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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
6/19/2017 10:57:18 AM

Modern family: More courts allowing 3 parents of 1 child






The Associated Press
In this June 8, 2017 photo, Madison Bonner-Bianchi, center, poses for photos with her parents Mark Shumway, from left, Kimberli Bonner and Victoria Bianchi in Oakland, Calif. American courts have for decades granted some rights to grandparents, stepparents and others in children's lives, but parents have uniquely broad rights and responsibilities. Advocates say acknowledging a third parent reflects the realities of some families. Among them: a man seeking to remain in a paternal role after DNA shows someone else fathered the child he's raising; a terminally ill single mom joining forces with a couple to provide surviving parents for her child. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Sixteen-year-old Madison's family clustered for a photo in a California courtroom, commemorating the day it finally became official that she has three parents.

The adults she calls Mom, Dad and Mama were all there for her birth, after the women decided to have a child together and approached a male friend. They shared time with Madison and input on raising her. Their Christmas Day traditions involve all of them.

But legally, Victoria Bianchi became her daughter's parent only this fall, joining a small but growing number of Americans who have persuaded courts and legislatures to give legal recognition to what's sometimes called "tri-parenting."

"I just felt like I've been holding my breath for the last 16 years," Bianchi said. "She's already been my daughter ... she's finally, legally mine."

Bianchi made use of a 2013 California law declaring that a child can have more than two parents. A similar law took effect in Maine last year. Courts in at least 10 other states , including New York just this winter, have designated third parents in recent years, even as some courts and experts have raised qualms that more parents means more potential conflict.

American courts have for decades granted some rights to grandparents, stepparents and others in children's lives, but parents have uniquely broad rights and responsibilities.

Advocates say acknowledging a third parent — whether on a birth certificate, by adoption, or in a custody or child support ruling — reflects the modern realities of some families: gay couples who set out to have a child with a friend of the opposite gender, men seeking to retain paternal roles after DNA shows someone else is a biological father, and other situations.

The landscape is only getting more complex. For instance, new techniques designed to avoid some rare diseases now allow for a child to be born with a small amount of DNA from a third person.

Without legal rights, some parents and kids face being cut off from each other, says Cathy Sakimura, of the San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights, which helped draft California's law.

But some courts have rejected extending the bounds of parenthood. A 2014 Wyoming Supreme Court decision wondered about parents multiplying as a mom or dad had new relationships.

While there's little if any research directly on tri-parenting, experts are divided on how it may affect children.

Anita Jones Thomas, a University of Indianapolis professor who heads the American Psychological Association's child-and-family section , sees potential pluses. "That extra sense of social support has really been found to be beneficial for children," she says.

But W. Bradford Wilcox, a
University of Virginia sociologist, points to research — not on tri-parenting specifically — showing that children in stable, two-parent families do better on average educationally, emotionally and otherwise than kids who aren't.

"This is going to be a family form where children are exposed to more complexity and more instability," he says.

When a quip about having a baby together turned into a serious discussion, Kitty Stillufsen, her longtime friend Darren Greenblatt and his now-husband, Sam Hunt, didn't foresee how complex tri-parenting would get.

The girl was born in 2009, with Greenblatt's and Stillufsen's genes and Hunt's last name. They spent part of the infant's early months together in Stillufsen's
New Jersey home. Later, the Manhattan-based men rented a house in Stillufsen's seaside hometown in summers, her busy season managing her family's restaurant. She and the pre-schooler spent winters in Costa Rica.

"We're a family. We're the real thing," Stillufsen told Marie Claire magazine in 2011.

By 2013, Stillufsen was planning to marry a boyfriend in California and enroll the girl in school there. The men objected and sued for custody.

Finding that Hunt was a "psychological parent," a New Jersey judge awarded custody in 2015 to all three adults and nixed Stillufsen's planned move. All now live in New Jersey.

Hunt wasn't declared a legal parent, however. The judge said lawmakers needed to decide whether to give tri-parenting such recognition, a social policy choice likely to have "far-reaching implications."

Regardless, Hunt, a teacher, says the ruling gave him "a sense of security and peace" after "the pain of having to defend that relationship and prove that relationship."

But to Stillufsen, tri-parenting has turned into a two-against-one fight.

The judge found she and Greenblatt were fit parents. "Why do we need a third?" she asks. And she wonders where will courts now draw the line on who's a parent in other families.

"At what point does it end?" says Stillufsen, now a teacher in training. "How many parents can a child possibly have?"

She now thinks tri-parenting is "logically dangerous territory" that risks creating turmoil around kids. Greenblatt and Hunt still believe it can work, with detailed planning.

"We were naive," says Greenblatt, a fashion entrepreneur and bakery co-founder. "Our example should be a cautionary tale."

"But then again, we have this beautiful, smart, funny, amazing kid," he says.

Tri-parenting hasn't been uncomplicated for Victoria Bianchi, former partner Kimberli Bonner and friend Mark Shumway. When Bonner gave birth to Madison in 2000, the law allowed for only two legal parents, so Bianchi couldn't adopt unless one of the others gave up parental status. Shumway knew it was important to Bianchi. But "I could not do that, sign away the rights to my daughter," he says.

Bianchi was heartbroken and stung by the limitations of not being a legal mom. The insurance estimator cried after trying to register the girl for kindergarten and being told: "Oh, you're not a parent?"

Still, the three adults collaborated: "Madison was the most important thing to all of us, so we just wanted, whatever the differences, to work through it," says Bonner, a tech company claims adjuster. Shumway, a real estate agent, appreciates their three-parent family so much he hopes to form another with his husband and a woman.

Madison Bonner-Bianchi says her relationship with her parents resembles anyone else's — "I just happen to have three of them."

Now 17 and busy with school, sports and friends, she allows it sometimes takes effort to round up opinions from three parents.

"But the big picture is: You just have more people there to support you and be there for you and love you no matter what," she says. "Honestly, I look up to all of them."

And so, one October day, she and her family assembled in a Bay Area court for Bianchi to adopt her as a third parent.

"Do you understand what this means?" Bianchi recalls the judge asking.

Without any doubt, she said yes.

———
Associated Press writer David Crary contributed to this report.


(abcNEWS)


"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?
6/19/2017 11:44:11 AM

Saudi-Turkish relations deteriorate over Qatar
Mon Jun 19, 2017 7:42AM

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) shakes hands with Saudi King Salman in the presidential palace in Ankara, April 12, 2016. (Photo by Xinhua)

Relations between Saudi Arabia and Turkey have begun to deteriorate over the Qatar rift, with Riyadh leading a blockade on the Persian Gulf emirate and Ankara sending troops to the small country.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates severed ties with Qatar on June 5, officially accusing Doha of supporting terrorism and destabilizing the region -- charges which Qatar strongly denies.
Turkey had initially stayed neutral in the dispute but soon became more assertive in its support of Doha. On June 7, Turkey's parliament approved the deployment of troops to a Turkish military base in Qatar.

Saudi Arabia is also unnerved by Qatar’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood movement, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdgoan has promoted for long.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu arrived in Saudi Arabia on Friday in an attempt to defuse the growing diplomatic crisis in the Persian Gulf region, but the visit further exposed their gaping gap.
A handout picture provided by the Saudi Royal Palace on June 16, 2017, shows Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (R) meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in the holy city of Mecca. (Photo by AFP)
As Cavusoglu held a meeting with King Salman in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi authorities detained reporters for Turkey's state-run English language channel TRT World who were covering the visit.

The Hurriyet daily said correspondent Hasan Abdullah and cameraman Nihat Yayman were released after being held for some 10 hours after Cavusoglu personally intervened with the Saudi king.

Abdullah said in a statement the pair "were detained from our hotel by Saudi police in Mecca after a live analysis" on the crisis with Qatar.

"The ordeal lasted nearly 10 hours during which we faced multiple interrogations and lock-up," he added.

Read more:
Turkish FM arrives in Saudi Arabia to end Persian Gulf states-Qatar row

On Saturday, Saudi Arabia said a Turkish military base would not be welcome on the kingdom's soil after Ankara offered to build such a facility.

“Saudi Arabia cannot allow Turkey to establish military bases on its territories,” said a statement released by the official Saudi Press Agency. The statement added that Saudi Arabia “does not need such thing.”

The announcement was made in response to remarks made by Erdogan, who said he had offered to build a base in Saudi Arabia “with the same idea” as Turkey’s military base in Qatar. Erdogan said King Salman agreed to consider the offer.

Read more:
Riyadh: Turkish military base not welcome on Saudi soil

Tour guides Khalid Abdullah and Edris Ismail said Sunday some Saudis were canceling planned visits to Turkey for the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holiday, which begins next week. Last year, about 250,000 Saudis visited Turkey.

An Arabic hashtag on Twitter has also appeared urging Saudis to sever relations with Ankara.

Turkey, Qatar hold joint military drills

Amid the escalating tensions, the Qatari Defense Ministry said the first group of Turkish soldiers had arrived in Doha to take part in joint military drills. The troops conducted their first training at Tariq bin Ziyad military base on Sunday, it said.

According to observers, the recent fallout in relations came in the wake of Qatar's apparent break with past policies and its leaning toward Russia and Iran -- similar to Turkey's turnabout on the Syria crisis.

The worsening of relations between Turkey and Saudi Arabia deals a serious blow to their efforts to forge a new alliance following King Salman's visit to Ankara in April, which came in response to Erdogan's visit to Riyadh last December.

At the time, the visit was hailed a landmark event by the two countries, on an exceptionally grand scale during which the king’s delegation took over an entire high-rise hotel and a fleet of 500 Mercedes at its disposal.

From the Saudi angle, these exchanges of trips appeared directed towards creating a NATO-like military alliance of friendly countries.

However, the recent escalation consigned "Arab NATO" into a stillborn child given the state of Turkish-Egyptian relations, which have been at a very low ebb since a military coup in Egypt overthrew President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.


(PRESS TV)

"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?
6/19/2017 2:50:26 PM

WND EXCLUSIVE

NOW U.S. GOVERNMENT THREATENS TO TAKE ALL YOUR CASH

New Senate bill empowers feds to seize everything you own


Published: 17 hours ago



WASHINGTON – In the name of fighting terrorism financing, a new U.S. Senate bill threatens to force private corporations to monitor your financial activity and empowers government to seize all your assets if you fail to comply with the new law.

Even failure to fill out one form is license for the federal government to take everything you have.

Sponsored by Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Senate Bill 1241, “Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Counterfeiting Act of 2017,” was introduced last month and represents what some financial experts say is a new assault on cash and digital currencies.

Proponents say it’s needed to fight criminal and terrorist money laundering efforts, yet the banking institutions that will be given orders to look for evidence are themselves the primary architects of the schemes that make this activity profitable on a massive scale.

“If the bill becomes law, Americans would be subject to a whole host of government intrusions. One little slip-up would open a Pandora’s box of governmental inquiry into your financial life,” says Peter Reagan, a financial-market strategist at Birch Gold Group. “For example, failing to complete a single reporting form would result in the government being granted abilities to freeze and seize not just a portion, but the entirety, of your assets. The bill even goes so far as to include the contents of safety-deposit boxes.”

As the bill stands today, precious-metals holdings are not covered under the required declarations. Most other ‘monetary instruments’ would be locked down tight.

“The war on cash and financial autonomy has been underway for some time,” says Reagan. “But this bill would solidify a serious loss of freedom we’ve been fearing for years.”

Because fighting “terrorism” is one of the purposes of the legislation, it allows any business with government ties to act as a de facto arm of the Department of Homeland Security to take your monetary assets, including Bitcoin and so-called “crypto-currencies.”

Claire Bernish, an independent investigative reporter, says the bill would impose “autocratic financial controls in an attempt to ensure none of your assets can escape one of the state’s most nefarious, despised powers: civil forfeiture.”

“Civil forfeiture grants the government robbery writ large: your cash, property, and assets can be stolen completely sans due process, your guilt – frequently pertaining to drug ‘crimes’ – matters not,” Bernish says. “A court verdict of not guilty doesn’t even guarantee the return of state-thefted property.”

She says the bill also severely curtails the right to travel freely with more than $10,000 in cash. To do so, a citizen will need to file a report with the U.S. government. Other assets that would be at risk for violations of the law include bank accounts, prepaid cards, gift cars, prepaid phones and prepaid coupons. Violators face prison terms of 10 years.

“And if that weren’t enough, this bill also gives them with new authority to engage in surveillance and wiretapping (including phone, email, etc.) if they have even a hint of suspicion that you might be transporting excess ‘monetary instruments,'” reports Simon Black of SovereignMan.com. “Usually wiretapping authority is reserved for major crimes like kidnapping, human trafficking, felony fraud, etc. Now we can add cash to that list.”


Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2017/06/hide-your-cash-the-governments-after-it/#craxS7WwXH5tf1fk.99

"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?
6/19/2017 5:01:42 PM

Iran launches strikes against ISIS in Syria in response to Tehran attacks




ISIS rams up calls for attacks during holy month of Ramadan


Iran's Revolutionary Guard said Sunday it launched missiles into eastern Syria targeting Islamic State (ISIS) militants in response to an attack on Iran's parliament and a shrine in Tehran, warning that it would similarly retaliate on anyone else carrying out attacks in Iran.

The launch of surface-to-surface medium range missiles into Syria's Deir el-Zour province comes as ISIS militants fleeing a U.S.-led coalition onslaught increasingly try to fortify their positions there.

Activists in Syria said they had no immediate information on damage or casualties from the strikes, launched from Iran's Kurdistan and Kermanshah provinces. Social media was awash in shaky mobile phone footage from those areas, allegedly showing the missiles rise in an orange glow before heading toward their targets.

Sunday's assault marked an extremely rare direct attack from the Islamic Republic amid its support for embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad. Iran's Revolutionary Guard, a hard-line paramilitary force, has seen advisers and fighters killed in the conflict.

A Guard statement carried on its website said many "terrorists" were killed and their weapons had been destroyed in the strike.

The Guard warned ISIS militants and their "regional and international supporters" that similar retaliatory attacks would target them as well if another assault in Iran occurs.

Activists in Syria did not immediately have information about the Iranian-claimed strikes. Deir el-Zour is home to both ISIS militants and civilians.

Five ISIS-linked attackers stormed Iran's parliament and a shrine to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on June 7, killing at least 17 people and wounding more than 50.

That attack marked the first to hit Iran, shocking its residents who believed the chaos engulfing the rest of the Middle East would not find them in the Shiite-majority nation.

Iran has described the attackers as being "long affiliated with the Wahhabi," an ultraconservative form of Sunni Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia. However, it stopped short of directly blaming the kingdom for the attack, though many in the country expressed suspicion Iran's regional rival had a hand in the attack.

The attack also came as emboldened Sunni Arab states -- backed by U.S. President Donald Trump -- are hardening their stance against Iran.

(foxnews.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?
6/19/2017 5:21:29 PM

Iran calls missile attack on Syria militants a wider warning

NASSER KARIMI and JON GAMBRELL

FILE - In this Sunday, Sept. 25, 2016, file photo a Ghadr-F missile is displayed next to a portrait of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at a Revolutionary Guard hardware exhibition marking the 36th anniversary of outset of Iran-Iraq war, at Baharestan Sq. in downtown Tehran, Iran. Iran's Revolutionary Guard is warning Islamic State militants that missile attacks launched into eastern Syria the previous day can be repeated if the extremists take action against Iran's security. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's ballistic missile strike targeting the Islamic State group in Syria served both as revenge for attacks on Tehran earlier this month and a warning that Iran could strike Saudi Arabia and U.S. interests in the Mideast, an Iranian general said Monday.

The launch, which hit Syria's eastern city of Deir el-Zour on Sunday night, appeared to be Iran's first missile attack abroad in over 15 years and its first in the Syrian conflict amid its support of embattled President Bashar Assad.

It adds new tensions in a region already unsettled by a long-running feud between Shiite power Iran and the Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as well as a campaign by Arab nations against Qatar.

It also raises questions about how U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, which already said it put Iran "on notice" for its ballistic missile tests, will respond.

Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary force in charge of the country's missile program, said it launched six Zolfaghar ballistic missiles from the western provinces of Kermanshah and Kurdistan. State television footage showed the missiles on truck missile launchers in the daylight before being launched at night.

The missiles flew over Iraq before striking what the Guard called an Islamic State command center and suicide car bomb operation in Deir el-Zour, over 600 kilometers (370 miles) away. The extremists have been trying to fortify their positions in the Syrian city in the face of a U.S.-led coalition onslaught on Raqqa, the group's de facto capital.

Activists in Syria said they had no immediate information on damage or casualties from the strikes, nor did the Islamic State group immediately acknowledge it. The Guard released black-and-white footage it said came from a drone showing the strikes, a column of thick black smoke rising into the sky after the attack.

The Guard described the missile strike as revenge for attacks on Tehran earlier this month. Five Islamic State-linked attackers stormed Iran's parliament and a shrine to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on June 7, killing at least 18 people and wounding more than 50. That Islamic State assault, the first to hit Iran, shook residents who believed the chaos engulfing the rest of the Middle East would not find them.

But the missiles sent a message to more than just the extremists in Iraq and Syria, Gen. Ramazan Sharif of the Guard told state television in a telephone interview.

"The Saudis and Americans are especially receivers of this message," he said. "Obviously and clearly, some reactionary countries of the region, especially Saudi Arabia, had announced that they are trying to bring insecurity into Iran."

The Zolfaghar missile, unveiled in September 2016, was described at the time as carrying a cluster warhead and being able to strike as far as 700 kilometers (435 miles) away.

That puts the missile in range of the forward headquarters of the U.S. military's Central Command in Qatar, American bases in the United Arab Emirates and the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain.

The missile also could strike Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. While Iran has other ballistic missiles it says can reach longer distances, Sunday night's launch appears to mark the longest strike it has launched abroad. Iran's last foreign missile strike is believed to have been carried out in April 2001, targeting an Iranian exile group in Iraq.

Iran has described the Tehran attackers as being "long affiliated with the Wahhabi," an ultraconservative form of Sunni Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia. However, it stopped short of directly blaming the kingdom for the attack, though many in the country have expressed suspicion that Iran's regional rival had a hand in the assault.

Emboldened Sunni Arab states backed by Trump have hardened their stance against Iran. Since Trump took office, his administration has put new economic sanctions on those allegedly involved with the program. However, the test launches haven't affect Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Sunday's launch also carried religious undertones.

The Guard, which answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called the launch "Operation Laylat al-Qadar," referring to the night Muslims believe the Quran was first revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. That's believed to fall in the last 10 days of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, now underway. The name of the missile, Zolfaghar, is also the name of the sword used by Imam Ali, a cousin of the Prophet Muhammad and his successor, according to Shiite belief.

Israel also remains concerned about Iran's missile launches and has deployed a multilayered missile-defense system over fears of potential Iranian attacks. When Iran unveiled the Zolfaghar in 2016, it bore a banner printed with a 2013 anti-Israeli quote by Khamenei saying that Iran will annihilate the cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa should Israel attack Iran.

Israeli security officials said Monday they were studying the missile strike to see what they could learn about its accuracy and capabilities. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

___

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Zeina Karam in Beirut and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

(Yahoo News)

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

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