Sunday, November 16, 2014

Report: Amanda Bynes Threatens Parents in New Audio Recording

Report: Amanda Bynes Threatens Parents in New Audio Recording


Amanda Bynes
Amanda Bynes threated to kill her parents in an audio recording obtained by TMZ.
The website posted what it claims is a recording of the actress taped last week by one of Bynes' roommates. In the recording, Bynes says, "I haven't decided how I want to murder [my father] ... Nothing would give me greater pleasure than, like, slitting his throat. That is what I would love to do."
"So like I'm not gonna, like, ever do such a thing, but, like, I call my mom and, like, I threaten to kill her, and I threaten to slit her wrist, and I threaten to, like, burn down her house and, like, I said a bunch of sh-- like that," Bynes continues.
"I'm gonna continue telling you guys I'm gonna murder my family, like, 'cause that's the thing that, like, they're in control of my money, and that's why I don't have much money right now," the actress says. Bynes' complaints on the recording echo her recent tweets in which she complains about the latest conservatorship she's been placed under.
Bynes also went on a cruel rant against the roommate who shared the tape, allegedly with the intention that it might incite Bynes to get medical help. "I will make fun of you, but it will be subtle... like, I will shoot you in the face with an ugly insult. Like, congratulations -- that's what you guys get. ... You're the unhottest guy ever... You're so gay it hurts my feelings," Bynes told her roommate.
After the tapes were released, Bynes apologized for verbally attacking her roommate, but not her parents. "Oh my god I am so sorry I called my friend wayne ugly he's not ugly," Bynes tweeted. "I apologize to everyone that I called ugly but everyone has been making me act so ugly by posting horrible shots of me that i cant help but."


G20 summit: Much promised, less delivered

G20 summit: Much promised, less delivered

Climate protesters in BrisbaneClimate change finally made it onto the closing G20 agenda
The G20 summit of world leaders has concluded with a communique, a fancy way of describing a joint statement, that has both delivered more, but also somewhat less, than expected.
Where they've delivered more is by putting issues such as climate change in the message from world leaders. Those weren't on the formal agenda as the host, Australian PM Tony Abbott, had nixed climate change, for one.
But, after US President Obama mentioned the urgency of dealing with climate change at a speech in Brisbane before the summit, it's unsurprising that it was discussed after all.
Ebola is also in the final statement.
So, the G20 didn't just focus on the purely economic issues. I wrote before about how most of these issues are linked to the world economy in any case.
But, where they have delivered less is with respect to concrete commitments on those issues.
For instance, the gist of the G20 statement on climate and Ebola is that they are concerned, and support effective action - without committing money or quantitative targets. Maybe that's too much to expect given that these originally weren't on the agenda.
Fighting tax evasion was on the agenda, and the G20 agreed to automatically share tax information, but I've already heard criticism from Transparency International and others that it doesn't go far enough because the information won't be in the public domain.
Going for growth
Of course, economic growth was top of the agenda, and is, as expected, the main focus of the G20 statement.
World leaders reaffirmed their goal of lifting the GDP of G20 economies - which represent 85% of the world's economy - by an additional 2% within four years, by 2018. It's equivalent to adding $2 trillion to global output, and they say that will create millions of jobs.
How they can achieve that, of course, is the big question.
The statement says that they'll deliver jobs through increasing "investment, trade and competition".
Each country will have their own plans, but the mechanisms outlined include getting another 100 million women into the workforce, increasing trade, and setting up a Global Infrastructure Hub.
What is notable is a focus on youth unemployment, with details to come next year. They also emphasised a commitment to poverty eradication and reducing inequality, which are certainly important.
Who's paying is, of course, key.
My understanding is that private businesses are being targeted for investment funds in infrastructure, for instance. We'll see more detail soon enough when individual countries work through their country plans in the coming months.
Jobless recovery
Raising global growth by 2% has been an aim of the G20 all year, and in prior years in various forms, yet the eurozone economy is teetering and emerging markets such as China and Brazil have been slowing. So, another statement may ring a bit hollow.
On the other hand, it's unclear what co-ordinated action could be taken since it's not 2008/09 where governments and central banks were jointly acting to save the global financial system.
I'm told that countries will monitor each other's actions to ensure that there's no negative impact on others. That may be what's realistic, but also it is also unsatisfying to those who have been waiting for their governments to do more jointly to create jobs.
After all, how to address the so-called jobless recovery, where output has recovered but employment has not, is a key issue in a number of major economies. Perhaps when the G20's employment working group reports back in 2015, there will be more detail.
However, if it takes until November in 2015 at the G20 in Turkey to see specific policies to address the jobless recovery that has been with us for more than six years, taxpayers may begin to balk at paying for these big summits that promise much but tend to deliver somewhat less.

Putin plans to leave G-20 early after criticism

Putin plans to leave G-20 early after criticism






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COMMENTSJoin the Discussion
Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to leave the G-20 summit early, a member of his delegation said, after Western leaders blasted Moscow on Saturday for the crisis in Ukraine and threatened more sanctions.
The Russian official told Reuters that Putin planned to skip a working session on Sunday at the two-day summit in Brisbane and bring forward his departure because he needed to attend meetings in Moscow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin
Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin
Russia denied it was involved in a recent escalation of military activity in Ukraine, where fighting has claimed more than 4,000 lives, but faced strong rebukes from Western leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
"I guess I'll shake your hand but I have only one thing to say to you: you need to get out of Ukraine," Harper told Putin at the summit, according to his spokesman Jason MacDonald.
Putin's response to the comment wasn't positive, MacDonald said in an email, without elaborating.
Obama said Russian aggression against Ukraine was a threat to the world, while the European Council demanded Moscow withdraw troops and weapons from the neighboring nation and put pressure on rebels there to accept a ceasefire.
Speaking on the sidelines of the summit, Obama placed security and climate change at the center stage of the leaders meeting, overshadowing talks on how to lift flagging global economic growth.
Obama said the United States was at the forefront of "opposing Russia's aggression against Ukraine, which is a threat to the world, as we saw in the appalling shoot-down of MH17".
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the European Union was considering further financial sanctions against Russian individuals because of the crisis in Ukraine.
"The present situation is not satisfying," Merkel told reporters at the summit. "At present the listing of further persons is on the agenda."
Europe's foreign ministers will meet on Monday to assess the situation in Ukraine and whether further steps including additional sanctions were needed against Russia, said European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.
Putin's isolation at the G-20 summit was also evident with his placing on the outer edge for the formal leaders photograph. While Obama and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping were met by Australia's governor general and attorney general when they arrived in Brisbane, Putin was met by the assistant defense minister.
Despite being under intense pressure, Putin was all smiles, shaking hands with host Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who had threatened to "shirt front", or physically confront, him over the downing of Malaysian airliner MH17 over Ukraine, in which 28 Australians died.
Only topic discussed
A Kremlin spokesman said the Ukraine crisis was the only topic discussed at a one-on-one meeting between Putin and British Prime Minister David Cameron, but he added both expressed interest in "ending confrontation" and rebuilding relations. Putin also met French President Francois Hollande, and both agreed to protect their ties from the effects of sanctions, the spokesman said.
Outside the summit, Ukrainian Australians staged an anti-Putin protest, wearing headbands reading "Putin, Killer".
Draped with the flags of the nations that lost citizens when the flight MH17 was shot down, the demonstrators lay on a large Ukrainian flag, in what they said was a protest at the "murderous acts" Russia's president was responsible for.
G-20 host Australia had hoped that the two-day summit would focus on global economic growth, not security or the environment.
Obama also said the United States would renew commitment to its strategic pivot to the Asia-Pacific in comments seen as a veiled warning to China.
Obama insisted that Asia's security order must not be based on "coercion or intimidation ... where big nations bully the small, but on alliances for mutual security".
He did not explicitly point the finger at China, but there was little doubt that he was alluding to Beijing's maritime disputes and growing concern about its military build-up.
Despite Australia's reluctance to allow climate change on the summit agenda after it abolished a tax on carbon emissions, Obama spent a large part of his speech urging action on the environment. He pledged a $3 billion U.S. contribution to an international fund to help poor countries cope with the effects of climate change.
But Australia stuck to its economic script.
A plan to increase global economic growth by an additional 2 percentage points over the next five years was on track, Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey said.
"This ambition translates into about $2 trillion in additional global economic activity and millions of new jobs," he said.

The NHS starts to implode – right on target as predicted in 2004

4bitNEWS

The NHS starts to implode – right on target as predicted in 2004

  1. It’s not often The Daily Mail comes to the defence of the NHS. It spends many column inches damning the service and all of its doctors as the mouthpiece of a government whose Raison d’être is of a privatisation agenda. However, even The Daily mail has conceded with it’s headline “Full extent of NHS cash crisis revealed” – The NHS is on a ‘knife edge’ which could lead to ‘unexpected disasters’, a senior boss has admitted”.
  2. It continues – Paul Baumann, the health service’s finance chief, gave a stark warning after it emerged hospital waiting times are at their worst for six-and-a-half years. It came as a report revealed the number of hospitals needing emergency government bailouts has doubled in 12 months.
  3. The National Audit Office said 31 trusts had handouts last year, costing more than half a billion pounds. MPs and health experts said the situation was ‘deeply alarming’. Figures released yesterday show 3.2million patients are waiting for operations, scans and treatment – the most since April 2008. This includes 37,712 waiting for surgery longer than the Government target of 18 weeks – nearly double the number in May 2010.
  4. So, there we have it. Proof that the NHS is finally imploding under this governments deliberate mismanagement that will require the magical powers of private vested interests to solve all of it’s woes. In just a few years time all NHS services will be up for bid and the people of Britain will wonder why they allowed such a dreadful act of societal betrayal to happen. But, they were warned weren’t they! Tory MP Oliver Letwin predicted in 2004 that the NHS would no longer exists after 5 years of a Tory government. And, it’s smack on target; just one little election in it’s way.

Controversial TTIP could have disastrous results for the British economy

4bitNEWS

Controversial TTIP could have disastrous results for the British economy

New research has found that the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership or TTIP could have disastrous results for the British economy.
The free trade agreement between the EU and the US is touted by David Cameron as providing a much-needed boost to the UK economy. However a peer- reviewed research paper by Jeronim Capaldo of Tufts University, Massachusetts, predicts that over a ten-year period impacts would include:
• The average working person in Britain would be over £3,300 worse off as a result of lower wages.
• Europe as a whole would lose nearly 600,000 jobs – more job losses than in the crisis years of 2010 and 2011.
• Ordinary workers would lose out but profits and rents would increase. In total 7% of GDP would shift from labour to capital.
A representative from World Development Movement, a group campaigning against TTIP, said: “TTIP falls down even on its own terms, as it’s supposed to bolster growth in the EU, but in fact it will result in fewer jobs and lower wages. This is truly a deal for the 1%, and we have to stop it.”
Meanwhile the Stop TTIP Coalition, made up of over 300 campaign groups, today filed a lawsuit against the European Commission over its decision in September to reject a European Citizens’ Initiative against TTIP signed by more than a million EU citizens. Despite the Commission’s rejection of the European Citizen’s Initiative, campaign groups and trade unions launched asecond self-organised petition calling on the Commission to scrap the trade deal that has so far garnered almost 850,000 signatures in just over a month.

Putin: Economic blockade of E. Ukraine a ‘big mistake’

Putin: Economic blockade of E. Ukraine a ‘big mistake’

Published time: November 16, 2014 04:15
Edited time: November 16, 2014 05:21

Russian President Vladimir Putin (RIA Novosti / Mikhail Klimentiev)
Russian President Vladimir Putin (RIA Novosti / Mikhail Klimentiev)
Ukraine’s decision to sever economic ties with rebel-held areas and stop funding local public services is a big mistake which does not help the locals gain trust in Kiev, Russian President Vladimir Putin told journalists at the G20 summit.
“I don’t understand why Kiev authorities are cutting off those territories with their own hands. Well one can understand – to save money. But it’s not the time or the case to save money on,” he said.
Putin compared Kiev’s debacle with the Donetsk and Lugansk regions to Russia’s own armed conflict in the Chechen Republic that erupted several times since the early 1990s and officially ended in April 2009. But even at the worst moments, Moscow did not stop paying pensions and other social benefits to the Chechen people, he said.

“At moments that appeared to be stupid, because the people who were in control there not only embezzled that money but also could use them for obviously less-than-noble goals. But we did it due to our moral obligations to the common people. And in the end it turned out to be the right decision, as Chechens appreciated what Russia did to support the common people,” Putin said.

The Russian leader said he hopes the decision of the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko will be amended according to the demands of real life.

Kiev decided to take a number of measures in the rebel-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine, including suspending human rights protection for their residents, freezing public services, and banning banks from operating there. The stifling economic measures were ordered in a decree by President Petro Poroshenko on Friday.

The move was in retaliation for the elections that the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics held earlier in November in defiance of Kiev’s prohibition.

Sanctions, oil, G20 talks

Putin was speaking in Australia’s Brisbane, where he took part in the G20 summit.
During the G20 meetings, there was a common understanding that economic sanctions against Russia harm both their targets and the countries imposing them, and a way out of the current situation is urgently needed, the Russian President told journalists following the second day of talks.
“I believe there is a common understanding that this statement does not only deserve a right to exist, but is the only true one,” Putin said.

While many media outlets, both in Australia and in other countries, implied that Putin had an icy welcome at G20 summit, the actual atmosphere at the event was quite cordial, the Russian leader said.
Putin praised the attitude of Australians in Brisbane and the hospitality of the country’s Prime Minister Tony Abbot, who played host to the event.
“I took a look at the local press and other media after I arrived here. There was some whipping up of the tension. The actual reality and the virtual life as reported by the media – at least in this particular case – differed a lot,” Putin stressed.
Putin said that while virtually every bilateral meeting he had at the summit focused on Ukraine, the general meetings did not even mention it. Instead, the agenda included infrastructure investment and introducing a new institution into the global energy industry, among other topics.

Speaking of Russia’s own standing in a world of lowering oil prices and after the Russian national currency experienced rapid devaluation, Putin assured that the nation has enough resilience to weather the storm. Due to the dollar’s rise, oil was traded higher than the Russian 2014 budget expected in the first half of the year, so the current low price won’t force a correction, he said.

“We will see what happens next year. If this continues, we’ll correct our spending, but it won’t affect our social obligations,” Putin said.

Putin’s early leave

Vladimir Putin is leaving the G20 summit early. Following an avalance of media speculations over the motives for his early departure, he explained the move by saying he had a long trip back to Moscow before returning to work on Monday.

“Just to avoid speculations here, I am not going to the events tomorrow. I am leaving the finance minister in my place, who will report on Russia’s effort in fighting the Ebola outbreak,”
 he said.

“The trip from here to Vladivostok is nine hours. And nine hours more from Vladivostok to Moscow. I’d like to get home before going to work on Monday. And have at least four or five hours of sleep. So I told that to Tony [Abbott] and he bore with me. There are no other considerations here.”


Earlier, some media implied that Putin would leave the summit early because other world leaders pressured him over Russia’s position on the Ukrainian crisis. Putin denied the reported hostility, saying that the reality of the summit was different from what the media described, and the atmosphere was constructive.

With new congressional power, which windmill will Republicans tilt at first?

With new congressional power, which windmill will Republicans tilt at first?

Shannyn Moore
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OPINION: Republicans now have control of both the House and the Senate, and it should be interesting to see what they have planned besides more gridlock. Pictured: Early voting ballots feeding into a tally machine at a state elections office in Anchorage. November 11, 2014Loren Holmes / ADN

I really hate pumpkin-spice-every-single-possible-product-you-can-think-of season. I guess we're down to two holidays for the last few months of the year -- Happy Pumpkin Spice and Merry Christmas. I heard Christmas music before Halloween this year. Our elections have become the same way, now starting the next round before all the ballots are counted. Before I tear into a rant about that, could we all agree to just campaigning six months out from the election?
Considering how saturated the airwaves have been all over the country for over a year, it's over, folks. The lowest amount of voters showed up at the polls since 1942. The reason for low voter turnout then was something called a World War. Little resources were spared for elections then -- we had to beat the Germans, not each other.
Parties for volunteers and campaigners have been happening. Frankly, the winners and losers deserve recognition for their work; after all, democracy is really a verb. (I wonder what the Yes on 2 people had at their party...) Anyway, all that is wrapping up. If you've been to campaign offices, you have seen the countdown calendars on the walls. If you ask workers how they are doing, their general response is to ask how many days are left.
Well, the fewest people in 70 years have spoken, and time's up. Republicans across the country showed up and they now have the House and the Senate.
Just because you can win (or buy) a campaign race doesn't mean you know how to govern, so this could get interesting. I for one am cheering them on. See, it does me no good to see a political party fail if it is at the expense of my fellow citizens.
If the last 50 votes in the House to repeal Obamacare are any indicator, I assume the Senate will take that up shortly. Really? I know, I'm master of the obvious here, but they have the votes. What's their solution? I've been hearing about how terrible health care for poor people is since the Affordable Care Act was passed, but I haven't heard what the plan to replace it is. I'm dying to know. I thought the ACA was wimpy from the beginning. Will the Republicans replace it with a Public Option? Please? How about Medicare E? The E is for Everyone! I can't imagine they'd propose to take away something with no replacement. Inquiring minds want to know.
Will the Environmental Protection Agency finally be defunded? Oh, those overreaching federal agencies that stifle all those projects will finally be over? Think of all those corporations that can finally sing "Free at Last!" and be done with environmental standards.
Immigration was a big stick in national campaigns. What's the solution? Obama has been called the "deporter-in-chief" for a reason -- his administration has deported more undocumented workers than any of his predecessors. Not good enough? Will the Republicans round up the 12 million people living unpapered in America and send them back? Brace yourselves, Canada! Can we send them on a train? Can we send them in the rain? Can we send them on a boat? Can we build a needed moat? (My apologies, Dr. Seuss.)
The Keystone XL pipeline is a promise the Republicans will try to deliver. Well, what will that do to the price of oil? I mean, does Alaska really want a bunch of Canadian oil competing with ours on the open market? This could hit us where it hurts -- our state pocketbook. The price of oil is dropping fast enough, to a level which makes pulling Canadian oil uneconomical. Will Alaska's senators vote for a pipeline that will hurt Alaska's bottom line? They have to look out for ... oh, that's right, they have to dance with the one who brought them.
Well, I'm curious to see what solutions the controlling party will present to the American public; goodness knows they've been pointing at problems long enough.
Shannyn Moore is a radio broadcaster.