We Are Change

Article via Zero Hedge

The U.S. economy is so big that all of the individual states are comparable to entire countries…

As Visual Capitalist’s Jeff Desjardins notes, not surprisingly – big states like California, New York, and Texas are very similar in size to other formidable economies like France, South Korea, and Canada.

Perhaps even more interesting, however, is that even small states are similar to the size of countries.

Wisconsin is about the size of Malaysia, and Louisiana is comparable to the Philippines. Even Vermont, a state with a population of 626,000 people and the smallest state economy, is approximately the size of Bahrain.

It’s pretty incredible to think about the United States this way – and it helps put the economic power of the full country in real context.

This article first appeared on ZeroHedge.com and was authored by Tyler Durden.

The post This Map Shows U.S. States Renamed For Countries With Similar GDPs appeared first on We Are Change.

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Rogue employee or hacked? On Thursday morning, McDonald’s official Twitter account criticized President Donald Trump in a bizarre tweet calling him a “disgusting excuse of a President.”

The now deleted tweet by the McDonald’s Twitter account “MCDonaldsCorp” read: “You are actually a disgusting excuse of a President, and we would love to have Barack Obama back, also you have tiny hands.”

The tweet was sent at 9:16 a.m and was deleted 30 minutes later, but not before the message was retweeted more than 600 times.

The tweet was apparently also “pinned” to the Twitter account. It’s unclear whether the account was hacked or a rogue employee began tweeting criticism at the 45th President.

.@McDonaldsCorp just tweeted this at the president and pinned it.https://t.co/kmtei73GOt pic.twitter.com/NsWE1NWDbH

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) March 16, 2017

Trump once starred in a McDonald’s commercial advertising for the fast food company in 2002.

The post McDonald’s Twitter Account Goes Rogue Criticizes President Donald Trump appeared first on We Are Change.

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The Queen has signed the Brexit Bill, giving it Royal Assent to be passed at any time that PM Theresa May wishes, creating the foundation for the imminent triggering of Article 50.

The European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill was passed by MPs and peers on Monday.

The Notification of Withdrawal Bill was passed by MPs on Monday. This Bill gives the prime minister the ability to notify Brussels of the UK’s exit from the European Union, following a two year process of exit negotiations. PM Theresa May claims she will trigger Article 50 by the end of the month, though it is unlikely to happen next week to avoid coinciding with an informal summit of EU nations. This meeting will signify the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome – this established the European Economic Community, which became the European Union of today.

Queen gives Royal Assent for Brexit bill clearing way for UK PM to formally start talks to leave European Union https://t.co/PsMsP8wdDe

— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) March 16, 2017

The bill started in the House of Commons, going through a process in which the Commons had three readings, a committee stage, and a report stage, before sending the Bill off to the House of Lords. The same process progressed, though the Lords had sent the bill back to the House of Commons over consideration of amendments, before finally being sent to the Queen for Royal Assent.

The final stage of the bill being given royal assent means that the triggering of Article 50 is now solely the responsibility of PM Theresa May. Eurosceptics have been particularly critical of leaving the EU as quickly as possible over rising developments of the EU’s wish for a transnational, unified army that would be under the complete control of Brussels.

Regardless of circumstance, this development means that Brexit is ultimately inevitable, as per the wishes of the 52% that voted leave on June 23rd 2016, unofficially dubbed the UK’s Independence Day.

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Nationalists Cheer ‘Economic War’ Against Ethnic Russian East

Article via Antiwar

Faced with mounting pressure from the ultranationalist factions in the country, the Ukrainian government today announced that it is cutting all transport connections between Ukraine and the separatist regions, including all roads and rail links.

The nationalists cheered the move as start of “economic warfare” against the ethnic Russian easterners.

This is an escalation of tensions that have been rising since January, when nationalists started blocking rail traffic from parts of the separatist Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts. Separatist groups responded by seizing a number of coal mines and factories which were owned by west Ukrainians.

President Petro Poroshenko cited the seized factories and mines, saying the blockade of the east will continue until the rebels return all the seized facilities. The Poroshenko government had long resisted the calls for a blockade, but the ultranationalists appear to have gained momentum since the seizures.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was quick to condemn the move, saying it runs counter to common sense, while others say the move was also a risk to the ongoing ceasefire, which is already struggling with limited violations on both sides.

The lack of trade with the rest of Ukraine is likely to force the easterners to even more deeply rely on their historically connections with neighboring Russia for economic survival, which further risks making the current split more permanent.

This article first appeared on Antiwar.com and was authored by Jason Ditz.

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At Least 3,500 Civilians Killed in Past Month

Article via Antiwar

Influential Sunni businessman and political figure Khamis Khanjar has issued a statement warning that the escalation of the Iraqi military’s invasion of ISIS-held western Mosul is causing a surge in civilian deaths, threatening to undermine trust in the government in the area.

Khanjar said that at least 3,500 civilians have been killed in the first month of the Iraqi offensive in western Mosul, which so far has only secured about 30% of that side of the city. The rate of civilian deaths appears to be rising precipitously.

Khanjar, who has long been lobbying both the Iraqi government and the US for increased rights for Iraq’s Sunni minority, urged the US to stop focusing exclusively on hurrying up military operations in Iraq without considering the ramifications to the civilian population.

A huge number of civilians have been killed in most of Iraq’s major “liberation” of Sunni cities like Mosul in the past, which is raising a lot of concern that the same secular tensions that were a big part of the unrest leading to ISIS’ takeover in the first place is not only unresolved, but may be worse than ever.

This article first appeared on Antiwar.com and was authored by Jason Ditz.

The post Civilian Deaths Surging In Iraq’s West Mosul Invasion appeared first on We Are Change.

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Anarchists are volunteering to fix potholes in lieu of the government, which continues to ignore infrastructure.

Article via True Activist by Brianna Acuesta

One argument in defense of government is that it’s necessary because people need tax dollars to pay for roads, which is accurate only when attention to public infrastructure is at its peak. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case, as more than half of American tax dollars go towards the defense budget, something that the Trump administration actually wants to increase exponentially.

While there are pros and cons to this move, the point is that infrastructure continues to fall by the wayside and this group of people in Portland, Oregon have just about had enough of waiting for their local officials to fix what is damaged in the city, like roads.

The group is the very epitome of an anti-government organization, but they go around fixing roads to show that you don’t have to be pro-government to care about people. The group is called “Portland Anarchist Road Care,” and they pride themselves on providing a service to their fellow citizens without involving the state and without using their tax dollars.

Credit: Portland Anarchist Road Care

On the group’s Facebook page, they have four key reasons for why they have decided to take roads into their own hands:

“Because we believe in building community solutions to the issues we face, outside of the state.
Because society portrays anarchists as only breaking windows and blocking roads.
Because when faced with anarchism as a political theory, statest often ask ‘But who will fix the roads.’
Because the city of Portland refuses to adequately repair roads in a timely manner.”

More specifically, they believe in “community-oriented direct action,” meaning they don’t waste time going through red tape and waiting for their road repair claims to be accepted and taken care of. Instead, the group formed in late February and has already patched 5 outstanding potholes in the road in response to community requests.

Credit: Portland Anarchist Road Care

They have said that further reasoning for starting this group, which is deemed a “Political Organization” on Facebook, is because the negligence in Portland is so severe after winter storms tear up the infrastructure that cyclists, cars, and people are in serious danger if these potholes were to be left untouched.

Their aim is to mobilize groups of people interested in volunteering with them in order to “patch our streets, build community, and continue to find solutions to community problems outside of the state.” It’s an ambitious goal, and one that could come to fruition if citizens like the speediness with which their potholes are being filled and are willing to further the cause.

Since the group is so new, it’s unclear what their future holds, but as they monitor their current projects to determine how long the patches last, there are more and more people in Portland becoming interested in how Portland Anarchist Road Care can help in their neighborhood.

What are your thoughts on anarchists fixing roads? Please share, like, and comment on this article!

This article (You’ll Never Guess What Unexpected Group Is Fixing Potholes In Portland) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TrueActivist.com

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The American mainstream media immediately twisted the idea of an elite pedophile ring such as “Pizzagate” as being something crazy and unheard of. As if American political leaders could never be involved in such a sick practice of child sex-trafficking despite the past limelight of cases of abuse like the Franklin Cover up and allegations against the CPS by former Senator Nancy Schaffer.

Now India is having its own exposure of a huge child sex trafficking ring that involved the U.S. equivalent to the CPS and abortion clinics.

In India, a child welfare officer, India’s equivalent to a Child Protective Services official was arrested for her role in a child-trafficking ring.

India’s State’s Criminal Investigative Department (CID) made the arrests. According to the Hindu, “The CID had unearthed the child trafficking racket during raids at homes and nursing homes in Baduria area of North 24 Parganas district, in Behala in the southern fringes of Kolkata and some other parts of south Bengal in November last year.”

Abortion clinics in the area bribed mothers to give birth to their children in exchange for money ranging between $1,400 and $4,500 USD. Other clinics lied and told the mothers their children were stillborn, when they weren’t, enabling the clinic to steal the babies and sell them on the black market. The children were “transported in bread baskets to nursing homes in the area where they would remain until they were sold into servitude, as sex slaves, or brothels,” according to authorities.

“It is a huge network of NGOs, nursing homes, doctors and middlemen dealing in illegal adoption and baby trafficking that the police have busted. Our men are now building on the huge leads they have already got in this case,” Rajesh Kumar, CID’s Additional Director General told the press. Additionally, investigators believe that foreigners may have been purchasing the children due to Currency from other countries being found at the time the children were discovered during the raid. Police also found a shocking number of corpses of infants on the property of the businesses that were raided.

Meanwhile back in the U.S. last month an international adoption agency in Cuyahoga County, Ohio was raided by FBI agents on accusations of the exact same charges bribery, and trafficking.

The agency has denied any wrong doing stating that “we do not feel the action is warranted and we are evaluating our appeal and the other options available to us.”

The State Department’s investigation found that the company and its providers overseas committed several violations, including soliciting bribes and lying to officials to affect adoption eligibility.

[RELATED: International Adoption Agency in Ohio Raided by FBI over Bribery, Trafficking Accusations]

As an old documentary “Boys For Sale” documents vigorously the sex trade of children is nothing new and adoption agencies and foster homes are frequently used to conceal the abuse for profit sale of kids to elitist.

If you think that child trafficking doesn’t go on in elite circles you are sorely mistaken it’s those who are rich and powerful that feel most above the law and feel entitled to sexually abusing children as the documentary “An Open Secret” exposed in Hollywood with the perpetrators in the film saying it was “normal.”

Then there is DC, Former speaker of the house Dennis Hastert was imprisoned for his abuse of multiple young boys and trying to bribe one man to shut up by paying his victim Hastert now wants the money back.

There is also the case of convicted Pensylvania football coach pedophile Jerry Sandusky and his son Jeffrey Sandusky both arrested for child sex abuse allegations. Jerry ran Second Mile a charity for boys that frequented high ranking government officials Second Mile is under investigation for a potential child sex ring run out of the charity.

[RELATED: Disgraced Former House Speaker Wants ‘Hush Money’ Back From Victim He Abused]

President Donald Trump condemned international and domestic human trafficking last month signing into law an executive order that would give the FBI extra powers to enforce the law against human trafficking and traffickers.

For more cases on elite child sex trafficking see our article on pedophile rings in the U.S., UK and more.

[RELATED: The Ultimate Exposure of Pedophile Rings in London, Hollywood, and More]

[RELATED:  Infamous Sex Offender Jerry Sandusky’s Son Arrested for Child Sexual Assault]

The post Indian Child Welfare Officer Arrested For Involvement In Child Trafficking Ring appeared first on We Are Change.

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Conservative radio host Michael Savage was ironically attacked by an unknown assailant just days after he released his new book “Trump’s War: His Battle for America, about violent opposition to Donald Trump.

According to WND, their current writer was eating dinner at a San Francisco Bay restaurant called “Servino Ristorante” when a guy started mocking Savage’s legal last name “Weiner” screaming, “weener, weener.”

The guy then charged up to Savage and threw him to the ground, after allegedly aggressively pushing Savage’s poodle, Teddy, out of the way.

Savage’s legal birth name is Michael Weiner.

“Savage was not seriously hurt, but the incident left him bloodied and shaken,” Lieberman said.

In a statement to Lieberman, Savage spoke about what happened at the restaurant.

“I was leaving Servino’s restaurant when a total stranger followed me out of the restaurant and confronted me. He said, ‘Are you Michael Weiner?’ I turned to him and said, ‘Go away, I don’t know who you are. I turned to leave and he pushed me and I fell down. He moved toward me to pushed me down and he shoved my 10-pound poodle out of the way to get to me. He has lied and said I pushed him. That is absurd. Both of my hands were holding onto things!,” Savage said.

Dan Horowitz, Savage’s attorney, said felony charges would be pursued against the attacker Rich Lieberman at 415 Media reported: “We’re going to seek felony charges against the man and we’re going to investigate this as a Hate Crime because of Michael’s political views,” Horowitz told Liberman.

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Deployments Expected in Coming Weeks

Article via Antiwar

Defense officials familiar with the situation say that the US will soon deploy another 1,000 ground troops into Syria, with the deployments expected to be part of the buildup ahead of the invasion of the ISIS capital city of Raqqa.

This 1,000 troops is in addition to other recent deployments to Syria announced by the Pentagon, and when completed is expected bring the number of US troops in Syria overall to close to 2,000. The official US limit of the number of troops that can be in Syria is 503, a number long since surpassed.

The exact timing of the new deployments is uncertain, but officials say it will likely be in the next few weeks. This deployment appears to be in excess to the 2,500 troops to be sent to Kuwait, which are expected to be drawn on by commanders in both Iraq and Syria to raise their respective numbers.

While these recent deployments are a lot larger than the near-weekly announcements of new deployments during the Obama era, the fact that several deployments are being announced in close succession suggests the Pentagon has continued the trend of splitting the deployment into segments to avoid announcing the overall size in one shot.

This article first appeared on Antiwar.com and was authored by Jason Ditz.

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Article via Zero Hedge

In the latest creeping takeover by Goldman Sachs of the White House, overnight the White House announced that Donald Trump will nominate another Goldman Sachs banker, James Donovan, for a key financial post as deputy Treasury secretary, the White House said on Tuesday, adding another alumnus of the Wall Street investment bank to his administration.

Donovan joins his former peers, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and chief Economic advisor, Gary Cohn, who are also former Goldman executives who occupy senior economic posts within the administration.

Donovan’s work at the bank as a managing director has included work on corporate strategy, investment banking and investment management, the White House said in a statement.  He is expected to work on the Trump administration’s domestic policy agenda at Treasury.

In a note from Capital Alpha’s Ian Katz following the announcement, the strategist writes that Donald Trump and his team are “shrugging off” concerns they’ll be accused of turning the administration into a “Goldman Sachs reunion.”

He adds that with other appointments, including Justin Muzinich, formerly of Morgan Stanley, and former BlackRock exec Craig Phillips as counselors to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury lineup now has “a distinctly financey feel”; that’s good for the finance industry as the team “speaks its language, understands its issues.”

Sadly, as history has shown, what’s “good for Wall Street” ends up being rather bad for Main Street.

Additionally, Trump also nominated David Malpass – who served as a former economist at Bear Stearns prior to its 2008 collapse and most recently served as an economic adviser to Trump’s campaign – as its nominee for Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, a key economic diplomacy post. Malpass is also a former official in the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations.

The White House also named former national security and federal law enforcement official Sigal Mandelker to the Treasury’s top sanctions post as undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. A former law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Mandelker later held a series of criminal prosecution positions at the Department of Justice and advised the Secretary of Homeland Security during the George W. Bush administration.

While the swarm of Goldman bankers at the White House is indisputable, what is perhaps more notable is that Goldman appears to no longer have as much an interest in populating central banks as the executive branch, suggesting that the key policy going forward will be, as many have suspected, not monetary but fiscal, unless of course Congress is unable to come to an agreement on any one core issue, in which case we estimate that many of the new Goldman hires will quietly depart over the next year as they realize that their agenda will be difficult to implement under Trump.

This article first appeared on ZeroHedge.com and was authored by Tyler Durden.

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POMPANO BEACH (WeAreChange) — Trump insider and prominent author Roger Stone has had a brush with death after surviving a suspicious, potentially-fatal T-bone car accident which he believes could be either a warning or a possible attempt on his life.

“This morning I was a passenger in a car to Orlando when were T-boned from the right side,” Stone said in the video released on the Stone Cold Truth Facebook page Wednesday

Car I was in T-boned by large grey 4 door – dark tinted windshield – I was passenger side

— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) March 15, 2017

“I was in the right passenger seat and the car coming from the right hit directly where I was sitting.”

Stone said the vehicle was a late model 4-door sedan gray matte Ford with a “deeply tinted” windshield, which made it impossible to see how many people were inside and who they were.

The vehicle allegedly backed up and went “peeling away” according to Stone. He said he suffered minor injuries, including blurred vision to his right eye.

I am fine after suspicious hit and run. Blurred vision in right eye on which I had surgery for detached retina sustained in boxing match

— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) March 15, 2017

A woman who witnessed the incident took down the tag number of the vehicle, which was then given to the Broward Sheriff’s Office who ran the license plate snd determined that it was fake.

The Sheriff’s Office confirmed there was a hit-and-run accident at the time and location described by Stone which was at 10:45 am in Pompano Beach at NW 7th Avenue and 1st Street, according to the incident report obtained by CBS4 News.

The report states that a deputy was not dispatched to the accident until 11:56 a.m. – more than 70 minutes after the crash. The deputy arrived on the scene at 11:59 a.m.

The report makes no mention of Stone being a passenger in the vehicle, however according to CBS Miami, Stone left the scene when it became clear that a deputy was not being dispatched right away. He apparently waited for half an hour before calling a Uber to take him home while his aide – the driver – stayed behind to await the arrival of the deputy.

Stone was able to back up this claim by showing a copy of his Uber receipt to CBS reporters. Witnesses also state Stone was seen at the site of the crash and the driver confirmed Stone was a passenger but due to being in shock, doesn’t recall mentioning it to the deputy at the time.

As of this writing, no one has been arrested, and a criminal inquiry may or may not be conducted.

This is not the first time Stone has experience a potential attempt on his life as in January, he claimed to have been nearly assassinated with Polonium-210.

Roger Stone should release the police report or medical records to prove his claims.

The incident comes as Senator John McCain calls for Stone to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee regarding his alleged collusion with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential election.

“I just wanna testify” @SenJohnMcCain wants me called to testify b4 the Senate.
Be careful what you wish for https://t.co/0s2t5P165F pic.twitter.com/48YhLjtZqN

— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) March 14, 2017

Stone released a video on Instagram mocking Mccain yesterday dressed as late suspected murdered journalist Hunter S. Thompson stating “that he would be compelled to testify in front of the U.S. Senate.”

“Hi I’m Roger Stone. Sen. John McCain says I should  be compelled to testify in front of the U.S. Senate about quote, ‘my ties to Russians or Yanukovych.’ I assume he means former Ukrainian President Yanukovych. He is acting more like Sen. Joe McCarthy than Sen. John McCain. Because I have ties to neither Russians or the Russian state or Viktor Yanukovych in any way. I’m anxious to have these hearings. I’m ready to be sworn and I insist that the hearings be held in public. See you there, Johnny Mac,” Stone said.

Thomspon died of a gunshot wound to the head in suspicious circumstances.

Shortly before Thompson’s death, he told his Canadian friend that he feared he would be “suicided” just as Michael Hastings told his friend while in the middle of an investigation before his untimely demise. Similarly, journalist Danny Cassolaro, who was murdered for his investigation into what he called the “shadow government octopus,” warned his brother that he might be murdered. He was later found in his bathtub in a pool of blood with both of his wrist slit ten times.

[RELATED: WikiLeaks Latest Release Gives Weight to Michael Hastings Assassination Theories]

More recently, there was the murder of Serena Shim, a journalist who exposed ISIS trade in United Nations NGO trucks in Turkey. Shim was suspiciously killed in a car accident with a cement truck driving on the wrong side of the road.

[RELATED: The Murder You Never Heard Of Serena Shim]

The strange deaths of journalists and insiders continues, and if you Google “suspicious deaths of journalists,” you’ll open a whole pandora’s box.

Like Thomspon, Hastings, Cassolaro, Shim and many others, Stone is touching on some serious hard-hitting subjects and when people are connected as well as he is, it’s hard to just write-off a journalist as committing suicide. It has happened to too many people and therefore, it is no longer a believable narrative.

Stone has previously written books on both the corruption of the Bushes and the Clintons calling them a “mafia crime family.”

If this was an assassination attempt, it’s a dumb move by whoever might want Stone dead by trying to make a potential second attempt on his life.

Aaron Kesel and Aaron Nelson contributed to this report.

The post Assassination Attempt? Trump Insider Roger Stone Survives Car Accident appeared first on We Are Change.

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Article via The Anti-Media by Josie Wales

Polish authorities announced Monday that they will seek the arrest and extradition of Michael Karkoc, a 98-year-old U.S. citizen allegedly exposed as a former Nazi commander of an SS-led unit responsible for burning Polish villages in WWII and executing any civilians caught trying to escape.

An investigation by the Associated Press in 2013 revealed that Karkoc failed to disclose his role as a commander for the SS to American immigration officials. According to the report:

“Michael Karkoc, 94, told US authorities in 1949 that he had performed no military service during the war, concealing his work as an officer and founding member of the SS-led Ukrainian Self Defence Legion and later as an officer in the SS Galician Division, according to records obtained by AP through a Freedom of Information Act request.”

Polish prosecutor Robert Janicki issued a statement confirming that the man under investigation is “100%” the Nazi commander. “All the pieces of evidence interwoven together allow us to say the person who lives in the U.S. is Michael K., who commanded the Ukrainian Self Defense Legion which carried out the pacification of Polish villages in the Lublin region,” Janicki said.

Germany decided to drop their investigation, deeming the man unfit for trial when they received medical documentation from doctors who treated Karkoc at a geriatric hospital in the U.S.

However, Efraim Zuroff claims this is a tactic war criminals often use to avoid trial. As Zuroff, the head Nazi hunter for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told reporters, “It is a very common occurrence that elderly individuals facing prosecution for World War II crimes make every effort to look as sick and as infirm as possible.” It seems Poland has no such plans to let Karkoc escape trial, as Janicki made a point to mention that the man’s age would not prevent them from seeking justice.

Karkoc’s family adamantly denies all allegations. His son, Andriy, says the accusations are “evil, fabricated, intolerable and malicious.”

“There’s nothing in the historical record that indicates my father had any role whatsoever in any type of war crime activity,” he claims.

The AP would beg to differ. As Lauren Easton, director of the publication’s media relations, said on Monday, “The Associated Press stands by its stories, which were well-documented and thoroughly reported.” She included testimony from other members of the unit, wartime documents, and Karkoc’s own memoir, which is written in Ukrainian.

Prosecutors have asked a court in Lublin to issue an arrest warrant for Karkoc so he can be extradited to Poland, where he would be tried for the murder of citizens in the Polish villages of Chlaniow and Wladyslawin. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Creative Commons / Anti-Media / Report a typo

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*UPDATE* (Results From https://lfverkiezingen.appspot.com/nos/widget/main.html )

The numbers above each of the different colored bars represent the number of seats won.

As many as 13 million people are expected to vote in this year’s Dutch election, an election that has been in the international spotlight as its outcome may portend the future of Europe.

The Dutch populist and nationalist leader of the Party for Freedom, Geert Wilders, is running against the incumbent prime minister Mark Rutte.

Wilders is well-known for his anti-Islamic immigration stance and his intention to close mosques and ban the Quran. He has also been an outspoken proponent of leaving the European Union.

Anti-Islam Stance

Wilders has been under constant media fire for pointing out the potentially dangerous ideological dissimilarities between Muslim migrants and Netherlands native residents.

Likewise, Wilders has highlighted the fact that most of the “refugees,” especially those coming from Turkey, had to cross six or seven safe countries before arriving in the Netherlands. Wilders attributes this to the allure of the Dutch government’s excellent social welfare benefits.

Wilders also raised the question as to why the wealthy, neighboring, Arabic speaking nations, such as Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia nearby to Turkey and Syria have not been willing to accept “refugees” who not only practice the same religion as they do, but also who’s countries have quite similar climates.

Part of the reason why the Netherlands has been so helpless in stopping the influx of migrants is because they abandoned the ability to control their own borders as a result of enforcing the Schengen agreement.

The Schengen Agreement, named after the village in Luxembourg where it was created by several EU member states, permits foreign visitors from a total of 26 states to travel throughout the region using only one visa.

Succession

Maintaining National Sovereignty has been the basis of Wilders’ entire political campaign which has naturally translated into him fighting for the Netherlands to leave the EU and in effect, the Euro, to go back to an independent and sovereign Dutch currency.

Wilders is not alone in his propensity for Nationalism, as we saw similar movement in the UK with Nigel Farage and Brexit and again the same is happening in France right now with Marine Le Pen, who continues to advocate a “Frexit” or French exit from the European Union with the French election just over a month away.

Stay tuned to We Are Change, as we cover this huge domino in the potential collapse of the European Union.

The post Dutch Candidate Geert Wilders May Pave The Way To Another EU Succession appeared first on We Are Change.

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The new darling of the Democratic Party, Senator John McCain, has accused Senator Rand Paul of “working for Vladimir Putin” after the Kentucky politician blocked consideration of a treaty to allow Montenegro into the United Nations.

“If there’s objection, you are achieving the objectives of Vladimir Putin,” McCain said when he attempted to call the treaty into consideration. “If they object, they are now carrying out the desires and ambitions of Vladimir Putin, and I do not say that lightly.”

Paul appeared, stating “I object,” then hurrying out of the room without providing any further commentary.

“That is really remarkable that a senator, blocking a treaty that is supported by the overwhelming number, perhaps 98 at least of his colleagues, would come to the floor and object, and walk away,” McCain said. “The only conclusion you can draw when he walks away is he has no argument to be made,” he said.

McCain then resorted to the same tactic that he and his pals in the Democratic Party have been using against anyone who challenges them — declaring that the senator is working for Putin.

“The senator from Kentucky is now working for Vladimir Putin,” McCain said.

Doug Stafford, Paul’s chief strategist, has responded to the allegation by tweeting out “see you in court” — in Russian.

@nielslesniewski ?? ??????? ? ????

— Doug Stafford (@dougstafford) March 15, 2017

The statement was a clear violation of Rule 19, the same rule that was used to infamously shut down Senator Elizabeth Warren — causing her to be censured.

The rule clearly states that senators may not “directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator.”

In a statement provided to We Are Change, Paul asserted that, “currently, the United States has troops in dozens of countries and is actively fighting in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Yemen (with the occasional drone strike in Pakistan).”

“In addition, the United States is pledged to defend 28 countries in NATO. It is unwise to expand the monetary and military obligations of the United States given the burden of our $20 trillion debt,” Paul’s statement concluded.

The post Rand Paul Staff Responds to John McCain — In Russian appeared first on We Are Change.

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After Hugo Chavez took power in Venezuela in 1999, a country once considered rich which people flocked to in great numbers, now has 2 million people leaving the country due to poverty, lack of opportunity and crippling hyper-inflation.

But there’s a catch for those trying to escape Venezuela, as there usually is in heavily centralized socialist countries. Most people are unable to leave.

There have been an estimated 1.8 to 3 million passport requests to the government in the past year. Out of this figure, only 300,000 have been granted the right to do so.
On a daily basis, hundreds of people line up outside passport offices to gain such a right according to Sonia Schott, a former Washington DC correspondent for the Venezuelan news network Globovision.  This is horrifying, considering it should be an inherent right as a natural freedom of movement.

Now, corrupt Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro recently opened up an option to the public to rush passports in 72 hours for double the price of waiting in line, but the website has been repeatedly crashing and it appears few passports have actually been granted through this avenue. Not to mention that due to the historic and alarming hyperinflation which has been leading people to drink out of gutters, break into zoos to eat the animals, wait in bread lines and get government numbers for food portions, it’s not practical to pay even more for a passport. You can only weigh so many stacks of so-called “money” and people need to eat, even if they can only eat tiny scraps of food after waiting hours if not more than a day in a line for such an “honor.”

Not only are people unable to afford food, but the government is reportedly unable to afford the paper to print the passports on!

But there may be more to this story. Many believe that it’s more than just the government not being able to afford the paper, but that the government is actually trying to stop people from leaving.

More than ever, people are attempting to flee Venezuela, the former socialist utopia, and for good reason! Government manipulation, centralization and monopolization has left bereaucrats living in palaces while children sip dirty water out of gutters.

According to Cynthia Arnson, the director of the Latin American Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center,
“People with the means to get out want to, but the problem is you need a passport and you can’t get it,”…“It’s kind of an excuse by the Venezuelan government that they don’t have materials, because they know the real reason people want a passport is to leave the country.”

This is what socialism eventually leads to. How many times does history need to repeat itself before people realize the dangers of massive governments controlling every little aspect of life until monopolies become enormous and fiat currency crashes into the ground leaving the populace in chains of debt and servitude?

Socialist empires historically either turn into giant communist dictatorships or fall at the hand of the individual and rebuild themselves as voluntary free market, individualist societies free from the iron fist of collectivism.

Of course, people need to be educated before a free society is possible. People just need to be propagandized with glossy ideals, free of logic, but completely based in emotion to fall for socialist idealism.

In my opinion, I expect bread and circuses as Venezuela burns. Distraction mechanisms to keep people cheering like what people long ago saw as Rome burned.

Nero would be proud.

Don’t forget to check out Luke Rudkowski and Jeff Berwick’s incredible report from Venezuela breaking down the crippling hyperinflation:

The post Has Venezuela Become The World’s Largest Prison? – Starving Citizens Unable To Leave The Country appeared first on We Are Change.