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Contents contributed and discussions participated by horowitzza

horowitzza

Ahead of Election, Poll Shows a Nation Divided | US News - 0 views

  • Less than two weeks away from the presidential election, an annual survey released Tuesday shows the nation is sharply divided on nearly every topic
  • from race relations to what problems the next president should fix first, and a record percentage of people believe the country is on the wrong track – up nearly 20 percentage points since the last race for the White House.
  • a sizable number of Americans, particularly evangelical Protestants, believe the nation’s best days came during the era of Elvis, the Cold War and legal segregation.
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  • nearly half think the era of Beyonce, Islamic State group and Black Lives Matter is so bad that the country needs an authoritarian leader “who is willing to break some rules in order to set things right.”
  • “Does the future look bright? Are we going to reach back for something in the past? Or are we going to lean into the cultural and demographic changes that are happening in the country and even celebrate those changes?”
  • the winner, Jones says, will face a daunting challenge: unifying a country that’s divided on partisan lines, including political correctness and whether the election itself will be legitimate.
  • Roughly 72 percent of likely Trump voters believe the American way of life has changed for the worse since the 1950s, but 70 percent of likely Clinton voters say things have changed for the better.
  • vangelical Protestants had the most pessimistic view of any group: Nearly three-quarters of them – 74 percent – say American culture has changed for the worse since the 1950s
  • Left-right partisanship, along with class, race and education levels, divides Americans on nearly every issue:
  • Democrats overwhelmingly believe immigrants make America stronger, while Republicans clearly believe they’re detrimental to the national character;
  • a wide margin of Democrats worry about wealth and inequality, while less than a third of Republicans think it’s a concern.
  • “To the sense that there’s this vertigo among many, particularly those who are on the losing side of this change, and feeling left behind, is not so surprising, I think
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    Nation is more divided than ever
horowitzza

Mosul: The refugees who can never go home - CNN.com - 0 views

  • As part of the local Christian population, there were only two choices facing Anne, her husband Sabhan and their two children: run or die.
  • Before the US-led invasion of 2003, Iraq was home to an estimated Christian population of more than a million. Christians had already become a target for extremist groups like al Qaeda long before the emergence of ISIS, but Anne's family remained in Mosul.
  • Photos showed militants vandalizing monasteries and churches, smashing statues and replacing the cross with their black flag of terror.
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  • There are now eight Christian families living in St Mary's Church in Amman. It was one of several churches in the Jordanian capital that opened its doors to refugees who arrived paralyzed with fear, and with nothing but the clothes on their back.
  • "I will never forgive them... I pray that God punishes them for what they did to us."
horowitzza

Want to save the Republican Party? Drain the right-wing media swamp. - 0 views

  • As in the last “autopsy,” the GOP establishment will probably conclude that it needs to broaden its appeal to demographics beyond older white men;
  • what prevented this more widespread appeal in 2016 was having a boorish, sexist, race-baiting, egomaniacal, undisciplined nominee; that if only it fielded a more genteel version of Trump, someone who espoused essentially the same fiscal and social policies but with more empathy, they’d have won the White House, and will win it once again.
  • This conclusion would be wrong.
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  • It is, after all, the right-wing radio, TV and Internet fever swamps that have gotten them into this mess, that have led to massive misinformation, disinformation and cynicism among Republican voters. And draining those fever swamps is the only way to get them out of it.
  • If Republicans truly want to save the Republican Party, they need to go to war with right-wing media.
  • they need to dismantle the media machine persuading their base to believe completely bonkers, bigoted garbage.
  • The sickness in today’s Republican Party is not confined to its current standard-bearer.
  • Among just Trump voters, 7 in 10 believe government economic data are fabricated. Half don’t trust that votes will be counted accurately in the November election.
  • Republicans and Trump backers didn’t come to these conclusions independently. They learned them from the influential TV, radio and Web outfits whose imprimaturs Republican politicians desperately seek, and whose more troubling content these politicians have been reluctant to criticize.
  • Data trutherism — claims that the economy is worse than the official numbers indicate, that polls are “skewed” to favor Democrats, that hurricane forecasts are exaggerated to scare the public into fearing climate change
  • Never-ending witch hunts — against Planned Parenthood, climate scientists, Hillary Clinton — similarly galvanized supporters in the near term but increased bloodlust for punishment of political enemies in the long run.
  • And unless the party establishment grapples with its own complicity in misinforming, misleading and frightening the masses, it’s doomed to field more Donald Trumps in the future.
horowitzza

Why Palestinians can't make peace | New York Post - 0 views

  • four Arabs who accepted an invitation for the holiday of Sukkot in the nearby Israeli settlement of Efrat on Thursday: The Palestinian Authority arrested them.
  • The invite from Oded Revivi, the Israeli mayor, was intended to promote peace
  • Can’t hurt to get to know the neighbors, can it?
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  • Except that the PA insists on boycotting the settlements — it won’t accept any Israeli presence outside the 1967 borders, no matter that it’s been half a century.
  • On Sunday, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu took to Facebook to slam the arrests as “further proof of the Palestinian refusal to make peace”
  • Sadly, it’s all par for the course for the PA — whose textbooks teach hatred of all Jews, whose laws reward Israeli-killing terrorists and whose leaders have spent decades silencing (often fatally) any Palestinian who dares work with Israel’s government.
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    We recently had a debate regarding this conflict, so this is relevant to our class and it is a hot topic today
horowitzza

Analysis: Fight for Fallujah Highlights Abadi's Political Battle - NBC News - 0 views

  • The week started with word Iraqi forces were set to storm ISIS-held Fallujah.
  • The stalled assault on the historic jihadi stronghold signals an early warning that the country's security forces may be rushing headlong into a politically motivated battle for which they remain under-prepared.
  • " forces needed to ensure the safety of the estimated 40,000 civilians trapped in the city
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  • the prime minister is fighting for his political life, fending off withering attacks from all sides. Success in Fallujah could help his case.
  • Iraqis will once again suffer rolling blackouts that threaten to spark widespread anti-government protests like those that roiled the country last year.
  • "Daesh is the ultimate corruption and whoever prevents us from fighting Daesh is corrupt," he added, using a pejorative Arabic acronym for ISIS.
  • he extremist Sunni group is unlikely to give up Fallujah without a fight.
  • given the symbolic importance of the fight, both to Abadi himself and the military, Iraqi security forces will also be reluctant to give up.
  • With sky-high stakes on both sides, the battle is likely to wear on to a bloody conclusion, said Khatib.
horowitzza

Israelis and Palestinians absent from Middle East talks in Paris | World news | The Gua... - 0 views

  • Senior diplomats attending a summit in France are aiming to organise a peace conference by the end of the year to restart Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
  • Israeli and Palestinian representatives are absent, making the chances of success slim
  • French diplomats said they felt compelled to act as the opportunity to establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel was slipping away, with the situation in the region deteriorating.
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  • “We cannot substitute for the parties. Our initiative aims at giving them guarantees that the peace will be solid, sustainable and under international supervision,”
  • The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has rebuffed the French initiative, saying a deal can only be reached in direct negotiations.
  • The Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, lands Israel captured in 1967
  • Continued Israeli settlement expansion on occupied lands and several months of renewed Israeli-Palestinian violence have also undermined trust.
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    The stronger israel holds on to the land and doesn't give it up, the more respect they will recieve from the global community. My opinion.
horowitzza

Officials Say 499 Islamic Extremists Pose Threat in Germany - ABC News - 0 views

  • Authorities in Germany are monitoring almost 500 Islamic extremists they believe pose a potential security threat, officials said Friday
  • three men suspected of planning to carry out an attack in the country for the Islamic State group.
  • Almost 1.1 million people were registered as asylum-seekers in Germany last year, many
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  • All three of those arrested in Germany were living in refugee shelters, adding to concerns that IS might be sending fighters to Germany disguised as asylum-seekers
  • While Germany hasn't suffered mass-casualty attacks by Islamic extremists of the type seen in France and Belgium over recent months, authorities say the country is a target and the risk of attacks is high.
  • of them fleeing war and persecution in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
  • Federal prosecutors say the men who were arrested intended to carry out an attack in the western city of Duesseldorf though they had no concrete plans.
  • German weekly Der Spiegel reported Friday that the plot was to involve a total of 10 attackers, of whom two were to detonate suicide vests
  • Wolfgang Bosbach, a senior member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's party, warned Friday against placing all refugees under suspicion.
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    hundreds of Islamic extremists under watch in Germany... was the refugee aid a bad idea? Just a thought.
horowitzza

German MPs recognise Armenian 'genocide' amid Turkish fury - BBC News - 0 views

  • The German parliament has approved a resolution declaring that the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War One was a "genocide".
  • Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their people died in the atrocities of 1915. Turkey says the toll was much lower and rejects the term "genocide".
  • "We will do whatever is necessary to resolve this issue,"
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  • Turkey denies that there was a systematic campaign to slaughter Armenians as an ethnic group during World War One.
  • More than 20 nations, including France and Russia, as well as Pope Francis, have recognised the 1915 killings as genocide.
  • Armenia's Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said it was a "valuable contribution" to the "international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian genocide"
  • . Turkey's foreign minister even accused Berlin of trying to deflect from the dark episodes of its own history, a clear reference to Germany's Nazi past.
  • for many German politicians this vote was about exactly the opposite: it was about dealing with not just Turkey's difficult 20th century history, but also Germany's.
  • Germany accepted 1.1 million migrants last year - by far the highest influx in the EU.
  • German-Turkish relations were also strained this year by the case of comedian Jan Boehmermann, whose obscene poem about Mr Erdogan prompted a criminal complaint from the Turkish leader.
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    The Ottoman Turks genocide of 1.5 million Armenians during the empires disintegration is greatly disputed 
horowitzza

Hillary Clinton rips 'dangerously incoherent' Donald Trump - 0 views

  • Clinton argued that Trump’s policies on both foreign and domestic issues would endanger the country and said electing him would be a “historic mistake.”
  • Donald Trump’s ideas aren’t just different, they are dangerously incoherent. They’re not even really ideas — just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds and outright lies
  • , “He is not just unprepared; he is temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability and immense responsibility.”
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  • “If you really believe America is weak with our military, our values and our capabilities that no other country comes close to matching, then you don’t know America and you certainly don’t deserve to lead it,” said Clinton
  • . “We’re lucky to have two friendly neighbors on our land borders. Why would we want to make one of them an enemy?”
  • “We all know the tools Donald Trump brings to the table: bragging, mocking, composing nasty tweets,” Clinton said. “I’m willing to bet he’s writing a few right now,” she added.
  • His proposal to ban 1.5 billion Muslims from even coming to our country doesn’t just violate the religious freedom our country was founded on; it’s a huge propaganda victory for ISIS and it alienates the very countries we need to help us win in this fight,” Clinton said.
  • “Don’t let anyone tell you that America isn’t great. Donald Trump’s got America all wrong,” said Clinton. “We are a bighearted, fair-minded country. There is no challenge we can’t meet, no goal we can’t achieve when we each do our part and come together as one nation.”
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    Very scary stuff here. As Mr. Ergueta said himself, nothing like this has ever happened before in America, and it is horrifying. 
horowitzza

Russia freezes missile transfers - Israel News, Ynetnews - 0 views

  • Despite not being able to pay the Russians for complete S-300 Surface to Air Missile systems, Iran still manages to find the money to fund groups committed to Israel's destruction.
  • Moscow has already transferred three S-300 missile batteries to the Iranians, but have yet to send over the other two
  • It provides approximately half of the terror group's funding, which amounts to approximately one billion dollars a year.
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  • Despite Iranian budgetary woes, the Islamic Republic has somehow managed to find the funding to up the financial assistance it provides to its Lebanese puppet organization, Hezbollah.
  • the Iranian regime also funds the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist organization which operates out of Gaza.
  • the Iranians are supposed to give the Palestinian terror group $70 million – supposedly enough money to enable the terror group to get stronger and effectively oppose Hamas.
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    Russia and Iran working together
horowitzza

Role reversal: GOP unites behind Trump, Democrats in disarray - CNN.com - 0 views

  • Just when it seemed that the election could not get any crazier, it has. A month ago, it seemed that the Democrats were sitting pretty. Republicans were in disarray.
  • After a series of strong wins, including in New York and Pennsylvania, it looked like Hillary Clinton would finally bring her competition with Bernie Sanders to an end.
  • Sanders' attacks have intensified in recent weeks. He has raised the volume of his comments about Clinton and charged that the entire nomination process has been problematic and unfair.
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  • On the GOP side, Donald Trump has clinched the nomination by reaching the required number of 1,237 convention delegates. Republicans are uniting around him
  • The Never Trump Movement has vanished almost as quickly as it started.
  • Most ominously for Democrats, a number of recent polls are showing the gap between Clinton and Trump has been shrinking, with Trump actually taking the lead in some of them.
  • Trump's eclectic and unorthodox agenda has caused considerable consternation among many Republicans.
  • To have a bombastic television star at the head of the party ticket can make the GOP look silly, not like the party of governance.
  • If the Republicans see a winner, many are willing to line up behind whoever can bring them the White House even if they may find Trump's personality distasteful.
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    The tides have turned!
horowitzza

Obama at Hiroshima: What to watch for - CNNPolitics.com - 0 views

  • President Barack Obama will become the first sitting president to visit the city Friday, traveling there to offer a reconciliatory balm for the still-painful knowledge of the devastation countries can inflict upon one another.
  • He also hopes to remind the world that nuclear weapons remain a global threat when placed in the wrong hands.
  • Officials say Obama won't apologize for the decision to use an atomic bomb, which many historians insist was necessary to hasten the end of World War II and save lives.
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  • Such an apology would ripple to the U.S., likely igniting a political firestorm on the home front in the midst of the presidential race.
  • Obama said Thursday he hoped to mark Hiroshima as a history-altering moment -- the U.S. is the only country to have ever used a nuclear bomb -- that humanity must avoid repeating.
  • "The dropping of the atomic bomb, the ushering in of nuclear weapons, was an inflection point in modern history," Obama said during a news conference at the G-7 Summit in Japan.
  • Obama further hopes his appearance at the site will serve to reinforce his bid to reduce global stockpiles of nuclear weapons, an effort that's had only moderate strides after seven years in office.
horowitzza

Japan doesn't want the U.S. to apologize for bombing Hiroshima. Here's why - LA Times - 0 views

  • For years, the question has lingered: Should the U.S. apologize for dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima
  • No sitting U.S. president has visited the city since it was largely destroyed in an atomic blast during World War II
  • Secretary of State John Kerry may have foreshadowed what’s to come when he visited Hiroshima this month and called the experience “gut-wrenching.”
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  • Does Japan even want an apology?
  • Likely not. A secret 2009 state department cable published by Wikileaks in 2011 indicated Japan was cool to the idea and worried that it would only serve to energize anti-nuclear activists in the country.
  • the government’s official stance was that it would be more meaningful for the U.S. and Japan to “aim for a peaceful and safe world without nuclear weapons.”
  • An apology also could harden the opposition to using nuclear power in Japan, a sentiment that blossomed after the meltdown at Fukushima. The administration has made nuclear power a major part of its energy policy.
  • “Why doesn’t the Japanese government want Mr. Obama to apologize? Because it tears the scab off a much bigger wound that Japan wants healed,”
  • “If Obama apologizes at Hiroshima, it draws attention to Japanese behavior elsewhere in Asia during the ’30s and ’40s.
  • I think the American people should know that not only the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but the firebombing of Tokyo in which thousands died, were illegal acts against humanity. They were civilian massacres.”
  • A 2015 opinion poll by a Russian news agency found that 60% of the Japanese public wanted an apology for the bombing.
  • But what the Japanese government and the public want aren’t always the same.
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    Examines whether or not the US should apologize for the Hiroshima bombings
horowitzza

Jakarta attacks: ISIS considers Indonesia un-Islamic - CNN.com - 0 views

  • Three days after ISIS militants carried out a deadly terror attack in broad daylight, Indonesians poured out by the thousands onto the streets of this tropical city for an exuberant day of recreation.
  • Thursday's attack did not approach the scale of carnage caused by the 2002 al Qaeda-linked bombing on the Indonesian island of Bali, which killed more than 200 people.
  • In fact, counter terror experts here say ISIS only attracts a fringe minority of support in the world's most populous Muslim country.
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  • "We are your brothers from Indonesia who have come to join the Islamic state," says a man identified as Abu Muhammad al Indonesi. Speaking in Bahasa Indonesia, he urges fellow Muslims in Indonesia to drop familial and professional obligations to emigrate to Syria.
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    Indonesia: The Muslim country ISIS considers un-Islamic
horowitzza

Deir Ezzor: Hundreds may be dead after ISIS abductions - CNN.com - 1 views

  • Most of the city has been controlled by ISIS for well over a year, but some neighborhoods and the military airport to the south have remained in the hands of the regime
horowitzza

6 takeaways from the Democratic debate - CNNPolitics.com - 0 views

  • Bernie Sanders is mad as hell -- and he's hoping Democratic voters are, too.
  • Just like Trump, Sanders even riffed on polling when asked about his strategy to win over African-American voters, arguing that they'll like him more once he wins in Iowa and New Hampshire.
  • "We have the momentum. We're on a path to a victory."
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  • On gun control, health care, financial regulation, her "many hours in the Situation Room advising President Obama" and more, Clinton cast herself as the defender of Obama's legacy and Sanders as someone who'd toss out his accomplishments.
  • Obama remains popular with Democrats. She has a strong claim to the President's legacy having served in his Cabinet as his top foreign policy officer. And minority voters favor Obama and Clinton over Sanders.
  • She accused Sanders of calling Obama "weak" and "ineffective" when it came to perhaps Clinton's most vulnerable subject, Wall Street reform, and said he'd tried to recruit a primary challenger against Obama in 2011.
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    6 takeaways from the Democratic debate
horowitzza

Cologne Sex Attacks 'Good for Us,' Anti-Refugee Protesters Say - NBC News - 0 views

  • Turmoil triggered by a historic influx of refugees and migrants could boost populist politicians and the country's right-wing movements,
  • For the first time, a majority of Germans now doubt the country's policy on Europe's refugee crisis.
  • "These Muslim refugees started an area-wide terror attack, a terror attack on German women, on blonde, white women,"
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  • While xenophobia and prejudice against asylum seekers is not a new phenomenon, analysts say recent events have brought them to the fore.
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    NEWS  EUROPE'S BORDER CRISIS  JAN 18 2016, 2:55 AM ET Cologne Sex Attacks 'Good for Us,' Anti-Refugee Protesters Say
horowitzza

British Lawmakers Debate Banning Donald Trump From Entering United Kingdom - NBC News - 0 views

  • British lawmakers on Monday engaged in a spirited debate about whether to ban Donald Trump from the U.K. over his remarks about Muslims
  • "His words are not comical, his words are not funny. His words are poisonous," said the Labour Party's Tulip Siddiq, who argued in support of a ban.
  • More than 500,000 people signed an online petition calling for Trump to be blocked for "hate speech" after he called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States in the wake of attacks by extremists.
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  • "We oppose Mr. Trump for demonizing his opponents. ... If we ban him from the country are we not in danger of doing the same?"
  • The government has the power to deny entry to people with criminal convictions or those whose presence is considered not "conducive to the public good."
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     British Lawmakers Debate Banning Donald Trump From Entering United Kingdom
horowitzza

Morocco Arrests Belgian With 'Direct' Link to Paris Attacks: State Media - NBC News - 0 views

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    Morocco Arrests Belgian With 'Direct' Link to Paris Attacks: Stat
horowitzza

US to pay Iran $1.7 bn in debt and interest: Kerry - Yahoo News - 0 views

  • The United States is to repay Iran a $400 million debt and $1.3 billion in interest dating to the Islamic revolution, Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday.
  • "For the United States, the settlement could save us billions of dollars that could have been pursued by Iran. There was no benefit to the United States in dragging this ou
  • Iranian-US ties broke down in 1979 after revolutionaries -- angered at US support for the Iran's deposed monarch -- stormed the American embassy and took hostages
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  • “While it is a relief to see unjustly held Americans returned home to their families," Priebus said, "the Clinton-Obama nuclear agreement gives Iran too much in return for too little."
  • "Iran's recovery was fixed at a reasonable rate of interest and therefore Iran is unable to pursue a bigger tribunal award against us, preventing US taxpayers from being obligated to a larger amount of money."
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    US to pay Iran $1.7 bn in debt and interest: Kerry
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