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MUSLIM Illegal Alien Claims SEX WITH DEAD GIRL Is Not A Crime…Lawyers Fight To Have Charges Dropped | The Obama trifecta: A Muslim an Illegal Alien and a victim of the unfair laws of the United States that target minorities An illegal migrant who was convicted in Wisconsin of sexually molesting the body of a dead girl is seeking to have his conviction on sexual violence charges overturned, by claiming that a dead body can t be sexually assaulted because it cannot be forced or coerced into a sex act.The vibrantly diverse migrant, Eusebio Varible-Gaspar, was convicted in Wisconsin of a violent sexual act as well as entering the country illegally, and was given a 57-month sentence.His lawyers have now filed a motion to have the conviction reversed because, they say, a corpse can t be raped or sexually abused.The trial court disagreed with that claim and held that Varible-Gaspar committed an act of sexual violence by having sex with the dead body.It is this decision that Varible-Gaspar wants to have appealed, so on January 15 he filed this claim:Varible-Gaspar argues that the district court erred in applying the 16-level enhancement for a crime of violence He contends that his Wisconsin conviction for first degree sexual assault of a child does not qualify as a crime of violence or as an aggravated felony because the offense does not fall within the generic, contemporary meaning of sexual abuse of a minor. Varible-Gaspar asserts that an individual may be guilty of the Wisconsin offense if the offender had sexual contact or sexual intercourse with a corpse. For the first time on appeal, Varible-Gaspar argues that the conviction does not qualify as a forcible sex offense because a corpse cannot be forced or coerced into sex.Oddly, as the Center for Immigration Studies notes, this isn t the only case where migrants might benefit from someone else being dead.Obama s DHS is seeking a change in rules that would aid illegals entering the country to have their status legalized if their return would have harmed someone they left behind even if that someone is already dead. Via: Breitbart News | 1real |
Trump-Loving Oklahoma GOP Rep. Busted Calling For Hillary Clinton’s Murder (SCREENSHOTS) | What is it with Trump supporters constantly threatening future President Hillary Clinton s life? Oklahoma state Rep. John Bennett, who endorsed The Donald last year, decided he needed a little something to help his re-election bid next week, so he skipped straight from lock her up to hang her and lock her up if you can t a message that is sure to be popular with Deplorables who happen to escape from their basket.Linking a far-Right blog post blaming Clinton for the Benghazi attacks (come on, guys, this dead horse is beginning to smell terrible), Bennett offered a solution to dealing with this imagined criminal for her non-existent crimes: murder.After removing the post failed to make it go away because screenshots exist, Bennett moved on to damage control, explaining that he doesn t wish death on anyone because he apparently meant the kind of firing squad that shoots water guns. He explains that she should be charged with treason or thrown in jail for whatever the f*ck he thinks she did this week, though he did not say whom would be the judge in this case since no actual judge would participate in this bit of dumbfuckery we can only assume he would nominate himself to pronounce her guilty and get the ball rolling on the whole murder thing.Threatening a presidential candidate is a felony offense, but for some reason Trumpsters never seem to be held responsible for their actions. Hopefully, since this threat was made by an elected official, things will be different this time.Featured image via screengrab | 1real |
'We have the tap': Turkey's Erdogan threatens oil flow from Iraq's Kurdish area | HABUR, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan threatened on Monday to cut off the pipeline that carries oil from northern Iraq to the outside world, intensifying pressure on the Kurdish autonomous region over its independence referendum. Erdogan spoke shortly after Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Ankara could take punitive measures involving borders and air space against the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) over the referendum and would not recognize the outcome. Voting began on Monday despite strong opposition from Iraq s central government and neighboring Turkey and Iran - both with significant Kurdish populations - as well as Western warnings the move could aggravate Middle East instability. Erdogan, grappling with a long-standing Kurdish insurgency in Turkey s southeast, which borders northern Iraq, said the separatist referendum was unacceptable and economic, trade and security counter-measures would be taken. He stopped short of saying Turkey had decided to close off the oil flow. Hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil a day come through the pipeline in Turkey from northern Iraq, but he made clear the option was on the table. After this, let s see through which channels the northern Iraqi regional government will send its oil, or where it will sell it, he said in a speech. We have the tap. The moment we close the tap, then it s done. Yildirim said Ankara would decide on punitive measures against the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) after talks with Iraq s central government. Our energy, interior and customs ministries are working on (measures). We are evaluating steps regarding border gates and air space. We will take these steps quickly, Yildirim told Turkish broadcasters. Iraqi soldiers arrived in Turkey on Monday night to join a drill on the Turkish side of the border near the Habur area in the southeast, Turkey s military said in a statement. Iraq s defense ministry said the two armies started major maneuvers at the border area. Local media said Turkey had blocked access to the KRG via the Habur border crossing with Iraq. Ankara s customs minister denied this, saying Habur remained open but with tight controls on traffic, according to the state-run Anadolu agency. However, Erdogan later said traffic was only being allowed to cross from the Turkish side of the border into Iraq. Maruf Ari, a 50-year-old truck driver, was one of those who had crossed back into Turkey early on Monday morning. He said a closure of the gate would ruin his livelihood. If the border is closed it will harm all of us. I m doing this job for 20 years. I m not making a lot of money. Around 1,000 lira ($285) a month. But if the gate is closed, we will go hungry. The United States and other Western powers also urged authorities in the KRG to cancel the vote, saying it would distract from the fight against Islamic State. Shares of Turkish Airlines, which has direct flights to northern Iraq, tumbled 6.5 percent, underperforming a 1.78 percent decline in the BIST 100 index. Turkey s currency, the lira, also weakened. Turkey took the Kurdish television channel Rudaw off its satellite service TurkSat, a Turkish broadcasting official told Reuters. Turkey has long been northern Iraq s main link to the outside world, but sees the referendum as a grave matter for its own national security. Turkey has the region s largest Kurdish population and has been fighting a three-decade insurgency in its mainly Kurdish southeast. On Saturday, Turkey s parliament voted to extend by a year a mandate authorizing the deployment of troops in Iraq and Syria. Still, Ankara is unlikely to make rash moves when it comes to sanctions against the KRG, said Nihat Ali Ozcan, a professor of political science and international relations at TOBB University of Economics and Technology. Closing the border gate, cancelling international flights and, at the final step, cutting the pipeline can be discussed, he said. Military pressure can be used directly or indirectly. The Turkish army launched military exercises involving tanks and armored vehicles near the Habur border crossing a week ago and they are expected to continue until at least Sept. 26. Additional units joined the exercises as they entered their second stage Turkey s military said in its statement that the third phase of the drill would be held on Sept. 26, and that Iraqi soldiers who arrived on Monday night would join. The military has also in recent days carried out daily air strikes against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq, where the group s commanders are based. The PKK launched its separatist insurgency in 1984, and more than 40,000 people have been killed since. It is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union. Militants in northern Iraq launched a cross-border mortar attack into Turkey s Hakkari province, hitting a temporary residence used by refugees, the interior ministry said. One refugee was killed and several others were injured, it said. In the eastern Agri province, near the border with Iran, individuals thought to be Kurdish militants opened fire on a mini-bus carrying foreign nationals, the ministry said. Three people were killed and four wounded in that attack, it said. ($1 = 3.5153 liras) | 0fake |
Trump Will ANNHILILATE The Working Class He’s Pretending To Protect, And Here’s The PROOF | Throughout his campaign, Trump repeatedly told anyone he could brainwash that the U.S. doesn t win at anything anymore. Supposedly, we used to be the perennial powerhouse of the entire world (like Duke, North Carolina or Arizona are perennial powerhouses of NCAA basketball), but we ve fallen from that status, and now we don t win anything like the number of games we used to.In other words, we used to be able to tell the world what they would do, and they would do it. Now they don t. So Trump promised our working class that he would change that, and bring their jobs back, and make us so prosperous that those jobs would never disappear again and everyone would be begging to trade with us so they could have a tiny slice of our awesomeness.Whether Trump actually knows the truth or not is anyone s guess. He s too focused on winning. And he s told our suffering working class particularly blue-collar workers whose jobs are disappearing that the reason their jobs are gone is because we ve given too much to countries that don t deserve our largesse or whatever. He s convinced half the country that the 45 percent tariff he wants on imported goods from China, and the 35 percent tariff on goods from Mexico, will keep companies from outsourcing manufacturing.And the people who bought that are the ones who will hurt the worst from Trump s actual trade policies.The Economist pointed this massive problem with Trump s rhetoric out with a single chart. We have free trade agreements not just with two countries, but with 20. Those 20 countries represent a third of our imported goods, yes, but they also represent half of our exported goods:Image via The EconomistExport is one of the major drivers of our economy, and our dear Mr. Trump conveniently forgets that part of the equation when he rails against China, Mexico, and everyone else.In the chart above, the dark blue, on both sides, represents our trade due to NAFTA. We do an awful lot of exports to both Mexico and Canada, in addition to imports. It s not quite equal, but it s also not so disparate that we re at the horrible disadvantage that Trump claims we are with NAFTA. Millions of American jobs actually depend heavily on NAFTA remaining intact.As far as China, yeah, we seem to be at a big disadvantage. However, it actually balances out pretty well when we factor in our trade with other countries. China isn t raping us the way that Trump claims they are.In short, when you look at imports versus exports, we re not getting robbed at nearly the rate that Trump would have us believe. To listen to him talk, we only import foreign goods and we export nothing. If that were true, then yes, our trade agreements would be destroying American jobs the way he claims. The problem with that attitude, though, is not only that it s false, but it also shows that Trump s protectionist policies will destroy American exports and thus, American jobs.That, in turn, will further destroy the American working class the very class that believes Trump will save them, their jobs, and their dignity from the evil, horrible, liberal Democrats that want to assassinate them. We wish these people knew how to look at this, but they don t. They re virtually killing themselves in their blindly staunch defense of Trump because they either can t, or won t, educate themselves.Education is for liberal elites anyway, so they shun it.Do we import more than we export? Yes. But imagine if some countries decided to stop accepting our products in retaliation for our not accepting theirs without a huge penalty attached. Our exports would fall off drastically, and thousands more Americans would lose their jobs, even with Trump s one-by-one coercion of companies looking to outsource.Seriously, Trump does not seem to understand any of this. We have a fucking president who doesn t get this and won t listen to the people who do because he thinks he s this amazing business genius and everyone else is just jealous, or something.He doesn t have to listen to anyone because he already knows everything, in other words.If he starts a trade war, which is what his trade policies would do should they actually be implemented, the working class he s claiming to protect will die an even more horribly painful death as countries retaliate against us for our unfair trade tactics.The global economy is far more complex than Trump and his idiotic, entitled, hypocritical, privileged, rich family and friends understand. We can t just implement protectionist policies, bring back those millions of lost manufacturing jobs, and give the world the finger. It does not work that way. It will never again work that way. Here s hoping that Congress can understand how he ll destroy us on trade and refuse to put it into action.Featured image by Drew Angerer via Getty Images | 1real |
Britain says 'conceivable' Manchester attack might have been stopped | LONDON (Reuters) - A suicide attack at a pop concert in Manchester that killed 22 people in May might have been prevented if the security services had responded differently to intelligence in the months before the attack, a government report has found. Salman Abedi, a 22-year-old Briton born to Libyan parents, blew himself up at the end of a show by U.S. singer Ariana Grande in the deadliest militant attack in Britain for 12 years. His victims included seven children. A government-commissioned report by David Anderson, the former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, found security services were passed two pieces of information on the bomber earlier this year. The report said security services did not consider the intelligence terror-related at the time, but now says it was highly relevant . It is conceivable that the Manchester attack in particular might have been averted had the cards fallen differently, the report said. The finding follows a review of the roles of the security services in four attacks in London and Manchester between March and June this year that left 36 innocent people dead. Three of the six attackers were known to the security services, but only person was under active investigation, the report said. Overall, it said Britain s security services had performed well amid a growing threat from Islamist militants. It is not the purpose of the internal reviews, or of this report, to cast or apportion blame. But though investigative actions were for the most part sound, many learning points have emerged, the report said. Britain has thwarted nine plots in the last 12 months, Prime Minister Theresa May s spokesman said on Tuesday. Interior minister Amber Rudd told parliament the intelligence services and counter-terrorism police are currently carrying out over 500 live investigations, up a third since the beginning of the year and are investigating over 3,000 people. The review found that Abedi was one of a small group of former suspects of interest whom Britain s security services were considering investigating further. A meeting was due to be held to discuss the potential threat on May 31 - nine days after the attack on the Manchester Arena. | 0fake |
Elizabeth Warren Strikes Back At Trump After He Responds To Her, And It Is EPIC (TWEETS) | When dealing with a candidate who has the maturity level of an elementary school student, you re going to have to expect name-calling, and now Donald Trump is now using this tactic against Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren. Two very powerful women, but two very powerful women that aren t about to put up with his horseshit tactics. They may have worked against his ridiculous Republican competition, but no, not now. He ll be called out and taken to task.Which is exactly has what just happened when Trump decided to hit back at Warren s viral Facebook post calling him out.Trump took to twitter, several days after Warren called him out, and decided to try to pull his same old song and dance. He tweeted:I hope corrupt Hillary Clinton chooses goofy Elizabeth Warren as her running mate. I will defeat them both. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 6, 2016And then continues this name-calling for a few more tweets:Let s properly check goofy Elizabeth Warren s records to see if she is Native American. I say she s a fraud! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 6, 2016Goofy Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Clinton s flunky, has a career that is totally based on a lie. She is not Native American. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 6, 2016Crooked Hillary Clinton wants completely open borders. Millions of Democrats will run from her over this and support me. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 7, 2016So, Elizabeth Warren comes right back at him and calls him what he absolutely is lame. She wrote: I called out Donald Trump on Tuesday. 45 million saw it. He s so confident about his counter punch he waited until Friday night. Lame. I called out @realDonaldTrump on Tuesday. 45 million saw it. He's so confident about his "counter punch" he waited until Friday night. Lame. Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) May 7, 2016Oh, but she didn t stop there. She went after him HARD. Goofy, @realDonaldTrump? For a guy with "the best words" that s a pretty lame nickname. Weak! Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) May 7, 2016We saw what happened when birthers like @realDonaldTrump attacked @BarackObama. They lost big. American voters knew better. Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) May 7, 2016We saw when Scott Brown attacked my family & his staff made tomahawk chops & war whoops. They lost big. MA voters knew better. Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) May 7, 2016.@realdonaldtrump is a bully who has a single play in his playbook offensive lies thrown at anyone who calls him out. Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) May 7, 2016.@realDonaldTrump spews insults and lies because he can t have an honest conversation about his dangerous vision for America. Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) May 7, 2016But here's the thing. You can beat a bully not by tucking tail and running, but by holding your ground. Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) May 7, 2016If you think recycling Scott Brown's hate-filled attacks on my family is going to shut me up, @realDonaldTrump, think again buddy. Weak. Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) May 7, 2016The @GOP's hate-filled lies didn t scare me before, @realDonaldTrump. And they don't scare me now. Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) May 7, 2016The @GOP's hate-filled lies didn t scare me before, @realDonaldTrump. And they don't scare me now. Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) May 7, 2016.@realDonaldTrump lied his way through the primaries without being held accountable. That s over. Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) May 7, 2016Whatever @realDonaldTrump says, we won't shut up. We won't back down. This election is too important, & he won t step foot in White House. Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) May 7, 2016The lesson to be learned here? Don t fuck with Elizabeth Warren. She s smarter than you, she s wittier than you, and she ll call you on your shit faster than you can say your own name.Good on you, Senator Warren. Never stop being you. Keep holding him to task and we will be standing right there with you.Featured Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images | 1real |
What The 2016 Election Has Exposed | There are some things that we have learned about the United States from this election. We’ll need to keep these in mind as we make efforts to return sanity to society.
The federal government has been corrupted Probably the most shocking lesson of this election is that the entire federal government has been coopted to serve a single party—the Democrats. The best example of this was the behavior of FBI Director James Comey. The FBI is part of the Executive branch of government so Comey reports to Loretta Lynch, who in turn reports to Obama. Despite this fact, one expects that the FBI be allowed a high degree of discretion to honestly investigate individuals regardless of which political party they belong to. After all, the US was founded upon the idea that we are all equal before the law.
Comey’s actions reveal that the FBI has thrown equality before the law out the window. At first the FBI investigated Clinton’s use of an unsecure, personal email server to conduct national business while she was Secretary of State. But even though Clinton apparently violated several laws that have gotten other people severe jail sentences, Comey exonerated her back in July with a hand slap.
In a move that surprised everyone, Comey re-opened on October 28th the criminal investigation of Clinton after 650,000 emails State Department emails were found on pervert Anthony Weiner’s computer. Trump supporters rejoiced and Hillary supporters expressed outrage. But the White House calmly called Comey “a man of integrity.” Did they know something we didn’t?
It turns out the fix was in from the beginning because just 48 hours before election day, Comey exonerated Clinton again . The FBI director likely intended to clear Clinton of wrongdoing before the election to defuse Donald Trump’s criticism of her.
The big lesson is that the law is applied selectively. Wealthy, politically-connected people don’t need to play by the same rules as everyone else. Unless this situation is corrected, it means the rule of law is dead—and that is a very grave lesson indeed.
The elites are in control but… Elites want you to believe they are super smart and super powerful like the Great Oz.
I’ve written many times about the control that globalist elites exert on the country through their control of the media, educational institutions, and politicians through the form of bribes (donations, cushy job offers, speaking fees). By controlling the flow of information and setting the narrative, the globalists are able to control the masses like cattle. The good news is that their control is not complete. They are not omnipotent.
The weakness of the elites has been demonstrated in three ways. The first was with the Brexit vote. When Prime Minister David Cameron agreed to hold a referendum on the UK’s membership in the EU, he never dreamed that Britons would actually vote to leave. All the polls at the time showed that any movement to leave would go down in flames. Still, through the work of men like Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson, the British populace voted to leave the EU. The Brits on the leave side had to endure being called racist and look past polling that said they had no chance to win.
The second way was the campaign of Trump himself. The GOP had planned a coronation for Jeb Bush. The rest of the GOP field was “me too” candidates who were virtually indistinguishable from Jeb. Trump came in with an uncompromising message and crushed Jeb and the rest of the little Jebs. The elite plan to have Hillary versus a weak conservative was completely thrown into disarray by Trump’s campaign. Even if Trump has lost the general, it is still a victory because now, instead of seeing the Great Oz, we see the globalists behind the curtain.
The third manifestation of the weakness of the elites is the rise of the Alt Right. A tiny group of young people on the internet was able to quickly wake up large segments of the population. Only a year ago, terms like nationalism and globalism were rarely heard in the US. Now, we have grandmothers in Texas tweeting about how we need to lay the axe to the globalists.
The overall lesson is that we should not fear the globalist elite. They exist and they are able to fool a majority of the population, but not all of us. With sound strategy, they can be defeated.
The Elite have completely divorced themselves from non-elites
In the past, Europe had an aristocracy. This aristocracy had a close relationship with the rest of the people in the country. The aristocracy was expected to defend the nation in case of war. They also had the same religion as the rest of the country. We already knew that the modern “aristocracy” of the globalist elites has no responsibilities toward the rest of us, but, thanks to WikiLeaks, we have now learned that they don’t even share the same religion.
WikiLeaks revealed that Hillary Clinton and her campaign manager are close friends with Marina Abramovic, a Serbian artist who performs occult rituals she calls “ spirit cooking .” Spirit cooking appears to be set of magical rituals that use bodily fluids such as menstrual blood, urine, and semen to achieve certain goals, usually sex-related. It also involves at least minor sacrifices: one “recipe” calls for cutting one’s figure and “eat[ing] the pain.”
While spirit cooking is certainly grotesque, it is not my intention to focus on it except to point out that it has become a sort of initiation ritual into the US globalist elite. Hillary Clinton, John Podesta, Jay-Z and Beyonce, Lady Gaga, and Gwen Stefani have all attended these rituals and I would not be surprised to learn that many other politicians, CEOs, and bankers also participate. Getting invited to one of these spirit cooking sessions means that you have gained entry into the wealthy elite in the US. There are probably similar groups or rituals for the modern day European elites.
There are several things at work here. Most of the spirit cooking participants probably don’t believe in the efficacy of the spirit cooking ritual. It is more like a college fraternity initiation. It only means something in terms of one’s social standing. Also, the satanic imagery of spirit cooking and its sexual overtones are big middle fingers to Christianity which our elite regard as the religion of the unwashed masses.
In both of these ways, our modern “elite” have separated themselves from the rest of us. They don’t share the same destiny as us. If the country starts going to hell, the wealthy elite can just pick up and move to another country or they can live in small, heavily guarded compounds, untouched by the damage their policies have caused. And they even lack a common morality with us. In their own eyes, their wealth has somehow put them beyond the traditional moral code that guides the rest of us.
The fact that the elites have no regard for the rest of the country does not bode well for them. The aristocracy of old knew that their fortune was bound up with that of their countrymen. The modern elite lack this wisdom. Once enough of the hoi polloi realize it, it is only a matter of time before these pseudo-elites are deposed from their pedestal.
Conclusion With Trump’s election, the problem of federal government being used for political purposes will be mitigated. However, the problems with our indulgent pseudo-elite will continue to be a force that prevents the patriarchy from returning. In any case, we can be grateful that the election of 2016 has exposed some of the cancers that are eating away at our society.
Read More: Rigged: FBI Reveals It Has Evidence Hillary Clinton Broke Law, But Will Not Prosecute
| 1real |
Housing Bias Outlasts Ruling in a Long Island Village - The New York Times | GARDEN CITY, N. Y. — Mary Crosson, a housing activist, remembers moving to Long Island from Bayside, Queens, in the 1990s and being struck by the sharp divisions that seemed to keep blacks and whites apart. “I come from South Carolina, so I understand discrimination,” said Mrs. Crosson, 68, who is black and lives in the village of Hempstead, where nearly half the residents are . “In Queens, it was more of a mixed neighborhood. I came out here and I felt like I went back to the South all over again. ” A federal appeals court found last month that such segregation was not an accident. The court ruled that Hempstead’s neighbor, Garden City, a wealthy village where 1. 2 percent of the residents were black in 2010, had violated federal antidiscrimination law by rezoning land specifically to block multifamily housing — and the potential for minorities to move in. “Something was amiss here,” a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit wrote in its decision. “Garden City’s abrupt shift in zoning in the face of vocal opposition to changing the character of Garden City represented acquiescence to animus. ” The ruling, which affirmed a 2013 decision by a Federal District Court judge, is a pivotal development in the long struggle to dismantle housing segregation as the federal government, courts and advocacy groups shift the battle beyond cities to white suburban enclaves that have deliberately erected barriers to integration. The more aggressive posture reflects a growing impatience with the persistence of segregation a after the passage of the federal Fair Housing Act, and an effort to apply more pressure on communities to finally open themselves up to black and Latino residents. “It’s another signal that the tide is turning in terms of fair housing,” said Prof. Robert M. Silverman, of the School of Architecture and Planning at the State University of New York at Buffalo, who has written extensively on the subject of housing segregation. “There’s a historic pattern of segregation that those places have experienced. ” In the case of Garden City, however, the legal victory may have come too late. The litigation dragged on for so long that a courthouse is now planned for the land at the center of the case, and local officials, advocates said, claim there are few other parcels on which to build. The judges who ruled in the Garden City case raised the possibility that discrimination went beyond one community, directing the district court to determine whether officials in Nassau County, which includes Garden City and Hempstead, had deliberately steered affordable housing to areas with largely minority populations. Experts on fair housing say discrimination cases are flaring where the need for more affordable housing is greatest: cities where housing costs are high and their suburbs. In recent years, legal challenges have been raised in Westchester County, N. Y. Marin County, Calif. and the city of Dallas, among other places. The litigation in Nassau County is entering its next phase as a new rule issued by the Obama administration takes effect, requiring communities that receive federal housing aid to detail how they plan to reduce racial inequality in housing. The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development has given local governments data and mapping tools to help them address segregation. Bryan Greene, the agency’s general deputy assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity, said the requirement would help prevent what happened in Westchester, where some of the country’s most affluent communities sit next to hardscrabble towns and where, a judge found, officials had failed to consider race when they certified that the county had taken steps to promote fair housing. Westchester, which entered a sweeping desegregation agreement with the federal government in 2009, helped “illustrate to many people nationwide that communities were getting millions and millions of dollars in block grant funding” without evaluating the problem of racial segregation, Mr. Greene said. In the case of Garden City, local officials had not received federal housing money, but the Fair Housing Act applies to all housing transactions and policies, even when federal money is not involved. The lawsuit that led to the appeals court ruling last month was filed against the village and Nassau County in 2005. It accused the village of discrimination by catering to residents who had protested the board of trustees’ initial embrace of a zoning classification that would have allowed multifamily housing on a parcel that the county owned and planned to sell to a private developer. While the classification did not specifically refer to affordable housing, the appeals court said, residents who opposed the move raised the specter of such housing being built and urged the trustees to “play it safe” by allowing only townhouses or homes on the property. The trustees did just that. Using what the appeals court called code words, residents said that multifamily housing would change the “flavor” and “character” of the village and would lead to “four or 10 people in an apartment,” and demanded a guarantee that the housing be “upscale. ” “The tenor of the discussion at public hearings,” the judges wrote, and a flier that circulated in the village, “shows that citizen opposition, though not overtly was directed at a potential influx of poor, minority residents. ” Garden City officials have yet to decide whether to appeal. The trustees said in a statement that the village had already begun to apply remedies ordered by the district court judge, Arthur D. Spatt, adopting a resolution and appointing a compliance officer. Judge Spatt also ordered Garden City to require that 10 percent of new residential developments with five units or more be set aside for residents with household incomes of 80 percent or less of Long Island’s median income. Advocates doubt the village will create such housing anytime soon. “They’ve been saying to us the whole time that they don’t have enough land to build anything,” said Diane Goins, chairwoman of the Long Island chapter of New York Communities for Change, a plaintiff in the case. Nonetheless, Ms. Goins, who lives in Hempstead, called the ruling historic. “Having grown up in communities on Long Island, I always knew that we were locked into certain places,” she explained. “You could visit Garden City, but you could not stay. ” The lawyers for the plaintiffs said Garden City and Nassau County were not unusual. “There are many violations going on all across the country, but unless someone catches them, it’s of no moment,” one of the lawyers, Frederick K. Brewington, said. The broader implications of the case, and the appeals court’s question about whether Nassau had engaged in racial steering, could be . Nassau “is one of the most segregated counties in the country,” said Stanley J. Brown, another lawyer for the plaintiffs. In Westchester, the events that eventually produced a desegregation agreement started with a challenge by an advocacy group, the Center, which accused the county of lying when it claimed to have followed requirements while applying for federal housing money. A federal judge agreed, ruling that the county had “utterly failed” to meet its obligations. The county said it would build 750 units of affordable housing in 31 overwhelmingly white communities. The units — intended for working, families — were to be aggressively marketed to nonwhite residents. At the end of 2015, according to county officials, financing was in place for 649 units, 588 of which had building permits or certificates of occupancy. But a thornier element of the Westchester settlement required the county to “use all available means as appropriate” to promote nondiscriminatory housing. That included pressing local governments to change zoning rules that discouraged the construction of apartments. The federal housing agency has repeatedly accused Rob Astorino, the Westchester County executive, of moving too slowly on the issue. He, in turn, has accused the agency of trying to expand the agreement’s scope. In a recent opinion article in a local newspaper, Mr. Astorino, a Republican, said the housing agency was trying to “assault local zoning. ” The Nassau and Westchester cases have their roots in a much older battle near New York: a seminal case in Mount Laurel, N. J. The Mount Laurel case began in the 1960s when a group of found themselves priced out of the township, a Philadelphia suburb. They sued in 1971, after local officials blocked an project. The case reached New Jersey’s highest court, which in two key rulings limited the use of exclusionary zoning to prevent the construction of affordable housing. More important, the ruling, known as the Mount Laurel doctrine, asserted that all municipalities had an obligation to provide a “fair share” of affordable housing. Since the a total of more than 65, 000 units have been built across New Jersey’s 21 counties. Professor Silverman of SUNY Buffalo said continued litigation of cases highlighted both the intractable nature of the problem and the robust enforcement now unfolding nationally. “The fact that discrimination has been sustained over time, despite a series of different court challenges, has kept the issue salient,” he said. “People see the inequalities. ” | 0fake |
The Empire Files: Inside Palestine's Refugee Camps | The Empire Files: Inside Palestine's Refugee Camps The Empire Files: Inside Palestine's Refugee Camps By 0 59
In her first on-the-ground report from Palestine, Abby Martin gives a first-hand look into two of the most attacked refugee camps in the West Bank: Balata and Aida camps.
With millions of displaced Palestinians around the world, hundreds of thousands are refugees in their own country — many have lived packed into these refugee camps after being ethnically cleansed from their villages just miles away. | 1real |
Conservative website only media on Tillerson plane to Asia | SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson flew to Asia accompanied by only one journalist on his aircraft, a reporter from a website founded by former Republican political operatives, in a departure from decades of practice. Tillerson, who became the top U.S. diplomat under Republican President Donald Trump in February, traveled to Mexico and Germany last month with a small contingent of journalists, including a “pool” reporter who informed colleagues of Tillerson’s statements or actions. The journalist on Tillerson’s plane that arrived in Tokyo on Wednesday, Erin McPike of the Independent Journal Review (IJR), was not acting as a pool reporter. State Department Acting Spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement that there was only one seat available on Tillerson’s plane for media. The department had previously told reporters covering Tillerson’s trip to South Korea, Japan, and China that he would not be taking reporters on his plane and that they would have to fly commercially, breaking with decades of precedent stretching back to Henry Kissinger. “It was decided to take a journalist from an outlet that doesn’t normally travel with the Secretary of State, as part of an effort to include a broader representation of U.S. media,” Toner said. “We will also make every effort to include a contingent of media on the Secretary’s plane going forward.” The State Department originally said that Tillerson could not accommodate the usual contingent of reporters because of space constraints. It also said the decision to travel without reporters was intended to cut costs. News organizations pay the U.S. government for the cost of their travel. The journalists who reported Tillerson’s landing in Tokyo on Wednesday evening traveled there on commercial flights. Depending on the number of staff Tillerson chose to take to Asia, the Boeing 737 he traveled on could likely have accommodated more than one reporter. The conservative-leaning IJR said in a statement late on Tuesday that the State Department last week offered the seat on Tillerson’s plane. McPike is a White House correspondent for IJR, and previously reported for CNN, Real Clear Politics, NBC News, and National Journal, according to IJR’s website when she joined in February. She was also briefly part of the team that covered the 2016 election campaign for Reuters. “We don’t take this opportunity lightly and recognize the controversy surrounding press access for the trip,” IJR founder and chief executive Alex Skatell said in a statement. In 2014, Skatell told The New York Times he wanted to start a site after observing a gap in reaching “a more mainstream center-right audience.” The State Department Correspondents’ Association said in a statement that it was “disappointed” Tillerson chose to travel to Asia without a full contingent of media “or even a pool reporter” and called for access to Tillerson equal to that given by the reporter on the plane during his trip to Asia. Tillerson, a former chief executive with the Exxon Mobil oil company, faces a tough first trip to Asia seeking to reassure nervous allies facing North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile threat and press China to do more on perhaps the most serious security challenge confronting Trump. For decades, secretaries of state have nearly always invited media to travel with them. In rare cases, particularly late in a secretary’s tenure, some news outlets have declined, such as former Secretary John Kerry’s December 2016 trip to Saudi Arabia. Republican secretaries of state Alexander Haig, George Shultz, James Baker, and Condoleezza Rice routinely took 10 or more journalists on their overseas trips, even to war zones. Before founding IJR, Skatell worked for the National Republican Senatorial Committee and for the Republican Governors Association, according to his LinkedIn profile. Another founder, Phil Musser, was once executive director of the Republican Governors Association and worked in the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the administration of George W. Bush. | 0fake |
John McCain: Russian Election Meddling Is Even More Serious Than A Physical Attack | Sen. John McCain is weighing in on Russia s meddling in the U.S. election, and he has made his stance abundantly clear. In an interview with New York Magazine that was published online this Saturday, McCain said that Russian interference in our presidential election is even worse than a physical attack and risks undermining the foundation of democracy. The severity of this issue, the gravity of it, is so consequential because if you succeed in corrupting an election, then you ve destroyed the foundation of democracy, McCain said. So I view it with the utmost seriousness. I view it more seriously than a physical attack. I view it more seriously than Orlando, or San Bernardino. As tragic as that was, the far-reaching consequences of an election hack are certainly far in excess of a single terrorist attack. The senator also has some serious questions about Trump s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who has now resigned as a result of his compromising conversations with Russia. The Flynn fiasco, he said, is just another sign of dysfunction within Trump s administration. When did Flynn know about anything to do with Russian interference? he asked. Why was there a gap of X number of days between the president being told and no action taken? What is the extent of the relationship between Flynn and the Russians? McCain also addressed the Russian dossier, which revealed Trump s shady ties to Russia along with insight into his personal perversions. According to the document, Russia is using Trump s sexual indiscretions to blackmail him. The Arizona senator said that this would not be out of character for Russia because it s what they do. I didn t know what to make of it, but everyone knows the Russians do use women and sex when people go to Russia, he said. It s an old KGB honeypot. You can read his interview in its entirety here.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images | 1real |
North Dakota had 292 oil spills in 2 years officially disclosed 1 to the public | We Are Change
North Dakota had nearly 300 oil pipeline spills in less than two years, none of which were reported to the public.
From January 2012 – September 2013, these pipeline spills were just a part of approximately 750 “oil field incidents” that took place in the state without the public’s knowledge, according to a report by The Associated Press . It’s estimated that around 4,328 barrels worth of oil were spilled in this period.
In an another case, a break in a Tesoro Corp. pipeline resulted in approximately 20,600 barrels of oil spreading over an area the size of seven football fields. Officials claimed that no wildlife or water sources were harmed by the spill, which apparently led them to conclude that the public did not need to be notified.
The only incident in which the public was notified was an instance in which an oil truck was involved in a collision in 2012.
While many of these spills were relatively small and arguably had little environmental impact, landowners expressed outrage that they were kept out of the loop. North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources director Lynn Helms said that they didn’t want the public to become “overwhelmed by little incidents.”
However, landowners like wheat farmer Louis Kuster said it is “absolutely important for us to know” if spills of any kind occur, particularly given his livelihood’s reliance on the health of his land. Even a single barrel of spilled oil has the potential to ruin water sources and acres upon acres of valuable cropland.
“Right now, you don’t know if there is a spill unless you find it yourself,” Kuster said.
While the release of AP’s report ultimately led to more regulations obliging the public release of reported oil spills, including an online database of spills accessible to the public , this history of secrecy provides a troubling context for the Sioux Tribe’s distrust of the DAPL pipeline construction.
The Sioux Tribe says that the pipeline “threatens the Tribe’s environmental and economic well-being, and would damage and destroy sites of great historic, religious, and cultural significance to the Tribe.”
In a tense standoff with heavily armed police forces, dozens of protesters – referring to themselves as peaceful water protectors – were arrested today for demonstrating against the construction of the pipeline on what police say is private property.
Nathan Wellman is a Los Angeles-based journalist, author, and playwright. Follow him on Twitter: @LightningWOW
H/t http://usuncut.com/news/north-dakota-292-oil-spills-2-years-officials-disclosed-1-public/
The existence of an officially listed endangered species, a small butterfly called the Poweshiek Skipperling ( Oarisma poweshiek ) , with federally designated Critical Habitat areas in North Dakota’s McKenzie County, has been flagged by activists as possibly relevant to challenging the pipeline permit. ( More species info ).
The endangered Poweshiek Skipperling (Oarisma poweshiek). Photo via US Fish and Wildlife Service, by Gerald Selby
Nine other endangered species present in McKenzie County are referenced in the US Army Corps of Engineers documents , but not the Poweshiek Skipperling.
According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, two ‘units’ of Critical Habitat lie near the Missouri River in McKenzie County. Along the entire pipeline route, residents fear erosion and runoff problems (including many Iowa farmers), but there is no mitigation mentioned in official documents for the butterfly’s sensitive, federally protected areas in McKenzie County.
Besides bulldozing areas near protected species’ enclaves, private capital has brought with it private agents of violence to impose its will. Controversial private security forces involved with violently forcing aside pipeline opponents include 10 Code LLC , based in nearby Bismarck, ND. The shocking attack dogs unleashed on Indigenous water protectors including a child and pregnant woman
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| 1real |
France cautious over U.S. 'evidence' on Iran weaponry in Yemen | PARIS (Reuters) - France reacted cautiously on Friday to U.S. evidence which allegedly proved Iran supplied weapons to Houthi militia in Yemen, saying it was still studying information at its disposal and the United Nations had yet to draw any conclusions. The United States on Thursday presented for the first time pieces of what it said were Iranian weapons supplied to the Houthis, describing it as conclusive evidence that Tehran was violating U.N. resolutions. The arms included charred remnants of what the Pentagon said was an Iranian-made short-range ballistic missile fired from Yemen on Nov. 4 at King Khaled International Airport outside Saudi Arabia s capital Riyadh, as well as a drone and an anti-tank weapon recovered in Yemen by the Saudis. When asked whether Paris believed that evidence was irrefutable, foreign ministry deputy spokesman Alexandre Giorgini declined to respond directly. The United Nations secretariat has not, at this stage, drawn any conclusions. France continues to examine the information at its disposal, he said. Tensions between Iran and France have increased in recent weeks after President Emmanuel Macron said Tehran should be less aggressive in the region and clarify its ballistic missile program. Giorgini said France remained concerned by Iran s ballistic missile program and urged it to abide fully by U.N. Security Council resolution 2231. Resolution 2231, which enshrined the landmark nuclear deal with world powers, calls on Iran not to undertake activities related to missiles capable of delivering nuclear bombs, including launches using such technology. It stops short of explicitly barring such activity. France s foreign minister is due in Washington on Monday to in part to discuss Iran and will travel to Tehran at the start of January. (Corrects spelling of spokesman surname) | 0fake |
20-Year-Old Brit Dies Fighting Islamic State in Syria | A British man who traveled to Syria to fight against Islamic State has been killed in battle, his family have said. [Ryan Lock, a former chef who had no previous military training, told his family he was vacationing in Turkey before crossing the Syrian border and joining the Kurdish People’s Defence Units (YPG). He died on 21 December during an assault on Raqqa, Islamic State’s de facto capital. The YPG wrote a letter to Mr Lock’s family informing them of his death and praising him for his bravery. The Guardian reports that it said: Ryan joined actively in our offensive against the terror threat that Isis caused upon Rojava, Kurdistan. Here, in the dark hours of December 21, 2016, we lost our brave companion Ryan and four other fighters in Jaeber village. Ryan was not only a fighter providing additional force to our struggle. In fact, with his experience and knowledge he has been an example for younger fighters. While he has reached a vast amount of achievement up in our front lines, Ryan has served the purpose of a very important bridge between us, the Kurds of Rojava. He crossed continents for the destiny of our people and humanity. Mr Lock is the third Brit to die fighting Islamic State. Dean Evans, a farmer, died in July 2016 in northern Syria, and Konstandinos Erik Scurfield, a former Royal Marine, was killed in March 2015. Ryan Lock was just weeks away from returning home when he was killed. He wrote on Facebook on 31 August: “I’m on my way to Rojava. I lied about going to Turkey. I’m sorry I didn’t tell anyone. I love all of you and I will be back in six months. ” He narrowly escaped death on 24 November when most of his unit was killed in an airstrike, allegedly by the Turkish air force. Twelve fighters were killed, including American Michael Israel and German Anton Leschek. In a statement, his father said: “Ryan was a very caring and loving boy who would do anything to help anyone. “He had a heart of gold. We ask for privacy to allow our family to grieve. ” | 0fake |
Islamic State accepts Boko Haram allegiance pledge | BEIRUT (AP) — Islamic State militants have accepted a pledge of allegiance by Nigerian-grown Boko Haram extremist group, a spokesman for the Islamic State movement said Thursday.
Boko Haram has been weakened by a multinational force that has dislodged it from a score of northeastern Nigerian towns. But its new Twitter account, increasingly slick and more frequent video messages and a new media arm all were considered signs that the group is now being helped by IS propagandists.
Then on Saturday, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Sheka posted an audio recording online that pledged allegiance to IS. On Thursday the Islamic State group's media arm Al-Furqan, in an audio recording by spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, said that Boko Haram's pledge of allegiance has been accepted, claiming the caliphate has now expanded to West Africa.
Al-Adnani had urged foreign fighters from around the world to migrate and join Boko Haram.
"We announce our allegiance to the Caliph of the Muslims ... and will hear and obey in times of difficulty and prosperity, in hardship and ease, and to endure being discriminated against, and not to dispute about rule with those in power, except in case of evident infidelity regarding that which there is a proof from Allah," said the message.
The Boko Haram pledge to IS comes as the militants reportedly were massing in the northeastern Nigerian town of Gwoza, considered their headquarters, for a showdown with the Chadian-led multinational force.
Boko Haram killed an estimated 10,000 people last year, and it is blamed for last April's abduction of more than 275 schoolgirls. Thousands of Nigerians have fled to neighboring Chad.
The group is waging a nearly 6-year insurgency to impose Muslim Shariah law in Nigeria. It began launching attacks across the border into Cameroon last year, and this year its fighters struck in Niger and Chad in retaliation to their agreement to form a multinational force to fight the militants.
Boko Haram followed the lead of IS in August by declaring an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria that grew to cover an area the size of Belgium. The Islamic State had declared a caliphate in vast swaths of territory that it controls in Iraq and Syria.
The Nigerian group has also followed IS in publishing videos of beheadings. The latest one, published March 2, borrowed certain elements from IS productions, such as the sound of a beating heart and heavy breathing immediately before the execution, according to SITE Intelligence Group.
In video messages last year, Boko Haram's leader sent greetings and praise to both IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and leaders of al-Qaida. But Boko Haram has never been an affiliate of al-Qaida, some analysts surmise because al-Qaida considers the Nigerians' indiscriminate slaughter of Muslim civilians as un-Islamic.
Recent offensives have marked a sharp escalation by African nations against Boko Haram. An African Union summit agreed on sending a force of 8,750 troops to fight Boko Haram.
Military operations in Niger's east have killed at least 500 Boko Haram fighters since Feb. 8, Nigerien officials have said.
Members of the U.N. Security Council proposed Thursday that the international community supply money, equipment, troops and intelligence to a five-nation African force fighting Boko Haram.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | 0fake |
Bernie Sanders Says Bill Clinton Owes Americans an Apology | NEW YORK – Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders condemned parts of Bill Clinton’s record on Saturday and said the former president owed Americans an apology over a tense exchange with Black Lives Matter protesters at a campaign event earlier this week. Appearing at a forum centering on race at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, Mr. Sanders […] | 0fake |
Elle met en fuite un braqueur en lui jetant des invendus des livres du Gorafi >> Le Gorafi | null | 1real |
Trump Influence CRUMBLING As His Own Supporters Share SHOCKING Resentment For Him (DETAILS) | The majority of America saw this coming: Trump s supporters are finally becoming extremely disappointed in the failing performance of their president of choice.Thanks to a New York Times profile of Trump supporters in Pennsylvania, we now know that Trump voters recognize that they re not seeing any of the winning that Trump has promised them over and over. Things have gotten so bad, that the only people in Trump s corner are actually losing hope.Theresa Remington, a home-care worker with two children on active duty in the Marines, had hopes Trump would be good for the Veterans Administration and health care system and has been severely disappointed. Remington said Trump was Just like any other damn president, and now she s curious about what things would have been like if Sen. Bernie Sanders had won the election.Brian Mock, a tattoo artist, admitted with reluctance that Trump is not the right president for this country. Mock said: No one wants to be wrong. It s seeing a house on fire and saying, That house isn t on fire. It is very clearly on fire. According to The Times, Trump supporters feel they have been blindsided and are wondering where Trump s grandiose promises have gone. Some have been completely turned off by Trump s erratic tweeting. Some are so upset with Trump that they feel more confident that Vice President Mike Pence would be a more capable POTUS.Bill Yokobosky IV, a train engineer, admitted: It s not what he s done, it s what he s trying to do. He hasn t succeeded, really. He s fighting himself and he s fighting Washington. They re just trying to get settled in there. The Times report of the defeat Trump supporters are feeling is right in line with Trump s approval rating, which is now lower than ever before according to a recent Gallup poll. After dropping the Mother of All Bombs , Trump s broken his own record to reach a new historic low.Featured image via Win McNamee / Getty Images | 1real |
’Bloodbath’ ESPN Layoffs Could be Larger Than Reported - Breitbart | The impending round of layoffs coming to sports cable network ESPN could begin this week, with some saying it could be a bigger deal than previously reported. [New sources claim that “significant names” and writers may be hit hard by the layoffs, The Washington Post revealed. Originally reported as a possible target of 50 employees, including talent and some beat writers for the website, now insiders disclose it may be closer to 70 employees cut. “This could be a bloodbath,” warned an inside source, according to Sporting News. ESPN has made no official announcement about the extent of the impending measure. The cuts come just ahead of Disney’s financial report. Disney already reported a major deficit due to high costs of keeping the sports cable network afloat. The sports network has been a huge drag on Disney. After losing over 10, 000 subscribers a month and being saddled with hundreds of millions in broadcast fees levied by the various national leagues, ESPN has proved a money loser for the entertainment giant. By some reports, ESPN has lost over 12 million subscribers over the last five years. “ESPN seems to be bleeding money because of so my salary was unattractive to them,” former ESPN writer Adam Rubin said. “And the new MLB editor at ESPN wants to get away from ‘thorough’ beat coverage — that’s the precise word she used — and I suppose I was the sacrificial lamb to hammer home that point. ” Another insider noted that ESPN is not growing its subscriber base or its profit margin. “So the only way to show fiscal responsibility is to lay people off,” the source said. “This is all Wall . This is all about Disney ordering a Code Red. ” Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com. | 0fake |
Saudi Oil Chief Khalid al-Falih Tells OPEC Changes Are Coming - The New York Times | VIENNA — The new oil minister in Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of the OPEC countries, had a message for the global market: Don’t expect us to influence the price of crude oil by adjusting supplies. “I think managing in the traditional way that we tried in the past may never come again,” the minister, Khalid said on Thursday. “Certainly we will not go with certain price targets. ” The message — which came after the decision on Thursday by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to maintain high levels of oil production — is central to the changing strategy of the Saudi complex. And it could foreshadow a period of volatility for oil prices because OPEC’s policies and the Saudis’ sway have long helped guide the markets. In a sweeping directive in April, Saudi Arabia set forth plans to diversify its economy, reduce its dependence on oil and pull back on its government handouts. And what Mr. Falih does with Saudi Arabia’s oil — how much the kingdom decides to pump and where the money goes — is the biggest piece of the puzzle. The global markets received a sneak peak at Thursday’s OPEC meeting, Mr. Falih’s first since his appointment last month as the head of an expanded energy, industry and mining ministry. While other OPEC members have been urging the freezing or lowering of oil production, Mr. Falih is pushing to keep it high and plow the money into other industries that might prove profitable for Saudi Arabia. He wants the cartel to rethink its longstanding approach and assumptions that it can manage global oil supplies and prices. It runs counter to the longtime stance of his predecessor, Ali who presided over an era when OPEC was largely content to restrain production to try to drive prices up. The Saudis’ shift is easier to justify because price pressures have abated of late. While oil initially dipped on Thursday, it recovered to around $50 a barrel, about twice what it was in January. Oil producers should “let the market forces continue to seek and find that equilibrium price between supply and demand,” said Mr. Falih, speaking to a small group of reporters in his penthouse hotel suite. The Saudis can increasingly afford to go their own way. Along with a wealth of oil reserves, Saudi Arabia invested tens of billions of dollars in building a competitive oil business at a time when other OPEC countries like Venezuela and Iran allowed their industries to deteriorate. Mr. Falih has been at the core of those moves. Mr. Falih a 1982 graduate of Texas AM, jumped onto the international oil scene in the early 2000s. Hoping to inject life and competition into the economy, King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia’s ruler at the time, invited overseas companies to look for natural gas after shutting them out in the 1970s. To the surprise of Western oil executives, the king tapped Mr. Falih, then a young executive at Saudi Aramco, to manage complex negotiations for a series of joint ventures with Royal Dutch Shell of Britain, Total of France and Lukoil of Russia. Although the ventures didn’t find much gas, Mr. Falih garnered credit for deftly juggling conflicting interests. “After a year or so, I had to accept that he was really good at what he was doing,” said Floris Ansingh, who was the head of Shell in Saudi Arabia at the time. “He understood the different . ” Mr. Falih’s international focus set the stage for the evolution of Saudi Aramco. After he was named chief executive of the company in 2009, he pushed for modernization, trying to turn the oil company into a global competitor that rivaled the private giants in the West. He expanded areas like oil trading and acquisitions and tried to lock up demand by investing in China and in other growing economies. Saudi Aramco has recently developed three giant oil fields, sharply increasing the amount of oil it can produce. The company earned an estimated $200 billion from oil production last year, according to the commercial intelligence firm Wood Mackenzie. “The view in the industry is that Aramco is one of the best oil companies in the world,” said J. Robinson West, a senior adviser on energy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a research organization. “Khalid has been important in building that. ” Mr. Falih also seems unafraid to tread on sensitive ground. As the head of the national oil company, he warned that domestic fuel consumption risked eroding the exports that are the kingdom’s main source of cash. “We need to make sure that we use our precious oil and gas resources efficiently, wisely and minimizing waste,” Mr. Falih said at a dinner in 2010. At the time, rethinking the country’s energy use at home was a politically fraught issue. Government subsidies that kept fuel cheap were considered an untouchable piece of the Saudi social contract. And with oil prices surging back then, the kingdom’s oil wealth, it seemed, would only grow. Now, his warning is part of the new Saudi . “He is a very astute political player,” said Valérie Marcel, author of “Oil Titans,” a book about national oil companies. “He has been able to push back and create space to debate issues, while still keeping himself in good position with the ruler. ” Mr. Falih also recognized early on that growing concern for the climate could reduce demand for Saudi oil, creating a risk that a large portion of those resources might be left in the ground. On Thursday, Mr. Falih said that Saudi Arabia was now preparing for the worst case by moving aggressively to spur growth of industries. While he said he thought that demand for crude would last for generations, Mr. Falih added that “we as human beings cannot be complacent and assume that oil will continue to fuel the world forever. ” In recent years, Mr. Falih has taken on the role of trusted confidant, serving as adviser and troubleshooter for Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In 2015, the prince put Mr. Falih in charge of the kingdom’s troubled Health Ministry, which was struggling to contain a deadly respiratory virus called MERS. In his new role, Mr. Falih has significant oversight of a huge portion of the Saudi economy. The Oil Ministry absorbed the Ministry of Electricity and was renamed the Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources. He has also been appointed head of the mining company, a industrial fund, the geological survey, the atomic and renewable energy program and a number of other economic bodies. Mr. Falih faces a huge set of objectives, some in areas where his predecessor came up short. Despite its oil wealth, the kingdom struggles to produce sufficient natural gas to meet the needs of electricity generators and industry. Efforts to develop solar power and other renewable energy sources have also lagged some of Saudi Arabia’s neighbors, like the United Arab Emirates. Mr. Falih is part of the plan to refocus the country’s financial firepower to invest in areas other than oil. In a sign of the shifting strategy, the kingdom, traditionally conservative in its investment approach, recently invested $3. 5 billion in the Uber. It was one of the largest investments into a privately held . Mr. Falih is also in charge of the effort to sell a small stake in Saudi Aramco to investors with a target of 2018. He said the idea was to make the company more global as it looks to add investments in natural gas. A public listing might also improve the company’s performance. “If you have to face the analysts every quarter,” he said, “it gives you a bit of competitive tension. ” To make it all work, Mr. Falih will have to persuade the country’s stubborn constituents to adopt a more commercial focus and to participate in joint ventures with international companies. While some doubt whether Mr. Falih is the right person to lead this transition, others say only an insider has the credibility to do so. Either way, the oil market will be watching. | 0fake |
Fact checking the 2016 State of the Union address | A State of the Union address is often difficult to fact-check, no matter who is president. The speech is a product of many hands and is carefully vetted, so major errors of fact are relatively rare. But State of the Union addresses often are very political speeches, an argument for the president’s policies, so context is sometimes missing.
Here is a guide through some of President Obama’s most interesting claims, in the order in which he made them. We also checked one claim in the GOP response. As is our practice with live events, we do not award Pinocchio rankings, which are reserved for complete columns.
While President Obama often has touted what he often calls the “longest streak of private-sector job creation in history,” the average number of jobs created in this 70-month period is significantly lower than under either Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan. (When you exclude a single month of decline, in fact, Clinton and Reagan had streaks of 85 and 71 months, respectively.)
The low point in jobs was reached in February 2010, and there has indeed been a gain of 13.6 million nonfarm jobs since then, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. But it’s worth remembering that in the same period, the number of federal, state and local government jobs has actually declined by nearly 500,000.
The unemployment rate was 7.8 percent when Obama took office in 2009, and now it is 5 percent. The president says it was cut in half by measuring from the high point reached during his presidency: 10 percent in October 2009.
Still, even with the massive jobs losses at the start of his presidency, Obama can claim that nearly 9.3 million jobs were added since he took office. At this point in George W. Bush’s presidency, the comparable number was 1.3 million; and for Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, the figure was 21.2 million and 12.7 million, respectively.
The low point for manufacturing jobs was reached in February 2010, and there has been a gain of 878,000 jobs since then. But Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that the number of manufacturing jobs is still 230,000 fewer than when Obama took office in the depths of the recession — and 1.4 million fewer than when the recession began in December 2007. Indeed, the United States only gained 30,000 manufacturing jobs in all of 2015.
Here’s a graph that shows the trend over the last 10 years:
The improvement in the economy, coupled with the spending cuts in the sequester, has yielded a significantly lower deficit than just a few years ago. The deficit for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 was $439 billion.
For economists, raw numbers mean less than the percentage of the gross domestic product, and here, too, there has been an improvement. As a percentage of the GDP, the deficit in fiscal year 2015 was 2.5 percent, the lowest level since 2007.
For fiscal year 2009, when Obama took office, the deficit was 9.8 percent of GDP, so that’s a 75 percent reduction.
The president used to say “roughly 10 nations” when making this comparison, but cuts in U.S. defense spending and increases in estimates of Chinese spending appear to have shifted the calculation.
The mostly widely cited public source for this claim is the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tallies public numbers each year. SIPRI urges caution in how its data is used, saying that “attempts to draw conclusions about a country’s level of military capability from its level of military expenditure should be regarded with considerable skepticism.”
That’s because raw numbers can be misleading. The official Chinese figures are believed to be understated — and it costs China less money to buy the same goods and services as the United States. A rough calculation of purchasing power parity suggests the correct figure for Chinese defense spending could be double official estimates.
The comparison to China also does not include the fact that because it is not a global power, Beijing may actually spend more on its military in the western Pacific than does the United States.
Moreover, the United States ranks ninth when military spending is measured as a percentage of the gross domestic product, according to the CIA Factbook. Percentage of GDP is a good indicator of how a country chooses to use its resources — the top ranks of the list are dominated by oil-rich Middle Eastern countries and Israel — but the statistic does not shed much light on the effectiveness of a country’s military. So there are also limitations in that comparison.
In lauding his achievements in energy, the president made a reference to the dramatic decline in gasoline prices. But the White House graphics that accompanied his speech in its posting on Medium included a sentence that made a claim based on much higher gas prices.
The graphic claimed that “Americans will save nearly $8,000 at the pump in 2025 thanks to doubling the fuel efficiency of our cars and light trucks.” But there are two big caveats to that figure, which comes from official government estimates of the savings over the lifetime of a car between 2012 and 2025.
First, gasoline was presumed to cost about $3.42 before taxes, so obviously any savings from fuel efficiency would be significantly reduced if gasoline stays at current $2-a-gallon levels. Second, the cost of the rules was estimated to amount to $3,000, thus reducing the savings to car owners to $5,000 even before the impact of lower fuel prices is considered.
According to the Solar Foundation, an independent energy research nonprofit, the median wage for solar designers is about $27 per hour, and solar installers earn a median wage of $21 per hour. (Solar installers’ hourly median wage was $19.24, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ most recent, May 2014 figures.) Workers in solar assembly earn $18 per hour. These figures are, indeed, higher than the median hourly wage for all occupations as of the most recent figures in May 2014, at $17.09. (However, the median hourly wage for employees in the mining industry — including coal mining — is also higher than the median hourly wage for all jobs — at $48.54.)
The group reported in its 2015 Census that the solar workforce is larger than the coal industry and other fossil fuel generation sectors. It used Bureau of Labor Statistics figures to compare coal industry employees to solar industry employees, as measured through its survey of more than 7,600 U.S. businesses.
As of October 2015, the coal mining industry had 65,000 jobs. Per the Solar Foundation’s 2015 figures, there were 119,931 people employed in solar installation.
Obama’s statement comes from the Department of Energy’s website, which cites the Solar Foundation’s wage figures. But the source is unclear for the claim that solar is saving “tens of millions of dollars a year” on energy bills for Arizona and New York residents. Solar power is, indeed, growing rapidly in New York and Arizona. While the Department of Energy appears to attribute the savings figures to the Solar Foundation, the claim that solar customers are saving $13 million in Arizona and $11 million in New York every year is not in the nonprofit’s most recent annual report.
It’s worth noting that in Arizona, there is an ongoing controversy over whether residents truly are getting lower rates on solar energy. Energy regulators in the state are battling utility companies over net metering, which is the process through which solar customers get a credit for a certain amount of electricity that they send back to the grid. Regulators are working on a compromise deal that could result in a cost-shift for non-solar customers.
Texas and Iowa lead the nation in wind power, and the cost of wind power surely is lower in those states than in others. But this claim overlooks the impact of the federal tax credit that has driven much of the cost of wind power down.
The average price of coal and natural gas power ($65 per megawatt-hour) is still cheaper than newer sources of energy like wind ($80) and solar ($107), according to the Dallas Morning News.
In particular, the Production Tax Credit is a crucial subsidy that allows wind energy to compete with energy from fossil fuels. This tax credit is the driving force behind negative wind power pricing in Texas, according to a 2015 report by the Institute of Political Economy at Utah State University and public policy research organization Strata. Texas also provides many state-level financial incentives for wind power generation. [Update: Supporters of wind power energy noted this report is backed by wind power critics, and said it’s unfair to criticize the tax credits because fossil fuels have received many more government incentives than renewables over a longer period of time. They pointed to other sources showing wind’s costs to be lower than for other electricity sources.]
The Department of Energy estimates that within a decade, wind power will become cost-competitive with fossil fuels without a federal tax incentive. The White House noted that solar and wind energy prices are now becoming competitive with energy from conventional fuel sources.
Actually, federal government employment has dropped during the Obama administration; at one point in 2014 federal employment reached the lowest level since 1966. There has been a slight uptick since then, but even so, as a percentage of total employment, the federal government now has the smallest share since World War II.
Here’s a graph that shows total federal employment since 1939. The spikes every 10 years reflect temporary hiring for the U.S. Census. | 0fake |
CLINTON CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN HAD MULTIPLE DINNERS WITH TOP DOJ OFFICIAL DURING HILLARY'S EMAIL INVESTIGATION | Email
The day after Hillary Clinton testified in front of the House Select Committee on Benghazi last October, John Podesta, the Democrat’s campaign chairman, met for dinner with a small group of well-connected friends, including Peter Kadzik, a top official at the Justice Department.
The dinner arrangement, revealed in hacked Podesta emails released by Wikileaks, is just the latest example of an apparent conflict of interest between the Clinton campaign and the federal agency charged with investigating the former secretary of state’s email practices.
Podesta and Kadzik, the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, were in frequent contact, other emails show. In one email from January, Kadzik and Podesta, who were classmates at Georgetown Law School in the 1970s, discussed plans to celebrate Podesta’s birthday. And in another sent last May, Kadzik’s son emailed Podesta asking for a job on the Clinton campaign.
The post-Benghazi dinner was attended by Podesta, Kadzik, superlobbyist Vincent Roberti and other well-placed Beltway fixtures.
The exchanges are another example of the Clinton campaign’s “cozy relationship” with the Obama Justice Department, one former U.S. Attorney tells The Daily Caller. | 1real |
May nudges UK towards a friendly EU divorce | LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May s divorce deal with the European Union is the strongest signal since the shock 2016 Brexit referendum that the United Kingdom is heading towards an orderly departure that preserves very close trade ties. May rushed to Brussels before dawn on Friday to secure the European Commission s agreement that sufficient progress had been made to begin talks about trade and a two-year Brexit transition period that will start when Britain leaves the EU on March 29, 2019. Below are some scenarios for Brexit. An orderly Brexit, with a clear transition and the hope of a trade deal to keep the UK and EU economies as close as possible, would cheer investors and business chiefs. Friday s deal appeared to put Britain on course for an orderly Brexit. May largely conceded to the EU on the structure, timetable and substance of the negotiations. At least for now, she has convinced her divided party and the Northern Irish lawmakers who prop up her minority government that she can deliver a deal that is acceptable to them. If all sides stay happy enough to keep the talks on track May is aiming to strike a transition deal early in 2018 and a free trade deal to be signed shortly after exit day. The EU says any transition deal in the next few months will be interim in the sense that nothing is definite until the Withdrawal Treaty is ratified in 2019. The EU thinks a free trade deal would be negotiated during the transition. May is committed to the UK leaving the single market and customs union. But she agreed with the EU that the rules between Northern Ireland and Ireland would stay if they could not work out another way to avoid a hard border on the island. That indicates that the UK will keep significant alignment with EU rules, at least for the first few years after the transition. Brexit negotiator David Davis has said his preferred deal would be similar to Canada s CETA deal with the EU but Canada plus plus plus .[L8N1NL26Q] May has said she wants a bespoke British deal. The Canadian deal focuses on access to goods but services is more important for Britain as it accounts for about 4/5 of the economy. Brexit does look more benign if you think there will be a transition and a trade deal, said Mark Essex, director of Brexit at KPMG. At the very least, Canada, or CETA, plus banking seems a smart move. Such a benign Brexit assumes that May can stay in power long enough to deliver one. The talks came close to collapse in Brussels on Dec. 4 when the Northern Irish party which props up May s government vetoed a draft deal already agreed with Ireland. Many companies fear that events in either Britain or the EU could still derail a final deal. Cliff edge Brexit is still a possibility, said Essex After what we saw in Brussels last week, you have to have a lot of faith to assume it will be plain sailing all the way to next March. The shock Brexit vote on June 23 2016 thrust Britain into its deepest political crisis since the Suez crisis of 1956. May, who pitched her premiership as a way to calm the turmoil, increased uncertainty when she lost her party its majority in a June snap election which strengthened Jeremy Corbyn s position as opposition Labour Party leader. With her authority weakened and her minority government dependent on 10 lawmakers from the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party, May has to constantly gauge how far she can bring her party and her allies with her on Brexit. May is like fatigued metal: she is going to break but you just don t know when the collapse will come, said one former British diplomat. The Conservatives will never allow her to fight another general election so the question is whether she lasts until Brexit, if we do indeed (do) Brexit. Foreign diplomats in London are already trying to figure out which candidates could win the top job when she is gone. So far May s survival has been dependent on the absence of a clear successor and fear in her party that if she is toppled then opposition leader Corbyn could win a national election. Betting markets indicate a 29 percent probability of a UK election in 2018. Corbyn has the lowest odds on being the next prime minister after May, followed by Conservative lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. A YouGov poll showed May s Conservatives were ahead of Labour in the first time since the June election. A Labour government is now seen as such a real possibility that some major financial services companies are trying to gauge just how radical Corbyn, a lifelong socialist, and his finance chief, John McDonnell, will be. While Labour s official policy is to leave the EU, Corbyn has barely detailed the party s Brexit position. Many of his lawmakers want to stay in the EU but many traditional Labour supporters voted to leave. Labour s Brexit chief Keir Starmer has said Britain should keep the closest possible trading ties with the EU. Brexit doesn t happen: The $2.6 trillion economy stalls, prompting calls for a second EU referendum that - if held during a deep recession - could produce a vote to remain in the EU. Ever since the referendum, Brexit opponents - from French President Emmanuel Macron and former British prime minister Tony Blair to billionaire investor George Soros - have suggested Britain could change its mind and avoid what they say will be disastrous economic consequences. Reversing Brexit assumes the fall of May, who triggered Article 50 of the treaty on March 29. The legalities of reversing Brexit are unclear as the EU s treaties do not cover such an eventuality. John Kerr, a former British ambassador to the EU, who drafted Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty said Britain could unilaterally scrap its divorce plans. In Brussels, there is no single view on how a reverse Brexit might work. While the EU would be likely to welcome a Brexit reversal, it might require the agreement of all 27 other members and some of Britain s special favors, such as the rebate on its payments could come under attack. Supporters of Brexit have repeatedly said that any attempt to have another referendum, or to undermine Brexit, would catapult the world s sixth largest economy into crisis. | 0fake |
Checking a claim that 'nobody did anything wrong' on Benghazi | As part of a partnership with Factcheck.org, a look at Hillary Clinton's recent claim regarding the various congressional investigations into the 2012 Benghazi attacks. Clinton claimed that the seven investigations have found that 'I and nobody did anything wrong.' Did they really?
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said all of the government investigations into the terrorist attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi concluded that "nobody did anything wrong." That's not exactly accurate.
An independent accountability board appointed by Clinton found "systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels." On the day the report came out, four State Department employees were placed on administrative leave, and all four were later reassigned. | 0fake |
Pelosi: ’I Would Have Been Gone By Now’ If Hillary Had Won - Breitbart | .@NancyPelosi on if she would have retired had @HillaryClinton been elected: ”I would have been gone by now if she had won.” pic. twitter. While speaking with reporters on Friday, House Minority Leader Representative Nancy Pelosi stated of the 2016 presidential election, “I would have been gone by now if she had won. ” Pelosi said that the Affordable Care Act is “a pillar” and that if Clinton was in office, she wouldn’t worry about the ACA going away. Pelosi continued that “we all knew” Clinton would win. She added that Trump winning “motivated me her to stay. ” And “I would have been gone by now if she had won. ” ( Politico) Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett | 0fake |
Mexico says top U.S., Mexican officials to meet in Washington next week | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Senior Mexican officials will hold meetings on January 25 and 26 with U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump’s top aides in Washington, to discuss bilateral relations such as security, trade and migration, the government said on Thursday. In a statement, the foreign ministry said Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray and Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo would attend talks with chief-of-staff Reince Priebus, Trump’s son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner, among others. The meetings will also be attended by Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, Gary Cohn, who heads the White House National Economic Council, trade advisor Peter Navarro, and national security advisor Michael Flynn, the statement said. Trump has sent Mexico’s peso to record lows, threatening to tax Mexican-made products for the U.S market, build a wall along the southern border, and scrap a free trade agreement with Mexico if he cannot renegotiate it to favor American interests. | 0fake |
Can The American People Defeat The Oligarchy That Rules Them? : Information | Can The American People Defeat The Oligarchy That Rules Them? By Paul Craig Roberts
Arent you surprised that Hillary and the presstitutes havent blamed Putin for FBI director Comeys reopening of the Hillary email case? But the presstitutes have done the next best thing for Hillary. They have made Comey the issue, not Hillary.
According to US Senator Harry Reid and the presstitutes, we dont need to worry about Hillarys crimes. After all, she is only a political woman feathering her nest, just as political men have done for ages. Why all this misogynist talk about Hillary? The presstitutes cry is that Comeys alleged crime is far more important. This woman-hating Republican violated the Hatch Act by telling Congress that the investigation he said was closed is now reopened. A very strange interpretation of the Hatch Act. During an election it is OK to announce that a candidate for president is cleared but it is not OK to say that a candidate is under investigation.
In July 2016 Comey violated the Hatch Act when he, on orders from the corrupt Obama Attorney General, announced Hillary clean. In so doing, Comey used the prestige of federal clearance of Hillarys violation of national security protocols to boost her standing in the election polls.
Actually, Hillarys standing in the polls is based on the pollsters over-weighting Hillary supporters in the polls. It is easy to produce a favorite if you overweight their supporters in the poll questions. If you look at the crowds attending the two candidates public appearances, it is clear that the American people prefer Donald Trump, who is opposed to war with Russia and China. War with nuclear powers is the big issue of the election.
Hillarys problem has the ruling American Oligarcy, for which Hillary is the total servant, concerned. What are they going to do about Trump if he wins? Will his fate be the same as John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, George Wallace? Time will tell. Or will a hotel maid appear at the last minute in the way that the Oligarchy got rid of Dominique Strauss-Kahn?
All of the American and Western feminists, progressives, and left-wing remnant fell for the obvious frame-up of Strauss-Kahn. After Strauss-Kahn was blocked from the Presidency of France and resigned as Director of the IMF, the New York authorities had to drop all charges against Strauss-Kahn. But Washington had succeeded in putting its French vassal, Sarkozy, in the presidency of France.
This is how the American Oligarchy destroys those it suspects might not serve its interests. The corrupt self-serving Oligarchy makes sure that it owns the government and the media, the think tanks and increasingly all of the major universities, and, of course, through the presstitutes, Americans minds.
The Oligarchs are now hard-pressed to rescue Hillary as US president, so lets see if the Oligarchs can once again deceive the American people.
While we wait, lets concern ourselves with another important issue. The Clinton crime syndicate in the closing years of the 20th century allowed a small handful of mega-corporations to consolidate the US media in a few hands. This vast increase in the power of the Oligarchy was accomplished despite US anti-trust law. The media mergers destroyed the American tradition of a dispersed and independent media.
But really, what does federal law mean to the One Percent. Nothing whatsoever. The One Percents power makes them immune to law. Hillarys crimes might cost her the election, but she wont go to jail.
Not content with 90% control of the US media, the Oligarchy wants more concentration and more control. Looks like they will be getting it, thanks to the corrupt US government. The Federal Trade Commission is supposed to enforce US anti-trust law. Instead, the federal agency routinely violates US anti-trust law by permitting monopoly concentrations of business interests.
Because of the failure of the federal government to enforce federal law, we now have banks too big to fail, unregulated Internet monopoly, and the evisceration of a dispersed and independent media.
Not so long ago there was a field of economics known as anti-trust. Ph.D. candidates specialized in and wrote dissertations about public control of monopoly power. I assume that this field of economics, like the America of my youth, no longer exists.
In the article below, Rahul Manchanda, explains that yet again another huge media conglomerate is being swallowed and acquired by another huge media conglomerate, to create another gargantuan media outlet, in another consolidation of the enormous power, money, wealth, intimidation, conspiracy and control that eviscerates the US Constitution and the First Amendment.
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West , How America Was Lost , and The Neoconservative Threat to World Order . | 1real |
Experts: ‘Militiamen’ Live Hand To Mouth On Gov’t Disability And Their Wives’ Hard Work | Jon Ritzheimer, infamous right-wing terrorist and incredible douchebag, barely squeaks by on his government disability check and has said that he is thankful to have a wife who works. As it turns out, experts tell us that this guy who spends his days fighting imaginary battles and sucking up a good man s oxygen isn t the exception to the demographics that make up a right-wing terrorist militia, he s the definition. These guys are broke, said Mark Pitcavage, who has been researching far-right movements for 22 years and has studied the Harney County occupiers. Right-wing extremists, generally speaking, have very little money. How a right-wing extremist occupation like the one in Oregon would pay for itself isn t exactly an issue there s been a lot of data on. By referencing the research of people like Pitcavage, we can deduce that right-wing extremists are for the most part freeloaders, likened to teenagers who think they can take care of themselves but overwhelmed the first time they have to pay a bill or do a load of laundry. It s quite possible that a lot of them will get tired and feel the pressure to go back and care for their families, Pitcavage explained. Those families, left behind to care for themselves, are probably better off without their patriarch, the almighty man who controls everything and can make the decision to just pack up and leave on a whim to occupy a forest a thousand miles away that they ve never heard of before last week.Daryl Johnson, a former DHS domestic terrorism analyst, says militia members have a warped sense of priority where their duty is concerned. A video released by Ritzheimer showed him crying that he would probably be killed and how much he would miss his family just before he held up a copy of the Constitution and declared But I took an oath. They ll think nothing about taking half their paycheck and using half of it to buy ammunition and guns, Johnson told The Oregonian.The gist here is that these idiots aren t just the worst the American gene pool has to offer, they re also incredible assholes who are neglecting their families to go play soldier in the Oregon wilderness. They re holed up in a facility they didn t pay to be at, squeezing the taxpayer for their utilities and costing tens if not hundreds of thousands more in wages paid to employees who can t go to work.The sooner these imbeciles are removed and incarcerated the better off the country and their families will be.Featured image via thetruthaboutguns.com | 1real |
Marco Rubio NAILS IT: Trump As President Would Have ‘Life And Death Consequences’ (VIDEO) | Florida Senator Marco Rubio has been going after presidential rival Donald Trump with a vengeance over the past few weeks, continuously calling out the Republican front-runner in every way possible from his lies to his spelling to his offensive and hateful rhetoric.On Friday, Rubio targeted Trump s anti-Muslim comments during an appearance on CNN s New Day , stating that Trump needs to tone down the Islamophobia because the rhetoric a president puts forth has life and death consequences. Rubio, who pretty much has no hope for becoming the GOP nominee, spoke some truth when he said: I know people like it that Donald Trump says whatever he wants and whatever they feel like saying. Presidents cannot say anything they want. Presidents have to understand that their words have consequences, often life and death consequences, for real people in the real world. Because of Trump s inflammatory, foul remarks, Rubio said what any level-headed American instinctively knows: that Trump wouldn t be a good commander-in-chief if he can t work with America s armed service in its entirety because many of those members are Muslims. Rubio posed this question: How are you going to face them as commander-in-chief, knowing you re going around saying all Muslims hate the United States? I don t think you re going to be able to be a good commander-in-chief. You can watch Rubio s criticism of the business mogul below:These statements from Rubio come just one day after Rubio slammed Trump during Thursday s Republican debate, stating that defending Muslims isn t about being politically correct after Trump insisted that Islam hates us. During the debate, Rubio made similar comments to his interview on CNN: I know that a lot of people find appeal in the things Donald says, because he says what people wish they could say. The problem is presidents can t just say anything they want. It has consequences, here and around the world. Stating that although there are dangers in the world in regards to radical Islam, it s wrong to generalize an entire religion. Rubio said: There is no doubt that radical Islam is a danger to the world. I can also tell you that if you go to any national cemetery, especially Arlington, you re going to see crescent moons there. If you go anywhere in the world, you re going to see American men and women serving us in uniform that are Muslims. Rubio s right, whether you agree with him as a presidential candidate or not and this goes way beyond Trump s feelings about the Islamic faith. He s demonstrated the same anger and insensitivity toward Hispanics, women and many other minority groups. Trump s inflammatory, hateful rhetoric has the power and influence to divide this nation instead of unify it. He s taken the most awful aspects of the Republican party and amplified them. Just by the way his rallies have transformed into fighting arenas, Trump has already demonstrated that he approves of violence and cares very little about peace and the well-being of Americans his bigotry doesn t support. He s dangerous behind comprehension, and his brand of ignorance threatens to destroy America.Featured image via Gage Skidmore | 1real |
Venezuela opposition leader Ledezma flees to Spain | CARACAS/BOGOTA (Reuters) - Veteran Venezuelan opposition leader Antonio Ledezma, under house arrest since 2015 for alleged coup plotting, escaped across the border to Colombia on Friday and later flew to Spain. With a 2018 presidential election looming, an array of major Venezuelan opposition figures are now in exile, detention or are barred from holding office. They say Maduro has turned Venezuela into a dictatorship, while the government accuses them of joining forces with a U.S.-led global plot to topple him. Ledezma, the best-known detained opponent of leftist President Nicolas Maduro after Leopoldo Lopez, had spearheaded street protests against Maduro in 2014 that led to months of violence and 43 deaths. In Spain today I feel free, he said at Madrid s Barajas airport, where he arrived in the early hours of Saturday. He was cheered by a small crowd including his wife and two daughters, who were already in Spain. Supporters chanted the Venezuelan anthem. Let s not permit that Venezuela dies in our hands, he also said, adding that he would soon meet with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. The 62-year-old former Caracas metropolitan mayor said he had gone past 29 police and army controls during a clandestine, overland journey that he kept secret from his loved ones. I ask my wife and daughters to understand. They have suffered long hours of anguish without knowing where I was, he told reporters in the Colombian border town of Cucuta after crossing a bridge from San Antonio in Venezuela. It was my decision alone. Welcome to freedom! tweeted former Colombian President Andres Pastrana, who is close to Venezuela s opposition and the families of other jailed activists. Ledezma was mocked by Maduro as The Vampire, and accused by officials of helping violent hardliners, including dissident military officers plotting to topple the president via air strikes. Ledezma said those charges were trumped up. I hope they never send him back, they can keep the Vampire, Maduro said on Friday evening. The people of Madrid will have to be careful at night, the Vampire (is going) to Madrid. Before boarding a private plane to Bogota, Ledezma said he was planning a global pilgrimage to fight for political freedom in Venezuela. He thanked Colombia s government, which also recently gave asylum to another high-profile Venezuelan dissident, former state prosecutor Luisa Ortega. It s time for him (Maduro) to step aside and allow a transition government, said Ledezma. Maduro cannot keep torturing the Venezuelan people, he s killing Venezuelans with hunger. The OPEC nation of 30 million people is suffering a fourth year of brutal recession, with the highest inflation in the world, shortages of food and medicines, and many people having to skip meals or suffering preventable illnesses. Government supporters have long vilified Ledezma for supporting a brief 2002 coup and accused him of corruption. State media repeatedly show a video where a jailed student radical lauds him as an old fox ... the politician who most supported the resistance. Ledezma, along with another opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, has been part of the more militant wing of Venezuela s opposition coalition. Both oppose a planned new political dialogue between the opposition and government scheduled for early December in the Dominican Republic. I left my flag with Maria Corina Machado, in whom I trust completely, Ledezma told reporters. Ledezma won the Caracas mayoralty in 2008, but some of his functions and funding were quickly transferred to a new, pro-government office. Upstaged by younger opposition leaders, Ledezma was not viewed as a future presidential candidate. Intelligence agents took him from his office in Caracas in February 2015. He was originally held at the Ramo Verde military prison before being granted house arrest. Machado told reporters Ledezma had been under increasing pressure from authorities and had faced threats to return him to Ramo Verde due to his opposition to the political dialogue. We believe in real negotiations, but only ones that lead to the exit of the dictatorship, she told reporters. | 0fake |
Trump's San Diego rally draws more than 1,000 chanting protesters | SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - Donald Trump brought his message of walls and deportations to the doorstep of America’s busiest border crossing on Friday as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee greeted supporters in San Diego, amid one of the largest counter-protests organized against him. The scene inside the San Diego Convention Center during Trump’s speech was relatively placid, while outside demonstrators opposed to his controversy-ridden White House bid marched and chanted, carrying signs criticizing his rhetoric against illegal immigration. Waving U.S. and Mexican flags, more than 1,000 people turned out for anti-trump rallies in San Diego, a city on the U.S.-Mexico border whose San Ysidro port of entry sees nearly 300,000 people a day cross legally between the countries. San Diego is considered a binational city by many who live and work on opposite sides of the border, and about a third of the city’s population is Latino. During Trump’s speech on Friday, some protesters outside the convention center scaled a barrier and lobbed water bottles at police. One man was pulled off the wall and arrested as others were surrounded by fellow protesters and backed away from the confrontation. After the convention center emptied, clusters of Trump supporters and anti-Trump demonstrators began to mix in the streets, many exchanging shouted epithets and some throwing water bottles at one another. Police in riot gear declared the gathering an unlawful assembly and ordered the crowd to disperse, herding the crowd out of the city’s hotel and restaurant-filled Gaslamp Quarter. San Diego police said on Twitter that 35 arrests were made during the protest. No property damage or injuries were reported, police said. “Fantastic job on handling the thugs who tried to disrupt our very peaceful and well attended rally,” Trump tweeted to police afterwards. Trump has weathered months of blowback from all ends of the political spectrum for his immigration policy, which calls for the building of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and deporting the nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants who reside in the United States. Critics have said his plan is needlessly cruel and impossible to implement. At Trump’s campaign stops, attendees often chant “build the wall.” While Trump is running unopposed in the June 7 California Republican primary, his stance on border control and deportation seems unlikely to resonate with the electorate at large in a state where political fallout from a Republican-backed crackdown on illegal immigrants 20 years ago cost the party dearly. Friday was not the first time Trump has been greeted by civil unrest in California, which is home to the largest Latino population in the country. Late last month, a visit to the California Republican convention set off days of protests in the area, leading to several arrests. Shortly before taking the stage in San Diego, Trump issued a statement ruling out a one-on-one debate with second-place Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders, who was also in California, killing off a potentially high-ratings television spectacle. The suggested debate, an idea first raised during a talk show appearance by the New York billionaire, would have sidelined likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton but given Sanders a huge platform ahead of California Democratic primary. A day after saying he would welcome a Sanders debate, Trump called the idea “inappropriate,” declaring that he should only face the Democrats’ final choice. “I will wait to debate the first-place finisher in the Democratic Party, probably Crooked Hillary Clinton,” Trump said in a statement. Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, expressed disappointment on Friday, and sought to goad Trump into reconsidering. “Well, Mr. Trump, what are you afraid of?” he said in a video clip posted on ABC News’ Twitter account. Trump suggested broadcast networks were unwilling to go along with his demand that at least $10 million raised from the encounter be donated to charity. “I’d love to debate Bernie,” he told a rally in Fresno, California. “But the networks want to keep the money for themselves.” Sanders is trailing Clinton in the race to secure their party’s nomination, but opinion polls show he is slicing into her lead in California. Clinton has shown no interest in debating Sanders before the California primary, which will be part of a final slate of nominating contests. It is possible she will clinch the nomination by winning New Jersey earlier that day, making the outcome in California superfluous. The former U.S. secretary of state has said she is looking forward to debating Trump later this year ahead of the Nov. 8 general election. Clinton leads Trump by 4 percentage points in the most recent Reuters/Ipsos poll. Democrats nationally remain evenly split between Clinton and Sanders. | 0fake |
Did Ron Paul Just Confuse Al-Qaeda With ISIS, Or Does He Simply Not Know The Difference? (TWEETS) | Former Texas Congressman Ron Paul added yet more fuel to the argument that older people should stay away from Twitter when he either confused ISIS with Al-Qaeda or simply proved that he has absolutely no idea what he is talking about in a misinformed tweet on Monday night:Remember: there was no al-Qaeda until our foolish invasion of Iraq based on neocon lies. Ron Paul (@RonPaul) August 22, 2017One could only wish that the 82-year-old Paul, a man who has run for president three times as both a Libertarian and Republican, and one who also holds a degree in Medicine from Duke University, would be slightly more intelligent, but apparently that just isn t the case. We currently have a President in office who is concerned the with mainstream media spouting fake news, yet doesn t call out fellow or former Republicans when they do the exact same thing, however, fortunately there were plenty of people on Twitter who were willing to do so on Trump s behalf.Actually he's right. No Al Qaeda in Iraq before we invaded. mike nakadai (@cinemiike) August 22, 2017Alzheimer's is terrible. Thoughts and prayers. nosferatu (@ChrisRosendin) August 22, 2017I still remember. ? pic.twitter.com/wCqRtf5dbB WeGovernUSA (@WeGovernUSA) August 22, 2017Was it over when when Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?Germans?Forget it, he's rolling. Wulander (@WuShocks) August 22, 2017Even if we were to give Paul the benefit of the doubt and believe he made a simple absent-minded error, his factually-deficient tweet proves that it is people like him who are the main source of this fake news problem. All it would ve taken was a little fact-checking and proof-reading to see the error in his propaganda, but maybe we can clear it up for him if he is able to see the flaw in his tweet, wants to retract the statement, but can t be bothered with the research.Al-Qaeda was founded by Osama Bin Laden, Abdullah Azzah, and other Arab volunteers in the 1980s to fight the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, however, they will forever go down in history for the 9/11 terror attacks, an event that definitely happened before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. ISIS, on the other hand, achieved notoriety following the U.S. invasion of Iraq, but they still existed before then, founded in 1999 by Jordanian Salafi jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi under the name Jam at al-Taw d wa-al-Jih d and pledging their allegiance to Al-Qaeda in 2004.See, Ron, fact-checking isn t that difficult and it helps prevent opening old wounds, or ones that are still reasonably fresh with the pain still being felt to this day, wounds such as 9/11.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images | 1real |
WATCH: HOME IMPROVEMENT’S TIM ALLEN Reminds Us Of What A “Man’s Bathroom” Should Look Like | NOTE TO TARGET There Aren t Any Feminine Product Dispensers On The WallRemember when there wasn t any gray area when it came to which restroom you would choose in America? For as long as restrooms have existed in the United States, using the proper restroom was as simple as being able to read the labels on the door, or choose picture that matched the gender God assigned to you in the womb.The passage of North Carolina s HB2, Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act, prohibiting men from using a public women s restroom or changing room in their state causing the politically correct Left to go ballistic. Following the passage of that common sense bill, Target stores set off a firestorm when they announced they would be siding with .2% of the transgender community and against 98% of non-transgender Americans by allowing men to use women s bathrooms and dressing rooms. So far, over 1 million people have signed a petition pledging to boycott Target unless and until they reverse their decision to put women and children in danger by allowing men to share their safe bathroom and dressing room spaces. PayPal decided they weren t going to build a global HQ even though they have HQ s in places like Singapore, which arrest gays on site just for being gay. More hilariously, porn site xhamster.com, has stated that they have blocked service to anyone with a North Carolina IP address due to their passing of the bathroom law. This puts a monumental burden on other porn sites, who now have to get down to the task of figuring out how they could ever thank xhamster enough for the added traffic.The men s professional basketball association, (NBA) decided to do their part by showing support for the demasculinization effort by feminists and the LGBT-XYZ mafia by threatening to pull their all-star game from Charlotte, North Carolina if they don t change their open bathroom law.Here is the list of oh-so tolerant celebrities who have said they won t perform in North Carolina until they allow men to pee in the bathrooms next to your wife, your sister, your mother and your daughters:Bruce Springsteen, Bryan Adams, Jimmy Buffet, Ringo Starr, Cyndi Lauper and Laura Jane Grace (punk rocker). Sharon Stone has also said she ll refuse to | 1real |
FLASHBACK - Reports: Obama’s 2008 Campaign Reps Talked with Iran, Hamas | Amid the controversy surrounding White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s alleged conversations with Russia, it may be instrumental to recall that representatives for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign were accused of meeting with Hamas and Iran. [Depending on what took place, the alleged contacts with Iran may have violated the Logan Act, which bars citizens from negotiating with foreign governments in dispute with the United States. It may be questionable whether Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, legally qualifies as a foreign government. In 2008, Robert Malley stepped down as an informal foreign policy adviser to Obama’s campaign when it was revealed that he met with Hamas members. Malley admitted to the meetings, but he claimed he met with the terrorists as part of his private job. “I have never hidden the fact that I had meetings with Hamas,” Malley wrote in an open letter published in the New York Times. “I do this as part of my job as Middle East program director at the International Crisis Group. ” He said he distanced himself from Obama’s campaign because the Hamas meetings were “becoming a distraction to me and to Senator Obama’s campaign, and to avoid any misperception — misrepresentation being the more accurate word — about the candidate’s position regarding the Islamist movement. ” Malley later joined the Obama administration. In 2015, he was appointed to lead the Middle East desk of the National Security Council. He was also named Obama’s special adviser regarding the Islamic State. Meanwhile, in August 2014, Michael Ledeen, a former consultant to the National Security Council and U. S. Defense Department, penned a column at PJ Media stating Obama opened a to Iran during the 2008 presidential campaign. Ledeen said the back channel went through retired Ambassador William G. Miller, who also led the 1979 negotiating mission during the Iran hostage crisis. Ladeen wrote that Miller confirmed his involvement to him. Ledeen wrote: The actual strategy is detente first, and then a full alliance with Iran throughout the Middle East and North Africa. It has been on display since before the beginning of the Obama administration. During his first presidential campaign in 2008, Mr. Obama used a secret back channel to Tehran to assure the mullahs that he was a friend of the Islamic Republic, and that they would be very happy with his policies. The secret channel was Ambassador William G. Miller, who served in Iran during the shah’s rule, as chief of staff for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and as ambassador to Ukraine. Ambassador Miller has confirmed to me his conversations with Iranian leaders during the 2008 campaign. The Logan Act states: Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both. 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 |
Saudi Arabia intercepts Houthi missile fired toward Riyadh; no reported casualties | RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi air defenses shot down a ballistic missile fired by Yemen s Houthi group towards Riyadh on Tuesday, the Saudi-led coalition said, in an attack that could escalate a proxy war between the kingdom and Iran. There were no reports of casualties or damage. In contrast, a U.N. human rights spokesman said coalition air strikes had killed at least 136 non-combatants in war-torn Yemen since Dec. 6. The Iran-aligned Houthi movement said it had aimed the missile at the Saudi royal court at al-Yamama palace, where a meeting of Saudi leaders was under way. It described the attack as a new chapter in the conflict. The Saudi-led coalition said the missile, the latest of several fired towards Riyadh, had been directed at residential areas and there had been no damage. Quoting a statement from the coalition, Saudi state news agency SPA said Iranian-made missiles were a threat to regional and international security. It accused the Houthis of using humanitarian entry points into Yemen to smuggle in missiles from Saudi Arabia s regional arch-foe Iran. Coalition forces confirm intercepting an Iranian-Houthi missile targeting (the) south of Riyadh. There are no reported casualties at this time, the government-run Center for International Communication wrote on its Twitter account. Saudi palaces, military and oil facilities are within range of such missiles, the Houthis said in a statement carried by the group s Al-Masirah television. The U.S. State Department condemned the missile attack and called on Iran to stop arming the Houthis. At the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said the Houthi missile strike bears all the hallmarks of previous attacks using Iranian-provided weapons. Haley said she was exploring, with some U.N. Security Council colleagues, several options for pressuring Iran to adjust their behavior. Haley is likely to struggle, however, to convince some members, like veto powers Russia and China, that U.N. action is needed. Saudi Arabia and Iran are locked in struggle for influence in the Middle East. The conflict in Saudi Arabia s backyard Yemen has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced over 2 million. The Houthis for their part have fired several missiles at the kingdom, but have not caused any serious damage. The attack came as the Houthis marked 1,000 days since the Saudi-led coalition began military operations in Yemen in March 2015 after the Iran-aligned group drove Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile. The enemies had their own mirage calculations ... but over 1,000 days, there has been this great steadfastness, said Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, a Houthi leader, in a speech on the group s Al-Masirah TV. The United Arab Emirates, a close ally of Saudi Arabia and part of its coalition, said the latest Houthi attack underscored the need to keep the military campaign in Yemen going. With every Iranian missile fired by the Houthi militia against civilian targets, the necessity of (Operation) Decisive Storm becomes clear, United Arab Emirates Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash wrote on his Twitter account. Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri condemned the attack, saying such actions exacerbated divisions in the region. Saudi Arabia and Iran are also competing for influence in Iraq and Syria. Reuters witnesses described hearing a blast and said they saw smoke in the northeast of Riyadh. Saudi Arabia s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has described what Riyadh says is Iran s supply of rockets to the Houthis as direct military aggression that could be an act of war. Iran has denied supplying such weaponry to the Houthis, who have taken over the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and other parts of the country during its civil war. Saudi Arabia said on Nov. 4 it had intercepted a ballistic missile over Riyadh s King Khaled Airport, an attack that led the coalition to close Yemeni ports. On Nov. 30, Saudi Arabia shot down another missile near its southwestern city of Khamis Mushait. Last week, the United States presented for the first time pieces of what it said were Iranian weapons supplied to the Houthis, describing them as conclusive evidence that Tehran was violating U.N. resolutions. The arms included charred remnants of what the Pentagon said was an Iranian-made short-range ballistic missile fired from Yemen in the Nov. 4 attack, as well as a drone and an anti-tank weapon recovered in Yemen by the Saudis. | 0fake |
Republican candidate Cruz wins support from ex-rival Graham | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Republican presidential candidate Senator Lindsey Graham threw his support behind Senator Ted Cruz in the race for his party’s presidential nomination on Thursday, saying he thought Cruz has the best chance of stopping front-runner Donald Trump. Graham said he will headline a fundraiser in support of the Texas senator on Monday, in connection with the upcoming conference of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC. Cruz is to address the AIPAC meeting on Monday. “If we give the banner of the Republican party to Donald Trump, we tarnish it maybe forever. That might be the end of the Republican party as I know it,” Graham told reporters at the U.S. Capitol. Graham, a U.S. senator from South Carolina who dropped out of the presidential race in December, before the nominating contests had even begun, acknowledged his former harsh criticism of Cruz, including joking about Cruz being murdered on the Senate floor. “It’s an odd alliance, but it’s an alliance I feel comfortable with given my choices,” Graham said. He said he thought Ohio Governor John Kasich would have a better chance of winning in November, but had concluded that Cruz has a better chance of stopping Trump. “I like John Kasich. I think we could nominate John and John would win the general election going away,” Graham said. | 0fake |
Ivanka Trump Gets HILARIOUSLY Trolled On Amazon With Perfect Reviews Of Her Shoes | Ivanka Trump is going to be Donald Trump s First Lady so the Internet is treating her the way conservatives have treated Michelle Obama for the last eight years, minus the ugly racism.Her father is despised by billions of people all around the world and Ivanka hasn t exactly done much to make people like her either.Despite claiming that he won t use the presidency to conduct business, Donald Trump has allowed his daughter to sit in during meetings and phone calls with foreign leaders. As Newsweek pointed out earlier this week, Ivanka has business deals pending in Japan and in Argentina, and she just so happened to be present during her daddy s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and was on the line listening as her father talked to the Argentine president.So rather than just shout on social media, some people decided to take action against Ivanka in a more meaningful way. By writing reviews of her line of boots on Amazon. And they are absolutely brilliant.One comment nailed Trump for making products overseas despite promises to bring jobs back to America. It also referenced Trump s racism and the similarities with the Nazis. These Chinese boots are just perfect, whether walking the streets with your stepmother the streets of Moscow with your dad and Uncle Vlad or dancing the night away at the annual Aryan Gala to the strains of A Whiter Shade of Pale, or just your everyday trampling the rights of others. However, they are so constricting that they sent me to the podiatrist, whom I could not pay, having lost my healthcare. My mom offered to pay, but she has lost her social security and now lives in an alley behind a deli off Lex. Another referenced Trump s desire to bang his own daughter and his admission that he grabs women by the genitals. Did you ever feel like crap because your dad hasn t told the world he d be dating you if you weren t his daughter? Just slip into these hot, stylish boots with sexy high heels to get Daddy s attention and praise for your hot bod if he s not too busy grabbing other women (those *&^*%s!) (or America) by the p -! While wearing these boots, I found myself unable to speak, another reviewer wrote. Every time I tried to express my opinions, I was horrified to find myself bellowing, HEIL TRUMP! Very embarrassing. Nor could I walk very far without finding impediments to progress at every turn.Not the boots for me! I sent them back and bought some good hiking boots instead, to wade through the massive amounts of bs already confronting the American people. They are worn and stained already, and it isn t even 01/20/17 yet!Just hoping I won t need my hiking boots for four whole years.UPDATE: Ordered hip length wading boots. Hope I get them ASAP, as it gets deeper on a daily basis.Here are some screenshots of some of the many other hilarious reviews.Ivanka Trump and her daddy better get used to this because it s going to be a long four years and they only have themselves and Republicans to blame.Featured image via Mark Makela/Getty Images | 1real |
Newt Gingrich: Forget NSA Spying, Bring Back The House Un-American Activities Committee (VIDEO) | Trump fanboy Newt Gingrich thinks that the best way to root out terrorists and potential terrorists in the U.S. is to take us back to the days of the Red Scare and McCarthyism, and create a new House Un-American Activities Committee. Speaking on Fox & Friends (because of course), he said: We passed several laws in 1938 and 1939 to go after Nazis and we made it illegal to help the Nazis. We re going to presently have to go take the similar steps here. Pssst Newt it was Nazis and communists, and then they went solely after suspected communists for decades after that, often ruining innocent people s lives in the process.The House Un-American Activities Committee was possibly the most un-American government body ever dreamed up. They relentlessly went after anyone in the general population they suspected of being a communist, or of having communist ties, issued subpoenas to those people, and then grilled them for hours on end. They asked about a suspect s political beliefs and activities, and to give them the names of others who might have been involved in subversive activities.Failure to comply meant getting sent to prison for contempt of Congress. Victims of the committee would also lose their jobs, and their employers would blacklist them, making it impossible for them to get another job once they were out of prison.In short, the House Un-American Activities Committee was engaged in a decades-long witch hunt.And that is what Newt Gingrich wants to bring back. Oh, sure, it s all for the safety of the country, so nobody should really object, right? Wrong. He d change his tune real quick if he were pulled in front of just such a committee and then saw his life ruined for it. Watch his interview below, via Media Matters for America:Featured image by Win McNamee/Getty Images | 1real |
France eyes legalizing assisted reproduction for gay women in 2018 | PARIS (Reuters) - The right of lesbian couples and single women to have access to assisted reproduction was a matter of social justice and will likely be legislated next year, a French government minister said on Tuesday. The move would mark a significant extension of gay rights in France, where violent protests preceded the legalization of same-sex marriage and adoption by homosexual couples in 2013. It was a campaign promise. It will be honored, Marlene Schiappa, minister for gender equality, told BFM TV. She said a bill would likely pass through parliament in 2018. Current legislation means that gay women with sufficient funds travel abroad for artificial insemination while other women without the financial means cannot. Schiappa said that was unjust. French law still restricts techniques such as artificial insemination using donated sperm to heterosexual couples. A national ethics committee said last June that it backed the idea of medically assisted procreation for female couples and single women. Macron, president since May, had set such a recommendation as a prerequisite to any legislative action. | 0fake |
U.S. House tax committee sets first hearing on tax reform | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday set a May hearing on the potential impact of tax reform on U.S. economic growth, the first in what is expected to be a series of sessions as Congress edges toward tax reform legislation. The Republican-controlled panel, which oversees tax policy in the House of Representatives, said in a statement that the hearing will take place on Thursday, May 18 at 10 a.m. (1400 GMT) and focus on tax reform policies that Republicans see as most likely to spur economic growth and job creation. The statement did not identify witnesses for the hearing. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady has said he could introduce a tax reform bill sometime in June. | 0fake |
Trump’s Dual Roles Collide With Openings in Dubai and Vancouver - The New York Times | DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The guests strolled up red carpeted steps and through lines of smiling young women to reach the newest outpost in President Trump’s international business empire. At the Saturday night opening of the clubhouse of the Trump International Golf Club, Dubai, guests munched on mini chicken burgers and sipped fizzy lemonade while Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. the president’s adult sons, lauded the ruler of Dubai and their business partner, Hussain Sajwani. Mr. Sajwani, a billionaire businessman who, like Mr. Trump, built his wealth through real estate, told the crowd that working with the Trumps “was and continues to be a pleasure. ” On the other side of the world, in Vancouver, British Columbia, preparations continued for another on Feb. 28, at a new Trump hotel and condo project there, funded by the Malaysian tycoon Tiah Thee Kian and his son, Tiah Joo Kim. The two projects, the first to open since Mr. Trump became president, are among the dozen international business deals from his former life still moving forward — from India to Indonesia, Uruguay to the Dominican Republic. None of them are “new deals,” as defined by the family, as they were already well underway before the election. Mr. Sajwani and Mr. Tiah share traits common among Mr. Trump’s partners around the world, including in Indonesia and the Philippines. They are brash, wealthy developers whose families have personal ties to Mr. Trump or to his children. But the projects in which the two men are involved highlight the complications created when the president of the United States also owns a global real estate company. Condominium units in the Vancouver building, the Trump International Hotel Tower, have been purchased by affluent buyers, including a family that runs a Hong Kong machinery company by a Chinese enterprise, according to real estate and corporate records. The Trump Organization is managing only the hotel, in exchange for a fee. And Mr. Sajwani has contracted extensively with the United States military and spoken of entering the American real estate market — moves that could be easier with a friend in the White House. Eric Trump, who with his older brother helps run the Trump Organization now that their father is president, said before the Dubai event that the company was not the owner of either development, but only collected a small share of the revenues, and that it did not control who bought the units in Vancouver or the membership list at the golf course in Dubai. Addressing the guests on Saturday, Eric Trump praised his family’s partnership with Mr. Sajwani. “It is not every day that you have a partner that is also a great friend,” he said. “Hussain, thank you so much for your love, your friendship. ” Donald Trump Jr. praised Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid the ruler of Dubai, saying it was his vision for the country that allowed such projects to succeed. “It’s a great example of what can be built here and what will continue to be built in the years to come,” he said. But actions by the elder Mr. Trump, since he began his presidential campaign and now that he is in the White House, have repercussions for his projects. Some in the Emirates worry about Mr. Trump’s stance toward Muslims. And Vancouver’s mayor called in December 2015 for the Trump name to be removed from the property there, given Mr. Trump’s statements about instituting a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States. ” “Donald Trump’s hateful positions and commentary remind us all of much darker times in our world’s past — and it is incumbent upon all of us to forcefully challenge hatred in all of the ways that it confronts us,” Mayor Gregor Robertson wrote in a letter to the developer, citing thousands who had signed a petition to have Mr. Trump’s name removed. “It is their belief, and my belief, that Trump’s name and brand have no more place on Vancouver’s skyline than his ignorant ideas have in the modern world. ” A few years ago, Mr. Trump, then a real estate tycoon, visited what would turn out to be his first project to open after he became president and his first in the Arab world. The Trump International Golf Club Dubai was to form the centerpiece of a luxurious collection of upscale homes, and Mr. Trump wanted to check the details. “We walked through the golf course and he said: ‘You see that tree move it 10 feet there. That tree is too small make it bigger,’” recalled Niall McLoughlin, a senior vice president at Damac Properties, which owns the project. “His attention to detail is tremendous. ” The Trump Organization had been brought in to operate the golf course by Damac, whose chairman, Mr. Sajwani, had known Mr. Trump for years. Like Mr. Trump, Mr. Sajwani rose to billionaire status largely through flashy real estate projects. The son of a shopkeeper, he graduated from the University of Washington, then returned to the United Arab Emirates to found a catering company that provided meals to businesses. He soon found a bigger client: the United States government. During the first Persian Gulf war, in 1991, his company provided meals to American soldiers, and it has held similar contracts elsewhere in the Persian Gulf and in Somalia and Bosnia since then. But his wealth really took off when he focused on real estate in the early 2000s, as an economic boom in Dubai created a growing class of professionals looking for fancy homes. Mr. Sajwani has made his name with splashy promotions, sometimes offering free cars, including Mini Coopers and Lamborghinis, to home buyers. Last year, Forbes called him “The Donald of Dubai,” putting his net worth at $3. 2 billion. Mr. Sajwani now has projects around the Arab world and has expressed interest in investing in the United States. He has also maintained his relationship with Mr. Trump. Dressed in a traditional Emirati robe, Mr. Sajwani appeared at the opening of the Trump International Hotel in Washington in October, weeks before Mr. Trump was elected. And at his first news conference as Mr. Trump said he had turned down an offer from Damac for a new $2 billion deal in Dubai. Questions swirled about the commitment of Mr. Sajwani, a Muslim in a predominately Muslim country, to the Trump brand in 2015, after Mr. Trump said that if elected, he would impose a ban on Muslims entering the United States. A few days later, billboards near the course in Dubai showing Mr. Trump swinging a golf club and his daughter Ivanka holding a handbag were temporarily taken down, as was Mr. Trump’s name, spelled out in gold letters on a wall near the entrance. Mr. McLoughlin, of Damac, said in an interview in November that the changes had been routine and unrelated to Mr. Trump’s statements. “It was a purely unfortunate coincidence,” he said. “We are an apolitical organization. ” There was no overt mention of Mr. Trump at the clubhouse opening on Saturday, but his name was omnipresent, on flags flying around the golf course and on hats, shirts, visors and balls for sale in the pro shop. No alcohol was served at the opening, though it will be available at the clubhouse. Mr. Trump’s companies, according to a financial disclosure report, were paid $1 million to $5 million for the Dubai golf course project last year, with another $1 million to $5 million coming from a second Dubai golf course still being built, also in partnership with Mr. Sajwani. Members will pay $36, 000 a year, plus a $10, 000 fee, said Mr. McLoughlin, who declined to say how many people had joined so far or who they were. But he suggested that the election had elevated Mr. Trump’s name. “His brand was a global brand, and now it’s an even bigger global brand,” he said. Later this month, Mr. Trump’s sons are scheduled to preside over another grand opening, this time of the Trump International Hotel Tower Vancouver, which was developed by the Holborn Group, run by Tiah Joo Kim, 37. Mr. Tiah formed the partnership with the Trump family and spearheaded the development of the residence and hotel, his first major project, by making a pitch first to Donald Jr. Eric and Ivanka. Their father eventually signed off on the deal. Mr. Tiah’s father, Tiah Thee Kian, made his fortune in the Malaysian stock market in the 1980s. But in the late 1990s, he was accused of violating securities law and eventually paid a fine of about $900, 000. At the time, he was said to be a supporter of Anwar Ibrahim, then the deputy prime minister, who had challenged the leadership of Mahathir Mohamad, the prime minister. Mr. Anwar was later imprisoned on sodomy charges, a case widely seen as politically motivated. In a country that runs on political patronage, one where many decisions are made behind the scenes, the elder Mr. Tiah’s political alliance with Mr. Anwar may have contributed to his legal setbacks. Political analysts and insiders say he has not been involved in politics since that time and has kept a low profile. The company’s most profitable venture now is the Trump development in Vancouver, the younger Mr. Tiah said, adding that he assiduously avoided any political entanglements. When he reached an agreement with Mr. Trump in 2012, he never foresaw that Mr. Trump would have a political career. The Vancouver project includes 217 residential units. All were sold before the election except for the three penthouses, which have not been put on the market. No buyer has sought to back out, Mr. Tiah said. Two units belong to the Fong family, which paid more than $4. 2 million for them. Public records link the units to Sou Lam Fong, founder of CHTC Fong’s Industries Company Ltd. a machinery company based in Hong Kong. The company is by a Chinese enterprise, China Group Corporation, according to a recent annual report. “The Trump name represents quality,” said Bill Streeper, the mayor of the Northern Rockies municipality in British Columbia and a major real estate developer, who bought a unit in the tower on the 55th floor in 2013, long before Mr. Trump won the Republican nomination. Mr. Trump’s election victory has brought a great deal of attention, good and bad, to the hotel, the younger Mr. Tiah said. There have been a number of protests, but the hotel has also received plenty of free publicity. On a recent visit to the hotel’s champagne bar, Brittany Dacosta, 26, was having a drink with her sister. She said it was her second time at Trump Vancouver in the past week. “This place is very controversial, so it kind of made us want to come here more,” she said. “I know it sounds bad, but Trump is glamorous. ” Mr. Tiah said he tried to steer a middle course and encourage tolerance. “The American people have chosen,” he said, “so let’s respect their decision and give him a chance. ” | 0fake |
Anton Yelchin, ‘Star Trek’ Actor, Dies at 27 - The New York Times | Anton Yelchin, who played the young incarnation of Chekov, an excitable officer on the Starship Enterprise, in the rebooted “Star Trek” movie series, died early Sunday morning when he was pinned by his car in his driveway at his home in Los Angeles. He was 27. Officer Jenny Houser of the Los Angeles Police Department said Mr. Yelchin was hit around 1:10 a. m. The car, an SUV, had rolled backward down a steep driveway and trapped him against a brick mailbox pillar and a security fence. Officer Houser said he was found dead by friends who had come to his house, in the Studio City neighborhood, after he did not show up for a rehearsal. (On Monday, The Associated Press reported that the vehicle, a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee, was one of 1. 1. million vehicles recalled by the manufacturer, Fiat Chrysler, in April because their gear shifters had confused drivers, causing the vehicles to roll away, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration records.) Mr. Yelchin was born on March 11, 1989, in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Russia, in what was then the Soviet Union. His parents, Irina Korina and Viktor Yelchin, were superstar figure skaters with the Leningrad Ice Ballet. But the Yelchins, who are Jewish, fled the Soviet Union six months later, facing political and religious oppression and fearing for their son’s safety. They settled in Los Angeles. His parents survive him. “It is a very bad situation over there,” Viktor Yelchin told The Los Angeles Times. “I would get angry, too — I’d say, ‘Why should we have to buy things on the black market? Why should we have to stand in line? ’” As a child actor, Anton made memorable appearances on television shows like “ER,” “The Practice” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” on which he played a child magician who frustrates Larry David with a card trick. He also appeared in the films “Charlie Bartlett” (2007) with Robert Downey Jr. in which he played the title role, a talkative student who appoints himself his school’s resident therapist, and “Alpha Dog” (2006) in which he played an innocent boy who becomes an unwitting pawn in a drug war. His breakthrough came in the director J. J. Abrams’s 2009 resuscitation of “Star Trek,” the venerable adventure franchise. Mr. Yelchin was cast as Pavel Chekov, the Starfleet officer portrayed by Walter Koenig in the original “Star Trek” television series and movies. As played by Mr. Yelchin, Chekov was endearingly antic, humorously navigating his way through scenarios and — even in the 23rd century — having difficulty with the “V” sounds in words like “Victor” and “Vulcan. ” Mr. Yelchin reprised the role in a 2013 sequel, “Star Trek Into Darkness,” and will be seen in a third film, “Star Trek Beyond,” to be released this summer. His other recent roles included the voice of Clumsy Smurf in two “Smurfs” movies and a member of a band fighting its way out of a skinhead club in the horror film “Green Room” (2015). His mourned his death on social media. In an Instagram post, Zachary Quinto, who plays Spock in the new “Star Trek” movies, wrote that Mr. Yelchin was “one of the most open and intellectually curious people I have ever had the pleasure to know. ” In a post on Twitter, John Cho, who plays Sulu in the new movies, called Mr. Yelchin “a true artist — curious, beautiful, courageous. ” | 0fake |
Turkish hunger striker released for remainder of trial | ANKARA (Reuters) - A Turkish teacher who has been on hunger strike for months to protest about losing his job in the government s purge since a failed coup attempt last year, has been released from jail pending her trial on terrorism-related charges. Defence lawyers said primary school teacher Semih Ozakca, 28, was released, but another detainee, literature professor Nuriye Gulmen, 35, who has also survived for seven months on water, herbal tea and sugar and salt solutions, was remanded in custody. The Ankara court released Ozakca on condition that he wears an ankle monitor. Gulmen, who has been hospitalized due to her worsening health, was ordered to remain in custody until the trial, which resumes on Nov. 17. The pair began their hunger strike before being jailed. A court ordered their detention pending trial after ruling that their protest was being conducted on behalf of an outlawed far-left group, DHKP-C. Both deny any links to the group. The teachers said their hunger strike aimed to highlight the plight of some 150,000 state employees - including academics, civil servants, judges and soldiers - suspended or sacked since the abortive coup in July 2016. Turkish authorities blame the coup attempt on U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his supporters. Gulen denies involvement. Human rights groups and the European Union have said President Tayyip Erdogan is using the crackdown to stifle dissent in Turkey, something he denies. (This version of the story was refiled to correct the gender of Ozakca throughout) | 0fake |
CHICAGO: 117 KILLED, 572 SHOT In 71 Days…Obama Terrorist Friend, Bill Ayers, Bernie Sanders, Black Lives Matter Make Violence Against FREE SPEECH Top Priority… Soros Group Openly Threatens Americans | Illegal aliens, paid Soros protesters, angry Black Lives Matter terrorists inspired by Obama s race war and Bernie Sanders supporters who have absolutely no idea why they showed up, sent four innocent police officers to the hospital; prevented thousands of innocent Americans from exercising their First Amendment right. Where are all of these concerned citizens (especially the Black Lives Matter terrorists) to protest for a solution for the murder of 117 people in Chicago already this year?George Soros Moveon.org group takes responsiblity for Alinsky style violent protests against free speech at Trump rally:Moveon.org shows its support for Socialist, Bernie Sanders. Here they warn anyone who opposes his radical ideology:Four police officers were sent to hospital:Violence against police officers is not only acceptable with Bernie Sanders and Black Lives Matter terrorists, its necessary to create chaos and panic:What kind of violent protest would be complete without Barack Obama s good friend, domestic terrorist Bill Ayers:Actual terrorist Bill Ayers is protesting against trump in Chicago. pic.twitter.com/7dqat4Dvmh Progressives Today (@ProgsToday) March 11, 2016It s probably just a coincidence that on a day that Obama was too busy to attend Nancy Reagan s funeral, he was able to address a crowd about his hate for Trump only hours before this organized chaos in Chicago: And finally, we re wondering how much our Organizer In Chief had to do with this Alinsky style chaos in Chicago: | 1real |
THE TOTAL COST TO TAXPAYERS FOR MOOCH’S EUROPEAN VACATION IS SICKENING | And they re heading to Cape Cod next! Where does it end with these people? The optics of this are just awful! We have HUGE national debt and so many Americans are suffering yet Mooch takes a glam European vacation under the guise of a goodwill trip. The Obama women s goodwill tour of Italy and England is costing taxpayers in excess of between $547,000-$700,000, government records and estimates indicate. That amount includes the cost of flying first lady Michelle Obama, her mother and her two daughters to London, Milan, Vicenza and Venice, and the lodging costs incurred throughout the six-day trip. It doesn t including rental vehicles for the first family s females, their staffers, and their security details. It also doesn t include the cost of Secret Service protection and the advance trips the White House authorized ahead of time to lay the journey s groundwork and scout secure locations for the VIPs to visit and stay.The Obamas minus the president landed in Venice on Friday for a two-night hotel stay at a total cost to taxpayers of $128,781 for the whole traveling party, according to a State Department contract issued this month. Assuming the lodging costs in Milan and London were comparable, the accommodations for five of the six overnights will come to $321,952. A separate State Department contract for a more modest $7,703 covers last night s stay in Vicenza, Italy, near a U.S. Army Garrison where the Obamas visited with troops. Some of the travelers undoubtedly stayed on the military base at no cost, but others likely support staff were housed in the nearby town. The resulting $329,655 estimate for hotel bills is barely half the overall cost, however. The Obamas are traveling on a U.S. Air Force C-32A aircraft, flying to London, Milan, Vicenza and Venice, and then home again a total of 19 hours and 40 minutes of flying time, commercial aviation guides indicate.The Pentagon charges other government agencies at least $11.092 per flight-hour to operate that aircraft, including fuel costs, according to the Defense Department s latest reibursement tables. That means the flights alone cost the Executive Office of the President operated with taxpayer dollars about $218,142. Together with the hotel costs, Mrs. Obama s trip with her mother and her daughters cost at least $547,797. Secret Service details aren t cheap either, advised a State Department official who spoke on background. The official has experience approving logistics for overseas delegations. State arranges the travel and DOD [Department of Defense] books the planes, but the security detail probably costs 10 grand a day, the source said. And then there s rental cars, and advance trips, and people to staff the first lady, and all sorts of other costs. Don t forget: Everyone has to eat. OY VEY!!!!Read more: DAILY MAIL | 1real |
Fury at top of Republican Party over Trump snub of House speaker | WASHINGTON/JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s White House campaign was in turmoil on Wednesday after he angered senior Republican Party leaders by criticizing a dead soldier’s family and refusing to back the re-election campaign of House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan. On Tuesday, Trump denied support to both Ryan and Senator John McCain in their coming primary contests, hitting back at critics in the Republican leadership who have taken him to task for his insistent public dispute with the parents of the soldier, a Muslim U.S. Army captain killed in the Iraq war. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus was furious over the failure to endorse Ryan, who is the most senior elected Republican, and over Trump’s feud with the Khan family, two Republican sources said. “He feels like a fool,” a Republican source familiar with the situation said of Priebus. The RNC did not respond to a request for comment about Priebus. Another Republican source said Trump’s family members, who have played an influential role in his campaign, were aware that an intervention was needed to get Trump back on track. One idea being floated was to have a senior adviser travel with Trump to help him stay on message. More than any other major figure in the Republican establishment, Priebus worked to bring Trump into the party’s fold despite the New York businessman’s status as an outsider. Trump, who had never previously run for public office, beat 16 rivals to become the Republican presidential nominee for the Nov. 8 election. Ahead of last month’s Republican Party Convention, the RNC chairman sought to rally the fractured party behind Trump. Priebus feels burned by Trump’s string of self-inflicted wounds and his refusal to observe basic decorum by giving Ryan his support. But in what appeared to be an effort to soothe ruffled feelings, Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Mike Pence, said on Wednesday he endorsed Ryan as “a strong conservative leader” and was doing so with Trump’s blessing. The Indiana governor told Fox News that it takes time to build relationships in politics and that was exactly what Trump and Ryan were doing. Trump has had a running dispute with the parents of Army Captain Humayun Khan since they took the stage at last week’s Democratic National Convention. Khizr Khan, with his wife, Ghazala, standing by his side, cited the sacrifice of their son, who was killed by a car bomb in 2004, and criticized Trump’s proposal to combat terrorism by temporarily banning Muslims from entering the United States. Many Republican leaders, including Ryan and McCain, have criticized Trump’s subsequent attacks on the parents. Even longtime ally Chris Christie, the Republican New Jersey governor, said it was inappropriate to attack the Khans. Trump’s feud with the Khans was the final straw for Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger, a former Air Force pilot and Iraq war veteran. Kinzinger, who had held off supporting Trump, told CNN on Wednesday: “I just don’t see how I get to Donald Trump anymore.” Trump, who made his comments about Ryan and McCain in an interview with The Washington Post, shrugged off the backlash. “There is great unity in my campaign, perhaps greater than ever before. I want to thank everyone for your tremendous support. Beat Crooked H!” he wrote on Twitter early on Wednesday, referring to his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Campaign manager Paul Manafort told Fox News the campaign was moving in a positive direction, with Trump himself in control. “The campaign is in very good shape. We are organized. We are moving forward,” Manafort said. In Daytona, Florida, Trump said the news media’s coverage of him was dishonest. “We’re doing quite well despite the fact that we get a totally false narrative,” he told supporters at a rally. At another campaign event in Florida, in Jacksonville, Trump pointed out a group of families, known as Gold Star families, who have lost loved ones in war, calling them “incredible people.” He didn’t mention the spat with the Khans. Trump’s always unruly campaign has been mired in disorder in recent days. On Monday, Trump fired Ed Brookover, a senior adviser hired as a liaison between the campaign and the RNC. Ryan, who is favored to win next week in his race against primary challenger Paul Nehlen, appeared to be trying to ignore the snub from Trump. An aide to the speaker said he would not have time to meet Trump later this week, when Trump is expected to be campaigning in Wisconsin, Ryan’s home state. The aide did not indicate whether anyone had requested a get-together of Trump and Ryan, but when asked whether they might meet to patch things up, the aide told Reuters, “The speaker has a full schedule – can’t back out of previous commitments in the (congressional) district.” A Republican congressional aide said there was deep frustration on Capitol Hill that Trump keeps engaging in “petty spats.” The aide said congressional offices that support Trump got two sets of talking points on Monday from the campaign about the Khan situation but have not heard anything from the campaign about Trump’s Ryan comments. The dissent over the Trump campaign also took other turns. Late on Tuesday, Meg Whitman, a prominent Republican fundraiser and chief executive of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE.N), endorsed Clinton’s White House bid, calling Trump an “authoritarian character” and a threat to democracy. In better news for Trump, his campaign and the RNC jointly raised $80 million for his White House bid in July, the campaign said on Wednesday. That was less than the $90 million Clinton raised along with the national Democratic Party the same month, but it was a substantial bump from past months. A former reality TV star, Trump has won support particularly from white blue-collar workers who feel neglected by the political establishment. Along with his proposed ban on Muslims, his plans have included building a wall along the Mexican border to keep out illegal immigrants and renegotiating trade agreements. Opinion polls have shown Clinton benefiting from a boost after her party’s convention last week. The RealClearPolitics average of recent national polls put her 4.5 percentage points ahead of Trump, at 46.5 percent to 42 percent. The Detroit Economic Club, where candidates usually appear to give major economic addresses, said Trump would speak at the club on Monday. | 0fake |
Italy's 5-Star to battle right in runoff for Rome's beachfront | ROME (Reuters) - Italy s anti-establishment 5-Star Movement narrowly won the first round of a vote to govern Ostia, one of Rome s largest neighborhoods, as the center-right surged, official results showed on Monday. Sunday s closely watched contest in the beachfront district comes more than a year after the 5-Star took control of Rome s city hall for the first time, winning two-thirds of the vote. Five-Star candidate Giuliana Di Pillo won just over 30 percent of the vote compared with almost 27 percent for Monica Picca, who headed a coalition that included Silvio Berlusconi s Forza Italia and the far-right Brothers of Italy party. The two will face each other in a runoff to be held on Nov. 19. The ruling center-left Democratic Party, which came in second to the 5-Star in Rome last year, won less than 14 percent of the vote, while far-right parties gained ground. The neo-fascist, anti-immigrant Casapound party, which is not part of the center-right coalition, garnered 9 percent against just 1.8 percent last time around. The previous center-left administration for the capital s seaside borough, which has more than 230,000 inhabitants, was dissolved two years ago after police said it had fallen under the influence of organized crime. The Ostia vote took place on the same day as a regional vote in Sicily that appeared to signal a comeback for Berlusconi s center-right coalition, with the 5-Star trailing marginally, according to projections on Monday morning. | 0fake |
JUDGE JEANINE PIRRO Rips Into The Lying Media “In Cahoots with Clintons” [Video] | 1real | |
As Brexit deal takes shape, Juncker to meet MEPs | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission added to mounting confidence in Brussels that it is set for a Brexit deal with London when it scheduled talks with EU lawmakers ahead of a crunch meeting on Monday with Theresa May. However, EU officials and diplomats cautioned on Sunday that it was still unclear that a deal would be struck with the British prime minister when she meets the EU executive. Two hours before they sit down for lunch with May in Brussels, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and his Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier will brief Guy Verhofstadt and his European Parliament Brexit team, an official said. Verhofstadt and his colleagues wrote to the EU negotiators last week to sound an alarm at what they said were stalled talks on EU demands that the rights of EU citizens in Britain be guaranteed directly by the European Court of Justice after Britain leaves the European Union. They also voiced concern about Northern Ireland. Parliament must ratify any treaty on Britain s withdrawal from the European Union before Brexit in March 2019 in order to create the smooth transition period May wants, and so it will be vital to both sides to keep the legislators on board. Senior EU officials and diplomats said work was continuing on Sunday. One person close to the discussions said the situation was delicate . It s still quite fluid, said a second person involved. Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. Verhofstadt, a former Belgian prime minister and strong critic of Brexit, declined to comment. The German leader of the center-right group in the EU parliament warned that lawmakers were not yet satisfied. On Brexit negotiations, money is one of the problems, but it is not the biggest one, Manfred Weber said in a statement. We are much more concerned about the fact that so far negotiations are stalled on the protection of EU citizens rights after Brexit and on the Irish case, he said. The EU wants outline accords on three critical divorce terms before it will open negotiations on the transition and a future free trade pact that would follow. May s lunch on Monday is a deadline for the EU to have her final offers before EU leaders consider whether to agree at a Dec. 15 summit to launch Phase 2. Britain and the EU aim to sign a joint declaration setting out progress toward final deals which the Commission, as the EU executive, would say was sufficient for opening trade talks. EU officials say terms have been agreed for a financial settlement long resisted by hardline supporters of Brexit. The Irish prime minister said on Saturday that would essentially cover all the 60 billion euros the EU had demanded. On the second key issue of a deal to avoid a hard border on land between Britain and the EU across the island of Ireland, diplomats say the joint document will set out rules for reaching a border deal aimed at avoiding disruption to peace in the north but leaving open many of the details. The third issue, of citizens rights, has long seemed the least problematic, but the European Parliament s concerns were a reminder of how far the insistence on the ECJ having the final say in whether London was respecting the withdrawal treaty conflicts with British demands to be free of EU courts. It was not immediately clear what compromise, if any, has been found. EU governments had also been pressing London to give better terms to EU expatriates on bringing in future family members and on moving social welfare benefits across borders. One suggestion in Brussels has been to limit clearly any ECJ involvement as a last resort and clearly only available to those EU citizens who choose to go on living in Britain before Brexit, not to any who arrive later. There are 3 million of them today. Looking to show skeptical pro-Brexit allies that she has secured something in five months of negotiation that seem set to end with London broadly accepting the EU s original terms, May has insisted that Brussels make a simultaneous and reciprocal commitment to transition and trade talks if she accepts a deal. That seems set to be the case with the joint declaration. Everyone knows we have to honor politically what the Brits have accepted on money, a senior EU diplomat said. So on Monday they will sign this document. If all goes to the plan, 27 EU leaders would give the official green light on Dec. 15, a day after May has joined them for a routine summit on other EU business.. The deliberately vague concept of sufficient progress gives the political leaders the option to leave plenty of room for future negotiation. The key thing for many in Brussels is that it should mark the establishment of trust that both sides are willing to work for a separation that is not too disruptive. | 0fake |
HILLARY COUGHING AGAIN, NEEDS ASSISTANCE WALKING At Tiny Rally In Ft. Pierce Florida [VIDEO] | Hillary fights back a cough at a tiny rally in Ft. Pierce, Florida:https://twitter.com/Always_Trump/status/781909679001706496Here she is starting to walk down the stairs when she realizes she needs assistance. Can someone get this liar a walker?Steps are the enemy of people with Parkinson's.#HillarysHealthpic.twitter.com/iEJgEBZAPB#ClintonScandals #FollowTheMoney@realDonaldTrump Boca Vista (@bocavista2016) September 30, 2016Meanwhile, Trump is speaking to thousands of people packed into the Suburban Showcase in the blue state of MI, where people waited in the rain for hours to get the chance see him. | 1real |
BUSINESS OWNERS GET RICH Providing Luxury Housing And Gourmet Food To “Refugees” Who Complain It’s Not Enough | Meanwhile, refugees staying at these luxury hotels in England cry discrimination because they re not allowed to eat same food, and enjoy all of the same amenities as paying guests. The fat cat boss of a company given vast amounts of taxpayers money to house asylum seekers is on a salary of almost 1million a year, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.MPs have condemned James Vyvyan-Robinson, director of Clearspring Ready Homes Ltd, for profiteering from the plight of refugees after he awarded himself an astonishing near-fourfold pay rise.The company, which is paid by the Government to provide transportation and accommodation for asylum seekers, is currently under investigation by HMRC over its tax affairs.The asylum seekers come from countries such as Eritrea, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Angola and Morocco. Every morning they are treated to a full English breakfast, at lunch they have a selection of sandwiches and for dinner they are served with rice, chicken, pasta and vegetables.But some complain they are discriminated against because they have to eat their food in a function room away from other guests, who have to fork out 14.50 for buffet meals that include carvery meats, fish, vegetables, cheese and biscuits and desserts such as chocolate gateau.A Mail on Sunday reporter who stayed at the hotel as a guest last week witnessed an asylum seeker complaining to staff.The man, who has previously worked at hotels in Dubai, said: We should be considered VIPs because we are long-staying guests. We are making money for this hotel. He said he fled his home country last summer after escaping an honour killing and was heard complaining to a waiter: Why the food is not the same quality, my brother? Why [other] people, they have salad and we don t have salad? Why they have desserts and we don t have desserts? Despite his complaints, he said he was grateful that the British taxpayer was funding his stay.A Libyan asylum seeker also complained about their treatment and that they were served different food to paying guests.Asylum seekers have been at the hotel since last October, with the length of their stays ranging from a few days to a few weeks before they are moved elsewhere.Prices range from 35 for a single room to 71 for a family-sized room, with the cost met by Clearsprings Ready Homes Ltd, a firm contracted by the Home Office. Astonishingly, the asylum seekers seemed to have been left unsupervised, with no Clearsprings staff on the premises during The Mail on Sunday s stay.The travel review website TripAdvisor is flooded with reviews from angry guests who say they were not warned about the asylum seekers before booking the hotel. Many said they were intimidated by large groups loitering at the lobby and bar.One guest even wrote: I will not be returning unless a bulldozer has preceded me. Another, describing the establishment as a disgusting hell hole , said: I was shocked at all the non-paying guests staying at the taxpayer s expense, courtesy of the Home Office, taking all the lounge areas. Via: Dail Mail | 1real |
‘Sting concert not on a par with shootings’. More soon. | Guest Guest | 1real |
A Joyful Bustle to Get Ready for Guests: Syrian Refugees - The New York Times | LANCASTER, Pa. — A dull gray house on a hillside has to become a home. Another Syrian family of refugees will be arriving soon, and this empty, echoing old place needs to be readied in welcome. The word has trickled down from the State Department’s refugee resettlement program. A mother, a father, his brother and four children, the youngest just 10. Muslims, traveling from Turkey. Flying into New York in the next few days. Their imminent arrival explains all the commotion inside this house in the small city of Lancaster, in Pennsylvania. The state may have gone to Donald J. Trump, who likened the Syrian resettlement program to a “a great Trojan horse” for terrorists. But he isn’t president yet. That is why volunteers and staff members from the Church World Service, a nationwide nonprofit that helps the government take in refugees fleeing violence and persecution, are cleaning cabinets, carting furniture and doing their best to make things homey. Just not too homey. “Doing too much can make a family feel like it’s someone else’s home,” says Josh Digrugilliers, 26, the group’s local housing specialist, whose crowded key chain jangles in reminder of all the refugees in need. He scours a government checklist of housing requirements for a resettlement, mindful that whatever he spends is deducted from a refugee’s government grant of no more than $1, 125. A family’s combined grants must cover its rent and other expenses until the nonprofit has helped the adults acquire Social Security numbers and jobs. The used furniture being trundled in reflects the emphasis on economy. Some comes from the donations hoarded in a cluttered garage, where a “Welcome Home” sign in Arabic is on display. Other items were acquired cheap — chairs for $5, tables for $20 — at Root’s Old Mill Flea Market. New paint and flooring give the house the smell of a fresh start, thanks to the landlord, John Liang, who came to Lancaster as a child, one of the “boat people” who fled Vietnam on dangerously overcrowded vessels after the war. He spent a year in a notoriously hellish refugee camp before coming to Lancaster, where he and his family delivered newspapers, shoveled snow, did sewing and work. Anything. Now 45, Mr. Liang works overtime at a nearby Kellogg’s cereal plant and manages several properties he owns, including this house, which he wants to be — just so. “There are other people living a lot harder, tougher, than what I went through,” he says. Mr. Digrugilliers applies his checklist to the kitchen, where the counter is crowded with mismatched dinnerware, new appliances and clutches of flatware bound with rubber bands. Draped over the oven handle is a dish towel printed with a calendar for 1968, another tumultuous year. Then to the bedrooms upstairs. The children’s twin beds, bought at discount from the Lancaster Mattress Company, are covered with the black G of the Georgia Bulldogs, the winged wheel of the Detroit Red Wings and other invitations to sleep in cocoons of American culture. Armed with a list of what he needs, he and a colleague, Orion Hernandez, climb into a van reeking of McDonald’s. They head to Walmart, where Mr. Digrugilliers recognizes a thin man — a Nepalese refugee who resettled here two years ago — leaving as he is walking in. “Hey, how are you?” Mr. Digrugilliers calls out. “Hello,” the man calls back. Such encounters happen often in Lancaster, whose rich history of acceptance is rooted, in part, in the influence of the Mennonites, Amish and other faiths. A glimpse of the local worldview came in January when a supportive rally of more than 200 people drowned out a much smaller protest outside the Church World Service office here. Sheila Mastropietro, the group’s longtime supervisor in Lancaster, took heart in the moment. It reflected a communal understanding of both the global refugee crisis and the rigorous screening process that refugees undergo before coming to the United States. Still, given a who seems averse to the country’s modest commitment to refugee relocation, Ms. Mastropietro says, “We don’t know what to expect. ” Last fiscal year, the Lancaster office of the Church World Service helped to resettle 407 of the 85, 000 refugees admitted to this country this fiscal year, its target is 550 of a 110, 000. “We are acting as if the numbers are going to be the same — until we hear something different,” she says. Decades of resettlement work have transformed the Lancaster area into a medley of cultures so rich that Amer Alfayadh, 34, a senior case manager, struggles to name them all: “Syrians, Iraqis, Somalis, Congolese, Ukrainians, Belorussians, people from Kazakhstan. Then, of course, Lebanese, Palestinians. Bhutanese, Nepalese, Burmese, Sri Lankans … ” Mr. Alfayadh himself arrived from Iraq in 2010. Though trained as an engineer, he worked at a Lowe’s — customer service, paint, lawn and garden — and as a substitute teacher before being hired to help other refugees. He is accustomed now to urgent calls from fresh arrivals unfamiliar with, say, locks on doors. New clients are often at their breaking point, uncertain what to make of this exotic land called Pennsylvania. Knowing how difficult it can be for anyone in crisis to see ahead — to jobs, school, a future — Mr. Alfayadh says he tries to impart a simple message: “O. K. Tomorrow will be better. ” At Walmart, Mr. Digrugilliers and Mr. Hernandez commandeer two shopping carts each and begin racing through the cavernous store like contestants on the old “Supermarket Sweep” game show, grabbing specific items, down to umbrellas and sanitary pads. His purchases complete, Mr. Digrugilliers mounts his cart and wheels it into the dusk like a skateboard, exuberant with hope that some refugee family’s journey will be just as smooth. It is not. The Church World Service soon receives word that this particular family’s resettlement has been delayed — a development that could be caused by something as simple as a spike in an ’s blood pressure at the airport. But there is no shortage of refugees. Mr. Alfayadh’s supervisor, Valentina Ross, remembers that another Syrian family is arriving in a few days: a father, a mother, three daughters and a boy. They will need a home. Today is the day. A holiday spirit has taken hold in downtown Lancaster, with a colossal Christmas tree glittering in Penn Square and ancient brick houses swathed in festive lights. A mile away, a Church World Service caseworker named Gaby Garver, a focused college graduate of 22, is collecting provisions for the new family at a food pantry. Signing some paperwork, she says, “And no meat products for the family, please. ” As Ms. Garver prepares to leave with milk, vegetables and other items, a pantry volunteer asks: “Since you didn’t take any meat, would you like some extra rice?” Yes, please. More food is needed. Ms. Garver guides her 1999 Pontiac through the cold rain to the supermarket, where many goods sit in cardboard cases. She leaves 10 minutes later with bread, fruit, beans, sugar, tea and a receipt for $26. 58, to be deducted from the family’s grant money. Hunched against the weather, the slight young woman makes two trips carrying the food into the drab gray house. After stocking the refrigerator and cabinet, she conducts a inspection. The fridge is cold. The tap has hot water. The burners on the gas stove ignite. Everything upstairs is fine as well, with even more homey touches added. New pajamas and towels. New clothes hangers. New picture frames, showing stock photos of cheerful families, on the shelves. And on one twin bed, a child’s soccer ball, still in its box. The rain has stopped, a slice of moon risen. Ms. Garver is driving now to the home of a Syrian family that arrived seven months ago. The mother has cooked a hot meal for the refugee family that is about to land any minute in New York, a good drive away. Inside, where five young children zip and waddle about, the prepared meal sits in expectation on the table: a large aluminum tray bountiful with chicken and rice and a huge bowl of salad. The oldest child, Mohamad, 14, helps Ms. Garver carry the food out to her vehicle, and she thanks him. He responds with the formality given to a new language being tried on for size. “You’re welcome,” the boy says, and smiles. Returning to the gray house, Ms. Garver fumbles in the dark to open the door while holding the tray of food. When she returns with the salad bowl, she stoops to collect a clump of junk mail, including a addressed to “Our Neighbor. ” Later tonight, Ms. Garver and Mr. Alfayadh will drive a Ford van to Lancaster Airport, where they will meet two representatives from the local Islamic Center. Soon after, another van will arrive from Kennedy International Airport. Hugs and handshakes will be exchanged in the December air. Luggage will be collected. And six Syrian refugees will be driven the 20 minutes to a warm home perfumed by warm food, in a city made radiant by the multicolored lights of the season. | 0fake |
BUSTED: Eric Trump Admits Daddy ‘Started The Conversation’ About Obama’s Birth Certificate (AUDIO) | BUSTED: Eric Trump Admits Daddy ‘Started The Conversation’ About Obama’s Birth Certificate (AUDIO) By Andrew Bradford on October 28, 2016 Subscribe
Donald Trump has tried to deny that he is the person most responsible for keeping alive claims that President Obama wasn’t born in the United States and is therefore not eligible to serve as President. The GOP nominee has been the chief proponent of what is now known as “birtherism.” And yet when asked about the matter, Trump tries to shift the blame to Hillary Clinton and her campaign staff in the 2008 Democratic race.
Now, however, we have proof that Trump was indeed the driving force of birtherism, and that proof comes from the mouth of his son, Eric.
NBC news found audio of Eric Trump talking to biographer Michael D’Antonio, author of The Truth About Trump . In that audio, the Trump son admits: “I think with the birthers it’s, ‘Okay, well, then, just prove it. Meaning these people are going out saying that which a lot of people were at the time. ‘Then just show us. Just be transparent. You’re the leader of the free world, be transparent.’ There are underlying themes to this, and in fact, he has done his best to start the conversation that was unwilling to be had before. Now that conversation might flush itself out in one of several different ways. But at least the conversation is being had.”
Yes, at least we are trying to question the nationality of the first African-American President in the history of the United States. Nothing nefarious or the least bit racist about that, is there? Bullshit! Donald Trump knew exactly what he was doing when he repeatedly called for President Obama to release his birth certificate, and he did so to garner media attention as he considered running for the GOP nomination years before he finally did.
Donald Trump is a lying weasel and racist asshat who needs to be defeated soundly on November 8. He and his hateful ideas must be resoundingly rejected by the American people, who deserve better than the division he offers.
Featured Image Via YouTube Screengrab About Andrew Bradford
Andrew Bradford is a single father who lives in Atlanta. A member of the Christian Left, he has worked in the fields of academia, journalism, and political consulting. His passions are art, music, food, and literature. He believes in equal rights and justice for all. To see what else he likes to write about, check out his blog at Deepleftfield.info. Connect | 1real |
Britain to detail Brexit bill when EU agrees to move talks forward | LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May will only detail how big a divorce settlement Britain is willing to pay the EU when the bloc gives a commitment to moving talks forward, according to a plan rubber-stamped by even her most pro-Brexit ministers. The Brexit bill has become one of several hurdles to talks to unravel more than 40 years of union, with London reticent to offer too much too soon on what officials consider to be one of its strongest bargaining chips. In Brussels, British media speculation that May has won the backing of Brexit hardliners to offer more cash prompted talk among EU diplomats that a deal to unblock talks on future trade relations could be in the making ahead of a crunch Brussels summit in three weeks. At a meeting on Monday, May s Brexit committee - made up of some of her top ministers - backed the long-held strategy that Britain would honor commitments made when it was a member of the European Union. But the government will only offer any specifics when the bloc s negotiators give a commitment that talks will move to a discussion of the future relationship. We are ready to move onto phase two, to see those talks about a deep and special partnership with the EU for the future, a comprehensive trade agreement with the EU, May said on Tuesday. I think that s in the interests of the UK and in the interests of the remaining EU-27. I think it s also important that the UK and the EU step forward together, she added, a turn of phrase a source said expressed her desire for coordination. In public, Brussels is standing firm on the need for Britain to first make clear not a concrete euros and cents offer but a commitment to pay a share of EU spending for some items after Brexit - one of three key conditions the EU has set for opening trade talks. Asked if the EU was ready to give a promise to start those talks as soon as London offers more money, European Commission deputy head Frans Timmermans told CNN: I hear them saying that. But as far as the EU27 is concerned, ... if we tackle the three issues ... if we deal with that satisfactorily, we can move to the next stage. And that s been crystal clear since Day One. Nonetheless, EU negotiators are willing to help May with at least the appearance of cutting a deal. They could help fudge the amount of cash being handed over. And the EU already has an outline of a transition and free trade accord, which May could point to as something she had secured in exchange. We are ready to present the exit bill in a way that would make it easier for the Brits to sell at home, one diplomat said. He added that EU officials had looked at whether Britain might forgo its roughly 50-percent rebate on EU budget payments during a two-year transition period after Brexit, so reducing the gross amount Britain would otherwise hand over in advance. With only 16 months until Britain leaves the bloc, May is under increasing pressure not only from EU officials to move on the money, but also by businesses to provide certainty by early next year so they can make investment decisions. But she has a tightrope to walk. Many in her governing Conservative Party want Britain to quit the talks, feeling the EU is holding the country hostage over money, which they want to spend at home rather than abroad. Her spokesman said no figures were discussed at Monday s meeting and other ministers gave no details of what was discussed. Local media reported that she could increase the sum to 40 billion pounds ($53 billion), more than double the initial estimated offer of 20 billion euros ($23.5 billion). The Commission has cited a figure of 60 billion euros but EU officials have long said that is up for negotiation. For many in May s own party, however, the suggestion of any increase in how much Britain will pay at a time when talks had failed to move forward for five months was unpalatable. I need to be able to look my voters in the eye and be able to say that I have backed a deal that is in the interests of Britain, Conservative lawmaker Andrew Bridgen told Reuters. If I can t do that, I will vote against a deal and we will go to WTO rules of trade, rules with which we already trade with most of the world successfully. | 0fake |
Undocumented Immigrant Dares Trump To Release His Taxes After Proving She Pays Hers | Donald Trump s head is going to explode when he sees this.Back in September as the 2016 campaign raged on, Trump claimed that undocumented immigrants cost the United States hundreds of billions of dollars and complained that only 5 percent to 10 percent of them pay taxes. Illegal immigration, each year, costs us between $200 billion and $300 billion, Trump told CNN host Erin Burnett. I don t know if anybody gives you those numbers. Probably not. There s very little, percentage-wise, Trump said on the number of immigrants who pay taxes. There s very little, probably 5 percent, 10 percent. Wrong.As it turns out, Trump claimed in August that the figure was around $113 billion. But Politifact rated his claim false after doing some research. Trump s information comes from an unreliable conservative think tank that fiercely opposes immigration. Reports from other organizations, even conservative ones, put the figure drastically lower.It also turns out that around more than half of the undocumented immigrants in this country pay more taxes than Donald Trump does. After all, just a single year of Trump s tax returns showed that he probably didn t pay a dime in federal income taxes for over a decade. Undocumented immigrants on the other hand, have contributed $12 billion to Social Security alone as well as other federal, local and state taxes, while not being able to receive any federal, state, or local benefits.That may be a huge reason why Trump refuses to release his tax returns. Because he knows that they would expose him as the hypocrite, liar, and tax cheat that he is.Now one undocumented immigrant is bravely daring Trump to release his taxes after she proved his claims wrong with a single photograph.Belen Sisa is a resident of Arizona who was brought to America by her undocumented immigrant parents when she was six years old. Sisa decided to send a message to Donald Trump and all of those anti-immigrant conservatives who believe the myths about undocumented immigrants that right-wing groups constantly spew.So she posted a picture of herself proudly holding up her tax returns on Facebook and included the following message:I, an undocumented immigrant, just filed my taxes and PAID $300 to the state of Arizona. I cannot receive financial aid from the state or federal government for school, I cannot benefit from unemployment, a reduced healthcare plan, or a retirement fund. I think I m a pretty good citizen. Oh and there are MILLIONS just like me who pay into a system they will never receive anything from. Wanna tell me again how I should be deported, contribute nothing and only leech off this country while the 1% wealthiest people in this country steal from you everyday? How about you show me yours Donald J. Trump? #HereToStay Your move, Donald.Featured Image: Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images | 1real |
UK PM May says Donald Trump was wrong to retweet far-right videos | AMMAN (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump was wrong to retweet a video from a far-right British group which she said was hateful and spreads division. Trump sparked outrage in Britain with a sharp rebuke of May on Twitter after she criticized him for retweeting anti-Islam videos from the deputy leader of Britain First. The fact that we work together does not mean that we re afraid to say when we think the United States has got it wrong, and be very clear with them, May told reporters in Amman. And I m very clear that retweeting from Britain First was the wrong thing to do, May said. | 0fake |
Trump fires back at Britain's May: 'Don't focus on me' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump fired back at British Prime Minister Theresa May over her criticism of his retweeting of anti-Muslim videos, saying she should focus on terrorism in Britain. Theresa @theresamay, don t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine, Trump tweeted. The Twitter handle Trump included in his tweet was not that of the British leader. | 0fake |
DONALD TRUMP STRIKES BACK: Reminds American Voters Bernie Sanders Is “A COMMUNIST”…And A COWARD [VIDEO] | Trump spoke to his supporters at a rally in Cleveland, Ohio, on Saturday. As one would expect from Trump, he s not about to sit back and allow Bernie Sanders supporters and Black Lives Matter terrorists hijack his rallies. After addresseding the violent protesters in Chicago, he reinacted Bernie Sanders cowardly reaction when two female Black Lives Matter terrorists took over the mic while at the start of his rally in Seattle. He called Bernie Sanders a communist and identified his supporters as troublemakers. Watch here:Watch here to see how Bernie Sanders reacted to the aggressive and disrespectful, thuggish behavior of two female representatives from the Black Lives Matter terror group. What is even more stunning is how the man who wants to be the leader of the free world stands in a corner like a dutiful Leftist allowing these two women to completely hijack a rally his people orgnaized. If Bernie can t control two unarmed, female domestic terrorists, how could anyone expect he could defend America against one of our enemies? This video is so embarrassing, it should be played over and over again as a reminder of the pacifist, communist who wants to be America s next President:Not everyone at the Bernie Sanders rally was down with the hateful, divisive Black Lives Matter terror representative s message; | 1real |
WATCH SOLAR ECLIPSE LIVE HERE | If you don t have the proper glasses to watch the historic solar eclipse today, you can still watch it here LIVE as it happens.From NASA: Solar Eclipse 2017 On August 21, 2017, all of North America will be treated to an eclipse of the sun. Viewers around the world will be provided a wealth of images captured before, during, and after the eclipse by 11 spacecraft, at least three NASA aircraft, more than 50 high-altitude balloons, and the astronauts aboard the International Space Station each offering a unique vantage point for the celestial event.Watch here:https://t.co/oYED98vQyL Twitter News (@TwitterNews) August 16, 2017Where Can You See It? You can see a partial eclipse, where the moon covers only a part of the sun, anywhere in North America (see Who can see it? ). To see a total eclipse, where the moon fully covers the sun for a short few minutes, you must be in the path of totality. The path of totality is a relatively thin ribbon, around 70 miles wide, that will cross the U.S. from West to East. The first point of contact will be at Lincoln Beach, Oregon at 9:05 a.m. PDT. Totality begins there at 10:16 a.m. PDT. Over the next hour and a half, it will cross through Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and North and South Carolina. The total eclipse will end near Charleston, South Carolina at 2:48 p.m. EDT. From there the lunar shadow leaves the United States at 4:09 EDT. Its longest duration will be near Carbondale, Illinois, where the sun will be completely covered for two minutes and 40 seconds.If you missed the eclipse as it happened, here are a couple of incredible videos that were taken of the eclipse: More of the moon crossing in front of sun in Philly: https://t.co/fKHeCFSNKf #SolarEclipse2017 pic.twitter.com/fjxfUuxOy6 NBC10 Philadelphia (@NBCPhiladelphia) August 21, 2017#SolarEclipse2017 Breathtaking! pic.twitter.com/fvPwGwgn99 smail H. Polat (@ismailhpolat) August 21, 2017 | 1real |
RNC Chaos Continues As Top Fundraiser Resigns After Convention Floor Fight | Donald Trump s coronation party has just kicked off, and it is not going well at all. The Colorado delegation, led by Free the Delegates founder Kendal Unruh, walked off the convention floor after the convention refused to give them a vote regarding a roll call vote and change the rules regarding the binding obligation to vote for Trump.And that s just the beginning. One top fundraiser for the RNC and the Trump campaign has had enough.Gary Emineth, who signed on in recent weeks to help the Republican Party get Trump elected, is done with the whole GOP circus. He was an unbound delegate, but he wanted to have the bound delegates be able to vote their conscience on the convention floor. Instead, Reince Priebus and the rest of the party brass refused to give these delegates a voice at all. Here is what Emineth had to say: I was on the Trump finance committee and I just resigned because that bully tactic is absurd. I just texted them right now. Why can t the people be heard? I ve been texting Reince for 10 minutes. He said we didn t have the votes. We had 10, 1l states. They peeled people back. They were calling delegations asking people to step off the committee. You don t do this in America. You do this in other countries. Despite the fact that the delegates had signatures from delegations of 11 states and followed the rules themselves to have a voice for the #NeverTrump movement, they were still denied the opportunity to speak. So, in other words, the Republican Party brass broke their own rules in their determination to crown Trump the official King of the GOP.Granted, the #NeverTrump people don t even have anyone to replace Trump even if their efforts were to succeed. It s the principle of the thing the party brass that fell in line behind the literal fascist that is now their standard-bearer and a danger to their nation have no principles, and they don t want to give a voice to those in their party who do.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 1real |
John Kerry Is Said to Side With Diplomats’ Critical Memo on Syria - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — For a cabinet member whose department had just erupted into open disagreement with the White House, Secretary of State John Kerry’s reaction to a critical memo on Syria policy signed by 51 diplomats was remarkably mellow. “It’s an important statement,” he told reporters in Copenhagen on Friday, “and I respect the process very, very much. ” Mr. Kerry’s mild tone could be explained by the fact that he had not yet read the document. Or maybe it was because the “dissent channel” is a prized institution at the State Department — one that guarantees employees a way to air objections without fear of reprisal. But the most plausible explanation is that Mr. Kerry more or less agreed with his diplomats. Their urgent call for the United States to take stronger military action against President Bashar of Syria closely resembles the arguments that administration officials say Mr. Kerry has been making in Situation Room debates as he has tried to force Mr. Assad to abide by a and agree to a transition of power. Mr. Kerry, these officials said, has told President Obama that he is operating without any leverage in Syria, and that unless the United States increases the pressure on Mr. Assad, the embattled leader will simply wait out the end of Mr. Obama’s term. “For quite some time, Secretary Kerry has had real reservations about the president’s approach to Syria,” said Frederic C. Hof, a former special adviser to the administration on Syria who works for the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank. “His mellow reaction might indicate sympathy. ” But he added, “It might also indicate a desire not to breathe oxygen into the story. ” To the extent that Mr. Kerry differs from the authors of the memo, said an official familiar with his thinking, it is that he would consider a wide range of military operations to alter the equation in Syria’s civil war. The memo simply recommends that the United States carry out targeted airstrikes on Mr. Assad as a way to force him into negotiations. Few analysts expect Mr. Obama to shift his policy, which makes the military campaign against the Islamic State a priority, rather than any efforts to oust Mr. Assad. Mr. Obama’s military commanders back that position, arguing that removing the Syrian leader would leave a dangerous security vacuum. They also worry about a more direct conflict between the United States and Russia, which began to use air power last fall to bolster Mr. Assad. “We are always open to new and different ideas when it comes to the challenges in Syria,” Jennifer Friedman, deputy White House press secretary, said to reporters traveling with Mr. Obama on a weekend family tour of national parks in New Mexico and California. But Ms. Friedman added that “the president has always been clear that he does not see a military solution to the crisis in Syria, and that remains the case. ” Still, the disclosure of the memo could roil the waters in an election year. The presumptive Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump, has tried to tie his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, to what he calls the foreign policy failures of Mr. Obama, whom she served as secretary of state. Neither Mr. Trump nor Mrs. Clinton directly addressed the memo on Friday. But Mrs. Clinton has staked out a tougher position on Syria than Mr. Obama — and, in some respects, than the diplomats who signed the memo. They advocate a “judicious use of standoff and air weapons” against Mr. Assad’s forces. She would impose a zone over northern Syria — a much more extensive military operation — to protect civilians from Mr. Assad’s bombardment and to increase pressure on him to enter negotiations. While Mrs. Clinton has said little about the proposal in recent weeks, people familiar with her position said she still favored it. The memo also served to underscore the differences between the United States and its allies in the region over how to deal with Mr. Assad. Both Saudi Arabia and Turkey have argued for making his removal a top priority, while the United States has kept the focus on the Islamic State. The Saudi foreign minister, Adel who is visiting Washington, said Friday he heartily supported the conclusions of the State Department memo. “Yes, yes, yes,” he said. “We have been arguing from the beginning of the Syrian crisis that there should be more robust intervention in Syria, including airstrikes,” he said at a news conference. Only more aggressive military approach, he said, could “change the balance of power” and lead to a political settlement. The administration has discouraged open dissent on issues of war and peace. But White House officials insisted Mr. Obama was not angered by the disclosure of the memo. Ms. Friedman said it was predictable that there would be a wide range of views about an issue as thorny as Syria. Some Syria experts said the recommendations in the draft memo were quite conservative. “They are not advocating invasion or occupation,” Mr. Hof said. “They are not calling for a strategic bombing campaign. They are not asking for piloted American aircraft to go up against the Russians or even the regime. What they are suggesting is the consideration of using standoff capabilities — cruise missiles — to make Assad’s application of mass homicide something other than a free ride. ” The State Department said five dissent cables were filed in 2014 and 2015. Even though the process is sanctioned and Mr. Kerry appeared to be unruffled by the leak, Mr. Hof said the 51 officials who signed the memo had taken a considerable professional risk. “They no doubt feel the moral responsibility for having facilitated policies they know to be wrongheaded, counter to American interests, and disastrous for Syrians, their neighbors, and for Western European allies,” he said. “We owe them a lot. ” In the 1990s, Secretary of State Warren Christopher expressed frustration when dissent cables about the Clinton administration’s Balkans policy were leaked. And in 1971, when American diplomats in Dhaka, in what was then East Pakistan, sent the first formal dissent cable — condemning the Nixon administration’s policy toward East Pakistan — officials at the White House and the State Department exploded in rage, even though the cable was not public. “Henry was just furious about it,” said Samuel Hoskinson, a junior aide to Henry Kissinger, Nixon’s national security adviser, as quoted in the book “The Blood Telegram,” by Gary J. Bass. | 0fake |
Trump responds to UK attack with apparent criticism of London Mayor Sadiq Khan | LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted on Sunday about a militant attack in London which killed seven people, quoting London Mayor Sadiq Khan telling Britons not to be alarmed, in what appeared to be a criticism of Khan’s response to the incident. “At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is “no reason to be alarmed!” Trump tweeted. Earlier Khan had said Britons should not be alarmed to see a higher police presence on the streets of London following the incident. Last year Khan was elected mayor of the city to become the first Muslim to head a major Western capital. | 0fake |
Republicans join Democratic call for clarity on Trump abortion order | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two of President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans joined four Democrats on Monday in demanding that the White House provide more information about an executive order that has sown confusion among international organizations involved in family planning, AIDS treatment and other healthcare issues. In one of his first actions as president, Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 23 reinstating the so-called Mexico City policy, known by critics as the “global gag” rule, which withholds U.S. funding for international organizations that perform abortions or provide information about abortion. Although other Republican presidents have also adopted the policy, Trump broadened the scope to all global health assistance, “which may encompass as much as fifteen times more federal funding than previous Republican administrations’ versions of this policy,” the six senators wrote in the letter, which was seen by Reuters. The order withholds half a billion dollars or more in U.S. funds, and aid groups said it was issued with so little guidance that they have been scrambling to figure out how to proceed. In the letter, the senators said Trump’s broader order now includes the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and all other global health programs funded through the Department of State, Agency for International Development and Department of Health and Human Services. PEPFAR, which enjoys broad bipartisan support in Congress, is the largest provider of AIDS-fighting medicine in the world, and has been credited with saving millions of lives. “This directive ... has caused mass confusion among federal agencies and international relief organizations. While they wait for clarity from this administration, there’s been a global chilling effect on life-saving work,” said Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who organized the letter. Among other things, the senators asked if Trump’s administration had conducted a cost-benefit assessment of the policy, whether it had determined how many lives might be saved or lost or whether it had researched how transmission of diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Zika might be affected. Besides Shaheen, the letter was signed by Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, Democrats Ben Cardin and Richard Blumenthal and Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats. The Trump administration is planning to submit a budget proposing steep cuts in spending on the U.S. State Department and foreign aid. Several Republican members of Congress have expressed reservations about that plan. | 0fake |
No north-south Ireland border despite leaving customs union, British minister pledges | BERLIN (Reuters) - There will never again be a border dividing Northern Ireland and the republic, a British minister said days before a summit at which the Irish border issue threatens to derail Britain s Brexit plans. But in the interview with the Rheinische Post newspaper, international trade minister Greg Hands reaffirmed that Britain would quit the European Union s customs union, a move most experts believe would lead to the reimposition of a border. Currently, both parts of the island are members of the same customs union, meaning checks of goods crossing the border are unnecessary. If Britain left the customs union and no new checks were imposed, many experts warn it would create a back-door route to circumvent EU tariffs. As part of its negotiations to quit the European Union, Britain must satisfy the bloc s remaining 27 members that it has settled issues including its financial obligations, citizens rights and maintaining a low-friction border between the two parts of the divided island. Failure to do so could bring a veto from any of the bloc s member states, including the Republic of Ireland, preventing Britain from moving on to a discussion of its future relationship with its much larger neighbor. All sides, the Irish government, my government and the European Commission are committed to the peace deal that ended the Northern Ireland conflict, Hands said. There will never be a border between north and south. Extracts of the interview were published on Thursday. He said he was confident that no veto would be cast at the mid-December summit. The 1998 Good Friday peace agreement between Britain and the Republic of Ireland was the crucial step that brought to an end decades of violence in Northern Ireland, partly by offering extensive provisions to allow residents of the British province to maintain allegiance to both EU member states. | 0fake |
U.S. Navy rolls out new measures after deadly Asia-Pacific crashes | PATTAYA, Thailand (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy has introduced new measures aimed at avoiding a repeat of two deadly crashes in the Asia Pacific region involving its warships and commercial vessels following a review of its practices, the Seventh Fleet commander said on Monday. Vice Admiral Phillip Sawyer s comments come after a U.S. guided-missile destroyer was slightly damaged at the weekend when a Japanese tug drifted into it during a towing exercise off central Japan, the latest incident in the Pacific this year involving ships from the fleet. The U.S. Navy announced a series of reforms this month aimed at restoring basic naval skills and alertness at sea after a review of deadly collisions in the Asia-Pacific region showed sailors were under-trained and over-worked. Two of the incidents - collisions with commercial vessels involving guided-missile destroyers, the Fitzgerald in June off Japan and then the John S. McCain in August as it approached Singapore - have left a total of 17 sailors dead. The crashes were caused by preventable errors by the sailors on board the ships, Navy investigations showed. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an international fleet review in the Thai seaside town of Pattaya, Sawyer said the Navy made circadian rhythm sleep guidelines a requirement and a new group, the Naval Surface Group Western Pacific, has been training officers at the fleet s headquarters in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, Japan. This is a team that is now in Yokosuka and they re charged with doing the man, train, equip aspect of our operations with surface ships, Sawyer told reporters. The second thing we have done is Automatic Identification System and that s a system onboard ships that puts out signal and it tells whoever is receiving that signal the course, speed and identification of the ship, he said. The third thing is that we are working on the circadian rhythm onboard the ships to make the sailors more alert. Sawyer took command of the U.S. force in August after the Navy removed the fleet s previous commander, Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin, following a series of collisions. The U.S. Seventh Fleet operates in the largest of the U.S. Navy s numbered fleets. It oversees about 70-80 ships and submarines at any given time in the region. The fleet operates over an area of 124 million square km (48 million square miles) from bases in Japan, South Korea and Singapore. | 0fake |
The Alt-Majority: How Social Networks Empowered Mass Protests Against Trump - The New York Times | The presidency of Donald J. Trump has been noteworthy for its speed. In his first week in office, as the president’s aides won’t tire of reminding us, Mr. Trump has already put in motion plans to do much of what he promised to do while campaigning. But it’s not just the politician who is moving fast. It’s the population, too. In a matter of hours on Saturday, thousands rushed to the nation’s airports, beckoned by tweets. The flash protests in response to Mr. Trump’s immigration ban, which continued to grow in many cities on Sunday, were as organized as they were instantaneous. Dispatched online, the protesters knew where to go, and they knew what to do once they arrived: to command the story by making a scene. Mr. Trump feeds off media attention. Throughout the campaign, the bigger a spectacle he created, the larger he loomed in the public consciousness. What has been remarkable during the last two weekends is how thoroughly Mr. Trump’s own media personage was blotted out by scenes of protesters. In a brief appearance on Saturday, the president assured the nation that his immigrant ban was “working out very nicely — you see it in the airports. ” But the pictures and videos flooding across our social streams put the lie to Mr. Trump’s breezy pronouncements. Things at the airports weren’t working out very nicely you could see it right there on Instagram. A similar story unfolded the weekend before. In his inaugural address Mr. Trump claimed the mantle of popular will. The next day, a far larger illustration of popular will was on display at marches across the country. The people who gathered for the women’s march hijacked the media narrative. Even for those who did not assemble on either weekend, the pictures carried special power. Amplified on social media and echoing across every TV network, they suggested something larger afoot, something . “Something’s happening out there,” Ana Navarro, the Republican and television pundit, declared on Twitter. Something sure is. We’re witnessing the stirrings of a national popular movement aimed at defeating the policies of Mr. Trump. It is a movement without official leaders. In fact, to a noteworthy degree, the formal apparatus of the Democratic Party has been nearly absent from the uprisings. Unlike the Tea Party and the “” the new movement has no name. Call it the or, if you want to really drive Mr. Trump up the wall, the . Or call it nothing. Though nameless and decentralized, the movement isn’t chaotic. Because it was hatched on social networks and is dispatched by mobile phones, it appears to be organizationally sophisticated and ferociously savvy about conquering the media. Over two weekends, the protests have accomplished something just about unprecedented in the nearly two years since Mr. Trump first declared his White House run: They have nudged him from the media spotlight he depends on. They are the only force we’ve seen that has been capable of untangling his singular hold on the media ecosystem. The movement is new and possibly fragile it could dissipate, like so much else that has come up against Mr. Trump. But in such a short time, the movement has proved unusually adept. It can marshal crowds quickly, as we saw over the weekend, and it can go big, as we saw in the women’s marches, which some crowd scientists believe were the largest day of protest in American history. The movement has other skills. It’s capable of coming up with catchy slogans, funny signs and even branding efforts to rival Mr. Trump’s own. The president has his Make America Great Again hats. Protesters at the women’s march had pink woolen hats with cat ears — “pussy hats,” a reference to the president’s confessed penchant for grabbing things. But unlike Mr. Trump’s hats, the pink caps came from the crowd. Thousands of knitters created them in the weeks between the election and the inauguration, then mailed them off to strangers who shared their views. There’s money, too. Since Mr. Trump’s win, the inchoate online movement has sparked millions in donations to progressive groups such as Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union. Over the weekend, the A. C. L. U. raised more than $20 million. The movement can also compel the attention of elites. In large part because of pressure from their connected work forces, the leaders of many technology companies denounced Mr. Trump’s immigration orders. Between Friday and Monday, thanks to the movement, Silicon Valley was transformed. An industry that was once merely skeptical of Mr. Trump largely became opposed to him, only because crowds forced change. Most important, though, the movement can command the media narrative. The president has promised a lot of bold change. His boldness will involve lots of consequences. Millions might lose health care coverage if he repeals the Affordable Care Act. Many might be deported if he achieves his immigration proposals. If the last two weeks are any indication, though, none of this will happen quietly. There will be pictures and viral videos of real people facing hardship, and those pictures are sure to inspire hordes. When people are left with crippling medical bills in the absence of health insurance, or when people are deported to Mexico, you will see large gatherings on Facebook, and then on TV. Already, a group of scientists are planning to march on Washington in opposition to what they say is Mr. Trump’s disdain for science. There are other protests planned for Tax Day in April to remind the nation that the president once promised to release his tax returns, then reneged. You might wonder if the protests will achieve much. Americans have protested before (the war in Iraq comes to mind) and the protests did not, in themselves, alter national policy. But if Mr. Trump has proved anything, it’s that everything is different now. We live in a culture ruled by social media streams, one in which most people are skeptical of what they see and read in the “mainstream media. ” This explains why Stephen K. Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart News who is a close adviser to Mr. Trump, has been seeking to paint the news media as Mr. Trump’s primary opposition. The weakened news media is an easy mark for Mr. Trump. If the media is his only opponent, he’s got nothing to worry about. Unlike the news media, though, protesters produce an undeniable reality. Protesters can’t easily be dismissed as “fake news. ” They come to you unmediated — not from The New York Times, but from your friends and friends of friends on Facebook. They are, in other words, just another version of your social network — the physical manifestation of an outraged News Feed. Because they’re people you know, they can’t easily be maligned as biased or unfair. When politicians take on political crowds rather than other politicians, it usually ends badly. Hillary Clinton had to apologize for calling Mr. Trump’s supporters “deplorables. ” After first bashing the women’s march on Twitter, even Mr. Trump had to praise the demonstrators. There’s another reason for believing that protests could prove effective against Mr. Trump’s policies: The protesters seem to drive him crazy. Mr. Trump is enamored of crowds. Throughout the campaign, he and his surrogates argued that the polls were rigged, and that his large rallies suggested there was a growing tide of support for his candidacy. The crowds, in other words, became the whole ballgame. They were the only reality that mattered. If he won the crowd, he’d win the election. Now Mr. Trump faces the same dynamic, in reverse. The crowds at his inauguration were supposed to certify his popularity. When they fizzled, and were then outmatched by opposition protests, he couldn’t help relitigating the matter for days. Things haven’t gotten better. Now there are crowds on every screen and every feed. The people aren’t saying nice things about him. And there’s something worse than that, too: They’ve stolen the limelight for themselves. | 0fake |
U.S. Senate Democratic leader dismisses Republicans' Zika funding proposal | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said an agreement announced on Wednesday by House of Representatives Republicans on $1.1 billion in new funding to fight the Zika virus was not a serious response to the threat. “A narrowly partisan proposal that cuts off women’s access to birth control, shortchanges veterans and rescinds Obamacare funds to cover the cost is not a serious response to the threat from the Zika virus,” Reid said in a statement. | 0fake |
Clinton to seek 'clawback' tax on firms that send jobs abroad: aide | (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will propose a “clawback” tax on Friday for companies that outsource jobs or facilities abroad, a campaign aide said. The proposal would rescind tax relief for companies after they move those positions out of the country. Several previous years of tax relief would be clawed back, according to the campaign aide, with revenue then going to encourage investment in the United States. Clinton will make the proposal on Friday in Detroit, Michigan, during a speech on jobs and the economy. She is the front runner for the Democratic nomination to the November presidential election. (This version of the story corrects the day in first paragraph to Friday.) (Reporting by Luciana Lopez and Amanda Becker; Editing by David Alexander) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production. | 0fake |
BRILLIANT DANIEL HANNAN Smacks Down Rude CNN Reporter [Video] | Please check out the clip below and you ll see what drives conservatives nuts! CNN has every right to question Daniel Hannan in the interview but notice how Christian Amanpour gets combative and angry about Brexit while she s offending Daniel Hannan by insinuating that he s racist. Conservatives are so sick of political activists as journalists! Amanpour is a total political hack who just can t keep her personal views out of her reporting! THIS IS WHY WE BOYCOTT CNN!Heat Street has more:British MEP Daniel Hannan Spent Nine Minutes Smacking Down CNN JournalistDaniel Hannan, a conservative Member of the European Parliament representing South East England and one of the most vocal advocates in favor of #Brexit, had a fiery exchange with CNN s Christiane Amanpour, in which Hannan repeatedly rejected Amanpour s attempts to smear Leave supporters as racist and pushed back against her accusations that he had made misrepresentations.The interview, which aired on Tuesday, featured Amanpour questioning Hannan for details about how Britain s exit from the European Union would be accomplished.Here s the video, with a few seconds shy of nine minutes of Hannan smacking down rudeness and ridiculousness from Amanpour over and over and over again: | 1real |
A Haircut for French Taxpayers? Hollande’s $10,000-a-Month Stylist Is Revealed - The New York Times | PARIS — As heads of state go, this one appears to be quite expensive. The investigative and satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné reported on Wednesday that President François Hollande’s personal hairdresser has been paid 9, 895 euros — over $10, 000 — per month since Mr. Hollande was elected in 2012, about the same amount as a government minister’s salary. The report is especially jarring for Mr. Hollande, 61, a Socialist who campaigned on the promise that he would be a “normal” and exemplary president but who has seen his private life spill into the open on several occasions. It would be hard for Mr. Hollande to be less popular. His approval ratings, while receiving a bump from the Euro 2016 soccer tournament, have been persistently low. He has been forced to agree to a primary among parties, including his own Socialists, to settle on a candidate for president next year — a first for a sitting president. Mr. Hollande has not managed to deliver on his promise to significantly lower unemployment, especially among young people. His government has faced months of street protests over an unpopular bill to loosen France’s rigid labor laws. And he faces a potential challenge from his economy minister, Emmanuel Macron, who has hinted that he may run for president next year. The new controversy — the hashtag #CoiffeurGate, “coiffeur” being French for hairdresser, was a trending topic on Twitter on Wednesday — could contribute to the image as a president who is out of touch. Mr. Hollande is certainly not the first politician to encounter problems with hairdressing. In 1993, two of Los Angeles International Airport’s runways were shut for nearly an hour so that President Bill Clinton’s Beverly Hills hairstylist could come aboard Air Force One to give him a haircut. In 2007, John Edwards, a former senator, had to reimburse his presidential campaign $800 to cover the cost of two haircuts. The Republican nominee Sarah Palin spent tens of thousands of dollars on hair and makeup in the homestretch of her 2008 campaign. In France, opposition and parties were, unsurprisingly, critical of Mr. Hollande, and while reactions in his own party were more muted, some struck a harsher tone. “That’s a lot of money for a hairdresser, and for the French in general,” Thierry Mandon, the junior minister for higher education and research, told the LCP news channel. “For many people in France that really, really, really is a lot of money. ” Still, the revelations have yet to morph into a political scandal in France, where the financial excesses or abuses of politicians are sometimes met with a shrug. On Twitter, French observers expressed a mixture of amusement and outrage. “When my 2, 600 euros of income tax represent one week of the hairdresser’s salary #CoiffeurGate #shameful,” one user wrote. “#CoiffeurGate — ah, now I finally understand the expression ‘budgetary cuts,’” mused another. Some photoshopped royal wigs, mullets or toupées onto the French president’s sparsely adorned head. The hairdresser, identified by Le Canard Enchaîné only as Olivier B. was first mentioned in a book by two French journalists published in April that aimed to give a look at the Élysée Palace, the presidential residence. The book identified the hairdresser as Olivier Benhamou, and said that his monthly salary was 8, 000 euros. When the tabloid magazine Closer wrote an article using that information, Mr. Benhamou sued them that case is pending. The work contract Mr. Benhamou signed with the Élysée Palace was recently introduced as evidence in a French court as part of that case, and was obtained by Le Canard Enchaîné, which used it as the basis of its report. The contract was signed by Mr. Hollande’s former chief of staff. It is unclear whether Mr. Hollande knew how much the hairdresser is paid. On Wednesday evening, Valérie Trierweiler, Mr. Hollande’s former companion, wrote on Twitter: “Let’s be fair: F. Hollande was not aware of the hairdresser’s salary. I can attest to his anger when he learned about it later. ” The Élysée Palace confirmed the report, telling Le Canard Enchaîné that Mr. Benhamou started his days very early and that “he redoes the president’s hair every morning and as much as needed, for each public statement. ” A 2015 report by the Cour des Comptes, the French organization that conducts financial audits of the state and other public institutions, found that personnel spending at the Élysée Palace in 2014 — 68. 2 million euros, out of the palace’s overall budget of 100 million euros — had fallen by 1. 6 percent from the previous year and that staff numbers had been cut. | 0fake |
Kerry Adviser Marie Harf in Twitter Fight Over Iran Nukes | With Western and Iranian negotiators racing toward a June 30 deadline to hammer out the final details of a nuclear deal, the mood is tense. Just take a look at Twitter, where Secretary of State John Kerry’s senior communications adviser Marie Harf is feuding with a reporter. | 0fake |
TRAFFIC IS FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE…CLINTON CARPETBAGGERS Get Wall, Guards…And Now Private Street For NY House | The Clinton Carpetbaggers have moved around doing their influence peddling where the money is they landed in Chappaqua, NY and have managed to make their home into a fortress complete with a huge wall, guards and now a private street. Seems like traffic is for the little people NEW CASTLE The road where Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, lives in Chappaqua has been made a local-traffic-only street for security reasons and to reduce tourists from flocking to the cul-de-sac.The Town Board this week voted to add Old House Lane to the list of such roads. Hillary and Bill Clinton have lived on the road for more than 15 years, moving there when she ran for a U.S. Senate seat.Chappaqua is a hamlet within New Castle. The Town Board also added one other road, Green Lane, to those restricted to local traffic only. It s a short cul-de-sac that runs parallel to Old House Lane.At Tuesday s board meeting, Town Administrator Jill Shapiro said the police chief had received a request for security reasons.Town Supervisor Robert Greenstein said Friday he was not positive, but assumed the request came from the Secret Service. I think it s for security reasons and also for privacy concerns for the residents certainly living there as well, Greenstein said. He said the little cul-de-sac can be turned into a very busy street. Via: lohud | 1real |
Trump vows to back U.S. dairy farmers in Canada trade spat | (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump promised on Tuesday to defend American dairy farmers who have been hurt by Canada’s protectionist trade practices, during a visit to the cheese-making state of Wisconsin. Canada’s dairy sector is protected by high tariffs on imported products and controls on domestic production as a means of supporting prices that farmers receive. It is frequently criticized by other dairy-producing countries. “We’re also going to stand up for our dairy farmers,” Trump said in Kenosha, Wisconsin. “Because in Canada some very unfair things have happened to our dairy farmers and others.” Trump did not detail his concerns, but promised his administration would call the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and demand an explanation. “It’s another typical one-sided deal against the United States and it’s not going to be happening for long,” Trump said. Trump also reiterated his threat to eliminate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico if it cannot be changed. U.S. dairy industry groups want Trump to urge Trudeau to halt a pricing policy that has disrupted some U.S. dairy exports and prioritize dairy market access in NAFTA renegotiation talks. “A WTO complaint would be a last resort because it would take five or six years to come to any resolution,” said Jaime Castaneda, senior vice president for the U.S. Dairy Export Council. Canada’s dairy farmers agreed last year to sell milk ingredients used for cheese-making to Canadian processors, which include Saputo Inc and Parmalat Canada Inc [PLTPRC.UL] at prices competitive with international rates. The pricing agreement was a response to growing U.S. exports of milk proteins that were not subject to Canada’s high tariffs. Canada’s envoy to Washington on Tuesday sent a letter to the governors of New York and Wisconsin - both major dairy states - saying U.S. producers’ problems stemmed from overproduction rather than Canadian policy. In the letter, released by Ottawa, ambassador David MacNaughton said Canada’s dairy industry was less protectionist than its U.S. counterpart. Industry groups in New Zealand, Australia, the European Union, Mexico and the United States complained the new prices for Canadian milk ingredients under-cut exports to Canada. “President Trump’s reaction is not surprising. He is defending his domestic dairy industry,” said Jacques Lefebvre, CEO of Dairy Processors Association of Canada. “Further communications with the Canadian government will broaden his perspective.” The Dairy Farmers of Canada said it was confident Ottawa would “continue to protect and defend” the dairy industry. | 0fake |
Hillary’s Response To Trump Tweeting He Won The Debate Is Pure Comedy Genius (TWEET) | It s not an exaggeration to say that Donald Trump has Narcissistic Personality Disorder. He has pretty much every characteristic to classify him as such:Sorry, not pretty much every characteristic absolutely every characteristic.So, when Trump tweeted out that he won the last presidential debate, one where Hillary Clinton clearly wiped the floor with his haystack of hair, this only confirmed his delusional thinking.Trump tweeted out: The results are in on the final debate and it is almost unanimous, I WON! Thank you, these are very exciting times. The results are in on the final debate and it is almost unanimous, I WON! Thank you, these are very exciting times. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 21, 2016Knowing that this is an utter fallacy, yet still not making a big deal of it, Hillary Clinton opted for responding with humor.Hillary s simple, yet very accurate and hilarious response? Where was this kind of comedy last night? Where was this kind of comedy last night? https://t.co/71JhLG55G5 Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 21, 2016Of course she s referring to the Al Smith dinner, where not only was Trump not funny, but actually got booed.Trump seems to need to live in the fantasy he s created in his own head where he s actually winning. However, reality will slap him in the face on November 8th when he loses, and in his own words, loses big league. Featured Photo by Justin Sullivan via Getty Images | 1real |
Man With History Of Mental Illness Was Able To Buy A Gun And Kill This Woman Who Told Him ‘No’ | Christopher O Kroley was a co-worker to Caroline Nosal. Christopher wanted Caroline as his girlfriend, but Caroline said no. Two days later, Christopher murdered her in the parking lot where they used to work, saying it was easy to kill her because she ruined his life.It wasn t just saying no one time. Caroline had to deal with harassment from Christopher over a period of time where he wouldn t take no for an answer. It got so bad that Caroline had to report his behavior to management, which in turn got Christopher suspended then eventually fired.Christopher admitted that he bought the gun right after he was fired, but waited a day before murdering Caroline because he wanted to practice using the gun. He shot her three times in the parking lot of the grocery store where they used to work together, when he found out her work schedule from a co-worker. After the murder, Christopher texted a co-worker, I killed Caroline and I m about to kill myself, so don t be surprised when I don t respond anymore. Madison police officer Michele Walker got onto the scene quickly though, and exchanged gunfire with the murderer, resulting in him being taken alive instead of letting him finish his plan.This entire situation could have been prevented, if we only could take our gun laws seriously. A former girlfriend of Christopher said that he had a history of severe mental health issues, and attempted suicide once before in 2014. There is no excuse for a person with a history of severe mental illness and a suicide attempt being able to procure a firearm so easily. Not only did he get one, but he got one as if he was buying a loaf of bread at the local mini-mart. While it s true that a mandatory waiting period may not have stopped this, it certainly couldn t have hurt anything.Republicans keep squawking that we have to address the mental health issues in this country, but their address it but cutting it is yielding no results. If this gun was purchased with a background check, the mental health history was not flagged in the report. This is courtesy of the NRA. They literally do everything they can to block the things for which they keep calling. Perhaps the real spot we need to improve mental health is among Republicans, and then it would trickle down from there.Featured image from Huffington Post | 1real |
DON’T LET HILLARY HIJACK THE FLINT WATER CRISIS: Audit Finds State Regulators At Fault | Hillary Clinton came to visit the citizens of Flint recently and then campaign commercials popped up claiming the Flint residents would be saved by Granny Clinton. It s what she does best pandering to the black community. She wants the people to believe that the Republicans have decided to poison the people of Flint and she s here to save the day. Well, we ve got the truth and we re hoping you ll spread it far and wide. This is about STATE regulators who dropped the ball when Flint switched from Detroit water to Flint:FLINT, Mich. (AP) Michigan environmental regulators made crucial errors as Flint began using a new drinking water source that would become contaminated with lead, auditors said Friday, as crews in the city started to dig up old pipes connecting water mains to homes.The report by the state auditor general found that staffers in the Department of Environmental Quality s drinking water office failed to order the city to treat its water with anti-corrosion chemicals as it switched to the Flint River in April 2014, but also said the rules they failed to heed may not be strong enough to protect the public.Flint had been using water from the Detroit system but made the change to save money, planning eventually to join a consortium that would have its own pipeline to the lake. The corrosive river water scraped lead from aging pipes that tainted water in some homes and schools, and has been blamed for elevated lead levels in some children s bloodstreams. If consumed, lead can cause developmental delays and learning disabilities.Crews on Friday dug up a lead service line in Flint and replaced it with a copper one at the home of an expectant couple. It marked the first residential lead pipe removal that is part of Mayor Karen Weaver s Fast Start initiative designed to replace all lead service lines in the city.Barry Richardson II, who lives in the home with his pregnant fiancee, thanked mayor and said he no longer will have to worry about the lead poisoning his water.Weaver said the work that started Friday will target lead service lines at homes in neighborhoods with the highest number of children under 6 years old, senior citizens, pregnant women, people with compromised immune systems and homes where water tests indicate high levels of lead at the tap.More than two dozen Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, also visited Flint on Friday to hear from families affected by the water crisis. Democratic Rep. Dan Kildee of Michigan said it let lawmakers hear about Flint s problems firsthand and kept up pressure for Congress to act on a stalled bill aimed at helping the city. Kildee criticized Senate Republicans for delaying the bill and noted that lawmakers who have visited Flint in recent weeks were all Democrats.Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, who has repeatedly apologized for the state s response, said it s taking longer than expected to locate all the lead pipes in the city but the state is working to find them.The DEQ has acknowledged that its staffers who worked with Flint misread federal regulations designed to prevent lead and copper pollution of drinking water supplies. Three DEQ employees, including the director, have lost their jobs.Director Keith Creagh said Friday the DEQ appreciates the auditor general s thorough review and is committed to developing and implementing process and program improvements to address the findings in the report. But the DEQ said the federal Lead and Copper Rule was ambiguous, and the auditors agreed, saying it and Michigan s Safe Water Drinking Act needed improvements. Snyder said he d also like to set a higher water quality standard than the federal rule.The audit said the federal rule does not require using indicators such as blood screenings to monitor for human exposure to lead. Sampling of drinking water that does take place relies mostly on samples from single-family residences, leaving out other locations such as schools and hospitals.Additionally, many samples are taken by residents, who might use incorrect procedures, the report said.Other DEQ shortcomings it noted included a failure to ensure that Flint drew enough water samples for testing from high-risk homes with lead pipes or fixtures. The agency said it would put in place appropriate audit procedures that will increase the confidence and accuracy of water supply submissions. DEQ also does not conduct surveillance visits, sanitary surveys and other monitoring within required time frames, a problem in places other than Flint, the report said. The department said 95 percent of sanitary surveys and 64 percent of surveillance visits meet required deadlines, exceeding goals set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.Via: KMOV | 1real |
Senate intelligence panel chief: Comey firing may slow Russia probe | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey could temporarily delay the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation into possible Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, its chairman said on Wednesday. Speaking to reporters, committee chairman Senator Richard Burr said he hoped to get the same level of cooperation from acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, but “an interruption in any of the access we have to documents and personnel would be harmful to our investigation. It wouldn’t ... preclude us from coming to a conclusion, but it might delay us.” | 0fake |
Veteran Doesn’t Want Your Thanks, He Wants You To Vote For Hillary | Marine Corps Veteran Frank Biggio appreciates your recognition of his services, but he doesn t want it anymore. This year is far too important. Instead, he says, he wants you to vote and he wants you to vote for Hillary Clinton.In an op-ed in Cleveland.com, Biggio outlined strong differences between the two major party candidates, and for him, Trump is unacceptable:One of our options includes a man who has glibly spoken about using nuclear weapons in Europe and the Middle East and seems unconcerned about nuclear proliferation by other countries simply because it is going to happen anyway; who fails to comprehend the deterrent effect of U.S. troops in South Korea against increasingly belligerent threats by North Korea; who would allow NATO member states on Russia s western border to fall to Kremlin aggressions unless they pay up; and who has denigrated the family of an Army captain killed in action while serving his country.This is a mercurial man who will have almost unchecked authority to put uniformed men and women in harm s way, but whose understanding of foreign affairs and military strategy is based almost solely on his instincts rather than analysis.Biggio goes on to say that he has served under many commanders and none of them have resorted to primitive and distracting antics like belligerent shouting or chest thumping. He also wrote about how every commander he s served under is humble with victories and takes responsibility for failures. Trump, he said, would never credit his team for success and he d never take blame for failure. Instead, Biggio compared Trump to the fictional Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny :Trump is no Eisenhower. He s more like the fictional Captain Queeg played by Humphrey Bogart in The Caine Mutiny paranoid, erratic, condescending and ultimately incompetent. There are many other apt analogies, but each is equally frightening when thinking of Trump directing the deployment of our military to today s ambiguous front lines, perhaps just to prove that he can.Biggio is concerned for the 2.2 million members of the military if Trump is elected:Will we elect a man who, without offering any clarity, boasts that he will be so good at the military, your head will spin, as if his high school graduation from a military academy validates that claim, and hopes that the electorate will simply trust that will be so? Whose behavior and public comments cause a collective group of 50 foreign policy experts, most of whom are from the Republican Party and have at one time sat in the White House Situation Room and contemplated the implications and repercussions of deploying our military, to publicly denounce him and the security and foreign policy positions he has proposed?Biggio agrees with many that Clinton is not without flaws (who is?), but he admires and respects her experience, her pragmatism and the fact that she knows when to be decisive and when to exhibit restraint:This Election Day, please thank me for my service by voting for Hillary Clinton as our president and commander in chief.We will, Major Biggio.Featured image via Cherie Cullen/Getty Images. | 1real |
Islamic State claims deadly attack on court in Libya's Misrata | TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Gunmen killed at least four people and wounded nearly 40 on Wednesday in a suicide attack on a court complex in the Libyan city of Misrata, officials and a witness said. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in a statement run by the group s Amaq news agency it had targeted one of the most prominent strongholds of Libya s U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA). The attack shows the enduring militant threat in Libya after a Misrata-led coalition under nominal GNA command battled for more than six months last year to oust Islamic State from its former stronghold in Sirte, about 230 km (140 miles) southeast of Misrata. Since then, militants have been trying to regroup in the desert south of Sirte. They have stepped up their presence in remote areas, though attacks in urban centers have been rare. Wednesday s attack was launched by several assailants who drove up to the complex in central Misrata in a black vehicle, a witness said. One of them blew himself up at the gate and the other two with Kalashnikovs opened fire at random, he said. Shooting could be heard all over the city center after the attack. The witness, who asked not to be named, said he believed the attackers had used rocket propelled grenades. The military alliance from Misrata that led the campaign in Sirte said two suicide attackers were involved in the operation, and that there had been an explosion after a gun battle lasting about 20 minutes. The attackers killed four and wounded 39, Misrata hospital said in a statement, listing names of victims. Two of the attackers blew themselves up and a third was killed during the gun battle, said a local security source, speaking on condition of anonymity. Bomb disposal experts also defused a booby-trapped car that had been packed with explosives to be used in the attack, he said. Misrata, a large commercial port about 190 km east of Tripoli, is one of Libya s major military power bases but the city itself has been largely immune from armed clashes and attacks in recent years. Dozens of Islamic State suspects are being held in the city. Libya slid into turmoil after a NATO-backed uprising that toppled long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi six years ago. It remains divided between loose political and military alliances based in the east and west, resulting in a security vacuum in the center of the country. As militants increased their activity in recent weeks to the south and east of Sirte, the United States launched two sets of air strikes against jihadist desert camps. The U.S. also provided air support for the Misrata-led campaign last year. | 0fake |
Thai junta tells Japan investors $45-billion development plan to go ahead | BANGKOK (Reuters) - A $45-billion plan to redevelop Thailand s industrial east will go ahead regardless of whoever takes power after elections, the military government told hundreds of Japanese investors on Monday. The ruling junta, faced with weak exports and sluggish domestic demand, has focused on promoting investment to help revive growth in Southeast Asia s second-largest economy, which lags regional peers. The military government hopes the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) development project, worth 1.5 trillion baht ($45 billion), will lift growth to about 5 percent a year by 2020, from the latest government estimate of 3.5 for 2017. Regardless of which government is in office, or when the election will be held, the EEC plan will continue, with certainty, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha told a gathering of 570 investors flown in from Japan. It is law, an act embedded within the 20-year national strategy, and supported by the national development plans. The junta has branded its 20-year strategy a guide for policymaking long after elections expected next year, at the earliest. The strategy has fueled concern among critics that the army plans to cement its grip on power, whoever wins an election. Japan was Thailand s biggest investor in 2016 with more than 57 billion baht ($1.7 billion), most of it going into the automobile industry. Thailand, known as the Detroit of Asia, is a regional base for some of the world s top carmakers, such as Toyota Motor Co. The government now wants to establish its own equivalent of Silicon Valley in the EEC. The digital innovation created there can go into supporting the automotive industry, Pichet Durongkaveroj, the Minister of Digital Economy, told Reuters. We aim to be a manufacturing hub for electric vehicles. | 0fake |
Bernie Sanders Just Received A Crucial Nevada Endorsement | Bernie Sanders just received a major endorsement in Nevada. The Clark County Black Caucus announced on Thursday that they have decided to endorse Sanders in the Democratic primary race. This comes just before the Nevada caucuses are held on Saturday.So cool:RT @DammitPete: @YvetteBWilliams @DJShakespeare @CCDBC @BernieSanders #FeelTheBern pic.twitter.com/wgWBTkewXO Yvette B. Williams (@YvetteBWilliams) February 19, 2016BernieSanders gives @CCDBC a shout out for CCBC endorsement. We believe in you & new deal for America. #FeelTheBern pic.twitter.com/r2qp6AXIzy CCBC-NV Black Caucus (@CCDBC) February 19, 2016Clark County is the largest county in Nevada. With both Sanders and Hillary Clinton working overtime to win over minority voters, this is a huge win for Sanders. Sanders has not polled as favorably among black voters as Clinton has in the past.The endorsement that came from the CCDC shows just how far Sanders has come in the past few months. Yvette Williams, chairwoman of the caucus said that the endorsement, wasn t a very difficult decision. The CCBC released a statement which in which Williams wrote that while Clinton is qualified, their choice to for who they want to be the next president of the United States is Sanders. Williams writes: With continuing unemployment disproportionately impacting Black Nevadans, over representation in prisons and the justice system, low performing schools, and lack of economic opportunity, we are looking for a President that will dismantle broken systems, and provide access to a new deal. A leader that will fight for wealth and racial equality, quality universal healthcare and lower prescription costs, debt free college education, jobs for American workers, restore and protect voting rights, and work to end racial injustice. Your commitment to getting big money out of politics and restoring our government back to its people is an important concern of CCBC members. Clinton once held a substantial lead over Sanders in Nevada. That lead is gone as polls show the two candidates tied in a dead heat. Endorsements from black intellectuals such as Michelle Alexander and Ta-Nehisi Coates (albeit tacit ones) have helped to shine a light on Sanders record for standing up for civil rights. They along with a strong backlash against several failed attempts by people to try and smear Sanders record, have helped the candidate.A win in Nevada would be a major boost to the Sanders campaign. Sanders lost to Clinton in Iowa by a hair, in what was a virtual tie. That coupled with a landslide win in New Hampshire and a win in Nevada would make Sanders the clear front runner of in the Democratic primary. That might change once again when it comes time for the South Carolina primary. Featured image from Gage Skidmore [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons | 1real |
Financial firms fear turmoil over fraught U.S. debt ceiling talks | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Financial firms are sounding alarm bells and dusting off contingency plans over fears an increasingly dysfunctional U.S. Congress may fail to reach a deal to raise the country’s debt limit. Several lobbyists, representing dozens of bankers, investors and credit rating agencies, told Reuters they are worried that dynamics at play in Washington – a bitterly divided Republican party and unpredictable President Donald Trump – could rule out a deal before an October deadline. Policymakers have vowed to provide disaster relief to areas affected by Hurricane Harvey, boosting hopes the debt limit battle could be included in an agreement on a legislative package. But the acrimonious atmosphere following Trump’s remarks about the Charlottesville protests this month, which cost him key backers in the business community and raised worries about his ability to broker a deal, still lingers. The debt ceiling is a legal cap on how much money the government can borrow to fund its budget deficits and meet debt obligations. Failure to raise it from the current $19.8 trillion could lead to default, sending shockwaves across global markets. “The stakes here are incredibly high. The economic impact associated with debt default is so immense,” said Rob Nichols, president and CEO of the American Bankers Association (ABA), one of the country’s key financial lobby groups. “We’re monitoring this extremely closely and we will mobilize as needed throughout September.” While leading lawmakers and the administration have pledged it will get done, some corners of financial markets are already on edge. After all, Goldman Sachs estimated that failure to lift the cap would force a government spending cut equal to between 3 and 4 percent of U.S. gross domestic product, which would have crippling economic consequences. Moreover, previous debt limit negotiations went down to the wire, and the now-notorious 2011 standoff led S&P Global Ratings to downgrade U.S. sovereign debt for the first time. The episode wiped $2.4 trillion off U.S. stocks. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), a trade group representing hundreds of financial firms, said it had reprised contingency plans drawn-up during the previous showdowns and was working with firms to prepare for extreme volatility in the event of a default. These plans aim to ensure firms have enough technology capacity, staff and cash to handle high trading volumes. A separate plan being reviewed by another trade organization, the Treasury Market Practices Group (TMPG), includes protocols for trading in defaulted Treasuries, according to information on its website. SIFMA is also planning for that. “We want to make sure we’re on the same page and prepared, should anything happen,” said Robert Toomey, SIFMA’s managing director and associate counsel. “We believe this will get done, but we still have to prepare for it notwithstanding.” A spokesman for the TMPG was not immediately available for comment. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has urged Congress to raise the cap by Sept. 29 and said last week he was “100 percent confident” this would happen. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan have also promised the United States would not default But Wall Street players, who are highly exposed to any potential market mayhem, are worried Mnuchin and McConnell will not be able to get a divided Republican party to play ball. Many conservative Republicans have indicated they will only vote for a debt limit bill that contains promises of federal spending cuts, meaning Trump, Mnuchin and McConnell will likely need Democrat votes to get the bill through. The president is also seen as a wild card after he failed to denounce Nazi sympathizers at protests in Charlottesville. This, combined with his attacks on members of his own party, has raised questions over Trump’s ability to build consensus on the debt limit, one bank lobbyist said. “Everyone is very worried,” he added. Trump last week tweeted that the ceiling was “now a mess” blaming Ryan and McConnell. “He took the two people he has to count on for this, and smack[ed] them around. It’s going to make it harder,” said Steve Bell, a former Republican director of the Senate Budget Committee and now director at the Bipartisan Policy Center, referring to Trump’s tweet. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Industry executives also point to an understaffed Treasury, which has yet to hold meetings with banks and investors - a tactic used by the Obama administration to calm Wall Street jitters. Lobbyists said they expected to hear from the administration after Labor Day, when they would also attempt to persuade skeptics in Congress to pass the limit. “Treasury routinely reaches out to market participants to foster a steady dialogue on key issues, including the debt limit,” said a Treasury spokesperson. “The government intends to pay its debts.” | 0fake |
Trump tells Netanyahu he would recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Sunday told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that if elected, the United States would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the campaign said, marking a potential dramatic shift in U.S. policy. During the meeting that lasted more than an hour at Trump Tower in New York, Trump told Netanyahu that under his administration, the United States would “recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the State of Israel.” While Israel calls Jerusalem its capital, few other countries accept that, including the United States. Most nations maintain embassies in Tel Aviv. Palestinians want East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in a 1967 war, as capital of the state they aim to establish alongside Israel in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Netanyahu held a separate meeting later on Sunday that lasted just under an hour with Democrat Hillary Clinton, Trump’s rival in the Nov. 8 U.S. election. Clinton emphasized her commitment to the U.S.-Israel relationship and her plan to take the relationship to the next level, according to a statement from her campaign. She also talked about her commitment to a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict “that guarantees Israel’s future as a secure and democratic Jewish state with recognized borders and provides the Palestinians with independence, sovereignty, and dignity,” according to the statement. “Secretary Clinton reaffirmed her opposition to any attempt by outside parties to impose a solution, including by the U.N. Security Council,” the statement said. During the meeting with Trump, the Republican candidate’s campaign said he agreed with Netanyahu that peace in the Middle East could only be achieved when “the Palestinians renounce hatred and violence and accept Israel as a Jewish State.” The Trump campaign said he and Netanyahu discussed “at length” Israel’s border fence, cited by Trump in reference to his own controversial immigration policies, which include building a wall on the U.S.- Mexico border and temporarily banning Muslims from entering the country. Other regional issues, including the fight against Islamic State, U.S. military assistance to Israel - “an excellent investment” - and the Iran nuclear deal, which both parties have criticized, were also discussed. | 0fake |
COLLEGE SOCIALIST GROUP Incites Children To Yell: “Kill Donald Trump!” [VIDEO] | The Knights for Socialism held an event where they allowed students to bash Pinatas with the faces of President Donald J. Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and presidential advisor Steve Bannon.East Orlando Post obtained exclusive footage from UCF College Republican Douglas Mactye, which includes disturbing content involving an elementary to middle school aged student yelling Kill Trump. The young children were being encouraged to hit the Pinatas by members of the Knights for Socialism for the duration. The Killl Trump segment can be seen during the ninth minute of the video:The footage also shows a bearded man wearing an Antifa International sweatshirt, presumably monitoring the event for the Knights for Socialism. Antifa has been responsible for violent Anti-Trump riots across the country that have resulted in millions of dollars in damage, vicious beatings of Trump supporters, and even shutting down Milo Yiannopoulos campus talk at Berkeley.In an interview to campus based mainstream news source Knight News, Knights for Socialism president Dylan J. Tyer claimed the event was not negative at all and completely welcoming. There s been no negativity by any means but definitely a lot of interest and a lot of good conversations with people. However, Tyer is clearly seen in our exclusive footage yelling about Beating Pete Sessions face in, among other violent profanities.Justin York, a UCF alumnus who once served as Chairman of the UCF College Republicans labeled the event as extremely hypocritical and a red flag. I think it is shocking that the university would permit a group of students to hang pinata-type effigies of President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to be beaten and battered.Student takes a whack @realDonaldTrump pi ata pic.twitter.com/ckQocMgwHU UCF Knight News (@UCFKnightNews) February 10, 2017 Video, captured by the East Orlando Post, documents a group of children showing up to the event and asking if they can hit the pi atas and if they can also kill Trump.Read more: DAILY CALLER | 1real |
Pope tells web companies: use profits to protect children | VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis told executives of leading internet companies on Friday to use their great profits to defend children from sexual exploitation and other dangers lurking online. The pontiff, speaking at a conference in Rome, said the Catholic Church needed to accept responsibility before God, victims and public opinion for its own sex abuse scandals, but wanted to share the lessons it had learned. Speaking to participants including representatives from Facebook and Microsoft, he said social media businesses had to do more than set up filters and algorithms to block harmful content. The 80-year-old pope spoke out against the spread of extreme pornography, the dangers of so-called sexting between young people and between adults and children, and cyber bullying, calling it a true form of moral and physical attack . He said heinous, illicit activities such as the commissioning and live viewing of rape and violence against minors via the so-called Dark Web had to be stopped. The Church-organized conference - called Child Dignity in the Digital World - was held two months after a monsignor was recalled from the Vatican s Washington embassy in August after the U.S. State Department said he may have violated child pornography laws. Church officials have been caught up in a series of scandals around the world - two years ago, the Vatican put its former ambassador to the Dominican Republic, an archbishop, on trial for child sex offences. He died before a verdict was reached. The conference, held at a pontifical university in Rome, brought together experts from digital companies, law enforcement, medicine and academia to discuss online bullying, pornography and the preying on children by pedophiles. The pope said social media businesses had to invest a fair portion of their great profits to protect impressionable minds . He said it would be a mistake to think that automatic technical solutions, filters devised by ever more refined algorithms in order to identify and block the spread of abusive and harmful images, are sufficient to deal with these problems . Businesses also had to address the broader ethical concerns associated with the growth of technology, rejecting the concept of an ideological and mythical vision of the net as a realm of unlimited freedom . He said that while the digital revolution had enormous advantages, we rightly wonder if we are capable of guiding the processes we ourselves have set in motion, whether they might be escaping our grasp . The pope acknowledged the Church s own failures in providing for the protection of children: extremely grave facts have come to light, for which we have to accept our responsibility before God, before the victims and before public opinion . Because of skills gained in the process of conversion and purification, he said the Church felt especially bound to work strenuously and with foresight for the protection of minors and their dignity . Since the Church s scandals exploded around the world about 20 years ago, it has strived to put in to place so-called best practices to protect children. It has defrocked priests, worked with local police and the pope has declared a zero tolerance where clerics could not appeal a conviction on technical grounds. But victim s groups say the Vatican and the pope have not gone far enough, particularly in making bishops accountable for covering up or mishandling cases of child abuse. A commission Francis set up in 2014 to advise him on how to root out sexual abuse has been hit by defections by two key members who lamented lack of progress and cooperation from Vatican officials. The Rome conference s 13-point Declaration of Rome called on politicians, religious leaders, law enforcement organizations to help build a global awareness of the need to protect children from exploitation via the internet. | 0fake |
Paris Attack Raises New Security Concerns Over Olympics - Breitbart | PARIS (AP) — On a day when the Paris bid committee was supposed to show its best to the world, a knife attack on a solider raised more security questions about the French capital’s capacity to host the 2024 Olympics in a safe atmosphere. [The news of Friday’s attack outside the Louvre Museum broke hours before bid officials hosted a ceremony near the Eiffel Tower to coincide with the final submission of their dossier to the International Olympic Committee. The assault, the latest in a wave of attacks that has left more than 200 people dead in the country over the past two years, again highlighted the threat French officials say hangs over the country. Bid officials, however, claim Paris has the experience needed to organize and protect major events if it gets the games, citing soccer’s European Championship last year as an example despite troubles caused by hooligans in Marseille. Speaking outside the Louvre, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who is set to attend the ceremony alongside Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, athletes and other bid leaders later Friday, said all major cities around the globe are under threat. “In a context of a terror threat hanging over all big cities in the world, we witnessed the efficiency and the relevance of the security measures put in place in Paris,” Hidalgo said. Paris, which has not hosted the Olympics since the 1924 Games, is competing against Budapest and Los Angeles. The International Olympic Committee will choose the host city in September. IOC President Thomas Bach was reassuring during a visit to Paris last year, saying that France showed it can deal with security challenges during the European Championship. | 0fake |
The Tao of Matthew McConaughey - The New York Times | Matthew McConaughey has two movies out this month. In one, he gives voice to an animated koala who organizes a singing contest. In the other, he plays a schlubby dreamer turned jungle adventurer. The details are not important. The main thing is, the movies will keep him in the public eye — talk shows, awards ceremonies, magazine covers — continuing the McConnaissance that went into effect when, in a move, he gave up for more challenging fare. But if you think of him as a mere movie star, you’re wrong. His work with the directors Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan, Richard Linklater and Steven Soderbergh has served to provide him cover. Mr. McConaughey has really been a guru all along. Over a period of more than 20 years, almost unnoticed, he has been building a religion of sorts. Call it the Tao of Matthew McConaughey. He preaches to his flock largely through the media of men’s magazines and television commercials. Take the Lincoln campaign. Mr. McConaughey didn’t need a free car when he began pitching the Lincoln MKC in 2014. What he did need was a platform to get his message across. So while other pitchmen (like Jon Hamm, George Clooney and Jeff Bridges) play the game with just enough enthusiasm to earn the huge paychecks, Mr. McConaughey goes deep. “Sometimes you gotta go back to actually move forward,” he says in an early Lincoln ad while cruising a dark empty freeway. “And I don’t mean going back to reminisce or chase ghosts. I mean go back to see where you came from, where you been, how you got here. ” Perhaps knowing we are weak of spirit and doubting his words, he adds reassuringly: “I know there are those that say you can’t go back. Yes, you can. You just have to look in the right place. ” His work with Lincoln made him a hot enough property in the advertising industry that Wild Turkey signed him not only as the face of its brand but also as the creative director for a new series of commercials. His first spot, “The Journey Begins,” is set, no surprise, in a bar. The lights are low. The mood is mellow. We hear Mr. McConaughey’s voice: “We’re not in a rush to be most popular. ” Pause. “Not in a rush not to be. ” We follow an elegant woman carrying a glass of Wild Turkey deeper into the space. Suddenly, there is an blast of a tuba. A bar that was quiet only seconds earlier is now a wild roadhouse, filled with the sounds of the Hot 8 Brass Band, whose members mix freely with twirling dancers, and we are reminded that a tenet of the McConaughey worldview is to stay loose, to remain open to any sudden change. Once we have grown accustomed to the new surroundings, the woman leaves the bar behind for the outdoors. The sun is setting behind distant peaks. Mr. McConaughey has led us, in mere seconds, from the noisy pleasures of civilization to the tranquillity of nature. “Real bourbon, no apologies,” he says in the . “If it’s for you, you’ll know. ” This would seem to be a natural ending. But Mr. McConaughey has one more twist in store: A bright moon appears in a night sky, we hear sweet music, and guess who is sitting at a grand piano situated, incongruously, on an expanse of grass? Mr. McConaughey himself, unshaven, surrounded by revelers. Through his person, it seems, the untamed and the more refined have come together in a harmonious whole. “Ahhhhh,” he says. “Thank you!” The commercial is a distillation of McConaugheyism disguised as an enticement to drink. Listen to your own inner tune. Go where it takes you. The good things you discover along the way, you were meant to discover. Tomorrow’s hangover? You were meant to have that, too. Readers of men’s magazines are often seeking a guide, a mentor, a hip professor. And Mr. McConaughey comes through in one cover story after another. Not only does he have pectorals that look like “a pair of toasted dinner rolls,” as GQ once wrote, but also a questing mind that cannot be tamed. “Every time you think you’ve reached the end of that long street, you slip around the edge, past that stopping point,” he said in Esquire in 2011. “And at the end of your life, all the things you thought were periods, they turn out to be commas. There was never a full stop to any of it. ” In a 2012 Men’s Journal interview, he tackled the eternal question of fate versus free will: “Everything we do in life is part of a plan. Sometimes you learn what that plan is today, sometimes you learn about it tomorrow and sometimes it takes you years to figure out. ” Lest he seem too New he added a dollop of Ayn Rand to his philosophical brew in a 2013 GQ profile: “I’m a fan of the word ‘selfish,’” he said. “‘Selfish’ has always gotten a bad rap. You should do for you. ” He does not shy away from the charged subject of masculinity. “Man is never more masculine than after the birth of his first child,” he said in his most recent Esquire . “I don’t mean in a macho way. I mean in terms of giving a man strength. ” It goes down easy because Mr. McConaughey remains something of a good ol’ boy who likes his Shiner Bock and comped tickets at the line. A foundational part of his myth is the 1999 night when he was booked on a charge of suspected marijuana possession after he was arrested at his home in Austin, Tex. where he was dancing naked and playing the bongos at 3 a. m. (Who knew joy was against the law?) Years later, in an Esquire interview, he was calling himself “spiritual,” only to correct himself and say that the word spiritual was “a dodge. ” “I’m religious,” he said. “I like that word. You can use it. ” In his 2014 Oscar acceptance speech, he thanked God explicitly, saying, “He has shown me that it’s a scientific fact that gratitude reciprocates. ” That was before he said his hero is himself, Matthew McConaughey, but 10 years in the future, so that there is always “somebody to keep on chasing. ” His the first book he says he read cover to cover, is “The Greatest Salesman in the World” by Og Mandino. It tells the tale of 10 ancient scrolls and a trader named Hafid, who reveals their wisdom. Like all sages, Mr. McConaughey can be hard to follow. Confronted with his words, you may feel like Woody Harrelson’s character in “True Detective,” trapped in a car as Mr. McConaughey’s Rust Cohle speaks in riddles. But for all its mystery, McConaugheyism is not a hair shirt religion. In fact, for a number of years now, as his fans and friends have noticed, it has decreed avoiding shirts whenever possible. “I worked hard to live in Malibu, California,” he told GQ in 2014. “I’m going to the beach! I’m gonna go surfing! No, I don’t want to wear a shirt. I want to get a tan and feel the sun on my bones. ” He’s not about abnegating life’s pleasures. He likes the Dolce Gabbana suits, the Lincolns, the evening glass of bourbon. Trust the universe and it will provide. That seems fundamental to the McConaughey way. He has been saying it one way or another since he burst onto the scene in 1993 as Wooderson in “Dazed and Confused. ” It is said that he improvised Wooderson’s famous line, “Just keep livin’. ” He has since adopted it as a motto and even named his foundation after it. He was a guru from the . A year before the film’s release, he wandered into the bar of the Hyatt Regency Austin, where he happened to meet a producer. The chance encounter helped win him the role in “Dazed and Confused,” which led to his breakout in “A Time to Kill. ” Soon enough, Vanity Fair was hailing him as the next Paul Newman. “Why did I go to the bar?” he asked a writer from The Austin Chronicle in 1995. “Why did I stay there late that night? Why did this bartender with the same name as me tell me there was a producer in the bar who was working on a movie?” Why did any of us go into that bar? In the McConaughey belief system, it was destiny. He went into that bar in 1992 so that, in 2015, he could sit on a stage inside the University of Houston’s football stadium and offer the graduating class (and all of us, via YouTube) this utterance: “If there’s one thing that you can depend on people being, it’s people. ” Since he joined with Lincoln in 2014, Mr. McConaughey has dispensed many such nuggets of wisdom. But with the latest Lincoln commercial, which has no he has gone deeper into the mystic. This is messaging, and it presents us with a new figure: Silent McConaughey. Like certain Buddhist monks, like Thomas Merton and the Trappists, like Kramer on Season 9 of “Seinfeld,” Mr. McConaughey seems to be reaching for enlightenment through quietude. The ad, titled “Midnight” and directed by J. C. Chandor, opens at night, inside a modern home in the Hollywood Hills with glass walls and jetliner views. Mr. McConaughey, well groomed in a dark suit, looks as if he is back from a catered affair. He walks with purpose through the living room, toward a patio with an infinity pool. We see mountains. A sky full of glowing stars. A twinkling metropolis below. Mr. McConaughey gazes at the paradise he has won for himself. It seems he wants us, his followers, to have it, too. He stops at the edge of the pool. He turns around slowly. Then there is a cut to another McConaughey, who is driving alone at night through a long tunnel. Then we return to the pool. Back to the tunnel. And back to the pool. Is the tunnel scene a flashback to a McConaughey who existed at an earlier moment that same night? Is it perhaps a flash forward to a future McConaughey, similar to the one he chases but is never able to catch? Or do the two McConaugheys exist simultaneously, like Schrödinger’s cat? Tight shot of Mr. McConaughey, still fully clothed, at the pool’s edge. He smiles. What does it mean? He springs into a reverse back dive, and he breaks the water’s surface just as the McConaughey at the wheel of the Lincoln emerges from the tunnel and speeds toward the horizon. In this chaotic world, he seems to be telling us, find a moment to be still. Reflect. But don’t get so caught up in reflection that you cannot make a bold, blind leap of faith — into the water, toward the horizon. Mr. McConaughey has been speaking his message long enough. His followers know it by heart. Now he has gone beyond words. | 0fake |
Andrea Tantaros Dares Fox News To Take Lie Detector Test Over Sexual Harassment Allegations | Andrea Tantaros is ramping up the pressure on her former employers and colleagues to answer for their behavior and face the consequences.Earlier this month, the former Fox host declared war on the conservative network by slapping them with a sexual harassment lawsuit which names Bill O Reilly among other such as Roger Ailes and Bill Shine.According to the lawsuit, Fox News masquerades as a defender of traditional family values, but behind the scenes, it operates like a sex-fueled, Playboy Mansion-like cult, steeped in intimidation, indecency and misogyny. Indeed, Tantaros says she was never allowed to wear pants on set and that Ailes seriously creeped her out on multiple occasions by obsessing with her legs and asking her to spin around for him so he could ogle her. When refused to comply with his outrageous demand he retaliated by firing her from The Five and placed her on a lower rated show.Top executives attempted to pay Tantaros off if she would drop her allegations but she turned the offer down.Fox News has denied the allegations, of course, but that isn t stopping Tantaros from charging ahead.Buzzfeed reports that Tantaros is upping the ante by daring Fox News personnel to take a lie detector test and offered to take one in return so that it can be determined who is telling the truth and who is lying.It s a brilliant move on Tantaros part. If Fox declines it can be assumed that they have something to hide, like guilt. It would also vindicate Tantaros and give further credence to her allegations.Tantaros even released the questions she wants certain Fox News personnel to answer.For instance, a series of questions for Roger Ailes will seek to determine if he did, in fact, say inappropriate things to Tantaros in the workplace or if he ever retaliated against her for refusing his advances.Here s an image of the questions via Buzzfeed Editor Kyle Blaine.A series of question posed to Ailes replacement Bill Shine includes whether or not he knew about Tantaros complaints about Ailes and whether or not someone within the company arranged for negative comments to be spread about her on social media.Questions for Fox News Executive Vice President Dianne Brandi inquire if she had knowledge of Tantaros complaints about the hostile working environment and if Fox has paid money to more than six women to settle sexual harassment suits.And finally, questions for Irena Briganti and Bill O Reilly include whether Briganti helped Ailes retaliate against Tantaros and whether O Reilly hit on her and made inappropriate comments about her.Tantaros lawyers go on to state that an innocent person would jump at the chance for this kind of vindication and added that their client would not risk offering this proposal if she were not telling the truth. To put it bluntly, Andrea Tantaros is taking her feud with Fox News to whole new level and these questions are damning all on their own without Fox answering any of them.For years, Fox News treated women like powerless sex objects. Now they are finding out just how powerful women can be, especially when they are pissed off about being treated like shit.Featured image via screenshot | 1real |
Hillary Clinton makes surprise appearance at New York film panel | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton, who until recently had avoided the spotlight in the wake of her election defeat in November, made a surprise appearance at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday as a panelist to discuss illegal elephant poaching. The discussion followed the premiere of Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow’s virtual reality documentary “The Protectors: Walk in the Rangers’ Shoes.” The eight-minute film allows viewers to experience what it is like to work as a park ranger trying to save elephants in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “We’ve got to bust this market,” Clinton said of the global ivory trade. The unexpected public appearance on Earth Day was one of several Clinton has made recently, following a period of silence after the former Democratic presidential candidate lost the November election to President Donald Trump. Clinton said she first began focusing on the “horrific slaughter” of elephants when she was secretary of state and later helped launch an anti-poaching initiative at her family’s nonprofit Clinton Global Initiative. More than 30,000 elephants are killed by poachers every year in Africa. In addition to endangering vulnerable elephant populations, trafficking also provides financial support to extremist militant groups, Clinton said. “When we were looking at this, we thought there were three overriding goals: stop the killing, stop the trafficking and stop the demand,” she said. While China is the world’s biggest market for illegal ivory, the United States ranks No. 2, Clinton said, requiring Americans to take a leading role in fighting elephant poaching. Clinton also mentioned the March for Science, which took place in Washington and other cities around the world earlier on Saturday. The Earth Day event was in effect a protest against what critics say has been the Trump administration’s disregard for evidence-based knowledge and research. “Here it is, Earth Day, and we are marching on behalf of science,” Clinton said to applause in the theater. In early April, Clinton granted her first interview since her defeat by Trump, breaking her silence at the Women in the World Summit in New York. In front of a live audience, she voiced support for U.S. bombing raids on Syrian airfields and said Russian interference in the presidential election was a theft more damaging than Watergate. | 0fake |
Fox News says Google to partner in Jan. 28 Iowa Republican debate | (Reuters) - Fox News Channel said on Thursday it would join with Google to host the Republican presidential primary debate to be held on Jan. 28 in Des Moines, Iowa. The debate will incorporate real-time Google trends and data to determine questions for the candidates and viewers will be able to interact with the debate on the Google Trends home page, Fox News Channel said in a statement. | 0fake |
U.S. defense chief urges Pakistan to redouble efforts against militants | ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis met Pakistan’s civilian and military leaders on Monday and urged them to “redouble” their efforts to rein in militants accused of using the country as a base to carry out attacks in neighboring Afghanistan. Mattis, on a one-day visit to Pakistan, said the South Asian nation had made progress in the fight against militancy inside its borders but needed to make more. More than 100 days since U.S. President Donald Trump announced a South Asia strategy that calls for a firmer line toward Islamabad, U.S. officials and analysts say there has been only limited success and it is not clear how progress will be made. U.S. officials have long been frustrated by what they see as Pakistan’s reluctance to act against groups such as the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network that they believe exploit safe haven on Pakistani soil to launch attacks in Afghanistan. “The Secretary reiterated that Pakistan must redouble its efforts to confront militants and terrorists operating within the country,” the Pentagon said in a statement. Mattis, who visited Pakistan for the first time as defense secretary, said before the trip that the goal for his meetings with Pakistani officials would be to find “common ground”. In his discussion with Mattis, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said the two allies shared objectives. “We’re committed (to) the war against terror,” he said. “Nobody wants peace in Afghanistan more than Pakistan.” Mattis also met with high-ranking officials from Pakistan’s powerful military, including army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Lieutenant-General Naveed Mukhtar, the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency that U.S. officials say has links with Haqqani and Taliban militants. A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mattis’ conversations had been “straightforward” and specific. The official said one of the topics of conversation was getting Pakistan to help bring the Taliban to the negotiating table In August, Trump outlined a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan, chastising Pakistan over its alleged support for Afghan militants. But beyond that, the Trump administration has done little to articulate its strategy, experts say. U.S. officials say they have not seen a change in Pakistan’s support for militants, despite visits by senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. “We have been very direct and very clear with the Pakistanis ... we have not seen those changes implemented yet,” General John Nicholson, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan, said last week. Pakistani officials have pushed back on the U.S. accusations and say they have done a great deal to help the United States in tracking down militants. U.S. official expressed hope relations could improve after a U.S.-Canadian couple kidnapped in Afghanistan were freed in Pakistan in October with their three children. While the Trump administration has used tougher words with Pakistan, it is has yet to change Islamabad’s calculus. Some experts say the United States loses clout in Pakistan when it is seen as bullying. While Mattis traveled to the region earlier this year, he did not stop in Pakistan, but visited its arch rival, India, a relationship that has grown under the Trump administration. “There is not an effective stick anymore because Pakistan doesn’t really care about U.S aid, it has been dwindling anyway and it is getting the money it needs elsewhere ... treat it with respect and actually reward it when it does do something good,” said Madiha Afzal, with the Brookings Institution. Mattis’ brief visit to Islamabad comes a week after a hardline Pakistani Islamist group called off nationwide protests after the government met its demand that a minister accused of blasphemy resign. Separately, a Pakistani Islamist accused of masterminding a bloody 2008 assault in the Indian city of Mumbai was freed from house arrest. The White House said the release could have repercussions for U.S.-Pakistan relations. “I think for Pakistan, the timing is very bad. There is talk about progress being made against extremists and here you have a situation where religious hardliners have basically been handed everything they wanted on a silver platter,” said Michael Kugelman, with the Woodrow Wilson think tank in Washington. | 0fake |
Trump considering outgoing Senator Ayotte for defense secretary: Washington Post | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is considering outgoing Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire for the post of defense secretary, the Washington Post reported on Friday, citing two sources familiar with the discussions. Other people on the list include retired Army Lieutenant General Joseph “Keith” Kellogg, former Defense Intelligence Agency Director General Mike Flynn and Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the Post said. | 0fake |
Trump fills top jobs for his administration | (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Thursday he would name retired Marine Corps General James Mattis as defense secretary. The following is a list of Republican Trump’s selections for top jobs in his administration. All the posts but that of national security adviser require Senate confirmation: Mattis is a retired Marine Corps general known for his tough talk, distrust of Iran and battlefield experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. A former leader of Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East and South Asia, Mattis, 66, is known by many U.S. forces by his nickname “Mad Dog.” He was once rebuked for saying in 2005: “It’s fun to shoot some people.” Mnuchin, 53, is a relatively little-known but successful private equity investor, hedge fund manager and Hollywood financier who spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs before leaving in 2002. He assembled an investor group to buy a failed California mortgage lender in 2009, rebranded it as OneWest Bank and built it into Southern California’s largest bank. The bank came under fire for its foreclosure practices as housing advocacy groups accused it of being too quick to foreclose on struggling homeowners. Ross, 78, heads the private equity firm W.L. Ross & Co. His net worth was pegged by Forbes at about $2.9 billion. A staunch supporter of Trump and an economic adviser, Ross has helped shape the Trump campaign’s views on trade policy. He blames the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, which entered into force in 1994, and the 2001 entry of China into the World Trade Organization for causing massive U.S. factory job losses. Chao, 63, was labor secretary under President George W. Bush for eight years and the first Asian-American woman to hold a Cabinet position. Chao is a director at Ingersoll Rand, News Corp and Vulcan Materials Company. She is married to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: U.S. REPRESENTATIVE TOM PRICE Price, 62, is an orthopedic surgeon who heads the House of Representatives’ Budget Committee. A representative from Georgia since 2005, Price has criticized Obamacare and has championed a plan of tax credits, expanded health savings accounts and lawsuit reforms to replace it. He is opposed to abortion. U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: GOVERNOR NIKKI HALEY Haley, a 44-year-old Republican, has been governor of South Carolina since 2011 and has little experience in foreign policy or the federal government. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley led a successful push last year to remove the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the South Carolina state capitol after the killing of nine black churchgoers in Charleston by a white gunman. DeVos, 58, is a billionaire Republican donor, a former chair of the Michigan Republican Party and an advocate for the privatization of education. As chair of the American Federation for Children, she has pushed at the state level for vouchers that families can use to send their children to private schools and for the expansion of charter schools. [L1N1DO0KC] Sessions, 69, was the first U.S. senator to endorse Trump’s presidential bid and has been a close ally since. The son of a country-store owner, the senator from Alabama and former federal prosecutor has long taken a tough stance on illegal immigration, opposing any path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: RETIRED LIEUTENANT GENERAL MICHAEL FLYNN Flynn, 57, was an early supporter of Trump and serves as vice chairman on his transition team. He began his U.S. Army career in 1981 and served deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq. Flynn became head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2012 under President Barack Obama, but retired a year earlier than expected, according to media reports, and became a fierce critic of Obama’s foreign policy. Pompeo, 52, is a third-term congressman from Kansas who serves on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, which oversees the CIA, National Security Agency and cyber security. A retired Army officer and Harvard Law School graduate, Pompeo supports the U.S. government’s sweeping collection of Americans’ communications data and wants to scrap the nuclear deal with Iran. | 0fake |
BOOM! ACTOR JAMES WOODS Has Hilarious Response To Angry Feminist MSNBC Host’s Criticism Of Ivanka’s “Girly” Dress | The hate for the Trump family by the defeated liberal press is visceral MSNBC political analyst Joan Walsh, a self-proclaimed feminist, questioned what message Ivanka Trump was trying to send at the G20 Summit by wearing a pink girly dress with bows.Walsh suggested that the dress Trump chose when sitting in for her father at the summit made her look like property and undermined her own value. I don t mean to sound sexist, it can be dangerous to comment on what women wear, but the fact that she sat in for her father in a dress that was so incredibly ornamental was such a contradiction, Walsh said. In patriarchal, authoritarian societies, daughters have great value. They are property. I think it s really pretty frightening, she continued. It s a pink dress with big bows on the elbows that s not a dress that s made for work. MSNBC host Thomas Roberts pushed back and asked if Walsh was suggesting that women can not dress in a feminine manner and be taken seriously. You can be a feminist and be girly, we all have our girly days, but showing up, taking your father s seat in a pink dress with big bows on the sleeves is a really interesting message, Walsh argued. Daily Caller Ivanka Trump-Kushner can be seen wearing the beautiful pink dress in the tweet below, that MSNBC host Joan Walsh criticized. Pictured from left to right: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, President Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.MSNBC's "diva of snark" Joan Walsh trashed Ivanka's 'girly dress', huh? Any wonder MSNBC ranks 13th in its time slot? pic.twitter.com/C57210HHWP CAP (@CAP741776) July 16, 2017Conservative actor James Woods didn t waste any time responding to the idiocy of the remarks made by the feminazi MSNBC host. Wood s killed two birds with one stone, as he mocked the MSNBC host while also mocking the always masculine style of open-borders German Chancellor Angela Merkel.I mean, you only notice it because she's surrounded by a bunch of guys https://t.co/1r8bB2WOhM James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) July 17, 2017 | 1real |
White House says Trump, Merkel 'get along very well' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump views Germany as an important U.S. ally and gets along very well with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the White House said on Tuesday. Speaking at a news briefing after Trump intensified a dispute with Germany by calling Berlin’s trade and spending policies “very bad,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said: “They get along very well. He has a lot of respect for her. ... And he views not just Germany but the rest of Europe as an important American ally.” | 0fake |
BREAKING: White House Abandons TPP & TTIP | BREAKING: White House Abandons TPP & TTIP Nov 11, 2016 5 0
In a major victory for several nations and millions of people around the world, the White House has announced moments ago that Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress has said that they won’t try to advance the Trans Pacific Partnership as they know a Trump administration will be completely opposed to it. This makes the TPP, a trade agreement that has been protested on a global scale, now effectively dead in the water. As the Wall Street Journal reports :
The failure to pass what is by far the biggest trade agreement in more than a decade is abitter defeat for Mr. Obama, whose belated but fervent support for freer trade divided his party and complicated the campaign of Mrs. Clinton. The TPP’s collapse also dents American prestige in the region at a time when China is flexing its economic and military muscle. Protesters in front of the White House.
Donald Trump has voiced his resistance to the TPP and laid out in his plan for his first 100 days in office to include saying no to trade deals like the TPP and TTIP. For many, it is believed such trade deals would strongly and negatively impact the workforce in America.
In addition to the TPP being dropped by the White House today, the TTIP suffered an effective defeat as well.
As reported by Bloomberg , European Union Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said that talks between the U.S. and EU would be put on “indefinite hold” because of Trump’s victory in the election.
“There will be a natural pause, of course, while we wait for the next administration; then, for quite some time TTIP will probably be in the freezer. Then what happens when it’s defrosted, I think we will need to wait and see. I don’t see the resumption of any TTIP negotiation in quite a long time. Whether it makes sense to have new rounds — well probably not.”
The U.S and EU have been working on the TTIP for three years which would have eliminated tariffs on goods, enlarged service markets and bolstered regulatory cooperation. Germany’s Angela Merkel and Barack Obama have both called the TTIP a “policy priority.”
As The Guardian has reported , both trade agreements have been clouded in secrecy and even the contents of such deals were not easily allowed to be revealed to Congress:
“Yet that doesn’t seem to be the position of the “most transparent administration ever”. While lobbyists are given a free hand to help write the deals, even members of legislative bodies have to jump through absurd hoops just to lay eyes on the document. Draconian restrictions were put on US members of Congress if they wanted to view TPP while it was in negotiation, so much so that they were even threatened with prosecution if they talked about it. And Time magazine just reported on what Katja Kipping, a member of German parliament, had to do to see the latest version of TTIP. This included agreeing to a restricted reading time of just two hours, having a guard breathing down her neck the entire time and not sharing the contents of the agreement with anyone.”
Though Donald Trump has voiced strong opposition to these deals, we will now wait and see if he makes good on his words. It appears though that the U.S. and EU have all but given up on the TPP and TTIP. Share the good news!
Lance Schuttler graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in Health Science and does health coaching through his website Orgonlight Health . You can follow the Orgonlight Health facebook page or visit the website for more information and other inspiring articles. | 1real |
Mexico sees signs of U.S. change on wall payment | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - There are signs the U.S. government is taking a more flexible view of how to pay for its planned border wall with Mexico, and new meetings to craft future bilateral relations could take place soon, a top Mexican official said on Monday. Those ties were shaken last week when a planned summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto was canceled after the American said it was better to forgo it if Mexico was unwilling to pay for the wall. Trump wants a wall on the U.S. southern border to keep out illegal immigrants and says Mexico will pay for it. Mexico has flatly refused, making the issue a point of national pride. Pena Nieto and Trump spoke by telephone to calm tensions on Friday, and Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said the two administrations were in close contact and would talk this week. “Dialogue has not broken off,” he said. “It’s an extraordinarily important relationship for Mexico.” While no date has been set for a new Pena Nieto-Trump summit, meetings between government officials are possible in the next few days, said Videgaray, who expressed confidence that the White House was modifying its view on payment of the wall. White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said on Sunday that payment for the wall was still under discussion, mentioning the possibility of a border tax and other fiscal measures. “It could be on drug cartels,” Priebus added on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “And it could be on people that are coming here illegally and paying fines. Or it could be all of the above.” While cautioning he had no details of what those plans could involve, Videgaray was heartened by the comments. “I think it’s a welcome sign, at least I interpret it that way, that we’re seeing the rhetoric is changing,” he said. The minister said “a very sizeable part” of the business done by drug gangs was in the United States. Trump has threatened to ditch the North American Free Trade Agreement binding Mexico, the United States and Canada, and Mexico’s government wants to defend its access to the U.S. market by bringing migration and security into discussions. In a separate video statement on Monday, Pena Nieto promised to better protect migrants north of the border, by channeling over 1 billion pesos ($48.16 million) into Mexican consulates in the United States. The comments came after Videgaray said the country’s fresh steps to support Mexicans living in the United States were not aimed at obstructing law enforcement there. Mexico announced some measures, such as expanding the availability of mobile consulate services to reach more migrants in November, after Trump’s surprise win. ($1 = 20.7630 Mexican pesos) | 0fake |
McDonald’s Future Is Scary: Bottomless Fries And Automated Cashiers | McDonald s in recent years has become an icon of gluttony and corporate greed, from the fight for NYC McDonald s workers to receive a $15 minimum wage, to the obesity epidemic, which still remains rampant throughout the country. Morgan Spurlock s 2004 documentary, Supersize Me, exposed to the public just how awful McDonald s food is for the human body, and how McDonald s manipulates consumers into thinking otherwise. Over the course of my McDiet, I consumed 30 pounds of sugar from their food. That s a pound a day. On top of that, I also took in 12 pounds of fat, said Mr. Spurlock in the documentary. Now, I know what you re saying. You re saying nobody s supposed to eat this food three times a day. No wonder all this stuff happened to you. But the scary part is: there are people who eat this food regularly. Some people even eat it every day. So, while my experiment may have been a little extreme, it s not that crazy. But here is a crazy idea: Why not do away with your Super Size options? Who needs 42 ounces of Coke? A half pound of fries? And why not give me a choice besides french fries or french fries? That would be a great start. But why should these companies want to change? Their loyalty isn t to you, it s to the stockholders. The bottom line: They re a business, no matter what they say. And by selling you unhealthy food, they make millions. And no company wants to stop doing that. If this ever-growing paradigm is going to shift, it s up to you. But if you decide to keep living this way, go ahead. Over time, you may find yourself getting as sick as I did. After the documentary was released, McDonald s removed their supersize option, but continued to develop very unhealthy menu items. Rather than adapt to the progressive reforms and changing cultural landscape in America, McDonald s has the audacity to fight back. In July, the company is opening up a new restaurant in Missouri with Automated Kiosk Cashiers to phase out several workers from employment. The restaurant, often an only resort for low income Americans for food, is also offering bottomless French fries.The company is spending $1.59 million on the new restaurant to resemble fine dining. Today s customers seek a comfortable and inviting atmosphere, the owner of the franchise restaurant, Chris Habiger, told the St Joseph News-Press. So we re committed to providing a modern look and feel to this restaurant. Mr. Habiger owns six other McDonald s franchise restaurants, which requires non-borrowed resources of $500,000 to even be considered by McDonald s to own a single franchise.While McDonald s workers across the United States have been fighting to earn a livable wage, in 2015 McDonald s CEO more than tripled his salary from $1.69 million in 2014 to $7.91 million in 2015; a 368 percent raise.Featured image via Flickr | 1real |
BEAU BIDEN’S WIDOW Is Having An Affair…With His Married Brother | The grieving daughter in law of Vice President Joe Biden has formed a relationship with Hunter Biden, the younger brother of her late husband, according to a bombshell report.Beau Biden, the former attorney general of Delaware, died in 2015, shocking the entire family and playing into his father s decision to stay out of the race to succeed President Obama after decades in politics.Hunter Biden, 47, separated from his wife Kathleen in 2015. He has now taken up with his brother s widow, the couple said in a statement to the New York Post s Page Six, which acknowledged their love and support. Hallie and I are incredibly lucky to have found the love and support we have for each other in such a difficult time, and that s been obvious to the people who love us most. We ve been so lucky to have family and friends who have supported us every step of the way, they said in a statement.Vice President Joe Biden, who has mostly stayed out of the limelight since leaving office, also issued a statement along with his wife Jill, acknowledging the sadness that brought the new couple together.They offered their complete support to the unusual pairing. We are all lucky that Hunter and Hallie found each other as they were putting their lives together again after such sadness. They have mine and Jill s full and complete support and we are happy for them, Joe and Jill Biden said.A source told the New York Post Hunter and Kathleen separated in October 2015, five months after Beau Biden s death. Daily Mail | 1real |
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