text
string | label
int64 | __index_level_0__
int64 |
|---|---|---|
President Trump visited Michigan to promote the auto industry and jobs. While he was at Willow Run, he had a chance for a photo with the governor of Michigan. A priceless exchange happened between Trump and Snyder. Trump looked over and asked the governor to come over even though you didn t endorse me . The best part is when Trump says, I never forget Hahaha! People from Michigan will appreciate this because Snyder is a Republican governor who in reality is a Democrat. He refused to endorse Trump during the election! When Trump held his very last rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Snyder was a no-show. What a putz! This is why we love Trump he calls em as he sees em!
| 0
| 9,254
|
How mad is Trump that millions of women made him look like a fool? Mad enough to kill, apparently. While he can t order the executions of American women for defying him yet President Pussygrabber did the next best thing. He signed an executive order that will lead to the deaths of multitudes of women and girls worldwide.On Monday, The Donald continued the path of destruction he began with his first executive order attacking Obamacare by unleashing an assault on the women and girls of the world. One of Trump s growing number of executive orders reinstates the global gag rule, which blocks federal funding for international, nongovernmental organizations that provide or promote abortions.In short, if your organization were to partner with Planned Parenthood to inform girls and women across the globe about reproductive health like, say, the Clinton Foundation, people like Trump could argue that you are promoting abortion by mentioning it as a medically legitimate option.The policy was originally developed by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. Ever since then, Presidents who care about human rights like Obama and Clinton have been rescinding it. Republicans, however, being part of a party that combats women s rights at every turn, typically reinstate it.How harmful is it? Mother Jones reports:According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, women in poor countries suffer the most from this policy. A 2003 analysis found that the rule leads to unsafe abortions, which are the second-leading cause of death for women of reproductive age in Ethiopia and account for more than 40 percent of the maternal mortality rate in Kenya. Peru has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Latin America, in part because of its high rate of clandestine abortions.The United States currently spends about $600 million annually on family planning and reproductive health programs in foreign countries. The Guttmacher Institute, a think tank that studies reproductive health care, estimates that a loss of this funding would translate to 38,000 more abortions. Marie Stopes International, one of USAID s biggest family planning partners, estimates that the global gag rule will lead to an additional 2.2 million abortions worldwide.Trump s order comes on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade and directly follows a nationwide three-million women march against Trump and his hate. This didn t go unnoticed in Trump s homeland of Twitterville:1/21: 2.5 million women march.1/22: 44th anniversary of Roe v. Wade1/23: Trump starts rolling back women's rightshttps://t.co/mqQwVonBQQ Kate Black (@KateBlackDC) January 23, 2017Trump this weekend: 'Didn't see the point' for this Women's MarchTrump today: Reinstates Global Gag Rule, hurting women worldwide Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) January 23, 2017This is the vindictive asshole's idea of punishment for the women's march, I presume https://t.co/4830aPJIuB Dina/Alex (@SkulldelaCreme) January 23, 2017two days after the women's march and trump already reinstates the global gag rule . Paige Calian (@paigecalz) January 23, 2017This is why we march Trump just reinstated the global gag rule on abortion and family planning. https://t.co/v7YLBOS32G via @voxdotcom Daveon Coleman (@DaveonMarjan) January 23, 2017I'd bet my life that this is 100 percent retaliation for the Womens March https://t.co/yin1QVEveM#WomensMarch George D. (@xdelmar59) January 23, 2017Trump reinstates the gag rule = "revenge" on the women's march. I think it is clearer than ever that his first impulse is revenge. Gwendolyn Ann Smith (@gwenners) January 23, 2017millions of women around the world march in part for reproductive rights and two days later trump reinstates the global gag rule nasty woman (@kaarahoffmaan) January 23, 2017It's pretty clear that Trump reinstating the Global Gag Rule is directly in reaction to the Women's March that took place around the world. Sepie (@sepiemoini) January 23, 2017Was this retaliation? Well, many people are saying including a former British spy that Trump once paid some nice Russian ladies to pee on a bed for him because Obama had slept there at one point. Past that, he has displayed an almost impressive level of vindictiveness in all of his dealings, ever. Unfortunately, this is exactly the sort of thing we can expect from a small-minded, thin-skinned, bigoted bully who was handed too much power by a minority of the population and over the protests of more people than he was able to attract to his inauguration.Be sure to spend every day telling him to go fuck himself. It s the only way we re going to get through this.Featured image by Joe Raedle via Getty Images/screengrab
| 0
| 1,561
|
US Citizens should never have to beg members of Congress to put the safety and security of their families before the donors who support their campaigns. The fact that Congress has allowed our current illegal crisis to spin this far out of control is unforgivable. Border Agents who spend years training to apprehend illegal aliens who cross our borders are not only being told to stand down by the Obama regime, they are also being asked to stand by and watch these aliens being transported to cities across America in a coordinated effort to populate red states with Democrat voters. This Father s Day, fathers whose sons were murdered by illegal aliens are calling on House Speaker Paul Ryan to resign describing his policies as treasonous and taking particular objection to Ryan s recent attempts to undermine Donald Trump s proposals to enforce U.S. immigration law. I would invite Speaker Ryan to forsake spending Father s Day with his kids to come down here to Houston and visit the place I will spend every Father s Day for the rest of my life my American son s grave. This way Speaker Ryan can see first hand what pandering to the cheap illegal labor lobby means to Americans who can t afford to put a security fence up around their house, said Dan Golvach.Golvach s 25-year-old son, Spencer, was murdered by an illegal alien. Spencer was shot in the head while stopped at a red light. The best thing Ryan could do to protect his family from what my family is experiencing is resign today! Golvach added. His policies are not only treasonous to us, they are also treasonous to any American that ever happens to be sitting at a red light like Spencer was. This wasn t Syria or Iraq. It was the neighborhood I grew up in. Do your kids ever sit at red lights, Mr. Speaker? Billy Inman, whose 16-year-old son was murdered by an illegal alien, said that it was a disgrace for Paul Ryan to suggest that he may sue a President Trump for using executive authority to pause Muslim migration. He s more upset with Trump than he is about what happened to our families, Inman said. If Ryan sues Trump on the Muslim ban, we could sue him and most of our elected officials for not stopping illegal aliens from crossing the southern border. In addition to Father s Day, this week marks the 16th anniversary of the death of Inman s child. Inman s 16-year-old son Dustin was murdered while he and his family were on their way to celebrate an early Father s Day family fishing trip. An illegal alien rear-ended the family s vehicle at over 60 mph. Dustin s parents, Billy and Kathy, were both knocked unconscious. They were unable to attend their son s funeral because they were in accident-induced comas for weeks after their son s death.Dustin s killer remains at large today.Inman sees it as symbolic that Donald Trump the first national politician to make their family feel heard launched his presidential campaign on the same day Inman lost his son fifteen years ago. I d like for Ryan to try wearing my shoes for a week. I don t think he d make it a day, Inman said while discussing the anguish he and his wife go through daily. Ryan is just one of Obama s puppets. I don t consider him a Republican, said George Wilkerson, whose 18-year-old son Joshua was tied up, beaten, strangled, set on fire, and tortured to death by his illegal alien classmate while he was on his way home from school.Wilkerson described Ryan s policies as treasonous and voiced his own frustrations about Ryan s tone:His tone is totally against Americans as far as I m concerned. He s been paid by the taxpayers, but he hasn t done anything for them. He s been there for two decades. He s not doing his job. He s not looking out for Americans. He s doing more for foreign citizens than he is for his own American citizens.Addressing Ryan s recent denunciations of Trump s immigration proposals, Wilkerson said, Ryan doesn t speak for me. He hasn t done anything to help us. By contrast, Wilkerson said that Trump has helped his family, but that it s starting to get harder when you have people like Ryan standing up and telling the American public that Trump is wrong on this issue. Paul Ryan has a two-decade history of pushing open borders immigration policies and fighting to maintain illegal immigrants access to benefits paid for by U.S. taxpayers. Ryan s 2015 omnibus spending bill fully funded sanctuary cities; and earlier this week, Ryan seemed to suggest that the reason the House has not pushed Kate s Law named for Kate Steinle is because he s opposed to clogging up our jails with illegal alien drunk drivers. Ryan s immigration agenda that caters to his GOP donors, who benefit from illegals being here, is totally wrong, Wilkerson said. We re in tough times. For him to sit there and not be for Americans and for America is absurd I m supporting Paul Nehlen. Absolutely, I want Paul Nehlen to take Paul Ryan s place . We need more people like Nehlen. Via: Breitbart News
| 0
| 1,670
|
A U.S. Republican Party website selling campaign stickers and other political gear is among thousands of websites infected with a credit-card stealing virus that sent data to a server in Russia, according to a Dutch security researcher. A page on the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s website selling stickers, T-shirts and baseball caps was infected with a hard-to-detect virus that collected all information entered on orders, including buyers’ names and addresses, credit card numbers and merchandise ordered, according to the researcher, Willem de Groot. De Groot, co-founder of Dutch e-commerce company Byte, said that he learned of the infection after conducting a web scan to find sites infected with the virus. “I don’t think it was a targeted attack,” de Groot told Reuters. Other victims include clothing retailers, car manufacturers and local shops. He declined to identify them, saying he had not had time to notify them of the infection. The NRSC took down the website on Thursday and acknowledged that it had been targeted by a “skimming operation”. NRSC spokeswoman Andrea Bozek said a vendor discovered “an issue yesterday that affected an extremely small number of supporters.” “The problem was fixed immediately and we are contacting those who were affected,” she said in a statement. She provided no further details. The NRSC, a party operation dedicated to getting Republicans elected to the Senate, said it found no evidence that its primary donation system was hacked. The numbers affected account for less than 0.0018 percent of online donations to the NRSC, a committee aide said. The committee had received more than $65 million in political contributions for the 2016 campaign, as of Aug. 31, according to Federal Election Commission records. Researcher De Groot documented the attack in a video on his blog, in which he demonstrates that entering an order on the NRSC site causes the malware to send its details to a server in Russia. bit.ly/2dxNS6z The malware was embedded into the site’s code, which can be viewed using a common web browser, according to de Groot. A search of archived versions of the set led him to determine that it had been infected since at least March of this year, he said. The infection was earlier reported by the Dutch website Follow the Money, www.ftm.nl.
| 1
| 6,087
|
U.S. President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser on Friday said the nation’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord will help keep energy markets competitive, allowing for a potential comeback in coal prices and the U.S. coal industry. Speaking in an interview on CNBC, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn said that despite competition from cheap natural gas, “at some point in the cycle, coal will be competitive again,” adding: “We need to keep our options available to have the cheapest available energy” on a global market.
| 1
| 6,669
|
The top Democrat on the Senate environment committee on Monday asked the Environmental Protection Agency’s internal watchdog to audit a recent trip to Morocco by the agency’s head to determine if it was in line with the EPA’s mission. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, in a trip to Morocco last week, promoted U.S. liquefied natural gas. Senator Tom Carper asked EPA Inspector General Arthur Elkins to expand its current audit of Pruitt’s travel to include the trip to Morocco as part of a U.S. trade mission. “I request that you review the purpose of Administrator Pruitt’s travels to determine whether his activities during each trip are in line with EPA’s mission ‘to protect human health and the environment,’” Carper wrote in the letter to Elkins. Traditionally, the EPA, which regulates clean air and water, does not promote the U.S. energy industry. Last week, the EPA announced that Pruitt attended bilateral meetings in Morocco where he “outlined U.S. environmental priorities for updating the Environmental Work Plan under the U.S.-Morocco Free Trade Agreement and the potential benefit of liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports on Morocco’s economy.” Liquefied natural gas is produced by cooling natural gas until it is condensed into a liquid, allowing it to be shipped via tanker instead of moved by pipeline. It is reconverted into gas at the other end. When asked why the head of the EPA was involved in touting LNG, EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox said Pruitt discussed the role of U.S. technology and innovation abroad, “including but not limited to LNG.” It “only serves to emphasize the importance this administration has placed on promoting U.S. businesses,” Wilcox said. Carper said the Morocco travel has cost taxpayers $40,000 and that gas exports do not fall within the agency’s jurisdiction. The Inspector General’s office is already reviewing all travel by Pruitt conducted until Sept. 30 after Democratic lawmakers asked for a review of Pruitt’s frequent travels to Oklahoma, his home state.
| 1
| 5,933
|
Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski pardoned former authoritarian leader Alberto Fujimori late on Sunday, triggering Christmas Eve street clashes as protesters denounced the decision as part of a crude political deal. The decision clears Fujimori of convictions for human rights crimes and graft when his right-wing government was in power from 1990 to 2000, and could define Kuczynski s legacy and rewrite political alliances. At least two ministers in Kuczynski s cabinet who objected to the pardon told him they wanted to resign, and Kuczynski might reshuffle the cabinet as early as this week, a government source said. Two ruling party lawmakers quit his party as his political group planned next steps. Kuczynski, a former Wall Street banker who vowed as a candidate not to pardon Fujimori, based his decision on a medical review that found Fujimori suffered from a progressive, degenerative and incurable disease , according to a statement from the president s office. Late on Sunday, Fujimori was taken to hospital from prison by ambulance to treat a drop in blood pressure and abnormal heart beat. But many in Peru saw the pardon as part of a quid pro quo. Three days earlier, Fujimori s loyalists - led by his lawmaker son Kenji - unexpectedly saved Kuczynski from a vote in Congress that nearly removed him from office. In a video Kenji shared on social media, a gray-haired Fujimori, connected to tubes in hospital, was seen smiling after reading Kuczynski s announcement of the pardon on a cellphone with Kenji. To save his own skin he cut a deal with Fujimori s supporters to infamously pardon a corrupt killer, said Veronika Mendoza, a leftist leader who competed against Kuczynski in last year s presidential election. Kuczynski s center-right government has repeatedly denied that a pardon for Fujimori was part of political negotiations. Fujimori is a deeply divisive figure in Peru. While many consider him a corrupt dictator, others credit him with ending an economic crisis and bloody leftist insurgency when in power. He s the best president Peru ever had, said Maria Luisa Cuculiza, a friend and former minister of Fujimori, adding that he no longer had any political ambitions. He doesn t want to return to politics. He just wants to be a good grandfather, Cuculiza told Reuters by telephone. Police fired teargas at scores of Fujimori s opponents in downtown Lima, who waved pictures of the victims of a bloody counterinsurgency campaign during his term. Officers in riot gear stood guard at Kuczynski s house in the capital s San Isidro financial district as protesters called for the march to make its way there. Fujimori s family and supporters cheered the pardon as a long-overdue vindication for a misunderstood hero. Holding a vigil at the hospital where Fujimori remained late on Sunday, his followers waved banners reading Freedom for Fujimori! But the pardon was a blow to the relatives of victims, prosecutors and human rights activists who helped put Fujimori behind bars in a lengthy judicial process that earned Peru global plaudits for fighting impunity. Kuczynski, you ve betrayed justice, democracy and victims. History will never forgive you, said Indira Huilca, a leftist lawmaker whose union leader father was shot dead in 1992 in what the Inter-American Court of Human Rights deemed an extrajudicial killing. Kuczynski, who like Fujimori is 79, ran for office to cap a prestigious career in finance and public administration. The pardon may expose him to allegations of ideological bias as he leads regional criticism of leftist Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whom he has called a dictator. The pardon might also prompt one of the biggest political realignments in Peru since Fujimori fled to his parents homeland of Japan in 2000 as a corruption scandal brought his decade in power to an end. Fujimori was extradited back to Peru in 2007 and later found guilty of commanding death squads that massacred civilians, bribing lawmakers and having a hand in the kidnapping a journalist, among other crimes. Despite his downfall, the right-wing populist movement that Fujimori built has remained one of the most potent political forces in Peru. His eldest daughter, Keiko, leads the opposition party Popular Force that controls Congress, while Kenji has courted ties with Kuczynski s government as he challenges his sister s past decade of leadership of their father s populist following. On Thursday, Kenji led a surprise defection in Popular Force that deprived Keiko s followers of the votes they needed to remove Kuczynski from office in the wake of a graft scandal. We re eternally grateful to you, Kenji told Kuczynski on Twitter, noting that he was speaking for Fujimori s family. Kenji said Fujimori was recovering in intensive care and would not likely go home for a few days. As the pardon inflamed long-dormant political tension in Peru, a representative of the political arm of the Maoist-inspired rebel group Shining Path called for Kuczynski to release its historic leader. Freedom for Dr Abimael Guzman Reinoso! Guzman s attorney, Alfredo Crespo, wrote in a message to journalists. Enough of hate and persecution!
| 1
| 8,829
|
The trend of tragic gun violence in America s schools continues, this time with a child from Dallas, Texas who brought a gun to school and shot himself. The kid was 15 years old, and he was at the school outside of school hours for a conference. According to Dallas Independent School District s police chief, Craig Miller, the reason the gun was not detected on the school s metal detector was because it wasn t being checked the way it usually is during normal operating times: The metal detectors are monitored differently after school starts. With this incident, perhaps they should rethink that policy. The lucky thing is that the kid s injuries are not life-threatening, and the shooting was accidental. The .22 caliber pistol was apparently on his person in his first period class, and it went off, shooting him in the arm and leg, causing serious, but not life threatening injuries. The school tweeted out the following statement regarding the shooting:The student was injured when he inadvertently shot himself with a single-shot revolver after the first class period had ended.The student arrived at school today with this for (an) unplanned conference with school administrators. Because of the circumstance, the procedures for the metal detectors was not applied.The school was then placed on lockdown, and everyone on the scene was ordered to shelter in place. According to local officials, that term means the following: Shelter-in-place means to take immediate shelter where you are at home, work, school, or in between. The lockdown was taken out of effect that afternoon, but many questions remain as to why and how a gun got onto that campus and into that school. When asked for answers by understandably concerned parents, Craig Miller said: I really don t know right now. It s part of the ongoing investigation. Everyone involved was lucky this time. Next time, that may not be the case. Who the hell knows what kind of plans that kid had when he chose to carry that pistol into his school? Considering the history of that, this quite disturbing. It seems that Chief Miller and other local authorities need to update their policies. Further, this is just another incident that shows how much we need stricter gun laws.Watch a news report on the incident below:Featured image via Wikipedia
| 0
| 7,945
|
Poland s new prime minister said on Thursday he expected the European Commission to launch an unprecedented punishment procedure against Warsaw next week after months of wrangling over the rule of law. Several thousand people gathered in Poland s largest towns on Thursday evening to protest against a judiciary system overhaul, while the upper chamber of parliament discussed the proposed legislation. Mateusz Morawiecki, who took over as Poland s premier this week, has defended the judicial changes pushed over two years by his predecessor from the same Law and Justice (PiS) party, saying they were necessary to heal the courts. Western European Union peers, the bloc s executive Commission, opposition at home and democracy advocates say the reforms undermine court independence by putting them under more direct government control. Under the legislation, parliament would have a virtual free hand in choosing members of the National Judiciary Council (KRS), a body that decides judicial appointments and promotions - a right earlier reserved chiefly for the judges themselves. A second bill envisages lowering the mandatory retirement age for Supreme Court judges to 65 years from 70, which would force a significant part of them to leave. This, as well as the eurosceptic, nationalist PiS s changes to the state media, have prompted the Commission to threaten for many months to launch the so-called Article 7 against Warsaw. PiS faced renewed accusations that it was muzzling free media after Poland s media regulator slapped a $415,000 fine on a leading, U.S.-owned news broadcaster TVN24 over its coverage of opposition protests in parliament last year. Morawiecki rejected the view that the penalty amounted to an assault on the freedom of media in Poland, saying the country of 38 million people enjoyed full media pluralism. He expected TVN to challenge the move in courts which would make the final call. PiS has also locked horns with the EU over large-scale logging in the unique Bialowieza forest, which Warsaw says is necessary to keep the woods healthy but Brussels and environmental groups say violate wildlife protection laws. Bitter feuds over migration - which Morawiecki on Thursday called a political hot potato - have added to the growing isolation of the bloc s largest ex-communist country since PiS won elections in late 2015. Article 7 would see Poland s government denounced as undemocratic and could lead to the suspension of Warsaw s voting rights in the EU. The latter, however, is unlikely as it would require the unanimous backing of all the other EU states, something PiS ally Hungary has vowed to block. But Morawiecki, speaking ahead of his first summit of EU leaders in Brussels, seemed to accept that the blow was coming. If a process has started and, as far as I understand, the decision has already been made that next Wednesday the European Commission plans to start (the procedure), then it will most likely be triggered, he told reporters. From the start of such an unfair procedure for us, until it ends, we will certainly talk to our partners. A senior EU official said the Commission s head, Jean-Claude Juncker would still seek to dissuade Warsaw from going ahead with the two judiciary laws, which were passed by Poland s lower chamber of parliament. They must still go through the PiS-dominated upper house and be signed by the PiS-allied president to take effect. If the court changes go through then we will trigger Article 7, the senior official said. If the changes are postponed until January, then we will see. Morawiecki stuck to his guns over the courts and Poland s refusal to host some of the refugees who reach the bloc. He said Poland would respect the final ruling of the bloc s top court on the Bialowieza forest. So far, Warsaw has continued the logging despite an interim order by the court to stop immediately. Morawiecki added he would seek to convince France to soften its stance on a reform of the bloc s labor laws. President Emmanuel Macron wants them tightened because he sees them as giving too much of a competitive edge to cheaper labor from the poorer eastern Europe at the expense of France s own workers.
| 1
| 3,508
|
Generally, it s considered rather unprofessional to comment on someone s looks rather than their actions or words, but it s hard not to notice one very strange and unusual occurrence. Throughout the decades, Donald Trump skin pallor has turned from the normal white guy shade of beige to a color which is best represented by a pumpkin.Now, the rings around his eyes pretty much prove that Trump either spends time in tanning beds or he is a fan of fake spray tans, either of which would involve tiny goggles. Well, according to a Mother Jones expose, it could be either, but that s not the news. The news is why Trump seems to be such a fan of fake tans and it gives you a glimpse into the type of cronyism we could expect if Trump were to become president.Trump is good friends with an Indiana businessman named Steve Hilbert. In 2006, Hilbert became the CEO of New Sunshine, a company that makes tanning beds, spray tanning booths, tanning lotions, and bronzers.Trump and Hilbert have a lot in common. They are the same age. They are both rich. They both change wives about as often as Trump supporters change underwear (sorry) and they both have hideous, garish taste in decorating. Hilbert, when he was an insurance CEO, was one of the country s highest paid and he even helicoptered to work a whole two miles.The businessman reportedly met his sixth and current wife in the early 1990s, when she jumped topless out of a cake at a party for one of his stepsons. The cake story may be apocryphal, but Tomisue Hilbert, who is the same age as Melania, was indeed a 23-year-old topless dancer and a single mother when she married Steve.The Hilberts once lived in a three-story, 23,000 square-foot faux-French mansion dubbed Le Chateau Renaissance, which was located on a 33-acre compound outside Indianapolis that included a 15,000-square-foot sports barn with a full-size reproduction of the Indiana University basketball court. The mansion, once valued at $25 million, featured Trumpesque gold-plated bathroom fixtures and French crystal chandeliers. Hand-painted murals adorned a dome above the entryway, including one depicting a toga-clad Steve Hilbert as an ancient deity.The men had been friends for nearly 20 years when they entered into a business deal together. They bought the General Motors Building in Manhattan for $800 million. Hilbert put up far more money than Trump did ($200 million vs. $11 million plus there was a third partner) but somehow, Trump received a 50 percent interest in the building. He also put his name on the building.The two men, along with their wives du jour, also socialize together. They stay in each other s vacation homes. They attend each other s multiple weddings.After a disastrous departure from his company, Conseco, Hilbert started the tanning business. While Mother Jones doesn t know for sure that Trump uses his products, they do say this:This is also around the time that Trump started to turn orange. Did the Hilberts get Trump into tanning? Does he use New Sunshine spray tans or tanning bed bronzers? (Reviewers have suggested that turning orange a rich shade of burnt orange, in the words of one can be a distinct side effect of using such products.) The Trump campaign did not respond to questions about whether Trump used New Sunshine tanning products. Questions sent by email and FedEx to Hilbert s Indiana home went unanswered. It s clear, though, that Trump is familiar with New Sunshine s wares. He promoted the company s tanning products on The Celebrity Apprentice in two episodes.There s more to the story, which includes some pretty shady business deals, but at least we might now know why Trump is that awful shade of orange.Featured image via John Sommers II/Getty Images
| 0
| 2,002
|
Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for U.S. president, has tapped senior adviser Paul Manafort to be campaign chairman and chief strategist, CNN’s chief Washington correspondent said in a tweet on Thursday. In his tweet, CNN’s Jake Tapper cited campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks.
| 1
| 5,866
|
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Wednesday that the European Union and the United States would continue to work together following Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president. “EU-U.S. ties are deeper than any change in politics. We’ll continue to work together, rediscovering the strength of Europe,” Mogherini, high representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said in a tweet. EU officials and diplomats said European governments may need to strengthen their own cooperation if a Trump administration pulls back from international commitments.
| 1
| 168
|
How elite leftists celebrate America s Independence Day The Kennedy clan gathered at their Hyannis Port compound on Cape Cod over the weekend for their annual Fourth of July festivities, and took some time to attack Donald Trump.Robert F. Kennedy Jr. s daughter Kathleen, between known as Kick, posted a photos of a pinata of The Donald from a family party over the weekend. It s yuge party!, wrote Kick in the caption of the Instagram post, which also showed some of her family members milling about in the background.She later deleted the Instagram post just before 11am on Monday.Via: Daily Mail
| 0
| 2,588
|
Like mother like daughter? Chelsea is very difficult according to insiders. We know from former Clintonites that Hillary can cuss like a sailor and really hammer people so perhaps this is a case of YOU ARE WHAT YOU KNOW CHELSEA KNOWS BEING DIFFICULT TO WORK WITH Chelsea Clinton is so unpleasant to colleagues, she s causing high turnover at the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, sources say. Several top staffers have left the foundation since Chelsea came onBoard as vice chairman in 2011. A lot of people left because she was there. A lot of people left because she didn t want them there, an insider told me. She is very difficult. Onetime CEO Bruce Lindsey was pushed upstairs to the position of chairman of the board two years ago, so that Chelsea could bring in her McKinsey colleague Eric Braverman. He [Braverman] was her boy, but he tried to hire his own communications professional and actually tried to run the place. He didn t understand that that wasn t what he was supposed to be doing, said my source. He was pushed out. Matt McKenna was Chelsea s spokesman, and then he wasn t. Now he works for Uber. Ginny Ehrlich, the founding CEO of the Clinton Health Matters Initiative, now works for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.Via: NY Post
| 0
| 5,905
|
A California Republican state lawmaker is challenging the legality of a move by Democrats in the legislature to hire former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to help in any legal battles with President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. Assembly member Kevin Kiley has requested a formal ruling from state lawyers on whether the decision by Democratic legislative leaders to hire Holder and his firm, Covington & Burling, for $25,000 a month violated a provision in the state’s constitution that bans hiring outside counsel for work the state’s own lawyers can do. “People might have differing feelings about Eric Holder and about the incoming presidential administration, but all of us should be able to agree that as legislators we have a duty to abide by the law,” Kiley, an attorney, said in a phone interview on Monday. Kiley’s request came on the eve of hearings in the Democratic-led legislature on the nomination of U.S. Representative Xavier Becerra as state attorney general, another move by Democrats to position California to defend its liberal policies against the Republican Trump. America’s most populous state voted heavily for Democrat Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 presidential election. Under the Trump administration, which takes office on Jan. 20, California is expected to take a role similar to that played by Texas, Kansas and other conservative states during Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration. Those states mounted legal challenges to Obama’s executive orders and federal policies on such issues as healthcare, immigration and the environment. California Republicans have been mostly quiet on Democratic Governor Jerry Brown’s nomination of Becerra. But the hiring of Holder, who was Obama’s attorney general from 2009 to 2015, prompted an outpouring of protest from Republican lawmakers. “Democrats should focus on solving these real-world problems instead of wasting tax-payer money to score political points before the president-elect even takes office,” Assembly Republican leader Chad Mayes said in a statement. Kevin Liao, a spokesman for Democratic state Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon said on Monday his office had conferred with the state Legislative Counsel and other legal sources before hiring Holder’s firm. He disagreed the hiring was prohibited, saying the constitutional ban referred to hiring by the executive branch of government and not the legislature. Liao added that legislature needed legal advice from attorneys experienced in dealing with federal agencies and federal law - cases in which the state attorney general’s office does not specialize.
| 1
| 9,529
|
THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS! YOU WON T BELIEVE THIS!
| 0
| 6,384
|
North Korea’s Kim Jong Un “will be tested like never before,” U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday as the two leaders continued to trade insults and Pyongyang threatened to test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean. “Kim Jong Un of North Korea, who is obviously a madman who doesn’t mind starving or killing his people, will be tested like never before,” Trump tweeted, one day after announcing additional sanctions on Pyongyang.
| 1
| 7,824
|
Filmstar Angelina Jolie has condemned sexual violence inflicted on Rohingya women in Myanmar s Rakhine State, where a military counter-insurgency operation has sent hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees across the border to Bangladesh. More than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Buddhist-majority Myanmar since late August, driven out by the military s actions that a top United Nations official has described as a classic case of ethnic cleansing . Jolie, a special envoy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told a Bangladesh delegation in the Canadian city of Vancouver that she planned to visit the Rohingya victims of sexual violence. Later she mentioned accordingly in her keynote speech about the sexual violence faced by almost each female Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh and condemned the armed conflict in Myanmar, Bangladesh s foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday. It gave no details of Jolie s proposed trip. On Thursday, New York-based Human Rights Watch accused Myanmar security forces of committing widespread rape against women and girls as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing. The allegation echoes an accusation this week by Pramila Patten, the U.N. special envoy on sexual violence in conflict, who said sexual violence was being commanded, orchestrated and perpetrated by the Armed Forces of Myanmar. Myanmar s army released a report on Monday denying all allegations of rape and killings by security forces, days after replacing the general in charge of the operation. In parliament on Wednesday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh would overcome obstacles to resolve the Rohingya crisis, with the help of the international community. I strongly believe we will find a peaceful solution to the unprecedented crisis with the help of the international community, despite various obstacles, she said. There were already about 300,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh before the most recent exodus.
| 1
| 9,779
|
Pakistani troops shot out the tyres of a vehicle carrying a kidnapped U.S.-Canadian couple and their children in a raid that led to the family s release after five years of being held hostage, a Pakistani security official said on Friday. U.S. drones were hovering near the northwestern Pakistani area where American Caitlan Coleman, her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle and their three children, all born in captivity, were freed, another security official said. Coleman and Boyle were held by the Taliban-linked Haqqani network after being kidnapped while backpacking in Afghanistan, and their rescue marked a rare positive note in often-fraught U.S.-Pakistan relations. The family flew out of Pakistan on Friday, according to a Pakistani airport official who saw them. It was not clear whether they were bound for Canada or the United States. A senior Pakistani security source on Friday detailed how the family were freed following a car chase in the northwestern tribal region bordering Afghanistan. He said Pakistani troops and intelligence agents, acting on a U.S. intelligence tip, zeroed in on a vehicle holding the family as they were being moved into Kurram tribal agency near the town of Kohat, some 60 km (37 miles) inside Pakistan. Agents from Pakistan s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency and soldiers attempted to intercept the vehicle, but it sped away, according to the security source. Our troops fired at the vehicle and burst its tyres, he said, declining to be identified because he is not authorised to speak openly to the media. The kidnappers managed to escape, the security official added, saying the troops wouldn t fire at the fleeing captors for fear of harming the hostages. The army recovered the hostages safely from the car. Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor told NBC News that the vehicle s driver and another militant had escaped to a nearby refugee camp. The family s rescue has been hailed by U.S. President Donald Trump as a positive moment for U.S.-Pakistan relations, which have frayed in recent years amid Washington s assertions that Islamabad has not been doing enough to tackle Haqqani militants who are believed to be on Pakistani soil. Trump, in a statement, said the release of the hostages showed Pakistan was acquiescing to America s wishes for it to do more to provide security in the region . A second Pakistani security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. drones on Wednesday had been seen circling Kohat, suggesting U.S. co-operation included sophisticated surveillance inside Pakistan. Kohat is deep inside Pakistani territory, next to the eastern edge of Kurram agency in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province - outside the Afghan frontier zone where U.S. drones have in the past been tolerated by Pakistan. The U.S. embassy and the Pakistani military did not comment on the drone report. However, a Taliban commander in Pakistan with knowledge of the hostage family said U.S. drones flying in the area prompted their captors to move them. We took care of this family like our own family members and special guests, but after frequent flying of U.S. drones on Kurram tribal region and its adjoining areas, it was decided to move them to a safer place, said the Taliban official on condition of anonymity. They were being shifted to a safer place when captured by the Pakistani forces. Pakistani officials bristle at U.S. claims Islamabad is not doing enough to tackle Islamist militants, particularly the Haqqanis. After the release of the family, they emphasised the importance of co-operation and intelligence sharing by Washington, which has threatened to cut military aid and other punitive measures against Pakistan. Pakistan s military indicated the family were rescued shortly after entering Pakistan from Afghanistan, and a government official repeated that assertion on Friday. We have been taking on the terrorists... So we have taken action based on the intelligence that was provided by the U.S. side, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria. He added that he had no other details on the operation maybe because they were abducted in Afghanistan, they were there in Afghanistan, and that could be the reason why you have not heard much about it . However, two Taliban sources with knowledge of the family s captivity said they had been kept in Pakistan in recent years. A U.S. government source in Washington also said there was no indication the family had been in Afghanistan. The Haqqani network operates on both sides of the porous Afghan-Pakistani border but senior militants have acknowledged they moved a major base of operations to Kurram agency in the tribal areas. The United States and Afghanistan say that safe havens inside Pakistan allow the Taliban, including the Haqqani network, to plan and launch attacks against the Western-backed Afghan government and U.S. and other foreign troops that support them. The Taliban have been fighting for 16 years to re-establish their ultra-Islamist regime that was toppled in a U.S.-backed military operation over sheltering the al Qaeda terrorist network that planned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on U.S. cities.
| 1
| 4,629
|
You can t make this up! Why are these criminals who illegally entered our country are being given special status? They are not expected to live by the same rules as US citizens and are being fast-tracked to citizenship. Meanwhile, others who are waiting in line to become American citizens and have followed the rule of law would likely be deported for committing the same crimes as these illegals from Mexico and South America.U.S. District Court Judge Sandy Mattice sentenced eight illegal aliens to two years of supervised probation Wednesday morning. The eight were earlier found guilty of illegally entering the United States and of knowingly committing perjury by signing an I-9 form and stating that they were eligible to work in this country.Each had also purchased false and fraudulent documents such as Social Security cards and green cards which they used to gain employment.The light sentences and lack of a deportation order came about due to each of the defendants having earlier been issued a U visa by the Department of Homeland Security, the judge said.Judge Mattice described this type of visa as for lack of a better word, a reward, for assisting a U.S. agency prosecute another federal case in this instance against Durrett Cheese Sales, Inc. of Manchester, Tn. Their assistance, which was challenged by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Humble as questionable at least, was due to their part in a human trafficking case against Durrett Cheese. The case proved to be one that was not prosecutable.According to court documents, the defendants, Luciana Moreno-Lopez, Maria Ramirez-Mendoza, Flora Rivera-Pablo, Teresa Ayala-Rosales, Cirilo Castillo-Amaro, Meremedios Cervantes-Cano, Sarai Contreras-Martinez and Mercedes Eugenio-Gomez were arrested by the Coffee County Sheriff for criminal trespass on Oct. 22, 2007. They were arrested after their employer was unable to pay them and they refused to leave company property until they were paid.Upon their arrest the sheriff determined that they were most likely illegal aliens and then notified Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.ICE contacted the United States Attorney s Office for help in investigating possible human trafficking and other possible violations of federal law. Several of the defendants were interviewed by ICE agents and a representative of the Department of Justice s Human Trafficking Section of the Civil Rights Division. Also participating in the interviews was a representative of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) . The SPLC had made the allegations that the defendants were victims of human trafficking.The court documents state: Based on the defendants statements and other investigation, it was obvious that there was no prosecutable human trafficking case. This was pointed out by prosecutor Humble during sentencing when attorney Clay Whittaker, defense counsel for Ms. Moreno-Lopez, requested probationary sentencing for his client by saying that she had provided and continued to provide the government with assistance.Mr. Humble stated, The defendants have not provided any reasonable assistance to the government; in fact, they basically refused to implicate anyone (in the company s management hierarchy). Each of the defendants received a sentence of two years supervised probation on each of three counts, to be served concurrently. A special fine of $300 was waived by Judge Mattice in each case based on the defendants inability to pay.In a previous case involving this matter, former Durrett Cheese Sales, Inc. employee, Shanna Ramirez, was convicted of conspiracy to commit social security fraud (count 1); aiding and abetting social security fraud (count 2); and false declarations before the grand jury (counts 4 and 5). She was sentenced on Dec. 23, 2009 by Judge Mattice to 15 months of incarceration. In another related case, Montano-Perez was sentenced on March 1 to two years probation.The SPLC had filed a claim on the defendants behalf with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) while the defendants had applied for the U visas from the Department of Homeland Security.The eligibility requirements for a U visa or U non-immigrant status are, according to U.S. State Department directives, strict. This status is, in part, a recognition by Congress that a category of non-citizens is so vulnerable that it deserves protection in the form of legal status and a path to citizenship. A U visa holder is entitled to four years of non-immigrant legal status in the U.S. The holder of such a status may apply for permanent status three years after being granted a U visa.U visas are issued to illegal aliens when they have been judged to have been substantially abused and are helpful or willing to help designated agencies, including law enforcement agencies, in the detection, investigation or prosecution of crimes.According to U.S. Code, the purpose of the underlying statute is not to create a blanket amnesty or to legalize everyone who claims victim status. The Act s Congressional purpose is demonstrated in three aspects of the enabling legislation and its history: (1) the U visa as a tool for law enforcement; (2) the U visa as humanitarian relief for those who are helpful to law enforcement; and, (3) the U visa as protection for workers who suffer crimes in the workplace.In their original claims to the EEOC, the defendants, under penalty of perjury, falsely denied committing the crimes for which they had been arrested. According to a brief filed by the U.S. Attorney, they had, in fact, committed these and many other crimes before applying for the visas. The EEOC, based upon their claims, designated each of the defendants a victim and informed DHS that their presence was necessary to enable them (EEOC) to conduct an investigation.The EEOC then closed its investigation, but did not notify DHS that the defendants presence in this country was no longer necessary. When it was not notified by EEOC, DHS moved ahead and granted the U visa status to all eight defendants.It is the U.S. Attorney s Office view that the defendants were not victims of any qualifying crimes or that they have not suffered any substantial abuse mental of physical because of qualifying criminal activity The U.S. Attorney believes that the defendants have been able to manipulate the system to achieve legal status, despite their illegal entry and the commission of felony crimes. Via: Chatanoogan.com
| 0
| 8,560
|
NBC has suspended television personality Billy Bush from the “Today” show after fallout over the host’s 2005 taped lewd conversation with U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, according to a show memo seen by Reuters on Sunday. The suspension comes as a flood of Republicans have withdrawn their support for Trump over the video that emerged on Friday showing the businessman, then a reality TV star, talking with Bush on an open microphone about groping women and trying to seduce a married woman. In the recorded conversation, Trump was chatting on a bus with Bush, then host of NBC’s “Access Hollywood,” ahead of a segment they were about to tape. Bush said in a statement to Variety on Friday he was “embarrassed and ashamed” of his comments. NBC said Bush had been suspended indefinitely from the “Today” show, where he hosts the third hour of programming. Noah Oppenheim, the executive in charge of the morning show, wrote in a memo to staff that “there is simply no excuse for Billy’s language and behavior on that tape.” Oppenheim said: “NBC has decided to suspend Billy, pending further review of this matter.” The controversy has pitched Trump, 70, into the biggest crisis of his campaign and deepened fissures between him and establishment Republicans just a month ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election.
| 1
| 9,291
|
Votes cast for New Zealand s ruling National Party hit 46.5 percent on Saturday evening with 70 percent of results counted, putting the center-right party in the lead as it vies for a fourth term in government, according to the Electoral Commission. Center-left Labour accounted for 35.5 percent and its possible coalition partner, the Green Party had 5.9 percent of the vote. Still, the National Party would likely need the populist New Zealand First Party, which had 7.4 percent of the vote, to form a government. A complete preliminary count was expected by around 2330 local time, but the final result, which would also include ballots cast by New Zealanders overseas, would not be released until Oct. 7.
| 1
| 6,874
|
Conservatives are throwing a collective hissy fit because President Obama defended Colin Kaepernick s constitutional right to protest by not standing for the National Anthem.The San Francisco 49ers quarterback has been sitting during the National Anthem in protest of the police brutality and inequality black people have been facing for years. Conservatives have been bashing Kaepernick ever since, questioning his patriotism and telling him to leave the country but now he has his strongest ally yet.On Monday, President Obama, who taught constitutional law for twelve years, confirmed that Kaepernick does indeed have the right to sit during the National Anthem if he so chooses. My understanding at least is that he s exercising his constitutional right to make a statement, President Obama told reporters during his trip to China. I think there s a long history of sports figures doing so. Indeed, Muhammad Ali and Jackie Robinson are just two of the African-American sports heroes who were doing this kind of protest long before Kaepernick came along. But I don t doubt his sincerity based on what I ve heard, Obama continued. I think he cares about some real legitimate issues that have to be talked about. If nothing else what he s done is he s generated more conversation around some topics that need to be talked about. Here s the video via YouTube.But conservatives, as usual, responded to President Obama by letting their racism fly.@FoxNews @POTUS @Kaepernick7 Of course he would side with an anti-American mulatto. Radix Journal (@RadixJournal) September 5, 2016 @FoxNews @POTUS @Kaepernick7 I m exercising my right to call BULLSHIT on your entire psuedo-presidency Kat (@OutOfIdeasForNa) September 5, 2016@FoxNews @POTUS @Kaepernick7 if he believes what Kap did was good for the country, then you KNOW it was wrong. Elizabeth (@Buppy9999) September 5, 2016 @FoxNews @POTUS @Kaepernick7 Cool One jackass supporting another jackass Jackasses always stick together pic.twitter.com/ZEQHOhqFa8 conundrum ? (@conundrumstix) September 5, 2016@astinos2323 @FoxNews @POTUS @Kaepernick7 if he was a white christian obama would disagree Cheyenne Marie Alexa (@gypsy_cheyenne) September 5, 2016 @astinos2323 @FoxNews @POTUS @Kaepernick7 How about if each white you meet lectures you in their relatives that died to free blacks?FreeSpch Typical Peon (@TypicalPeon) September 5, 2016@FoxNews @POTUS @Kaepernick7 Just what I expected from Barry, you know the guy who hung around with Bill The Bomber Ayers #Scumbag #FoxNews B.C. (@BC4040) September 5, 2016 @FoxNews @POTUS @Kaepernick7 look Obama has no respect for our flag so this spoiled punk is a idiot enough of this crap ok Gregory Mcgee (@gregorymcgee226) September 5, 2016@kennybor24 #I guess blacks are not in their place. Makes you wanna throw up when potus agrees. Cornelius Felder (@Yogi1115) September 5, 2016 @FoxNews Nothing keeps Blacks from achieving in the USA now but a victim mindset. Injustice/racism are used when they have failed themselves Empirical Guru (@EmpiricalGuru) September 5, 2016Contrary to what most conservatives think, while President Obama did support Kaepernick s right to sit during the National Anthem, that doesn t mean he agrees with it. President Obama also acknowledged that some veterans feel disrespected by it and said there are other ways to protest.But African-Americans have tried several ways to protest police brutality and inequality, and so far, conservatives have found any reason to whine no matter what just like they do about anything President Obama says or does.Featured image via screenshot
| 0
| 6,521
|
Donald Trump is still using his Twitter account to push big, ridiculous lies about his troubled personal foundation, the Donald J. Trump Foundation. Despite his success in the presidential election, it seems Trump just can t let go of the issue since it s still generating negative headlines for him.In a tweet Trump claimed that 100% of money donated to the foundation goes to wonderful charities, but as the Huffington Post reports, that is a total lie about how the foundation has operated over the years of its existence.The Donald J. Trump Foundation, established in 1987, admitted to the Internal Revenue Service just last year that it engaged in self-dealing, a prohibited practice in which a nonprofit leader uses an organization s money to benefit his or her own interests.According to a Washington Post report earlier this month, the foundation s 2015 tax filings confirmed it had transferred income or assets to a disqualified person that year (in this case, a disqualified person could be Trump himself or a member of his family or business) and had engaged in similar practices in previous years.While the media fixated on the optics and right-wing innuendo about the Clinton Foundation (much of that smear financed by the head of Breitbart by the way), Trump s foundation escaped much of the same scrutiny despite its admittedly illegal behavior.Additionally, the Trump Foundation donated money to a political group associated with Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, who dropped a probe of Trump University at the same time. The IRS fined the foundation over that behavior.He also used the foundation as a slush fund to settle multiple lawsuits that had been personally filed against him, instead of using his own bank accounts to do so. This behavior has continued to cast suspicion on Trump s claim that he is a billionaire, and his refusal to release his taxes hasn t helped alleviate those thoughts.Featured image via Flickr
| 0
| 8,979
|
The European Union warned on Wednesday that it was ready to act within days to counter proposed new U.S. sanctions on Russia, saying they would harm the bloc’s energy security. Sanctions legislation overwhelmingly approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday has angered EU officials: they see it as breaking transatlantic unity in the West’s response to Moscow’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. Brussels also fears the new sanctions will harm European firms with connections to Russia, and oil and gas projects on which the EU is dependent. “The U.S. bill could have unintended unilateral effects that impact the EU’s energy security interests,” EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker said in a statement issued after a meeting at which European commissioners were united in their views, according to a senior EU official. “If our concerns are not taken into account sufficiently, we stand ready to act appropriately within a matter of days. ‘America First’ cannot mean that Europe’s interests come last,” he said, mentioning President Donald Trump’s guiding slogan. A EU document prepared for the commissioners, seen by Reuters, laid out the EU’s plans to seek “demonstrable reassurances” that the White House would not use the bill to target EU interests. The bloc, it says, will also prepare to use an EU regulation allowing it to defend companies against the application of extraterritorial measures by the United States. If diplomacy fails, Brussels plans to file a complaint at the World Trade Organization. “In addition, the preparation of a substantive response that would deter the U.S. from taking measures against EU companies could be considered,” it says. However, most measures taken by Brussels would require approval from all 28 EU member governments, which could expose potential differences in individual nations’ relations with Moscow and Washington. Despite changes to the U.S. bill that took into account some EU concerns, Brussels said the legislation could still hinder upkeep of the gas pipeline network in Russia that feeds into Ukraine and supplies over a quarter of EU needs. The EU says it could also hamper projects crucial to its energy diversification goals, such as the Baltic Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project. The new sanctions target the disputed Nord Stream 2 project for a new pipeline running from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea. But the EU note says: “the impact would in reality be much wider.” A list prepared by the EU executive, seen by Reuters, shows eight projects including those involving oil majors Anglo-Dutch Shell, BP and Italy’s Eni that risk falling foul of the U.S. measures. Voicing frustration at the fraying in the joint Western approach to Moscow, Juncker said “close coordination among allies” was key to ensuring that curbs on business with the Russian energy, defense and financial sectors, imposed in July 2014, are effective. EU sources said Juncker told Commissioners the risk to EU interests was collateral damage of a U.S. domestic fight between Trump and U.S. lawmakers. It was unclear how quickly the U.S. bill would reach the White House for Trump to sign into law or veto. The bill amounts to a rebuke of Trump by requiring him to obtain lawmakers’ permission before easing any sanctions on Moscow. Rejecting the legislation - which would potentially stymie his wish for improved relations with Moscow - would carry a risk that his veto could be overridden by lawmakers. European energy industry sources voiced alarm at the potentially wide-ranging damage of the new U.S. measures. “This is pretty tough,” one industry source told Reuters. “We are working with EU officials to see what safeguards can be anticipated to protect our investment and give us certainty.” Five Western firms are partnered with Russia’s Gazprom in Nord Stream 2: German’s Wintershall [WINT.UL] and Uniper, Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell, Austria’s OMV and France’s Engie. But EU officials warn the U.S. measures would also hit plans for the LNG plant on the Gulf of Finland in which Shell is partnering with Gazprom. The EU document shows they might jeopardize Eni’s 50 percent stake in the Blue Stream pipeline from Russia to Turkey as well as the CPC pipeline, carrying Kazakh oil to the Black Sea, involving European groups BG Overseas Holdings, Shell and Eni . It further warns that BP would be forced to halt some activities with Russian energy major Rosneft.
| 1
| 6,647
|
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is a vile creature. The 83-year-old has reigned over the Arizona county for more than twenty years, much to the dismay of the Hispanic community, and he s running for office again. But, the way he is soliciting donations from his scared, xenophobic supporters this time around is absolutely infuriating.In an email sent out to supporters recently, America s Most Racist Sheriff extorts money from his ignorant voters by threatening to retire. The email s subject line is: Announcement: I ve made a difficult decision and begins by calling on his patriots to support him or else: After hours of prayer, and countless frank discussions with my wife Ava and other trusted advisors, I have decided my time as Sheriff is over, unless I can count on you to stand with me this election. Arpaio then goes on to blame left-wing elites, his immigration stance, Obama s political machine, and Hollywood leftists for the tough road he has ahead of him should he decide to run for re-election. He tells his supporters that they need to empty their wallets and help him defeat the scary liberals who want to see him out of office: For some of you $5 is all you can spare today. But for others $500 or even $1,000 is a sacrificial gift you are willing to make. My team has told me that because our reserves are almost completely drained I will need to raise at least 5 million dollars to have a fighting chance, so every single dollar helps. To be clear, this is absolutely, 100 percent extortion. The definition of which is the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats. He is threatening that he will retire and not bother to run again unless his faithful, immigrant-hating supporters shell out money for him. He doesn t just tell them he d like to be their sheriff again, he threatens them. And this isn t the first time he has duped voters.In 2015, he sent an email out with a similarly deceiving subject line: They re trying to recall me. Nobody was trying to recall him at the time. I mean, we always want to recall him but there wasn t a concerted effort to remove him from office.It s not surprising that he would stoop to such levels. This is, after all, the man who can be blamed for countless deaths in his jail and has made the lives of Latinos in his community a living hell. He was Donald Trump before Donald Trump was Donald Trump. His bombastic, hate-filled rhetoric garnered him the support of many top Republicans including former-Governor Jan Brewer.Since 1993, he has unleashed hell on brown-skinned people in his Phoenix. And sadly, every time he is up for re-election he wins because people just don t vote or they have become complacent. For whatever reason, he continues to sail to victory each time he runs.Hopefully, Maricopa County voters will be so turned off this newest extoruion plot and they ll vote for someone else but, I won t hold my breath.See the full email below: And here s a video to remember why we hate this guy so much: Featured image via Facebook
| 0
| 9,825
|
President Barack Obama on Thursday said it was time for Congress to lay aside politics and to act to provide additional money to combat the Zika virus before government funding dries up. “Our experts at the CDC, the folks on the front lines have been doing their best in making due by moving funds from other areas, but now the money we need to fight Zika is rapidly running out,” Obama said at a press conference at the Pentagon. He warned that development of a vaccine for the virus could be delayed if Congress does not provide any more money and urged Americans to contact lawmakers to pressure them to take up the issue. Concern over the threat from Zika, which can cause a birth defect called microcephaly marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies, has risen since Florida authorities last week detected the first signs of local transmission in the continental United States. Zika funding remains stalled six months after Obama asked the Republican-led Congress to approve $1.9 billion in emergency funds. Forty-one Democratic U.S. senators on Thursday sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan urging them to summon lawmakers back from their summer recess to vote on emergency funding to fight the virus. But, Ryan accused Democrats of obstructing the funding and said the Obama administration has failed to spend existing funds to prevent the spread of the mosquito-borne virus. Congress has interrupted its own recesses at least eight times since 1998, most recently in 2013 when lawmakers returned early to debate the use of military force in Syria, according to congressional records. The latest round of finger-pointing indicated there was little chance lawmakers would cut short their seven-week summer break to vote on Zika funding. A $1.1 billion compromise failed after House Republicans attached language that would place restrictions on abortion and defund part of Obama’s signature 2010 healthcare law. Senate Democrats, who blocked the measure twice before Congress left Washington last month, want Republicans to agree on a new funding measure that drops those provisions, a step Republicans reject. “We need the White House and Senate Democrats to drop politics and put the public’s health first. We hope for a change of heart, and soon,” Ryan wrote in an opinion piece in the USA Today newspaper. McConnell spokesman Don Stewart invited Democrats to allow the current bill to pass by unanimous consent at a perfunctory session on Friday.
| 1
| 210
|
With Reince Priebus out as White House chief of staff, and General John Kelly in, Trump and others are probably hoping that things will quickly fall in line. But Kelly doesn t see his biggest job as managing the White House staff he sees it as managing Donald Trump. Specifically, one of his biggest jobs, in his view, is controlling Trump s Twitter habit.Trump uses his Twitter account to tweet everything from childish temper tantrums over the Russia probe and fake news, to lying in order to appear totally great and awesome and like he s the best person ever to walk the Earth, to creating actual policy. The most recent example of his problems with creating policy on social media is when he tried to reinstate the military s ban on transgender people serving via Twitter, catching the Pentagon off-guard despite his lie that he d come to that decision after heavy consultation with his military generals. In fact, lawyers from the Department of Defense had repeatedly tried to warn him off that ban while they worked on the best way to do things. Apparently, he was impatient and thought he would force the DoD to work faster if he just came out with it.He s also insulted our allies and made blatantly false accusations on Twitter. Despite that, Sean Spicer said back in early June that Trump s tweets are official White House statements. Some say that Trump is blurring the lines between opinion and policy whether he s making official statements or not.And this is what General Kelly sees as his biggest job reining this kind of behavior, or at least pushing his tweets in the right direction, as it was put to Politico. Kelly has given up on trying to keep Trump off of Twitter entirely, but he does believe he should work to keep Trump from using Twitter like a spoiled rotten toddler who s mad that he s not getting his way on everything.In other words, his biggest job is taking on the role of parent or babysitter working to limit what a poorly-behaved child can do. And he s taking on this role for a 71-year old man-baby.Kelly wants to know what Trump is going to tweet before he tweets it. He wants to put a system in place where aides and advisers don t find out about policy decisions via Twitter. But Trump s worst, most frustrated, and most damaging tweets often come late at night or early in the morning times Kelly says he can t monitor. So he s got his work cut out for him if he thinks he can rein in Trump s tweeting.Featured image via Chris Kleponis-Pool/Getty Images
| 0
| 5,278
|
Connecticut, home to hedge fund billionaires alongside cities mired in poverty, is racing against the clock to pass a budget or face further spending cuts to education and municipal aid across the state. Nearly two months without a budget, Connecticut is getting crushed by a burdensome debt load that has squeezed spending and amplified legislative discord. State lawmakers must agree on a biennial budget soon or else Governor Dannel Malloy’s executive order to slash state aid to municipalities and eliminate school funding for some districts will go into effect in October. The state faces a $3.5 billion deficit over the next two years. Among the wealthiest in the United States, Connecticut has been strained by already high taxes, outmigration, falling revenues and $50 billion of unfunded pension liabilities. Some $23 billion of outstanding municipal debt has also constrained spending. Bondholders must be paid ahead of most other expenses like non-essential services and payments to vendors. The $2.85 billion of principal and interest the state paid on its bonds in fiscal 2017 was the highest in six years, according to preliminary unaudited information from State Treasurer Denise Nappier’s office that has not yet been published. “The state invested in the wrong things for a period of time. It allowed its higher educational institutions to suffer while it sought to placate communities with respect to other forms of local reimbursement,” Malloy told Reuters during an interview in his office on Thursday. “We built too many prisons, which we’re still paying off even while we’re closing them,” he said. The Democrat took office in 2011 and is not seeking a third term. Further, the state’s budget crunch is threatening its cities including the state capital of Hartford, which is considering bankruptcy due, in part, to its dependence on state aid. Connecticut has borrowed for decades to fund school construction, whereas nearly all other states typically borrow at the local level for those projects. Lack of county governments means some other local costs are picked up by the state, including for all of its detention facilities. Connecticut has piled on debt to bolster its public pensions, selling $2.3 billion of bonds in April 2008. And again in December 2009, the state sold $916 million of economic recovery notes to close a budget deficit after depleting its rainy day fund during the Great Recession. By many measures, Connecticut’s debt levels are the worst of the 50 U.S. states. It has the most net tax-supported state debt per capita in the nation at $6,505, versus a median of $1,006, according to Moody’s Investors Service. It has the highest debt service costs as a portion of state revenues, as well as debt relative to gross domestic product, Moody’s said. Connecticut was downgraded by all three major Wall Street credit rating agencies in May. Both Republicans and Democrats in the state legislature have proposed solutions, including a hard cap on annual bond sales. Democratic legislators met with Millstein & Co., the same restructuring firm that advised Puerto Rico over its suffocating debt burden, according to The Connecticut Mirror newspaper. Nappier proposed a new tax-secured revenue bond program in lieu of general obligation debt, which she says will lower borrowing costs and boost reserves. But until lawmakers craft a budget, the state’s fiscal uncertainty is causing havoc among municipalities. Some are considering whether to delay the start of school or dip into reserves. And for Hartford, the longer the state goes without a budget, the closer the city comes to a possible bankruptcy filing, said Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, a 38-year-old former U.S. Treasury official. “The lack of a state budget... makes a liquidity challenge come that much faster,” he said.
| 1
| 1,919
|
Name-calling is not unusual in U.S. politics. But “child abuser” is not usually one of the names. In the final stretch of a bruising U.S. Senate race in Alabama, Democrat Doug Jones has cranked up his attacks on Republican Roy Moore over allegations of sexual misconduct and made those charges central to his argument that Moore is an unsuitable choice. Jones, who avoided directly addressing the sexual allegations when they surfaced in early November, has begun to cite them to attack Moore’s character. On Tuesday, one week before the Dec. 12 special election and a day after Republican President Donald Trump endorsed Moore, Jones said women who allege that Moore assaulted or pursued them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s deserved to be believed. “I believe these women and so should you. This is about rising above political party to do what’s right for Alabama, and for the country,” Jones told voters during a speech in Birmingham. Moore, a 70-year-old Christian conservative, has denied the misconduct allegations and said they were a result of “dirty politics.” He said last week he had never met any of the women involved. Reuters has not independently verified any of the accusations. Moore, who was twice removed from the state Supreme Court for refusing to abide by federal law, was a “source of embarrassment” for the people of Alabama, Jones said. The raw tone has become typical of a race transformed by the Moore allegations, opening the door for a possible Democratic upset in the conservative Southern state that would deal a blow to Trump’s agenda and dramatically improve Democratic chances of regaining Senate control in next year’s congressional elections. Jones has cranked up his attacks as the initial wave of voter outrage over the allegations has shown signs of fading, enabling Moore to regain a slight lead in several recent opinion polls in a state that went for Trump by 28 percentage points last year. Alabama has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1992. Jones, who holds a fundraising advantage on Moore and has accumulated four times as much cash on hand for the stretch drive, has launched an advertising blitz focusing on the misconduct allegations. “They were girls when Roy Moore immorally pursued them. Now they are women,” the narrator says in one ad as pictures of the accusers flash by. “Will we make their abuser a U.S. senator?” On the campaign trail, Jones, a former U.S. attorney who prosecuted the Ku Klux Klan members convicted of a 1963 church bombing in Birmingham that killed four young girls, has cited his own background to draw a contrast with Moore. “I damn sure believe and have done my part to ensure that men who hurt little girls should go to jail - not the U.S. Senate,” Jones said in Birmingham. Moore’s rebound in the polls highlights the challenge for Jones as he tries to boost turnout among the state’s African-American voters while peeling away support from moderate Republicans alienated by Moore in a state where many voters are resistant to the Democratic label. “He is the Republican candidate and I am a Republican. I stand in support of what he supports,” Jenny Mann, 35, said of Moore. Mann, a self-described stay-at-home mom in Ider, Alabama, said the allegations against Moore “would concern anybody, but I also believe you are innocent until proven guilty.” Jones, making his first run for public office, has cast himself as a problem solver who would work across the aisle to help Alabamans on “kitchen-table” issues like healthcare and jobs, while Moore has portrayed him as a liberal Democrat straight out of Washington. Jones supports abortion rights and opposes repealing former President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, unpopular stances in Alabama. But he said he never considered moderating his views to improve his chances. “The key to any campaign and any public official is being true to what you believe, and that’s what we’re putting out there,” Jones said in an interview last month. Trump’s endorsement freed the Republican National Committee to open its wallet for Moore, who had been cut off by the national party when the misconduct allegations became public. Not every Republican is falling in line. Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, who has frequently tangled with Trump, tweeted a photo of his $100 donation to Jones. “Country over Party,” Flake captioned it. Some of Alabama’s black leaders worry about the risk of lackluster turnout among African-Americans, who make up about a quarter of the state electorate and vote strongly Democratic. “There is not a high level of energy in the black community about this race,” said Democratic state Senator Hank Sanders. Sanders might have been talking about Freddy Haley, 55, a black retired military veteran from Fayette who said he was a Democrat but had not kept up with politics. “With the holidays and everything, I haven’t had time to check it out,” Haley said while Christmas shopping in a Birmingham suburb with his family. “When is the election?”
| 1
| 718
|
Jared Kushner, Donald Trump s son-in-law, has already lawyered up, but maybe he should get more lawyers because he might be in a bit of trouble right now. It s not just Jared, but a senior White House adviser, too. You see, most of us don t simply forget about millions of dollars, or thousands, or hundreds. In fact, for a guy who owes a fuckton of money, we re pretty sure he didn t forget about it either.On Friday, Jared and a senior White House adviser released a revised version of his personal financial disclosure which now shows that his initial filing omitted dozens of assets, including commercial real estate, bonds issued by the New York water and sewer authority, a personal art collection and a New Jersey liquor license, the Wall Street Journal reports.Hey, we re not talking about one or two assets that Jared omitted from his earlier form; we re talking about 77 of them.Ivanka Trump s form hasn t yet been certified by the ethics office, as required by law. Details schmetails! Jared and Ivanka have followed each of the required steps in their transition from private citizens to federal officials, Jamie Gorelick, a lawyer for the couple, said in a statement.Drain the Swamp, Donald Trump said, then he filled it up with his swampy family members:The new disclosure shows Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump collectively hold between $206 million and $760 million in assets. Mr. Kushner s initial disclosure put the value of their assets between $240 million and $740 million. The changes in values may reflect divestments since the last filing and the broad range of valuation for assets.Well now! That s not a lot of money. Oh wait, Don Fox, who served as the ethics office s general counsel from 2008 to 2013 and as acting director from 2011 until 2013, says otherwise.Fox said the number of omissions on Jared Kushner s initial form was unusually high. That strikes me as a lot, he said.You don t say.The Wall Street Journal reports:In his initial disclosure, Mr. Kushner didn t identify business relationships with Goldman Sachs Group and billionaires George Soros and Peter Thiel through a real-estate tech startup called Cadre that Mr. Kushner co-founded and currently partly owns, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year. An investment in Cadre valued at between $5 million and $25 million was included on the new disclosure, which showed Mr. Kushner intended to resign from his position with Cadre in January but didn t do so until May.According to Kushner s lawyer, it was simply an administrative error. We re sure his art collection valued at between $5 million and $25 million was merely an oversight, too. But, according to the lawyer, the art collection was just for personal enjoyment, and had nothing to do with investment purposes.And then there s the Kushner s $1 billion in loans that he failed to disclose previously. Those loans were from more than 20 lenders.It gets worse:Mr. Kushner has also filed revisions to a form required to obtain a security clearance that, in its initial form, didn t list contacts between him and foreign government officials. He subsequently submitted information about over 100 calls or meetings with representatives of more than 20 countries, Ms. Gorelick has said in a statement. Those contacts weren t made public.The Trump Crime Family s mounting conflicts of interest are being paraded out after more and more information is revealed. The Trumps seem to suffer from selective memory issues. As for Jared, it s always the quiet ones that you should watch. We re sure that Mr. Mueller is watching this spectacle, too.Photo by Olivier Douliery Pool/Getty Images
| 0
| 4,868
|
Zimbabwe s parliament has received a motion to impeach President Robert Mugabe after the army seized power last week, Speaker Jacob Mudenda said on Tuesday. Mudenda said parliament would adjourn to a hotel to start the impeachment proceedings against the 93-year-old president, who defied his party s Monday noon deadline to resign. Zimbabwean law says a joint sitting can take place anywhere.
| 1
| 7,834
|
The latest U.S. sanctions imposed on five Russians and Chechens are grotesque and groundless, and Moscow will hit back with tit-for-tat sanctions, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday. The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday imposed the new sanctions on the five people, including on Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov, for alleged human rights abuses.
| 1
| 1,298
|
Rapper Jay-Z attended the Peace Walk & Peace Talk in Miami Gardens last weekend. He elevated Trayvon Martin s name alongside those of spiritual leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi .Say what???Thank you Jay-Z for showing up for Trayvon Martin s family for so many years. It means the world to them that you have supported them throughout their journey. pic.twitter.com/M9NBCIHaw5 Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) February 10, 2018THE MIAMI HERALD REPORTS:Shawn Jay-Z Carter joined hundreds of marchers at the rally to honor victims of gun violence, including Trayvon Martin, the Miami Gardens teenager who was shot to death in February 2012 while in his father s Central Florida neighborhood.Jay-Z joined Trayvon s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, on stage at the Betty T. Ferguson Amphitheater. We want to make sure that we stand and support and never forget that Trayvon serves as a beacon of light to the people out here. So you guys never have to go through the pain and hurt that these guys went through, Jay-Z said.Of Trayvon, Jay-Z said: His name will sit alongside the greats whom lost their lives to push our culture forward the Martin Luther Kings, the Gandhis. That s the intention we set so his name will serve as a beacon of light and hope to push our culture forward in a better direction. Brenda Martin Providence, a friend of Trayvon s mother, volunteered at the Peace Walk. She didn t expect to see the high-profile rapper whose appearance hadn t been publicized. It means a lot to the community when you see people like Jay-Z who come out to support your cause, Providence said. With everything going on, we all need to support the cause because our youth are dying in the streets.
| 0
| 9,193
|
The state of Oregon is hoping to get 5,000 volunteers for a program that tracks every mile you drive and then charges your credit card for every mile driven. The kicker is that this program might cost more than it takes in because the vendor takes 40% of the profits. I d like to know how much the device costs the taxpayers and if they ve already purchased 5,000. Then there s the privacy issue when the state tracks your every move. Oregon is using an experimental program to become the first state to tax drivers based on the miles they travel on state roads rather than the gas they purchase.The voluntary program, called OReGo, is designed to capture taxes from hybrid and electric car drivers who have been able to skirt gas taxes.Oregon s Department of Transportation is hoping to get 5,000 people to volunteer to install a small device under their steering wheels that will track their mileage and charge drivers credit cards one and a half pennies for each mile driven, Fox News reported Friday.Transportation officials say the growing numbers of electric and hybrid cars has left the gas tax flat and unable to fund road maintenance. We re trying to make up for a growing deficit, really, because inflation s eating away at our ability to buy asphalt and rebar and the things we need to maintain the roads, Tom Fuller of the Oregon Department of Transportation told Fox News.Oregon was the first state to impose a gas tax in 1919. That tax has now reached 30 cents per gallon.Some Oregon drivers want the program to go national to make the tax more fair for all drivers. I ve been free-loading on the highways for 20 years driving electric cars or hybrid cars, getting at least 40 miles to the gallon. So I haven t been paying my fair share, said Oregon resident David Hastings, Fox reported.But others are raising questions about privacy. Two of the three OReGO systems track and store a car s every move. To put a GPS monitor in everybody s car, the government already knows too much about us as it is, said Jeff Kruse, a Republican lawmaker, Fox reported.There is also growing concern about the cost of the program. OReGO vendors will collects up to 40 cents of every dollar drivers are charged, and green car drivers could be in for some serious sticker shock every month.Read more: WT
| 0
| 4,617
|
North Korea called on Friday for a halt to what it called brutal sanctions , saying the measures - imposed after its latest nuclear test - constituted genocide. Today the U.S.-led racket of brutal sanctions and pressure against the DPRK constitutes contemporary human rights violation and genocide, the North Korean mission to the United Nations in Geneva said in a statement. The sanctions regime threatens and impedes the enjoyment by the people of DPRK of their human rights in all sectors , it said. The call for an immediate end to the sanctions comes as U.S. President Donald Trump sets off on a trip to Asia - including China, South Korea and Japan - looking for help to pressure North Korea to stand down from the nuclear crisis. The global community has been ramping up the pressure on the isolated country after it conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test so far, on Sept. 3. Last month the United States unilaterally imposed sanctions on seven North Korean individuals and three entities over what it called serious human rights abuses, including forced labor. In September the U.N. Security Council strengthened its sanctions, including export bans as well as asset freezes and travel bans on various officials, North Korea s response follows a U.N. expert last month saying international sanctions may be hurting key economic sectors and hampering the human rights of Pyongyang s citizens. The sanctions meant that some unprincipled countries have blocked the delivery of medical equipment and medicines , the North Korean mission said on Friday, with the supplies destined for children and mothers in the country. All types of anti-human rights and inhumane sanctions against the DPRK should be terminated immediately and thoroughly, it said.
| 1
| 3,128
|
U.S. President Donald Trump’s picks for two open spots on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors may push for tighter monetary policy if they receive the Senate confirmation needed to join the Fed’s rate-setting panel, their records suggest. Trump will nominate Carnegie Mellon University professor Marvin Goodfriend and former Treasury Department staffer Randal Quarles to fill two of the three open seats on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, the New York Times said on Friday, citing unnamed people with direct knowledge of the decision. The conservative picks come as Fed Chair Janet Yellen continues to slowly raise interest rates and lay out plans to shed some of the trillions of dollars of bonds bought in the wake of the financial crisis. Goodfriend in particular has been skeptical of the Fed’s bond-buying programs, saying that it is too close to fiscal policy. Goodfriend and Quarles did not immediately respond on Friday to requests for comment. A White House spokeswoman said officials were not ready to make an announcement yet. Goodfriend, 66, a former Richmond Fed policy advisor, also has urged the central bank to adopt simpler rules governing policy decisions. That view has support among many congressional Republicans, though Yellen has strongly opposed their proposed legislation on grounds that it would tie the Fed to make mechanical decisions that would harm the economy. The rule at the center of that legislation suggests the Fed should be raising rates more aggressively than the three annual rate hikes policymakers currently expect for both 2017 and 2018. That could make for an interesting dynamic with bond investors increasingly skeptical of faster rate hikes amid uncertainty over the outlook for tax cuts under Trump’s young administration. After Friday’s report that employers added fewer than expected jobs in May, short-term interest-rate futures traders were still pricing in a June rate hike, but Treasury yields fell as investors reduced bets on subsequent hikes. One area Goodfriend may agree with Yellen is on the Fed’s plan to start shrinking its $4.5-trillion balance sheet before the end of the year. Though the Fed has not published its plan in detail, policymakers have said the portfolio would shrink as if on “autopilot.” In an interview with Reuters last November, Goodfriend appeared to also support such a preset plan. “The Fed should choose a rule for shrinking the balance sheet so that, as it sold off its assets, it was pre-committed and markets could anticipate sales and prepare for them,” he said. Despite differences of opinion with Yellen, he said then, “If there is interest in my point of view and my 30-something years of thinking, writing, and teaching about the Fed and central banking, then I would have to consider serving.” A lawyer by profession, Quarles, 59, worked on financial regulation at the U.S. Treasury for years, including during the 2007-2009 financial crisis. Reuters had earlier reported he was a leading candidate to be Trump’s pick for the Fed’s vice chair in charge of banking supervision. “Many market participants have been barking up the wrong tree, arguing that Trump is an easy money guy because he borrowed a lot when he was a real-estate tycoon,” said Stephen Stanley, Amherst Pierpont’s chief economist, who worked for Goodfriend when he was at the Richmond Fed. “If these two nominees are eventually confirmed, the tone of the Fed Board will instantly swing to a far more hawkish tenor.”
| 1
| 9,795
|
Any Palestinian reconciliation deal must abide by international agreements and terms set by the Middle East Quartet - including the recognition of Israel and Hamas giving up its arms, an Israeli government official said on Thursday. Israel will examine developments in the field and act accordingly, the government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
| 1
| 3,979
|
(This December 2 has been refiled to change headline to clarify AmCham.) The American Chamber of Commerce in China said on Saturday the incoming U.S. administration is still formulating positions but needs to get up to speed quickly on historical tensions, after Donald Trump spoke to Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen. “The president-elect has yet to take office and is still formulating positions on a wide range of issues, so we don’t place much emphasis on any particular action or comment during this process,” it said in a statement about the Trump-Tsai call. “The chamber has long supported maintaining stability in the region, and we expect the new administration to respect the status quo. American business operating in Asia needs certainty and stability, and the new administration needs to get up to speed quickly on the historical tensions and complex dynamics of the region.”
| 1
| 9,924
|
Poland s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party may replace Prime Minister Beata Szydlo next week with her government s finance chief, Mateusz Morawiecki, to prepare for a series of elections in coming years, political sources said. Since the eurosceptic PiS won power two years ago, Szydlo, 54, has overseen sweeping changes to state institutions in Poland, which critics in the European Union and Washington say have undermined democracy and the rule of law. Despite the criticism, her conservative government is one of the most popular in Poland since the 1989 collapse of communism, largely due to low unemployment, increases in public spending and a focus on traditional Catholic values in public life. Senior PiS officials have said, however, that a change was needed to prepare the party - led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Poland s paramount politician - for a string of elections in the next three years. Local elections will be held in 2018, parliamentary in 2019 and presidential in 2020. It s been obvious for a long time that there was no internal communication in the government and individual ministers were often following their own agenda, said one high-ranked official. PiS spokeswoman Beata Mazurek declined to say when a reshuffle could take place and whether Szydlo would be removed. But she told journalists it is not a secret that Morawiecki has been a candidate. We are talking about goals for the future, Mazurek said. It is not about something new , but about what tasks are ahead of us and they are related to the economy - and Deputy Prime Minister Morawiecki is responsible for the economy. Morawiecki, 49, an ex-banker who is also a deputy prime minister, is broadly considered as anointed by Kaczynski, while Szydlo lacks the full trust of the party s chairman, analysts said. As finance minister, Morawiecki has overseen a rise in value-added tax collection of more than 20 percent so far this year, helping fund the government s popular child-subsidy program, cheaper medicine for the elderly, and a cut in the retirement age. He has also pledged billions of euros worth of investment in the economy - a mix of EU funds, and public and private investment. But public investment has faltered and has been slowly recovering only this year, still below expectations. Private investment has been sluggish, with companies worrying about tax burdens and changing legal frameworks as factors keeping them from pumping money into their businesses. The prime minister and Morawiecki have fought for control over the largest state-owned companies. The conflict became public this year during the selection process for the chief executive of PZU, central Europe s biggest insurance company. After weeks of media speculation over a possible government reshuffle, Szydlo wrote on Twitter late on Monday that no matter what happens, Poland is most important , fuelling talk she might lose her job. At the beginning of next week, there will most likely be changes in the government, a high-ranking PiS source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. Everything points to Mateusz Morawiecki becoming the new prime minister. Three other PiS and government sources confirmed the information, with a government official saying that the final decision has not yet been made . Market reaction has been muted with analysts saying Morawiecki would likely maintain the government s economic policy. Whoever were to become the prime minister, I do not expect significant changes in economic policy. It is more a matter of whether the new government exhibits a more or a less confrontational attitude towards the EU, said Piotr Bielski, a head analyst at bank BZ WBK.
| 1
| 8,317
|
21st Century Wire says Our weekly documentary film, curated by our editorial team at 21WIRE.This film documents a series of early scandals and state corruption surrounding Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton. The film came under heavy criticism in the US media at the time, with Democratic Party officials and mainstream media labelling it as a partisan hit piece. While Clinton proponents and critics of this film maintain that it s part of a vast right-wing conspiracy, this film produced by Citizens for Honest Government does cover actual events which took place in and around Arkansas during the Clinton s reign as Governor there, and contains numerous facts and revelations regarding those events including a massive cocaine smuggling operation into Mena, Arkansas under the watch of the Clinton governorship. Watch:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35mG57pUy80 . Run time: 1 hr 41 min Director: Patrick Matrisciana Producer: Patrick Matrisciana Released: 1994SEE MORE SUNDAY SCREENINGS HERE SUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
| 4,393
|
Has-been liberal celebrities took to twitter to voice their displeasure and to offer bribes to change votes. Rosie, Rosie, Rosie she knows better than to throw millions at politicians. she just made herself look like a fool with the tweet below:so how about this i promise to give 2 million dollars to senator susan collins and 2 million to senator jeff flakeif they vote NO NO I WILL NOT KILL AMERICANS FOR THE SUOER RICH DM me susan DM me jeff no shit 2 million casheach ROSIE (@Rosie) December 20, 2017Cher got nasty when she tweeted out a hate u tweet:4get anger.Who are these republicans,who will let ppldie. means nothing if you lose your child,wife,husband, sister,brother,father, mother.trump &his stepford wives r trying 2destroy our beloved America,we will rise up & #Resist.have ten rallies a day.the majority hates u Cher (@cher) December 20, 2017The left has shown themselves to be totally wacko during the time of the tax cut vote. We ve heard of a woman ripping off her top in the gallery of the House and other downright nasty threats from leftists on twitter:https://twitter.com/ActualEPAFacts/status/943315104862482432Different Democrats have gone full drama mode over this tax cut. Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi have lead the way .Nancy Pelosi just got even more embarrassing than ever She pulled the drama card while commenting on the tax cuts: No this is the end of the world. The debate on health care is life or death. This is Armegeddon! This is a really big deal. Because you know why? It s really hard to come back from this
| 0
| 1,287
|
The U.S. Senate voted on Wednesday to confirm Dr. Robert Califf as Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, an agency that regulates everything from food and drugs to tobacco, cosmetics and dietary supplements. Califf, 64, is a well-regarded cardiologist and researcher who takes the helm at the FDA at a time it is under pressure from lawmakers to speed the approval process for drugs and medical devices and finalize a proposed rule giving it authority to regulate e-cigarettes. The agency is also attempting to implement sweeping new regulations to improve food safety, and has begun to tackle the approval process for biosimilars, which are cheaper versions of biologic drugs. Califf’s nomination was opposed by the Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who said Califf’s ties to the pharmaceutical industry made him unfit to regulate the industry impartially. It was also opposed by several senators who believe the agency needs to do more to combat opioid addiction. Several senators, including Democrat Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, took the opportunity leading up to the vote to lambaste the FDA for what they said was a lax approach to approving potentially addictive opioid painkillers.
| 1
| 4,355
|
In a heist reminiscent of a Hollywood movie, Kenyan robbers spent months tunneling into the bowels of a bank located opposite a police station and stole the equivalent of half a million dollars, police said on Tuesday. Police said they had arrested two men and one woman over the robbery but had not recovered the 50 million Kenyan shillings, reported missing by staff at the branch of Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) on Monday when they showed up to work. We have not recovered the stolen money, said Simba Willy, sub-county police commander in the town of Thika, northeast of Nairobi, where the heist took place. We suspect the robbers hired one of the shops near the bank (while digging their tunnel), Willy told Reuters. The robbers were able to remove the earth during their months-long excavations without arousing suspicion by concealing it in boxes, the Daily Nation newspaper quoted local traders as saying. The traders described the two young men who had rented the store as very hardworking and introverts . KCB, which is the region s biggest bank by assets, confirmed the break-in on Twitter. But the Kenyans have competition for the title of most ingenious robbery. Last month Brazilian police foiled a plot to rob a Sao Paulo bank after discovering a 500-metre underground tunnel kitted out with lighting and ventilation systems.
| 1
| 7,013
|
Beyonce Knowles took the field at Super Bowl 50 and the crowd went wild. The mega-star and her corps of dancers were perfectly choreographed and brilliantly outfitted. It was lively and entertaining. It was also, unfortunately, far too black for those wonderful American racists who just can t help but ruin everything.In case you weren t paying attention, Beyonce s dancers wore berets, which automatically means they support Herman Bell, the famous Black Panther who was tried and convicted of murder in the 1970s without ever being positively identified by an all-white jury. Even if Bell were indisputably guilty which is beyond questionable by that logic any white person wearing a cross around their neck supports the Westboro Baptist Church, but I digress.At one point, The dancers formed an X on the field, an obvious and admitted tribute to Malcolm X. They also formed an arrow that pointed at Beyonce, which was obviously meant to call attention to the black woman on the field, and we can t have that. Only black men in uniform are allowed on football fields, and only if they never have an opinion about anything or show any emotion whatsoever. It upsets racists.Beyonce and her team also put their fists up in a black power salute, which is also a common sign used by the black panthers and millions of other people since the 1960s. The coup de gras came after the performance, however, when several of the dancers were photographed around a sign that read Justice For Mario Wood, a young black man murdered by police, which of curse also ties Beyonce to the Black Lives Matter movement.The song Beyonce chose is also about her pride for her heritage. The lyrics included: My daddy Alabama Momma Louisiana. You mix that Negro with that Creole Make a Texas bamma I like my baby hair with baby hair and afros I like my Negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils. The racist douchebags of America have declared that they won t stand for this sort of thing. These shenanigans are unbefitting a halftime show and they won t sit idly by and allow it to happen. A black woman and her black dancers performed a number that wasn t acceptable to them, so they demand a return to the glory days when only Paul McCartney, Elton John and other white people were allowed to entertain at halftime.Fifteen minutes of the Left Shark bouncing around to the chicken dance would be more acceptable than having to endure black culture mixed in with their Coldplay. And just why the hell would Chris Martin join two black artists at the end for a chorus promoting unity for ALL people? Disgusting.Sadly, that isn t an exaggeration. The racist bags of sh*t of America can t understand how black artists do anything other than smile and sing innocuous lyrics while impersonating the Four Tops, rejecting their desire to be individuals or to protest for the good of the white race. They are so upset about it, there s now an Eventbrite announcement for an anti-Beyonce rally outside the NFL headquarters scheduled for February 16th. The front page of the event reads as though Beyonce held up pictures of Michael Brown and screamed black power into the mic. Sorry to burst your bubble, racists, but even that would have been acceptable:As if that weren t bad enough, the images used to promote the protest are actually of Herman Bell:Herman Bell was an activist during turbulent times who managed to turn his life around and earn a dual bachelor s and a master s degree and become a positive role model and mentor, all while incarcerated for 35 years for a crime he swears he didn t commit. In true racist a-holes of America fashion, all they see is an angry young man from another era who was convicted 70s style by a jury of someone else s peers.Organizers have also taken to Twitter, where the memes about how evil black people are and how all they can be are criminals are also making the rounds in connection with the #BoycottBeyonce movement :Fun fact BernieBlacks are incarcerated at higher rate because they commit higher rate of crime ?#NHPrimary pic.twitter.com/oEpCaNo990 Jared Wyand (@JaredWyand) February 10, 2016There are so many ways a guy like that needs to be educated. The first way would be how to remove your own hgead from your ass and read a book. They tend to hide lots of useful information in those things.Here s the tweet that perfectly sums up the situation:#BoycottBeyonce = I wish black people would just entertain me instead of standing up for #BlackLivesMatter + being proud of their culture. jen miller (@jenerallyspeaks) February 9, 2016The rally will happen. Racists will gather and demand to be heard, because they are white. Black people will be painted as even more evil than those darned Hispanics. At the end of the day they ll go home and nobody will care. The Super Bowl will continue to offer entertaining halftime shows by artists of all backgrounds, because they love ratings and money.Sorry, you meatheads, but the NFL won t be putting David Allen Coe on stage anytime soon. Featured image from screen capture
| 0
| 3,885
|
The Trump administration on Wednesday took its first step in replacing Obama-era banking regulators, naming a veteran financial lawyer as interim head of the watchdog for federally chartered banks. Keith Noreika, a partner at law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, will be first deputy comptroller at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and will run the OCC on an interim basis when Comptroller Thomas Curry leaves on May 5, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. Former banker Joseph Otting, who worked with Mnuchin at Californian lender OneWest, is considered the lead contender to permanently replace Curry, several people familiar with the matter have said. That appointment requires Senate confirmation and analysts said they expected Noreika to be in charge for much of this year. U.S. President Donald Trump wants to overhaul regulation of the financial services system to make it easier for banks to lend and has asked Mnuchin to review the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law by June 3. The OCC is one of several regulators that monitors the health of Wall Street banks but has a particularly influential role in scrutinizing lending practices. Under Curry, OCC bank examiners have clamped down on what they perceive as overly risky loans, particularly the type used to fund private equity buyouts. Curry used his position to warn banks when he thought they were talking on too much risk in loans to energy firms and property developers. “Curry did use the bully pulpit to warn banks against risky activity and I think you’re likely to see less of that going forward,” said Ian Katz, financial policy analyst at research firm Capital Alpha. The appointment of Noreika and the expected nomination of Otting meant limits on how much banks can lend to highly indebted companies may be loosened in the future, said Jaret Seiberg, analyst at Cowen Washington Research Group. “This is the most bullish sign yet for the biggest banks that the Trump administration will pursue a traditional Republican approach of financial regulation rather than adopt a more populist tone that could include high leverage capital requirements,” Seiberg said. Trump’s plans to overhaul regulation are being held up by the government’s current lean crew of regulators. While the Senate voted on Tuesday to confirm attorney Jay Clayton to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, the OCC’s changing of the guard might not be so smooth. Democrats have criticized practices at OneWest, the lender created by Mnuchin after the 2008 housing crisis that foreclosed on 36,000 California families. Mnuchin hired Otting as chief executive of the bank in 2010 and he held that role until it was bought by CIT Group in 2014. Noreika’s background as a lawyer who has advised banks on M&A, including Ant Financial’s acquisition of Moneygram, as well as on the Volcker Rule, which prohibits banks from making speculative bets, is also controversial. “It is disturbing that the President is rushing to replace Mr. Curry with an acting appointee who has clear conflicts of interest, and lacks any experience in running such an important agency,” Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown, the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, said in a statement. Noreika’s appointment does not require Senate approval. Curry, a career regulator, was appointed by the Obama administration for a five-year term that expired last month and has since been serving under an extension. While Curry took a tough line on risky lending, the agency did come under fire for its failure to tackle a sales practice abuse scandal at Wells Fargo & Co. The OCC is also trying to establish itself as a regulator of online lenders and financial technology firms. State authorities have argued that is their job and are suing the OCC, arguing it lacks the legal authority to offer a banking charter for technology companies. There are also three vacant spots on the Federal Reserve Board, including the post of vice chair of supervision, which will play a key role in any overhaul of bank regulation. Earlier on Wednesday, Mnuchin told a conference of community bankers that Trump had signed off on a nominee to fill the vice chair role but did not name the person. Reuters had previously reported that Randal Quarles, who worked as under secretary for domestic finance at the Treasury under President George W. Bush, was a leading candidate. Mnuchin said the administration was also close to naming the two other Fed selections.
| 1
| 5,749
|
The campaign of Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton on Wednesday called support from a broad coalition of voters - including people of color, women and union households - “critical” for anyone hoping to secure the party’s nomination for the November 2016 election and beyond. Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager, noted support for the former secretary of state among African Americans, Latinos and Asian American Pacific Islanders, women and union households in a memo sent out by the campaign. He also noted that Clinton won white voters in the nominating contests for several states on Super Tuesday, the previous day, in which Clinton won seven states to the four states captured by her rival, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. “It is also important to note that these constituencies are not only critical to winning the Democratic nomination but will also be central to how a Democrat wins in November, and a candidate that starts with a deep base of support will have an advantage in the general election,” Mook wrote. (Reporting by Luciana Lopez) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production.
| 1
| 9,169
|
The Whale , The Dog or The Zebra ? Players line up beside a small kiosk in a poor neighborhood to choose animals in a lottery game that has become a craze in Venezuela even as the oil-rich country suffers a fourth year of brutal recession. It seems more and more Venezuelans are turning to gambling in their desperation to make ends meet amid the country s unprecedented economic crisis. Though more people lose than win overall, the illusion of a payday has become more alluring as Venezuelans endure the world s highest inflation, shortages of basics from flour to car batteries, and diminished real-term wages. Among multiple options from race courses to back-street betting parlors, the roulette-style Los Animalitos (or the Little Animals) is currently by far the most popular game on the street. Most people I see playing the lottery are unemployed, trying to make a bit extra this way because the payouts are good, said Veruska Torres, 26, a nurse who recently lost her job in a pharmacy and now plays Animalitos every day. Torres often plays more than a dozen times daily at the kiosk in Catia, spending between 5,000-10,000 bolivars, but sometimes making up to 50,000 or 60,000 bolivars in winnings - more than a quarter of the monthly minimum wage. When that happens, she splits the money between buying food and diapers for her baby boy, and re-investing in the lottery. The Animalitos game, whose results appear on YouTube at scheduled times, is hugely popular because it goes through various rounds, holding people s interest, and provides more chances to win than most traditional betting options. The cheapest ticket costs just 100 bolivars - a quarter of a U.S. cent at the black market currency rate, and more than 10 times less than that at the official exchange level. It helped me a lot, said Eduardo Liendo, 63, of a timely win. He recently lost his house and lives in a car in Caracas Propatria neighborhood, but had a successful punt on the Animalitos, choosing the dog figure after his own had died. There is no hard data on betting figures, and the government s betting regulator did not answer requests from Reuters for information. But those behind Venezuela s gambling businesses, run by a mixture of private companies and local regional authorities, said trade was booming, with lines longer and busier than ever - because of, not despite, the hard times. In a crisis like the one we re going through, people drink and gamble more to escape from reality, said psychologist Rosa Garcia from the rural state of Barinas. The latest scarcity in Venezuela is cash - as authorities cannot produce enough notes to keep up with dizzying inflation - so many bars, shops and betting parlors have quickly switched from cash to electronic transactions to keep money flowing. That has hit the Caracas hippodrome, where cash is still king. But thousands still go there at weekends, pushing against fences in front of the sand track to cheer their horse on as salsa music booms in the background. (See reut.rs/2A2eOEB for a related photo essay)
| 1
| 2,407
|
Two sons of former Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli were paid $49 million by Brazilian engineering company Odebrecht through a network of shell companies, Panama s prosecutors office said on Thursday. The two sons, whose whereabouts are unknown, were paid to facilitate paperwork for contracts that the company had won, prosecutors said in a statement. Ricardo Alberto and Luis Enriquez Martinelli were paid through accounts in Panama and abroad from 2010 to 2014, they said. Odebrecht agreed in August to pay $220 million in fines to Panama and to cooperate with investigators probing bribes of Panamanian officials. Odebrecht allegedly paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes in association with infrastructure projects in 12 countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela and Panama between 2002 and 2016.
| 1
| 2,013
|
A video from 1985 was shown last night during the Dem debate that has people bussing this morning. Yes we all know Sanders is a socialist but it s interesting to hear him speak about Cuba and Castro .Hey, youth of America who think Sanders is the best thing since sliced bread, do you REALLY want this guy?
| 0
| 5,153
|
U.S. President Barack Obama will host the leaders of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden in May for a U.S.-Nordic Leaders Summit, the White House said on Friday. The leaders will discuss terrorism, violent extremism, environmental and nuclear security issues among other topics at the summit on May 13, the White House said in a statement. Obama last met with Nordic leaders during his trip to Sweden in September 2013, the statement said.
| 1
| 8,551
|
A handful of donors to the Republican National Convention have withdrawn pledges and fund-raising has stalled during Donald Trump’s polarizing bid for the presidency, leading organizers to ask casino mogul Sheldon Adelson for an urgent donation. The Cleveland 2016 Host Committee said in a statement on Friday it had approached Adelson, a generous party benefactor, while also acknowledging its fund-raising has come to a virtual standstill, leaving a $6 million shortfall. “Negative publicity around our potential nominee resulted in a considerable number of pledges backing out from their commitments,” the Host Committee said in a letter it sent to Adelson, according to the political news website Politico, which said it had obtained the letter. The Host Committee on Friday confirmed such a letter was sent to Adelson and his wife, Miriam Adelson, but it downgraded the withdrawn pledges from “considerable” to “a handful.” It said the hastily sent original letter “mischaracterized” the status of some donations. Some companies identified in the letter as having backed out said on Friday they had never made such pledges. “Unfortunately, this letter (to Adelson) was not reviewed nor authorized by the Host Committee chairpersons, and it mischaracterized certain donations from individuals and corporations,” the statement said. “Some of what were referred to as pledges were actually expectations based on pledges made to previous conventions, while a handful had been withdrawn from the Host Committee for 2016 Republican National Convention,” it said. The committee said it had apologized to the Adelsons’ staff. Host Committee officials on Friday declined to comment beyond the official statement, leaving open the question of which donors reneged. Donations will be disclosed after the convention in U.S. Federal Election Commission filings. The statement, from Host Committee Chief Executive David Gilbert, also said the committee had raised $58.25 million to date, about $6 million short of its goal of $64 million to cover expenses for the four-day convention that starts Monday in Cleveland, where Trump is expected to receive the Republican presidential nomination. A month ago, a committee spokeswoman said $57.5 million had been raised. The Politico report, citing the letter, said David Koch, like Adelson a wealthy donor to conservative causes, and Coca-Cola (COKE.O) each withdrew a pledge of $1 million. Koch and Coke representatives told the Wall Street Journal they never made such pledges. Coke previously said it donated $75,000 last year. Visa, cited in the letter as having backed out of a $100,000 pledge, said in a statement it never made a pledge. FedEx (FDX.N) and BP (BP.L) were named in the letter as withdrawing support but also told the Journal they had not made the stated commitments. Other marquee companies were also named but did not respond to Reuters queries after business hours on Friday. Representatives for the Adelsons could not immediately be reached for comment. Last month activists disturbed by Trump’s campaign and led by the political arm of California-based advocacy group Color of Change launched an effort to try to shame companies into dropping sponsorships. It was unclear if that effort, which targeted more than 30 companies, had an impact.
| 1
| 4,376
|
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said on Friday said she respected the United Kingdom’s vote on leaving the European Union and was committed to maintaining America’s relationships with both Britain and European countries. “Our first task has to be to make sure that the economic uncertainty created by these events does not hurt working families here in America,” she said in a statement.
| 1
| 8,822
|
German Chancellor Angela Merkel scolded a minister on Tuesday in a bid to shield talks on forming a coalition government from a dispute between cabinet colleagues over an EU license for a weedkiller. Conservative Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt angered the center-left SPD on Monday by breaking protocol to back a European Union proposal to extend the use of glyphosate in the bloc for another five years, a measure opposed by the SPD. The matter is sensitive because only last week the SPD reversed its decision to go into opposition after suffering its worst result in 70 years in a September election. They are expected to launch talks next year with Merkel s conservatives on forming a coalition government. The SPD are junior partners in Merkel s caretaker government, which includes her Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) of which agriculture minister Schmidt is a member. As for the vote of the agriculture ministry yesterday on glyphosate, this did not comply with the instructions worked out by the federal government, Merkel said. I expect that such an incident will not be repeated. It is usual practice that Germany abstains in EU votes if ministers from different parties disagree on a policy. Schmidt s decision has strained relations between the two camps before they even launch exploratory talks on renewing their alliance. (The chancellor) must do something to heal the loss of trust. You can t govern like that. It simply doesn t work, SPD Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks told Deutschlandfunk radio before Merkel made her comments. Merkel said even though her stance on glyphosate use was closer to Schmidt s than to Hendricks he should not have voted in favor against the wish of his colleague and in breach of government instructions. Hendricks did not say whether the SPD wants Merkel to fire Schmidt, but the ecologist Greens said she should do just that. Merkel turned to the SPD after failing to form a coalition with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens, which created an impasse unseen in the post-World War Two era. Schmidt defended his decision to vote in favor of the five-year extension in Brussels on Monday, saying the European Commission would have probably decided on a longer extension if the vote had been indecisive. I took the decision on my own, Schmidt told German public television. It falls under my responsibility. Hendricks said she had called Schmidt two hours before the tight vote in Brussels, which Germany tipped in favor of an extension by defeating its key ally France. She expressed her opposition to the continued use of the weedkiller, which some of the EU s 28 member states fear causes cancer. Christian Schmidt took the chestnut out of the fire for the Commission in breach of our consultations, Hendricks said. French President Emmanuel Macron had wanted a shorter extension and a rapid phasing out of glyphosate, which is a mainstay of farming across the continent. After the vote, he said he would take all necessary measures to ban the product, originally developed by Monsanto, as soon as an alternative is available and at the latest within three years. Germany s Bayer plans to take over Monsanto for $63.5 billion.
| 1
| 4,273
|
Turkey will suspend flights to the northern Iraqi cities of Erbil and Sulaimaniya starting on 1500 GMT on Friday, in response to a Kurdish independence referendum held earlier this week, the Turkish consulate in Erbil said in a statement. It also said work was going on to increase capacity of flights until Friday. The decision will impact Turkish Airlines (THYAO.IS), Pegasus (PGSUS.IS), and Atlas Global flights. Shares of Turkish Airlines fell 4.7 percent, while shares of low-cost rival Pegasus fell 2.9 percent immediately after the statement.
| 1
| 5,825
|
Four tanks were seen heading toward the Zimbabwe capital Harare on Tuesday, witnesses said, a day after the head of the armed forces said he was prepared to step in to end a purge of supporters of ousted vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa. A Reuters witness saw two other tanks parked beside the main road from Harare to Chinhoyi, about 20 km (14 miles) from the city. One of the tanks, which was pointed in the direction of the capital, had come off its tracks. Soldiers on the scene refused to talk to Reuters. (This version of the story was refiled to fix typo in second paragraph)
| 1
| 6,699
|
Please go to the BEST MULCH Facebook page and give them a thumbs up!Thank you all for the overwhelming support! We have gone viral! Please feel free to stop by and take pictures with Hillary! She will be out from dusk until dawn!Originally I only had the TRUMP sign posted in front of my business, within 2 hours of the sign being placed out front we received a voice mail from a blocked phone number which is played during the video. I will not be bullied into removing the TRUMP sign simply because it offended someone. My Country is just as important as my business, I will assume that the sign was to large and to high for her to destroy or steal. The voicemail was what prompted me to make the sign more noticeable and take an even more dramatic approach by adding Hilary to the jail cell. #Trump2016 Video by: Michael J Makowski Multimedia
| 0
| 7,243
|
Now that it appears that Donald Trump is the inevitable next president, Alec Baldwin has job security at Saturday Night Live for at least four more years (unless Trump is impeached). Trump s not happy, at all.This week, Baldwin skewered Trump s Twitter obsession. The sketch showed the President-Elect as so distracted by his Twitter account that he just had to retweet a high school boy, rather than pay attention during a security briefing. Kellyanne, referring to campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, played by SNL s Kate McKinnon, I just retweeted the best tweet. I mean wow, what a great, smart tweet. When advisors reminded Trump that he was in a security briefing, Baldwin s Trump replied, He s 16, he s in high school, and I really did retweet him. Seriously, this is real. Trump s advisors tried to steer him back to the situation in Syria but Trump said, God, Seth seems so cool. His Twitter bio says he wants to make America great again. That s when McKinnon s Conway dropped the truth bomb about why Trump really tweets:Trump tweets to much to distract the media from his business conflicts and the scary people in his cabinet, but in Trump s words the real reason is because his brain is bad. But what s Donald Trump if he can t brag about something he had absolutely nothing to do with:As the adults in the room continued to admonish Trump for his incessant tweeting, he disputed the fact that it was preventing him from focusing on his work. I was elected 25 days ago and already unemployment is at a nine-year low, millions and millions of people have health care and Osama bin Laden is dead, he said. Next I m going to do what I promised my whole campaign and I m going to build that swamp. Here s the full video:Trump was not at all happy with the portrayal. Within minutes, he posted this:This thin-skinned compulsive tweeter, my fellow Americans, is our next president.Featured image via video screen capture.
| 0
| 449
|
Turkey feels betrayed by some European Union leaders who have called for the end of accession talks but still hopes eventually to join the bloc, Turkish EU Minister Omer Celik said on Thursday. The European Union has become increasingly critical of Turkey s membership drive since President Tayyip Erdogan launched a crackdown on critics - including journalists and academics - after a failed 2016 coup. Erdogan accused Berlin of Nazi-like tactics in March when it prevented Turkish ministers speaking at expatriate rallies in Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel said in an election debate ten days ago it was clear Turkey should not join the EU and entry talks should end, despite it being a crucial NATO ally. Celik chided European Union leaders over statements on Turkish accession and said some, such as Merkel, were using the criticism to deflect attention away from the EU s internal problems such as Brexit, migration and reform. They put all those aside and they stoke antagonism towards Turkey in order to cover up their vital internal problems, Celik told Reuters in an interview. We are indeed disappointed by Merkel and some others in the EU: at one of the hardest times in our history we were left alone by our friends and allies, he said through a translator. When asked if Turkey felt betrayed, he said: Yes . The abortive coup, in which more than 260 people were killed as mutinous soldiers commandeered fighter jets, helicopters and tanks in a bid to seize power, has deepened a rift between Ankara and its Western allies. Turkish officials said some Western allies were far too slow in showing solidarity with Erdogan after the coup which they cast as a well-planned attempt to subvert Turkish democracy. Since then, some 50,000 people including journalists, opposition figures, civil servants and others have been detained. The crackdown has alarmed rights groups and some of Turkey s Western allies. Celik said that EU leaders such as Merkel had failed to keep their promises to Turkey on its EU bid which began in 1987 with an application to join what was then the European Economic Community. Turkey s accession negotiations began in 2005. The EU has failed to keep all of its promises whereas Turkey has delivered on all of the promises it made, Celik said. Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, said on Wednesday he saw no prospect of Turkey joining the EU in the foreseeable future . What has Mr Junker done, what giant strides has he made, to find solutions to bring the EU and Turkey closer? That is my question for Mr Juncker, Celik said. If Germany keeps giving orders to the EU institutions such as cutting negotiations with Turkey then it will strengthen the hand of racist groups in Europe, he said. Formally ending Turkey s accession negotiations would require unanimity among EU states, which is lacking, though majority backing is enough to suspend them. Celik suggested that a leaders summit of the EU and Turkey be called to improve relations. Turkey has not given up on its target to be a full member of the EU: We are eager and willing to find solutions to move forward, he said. EU leaders will discuss Turkey at a summit in Brussels in October, though any formal decision on its future may not come before next spring. Celik dismissed concerns that Turkey s purchase of an S-400 air missile defense system from Russia indicated the NATO member could be turning away from the West. It is obvious on which side Turkey really is, he said. Turkey has made immense contributions to security and prosperity in Europe. When it comes to Turkey being an integral part of NATO and Turkey having friendly relations with Russia, it is not an either or : they don t exclude each other and are complementary to each other.
| 1
| 2,227
|
The leaders of Japan and Britain pledged on Thursday to cooperate in countering the threat posed by North Korea, two days after it fired a missile over northern Japan. North Korea s reckless action is a threat to Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told his National Security Council. Japan and Britain will cooperate to counter this. British Prime Minister Theresa May, attending the meeting during a visit to Japan, said: Through our deepened security partnership, we must work together to enhance our collective response to the threats to international order and global peace and stability. And that must include confronting the threat that North Korea poses and ensuring that this regime in North Korea stops its aggressive acts.
| 1
| 5,756
|
While Donald Trump was campaigning, he slammed what he called political correctness in America s culture. As usual, the amateur president took to his Twitter account this morning to unleash more nonsensical messages, likely just a distraction from his mounting scandals. It is amazing how rude much of the media is to my very hard working representatives. Be nice, you will do much better!, he tweeted.It is amazing how rude much of the media is to my very hard working representatives. Be nice, you will do much better! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2017In the following tweet, Trump wrote, ObamaCare is imploding. It is a disaster and 2017 will be the worst year yet, by far! Republicans will come together and save the day. ObamaCare is imploding. It is a disaster and 2017 will be the worst year yet, by far! Republicans will come together and save the day. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2017First off, Obamacare is not imploding and Trumpcare will largely affect Trump supporters. Trump s tweets went down as well as can be expected on the social media site.@realDonaldTrump you're making it implode, and then blaming Obama. Ben Wikler (@benwikler) March 13, 2017Fixed!.@realDonaldTrump fixed. pic.twitter.com/XTSktQag5x Travon Free (@Travon) March 13, 2017@realDonaldTrump will TrumpCare be as stupid as your dumbass description of it: pic.twitter.com/8u3ZBcFkNS Rod Blackhurst (@rodblackhurst) March 13, 2017@realDonaldTrump Your presidency is imploding if you think you can take health care away from millions and not pay a price you're nuts ? (@jaytay777) March 13, 2017@realDonaldTrump "save the day" lol Erick Fernandez (@ErickFernandez) March 13, 2017@realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/rtSJC0SgiJ nasty mouse ???? (@ajabs4258) March 13, 2017@realDonaldTrump TrumpCare pic.twitter.com/D5ZAReqwrD Blobert ? (@blobert) March 13, 2017.@realDonaldTrump fixed pic.twitter.com/B2fvg6To9K Sam Weiner (@sam_weiner) March 13, 2017@realDonaldTrump You're a liar. It is not imploding. It could be made better if you gave a shit about the USA. Stop trying to tarnish Obama! Robert Thomson (@50MaDeuce) March 13, 2017Trump telling the media to be nice is like Guy Fieri giving cooking advice.@oppstn Jordan Uhl (@JordanUhl) March 13, 2017Trump launched a war on the media and now wants them to be nice and not rude. That s rich coming from a guy whose vile attacks are well documented. Trump calls outlets critical of his alleged presidency fake news while he reads Infowars and Breitbart. Republicans have had 7 years to come up with a viable replacement for Obamacare and they presented the public with a godawful plan which will leave millions of Americans without coverage.Trump repeatedly vowed to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a Republican alternative that would provide insurance for everybody at a lower price but that s not what s happening. It does give a healthy tax break to the wealthy, though. It s a great plan if you re rich, but if you re of low-income status and/or older, you re fucked.Each crazy-time tweet of Trump s is well calculated. It s a distraction from his many scandals. Let s see now: Russia, conflicts of interest, lack of transparency and profiting greatly from the presidency.Meanwhile, the Intelligence panel wants Trump to provide evidence of his claims that former President Barack Obama had his phones wiretapped before the election. They want that today. Tick tock, Mr. Trump. And by the way, Infowars is not evidence. Photo by David Becker/Getty Images.
| 0
| 810
|
European governments are complicit in grave human rights violations in Libya through their support for authorities there who often work with people smugglers and torture refugees and migrants, Amnesty International said on Tuesday. Amnesty said up to 20,000 people are now held in Libyan detention centers for migrants and are subject to torture, forced labor, extortion, and unlawful killings . Other human rights organizations have said similar things in recent months. The European support for Libyan authorities is part of a plan to cut African immigration across the Mediterranean. It aims to lower the number of people who drown during the crossing and curb the scale of a political problem high arrivals cause to EU governments. Italy has spearheaded the plan, in particular by training and equipping the coastguard and by spending millions to back U.N. agencies working on relief efforts in Libya. European governments have not just been fully aware of these abuses; by actively supporting the Libyan authorities in stopping sea crossings and containing people in Libya, they are complicit in these crimes, said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International s head for Europe. On Tuesday, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni defended the EU s policy in a speech to parliament ahead of this week s meeting of the bloc s leaders in Brussels and said sea arrivals had dropped by two-thirds since last July. It s thanks to us that a light is being shone on human rights in Libya, he said, referring to million of euros Italy and the EU spent on improving conditions for people stuck there. A spokesperson for the bloc s executive European Commission said: We are aware of the inhumane and terrible conditions some face. We share the same objective as Amnesty: saving lives. It said the bloc s funding helped the U.N. agency for migration, the IOM, send more than 15,000 people in Libya to their home countries in Africa. At the same time, it said the bloc has also been slowly taking in genuine refugees . Libya is the main gateway for migrants trying to cross to Europe by sea, though numbers have dropped sharply since July as Libyan factions and authorities have begun to block departures under pressure from Italy, the main landing point. More than 600,000 have made the journey over the past four years. The EU backs Libya s coastguards in its efforts to intercept people heading to Europe but they work closely with people smugglers who torture people for money, Amnesty said. By supporting Libyan authorities in trapping people in Libya ... European governments have shown where their true priorities lie: namely the closure of the central Mediterranean route, with scant regard to the suffering caused, said Dalhuisen. Some EU officials and diplomats chafe at the bloc s reliance on militias that have emerged since the fall of Libya s leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. But EU leaders will recommit at their meeting in Brussels on Dec. 14-15 to a strategy they say is bearing fruit in the form of fewer sea crossings. The presidency of Libya s U.N.-backed government said last month it was a victim of illegal migration, not a source of it, and appealed to foreign powers to help stop flows from migrants countries of origin.
| 1
| 4,180
|
Comedian Patton Oswalt has a knack for calling conservatives out on their bullsh*t and coming up with the most perfect responses to their nonsense.In the past, Oswalt has made it perfectly clear that he really, REALLY hates Donald Trump when he dedicated this hilarious poem to the Republican frontrunner on National Poetry Day. He s also been one of the more outspoken celebrities when it comes to opposing the GOP s hateful rhetoric (just look what he did when the GOP attacked Planned Parenthood). Now, the comedian is sending a special message to voters, urging them to act in the best interest of America by making sure that none of the Republican party s clowns are able to get into the White House.In an interview with the Huffington Post, Oswalt touched on the 2016 election while promoting his stand-up special Talking for Clapping,which premieres on Netflix on Friday. Although Oswalt has been a supporter of Bernie Sanders, he took the opportunity to clarify that he s not Bernie or bust. In fact, he wanted to encourage all of his fellow Bernie supporters to adopt the same attitude, for a very special reason. He said: I will vote for whoever the Democrats nominate against either of those two psychopaths. I think they re both equally dangerous and backward-facing for this country. When he was asked what he d say to a Bernie fan who would rather stay home and not participate in the election than give Democratic front runner Hillary Clinton their vote in the November general election, Oswalt had some harsh words: Well, then you re a fucking child. Well said. This is the same exact attitude Oswalt has taken to his over 2.6 million Twitter followers, urging them to unite for the Democratic party instead of divide.TwitterThe truth of the matter is that America cannot afford to have either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz as our next commander-in-chief, and the stakes are too high for us to lose millions of votes because people are upset their favorite Democrat didn t become the nominee. Every vote for the Democrats regardless of the candidate will help keep America safe from the disastrous GOP. Featured image via Andreas Rentz / Getty Images
| 0
| 9,000
|
What a group of grifters these Clinton scammers are! Chelsea demands a huge speaking fee from a public university but what has she done to deserve anything near the $65,000 she asked for? Just like her mom, this grifter has no real accomplishments yet squeezes a speaking fee out of anyone and everyone who ll pay. Disgusting!Chelsea Clinton demanded $65,000 to make a 10-minute speech at a public university after they balked at her mother s appearance fee, it has been revealed.The University of Missouri at Kansas City was looking for a celebrity to open their women s hall of fame in February 2014. Their initial choice was former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.But when they were told how much it would cost $275,000 they turned it down and went to what they thought was the next best thing.They paid $65,000 for the 35-year-old mother s brief appearance on February 24 last year. According to The Washington Post the former first daughter agreed to a deal where she would talk for just 10 minutes then take part in a 20-minute question and answer session. She then reportedly spent 30 minutes posing for photographs with special guests and VIPs. The Post said that she didn t personally receive any of the fee, as it was directed to the Clinton Foundation. Kamyl Bazbaz, Chelsea s spokesman, told The Post: Chelsea is grateful to have the opportunity to speak at events like this while also supporting the work of the Clinton Foundation. Read more: Daily Mail
| 0
| 5,438
|
Russia, the only major power that has not called on Iraq s Kurds to cancel a referendum on independence next week, has swiftly become the top funder of Kurdish oil and gas deals, with as much as $4 billion pledged in less than a year, industry sources say. Washington, European countries, Turkey and Iran have all lined up to oppose a move by Iraq s Kurds to hold a Sept. 25 independence referendum, which the Kurds consider the culmination of decades of struggle for a state of their own, but Iraq calls a violation of its constitution. This week, the White House issued a statement calling the planned vote provocative and destabilizing , noting that it will take place not only within the autonomous Kurdish region itself but on territory that is disputed. But Moscow has issued no such call to cancel the vote. Instead, with the planned referendum just days away, Russian state oil giant Rosneft announced its latest investment last week, to help Iraqi Kurdistan develop its natural gas industry, for domestic supplies and eventual export. The full value of the deal has not been disclosed officially, but according to industry sources familiar with it, it is worth more than $1 billion. It is Rosneft s third giant venture in the Kurdish region since February, transforming Moscow from an outsider with little profile in Kurdistan into the region s biggest source of cash. According to the industry sources, Rosneft s deals since it first arrived in Kurdistan last December are worth around $4 billion in total. That exceeds the $2 billion in financing the Kurdish region has previously received for oil sales from international trading firms that pre-pay for its exports, and $1.5 billion it has received from neighbor Turkey. It also marks a big change in focus for the Iraqi Kurds, who have had close ties with Washington since 1991 when the United States offered them protection from Saddam Hussein, the dictator later toppled by U.S. forces in 2003. Moscow has been effectively filling the gap as the United States has been pulling back from Iraq, said a senior source in Erbil, capital of the Iraqi Kurdish region. Publicly, Moscow says it supports Iraq s territorial integrity while also recognizing the aspirations of the Kurds for a homeland. The 35 million Kurds are spread over Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. We are interested that the Kurdish people like any other nation on the planet can fulfill its hopes and aspirations, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in July. We start from the fact that the legitimate aspirations of the Kurds, like other peoples, need to be fulfilled within the framework of existing international legal norms. But unlike other powers, Moscow has avoided giving a verdict on the legality or wisdom of holding the referendum itself. The Foreign Ministry in Moscow said it had nothing to add to Lavrov s comments on the matter from July. The Russian position is: Let s wait and see the outcome of the referendum, said Hoshiyar Zebari, one of Iraq s pre-eminent Kurdish politicians, who served as foreign minister, deputy prime minister and finance minister in Baghdad from 2003 until last year and now advises Kurdistan s regional government. They seem to understand our situation, Zebari told Reuters, adding that Moscow expected the Kurds would use the outcome of the referendum as part of a process of negotiation with Baghdad. According to a diplomatic source, the Kurds took notice in June when Lavrov signaled to a Kurdish delegation at a meeting in St Petersburg that Russia would not oppose the referendum. During previous meetings, Lavrov always focused on Iraq s territorial integrity, said the source, who was present at the meeting on the sidelines of Russia s economic forum in St Petersburg. This time, he said that Russia understands the ambitions of Kurdish people for independence. And even though he added that it needed to be done carefully, it was a big signal. At around the same time as that meeting took place, Rosneft was signing its second of this year s three major oil investment deals with Kurdish officials. Days later, the Kurds announced the date of their referendum. The Russians are not the first foreigners to come to Kurdistan looking for oil. The Kurds have long argued that as an autonomous region of Iraq they have the authority to make agreements with foreign companies about pumping the oil on their territory. Iraq s central government, meanwhile, says any deals to export oil from Kurdistan are illegal without Baghdad s blessing. For several years, American companies were at the forefront of negotiating deals with the Kurds, on the assumption that Baghdad would eventually authorize them. The highest-profile deal was announced by Exxon Mobil, then under the leadership of CEO Rex Tillerson, now U.S. Secretary of State. But after signing a landmark deal to develop Kurdish oil fields in 2011, Exxon did little exploration, and has since handed some of the blocs back to the Kurdish government. While Washington remains friendly with the Kurds and sees them as a bulwark against Islamic State, it is concerned about their independence bid leading to the breakup of Iraq or a rupture with Turkey. The United States has long encouraged the Kurds to avoid unilateral steps, such as the referendum, that might destabilize the Baghdad government or antagonize Ankara. Russia, meanwhile, is looking for more friends in the Middle East after returning in force to the region with a decisive military intervention in Syria. Its main regional allies are Iran and the Syria of President Bashar al-Assad, and having friends in Kurdish territory, located between Syria, Iran and Turkey, would be geopolitically useful. Kurdistan has estimated recoverable reserves at 45 billion barrels of oil and 5.66 trillion cubic meters of gas, which could rise further with exploration. For Rosneft, run by Igor Sechin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, it potentially offers a cheap source of crude supplies to refineries in Europe, and a big boost to Rosneft s gas ambitions. In 2014, Erbil started oil sales via a pipeline through Turkey. It has generally conducted those deals with pre-financing, obtaining money in advance from international trading firms and Turkey before the oil is delivered. Rosneft began its involvement with a small pre-finance deal at the end of last year along the lines of deals the Kurds had previously reached with global traders. The Russian firm loaned the Kurds around $280 million, guaranteed by future oil sales, according to industry sources. In February 2017, Rosneft ramped up its cooperation by agreeing to lend the semi-autonomous region $1.2 billion, becoming the first big foreign oil company to publicly commit to pre-financing Kurdish exports. Kurdistan s minister of natural resources Ashti Hawrami called the deal a ground-breaker for the region that would help its economic independence - a crucial condition for seeking political independence. By that point, Turkey had invested some $1.5 billion and international trading houses such as Vitol, Petraco, Trafigura and Glencore had collectively loaned the Kurds some $2 billion. Russia became the Kurds single biggest financer with its next deal in June this year to lend money and help search for more oil, bringing its total investments close to $2.8 billion. This week s Russian pledge to invest more than $1 billion in Kurdistan s gas infrastructure could help the region become a major gas exporter to Turkey and Europe one day, Rosneft says. The independence referendum won t be a problem. Holding the referendum will not affect our work. We are doing business in an autonomous region in Iraq that has been recognized by law, Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontev said this week. This place is run by Iraqi Kurdistan s nation and it is the people of Iraqi Kurdistan who live there. That is why we don t think we are embarking on an adventure.
| 1
| 7,533
|
An electrical contractor wrote to the 54-year-old host of Dirty Jobs to say that he finds it offensive when the media constantly refers to majority of the Republican nominee s supporters as uneducated white men. If the media is referring to Trump supporters who happen to be male caucasians suffering from a lack of knowledge brought about by an absence of formal or practical instruction, than I guess uneducated white men is a fair description, Rowe responded in a lengthy Facebook post. However, if the Trump supporters in question are being dubbed uneducated, simply because they didn t earn a four-year degree, I d say the media s slip is showing. Let s assume that Donald Trump is indeed popular among white men who didn t graduate from college. The first question is, so what? Is this information newsworthy? Obviously, thousands of journalists think it is. To your point, the words uneducated white men now appear in hundreds of articles about Trump. But if this is truly important information, where were these reporters four years ago? In the last election, an even greater majority of African-American males who voted for President Obama had no college on their resume. Maybe I missed it, but I don t recall any headlines or articles that delved into Obama s popularity among uneducated black men. If the media didn t care about the lack of college among black men supporting Obama, why do they care so much about the lack of college among white men supporting Trump? Moreover, when exactly did a lack of college become synonymous with a lack of education? There are many ways to become educated that don t involve the purchase of a diploma. Why would the media ignore thousands of apprenticeship programs, on-the-job-training opportunities, and all the other alternative educational options that have led so many people into so many successful careers? The answer is obvious many in the press are looking for ways to impact the election. If a biased reporter can get away with labeling Trump supporters who didn t graduate from college as uneducated, he can simultaneously imply that any ballot cast for Trump is the hallmark of an uneducated voter. It s impossible for me to have this conversation and not think of my grandfather. Pop never made it to college. In fact, he never made it out of the 7th grade. But he never stopped learning or studying. He started as an electrician s helper, became an apprentice, a journeyman, a master electrician, a contractor, and then a small business owner. Later, as an electrical inspector for the state, he was responsible for guaranteeing the safety of hundreds of buildings in Maryland, as well as all the rides on the carnival midway at the State Fair. He was a modest man of real intelligence, admired and respected by everyone who knew him. But today, he d be right there with you, Albert swelling out the ranks of uneducated white men. Closing the skills gap and making college more affordable is beyond my pay grade, but it seems like we could start by reminding the media that a college degree is not the only path to success. It s well and good to promote higher education, but it s crazy to suggest the most expensive road to enlightenment is the best path for the most people. And it s equally nuts to pressure our kids to keep borrowing vast sums of money to become educated in careers that no longer exist. The media has minimized your work, insulted your intelligence, and ignored your contribution to civilized life. Try not to take it personally. Just keep doing what you do. Run your business. Vote your conscience. Keep the lights on for the rest of us. Read more: Daily Caller
| 0
| 6,369
|
The Kansas Senate gave final approval on Tuesday to a bill expanding eligibility for Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) even though the measure faces a likely veto by Republican Governor Sam Brownback. The 25-14 Senate vote followed the House’s 81-44 passage of the bill last month, with the vote totals falling short of veto-proof margins in both Republican-controlled chambers. In a tweet on Monday, Melika Willoughby, the governor’s spokeswoman, said instead of addressing the health care needs of vulnerable residents in a sustainable way, the legislature was choosing to expand “a failing entitlement program.” “To expand Obamacare when the program is in a death spiral is not responsible policy,” she tweeted. After legislation to replace and repeal the act championed by former President Barack Obama was pulled in the U.S. House last week, President Donald Trump warned Obamacare would collapse. The replacement bill pushed by House Speaker Paul Ryan would have ended the ACA’s expansion of Medicaid, the federal and state funded insurance program for the poor and disabled. Kansas was not among the 31 states as of 2016 that had opted to expand Medicaid with the federal government footing much of the cost under Obamacare. With the ACA’s enhanced federal funding, Kansas’ expansion effective Jan. 1, 2018 would cost the state an estimated $31 million in fiscal 2018, which begins July 1, and $67 million in fiscal 2019 with the addition of more than 180,000 recipients, according to estimates cited in a legislative report on the bill. Without enhanced federal matching funds, the state’s costs would balloon to $465 million by fiscal 2019. Kansas is already struggling with a structural budget deficit largely due to tax cuts enacted in 2012. In addition, the state supreme court ruled earlier this month that Kansas was underfunding public schools in violation of a state constitutional requirement for adequacy.
| 1
| 8,416
|
Propaganda fliers presumed to be from North Korea and calling U.S. President Donald Trump a mad dog have turned up across central Seoul, including near the presidential Blue House, according to posts on social media and people who found them. Death to old lunatic Trump! reads one poster, with a North Korean soldier with rifle in hand, crushing what looks to be Trump s head with his tongue dangling out of his mouth. Near the soldier s head is the line: Complete obliteration. Another poster shows Trump with the body of a dog being decapitated by an axe. Blood is shown splattered on the axe in the poster, which states: Let s behead mad dog Trump for the future of a peaceful and warless world and mankind! Both were in color. It is not difficult to find North Korean propaganda posters in South Korea, usually flown by balloon over the highly fortified demilitarized zone. Military images and anti-U.S. threats are common in North Korea propaganda as Pyongyang demands the United States cease what it says is its preparations for invasion. But the new series of fliers posted recently on Twitter and other social media target Trump specifically. Trump last month, in a speech to the United Nations, threatened to totally destroy North Korea if needed to defend itself and allies and called the North s leader Kim Jong Un a rocket man on a suicide mission. I am pretty sure it came from North Korea by balloon, since the prevailing winds during October have been from north to south and we ve been getting reports of others finding them throughout Seoul, said Chad O Carroll, managing director of NK News, a Seoul-based news subscription service, who found the leaflets while jogging in central Seoul. In an apparent jab at Trump s U.N. speech, one of the propaganda posters featured Trump standing behind a podium with a rocket in his mouth painted with the words totally destroy North Korea . Again, Trump is depicted as a dog with a human face and labeled as mad dog Trump . Men in suits with surprised looks on their faces are shown in the poster saying He s gone completely insane and If we let him be, there will be war . Reclusive North Korea, which has carried out a series of nuclear and missile tests in defiance of U.N. sanctions, and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. The North regularly threatens to destroy the South and its main ally, the United States.
| 1
| 1,477
|
The man running Hillary Clinton s campaign is getting paid to advise a foundation run by a key Clinton donor, hacked WikiLeaks emails show.John Podesta, who draws no salary from the campaign, is making $7,000 per month from the Sandler Foundation, run by Herb Sandler, Politico reported.The arrangement is not normal practice for political campaigns, though campaign members are not required to disclose their financial relationships.Sandler insisted his close relationship with Podesta has not helped him or his business politically. If they re responsive, it s because they regard me as thoughtful, and a major contributor to Democratic cause Podesta knows that he doesn t get bulls t from me. He knows I have no hidden agenda. He knows that my values are similar to his and that we care about people and not the billionaires, even though I ended up by some crazy thing to be one, he added.The Sandlers ran World Savings Bank, which was sold to Wachovia in 2006 for $25.5 billion and which was accused of offering adjustable-rate mortgages that contributed to the housing collapse.Scott Walter, president of Capital Research Center, a conservative nonprofit, said Podesta s deal with Sandler stood in stark contrast to Clinton s efforts to portray herself as tough on the financial industry. This is another instance where the Clinton campaign has been revealed to have surprising links to some of the most dubious parts of the finance industry, Walter said.Read more: Politico
| 0
| 1,790
|
While revelations that Donald Trump Jr. welcomed Russian help in last year’s presidential election roil Washington, asking about it along southern Ohio’s Appalachian Highway can draw some pretty strange looks. In the mostly rural, heavily Baptist and predominately Trump-supporting terrain, the collective reaction ranges from ignorance about the Russia investigation, to a belief that some media want to destroy Republican President Donald Trump and his family, to complete disinterest. Many of the 20 people interviewed in several Ohio towns were dismissive of the barrage of headlines about a June 2016 meeting between Trump’s eldest son Donald Jr. and a woman he was told was a Russian government lawyer who might have damaging information about Democratic election rival Hillary Clinton. The revelation was made when Trump Jr. released a series of emails on Tuesday amid investigations of U.S. intelligence agency conclusions that Moscow sought to help Trump win. Russia has denied allegations of interfering in the election and Trump has denied his campaign colluded with Russian officials, sometimes dismissing the notion as “fake news.” In Little Hocking, Ohio, Lisa Walker, 54, runs a small thrift shop. Wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the American flag, she says her husband has expressed fears that somebody is going to try and assassinate Trump. She and her husband voted for Trump. She has followed the revelations about the younger Trump on the news. She sees the Russia investigation as proof that “people are out to get Trump. I would hope they have better things to do than play games and attack Trump.” Similarly, in Jackson and Piketon, Ohio, Donald Trump Jr.’s troubles appeared to strengthen support for his father and Trump family members who many in the area see as embattled victims. In Hillsboro, the county seat of Highland County, the editor of the Hillsboro Times Gazette, Gary Abernathy, says many people in the county believe the media is trying to destroy Trump. “It just plays into the belief here that the media is fixated on all things Russia,” said Abernathy, whose newspaper was one of only six in the United States to have endorsed Trump for president during the election campaign. “I don’t mind Donald Trump being treated critically or aggressively, but not in a way that is an effort to drag him down. Donald Trump Jr. had one 20 minute meeting with a lawyer from Russia and it’s wall-to-wall coverage.” Trump won Highland County with more than 76 percent of the vote, 12 points more than the 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney won, part of a surge in votes for Trump in many Midwestern rural counties that was a significant factor in his victory. Donald Jr.’s meeting stirred more questions and reporting about possible collusion or whether any U.S. laws were broken. Under the U.S. Federal Election Campaign Act, it is illegal for a foreign national to contribute to a U.S. political campaign. Before the latest disclosures, Americans overall were sharply divided on what to make of reports about Trump and Russia. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll in June, 50 percent agreed “that President Trump or someone from his campaign worked with Russia to influence the 2016 election” while 33 percent disagreed and the remainder were unsure. Republicans, however, mostly expressed the opposite view: 66 percent said they disagreed that Trump or his campaign worked with Russia while 20 percent agreed and the rest were unsure. In the Bob Evans diner in Jackson, three workers from Walmart were sitting down for lunch. They were Trump supporters. Asked about the Russia investigation, they stared back blankly. “I have never heard anything about it,” said Chastity Banks. Neither had her two colleagues.
| 1
| 2,008
|
It s not just Trump who s exposing the truth about the hundreds of thousands of muslims being sent to our country where they have no intention of assimilating. Expert Ann Corcoran tells us the truth about why our State Dept. is bringing mostly muslims over here in video below. Over the past several years Syrian Christians have been desperately trying to smuggle themselves out of Syria as ISIS tells them to convert or die.The Obama White House sa far has ignored their desperate plight.It is also widely known that Barack Obama has been absent as thousands of Iraqi and Syria minority populations have been persecuted and slaughtered by ISIS.Today in Las Vegas Donald Trump attacked the Obama administration s policies that have allowed thousands of Syrian Muslims in the country while Christians from Syria suffer.https://youtu.be/KdmTpHE7ZoUIf you re worried Donald may not have his facts straight on this issue, listen to our friend and expert on the US State Department s Refugee Resettlement Program, Ann Corcoran explain how it works. You will be SHOCKED:
| 0
| 682
|
Watch this video compilation where Trump makes his stance on man-made global climate change very clear: As President Donald Trump contemplates whether to make good on his campaign promise to yank the United States out of the Paris climate accord, an unlikely lobbying force is hoping to talk him out of it: oil and coal producers.A pro-Paris bloc within the administration has recruited energy companies to lend their support to the global pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to two people familiar with the effort who asked not to be identified.Cheniere Energy Inc., which exports liquefied natural gas, became the latest company to weigh in for the pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions in a letter Monday to White House energy adviser G. David Banks. Domestic energy companies are better positioned to compete globally if the United States remains a party to the Paris agreement, Cheniere wrote. The accord is a useful instrument for fostering demand for America s energy resources and supporting the continued growth of American industry. Exxon Mobil Corp., previously led by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc also have endorsed the pact.The industry campaign to stick with the Paris accord comes amid deep divisions in the Trump administration over the carbon-cutting agreement. Both the president s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner, a White House special adviser, have urged the president to stay in the deal, along with Tillerson.Climate scientists who are against the climate treaty have written an open letter to President Trump:Breitbart News reports that in an open letter to Donald Trump, climate expert Dr. Duane Thresher has urged the President not to give in to his daughter Ivanka s misguided views on global warming and her insistence that the U.S. remain in the Paris climate agreement ratified by Barack Obama last August. Climate treaties like the Paris Agreement have little to do with climate, Thresher notes in his letter, which he made available to Breitbart News. They are about economic competition. As the greatest economy in the history of the world, other countries will do anything to cripple the United States. Countries like China will agree to anything in these treaties and simply ignore their obligations while demanding the United States fulfill theirs, Thresher said, calling belief in global warming a popular delusion. In his letter, Dr. Thresher also reminded President Trump of his campaign promises that led many Americans to vote for him. We who voted for you consider stopping this climate change madness one of your key promises, Thresher said. If you renege on it you will lose me and many others as supporters. After Trump s election, in fact, a number of climate change skeptics were emboldened to take more public stands against the politically imposed scientific consensus of global warming, welcoming a new era of free debate about a hotly contested issue.Scientists unconvinced by the party line on climate change applauded Trump s appointment of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head up the Environmental Protection Agency as an important step away from climate alarmism.Even if Trump caves and stays in the Paris climate agreement, Thresher says, it won t win him any friends. Your opponents are not going to support you; they ll just taunt you as being a flip-flopper, he said.
| 0
| 2,816
|
Perhaps Merkel should have considered the serious consequences of Germany s compassionate open border policy that allowed over 1 million (mostly) Muslim males to infiltrate their country. German officials essentially granted them permission to rape and sexually assault their women and children while they looked the other way. But that s not all Germany is giving them free food, housing, education and spending money to boot. Does Angela Merkel really believe that when she tells these freeloading Muslim males that it s time to go back home, that they re going to pack up their bags and leave? As Germany s open-door refugee policy comes increasingly under fire, the Chancellor has tried to silence her critics.Despite mounting pressure to cap the number of refugees in the wake of the Cologne sex attacks which saw 130 women sexually assaulted by men, believed to be migrants, Mrs Merkel has stood her ground.Some 1.1million migrants entered Germany last year, many fleeing conflicts in Syria and Iraq.Mrs Merkel said: We need to say to people that this is a temporary residential status and we expect that, once there is peace in Syria again, once ISIS has been defeated in Iraq, that you go back to your home country with the knowledge that you have gained. Mrs Merkel said 70 per cent of the refugees who fled to Germany from former Yugoslavia in the 1990s had returned.She urged other European countries to offer more help because the numbers need to be reduced even further and must not start to rise again, especially in spring .Speaking to a regional meeting of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Mrs Merkel said said all EU states should have an interest in protecting the bloc s external borders, and all would suffer if the internal passport-free Schengen zone collapsed and national borders were closed.Peter Altmaier, who Mrs Merkel has tasked with overseeing the government s handling of the refugee crisis, said the government was negotiating with some countries including Turkey about taking back criminal refugees who arrived via non-EU countries.Yeah because what nation in their right mind wouldn t gladly accept criminal refugees into their country? Gee, we sure hope Merkel isn t foolish enough to believe there aren t any members of ISIS living comfortably in refugee housing or camps inside their open-borders.Via: Express UK
| 0
| 9,431
|
This is just too rich! The Democrats threw tons of money into this race and then the Republican candidate body-slammed an obnoxious reporter. It seemed like the Dems really couldn t lose this one. Bernie s socialist candidate would win in Montana. The Democrats were sure they could run leftists and win in red states NOT SO FAST!Republican businessman Greg Gianforte won Montana s sole House district in a special election Thursday, keeping a seat in Republican hands despite facing assault charges for allegedly attacking a reporter who d asked him about the GOP s health-care bill:The best ever quote from the body-slamming incident is when Gianforte spoke for all Americans: I m sick and tired of this! After he won he commented on the incident in his victory speech I shouldn t have treated that reporter that way, he told supporters at his rally here.Please check out Gianforte s twitter page! It s full of great photos of things he s done. He makes his own sausage and even gave his wife a sausage maker for Christmas. He posts photos of his wild game dinners that look amazing. This guy is a blast!
| 0
| 3,774
|
Germany said on Friday it supported the Spanish government in its dispute with separatists in Catalonia and would not recognize an independence vote by the Catalan parliament. Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said Berlin viewed the escalation of the situation with concern, noting that the unilateral declaration of independence violated the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Spain. The Spanish government on Friday moved to impose direct rule over Catalonia, stripping the region of its autonomy less than an hour after its parliament declared independence. The German government does not recognize such a declaration of independence, he said, adding that Berlin supported the clear position of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in his bid to restore calm and order. We hope that all involved will use the remaining possibilities for dialogue and de-escalation, he added.
| 1
| 6,495
|
What would a speech from a modern Democrat be if they didn t include the LGBT crowd and embrace illegal aliens? It s almost as if they were trying to divide our nation in order to gain votes.??The mayor of Kansas City, Kansas, in an address to the radical socialist organization National Council of La Raza, bragged that his city is no longer majority white and the city s schools now have students who speak 62 different languages.According to the 2010 U.S. Census, Kansas City, Kansas, was 52 percent white.But in a speech before the La Raza National Affiliates Luncheon earlier this week in Kansas City, Mayor Mark Holland boasted that only five years later his city s white population has been reduced to 40 percent.He seemed to suggest that La Raza was at least partly responsible for the progress. But he also cited the refugee resettlement work of the United Nations and U.S. State Department for the city s transformation into a gleaming example of multicultural diversity.Kansas City, he said, is very proud of the work of National Council of La Raza. Kansas City, Kansas, is a city with no ethnic majority. Kansas City, Kansas, is 40 percent white, 28 percent Latino, and 26 percent African-American, Holland said. Our school district speaks 62 different languages by the children every single day. And Kansas City, Kansas, has a proud heritage of welcoming all people into the community, people who are not welcome in other places. Latinos started coming with the Santa Fe railroad more than 100 years ago, to build the railroad, he said. Another railroad, the Underground Railroad, brought African-Americans to Kansas. If they could get across the river they were free and settled in a township of Quindero. We continue to have a number of groups of refugees from around the world, he added, mentioning the large Hmong community that came in the 1970s and 80s following the Vietnam War.In recent years, the city has welcomed more refugees from other parts of the world, including Muslim Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq, Hindus from Bhutan and Buddhists and Muslims from Burma.LGBTs welcome in KCKansas City has also thrown open its arms to the LGBT community, Holland said, even though most of the state of Kansas leans Republican.He said the city is the home of another persecuted group the Democrats. The Democrats still have a foothold in Kansas City and we re very proud of that, said the Democrat mayor. And because Democrats are in Wyandotte County, we welcome our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters and celebrate their life and their love, and always will. Holland, an ordained Methodist minister, then went on the attack against any Christians who don t share his liberal theological views on same-sex marriage.He applauded the recent 5-4 Supreme Court decision that redefined marriage for all 50 states. But we cannot let our guard down. This religious freedom component, I believe is the Confederate Flag of religious bigotry, being flown long after the fact, Holland said. As an ordained United Methodist pastor myself, I m offended to note, when they say Christians are offended by the ruling. In fact, many of us Christians celebrate the ruling and the continued welcome and recognition of all people. But I want to close by saying we just couldn t be more proud that La Raza is here in Kansas City and it s an honor to be able to greet you. The U.S. State Department, working with the United Nations, has sent 2,371 international refugees to Kansas City, Kansas, since 2002. The State Department s database does not include U.N. refugees dispersed throughout the U.S. before 2002 but the program has been ongoing in its current form since 1980. The U.N. picks about 95 percent of the refugees sent to the U.S. The State Department, working with nine major contractors such as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, distributes about 70,000 refugees annually from mostly Third World nations into 190 U.S. cities and towns.U.N. sends KC 2,371 refugees since 2002The refugees, unlike most other classifications of immigrants, immediately qualify for a smorgasbord of state and federal welfare benefits and are placed on a fast-track toward full citizenship, which is obtainable within five years.Since 2002 Kansas City has received 1,090 refugees from Burma, 577 from Bhutan, 190 from Somalia, 126 from Iraq, 47 from Liberia, 37 from Eritrea, 36 from Russia, 34 from Burundi, 33 from Afghanistan, 26 from Vietnam, 24 from Sudan, 18 from Uzbekistan, and 11 from Iran, according to State Department data.Via: WND
| 0
| 8,878
|
George Lopez was hired to be the emcee for the Children s Diabetes Foundation s Carousel Ball. Lopez thought it would be a good idea to turn what should have been an event to help sick children into an opportunity to express his hate for President Trump and his supporters. Bad idea Here s the promotion for Lopez from the Children s Diabetes Foundation on Twitter:We are excited to announce that commedian & acotor @georgelopez will be the emcee for this year's #CarouselBall! https://t.co/cO9eHKviPO pic.twitter.com/aCpAI9F22a CDF (@CDFdiabetes) September 21, 2017Comic George Lopez was booed off stage at a gala for juvenile diabetes in Denver last week, over an anti-Donald Trump routine that fell flat with the crowd.We re told the flap began when Trump backer and Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei donated $250,000 but requested that Lopez cool it with the anti-Trump jokes at the Carousel Ball.An attendee at the event where tables sold from $5,000 to $100,000 to benefit the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes commented on a YouTube video that George was asked nicely to stop making Trump jokes by a man in front row [Maffei] who just donated $250K. But George doesn t, continues. Gets booed. We re told that Lopez responded to Maffei, Thank you for changing my opinion on old white men, but it doesn t change the way I feel about orange men. Trying to recover and sensing the audience turn, Lopez said, Listen, it s about the kids . . . I apologize for bringing politics to an event. This is America it still is. So I apologize to your white privilege. We re told Lopez also told a joke about Trump s proposed border wall with Mexico, saying, I guess you can get some Mexicans to do it cheaper and they wouldn t crush the tunnels underneath. When the audience did not respond well, he quipped, Are you El Chapo people? in reference to the drug kingpin who has used tunnels to evade authorities.Lopez then announced a video segment but he did not return to the stage, and a local newscaster took over the hosting duties.Host of HUGE charity #CarouselBall, @georgelopez , makes political comments about Trump, drops f-bomb and is escorted out. J R (@DrumIntuition) October 14, 2017TV host Chris Parente posted on Twitter, big controversy: host of HUGE charity #CarouselBall, @georgelopez, makes political comments about Trump, drops f-bomb and is escorted out. Page SixChris Parente s tweet has since been deleted.
| 0
| 7,361
|
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs that killed three people and injured nine, conservatives did their best to distance shooter Robert Dear from the anti-abortion movement.First they tried to claim that the shooting didn t even occur at the clinic and was part of a bank robbery attempt. When that fell through they tried to say Dear wasn t motivated by abortion, but then he made comments in court about body parts, echoing the series of videos from the anti-choice Center for Medical Progress that were deceptively edited to allege misdeeds at Planned Parenthood.And now we are learning about a direct line between Dear and past anti-abortion terrorists, thanks to court documents that were unsealed on Monday.The documents give the deepest look yet into Dear s seething disdain for abortion providers.He told police he admired Paul Hill, a former minister, who was executed in 2003 for the 1994 shootings of abortion provider Dr. John Bayard Britton and his bodyguard, a retired U.S. Air Force officer named James Herman Barrett, outside the Ladies Center in Pensacola, Florida.Hill himself said he was inspired by the shooting death of another abortion doctor in Pensacola a year earlier. At the time of Hill s execution, some urged that he be spared for fear the extreme wing of the anti-abortion movement would turn him into a martyr.As these documents come out, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is campaigning with the support of an anti-choice activist who has praised the killing of abortion providers, while Donald Trump has said that women who receive abortions must be punished in some way if the anti-choice movement has its dream of an abortion ban.The line between the mainstream conservative movement and the terrorism of the anti-choice movement is continually blurred as the Republican Party continues to do all it can to appeal to this bloc of voters who are well beyond the mainstream of American thought.Featured image via YouTube
| 0
| 8,366
|
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman branded as turf war between U.S. security agencies U.S. intelligence reports that Russia intervened in the presidential election, she wrote on her Facebook page on Tuesday. “It looks like banal infighting between U.S. security services”, Maria Zakharova said.
| 1
| 7,474
|
21st Century Wire asks HAVE YOUR SHOUT: With a string of decisive victories in the New Hampshire and South Carolina GOP primaries, we ask our readers: can the mercurial Donald Trump sustain his lead?Vote, comment and share below READ MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 Files
| 0
| 46
|
Chelsea Clinton thought she was quite clever when she cited the story of Lucifer to support her argument for removing confederate statues. What is it about the Clinton s citing anything to do with faith to support their argument that makes everyone cringe?The story of Lucifer-who rebelled against God-is part of many Christians' traditions. I've never been in a church with a Lucifer statue. Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) August 18, 2017We all know that the Clinton s have no boundaries when it comes to making up lies to fit their narrative, but after Chelsea attempted to convince Twitter users that she is a regular church-goer, we couldn t help but remind everyone what Chelsea openly admitted while she was pregnant with her second child:Because every 6-year old makes the decision to leave a church over their views on abortion right? And every pregnant mother reminisces about leaving the church over their defense of killing unborn babies right?But you left church when you were 6 because you supported abortion, remember? https://t.co/uNKP979Zly Golden Gnome (@memealchemy) August 18, 2017 Fairy Sweet Dee delivered a left hook to the phony Chelsea, as she reminded her Twitter followers what Democrats really believe: .prob not but I'm sure you would have tried to coerce Mary into aborting since she was a low income unwed mother. https://t.co/5p4tNjgxlV Sweetest Dee (@ihate_everyone2) August 18, 2017Twitter users really came at Chelsea hard. Much like her crooked mother, Crooked Chelsea continued to make up stories to prove her point. Honky Tonk Jew told Chelsea that she doubted she d ever been in a church, period. :I doubt you've ever been in a church, period Honky Tonk Jew (@HonkyTonkJew) August 18, 2017Chelsea tried desperately to recover after she was outed for saying she left the church when she was six years old because they didn t believe in aborting babies. She made several attempts to make it appear as though she and her unemployed husband spend a great deal of their time while traveling (likely on the Clinton Foundation s dime).Twice this week. In addition to be fortunate to attend services at l'Abbaye de Saint-Beno t-du-Luc, we also visited nearby St. Aidan's. Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) August 18, 2017Several Twitter users provided the all-knowing Chelsea with various photos of Lucifer statues in church:Statue of Lucifer in Holy Trinity Church Marylebone, Westminster pic.twitter.com/BHvZWvbo8D Gay Lynn Westover (@UberPT) August 18, 2017Satan on the bottom. It isn't odd that you are unaware of authentic Christian iconography. pic.twitter.com/nsHJ9wPmgw Andrew E. Malone (@dukenaltum) August 19, 2017There are churches & cathedrals throughout the world that depict Satan as he is a necessary part of understanding the history of the Bible pic.twitter.com/0WUbMrjGww (((Darth Kitteh))) (@eloracnasus) August 18, 2017Here s Chelsea, once again talking about her next vacation, where she hopes to visit another church:While I've been to Belgium, I've not visited Li ge. Hopefully, I will be lucky enough to visit the city & St. Paul's Cathedral in the future Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) August 18, 2017OOPS! Even one of Chelsea s supporters is forced to set the record straight on Lucifer in the church, especially the church Chelsea claims she d like to visit in the future:@maumota I agree with what you mean. But there is a Lucifer statue in St Paul' Cathedral in Liege, Belgium. pic.twitter.com/yokYQSjtig Thomas Jamet (@tomnever) August 18, 2017This black Twitter user gives Chelsea a much needed history lesson: But you're part of a party that supported segregation and slavery. Should democrats change their name? Mike Ryals (@MichaelRyals) August 19, 2017The Clinton s, most especially Chelsea and her unemployed husband, have been doing quite a bit of traveling this summer. Angie suggested that perhaps Chelsea could use some of that Haiti money. that they stole from the impoverished Haitians after promising donations the Clinton Slush Fund collected from around the world would be used to help them, and instead were primarily used to line their pockets.Maybe you can use some of that Haiti money. Angie (@kachninja) August 18, 2017And finally, the icing on the cake:OUCH!You were raised by Lucifer in a pantsuit. JWF (@JammieWF) August 18, 2017And ouch again!"Check out the #rapist statue of your Dad. Trust me, he was Lucifer to the women he abused." @RealJamesWoods TRUMP WORLD (@Trump_World) August 19, 2017When are we taking down your dad's statues? We can't have statues of a pervert around. It's discriminatory against sexually abused women. But-it's-my-turn (@fernandocarnal) August 19, 2017Oh like this one??? Of your #RapistStepFather ??!!! pic.twitter.com/G2G47uIezK RinosOut2018 (@TXluvsnoBSTrump) August 20, 2017
| 0
| 30
|
End of preview. Expand
in Data Studio
- Downloads last month
- 14