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Israeli Minister Calls For ‘Civil Targeted Killing’ Of Human Rights Activists Leading Boycott Of Israel (VIDEO) | In Israel, dehumanizing Palestinians and calling for their destruction has become the norm. Only a few days after Chief Israeli Sephardi Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said that non-Jews should not live in Israel unless they serve Jews, another influential Israeli racist has come out publicly, in this case to incite against Palestinians and their supporters. Transportation minister Israel Katz called for the civil targeted killing of non-violent civil rights leaders who call for the boycott, divestment, and sanctioning of Israel until it conforms to international law.Here is what author Richard Silverstein had to say about Katz s statement, made in Hebrew: The phrase he used (sikul ezrahi memukad) derives from the euphemistic Hebrew phrase for the targeted killing of a terrorist (the literal meaning is targeted thwarting ). But the added word civil makes it something different. Katz is saying that we won t physically murder BDS opponents, but we will do everything short of that. One may rightly ask what business a transportation minister has conducting targeted killings, physical or otherwise, against anyone. Though everything in Israel is in service to the national security state, has transportation fallen under that bailiwick as well? We are entering dangerous territory when an Israeli cabinet minister engages in wordplay that verges on putting a bull s-eye on the backs of non-violent activists. If there are Israel apologists out there who dismiss the significance of such rhetoric they are sadly mistaken. In this torrid political environment in which Israeli leftists have become criminals and wounded Palestinian youth may be summarily executed in the street, it is only too easy to forsee Palestinian activists like Barghouti (BDS leader) having a bounty on their heads. In addition, BDS activists this psychopath is inciting against are not just Palestinian: They are from all over the world, including the United States. In fact, American activists are at the forefront of the BDS movement. Moreover, we want to keep in mind the life and death power Israel has over the Palestinian people. It has become the norm not only to incite against Palestinians but to kill them in cold blood. Only a few days ago, an injured Palestinian who was incapacitated and lying on the ground was murdered by an Israeli soldier (you can watch the video below). Many Israelis consider the soldier a hero and are calling for his release.Israel s life and death stranglehold over millions of Palestinians makes statements like Katz s even more dangerous because many Israeli Jews do not see Palestinians as humans. After all, Israelis were lounging in chairs on hilltops and cheering as thousands of civilians were being killed in Gaza in the summer of 2014. Israeli politicians have a long history of frightening language against Palestinians. Whether it is Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked s reference to Palestinian children as snakes, or Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu s continuous incitement, Katz s statement is just the latest round of Israeli politicians tripping over each other to dehumanize Palestinians.Watch video here: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-Bl9zAM5A4] Featured image via video screenshot. | 1real |
(Video) Donald Trump’s Four-Word Answer To CBS Anchor When Asked Why He’s So “Thin Skinned” | It s no secret that the press has been after Trump in a YUGE (Trumpspeak for huge) way. No matter what candidate you re for, the way Trump s been treated while other candidates have been promoted is disturbing. The main stream media has been blatantly promoting Carly Fiorina and Marco Rubio. The one-sided bashing of Trump proves that the elitist media and elitist Washington politicos can t stand that an outsider has the lead. Here s a clip from the 60 Minutes interview with Trump where he s asked about being thin skinned . As usual, Trump doesn t skip a beat and tells the truth. Even if you don t care for Trump, he s certainly refreshing in that he gives no canned answers like the professional politicians. | 1real |
AS ANGRY FAR LEFT PROTESTERS Scream ‘Kill the Bill’, Senator John McCain Returns to Deliver Stunning Speech [Video] | The left is truly becoming unhinged! The tension is high and the stakes are even higher in Washington as the Senate goes forward with debate on a bill to repeal Obamacare. While the US Senate voted today to open debate on the Obamacare bill, screams from far left protestors erupted from the Senate gallery. This far left mob chanted phrases such as Kill the Bill, Don t Kill Us, and Shame. The protesters interrupted the proceedings before the calling of the roll for nearly two minutes. It then took several minutes for the Sergeant of Arms and federal officers to remove the group of far left protestors. Many official Congressional votes require the gallery visitors to be given passes by legislators. It is highly likely that Democratic legislators gave these protestors access to the gallery.The emotional return of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to the Senate for the vote, after he was recently diagnosed with brain cancer is sure to put more pressure on nervous Republicans who have been opposed or reluctant to commit to support the Republican plan.John McCain: I hope again we can rely on humility on our need to cooperate, on our dependence on each other, to learn how to trust each other again, and by so doing better serve the people who elected us. Stop listening to the bombastic loudmouths on the radio, television and the internet. To hell with them! Despite uncertainty, the administration is predicting victory. Vice President Mike Pence s top legislative affairs aide, Marc Short, stated Tuesday morning on Fox Business News that, whether [McCain] is the 50th or the 51st vote, we re excited to have him back. Read more: The Washington Free Beacon | 1real |
Head of Veterans Health System Is Trump’s Pick to Lead Veterans Affairs - The New York Times | In a move that left many veterans groups breathing a sigh of relief, Donald J. Trump on Wednesday selected the current head of the nation’s sprawling veterans health care system, Dr. David J. Shulkin, an appointee of President Obama’s, to become secretary of veterans affairs. If confirmed, he will be the first secretary to lead the department who is not a veteran. While Mr. Trump’s chosen cabinet is largely made up of Washington outsiders, Dr. Shulkin, 57, is a relative insider. He has helped lead several private health care systems, including Beth Israel Medical Center in New York and the University of Pennsylvania Health System. In 2015, he was appointed under secretary for health by Mr. Obama and told to cut wait times in the troubled health care system, which includes 1, 700 hospitals and clinics that serve nearly nine million veterans. In that time, Dr. Shulkin has nearly doubled the amount of health care that veterans receive through private doctors. But he has also rejected calls for broader privatization, saying that it would cost untold billions and undermine the hospital system — a stance that puts him at odds with Mr. Trump. While campaigning, the regularly criticized the department as hopelessly corrupt and incompetent, and said he would allow all veterans to choose to go to private doctors. But the selection of Dr. Shulkin may signal that Mr. Trump plans to take a more measured approach. “The Trump campaign made a big deal of what a sucking chest wound the V. A. was,” said Phillip Carter, an Iraq veteran who studies the agency for the Center for a New American Security, a research organization that focuses on the military and veterans. “Then they realized how hard it would be to turn around, and decided they needed to continue with the reforms that are already taking effect. ” Mr. Carter, who advised Hillary Clinton’s campaign on veterans issues, called Dr. Shulkin a smart choice, saying he was among a very small group with the expertise to run a large, complicated health care system. “He knows the V. A. but he is not of the V. A.,” Mr. Carter said. “He comes from the private sector and knows how to blend private and public care. ” Mr. Trump praised Dr. Shulkin on Wednesday, saying in a statement, “I have no doubt Dr. Shulkin will be able to lead the turnaround. ” The pick came after weeks of scrambling by the Trump transition team, which the said had considered “at least 100” candidates to lead the troubled agency. Names under consideration included former candidate Sarah Palin and former Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts, as well as a few generals and admirals. Three weeks ago, the team settled on Toby Cosgrove, the chief executive of the Cleveland Clinic and a former Air Force surgeon, but he turned down the offer, according to a person close to the transition team who was not authorized to speak publicly. That left the team divided. Some favored one of the few remaining candidates, Pete Hegseth, an Iraq veteran and Fox News commentator. But others saw him as too extreme because for years he ran Concerned Veterans for America, a small advocacy group financed by the Koch brothers’ network that seeks to discredit and privatize the veterans health care system. Many veterans groups vigorously opposed Mr. Hegseth, leaving the transition team with no obvious alternative. So, although Mr. Trump had vilified the department’s leadership for months on the campaign trail, he ended up picking one of its top officials. The news, announced by Mr. Trump at a news conference on Wednesday, left many veterans groups bewildered but pleased. “This is a very surprising pick, but he is the best out of all the candidates,” Paul Rieckhoff, the executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said of Dr. Shulkin. The group’s membership would have preferred a veteran, Mr. Rieckhoff said, but added that Dr. Shulkin was well respected. “We know him, we trust him and we can work with him,” he said. Dr. Shulkin will inherit a thicket of challenges in the aging and overburdened veterans health care system. Its hospitals often do not pay enough to attract new staff members, even as demand rises. Waits for appointments have not fallen since a scandal over the delays in 2014 prompted Eric Shinseki to resign as secretary. The department’s computerized records system is obsolete and unable to communicate with outside doctors. And though its buildings are on average more than 50 years old, closing underused centers is often politically impossible. “The system is changing for the better, but the transformation could take many years, and it will be difficult,” said Nancy Schlichting, who retired recently as chief executive of the Henry Ford Health System and was chairwoman of a commission that studied overhauling the system. “Someone new coming in could take a year just to understand the issues,” she said. “Someone like David Shulkin really provides continuity that can get reforms moving forward. ” | 0fake |
Ann Coulter: How to Provide Universal Health Care Using This One Easy Trick | The first sentence of Congress’ Obamacare repeal should read: “There shall be a free market in health insurance. ”[Right there, I’ve solved the health insurance crisis for 90 percent of Americans. Unfortunately, no one can imagine what a free market in health care looks like because we haven’t had one for nearly a century. On NBC’s “Meet the Press” this weekend, for example, Chuck Todd told Sen. Tom Cotton that his proposal to create affordable health care that would be widely available, “sounds good,” but “do you understand why some people think that’s an impossible promise to keep?” (The “do you understand … ?” formulation is a condescension reserved only for conservatives, whose disagreement with liberals is taken as a sign of stupidity.) Todd continued: “To make it affordable, making it wider, I mean, that just seems like — you know, it seems like you’re selling something that can’t be done realistically. ” Dream Sequence: Chuck Todd on Russia’s “Meet the Press” after the fall of the Soviet Union: “Do you understand why some people think that’s an impossible promise to keep? To make bread affordable, making it wider, I mean, that just seems like — you know, it seems like you’re selling something that can’t be done realistically. ” It turns out that, outside of a communist dictatorship, all sorts of products are affordable AND widely available! We don’t need Congress to “provide” us with health care any more than we need them to “provide” us with bread. What we need is for health insurance to be available on the free market. With lots of companies competing for your business, basic health insurance would cost about $50 a month. We know the cost because Christian groups got a waiver from Obamacare, and that’s how much their insurance costs right now. (Under the law, it can’t be called “insurance,” but that’s what it is.) Even young, healthy people would buy insurance at that price, expanding the “ pools” and probably bringing the cost down to $20 or $30 a month. In a free market, there would be an endless variety of plans, from catastrophic care for the to extravagant plans for the . You know — just like every other product in America. You should visit America sometime, Chuck! The orange juice aisle in a Texas grocery store knocked the socks off Russian president Boris Yeltsin. (Imagine how cheap a double screwdriver must be in America!) Just as there are rows of different types of orange juice in the grocery store — and loads of grocery stores — there will be loads of health insurance plans and insurance companies offering them. Americans would finally be able to buy whatever insurance plans they liked, as easily as they currently buy TVs, cellphones and — what’s that product with the cute gecko in its commercials? I remember now! CAR INSURANCE! Evidently, insurance is not impervious to the iron law of economics that every product sold on the free market gets better and cheaper over time. The only complicated part of fixing health care is figuring out how to take care of the other 10 percent of Americans — the poor, the irresponsible and the unlucky. And the only reason that is complicated is because of fraud. Needless to say, the modern nanny state already guarantees that no one will die on the street in America. The taxpayer spends more than a trillion dollars every year on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security disability insurance so that everyone’s health is taken care of, from cradle to grave. Unfortunately, probably at least half of that sum is fraud. Policing fraud is difficult because: (1) the bureaucrats dispensing government benefits believe there is no fraud and, if there is, it’s a good thing because it redistributes income and (2) we keep bringing in immigrants for whom fraud is a way of life. (See “Adios, America! The Left’s Plan to Turn Our Country Into a Third World Hellhole. ”) Consequently, after the first sentence establishing a free market in health insurance, the entire rest of the bill should be nothing but fraud prevention measures to ensure that only the truly deserving — and the truly American — are accessing health care programs. I’d recommend sending as much as possible back to the states, and also paying bounties to anyone who exposes a fraud against Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security. Anyone caught committing health care fraud should get 10 years. Not in prison, in a Medicaid doctor’s waiting room. But I’m sure you guys in Congress have come up with lots of great ideas for policing fraud in the SEVEN YEARS you’ve had to think about it. (Hello? Is he breathing? Dammit, I’m not getting a pulse! !) Then, Congress can start removing all the bad stuff from the U. S. Code, such as: — the requirement that hospitals provide “free” care to anyone who shows up (how about separate health clinics for poor people with the sniffles?) — the exemption of insurance companies from the antitrust laws (where all our problems began) and, — the tax breaks only for health insurance (viciously and arbitrarily punishing the ). The goal of “universal health care” is very simple to achieve, just as the goal of “universal wearing of clothing” seems to have been taken care of. The government can provide for those who can’t provide for themselves, but the rest of us need to be allowed to buy health insurance on the free market — an innovation that has made America the richest, most country in the world. It’s taken 50 years, but, thanks to Hillary’s losing the election, we finally have liberals on the record opposing the Soviet Union. Can’t all of Washington come together and end our soviet health care system? | 0fake |
Paul Ryan cites Trump lack of experience amid FBI Russia probe | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday, asked about President Donald Trump’s interactions with former FBI Director James Comey, said Trump “was new at this” and probably not “steeped” in FBI independence from the White House. “He’s new in government, and so therefore I think he’s learning as he goes,” Ryan told reporters at a news conference. “I’m not saying it’s an acceptable excuse. It’s just my observation.” | 0fake |
CLINTON CHARITIES RAKED IN TAXPAYER DOLLARS IN THE MILLIONS | This is like one big slush fund for Hillary 2016. The Clintons not only collected millions from foreign donors, they also rake in $7 million in taxpayer dollars. Really outrageous! The Clinton Foundation and its major health charity have raked in more than $7 million from the U.S. government in recent years, according to an analysis of public records conducted by the Washington Free Beacon.The Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), chaired by Bill Clinton and run by the former president s long-time associate Ira Magaziner, has received $6,010,898 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) since 2010. CHAI, the biggest arm of the Clinton family s charitable efforts, accounting for 60 percent of all spending, received $3,193,500 in fiscal years 2010, 2011, and 2012, according to federal contracts, during Hillary Clinton s tenure as secretary of state. The organization received an additional $2,817,398 from the CDC in FYs 2013, 2014, and 2015.The grants, including $200,000 awarded as recently as January, have gone to CHAI s Global AIDS program, and are filed under Global Health and Child Survival. The CDC is listed as a $1 to $10 million contributor to CHAI, according to its donor list released earlier this month.The Boston-based health arm of the Clinton Foundation has come under scrutiny for failing to disclose donations from foreign governments in violation of a pledge Clinton made to the Obama administration before she assumed office as secretary of state.A Reuters report found that the health initiative stopped making its annual disclosure in 2010 and that no complete list of donors to the Clintons charities has been published since. The group only recently published a partial donor list, which its spokesperson Maura Daley told Reuters made up for CHAI s oversight of failing to meet the disclosure agreement.When asked whether the CDC has any concern regarding its funding of CHAI or plans to provide grants to the organization in the future, an agency spokesperson told the Washington Free Beacon that it can t predict who will apply for and be awarded grants. CDC and potential grantees must follow federal guidelines when applying for or awarding and monitoring grants, said Shelly Diaz. CHAI, like any other organization meeting federal requirements, may apply for CDC grants. They would also be expected to meet the same ongoing requirements for grantees (e.g. reports, audits, performance standards). CHAI received hundreds of millions from foreign nations between 2009 and 2014, including: the United Kingdom ($79.7 million), Australia ($58.6 million), Norway ($38.1 million), Canada ($12.1 million), Ireland ($11.7 million), Sweden ($7.2 million), and New Zealand ($1.2 million).The Boston Globe found that foreign donations sharply accelerated to CHAI when Hillary Clinton became secretary of state.Read more: WFB | 1real |
Trump Scoffs at Cruz Choosing a Running Mate: 'He Can't Win' | It's an unusual move for a presidential candidate to pick a vice presidential running mate before winning his party's nomination – even more unusual when his path to the nomination is blocked. But despite trailing Trump, Cruz went ahead and announced his choice.
But will he hit a home run by naming former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina as his running mate – or will he strike out?
"Carly isn't intimated by bullies," the Texas senator declared Wednesday. "Over and over again, Carly has shattered glass ceilings."
"This is the fight of our time," Fiorina said during Wednesday's announcement. "And I believe Ted Cruz is the man to lead that fight. And I am prepared to stand by his side and give this everything I have, to restore the soul of our party, to defeat Donald Trump, to defeat Hillary Clinton, and to take our country back."
Fiorina tussled with Trump early in the primary season for comments he made about her face. The GOP front-runner dismissed this latest move.
"A new relationship has started – Cruz and Carly," the tycoon said. "Cruz can't win. What's he doing picking a vice president?"
Trump had other things to talk about as well. He gave a major foreign policy speech in Washington and said America's allies would have to start paying for their own defense. He also railed on the Bush and Obama administrations for not stopping persecution of Christians in the Middle East.
"We have done nothing to help Christians, nothing, and we should always be ashamed of that – for that lack of action," he said.
Trump went from there to Indiana where he got the endorsement of legendary Indiana Hooters basketball coach Bobby Knight, ahead of Tuesday's primary.
"If we win Indiana, it's over," he said. "It's over. I'm not playing games with Indiana."
After Indiana votes, Clinton is hoping it's also over for Bernie Sanders. The delegate math is not with Sanders, who rallied thousands of screaming fans at Indiana University hours after he announced the layoffs of hundreds of campaign staffers.
"Next Tuesday let's have the largest voter turnout in Indiana history," Sanders said.
Cruz is 400 delegates behind Trump and while he expects to win Indiana, if he doesn't, analysts say it's all over. | 0fake |
Minsk meeting being held to determine status of Donetsk and Lugansk, don't expect much - Russia News Now | This post was originally published on this site
sott.net/news
A meeting of the contact group on the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis is going to be held today in Minsk.
Steinmeier’s formula
The primary issue of this meeting is going to be the consideration of Steinmeier’s formula, which determines a special status for Donetsk and Lugansk and, after the publication of the election results in these regions, potential transfer to self-government. Moreover, the officials of these republics say that, without agreement on this matter, it is impossible to solve any other problems.
Meanwhile, Kiev is delaying decision-making on this issue. The talks are going very slowly and unproductively.
Provocations
In addition, Kiev is continuing provocations against Russia. Despite the fact that Russia is not a party to the conflict and does not participate in these talks, Kiev’s provocations negatively affect the credibility of Ukraine and do not help the course of the group’s work.
Just recently, Kiev sent several groups of spies and saboteurs to Russia and kidnapped two Russian citizens. Now they are being detained with the possibility of ransom, which suggests that all of this was started for the sole purpose of at least slightly improving Ukraine’s deplorable financial condition.
The neutral territory
During his visit to Moscow yesterday, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that Belarus was a neutral party and would not support any of the conflict’s sides, despite the fact that Kiev has really done everything possible to foment bad relations with all of its neighbors, including even its traditional anti-Russian ally – Poland.
The incident with the Belarusian aircraft, when Ukraine threatened to raise fighters against a passenger liner flying from Kiev to Minsk, did nothing good for the international image of Poroshenko, nor for Ukrainian-Belarusian relations, which until recently were considered to be even closer than relations between Minsk and Moscow.
Expectations
All of these facts suggest that no high expectations should be held for the meeting. Most likely, Kiev will once again delay the solution of fundamental problems, confining itself to blackmail over prisoners of the DPR and the LPR. Perhaps some contract clauses will be agreed upon, but no more should be expected. Related | 1real |
China will stick to supply side structural reform, overcapacity reduction efforts | BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping said China will stick to supply side structural reform and maintain overcapacity reduction and deleveraging efforts. Xi made the comments in a speech at the beginning of a Communist Party congress. | 0fake |
Japan's Abe says won't delay tax hike unless big shock hits economy | TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Sunday the government will proceed with a scheduled sales tax increase in 2019 unless the economy suffers a shock as big as the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers. He also defended the government s plan to divert some of the proceeds from the scheduled tax hike to 10 percent from 8 percent to child care and education, saying that investing in children will undoubtedly lead to stronger economic growth . Our administration has worked on fiscal reform more than any other administration, Abe told a television program as his ruling bloc headed for a big win in Sunday s general election. In order to pay back Japan s public debt, you need economic growth, he said. We d like to proceed with fiscal reform by spurring economic growth and investment, Abe said, suggesting his administration will continue to focus on reflating growth rather than fiscal austerity. Abe s ruling bloc was set for a big win in Sunday s election, bolstering his chances of becoming the nation s longest-serving premier. Abe twice delayed the sales tax hike to 10 percent after an earlier increase to 8 percent tipped Japan into recession. Analysts say increasing the levy is crucial to rein in Japan s huge public debt which, at twice the size of its economy, is the biggest among major industrialized nations. | 0fake |
Trump's 'bromance' with Russia's Putin appears to be cooling | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With his administration on the defensive over investigations into alleged Russian meddling in last year’s election, U.S. President Donald Trump is no longer tweeting praise for his Kremlin counterpart. Less than five weeks after he took office, the chances of a spring thaw in relations between Washington and Moscow – once buoyed by an apparent “bromance” between Trump and President Vladimir Putin during the U.S. political campaign – are looking much dimmer, U.S. officials say. His top foreign policy advisers have started talking tougher on Russia, and the apparent cooling of Trump’s approach follows the resignation last month of his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, a vocal advocate of warmer ties with Moscow. He was replaced by Army Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, who is more hawkish on Russia and allied with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general. In one other sign of a stiffening attitude, two officials said the administration had offered the job of top Russia adviser at the National Security Council to Russia scholar Fiona Hill, a leading Putin critic. Her books include “Mr. Putin, Operative in the Kremlin”, an allusion to the Russian leader’s past as a KGB officer. It was not immediately known whether she had accepted the post. Pressure also has come to bear from Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress, long wary of his campaign overtures to Putin, and from European allies anxious over any sign that the president might prematurely ease sanctions imposed on Russia after its annexation of Crimea and support for pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine. Posing fresh obstacles to rapprochement with Russia, analysts say, is mounting evidence that Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and other members of Trump’s team communicated with Russian officials during and after the presidential campaign. The mushrooming inquiry - which is now focused on Sessions and his contacts with Moscow’s ambassador to Washington - has fueled calls for expanded investigations into allegations that Moscow sought to sway the election’s outcome. “There is so much panic in the U.S. political establishment over Russia right now that Trump will be boxed in on what he can do,” said Matthew Rojansky, a Russia expert at the Wilson Center think tank in Washington. White House officials say there were no improper contacts, and Russia denies any meddling. While Trump has yet to lay down his Russia policy, most signs suggest no swift changes in the relationship, which sank to a post-Cold War low under his predecessor Barack Obama, mostly due to bitter differences over Syria and Ukraine. Mattis sought to reassure NATO allies during a visit to Europe last month, telling them there would be no military cooperation between the United States and Russia in the near future. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley this week denounced Russia for casting a veto to protect the Syrian government from Security Council action over accusations of chemical weapons use, and also recently insisted the United States would not recognize Russia’s seizure of Crimea. Trump’s openness to closer ties to Russia and his emphasis, particularly during the campaign, on fighting terrorism sparked concerns among current and former U.S. officials that he might trade away U.S. interests in other areas in exchange for military and intelligence cooperation against groups such as Islamic State. Trump’s language on Russia now has shifted somewhat from campaign days, when he tweeted his admiration for Putin as a strong leader, and the Russian president paid him compliments. Trump told a news conference in mid-February that, “I would love to be able to get along with Russia,” but added that, “It’s possible I won’t be able to get along with Putin.” Two senior European officials this week told reporters in Washington they discerned an evolution in the Trump administration’s stance toward Russia, saying there appeared to be no desire to engage in such a “grand bargain” in which, for example, Ukraine-related sanctions might be eased in return for Russian action on other issues. “What we consider reassuring is that, at least during our meetings, nobody came with this idea of a grand bargain, with the idea of a big deal,” said one senior European official on condition of anonymity. Said a second senior European official: “Vis-a-vis Russia, to be frank I have the impression that the analysis and the positions of this administration are probably now closer to our position than (they) may have been two or three months ago.” Recent Russian actions have created new complications, including a stepped-up offensive by pro-Russian separatist forces in eastern Ukraine and what the Pentagon described as the bombing this week by Russian and Syrian aircraft of U.S.-backed Syrian rebels – something Moscow denied had happened. For its part, the Kremlin said on Wednesday it was patiently waiting for “some kind of actions” from the Trump administration so that it could understand what the future holds for relations. “We have heard different statements from President Trump,” Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, told reporters. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican member of the Foreign Relations Committee and former 2016 presidential candidate, had words of caution for Trump about future dealings with Putin. “We have had two presidents - a Republican and a Democrat - previous to the current president who thought they could do such a deal with Vladimir Putin,” he said on the Senate floor on Wednesday. “Both of them fell on their face because they did not understand what they were dealing with. It is my sincerest hope that our current President doesn’t make the same mistakes,” Rubio said. (This version of the story corrects defense secretary’s first name, paragraph 3.) | 0fake |
Report: New York Times Profit PLUMMETS | A new report shows that the New York Times ‘ profit is in freefall. Comment on this Article Via Your Facebook Account Comment on this Article Via Your Disqus Account Follow Us on Facebook! | 1real |
Australia finds wreck of first Allied submarine to sink in World War One | SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia has discovered the wreck of its first submarine off the coast of Papua New Guinea, authorities said on Thursday, resolving one of the country s oldest naval mysteries after more than a century. The submarine, AE-1, was the first Allied vessel to sink during World War One, while patrolling for German warships in 1914, in circumstances that have never been established. The Australian Navy and several private bodies found the final resting place of the vessel s 35 crew on their 13th attempt, Defence Minister Marise Payne told media. The submarine s disappearance was a tragedy for our then fledgling nation, Payne said, adding that a small commemorative service was held aboard the survey ship that found the wreck and authorities were trying to contact the crew s descendants. It is my hope that what we have done in the last couple of days will now provide relief to the family and descendants of all of those members, said navy chief Vice Admiral Timmy Barrett, adding that the crew had come from Australia, Britain and New Zealand. The authorities did not disclose the wreck s location, except to say it was found off the Duke of York Islands. The governments of Australia and Papua New Guinea said they planned to preserve the site. | 0fake |
Trump’s Latest Twitter Outburst Is A Violent, Fake-Wrestling Clip Attacking CNN | It s official a child has been elected to the White House. Rather than act like the professional leader he s meant to be, Trump just sinks lower and lower on Twitter. This time, Trump has tweeted a fake-wrestling clip of himself filmed years ago, with the CNN logo superimposed on the man s face he was attacking. The clip ends with the words Fraud News Network. #FraudNewsCNN #FNN pic.twitter.com/WYUnHjjUjg Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2, 2017Yeah, Trump s really sunk that low. Rather than act as a professional with dignity we have this as a president. I am flabbergasted. It s so sad.Deadline reports that CNN has released its response to the clip, read by Brian Stelter on today s Reliable Sources: It is a sad day when the President of the United States encourages violence against reporters. Clearly, Sarah Huckabee Sanders lied when she said the President had never done so. Instead of preparing for his overseas trip, his first meeting with Vladimir Putin, dealing with North Korea and working on his health care bill he is involved in juvenile behavior far below the dignity of his office. We will keep doing our jobs. He shuuld start doing his. I don t know. At this stage, I don t think it s possible for Trump to focus on the real problems America is facing, let alone fix them with the people in mind. Everything is about him even this presidency. And what do people expect? There s a celebrity in office, not a proper political figure. Though rather than behave like most celebrities and ignore what they may not like written about them, he lashes out.Trump is, unfortunately, the representative of America for the world. He can t, and shouldn t, behave like this when the entire world is watching him. He shouldn t behave like this even if the world wasn t watching. It s one big mess after another with America becoming a mockery to the world.Featured image via Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images | 1real |
Julian Assange Surfaces - Speaks at Argentina Conference Via Telephone | link a reply to: ghostrager Two YouTubers I know of, I'm not mentioning who they are, have been promoting the notion he's dead. It didn't ring true for me because if he was I believe it would be known by all very quickly via the internet. He has close friends and family who I doubt would want it to be kept secret. That's my perception anyway. He really is isolated as I've mentioned before. I hope he makes it through. He's brilliant and has done a great service for regular people in a frightful world based upon lies, ugly secrets and deceptions. | 1real |
U.S., North Korea clash at U.N. forum over nuclear weapons | GENEVA (Reuters) - North Korea and the United States clashed at a U.N. forum on Tuesday over their military intentions towards one another, with Pyongyang s envoy declaring it would never put its nuclear deterrent on the negotiating table. Japan, well within reach of North Korea s missiles, said the world must maintain pressure on the reclusive country to rein in its nuclear and missile programs and now was not the time for a resumption of multi-party talks. North Korea has pursued its weapons programs in defiance of U.N. Security Council sanctions and ignored all calls, including from major ally China, to stop, prompting a bellicose exchange of rhetoric between the North and the United States. North Korea justifies its weapons programs, including its recent threat to fire missiles towards the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, by pointing to perceived U.S. hostility, such as military exercises with South Korea this week. U.S. disarmament ambassador Robert Wood told a U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament in Geneva U.S. President Donald Trump s top priority was to protect the United States and its allies against the growing threat from North Korea and America was ready to use the full range of capabilities at its disposal. The path to dialogue still remained an option for Pyongyang and it had the choice between poverty and belligerence on the one hand and prosperity and acceptance. North Korea s envoy told the same forum the North s nuclear deterrent would never be up for negotiation, echoing Pyongyang s regular denunciation of U.S. aggression . The measures taken by the DPRK to strengthen its nuclear deterrence and develop inter-continental rockets is justifiable and a legitimate option for self-defense in the face of such apparent and real threats, diplomat Ju Yong Chol told the forum, referring to constant nuclear threats by the United States. DPRK stands for the North s official name, the Democratic People s Republic of Korea. Regarding joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises that began on Monday, he warned: The ongoing military adventure would certainly add gasoline to the fire, driving the current tense situation to further deterioration. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said pressure must be maintained until the North demonstrated it would give up its nuclear program. It s not the time to discuss (the resumption of) six-party talks, Kono said, referring to stalled negotiations involving both Koreas, the United States, Russia, China and Japan. It s time to exert pressure, he told reporters. The head of the U.S. military s Pacific Command said diplomacy was key. Admiral Harry Harris was in South Korea to observe annual joint military drills with the South Korean military, which the North called a step towards nuclear conflict masterminded by war maniacs . So we hope and we work for diplomatic solutions to the challenge presented by Kim Jong Un, Harris told reporters at a U.S. air base in Osan, about an hour from Seoul, referring to the North Korean leader. He said diplomacy was the most important starting point in response to the North s threat, when asked what actions by North Korea might trigger a preemptive U.S. strike against it. As far as a timeline, it would be crazy for me to share with you those tripwires in advance. If we did that, it would hardly be a military strategy, he said. The United States and South Korea began the long-planned exercises on Monday, called the Ulchi Freedom Guardian, which the allies have said are purely defensive. The drills involve tens of thousands of troops as well as computer simulations designed to prepare for war with a nuclear-capable North Korea. The United States and South Korea are technically still at war with the North because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. Delegations from about 20 countries spoke at the four-hour U.N. session, including Britain, France, Australia and South Korea, all of which criticized North Korea. I would like to repeat the appeal to the DPRK to listen to the fact that there is no alternative to stopping the different provocations and to return to dialogue, South Korean ambassador Kim Inchul said. We have never threatened the DPRK with any attacks and we have never promoted the use of force. | 0fake |
There's Something O'Reilly Trusts Even Less Than Iran | Bill O'Reilly wants to know what's in the Iran nuclear program deal, but he doesn't want to hear about it from the media.
Speaking on his Fox News Channel show "The O'Reilly Factor" on Monday night, the conservative host said he doesn't trust the American media to tell the public what's really in the deal reached last week.
“I don’t trust the press," O'Reilly told Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume in remarks posted online by Mediaite. "I think I trust Iran more than I trust the American press. I don’t want the American press interpreting this for me. I want to see it in the committee hearings on television, I want to see the debate.”
Trust was a major theme on Monday night's program. During the "Talking Points Memo" segment, O'Reilly also said Americans don't trust the president.
"Simply put, millions of Americans do not trust President Obama to protect us from the deranged (Iranian) mullahs who have committed atrocities for decades," he said. | 0fake |
Justice Scalia received last rites from Catholic priest at Texas ranch | (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia received last rites from a Catholic priest at the Texas ranch where he died, Elizabeth O’Hara, a spokeswoman for the Diocese of El Paso, said on Saturday. Rev. Mike Alcuino, who serves at a parish in Presidio County, Texas, administered last rites to the justice, O’Hara said. | 0fake |
Crucial details of Republican tax plan in flux as deal deadline looms | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Crucial details of the Republican tax plan, including the proposed corporate rate, were in flux late on Tuesday as negotiators from the U.S. Congress rushed to finalize the plan ahead of a self-imposed Wednesday deadline. Republican tax writers were tinkering with how to best reconcile differences between bills passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate, without exacerbating the deficit impact of legislation that could add as much as $1.5 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, according to independent estimates. With a meeting of the official bipartisan negotiating committee scheduled for Wednesday, Republicans were still weighing how to best scale back popular individual deductions for mortgage interest and local tax payments, and whether the proposed corporate rate of 20 percent in both bills may rise to 21 percent. “We’re still talking,” No. 2 Senate Republican John Cornyn said of a possible 21 percent corporate rate. Both the Senate and House bills proposed reducing the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from the current 35 percent, eliminating or scaling back some taxes paid only by rich Americans and offering a mixed bag of cuts to other individuals and families, some of which would be short term. Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, head of the Senate tax-writing committee and one of the negotiators, told reporters in reference to the corporate tax rate, “I hesitate to give any figure at this point because it’s still being debated.” Analysts have said that a 1 percentage point change in the corporate rate equals about $100 billion in revenue over a decade. Shifting it even slightly could help negotiators who are attempting to keep the bill within preset budget parameters. Congressional researchers have estimated the tax plans, as written, would add $1.5 trillion to the $20 trillion national debt over 10 years, before any projected positive effects on the economy, or $1 trillion after such effects. President Donald Trump wants to sign a tax bill by year’s end, potentially marking the Republicans’ first major legislative victory since Trump’s victory gave the party control of the White House as well as both chambers of Congress. Trump is scheduled to host Republican tax negotiators at the White House for lunch on Wednesday and to deliver a speech laying out his closing argument for the legislation alongside five middle-class families who would benefit, senior administration officials told reporters on Tuesday. Trump is expected to counter claims that the tax plan largely benefits corporations and the wealthy by highlighting how it would also cut rates for lower- and middle-income taxpayers, who could see additional benefits such as higher wages following the corporate rate cut, the officials said. Independent government analyses by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, which assists congressional tax writers, and the Congressional Budget Office, which examines the budget impact of legislation, both concluded that wealthier taxpayers would disproportionately benefit from the Republican proposals. When asked who stands to benefit most from Republican tax legislation, more than half of American adults selected either the wealthy or large U.S. corporations, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday. Senator Susan Collins, a key moderate Republican whose support was critical to passage of the Senate bill but who has said she will need to review the final package before casting another vote, was critical on Tuesday about talks to cut the top individual tax rate. “There has been a lot of discussion” about lowering the top individual rate to 37 percent, and “having the corporate rate not be as low,” Collins said. The House tax plan would maintain the top individual tax rate paid by the wealthy at 39.6 percent. The Senate plan would cut it to 38.5 percent. “I don’t think lowering the top rate is a good idea,” Collins told reporters. | 0fake |
Justice Department says White House may name new consumer watchdog | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House may name an acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Justice Department said in a memo on Saturday that endorsed an action by the Trump administration. “The President may designate an Acting Director of the CFPB,” the eight-page memo said. On Friday, the White House said Mick Mulvaney, President Donald Trump’s budget director, would lead the CFPB on an interim basis. | 0fake |
WH Press Secretary Says Obama's Denial About Clinton Server Was 'Entirely Factual' |
After the release of a WikiLeaks email chain from March 2015 on Tuesday in which a top Clinton aide admitted President Barack Obama falsely claimed he did not know about Hillary Clinton’s private server use while she was secretary of state, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest sprung into action to deny that the president had lied about the issue.
“What the president said was an entirely factual response,” Earnest said to a group of reporters in Los Angeles where Obama was attending Democratic fundraisers.
Earnest then attempted to explain away all criticism of the president’s actions as mere conspiracies.
Related Stories Hannity Proposes A Sendoff For Obama In The Event Of A Trump Presidency WikiLeaks: Podesta Said Obamas ‘Don’t Need To Be This Nice’ To President Bush And First Lady WikiLeaks Reveals Obama Knew About Clinton’s Emails; ‘Clean This Up’ “I recognize that some of the president’s critics have attempted to construct some type of conspiracy about the communication between the president and the secretary of state,” he said.
He continued, “But they’ve failed to put forward a conspiracy that withstands any scrutiny, so I guess they are back to recycling thoroughly debunked conspiracies.”
Obama himself denied any knowledge of the server, telling CBS reporter Bill Plante in March 2015, just after the server revelations that he learned of the Clinton’s private email server “the same time everybody else learned it through news reports.”
Several days after the server revelations in March 2015, Earnest told the press that Obama knew about Clinton’s email address and had sent messages to it but knew nothing about a private server.
He reiterated that position on Tuesday.
“The president did trade emails with Secretary Clinton, not a large number of them,” Earnest said.
“Of course the president had possession of Secretary Clinton’s email address, but he did not have any knowledge of where her server was located or what sort of arrangements had been made to store her email.”
Trending Stories Frustrated With Media Bias, Trump Campaign Takes Its Case Directly To Voters With Nightly Show On Facebook Independent Voters Push Trump To The Front In Florida And Ohio RNC Official Takes CNN Host To Task For Claiming There Is No Media Bias However, the Wikileaks email chain – which Earnest referred to as “stolen” and therefore illegitimate – tells a different story, with top Clinton aides seemingly in a panic that it could come to light that the president was lying when he said he did not know about Clinton’s private server.
“[L]ooks like POTUS just said he found out HRC was using her personal email when he saw it in the news,” Clinton spokesman Josh Schwerin said in a March 7, 2015 email published Tuesday by WikiLeaks.
“[W]e need to clean this up – he has emails from her – they do not say state.gov,” responded former Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills.
What do you think? | 1real |
CALIFORNIA PIZZA SHOP GETS REAL LIFE LESSON IN ECONOMICS AFTER SELLING “LIVING WAGE PIZZA” | The bad news for these bleeding heart liberals is there are even more reasonably priced pizza shop options who understand economics and reality Image via Lanesplitter Pizza and Subs Facebook pageLiberals love the idea of the minimum wage and a living wage at least until it hits their bottom line.Lanesplitter Pizza & Pub in Emeryville, California is learning that economics lesson the hard way.Cities up and down California have been considering hiking up their minimum wage so Vic Gumper, the owner of Lanesplitter, decided to get ahead of the curve and do it on his own.Rather than just raise the minimum wage for his employees, he decided to do it in the form of creating a living wage pizza. This business model means that all workers now earn $15 to $25 an hour as part of an experimental business model that also did away with gratuities and raised prices, making meals at all five locations sustainably served, really no tips necessary, the Los Angeles Times reported. This movement, it s going on everywhere, Gumper told the paper. We just decided to manage the situation and get to a place where we can sustain it. Image via Lanesplitter Pizza and Subs Facebook pageBut while patrons have applauded the move verbally, they haven t put their money where their mouth is.The living wage pizza costs more than $30 and people haven t been too keen on paying for it.Gumper has seen a 25% drop in sales since April and has had to eliminate lunch hours at a few of his locations, according to the L.A. Times. The necessity of paying people a living wage in the Bay Area is clear, so it s hard to argue against it, and it s something I m really proud to be able to try doing, he said. At the same time, I m terrified of going out of business after 18 years. Via: Red Alert Politics | 1real |
Mexico's new finance minister spurns Donald Trump | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico’s new finance minister on Thursday delivered a stern reproach to Donald Trump, saying the only thing he agreed on with the U.S. Republican presidential candidate was that his predecessor in the ministry was an excellent public servant. The comments follow the resignation of Luis Videgaray as finance minister on Wednesday after he came under fire for Trump’s visit to Mexico City last week, which Mexican diplomats said he was instrumental in arranging. Trump has infuriated Mexicans with a series of broadsides against the United States’ southern neighbor, and his hastily arranged visit to meet President Enrique Pena Nieto a week ago sparked heavy criticism of the government. Presenting the government’s 2017 budget plan just a day after his appointment, the new finance minister, Jose Antonio Meade, did not mince his words when he was asked about recent comments by Trump on Videgaray at a news conference. “I’d like to point out that the only thing, absolutely the only thing I agree on with candidate Trump is that Luis Videgaray is an exceptional public servant,” Meade said. The outspoken American real estate mogul has vowed to make Mexico pay for a border wall to keep out illegal immigrants, as well as threatening to carry out mass deportations and tear up trade treaties crucial to its economy. Late on Wednesday, Trump commented on Videgaray’s resignation on NBC television when he was asked if the United States could take a chance with him as commander-in-chief. “Well, I think absolutely,” he said. “I think if you saw what happened in Mexico the other day...I let them know where the United States stands. I mean, we’ve been badly hurt by Mexico...And if you look at what happened, look at the aftermath today where the people that arranged the trip in Mexico have been forced out of government. That’s how well we did.” In an apparent u-turn on those remarks, on Thursday Trump tweeted his appreciation for Videgaray, who was widely seen as Pena Nieto’s closest advisor in the Cabinet. “Mexico has lost a brilliant finance minister and wonderful man who I know is highly respected by President Pena Nieto,” he said. “With Luis, Mexico and the United States would have made wonderful deals together - where both Mexico and the United States would have benefitted.” Meade, a friend of Videgaray’s, was foreign minister when Trump launched his presidential bid in June 2015. He later moved to another ministry before his appointment on Wednesday as finance minister, a job he also held in the previous government. | 0fake |
Paul Ryan’s Plan To Use Bernie To Scare Voters Blew Up In His Face And Bernie Can’t Stop Laughing | By Michael Hayne Election 2016 , News , Politics October 28, 2016 Paul Ryan’s Plan To Use Bernie To Scare Voters Blew Up In His Face And Bernie Can’t Stop Laughing
The 2016 election continues to be the weirdest, dumbest, and most contentious presidential race in ages. But the one saving grace and glimmer of hope amid this Category 4 sh*tstorm is the idea of an empowered Senator Sanders.
A week ago, House Speaker Paul Ryan made the fatal mistake of using Bernie Sanders as a scare tactic to ensure that Congress remains in Republican hands. At a gathering of Young Republicans, Ryan implored Republicans to take the polls on Election Day in order to stop the scary “ liberal progressive” agenda. Ryan punctuated his warning by saying “ If we lose the Senate, do you know who becomes chair of the Senate Budget Committee? A guy named Bernie Sanders. You ever heard of him?”
Well, that single statement appears to have totally blown up in his face.
It’s not yet clear if the populist and beloved Senator from Vermont would chair the Senate Budget Committee should Democrats take back the Senate, but what is clear is that Bernie Sanders is cashing in on Ryan’s comments. Paul Ryan said if Republicans lose the Senate, a guy named Bernie Sanders becomes Budget Committee Chair. Sounds like a plan! #ThanksPaul
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) October 24, 2016
Hoping to convince the intractable “Bernie or Bust” crowd that a Democratically-controlled Senate is the best way to carry out his very progressive agenda, Sanders implored his 3.76 million followers to donate to Democrats. The Sanders team went so far as launching a “We Heard You Paul!” appeal to small donors. And it’s working–insanely well.
“Let’s thank Speaker Ryan for helping us raise $2.4 million this week from 500,000 contributions and show everyone how powerful the political revolution still is by using the hashtag #ThanksPaul across all social media channels today,” the Sanders camp announced Monday.
Sanders is in this thing for the long run and has no intention of slowing down anytime soon. The only way to ensure Ryan’s threat becomes a reality is turning the Congress blue.
Featured image via Alex Wong and Mark Wilson / Getty Share this Article! | 1real |
Protests at Donald Trump rally overshadow Washington primary win | Donald Trump easily won the Washington state primary on Tuesday, but his victory was overshadowed by violence outside a rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where protesters smashed windows and threw rocks at police.
With 73% of votes counted in Washington, Trump had won 76.2% of primary voters. John Kasich and Ted Cruz, both of whom have dropped out of the race, had won 9.9.% and 10.1% respectively.
Trump’s victory leaves him only needing a few dozen more delegates to reach the magic number of 1,237 required to cement the Republican nomination.
Outside Trump’s rally in Albuquerque, protests against the presumptive nominee turned nasty on Tuesday night, with protesters overturning crowd control barriers and throwing rocks at police.
There were early posts on social media reporting gunshots and tear gas, but the Albuquerque police department said those were inaccurate. Nonetheless, police horses were deployed to control the large crowd of protesters, and some reports showed pepper spray being used. The door to the convention center where Trump was speaking was also smashed.
More than an hour after Trump had finished speaking and left for California, where he will campaign for the next few days in the run-up to the state’s 7 June primary, hundreds of protesters still thronged the streets, waving Mexican flags, lighting fires and chanting.
Trump is the only remaining candidate campaigning for the Republican nomination, but Kasich and Cruz were also on the ballot in Washington, having suspended their campaigns after the ballots were printed.
Dr Ben Carson was also on the ballot because he reportedly never officially submitted a withdrawal of his candidacy to the state.
The state delegation, which was selected on Saturday at the state convention in preparation for the primary, is composed almost entirely of supporters of Cruz, whose supporters overwhelmed the state convention in Pasco.
Despite this, the delegates are bound by state party rules to vote for Trump on the first ballot at the national convention, US senate candidate and former chairman of the Washington state Republican party Chris Vance, who was at the convention, told the Guardian.
However, with seven upcoming primaries, including New Jersey and California, Trump is expected to easily overtake the delegate mark needed to win the nomination on the first ballot at the convention in Cleveland in July, avoiding a contested convention.
In a strange quirk of party politics, the Democrats also held a presidential primary in Washington on Tuesday, but it didn’t matter in the slightest because the Democratic delegation from Washington was already settled by a caucus in March, at which Bernie Sanders beat Hillary Clinton 73% to 27%.
Interestingly, in the Democratic primary – which was admittedly meaningless as it has no bearing on the number of delegates as opposed to the caucuses – Clinton won comfortably, 53.63% to 46.37%, implying that perhaps Democratic voters want the primary season to be, finally, over with. | 0fake |
Penn State President Claims MILO Creating ’Anti-Free Speech Movement’ - Breitbart | The President of Pennsylvania State University, Eric Barron, claimed that Breitbart’s MILO is creating an “ speech movement,” adding that the university “dodged a serious bullet” when they canceled his talk. [Discussing the riots that took place at UC Berkeley in protest of MILO’s event, Barron said that Penn State had “dodged a serious bullet” in that MILO’s event was canceled. after both parties failed to reach a contractual agreement. “He’s creating his own speech movement wherever he goes because his message really is, tear down the university, they’re just a bunch of liberals that don’t want to listen to anybody,” Barron continued. He went on to claim that protesters are generally not students, but organized by “ anarchist groups” who follow “white supremacists speakers and the MILO’s of the world. ” One of the key objectives of MILO’s tour was the promotion of free speech on typically censorious American college campuses. This week, legislators announced a Tennessee bill to protect freedom of speech on college campuses, known as “The Milo Bill” in recognition of his contribution to promoting the First Amendment. Barron’s speech was part of the university’s ‘All In’ campaign, designed to promote diversity and inclusion on campus, suggesting ideas such as “ courses” to increase “understanding of social justice and equity in the U. S,” as well as diversity training for the university’s police force. You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart. com | 0fake |
null | she is fit | 1real |
OBAMA’S GO BIG: Post White House Mansion Details | The Obama s know how to go big and their post-White House adobe is no exception! It s a HUGE (8,000 sq ft) mansion worth over $6 million! Of course, Obama made millions during his 8 years as president so it comes as now surprise that he ll be hanging around to make more in DC According to Market Watch, this move is raising some eyebrows:Already, some observers have criticized the 44th president s choice of Kalorama. As far as legacies go, the thought of our President of Hope and Change moving to one of the oldest, most established, filthy-richest neighborhoods in the city just doesn t jibe, sniffed Washingtonian magazine real estate columnist Hillary Kelly in a May 24 post. It s hard to imagine the Obama of eight years ago deciding to forgo the potential to move to a revitalizing area, or just a slightly less hoity one, in favor of a zip code where the blood runs royal blue and the servants stairs are still used by the help, she wrote.THE OBAMAS MOVE TO HOITY TOWN :By now you ve probably heard that Barack and Michelle Obama plan to relocate from the White House to a home in the upper-upper scale Sheridan-Kalorama neighborhood in northwest Washington.Like many Baby Boomers, they are downsizing from the 55,000-square-foot White House to a home of 8,000 square feet. Its interior is contemporary, and exterior inviting.The Obamas own a home in Chicago, so word about town is that they will be leasing the Kalorama home until both first daughters are finished with high school and in college.Kate Bennett of Independent Journal Review unloads lots of details on the nine-bedroom, eight-bathroom house:1) The house, located off Massachusetts Avenue NW, is owned by former White House press chief Joe Lockhart. It was purchased for $5.295 million in May 2014 and now has a current estimated value of $6.35 million, according to Redfin.2) The house is situated off Massachusetts Avenue NW and adjacent to Rock Creek Park.3) The Obamas, according to anonymous sources, worked privately with the Lockharts to reach a lease agreement for their bright and airy house, which features a large back patio, parking for up to 10 cars, and a full in-law suite (perfect for Michelle Obama s mother, Marian Robinson, who has since 2009 lived with the family in the White House), Ms. Bennett writes.Read more: WT | 1real |
Boeing to Begin Testing Self-Flying Airplanes - Breitbart | Airplane manufacturer Boeing is set to start testing vehicles according to new reports. [The Independent reports that Boeing will soon be testing planes, possibly utilizing artificial intelligence to make decisions usually left up to human pilots. Boeing’s aim is to develop an aircraft that can operate entirely with minimal human interaction. Planes can already take off, cruise, and land without much interaction from human pilots, so the idea of a fully functioning artificial plane is not too far fetched. Mike Sinnett, Boeing’s vice president of product development, told Reuters, “When I look at the future I see a need for you know 41, 000 commercial jet airplanes over the course of the next 20 years. And that means we’re going to need something like six hundred and seventeen thousand more pilots. That’s a lot of pilots. ” He continued to say, “so one of the ways that may be solved is by having some type of autonomous behaviour and that could be anything from taking instead of five pilots on a long haul flight down to three or two, taking two pilots down to one in a freight situation, or in some cases going from one to none. ” “So one of the ways that may be solved is by having some type of autonomous behaviour and that could be anything from taking instead of five pilots on a long haul flight down to three or two, taking two pilots down to one in a freight situation, or in some cases going from one to none,” he explained. Starting this summer, Boeing will use advanced cockpit simulators used in the training of pilots to test the new technology before implementing it in an actual aircraft. Boeing isn’t the only airplane manufacturer looking at automated travel: Airbus is currently working on flying cars and will be testing flying taxis by the end of 2017 with the aim of rolling out further access to the taxis in 2021. Airbus, however, is looking to develop an system while Boeing seems to be focusing on long haul, large passenger flights. Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lnolan@breitbart. com | 0fake |
HOW OBAMA MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR ISIS To Erase 2,000 Years Of Christianity From Iraq [VIDEO] | ISIS stormed into Mosul, Iraq last summer. Much of what took 2,000 years to build has been lost in a matter of months. There are no Christians left in Mosul Surely, our intelligence community warned Obama this would happen. If our President is so concerned about the welfare of Muslims (mostly men) supposedly escaping persecution by ISIS, why did he abandon these Christians in Iraq?Nothing is sacred to these monsters. Christian relics and books from the 1st century have been destroyed by ISIS. Christian homes in Mosul have been marked by ISIS. If you are a Christian and ISIS puts their mark on your home, it signifies you are expected to either convert to Islam, pay an extortion fee or face the sword. Unfortunately, democracy in Iran brought a new wave of persecution for Christians. When the US withdrew from Iraq completely, the situation became dire. The government was not capable of taking care of the Christian population and ISIS moved in to eradicate the Christian population and erase any trace of Christianity. Where Christians have been living for over 1,000 years, there is nothing but silence empty building and homes. | 1real |
Police say suspicious package at Frankfurt Christmas market harmless | FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A suspicious package that prompted an evacuation of a Christmas market in Frankfurt has turned out to be harmless, the city s police said on Twitter. Authorities said the package in question at Roemer square, the heart of the city s Christmas market, was a donation for the homeless. Well intentioned, but poorly placed, the police said on Twitter. The all clear came about 45 minutes after the evacuation was announced. | 0fake |
Lester Holt: presidential debate moderator and proven fact-checker | What will Lester Holt do when Donald Trump says that he opposed the Iraq war from the beginning?
Holt, 57, the most-watched daily news broadcaster in the country, has been tapped to moderate the first presidential debate Monday between Trump and Hillary Clinton. To say there is a lot riding on the night is not quite to capture it.
A record 100m Americans are expected to watch the showdown, probably making it one of the biggest television broadcasts ever. The political stakes are higher: many partisans on both sides think the fate of the republic, all 330m strong, is on the line.
Although under intense pressure from the Democratic side to play fact-checker as a bulwark against Trump’s baloney, and under equal pressure from the Republican side to stay out of it, Holt has not talked about how he sees his role. But he has shown persistence, in exclusive interviews with both candidates in recent months, in pinning the candidates down where they would rather speak unaccountably.
Hillary Clinton supporters hope that means that Holt might intervene, unlike his network colleague Matt Lauer at a forum earlier this month, should Trump repeat his lie about having opposed the Iraq invasion from the beginning, or should Trump roll out any of the other 48 “pants-on-fire” lies that the nonpartisan group Politifact has counted him telling.
Trump supporters may hope that a different Holt shows up, one closer to the amiable broadcaster who co-hosted a weekend morning show for 12 years. They want the man who announced the Westminster Kennel Club dog show for three consecutive years in the aughts, not a fact-checker of the nightly news.
After 35 years as a newscaster, Holt currently hosts the top-rated nightly news program in America, NBC Nightly News, attracting 7 to 8 million viewers on an average weeknight. Any doubts about the calibre of his talent that accompanied his unusual arrival in the role – amid the career implosion of his predecessor, Brian Williams – quickly dissipated. Holt drove the ratings still higher.
A native Californian who has written that he “grew up on air force bases”, Holt has reported from zones of armed conflict and natural disaster while charismatically serving up lighter stories as weekend anchor of NBC’s morning news and variety show, Today. He also plays upright bass.
Holt will encounter an unprecedented challenge, however, on Monday night, when he will mediate between two hungry candidates now tantalizingly close to claiming the most powerful post on Earth. He has interviewed both candidates in recent months, and brought a healthy journalistic antagonism to the job.
In June, Holt sat three feet away from Trump on gaudy Louis XVI chairs in Trump Tower, nearly knee-to-knee, and demanded that the candidate show evidence for a recent claim that Clinton’s private email server had been hacked. Anyone who doubts Holt’s ability to fact-check Trump should watch the exchange, in which he reduces Trump to the lame assurance, “I will report back to you.”
Two weeks later, Holt pressed Clinton on the opposite side of the email issue, confronting her with a finding by FBI director James Comey that she had been “extremely careless” in handling classified information. She ended up squirming, too.
Trump has expressed displeasure with Holt. “Lester is a Democrat,” Trump flatly told Fox News a week ago. But whether Holt checks that “fact” at the debate or not, it is false. Holt is a registered Republican.
| 0fake |
Investors gird for impact of Trump healthcare measures | (Reuters) - An order by President Donald Trump that could scale back enforcement of some Obamacare provisions is unlikely to sink health insurance stocks, but shares of hospitals and Medicaid providers could be under pressure over fears more poor people would lose coverage, analysts said. President Trump signed an executive order on Friday urging government departments to “waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation” of provisions of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, that imposed fiscal burdens on states, companies or individuals. While the order lacked details, it signaled the start of an effort by Trump and Republicans to repeal and replace the program, which expanded health coverage to some 20 million people. Obamacare has been plagued by increases in insurance premiums and deductibles and by some large insurers, including UnitedHealth Group Inc and Aetna Inc, largely pulling out of the system. Shares of UnitedHealth and Aetna were little changed in early trading on Monday. The equity markets dislike uncertainty and Trump’s executive order introduces at least a modest level of new uncertainty, J.P. Morgan analyst Gary Taylor wrote in a note on Monday. The new administration may no longer enforce an Affordable Care Act rule requiring individual Americans to pay a penalty for not carrying health insurance, Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, said on ABC’s “This Week” program on Sunday. The healthcare exchange system that is the cornerstone of the Affordable Care Act depends on premiums from healthy, younger individuals, typically between ages 18 to 34, to offset higher expenses for covering older, less healthy individuals. The scrapping of enforcement was “a real risk” for 2017 insurance exchanges enrollment, Sheryl R. Skolnick, a healthcare analyst for Mizuho Securities USA Inc, said in a research note on Saturday. “We have to wonder why the hospital companies and investors who have pushed the stocks back up to pre-election levels would be so enthusiastic,” Skolnick wrote. But young people did not buy health insurance at desired levels, even when penalties increased for not having the coverage, said Ana Gupte, a healthcare services analyst for Leerink Partners LLC in New York. “Fundamentally, I don’t think it’s going to make a difference,” if the so-called ‘individual mandate,’ requiring individuals to buy coverage or pay a penalty, is scrapped, said Gupte. Some experts also question whether the Obama administration itself was vigilant about enforcing the rule. “We’re not sure as to how vigorously it was being enforced anyway,” said Les Funtleyder, healthcare portfolio manager for E Squared Capital Management. Still, Trump’s plans could pressure shares of insurers such as Molina Healthcare Inc, Centene Corp and WellCare Health Plans Inc, who administer state Medicaid plans, over concerns that the number of insured, especially among the poorest, would shrink. Molina’s shares were down 0.7 percent, while Centene’s shares were down 0.5 percent. If Medicaid funding becomes less than what states are receiving now, “it will put pressure on the number of people who are covered through Medicaid expansion,” Gupte said. Hospitals may also be on the hook for more unpaid medical expenses as the number of uninsured individuals increase and seek emergency room treatment, Gupte added. Longer term, though, the hospital industry is lobbying to get more money for unpaid expenses and “it looks like they will get what they want,” Gupte said. Shares of hospital operators such as HCA Holdings Inc, Tenet Healthcare Corp and Community Health Systems Inc were down about 1 percent. “In reality, the executive order is just a sideshow to the main event – the Repeal/Replace legislation that Republicans are expected to introduce this year,” Taylor said. | 0fake |
Cliff Sims: House Healthcare Bill ’Still a Work in Progress’ | Cliff Sims, special assistant to President Trump, spoke with Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Tuesday about the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) release on the American Health Care Act. [While disputing the CBO numbers, Sims said, “This bill is still a work in progress. This bill is not finalized. The president has met with conservative allies over the last week or so, from the Heritage Foundation to Freedom Works and many other groups that have come in and met with him. ” Sims also cited members of congress and the Freedom Caucus as having met with Trump recently to share their concerns and ideas regarding any final bill. “I’ve been in the room,” added Sims, “where someone will bring up an idea or change that they’re suggesting to the bill, and the president will turn to the HHS secretary, the OMB director, or, if it’s Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell in the room, and say, ‘Will you guys think about this? Let’s kick this around. Let’s see if this is something that we should add. ’” Sims also paraphrased Trump’s recently expressed sentiments that “things are still under negotiation. We’re still trying to strengthen this bill. There’s a long way to go. ” Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. | 0fake |
BLACK JUDGE FINDS White Cop In Freddie Gray Case NOT GUILTY Of All Charges…PROTESTERS ERUPT [VIDEO] | No reason to deal in facts. A black man was killed by a white cop why bother with a trial right? The verdict is in for one of the officers tried in the death of Freddie Gray: not guilty.Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams found Officer Edward Nero, 30, not guilty of all charges Monday, The Baltimore Sun reports.For anyone who questions whether or not the trial was biased or unfair, they may want to consider Judge Williams commitment to civil rights:Judge Williams worked for the civil rights division of the U.S. Justice Department, 2002-2005. He was a trial attorney in the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice, 1997-2002. The officer elected to have a bench trial, which means he waved his right to a jury trial and allowed the judge to decide his fate.Prosecutors hit Nero with misdemeanor charges of second-degree assault, reckless endangerment as well as two counts of misconduct in office, which could have landed him with up to 15 years in prison.The prosecution argued that Nero was wrong in detaining Gray without a good reason and for not buckling him into the van. Five other officers were involved in the death. Officer Caesar Goodson Jr. will be the next tried, set to begin June 6.Police arrested Gray in April and transported him in the back of a police van. The details are unclear with conflicting accounts, but Gray appeared healthy when arrested and was severely injured within an hour after his encounter with police. His spinal cord was severely damaged and he died a week later from the injuries.Baltimore Police Officer William Porter, 26, was the first of six officers to be tried, but the case was declared a mistrial. All will be tried separately. Porter, who is black, is scheduled to be tried again in September. Although he did not arrest Gray, he is accused of not properly buckling him into the van, which may have allowed him to slide around in the back, potentially causing the injury.Read more: Daily Caller | 1real |
A Night of Tornadoes: 3 Are Dead as Storms Sweep the Midwest - The New York Times | Tornadoes lashed the Midwest on Tuesday, killing at least three people and leaving a trail of splintered homes, razed businesses and power losses. The severe weather extended into Wednesday, and forecasters said the and Deep South were also at risk for dangerous conditions. The authorities in Illinois said at least two people had died in the state, and Missouri officials reported one fatality after a frightening stretch of storms barreled through the region. A handful of homes were destroyed in Perryville, Mo. where one person died, and the Missouri Department of Public Safety said that some travelers along Interstate 55 had been affected. The National Weather Service said it was sending teams to survey storm damage, and the American Red Cross was opening shelters in the region, where officials reported dozens of injuries. The Weather Service warned that Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia were most likely to endure severe storms on Wednesday, though forecasters also said there was an “enhanced” risk for severe weather in parts of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. “Damaging winds are the primary severe threat,” the Weather Service said, “though a few tornadoes and hail will be possible, especially west of the Appalachians. ” | 0fake |
REPORTER ASKS: Will Obama Golf Instead of Attend Scalia Funeral? [VIDEO] | BRAVE GUY! | 1real |
Vitaly Mutko, Russia’s Deputy Premier, Is Barred From FIFA Leadership - The New York Times | World soccer’s governing body, FIFA, has barred Russia’s deputy prime minister, Vitaly Mutko, from seeking to his position as a top executive of the organization. Mr. Mutko, Russia’s former sports minister who was implicated in the nation’s doping scandal, failed an eligibility check conducted by FIFA’s review committee. He will leave his position as a FIFA council member in the spring, the organization said, just as preparations for the 2018 World Cup in Russia intensify. In comments to Russian state news media on Friday, Mr. Mutko — who has been part of FIFA’s governing board since 2009 — attributed the body’s decision to a new stipulation that top executives be politically neutral. He said he would not appeal the ruling. “I wanted to be ” Mr. Mutko told Tass, the state news agency. “As far as our stance and preparations for the World Cup finals are concerned, the committee’s decision has no bearing on that. ” Mr. Mutko, who is also the president of Russia’s soccer association, has led the 2018 Russia World Cup organizing committee since 2011. He and the Russian Sports Ministry he led faced enormous scrutiny last summer ahead of the Rio Olympics, when an investigation commissioned by the World Agency concluded that the Russian government had for years facilitated steroid use by hundreds of the nation’s top athletes and carried out an elaborate of urine samples at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Mr. Mutko was identified as having personally directed staff to cover up the drug violation of at least one soccer player. (FIFA’s review of the evidence against multiple soccer players implicated in the doping is continuing, and the organization did not say whether its internal investigation also focused on Mr. Mutko.) As a result of those revelations, Mr. Mutko and all Russian government officials were barred from attending the Rio Games, and hundreds of Russian athletes were denied entry to the Olympics and Paralympics. In an interview in Moscow last year, Mr. Mutko told The New York Times that he appreciated the support of FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, amid the scandal. Mr. Mutko disputed that Russia had a doping system, but he did not defend his deputy minister, who had been identified as a key architect of the cheating and was dismissed weeks later. President Vladimir V. Putin promoted Mr. Mutko to deputy prime minister from sports minister last October, installing a new sports minister to interact with global antidoping regulators. Regulators have cited Mr. Mutko’s removal from that role as a point of progress for Russia as the nation petitions to return to good standing in global sports. Early this month, Mr. Putin delivered his fullest acknowledgment yet of the scandal and Russia’s antidoping failures. In recent months, as Mr. Mutko maintained his role on FIFA’s executive council and sought to one of four places reserved for European representatives, Mr. Infantino disputed reports that he had asked Mr. Mutko to resign. Apart from doping, FIFA, too, has battled recent scandal, with dozens of global soccer officials indicted in 2015 by the United States on an array of corruption charges, including money laundering, racketeering and wire fraud. American authorities have continued their investigation over the last year, along with an inquiry into the Russian doping scandal. The process of conducting background and integrity checks on executives like Mr. Mutko is a new practice for FIFA, enacted last year as part of a set of changes in response to the United States case. Mr. Mutko was the only one of six men not to pass the review. “Russia was not accused of anything to do with money laundering,” Mr. Mutko said in Moscow last year, emphasizing he had not been implicated in the United States indictment. “We never said we had no issues with doping. ” | 0fake |
TRUMP CAMPAIGN being sued for humiliating Skittles candy by comparing it to Syrian Muslim infiltrators | TRUMP CAMPAIGN being sued for humiliating Skittles candy by comparing it to Syrian Muslim infiltrators It was a campaign ad that ignited a firestorm: Donald Trump Jr. tweeted a photo of a bowl of skittles and compared the colorful candy to Syrian jihadists posing as refugees. Now, the man who took the photo is suing Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and vice-presidential nominee Mike Pence for copyright infringement. Liberals accused the tweet of being insenstive, racist, and a micro-agression which forced them to seek shelter in the nearest safe room. CBC David Kittos, an expert photographer and former Cypriot refugee, says he never gave permission and never would give permission for his photo to be used in the ad. “The image, the way it was used is reprehensible,” said Kittos from his home in Surrey, England, in an interview with CBC News. “It’s ignoring the plight of the refugees and it’s completely unacceptable that someone who was born into privilege would steal my picture and use it to make this political point.” Kittos says when he first saw the tweet, he was “in shock.” He explains he took the photo in 2010 as an experiment using artificial lighting and posted it on Flickr . “I just couldn’t believe my humble picture of some Skittles would just be used by someone so powerful.” Kittos says his lawyer reached out to the Trump campaign to discuss the matter but got no response. So he reported a copyright violation to Twitter, and about a week after it was posted his Skittles photo was removed from Trump Jr.’s tweet. Even though his photo is no longer connected to the ad, Kittos decided to file a lawsuit at a federal court in Illinois. He says he wants to ensure the Trump campaign never uses the work again. As well, he wants to spread the message that “they can’t go around stealing from authors like myself. They’re not above the law.” The Trump campaign told CBC News it’s not commenting on the case at this time. Back in September, Trump Jr. defended the tweet. “I am surprised by the reaction simply because it is a metaphor for risk,” he said at a campaign stop in Boise, Idaho. Trump’s election campaign has called for “extreme vetting” of immigrants to the U.S., especially Muslims, to help weed out anyone who could be a danger to American citizens. While Trump’s position is popular with some Americans, his eldest son’s tweet ignited outrage on social media. “Sorry kid. For all we know you could be a poisonous Skittle,” someone tweeted along with a well-known photo of an injured and bloodied young Syrian boy. “The stupidity ensues,” commented another person. Even the Skittles owner, Mars, Inc., weighed in. “Skittles are candy. Refugees are people,” tweeted Denise Young, vice-president of corporate affairs. Kittos is seeking yet to be determined damages as part of the lawsuit. But he says he’s not in it for the money (sure he isn’t) and would have settled a for a public apology. Because that didn’t happen, he says he’s pursuing the lawsuit because “it’s the right thing to do.” | 1real |
Tucker Carlson to Border Angels Founder: Why Shouldn’t Borders Be Protected? | 21st Century Wire says Why shouldn t borders be protected? It is a fair question Tucker is asking Enrique Morones, founder of Border Angels (pro-immigration advocate group) in a recent discussion about President Trump s 10 point immigration plan.Morones was quick to call Trump s position on illegal immigration racist and xenophobic yet seemed to have no knowledge that the policies of Mexico are much more harsh with regard to illegal immigration. In Mexico illegal immigration is a felony, illegal immigrants can face deportations (based even on financial viability, physical and mental health) and up to 10 years in prison for repeat offenders. Tucker also points out that Mexico only allows 4% of their applicants clemency whereas the US grants 49% and Morones again seems completely unaware of the facts being presented.Certainly it is a sensitive topic that should be open for debate by all citizens but the critical thinkers out there are likely wondering Are Morones and many of those on the left confusing the difference between enforcing legal US immigration policies and acts of hatred? Why does he not hold Mexico to the same standard as the US? Watch the interview below and you decide.https://youtu.be/K_llng4kFokREAD MORE TRUMP NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Trump FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1real |
Republicans push for a permanent aristocracy | They’ve discovered, belatedly, that income inequality is a problem, and they’re no longer proposing to give tax breaks to the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans. Now they are proposing to give tax breaks to the wealthiest two-tenths of 1 percent of Americans.
On Tuesday afternoon, the House Rules Committee took up H.R. 1105, the “Death Tax Repeal Act of 2015,” with plans to bring it to a vote on the chamber floor Wednesday — Tax Day. It is an extraordinarily candid expression of the majority’s priorities: A tax cut costing the treasury $269 billion over a decade that would exclusively benefit individuals with wealth of more than $5.4 million and couples with wealth of more than $10.9 million.
That’s a tax break for only the 5,500 wealthiest households in the country each year, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. Of those, the 318 wealthiest estates each year — those worth $50 million or more — would see an average windfall of $20 million each, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
And this at a time when the gap between rich and poor is already worse than it has been since the Great Depression? Never in the history of plutocracy has so much been given away to so few who need it so little.
This is the ultimate perversion of the tea party movement, which began as a populist revolt in 2009 but has since been hijacked by wealthy and corporate interests. The estate tax has been part of American law in some form since 1797, according to the advocacy group Americans for Tax Fairness, a shield against the sort of permanent aristocracy our founders fought to rid themselves of.
It had long been a conservative ideal, and the essence of the American Dream, to believe that everybody should have an equal shot at success. But in their current bid to end the estate tax, Republicans could create a permanent elite of trust-fund babies.
The estate tax was a meaningful check on a permanent aristocracy as recently as 2001, when there were taxes on the portion of estates above $675,000; even then there were plenty of ways for the rich to shelter money for their heirs. As the son of a schoolteacher and a cabinetmaker, I’d like to see the estate tax exemptions lowered — so that taxes encourage enterprise and entrepreneurship while keeping to a minimum the number of Americans born who will never have to work a day in their lives. The current exemption of $5.4 million (the current estate tax has an effective rate averaging under 17 percent, according to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center) does little to prevent a permanent aristocracy from growing — and abolishing it entirely turns democracy into kleptocracy.
The kleptocrats offer all sorts of bogus justifications for giving away $269 billion to a few thousand of the wealthiest Americans.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), appearing late Tuesday before the Rules Committee, claimed that the estate tax is “absolutely devastating” to family farms, and he claimed the repeal would remove “an additional layer of taxation” from assets that had already been taxed.
Double taxation? Americans for Tax Fairness, citing Federal Reserve data, notes that 55 percent of the value of estates worth more than $100 million comprises unrealized capital gains that have never been taxed.
Hurting family farmers and small businesses? In the entire country, only 120 small businesses and farms (100 of them large farms) were hit by the estate tax in 2013. And for that tiny number affected, there are all sorts of provisions already in place to soften the blow: low valuation rules, delayed tax payments and other breaks and discounts.
GOP leaders such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and House Speaker John Boehner (Ohio) have begun to recognize that the vast gap between rich and poor is detrimental — and to blame the problem on President Obama. Their solution, so far, has been to propose cuts of hundreds of billions of dollars from food stamps, Pell grants, Medicaid and other programs for those without means — and, on Tax Day, to give $269 billion to the few who already have the most.
“It sounds to me like there’s a lot of wealth envy in this country,” Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) complained while serving as chairwoman of the Rules Committee debate Tuesday. The bill abolishing the estate tax, she said, “will draw a line in the sand.”
Yes, it will: between the wealthiest two-tenths of 1 percent — and everybody else.
Read more from Dana Milbank’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. | 0fake |
Yemen cholera cases could hit 1 million by year-end: Red Cross | GENEVA (Reuters) - The humanitarian situation in Yemen is a catastrophe , and cholera cases could reach a million by the end of the year, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Friday. Warring parties in Yemen - including the western-backed Saudi-led coalition - are all using disproportionate force, leading to very excessive civilian casualties, said Alexandre Faite, the head of the Red Cross delegation in Yemen. In addition, suspected cases of cholera have reached 750,000, with 2,119 deaths, Faite said, and the Red Cross expects at least 900,000 cases by the end of the year. The situation has really evolved in a very dramatic way and I think that it s nothing short of a catastrophe, Faite told a news briefing in Geneva. Civil war in Yemen has killed more than 10,000 people since it began in March 2015. Control of the country is split between the Iran-aligned Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa. Opposed to the Houthis are a Saudi-led coalition. With the main port of Hodeidah damaged, the Red Cross brings medical aid, including insulin, into Yemen with occasional cargo planes to Sanaa. Other goods come by land convoys from Jordan and Oman and by ship from Jordan, Oman and Dubai. A ship from Karachi with 500 metric tonnes of rice is now due on Oct 7 in Hodeidah, the first ICRC shipment there since early February. Faite called on all sides to open Sanaa airport to commercial flights for essential aid supplies and to make progress toward allowing the Red Cross to visit prisoners of war. I don t think political settlement is coming soon and I m very worried that the extension of the conflict would lead to more problems, Faite said. This is why humanitarian aid, access of essential goods should be there, he said. There is a bottleneck . Although the death rate for cholera victims has dropped to less than 0.3 percent, Faite said Yemen s health sector is really on its knees in Yemen ... the health staff is on its knees as well because they are not paid. For the first time, the Red Cross is now providing health workers with food parcels, he said. In terms of access to even water, electricity, there isn t a power grid in the main cities in Yemen. Without the ICRC and other organizations fixing (pumping stations) there wouldn t be any running water in Sanaa, he said. | 0fake |
WE’VE GOT THE LIST Of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s Speeches You Won’t Believe! | Bill and Hillary Clinton whored themselves out for over $25 million dollars from 2013 to 2015 the disturbing thing is that there is no video or transcript to be found of these speeches. The list of who they spoke to is a who s who of the banking and health industry. What on earth could they have said to garner such a huge fee? Hummmm Many things come to mind looking at this data: The median income for a family of 4 (two workers) is around $50,000 a year.Yet, we have a presidential candidate railing against the 1% and big businesses while fighting for the downtrodden who makes more in a 20-30 minute speech then a family can earn in 4 years??!!.An average 20 minute speech has 2500 words so she made about $100.00 a WORD for many of these speeches.What what so valuable in these short speeches to justify a quarter million dollars per pop??You notice we have not seen a single transcript or video of any of these??? Surprising in this day of technology where everything is recorded.How would Hillary s narrative of chastising the big banks actually hold up compared to what she actually said??? Especially, when participants only remember her talking to them in glowing terms??? Not that Hillary has ever stretched the truth before .How could all these companies justify these expenses to their board without showing some return in kind ??? The Clinton s paid speeches between 2013 and 2015Hillary Clinton s speeches:GE 1/6/2014 Boca Raton, Fl. $225,500 National Automobile Dealers Association 1/27/2014 New Orleans, La. $325,500 Premier Health Alliance 1/27/2014 Miami, Fl. $225,500 Salesforce.com 2/6/2014 Las Vegas, Nv. $225,500 Novo Nordisk A/S 2/17/2014 Mexico City, Mexico 125,000 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society 2/26/2014 Orlando, Fl. $225,500 A&E Television Networks 2/27/2014 New York, N.Y. 280,000 Association of Corporate Counsel Southern California 3/4/2014 Los Angeles, Ca. $225,500 The Vancouver Board of Trade 3/5/2014 Vancouver, Canada $275,500 tinePublic Inc. 3/6/2014 Calgary, Canada $225,500 Pharmaceutical Care Management Association 3/13/2014 Orlando, Fl. $225,500 Drug Chemical and Associated Technologies 3/13/2014 New York, N.Y. $250,000 Xerox Corporation 3/18/2014 New York, N.Y. $225,000 Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal 3/18/2014 Montreal, Canada $275,000 Academic Partnerships 3/24/2014 Dallas, Tx. $225,500 Marketo Inc. 4/8/2014 San Francisco, Ca. $225,500 World Affairs Council 4/8/2014 Portland, Or. $250,500 Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. 4/10/2014 Las Vegas, Nv. $225,500 Let s Talk Entertainment 4/10/2014 San Jose, Ca. $265,000 California Medical Association (via satellite) 4/11/2014 San Diego, Ca. $100,000 National Council for Behavioral Healthcare 5/6/2014 Washington D.C. $225,500 International Deli-Dairy-Bakery Association 6/2/2014 Denver, Co. $225,500 Let s Talk Entertainment 6/2/2014 Denver, Co. $265,000 United Fresh Produce Association 6/10/2014 Chicago, Il. $225,000 tinePublic Inc. 6/16/2014 Toronto, Canada $150,000 tinePublic Inc. 6/18/2014 Edmonton, Canada $100,000 Innovation Arts and Entertainment 6/20/2014 Austin, Tx. $150,000 Biotechnology Industry Organization 6/25/2014 San Diego, Ca. $335,000 Innovation Arts and Entertainment 6/25/2014 San Francisco, Ca. $150,000 GTCR 6/26/2014 Chicago, Il. $280,000 Knewton, Inc. 7/22/2014 San Francisco, Ca. $225,500 Ameriprise 7/26/2014 Boston, Ma. $225,500 Corning, Inc. 7/29/2014 Corning, N.Y. $225,500 Nexenta Systems, Inc. 8/28/2014 San Francisco, Ca. $300,000 Cisco 8/28/2014 Las Vegas, Nv. $325,000 Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP 9/4/2014 San Diego, Ca. $225,500 Caridovascular Research Foundation 9/15/2014 Washington D.C. $275,000 Commercial Real Estate Women Network 10/2/2014 Miami Beach, Fl. $225,500 Canada 2020 10/6/2014 Ottawa, Canada $215,500 Deutsche Bank AG 10/7/2014 New York, N.Y. $280,000 Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) 10/8/2014 Chicago, Il. $265,000 Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers 10/13/2014 Colorado Springs, Co. $225,500 Salesforce.com 10/14/2014 San Francisco, Ca. $225,500 Qualcomm Incorporated 10/14/2014 San Diego, Ca. $335,000 Massachusetts Conference for Women 12/4/2014 Boston, Ma. $205,500 tinePublic Inc. 1/21/2015 Winnipeg, Canada $262,000 tinePublic Inc. 1/21/2015 Saskatoon, Canada $262,500 Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce 1/22/2015 Whistler, Canada $150,000 2/24/2015 Santa Clara, Ca. $225,500 eBay Inc. 3/11/2015 San Jose, Ca. $315,000 American Camping Association 3/19/2015 Atlantic City, N.J. $260,000 TOTAL $11,987,000 Bill Clinton s speeches:Patient Safety Movement Foundation 1/12/2014 Laguna Niguel, Ca. $315,000.00 National Multi Housing Council 1/23/2014 Boca Raton, Fl. $285,000 Thomas Lloyd Global Asset Management 1/24/2014 Frankfurt, Germany $200,000 The Fragrance Foundation 1/29/2014 New York, N.Y. $250,000 2/4/2014 Las Vegas, Nv. $290,000 Centurion Jewelry By Invitation Only, LLC 2/4/2014 Scottsdale, Az. $225,000 Young s Presidents Organization 2/27/2014 Los Angeles, Ca. $100,000 Bright Futures International 2/27/2014 Beverly Hills, Ca. $225,000 Microsoft Corporation 3/3/2014 Las Vegas, Nv. $225,000 Bank of America 3/6/2014 London, United Kingdom $500,000 Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP 3/7/2014 The Netherlands $500,000 Telefonica (via satellite) 4/1/2014 Miami, Fl. $175,000 CSP LLC 4/1/2014 Scottsdale, Az. $225,000 Oracle Americas, Inc. 4/2/2014 Rancho Mirage, Ca. $300,000 Experian 5/5/2014 Dallas, Tx. $225,000 Jefferies LLC 5/6/2014 Miami, Fl. $225,000 Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies 5/12/2014 Toronto, Canada $275,000 Target Markets Program Administrators 5/13/2014 Baltimore, Md. $275,000 UBS Wealth Management Americas 5/19/2014 Washington D.C. $225,000 SCIP Capital Management, LLC 5/20/2014 New York, N.Y. $250,000 EAT The Stockholm Food Forum AB 5/26/2014 Stockholm, Sweeden $500,000 Entergy Corporation 6/5/2014 New York, N.Y. $250,000 Insurance Accounting and Systems Association 6/10/2014 Indianapolis, In. $225,000 Castlight Health 6/10/2014 New York, N.Y. $250,000 Hogan Lovelis US LLP 6/20/2014 Toronto, Canada $225,000 Skechers USA, Inc. 6/26/2014 Redondo Beach, Ca. $350,000 Deutsche Bank AG 8/27/2014 Boston, Ma. $270,000 Young s Presidents Organization 9/9/2014 New York, N.Y. $150,000 Association of Energy Engineers 10/1/2014 Washington D.C. $275,000 Affiliated Managers Group, Inc. 10/9/2014 Napa Valley, Ca. $225,000 Veritas Capital Fund Management LLC 10/14/2014 New York, N.Y. $250,000 UBS Wealth Management Americas 10/14/2014 Boston, Ma. $225,000 Citadel LLC 10/15/2014 New York, N.Y. $250,000 SAP America 10/23/2014 New York, N.Y. $250,000 Press Ganey Associates, Inc. 11/3/2014 Orlando, Fl. $225,000 World Affairs Council Los Angeles 11/10/2014 Los Angeles, Ca. $150,000 Centerview Partners LLC 11/13/2014 Carefree, Az. $225,000 AT&T Services, Inc. 11/20/2014 Tuscon, Az. $225,000 Williams Morris Endeavor 1/9/2015 Carlsbad, Ca. $225,000 MPSF, Inc. 2/2/2015 Marin, Ca. $181,250 MPSF, Inc. 2/3/2015 Oakland, Ca. $181,250 MPSF, Inc. 2/4/2015 San Mateo, Ca. $181,250 MPSF, Inc. 2/5/2015 Marin, Ca. $181,250 UBS Wealth Management Americas 2/19/2015 Nashville, Tn. $225,000 National Association of Manufacturers 3/2/2015 Scottsdale, Az. $325,000 HR.com Limited 3/31/2015 Irving, Tx. $275,000 Texas China Business Council, LLC 3/31/2015 Austin, Tx. $265,000 Wyndham Hotel Group 4/1/2015 Las Vegas, Nv. $225,000 ISN Software Inc. 4/9/2015 Grapevine, Tx. $275,000 Oracle Corporation 4/16/2015 Rancho Mirage, Ca. $360,000 Univision Management Company 5/12/2015 New York, N.Y. $250,000 Apollo Management Holdings, LP 5/12/2015 New York, N.Y. $250,000 American Institute of Architects 5/14/2015 Atlanta, Ga. $250,000 TOTAL $13,460,000.00 Read more: Politico | 1real |
null | http://82.221.129.208/basepages2.html The NYPD TRUMPED the FBI! That is why they had to investigate Hillary! Well well, the NYPD is what busted the Hillary mails open while they were looking for kiddie stuff on Wieners laptop, and THAT is why the FBI was forced to investigate Hillary. They had no choice. NYPD TRUMPS FBI!!! | 1real |
Colombia's FARC leader Timochenko to run for presidency in 2018 | BOGOTA (Reuters) - Veteran FARC leader Rodrigo Londono - known as Timochenko - will run for the presidency of Colombia next year, with the backing of former FARC rebels, the group s new political party said on Wednesday. However, he and other ex-commanders will likely face trials for human rights crimes and it is unclear how they would serve in office if sentenced. The Marxist FARC demobilized under a peace deal with the government last year, ending more than five decades of war. They are now the Revolutionary Alternative Common Force party, still referring to themselves by the Spanish initials FARC. The party is guaranteed 10 seats in Congress through 2026 by the accord, regardless of its success in elections. Among senate candidates will be former guerrilla commanders Ivan Marquez, Pablo Catatumbo, Carlos Antonio Lozada and Victoria Sandino, the FARC said on Wednesday. The party will also run candidates for the lower house in five districts. The group reiterated its willingness to forming a coalition with other leftist parties, a tacit acknowledgement it may have little electoral pull among skeptical Colombians. We manifest our willingness to hold talks with all social political groups and movements to make united lists, the FARC said in a statement. Londono, best known by his war alias Timochenko, suffered a stroke this year and has received treatment in Cuba. It remains unclear how the FARC members would complete their terms if they are tried or sentenced by transitional justice tribunals tasked with bringing former rebels to justice for crimes like murder, kidnapping and rape. The maximum sentence the tribunals can hand out is eight years and those convicted will avoid traditional jails, instead doing reparations work like removing land mines. In a Wednesday press conference, the FARC leaders did not clarify how they would serve possible sentences while holding elected positions. More than 11,000 FARC fighters and supporters handed over their weapons to the United Nations during demobilization. Another 1,000 refused to lay down their arms and continue to operate lucrative drug trafficking and illegal mining operations. The FARC has sought to distance itself from the dissidents and the government has authorized air raids against them. There is a crowded field for 2018 s presidential race, which looks set to focus more on issues like the economy and corruption than on implementation of the deal, the cornerstone of current President Juan Manuel Santos legacy. Security does however remain on the minds of many voters, especially after farmers were killed in a confrontation with police last month. | 0fake |
ISIS Kills Afghan Tribal Elders in Jalalabad Suicide Attack | Council of Elders Intended to Set Up Anti-ISIS Coalition by Jason Ditz, October 31, 2016 Share This
ISIS has killed a number of Afghan tribal elders and wounded several more in Nangarhar Province’s main city of Jalalabad today, with a suicide bomber from the group targeting a meeting of the council of elders in the city.
The details are still scant, but ISIS claims that the council was established in part to discuss the formation of a tribal anti-ISIS coalition in the area. They claimed 15 killed and 25 wounded, labeling the victims “apostates.”
Afghan government officials put the toll a lot lower, saying only four were killed and seven wounded in the attack. Nangarhar is the main base of operations for ISIS forces in Afghanistan, though they’ve recently begun to pop up around several other provinces.
Whether the council was at the point of establishing an anti-ISIS coalition or not, this is in keeping with the group’s reaction to any sign of growing local resistance, with ISIS having similarly made an example of tribal groups in Iraq and Syria during their establishment there. Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz | 1real |
SHOCKING VIDEOS Prove That Hillary Is Willing To Endanger Lives In U.S. And Abroad To Protect Her Political Ambitions | Do Americans even remember the worldwide violence and hate inspired by Hillary s announcement that the Benghazi attack was a result of an amateur anti-Islam video? She was willing to throw the entire world under the bus to save her political career Watch video below, as our American flag is being ripped down and replaced by ISIS flag on our U.S. Embassy in Cairo. Note the ISIS flags being carried by protesters of the anti-Islam movie that Hillary told the world was caused the Benghazi attack.Who would hire a woman to lead our country when she was willing to watch the world burn and create violent clashes around the world in order to cover up her ineptness as a Secretary of State?And then there s the condemnation of America by a Washington DC imam that demand the American Embassy in Cairo needed to be attacked because of the anti-Islam film. Of course, his rhetoric was overlooked because the real issue is of course, Americans who are islamaphobic https://youtu.be/K_QcAfXwOJoThe violent anti US protest that shut down Sydney turning the city streets into a bloody battle field have been condemned by leaders on all levels. Six police officers and 17 others were injured when the demonstrations spiraled into chaos.Here is Hillary being exposed as a liar during the Benghazi hearing that the mainstream media claims she walked away from unscathed:In her most disgraceful act yet, Hillary addresses friends and families of Benghazi victims at their funeral. Watch at the 13:12 mark when Hillary lies about the reason for the murder of these 4 innocent Americans:Here s CNN s Jeffrey Toobin working in concert with shameless Hillary who used her time testifying before Congress to blame Ambassador Christopher Stevens himself for the Benghazi attack: | 1real |
You Won’t Believe What Hit This Pro-TPP Politician In The Face (VIDEO) | George W. Bush was famously attacked with flying shoes. So was Hillary Clinton. William Kristol was hit in the face with a cream pie. Last month, Donald Trump barely escaped being hit with tomatoes.The takeaway? American projectiles are lame.In order to see how it s really done, we have to travel by video to New Zealand where Minister Steven Joyce was hit in the face this week with a flying rubber dildo hurled by a protester. Joyce is a conservative member of the island nation s House of Representatives who supports the infamous trade agreement known as TPP the Trans-Pacific Partnership.The unknown dildo-tossing protester was arrested by law enforcement.Joyce was holding a press conference in Waitingi on the North Island during which he was discussing the benefits of the TPP. That s when the dildo smacked point-blank in Joyce s face.After being hit, Joyce said astutely, It would be unfortunate for being known for this incident. As the New York Post quipped: too late.Of course, I stand by my position that assaulting public officials with projectiles or blood-red paint or, for that matter, sex toys is bad form and only serves to underscore how the respective protesters are clearly incapable of verbally expressing their dissatisfaction. Which case, they probably should seek out other hobbies because activism isn t their bag. But, I will admit, seeing a stuffy conservative politician get hit in the face with a flying penis is never not funny.Now that I m really thinking about it, part of me wishes this had been Ted Cruz? If there s one man in the United States who s in desperate need of being hit in the face with a giant rubber dick, it s Ted Cruz. Best case: Cruz getting hit in the face with a penis while he s doing his awful misquoted JFK impression. (I m joking of course. Hitting Ted Cruz in the face with a penis is wrong and illegal.)Featured image via video screen grab NY Post | 1real |
Buzzfeed Editor Smith Clashes With CNN’s Stelter on Trump Dossier - Breitbart | Sunday on CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” host Brian Stelter debated BuzzFeed Ben Smith over BuzzFeed News’ decision to publish an unverified dossier about Donald Trump and Russia. Partial transcript as follows: STELTER: Were you trying to just get clicks? SMITH: I think Sean quoted me in saying it was unverified. There’s obviously an attempt right now to divide the press, to turn us on each other and turn reasonable differences about editorial decisions into screaming matches between us on this show. I think that’s a trap that the media has repeatedly fallen into over the last couple of years. I think it’s better not to right now. STELTER: There’s a tension between there’s reasons to have unity and the other hand as Jake Tapper said what you did is irresponsible and that hurts us all. SMITH: I wouldn’t say it was irresponsible to say we have a secret document and we’re not going to share it. I would disagree with that but I think it’s a reasonable thought. STELTER: It’s not possible to have unity in the press corps if Buzzfeed is acting more like Wikileaks just dumping material on the internet and telling the audience to decide if it’s true or not. SMITH: I think we reported a very important story — STELTER: there’s a difference between publishing and reporting. SMITH: We explained the origin of the document. we described the extent to which it was accurate and inaccurate and we shared information that was being — by the way that not just the head of the CIA, dozens if not hundreds of journalists, intelligence officials, elected leaders were seeing and acting on. I do think when you have a document in that kind of circulation among the country’s elites at the center of an incredibly heated political battle, the argument of keeping it away from the American people has to be really really strong. Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 0fake |
Oil of Oregano: A Powerhouse for the Alternative Medicine Cabinet | by ANYA V
Oregano oil is the ultimate antibiotic. Oregano is a powerful herb with unique healing properties. Did you know that oregano has eight times more antioxidants than apples and three times as much as blueberries? Antioxidants are needed to protect our body against free radical damage. They boost the immune-system naturally. Oregano Oil is the most potent plant oil in the world! The distribution of oregano oil started in Ancient Greece. In Greek the word oregano is translated as joy of the mountains . The Greeks were first to use oil for medicinal purposes, such as a powerful antiviral, antibacterial, antiseptic, antifungal agent and also as a remedy for pain, and inflammation. It was the main antibacterial tool used by Hippocrates. Oregano leaves were traditionally used to treat illnesses related to the respiratory and digestive systems. Oregano Oil is The Ultimate Antibiotic
Main Ingredients: Oregano Essential Oil is a mineral density powerhouse. It contains calcium, magnesium, zinc, iron, potassium, copper, boron, manganese, vitamins C, A (beta-carotene), Niacin. Oregano oil contains four main groups of chemicals which are active healing agents.
Phenols including carvacrol and thymol. They act as antiseptics and antioxidants. Terpenes including pinene and terpinene. They possess antiseptic, antiviral, anti-inflammatory and anesthetic properties. Linalool and bonreol are two long-chain alcohols found in oregano oil. They exhibit antiviral and antiseptic properties. Esters include linalyl acetate and geranyl acetate. They exhibit antifungal properties. Although all these compounds possess healing properties, the most significant primary compound found in oregano oil is carvacrol. Scientific research has proved carvacrol to be one of the most effective antibiotics known to science. Not All Oregano Oil is Created Equal
Real wild Mediteranean Oregano needs to be either of origanum vulgare kind, or Thymus capitatus , which mostly grows in Spain. It is very important to make sure the Oil of Oregano is derived from these two kinds. It also has to have the carvacrol concentration of 70% or more. Most importantly, oregano essential oil does not create harmful strains in the body and does not have side effects the pharmaceutical antibiotics do. Moreover, it is effective against a dangerous and even deadly bacteria, but does not produce biological changes in the body. Oregano essential oil nourishes the body and doesn’t deplete it of nutrients like conventional antibiotics do. And if you look at the statistics, people in the Mediterranean live longer for the most part. Maybe partly because of oregano which is added to most Mediterranean dishes! | 1real |
Unrest bubbles among Trump's key foreign policy aides: sources | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Frustration is mounting among leading foreign policy officials in President Donald Trump’s administration as they chafe at some policy and bureaucratic defeats and complain they lack independence to do their jobs, officials say. The clash between internationalists urging the traditional U.S. leadership role in the world and advocates of an “America First” approach has worn down foreign policy and intelligence professionals inside the government, according to the officials. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has told friends he will be lucky to last a year in his job, according to a friend, while two officials said national security adviser H.R. McMaster was frustrated by what he sees as disorganization and indiscipline on key policy issues inside the White House. A source familiar with the situation told Reuters that Tillerson was “very upset at not having autonomy, independence and control over his own department and the ability to do the job the way the job ... is traditionally done.” The source said he had heard nothing about any possible departure, but added: “The situation doesn’t seem to be getting any better, and in some respects appears to be getting worse.” R.C. Hammond, Tillerson’s spokesman, denied Tillerson was considering leaving or that his frustrations were boiling over, saying he had “plenty of reasons to stay on the job, and all of them are important to America.” “There’s a desperate need for American leadership in the world and that’s where the secretary’s focusing his attention,” he said. Tillerson scored a policy win last week when the administration certified, albeit reluctantly, that Iran was complying with the 2015 nuclear deal under which Tehran agreed to restrain its atomic program in exchange for sanctions relief. He was upset, however, by fierce internal criticism from Trump, as well as his chief strategist, Steve Bannon, and White House aide Sebastian Gorka, over the decision, said another U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The secretary does not feel that White House staff members should be in a position to conduct hostile cross-(examinations) of Cabinet officials,” the official said. Hammond disputed the account of harsh discord between Trump and Tillerson regarding recertifying the Iran nuclear deal, saying: “I don’t buy this whole thing that there are tensions. Developing public policy is about vetting out ideas,” he said. Following last month’s move by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt to boycott Qatar, which they accuse of financing extremist groups and supporting terrorism, Tillerson publicly asked the nations to ease their blockade, and put the onus on both sides to end the crisis. Less than 90 minutes later, Trump accused Qatar of being a “high level” sponsor of terrorism and suggested he had helped plan the Qatar action with Arab leaders. “As a government we offered some confusing signals, but we’ve since been able to clear up and clarify that,” Hammond said. Politico reported last month that Tillerson was furious with Johnny DeStefano, the head of the presidential personnel office, for torpedoing proposed nominees to key State Department posts. Senior national security officials said McMaster was dismayed that his recommendations, backed by his senior director for Russia, Fiona Hill, about taking a tough stance with Russian President Vladimir Putin, had been ignored. Trump has questioned the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to try to help him defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. McMaster, a three-star Army general who once praised Trump as a “disruptive” figure, is also troubled by a protracted debate about sending more U.S. forces to help Afghanistan reverse gains by the Taliban, officials familiar with the matter told Reuters. Asked to respond to the characterizations of the views of McMaster and other officials, a White House official said: “Assertions not of fact but of state of mind in internal thought have no place in a story like this.” While circumspect, Tillerson talked about the challenges of his new job earlier this month, telling reporters that it differed from his former role as chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp, where “I was the ultimate decision-maker. That always makes life easier.” “I knew what to expect and we had very long-standing disciplined processes and decision-making,” he said. “Those are not the characteristics of the United States government.” | 0fake |
Murdered Chicago Teen Was Ward Of The State…So Why Did His Mom And Sister Get $5 Million Settlement? | Absent parent Cashin in McDonald was the teen who was shot by the Chicago officer 16 times, some while he was apparently incapacitated on the ground. His family, namely his mother and sister were paid $5 million in a settlement from the city. But they were not taking care of him, the city effectively was. He was removed from his home at age 5 and grew up in foster homes. One has to wonder was he removed from the home because of the molestation?CHICAGO (CBS) Who was Laquan McDonald? CBS 2 s Dorothy Tucker takes a look at his complicated life from the view of educators and family friends.Yolanda Hoskins speaks affectionately about the Laquan McDonald. He was her son s best friend. Happy and just wanted to be around somebody and feel loved, she said.The 17-year-old she knew liked basketball, tacos and gym shoes, but he also had a troubled past. He was a ward of the state, she said. He was molested too. His death at the hands of a Chicago Police officer who s accused of shooting him 16 times prompted Hoskins to join community activists in a call for justice.There have been questions raised about the failure to release the video earlier and some have accused Rahm Emanuel of holding it back to not hinder his election, and paying the family off. The family apparently was shown the video but did not seek to make it public, in fact, said they would prefer it not to be public as what mother would want to see the execution of her son over and over . As part of the settlement they agreed to keep it confidential.Update:Here s more on the short life of Laquan McDonald. His mother at every point failed him, mother s boyfriend abused him and he had to be removed from the home. And you wonder how he became a druggie and ended up high on PCP? Sure makes me happy his mother got $5 million dollars for how much she failed him Via: Weasel Zippers | 1real |
WATCH: Trump Supporter Calls For Sending Black People Back To Africa | Donald Trump s pathetic outreach effort to sway black voters into supporting him just took a major hit.Just when you thought Trump and his supporters couldn t say anything worse to offend black people, a North Carolina pastor who supports the Republican nominee just pitched a let s send black people back to Africa plan reminiscent of similar ideas racists have had throughout American history.During an interview with CNN host Carol Costello, Thomas Rodgers, Sr. of Antioch Road to Glory International Ministries advocated on the air for returning black people to Africa to get jobs building a road to the United States across the Atlantic Ocean.Rodgers claimed that African-Americans do not seek dual citizenship and said that is why black people join gangs. Oh, he also says black people have no vision and no leadership. African-Americans are the only people in the world who do not seek dual citizenship. That s why Chicago gangs, California gangs, the Crips and the Bloods and Detroit in Michigan we have gangs in the streets because blacks have no vision, they have no leadership. Costello then asked Rodgers to explain his idea to build a bridge to Africa, and that s when the interview completely went off the rails. Matter of fact, where our ancestors came from, from the Indian Ocean all the way across the Atlantic Ocean, that s 4,000 miles and we want to go back and help with the highways all the way across, to create jobs, train rails, pipelines, oil, petroleum. They create jobs for young people that can t find jobs here, that the Democrats have not did. Of course, the unemployment rate in the black community dropped to 8.2 percent under the policies of President Obama, a Democrat and it was 6 percent under Democratic President Bill Clinton. So Rodgers is wrong on that point.A confused Costello asked, So you are suggesting young people in trouble should go back to Africa, perhaps to find jobs? Rodgers argued semantics, claiming that he is just calling for black people to return to Africa, which is basically the same thing as going back, just using a different wording. And then he claimed that black people don t want to stay in this country. It s a clause in the United Nations charter, our right to return, to help build infrastructure. Everybody don t want to stay here. We are skilled people. Rodgers remarks drew laughter from strategist Angela Rye, whose facial reactions while Rodgers spoke were the same that every normal person watching at home were making, pointed out that building a literal bridge between the United States and Africa is impossible.Here s the video via YouTube.The suggestion that black people should be sent back or returned to Africa has been around for a long time, particularly by white supremacists who want to turn America white again, which is why they support Donald Trump.It s offensive and suggests that black people are not capable of living in Western societies.The fact is, however, that systemic racism in this country has held African-Americans back and that is what needs to change. Black people do not need to be sent back anywhere. The system just has to be fixed so that it benefits everyone equally.Rodgers remarks should guarantee that Republicans never get a vote from a black person ever again.Featured image via Spencer Platt/Getty Images | 1real |
Trump retreats on comments on raising taxes on the wealthy | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump backtracked on Monday on his remarks about raising taxes on wealthy Americans, saying the rich might simply get a smaller tax cut than he originally proposed. Trump walked away from his Sunday comment that taxes on the wealthy would “go up” once his broad tax policy proposals, which include tax cuts for rich Americans, were negotiated with Congress. That appeared to be a break with traditional Republican support for lower taxes in all income brackets. On Monday, Trump said he did not mean to imply he was willing to raise taxes for people in higher-income brackets from their current level, but was referring to potential adjustments to his own tax policy proposal. “I may have to increase it on the wealthy - I’m not going to allow it to be increased on the middle class,” Trump said on CNN. “Now, if I increase it on the wealthy, that means they’re still going to be paying less than they are paying now. I’m talking about increasing it from my (original) tax proposal.” The proposal, released in September, included broad tax breaks for businesses and households, with the highest income tax rate cut to 25 percent from the current 39.6 percent. Trump, a billionaire real estate developer, said on Monday that lowering taxes on the middle class and businesses was his priority. “I’m not talking about a tax increase. I’m talking about a tremendous tax decrease, OK?” Trump said on the Fox Business Network. He said proposals always changed in negotiations with Congress but that he was committed to cutting taxes. The contradictory statements came as Trump began pivoting to a general election race against likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Trump effectively clinched the Republican nomination for the Nov. 8 presidential election last week after his last two rivals dropped out of the race. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former Bush administration official who also advised Republican John McCain during his failed 2008 presidential run, said Trump was trying to make his economic plans add up. “He’s gone from wildly unrealistic to impenetrable” on the subject of taxes, Holtz-Eakin said, adding that Trump’s comments about the outcome of possible negotiations with Congress “makes me confused as to what he really wants.” Trump did win support from influential anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist, who said on CNBC on Monday that some people with a lot of tax credits might see some increase, but that rates would drop overall under Trump’s plan. “He’s made it very clear he wants lower taxes,” Norquist said. “Trump’s tax cut would be a tax cut for every American.” Norquist’s group, Americans for Tax Reform, asks all Republican candidates to sign a no-new-taxes pledge, but Trump has not signed one yet. Norquist said he was confident the candidate would sign, given his public comments. The Clinton campaign was happy to take Trump at his word that he planned to cut wealthy Americans’ taxes. It cited an analysis of Trump’s proposal by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimating it would give the wealthiest Americans an average annual boost of more than $1.3 million a year. “This is a tax plan by the billionaire for the billionaires,” Clinton adviser Jake Sullivan said. “And after some confusing comments over the weekend, he actually doubled down today on the fact that his tax plan would have massive cuts for the wealthy. Who knows what he’ll say tomorrow?” Trump also sought on Monday to clarify comments he made last week about the U.S. debt. He said he never espoused restructuring or defaulting on government debt but would buy it back at a discount if interest rates go up. “He should stop talking about the debt because he hasn’t said anything that makes any sense yet,” Holtz-Eakin said. Trump’s candidacy has opened a rift in the Republican Party, with many leaders appalled by his rhetoric on immigrants, Muslims and women and concerned that some policy positions such as his opposition to free trade run counter to Republican orthodoxy. U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, who said last week he was not yet ready to endorse Trump, said on Monday he would step down as co-chairman of the July 18-21 Republican National Convention if Trump wants him to. Trump on Sunday did not rule out pushing Ryan out from the speaker’s traditional role as convention chairman. Ryan and Trump will meet on Thursday to try to iron out their differences. Later on Thursday, the candidate will meet with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other members of the Senate Republican leadership, a Senate Republican aide said on Monday. Trump said on Monday that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a former presidential rival who endorsed his candidacy shortly after dropping out of the race, would lead his White House transition team. Republican U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, another vanquished presidential rival, sought on Monday to quash speculation he might emerge as the vice presidential running mate for Trump, saying he still had deep reservations about the former reality television star. | 0fake |
Texas Republican Introduces Bill To Put Women In Prison For Having An Abortion | Women in Texas may have to literally fight for their freedom and their lives to make sure this Republican lawmaker doesn t get his way.During the presidential campaign in 2016, Donald Trump actually mentioned jail and stated that women should receive some form of punishment for having an abortion.Well, Texas GOP Rep. Tony Tinderholt has introduced House Bill 948, which would punish any woman for having an abortion with prison time. The legislation contains ZERO exceptions for rape victims, victims of incest, and women who have to have an abortion to save their lives.During an interview with the Texas Observer, Tinderholt claimed that women use abortion as a form of birth control and that they are not personally responsible when they choose to have sex. Right now, it s real easy, Tinderholt said. Right now, they don t make it important to be personally responsible because they know that they have a backup of oh, I can just go get an abortion. Now, we both know that consenting adults don t always think smartly sometimes. But consenting adults need to also consider the repercussions of the sexual relationship that they re gonna have, which is a child. Tinderholt went on to interject his religious beliefs as one of his reasons for writing the legislation, stating that women should be forced to carry pregnancies to term because he s a firm believer that God creates children in his own image, regardless of how that child is brought into the world, it s created in his image, and how can someone want to destroy that? The conservative lawmaker hopes to ban abortion by threatening women with the punishment of prison.Make no mistake, this is the most dangerous and extreme piece of anti-abortion legislation that has been filed across the nation and it would literally punish women for making decisions about their own reproductive health. The punishment could even extend to women who take birth control pills since many conservatives believe that contraceptives are a form of abortion, even though such medication prevents conception in the first place. It also could punish women who have natural miscarriages. The fact that Republicans even want to jail rape victims for refusing to carry their rapist s baby is also monstrous.And now we know why Tony Tinderholt has been divorced four times. Clearly, the women in his life can t stand him.Featured Image: Woman Survival | 1real |
D.C. MARCHING BANDS NOT SHOWING For Inauguration…It’s OK, There’s A Better Solution! | At least one D.C. public school marching band has participated in the past five inaugural parades, but none applied for consideration this year.Ballou High School s Majestic Marching Knights performed Destiny s Child s Lose My Breath at George W. Bush s second inaugural parade in 2005, and stepped along Pennsylvania Avenue as they played James Brown s I Got You (I Feel Good) at Barack Obama s second inaugural parade eight years later. But the beloved band decided to take a break in January and not apply to play in the inaugural parade after several other recent performances, the principal said. Dunbar High School s band marched in Obama s first inauguration in 2009 but the school will sit this one out because they are rebuilding the band, the principal said.Eastern High School also chose not to participate, the principal said, without elaborating. A D.C. Public Schools spokeswoman said she was not aware of any band in the district that had applied to participate in President-elect Donald Trump s inaugural parade Jan. 20. The band at D.C. s Howard University, which marched in Obama s first inaugural parade, also did not apply to march in Trump s parade. Band director John Newson said the band had too few members and was facing budgetary constraints. He said he suspects that many band directors and school administrators political beliefs played into whether they applied to participate in the parade. I think everybody knows why and no one wants to say and lose their job, Newson said.Via: NBC Washington | 1real |
The strange logic of US-led Coalition’s mistakes in Syria | Anna Jaunger Correspondent, Inside Syria Media Center R ecently, the White House has repeatedly accused Syria and its allies of killing civilians in Aleppo, deliberate airstrikes at civilian infrastructure and so on. But it should be mentioned that usually these allegations are completely baseless. Ironically, in the midst of this immense uproar about the cruelty of the Syrian government and its Russian allies, Washington keeps carrying out notorious military ops resulting in casualties not among terrorists but mostly among civilians.
On October 25, Amnesty International published a statement according to which in the space of two years at least 300 people were killed by the US-led coalition’s airstrikes.
Lynn Maalouf, Deputy Director at Amnesty International’s Beirut regional office, stated that analysis of available evidence suggests that in each of these cases, Coalition forces failed to take adequate precautions to minimize harm to civilians and damage to civilian targets.
Despite the fact that AI bases its assessments on the data received from Syrian human rights organizations, local monitoring organizations and satellite images and footage, an AI expert, Neil Sammonds, claimed that it was just statistics, and that there might be many more casualties.
Although John Kerry commented on the report, the US isn’t accustomed to recognizing its “mistakes”. For instance, the airstrike e.g. bloodbath, conducted by the US-led coalition against government troops in Deir Ezzor in mid-September. After numerous excuses and denials, Washington eventually claimed then that it was a mistake. This “mistake” looked rather suspicious as ISIS militants started their offensive towards the Syrian army position immediately after the airstrikes. M oreover, Lieutenant General Stephen J. Townsend, the commander of Operation Inherent Resolve, has admitted that due to the Command’s strategic mistakes by Iraq’s troops and their US-backed allies they still haven’t been able to surround and block Mosul. Unfortunately, these “accidental” lapses allow the terrorists to freely leave the city and penetrate Syria. Of course, this development entails the creation of new flashpoints in the country, with further endangerment of the lives of civilians.
It bears repeating that in Mosul the US-led coalition is doing the same things that Washington now is trying to blame Damascus and its allies for. Only in the last three days, the coalition airstrikes have killed 60 civilians. Just since October 21, US warplanes conducted an airstrike against a school in the south of Mosul, and the next day attacked residential neighborhoods in the east of the city, and on October 23, air strikes destroyed a house of civilians in northern Mosul.
Thus, it is clear that the United States, while claiming it is fiercely fighting terrorists in the Middle East, a claim heavily disseminated throughout its corporate media, it is in actuality doing the opposite, while preparing more devious mayhem and endless chaos in these tormented nations. NOTE: ALL IMAGE CAPTIONS, PULL QUOTES AND COMMENTARY BY THE EDITORS, NOT THE AUTHORS PLEASE COMMENT AND DEBATE DIRECTLY ON OUR FACEBOOK GROUP INSTALLATION Note to Commenters Due to severe hacking attacks in the recent past that brought our site down for up to 11 days with considerable loss of circulation, we exercise extreme caution in the comments we publish, as the comment box has been one of the main arteries to inject malicious code. Because of that comments may not appear immediately, but rest assured that if you are a legitimate commenter your opinion will be published within 24 hours. If your comment fails to appear, and you wish to reach us directly, send us a mail at: editor@greanvillepost.com
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Study Finds Racial Discrimination by Uber and Lyft Drivers | Study Finds Racial Discrimination by Uber and Lyft Drivers Eric Newcomer, Bloomberg, October 31, 2016
Drivers for Uber Technologies Inc. in Boston canceled rides for men with black-sounding names more than twice as often as for other men. Black people in Seattle using Uber and Lyft Inc. faced notably longer wait times to get paired with drivers than white customers. The findings come from a study published on Monday by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and the University of Washington.
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A new generation of technology companies have begun to grapple with how they can minimize racial discrimination. Airbnb Inc. recently released an extensive report studying racial bias on the site and proposed some changes to its policies. The home-rental company committed to offering more training for its hosts and hiring a more diverse workforce. It sent e-mails to customers over the weekend saying they must agree not to discriminate in order to use the site starting next month. However, Airbnb has resisted advocates’ calls to remove photos of guests and hosts from its platform.
In the case of ride-hailing apps, researchers similarly believe that names and photos are an issue. Such information gives drivers the means to discriminate against prospective riders. Uber doesn’t show customer photos to drivers. Lyft does, but passengers aren’t required to provide a headshot. Both San Francisco-based companies give riders’ names to their drivers.
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The study, conducted in Seattle and Boston, included almost 1,500 rides. Four black and four white research assistants–split evenly among men and women–ordered cars over six weeks in Seattle. All used their photos on the ride-sharing apps. A second test was held in Boston with riders “whose appearance allowed them to plausibly travel as a passenger of either race,” although they used either “African American sounding” or “white sounding” names, the researchers said. The study found that Uber drivers disproportionately canceled on riders with black-sounding names, even though the company penalizes drivers who cancel frequently.
{snip}
The research also observed discrimination in the taxi industry–a well-known, decades-old issue. The paper doesn’t compare the rate of discrimination between traditional drivers for taxis or ride-hailing apps. Uber has suggested that it doesn’t offer tips in its app, as many drivers have asked for, because they can introduce racial biases.
Lyft and Uber face different issues. While researchers found that drivers took noticeably longer to accept ride requests from black men on both services in Seattle, total wait times were the same for both races on Lyft. On Uber, total wait times were longer for black men. Drivers using Lyft didn’t cancel on black riders disproportionately, but the researchers said that because Lyft shows riders’ names and faces upfront, its drivers could simply screen out black passengers. Uber doesn’t show names until after the driver accepts the fare. “In Lyft, you can discriminate without ever having to accept and hit cancel,” Knittel said.
{snip} | 1real |
VP Pence says Russia's stance must change before ties improve | TBILISI (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said on Tuesday that relations with Russia would not improve until Moscow changed its stance on Ukraine and withdrew support for “regimes like Iran and Syria and North Korea”. The U.S. Congress voted last week for new sanctions on Russia and, at a news conference in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi, Pence said the “lifting of sanctions will require Russia to reverse the actions that caused sanctions to be imposed in the first place”. “Russia’s destabilizing activities in Ukraine, their support for rogue regimes like Iran and Syria and North Korea ... their posture has to change,” he said at a joint news conference with Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili. Pence said U.S. President Donald Trump would sign the new sanctions on Russia into law this week and said that Trump and Congress were “speaking with a unified voice”. Keeping to previous U.S. administrations’ line, Pence also condemned Russia’s presence in Georgia. Moscow, whose annexation of Crimea in 2014 prompted U.S. and EU sanctions, still has troops stationed in Georgia after a 2008 war over the breakaway region of South Ossetia, backing Georgia’s Abkhazia, a region also controlled by pro-Russian separatists. Pence also said the U.S. was still behind Georgia’s application to become a member of NATO. “We’ll continue to work closely with this prime minister and the government of Georgia broadly to advance the policies that will facilitate becoming a NATO member,” he said. NATO promised Georgia membership in 2008, and three ex-Soviet Baltic nations - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - are already members. Pence has reassured them during this tour that Washington firmly backs NATO’s doctrine of collective defense. In the Estonian capital of Tallinn on Monday, he assured them of U.S. support if they faced aggression from Russia. Asked about Pence’s visit, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said nations had the right to choose their partners. “The only problem for us, is when this involves the expanding of various alliances and their infrastructure toward our borders. This is a cause of concern for us,” Peskov told reporters on a conference call. During his visit, Pence attended Georgian-American military exercises, which began in Georgia on Sunday. About 2,800 soldiers from the United States, Britain, Germany, Turkey, Ukraine, Slovenia, Armenia and Georgia are taking part in the maneuvers, which will last for two weeks. On Wednesday, Pence visits Montenegro, which joined NATO in June. The tiny Balkan nation won praise from Washington for joining despite pressure against the move from Russia. | 0fake |
Bast: Happy Memorial Day, You Stupid, Arrogant, Liberal Global Warming Alarmist! - Breitbart | It’s that time of year again, a holiday where you stand around the grill and patiently (or not) explain the truth to your liberal relatives and friends. [Mentioning an article that ran in the Washington Post in 1922, misreporting evidence of weather variability in the Arctic as evidence of a warming trend, is a good way to poke a stick in the eye of your global warming alarmist friends. A conversation starter! The article illustrates a past case where (quoting Snopes, the liberal fact checker) “current warming trends” were misinterpreted as being “indicative of climatic changes rather than relatively weather pattern variability. ” Don’t oversell it! It doesn’t prove that people today who refer to warming in the Arctic region as proof of a warming trend are necessarily wrong … only that they might be, that the mistake was made in the past (when emissions could not have been a factor) and so the burden of proof rests on those who say this time is different. Global warming alarmists often claim the recent Arctic warming is unprecedented or must be due to the human presence. On its face, the 1922 article makes those claims dubious. Closer study reveals they haven’t made the case. For example, a scholarly article released just this month suggests the recent reduction in Arctic ice is most likely just a natural correction to a that occurred from the 1940s to the 1970s. Scientists with the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) produced a lengthy review of the literature in 2014 that essentially found the same thing. But how many people subscribe to Hydrological Sciences Journal or want to read tomes? Here are some good short references to the climate debate to share with family and friends over the Memorial Day holiday: Craig Idso, Robert Carter, and S. Fred Singer, Why Scientists Disagree, Joseph Bast, Seven Theories of Climate Change A fascinating (and utterly damning) look at the history of the global warming scare campaign is Donna Laframboise’s The Delinquent Teenager who was mistaken for the world’s top climate expert. A website hosted by meteorologist Anthony Watts, WattsUpWithThat. com, is a wonderful place to go to watch the real science debate taking place over the causes and consequences of climate change. I really don’t think you can visit the site more than two or three times and not come away a “skeptic. ” Heartland also produces a free weekly Climate Change Weekly edited by H. Sterling Burnett, to which you can subscribe here. Best regards, happy holidays, and don’t burn the brats! Joseph L. Bast is president of The Heartland Institute, a nonprofit research and education organization based in Arlington Heights, Illinois. He can be contacted at jbast@heartland. org. | 0fake |
U.S. will not give Exxon permission to drill in Russia | WASHINGTON/SPRING, Tx. (Reuters) - The United States will not make an exception for American companies, including oil major Exxon Mobil Corp, seeking to drill in areas prohibited by U.S. sanctions on Russia, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday. The unusually direct statement served to clarify that the United States would maintain a tough stance on sanctions against Moscow. “In consultation with President Donald J. Trump, the Treasury Department will not be issuing waivers to U.S. companies, including Exxon, authorizing drilling prohibited by current Russian sanctions,” Mnuchin said in a statement. The United States and European Union imposed economic sanctions on Russia over its annexation of the Crimea region in 2014 and its role in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The sanctions forced Exxon, the world’s largest publicly traded oil producer, to wind down drilling in Russia’s Arctic in 2014. “We understand the statement today by Secretary Mnuchin in consultation with President Trump,” Exxon spokesman Alan Jeffers said. Exxon had asked for and received in 2015 and 2016 waivers to operate a joint venture with Russian oil producer Rosneft in Russia. European Union sanctions do not keep European oil companies from operating in Russia, a point of annoyance for Exxon. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Exxon had in recent months applied for a Treasury Department waiver to drill with Rosneft. Jeffers said Exxon had not applied for waivers from Treasury since Trump took office. Any such request would have drawn attention because Exxon’s former chief executive, Rex Tillerson, is now U.S. secretary of state. Under his leadership, Exxon lobbied Congress on Russia sanctions, and Tillerson opposed sanctions against Russia in 2014, saying they would be ineffective. U.S. lawmakers are investigating possible ties between some Trump campaign aides and Moscow. Republicans in Congress as well as U.S. allies in Europe are anxious about any sign that the Trump administration might ease some of the sanctions imposed on Russia. During his confirmation hearing in January, Tillerson said he never personally lobbied against sanctions and that he was not aware of Exxon Mobil directly doing so, later acknowledging that he spoke to former U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew regarding gaps between American and European sanctions on Russia. Tillerson has pledged to recuse himself until the end of this year from any matter involving Exxon Mobil unless he is authorized to participate. He also has until early May to sell his Exxon Mobil stock. U.S. companies frequently file license applications to the Treasury Department asking permission to undertake activities that would otherwise be barred by sanctions. The U.S. government weighs each application based on national security interests, the law and other factors. The refusal is unlikely to affect Exxon Mobil’s bottom line, as it has not been able to operate in Russia for several years, but it does hinder its growth potential. Treasury almost never comments publicly on license applications. Mnuchin’s statement will likely serve to clarify the U.S. stance on sanctions against Russia at a time when American allies are looking for clues to U.S. policy, observers said. “It’s good from a regulatory perspective as it provides clarity to U.S. companies, but it’s also great from a foreign policy perspective,” Edward Fishman, a fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank and former State Department official during the Obama administration, said of Mnuchin’s statement. “Any uncertainty about the future of sanctions scares our allies and encourages Russia to prolong its aggression in Ukraine.” | 0fake |
AMERICA’S WORST FEAR: How Our Punishing President Will Harm America In His Final Months If Trump Wins | This nightmare could have all been prevented if America was able to look past their unwarranted white guilt for one second, and realize they were electing a second rate community agitator, with sealed records and a questionable birth certificate If Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination and defeats likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in November, President Obama will sabotage the economy in his final months in office, predicts talk-radio host Michael Savage. If Trump wins and I think he will there will be an economic crash, Savage told listeners of his nationally syndicated show, The Savage Nation, Monday. The reason I say that is not because of his policies, but because of what Obama will do on the way out the door. Savage said that if anyone thinks that a President Trump will be able to easily turn this huge ship around, you don t know much about navigation in turbulent waters. Wait until you see what happens in the last few months if Trump wins, Savage said. Wait until you see what that nice guy in the White House does. (Federal Reserve Chairman Janet) Yellen ups interest rates, Obama and his band of unmerry pranksters Sharpton and company unleash the mobs, Savage said. (George) Soros makes a last-ditch effort to distract Trump and the new Justice Department from currency manipulation and other financial games he may have been playing. Spends tens of millions on social agitation. Obama floods the U.S. with Central Americans, Syrians and Africans, mainly Muslim, mainly young males, and grants pardons to 10,000 more Central American drug dealers, Savage continued. Let s see what else might these decent Americans do? Release a few more billion pork barrel green projects? You can guess! Prior to his remarks about Obama s final days in office, Savage told his listeners he believed Trump would defeat Clinton in a landslide, describing the former secretary of state, senator and first lady as Fidel Castro in a dress. Savage cited the new Rasmussen poll of likely voters showing Trump with a 41-39 lead over Clinton nationally. And this is only an early poll, Savage noted on his show Monday. I said a long time ago that when it comes down to Trump vs. Clinton, he would win by a landslide, 60-40, 59-41, something like that. No matter how many illegal aliens Obama tried to flood into this country, Trump will win by a landslide, he said.In February, Savage warned that the banking deregulation under the Bill Clinton administration that led to the 2008 recession appears to be on the verge of impacting the economy again. We re being set up for an economic meltdown similar to the one that triggered the Great Depression, he said.This time, however, Savage continued, it s going to occur on a global scale, and it s unlikely that we ll be able to recover within even the next several decades, once it happens. For entire story: WND | 1real |
China Airport Security Robot Gives Electroshocks | China Airport Security Robot Gives Electroshocks 11/02/2016
ACTIVIST POST
While debate surrounds the threat of autonomous “killer robots,” the mechanized replacement of humans continues across the workforce.
The industrial robotics industry is logging record sales worldwide, and there appears to be no sign of a slowdown. As you can see in the graphic below, 2015 sales surged 12% over a previous record year to reach almost 1/4 million units.
There are many factors driving this growth, which you can read about here; but one point worth noting is that the two leading countries are the US and China, with China leading the way.
The nature of robotics is also changing, as new developments in artificial intelligence are giving robots an increasing range of potential uses. One key area, of course, is security. Robot security guards have already begun appearing at prisons , care facilities , and schools, in various locations around the world.
One U.S. robot company, Gamma 2 Robotics, has designed several models for mass production. Their latest – RAMSEE – can be seen in the video below. A true mass roll-out of this fully autonomous security guard could significantly impact the 1.5 million humans that are currently employed in some form of security patrol.
RAMSEE advertises the following capabilities: Is a physical presence that autonomously patrols without supervision Provides real-time data: intruders, motion, heat, fire, smoke, gases & more Is a human-machine interface that creates a powerful force multiplier
Significantly, Gamma 2 Robotics has partnered with Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure: “the global leader in public safety and security solutions.”
However, RAMSEE is missing one thing: weapons. For that, we have to travel to China, where they seem to have embraced police robots full throttle.
In late 2015, I covered an announcement from China’s Xinhua news agency where they announced the development and deployment of 3 weaponized “anti-terrorism” robots that would be far more active than a mere patrol:
“The toy-sized robots can coordinate with each other on the battlefield,” said the report, following their unveiling at the 2015 World Robot Conference in Beijing.
The first model is known as a “reconnaissance” robot, which scouts for poisonous gases, dangerous chemicals and explosives before transmitting its findings back to base.If this initial investigation detects a simple bomb is the source of danger, the second robot model – a small explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) machine – would be sent in to diffuse it.
But with other, more complicated threats, an attacker robot would start its mission, armed with “minor-caliber weapons, recoilless rifles and grenade launchers”.
“With a sighting telescope, a trigger and a safe installed, the attacker can hit its target from a long distance,” Xinhua said.
The local police force in Beijing was reported to be among the buyers for the three robots , which are priced at 1.5 million yuan (£156,000) for the set by manufacturers HIT Robot Group, who are based in the northern city of Harbin.
“Apart from anti-terror operations, they can also be applied in fire fighting, public security, forestry and agriculture,” the company’s sales manager Chen Deqiang said, according to Xinhua.
If we have learned anything about anti-terrorism efforts, authorities consider front-line deployment to be areas of public travel. We were given the TSA based on such notions, and have since witnessed its intrusive role in airports, and soon-to-be at other public transportation if authorities have their way.
China has gone to the next level with a robot TSA of sorts called AnBot that is equipped with what is essentially a taser-like device that is being fittingly compared to a cattle-prod.
Image Credit
It was first introduced at a tech show earlier in the year, and was speculated to have been designed for protest suppression. For now, its first job is to patrol China’s Shenzhen airport.
Most alarming, however, is that it is tied to one of the most powerful supercomputers on the planet.
The back end of this “intelligent security robot” is l inked to China’s Tianhe-2 supercomputer , where it has access to cloud services . AnBot conducts patrols, recognizes threats and has multiple cameras that use facial recognition.
These cloud services give the robots petascale processing power , well beyond onboard processing capabilities in the robot. The supercomputer connection is there “to enhance the intelligent learning capabilities and human-machine interface of these devices,” said the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review, in a report released Tuesday that examines China’s autonomous systems development efforts . [emphasis added]
( Source )
This link to “cloud services” is a new trend in robot artificial intelligence that also has been referred to as the Wikipedia for Robots – essentially an Internet Cloud Brain. Through robot-to-robot information sharing they can speed up their learning process … autonomously. Examples have included robots that can learn to cook, and robots that can learn the tasks involved in care-giving. However, when applied to policing, things become much more ethically troubling.
People were outraged in the U.S., for example, when a robot in Dallas was used to deliver a pound of C-4 explosive to a U.S. citizen whom the police deemed a sufficient threat worthy of immediate execution. At least, in that case, a human made the decision. But it is being viewed as a tip-toe along the path to the widespread use of “killer robots” much as we have seen with the use of drones. Discussion was once limited to overseas – egregious enough – but there has been a growing voice of those who are urging weaponized domestic police drones.
As John Vibes wrote , it might be inevitable:
The Taser corporation is planning on building a drone that is equipped with a stun gun, according to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal.
Not only will the drones be equipped with tasers, but there is also talk of them being autonomous, meaning that an actual human won’t necessarily be needed to fly the drone.
This is actually already being done in India , the first country to have approved the use of drones attached with “non-lethal” weapons. And, just this week, British tabloid, The Sun , had a feature entitled “Vladimir Putin’s Russia is preparing an army of robots and drones to take on its enemies, Deputy PM Dmitry Rogozin admits.” Given the available facts, this title no longer seems so deliberately sensational.
Clearly we are entering a potentially dangerous convergence of expanding robotic artificial intelligence along with the political will to continue allowing robots more and more autonomy as they carry out the traditional duties of the military and police. Some experts argue that the precision of robotics will curb many of the abuses we have seen from our military and police. But is that the trend we are actually seeing? Or will automated systems of violent control inevitably lead to even greater industrial-level suppression and killing?
Nicholas West writes for ActivistPost.com . This article may be republished in part or in full with author attribution and source link . | 1real |
Catalan secessionists register parliamentary motion to split from Spain: media | MADRID (Reuters) - Catalan secessionists on Friday registered a motion with the regional parliament to proclaim independence from Spain and a Catalan republic though it was unclear whether the text would be put to a vote, newspaper La Vanguardia said. The motion was presented by lawmakers from Junts pel Si (Together for Yes) and CUP (Popular Unity Candidacy) which together hold a majority in the assembly. | 0fake |
WATCH: Black Pastors Come On Stage And Endorse Trump At Rally [Video] | A Virginia rally for Donald Trump turned into a big day for endorsements by black pastors. | 1real |
Netanyahu asks Trump to recognize Israeli sovereignty over Golan Heights | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, territory Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war. Most of the world considers the Golan, a high plateau between northeastern Israel and southwestern Syria, to be occupied by Israel, which annexed the territory in 1981 in a move not recognized internationally. During a briefing with Israeli and foreign media after meeting Trump at the White House, Netanyahu was asked whether he had raised the Golan issue. “Yes,” he replied. Asked how the U.S. president had responded, he said: “I wouldn’t say that he was surprised by my request.” Netanyahu did not elaborate. Israel made a similar request to the Obama administration in 2015, but it was rejected, diplomats said at the time. While Israel has long coveted sovereignty in the Golan, it is unclear whether the White House would take such a step now, given that it could further complicate the Syrian conflict. If the United States were to recognize Israel’s claim, it would likely anger Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is backed by Russia and Iran in his war with Islamist militants and rebel groups. The Trump administration has talked about working more closely with Russia to end the Syrian conflict. Recognizing Israel’s sovereignty in the Golan could undermine those efforts. It could also spur Iran and its proxies in Syria, particularly the Lebanese Shi’ite militia Hezbollah, to turn more of their focus against Israel, targeting its forces stationed across the Golan Heights. Israel has warned Hezbollah, with which it fought a six-week war in 2006, against attacking its territory. It has carried out occasional air strikes in the Syrian portion of the Golan to target Hezbollah fighters, including units smuggling arms. Israel’s argument for sovereignty over the territory is based partly on the fact that Syria has splintered over the past five years of fighting, to the extent that Israel says there is no one to whom it could hand back the Golan. But with the United States and Israel looking to forge an ever-tighter relationship, it is also possible that Trump, who has shown himself to be unpredictable at times, could decide to recognize Israel’s sovereignty. As well as around 25,000 Israeli settlers in the territory, many of them working in agriculture, there are about 20,000 Druze of Syrian citizenship, many of whom have relatives living in just across the valley in Syria. | 0fake |
Thomas Reuters cuts 2000 jobs, spends $200m streamlining | Thomas Reuters cuts 2000 jobs, spends $200m streamlining November 01, 2016 The Thomson Reuters logo is seen on the company building in Times Square, New York October 29, 2013. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo
Thomas Reuters Corp has announced they will spend $200-250 million in the fourth quarter to streamline operations, including cutting 2000 jobs, across 150 locations, in 39 countries, approximately 4 percent of their workforce. Spokesman: Thomas Reuters Corp employs about 48,000 people globally. Jim Smith, chief executive: The changes come as part of its multi-year effort to streamline its businesses. Smith: “It's about simplification and taking out bureaucracy and taking out layers all of which have added complexity and slowed us down.” "These actions are not driven by any reaction to market conditions or in any way coming on the back of underperformance." Thomson Reuters is the parent of Reuters News. Memo posted Tuesday: There will be no decline in headcount in the Reuters newsroom. Thomas Reuters Corp reported net income for Q3 was $286 million or 36 cents per share. Net income Q3 2015: $293 million or 36 cents per share. Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S: Excluding special items, earnings were 54 cents per share. Analysts on average expected 47 cents. Revenue rose 1 percent to $2.74 billion before currency effects and was flat when they were factored in. Thomas Reuters Corp reiterated its forecast of 2 percent to 3 percent revenue growth for the year. Financial & Risk segment: Sales outpaced cancellations for the 10th straight quarter, overall unit revenue was flat at $1.52 billion. Due to streamline spending, Reuters has lowered its 2016 forecast for underlying operating profit margin to between 16 percent to 17 percent, from 18.4 to 19.4 percent.
(NEW YORK CITY) Thomson Reuters Corp said on Tuesday it would cut about 2,000 jobs worldwide, about 4 percent of its workforce, and take a fourth-quarter charge of $200 million to $250 million to streamline its business.
The restructuring across 39 countries and 150 locations would mainly affect the Financial & Risk business and the Enterprise, Technology & Operations Group, the news and information company said. The company employs about 48,000 people globally, a spokesman said.
The changes come as part of its multi-year effort to streamline its businesses, said Jim Smith, chief executive, in an interview Tuesday.
"It's about simplification and taking out bureaucracy and taking out layers all of which have added complexity and slowed us down," he said. "These actions are not driven by any reaction to market conditions or in any way coming on the back of underperformance."
Thomson Reuters is the parent of Reuters News, which competes for financial customers with Bloomberg LP as well as News Corp's Dow Jones unit. There will be no decline in headcount in the Reuters newsroom, according to a memo to employees on Tuesday. | 1real |
Russia and the U.S. Election: What We Know and Don’t Know - The New York Times | The swirl of revelations and allegations about Russian involvement in the American presidential election, which has been building since the summer, can be difficult to keep straight. For example, though analysts often say that Russia “hacked the election,” this shorthand refers to something much subtler than altering the vote itself — just one of many points of growing confusion. What follows is a guide to what is known and is not, and to separating fact from misconception. • Russian security agencies infiltrated Democratic National Committee email servers last year and again this spring, according to American intelligence assessments and several independent security firms. The Russians also hacked a private email account belonging to John D. Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. • This summer, intermediaries linked to the Russian government passed the emails to WikiLeaks and to an anonymous WordPress blog called Guccifer 2. 0. Those outlets released the emails publicly, generating weeks of unfavorable coverage of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign. • Initially, many analysts believed that Russia’s goal was to sow confusion and undermine Americans’ faith in their government — a common Russian tactic — rather than to steer the election’s outcome. • However, after the election, the Central Intelligence Agency concluded that Russia had released the emails with the primary goal of bolstering Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign. • No information has emerged suggesting that the C. I. A. believes that Russia’s involvement decided the election’s outcome. • There is no evidence that hackers, from Russia or elsewhere, tampered with the vote tallies. • Mr. Trump has said there was widespread voter fraud that favored Mrs. Clinton, and some liberal commentators have suggested that the election was hacked. Independent analysts say there is overwhelming evidence against both claims. • A widely circulated New York magazine article reported that two voting experts had urged Democrats to push for a recount, on fears that hackers had manipulated the vote. But one of those experts disputed that article, writing in a post on Medium that he had urged a recount but had doubted hacking. • The White House and election officials have said the vote shows no sign of tampering and accurately reflects popular will. • A recount effort led by the Green Party candidate, Jill Stein, is unrelated to the revelations that Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee and Mr. Podesta’s emails. • It is impossible to say for sure. Because the email leaks unfolded over weeks, and concurrently with many other election dramas, polls cannot easily isolate the impact of the leaks. • Mr. Trump won three crucial Midwestern states by very small margins. So even if the leaks swung only a small percentage of votes, that could have been enough to change the election outcome. • But this same logic applies to dozens of factors, including the F. B. I. ’s investigations related to Mrs. Clinton’s private email server. Political scientists have demonstrated that even changes in weather and the performance of sports teams can alter how people vote. • All available evidence suggests that voters freely selected Mr. Trump on Election Day in sufficient numbers for him to win the presidency under the Electoral College system. But that does not diminish the seriousness of Russia’s intervention in the election, which appears to be unprecedented. • The C. I. A. ’s assessment is not public, but is thought to turn on another alleged hack. Russia also hacked data from the Republican National Committee but declined to release whatever it found, intelligence agencies told Congress. That has given credence to theories that Moscow actively favored the party’s candidate. • Mr. Trump has repeatedly promised to realign the United States with Russia and has praised its president, Vladimir V. Putin. Many in Moscow view Mrs. Clinton as hostile to Russia. • The evidence in any assessment of Russian government motives is circumstantial, and not all American intelligence agencies share the C. I. A. ’s view. • The timing suggests that, if Moscow decided to help Mr. Trump, it did so only after hacking the servers of both parties’ national committees. Both were infiltrated well before Mr. Trump’s rise. • Mr. Trump, at a July news conference, publicly urged Russia to hack Mrs. Clinton’s emails. But this could not have precipitated or encouraged the Russian hacks — they had taken place months earlier. • Russian state media outlets have favored Mr. Trump and opposed Mrs. Clinton, but their reach in the United States is limited. (Their influence in Europe is much stronger.) • A firm called PropOrNot claimed that the Russian government had flooded American social media with fake election news. But several independent analysts challenged the report’s methodology, which classified mainstream sites as Russian propaganda and did not demonstrate a link to Moscow. • Fake news is a growing problem, at times driven by companies in Eastern Europe that write and spread the articles. But those companies appear to be motivated by rather than any political agenda. • There are two schools of thought: first, that Russia sought to weaken the United States by stirring up uncertainty and miring Mrs. Clinton, who seemed all but certain to win, in scandal and second, that Russia sought specifically to elevate Mr. Trump to the presidency. • Those theories are not mutually exclusive. For instance, Moscow may have started with the first goal and then added the second as a bonus. • Russia is waging similar campaigns across Europe, at times through cyberattacks and selective leaks, with the apparent goal of undermining Western unity. • The Kremlin sees itself as under siege by a hostile West that it perceives as bent on Russia’s destruction. Russian military leaders advocate shadowy “new generation warfare” — through propaganda and cyberattacks, for example — to destabilize adversaries from within. • Not all misconceptions are directed by Moscow, however. Social media rumors that overstate Russia’s involvement in the United States election risk playing into Moscow’s goal of undermining Americans’ faith in the legitimacy and integrity of their democracy. | 0fake |
Watch Marge Simpson Have The Panic Attack We’re All Having Over The 2016 Election (VIDEO) | If there s one thing that can likely unite all Americans regarding the 2016 presidential election, it s a general feeling of panic and uncertainty. At this point in the race, everything is still relatively up in the air in regards to who will be the nominee from either party, and most certainly who will win the White House come November.Perfectly encapsulating the panic and uncertainty we re feeling are the folks over at The Simpsons. They depict Marge Simpson waking up in the middle of the night anxious and annoyed. She utters: I can t take it! I m hyperventilating. I can t take it anymore. Basic manners are gone from politics. What is it with these ding dongs?! From there, Homer is able to calm her back down and get her to imagine all the candidates getting along, even doing a song and dance number with one another. He says: Marge think good thoughts I know things look bad now, but just try to visualize another America. One where Republicans, Democrats and Donald Trump ALL get along. However, reality slowly creeps back in as the candidates start going relentlessly after each other. This is when Homer chimes in, I m sorry, honey. I guess dreaming doesn t work. The reality of the situation for all of us actually living through this bizarre election is that things have the chance to change every single day. So, when Marge Simpson utters, I want to see who wins, we can all be in agreement with Homer when he says, we all do. Featured image via YouTube | 1real |
WATCH: Seth Meyers Hilariously Reviews Trump’s Very Bad Week | Donald Trump has had a terrible week, so Seth Meyers piled on with a load of humiliation and mockery.Republicans are starting to back away from Donald Trump, but not because he s a racist and a misogynist. They re okay with that. Republicans are mad because their nominee has refused to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan in the tough primary race he faces in Wisconsin.During his show on Thursday night, Seth Meyers had a field day with Trump s disastrous week. This is the final straw? Meyers asked. Not the racism or the misogyny or the wall? Yep, that s certainly what it looks like. And even some of Trump s most ardent supporters are starting to criticize him.Newt Gingrich was on Trump s shortlist to be the vice-presidential nominee and he compared Trump to a great quarterback who throws a bunch of interceptions in a game.But Meyers corrected him: Actually, it s more like watching a quarterback throw an interception, blame the interception on Mexicans, insult the coach s mother and then storm off the field bitching that the game is rigged. Mike Huckabee, who had no problem setting aside his Christian morals to defend Trump, a man who has none, defended Trump s meltdown by insisting that he will be surrounded by the best people if he is put the White House even though Trump hasn t exactly done that during his campaign or at the convention, where most Republican shunned Trump and he ended up bringing has-beens like Scott Baio to Cleveland.Well, Seth Myers had a response to that as well. Dudes, chill out he ll be way cooler and more reasonable just as soon as we give him more power, Meyers sarcastically said. You know, the same way drunk people always calm down once you give them back their car keys. And I m not sure it s all that comforting when the biggest promise you can make about your candidate is, he ll have adults around him and we ll lock him out of his Twitter account. That s how it works with Justin Bieber, and it barely works with him. But perhaps the biggest gaffe Trump made this week is when he kicked a mother and her baby out of a rally because the baby was crying.Trump appeared to show compassion and understanding at first, but then he quickly demonstrated his dislike of babies by asking for the mother and baby to be removed. That is a huge gaffe for a Republican, because the GOP platform does not allow you to change your mind about a baby, Meyers quipped.Meyers then went on to mock Trump for being obsessed with starting a nuclear apocalypse and for already whining about how the election is allegedly already rigged against him.Here s the video via YouTube.Donald Trump is not fit to be president of the most powerful nation on the planet. He is joke and would be seen as a joke by the rest of the world. Republicans should be embarrassed and ashamed that they made Trump their nominee. The only way they can redeem themselves is by making sure Trump loses by a landslide on Election Day.Featured image via screen capture | 1real |
Chelsea Manning Thanks Obama in First Post-Release Interview: ’I’ve Been Given a Chance’ - Breitbart | Friday in a portion of an interview that aired ABC, Chelsea Manning, a transgender former U. S. Army soldier that served seven years at the U. S. Disciplinary Barracks at Ft. Leavenworth after being convicted by a military tribunal for violating the Espionage Act, thanked former President Barack Obama. Obama, shortly before leaving office, commuted Manning’s sentence sentence to seven years. “Thank you,” Manning said to Obama in the interview ABC’s Juju Chang. “I’ve been given a chance,” Manning added. “That’s all I asked for was a chance. That’s it, and now this is my chance. ” Follow Breitbart. tv on Twitter @BreitbartVideo | 0fake |
Congress: Hillary Will Be Impeached If She Becomes President | Members of Congress have said that if Hillary Clinton is elected President next week they will start proceedings to have her impeached.
Via YourNewsWire
As Hillary Clinton’s campaign implodes amid the FBI actively pursuing five separate probes, including one into claims that the Clinton Foundation is connected to a Washington pedophile ring, there is still a possibility that Democrats will stubbornly vote her in on Tuesday.
Yesterday during an interview on Fox News, Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul explained the process. “If the investigation goes forward and it looks like an indictment is pending, at that point in time under the Constitution, the House of Representatives would engage in an impeachment trial.
It would go to the Senate and impeachment proceedings and removal would take place,” McCaul told Fox News’ Bill Hemmer. “I would hate to see this country thrown into a constitutional crisis because of Hillary Clinton’s behavior.”
This again brings up the prospect of whether President Obama will pardon Clinton before she takes her oath of office. Meanwhile, the Oversight Committee is already bracing for years of investigationsshould Clinton move into the Oval Office.
| 1real |
Louie Gohmert For House Speaker? | WASHINGTON -- Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) launched a long-shot campaign Sunday for speaker of the House of Representatives, in the latest episode of the conservative rebellion against current Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).
House members are set to vote for their next speaker on Tuesday, with Boehner heavily favored to win. Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) said Saturday that he is willing to serve as an alternative to Boehner. In addition, Reps. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) have stated that they will oppose Boehner's re-election.
Gohmert's latest objection to Boehner -- although certainly not his only one -- was the speaker's decision to pass the so-called "cromnibus" spending bill in December without including a measure to block President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration.
"It was a terrible strategy and it follows a number of years of broken promises," Gohmert said on "Fox & Friends" while announcing his candidacy. "It's time for a change."
The congressman said that if he were elected speaker, he would fight to end "amnesty" for immigrants and Obamacare. He added that he would make sure members got a voice, going so far as to imply Boehner was acting like a "dictator."
"We will go through regular committee process so everybody, every representative from both parties, will have a chance to participate in the process and not have a dictator running things, deciding who's the chairman, who gets what committee, what bills come to the floor," Gohmert said.
He noted that it would take 29 conservatives voting against Boehner to bring the speakership up for secondary votes, which would be the first step toward eventually electing another Republican as speaker. Only 12 Republicans voted against Boehner for the position in 2013, including Gohmert, Yoho, Bridenstine and Massie. | 0fake |
Sean Hannity Is Throwing A Stage-4 Temper Tantrum Over The Photo He Posed For (IMAGE) | We re not sure why Fox News host Sean Hannity posed for this picture (see below) since he s obviously not happy with it but now, Donald Trump s cult member is upset with the New York Times for selecting the photo for the cover of its magazine. Along with the photo, the cover reads, How Far Will Sean Hannity Go? So @nytimes takes 100 s and 100 s of pics. Obviously they picked the best one? the Fox News host tweeted to his more than 3.1 million followers.So @nytimes takes 100 s and 100 s of pics. Obviously they picked the best one? https://t.co/6c0yV1lupe Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 28, 2017Here s the photo that s freaking Hannity out.Internet users thought Hannity s reaction to the photo was pretty funny.Snowflake much Sean? Paul Dickinson (@prdickinson) November 28, 2017We re wondering the same thing.Why would this dummy pose for a photo like that if he didn't want them to use it? CaptainPajamas (@captainpajamas) November 28, 2017Makes you look young. And deranged. So half-accurate. Doug Brooks (@Hoosier84) November 28, 2017Hahahajahahaaa Cathy R (@CathyMaiRu) November 28, 2017I liked this one.. pic.twitter.com/wL9en474YQ Hanna (@hanna_shane) November 28, 2017Could be worse. They could have taken a pic when you first got out of bed. pic.twitter.com/6hKUGGIYRm greg fuller (@GregFuller4Real) November 28, 2017I think they did. Loud Asshat Drain The Trumps (@DrainTheTrumps) November 28, 2017When Donald Trump was the president-elect, he wanted the media to stop publishing unflattering photos of him so naturally, Internet users circulated them quickly. Trump hates photos displaying his many chins. Trump was speaking off-the-record at the time to whine about the unflattering shots. He also complained about photos of himself that NBC used that he found unflattering.At one point, Trump turned to NBC News President Deborah Turness and told her the network won t run a nice picture of him, instead choosing this picture of me, as he made a face with a double chin.I hear Donald Trump really hates this photo. So make sure not to retweet it. Ever. pic.twitter.com/6dUnchk8tC Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) November 25, 2016#TrumpleChin is bad. Very weak. I have a tremendous chin. Other chins shouldn't be allowed on Twitter. Sad. pic.twitter.com/mb18VywW3L Persistent Woman (@PixMichelle) November 25, 2016Apparently Donald Trump is very upset @NBC used an unflattering photo of him.Anyway, here's him and a pelican.Please don't RT. pic.twitter.com/6IAaSYKpzc Steve Marmel (@Marmel) November 27, 2016We can understand Hannity s obsession with Donald Trump now. They re basically the same person with the same ego. The piece published by the Times was actually a softball interview but Hannity is upset over the photograph.Hannity described himself to the Times as an advocacy journalist, or an opinion journalist I want to give my audiences the best shows possible and we describe him as a Donald Trump sycophant who has a raging hard-on for Hillary Clinton. While Hannity frequently calls liberals snowflakes, he continues to be the snowflakiest Fox News host on TV and on Twitter.Image via screen capture. | 1real |
Schwarzenegger Quits ’Celebrity Apprentice’ After One Season | Arnold Schwarzenegger won’t be back on NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice. [The actor and former governor of California said Friday he would not return next season to helm the reality television show made popular by his predecessor and now president Donald Trump. “I loved every second of working with NBC and Mark Burnett. Everyone — from the celebrities to the crew to the marketing department — was a straight 10, and I would absolutely work with all of them again on a show that doesn’t have this baggage,” Schwarzenegger told Empire magazine in an interview. “Even if asked [to do it again] I would decline,” he added. “With Trump being involved in the show people have a bad taste and don’t want to participate as a spectator or as a sponsor or in any other way support the show. It’s a very divisive period now and I think this show got caught up in all that division. ” Schwarzenegger took the helm of the reality show in January after NBC severed its business ties with Trump due to his presidential campaign. The rebooted show debuted to poor ratings and lackluster reviews, and the show struggled with ratings through the entirety of its run. On Thursday, the Wrap reported that at least five of the show’s twelve corporate sponsors had decided to withdraw from participating in the show next season. The sponsors were reportedly targeted by a campaign called #GrabYourWallet, which boycotts brands and individuals associated with President Trump. Though Trump no longer hosted the show, he retained an executive producer credit and his name appeared in the titles. “When people found out that Trump was still involved as executive producer and was still receiving money from the show, then half the people [started] boycotting it,” Schwarzenegger told Empire. NBC has not yet announced whether it will bring back Celebrity Apprentice for next season. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum | 0fake |
Puerto Rico GO bond price dips, rescue bill moves to Senate | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Puerto Rico’s benchmark General Obligation bond fell in price on Friday in choppy trading after the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation aimed at helping the U.S. territory fix its fiscal mess. The GO bond, carrying an 8 percent coupon and maturing in 2035, last traded at 64.74 points in price, pushing the yield to 13.05 percent from 12.73 percent on Thursday, according to data provided by the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. According to the MSRB’s Electronic Municipal Market Access database, about $21 million worth of bonds traded versus $14 million the day before. Late on Thursday the House passed the "Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act" (PROMESA), by a vote of 297-127, with the U.S. Senate expected to take up the bill quickly ahead of a $1.9 billion debt payment due July 1. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/1PjZvh5) Puerto Rico has a $70 billion debt load it says it cannot pay and a staggering 45 percent poverty rate. It faces steady migration of its residents to the mainland and a potential humanitarian crisis because it cannot sustain social services. PROMESA, if passed by the Senate and signed into law, would establish a powerful seven-member federal Oversight Board to navigate through the restructurings. Among other things, the board would have the authority to enforce balanced budgets. “It is definitely a step forward, a very good step forward. We think it was necessary. It doesn’t answer all your questions but at least it sets up a framework and does provide fiscal management and oversight which we think was necessary because the credibility of the government is pretty much shot,” said Joe Rosenblum, director of municipal credit research at AllianceBernstein in New York. “We don’t think at these prices we are ready to dip our toes back in and we haven’t seen a lot of trading activity out there, so I think we are in company,” Rosenblum said. PROMESA does not set out specific rules for restructuring, leaving such decisions to the control board to work through with creditors. This is a critical point for municipal bond market investors where long-standing rules set out a hierarchy among creditors, typically with GO bondholders considered senior to all others. “Regardless of how things get restructured today, the fact that the economy continues to shrink and the population continues to shrink is a problem for the credit going forward,” said Craig Brandon, co-director of municipal investments at Eaton Vance in Boston. | 0fake |
'Fake news!': Ireland rebukes Trump over corporate tax claim | DUBLIN (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump s assertion that he had heard Ireland was going to cut its already low corporate tax rate is fake news , Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Wednesday. Trump raised a few eyebrows in Ireland on Monday when he told reporters at the White House: I hear that Ireland is going to be reducing their corporate rates down to 8 percent from 12. I can confirm that President Trump s claim that we are proposing to reduce our corporation profit tax to 8 percent is indeed fake news. There is no such plan to do so, Varadkar told parliament in answer to a question on Trump s comments. Ireland s 12.5 percent corporate tax rate has long made it a hub for investment from major U.S. multinationals like Google (GOOGL.O) and Facebook (FB.O) and a target for criticism from U.S. politicians. Irish policymakers have responded by consistently stressing that the corporate tax rate will neither go up or down and the rate was reaffirmed just last week in the government s budget for 2018. Our corporate profit tax is 12.5 percent, has been for a very long time through changes of government, through recessions and through periods of growth, and it as much that certainty that is as important to business as anything else, Varadkar said. Trump has said he would like to see the U.S. corporate income tax rate reduced to 20 percent from 35 percent, in part to better compete with lower tax jurisdictions like Ireland. | 0fake |
5 Ridiculously Stupid Things Men Keep Doing For Women | Home This Month Popular 5 Ridiculously Stupid Things Men Keep Doing For Women 5 Ridiculously Stupid Things Men Keep Doing For Women David G. Brown
David is a lifelong dissident and intellectual rebel. He despises political correctness, which replaces real, needy victims with narcissistic leftists out for a free meal. Though still a young man, he has watched society descend into its present morass with great sadness, combined with a determination to help make things better. He tweets when there's something worth tweeting here . October 28, 2016 Girls
Forget the movies that set aloof men against love-seeking women. It is men who are the hopeless romantics much, if not most of the time. And they express this extraordinary naivety by engaging in stupid behaviors that their fathers and other male role models should have beaten out of them. Though feminism, demographic trends, and socioeconomic realities encourage women to be entitled prima donnas, men add to the feedback loop by rewarding modern-day princesses.
Of course, there are sensible exceptions to avoiding the following behaviors. A time and a place, for example, can be found for defending a woman, most notably your mother or wife, from someone else’s verbal or physical attack. Likewise, sometimes emergencies or certain serious events mean you should put your priorities aside to help a high-quality woman who gives long-term value to your life. That said, in the vast majority of cases acting in this way is unnecessary, time-consuming, resource-draining, and plain self-destructive for a man.
So, here are the five things many men perversely and uselessly keep doing for women: 1. Fighting for them
I lost count long ago of the number of times I have seen a man step in to save a woman from either herself or a slight (usually deserved) against her. A girl will behave like a pork chop at a restaurant, club or elsewhere, picking a verbal or even physical argument with an employee or fellow patron. Along comes Captain-Save-a-Ho, who might not even know the girl, to protect her honor. The expectation of many women that men will do this for them is bad enough, let alone when a man does it of his own volition, without being requested.
In return for risking a physical or similar altercation with other people, the white knight invariably gets a smile, a few words, and perhaps a phone number. From this point onwards, though, the interaction between Mr. White Knight and the Entitled Damsel Who Causes Her Own Distress invariably fizzles out. And it is not just members of your typical white knight crowd who act this way. Men who are nominally good with women fall into this trap, too, confusing it with the opportunity to be “alpha” and dominate over another male. The most common outcome, sadly, is that a woman’s very poor behavior is condoned by a man falling over himself to be her medieval champion. 2. Fighting over them Not only is this bickering usually ill-advised, it is often exactly what she wants.
This stupid behavior is only marginally better than fighting for women and the two activities consistently overlap. Whilst competition in life, including between men over women, should be largely encouraged, swathes of men are effectively scrapping over last Sunday’s leftovers on a Saturday, three days after the refrigerator stopped working.
Remember: a woman can be attractive but, because of her attitude and behavior, have very little long-term value for you. Countless men live with the illusion that if they toil hard enough to get the good-looking girl, it must be worth it. That’s simply not the case in modern times. To boot, a lot of sexually thirsty men nowadays are chasing physically low-yield women their fathers and grandfathers would never have noticed.
At best, the majority of men who fight over women are dueling over the prospect of snaring a girl who one of them will probably fuck a few times, if at all. And if they do manage to secure the girl for a long-term relationship, the pairing usually implodes down the track. The man either realizes he wasted his time or suffers greatly in material terms, such as by being draped (divorce raped).
In the meantime, the girls being fought over have their egos stroked time and time again. Unattractive girls see themselves as attractive and attractive girls with foul, entitled princess personalities find themselves validated once more. Everything in these situations is predicated on the men fighting and proving themselves, rather than the women reaching an appropriate standard of physical and emotional femininity. 3. Paying for them What are you getting from the transaction with her? And yes, everything is transactional in male-female relationships.
Unless you are completely sure you have claimed the world’s best girl for yourself (and even that belief is probably based on very false or temporary appearances), you should ideally be investing less financially in the relationship than she is. This may seem counterintuitive, especially when a man is sexually valued by women for his status, achievements, and resources. But we are not living in a time when almost every woman is marriageable. A man providing for a woman can only justify it if she is of high-quality and gives him something back in return. On both these counts, most men are paying for dud deals.
In every long-term relationship I have had, I have put less into the relationship financially, proportionally-speaking. Almost always, even the girl’s gross investment has either approximated mine or surpassed it. For dates and during casual relationships, too, I pay for a woman’s time about as much as she pays for mine, if not less.
When relationships end, girls can and do play petty games over money or property you may be owed. What matters, however, is how you conduct yourself overall. Only when a woman has materially invested in you or invests in you should you invest in her. When patriarchy returns, the male-female dynamic will alter. Before that time, be sure she does her fair share financially. 4. Shifting or sacrificing their priorities for them Meanwhile, he should be do everything else for himself.
Unlike many other self-destructive behaviors concerning women, this one can be very incremental and hard to spot. It is very easy to procrastinate on your work, final exams, self-development goals, and the rest of your social life when what you feel is a high-quality woman comes along. In fact, nature has basically designed you to do that by throwing your biochemistry into a drug-like dependency at the beginning of a courtship. In addition to these problems early on, men are apt to continue the shelving of their other, more personal demands after the relationship is well established.
On a topic I will explore in more detail in another article, there should be certain hours in many days (or simply days in general) in which women do not even enter your mind. Contrast this with your average man, who will throw away opportunities to further himself to please his girl. And often she’s not his girl for much longer, as his neglect of himself becomes apparent in her less attracted mind. By devoting yourself to a ho, you become dispensable to a ho, not just psychologically, but physically, financially, and socially as well. Don’t let yourself rot
Your body, finances, education, and other forms of self-improvement need to be your number one focus. After all, they are the only things you have (or don’t have) 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Individual girls may come and go, but your obligations to yourself remain. Paradoxically, keeping these obligations to yourself are what attract girls in the first place. A man who takes proper care of his money, career, body, and social life gets women. 5. Moving to them, for them Sucker.
This is the one even my leftwing father warned me about. But it’s something a lot of guys are yet to learn. Like shifting or sacrificing one’s priorities, moving to a girl for a girl is conducive to throwing your own needs into utter disarray. Every time I moved to where a girl of mine lived, I did so mostly for myself. Whether to explore a new country for three months, or find a new, refreshing place to get my work done, the relocation benefited me. This is qualitatively far different from upending yourself to some new city for the mere chance to thrive and the desire to please a girl.
Perhaps the saddest thing about the man who moves for his girl is that when he wants even a fraction of the favor he gave her, he’s often left in the lurch. Don’t make this mistake. Either she must move to you or you move to her for a lot of reasons that don’t revolve around her. If the relationship fails (and most of them do), you leave yourself in an equal or better position than the one you would otherwise be in. Don’t follow the crowd of thirsty males Too many men slave away in a female desert. Girls are not non-existent, but they’re too often low-quality relative to what a man is willing to do for them.
Snap yourself out of these behaviors and help your friends shake them off, too. You may not indulge in them regularly, but the temptation to perform them at least sometimes is likely to be there. More broadly, we need to see a seismic shift in the way many men act. Become part of the solution.
So what’s just as bad as an entitled woman? A man who encourages her entitlement with obsequious validation. | 1real |
Jailed former Catalan vice-president accepts Madrid rule: lawyer | MADRID (Reuters) - Imprisoned former vice-president of Catalonia Oriol Junqueras and three other jailed members of his ERC party will abide by a ruling giving Madrid control over the region, their defense lawyer said on Tuesday. Junqueras and seven other former members of the Catalonia regional cabinet were jailed on Nov. 2 pending trial, accused of sedition, rebellion and misappropriation of funds after the local government declared independence from Spain. Catalonia s secession drive has tipped Spain into its worst political crisis in decades and prompted Madrid to sack the Catalan government, led by Carles Puigdemont, and call a regional election for Dec. 21. The acceptance of Madrid s rule over the region could prompt the Supreme Court to overrule the decision to hold the defendants in custody while they await trial, and release them in time to campaign for the election. All four jailed ERC members - Junqueras, former foreign affairs chief Raul Romeva, justice affairs head Carles Mundo and work chief Dolors Bassa - have been named as candidates in the election. The defendants did not agree with the application of Article 155, which stripped the regional government of its power after the secessionist ruling, but accepted it, their lawyer said in a statement to the Supreme Court. My charges accepted, and accept, the application of 155 ... but have done so from a position of deep political and judicial discrepancy, the lawyer said. The lawyer added that the statement does not mean that they renounce their political convictions. Former leader of Catalonia Puigdemont, who has been in self-imposed exile in Belgium since declaring independence, said on Saturday the election would be most important in the region s history. Turnout for the election is expected to reach a record 80 percent as the deeply divisive issue of the region s secession prompts participation from both sides. Less than a quarter of Catalans want to continue with a plan to claim independence from Spain, according to a poll published in El Pais newspaper on Monday. However, the same poll showed the vote evenly split between pro- and anti-independence parties in the upcoming regional election. | 0fake |
Gay Veteran, 91, Gets Honorable Discharge After 69 Years - The New York Times | For more than half a century, Hubert Edward Spires has lived with the painful memory of being kicked out of the Air Force as a young gay sergeant in the 1940s. The word “undesirable” was printed on his discharge records. But now, at 91, Mr. Spires said he can finally be at peace with that part of his life. On Friday, he was awakened by a phone call to his Connecticut home and learned that the Air Force Board for the Correction of Military Records had agreed to change his status. This time, his discharge would be described as “honorable. ” “It was a long haul,” Mr. Spires said on Tuesday in phone call from his home in Norwalk. “I got the confirmation that I had been looking for. ” Said his husband, David Rosenberg, whom he met in 1956 and married eight years ago: “His first words were, ‘It’s about time.’ ” Mr. Spires is one of the hundreds of gay former military personnel who have been emboldened by the 2010 repeal of the United States military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, which prohibited gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the military. In 2011, the federal government allowed changes to veterans’ military records, some of which had been labeled “undesirable” or “other than honorable. ” The incentives for doing so were sometimes financial. Such designations could make it difficult for the men and women who had served to get employment, loans or access to veterans benefits. But there was another, more important reason. “The respect factor,” said Matt Thorn, an executive director at Legal Defense Network, which helps veterans with the application process needed to reverse such designations. “I served my country honorably I want that respect. And they should have that. ” Mr. Thorn said many go through an application process that can take up to 18 months. But for Mr. Spires, who recently recovered from pneumonia, it took years of effort that will now allow him to have a burial, when the time comes, with military honors. “I have to quietly go back into my shell now,” he said. “Because I am 91 years old, and my health is not all it should be. I can’t take on jobs that require energy because I don’t have it anymore, but I had it long enough to fight the G. D. Air Force and win,” he said. Brooke Brzozowske, a spokeswoman for the Air Force, said the service branch had denied 27 out of 157 requests for upgrades since the policy was repealed. “We were not necessarily discharging people for just being gay,” she said. “It was associated with misconduct if it was a dishonorable discharge. ” The military corrections board first received Mr. Spires’s application to get his status upgraded in 2014, but some of his discharge records had been destroyed in a fire in 1973 that also consumed those of other veterans of World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, according to a copy of the records board statement about his case. Other documents found in 2016 showed he served in the military from 1946 to 1948, when he was discharged from Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. To help his case, Mr. Spires also filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court for the District of Connecticut in November, assisted by the Yale Law School’s Veterans Legal Services Clinic. The lawsuit asserted that Mr. Spires’s rights had been violated after he encountered unreasonable delays in the Air Force review to change his discharge status to “honorable. ” According to the lawsuit and to Mr. Spires account, his life as a young chaplain’s assistant at the base included playing the organ at services and typing letters to distressed families. He attended social events with gay men outside of the base, he said. At a Halloween party in 1947, Mr. Spires dressed in a costume inspired by a sparkly laundry soap. Someone at the party informed his superiors that he was in drag, the lawsuit said. He was interrogated by military officials, threatened with a and sent to hearings and psychiatrists, the suit says. He signed a statement saying he had engaged in “homosexual acts” to end an interrogation, the lawsuit said. “I never did anything on the base in uniform,” he said. “I had a whole slew of very good friends who were gay and lived off base. We partied together we had wonderful meals together and went to the opera together. We lived a very normal life. I did not dishonor the Air Force in any way by my actions,” Mr. Spires said in the interview. He was discharged and sent home to Lancaster, Ohio, in civilian clothes. Over the years, he destroyed his military records for fear his Catholic family would find out, he said. He found work in department stores and other jobs. He met Mr. Rosenberg in 1956 at a séance in New York. They have been companions ever since, marrying in 2009, Mr. Spires said. The court did not rule on Mr. Spires’s lawsuit, as the Air Force board resumed its review of Mr. Spires’s application. It finally said in its letter last week that he had no misconduct in the military and concluded there was “the existence of an injustice. ” Its recommendation: an honorable discharge dating to March 17, 1948. “I had a terrible time,” Mr. Spires said. “But now I have been able to put so much of that behind me, and now that I have got my honorable discharge, I hope these negative thoughts will leave me permanently. ” He added, “It has allowed me to not have to look over my shoulder all the time. ” | 0fake |
Ohio Teacher Shamed 9-Year-Old for Shirt Commemorating First Deer Kill - Breitbart | A teacher at Hinkley Elementary School has come under fire after being accused of shaming a student for wearing a sweatshirt that commemorated her first deer kill. [Domonique Yatsko, a student at Hinkley Elementary, was carrying on a family tradition by wearing a photograph of her first deer kill on a sweatshirt. “She was ashamed and belittled in front of everyone in the classroom,” the student’s mother said. “She didn’t know what to think she was so upset. ” Domonique’s teacher, Hannah Copa, allegedly yelled at the young girl over the sweatshirt and told her to “to take off the sweatshirt because ‘killing animals is not what we do. ’” According to the student’s mother, Domonique was so shaken by the incident with her teacher that she immediately threw the sweatshirt in the garbage when she came home from school. According to a report from The Medina County Gazette, a superintendent from the school district claimed that the teacher addressed the student about her sweatshirt after it made several of her classmates upset. The superintendent added, “The situation as I understand it is several children expressed concerns to the teacher and the teacher asked the student to step into hallway and take off (the sweatshirt) because it was upsetting to some of the students, and she did. ” Hunting apparel, including camouflage and images of animals, does not violate the Highland dress code, Aukerman said. Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about social justice and libertarian issues for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart. com | 0fake |
La expresión “no, lo siguiente” ya es la más utilizada no, lo siguiente, en el castellano | La expresión “no, lo siguiente” ya es la más utilizada no, lo siguiente, en el castellano SE HA HECHO VIRAL NO, LO SIGUIENTE Real Academia de la Lengua
El uso de la expresión “no, lo siguiente” ha aumentado no, lo siguiente, en los últimos cinco años. “La gente es bastante fan no, lo siguiente, de esta expresión que lo está petando”, concluía esta mañana la Real Academia de la Lengua (RAE) en la presentación de su informe “Una lengua viva no, lo siguiente”.
“Quien acuñara esta forma de hablar la ha liado porque se ha hecho viral”, insisten los académicos, que certifican que el castellano es la lengua más hablada no, lo siguiente, después del chino e incorpora constantemente “formas de expresión que se convierten en memes porque las emplean usuarios que son prescriptores y tienen la tira de seguidores”.
“Es un zasca en toda regla al castellano normativo”, confirman los expertos.
“También te digo: un día estas aquí y otro allí”, reza el informe de la RAE, refiriéndose a numerosas expresiones que antes molaban pero que “por hache o por be han dejado de estar en el candelabro y al final a la gente se la sudan”.
La entidad ha animado a todos sus seguidores a compartir esta nueva información en su muro y a darle a RT. | 1real |
WATCH Bill O’Reilly Get INSANELY Vile Over Bloodied United Passenger – It’s SICK Even For Him | We ve been abuzz all day about a doctor who was forcibly removed from a United Airlines flight at Chicago s O Hare International Airport. Chicago Department of Aviation police yanked him out of his seat so hard his face hit the armrest and he ended up in the hospital. Most people who have any kind of a conscience are outraged, as well they should be, because there are a zillion things wrong with this scenario.Bill O Reilly, on the other hand, doesn t seem to be all that outraged over it. His reaction was positively disgusting. Seriously. After showing the video, he literally laughed. Then he said: I shouldn t be laughing but it s just so bizarre. Good lord, does the man have any decency at all? Oh, wait, we know the answer to that already. Yes, it s bizarre, but not in a way that warrants laughing. How black does your soul have to be to laugh at something like this? Watch below:United had oversold this particular flight and was having trouble getting people to voluntarily give up their seats so they could get a flight crew to Louisville. With no volunteers, they randomly selected four people to be bumped, and this doctor was one of them. He refused to give up his seat, so United called Dept. of Aviation police to get rid of him.And O Reilly finds it funny. But what can we really expect from a disgusting excuse for a human being such as Billo the Clown?Featured image via screen capture | 1real |
REPORT: NJ GOV Chris Christie’s BIG ‘Mistake’ That Cost Him WH Job | Chris Christie knows how to create awkward political moments that s for sure! (*SEE PHOTO GAFFE GALLERY BELOW) Remember the game hug? The VERY awkward moment behind candidate Trump where he just stood there with a blank stare? His latest and most awkward political moment has to be Beachgate where he was captured lounging with his family on a NJ beach after closing it to the public. Ouch! We re just happy he wasn t hired by President Trump but was let go by Jared Kushner. Wheeew!In previous reports, we ve also discussed the election night gaffe of a bold Chris Christie shoving his way into photos with newly elected President Trump (see photo above). The word was that the president wasn t too happy about this and that this behavior cost Christie a position with the new Trump administration. The Christie Bridgegate scandal was another factor that s been reported. The newest revelation exposes the ultimate mistake from Christie:Chris Christie made his ultimate mistake with Donald Trump when he bragged about talking to President Obama on election night and offered to let Trump an infamous germaphobe use Christie s cellphone to talk to Obama. If you win, he s going to call my phone, and I ll pass it over to you, Christie said, according to excerpts of a new book obtained by the Daily Mail.A visibly angry Trump snapped at his top campaign aide: Hey Chris, you know my f king phone number. Just give it to the president. I don t want your f king phone, Trump fumed.Christie, who never received a role in the White House despite his steadfast support for the president, wouldn t recover from the phone debacle, the report said.Christie made yet another critical mistake when he pushed himself into photos with Trump on election night.Trump s son-in-law Jared Kushner whose father was prosecuted by Christie, then a US attorney in New Jersey gave the Garden State governor the ax right after Trump s victory.We have to say that after the latest Chris Christie gaffe of Beachgate where he closed the NJ beach to the public BUT opened it to only his family has us convinced that Trump and Kushner did the right thing! MAN HUG AWKWARD!STANDING BY TRUMP WITH BLANK STARE:CAUGHT ON THE BEACH WITH FAMILY AFTER CLOSING BEACH:Via: NYP | 1real |
Mike Rowe Schools Hamilton Cast On Lecturing Pence -- And Has A Few Notes For Trump, Too | Mike Rowe, the ex- Dirty Jobs star and current host of Somebody’s Gotta Do It, took to his Facebook page once again to address a current topic of controversy. And, as usual, nailed it.
One of Rowe’s fan sent him a message saying, | 1real |
Pope Francis announces biggest changes to annulment process in centuries | Pope Francis on Tuesday announced sweeping revisions to the Catholic Church’s marriage annulment process, changes that are designed to speed up and simplify the often lengthy procedure. The revisions, according to Vatican experts, appear to be the most far-reaching made to the church’s annulment process in centuries.
The announcement, featuring changes that will make it easier for Catholics to remarry, comes about a month before a major meeting at the Vatican, where Catholic leadership will examine the church’s views on family issues, including divorce and remarriage.
The changes will eliminate a requirement that all annulment decisions get a second judgment and will allow local bishops to expedite the annulment process for some cases. The annulment process will be free of charge, though many dioceses had already eliminated the administrative fees for marriage annulments, according to a Vatican spokesman. The revisions also expand the role of local bishops in judging nullification proceedings.
Although dramatic, the changes do not alter the Catholic Church’s teaching that marriages are permanent.
The revisions were announced in two Apostolic Letters from Francis, which, translated from their Latin titles, are called “The Gentle Judge, The Lord Jesus” and “The Meek and Merciful Jesus.” The documents were released in Latin and Italian at a Vatican news conference.
Current Catholic teaching on marriage doesn’t recognize divorce. Catholics who are granted a civil divorce and then remarry are ineligible to take Communion, a key part of active Catholic life. Instead, a Catholic who wants to end his or her marriage must be granted an annulment, a process that many Catholics believe is too costly and complicated.
[What has Pope Francis actually accomplished? Here’s a look at 8 of his most notable statements.]
The pope’s changes don’t resolve whether divorced and remarried Catholics may take communion, the Rev. Thomas Rosica, an English-language spokesman for the Vatican, said in an e-mail; instead, they put the question “into a new context” for further examination by the church.
The changes will probably split Catholic opinion between those who believe that a streamlining of the annulment process is needed and will help bring back more Catholics to the church, and those who worry that the revisions could make it too easy to move on from a marriage, which Catholic teaching dictates is a permanent sacrament.
In a recent Pew poll, 62 percent of American Catholics said the church should allow Catholics who divorce and remarry without an annulment to receive Communion.
The number of annulments in the United States has been on the decline in recent decades. Annulment procedures in the country dropped from 72,308 in 1989 to 23,302 in 2014, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.
[Vast majority of U.S. Catholics who left the church can’t imagine returning, study says]
An annulment is granted by a Catholic tribunal if it agrees that a marriage originally thought to be valid was actually missing at least one crucial element from the start, meaning that it was never really a true marriage in the first place. The length of the process varies between dioceses but can take 12 to 18 months, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
One of the changes implemented by the pope will eliminate the “second instance” of that tribunal, meaning that all couples seeking annulment will have to obtain only one sentence from a single tribunal. “The moral certainty reached by the first judge according to law should be sufficient,” the letter reads.
“It’s a sweeping reform; it’s a dramatic reform,” said Chad Pecknold, a theologian at Catholic University. “It’s a reform which essentially takes away the whole judicial process for deciding whether a marriage was null or not.”
Another change will reduce the process of that first tribunal down to one judge, Pecknold noted. Formerly, a tribunal consisted of at least two priests and one canon lawyer, who could be a layman or cleric.
Francis has changed that and placed the responsibility of the “first instance” of the tribunal into the hands of a single judge, who must always be a member of the clergy. Pecknold added, “A lot of my canon lawyer friends want to quit today.”
Austen Ivereigh, a papal biographer and commentator on the Vatican, called it “revolutionary” that Francis has granted bishops the power to nullify a marriage – a power that has rested with church courts. Bishops, he said, could also delegate that power to priests. This will make annulments more accessible, especially in much of the developing world, where, Ivereigh said, many areas have no church courts.
“This is the most far-reaching reform to the Church’s nullity process in 300 years,” he added.
Tuesday’s announcement is procedural and makes no change in the way the church sees marriage and its permanent nature. However, Ivereigh said, the change shows Francis has been listening to regular Catholics and “the reason for this change is that society has changed. This speeded-up procedure recognizes and reflects a new reality.”
He predicted that some conservatives would be critical of this change because they will see it undermining the concept of marriage as a bond that cannot be dissolved. The best-known of this group is American Cardinal Raymond Burke, who led the Vatican’s supreme court until he was removed by Francis because, Ivereigh said, Burke opposed annulment changes.
Another change announced Tuesday will allow bishops the ability to further expedite the annulment process for some particularly straightforward cases — a process that Pecknold said would allow the bishop to essentially “write a note.”
That process could be open to abuse, he added: “The moment that you put in an exception that makes everybody’s job easier, guess what everybody’s going to do?”
Kurt Martens, a professor of canon law at Catholic University, said the expedited process would apply to Catholic couples facing certain conditions, including those who have an abortion, a grave contagious disease, children from a previous relationship or imprisonment. Essentially, Martens said, the church is providing a path that looks like the Catholic version of no-fault divorce.
[VIDEO: Pope emphasizes forgiveness for abortions during ‘year of mercy’]
The changes move the church away from a set of 18th-century safeguards meant to make sure that the annulment process wasn’t subject to abuse, Martens said. Those changes, set up by Pope Benedict XIV, included a provision that would require a mandatory appeal of the lower court’s decision.
“What guarantee do you have for a fair trial if you take away those guarantees that were put in the past?” Martens said. “Sometimes you want to go so quickly, you miss elements and make mistakes. Procedure law takes time to unfold.”
Martens said the way Francis changed the annulment process was unusual, because he did not go through the Synod on the Family, as expected, in October.
“If I were a bishop, I would be upset,” Martens said. “It’s a bit strange and even a sign of contradiction that a pope who is big on consultation and collegiality seems to forget that on something like this. It’s highly unusual for legislation like this to get through that way.”
Francis, for his part, acknowledged some of those concerns in his letters.
“The extent to which an abbreviated process of judgment might put the principle of the indissolubility of marriage at risk, did not escape me,” Francis wrote. “Thus, I have desired that, in such cases the Bishop himself shall be constituted judge, who, by force of his pastoral office is with Peter the greatest guarantor of Catholic unity in faith and in discipline.”
Despite those concerns, the changes come with a notable silver lining for Catholics seeking to annul their marriages and return to a closer relationship with the church.
“In terms of the average Catholic who is seeking annulment, this makes an already painful situation easier, and that is Pope Francis’s intent,” Pecknold said. “You can see a clear pastoral eye on this decision. He doesn’t want any long waits; he basically wants the decision to come from the bishop.”
Francis has spoken before of his desire to reform annulment in the past.
“The sacraments give us grace,” he said earlier this year to jurists of the church’s final court of appeals for annulments. “And a marriage proceeding” — like an annulment — “touches on the sacrament of marriage.”
“How I wish all marriage proceedings were free of charge!” he added.
In August, Francis urged Catholic clergy to keep “open doors” and be more welcoming to divorced and remarried Catholics.
Stay up to date on the papal visit. Sign up here to follow Washington Post stories about Pope Francis’s visit to the U.S. and we’ll e-mail you as they’re published. | 0fake |
Poll: Americans Back Donald Trump’s Immigration Reforms 3-1 | Americans support Donald Trump’s Jan. 25 comprehensive immigration reform by three to one, according to a new poll by Rasmussen Reports.[ percent of Americans agree with the immigration priorities described in Trump’s Jan. 25 Executive Order, which seeks to exclude migrants who oppose Americans’ values. Only 19 percent of Americans — and only 28 percent of Democrats — disapprove of Trump’s decision to align immigration policy with Americans’ civic and cultural values. Here’s the critical passage from Trump’s reform: In order to protect Americans, the United States must ensure that those admitted to this country do not bear hostile attitudes toward it and its founding principles. The United States cannot, and should not, admit those who do not support the Constitution, or those who would place violent ideologies over American law. In addition, the United States should not admit those who engage in acts of bigotry or hatred (including “honor” killings, other forms of violence against women, or the persecution of those who practice religions different from their own) or those who would oppress Americans of any race, gender, or sexual orientation. The new Rasmussen poll asked respondents if they favor a proposal that would keep out “those who do not support the U. S. Constitution or who would place violent ideologies over American law. In addition, the United States would not admit those who engage in acts of bigotry or hatred for reasons of religion, race, gender or sexual orientation. ” percent approved the policy, 19 percent opposed, and 21 percent declined to answer the question. percent of supported the policy, as did 49 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of independents. Trump’s popular policy was largely ignored by the establishment media, which instead focussed on his popular exclusion of Islamic migrants and refugees from several majority Muslim countries. That subordinate part of his plan is being opposed by Islamist groups, progressives, and judges in the Ninth Circuit of Appeals. Curiously, even though 28 percent of Democrats oppose Trump’s reform of immigration policy to match American values, 65 percent of Democrats also wish to impose tougher penalties on fellow Americans who commit crimes that violate progressives’ political values. When asked “Should criminals be prosecuted more severely if it can be proven that their crime was motivated by the victim’s race, color, religion, national origin or sexual orientation?” 65 percent of Democrats said yes, as did 57 percent of Republicans. The survey of 1, 000 American adults was conducted on Feb. 2017 by Rasmussen Reports. Other polls show that Americans want legal immigrants to integrate into the U. S. culture, and they oppose Americans’ integration into foreign cultures. In June 2016, for example, a poll showed that 56 percent of Americans want to exclude migrants who believe in Islam’s sharia law, which requires that democracy and civic norms be subordinated to the Islamic scriptures. In contrast, only about 20 percent of Americans told the pollster that they did not oppose the immigration of people who believe in sharia law. Through his tenure, President Barack Obama boosted the progressive claim that Americans should not put their culture first but instead should subordinate their society into a diverse globalist mix of conflicting foreign cultures and governments. Obama described his policy in a Nov. 2014 speech to Democratic supporters in Chicago: Sometimes we get attached to our particular tribe, our particular race, our particular religion, and then we start treating other folks differently. And that, sometimes, has been a bottleneck to how we think about immigration. If you look at the history of immigration in this country, each successive wave, there have been periods where the folks who were already here suddenly say, ‘Well, I don’t want those folks’ — even though the only people who have the right to say that are some Native Americans. Obama made the same claim in September 2015: When I hear folks talking as if somehow these [foreign] kids are different than my kids or less worthy in the eyes of God, that somehow that they are less worthy of our respect and consideration and care, I think that’s . I don’t believe that, I think it is wrong and I think we should do better, because that’s how America was made. A July 2016 poll shows that roughly three out of four voters — including nearly three out of four Democrat voters — believe that “instead of giving jobs and healthcare to millions of refugees from around the world, we should rebuild our inner cities and put Americans back to work. ” The view was shared by almost 90 percent of and almost 70 percent of Hispanics. Under current policy, the federal government annually provide new work permits to roughly 1 million legal immigrants and to roughly 1 million temporary contract workers. That policy adds roughly 2 million new workers to the labor supply each year, just as 4 million young Americans begin looking for work, and it shifts roughly $500 billion per year from employees to employers and investors, according to an analysis provided in a September report by the National Academy of Sciences. | 0fake |
Technocracy: The Real Reason Why The UN Wants Control Over The Internet | By Patrick Wood By its very nature, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a non-profit organization exclusively run by Technocrats. As... | 1real |
President's son had legitimate reasons to not answer House panel questions: White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Thursday that Donald Trump Jr. was on solid legal ground when he refused to answer questions from a congressional committee about a conversation he had with his father, President Donald Trump, about emails relating to a meeting he attended with Trump associates and Russians. Spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the White House believed there was a “legitimate reason and basis for not answering those questions.” She declined to provide details. | 0fake |
HOW GORSUCH Will Have Immediate Effect On Historic 2nd Amendment Decision And These Significant Controversial Cases | Neil M. Gorsuch joins the Supreme Court just in time to cast potentially significant votes in cases that pit religious liberty against gay rights, test limits on funding for church schools and challenge California s restrictions on carrying a concealed gun in public.Such issues arise either in appeals filed by conservative groups that have been pending before the justices for weeks or in cases to be heard later this month.Gorsuch s votes in those matters may give an early sign of whether the court s conservatives with their 5-4 majority restored by his confirmation will pursue an activist agenda.The cases include a Colorado baker s claim that he deserves a faith-based exemption from the state s anti-discrimination law after he refused to design a wedding cake for a gay couple. The justices have been considering his appeal behind closed doors since December, but have taken no action. LA TimesA Second Amendment controversy arising from California, would be the biggest gun-rights decision in several years, should the justices agree to hear it.In D.C. v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago, the Court ruled that the Constitution protects the right to keep functional firearms in the home for self-defense, and that state and local governments cannot infringe upon said right. The challenge now pending before the Court, Peruta v. California, involves the right to carry a firearm outside the home for self-defense.The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling in 2016 affording county governments in California significant leeway in the issuance of concealed carry permits. Some permit regimes in the state are fairly accommodating of applicants, while others make it functionally impossible to obtain a concealed carry license. A group of Second Amendment applicants challenged the 9th Circuit s decision.Should the justices take the case and side with the activists, they could announce a constitutionally-protected right to bear firearms outside the home for the first time in American history.Via: Daily Caller | 1real |
Trump Attacks Union Leader Who Called Him Out For ‘Lying His Ass Off’ | A Carrier union leader called Donald Trump out for his lies about the deal that supposedly saved American jobs from moving to Mexico. So what did Trump do? Tell the truth? Take responsibility for his actions? Recant his bogus claims? Oh, heck no! He attacked him on Twitter. Because of course he did.On Wednesday, United Steelworkers 1999 President Chuck Jones said Trump and his second in command, Mike Pence, used misleading numbers and pointed out that some of the jobs they took credit for saving weren t ever even leaving to begin with. What they re doing, they re counting in 350 odd more that were never leaving this country at all, Jones told Burnett. If you re dealing with people s livelihoods, you sure as hell ought to know what the numbers are. Jones said that, for some unknown reason, he believed Trump would do the right thing at his Dec. 1 press conference and tell the truth that 550 jobs weren t saved. But he got up there, Jones said, and, for whatever reason, lied his ass off, Jones said.Not being one to handle criticism well, Trump blew his top when Jones called out his B.S. and took to Twitter to voice his anger.Chuck Jones, who is President of United Steelworkers 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers. No wonder companies flee country! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2016If United Steelworkers 1999 was any good, they would have kept those jobs in Indiana. Spend more time working-less time talking. Reduce dues Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2016So now, among all the other groups Trump has taken aim at, he is going after union leaders. The heroes of the very white working class, blue collar folks who voted him into office have now become the latest victims to feel the brunt of Trump s billionaire boots. That sure didn t take long. All they had to do was quit kissing his ass and call him out for being the pathological liar that he is and he turned on them in a heartbeat. Is anybody here surprised? No? Didn t think so.Featured image via Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images | 1real |
Leaked Images Show Illegals Casually Strolling Across Open Border | Posted 10/31/2016 2:31 pm by PatriotRising with 0 comments A series of leaked images reveal how groups of illegal immigrants continue to flow over the Texas border in unprecedented numbers. The lack of physical barrier and real border security allows human smugglers and their cargo to simply wade across the shallow waters of the Rio Grande.
Breitbart Texas exclusively obtained leaked law enforcement images of a crossing attempt by human smugglers in an area between Del Rio and Laredo, Texas. According to various sources on both sides of the border, the area where the crossing took place is under the control of the Los Zetas cartel .
The black and white images were taken using night vision equipment in order to record the smuggling operations. The images reveal that human smugglers appear to operate with little concern due to the lack of presence by U.S. law enforcement.
The human smugglers can be seen driving in SUVs to the Mexican side of the river before disembarking. The illegal immigrants then hoist their belongings over their heads and proceed to wade through the water onto the U.S. side of the border where more human smugglers await.
Border Patrol Agent Shawn Moran, speaking to Breitbart Texas in his role as National Border Patrol Council Vice President, cautioned that many would assume the fact that technology identified these unknown aliens crossing does not mean they were apprehended.
Agent Moran stated, “We have a manpower shortage and have seen instances where were could only respond to 40 percent of the crossings we knew were occurring. The technology is great at letting us know a crossing is occurring, but what good is it if we don’t have the agents to respond.”
A recent report from Breitbart Texas showed illegal immigrants crossing the border from Mexico and entering the U.S. inside the city limits of Laredo, Texas. In that case, the foreigners were able to overcome U.S. border security with nothing more than a breaststroke and a cheap inner tube .
As Breitbart Texas recently reported, the numbers of illegal immigrant families and unaccompanied minors crossing the border from Mexico are up dramatically in the federal Fiscal Year 2016. The apprehension of families has increased by 95 percent over FY 2015 numbers to 77,674 according to a report from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The number of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) crossing the border hit a near record total of 59,692. According to a previous Breitbart Texas report, the numbers of illegal immigrants have been dramatically increasing in the three months leading up to the election.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project and you can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook .
Brandon Darby is managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook .
DISCLOSURE: Breitbart News sponsors the National Border Patrol Council’s radio program, The Green Line. The author of this article received an award from the Laredo chapter of the National Border Patrol Council for his “being a voice and staunch advocate for Border patrol agents.” Breitbart News previously covered the costs of a slain Border Patrol agent’s funeral. The National Border Patrol Council endorsed Donald Trump for President after the candidate vowed to give veteran Border Patrol agents a voice in what is needed to properly secure the U.S.-Mexico border. Do you enjoy reading Patriot Rising? | 1real |
No decision yet on whether to go ahead with Monday's Catalan parliament session: Speaker | (Reuters) - A Spanish Constitutional Court ruling suspending a session of the Catalan parliament that planned to declare Catalonia s independence from Spain damages freedom of expression, the speaker of the region s parliament said on Thursday. But Carme Forcadell said the parliament had taken no decision yet on whether Monday s session would go ahead. The court s decision to suspend Monday s session before it had been formally convened harms freedom of expression and the right of initiative of members of this parliament and shows once more how the courts are being used to solve political problems, she told reporters. | 0fake |
Zimbabwe's Mugabe likens rivals to Judas for seeking his retirement | HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Thursday accused unnamed officials of his own party of trying to push him into retiring and likened them to the biblical betrayer Judas. The 93-year-old Mugabe, one of the world s oldest leaders, has been in power since Zimbabwe, then called Rhodesia, gained independence from Britain in 1980. He intends to seek another five-year term at elections due next year. In public, his party, ZANU-PF, has rallied behind its aging leader. But in private its members are deeply divided over his continued leadership and who will eventually take over from him. Mugabe, who has repeatedly said his party will choose his successor when the time comes, said he was going nowhere and accused some party officials of supporting him during the day while plotting against him behind his back. Others are like those that Jesus spoke about during his last supper, when he said some of you eating with me here shall betray me . The Judas Iscariot. They are here among us, Mugabe said during the burial of a party member. They want to cause leadership change ... for the president to step down. I did not grab power. I was chosen by the people. It s the people s throne, so I don t want with it, he said to loud cheers from some party members. ZANU-PF is divided into two factions. One backs Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa to immediately succeed Mugabe. Another is rallying behind Mugabe s wife, Grace, and also want the aging ruler to be president for life. When the day comes I will say thank you to my Zimbabwean family and I will step down so you can choose my successor. But for now I am the one in charge, Mugabe said. The southern African nation is gripped by a shortage of foreign exchange that has forced some businesses to buy U.S. dollars on the black market, a situation blamed for a recent spike in prices and shortages of some basic goods. But Mugabe, without giving evidence, accused some people of manipulating the currency to trigger inflation and cause panic buying. | 0fake |
Libertarian ticket eyes post-convention opening – and debate stage | The Libertarian Party ticket, facing what polls show are two of the most unpopular presidential candidates in modern American history, is seeing a bump in support as the general election race moves into full swing – and a surge in interest that could carry nominee Gary Johnson onto the prized debate stage this fall.
Despite Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton’s popularity issues and trust gap with voters, few expect the Libertarian ticket to pose a Ross Perot-style threat this year.
But the party is far more than a political curiosity in 2016. Rumors are swirling in the wake of the major-party conventions that high-profile Republicans are now considering backing the ticket; a recent video from Johnson and running mate William Weld generated considerable buzz; and the polls show Johnson getting close to 15 percent – the threshold he needs to reach to land him on the debate stage with Trump and Clinton this fall.
The RealClearPolitics average has Johnson at 8.4 percent in a four-way race with Trump, Clinton and Green Party candidate Jill Stein, up from 4.5 percent in June. The latest Fox News poll released Wednesday, after the conventions, put Johnson at 12 percent.
An NBC poll taken toward the end of the Democratic convention put Johnson at 9 percent, roughly where he was in prior polling.
Party officials said the unpopularity of the Republican and Democratic candidates gives the party an “unprecedented opportunity.”
“It goes from week to week and day to day watching for what new thing [Clinton and Trump are] going to do to become more unpopular with the American people, and frighten people,” Nicholas Sarwark, chairman of the Libertarian National Committee, told FoxNews.com. “Those candidates are the gift that keeps on giving. We’re running as the qualified adult in the room.”
Sarwark pointed to Johnson’s record as a two-term New Mexico governor, “re-elected as a Republican in a Democratic state,” in touting his credentials and appeal.
Unclear is whether the support in the polls will translate into support at the ballot box. In 2012, Johnson won just 0.99 percent of all votes cast -- making him the most successful White House candidate in Libertarian history, but not making much of a dent in the race as a whole.
But this year, there are plenty of signs more voters are seeking an alternative candidate. At the Democratic convention last week, many Bernie Sanders supporters were getting on board with the Green Party’s Stein. But so far, Johnson is polling the best among third-party candidates.
He and his running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. Weld, generated some buzz before the conventions with a slick video ad listing their accomplishments.
“We’ve been there ... And done that!” the candidates say.
Johnson said in an interview Monday with the Los Angeles Times that he believes in addition to appealing to disenfranchised Republicans on issues like free trade, low taxes and smaller government, the Libertarian stance on social issues and foreign policy could bring Sanders voters on board.
Sarwark said the party is banking that while Trump and Clinton are about as well-known as they are going to be, Johnson still can introduce himself to voters not familiar with his story – especially if he is able to get on the debate stage.
This is far from a foregone conclusion.
So far, while Johnson’s support is higher than in past years, an 8.4 percent average is still a distance from the 15 percent he’d need to make the debates.
He has until the middle of September to hit 15 percent in not just one poll but an average of five recent polls chosen by the Commission on Presidential Debates.
“Politically, where we stand, is we have to get into those presidential debates to really stand a chance,” Weld told The Wall Street Journal last week. “If we catch a break or two, we may get there.”
Even then, the record for third-party or independent candidates is not strong.
In recent political history, the one who came closest to the presidency was businessman Perot in 1992 – who was an independent, not technically a third-party candidate. At one point, Perot was leading in some polls against then-President George H. W. Bush and Democratic challenger Bill Clinton. However, after dropping out of the race before re-entering, he lost support. He eventually garnered 19 percent of the vote, with some Republicans arguing he split the GOP vote and handed the election to Clinton.
Republicans, meanwhile, were arguably given a boost by Green Party candidate Ralph Nader in 2000, when Nader picked up 2.7 percent of the vote against Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush.
Johnson’s potential impact is hard to gauge. The latest Fox News poll found Johnson siphoning support about equally from the Democratic and GOP candidates.
But he could get a boost in the coming weeks as some Republicans reportedly consider backing him.
Most notably, 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush reportedly are mulling endorsements for Johnson. Marvin Bush, youngest brother of Jeb and George W., also endorsed Johnson last week.
“From what I’ve heard from the Bush and Romney camps, they’re still considering it,” Sarwark claimed.
Asked if the party is looking just to make a strong showing, or go all the way, Sarward was bullish: “There’s a path to the presidency. The ground is there.”
Adam Shaw is a Politics Reporter and occasional Opinion writer for FoxNews.com. He can be reached here or on Twitter: @AdamShawNY. | 0fake |
AWESOME RANT By African-American Woman Who’s FED UP: “Sanctuary cities are racist!” | You will love, love, love this passionate lady! She gets it!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zs6IMuee98 | 1real |
Sean Spicer Whines That SNL Was ‘Mean’ To Him And Demands They Mock Him Less | Just like Donald Trump, White House mouthpiece Sean Spicer can t handle being satirized on Saturday Night Live.Melissa McCarthy delivered a devastatingly brilliant performance as Spicer, who has embarrassed himself himself repeatedly during press briefings by attacking the media for accurately covering Trump and his administration.Most infamously, Spicer was sent out to lecture and shame the press the day after the inauguration about the accurate assessment of Trump s crowd size on inauguration day. Spicer claimed that the crowd at Trump s ceremony was the largest in history and people around the world laughed because all the evidence shows that Trump s crowd size was clearly one of the smallest.Spicer has also feuded with CNN during the briefings.McCarthy did a fantastic job portraying Spicer during a press briefing.Here s the video via YouTube.Well, Spicer was at the Super Bowl in Houston on Sunday and he was asked about the skit.And let s just say that Spicer is a snowflake who thinks Saturday Night Live is being mean. According to Extra,Explaining that he d first heard about the sketch while leaving church Sunday morning, Spicer said his texts had been blowing up so much he thought there must be a national emergency.Spicer told Extra exclusively he felt the impression was a little exaggerated. His advice was that McCarthy needs to slow down on the gum chewing; way too many pieces in there. Though he thought it was a really funny show, he felt that McCarthy could dial back a bit.Last night, Alec Baldwin was back as President Trump as well. As for what he thought of Alec s portrayal of the President, Spicer had the same feelings as the Leader of the Free World, calling it mean. Spicer said, Alec has gone from funny to mean, and that s unfortunate. SNL used to be really funny. There s a streak of meanness now that they ve crossed over to mean. Seriously, Trump and his team need to grow a thicker skin if they hope to make it through the next four years without ending up with high blood pressure.Spicer apparently doesn t realize that a little exaggeration mixed with truth is what makes great satire work. As for his claim that Saturday Night Live is mean, I don t remember Spicer ever complaining about SNL making fun of President Obama. In fact, I don t recall him ever complaining about the many truly awful things Republicans said about President Obama over the last eight years in real life.Saturday Night Live is a comedy show. If Trump and Spicer can t handle being mocked, they should both resign because if they can t deal with comedians how are they going to handle it when world leaders criticize them? Judging by their reaction to SNL, not very well.Featured image via screenshot | 1real |
Blumenthal: It ‘Could Be Perjury’ If Sessions Hid A Third Meeting With The Russians (VIDEO) | Sen. Richard Blumenthal was deeply disturbed by James Comey s testimony that Attorney General Jeff Sessions was hiding a third meeting with the Russians. During an interview with CNN s Erin Burnett on Thursday, Blumenthal said that if what Comey revealed is true, it could be perjury. I can t confirm what may have been provided in a classified setting, but with a third meeting, even without it, what we have is a pattern of contacts with the Russians by (Michael) Flynn, by Sessions, by (Jared) Kushner secret and then concealed, Blumenthal said.It could be perjury, he added.Following the open hearing, Comey testified behind closed doors where he was able to discuss classified information. In this closed door hearing, Comey revealed that Sessions had met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak a third time during the campaign and concealed it.Blumenthal said that Sessions is emerging more and more as a key figure in the investigation into Russia s interference in our presidential election. Not only because of his problematic contact with Russians, he said, but also because he failed to safeguard and protect the FBI as part of the Department of Justice when he learned about the meeting in which the President of the United States in effect had inappropriate conversations with Director Comey. No wonder Comey didn t feel comfortable going to the Department of Justice with his concerns that Trump was trying to stop him from continuing the Russia investigation. Sessions hands are turning out to be just as dirty as Trump s and Mike Flynn s and Paul Manafort s and Carter Page s and Jared Kushner s. Blumenthal sees the pattern here. I clearly see it. Even my grade schooler can see it. How the f*ck are Republicans still managing to stay so willfully ignorant?You can watch Blumenthal s interview here, via CNN: What we have is a pattern of contacts w the Russian secret and then conceleaed could be perjury @SenBlumenthal https://t.co/iucCXvcXGz OutFrontCNN (@OutFrontCNN) June 8, 2017Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
British PM May's deputy denies inappropriate sexual advance | LONDON (Reuters) - Damian Green, number two in the British government, has denied an allegation that he made an inappropriate sexual advance on a young woman as discussion about an unhealthy culture of abuse by powerful men in British politics continues to swirl. Green, Prime Minister Theresa May s deputy, said it was not true that he had touched the woman s knee and told her that his wife was very understanding during a meeting in a pub in which the pair discussed her career aspirations and gossiped about sexual affairs in parliament. As the shockwaves from the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal reverberate around the world, the Westminster parliament is among institutions now facing allegations of improper behavior by men in powerful positions. The allegation against Green came from Kate Maltby, an academic and critic three decades younger than him. She first met him as an acquaintance of her parents, and both are involved in a liberal Conservative group called Bright Blue. He offered me career advice and in the same breath made it clear he was sexually interested, Maltby wrote in an article in the Times newspaper describing the meeting in the pub in early 2015. It was not acceptable to me at the time and it should not be acceptable behavior in Westminster in the future, she said. A spokesman for May s Downing Street office said Green strongly denied the allegation made against him. The prime minister has referred the matter to the cabinet secretary to establish the facts and report back as soon as possible, the spokesman said. Maltby wrote that she had no contact with Green for a year after the meeting in the pub because she wanted nothing to do with him . A year later, Maltby wrote an article for the Times about the history of corsets, which was published with a picture of her wearing one. After the article appeared, she received a text message from Green that said: Long time no see. But having admired you in a corset in my favorite tabloid I feel impelled to ask if you are free for a drink anytime? The Times quoted Green as saying: It is absolutely and completely untrue that I ve ever made any sexual advance on Ms Maltby. He said the allegation of the advance in the pub was deeply hurtful from someone he considered a personal friend, and that the text he sent her referring to the corset picture was sent in the spirit of friends agreeing to meet for a regular catch-up. | 0fake |
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