9/11...Obama's Democrat Senate Partners in the Sellout to Iran

Today is the 14th anniversary of the attack on the New York City Trade Towers. The 9/11 jihadist terrorists killed 3,000 innocent victims as they slammed planes into the twin towers. For 7 years after 9/11, America fought back -- in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and tracked down those who participated in al-Qaida terrorist acts and had information that could be used to make America and the world safer as they faced the well-funded radical Islam organization. ~~~~~ Then, starting in November 2008, newly elected President Barack Obama began the systematic destruction of the progress made against al-Qaida and Islamic terrorism -- from his Cairo speech that unleashed the Moslem Brotherhood in Egypt - to his total troop withdrawal from Iraq - to his refusal to intervene to stop the Syrian conflict - to his release of terrorist detainees from Quantanamo - to his dereliction of duty in the Benghazi attacks - to his Taliban-pleasing announcement of a firm date for withdrawal from Afghanistan - to his trade of 5 Quantanamo terrorist detainees for the US soldier Bergdahl who is now officially accused of treason - to his continuing attacks on Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu - to his call for Israel to commit suicide by withdrawing to its pre-1967 borders - to his refusal to directly arm the Sunni or Kurdish Iraq fighters - to his stupifying sellout to Iran. That is the history of the past 7 years in America under Presidrnt Obama. ~~~~~ And what has the Obama surrender to jihadist terrorist Islam produced? ~~~~~ The latest issue of the "INSPIRE" magazine published by al-Qaida -- the organization pronounced dead by Obama -- has raised concerns among US law enforcement officials because it renews calls for the assassination of prominent American figures and urges more lone wolf terror attacks. Officials told CBS News they are troubled by the timing of the release of INSPIRE just days before the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, which INSPIRE refers to as "the blessed 9/11 operation." ~~~~~ Late yesterday, Iran Supreme Leader and Terrorist-in-Chief Ayatollah Khamenei celebrated the US Senate's approval of the Iran nuclear deal by saying : “After nuclear negotiations, the Zionist regime [Israel] said that they will not be worried about Iran in the next 25 years. I am telling you, first, you will not be around in 25 years’ time, and God willing, there will be no Zionist regime in 25 years. Second, during this period, the spirit of fighting, heroism and jihad will keep you worried every moment.” Ayatollah Khamenei also emphasized, as he has in past months, that he would not allow any new negotiations with the United States. Politically moderate government officials, including the foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, have raised the possibility of discussing a solution for the war in Syria with the United States and its allies. ~~~~~ And in their own almost ghoulish 2015 memorial to 9/11, 42 Democrat Senators chose to cut off debate and stop a vote on the Iran nuclear deal by filibustering on behalf of their leader, Barack Obama - an act that declared their firm support for his march toward surrender to jihadist terrorist Islam. ~~~~~ Dear readers, the GOP House under Speaker Boehner is taking up the world's cause by positioning itself to vigorously resist implementation of the Iran deal. We will have time to discuss this later. But today, let us pause to remember the 3,000 innocent souls lost at the twin towers -- let us remember the 40 American heroes who crashed Flight 93 and perished to save the White House and Congress -- let us give thanks for the brave American men and women who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, where 7,000 of them died and 50,000 were wounded. And when we have said farewell to the 14th anniversary of 9/11, let us hold up for all of America the list of those 42 despicable Democrat Senators who voted today to complete Obama's surrender to jihadst terrorist Islam. "Remember the Appeaser Senators" by defeating every one of them the next time their name is on a ballot. America has long since understood Obama's agenda. But America deserves more from its Senators than a sellout to terrorist anti-Semitic Iran. It is inadmissible that rogue state terrorism be handed nuclear weapons and their missile delivery systems by US Senators.

The EU Calls for Dignity for Refugees...Where Is EU Dignity for Greece?

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker urged in his first State of the European Union address that the EU deal with refugees with humanity and dignity. juncker said on Wednesday that the EU executive would offer better protection for refugees but also improve its frontier defenses and deport more illegal migrants. In his first annual address to the European Parliament as president, Juncker outlined an emergency plan for the compulsory distribution of 160,000 refugees among the 28 EU member states and promised a permanent asylum mechanism to cope with future crises. He urged Europeans to welcome the refugees and not be afraid. Juncker said Europe is a continent where almost everyone has been a refugee at some point. That refugees want to come to Europe, accordng to Juncker : "is something to be proud of and not something to fear." Juncker, a former Luxembourg prime minister, spoke for 80 minutes. Highlights included : "The Europe I want to live in is illustrated by those who want to help," he added denouncing calls to discriminate among refugees according to religion. Listing the refugee problem as first among a list of priorities, putting it before the economy, Ukraine, climate change and a looming vote on Britain's membership in the bloc, he said the crisis was caused by "war, terror and instability in our neighborhood." He said the Union is in a bad state : "We are not in a good place. There is a lack of Europe in the EU and there is a lack of union in the European Union. That has to change." ~~ "We Europeans should know and never forget why the right to asylum is one of the fundamental, most important rights. We should not forget that." ~~ "It is true that Europe cannot house all the misery in the world. But we have to put it into perspective. This still represents just 0.11% of the EU population. In Lebanon refugees represent 25% of the population which has just 1/5 of the wealth of the EU. Who are we to never make such comparisons?" Juncker said citizens of "safe countries" on a list to be issued would be subject to fast-track deportations if they breached EU immigration laws. He also urged EU member states to allow refugees to work from day one while their asylum applications are processed. ~~~~~ Juncker's plan faces opposition from several governments whose interior ministers will meet on Monday, but Juncker pledged to improve the management of the bloc's external frontiers, bolster its Frontex border agency and take "steps toward the creation of European coastguard and border guard systems." He also proposed a "more effective approach to return" - addressing complaints that too many people not eligible for asylum status remain in the EU indefinitely. Juncker reminded eastern EU member state citizens who object to mandatory distribution of refugees that when they were refugees fleeing Soviet repression in their countries, they had been welcomed in large numbers in western Europe. And he took a dig at Hungary's building of a frontier fence by saying desperate families fleeing Syria would cross any barrier and brave many dangers to escape their homeland. ~~~~~ There is much disagreement among EU states about taking in refugees under a quota system with financial penalties for refusing -- Denmark closed some of its train service, highways and border with Germany today to prevent an influx of refugees. The mounting scale of the human calamity on the bloc's frontiers -- and fears that discord might do damage to freedom of travel across Europe's internal borders -- has sparked some willingness to compromise after an earlier Juncker plan failed to be accepted in May. "This time, the Commission seems to be proposing a more comprehensive approach, also addressing the need to control the external frontiers better," said one EU diplomat whose government was among those in the east who argue that their society, unused to immigration, cannot take in large numbers. He added, "There is still a lot to negotiate. There is a lot we cannot accept. But the debate is now a lot less emotional." Also driving the EU toward some accord has been the firm position of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose government has taken in the greatest number of asylum seekers. She has called on poorer eastern neighbours who receive German-funded EU subsidies to show solidarity -- and warned that the Schengen system of open internal borders from which they benefit is under threat from chaotic movements of migrants across the bloc. "When Merkel needs something, and she plays it sensibly as she usually does, things start to move," said another senior EU diplomat from the formerly Communist east. While Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban remains vocally opposed to relocation quotas, his country will now benefit from the financial support scheme, having taken in tens of thousands. And Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz conceded on Tuesday that Warsaw could take in more than the 2,000 people it has said. EU officials have said countries could also be offered the chance to contribute financially rather than take in migrants. Britain has been critical of the EU approach but is exempt from the bloc's asylum policies -- because it chose not to be in the Schengen zone -- and will not take part, although Prime Minister David Cameron said this week it would accept over five years up to 20,000 Syrian children who are orphans or abandoned in Middle East refugee camps. Spain, which had complained its likely quota was too high, said on Tuesday it was ready to take what the European Union allocated to it. ~~~~~ It is good to hear Jean-Claude Juncker join Chancellor Merkel in trying to find places for the wave of Syrian refugees who will be flooding into Europe for an indefinite future. But, his emotional appeal to Europeans to show "humanity" and "dignity" in welcoming the refugees made me think of Greece, which has received 250,000 refugees, trying to manage the onslaught with little help from Juncker's EU. I was also struck by Juncker's emotional tone as he spoke of refugees. It was vastly different from his tone when he menaced Greece with collapse unless it complied with his draconian austerity bailout programs. Because of the lack of the EU's humanity and dignity in dealing with the Greek liquidity crisis, Greeks could easily be called refugees in their own homeland. Specifically, the Greek government was required to cut spending by €28 billion in 2010-2011, with a further cut of €13 billion in 2012-2014. Austerity packages, beginning in 2010, included cuts to public sector jobs and salaries and to pensions, as well as increases in indirect taxes and privatization of state-owned industries. By February 2012, 20,000 additional Greeks had been rendered homeless, and 20% of shops in the historic center of Athens were empty. And an estimated 1 in10 of the population of greater Athens was visiting a soup kitchen daily. In the last two years in Greece : (1) Health care spending has fallen from  9.3% of GDP in 2012 (meeting the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development average) to 5% today. (2) As many as 2.5 million people lack health insurance today, and some 800,000 are estimated to lack unemployment benefits and the means to access healthcare. (3) The suicide rate has increased by 35%. (4). In psychological surveys, "hopelessness," "helplessness," and a feeling of "being used as an experiment" are the major sentiments expressed by Greek adults. (5) Adult unemployment is at 30% and youth unemployment is above 50%. (6) Pensions have been cut by 40%, leaving many retired Greeks to live on less than €700 ($784) a month. (7) The unpopular 2015 bailout was pushed through the Greek parliament by Prime Minister Tsipras, costing him his majority and forcing new elections this month. ~~~~~ Dear readers, if charity begins at home, Juncker, Merkel and the rest of the EU leadership have failed miserably with Greece. If the EU can find €3.9 billion, and Germany an extra €10 billion in 2015 -- the current German annual cost per refugee is €12,000 to cover accommodation, meals, pocket money, health costs and administrative expenses -- for Syrian refugees, why can they not find the means to provide minimal food, shelter, healthcare and pensions for their Greek EU brothers and sisters? It is a disgrace that EU leaders have been allowed to create Greek misery without the application of humanity or dignity for Greek Europeans.

Tibet -- Lest We Forget China's Evil Face

China celebrated the 50th annuversary of its creation of the Tibet Autonomous Region yesterday. It was pure Chinese Communist propaganda -- highlighted by a tirade against Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Yu Zhengsheng, in charge of religious groups and ethnic minorities and number four in the ruling Communist Party, called the Dalai Lama -- who fled China in 1959 after a popular uprising against Chinese rule was viciously crushed -- a violent separatist. The 14th Dalai Lama, based in India since 1959, says he is merely seeking greater autonomy for his Himalayan homeland. The Chinese version that Yu gave on Tuesday was : "People of all ethnicities are steadfastly engaged in a struggle against separatism, continuously thwarting the Dalai clique and foreign hostile forces' splittist and sabotage activities." Yu spoke in front of Lhasa's grand Potala Palace, once the home of the Dalai Lama, and the highest palace in the world. Yu, who led the Chinese government delegation to Tibet, spoke to officials, Tibetans dressed in ethnic costumes and students waving Chinese flags. A procession of gaudy floats celebrating Communist Party achievements and others showing famous Tibet landmarks such as the Potala Palace paraded after the speeches. Earlier, Yu urged army, police and judicial staff in Tibet to be ready to "fight a protracted battle against the clique of the 14th Dalai Lama," Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported. The Global Times, a tabloid owned by the ruling Communist Party's official newspaper the People's Daily, called the Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, a "cheater" and a "cruel ruler in exile." ~~~~~ Theis year marks several sensitive anniversaries for the mountain nation that China has ruled with an iron fist since 1950, when Communist troops marched in and took control in what Beijing calls a "peaceful liberation." It also marks the 80th birthday of the Dalai Lama and the 20th anniversary of the disappearance of a young Tibetan who was chosen by the Dalai Lama as the Panchen Lama, the second-highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism. The Panchen Lama and his family disappeared into Chinese custody and have not surfaced even once during the last 20 years. On Sunday, a senior Chinese official said the young man, six years old when he disappeared, was "living a normal life," although China has always refused to give any evidence that the Panchen Lama is alive. On Monday, the Free Tibet rights group denounced the celebrations, saying they "may be dressed up in 21st century PR but they belong in the era of Mao," referring to the founder of Communist China Mao Zedong. Tibet remains under heavy security, with visits by foreign media tightly restricted, making an independent assessment of the situation difficult. ~~~~~ The tragedy of Tibet began in 1950. Tibet was a sovereign state. The Tibetans were a distinct people with their own language, culture, religion, history and customs. But, in 1950, Tibet was invaded by the army of The People's Republic of China. It has been occupied by the Communist Chinese since then. The Tibetan people refused to accept Chinese occupation and unrest escalated, culminating in the Tibetan Uprising of 1959. According to Chinese sources 80,000 Tibetans died in Central Tibet during and immediately after the uprising. It is estimated that since 1959, Tibetan deaths as a direct result of Chinese invasion and occupation are between 400,000 and 1.5 million. In 1959, many thousands of Tibetans, including the Dalai Lama, sought asylum in India. The exodus of Tibetans from Tibet continues, wirh several thousand escaping every year. Today, more than 200,000 Tibetans, including the Dalai Lama, live in exile in India, Nepal, Bhutan Switzerland, the United States and Canada, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere. ~~~~~ In 1960, after reviewing accounts of Chinese atrocities in Tibet, including the widespread use of summary execution, torture and general abuse that included the forced sterilization of women, the International Commission of Jurists found that the Chinese were committing genocide and that 16 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were being violated by the Chinese. The Commission reported that the Chinese were guilty of "the most pernicious crime that any individual or nation can be accused of, viz. a wilful attempt to annihilate an entire people." ~~~~~ In the decades following 1959, particularly during the Cultural Revolution that began in 1966, there was wholesale destruction of Tibetan buildings and religious artifacts. All but 12 of Tibet's 6,000 monasteries were destroyed, many of them used as target practice by Chinese artillery. A thousand years' worth of priceless Buddhist literature, religious paintings and artifacts were either destroyed or have been sold for millions of dollars on the international market by the Chinese to raise foreign currency and to wipe out Tibet's rich heritage. ~~~~~ Since the 1980s, the Chinese have had the goal of re-populating Tibet with Chinese. Today, Tibetans are a minority in their own country -- and inducements of higher pay and other privileges continue to bring a stream of Chinese settlers into Tibet. The goal is to forcibly seal China's territorial claims over Tibet by means of a massive and irreversible population shift. In May 1993, an official Chinese government document, leaked to the Tibetan Government in Exile, indicated that Chinese authorities proposed another massive population transfer as one element in what they termed "a final solution" to their "Tibetan problem." In 1996, the South China Morning Post reported official sources in Beijing as saying that a further 500,000 ethnic Chinese would be moved into Tibet. This large-scale population transfer has resulted in a very high inflation rate in Tibet, a two-class society sharply divided along racial lines, and high unemployment among ethnic Tibetans who don't speak the required Chinese. ~~~~~ Further, Tibet, once a peaceful buffer state between India and China, has been transformed into a militarized zone. There are at least 300,000 Chinese troops stationed in Tibet at any tine. A part of China's arsenal of nuclear missiles are located at 5 different Tibet missile bases. It is believed that approximately 3,000 religious and political prisoners are held in prisons and forced labor camps where torture is common. There are reports that Tibetan women are subject en masse to forced abortions and sterilization. Russian dissident leader Alexander Solzhenitsyn described China's administration of Tibet as "more brutal and inhumane than any other communist regime in the world." There are strong concerns, voiced internationally, that China is using Tibet as a dumping ground for nuclear waste. In the 1990s, Tibetan farmers complained that "fertilizer" they were forced to use on their fields destroyed crops and killed birds and animals. Tibet's natural resources and ecology are being irreversibly destroyed. Wildlife, including the Tibetan snow leopard and the wild blue Tibetan sheep, has been decimated. Forests have been clear-cut and transported to China -- since 1950, 68% of Tibet's forests have been felled, causing grave concern in Bangladesh and India, now both frequently devastated by flooding. China severely restricts the teaching and study of Buddhism, an essential core of Tibetan culture. The Communist Party regulates the admission of monks and nuns into the monasteries and "political education" is compulsory. Though for a period after the Cultural Revolution there appeared to be a liberalizing of the Chinese attitude to religious life, a new report released by the International Campaign for Tibet indicates that China has shifted its religious policy to actively suppress and restrict further religious growth, including halting the unauthorized rebuilding of monasteries destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, setting limits on the number of monks and nuns in all monasteries, enforcing restrictions on youths joining monasteries, prohibiting Tibetan Party members from practising religion, and strengthening the control of the government and the Communist Party over each monastery. Chinese authorities reportedly prohibit pictures of the Dalai Lama in monasteries and temples, as well as schools and private homes. There have been reports of house-to-house searches checking for possession of photographs of the Dalai Lama. ~~~~~ Dear readers, the chilling truth behind the rape and destruction of Tibet is that the world sees China as "too big to fail" and Tibet as "too small to be saved." The failure to save Tibet is the greatest sin committed against innocence by the 20th century "free world."

Europe and Russia Refocus the Need to Act in Syria

World attention has refocused on Syria, largely as a result of the wave of Syrian migrants and refugees flooding into Europe. The goal is to stop the flow by finding a way to bring peace to war-torn Syria. ~~~~~ US and coalition forces carried out 11 air strikes on the ISIS in Iraq on Sunday, as well as four strikes targeting ISIS in Syria, according to a statement released on Monday. Attacks in Iraq were scattered, hitting tactical units and destroying vehicles and weapons. An air strike near Tuz destroyed 49 ISIS fighting positions, as well as four tunnels and a weapons cddache, according to a coalition statement. The attacks in Syria were near Raqqa, Mar'a and Tamakh, hitting a staging area and tactical unit, and also destroying five excavators used by ISIS. The air strikes killed at least 16 militants, including five foreign jihadists. Islamist insurgents bombarded central Damascus, killing one civilian and wounding others, according to al-Assad state TV. Meanwhile, because of an ISIS surge, the al-Assad regime has lost "the last oilfield in Syria," according to the Syrian Observatory, which tracks the conflict in Syria through a network of sources on the ground. Social media comments said fighting had surged in the last two to three days and the rebels had taken the oilfield on Sunday, located northwest of the rebel-held ancient city of Palmyra, close to Syria's main natural gas fields and multi-million-dollar extraction facilities. The army, which has been fighting to retake the city and surrounding areas, secured the oil field's perimeter in June. ~~~~~ And, out of step with the world's renewed seeking a Syria peace, Russia has sent a military advance team to Syria and is taking other steps the US fears may signal that President Vladimir Putin is planning to vastly expand his military support for Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, as reported by Obama administration officials Friday. The Russian moves -- the recent transport of prefabricated housing units for hundreds of people to a Syrian airfield and the delivery of a portable air traffic control station there -- complicate Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts to enlist Putin’s support for a diplomatic solution in Syria. The Russians have also filed military overflight requests with neighboring countries through September. Greece has received a request from the US to deny Russia the use of Greek airspace for aid flights to Syria, a spokesman for the Greek foreign ministry said on Monday, adding that the request was being examined. Russian newswire RIA Novosti earlier said Greece had refused the US request, citing a diplomatic source. American officials acknowledge that they are not certain of Russia’s intentions, but some say the temporary housing suggests that Russia could deploy as many as 1,000 advisors or other military personnel to the airfield near the Assad family’s ancestral home. The airfield serves Latakia, Syria’s principal port city. The Russian Foreign Ministry denounced on Monday as "falsifications and fabrications" media reports that it is changing its stance on the war in Syria or on the future of President al-Assad, whom it has shielded throughout the conflict. The Russian ministry statement said : "We don't appoint or dismiss foreign presidents, neither on our own or in cahoots with anyone else." Russian officials have not confirmed recent media reports of Moscow increasing its military assistance to al-Assad, saying only that it has long been supplying Damascus with arms and training to help it fight Islamist radicals, and will continue to do so. ~~~~~ While Russia appears to be upgrading its presence in Syria on behalf of al-Assad, the United States is reviewing its options for battling ISIS in Syria, the New York Times reported on Monday. The Pentagon is looking into moving more fighters into safer zones with greater popular support, providing better intelligence, increasing the number of trained rebels and improving their skills. The classified options are circulating among top Defense Department officials, the NYT reported, citing sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. ~~~~~ But, despite the growing search for a Syrian peace, recent analysis has reinforced the view among Syria experts that there is no solution in sight, with one of the biggest obstacles an unbridgeable international divide over President al-Assad's future, leaving Syria looking forward to ever greater fragmentation into territorial enclaves, with only one of them the fiefdom of al-Assad - a diminishing Damascus-based state where he appears confident of survival because of backing from his Russian and Iranian allies. While some Western officials say even al-Assad's allies now accept that he cannot win back and stabilize all of Syria, Russia's support for him is even stronger. Russia's foreign minister recently repeated the Russian view that al-Assad is a legitimate leader, rejecting the US position to the contrary as "counterproductive," and comparing the West's approach to Syria to its failures in Iraq and Libya. Russia also confirmed that it continues to supply al-Assad with weapons. A Syrian military official told Reuters there has recently been a "big shift" in Russian military support, including new weapons and training : “Our ties are always developing but in these days a qualitative shift has happened. We call it a qualitative shift in Arabic, which means big." The New York Times says American intelligence analysts told it that Russia had sent a military advance team to Syria. Secretary Kerry expressed his concern about the reports of an increased Russian involvement in a telephone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday. The logjam over al-Assad remains the biggest obstacle to breaking a diplomatic impasse around peace efforts and it is a big complication in the fight against the ISIS group, which has flourished in the chaos caused by the Syrian conflict that has killed a quarter of a million people and driven another 11 million from their homes. ~~~~~ In addition the recent flurry of diplomatic activity followed the conclusion of Iran's nuclear deal with world powers and included high-level meetings between states with a stake in the conflict, with Russia taking the lead. "There is no real peace solution because of the unlimited support from Russia and Iran," said Bashar al-Zoubi, head of one of the biggest rebel groups fighting al-Assad in southern Syria, speaking to Reuters via Whatsapp from Syria. Al-Assad has rejected the idea of imminent political progress, saying the war would only be near its end when states "conspiring against Syria" cease doing so - a reference to Saudi Arabia and Turkey.Iranian officials travel to Damascus frequently, underlining Teheran's support for an ally who has protected its interests in the Levant in alliance with Hezbollah, the Lebanese Iran-backed jihadist group fighting alongside al-Assad's forces in Syria. Moscow and Teheran's backing for al-Assad is supported by the fact that they see no alternative leader who can guarantee their interests. Al-Assad may control only 20% of Syria, but they see him as the cornerstone of what remains of the state. including the military and security forces which many Syria experts believe would fragment were he gone. Russia is pushing for the Syrian government to be included in international efforts to fight ISIS. Saudi Arabia is one of the states rejecting the idea. A senior Russian diplomatic source told Reuters :"Proposals by our partners for the change of regime in Damascus are illegitimate. To he replaced by what? I don't think they have any idea. There used to be no terrorists in Iraq, the same in Libya. And now the Libyan state has fallen apart and the terrorists are roaming there." The new US special envoy for Syria Michael Ratney, gave the opposite view after his August 28 visit to Moscow. A US statement said : "We are cognizant that Assad’s continued tenure fuels extremism and inflames tensions in the region. That is why a political transition is not only necessary for the good of the people of Syria, but an important part of the fight to defeat the extremists," While insisting al-Assad must go, US officials are not specific about when or how. That leaves open the possibility of a transition that begins while he is still in office - an almost impossible idea for the rebels fighting him. In any case, Russia has rejected the idea of any prenegotiated exit for al-Assad. In comments closest in weeks to outlining what Moscow might see as an acceptable way forward on dealing with al-Assad, Russia said on Friday the Syrian president was ready to hold early parliamentary elections and share power with moderate opposition. ~~~~~ Dear readers, we continue to go round and round diplomatically while millions of Syrians flee to Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Europe. Nothing related to Syria is even close to being resolved -- and won't be until President Obama decides to act.