollar, globe-spanning tourist and entertainment industry that has accelerated the romanticization and commodification of his life. His legacy has generated tensions between the Colombian state, which wants to separate the country from an international image of drug-fueled violence, and savvy entrepreneurs who want to capture tourist dollars by glorifying his over-the-top lifestyle. The frictions shape a struggle over the meaning and truths of Escobar’s life, which is part of a larger story of a vicious civil war fueled by the massive profits of the illegal cocaine traffic. That struggle is worth understanding, because it has international implications…

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Prison Planet.com » Facebook could soon suggest people standing near you as friends

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Nov 6, 2018: 3:40 pm
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Daily Mail
November 6, 2018

Facebook has patented a creepy new feature that uses sensors on your phone to see you in nearby – and suggest them as a friend.

The firm’s patent says the feature could be used when the ‘first user and the second user forgot to obtain each other’s full names and contact information.’

It even reveals that phone sensors could spot people with similar movement patterns’.

‘In one embodiment, the broadcast trigger can occur when data from at least one of a gyroscope, an accelerometer, or a motion processor of the computing system indicates that the computing system is moving in a movement pattern similar to that of a source of the second wireless communication,’ the patent says.

It would use a range of sensors, including Bluetooth and NFC, and also analyze signal strength to find out who is nearby.

The patent goes on to explain how sensors in the phone could monitor nearby people using the same ‘connection suggestion module’.

It could even use GPS, and analyze ‘a stationary pattern, a walking pattern, a running pattern, or a vehicle-riding pattern’ to find users.

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This article was posted: Tuesday, November 6, 2018 at 7:01 am

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The Banality of Evil Creeps into those Who Believe They Are Good

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Nov 6, 2018: 3:28 pm
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You can have my social worker credentials when you pry them from my cold dead hands!

I was at a city hall meeting in Beaverton, Oregon, the other day when a few questions I had for the presenters dropped jaws. We’ll get to that later, the jaw-dropping effect I and those of my ilk have when we end up in the controlled boardrooms and chambers of the controllers – bureaucrats, public-private clubs like Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, and both political operatives and those who liken themselves as the great planners of the world moving communities and housing and public commons around a giant chessboard to make things better for and more efficient in spite of us.

Look, I am now a social worker who once was a print journalist who once was a part-time college instructor (freeway flyer adjunct teaching double the load of a tenured faculty) facilitating literature, writing, rhetoric classes, and others. The power of those “planners” and “institutional leadership wonks” and those Deanlets and Admin Class and HR pros and VPs and Provosts to swat down a radical but effective teacher/faculty/instructor/lecturer isn’t (or wasn’t then) so surprising. I was one of hundreds of thousands of faculty, adjunct, hit with 11th Hour appointments, Just-in-Time gigs and called one-week-into-the-semester with offers to teach temporarily. Then, the next logical step of precarity was when a dean or department head or someone higher got wind of a disgruntled student, or…

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Video: ‘Offensive’ & ‘insensitive’: Public reacts to Hillary Clinton’s ‘they all look alike’ joke

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Nov 6, 2018: 3:21 pm
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Hillary Clinton is facing a backlash after jibing that African-Americans ‘all look alike.’ She was correcting an interviewer, who mixed up two Democrat politicians.

Via Youtube

PressTV-Russian jet intercepts US spy plane over Black Sea

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Nov 6, 2018: 3:17 pm
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A Russian fighter jet has intercepted an American spy plane that was taking part in a NATO military exercise over the Black Sea in an effort “to prevent a violation” of Russian borders, Russia’s Defense Ministry says.

The ministry said in a statement on Monday that a Su-27 fighter jet had intercepted a US Navy EP-3E Aries spy plane that had been approaching the Russian border.

“It [the Su-27 jet] approached the aircraft at a safe distance… and escorted it away from the airspace of the Russian Federation in compliance with all security and safety requirements,” the ministry explained.

“The fighter’s crew reported identifying the US electronic surveillance plane and escorted it to prevent a violation of Russia’s border, while following all the safety guidelines,” the statement added.

The US Navy, which has posted a video of the incident on Twitter, accused the Russian military of having conducted an “unsafe”…

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Five arrested over Grenfell Tower effigy burning — RT UK News

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Nov 6, 2018: 2:26 pm
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Five men have been arrested, after handing themselves in at a South London police station, over a video showing a Grenfell Tower effigy burning which emerged on social media, leading to public and political outrage.

The men, aged 19, 46, 55 and two 49-year-olds, were arrested on the suspicion of a public order offence, which covers intentional “harassment, alarm or distress” caused via the use of “threatening, abusive or insulting” words or signs.

READ MORE: ‘Huge’ amount of potentially carcinogenic toxins found near Grenfell Tower site – expert

Scotland Yard launched an investigation following public and political outcry over the video showing a group of people laughing as they burn an effigy of Grenfell Tower. In total, 72 people died in the blaze at the West London tower block in June last year.

Prime Minister Theresa May tweeted that the video was “utterly unacceptable,” while Home Secretary Sajid Javid dubbed it “disgusting, shameful, behaviour.”

To disrespect those who lost their lives at Grenfell Tower, as well as their families and loved ones, is utterly unacceptable. https://t.co/i4PeM2cGBd

— Theresa May (@theresa_may) November 5, 2018

Labour MP Emma Dent Coad, in whose Kensington constituency Grenfell Tower resides, was a part of an online effort to identify those in the video.

As the cardboard model of the tower block begins to burn, the group of men and women can be heard laughing. One man appears to mockingly say, “stay in your flat” as he re-positions the effigy above burning hot coals. “Help me, help me,” another man shrieks, apparently in jest, as the fire climbs the paper model.

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Midterms/Madterms: Who said it would be pretty? (VIDEO)

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Nov 6, 2018: 2:23 pm
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Campaign for 2018 US midterm elections has been marred by mutual hostility, toxic rhetoric, and even some violence. Is this a low point that the country simply has to push through, or only a preview for a nightmarish 2020?
Read Full Article at RT.com

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Midterms/Madterms: Who said it would be pretty? (VIDEO)

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Nov 6, 2018: 2:23 pm
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Campaign for 2018 US midterm elections has been marred by mutual hostility, toxic rhetoric, and even some violence. Is this a low point that the country simply has to push through, or only a preview for a nightmarish 2020?
Read Full Article at RT.com

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Midterms/Madterms: Who said it would be pretty? (VIDEO)

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Nov 6, 2018: 2:23 pm
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Campaign for 2018 US midterm elections has been marred by mutual hostility, toxic rhetoric, and even some violence. Is this a low point that the country simply has to push through, or only a preview for a nightmarish 2020?
Read Full Article at RT.com

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Eerie beauty: Abkhazia ghost town is being reclaimed by nature

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Nov 6, 2018: 2:20 pm
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Akarmara was built after World War II. Mining production kicked off soon after and in the 1980s it was home to around 40000 Soviet citizens. All that changed …

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PressTV-France’s Macron calls for ‘real European army’ without US

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Nov 6, 2018: 2:16 pm
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French President Emmanuel Macron has called for the establishment of a “real European army,” claiming that Europe has been the chief victim of a recent US decision to scrap a major nuclear arms pact with Russia.

“We will not be able to protect Europeans if we don’t decide to have a real European army,” Macron said in an interview with Europe 1 radio on Monday.

He said Europe had to defend itself in a “more sovereign way” and without depending “only on the United States.”

Macron’s remarks came after US President Donald Trump confirmed late last month that his administration planned to abandon the landmark Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) with Russia over claims that Moscow has violated the Cold War-era pact, further vowing American development of such armaments.

The INF, which was signed in 1986 between then-US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev, allowed the US to counter…

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Trump Tells ‘Protesters’ To “Go Back To Mommy”

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Nov 6, 2018: 1:39 pm
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“A weak person with a weak voice”

Steve Watson
Prison Planet.com
November 6, 2018

During a rally in Fort Wayne, IN Monday night, President Trump was interrupted by detractors yelling in protest.

The President noted that the media’s camera “turned like a pretzel,” to capture the critics in action, but they never pan around at any other time because it would reveal the truly massive size of his crowds.

“They keep it right trained in my face, which I don’t like and about five people behind me.” Trump declared, quipping, “somebody there is going to be a star!”

When a second person interrupted, Trump simply yelled back “Out! Out!”

As security removed the individuals the President told his detractors to “Go home to mommy! Go home to mommy.”

Trump described the individual as “a weak person with a weak voice.”

“You know the funny thing about this stuff though?” noted Trump. “There’s a guy who is a weak person with a weak voice. Nobody hears him, but our guys are all going crazy like this [gestures].”

“Our guys actually make the disturbance, but that’s OK,” Trump further told the crowd. “We love our guys. What can we do? We love ’em.”

Trump response drew raucous applause, as the ‘protesters’ were escorted out of the building.

While thousands packed inside the stadium, a smattering of protesters outside were kneeling and playing the national anthem while yelling “Racist song! Racist country!” at one point one protester even yelled “F*** this song!”

Democrats take a knee outside a Republican Rally in Chattanooga, Tennessee, during the the National Anthem.

They yell out “Racist song! Racist country!” at one point one protesters yells out “F*** this song!”

Excuse me, but absolutely no one is stopping you all from moving out! pic.twitter.com/jEAkpFkVVT

— Cali-Conservative🇺🇸 (@CaliConsrvative) November 5, 2018

…

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Australian workers at union rally oppose attacks on conditions, criticise Labor Party

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WSWS
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Nov 6, 2018: 1:21 pm
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Australian workers at union rally oppose attacks on conditions, criticise Labor Party

By
Terry Cook

6 November 2018

Workers at the October 30 Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) “Change the Rules” rally in Newcastle spoke to Socialist Equality Party (SEP) members about the destruction of working conditions that both Liberal-National and Labor-led governments have enforced.

Ron, a 57-year-old prefab concrete production worker, was employed as a casual for the past five years by a company that makes bridges and rail platforms, without being offered a full-time position. He suffered an injury and has been “thrown on scrapheap.”

“When I was young and first went into an industry, I never thought I would see the levels of casualisation that exist today,” Ron said. “A worker could always get full-time work, but not now. For many workers, casual work with no entitlements, no holiday or sick pay is the only thing on offer.

“They claim that casual workers get loading instead of conditions but it is not easy to put this money aside to cover sick leave and holidays. With the cost of living now and low wages the slightly higher rates of pay are quickly eaten up just feeding a family and paying for other essentials.”

Ron said he attended the rally “because I am concerned about the prevailing situation that only looks after company profits, and something has to be done to change this.”

When an SEP member explained that the ACTU campaign was not about defending workers’ conditions but was aimed at the election of another big business Labor government, Ron commented: “I do not think that electing Labor will make any difference because it has lost all connection with the working man.

“That connection does not exist. Even workers in the mining industry…

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Video: Drinking forces? Iceland goes dry after NATO troops guzzled all its beer

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Nov 6, 2018: 1:19 pm
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NATO is holding its largest military exercise since the end of the Cold War. The drills kicked off last week and stretch from the Baltic Sea to Iceland. While the …

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PressTV-Trump’s troop deployment to border to cost $300mn

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Nov 6, 2018: 1:15 pm
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US President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy thousands of US active duty soldiers and National Guard forces to repel a migrant caravan could cost taxpayers between $200 million and $300 million, an independent analysis and official figures show.

Trump announced recently that he was sending up to 5,200 troops along with machinery and equipment to the southern borders in order to repel a migrant caravan that was headed towards American soil.

The Pentagon has yet to provide any figures on the costs but the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) estimates that it could range from $42 million to $110 million.

That would be in addition to $182 million that the Pentagon spent to deploy National Guard troops to the border in May.

CSBA said maintenance costs for every troop could range from $112 at the very least to $143 per day. According to the report, it would cost taxpayers about $136,645 a day to fly the military aircraft that…

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Sex doll company makes models of women without their consent — RT UK News

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Nov 6, 2018: 12:25 pm
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A sex doll company is offering to make ‘models’ based on pictures of real women, without checking if they consent to their likeness being used.

The Birmingham-based company, Sex Doll Official, said customers can submit images of any woman to create a doll in their likeness at a cost of up to £4,000 ($5,200). The company said customers often send in pictures of celebrities, as well as of regular women. Their website features images of Kim Kardashian, Beyonce, actress Margot Robbie and model Adriana Lima.

READ MORE: Sex robot gets 92 Tinder matches in 2 hours

Company owner Jade Stanley admitted to the Daily Star that they are unaware if the women in the pictures submitted by clients have given permission for a sex doll to be modelled after them, saying the dolls are “just a likeness”.

“In terms of customisation, it’s anything whatsoever. Celebrity, dead spouse or someone you fancy,” she said.

“Who’s to say you can’t draw a likeness of somebody or paint a likeness of somebody?” argued the business owner, who claimed some clients are just “socially awkward”, while others ask for replicas of their deceased partners.

READ MORE: ‘We are not sin city’: Houston blocks sex-doll brothel

Stanley said customers can order a doll by submitting an image and specifying details like hair and skin color, weight and breast size. The personalised doll is then manufactured in China.

“It really does vary, you get people asking for a Kim Kardashian, or a girl next door. It’s just so different across the board,” added Stanley, who said she’s hoping to expand the service globally.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Owners vs. Managers – LewRockwell

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Nov 6, 2018: 12:24 pm
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When I was in law practice, I represented employers in matters involving labor law. My experiences confirmed how respect for the inviolability of private property interests was the essential element not only for a peaceful and orderly society but also for a world of individual liberty free of the violence and destructiveness of political systems. One of the things I noticed with a high degree of consistency was that clients who were the owners of businesses tended to take longer-term (timewise) and more philosophically principled actions than did those who were only managers of the firms they represented. Ownership carried with it a perspective that was inseparable from the personhood of the owner. Business firms with such names as “Ford,” “Chrysler,” “Westinghouse,” “J.P. Morgan,” and “Rockefeller,” reflected the sense that the personality of the creator-owner transcended his own life and carried over into the family-name shared by his children and grandchildren. In much the same way that long-standing farms would have family cemeteries on them, “property” was looked upon as more than a temporary convenience or asset. One who was an owner cared about the long-term implications of his/her decision-making that extended beyond their death.

The mindset of the manager of an enterprise, I observed, was much different. Being an employee of a firm owned by another, his/her perspective extended, at most, to the end of the contract of employment. There is nothing dishonest or irresponsible in this arrangement; it only demonstrates some of the costs incurred when ownership is separated from control of property. The owner would not want the manager to share in his/her ultimate authority over the property; nor would the…

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US midterm elections kick off as country remains polarized along party lines — RT US News

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Nov 6, 2018: 12:21 pm
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LIVE UPDATES

Published time: 6 Nov, 2018 11:11

On November 6, Americans are going to ballot boxes to elect lawmakers and public servants. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives, as well as 35 out of 100 seats in the Senate are up for grabs during the elections.

06 November 2018

10:56 GMT

Tensions are high as rhetoric from both sides has drifted towards confrontation, and occasionally open insults of opponents. The blame for the toxic environment is often attributed to party politics.

10:56 GMT

Democrats are hoping for a “blue wave” which would give them back control of at least one chamber of Congress and allow them to block nominations and policies they don’t like. Republicans are “fighting” to at least preserve their majority in the Senate.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: RAW: Gas pipeline bursts into flames in Russia

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Nov 6, 2018: 12:19 pm
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Courtesy: 62INFO A gas pipeline burst into flames next to the village of Ungor in the Ryazan Oblast on Saturday. The massive flames can be seen billowing into …

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Trump warns of ‘socialist nightmare’ if Democrats win midterms

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Nov 6, 2018: 12:14 pm
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The US president says his rivals over at the Democratic camp are going to cause a “socialist nightmare” if they win the midterm congressional elections. Read more

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal of DC Circuit Decision Upholding Net Neutrality Rules

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Nov 6, 2018: 12:05 pm
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______________________________

Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

CNN Refused to Sell Airtime for Trump’s ‘Racist’ Immigration Ad

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Nov 6, 2018: 11:38 am
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Newsbusters
November 5, 2018

President Trump sent the liberal media into a tailspin last week when he put out a midterm campaign ad that highlighted the murders committed by illegal immigrant Luis Bracamontes and denounced the Democrats for their views on illegal immigration. CNN in particular, rushed to call the ad racist and during Sunday’s Reliable Sources, host Brian Stelter boasted about how his network refused to sell commercial time to air the ad.

Leading into bragging about CNN’s position on the ad, Stelter praised how “[w]e’re seeing bluntness on the part of reporters saying the word ‘lie’ or this week saying the word ‘racist’.” He promised views they wouldn’t play the ad in its entirety and admitted he felt “CNN probably showed this too much this week.”

“But it is notable that when the campaign tried to buy airtime from CNN — to buy this ad — CNN said no. Said, this is a racist ad it’s not going to be sold – we’re not going to sell you the airtime,” Stelter boasted basically touting how his network suppressed an opposing view on illegal immigration.

Stelter then turned to Baltimore Sun media critic David Zurawik and teed him up to slap CNN on the back and heap praise on them, saying: “Describing it as racist, David, that was significant.”

“That’s huge. That’s huge. It’s a bigger story,” Zurawik exclaimed. “I saw it today. And I thought wow I wish I had a piece of it. This is huge, that CNN said this is racist, said we are not going to take your money…”

Zurawik continued by touting the righteousness of calling President Trump a racist. “That was a really great stand to take on it. We have to. We have to call him racist. We have to call him a misogynistwhen he says thing—the things he says about women,” he declared.

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This article was posted: Monday, November 5, 2018 at 7:17 am

Free Beacon
November 5, 2018

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said on Sunday that the Democratic party has “never hesitated” to take action against fellow Democrats who have been accused of sexual misconduct.

CNN’s “State of the Union” anchor Jake Tapper asked Perez about the allegations against DNC vice-chair Congressman Keith Ellison (D., Minn.).

“So one of the most important movements of the last year or two is the me too movement and the time’s up movement, women standing up and saying, men can’t treat us like this anymore. The ex-girlfriend of your deputy at the DNC, Congressman Keith Ellison, is accusing him of domestic abuse now, an investigation commissioned by the Minnesota Democratic Party was, quote, unable to substantiate the claim of physical abuse. Is that good enough? What do you say to women in the Democratic Party who say, why is this guy still the vice chair of the DNC?” Tapper asked.

“What I say is that we should always take those complaints seriously and we do, and that’s why an investigation was conducted,” Perez responded. “That’s why Congressman Ellison asked for a House ethics investigation. And Democrats have never hesitated to take action, unlike Republicans.”

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This article was posted: Monday, November 5, 2018 at 7:20 am

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Don’t be Flattered, Fooled and Flummoxed in Tomorrow’s Election

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Nov 6, 2018: 9:27 am
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Let’s face it. Most politicians use the mass media to obfuscate. Voters who don’t do their homework, who don’t study records of the politicians, and who can’t separate the words from the deeds will easily fall into traps laid by wily politicians.

In 2002, Connecticut Governor John Rowland was running for re-election against his Democratic opponent, William Curry. Again and again, the outspent Curry informed the media and the voters about the corruption inside and around the governor’s office. At the time, the governor’s close associates and ex-associates were under investigation by the U.S. attorney. But to the public, Rowland was all smiles, flooding the television stations with self-serving, manipulative images and slogans. He won handily in November. Within weeks, the U.S. attorney’s investigation intensified as they probed the charges Curry had raised about Rowland. Rowland’s approval rating dropped to record lows, and impeachment initiatives and demands for his resignation grew. He was prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned. Unfortunately, enough voters were flattered, fooled, and flummoxed to cost Bill Curry the race.

In 2004 Tom Frank, a Kansas author, wrote: “The poorest county in America isn’t in Appalachia or the Deep South. It is on the Great Plains, a region of struggling ranchers and dying farm towns, and in the election of 2000, George W. Bush carried it by a majority of greater than 75 percent.” Inattentive voters are vulnerable…

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Video: CrossTalk Bullhorns: Populist pride

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Nov 6, 2018: 9:15 am
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Maybe, just maybe there is some hope for Yemen. And the globalists suffer a major defeat in Brazil. And much more on this edition of CrossTalk. CrossTalking …

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The Red Wave – LewRockwell

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Nov 6, 2018: 8:21 am
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There are several reasons for my judgment that it is Republican voters who will awake happily following the primary contests on Tuesday.

(1)The pollsters who have been telling us for months about a “blue wave” have abandoned this line altogether. Considering that the polls, being of a piece with the rest of the media, are in the majority of instances designed and administered by Democrats, the modest advantages that they show for their fellow Democrats should be taken as a hint that they know they are in trouble

(2)There are a few movements, like the “Walk Away” movement, whose founder is a gay man who is a former Democrat and which has already attracted hundreds of thousands of other former Democrats, that has received little to no coverage by most of the (Democrat-dominated) media. Yet both the rapidly growing size of this phenomenon as well as the media’s resolve to neglect it suggest that it indicates a pattern of increasing disenchantment with the Democratic Party;

(3)The Kavanaugh debacle;

(4)The “caravan” of thousands of undocumented invaders coming from the South that we’re all able to watch in real time;

(5)Leftist violence and intimidation;

The Deep State: How an…
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(6)Even with over 90% tireless, negative coverage by the Democratic-controlled media, reputable polls have shown Trump’s popularity rating exceeding 50%. This in all likelihood means that it is actually much higher;

(7)Trump’s rallies continue to dwarf in size anything that any politician has managed to achieve. Obama’s crowd numbers are, at best, half that of Trump’s. The enthusiasm for the President is as high—higher—than it’s ever been. No Democrat,…

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Clinton bots more talkative & influential than Trump bots around 2016 debates, study finds — RT US News

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Nov 6, 2018: 8:19 am
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While the popular narrative blames Clinton’s 2016 electoral loss on (Russian) bots, they actually helped her chances, according to a new study finding pro-Clinton bots were more effective at influencing voters than pro-Trump ones.

While there were almost twice as many pro-Trump bots in operation before the 2016 election, the pro-Clinton bots were much more likely to change people’s political opinions because they were much more active, MIT researcher Tauhid Zaman discovered.

Zaman analyzed 2.3 million tweets referencing the second presidential debate and found less than one percent of the accounts involved were bots. He measured the real users’ opinions using two models – one based on their tweets and one on their network of connections – and then remeasured without the inclusion of the bots in the networks. To his surprise (he’s a registered Democrat, according to a disclosure statement that accompanied the study) the average level of support for Clinton dropped from 58 to 42.

The Clinton bots, it turned out, were able to exercise such an outsize influence on their networks because they tweeted on average 1.5 times as often as the Trump bots. The content of the bots’ tweets was roughly the same – retweets of the candidates or other influential users – but the quantity of those retweets had a definite effect.

Should Be Fired Hillary Clinton!

— Donald Trump Bot (@realDonnyBot) November 5, 2018

Zaman cautioned that the results could not be extrapolated to the entire voting population – the research only dealt with a short period of time surrounding the debates and studied a relatively small sample of Twitter users. Still, those in charge of social media “outreach” for candidates can learn a lot from this information – if you’re going to fake a following, fake an enthusiastic following!

While Zaman’s research showed Trump had a higher rate of support among bots, a 2015 analysis using the tool TwitterAudit found Clinton had more fake followers – 41 percent of her total Twitter fans.

If you like this story, share it with a friend!

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Migrants gather in east Mexico on way to US border

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Nov 6, 2018: 8:14 am
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Live footage from the Mexican state of Veracruz where the Central American migrants are gathering and forming a caravan to continue their way towards the …

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Prison Planet.com » Xi Tells China’s Critics To “Mind Your Own Business” In Trade Expo Speech; Pledges $30 Trillion In Imports

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Nov 6, 2018: 7:36 am
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Zero Hedge
November 5, 2018

“Worry about your own damn self (Mr. Trump).”

That was the overriding message delivered by Chinese President Xi Jingping during his address at the International Import Expo Opening Ceremony in Shanghai on Monday, which featured more than 3,600 companies from 172 countries, regions and organizations, and where Xi urged critics of China’s policies to worry about their own problems before opining on China’s, according to the FT.

“Each country should work hard to improve its own business environment. One cannot always beautify oneself while criticising others, and one can’t shine a flashlight on other people without looking at oneself,” said Mr Xi.

That said, Xi stopped short of naming Trump or the U.S. in the speech, his most high-profile economic address since April. Instead, and without a trace of irony, he stepped up warnings that protectionism would harm global growth while pledging to boost domestic consumption, strengthen intellectual property protection and advance trade talks with Europe, Japan and South Korea.

If there was a dominant theme from the expo – which is being held as China’s trade surplus with the US has continued to expand in spite of US tariffs on roughly half of Chinese goods crossing its borders – it was China’s attempts to position itself as the leader of a bloc of emerging-market nations, as the US and many of its allies declined to send government delegations (though, to be sure, representatives of many of the largest US corporations did attend). All told, 18 heads of state were expected to attend the summit. The Chinese government declared Monday and Tuesday holidays in Shanghai to ameliorate traffic for the event, which Xi has said will be held annually from here on out.

But rather than breaking new ground, Xi’s speech was essentially a re-tread of his Davos 2017 address, touting China’s plans for…

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Video: Aftermath following collapse of two buildings in Marseille, France

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Nov 6, 2018: 7:13 am
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Two buildings collapsed in the southern city of Marseille on Monday, leaving a giant pile of rubble & beams. Fire services said two bystanders who had been in …

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Video: Just How Environmental Are Canada’s Environmental Policies?

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Nov 6, 2018: 7:07 am
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Tzeporah Berman, the Executive Director of PowerUp Canada, explains that the Trudeau’s government’s environmental policies are an important improvement …

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Don’t be Flattered, Fooled and Flummoxed in Tomorrow’s Election

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Nov 6, 2018: 7:04 am
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Let’s face it. Most politicians use the mass media to obfuscate. Voters who don’t do their homework, who don’t study records of the politicians, and who can’t separate the words from the deeds will easily fall into traps laid by wily politicians.

In 2002, Connecticut Governor John Rowland was running for re-election against his Democratic opponent, William Curry. Again and again, the outspent Curry informed the media and the voters about the corruption inside and around the governor’s office. At the time, the governor’s close associates and ex-associates were under investigation by the U.S. attorney. But to the public, Rowland was all smiles, flooding the television stations with self-serving, manipulative images and slogans. He won handily in November. Within weeks, the U.S. attorney’s investigation intensified as they probed the charges Curry had raised about Rowland. Rowland’s approval rating dropped to record lows, and impeachment initiatives and demands for his resignation grew. He was prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned. Unfortunately, enough voters were flattered, fooled, and flummoxed to cost Bill Curry the race.

In 2004 Tom Frank, a Kansas author, wrote: “The poorest county in America isn’t in Appalachia or the Deep South. It is on the Great Plains, a region of struggling ranchers and dying farm towns, and in the election of 2000, George W. Bush carried it by a majority of greater than 75 percent.” Inattentive voters are vulnerable to voting against their own interests. They are vulnerable to voting for politicians who support big business and ignore their interests as farmers, workers, consumers, patients, and small taxpayers. Big Business will not spur change in a political system that gives the fatcats every advantage. Change must come from the voters, and here’s how:

President Donald Trump and the Republicans in Congress are masters at flattering voters and lying about their positions on issues ranging from health care to the minimum wage. Before you vote, rid yourself of all preconceived, hereditary, ideological, and political straitjackets. Use two general yardsticks for candidates for elective office: Are they playing fair and are they doing right?

Stay open-minded. Avoid jumping to conclusions about candidates based solely on their stance on your one or two top issues. Pay attention to where these politicians are on the many other issues that profoundly affect you and your family. If you judge them broadly rather than narrowly, you will increase your influence by increasing your demands and expectation levels for public officials. There are numerous evaluations of their votes, easily available on the Internet.

Know where you stand. A handy way to contrast your views with those of the incumbents and challengers is to make your own checklist of twenty issues, explain where you stand and then compare your positions, the candidates’ votes and declarations. Seeing how their positions or their actual record matches up to your own positions makes it harder for politicians to play you. Compare candidates with their votes or declarations.

Ask the tough questions. These are many issues that politicians like to avoid. They include questions about whether candidates are willing to debate their opponents and how often, why they avoid talking about and doing something about corporate power and its expanding controls over people’s lives, or how they plan specifically to shift power from these global corporate supremacists to the people. After all, the Constitution starts with “We the People” not “We the Corporations.” The words “corporations” and “company” are never mentioned in our Constitution!!

Ask candidates to speak of Solutions to the major problems confronting our country. Politicians often avoid defining solutions that upset their commercial campaign contributors. Ask about a range of issues, such as energy efficiency, livable wages, lower drug prices, massive government contractor fraud, corporate crimes against consumers, workers and investors, reducing sprawl, safer food, and clean elections.

Ask members of Congress to explain why they keep giving themselves salary increases and generous benefits, and yet turn cold at doing the same for the people’s frozen minimum wage, health insurance, or pension protections.

All in all, it takes a little work and some time to become a super-voter, impervious to manipulation by politicians who intend to flatter, fool, and flummox. But this education can also be fun, and the pursuit of justice can offer great benefits to your pursuit of happiness.

Such civic engagement will help Americans today become better ancestors for tomorrow’s descendants.

Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Two workers killed as wall collapses at Baltimore Amazon facility

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Nov 6, 2018: 6:20 am
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Two workers killed as wall collapses at Baltimore Amazon facility

By
E.P. Milligan

5 November 2018

Two workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in Baltimore, Maryland died late Friday after a partial building collapse triggered by a severe weather event.

Both workers were trapped under a layer of rubble after a 50-foot wall fell. The first man was found during debris removal Friday night and transferred to a hospital where he later succumbed to his injuries. Firefighters found the second man’s body Saturday morning. The two men were identified Saturday as Andrew Lindsey, 54, and Israel Espana Argote, 37.

Amazon fulfillment center in Baltimore

Rather than being simply a freak accident triggered by an unusually strong storm, the death of these two men was made possible because of the ruthless drive for profit by corporate behemoth Amazon and its CEO Jeff Bezos, now the richest man in the world. It makes clear that basic safety precautions—in this case, building walls capable of withstanding a storm—are routinely ignored at Amazon facilities throughout the world. The lack of an emergency plan to take workers to safety during a severe weather warning played an equally disastrous role.

Amazon officials revealed that neither of the victims were actual employees, but rather third-party contractors. Lindsey, the first man found, had been a material handling technician for real estate consulting firm JLL. The second, Espana Argote, owned one of the many small truck companies contracted by Amazon. Espana, a father of three, had immigrated to the US from Bolivia a decade ago.

According to the National Weather Service, a tornado hit Baltimore and Baltimore County on Friday. The tornado struck the Amazon building shortly after making landfall at 9:42 p.m., pulling off part of…

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Pentagon says troops won’t ‘come in contact’ with caravan migrants at Mexico border — RT US News

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Nov 6, 2018: 6:18 am
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The US military has said that its troops deployed to the Mexico border to help stop a migrant caravan from entering the US will not tackle migrants. The troops will be mainly assisting in building barricades and barracks.

Far from stopping a tide of weary refugees with cruel live fire, US troops sent to the southern border aren’t even supposed to come into physical contact with caravan migrants, says Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford.

“There is no plan for US military forces to be involved in the actual mission of denying people entry to the United States,” Dunford said during his remarks at Duke University on Monday.

Read more

The general assured his audience that there was “no plan for the soldiers to come in contact with immigrants or to reinforce the Department of Homeland Security as they are conducting their mission.”

The primary tasks of the active-duty 5,200-strong contingent, expected to grow to 7,000 in the coming days, will be construction and engineering, Pentagon officials said.

The service personnel will continue installing barbed-wire fences, building barriers with vehicles and housing for extra US Customs and Border Protection personnel sent to the border.

Military helicopters will take part in the mission, codenamed Operation Faithful Patriot – not to track down migrants, however, but to transport CBP staff to the border.

Highlighting the limited scope of the military’s involvement in the large-scale effort to plug the gaps in the porous border, Pentagon spokesman Col. Rob Manning said that of all the troops only Military Police servicemen will carry arms.

There had been fears, partially ignited by US President Donald Trump, that the army service personnel might retaliate against migrants by opening live fire.

Manning would not talk about the possible extent of permissible self-defense by the troops.

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Trump stirred controversy last Thursday when he told reporters at the White House that if incoming migrants hurl rocks at the troops, they would be met with fire. The remark was short-lived as the next day Trump walked it back, saying that those who attack the US military will simply be arrested in accordance with US law.

Initially, Trump suggested that those arrested will be held in special tents that the army is erecting at the border. It was reported that although such a request was sent to the Pentagon by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), it did not even reach the top brass and was rejected early on.

Pentagon spokesman Bill Speaks, meanwhile, said that the military “have not received a request from DHS to build facilities to house migrant families.” Instead, the tents will serve as temporary shelters for border security reinforcements.

Trump on Sunday praised the military’s strenuous effort to fortify the border, calling the barbed wire fence “beautiful.”

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: US flags set on fire as thousands of Iranians rally against Trump’s reinstatement of sanctions

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Nov 6, 2018: 6:12 am
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In Iran’s capital, Tehran, thousands took to the streets, to express their anger over America re-imposing all pre-2015 sanctions. The demonstrations also marked …

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PressTV-US character on the ballot in midterms: Obama

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Nov 6, 2018: 6:06 am
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Nearing final moments of the midterm elections campaign, United States President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama have both openly urged voters to back their parties’ candidates in what they describe as a critical moment for US politics.

Trump urged supporters to vote in the midterm elections while heavily campaigning in the states of Ohio, Missouri and Indiana on Monday.

“You’ve got to go out and vote,” said Trump in Cleveland, Ohio, adding that “in a sense, I am on the ticket,” suggesting a possible threat to his presidency if the midterms are won by Democrats.

Furthermore, Trump described the ballot as “a vote to continue our extraordinary prosperity” and a Democrat victory as “a socialist nightmare for our country,” adding that “you think we’re letting that caravan come into this country?” “No!” shouted his supporters in response.

Moreover, Obama also made a last-day appeal for democratic…

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Prison Planet.com » US Troops Lay Down Razor Wire At Southern Border

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Nov 6, 2018: 5:35 am
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Zero Hedge
November 5, 2018

US troops at the US-Mexico border are laying down approximately 1,000 feet of razor wire fending along the Texas side of the Rio Grande river underneath the McAllen-Hidalgo International Bridge, as three separate caravans of Central Americans make their way north in the hopes of claiming asylum.

Soldiers participating in “Operation Faithful Patriot” are working with US Customs and Border Patrol officers to install the fending, according to the Department of Defense.

U.S. Army troops, part of “Operation Faithful Patriot” arrived to the U.S. border with Mexico, deployed by President Trump ahead of midterms. Soldiers spread out barbed wire along the Rio Grande in south Texas. #immigration #border #caravanamigrante #undocumented #army pic.twitter.com/PVD6YIbCvk

— John Moore (@jbmoorephoto) November 2, 2018

During a Saturday campaign rally in Montana, President Trump said “Mexico is trying, they are trying but we’re different, we have our military on the border,” adding “And I noticed all that beautiful barbed wire going up today. Barbed wire, used properly, can be a beautiful sight.”

TRUMP: “Barbed wire used properly can be a beautiful sight.” pic.twitter.com/BFuc3ljwfo

— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) November 3, 2018

A spokesman for the US Border Patrol told the New York Post that the fencing was part of “necessary preparations” for the caravans.

Troops lay barbed wire as caravan approaches pic.twitter.com/yFeiOO2pcd

— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 4, 2018

WATCH: The U.S. military is installing a barbed wire fence near the Hidalgo–Reynosa International Bridge on the US-Mexico border. pic.twitter.com/bYvjPAgL6F

— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 3, 2018

Troop arrivals

Around 900 troops have arrived at the US-Mexico border since the Trump administration announced the deployment on October 26.

The president vowed the…

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Video: Italian far-right party supporters demand deportation of illegal migrants

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Nov 6, 2018: 5:11 am
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Hundreds of supporters of the far-right Forza Nuova rallied in the streets of Rome on Sunday. Celebrating National Unity and Armed Forces Day, the far-right …

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Ron Paul: Iran Sanctions Back On! Is War On the Way?

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Antiwar
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Nov 6, 2018: 4:52 am
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The Trump Administration is determined to bring Iran to its knees. With a new round of “crippling” sanctions targeting any country doing business with Iran, is the US just isolating itself from the rest of the world? Is it hastening the end of “dollar hegemony” that US foreign policy has to this point sought to prop up? Is the law of unintended consequences about to bite hard? Today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report was recorded before a live audience at Brazosport College in Lake Jackson, TX:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

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The Khashoggi Scandal – LewRockwell

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Nov 6, 2018: 4:19 am
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Justin’s note: Jamal Khashoggi’s murder has taken the world by storm.

Khashoggi, as I’m sure you’ve heard, was a Saudi journalist. He lived in the United States, worked for The Washington Post, and was highly critical of the Saudi regime.

Last month, Khashoggi walked into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey… and never walked out. The story is that he was tortured and murdered by 15 Saudis before his body was dissolved in acid.

You can see why this is such a big scandal. But maybe it shouldn’t be…

I say this because of a recent conversation I had with Doug Casey. Below, you’ll find a transcript. We hope you enjoy.

Justin: Doug, what do you make of the Khashoggi story? Is this as big of a deal as the media is making it out to be?

Doug: Okay, let’s consider what’s supposed to have happened. There’s a journalist who was apparently quite wired with the Saudi Royal Family. He’s been saying some things that they don’t like while living in the United States. He goes into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and never walks out.

Now, the story is that a hit team was flown in from Saudi Arabia. They tortured him, chopped him up, and disappeared his body in suitcases.

Of course, this is grizzly stuff; gentlemen aren’t supposed to dismember other gentlemen. But governments do this type of thing all the time. Hearing about it makes me feel like Inspector Renault in Casablanca: “Gambling at Rick’s? I’m shocked! Shocked!”

Totally Incorrect: Con…
Louis James, Doug Casey
Check Amazon for Pricing.

How is this any worse than what the U.S. government has done by sending people off to black sites to be tortured, and for all we know, killed? Or what other governments do on a daily basis? Why is this such a…

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US religious leader almost calls America ‘Great Satan’ on Iran visit — RT US News

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Nov 6, 2018: 4:17 am
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Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan told Iranians ‘victory will be yours,’ calling on them to persevere despite unprecedented sanctions from the country their leaders have called the Great Satan.

Farrakhan stopped just short of calling America the Great Satan himself when he spoke at Tehran University. “Is it not true that you have called America the Great Satan? Well, if you believe what you say, then would not Satan be actively involved in trying to destroy a nation that is set up on the belief and practice of submission to the will of God?“

Louis Farrakhan Refers to the U.S. as “Great Satan” during a Tehran University Speech; Says to Iranians: If You Persevere in Your Revolution Despite the Sanctions, “Victory Will Be Yours.” pic.twitter.com/7ZVloq2cXL

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) November 5, 2018

He also allegedly chanted “Death to America” in Farsi to an amused audience.

Iran state TV news presenter: Listen to leader of Nation of Islam chanting “Death to America”

Farrakhan [in Farsi]: “Death to…”
Audience: “…America” pic.twitter.com/p0qGfHHfg0

— Sobhan Hassanvand (@Hassanvand) November 4, 2018

In a meeting with the Secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council Mohsen Rezai, Farrakhan warned the US government that sanctioning Iran was “a big mistake.” They agreed that Muslims should unite in the face of “enemies’ plots,” and Rezai called for an international movement to counter western hegemony.

Farrakhan is no stranger to controversy. Last month, Twitter erupted in outrage after he tweeted a clip of a speech where he announced, “I’m not anti-Semite, I’m anti-termite.” He previously called Jews “satanic.” Twitter had recently added new rules meant to curb ‘dehumanizing‘ language and blocked hundreds of accounts for reposting variations of the “NPC” meme US conservatives use to mock liberals, but Farrakhan’s tweets were apparently not a violation.

Earlier this week, the US reimposed all the sanctions it had suspended under the 2015 nuclear deal, which Trump quit unilaterally despite Iran’s compliance.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-UK pushes for UN resolution on Yemen

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Nov 6, 2018: 4:14 am
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British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has indicted his country is pushing for a resolution in the United Nations Security Council that could guarantee the end of the Saudi war in Yemen.

Hunt made a statement on Monday in which he said the Foreign Office (Britain’s foreign ministry) was in close consultation with the UN special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, about the situation in the war-torn country.

The statement did not mention what specific action the UK will take to help end the crisis in Yemen but reiterated that London will do its best to ensure that a ceasefire could be implemented if the two sides of the conflict agree to end hostilities.

“The action the UK takes forward at the UN Security Council will help towards that goal, ensuring that a full ceasefire, when it comes, is fully implemented,” said the statement, adding that the time was right for the Security Council to act to bolster the UN-led process in Yemen.

It…

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Video: Trump, the dealmaker? More like deal breaker…

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Nov 6, 2018: 4:10 am
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Donald Trump says he’s poised to strike a deal at the G20 later this month after speaking on the phone with his Chinese counterpart. It comes amid a trade war …

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PressTV-Fox News takes down Trump’s racist ad

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Nov 6, 2018: 4:04 am
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US President Donald Trump’s favorite network, Fox News, has taken down one of his midterms ads linking the Central American migrant caravan to the infamous Mexican drug dealer and convicted killer Luis Bracamontes, following outcry over its racist content.

The ad was taken down by the company on Monday after receiving airtime for about a dozen times on Fox News and Fox Business.

“Upon further review, Fox News pulled the ad yesterday and it will not appear on either Fox News Channel or Fox Business Network,” Advertisement Sales President Marianne Gambelli told CNN.

President Donald Trump, aboard Air Force One, gestures while speaking to members of the traveling press corps, October 6, 2018. (AP photo)

The controversial ad urged Americans to take a tougher stance against illegal immigration by voting against Democrats in the upcoming US midterm elections, blaming Democratic policies for illegal immigration and police killings.

The…

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The Election Is Only Half the Battle: Challenges of Progressive Governance

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Nov 6, 2018: 3:49 am
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Primary wins by New York congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum have generated much excitement among progressives and socialists as well as much conversation about the role that progressives and the broader left could play in electoral politics. No matter what happens Tuesday, these campaigns have demonstrated the power and potential of left-wing social movements and grassroots-driven politics in a country where the two-party system has historically marginalized them.

Yet, there seems to be less discussion about how the left can actually govern — not just win elections — in institutional conditions that are hostile to progressive governance. Would elections of Ocasio-Cortez and Gillum inspire more leftists to run for office, and make it more possible to implement progressive changes? What would it take for the left to turn electoral wins into policy? Electoral success for the left also raises other strategic questions, not just for progressive elected officials, but for social movements. What kind of accountability structures need to be created in order to ensure progressives’ commitment to enacting policy and not succumbing to the reactionary impulses embedded in established political institutions? How will their elections affect radical social movements as organizers continue to mount critiques and push for transformative change?

The left has been successful in influencing mainstream conversations about particular issues, such as economic inequality, policing and mass incarceration, and health care. With more progressives running serious campaigns for office, now is the opportunity to strategize about more concrete ways to shape policy outcomes. When leftist candidates win, it will be important for leftist politicians, progressive political groups and social movements to continue to build and utilize power inside and outside of established political institutions. It is also necessary for outside groups to…

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Trump Following the Hungarian Model in Demonizing Refugees and Jews

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Nov 6, 2018: 3:41 am
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Photo Source Epistola8 | CC BY 2.0

Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller are very possibly advising President Trump to follow the Hungarian Model in confronting refugees at the southern border, in order to win wider support for his far-right authoritarian policies. Trump is now exactly following the playbook of far-right Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who in 2015-16 deployed national police and army troops to the southern contiguous boundary of the EU, on the Serbian border. They interned Syrian and other Muslim refugees in cages, police beat refugees, troops built a barbed-wire fence, and fascist vigilantes threatened other migrants. A media photographer who tripped a Syrian father at the border was arrested, but last week had her conviction overturned. To respond to police violence and harassment as they tried to board trains at the Eastern Train Station in Budapest, and to find greater safety in numbers, the Muslim refugees held a dramatic march to a refuge across the Austrian border, in a scene that closely resembles the Central American refugee caravan.

Before 2015, the far-right in Hungary only had their old stand-by enemies, the Roma (Gypsies) and Jewish liberals, to blame for the country’s problems. But now they had Muslim immigrants to scare the voters, just like the far-right movements in Western Europe. Orbán’s standing in polls and elections increased, so much so that his Fidesz party eclipsed the even-farther-right Jobbik because it had stolen its…

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Mocks Hillary’s emails, Ebola, Trump, migrant caravan — in under 90 seconds!

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Nov 6, 2018: 3:34 am
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American Mirror
November 5, 2018

Former President Barack Obama has had a hard time staying focused on the campaign trail lately.

While stumping in Miami, Florida, with Sen. Bill Nelson, D-FL, and Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum, the former president tried his best to deliver a home run speech before Tuesday’s midterm elections.

This short clip of Obama has it all:

– Mocks Ebola outbreak that killed thousands
– Mocks press for caring about Hillary’s e-mails.
– Mocks Trump for cell phone use
– Says “a bunch of poor refugees” not a threat
– Says Trump moving troops to border is “a political stunt”

Wow pic.twitter.com/rn9qqxUUeP

— Benny (@bennyjohnson) November 2, 2018

“The real reason I came down to Miami is because this Tuesday might be the most important election of our lifetimes. Politicians will always say that. But this time it’s actually true. The stakes really are that high. The consequences of any other staying home really are more dangerous,” Obama said.

In less than 90 seconds, Obama defended Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server to send and receive classified information, downplayed the severity of the Ebola virus, defended the migrant caravan trekking north toward the U.S., and attacked President Donald Trump.

“We all try to put a positive spin on things, but what we have not seen the way we are seeing right now is politicians just blatantly, repeatedly, baldly, shamelessly lie. Just making stuff up. That’s what they’re doing now all the time. By the way, it’s not the first time. They do this every election cycle. Try to terrify folks and then the election comes and problem suddenly magically vanishes,” Obama said.

“In 2010, they said Bill and I were setting up death panels to kill your grandma. Remember that? In 2014 they said Ebola is going to kill all of us, shut the borders. In 2016, it was Hillary’s…

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Narrative Divergence and Degrees of Blessed Freedom

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Nov 6, 2018: 3:26 am
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Today in America, a tug of war rages between two competing visions of the public interest. One vision is indicative of direct democracy as evidenced by the mammoth and spontaneous Trump rallies. The other is the same ole’ top-down imposition orchestrated by managed democracy‘s “invisible rulers”. Look at the obligatory apparatchiks at Obama ‘rallies’. No comparison.

The first vision is both subversive and organic, deriving its strength from the economic populism (Make America Great Again – MAGA) that Donald Trump has so effectively cultivated in his role as anti-establishment outsider. (I’ve suggested elsewhere Trump is supported in this ‘populist crusade’ by an America-First subset of the elite intent on trade normalization and re-industrialization. The plot thickens.)

The second vision is overwhelmingly reactionary, roughly comprising the establishment parties (Democrats and ‘RINO’ Republicans), the Trumanite Military-Industrial-Surveillance-Media-Complex, the US Chamber of Commerce (multinational corporatism), the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and a relative latecomer: Antifa foot soldiers dedicated mostly to Open Society Foundation paychecks. Soon, full employment will hire these Bolshe-vistas away.

Too bad so many decent moderate and left-leaning Americans are effectively caught in the dissonant headlights of the second vision’s media-propagated, out-sized fear of Trumpism.

Managed Democracy has little choice but to…

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Video: Remember, remember the 5th of November: ‘Anonymous’ followers expected to hold rallies worldwide

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Nov 6, 2018: 3:09 am
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Thousands of demonstrators across the globe are expected to take to the streets on Monday for the Million Mask March. The protest is led by hacktivist group …

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PressTV-Saudis boycott Amazon over Khashoggi killing coverage

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Nov 6, 2018: 3:03 am
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Saudis have launched an online campaign to “Boycott Amazon and Souq.com” to take on the Washington Post over coverage of the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who wrote for the paper.

A call to boycott Amazon, whose CEO Jeff Bezos owns the newspaper, was trending on social media in Saudi Arabia on Monday.

The move appears to be part of an effort to punish those highlighting the role of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the last month assassination of the dissident journalist in Turkey.

The monarchy is using socials media to portray such coverage as a media campaign against the country’s de facto ruler.

“Let’s defend our nation…boycott Amazon to send a message to its owner so he is aware of the scale of the damage,” Saudi journalist Bandar Otyf tweeted, saying the Post “consistently publishes articles that are defaming.”

Saudi Arabia has acknowledged the murder, yet left many questions unanswered.

Turkish intelligence…

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Explicit messages sent during manic episode, exposure left me suicidal, says sexting MP — RT UK News

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Nov 6, 2018: 2:20 am
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MP Andrew Griffiths, who sent 2,000 sexually explicit messages to women, leading to his resignation, has said that he was having a manic episode and that his condition is linked to being sexually abused as a boy.

The disgraced MP for Burton told the Sunday Times that he had considered suicide after the messages were exposed and that the episode lead to him spending 31 days in a psychiatric hospital.

The MP, 48, repeatedly attempted to ‘sext’ a 28-year-old bar worker and her friend. He was exposed in July after the Sunday Mirror published extracts from the over 2,000 messages – many of which were of violent and graphic nature. In some of the messages Griffiths referred to himself as “daddy,” while others were boasts of his connections to celebrities and the Royal Family.

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Addressing the episode, Griffiths told the newspaper: “I don’t for one second try to excuse what I did.

“The texts were horrible and I apologize hugely for them, and to everyone I have hurt. I am ashamed and embarrassed.

“But I need to put into context why it happened, so that in 15 years, when my daughter reads this interview, she’ll understand exactly why I found myself in this terrible situation.”

Griffiths, a one time chief of staff for Theresa May, also faced allegations of bullying and inappropriate touching from several Conservative colleagues. The allegations, one of which was being investigated at the time, didn’t stop the MP being appointed Small Businesses Minister. He stepped down from the role following the sext expose.

In an attempt to explain his behavior to his constituents, Griffiths spoke of the incident as being “the result of my mental breakdown, my battle with my own mental health has been ongoing for decades.”

During his time in hospital, the MP detailed how he “confided aloud for the first time in my life that as a child I was abused by an older boy of about 15.”

On his suicidal thoughts, Griffiths, whose daughter was born earlier this year said: “Two things saved my life; the first was the thought of what suicide would do to my daughter and wife. The second was the chief whip, who contacted parliament’s doctor and got me into hospital.”

READ MORE: ‘Can she take a beating?’ Tory minister resigns after bizarre, perverted sexting exposé

The interview comes as a Conservative disciplinary panel is due to decide on whether the MP should be kicked out of the party. Despite resigning from his ministerial role, Griffiths has refused to step down as an MP, despite condemnation from Tory colleagues and protests from his constituents.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Is there really a ‘militia caravan’ traveling south to protect US border from marching migrants? — RT US News

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Nov 6, 2018: 2:16 am
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Most media outlets have published as fact claims that vigilante groups incited by Donald Trump are organizing themselves to confront the migrant caravan, but the story appears to be based on little more than an unverified boast.

Variously named as “armed militias” and “far right activists,” some “gun-toting” groups have been reported as “forming their own caravan” in scores of media reports over the weekend, from the Huffington Post to The Hill in the US to international outlets such as the UK’s the Sun, Turkey’s Anadolu, and Russia’s Sputnik.

The vigilantes are reportedly equipped with military-level tech, and will form units hundreds-strong. They have caused alarm among both local residents – afraid that their land will be invaded– and the army contingent forced to separate sides.

Twitter luminaries have circulated dire warnings of bloodshed and calls to curb “domestic terrorism.”

Danger at the border? You bet. But it’s coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE.
Armed militias and active military will meet at the border, a toxic mix. https://t.co/vYQmNYqjZR

— Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) November 4, 2018

Armed domestic terror organizations are heading to the border. And I’ll tell you this: I know at least one special agent with the FBI who is going there as well (and he’s not with the terrorists).https://t.co/ntz1CIfk9M

— Alternative NOAA (@altNOAA) November 5, 2018

A single source

But with the 4,000-strong immigrant caravan still days away from the border, which remains relatively quiet for the moment, how are these minutemen’s plans known in advance?

Every single one of these stories primarily cites a Washington Post investigative report published on Saturday, which speaks of militias “packing coolers and tents, oiling rifles and tuning up aerial drones, with plans to form caravans of their own and trail American troops to the border.”

Armed with guns and drones, U.S. militia groups head to border, stirred by Trump’s call to arms against migrant ‘invasion’ https://t.co/KyVqhB6HD1

— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 4, 2018

This information is sourced from “Shannon McGauley, a bail bondsman in the Dallas suburbs who is president of the Texas Minutemen,” a civilian border guard group.

McGauley says that 100 volunteers are “en-route to the Rio Grande” and more are coming.

“My phone’s been ringing nonstop for the last seven days. You got other militias, and husbands and wives, people coming from Oregon, Indiana. We’ve even got two from Canada,” brags McGauley, whose group on Facebook numbers 700 members.

The Washington Post does not ask him to verify his claims, while the top border official in the Rio Grande region, Manuel Padilla Jr, tells the newspaper that they “don’t have any specific information about the militias.”

In fact, further down the article, Michael Vickers, a local rancher who himself intercepts and reports migrants crossing his lands, calls the traveling vigilantes “a bunch of guys with a big mouth and no substance to them.”

Read more

But surely the world’s media wouldn’t concoct a story of a countrywide gathering of extremists based of the words of one man with 1,700 Twitter followers, who refers to himself online by his callsign N5KOU.

Indeed, this is not the first story about the militia; that was the Associated Press report on October 27. The main source in the article: Shannon McGauley (“They’re just laughing in our face. It’s a free-for-all in America,” says the loquacious border defender there.)

McGauley isn’t standing up for his homeland alone. Indeed there is mention of one other name there: “Monica Marin, an Oregon resident, said she has raised about $4,000 online to help militias buy supplies.” Perhaps she is kitting out the drones.

Otherwise the only numbers mentioned anywhere are “a small band of men with the Patriots of the Constitution militia” who arrived in the New Mexico village of Columbus, and an “estimated 200 unregulated armed militia members currently operating along the southwest border,” highlighted in leaked Army documents from October detailing its response plan to the caravan. While some articles enlisted these 200 among the arrivals, there is nothing that suggests that these aren’t just regular border vigilantes, who would be hanging around entry points whether the Central American caravan made it or not.

Partisanship vs. Ethics

And that’s it. This is not to say that there are no vigilante militias in the US, possibly exchanging emails and packing their trucks for a patriotic cross-country road trip, but as of now what we have is mostly the claims of one man.

Some might say that this is a minor enough story and there are benefits to be gained from dramatizing the threat. On the eve of the midterms, where the caravan has been ridden hard by the Republicans as a source of lawlessness, turning attention instead to role-playing Second Amendment fanatics that embarrass even the most traditionalist conservatives appears a solid strategy.

READ MORE: Journalist claims Trump radicalizes ‘more people than ISIS’, is forced to apologize

But not everyone wins. Journalism, including that of august newspapers of record, has a serious enough credibility problem without launching invisible caravans.

Secondly, if the authors of the articles believe that vigilantism is disruptive and potentially deadly, there is an ethical dimension. They can either play up the credibility of McGauley and his ilk for the short-term gain of partisan fear-mongering, and in turn boost his popularity, give him free advertising and help him recruit more men to his cause, which presumably will mean more problems for the legitimate border police and the migrants themselves. Or, with the resources the Washington Post possesses, they could investigate or challenge him to prove his claims, and discover whether he is an online blowhard who can be ignored as he fades into irrelevance. While the migrant caravan is in transit there is time left for both.

Igor Ogorodnev

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-UK defense could face £15bn budget deficit

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Nov 6, 2018: 2:13 am
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A new report has projected that Britain’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) could face a gap of £15 billion (less than $20 billion) in a matter of a decade if it fails to prioritize its programs for production of modern military equipment.

The National Audit Office (NAO) published a report on Monday suggesting that the MoD would be short of £7 billion in the next 10 years as the ministry’s forecast costs exceed its budget of £186.4.

The NAO said the black hole could be expanded to reach the whopping figure of 14.8 billion if all sorts of identified risks occur and the MoD fails to decide which program to defer or drop as soon as possible.

The report said the MoD had incurred huge costs on taxpayers by postponing projects that should not have been deferred, adding that there will be a “real danger” for the ministry in the next 10 years to waste more taxpayers’ money.

“These [deferred projects] included delaying by two years its…

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Video: Consequences coming home? Caravan heads to border after decades of US foreign policy in C. America

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Nov 6, 2018: 2:08 am
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The UN says humanitarian aid is urgently needed for a huge migrant caravan, heading through Mexico to the US border. It includes over 2000 children. Some of …

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Why Vote? Bernie Sanders Offers Simple Last-Minute Reminder: The GOP Agenda Is Horrific

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Nov 6, 2018: 2:03 am
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Common Dreams staff

“Our plan: make health care a right to all. Stop giving tax breaks to billionaires. Protect and expand Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Transition to sustainable energy and leave behind a livable planet for our children.”

Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Prison Planet.com » Woman Cons Generous Trump Supporters Out of $150,000, is Hailed as a Social Justice Hero

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Nov 6, 2018: 1:33 am
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Thief ‘owns the racists’ by proving Trump supporters aren’t racist

Paul Joseph Watson
PrisonPlanet.com
November 5, 2018

A black woman conned generous Trump supporters out of $150,000 to ‘own the racists’ and was hailed as a social justice hero, despite inadvertently proving that Trump supporters are not racist.

The woman, who changed her name to ‘reformed republican’ on Twitter, tweeted, “I will not hide any longer,, the left has made us feel as if us black republicans should hide!! but not anymore!! #BlacksForTrump #WalkAway #maga.”

I will not hide any longer,, the left has made us feel as if us black republicans should hide!! but not anymore!! #BlacksForTrump #WalkAway #maga pic.twitter.com/YA0hnarxaY

— reformed republican (@chckpeas) October 27, 2018

She then amped up the scam by claiming her parents had disowned her for supporting Trump before posting a GoFundMe link for people to donate.

I don’t know if these texts were originally real or not, but they were definitely not from her mum / to her pic.twitter.com/CcVoj8TOLJ

— Alex Bruce-Smith (@alexbrucesmith) November 4, 2018

After conning Trump supporters out of around $150,000, she justified it by asserting, “stealing from republicans isn’t bad because republicans arent ppl.”

the GoFundMe has been taken down but there was a tweet suggesting she’d scammed about $150k pic.twitter.com/FEKjmTavn1

— Alex Bruce-Smith (@alexbrucesmith) November 4, 2018

The woman’s goal was apparently not just to make money, but to highlight the racism of Trump supporters (the same ones who’d just generously donated $150,000 to an African-American woman).

“Trump is a racist, homophobic, transphobic, bigot AND YOU THINK MY BLACK ASS WOULD SUPPORT THAT ROTTING CARROT?? ridiculous,” she tweeted.

Trump is a racist, homophobic, transphobic, bigot AND YOU THINK MY BLACK ASS WOULD SUPPORT THAT ROTTING CARROT??…

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Video: Facebook apologizes for ‘white genocide conspiracy theory’ ad category

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Nov 6, 2018: 1:07 am
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Facebook has again had to apologise after it emerged that one of the categories it offered advertisers to target, was ‘white genocide conspiracy theorists.’ It was …

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UN send poverty rapporteur to UK over austerity — RT UK News

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Nov 6, 2018: 12:19 am
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A special UN advisor on extreme poverty and human rights is touring the UK to assess the impact of austerity on people living in some of the most deprived areas of the country.

UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston’s primary goal is to identify examples of social inequalities and systematic neglect, which according to the United Nations, is then used to develop “constructive dialogue with governments, international organizations, civil society and other relevant actors.”

READ MORE: ‘This is shameful’: Tory austerity pushes 1.5 million below breadline, 3.7 million to food banks

Since 1998, the UN special rapporteur has travelled to examine extreme poverty in places like Ghana, Yemen, Benin, Sudan, the US, Portugal and Saudi Arabia. The UK will now join these ranks thanks to concerns over its austerity measures.

In a statement ahead of Alston’s tour, the UN said submissions from charities, academics, and public institutions were “by far” the most they’ve ever received before a country visit.

One submission by the End Child Poverty Coalition claims that since 2010 “child poverty has risen more than poverty in other sections of the population.”

Read more

Alston is expected to travel around the UK for two weeks visiting London, Glasgow, Belfast, Bristol, Cardiff and Newcastle before producing an interim report. Alston is also due to visit Jaywick Sands, an Essex community which featured in a Republican midterms advert attacking the Democratic Party and Nancy Pelosi. The area was once named one of the most deprived areas of the UK.

The visit comes after Philip Hammond’s recent budget declarations that “austerity is over.” Last week the Chancellor of Exchequer indicated a windfall for public services after years of cutbacks. The UK government has said absolute levels of poverty have decreased in the last eight years.

However, Alston will be investigating whether British government actions in recent years have contributed to poverty levels throughout the country.

“The United Kingdom is one of the richest countries in the world, but millions of people are still living in poverty there,” he said ahead of his visit.

“The government has made significant changes to social protection in the past decade, and I will be looking closely at the impact that has had on people living in poverty and their realization of basic rights.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

The Walter E. Block Scholarship

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Nov 6, 2018: 12:18 am
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A former student of mine has made a generous contribution to fund the Walter E. Block Scholarship at the level of $25,000 each year. Several students interested in studying the economics of free enterprise who enroll at Loyola can benefit. These funds would serve as an incentive, on top of other scholarships that Loyola otherwise awards.

Why study free enterprise economics at Loyola?

A major reason: all four members of the economics department study the economics of the free market. That includes me, plus William Barnett II, John Levendis, and Leo Krasnozhon. In addition, Nick Capaldi teaches business ethics from a similar point of view, as do David Gruning and James Viator at the law school. As a result, a solid core of professors will be your primary resource. We have gathered about us a group of Loyola students, faculty and students from next door Tulane, and several community members. So, if you enroll here, you can join a group of supporters of libertarianism and free enterprise.

Defending the Undefend…
Walter Block
Check Amazon for Pricing.

Moreover, students and other members of the academic community and beyond regularly meet to dig into the topic beyond the classroom. Finally, outside speakers (often academic economists early in their careers) often speak to the students and faculty in the department.

In short, Loyola is a great place to study the economics of the free market! You owe it to yourself to check us out. Do apply for the Walter E. Block Scholarship as well as other Loyola sources of financial support.

Also, consider the following:

Block, Walter E. 2017. “C’mon Down To New Orleans; The Water’s Fine. Enroll at Loyola University.” June 27;

Loyola Economics Students Published Widely in Refereed…

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The Walter E. Block Scholarship

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Nov 6, 2018: 12:18 am
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A former student of mine has made a generous contribution to fund the Walter E. Block Scholarship at the level of $25,000 each year. Several students interested in studying the economics of free enterprise who enroll at Loyola can benefit. These funds would serve as an incentive, on top of other scholarships that Loyola otherwise awards.

Why study free enterprise economics at Loyola?

A major reason: all four members of the economics department study the economics of the free market. That includes me, plus William Barnett II, John Levendis, and Leo Krasnozhon. In addition, Nick Capaldi teaches business ethics from a similar point of view, as do David Gruning and James Viator at the law school. As a result, a solid core of professors will be your primary resource. We have gathered about us a group of Loyola students, faculty and students from next door Tulane, and several community members. So, if you enroll here, you can join a group of supporters of libertarianism and free enterprise.

Defending the Undefend…
Walter Block
Check Amazon for Pricing.

Moreover, students and other members of the academic community and beyond regularly meet to dig into the topic beyond the classroom. Finally, outside speakers (often academic economists early in their careers) often speak to the students and faculty in the department.

In short, Loyola is a great place to study the economics of the free market! You owe it to yourself to check us out. Do apply for the Walter E. Block Scholarship as well as other Loyola sources of financial support.

Also, consider the following:

Block, Walter E. 2017. “C’mon Down To New Orleans; The Water’s Fine. Enroll at Loyola University.” June 27;

Loyola Economics Students Published Widely in Refereed…

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US will allow Iran’s civilian nuclear projects in Arak, Bushehr & Fordow to continue — RT US News

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Nov 6, 2018: 12:15 am
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The US will allow civilian nuclear projects at three sites – Arak, Bushehr and Fordow – to continue “under the strictest scrutiny,” to “ensure transparency and maintain constraints” on Iran, the State Department said.

This means that significant parts of Iran’s civilian nuclear program were effectively given a waiver from the US sanctions, imposed on Monday as part of Washington’s withdrawal from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal.

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“We are not issuing waivers for any new civil nuclear projects. We are only permitting the continuation for a temporary period of certain ongoing projects that impede Iran’s ability to reconstitute its weapons program and that lock in the nuclear status quo until we can secure a stronger deal that fully and firmly addresses all of our concerns,” said the State Department fact sheet distributed to the media on Monday. “Each of the waivers we are granting is conditional on the cooperation of the various stakeholders.”

The waivers were described as an “interim measure” that “preserves oversight” of Iran’s nuclear program.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo mentioned the waiver during the press briefing earlier in the day, but the exact locations were clarified later by the State Department.

“What we have authorized is very narrow, very limited, very time-limited as well, but important nonetheless that these non-proliferation projects are not things that are taking place without some ability to see what’s going on,” Pompeo said.

“It’s a pretty complicated area, the non-proliferation issue. There are three. Bushehr is one of the three,” he added.

The nuclear power plant at Bushehr was set up with the help of Russia, which is supplying it with nuclear fuel.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-Human chain formed against Brexit in London

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Nov 6, 2018: 12:12 am
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A human chain has been formed in the British capital London to protest against Britain’s imminent withdrawal from the European Union.

Video reports on Monday showed people hand in hand from London’s Parliament Square to 10 Downing Street, the residence and office of the Prime Minister Theresa May.

The protesters wanted to show their dissatisfaction with Brexit, a move which took shape after a referendum in June 2016 in which Britons voted 52-48 to leave the EU after more than 40 years of membership.

The demonstration ended with protesters submitting a letter to the government in which they demanded protection for the citizenship rights after Brexit regardless of what would come out of ongoing talks with the EU.

An anti-Brexit campaigner is pictured with a badge on her EU-themed beret outside the Houses of Parliament in central London on October 17, 2018 with placards and EU flags during a protest. (AFP photo)

Britain and the EU are in…

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Video: Saudi-led Yemen strikes destroy UK aid with British bombs – Oxfam slams London’s ‘incoherent’ policy

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Nov 6, 2018: 12:06 am
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UK charity Oxfam has expressed alarm at coalition-led air strikes repeatedly hitting British aid projects in Yemen. An Oxfam representative brands Britain’s …

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Video: Top U.S. & World Headlines — November 5, 2018

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Nov 5, 2018: 11:43 pm
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Visit https://democracynow.org to watch the full independent, global news hour, read the transcript, search our archive and to make a donation to support us.

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Prison Planet.com » Lawyer Says Polls Are Wrong, Bets $130,000 on Republicans Winning House

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Nov 5, 2018: 11:32 pm
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Robert Barnes: Polling firms still producing dodgy results to satisfy partisan media outlets

Paul Joseph Watson
PrisonPlanet.com
November 5, 2018

A big time gambler who won on Brexit and Trump is so confident that the polls are wrong and that Republicans will maintain control of the House that he has traveled to London to bet $130,000 on the outcome.

Trial lawyer Robert Barnes’ wager that the GOP will retain Congress is relatively large given that “the entire U.S. primaries betting market is in the single millions in the U.K. and Ireland,” according to Bloomberg.

UK bookies Ladbrokes even tweeted out a picture of Barnes to mark the occasion.

Great to meet top US political punter @Barnes_Law who has flown over to have £100k on the GOP to hold on to a House majority. pic.twitter.com/O83dYHl0sN

— Ladbrokes Politics (@LadPolitics) November 2, 2018

Barnes stands to win an additional £50,000 on top of his £100,000 stake on odds of around 3/2, with the lawyer saying that he is as confident of winning as when he bet big on Brexit and Trump, both outcomes which the polls said would never happen. He’s also placed a separate bet on Republicans expanding their majority in the Senate.

Barnes, who boasts of his “high-profile wins for clients in civil, criminal and constitutional law,” told Bloomberg that pollsters are still using flawed methodologies because they have an incentive to produce the results partisan media outlets want to hear.

“There are systemic issues with polling post-2012,” Barnes told Bloomberg. “A low response rate, reliance on self-selected polls with inadequate sampling of older, rural, blue-collar voters.”

As we reported earlier, while virtually every poll suggests Democrats are likely to win the House, with CNN putting Dems ahead by a whopping 13 points, a Rasmussen survey surprisingly placed Republicans ahead by a single point.

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Inviting Trump to Paris, Macron evokes the specter of fascism and the 1930s

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Nov 5, 2018: 11:17 pm
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Inviting Trump to Paris, Macron evokes the specter of fascism and the 1930s

By
Alex Lantier

5 November 2018

As he prepares to host US President Donald Trump on Saturday in Paris for the centenary of the armistice that ended World War I, French President Emmanuel Macron gave a long interview last week to Ouest France. In it, he warned that Europe faces the same threats today as 100 years ago, in the years between World War I and the rise of fascism and the eruption of World War II in 1939.

Amid rising working class anger at his policies, the “president of the rich” continued his empty posturing as a “progressive” opponent of nationalism and of far-right critics of the EU like Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. With protests called against Trump’s visit on November 11, and against austerity and fuel price hikes on November 17, he tried to speak to popular concern over the danger of dictatorship and war.

He declared: “I am struck by the resemblance between the era we live in and the inter-war period. In a Europe that is today divided by fears, nationalist resentments, the consequences of the economic crisis, we are seeing the almost methodical re-emergence of everything that shaped the life of Europe between the end of World War I and the 1929 stock market crash. We must keep this in mind, be lucid, and know how to resist this.”

Macron’s statement amounted to an acknowledgment from the French head of state of what millions of workers worldwide sense: the danger of war and authoritarian rule is real and growing. Yet Macron, a so-called “progressive” investment banker, only proposes policies that intensify these dangers, rooted in the grotesque social inequality and historic bankruptcy of capitalism. The…

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Video: For the first time since the Cuban crisis, nuclear war threat is real – Stephen Cohen

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Nov 5, 2018: 11:05 pm
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The US has announced its withdrawal from the historic nuclear arms treaty with Russia. How serious of a setback is this for the two countries’ relations – and …

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Video: “He Set Out to Kill Women”: Self-Proclaimed Misogynist Murders 2 Women at Florida Yoga Studio

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Nov 5, 2018: 10:42 pm
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https://democracynow.org – Two women were shot and killed at a yoga studio in Tallahassee, Florida, on Friday when a far-right extremist and self-proclaimed …

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Video emerges of revellers burning ‘sick’ Grenfell Tower effigy (VIDEO) — RT UK News

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Nov 5, 2018: 10:18 pm
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A bonfire party during which a Grenfell Tower effigy was burned while revellers joked about the victims has been branded sick and disgraceful. The video, believed to have been shot in the UK, has been reported to Police.

The distressing footage emerged on social media on Monday. In one Twitter post, uploader Kay Oldroyd tagged police saying she wanted the people in the video –whom she described as “beasts”– to be prosecuted.

Depicting a bonfire garden party, a group of unidentified individuals can be seen placing a homemade model of the North Kensington tower block above a fire. The building was destroyed by a rapidly-spreading fire in June 2017, killing more than 70 people, many of whom were trapped in the upper floors of the building. Some of these residents had called fire services only to be advised to stay in their homes until firefighters made their way to them and cleared a safe evacuation path.

As the cardboard model of the tower block begins to burn, the group of men and women can be heard laughing. One man appears to mockingly say, “stay in your flat” as he re-positions the effigy above burning hot coals. “Help me, help me,” another man shrieks, apparently in jest, as the fire climbs the paper model.

I am sickened by this . It should be taken down & media should give it no oxygen . The victims of #Grenfell deserve respect for their dignity under the most traumatic of circumstances. Police have assured me that they will follow up . https://t.co/nrejKyKjws

— Nick Hurd (@NickHurdUK) November 5, 2018

A third man adds: “Didn’t it start on the 10th floor? We should have put it upside down.” A comment about a ‘ninja’ thought to be a racist reference to a victim can also be heard.

The bonfire footage has provoked outrage online and among politicians, with Home Secretary Sajid Javid describing it as “disgusting” behavior. Shadow Secretary Diane Abbott was equally swift in her condemnation of the video.

The survivors of the Grenfell tragedy have acted with unbelievable dignity and deserve the utmost respect.

— Sajid Javid (@sajidjavid) November 5, 2018

This is sickening and disgraceful behaviour. The victims of #Grenfell Tower fire suffered an unimaginable death, and the survivors watched their loved ones and homes perish. I am disgusted that people would behave in such a hateful way. https://t.co/8h59xVOUjI

— Diane Abbott (@HackneyAbbott) November 5, 2018

Speaking to LBC Radio, London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton labelled the incident “appalling and disturbing”.

The video also caused uproar on social media, with many people calling the bonfire “sick” and disrespectful to those who died in the fire.

Not going to share links to the #Grenfell bonfire video, because it’s too horrible. But every day I still see the vertical crematorium in which my neighbours burned to death. (No, the ‘wrap’ doesn’t veil its shadow.) Un-fucking-believable doesn’t cover it.

— KateMaltby (@KateMaltby) November 5, 2018

This is unbelievably disturbing.

Whoever made this cardboard Grenfell Tower likely sat chatting whilst planning their creation, carefully cutting out individual shapes of people’s heads to place in windows, who took time to make a stand to burn it on.

England in 2018. Chilling. https://t.co/tu2BJ5jsmM

— Dr Lauren Gavaghan (@DancingTheMind) November 5, 2018

I’m not sharing it but that video of peopleburning a Grenfell replica on a bonfire is utterly disgusting.

— Nikesh Shukla (@nikeshshukla) November 5, 2018

I’m not going to share it because I can’t bear to look at it again, but disgusted someone thought it was a good idea to make a Grenfell bonfire night effigy. I feel physically sick.

— Elena Cresci (@elenacresci) November 5, 2018

How can so many people, at the same time, be ok with this at whatever party was being held? Nobody said ‘hold on, this is a bit fucking sick…’ Made my stomach churn watching that.

— Scott Inglis (@ScottInglisEFM) November 5, 2018

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

‘Certainly meeting’ or ‘probably not’? Mixed signals over Trump-Putin encounter in Paris — RT US News

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Nov 5, 2018: 10:14 pm
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US President Donald Trump has said that he “probably won’t” meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to Paris later this week, while the Kremlin signaled that the two will “certainly” meet for a walking meeting.

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“We will be meeting at the G20 and probably we’ll have meetings after that,” Trump told the media at Joint Base Andrews. “I’m not sure that we’ll have a meeting in Paris. Probably not.”

Both Putin and Trump are expected in Paris for the centenary commemoration of the end of the First World War.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov for his part has insisted that the Russian and US leaders will “definitely” meet in Paris. While a full-fledged meeting will not fit the format of the event, Putin and Trump are expected to talk “on the move” and decide when they would hold proper talks, he added.

Earlier, Yuri Ushakov, a presidential aide to Putin, had also said that the two leaders might meet in Paris for a short meeting, but that a “long and thorough” discussion would be had at the upcoming G20 Summit in Argentina.

Trump and Putin last met on July 16 in Helsinki, where they discussed a number of bilateral issues during two hours of one-on-one talks.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-London police take steps for no-deal Brexit

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Nov 5, 2018: 10:11 pm
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Police in London are deeply worried that officers will have serious difficulties hunting terrorists and sex crime offenders if Britain leaves the European Union without a deal that could regulate future bilateral relations.

The Guardian newspaper said in a report on Monday that the Scotland Yard was rushing to set up a “safety net unit” for the contingency situation in which Britain leaves the EU in March next year without having a deal that could give security agencies an access to EU policing tools and data bases.

Internal police documents showed that the new unit will cost around £2.5 million while the taxpayers should also pay around £250,000 for costs of renting a new office for the large team of officers and experts that will operate in the unit.

The National Crime Agency and National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) had already drawn contingency plans for no-deal Brexit. The Home Office (Britain’s interior ministry) has approved…

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Video: Truth cop: Hungary, Latvia & Greece to trial AI border guards

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Nov 5, 2018: 10:05 pm
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Hungary, Latvia & Greece – all popular destinations for migrants – will start testing computerised lie detectors at their borders this month. The artificial …

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PressTV-‘Reimposition of Iran sanctions will further isolate US’

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Nov 5, 2018: 9:58 pm
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The reimposition of US sanctions against Iran on Monday following Washington’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in May will further isolate the US and decrease American influence around the world, an academic and analyst says.

“The world is going to stand with Iran… not the United States,” said James Fetzer, a retired professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

“It’s a tragedy that this giant step backward is taking place.”

“It’s obviously a gross mistake and one more reason why [US President] Donald Trump and the United States are losing influence in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world,” Fetzer said in an interview with Press TV on Monday.

Trump’s decision to unilaterally pull out from the nuclear agreement – known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – and reimpose sanctions against Iran has pitted the US against European powers, China and Russia, Fetzer said.

Dieter…

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LIVE BLOG: Election Day 2018

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Nov 5, 2018: 9:49 pm
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There are 435 House seats, 35 Senate seats and 36 governors’ offices up for grabs today, and Truthout senior columnist William Rivers Pitt will be here to document it every step of the way. Join us all day (and night, if necessary) for ongoing updates!

(Updates will begin on November 6, 9am Eastern.)

The post LIVE BLOG: Election Day 2018 appeared first on Truthout.

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Video: Noam Chomsky on Midterms: Republican Party Is the “Most Dangerous Organization in Human History”

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Nov 5, 2018: 9:41 pm
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https://democracynow.org – In the run-up to the U.S. midterm elections, we speak with world-renowned linguist, dissident and author Noam Chomsky. “What are …

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The Power That Must be Resisted

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Nov 5, 2018: 9:39 pm
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Photo Source CPERS Sindicato | CC BY 2.0

“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.”

– Ursula Le Guin

When the outright fascist Jair Bolsonaro won the Brazilian presidency in October, it wasn’t just the poor, people of colour, LGBTQ, or indigenous peoples that lost. Indeed, the earth’s weakened biosphere and imperiled climate lost even bigger. The president elect of the world’s 4^thlargest democracy has vowed to open up vast swaths of the iconic rainforest to multinational logging, cattle, mining and agricultural industries. With this one political victory the world’s ruling capitalist elite saw more dollar signs than in their wildest dreams, and the earth’s “lungs” were given a terminal prognosis.

Bolsonaro’s rise to power bears a strong resemblance to that of Donald Trump, Narendra Modi, Rodrigo Duterte and Viktor Orban. All of them have employed the techniques of classic fascism: demonizing political opponents and the media, rhetoric endorsing violence, stoking chauvinistic nationalism, scapegoating marginalized people. All them possess a disgruntled, demoralized, yet loyal base of supporters, and regularly connect with them through rallies that ridicule or bully those who dissent or disagree from their position. All of them manipulate information to…

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Georgians Might Have to “Turn Their Guns In”

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Nov 5, 2018: 9:32 pm
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Abrams also co-sponsored gun ban bill in 2016

Kit Daniels
Prison Planet.com
Nov. 5, 2018

Ga. governor candiate Stacey Abrams said it’s possible Georgians may have to “turn their guns in” if her gun control program is implemented.

Abrams, the Democrat running against Republican Brian Kemp, also floated the possibility of barring current gun owners from selling or transferring their firearms to others.

“AR-15s are not necessary on our streets; semiautomatic weapons have to be put under a certain level of responsible control,” she said during an interview with CNN.

Stacey Abrams struggles to explain her position when confronted on supporting gun confiscationhttps://t.co/nFcfHOKt31 pic.twitter.com/Z6fAShjZFY

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 4, 2018

It’s worth noting that the vast majority of handguns used for self-defense are semi-automatics such as Glocks and SIG Sauers.

In fact, the top five best-selling pistols have consistently been semi-automatics.

Abrams had also previously called AR-15s “weapons of mass destruction” that should be banned from civilian ownership.

And while serving as Georgia’s House Minority Leader in 2016, she co-sponsored House Bill 731 that would have required Georgians to surrender a vast variety of firearms, including Ruger Mini-14s and 9mm carbines.

The bill targeted civilian gun owners while exempting police officers, National Guard troops and federal security officers.

This article was posted: Monday, November 5, 2018 at 12:54 pm

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Oceania is at War with Fascism

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Nov 5, 2018: 9:25 pm
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by C. J. Hopkins / November 5th, 2018

If you’re a critic of global capitalism (sometimes referred to as “globalism”), I’ve got some good news and some bad news for you. The good news is, you’re not a “peddler of Russian propaganda” anymore. The bad news is, you’re an anti-Semite.

You’re probably also a domestic terrorist, or an “emboldener” of domestic terrorism, or at least some sort of terrorism-apologist. And not good old-fashioned Islamic terrorism like we used to get during the War on Terror, because that ended in the Summer of 2016, right around the time Trump won the nomination. No, the brand of terrorism you are probably emboldening by criticizing global capitalism is anti-Semitic, fascist terrorism … the most terroristic form of terrorism there is!

Up until recently, you might have just been going about your normal business, criticizing global capitalism, completely unaware of your anti-Semitic, white supremacist terrorist activities, but from now on there will be no denying them. Your hate thoughts are right there for everyone to read. Go back and check your Facebook posts and your Twitter feed. You’ll see what I mean. All those times when you impulsively lashed out against the global capitalist ruling classes, or globalism, or Obama, or Clinton, or the Wall Street banks, or, God help you, George Soros … well, you might as well have been tweeting blinking neon GIFs of dancing Swastikas or posting Adolf Hitler’s speeches with…

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On Eve of Midterms, Americans Urged to Vote ‘Like the Planet Depends On It—Because It Does’

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Nov 5, 2018: 9:01 pm
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President Donald Trump has urged voters to treat the 2018 midterms as a referendum on his presidency, and climate action advocates on Monday made a similar call—asking Americans to remember the vast damage the president and the Republican Party have done to previous efforts to curb the climate crisis in the past two years, and to vote accordingly.

Tuesday’s elections are providing voters with a chance to stop Trump’s anti-climate, pro-fossil fuels agenda in its tracks, Greenpeace said.

“If you’re a climate voter, get out there and VOTE—but if you can, don’t stop there. Make calls. Knock doors. Talk to friends. Take action like the planet depends on it. Because it does.”                     —350 Action “We have 10 years to save the world from climate catastrophe,” said Annie Leonard, executive director of Greenpeace USA. “We can start by voting on November 6th for candidates who believe in the urgency of climate change and have solid plans for keeping fossil fuels in the ground, accelerating a just transition to a clean energy economy, and increasing democratic participation. The more people in politics who are committed to swift and meaningful climate action and reject new fossil fuel infrastructure, the better.”

The midterms come less than a month after the United Nations released an urgent new report stating that a 40 to 50 percent reduction in carbon emissions is needed by 2030 in order to keep the planet from warming more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

The study stoked fresf fears among progressives who have watched with outrage as Trump turned his anti-science, pro-fossil fuel agenda into public policy—rolling back the Clean Power Plan, withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, and introducing numerous other deregulatory measures affecting Americans’ drinking water and the environment.

Greenpeace and other groups say voters should go to the polls with the new research in mind, with 350.org and Defend Our Future encouraging followers via the hashtags #VoteClimate and #ClimateVoter.

Are you a #ClimateVoter? Do you think it’s past time we had real climate leaders & just solutions that work for people and the planet?

Then #BeAVoter—but don’t stop there—take action. Here are a few things you can do between now & November 6 to fight for climate action. #thread: pic.twitter.com/DKFMe5WKa0

— 350 Action (@350action) October 24, 2018

Greenpeace expressed optimism that a united effort among progressives to vote for candidates who will support renewable energy over fossil fuel dependence, as well as ballot initiatives aimed at strengthening environmental regulations, will help to usher in a new era in which the U.S. becomes a true leader in combating the climate crisis.

“People in this country have been working nonstop for the past two years to resist Trump’s destructive agenda and build a better democracy,” said Leonard. “Now is the time to elect new leaders who will join the people and get to work fighting for climate, racial, and economic justice.”

The group has supported a number of ballot measures in several states. In Washington, Greenpeace is urging voters to support Initiative 1631, the Carbon Emissions Fee Measure. The initiative would charge carbon emitters $15 per metric ton of carbon beginning in 2020, with fees going up each year after that. The fees would fund a number of clean air and other climate-related projects.

Greenpeace also supports Proposition 112 in Colorado, which would ban fracking within 2,500 feet of occupied buildings, and Measure 26-201 in Portland, Oregon. The city measure would collect a one percent surcharge from businesses with annual revenues of at least $1 billion in order to fund green initiatives.

“There’s too much at stake in this year’s elections to NOT do everything we can,” said 350 Action, the U.S. political advocacy arm of the global climate group. “If you’re a climate voter, get out there and VOTE—but if you can, don’t stop there. Make calls. Knock doors. Talk to friends. Take action like the planet depends on it. Because it does.”

Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: A March to Disaster: Noam Chomsky Condemns Trump for Pulling Out of Landmark Nuclear Arms Treaty

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Nov 5, 2018: 8:39 pm
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https://democracynow.org – President Donald Trump recently announced plans to pull the United States out of a landmark nuclear arms pact with Russia in a …

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Jewish groups call on UKIP to break up with ‘vile’ Alex Jones’ Infowars in anti-Semitism row — RT UK News

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Nov 5, 2018: 8:17 pm
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British Jewish groups have accused UKIP of indulging in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories through its links with Alex Jones’ right-wing website, Infowars, calling on the party to disassociate itself from the “vile” website.

The calls come in the wake of pipe bomb plots that targeted 14 high profile figures in the US including billionaire investor George Soros, and the Pittsburgh synagogue attack that saw 11 people killed and 7 injured – with Infowars being accused of “propagating conspiracy theories and dog whistle anti-Semitism” over the incidents, The Guardian reports.

One of UKIP’s latest high profile recruits is Infowars’ editor-at-large Paul Joseph Watson. Watson was one of three eye-catching Youtube personalities signed up by UKIP leader Gerard Batten in June this year, to breathe new life and attract a younger demographic into the right wing party.

Jewish organisations hit out at UKIP’s apparent links with Jones’ website. A spokesman for the Board of Deputies of British Jews called on the party to expel any members found indulging in anti-Semitic conspiracies.

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“We call on the party leadership to publicly and unequivocally disassociate themselves from these views and to expel any members who are found to hold them,” he said.

Another Jewish group, the Community Security Trust, has lamented how “anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories” have seeped into mainstream politics, saying that it “encourages hatred and undermines democracy.”

“Rather than shunning these dangers, UKIP appears to be embracing them,” the group said.

Infowars regularly attacks Soros for being a “globalist,” and has recently claimed he along with the UN is responsible for the migrant caravan currently marching towards the US border. Jones, who has been accused of peddling conspiracy theories has also argued that the bomb plot was a “false flag” event.

Commenting on the Pittsburgh synagogue murders in October, Jones said the attack could have been initiated by “the deep state.” He claimed the government could have been “planning with groups they control to stage terror attacks” before the US midterm elections.

Watson and Jones deny claims they are anti-Semitic with Watson not having publicly endorsed many of his boss’ more outlandish conspiracy theories. The young YouTuber, who has 1.4 million subscribers, has taken to social media to take a pop at The Guardian’s story.

‘Criticizing George Soros is anti-Semitic’.

“Israel’s foreign ministry has issued a statement denouncing U.S. billionaire George Soros.”

So apparently, Israel is anti-Semitic too.https://t.co/4ri9yaVNO5

— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) November 5, 2018

UKIP’s links with Infowars through Watson has prompted renewed concerns regarding the direction of the UK’s fourth-biggest party – going by polling numbers, which has lurched further right under Batten, with an emphasis on Islam.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Trump’s Sanctions Against Iran Appear to Have Failed.

Editorials

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Eric Zuesse
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Nov 5, 2018: 8:16 pm
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Eric Zuesse

This morning was reported:

—

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-11-05/watch-live-pompeo-announces-iran-sanctions-waivers

Watch Live: Pompeo Announces Iran Sanctions ‘Waivers’

Monday 5 November 2018 8:29AM

Update (8:40 am ET): The following countries will receive ‘temporary’ waivers excusing them from US sanctions on Iranian oil exports.

• South Korea

• Taiwan

• Turkey

• Greece

• Japan

• China

• India

• Italy

[… Visual shows there main importers of Iran’s oil: China, India (together 50% of total), EU (20%); they’re all now safe to restore to pre-Trump-sanctions levels, so that Iran will possibly exceed its current (which are based on fears they’d not get a waiver) oil-sales. Trump’s sanctions, in any case, look like a failure.]

—

If there will be increasing resistance in the EU, among the nations that Trump is discriminating against (by not granting waivers), then it is even possible that Iran’s oil-sales will mushroom. For example, China consumes 587.2 million tonnes of oil this year, and Iran has the world’s third-largest oil-reserves. That consumption is globally second-largest only to America’s 907.6 million tonnes of oil consumption. China now can easily replace some of its other suppliers. On October 3rd, NATO’s main PR agency, the Atlantic Council, bannered “China: Iran’s Lifeline to Overcome Oil Sanctions”. It’s not the only “lifeline” but it certainly is a key one, if not the key one. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia, whose rulers want to destroy Iran, are currently the largest supplier of oil to China. Consequently, the ally that is the most important one of all to the U.S. regime, the Saud family, who own Saudi Arabia, could end up suffering more from these U.S.-imposed sanctions than their target, Iran, will. Iran even might benefit, perhaps enormously, from Trump’s sanctions. Trump clearly is stupid. His current success with the U.S. economy is based upon his $404 billion sale of U.S.-made weaponry to the Sauds. But even that now is in jeopardy.

Ironically, Trump could end up benefiting Iran and hurting his key ally the Sauds. Trump is controlled not only by American billionaires but secondly by the Saud family and thirdly by the billionaires in Israel (and both of those foreign aristocracies — as well as most of America’s aristocrats — aim to destroy Iran, “regime-change” it and take control there like the CIA did under the Shah). Trump could end up hurting his main foreign patron, the Sauds, by pursuing the policies that he’s implementing in order to serve them and the Israeli and U.S. billionaires. Trump is playing a wild game like Hitler did. In order to succeed at such a game, luck is especially important, but intellectual brilliance — something that Trump has never exhibited — is even more important.

—————

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.

20,000 Armed Migrants Ready To Cross

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Nov 5, 2018: 8:15 pm
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The planned breakthrough will reportedly take place ahead of signing a proposed UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration pact. Several countries such as the US and Austria have already backed out of the treaty.

Some 20,000 migrants are currently preparing to break through the Bosnian-Croatian border near Velika-Kladusa, Kronen Zeitung reported, citing an anonymous department head from the Austrian Interior Ministry. The migrant crowd is purportedly made up of young men of Pakistani, Iranian, Algerian and Moroccan descent as opposed to earlier migrant “waves” from Syria. And there are almost no women in this group.

But what troubles the Interior Ministry most are the reports that many of these men are armed with knives. Media outlets have already reported one incident, involving a border officer who was attacked by knife-wielding migrant.

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The Interior Ministry is not worried about the massive migrant group coming to Austria because most of them want to reach the northern part of the EU, where states provide better conditions for refugees.

“Migrants want to [go to] Germany, to Scandinavian countries. Austria is not the best option for them right now,” the source in the ministry said.

The growing crisis at the Bosnian-Croatian border comes a month ahead of a UN conference in Morocco, where The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration will be adopted. The pact is described as a framework to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks of migration. Despite the agreement’s stated goal, a number of states, namely the US, Croatia, Hungary, Austria, have backed…

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Meet the scandals of the US congressional midterms — RT US News

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Nov 5, 2018: 8:14 pm
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Both Democrats and Republicans are viewing the 2018 midterms as a rematch for 2016. All gloves are off as both parties hope to keep or gain power in an election not lacking in juicy scandals. Here are some of them.

The midterms are a big deal: all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 Senate seats are up for grabs, along with governorships in 39 states and territories. Both parties have made the election into a de facto referendum on President Donald Trump: Democrats are calling for a “Blue Wave” to block his agenda, while the Republicans are hoping for bigger majorities to overcome Democrat resistance in Congress.

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It may not be “the most important election of a lifetime” as the cliche goes, but it is already the most expensive one ever. Estimates based on publicly available campaign filings suggest both major parties, as well as third parties and other political actors, spending north of $5 billion to ensure their victory.

With stakes this high, things are getting ugly in places from sea to shining sea. In Florida and Georgia, where Democrats hope to elect African-American governors, they’ve accused Republicans of racism and voter suppression. A Republican in California, fighting for what seemed like a hereditary seat, has called his challenger a “terrorist.” And in Illinois, an actual Nazi got onto the Republican ticket in a hereditary Democrat district, despite the party’s disavowal.

Florida: Democrats cry racist

When he won the Republican primary with Trump’s endorsement, Congressman Ron DeSantis may have thought his path to the governor’s mansion of the Sunshine State would be smooth and clear. Then Andrew Gillum, mayor of Tallahassee endorsed by Bernie Sanders, pulled an upset victory over the establishment candidate Gwen Graham.

DeSantis had already established his MAGA credentials with a profoundly strange ad featuring his wife and children. In an interview after the primary, he expressed confidence that Florida voters won’t “monkey up” the good thing they have going by voting for a self-described socialist.

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“Racist!”cried the Democrats, pointing out that Gillum is African-American. Then the Washington Post got into the fray, reporting that DeSantis gave speeches for years at conferences organized by David Horowitz – which they called racist, of course. DeSantis reacted by resigning from Congress to focus on his campaign.

As polls showed DeSantis and Gillum neck and neck, Trump tweeted his support for the Republican candidate, calling Gillum a “thief” and pointing to corruption investigations into his tenure as mayor. Gillum shot back that Trump is a liar, adding a folksy line attributed to his grandmother about wrestling with pigs. A wholesome, gentlemanly contest all around!

Trump has also thrown his weight behind the outgoing governor Rick Scott, who is running for Senate against the incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson. Early voting numbers from Florida, a category in which Democrats traditionally enjoyed a big advantage, show Republicans almost caught up. Make of that what you will.

Georgia: Democrats claim voter suppression

Democrats are hoping to make history in Georgia, where Stacey Abrams would become the first black female governor if she wins. Abrams is facing the current secretary of state Brian Kemp, who won the primary after an 11th-hour endorsement by Trump.

Both parties have sent in the big guns for this one, with Oprah Winfrey backing Abrams and Trump himself organizing a rally for Kemp on November 4. Vice-President Mike Pence was also in the state to boost Kemp’s candidacy. And it was at a rally for Abrams that former Attorney General Eric Holder uttered the infamous call to “kick” Republicans.

Here’s the twist: as secretary of state, Kemp is also charged with organizing the election. Abrams has accused him of voter suppression, saying Kemp was holding up or deleting registrations of voters who are disproportionately minorities (which presumably makes them Democrats). There are lawsuits by several civil rights groups to that effect.

Things have become so acrimonious that some Democrats have suggested a victory for Abrams would be the only legitimate outcome of the race:

Kemp has refused to resign as Secretary of State while blocking 53,000 African Americans from voting. So our response should be forceful and clear. If @staceyabrams ends up with less votes in a close but illegitimate election, she should REFUSE to concede.

— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) October 18, 2018

California: ‘Thief’ vs. ‘Terrorist’

Then there is the race in California’s 50th district, north of San Diego. Republican Duncan Hunter has held it since 2009, but was indicted in August for alleged misuse of campaign funds. Hunter and several other Republicans have argued the indictment was a political dirty trick by Democrats, pointing that two of his prosecutors attended a Hillary Clinton fundraiser back in 2016.

Hunter may be feeling entitled to the seat, which was held by his father from 1981 to 2009, so he is pulling no punches against his Democrat challenger, accusing him of changing his name to appear Hispanic, being “funded by the Muslim Brotherhood,” and being the grandson of a Palestinian terrorist.

Ammar Campa-Najjar, a Palestinian-American who worked as a White House aide for President Barack Obama, was raised by his mother’s Mexican-American family, is a Christian, and changed his middle name from Yasser to Joseph, according to a Washington Post fact-check.

His grandfather was Muhammad Yusuf al-Najjar, or Abu Yusuf, a senior member of Black September – the Palestinian group behind the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre of Israeli athletes. He was killed by Israeli commandos 16 years before Campa-Najjar was born.

Campa-Najjar has denounced Hunter’s rhetoric as racist and un-American. Though he won just 18 percent of the vote in the district primary, polls published a week before the election showed him only three points behind Hunter.

Illinois: An actual Nazi on the ballot

“Illinois Nazis” may have been a punchline of 1980’s cult classic film ‘Blues Brothers,’ but an actual Holocaust-denying National Socialist is running for a House seat in Illinois’ 3rd district, on the Republican ticket.

This is no hyperbole, either: State representative David McSweeney (R) has described Arthur Jones as “a complete nutcase” and a “Nazi.”

That is not unrelated to the fact that an actual Nazi, Arthur Jones, was nominated as the GOP candidate for Congress in #IL3 which covers Mount Greenwood, where many Chicago Police officers reside.https://t.co/YuGegQdoEC

— Jason Guthartz (@restructures) November 1, 2018

Jones was able to get on the ticket because the GOP didn’t bother mounting a challenge in a district that has been Democratic for generations: Dan Lipinski was elected in 2005, succeeding his father Bill, who represented it since 1983.

“I snookered them,” Arthur Jones told Politico, referring to the state Republicans. “I played by the rules, what can I say?”

The GOP missed a deadline to put a third-party candidate on the ballot, and have resorted to throwing its support behind a write-in candidate, disavowing Jones, denouncing his candidacy, and even running robocalls against him. Democrats, in turn, have argued that Jones’ candidacy is proof that all Republicans are Nazis, from Trump on down.

Notably absent from the midterm mayhem have been accusations of “Russian collusion,” but never you fret: odds are that particular excuse will most certainly be dusted off by November 7.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-UN begins investigation into UK poverty

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Nov 5, 2018: 8:10 pm
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A United Nations special investigator has begun a tour of Britain to examine the impacts of government austerity on the spread of poverty across the country.

Estimates suggest that a fifth of people, around 14 million, are living in poverty in the United Kingdom as millions rely on government and charity help to eat and survive. The surge in poverty is mostly blamed on a series of government austerity measures, which began in 2010, two years after the economic recession, to help shrink budget deficit.

The Guardian newspaper said in a Monday report that Philip Alston, the UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, was launching a two-week inquiry into rising levels of poverty and hardship across the UK.

Alston said he was examining the human consequences of austerity cuts across the UK, adding that the government needed to cooperate in the probe.

The UN diplomat will travel to some of the UK’s poorest towns and…

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PressTV-US reimposes ‘toughest’ oil, economic sanctions on Iran

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Nov 5, 2018: 7:56 pm
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The United States has announced reimposition of the “toughest” sanctions ever against Iran in an attempt to curtail the Islamic Republic’s oil exports and put extra pressure on the country’s economy.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin took the podium at the State Department’s Foreign Press Center in Washington on Monday to unveil what the White House claims will force Iran to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programs while rolling back Tehran’s influence in the Middle East region.

Pompeo said the US had successfully persuaded over 20 countries to stop or dramatically reduce their oil imports from Iran, causing Tehran’s overall sales to suffer by more than 1 million barrels per day.

The campaign of pressure had also taken away over $2.5 billion in Iran’s oil revenue, he further claimed.

However, the top US diplomat admitted that Washington had failed to get the main buyers of Iranian…

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Trump Slams “Tough guys” Antifa

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Nov 5, 2018: 7:30 pm
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“You See These Little Arms… And Then You See The Clubs”

Steve Watson
Prison Planet.com
November 5, 2018

President Trump ridiculed Antifa at a MAGA rally in Georgia Sunday, declaring that the violent left wing group is part of a broader Democratic Party-backed mob movement.

“Antifa … You have seen it … they take the helmet off, and they take the armbands and you see these little arms … and then you see the clubs,” Trump said, sending the crowd into roars of laughter.

“You see these guys, you take off their black helmet and black outfit with the pads. Tough guys. Swinging clubs viciously.” The President added.

The president described the so called anti-fascists as “bad people.”

He then pondered on what would happen if Antifa was confronted by a “Bikers for Trump” group.

“Where are the bikers for Trump?” the President quipped.

Trump’s words triggered Morning Joe Hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, who accused Trump of inciting violence.

“What does that even mean?” Scarborough said, adding “Did he not see what happened when Mick Jagger hired Hells Angels at Altamont?”

“It’s a very short step from that rhetoric to saying that I want some volunteer citizens to provide security at my rallies and to bring their weapons,” Scarborough added, concluding “That puts us spiraling into a terrible direction.”

Trump was following up on his previous “jobs not mobs” slogan premiered in a Republican National Committee ad from last month.

#JOBSNOTMOBS! VOTE REPUBLICAN NOW!! pic.twitter.com/wso9ZHIvyF

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 31, 2018

This article was posted: Monday, November 5, 2018 at 11:11 am

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Survey contradicts every other poll showing Dems likely to take House

Paul Joseph Watson
PrisonPlanet.com
November 5, 2018

A shock new Rasmussen poll released on the eve of tomorrow’s election puts Republicans one point ahead in the race for Congress.

“The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey of Likely U.S. Voters finds that 46% would choose the Republican candidate if the elections for Congress were held today. Forty-five percent (45%) would vote for the Democrat. Three percent (3%) prefer some other candidate, and six percent (6%) remain undecided,” reports Rasmussen.

Republicans have gained 4 points on Democrats in comparison with the same poll taken a week ago.

Rasmussen also points out that Democrats are typically more vocal in telling pollsters who they will vote for, leading to the question, “Is it possible that another silent red wave is coming?”

The results are surprising because they contradict every single other poll which shows Democrats are likely to take the House.

According to the Real Clear Politics average, Dems are 7.3 points ahead, leading Republicans 49.7 to 42.4.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll has Democrats 8 points ahead, while a CNN poll has them leading Republicans by a whopping 13 points.

According to Nate Silver’s polling, this gives Dems an 87% or 7 in 8 chance of winning the House.

However, given that all the same polls were spectacularly wrong in 2016, nobody is taking anything for granted.

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor at large of Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com.

This article was posted: Monday, November 5, 2018 at 10:13 am

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Democratic candidates praise Trump’s attacks on immigrants as troops arrive at the border

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Nov 5, 2018: 4:17 pm
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Democratic candidates praise Trump’s attacks on immigrants as troops arrive at the border

By
Eric London

5 November 2018

Hundreds of armed soldiers have deployed to the US-Mexico border, setting up over 170 miles of razor wire, erecting barricades at border crossing points and staging armed military drills in full view of immigrants waiting to cross.

Speaking at a campaign rally Saturday, President Donald Trump said: “We have our military on the border. And I noticed all that beautiful barbed wire going up today. Barbed wire used properly can be a beautiful sight.”

Thousands more soldiers—up to 15,000 in all—are en route to the border. The Pentagon claims 3,500 are already staging at bases near the border, including 1,000 Marines in California. They will be deployed in both uninhabited desert regions and major metropolitan areas such as San Diego, California, and El Paso, Texas.

The Democratic Party has signaled that should it take control of one or both houses of Congress in Tuesday’s midterm elections, it will collaborate with Trump’s crackdown against immigrants. Almost all of its Senate candidates in closely contested races have endorsed Trump’s attack on immigrants.

Joe Manchin (West Virginia) said he is open to rescinding the 14th Amendment’s establishment of birthright citizenship. Joe Donnelly (Indiana), who has declared his support for ending birthright citizenship, is running advertisements denouncing immigrants. Claire McCaskill (Missouri) said she supports Trump’s decision to deploy troops to the border “100 percent.”

Phil Bredesen (Tennessee) is also campaigning in support of Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and warns that the immigrant caravan moving north from Honduras will bring “chaos.” Two other candidates—Heidi Heitkamp…

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Democratic candidates praise Trump’s attacks on immigrants as troops arrive at the border

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Nov 5, 2018: 4:17 pm
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Democratic candidates praise Trump’s attacks on immigrants as troops arrive at the border

By
Eric London

5 November 2018

Hundreds of armed soldiers have deployed to the US-Mexico border, setting up over 170 miles of razor wire, erecting barricades at border crossing points and staging armed military drills in full view of immigrants waiting to cross.

Speaking at a campaign rally Saturday, President Donald Trump said: “We have our military on the border. And I noticed all that beautiful barbed wire going up today. Barbed wire used properly can be a beautiful sight.”

Thousands more soldiers—up to 15,000 in all—are en route to the border. The Pentagon claims 3,500 are already staging at bases near the border, including 1,000 Marines in California. They will be deployed in both uninhabited desert regions and major metropolitan areas such as San Diego, California, and El Paso, Texas.

The Democratic Party has signaled that should it take control of one or both houses of Congress in Tuesday’s midterm elections, it will collaborate with Trump’s crackdown against immigrants. Almost all of its Senate candidates in closely contested races have endorsed Trump’s attack on immigrants.

Joe Manchin (West Virginia) said he is open to rescinding the 14th Amendment’s establishment of birthright citizenship. Joe Donnelly (Indiana), who has declared his support for ending birthright citizenship, is running advertisements denouncing immigrants. Claire McCaskill (Missouri) said she supports Trump’s decision to deploy troops to the border “100 percent.”

Phil Bredesen (Tennessee) is also campaigning in support of Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and warns that the immigrant caravan moving north from Honduras will bring “chaos.” Two other candidates—Heidi Heitkamp…

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Tory vice-chair slammed for remarks — RT UK News

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Nov 5, 2018: 4:15 pm
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Tory vice-chair Kemi Badenoch MP, has been heavily criticized for claiming that allegations of Islamophobia against Conservative Party members are “politically motivated.”

Badenoch, Tory MP for Saffron Walden, made the remarks during a Sky News interview on Sunday, after calls, including from Conservative peer Baroness Warsi and the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), for a full-blown inquiry into allegations of Islamophobia within the party.

The Tory vice-chair told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge: “I don’t think that the Muslim Council of Britain is an organisation that would look very favourably on the Conservative Party anyway so I think there is probably a political motive there.”

READ MORE: Calls for Tory MP to resign over ‘vile racist’ and ‘Islamophobic’ image of pig mounting Sadiq Khan

In response, Baroness Warsi tweeted that her party was in denial yet again on a social issue, insisting “we always find ourselves on the wrong side of history when it comes to the right of minorities.”

The was a time we denied racism existed within our party, there was a time we denied homophobia was deep rooted- we now deny #Islamophobia 🤦🏽‍♀️
A lot @conservatives get right but sadly we always find ourselves on the wrong side of history when it comes to the right of minorities https://t.co/Hj2fiLlZ6e

— Sayeeda Warsi (@SayeedaWarsi) November 4, 2018

Miqdaad Versi, a spokesperson for the MCB, voiced his disappointment at the Tory vice-chair’s attack on his organisation, while others claimed there would be outrage from the Tories ‘if Labour had given the same response regarding anti-Semitism.’

“Don’t shoot the messenger” – the MCB’s previous message appears equally apt today.

Will Ms Badenoch also attack The Times, Observer, Lord Sheikh, Baroness Warsi & Conservative Muslim Forum for being politically motivated?https://t.co/jMxrsSMibd

— Miqdaad Versi (@miqdaad) November 4, 2018

WATCH: Tory MP Kemi Badenoch says accusations of Islamophobia and racism in the Conservative Party are ‘politically motivated’

Just imagine the Tories’ outrage if Labour gave that same ignorant response regarding antisemitism…pic.twitter.com/bYfWWpqAcM

— Socialist Voice (@SocialistVoice) November 4, 2018

The MCB is the largest Muslim organisation in the UK with over 500 mosques, and educational and charitable associations affiliated to it. They have spearheaded calls for an inquiry and said it has evidenced multiple incidents of Islamophobic incidents being committed by Tory members.

Badenoch had earlier refuted claims that the Tory Party had an issue with Islamophobia within its ranks, saying she “completely” disagreed with Baroness Warsi’s assessment.

She said: “We take every single allegation of Islamophobia seriously and where we do find party members or people who hold positions in local government doing things, we suspend them, we investigate them…”

READ MORE: Jewish groups back calls for Tory Islamophobia inquiry in solidarity with Muslim leaders

What Badenoch did not allude to is the fact that the Conservative Party code of conduct does not apply to ordinary grassroots Tory members. It is only applicable to “anyone who formally represents the Party as an elected or appointed official.” It calls into question whether the Tories have a disciplinary system robust enough to tackle allegations of racism or Islamophobia.

The Tory’s problems reflect that of their Labour rivals. Police announced last week that they have launched a criminal investigation into allegations of anti-Semitic hate crimes committed by Labour Party members, after receiving a dossier of alleged incidents by a complainant in September.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Birthright Citizenship – LewRockwell

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Nov 5, 2018: 4:13 pm
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Shop all books by Tom Woods

Donald Trump has indicated his desire to overturn the practice of birthright citizenship, a position Ron Paul and Rand Paul alike have long held. Opponents claim the Fourteenth Amendment requires birthright citizenship. Does it?

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Kellyanne Conway crowns Hillary Clinton ‘queen of abortion,’ gets own titles in Twitter inferno — RT US News

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Nov 5, 2018: 4:11 pm
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President Donald Trump’s counselor and former campaign chief Kellyanne Conway got tarred and feathered online after referring to Hillary Clinton as “the queen of abortion” while discussing the Democrats’ strategy for the midterms.

Known as quite a polarizing figure over her staunch defense of Trump’s policies on various news segments on TV, Conway has again driven the anti-Trump public wild before the Tuesday midterm vote.

Appearing on Fox News’ ‘Fox and Friends’, the White House counselor argued that the Democrats deliberately chose to scale down their pro-choice rhetoric. “They tried it with the queen of abortion in 2016 and it backfired,” Conway said, referring to former Secretary of State and then-presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton.

Conway’s remarks immediately ignited a firestorm online as the Twitterati competed in devising similar nicknames for Trump’s former campaign chief.

and Kelly Ann is the Mistress of Darkness

— leeleeb50🌊🌊🌊 (@leeleeb50) November 5, 2018

I’d rather be the queen of abortions that the queen of lies

— VOTE THEM OUT! (@beadluv) November 5, 2018

Some dubbed Conway “Queen of Alternative Facts,” alluding to her infamous phrase from 2017 when she defended then-White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer by saying that he was providing “alternative facts.”

Kelly Ann is the Queen of Alternative Facts 😳

— Nancy Verrill (@nev323) November 5, 2018

Others revived her old nickname “Spokes-cobra,” popularized by the left-leaning comedian Samantha Bee.

Liberal blogger Tommy Christopher brought up one of Conway’s gaffes, when she called her boss Trump “commander of cheese” instead of “commander-in-chief.”

Yep, this happened: Kellyanne Conway calls Hillary Clinton “The Queen of Abortion,” which, as far as I know, outranks “Commander of Cheese.” pic.twitter.com/POHL2Es1W1

— Tommy Christopher (@tommyxtopher) November 4, 2018

Meanwhile, Clinton herself took flak last month for making a series of statements many found off-putting. She argued that one “cannot be civil” with Republicans, adding that “civility can start again” only if Democrats win back Congress. A week later, Clinton defended her husband Bill’s decision not to resign from the presidency during the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal in the 1990s, saying that Lewinsky “was an adult” when her affair with then-President Clinton happened.

The former secretary of state also made a joke that Senator Cory Booker and former Attorney General Eric Holder – both of whom are black – “look alike.” Clinton’s opponents suggested that the joke was tone-deaf and racist.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-UK cannot unilaterally scrap border backstop: Ireland

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Nov 5, 2018: 4:08 pm
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Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney has said that neither Ireland nor the European Union would ever sign up to a backstop agreement to keep the Irish border open after Brexit that the United Kingdom could end unilaterally.

The EU and Britain are at odds over how to treat the border between Ireland, an EU state, and Northern Ireland, a UK province, after Brexit so that there will be no return to a hard border on the island.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has resisted the EU’s plan for including Northern Ireland in its customs union for a two-year transition period and beyond that until a permanent solution is found for trade.

With just five months until the UK is scheduled to leave the EU, negotiators from the both sides have failed to iron out the terms of the so-called “backstop” insurance arrangement to keep open the border between British-ruled Northern Ireland and EU member state Ireland.

May’s Brexit Minister Dominic Raab…

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Climate Change is on the Ballot for Midterm Elections

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Nov 5, 2018: 4:00 pm
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______________________________

Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Before the Midterms, Five Questions for the Political Left

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Nov 5, 2018: 3:47 pm
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Participating in US politics as a radical Black feminist often feels like I’m walking at an unsustainable pace, angrily chewing gum and balancing two tons of problems I didn’t create upon my shoulders. As the 2018 midterm elections near, and I prepare to vote, I join political leftists across the country who remain skeptical about the significance and power of voting.

The pending Democratic Party “blue wave” does not excite me. I am not inspired by the candidates running for statewide office in my home state of Illinois, because I’m a Black political leftist who sees the potential, not promise, of movements participating in electoral politics.

In this chaotic social, economic and political terrain, we have to start asking different questions in order to end the cycle of excitement and disappointment that voters experience time and time again. The dominant messages and efforts in any given election always focus on candidates, not issues we need to win. Potential voters are bombarded virtually every day of the year with speculations on who may run for office, political ads, yard signs, fundraising requests and phone calls urging us all to put skin in the game by voting and donating money. This candidate-based, party-based approach is not a long-term movement building strategy that lives beyond electoral politics. This is a fatal misstep and our communities deserve better.

I understand the need for a different approach because I’ve organized with communities across this country. In my book, Unapologetic: A Black, Queer and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements, there are five questions I urge anyone to ask themselves if they identify as a political leftist. I believe they pertain to those who want to effectively engage in electoral politics as well. They are: 1) Who am I? 2) Who are my people? 3) What do we want? 4) What are we building? and 5) Are we ready to win? As the midterms approach, now is the perfect time to commit to answering each of these five questions…

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The Rewilding of Humanity?

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Nov 5, 2018: 3:38 pm
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“We are affected strangely by any place from which the tide of life has ebbed”, so wrote Neil Gunn, the early twentieth century Scottish novelist speaking to his biographers, F.H. Hart and J. B. Pick, and quoted in their book, Neil Gunn – A Highland Life, 1981. He was recollecting the terrible emptiness of the Scottish Highlands that had been purged of humanity, often violently, during the nineteenth century clearances when absentee landlords judged there was more profit in sheep than leasing their land to populous communities who had practiced mixed farming for centuries past.

In the wildlands of California, across the deserts, mountains and plains, it is this echoing sense of desolation that prevails where humans are no longer present amidst the rich flora and fauna of the state’s varied ecosystems. Corralled in massively polluted conurbations connected by ribbons of freeways and their associated services, products of what Andreas Malm characterizes as ‘Fossil Capital’, Californians are effectively exiled from the spaces between. Only the two-lane black-top State highways snake into these largely forgotten areas away from the cities that once supported homesteaders and small farmers. In these spaces, it is Big Ag and Oil that now predominate, employing scant permanent personnel and relying instead on independent contractors and seasonal labor.

While agriculture attracts vast influxes of immigrant field workers who drive to the fields from surrounding small…

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Prison Planet.com » Russian Bomber Makes Provocative Flyover Of U.S. Command Ship During NATO War Games

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Nov 5, 2018: 3:28 pm
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Zero Hedge
November 5, 2018

Russia is flexing its muscle or is at least engaged in some serious trolling just as Trident Juncture 18 is underway in Norway — NATO’s largest drills in decades with some 50,000 troops, 10,000 combat vehicles, 65 ships, and 250 aircraft.

On Friday a Russian Tupolev Tu-142 bomber unexpectedly flew close to the USS Mount Whitney at the very moment Marines on board were gathered for a group photo during the NATO military games.

Russian media confirmed the incident, describing the U.S. Sixth fleet’s flagship (the command and control ship for the fleet) as being “blindsided” while the military and aircraft analysis site The Aviationist described the provocative flyover as “more or less overhead”.

According an account of the incident reported by The Aviationist:

Sailors aboard the Blue Ridge-class command ship of the U.S. Navy USS Mount Whitney had gathered for a group photo on deck, when a Tupolev TU-142, RF-34063 / 56 RED based on AFP photographs, flying in international airspace, soared more or less overhead, on Nov. 2, 2018.

The large long-range bomber appeared during the moments a formal group picture was being staged aboard the USS Whitney, Military.com confirmed.

The stunt comes after in previous weeks Moscow made clear its displeasure over what are by far NATO’s largest military exercises since the end of the Cold War, saying that the two-week long games would not go unanswered.

Photo taken of the November 2nd flyover, via AFP

According to Military.com the Russians were sending a clear message:

The Tupolev’s passage appeared to be part of Russia’s response. But Colonel Garth Manger, a British Royal Marine in charge of operational duties on board the U.S. Navy warship, took it in his stride. “They’re watching us and we’re watching them.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry (MoD), for its part, confirmed that two TU-142…

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The Troika of Tyranny: The Imperialist Project in Latin America and Its Epigones

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Nov 5, 2018: 3:24 pm
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by Roger D. Harris / November 5th, 2018

Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela are today threatened by US imperialism. The first salvo of the modern Age of Imperialism started back in 1898 when the US seized Cuba along with Puerto Rico and the Philippines in the Spanish-American War.

The Age of Imperialism, as Lenin observed, is characterized by the competition of the various imperial powers for dominance. That inter-imperialist rivalry led to World War I. Lenin called those putative socialists who supported their own national imperialist projects “social imperialists.” Social imperialism is a tendency that is socialist in name and imperialist in deed. Imperialism and its social imperialist minions are still with us today.

US Emerges as the World’s Hegemon

The United States emerged after World War II as the leading imperialist power. With the implosion of the Socialist Bloc around 1991, US hegemony became even more consolidated. Today the US is the undisputed world’s hegemon.

Hegemony means to rule but even more so to dominate. As the world’s hegemon, the US will not tolerate neutral parties, let alone hostile ones. As articulated in the Bush Doctrine, the US will try to asphyxiate any nascent counter-hegemonic project, no matter how insignificant.

In the Caribbean, for instance, the US snuffed out the leftist government of Grenada in 1983 in what was code named Operation Urgent Fury. Grenada has a population smaller than Vacaville, California.

The only powers…

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PressTV-US military alarmed by Iran’s growing might

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Nov 5, 2018: 2:51 pm
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Pentagon officials are reportedly losing confidence in the US military’s ability to counter Iranian armed forces in case of a direct confrontation, citing the shrinking presence of US military forces in the Middle East region is the main contributing factor.

Just as US President Donald Trump is preparing to resume what he calls the “toughest ever” sanctions against Iran to drive the Islamic Republic’s oil exports to zero, US military commanders think that the recent decisions by the Pentagon to move ships, combat aircraft and missile defense systems out of the region only plays into Iran’s hands.

Iran has threatened to close down the Strait of Hormuz and stop all oil exports from the Persian Gulf region in case Trump delivers on his pledge.

While the threat seems to have worked its magic by prompting the White House to issue waivers for Iran’s main oil buyers, US military officials are worried that the current levels American…

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Why the Saudi-US Crisis Will Pass – Consortiumnews

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Nov 5, 2018: 2:43 pm
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U.S.-Saudi ties have withstood crises in the past and will withstand this one, says As’ad AbuKhalil.

Washington and Rihyad Have Had Worst

Crises and Will Survive Khashoggi Murder

By As`ad AbuKhalil
Special to Consortium News

Nobody in Washington, Republican or Democrat, welcomes the crisis in U.S.–Saudi relations prompted by the murder in Istanbul of Jamal Khashoggi, the dissident Saudi journalist, on October 2. Maintaining good relations with the Saudi royal family has been a high bipartisan priority since President Roosevelt and King Faisal made their Faustian bargain in 1933: The U.S. would shield the Saudi kingdom’s tyranny from criticism in exchange for a share of oil revenues and Riyadh’s political loyalty (and American arms sales).

The relationship has continued this way in the decades since—and will still do so. The U.S. has covered up a long history of Saudi crimes and conspiracies; during the Cold War it used the Saudis to spread extremist jihadi ideologies to counter secular Arabs that tilted towards Moscow. More recently, the Saudi regime was not freelancing when it cultivated the likes of Osama bin Laden: He was part of a Saudi-U.S.-Pakistani effort to recruit, arm, and finance fanatical Muslims from around the world to undermine the progressive secular regime in Afghanistan.

If history is any guide, it is highly likely that Washington and Riyadh are collaborating behind the scenes to cover up the truth of the Khashoggi case and preserve the relationship as it has been for the past 85 years.

Beside the current crisis, there have been other dust-ups in the history of the U.S.-Saudi relations. The 1973 oil crisis was the most serious, and it nearly undermined the alliance. Back then the Saudi regime couldn’t ignore the rising tide of Arab sentiment against U.S. intervention on the side of Israel in the 1973 war.

King Faisal was adamant in discussions Henry Kissinger, Nixon’s secretary of state and national security adviser, that Israel should withdraw from occupied Arab territories in return for lifting the oil embargo. Contrary to his public statements, Faisal hadn’t rejected Israel’s occupation of Palestine since…

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UK think tank report mocked after they conduct only 16 interviews — RT UK News

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Nov 5, 2018: 2:13 pm
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A neo-conservative think tank was widely mocked after it claimed that half of Russian immigrants could be “informants,” the unfounded conclusions were then parroted by sections of Britain’s right-wing press.

The Times article cites a report, titled: ‘Putin Sees and Hears It All: How Russia’s Intelligence Agencies Menace The UK,’ by the Henry Jackson Society, which argues that “Interviewees… suggested that anywhere between a quarter and a half of Russian expats were, or have been, informants.”

The think-tank also tweeted the report’s claim that there were “75,000 informants.” It was estimated that in 2014 there were 150,000 Russians in London alone.

‘As many as 200 Russian case officers in London, handling up to 500 agents and 75,000 informants, report finds’
HJS NEW REPORT: “Putin Sees and Hears it all: How Russia’ Intelligence Agencies
Menace The UK
by @DrewFoxall
See the full report below ⬇️https://t.co/vk0xFzhPrS

— Henry Jackson Society (@HJS_Org) November 5, 2018

To draw such striking conclusions, the report’s author Dr. Andrew Foxall, held 16 “on-and off-the-record conversations” with “individuals who currently occupy, or previously occupied, positions of influence and power, particularly those who are consequential to Russian affairs.”

Foxall said that there has been an “increasing paranoia” among Russian immigrants, following the Salisbury poisoning and the subsequent deterioration in UK-Russia relations.

READ MORE: UK gearing up for cyber-war against Russia? Moscow asks London to clarify media report

The Times even found their own unnamed “dissident” who told them “that the proportion of informants was about half.”

Despite backing up the report’s claims, the newspaper cast aspersions on the identities of the so-called informants, writing that it was unclear whether they “were all individuals reporting directly to diplomats or included loose-tongued Russians who repeated information that would eventually get back to the embassy.”

Due to a small sample size and the lack of quantitative evidence, leading journalists, some of whom experts in Russian affairs, attacked the report and the subsequent article.

Wow. @thetimes, citing neoconservative lobby group @HJS_Org, alleges half of Russians in UK are “Kremlin informants.” As there are an estimated 150,000 Russians in London alone, if this is true, the embassy staff must contain 0,000’s of spy handlers https://t.co/nrXnut8OL8

— Bryan MacDonald (@27khv) November 5, 2018

Shaun Walker, of the Guardian, posted that the “idea that *half* of all the tens of thousands of Russians in the UK are informants seems absurd and insulting.” Foxall responded that the “figure is based on estimates.”

Obvious that Russian intelligence is very active in the UK and that many people have informal relationships with security services, but the idea that *half* of all the tens of thousands of Russians in the UK are informants seems absurd and insulting https://t.co/IVRxMFXu7I

— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) November 5, 2018

This is ridiculous. Where can we read the actual report? (my favorite part is about ubiquitous Russian agents “loudly speaking Russian and eating sunflower seeds” outside schools and businesses.) https://t.co/M6ZXvQ1icH

— Maria Antonova (@mashant) November 5, 2018

The article proceeds to reference several pieces of anecdotal evidence from the report, including the passage: “One westerner was followed on school runs by men who gathered in the street speaking Russian while peeling and eating sunflower seeds, a popular snack in Russia.”

One person is quoted. As is a report referencing a large number of Russians.

It’s not difficult to research the source or the report.

But do stay with “xenophobia” – it helps your credibility no end.https://t.co/JNdLaRNrsd

— Bea Johanssen (@bea_johanssen) November 5, 2018

The ridicule stretches to the article’s own comment section with some Times reader’s posting that the article made them laugh. Another asked: “Is any of this corroborated or substantiated? So much of what I read about Russia and the West sounds overblown, like a bad version of a John Le Carre novel.”

@thetimes continues it’s quest to be nothing but the house newspaper of the Henry Jackson Society. The Times is longer a newspaper and I am sorry for the small handful of actual journalists left working there https://t.co/lF2F0GIe0D

— Tara McCormack (@McCormack_Tara) November 5, 2018

Despite the report’s questionable methodology, the Times, the Daily Mail and City AM parroted it’s conclusions uncritically, with the latter’s headline: ‘Londongrad: Explosion in number of Russian spies in UK,’ not even attributing the claim.

The Henry Jackson Society is a neoconservative British foreign policy think tank. It claims to advocate an interventionist foreign policy with a strong military that “can protect our homelands from strategic threats.” It’s associate director Douglas Murray, who has been accused of Islamophobia, has suggested that “less Islam” is a solution to terrorism.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

California can’t stop onslaught of seeping soil — RT US News

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Nov 5, 2018: 2:10 pm
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California is currently fighting a losing battle to contain a rather turgid and slow moving foe. The state is attempting to stop a creeping mud geyser threatening local infrastructure near the town of Niland, Imperial County.

The movement of the mass of gloopy soil could be likened to a creature from a horror B-movie, thanks to it seeping and sliding towards human civilisation.

Mud pots are a natural occurrence that usually take place when a hot acidic spring dissolves rock and soil. Often the pools of muck and water can be seen bubbling due to the geothermal heat.

The Niland geyser, named after the nearby town, has prompted local authorities to declare an emergency, after it slid towards Union Pacific Railroad tracks and buried nearby utilities. Transport officials have more recently built temporary diversions in a bid to bypass the moving mud lake.

READ MORE: ‘Geyser? Volcano?’ Locals puzzled by mystery sinkhole at Nice beach (PHOTO)

Located near an intersection of the CA-111 highway and Gillespie Road, the geyser – or mud pot – has been a moving feature of the local landscape since the 1950s, according to the US Weather Channel. However, in recent times the natural phenomenon has gathered pace and moved “an additional 60 feet,” report the Imperial County Public Health Department.

Speaking to the LA Times, Alfredo Estrada, an Imperial County’s fire chief, described the situation as a “slow-moving disaster.” Wells have been dug in the area and a shoo-fly train track laid to give safe passage – but still the mud geyser, which sits on the San Andreas fault line, represents a growing risk.

READ MORE: Not Sahara Desert or Iceland geysers! These amazing places are actually in Russia

This month the natural mud spring was reported to have overcome a steel wall built by Union Pacific as a defense barrier.

“The geyser continues to encroach on critical infrastructure such as the Kinder Morgan pipeline and the State Highway,” the local government said in an update. “Officials from Caltrans are working on their contingency plans in the event that the geyser affects State Highway 111.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-US pullout from Iran deal an American scandal: Zarif

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Nov 5, 2018: 1:51 pm
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Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the United States’ unilateral withdrawal from a multilateral nuclear deal with Iran has proven to be a “scandal” for America and shows how much the deal serves Iran’s interests.

At the Iranian Parliament to respond to questions from lawmakers on Monday, Foreign Minister Zarif said no deal would meet all of a negotiating party’s demands.

Still, he said, the Iran deal proved to have been negotiated “with such solidity” that the US pullout has become a “scandal” for America.

“Today, we can see, that, by the grace of God, the JCPOA was so much in favor of Iran’s interests that America withdrew from it scandalously,” Zarif said, using the official abbreviation for the Iran deal, which stands for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

“If you follow the news from the entire world, you can see [a reflection of how] the US has had to walk back many of its claims,” the Iranian foreign minister…

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Prison Planet.com » 12 Examples That Show That America Is Far More Messed Up Than When You Were A Kid

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Nov 5, 2018: 1:27 pm
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Michael Snyder
End Of The American Dream
November 5, 2018

What in the world has happened to our country?

Most of us have very fond memories from when we were younger, and it is true that often our memories of “the good old days” can leave out the bad parts. None of us are perfect individually, and America has certainly never been without major problems as a nation. But have we ever witnessed the level of social decay that we are seeing around the country today? We are like a divorced, bloated, drug-addicted middle age man that has seen his life completely fall apart, and it would be nice to believe that we have hit rock bottom, but the truth is that we just keep on sinking even lower. The following are 12 examples that show that America is far more messed up than when you were a kid…

#1 When I was young, fast food was something that people would get as a treat every once in a while. Today, more than a third of the country has made it a lifestyle…

Americans’ love affair with fast food continues, with one in every three adults chowing down on the fare on any given day. That’s the finding from a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

When asked by researchers, 37 percent of adults said they’d eaten fast food at least once over the past 24 hours. There was one surprise: Bucking the notion that poorer Americans favor fast food the most, the report found that intake actually rose with income.

No wonder obesity rates are at an all-time high and so many of us are developing cancer, heart disease and diabetes…

#2 Overdosing on drugs is now the leading cause of death for Americans under 50, and we now grappling with the worst opioid crisis in our entire history…

Drug overdoses are the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 50, who are now more likely to die from a drug overdose than from car accidents or firearms. The…

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PressTV-Voters amped up for ‘most racist’ US elections

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Nov 5, 2018: 12:49 pm
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Millions of American voters are preparing to cast their vote in the 2018 midterm congressional elections on Tuesday, which according to some observers is by far the “most racist” election in modern history.

Aggressive campaigning for elections has a long history in the US, where candidates use anything at their disposal to bash their rival and make their way into the position they are vying for.

But under President Donald Trump, the 2018 campaign is taking an ugly turn to dark places.

Fueled with Trump’s vitriolic remarks against racial and religious minorities as well as immigrants, this year’s elections are overshadowed by hatred and bigotry.

Last week, Trump tweeted an incendiary video to spread fear against migrants, claiming that his opponents at the Democratic camp were responsible for the 2014 murder of two police officers at the hands of an immigrant in California.

Produced by a consultancy firm in Washington, the 53-second…

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Trump’s Strategy – LewRockwell

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Nov 5, 2018: 12:10 pm
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The war in Syria has shown that when it comes to conventional weapons, the US Armed Forces are no longer the top dog. Russia is now in control. Moscow has brought a new resource onto the war pitch: the most recent generation of hypersonic nuclear carriers. This introduction should see Russia getting ahead of the United States in nuclear warfare. Unwilling to lag behind and seeking to make up lost ground, the Pentagon intends to profit – in as much as time remains for it to do so— from its quantitative superiority, to impose its choices on Russia and China.

The influential Council on Foreign Relations’ journal, Foreign Affairs, has just crudely exposed the current debate on a nuclear war that the US could let unfurl against Russia and China [2].

First, there is the article by Elbridge Colby, one of the main authors of the Pentagon’s National Defense Strategy [3]. This declares that the war currently being waged against terrorism will come to an end and the Great Powers will once again compete inter se. The motto is: “if you want peace, prepare yourself for nuclear war” [4].

War is a Racket: The A…
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Colby, Joint Under Secretary in charge of strategy and developing the force, provides: all confrontation with Russia and China could become nuclear if during the battle that is becoming tougher and more uncertain, each fighter was tempted to seize his nuclear sword to test the resolve of his adversary, to rise to the challenge, or quite simply to be able to continue the fight.

Colby’s logic is that the best way to avoid a nuclear war is to get ready to deliver a limited one (sic); and the US is ready to carry out effective, contained…

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11yo suspected of fatally shooting grandmother, himself over cleaning his room — RT US News

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Nov 5, 2018: 12:08 pm
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An 11-year-old boy is believed to have fatally shot his 65-year-old grandmother and then himself after he was asked to clean his room, according to Arizona police.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office said they received a call from a man in Litchfield Park claiming his grandson killed his wife before turning the gun on himself just after 5pm on Saturday, reports the Arizona Daily Independent.

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Doyle Hebert said the couple had full custody of the boy and claims he snapped after the child’s grandmother, Yvonne Woodard, repeatedly asked him to clean his room and pick up after himself throughout the day.

Hebert alleges that his grandson shot Woodard in the back of the head after they had sat down to watch TV. He claims that after his wife was shot, he chased his grandson briefly before returning to help her, which is when he heard the second gunshot and watched his grandson take a few steps before falling to the ground.

Sergeant Joaquin Enriquez told KTVK that the gun belonged to Hebert, and the boy had shown no previous signs of violence or self-harm. An investigation is ongoing.

Separately, this week a Florida teenager confessed to strangling his mother before burying her in a church fire pit, following an argument about his grades in school.

The boy, 15, was charged with the first-degree premeditated murder of the 46-year-old, according to a statement from Volusia County Police. He appeared in juvenile court on Sunday. Two 17-year-olds were charged as accessories after the fact.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Prison Planet.com » Thousands Of Europe-Bound Migrants Have Simply Vanished: AP

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Nov 5, 2018: 11:26 am
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Zero Hedge
November 2, 2018

Tens of thousands of migrants undertaking dangerous journeys in search of greener pastures throughout the world are dead or missing, according to an AP tally – nearly doubling estimates from the N’s International Organization for Migration (IOM).

At least 56,800 migrants worldwide have simply vanished since 2014 by AP‘s count – eclipsing the IOM’s October 1 estimate of around 28,500. This year alone, the IOM has documented over 1,900 deaths in and around the Mediterranean.

“A growing number of migrants have drowned, died in deserts or fallen prey to traffickers, leaving their families to wonder what on earth happened to them,” reports Fox News. “At the same time, anonymous bodies are filling cemeteries around the world.”

Focusing on Europe alone, AP found almost 4,900 migrants whose families can’t account for their lived ones – nearly half of which are children who have been reported missing to the Red Cross.

… many of those who go missing are uncounted, including boatfuls [sic] of young Tunisians or Algerians and children whose parents lost track of them in the chaos of land border crossings. In all, The Associated Press found nearly 4,900 people whose families say they simply disappeared without a trace in Europe or en route, including more than 2,700 children whose families reported them missing to the Red Cross. –Fox News

Meanwhile, efforts to identify those who have died in shipwrecks trying to make it to Europe have fallen flat. Of the 400 or so remains interred in a Tunisian cemetery for unidentified migrants, for example, only one has ever been identified since its opening in 2005.

“Their families may think that the person is still alive, or that he’ll return one day to visit,” said one unemployed sailor, Chamseddin Marzouk. “They don’t know that those they await are buried here, in Zarzis, Tunisia.”

…

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Forced Classification, Biological Determinism, and Sad Chapters From Our Nation’s History

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Nov 5, 2018: 10:59 am
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October was LGBTQ History Month, a moment to reflect upon the history of the LGBTQ movement, but also how it interacts with our nation’s broader civil rights history. Unfortunately, the Trump Administration seems to have treated last month as simply another opportunity to push our nation backward. Like so many of my peers, I read with dismay the press accounts of the most recent move by the Trump Administration to roll back civil rights protections for transgender people.  According to the New York Times, the leaked memo demonstrates an intent to define sex “as either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals that a person is born with” and to require any disputes about sex to be clarified through genetic testing.   Apparently, the Trump Administration’s plan is to use this new definition to restrict rights in areas such as equal access to health care, education, and housing.

As a former Obama Administration lawyer who worked on LGBTQ issues, and who witnessed the painstaking effort and detailed factfinding that informed guidance documents and rulemakings at the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Education, and the Department of Health and Human Services, I am saddened that so much progress can be casually replaced by policy formed contrary to medical opinion, federal court decisions, and human rights principles. As a student of American civil rights history, I am dispirited by how policy can be formed at odds with the lessons of our country’s past.

In the aftermath of the Civil War, our young and fragile nation was forced to grapple with the ways in which the Declaration of Independence’s promises of liberty were broken when it came to African Americans. The resulting Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, drafted and adopted in what many historians refer to as our nation’s “Second Founding,” were an attempt to fulfill these unkept promises by elucidating clear principles of equal protection, due process, and citizenship.   These Reconstruction Amendments form a critical part of our collective story of Constitutional progress, which trends toward inclusion. We know, however, that the story has had twists and turns. The Reconstruction Amendments signaled a movement toward equality, but that movement was met by resistance and the emergence of Jim Crow laws and other state and local laws and policies aimed at preserving segregation and racial subordination.

An example from a state bordering our nation’s capital city proves instructive. In 1924, Virginia passed SB 219, The Racial Integrity Act. The Act was motivated by fear of racial self-definition and mixing, and aimed to prevent a blurred racial landscape that would have made the subordination of African Americans more difficult. The Act required a racial description of each resident at birth, placing people in one of two categories: white or colored. This latter category included African Americans and most Native Americans. (The absence of Latinos and Asian Americans in the legislation signals not a tolerance for, but rather a relative ignorance of, their existence.) According to the Act, race was defined using the “one-drop rule,” defining persons with any African or Native American ancestry (no matter how removed) as “colored.” According to the statute’s twisted logic, one drop of colored blood made one colored, but one drop of white blood did not make one white. The Act went further by confirming and expanding Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage, making criminal any marriage between a white person and a colored person.   The United States Supreme Court’s 1967 Loving v. Virginia decision struck down Virginia’s interracial marriage ban (along with interracial marriage bans in several other states), rightly finding it an unconstitutional violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14^th Amendment. However, it wasn’t until 1975 that the remainder of the Racial Integrity Act was repealed.

What propelled the Racial Integrity Act was not the joy of classification; rather the Act was needed because discriminatory systems depend upon clear definitions of “the other.” Virginia’s racial subordination system was challenged by people who might defy easy classification, by people who might engage in self classification, or by actions (such as interracial marriage) that blurred classes altogether. The Act, by requiring racial classification at birth, and by grasping at purportedly accurate biological ways of making the classification (the one drop rule), sought to prop up the old system, assuring a supply of the necessary inputs. If the old system were to be considered a factory, with racial subordination its ultimate product, then clearly raced humans (raced at birth and not by their own self-description) were necessary raw materials.

As both a person of color and a member of the LGBTQ community, I’m cautious about easy equations between race, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression. However, that wariness pales in comparison to my suspicion of forced classifications and strained appeals to biological determinism. Neither has served our nation well in the past. Just as racial subordination systems require a clear sense of who is a racial “other,” sexual subordination systems require a clear sense of who is a sexual or gender minority “other.” Self-definition and identities that defy simple classification pose challenges to these systems. So perhaps it should not surprise anyone that at a moment when our nation was making progress toward understanding how the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause (embedded in one of the Reconstruction Amendments, the Fourteenth Amendment) applies to the LGBTQ community, such systems would strike back, and that they would aim first at the community’s most vulnerable members, our transgender, non-binary, and intersex family.

In the coming days, weeks, and months, as we learn more about the Administration’s plans to implement its proposed changes to civil rights laws and regulations, attention will rightly focus on the ways such plans could harm the lives of our nation’s 1.4 million transgender people. Attention will also rightly focus on how the plans categorically erase intersex individuals, whose lives challenge the gender binary and crude appeals to biological determinism. Discussions will also cover the ways in which the plans harm children who do not conform to gender stereotypes. We might also spare some concern for how such plans evoke the sadder portions of our national journey and how they represent a detour from the path to constitutional progress. We ignore history at our own peril.

Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-‘Trump lying 30 times a day as US midterms approach’

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Nov 5, 2018: 10:47 am
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In the lead up to the US midterm elections, President Donald Trump’s tendency for making false or misleading statements has increased dramatically, according to reports.

A fact-checking journalist on Sunday alleged that Trump has begun telling even more falsehoods than previously ahead of the congressional elections, which will take place on Tuesday, and called the president a “serial liar.”

“These are not simply the usual exaggerations of a crowd size and so on,” said David Dale, who is the Washington correspondent for Canada’s Toronto Star.

“He’s making stuff up in the last couple weeks in a way that I don’t think we’ve seen from a serial liar, the President, before” he told CNN on Sunday.

Dale described Trump’s recent false statements as “whoppers,” adding that they have been “complete fabrications.”

He argued that the term “lies” is “the most accurate word for some of these claims.” However, Dale added…

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US military academy embarrassed after cadets kidnap & injure rivals’ mascot falcon — RT US News

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Nov 5, 2018: 10:07 am
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The US Military Academy at West Point has apologized for cadets who pulled off a daring prank on their Air Force arch-rivals by nabbing their team’s mascot falcons ahead of the annual football game, injuring a bird in the process.

The cadets’ behavior “does not reflect the army or USMA core values of dignity and respect,” the United States Military Academy at West Point said in a statement on Sunday. The USMA leadership issued an official apology to their colleagues at the Air Force Academy, whose team’s bird mascots were stolen on Friday night – right before the annual army-air force football game.

The US military schools are known for their decades-long rivalries, so the cadets often stage elaborate pranks against each other’s teams. And before the traditional football showdown at the USMA home field, the Michie Stadium at West Point, New York, cadets apparently decided to upstage the future airmen by doing just that.

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As in all sport-related trips, the birds of prey were accompanying their team, the Air Force Falcons. They were staying at the house of an army colonel, who acted as a volunteer sponsor. It was from here that the cadets stole a 22-year-old white gyrfalcon named Aurora, as well as Oblio, a peregrine falcon seven years younger.

It is unclear how many cadets participated in the operation to snatch the mascots, or how they snuck into the house. The Air Force Academy’s falconry team adviser, Sam Dollar, told the New York Times that the ‘thieves’ threw sweaters over the birds and “stuffed them into dog crates.”

The prank turned out to be a public embarrassment for West Point and sparked an uproar resulting in accusations of animal cruelty. Both birds were eventually handed over on Saturday morning, but Aurora came back with bloody abrasions on her wings. It is believed that she likely injured herself while thrashing inside the crate. Aurora’s condition immediately raised concerns, particularly due to the bird’s old age, and her injuries were initially described as “potentially life-threatening.”

We are incredibly thankful to let everyone know Aurora is in good spirits and was able to fly around her pen this morning! She will see a specialist this afternoon to determine if x-rays are necessary, but this is an extremely good sign. pic.twitter.com/BSFlYb4mCN

— USAFA (Official) (@AF_Academy) November 4, 2018

The falcon was quickly airlifted to Fort Carson, Colorado. After examining the bird, the veterinarians delivered a heartwarming prognosis: Despite the harrowing experience, Aurora is expected to make a “fully recovery.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Why Restoring Voting Rights Matters for Florida’s Latinos

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Nov 5, 2018: 9:46 am
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Next week, Floridians have a chance to engage in a uniquely democratic act — and not just by casting a ballot in Tuesday’s election. In Florida, they can do something more — they can vote for voting.

Thanks to a movement led by affected citizens, Floridians will vote on Amendment 4 — the Voting Restoration Amendment. If it passes, Amendment 4 will restore the eligibility to vote to 1.4 million Floridians with felony convictions in their past, who are currently barred for life from voting. This amendment, and what it means for democracy, should have particular significance for the Latino community — but perhaps not for the reasons you may think.

It’s tempting to think about Amendment 4 in partisan terms. These days, commentators are quick to speculate on whether voting laws will benefit Democrats or Republicans. But Latino voters are not monolithic — especially not in Florida, where 6 in ten registered Latino voters are Republican or unaffiliated. It’s difficult to say what effect Amendment 4 might have on party politics in the Latino community.

It is also natural to question the racial implications of tying voting to the criminal justice system. And, to be sure, research shows disparities in how Latinos fare in Florida’s system. But that’s a complicated story as well, both because of the racial diversity of the Latino population and because for many years, Latinos were simply not counted in criminal justice data. As far as Florida and many other states were concerned, people in prison were either white or black, making it almost impossible to tell how many of the 1.4 million people that will be impacted by Amendment 4 are Latino.

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It’s this exclusion from the conversation that’s really the point. Latinos in the US understand what it means to be marginalized, to be left out of the discussion. It is no secret that even as the Latino…

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End the Need for Nursing “Short Cuts”

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Nov 5, 2018: 9:37 am
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My former student, Sony Georges, has been a nurse in Massachusetts for a decade. He’s become a close friend. (I’m calling him “Sony” here, since, like many nurses, he has expressed fears about retaliation from hospital higher ups if he speaks out publicly in support of ballot Question 1.)

Sony is among the most caring and reflective people I know, the kind of person who looks in your eyes, and you sense depth of human sympathy. Somehow you know this brother has seen some suffering in his life. And it’s true. Born into a small poor country abroad, Sony became an orphan at a young age, before being adopted by a local family. He emigrated to the US at age 13 on his own, settling in Boston to go to school. He was an ‘old soul’ long before I met him in a college classroom, almost a decade ago.

Sony’s desire to become a nurse goes way back to when he was only five or six, when he was forced to watch his own mother die an excruciating death from terminal cancer–without the buffer of modern pain medication. In our first-year writing course, Sony filled pages with the vivid and horrific story of listening at the door, paralyzed by his mother’s pain-blind cries. Peering through the door-crack, he watched helplessly as the sickness tore her apart, even as he was deeply moved by the sight of his grandmother, holding her adult daughter tight, telling her to “Clench your teeth” as she left this world on waves of pain.

Being so young, Sony was mostly kept from…

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Prison Planet.com » Russia’s gold reserves smash Soviet-era record as part of Moscow’s de-dollarization drive

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Nov 5, 2018: 9:25 am
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RT
November 2, 2018

The Central Bank of Russia bought over 92 tons of gold in the three months to the end of September breaking the Soviet peak of 2000 tons in gold reserves seen in 1941, according to a new report by the World Gold Council (WGC).

Russia reportedly purchased more gold than any other country in the world, followed by Turkey, Kazakhstan, and India, which bought 18.5 tons, 13.4 tons and 13.7 tons respectively.

That marks the highest quarterly net purchase since 1993, when the WGC started tracking the country’s data. Russia’s gold stockpile now accounts for 17 percent of the country’s overall foreign exchange reserves.

The Central Bank of Russia will keep adding bullion to its reserves, while reducing the share of US sovereign bond holdings at the same time, according to Anatoly Aksakov, the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets.

“This is a growing trend. Over the last five years, countries have been boosting the share of gold in their reserves, reducing the dollar share,” Aksakov told RIA Novosti.

“Investments in the US Treasury securities have been in record decline. I think this trend will continue.”

The regulator started a gradual sell-off of the US sovereign debt shortly after Washington introduced economic sanctions against Russia, threatening to fence off the country from dollar transactions, as well as from the SWIFT global payment network. The share of Russian investments in US Treasuries, which totaled nearly $176 billion in 2010, has dropped to a record low of $14 billion as of August.

When it comes to foreign exchange reserves, Russian authorities are pursuing the policy of absolute safety. Earlier this year, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said the country has to ditch its holdings of US Treasuries in favor of more secure assets, such as the ruble, the euro, and precious metals.

This article was…

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Orson Welles in End Times

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Nov 5, 2018: 9:22 am
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They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead is Morgan Neville’s not–very-helpful addition to the canon of “Who Was Orson Welles and How Did He Do It?” documentaries, of which I have already seen several, since I’m a fan. It didn’t make me particularly enthusiastic about The Other Side of the Wind, Welles’ simultaneously released final monsterpiece (42 years in coming!) which is the nominal focus of the documentary. The footage of Welles pastiching European New Cinema (which did a fine job all on its own) and somehow critiquing toxic masculinity by having John Huston chew scenery while slathering the bronze body of his talentless late-life muse Oja Kodar across the screen (talk about having your cake and eating it) and wasting the talented Susan Strasberg in a vengeful bitch-critic role left me cold and rather sad (in solidarity with critics, I suppose, and Antonioni, and the billions of women who may be any number of worthy things without ever being the muses of iconic film directors).

I may still go to see the film, out of completism, which for Welles fans is an exercise in frustration and almost Borgesian impossibility. Or maybe I’ll watch it on Netflix, since I assume my subscriber fees helped pay for it (both films are Netflix productions). As fans know, there’s usually at least one scene or shot in any Orson Welles film that actually makes you see in a new way, and that’s worth the price of many misfires.

The documentary is also full of baffling…

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Democratic Party mailer removes SEP candidate Niles Niemuth from sample ballot

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Nov 5, 2018: 9:15 am
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Democratic Party mailer removes SEP candidate Niles Niemuth from sample ballot

By
our reporter

5 November 2018

A voter guide mailed and hand delivered to residents of Dearborn, Downriver and western Wayne County removed Niles Niemuth, the Socialist Equality Party candidate for Congress in Michigan’s 12th district, from a sample ballot.

While the purpose of the mailer was to promote Democratic candidates in the election, the names of all Republican, third party and independent candidates besides Niles were included.

The Dearborn, Downriver and western Wayne County voter guide excludes Niles

His name was apparently deliberately removed from the Wayne County mailer, since a nearly identical voter guide sent to residents of neighboring Washtenaw County, which includes the 12th district cities of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, includes Niles. For the Wayne County version, the place where Niles’ name would be is simply blank.

The Wayne County voter guide includes statements of endorsement from the United Auto Workers, while the Washtenaw Country guide has endorsements from Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan.

The voter guides were paid for by the Michigan Voter Guide Project, a local Democratic Party initiative started in 2016 by Democratic State Representative Adam Zemke and Washtenaw County Democratic Party Executive Committee member Jennifer Fairfield.

The apparently deliberate removal of the Socialist Equality Party’s campaign goes hand-in-hand with the censorship by WDIV News Channel 4 and ClickonDetroit.com, which had left Niles off of its voter guide.

The Washtenaw County voter guide faithfully reproduces Tuesday’s ballot

WDIV’s news director Kim Voet has yet to reply to an open letter emailed by Niles Thursday night, though the station has quietly added his…

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Video: Sensor failure caused aborted Soyuz launch – probe results

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Nov 5, 2018: 8:51 am
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Russia’s Space Agency says a sensor damaged during assembly was responsible for an aborted Souyz rocket launch 3 weeks ago. The two-man crew, one …

Via Youtube

PressTV-30 million vote early in US midterm elections

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Nov 5, 2018: 8:44 am
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More than 30 million Americans have cast early ballots ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections, eclipsing the 2014 early totals nationally and suggesting a high overall turnout for contests that could define the final two years of President Donald Trump’s term.

At least 28 states have surpassed their 2014 early votes. And perhaps even more indicative of the unusual enthusiasm this midterm cycle, some states are approaching their early turnout from the 2016 presidential election.

Here’s a look at some highlights:

Massive turnout

The 30.6 million ballots includes data from 48 states, with several of those still collecting absentee ballots and welcoming in-person early voters. The total early vote in 2014 was 28.3 million in an election where more than 83 million Americans voted. That was a low turnout (about 36 percent) even by usual standards of a midterm, when there’s an expected drop off from presidential elections.

Forecasters…

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Billionaires, corporate money swing toward Democrats

By our reporter 7 November 2018

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Other shortlisted Collins Dictionary Words of the Year 2018

Prosecutor points to UAW “culture of corruption” as union officials face sentencing

By Shannon Jones 7 November 2018

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Worker injured in explosion at ArcelorMittal steel mill in Indiana

By Jessica Goldstein 7 November 2018

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Chinese president denounces “law of the jungle” on trade

By Nick Beams 6 November 2018

‘Russiagate’ not high on election agenda, but will be back if Democrats win’

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