Sunday, March 04, 2018 6:01:49 PM
Trump uses Parkland shooting to deflect from Russia probe
AM Joy
2/18/18
Donald Trump has used the Parkland shooting victims to deflect from the Russia investigation, many critics say about his recent tweet. Joy Reid and her panel[, including Malcolm Nance,] discuss the resultant uproar.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/parkland-shooting-students-take-nra-and-president-to-task-1164530755790 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3jEG8jDRbU [with comments] [a must-watch]
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Trump tweets ‘they are laughing their asses off in Moscow’
AM Joy
2/18/18
Donald Trump early Sunday hurled tweets at Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Adam Schiff, in addition to criticizing the Russia probe. Joy Reid and her panel[, including Malcolm Nance,] on why the president may be on the edge.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/trump-russia-president-hurls-tweets-at-obama-clinton-schiff-1164538435922 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Zjiey4kOo [with comments] [a must-watch]
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The myth that more guns is the answer to gun violence
AM Joy
2/18/18
The Parkland school shooting could not have been stopped by armed teachers, or combative students, as many NRA supporters suggest. Joy Reid and her panel[, including Malcolm Nance,] detail why.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/parkland-shooting-armed-teachers-are-not-the-answer-1164544579770 [a must-watch]
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LeBron James on Laura Ingraham: ‘I had no idea who she is’
AM Joy
2/18/18
LeBron James tells Laura Ingraham ‘we will not shut up and dribble’ after the FOX News host, who often interviews D-list celebrities on political topics, insisted that James should not critique Donald Trump. Joy Reid and her panel discuss Ingraham’s apparent ignorance of the tradition of athletes taking a stand.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/lebron-james-laura-ingraham-we-will-not-shut-up-and-dribble-1164546627899 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2LLZPUCJ40 [with comments]
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‘Black Panther’ breaks records paving way for black creators
AM Joy
2/18/18
The ‘Black Panther’ movie is breaking opening weekend records, paving the way for black creators to revolutionize the comic book and superhero genres. Actor, writer, and producer Erika Alexander joins Joy Reid to discuss her new project, ‘Concrete Park.’
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/-black-panther-movie-black-comics-characters-center-stage-1164551747647 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0A7N2anRtE [with comments]
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Controversial Obama portraits teach America how to love art
AM Joy
2/18/18
Barack and Michelle Obama’s controversial official portraits have sparked debate, but Joy Reid’s guest shares how they may teach America to see African-Americans and the Obamas' legacy in a new way.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/barack-and-michelle-obama-presidential-portraits-spark-debate-1164557891893
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Denver Gives Sanctuary To Illegal Drug Traffickers
Published on Feb 18, 2018 by The Alex Jones Channel [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvsye7V9psc-APX6wV1twLg / https://www.youtube.com/user/TheAlexJonesChannel , https://www.youtube.com/user/TheAlexJonesChannel/videos ]
Democrat politicians turn Denver into a Sanctuary City to protect illegal immigrants from deportation while at the same time creating a safe haven for illegal heroin drug traffickers. Denver police have had their hands tied with threats of job loss, fines, and or imprisonment if they contact ICE to report or communicate about illegal immigrants that have been detained. City ordinances have been enacted to make life for immigrants easier by lessening the penalty for public urination and deification as well as camping. Courts have also started to allow illegal immigrants privileges to send in pleas for lesser crimes via mail so they can avoid risk of deportation at court houses by ICE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud4mOWX_eFA [with comments]
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Democrats Turning Denver Into Sh!thole
Published on Feb 19, 2018 by The Alex Jones Channel
Denver approves local sentencing changes aimed at helping immigrants avoid deportation, such as reducing the punishment for public urination and defecation as well as unauthorized urban camping. Denver has a growing homeless population and residents worry that the new changes could create a public health hazard with human excrement littering the streets. Infowars reporter Millie Weaver sparks up conversation with locals using a fake plastic poop to break the ice regarding the new Denver ordinances. Many locals were loud about the common sense solution of adding more public restrooms to combat the growing problem. This raises the question, why have the Democrat politicians tasked with fixing this problem ignored their constituents pleas for more public restrooms? And why lessen the punishment for what is clearly a public health hazard without offering a real solution? With Democrats declaring Denver a sanctuary city among a growing opioid crisis it appears the future of Denver is uncertain.
[from February 18, 2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ6mx-wphT8 [with comments] ["Democrats Turning Denver Into Sh*thole City [CENSORED]" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K4ij0ENw1U (with comments)]
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Readout of President Donald J. Trump’s Meeting with Speaker Paul Ryan
Issued on: February 18, 2018
President Donald J. Trump and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan had a productive meeting today. The two leaders discussed a wide variety of topics, including securing our Nation’s borders through immigration reform, the continued benefits the American people are experiencing as a result of tax reform, the overwhelming need to improve our Nation’s infrastructure, and the recent tragedy in Parkland, Florida. The President looks forward to continuing his close collaboration with Speaker Ryan as they work to accomplish their shared legislative priorities this year.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/readout-president-donald-j-trumps-meeting-speaker-paul-ryan/
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Emperor Atheist vs The Catholic Fusionist: Is Biblical slavery compatible with "omnibenevolence”?
Published on Feb 18, 2018 by Emperor Atheist [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCb4gMGQjON4h3ZmjvVwYbw , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCb4gMGQjON4h3ZmjvVwYbw/videos ]
Emperor atheist debates The Catholic Fusionist on Slavery in the bible and the Omnibenevolence of God. This debate was moderated by Steve McCrae in the great debate community. The video can also be found on his channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80LSLpmG9xg [and on The Catholic Fusionist's channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p27DQjiDLhc ].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaLh2BFDfnA [with comments]
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What to Do About Problematic Statues - The Daily Show
Published on Feb 18, 2018 by The Daily Show with Trevor Noah [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwWhs_6x42TyRM4Wstoq8HA , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwWhs_6x42TyRM4Wstoq8HA/videos ]
As New York City grapples with whether or not to remove statues of controversial historical figures, Michael Kosta finds out what the public thinks of the effigies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtjtHLj1Frg [with comments] [and see also in particular (linked in) https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=22198799 and preceding and following, https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=23517783 (and any future following), https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=70066579 and preceding and following, https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=70067730 and preceding and following, https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=134018270 and preceding (and any future following)]
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Full Show - Pro-Gun Online Speech Is Now Russian Propaganda - 02/18/2018
Published on Feb 18, 2018 by Ron Gibson [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYv-5LsUyc_P8KMo7YGPFPA / https://www.youtube.com/user/RonGibsonCF , https://www.youtube.com/user/RonGibsonCF/videos ]
Sunday, Feb. 18th 2018: Mueller Indicts Russians, Trump Cleared! - FBI Special Counsel Mueller indicted 13 Russians in connection to a “troll farm” meant to disrupt American politics since 2014, once again showing no collusion between Russia and Trump campaign. The president torched the FBI in a tweetstorm, saying the agency would’ve likely caught the Florida shooter sooner if they hadn’t spent so much time on the phony Russia probe. Also, liberals and the mainstream media are pushing gun control once again in the wake of the tragic Florida shooting. On today’s show, we’ll discuss the FBI fallout, and why the establishment is so determined to take our firearms.
https://www.infowars.com/dem-senator-touts-proposed-gun-ban-that-goes-on-for-100-pages-to-define-assault-weapon/
https://www.infowars.com/feinstein-flashback-day-when-america-could-be-the-welfare-state-for-mexico-is-gone/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foBdU874Bqg [with comments] [the edited official Alex Jones upload at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL-dHBjpDP8 (title and text adapted from; with comments)] [a must-watch]
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Meditations On Apologetics
Published on Feb 18, 2018 by AntiCitizenX [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIbBCEj2Zrc5KkyzLEQMZCw / https://www.youtube.com/user/AntiCitizenX , https://www.youtube.com/user/AntiCitizenX/videos ]
Just a fun rant between me and Charkopolis about the manipulative tactics and outright dishonesty of religious apologists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrZ2jgMp7M0 [with comments]
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Trump Has A Problem Criticizing People Who Say Nice Things About Him
Published on Feb 18, 2018 by VICE News [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZaT_X_mc0BI-djXOlfhqWQ / https://www.youtube.com/user/vicenews , https://www.youtube.com/user/vicenews/videos ]
It took two days for President Trump to specifically condemn the white supremacists responsible for the violence in Charlottesville last weekend, and that left some people wondering if it’s because some of these fringe groups have supported him. After all, he’s been surprisingly honest about his inability to criticize people who’ve been nice to him.
In 2011, he told Sean Hannity: “I have such a problem. Everyone’s said such nice things,” referring to potential competitors as he contemplated a 2012 presidential run. Trump went on to explain that he has a difficult time speaking ill of people who have complimented him. “They’re all saying these nice things about me, I have a hard time.”
Throughout his career, Trump has praised everyone from Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton to Kanye West and Vladimir Putin… as long as they were willing to say “nice things” about him, too. Here are a few examples illustrating a man who likes to be liked.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XNAA1o-SbE [with comments]
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Donald Trump Big Resorts have ONE AMERICAN Worker.., The Rest are Foreign !
Published on Feb 18, 2018 by Bravo Von Muller [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4G1zEStJMqN3mnEONXA7Mw , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4G1zEStJMqN3mnEONXA7Mw/videos ]
Donald Trump is Lying to the Americans, he does NOT want to help us, he wants us to end up HOMELESS. The Trump Resorts have One Job allocated to a Born and Raised American.., HOW SAD !!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esD_TELg_44 [with comments]
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Mandy Bombard so-called Body Language Expert Attacking Florida Students, WHY ?
Published on Feb 18, 2018 by Bravo Von Muller
Do you find it Strange that the so-called Body Language Expert Mandy Bombard is attacking the Students down in Florida ? Why would she direct her Hate towards Them ? Is she connected to the Elite Globalist Club ? We know she is Promoted by the Alex Jonestein-Bronfman Matrix and that should explain everything !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vB4BGtG5sY [with comments]
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Next On Episode 3 | Our Cartoon President | SHOWTIME
Published on Feb 15, 2018 by SHOWTIME [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtwMWJr2BFPkuJTnSvCESSQ / https://www.youtube.com/user/SHOWTIME , https://www.youtube.com/user/SHOWTIME/videos , https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ8c54cxQG2Er3jT_VcduPQWzeNMvvrzl ]
The President sets out to reverse all of President Obama's accomplishments.
[Episode 3 originally aired February 18, 2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgV0dfNOMgg [with comments]
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'Ideas To Destroy Obama's Legacy' Ep. 3 Official Clip | Our Cartoon President | SHOWTIME
Published on Feb 15, 2018 by SHOWTIME
Stephen Miller addresses the team as they brainstorm ideas to destroy Obama's legacy.
[Episode 3 originally aired February 18, 2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BAv9g52Y0w [with comments]
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'I Flew In a Playmate for Sex' Ep. 3 Official Clip | Our Cartoon President | SHOWTIME
Published on Feb 16, 2018 by SHOWTIME
President Trump joins Fox & Friends to discuss the story he flew in a Playmate and the resignation of White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter.
[Episode 3 originally aired February 18, 2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h71rUtBWOw [with comments]
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'These Jokes Are Bigly Crap' Ep. 3 Official Clip | Our Cartoon President | SHOWTIME
Published on Feb 21, 2018 by SHOWTIME
President Trump delivers some killer jokes at the rescheduled White House Correspondents' Dinner.
[Episode 3 originally aired February 18, 2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yyqh6iaJ3ns [with comments]
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Trump vs. The World: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
Published on Feb 18, 2018 by LastWeekTonight [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3XTzVzaHQEd30rQbuvCtTQ / https://www.youtube.com/user/LastWeekTonight , https://www.youtube.com/user/LastWeekTonight/videos ]
America's reputation is being damaged by its own president. John Oliver, several dinosaurs, and the NYC Gay Men's Chorus remind the world that our country is...complicated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCjk_NPsIqU [with (over 26,000) comments]
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stashed February 18, 2018:
America Is Under Attack and the President Doesn't Care
Trump’s gravest responsibility is to defend the United States from foreign attack—and he’s done nothing to fulfill it.
By David Frum
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/america-is-under-attack-and-the-president-doesnt-care/553667/
Trump Chides McMaster For Saying Evidence Of Russian Interference 'Incontrovertible'
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/17/586803847/mcmaster-says-evidence-of-russia-meddling-incontrovertible
For Mueller, this is only the beginning
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/18/opinions/mueller-indictment-goals-opinion-rangappa/index.html
Trump’s Evolution From Relief to Fury Over the Russia Indictment
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/18/us/politics/trump-blames-obama-and-democrats-for-failing-to-stop-russian-meddling.html
Dem lawmaker: Trump tweets on Russia show 'consciousness of guilt' - Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.)
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/374496-dem-trump-tweets-on-russia-show-consciousness-of-guilt
Dem lawmaker calls Trump 'eunuch in chief' over response to Russia meddling - Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.)
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/374494-dem-lawmaker-calls-trump-eunuch-in-chief-over-response-to-russia-meddling
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dGhxVL0Oj72Lj8M72arpiriMgFcIM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Russia's shadowy world of military contractors: independent mercenaries, or working for the Kremlin? - further to https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=138645621
http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-russia-mercenaries-20180218-story.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/df18LV2l-5Wr4HM0CDDai9CLwkTAM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Former Trump aide Richard Gates to plead guilty; agrees to testify against Manafort, sources say - further to https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=138644765
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-rick-gates-plea-deal-20180218-story.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/db81yeWtjXPcqIMb10n2UCeQj9KJM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Netanyahu in deeper peril as more Israeli officials are arrested on corruption charges
http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-israel-corruption-arrests-20180218-story.html
Media Cases Show Netanyahu's Bid for Tyranny
Mendelblit reportedly sees that Netanyahu’s ties with Bezeq’s Elovitch had a criminal nature
Everything you need to know about Case 4000 involving Israel's telecom giant [ https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-case-4000-1.5827413 ]
Netanyahu has a new scapegoat for his corruption scandal [ https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-netanyahu-has-a-new-scapegoat-for-his-corruption-scandal-1.5824587 ]
Former editor of Israeli news outlet admits he was pressured to give Netanyahu favorable coverage [ https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/former-editor-of-israeli-news-outlet-admits-favorable-coverage-1.5823986 ]
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/media-cases-show-netanyahu-s-bid-for-tyranny-1.5827498
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/d1UwYXCqxjSRqhMQNS-qzW0220QpM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Israel-Poland spat: Swastikas drawn on Polish embassy in Tel Aviv
Swastikas have been drawn on the gates of Poland's embassy in Israel, a day after the country's PM said Jews were among perpetrators of the Holocaust.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43108116
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/duFs5zWXUtqJS4M2hlbE7tEU1dpGM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Scoop: Skirmish in Beijing over the nuclear football
https://www.axios.com/scoop-skirmish-in-beijing-over-the-nuclear-football-1518992774-1e7a513d-4190-459d-ad4f-2c8746fecc6f.html
Axios: Kelly, Secret Service agent scuffled with Chinese officials over nuclear 'football'
http://thehill.com/policy/international/china/374485-axios-us-and-chinese-officials-scuffled-in-beijing-over-nuclear
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dGqlv6uSn4s1zKM7D9p1jwml4wuQM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Paul Manafort Accused Of Bank Fraud In New Mueller Court Documents [ https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000161-a159-d829-a37b-fb7d3c6a0001 ]
He submitted “doctored profit statements” for mortgage to secure bail, say prosecutors.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/manafort-bail-bank-fraud_us_5a89137ae4b00bc49f44f359
Trump Cites Facebook Executive In ‘Fake News’ Twitter Rant Over Russian Indictments
“Hard to ignore the vice president of Facebook ads!”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-cites-facebook-ceo_us_5a88b5ace4b004fc3192e995
Media, Democrats Have Created ‘More Chaos’ Than Russians, Says White House Spokesman
Twitter: “That’s exactly what the Russian troll farm tweets say.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dems-media-more-chaos-than-russia_us_5a88fdc1e4b00bc49f44ea00
Top Democrat: Obama Too Slow On Russia Hacking, But Trump Is ‘Sitting On His Hands’
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) skewered the White House for refusing to impose new Russia sanctions passed by Congress.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/adam-schiff-trump_us_5a89936ee4b05c2bcacbf6b9
Former Trump Aide Rick Gates Will Plead Guilty To Mueller Probe Charges: Report
He’s willing to testify against Paul Manafort, his onetime associate, according to The Los Angeles Times.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rick-gates-plead-guilty_us_5a8a133ee4b004fc31937627
Teen Survivors Of Florida Shooting To March On Washington For Gun Law Reform
“This is about us begging for our lives,” said Cameron Kasky, a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/florida-gun-control-march_us_5a8988b3e4b00bc49f451f44
Immediately After Interviewing Parkland Students, Fox News Invites Criticism Of Them
“Marches aren’t going to solve it,” conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh said.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fox-news-parkland-limbaugh-interviews_us_5a89bfd8e4b05c2bcacc120f
Bernie Sanders On AR-15s: They’re ‘Not For Hunting. They’re For Killing Human Beings’
The Vermont senator reiterates his call for an assault weapons ban while defending his record on other gun control issues.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-guns_us_5a89ad60e4b004fc31934edb
Shooting Survivor To Trump: Shame Lawmakers Who Take NRA Money, Not Florida Community
“To every politician who is taking donations from the NRA, shame on you!”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/shooting-survivor-to-trump-shame-politicians-who-take-nra-money-not-florida_us_5a888689e4b004fc3192d81a
Floridians Tell Politicians Who Do The NRA’s Bidding Their Time Is Up
The high school massacre in Parkland has stirred up some sorrowful and angry citizens.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/florida-protest-nra-politicians_us_5a888706e4b004fc3192d852
Neil deGrasse Tyson Weighs The Scientific Data For Prayers vs. Guns
The famed astrophysicist looks at the evidence.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/neil-degrassse-tyson-thoughts-and-prayers_us_5a8a341de4b00bc49f457aa5
Evidence collected over many years, obtained from many locations, indicates that the power of Prayer is insufficient to stop bullets from killing school children.
https://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/964606017513410560
Donald Trump Uses Florida School Massacre As Excuse To Attack FBI’s Russia Probe
“They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-fbi-school-shooting-florida_us_5a894242e4b004fc319318ed
Trump Blames Democrats For Lack Of Gun Control Laws
The president’s comments come on the heels of a gun control rally in Florida, where protesters lambasted Trump for his support for the NRA.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-democrats-gun-control_us_5a88fb0fe4b004fc3192fbc0
Missouri Third-Graders Selling AR-15 Raffle Tickets For Their Baseball Team
The fundraiser is going ahead despite mounting controversy.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/neosho-baseball-team-features-ar-15-raffle_us_5a8a02f2e4b00bc49f455f30
‘Black Panther’ Opens With Huge Box Office Numbers
The blockbuster is expected to take in over $200 million by the end of the long weekend.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-panther-smashes-box-office-numbers-with-huge-opening-weekend_us_5a8706bee4b00bc49f4391a3
Activists Launch Voter Registration Drive At ‘Black Panther’ Screenings
#WakandaTheVote 2018!
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/voter-registration-black-panther_us_5a88616ae4b05c2bcacb7088
LeBron James Wears Sneakers With Pointed Message To All-Star Game
The Cleveland Cavaliers star’s shoes had the words “More Than An Athlete” emblazoned on them.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lebron-james-sneakers-more-than-an-athlete-all-star-game_us_5a8a425be4b00bc49f45815c
Trump Nominee Would Be Disaster For Campus Sexual Assault Victims
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-stewart-krevat-kenneth-marcus_us_5a874883e4b004fc31920471
‘Devastating’ Videos Show Jokhang Temple, ‘Heart Of Tibetan Buddhism,’ Consumed By Fire
No major damages or injuries have been reported, but observers have expressed concern that China may be suppressing information about the blaze.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jokhang-temple-tibet-lhasa-fire_us_5a89472ae4b00bc49f450a28
Did George Washington Predict Donald Trump?
By THOMAS R. PICKERING and JAMES STOUTENBERG
In September 1796, George Washington, weary of partisan combat just eight years after the ratification of the Constitution and the founding of the nation, wrote a farewell address explaining why he would not seek a third term. His message is worth remembering in our current political moment.
In elaborate and thoughtful prose, Washington raised red flags about disunity, false patriotism, special interests, extreme partisanship, fake news, the national debt, foreign alliances and foreign hatreds. With uncanny foresight, he warned that the most serious threat to our democracy might come from disunity within the country rather than interference from outside. And he foresaw the possibility of foreign influence over our political system and the rise of a president whose ego and avarice would transcend the national interest, raising the threat of despotism.
Washington certainly had great confidence, but in his address he didn’t brag about his accomplishments. On the contrary, he beseeched the Almighty to soften the impact of his errors and expressed hopes that the country would forgive them. He established a standard for presidential self-deprecation out of the fear that a president of grossly inflated ego could become a threat to democracy.
He cautioned against both overly friendly alliances (lest another country’s interests and wars become our own) and excessive hatreds (lest we provoke unnecessary conflict and war with others). Forbearance in the use of power was another of his major themes. “A free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another,” he declared. Such encroachment, he said, would lead to the consolidation of power and create “a real despotism.”
Some of Washington’s most prescient warnings were about the dangers of factionalism. He wrote that should one group, “sharpened by the spirit of revenge,” gain domination over another, the result could be “a more formal and permanent despotism.” The despot’s rise would be fueled by “disorders and miseries” that would gradually push citizens “to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual.”
“Sooner or later,” he concluded, “the chief of some prevailing faction, more able and more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purpose of his own elevation on the ruins of public liberty.”
As if envisioning the political tribalism and 24/7 cable news culture of today, he urged political leaders to restrain “the continual mischiefs” of political parties. The “spirit of party,” he wrote, “serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection.”
And then he arrived at one of his greatest concerns: The ways in which hyperpartisanship could open the door “to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.”
On Friday, Robert Mueller, the special counsel, charged 13 Russians with trying to help Donald Trump win the 2016 election. One need only read the indictment to understand what the first president was talking about.
Since 1893, a senator has read the farewell address on the floor of the Senate every year on Washington’s Birthday, alternating annually by political party. Bluntly speaking, it’s become little more than an exercise in bipartisan lip service. The House of Representatives stopped reading it decades ago. This was, at least, a form of honesty. Clearly no one was listening anymore.
In 2016, fake news, gerrymandering, voter suppression and disenfranchisement were “the mischiefs” employed by the Republican Party to propel Mr. Trump’s campaign. And Mr. Trump, perhaps “more able and more fortunate than his competitors,” stumbled to victory using mendacious appeals to voters squeezed by a greedy economy — even though Mr. Trump had himself profited handsomely from that economy.
If only we had heeded Washington’s warnings, would the election have turned out as it did?
Washington’s goal was to ensure that the young country became stable enough to withstand the threats to liberty and freedom he saw on the horizon — a horizon that has now stretched 220 years into the future. We can never say he didn’t warn us.
Thomas R. Pickering is a former under secretary for political affairs and ambassador to Russia, Israel and the United Nations. James Stoutenberg, a former Brooklyn assistant district attorney, is a business consultant.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/18/opinion/george-washington-donald-trump.html
more: https://www.google.com/search?q=did+george+washington+predict
Whatever Trump Is Hiding Is Hurting All of Us Now
By Thomas L. Friedman
Our democracy is in serious danger.
President Trump is either totally compromised by the Russians or is a towering fool, or both, but either way he has shown himself unwilling or unable to defend America against a Russian campaign to divide and undermine our democracy.
That is, either Trump’s real estate empire has taken large amounts of money from shady oligarchs linked to the Kremlin — so much that they literally own him; or rumors are true that he engaged in sexual misbehavior while he was in Moscow running the Miss Universe contest, which Russian intelligence has on tape and he doesn’t want released; or Trump actually believes Russian President Vladimir Putin when he says he is innocent of intervening in our elections — over the explicit findings of Trump’s own C.I.A., N.S.A. and F.B.I. chiefs.
In sum, Trump is either hiding something so threatening to himself, or he’s criminally incompetent to be commander in chief. It is impossible yet to say which explanation for his behavior is true, but it seems highly likely that one of these scenarios explains Trump’s refusal to respond to Russia’s direct attack on our system — a quiescence that is simply unprecedented for any U.S. president in history. Russia is not our friend. It has acted in a hostile manner. And Trump keeps ignoring it all.
Up to now, Trump has been flouting the norms of the presidency. Now Trump’s behavior amounts to a refusal to carry out his oath of office — to protect and defend the Constitution. Here’s an imperfect but close analogy: It’s as if George W. Bush had said after 9/11: “No big deal. I am going golfing over the weekend in Florida and blogging about how it’s all the Democrats’ fault — no need to hold a National Security Council meeting.”
At a time when the special prosecutor Robert Mueller — leveraging several years of intelligence gathering by the F.B.I., C.I.A. and N.S.A. — has brought indictments against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian groups — all linked in some way to the Kremlin — for interfering with the 2016 U.S. elections, America needs a president who will lead our nation’s defense against this attack on the integrity of our electoral democracy.
What would that look like? He would educate the public on the scale of the problem; he would bring together all the stakeholders — state and local election authorities, the federal government, both parties and all the owners of social networks that the Russians used to carry out their interference — to mount an effective defense; and he would bring together our intelligence and military experts to mount an effective offense against Putin — the best defense of all.
What we have instead is a president vulgarly tweeting that the Russians are “laughing their asses off in Moscow” for how we’ve been investigating their interventions — and exploiting the terrible school shooting in Florida — and the failure of the F.B.I. to properly forward to its Miami field office a tip on the killer — to throw the entire F.B.I. under the bus and create a new excuse to shut down the Mueller investigation.
Think for a moment how demented was Trump’s Saturday night tweet: “Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign — there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!”
To the contrary. Our F.B.I., C.I.A. and N.S.A., working with the special counsel, have done us amazingly proud. They’ve uncovered a Russian program to divide Americans and tilt our last election toward Trump — i.e., to undermine the very core of our democracy — and Trump is telling them to get back to important things like tracking would-be school shooters. Yes, the F.B.I. made a mistake in Florida. But it acted heroically on Russia. What is more basic than protecting American democracy?
It is so obvious what Trump is up to: Again, he is either a total sucker for Putin or, more likely, he is hiding something that he knows the Russians have on him, and he knows that the longer Mueller’s investigation goes on, the more likely he will be to find and expose it.
Donald, if you are so innocent, why do you go to such extraordinary lengths to try to shut Mueller down? And if you are really the president — not still head of the Trump Organization, who moonlights as president, which is how you so often behave — why don’t you actually lead — lead not only a proper cyberdefense of our elections, but also an offense against Putin.
Putin used cyberwarfare to poison American politics, to spread fake news, to help elect a chaos candidate, all in order to weaken our democracy. We should be using our cyber-capabilities to spread the truth about Putin — just how much money he has stolen, just how many lies he has spread, just how many rivals he has jailed or made disappear — all to weaken his autocracy. That is what a real president would be doing right now.
My guess is what Trump is hiding has to do with money. It’s something about his financial ties to business elites tied to the Kremlin. They may own a big stake in him. Who can forget that quote from his son Donald Trump Jr. from back in 2008: “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross section of a lot of our assets.” They may own our president.
But whatever it is, Trump is either trying so hard to hide it or is so naïve about Russia that he is ready to not only resist mounting a proper defense of our democracy, he’s actually ready to undermine some of our most important institutions, the F.B.I. and Justice Department, to keep his compromised status hidden.
That must not be tolerated. This is code red. The biggest threat to the integrity of our democracy today is in the Oval Office.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/18/opinion/trump-russia-putin.html
more: https://www.google.com/search?q=whatever+trump+is+hiding
Just 3% of Americans own more than half the country's guns
Americans are not as gun-obsessed as some would like their countrymen to believe. Linking gun ownership to the identity of being an American has been a successful sales tactic that is more myth than reality. The numbers show that a small, unrepresentative, but disproportionately vocal portion of the American population, aided by self-serving politicians and a powerful lobby organization, has enacted its agenda over the majority of Americans, who do not own guns and would rather see much stronger gun safety regulations.
How many Americans actually own a gun? A 2016 study by Harvard and Northeastern University put the total number of privately-owned firearms in the U.S. at 265 million, with more than half of that - 133 million - being concentrated in the hands of just 3% of Americans, called "super owners," who have an average of 17 guns each.
For another perspective on this stunning statistic, consider that the Small Arms Survey estimates there to be around 650 million civilian-owned firearms total in the world. In contrast, about 200 million firearms are owned by the armed forces, while 26 million are in law enforcement hands. So we have 3% of Americans owning about 20% of the world’s stockpile of firearms.
A 2017 poll by the Pew Research Center found that the amount of Americans who actually own a gun themselves is at about 30% of the country's citizens. Maybe this should be obvious math but here it goes anyway - about 70% of the people in the U.S. do not own a gun. Among households, 42% of Americans live in a home where someone keeps a gun. That leaves about 58% of Americans who live in a gun-free house.
Overall, the percentage of gun owners in the U.S. has been declining relative to the population growth and is at an almost 40-year low, reported the Washington Post. Across a number of national polls, gun ownership has fallen by 10 to 20% from the 1970s.
If you want to chew on the numbers further, 48% of white men in America currently have a gun. That's compared to 24% of white women and 24% of nonwhite men, as well as 16% of nonwhite women.
One other telling characteristic - the less education you have, the more likely you are a gun owner. About a third (31%) of the people who only have a high school diploma have a gun, 34% of those who some college education, but only a quarter of those with a bachelor's degree report to be gun owners. Among whites only, the number of high school diploma owners with a gun jumps up to 40%, compared to 26% for college graduates.
Another factor that plays into this - the farther you live from a city, the more likely you are to own a gun, as 46% of Americans who live in rural areas are gun owners. This is in contrast to 28% of suburbanites or 19% of those who live in urban areas, who feel compelled to get a weapon.
Combine this with the statistics that the number one reason (among 67%) for owning a gun is "protection," while 89% of gun owners see having one as important to their overall identity and another 85% say guns are essential to their sense of freedom.
It's also telling that among gun owners, only 66% say they keep their guns in a locked place (34% don't), 59% take gun safety courses while 41% keep their shooting skills up to date. Only 44% keep all their guns unloaded, 26% tell visitors with children that there are guns in the house and only 5% would share that knowledge with those who come to their house without children.
So, accordingly, a large enough proportion of gun owners are not up to speed on how to use their guns, don't keep them locked up or unloaded and won't tell others they have guns in the house, even if children are involved.
Now, how many people are involved with the all-powerful National Rifle Association (NRA)? There are about 5 million members of the NRA, the leading gun lobby organization. Of course, the NRA has some stats of its own, looking to bolster its percentages in a country of 321 milliion. It counters that if you take into account lapsed memberships and people whose family members are in the NRA, you can get "more than 14 million Americans” who “consider themselves NRA members."
It's telling, of course, that the NRA is counting members by estimating what people might be thinking rather than actual facts, while spending at least $203.2 million dollars on political activities which include donating to candidates and lobbying, since 1998 (as per PolitFact). The group also often spends money indirectly to help defeat any legislation that it may perceive to be lessening gun rights or contributes to candidates through affiliates.
The NRA was a significant factor in the repeal of an Obama-era law that was blocking mentally ill people from purchasing guns. The measure to nix the existing rule was signed by President Trump in one his first actions on the job. This fact has come back to life with a vengeance in the aftermath of the high school shooting in Florida, where a mentally unstable teenager, who was repeatedly reported to the authorities, was somehow allowed to purchase an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle - the weapon with which he carried out the horrific tragedy of murdering 17 people.
According to the Pew Research Center, 89% of both gun-owners and non-gun owners agree that there should be legislation that would prevent the mentally ill from purchasing guns. 77% of gun owners and 87% of non-gun owners (84% of total adults) think there should be background checks for private sales and at gun shows, closing the “gun show loophole”. Over 80% of both groups would bar gun purchases to people on the no-fly or watch lists, and 71% would create a federal database to track gun sales.
Disagreements start to creep in when talking about banning assault-style weapons like the AR-15, with 77% of non-gun owners being in favor, and 48% of gun owners, which still makes for 68% of all adults. Similarly, 65% of all adults would ban high-capacity magazines.
Of course, as regulations stall, the sheer amount of guns in America is staggering to consider as is the number of mass shootings, with more than one mass shooting happening per day on average. It is a shameful statistic for a developed country and a world leader. Stronger laws are necessary but any attempt at them has been constantly pushed back by gun-lobby influenced politicians. In fact, the opposite has been happening - there are fewer restrictions than ever.
One other factor to consider if you think the gun lobby cannot be stopped and nothing will ever change in America - as of 2018, gun sales are going down. It's not hard to guess why - President Obama is out of office and "fear-based buying" is down with the pro-gun President Trump in office. No longer can it be claimed by the gun industry that Obama is coming to take anyone’s guns.
And maybe that's how it should be. What people who see gun control as necessary need is to cause a change in consciousness that cannot be enacted by any one man or woman. The majority of Americans see plainly the danger unregulated guns continue to pose to their society but must finally feel their power in numbers. They have to organize and make changes to the reality where a relatively small amount of passionate people, who see guns as essential to their identity (which is not a part of the national character of America), dictate their will.
http://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/a-minority-of-americans-owns-most-of-the-guns-and-drives-gun-agenda-studies-show [with embedded links]
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in addition to (linked in) the post to which this is a reply and preceding and (any future other) following, see also (linked in):
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=22198799 and preceding and following;
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=23517783 (and any future following);
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=70066579 and preceding and following,
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=70067730 and preceding and following;
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=134018270 and preceding (and any future following)
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139012711 and preceding (and any future following)
AM Joy
2/18/18
Donald Trump has used the Parkland shooting victims to deflect from the Russia investigation, many critics say about his recent tweet. Joy Reid and her panel[, including Malcolm Nance,] discuss the resultant uproar.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/parkland-shooting-students-take-nra-and-president-to-task-1164530755790 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3jEG8jDRbU [with comments] [a must-watch]
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Trump tweets ‘they are laughing their asses off in Moscow’
AM Joy
2/18/18
Donald Trump early Sunday hurled tweets at Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Adam Schiff, in addition to criticizing the Russia probe. Joy Reid and her panel[, including Malcolm Nance,] on why the president may be on the edge.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/trump-russia-president-hurls-tweets-at-obama-clinton-schiff-1164538435922 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Zjiey4kOo [with comments] [a must-watch]
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The myth that more guns is the answer to gun violence
AM Joy
2/18/18
The Parkland school shooting could not have been stopped by armed teachers, or combative students, as many NRA supporters suggest. Joy Reid and her panel[, including Malcolm Nance,] detail why.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/parkland-shooting-armed-teachers-are-not-the-answer-1164544579770 [a must-watch]
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LeBron James on Laura Ingraham: ‘I had no idea who she is’
AM Joy
2/18/18
LeBron James tells Laura Ingraham ‘we will not shut up and dribble’ after the FOX News host, who often interviews D-list celebrities on political topics, insisted that James should not critique Donald Trump. Joy Reid and her panel discuss Ingraham’s apparent ignorance of the tradition of athletes taking a stand.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/lebron-james-laura-ingraham-we-will-not-shut-up-and-dribble-1164546627899 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2LLZPUCJ40 [with comments]
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‘Black Panther’ breaks records paving way for black creators
AM Joy
2/18/18
The ‘Black Panther’ movie is breaking opening weekend records, paving the way for black creators to revolutionize the comic book and superhero genres. Actor, writer, and producer Erika Alexander joins Joy Reid to discuss her new project, ‘Concrete Park.’
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/-black-panther-movie-black-comics-characters-center-stage-1164551747647 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0A7N2anRtE [with comments]
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Controversial Obama portraits teach America how to love art
AM Joy
2/18/18
Barack and Michelle Obama’s controversial official portraits have sparked debate, but Joy Reid’s guest shares how they may teach America to see African-Americans and the Obamas' legacy in a new way.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/barack-and-michelle-obama-presidential-portraits-spark-debate-1164557891893
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Denver Gives Sanctuary To Illegal Drug Traffickers
Published on Feb 18, 2018 by The Alex Jones Channel [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvsye7V9psc-APX6wV1twLg / https://www.youtube.com/user/TheAlexJonesChannel , https://www.youtube.com/user/TheAlexJonesChannel/videos ]
Democrat politicians turn Denver into a Sanctuary City to protect illegal immigrants from deportation while at the same time creating a safe haven for illegal heroin drug traffickers. Denver police have had their hands tied with threats of job loss, fines, and or imprisonment if they contact ICE to report or communicate about illegal immigrants that have been detained. City ordinances have been enacted to make life for immigrants easier by lessening the penalty for public urination and deification as well as camping. Courts have also started to allow illegal immigrants privileges to send in pleas for lesser crimes via mail so they can avoid risk of deportation at court houses by ICE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud4mOWX_eFA [with comments]
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Democrats Turning Denver Into Sh!thole
Published on Feb 19, 2018 by The Alex Jones Channel
Denver approves local sentencing changes aimed at helping immigrants avoid deportation, such as reducing the punishment for public urination and defecation as well as unauthorized urban camping. Denver has a growing homeless population and residents worry that the new changes could create a public health hazard with human excrement littering the streets. Infowars reporter Millie Weaver sparks up conversation with locals using a fake plastic poop to break the ice regarding the new Denver ordinances. Many locals were loud about the common sense solution of adding more public restrooms to combat the growing problem. This raises the question, why have the Democrat politicians tasked with fixing this problem ignored their constituents pleas for more public restrooms? And why lessen the punishment for what is clearly a public health hazard without offering a real solution? With Democrats declaring Denver a sanctuary city among a growing opioid crisis it appears the future of Denver is uncertain.
[from February 18, 2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ6mx-wphT8 [with comments] ["Democrats Turning Denver Into Sh*thole City [CENSORED]" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K4ij0ENw1U (with comments)]
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Readout of President Donald J. Trump’s Meeting with Speaker Paul Ryan
Issued on: February 18, 2018
President Donald J. Trump and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan had a productive meeting today. The two leaders discussed a wide variety of topics, including securing our Nation’s borders through immigration reform, the continued benefits the American people are experiencing as a result of tax reform, the overwhelming need to improve our Nation’s infrastructure, and the recent tragedy in Parkland, Florida. The President looks forward to continuing his close collaboration with Speaker Ryan as they work to accomplish their shared legislative priorities this year.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/readout-president-donald-j-trumps-meeting-speaker-paul-ryan/
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Emperor Atheist vs The Catholic Fusionist: Is Biblical slavery compatible with "omnibenevolence”?
Published on Feb 18, 2018 by Emperor Atheist [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCb4gMGQjON4h3ZmjvVwYbw , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCb4gMGQjON4h3ZmjvVwYbw/videos ]
Emperor atheist debates The Catholic Fusionist on Slavery in the bible and the Omnibenevolence of God. This debate was moderated by Steve McCrae in the great debate community. The video can also be found on his channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80LSLpmG9xg [and on The Catholic Fusionist's channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p27DQjiDLhc ].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaLh2BFDfnA [with comments]
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What to Do About Problematic Statues - The Daily Show
Published on Feb 18, 2018 by The Daily Show with Trevor Noah [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwWhs_6x42TyRM4Wstoq8HA , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwWhs_6x42TyRM4Wstoq8HA/videos ]
As New York City grapples with whether or not to remove statues of controversial historical figures, Michael Kosta finds out what the public thinks of the effigies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtjtHLj1Frg [with comments] [and see also in particular (linked in) https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=22198799 and preceding and following, https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=23517783 (and any future following), https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=70066579 and preceding and following, https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=70067730 and preceding and following, https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=134018270 and preceding (and any future following)]
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Full Show - Pro-Gun Online Speech Is Now Russian Propaganda - 02/18/2018
Published on Feb 18, 2018 by Ron Gibson [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYv-5LsUyc_P8KMo7YGPFPA / https://www.youtube.com/user/RonGibsonCF , https://www.youtube.com/user/RonGibsonCF/videos ]
Sunday, Feb. 18th 2018: Mueller Indicts Russians, Trump Cleared! - FBI Special Counsel Mueller indicted 13 Russians in connection to a “troll farm” meant to disrupt American politics since 2014, once again showing no collusion between Russia and Trump campaign. The president torched the FBI in a tweetstorm, saying the agency would’ve likely caught the Florida shooter sooner if they hadn’t spent so much time on the phony Russia probe. Also, liberals and the mainstream media are pushing gun control once again in the wake of the tragic Florida shooting. On today’s show, we’ll discuss the FBI fallout, and why the establishment is so determined to take our firearms.
https://www.infowars.com/dem-senator-touts-proposed-gun-ban-that-goes-on-for-100-pages-to-define-assault-weapon/
https://www.infowars.com/feinstein-flashback-day-when-america-could-be-the-welfare-state-for-mexico-is-gone/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foBdU874Bqg [with comments] [the edited official Alex Jones upload at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL-dHBjpDP8 (title and text adapted from; with comments)] [a must-watch]
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Meditations On Apologetics
Published on Feb 18, 2018 by AntiCitizenX [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIbBCEj2Zrc5KkyzLEQMZCw / https://www.youtube.com/user/AntiCitizenX , https://www.youtube.com/user/AntiCitizenX/videos ]
Just a fun rant between me and Charkopolis about the manipulative tactics and outright dishonesty of religious apologists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrZ2jgMp7M0 [with comments]
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Trump Has A Problem Criticizing People Who Say Nice Things About Him
Published on Feb 18, 2018 by VICE News [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZaT_X_mc0BI-djXOlfhqWQ / https://www.youtube.com/user/vicenews , https://www.youtube.com/user/vicenews/videos ]
It took two days for President Trump to specifically condemn the white supremacists responsible for the violence in Charlottesville last weekend, and that left some people wondering if it’s because some of these fringe groups have supported him. After all, he’s been surprisingly honest about his inability to criticize people who’ve been nice to him.
In 2011, he told Sean Hannity: “I have such a problem. Everyone’s said such nice things,” referring to potential competitors as he contemplated a 2012 presidential run. Trump went on to explain that he has a difficult time speaking ill of people who have complimented him. “They’re all saying these nice things about me, I have a hard time.”
Throughout his career, Trump has praised everyone from Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton to Kanye West and Vladimir Putin… as long as they were willing to say “nice things” about him, too. Here are a few examples illustrating a man who likes to be liked.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XNAA1o-SbE [with comments]
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Donald Trump Big Resorts have ONE AMERICAN Worker.., The Rest are Foreign !
Published on Feb 18, 2018 by Bravo Von Muller [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4G1zEStJMqN3mnEONXA7Mw , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4G1zEStJMqN3mnEONXA7Mw/videos ]
Donald Trump is Lying to the Americans, he does NOT want to help us, he wants us to end up HOMELESS. The Trump Resorts have One Job allocated to a Born and Raised American.., HOW SAD !!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esD_TELg_44 [with comments]
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Mandy Bombard so-called Body Language Expert Attacking Florida Students, WHY ?
Published on Feb 18, 2018 by Bravo Von Muller
Do you find it Strange that the so-called Body Language Expert Mandy Bombard is attacking the Students down in Florida ? Why would she direct her Hate towards Them ? Is she connected to the Elite Globalist Club ? We know she is Promoted by the Alex Jonestein-Bronfman Matrix and that should explain everything !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vB4BGtG5sY [with comments]
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Next On Episode 3 | Our Cartoon President | SHOWTIME
Published on Feb 15, 2018 by SHOWTIME [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtwMWJr2BFPkuJTnSvCESSQ / https://www.youtube.com/user/SHOWTIME , https://www.youtube.com/user/SHOWTIME/videos , https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ8c54cxQG2Er3jT_VcduPQWzeNMvvrzl ]
The President sets out to reverse all of President Obama's accomplishments.
[Episode 3 originally aired February 18, 2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgV0dfNOMgg [with comments]
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'Ideas To Destroy Obama's Legacy' Ep. 3 Official Clip | Our Cartoon President | SHOWTIME
Published on Feb 15, 2018 by SHOWTIME
Stephen Miller addresses the team as they brainstorm ideas to destroy Obama's legacy.
[Episode 3 originally aired February 18, 2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BAv9g52Y0w [with comments]
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'I Flew In a Playmate for Sex' Ep. 3 Official Clip | Our Cartoon President | SHOWTIME
Published on Feb 16, 2018 by SHOWTIME
President Trump joins Fox & Friends to discuss the story he flew in a Playmate and the resignation of White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter.
[Episode 3 originally aired February 18, 2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h71rUtBWOw [with comments]
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'These Jokes Are Bigly Crap' Ep. 3 Official Clip | Our Cartoon President | SHOWTIME
Published on Feb 21, 2018 by SHOWTIME
President Trump delivers some killer jokes at the rescheduled White House Correspondents' Dinner.
[Episode 3 originally aired February 18, 2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yyqh6iaJ3ns [with comments]
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Trump vs. The World: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
Published on Feb 18, 2018 by LastWeekTonight [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3XTzVzaHQEd30rQbuvCtTQ / https://www.youtube.com/user/LastWeekTonight , https://www.youtube.com/user/LastWeekTonight/videos ]
America's reputation is being damaged by its own president. John Oliver, several dinosaurs, and the NYC Gay Men's Chorus remind the world that our country is...complicated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCjk_NPsIqU [with (over 26,000) comments]
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stashed February 18, 2018:
America Is Under Attack and the President Doesn't Care
Trump’s gravest responsibility is to defend the United States from foreign attack—and he’s done nothing to fulfill it.
By David Frum
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/america-is-under-attack-and-the-president-doesnt-care/553667/
Trump Chides McMaster For Saying Evidence Of Russian Interference 'Incontrovertible'
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/17/586803847/mcmaster-says-evidence-of-russia-meddling-incontrovertible
For Mueller, this is only the beginning
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/18/opinions/mueller-indictment-goals-opinion-rangappa/index.html
Trump’s Evolution From Relief to Fury Over the Russia Indictment
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/18/us/politics/trump-blames-obama-and-democrats-for-failing-to-stop-russian-meddling.html
Dem lawmaker: Trump tweets on Russia show 'consciousness of guilt' - Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.)
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/374496-dem-trump-tweets-on-russia-show-consciousness-of-guilt
Dem lawmaker calls Trump 'eunuch in chief' over response to Russia meddling - Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.)
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/374494-dem-lawmaker-calls-trump-eunuch-in-chief-over-response-to-russia-meddling
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dGhxVL0Oj72Lj8M72arpiriMgFcIM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Russia's shadowy world of military contractors: independent mercenaries, or working for the Kremlin? - further to https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=138645621
http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-russia-mercenaries-20180218-story.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/df18LV2l-5Wr4HM0CDDai9CLwkTAM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Former Trump aide Richard Gates to plead guilty; agrees to testify against Manafort, sources say - further to https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=138644765
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-rick-gates-plea-deal-20180218-story.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/db81yeWtjXPcqIMb10n2UCeQj9KJM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Netanyahu in deeper peril as more Israeli officials are arrested on corruption charges
http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-israel-corruption-arrests-20180218-story.html
Media Cases Show Netanyahu's Bid for Tyranny
Mendelblit reportedly sees that Netanyahu’s ties with Bezeq’s Elovitch had a criminal nature
Everything you need to know about Case 4000 involving Israel's telecom giant [ https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-case-4000-1.5827413 ]
Netanyahu has a new scapegoat for his corruption scandal [ https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-netanyahu-has-a-new-scapegoat-for-his-corruption-scandal-1.5824587 ]
Former editor of Israeli news outlet admits he was pressured to give Netanyahu favorable coverage [ https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/former-editor-of-israeli-news-outlet-admits-favorable-coverage-1.5823986 ]
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/media-cases-show-netanyahu-s-bid-for-tyranny-1.5827498
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/d1UwYXCqxjSRqhMQNS-qzW0220QpM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Israel-Poland spat: Swastikas drawn on Polish embassy in Tel Aviv
Swastikas have been drawn on the gates of Poland's embassy in Israel, a day after the country's PM said Jews were among perpetrators of the Holocaust.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43108116
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/duFs5zWXUtqJS4M2hlbE7tEU1dpGM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Scoop: Skirmish in Beijing over the nuclear football
https://www.axios.com/scoop-skirmish-in-beijing-over-the-nuclear-football-1518992774-1e7a513d-4190-459d-ad4f-2c8746fecc6f.html
Axios: Kelly, Secret Service agent scuffled with Chinese officials over nuclear 'football'
http://thehill.com/policy/international/china/374485-axios-us-and-chinese-officials-scuffled-in-beijing-over-nuclear
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dGqlv6uSn4s1zKM7D9p1jwml4wuQM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Paul Manafort Accused Of Bank Fraud In New Mueller Court Documents [ https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000161-a159-d829-a37b-fb7d3c6a0001 ]
He submitted “doctored profit statements” for mortgage to secure bail, say prosecutors.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/manafort-bail-bank-fraud_us_5a89137ae4b00bc49f44f359
Trump Cites Facebook Executive In ‘Fake News’ Twitter Rant Over Russian Indictments
“Hard to ignore the vice president of Facebook ads!”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-cites-facebook-ceo_us_5a88b5ace4b004fc3192e995
Media, Democrats Have Created ‘More Chaos’ Than Russians, Says White House Spokesman
Twitter: “That’s exactly what the Russian troll farm tweets say.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dems-media-more-chaos-than-russia_us_5a88fdc1e4b00bc49f44ea00
Top Democrat: Obama Too Slow On Russia Hacking, But Trump Is ‘Sitting On His Hands’
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) skewered the White House for refusing to impose new Russia sanctions passed by Congress.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/adam-schiff-trump_us_5a89936ee4b05c2bcacbf6b9
Former Trump Aide Rick Gates Will Plead Guilty To Mueller Probe Charges: Report
He’s willing to testify against Paul Manafort, his onetime associate, according to The Los Angeles Times.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rick-gates-plead-guilty_us_5a8a133ee4b004fc31937627
Teen Survivors Of Florida Shooting To March On Washington For Gun Law Reform
“This is about us begging for our lives,” said Cameron Kasky, a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/florida-gun-control-march_us_5a8988b3e4b00bc49f451f44
Immediately After Interviewing Parkland Students, Fox News Invites Criticism Of Them
“Marches aren’t going to solve it,” conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh said.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fox-news-parkland-limbaugh-interviews_us_5a89bfd8e4b05c2bcacc120f
Bernie Sanders On AR-15s: They’re ‘Not For Hunting. They’re For Killing Human Beings’
The Vermont senator reiterates his call for an assault weapons ban while defending his record on other gun control issues.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-guns_us_5a89ad60e4b004fc31934edb
Shooting Survivor To Trump: Shame Lawmakers Who Take NRA Money, Not Florida Community
“To every politician who is taking donations from the NRA, shame on you!”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/shooting-survivor-to-trump-shame-politicians-who-take-nra-money-not-florida_us_5a888689e4b004fc3192d81a
Floridians Tell Politicians Who Do The NRA’s Bidding Their Time Is Up
The high school massacre in Parkland has stirred up some sorrowful and angry citizens.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/florida-protest-nra-politicians_us_5a888706e4b004fc3192d852
Neil deGrasse Tyson Weighs The Scientific Data For Prayers vs. Guns
The famed astrophysicist looks at the evidence.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/neil-degrassse-tyson-thoughts-and-prayers_us_5a8a341de4b00bc49f457aa5
Evidence collected over many years, obtained from many locations, indicates that the power of Prayer is insufficient to stop bullets from killing school children.
https://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/964606017513410560
Donald Trump Uses Florida School Massacre As Excuse To Attack FBI’s Russia Probe
“They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-fbi-school-shooting-florida_us_5a894242e4b004fc319318ed
Trump Blames Democrats For Lack Of Gun Control Laws
The president’s comments come on the heels of a gun control rally in Florida, where protesters lambasted Trump for his support for the NRA.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-democrats-gun-control_us_5a88fb0fe4b004fc3192fbc0
Missouri Third-Graders Selling AR-15 Raffle Tickets For Their Baseball Team
The fundraiser is going ahead despite mounting controversy.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/neosho-baseball-team-features-ar-15-raffle_us_5a8a02f2e4b00bc49f455f30
‘Black Panther’ Opens With Huge Box Office Numbers
The blockbuster is expected to take in over $200 million by the end of the long weekend.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-panther-smashes-box-office-numbers-with-huge-opening-weekend_us_5a8706bee4b00bc49f4391a3
Activists Launch Voter Registration Drive At ‘Black Panther’ Screenings
#WakandaTheVote 2018!
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/voter-registration-black-panther_us_5a88616ae4b05c2bcacb7088
LeBron James Wears Sneakers With Pointed Message To All-Star Game
The Cleveland Cavaliers star’s shoes had the words “More Than An Athlete” emblazoned on them.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lebron-james-sneakers-more-than-an-athlete-all-star-game_us_5a8a425be4b00bc49f45815c
Trump Nominee Would Be Disaster For Campus Sexual Assault Victims
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-stewart-krevat-kenneth-marcus_us_5a874883e4b004fc31920471
‘Devastating’ Videos Show Jokhang Temple, ‘Heart Of Tibetan Buddhism,’ Consumed By Fire
No major damages or injuries have been reported, but observers have expressed concern that China may be suppressing information about the blaze.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jokhang-temple-tibet-lhasa-fire_us_5a89472ae4b00bc49f450a28
Did George Washington Predict Donald Trump?
By THOMAS R. PICKERING and JAMES STOUTENBERG
In September 1796, George Washington, weary of partisan combat just eight years after the ratification of the Constitution and the founding of the nation, wrote a farewell address explaining why he would not seek a third term. His message is worth remembering in our current political moment.
In elaborate and thoughtful prose, Washington raised red flags about disunity, false patriotism, special interests, extreme partisanship, fake news, the national debt, foreign alliances and foreign hatreds. With uncanny foresight, he warned that the most serious threat to our democracy might come from disunity within the country rather than interference from outside. And he foresaw the possibility of foreign influence over our political system and the rise of a president whose ego and avarice would transcend the national interest, raising the threat of despotism.
Washington certainly had great confidence, but in his address he didn’t brag about his accomplishments. On the contrary, he beseeched the Almighty to soften the impact of his errors and expressed hopes that the country would forgive them. He established a standard for presidential self-deprecation out of the fear that a president of grossly inflated ego could become a threat to democracy.
He cautioned against both overly friendly alliances (lest another country’s interests and wars become our own) and excessive hatreds (lest we provoke unnecessary conflict and war with others). Forbearance in the use of power was another of his major themes. “A free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another,” he declared. Such encroachment, he said, would lead to the consolidation of power and create “a real despotism.”
Some of Washington’s most prescient warnings were about the dangers of factionalism. He wrote that should one group, “sharpened by the spirit of revenge,” gain domination over another, the result could be “a more formal and permanent despotism.” The despot’s rise would be fueled by “disorders and miseries” that would gradually push citizens “to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual.”
“Sooner or later,” he concluded, “the chief of some prevailing faction, more able and more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purpose of his own elevation on the ruins of public liberty.”
As if envisioning the political tribalism and 24/7 cable news culture of today, he urged political leaders to restrain “the continual mischiefs” of political parties. The “spirit of party,” he wrote, “serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection.”
And then he arrived at one of his greatest concerns: The ways in which hyperpartisanship could open the door “to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.”
On Friday, Robert Mueller, the special counsel, charged 13 Russians with trying to help Donald Trump win the 2016 election. One need only read the indictment to understand what the first president was talking about.
Since 1893, a senator has read the farewell address on the floor of the Senate every year on Washington’s Birthday, alternating annually by political party. Bluntly speaking, it’s become little more than an exercise in bipartisan lip service. The House of Representatives stopped reading it decades ago. This was, at least, a form of honesty. Clearly no one was listening anymore.
In 2016, fake news, gerrymandering, voter suppression and disenfranchisement were “the mischiefs” employed by the Republican Party to propel Mr. Trump’s campaign. And Mr. Trump, perhaps “more able and more fortunate than his competitors,” stumbled to victory using mendacious appeals to voters squeezed by a greedy economy — even though Mr. Trump had himself profited handsomely from that economy.
If only we had heeded Washington’s warnings, would the election have turned out as it did?
Washington’s goal was to ensure that the young country became stable enough to withstand the threats to liberty and freedom he saw on the horizon — a horizon that has now stretched 220 years into the future. We can never say he didn’t warn us.
Thomas R. Pickering is a former under secretary for political affairs and ambassador to Russia, Israel and the United Nations. James Stoutenberg, a former Brooklyn assistant district attorney, is a business consultant.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/18/opinion/george-washington-donald-trump.html
more: https://www.google.com/search?q=did+george+washington+predict
Whatever Trump Is Hiding Is Hurting All of Us Now
By Thomas L. Friedman
Our democracy is in serious danger.
President Trump is either totally compromised by the Russians or is a towering fool, or both, but either way he has shown himself unwilling or unable to defend America against a Russian campaign to divide and undermine our democracy.
That is, either Trump’s real estate empire has taken large amounts of money from shady oligarchs linked to the Kremlin — so much that they literally own him; or rumors are true that he engaged in sexual misbehavior while he was in Moscow running the Miss Universe contest, which Russian intelligence has on tape and he doesn’t want released; or Trump actually believes Russian President Vladimir Putin when he says he is innocent of intervening in our elections — over the explicit findings of Trump’s own C.I.A., N.S.A. and F.B.I. chiefs.
In sum, Trump is either hiding something so threatening to himself, or he’s criminally incompetent to be commander in chief. It is impossible yet to say which explanation for his behavior is true, but it seems highly likely that one of these scenarios explains Trump’s refusal to respond to Russia’s direct attack on our system — a quiescence that is simply unprecedented for any U.S. president in history. Russia is not our friend. It has acted in a hostile manner. And Trump keeps ignoring it all.
Up to now, Trump has been flouting the norms of the presidency. Now Trump’s behavior amounts to a refusal to carry out his oath of office — to protect and defend the Constitution. Here’s an imperfect but close analogy: It’s as if George W. Bush had said after 9/11: “No big deal. I am going golfing over the weekend in Florida and blogging about how it’s all the Democrats’ fault — no need to hold a National Security Council meeting.”
At a time when the special prosecutor Robert Mueller — leveraging several years of intelligence gathering by the F.B.I., C.I.A. and N.S.A. — has brought indictments against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian groups — all linked in some way to the Kremlin — for interfering with the 2016 U.S. elections, America needs a president who will lead our nation’s defense against this attack on the integrity of our electoral democracy.
What would that look like? He would educate the public on the scale of the problem; he would bring together all the stakeholders — state and local election authorities, the federal government, both parties and all the owners of social networks that the Russians used to carry out their interference — to mount an effective defense; and he would bring together our intelligence and military experts to mount an effective offense against Putin — the best defense of all.
What we have instead is a president vulgarly tweeting that the Russians are “laughing their asses off in Moscow” for how we’ve been investigating their interventions — and exploiting the terrible school shooting in Florida — and the failure of the F.B.I. to properly forward to its Miami field office a tip on the killer — to throw the entire F.B.I. under the bus and create a new excuse to shut down the Mueller investigation.
Think for a moment how demented was Trump’s Saturday night tweet: “Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign — there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!”
To the contrary. Our F.B.I., C.I.A. and N.S.A., working with the special counsel, have done us amazingly proud. They’ve uncovered a Russian program to divide Americans and tilt our last election toward Trump — i.e., to undermine the very core of our democracy — and Trump is telling them to get back to important things like tracking would-be school shooters. Yes, the F.B.I. made a mistake in Florida. But it acted heroically on Russia. What is more basic than protecting American democracy?
It is so obvious what Trump is up to: Again, he is either a total sucker for Putin or, more likely, he is hiding something that he knows the Russians have on him, and he knows that the longer Mueller’s investigation goes on, the more likely he will be to find and expose it.
Donald, if you are so innocent, why do you go to such extraordinary lengths to try to shut Mueller down? And if you are really the president — not still head of the Trump Organization, who moonlights as president, which is how you so often behave — why don’t you actually lead — lead not only a proper cyberdefense of our elections, but also an offense against Putin.
Putin used cyberwarfare to poison American politics, to spread fake news, to help elect a chaos candidate, all in order to weaken our democracy. We should be using our cyber-capabilities to spread the truth about Putin — just how much money he has stolen, just how many lies he has spread, just how many rivals he has jailed or made disappear — all to weaken his autocracy. That is what a real president would be doing right now.
My guess is what Trump is hiding has to do with money. It’s something about his financial ties to business elites tied to the Kremlin. They may own a big stake in him. Who can forget that quote from his son Donald Trump Jr. from back in 2008: “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross section of a lot of our assets.” They may own our president.
But whatever it is, Trump is either trying so hard to hide it or is so naïve about Russia that he is ready to not only resist mounting a proper defense of our democracy, he’s actually ready to undermine some of our most important institutions, the F.B.I. and Justice Department, to keep his compromised status hidden.
That must not be tolerated. This is code red. The biggest threat to the integrity of our democracy today is in the Oval Office.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/18/opinion/trump-russia-putin.html
more: https://www.google.com/search?q=whatever+trump+is+hiding
Just 3% of Americans own more than half the country's guns
Americans are not as gun-obsessed as some would like their countrymen to believe. Linking gun ownership to the identity of being an American has been a successful sales tactic that is more myth than reality. The numbers show that a small, unrepresentative, but disproportionately vocal portion of the American population, aided by self-serving politicians and a powerful lobby organization, has enacted its agenda over the majority of Americans, who do not own guns and would rather see much stronger gun safety regulations.
How many Americans actually own a gun? A 2016 study by Harvard and Northeastern University put the total number of privately-owned firearms in the U.S. at 265 million, with more than half of that - 133 million - being concentrated in the hands of just 3% of Americans, called "super owners," who have an average of 17 guns each.
For another perspective on this stunning statistic, consider that the Small Arms Survey estimates there to be around 650 million civilian-owned firearms total in the world. In contrast, about 200 million firearms are owned by the armed forces, while 26 million are in law enforcement hands. So we have 3% of Americans owning about 20% of the world’s stockpile of firearms.
A 2017 poll by the Pew Research Center found that the amount of Americans who actually own a gun themselves is at about 30% of the country's citizens. Maybe this should be obvious math but here it goes anyway - about 70% of the people in the U.S. do not own a gun. Among households, 42% of Americans live in a home where someone keeps a gun. That leaves about 58% of Americans who live in a gun-free house.
Overall, the percentage of gun owners in the U.S. has been declining relative to the population growth and is at an almost 40-year low, reported the Washington Post. Across a number of national polls, gun ownership has fallen by 10 to 20% from the 1970s.
If you want to chew on the numbers further, 48% of white men in America currently have a gun. That's compared to 24% of white women and 24% of nonwhite men, as well as 16% of nonwhite women.
One other telling characteristic - the less education you have, the more likely you are a gun owner. About a third (31%) of the people who only have a high school diploma have a gun, 34% of those who some college education, but only a quarter of those with a bachelor's degree report to be gun owners. Among whites only, the number of high school diploma owners with a gun jumps up to 40%, compared to 26% for college graduates.
Another factor that plays into this - the farther you live from a city, the more likely you are to own a gun, as 46% of Americans who live in rural areas are gun owners. This is in contrast to 28% of suburbanites or 19% of those who live in urban areas, who feel compelled to get a weapon.
Combine this with the statistics that the number one reason (among 67%) for owning a gun is "protection," while 89% of gun owners see having one as important to their overall identity and another 85% say guns are essential to their sense of freedom.
It's also telling that among gun owners, only 66% say they keep their guns in a locked place (34% don't), 59% take gun safety courses while 41% keep their shooting skills up to date. Only 44% keep all their guns unloaded, 26% tell visitors with children that there are guns in the house and only 5% would share that knowledge with those who come to their house without children.
So, accordingly, a large enough proportion of gun owners are not up to speed on how to use their guns, don't keep them locked up or unloaded and won't tell others they have guns in the house, even if children are involved.
Now, how many people are involved with the all-powerful National Rifle Association (NRA)? There are about 5 million members of the NRA, the leading gun lobby organization. Of course, the NRA has some stats of its own, looking to bolster its percentages in a country of 321 milliion. It counters that if you take into account lapsed memberships and people whose family members are in the NRA, you can get "more than 14 million Americans” who “consider themselves NRA members."
It's telling, of course, that the NRA is counting members by estimating what people might be thinking rather than actual facts, while spending at least $203.2 million dollars on political activities which include donating to candidates and lobbying, since 1998 (as per PolitFact). The group also often spends money indirectly to help defeat any legislation that it may perceive to be lessening gun rights or contributes to candidates through affiliates.
The NRA was a significant factor in the repeal of an Obama-era law that was blocking mentally ill people from purchasing guns. The measure to nix the existing rule was signed by President Trump in one his first actions on the job. This fact has come back to life with a vengeance in the aftermath of the high school shooting in Florida, where a mentally unstable teenager, who was repeatedly reported to the authorities, was somehow allowed to purchase an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle - the weapon with which he carried out the horrific tragedy of murdering 17 people.
According to the Pew Research Center, 89% of both gun-owners and non-gun owners agree that there should be legislation that would prevent the mentally ill from purchasing guns. 77% of gun owners and 87% of non-gun owners (84% of total adults) think there should be background checks for private sales and at gun shows, closing the “gun show loophole”. Over 80% of both groups would bar gun purchases to people on the no-fly or watch lists, and 71% would create a federal database to track gun sales.
Disagreements start to creep in when talking about banning assault-style weapons like the AR-15, with 77% of non-gun owners being in favor, and 48% of gun owners, which still makes for 68% of all adults. Similarly, 65% of all adults would ban high-capacity magazines.
Of course, as regulations stall, the sheer amount of guns in America is staggering to consider as is the number of mass shootings, with more than one mass shooting happening per day on average. It is a shameful statistic for a developed country and a world leader. Stronger laws are necessary but any attempt at them has been constantly pushed back by gun-lobby influenced politicians. In fact, the opposite has been happening - there are fewer restrictions than ever.
One other factor to consider if you think the gun lobby cannot be stopped and nothing will ever change in America - as of 2018, gun sales are going down. It's not hard to guess why - President Obama is out of office and "fear-based buying" is down with the pro-gun President Trump in office. No longer can it be claimed by the gun industry that Obama is coming to take anyone’s guns.
And maybe that's how it should be. What people who see gun control as necessary need is to cause a change in consciousness that cannot be enacted by any one man or woman. The majority of Americans see plainly the danger unregulated guns continue to pose to their society but must finally feel their power in numbers. They have to organize and make changes to the reality where a relatively small amount of passionate people, who see guns as essential to their identity (which is not a part of the national character of America), dictate their will.
http://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/a-minority-of-americans-owns-most-of-the-guns-and-drives-gun-agenda-studies-show [with embedded links]
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Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
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