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Obama, Trump display unity in White House meeting | November 11, 2016 Obama, Trump display unity in White House meeting
President Obama and President-elect Donald Trump put on a show of unity Thursday at their first meeting at the White House.
The two men, who have been sworn enemies for years, met for more than an hour and a half in the Oval Office, even though Trump said they were only scheduled to meet for 15 minutes.
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EU defends Iran deal despite Trump, appeals to U.S. Congress | LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - The European Union on Monday reaffirmed its support for a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers despite sharp criticism of the accord by President Donald Trump, and it urged U.S. lawmakers not to reimpose sanctions on Tehran. Trump defied both U.S. allies and adversaries on Friday by refusing to formally certify that Tehran is complying with the accord, even though international inspectors say it is, and said he might ultimately terminate the agreement. EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg said a failure to uphold an international agreement backed by the U.N. Security Council could have serious consequences for regional peace, and also undermine efforts to check North Korea s nuclear ambitions. As Europeans together, we are very worried that the decision of the U.S. president could lead us back into military confrontation with Iran, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel told reporters. After a closed-door meeting chaired by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Iran, the ministers issued a joint statement saying the 2015 deal was key to preventing the global spread of nuclear weapons. The EU is committed to the continued full and effective implementation of all parts of the JCPOA, it said, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the formal name of the accord with Iran agreed in July 2015 in Vienna. Trump meanwhile renewed his criticism of the accord, and raised the possibility he might try to end it completely. We ll see what phase two is. Phase two might be positive, and it might be very negative. It might be a total termination. That s a very real possibility. Some would say that s a great possibility, the U.S. president said in Washington. He repeated his contention that the JCPOA was a horrible deal for the United States. EU foreign ministers said the accord was crucial to opening up Iran s $400-billion economy and finding a new market for European investors. Unlike the United States, the EU saw relations with Iran flourish in the late 1990s until revelations about Tehran s nuclear plans in 2002. Non-proliferation is a major element of world security and rupturing that would be extremely damaging, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters. We hope that Congress does not put this accord in jeopardy. Mogherini said she would travel to Washington early next month to try to muster support for the accord. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says Iran is complying with its commitments under the accord, which Trump has branded the worst deal ever negotiated . The EU still has sanctions in place against members of Iran s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a major target of Trump s criticism. The EU ministers also discussed on Monday Iran s ballistic missile program, which they want to see dismantled. Tehran says that program is purely defensive. Negotiated after 12 years of talks, the accord with Iran is the most significant diplomatic success for the bloc in several decades. Many worry that the EU s reputation as an honest broker in a host of future conflicts may not recover if the U.S. Congress reimposes sanctions on Iran and causes the deal - which had the strong backing of Trump s predecessor Barack Obama - to unravel. Most U.N. and Western sanctions were lifted more than 18 months ago under the deal, though Tehran is still subject to a U.N. arms embargo, which is not part of the deal. EU foreign ministers also approved a new batch of economic sanctions on North Korea after its atomic test last month that included an oil embargo and investment ban. But some still hold out hope of repeating the Iran nuclear deal with Pyongyang at some future date. Sweden is one of only seven EU countries with an embassy in Pyongyang and its foreign minister, Margot Wallstrom, reiterated that Stockholm could be counted on to help negotiate if asked. But Germany s Gabriel warned that Trump s decision not to certify the Iran accord could scupper such hopes, a position echoed by Mogherini, although she stressed that no such EU mediation was underway. My concern is that, if we want to talk to North Korea now, the possible end for the nuclear deal with Iran would jeopardize the credibility of such treaties, Gabriel said. | 0fake |
Cable news is in trouble, and it’s more about the news than the cable | Cable news is in trouble. The Pew Research Center reports that the median daily audience for Fox, CNN, and MSNBC is down about 11 percent since 2008.
The Washington Post's Paul Farhi sees a grim future for the industry. He argues that cable news outlets are pretty much where newspapers were a decade ago: their audience is aging, their medium is being disrupted by new technologies, and the next generation of viewers is developing habits and preferences that they're poorly placed to serve. (This is probably a good moment to note that I'm a contributor to MSNBC.)
The networks may still be making money — in 2014, Fox News managed $1.2 billion in profits, while CNN cleared $300 million and MSNBC made a bit more than $200 million — but Farhi suggests "the cable news networks will face bankruptcy the same way Ernest Hemingway once described a character’s financial demise: 'Gradually and then suddenly.'"
Perhaps that's right. But while Farhi's account of cable news outlets' woes focuses mainly on the cable part of the equation, it's also worth considering the problems all three networks are having with the news itself.
The rise of the three major cable news networks were all driven by stories they dominated. CNN was made by the 1991 Gulf War. It wasn't just the first time it passed the networks in ratings; it was the first time CNN showed that it could beat the networks in coverage. You can still feel the surprise in this New York Times article from 1991:
The shooting in the Persian Gulf began tonight with the three broadcast networks committed to covering the war on a 24-hour basis, although their image as news leaders was damaged by the Cable News Network's early dominance of the coverage ... he networks' image was certainly not helped when Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said he was following the attacks on Baghdad on CNN. At least one network station, an NBC station in Detroit, decided to quit its network's coverage to run CNN's. And NBC finally was compelled to interview CNN reporters on the air to get information out of Baghdad.
Fox News, for its part, saw basically exponential growth around 9/11, and then again around the 2008 campaign and Obama's election. MSNBC's rise was driven by the backlash to the Bush administration, and particularly to the Iraq War:
The network held those gains in the first half of the Obama era, as liberals went from terrified to triumphant. But as liberals have gone from triumphant to a bit depressed and checked out, viewership has begun to decline.
The recent rise of cable news — particularly Fox and MSNBC — came in a period when the news — particularly political news — was unusually interesting.
Between 2000 and 2012, we saw a contested US presidential election, the largest terrorist attack ever on US soil, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, repeated wave elections, a global financial crisis, the first black president, the rise of the Tea Party, the fight over Obamacare, and the first states to legalize gay marriage and marijuana — and much more. It's been a weirdly interesting, consequential period in American politics. And so the cable news networks, which could devote 24 hours a day to covering these stories, benefited.
But now it's an unusually dull period in American politics. Congress is gridlocked, and is likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future. The US, thankfully, isn't reeling from a terrorist attack or a financial crisis. We haven't invaded Iran, at least not yet. And it's not just cable news that's losing viewers because of it. Turnout in the 2014 election was the lowest it's been in 70 years.
You see this, I think, in the specific fortunes of the cable networks. Farhi reports that MSNBC lost 14 percent of its audience in 2014, and Fox lost 2 percent. But CNN prime time — which swung away from politics toward covering plane crashes and airing documentaries — is up 10 percent in 2015.
Which is all to say that Farhi may be right about the long-term decline of cable news — over some extended period of time, both network and cable channels are going to be diminished by whatever it is the internet creates in their place.
But year to year, a lot of the ups and downs might just be the appeal of what's actually in the news. If President Scott Walker goes to war with Iran, MSNBC's ratings are going to go up. If President Hillary Clinton takes away everyone's guns, Fox is going to boom. But for now, relative peace and stability are bad news for cable news. | 0fake |
Caitlyn Jenner to Attend Trump Inauguration - Breitbart | Caitlyn Jenner soon takes part in another transition. [According to Us Weekly, the former Olympian has received and accepted an invitation to attend the inauguration of Donald Trump: Caitlyn Jenner accepts invitation to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration: https: . pic. twitter. — Us Weekly (@usweekly) January 11, 2017, Jenner has fought back against charges from the Left that a Trump presidency would create negative effects on women and the LGBT community. Instead, Jenner argued that Trump stands “very much for women” in addition to remaining open on some LGBT issues. Jenner, a staunch Republican, gave some idea of what frames her political views in an interview with Bill Simmons in August. “I believe in the simple things,” Jenner explained. “I believe in our Constitution. I think the Republican side, although I’ve been very disappointed with them over the last 10 to 20 years, has a better opportunity to bring this country back to, really, as close as you can to what it was. … I have kind of positioned myself with the Republican Party to try to help these people understand, [to help] the Republican Party understand what the issues are for the LBGT community. ” The E! Channel canceled Jenner’s show I Am Cait in August, the same month in which she told Bill Simmons about her love of the Constitution and the Republican Party. Surely nothing more than a coincidence there. After supporting Trump and attending his inauguration, Jenner’s chances of scoring another show rank only slightly higher than her chances of landing on another Wheaties box. Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn | 0fake |
Immigration win for Republicans could help Clinton in the end | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans cheered after the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday thwarted President Barack Obama’s plan to offer millions of undocumented immigrants relief from deportation, but any sense of triumph might last only until the November presidential election. If recent history is a guide, the stalled cause of immigration reform could energize Hispanic voters in support of likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, hurting Republican Donald Trump’s chances of reaching the White House. Four years ago, Obama, seeking reelection to a second term, made Republican opposition to reform a central theme of his campaign. He ended up swamping his opponent, Mitt Romney, by almost a 3 to 1 margin among Latino voters, who now make up around 12 percent of the U.S. electorate. Republican hopes for securing a larger share of that vote this election already seemed grim given Trump’s vow to deport the estimated 11 million immigrants in the country illegally and to build a wall along the southern U.S. border. Democrats were quick to assail the ruling and voice concern about the fate of the 4 million or so immigrants who were to be shielded from deportation by Obama’s executive action. But it was also clear that they believe the high court has handed them a potent weapon to spur Latinos — the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. electorate — to vote in greater numbers. The Latino voting bloc is expected to swell to 27.3 million in 2016, up 4 million from 4 years ago. The prospect of Clinton filling the current vacancy on the top court with a liberal-leading justice who could, potentially, protect immigration-reform programs, may galvanize those voters as well. Republicans in Congress have refused to accept Obama’s pick for the top court to fill the vacancy left by the death of conservative justice Antonin Scalia in February. The justices’ ruling on Thursday sent the question of the legality of Obama’s program back to a Texas federal court for trial, leaving open the possibility that the matter could return to the high court on appeal at a later date. The court’s decision “just adds fuel to the fire that’s already raging,” said Brad Bannon, a Democratic strategist. “Each of these events raises the intensity and the Latino turnout even more.” In the wake of the ruling, immigration activists vowed payback in November’s election and staged protests on Thursday. A recent survey by Latino Decisions, a polling firm, showed that about half of the U.S. Hispanic electorate showed greater enthusiasm to vote in 2016 as compared to 2012, with support for Obama’s pro-immigrant executive orders running high. “We should expect similar dynamics this fall, perhaps even more so given the election is likely to determine the ideological direction of the Supreme Court,” said David Damore, an analyst for the firm. Given Trump’s unpopularity with Latino voters, the question for many Democrats both in and outside the Clinton campaign has been less about attracting the bloc’s support and more about making sure it votes in large enough numbers to help offset Trump’s expected advantage among white voters. The court’s decision may also help make traditionally Republican states with increasing Hispanic populations such as Arizona more competitive this election, strategists in both parties said. Reed Galen, a Republican strategist in California, said the ruling could boost Democratic hopes in Latino-heavy battleground states such as Nevada, Colorado, and Florida. “The issue isn’t getting [Latino voters] fired up,” Galen said. “It’s getting them to show up.” Galen believes there is little his party can do now to mitigate the damage he believes Trump has done to its appeal among Hispanics. A Republican National Committee “autopsy” report after Romney’s defeat said it was essential for the party to broaden its appeal to Hispanic voters by embracing immigration reform. “Trump has pushed the envelope on immigration so far for Republicans, I don’t know this [decision] is going to be any more damaging,” he said. “The barn’s already been blown up.” But Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, the president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, a conservative advocacy group, disagreed. He said Republicans in Congress could still enact reform this year, which would ward off Trump’s deportation threat while building stronger ties with Latino voters. “This is the quintessential green light for Republicans to put their money where their mouth is,” Rodriguez said. Many Republicans were careful on Thursday to applaud the court’s ruling on the grounds that it curtailed what they viewed as an abuse of executive authority by Obama, without delving into the underlying immigration issues. “The Constitution is clear: The president is not permitted to write laws — only Congress is,” said Paul Ryan, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Ryan supports comprehensive immigration reform. Trump, however, went further, praising the ruling and saying the election now held the key to blocking further illegal immigration. “The election, and the Supreme Court appointments that come with it will decide whether or not we have a border and, hence, a country,” he said in a statement. He has vowed to reverse Obama’s executive actions on immigration as president. | 0fake |
GERMANY: Syrian Muslim invader shouting “Allahu Akbar” disrupts church wedding, gropes statue of Virgin Mary | GERMANY: Syrian Muslim invader shouting “Allahu Akbar” disrupts church wedding, gropes statue of Virgin Mary A newlywed couple claims their big day was ruined when a Muslim illegal alien burst inside the church shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ and then started tearing down wedding decorations, laughing wildly, and fondling a statue of the Virgin Mary. ( Maybe he had a ‘sexual emergency?’ ) Karmel Church in Duisburg UK Daily Mail (h/t Brenda K) Groom Marcel Lohbeck, 35, and bride Friederike were celebrating their wedding with 90 guests in the Karmel Church in Duisburg, a city in western Germany . Lochbeck said: ‘At the beginning of the ceremony, a man with a thick jumper and a hat on came into the church and sat in the back row. ‘Shortly afterwards, he stood up and wandered around the candles. He laughed in a disturbing manner and then fondled the statue of Mary. ‘He had been speaking in Arabic and partly English. He then started destroying the flowers and kept shouting “Allahu Akbar”.’ Police officer Ludger A., 57, the uncle of the groom, reportedly tried to intervene along with the church sexton. The officer said: ‘We tried to calm the Syrian Muslim invader.’ After the man again refused to leave the church, there was a fight in which the police officer got slight injuries to his face. Yet he managed to restrain the man until his colleagues from the Duisburg police could arrive. After a medical examination, the 23-year-old Syrian was taken to a psychiatric hospital. Well, at least he didn’t destroy the statue and urinate on it as Muslims did HERE : | 1real |
House Speaker Ryan expects tax plan this fall: NYT interview | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Thursday he expects to unveil a proposal for overhauling the federal tax code this fall and to get legislation passed by the end of the year that includes a lower corporate tax rate. “We want America to wake up on New Year’s Day 2018 with a new tax system,” Ryan said in an interview with The New York Times. He said congressional tax writers were close to releasing their template for the tax system overhaul. Tax reform was a major campaign promise last year for President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans in Congress. But the effort has been hamstrung by repeated delays and political distractions since Trump took office in January. The president went on the road at the end of August to tout tax cuts as a way to help American workers and the middle class but Washington’s attention soon shifted to hurricanes battering the southern United States and North Korea’s latest nuclear test. Trump’s treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin, said in a separate interview on Thursday with Fox Business Network that tax reform remains a top priority for the president. Ryan said Trump was very engaged on tax reform and “seriously involved in the details.” The president has said he wanted to lower the U.S. corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent. Ryan, in the Times interview, indicated a figure that low was unrealistic. “The numbers are hard to make that work. He obviously wants to push this as low as possible - I completely support doing that but at the end of the day we’ve got to make these numbers work. “Our goal is to be at or below the industrialized world average - and that’s 22.5 (percent). So our goal is to get in the mid to low 20s. And we think that’s an achievable goal.” | 0fake |
More talks but no decisions on Republican push to overhaul healthcare | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. House of Representatives vote to overhaul Obamacare before lawmakers leave Washington for a two-week break looked unlikely late on Tuesday as top White House deputies and key Republican groups said more discussions were needed. Vice President Mike Pence and administration officials met on Capitol Hill for two hours with lawmakers from the moderate “Tuesday Group,” the conservative Republican Study Committee, and the House Freedom Caucus, the rebel group of conservative lawmakers that derailed the first administration-backed healthcare bill last month. While progress had been made, the officials and House lawmakers said no bill text had been agreed on and no decisions had been made by the various Republican factions. The lack of a resolution complicates a White House push for a House vote on a healthcare proposal before Friday, when lawmakers return to their districts for two weeks. “Good talk, good progress,” Pence told reporters without providing details. Freedom Caucus leader Mark Meadows said the meeting had focused on an amendment to create a “backstop” to ensure individuals with chronic illnesses in high-risk pools do not see spikes in insurance premium costs if other aspects of Obamacare, also known as the 2010 Affordable Care Act, are repealed. “No decisions were made. We’re going to get back together tomorrow at a time to be determined,” Meadows told reporters. Republican Study Committee Chairman Mark Walker said the focus when talks resumed would be on sticking points such as whether to allow states to opt out of Obamacare mandates that insurers must cover a minimum tier of services and cannot charge more to those with pre-existing conditions - a popular provision of the law that Trump has promised to protect. The Republican failure last month to dismantle Obamacare was President Donald Trump’s first major legislative setback and it raised questions about how he would build Republican consensus to deliver on other major legislative goals. Many Republicans were elected on promises to repeal and replace Obamacare but House Speaker Paul Ryan was forced to withdraw the bill when it became clear there were not enough Republican votes to pass it. Hard-line conservatives, such as those in the Freedom Caucus, thought it was too similar to former Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law. Moderate conservatives balked at proposed changes to some of its most popular provisions that were sought by conservative lawmakers. Trump initially said he would move on to fulfilling other campaign promises such as a tax overhaul and infrastructure-spending package, but a new attempt at reviving the failed healthcare push took off on Monday when White House officials met Republican lawmakers. A source familiar with internal House Republican deliberations said healthcare, not taxes, now topped the House agenda and that the White House was driving the healthcare effort. “They want to get this done as quickly as possible,” Meadows told reporters after Tuesday’s meeting. Republican lawmakers have said the new push on healthcare would maintain Obamacare’s essential health benefits clause listing services and care that insurers must cover. However, in a move to attract hard-line conservatives, states could apply for a waiver if they showed it would improve coverage and reduce costs. The “backstop” for individuals in the high-risk pool discussed on Tuesday would direct additional funds to a $115 billion state stability fund authorized in the first Republican bill. No final decision was made, even though there was consensus, lawmakers said. “We’re taking our time and working through policy and structure until we reach consensus,” said Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady. “Let’s let the solution and common ground drive the timetable, rather than the other way. That was really the consensus,” he said. Ryan told reporters after a closed meeting with fellow Republicans on Tuesday morning that the renewed healthcare effort was simply in the “conceptual stage right now,” and did not give a timeline for having a bill on the House floor. Talk of a revived plan hurt shares of hospitals and insurers that have benefited from Obamacare’s expansion of the Medicaid program for the poor, which extended insurance to millions of people and helped cut hospital debt. Major hospital and medical groups, including the American Medical Association, were opposed to the initial Republican bill because it would lead to massive coverage losses and cuts in hospital revenue. | 0fake |
TX Professors Told Not To Upset Armed Students To Avoid Shootings Following ‘Campus Carry’ Law | This is what it has come to.Following the passage of a Republican-drafted bill to force guns onto college campuses whether the schools want them there or not the University of Houston has begun instructing professors to avoid literally triggering students who may be armed in order to avoid sparking a mass shooting. If that sounds ridiculously unhealthy, glad you could join us.In 2015, Republicans in the Texas legislature and Governor Greg Abbott forced through an NRA-drafted bill that would make it mandatory for schools in the state to allow guns on campus. As much as it was adored by right-wing gun lovers, educators and students were appalled. The implications are scary. Students will be packed into classrooms with any number of weapons just waiting to go off by accident or by design.Schools are preparing for the new guns everywhere law that will take effect in August, and much of the preparation centers around getting teachers ready to deal with classrooms full of 18-year-olds who brought a semi-automatic handgun to campus along with their textbooks. In a recent discussion of the new state law, the University of Houston displayed a slide that told faculty to not go there' on certain topics if they felt it might make some of their gun-happy students upset.Slide from recent campus carry dialogue at UH, in response to faculty concerns about dangers from armed students: pic.twitter.com/610RyhDZlf Jeff (@JeffintheBowtie) February 22, 2016USA TODAY spoke with the university s faculty senate president: My slides are not university policy but faculty to faculty discussion points in a faculty senate led discussion group. They express the downside of having more weapons on campus and the chilling effect that has on academic freedom, University Faculty Senate President Jon Snow tells USA TODAY College regarding his presentation.Ironically, many right-wingers have accused schools of censoring free speech by being overly politically correct in the classroom. It s hard to imagine any school has gone as far as Texas s Republican-led legislature. Professors may be worried students could get offended by a lecture, but few schools have to tell their professors to avoid triggering their students or else risk being shot in their classroom.Needless to say, many professors are not okay with this new way of doing things.Despite Republicans assuring the public that they are doing this to keep people safe, the students and professors themselves want nothing to do with this terrifying plan. It s led to demonstrations by students at schools like the University of Texas at Austin, and now, an unprecedented 168 professors from over 30 departments have signed a pledge that they will not take part in this bone-headed scheme.Republicans have ignored their concerns entirely. Instead, they are high-fiving the NRA lobbyists who put them up to it. So a few more kids might die in Texas schools? It s a small price to pay for freedom. Featured image via Twitter | 1real |
Central American presidents congratulate Trump | SAN JOSE (Reuters) - The presidents of three Central American countries congratulated Donald Trump on Wednesday after his shock victory over rival Hillary Clinton in a campaign that focused on immigration issues. On Twitter, the presidents of Panama, Costa Rica and Honduras wrote to congratulate Trump, even as they could be affected by his hardline proposals on immigration and trade. “Congratulations United States on (your) elections,” wrote Juan Orlando Hernandez, the conservative leader of Honduras. “The people decided ... To success between USA/Honduras relations.” The government of El Salvador welcomed President-elect Trump, but called for calm among Salvadorans in the United States and said it would work to ensure their rights were respected. Immigration became a principal issue during the U.S. presidential race, with Trump promising to step up deportations and triple the number of border patrol agents to dissuade immigrants from entering the U.S. illegally. The Republican president-elect has also threatened to keep many immigrants out of the country by building a massive border wall he says Mexico will pay for. | 0fake |
Turkey's Erdogan to visit Russia, Kuwait on November 13, 14 | ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will visit Russia s Sochi on November 13, followed by a visit to Kuwait the following day, his office said on Monday. The visit to Sochi comes amid reports of potential sticking points in Turkey s planned purchase of a Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system, and Turkish objections to the attendance of Syrian Kurdish groups to a Russian-sponsored Syrian peace congress scheduled for Nov. 18. Last week, the two countries took a step toward the solution of an import crisis as Russia lifted restrictions on import of Turkish tomatoes. | 0fake |
Eric Trump Just Asked The Labor Department To Let Him Hire Foreign Workers AGAIN | If any other American company did this, Donald Trump would be attacking them on Twitter.But Trump has a double standard when it comes to his own business and the businesses owned by his family members.As you may recall, Trump has openly attacked Ford, General Motors, and a slew of other companies for building factories overseas instead of building them here and hiring American workers to do the jobs.Trump even attacked a Japanese automaker for building a factory in Mexico instead of in the United States.The hypocrisy here is that while Trump is attacking these companies for not hiring Americans, his own son is begging the Labor Department to let him hire foreign workers instead of giving jobs to Americans.Eric Trump owns Trump Vineyards, and for the second time he is asking the Labor Department to let him hire foreign workers.According to the petition filed, the workers would be paid over $11 an hour to perform manual labor in cold weather. Workers would also be exposed to chemicals and would have to lift up to 60 pounds of grapes onto a truck.Here s a screenshot of the specific section.Again, this is hypocritical. Donald Trump is constantly promising Americans that he will make sure they have jobs but his own son wants to hire foreign workers.This is yet another example of Trump not following the rules he s setting for everyone else.A real leader leads by example and if Trump refuses to tell his own son to hire American workers why should companies like Ford comply with his demands?Keep in mind that Trump is ordering raids to round up undocumented immigrants because Trump claims they take jobs away from Americans. The reality, however, is that these immigrants take jobs that most Americans do not want to perform, such as managing and harvesting crops. That doesn t mean there aren t American out there who wouldn t take them, and that means Eric Trump is taking jobs away from Americans by trying to hire foreign workers instead. That s shameful, especially since his dad promised to put America first.Featured image via Joe Raedle/Getty Images | 1real |
Pope says Colombia must confront inequality to secure lasting peace | BOGOTA (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Thursday urged Colombians to shun vengeance after a bloody 50-year civil war but said leaders had to enact laws to end the darkness of injustice and social inequality that breeds violence. At the last event of a packed day, the Argentine pontiff said Mass for a crowd estimated by Colombian authorities at just over a million people in Bogota s sprawling Simon Bolivar Park. Under a light drizzle, he ended the day as he had begun it, urging Colombians in his homily to put their differences behind them and beware the darkness of thirst for vengeance . Hours earlier, at the start of his first full day in the country, he had told government leaders in the courtyard of the presidential palace that all Colombians should see peace as a long-term commitment and not allow it to be weakened by partisan politics. Colombians are deeply polarized as they prepare to receive 7,000 former fighters of the FARC guerrilla group into society and aim to repair divisions after a war that killed more than 220,000 people and displaced millions over five decades. Many Colombians are furious that under the 2016 peace deal, FARC leaders accused of kidnapping and murder will avoid jail and may receive seats in congress as members of a political party. President Juan Manuel Santos, who attended both events and is the architect of the peace accord, has an approval rating of about 24 percent. In both speeches, Francis denounced the social inequality that still plagues Colombia, which has extreme poverty in some rural areas. At the morning event, he told leaders that just laws were needed to resolve the structural causes of poverty that lead to exclusion and violence , calling social inequality the root of social ills. In the evening the leader of the world s Roman Catholics told Colombians huddled on wet fields: Here, as in other places, there is a thick darkness which threatens and destroys life - the darkness of injustice and social inequality. As part of the peace agreement, the government agreed with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to distribute more land to poor rural communities and to invest and bring development to war-torn areas. The FARC, which began as a peasant revolt in 1964, has also pledged to help subsistence farmers switch from illegal crops like coca, the raw material that makes cocaine, to food. We want to hear the message of love and peace, so that we open our hearts and leave hatred behind, said 54-year-old William Soacha, a clothes salesman, waiting with his family under the rain for the pope s Mass to begin. The 80-year-old pope, who showed signs of fatigue by Thursday night, has received a tumultuous welcome since his arrival on Wednesday, with his motorcade having to stop or slow down often because of crowds mobbing the popemobile . In his speech at the presidential palace, the pope quoted from the 1982 Nobel Prize acceptance speech of Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez about life and love being the proper response to oppression. In an apparent reference to the late author s best-known work, One Hundred Years of Solitude , he added: There has been too much hatred and vengeance. The solitude of always being at loggerheads has been familiar for decades, and its smell has lingered for a hundred years; we do not want any type of violence whatsoever to restrict or destroy one more life, he said. He also prayed in the colonial cathedral before a painting of Our Lady of Chiquinquira, the patron saint of overwhelmingly Catholic Colombia, before addressing a raucous crowd of young people. He left a message in the cathedral s visitor book, writing: I come here as a witness of peace, of the peace that God wants for Colombia. This will be possible with the efforts of all. He will visit the cities of Villavicencio, Medellin and Cartagena before leaving for Rome on Sunday night. | 0fake |
Trump to nominate Rod Rosenstein to be deputy U.S. attorney general | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will nominate U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein to be deputy attorney general, the White House said on Tuesday, one day after Trump fired the acting attorney general for refusing to enforce an immigration order. The White House also said Trump will nominate Rachel Brand to be associate attorney general and Steven Engel to be an assistant attorney general, filling senior positions as the Justice Department awaits Senate confirmation of Jeff Sessions to be attorney general. | 0fake |
Australia kicks off weeks-long same-sex marriage ballot | SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia on Tuesday launched a postal vote on whether to legalize same-sex marriage as a widely watched poll indicated the country would be overwhelmingly in support. The non-compulsory ballot, which runs until the end of October, will determine whether Australia becomes the 25th country to legalize same-sex marriage, while also healing a rift in the government. Despite securing 70 percent public support in an Ipsos/Fairfax poll on Tuesday, the issue of same-sex marriage had faced a political deadlock, only broken last week when the High Court gave the all-clear for the vote. The poll illustrates why parliament should simply vote to approve same-sex marriage without holding the national ballot, opposition Labor leader Bill Shorten said. Change in this country only ever happens when people participate in the change, Shorten told reporters in Canberra. Please don t leave this change to other people. The ballot of nearly 16 million people at a cost A$122 million ($97.86 million) will help Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull unite his Liberal-National coalition, which had been fractured over the issue throughout his two-year tenure. Turnbull had been under pressure to resolve the impasse after two previous efforts to hold a compulsory vote were rejected by the Senate, where the government is in the minority. Frustrated progressive members said they would side with the opposition Labor Party to secure same-sex marriage if the PM could not finally resolve the issue, though some conservative lawmakers threatened to resign if Turnbull did not stick to a public vote, threatening the PM s one-seat majority. The impasse was eventually resolved when the High Court ruled the government could proceed with the non-compulsory vote, without Senate approval. For a graphic on where same-sex marriage is legal, click: here | 0fake |
Party without parliamentary seats leads in Slovenia opinion poll | LJUBLJANA (Reuters) - A centre-left party that has no seats in Slovenia s parliament and is led by a former comedian topped an opinion poll published by daily newspaper Delo on Monday, about six months ahead of an expected general election. The Lista Marjana Sarca (LMS) under Marjan Sarec, mayor of the city of Kamnik, drew the support of 15.7 percent with a junior governing coalition party, the Social Democrats, in second place with 12.6 percent and the leading opposition party, the centre-left Slovenian Democratic Party, with 12.2 percent. The Party of Modern Centre led by Prime Minister Miro Cerar came in sixth with 5.5 percent. Last month, the Social Democrats led the same poll with 19.8 percent while the LMS was not yet included in the survey. Sarec surprised many last month when he was narrowly beaten in a presidential run-off election, gathering about 47 percent to incumbent Borut Pahor s 53 percent. Analysts said Sarec s party, which has so far been active only at local level, could win a parliamentary vote amid general dissatisfaction with the centre-left government, above all its inability to improve the inefficient national health system. The government of the southeast European country is also under heavy pressure from various public sector unions demanding wage hikes at a time of strong economic growth, expected to be 4.4 percent this year, up from 3.1 percent in 2016. Pahor will call a general election in the coming months and it is expected to be held in the first half of June. | 0fake |
Court Decides Scott Walker’s ‘Right-To-Work’ Law Is Unconstitutional | Wisconsin s right-to-work law was determined to be unconstitutional on Friday by Dane County judge William Foust.The Associated Press reports:Three unions filed the lawsuit last year shortly after Walker signed the bill into law. Right-to-work laws prohibit businesses and unions from reaching agreements that require all workers, not just union members, to pay union dues. Twenty-four other states have such laws.The unions argued that Wisconsin s law was an unconstitutional seizure of union property since unions now must extend benefits to workers who don t pay dues. Dane County Circuit Judge William Foust agreed.He said the law amounts to an unconstitutional governmental taking of union funds without compensation since under the law unions must represent people who don t pay dues. That presents an existential threat to unions, Foust wrote.Wisconsin s Attorney General Brad Schimel said that the state plans on appealing the decision. Schimel released a statement where he said: We are extremely disappointed that the Dane County Circuit Court struck down Wisconsin s right-to-work law, but we are confident the law will be upheld on appeal. The ruling is great news for organized labor who have been fighting the anti-labor law. Phil Neuenfeldt, the president of Wisconsin AFL-CIO released a statement where he said: Today, the courts put a needed check on Scott Walker s attacks on working families by ruling that Wisconsin s Right to Work law is in violation of our state constitution Right to Work goes against the Wisconsin principles of fairness and democracy and hurts all of Wisconsin by eroding the strength of our middle class. Right to Work has always been unjust, now it s proven unconstitutional. Republicans have done everything in their power to dismantle organized labor, helping to ensure the complete annihilation of the middle class. This court decision is a sign that resistance to the hegemony of neoliberalist policy is not futile. The de-industrialization of the United States has wrought havoc on the middle and working class. As a new movement that demands that labor is respected in our economy grows, we must look at these victories and view them as a taste of the good things that happen when the left fights back.Featured image from (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) | 1real |
Energy Update – Super High Geomagnetic Solar Winds | We’ve gone Ultra-Sonic. By Lisa Transcendence Brown
Super high geomagnetic solar winds started about an hour or two ago. These knock us on our butts. We go through an intense inability to function as we upgrade huge. The body goes weak, the mind goes mush. High high high charging protons/ions and these sound like razors, which are part of diamond light lasers. These re-calibrate our magnetics, they tune us high really fast. They “sing” us to sleep, literally, s high in frequency, we basically cannot do anything else.
I came home ready to rock it out. New courses, new lots of stuff to get done…. nope…. Outside was magnificent! I thought about getting my computer and getting back in the car, going to a coffee shop to work, as inside the house, the frequency is so high, it’s right to sleep in these energies. Walked through the door, it took 2 minutes to crawl to the bed (not literally this time, more for the affect of how strong these are. Years ago was crawling…)
We are going super mega high…. sleep where called. Integration is faster. I’m done for brainwork today. Spent the morning gifting, which is always super uber mega awesome!
READ: She’s back! Large coronal hole faces Earth again
Okay loves. Honor your upgrades, your body. You may have to get away from electronics, as when you are tuning, they drain you. After the process is complete (the next day or days later), you’ll be better than new and ready to rock and roll! Some times we slow-mo-it through our stuff… which is many days now, in these super high frequencies.
Working with the energetics is definitely an art. It’s been this way for years and continues to increase as we go. Every moment dictates, getting used to the flow, learning to navigate with it and then master it…. it’s a process for us all!
Right now the crown of my head could just shoot off. We have lift-off loves! Here we g !
Gravity goes, pineal, spine, chest, nasal… abdomen … hearing/sound adjustments…most noticeable right now.
Source: Awakening to Remember
Via: In5D
Related: She’s back! Large coronal hole faces Earth again | 1real |
OINK, OINK! 2015 PIG BOOK SHOWS LAWMAKERS APPROPRIATING GLUTTONOUS SPENDING | WHAT MORATORIUM? These guys in Congress are getting around the moratorium and spending like drunken sailors er pigs Stop the madness!Congress has appropriated over $4 billion earmarks this year despite a ban on pork barrel spending, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) announced on Wednesday.The group unveiled the 23rd edition of its Pig Book at the Phoenix Park Hotel near Capitol Hill, revealing millions in earmarks for fish passage, embryo adoption awareness, and abstinence education. The 2015 Pig Book continues to prove that any earmark is a bad earmark, CAGW president Tom Schatz said. At a time when members of Congress from both sides of the aisle and both sides of the Capitol continue to call for a restoration of earmarks, taxpayers should deliver a loud and clear message that it is time for earmarks to be permanently banned. Congress has been operating under a self-imposed earmark moratorium since 2010. However, lawmakers have found ways to get around the moratorium.CAGW found the cost of earmarks increased from $2.7 billion to $4.2 billion between fiscal years 2014 and 2015.The report highlights $2.6 million earmarked for the Denali Commission, a 1998 program to build infrastructure in rural Alaska that President Obama wanted to eliminate in 2012. Since FY 2000, 26 projects worth $295.8 million have been earmarked for the Denali Commission, including requests by Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee member Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska), Sen. Mark Begich (D., Alaska), and the late Sen. Ted Stevens (R., Alaska), according to the Pig Book.Read more: WFB | 1real |
U.S. envoy to Turkey says duration of visa services suspension depends on talks | ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The U.S. ambassador to Turkey said on Monday the duration of a suspension in visa services in Turkey would depend on talks between the two governments regarding the detention of Turkish staff at the U.S. embassy. In a written statement, Ambassador John Bass said the length of the suspension would also depend on “the Turkish government’s commitment to protecting our facilities and personnel here in Turkey”, noting it was not a visa ban on Turkish citizens. He said the embassy had been unable to learn the reasons for the arrest of a Turkish staff member last week and or what evidence exists against the employee. | 0fake |
Internet Has Brutal Reminder For Ivanka After She Takes Picture With Elephant At D.C. Zoo | Since the inauguration, Ivanka Trump has spent much of her time desperately working to make people forget that she s complicit in many of her father s worst behaviors. While she doesn t mind exploiting a little nepotism to get her own office in the White House, she actively pretends she s innocent in all of this.Part of her strategy is to promote herself (and her brand) on social media as family-friendly and fun. Along with tweets about her father s policies, she regularly posts pictures of her and her family enjoying vacations and activities. She recently thought this would be a fun picture to add to her Twitter account. Who doesn t love an elephant?Making some new friends in DC! pic.twitter.com/D7j4e0IUHW Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) March 26, 2017There were a few glaring problems, though. The photo op only served to reinforce what a hypocrite she is. Given her unique position to actually influence her family, her silence speaks volumes. A real friend of the elephants might, for example, criticize her brother Donald Trump Jr for murdering wild elephants as part of his routine safari trips.@IvankaTrump Doesn't your family normally kill those things? pic.twitter.com/8tAfVxMR7y Kaj-Erik Eriksen (@KajEriksen) March 27, 2017She might point out to her brother that posing with the severed tail of an elephant he had just killed was a disgusting thing to do and he should wipe that smug grin off of his face.pic.twitter.com/DhVDc6TVvJ Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) March 27, 2017She might encourage both of her brothers to stop trying to replace their insecurities with dead animals.Yes, @ClaraJeffery This!Ivanka pretends to be humane Her family murder for fun.And she doesn't care. pic.twitter.com/AM3aN2FmX4 Steve Marmel (@Marmel) March 28, 2017She also might take a more active interest in what her father is doing. Trump has shown no interest in murdering elephants individually, but his lack of respect for environmental protections might make him one of their greatest enemies nonetheless. Trump recently proposed defunding every cent of federal funding to combat climate change. Every single cent. His new head of the EPA, a climate science denier, called fighting the devastating effects of climate change a waste of time. Renowned climate scientist Michael Mann put what Trump is doing in the simplest possible terms: It s an all-out assault on Earth. Meanwhile, African elephants continue to slowly circle towards extinction. Plagued by a changing environment, poachers, and human development, their habitat has become a dangerous place to live. The Trump family is a major part of that.Some friend.Featured image via Twitter | 1real |
Iraqi Forces Recapture Southern Front of Mosul, Kill over 950 ISIS Militants | BY AHT Staff Iraqi Forces Recapture Southern Front of Mosul, Kill over 950 ISIS Militants Iraqi forces managed to win back full control of Mosul's Southern front, killing over 950 ISIS terrorists. 10 Shares 0 1
Federal police chief General Shaker Jodat said late Friday government troops had purged 1,850 square kilometers of Mosul’s Southern front of ISIS militants and freed more than 10,000 families, the al-Sumaria news website reported.
The Iraqi soldiers destroyed 25 car bombs, 83 motorbike bombs, 92 explosive belts and some vehicles equipped with weapons and missiles during their advances in the area, Jodat added.
He further noted that police forces had confiscated 36 mortar shells containing chemicals.
On Thursday, Joint Operations Command announced that the security forces continue liberating six areas in the western coast of the city of Mosul.
The command said in a press statement, “Troops of Federal Policed in the southwest axis of Nineveh managed, today, to fully liberate al-Ezba village,” adding that, “Anti-Terrorism forces in the eastern axis continue liberating the areas of Adan, al-Bakr, al-Zahabiya, al-Khadra’, al-Qadisiyah al-Oula and al-Tahrir.”
“Troops of al-Hashd al-Shaabi in the western axis managed to besiege Tel Afar Airport, and continue the cleansing operations inside the airport,” the statement added.
Joint security forces, backed by Army Aviation and international coalition continue their advance in the battle launched in 17 October 2016, to liberate the city of Mosul. Recommended For You | 1real |
Anti-Trump Group Has Placed DETAILED Statues Of Him In 5 U.S. Cities (VIDEO) | Statues of Donald Trump have appeared in five cities across the country, and it s clear that they re not meant to honor him. They re almost caricatures, and they portray him stark naked in a rather ahem insulting way. The intent is essentially to unmask Trump, and portray him as the disgusting little prick he is.The statues were placed in L.A., San Francisco, Seattle, Cleveland and New York City. The one in New York City was quickly removed, but ABC 7 Chicago reports that the West Coast statues still stand. An activist group known as INDECLINE, which speaks out against Trump, issued a statement claiming responsibility for the works of art. They said their hope is that Trump is never installed in the most powerful political and military position in the world. They also said: It is through these sculptures that we leave behind the physical and metaphorical embodiment of the ghastly soul of one of America s most infamous and reviled politicians. On their website, INDECLINE calls this particular protest The Emperor Has No Balls, and they ve made it very clear on the statues that they see Trump as the ball-less wonder of the GOP. A three-minute video on their website shows exactly how they made the statues, complete with sound bytes of some of the worst things Trump has said in his speeches. You can watch the video below, if you can bear it (warning: Explicit imagery, very NSFW):The Trump campaign didn t comment on the statues, but that may change at some point. Trump can t stand being portrayed in a bad light, and these statues make him look very bad, indeed.Nude statue of Donald Trump appears on Los Feliz sidewalk https://t.co/65Ot7SDqs6 pic.twitter.com/8scXOCwjFR ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) August 18, 2016 | 1real |
2017: "Safe spaces" and Putin-blaming won't save European Atlanticists | November 20, 2016 - Fort Russ - Ruslan Ostashko, PolitRussia - translated by J. Arnoldski -
I’ve already taken note of the fact that one only has to mention some problems of the European Union and the reactions of our Westernists will boil down to one argument: “Yeah, sure, Europe is rotting, but it still hasn’t rotted since the times of the USSR.” Now, if I say that the EU is faced with the prospects of a real collapse, then our Westernists will probably write something similar to me and accuse me of belonging to Kremlin propaganda.
No matter what, I will say that the EU risks collapsing in the foreseeable future. In the end, there is nothing wrong with being considered a Kremlin propagandist, especially since I am joined by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who yesterday said the same thing. Yes, he even used the word “collapse.” What do you think - did Putin buy him or does he really think this?
The French prime minister made such a statement in Berlin, where he went to discuss with Angela Merkel how to live in the new epoch of Trump. to be honest, the tone of his interview in the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung suggests that his talks with Merkel are more reminiscent of a collective therapy session than a brainstorming session. Let me tell you what this really reminded me of.
Following Trump’s victory, many American universities held special psychological support events for students who couldn’t cope with the grief of Hillary Clinton’s defeat. Volunteers and university employees created a pleasant atmosphere for suffering American youth, comforting them and handing out coloring books for adults, brought special therapeutic dogs to pet, and gave students the opportunity to cry a river. Some tests and exams have even been cancelled.
The actions of European politicians following the US elections really remind me of this kind of collective therapy: they cry together, grieve together, convince each other that everything will be fine, but don’t come up with anything concrete. In the interview with the French prime minister, it is difficult to find any kind of concrete action plan. The statement that “France and Germany should be the leaders of Europe” is not an action program. France and Germany have already long since been the leaders of Europe, and the problem is once again that many European don’t like where they’ve brought them. The English and part of the English political elite disliked this situation to such an extent that they voted to leave the European Union. Even Manuel Valls already suspects that Britain won’t be the last country to ask to disembark from the European Titanic.
The prime minister of France suddenly realizes that the EU is faced with the problem of migrants. This is big progress, but with whom is he going to solve this problem? With Merkel? With the very same Merkel who has flooded Germany with migrants and whose approval rating is collapsing for this reason?
There is the theory that France’s prime minister went to Germany to give Frau Chancellor much needed moral support. Western analysts have declared Merkel the “savior of the free world,” but she is the last person who would fit this role, and she herself is not very comfortable in it. Western analysts are at least correctly writing that Merkel does not have the charisma, army, or economy to be the “leader and savior of the free world,” and the EU is falling apart.
Let me recall several events which could finish European stability. In December, there will be presidential elections in Austria which could be won by the candidate that is inclined to recognize Crimea and inaugurate Austria’s exit from the EU. Also in December, there will be a referendum in Italy, the results of which could send Renzi’s government into resignation, thus causing a political crisis and a practical paralysis of decision-making at the EU level as long as Italian politicians can’t agree with each other.
2017 will bring even more interesting events. There will be presidential elections in France that might be won by Sarkozy or Marine Le Pen, both of whom are bad enough for Merkel. Merkel herself could lose the chair of Chancellor, although she will try to run for a fourth term.
In fact, I want to ask the fans of Western democracy and peaceful transfer of power: how will a fourth term for Merkel pan out? Democratically? What about a fourth term for Putin? No? The double standards are revealed.
Judging by the experience of the US election campaign and the Brexit referendum, I already know who will be blamed. Do you think that Obama has just kindheartedly declared Russia a superpower capable of influencing the world? Of course not. This is an artillery barrage preceding a massive information campaign with the message “Putin is undermining the EU!” After all, Europeans wouldn’t understand how the EU could be undermined by a “regional power” with an economy “torn to shreds.”
Everything will be clear. I don’t even rule out that our Kiev opponents will send the next set of fakes to Berlin or Paris in the form of a stolen letter from Surkov, only for BBC and Euronews to then expose some kind of plan to scare voters. This will be, of course, hilarious, but it won’t help European politicians.
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Maddow DESTROYS Trump’s ‘Dangerous’ Move In His Most Hateful Campaign Stop Yet (VIDEO) | Donald Trump is running a campaign that does nothing but tap into the hateful underbelly of American populism. However, this time, it seems the guy has gone to a new low, when nobody believed it possible. Rachel Maddow took Trump to task for a disturbing campaign stop he made in Suffolk County New York which just happens to be where a Latino immigrant was murdered in an anti-immigrant hate crime. The crime happened in November 2008, just as we were electing President Barack Obama for the first time.Maddow says of Trump s decision to stop there: In presidential politicking, symbolism is a deliberate choice. And racial provocation is something with a deep and resonant history. It is one thing to do that as a small-fry politician; it is another thing to do it as a front-runner for a major party s presidential nomination. Being a presidential front-runner is a powerful thing. It can also be a dangerous thing if you want it to be. Trump chose to stop in Patchogue, New York, right near where 37-year-old Marcel Lucero was murdered by a gang of racist teenagers. One of the teens, Jeffrey Conroy, is currently serving 25 years in prison for manslaughter. The prosecution also got him convicted of a hate crime. Further, it was discovered, aftr Lucero s death and the reasoning behind it came to light, that it was just the most brutal in a long line of attack on Latino immigrants. Maddow continued: Patchogue s history of racist and fatal hate crimes against Latino immigrants is not necessarily a nationally-famous story. But it is a New York-famous story. Donald Trump has not yet won the Republican nomination he s still trying to win the New York primary but campaigning in Patchogue today on the street where Marcelo Lucero was murdered, it means something specific in New York. Now, considering what happened at that site and considering Trump s heavy, divisive, and dangerous anti-immigrant rhetoric, there can be no questions what kind of message the current GOP frontrunner was trying to send with that particular campaign stop, and it is a dangerous one.If even one immigrant winds up being attacked by a Trump supporter after this, The Donald himself needs to be held responsible.Watch the video below, courtesy of MSNBC. The Trump remarks start at 11:43.Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
Shaken by Sex Scandal, Oakland Police to Get New Leader, Again - The New York Times | For the fourth time in less than two weeks, the police department in Oakland, Calif. is answering to a different leader. The changes have come as the city deals with two investigations involving its officers: a widening sex scandal and a series of racist text messages sent within the department. “As the mayor of Oakland, I am here to run a police department, not a frat house,” Mayor Libby Schaaf said at a news conference on Friday. The sex scandal unfurled after the suicide of one of the department’s officers last fall. An woman has since alleged in several media reports that she had sex with that officer and several others from Oakland and other police departments in the area, including some while she was a minor. “We continue to be disgusted and outraged by the idea that anyone could abuse an underage victim of sexual exploitation,” Ms. Schaaf said in a statement on June 11. The police department’s former chief, Sean Whent, resigned on June 9. Mr. Whent’s resignation was “a personal choice, which we respect,” said Ms. Schaaf, who then named Ben Fairow the interim chief. Mr. Fairow had previously worked in the department and was serving as deputy chief for the Bay Area Rapid Transit. He lasted five days in the job. “I have just received information that has caused me to lose confidence in Ben Fairow’s ability to lead the Oakland Police Department at this particular moment in time,” the mayor said in a statement on Wednesday, announcing Mr. Fairow’s departure. She did not elaborate on specific reasons for her decision. The department’s assistant chief, Paul Figueroa, was then named acting police chief. That lasted two days: Mr. Figueroa said in a statement on Friday that he was taking leave and would return to the department as a captain. “I feel that this is an appropriate time to place civilian oversight over this police department and to send a very clear message about how serious we are about not tolerating misconduct, unethical behavior, and to root out what is clearly a toxic macho culture,” Ms. Schaaf said, in announcing that the city administrator, Sabrina Landreth, will oversee the department while a national search is conducted for a new chief. The handling of the sex scandal is being reviewed by Oakland’s district attorney and an independent investigator. The Associated Press reported that of the 14 Oakland police officers involved in the sex scandal, two have resigned and three others are on paid leave. Ms. Schaaf said the investigation into racist text messages is not related to the sex scandal or the resignation of Mr. Figueroa. “We do think it’s relevant to share that the text messages were sent by officers,” the mayor said. “But they are wholly inappropriate and not acceptable from anyone who wears the badge of the Oakland Police Department. ” Neither the mayor’s office nor investigators have released the text messages to the public. The mayor would not say how many officers were involved with the text messages, but said the investigation “suggests that it is not as widespread as the sex scandal. ” “I want to assure the citizens of Oakland that we are hellbent on rooting out this disgusting culture,” Ms. Schaaf said. | 0fake |
London's East Croydon station to reopen after security check: police | LONDON (Reuters) - London s East Croydon station was due to reopen on Monday after police said an item they had been investigating was not harmful. The item at East Croydon has been declared non-suspicious, Britain s transport police said on Twitter. The station will be reopening very shortly. The temporary closure caused delays for commuters and for travellers using the city s nearby Gatwick Airport. Britain is on its second-highest level of security alert after several attacks in the country in recent months. | 0fake |
CLASSIC! UNHINGED LIBERAL Loses It…Screams “Nooo!” As Soon As Trump Is Sworn In [Video] | An anti-Trump protester screams no as Donald Trump is sworn in as the 45th US President pic.twitter.com/qmsaFmMSkr ITV News (@itvnews) January 20, 2017 | 1real |
WATCH: Patriot’s ‘Stand For Freedom’ Thwarted By Evil Socialist Ceiling Fan (VIDEO) | One man s stand for freedom ended disastrously when he forgot to look up. YouTuber Latherland uploaded a clip on Thursday that shows a man attempting to make a patriotic, inspiring video that will convince the world to stand up to the tyrannical United States government. You know what? the unidentified man says in front of a backdrop of a whirring ceiling fan. It s about time our people took a stand for freedom. Inspiring. The gentleman emphasizes his point by standing up on his bed, but apparently forgets the fan buzzing above him. So you know what? he says as he rises. As a patriot, I m going to take a motherf*cking F*ck, sh*t, Our hero yelled as he bravely smashed his head into something hard. God damn it. F*ck. The brave American then turned the camera off as he groaned in pain.For some reason, stupid people love to showcase their love of freedumb every chance they get, usually with some sort of moronic stunt like the American Flag-clad, Confederate flag-waving Murikan who set himself on fire like a bombastically stupid Tibetan monk while showing off his flag-waviness for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, or whatever the f*ck this is.Stupidity kills, and conservatives are full of it. According to the mystical art in which they don t believe, science, there is a strong link between conservatism and low IQ. In other words, they are exactly the sort of people who would not stop to think that ceiling fans make boom and ouch. Watch this trainwreck below:Featured image via screengrab | 1real |
SHOCKING! Reporters Show How Easy It Is To Cross The Border Over And Over…And Over! [VIDEO] | Joe Rambo Biggs and David Rodriguez videotaped themselves crossing back and forth from the US to Mexico. It s shocking to see just how open our southern border is with Mexico!This is how easy it is to cross our southern border https://t.co/ZgM0gXGwsM Joe Biggs (@Rambobiggs) May 8, 2017 What comes to mind when you watch this video? Terrorism? Drug trafficking? Crime? | 1real |
Exclusive: Front National Candidate Reveals Party’s Potential New Name | PARIS, France: Front National legislative candidate Aymeric Durox has exclusively revealed to Breitbart London the new name of the Front National could be “Les Patriotes” or the Patriots. [Mr. Durox said the name change, which was talked about on Sunday evening following the defeat of migration candidate Marine Le Pen, is likely to be Les Patriotes citing the office of vice president of the party Florian Philippot registering the name in 2015. “I know that the director of the cabinet of Florian Philippot filed the name ‘Les Patriotes’ in April 2015, perhaps already with the prospect of a name change, but nothing is sure,” he told Breitbart London. He said the legacy of the name Front National still “scared off” some voters and a name change and rebranding could bring more people into the movement. The Front National, or perhaps soon Les Patriotes, are challenging the establishment parties in next month’s French legislative elections. Mr. Durox, who is standing in Paris, said all the establishment candidates he is facing are old and have out of date ideas. “I shall incarnate the true change of my generation,” said the who is a history and geography teacher. Durox was dismissive of his opponents saying they “have the presumption to pretend that they represent a real alternative”. The Front National is expected to win a minimum of 15 seats in the upcoming election, though some have forecast they could gain as many as 50 seats in the French National Assembly. Durox said the party should look toward forming a group in the assembly, which would take at least 15 deputies, in order to be able to have more time to speak in the chamber and have more influence. “In any case 50 [deputies] would be a good number, especially if we are superior in numbers to the Socialist party,” he added. Currently, the Front National has two members in the assembly, one of which is Marion Pen who recently announced her resignation from politics following the presidential election. Pen said she wanted more time to spend with her young daughter away from the stresses of political life. “When a brave leader leaves his troops it is always very sad, but she is very young and we are sure that she will come back even stronger,” Durox said in reaction to the news of Pen’s decision. He added: “The future belongs to her. ” Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson@breitbart. com | 0fake |
null | Payday for the Devil's workmen. | 1real |
Taylor Swift Releases a Surprise Single With Zayn Malik - The New York Times | This year could not end without a little bit of Taylor Swift. The pop star, who had not released new music since the album “1989” in the fall of 2014, surprised fans on Thursday night with “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever,” a collaboration with the former One Direction member Zayn Malik (who performs as ZAYN). The moody, track, which will be featured on the movie soundtrack for the “Fifty Shades of Grey” sequel “Fifty Shades Darker,” was released for paid download and to streaming services just after 11 p. m. though it was not immediately available on Spotify. (Ms. Swift pulled most of her catalog from the company in 2014 in a dispute over royalties and a service offering free music for listeners.) Ms. Swift wrote the song along with Sam Dew and Jack Antonoff, who also produced the track. The song is notable for her sly choice of a duet partner — Mr. Malik performed as part of the British boy band One Direction, alongside Harry Styles, one of Ms. Swift’s former boyfriends. Mr. Malik quit the group last year, becoming the first member to go solo with the release of the album “Mind of Mine” in March. Ms. Swift, who won the Grammy for Album of the Year for “1989” in February, has not been completely absent from the music scene this year. In addition to her extended feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian over the lyrics to Mr. West’s song “Famous,” she surfaced unexpectedly as a songwriter for other artists. In July, she confirmed an online fan theory that she had written “This Is What You Came For,” a single by the D. J. (and Ms. Swift’s ) Calvin Harris, which featured Rihanna and had initially been credited pseudonymously to Nils Sjoberg. Ms. Swift was less coy last month when she announced that she was the writer behind “Better Man,” a new single by the country group Little Big Town. Still, Ms. Swift shocked fans by not sticking to her standard release schedule: For her entire career, since her debut in 2006, she has released a new album in the fall every two years, with four of her five LPs coming in late October. This time around, one December single will have to do. | 0fake |
WikiLeaks: New Evidence Shows DNC Forced Bernie Out | Posted on October 27, 2016 by Sean Adl-Tabatabai in News , US // 0 Comments
John Podesta’s emails released by WikiLeaks reveal that the Democratic National committee (DNC) forced Bernie Sanders out of the race in order to ensure a Clinton victory.
The DNC functioned as an unofficial Clinton campaign department, rather than the impartial organisation it was supposed to be.
Observer.com reports:
In December 2014, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook sent an email to top staffers in which he described a conversation he had with White House Political Advisor David Simas about picking DNC employees who would serve in the best interest of Clinton. Jen O’Malley Dillon was cited as their pick to serve in a “general election planning/preparation role.”
“Jen O’Malley Dillon, a former deputy campaign manager to Obama in 2012 who is now at Precision Strategies, a firm co-founded by senior Clinton aide Teddy Goff, has informally advised the Clinton campaign and also served as an adviser to theDNC in a role described by some Democrats this spring as a frequent go-between,”reported BuzzFeed in July. “Sanders, a frequent Wasserman-Schultz critic, never enjoyed the same dynamic.”
The Podesta emails have also revealed that DNC interim chair Donna Brazile worked behind the scenes as a surrogate for the Clinton campaign, violating the neutrality her position as DNC vice chair demanded. Brazile tipped off the Clinton campaign to a difficult CNN town hall question, forwarded them aSanders Outreach campaign outline, and sent an email from CNN staff about a report on the Clinton campaign. Clinton campaign staff also described Brazile as aClinton campaign surrogate in email correspondence.
An April 2015 email confirmed that the DNC and Clinton campaign coordinated torig the debate schedule for Clinton. “Through internal discussions, we concluded that it was in our interest to: 1) limit the number of debates (and the number in each state); 2) start the debates as late as possible; 3) keep debates out of the busy window between February 1 and February 27, 2016 (Iowa to South Carolina)” read the email from Charlie Baker, a senior advisor to the campaign from the Dewey Square Group. “The other campaigns have advocated (not surprisingly) for more debates and for the schedule to start significantly earlier.”
A memo from Mook’s assistant dated April 2015 was shared with Clinton staff and the DNC, it outlined a shared strategy to to elevate “pied-piper” candidates such asDonald Trump. “We think our goals mirror those of the DNC,” stated the memo, attached to the email under the title “muddying the waters.”
Mook expressed frustration in a March 2015 email over the DNC hiring a convention CEO without consulting the Clinton campaign. “Madame Secretary, I’m not going to call anyone or say anything until you have your conversation with DWS, but this concerns me a lot,” wrote Mook. “John–you, Charlie and I may need to sit down with Debbie to make clear how we want things to change/improve before we are willing to consider playing ball with them.” This suggests the Clinton campaign let the DNC and then-chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz know who was boss, and after the incident the DNC and Clinton campaign coordinated more closely together to boost Clinton’s candidacy.
The released WikiLeaks emails boost the case that the DNC and Democratic Partyleadership subverted democracy to ensure Clinton’s coronation. This collusion and unethical coordination is equivalent to an athlete using performance-enhancing drugs to win a race. While Clinton received over two million more votes than Bernie Sanders in the primaries, her candidacy benefited from the Democratic Partyleadership bending and breaking the rules to rig the primaries for her campaign. | 1real |
HERE’S HOW ONE MAN Stopped Huge Riot Ready To Attack His Apartment Building [Video] | Watch the video below and you ll understand that this man did exactly what any armed person should do. Great job!Via: Legal Insurrection | 1real |
Ted Cruz Is Against Adult Toys, But His College Roommate Knows That’s Hypocritical (TWEET) | Likely the last thing you d ever want to envision is Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz with adult toys, or doing things to himself, but hey, this is America, and hypocrites need to be called out.As Mother Jones just reminded us, Ted Cruz defended a ban on adult toys. In fact, he helped defend a law criminalizing the sale said toys. You see, Texas, the state where the senator is from (besides Canada), has a law that outlaws these obscene devices. Ted Cruz found it un-American to self-stimulate yourself with such a thing, and according to The Week: Cruz s office defended the obscenity law by saying that any alleged right associated with obscene devices is not deeply rooted in the Nation s history and traditions. I m sure this is what the Founders of our nation were thinking about when declaring war on England, and writing up the Constitution. Jefferson was probably all like, oh, yes, we mustn t forget the devices used for self-pleasure. They must be strictly prohibited. Probably not.Anyway, all of that aside, enter Craig Mazin, Ted Cruz s freshman roommate at Princeton. He just took to Twitter with likely the best burn ever to be written calling out the Texas junior senator s hypocrisy. He wrote:Ted Cruz thinks people don't have a right to "stimulate their genitals." I was his college roommate. This would be a new belief of his. Craig Mazin (@clmazin) April 13, 2016Now that you ve picked yourself up off the floor after laughing incredibly hard, you ll now have that image in your head for the rest of your day. BUT knowing Ted Cruz was just utterly humiliated in such a pretty amazing way may make it all worth it.Featured Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images Twitter | 1real |
'Like a roar': Dozens killed in blasts at Indonesia fireworks plant | KOSAMBI, Indonesia (Reuters) - Two explosions tore through a fireworks factory on the outskirts of Indonesia s capital on Thursday, killing at least 47 people and injuring dozens. It was one of Indonesia s worst industrial disasters and is likely to cast a new spotlight on lax safety standards in the Southeast Asian country, where rules are often ignored or weakly enforced. Workers had no time to escape from the plant in Tangerang, an industrial and manufacturing hub to the west of Jakarta, after the explosions that one neighbor described as a roar that could be heard miles away. A video of the scene inside the warehouse, widely shared on social media, showed charred bodies sprawled about the burnt-out factory, and Reuters reporters at the scene saw grass scorched over an area about 10 meters (33 feet) from the site. People were burned so badly you couldn t see their faces ... It was really bad, said search and rescue official Deden Nurjaman, who expected the death toll to climb as more bodies were found inside the factory. Fireworks are frequently used in Indonesia for religious and other celebrations, and are widely available. There have been a series of major fires in Indonesia this year, including one that engulfed one of Jakarta s main markets. Thick, dark plumes of smoke billowed from the factory through the afternoon as an inferno took hold. As night fell, the PT Panca Buana Cahaya Sukses warehouse was still smoldering and there was a stench of chemicals and burning plastic. Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono told Metro Television that 47 bodies had been discovered, 46 people were injured and 10 people were unaccounted for. He said the missing might have left with light injuries or not have been working at the time. One of the first policemen on the scene, Raymond Masengi, told Metro TV that he and other officers had to smash holes in the factory wall to help the injured escape. Fiza, a doctor in the emergency unit at Tangerang General Hospital, said he was treating seven people, some of them with burns to more than 80 percent of their bodies. Three were in critical condition. A nearby mosque held prayers for the victims. Forensic police worked in fading light to examine the debris, setting up a few floodlights to try and establish the cause of the blaze. Yuwono said police were looking into the permit of the factory, which was close to a school and housing and - according to media reports - had been operating for only two months. A witness who lives around the corner from the factory said she heard an explosion like a roar . I dressed and stepped outside the house, and saw the flames, they were almost in my face. The smoke, the heat was in my face. I panicked, I was scared, I picked up my son and ran away from the fire, said Kartini, 40, who uses one name, like many Indonesians. Hundreds of children at a school just 100 meters (yards) from the factory jumped in terror over a wall as the explosions boomed, dropping books and bags in their haste to get away. Science teacher Asep Mahmud, 47, said: There were several small explosions and then one really big one that shook our buildings and desks. (This story has been refiled to correct typo in second paragraph) | 0fake |
Clinton’s “No-Fly Zone” over Syria Will Lead to War with Russia. Warning of JCS Chairman General Dunford | Clinton’s “No-Fly Zone” over Syria Will Lead to War with Russia. Warning of JCS Chairman General Dunford October 27, 2016 at 10:18 am Global Research , October 23, 2016 The media has failed to address the confrontation between the U.S. State Department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Francis Dunford (image right) has warned both the US Senate as well Secretary of State John Kerry in no uncertain terms that a “No Fly Zone” over Syria would lead to war with both Syria and Russia, intimating a dangerous process of military escalation.
In a Senate Arms Services Committee hearing, Dunford said, responding to questions from Republican Senator Roger Whicker (Mississippi)
“Right now, Senator, for us to control all of the airspace in Syria it would require us to go to war, against Syria and Russia,… That’s a pretty fundamental decision that certainly I’m not going to make.” ( Senate Armed Services Committee, September 22, 2016, emphasis added)
At the third presidential debate, Hillary Clinton reasserted her commitment that if elected president, she would implement a no-fly-zone, intimating that the objective was to “save lives”:
“I think a no-fly zone could save lives and could hasten the end of the conflict. I am well aware of the really legitimate concerns you have expressed from both the president and the general,” Clinton said in response to a question from Fox News debate moderator Chris Wallace.
“This would not be done just on the first day. This would take a lot of negotiation and would also take making it clear to the Russians and Syrians that our purpose here was to provide safe zones on the ground … I think we could strike a deal and make it clear to the Russians and the Syrians that this was something that we believe was in the best interest of the people on the ground in Syria.” (Fox News, emphasis added)
At present, under the Obama administration, the joint chiefs of staff are opposed to the “No Fly zone”.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff are appointed by the Secretary of Defense.
Under a Clinton presidency, a new Secretary of Defense as well as a new Chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, firmly committed to “A No fly Zone” over Syria would be appointed.
Michèle Angelique Flournoy, a former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy is Hillary’s choice for the position of Secretary of Defense, who favors the “No Fly Zone” option.
According to Defense One: ”The woman expected to run the Pentagon under Hillary Clinton said she would direct U.S. troops to push President Bashar al-Assad’s forces out of southern Syria and would send more American boots to fight the Islamic State in the region.”
Confirmed by the Leaked Emails Michele Flournoy is a crony of the Clintons. She has “called for “limited military coercion” to help remove Assad from power in Syria, including a “no bombing” zone over parts of Syria held by U.S.-backed rebels.” This is tantamount to a no fly zone to protect the terrorists including ISIS Daesh from actions by Syrian and Russian forces.
According to Defense One: Flournoy, and several of her colleagues at the Center for New American Security, or CNAS, have been making the case for sending more American troops into combat against ISIS and the Assad regime than the Obama administration has been willing to commit.
Since Russia’s increased involvement, the facts on the ground in Syria, she said, “Do not support the kind of negotiated conditions we would like to get to.” U.S. policy should be the removal of Assad even if that meant “using limited military coercion,” Flournoy said, at Monday’s annual CNAS conference in Washington.
Flournoy did not deny the entire report that she favors increased U.S. intervention; for instance, she acknowledged her support for U.S. “strikes using standoff weapons — to retaliate against Syrian military targets” to enforce the no-bomb zone.
The press reports, however, did not quote the details of the discussion and testimony of General Dunford and Secretary of Defense Carter at the Arms Services Committee Hearing: Let me see if the Chairman wants to add anything.
Senator Wicker: Well, let me just ask this, if you don’t mind, Secretary Carter. It would help if the barrel bombing ended. And I spoke to a Democratic colleague of mine today. I’ve been calling for a no-fly zone to stop the barrel bombing, and I asked this colleague of mine on the other side of the aisle if he would support that. And he said, “Yes.” He said, “I want to call it something else, rather than a no-fly zone,” but that this particular Senator it is a fact that this particular Senator has now changed his position and would like us to take action to present — to prevent the barrel bombing.
What is your position about that? And wouldn’t it help if we took decisive action and ended this carnage?
Secretary Carter: I don’t know the specific proposal which you’re discussing with your colleague. I’ll make one comment and see if the Chairman wants to add anything.
Senator Wicker: I think he was talking about a no-fly zone –
Secretary Carter: Well, okay.
Senator Wicker: — but described in more palatable terms.
Secretary Carter: There are — a number of different proposals have been made, but I — the one that I think it the focus on right now is the one Secretary Kerry’s trying to promote, namely a no-fly zone for the Russians and the Syrians who are attacking the Syrian people. If they’re talking about a no-fly zone for American aircraft fighting ISIL, needless to say, that — that’s not going to get any enthusiasm, get strong opposition from me.
Senator Wicker: I’m speaking about a –
Secretary Carter: But, I think that’s what a — but — it’s not called that, but Secretary Kerry is trying to get a standdown of the Syrian and Russian air force. And if he’s successful, that would be a good thing.
Let me ask the Chairman if he has anything to add.
General Dunford: Senator, the only thing I’d say is, you know, as the situation on the ground changes, I think I have a responsibility — we, the joint force, has a responsibility — to make sure the President has a full range of options. We have discussed that issue in the past under certain conditions. The conditions on the ground will change, and we’ll continue to look at those options and make sure they’re available to the President.
Senator Wicker: What about the option of controlling the airspace so that barrel bombs cannot be dropped?
General Dunford: All options –
Senator Wicker: What do you think of that option, sir?
General Dunford: Right now, Senator, for all of the airspace in Syria, it would require war against Syria and Russia. That’s a pretty fundamental decision that certainly I’m not going to make.
Concluding Remarks
From the above testimonies and statements, one thing is clear. Decision-makers at highest levels of the US government and the military believe in their own propaganda. They are not able to reflect on their actions outside the realm of propaganda. And this also applies to nuclear warfare which is presented as a “peace-making operation”.
It is unlikely that any drastic action regarding a “no fly zone” will be taken under the Obama administration prior to the November elections and the instatement of a new president of the US in January 2017.
Consequently, the next three months will be absolutely crucial for Syria. –i.e. During this period, the counterterrorism campaign waged by Syria with the support of Russia and Iran will seek to eliminate remaining terrorist pockets and pacify the entire country.
The foot-soldiers of the Western military alliance will be defeated on the ground. If this objective is achieved, it will inevitably have an impact on “US options” regarding the proposed deployment of ground-forces and the No Fly Zone. What prevails, however, is an attempt on the part of Washington to redeploy its ISIS terrorist foot-soldiers in Mosul by transferring them from Iraq to Syria. The original source of this article is Global Research | 1real |
Tunisian navy rescues 100 migrants, hours after eight drown | TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia s navy rescued almost 100 migrants from a sinking boat off its southeast coast late on Monday, authorities said, hours after eight people being smuggled to Europe drowned in the same stretch of water. The incidents coincided with the launch of joint patrols by the Tunisian and Italian navies to stem migrant flows and carry out search and rescue operations in the area, the Tunisian Defense Ministry said. Tunisia s coast has become the launch pad of choice for traffickers transporting migrants from North Africa across the Mediterranean. Wooden boats packed with migrants, their numbers often swelled by young Tunisians seeking work in Europe, have started landing on secluded Sicilian beaches, often in broad daylight. Activity via Libya, until recently the busiest country of departure on that route, has declined since July as its coast guard and an armed group in the smuggling hub of Sabratha tightened controls. The Tunisian Interior Ministry said late on Monday the coast guard pulled 98 Tunisians, including three children, from the sinking vessel near the island of Kerkennah. Earlier on Monday at least eight people drowned nearby when another boat carrying dozens of migrants collided with a Tunisian navy vessel. Tunisia has won plaudits from abroad for its transition to democracy since 2011, when an uprising toppled autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali. But unemployment remains high, especially among the country s youth. | 0fake |
Factbox: Major U.S. Supreme Court abortion rights cases | (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court’s key rulings on abortion, dating to the landmark 1973 decision that legalized the procedure nationwide, have long provoked social, religious and political tensions. As the court majority became more conservative over the decades, it set standards that enhance states’ ability to regulate abortion. Yet even in the most recent rulings, extending to 2007, there have never been five votes on the nine-member court to reverse the fundamental right to abortion. Here is a look at the court’s major abortion rulings. Roe v. Wade, 1973, 7-2 vote The court rules that a woman’s constitutional right to privacy protects her decision to end a pregnancy, and only a compelling state interest can justify regulating abortion. The decision institutes a three-part legal test, connected to a nine-month pregnancy and a fetus’ viability, that gives states more latitude for regulation with each trimester. Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, 1992, 5-4 vote The court affirms the right to abortion. Rather than the trimester framework, the test is whether a government regulation imposes an “undue burden” on a woman seeking an abortion by creating a “substantial obstacle” to the procedure before the fetus develops to the point at which it becomes viable. Stenberg v. Carhart, 2000, 5-4 vote The court decides that a Nebraska ban on a late-term procedure critics call “partial birth abortion” violates a woman’s right to abortion. The procedure, known medically as “intact dilation and extraction,” involves a physician removing most of the fetus intact rather than dismembering it. The justices fault the Nebraska ban, similar to laws in a majority of the states at the time, for its ambiguity about precisely what type of medical procedure is prohibited and for lacking an exception for the health of the mother. Gonzales v. Carhart, 2007, 5-4 vote The court decides that a federal Partial Birth Abortion Act, involving the same type of procedure as in the Nebraska dispute and without an exception for the woman’s health, is constitutional. The majority distinguishes the ruling from the 2000 case by noting that Congress developed findings that the procedure would never be necessary for the health of the mother. Another factor in the reversed course was that in 2000, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor had voted to strike down the partial-birth ban. She was succeeded by Samuel Alito in 2006, and in 2007 he cast the fifth vote in favor of the ban. Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, 2016, 5-3 vote The court strikes down a Texas abortion law imposing strict regulations on doctors and facilities, finding that the 2013 statute put an undue burden on women exercising their right under the U.S. Constitution to end a pregnancy. The court declares that both provisions of the law - requiring physicians who perform abortions to have difficult-to-obtain “admitting privileges” at a local hospital and requiring clinics to install costly hospital-grade facilities - violate abortion rights. The ruling marked the firmest endorsement of U.S. abortion rights since the 1992 Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey ruling. | 0fake |
BREAKING – Obama Betrays America in MASSIVE Move Before He Leaves Office, Media is Silent | EndingFed News Network | Email Print President Obama has proven he is nothing but a vindictive man who is upset like the rest of the liberals that the person he was lobbying for didn’t win the 2016 election. But you’d never guess what he did with hit time in the Oval Office running out. President Obama has shut down the aerial surveillance over the U.S./ Mexican border with only two months left in his presidency. He’s trying to make it difficult for President-Elect Donald Trump, as per Watchdog.org The Department of Homeland Security can no longer do its job, and it is not securing the southern border with even the limited measures it has at its disposal right now! This is a move to help illegal immigrants come into this country, with Obama making it less difficult for them to break the law! They won’t be seen, and, thus, they won’t be caught. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security shut down Operation Phalanx, the aerial program that helps halt the movement of drugs and illegals across the border. This DHS move is challenged by Rep. Henry Cuellar, who claims that Congress gave this operation funding for the whole year of 2017. Cuellar, who is a member of the House Appropriations Committee and the Homeland Security Subcommittee, is composing a letter to send to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson about the shutdown. And this is not the first time Johnson has been challenged. With the help of Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Cuellar went against Johnson earlier in the year in February when the Phalanx’s flight operations were reduced. Now, Cuellar is looking for reinforcements in Texas including Sen. John Cornyn and Reps. Mike McCaul and John Carter. McCaul has previously called on DHS to “develop a strategy to gain operational control” of the border. “Over the last several years, Congress has provided billions of dollars to secure the borders but without an end goal in mind,” McCaul stated. McCaul has also worked to make legislation “to require the [DHS] secretary to gain situational awareness through the use of sophisticated technologies and others means, giving our border agents the ability to predict changes in illegal activity.” The DHS claims the illegals coming into the U.S. have declined at the Texas stretch of the border, but apprehensions in the Rio Grande Valley rose 27 percent in the fiscal 2016 year alone. In the small Laredo border section, Operation Phalanx accounted for 10,559 apprehensions and 4,007 “turnbacks” from March 2012 to December 2015. Phalanx was credited with seizing 12,851 pounds of narcotics during the period. The fact that Obama would do away with that just because Donald Trump won says a lot about what kind of man our outgoing president is. He would let more criminals and drugs come into this country just to make it harder to control for Trump, but Obama is not hurting Trump—he’s hurting the American people. And that’s disgraceful. With Trump in office in January, however, Phalanx will be up and running once more… and Obama can’t do anything to stop it. What do you think of Obama’s move to shut down aerial surveillance of our southern border? Please share this story on Facebook and tell us what you think because we want to hear YOUR voice!
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Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines Dusts Off Infamous Quote To Thoroughly Troll Ted Cruz (TWEET) | It s hard to believe that it s been nearly 13 years since Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks perfectly spoke her mind in reference to the impending Iraq war. If you don t remember what she said, let me remind you: Just so you know, we re on the good side with y all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas. This, of course, sparked a huge backlash against not only Maines, but the Dixie Chicks. People everywhere couldn t believe that she d have the perfect audacity to speak up against an unjust war and against the president who was leading the charge into Iraq. Dissent is usually considered patriotic, but apparently not if the dissenting voice is against a warmongering conservative president.Well, dusting off her infamous quote on Twitter, Maines just completely roasted Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz. Another Republican from Texas who loves war and wouldn t think twice about send our troops anywhere he thought there was a need, necessary or not. Diplomacy be damned.Maines tweeted:Just so you know .I'm ashamed Ted Cruz is from America;) pic.twitter.com/QU39ERnAzN Natalie Maines (@1NatalieMaines) January 24, 2016And mind you, the quotes are absolutely perfect that she chose. The first being from former President Eisenhower, a man who knew the dangers of war, because he lived through the worst we ve ever had. Then paired with Sen. Cruz, a Canadian born chickenhawk, and far from the Republican that Eisenhower was, who claims he ll carpet bomb the enemy to make them glow in the dark. Maines reminds America of the stupidity of electing yet another senseless fool to the White House and the inevitable war it would cause. A war that would send thousands more of our troops to unnecessarily die. However, Maines does it with a perfectly sarcastic spin when she says: Just so you know .I m ashamed Ted Cruz is from America;) The wink is seemingly insinuating two things: that he s a repeat of George W. Bush, so the same quote was necessary, and also that he was born in Canada, which was confirmed with this tweet:I stand corrected Just so you know, I'm ashamed Ted Cruz claims to be American. pic.twitter.com/JUltNImOXH Natalie Maines (@1NatalieMaines) January 24, 2016Cruz is definitely a person to be ashamed of, because not only is he dangerous, he s smarmy as hell and as greasy as a used car salesman to get what he wants done. Even if that means reading Green Eggs and Ham on the floor of the Senate to shut down the United States government.Good on you, Maines.. Well frickin done. Never EVER stop speaking the truth.Featured image: YouTube/Twitter | 1real |
Salvadoran Officials Overwhelmed by Returning Deported Gang Members | Officials in El Salvador held emergency meetings after seeing a sharp increase in the number of violent gang members being deported back to the country from the United States under the Trump administration. [Salvadoran authorities have held emergency meetings and proposed new legislation to monitor returning criminals and gang members that are returning to El Salvador after deportation, according to the Washington Post. The move by Salvadoran officials comes as a direct result of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration and efforts to deport more criminal illegal aliens from the U. S. This year the U. S. has already deported 398 gang members back to El Salvador — compared to only 534 for all of 2016. It is due to this rapid increase in deportations that Salvadoran officials like Héctor Antonio Rodríguez, the director of the country’s immigration agency, are worried about the impact the returning gang members will have in the country. “This clearly affects El Salvador. We already have a climate of violence in the country that we are combating,” Rodríguez said. “If gang members return, of course this worries us. ” Many of the returning gang members belong to a notoriously violent street gang that has plagued communities throughout the U. S. with horrific acts of violence. Although started out in Salvadoran communities in Los Angeles sometime during the 1980’s, lax immigration policies and weak border security helped the gang explode in size as originated from illegal immigrants, Breitbart Texas reported. The recent murders of four teens in New York City have put in the national spotlight with Attorney General Jeff Sessions declaring that U. S. authorities are going after the gang. “The motto is kill, rape, and control,” Sessions said. “I have a message to the gangs that are targeting our young people: We are targeting you. We are coming after you. ” Speaking at a rally in April, President Trump highlighted the importance of removing illegal alien gang members from the U. S.: At the heart of my administration’s efforts to restore the rule of law has been a nationwide crackdown on criminal gangs, and that means taking the fight to the sanctuary cities that shield these dangerous criminals from removal. The last very weak administration allowed thousands and thousands of gang members to cross our borders and enter into our communities, where they wreaked havoc on our citizens. The bloodthirsty cartel known as has infiltrated our schools, threatening innocent children. We have seen the horrible assaults and many killings all along Long Island where I grew up. We are seeing the vicious spread of transnational gangs into all 50 states and the human suffering they bring with them. I have been with the parents. It is devastation. A very respected General recently told me that are the equivalent in their meanness to Al Qaeda. My administration will not rest until we have dismantled these violent gangs, and we are doing it rapidly, and we are sending them the hell out of our country. On Wednesday, Breitbart Texas reported that Sen. Ron Johnson ( ) Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said recently obtained documents from a whistleblower show that the Obama administration knowingly admitted 16 gang members in 2014. Ryan Saavedra is a contributor for Breitbart Texas and can be found on Twitter at @RealSaavedra. | 0fake |
Turkey not in direct talks for return of intelligence officers from Iraq: minister | ANKARA (Reuters) - A Turkish minister appeared to confirm for the first time that two Turkish intelligence officers have been captured in northern Iraq, saying the government was not in direct talks with the Kurdish militant PKK group to bring them back. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was asked in an interview with Al-Monitor whether the head of Turkish intelligence Hakan Fidan would travel to Erbil for talks about two senior Turkish intelligence officers. Al-Monitor said the officers had been taken to a PKK base in the Qandil mountains of northern Iraq. Of course our institutions have been working to bring back all our citizens that the PKK kidnapped, but our country doesn t - we didn t have any direct contact with the PKK to bring those two persons mentioned back. It was the first official Turkish comment on the issue, following media reports in August that militants in northern Iraq had captured two high-level intelligence officials. A Foreign Ministry spokesman was not immediately available to comment. Cemil Bayik, one of the leaders of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), was quoted in regional media saying the two officers had been sent to Iraq to assassinate him. The outlawed PKK has been waging an insurgency in Turkey s southeast, bordering Iraq and Syria, for more than 30 years. | 0fake |
OBAMA’S OPEN BORDERS Crisis Just Got Real…WHO Warns Of “EXPLOSIVE SPREAD” Of Dangerous Virus [VIDEO] | We recently reported about the deadly Zika virus coming to America from Central America. Today, the WHO Organization is issuing a stern warning about the spread of this deadly virus in the Americas. US Border Agents warned us about the potentially deadly viruses illegal aliens were bringing across our borders over a year ago. Even CDC employees openly complained about being sick of dealing with the number of sick illegal aliens flowing across our borders. The World Health Organization warned today it expects that the Zika Virus that has spread rapidly through the Americas, particularly South America, to being spreading explosively throughout the Americas. One official it expects up to 4 million cases in the region in just the next year.The virus, which is spread by mosquitoes, affects mainly pregnant women, causing debilitating, sometimes deadly, brain damage to fetuses. Although there isn t a direct link, statistics are strong that children born from women who have the virus are more likely to suffer microcephaly, a neurological disorder that result in babies with unusually small heads. Many of the children also suffer Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare autoimmune disorder that can lead to life-threatening paralysis.The level of concern is high, as is the level of uncertainty, WHO s director general Dr. Margaret Chan said. We need to get some answers quickly. Dr. Chan called an emergency committee meeting Monday in Geneva, Switzerland, to address the Zika virus spread. Currently, there is no way to treat Zika and authorities are concentrating their efforts on controlling the mosquito population. Via: OraTVThe virus is transmitted by the bite of Aedes aegypti mosquitos, which are found in all countries in the Americas, including the U.S., bar Canada and mainland Chile.Reports that the disease can be transmitted by sex are unconfirmed by the World Health Organization or the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC). It is unclear if the virus can be transmitted through human blood.Aedes mosquitos also spread the more-common dengue fever and chikungunya. Zika symptoms are typically similar to these viruses, but milder, including fever and skin rash, usually accompanied by conjunctivitis and muscle or joint pain.The outbreak has led to reports of increased numbers of women in Brazil giving birth to babies with microcephaly, a rare condition that causes the brain to develop abnormally in the womb and results in a very small head.In addition, there are reports of adult Zika suffers subsequently developing Guillain-Barre syndrome, another rare but serious nervous system disorder that can cause muscle weakness, poor coordination and paralysis.No direct links between Zika and Guillain-Barre syndrome have yet been established. It is unclear if the virus can be transmitted from mother to child during pregnancy or birth, although this is can occur with both dengue and chikungunya.Cases among travelers returning to mainland U.S. have already been reported and these instances were seen increasing by the CDC, which has warned that imported cases could cause the virus to spread in some areas of the country.The World Health Organization warned on Tuesday that the outbreak would likely reach all countries and territories in the Americas with Aedes mosquitos.Barbados Bolivia Brazil Cape Verde Colombia Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador French Guiana Guatemala Guadeloupe Guyana Haiti Honduras Martinique Mexico Panama Paraguay Puerto Rico Saint Martin Samoa Suriname Venezuela | 1real |
Meet the Obama Holdovers Who Survived Trump’s Sweep - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — When President Trump’s new Middle East envoy began haggling over the details of an agreement with Israel to curb construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, they turned to a politically improbable adviser: Yael Lempert, a diplomat who worked on the issue in Barack Obama’s White House. When Mr. Trump met with the leaders of Japan, Britain and Canada, he included Thomas A. Shannon Jr. another career diplomat, who rose to the No. 3 post in Mr. Obama’s State Department. And when Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson traveled to Turkey this past week to rally support for the military campaign against the Islamic State, he took along Brett H. McGurk, who coordinated that effort as Mr. Obama’s special envoy. These diplomats are part of a rare cohort in the Trump administration: holdovers from the Obama years, whose skills, knowledge and bureaucratic finesse have enabled them to survive, even thrive, in an administration determined to purge all vestiges of its predecessor. Anytime there is a change in administrations, career government officials face a tricky transition. But that process has been particularly difficult under Mr. Trump, because of the insurgent nature of his campaign and his deep suspicion of the permanent bureaucracy. While these diplomats have held on through multiple transfers of power in Washington, navigating this new administration poses special challenges. Ms. Lempert has come under fire from people on the Israeli right, who accuse her of continuing to push Mr. Obama’s policies. And Mr. Shannon’s ability to get along with Mr. Trump’s inner circle has rankled some in the State Department, which has become a hotbed of dissent against the new president and his policies. “They’re relying on these people for sheer expertise,” said Elliott Abrams, a Republican elder who was briefly considered for the post of deputy secretary of state. “But there is a danger here. You have to make a judgment about whether the career person was so embedded in the previous administration that they need to go immediately. ” The status of Obama holdovers remains a source of tension within the National Security Council. Since the inauguration in January, Mr. Trump’s aides have pushed to get rid of many of them, in part because they question whether people who worked for Mr. Obama can be loyal to Mr. Trump. It is unclear whether the new national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, is resisting these efforts, though he has made a point of meeting with the career staff. The problem is compounded by severe delays at the White House in filling jobs. So far, it has nominated people for only 43 of 553 key executive branch positions, according to a tally by the nonpartisan Center for Presidential Transition at the Partnership for Public Service. The delays are particularly acute in the national security field, where the White House is confronting crises like the military campaign against the Islamic State. Even before his secretary of state, Mr. Tillerson, was confirmed, Mr. Trump had signed an executive order barring visitors from seven predominantly Muslim countries and moved to revive peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The travel ban thrust Mr. Shannon, whose title is under secretary of state for political affairs but who was then serving as acting secretary of state, into an awkward spot. The White House barely consulted the State Department before issuing the order, and it relied on Mr. Shannon to rally his colleagues — many of whom bitterly opposed the order — to enforce it. White House officials, some of whom had expected the State Department to actively undermine the president, said they were surprised by the speed with which it issued instructions to consular offices worldwide. They credit Mr. Shannon, 59, with overseeing that response. “He was a rock” that weekend, said Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s chief strategist. “Really came to the forefront with leadership, judgment and class. Folks think very highly of him. ” Mr. Shannon also stood in for Mr. Tillerson in the president’s meetings with Prime Ministers Theresa May of Britain, Shinzo Abe of Japan and Justin Trudeau of Canada. At the news conferences in the East Room after those meetings, he was the lone outsider who sat with Mr. Bannon and other members of Mr. Trump’s inner circle. In all these cases, Mr. Shannon said, he was simply doing his job as a Foreign Service officer. “We take an oath to the Constitution, and that Constitution is all about respect for our laws and for the will of our people,” he said. “We have to respect the decision of the American people. ” A veteran of the Foreign Service, Mr. Shannon served in the National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration, where he became a favorite of Mr. Bush’s secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice. He also served as assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs under Mr. Bush and Mr. Obama, a job in which he won the trust of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “I am not the least bit surprised he is one of the last men standing,” said Daniel Restrepo, a former senior director in the National Security Council who worked with Mr. Shannon. “He’s both an effective diplomat and an effective bureaucrat, with an agreeable personality. ” Arturo Valenzuela, who succeeded him as assistant secretary, noted that Mr. Shannon was a fan of Nascar. That helps give him a common touch, which Mr. Valenzuela said might appeal to the people in Mr. Trump’s circle, even though he has a doctorate in history from Oxford. Certainly, Mr. Shannon has built bridges to Mr. Tillerson, who recently asked him to stay on as under secretary, traditionally the post for a career diplomat. For Ms. Lempert, who has been posted to Jerusalem and advised Mrs. Clinton’s cabinet successor, John Kerry, on his dealings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, the appeal to Mr. Trump’s advisers was her experience in the complex, world of negotiations. Her colleagues say she is well connected on both sides and is viewed as an honest broker (though in Israel, critics fault her for what they say was her role in Mr. Obama’s campaign to pressure Mr. Netanyahu to freeze settlements). As it happens, Mr. Trump — through his special envoy, Jason D. Greenblatt — is now pushing the Israeli leader to slow down construction as well. And Mr. Greenblatt, a lawyer who worked for the Trump Organization and has no experience in Middle East diplomacy, decided to keep Ms. Lempert on to advise him on the ins and outs of that negotiation. Ms. Lempert, who is Jewish and also served in the Bush administration, played a major role in negotiating a $38 billion military aid package for Israel on behalf of the Obama administration. Still, after reports surfaced that Mr. Netanyahu’s aides were suspicious of her involvement in the talks, the prime minister’s office felt obliged to issue a statement saying it had no objection to her. Mr. Greenblatt, in a statement, said, “I have been ably supported by the extremely officials at the National Security Council (including N. S. C. Senior Director Yael Lempert). ” She declined to comment, as did colleagues from the Obama administration. Some said they worried that praise from them would hurt her with her new bosses. A few of Mr. McGurk’s former colleagues demurred from commenting for the same reason. But of all the Obama holdovers, he has had perhaps the smoothest transition. In part, that is because Mr. McGurk, 43, has been working on Iraq and related issues through three administrations. He also clerked for Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, which Republicans view as a valuable credential. This past week, he was at Mr. Tillerson’s side in the Turkish capital, Ankara, advising him on the bewildering politics of the coalition against the Islamic State. The United States plans to use a combined force of Arab and Kurdish forces to mount an assault on Raqqa, the Islamic State stronghold in Syria. But the Turks, who are fighting Kurdish militants at home, are balking because they view the Kurdish units as terrorists. Mr. McGurk organized a recent meeting of coalition members in Washington. In addition to his network of contacts in the region, he has forged close ties to the Pentagon, including to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. “By virtue of his experience, he has almost knowledge,” said Peter D. Feaver, who worked with Mr. McGurk in the National Security Council. “In Brett’s case, he has proven he can be a loyal team player on very different teams. ” | 0fake |
HOW SO? CNN HOST Makes Claim President Trump Is ‘Race Baiting’ UCLA Player’s Ungrateful Dad In Hysterical Tweet [Video] | CNN anchor Brian Stelter went off on President Trump this afternoon for his tweet hitting back at the father of the UCLA player who was arrested in China for shoplifting. Fredricka Whitfield put on her best puzzled face and said to Stelter, the way this President prioritizes is very confusing to a lot of people. Stelter noted how this time last year Trump was touting how restrained he would be on Twitter: If this is restrained, I can t imagine what it would look like if he were to be unrestrained. I mean, think about this. He s just recently let the NFL kneeling controversy start to subside, start to fade away, and now here he is calling out these players and the families again. I think it s immature at best, Fred, but it s really race-baiting at worst. That s gonna be debated, that s gonna be argued about, but I want to put that on the table: it sure looks like race-baiting to a lot of people. HOW THE HECK IS THIS RACE-BAITING? This is the same doofus who said President Trump s tweets about Puerto Rico were dog whistles Why is it always racism with the left? Why?RACE BAITING? HOW IS THIS RACE BAITING?HERE S THE PRESIDENT S TWEET AND LAVAR BALL S COMMENT HOW IN THE HECK IS THIS ANYTHING BUT THE TRUTH? Oh my gosh! This is awesome! President Trump tweeted back to the dad of the UCLA basketball player who was arrested while in China: Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal. I should have left them in jail!, Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal. I should have left them in jail! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2017THE JAPANESE PM TWEETED BACK HIS SUPPORT:Great job Donald! I know firsthand that your negotiating skills are world-class! @realDonaldTrump Shinzo Abe (@realShinzoAbe) November 19, 2017HERE S OUR PREVIOUS REPORT ON WHAT THE DAD SAID: Send this kid back to China! The ungrateful attitude of the father of LiAngelo Ball is so classless. What s even worse the dad makes excuses and even dismisses the son s crime as no big deal: They try to make a big deal out of nothing sometimes. I m from L.A. I ve seen a lot worse things happen than a guy taking some glasses. LaVar Ball, father of UCLA player with sticky fingers And we wonder why we have little thugs who aren t remorseful for their crimes? The sense of entitlement stinks to high heaven! Bad parenting LaVar Ball! WHO? Days after President Donald Trump touted his role in the release of three UCLA basketball students who were arrested in China, LaVar Ball, the father of one of those players, suggested the President had little to do with the matter. Who? Ball told ESPN when asked about Trump s involvement in the situation. What was he over there for? Don t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out. Trump s social media director, Dan Scavino, fired back at Ball on his personal Twitter account Saturday afternoon, saying Ball s son, LiAngelo, would be in China for a long, long, long time without the President s assistance. Wannabe @Lakers coach, BIG MOUTH @Lavarbigballer knows if it weren t for President @realDonaldTrump, his son would be in China for a long, long, long time! #FACT, Scavino wrote.LiAngelo Ball, along with two other players, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill, were arrested last week on suspicion of stealing sunglasses from a Louis Vuitton store while their team was in the Chinese city of Hangzhou. Trump had said he personally asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to intervene in the case.On Wednesday, Trump issued a call for gratitude from the players on twitter. He did get a thanks for their release after his tweet.STICKY FINGERS NO BIG DEAL?Athletic Director Dan Guerrero confirmed the trio shoplifted from three stores near their hotel Monday night. The three were identified the next morning after police searched their bags and found the stolen items.LaVar Ball told ESPN he was happy to have his son back, and also seemed to downplay his alleged crime. As long as my boy s back here, I m fine, he said. I m happy with how things were handled. A lot of people like to say a lot of things that they thought happened over there. Like I told him, They try to make a big deal out of nothing sometimes. I m from L.A. I ve seen a lot worse things happen than a guy taking some glasses. All three players have been suspended from the UCLA basketball team indefinitely. | 1real |
7 Ways To Prepare For An Economic Crisis | Bill White November 7, 2016 7 Ways To Prepare For An Economic Crisis
Using the past economic collapses as an example, we can see that people’s lifestyles changed dramatically. Even those who managed to keep their jobs and businesses have to make radical adjustments in their lies, just to be able to survive.
There is no reason for us to think that things will be any different here in the United States, than they were in Argentina; in fact, they could very well end up being worse.
The reason I say it could be worse is that there will be nobody to bail out the United States, as has been done with other countries. We know from the 2009 housing collapse that anything negative that happens in the U.S. economy has a worldwide effect.
Since other countries will end up suffering as well, there is no way that they will be able to help us.
Liberals have touted the idea of redistributing the wealth of the wealthy in order to take care of our country’s woes. I’m not going to discuss the morality or ideology of that right now; but I will say this: if you were to take all the wealth of the 100 richest people in the United States and add it together, it wouldn’t pay our federal government’s bills from January 1 st till tax day.
Of course, since their wealth isn’t really in cash, but rather in ownership of properties and companies, there’s no way of using it to pay the government’s costs or debts.
The other thing that could make the collapse worse here in the United States is that most Americans aren’t prepared to live without all of our comforts. If you go to other countries, people are more accustomed to doing things themselves, instead of expecting society to do them. They know how to do basic things like slaughter a hog and pluck a chicken ; things that the average American hasn’t had to do for generations.
Here are a number of lifestyle changes which can help your family to be ready to survive the meltdown:
Pay off Your Home
Home mortgages are dangerous in a financial crisis . If you don’t have enough income coming in to make the payment on your home, then you could very easily lose it. No matter how prepared you are, if you don’t have your home, you’re going to be in trouble.
There are a number of strategies around for paying off your home mortgage early. I won’t go into them here, because this really isn’t a book about personal finances.
You can find the necessary information on how to pay off your home early in a number of places. I highly recommend looking into Dave Ramsey’s teachings on the subject.
Another option you may want to consider is downsizing. By selling your existing home and moving into something smaller, you might be able to reduce your mortgage payments or even the length of your mortgage. That would help you to get rid of your mortgage sooner.
In the case of the financial crash coming before you manage to pay it off (which is very likely), your payments will be smaller, making it easier for you to keep making those payments.
Pay off All Other Debts
Any debt is a liability, enslaving your family’s finances to others. By paying off your outstanding debt, you eliminate the risk of lenders coming to take what you have. While other debt is not as important as your home mortgage, paying it off can make it easier to pay off your mortgage quicker.
Paying off your debt also reduces your monthly cost of living, freeing up more money for use in preparing for the pending crash or some other activity your family wants to do.
The vast majority of Americans have too much debt, which greatly limits their options and the decisions that they can make.
Learn to Do Things without Electricity
So much of our modern lifestyle depends upon electricity. We are used to using it for literally everything; from preserving our food to entertaining us. However, loss of electricity is a common problem during times of economic meltdown.
Oh, the electricity probably won’t go out and stay out, but you can count on a lot of service interruptions.
When service is lost, many of the things which we take for granted are lost as well. Our ability to store and cook food is compromised, as well as our ability to work. Lighting is gone, as well as most of our communications. For many people, the loss of electricity means the loss of being able to work as well.
For everything you use in your life that is electric powered, you need an alternative. That means having something that you can use to do the same job, should the power go out. In some cases, you might be able to do without that thing, but you need to analyze that and make that determination, not just accept it as an assumption.
Re-do Your Budget
Probably one of the best things you can do to prepare for a financial meltdown is to re-do your budget, establishing a more frugal lifestyle. Chances are, when the economic collapse happens, you’re going to have to be living that more frugal lifestyle.
By establishing it ahead of time, you not only train yourself and your family to be more careful of how you use your money, but you also save money which you can then use to buy and stockpile necessary supplies .
Many people today live from paycheck to paycheck. That doesn’t mean that they’re using their money wisely though. Their budget may include eating out three times a week, spending $400 per month on their cell phones and another $300 per month on entertainment. Yet they complain about not having enough money to buy some basic emergency supplies.
There are a lot of places where the average family spends more than they need to. Buying new cars is another one. Banks and the auto industry make a lot of money off of families who are making payments on two cars at a time. For some, their combined car payments are higher than their house payment.
While reliable vehicles are a necessity, having two car payments every month isn’t. It would be better to buy older cars and not have those high payments to make.
Eat Healthy
How can eating healthy be part of preparing for a financial meltdown? Easy; the most expensive things that most of us eat are junk food. As a nation, we spend a fortune on prepared foods, snack foods and sweets.
When the financial meltdown comes, you probably won’t be able to afford all that junk. You’ll end up eating much simpler foods, which carry more nutrition.
At the same time, eating all that junk food is not good for your health. Medical expenses can be extremely high, especially for those who have ignored eating healthy.
While it may sound a bit extreme, eating healthy can make the difference between life and death , by helping protect you from a life-threatening medical problem.
Get in Shape
This one goes hand-in-hand with eating healthy. People who are in good physical condition are much less likely to have medical problems, especially high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol; all of which can become life-threatening.
However, there’s another part to this as well. That is, preparing your body for the physical rigors of survival.
Living without all the modern conveniences requires much more physical work than living with them. That’s why so many of us are out of shape. We’ve become accustomed to allowing machines to do the things that we used to do ourselves. We’ve become softer.
Many of us can’t do the physical work necessary for surviving without all those modern machines.
Find Like-Minded People
Many experts on survival and preparedness recommend banding together with other like-minded people and forming a prepping community . The idea is that in the wake of a disaster, the community would gather in one place to live and work together. Each member of the team would have their assigned area of responsibility, based upon their unique skills.
There are many advantages of working together in a prepping community. The right community can increase your chances of survival.
However, the wrong one can cause severe problems, with people leaving the group and taking most of the supplies with them.
Be careful what group you join, investigating the morals and personalities of the people first, to make an informed decision about whether the group will stick together to help each other, or become selfish and steal from each other.
Our ancestors survived harsh times and their secrets can help you survive during the most treacherous conditions if the world is struck with a tragedy.
Bill White for Survivopedia. 155 total views, 155 views today | 1real |
Thou shalt not kill: Catholic bishops start new Philippines prayer campaign | MANILA (Reuters) - A top Catholic archbishop on Sunday called for Filipinos to choose peace over violence and end a spate of drug-related killings that have divided the nation. Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, was speaking as the church launched a new prayer campaign to heal the nation and stop the killings in the country. Philippine Catholic bishops have been stepping up opposition to killings blamed on a government crack down on drugs. They are now asking the faithful to pray with the rosary for 33 days until Dec. 8, an important Catholic feast of the Immaculate Conception. The new campaign follows the 40-day ringing of church bells and lighting of candles for thousands of people killed in President Rodrigo Duterte s 16-month war on drugs. More than 3,900 Filipinos have been killed in what the police called self-defense after armed suspects resisted arrest. Critics dispute that and say executions are taking place, with zero accountability, allegations the police reject. In a mass for families of victims of drug-related killings, Villegas said that if the killings continue a curse awaits a nation that kills its own people . Symbolically, the mass was held at the Catholic shrine of Mary Queen of Peace which stands on the site where nuns stopped soldiers from attacking mutineers who overthrew dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. Why do we applaud the killings?, Villegas said in his homily. We chose violence instead of peace. We chose lies instead of truth. We chose to laugh at obscenities instead of correcting these. We chose to be silent than to be involved. Human rights lawyers, politicians, civil society groups and opponents of the president joined the families of victims in a religious procession after the mass to the People Power monument, where they held a cultural show. Harry Roque, presidential spokesman, said the government welcomed constructive dissent after hundreds joined the religious activity condemning the killings. We reiterate that this administration does not - and will never - condone extrajudicial and vigilante killings, Roque, a human rights lawyer, said in a statement, adding police have been investigating more than 2,200 killings with drug-related motives. Accountability is essential to good government. The president himself made a clear stance that any violation committed by the police during operations would be dealt with accordingly. Roque asked Catholic bishops to work closely with government on drug rehabilitation and in its anti-drug campaign. | 0fake |
Clinton calls for lower price on allergy drug EpiPen | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called on pharmaceutical company Mylan NV to voluntarily drop the price of its severe allergy treatment drug EpiPen, which has increased in price by more than 400 percent in the past decade. “That’s outrageous - and it’s just the latest troubling example of a company taking advantage of its consumers,” Clinton said in a statement. “It’s wrong when drug companies put profits ahead of patients, raising prices without justifying the value behind them.” Clinton frequently said during the primary that she would fight pharmaceutical companies - part of an attempt to counter criticism that she was too closely tied to the insurance industry. She has released a proposal that she says will lower drug costs for consumers. Mylan spokeswoman Nina Devlin did not respond to inquiries about Clinton’s criticism of the company. Mylan acquired the product in 2007, and the price increased from $100 in 2008 to its current cost of $600. Shares of Mylan closed down more than 5 percent at $43.15 on the Nasdaq. “The price of EpiPen is outrageous,” said Robert Weissman, president of consumer watchdog group Public Citizen. “Mylan is endangering lives and ripping off the country.” Weissman said EpiPen’s U.S. price should be rolled back sharply, noting the product is available for as little as $112 in Canada. Many other drugmakers also routinely raise prices of their prescription drugs by 10 percent or more each year, and U.S. legislation is needed to prevent such “price spikes,” he added. The White House took a more cautious tone in criticizing rising drug costs, refusing to comment on the decisions of an individual company. “I will observe, however, that pharmaceutical companies that often try to portray themselves as the inventors of life-saving medication often do real damage to their reputation by being greedy and jacking up prices in a way that victimizes,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a news briefing. Clinton joins a bipartisan group of lawmakers who are calling for investigations into the price increase of EpiPens, which are preloaded injections of epinephrine (adrenaline) that people use if they are having a dangerous allergic reaction that untreated could result in death. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote Mylan earlier in the week to ask for an explanation of the price change. Senator Amy Klobuchar, the top Democrat on the committee’s antitrust subcommittee, called for an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission. On Wednesday, Republican Senator Susan Collins and Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill requested that Mylan provide a briefing for the Senate to explain the price change. Grassley and Klobuchar, along with Democratic Senators Patrick Leahy and Richard Blumenthal and Republican Senator Ron Johnson, on Wednesday said they had written to the Food and Drug Administration to ask about its approval process for alternatives to the EpiPen. “Given the importance of this topic, it is imperative to understand the FDA’s role with respect to EpiPens and its approval of generic equivalents that could help to increase competition and lower prices if introduced,” the senators said in a statement. “We have reached out to every member of Congress who has sent us a letter, and we look forward to meeting with them and responding to their questions as soon as possible,” Devlin said. In January, Clinton admonished Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc, which raised the price of a heart drug. In the wake of a Clinton campaign blog post targeting Valeant, the company’s stock fell. In March, she released a campaign ad vowing to target the company specifically. Clinton also criticized Turing Pharmaceuticals in the fall of 2015 when public ire rose after it decided to raise the price of an antiviral medication commonly used by AIDS patients and pregnant women from $13.50 a tablet to $750 each. After a single post by Clinton on the social media website Twitter critical of Turing, the company’s stock price tumbled. At that time, Clinton released a comprehensive drug price plan that she says would reduce costs. Her proposal includes capping monthly out-of-pocket costs, expanding generic drug access and allowing Americans to buy pharmaceuticals abroad. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said little about lowering drug prices. He has proposed increasing the amount of negotiations permitted by Medicare in order to lower prices for those using the program. | 0fake |
LAWLESS: MUSLIM VIOLENCE And Refusal To Assimilate In These European Countries Have Lead To “Sharia-Law” No-Go Zones [VIDEO] | The European caliphate is in full swing First and foremost, it must be made clear that not all No-Go zones should be exclusively defined as areas populated by Islamic radicals. Breitbart News has found that in several areas throughout Europe places officially or unofficially deemed no-go zones often have largely unassimilated Islamic populations where the host country s laws are difficult, if not impossible, to enforce.The French government has listed 750 areas determined to be Sensitive Urban Zones (Zones Urbaine Sensibles, or ZUS). ZUS areas tend to have high crime, low unemployment, and drug trafficking/black market issues. While these areas fall under one big umbrella category, a Gatestone Institute report has found that the majority of France s Islamic population lives in the Sensitive Urban Zones. Gatestone has found several local reporters and individuals whose testimony indicates that the areas remain places where law enforcement cannot sufficiently do its job.The Swedish government has listed 186 exclusion areas, along with 55 no-go zones. Swedish blogger Matt Danielsson has described the areas as crowded, predominantly Muslim immigrant ghettos, where education is low, employment is lower and the only local business thriving is drug dealing. Germany s Steinke Institut (SI) has mapped 51 separate areas which have been explained as law-free and with high danger potential. The German website Politically Incorrect evaluation found that the vast majority of them had troublesome problems having something to do with the I-word (Islam), Andrew Harrod reported. Germany s chief of police admitted in 2011 that these are areas where crimes no longer result in charges They are left to themselves. UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage has said that British leaders too have been afraid to tackle Islam-oriented issues in the UK, and allowed for big ghettos to develop. Regarding the no-go zones versus Sensitive Urban Zones argument, Farage explained that the issue was a matter of semantics. He said that the British and French governments have failed to accept that there s a massive problem with lack of integration. CBS s 60 Minutes show sent a crew to London and found that the streets are an alternate reality at night where Sharia patrols bully people who are drinking alcohol, people who they think are homosexuals, and women who aren t fully covered by clothing. Additionally, the UK s Islamic population is twice as likely to join the Islamic State terror group than the UK armed forces.Belgium also has several de facto no-go zones where police are putting themselves at risk simply for entering. In the Belgian city of Flanders, a police officer who recently attempted to make an arrest was met with fierce resistance by a Muslim mob, which hurled rocks at him. In order to restore order, the officer had to come back later in the day with dozens of other police units.In the Netherlands, the government has released a list of 40 no-go zones. Many of the areas deemed no-go zones boast a large Islamic population where police struggle to enforce the law.Furthermore, some regions in Russia commonly known as hotbeds for radical Islam, including Chechnya and Dagestan, have been described as a virtual no-go zone for Russians and tourists. Via:Breitbart News | 1real |
“MODERATE” MUSLIMS GATHER AROUND To Watch New Way ISIS Will Publicly Slaughter Infidels | Does anyone else notice there are never a shortage of moderate Muslims watching these heinous acts committed by ISIS against the infidel? As soon as Obama gets back from campaigning around the world for his next job as UN Secretary General, and from fighting his dangerous war on global climate change, he should probably focus on the growing threat of radical Islam Images have emerged of a heavily-built executioner ramming a knife through the chest of a man deemed to have committed crimes against the caliphate .The victim, named by news agency ABNA as Abdulhadi Essa al-Salem, was stabbed in the heart before being shot in the head in the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, Syria.Shocking photos, posted on Twitter by Syrian activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, show the victim then being crucified in public. Via: Express UK | 1real |
‘Full YOLO mode’! Obama going all-out on Halloween to show Trump the presidency ‘is not entertainment’ | ‘Full YOLO mode’! Obama going all-out on Halloween to show Trump the presidency ‘is not entertainment’ Posted at 3:50 pm on October 26, 2016 by Doug P.
Remember when President Obama blasted Donald Trump by reminding him that the presidency “is not entertainment” or a “reality show”? He continues to lead by example: . @iamsambee will interview President Obama on Monday's episode of @FullFrontalSamB , TBS says.
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) October 26, 2016 Just in: President Obama will be interviewed on "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee" on Monday, Oct. 31.
— Alex Weprin (@alexweprin) October 26, 2016
At this rate , Obama will have his own late night comedy show by the time he leaves office. BREAKING: Guy who says being POTUS is a "serious" job to be interviewed by a clown on Halloween. https://t.co/61cdUvVlhq
— Jason C. (@CounterMoonbat) October 26, 2016
Just another Monday. @alexweprin @allahpundit just remember guys, Obama said it himself…"the presidency is not a reality tv show." -goes on Samantha Bee 😂😂 | 1real |
Ancient Egyptian Coin Proves Aliens Visited Earth | Posted on October 30, 2016 by Edmondo Burr in Weird // 0 Comments The discovery of an ancient coin in an Egyptian house which depicts an alien- like creature is proof that UFOs and aliens have visited earth during its history, according to UFO researchers.
Researchers have found numerous coins in the past that depict ‘flying objects’, but a discovery like the one posted below seems to offer more concrete proof that we have indeed been visiting by aliens – tens of thousands of years ago.
A newly found coin – which by the way has all the right ingredients for being called out as a fake — has woken interest among skeptics and UFOlogists who are debating about its origin and authenticity. related content World Leader Set To Confirm Aliens Visit Earth By End of 2016
According to thesun.co.uk , “during a house renovation in Egypt, someone came across a mysterious coin that seems to show the head of an extra-terrestrial being, with huge hollow eyes, a bald head and thin cheeks.”
Mysterious Earth writes that: “A group of people who worked on the renovation of a house in southern Egypt found a number of very rare coins.”
While any have rushed forward suggesting this is by far the best evidence of alien visitations, we need to hold on for a minute here and look at other possibilities.
While the coin is sensational to say the least, it doesn’t necessarily mean its authentic, but for that matter neither fake. The truth is that with all findings of a similar controversy, people rush to make conclusions without considering all possibilities.
The truth is that detailed information about the coin ‘depicting an alien-like creature’ is extremely limited. The only information we have is that it was discovered among ‘other ancient coins’ during a house renovation in Egypt. Nearly all of these coins have an inscription in Latin, which obviously mean they did not originate in Egypt, but most likely somewhere else.
The coin with the mystery creature on its side has “ OPPORTUNUS Adest ” carved on the back, Latin for “ its here in due time. ”
Whether or not the newly found coin depicting an alien-like creature is real or not remains a profound mystery. The most likely conclusion is that the coin is a modern forgery since NO EXPERTS have actually verified the item, analyzed it or seen it. All the information comes from different websites which can’t agree on what’s what. related content | 1real |
Support for Hungary's ruling Fidesz highest in six years in October: pollster | BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Voter support for Hungary s ruling right-wing Fidesz party rose to its highest since January 2011 at 40 percent according to an opinion poll published on Thursday, less than six months before parliamentary elections due in April 2018. Prime Minister Viktor Orban s Fidesz party looks like the runaway favorite to win a third straight term, campaigning with a fierce anti-immigrant message, coupled with increased spending on wage rises and promising more money to pensioners. Pollster Median said Fidesz support rose to 40 percent in October from 36 percent in September, while the main radical nationalist opposition party Jobbik lost some of its support. Jobbik s support dropped to 11 percent from 12 percent, while the Socialists scored 7 percent in October, the same as in September. Among decided voters, Fidesz, which won a two-thirds majority in parliament in 2014, was even stronger: its support rose to 61 percent in October from 55 in September, while Jobbik dropped to 14 percent from 16. Endre Hann, managing director of pollster Median, said Fidesz voters showed an unusual determination and willingness to vote according to their survey conducted between Oct. 20 and 24. And also there is kind of a self-fulfilling process: more and more people feel that the opposition does not have any chance (in next year s election), he said, adding that the opposition remained fragmented. The Socialist Party s candidate to be prime minister after the 2018 parliamentary election resigned last month, further weakening the leftist party. There is an array of other smaller leftist parties all vying for enough votes to get into parliament. Another pollster, Tarki, said Fidesz support rose to 39 percent in October from 35 percent in July in the whole population, while Jobbik s support dropped to 10 percent from 11 percent. The strengthening of the ruling parties is due to some of the uncertain voters choosing them, rather than luring away supporters of opposition parties, Tarki said. According to Median, about 30 percent of voters have no party preference. Tarki put the undecided camp at 34 percent. | 0fake |
Saudi king says consensus with Russia on broadening relations: news agency | RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi King Salman said there was consensus with Russia s leadership on broadening the scope of relations between the two countries following a meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, the Saudi state press agency reported on Friday. We note with complete full satisfaction the matching opinions we sensed from the Russian leadership towards working to move the level of relations to a broader perspective, the king told business officials in Moscow on Thursday evening. Putin hosted King Salman for talks at the Kremlin earlier in the day, cementing a relationship that is pivotal for world oil prices and could decide the outcome of the conflict in Syria. | 0fake |
Mike Lee: Health Care Bill ’Is Going to Fail’ - Breitbart | Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “Your World,” Sen. Mike Lee ( ) predicted the legislation scheduled for a vote Thursday that would begin the process of repealing Obamacare would fail because he argued it not only didn’t have the votes in the Senate but the House as well. “This bill is going to fail,” Lee said. “It is going to fail because it doesn’t have enough support in the House of Representatives and it doesn’t have enough support in the Senate. ” “I’ve talked to a whole lot of people — enough people that I know that it is going to fall short of a majority in the House and it’s going to fall short of a majority in the Senate,” he added. “Look, if they know something that I don’t, perhaps they’ll be smiling 24 hours from now. But if they’re so confident, they’re not going to need to worry about my vote, they’re not going to need to worry about the votes of a whole lot of other people in the House and in the Senate who are concerned that this bill doesn’t do what we promise to do, which was repeal Obamacare in its entirety. ” Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor | 0fake |
West Shamelessly Whitewashing Terrorist Counterattack on Aleppo - Ulson Gunnar | West Shamelessly Whitewashing Terrorist Counterattack on Aleppo
They're just your friendly neighborhood head-choppers being victimized by Russia Originally appeared at New Eastern Outlook
Militants led by designated terrorist organisation, Jabhat Al Nusra, now obliquely referred to by the Western media as “Jabhat Fateh al-Sham,” has spearheaded another attempt to disrupt security operations against militants trapped in Syria’s norther city of Aleppo.
Despite what is clearly a terrorist assault employing indiscriminate artillery fire provided by Grad rocket systems on an urban center and the use of suicide bombings employing vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIED), Western media organisations are attempting to depict the assault as a “rebel counter-attack” meant to “break” what it is depicting as a “siege” by Syria’s own military forces.
Reuters in their article, “ Syrian rebels launch Aleppo counter-attack to break siege ,” would claim:
It is particularly interesting to see Reuters attempt to depict the assault as a “rebel” operation, despite being unable to name a single “rebel” group, and admitting the leading role designated foreign terrorist organisation Jabhat Al Nusra is playing as well as the use of clearly terrorist tactics being employed.
Reuters continues by admitting much further down in its article that:
Fateh al-Sham played a big part in a rebel attack in July that managed to break the government siege on eastern Aleppo for several weeks before it was reimposed.
Abu Youssef al-Mouhajir, an official from the powerful Ahrar al-Sham Islamist group, said the extent of cooperation between the different rebel factions was unusual, and that the largest axis of attack was on the western edge of the city.
Reuters is all but admitting that even the so-called “rebels” it attempts to credit the assault with are operating not under the banner of the “Free Syrian Army,” but ultimately under the banner of Jabhat Al Nusra, quite literally Al Qaeda in Syria.
Reuters concedes that this “complicates” US foreign policy in Syria, claiming that heavier weapons cannot be passed on to “rebels” in fear that they would immediately fall into the hands of terrorist groups “rebels” are clearly operating under. Reuters, however, never explains why any weapons at all would be provided to “rebel” groups so clearly and transparently in league with Jabhat Al Nusra in the first place.
Finally, Reuters claims:
Grad rockets were launched at Aleppo’s Nairab air base before the assault began said Zakaria Malahiji, head of the political office of the Aleppo-based Fastaqim rebel group, adding that it was going to be “a big battle”.
The Observatory also said that Grad surface-to-surface rockets had struck locations around the Hmeimim air base, near Latakia.
Grad rockets are an effective weapon in combat on open terrain. In the confined urban environment of Aleppo, they are an indiscriminate weapon the West, its media and its human rights advocates have little trouble pointing out their use constitutes a war crime, but only when used by forces of nations the West seeks to undermine and ultimately overthrow. No mention of their indiscriminate, inappropriate nature when used in urban environments is made when used by forces backed by Western interests.
Also, Reuters’ inadvertently mentions the “rebel” group Fastaqim in the closing paragraphs of its report, a faction operating under the Aleppo-based Fatah Halab (Aleppo Conquest) coalition. It was revealed by the West’s own rights advocacy group, Amnesty International, in a post titled, “ Syria: armed opposition group committing war crimes in Aleppo – new evidence ,” that:
The Aleppo Conquest armed groups may have used chemical weapons, as well as ‘hell cannon’ gas canister munitions.
Armed groups surrounding the predominantly Kurdish Sheikh Maqsoud district of Aleppo city have repeatedly carried out indiscriminate attacks – possibly including with chemical weapons – that have struck civilian homes, markets and mosques, killing and injuring civilians, and have displayed a shameful disregard for human life, said Amnesty International today.
Indeed, even groups described as “rebels” by the Western media, are guilty of serial offences that clearly make them terrorists, not “rebels.” The fact that this information is omitted from Reuters’ reports and the nature of these groups’ relationship with Al Qaeda affiliates made as intentionally nebulous as possible, reveals a common theme that has run through Western coverage of the Syrian conflict since it began; a concerted effort to conceal the true terroristic nature of so-called “rebels” in a bid to legitimize the illegitimate, and defend the indefensible. | 1real |
N.F.L. Wins Appeal, and Tom Brady Has Little Recourse - The New York Times | Roger Goodell, the most powerful man in professional football, prevailed again Monday in his battle with Tom Brady, one of the game’s most celebrated quarterbacks. And this time, Brady has virtually no chance of escaping a suspension. Goodell’s victory came in a ruling by a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that overturned a decision and affirmed that Goodell, the N. F. L. commissioner, had broad discretion to suspend players according to the collective bargaining agreement with the players’ union. The panel’s decision can be appealed to the full Second Circuit, or even the Supreme Court, but the chance of a victory for Brady is “close to nil,” said Michael LeRoy, who teaches labor law at the University of Illinois at . Assuming nothing changes, Brady could return to regular play as soon as Oct. 9. The N. F. L. ’s decision in the Deflategate case — suspending one of its most popular players for being “generally aware” of a plot to deflate footballs in the 2015 A. F. C. championship game — captivated the nation like few football stories. Over the years, sports leagues have fought with some of their best players, including cases in which Major League Baseball butted heads with Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez. But never has a showdown between a league and a player centered on whether the player wanted to manipulate the air pressure in a ball. The case drew expert analysis from physicists and excoriation from fans — many in New England — who believed that the commissioner’s ruling was based on inadequate evidence. The saga raised fundamental questions about fairness on the field how teams look for an edge and whether the commissioner, who views himself as a stern taskmaster, had overstepped his bounds. The league’s decision to go after Brady also pitted the commissioner against Robert K. Kraft, the owner of the Patriots and long one of Goodell’s staunchest allies. At the Super Bowl in Arizona shortly after the scandal broke, Kraft, in a highly unusual move for an owner, lambasted the league for its handling of the case during an impromptu news conference. He also objected to the $1 million fine and loss of draft picks imposed on his team, but eventually accepted the penalties. Brady’s lawyers had argued that he was unfairly suspended after he was accused of involvement in a scheme to deflate footballs used in a playoff game, and last summer, a Federal District Court judge agreed, allowing Brady to play the entire 2015 season. The N. F. L. appealed that ruling to the Second Circuit, which heard oral arguments in early March. The judges were openly skeptical of many of the arguments made by Brady’s lawyer, signaling that they sided with the N. F. L. ’s case that Goodell had broad discretion to suspend players. In their decision, the judges did not consider the underlying facts of the case, including the science of football deflation, but instead looked solely at whether Goodell, as arbitrator, acted in the spirit of the collective bargaining agreement. “We hold that the commissioner properly exercised this broad discretion under the collective bargaining agreement and that his procedural rulings were properly grounded in that agreement and did not deprive Brady of fundamental fairness,” Judges Barrington Daniels Parker Jr. and Denny Chin wrote in their opinion. “Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the district court and remand with instructions to confirm the award. ” In a dissent, Chief Judge Robert A. Katzmann said that Goodell had overstepped his role as arbitrator by changing his reason for penalizing Brady after he had heard the quarterback’s appeal. Initially, Goodell suspended Brady for his role in the plot to deflate footballs, then argued that Brady had obstructed the league’s investigation of the incident by destroying his cellphone, which might have contained messages between Brady and members of the Patriots’ staff. The Second Circuit made “the right ruling that conforms to a very well established pattern in the labor law,” LeRoy said. The judges said that despite the protestations of Kraft, Brady and the N. F. L. Players Association, Goodell was merely acting on the powers to which the league and union had agreed in their labor deal, the latest of which was signed in 2011. The judges acknowledged that the pact in which the person who penalizes players also listens to appeals of those penalties might be unconventional, but they would not get in the way of a longstanding and transparent contract. “In their collective bargaining agreement, the players and the league mutually decided many years ago that the commissioner should investigate possible rule violations, should impose appropriate sanctions, and may preside at arbitrations challenging his discipline,” the judges wrote. The N. F. L. hailed the decision. “We are pleased the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled today that the commissioner properly exercised his authority under the collective bargaining agreement to act in cases involving the integrity of the game,” it said in a statement. “That authority has been recognized by many courts and has been expressly incorporated into every collective bargaining agreement between the N. F. L. and N. F. L. P. A. for the past 40 years. ” The players association said it was disappointed. “We fought Roger Goodell’s suspension of Tom Brady because we know he did not serve as a fair arbitrator and that players’ rights were violated under our collective bargaining agreement,” it said in a statement. If Brady’s suspension is not overturned by a higher court, he will presumably sit out the first four games of the season. (He is allowed to play and practice with the team in the preseason.) The Patriots play their opening game in Glendale, Ariz. against the Cardinals, and their next three games at home, in Foxborough, Mass. against the Miami Dolphins, the Houston Texans and the Buffalo Bills. Brady would then be eligible to return in Week 5, when the Patriots travel to Cleveland to play the Browns. The drama began on Jan. 18, 2015, when the New England Patriots hammered the Indianapolis Colts, to advance to the Super Bowl. Shortly after the game, the N. F. L. began investigating whether the Patriots had used deflated footballs to gain an unfair advantage. “It’s ridiculous,” Brady said at the time, adding, “That’s the last of my worries. ” The N. F. L. released the results of its investigation last May, which stated that two Patriots employees had knowingly deflated balls below the legal limit and that it was “more probable than not that Brady was at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities. ” A few days after the release of the report, the N. F. L. suspended Brady for four games without pay. By some measures, the case has done nothing to dent Brady’s popularity, or the country’s fascination with one of the sport’s biggest stars. On Monday, the players’ association said that licensed merchandise with Brady’s name on it was the among all players last season, topping Peyton Manning, Russell Wilson and other popular players. Given the Patriots’ success the past 15 years, some fans are scrambling to adjust to the possibility that Brady will sit out the first four weeks of the season. BookMaker Sportsbook is reassessing its predictions for the Patriots’ season opener against the Cardinals. “Jimmy Garoppolo is certainly serviceable, but he’s not Tom Brady,” the company wrote about Brady’s backup. “And putting him under center on ‘Sunday Night Football’ in Week 1 for his first career N. F. L. start is asking quite a bit, especially against an elite Arizona secondary. ” | 0fake |
250,000 More Tickets to Be Released for ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ - The New York Times | Harry Potter fans, take heart: If you are looking for tickets to the London stage play inspired by J. K. Rowling’s books, there are plenty more coming your way. The show’s producers said this week that 250, 000 tickets to “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” would be released next Thursday. Performances of the play are sold out through May (though a small number of tickets are available through a lottery each week, and tickets occasionally go on sale). The new tickets being released are for performances taking place from next spring through 2017. “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” takes place 19 years after the end of the final book and tracks the of Harry’s son Albus. The production had its first previews in June, and it officially opened, to enthusiastic reviews, this week. It has two parts, which viewers can watch in a day or over the course of two days. In his review for The New York Times, Ben Brantley wrote that the play conjures “a kind of magic that is purely theatrical yet somehow channels the addictive narrative grip of Ms. Rowling’s prose. ” | 0fake |
Russia deploys missiles in Syria after Turkey shoots down bomber | Russia deployed long-range air defense missiles at its air base in Syria Thursday in a rapid response to the downing of one of its bombers by a Turkish warplane.
Russia's state-owned RIA Novosti news agency, quoting its own reporter on the ground, reported that the shipment of S-400 long-range missiles had been delivered. They will be based in Syria's coastal province of Latakia, just 30 miles away from the border with Turkey and are capable of striking targets within a 250-mile range with deadly precision.
The deployment of the missiles came hours after Turkey released audio recordings of what it says are the Turkish military's warnings to the pilot of the Russian Su-24 bomber that was shot down at the border with Syria early Tuesday.
The recordings indicate that the plane was warned several times that it was approaching Turkey's airspace and asked to change course. The voice is heard saying: "This is Turkish Air Force speaking on guard. You are approaching Turkish airspace. Change your heading south immediately."
Turkey has informed the United Nations that two Russian planes disregarded warnings and violated Turkish airspace "to a depth of 1.36 miles and 1.15 miles in length for 17 seconds.
The plane's surviving pilot has denied that his jet veered into Turkey's airspace "even for a single second"and rejected Turkey's claim that it had issued repeated warnings to the Russian crew. The other pilot was killed by militants in Syria after bailing out, while his crewmate was rescued by Syrian army commandos and delivered in good condition to the Russian base early Wednesday. A Russian marine was also killed by the militants during the rescue mission.
The Kremlin also moved the navy missile cruiser Moskva closer to the shore to help protect Russian warplanes with its long-range Fort air defense system.
"It will be ready to destroy any aerial target posing a potential danger to our aircraft," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at a meeting with military officials. He also announced the severance of all military ties with Turkey and said that from now on, Russian bombers will always be escorted by fighters on combat missions over Syria.
Tuesday's incident was the first time in half a century that a NATO member shot down a Russian plane. If Russia responds by downing a Turkish plane, NATO member Turkey could proclaim itself under attack and ask the alliance for military assistance.
Most observers believe that a direct military confrontation is unlikely, but that the shooting down of the plane will further fuel the Syrian conflict and complicate international peace efforts.
The situation is also alarming because the Russian and Turkish presidents both pose as strong leaders and would be reluctant to back down and seek a compromise.
The announcements came as Russian forces launched a heavy bombardment against Syrian rebel-held areas in Latakia province. At least 12 airstrikes hit the area Wednesday as pro-government forces clashed with fighters from the Nusra Front, which is affiliated with Al Qaeda, and Turkmen insurgents, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters.
The Russian plane's downing has marked a dramatic turnaround in relations between Russia and Turkey, who have proclaimed themselves to be "strategic partners" in the past and developed booming economic ties despite differences over Syria.
Putin described the Turkish action as a "crime" and a "stab in the back," and called Turkey an "accomplice of terrorists." In a sign of the escalating tensions, protesters in Moscow hurled eggs and stones at the Turkish Embassy, breaking windows in the compound. Police cleared the area and made some arrests shortly after the protest began.
Putin has also dismissed Turkey's claim that the Russian warplane intruded its airspace, voicing particular annoyance about Ankara turning to NATO instead of speaking to Russia, "as if it were us who shot down a Turkish plane."
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu sought to ease tensions Wednesday, calling Russia Turkey's "friend and neighbor" and insisting relations cannot be "sacrificed to accidents of communication." He told his party's lawmakers that Turkey didn't know the plane was brought down Tuesday was Russian until Moscow announced it.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in turn said that the downing of the plane "highlights the need to strengthen mechanisms to avoid such incidents in the future."
"We should not sleepwalk into unintended escalation," he wrote in an op-ed that is to be published Thursday and was made available to The Associated Press.
Iran meanwhile lashed out at Turkey, with the official IRNA news agency quoting Presidednt Hassan Rouhani as saying Ankara is responsible for the heightened tensions in the region.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Click for more from Sky News. | 0fake |
Israel says it foiled planned ISIS-inspired attack at Jerusalem holy site | JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel said on Thursday it had thwarted a plan by two Israeli Arabs with Islamic State sympathies to mount an attack at a contested Jerusalem holy site where a July gun ambush set off a wave of violence. The Shin Bet security service described the suspects, aged 26 and 16, as residents of the same Israeli Arab town as three gunmen who on July 14 killed two police guards at a gate to Al-Aqsa mosque compound and were then shot dead. Israel responded to that attack by briefly installing metal detectors outside the compound, angering Palestinians who saw that as a breach of decades-old access arrangements. Four Palestinians were killed during ensuing confrontations with Israeli security forces and a Palestinian stabbed three Israeli settlers to death. The two suspects taken into custody this month support the Islamic State terrorist group s murderous ideology and the terrorist attack was meant to be carried out in expression of this , the Shin Bet said in its statement on Thursday. It said they had two pistols. They planned a gun attack at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem similar to what transpired on July 14, it said without elaborating. Jews revere the site, where Al-Aqsa mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock now stand, as the location of their two ancient temples. Attempts by Jews to pray there, in violation of access arrangements, have been a source of tension with Muslims. Israel captured East Jerusalem, including the Old City and the holy compound, in the 1967 Middle East war. It annexed the area in a move that has never been recognized internationally. | 0fake |
Washington’s Intent is Economic Destabilization and “Regime Change” In Venezuela | By Stephen Lendman
Venezuela’s oil-dependent economy suffers greatly from low crude oil prices and US economic warfare – waged to destabilize the country, create enormous hardships, mobilize majority opposition to President Nicolas Maduro’s leadership, and end nearly 18 years of economic and social progress. The collapse in the price of crude oil was the result of a carefully designed speculative operation.
Neocons in Washington want control over Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, among the world’s largest. With full US support and encouragement, the right wing opposition which controls the National Assembly want Maduros ousted – its latest tactic by recall referendum as constitutionally permitted.
On October 18, Venezuela’s Supreme Court ruled valid signatures of 20% of voters in each of the nation’s 24 states must be collected to proceed with a process against Maduro.
“(F)ailure…will render the call for the presidential recall referendum as nullified,” the High Court said in its ruling.
On October 21, Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) suspended the referendum until further notice, following Supreme Court allegations of fraud. Over 30% of signatures collected had irregularities – including listing over 10,000 deceased persons.
A previous article explained how Venezuela’s recall referendum works. Article 72 of Venezuela’s Constitution states “(a)ll magistrates and other offices (including the president) filled by popular vote are subject to revocation.”
“Once half (their) term of office…has elapsed, 20% of (registered) voters (by petition may call for) a referendum to revoke such official’s mandate.”
“When a number of voters equal to or greater than the number of those who elected the official vote in favor of revocation (provided the total is 20% or more of registered voters), the official’s mandate shall be deemed revoked…”
Signatures collected must be verified for authenticity before proceeding further with the recall process. If achieved, it’ll be organized within 90 days. Removing Maduro requires support from more than the 50.6% of voters supporting his 2013 election.
Timing is important. If held by January 10, 2017, a new election will be called if Maduro loses. If things go against him after this date, Vice President Aristobulo Isturiz will serve as president until January 2019, when his term expires.
In response to CNE’s suspending the recall process, the factions controlling the National Assembly barely stopped short of urging coup d’etat action to remove Maduro forcefully.
Last Sunday, they said they’ll impeach him for “violating democracy.” The body has no legal standing after ignoring the Supreme Court’s October 18 ruling.
United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) leader Hector Rodriguez mocked them, saying parties violating the “rules of the game come and talk about democracy…There will be no recall referendum in 2016 because of fraudulent signatures collected.”
Violent demonstrations may follow, similar to what occurred in 2014 – perhaps another US coup attempt.
On October 24, WaPo editors disgracefully headlined “How to derail Venezuela’s new dictatorship.” What followed was a disgraceful litany of misinformation, exaggeration and Big Lies.
WaPo: Maduro “made clear (he and his government are) prepared to shred what remained of the country’s constitutional order…(They) stripped the opposition-controlled national assembly of its powers, imprisoned several top leaders and tried to slow” the recall process.
Fact: Maduro and Venezuela’s CNE observe the letter of constitutional law. No opposition powers were “stripped.” Their imprisoned officials plotted to remove Maduro by coup d’etat.
Collecting fraudulent signatures “slow(ed)” the recall process, not administration officials.
WaPo: Opposition National Assembly members “issued a declaration saying Mr. Maduro had staged a coup. That is accurate – and it ought to provoke a consequential reaction from the United States and Venezuela’s Latin American neighbors.”
Fact: No Maduro “coup” occurred, nor is one in prospect. WaPo calling for “consequential” action sounds ominously like urging Washington to oust him forcefully.
WaPo: “The recall referendum the opposition was pursuing offered a democratic way out of what has become one of the worst political and humanitarian crises in Latin America’s modern history.”
Fact: US dirty tricks and economic manipulation leading to disruptions in the distribution of food, bear much responsibility for hard times in Venezuela. Real problems exist. Hunger isn’t one of them. WaPo lied claiming “(t)he vast majority of low-income families say they are having trouble obtaining food.”
Venezuelans changed their dietary practices because of the scarcity of commonly eaten foods, at times consuming less than earlier. Profiteers hoarding and diverting foodstuffs for resale are responsible, along with high inflation resulting economic manipulation.
WaPo: “(T)he United States should be coordinating tough international action.”
Fact: Neocon WaPo editors want Maduro toppled and replaced. Do they mean by coup d’etat by calling for “tough international action?”
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net . His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com .
Source: Global Research
| 1real |
Young Republicans Chairwoman Resigns Over Trump – Here’s The AMAZING Reason Why (IMAGES) | As Donald Trump looks like he s going to be leading the Republican Party in the general election, many conservatives are either jumping ship entirely, or at least voicing their disapproval in various ways. For Katrina Jorgenson, the communications chairwoman of the Young Republicans National Federation, this meant resigning from her position and writing a lengthy Facebook post about why she would never support The Donald.Jorgenson posted the message on Monday afternoon, stating that because her principles would not allow her to get behind Trump s divisive, vulgar rhetoric, she was announcing her resignation. In the post, she shamed those who supported Trump, and made it clear that this was a major step backwards for the future of the GOP. She wrote: Regretfully, I am resigning from my position as Communications Chair with the YRNF. With the practically fulfilled nomination of Donald Trump as our presidential candidate, I can no longer continue to carry out the duties of this position. My principles will not allow it. We have been told for years how we are the future of the party, this is our opportunity to seize that future. But if we have instead decided to uphold a man who does not represent us or our views I cannot participate in that. Jorgenson didn t hold back she called the business mogul a hateful fascist and called him out on his forever growing list of controversies. Jorgenson also expressed bitterness that Trump s rise had forced Republicans to compromise their beliefs and principles. In doing so, she criticized other conservatives for supporting a candidate that was going to destroy the entire Republican Party, and most likely the country if he gets into the White House. In denouncing the presumptive Republican nominee, Jorgenson stated that there was absolutely no way that she could continue her role in the Young Republicans National Federation and still maintain her dignity, knowing full well that she was going against her values: Many of you may choose to support Trump in order to beat Hillary Clinton, that is your decision. For me, I cannot support a candidate who endorses bigotry and lawlessness, with a minimal understanding of the fiscal policies long associated with our party, even if he does have an R after his name. I could not later tell my children I did the right thing, instead I would have to live with allowing my politics to be corrupted. I cannot stand by and continue to write newsletters and posts that so strongly conflict with my personal values. I will not surrender my beliefs.This is not the way forward. I will not quietly fall in line. I will not give up my principles. You can read her entire post here, which immediately received praise from like-minded viewers. Many other #NeverTrumpers were more than happy to back Jorgenson s decision up, telling her that she had done the right thing:FacebookFacebookFacebookFacebookTrump has divided the Republican Party in a major way, and it will likely never be the same again. And now that the GOP has allowed such a divisive fear mongering idiot to lead their party, Trump is threatening to divide and destroy America the same way.Featured image via Katrina Jorgensen Facebook | 1real |
DISTURBING TRUTH ABOUT How The UN Decides Which Muslim “REFUGEES” Will Be Your New Neighbor [VIDEO] | Every American should know the corrupt UN has been, and will continue to be, the one organization who decides which Muslim refugees will be flooding your hometown Who picks the Syrian refugees that resettle in the U.S.? Homeland Security? No, the United Nations, in concert with a global Islamist group. And they re sending more than 15,000, not the widely reported 10,000.In fact, Washington has no role in selecting the thousands of Syrian refugees coming to your hometown. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees is really behind the effort, and he s referred an additional 5,000-plus Syrian nationals here.A new State Department report reveals that the U.S. already has accepted at least 15,000 Syrian refugee referrals from the UNHCR. The United States is one of 28 countries that have agreed to accept referrals from UNHCR as part of its ambitious international effort to secure permanent or temporary resettlement for 130,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2016, the State Department said in Proposed Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2016. As of mid-2015, UNHCR has referred more than 15,000 Syrian refugees to the United States, the 71-page report adds. And these individuals are being screened to determine whether they are eligible. Of course, that security screening is a joke, as the FBI director and his top counterterrorism aide, as well as the Homeland Security and National Intelligence chiefs, have all testified.State notes in its report that security checks include biographic name checks for all refugee applicants and biometric (fingerprint) checks for refugee applicants. Only Syria is a failed state, and there are no fingerprint databases to check applicants against.The Islamic State has publicly vowed to use the refugee program to invade Europe and America, and allegedly has already infiltrated some 4,000 warriors among the flood of Syrian refugees.The Obama administration insists that it will catch any terrorist infiltrators through its interviewing process.But, the State Department report said, In some countries, such as Syria, Yemen and Eritrea, Department of Homeland Security adjudicators have been unable to travel to interview applicants for several years. That s not all. The UNHCR is working hand in hand with an international Islamist group of 57 Muslim nations the Organization of Islamic Cooperation whose founding charter seeks to propagate legitimate jihad and the norms of Islamic Shari ah. Saudi-based OIC, in fact, is tied to the radical Muslim Brotherhood. We are delighted to work with the OIC, said U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres.So it s really the U.N. and radical Islamists who are choosing your new Muslim neighbors.While the U.N. calls its project refugee resettlement, the Islamists call it hijra, or immigration jihad. Via: IBD | 1real |
Raqqa/Mosul: Politicians Fiddle As Middle East Burns | Written by Daniel McAdams While Americans were obsessing about tomorrow's election, the Obama Administration launched a serious military escalation in Syria. US Special Forces on the ground and jet fighters in the air are deployed in an operation to take Raqqa from ISIS control. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dunford announced over the weekend that the US and Turkey agreed on a long-term plan for "seizing, holding and governing" the Syrian city. Is this the beginning of a US-recognized rival Syrian government, as Benghazi was in Libya? We discuss in today's Liberty Report: Copyright © 2016 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given. | 1real |
Trump, on possible DACA deal, says border wall would come later | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that any possible deal on immigration with Democrats would have to include provisions for massive border security, and that his planned wall along the border with the Mexico would come later. Trump was asked by reporters about a possible deal with Democrats over immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children. He has ordered the disbanding of a program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), that allowed such young adults to stay, but has given Congress six months to come up with an alternative plan. | 0fake |
Tom Cotton calls for ‘global military dominance’ in maiden Senate speech | Over the course of just a few days last week, Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) went from relatively anonymous freshman senator to what seemed like the tip of every tongue in Washington -- thanks to the letter he wrote and got 46 fellow Republicans to join, warning the ruling Iranian regime to be wary of negotiating a nuclear deal with President Obama.
But here's a fun fact: Cotton made his big splash before even giving his first speech on the Senate floor.
That occasion came late Monday, when Cotton delivered his "maiden speech," which is typically given after a period of silence and as a statement of principles or objectives rather than a comment on the partisan issue of the day.
Cotton's address has gotten a lot less attention than his Iran letter, and that is not surprising: Where the letter was terse and seemingly calculated to influence the multiparty nuclear negotiations now underway, the half-hour speech was dense, rich in historical references, and calibrated to further establish Cotton as the Republican Party's young leading light on foreign affairs and defense -- positioning him to assume the mantle now worn by elders like John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).
"An alarm should be sounding in our ears," Cotton said. "Our enemies, sensing weakness and hence opportunity, have become steadily more aggressive. Our allies, uncertain of our commitment and capability, have begun to conclude that they must look out for themselves, even where it is unhelpful to stability and order. Our military, suffering from years of neglect, has seen its relative strength decline to historic levels."
The speech contained numerous references to Winston Churchill and Cotton compared the current foreign policy moment to the prelude to World War II. He articulated a litany of national security threats, ranging from Iran to North Korea to Russia, but the speech was notable for the hard line it took on a question now threatening to divide Capitol Hill Republicans as they try to write a 2017 budget: Is it more important to control federal spending or strengthen the national defense?
Cotton was clear: America must have "such hegemonic strength that no sane adversary would ever imagine challenging the United States. 'Good enough' is not and will never be good enough." That strength, he said, should come at whatever the necessary costs. While the budget must be slashed, it should not be balanced on the backs of the military.
“Our enemies and allies alike must know that aggressors will pay an unspeakable price for challenging the United States," Cotton said. "The best way to impose that price is global military dominance.”
An excerpt from his full speech:
Trying to balance the budget through defense cuts is both counterproductive and impossible. First, the threats we face will eventually catch up with us, as they did on Sept. 11, and we will have no choice but to increase our defense budget. When we do, it will cost more to achieve the same end state of readiness and modernization than it would have without the intervening cuts. This was the lesson we learned in the 1980s after the severe cuts to defense in the 1970s. Second, we need a healthy, growing economy to generate the government revenue necessary to fund our military and balance the budget. In our globalized world, our domestic prosperity depends heavily on the world economy, which, of course, requires stability and order. Who provides that stability and order? The U.S. military. | 0fake |
Raiders Leaving Oakland Again, This Time for Las Vegas - The New York Times | The N. F. L. gave its approval on Monday for the Oakland Raiders to move to Las Vegas, casting aside decades of fears that putting a team in the gambling capital would corrupt the sport, while sending the team to a new and growing market but one that is far smaller. The team owners, meeting in Phoenix, voted overwhelmingly, persuaded that having a team in Las Vegas would allow the league to capitalize on the city’s booming tourist trade and image of excitement, and on its willingness to contribute hundreds of millions of dollars toward the construction of a new stadium. For years, major leagues steered clear of Las Vegas because some owners worried that putting a team there would lead more players and referees to rub elbows with unsavory characters from the gambling world trying to influence games. But such attitudes have faded with the growth and acceptance of gambling around the country, and with the city’s reduced reliance on revenue from its many casinos. The N. H. L. agreed last year to create a team in Las Vegas, the Golden Knights, that will begin play this year. The Raiders, known for a passionate fan base that delights in a image, are likely to begin playing in Las Vegas as soon as 2019, in temporary quarters, with the lease at their current stadium expiring after the 2018 season. In 2020, they are expected to move into a nearly $2 billion stadium, with $750 million in public financing, an arrangement that helped attract the league’s interest. The rest of the money was expected to come from a $600 million loan from Bank of America to the team, $200 million from the league and revenue from naming rights and other deals. “We know that some fans will be disappointed and even angry,” said Mark Davis, the Raiders’ principal owner. “But we hope they do not direct that frustration to the players, coaches and staff. ” Libby Schaaf, the mayor of Oakland, said that losing the team would tear at the city’s psyche and pride, and that the league would regret its decision. “The Raider nation is the last of the fan bases, and it absolutely breaks my heart to lose this team,” she said. The team will become the first to leave its home city, return and then leave again. The Raiders are also the third N. F. L. team to move, or announce a move, in a little more than a year, ending a period of turmoil in which the owners agreed to abandon longtime N. F. L. cities that were unable to appease the owners’ desire for bigger markets and more public financing for new stadiums. Last year, the Rams left St. Louis for Los Angeles, and then the Chargers announced that they would leave San Diego to move in with the Rams, starting in the fall. Davis said repeatedly that he was frustrated with the efforts by lawmakers in California to replace the team’s current home, County Coliseum, one of the oldest stadiums in the league. Unlike the Rams and the Chargers, who left immediately for their new homes, the Raiders will remain in Oakland for at least two more seasons while their new home is built, creating the specter of awkward seasons. Davis said the team would continue to be called the Oakland Raiders during that time. Only Stephen M. Ross, the owner of the Miami Dolphins, voted against the deal. He said in a statement after the vote that not all the options to stay in Oakland had been exhausted. Other owners voted reluctantly for the move because, they said, the league would be leaving the television market in the country for the . Oakland is also in the booming San Francisco Bay Area, home to some of the wealthiest fans and sponsors in the country. Las Vegas is recovering from one of the most brutal recessions in its history. Unemployment in Clark County, Nev. was 5. 1 percent in January, compared with 14. 1 percent in 2010. A region that was once the face of the foreclosure crisis is turning around, economists say. Las Vegas, which long led the nation in foreclosures, was ranked No. 22 in February, according to Attom Data Solutions, a housing tracker. The median price of a house in the Las Vegas region was $199, 000 in January, a nearly 5 percent jump over the year before, still a far cry from the booming housing market in Oakland. And revenue from gambling — a key marker for tracking the health of the economy — increased 2. 7 percent statewide compared with six months ago, according to the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. The league owners preferred the certainty of a substantial amount of tax dollars for a stadium over uncertain prospects for the team in Oakland, where Ms. Schaaf said often that her city could not afford to pay for the construction of a new stadium. She suggested it could provide the land and infrastructure improvements, and said she was working with Fortress Investments to secure construction financing. Yet in a letter he sent to the mayor last week, Commissioner Roger Goodell said that was not enough, all but sealing the team’s fate. While the league’s stance on Las Vegas has softened, it continues to uphold rules that prevent owners from holding stakes in gambling operations. That was a big reason that Davis ended his dalliance with Sheldon Adelson, the chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. who offered to pay for part of a new stadium in Las Vegas. The Raiders will be the second major team to go to Las Vegas, after the N. H. L. team, and there has been talk of Major League Baseball, M. L. S. and the N. B. A. moving to Las Vegas as well. The moves by the Rams, the Chargers and the Raiders ended a long period of relative stability. They were the first franchises to move in the league since the when the Browns moved to Baltimore, the Rams to St. Louis and the Oilers to Tennessee. The decision to let the teams move has been wrenching and filled with vitriol. Lawmakers in St. Louis approved funding for a new stadium for the Rams, yet the N. F. L. owners rejected their efforts in favor of a proposal by the Rams’ owner, E. Stanley Kroenke, to pay for a $2. 6 billion stadium in Inglewood, Calif. south of downtown Los Angeles. After trying for years to get a new stadium in San Diego, the Chargers applied to move to Los Angeles in 2015. When the owners chose the Rams instead, the Chargers did an and backed a referendum that would have provided hundreds of millions of dollars for a stadium in downtown San Diego. Voters soundly rejected the proposal. The Raiders, though, have a much wider following, in Oakland and across the nation. The team got its start as a charter member of the American Football League in 1960, then went to the N. F. L. when the leagues merged in 1970. After two Super Bowl victories in Oakland, the team owner Al Davis defied the other owners and moved to Los Angeles for the 1982 season, only to return to Oakland in 1995 after the city agreed to expand the Coliseum for him. The team’s tough image delighted the port city’s fans, who earned a reputation for tormenting visiting players. Fans sitting in the “Black Hole,” a cheering section near the field, perpetuated the team’s menacing reputation. But as team after team moved into new stadiums over the last decade, and as the teams’ valuations soared, Mark Davis, who took over ownership when Al Davis died in 2011, started to complain openly about his team’s stadium. The team is the only one in the league that shares a building with a baseball team, the Oakland A’s, and the Raiders are among the teams that generate the least amount of revenue from their home games, lacking the fancy suites and epicurean dining options that other stadiums have. Yet fans continue to flock to their games, including last season, when the team was and, after 13 seasons without a playoff appearance, made the game, in which it lost to the Texans. Now it is Oakland that will be losing the Raiders. Again. | 0fake |
Tancredo: Have Congressional Republican Leaders Joined the ’Resistance’? - Breitbart | William F. Buckley, Jr. ran for mayor of New York City in 1965, he was asked, “What will you do if you win?” His reply: “Demand a recount. ” Of course, he was being flippant. The young Conservative Party of New York had no chance of winning even a plurality in the liberal bastion of New York. [I would not have been surprised to have heard Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell utter those words in October of 2016. Not only did they expect Trump to lose to Hillary Clinton in a landslide, they were counting on it. In a divided government, with a Democrat in the White House and Republican majorities in the Senate and House, governing the country was a matter of bipartisan — and they were in the driver’s seat. No one could hold them accountable for actually governing the country — what a deal! What a creepy bunch of establishment swamp denizens the Congressional Republicans have shown themselves to be. Precious days are being wasted by them because every passing news cycle makes it more difficult to advance the President’s agenda. And they know it. And I think they are okay with that because it is not their agenda. They are wallowing in the swamp Trump is trying to drain. Of course, there are a few true believers who would brave the slings and arrows of the irrational ninnies in the media who live only to see Trump and his agenda be sent to the ash heap of history. However far too many of those calling themselves Republicans are no more than Democrats who have perfected their ability to obfuscate. It is clear to me that some Republicans in Congress secretly embrace the “resistance” and are hoping Trump will quit or be impeached. It seems Democrats are always eager to enact the Democrat agenda. What’s so frustrating is that so are many Republicans! Republicans have maintained their House majority since the turnaround election of 2010. In November of 2016, besides sending Donald Trump to the White House, Republicans maintained their majorities in both the Senate and House and also won control of a majority of governorships and state legislatures. The Republican Party now controls 69 of 99 state legislative chambers (Nebraska is unicameral) and 33 governorships, the most it has held since 1922. Republicans will have total control of government (legislative chambers and governorship) in 25 states, the most since 1952. Consider this startling fact: with Donald Trump in the White House, the Republican Party today has more control over Congress than Eisenhower had in 1953, Nixon in 1969, or Ronald Reagan in 1981. Reagan never had a Republican majority in both houses of Congress! These amazing numbers send a clear message: it is now time to govern! If not now, when? But to judge by Republican behavior since November, the Grand Ol’ Party can’t handle success and seems to be working hard to surrender the reins of power. In the last month, we have heard Senator McConnell and Speaker Paul Ryan say they don’t think they have the votes for repealing Obamacare, reforming the tax code and securing the borders. Translated, that means they believe they don’t have the Republican votes to pass landmark Republican bills. My 10 years of experience in the Congress tells me that this is total hogwash. When you have both houses of Congress and the White House, there is no excuse for failure — even when you don’t have a 60 votes in the Senate. Besides the various parliamentary rules that can be employed when you have the majority on every committee as well as the floor, the sausage factory model of legislation is always available. A good example is the Republican enactment of the Medicare Prescription Drug Act of 2003. That historic expansion of Medicare was a horrible bill and every Republican knew it. But President Bush wanted it and the Republicans held both Houses, albeit by only one vote in the Senate. That 2003 battle is described here. The bill came to the floor for a vote late in the evening, but when the vote was called, what was supposed to be a vote turned into an — because leadership did not have the necessary 218 “Yeas. ” Democrats didn’t want to give Bush and the Republican Party the win, and about half the Republicans saw the bill for what it was — the single biggest increase in government since Medicare. It stunk. That was when the real lobbying — that is, the arm twisting — started. The president was calling members about 5 a. m. and badgering them — mainly with yummy carrots but also some big sticks. Every Cabinet member was dispatched to the House to lobby members with whom they had influence. The House Republican leadership team was actually calling the largest donors to the recalcitrant members and asking them to call their reluctant representatives and urge them to change their vote. A colleague of mine who was a subcommittee chair had his chairmanship threatened. Sufficient golden promises and nasty threats were made, and by 6:30 a. m. they had the 218th vote. I was a “No” vote, but I still wanted to throw up. Apparently, keeping Republican promises made in every national election since 2010 by repealing Obamacare is not as important to the Republican Party leadership in 2017 as expanding Medicare by $400 billion was in 2003. And these geniuses wonder why Republican voters chose Donald Trump over Jeb Bush, Lindsay Graham and John Kasich? Gimme a break! If Republicans cannot unite to repeal the single biggest federal power grab of the last 50 years, why should anyone have faith they will have the courage to tackle other looming crises? The message being sent to Republican rank and file voters across the country is pathetic: Elect us and we will slow down the growth of the leviathan state but we lack the courage to reverse course. That, my friends, is a suicide note. Senate Republican leadership is also skeptical they can find the money Trump has requested for the first stage of a border wall. They have put off a decision on the matter until September. The truth is they don’t want a border wall! That leadership and many of their caucus members are happy with the status quo when it comes to immigration. Cheap labor will satisfy the Chamber of Commerce Republicans and thereby keep the donations from big business flowing to their reelection campaigns. But it is not just Trump’s immigration plans that they secretly want derailed, it’s the whole conservative agenda that they speak so glowingly of to their constituents at home but work so hard to avoid implementing when they are back in the swamp. | 0fake |
More conservative Republicans say they won't back Boehner for speaker | The fledgling rebellion against electing John Boehner to a third term as House speaker gained momentum over the weekend, as nine conservative Republicans declared they intend to vote against the Ohio Republican when the House convenes on Tuesday.
Among them, Reps. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, and Ted Yoho, R-Fla., also have announced they will challenge Boehner for the position.
"We lack a leadership and we lack vision of where the country's going," Yoho told Fox News on Monday. "It's just not me feeling this."
Yoho said he'll keep his hat in the ring, even after Gohmert announced his own bid on Sunday.
The odds of the effort unseating Boehner remain slim. Sending the election to a second ballot would require 28 votes against Boehner. No election of a speaker of the House has gone that far since 1923, when Frederick Gillette, R-Mass., won re-election on the ninth ballot. The vote is typically a formality and split along party lines.
Yoho said Monday, though, that reaching a second round is their goal and "we fully anticipate to get there."
The nine members who have declared their opposition to Boehner are Yoho and Gohmert, and Reps. Jim Bridenstine, R-Okla.; Paul Gosar, R-Ariz.; Steve King, R-Iowa; Dave Brat, R-Va.; Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind.; Water Jones, R-N.C.; and Thomas Massie, R-Ky.
"We have heard from a lot of Republicans that said, 'I would vote for somebody besides Speaker Boehner, but nobody will put their name out there,'" Gohmert told "Fox & Friends" on Sunday morning, in announcing his own bid. "That changed [Saturday] with Ted Yoho." Gohmert also hinted that at least one other member would launch a challenge from within the GOP.
Bridenstine, who released a statement late Sunday referring to the rebels as a "Gang of Nine," hinted that more of his colleagues would make their opposition to Boehner public, vowing "Monday, we will be in double digits."
Jones, the North Carolina congressman, told The Washington Times that as many as 18 conservatives will look to vote against Boehner.
A Boehner spokesman said Sunday that the speaker was selected in November as the House Republican Conference's choice and that "he expects to be elected by the whole House this week."
Though Republicans have built their majority under Boehner's leadership, most of the opposition to Boehner stems from the belief among some conservative members that he caved by agreeing last month to a $1.1 trillion federal spending bill, which averted another partial government shutdown. Those members believe Boehner did not do enough to punish President Obama for sidestepping Congress over immigration reform.
“After the November elections gave Republicans control of the Senate, voters made clear they wanted change,” Gohmert said. “We were hopeful our leaders got the voters’ message. However, after our speaker forced through the (spending bill) by passing it with Democratic votes and without time to read it, it seemed clear that we needed new leadership." | 0fake |
WATCH: CNN Host Calls Out House Republicans For Refusing To Declare War On ISIS | While Republicans whine that President Obama isn t going after ISIS hard enough, a CNN host reminded them that only Congress can declare war.It s right there in Article I of the Constitution. Only Congress has the power to declare war. The president does not have that power. In order for President Obama to take on ISIS with the full resources and military strength of the Unites States, Congress must declare war.But so far, Republicans have been cowards and refused to do so, instead claiming that President Obama already has the power to go full throttle against what they claim is our most dangerous enemy today.If ISIS is such a big threat, then why not declare war?That was CNN host Chris Cuomo s question when he grilled GOP Rep. Sean Duffy on Thursday.Duffy claimed that President Obama has not done enough to defeat and destroy ISIS, including saying the magic words radical Islamic terrorism, and said that Republicans should hold a sit-in protest at the White House demanding he take more action. Our generals say we could take out ISIS in weeks if not months, Duffy declared. However, that s because there would have to be ground troops involved, which means war.Duffy claimed that President Obama is responsible for the Orlando mass shooting because he hasn t pursued ISIS enough even though airstrikes have killed thousands of ISIS fighters since the terrorist organization began their rampage across the Middle East.Cuomo replied by pointing out that Republicans in Congress have the power to help President Obama prosecute the fight against ISIS but don t want to be held responsible for sending troops into battle. I don t know what you re asking for that isn t done right now, Cuomo said. The generals do say they can take out ISIS, but we know what they re asking for: They re asking for boots on the ground. You re part of a Congress that won t even have a vote on the authorization for use of military force against ISIS. Duffy claimed that President Obama has the all the authority he needs because of the power Congress gave President Bush over ten years ago. The problem, however, is that those authorizations were to fight al-Qaeda in response to the 9/11 attacks and Congress has changed significantly since then. Most of the members serving now were not around at that time. If it matters so much, why not take control of it with the power that s yours? Cuomo asked. Duffy claimed that he would gladly do it.Cuomo slammed Duffy by noting that Republicans never give President Obama blanket power. All they do is obstruct him from doing anything, yet they have no problem with him overstepping his constitutional authority to wage war against an enemy Congress has not declared war on.Duffy then changed the subject back to guns and why we shouldn t do anything to prevent terrorists from legally buying guns to commit mass shootings.Here s the video via YouTube.To be blunt, Republicans have been looking for any reason to impeach President Obama ever since he first took office. So far, they haven t found any legitimate reason or they would have done it already. And that s why it s important to question why Republicans won t declare war and why they are demanding that President Obama do more against ISIS.If President Obama listened to Republicans and began waging war against ISIS complete with the use of thousands of ground troops, they would crucify him for overstepping the authority of Congress and violating the Constitution and the separation of powers. They would then be able to legitimately claim that President Obama abused his power and could then impeach him.That is the only logical reason why Republicans are so insistent that President Obama unilaterally go to war against ISIS. But President Obama is smarter than they are and has refused to take the bait.If Republicans really want America to do more in the fight against ISIS the answer is simple. They should use their constitutional authority to declare war instead of being cowards.Featured image via screen capture | 1real |
UK lawmakers vent anger at PM May's fragile government over welfare reform | LONDON (Reuters) - Lawmakers from Britain s ruling Conservative Party vented their anger on Wednesday against Prime Minister Theresa May s pursuit of welfare reforms, reinforcing doubts about her authority over a party divided by Brexit. Several members of May s party spoke out against the government during a symbolic debate in parliament by demanding changes or even an outright halt to the implementation of a new welfare payment system which has been dogged by design problems. May leads a minority government, propped up by a small Northern Irish party, faced with the task of delivering a smooth departure from the European Union - something which requires a deeply split parliament to approve large amounts of new legislation. The opposition Labour Party won a symbolic vote on a motion calling for the welfare plan to be paused, but May s party avoided a full blown public rebellion by ordering its lawmakers to abstain, thereby masking the extent of internal unrest. The Labour motion passed by 299 votes to zero with one Conservative rebel, but does not force the government to act. Nevertheless, Conservative lawmakers openly criticized the government s approach and demanded changes during the debate Why are we undermining a policy with the potential to change lives for the better by not addressing a fundamental flaw at its heart? said Sarah Wollaston, the only Conservative lawmaker to formally vote against the government s orders. The defeat comes as ahead of debates on Brexit legislation, which had been expected to start this week but have yet to be scheduled. Ministers are sifting through hundreds of proposed changes, some of which are backed by enough Conservative lawmakers to inflict a more damaging defeat on May s government. Labour, which wants to topple May s government and take control of the troubled Brexit process, had urged Conservative lawmakers to rebel on the welfare vote and later called the tactical abstention a sign of the government s weakness. Yet again the prime minister and the Tories (Conservatives) cannot command a majority in the House of Commons. The prime minister is in office but not in power, said Labour s welfare spokeswoman Debbie Abrahams after the vote. Welfare minister David Gauke accused the Labour Party of trying to wreck the reforms and vowed to listen to lawmakers concerns but proceed with the policy. The welfare reform, known as Universal Credit , is designed to simplify payments to claimants by consolidating six different types of state benefits into one. The policy was first implemented for a small number of claimants in 2013 under May s predecessor David Cameron, but the expansion of the program to more people has been beset by long delays and criticism that it risks harming vulnerable citizens. The government is pressing ahead with the latest phase of the program despite concerns voiced by lawmakers from all parties that claimants must wait six weeks for payment. The government says they have taken measures to stop this happening. | 0fake |
HEY CNN…REMEMBER OBAMA’S Notorious “Friday Night News Dumps” and When He REFUSED To Interrupt Golf On Martha’s Vineyard To Assess Historic Louisiana Floods? | Republican Rep. Steve King: The base is going to behind President Trump's decision to pardon Joe Arpaio https://t.co/17fLpkPgcf CNN (@CNN) August 26, 2017CNN was apoplectic about having to cover the hurricane when they had so many opportunities to manufacture news about President Trump. They published this story tonight as Hurricane Harvey was hitting the coast of Texas:3 headlines the White House hopes you ll miss as Hurricane Harvey hitsAs the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the US in more than a decade took aim at Texas, President Donald Trump s White House engaged in an age-old Washington tradition: the Friday news dump.Transgender individuals? Banned from joining the military. Convicted Sheriff Joe Arpaio? Officially pardoned. Controversial White House adviser Sebastian Gorka? Out of a white House job.All three headlines popped after 6 p.m. Friday as TV news broadcasts and websites turned their attention to Texas, where Hurricane Harvey was preparing to make landfall as a Category 4 hurricane the most powerful to hit the US since 2004.CNN probably forgot about Barack Obama s notorious Friday night news dumps Here are a few of Obama s greatest hits:From Hot Air:Isn t it funny what you can find out on Friday evening about what our executive branch does? For instance, Agence France-Presse reported last night that Barack Obama bypassed Congress to send $192 million to the Palestinian Authority, claiming that national security required the US to put money into Mahmoud Abbas pocket.Congress deliberately froze those funds, and not just because of the statehood demand through UNESCO. Hamas, a terrorist organization, reconciled with Fatah and has rejoined the PA, which means we re putting almost $200 million into the hands of a terrorist organization. The language of the Palestinian Accountability Act could not be clearer: [N]o funds available to any United States Government department or agency may be obligated or expended with respect to providing funds to the Palestinian Authority. Obama literally waived that statutory language off yesterday afternoon. From Politico:Reporters and Capitol Hill staff tracking the Solyndra saga know better than to make plans for Friday nights: That s when the Obama administration likes to dump documents requested by Congress.At least five times since last fall s bankruptcy filing and FBI raid of the California solar company, the White House and other agencies have chosen to release embarrassing emails and other materials late in the afternoon as the workweek ends a time almost guaranteed to garner the least media attention possible.From Townhall:The Obama administration Friday pulled the plug on a major program in the president s signature health overhaul law a long-term care insurance plan dogged from the beginning by doubts over its financial solvency. Targeted by congressional Republicans for repeal, the long-term care plan became the first casualty in the political and policy wars over the health care law. The program had been expected to launch in 2013. This is a victory for the American taxpayer and future generations, said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., spearheading opposition in the Senate. The administration is finally admitting (the long-term care plan) is unsustainable and cannot be implemented. While President Trump has had a very busy day today, he s clearly not so busy that he hasn t been focused on, and assessing what the federal government can do to help the victims of the hurricane this evening. Here is his latest tweet:We will remain fully engaged w/ open lines of communication as #HurricaneHarvey makes landfall. America is w/ you! @GovAbbott @FEMA @DHSgov pic.twitter.com/PryIqRxgLr Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 26, 2017Here s President Trump s tweet as the hurricane was hitting land in Texas:At the request of the Governor of Texas, I have signed the Disaster Proclamation, which unleashes the full force of government help! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 26, 2017 Where was President Obama when the most serious natural disaster happened during his 8 years in office? He was golfing on Martha s Vineyard, and refused to leave his golfing vacation to assess the situation.President Obama is stirring resentment over his refusal to interrupt his Martha s Vineyard vacation to survey the Louisiana flood the worst U.S. natural disaster since 2012 while drawing comparisons to President George W. Bush s hotly criticized response to Hurricane Katrina in the same state.Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson defended Mr. Obama at a press conference Thursday, insisting that the president is closely monitoring the situation but that he will not cut short his two-week breather in the tony Massachusetts resort. The president can t be everywhere, Mr. Johnson told reporters in Denham Springs, Louisiana.Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, backed him up, saying at the press conference that he is not complaining in any way about our federal partnership. Even so, Mr. Obama s lack of urgency is drawing unflattering parallels to the federal response in 2005, when Mr. Bush was branded as uncaring and even racist for not touching down during a flyover two days after Hurricane Katrina. Washington Times | 1real |
Egyptian billionaire denounces Saudi corruption crackdown | ROME (Reuters) - Egyptian billionaire businessman Naguib Sawiris condemned on Friday a crackdown on graft in Saudi Arabia, saying the purge had undermined the rule of law in the Kingdom and would deter investment. In unusually outspoken comments, Sawiris, a well-known business figure in North Africa and the Middle East, also accused Qatar of destabilizing the region, and said there were only a handful of Arab nations that were safe to invest in. Saudi security forces rounded up dozens of members of the country s political and business elite last month on the orders of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in what was billed as a war on rampant corruption. Sawiris, whose family s Orascom businesses have interests ranging from construction to telecommunications, said influential figures should stand up to the Crown Prince, whom he referred to as this young man . We need to tell him no . There is the rule of law and order. You have a transparent process. Where is the court? What is the evidence? Who is the judge? he told a conference in Rome, questioning the Crown Prince s motives. Are you not part of this? Where did you get your money? Didn t you do this? What is the system? he said. Prince Mohammed has said Saudi Arabia needs to modernize and has warned that without reform, the economy will sink into a crisis that could fan unrest. Critics say his purge is aimed at shoring up his own power base, which the Saudi government denies. Sawiris said everyone with a conscience should speak out, but added that many were too frightened to do so. Everyone is scared because they have interests there, they have the oil, they have the money. But you need to have a conscience. When I say this, I know I am done-for in Saudi Arabia. No more business (there). Ok, I don t care. A monthly Reuters poll published on Thursday showed Middle East fund managers had become more positive towards Saudi Arabian equities after an initial market sell-off following the launch of the anti-graft drive. But Sawiris, who is not known to have major investments in Saudi Arabia, predicted business leaders would steer clear of the country in future. I think after what happened in Saudi Arabia, no one will invest there, he said. Sawiris also took aim at Iran, accusing the country of interfering in the affairs of its neighbors. He likewise denounced Qatar, saying it was funding terror groups. Why don t they take care of the prosperity of their own people instead of financing crazy clergymen who push young men to go and kill? he said. A group of Arab nations led by Saudi Arabia and Egypt cut ties with Qatar in June, accusing it of fomenting instability. Qatar, a tiny Gulf state, has denied supporting militants. Asked where was safe to invest in the Arab world, Sawiris mentioned Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan and Sudan, but jokingly dismissed Lebanon. The problem with Lebanon is they are all sharks and they leave nothing to anyone. Only a crazy person would invest in Lebanon, he said. | 0fake |
Republicans Plan To Strangle The Supreme Court To Death In Retaliation For A Hillary Victory | Making sure that Democrats take control of the Senate just became even more important.Ever since Justice Antonin Scalia died in February, Republicans have refused to let President Obama fill the vacant seat he left behind on the Supreme Court bench. President Obama even nominated Merrick Garland, whom many consider to be a moderate who has even been praised in the past by the very Republicans who are blocking him now.There had been rumors that Republicans may approve his nomination if Hillary Clinton wins the election in order to prevent her from nominating someone more liberal to the post. But now it appears Republicans have something even more sinister in mind if they end up keeping control of the Senate in November.Arizona Senator John McCain, despite joining with his fellow Republicans to declare that the next president should get to pick the next Supreme Court Justice, has already urged Republicans to block any nominee Hillary Clinton puts forward, only to backtrack when outrage ensued over his remarks.But most Republicans think that s a good idea and want to take it even further by letting the Supreme Court die.As we all know, Supreme Court Justices may be appointed to serve for life, but they don t live forever.All of the medical technology and advances in the world are not enough to provide eternal life to humans. So even if every current Justice vows to serve till their last breath, new Justices will eventually be required to make sure the Supreme Court continues.Republicans, however, would rather the high court just disappear instead of doing their jobs by holding confirmation hearings for any of Hillary Clinton s nominees. And they seem to be getting their new playbook from Ilya Shapiro of the Cato Institute, a right-wing organization funded by the Koch brothers.Apparently, Republicans have decided that if they can t get the conservative dominated Court they want, they ll settle for destroying it entirely so that it is no longer a functioning institution. As a matter of constitutional law, the Senate is fully within its powers to let the Supreme Court die out, literally, Shapiro wrote for The Federalist on Wednesday. I simply can t blame politicians who follow their convictions, he continued. If you truly believe that a particular nominee would wreak havoc on America, why not do everything you can to stop him? So when you get past the gotcha headlines, breathless reportage, and Inauguration Day, if Hillary Clinton is president it would be completely decent, honorable, and in keeping with the Senate s constitutional duty to vote against essentially every judicial nominee she names. In other words, Republicans have no intention of letting the next president pick the next Supreme Court nominee, or any nominee for that matter, unless the next president is Donald Trump. For all their talk of letting the voters decide who gets to pick the next nominee, Republicans are making it clear that they will ignore the will of the people if they elect Hillary Clinton on November 8th and will reject every nominee she puts forward.That means the Court will drag on with only eight Justices, which will result in more cases that result in 4-4 ties that fail to settle the law, which would give red states the power to have state laws that conflict with our Constitution. Essentially, it s a way to shift power to the states by default. And it would only shift more as other Supreme Court Justice die or retire. Once the Court bench dwindles too much, the Justices will have an even harder time keeping up with the case load, which means justice will be delayed.And this strategy could even affect lower courts as well. Without courts to keep them in check, conservatives could pass any laws they desire knowing that courts will be too backed up or are nonexistent to stop them, meaning more anti-gay laws, voter suppression laws, and anti-women laws will be enacted by red state legislatures with impunity.It s an impending constitutional crisis that Republicans are orchestrating.This a dangerous interpretation of the Constitution and it runs contrary to the established precedent that has been set since America s founding. No Senate has outright refused to hold confirmation votes on any nominees put forward by a sitting president. While the Senate has voted a handful of nominees down, they ve never blocked any and all nominees picked by a president no matter how divided the executive and legislative branches are politically.But that s exactly what Republicans are planning to do if Hillary Clinton wins and they get to keep control of the Senate, which means at least two more years until Americans can flip the Senate to more reasonable lawmakers. And it could actually end up being four more years of gridlock since the party that controls the White House often suffers midterm election losses.In short, the only thing that can prevent Republicans from letting the Supreme Court whither on the vine and die is the American people in this presidential election. Republicans must NOT be allowed to keep control of the Senate. The viability, functionality, and survival of our judicial institutions depends on Democrats taking back majority control of the Senate. If voters fail to do this, it could mean the end of the Supreme Court and justice in America.Featured Image: Win McNamee/Getty Images | 1real |
Pence says 'disappointed' over Flynn, supported resignation | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said on Monday he was “disappointed” the former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn had misled him on his contacts with Russia, and supported the decision by President Donald Trump to dismiss him. “I was disappointed to learn that the facts that have been conveyed to me by General Flynn were inaccurate,” he told reporters during a visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels, adding that he “fully supported” the resignation. | 0fake |
Rep. Joe Kennedy Torches GOP Congress For Screwing Over Low-Income Kids | Last night, congressional Republicans went after healthcare for low-income kids and loans for low-income students. Through inaction, they killed the Children s Health Insurance Program, a stunningly successful program that has dropped the uninsured rate among low-income children massively over the two decades it has been active. CHIP has ensured that nine million children were insured who otherwise would not be and Republicans just let it expire.Here s more from the Los Angeles Times:Advocates for children s health started worrying months ago that congressional incompetence would jeopardize the nation s one indisputable healthcare success the Children s Health Insurance Program, which has reduced the uninsured rate among kids to 5% from 14% over the two decades of its existence.Their fears turned out to be true. Funding for CHIP runs out on Saturday, and no vote on reestablishing the program s $15-billion appropriation is expected for at least a week, probably longer. That s the case even though CHIP is one of the few federal programs that has enjoyed unalloyed bipartisan support since its inception in 1997. The consequences will be dire in many states, which will have to curtail or even shut down their children s health programs until funding is restored. Hanging in the balance is care for 9 million children and pregnant women in low-income households.What happened? The simple answer is that congressional Republicans last harebrained attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act got in the way. A funding bill for CHIP seemed to be well on its way to enactment until a week or so ago. That s when the effort to pass the egregious Cassidy-Graham repeal bill sucked all the air out of the legislative room.This is obviously an unacceptable situation, and Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-MA) isn t taking it laying down. He tweeted out an assault on GOP inaction today, helping keep people aware of the incompetence of their congressional representation:Programs GOP Congress let expire last night-healthcare for low-income kids-Community health centers-Loans for low-income college students Rep. Joe Kennedy III (@RepJoeKennedy) October 1, 2017And he wasn t the only one who is pissed, either: If you agree that this is completely unacceptable, contact your representative today and ask why they have not taken action on CHIP.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images | 1real |
FOX News Reporter: Seeing Trump Rally Crowds “How Could He Possibly Be Losing?” (VIDEO) | EndingFed News Network | Email Print Guest post by Tom Franklin at American Lookout : FOX News reporter John Roberts was with Trump in Florida yesterday. He reported on the enormous crowds welcoming Trump to St. Augustine and Tampa. For video and pictures of the crowds in St. Augustine, click here . In Tampa, there were 20,000 supporters out for Trump. All this prompted John Roberts to say,
“By looking at the crowd that you see out there, you have to wonder: How could he possibly be behind?” | 1real |
U.S. Commerce chief warns against China semiconductor investment binge | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Massive government investment in China’s semiconductor industry risks distorting the global market for integrated circuits, leading to damaging overcapacity and stifling innovation, U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker has warned. The comments come at a time of growing trade tension between the Asian giant and the United States over accusations of dumping, industrial overcapacity and a souring business climate for foreign firms doing business in China. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has threatened to levy punitive tariffs of 45 percent on imports of Chinese goods if he is elected. In a speech on Wednesday, Pritzker sharply criticized a $150-billion plan by the Chinese government to expand the share of Chinese-made integrated circuits in the domestic market to 70 percent by 2025, from 9 percent now. “Let me state the obvious: this unprecedented state-driven interference would distort the market and undermine the innovation ecosystem,” Pritzker said at the Center for Strategic Studies think-tank in Washington. That level of investment would be equivalent to half of worldwide semiconductor sales last year and result in market distortions similar to those plaguing the steel, aluminum and green technology industries, Pritzker added. “The world has seen the effects of this type of targeted, government-led interference before,” she said. “The result has been overcapacity in the global marketplace that has artificially reduced prices, cost jobs in both the United States and around the world, and caused significant damage to those industries globally,” Pritzker said. It was “imperative we take steps to prevent a similar situation from developing in the semiconductor industry,” she added. Such steps include a Commerce Department study of the global semiconductor supply chain now underway, besides engaging with China, and other governments, to persuade them to avoid policies that distort markets or spur technology transfers. “The U.S. government will make clear to China’s leaders at every opportunity that we will not accept a $150-billion industrial policy designed to appropriate this industry,” Pritzker added. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that China advocates for all countries to provide a fair and transparent investment environment. “We hope everyone can rationally view relevant trade and investment cooperation and work together to create a positive atmosphere,” she told reporters at a regular briefing when asked about Pritzker’s remarks. China’s Ministry of Commerce did respond immediately to a request for comment. Earlier on Thursday, 12 U.S. senators urged that Zhongweng International’s $2.3-billion purchase of Cleveland, Ohio-based Aleris Corp. be rejected by a national security review panel. “In addition, we are seeing new attempts by China to acquire companies and technology based on their government’s interests – not commercial objectives. And we have witnessed attempts to restrict access to China’s domestic market,” Pritzker said. The technology industry depends on a global supply chain, open and fair trade and innovation, she said, warning against government behavior that disrupts the system and distorts markets. “China’s effort to move up the value chain should be the result of healthy competition and free and fair trade, not state-directed investments aimed at distorting global markets,” Pritzker said. “In addition, no government should require technology transfer, joint-venture, or localization as a quid pro quo for market access.” | 0fake |
Conditions not ripe for role in Spain-Catalonia talks: Swiss | ZURICH (Reuters) - Neutral Switzerland is in touch with Spain and Catalonia about resolving a row over the region s moves towards independence but conditions for promoting talks are not yet ripe, the foreign ministry in Bern said on Friday. Facilitation can only be provided if both parties request it. Switzerland is in contact with both parties, but the conditions for facilitation are not in place at this stage, a spokesman said by email in response to a query. He described the situation in Catalonia as an internal Spanish political matter and said Switzerland respected the sovereignty of Spain. | 0fake |
Koreans in Japan wary of tensions with North, worry about backlash | OSAKA, Japan (Reuters) - Ethnic Koreans living in Japan are nervously watching growing tensions over North Korea and are wary of a possible backlash against their community as Pyongyang ramps up its sabre-rattling. While public antipathy towards Koreans does not appear to have escalated in reaction to the North s latest nuclear test and missile launches, the community has been the target of abuse by Japanese nationalists after similar incidents in the past. The North conducted its most powerful nuclear test ever last week, and in late August fired a ballistic missile over Hokkaido in northern Japan in a new show of force. In the western Japanese city of Osaka home to the country s largest population of ethnic Koreans few are willing to talk publicly about North Korea, and those that do have mixed views on Pyongyang s actions. Pu Kyon Ja, owner of the store selling Korean traditional clothes and a second-generation Korean resident in Japan, said she felt the North s pursuit of nuclear weapons was a natural reaction against threats from the United States. I can t say this loudly but I secretly think well done on North Korea s development of missile and nuclear capabilities, she said. North Korea is under great pressure (from the international society), which I believe should end. I m watching over the current situation with great hope, she added. On the other hand, Chung Kap-su, another second-generation Korean in the town, said he hopes North Korea stops further provocations and pursues a peaceful path by seeking dialogue with South Korea. North Korea can t defeat (the United States), so I hope it changes its way. Some 453,096 South Koreans and 32,461 North Koreans lived in Japan last year, according to government data. Many were forced to move there during Japan s occupation of the Korean peninsula before and during World War Two. Japan passed an anti-hate law last year, which may be discouraging fresh acts of abuse against the community, but the issue still bears watching, said Moon Gyeong-su, professor of ethnic Korean studies at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto. When North Korea launches missile or conducts nuclear tests, for example, Korean schools have been an easy target for bullies and accusations (in Japan), he added. | 0fake |
AMERICANS FURIOUS, Lash Out After Liberals Use Sacred WTC Site To Make Anti-Trump Statement | The One World Trade Center Twitter account announced they would be lighting the tower green in solidarity with the #ParisAgreement #OneWTC will be lit green tonight in solidarity with the #ParisAgreement @OneWTC One World Trade (@OneWTC) June 1, 2017Hundreds of people protested in Lower Manhattan and buildings were lit green in solidarity after President Trump declared Thursday that the U.S. is withdrawing from the landmark Paris climate agreement.About 400 protesters gathered at Foley Square after Trump s announcement. They held signs and chanted, What do we want? Climate justice! When do we want it? Now! The crowd marched through the streets to nearby City Hall, where they pounded drums and chanted, You can t drink oil, leave it in the soil! In a show of solidarity, Gov. Cuomo said One World Trade Center and the Kosciuszko Bridge would be lit green on Thursday night. Mayor de Blasio said City Hall would also light up green. NBCNYWatch:One World Trade Center lights up green after President Trump ditches global climate agreement https://t.co/sCHSiqP25r pic.twitter.com/M8r66YYgNM NBC New York (@NBCNewYork) June 2, 2017Twitter users responded to liberals and the liberal media who heralded the decision to use the WTC site to trash Trump. Kelly called the decision to use the WTC for international political purposes, disgusting That is disgusting using The World Trade Center for international political purposes! That is AMERICAN sacred ground. Kelly T (@ktellmemore) June 3, 2017Kelly T wasn t the only Twitter user who found the politicizing of the WTC site to be disgusting: World Trade Center people better get their act together blowout the green candle it's disgusting and if it was Blasio it makes worse.! pic.twitter.com/m7zE3pUH5C joseph e pintinalli (@1handputter) June 3, 2017Others were offended that One World Trade Center was being used as a political pawn Disgusting the WTC is sacred ground of the USA not a political pawn Michael (@mweis1964) June 3, 2017https://twitter.com/EntreAmis1000/status/870996745215295494Others mocked their hypocrisy, as they used large amounts of electricity to light the massive tower:So they lit the building up using electricity and expanding their carbon footprint?THAT WILL SHOW US!! Meier Ben Avraham (@hebrewservative) June 2, 2017That makes sense show green and waste electricity William Burrows (@wabr101) June 3, 2017 | 1real |
Gorka: ‘Things Have Changed Fundamentally’ for North Korea, Because ‘America Is Back’ | Former Breitbart News National Security Editor Dr. Sebastian Gorka, now a White House national security adviser, discussed the situation in North Korea with SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Wednesday’s Breitbart News Daily. [Gorka said that “things have changed fundamentally” in the impasse over North Korea’s nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs, “because America is back, and because you have the master of the ‘art of the deal’ as the . ” “If you just look at the statements coming out of Beijing, if you look at the decision with regards to purchasing U. S. coal over North Korean coal, things have fundamentally changed,” he said. “North Korea is probably the most Stalinist state that has ever existed, probably more Stalinist than Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union,” he elaborated. “As such, it’s simply economically unviable. As a result, it has been propped up by China for decades, but at this point after our recent decisions to act in Afghanistan and Syria, the regime in China is starting to reassess just how much it is in its national interest to maintain that client state in North Korea. That’s why this isn’t just the news, Alex. ” Gorka said the usual national security debate lacks strategic sophistication. “That’s one of the reasons I came on board with Breitbart all those years ago, because the national security debate in D. C. and in general was just sophomoric. It was either you’ve got to be a neoconservative and invade other people’s countries, or you’ve got to be Ron Paul and you’ve got to be an isolationist,” he recalled. “Well, the world’s a little bit more complicated that that,” he contended. “This president is not an interventionist, but he understands that without leadership, without America showing the way the system should work, then we have anarchy, and we have bad actors exploiting the vacuums created. Nothing’s changed about Donald J. Trump. He’s not different since before the election, as opposed to being the president. But the fact is, without leadership in the world, you have the chaos that we inherited after the last eight years. ” Marlow professed initial skepticism of the missile strike on Syria as the gateway to further intervention, but said that if it proved to be an isolated “one and done” action, it sent an important message to the world’s bad actors. Gorka said both the Syria strike and the detonation of a huge MOAB munition in Afghanistan should be understood “not simply in terms of what we did physically on that day. ” “It’s not just about 59 cruise missiles, or that bomb. It’s about the philosophy that statecraft, running the ship of state, can never be done purely based upon diplomacy and just words. If you’re not prepared to back it up with force — that doesn’t mean invading other people’s countries, but using force where necessary — then all it is, is just pieces of paper,” he said. “The president understands that all the levers of national power must be used together, if we are to secure America and the interests of American citizens. It’s much more than about that event. It’s about understanding what it takes to be America again,” said Gorka. Marlow cited Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s statement that Iran is complying with the nuclear deal, and asked if this was an indication the Trump administration would not scrap the deal, as Trump said before the election. “No, I wouldn’t go that far,” Gorka replied. “Right now it means simply that there are certain aspects of the deal that are being held to, but the deal itself, and all U. S. policy, is being reviewed right now. ” “Don’t read too much into that, because everything is on the table in terms of reviewing the JCPOA,” he advised, referring to the nuclear deal by its formal acronym. Responding to reports that the first illegal alien protected by President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program has been deported, Gorka said it was a question of reinforcing the rule of law. “We have incredibly clear language coming out of the Attorney General’s office himself, but listen to what General Kelly said as well: We have laws on the books. It is not it is not divisive to actually implement those laws and make them real. If somebody doesn’t like that, we have a republic, we have a democratic republic. Those laws need to be changed, if you can change them. But right now, they’re going to be implemented, and that applies to anybody who is an illegal alien. Looking ahead to next month’s scheduled meeting between President Trump and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Gorka expected them to discuss “all the obvious questions there are for common concerns to both countries,” including Syria, terrorism, and the Kurdish question. “There are no simple answers to any of those, but remember: if you just look at the history of the 20th Century, Turkey is a geostrategically important nation,” he said. “Geography is destiny. Look at the size of the country, look at where it is. So that meeting is an important meeting. ” Finally, with respect to Tuesday’s murders in Fresno by a man who professed to hate white people and shouted “Allahu akbar!” when he was captured, Gorka said he looks at the fact that “since the caliphate was declared by Abu Bakr in 2014, we have arrested more than 130 people linked to ISIS in America. ” “This is not a joke. There is no front line in this war. The front line is when you leave your house in the morning. Unfortunately, this threat has been allowed to expand. We are going to take it seriously, and we are going to knock it on the head,” he promised. Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. LISTEN: | 0fake |
Donald Trump, Shifting Immigration Tone, Stresses a ‘Fair’ Approach - The New York Times | Donald J. Trump, tempering the tone of his approach to immigration for a general election audience, avoided repeating his previous call for mass deportations on Monday and instead said he wants to come up with a “really fair” plan to address the millions of undocumented immigrants now in the country. The softer comments from Mr. Trump, who postponed plans to give a major immigration speech this week in Colorado, follow months of vows to build a wall along the Southern United States border with Mexico and deport immigrants who have entered the country illegally. Those proposals were a centerpiece of the platform that helped propel Mr. Trump to winning the Republican presidential nomination, and a shift would be significant. Asked on Fox News if he was on his immigration ideas, Mr. Trump insisted that he still intends to be “strong” while emphasizing the importance of fairness when it comes to immigrants who came to the United States illegally. “We want to come up with a really fair, but firm, answer,” Mr. Trump said. “It has to be firm. But we want to come up with something fair. ” Although he held back on offering specifics, Mr. Trump’s different tone could be an attempt to court moderate Republican voters disturbed by the candidate’s tough stances on immigration. His remarks come as recent polls have shown him falling behind Hillary Clinton in several swing states and struggling to appeal to minorities. The campaign has sent conflicting signals about whether Mr. Trump would actually change his proposals regarding immigration. He was expected to give a major immigration speech in Arizona, but it was moved to Colorado and planned for this Thursday. On Monday, the campaign canceled the speech without explanation and declined to discuss his latest thinking on immigration. Speaking on Monday evening at a rally in Akron, Ohio, Mr. Trump did not mention any changes in his immigration policy, but promised another of his key proposals, to build a wall on the border with Mexico. “That wall will go up so fast your head will spin,” he said as the crowd cheered. “And they’ll say: ‘You know what? He meant it.’ And you know what else I mean? Mexico is going to pay for it. ” In an evening interview with Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly, Mr. Trump insisted he was not backing down on deportations, but would be focusing on criminals. “We’re going to obey the existing laws,” he said. “The first thing we’re going to do, if and when I win, is we’re going to get rid of all of the bad ones. We’ve got gang members, we have killers, we have a lot of bad people that have to get out of this country. ” But there have been signs that Mr. Trump is preparing to publicly evolve on his immigration plans. Mr. Trump’s new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, signaled on Sunday that he has been reconsidering his approach to deportations. Pressed in an interview on CNN as to whether a deportation force was still on the table as a law enforcement measure, Ms. Conway said it was “to be determined. ” Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, a staunch ally of Mr. Trump’s who advises him on immigration policy, also acknowledged the new uncertainty, saying on CBS that Mr. Trump was “wrestling” with what to do about deportations. Speculation that Mr. Trump was wavering also grew over the weekend after he met on Saturday with his newly formed Hispanic advisory council. Univision and BuzzFeed reported that he expressed interest in finding a “humane” way to deal with undocumented immigrants that sounded at odds with his previous plan to forcibly remove them from the country. The Trump campaign denied that he was wavering. Any reversal on immigration by Mr. Trump would represent a political feat, considering he has said repeatedly that “we don’t have a country” if border laws are not enforced. During the primary campaign, Mr. Trump assailed all of his Republican rivals for being too weak on immigration. He kicked off his campaign saying that Mexico was sending criminals and rapists into the country, vowed that Mexico would pay for his planned border wall and called for the “mandatory return of all criminal aliens. ” In interviews about his immigration plans, Mr. Trump offered himself little leeway. Questioned a year ago about breaking up families, Mr. Trump said that “they have to go. ” Last November, he was explicit in his desire to deport and pointed to President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s “Operation Wetback” as an example of successfully removing people en masse. “You’re going to have a deportation force, and you’re going to do it humanely,” Mr. Trump told MSNBC at the time. “Look, we have to do what we have to do, and Ike did it and other people have done it. ” Immigration experts and independent analysts have warned that mass deportations would be costly and chaotic, but until recently, Mr. Trump has remained steadfast. A move to tone things down at this stage of the race could anger Mr. Trump’s base of supporters. Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa and one of the most conservative voices on immigration in the Republican caucus, said that he was not concerned that Mr. Trump is changing his position, given the ambiguity of his comments and the close counsel he keeps from the likes of Mr. Sessions. But he conceded that he would be troubled if Mr. Trump did change his sentiment on mass deportations, or if he were to advocate a “touchback” system in which people would return to their home country and then apply for visas to return to the United States under an expedited process. “That would concern me,” Mr. King said, saying that it would essentially convert the immigration system into a large enterprise by which people were being for entry. Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster, said that Mr. Trump’s softer language is less about a turnaround that could draw in Hispanic voters than it is an effort to woo swing voters who are turned off by the candidate’s language and proposals. “No rational person would believe that he’s actually going to do significantly better among nonwhite voters after the last 15 months,” Mr. Ayres said. “There may be a calculation that reaching out verbally makes him more acceptable to moderate Republicans and some women, perhaps. But actions speak a lot louder than words, and he has 15 months of action to overcome. ” Since reshuffling his campaign leadership last week, Mr. Trump has demonstrated a new affinity for flexibility. He has already expressed “regret” for remarks that he has made during the campaign that might have been hurtful, and he expanded his outreach to black voters. However, leading Hispanic groups said that it was too late for Mr. Trump to win their trust on immigration reform. “The fact of the matter is he can’t unring the bell,” said Javier Palomarez, the president of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. “These are the acts of a desperate candidate who knows he is going to lose. ” The Clinton campaign, meanwhile, has no plans of letting Mr. Trump’s immigration contortions go unnoticed. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, the Democratic nominee, seized on Mr. Trump’s latest remarks at a union convention on Monday in Las Vegas. He said that they were more evidence that Mr. Trump could not be trusted on the issue. “We can’t afford to be tricked by Trump,” Mr. Kaine said. “He’s saying that he’ll try to deport people in a humane way — whatever that means. It’s just wrong. ” | 0fake |
Obama, Clinton scold Trump over proposed Muslim ban | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic President Barack Obama denounced Donald Trump for his proposed U.S. ban on Muslim immigrants on Tuesday, joining Hillary Clinton in portraying the Republican presidential candidate as unfit for the White House. Clearly annoyed, Obama responded to Trump’s proposed suspension of immigration from countries with a “history of terrorism” after Sunday’s killing of 49 people in an Orlando, Florida, nightclub. Obama and Clinton, the Democrat he has endorsed to succeed him in a Nov. 8 election, made nearly simultaneous speeches. The gunman was U.S.-born Omar Mateen, 29, whose parents immigrated from Afghanistan. Trump had criticized Obama for not using the term “radical Islamic terrorism” to describe Islamic State militants. “What exactly would using this label accomplish, what exactly would it change?” Obama replied. “Someone seriously thinks we don’t know who we’re fighting? ... There’s no magic to the phrase ‘radical Islam.’ It’s a political talking point. It is not a strategy.” “Calling a threat by a different name does not make it go away. This is a political distraction,” said Obama, criticizing the “yapping” and “loose talk” he said he hears from Republicans. Obama, who canceled a joint campaign appearance with Clinton planned on Wednesday in Wisconsin due to the events in Orlando, appeared to be enjoying his role in the campaign to select his successor. He tangled with Trump in 2011, producing his birth certificate to refute Trump’s claim that the president was not born in the United States. “We now have proposals from the presumptive Republican nominee for president of the United States to bar all Muslims from immigrating to America. We hear language that singles out immigrants and suggests entire religious communities are complicit in violence,” Obama said. “Where does this stop?” On Tuesday, Trump was unrelenting in his criticism of Obama, saying in a statement that Obama “claims to know our enemy, and yet he continues to prioritize our enemy over our allies, and for that matter, the American people.” “When I am president, it will always be America first,” said Trump. Aides said Trump, who on Monday said Obama should resign for failing to handle the threat properly, would have more to say at a rally later in Greensboro, North Carolina. The crossfire overshadowed the last Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. Clinton was to meet rival Bernie Sanders late in the day with Sanders apparently inching toward ending his candidacy. Clinton, Obama’s former secretary of state, addressed supporters in Pittsburgh. The candidate said Trump’s proposal bolstered her case that he was temperamentally unfit to serve as president, saying the commander in chief “is a job that demands a calm, collected and dignified response” to events like the Orlando massacre. Clinton said Trump seemed to suggest on Monday in a television interview that Obama might have somehow been responsible for the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, a point that Trump said he did not make. “I have to ask: Will responsible Republican leaders stand up to their presumptive nominee or will they stand by his accusation about our president?” she said. The biting criticism was likely to increase the discomfort among many establishment Republican leaders about Trump with little more than a month until party figures gather in Cleveland July 18-21 to formally nominate him. House Speaker Paul Ryan, the top U.S. elected Republican who was his party’s 2012 vice presidential nominee, on Tuesday distanced himself from the proposed Muslim ban in a further sign of establishment unease with Trump’s agenda. “I do not think a Muslim ban is in our country’s interests,” said Ryan, who last year criticized Trump’s original proposal for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States. Ryan and like-minded leading Republicans have struggled to reconcile their desire to unify the party before a tough fight against Clinton while at the same time separating themselves from some of the positions and rhetoric of Trump, who defeated 16 rivals to win the presidential nomination battle. U.S. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, who sources say is among the Republicans that Trump is considering for his vice presidential nominee, said he was “discouraged” by the way the Trump campaign was going. “It wasn’t the type of speech one would expect,” Corker said of Trump’s Monday speech in New Hampshire. Trump has been resolute in demanding tighter immigration policies, and the Orlando attack has prompted him to intensify his rhetoric as he tries to win more support from Americans with deep security fears. Trump noted that Mateen’s parents were born in Afghanistan. Pointing to specific incidents such as the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, he said threats were posed by people with roots in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Somalia. Trump on Tuesday met at Trump Tower in New York with a host of Republican governors, including Oklahoma’s Mary Fallin, who a source close to the campaign said was also on Trump’s short list to be his vice presidential running mate. A Republican official said others in the meeting included the governors of Mississippi, Arizona, Arkansas, Nebraska and Tennessee, as well as New Jersey’s Chris Christie, a close Trump adviser and former presidential rival. Trump was celebrating his 70th birthday on Tuesday. Clinton is 68. | 0fake |
Elizabeth Warren Backs Hillary Clinton | Warren, a hero of progressive Democrats, is the latest party leader to fall in line behind Clinton after she clinched the requisite number of delegates earlier this week over rival Bernie Sanders.
Warren told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow tonight, "I am ready to get in this fight and work my heart out for Hillary Clinton to become the next president of the United States, and to make sure that Donald Trump never gets anyplace close to the White House."
The endorsement comes the same day that President Obama also endorsed Clinton in a video and announced he would campaign with his former 2008 rival next week.
But Warren's backing may be more politically important for Clinton than Obama's blessing. The Democratic senator, who remained neutral throughout the contest, championed many of the same economic inequality issues and Wall Street reforms Sanders drew attention to in the primary.
She said tonight the 2016 election "is not about one candidate, it's about all of us coming together coming together to fight to level the [economic] playing field."
In fact, she was urged by many progressive groups early on to challenge Clinton herself, and the "Ready for Warren" organization who tried to lay the groundwork for her run ended up endorsing Sanders.
Even though she remained on the sidelines, Warren has emerged as a fierce attack dog against presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, calling him a "nasty, thin-skinned fraud" just Thursday. He, in return, has derided her as "Pocahontas" — an allusion to a controversy that emerged during her 2012 Senate run after she had claimed Native American ancestry.
Tonight Warren said Trump had cheered for the 2007 economic crisis because he knew how to make a profit from it. "What kind of a person does that?" she asked, "an insecure money-grubber who cares about nothing but himself. ... That cannot be the man who leads the United States of America."
Warren has been floated as a possible vice presidential pick for Clinton, a choice that could help allay some concerns among progressives about the former secretary of state's nomination.
But there was immediate backlash online to Warren's anticipated nomination. Many supporters took to her Facebook page with profane comments, calling her a "sell out" for not endorsing Sanders. | 0fake |
Disney CEO says staying on Trump advisory council | LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) Chief Executive Bob Iger on Wednesday defended his seat on President Trump’s business advisory council as an opportunity to voice opinions that will benefit the company and its shareholders. Facing questions regarding his inclusion on the council at the Disney’s annual shareholders meeting, the chief executive said he had no plans to step down from the group, as some critics have urged him to do. In response to one question, Iger said he did not believe his membership “supports or endorses” Trump’s policies. Another speaker, who identified himself as a member of the Colorado People’s Alliance, said Iger’s decision to remain on the council suggests Disney “is tacitly endorsing Trump’s agenda.” Iger, however, referenced a song from the Broadway musical “Hamilton” called “The Room Where It Happens,” saying it was important to have input in a forum where policies are being shaped. “I think there is an opportunity, when you are in the room where it happens, to express opinions I believe would be in the best interest of the company and its shareholders,” he said at meeting held in Denver. Iger said he would at times express views “likely to be adversarial” to the president. Uber Technologies Inc UBER.UL Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick quit Trump’s advisory group in February amid pressure from activists and employees who opposed the administration’s immigration policies. Iger said immigration had helped Disney in many ways, citing the issue as an example of something he could address on the Trump advisory council. The United States and Disney have “benefited from an open and fair immigration policy,” Iger said. “I don’t happen to believe policies that single people out by religion are fair and just.” Iger skipped the first meeting of Trump’s advisory council in February to attend a previously scheduled board meeting. He fielded several questions on political topics at the meeting with another speaker suggesting that Disney-owned ABC News holds a liberal political bias, a charge Iger vigorously rejected. “They work very, very hard to present news in a fair way,” Iger said, adding that he did not agree the media was “an enemy of the people,” as Trump has written on Twitter. Iger said there were times the Obama administration disliked coverage by ABC News. “I am proud of the fact news can be an adversary,” Iger said. | 0fake |
CNN’S FAREED ZAKARIA Busts Out a Profanity Filled Rant Against Trump [Video] | 1real | |
15 Civilians Killed In Single US Airstrike Have Been Identified | Videos 15 Civilians Killed In Single US Airstrike Have Been Identified The rate at which civilians are being killed by American airstrikes in Afghanistan is now higher than it was in 2014 when the US was engaged in active combat operations. Photo of Hellfire missiles being loaded onto a US military Reaper drone in Afghanistan by Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson/U.S. Air Force.
The Bureau has been able to identify 15 civilians killed in a single US drone strike in Afghanistan last month – the biggest loss of civilian life in one strike since the attack on the Medecins Sans Frontieres hospital (MSF) last October.
The US claimed it had conducted a “counter-terrorism” strike against Islamic State (IS) fighters when it hit Nangarhar province with missiles on September 28. But the next day the United Nations issued an unusually rapid and strong statement saying the strike had killed 15 civilians and injured 13 others who had gathered at a house to celebrate a tribal elder’s return from a pilgrimage to Mecca.
The Bureau spoke to a man named Haji Rais who said he was the owner of the house that was targeted. He said 15 people were killed and 19 others injured, and provided their names (listed below). The Bureau was able to independently verify the identities of those who died.
Rais’ son, a headmaster at a local school, was among them. Another man, Abdul Hakim, lost three of his sons in the attack.
Rais said he had no involvement with IS and denied US claims that IS members had visited his house before the strike. He said: “I did not even speak to those sort of people on the phone let alone receiving them in my house.”
The deaths amount to the biggest confirmed loss of civilian life in a single American strike in Afghanistan since the attack on the MSF hospital in Kunduz last October, which killed at least 42 people.
The Nangarhar strike was not the only US attack to kill civilians in September. The Bureau’s data indicates that as many as 45 civilians and allied soldiers were killed in four American strikes in Afghanistan and Somalia that month.
On September 18 a pair of strikes killed eight Afghan policemen in Tarinkot, the capital of Urozgan provice. US jets reportedly hit a police checkpoint, killing one officer, before returning to target first responders. The use of this tactic – known as a “double-tap” strike – is controversial because they often hit civilian rescuers.
The US told the Bureau it had conducted the strike against individuals firing on and posing a threat to Afghan forces. The email did not directly address the allegations of Afghan policemen being killed.
At the end of the month in Somalia, citizens burnt US flags on the streets of the north-central city of Galcayo after it emerged a drone attack may have unintentionally killed 22 Somali soldiers and civilians. The strike occurred on the same day as the one in Nangarhar.
In both the Somali and Afghan incidents, the US at first denied that any non-combatants had been killed. It is now investigating both the strikes in Nangarhar and Galcayo.
The rate at which civilians are being killed by American airstrikes in Afghanistan is now higher than it was in 2014 when the US was engaged in active combat operations. Name | 1real |
WATCH This WWII Vet Shame Trump To Hell And Back For Insulting POWs And The Military | When Trump insulted John McCain for having been captured in Vietnam by saying, He s not a war hero. He s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren t captured, okay? he insulted and hurt our entire military, and he especially hurt former POWs. He showed no respect for the military whatsoever during that interview.Nobody, except maybe Trump, can deny that being a POW is a harrowing and very traumatic experience. Many, many vets never recover from it, even if they have access to the best help available. Joel Sollender, who served in the U.S. Army in WWII and was captured by the Nazis in 1944, is not thrilled with Trump at all, to put it very mildly. This is what his experience as a prisoner of the Nazis was like: It was mainly hunger and cold, and worrying whether the Germans were going to hurt us again My war is 70 years ago, and yesterday. Watch the whole emotional, powerful video below (and have some tissues ready):On National Prisoners of War Remembrance Day, a POW shares what it means when Trump insults veterans. pic.twitter.com/0dVB5B0gbC Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 16, 2016POWs never stop fighting the war (hell, many vets in general never stop fighting the war), and Sollender s tears during this video prove that beyond doubt. For Trump to insult John McCain because he was a POW was for him to slam a knife into the minds, hearts and souls of every POW we ve ever had.Sollender s tears, and his heartfelt statement, are why Trump ought to be ashamed of himself for what he s said and done with the military. It s not just the statement about McCain. It s also his comparing his sexual conquests to serving in Vietnam (really?!), and saying being sent to a wealthy boarding school makes him feel like he served. He repeatedly attacked a Gold Star family. He got multiple draft deferments during Vietnam. He thinks he can speak to what all those servicemembers experienced because he s slept around and been to a military boarding school?All of that is a hard whack across the face with a two-by-four.Someone who wants to be President of the United States has to have a lot more respect than this. Trump has less than none it is, and always will be, about his own self-aggrandizement.Featured image via screen capture from embedded video | 1real |
White Supremacists Are THRILLED About Trump Picking Racist Jeff Sessions For Attorney General | If Republicans vote to confirm Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, they can never again distance themselves from white nationalism.Because as soon as many prominent white nationalist heard the news that Donald Trump picked Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, they celebrated and bragged that Sessions will turn the Justice Department into an anti-black institution.KKK Grand Wizard David Duke is very happy about Trump s selection, writing on Twitter that Sessions will end what he calls institutional race discrimination against whites. Bannon, Flynn, Sessions Great! Senate must demand that Sessions as AG stop the massive institutional race discrimination against whites! David Duke (@DrDavidDuke) November 18, 2016Duke also praised the choice on his radio show and giddily expressed his excitement that the Jewish-dominated media will hate Sessions.Neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer editor Andrew Anglin also celebrated the pick, remarking that It s like Christmas, before bragging about it by calling it a corrective measure because President Obama picked African-American attorneys to be Attorney General.Honestly, I didn t even expect this to all come together so beautifully. It s like we re going to get absolutely everything we wanted.Of course, I was thinking of Sessions for either Secretary of State or Defense, but I think Trump is making a point by putting an aggressive anti-Black racist in as AG. It s a corrective measure, after Obama turned the Justice Department into the Black Panthers.White nationalist radio host James Edwards and white nationalist write Brad Griffin also celebrated the picks, with Edwards remarking that Trump s picks are close to who he would have picked while Griffin said it feels like Christmas.Seriously, if you ever needed any more proof that Jeff Sessions being Attorney General is a bad idea, this is it. And there s a reason why these racists love Sessions. It s because Sessions is a racist himself who once praised the KKK and called the NAACP un-American. Sessions would have the power to fundamentally transform the Justice Department into a racist organization that turns its back on civil rights. Sessions could also direct the department to ignore voting rights and civil rights violations, allowing racists to discriminate at will as if segregation never ended. He would set civil rights back for years to the point where we might as well rename the Justice Department the Injustice Department, because that s exactly what it will be under Sessions.Featured Image: Houston Chronicle | 1real |
Celebrities Line Up Hoping to Be Pardoned by Obama Before He Leaves Office | Monday, 14 November 2016 Obama thinking about where he will live if Trump deports him.
Washington, DC It has long been a tradition for U.S. Presidents leaving office to pardon people. President Clinton pardoned 140 in the last days of his office.
Some of the celebrities requesting meetings with Obama, besides the obvious like O.J. Simpson and Phil Spector, are Jared Fogle, Sirhan Sirhan, Charles Manson, and Bernie Madoff.
Probably the most bizarre was Bill Cosby. Legal staff members for Obama informed Cosby that Obama couldn't pardon Cosby because he hadn't been found guilty of anything yet.
"What if I bibbly bob say I boo-hoosy DID put my doggone White Owly cigar in her Jello Pudding Popsy? Can I get a bipsy pipsy pardonski then?" asked Cosby.
Obama has not made any pardons yet because he has been gathering evidence he was born in the U.S. so he won't get deported once Trump is President. Make Al N.'s day - give this story five thumbs-up (there's no need to register , the thumbs are just down there!) | 1real |
'Fully committed' NATO backs new U.S. approach on Afghanistan | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO allies on Tuesday welcomed President Donald Trump’s decision to commit more forces to Afghanistan, as part of a new U.S. strategy he said would require more troops and funding from America’s partners. Having run for the White House last year on a pledge to withdraw swiftly from Afghanistan, Trump reversed course on Monday and promised a stepped-up military campaign against Taliban insurgents, saying: “Our troops will fight to win”. U.S. officials said he had signed off on plans to send about 4,000 more U.S. troops to add to the roughly 8,400 now deployed in Afghanistan. But his speech did not define benchmarks for successfully ending the war that began with the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and which he acknowledged had required an “extraordinary sacrifice of blood and treasure”. “We will ask our NATO allies and global partners to support our new strategy, with additional troops and funding increases in line with our own. We are confident they will,” Trump said. That comment signaled he would further increase pressure on U.S. partners who have already been jolted by his repeated demands to step up their contributions to NATO and his description of the alliance as “obsolete” - even though, since taking office, he has said this is no longer the case. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement: “NATO remains fully committed to Afghanistan and I am looking forward to discussing the way ahead with (Defense) Secretary (James) Mattis and our Allies and international partners.” NATO has 12,000 troops in Afghanistan, and 15 countries have pledged more, Stoltenberg said. Britain, a leading NATO member, called the U.S. commitment “very welcome”. “In my call with Secretary Mattis yesterday we agreed that despite the challenges, we have to stay the course in Afghanistan to help build up its fragile democracy and reduce the terrorist threat to the West,” Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said. Germany, which has borne the brunt of Trump’s criticism over the scale of its defense spending, also welcomed the new U.S. plan. “Our continued commitment is necessary on the path to stabilizing the country,” a government spokeswoman said. In June, European allies had already pledged more troops but had not given details on numbers, waiting for the Trump administration to outline its strategy for the region.Nearly 16 years after the U.S.-led invasion - a response to the Sept. 11 attacks which were planned by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden from Afghanistan - the country is still struggling with weak central government and a Taliban insurgency. Trump said he shared the frustration of the American people who were “weary of war without victory”, but a hasty withdrawal would create a vacuum for groups like Islamic State and al Qaeda to fill. | 0fake |
Democrat Mayor Proclaims He’s Barring Trump From Entering St Petersburg | We can all breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that the only reason for the mayor s ridiculous tweet is partisan politics. Could you imagine if a Mayor of any major (or even minor) city barred Obama from their city during his Presidential bid? Racist wouldn t have been a strong enough word I am hereby barring Donald Trump from entering St. Petersburg until we fully understand the dangerous threat posed by all Trumps. Rick Kriseman (@Kriseman) December 8, 2015Based on the latest polls, St. Petersburg, FL mayor, Rick Kriseman may want to re-think his decision, since it appears not everyone in Florida agrees with him: | 1real |
Holiday Movies to See (or Skip) - The New York Times | Make your movie list, check it twice and master your multiplex. Below, we’ve sifted through the many movie options this season to give you a few ideas on what to go see (and what to avoid) over the holidays. For Families With Young Kids This funny jukebox musical has elephants and porcupines belting out the latest pop songs in total “American Idol” style. It is likely to keep the young ones engaged. And that pig in the track suit singing Lady Gaga should make audiences of all ages giggle. In his New York Times review, Glenn Kenny called it “relentlessly amiable. ” For Families With Older Kids This one is not a tough sell. If they haven’t seen it yet, your kids are probably eager to check out the first movie in this franchise. Since it opened last week, it has been pleasing longtime “Star Wars” fans and helping generate new ones (despite a highly unfavorable review from The Times’s A. O. Scott). It doesn’t shy away from intensity, yet delivers the action and thrills you’d expect to find in this galaxy far, far away. For an Evening With Friends You’ll probably not want to venture out with the family to this dark thriller, but if you’re looking for a movie that will appeal to you and your friends, this film — part pulpy thriller and part contemplative drama — will be of interest. Tom Ford directed, and Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal star. In her review, Manohla Dargis wrote that the film contains “moments of pleasure. ” For an Afternoon With Grandma This uplifting historical drama focuses on the female mathematicians in the NASA space program who were integral in helping John Glenn become the first American to orbit the Earth. Funny, rousing and poignant, it’s kind of film that multiple generations will value. In his review, A. O. Scott wrote, “There is something to be said for a tale with a clear moral and a satisfying emotional payoff. ” For a Reminder of How Much Family Matters Bring the tissues. This harrowing drama is based on the true story of a boy who gets separated from his family and very, very lost. His emotional search years later for his family will make you want to cling a little more tightly to yours. “If you have ever been a child, raised a child, lost a child or met a child — or a mother — this movie will wreck you,” A. O. Scott wrote in his review. For Couples It has Oscar buzz. It has critical love. (A. O. Scott said it “succeeds both as a fizzy fantasy and a fable. ”) But at the end of the day, it’s just plain entertainment: a ’ ’ tale of romance that should make for a fine night out with the one you love. Movies to Watch at Your Own Risk Your heart may have been warmed in the past by Will Smith holiday films like “The Pursuit of Happyness. ” But based on what the critics are saying so far, this one is more like “Seven Pounds. ” With a Rotten Tomato certification currently in the teens, this drama about a man who can’t cope with a family tragedy had our reviewer Manohla Dargis calling it a “waste of talent and time. ” Jennifer Lawrence. Chris Pratt. What could go wrong? According to the critics who have been weighing in on this space romance, a lot. If you’re drawn to the charisma of the leads, understandable, but be forewarned that much ink has been spilled on the problems with the film’s narrative. Our critic Stephen Holden writes that in the end, it “becomes a banal, formulaic pastiche of dozens of other space operas. ” | 0fake |
Donald Trump's year of tweeting dangerously | Killing Obama administration rules, dismantling Obamacare and pushing through tax reform are on the early to-do list. | 0fake |
White House counterterrorism adviser Rand Beers to retire | This post has been updated.
Veteran counterterrorism official Rand Beers is leaving the White House.
Beers has served as deputy assistant to the president for homeland security since January 2014. He will be replaced by Amy Pope.
"Rand Beers has been at the forefront of some of the most challenging national security issues we face," Lisa Monaco, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, said in a statement.
"From critical infrastructure protection to cybersecurity, to pandemic preparedness, and border security, and to advancing our security relationships with critical North American partners, Rand has provided indispensable counsel to me, as well as to the President and his broader national security team," she said.
Beers came to the White House from the Department of Homeland Security, where he was acting director from September 2013 to January 2014. Beers spent more than four years as the department's undersecretary for the National Programs and Protectorate Directorate, where he was responsible for protecting computer networks, communications programs and physical infrastructure.
Beers served as a Marine Corps officer and rifle commander in Vietnam from 1964 to 1968. He joined the foreign service and spent most of his career at the State Department.
"The United States has had a remarkable public servant in Rand, and there are many serving today across the government who have benefited from his judgment and mentorship," Monaco said. "As Rand prepares to retire, I wish him well and extend my sincere gratitude for his decades of service."
National Security Adviser Susan Rice said Beers is the "epitome of a selfless, skilled, dedicated public servant" who has "given so much to his country as well as to his colleagues" from his military service to time in government.
"I count myself lucky to have been among those who have worked closely with—and learned a great deal from—Randy over many years. I will sorely miss his wise counsel," Rice said.
Pope came to the White House from the Justice Department in 2012 and has served as Special Assistant to the President and the National Security Council’s Senior Director for Transborder Security. According to the White House she advised on issues including human trafficking and combatting the threat from foreign terrorist fighters.
As Congressional Republicans disagree on how to fund the Department of Homeland Security, whose capital runs out at the end of the month, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said it is "pretty irresponsible for Republicans in Congress to be playing politics with the budget of the Department of Homeland Security." Earnest added that Republicans had "painted themselves into a corner" and said that "it is time for Republicans to set aside politics." | 0fake |
Trump Supporter Unleashes EXPLOSIVE Racism On Hispanic Family At JCPenney (VIDEO) | Now that Trump is officially going to be the next President of the United States, his supporters are unapologetically displaying his hateful, divisive rhetoric in their everyday actions. On Tuesday, a woman in Louisville, Kentucky showed everyone how to perfectly follow Trump s racist example when she unleashed a racist tirade on a pair of Hispanic women in JCPenney.Video footage of this incident was filmed by Renee Buckner, who witnessed the event and was completely disgusted. She wrote: This Hispanic lady was purchasing items and the transaction was almost complete, then her friend brings up some shirts to be added to her purchase instead of getting in line. And this lady went off!!! In the video, a senior woman had mistakenly though that one of the Hispanic women had cut her in line, and she couldn t control her white privilege and racism. Pointing to the end of the line, the older white woman said: It starts back there. And it don t bother me if I say it and I don t care if everybody hears me. I think everybody here probably feels the same damn way I do. The Hispanic woman hadn t cut her at all she was merely adding to the other woman s purchase but the Trump supporter was already on a roll. She said: Just go back wherever the f*ck you came from. Turning to the cashier, the woman said: Hey! Tell em to go back where they belong. You know, they come here to live and they act like they re everybody else. Get in the back of the line like everybody else does. Then she directed her hatred right back to the Hispanic women as they tried to remain calm and ignore the blatant bigotry being directed at them. The older woman continued to hurl abusive language at them: You re a nobody. Just because you come from another country, it don t make you nobody! Nobody, as far as I m concerned. You re probably on welfare, the taxpayers probably paid for all that stuff. Speak English, this is America! If you don t know it, learn it. What this woman did is disgusting and humiliating to anyone who was once proud to call themselves an American before Trump began unraveling the country. You can watch this Trump supporter spread hate below:Featured image is a screenshot | 1real |
Cuba’s Raul Castro meets with U.S. Chamber of Commerce president | HAVANA (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce met with Cuban President Raul Castro and in separate meetings with members of Castro’s economic cabinet on Friday, as they prepare for the advent of a more hostile Trump administration next week. The chamber has been urging the Cuban government to sign a number of agreements with major companies such as General Electric (GE.N), negotiated over the last 18 months, before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20. A brief government statement said chamber President Thomas Donohue and Castro discussed “issues of mutual interest.” “The goal of the U.S. business community has shifted from seeking more from Cuba to preserving what exists from the soon-to-be Trump administration,” John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, said. “U.S. companies need the Cuban government to quickly and substantially expand its purchases of products and services and permit a highly visible presence of companies,” he said. Donohue was accompanied by Maurice Greenberg, chairman and chief executive officer of C.V. Starr & Co Inc, a major U.S. insurance company. The chamber has opposed the U.S. trade embargo for decades and is a strong supporter of the normalization process begun by President Barack Obama. That process has included the signing of 17 agreements between the two former Cold War foes and the use of executive orders to punch holes in the embargo, which can be lifted only by the U.S. Congress, now controlled by Republicans. Travel to the Communist-run Caribbean island from the United States has increased, with the start of direct flights and cruises and roaming agreements signed, but there have been no manufacturing or trade deals inked. Cuba and the Obama administration have been scrambling to deepen and cement their detente, through bilateral agreements and commercial links, since Trump’s election in November. Cuba agreed earlier this month to export charcoal to the United States, the first export in half a century, and in December Google (GOOGL.O) reached an agreement to place servers on the island to quicken access to its products. Trump has said he will dismantle the still-fragile detente unless Cuba gives the United States a better deal, while providing no specifics. Trump is expected to review Cuba policy upon taking office and has named Jason Greenblatt, a Trump Organization executive and chief legal counsel, as negotiator for sensitive international issues, including Cuba. | 0fake |
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