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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
7/26/2016 2:06:45 AM

Hillary Clinton Is A Threat To All Of Humanity

By James Corbett

Hillary Rodham Clinton is a Wall Street-backed warmonger whose potential election as President of the United States this November poses an existential threat not just to Americans but to all of humanity. As First Lady and then as Senator, she actively supported the US’ illegal wars of aggression abroad.

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(activistpost.com)

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
7/26/2016 2:29:29 AM
Donald Trump is a unique threat to American democracy

Donald Trump addressed the GOP convention in Cleveland, Ohio, July 21. The Republican presidential candidate spoke for more than one hour, we broke it down to less than five minutes. (Deirdra O'Regan/The Washington Post)

DONALD J. TRUMP, until now a Republican problem, this week became a challenge the nation must confront and overcome. The real estate tycoon is uniquely unqualified to serve as president, in experience and temperament. He is mounting a campaign of snarl and sneer, not substance. To the extent he has views, they are wrong in their diagnosis of America’s problems and dangerous in their proposed solutions. Mr. Trump’s politics of denigration and division could strain the bonds that have held a diverse nation together. His contempt for constitutional norms might reveal the nation’s two-century-old experiment in checks and balances to be more fragile than we knew.

Any one of these characteristics would be disqualifying; together, they make Mr. Trump a peril. We recognize that this is not the usual moment to make such a statement. In an ordinary election year, we would acknowledge the Republican nominee, move on to the Democratic convention and spend the following months, like other voters, evaluating the candidates’ performance in debates, on the stump and in position papers. This year we will follow the campaign as always, offering honest views on all the candidates. But we cannot salute the Republican nominee or pretend that we might endorse him this fall. A Trump presidency would be dangerous for the nation and the world.

Why are we so sure? Start with experience. It has been 64 years since a major party nominated anyone for president who did not have electoral experience. That experiment turned out pretty well — but Mr. Trump, to put it mildly, is no Dwight David Eisenhower. Leading the Allied campaign to liberate Europe from the Nazis required strategic and political skills of the first order, and Eisenhower — though he liked to emphasize his common touch as he faced the intellectual Democrat Adlai Stevenson — was shrewd, diligent, humble and thoughtful.

Donald Trump painted a dark picture of America during his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, but some of his doomsday stats are rather dubious. The Post's Fact Checker examined 25 of his key claims. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

In contrast, there is nothing on Mr. Trump’s résumé to suggest he could function successfully in Washington. He was staked in the family business by a well-to-do father and has pursued a career marked by some real estate successes, some failures and repeated episodes of saving his own hide while harming people who trusted him. Given his continuing refusal to release his tax returns, breaking with a long bipartisan tradition, it is only reasonable to assume there are aspects of his record even more discreditable than what we know.

The lack of experience might be overcome if Mr. Trump saw it as a handicap worth overcoming. But he displays no curiosity, reads no books and appears to believe he needs no advice. In fact, what makes Mr. Trump so unusual is his combination of extreme neediness and unbridled arrogance. He is desperate for affirmation but contemptuous of other views. He also is contemptuous of fact. Throughout the campaign, he has unspooled one lie after another — that Muslims in New Jerseycelebrated after 9/11, that his tax-cut plan would not worsen thedeficit, that he opposed the Iraq War before it started — and when confronted with contrary evidence, he simply repeats the lie. It is impossible to know whether he convinces himself of his own untruths or knows that he is wrong and does not care. It is also difficult to know which trait would be more frightening in a commander in chief.

Given his ignorance, it is perhaps not surprising that Mr. Trump offers no coherence when it comes to policy. In years past, he supported immigration reform, gun control and legal abortion; as candidate, he became a hard-line opponent of all three. Even in the course of the campaign, he has flip-flopped on issues such as whether Muslims should be banned from entering the United States and whether women who have abortions should be punished . Worse than the flip-flops is the absence of any substance in his agenda. Existing trade deals are “stupid,” but Mr. Trump does not say how they could be improved. The Islamic State must be destroyed, but the candidate offers no strategy for doing so. Eleven million undocumented immigrants must be deported, but Mr. Trump does not tell us how he would accomplish this legally or practically.

What the candidate does offer is a series of prejudices and gut feelings, most of them erroneous. Allies are taking advantage of the United States. Immigrants are committing crimes andstealing jobs. Muslims hate America. In fact, Japan and South Korea are major contributors to an alliance that has preserved a peace of enormous benefit to Americans. Immigrants commitfewer crimes than native-born Americans and take jobs that no one else will. Muslims are the primary victims of Islamist terrorism, and Muslim Americans, including thousands who have served in the military, are as patriotic as anyone else.

The Trump litany of victimization has resonated with many Americans whose economic prospects have stagnated. They deserve a serious champion, and the challenges of inequality and slow wage growth deserve a serious response. But Mr. Trump has nothing positive to offer, only scapegoats and dark conspiracy theories. He launched his campaign by accusing Mexico of sending rapists across the border, and similar hatefulness has surfaced numerous times in the year since.

In a dangerous world, Mr. Trump speaks blithely of abandoning NATO, encouraging more nations to obtain nuclear weapons andcozying up to dictators who in fact wish the United States nothing but harm. For eight years, Republicans have criticized President Obama for “apologizing” for America and for weakening alliances. Now they put forward a candidate who mimics the vilest propaganda of authoritarian adversaries about how terrible the United States is and how unfit it is to lecture others. He has made clear that he would drop allies without a second thought. The consequences to global security could be disastrous.

Most alarming is Mr. Trump’s contempt for the Constitution and the unwritten democratic norms upon which our system depends. He doesn’t know what is in the nation’s founding document. When asked by a member of Congress about Article I, which enumerates congressional powers, the candidate responded, “I am going to abide by the Constitution whether it’s number 1, number 2, number 12, number 9.” The charter has seven articles.

Worse, he doesn’t seem to care about its limitations on executive power. He has threatened that those who criticize him will suffer when he is president. He has vowed to torture suspected terrorists and bomb their innocent relatives, no matter the illegality of either act. He has vowed to constrict the independent press. He went after a judge whose rulings angered him, exacerbating his contempt for the independence of the judiciary by insisting that the judge should be disqualified because of his Mexican heritage. Mr. Trump has encouraged and celebrated violence at his rallies. The U.S. democratic system is strong and has proved resilient when it has been tested before. We have faith in it. But to elect Mr. Trump would be to knowingly subject it to threat.

Mr. Trump campaigns by insult and denigration, insinuation and wild accusation: Ted Cruz’s father was involved in theassassination of President John F. Kennedy; Hillary Clinton may be guilty of murder; Mr. Obama is a traitor who wants Muslims to attack. The Republican Party has moved the lunatic fringe onto center stage, with discourse that renders impossible the kind of substantive debate upon which any civil democracy depends.

Most responsible Republican leaders know all this to be true; that is why Mr. Trump had to rely so heavily on testimonials by relatives and employees during this week’s Republican convention. With one exception (Bob Dole), the living Republican presidents and presidential nominees of the past three decades all stayed away. But most current officeholders, even those who declared Mr. Trump to be an unthinkable choice only months ago, have lost the courage to speak out.

The party’s failure of judgment leaves the nation’s future where it belongs, in the hands of voters. Many Americans do not like either candidate this year . We have criticized the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, in the past and will do so again when warranted. But we do not believe that she (or the Libertarian and Green party candidates, for that matter) represents a threat to the Constitution. Mr. Trump is a unique and present danger.


(The Washington Post)


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
7/26/2016 11:05:05 AM

Michael Jordan speaks out on police shootings: ‘I can no longer stay silent'

Dan Devine
Jul 25, 2016, 12:04 PM


For years, Michael Jordan has taken criticism from those who’d wished one of the most famous, visible, wealthy and powerful athletes in the world would use his considerable public profile and influence to speak out on social issues affecting the African American community. For years, the six-time NBA champion and basketball legend’s legacy of on-court success has been counterbalanced by four non-quoted words — “Republicans buy sneakers, too” — often used to call Jordan onto the carpet for failing “to embrace the leverage he possessed as the nation’s most iconic athlete across the 1990s.”

Well, now, the Hall of Famer and Charlotte Hornets owner has chosen to speak.

In an essay for The Undefeated published Monday, the 53-year-old Jordan makes his voice heard in the wake of the recent unrest in the country following the police killing of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La., the police killing of Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minn., the killing of five police officers by a lone gunman at an otherwise peaceful Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas, the police shooting of North Miami behavioral therapist Charles Kinsey as he lay on his back with his hands thrust in the air trying to coax an autistic patient back into a mental health center, and all the protests and demonstrations that have followed.

With persistent issues of racism, violence against African Americans, police brutality and gun violence coming to the forefront for many NBA and WNBA players of late, Jordan decided that, “as a proud American, a father who lost his own dad in a senseless act of violence, and a black man […] deeply troubled” by the deaths on both sides of the divide, the time was now for him to speak, and to act:

“I was raised by parents who taught me to love and respect people regardless of their race or background, so I am saddened and frustrated by the divisive rhetoric and racial tensions that seem to be getting worse as of late. I know this country is better than that, and I can no longer stay silent. We need to find solutions that ensure people of color receive fair and equal treatment AND that police officers — who put their lives on the line every day to protect us all — are respected and supported.

“Over the past three decades I have seen up close the dedication of the law enforcement officers who protect me and my family. I have the greatest respect for their sacrifice and service. I also recognize that for many people of color their experiences with law enforcement have been different than mine. I have decided to speak out in the hope that we can come together as Americans, and through peaceful dialogue and education, achieve constructive change.

“To support that effort, I am making contributions of $1 million each to two organizations, the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s newly established Institute for Community-Police Relations and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. The Institute for Community-Police Relations’ policy and oversight work is focused on building trust and promoting best practices in community policing. My donation to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the nation’s oldest civil rights law organization, will support its ongoing work in support of reforms that will build trust and respect between communities and law enforcement. Although I know these contributions alone are not enough to solve the problem, I hope the resources will help both organizations make a positive difference.”

Jordan’s Monday statement comes four days after the NBA announced it was pulling the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte in opposition to House Bill 2, a law passed in March by North Carolina legislators and signed by Republican Gov. Pat McCrory that reversed a Charlotte city ordinance expanding rights and protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Jordan, who had previously said that he and the Hornets organization were “opposed to discrimination in any form,” had made the decision to issue his statement and make his donations “about two weeks ago,” but decided to delay them after learning the league would be relocating the All-Star Game because he “did not want his announcement to take away from the focus on the LGBT community,” a spokesperson told The Undefeated:

Jordan’s commitment to diversity, his spokeswoman said, has been long established. “But he’s always been very private and personal about many of these things.”

Of the decision to speak out and contribute his voice and money now, she said: “Michael was tired of just talking. He wanted to do something about the issue. This was very important to him.”

In years past, Jordan has tended to wield influence in the social sphere as an extension of his business pursuits, as Scoop Jackson detailed for ESPN back in 2014 (hat-tip toMyles Brown):

In the comprehensive context of Jordan “not being black enough,” people miss how over the years with his position in the Jordan Brand as CEO, the company is the only one inside of Nike that has had multiple African-American presidents. (Disclosure: I worked with Nike from 2001-05, but not with the Jordan brand.) Outside of Nike president Trevor Edwards, the execs at the Jordan Brand have always been the highest-ranking blacks in the parent company (Nike). This is something that Jordan’s made sure of; something that is not happenstance or a mistake.

“Michael’s willingness to hire, support and promote minority leaders throughout his business ventures has been remarkable,” Larry Miller, president of the Jordan Brand said in defense of the perception that the depths of Jordan’s contribution to “the struggle” goes no further than that of a glorified pitchman. “He has always been focused on creating successful and sustainable businesses and has empowered minority leaders, including myself, with the opportunity to grow and advance those businesses.” […]

“It is hard to believe that in 2014 there is only one African-American majority owner in all the major men’s pro leagues,” [said Dr. Richard Lapchick, director at The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport.] The importance of Michael Jordan as a player is matched by his being the only owner. It is critical for minority youth to see that there are options to battling the long odds to become a pro athlete and that there are many opportunities to work in the world of sport as team presidents, general managers, COOs and, yes, even as owners. In the era of the Donald Sterling nightmare, the NBA and our society need Michael Jordan now more than ever and need other people of color to become owners in the near future.”

And yet, as valuable and viable a means of contributing to progress as Jordan’s economic leadership has been, this choice to speak about the need for “constructive change” will likely generate far more attention and dialogue … and, perhaps, further action.

“We’re at a critical moment in our country where people do need to step up,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, the president and director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, to The Undefeated. “It’s important for people who have a profile of a Michael Jordan to step forward and identify this as a critical issue.”

More basketball coverage from Yahoo Sports:

– – – – – – –

Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him atdevine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

Stay connected with Ball Don’t Lie on Twitter @YahooBDL, “Like” BDL on Facebookand follow Dunks Don’t Lie on Tumblr for year-round NBA talk, jokes and more.

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
7/26/2016 11:23:31 AM



Israel's Culture War Is Getting Ugly


Measured against a tempestuous U.S. election season Turkish coup, Israel (for a change) seems quiet and stable. Bolstered by coalition agreements with the religious right, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems politically secure. For now, at least, elections are not on the Israeli horizon and the borders are quiet.

Mostly out of international view, however, Israel is in the grips of a renewed battle between an increasingly hard-line, anti-Western and extremist rabbinate, arrayed against Israeli liberal society, the army and even American Jews. The long-simmering battle resurfaced this month when a rabbinic court rejected a woman’s conversion that had been overseen by the widely respected New York Orthodox Rabbi Haskel Lookstein. (Lookstein was the same rabbi who accepted and then declined an invitation to deliver the invocation at the Republican National Convention.)

Despite protests by many moderate personalities, including the long-time Jewish human rights activist Natan Sharansky, the religious courts refused to back down, highlighting their disregard for how foreign Jews and much of Israeli society perceive them.

Then the army announced the nomination of Colonel Eyal Karim for the position of Chief Rabbi of the Israeli Defense Forces. The choice quickly aroused widespread disgust, even among many in the religious community. Karim, it turned out, had referred to homosexuals as “sick.” He said that the reason women cannot give testimony in certain court cases is that they are “sentimental” by inclination. Karim had also intimated that soldiers could legitimately rape women during war and that wounded terrorists should be killed, a subject particularly sensitive in Israel due to the ongoing trial of Sergeant Elor Azaria, who is now being tried for shooting a neutralized terrorist in Hebron.

Despite the outcry, the IDF chief of staff, Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot, decided to proceed with Karim’s nomination. The reason, many believe, is that Karim was already perceived as weak, and having a weak IDF chief rabbi enables Eisenkot to chip away at the IDF rabbinate’s authority.

Two weeks ago, LGBT activists cancelled the gay pride parade in the Negev city of Beer Sheva after the Supreme Court sided with religious authorities who insisted that having the parade along the main boulevard would “cause damage” to the religious community. Though the court actually ruled based on security considerations(police claimed that they could not protect participants given the widespread opposition to the event), the significant social fact was that religious opponents of the parade had succeeded in blocking it. (In contrast, last week’s Jerusalem gay pride parade proceeded as scheduled, attracting some 25,000 people.)

Then another firebrand rabbi joined the fray. Rabbi Yigal Levinstein, a leader of a yeshiva academy in the West Bank town of Eli, gave a lecture in which he insisted that gays are “perverts,” that Reform Judaism is a variety of Christianity, and that the IDF has veered away from the state’s values. Reaction to Levinstein’s harangue was immediate. Education Minister Naftali Bennett, himself a member of the religious community, assailed the cruelty of Levinstein’s language. The army reprimanded Levinstein and forbade him from teaching many of the army groups he formally addressed. Rabbi Benny Lau of Jerusalem (a cousin of the chief rabbi), perhaps the leading voice of modern Orthodoxy in Israel, denounced Levinstein and posted a 15-minute video “takedown” on YouTube.

As some were excoriating him, another group of 250 rabbis came to Levinstein’s defense.

Other examples abound. What Israel is facing, noted Haaretz and others, is a “culture war” between extremist rabbis and some of the IDF’s liberal generals. Former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, whorecently departed Netanyahu’s government, pointed to what he termed a dangerous tendency towards national religious radicalization.

The extremism stems from many factors. Many of Israel’s rabbis have no secular education to speak of; neither Karim nor Levinstein, for example, have university degrees. They are as parochial as one can be in a modern society like Israel’s, at times oblivious to the fact that some sorts of discourse are no longer accepted in the western world. Many of these rabbis also live in communities that are likely to be dismantled if and when a peace agreement is reached with the Palestinians to hand over parts of the West Bank. That imparts a sense of dread that leads them to see much of the rest of Israeli society as their nemesis, along with an American Jewish community that overwhelmingly favors Israeli territorial accommodation.

What may seem a matter of a few rogue rabbis is actually an existential issue for Israel. When religious leaders like Rabbis Lau and Lookstein, human rights activists like Sharansky, religious political leaders like Bennett and future candidates for prime minister like Ya’alon all decry the extremism, lines in the sand are being drawn.

What Israelis have to decide is whether they are ready — under the leadership of those moderate figures — to wage the painful social and political battle with the religious right now.

They can defer the conflict, but then they risk the possibility that the Israeli society that emerges will be one that most American Jews will find undeserving of their support. Even more dangerous, those in the secular and moderate religious camps could find themselves in an unrecognizable country, and with peace nowhere in sight, might begin to ask themselves whether a society so ugly is one in which they want to raise their children.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story:
Daniel Gordis at danielgordis@outlook.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Jonathan Landman at
jlandman4@bloomberg.net

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
7/26/2016 11:34:37 AM

5,000 to 10,000 Islamic State fighters in Mosul, Iraq; some expected to relocate

IS has moved its key departments and weapons facilities to safer parts of the city.
By Ed Adamczyk | July 25, 2016 at 9:49 AM

Kurdish Peshmerga troops take up positions near Mosul, Iraq, August 10, 2014. A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition said 5,000 to 10,000 Islamic State combatants remain in the city, which is being bombed with airstrikes and ground attacks by the Iraqi army and the Pashmerga. File Photo by Mohammed al Jumail/UPI
| License Photo

MOSUL, Iraq, July 25 (UPI) -- Islamic State fighters in Mosul, Iraq, number between 5,000 and 10,000 but that number is expected to decline, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition said as the coalition advanced on the city.

Airstrikes on Mosul, a city of more than 500,000 and an IS headquarters, have intensified, reducing IS troop strength as Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraqi army troops advanced by land to a Mosul suburb.

IS leadership began moving its center of operations to other parts of the city, media activist Abdullah al-Malla, in Mosul, told the independent Iraqi news agency ARA, theAssyrian International News Agency reported Monday. Al-Malla said police headquarters, the courts, weapons storage facilities and security headquarters have been relocated "to other districts of Mosul believed to be safer."

Col. Christopher Garver, the coalition's spokesman, said Sunday the militant group is expected to avoid further personnel losses after the bombardments by reducing its number of forces in the city. IS sustained heavy losses in manpower and equipment in the airstrikes and the shelling by army and Peshmerga infantry.

"At the start of the attack to liberate Mosul, the number of the fighters of the organization will be from 5,000 to 6,000. [The] number of unarmed civilians in Mosul range between 500,000 to a million," Garver said.

Garver added coalition troops number about 7,000 in Iraq, including 560 U.S. forces, with additional personnel stationed on nearby aircraft carriers and warships. He said the coalition has trained nearly 24,000 Iraqis as security personnel, including police, army and anti-terrorism units.


(UPI)


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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