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EXCLUSIVE – Juanita Broaddrick Slams Madonna, ‘Fake News’ Women’s March - Breitbart | Juanita Broaddrick, the woman who accused Bill Clinton of raping her twice in a hotel room in 1978, slammed Madonna and other celebrities for leading a women’s march against Donald Trump yesterday while ignoring the plight of Clinton’s female sexual assault accusers during the presidential election. [Broaddrick, who charged that Hillary Clinton tried to silence her about the alleged rape, further labeled yesterday’s women’s march “just more a part of the fake news that they are trying to perpetuate. ” “And their rhetoric,” added Broaddrick. “They are so disappointing. ” She was speaking on this reporter’s Sunday talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio,” broadcast in New York’s AM 970 The Answer and NewsTalk 990 AM in Philadelphia. Regarding Madonna, who delivered a speech at yesterday’s event, Broaddrick stated: “I could never take her seriously. She, or when Meryl Streep spoke out. I could never take any of them seriously. Because they did not take us seriously. ” Continued Broaddrick: “None of these women have ever stood up for the women who were abused and raped by Bill Clinton. We’ve never gotten any support. I do not understand it. I mean, you don’t support an evil candidate just because she is a woman. And to me that is all this amounts to, Aaron. Is their candidate who was absolutely corrupt lost to Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump is the only one that stood up for us. … ”It’s unbelievable. That they didn’t come out for the women that were against their candidate. The women that were abused by Bill Clinton. It’s still unbelievable. If it weren’t so sad it is almost laughable. I don’t understand why they do not support us. I don’t understand it. ” Time reported on Madonna’s speech at the women’s march: “To our detractors that insist that this march will never add up to anything, f — you,” Madonna said. The singer said the expletive three times during her speech at the march, saying it took “this horrific moment of darkness to wake the f — k up. ” The “Vogue” singer said marginalized communities would be under threat during the Trump administration, which is why hundreds of thousands of women took to the streets in protest. “Yes I am outraged,” she said. “Yes I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House, but I know that this won’t change anything. We cannot fall into despair. ” The mission statement for yesterday’s march claims that the gathering is meant to send a message “that women’s rights are human rights” and pledges to fight against those who have demonized “survivors of sexual assault. ” Last October, Breitbart News released an exclusive video interview in which Broaddrick recounted what she described as the experience of being raped by Clinton. The YouTube video has since garnered over one million views. Watch it here: In another Breitbart News exclusive video, Broaddrick recounted an alleged encounter with Hillary Clinton in which Broaddrick says the future presidential candidate attempted to intimidate her into being silent about the alleged rapes. Broaddrick said she believed that Hillary Clinton knew that her husband had raped her during their encounter. Watch that video here: Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio. ” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook. | 0fake |
“GET ANGRY”: HOW OBAMA’S “Purple Army” Is Teaming Up With Illegal Aliens To Steal The Vote In 2016 | The Democrats will stop at nothing to win this election. They didn t fight so hard to let millions of illegals cross our borders because they were feeling especially compassionate. They don t do anything without an ulterior motive stealing the vote is their ulterior motive The Service Employees International Union is teaming up with four Latino advocacy organizations and a key House Democrat to convert as many of the 5 million Latino permanent residents into U.S. citizens and voters as possible before Election Day.Leading the charge is Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., who said Thursday that he believes the stand up to hate push can get 1 million of those Latinos naturalized by May, which would see them become citizens in time to register for the presidential election.The campaign s mantra is Naturalize. Register. Vote. Gutierrez advised Latinos to get angry over the anti-immigrant rhetoric emanating from Republican presidential candidates then naturalize, register and vote. Can you believe calling all Mexicans rapists? he asked during a conference call announcing the New American Democracy Campaign, referring to controversial comments made by real estate mogul and former reality TV star Donald Trump. Banning all people of one religion from the United States? There s nothing the groups can do to speed up the naturalization process, but the initiative is aimed at making sure the millions of legal permanent residents trade in their green cards for citizenship.Gutierrez said he s excited to travel across the country, starting in his hometown of Chicago, to attend as many of the nearly 100 naturalization seminars that the collaborating organizations are putting on. He also plans to hit Colorado, Florida and Nevada, among other states with significant Latino populations.The groups involved are: iAmerica Action, Latino Victory Foundation, Mi Familia Vota, National Partnership for New Americans, and the SEIU. Via: Washington Examiner | 1real |
Peace Prize President Obama Approved $200 Billion in Arms Deals Since 2009 | 21st Century Wire says The military industrial complex has been a huge winner under Obama.Watch a video of this report here:The US is in control of over half of the world s arms industry, with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Iraq, and Israel as its five biggest customers.The second largest arms exporter is Russia, but they only hold a 14% share of the global market.The industry has benefitted immensely from the administration of Nobel Peace Prize Winner Obama, as around $200 billion worth of deals have been signed during his tenure in the Whitehouse.The deals have sent Apache attack helicopters to Qatar, cluster munitions and bunker busters to Saudi Arabia, and Hellfire Missiles to countries all over the world.The Obama administration succumbed to a $170 million lobbying campaign by the arms industry to relax arms export controls in 2013, and is now looking to relax restrictions on exports to Vietnam and even Libya.Yes, the same Libya that the US, along with its NATO allies, turned into a failed state just a few short years ago.An arms industry executive, speaking to Reuters, even openly admits that the rise of ISIS has been great for business: Everyone in the region is talking about building up supplies for five to ten years. This is going to be a long fight. It s a huge growth area for us. We might, perhaps, understand this as a legitimate phenomenon, if it was not for the fact that it was the US who created and supported the terrorist group, initially under the guise of moderate rebels , throughout Syria.This is just more proof that the military industrial complex is the only winner to emerge from increased global conflict.How might foreign policy decisions be different if they were not influenced by the arms industry?THE RISE OF THE ARMS INDUSTRY: 21st Century Wire Military Industrial Complex Files | 1real |
New Jersey's Murphy echoes Sanders in Democratic bid for governor | EDISON, N.J. (Reuters) - Phil Murphy, a wealthy former Goldman Sachs investment banker, might seem an unlikely champion of the working and middle classes. But New Jersey’s Democratic candidate for governor, who leads Republican Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno by double digits in polls, has pushed to increase taxes for corporations and the rich to pay for a plethora of populist policy proposals: tuition-free community college, increased school funding and tax credits for families. His race, one of two gubernatorial campaigns in 2017, offers an early opportunity ahead of next year’s bonanza of congressional and governor’s races for Democrats to weigh how to win in the era of Republican President Donald Trump. With Republican Governor Chris Christie’s record-low approval ratings dragging down Guadagno’s campaign, Murphy, a 60-year-old who has never held office, has pushed a decidedly liberal agenda that would put his state at the center of his party’s resistance to the president’s policies. “A lot of people assumed that after the Democratic primary was over, he would pivot more to the center - we haven’t seen that happen,” said Brigid Callahan Harrison, a political science professor at Montclair State University in New Jersey. Guadagno, 58, portrays Murphy as an elitist millionaire - he has spent more than $16 million of his money on his run - and said he has no plan to finance his lofty goals. “I will lower your taxes, and Phil Murphy will raise them,” she said last week at the close of their final debate. Murphy’s stance reflects the national party’s leftward shift, following Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ insurgent primary campaign last year against eventual presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Like Sanders, Murphy has focused his message on a “fairer” economy, vowing to help the middle, not the moneyed, class. He highlights his working-class childhood as proof he understands financial struggle. He has backed a $15 minimum wage, proposed a public bank to provide low-interest loans to residents and promised to force “corporations, hedge funds and the wealthiest among us” to pay their fair share. “He seems like a hardworking guy who can relate to hardworking guys,” said Ed Coryell Jr., a carpenter who attended a union rally in Edison for Murphy earlier this month. “We look for people who are going to create jobs for our members.” Murphy also has woven more traditional Democratic social issues into his campaign, even as he embraces liberal causes such as legalizing marijuana. “Progressive means a lot of things, but I promise you it means at least three things,” Murphy said at a rally on Thursday with former President Barack Obama, under whom he served as ambassador to Germany from 2009 to 2013. “We will fund Planned Parenthood again,” he said. “We will sign sensible gun safety laws to keep our communities safe. And we will do something about climate change.” Most notably, Murphy has said he would extend protections for illegal immigrants, turning New Jersey into a “sanctuary state.” Guadagno seized on that issue, airing a television commercial that said Murphy “will have the backs of deranged murderers.” “Phil Murphy is even to the left of Bernie Sanders,” Guadagno campaign spokesman Ricky Diaz said. “Phil Murphy is out of touch with middle class families who want to make the state safer and more affordable.” Though he has run to the left, Murphy has strong backing from the Democratic establishment, with Obama, Clinton and former vice presidents Joe Biden and Al Gore all campaigning with him this month. By contrast, Guadagno, who is trailing badly in fundraising, has received minimal support from national Republican leaders. There is little question that Murphy’s liberal positions have been buoyed by the headwinds Guadagno faces, given Christie’s and Trump’s statewide unpopularity. That could mean Murphy’s campaign is not a perfect blueprint for other Democratic candidates, some analysts said. “I think a lot of people will turn to New Jersey and say, ‘Democrats have to go progressive,’” said Matthew Hale, a political science professor at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. “But I would be very wary of Democrats trying to take a page out of the Phil Murphy playbook in any other place.” | 0fake |
Judge Jeanine: Comey ’Addicted to Drama,’ Downfall Was His ’Hubris’ - Breitbart | In her Saturday “Opening Statement” on Fox News Channel’s “Justice,” Jeanine Pirro reacted to former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Pirro said Comey is “addicted to drama and center stage,” adding that his downfall was his “hubris. ” “[O]ne thing never leaked [was] that Donald Trump was never under investigation,” Pirro stated. “Why refuse to say the president is not under investigation? You say because maybe one day he will be? That’s your response? Maybe one day Martians will take a seat on the United States Supreme Court. Could it be, Jim that being a team player is not in your DNA, that only center stage will do for you? And you’re pretty damn wily when asked if an FBI agent has a duty to report a crime. ” She went on to say, “Jim, you are a political operative, you always have been. One that’s addicted to drama and center stage. But, like the main character in all Greek tragedies, your downfall is a consequence of a tragic fall, a major weakness your hubris. ” Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent | 0fake |
Turkey seeks arrest of ex-CIA officer over suspected coup links: Hurriyet | ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish authorities have issued an arrest warrant for a former officer of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) over suspected links to last year s failed coup, the Hurriyet daily said on Friday, in a further blow to troubled U.S.-Turkey ties. The Istanbul prosecutor s office is seeking the detention of Graham Fuller, former vice chairman of the National Intelligence Council and CIA officer in Turkey, on suspicion that he helped to plan the July 2016 coup attempt, Hurriyet said. It said prosecutors had also issued an arrest warrant for Henri Barkey, a prominent Turkey scholar based in the United States, on suspicion of involvement in planning the coup. The Istanbul prosecutor s office declined to comment on the matter. Neither Fuller nor Barkey could immediately be reached for comment. The arrest warrants, if confirmed, will put further strain on relations between NATO allies Turkey and the United States, already at loggerheads over a wide range of issues. Hurriyet said Turkish authorities believed Fuller had left Turkey after the abortive coup, in which rogue soldiers commandeered tanks and helicopters in an attempt to oust President Tayyip Erdogan and his government. It said the warrant marked the first time that Turkish authorities have been able to confirm Fuller s whereabouts before and after the putsch. Erdogan accuses U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his supporters of organizing the coup, in which more than 250 people were killed. Gulen, a former ally of Erdogan, has condemned the coup and denies any involvement. Turkey has asked the United States to extradite Gulen for trial but U.S. officials say it has failed to provide sufficient evidence to justify such a move, infuriating Erdogan. Turkish authorities have shut down businesses, media outlets and schools belonging to Gulen and have sacked or suspended some 150,000 people including soldiers, journalists, academics and judges over their possible links to his network. Nearly 50,000 people suspected of involvement in the coup have been jailed. Human rights groups and some Western politicians have accused Erdogan of using the crackdown to muzzle dissent in Turkey, but the government says the purges are necessary due to the gravity of the security threats it faces. | 0fake |
WHAT HAPPENED? In 2014, Quebec tried to pass a Charter that would have banned all religious attire in public, specifically to prevent Muslim women from hiding their faces | BNI Store Nov 6 2016 That was then… Sadly, this is now: Quebec seems to have done a 180 and is considering allowing Muslim women to wear the most offensive, most oppressive, and most potentially dangerous (terrorists often dress in burqas to hide bombs) kind of clothing of all – big black garbage bags that cover everything but the eyes. Is Canada trying to become Sweden? All these leftist idiots preaching diversity should go around the world and see what a lack of white people has done for the 3rd world. This is nothing more than white genocide, perpetrated by those in power, who want a population they can easily control and enslave…like Islam. | 1real |
McConnell Just ADMITTED The NRA Must Approve Next Supreme Court Justice (VIDEO) | We could already make the assumption that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was making decisions off what the lobbyists in his back pocket are telling him to do, but now it has been confirmed, and in the worst way imaginable.McConnell is literally holding up the confirmation of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court because the NRA doesn t want him. He s keeping one of three branches of government from functioning as it should, because he wants to please the gun lobby over working for the American people.McConnell told Fox News: I can t imagine that a Republican majority in the United States Senate would want to confirm in a lame duck session a nominee opposed by the National Rifle Association, the National Federation of Independent Business that represents small businesses that have never taken a position on a Supreme Court appointment before. They re opposed to this guy. I can t imagine that a Republican majority Senate, even if it were soon to be minority, would want to confirm a judge that would move the court dramatically to the left. That s not gonna happen. This is just absolutely unacceptable, and hopefully McConnell is right. Hopefully the Republicans in the Senate will soon be the minority, and we can actually get Congress working for the people again, and not just for the lobbyists with the most money.Watch McConnell bow to the NRA here.Not @TheOnion Mitch McConnell told Fox News that the NRA must approve of the next Supreme Court justice. pic.twitter.com/3sl397RXZR Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) July 6, 2016Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
House leader McCarthy suggested Trump on Putin payroll: Washington Post | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A leading Republican in the U.S. Congress in June 2016 made a quip during a private meeting of fellow lawmakers that Russian President Vladimir Putin could be making payments to Donald Trump, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday. House of Representatives Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy made the assertion, the newspaper reported, saying the conversation was recorded last June, during the primary election season when Trump was seeking to become the Republican Party’s presidential nominee. According to the Washington Post report, House Speaker Paul Ryan, a fellow Republican, interrupted McCarthy and urged Republicans present to keep McCarthy’s remarks secret. The newspaper report quoted McCarthy saying, “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump.” McCarthy fired back at the report on Twitter on Wednesday, saying, “This was an attempt at humor gone wrong.” A spokesman for Ryan said the remarks were meant as humor and had been taken out of context. “This entire year-old exchange was clearly an attempt at humor. No one believed the majority leader was seriously asserting that Donald Trump or any of our members were being paid by the Russians,” Ryan spokesman Brendan Buck said. Republican Representative Dana Rohrabacher on Wednesday told reporters that McCarthy’s quip was a joke. “The trouble is, when you ever try to be funny, it is really taken seriously by a third party, and that’s what’s happened here,” he said. Reuters does not have a copy of the tape and could not confirm authenticity or gauge whether McCarthy was joking. | 0fake |
Spain's Rajoy rules out national election after Catalonia upset | MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Friday ruled out calling a national election after Catalan separatists won a regional vote, thwarting his bid to resolve the country s biggest political crisis in decades. Rajoy had gambled on unionist parties taking control of Catalonia s regional government, which he sacked in October for illegally pursuing independence from Spain. Rajoy, speaking at a news conference, said he would make an effort to hold talks with the new Catalan government. However, he did not clarify whether he would be willing to meet deposed Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, who is in self-imposed exile in Brussels and whose party retained its position as the largest separatist force. | 0fake |
Trump Convention Delegate Just Indicted On Serious Federal Charges, Including Child Abuse | The Trump presidential campaign has already faced a rocky road to the nomination, including the now-defused threat of a contested convention, as well as widespread rejection of the nominee from the party elite (he has had the support of the rank-and-file).Now a stomach-turning criminal charge has surfaced.A Donald Trump delegate headed to the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland has instead been indicted on serious charges.A Donald Trump delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention has been indicted in Maryland on federal charges that include using a minor to make child pornography, illegal possession of a machine gun and illegal transport of explosives.Caleb Andrew Bailey, 30, from Waldorf, Maryland, was indicted late Wednesday, according to a release from the Department of Justice.Bailey was listed on the Maryland Secretary of State website as an elected Trump delegate to the party meeting.The Justice Department said he allegedly tried to send ammunition and weapons through the mail to someone in Wisconsin. When they searched his home they found a machine gun. In the indictment that came down, the Department said Bailey attempted to use and did use a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct to produce child pornography. Previously, the Trump campaign had enlisted the support of a white supremacist as a delegate in California. William Johnson is the head of the white nationalist American Freedom Party and financed pro-Trump robocalls during the primaries.While the Trump campaign first claimed they had enlisted Johnson s support due to a database error, they had to rely on him to voluntarily step down since the deadline had already passed for him to be withdrawn.The Huffington Post reported that the Trump campaign had not responded to them about the allegations against Bailey in Maryland, and it was unclear what they would do about his status as a Trump representative at the convention.Featured image via Flickr | 1real |
Trump's son clarifies 'gas chamber' comment after criticism | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump Jr. sought on Thursday to clarify his remark that the media would be “warming up the gas chamber” if the Republican Party behaved the same way as the Democrats during the U.S. presidential campaign, saying it was a reference to capital punishment, not the Nazi-led Holocaust. Trump, the son of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, spoke to NBC News after the Anti-Defamation League, which combats anti-Semitism, asked him to retract his statement. “Trivialization of the Holocaust and gas chambers is NEVER okay,” the Anti-Defamation League tweeted. John Podesta, the chair of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign, told reporters on a call that the wording of Trump’s remark was “extremely insensitive, divisive and probably pretty consistent with the kind of rhetoric he heard around the house when he was growing up.” “I think it’s never acceptable to use language like that,” Podesta added. Nazis used gas chambers during World War Two to kill millions of Jews imprisoned in European concentration camps. Trump made the “gas chamber” remark during an interview with a Philadelphia radio station on Thursday morning to explain how the media would react if the Republican Party had intervened in the nominating contest the way the Democratic Party has been accused of doing to benefit Clinton over former party rival U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. “Without the media, this wouldn’t even be a contest, but the media has built her up, they’ve let her slide on every discrepancy, on every lie, on every DNC game, trying to get Bernie Sanders out of the thing,” Trump said. “If Republicans were doing that, they’d be warming up the gas chamber right now,” the nominee’s son added. Trump’s campaign said the uproar over the comment was another example of bias among the media covering the presidential campaign. “Don Jr. was clearly referring to capital punishment to make the case that the media continues to take words out of context in order to serve as the propaganda arm of the Hillary Clinton campaign,” Trump spokesman Jason Miller said in an email. | 0fake |
South Dakota governor considers transgender bathroom bill | (Reuters) - South Dakota would be the first U.S. state to dictate what bathrooms transgender students are allowed to use in public schools if Republican Governor Dennis Daugaard signs a bill into law. The state Senate on Tuesday voted 20-15 to send a bill to Daugaard that requires transgender pupils to use restrooms and locker rooms in public schools that correspond to their gender at birth and not the gender that fits their current identity, legislative records showed. “This bill is about protecting young children who are too innocent ... to understand the complexity of life,” Republican Senator David Omdahl said before voting for the bill. Staff in Daugaard’s office were not immediately available for comment. Daugaard has said that he will research the issue before deciding whether to sign the legislation, local media reported. The bill also requires schools to provide “reasonable” accommodations for transgender students. Those accommodations include a single-occupancy restroom, a unisex restroom, or the controlled use of a restroom, locker room or shower room. “South Dakota lawmakers are sending a message that it’s okay to segregate, humiliate, and bully transgender students,” the American Civil Liberties Union said in an online post on the organization’s website. The passage of the bill comes two weeks after a U.S. appeals court heard arguments over whether a high school in Virginia should be ordered to allow a transgender student to use the boys’ bathroom, even though he was born a biological female. In December, a suburban Chicago school district reached an accord with the U.S. government over locker room access for a transgender student after the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights found the district discriminated against the student. | 0fake |
House could pass tax reform if Senate adds health mandate repeal: Ryan | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives could vote to pass a tax reform bill that also repeals the Obamacare health insurance mandate if the Senate includes the provision in its final version of the plan, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Wednesday. In an interview on CNBC television, Ryan said House Republicans had not included such a repeal in its own bill and was waiting to see whether the Senate had the votes to approve a tax package that repeals the mandate, which requires Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty. | 0fake |
5 things to watch in tonight’s GOP debate | Killing Obama administration rules, dismantling Obamacare and pushing through tax reform are on the early to-do list. | 0fake |
Mali: At least 20 dead after gunmen storm luxury hotel in capital | The gunmen seized 170 hostages in the attack on Friday. Malian soldiers, along with US and French special forces, rescued hostages as they attempted to regain control of the hotel.
Could the juvenile suspects in the Tennessee wildfires be tried as adults?
UPDATE at 9:30 pm Eastern time: Heavily armed Islamic extremists seized dozens of hostages Friday at a Radisson hotel, but Malian troops, backed by US and French special forces, swarmed in to retake the building and free many of the terrified captives, according to The Associated Press. At least 20 people, including one American, were killed along with two gunmen during the more than seven-hour siege, a Malian military commander said.
Gunmen seized a luxury hotel in the Malian capital of Bamako Friday and took 170 people hostage, killing at least three of them while some 20 others have been released.
The Malian military said 10 gunmen stormed the Radisson Blu hotel shouting "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great," in Arabic before firing on hotel guards Friday morning.
Malian soldiers, with help from United Nations peacekeeping troops, currently have the hotel surrounded. A Malian military official told the Associated Press that three deaths were confirmed. Two of the dead are Malian and the other is a French national, according to CNN.
It also appears that those who have been released were made to recite Koranic verses first, Reuters reports. The news wire also reports that the gunmen are currently making their way through the hotel floor by floor.
The Rezidor Hotel Group, which operates the Radisson Blu, released a statement saying 30 the hostages were hotel staff and the other 140 were guests. The 190-room hotel, located near government ministries and diplomatic offices, is popular among foreigners in the former French colony. Turkish Airlines said that six of its crew members are part of the hostage hold-up. Chinese, French, and Belgian nationals are also believed to be inside.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but this year has seen an uptick in jihadist violence across Mali. An attack on a restaurant in Bamako in March was the first time the capital had been attacked in years.
In 2012, after a coup in Bamako, Mali's north fell under the control of Islamic extremists who took advantage of a Tuareg uprising. In 2013, the French Army took control of the north and a UN-brokered peace deal was signed with Tuareg separatists.
France and other Western nations have been working with the Malian government to prevent the Islamist militants from regaining a foothold in the north. A UN spokesman said that the Radisson Blu was host to a large delegation of UN workers involved in the ongoing peace process.
In August, nine people, including four members of the UN mission, were killed in a hotel attack in the central town of Sevare after heavily armed gunmen entered a hotel popular with European military officers. The attacks was significant because the popular tourist town was the demarcation line between government-controlled areas of Mali and those that were controlled by Islamist militants, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The Christian Science Monitor reported in August that there were signs that militants were strategically moving south to places like Bamako, after having been confined to cities such as Timbuktu in the north.
"It's a troubling sign that the armed Islamist groups are intent on stepping up the pressure both on the Malian government and on the UN and French presence," Bruce Whitehouse, a Mali expert and associate professor at Lehigh University, told AP. "They want to show they are not just contained within the north and that they're not afraid to confront their primary enemies where they're strongest." | 0fake |
REPORT: Here’s Why Donald Trump Has No Friends And Has To Ask Co-Workers To Hang After Work | When Donald Trump stood at his podium at a rally and declared, I have no friends You re my friends, he apparently wasn t kidding. A scathing new report from The New York Times tells the sad story of a Donald Trump who at nearly 70-years-old has no real friends.One of Trump s favorite things to talk about are his celebrity friends. In the past he s been chummy with the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Regis Philbin, Howard Stern and he loves playing golf with athletes like Tom Brady, but the reality is, none of those people are what you and I would classify as friends. Richard LeFlak, a real estate tycoon who has known The Donald for four decades, told the Times that Trump is very gregarious and has lots of acquaintances, but people he s close to? Not so many. LeFlak isn t alone in his analysis of Trump s personal life: He doesn t really have a lot of friends, said Billy Procida, a financier and business confidant of Trump s, Pretty much all he does is work and play golf. Reverend Al Sharpton, who knew Trump before he decided to become a Republican all of a sudden, said: Out of all the political and business and entertainment circles that we ve moved in together over the years, I never really met anyone who was Trump s good friend. In fact, I ve never even met anyone who claimed to be his good friend. It may seem harsh, but that s just how Trump operates. He s an introverted narcissist who spends his time with family, presumably because he doesn t have anything to prove. That analysis fits with a statement from Trump s longtime coworker and head of acquisitions, Abe Wallach, who told the Times that Trump would practically beg coworkers to hang out with him after work: Donald would call and say, Abe, what are you doing? Marla and I are flying down to Atlantic City. You and David want to come? Wallach said. I always thought: Why me? I work with him all week. Isn t there someone else? Apparently not. There is very little that suggests that Trump is capable of forming and maintaining personal relationships with people who aren t related to him. Wallach gave the Times the reason why: Deep down, he s a very nice guy, Wallach said, but he can t let go and just be nice because he fears that people will take advantage of him. Donald is actually the most insecure man I ve ever met. He has this constant need to fill a void inside. He used to do it with deals and sex. Now he does it with publicity. Ouch. Obviously, if a man who has known Trump most of his professional career and spent time with him and his family can spout off like that and trash The Donald s social skills so easily, there must be something to it. It could be that Wallach is right; that Trump lacks the confidence and self-respect to trust that not everyone is out to screw him, or it could be far simpler. He might just be an insufferable douchebag.Whatever the issue, what we have here is just another reason Donald Trump is unfit to hold the highest office in the land. Personal relationships are certainly important in trade, foreign policy and relations across the aisle. Trump s failures as a human being will easily translate to failures as a diplomat and commander-in-chief.Featured image by Jeff Mitchell, Getty Images | 1real |
Trump opts to keep Pentagon's top officer for another term | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has nominated Marine General Joseph Dunford to keep his post as his top military adviser for another two-year term. Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was first named to the post in 2015 under then-president Barack Obama. The Pentagon announced the decision in a statement on Friday. | 0fake |
Robert Vaughn dies after hearing Trumphole wins | Man gets only one missed call from Mom Local Mom reportedly called her son just once, and hasn't left any messages whatsoever asking him to call her back when he gets this. Fort Wayne, IN - Worried sick, 29-year-old Barry Oldman reported Thursday he got just one missed call from his mo... Celebs ticked at Porn Knock-Offs Two, to be exact: Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington. Tom Cruise, out promoting his latest "Jack Reacher" fare on the Ricki Lake show, grew furious when he found out there's a new nudie flick called "Jack Reach-around-er", which caters to Gay men. Donald Trump Is The Boy Who Cried "Wrong" After being accused of trying to make America Great Again by grabbing another pussy, the man who is trying to break the Guinness Book of world records for the most lies told during a presidential campaign, Donald Trump is crying "Wrong" again! Ju... Bob Dylan Secretly Longs For Teen Choice Award New York, NY - After being announced as the winner of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for groovy songs, sources close to legendary songwriter, Bob Dylan, say that all he really wants is a surfboard trophy from the Teen Choice Awards. "Mr. Dylan couldn'... | 1real |
HAS ESPN’S “Arthur Ashe Courage Award” BECOME THE GAY-TRANSGENDER AWARD? | The last three recipients of the highly coveted Arthur Ashe award for courage were gay: GMA host, Robin Roberts (2013), First openly gay NFL player,Michael Sam (2014), and now America s transgender darling, Bruce (Caitlyn) Jenner. Why are we celebrating the demasculinization of America s men? Has ESPN s sports coverage taken backseat to their obvious progressive agenda?At the 1976 summer Olympics in Montr al, Bruce Jenner won the gold medal for the men s decathlon, setting a world record with 8616 points.In July, Jenner will be honored with another award, this time for a much different achievement. On Monday, Time reported that at ESPN s ESPY Awards, the former world s greatest male athlete will receive the acclaimed Arthur Ashe Award for coming out as a transgender.In an interview with Diane Sawyer back in April, Jenner stated that he was a woman trapped in a man s body and had struggled with this conundrum since childhood.Jenner explained in an interview with Vanity Fair that his cover photo shoot with legendary photo-journalist Annie Leibovitz was a good day. This shoot was about my life and who I am as a person. It s not about the fanfare, it s not about people cheering in the stadium, it s not about going down the street and everybody giving you that a boy, Bruce, pat on the back, O.K. This is about your life. Jenner told VF, If I was lying on my deathbed and I had kept this secret and never ever did anything about it, I would be lying there saying, You just blew your entire life. You never dealt with yourself, and I don t want that to happen. The transition hasn t been entirely smooth for Jenner. He admits that he had some second thoughts about becoming a woman. In a passage from the VF interview, Jenner tells reporter Buzz Bissinger that he suffered a panic attack the day after undergoing 10-hour facial feminization surgery in March.Jenner remembers thinking, What did I just do? What did I just do to myself? Bissinger reveals in the interview that Jenner has not removed his penis.The Ashe Award, which Jenner will be receiving alongside his family at the ESPY award show in July, is one of the most prestigious in sports. According to ESPN, the recipients reflect the spirit of Arthur Ashe, possessing strength in the face of adversity, courage in the face of peril and the willingness to stand up for their beliefs no matter what the cost. Via: Breitbart News | 1real |
At least 30 police die in clash in Egypt's Western desert: security sources | CAIRO (Reuters) - Armed militants killed at least 30 policemen in a shootout during a raid on a suspected militant hideout in Egypt s Western desert, security sources said on Friday. A number of suspected militants were also killed and security forces are combing the area, a statement by the Interior Ministry said. Egypt is facing an Islamist insurgency concentrated in the Sinai peninsula from two main groups, including an Islamic State affiliate, that has killed hundreds of security forces since 2013. Islamist militants have launched several major attacks, most recently targeting churches in Cairo and other cities with the loss of dozens of lives. The security sources said authorities were following a lead to a hideout deep in the desert thought to house eight suspected members of Hasm, a group which has claimed several attacks around the capital targeting judges and police since last year. A convoy of four SUVs and one interior ministry vehicle was ambushed from higher ground by militants firing rocket-propelled grenades and detonating explosive devices, a senior source in the Giza Security Office said. The number of dead was expected to rise, two security sources said. Two security sources said eight security personnel were injured in the clashes, while another source said that four of the injured were police and four others suspected militants. Egypt accuses Hasm of being the militant wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group it outlawed in 2013. The Muslim Brotherhood denies this. The Islamist insurgency in the Sinai peninsula has grown since the military overthrew President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in mid-2013 following mass protests against his rule. The militant group staging the insurgency pledged allegiance to Islamic State in 2014. It is blamed for the killing of hundreds of soldiers and policemen and has started to target other areas, including Egypt s Christian Copts. (This version of the story was refiled to say policemen in first paragraph from police officers as the rank of the dead was not immediately known) | 0fake |
Awakening from the Living Dream | Leave a reply
Frank M. Wanderer – While dreaming, it has been proven that vital signs are influenced by the occurrence within the dream and that our bodies respond in some ways to what we’re witnessing.
Allow me to draw your attention to an apparently surprising thing. If I told you that now, when you are reading these lines, you are in fact asleep, you would certainly believe that I have gone mad.
You are awake , you are concentrating your attention to reading, and you are aware of your environment as well. You can see the furniture of your room, you can hear the call of the birds from the nearby forest. You are also aware of your thoughts and emotions. How can anyone claim that you are asleep at this very moment?
Naturally, you – just like everyone else – sleeps at night. Yes, sometimes you see dreams while you sleep, but right now it is daytime, you are awake. So how could you see dreams? You Imagine a Whole World Around Yourself
I believe that you do not only sleep at night, but also during the daytime. I believe that in your present state of consciousness, your greatest illusion is that you think you are awake. I believe that in your present existence, your greatest illusion is when you think that you are alert. What I see is that in your present state of consciousness you are asleep, and at present you are dreaming, and what you see and hear are all parts of your dream.
Your nighttime sleep is only different from your daytime sleep in that in the night your dreams are less active. During the day, you imagine a whole world around you, and you play an active role in that dream. Your personal history takes place in that world, and identifying with that world shapes your personal identity.
At present, you are dreaming that as a part of your personal history you are reading these lines while identifying with the role of the spiritual seeker, and you are outraged by what you are actually reading.
The question may arise, ‘why do I claim that you are asleep and dreaming now?’. Well, from the state of consciousness I call Alertness, I can see that you are asleep, you believe yourself to be a separate self, you are a captive of the works of your mind. You are not Present
What is the evidence for me to say that you are now asleep and, as a citizen of a dreamland, you are dreaming that you are awake?
It is because you are not present. To be present means that you are fully alert, attentive, and conscious in the present moment. Whatever you do, you do that fully consciously, you focus your entire attention on that particular activity.
Do you feel free to declare that you are present in every moment of your life?
What does it mean to be awake? It has happened to all of us that we have come under the spell of a moment, at some time during our life. A beautiful landscape, a sunset, a beautiful piece of art, the rhythm of music enchanted us. It may even happen that we are just lost in the silence of a peaceful moment. The identification with the forms and shapes loosens a little bit for a short while, and in that instant, we may experience an entirely different state of Consciousness. You Live in a Separate World
How deep you sleep may depend on how realistic you find your dreams, how much you identify with your identity embedded in your personal history. The less alert you are, and the deeper you submerge into your dreams , the more isolated, solitary and individualistic you will become.
Every sleeper –including you– has a separate world, only those who exist in the state of Conscious Alertness (the true Lucid Dreaming) have a common, shared reality. All those different and separate worlds are created by the mind, which generates the state of separateness: the Ego, which appears as the focus of our identification with our thoughts and emotions. Thus everybody has a separate identity, personal history, individual world view and methods of action.
Sometimes suffering alarms you from your sleep, but then you hasten to return to it, and start a new dream, a new objective in life, new ideals, passion, ambition that confirms your connection with your identity, rooted in your personal history. The Reasons of Your Sleep
The reason of you sleeping is that you are not alert, only awake. Only one dimension of Alertness is present in you. Although you are able to focus your attention on your internal emotions and your environment, in your present state of Consciousness you are still powerfully identified with your mind and its functions.
You are therefore drifting on the stormy ocean of your thoughts and emotions day by day, and the space necessary for the emergence of a contemplating Witness is missing from you. You still identify with your thoughts and emotions. These generate the dreams of the Mind , in which you live as a separate self, and try to find the ways of safely navigating your life on the stormy sea. Longing for Freedom
In this separate state of Consciousness, the lack of Alertness may appear as a desire for freedom. This desire emerges from your real self, as your mind remembers its origins. This atavistic memory of the ancient past is the quiet attraction that will eventually take you back to Silence.
This deep desire will only cease if you become alert again, that is, you will not be awake but also alert. Then the Consciousness awakens to its own existence in the human form you at present call yourself.
Only giving up the struggle with the thoughts and emotions and the recognition of the futility of insisting on them will bring you the real freedom, The freedom of independence of the functions of the mind.
Alertness, the awakened Consciousness , the world of internal silence are all beyond the functions of the mind. If you wish to reach beyond the identification with your thoughts and emotions, if you recognize the functions of the mind and the intensity of your identification with them loosens, you may become alert again, in the quiet, pure space of Consciousness.
In this way, the third dimension of Alertness, that is, the contemplating Consciousness, appears in your life. This the original state of our existence, the pure Consciousness, the state of the witnessing Presence. SF Source Dreamcatcher Reality Nov. 2016 Share this: | 1real |
Julian Assange Proof of Life Video a FAKE | Julian Assange Proof of Life Video a FAKE 10/27/2016 In today’s video, Christopher Greene of AMTV reports on a fake Julian Assange Proof of Life Video. 09/27/2016 Jump 4 TRUMP
I saw a video on you tube today stating that Julians’ attorney was murdered a couple days ago. Follow AMTV! 10/27/2016 TRUTH REVOLT http://youtu.be/PsVNKmb6jEc There’s a lot of accusations going around that the 2016 election is r ... Netflix Ceo: TV’s Future includes Hallucination Pills 10/27/2016 INDEPENDENT The future of TV might everyone taking hallucinogenic drugs, according to the head of Netflix. The thr ... | 1real |
A new 9/11 memorial to Flight 93: ‘Our loved ones left a legacy for all of us’ | —Debby Borza stood before a wall of photos of 40 people who died here Sept. 11, 2001, and gently tapped her daughter’s face on a computer touch screen, not knowing exactly what to expect.
“What do they have to say about my dear, sweet daughter?” she said, her face brightening as the screen filled with photos of Deora Frances Bodley, 20, at her high school graduation, working as a volunteer reading tutor, visiting Paris — an album of a promising young life cut short 14 years ago Friday, when four al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked United Airlines Flight 93.
Borza was among the family members given an early look at the $26 million Flight 93 National Memorial visitor center that opened this week, remembering the legacy of the 9/11 attacks and honoring the courage of 40 passengers and crew members who fought back against their four hijackers, preventing the plane from hitting its presumed target, the U.S. Capitol.
“It’s important to me that the visitor sees what these 40 people took on, to take a stand for freedom, to take the kind of stand that cost their lives,” said Borza, whose daughter was the youngest female passenger on Flight 93. “Maybe there will be some special thing they see about Deora that will inspire them.”
As Americans mark the 14th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, thousands will gather at long-established monuments at Ground Zero in New York, at the Pentagon in Virginia and at other sites honoring the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives in the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history. But those who come to the national monument in Shanksville, to honor Bodley and the passengers who kept 9/11 from becoming even more catastrophic, will find a work still in progress.
The stunning concrete-and-glass visitors center and museum are finally open, but landscaping and other finishing touches are still underway. Yet another structure, the Tower of Voices, a nearly 100-foot bell tower with 40 chimes, is scheduled to be built during the next two years.
A memorial plaza close to the crash site, in a field that was once a strip mine, was completed in time for the 10th anniversary in 2011.
At the time, former president Bill Clinton, visiting the site with former president George W. Bush, expressed frustration with the pace of the project.
Clinton and Bush soon became personally involved, speeding fundraising and development, according to Gordon Felt, president of Families of Flight 93.
“President Clinton and President Bush both came through for us,” said Felt, whose brother, Edward Porter Felt, 41, died in the crash.
Felt said the families were closely involved in all aspects of the complex development, working with private donors and state and federal officials — as well as the National Park Service, which operates the memorial — to raise money, acquire land, select a design and complete construction.
“Our loved ones left a legacy for all of us,” Felt said, noting that the plane, which was traveling at 563 mph, was less than 20 minutes of flying time from Washington. “If the Capitol building was destroyed that day, just think how much more devastating an impact that day would have had on our country.”
The legacy of Flight 93 might already have inspired others to stand up against terrorist attacks, Felt said. Last month, three Americans acted to avert a massacre on a train in France.
“It’s important that we don’t forget the events of the day, but the individual people who stood up to say no,” Felt said. “They could have sat back and let others dictate the end of their lives. But they fought back and became heroes in the process.”
In the chill and rain
On Thursday, several hundred people huddled under umbrellas in a heavy, chilly drizzle for the official opening of the visitors center. Speakers remembered the passengers and crew of Flight 93, who “changed the course of American history,” said Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D).
“They are modern-day heroes who represent the very best in us,” said Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, who also quoted from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, delivered on another remote Pennsylvania field: “We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.”
Alan Hantman, the appointed architect of the Capitol from 1997 to 2007, addressed family members in the crowd, noting that he was in the building on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, and saying, “I’m one of those who was saved by your loved ones.”
Paul Murdoch, the architect of the memorial, said it is designed to highlight the power of the story of Flight 93.
“In its raw severity, we acknowledge their sacrifice. In its solemn darkness, we acknowledge their loss. In its calm serenity, we offer solace at their final resting place. And in its monumental scale, we praise their heroic deeds,” Murdoch told the crowd.
The visitors center and museum is set between two soaring concrete walls that rise 40 feet high, one foot for each of those who died. It is set directly on Flight 93’s flight path, with a black stone walkway indicating the precise route that the plane followed. On the valley floor below, a large boulder marks the point of impact, serving almost as a headstone in a place where very few human remains were recovered.
The center presents the events of Sept. 11, 2001, as they unfolded. The first display that visitors encounter features that morning’s Wall Street Journal; photos of local students entering an elementary school; a diagram showing that there were 4,500 planes in the air when Flight 93 took off at 8:42 a.m. from Newark on its way to San Francisco.
The next display features video clips of a stunned Katie Couric telling viewers of NBC’s “Today” that a plane had struck the World Trade Center. There follows video of the second plane hitting, the South Tower collapsing, the voice of ABC News anchor Peter Jennings saying, “My God.”
Display cases are filled with tiny fragments of the plane; bits of metal and wire and electronics; a charred seat belt; a safety instruction card; bent metal spoons and forks; the Oracle employee identification card of passenger Todd Beamer; the New Jersey driver’s license of passenger Colleen Fraser; a Visa card that belonged to one of the hijackers.
At one display, visitors can pick up a phone and listen to some of the 37 calls that were made from Flight 93 that morning, some to 911 and some to family members. Those calls allowed passengers to understand that what they faced was not a normal hijacking, and it also allowed them to say goodbye.
“I just wanted to tell you I love you. We’re having a little problem on the plane. I’m totally fine. I just love you more than anything, just know that,” Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas says in a message on her husband’s answering machine.
Passenger Linda Gronlund calls her sister and says: “I just love you and I just wanted to tell you that. I don’t know if I’m going to get the chance to tell you that again or not.”
Another wall is dedicated to a life-size photograph of a Boeing 757 cabin, showing the plane as the passengers would have seen it after the hijackers forced them all to the back. When they decided to rush their attackers, they had to move 100 feet to the front of the plane, down an aisle 20 inches wide.
Ed Root, whose cousin, flight attendant Lorraine Bay, died in the crash, stood in front of the photograph, contemplating that daunting prospect.
“We all ask ourselves, ‘What would I have done if I was here?’ ” Root said. “What would you do? Would you have just stayed back there and hoped for the best? Or would you have reacted? Thankfully, they did react.”
While 9/11 is a defining event for America, Root noted that it is getting to be “history” for younger Americans, even those now in college.
“We need them to remember,” he said. “This history is not over. This is a story that goes on.” | 0fake |
Anderson Cooper Demands Answers After Trump’s HUGE Mistake With Taiwan | On Friday, Donald Trump broke a 37-year old pledge with China not to recognize Taiwan as a country and called its president. The reason? He wants to further pad his pockets by building a new luxury hotel in Taiwan. With just this one brief phone call, he has likely caused a diplomatic crisis, erasing all of the hard work Obama and other past presidents have done to keep China in our good graces.Friday night on CNN, Anderson Cooper spoke to former Trump campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, demanding answers after this enormous mistake that has left political observers speechless evidently, it left Kellyanne Conway speechless as well, because she had no idea what to say.Right off the bat, Cooper lets loose on Conway, telling her that America doesn t recognize Taiwan as its own nation, and doesn t support Taiwan independence. He also referenced a tweet from Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, who stated this is how wars start, in response to Trump s mindboggling break in protocol.(2) What has happened in the last 48 hours is not a shift. These are major pivots in foreign policy w/out any plan. That s how wars start. Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 2, 2016Cooper then told Conway that This has been long-standing U.S. policy towards China not to recognize Taiwan. Conway awkwardly answers right, and then takes what seems like an endless pause before responding that she wasn t going to discuss details about the incident.Conway goes on to try and compare Trump to President Obama, but Cooper wasn t having it.Watch the full interview below:Featured image via screenshot | 1real |
In Russia probe, Mueller's first charges a show of force | WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Donald Trump brushed off the first indictments in the probe of his campaign’s ties to Russian election meddling, but the charges sent a clear signal to the White House and other Trump associates: Robert Mueller means business. By going after Trump’s campaign manager and another aide on money-laundering charges and securing a guilty plea from a third campaign adviser, the special prosecutor showed he would delve deeply into the past in search of criminal activity and use his broad powers aggressively. That left some Trump associates worried about what or whom Mueller would target next, despite the White House’s public dismissal of the developments as unrelated to the president and his campaign. “They’re flexing their muscles for anybody that they approach in this investigation and letting them know we really mean it,” said former federal prosecutor Patrick Cotter. “So if we come to you, you should talk to us. Manafort didn’t and look what happened to him.” Manafort and Rick Gates are charged with money laundering, tax fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and other counts. They pleaded not guilty on Monday. The indictments, which closely detail the alleged crimes, appeared to be an opening salvo from Mueller. He was appointed by U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in May after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, who had led an investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election. Mueller was given a mandate to probe potential collusion and “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.” Trump has denied any collusion with Russia and at times described the investigation as a “hoax” and a “witch hunt.” Russia has denied interfering with the 2016 election. With the first indictments on Monday, Mueller showed he was not afraid to use his powers, and Trump officials noticed. “One thing I’m worried about in a bigger scale is that Rosenstein, by giving Mueller this wide berth, has created this monster,” said one former White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. A former Trump campaign adviser fretted that the probe could, as a result, touch on Trump’s businesses, too. In a New York Times interview in July, Trump indicated that Mueller would be crossing a red line if he investigated Trump’s family business. Legal experts said Mueller would not be swayed by Trump’s view of the proper scope of the investigation. “I don’t think prosecutors concern themselves with what politicians say about red lines being drawn,” said former federal prosecutor Robert Capers. Jens David Ohlin, a professor of criminal law at Cornell Law School, said Mueller could be targeting alleged financial crimes by Manafort and Gates to gain their cooperation and uncover wrongdoing elsewhere. A number of lawyers said the guilty plea of George Papadopoulos, announced by Mueller’s team on Monday, could ultimately provide a closer link to the campaign and pressure others to open up. While the charges against Manafort and Gates were not related to their campaign work, Papadopoulos admitted he lied to the Federal Bureau of Investigation about his contacts with foreign nationals he believed to be tied to the Russian government while he was a campaign adviser. Prosecutors said they arrested Papadopoulos in July and that he was cooperating with the government. “God knows what this guy’s going to say now,” said the former Trump campaign adviser. “Since he’s cooperating, he could set any perjury traps up for others.” Cotter said Mueller’s unveiling of Papadopoulos’ guilty plea “was to head off any arguments that the case against Manafort and Gates is not about Russia.” Frank Montoya, a former senior FBI agent, said Manafort’s indictment and Papadopoulos’ plea indicated Mueller was not going to bow to White House pressure and would keep pushing hard to uncover wrongdoing. “It is pretty much a road map – we are going to be looking at the money laundering, we are going to be looking at the failure to report income, we are going to be looking at the general criminal conspiracies. This is also about Trump’s red line – we are going to cross it. And we are going to keep looking at the so-called collusion, or the coordination with the Russians to undermine democracy,” Montoya said. | 0fake |
Gun Control Wall, Bolstered by Republicans, Shows a Crack - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — A widely publicized by House Democrats. A bipartisan compromise proposal in the Senate. Neither is very likely to lead to any legislative action in Congress on gun safety this year. Election Day is too close, and most of the Republican opposition is too dug in. But the fact that a legislative response remains elusive does not mean there has been no movement on the issue. Members of both parties say they sensed a shift in the gun debate after the mass killing in Orlando, Fla. a notable difference in attitude from the reaction on Capitol Hill after previous horrific shootings. Eight Senate Republicans joined with 44 Democrats on a compromise that would deny people on two different federal watch lists the ability to buy weapons unless they could successfully appeal that decision. Several other Republican senators showed some willingness to accept new restrictions on gun purchases if they could be structured in an acceptable way. A bipartisan companion measure also was introduced in the House. These are incremental steps, but in the gridlocked world of gun control politics, they count for something. One explanation for the change is that Omar Mateen, the Orlando killer, used his legally purchased firearms in the commission of a terrorist act. Some Republicans say they are willing to challenge the of no new gun control — and the National Rifle Association — in the interest of trying to prevent similar terrorist attacks. Republicans find it much easier to explain enacting gun restrictions to constituents devoted to the Second Amendment if they can frame their position as an act against terrorism. “The Constitution’s a sacred document, but it is not a suicide pact,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and a gun owner. “This is not hard for me. Due process is important, but at the end of the day, we are at war. ” To Democrats, any hint of daylight between some Republicans and the N. R. A. is welcome. “For the first time in quite a while you’re seeing some Republicans buck the N. R. A. ,” said Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Democrat in the Senate, who is likely to be the Democratic leader next year. After watching Democrats tie up the Senate with a filibuster and Democrats occupy the House floor with a that exploded on social media, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, is eager to take up other issues. “Clearly, we have got to move on,” Mr. McConnell said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” though he added, “This is an issue, obviously, we’ll be revisiting again in the future. ” “Whether people like it or not, there is a constitutional right in our country to own and possess a firearm,” he said. Mr. McConnell was heavily invested in making sure the compromise plan offered by Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, and opposed by the N. R. A. ended up short of the level of 60 votes. He does not want to be remembered as the leader of a Senate that defied the gun rights group, one of the most powerful allies of his party. And he allowed a competing alternative by Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, that probably siphoned Republican votes from the Collins plan. But the votes exposed a small universe of Republican senators who might eventually be willing to support gun restrictions in the interest of preventing terrorism, perhaps enough to eventually push a compromise proposal to the hallowed level. “The fact that terrorism has become intertwined with the gun issue puts greater pressure on Republican senators and Senator McConnell to get something done,” Mr. Schumer said. Mr. Schumer and his fellow Democrats acknowledge the latest round of debate on gun control is good politics for them, particularly in swing states like New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Ohio that will be crucial to deciding control of the Senate in November. Polls show an overwhelming majority of Americans would deny those on terrorism watch lists the ability to buy guns, which the Collins bill proposed. As the Collins proposal gained steam after the defeat of other, more partisan proposals, Democrats discussed opposing it. They worried that strong Democratic backing would allow a handful of embattled Republicans the opportunity to cast a politically helpful gun safety vote even though no legislation would pass — an opportunity to “get well” on guns as it is known. Democrats said they decided to give the plan their full support to show they were serious about moving ahead with gun control even though the compromise fell short of their legislative goals and could benefit some Republicans. Senators Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania, top Democratic targets, were among those voting for the Collins plan. Though the immediate legislative prospects look dim, the gun control debate is not going to quiet down anytime soon. Energized by the attention to their House Democrats branded Wednesday a “National Day of Action” on guns and held news conferences and protests around the country while lawmakers were home for the Fourth of July recess. Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, on Monday urged Democrats to hold family to “keep the drumbeat for action growing. ” Democrats expect to return to their guerrilla tactics when the House convenes next week. Backers of the Collins proposal say they will continue to press for added support as well. Perceiving a shift in congressional sentiment and a distinct political advantage, gun control advocates are not about to give up now. | 0fake |
Pro-Catalonia anarchists enter Spanish embassy in Athens | ATHENS (Reuters) - Self-proclaimed anarchists burst into the Spanish embassy in Athens on Wednesday and threw leaflets in favor of Catalonian independence, an embassy official said. The embassy staff evacuated the premises leaving only a few diplomats inside, the official said. There were no reports of damage or injuries. About 15 to 20 entered the embassy and threw leaflets. They did not break anything. The leaflet said solidarity is the weapon of the people , the embassy official told Reuters. The demonstrators unfurled a banner from the roof of the building reading No Pasaran! (They Shall Not Pass), a leftist slogan from the Spanish Civil War. Greek police later detained 19 people, a police official said. Another police official said the group, known as Rouvikonas, had been demonstrating in favor of Catalonian independence. We are now back inside, the demonstrators have left, the embassy official said. Small scale attacks against police, businesses, embassies and state buildings are frequent in Greece, which has a long history of political violence and is struggling to emerge from crisis despite three international bailouts. Rouvikonas has stepped up its activities in recent months. | 0fake |
Watch Stephen Colbert’s Hilarious Response To Sarah Palin’s Crazy Speeches (VIDEO) | No one is happier to see Sarah Palin back in the news than Stephen Colbert. Following the former Alaska governor s endorsement of Donald Trump for the Republican nomination, Colbert now has plenty of material to make fun of the woman he called the original material girl. God I have missed you. It s like a magical eagle made a wish on a flag pin and it came to life, Colbert said of Palin s reappearance. Which is great, for me, he said, because while Trump, admittedly, has given me so much material to make jokes about, nobody compares to the original material girl. Colbert played some of Palin s so-called greatest hits, referring to bizarre statements Palin made about community organizer Obama, drill, baby, drill and we re gonna kick ISIS s ass! Colbert said: Sarah Palin just guaranteed Donald Trump the Evangelical vote, because I think she was speaking in tongues! While Donald Trump has been a frequent target of Colbert, no one has come close to the original material girl. Palin was a primary target of Colbert s during his 10-year run of his Colbert Report on Comedy Central.There s truly lots to make fun of. It seems that Palin has gone off the deep end lately more so than ever before. She even had the nerve to blame the president for her son s delinquency and her rambling speeches give a clear impression of someone that doesn t seem to have things together.In any case, Trump, who apparently is excited about Palin s endorsement, said that he would have a position for her in his administration, possibly vice president. It all sounds quite frightening. But for now let s laugh at these two.Featured image via YouTube screenshot | 1real |
WATCH: Wolf Blitzer Makes Republican Throw Temper Tantrum Over Trump’s Nazi Problem | The media needs to keep grilling Republicans over Donald Trump s flirtation with Nazis, because it s clearly a sore spot.When RNC communications director Sean Spicer appeared on CNN with Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday night, he was apparently hoping for a softball interview.But Blitzer had other ideas and soon called out Trump for being quick to whine and condemn the diverse cast of Hamilton while being very slow to condemn neo-Nazis and white supremacists.Blitzer wanted to know why Trump won t just deliver a speech openly condemning these deplorable groups. Spicer responded by saying that, At some point, you ve gotta take his position and move on! Spicer said that Trump merely mentioning a disavowal should be enough and that he has made his position clear, but the problem is that Trump hasn t made it clear. Every time he claims to disavow these groups he ends up blowing them a kiss by sharing their tweets or supporting a policy that they support. In fact, these groups have become so emboldened by Trump that hate crimes have spiked since Election Day.Nazis and white supremacists are celebrating in the streets because they think Trump is the second coming of Hitler and that it will be open season on minorities across the country.Blitzer asked why these groups still support Trump even though he disavowed them, and Spicer threw a hissy fit. I don t know! he snapped. That s really not my focus, figuring out why certain groups support him! Blitzer pointed out that Trump has failed to condemn these groups unlike his consistent attacks on diverse groups like the cast of Hamilton for just merely passing on a message to Mike Pence.And Blitzer s persistence cause Spicer to lose his shit. You ve asked me eight times, the same question! I ve told you what his position is. That s not his focus! His focus is making this country better for all Americans, creating a better country, creating a better education system for all Americans, rebuilding our inner cities. That s what his focus is. So I get that you guys all want to ask the same question over and over again and make him denounce it eight ways to Sunday, but it s not what he wants to talk about! Here s the video via YouTube. The relevant remarks are at the 4:30 mark.The reason why these groups still support Trump is because his condemnation of them has been weak from the very beginning, so it seems like Trump is only saying the minimum to make it sound like he condemns them. What Trump needs to do is deliver a speech to the entire country making it clear once and for all that he strongly condemns these groups and that he does not share their views nor will he help them pursue their hateful agenda.Featured Image: Screenshot | 1real |
KRISPY KREME Worker REFUSES To Serve Cop: ” I don’t do the POlice” | She doesn t do POlice until someone threatens to do harm to her or someone she knows Richland County, SC A Krispy Kreme employee is in hot water after they refused to serve a deputy with the Richland County Sheriff s Department at the Clemson Road location for the sole reasoning being he was a cop.The sheriff s department confirmed the incident and said the poor actions of one employee does not properly represent the views and values of the community, business, organization as a whole, read a statement. WACH-FOX57Don t let this story of one bad employee discourage you from patronizing Krispy Kreme. Here is a great example of Krispy Kreme partnering with local police in Greenville, SC in 2013:Local law enforcement personnel joined forces for the annual Cops on Top of a Doughnut Shop fundraiser, benefiting the Special Olympics. FOX Carolina | 1real |
Hillary Clinton Shuts Down Protester and Trump’s ‘Divisive Vision’ at Florida Rally | By Hrafnkell Haraldsson on Wed, Nov 2nd, 2016 at 9:02 am “You know, I am sick and tired of the negative, dark, divisive, dangerous vision and behavior from people who support Donald Trump." Share on Twitter Print This Post
Speaking at Reverend Samuel Delevoe Memorial Park in Fort Lauderdale, Tuesday night, Hillary Clinton was interrupted by a Donald Trump supporter who shouted: “Bill Clinton is a rapist!” He was no doubt working for the $5,000 reward offered by InfoWars. But Clinton was having none of it. Rather than ignoring the man, she issued a stern rebuke. Stabbing her finger at the man, she said:
“You know, I am sick and tired of the negative, dark, divisive, dangerous vision and behavior from people who support Donald Trump.”
The man continued to shout, waving his sign, and the crowd countered with cries of “Hillary! Hillary!” as she said,
“It is time for us to say no, we are not going backwards, we’re going forward into a brighter future.”
The protester was escorted out by security, and Clinton told the man, and everyone like him, “You may be angry about something, but anger is not a plan. Don’t be used. Don’t be exploited.”
See the protester’s antics here. Note that he was neither roughed up nor attacked by Clinton supporters:
Sadly, all too many angry white Christians are allowing themselves to be exploited by Donald Trump, who represents the very forces that have deprived them of the American dream, a man whom, as Clinton says, has taken everything, and given nothing.
Last night, in Florida, Hillary Clinton was taking nothing, and giving everything.
Photo: Screen capture | 1real |
Nobody Can Make Sense Of What Donald Trump Is Saying In This Video — Is It Even English? | By his own admission, Donald Trump screwed up his answer in an MSNBC town hall meeting hosted by Chris Matthews. In the event, Trump said he believed abortion should be banned, and that if such a law had come to pass, women who had abortions should be punished. Trump was immediately condemned not just by pro-choice groups, but by conservative Republican groups, who push for making abortion illegal but don t like to deal with the unpopular fallout that would come with making those laws (if abortion is murder, both women and their doctors would be committing a crime).Trump walked back the statement soon after. Perhaps he was too intoxicated with wrapping up the nomination on Wednesday morning, but MSNBC s Willie Geist asked him about the abortion question and his response, and absolute gibberish came out:TRUMP: He was asking me a theoretical, or just a question in theory, and I talked about it only from that standpoint. Of course not. And that was done, he said, you know, I guess it was theoretically, but he was asking me a rhetorical question, and I gave an answer. And by the way, people thought from an academic standpoint, and asked rhetorically, people said that answer was an unbelievable academic answer. But of course not, and I said that afterwards. Everybody understands that.He would have probably been better off with his deeply unpopular answer in the first MSNBC interview, or even the subsequent apologies and tapdancing. Instead, as he so often has during the campaign, Trump tries to sound smarter than he is and gets tied up.Of course, especially 0n the very Trump-friendly Morning Joe, he wasn t asked to clarify his comments or even tell viewers what planet he beamed them in from in order to make heads or tails of it.Featured image via YouTube | 1real |
Why First Aid Is Often Lacking in the Moments After a Police Shooting - The New York Times | After the police in Tulsa, Okla. released video footage of an officer fatally shooting an unarmed man, and then standing back rather than tending to the man’s wounds, many people had the same reaction as a local activist, Marq Lewis, who voiced outrage that “they let him lay there minutes, bleeding. ” Anger at the treatment of the man, Terence Crutcher — not only his shooting last Friday, but also how officers behaved afterward — echoed concerns over other recent cases, mostly involving black males who died at the hands of the police. Notably, when Tamir Rice, a boy with a pellet gun, was shot to death in 2014 in a park in Cleveland, officers stood around for several minutes, waiting for an emergency medical team and offering no first aid. So what should officers do? Experts in policing agree that the way officers respond, or fail to, is often a problem, but they say that such failures are not necessarily the fault of the officers, and that law enforcement agencies are starting to address them. “It is reasonable for people to assume that when it is safe for the officers to do so, that they would render first aid to somebody they’ve just shot,” said Jim Bueermann, a former police chief who is president of the Police Foundation, a research group that advises law enforcement agencies. “But a lot of departments do not have policies that clearly articulate the officer’s responsibilities in that situation, and some have no policy at all. ” This year, the Police Executive Research Forum, another research group, issued a list of 30 policies that police departments should adopt, including a requirement that officers render first aid when they can. Officials and officers have raised objections to other recommendations on the list, but not to that one, said Chuck Wexler, the group’s executive director. “Cops have to be able to pivot immediately from using deadly force to trying to save a life,” said Mr. Wexler, a former police officer. “That is tough, we know that, but it’s what’s needed, and it’s not happening. ” Officers get training at police academies, but experts say it is often rudimentary, and not reinforced through their careers. A New York City officer, Peter Liang, who was convicted of manslaughter for fatally shooting a man in an apartment house stairwell, said he did not give the man CPR because he had not been properly trained in the procedure, a claim the department upheld. Even when agencies do instruct officers to give first aid, as many police departments in large cities do, officers often lack the training or equipment to handle gunshot wounds. “It’s typically geared toward, you come across an auto accident, or someone is having a heart attack or choking,” said William Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, a coalition of police officer unions. “If there’s a gunshot wound, the typical training is for the officer to call for medical help. ” Some agencies have increased medical training in recent years, and others, like the police departments in Cleveland and Los Angeles, have equipped officers with trauma kits that contain items such as tourniquets, bandages and sterile gloves. “In my 20 years in the Newark Police Department, not once did we ever have the equipment to deal with something as serious as a gunshot,” said Jon Shane, an assistant professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. Mr. Shane questioned the wisdom of adding yet another set of responsibilities to officers he said were already overburdened. “The more you spread yourself thin like that, the worse you become at your job,” he said. But Brigitt Keller, executive director of the National Police Accountability Project of the National Lawyers Guild, said that when officers fail to aid someone who is dying, something far worse than poor policies, training and equipment may be at work. “I’m appalled that someone can stand there and watch somebody die without the impulse and the humanity to render aid,” she said. “It’s an indication of how far removed some police officers are from the communities they serve, that you can watch someone die in front of your eyes and remain detached. ” Yet others say that what looks like disregard for life may just reflect human nature. A person who has just shot someone is flooded with adrenaline, sometimes traumatized, and often not thinking clearly. What seems like callousness could also be a product of training. Officers are taught, above all, to secure the scene when force is used — to make sure the person, a suspect, is unarmed and that there is no one else around who can pose a threat. In some places, department policy calls for handcuffing the shooting victim. “There’s a difference between officers just standing around while somebody is bleeding to death, and being sure you can safely approach the individual who’s been shot,” Mr. Bueermann, the Police Foundation president, said. | 0fake |
WHY IS THE MEDIA HIDING Dangerous Evidence About Radical Who Attacked Trump At Rally? | 100% FED Up! was able to easily find evidence about the anti-American, cop-hating, racist who attacked Trump during a rally on Sunday. Either the mainstream media news organizations don t have any investigative journalists working for them, or they prefer to hide the truth about Trump s attacker. We believe the latter is true.An even bigger question is how this radical cop hating, white hating (self-loathing) Bernie Sanders supporter is able to jump on the stage of the GOP Presidential front-runner, grab him, scuffle with the US Secret Service and only be charged with two misdemeanors? Watch new video that was just released of Tommy DiMassimo rushing to get at Trump on stage here:CNN interviewed Thomas (Tommy) DiMassimo, the man who was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and inducing panic after he rushed the stage at an Ohio Trump rally on Sunday.During the interview, Tommy DiMassimo explained to CNN that he just wanted to take the podium away from the GOP presidential front-runner to send a message. CNN never asked him a single quesiton about his past or his support for Bernie Sanders.It s almost as though CNN was giving Tommy DiMassimo, a Wright State University senior, a platform to express his dissatisfaction with Donald Trump. They wouldn t do that for someone who just committed a crime by rushing the stage of the top GOP Presidential candidate would they?https://youtu.be/RIAEQonBgO0Here is the real truth about the soft-spoken Tommy DiMassimo that appeared in the CNN video who was worried about Trump being a bully. We found these videos on YouTube that were co-written by the Wright State University senior. The name of the video is Red Black and Blue. The video appears to be promoting a Revolution featuring blacks killing cops and of course, cops killing innocent blacks.***LANGUAGE and VIOLENCE Warning***Here is the first shocking trailer for DiMassimo s movie Red Black and Blue :https://youtu.be/R8dgSibelNQHere is the second violent trailer. The video in its entirety can be found below:https://youtu.be/PEP4hWfHzj8Here are tweets that were sent out by Tommy DiMassimo just prior to the Ohio Trump rally where he rushed the stage. In the first tweet, he talks about becomig a martyr. The second tweet talks about getting into a Trump rally and slapping fire into Trump. From the Urban dictionary: The art of slapping fire out of a person is to give said person an intense slap that will leave their face red for an extended period of time. That sure sounds a LOT differnt that the non-violent explanation he gave CNN. The last tweet with the gun and smiley face emoji was sent to fake black guy, Shaun King. You be the judge of what he s trying to say in his tweets below.And of course, the fact that he s a Bernie Sanders supporter should come as no surprise:Folks in OHIOGo vote for Bernie and or Not Trump il ragazzo (@Younglionking7) March 13, 2016This tweet was posted in Sept, 2015. The most recent tweets (seen above) have all been deleted.DiMassimo posts a picture of a bloodied cop seen in the film on his Facebook page. One of his friends asks in the comment section, Is that you? He doesn t respond.This picture was taken from DiMassimo s facebook page advertising his one man show on Wright College campus.Here s DiMassio hanging out with a few sweet boys in the neighborhood:Oh, the irony of DiMassimo looking to the police officer for help when he was concerned about a concealed carrier, after spending the afternoon taunting the Confederate flag supporters, and actually burning a Confederate flag in front of them at a GA rally (see below):Open Carry Activist Prepares to Draw Gun on Counterprotester at Yesterday's Confederate Flag Rally in #GA #p2 #tcot pic.twitter.com/cNuEKHXmF6 CSGV (@CSGV) August 2, 2015Hero of the Day burns Confederate flag and waves it at 500 idiots at Stone Mountain. pic.twitter.com/iBzwN3ElcK Derf Backderf (@DerfBackderf) August 3, 2015Here s a video showing the controversy DiMassio created when standing on an American flag on campus:Here is the video of the actual event. Watch the disrespect this punk has an elderly veteran confronts him:https://youtu.be/Q0Kwcp2DLFoIf you can stomach it, here is the violent full-edition of the video co-written by Tommy DiMassimo, the intelligent, bright, college senior :Tommy DiMassimo is sadly, representative of many of the whiny, anti-American students we see supporting Bernie Sanders and a Black Lives Matter terror movement today. Black Lives Matter was created to threaten and intimidate Americans into giving them not equal treatment, but special treatment. Our hateful and divisive President is responsible for the groundswell of support for hate groups like this that are popping up across colleges, universities and large cities across America. The reason they are trying so hard to prevent a Trump presidency is because they fear he will call them out and expose them for their self-serving agenda. Their only hope to keep this radical movement going is to elect Bernie Sanders or Hillary. Trump is the only person who they fear is an obstacle standing in the way of their goal.We ll never know how far Tommy Massimo would have gone if he was allowed to get ahold of Trump on the stage. One thing is clear though, his ridiculous punishment and the special treatment he was given by CNN will certainly not dissuade the next radical from attempting to harm Trump at one of his public events.Here is a screen grab that shows DiMassimo as one of the co-writers of the Red Black and Blue video. Although we can t prove it, given his flair for drama, it is highly likely DiMassimo is one of the actors in the violent cop and white-hating film: | 1real |
Spanish prosecutor asks for Catalan police chief to be held in custody | MADRID (Reuters) - Spain s state prosecutor has asked for Catalonia s police chief - under formal investigation for sedition - to be held in custody without bail, a legal source said on Monday. A judge is due to decide on this later on Monday, the source said. | 0fake |
German police check more suspicious parcels after Potsdam explosive package | BERLIN (Reuters) - German police on Monday investigated further suspicious mail packages found around the country as they tried to catch an extortionist who sent a defective parcel bomb to a pharmacy in the city of Potsdam last week. That package, which contained powerful firecrackers, wires and nails and did not explode, was found to be a criminal extortion attempt against logistics firm DHL rather than terrorism, German authorities said on Sunday. DHL, owned by Deutsche Post, warned its clients on Monday that other suspect packages could arrive through its service among millions of parcels sent in the holiday season. The company said it would not change its postal secrecy principle to control the content of packages. More suspicious packages were reported to authorities around Germany - one, which German media suspected contained a grenade, was sent to the state chancellery in the eastern region of Thuringia but police found only rolled-up catalogues inside it. Police in the eastern state of Brandenburg, where Potsdam is located, said they checked 10 suspicious packages on Monday but gave the all-clear for all of those parcels. The police said a special team investigating the Potsdam pharmacy package was doubled to over 50 officials and they were searching for the extortionist. | 0fake |
U.S. Prosecutors Outline Case Against Mexican Drug Lord El Chapo - The New York Times | After eluding prosecution in the United States for decades and escaping from prison twice in Mexico, the crime lord Joaquín Guzmán Loera, better known as El Chapo, appeared on Friday in federal court in Brooklyn and pleaded not guilty to charges that he had overseen a drug empire. Prosecutors said the operation had moved at least 200 tons of cocaine into the United States, had earned $14 billion in profits and had been protected by an army of assassins who killed thousands of people. Mr. Guzmán’s arraignment, in Federal District Court, was both a news media spectacle and a pro forma counterpoint to his sudden extradition from Mexico on Thursday afternoon, when a police jet flew him from the border to MacArthur Airport in Islip, on Long Island. The brief court proceeding took place under tight security, with police vehicles, heavily armed guards and dogs patrolling the grounds outside the courthouse. Dressed for his arraignment in a blue blue pajama pants and blue sneakers, Mr. Guzmán, 59, stood with his lawyers in front of Magistrate Judge James Orenstein in a courtroom packed with prosecutors, federal agents and reporters. “Are you Mr. Guzmán?” Judge Orenstein asked the defendant. “Sí, señor,” Mr. Guzmán said. The judge then asked Mr. Guzmán if he understood the charges he was facing. “Sí, señor,” he said again. Those charges had been detailed earlier on Friday at a news conference. At the briefing, Robert L. Capers, the United States attorney in Brooklyn, called the extradition of Mr. Guzmán, whose nickname means Shorty, a milestone in the pursuit of a trafficker who achieved mythic status in his homeland as a Robin outlaw and a serial prison escapee. Saying that Mr. Guzmán now faced life in prison on a charge of running a continuing criminal enterprise, Mr. Capers sought to play down Mr. Guzmán’s role as a folk hero and promised that he would not escape his American jailers. “Who is Chapo Guzmán?” Mr. Capers said, flanked by a phalanx of officials from local, state and federal agencies. “In short, he is a man who has known no other life than one of crime, violence, death and destruction. ” Even at a courthouse that has seen the prosecution of Mafia dons like John J. Gotti, the onetime Gambino family boss, and corrupt public officials like Meade Esposito, the former Brooklyn Democratic leader, the arrival of Mr. Guzmán sent a charge through the building, where scores of international reporters were on hand. In an extraordinary confluence of events, Mr. Guzmán was taken from Mexico by plane on the eve of the inauguration of Donald J. Trump and was arraigned in Brooklyn only hours after Mr. Trump was sworn in. After the hearing, he was returned to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, a federal jail that has housed some of New York’s federal defendants, including many facing terrorism charges. As the day began, prosecutors in Brooklyn issued a memo laying out their arguments for keeping Mr. Guzmán in custody. They noted his vast wealth and asserted his propensity for violence and his penchant for escaping Mexican prisons — most notably, the Altiplano prison, where he lived in isolation under surveillance. Nonetheless, he managed to flee after his associates dug a tunnel directly into his shower. Speaking at the news conference, Angel M. Melendez, the special agent in charge of Homeland Security investigations in New York, said he had been at the airport Thursday night when Mr. Guzmán arrived. Mr. Melendez said he looked into Mr. Guzmán’s eyes and saw “surprise, shock and even a bit of fear” now that he was facing “American justice. ” Mr. Guzmán’s escapes in Mexico came while he was serving a long sentence on offenses. Although officials at the gathering refused to discuss details about security measures, Mr. Melendez said, “I can assure you no tunnel will be built to his bathroom. ” Mr. Guzmán is facing charges in six federal districts, and Mr. Capers said the decision had been made to prosecute him in Brooklyn, with the assistance of federal prosecutors in Miami, because the two offices working together could bring “the most forceful punch” to the case against the leader of the Sinaloa cartel. Mr. Capers added that cases in Texas, in California, in Illinois and elsewhere would, for the moment, remain open. The investigation into Mr. Guzmán’s crimes was conducted by a host of agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In its memo filed Friday, Mr. Capers’s office said it would seek a criminal forfeiture of $14 billion against Mr. Guzmán and announced that it planned to call dozens of witnesses to testify about the staggering scope of Mr. Guzmán’s criminal enterprise: its shipments of drugs in trucks, planes, yachts, fishing vessels, container ships and submersibles, as well as its numerous killings of witnesses, law enforcement agents, public officials and rival cartel members. The memo also said the government had a vast array of physical evidence, including seized drug stashes and electronic surveillance recordings. The memorandum of law — supplemented with photographs of seized drugs and the planes, boats and submersibles used to smuggle them — reads like a history of the modern narcotics business. Prosecutors contend that Mr. Guzmán transformed the drug trade with unchecked brutality, remarkable efficiency and brazen corruption. The document tracks his progression from the 1980s, as a smuggler who transported Colombian cocaine to the United States and returned the profits to traffickers there so efficiently that he earned the nickname El Rápido, through the ’90s, when he began consolidating his control in Mexico. As Colombian traffickers faced increased enforcement of extradition laws, and thus greater threat of prosecution in the United States, they ceded elements of the distribution networks in the United States to Mexican cartels, according to the memo. As Mr. Guzmán’s operations grew, prosecutors say, they became increasingly sophisticated. Mr. Guzmán also established a complex communications network to allow him to speak covertly with his growing empire without detection by law enforcement, according to the memo. This included “the use of encrypted networks, multiple insulating layers of and methods of communicating with his workers. ” Mr. Guzmán also established distribution networks in New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Illinois, Texas and California and created “massive efforts that delivered billions of dollars in illegal profits generated from the cocaine sales in the United States to the Mexican traffickers and their Colombian partners,” the memo said. “These changes,” it added, “enabled Guzmán to exponentially increase his profits to staggering levels. ” | 0fake |
Watch Out, Clarence Thomas: Petition Asks President Obama To Nominate Anita Hill For SCOTUS | Conservatives would be so pissed if this actually happened.In what would perhaps be the most entertaining Supreme Court nominating process in American history, a petition is circulating asking President Obama to nominate Anita Hill to replace recently deceased Justice Antonin Scalia on the bench.Hill is most remembered for her courageous testimony against current Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas during his confirmation hearings in 1991. Hill testified that Thomas made unwanted sexual advances toward her during his stint as supervisor at the Department of Education. Despite her passing a lie detector test while he refused to take one, the Senate still confirmed Thomas 52-48 in the narrowest margin since the 1800s after other women were denied the chance to testify in support of Hill.Thomas and his conservative supporters, of course, demonized Hill, accusing her of being used by white liberals to cut down an uppity black with a high-tech lynching. But while Hill may seem to be a controversial choice to fill Scalia s seat on the high court, it s not out of the realm of possibility, nor does she lack the qualifications.Hill is an experienced attorney who also serves as University Professor of Social Policy, Law, and Women s Studies at Brandeis University. The 59-year-old attended Oklahoma State University and Yale Law School. She is one of the most prominent experts in her field and certainly possesses the legal and academic chops to serve on the Supreme Court.Furthermore, there has never been an African-American woman on the Court, which makes this an opportunity to make history with a much needed change. What better way to replace a racist misogynist like Scalia than with an educated black woman who specializes in social policy?Not only that, just imagine how uncomfortable her nomination would make Clarence Thomas feel. He d probably be sweating bullets while watching and hoping the nomination process eliminates her as the nominee. And it would be incredibly hard for conservatives to grill her without reminding the American public of how big of creep Thomas is. And if Republicans are too hard on her, they can be the ones accused of a high-tech lynching of an uppity black woman as they let their sexism and racism fly during hearings that would would likely be nationally televised and strewn across social media.And even if Hill fails to be confirmed, it would make Republicans look like the terrible lawmakers and human beings that they are, all while embarrassing the hell out of Thomas, who may even end up feeling too exposed to remain on the Court. And if she does get confirmed, he might resign anyway or at the very least be forced to watch as the woman he harassed and humiliated over 20 years ago puts on the same black robe to help the American people in a way he has refused to do throughout his own tenure. She could end up being the social justice crusader women and minorities have hoped for and become more revered than Scalia and Thomas could ever hope to be.As the petition says, Now THAT S Justice! Featured image from Wikimedia | 1real |
As Hillary Unfavorables Hit New High, WikiLeaks Warns It’s Launching ‘Phase Three’ Of Election Emails | NTEB Ads Privacy Policy As Hillary Unfavorables Hit New High, WikiLeaks Warns It’s Launching ‘Phase Three’ Of Election Emails Wikileaks supporters, now including a number of disgruntled GOP nominee Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders supporters, promptly replied with tweets expressing hope that phase three would ultimately damage Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's campaign. User “CorruptMedia” responded with a Photoshopped estimating what CNN coverage of Clinton being escorted to jail would look like. by Geoffrey Grider October 31, 2016 Sixty percent of voters view Hillary Clinton unfavorably, according to a ABC News/Washington Post poll released Monday morning, the highest level of unpopularity yet for the Democratic presidential nominee.
On Sunday night , Wikileaks enigmatically tweeted that it would launch “ phase 3 of [its] US election coverage” in the coming week. The site put politicians on notice Sunday evening in a tweet that also included a plea for donations.
Using the last two nights’ results , after FBI Director James Comey revealed a further Clinton-related email investigation , 47% of the Democratic nominee’s supporters said they were very enthusiastic about her, compared with 51% across the previous six nights. Trey Gowdy on FBI Finding 650,000 Clinton Emails
As the Hill noted , Wiki did not provide information about what the third phase entails or if there are still more revelations to come. As a reminder, Wikileaks’ founder Julian Assange currently finds himself in the Ecuador embassy where his internet access has been revoked for the duration of the presidential campaign to avoid the appearance of intervention.
Wikileaks supporters , now including a number of disgruntled GOP nominee Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders supporters, promptly replied with tweets expressing hope that phase three would ultimately damage Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign. User “CorruptMedia” responded with a Photoshopped estimating what CNN coverage of Clinton being escorted to jail would look like. We commence phase 3 of our US election coverage next week. You can contribute: https://t.co/MsNZhrTzTL @WLTaskForce pic.twitter.com/XferJnMGux
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 30, 2016 A new archive of Clinton-related documents would further irk a campaign still reeling from FBI director James Comey’s announcement on Friday that new emails related to the Clinton server probe had been discovered.
Wikileaks has already posted hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chief John Podesta: the former led to the resignation of former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz after it was revealed that the DNC was actively scheming to prevent Bernie Sanders’ nomination; the former has led to a series of dramatic revelations into the strategic operations of the Clinton campaign, with the most damaging emails exposing the Clinton Foundation and WJC’s consulting outfit Teneo as an “influence-peddling” pay-to-play organization as noted most recently in “ Doug Band To John Podesta: “If This Story Gets Out, We Are Screwed” “ SHARE THIS ARTICLE Geoffrey Grider NTEB is run by end times author and editor-in-chief Geoffrey Grider. Geoffrey runs a successful web design company, and is a full-time minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition to running NOW THE END BEGINS, he has a dynamic street preaching outreach and tract ministry team in Saint Augustine, FL. NTEB #TRENDING | 1real |
Sorry, Republicans, Workers Just Got A Major Win In This State | California has just become the latest and biggest state where workers will now receive an increase in the minium wage, up to $15 an hour.The proposed deal would see the wage increase in the state, from $10 an hour.The Los Angeles Times, which first reported the deal, said the wage would rise to $10.50 in 2017, to $11 an hour in 2018, and one dollar per year to take it to $15 by 2022. Businesses with fewer than 25 employees would have an extra year to comply.At $10 an hour, California already has one of the highest minimum wages in the nation along with Massachusetts. Only Washington, D.C., at $10.50 per hour is higher. The hike to $15 would make it the highest statewide wage in the nation by far, though raises are in the works in other states that might change by the time the plateau is reached in 2022.The ongoing campaign to increase the minimum wage in America, dubbed the fight for fifteen, has received support in the states most often as part of laws enacted pertaining to government employees and not the population as a whole. Oregon has enacted legislation upping pay in urban areas, while the city of Seattle passed a minimum wage increase ordinance.Ahead of the 2014 midterm elections, Democrats introduced a bill to increase the national minimum wage to $15. Despite having a majority of the votes in the Senate, the bill failed because enough Republicans opposed it reaching the critical requirement of 60 votes in favor.On the Democratic side of the presidential race, both Clinton and Sanders have backed minimum wage increase ballot initiatives, with Sanders often being more aggressive than Clinton in backing the most progressive iterations of the legislation.Republican presidential candidates have often opposed attempts to raise the wage, with some using the excuse that it would add to the cost of goods even though research indicates that this could easily be absorbed by companies while also preserving fat profits.Featured image via Flickr | 1real |
BREAKING! Trump Moves To Withdraw US From TPP: “From this day forward, it’s going to be only America first…” | Newly installed President Donald Trump has moved swiftly to turn his fiercely nationalist America first inaugural speech into action, stoking unease abroad over the new direction the United States is headed under his leadership.On Day One of his presidency, the White House moved to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. The Obama administration s signature domestic programme, the Affordable Care Act, also fell victim to Mr Trump s move to unpick his predecessor s policies.In his fiery inauguration address on Friday, Mr Trump painted a bleak picture of America today one exploited by foreign countries, burdened with lopsided alliances and failing to defend its borders. For many decades, we ve enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry; subsidised the armies of other countries, while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military, he said, blasting past policies. One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores, with not even a thought about the millions and millions of American workers that were left behind. What s left behind, he said, is a dystopia of blighted inner cities and rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the land. This American carnage stops right here and stops right now, Mr Trump declared. From this day forward, it s going to be only America first Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs will be made to benefit American workers and American families. Mr Trump, revisiting the election campaign themes that resonated strongly with what he called the forgotten voters of Middle America, made clear that under his administration, the US will be hard-nosed in protecting its own interests. We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies and destroying our jobs, he said.Mr Trump s signaling of a dramatic shift in policy has set off ripples of concern in world capitals, even as congratulations and offers to improve ties flooded in. Straights Times | 1real |
Zimbabwe students chant anti-Mugabe songs, exams postponed | HARARE (Reuters) - The University of Zimbabwe postponed exams on Monday after students started chanting and singing songs against 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe, who is under mounting pressure to resign, a Reuters witness said. | 0fake |
Saudi king arrives in Moscow: Russian state TV | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia s King Salman arrived in Moscow on Wednesday, Russian state television footage showed. The Rossiya-24 channel showed Salman s plane arriving at Vnukovo airport outside the Russian capital. | 0fake |
Trump Tells His Supporters Poor People Are Too Stupid To Be In His Cabinet (VIDEO) | Alleged President Donald Trump has been on the job for only 153 days and he held another ego-rally on Wednesday. The crowd of adoring Trump fans cheered him on as he spoke down to them in a condescending manner. The former reality show star who ran on a Drain the Swamp platform offered an explanation in Iowa for why he has one of the wealthiest cabinets in U.S. history. The amateur president suggested that he hired billionaire private-equity investor Wilbur Ross to be his Commerce secretary because he isn t poor. Trump said, I just don t want a poor person in a top economics role. I love all people rich or poor but in those particular positions, I just don t want a poor person, he said at a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Does that make sense? If you insist, I ll do it but I like it better this way. That led to cheers from his supporters.CNN reports:Trump named billionaire Wilbur Ross, who has made a fortune cobbling together dying companies, as his commerce secretary, and Todd Ricketts, part of the billionaire family that owns the Chicago Cubs, as deputy commerce secretary.The Cabinet also includes billionaire Betsy DeVos as his pick for education secretary and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is a former Goldman Sachs executive. Somebody said, Why d you appoint a rich person to be in charge of the economy,' said Trump. I said, Because that s the kind of thinking we want.' They re representing the country. They don t want the money. They re representing the country. They had to give up a lot to take these jobs. They gave up a lot, he said.Trump noted that Ross and his chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs president, were at the Iowa rally. That s right, Trump brought the swamp to Iowa and his supporters cheered him on. But, while on the campaign trail, Trump frequently bashed Goldman Sachs for having too much influence in politics and for paying Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for private speeches.Watch:Let s review history for a moment.It was in 1789 that George Washington, the first elected President of the U.S., tapped his former aide to be the first Secretary of the Treasury. Alexander Hamilton grew up poor and he was an immigrant from the Caribbean island of Nevis his image is featured on our $10 bill.But, in Trump s world, Hamilton, who was an author of the Federalist Papers, would be too poor to be chosen for his administration. Trump suggested to his crowd of supporters that only rich people are smart. Those same supporters still see nothing wrong with the alleged billionaire not revealing his tax returns.According to Trump, billionaires are smart and the rest of us are dumb mother f*ckers. Trump also raged about the media s coverage of his presidency during his rally.Well, we can prove that wealthy people aren t always smart or have compassion. Citation: Donald J. Trump.Featured image via screen capture | 1real |
Trump Tries Taking Credit For Jobs Created By Obama Economy And Gets BURIED For It | Donald Trump is getting fantastically mocked right now for bragging about jobs that are being created as a result of President Obama s economic policies.As soon as the February jobs report was released, Trump and conservative media immediately jumped all over the report as proof that Trump is creating jobs in America as he promised to do during the campaign.The problem is that Trump once called these jobs reports phony when they were issued under President Obama, who oversaw a record 75 consecutive months of job creation in this country.But now that Trump is in office, he is touting the jobs reports as real and is taking credit for the job creation even though that job creation is directly tied to Obama s economic policies Trump has not yet done anything at all with regard to the economy.Apparently, Trump watched Fox News on Tuesday morning and decided to brag on Twitter about the job creation.JOBS, JOBS, JOBS! pic.twitter.com/wAkQMKdPXA Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 14, 2017Of course, Trump hasn t been in office long enough to see what affect his economic policies will have on the job market. Plus he really hasn t done much on the economy because all he has done so far is issue executive orders. Basically, Trump is trying to take credit for job creation that should be attributed to President Obama in order to make himself look competent.Twitter users, of course, were the first to call out Trump s bullshit.@realDonaldTrump @oppstn pic.twitter.com/0jBlXBtetK Jordan Uhl (@JordanUhl) March 14, 2017@realDonaldTrump You use Fox as a credible source of factual information ??? Mike P Williams (@Mike_P_Williams) March 14, 2017@realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/RUtzdDaE8Q JoeMyGod (@JoeMyGod) March 14, 2017@realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/x7zGyAMvH5 Travis Nichols (@travisjnichols) March 14, 2017@realDonaldTrump by Obama* Ines Helene (@inihelene) March 14, 2017.@realDonaldTrump Thanks Obama! pic.twitter.com/WtAu1ZaylU Khary Penebaker (@kharyp) March 14, 2017@realdonaldtrump You believe the numbers now, but they were all FAKE before you took office? https://t.co/uNhQpdSv71 Asshole. Eric Litman (@ericlitman) March 14, 2017@realDonaldTrump But Donald, you ve been saying for YEARS that these numbers are FAKE NEWS.You understand how this makes you look. Right? MatthewDicks (@MatthewDicks) March 14, 2017@realDonaldTrump can you explain how 235k jobs lowered unemployment from 42% as you said it was to just 4.7% as you now claim it is? William LeGate (@williamlegate) March 14, 2017Yep. JOBS, JOBS, JOBS will be lost if you repeal #ACA. @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/JKRFonXK7W Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) March 14, 2017And many of the JOBS JOBS JOBS that are lost will be in states that voted for you. @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/02SQAbj4FM Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) March 14, 2017.@realDonaldTrump Would you like to point to any specific policies you ve enacted that created these jobs? Right. None. #freeloader #resist SuCh (@SuCh) March 14, 2017@realDonaldTrumpObama Obama Obama! pic.twitter.com/cYD0cpqG9N Diva (@sammypolsen12) March 14, 2017Featured image via Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images | 1real |
SWANKY NYC HOTEL TURNS AWAY NAVY OFFICER FOR WEARING UNIFORM [Video] | Because you can t take a chance that a sailor in uniform might offend an anti-military patron Manhattan s swanky Standard hotel has issued an apology after a Navy officer wearing her iconic white uniform was turned away by a bouncer during Fleet Week.The sailor was blocked at the elevator to the Top of The Standard lounge around 8 p.m. Saturday when she arrived with three others who wore cocktail attire, one member of the spurned group told the Daily News on Monday. We walked in, went to the elevator and were stopped by a doorman who said, Hey man, there s a dress code, said Ryan O Connor, the husband of the sailor s cousin. I said, Wait, are you rejecting us because someone is in a service uniform? He kind of rolled his eyes and wouldn t budge. I was wearing a $400 blazer and dress shoes. We were all dressed nice. The only person sticking out was the Navy officer, he said. The sailor requested anonymity.O Connor, a 32-year-old tech consultant, said he asked someone at the hotel s front desk to intervene on his group s behalf and was told the decision was up to the lounge s discretion. We were all shocked and upset, he said. This was Memorial Day weekend and walking distance from Ground Zero. This should have been a no-brainer. The Rhode Island sailor stationed in Virginia declined to give an interview Monday, but her relatives spoke out and sent an email to The Standard s management expressing their outrage at her treatment. A general manager responded to the family by email Sunday and invited the sailor back. We most certainly do appreciate and take a lot of pride (in) all the young people giving their lives to defend our nation, manager Nayara Branco wrote to the family. As per regular protocol, our team at the Top of The Standard is instructed to enforce a dress code which obviously should not apply to military uniforms. Once again, our sincere apologies for the miscommunication at our end, the issue has been brought to all of our team s attention and it will certainly not repeat itself, the manager at Top of The Standard & Le Bain said. It would be a great honor to host her and her fellow colleagues at some point in the future, she wrote.Via: NYDaily News | 1real |
DNC Head Leaked 2nd Debate Question to Hillary | DNC Head Leaked 2nd Debate Question to Hillary October 31,
We're not talking about Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the ex-muppet in charge of the DNC who was forced to resign because of the way the DNC rigged the process to favor Hillary. This is Donna Brazile who was brought in to replace her to bring back integrity to the DNC. Since Brazile is another Clinton loyalist, that was never going to happen.
But the latest leak reveals that Brazile had passed along a second debate question to Hillary. All this just emphasizes how fraudulent and rigged the whole debate process was.
Another leaked email has emerged showing Democratic National Committee boss and former CNN contributor Donna Brazile sharing a debate question in advance with the Hillary Clinton campaign -- despite Brazile's persistent claims to the contrary.
CNN announced in a statement soon after the email became public Monday that Brazile had tendered her resignation and the network accepted it on Oct. 14, days after the controversy over Brazile tipping off the Clinton campaign initially broke.
According to documents released Monday by WikiLeaks, Brazile sent Clinton Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri an email titled, “One of the questions directed to HRC tomorrow is from a woman with a rash,” the night before the March 6 CNN primary debate in Flint, Mich.
“Her family has lead poison and she will ask what, if anything, will Hillary do as president to help the ppl of Flint,” Brazile wrote.
The following night, Lee-Anne Walters, a mom whose twin boys stopped growing and whose daughter lost her hair during the Flint water contamination crisis, posed a question to both Clinton, the eventual Democratic presidential nominee, and her primary opponent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Clinton responded with a lengthy answer that moderator Anderson Cooper had to twice interrupt in an attempt to keep to the agreed-upon time limit.
How pervasive is this kind of thing in the process? We're getting a snapshot of how Clinton's people rigged the process and faked the results to favor them at every turn. | 1real |
Pat Robertson Is Having A Total Meltdown And It’s All Thanks To Rachel Maddow | MSNBC s Rachel Maddow has twisted Pat Robertson of the 700 Club in a knot over her show s ratings which are beating the snot out of Fox News. But just before that, Robertson waded into conspiracy theory territory (while denying that he s a conspiracy theorist) in order to defend Fox News host Eric Bolling over recent allegations that he sent lewd photos to several female colleagues. Then he had a meltdown over Maddow s show, which has almost tripled in ratings, from 849,000 nightly viewers in 2014 to more than 2.3 million in June.The MSNBC host is now the most popular personality in prime-time cable news a title that has been claimed by Fox News TV hosts since 2001. Well, that was too much for Robertson to handle so he launched into a rant about her ratings (as one does while hosting a religious show). MSNBC is now winning the demographic ratings against Fox, they ve got the demos, which is the 18 to 49 young people, isn t that amazing, he said. MSNBC, really? co-host Terry Meeuwsen said in disbelief. Rachel Maddow of all people is number one, but Fox is self-imposed wounds, said Robertson, who then said that he applauds Fox News because they re doing a great job. Those lawyers better get out of the picture and let the programmers run that network, Robertson said.Last month, Trump was interviewed by Roberston in which he spoke of repealing Obamacare, foreign policy and, of course, Hillary Clinton. Trump sucked up the airwaves with the right wing Christian leader to take the opportunity to lie without being called out on the show. But, Pat Roberston is a conspiracy theorist and so is the former reality show star, so hopefully, they went out to eat afterward at Comet Ping Pong, the focus of a debunked right wing conspiracy theorist, to check out the basement together (there is no basement at the pizzeria).Rachel Maddow has been all over the Trump-Russia scandal, increasing her viewership by a hefty percentage.Read more:Image via screen capture. | 1real |
UnitedHealth's Obamacare exit adds pricing pressure on rivals | NEW YORK (Reuters) - UnitedHealth Group Inc’s decision to exit most of its Obamacare health insurance exchanges next year means rivals will need to raise prices further to prop up an unprofitable business, healthcare analysts and policy experts said on Tuesday. The largest U.S. health insurer’s move would likely reduce consumer choices, particularly in states where UnitedHealth has been one of only a handful of players to offer insurance under President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, they said. Large pullbacks by providers like Anthem Inc and Aetna Inc are unlikely as they each await approval from the administration for proposed merger deals with smaller rivals, some analysts said. Spokespeople for Aetna and Anthem declined to comment on Tuesday. UnitedHealth is one of the biggest sellers of Obamacare plans, offering them in 34 states in 2016. The company warned in November that it was losing too much money on the business due to low enrollment and high service costs. On Tuesday, it said it would exit all but a handful of those markets. Many of the estimated 650,000 UnitedHealth plan members at the end of 2016 would need to find another insurer. “You will see significant rate increases for 2017 as the (health) plans try to figure out what is a premium at which (they) can make money,” said Caroline Pearson, senior vice president at research firm Avalere Health. The government provides income-based tax credits to most exchange users, which would help soften the blow from any higher premiums, she said. “In terms of viability of the exchanges, I don’t think that this is going to affect that in the long term,” said Yevgeniy Feyman, deputy director of health policy at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. Even if other insurers decided to leave, he said, he could not envision the exchanges being so unprofitable that they ceased to work. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation study found UnitedHealth’s departure would leave only one insurer in 29 percent of the 1,855 counties where it offered health plans. The report found that if United had not participated in the exchanges in 2016, the national weighted average benchmark “silver” plan would have been about 1 percent higher in 2016. Republican lawmakers have repeatedly sought to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, which provides tax credits to help uninsured individuals buy medical coverage. They have said it creates unwarranted government intervention in personal healthcare and have warned that insurers would be left to cover sicker and older individuals. U.S. health insurers including Aetna and Anthem have also lost money on the exchanges, but have not said they would exit. The Obama administration estimates more than 12 million people signed up for private insurance on the exchanges for 2016. Insurers are in the midst of submitting proposed premium rates for 2017 ahead of mid-May deadlines set by state exchanges and insurance regulators. Aetna Chief Executive Officer Mark Bertolini has questioned whether the Obamacare business was sustainable, but said he was working with the government to improve it. Anthem CEO Joseph Swedish has said that the company was committed to the exchanges. “I would still be surprised if other major insurers followed United’s lead. United was in some sense in a category all its own,” Kaiser Family Foundation Senior Vice President Larry Levitt said. Health plans sold to individual members represented a small part of UnitedHealth’s revenue compared to large-scale contracts with employers, while Aetna and Anthem both had substantial business serving individuals. Aetna and Anthem are undergoing a U.S. Department of Justice review of what would be an historic consolidation in the health insurance industry. Aetna has proposed buying rival Humana Inc, while Anthem has agreed to buy Cigna Corp. | 0fake |
British PM May wants Northern Ireland's government restored | LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday everyone wanted to see an agreement to restore Northern Ireland s devolved government after parties failed to reach agreement. We all want to see a Northern Ireland executive restored, she told lawmakers. | 0fake |
To flee or stay? Irma's shifting path forces some to reconsider | MIAMI/TAMPA, Fla. (Reuters) - Walter Hodgdon scrapped plans to ride out Hurricane Irma on Saturday when shifting forecast models suddenly put his home on a barrier island on Florida s Gulf Coast directly in its path. Within hours, Hodgdon and his partner had hastily boarded up their home and were driving to North Carolina, having the time to store just a few valuable glasswares in an inner closet. Last night, during one of the models, they drew a line right over our house, said Hodgdon, 58, who lives on Terra Ceia where Tampa Bay meets the Gulf of Mexico. We figured if we are going to leave, we are going to leave completely. Hodgdon and his partner, Nels Gullerud, were among the scores of people living on Florida s west coast forced to make last-minute decisions about whether to hunker down - or flee - amid one of the fiercest Atlantic storms in a century. Storm models that earlier in the week projected Irma to bear most heavily on eastern Florida now had the storm barreling right up the western coastline, menacing population hubs around Tampa and Fort Myers. People haven t known exactly what to do, because the situation changes every 12 hours, said Adam Gray, pastor of Redeeming Church in St. Petersburg, Florida, who two days ago week talked to relatives on the east coast about staying with him. Now his wife and young child had evacuated, while he stayed behind to help church members board up their houses and locate spare rooms on higher ground. He planned to open the church to those unable to find shelter. Others in Irma s path decided to take their chances. As surrounding neighborhoods evacuated, Andrea Prather of Fort Myers stocked up on bottled water and food to ride out the storm with her boyfriend and her cat. The 51-year-old pop singer felt safe on the 25th floor of a high-rise built to withstand hurricane-force winds. Still, as the most recent hurricane models showed the storm heading her way, her jitters flared. When it made that turn, that s when I had that anxiety pit in my stomach, she said. How can anyone be totally prepared? Michael Albrecht, a communications professor at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, decided to stay at his parents fourth-floor condo in South Pasadena, near the Gulf of Mexico. He decided he would be safer in the concrete building with aluminum storm shutters, high above any storm surge, than at his own one-story house in nearby Gulfport, on a street prone to flooding and surrounded by tall trees that could fall down. No branches can hit you up here on the fourth floor, said Albrecht, 40. I m worried about what if it s a week without air conditioning and electricity. That ll be inconvenient but not life-threatening. But after a week of making and changing evacuation plans, Dionna Duncan, 48, on Saturday morning simply opted to leave her home in Palm Harbor, Florida. She had been working all week, without time to prepare. Plywood and other supplies were sold out. She could only put out a few sandbags. She remembered to take 200-year-old family pictures. But she left hanging in her closet the wedding veil that her daughters had wanted to wear someday. You just forget, because you are in such a hurry, said Duncan, who works in the insurance industry and had for years made detailed disaster plans. When you are staring something like this in the face, it doesn t matter what your experience is. Most of your knowledge just escapes you. Retiree Ann Pinsker, 71, and her husband chose to evacuate from their Fort Lauderdale condo on Florida s east coast on Thursday when they thought the storm was headed that way. After a 3-1/2-hour drive stretched into 9-1/2 hours, they now fear the storm is headed directly at the hotel where they are staying in Lakeland, in the central part of the state. With Fort Lauderdale now predicted to be spared the brunt of the storm, their neighbors are sending them photographs from a hurricane party they are holding in the building. I wish we were there, Pinsker said. But hindsight is 20-20. | 0fake |
8 Terrifying Plants You Didn’t Know About | As Halloween approaches, here are some terrifying plants and fungus you never want to run into.
Plants are not usually thought of as particularly scary. Here are 10 plants and fungus that will leave you with goosebumps on your skin.
Bleeding Tooth Fungus
This fungus is inedible (though not toxic), and can be found in North America, Europe, Iran, and Korea.
Young, moist fruit bodies can ‘bleed’ a bright red fluid that contains pigment known to have anticoagulant properties similar to heparin.
If you find yourself exploring the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, or North Carolina, you may run into this bloody fungus. Try not to scream.
Red Tide
The red tide of ‘algal bloom’ is a phenomenon that occurs in areas of the ocean that contain high concentrations of algae. The water turns red and red tides are considered to be the inspiration behind the Biblical blood ocean.
Algal blooms happen all over the world and the algae differs from body of water to body of water. The effect of the red tide can be fatal to sea creatures and humans who consume seafood contaminated with the toxin.
Although not all red tides are poisonous, their decomposing process can deplete the water of its oxygen, forcing animals to relocate or die.
Venus Flytrap
The venus flytrap is probably one of the most popular creepy plants. It is known for its predatory behavior towards small flying insects. Its trapping mechanism is made of what looks like a ‘mouth’, or two leaves whose hairs sense prey and toothlike cilia that keep the prey from escaping.
The venus flytrap can even tell the difference between live prey and non-prey like raindrops. The flytrap will let small prey that wouldn’t be worth the energy of digestion go.
Nonetheless, these creepy little plants are inspiration for many horror film monsters and would be a nightmare if they were human sized.
Brain Cactus
Varieties of mammillaria elongata, native to Mexico, grow in many different shapes and sized. The most distinctive of all is the ‘brain cactus’.
As the brain cactus matures, it looks more and more like a human brain. Imagine stumbling upon this prickly organ in the middle of the desert on a dark night!
Gympie Gympie Tree
The gympie gympie tree has a reputation as the most painful tree to exist. Its stinging hairs deliver a very potent neurotoxin and severe stinging. The effects of rubbing against this mean tree can even be fatal to humans.
To be affected, all you have to do is slightly touch the plant and you will feel the effects of the toxins, which can include aching joints, swelling under the armpits, and a burning sensation.
If you are unfortunate enough to be stung by this tree, be sure to remove the hairs or they will continue to release the poison into your body.
Doll’s Eye is a plant that is native to Northeast America.
It’s highly poisonous berries resemble eyeballs are ripen in the summer, staying until the frost. Just in time for Halloween!
Corpse Flower
This flower actually smells like rotting flesh in order to attract pollinators like beetles and flies.
The plant can grow up to 10 feet tall, and although it is called “the world’s largest flower”, it is actually made up of thousands of small flowers.
Octopus Stinkhorn
These mushrooms start out looking like traditional Mario-style mushrooms but mature and erupt their red tentacles to attract flies. These tentacles smell horrible and attract the flies so they can transport their “gleba” to another location for reproduction.
| 1real |
U.S Treasury’s Lew says Colombia peace deal to boost investment, unlock new aid | BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia’s peace deal with the Marxist FARC rebel group will bring more investment to the country, backed partly by new donor aid and loans from multilateral development banks, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and his Colombian counterpart said on Wednesday. Lew told a news conference in Bogota that the peace accord, signed on Monday and set to be voted on by the Colombian people on Sunday, would add to the confidence of foreign investors in Colombia. The 52-year war killed 220,000 people and left millions displaced. “Implementing the agreement, showing that Colombia has a stable future, I think will make Colombia a more attractive place for foreign investment,” Lew said after meeting with Colombian Finance Minister Mauricio Cardenas and President Juan Manuel Santos. He said Santos’ government already had an “excellent reputation” among foreign investors for sound management of fiscal policy and pursuit of economic reforms, despite major challenges from low oil prices. Cardenas said the peace accord would attract both domestic and foreign investment and spur new spending on infrastructure and schools in former conflict areas. He declined to specify amounts but previously estimated that peace with FARC could boost Colombia’s economic growth by 1 percentage point annually. “It will be at the initial stages, more tourism. That’s one of the areas we think the agreement will have the most direct and immediate impact,” Cardenas said. “We will be able also to secure additional funding through cooperation, donors and lending by multilaterals to support expenditures and investments in the rural communities where the conflict was most acute.” Former FARC fighters are already making plans for eco-tourism ventures and cheesemaking operations in vast jungles largely untouched for decades. The peace deal gives FARC a voice in Colombia’s political process. Cardenas said that put the group “in the competition for ideas” but would not alter the center-right government’s economic reform plan, “which thinks that one of the pillars of the success of any country is having low inflation, low fiscal deficit, low debt, and at the same time having a progressive agenda.” Lew said the United States was still committed to providing bilateral aid to Colombia and that he and Cardenas discussed opportunities to gain support from multilateral institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank. | 0fake |
NZ First leader says foreign ownership to be part of coalition wrangling | WELLINGTON (Reuters) - The party holding the balance of power in New Zealand s election said on Monday foreign ownership restrictions would be part of its coalition talks, after a final tally showing greater support for the center-left bloc drove the local dollar to a four-month low. A final vote count published over the weekend - two weeks after the Sept. 23 poll - showed the center-left Labour-Green bloc picking up two extra seats, bringing it nearer to the center-right governing National Party s tally. With Labour-Green on 54 seats and National on 56 seats, both will need NZ First s nine seats to meet the 61 seats needed for a majority in parliament in New Zealand s proportional representation system. When pressed by reporters on whether foreign ownership would be a large part of negotiations with both National and Labour, NZ First leader Winston Peters said he doubted whether anyone in the press expected otherwise. So have you got that? It s a yes, he said. National, which has sought to focus discussions on its careful management of the small, open trading economy, has repeatedly expressed support for open investment. In contrast, Labour has suggested there is room for some restrictions. It wants to ban overseas buyers from purchasing existing homes as it tries to tackle what it has described as a housing crisis in New Zealand. Labour and New Zealand First are thought to have more policies in common, with both looking to curb immigration, renegotiate certain trade deals and adjust the role of the central bank. The New Zealand dollar NZD=D4 fell as far as $0.7052 on Monday from $0.7090 on Friday evening, its lowest since late May, as uncertainty over the election outcome prevailed.The currency traded at $0.7071 in the afternoon. The market s been anticipating more of a center-right government and the unknown from the center-left is weighing, ANZ Economist Con Williams said. Peters, a colorful 40-year political veteran who has in the past has taken senior roles in both Labour and National governments, has set a self-imposed deadline of Oct. 12 to announce which party he will support. When asked how this week s talks compared to previous election negotiations, Peters said, according to local media: They are similar in some ways because of circumstances. More like 1996 than 2005. In 1996 Peters formed a coalition government with National after two months of negotiation, while in 2005 he entered a confidence and supply agreement with Labour, which allowed the center-left party to govern. The 1996 election was much tighter than 2005 in which Labour won a wide lead. But we have a few days to go yet before we will know the outcome, the New Zealand Herald quoted Peters as saying. | 0fake |
After Drug Tests, Is Anyone Left in the Weight-Lifting Room? - The New York Times | RIO DE JANEIRO — The brothers Dan and Anthony Rigney of Australia attended the Olympic weight lifting competition on Sunday and were not exactly mortified that the sport is more polluted than Guanabara Bay. Sure, they want athletes to be but they also want to be entertained by raw human power. So yes, they would have preferred to see the Russian and Bulgarian teams, which were barred for doping. Likewise with Ilya Ilyin, a suspended Olympic champion from Kazakhstan, who is the Barry Bonds of the clean and jerk. “You like to see world records,” said Dan Rigney, 28, a physiotherapist and competitive lifter from Sydney. “It’s like baseball. People just want to see home runs. ” There has long been a pragmatism about weight lifting. Drugs have been a hushed but vital part of doing business. If there is an argument to be made that any sport should permit doping, or even make it mandatory, that sport is weight lifting. “Maybe it already is,” Dan Rigney said with a laugh, adding that, in his view, doping “is what’s keeping the Olympics going. ” Let’s be honest. We don’t want to see anybody lift a keg. We want to see someone hoist a Buick. We are nostalgic for champions like Vasily Alekseyev, the great Soviet superheavyweight who won gold medals in 1972 and 1976. He set 80 world records and was the first person to lift 500 pounds in the clean and jerk. He was so massive that his uniform fit like a chin strap on a bowling ball. And those sideburns — great thickets wide and deep enough to plant potatoes. Oh, sure, we say we are against doping in sports. But we don’t care enough to stop buying tickets or watching on television. And let’s ask ourselves this: Would anyone stay tuned if the Olympic champion ran the 100 meters in 15 seconds instead of nine? Who would watch the N. F. L. if linemen were built more like Gilligan than the Skipper? Most fans seem to view doping in the same way they view special effects in “Star Wars” movies, said Charles Yesalis, a retired Penn State professor and an expert on drugs. “It enhances the enjoyment of viewing because you see people doing things,” Dr. Yesalis said in a recent interview. “If everybody looked like normal people, chances are the N. C. A. A. the N. F. L. and the Olympics would not be entities. ” Before the Games, international sports officials tossed out assorted male and female lifters from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cyprus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, North Korea, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine and Uzbekistan, a Fodor’s guide through the world of banned substances. Olympic weight lifting without Russia and Bulgaria is like Harry Potter without Lord Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange (if those villains wore spandex and had necks the size of Easter hams). The competition will go on, but it won’t be the same. Until recently, weight lifting officials had mostly turned the other way, keenly understanding that the final word of the Olympic motto, “Faster, Higher, Stronger,” is not easily achieved over the counter. Of course, with the Rio Games upon us, the International Weightlifting Federation is suddenly affronted. It has called revelations of widespread doping in Russia “shocking and disappointing” and has said that the “integrity of the weight lifting sport has been seriously damaged. ” Integrity? Now they worry about integrity? There were 24 positive tests at the world weight lifting championships last year, and retesting of urine samples from the 2008 Beijing Games and the 2012 London Games revealed at least 20 additional positives, including four from Olympic champions, according to the news agency Agence . Essentially, comedy has become reality. Remember that “Saturday Night Live” sketch, with Phil Hartman playing a Soviet weight lifter named Sergei Akmudov at the All Drug Olympics? “His trainer has told me that he’s taken anabolic steroids, Novocain, NyQuil, Darvon and some sort of fish paralyzer,” the announcer, played by Kevin Nealon, says earnestly. “Also, I believe he’s had several cocktails within the last hour or so,” the announcer says. “All this, of course, is perfectly legal at the All Drug Olympics. In fact, it’s encouraged. ” Akmudov tries to lift more than 1, 500 pounds, triple the world record in the clean and jerk, except for one small problem. “Oh, he’s pulled his arms off!” the witless announcer yells. “He’s pulled his arms off! That’s got to be disappointing to the big Russian. ” With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dismantling of the Soviet Union, the Olympics lost a gripping appeal for many Americans — the rivalry between East and West. With Russia now absent from Rio in weight lifting and track and field, that enthralling tension erodes further still. “There was no one to root against,” Matt Futterman wrote last month in The Wall Street Journal, lamenting the parting of the Iron Curtain for international sport. “It was like watching a Bond film in which everyone was working for MI6. ” One wonders whether medals won in Rio will be devalued in particular sports, as they were when the United States boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the Soviet Union reciprocated at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. “Weight lifting is so riddled with doping problems, it’s hard to call any medal devalued,” said Bill Mallon, an Olympic historian. And to be sure, many people in weight lifting have applauded the mass suspensions. “Rules are rules,” said Mika Tiainen, Finland’s Olympic coach. “Lifting makes the competition, not the country. ” Still, it would surprise no one if the retesting of urine samples from Rio led to the stripping of medals in coming years. Anthony Rigney, 33, a teacher, said he had seen a meme online: “I can’t wait until 2024 to see who won the gold in Rio. ” | 0fake |
Fight over electoral district boundaries heads to Supreme Court | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It is a political practice nearly as old as the United States - manipulating the boundaries of legislative districts to help one party tighten its grip on power in a move called partisan gerrymandering - and one the Supreme Court has never curbed. That could soon change, with the nine justices making the legal fight over Republican-drawn electoral maps in Wisconsin one of the first cases they hear during their 2017-2018 term that begins next month. Their ruling in the case could influence American politics for decades. Wisconsin officials point to the difficulty of having courts craft a workable standard for when partisan gerrymandering violates constitutional protections. Opponents of the practice said limits are urgently needed, noting that sophisticated technological tools now enable a dominant party to devise with new precision state electoral maps that marginalize large swathes of voters in legislative elections. “There is a sense that something has gone amiss with American democracy, that there is this effort to rig the rules of the game,” said Michael Li, an expert in redistricting at New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice. “Gerrymandering used to be a dark art, and now it’s a dark science.” The justices will hear arguments on Oct. 3 in Wisconsin’s appeal of a lower court ruling that found that the electoral map drawn by state Republicans ran afoul of the U.S. Constitution. The map, drawn after the 2010 U.S. census, enabled them to win a sizable majority of Wisconsin legislative seats despite losing the popular vote statewide to the Democrats. The party’s majority has widened since. The justices must decide whether courts should have a say in such matters. The Supreme Court for decades has been willing to invalidate state electoral maps on the grounds of racial discrimination but never those drawn simply to give one party an advantage. The justices have never settled on a standard by which partisan gerrymandering claims can be measured. In a 2004 case, Justice Anthony Kennedy left the door open for a “workable standard” to eventually be found. Kennedy, a conservative who sometimes sides with the liberal justices on a court with a 5-4 conservative majority, could cast the deciding vote in the Wisconsin case. A federal three-judge panel ruled 2-1 last November that Wisconsin’s redistricting plan violated the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law and First Amendment right to freedom of expression and association. Over the decades, both Republicans and Democrats have been accused of gerrymandering. Since 2010, Republicans’ control of redistricting has coincided with major seat advantages for them in state legislatures, the Brennan Center said. It is not just Republicans who are accused of abuses. Republican voters sued over districts drawn by Democratic lawmakers in Maryland and have appealed to the Supreme Court. State and federal legislative district boundaries are reconfigured after the U.S. government conducts a census every decade so that each one contains about same number of people, typically by the party that controls the state legislature. The Republican National Committee and several conservative groups have backed Wisconsin, but leading Republicans including Senator John McCain, 1996 presidential nominee Bob Dole and Ohio Governor John Kasich have joined critics who argue that partisan gerrymandering distorts the democratic process. ‘SOCIAL-SCIENCE HODGEPODGE’ Wisconsin Republicans argued that election results since their redistricting plan was passed in 2011 reflect the state’s political geography, with Democrats concentrated in cities like Milwaukee and Madison and Republicans more spread out around the state. The state also took issue with metrics that the lower court used to determine that there was a significant partisan bias in the redistricting plan. This “social-science hodgepodge,” the state told the justices, makes it impossible for judges to fairly determine when an electoral map is unlawful. “Plaintiffs’ social-science approach would sow chaos. Each legislatively drawn plan would be immediately challenged in federal court,” the state said in a legal brief to the justices. Nicholas Goedert, a Virginia Tech redistricting expert who testified in court for Wisconsin, said the metrics may be inappropriate because their results can change from one election to the next. Goedert noted that large shifts in the mood of voters can cause even highly biased electoral maps to flip. “Partisan maps have a tendency to backfire on the party that drew them,” Goedert said. The case began in 2015 when a dozen Wisconsin Democratic Party voters sued state election officials claiming the redistricting law intended to discriminate against them for their political beliefs and create enduring Republican majorities. They urged the justices to either greenlight the lower court’s method of deciding cases of partisan gerrymandering, or create their own. “Government should treat voters equally regardless of their viewpoint and we have ways to measure it,” said Danielle Lang, an attorney for the plaintiffs. If the justices rule that courts must stay out of this highly political process, voters will lose, Lang said. “There would be no way for voters to rein in partisan gerrymandering, no way for voters to take back control of their government.” (For a graphic on Wisconsin state electoral maps, click tmsnrt.rs/2haOPD5) | 0fake |
OBAMACARE PRIVACY PRACTICES IN QUESTION AS CRITICS VOICE CONCERNS | Rep. Dianne Black has been in the healthcare industry for decades and knows way too much to be fooled by the Obama administration. She s calling out the Obamacare powers that be on the lack of privacy protection for Americans. This is serious stuff and breaches of privacy have already occurred last week with federal employees. Does anyone believe the privacy gaps will ever be closed with big government? I don t...Critics blasted the White House for perceived privacy gaps in the Affordable Care Act on Monday.Representative Diane Black (R., Tenn.) is concerned about the possible breaches of privacy caused by Multidimensional Insurance Data Analytics System (MIDAS), a storage system for Obamacare participant s personal information. We repeatedly warned of privacy concerns under the data hub only to be told by the Administration that this hub would not collect personally identifiable information instead it would only be used to pass information between the appropriate agencies to verify an Obamacare applicant s eligibility status. Clearly, the Obama administration did not deliver the whole truth, Black said in a release.MIDAS is not included in the Healthcare.gov privacy policy and it was implemented without a privacy assessment, according to Black. MIDAS is said to hold names, financial accounts, Social Security numbers, birthdates, addresses, phone numbers, and passport numbers.Black has more than 40 years experience in the healthcare industry as a nurse and said that privacy is essential to medical care. This should concern every American who desires to see their personal information protected from the prying eyes of Big Brother Obama and it begs the question, she said, adding, What else don t we know when it comes to Obamacare? Read more: WFB | 1real |
U.S. Senate Republicans to unveil tax proposal on Friday: McConnell | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday that Senate Republicans would unveil their tax reform proposal on Friday. McConnell also told reporters that Republican Senator Rand Paul, who was injured in a confrontation with a neighbor at his Kentucky home on Sunday, would return to Congress next week. | 0fake |
Review: Garth Brooks Brings Rousing Anthems and Ballads to Yankee Stadium - The New York Times | “The cameras are over,” Garth Brooks said late Friday night, speaking conspiratorially to the tens of thousands of people who had come to Yankee Stadium to see him. “Now it’s just you and me. ” He had just performed a rousing hour and a half full of anthems, aching ballads, and lots and lots of running. This was his second encore. He asked for a capo, and someone hustled on stage to give him one. Then he played four acoustic killers — a Bob Dylan cover, a Billy Joel cover and two of his own — while, on either side of him, cameras were rolling, taking in the scene. Which is not to say that Mr. Brooks is a liar, per se — only that he is an outstanding salesman, one of the greatest in pop music history, a man who vacillates seamlessly between the performance of intimacy and the performance of exuberance, and often does not distinguish between the two. That skill made him the signature country star of the 1990s, and also the decade’s signature country disrupter. He infused the genre with classic rock gestures, scale and pop ceremony long before doing so became the norm. And that made him staggeringly popular: The last time Mr. Brooks played New York City, it was to almost a million people in Central Park in 1997. This show in the Bronx was the first of two nights here, and the first country music concert at Yankee Stadium. And yet, Mr. Brooks was always a resolutely average singer. His greatest accomplishments were never technical or aesthetic, they were logistical — he turned country songs into community soundtracks. (As if to prove the point, Friday’s show opened with a video of the assembly of the stage, which was impressive, like a tiered cake with a huge circular loop that extended out into the center of the field.) He built the big tent under which country music now unthinkingly parades. He has done so with sleights of performance. Instead of singing with vibrato, he makes eye contact. Instead of vocal depth, he boasts a megawatt grin. Instead of flawless pitch, he has rugged athleticism. What he does have in common with more gifted vocalists, though, is his commitment to feeling. From that encore — especially on the tender “She’s Every Woman” — to “The Thunder Rolls” to “The Dance,” Mr. Brooks continually showed how to hush a room, even one with no roof. His wife, the country star Trisha Yearwood, joined him on the ballad “In Another’s Eyes,” then stuck around for three songs on her own — an energetic cover of “When Will I Be Loved? ,” the peak schmaltz of “How Do I Live” and the slightly tepid “She’s in Love With the Boy” — before giving Mr. Brooks a lingering kiss on the mouth, then leaving. So it was a family affair, too, this Yankee Stadium party. That jovial attitude extended to Mr. Brooks’s band and backup singers, perhaps the most excited and positive group of performers on any stage, anywhere. They smiled and laughed through “Ain’t Goin’ Down (‘Til the Sun Comes Up),” “Two Piña Coladas” and the rowdy “Papa Loved Mama. ” Even when Mr. Brooks turned serious, for just a fleeting second, he turned the moment into an inclusive jam. Before singing the gimmicky “People Loving People,” he said he had been asked to comment on the shooting in Dallas that killed five police officers and injured seven more. He said his answer had always been the same: “We’ve got to love one another — that’s what it’s all about. It’s our only hope. ” In that same breath he mentioned Orlando, Fla. where a gunman killed 49 people at a gay nightclub last month, and Paris, where 89 were killed at a concert last November. Mr. Brooks did not, however, mention the fatal police shootings of black men in Falcon Heights, Minn. and in Baton Rouge, La. And that omission only became more awkward when, later in the show, Mr. Brooks played the joyful “Callin’ Baton Rouge,” a song that felt out of step with the current political moment. Even though Mr. Brooks only recently made a public return to music after several years of semiretirement — he said he will be releasing a new album in the fall — he remains extremely popular. He recently announced a partnership with SiriusXM satellite radio, in which he will have a dedicated channel. And this show was being filmed, which was hard to overlook. Before Mr. Brooks took the stage, a functionary came out and a blanket waiver. Another person said the number of cameras being used was 23. At one point during the show, Mr. Brooks ran around the circular stage twice, encouraging fans to do the wave. Afterward, breathing heavily, Mr. Brooks said that his producer was making “the old, fat guy” do it once more. And so he did. At the end of the night, fireworks shot into the sky from behind the stage, but they were upstaged by the rain, which began during “Friends in Low Places” and really took hold during “The Dance,” one of Mr. Brooks’s most scarred ballads. It was so apt as to seem it was studied sincerity and spontaneity all rolled into one. As Mr. Brooks sang, with eyes closed, about the trauma of failed love, raindrops were exploding at his feet. | 0fake |
What were ex-Trump adviser Bannon's policy wins and losses? | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Friday fired his chief strategist Stephen Bannon, a right-wing political activist credited with driving parts of the Trump policy agenda, with mixed results. Bannon was a top Trump administration critic of the international Paris Climate Agreement, along with Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. They helped persuade Trump to announce in June that the United States would withdraw from the pact struck in 2015 by nearly 200 countries. Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who were not fans of Bannon, wanted Washington to stay in the pact. Bannon also opposed government support of green energy, which he called “madness” and a carbon tax on fossil fuels. Bannon was a driving force behind Trump’s travel ban. It barred U.S. entry by people from several Muslim-majority countries. The ban was announced by Trump, but poorly implemented. It immediately caused nationwide protests and confusion and was challenged in the courts, where it is still tied up, making it so far a partial win for Bannon. Bannon opposed an April military strike ordered by Trump against a Syrian air base in response to what the Trump administration and U.S. allies say was a poison gas attack by Syria’s military in which scores of civilians, including many children, died. Trump has since touted his decision to carry out the strike as a bold one in contrast to former President Barack Obama. In line with Bannon’s position, Trump initially threatened to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement. But then the president backtracked and said he was willing to renegotiate the trade pact with Canada and Mexico. Bannon has long been skeptical of international alliances. Trump alarmed U.S. allies on the campaign trail by calling the NATO security alliance “obsolete” and berating Washington’s western allies for not paying enough for their defense. After massive pressure from the pragmatist wing of Trump’s National Security Council, Trump eventually underscored U.S. commitment to Article 5, a crucial part of the NATO treaty, the mutual defense doctrine. The White House has been mired in a months-long debate over a strategy for South Asia, including Afghanistan. One of the divisions was between Bannon, who favored a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Washington’s longest foreign conflict, versus national security adviser H.R. McMaster and most of the military brass who support a modest troop increase. Trump met with his National Security Team on Friday to try to reach agreement on a strategy for Afghanistan, but made no decision on whether he would commit more troops. Bannon has been a China hawk, urging a tougher line on trade toward Beijing and dismissive of efforts to get China’s help in reining in North Korea. In an interview with The American Prospect magazine published on Wednesday, Bannon said the United States was in an economic war with China and ridiculed suggestions of a military solution to the North Korea issue. Bannon supported a “border adjustment tax,” part of a tax reform package drawn up by senior Republicans in the House of Representatives. The BAT was meant to encourage exports, discourage imports and raise tax revenue. But it divided the business community because it would have raised consumer prices. House Republicans recently dropped the BAT from their proposal, a defeat for Bannon, although he was not a central player in tax policy. Bannon also pushed for tax cuts for the middle class, still not yet delivered. A major 2016 Trump campaign promise was to build a wall on the Mexican border, a position supported by Bannon. Trump’s vow that Mexico would pay for the wall, which the Mexican government has insisted it will not do, has strained relations between the two neighbors. Work on the wall has not begun. | 0fake |
Second, Much Stronger Earthquake Shakes Central Italy | 6 2050 0 9 After being hit by a 5.4 earthquake earlier on Wednesday, Italy has been struck by a second quake measuring magnitude 6.4.
The quakes occurred in central Italy, near the city of Perugia and Visso, roughly 100 miles northwest of the capital of Rome. © AP Photo/ Sandro Perozzi A view of the damaged cemetery of Castelsantangelo sul Nera, Italy, Wednesday, Oct 26, 2016 following an earthquake.
No injuries or fatalities are known at this time.
A 6 magnitude earthquake struck the region in August , causing damage in the regions of Umbria, Lazio, and Marche and killing over 290 people. ... | 1real |
McCain: Trump doesn't understand Syria | "I don't think he understands very well the situation. And he's entitled to his opinion," the Arizona Republican said Sunday in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union."
McCain was pushing back against Trump's assertion last week that the United States should let ISIS and Syria's army fight -- and let Russia worry about ISIS there. Trump's comment came as Russia launched air strikes in the region.
"Do we want to keep slaughtering people in Syria that are fighting for freedom?" McCain said. "Do we want to continue the barrel bombing, which is one of the reasons why 240,000 Syrians have been murdered? Do we want this flood of refugees to continue?"
In the interview, McCain also prodded Republican presidential candidates to "think about Ronald Reagan and the way he conducted his campaigns."
"To impugn each other's characters and integrity is very harmful to each other, ourselves, and our chances of winning a general election," he said, without naming any specific candidates. "I think there's a lot of people in the party that are not happy about the tenor of some of the remarks and the allegations about each other," McCain said. "I'm afraid we will pay a price for it at the polls, and I hope we'll change." | 0fake |
Report: Robots to Take Over ’Wide Range’ of Military Jobs - Breitbart | According to a report by the San Diego the wave of increasing automation is about to put military jobs in jeopardy. [The San Diego reports, “ vehicles poised to take taxi, train and truck driver jobs in the civilian sector also could nab many slots in the Army. ” Additionally, “Warehouse robots that scoot goods to delivery vans could run the same chores inside Air Force ordnance and supply units. ” “New machines that can scan, collate and analyze hundreds of thousands of pages of legal documents in a day might outperform Navy legal researchers,” they continued. “Nurses, physicians and corpsmen could face competition from computers designed to diagnose diseases and assist in the operating room … Frogmen might no longer need to rip out sea mines by hand — robots could do that for them. ” “Just as in the civilian economy, automation will likely have a big impact on military organizations in logistics and manufacturing,” said University of Pennsylvania professor Michael Horowitz. “The U. S. military is very likely to pursue forms of automation that reduce ‘ ’ costs over time, as well as remove soldiers from deployments where they might face risk from adversaries on fluid battlefields, such as in transportation. ” Henrik Christensen, the director of the Institute for Contextual Robotics at UC San Diego, added that “the jobs that are most boring will be the ones that get replaced. ” “Robots will continue to replace the dirty, dull and dangerous jobs, and this will affect typically more uneducated and unskilled workers,” said Christensen. “You need to look at the mundane things. Logistics tasks will not be solved by people driving around in trucks. Instead, you will have fewer drivers. The lead driver in a convoy might be human, but every truck following behind will not be. The jobs that are the most boring will be the ones that get replaced because they’re the easiest to automate. ” During an interview with Quartz last week, Microsoft founder Bill Gates called for a robot tax to offset the jobs lost from automation. “Certainly there will be taxes that relate to automation. Right now, the human worker who does, say, $50, 000 worth of work in a factory, that income is taxed and you get income tax, social security tax, all those things,” declared Gates. “If a robot comes in to do the same thing, you’d think that we’d tax the robot at a similar level. ” “There are many ways to take that extra productivity and generate more taxes. Exactly how you’d do it, measure it, you know, it’s interesting for people to start talking about now,” he continued. “Some of it can come on the profits that are generated by the efficiency there. Some of it can come directly in some type of robot tax. I don’t think the robot companies are going to be outraged that there might be a tax. It’s OK. ” Gates also added that “you ought to be willing to raise the tax level and even slow down the speed of that adoption somewhat to figure out, ‘OK, what about the communities where this has a particularly big impact? Which transition programs have worked and what type of funding do those require? ’” Billionaire and entrepreneur Mark Cuban also claimed on Sunday that robots are going to “cause unemployment,” posting, “Automation is going to cause unemployment and we need to prepare for it,” to Twitter on Sunday, while in November, Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk also predicted that automated robots would lead to mass unemployment, which he claimed could eventually create a universal wage from the government. Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook. | 0fake |
Trump’s Rhetoric Just Resulted In A Trillion Dollar Economic Loss Worldwide | If Donald Trump wants to take credit for something he actually did to the economy, now would be the time.Earlier this week, Trump threatened war against North Korea, resulting in a war of words with Kim Jong-Un and escalated threats that culminated in a Friday morning tweet from Trump.Military solutions are now fully in place,locked and loaded,should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 11, 2017The rhetorical march towards what could end up being a real nuclear war wrecked havoc on global markets, including Wall Street, as stocks plunged. In all, the economic loss added up to $1 trillion, the effects of which will likely hit households in America and around the world hard.According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,With the tense mood pushing European shares down for a third day and Wall Street set to fall again, global stocks were on course for their worst week since Donald Trump won November s U.S. presidential election. We do just not know what happens next with the North Korea situation, said BNY Mellon FX strategist Neil Mellor. For quite some time the market hasn t really reacted to things on the Korean Peninsula because we know from the past it is largely North Korean saber-rattling, and it may yet be. But with the rhetoric having gone to a different level, the market just can t afford to take that risk. Many world stock markets have hit record or multi-year highs in recent weeks, leaving them vulnerable to a sell-off, and the tensions over North Korea have proved the trigger.Indeed, Asia Pacific shares just suffered their biggest one-day loss since December. South Korea s KOSPI dropped by nearly a full two percent.In addition, Australian shares were down 1.3 percent, set for a weekly loss of 0.6 percent and Chinese and Hong Kong bluechips lost 1.6 percent and 1.9 percent respectively. What has changed this time is that the scary threats and war of words between the U.S. and North Korea have intensified to the point that markets can t ignore it, said Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital in Sydney, reports the Post-Dispatch.The Dow Jones has also been falling since Tuesday, the same day Trump threatened North Korea with fire and fury. As of Friday, the Dow has shed 300 points.Trump often brags about the stock market even though the record growth began under President Obama. Donald Trump has not enacted a single economic policy since taking office. The stock market had continued setting records thanks to President Obama s handling of the economy and steady leadership. Trump was merely taking credit for Obama s achievement.But now the stock market is falling in America and around the world because of Trump s war rhetoric, which means this trillion dollar loss is all his fault. There is no blaming President Obama for this economic slide. Trump owns this. And more rhetoric or an attack on North Korea will just make things worse.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images | 1real |
U.N. blacklists Saudi-led coalition for killing children in Yemen | UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations blacklisted a Saudi Arabia-led military coalition on Thursday for killing and injuring 683 children in Yemen and attacking dozens of schools and hospitals in 2016, even as it said the coalition had taken action to improve child protection. The blacklist attached to the U.N. annual report on children in armed conflict also named the Iran-allied Houthi rebel group, Yemen government forces, pro-government militia and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula for violations against children in 2016. The U.N. report said the Houthis and affiliated forces killed and injured 414 children in 2016. The report from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was submitted to the Security Council on Thursday and seen by Reuters. A draft of the blacklist was reported by Reuters on Tuesday. The actions of the Saudi-led coalition objectively led to it being blacklisted for killing and injuring 683 children and for 38 attacks on schools and hospitals last year, the report said, adding that all incidents were verified by the U.N. The coalition had been briefly added to the blacklist in 2016 and then removed by then-U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon pending review. At the time, Ban accused Saudi Arabia of exerting unacceptable undue pressure after sources told Reuters that Riyadh threatened to cut some U.N. funding. Saudi Arabia denied threatening Ban. In an effort to dampen controversy surrounding the report, the blacklist this year is split into two categories. One lists parties that have put in place measures to protect children, which includes the Saudi-led military coalition, and the other includes parties that have not. The report, which was produced by U.N. Children and Armed Conflict envoy Virginia Gamba and issued in Guterres name, does not subject those listed to U.N. action but rather shames parties to conflicts in the hope of pushing them to implement measures to protect children. Guterres spoke with Saudi King Salman by phone on Wednesday. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: They had a very positive discussion on issues of mutual interest, including the situation in the Middle East and beyond. Saudi U.N. Ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi plans to hold a news conference on Friday. Yemen has been devastated by more than two years of civil war in which President Abd-Rabu Mansour Hadi s government, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, is fighting to drive the Houthis out of cities they seized in 2014 and 2015. More than 10,000 people have been killed and the conflict has ruined the economy and pushed millions to the brink of famine. The Houthis control much of northern Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa. U.N. sanctions monitors reported to the Security Council in January that the Saudi-led coalition had carried out attacks in Yemen that may amount to war crimes. Riyadh denies the allegation. The U.N. sanctions monitors said at the time that the coalition was made up of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Sudan. The coalition has received limited U.S. support, including in logistics. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are major recipients of U.S. arms. Saudi Arabia is also a major customer of British defense companies. The coalition needs to stop making empty promises to exercise caution, take concrete action to stop these deadly unlawful attacks in Yemen, and allow desperately needed fuel and aid to reach those in need, said Jo Becker, children s rights advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. Until this happens, governments should suspend all Saudi weapons sales, she said. The annual children and armed conflict report is produced at the request of the U.N. Security Council. In 2015 the United Nations left Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas off the blacklist, after they had been included in an earlier draft, but criticized Israel over its 2014 military operations. | 0fake |
Food mixology: When eaten together, these foods can boost health | Food mixology: When eaten together, these foods can boost health
Isabelle Z. Tags: nutrients , food pairings , turmeric (NaturalNews) If you are making a conscious effort to eat nutritious food, you are already stacking the odds in your favor when it comes to your health and well-being. However, eating all the organic fruits and vegetables in the world is not going to do much for you if your body is not prepared to absorb the nutrients they contain.To be clear, eating a diet that is rich in organic produce, whole grains, and a reasonable amount of healthy fats is always preferable to a diet full of fried food, sugar and processed foods. However, if you want to maximize the benefits of your smart eating choices, you should try some of these food pairings to enhance nutrient absorption and give your health a boost. Milk and honey Your grandmother might have offered you a glass of warm milk with honey when you struggled to fall asleep as a child, and this tried-and-true combination has stood the test of time for good reason: it is a very effective pairing for your health. An amino acid found in milk known as tryptophan is used by the brain to make melatonin and serotonin, while the carbohydrates in honey can help with the uptake of tryptophan. Turmeric and black pepper The active ingredient in turmeric, curcumin, has anti-inflammatory properties, but it tends to be poorly absorbed by the body. Interestingly, the piperine found in black pepper can help boost its absorption significantly, which is why many supplements contain both ingredients. Try cooking a dish that contains generous amounts of turmeric , like curry, and add a sprinkling of black pepper. A tiny pinch of pepper can enhance your absorption of curcumin by more than 2,000 percent! Green tea and lemon If you are drinking green tea for its extraordinary antioxidant content, you might want to start adding some organic lemon juice to your cup. That's because Purdue University researchers have discovered that mixing green tea with lemon juice can significantly boost the amount of antioxidants that are available for your body to absorb. The catechins in green tea can help protect your body against cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer's disease. Olive oil and tomatoes These two Mediterranean diet staples go hand in hand, and it's easy to see why. Tomatoes contain antioxidants that can protect your body from disease, and adding a small amount of healthy fat to carotenoid-rich foods like tomatoes can increase its absorption. Try making a simple salad of chopped tomatoes drizzled in extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar to reap the benefits. The lycopene in tomatoes is also better absorbed when they are heated first, so take this one step further and make a tomato sauce or pizza sauce by cooking tomatoes and adding olive oil and www.herbs.news "="" target="_blank">www.herbs.news">fresh herbs like oregano. Beans and cauliflower People who follow plant-based diets often rely on beans to get iron, but this type of iron is not as easily absorbed by the human body as iron that comes from meat sources. You can increase your body's absorption of the iron from beans by consuming a food that is rich in vitamin C at the same time, and cauliflower fits the bill quite nicely. Pair cauliflower with green beans or garbanzos to give your body an iron boost. You can also try other iron and vitamin C pairings , like strawberries with oatmeal.While all of these foods are quite healthy on their own, if you are looking to increase your intake of certain nutrients, make sure you are opting for food pairings and preparation methods that will boost absorption so you can reap the most benefits. Sources: | 1real |
Factbox: Steps for removing a U.S. president from office | (Reuters) - President Donald Trump has faced strong criticism for his actions regarding investigations into Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. election and contacts between his campaign and Moscow. Trump has denied any collusion by the campaign and has frequently expressed frustration over the investigations, in particular a probe by special counsel Robert Mueller. Critics have accused Trump of seeking to hinder the investigation. The Kremlin has denied any election interference. There is little serious talk being heard in Congress, where both the Senate and House of Representatives are controlled by Trump’s fellow Republicans, of removing the president from office. However, some Democratic lawmakers have spoken of impeachment, a historically rare process in the United States that can lead to a president’s removal. The Constitution’s 25th Amendment offers an alternative path to stripping a president of power but has never been used for this. Under the Constitution, the president, the vice president and other U.S. officials can be removed following impeachment and conviction for treason, bribery or other “high crimes and misdemeanors.” The process starts in the House. Individual members can introduce impeachment resolutions like ordinary bills, or the House can initiate proceedings by passing a resolution authorizing an inquiry. In modern history, the House Judiciary Committee has overseen impeachment proceedings. A simple majority vote is needed to move an impeachment resolution, like other legislation, out of the committee. At that point, it is up to the House majority leader, currently Republican Kevin McCarthy, whether to put the measure to a vote by the full chamber, and when to hold such a vote. The full House can approve the articles of impeachment by a simple majority vote. Impeachment is like an indictment and the Senate then tries the official. A two-thirds vote of the Senate is required for conviction, which results in removal from office. If a president is impeached and removed, the vice president takes over until the next scheduled presidential election picks the next occupant of the White House. Only two American presidents have been impeached: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Neither was convicted by the Senate. President Richard Nixon, facing almost certain impeachment over the Watergate scandal, resigned in 1974. The 25th Amendment to the Constitution was adopted in 1967, following the 1963 assassination of President John Kennedy, to clarify various issues involving presidential and vice presidential succession and incapacity. Under the amendment’s Section 4, the vice president and a majority of either Cabinet officials or “such other body as Congress may by law provide” may declare in writing that the president “is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” If such a declaration is received by the Senate president pro tempore - who presides over the Senate in the absence of the vice president - and the speaker of the House, the vice president takes over as acting president. The president can resume office after informing the same two congressional leaders “that no inability exists” - unless the vice president and a majority of Cabinet officials or another body established by Congress tell those congressional leaders within four days of the declaration that the chief executive is unable to carry out his or her duties. Congress then must assemble within 48 hours to decide the issue. If two-thirds of the members of the House and of the Senate vote in their respective chambers that the president is unable to discharge his or her duties, the vice president continues as acting president until the next scheduled presidential election decides the next White House occupant. Otherwise, the president resumes office. Other sections of the 25th Amendment have come into play, such as Section 3 enabling a president to temporarily hand over power to a vice president while, for example, undergoing a medical procedure. Section 4 has never been invoked. | 0fake |
Is the GOP losing Walmart? | (CNN) As goes Walmart , so goes the nation?
Everyone from Apple CEO Tim Cook to the head of the NCAA slammed religious freedom laws being considered in several states this week, warning that they would open the door to discrimination against gay and lesbian customers.
But it was the opposition from Walmart, the ubiquitous retailer that dots the American landscape, that perhaps resonated most deeply , providing the latest evidence of growing support for gay rights in the heartland.
Walmart's staunch criticism of a religious freedom law in its home state of Arkansas came after the company said in February it would boost pay for about 500,000 workers well above the federal minimum wage. Taken together, the company is emerging as a bellwether for shifting public opinion on hot-button political issues that divide conservatives and liberals.
And some prominent Republicans are urging the party to take notice.
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who famously called on the GOP to "be the party of Sam's Club, not just the country club," told CNN that Walmart's actions "foreshadow where the Republican Party will need to move."
"The Republican Party will have to better stand for" ideas on helping the middle class, said Pawlenty, the head of the Financial Services Roundtable, a Washington lobbying group for the finance industry. The party's leaders must be "willing to put forward ideas that will help modest income workers, such as a reasonable increase in the minimum wage, and prohibit discrimination in things such as jobs, housing, public accommodation against gays and lesbians."
Walmart, which employs more than 50,000 people in Arkansas, emerged victorious on Wednesday. Hours after the company's CEO, Doug McMillon, called on Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson to veto the bill, the governor held a news conference and announced he would not sign the legislation unless its language was fixed.
Walmart's opposition to the religious freedom law once again puts the company at odds with many in the Republican Party, which the company's political action committee has tended to support.
It has been a gradual transformation for Walmart.
"It's easy for someone like a Chick-fil-A to take a really polarizing position," said Dwight Hill, a partner at the retail consulting firm McMillanDoolittle. "But in the world of the largest retailer in the world, that's very different."
Hill added: Same-sex marriage, "while divisive, it's becoming more common place here within the U.S., and the businesses by definition have to follow the trend of their customer."
The backlash over the religious freedom measures in Indiana and Arkansas this week is shining a bright light on the broader business community's overwhelming support for workplace policies that promote gay equality.
After Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, a Republican, signed his state's religious freedom bill into law, CEOs of companies big and small across the country threatened to pull out of the Hoosier state.
The resistance came from business leaders of all political persuasions, including Bill Oesterle, CEO of the business-rating website Angie's List and a one-time campaign manager for former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels. Oesterle announced that his company would put plans on hold to expand its footprint in Indianapolis in light of the state's passage of the religious freedom act.
NASCAR, scheduled to hold a race in Indianapolis this summer, also spoke out against the Indiana law.
"What we're seeing over the past week is a tremendous amount of support from the business community who are standing up and are sending that equality is good for business and discrimination is bad for business," said Jason Rahlan, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign.
National Republicans are being forced to walk the fine line of protecting religious liberties and supporting nondiscrimination.
"By the end of the week, Indiana will be in the right place," Bush said, a reference to Pence's promise this week to fix his state's law in light of the widespread backlash.
Others in the GOP field are digging in. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, the only officially declared Republican presidential candidate, said Wednesday that he had no interest in second-guessing Pence and lashed out at the business community for opposing the law.
Meanwhile, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who previously served on Walmart's board of directors, called on Hutchinson to veto the Arkansas bill, saying it would "permit unfair discrimination" against the LGBT community.
Jay Chesshir, CEO of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce in Arkansas, welcomed Hutchinson's pledge on Wednesday to seek changes to his state's bill. He said businesses are not afraid to wade into a politically controversial debate to ensure inclusive workplace policies.
"When it comes to culture and quality of life, businesses are extremely interested in engaging in debate simply because it impacts its more precious resource -- and that's its people," Chesshir said. "Therefore, when issues arise that have negative or positive impact on those things, then the business community will again speak and speak loudly." | 0fake |
Libertarians See Chance Amid Discontent Over Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton - The New York Times | ORLANDO, Fla. — Delegates puffed on between chants of “freedom!” Educational booths proclaimed the virtues of hemp, “ economics” and the literature of Ayn Rand. A woman on stilts wearing purple angel wings greeted activists as they milled between seminars on drug war policies and on “how to abolish the government in three steps. ” In a year when the two major parties are consumed by tensions, defections and chaos, the Libertarian Party, which sees itself as their alternative, displayed some of the same traits as it wrestled with nominating two former Republican governors for its presidential ticket at its annual convention over the weekend. But there was also a palpable sense of excitement at the event, held at a hotel here less than 10 miles from Disney World. For an antiwar party that promotes legalizing marijuana and tearing up the tax code, 2016 has brought hope that acceptance in the political mainstream is imminent amid broad discontent with the probable nominees from the major parties. “We have been given the gift of Trump and Clinton,” said Larry Sharpe, a businessman and candidate for the Libertarian nomination. “Their ears are open, and I want them to hear who we are and vote for us for who we are. ” The Libertarian Party is the country’s third largest by voter registration, excluding people who consider themselves independent, but it is often overlooked as a political sideshow with a hodgepodge of positions that many consider to be either overly liberal on social issues or too conservative fiscally. With Donald J. Trump’s rise spawning a contingent of conservative Republicans who will not support him and backers of Senator Bernie Sanders feeling that the Democratic Party is favoring his opponent, Hillary Clinton, Libertarians think they are poised to peel away voters from both sides. The party aims to be on the general election ballot in all 50 states. “There are Republican voters who are going to feel cheated by the fact that their presidential nomination has been taken by a reality show star, and there are Democratic voters who are going to feel cheated when that corporate shill boxes out Senator Sanders at the convention in that rigged process,” Nicholas Sarwark, the Libertarian Party’s national chairman, said on Sunday. “When those people feel cheated, we present an option for them. ” Although only the most fanatical party loyalists feel confident about their chances of winning the presidency, many think that Libertarians are poised to win a record number of votes. Some believe they could steal a state, which no third party has done since George Wallace in 1968, or get enough votes to influence the election, as Ross Perot and Ralph Nader did. More than disrupting the election, though, they see it as a golden opportunity for true national exposure and expansion. The party received more than a million votes in 2012, its most ever, and recent polling suggests a growing appetite for candidates. An NBC Street Journal poll this month found that 47 percent of registered voters would consider a candidate if Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton were the major party nominees. Political analysts were taken by surprise this spring when two separate polls showed Gary Johnson, the former New Mexico governor and the 2012 Libertarian Party nominee, pulling 10 percent and 11 percent of the national vote. The party chose Mr. Johnson again as its at its nominating convention on Sunday. If he can get to 15 percent in polls, he can stand on the debate stage as the first candidate to do so since Mr. Perot in 1992. The feat would provide a bounty of free news media attention for a party that does not have the money for expensive advertising or efforts. Mr. Johnson believes that with sufficient exposure and a positive message he can attract both the young, progressive voters who are backing Mr. Sanders and Republicans who want limited government but fear that Mr. Trump would ratchet up spending and start trade wars. “We should be portraying an optimistic message,” Mr. Johnson, dressed in a dark suit with no tie and wearing sneakers, said in an interview. “Life is good in America. ” Looking to add credibility to his campaign, Mr. Johnson is teaming up with William Weld, the former Massachusetts governor, as his running mate. Mr. Weld, who has compared Mr. Trump’s immigration policies to those of Nazi Germany, said he was reaching out to Republican donors who have decided that they cannot support their party’s presumptive nominee. “I’m going to go knocking on every door I can to try to help us along,” Mr. Weld said. As with Republicans and Democrats, the Libertarians displayed their own intraparty divides on Sunday during a raucous round of voting. Many delegates expressed concern that the party was becoming a landing ground for failed former Republicans and sacrificing its purity to appear more palatable. Mr. Johnson secured the nomination on the second ballot of voting, and Mr. Weld was forced to publicly promise his allegiance to the party before he was voted onto the ticket, also on a second ballot. The possible effect of the Libertarians on the November election remains unclear, as most state polls have not included any of the candidates and the party is not yet on the ballot in every state. Kyle Kondik of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia said a ticket with Mr. Johnson and Mr. Weld could capture many votes in their home states of New Mexico and Massachusetts. Alaska, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada have also shown a propensity to find unconventional candidates appealing, he said, so the Libertarians could tilt close races there. “The Libertarian ticket is kind of a mix of left and right,” Mr. Kondik said. “There is potential appeal for it to be a soft landing spot for voters of all stripes. ” Still, the climb will be steep. There were just 411, 000 registered Libertarian voters as of February, and, Mr. Kondik noted, candidates tend to underperform their poll numbers. “Ultimately it would be a giant shock if they carried even one state,” Mr. Kondik said. “Perot never did, and he got 19 percent. ” Despite efforts to broaden their base and become an acceptable alternative to the American public, Libertarians battle perceptions that they are “Republican lite” or “old white guys. ” The convention’s atmosphere belied those caricatures: A clad in a leotard strode across the stage with an umbrella to introduce one candidate, and professional dancers basked in strobe lights at a party before the candidates debated on Saturday night. The debate itself offered a window into some of the challenges the Libertarians face as they try to package themselves for broader consumption while sticking to their principles. The conversation often drifted into strained arguments about how common sense would keep heroin out of the hands of children, how driver’s licenses are unnecessary — one suggestion was a pink flashing light for new drivers — and how public infrastructure could be built without taxes. “Who will build the roads?” Austin Petersen, a presidential candidate and founder of The Libertarian Republic, a magazine, said during the debate. “Where we’re going we don’t need roads. ” There were also presidential hopefuls such as Vermin Supreme, a performance artist who wandered the event with a rubber boot on his head, and Marc Allan Feldman, who began his speech with a Libertarian rap in which he proclaimed, “Republicans and Democrats are wack. ” And then there was John McAfee, the antivirus software pioneer who in 2012 was in hiding in Belize after the police there sought him for questioning in the death of his neighbor. Mr. McAfee, who presented a campaign video declaring, “Here’s to the crazy ones,” doused some of the enthusiasm when he said none of the candidates — himself included — had any chance of becoming president. Win or lose, most remained encouraged that this year will be important for the Libertarian Party and that even if they do not take the White House this time there are opportunities to win state and local races and to convert Republicans and Democrats. Scott Scrimshaw, a community chaplain from Oregon, switched from Republican to Libertarian six months ago after he surveyed the field of candidates and found himself disappointed. A longtime admirer of Ronald Reagan, he said that he could not trust Mr. Trump with his vote and that he did not want to choose between “the lesser of two evils. ” “I feel we are really on the edge of entering a new era of American politics,” Mr. Scrimshaw said. “The era of the third party. ” | 0fake |
Cubans say crestfallen that Trump rolling back detente | HAVANA (Reuters) - Cubans said they were crestfallen to be returning to an era of frostier relations with the United States as the news spread that U.S. President Donald Trump was set to revert parts of the historic detente with Cuba. Trump will on Friday announce a plan to tighten rules on Americans traveling to Communist-run Cuba and significantly restrict U.S. firms from doing business with Cuban enterprises controlled by the military, White House officials said. “It hurts to be going backwards. To roll back the engagement will only manage to isolate us from the world,” said Havana resident Marta Deus, who will try to tune into Trump’s speech in Miami, the heartland of Cuban exiles. Deus recently set up an accountancy firm and courier service, to cater to a private sector that has flourished since a landmark agreement two and a half years ago between former U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro to normalize relations between the former Cold War foes. “We need clients, business, we need the economy to move and by isolating Cuba, they will only manage to hurt many Cuban families and force companies to close,” she said. The 2014 deal sparked widespread euphoria in Cuba and raised hopes for an improvement in its ailing economy. An increased arrival of U.S. tourists thanks to eased restrictions fueled a boom in tourism, especially in Havana, creating demand for more BnBs, restaurants, taxis and tour guides in the fledgling private sector. But critics say the opening failed to improve rights on the island. Trump will justify his partial reversal of Obama’s measures to a large extent on those grounds, the White House officials said, and some Cuban dissidents back his tougher stance, saying repression has worsened since the detente. Cuban authorities have stepped up their detentions of activists, often confiscating their telephones and laptops, but they have also been coming down with a heavy hand on self- employed Cubans who appear to be empowering themselves. “When the Obama administration stopped condemning human rights violations in Cuba, the regime here said ‘look we can do this and nothing happens, so we can continue repressing more forcefully’,” said Jose Daniel Ferrer, who leads the Patriotic Union of Cuba, the country’s largest dissident group. Ferrer said his group had 53 activists currently imprisoned due to their political views. Other dissidents agree repression has worsened but say rolling back the detente, which will hurt ordinary Cubans, is not the solution. “It will probably not have any benefit in terms of human rights,” said Eliecer Avila, the leader of the opposition youth group Somos Mas. The Cuban government has withstood the U.S. trade embargo for more than a half century and will not make any political concessions to the United States due to economic pressure, said Carlos Alzugaray, a retired Cuban diplomat. “I am concerned it will affect the private sector quite a bit and much more than the Cuban government,” he said. Without doubt it will impact those in the tourism industry that have benefited from a threefold increase in U.S. visits in the last two years, although it is unclear just how much. “It’s going to really hurt me because the majority of my clients are from the United States,” said Enrique Montoto, 61, who rents rooms on U.S. online home-rental marketplace Airbnb, which expanded into Cuba in 2015. “With things going to pot, I’ll have to tighten my belt.” This new setback to the Cuban economy will come at a time when it is already wrestling with falling oil shipments from crisis-stricken ally Venezuela and a decline in exports. “This is another blow for Cubans and it will hurt our pockets obviously,” said Martha Garcia, 51. “With the United States, there is no tranquility.” | 0fake |
Donald Trump Likely to End Aid for Rebels Fighting Syrian Government : Information | Donald Trump Likely to End Aid for Rebels Fighting Syrian Government
By DAVID E. SANGER November 13, " NYT " - WASHINGTON President-elect Donald J. Trump said Friday that he was likely to abandon the American effort to support moderate opposition groups in Syria who are battling the government of President Bashar al-Assad, saying we have no idea who these people are.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal that dealt largely with economic issues, including his willingness to retain parts of the Affordable Care Act, he repeated a position he took often during his campaign: that the United States should focus on defeating the Islamic State, and find common ground with the Syrians and their Russian backers.
Ive had an opposite view of many people regarding Syria, Mr. Trump told The Journal. My attitude was youre fighting Syria, Syria is fighting ISIS, and you have to get rid of ISIS. Russia is now totally aligned with Syria, and now you have Iran, which is becoming powerful, because of us, is aligned with Syria.
His comments suggest that once Mr. Trump begins overseeing both the public support for the opposition groups, and a far larger covert effort run by the Central Intelligence Agency, he may wind down or abandon the effort. But there are in fact two wars going on simultaneously in Syria.
One is against the Islamic State, in which the United States is supporting 30,000 Syrian-Kurdish and Syrian-Arab fighters, who last weekend announced they were opening a new phase of the battle, beginning to encircle the ISIS capital in Raqqa. There are roughly 300 United States Special Operations forces on the ground assisting these militia.
The second effort is in support of rebels fighting Mr. Assad. The C.I.A. covert program is by far the largest conduit of support, providing antitank missiles to rebels fighting the government. That is the program that Mr. Trump seems most intent on ending. If the United States pursues that line, We end up fighting Russia, fighting Syria, Mr. Trump told The Journal.
The argument for ending the support may be bolstered by the fact that, as a matter of survival, those opposition groups have entered into battlefield alliances with the affiliate of Al Qaeda in Syria, formerly known as Al Nusra. This has had the effect of allowing Mr. Assad and Russia to argue that they are attacking Al Qaeda, and the United States should aid them in that effort. Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged that argument during his ultimately failed effort to reach a deal for a cease-fire and an ultimate settlement.
Mr. Trumps the-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend logic is consistent with what he said during the campaign. Im not saying Assad is a good man, cause hes not, he told The New York Times in an interview in March, but our far greater problem is not Assad, its ISIS.
But it also takes a position that will gratify President Vladimir V. Putin, because it suggests that rather than pressure Russia to end its support of Mr. Assad, a Trump administration will get out of Mr. Putins way.
In another hint of a major change in policy, one of Mr. Trumps primary national security advisers, Lt. General Michael T. Flynn, the retired head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, wrote in The Hill newspaper this week that the United States should extradite Fethullah Gulen who Turkey has demanded should be sent back from his exile in Pennsylvania. The Turkish government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed him for a coup attempt over the summer.
The Justice Department has not yet concluded that there is any convincing evidence that Mr. Gulen should be sent back to almost certain confinement or execution under an extradition treaty with the United States. They see the request as part of Mr. Erdogans effort to eliminate all opposition.
Mr. Flynn adopted many of Turkeys arguments about Mr. Gulen, arguing that American taxpayers are helping finance Gulens 160 charter schools in the United States, and that it is more important to support Turkey than be hoodwinked by this masked source of terror and instability nestled comfortably in our own backyard.
Eric Schmitt contributed reporting. President Assad: Syria is ready to co-operate with Donald Trump : The US is currently enmeshed in a complicated alliance in Syria with Turkey and Saudi Arabia, who would like to provide rebels among them al-Qaeda-backed factions with surface-to-air missiles. What will Trump do on Syria?: The US should get out of the war in Syria and avoid destabilising more Middle Eastern countries, and the US should work with Putin to defeat terrorist groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS). | 1real |
Pelosi: ’I Think the Press Were Accomplices in the Undermining of Our Election’ - Breitbart | Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi ( ) passed blame on to the press for giving attention to revelations uncovered by WikiLeaks, which made public emails by top Clinton aide John Podesta and the Democratic National Committee. When asked by host Jake Tapper if Barack Obama could have done more to strike back against Russia, who is widely believed to be responsible for the WikiLeaks material, Pelosi called the press “accomplices. ” “Well, I think that President Obama handled it as he received information of that — of the highest confidence,” she said. “I do think, with all due respect in the world for the press, that the press could have done a better job, instead of printing every email that came out, and saying this comes to you from Vladimir Putin, they were, hah, hah, hah, John Podesta said this or that. I think the press were accomplices in the undermining of our election by the Russians by not pointing out this stuff is worthless because it comes from an undermining of our election, or at least reminding the public where this — these emails, the leaking of these emails came from. So, I can’t speak to the timing of what President Obama said. I wish he — it had all happened in a time where the public could know that this had an impact on the election. A lot of things have an impact on the election. This certainly was one of them. “So, I can’t speak to the timing of what President Obama said. I wish he — it had all happened in a time where the public could know that this had an impact on the election,” Pelosi continued. “A lot of things have an impact on the election. This certainly was one of them. But what’s important to note is that it doesn’t happen again and that people in other countries are — realize what they are going to be susceptible to when the Russians come in to undermine their elections. ” Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor | 0fake |
WATCH: BLACK LIVES MATTER Bernie Sanders Supporters SPIT On U.S. Flag In Front Of Vets At Trump Rally | The new Democrat party Godless Socialists, racists, illegal aliens and anti-Americans. Is it any wonder they re flocking to Bernie like flies to sh*t?A peaceful protest at Donald Trump s Sunday rally in West Allis, Wisconsin featured several Black Lives Matter supporters standing on the American flag.In the videos obtained by InfoWars protesters stated that the red, white and blue this shit is the new swastika. Via: Daily Callerh/t Weasel Zippers | 1real |
To Our Readers, From the Publisher and Executive Editor - The New York Times | When the biggest political story of the year reached a dramatic and unexpected climax late Tuesday night, our newsroom turned on a dime and did what it has done for nearly two years — cover the 2016 election with agility and creativity. After such an erratic and unpredictable election there are inevitable questions: Did Donald Trump’s sheer unconventionality lead us and other news outlets to underestimate his support among American voters? What forces and strains in America drove this divisive election and outcome? Most important, how will a president who remains a largely enigmatic figure actually govern when he takes office? As we reflect on the momentous result, and the months of reporting and polling that preceded it, we aim to rededicate ourselves to the fundamental mission of Times journalism. That is to report America and the world honestly, without fear or favor, striving always to understand and reflect all political perspectives and life experiences in the stories that we bring to you. It is also to hold power to account, impartially and unflinchingly. You can rely on The New York Times to bring the same fairness, the same level of scrutiny, the same independence to our coverage of the new president and his team. We cannot deliver the independent, original journalism for which we are known without the loyalty of our readers. We want to take this opportunity, on behalf of all Times journalists, to thank you for that loyalty. Sincerely, Arthur Sulzberger Jr. publisher Dean Baquet, executive editor | 0fake |
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SOMALI PIRATE POSING AS A “REFUGEE” Found Covered In Blood After Stabbing Roommate 19 Times In German Government Funded Housing | Apparently free housing, food and spending money wasn t enough for this murderous thug posing as a helpless refugee A Somali pirate who was in jail in France for seven years has been jailed for another eleven years in Germany after murdering a fellow African while pretending to be an asylum seeker in a Berlin invader camp.The astonishing story of the 35-year-old African invader has been revealed in the Potsdam, Berlin-based M rkische Allgemeine newspaper.The Somali who has still not been named, apparently by court order provided an astonishing story which dramatically illustrated how hordes of fraudsters have taken advantage of deluded European liberals to invade and parasite off Europe.He entered Germany in May this year and joined in the general rush to claim asylum, the M rkische Allgemeine reported.The German liberals immediately gave him housing, food, and welfare money. He received an apartment which he shared with another African asylum seeker from Somalia in a building on the Potsdamer Strasse in Teltow (Potsdam-Mittelmark).He fell out with his flatmate, a 21-year-old, and in a murderous frenzy, stabbed him nineteen times, cutting his carotid artery. The 35-year-old fled the scene, but was easily spotted on the streets a few blocks away not only because of his skin color, but also because he was drenched in his murder victim s blood.The Potsdam regional court found him guilty of the latest murder and rejected his plea of manslaughter, saying that the nature of the victim s wounds showed clear premeditation. He was sentenced to eleven-and-half-years in jail.During the court proceedings, his pretrial statements to the police were read out, and his incredible story emerged. In these statements, the Somali admitted to the police that he had previously been jailed in France for seven years after being convicted of piracy off the horn of Africa.In addition, he said, he had killed another inmate while in prison in France, and upon his release, he had simply crossed the border into Germany, thrown away his identification papers, and joined the asylum queue in Berlin.The lack of identification papers is also the reason why the court has not ordered his name to be released because they do not know his real name or even his actual age.The court found that he had documents which gave two different birth dates, and he himself had claimed a third, while he had been registered in the German asylum system under three different names.The latter maneuver is an old trick used by Third World swindlers in Europe to triple their welfare benefits, and is a growing problem with the latest wave of incomers.Nonetheless, the Somali s successful exploitation of the asylum system wrecked only by his murderous behavior serves as a perfect case study in the criminal nature of the Third World invasion and of the stupidity of leftist Europeans in allowing the asylum racket to continue. Via: Maz-online and New Observer | 1real |
Confused Old Man Shows Up At The Golf Course Instead Of His Job For 14th Time In 10 Weeks | A tired 70-year-old man keeps forgetting to show up at his new job and instead, he has repeatedly gone golfing. The irony is that this same man routinely mocked the man who previously held his job for golfing. This man s job title: Commander-in-Chief. We suspect that former reality show star Donald Trump didn t realize that being the alleged leader of the free world would be a difficult job. Trump is up to his eyeballs in scandals and instead of addressing them, he s either tweeting or on the golf course, or both.Again, the Twitter-addicted amateur president is playing golf at a Trump-owned golf course, raising more concerns over his mounting conflicts of interest.The White House press pool reports that Trump is meeting with budget director Mick Mulvaney and Senator Rand Paul. Last time Trump went golfing, he claimed to be in meetings, however, that doesn t appear to be true.Trump returned to the same golf club in Virginia.Last year, during a campaign rally, Trump referred to his golf courses when criticizing former President Barack Obama.The Independent reports:The President has visited his own-branded properties approximately once every three days during the course of his presidency so far, according to The Washington Post. You know what and I love golf but if I were in the White House, I don t think I d ever see Turnberry again, Trump declared. I don t think I d ever see Doral again, I own Doral in Miami, I don t think I d ever see many of the places that I have. I don t ever think that I d see anything, I just wanna stay in the White House and work my ass off, make great deals, right? Who s gonna leave? I mean, who s gonna leave? he said.At a 2016 rally in Virginia, Trump said, I m going to be working for you, I m not going to have time to go play golf. Per WH: @POTUS golfing with @RandPaul and OMB Dir Mulvaney at Trump Natl in Virginia with health care to be discussed Margaret Talev (@margarettalev) April 2, 2017This is Trump s 14th golf outing in just 10 weeks. We get it, Donald. You re tired and what better place to take a break than the Sunshine state? After all, he s been on the job for two whole months.Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images. | 1real |
Australia, NZ officials discuss screening for Manus refugees - NZ PM | WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand and Australia have begun talks about screening procedures for asylum seekers holding out in a Papua New Guinea detention center, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday, amid reports of worsening health conditions there. Australia has been refusing New Zealand s offer to take up to 150 of the detainees from the Australian-run camp on Manus Island, but Ardern s comments have raised speculation that Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is ready to accept. The center was closed almost three weeks ago after PNG s High Court ruled it was illegal, but more than 400 detainees have refused to leave, citing concerns for their security if they were moved to transit centers as planned. More than 150 men at the center were seriously ill without access to basic first aid or medicine, said advocacy group Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC), which is calling for safe resettlement of the men. A team from the group, which is based in Australia, visited the center last Wednesday, a spokeswoman said. The deteriorating state of the men s bodies was obvious to me as I was shown around, said Jana Favero, the group s campaigns director. This is a medical emergency festering inside a humanitarian crisis. Medical conditions requiring urgent care ranged from chest pain and undiagnosed episodes of unconsciousness to infections and chronic diarrhea among others, the group added. Turnbull has been refusing New Zealand s offer as he worries asylum seekers could view it as a back door to Australia, undermining the country s tough immigration policies. Ardern said the conversations were about establishing the screening processes. To be clear, we have not started that process, she told Radio New Zealand. But I think that certainly we re a bit further along than we have been before - we haven t even had officials having those discussions in the past. The United Nations, which has warned of a looming humanitarian crisis , last week urged Australia to accept New Zealand s offer to take the men. Turnbull has insisted the priority was an existing refugee swap deal negotiated last year with former U.S. president Barack Obama. The men holed up in the camp depend on erratic food supplies smuggled in by supporters. They lack power and running water. Australia s sovereign borders immigration policy that refuses to let asylum seekers arriving by boat reach its shores has been heavily criticized by the United Nations and human rights groups, but has bipartisan domestic political support. | 0fake |
‘This Is Not My Child’: JetBlue Flew 2 Boys to Wrong Cities, Mother Says - The New York Times | It is any parent’s nightmare. Maribel Martinez of New York had arranged for her son, Andy, to fly home unaccompanied on JetBlue from the Dominican Republic on Aug. 17. But when she went to pick him up at Kennedy International Airport, she got the shock of her life. Airline employees presented her with a boy who was clutching Andy’s passport and luggage. But he was not her child. “Is this your son?” Ms. Martinez said she was asked, according to news reports on Thursday. She replied, “No, this is not my child. ” Ms. Martinez, 38, told The Daily News, which initially reported the situation: “I thought he was kidnapped. I thought I would never see him again. ” The airline eventually found her son in Boston. JetBlue said it had put Andy on the wrong plane in a with another child who had also flown out of the Dominican Republic. “It was a total three hours before she found out he was O. K. and wasn’t kidnapped,” Ms. Martinez’s lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein, said in an interview on Friday. Ms. Martinez said at a news conference that she had been on vacation with Andy in the Dominican Republic in July, but had to return to New York before he did. Her relatives took him to the airport in Santiago for his return flight. It was unclear what happened to the other boy. Joseph Pentangelo, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates J. F. K. said two uniformed officers stayed with him and airline personnel near the boarding gate until the child was put on a flight to Boston. In an emailed statement on Friday, JetBlue said that two unaccompanied children of the same age had been booked from Cibao International Airport in Santiago on separate planes: Flight 924 to Boston and Flight 436 to New York. But each child boarded a flight to the wrong destination, the airline said. “Upon learning of the error, our teams in J. F. K. and Boston immediately took steps to assist the children in reaching their correct destinations,” the statement said. “While the children were always under the care and supervision of JetBlue crew members, we realize this situation was distressing for the families. ” The airline added, “We are also reviewing the incident with our leadership and Santiago airport team to prevent similar situations from occurring in the future. ” JetBlue declined to make an official available to answer questions on Friday. But the airline said it had refunded the tickets and offered each family a credit toward future JetBlue flights. Ms. Martinez was given $475 for the cost of the ticket and $2, 100 for future travel, according to news reports. The Transportation Department, which oversees consumer protection issues, said that it had no regulations for travel by unaccompanied minors, but that it was up to the airlines to devise their own policies. Special procedures apply to children ages 5 to 11 who are flying alone, but they vary from airline to airline, the department said. JetBlue said children at least 5 but under 14 could travel alone on its planes, but only on nonstop flights, and for a $100 fee. Caitlin Harvey, a department spokeswoman, said the family might be able to pursue a civil action. “While we receive anecdotal reports about these types of incidents, we do not keep statistics on them,” she said in an email on Friday. Mr. Rubenstein said that he wanted an independent government agency to investigate before he decided on any litigation, and that he had sent the Federal Aviation Administration a letter asking them to look into the matter. “Any parent can understand the terrifying fear a mother goes through knowing that her child is missing,” he told The News. | 0fake |
MEDIA GOES NUTS After Trump Tweets HILARIOUS VIDEO Showing Him Body-Slamming CNN | President Trump on Sunday tweeted a video of him body-slamming World Wrestling Entertainment Chairman Vince McMahon whose face was replaced by the CNN logo.The tweet, which said, #FraudNewsCNN #FNN, linked to a video of the president decking, pummeling and then shaving off McMahon s hair during a Battle of the Billionaires stunt at WrestleMania XXIII in 2007.#FraudNewsCNN #FNN pic.twitter.com/WYUnHjjUjg Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2, 2017McMahon is the husband of Linda McMahon, who heads Trump s Small Business Administration.President Barack Obama hosted felon and radical organizer Bob Creamer (the guy who was caught on video talking about how he was organizing paid protesters to incite violence at Trump rallies) at the White House over 100 times while he was in office. After the undercover video was released that exposed the Democrats plan to incite violence against innocent Trump supporters, the media was silent. The media was also silent when it was discovered that Obama s Attorney General Eric Holder, used taxpayer funds to pay people to protest against George Zimmerman in the heated Trayvon Martin case, which was the birthplace of the violent Black Lives Matter movement. Those protests marked the first step in Obama s plan to divide America.In a statement on Twitter, CNN recalled comments from White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders last week that the president doesn t condone violence against the media. The President in no way form or fashion has ever promoted or encouraged violence. If anything, quite the contrary. @SHSanders45 6/29/17, the CNN tweet said.Bipartisan condemnation against the take-down video continued to build Sunday morning.GOP Rep. Eric Swalwell urged all Republicans to rebuke the Tweet or be complicit in its message. I am calling on EVERY @HouseGOP Member of Congress to condemn this. You were elected to be a check on power. Check it, or you condone it, the California representative tweeted on Sunday.Minority House Leader Nancy Pelosi also blasted the tweet. Violence & violent imagery to bully the press must be rejected. This #July4th, celebrate freedom of the press, guardians to our democracy, she wrote on Twitter.Paul Joseph Watson sums up the media hypocrisy beautifully with this one tweet:Trump is "inciting violence" with a wrestling meme, says same media that literally painted a crosshair target on Trump's head. pic.twitter.com/m8V8XjYHU0 Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) July 2, 2017A Trump administration official said he doesn t view Trump s tweet as inciting violence against the media. Certainly not, though I think that no one would perceive that as a threat. I hope they don t. I do think that [Trump is] beaten up in a way on cable platforms that he has a right to respond to, Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert said on ABC s This Week. He said cable news shows are not always very fair to the president, who developed a social media platform to speak directly to the American people. Trump is the most genuine president and the most non-politician president we ve seen in my lifetime, he said.Watch #FakeNewsCNN experts call Trump Dangerous and a Fascist :The president was also the subject of bipartisan scorn last Thursday when he posted the bleeding badly tweet about Brzezinski, with many lawmakers saying it was beneath the dignity of the office.Trump defended his use of social media in a tweet on Saturday. My use of social media is not Presidential it s MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL. Make America Great Again!, he wrote. NYPNOTE TO CNN: Re-tweeting a video that s been around for years showing a fake body-slam by then businessman Trump is a far cry from promoting violence. If you were so concerned about violence, why didn t you do any stories on felon, husband of a United States Congresswoman and Democrat operative who was caught on tape planning to incite violence at Trump rallies before he even became our President? | 1real |
Trump Calls for the Return of Waterboarding by US | “You know, they don’t use waterboarding over there; they use chopping off people’s heads,” Trump said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” Waterboarding, a method of torture in which water is poured over the face of an immobilized prisoner to simulate drowning, is “peanuts” compared with that, Trump said. He said he “would absolutely bring back interrogation and strong interrogation.”
Ben Carson, running 4 percentage points behind Trump in the latest Bloomberg Politics national poll, taken Nov. 15-17, declined to say whether he’d favor waterboarding, during an appearance on the same program.
“I’m not one who is real big on telling the enemy what we’re going to do and what we’re not going to do,” Carson said.
Trump seemed to moderate earlier comments that were taken as support for a U.S. government registry of Muslims, saying he wants a database for refugees coming into the country from Syria.
“When the Syrian refugees are going to start pouring into this country, we don’t know if they’re ISIS, we don’t know if it’s a Trojan horse,” Trump said. “And I definitely want a database and other checks and balances.”
The billionaire New York real-estate developer also argued for a program to monitor activity at U.S. mosques.
“I don’t want to close mosques; I want to surveil mosques,” he said. Without what he called “strong measures,” he warned that “you’re going to see buildings coming down all over New York City and elsewhere.”
Carson, a retired doctor, also agreed with heavy monitoring of those with the most potential of leaning toward terrorism.
“We should monitor anything -- mosques, church, school, you know, shopping center -- where there is a lot of radicalization going on,” Carson said, acknowledging that it could require beefing up U.S. intelligence capabilities.
Carson, who has said he favored what he considered a fairly easy measure to undermine the Islamic State’s finances by destroying their oil fields, was questioned on that point after President Barack Obama said such methods aren’t so simple according to the “best military minds.”
“We don’t really have the option of deciding whether it’s easy or not to take them out,” Carson said Sunday. “We need to get rid of their ability to derive money from oil, whether we take the fields or whether we blow the fields up.”
He said Iraqi military forces may perform better if they worked directly with U.S. special operations personnel.
Trump was also questioned Sunday about whether he would favor banning people on terrorist watch lists from obtaining firearms, to which he responded, “If somebody is on a watch list and an enemy of state and we know it’s an enemy of state, I would keep them away, absolutely.” | 0fake |
Clinton slams Trump for commenting on Fed policies | TAMPA, Fla. (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton criticized Republican rival Donald Trump on Tuesday for making comments about the Federal Reserve’s monetary policies, which she said should be off-limits for U.S. presidents and presidential candidates. “You should not be commenting on Fed actions when you are either running for president or you are president,” Clinton told reporters on her campaign plane. “Words have consequences. Words move markets. Words can be misinterpreted.” Trump, who has previously accused the U.S. central bank of keeping interest rates low to help Democratic President Barack Obama, said on Monday that interest rates should change. “They’re keeping the rates down so that everything else doesn’t go down,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s request to address a potential rate hike by the Federal Reserve in September. “We have a very false economy.” Clinton criticized the New York real estate magnate in her second press conference in as many days. “He should not be trying to talk up or talk down the economy, and he should not be adding the Fed to his long list of institutions and individuals that he is maligning and otherwise attacking,” she said. Clinton, a former U.S. senator from New York and secretary of state, also said that daughter Chelsea Clinton’s involvement in the Clinton Foundation charity will be decided after the Nov. 8 election. “These issues will be decided after the election. And we will decide the appropriate way forward,” she said. Earlier, she told ABC News that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, should not have to step down before the election from his position at the foundation. “I don’t think there are conflicts of interest,” Clinton said in the ABC interview. “I know that that’s what has been alleged and never proven. But nevertheless, I take it seriously.” Her use of a private email server while secretary of state and questions about improper influence involving donors to the Clinton Foundation have been thorny topics for Clinton as the presidential campaign headed into its final months. Clinton dismissed the latest call for a new investigation into her email practices. “The FBI resolved all of this. Their report answered all the questions,” she said. Clinton also brushed off polls that show the race tightening between her and Trump. “We’re sticking with our strategy. We feel very good about where we are. But we’re not taking anything for granted,” she said. | 0fake |
OBAMA LIES EXPOSED: New Info Shuts Down Obama’s Claims Of Ignorance On Emails [Video] | Catherine Herridge: One of the key things we ve learned in the FBI interviews known as 302s came from Clinton aide Huma Abedin. She told the FBI investigators that every time Hillary Clinton s personal address changed they would update the White House so the president could continue receiving Hillary Clinton s emails on his high security devices including his Blackberry. | 1real |
Conservatives Invent Conspiracy Theory To Blame White Oregon Militia On A Black Guy (VIDEO) | Even the crankiest section of America s right wing is starting to sense that the armed take over of the Oregon refuge is creating some bad press for their movement. But instead of questioning the values that led them there, right-wing nut jobs have created a conspiracy theory that lays the blame at the feet of just one, liberal black man. President Obama.Leading conspiracy nut Alex Jones issued a YouTube rant on Monday, outlining his theory for who is really behind the Oregon attacks. According to Jones, federal plants funded by billionaire liberal George Soros and the Southern Poverty Law Center are manipulating events in Oregon in order to steal our guns. Ladies and gentlemen, don t let Obama be successful when it comes to starting civil unrest and riots in this country, Jones said. They will use that as a civil emergency to bring in a type of soft martial law. But Jones is not alone.Right Wing Watch reports that Mike Vanderboegh, the leader of the Three Percenters militia group, issued a blog post over the weekend which laid out a similar conspiracy theory to Jones. He argued that the militia group responsible for the armed takeover of a federal building in Oregon consists of federal provocateurs, sociopaths and idiots with a John Brown complex. Vanderbough foresees an even darker end to the stand off than Jones though, claiming the militants have written a check that they expect the rest of us to cash in our own blood in a ghastly civil war. However, despite his criticisms of the group, Vanderboegh states that he and his militia would have no choice but to join a civil war against the federal government and all agencies and individuals acting on its behalf.In short, a group of armed white men take launch a terror attack on U.S. soil, and blame any future fall out on a liberal black guy who favors more effective gun control.And every step of the way, the craven mainstream media is helping the militia group along. It is utterly breathtaking that African American s affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement have been branded domestic terrorists for non-violent protests over police brutality, yet these white militia-men can seize a federal building, call any enforcement of law an act of civil war and they are called protesters. It is little wonder that these gun-wielding lunatics have such a sense of entitlement. They are able to flout the law and threaten extreme violence, while facing zero consequences. While 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot dead 2.5 seconds after cops found him playing with a toy gun, these men have been able to seize a building with the force of real arms and none suffered so much as a bruised ego. Something is wrong with this picture America.Feature image via CubsInsider | 1real |
WATCH: Jake Tapper Mocks Republicans HARD On CNN For Humiliating Failure To Pass Trumpcare | House Republicans had seven years to come up with a plan superior to the Affordable Care Act and their plan is so bad that not even the GOP majority could pass it.After uselessly voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act over sixty times during those years in order to please their conservative base, Republicans appear to be chickening out from actually doing it.Because once the dubiously named American Healthcare Act passes, it would strip health care from over 20 million Americans, many of whom are Republican voters for some reason.The bill would also cause the price of healthcare to skyrocket, especially for senior citizens who would have to pay ten times as much as they do right now under the Affordable Care Act.Anyway, the vote on the Republican bill was scheduled for Thursday, but once Republican leadership realized that they could muster enough members of their own party to get the necessary number of votes, they canceled the vote.Seriously. Republicans control the House and they couldn t even bring up their own bill for an up or down vote. Simply put, it was a humiliating failure of epic proportions.Once Donald Trump found the egg on his face, he immediately demanded that House Republicans vote on Friday. And so we now wait for the moment when Trump suffers a major policy defeat because Republicans discovered that repealing the Affordable Care Act isn t such a great idea after all.Adding to the humiliation on Thursday was CNN anchor Jake Tapper, who pointed out how long Republicans have been having their collective wet-dream about repealing the signature achievement of America s first black president, and then mocked them for failing to do so. It turns out it s a lot easier for Republican leaders to say repeal and replace than to do it, Tapper said. Seven years ago today, the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare was signed into law by President Obama and since that time Republicans have been planning, hoping, dreaming for this day, the moment where they could finally repeal Obamacare and replace it with their own solution to the nation s health care mess. They have had seven years to prepare for this day.Now weeks after optimistic talk from House leaders, declarations from White House secretary Sean Spicer that the bill will pass the House tonight and there is no Plan B, well, the bill was in such peril Republican leaders pulled it and postponed the vote. And what critics are calling an embarrassing and ignominious move, so humiliating, it signifies the only thing worse would have been to actually bring it to a vote where Republican leaders were apparently confident it would die. Here s the video via YouTube:If this bill fails to pass it will be a humiliating defeat for Trump and Republicans, but it will be a glorious victory for the American people and the millions who rely on the Affordable Care Act to help get and keep accessible and affordable health insurance.So as Friday approaches, Americans need to urge their Republican representatives to vote against the bill. Because if Trump is able to bully the holdouts into voting for it, he can bully them into voting for anything and then America is truly screwed.Featured image via Cagle | 1real |
CIA says Russia intervened to help Trump win White House: Washington Post | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The CIA has concluded that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help President-elect Donald Trump win the White House, and not just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system, the Washington Post reported on Friday. Citing U.S. officials briefed on the matter, the Post said intelligence agencies had identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and others, including the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, to WikiLeaks. The officials described the individuals as people known to the intelligence community who were part of a wider Russian operation to boost Trump and reduce Clinton’s chances of winning the election. “It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia’s goal here was to favor one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected,” the Post quoted a senior U.S. official as saying. “That’s the consensus view.” The Post said the official had been briefed on an intelligence presentation made by the Central Intelligence Agency to key U.S. senators behind closed-doors last week. The CIA, in what the Post said was a secret assessment, cited a growing body of evidence from multiple sources. Briefers told the senators it was now “quite clear” that electing Trump was Russia’s goal, the Post quoted officials as saying on condition of anonymity. In October, the U.S. government formally accused Russia of a campaign of cyber attacks against Democratic Party organizations ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election. President Barack Obama has said he warned Russian President Vladimir Putin about consequences for the attacks. But Russian officials have denied all accusations of interference in the U.S. election. A CIA spokeswoman said the agency had no comment on the report. Trump has said he is not convinced Russia was behind the cyber attacks. His transition team issued a statement on “claims of foreign interference in U.S. elections” on Friday but did not directly address the issue. The hacked emails passed to WikiLeaks were a regular source of embarrassment to the Clinton campaign during the race for the presidency. The CIA presentation fell short of a formal U.S. assessment by all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies, the Post said. A senior U.S. official said there remained minor disagreements among intelligence officials about the assessment because some questions are unanswered, it said. Intelligence agencies did not have specific intelligence showing the Kremlin directed the individuals to pass the hacked emails to WikiLeaks, another senior official told the Post. The actors were “one step” removed from the Russian government rather than government employees, the official said. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has said in a television interview that the Russian government was not the source of the emails, the Post said. | 0fake |
Son Gains 22lbs To Save His Dying Father’s Life By Donating Bone Marrow | If someone told me to gain 22 pounds in two months, I’d point to the picture of Zac Efron looking all shredded on my workstation and explain, tearfully, how disappointed he’d be in me, and that I just couldn’t do it.
And that’s even if someone told me I had to do it to save my father’s life.
Thankfully, 8-year-old Cao Yinpeng didn’t hesitate for a second when he discovered he’d need to gain 22lbs to donate bone marrow to his dying father.
Yinpeng’s father was struck with leukemia and doctors only gave him six months to live. Cao wanted to donate immediately, but there were two health laws in China that prohibited him from undergoing the procedure that his father desperately needed.
Bone marrow donors in China must be between the ages of 18 and 45 and weigh at least 99lbs.
Doctors will occasionally make exceptions for younger family members, but Cao was still too underweight for the medical professionals to safely extract his bone marrow to save his father’s life.
With no other suitable candidates available for his father, Yinpeng vowed to give his father a chance at life, as his father had done for him.
Now that’s how you raise a child.
Distractify
SOURCE | 1real |
Trump Supporter Goes Off The Rails: ‘Hillary’s Place Is In Front Of A Firing Squad’ (VIDEO) | Trump supporter, anti-Islam activist, and vapid, racist fool James Stachowiak is furious. Now, Stachowiak is almost perpetually enraged, but this time Shark Tank host Mark Cuban made Johnny Infidel (as the Tea Partier calls himself) furious. Recently, Cuban predicted that a Trump presidency would create a dire economic downturn.Stachowiak complained that he saw Cuban make the remarks on Fox News. He says that he has no doubt the market will tank if Trump wins the presidency, the right-wing activist whines. Well, just like every coin has two sides, I m gonna give the other side of the coin. I have no doubt that if Hillary wins, Americans will die because Americans died, Hillary lied, and Benghazi still matters, he rambles, adding that a Clinton presidency will lead to more Americans brutally sodomized, murdered, their bodies burned and dragged through the streets of more capitols across the globe like what happened in Benghazi. Boy, what a persuasive argument!Stachowiak then compares Hillary Clinton to the Soviet spies, the Rosenbergs, who were executed for treason because they actually committed treason unlike Clinton, who has not committed a single prosecutable offense. What Hillary has done makes the Rosenbergs actions pale in comparison, he explains. Hillary s actions have actually caused Americans to die. Benghazi. Then things get crazy(ier): It is my opinion, and I m probably one of the first to say it, that Hillary Clinton should be put on trial hopefully under a Trump presidency and found guilty of treason for compromising national security. She should be sentenced to death at a federal court. Hillary clinton s proper place in our country is in front of a firing squad for committing treason against our country. What should happen to Mark Cuban? Stachowiak asks rhetorically before burning a photograph of the Clinton supporter.Yeah, that s what he thinks should happen to Mark Cuban. Let s hope none of his insane fans act on it.Featured image via screengrab | 1real |
Media Falsely Claims High School Girl Disqualified from Basketball Game Due to Hijab - Breitbart | A basketball player from Maryland, Je’Nan Hayes of Watkins Mill High School, showed up to her school’s regional finals game wearing her hijab, the traditional Muslim headgear worn by women, and was disqualified from playing in the game. [Officials told Hayes she could not participate in the game because she had not signed a waiver, stipulating that she wore the hijab for religious reasons. According to the Washington Post, officials cited a rule in the NFHS rulebook which disallows player from wearing “decorations and headwear,” during a game unless it meets specific requirements. However, there is a religious exemption under the rule for headgear associated with certain faiths which requires a signed waiver, which Hayes did not have. Hayes told the Washington Post, “I felt discriminated against and I didn’t feel good at all. If it was some reason like my shirt wasn’t the right color or whatever, then I’d be like, ‘okay.’ But because of my religion it took it to a whole different level, and I just felt that it was not right at all. ” Hayes is not alone in believing that she faced discriminated in this instance due to her faith. The Washington Post states, “Hayes, a junior in her first season playing organized basketball, was not allowed to play because she wears a hijab as part of her Muslim faith. ” The opening lines in this article from The Comeback, also makes that claim: “Je’Nan Hayes had been part of the Watkins Mill (Maryland) High School basketball team all season. Then, without warning, she was barred from playing in her regional final game. Why? Because she was wearing a hijab. ” However, no rule exists preventing someone from wearing a hijab to a high school basketball game. The rule clearly states that “decorations and headwear,” are barred, but makes no specific reference to a hijab. On the contrary, there’s an exemption which allows for religious headwear. The rule states: “For religious reasons — In the event there is documented evidence provided to the state association that a participant may not expose uncovered head, the state association may approve a covering or wrap which is not abrasive, hard or dangerous to any other player and which is attached in such a way it is highly unlikely it will come off during play. ” One cannot simultaneously claim that a player’s religion led to their disqualification while the rules specifically make allowances for a player’s religion. So, the mere presence of the hijab, or her status as a Muslim, did not account for Hayes’ disqualification. What got her disqualified was not having the required waiver that allowed her to wear the headgear, a waiver which serves to prevent the unmanageable, yet entirely foreseeable, problem of prankster high school kids of all religious and backgrounds showing up to games in all manner of insane headwear, claiming that such headgear represents their “faith. ” So, the rule is not or discriminatory in the harshest sense of the word. And the officials were entirely correct in their reading of the rule. However, that doesn’t mean the situation could not have been handled differently. The hijab is a universally recognized piece of headwear associated with the Muslim faith. Had Hayes shown with on her head, then you’re obviously dealing with a prank. However, there’s no mistaking the obvious religious association when someone wears a hijab. Secondly, Hayes had already worn the hijab in 24 games that year with no problem. To enforce that rule when the player has already nearly played an entire season without so much as a warning is probably a bad call. What should they have done? The officials should have issued the warning and allowed Hayes to play, while stipulating that unless she has the waiver, she won’t be allowed to play. However, contrary to what the Washington Post and others would have you believe, Hayes was not disqualified for playing basketball while Muslim. She was disqualified for not following the rules. Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn | 0fake |
The Nuclear Option -- More Fake News: Media Falsely Claim Trump Threatens First Amendment | President Trump is lashing out against “fake news” in what is quite possibly the greatest course ever publicly taught in America. [Also, there is Mr. Trump’s relentless interaction with the press. And I don’t just mean the big guys. I mean the little local guys from Poughkeepsie, piped into the White House briefing room for awkward questions asked by disemboweled local anchors. At the end of the day, Mr. Trump is still not done. So he turns to Twitter to unleash yet more unfiltered news awesomeness onto the American media landscape. Welcome to the Age of Raw Journalism. Truly, a new dawn in American media. Drink fully from it, for the flowing bounty has never been like this ever before, and who knows if and when it will ever end. It is the confluence of instant information, manic technologies and a political figure who has the strength, fearlessness and stamina to keep it going around the clock. So let’s check in with the professionals, the folks who stand to benefit the most from this most generous newsmaker. “This is how the muzzling starts,” New York Times media drip Jim Rutenberg warned ominously, “not with a boot on your neck, but with the fear of one that runs so deep that you muzzle yourself. ” Not sure exactly what that means, but I checked twice to make sure I copied it correctly. “Maybe it’s the story you decide against doing because it’s liable to provoke a president to put the power of his office behind his attempt to destroy your reputation by falsely calling your journalism ‘fake.’ “Maybe it’s the line you hold back from your script or your article because it could trigger a federal leak investigation into you and your sources (so, yeah, jail). ” All of that is from an actual report by Mr. Rutenberg in the newspaper that is now, according to the president, “failing. ” Everywhere you turn today, reporters are gasping that the First Amendment is somehow under assault by Mr. Trump. White House reporters say they are under siege during daily briefings with Sean Spicer insulting them, rudely answering questions and assaulting them with the actual White House podium. OK, that last one I made up, but it was from the first funny skit “Saturday Night Live” has come up with in decades. But let’s seriously consider how Mr. Trump is handling the press. He gave a press briefing in the White House last Thursday. He walked in and began by “mentioning” the name of his new nominee for labor secretary. And then he turned the whole thing over to reporters. All modern presidents have opened such briefings with a list of handpicked reporters they would call on to ensure they only got the type of questions they wanted. Nobody in the doormat press corps ever complains about that. Donald Trump threw the gates wide open. If he walked in with a list, he tossed it aside by the time he got going. He was up there pointing to random reporters and pitting them against one another, at times barking like a tobacco auctioneer. He took any and all questions. He was tough, he was funny, he was belligerent. But he was always engaging. Mr. Trump’s immediate predecessor was famous for taking eight questions and bloviating at length and droning on long enough on each question that he would stretch it out to 50 minutes. He never wavered, of course, from his list of approved questioners. In Mr. Trump’s freewheeling press conference, he answered questions from two dozen reporters, more than 40 questions total if you include . And the entire thing was riveting and revealing and supremely watchable. How is this an affront to the First Amendment? Katy Tur, another journalistic lion over on the MSNBC television channel, was recently interviewing a Republican in Congress. “As we know, there’s since 2000 been a couple dozen suspicious deaths of journalists in Russia who came out against the government there,” Ms. Tur said. “Donald Trump has made no secret about going after journalists and his distaste for any news that doesn’t agree with him here. Do you find that this is a dangerous path he is heading down?” So Donald Trump likes to mix it up with reporters and challenge them? So next step is he’s going to start killing them? OK, I am not in the least bit concerned about the First Amendment in America with Mr. Trump in the White House. But we are seriously on the precipice of doom if fragile dopes like Katy Tur are our last line of defense. • Charles Hurt can be reached at churt@washingtontimes. com follow him on Twitter via @charleshurt. | 0fake |
Missing from Trump's grand Navy plan: skilled workers to build the fleet | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump says he wants to build dozens of new warships in one of the biggest peace-time expansions of the U.S. Navy. But interviews with ship-builders, unions and a review of public and internal documents show major obstacles to that plan. The initiative could cost nearly $700 billion in government funding, take 30 years to complete and require hiring tens of thousands of skilled shipyard workers - many of whom don’t exist yet because they still need to be hired and trained, according to the interviews and the documents reviewed. Trump has vowed a huge build-up of the U.S. military to project American power in the face of an emboldened China and Russia. That includes expanding the Navy to 350 warships from 275 today. He has provided no specifics, including how soon he wants the larger fleet. (For graphics on projected strength of U.S. Navy, shipyard employment see: tmsnrt.rs/2n3vOr0) The Navy has given Defense Secretary Jim Mattis a report that explores how the country’s industrial base could support higher ship production, Admiral Bill Moran, the vice chief of Naval Operations with oversight of the Navy’s shipbuilding outlook, told Reuters. He declined to give further details. But those interviewed for this story say there are clearly two big issues - there are not enough skilled workers in the market, from electricians to welders, and after years of historically low production, shipyards and their suppliers, including nuclear fuel producers, will struggle to ramp up for years. To be sure, the first, and biggest, hurdle for Trump to overcome is to persuade a cost-conscious Congress to fund the military buildup. The White House declined to comment. A Navy spokeswoman said increases being considered beyond the current shipbuilding plan would require “sufficient time” to allow companies to ramp up capacity. The two largest U.S. shipbuilders, General Dynamics Corp (GD.N) and Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc (HII.N), told Reuters they are planning to hire a total of 6,000 workers in 2017 just to meet current orders, such as the Columbia class ballistic missile submarine. General Dynamics hopes to hire 2,000 workers at Electric Boat this year. Currently projected order levels would already require the shipyard to grow from less than 15,000 workers, to nearly 20,000 by the early 2030s, company documents reviewed by Reuters show. Huntington Ingalls, the largest U.S. military shipbuilder, plans to hire 3,000 at its Newport News shipyard in Norfolk, Virginia, and another 1,000 at the Ingalls shipyard in Mississippi this year to fulfill current orders, spokeswoman Beci Brenton said. Companies say they are eager to work with Trump to build his bigger Navy. But expanding hiring, for now, is difficult to do until they receive new orders, officials say. “It’s hard to look beyond” current orders, Brenton said. Smaller shipbuilders and suppliers are also cautious. “You can’t hire people to do nothing,” said Jill Mackie, spokeswoman for Portland, Oregon-based Vigor Industrial LLC, which makes combat craft for the Navy’s Special Warfare units. “Until funding is there ... you can’t bring on more workers.” Because companies won’t hire excess workers in advance, they will have a huge challenge in expanding their workforces rapidly if a shipbuilding boom materializes, said Bryan Clark, who led strategic planning for the Navy as special assistant to the chief of Naval Operations until 2013. Union and shipyard officials say finding skilled labor just for the work they already have is challenging. Demand for pipeline welders is so strong that some can make as much as $300,000 per year, including overtime and benefits, said Danny Hendrix, the business manager at Pipeliners Local 798, a union representing 6,500 metal workers in 42 states. Much of the work at the submarine yards also requires a security clearance that many can’t get, said Jimmy Hart, president of the Metal Trades Department at the AFL-CIO union, which represents 100,000 boilermakers, machinists, and pipefitters, among others. To help grow a larger labor force from the ground up, General Dynamics’ Electric Boat has partnered with seven high schools and trade schools in Connecticut and Rhode Island to develop a curriculum to train a next generation of welders and engineers. “It has historically taken five years to get someone proficient in shipbuilding,” said Maura Dunn, vice president of human resources at Electric Boat. It can take as many as seven years to train a welder skilled enough to make the most complex type of welds, radiographic structural welds needed on a nuclear-powered submarine, said Will Lennon, vice president of the shipyard’s Columbia Class submarine program. The Navy envisioned by Trump could create more than 50,000 jobs, the Shipbuilders Council of America, a trade group representing U.S. shipbuilders, repairers and suppliers, told Reuters. The U.S. shipbuilding and repairing industry employed nearly 100,000 in 2016, Labor Department statistics show. The industry had as many as 176,000 workers at the height of the Cold War in the early 1980s as the United States built up a fleet of nearly 600 warships by the end of that decade. Apart from the labor shortage, there are also serious capacity and supply chain issues that would be severely strained by any plan to expand the Navy, especially its submarine fleet. Expanding the Navy to 350 ships is not as simple as just adding 75 ships. Many ships in the current 275-vessel fleet need to be replaced, which means the Navy would have to buy 321 ships between now and 2046 to reach Trump’s goal, the Congressional Budget Office said in a report in February. The shipyards that make nuclear submarines - General Dynamics’ Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut, and Huntington’s Newport News - produced as many as seven submarines per year between them in the early 1980s. But for more than a decade now, the yards have not built more than two per year. The nuclear-powered Virginia class and Columbia class submarines are among the largest and most complex vessels to build. The first Columbia submarine, which is set to begin construction in 2021, will take seven years to build, and two to three additional years to test. Retooling the long-dormant shipyard space will take several years and significant capital investments, but a bigger problem is expanding the supply chain, said Clark, the former strategist for the Navy and now a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Makers of submarine components such as reactor cores, big castings, and forgers of propellers and shafts would need five years to double production, said a congressional official with knowledge of the Navy’s long-term planning. “We have been sizing the industrial base for two submarines a year. You can’t then just throw one or two more on top of that and say, ‘Oh here, dial the switch and produce four reactor cores a year instead of two.’ You just can’t,” the official said. In his first budget proposal to Congress on Thursday, Trump proposed boosting defense spending by $54 billion for the fiscal 2018 year – a 10 percent increase from last year. He is also seeking $30 billion for the Defense Department in a supplemental budget for fiscal 2017, of which at least $433 million is earmarked for military shipbuilding. A 350-ship Navy would cost $690 billion over the 30-year period, or $23 billion per year - 60 percent more than the average funding the Navy has received for shipbuilding in the past three decades, the Congressional Budget Office said. Senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who will have a major say in approving the defense budget, said in a statement to Reuters that he supported Trump’s vision to increase the size of the Navy to deter adversaries. "However, this is not a blank check," he said. (Click here for a graphic on 'Fleet expansion' here) | 0fake |
Wikileaks: Bill Clinton BOASTS of Hillary’s ‘Working Relationship’ with Islamic Terrorist Organization | Wikileaks: Bill Clinton BOASTS of Hillary’s ‘Working Relationship’ with Islamic Terrorist Organization Oct 29, 2016 Previous post
The bombshells about this criminal are now breaking daily. It’s not a question of Trump, it is an imperative that Hillary be defeated. If the people choose Hillary, then they must and will be punished.
“Wikileaks: Bill Clinton Boasts of Hillary’s ‘Working Relationship’ with Muslim Brotherhood,” By John Hayward , Breitbart, October 26, 2016:
In a speech Bill Clinton gave at the home of Mehul and Hema Sanghani in October 2015, revealed to the public for the first time by WikiLeaks, former President Bill Clinton touted Hillary Clinton’s “working relationship” with the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi in Egypt as an example of her diplomatic skills.President Clinton also gave his wife a lot of credit for negotiating the Iran nuclear deal, in a passage that began with the standard Democrat “stuff happens” shrugging defense for foreign policy failures:
Finally, we live in a world, as I said, that’s full of good news and bad news. The United States cannot control it all, but we need a president who’s most likely to make as many good things happen as possible, and most likely to prevent big, bad things from happening. You can’t keep every bad thing from happening; who’s most likely to be able to get people involved in a positive way. Even the people who don’t like the Iran nuclear agreement concede it never would have happened if it hadn’t been for the sanctions. Hillary negotiated those sanctions and got China and Russia to sign off – something I thought she’d never be able to do. I confess. I’m never surprised by anything she does, but that surprised me. I didn’t think she could do it. The Chinese and the Russians to see past their short-term self-interest to their long-term interest and not sparking another nuclear arms race.
And when the Muslim Brotherhood took over in Egypt, in spite of the fact that we were (inaudible), she developed a working relationship with the then-president and went there and brokered a ceasefire to stop a full-scale shooting war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, which on top of what was going on in Syria and the (inaudible) Jordan would have been a calamity for the world.
And when we were trying to reset our relations with Russia under President Medvedev, she and her team negotiated a New START Treaty, which limits warheads and missiles. And she lobbied it through the Senate. She had to get 67 votes, which means a lot of these Republicans who say
FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE CLICK LINK | 1real |
NYC MAYOR de Blasio Commits Political Suicide With Latest Yankees Slams | NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio is really pushing it when he continuously bashes the New York Yankees by refusing to support them. He won t go to a game and refuses to wear a Yankees baseball cap. It turns out that de Blasio is a turncoat he s a rabid Boston Red Sox fan! Maybe he should go be the mayor of Boston then With the Yankees one win away from being in the World Series, you d think de Blasio would step up and show support for the hometown team he s mayor of He just said it s too weird to go to a game at Yankee Stadium! What a jack wagon! We re hoping this is political suicide for de Blasio who is running against Republican Nicole Malliotakis:Republican mayoral contender Nicole Malliotakis said she finds it unconscionable that Mayor de Blasio won t root for the Yankees. I believe that you ll have two underdogs winning this year the New York Yankees and Nicole Malliotakis, the Staten Island assemblywoman quipped at a press conference outside City Hall Thursday.The candidate said she s a Yankee fan who s excited by their post-season run unlike Hizzoner, a Red Sox fan who told the Daily News this week it s constitutionally impossible for him to root for the Bronx Bombers, and said it d be just too weird to go to a game at Yankee Stadium. I just can t understand how the mayor cannot root for the home team. Even if you re a Boston Red Sox fan, this is good for New York City, she said, citing boosts to the economy. And it s just unconscionable to me that any mayor would not support the home team. De Blasio kicks off week in Bronx by refusing to wear Yankees hatCould the good people of NYC vote this phony out of office already? | 1real |
Obamacare Architect on Fixing ACA to Avoid Rate Hikes: “The Law Is Working as Designed, We Need a Larger Mandate Penalty” | Editor’s Note : The system KNOWS this is hurting the Middle Class… but since they want to both crush the Middle Class and destroy the private healthcare system in one fell swoop to usher in the government-run single-payer socialist model , they’re going to continue to ride this bat straight into Hell.
by Joseph Jankowski
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor and architect of Obamacare Jonathan Gruber told CNN’s Carol Costello on Wednesday that Obamacare, which is set to see a sharp increase in premium prices next year, is going just as planned.
When asked what could be done to the Affordable Care Act in order to drive the prices of premiums down, Gruber responded by saying “the law is working as designed.”
“Look, once again, there is no sense of just what has to be fixed, the law is working as designed,” Gruber told CNN. “However, it could work better and I think the most important thing experts would agree on is that we need a larger mandate penalty.”
Johnathan Gruber made headlines in 2014 when video surfaced of him saying that the “lack of transparency” and the “stupidity of the American voter” helped Obamacare become law.
“Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage,” Gruber said. “And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical for the thing to pass.”
Gruber made the comments while discussing how law was “written in a tortured way” to avoid a negative score from the Congressional Budget Office. He suggested that that Obamacare would have been rejected if the penalties for going without health insurance were interpreted as taxes.
“If CBO scored the (individual) mandate as taxes, the bill dies,” Gruber said.
“If you had a law that made it explicit that healthy people are going to pay in and sick people are going to get subsidies, it would not have passed,” he added.
As the AP reported yesterday, the Obama Administration has confirmed that premiums will sharply rise under the Obamacare law, with many consumers left with only one insurer to choose from.
Premiums for a midlevel benchmark plan will increase on average 25% across 39 states served by the federally run online market, according to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services.
“Consumers will be faced this year with not only big premium increases but also with a declining number of insurers participating, and that will lead to a tumultuous open enrollment period,” Larry Levitt, who tracks the health care law for the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, told the Associated Press . Delivered by The Daily Sheeple
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Contributed by Planet Free Will of planetfreewill.com .
The mission of Planet Free Will is to enlighten as many people as possible with truthful and thought provoking information while at the same time keeping you up to date on news occurring around the world. | 1real |
U.S. wants Pakistan to act quickly to show support in countering militants | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States wants Pakistan to move quickly to show good faith in supporting efforts to counter militants operating in Afghanistan and in bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table, the senior U.S. diplomat for South Asia said on Friday. Speaking after accompanying U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on a visit to the region, including Pakistan, Alice Wells said Washington looked forward to seeing practical steps from Pakistan over the next few weeks and months. The secretary stressed the importance of Pakistan moving quickly to demonstrate good faith and efforts to use its influence to create the conditions that will get the Taliban to the negotiating table, Wells, the acting assistant secretary of state for South Asia, told reporters. Wells said Pakistan s long-standing relationships with militant organizations was a threat to its own stability and said the Taliban leadership and the allied Haqqani network still retained the ability to plan and recuperate and reside with their families in Pakistan. She said Washington wanted Pakistan to show the same commitment it had made to defeat militant groups domestically to those threatening Afghanistan or India. It s up to them whether or not they want to work with us, Wells said. And if they don t ... then we ll adjust accordingly. Wells declined to elaborate on what action the United States might take or what specific actions it wanted Pakistan to take. Relations between uneasy allies United States and Pakistan have frayed in recent years, with Washington repeatedly accusing Islamabad of helping Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network militants who stage attacks in Afghanistan. Pakistan denies doing so. U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed to get tough with Pakistan unless it changed its behavior, with U.S. officials threatening further reductions in aid and mooting targeted sanctions against Pakistani officials. On Monday, during a visit to Kabul, Tillerson urged Pakistan to act against safe havens on its soil. Pakistan needs to, I think, take a clear-eyed view of the situation that they are confronted with in terms of the number of terrorist organizations that find safe haven inside of Pakistan, he said. Pakistani officials bristle at the idea that the country is not doing enough against militants and say Pakistan has suffered more than 60,000 casualties in the war on terror since the Sept. 11 attacks in United States in 2001. | 0fake |
LGBTQ Marchers Protest Vice President-Elect Mike Pence in His Neighborhood | More than 500 supporters of LGBTQ rights in Washington, D. C. marched, danced, and chanted two miles from the shopping district of Friendship Heights to the Chevy Chase home of Vice and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence Wednesday evening — two days before he is sworn in as vice president. [“We’re here to send a clear message to Mike Pence that we are here, we are queer, and we are dancing, and we will not tolerate hatred or bigotry in our country,” said Firas Nasr, the founding organizer of WERK for Peace. WERK for Peace describes itself as a “ grassroots movement that uses dance to promote peace. ” Nasr said when he saw the people watching from the sidewalks, windows, and doorways, he was not surprised by the generous welcome the marchers received. “We are preaching love, and we are here to spread love and and community — and so we welcome them in our community. ” The District of Columbia permitted the protest and provided at least five motorcycle police officers to escort the marchers along the route and manage the flow of traffic. A dozen individuals were wearing the green ball caps of the National Lawyers Guild, a organization of legal professionals who patrol progressive events on behalf of the participants. Carla Aronsohn said Pence has attacked rights for LGBTQ people, as well as programs to provide Americans with housing and health care. “He needs to know that that is why we are in his neighborhood,” she said. “This stuff affects our lives deeply. Literally, it kills us, so we can’t have some relaxed, permitted march in a space. We need to be in a bigger space. ” Along the route, the protesters stopped at intersections to have parties behind the gray pickup truck that blared the music. The longest stop was in front of the Chevy Chase Baptist Church, where the revelers formed a large circle in front of the church and danced. When the marchers came to the Roman Catholic Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, they did not stop. The Secret Service, Metropolitan Police, and U. S. Marshals did not have to tell the protesters not to go farther when they arrived at the intersection of Western and Tennyson Avenues in the city’s northwest quadrant. A spokesman for the Secret Service told Breitbart News that the neighborhood surrounding the Pence residence was a protected site, and only those who resided there, along with their guests, were allowed past the barricades erected across Tennyson. Law enforcement personnel were on the scene, including a bicycle cops standing behind a neighbor’s hedges. For roughly 45 minutes, the protesters danced to club and dance songs emanating from the truck that had led the march: Many neighbors came out to support the protest. A man holding a sign, who identified himself as Godding, told Breitbart News he had no idea there would be a protest through his neighborhood until he heard the drums. As Godding stood quietly off to the side, a small band of protesters surrounded him and gyrated next to him. One of the protesters shouted at him, “We’re here! We’re queer! Don’t fuck with us!” “I just think it is inappropriate in front of his house. That’s what I think,” he said. “I don’t mind people protesting. I don’t mind people having their own opinions, but they don’t need to be doing it in front of his house. It’s just inappropriate. ” | 0fake |
Simon and Schuster Children’s Authors Publish Letter Protesting MILO - Breitbart | More than 160 Simon and Schuster children’s book authors have signed a letter to the CEO of the company protesting the publishing of Breitbart Senior editor MILO’s upcoming book, “DANGEROUS. ”[The letter, organised by Simon and Schuster’s children’s authors, was published Thursday morning with signees such as Newbery, Caldecott, and honorees of the National Book Award. Arun Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi also texted his signature from India according to the release. The letter reads, We, as Simon Schuster children’s and YA authors and illustrators, have deep respect for our publisher, our editors, and the Simon Schuster Children’s Division, which we believe strives to publish the strongest, most diverse list it can acquire, for the betterment of literature and children everywhere. Sadly, we cannot extend this same respect to Simon Schuster’s Threshold imprint following their decision to lend the legitimacy of this publisher’s venerable brand to Milo Yiannopoulos. Threshold has placed Simon Schuster’s considerable reputation and weight behind one of the most prominent faces of the newly repackaged white nationalist movement and financially supported a man who routinely denigrates, verbally attacks, and directs dangerous internet doxxing and hate campaigns against women, minorities, LGBTQ individuals, Muslims, and anyone he chooses to target who supports equality and human decency. Irrespective of the content of this book, by extending a mainstream publication contract, Threshold has chosen to legitimize this reprehensible belief system, these behaviors, and white supremacy itself. Additionally, they have associated all of Simon Schuster with it, and therefore weakened the reach of the many other brilliant imprints that daily attempt to contribute to humanity instead of destroy it. This is not an issue of advocating or suppressing free speech, as Mr. Yiannopoulos has a broad internet broadcasting platform and the support of many extremist organizations and publications. His voice is certainly being heard, and it is a voice of hate that stirs its followers to emotional, verbal, and physical violence directed at anyone who disagrees or speaks to the contrary. Insinuating that people who protest this terrible decision wish to suppress free speech is gaslighting. As Simon Schuster authors and illustrators who are already published, with books in the release pipeline, with contracts in place, we do not have to quietly accept or assent to this “Gleichschaltung,” this getting in line with fascism and making it mainstream. We reject the wisdom of this decision. This man, and this book, are not America. This man, and this book, are not the bulk of Simon Schuster. This man, and this book, are not us, the authors and illustrators of Simon Schuster. We believe that the children we write for deserve a better America. We the undersigned pledge to continue to advocate tolerance, acceptance, love, diversity, and equality, and respectfully ask you to take an irrefutable stand against hate. Simon and Schuster has yet to respond to the letter. | 0fake |
U.S. diplomacy with North Korea to continue until 'first bomb drops': Tillerson | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday that President Donald Trump had instructed him to continue diplomatic efforts to calm rising tensions with North Korea, saying those diplomatic efforts will continue until the first bomb drops. Speaking on CNN s State of the Union, Tillerson downplayed messages that President Trump had previously posted on Twitter suggesting Tillerson was wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man, a derogatory nickname Trump has coined for North Korea s leader Kim Jong Un. Trump has made it clear to me to continue my diplomatic efforts, Tillerson said. Tillerson s comments Sunday come amid soaring tensions between the United States and North Korea following a series of weapons tests by Pyongyang and a war of words between the two countries leaders. North Korea has conducted a series of nuclear tests in recent weeks and ago and launched two missiles over Japan. Tillerson has been in talks with China to enlist its help on getting North Korea to back down. But Trump s recent Twitter messages appeared to undercut Tillerson s efforts, prompting the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker to complain that Trump was publicly castrating Tillerson and hurting diplomatic talks. Tillerson downplayed those tweets Sunday, telling CNN that Trump and China s President Xi Jinping have an extremely close relationship and that China understands the U.S. position. Rest assured that the Chinese are not confused in any way about the American policy towards North Korea, he added. | 0fake |
Family’s Dog Poisoned By Flint’s Toxic Lead Water | For more than a year the people of Flint, Michigan have been poisoned by their government because Republicans in the state wanted to save some money. What s worse is that officials knew the water was full of lead and they did nothing about it. The toxic water has been linked to the deaths of ten people and thousands of adults and children have been exposed to a multitude of chronic conditions because Governor Synder failed them. Unsurprisingly, we are now learning that in addition to the human victims of Flint, dogs have also been contaminated.According to Dog Time:Two dogs in Genessee County tested positive for lead toxicity according to the state veterinarian, Dr. James Averill. State officials aren t releasing many other details such as how much lead they had in their systems or what their symptoms were. One was a stray, and the other was a pet. Both are still alive. Symptoms of lead poisoning can include malaise, arthritis, and mental dullness.It was really only a matter of time before we heard about pets being affected by the Snyder Administration s systematic poisoning of an entire city. Our pets, after all, drink the same water we do; but even though we knew it would happen, it is still infuriating.Literally, nobody has gone untouched in Flint. And as more details emerge about what led to this, it really is just completely mind-blowing. For instance, for just $100 a day, for three months, all of this could have been avoided, but Republicans were like, Meh. Let s save money and gamble with people s lives. Oh, but it gets even better: Instead of spending all of their time worrying about the people in Flint and the enormous humanitarian crisis on their hands, GOP lawmakers are trying to ban anal and oral sex. We are not kidding.Dr. Averill is telling the people of Flint to keep an eye on their pets and if they are acting out of the ordinary, bring them to the vet. He also told them to give them bottled water or melted snow. That s right, melted snow is safer than the water in the city. How screwed up is that?All of this proves that not even our pets are safe from the Republican Party s inability to govern. Featured image from author | 1real |
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