Fly Jamaica flight to Toronto crash lands at airport in Guyana, 6 Injured celeste.li 2018-11-092 views A Fly Jamaica Boeing 757 airliner heading for Toronto made an emergency landing at the Georgetown, Guyana international airport early Friday (November 09) after the pilot reported problems with the plane's hydraulic system. Six passengers were injured.
The pilot of Fly Jamaica flight OJ256, which was carrying 120 passengers and eight crew, requested permission to return to Cheddi Jagan International Airport soon after takeoff, Guyanese officials said at a news conference.
The plane overshot a recently extended runway at Georgetown, Guyana's Cheddi Jagan airport when it landed, officials said.
Images posted on the airport's Facebook page showed a damaged Fly Jamaica Airways jet resting in a bed of sand off the runway. In one photo, the aircraft's landing gear was upturned into a mangled wing
Six passengers suffered nonlife-threatening injuries, officials said.
The flight data recorder and black box had been recovered and were given to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board for review, Guyanese officials said.
The NTSB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Guyana Civil Aviation Authority is also investigating, with assistance from Fly Jamaica, officials said. Boeing Co is looking into the incident, a spokesman said.
The U.S.-based plane manufacturer decided in late 2003 to end production of the 757. It delivered the last model of the aircraft to Shanghai Airlines in 2005, capping a 23-year production run for a mainstay of trans-Atlantic routes and cross-continental U.S. flights.
The jet involved in the incident is just over 19 years old, according to Airfleets.net, and has been flown by Fly Jamaica since 2013. It was previously used by seven airlines including American Trans Air.
In 2011 a packed Caribbean Airlines jet skidded off the runway at the Guyana airport as it landed and then broke in two at the edge of a ravine, injuring several passengers. There was no extended runway at that time.
Georgetown is the capital of Guyana, a country of some 778,000 on the northeastern corner of South America between Venezuela, Suriname, and Brazil.
Last week, an Indonesian airliner crashed into the sea soon after taking off from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.
Victims of synagogue shooting remembered in Pittsburgh park celeste.li 2018-11-0912 views A Rally for Peace was held at Point State Park on Friday (11/9) to honor the 11 people killed in a shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue. The event started with a moment of silence that included a reading of each victims names. The event began with a one-minute moment of silence in remembrance of the 11 victims, who were members of Tree of Life, New Light and Dor Hadash congregations. Michael Keaton and Tom Hanks spoke at the vigil showing their support for the victims families as well as the city of Pittsburgh.
MAJOR TAYLOR'S WIDOW SPEAKS celeste.li 2018-11-0617 views TAYLOR says: "This morning my two oldest sons have joined me and they're proud but devastated grandparents and welcoming their father. Major Brent Russell Taylor back onto U.S. soil and back home to the land he has always loved so dearly. To call it a sobering event would be an unspeakable understatement to say that our hearts are anything less than shattered would be nothing short of true deceit and yet to deny the sacred honor that it is to stand that close to some of the freshest blood that has been spilt for our country would be absolute blasphemy."
TAYLOR says: "It seems only fitting that Brent who in death now represents so much more than anything, something so much greater than any of our own individual lives has come home to US soil in a flag draped casket on our Election Day. It is a timeless and cherished honor to serve in our country's Armed Services. That honor has been Brent's since he served in the Utah National Guard. For the past 15 years and it has been mine for just as long as I have proudly stood by his side."
TAYLOR says: "The price of freedom surely feels incredibly high to all those of us who know and love our individual soldier but the value of freedom is immeasurable to all who know and love America and all that she represents. Brent himself put it best just days ago when he implored of us all. I hope everyone back home exercises their precious right to vote and whether the Republicans or the Democrats win. I hope that we all remember that we have far more as Americans that unites us than divides us."
Tower of London lights up for WW1 centenary celeste.li 2018-11-060 views Ten thousand torches lit the moat of the Tower of London on Sunday (November 4) to commemorate the centenary of the end of the World War One.
Inaugurated with the "Last Post" sounded from one of the towers, the display entitled "Beyond the Deepening Shadow" will run for eight nights, leading up to the Armistice Day on November 11.
Every day between 5 p.m. (1700 GMT) and 9 p.m. (2100 GMT), the Tower moat will be gradually illuminated by individual torches lit by volunteers, many of whom have a family connection to the World War One.
The Constable of the Tower of London, General Nicholas Houghton called it an "act of collective remembrance".
In 2014 the Tower of London featured the war's most enduring symbol, poppies, with an art installation called "Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red," in which thousands of ceramic poppies flew from the medieval monument's wall into the dry moat. The artwork grew throughout the summer until 888,246 poppies were added to represent each British or colonial fatality during the war - more than double the number of Britain's casualties in World War Two.
The "war to end all wars" spread carnage across Europe, especially northern France and Belgium, killing 17 million soldiers and civilians in 1914-18. Over one million of the dead were soldiers from Britain and its then empire.
The American perspective of world affairs is changing. The current foreign policy of the United States puts it in a position of strength at the world’s negotiating table.
Things that seemed impossible a few years ago have now happened.
The shift began with the election of the current president.
The United States is now a country that positions itself in the best interests of its citizens. Treaties and trade deals that hurt the country have been canceled, renegotiated, or nullified.
American citizens have a new sense of optimism.
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American Christian pastor Andrew Brunson was arrested in Turkey in 2016, and charged with unsubstantiated terrorism offenses. Turkish courts tried to imprison him for 35 years. After President Trump was elected, he put economic pressure on Turkey. His efforts helped drive down the value of Turkish currency. Brunson was finally released in October 2018, and brought to the Oval Office.
Brunson and his wife praised Trump and gave him a blessing.
[Trump] “We’ve been negotiating long and hard. We do not pay ransom in this country, at least any longer. We won’t pay ransom. Otherwise you’ll have big problems. And lots of things will happen. Lots of bad things will happen.”
[Brunson] “And we especially want to thank the administration. You really fought for us, unusually so, from the time you took office, I know that you’ve been engaged. Secretary of State Pompeo also was very engaged and fought for us. Vice President Pence … we’re very grateful.”
—-
North Korea closed itself off from the world for decades. The country’s communist rulers made threats with its missiles and nuclear development program. The regime always acted in defiance of agreements to curb its development of weapons of mass destruction.
In May, President Trump managed to get the last three Americans out of prison in North Korea. Their fate was otherwise unpredictable and unknown.
The president also managed to bring back the remains of American military personnel who never came home after the Korean War. It’s been over 60 years since the war ended. The move was unprecedented, and something no previous administration had been able to accomplish. Surviving family members can now put the bodies of their relatives to rest back at home.
[Pence] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1Jyc45Ps0o "Sixty-five years ago last week, the armistice was signed to bring the Korean War to its close. From the moment the guns fell silent, American soldiers returned home, some to their families and futures, and some to their eternal rest. But more than 8,000 Americans did not come home at all."
"As our President entered into negotiations with North Korea, he also had our fallen on his heart. As he secured a commitment for the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, our President also secured a promise from Chairman Kim to return the remains of all fallen U.S. service members lost in North Korea."
[Trump] “I think our whole relationship with North Korea and the Korean Peninsula is going to be a much different situation than it has in the past.”
“People are going to be very impressed, people are going to be very happy, and we’re going to take care of a very big and very dangerous problem for the world.”
====
America is also commanding respect through its economic moves. President Trump ended the North American Free Trade Agreement, replacing it with the United States, Mexico and Canada Agreement. The new trade deal updates trade relations between the three countries, and brings an end to portions of the old deal that put the United States at an unfair economic disadvantage.
'Go Get 'Em, Donald': Bob Knight to President Trump in Indiana celeste.li 2018-11-030 views US President Donald Trump continued his closing midterm campaign tour in Indiana, a state he easily won two years ago, as he launched a feverish push to help elect Republicans in next week's voting.
Trump came to Indiana to campaign for Republican Senate candidate Mike Braun, a former state representative and businessman who is putting up a stiff challenge to Democratic incumbent Joe Donnelly.
Trump opened a rally at an Indianapolis high school by highlighting the news from earlier Friday that the economy had added another 250,000 jobs in October. He also talked about the low unemployment rate.
Trump's efforts got a boost Friday night from a Hall of Fame basketball coach.
The president was joined at a rally in Indianapolis by Bob Knight, who coached the Indiana Hoosiers for three decades.
Knight appeared briefly on stage, leading the crowd in a chant of, "Go get 'em, Donald!"
Trump has scheduled nine rallies in West Virginia, Indiana, Montana, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio and Missouri between Friday and Election Day.
The number marks a record high, and shows a rapid rise in support for the president among the demographic, compared to results from the same poll a year ago. It marks a major shift in the black political sphere.
Trump faced accusations of racism by Democrats, but won the 2016 election anyway. Democrats continue to employ the strategy of accusing Trump of racism, even as the country looks towards his 2020 re-election.
Trump was elected with only 8 percent of the black vote.
the racism stratagems are losing their effectiveness as Trump’s support among blacks grows.
Trump has spent considerable effort to bs, safety, and education.
Black unemployment dropped to historic lows under his administration’s “America First” economic agenda.
Violent crime also slightly declined in 2017, after two years on the rise.
Conservative political commentator Candace Owens’s newest initiative is called “Blexit.”
It urges black Americans to leave the Democratic Party. She created an accompanying clothing line designed by entertainer and avid Trump supporter Kanye West.
Facebook Shuts Down Pages of Disabled Veteran With 3 Million Fans celeste.li 2018-10-290 views Facebook shut down pages run by an Air Force veteran who lost three limbs in the Iraq War. Brian Kolfage ran a Facebook page for his coffee business, along with political commentary pages. Facebook shut the pages down on Oct. 11, and now Kolfage doesn’t know how he will make ends meet.
Kolfage was severely injured in combat on Sept. 11, 2004. He lost both legs and his right arm when an enemy rocket hit an air base north of Baghdad.
He told media that he was the only U.S. Airman to survive an injury that severe.
Kolfage founded a coffee company after retiring from the military. He also started to work with conservative columnist and author John Hawkins. He eventually took over management for Right Wing News (RWN).
Kolfage doesn’t classify himself as politically left or right. The page was followed by over 3.1 million people before Facebook got rid of it.
He set up RWNOfficial.com as a conservative political news and commentary website in March, using RWN and other Facebook pages to promote content from the site.
He dutifully provided pictures of his passport, his driver’s license, and his home address to Facebook, and set up two-step account authentication. Still, his personal account was repeatedly disabled and only re-enabled after he sent in complaints.
Kolfage tried to keep his Facebook pages in compliance with the company’s evolving content policies. He repeatedly reached out to contacts at Facebook for clarity on the company’s tightening regulations.
He also spent over $300,000 to promote RWN articles on Facebook.
Facebook then shut down all the pages he ran, including the one for his coffee business. That page had over 200,000 fans.
About four pages set up by individual RWN writers were taken down as well.
The official explanation was that, ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm elections, Facebook removed 559 pages and 251 accounts that broke Facebook rules.
“We were not ‘spamming,’ we were not using fake accounts, we were not doing anything ‘wrong’ … except we supported President [Donald] Trump, and apparently that’s not allowed.”
Kolfage said Facebook never complained about the pages before the sudden removal.
Former senior Facebook engineer Brian Amerige previously told The Epoch Times he didn’t see the company intentionally filtering conservative perspectives. He acknowledged, though, that there is an entrenched leftist culture within the company that may be influencing its content policing.
“Facebook’s community standards are chaotically, almost randomly enforced with escalations and occasional reversals happening when the screw-ups are prominent enough to cause media attention.”
Kolfage intends to fight Facebook to get his pages back and is asking people to support him at Fight4FreeSpeech.com. He obtained a lawyer to look into whether Facebook acted illegally by moving against him.
“They’re going to learn that they’re not untouchable.”
The shooting happened on Saturday, Oct. 27, at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood during a Sabbath religious service.
At least eight were killed, 12 others were injured. Four officers were shot during the incident with non-fatal injuries.
It’s still unclear the motive of the shooting. Police spokesman Chris Togneri says police have no more information at this time because they are still trying to clear the building and figure out if any more threats exist.
A local hospital said it was treating multiple victims. Paul Wood, the chief communications officer for the hospital system, said the patients are receiving care at UPMC Presbyterian, but he would not say how many.
The synagogue was holding a Shabbat religious service that started at 9:45 a.m. ET, according to the organization's website. Sam Schachner, president of Tree of Life, said in a phone call he had no comment at this time.
The captured suspect walked in and yelled "All Jews must die" before opening fire, the police source told KDKA.
“Shooter claimed innocent lives, and injured first responders, at a baby naming,” said Pennsylvania's Attorney General Josh Shapiro.
Israel is expressing its shock and concern and offering assistance to the local community following the shooting.
Minister Naftali Bennett, Israel's Cabinet minister for diaspora affairs, made the comments following a Saturday morning shooting that police say has left several people dead.
Bennet says he is "following the news with concern," and has instructed Israel's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs to prepare to assist the community in every possible way.
He adds: "Our hearts go out to the families of those killed and injured. May the memory of the murdered be blessed."
Facebook Shuts Down Pages of Disabled Veteran With 3 Million Fans celeste.li 2018-10-270 views Facebook shut down pages run by an Air Force veteran who lost three limbs in the Iraq War. Brian Kolfage ran a Facebook page for his coffee business, along with political commentary pages. Facebook shut the pages down on Oct. 11, and now Kolfage doesn’t know how he will make ends meet.
Kolfage was severely injured in combat on Sept. 11, 2004. He lost both legs and his right arm when an enemy rocket hit an air base north of Baghdad.
He told media that he was the only U.S. Airman to survive an injury that severe.
Kolfage founded a coffee company after retiring from the military. He also started to work with conservative columnist and author John Hawkins. He eventually took over management for Right Wing News (RWN).
Kolfage doesn’t classify himself as politically left or right. The page was followed by over 3.1 million people before Facebook got rid of it.
He set up RWNOfficial.com as a conservative political news and commentary website in March, using RWN and other Facebook pages to promote content from the site.
He dutifully provided pictures of his passport, his driver’s license, and his home address to Facebook, and set up two-step account authentication. Still, his personal account was repeatedly disabled and only re-enabled after he sent in complaints.
Kolfage tried to keep his Facebook pages in compliance with the company’s evolving content policies. He repeatedly reached out to contacts at Facebook for clarity on the company’s tightening regulations.
He also spent over $300,000 to promote RWN articles on Facebook.
Facebook then shut down all the pages he ran, including the one for his coffee business. That page had over 200,000 fans.
About four pages set up by individual RWN writers were taken down as well.
The official explanation was that, ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm elections, Facebook removed 559 pages and 251 accounts that broke Facebook rules.
“We were not ‘spamming,’ we were not using fake accounts, we were not doing anything ‘wrong’ … except we supported President [Donald] Trump, and apparently that’s not allowed.”
Kolfage said Facebook never complained about the pages before the sudden removal.
Former senior Facebook engineer Brian Amerige previously told The Epoch Times he didn’t see the company intentionally filtering conservative perspectives. He acknowledged, though, that there is an entrenched leftist culture within the company that may be influencing its content policing.
“Facebook’s community standards are chaotically, almost randomly enforced with escalations and occasional reversals happening when the screw-ups are prominent enough to cause media attention.”
Kolfage intends to fight Facebook to get his pages back and is asking people to support him at Fight4FreeSpeech.com. He obtained a lawyer to look into whether Facebook acted illegally by moving against him.
“They’re going to learn that they’re not untouchable.”
The former White House director of communications wrote about how President Trump managed to invigorate a segment of Americans that felt ignored by previous administrations.
“It wasn’t until I got on the campaign that I realized, wait a minute, he’s talking to the people I grew up with, and the people I grew up with aren’t doing so well.”
There is a large swath of people in so-called flyover America who are often misunderstood by news outlets, academics, and politicians.
Scaramucci is an American financier, entrepreneur, and a one-time White House director of communications. He said his understanding of blue-collar America evolved, as well as his understanding of Trump’s base. He was fired from his White House role after just 11 days.
He holds no hard feelings about the firing, although he says he wishes it could have been done in a less public manner. He’s stood by his support of Trump.
“I came from this blue-collared neighborhood, but I got rich,”
“And as a result of me getting rich, I tunneled into my little confirmed bias-rich treehouse, and I missed what was going on down on the ground.”
“I really missed what was going on in the flyover states in middle America. So, part of that book is a revelatory observation, but also an indictment of myself.”
This experience, he said, is something that others may be able to learn from.
In middle America, the average blue-collar worker lives in a different world than those in big cities. Many of these Americans live in a state of what Scaramucci calls “economic desperation.”
It’s these individuals, the struggling middle-class Americans, that often support Trump with the vigor seen at his rallies.
“You realize that they’re looking at us and saying, ‘The establishment has failed me. I’d like to try something new, please.’”
Some of this comes from his own observations of the president at work.
He said Trump is a “no-nonsense guy that’s trying to do the right thing for a very large group of people.”
“I’ve seen him in action, away from the cameras, away from the hysteria, away from the theatrics—I’ve seen him in action and he’s very well-intended.”
Scaramucci also noticed that much of Washington had lost sight of the issues that average Americans care about.
He said that past administrations focused on international trade deals designed to create an international interdependence.
He said the globalist system had the effect of hollowing-out manufacturing centers in the United States.
Mary Ann Mendoza had a special reason for attending the president’s Make America Great Again rally in Mesa, Arizona.
She attended the Oct. 19 rally wearing a shirt with a printed headshot of her son. Her 32-year-old son, Sgt. Brandon Mendoza, was killed in a head-on collision with an illegal alien who was drunk, high on meth, and speeding.
“Three times the legal limit drunk, high on meth, and he drove over 35 miles the wrong way on four different freeways and slammed head-on into my son.”
Mary Ann Mendoza has been called: racist, Nazi pig, hate-filled. None of it’s true.
“It has nothing to do with their skin color, their religion, their origin, where they’ve come from, what they’ve done in their past life—it has to do with the fact that they are illegally present in our country, and no other country in this world puts up with that.”
Mendoza accused the media of not reporting on crimes committed by illegal aliens. Mendoza is part of a group known as “angel moms,” mothers whose children have been killed by illegal immigrants.
Mendoza’s son encountered his killer in Arizona. Raul Silva-Corona ended up there after skipping court for previous convictions in Colorado.
Mary Ann Mendoza has met President Trump on several occasions. She agrees with Trump’s latest statements on dealing with the Guatemalan and Honduran migrants seeking to force their way across the U.S. border.
“I’m very excited about [Trump’s] latest thought … to take the military to the border and shut our borders down. He has that right, he has the ability, and he has to stop worrying about the ACLU and all these stupid organizations that file these lawsuits.”
Increasing numbers of illegal aliens have been crossing the southwest border. Most are released into the interior of the United States. President Trump wants to change that.
“We’re going to have the military stationed. They’re not coming into this country. They might as well turn back.”
“I honestly blame it on our politicians who stand at a microphone and talk about how … we need to be welcoming these people with open arms. And wanting to give these people drivers licenses, and wanting to give them free benefits, and wanting to give them the ability to vote.”
The border issue has taken center stage as both the migrant caravan and the midterm elections approach.
The Democrats don't care about what their extremist immigration agenda will do to your communities, to your hospitals, what about your hospitals, and to your schools. The Democrats don't care that a flood of illegal immigration will bankrupt our country.”
“[It was ] really nice just to be able to be free with my emotions and just get excited with the crowd about our president,”
“I’m just so proud of what he does and how he stands up for me as an American citizen and everybody in this country.”
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that he is planning a 10 percent tax cut for middle-income earners. He made the announcement on October 22nd, before leaving for a Texas campaign trip.
President Trump has brought up the tax cut multiple times in the past few days, in the midst of traveling to multiple rallies and making numerous media appearances before the midterm elections.
Trump mentioned the tax cuts again, at the Houston rally.
"Republicans passed the biggest tax cut and reform in history with massive tax cuts for the middle class. And now we're adding ten percent to those numbers. We're gonna be putting in a ten percent tax cut for middle income families. It's going to be put in next week. Ten percent tax cut."
He said that in two weeks the administration will present a resolution, but that Congress will have to approve it after the November 6 midterm elections.
He spoke about Representative Kevin Brady’s work to put the tax cuts together.
"If you speak to Kevin Brady and a group of people, we're putting in a tax reduction of 10 percent, which I think will be a net neutral because we're doing other things which I don't have to explain now but it'll be pretty much a net neutral, but it will be great for the middle class. It's going to be a tax reduction of 10 percent for the middle class. Business will not enter into it and this will be on top of the tax reduction that the middle class has already got and we're putting in a resolution probably this week. I think you folks know about it. And Kevin Brady's been working on it very hard really for a couple of months. We'll put that in. We'll start to work sometime after the midterms."
President Trump emphasized that the tax cut was for individuals, and not focused on decreasing taxes for businesses. Last December, a huge tax cut brought corporate taxes down from 35 percent to 21 percent, the largest overhaul since the 1980s.
Trump’s Approval Rating at Record High, According to Poll celeste.li 2018-10-230 views President Trump’s approval ratings shot upward before the midterm elections. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll gave him a record-high 47 percent overall approval rating. In previous months, it hovered between 44 and 46 percent.
Trump’s current approval rating is two points higher than what President Barack Obama had in the same poll during the same period in his presidency.
Trump’s is also at an all-time low, at 49 percent. Pollsters are looking disapproval rateat Trump’s favorability as a weather vane for the midterm elections, especially in states where elections are contested.
Trump has been traveling the country to campaign for Republican congressional candidates for the past several weeks. Historically, the presidential party takes a hit in the midterms after the first presidential election. Trump looks to reverse that trend.
In order to entertain the crowds, the Donald J. Trump for President campaign said in a statement that it will be organizing a “Big Texas Tailgater” for the afternoon in the lead up to the Make American Great Again, or MAGA, rally scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT.
The tailgate party will feature a range of entertainment including food trucks, live music from the Marcus Eldridge band and Will Carter Band, appearances from Trump campaign spokespeople, and more, according to the campaign.
“Texas is big, and so will be the turnout for our MAGA rally in Houston, Texas, Monday,” said Michael Glassner the campaign’s chief operating officer.
“That’s why we’ve organized the Donald Trump—Big Texas Tailgater outside the Toyota Center. We’ll have great food, live music, big screens, and a great time for all of our guests. Inside and out, the excitement at this Trump rally will be as big as Texas—it’s going to be epic.”
In the week before the Texas rally, Trump was busy campaigning in a three-day “Western swing” blitz. His schedule that week included stops at three important battleground states including Montana on Oct. 18, Arizona on Oct. 19, and finally Nevada on Oct. 20.
Brad Parscale, Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign manager, said the tailgate party was the first of its kind.
“Incredible numbers for #HoustonRally. 100,000+ RSVPs. I have flown in early and my great team is setting up the first ever TAILGATER for outside. So everyone come, room for everyone. Come see @realDonaldTrump inside or out!” he wrote on Twitter.
Trump is ramping up the frequency of his MAGA rallies in the lead up to the Nov. 6 midterm elections. He hopes to maintain and expand slim Republican majorities in both the Senate and House by galvanizing his voter base.
One of those women was former Miss Wisconsin USA winner Melissa Young, who was at the event for a very special reason.
Just a day earlier, Young, who is terminally ill, was getting a blood transfusion in Wisconsin. But she insisted on traveling to the summit.
“I promised President Trump that until my last breath, I would speak up about what kind of man he is,” Young said.
“He is the most wonderful man I've ever met.”
Young, who was crowned Miss Wisconsin and Miss Congeniality in 2005, suffers from autonomic failure syndrome, an incurable disease. She made headlines in March 2016 after she thanked then-candidate Trump at a rally for his support while she was battling the illness.
“When he found out I was ill—this was years before he announced he was running for president—he was sending me letters to the hospital, telling me … to be brave, that I'm the bravest woman he knows, and to keep fighting,” said Young.
“And what he didn't know is that those letters really saved me, they saved my life because there was someone on the outside saying you've got this.”
Young previously told The Pageant Planet that her illness was caused by medical negligence when she was pregnant with her first and only child, Jack.
The disease slowly shuts down the part of the brain that controls vital functions such as heart rate, digestion, and body temperature until the victim dies.
She said Trump, who owned the pageant until 2015, also promised to look after Jack, who is now 10-years-old.
“My illness was caused by doctors and medical negligence,” Young said. “And when he found out that I chose forgiveness instead of a payout for that, he said, I will take care of your boy and I'll make sure that he's okay.”
Jack now has a full-ride to college thanks to Trump and his organizations, Young said at the rally in 2016.
The former beauty queen said she felt compelled to tell her story at the rally after seeing the media’s portrayal of Trump during the campaign.
“The media were constantly saying, his alleged treatments toward women, his alleged treatments toward minorities,” she said.
“I happen to be a woman who was in his beauty pageant, and I happen to have a son who is Mexican-American that he took very great care of.”
She said Trump could have used her story to defend himself, but didn’t to protect her privacy.
“And so I believe it was my job at that time to get out of the hospital and thank him,” she said.
“I think stories like mine, stories of the heart, human interest stories [are the ones] that people don't hear about.”
Young has since been fulfilling her promise to share her story. The mother said she is also driven to do this for the sake of her 10-year-old.
“[It's] a message for my son Jack, that whatever it takes, if you have to do the army crawl, you get up and show gratitude, and you speak up for what's right.
Newly freed pastor prays with Trump in Oval Office celeste.li 2018-10-138 views President Donald Trump thanked Turkey on Saturday (October 13) for freeing U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson after two years in custody and said it would help improve strained relations, but he denied cutting a deal with Ankara.
"We do not pay ransom in this country, at least any longer. We won't pay ransom -otherwise, you have big problems ...But, I still I want to thank President Erdogan," Trump said.
Trump's mention of Erdogan drew a curt response from the Turkish leader, who has repeatedly said it was a court's decision to make, not his.
Brunson, who had been under house arrest since July, was flown out of Turkey on Friday (October 12). He arrived at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington on Saturday and met withTrump at the White House in the afternoon.
Relations between the two NATO allies have been strained by U.S. support for Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, Turkey's plans to buy a Russian missile defense system, and the U.S. jailing of an executive at a Turkish state bank in an Iran sanctions-busting case.
Brunson brought new tension to the relationship. Trump authorized a doubling of duties on aluminum and steel imported from Turkey in August, and Turkey retaliated by increasing tariffs on U.S. cars, alcohol and tobacco imports.
"We especially want to thank the administration. You really fought for us. Unusually so, from the time you took office, I know that you have been engaged," Brunson told Trump.
At one point during his meeting, Brunson and his wife Noreen offered prayers for Trump and his administration.
Brunson, who lived in Turkey for more than 20 years, was accused of having links to Kurdish militants and supporters of Fethullah Gulen, the U.S.-based cleric blamed by Erdogan's government for a coup attempt in 2016. Brunson denied the accusations against him and Washington had demanded his immediate release
"We do love Turkey. We were there for 25 years and we love the Turkish people," Brunson said.
Even as U.S. officials celebrated Brunson's freedom, they called on Turkey to also release a Turkish-U.S. national and former NASA scientist in jail on terrorism charges, as well as three local employees of the U.S. consulate who have also been detained.
Trump celebrates Pastor Brunson's return from Turkey celeste.li 2018-10-13226 views President Donald Trump thanked Turkey on Saturday (October 13) for freeing U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson after two years in custody and said it would help improve strained relations, but he denied cutting a deal with Ankara.
"We do not pay ransom in this country, at least any longer. We won't pay ransom -otherwise, you have big problems ...But, I still I want to thank President Erdogan," Trump said.
Trump's mention of Erdogan drew a curt response from the Turkish leader, who has repeatedly said it was a court's decision to make, not his.
Brunson, who had been under house arrest since July, was flown out of Turkey on Friday (October 12). He arrived at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington on Saturday and met withTrump at the White House in the afternoon.
Relations between the two NATO allies have been strained by U.S. support for Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, Turkey's plans to buy a Russian missile defense system, and the U.S. jailing of an executive at a Turkish state bank in an Iran sanctions-busting case.
Brunson brought new tension to the relationship. Trump authorized a doubling of duties on aluminum and steel imported from Turkey in August, and Turkey retaliated by increasing tariffs on U.S. cars, alcohol and tobacco imports.
"We especially want to thank the administration. You really fought for us. Unusually so, from the time you took office, I know that you have been engaged," Brunson told Trump.
At one point during his meeting, Brunson and his wife Noreen offered prayers for Trump and his administration.
Brunson, who lived in Turkey for more than 20 years, was accused of having links to Kurdish militants and supporters of Fethullah Gulen, the U.S.-based cleric blamed by Erdogan's government for a coup attempt in 2016. Brunson denied the accusations against him and Washington had demanded his immediate release
"We do love Turkey. We were there for 25 years and we love the Turkish people," Brunson said.
Even as U.S. officials celebrated Brunson's freedom, they called on Turkey to also release a Turkish-U.S. national and former NASA scientist in jail on terrorism charges, as well as three local employees of the U.S. consulate who have also been detained.
Trump’s New Global Trade Order Aims at Ramping Up Pressure on China celeste.li 2018-10-120 views The Trump administration is set to flex its muscles by convincing trading partners to pressure China. The revamped deal with Canada and Mexico is a clear sign that Washington is willing to isolate Beijing in a new global trade order by edging China out of trade deals with allies.
The new United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) contains a clause that aims to contain Beijing. The provision essentially blocks any trade flirtation with China.
In an op-ed for The Epoch Times, former Canadian secretary of state for Asia-Pacific, David Kilgour, says that the “poison pill” clause effectively provides the United States with veto power over any free trade deal between the other partners and China.
The USMCA replaces the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and is the first major trade win for President Donald Trump.
Trump also signed a new agreement last month that overhauled the old U.S.–Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS).
The United States is now in the early stages of negotiations for bilateral free trade with both Japan and the EU. Washington can gain further leverage over Beijing if it convinces partners to sign on to the same type of poison pill that aims at China.
It would signal that trading partners are fully aligned with Washington in its efforts to end the unfair economic and trade policies characteristic of Beijing.
Beijing has been resorting to various tactics, including currency manipulation, industrial espionage, cybertheft, forced joint ventures in exchange for market access, and acquisition of foreign companies to attain sensitive technologies.
The Economic Policy Institute reported that the trade deficit with China led to the loss of more than 3 million jobs between 2001 and 2015.
To tackle these problems, trade chiefs of the United States, Japan, and the EU met last month in New York and agreed to push for new rules and enforcement tools to end practices that undermine the global trade system. The trilateral partners also agreed to reform World Trade Organization (WTO) rules that are no longer effective.
The Trump administration has been frustrated by the organization, calling its rules outdated and insufficient to constrain China’s market-distorting behavior.
Since his election in 2016, Trump has made trade renegotiations and reducing the trade deficit priorities of his administration. To meet his objectives, he started imposing tariffs on steel, aluminum, and Chinese goods.
This year, the Trump administration has chosen to take a tougher stance on China’s decades-long protectionist and trade-distorting policies, and instituted a tariff campaign.
According to some trade experts, the tariffs and threats—no matter how confrontational and sometimes ugly they can get—are bearing fruit.
Trump’s New Global Trade Order Aims at Ramping Up Pressure on China celeste.li 2018-10-120 views The Trump administration is set to flex its muscles by convincing trading partners to pressure China. The revamped deal with Canada and Mexico is a clear sign that Washington is willing to isolate Beijing in a new global trade order by edging China out of trade deals with allies.
The new United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) contains a clause that aims to contain Beijing. The provision essentially blocks any trade flirtation with China.
In an op-ed for The Epoch Times, former Canadian secretary of state for Asia-Pacific, David Kilgour, says that the “poison pill” clause effectively provides the United States with veto power over any free trade deal between the other partners and China.
The USMCA replaces the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and is the first major trade win for President Donald Trump.
Trump also signed a new agreement last month that overhauled the old U.S.–Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS).
The United States is now in the early stages of negotiations for bilateral free trade with both Japan and the EU. Washington can gain further leverage over Beijing if it convinces partners to sign on to the same type of poison pill that aims at China.
It would signal that trading partners are fully aligned with Washington in its efforts to end the unfair economic and trade policies characteristic of Beijing.
Beijing has been resorting to various tactics, including currency manipulation, industrial espionage, cybertheft, forced joint ventures in exchange for market access, and acquisition of foreign companies to attain sensitive technologies.
The Economic Policy Institute reported that the trade deficit with China led to the loss of more than 3 million jobs between 2001 and 2015.
To tackle these problems, trade chiefs of the United States, Japan, and the EU met last month in New York and agreed to push for new rules and enforcement tools to end practices that undermine the global trade system. The trilateral partners also agreed to reform World Trade Organization (WTO) rules that are no longer effective.
The Trump administration has been frustrated by the organization, calling its rules outdated and insufficient to constrain China’s market-distorting behavior.
Since his election in 2016, Trump has made trade renegotiations and reducing the trade deficit priorities of his administration. To meet his objectives, he started imposing tariffs on steel, aluminum, and Chinese goods.
This year, the Trump administration has chosen to take a tougher stance on China’s decades-long protectionist and trade-distorting policies, and instituted a tariff campaign.
According to some trade experts, the tariffs and threats—no matter how confrontational and sometimes ugly they can get—are bearing fruit.
Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra Returns to Carnegie Hall celeste.li 2018-10-060 views Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra will be performing at Carnegie Hall on Sunday, October 7th. Comprised of both classical western and eastern instruments, the Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra creates a unique sound like no other.
Bob Kandel, Insurance Broker: We go to a lot of concerts, this is the first time we’ve heard this orchestra and it’s been a real treat. Beautiful playing, excellent conducting, great soloists.
Marta Tereshchenko, Classical Pianist: very very interesting, very pleasant and very educational, very very spiritual, high quality any good music is elevating, but the Chinese music of this kind that I heard today is more than elevating, [It’s] just cleaning your mind, you know, it brings good spirits, it brings you cleanliness, you know, like you eat organic food, this is the most organic food for the brain.
The Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra made its debut at Carnegie Hall in 2012, and has since performed to great acclaim internationally here and in New York. Their unique musical sound brings in a diverse audience each time.
Joel Solar, Managing Director, Franklin Global Partners: It was better than I could have possibly imagined. I heard it was wonderful but you really have to see it, to really appreciate the beauty. It was so wonderful it kept my attention the entire time. The conductor was spectacular the musicians were wonderful, and I just had a joyous, it was a joyous occasion.
Joel Solar, Managing Director, Franklin Global Partners (continued): Something I’ve never experienced before. It was very unique and very special.
Ouenda Baaissa, VP, Viceroy Hotel Group: Loved the authenticity, loved the mixture, the diversity of the group. It was magical. It was like being in a trip back into time in China. Lovely lovely evening, I recommend it to everyone.
This year, the performance features Shen Yun’s most popular original compositions and award-winning singers, as well as classic orchestral favorites by Wagner, Sarasate, and Tchaikovsky.
Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra Returns to Carnegie Hall celeste.li 2018-10-060 views Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra will be performing at Carnegie Hall on Sunday, October 7th. Comprised of both classical western and eastern instruments, the Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra creates a unique sound like no other.
Bob Kandel, Insurance Broker: We go to a lot of concerts, this is the first time we’ve heard this orchestra and it’s been a real treat. Beautiful playing, excellent conducting, great soloists.
Marta Tereshchenko, Classical Pianist: very very interesting, very pleasant and very educational, very very spiritual, high quality any good music is elevating, but the Chinese music of this kind that I heard today is more than elevating, [It’s] just cleaning your mind, you know, it brings good spirits, it brings you cleanliness, you know, like you eat organic food, this is the most organic food for the brain.
The Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra made its debut at Carnegie Hall in 2012, and has since performed to great acclaim internationally here and in New York. Their unique musical sound brings in a diverse audience each time.
Joel Solar, Managing Director, Franklin Global Partners: It was better than I could have possibly imagined. I heard it was wonderful but you really have to see it, to really appreciate the beauty. It was so wonderful it kept my attention the entire time. The conductor was spectacular the musicians were wonderful, and I just had a joyous, it was a joyous occasion.
Joel Solar, Managing Director, Franklin Global Partners (continued): Something I’ve never experienced before. It was very unique and very special.
Ouenda Baaissa, VP, Viceroy Hotel Group: Loved the authenticity, loved the mixture, the diversity of the group. It was magical. It was like being in a trip back into time in China. Lovely lovely evening, I recommend it to everyone.
This year, the performance features Shen Yun’s most popular original compositions and award-winning singers, as well as classic orchestral favorites by Wagner, Sarasate, and Tchaikovsky.
Government data for September also shows Hispanic unemployment dropped to 4.5 percent, matching the record low of July. Black unemployment dropped to 6 percent, nearly matching the historic low of 5.9 percent recorded in May.
Asian unemployment increased to 3.5 percent while white unemployment dropped to 3.3 percent, the lowest since December 1969.
Chairman of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell said on Tuesday that the economy’s outlook was “remarkably positive” and he believed it was on the cusp of a “historically rare” era of ultra-low unemployment and tame inflation. The central bank raised rates last week for the third time this year.
Huang boarded a flight in New York to search for his brother in Australia.
Huang’s worst fear is that his brother’s remains are on display as part of the controversial
“Real Bodies: the Exhibition” showing in Sydney—
a display of 20 real, plastinated human bodies and over 200 body parts that came from Dalian, China.
Communist China has long been in the spotlight for its rampant human rights abuse and
lack of transparency regarding the “crimes” committed by its political or religious prisoners.
There is also no transparency surrounding the whereabouts and treatment of prisoners
within the communist state’s detention system.
Many experts say it remains impossible to determine the validity of any ‘official’ documents from China,
such as those in the possession of ‘Real Bodies’ that claim their human remains were “legally donated.”
Similar exhibitions were banned by authorities in France, Hawaii, Seattle, Israel, and the Czech Republic
for failing to provide evidence that the body ‘donations’ in China were voluntary and gave consent for display.
[Dr. Huang WanQing, an American Chinese man]: Whenever I think that brother may have been tortured, then murdered for his belief and then put on
commercial display in the exhibition, I feel a knife-cutting sharp of pain in my heart.”
Huang’s brother is a Falun Gong practitioner.
Since 1999, the Chinese Communist Party has been brutally persecuting Falun Gong, a spiritual practice.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate and International human rights lawyer David Matas has been
investigating the charge of a kill-on-demand organ transplant system operating in China for many years.
Matas explained that in addition to concerns about organ harvesting, body exhibits sourced from
China warranted similar attention.
[David Matas, international human rights lawyer] NO NEED: “Well, with organ harvesting, we are facing the situation where there's large volume of transplants,
and no official explanation that makes any sense of what the sources of all these transplants and
that's one of the reasons we came to the conclusion that we did, that the sourcing was
the prisoner of conscience, Falun Gong. We have a similar situation with the body exhibits.
We have no explanation of where these bodies come from, we know that with the Falun Gong when they're in prison,
a lot of them didn't self-identify to protect their families, so if they die in prison, of course their bodies are
going to be unclaimed, because the families don't know where they are.”
Huang suspects that after being killed for his beliefs, his brother’s body was deems ‘unclaimed’ and then
‘legally donated’ to be plastinated and flown around the world for display.
Huang WanQing: “If the exhibition company cannot provide the documents showing the voluntary [and]
informed consent of the deceased, [then] I'm requesting that all the bodies and
organ parts from the exhibit be submitted for DNA testing to ascertain the identity of the deceased.”
[Prof. Li HuiGe, Professor of Pharmacology at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz] “According to [common practice and professional] ethics,
if you can’t provide evidence for the source of these organs, then it should be shut down,
because if [something] this [unethical] Can happen, then anything can happen.”
For 15 years, Huang has travelled to many different organizations to search for his brother.
He says that no matter how hopeless the situation, he will never give up his search for the truth
about his brother’s disappearance. He hopes that his public appeal can raise awareness
about the human rights abuses suffered by Falun Gong, Uyghur, and other minority groups in China.
Small businesses are the most optimistic ever about their prospects, benefiting from tax cuts and deregulation under President Donald Trump, according to a survey by the National Federation of Independent Business.
The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index reached 108.8 in August, beating the previous record of 108, which dates back to the vigorous recovery of 1983 under President Ronald Reagan.
The NFIB has been producing the index since 1973, based on surveying some of its 325,000 members. Of the index’s 10 components, job creation plans and job openings both set new records in August. Capital spending plans were the highest since 2007 and inventory investment plans the most robust since 2005
“The small business engine continues to roar with the dramatic change in economic policies since November 2016,” the NFIB stated in the survey release. In December 2016, the index jumped eight points to 105.7, and it has run an average reading since then of 105.8.
Significantly more businesses reported sales gains than sales drops (net 10 percent) over the past three months, especially in construction, manufacturing, the wholesale trade, and transportation. “They are booming,” NFIB wrote.
Vastly more businesses reported paying their people more versus those that reported paying less (net 32 percent) over the past three months. The survey was responded to by 680 NFIB members. NFIB noted the August index has more “muscle” behind it. While the index started a record run nearly two years ago, the optimism had been driven by the “soft” part of the index—inventory satisfaction, good time to expand, expected business conditions, sales expectations, and expected credit conditions. Now, however, the index hit a record high through its “hard” components—job creation plans, job openings, capital spending plans, inventory plans, and earnings. “Now the Index is dominated by stuff that makes GDP grow,” the federation stated. While the economy bustles, 89 percent of small businesses that were hiring or trying to hire in August reported few or no qualified applicants for the open positions. A record 25 percent of respondents selected quality of labor as their most important problem—more than taxes (15 percent) and regulations (13 percent). With the unemployment below 4 percent and job growth continuing, there were more than 6.9 million job openings in July, with fewer than 6.3 million unemployed.
This is Msgr. Sladan Cosic’s second time seeing Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra, and he was again touched by the performance.
“I like this connection between West and East, because for the East, there are some stories behind [the music],” said Msgr. Sladan Cosic. “I like very much the stories that are expressed through the music. This is what is personally very touching.”
“While you listen to the music, you try to imagine what is really happening—and also understand the music better.”
He said he could receive the messages conveyed by the Shen Yun musicians.
“The musicians are gifted people, who are, while performing, providing this kind of spiritual experience, which also benefits them too.”
“I think they [the orchestra] are very good at this, because you get involved in the music itself.”
Msgr. Sladan Cosic said Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra brings the East and the West closer and has a positive impact on society.
“Bringing [musicians] together to become one. There are good things in both sides, West and East. So you try to combine the best things from both sides [to] make one piece, and this is the special characteristic of this orchestra.”
“In Western culture, we also see values, including spiritual values. So in this sense, I think the concert is somehow giving its own contribution to society.”
— Monsignor Sladan Cosic, Chargé d'Affaires, the Holy See's apostolic nunciature in Taipei
