Grey Lemercier
Grey Lemercier's Journal
Turkey and Russia 'agree terms of Syria ceasefire'
Source: The Guardian
Countries have agreed proposal that should come into force by midnight, says Turkish foreign minister
Turkey and Russia have agreed on a proposal for a general ceasefire in Syria and will aim to put it into effect by midnight on Wednesday night, Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said. But he still insisted that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad must eventually go, a precondition for talks that Russia has always opposed.
There was also no sign that the mainstream Syrian opposition groups had agreed to the ceasefire, and it appears likely there will be be disagreement about the territory to be covered by any ceasefire. The rebel groups will want it to extend to the Damascus countryside, something that Russia opposes. A senior official in the opposition said they had not received the details of any official deal and denied that they had agreed to a ceasefire agreement.
“The details of the ceasefire have not been presented officially to the opposition factions yet, and there is no agreement at this point,” the official said. Russia, Iran and Turkey said last week they were ready to help broker a peace deal after holding talks in Moscow where they adopted a declaration setting out the principles any agreement should adhere to.
“There are two texts ready on a solution in Syria. One is about a political resolution and the other is about a ceasefire. They can be implemented any time,” Çavuşoğlu told reporters on the sidelines of an awards ceremony at the presidential palace in Ankara. He said Syria’s opposition would never back Assad. “The whole world knows it is not possible for there to be a political transition with Assad, and we also all know that it is impossible for these people to unite around Assad.”
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/28/turkey-russia-agree-terms-syria-ceasefire
They are trying to bypass both the US and the UN.
Why Is It That Americans Always Get Screwed???... The Banksters!
Thom asks why Americans allow themselves to be screwed over when it comes to student loans, pharmaceutical drugs, retirement, and more? It turns out that the answer to each is the Banksters.
Find out more at: http://www.thomhartmann.com
Follow Thom on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/thom_hartmann
In Denmark, supermarkets selling expired food are all the rage
http://www.lostateminor.com/2016/12/09/in-denmark-supermarkets-selling-expired-food-are-all-the-rage/While most people abhor the thought of eating food already past its expiry date, the Danish are actually lining up in droves for it.
Early this year, a special supermarket called WeFood opened its doors in Copenhagen. The ‘surplus store’ sells items – that are either expired, mislabeled, damaged, or headed to the trash – at discounts of up to 50 percent. With Danes throwing away around 700,000 tonnes of food annually, this initiative is a huge win in fighting food wastage.
“WeFood is the first supermarket of its kind in Denmark and perhaps the world as it is not just aimed at low-income shoppers but anyone who is concerned about the amount of food waste produced in this country,” said a representative. “Many people see this as a positive and politically correct way to approach the issue.”
In less than a year, WeFood has already opened a second store to fulfill demand. We recently talked to volunteer coordinator Sofie Ostengard to know more.
What was the inspiration for WeFood?
“About three years ago, the Danish Minister of Agriculture and Food, our General Secretary at Folkekirkens Nødhjælp and Head of CSR at Danish Supermarket Group gathered in a documentary concerning food waste. Then we decided to do something about this huge problem both in an environmental and economic perspective.”
How exactly does WeFood work? And why didn’t anyone think of this incredible concept before?
“We receive groceries from different suppliers, for instance, supermarket chains as a donation. Then we sell it in our shops 30-50% cheaper than normal. Everything from vegetables, bread, fruit, candy, beverages etc.”
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The Democratic Party has been Constitutionally "kettled", there is really only one doable solution
Kettling (also known as containment or corralling) is a tactic for controlling large groups. You move to subdue a crowd by breaking it up and moving it into a contained limited area(s). This has occurred at both US House levels, and thus at Electoral College levels. Giant states like California, New York, etc are now cut off from numerically equal representation, they have become impotent cul-de-sacs. Take away all (not just Clinton's) of California's POTUS votes, Hillary loses the popular vote nationally as well. No one bothers to contest it, as it does NOT have a fair amount of House members, and thus it doesn't have a fair amount of EV's either. The Rethugs just write it off.
Imagine as it keeps growing. There simply will never be enough EV's and House seats (if the pot is 538 for the EC and 435 for the House) to give CA fairness at electoral power level in both the EC and the House.
The same kettling occurs for giant cities all over the nation. Tens upon tens of millions are denied fair electoral power, and the Rethugs have gamed the entire system for their benefit. Urban drift, the ever-growing trend to huge urban areas is allowing the left (who dominate in these mega enclaves) to be kettled politically, at multiple inflection points, as well, especially at state and even more so, federal levels.
There is a solution:
Increase the size of the House of Representatives, and thus the EC, no Constitutional Amendment needed
The Electoral College is never going away. The National Popular Vote Compact is unconstitutional (especially if the SCOTUS is RW).
Abolition will never occur, as even if the constitutional amendment were passed in the Congress, all it takes is 13 states (the smaller ones, of course) to block it. They have way more than 13 who oppose it.
BUT there is a fix, and it just doesn't fix the electoral college. If fixes the House too.
Expand the House to 1001. That would also Expand the EC to 1106 (100 for senators, 1001 for House, plus 5 for DC). It doesn't take a Constitutional Amendment either, just an Act of Congress (overturning a 1929 Act).
Its been stuck at 435 (with 2 temp added for AK and HI for a couple years, removed in 1962) SINCE 1913!
The population then was 97 million. Now is 325 million. The average rep has almost 750,000 people in his/her district.
Because the EC is based (in the constitution) off number of congress people, increasing the House also increases the EC.
THEN you can more fairly split up those 1106 EV's and those 1001 House seats. Right now, a Wyoming electoral vote is worth 3.7 times MORE than a California vote.
Expanding the House also, of course allow for a more representational distribution for the states as well, at HOUSE government levels. California, and the other large states get FUCKED right now in every way.
The main barrier to this will be getting House members to dilute their power, PLUS Rethugs to go along, as they KNOW they have all the benefits to the current system
Read this for more info. http://www.thirty-thousand.org/
The 1001 is just my own number, you could do it so many different ways (such as the much less impactful (but still better than nothing) Wyoming Rule https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyoming_Rule or double it, plus one (has to be odd number to avoid ties)
Everything you were afraid to ask about white nationalisms new place in American politics
These hate groups’ names are becoming household terms.http://www.vox.com/identities/2016/12/7/13802640/white-nationalists-alt-right-racism-bannon-spencer-trump
Merriam-Webster’s 2016 word of the year might be fascism. For betting types making early 2017 predictions, “white nationalism” would not be a bad guess. Along with “white supremacy” and the newer phrase “alternative right,” or alt-right, it’s been a post-election fixture of news and accompanying battles over politics, racism, and language.
It started in earnest when it was announced that former Breitbart News editor Steve Bannon would serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s administrative adviser. White nationalists like neo-Nazi writer and publisher Andrew Anglin rejoiced. Ken Reed, the national director of the neo-Nazi group Aryan Renaissance Society, celebrated in a Facebook post that read, “Can you say WINNING boys and girls???” using the hashtags #WhiteLivesMatter and #AltRight.
The self-proclaimed alt-right made even more headlines when the white supremacist National Policy Institute held an alt-right conference in Washington, DC, the weekend after the election. There, the group’s leader, Richard Spencer, delivered remarks calling America “a white country designed for ourselves and our posterity.” In a video shared by the Atlantic, Trump’s victory and Spencer’s statements were cheered by the crowd with Nazi salutes and chants of, “Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!”
Yes, actual Nazi salutes. In a DC hotel. By people who felt Trump’s election and appointments were their victory.
Along with the horror over this came complaints that alt-right activists were being referred to in many headlines with their chosen, innocuous-sounding title, rather than something that made their racist agenda plain. Before long, the Associated Press and the New York Times issued strong guidance to their writers regarding the term. In both cases, they said uses of the alt-right’s preferred label must be accompanied by an explanation to readers about what defines the group: the racism, misogyny, and white supremacy that characterize it.
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MUCH more at link
Anti-Muslim Activist Katharine Gorka Named to Homeland Security Transition Team
https://theintercept.com/2016/11/30/katie-gorka-trump/KATHARINE GORKA, a controversial national security analyst who specializes in discussing the threat posted by Muslims to the United States, has complained bitterly that the Department of Homeland Security trains its agents — falsely, in her opinion — that Islam is a “religion of peace.”
Now, Gorka will have a chance to help Donald Trump remake the department. On Tuesday, she was selected by Trump to be part of the DHS “landing team” that will meet with Obama’s DHS officials to manage the handoff to new leadership. Gorka, the president of a think tank called the Council on Global Security and the president of Threat Knowledge Group, a consulting firm, is a well known figure among anti-Muslim campaigners.
Gorka argues that the only way to defeat terrorism “depend upon our being able to call the enemy by its proper name: Global Jihadism.” She has pushed legislation to designate the the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group and impose sanction on its “affiliates, associated groups, or agents”. The affiliated groups mentioned in the legislation include mainstream civil rights organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).
Gorka is also writes about Islam for Breitbart News, a website described by its former executive chairman Steve Bannon as a “platform” for the white supremacist “alt-right” movement. Bannon is one of Trump’s top advisers. In one 2014 column, Gorka wrote that when “Presidents Bush and Obama both publicly declared Islam to be a religion of peace,” it “struck a sour chord for many,” and that “American and Western leaders have preemptively shut down any debate within Islam by declaring that Islam is the religion of peace.”
In another column, she defended five members of Congress, including then-Presidential candidate Rep. Michelle Bachman, R-Iowa, who were widely denounced by their own party leaders for spreading conspiracy theories in 2012 after they accused a top Clinton aid of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and called on President Obama to investigate.
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Despotism (1946 Film, but might as well be from 70 years later)
A horrific map, Trump 532 EV's, Sec. Clinton 3 EV's (hint, it's the guns)
Gun Humpers Unite!
Sickening
https://www.surveymonkey.com/elections/map/2016/us?poll=sm-exit-gunowner-cps
Clinton, within this massive exit poll, actually won unmarried men, dominated with unmarried women and millennials, but was crushed in the 65+ age group, and married men, and lost married women as well (based off EV's).
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Gender: FemaleHometown: San Diego
Home country: USA
Current location: London
Member since: Fri Jul 22, 2016, 05:13 AM
Number of posts: 1,429