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Magical thinking: Witches to cast 'binding spell' on Trump today

Mass spell ritual for Trump
© Via Twitter/Kitty_Lemiew
Those who don't like Donald Trump and the current Republican administration are mobilizing in all sorts of ways. They're speaking up in town halls and calling their representatives. They're organizing protests and demonstrations. And, for the magically-inclined, they're casting spells.

Starting at midnight on Friday, witches around the country are calling for a mass spell to be cast on Donald Trump every night of a waning crescent moon until he's driven from office.

The spell was publicized by Michael M. Hughes, who told ELLE.com that it was tweaked from multiple spells he saw going around private witchcraft groups. He published it on Extra News Feed because he felt "it would be very welcome to a lot of people." It quickly spread, with events being formed around the country and support on social media.

Hughes explained that he chose a binding spell because "we're not wishing harm on anyone, we're just trying to stop the harm they're doing.It's not the equivalent of punching a Nazi in the face, it's the equivalent of tying him up and taking his bullhorn away."

The ritual itself is pretty standard magic working, binding Trump from doing harm to others and to himself, rather than asking any forces to do harm to him. There are objects to represent the elements and to represent Trump himself. The tarot card of the Tower represents ambitions built on lies, which are struck down by a lightning flash of truth. For those who believe in witchcraft, it looks to be an effective spell.

Che Guevara

Constituents literally turn their backs on GOP Senator

Sen. Bill Cassidy
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) was forced to abandon his PowerPoint presentation on the GOP's Obamacare replacement plan at his town hall in Metairie, Louisiana, on Wednesday, after a packed room of angry voters drowned him out and literally turned their backs on him.

From beginning to end, the event was a disaster for Cassidy. By the time the senator arrived 30 minutes late, voters had already co-opted the town hall and turned it into a rally for the Affordable Care Act. Protesters outside the building held signs demanding that Republicans "Support the ACA" and "Dump Trump," while the crowd of 180 people inside the room chanted "Shame!" as Cassidy entered.

Cassidy then tried to present a slideshow on his plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, but voters drowned him out with boos and demanded that he take questions from the audience instead of giving them information they could read on the GOP's website. One woman sat in the front row knitting a pink "pussyhat," a symbol of the women-led resistance against Trump, and several voters stood up and faced the back of the room to protest the senator's scripted presentation.

Comment: Obama's Affordable Care Act is far from perfect, the whole health care system needs a major overhaul. Can Trump come up with a better health care plan? Time will tell.


Piggy Bank

Millions across UK are just one unpaid bill away from the abyss

pay day loans
© Andy Hall for the Observer
‘While the wealthiest have the comfort of a bigger safety net than ever, others get payday loans, credit cards and rent arrears.’
Across the UK, families are being forced into the red by one small, unexpected cost that triggers a downward spiral into precarious poverty.

As the cocktail of long-term austerity, rising living costs and a slumping post-Brexit economy hits, what's really frightening is the crisis that is brewing but is barely being noticed.

Look at this week's finding that one in four families now have less than £95 in savings. That's staggering, not simply because it gives an insight into how large swaths of families in Britain are clinging on financially in a climate of low wages, cut benefits and high rents, but also because it offers us a warning of how little it will take to push them over the edge.

Briefcase

Kim Dotcom's $2.4bn lawsuit against NZ govt could benefit WikiLeaks

 Kim Dotcom
© Mark Coote / Reuters
Dotcom asked for suggestions on what to spend his potential legal winnings on.

Providing financial support to WikiLeaks is amongst a number of options Kim Dotcom will consider if he wins a $2.4 billion lawsuit against the New Zealand government. He's taking the action after a state case against him was found to be critically flawed.

Taking to Twitter, Dotcom asked the public to vote for the cause to which he should contribute any financial award from his lawsuit. Assisting WikiLeaks is one of the choices.

Arrow Down

LA's most "exclusive" hedonistic sex party once again coming to NYC

eyes wide shut

Truth is more disturbing than fiction.
LA's hottest sex party is coming to New York.

Snctm — the members-only club where rich and powerful pleasure-seekers indulge their wildest fantasies — is set to touch down at clandestine penthouses throughout the city for monthly masquerades, starting April 1.

"Very excited to build our membership there, and see what evolves this year!" its 45-year-old founder, Damon Lawner, tells The Post.

Threesomes, erotic fire-eaters, masks and more have dominated the scene at Snctm, now in its fifth year of business. As The Post previously reported, its A-list clientele — who include Bill Maher and Gwyneth Paltrow — on a typical evening may encounter pretty young things wearing metallic pasties and black badges that read "Eat me" or "Touch me" on their décolletage, while holding platters of bite-size brownies.

Comment: "Erotic theater." "Path toward enlightenment." No matter how Lawner may try and dress it up, decadent debauchery is still just debauchery.


Pistol

'Get out of my country': Kansan man shot and killed a Garmin engineer

Srinivas Kuchibhotla
© Unknown
Srinivas Kuchibhotla
A Kansas man was charged today after the fatal shooting of a Garmin engineer at a bar Wednesday night, police said.

WITNESS SAID PURINTON YELLED "GET OUT OF MY COUNTRY"

The suspect in the shooting, Adam Purinton, was drinking at the bar in Olathe, Kansas, at about 7:15PM that night, the Kansas City Star reported. A witness said he yelled "get out of my country" to two of the victims, reportedly saying the men, believed to originally be from India, were "Middle Eastern."

At a press conference, a local prosecutor said Purinton has been charged with one count of premeditated first degree murder, and two counts of attempted premeditated first degree murder. He is awaiting extradition to Kansas from Missouri, according to officials. An FBI official said the agency is investigating with local police. It's unclear for now if Purinton will be charged with a federal hate crime. He is under a $2 million bond.

Beaker

Salafist group member who planned to 'blow up police or soldiers' arrested in Germany

German Police car
© Christian Charisius / Reuters
German police have detained a young man after finding chemicals used for making explosives in his apartment. The suspect admitted that he planned a bomb attack on police officers or soldiers, prosecutors and police said in a joint statement.

A German citizen, 26, whose name has not been revealed yet, was detained on Wednesday in the German town of Northeim, in the northwestern state of Lower Saxony. He is suspected of preparing to commit a "grave violent offense against the state" and of attempted murder, the statement issued by the regional police department in Goettingen and the regional Prosecutor General's Office in Celle says.

Family

'Made in Syria': How Syria struggles to save its devastated economy

Shoppers in Syrian store
Every month, the authorities organize the event dubbed "Made in Syria". The desired purpose of this occasion is to provide the consumers with local goods, sold at affordable prices. This is a rather important measure as the purchasing power parity has fallen drastically over the past few years due to the ongoing situation in the country. The circumstances have forced the consumers to gradually change their purchasing habits as the war has taken a significant toll on the income of the citizens. As a result most citizens can no longer afford the goods they were able to afford prior to the start of war and can only dream of buying certain "luxuries" that for some may have previously been the daily goods.

Already in October the festivity displayed a rather diverse offering of goods, most of which were clothing and food products, made available by more than 110 companies attending the event. The largest price reduction of the goods was seen between 35-50%, while the smallest ones being between 20-25%. Some of the visitors, however, said that not all products had their prices reduced when compared with the prices on the regular market and the clothing and footwear products did usually not see a price reduction higher than 7%.

Laptop

Russian hackers propaganda destroyed: Brit arrested for cyberattack on Germany blamed on Moscow

Deutsche Telekom sign graphic
© Dado Ruvic / Reuters
A UK national has been detained in London on suspicion of carrying out a cyber-attack last year that left 1 million Deutsche Telekom customers without service. At the time, German Chancellor Angela Merkel hinted that Russia might be behind the attack.

The 29-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday at Luton airport in southern England by officers from the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) at the request of the German police, The Local reported.

"The Briton stands accused of attempted computer sabotage in a particularly serious case," German federal police and prosecutors said in a statement, adding that they will now seek the hacker's extradition.

Smoking

Anti-Smoking Fascism: Doctors in the US are refusing to operate on smokers - and the trend is growing

smoking
© Gerald Herbert AP
An irate man contacted me recently to complain he'd been turned down for back surgery because he's a smoker.

"It's just not right," said the Charlotte man, who suffers from chronic hip and leg pain. "I need this surgery. It's to the point where I can't walk around the block with my dogs."

He acknowledged smoking is a "bad habit," but after 35 years, he's not sure he can quit. And he doesn't think he should have to.

"It didn't used to be this way," he said. "Everybody's got on their little righteous path.... My grandfathers on both sides smoked their entire lives. They didn't die until one of them was 92, and one of them was 88."

No doubt, genetics play a huge role in how healthy we are and how long we live. But personal behavior is also a big factor.