NEW YORK (AP) — Thousands of protesters packed into Times Square Wednesday evening to demand that Congress vote down the proposed U.S. deal with Iran.

As the crowd loomed behind police barricades, chants of "Kill the deal!" could be heard for blocks. The event, billed as the "Stop Iran Rally" consisted mainly of pro-Israel supporters, though organizers said it represents Americans of all faiths and political convictions.

The group is asking Congress to reject the deal under which the U.S. would agree to lift economic sanctions against Iran in return for measures to prevent the country from building nuclear weapons.

President Barack Obama has said the U.S. considers Iran an adversary whose activities will be closely monitored.

At the rally, Alan Dershowitz, a prominent Jewish attorney, said he was "opposing the deal as a liberal Democrat." He said he believed democracy was "ignored" because the Obama administration negotiated the deal without congressional input.

"That is not the way democracy should operate," he told the crowd.

In a statement Wednesday, Rep. Peter King, a former chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said he attended a classified briefing with Secretary of State John Kerry and "is still convinced that this is a bad deal for America."

As the crowd loomed behind police barricades, chants of "Kill the deal!" could be heard for blocks. Credit: KENA BETANCUR via Getty Images

"It was entirely wrong and arrogant for the Obama administration to submit the deal to the U.N. before Congress voted on it," he said. "It is definitely my intention to vote no on this deal with Iran."

Desiree Soper of Long Island said she was drawn to the protest because she wanted to voice her opposition.

"I don't trust Iran," she said. "They'll find loopholes."

Demonstrators also took note that U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer did not attend the protest, prompting chants of "Where is Chuck?" from the crowd.

Schumer was in Washington Wednesday evening. He said in a statement that he has read the agreement and is waiting to speak with experts from both sides before deciding how to vote on the proposal.

Organizers estimated about 10,000 people attended the event.

(HUFFINGTON POST)

London (AFP) - Five Chelsea fans who were banned from all football matches for up to five years over an incident of racism in Paris in February, in court proceedings that concluded Wednesday have also been barred for life from attending fixtures at the English champions' Stamford Bridge ground.

The men, including former police officer Richard Barklie, were involved in an incident in which a black Frenchman was repeatedly shoved off a metro train carriage ahead of Chelsea's Champions League match against Paris Saint Germain.

"This was an abhorrent, nasty, offensive, arrogant and utterly unacceptable behaviour and cannot be allowed in modern, civilised society," district judge Gareth Branston said at Stratford Magistrates Court in east London. "It must be stamped out."

Branston said the 50-year-old Barklie -- who is a director with the World Human Rights Forum -- and 20-year-old former finance worker Josh Parsons had played a leading role in the racist abuse and in pushing Souleymane Sylla off the train.

He accused them of "aggressive, disorderly conduct".

Barklie had defended himself in court, saying there was no racist motive in pushing Sylla and accusing the Frenchman of "aggression" for trying to board a crowded train.

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Josh Parsons arrives at Waltham Forest Magistrates' Court in east London on March 25, 2015, wher …

Barklie, Parsons and William Simpson, 26, received court orders banning them from all football matches for five years.

A fourth fan, 20-year-old Jordan Munday, was accused of joining in racist chanting and banned for three years.

A fifth fan in the same case, Dean Callis, 32, has already received a five-year banning order for his role.

Chelsea, following Wednesday's court proceedings, said all five men would be banned for life from matches at Stamford Bridge, their home ground in west London.

"The behaviour of these five individuals was abhorrent, against all of the club's values and falls way below the standards the club expects of supporters attending our games," said a Chelsea statement.

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Five Chelsea fans have been banned from football matches for racism after a black Frenchman was push …

"Therefore the club's bans permanently prohibit any of these individuals from attending Stamford Bridge or purchasing tickets from the club for any future matches."

It added: "Chelsea FC is proud of its diversity, which runs throughout the club -- from our owner (Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich) to our multi-cultural playing squad and backroom team, the staff and our fans.

"We are also proud to support the work of Kick it Out and Show Racism the Red Card, among other organisations, as well as the work of the Premier League, UEFA and the Football Association."

The incident, captured on the mobile phone of a British expatriate, sparked widespread condemnation.

After the hearing, Barklie lamented the verdict and said he was "considering an appeal".

"I have always accepted that I pushed Mr Sylla off the Metro," Barklie said.

"The reason was because the Metro was crowded and there was no room for him to get onto that carriage...He was pushed off the train because there was no room and not because of the colour of his skin," he added.

"It is important to remember that only after Mr Sylla had been pushed off did the racist singing start. I am not responsible for the actions of those around me."

Shell gets the final go-ahead to drill in the Arctic

Shell has cleared its last regulatory hurdle before beginning drilling in the Arctic. And while that fact has ticked off environmental groups, Shell did not end up receiving the free pass it had been hoping for … at least, not yet. From FuelFix:

Under the limited Interior Department drilling permits, Shell can only focus on one well at a time, and it cannot penetrate potential oil- and gas-bearing zones some 8,000 feet underground, at least until a damaged company-contracted icebreaker returns from repairs in Oregon.

That ship, the MSV Fennica, is meant to keep ice from encroaching on Shell’s drilling operations and is designed to install critical equipment on top of a damaged well in an emergency.

Shell had hoped to exploit multiple wells at the same time during the short July-to-September window when drilling is viable in the Arctic. It had also hoped to drill multiple wells within nine miles of one another, but the Department of the Interiordecided that wells would have to be 15 miles apart, in the interest of wildlife protection.

Then, earlier this month, one of Shell’s two icebreakers, the MSV Fennica, ended up with a crippling gash in its hull and had to dock in Portland, Ore., for repairs. It was a setback for the company, and environmental groups argued it was proof that Shell is not competent enough to manage the task of extracting oil in harsh Arctic conditions.

Shell’s past exploits in Arctic drilling have been a less-than-humorous comedy of errors. One of the company’s contractors ended up being fined $12 million after one of its ships ran aground in 2012. Environmental groups suggested that this year’s renewed efforts would lead to a similar outcome, and, when the MSV Fennica ended up hitting an uncharted rock, they redoubled their argument. The ship was carrying equipment to help the company deal with an oil spill — an eventuality that, according to DOI, is not unexpected. A February analysis found that there’s a 75 percent likelihood that Shell’s efforts in the Arctic will result in one or more spills of more than 1,000 barrels of oil during its 77-year lease.

“Today’s approval ignores Shell’s dismal record of safety violations and undermines President Obama’s pledge to combat climate change,” said Marissa Knodel of Friends of the Earth. “With this decision, President Obama has given Shell an open invitation to turn the Chukchi Sea into an energy sacrifice zone, threatening both the resilience of the American Arctic Ocean and his climate legacy.”

Even though the company will not be able to drill as many wells as it had hoped, any drilling at all is bad news for the climate. A January paper in the journal Natureconcluded that, if the world is to avoid the nastier effects of global warming that come with a rise in average global temperatures of more than 2 degrees Celsius, then all of the oil in the Arctic will have to stay put. Shell, however, has different ideas — and now the company has the go-ahead to act on them.

(GRIST)

Just when you think that the depravity of the United States cannot possibly get any worse, something else comes along to surprise us. Many of the things that you are about to read about in this article are incredibly disturbing, but it is important that we face the truth about how far this nation has fallen. There are times when I will be having a conversation with someone else about the state of our country, and the other person will say something like this: “Wow – America is really going down the toilet.” At one time, I would have totally agreed with that. But at this point I would have to say that we have already circled the bowl and have made it all the way through to the other end. Our society is absolutely addicted to entertainment (most of which is utter trash), tens of millions of us are hooked on drugs (both legal and illegal), and we have murdered more than 56 million of our own babies. Our financial system is consumed with greed, we treat our military veterans like human garbage, and most of our “leaders” in Washington D.C. are deeply corrupt. In America today, 64 percent of all men view pornography at least once per month, it is estimated that one out of every four girls is sexually abused before they become adults, and we have the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the entire industrialized world. We like to think that we are an “example” to the rest of the world, but the only example that we are setting is a bad one. The following are 11 signs that America has already gone down the toilet…

#1 All over the United States, the body parts of aborted babies are being bought and sold, and the U.S. government gives the organization at the heart of this sick “industry” hundreds of millions of dollars a year. This week, another incredibly shocking undercover video has been released which has given us even more evidence of what Planned Parenthood is really up to…

The most recent video shows a luncheon conversation with Dr. Mary Gatter, who currently serves as president of Planned Parenthood’s Medical Directors’ Council and Medical Director of Planned Parenthood’s Pasadena abortion clinic.

In the video, Gatter is heard haggling over the price she will charge for intact fetal body parts and is concerned that she will be “low-balled.” She asks for at least $75 per specimen, but wants to see what other Planned Parenthood abortionists are getting to make sure she gets similar compensation so she can buy an expensive sports car.

“It’s been years since I’ve talked about compensation, so let me just figure out what others are getting and if this is in the ballpark, that’s fine. If it’s still low, we can bump it up. I want a Lamborghini,” Gatter laughed.

This is wickedness at a level that is almost unspeakable, and it is being bankrolled by the U.S. government.

Let’s hope that “I want a Lamborghini” gets plastered all over the Internet hundreds of millions of times. I encourage everyone to get on Facebook and Twitter and start blasting out messages like this one to everyone that they know…

Follow Charmaine @CharmaineYoest "I want a Lamborghini" -- don't mind those aborted babies over there. #PPSellsBabyParts 8:10 AM - 21 Jul 2015 363363 Retweets 125125 favorites

If we cannot even stop the U.S. government from funding this kind of evil, what possible hope is there for the future of this nation?

According to WND, some members of this “industry” even receive monetary bonuses “based on the baby parts they harvest”…

StemExpress, which is run by Planned Parenthood abortion doctor Ronald Berman, offers its procurement technicians bonuses based on the baby parts they harvest, according to the Center for Medical Progress.Larger bonuses are offered for more valuable body parts, classified as “Category A” parts, while smaller bonuses are given for “Category C” parts.

This alone is enough to prove that America has gone all the way down the toilet. But I will continue with the list…

#2 Just a few days ago, we learned that hackers had stolen personal information from 37 million users on an adultery website known as Ashley Madison…

A hacking insider has told Sky News he thinks the people threatening to release personal details of users of an adultery website are bluffing and using the publicity as advertising to sell the data to the highest bidder.

Hackers calling themselves Impact Team have stolen and leaked data from some of the Ashley Madison website’s 37 million users and are threatening to publish more.

For now the group has released just 40MB of data, including some credit card details and several documents about its parent company Avid Life Media (ALM), it is reported.

The big story here is not the hacking.

Rather, the big story is the fact that 37 million of us have signed up to participate on a website that facilitates adultery.

#3 Rates of violent crime are increasing by double digit percentages in many major U.S. cities in 2015, and some of the crimes being committed are almost too horrible to talk about. Just consider the following example which comes from the Daily Mail…

A 22-year-old man and his 21-year-old girlfriend were walking along McNichols Road near Birwood Street on Thursday around 11:30pm when a group of three to six men approached them in the well-lit area, WWJ reported.

The couple was allegedly forced behind a nearby business, where the six men robbed and stripped them of their clothes.

Police say the violent men took turns sexually assaulting the woman and when the attack ended, the victims ran nude to a nearby liquor store for help.

Another couple was attacked just a few hours later at 2:40am when a 21-year-old man and his 19-year-old girlfriend were walking in the area of McNichols Road and Pierson Street.

Four men ordered them to the ground and then took took turns sexually assaulting the woman, forcing her boyfriend to watch, WWJ reported.

Incredibly, these gang rapes barely made a blip on the news here in the United States. There are so many similar crimes taking place all around us that there is nothing really “unusual” about these horrific rapes.

#4 Under the Obama administration, our federal government has become absolutely obsessed with political correctness and is spending money in some of the most bizarre ways imaginable. For instance, the feds recently spent $125,000 “to study adjectives that could be perceived as sexist or racist“.

#5 Speaking of pouring money down the toilet, the Obamaphone program is a perfect example. It turns out that all you have to do to get a free cellphone from the federal government is to show them someone else’s food stamp card…

The 2014 CBS4 investigation showed repeated instances of fraudulent activity and waste in the Lifeline program in Denver. It’s an FCC administered program designed to provide free monthly cellphone service to the needy so they can have cellphone service allowing them to seek employment or call for emergency help if needed. Recipients are required to show official documentation like Medicaid, housing assistance or food stamp cards verifying their low income status in order to receive the free phone service.

But last year a vendor in Denver working under the FCC program had employees who volunteered to use someone else’s food stamp card to secure a free phone and service for a CBS4 producer who was not eligible for the program.

Vendors typically receive $3 for every phone they are able to give out. In other cases, vendors said a CBS4 producer could simply show someone else’s electronics benefit card in order to secure a free phone and service.

#6 Meanwhile, the government doesn’t even want to talk to normal, hard working citizens that just need a few questions answered. According to a report that was just released, the IRS hung up on 8.8 million taxpayers that called in looking for help during this most recent tax season.

#7 The federal government has made it exceedingly difficult for law-abiding people to immigrate to this nation legally, but meanwhile they have left our borders completely wide open and have actively encouraged people to immigrate illegally. As a result, large numbers of criminals, drug dealers, gang members and welfare parasites have come pouring in. According to one recent report, 2.5 million illegal immigrants have entered this country while Barack Obama has been in the White House…

A new report estimates that 2.5 million illegal immigrantshave entered the United States since Barack Obama took office in 2009.

The Center for Immigration Studies released a studyMonday citing data from the Center for Migration Studies, Pew Research Center and the Census Bureau that indicates 400,000 illegal immigrants on average have entered the country annually since 2009.

From the middle of 2013 to May 2015 alone, 790,000 illegals have come into the United States. These undocumented individuals entered the country after President Obama unveiled a controversial executive order in 2012 to stop deporting young illegal immigrants who entered the country as children.

And honestly, that 2.5 million number is probably on the low side. These illegal immigrants are committing some of the most horrible crimes imaginable, and if you doubt this, just read this article.

#8 Our society is being transformed into what I like to call “a Big Brother police state control grid”. Just a few days ago, we learned of another example of this phenomenon. The following comes from the New York Post…

A key part of President Obama’s legacy will be the fed’s unprecedented collection of sensitive data on Americans by race. The government is prying into our most personal information at the most local levels, all for the purpose of “racial and economic justice.”

Unbeknown to most Americans, Obama’s racial bean counters are furiously mining data on their health, home loans, credit cards, places of work, neighborhoods, even how their kids are disciplined in school — all to document “inequalities” between minorities and whites.

What is truly sad is that so few Americans are actually upset that virtually everything we do is being watched, tracked and monitored. For much more on all of this, please see this article.

#9 Just recently, I authored a piece which railed about the fact that the average American citizen spends more than 10 hours a day plugged in to some form of media. Many of us become extremely anxious if something is not playing at least in the background. We spend endless hours watching television, listening to the radio, going to the movies, playing video games, messing with our smartphones and surfing the Internet. Sadly, what most people don’t realize is that more than 90 percent of the “programming” that is being continually pumped into our brains through these various media outlets is controlled by just six absolutely enormous media corporations.

#10 At the same time that the elite are endlessly pumping their twisted messages into all of our minds, they are becoming increasingly obsessed with controlling what the rest of us say. In one recent article, I explained how support for “hate speech laws” in America is rapidly growing. Today, 51 percent of all Democrats support these kinds of laws, and it is only a matter of time before liberal politicians start pushing really hard for the same kind of hate speech laws that have already been implemented in Europe and Canada.

#11 On top of everything else, we have been stealing more than 100 million dollars an hour from future generations of Americans since Barack Obama entered the White House.

Let that sink in for a moment.

If someone were to write a movie script about the theft of 100 million dollars from a major financial institution, nobody would ever actually want to make that movie because such an amount would be too hard to believe.

But this has actually been happening every single hour of every single day while Obama has been in power.

In a frenzy of insatiable greed, we have been taking trillions of dollars that belong to our children and our grandchildren and spending it ourselves. When you break it down, it comes to more than 100 million dollars every single hour of every single day. This is a crime of unimaginable proportions, and if we lived in a just society a whole bunch of our “top politicians” would be going to prison for this.

I could keep going, but I will stop for today.

So what do you think?

Is there any hope for America?

What additions would you make to this list?

(endoftheamericandream.com)