>>3476684 lb

Maybe repost as this is notable

The Houthis and War in Yemen

1. History of the movement, structure, and ideology

History

The movement of Ansar Allah (Supporters of Allah), also known as the Houthis, is a paramilitary group of Zaidi Shi’ites, acting in Yemen. This is one of the moderate streams of Shia Islam, which has more than 10 million followers around the world and accounts for a third of Yemen’s population. In dogmatic matters, Zaidis took a position which is close to Sunni Islam, relying primarily on the Koran and the Sunnah. In contrast to other Shi’ites, Zaidis do not recognize the doctrine of the Hidden Imam, “prudent concealment” of their faith (taqiya), and they reject anthropomorphism and unconditional predestination.

In 2004, the Houthis formed an uprising. They sought to end government tyranny and corruption, to oppose majority rule of the Sunnis, to resist to ideas of Wahhabism, acquired from neighbouring Saudi Arabia and to make their own leader, Imam Badr al-Din al-Houthi, a head of state. Nonetheless, he was killed on September 10 of the same year.

The organization of Zaidi Shi’ites of Yemen, from which the Houthis movement was subsequently formed, initially focused on cultural and educational work. The first such organization appeared in the early 1990s and was called the “Forum for Youth of Faith”. This organization planned summer camps and various school clubs to promote the ideas of Zaidi Islam in Sa’adah province.

One of the main reasons behind the establishment of the movement by Badr al-Din al-Houthi is the marginalization and persecution of the Hashemites and Zaidis by the Yemeni government. They were expelled from all important positions in the country after the establishment of the Republic of Yemen. In addition, Badr al-Din al-Houthi established the movement out of fear of the disappearance of the Zaidi doctrine, especially after many Zaidis converted to the Sunni faith because of persecutions by the Yemeni governments. It is important to note that for many years the provinces, where the majority of population are Zaidis, were poorly developed economically.

Structure

Following the killing of movement’s founder, Hussein Badr al-Din al-Houthi in 2004, the Houthis were led by Hussein’s father, spiritual leader Badr al-Din al-Houthi. The movement’s current leader is Hussein’s younger brother, Sayyid Abdul-Malik Badr al-Din al-Houthi. Until April 19, 2018, the Chairman of the Supreme Political Council of Yemen was Saleh al-Samad. He was one of the youngest heads of state and government in the modern world. He was killed during a bombing by the coalition’s warplanes. His successor in this post is Mahdi al-Mashat.

THERE IS VIDEO IN LINK, SAVE A LONG READ, posted just 1 of 6 parts

https://southfront.org/the-houthis-and-war-in-yemen/

>>3476777

Trips of truth! Needs some sauce

Nearly Every Member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Still Takes Corporate PAC Money

In April, the Congressional Progressive Caucus announced that it was going to be drawing a line: Its political action committee would no longer accept corporate campaign donations.

“If we are going to end the influence of corporations and special interests in government, we have to start by not relying on their support,” said caucus co-chair Mark Pocan, D-Wis. “Only by being fully independent of their financial influence can we prioritize people over corporations.”

The development was largely ignored by the press, but for those who heard about it, the move raised an immediate question: Wait, the Congressional Progressive Caucus was taking corporate money?

Yes, it was. And not only did the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC accept corporate contributions until recently, but also, almost all of its 78 members — including Pocan — still take corporate money individually, even as their caucus shuns it. Just four caucus members who will be returning to the House next session have pledged to decline corporate funds: Reps. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.; Ro Khanna, D-Calif.; Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii; and David Cicilline, D-R.I.

That number, however, is about to balloon to as many as 40 or more, as a wave of successful progressive insurgents — including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jahana Hayes, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar — are poised to join the House of Representatives.

The new push to go cold turkey on corporate cash is creating tension within the caucus, as progressive members take offense at the implication that their votes might be influenced by big money. “People feel like you’re saying that they are bought and sold — and some are, but many aren’t,” Jayapal told The Intercept. “It’s not like everybody who takes corporate PAC money is bad or only does what the corporations want. … But that’s not what this is about. It’s about re-establishing trust with voters, changing the system, working from multiple angles.”

But while the voting records of Congressional Progressive Caucus members are better on democracy reform issues compared with those outside the caucus, that might be setting the bar too low. Aaron Scherb, the legislative affairs director for the watchdog group Common Cause, told The Intercept that 17 of the 28 members of Congress who earned perfect scores on his organization’s “Democracy Scorecard“ are in the Congressional Progressive Caucus. But there are 78 representatives in the caucus, meaning that nearly 4 in 5 caucus members actually failed to earn a perfect score.

“So,” Jayapal explained, “I try to say to people, ‘Look, this is the system that we’ve had, it just doesn’t need to be the system that we always have. So it’s not bad that you’re doing it, because that is what has been the case.’ [I] try to not make it about shaming and blaming, but about, ‘Okay, we’re trying to fix this.’”

While Jayapal is trying to coax her colleagues with carrots, the ballot box is acting as a stick. In September, Rep. Michael Capuano, a longtime progressive from Massachusetts, was bested in a primary contest by his opponent, Ayanna Pressley, who made Capuano’s acceptance of corporate money a key campaign issue.

An analysis by The Intercept of the 2017-18 campaign cycle reveals that the vast majority of CPC members are similarly vulnerable, taking not just money from union and advocacy group PACs, but significant sums of corporate PAC cash as well. Not coincidentally, given the reliance on big money, hardly any members of the CPC rely on small individual donors.

https://theintercept.com/2018/10/14/congressional-progressive-caucus-corporate-pac-money/

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>>3476835

2/2

Cont. from images:

Correction: October 14, 2018

This story originally reported that just three CPC members returning next year have taken the no-corporate-PAC-money pledge. Rep. David Cicilline has taken the pledge, bringing the total to four.

Italy Declares War on Merkel and the EU

If there were ever any doubts that the leaders of the Euroskeptic coalition that now runs Italy has a plan to defy the European Union its proposed budget should quell them. Both Deputy Prime Ministers, Luigi Di Maio of Five Star Movement and Matteo Salvini of The League, were adamant about locking horns with European Union leadership over all issues of sovereignty between now and May’s European Parliamentary elections.

Their budget proposal which included both tax cuts and universal income blew past the EU budget limit of 2.0% of GDP, coming in at 2.4%. It has put their Finance Minister, Giovanni Tria, in a difficult position because Tria doesn’t want to negotiate this budget with Brussels, preferring a less confrontational, read more pro-EU, approach.

Salvini and Di Maio, however, have other plans. And since I began covering this story last year on my blog, I’ve said that it was imperative that Salvini force the issue of the Troika’s demands – the EU, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund – back down their throats on debt restructuring/forgiveness.

What I meant then, and I was focused on Salvini’s emergence as the leader of this fight, was that Salvini and Italy, because they are more than technically insolvent, have all the leverage in the negotiations. The size of their outstanding debt and the liabilities existent on the balance sheets of banks across Europe, most notably the nearly $1 trillion in TARGET 2 liabilities, are something Juncker, Draghi, Merkel and Christine LaGarde at the IMF simply cannot ignore.

But, to do this Salvini and now Di Maio have to make a good faith effort to negotiate a good deal for Italy with Brussels, Berlin and the IMF. This is why the budget squeaked past the 2.0% limit and then they walked it back to 2.0% but with provisions they knew would anger the EU finance ministers.

The point of this is to push Brussels and paint them as the bad guys to shift public sentiment back towards an Italeave position. Italy’s problems are not solvable with Germany holding the purse strings for all the EU countries.

So, the first prong of their assault on the power structure of the EU is this, challenge them on their budget while making strong statements to the rest of Europe that they are not looking to exit the euro. If they do, it will be Germany forcing that situation.

The other prong of the assault is to remake the EU from within, which Salvini has openly stated is one of his goals.

It started more than a month ago when he met with Hungarian President Viktor Orban who agreed on a strategy of creating a ‘League of Leagues’ to unite the opposition to the current technocratic rule on the European Commission.

They were clear then that the goal was to wrest control of the European Commission Presidency from the coalition backing current President Jean-Claude Juncker.

With the rise in the polls of Euroskeptic parties across Europe, Salvini and Orban can drive real change in the structure of the parties within the European Parliament. The European People’s Party, which Orban’s Fidesz party is a member of, is vulnerable to losing its senior position in any coalition because of the huge change in Italy’s electoral make-up along with that in Austria with the less radical Sebastian Kurz.

But, the big swing is on the table in Germany. Alternate for Germany (AfD) is now pushing up towards 20% nationally and the next hurdle for its growth is this weekend’s Bavarian state elections. If AfD out polls the Greens and denies the CSU a path to a coalition government without them then that could have spillover effects for Angela Merkel.

The latest polls have AfD averaging around 11% versus a strong push up to 18% by the Greens. The CSU has collapsed to just 35%. How accurate these polls are are anyone’s guess at this point, but given recent history I would not be surprised to see AfD outperform their polling numbers on Sunday.

http://theduran.com/italy-declares-war-on-merkel-and-the-eu/

CULTURAL MARXISM: The Bane of America’s Existence

Is Cultural Marxism America’s New Mainline Ideology?

Anthony Mueller

The Mises Institute

This theory says that the driving force behind the socialist revolution is not the proletariat – but the intellectuals.

While Marxism has largely disappeared from the workers’ movement, Marxist theory flourishes today in cultural institutions, in the academic world, and in the mass media. This “cultural Marxism” goes back to Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) and theFrankfurt School. The theorists of Marxism recognized that the proletariat would not play the expected historical role as a “revolutionary subject.” Therefore, for the revolution to happen, the movement must depend on the cultural leaders to destroy the existing, mainly Christian, culture and morality and then drive the disoriented masses to Communism as their new creed. The goal of this movement is to establish a world government in which the Marxist intellectuals have the final say. In this sense, the cultural Marxists are the continuation of what started with the Russian revolution.

Lenin and the Soviets

Led by Lenin, the perpetrators of the revolution regarded their victory in Russia only as the first step to the world revolution.The Russian Revolution was neither Russian nor proletarian. In 1917, the industrial workers in Russia represented only a small part of the workforce, which mainly consisted of peasantry. The Russian Revolution was not the result of a labor movement but of a group of professional revolutionaries . A closer look at the composition of the Bolshevist party and of the first governments of the Soviet state and its repressive apparatus reveals the true character of the Soviet revolution as a project that did not aim at freeing the Russian people from the Tsarist yoke but was to serve as the launchpad for the world revolution.

The experience of World War I and its aftermath showed that the Marxist concept of the “proletariat” as a revolutionary force was an illusion. At the example of the Soviet Union, one could also see that socialism could not function without a dictatorship. These considerations brought the leading Marxist thinkers to the conclusion that a different strategy would be required to establish socialism. Communist authors spread the insight that the socialist dictatorship must come in disguise. Before socialism can succeed, the existing culture must change. Control of the culture must precede political control.

Cultural Control Rises in Tandem with Political Control

Helping the neo-Marxists was the fact many of their efforts in taking control of culture happened parallel to the encroachment of the state on individual liberties. Over the past decades, at the same time when so-called political correctness has been on the rise, the American government obtained a vast arsenal of repressive instruments. Few Americans seem to know that the U.S. is still under emergency law that has been in force since George W. Bush used the executive privilege to declare a state of national emergency in 2001. In the same year, 9/11 opened also the path to push through the Patriot Act . From a score of around 95 points, the Freedom House “Aggregate Index of Freedom” of the United States has fallen to 86 points in 2018.

https://mises.org/wire/cultural-marxism-americas-new-mainline-ideology

>>3476920

Whatever you think, as long as it's there for all to see!

Cheers man!

Hillary Clinton: ‘The Way Trump Debated Me, It Was Imbued with Sexism’

On this weekend’s broadcast of CBS’s “Sunday Morning,” 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton complained the “way Trump debated” her was “imbued with sexism.”

When asked if she really has a “file on sexism in politics,” Clinton said, “I do. I do. It’s a file that tells a somewhat sobering story about how hard it is to break through the mindsets that people have. And it is difficult for many people, not just men, a lot of women, to think, wait a minute, this woman is going to be a governor or a member of Congress or my mayor or maybe even a president.”

She added, “If you watched the way Trump debated me, it was imbued with sexism. Making fun of me for preparing—that’s the old like, ‘Oh, yeah, the girl in the class who is always prepared, I don’t need to be prepared.'”

https://www.breitbart.com/video/2018/10/14/hillary-clinton-the-way-trump-debated-me-it-was-imbued-with-sexism/

Pushing division any chance she gets, fkn witch

>>3477230

"progressive values" ???

*not wrong in part

Catholic Pope Canonizes Previous Pope, Murdered Cardinal in Big Vatican Ceremony

The late Pope Paul VI and murdered Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, notorious icons of the Catholic Church whose life and works caused deep division among the hierarchy of the faithful, were canonized by Argentine-born Pope Francis on Sunday.

During a high-level church ceremony attended by an estimated 60,000, the Pope wore Romero's blood-stained rope belt, in commemoration of the latter's slaying while performing mass at the altar.

In the course of the ceremony, Pope Francis displayed Pope Paul VI's staff and chalice as a living reminder to "a poor church for the poor," according to Japan Times.

Enormous images of the two were unfurled on the outside of St. Peter's Basilica alongside five additional new saints, including two Catholic clergy members of the past 300 years, an orphan child of the 19th century, as well as a 20th-century and a 19th-century nun.

Romero's contribution to humanity included risking his life in the face of government repression to stand up for the rights of peasants in El Salvador. He was assassinated by a Salvadorian-born, United States Department of Defense-trained intelligence operative in 1980.

Pope Paul VI was, among other notable actions, the first Catholic Pontiff to visit Palestine, Jordan and the city of Jerusalem, a notable event in 1964.

Romero's ascension to Catholic sainthood remains a hot-button topic in El Salvador to this day, according to the Jesuit weekly America.

"It was like a dagger to the heart. I received threats," noted Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, who guided the process of Romero's canonization, cited by Japan Times.

Pope Paul VI was known to have encouraged Romero in demanding rights for the poor and uneducated in the tiny Central American country, a move that caused many a raised eyebrow among church leaders at the time.

Paul — who famously rejected the trappings of luxury provided by the second richest religious group on Earth — was also the first Pope to seek reform of the powerful Vatican Curia, a Catholic church governmental Cabinet, a work that Francis has continued.

The now-elevated Saint Paul is perhaps most notorious for reinstating the hated Catholic ban on the use of birth control — even though his advisors overwhelmingly voted against the move — enraging Catholics worldwide.

https://sputniknews.com/europe/201810151068884889-catholic-church-sainthood-decrees/

Child Sex Offender Busted After Illegally Crossing Arizona Border

Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents stopped another previously deported child sex offender from successfully re-entering the U.S. Immigration officers previously deported the Mexican national after a Florida court convicted him for sex offenses involving a child.

Ajo Station agents encountered the 41-year-old man after he illegally crossed the border near Why, Arizona. During a biometric background investigation at the station, agents identified the man as Jose Rivera-Fuentes, a Mexican national with a criminal history and a previous deportation, according to information obtained by Breitbart Border News from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials.

The agents learned that a court in Bradenton, Florida, convicted the Mexican man on a charge of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor in 2014. The court sentenced Rivera-Fuentes to one year in jail. Immigration officers removed him from the U.S. following his prison sentence.

The Mexican national now faces new felony charges for illegal re-entry after removal as a sex offender. If convicted, Rivera-Fuentes could face up to 20 years in a U.S. federal prison.

Border Patrol agents frequently arrest previously deported sex offenders and other criminal aliens who are attempting to re-enter the U.S.

Earlier this month, agents in the Tucson and Yuma Sectors stopped three criminal aliens from making their way back into the U.S., Breitbart Texas reported. Records revealed that two of the criminal aliens had convictions for sex offenses and the third has a conviction for kidnapping, according to CBP.

In September, Rio Grande Valley Sector agents stopped five previously deported sex offenders from successfully re-entering the U.S. from Mexico. Their crimes included sexual battery, sexual exploitation of a minor, lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14, and child pornography.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2018/10/14/child-sex-offender-busted-after-illegally-crossing-arizona-border/