topic stringclasses 126
values | source stringclasses 663
values | url stringlengths 24 1.17k | title stringlengths 5 255 | date stringlengths 0 10 β | tags stringlengths 3 255 | text stringlengths 7 99.7k | id stringlengths 16 16 | int_bias int64 0 2 | text_topic_0 stringlengths 2 36 β | text_sentiment_0 float64 -9.8 7.69 β | text_topic_1 stringlengths 2 36 β | text_sentiment_1 float64 -6.7 6.69 β | text_topic_2 stringlengths 2 35 β | text_sentiment_2 float64 -2.4 3.98 β | text_topic_3 stringclasses 847
values | text_sentiment_3 float64 -1.9 2.39 β | text_topic_4 stringclasses 569
values | text_sentiment_4 float64 -1.7 1.8 β |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
politics | The Hill | http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/331512-trump-us-needs-a-good-shutdown | Trump: US βneeds a good shutdownβ | 2017-05-02 | politics | President Trump on Tuesday called for a `` good shutdown '' in September to fix the `` mess β in government .
He also expressed frustration that legislation needs 60 votes in the Senate because of the filibuster , saying it would be necessary to elect more Republicans or `` change the rules . ''
`` The reason for the plan negotiated between the Republicans and Democrats is that we need 60 votes in the Senate which are not there ! We either elect more Republican Senators in 2018 or change the rules now to 51 % . Our country needs a good 'shutdown ' in September to fix mess ! '' he wrote in a series of tweets .
The reason for the plan negotiated between the Republicans and Democrats is that we need 60 votes in the Senate which are not there ! We .... β Donald J. Trump ( @ realDonaldTrump ) May 2 , 2017
either elect more Republican Senators in 2018 or change the rules now to 51 % . Our country needs a good `` shutdown '' in September to fix mess ! β Donald J. Trump ( @ realDonaldTrump ) May 2 , 2017
Trump 's unprecedented comments appear to reflect frustration with the spending deal Congress is poised to approve this week . The legislation would fund the government through September and represents the first major bipartisan legislation of Trump 's presidency .
Democrats have argued that they won most of the battles surrounding the bill , and several media accounts have suggested that Trump and the White House were losers in the negotiations .
A New York Times headline on the deal said : `` Winners and Losers of the Spending Deal ( Spoiler Alert : Trump Lost ) . ''
White House budget director Mick Mulvaney expressed frustration with that analysis during a press briefing after Trump 's remarks .
Trump himself said , `` this bill is a clear win for the American people '' during a ceremony honoring the Air Force Academy football team .
The measure will spare the president a damaging government shutdown , but it left out many of his biggest policy requests .
It does not include funding for Trump β s proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border or include language stripping federal money from so-called sanctuary cities , both of which the White House demanded at the outset of negotiations .
The White House also backed off a threat to withhold ObamaCare subsidy payments to insurance companies .
Trump was forced to abandon those demands after Democrats in the Senate threatened to block the spending bill if they were included .
The president did secure increased military spending in the 2017 budget deal , breaking with longstanding practice that a boost in Pentagon spending be accompanied by dollar-for-dollar spike in domestic spending .
Ryan trumpeted that provision as a β game-changer. β Mulvaney also defended the president 's threat of a shutdown in the fall .
β The president β s tweet was that we might need a shutdown at some point to drive home that this place β that Washington needs to be fixed , β he told reporters . β I think that 's a defensible position , one we 'll deal with in September . β
Mulvaney argued the current deal running through September was a White House victory because Democrats were determined to cause a shutdown that would hurt Trump . β They wanted a shutdown . They wanted to try and make this president look like he could not govern , '' he said . `` They wanted to make this president look like he did not know what he was doing . And he beat them on that at the very , very highest level . `` They were desperate to show that we were not reasonable and we completely destroyed that narrative by negotiating this deal , '' he said . Trump β s comments are likely to irk top Republican lawmakers , who have been frustrated by Trump β s repeated attempts to intervene in the legislative process .
Cornyn did not mention the president or his tweets , but his remarks about the importance of avoiding a shutdown and the strength of the filibuster were notable coming shortly after Trump 's tweets .
`` We were elected to govern . Yes , governing is hard . It 's hard by design . ... But that 's the way our founding fathers designed our constitutional system , '' he said .
If GOP lawmakers are frustrated with Trump , however , the feeling may be mutual .
The businessman-turned-president has vented frustration with the slow pace of work on Capitol Hill .
β I β m disappointed that it doesn β t go quicker , β Trump told Fox News last week when asked about the Republican effort to repeal and replace ObamaCare . | 8ZUA4Iu72rdTjzzC | 1 | Government Shutdown | -0.2 | Politics | -0.1 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
federal_budget | CNN (Web News) | http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/07/politics/shutdown-showdown/index.html?hpt=hp_t1 | Boehner vows no deal on budget or debt limit without spending talks with Obama | 2013-10-07 | federal_budget | Story highlights Debt limit `` a dangerous political football , '' White House says
Boehner says `` clean '' spending bill ca n't pass ; Obama says prove it
Investors nervous over fiscal impasse as stocks fall on Wall Street
Is it a glimmer of hope , or more rhetoric as the deadline for possible government default gets closer ?
After weeks of near silence without any hint of a potential compromise between the Obama administration and congressional Republicans over raising the nation 's debt ceiling , the White House may be offering some conciliatory language that could help lead to a deal to prevent a potential default on October 17 .
As recently as Friday , White House officials declined to specify any demand for the length of a deal to increase the nation 's debt ceiling .
Then on Monday , a White House official said it was up to Congress to decide how long the debt ceiling increase should last .
`` It is up to Congress to pass a debt limit increase , and up to them for how long and when they want to deal with this again , '' the official told CNN . `` We have been super clear we think longer is better because it lends more certainty . ''
With parts of the government shut down for a week and counting , the focus of ending a deepening political stalemate is shifting to the upcoming deadline to increase how much the federal government can borrow . The reference to the length of a debt ceiling deal caused speculation that the White House might be signaling flexibility on the issue to legislators .
JUST WATCHED Boehner : This fight was coming Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Boehner : This fight was coming 02:26
JUST WATCHED Shutdown drags on , debt ceiling looms Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Shutdown drags on , debt ceiling looms 02:09
JUST WATCHED A standstill in the nation 's capital Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH A standstill in the nation 's capital 09:51
However , President Barack Obama reiterated Monday that he will not negotiate with Congress while the country was under threat of a possible debt default .
`` We 're not going to establish that pattern , '' Obama said , adding that `` we 're not going to negotiate under the threat of a prolonged shutdown until Republicans get 100 % of what they want '' or under the threat of `` economic catastrophe . ''
White House spokesman Jay Carney later told reporters that `` I 'm not ruling out '' a debt ceiling increase of any particular length of time . But he said he believed a longer one was better , because it would provide certainty after what Obama characterized as `` manufactured crises '' over similar brinksmanship in recent years .
`` Our position is only that it ought not to be a political football , because it 's a dangerous political football , '' Carney said . `` And you know , fumbling that football can cost you a lot more than seven points . It can tank the economy . ''
Economists warn of dire fiscal impacts from failing to raise what is called the debt ceiling , such as a reduced U.S. credit rating that would spike borrowing costs . The economic blow and questions about America 's fiscal fidelity could bring a global slowdown , Obama has warned .
Analysts blamed concerns over the political impasse for another down day on Wall Street . All three major stock indexes fell , with the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 136 points , or nearly 1 percent .
House Speaker John Boehner said Sunday there will be no debt limit increase and no end to the partial government shutdown that began October 1 , unless Obama and Senate Democrats negotiate a broader agreement with House Republicans .
On Monday , he repeated his accusation that Obama was refusing to hold talks with Republicans , even with the looming threat of a default .
`` The American people expect that when their leaders have differences and we are in a time of crisis that we will sit down and at least have a conversation , '' Boehner said , adding that `` it is time to have that conversation before our economy is put further at risk . ''
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell later said divided government means the two parties have to negotiate solutions .
`` Until Senate Democrats accept that reality , these crises will only be harder to resolve , '' McConnell , R-Kentucky , said .
However , one of Obama 's top economic advisers , Gene Sperling , told a Politico breakfast on Monday that `` the era of threatening default has to be over . ''
`` If you sanction through negotiation the legitimacy of somebody threatening default , then that is going to happen over and over again , '' Sperling said . `` So sanctioning negotiations with someone threatening default is not going to end the risk of default . It is likely to increase the chances that we as a country eventually default or even perpetually threaten our full faith and credit . ''
At issue is how to reach an agreement to fund the government in the newly started fiscal year and raise the $ 16.7 trillion debt limit .
Conservative Republicans intent on shrinking the government while trying to weaken Obamacare demand that any agreement on funding for the new fiscal year and raising the debt limit include their priorities .
`` The debt ceiling is there for a purpose . It 's like the smoke alarm , '' said House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling , R-Texas . `` Democrats want to unplug the smoke alarm , and Republicans want to go out and fight the fire . ''
Boehner insisted that a deal to raise the debt ceiling must include deficit reduction steps that would lower costs of entitlement programs such as Medicare , Medicaid and Social Security .
However , he appeared to move away from the demand of the tea party conservative wing of his GOP caucus to dismantle or defund Obama 's signature health care reforms passed by Democrats in 2010 and upheld by the Supreme Court last year .
`` My goal here is to have a serious conversation about those things that are driving the deficit and driving the debt up , '' Boehner said , noting that the retirement of the `` baby boomer '' generation will strain Social Security and Medicare beyond the breaking point if no remedial steps are taken .
`` It is time to deal with America 's problems , '' he said . `` How can you raise the debt limit and do nothing about the underlying problem ? ''
Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress insist that such congressional responsibilities -- to keep the government running and able to pay its debts -- must be free of partisan political pressure to avoid the kind of collateral damage happening in the current stalemate .
They want what are known as `` clean '' measures to fund the government for a short period and increase the debt limit , with no accompanying provisions involving contentious deficit reduction measures or GOP efforts to weaken Obamacare .
Once such measures are passed , they say , negotiations can take place on a full budget for fiscal year 2014 that began on October 1 and other issues such as reducing spending on entitlement programs like Medicare , Medicaid and Social Security .
Last week , a House Republican said on condition of not being identified that Boehner told GOP colleagues in private meetings he would not allow a government default to occur . But Boehner sounded more combative on Sunday , saying Obama and Senate Democrats refused to negotiate on either a spending plan to end the shutdown or the debt ceiling .
Senate Democrats are expected this week to take up a debt ceiling bill that would not propose any policy changes or spending cuts demanded by Republicans , according to a Senate Democratic leadership aide .
The aide said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could introduce a `` clean '' bill as early as Monday that could bring a first key procedural vote on Friday .
On the shutdown , Boehner insisted Obama and Democrats were wrong in saying a `` clean '' short-term spending plan to reopen the government would pass in the House with support from some Republicans and most Democrats .
`` There are not the votes in the House to pass a clean CR , '' Boehner said .
Obama rejected Boehner 's contention on Monday , saying the speaker `` should prove it '' by holding the vote .
`` My very strong suspicion is there are enough votes there , '' Obama said , adding that Boehner `` apparently does n't want to see the government shutdown end ... unless he 's able to extract concessions that do n't have anything to do with the budget . ''
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid suggested the measure would pass the House , and that Americans would realize the government was shut down `` for no apparent reason . '' Both Obama and Reid said Democrats were open to negotiate `` anything '' -- with the president specifically mentioning health care -- once the government shutdown ends and the debt ceiling gets increased .
House Republicans , however , fear losing their leverage in any talks by giving up those two points without any concessions .
In a new national poll released Monday , most respondents said the government shutdown was causing a crisis or major problems for the country .
While the CNN/ORC International survey also indicated that slightly more people were angry at Republicans than Democrats or Obama for the shutdown , both sides were taking a hit .
According to the poll conducted over the weekend , 63 % of respondents said they were angry at the Republicans for the way they have handled the shutdown , while 57 % expressed anger at Democrats and 53 % at Obama .
`` It looks like there is more than enough blame to go around and both parties are being hurt by the shutdown , '' said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland .
Meanwhile , Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on CNN 's State of the Union that the government risks more than its credit rating if the debt ceiling is not increased by October 17 . He dismissed suggestions that the government could avoid default by making only interest payments , saying Social Security payments and veteran 's benefits could be endangered .
If Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling , borrowing money to meet the nation 's obligations wo n't be possible , CNNMoney 's Jeanne Sahadi reported Monday .
Instead , Sahadi reported , lawmakers would have a few options to choose from that would have to be implemented right away -- cut government spending for the military and other discretionary programs by up to 33 % every month ; cut mandatory spending such as entitlement programs by 16 % every month , and raising taxes by up to 12 % every month . | KM5TqPBq8GgC1QGP | 0 | Federal Budget | -0.4 | Economy And Jobs | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
general_news | Miami Herald | https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article241165641.html | Andrew Gillum found in Miami Beach hotel room with suspected drugs, police say | 2020-03-14 | Florida, Miami, Alcohol, General News | UPDATE: Gillum to enter rehab for alcohol abuse after incident involving suspected crystal meth Andrew Gillum, who in 2018 came within 34,000 votes of becoming Floridaβs governor, was discovered by police at a South Beach hotel early Friday morning in a room with bags of possible crystal meth and in the company of a man who appeared to have overdosed on drugs, according to a Miami Beach police report. Police say they were called to the Mondrian South Beach early Friday morning and found paramedics treating Travis Dyson, a 30-year-old Miami man, for an apparent heart attack. They say two other men were in the room: Aldo Mejias and Gillum. Police say Gillum, who was not arrested, was too intoxicated to answer questions. An offense incident report says that officers found three clear plastic baggies of suspected crystal meth on the bed and floor. Gillum, a former Tallahassee mayor and a Democrat, issued a statement Friday afternoon in which he denied using drugs. βI was in Miami last night for a wedding celebration when first responders were called to assist one of my friends. While I had too much to drink, I want to be clear that I have never used methamphetamines,β he said. βI apologize to the people of Florida for the distraction this has caused our movement.β According to police, Mejias told officers that he gave his credit card information to Dyson to rent the room and planned to meet him Friday evening. When he went to the room after 11 p.m., Mejias said he found Dyson and Gillum βunder the influence of an unknown substance.β Mejias, 56, said Dyson opened the door to Room 1107 to let him in and then collapsed on the bed. He said Dyson was having trouble breathing, so he woke him up. Dyson then vomited and collapsed again, so Mejias said he performed chest compressions on Dyson and called paramedics. Mejias told police he saw Gillum, 40, vomit in the bathroom. Police say Dyson was taken to Mount Sinai Medical Center in stable condition. They returned to check on Gillum, who was allowed to return home βwithout incident.β No arrests were made and none are expected, said Miami Beach Police spokesman Ernesto Rodriguez. He said police impounded the drugs. βWe responded as a medical call,β he said. βThough there were narcotics in plain view, no one was in physical possession of those narcotics.β Asked if police typically donβt make arrests when small amounts of drugs are found, the spokesman said it depends on the situation. βOfficers are not going to make an arrest every time they go into a house and drugs are found. Every situation is different,β he said. Gillum, who was mayor of Tallahassee from 2014 through 2018, thanked Miami Beach paramedics in his statement and said heβll βspend the next few weeks with my family and [would] appreciate privacy during this time.β Following his loss in the 2018 Florida gubernatorial race to Republican Ron DeSantis, Gillum has remained an important player for Democrats in the state. His political organization is overseeing an ambitious push to register or βreengageβ 1 million voters before the November election, and he remains among the most prominent Democrats due to a political analyst gig with CNN. Attempts to reach Mejias and Dyson by phone on Friday were not immediately successful. Dyson told Miami New Times that he has been friends with Gillum βfor a while,β but did not know anything about a wedding. According to public records, Dyson is a registered nurse who lives in Brickell. His Instagram account features selfies in scrubs and a medical coat. The page also features numerous photos of Dyson, clearly a body builder, posing on the beach, on boats or at night spots with friends, including his fiance. His public Instagram account was turned private sometime Friday afternoon. In Miami-Dade, Dyson has no criminal convictions but was arrested in August on a charge of resisting arrest without violence. He got the charge after he was pulled over for weaving in and out of traffic. In an arrest report, a Miami Beach police officer said that while handcuffing Dyson, βhe began to resist removing his right hand ... while attempting to turn around to face me. Mr. Dyson was then pushed on the vehicle and ordered to stop resisting and to place his hands behind his back.β A ticket for reckless driving and the criminal charge of resisting were later dismissed, according to Miami-Dade court records and his former attorney. Although the contents of the bags in the hotel room have not yet been confirmed, crystal meth has made a resurgence in South Florida, particularly in Miami Beach, in recent years. The meth, police say, is high-grade product being made by Mexican cartels. βItβs a very customer-rich environment, with all the different venues, events and parties for people to enjoy themselves,β a Miami Beach street-crimes captain told the Miami Herald in 2017. βCrystal meth will take the average party experience and magnify it tenfold.β Miami Herald staff writers Charles Rabin and Martin Vassolo contributed to this report. This story was originally published March 13, 2020 at 12:06 PM. Try 1 month for $1 Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. Part of the McClatchy Media Network | 51f0af0ac9f07f85 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
race_and_racism | Newsmax - News | https://www.newsmax.com/politics/andrew-jackson-statues-lafayette-square-monument/2020/06/23/id/973602/ | Trump Warns: 10 Years in Prison for Toppling Jackson Statue | 2020-06-23 | race_and_racism | President Donald Trump said Tuesday he has `` authorized '' federal authorities to arrest people trying to vandalize or destroy monuments , statues , or other federal property , citing a law that carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison .
`` I have authorized the Federal Government to arrest anyone who vandalizes or destroys any monument , statue or other such Federal property in the U.S. with up to 10 years in prison , per the Veteran 's Memorial Preservation Act , or such other laws that may be pertinent , '' Trump wrote on Twitter .
He added , `` This action is taken effective immediately , but may also be used retroactively for destruction or vandalism already caused . There will be no exceptions ! ''
According to Title 18 , Section 1369 of U.S. code , the `` destruction of veterans ' memorials '' is punishable by a fine and/or up to 10 years in prison .
Trump 's tweets were posted the morning after protesters tried to take down a statue of former President Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square , a park just north of the White House . The efforts were unsuccessful , but the statue 's base was defaced with the words `` Killer Scum '' in spray paint .
Trump tweeted late Monday night , `` Numerous people arrested in D.C. for the disgraceful vandalism , in Lafayette Park , of the magnificent Statue of Andrew Jackson , in addition to the exterior defacing of St. John 's Church across the street . 10 years in prison under the Veteran 's Memorial Preservation Act . Beware ! ''
Every sitting president has visited St. John 's Episcopal Church since it was built in 1816 . As part of the George Floyd protests that kicked off last month when Floyd died after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes , the church was set on fire . The flames were extinguished , and Trump made a controversial walk from the White House to the church after police used force to clear protesters from Lafayette Square the next day .
With statues and monuments nationwide being toppled by protesters or removed by authorities , people gathered outside the White House Monday and attempted to tear down the statue of Jackson , who served as the nation 's seventh president from 1829 to 1837 , using ropes and straps .
Police eventually moved in to both push them back and form a protective ring around the monument .
During a 2017 visit to Jackson 's plantation in Nashville , Tennessee , known as Hermitage , Trump drew comparisons between himself and the late president .
`` No wonder why they keep talking about Trump and Jackson , Jackson and Trump ; oh , I know the feeling , Andrew , '' Trump said .
`` It was during the revolution that Jackson first confronted and defied an arrogant elite . Does that sound familiar to you ? ''
President George W. Bush signed the Veteran 's Memorial Preservation and Recognition Act into law in 2003 . | obzkfWNK0DZcIJXn | 2 | Confederate Statues | -0.3 | Vandalism | 0 | George Floyd Protests | 0 | Race And Racism | 0 | Violence In America | 0 |
politics | Guest Writer | http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/dec/21/cal-thomas-republicans-surrender-to-the-dark-side/ | OPINION: Republicans surrender to the ?dark side? | 2015-12-21 | politics | Since nearly everyone else seems to be employing β Star Wars β metaphors these days , permit me to use some of my own .
To conservatives , the Republican congressional majority was supposed to be the good side of β The Force , β as opposed to what they regard as the Democratic β dark side. β And yet , unlike the film , β dark side β Democrats have triumphed again in the latest budget battle , which was no battle at all . The supposed good guys surrendered without a fight against the relentless onslaught of the Democrat β stormtroopers β and their media enablers .
The monstrous $ 1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill passed by the Republican majority House and Senate was praised by President Obama , who called House Speaker Paul Ryan to congratulate him for making government β work. β It β s working for Democrats , but not for Republicans , or the country , as the national debt marches toward $ 20 trillion .
Republicans have their biggest congressional majority since the Civil War , but behave as if they are powerless . They live in fear of a government β shutdown β for which they believe they will be blamed by the media and by voters .
Is it any wonder Donald Trump is the leading Republican presidential candidate ? This bill represents not only what people hate about Washington ; it β s what they hate about the misnamed Republican β leadership . β
Voices on the right , from Rush Limbaugh , to Sen. Jeff Sessions , Alabama Republican , are calling the spending bill a β betrayal. β Voters in two previous elections put Republicans in power and increased their margins for the express purpose of reversing , or at least halting , the unpopular policies of President Obama . A Democrat majority could not have done better .
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid , Nevada Democrat , almost developed a personality in his response to the Republican capitulation . Mr. Reid said Senate Democrats had three goals : β We wanted to get rid of sequestration , we were able to do that . We wanted to make sure there is parity between defense and the middle class , we wanted to make sure that we kept these poison pills off the legislation . All three goals we had , we accomplished. β Mr. Reid also bragged about beating back GOP efforts , later abandoned , to defund Planned Parenthood and to tighten rules for accepting refugees , or as Democrats believe , future Democratic voters .
A giddy Sen. Charles Schumer , New York Democrat , said : β If you would have told me this year that we β d be standing here celebrating the passage of an omnibus bill with no poison pill riders at higher ( spending ) levels above sequester than even the president requested , I wouldn β t have believed it . But here we are . This bill is a great victory for the principles Democrats stand for . β
Demonstrating again how out of touch he is with voter sentiment , Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke in a radio address about process , not substance : β We got committees working again , just like we promised . We opened up the legislative process , just like we promised . β
Who cares about that when Republicans are losing the policy debate to the minority ? Republicans failed to keep far more significant promises , like defunding Obamacare and rolling back the president β s agenda .
On his radio program last Thursday , Rush Limbaugh said , β There is no Republican Party . You know , we don β t even need a Republican Party if they β re gon na do this just elect Democrats , disband the Republican Party and let the Democrats run it , because that β s what is happening anyway . β
Maybe it β s time the β Grand Old Party β was retired and replaced by a grand NEW party . This GOP is rapidly going the way of the 19th-century Whig Party , which the Republicans replaced in time for the election of Abraham Lincoln .
β The Force β is no longer with today β s Republicans , who have given in to the Democrats β dark side .
β’ Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist . His latest book is β What Works : Common Sense Solutions for a Stronger America β ( Zondervan , 2014 ) . | wPghDDCiaWxE0rFi | 1 | Politics | -0.3 | Republican Party | 0.1 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
polarization | CNBC | http://www.cnbc.com/2016/10/27/how-social-media-creates-angry-poorly-informed-partisans.html | How social media creates angry, poorly informed partisans | 2016-10-27 | polarization | A while back , hackers linked to the Russian government stole a cache of emails from Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta and furnished them to WikiLeaks . One of those emails has generated a lot of interest in conservative circles because β conservatives say β it shows that polls are being systematically biased in Clinton 's favor . In the email , Thomas Matzzie , an operative for the 2008 Clinton primary campaign , asked advisers at a progressive group called the Atlas Project to `` recommend oversamples for our polling . '' Bloggers like Zero Hedge and Gateway Pundit pounced on this as evidence that the Clinton campaign was working with mainstream media organizations to rig public polls in Clinton 's favor . That would be a big story if it were true . But as I 'll explain below , it 's not β people were misinterpreting a banal discussion about the campaign 's internal polling . More from Vox :
Donald Trump 's bizarre hotel opening proved he 's in this for himself
Trump booster Alex Jones : I 'm not anti-Semitic , but Jews run an evil conspiracy
Newt Gingrich 's fight with Megyn Kelly reveals a gross , twisted logic about sexual assault
But even though the story is obviously , comically , wrong , it wo n't die . It 's been circulating for days among conservative blogs and social media accounts since it became public . And its longevity points to a troubling development in our media environment . Social media sites like Facebook have democratized the media landscape , allowing anyone to create and distribute content to their friends and family . There are a lot of good things about this , but it 's also proving to have a serious downside : Without the quality filters traditionally supplied by mainstream media outlets , there 's a lot more room for total nonsense to circulate widely . The increasing polarization of news through social media allows liberals and conservatives to live in different versions of reality . And that 's making it harder and harder for our democratic system to function .
The Washington Post 's Philip Bump has a thorough debunking of the conspiracy theory about `` oversampling . '' But to summarize , there are at least three reasons experienced reporters knew the story made no sense : Oversampling is n't a nefarious tactic for manipulating poll results . It 's a standard technique for collecting extra data about a particular group ( Hispanics or millennials , for example ) to enable more detailed analysis of that group . Pollsters automatically re-weight the members of the oversampled group to ensure the overall result is n't skewed .
The email was about internal polls being conducted on behalf of Clinton 's 2008 primary campaign to guide campaign strategy . They were n't intended for release to the public . Manipulating these polls would have only hurt the Clinton campaign .
The email was written in January 2008 . So if there were a conspiracy to rig polls in favor of Democrats , it would have shown up in poll results in the 2008 and 2012 general elections . Yet that did n't happen . Polling averages got the final margin almost exactly in 2008 ( missing by only 0.3 percent in the RealClearPolitics average ) , and in 2012 they actually underestimated Obama 's final margin by about 3 points .
On the other hand , if you 're an ordinary Trump supporter scrolling through your Facebook feed , none of this would necessarily be obvious . In that case , you 've probably never heard of oversampling , you do n't know that campaigns run internal polls , and you might not notice that the email was from 2008 rather than 2016 . And so if someone shares a Facebook post arguing that the email shows the Clinton campaign is rigging public polls β and that this explains why Trump is behind in the polls even though most of your friends support Trump β you 're going to be inclined to believe it . And you might even share it with your friends . So this conspiracy theory has rocketed around the conservative internet , passing from one conservative Facebook user to another . Its spread has been amplified by aggregators like Matt Drudge , who is happy to direct viewers to juicy stories without worrying too much about whether they 're true .
This is n't just the fault of online media . Even before the advent of Facebook and Twitter , partisan media platforms like talk radio and Fox News sometimes prooted conspiratorial stories with little evidence to back them up . But it 's a problem that social media is now making much worse . The Washington Post and other mainstream media organizations have written stories explaining why the `` oversampling '' conspiracy theory is wrong . But because these stories challenge conservatives ' biases instead of confirming them , they 're much less likely to get traction among conservatives on social media . The key thing to note about this process is that it 's not apparent to the average Facebook user . When people opened a traditional newspaper , they got a representative sample of the previous day 's news . They also got stories that had been written by professional reporters who had at least a passing familiarity with the stories they were writing about . So obvious nonsense like this rigged polling story would n't have shown up in the news . The Facebook newsfeed is n't like that . It 's a sampling of stories heavily skewed toward the kinds of stories your friends and family like to share . And many stories are produced by amateurs with no real expertise in the topics they write about . So stories that are inaccurate but confirm people 's biases ( like `` the Clinton campaign and the mainstream media are conspiring to rig the polls '' ) are more likely to show up in people 's Facebook feeds than stories that reach an accurate but banal conclusion on the same subject . The result : Partisans can feel like they 're very well informed on a particular subject because they 've read dozens of stories about it . What they often do n't realize is that thanks to social media 's filter bubble , they 're only hearing stories from one side β and that these one-sided stories may all be based on the same mistaken reasoning or may all be ignoring the same inconvenient evidence .
So far I 've focused on a particular conspiracy theory that 's in vogue among Trump supporters . But a similar dynamic can be found on the political left . When I last wrote about this topic back in March , I described how supporters of Bernie Sanders had found themselves trapped in a similar kind of filter bubble . Reddit is a popular news aggregator in which users vote about which stories to promote to the front page . And by March of this year , the politics section of the site had become dominated by Bernie Sanders supporters . As a result , if you relied on Reddit for your political news this spring , you basically only saw stories that praised Sanders and criticized Clinton and the Republican candidates :
The front page of Reddit 's /r/politics section in March 2016
Sanders supporters did n't just read a lot of pro-Sanders opinion pieces β they wound up living in a different factual universe . As Clinton consolidated her lead in the primary campaign , Sanders fans concocted increasingly far-fetched theories to explain why he could still win . And as it became clear he could n't win , Reddit and other social media helped to convince many Bernie fans that the Clinton campaign had stolen the election . That was n't true . The Democratic primary process is complex and probably has room for improvement , but the basic fact was that Clinton won the race because she had more supporters . Conspiratorial thinking has been less common among Clinton supporters , but they should n't be too smug about it . If the campaign had turned out differently β if Sanders had won the primary or Clinton were currently trailing Trump in the polls β we likely would have seen the same kind of anger and paranoia among Clinton 's most hardcore supporters .
Filter bubbles are a long-term danger to our political system | oBfaUUHXK3jI94Vw | 1 | Political Polarization | -0.8 | Polarization | -0.7 | Social Media | 0.1 | null | null | null | null |
coronavirus | Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/how-the-everyday-chaos-of-reporting-on-the-trump-white-house-played-out-for-the-world-to-see-on-saturday/2020/10/03/611c695c-05c0-11eb-a2db-417cddf4816a_story.html | How the everyday chaos of reporting on the Trump White House played out for the world to see Saturday | 2020-10-04 | Coronavirus, Donald Trump, Life During Covid-19 | clockThis article was published more than 4 years ago The dispatches began routinely enough for an out-of-the-ordinary day, with Pool Report No. 2 from Cheryl Bolen, the Bloomberg News White House reporter on pool duty Saturday. βPool took vans over to Walter Reed, arriving at 10:31 a.m. We are attempting to learn the logistics of Dr. [Sean] Conleyβs update on POTUSβs health, scheduled for 11:00 a.m., and will advise soonest.β The report, sent at 10:33 a.m., was a typical transmission from the email list that provides regular updates each day on the presidentβs activities and is, at the most basic level, the primary source for the press to communicate what is happening with the commander in chief. | a7c3022b6b4f577b | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
healthcare | CNN (Web News) | https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/28/politics/trump-obamacare-courts/index.html | Court blocks another Trump attempt to undermine Obamacare | 2019-03-28 | Healthcare, Donald Trump | The decision hits a Labor Department rule designed to make it easier for small businesses to band together and buy health insurance in so-called association health plans -- one of the Trump administration 's initiatives to weaken Obamacare by offering alternatives to the exchanges .
The order , Trump said at the time , would give `` millions of Americans with Obamacare relief . ''
But in Thursday 's decision , Judge John Bates of the US District Court in the District of Columbia disagreed , saying the goal of the association health plan , or AHP , rule was to allow participants to avoid certain Obamacare regulations .
`` The final rule is clearly an end-run around the ACA , '' Bates wrote . `` Indeed , as the President directed , and the Secretary of Labor confirmed , the final rule was designed to expand access to AHPs in order to avoid the most stringent requirements of the ACA . ''
The rule Bates struck down stemmed from an executive order President Donald Trump issued in the fall of 2017 after congressional efforts to repeal Obamacare fell apart .
The executive order was designed to increase competition and choice with the goal of lowering prices , mainly by increasing the availability of cheaper plans that do n't have to adhere to all of Obamacare 's regulations .
These policies , however , could destabilize Obamacare by siphoning out younger and healthier Americans who do n't need the comprehensive coverage offered in Affordable Care Act plans .
A few months later , federal agencies rolled out rules that made association health plans and short-term plans more attractive and available .
The ruling caps a whirlwind week for the Trump administration and its efforts to tear down Obamacare . On Monday , the Justice Department said the entire Affordable Care Act should be struck down in a filing with a federal appeals court , a dramatic reversal of a stance it took last year . And on Wednesday , a federal district court judge blocked the administration 's efforts to allow states to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients . Trump now says that his administration will roll out a new health care plan this year .
In the most recent case , attorneys general in 11 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit , arguing that the rule violates both the Affordable Care Act and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act , which governs employer plans .
`` This court victory proves again that just because President Trump does n't like the Affordable Care Act , his administration can not get away with illegal maneuvers to ignore the law , '' said Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro , one of the officials who brought the suit .
The Labor Department referred a request for comment to the Justice Department , which said it disagrees with the court ruling and is considering `` all available options . ''
`` The administration will continue to fight for sole proprietors and small businesses so that they can have the freedom to band together to obtain more affordable , quality healthcare coverage , '' a Justice Department spokesman said . `` The Association Health Plan rule opened healthcare options for dozens of associations representing thousands of small businesses and sole proprietors and provided them with access to the same type of affordable healthcare options offered by other employers . ''
The Labor Department rule , which was finalized last June , allows small businesses and some self-employed folks to join together based on their industry or location to buy coverage . That frees them from having to adhere to some of Obamacare 's rules , particularly the one requiring insurers to offer comprehensive coverage .
The associations are allowed to base an employer 's rates on the gender , age and industry of its workers , which could leave firms with many younger men paying less , but those with older workers and women saddled with higher premiums .
Currently , the Affordable Care Act bans insurers from basing small businesses ' premiums on gender or industry and limits the amount that can be based on age . However , plans are not allowed to set premiums based on workers ' health status , which critics of the executive order had feared .
Some 3.2 million enrollees in Obamacare 's individual and small group markets could shift their coverage to these new policies , according to an analysis by Avalere Health , a consulting firm . Losing those enrollees could prompt insurers to raise rates by 3.5 % on the Obamacare individual market and 0.5 % in the small business exchanges .
Those buying association health plans could see their premiums drop $ 9,700 a year compared to the individual market and $ 2,900 a year versus the small business exchanges . That 's largely because the plans will offer less generous benefits and have healthier enrollees , according to Avalere .
Nearly three dozen new association health plans were launched recently , mainly by chambers of commerce , according to a January study by AssociationHealthPlans.com , an informational website . The ruling will harm small businesses , said Kev Coleman , the site 's founder .
`` They have provided a means by which broad benefits may be accessed at more economical prices , '' Coleman said .
After Republican lawmakers failed to dismantle Obamacare in 2017 , the Trump administration took matters into its own hands . It has been issuing a series of rules and guidance that aim to undercut the landmark health reform law .
In addition to expanding association health plans , the administration also made it easier to buy short-term plans , which also do n't have to adhere to all of Obamacare 's rules . Officials have also sought to allow states to make changes to the law in their states , including imposing work requirements on those who gained coverage through the Affordable Care Act 's Medicaid expansion provision . | d57a737c56ea6db8 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
donald_trump | Associated Press | https://apnews.com/article/trump-inspectors-general-fired-congress-unlawful-4e8bc57e132c3f9a7f1c2a3754359993 | Trump uses mass firing to remove independent inspectors general at a series of agencies | 2025-01-27 | Donald Trump, Inspector General, Economy And Jobs, Government Watchdogs | Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, speaks at the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Pam Bondi, President-elect Donald Trumpβs choice to lead the Justice Department as attorney general, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) WASHINGTON (AP) β The Trump administration has fired about 17 independent inspectors general at government agencies, a sweeping action to remove oversight of his new administration that some members of Congress are suggesting violated federal oversight laws. The dismissals began Friday night and were effective immediately, according to two people familiar with the actions. They spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details that have not been made public. Neither confirmed the exact number of firings, but an email sent by one of the fired inspectors general said βroughly 17β inspectors general had been removed. Trump confirmed the move in a conversation with reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday, claiming, βitβs a very common thing to do.β He said he would βput good people in there that will be very good.β Congress was not given the legally required 30-day notices about the removals β something that even a top Republican is decrying. βThere may be good reason the IGs were fired. We need to know that if so,β Sen. Chuck Grassley, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement. βIβd like further explanation from President Trump. Regardless, the 30 day detailed notice of removal that the law demands was not provided to Congress,β said Grassley, R-Iowa. The role of the modern-day inspector general dates to post-Watergate Washington, when Congress installed offices inside agencies as an independent check against mismanagement and abuse of power. Though inspectors general are presidential appointees, some serve presidents of both parties. All are expected to be nonpartisan. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., acknowledged that the firings violated statutes but shrugged it off: βJust tell them you need to follow the law next time,β he said. Democrats and watchdog groups, however, used the dismissals to raise alarm that Trump was making it easier to take advantage of the government. βInspectors General are the cops on the beat preventing bad things from happening,β Max Stier, president and CEO of the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, said in a statement. βTheir work saves the taxpayer tens of billions of dollars every year.β The White House did not comment on Saturday. President Donald Trump was in Las Vegas for a speech focused on his campaign promise to end federal taxation on tips. But the moves were consistent with the presidentβs first week back in the White House, which has featured a series of steps to remake the federal government. Trump has done everything from using executive orders to impose hiring freezes and crack down on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, to suggesting that he wants to shutter the Federal Emergency Management Agency and leave disaster recovery up to individual states affected by major emergencies. βYesterday, in the dark of night, President Trump fired at least 12 independent inspector generals at important federal agencies across the administration,β Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Saturday on the chamberβs floor. βThis is a chilling purge and itβs a preview of the lawless approach Donald Trump and his administration are taking far too often as heβs becoming president.β Schumer said the dismissals are βpossibly in violation of federal lawβ and help demonstrate that the move βis a glaring sign that itβs a golden age for abuse in government and even corruption.β The Washington Post, which first reported the firings, said that many were appointees from Trumpβs first term. Among those inspectors general reportedly removed included those for the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense and Education. In a lengthy statement Saturday, Hannibal Ware, the chairman of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, an independent entity that represents the interests of government watchdogs, noted that inspectors general conduct their βoversight in a strictly non-partisan manner. They are appointed, by law, without regard to their political affiliation and, during their tenures, they work effectively across Administrations and with Congress, without regard to political party.β He suggested that the firings violated the legal requirements that presidents notify Congress 30 days before firing an inspector general and provide a detailed rationale for the decision.β βIGs are not immune from removal. However, the law must be followed to protect independent government oversight for America,β the statement said. Spared in this round of dismissals, however, was Michael Horowitz, the longtime Justice Department inspector general who has issued reports on assorted politically explosive criminal investigations over the past decade. In December 2019, for instance, Horowitz released a report faulting the FBI for surveillance warrant applications in the investigation into ties between Russia and Trumpβs 2016 presidential campaign. But the report also found that the investigation had been opened for a legitimate purpose and did not find evidence that partisan bias had guided investigative decisions. βMichael Horowitz weβre keeping,β Trump said Saturday, calling his 2019 findings βsuch an accurate, well done report.β Horowitzβs status aside, the move against the watchdogs drew criticism from congressional Democrats. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., noted that inspectors general are βcritical to rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse throughout the federal government.β The mass firings were βalarming,β she said. Rep. Gerald Connolly of Virginia, a Democrat who is the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, called it a βcoup to overthrow legally protected independent inspectors general.β He also suggested that the move β coming on just the fourth full day of Trumpβs second term β could potentially free up a series of positions that can subsequently be filled with loyalists who are strongly sympathetic to the Trump administration. βReplacing independent inspectors general with political hacks will harm every American who relies on social security, veterans benefits, and a fair hearing at IRS on refunds and audits,β Connolly said. Still, Trump has aggressively challenged the authority of independent agency watchdog groups in the past. In 2020, he replaced multiple key inspectors general, including those leading the Defense Department and intelligence community, as well as the inspector general tapped to chair a special oversight board for the $2.2 trillion economic relief package on the coronavirus. Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts called Trumpβs actions βa purge of independent watchdogs in the middle of the night.β βInspectors general are charged with rooting out government waste, fraud, abuse, and preventing misconduct,β Warren posted on X. βPresident Trump is dismantling checks on his power and paving the way for widespread corruption.β Weissert reported from Las Vegas. Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Stephen Groves contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Thank you for letting us know. This ad has already been reported. These tracking technologies (such as cookies) are needed for our web site to function and are always active. For California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Oregon, Virginia, and Texas Residents Only. To opt out of the sale or sharing/processing of personal information for targeted ads for this site/app on this browser/device, switch the toggle above to OFF by moving it to the LEFT (it will turn gray) and then clicking the βConfirm My Choicesβ button at the bottom. | 6e25214f2bfd6621 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
politics | The Hill | https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/575171-biden-not-appropriate-for-protesters-to-follow-sinema-into-bathroom?rl=1 | Biden: 'Not appropriate' for protesters to follow Sinema into bathroom | 2021-10-04 | US Senate, Joe Biden, Kyrsten Sinema, Budget Reconciliation, Politics | This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. End of dialog window. President Biden on Monday said he did not agree with activists who followed Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) into a bathroom over the weekend to protest her position on a reconciliation bill containing Democratic priorities. βI donβt think theyβre appropriate tactics, but it happens to everybody. The only people it doesnβt happen to are people who have Secret Service standing around them. So itβs part of the process,β Biden said, responding to a question from Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy. Sinema traveled over the weekend to Arizona for a medical appointment and a reported fundraiser. The senator said protesters followed her into a bathroom at Arizona State University, where she is a lecturer, videotaped students without their permission and recorded her and her students in a campus bathroom. βYesterdayβs behavior was not legitimate protest,β Sinema said in a statement. βIt is unacceptable for activist organizations to instruct their members to jeopardize themselves by engaging in unlawful activities such as gaining entry to closed university buildings, disrupting learning environments, and filming students in a restroom.β βIt is the duty of elected leaders to avoid fostering an environment in which honestly-held policy disagreements serve as the basis for vitriol β raising the temperature in political rhetoric and creating a permission structure for unacceptable behavior,β she added. A video of the incident showed an activist standing outside of the bathroom stall that Sinema was in while the other stood at the entrance of the bathroom filming the encounter. Sinema, along with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), has opposed the initial $3.5 trillion price tag proposed for Democrats reconciliation bill. Manchin has said he is not comfortable with a figure larger than $1.5 trillion, while Sinema has avoided outlining her own specific views in public, frustrating some Democrats and triggering talk of a potential primary challenge when Sinema is up for reelection in 2024. Biden said Monday he is still working on getting Manchin and Sinema on board with his economic agenda. βThis is a process,β he said, pointing to Democratsβ narrow margins in the House and Senate. βWeβll get it done.β Get notified of breaking news THE HILL 400 N CAPITOL STREET NW, SUITE 650 WASHINGTON DC 20002 Β© 1998 - 2025 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings). Privacy laws in certain states (e.g. California, Virginia and others) require companies to allow residents of those states to submit a request for access to or deletion of their personal information. If such privacy laws are applicable to you, you may submit your request here Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information and the sharing of your personal information to third parties for cross-context behavioral advertsing. Other state privacy laws similar to the CCPA allow individuals similar rights. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences. | 8bd660b42afd299c | 1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
justice | Washington Post | http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/on-capitol-hill-holder-to-face-questions-on-ap-phone-records-irs-scandal/2013/05/15/d0dfc52c-bd70-11e2-89c9-3be8095fe767_story.html | White House pushes media shield law as Holder faces questions on Capitol Hill | 2013-05-15 | Justice Department, Justice | clockThis article was published more than 11 years ago Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. offered few new details Wednesday on Capitol Hill about the Justice Department's decision to secretly obtain journalists' phone records, as the White House began pushing for a federal media shield law in an apparent act of damage control amid criticism by members of both political parties and the news media. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced that he will reintroduce the media-protecting legislation at the request of the White House, according to a White House official. The Free Flow of Information Act would protect journalists from being compelled to testify about their confidential sources, unless all other avenues are exhausted and exposure is in the public interest. Schumer told reporters that he had been planning to reintroduce his bill it this week and βcoincidentallyβ heard from White House officials Wednesday morning urging him to reintroduce the bill. Under a compromise struck in 2009, the measure would let federal judges deny a subpoena aimed at a journalist if they found that the benefit the public would gain from learning of the news outweighed the importance of identifying government authorities who leaked the information. This would include, in some instances, the public release of classified national security information. The White House's support for the measure came as Holder appeared before the House Judiciary Committee, marking the first official attempt by Congress to seek some accountability for his department's decision to pursue the phone records of Associated Press journalists as part of an investigation into a leak of classified material about a failed al-Qaeda plot. Wednesday's hearing had been scheduled for some time and was not called in response to the controversies of the past few days. Citing the fact that he recused himself from the probe into the leak, Holder offered little in the way of new information about the phone records. βThis is both an ongoing matter and an ongoing matter about which I know nothing,β he said. Follow Politics The issue has thrust Holder squarely back into the spotlight. Throughout his tenure, President Obama's attorney general has been a consistent target of conservative criticism, and Republicans have renewed their assault this week. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called for Holder's job Tuesday, and Wednesday, Holder tangled with several Republicans on the Judiciary Committee. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) charged at one point that Holder doesn't "have all that much credibility." At another, a tense exchange erupted between the attorney general and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) over the subject of Assistant Attorney General and labor secretary nominee Thomas Perez. Holder labeled Issa's conduct "unacceptable" and "shameful." When reminded by Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) that he was at the hearing because Congress has oversight over his department, Holder quipped back: βI didnβt show up here because I really wanted to.β It wasnβt just Republicans who offered criticism over the phone records. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) said: βIt seems to me clear that the actions of the department have in fact impaired the First Amendment.β Schumer said he is not sure whether his proposed law would have prevented the Justice Department from obtaining the APβs phone records, but that βif this bill was law, there would be an independent arbiter who would have approved any request for information.β He added: βRight now there are no guidelines, and we feel that there should be guidelines, it shouldnβt be any time a government official wants information from the press that they can just get it.β The bill failed to gain enough support to merit full consideration by the Senate in 2009, but Schumer said he expected that this weekβs events would compel the Senate to consider the bill. Time and again, Holder said he didnβt have a βfactual basisβ for answering questions about the scope of the subpoena, and why the AP was not notified about it. But he said he was confident that his department didnβt run afoul of any rules. βThere are exceptions to some of the rules you pointed out, and I have faith in the people who were responsible,β Holder said in response to a question from Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.). The FBI, he said, is looking into the leak controversy under Deputy Attorney General James M. Coleβs supervision and under the direction of the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. Holder said Wednesday that he had informed his deputy that he was recusing himself, but could not recall specifically when he did it, adding that the recusal was not written. The attorney general received confirmation during the hearing that Cole authorized the subpoena to secretly obtain the phone records of AP journalists. Holder earlier in the hearing had said he was 95 percent (or more) sure that it had been Cole, but he later clarified that it was Cole, the Justice Departmentβs No. 2. The decision to obtain the phone records was roundly criticized by the AP as well as members of both political parties. More than four dozen news organizations, including The Washington Post, wrote the Justice Department on Tuesday urging that the records be promptly returned to the AP, and complaining that the department appeared to run afoul of subpoena guidelines. Holder strongly defended the subpoenas Tuesday, telling reporters at a news conference that the leak βput the American people at risk. And that is not hyperbole.β His statement seemed to contradict reassurances from the White House a year ago that the plot exposed in the AP article at the center of the probe did not pose a threat. On May 8, 2012, the day after the AP story about a successful CIA operation to thwart a Yemen-based terror plot was published, John O. Brennan, then Obamaβs top counterterrorism adviser, appeared on ABCβs βGood Morning Americaβ and provided assurances that there was no danger from the foiled al-Qaeda plot. He said U.S. intelligence had had the bomb, which he described as an improvised explosive device, or IED, under control for at least 10 days. Wednesday's hearing also focused on the IRS's recent revelation that it targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status for heightened scrutiny. Holder announced Tuesday that authorities are exploring a criminal investigation in the matter. Holder told the Judiciary Committee the investigation is in its early stages. When asked about possible criminal violations, Holder mentioned civil rights laws and the possibility that false statements were made. βThe facts will take us wherever they take us,β Holder said, promising a wide-ranging probe that will not be clouded by partisanship. βThis will not be about parties. This will not be about ideological persuasions. Anyone who has broken the law will be held accountable.β In a heated back and forth, Jordan expressed concerns that the criminal investigation could complicate congressional efforts to look into the matter because it might prevent witnesses from being able to be forthcoming during congressional testimony. βNext week, when Lois Lerner, who lied to Congress, and therefore the American people, comes in front of our committee for us to get information about what took place at the IRS, is she just going to throw up her hands and say, βYou know what, the attorney general and the Department of Justice is doing a criminal investigation, I canβt really comment nowβ?β Jordan asked, in reference to the IRS official who sees tax-exempt groups. Holder responded: βYour characterization of her testimony in and of itself, in the way youβve characterized it ... could put her in the very situation you say you donβt want to have happen.β White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Wednesday that the president would meet with senior Treasury Department officials "to yak about the next steps that he hopes to be taken" to address the problems at the IRS and hold agency officials accountable for singling out conservative groups for heightened scrutiny. Carney would not say whether the acting IRS commissioner, Steven Miller, should step down. βIβm not going to get into personnel matters,β he said. Sari Horowitz, Aaron Blake and Ed OβKeefe contributed to this report. | 4cdbee80b6aec70a | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
elections | Politico | http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/nevada-gop-caucus-2016-219685 | Trump wins Nevada caucuses | 2016-02-23 | elections | Donald Trump trounced his rivals in the Nevada caucuses on Tuesday , notching his third consecutive victory and giving the Manhattan mogul even more momentum heading into Super Tuesday next week , when voters in a dozen states will cast their ballots .
Trump β s decisive win , which the Associated Press announced immediately after polls closed , was propelled by an electorate even more enraged than the ones that had swept him to wins in New Hampshire and South Carolina , and a second-place showing in Iowa .
`` We love Nevada . We love Nevada , β Trump declared in his victory speech . `` You 're going to be proud of your president and you 're going to be even prouder of your country . ''
For the first time in the 2016 primary season , media entrance polls showed that a majority of voters , 57 percent of Nevada caucus-goers , said they were `` angry '' with the federal government .
And , as significantly , they want to bring in an outsider to fix it . More than three in five caucus-goers said they favor someone from outside the political establishment rather than a candidate with political experience as president .
`` Now we β re winning , winning , winning , β Trump said . β And soon the country is going to start winning , winning , winning . β
The outcome was bad news for Marco Rubio , who is now 0 for 4 in the February contests , and Ted Cruz , who won the Iowa caucuses but finished a disappointing third in South Carolina on Saturday .
Those two senators continued to vie for the crucial mantle of the best candidate to eventually take down Trump . With 100 percent of precincts reporting , Trump finished first with a whopping 46 percent of the vote , with Rubio and Cruz trailing far behind . Rubio came in second with 24 percent of the vote , while Cruz finished third with a little more than 21 percent .
Rubio skipped an election-night speech , while an exhausted-looking Cruz proclaimed himself the only legitimate alternative to Trump .
`` The only campaign that has beaten Donald Trump and the only campaign that can beat Donald Trump is this campaign , β Cruz told supporters .
Stopping Trump now looks like a steeper proposition after he trampled Rubio and Cruz on Tuesday , scoring huge wins across nearly every cross-section of the Republican Party . Entrance polls show Trump won moderate voters and very conservative voters by huge margins . He won in rural and urban areas , and among voters with only high school diplomas and those with post-graduate degrees .
Trump even handily bested Cruz among his supposed base of evangelical Christians , and , though the sample was small , topped his two Cuban-American opponents among Hispanic caucus-goers .
Trump reveled in the details . `` I love the evangelicals ! β he yelled . `` Number one with Hispanics , β he bragged .
And he pointedly called out the home states of his remaining rivals β Texas for Cruz , Florida for Rubio and Ohio for John Kasich β as places he now leads in the polls and will win in the coming weeks .
β It β s going to be an amazing two months , β he said . `` We might not even need the two months to be honest , folks . ''
Indeed , it 's not clear where anyone can next beat Trump , though Cruz looked ahead to Texas , which votes on March 1 , in his speech .
`` I can not wait to get home to the great state of Texas , β he said .
Cruz and Rubio now face a political calendar that plays even more to Trump β s strengths : massive made-for-TV rallies and free national media coverage , with a dozen states voting in only seven days .
Kasich , who finished in last place on Tuesday night , continued to insist he was in the race to stay . His chief strategist , John Weaver , released a memo after the race was called , taking aim at Rubio , Kasich 's rival for the mantle of establishment favorite .
`` Contrary to what his campaign is trying to portray , Senator Rubio just endured another disappointing performance despite being the highest spending candidate in Nevada , '' the memo read . `` Republicans are now left to wonder whether investing in Marco Rubio is throwing good money after bad . ''
Cruz , who was neck-and-neck with Rubio in early returns , also said the Florida senator underperformed .
`` Marco Rubio started working early and put a significant amount of resources into making Nevada the one early state he could win , '' Cruz 's campaign wrote in a statement . `` But despite the hype , Rubio still failed to beat Donald Trump . ''
Low turnout put a particular premium on early organizing , in which both Rubio and Cruz quietly invested . Cruz had the backing of the state β s Republican attorney general , Adam Laxalt , and made appeals to Nevada β s rural voters with a television ad highlighting his opposition to the fact that the federal government controls 85 percent of the state β s land . ( Kasich targeted the same issue in TV ads , as well . )
Rubio , meanwhile , tried to connect with Nevada voters from his time living there as a child in the late 1970s and early 1980s , telling audiences about how his father worked as a bartender at Sam 's Town and his mother as a maid at the Imperial Palace . ( He still has numerous cousins in the state . ) Rubio β s family β s dabbled with Mormonism during those years and Rubio hoped an active Mormon political network that lifted Mitt Romney to a landslide win , with 50 percent of the vote , would turn out for him .
Stumping in rural Nevada on caucus day , Trump continued to boast of his strong poll numbers in states coming up on the voting calendar . He warned supporters to be wary of β dishonest stuff β from Cruz , whom he dubbed a `` baby '' and a `` liar . ''
Supporters cheer during a caucus night rally for Donald Trump in Las Vegas , Feb. 23 . | AP Photo
And Trump issued a warning shot to Rubio to beware taking him on : The two have largely avoided tangling , but that could change as Rubio builds on his second-place finish in South Carolina on Saturday .
β When he hits me , ugh , is he gon na be hit , β Trump said . β Actually , I can β t wait . ''
Trump was in a far more ebullient mood at his victory rally , where he stood behind a lectern for his third straight win , flanked by two of his sons .
Alluding to his practice in his earlier life of raking in money whenever he had the chance , Trump said : β Now we β re going to get greedy for the United States . β | pmBuOCrKTFwFbM5B | 0 | GOP | 0.9 | Politics | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
middle_east | Washington Times | http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/13/john-kerry-syria-peace-prospects-ride-weapons-talk/ | John Kerry: Syria peace prospects ride on weapons talks | 2013-09-13 | middle_east | GENEVA ( AP ) β Prospects for restarting peace talks in Syria β s civil war depend on the outcome of negotiations for the Syrian government to give up its chemical weapons , U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday as meetings on the arsenal lurched into a second day .
Kerry and Lavrov met with U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi about the potential for a new Geneva peace conference , while a short distance away American and Russian chemical weapons experts were huddled in a hotel to haggle over technical details critical to a deal on chemical weapons .
In the background was the lingering threat of a limited U.S. military strike against Syria if President Bashar Assad doesn β t hand over his chemical weapons in time .
Brahimi acknowledged the high stakes . He told Kerry and Lavov that their chemical weapons negotiation β is extremely important in itself and for itself , but it is also extremely important for us who are working with you on trying to bring together the Geneva conference successfully . β
More than 100,000 people have been killed in two years of civil war . On Friday the international group Human Rights Watch accused the Syrian government and militias fighting on its side of carrying out summary executions that killed at least 248 people in two towns in May .
Kerry , flanked by Lavrov and Brahimi , told reporters after an hourlong meeting that the chances for a second peace conference in Geneva will require success first with the chemical weapons talks , which have been β constructive β so far .
SEE ALSO : Lack of mutual trust could kill Syria talks on chemical weapons
β I will say on behalf of the United States that President ( Barack ) Obama is deeply committed to a negotiated solution with respect to Syria , and we know that Russia is likewise . We are working hard to find the common ground to be able to make that happen , β Kerry said .
β We discussed some of the homework that we both need to do , β he added .
Kerry said they agreed to meet around Sept. 28 on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly high-level meetings in New York .
But , he said , the future of peace negotiations depends on the outcome of the weapons talks .
β We are committed to try to work together , beginning with this initiative on the chemical weapons , in hopes that those efforts could pay off and bring peace and stability to a war-torn part of the world , β he added .
Brahimi also met privately with Kerry at a Geneva hotel on Thursday to explore ways to resume international negotiations last held in Geneva in June 2012 aimed at ending the Syrian civil war .
Lavrov said Russia has supported the peace process from the start of the Syrian conflict and said he had discussed with Kerry and Brahimi the Geneva communique from the 2012 meeting on Syria and ways of preparing for a second conference .
β It is very unfortunate that for a long period the Geneva communique was basically abandoned , β said Lavrov .
He said that document β means that the Syrian parties must reach mutual consent on the transitional governing organ , which would come with full executive authority . And the communique also says that all groups of Syrian society must be represented . β
When the chemical weapons talks began Thursday , Kerry bluntly rejected a Syrian pledge to begin a β standard process β by turning over information rather than weapons β and nothing immediately . The American diplomat said that was not acceptable .
β The words of the Syrian regime , in our judgment , are simply not enough , β Kerry declared as he stood beside Lavrov . β This is not a game . β
Salem Al Meslet , a senior member of the opposition Syrian National Coalition , said he was disappointed that the Kerry and Lavrov meeting on chemical weapons wasn β t about punishing Assad .
β They are leaving the murderer and concentrating on the weapons he was using , β he said of Assad . β It is like stabbing somebody with a knife then they take the knife away and he is free . β
He spoke on the sidelines of a two-day opposition conference in Istanbul .
The talks were the latest in a rapidly moving series of events following the Aug. 21 gas attack on suburbs in Damascus . The U.S. blames Assad for the use of chemical weapons . Assad denies his government was involved and instead points to the rebels fighting a 2-year-old civil war against it .
President Barack Obama began trying to win support at home and abroad for a punitive military strike on Assad β s forces , but put that effort on hold when the Syrian government expressed willingness to turn over weapons to international control .
Obama dispatched Kerry to Geneva to hammer out the details of the proposal even as he kept alive the possibility of U.S. military action .
U.N. associate spokesman Farhan Haq said Friday that the documents Syria submitted to join the international treaty banning chemical weapons were still being reviewed to determine whether they provide enough information . If accepted as complete , Syria would become a party to the Chemical Weapons Convention 30 days later , Haq said .
Syria β s ambassador to the United Nations had said that as of Thursday when it submitted the documents his country had become a full member of the treaty , which requires destruction of all chemical weapons .
Assad , in an interview with Russia β s Rossiya-24 TV , said his government would start submitting data on its chemical weapons stockpile a month after signing the convention . He also said the Russian proposal for securing the weapons could work only if the U.S. halted threats of military action .
At a meeting in Kyrgyzstan on Friday , Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Syria β s efforts have demonstrated its good faith .
β I would like to voice hope that this will mark a serious step toward the settlement of the Syrian crisis , β Putin said . | D2oHJiOb9xGhweQj | 2 | Syria | -0.1 | Middle East | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
elections | New York Times - News | http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/14/us/politics/ted-cruz-wall-street-loan-senate-bid-2012.html | Ted Cruz Didnβt Report Goldman Sachs Loan in a Senate Race | 2016-01-14 | elections | In recounting the decision to put all of their savings into the campaign , Mr. Cruz said in the 2013 Times interview that Mrs. Cruz immediately agreed to his proposal , even though he was trailing in the polls and still viewed as a long shot against Lt. Gov . David Dewhurst , who spent $ 24 million of his own money on the race .
β What astonished me , then and now , was Heidi within 60 seconds said , β Absolutely , β with no hesitation , β Mr. Cruz said .
Mrs. Cruz , who is on leave as a managing director at Goldman Sachs , later suggested that the reality was more complicated . She told Politico in 2014 that she thought they should apply β common investment sense β and not use their own money for the campaign β unless it made the difference β in winning . The article did not mention anything about loans from banks .
The money from the Cruzes allowed his campaign to keep running television ads in the period preceding the primary election , including a $ 300,000 ad buy that highlighted the story of Mr. Cruz β s father β s flight from Cuba in the 1950s after opposing the Batista regime . Mr. Cruz earned enough votes in the primary to qualify for a runoff , where he defeated Mr. Dewhurst and went on to win the general election .
The ethics reports that candidates file with the Senate require them to list all assets they held at the close of the year or that generated income during the year . Assets are reported in broad categories of value , such as $ 1,001 to $ 15,000 and $ 100,001 to $ 250,000 .
Mr. Cruz β s filings show that at the close of 2011 , he and his wife had cash and securities in bank , brokerage and retirement accounts worth $ 1.3 million to $ 3.4 million . They also had mortgages and a loan against Mr. Cruz β s partnership equity in his law firm . During 2012 , they sold securities worth $ 82,000 to $ 355,000 , and the value of other holdings was reduced by , at most , $ 155,000 .
However , they also added a money-market account with $ 250,000 to $ 500,000 in it , and the value of other holdings increased by as much as $ 435,000 . All told , the value of their cash and securities in 2012 saw a net increase of as much as $ 400,000 β even as the Cruzes were supposedly liquidating everything to finance Mr. Cruz β s Senate campaign . | kP21QSisepXfmNAr | 0 | Ted Cruz | 0.3 | Media Watch | 0 | Media Bias | 0 | Presidential Elections | 0 | Elections | 0 |
fake_news | BBC News | http://www.bbc.com/news/business-43473938 | Google pledges $300m to support journalism and fight fake news | 2018-03-20 | Fake News, Google | Google has said it will invest $ 300m in helping news organisations to fight fake news and grow their businesses .
The search engine giant will also invest in new technological tools to enhance online news consumption .
The firm , which some argue has taken advertising money away from newspapers , acknowledged journalism was `` under pressure '' in the digital age .
However , it said it had a `` shared mission '' with the industry and wanted to support its future .
The search giant said it had already tweaked its search algorithms to recognise `` misinformation '' , but would now go further .
In the past Google itself has been criticised for promoting fake articles , for example , in 2017 claiming that the shooter who killed more than 50 people in Las Vegas was a Democrat who opposed Donald Trump .
It said will now launch an initiative called Disinfo Lab , which will `` use computational tools and journalistic oversight to monitor misinformation during elections '' .
It has also launched a project called MediaWise - in partnership with Stanford University among others- to help young news readers `` distinguish fact from fiction online '' .
Philipp Schindler , Google 's chief business officer , said the firm was working `` closely with the news industry to drive sustainable growth '' .
Many print media organisations have been hit hard as journalism has moved online over the last 15 years and print circulation has dwindled .
According to research from OC & C last year , by 2020 Google and Facebook are expected to take 71 % of all the money spent in the UK on digital advertising .
Mr Schindler said Google had launched a new initiative called Subscribe with Google , which will allow readers sign up for paid subscriptions from partner publishers with a single click .
He also promised to do more to help news portals enhance the news reading experience online , for example , with its fast loading mobile web pages .
He flagged another example , in which Google worked with the South China Morning Post to provide immersive VR experiences that showed the evolution of Hong Kong throughout history .
`` This is just the beginning . We want to continue working closely with publishers to experiment on new ways they can reach audiences and produce impactful storytelling , '' Mr Schindler said . | e2a7b788fd234f57 | 1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
general_news | New York Times (News) | https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/03/us/july-fourth-patriotism.html | A Patriotic Fourth: What Does That Mean Now? | 2017-07-04 | Holidays, General News | Advertisement Supported by By Jack HealyJess Bidgood and Alan Blinder Even a divided country can come together to celebrate its birthday. Canβt it? This Fourth of July weekend, we wanted to see how patriotic Americans were feeling as they hit the road to beach parties, mountain cabins and backyard barbecues across this fractious, fractured country. Are people still taking pride in a country rippling with waves of anger and resistance, riven by resentments and bitterly divided over issues like health care and immigration? Can patriotism encompass both supporting the president and marching against him? Standing during the national anthem and taking a knee in protest? To find out, we headed to roadside restaurants, outlet stores and rest stops in Colorado, Georgia and New Hampshire and spoke with about three dozen people as they stopped for bathroom breaks and reheated hot dogs. Some interviews have been condensed. Jensen Sutta, 39; his wife, Kiha, 36; and their two boys, Perry, 6, and Easton, 5, had been poking through traffic on the way from their home in the suburbs south of Denver to a weekend of camping and fishing in central Coloradoβs mountains. Advertisement Patriotism to me means appreciating the military, means appreciating our freedom and appreciating the fact that anyone really is free to express what they want to express. Being with our kids on this weekend, it does give the opportunity to remind them that they canβt control whoβs elected or canβt control many things, but what they can control is that theyβre kind and theyβre thankful. We can be kind, no matter what. I never would have thought of that prior to this election cycle. Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like. Advertisement Enjoy unlimited access to all of The Times. See subscription options | 7184df0794e7b840 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
holidays | National Review | http://www.nationalreview.com/article/455013/new-years-resolution-be-thankful | Be Thankful in the New Year | 2017-12-30 | holidays | Gratefulness doesn β t just make people feel good . It has motivational power .
Gratitude is a fascinating emotion . Even though most parents teach their kids from an early age to be thankful , the feeling is elusive to children and adults alike , because life is full of distractions and desires that make it difficult to stop and appreciate all that is good . Paradoxically , the more people have to be thankful for , the harder it can be to truly feel grateful .
Interestingly , tragedy often provokes gratitude . Pay attention to the news next time there is a natural disaster . Reporters will interview victims who have just lost their homes and all of their worldly possessions . In this moment of vulnerability , with sadness and uncertainty on full display , you will witness people finding comfort in gratitude by shifting their attention from what has been lost to what remains , namely the family members and close friends who make life meaningful .
Dealing with death can also generate gratitude . When people lose loved ones , in their grief they express thankfulness for having had them in their lives and often wish they would have appreciated them more while they were still alive . Indeed , research has found that simply thinking about death induces a feeling of gratitude . And being thankful for life reduces the fear of death . In one study , researchers found that having older adults write about life events they were grateful for reduced death anxiety .
Gratitude comes naturally to some but is more difficult for others . And age also appears to matter . A recent large study found that older adults are more inclined to feel grateful than middle-aged and younger adults . But studies also indicate that everyone can become more grateful and that there are many reasons to make this a goal .
For one , being grateful is positively associated with overall well-being and good behavior , and this is true across all age groups . In one study that followed students for four years , from middle school to high school , researchers found that the more adolescents developed a sense of gratitude , the more satisfied they were with life , the less they engaged in antisocial behavior , and the more they engaged in prosocial behavior .
Among adults , brief daily or weekly gratitude reflection exercises have been found to increase a range of positive mental states and physical behaviors . For example , after ten weeks of weekly or 13 days of daily gratitude exercises ( thinking about and making a list of what one is grateful for ) , individuals reported greater optimism , positive mood , feelings of belongingness , and physical health . They also reported having engaged in more physical exercise . Gratitude doesn β t just make people feel good . It has motivational power .
Psychologists have also started testing gratitude-based interventions for psychological distress . In a small but encouraging study , participants with an anxiety or depression diagnosis reported lower levels of depression and stress and greater well-being after engaging in gratitude-focused diary writing for three weeks . The researchers followed up with participants a few weeks later and found that the lowered stress and wellbeing improvements had persisted . However , depression had returned to the levels observed prior to the gratitude intervention . This is just one study , but it suggests that though gratitude may not be able to cure depression , it can help people manage it by decreasing stress and promoting positive feelings . Other research has linked gratitude to lower suicide risk .
Gratitude also contributes to successful relationships . Studies show that when people feel grateful , they are more likely to pay attention to the ways their romantic partner supports them . And when people feel grateful , they are more empathetic towards and focused on helping others . Gratitude is also associated with lower levels of aggression , likely because it promotes empathy .
Gratitude plays a vital role in maintaining perceptions of meaning and purpose in life .
One reason gratitude may prove so beneficial is that it plays a vital role in maintaining perceptions of meaning and purpose in life . For nearly 15 years I have been collaborating with an international team of behavioral scientists to research the psychology of nostalgia , and in this work we have observed that gratitude is a common feature of the memories that make life feel meaningful . In one study our team conducted about ten years ago , we asked older British adults to mentally revisit , and detail in writing , an experience from the past that made them feel nostalgic . A number of them wrote about life during World War II . Their stories were inspiring . On the one hand , they described unpleasant states of fear , uncertainty , and separation from loved ones . The war caused great pain , and they did not forget this fact . But their accounts almost always also included expressions of gratitude . Their families and communities suffered loss , but they were also brought closer together , and they were very thankful for that aspect of an otherwise tragic time .
In our modern world of ever-present social media and easy access to consumer products , there is often little space given to reflecting on the people and experiences that fill our lives with meaning and purpose . And there are reasons to worry about a collective decline in gratitude . For one , fewer and fewer Americans attend church . Though gratitude isn β t a uniquely religious experience , churches have traditionally served the function of giving people a time and place to step away from daily stressors , responsibilities , and distractions to cultivate a grateful heart . Likewise , close relationships and the bond of marriage help instill gratitude by generating feelings of meaning and purpose . However , loneliness is on the rise , and Americans are waiting longer to marry , if they marry at all . This isn β t to say that these are the only paths to thankfulness . They are certainly not . But it would be unwise to ignore the role faith , family , and friendship have historically played in inspiring gratitude and meaning .
Whether you are looking for a New Year β s resolution for 2018 or not , considering the many personal and social benefits gratitude helps produce , working to appreciate all that is good in life , and sharing that feeling with others is a worthy endeavor . | 9OGPZIEj7Yn1DNfp | 2 | General News | -0.4 | Holidays | -0.2 | New Year | 0 | null | null | null | null |
white_house | CNN (Web News) | https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/08/politics/trump-sarah-sanders-stormy-daniels/index.html | Trump upset with Sanders over Stormy Daniels response | 2018-03-08 | white_house | Washington ( CNN ) President Donald Trump is upset with White House press secretary Sarah Sanders over her responses Wednesday regarding his alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels , a source close to the White House tells CNN .
Daniels , whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford , filed suit against Trump this week alleging he had n't signed a nondisclosure agreement that would have prevented her from discussing their alleged sexual affair
On Wednesday , Sanders told reporters that the arbitration was won `` in the President 's favor . '' The statement is an admission that the nondisclosure agreement exists , and that it directly involves the President . It is the first time the White House has admitted the President was involved in any way with Daniels .
`` POTUS is very unhappy , '' the source said . `` Sarah gave the Stormy Daniels storyline steroids yesterday . ''
Two other White House officials came to Sanders ' to defense , insisting Trump thought she did a great job .
This week 's developments are the latest installment in a continuing controversy for the White House involving Daniels , and a distraction from Trump 's attempted rollout of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports .
Just weeks before the 2016 election , Trump 's legal counsel Michael Cohen paid Daniels $ 130,000 of his own money , which he admitted to in February . Cohen has said the President `` vehemently denies '' any sexual encounter between the two .
While Trump has rarely accepted personal responsibility for any of his self-inflicted political wounds , the two White House officials say any fault surrounding this Stormy Daniels legal drama lies well beyond the West Wing .
`` It 's Michael Cohen 's mess , '' one official said , frustrated that this controversy has landed squarely in the lap of those who work in the White House and had nothing to do with creating it .
The issue continues to cause tension in the West Wing and the person at the center of it -- the President -- is not accepting any of the blame . | sTa8lyPKlzIv8CEd | 0 | Donald Trump | -1.4 | Politics | -1.4 | White House | -0.8 | Stormy Daniels | -0.7 | Sarah Sanders | -0.6 |
politics | NBC News Digital | https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/dems-grill-barr-amid-reports-mueller-s-frustration-n1000546 | Democrats grill Barr amid reports of Mueller's frustration | 2019-05-01 | Mueller Report, William Barr, US Senate, Politics | WASHINGTON β In his first public testimony since the release of special counsel Robert Mueller's report, Attorney General William Barr sought to defend himself Wednesday against accusations from Democrats that he misled Congress about the Mueller team's concerns over his description of their findings.At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Democrats pressed Barr about a letter Mueller sent him that said the attorney general's initial four-page description of the special counsel's conclusions had caused public confusion and did not fully capture his reportβs "context, nature and substance.βAfter hearing Barr's testimony, several of those Democrats called for his resignation.Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., asked Barr why he testified to Congress last month that he didnβt know whether Mueller supported Barrβs conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to say President Donald Trump had obstructed justice, even though Barr had received Muellerβs letter about two weeks earlier.The attorney general answered that he had spoken with Mueller by phone after receiving his letter, and the special counsel told him he did not think Barr's description of the report's findings were inaccurate. Barr later said Mueller's letter was "a bit snitty, and I think it was probably written by one of his staff people."Barr recalled Wednesday that in his testimony before Congress last month, lawmakers asked him about news reports that described "unidentified members expressing frustration over the accuracy relating to findings.""I don't know what that refers to at all," Barr said. "I talked directly to Bob Mueller, not members of his team."Earlier in Wednesday's more-than-five-hour hearing, the attorney general said Mueller had told him in their phone conversation that βthe press reporting had been inaccurateβ and he was concerned about Barr's description of the reasons why the special counsel's report did not reach a conclusion on obstruction.Barr's letter to Congress in late March, which was made public at the time, said the Mueller investigation "did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities." It also said the special counsel's investigation "did not draw a conclusion β one way or the other β as to whether the examined conduct constituted obstruction."During their call, Mueller "wanted more put out on that issue," Barr said. "He argued for putting out summaries of each volume, the executive summaries that had been written by his office.""But he was very clear with me that he was not suggesting that we had misrepresented his report," he added.Barr said he decided not to put out summaries or portions of the report piecemeal because that might lead to further confusion about its contents.Speaking about Barrβs testimony in April that he didn't know whether Mueller's team was concerned about the attorney general's handling of their findings, Leahy said, βI feel your answer was purposely misleading, and I think others do too.βSenate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., also grilled Barr about his earlier testimony in light of Mueller's letter, which The Washington Post first reported late Tuesday.βAttorneys don't put things in writing unless theyβre pretty serious about them,β Durbin said. "There's an old rule in politics: A good politician doesn't write a letter and doesn't throw one away."Later, in an exchange with Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Barr said he did not personally review the underlying evidence from Mueller's investigation in reaching his conclusion about obstruction."We accepted the statements in the report as the factual record," Barr said. "We did not go underneath it to see whether or not they were accurately accepted as accurate.""Yet you represented to the American public that the evidence was not, quote, sufficient to support an obstruction of justice offense?" asked Harris, who is running for president in 2020,Harris then asked, "If then in any U.S. attorneyβs office across the country, the head of that office, when being asked to make a critical decision about, in this case, the person who holds the highest office in the land and whether or not that person committed a crime, would you accept them recommending a charging decision to you if they had not reviewed the evidence?""Well thatβs a question for Bob Mueller," Barr answered. "Heβs the US attorney, heβs the one who presents the report."Harris said later that she thought Barr's responses to her questions disqualified him from serving as U.S. attorney general."No prosecutor worth her salt would make a decision about whether the president of the United States was involved in obstruction of justice without reviewing the evidence," she said. "This attorney general lacks all credibility and has, I think, compromised the America public's ability to believe he's a purveyor of justice."Trump discussed Barr's testimony in an interview on Boston Herald Radio's "The Adriana Cohen Show, saying, βI heard that the attorney general was really, really solid and did a great job today."The president added that he thinks Democrats βare very devastated because they looked at the report and there was absolutely no collusion, and thereβs no obstruction either, and they were hoping against hope because thatβs the only way they could actually get lucky.βLater Wednesday evening, the Justice Department announced Barr would not testify at a second planned hearing, before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, because of Democratic lawmakers' demand he be questioned by their staff. The development could lead to a possible legal battle if House Democrats subpoena the attorney general.Questions on McGahn, Lewandowski episodesAt the start of Wednesday's hearing, Judiciary Committee ranking Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California pressed Barr about an episode outlined in Mueller's 448-page report in which Trump directed then-White House counsel Don McGahn to call Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to have Mueller "removed" just weeks after he was appointed as special counsel in 2017.According to the report, McGahn recalled Trump phoned him and told him to "tell Rod that Mueller has conflicts and can't be the Special Counsel" and "Mueller has to go," McGahn recalled. The episode prompted McGahn to consider resigning, the report said.Then, after the news media reported Trump's demand, the president denied making it and insisted McGahn dispute news reports, Mueller wrote. Trump said he merely wanted McGahn to inform Rosenstein of Mueller's supposed conflicts of interest β conflicts that McGahn and other advisers told Trump were "silly" and "not real," the report said.When asked by Feinstein if Trump's actions constituted obstruction of justice, Barr answered, βWe felt that that episode, the government would not be able to establish obstruction.""So you can, in this situation, instruct someone to lie?" Feinstein later asked."Well, to be obstruction of justice, the lie has to be tied to impairing the evidence in a particular proceeding," Barr said. "McGahn had already given his evidence" with testimony to Mueller.He added that there was a βdistinctionβ between firing Mueller with no basis and having him removed over a conflict, because the latter would likely mean another special counsel would be appointed and the probe would continue.When asked whether it was necessary to establish "an identifiable conflict that made sense" to ensure Trump's complaint about Mueller wasn't "a fabrication," Barr said that "as a matter of law, I think the department's position would be that the president can direct the termination or the replacement of a special counsel," and "the obstruction statute does not reach that conduct.""Putting that aside, the next question would be, if it reached the conduct, could you here establish corrupt intent beyond a reasonable doubt," he said, elaborating that the government would have difficulty reaching that conclusion.Leahy further asked how Barr could tell Congress that Trump had fully cooperated with Mueller's probe given that Trump never testified to the special counsel and that the president told his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to direct then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to unrecuse himself from the investigation and limit Mueller's focus to future elections, according to Mueller's report.βAsking Sessions to unrecuse himself we do not think is obstruction,β Barr answered. He added, βI donβt see any conflict between that and fully cooperating with the investigation.βWhen Leahy pointed out that Mueller said in the report that he found Trump's written answers to his questions inadequate, Barr answered, "I think he wanted additional, but he never sought it."Barr's reasons for letter to CongressIn his opening statement, Barr offered some details on why he wrote his March 24 letter to Congress, in which he concluded that the president did not commit obstruction.Barr said that Mueller came to the Department of Justice and said his team was not going to reach a decision on obstruction, which Barr said βfrankly surprisedβ him.βWe did not understand exactly why the special counsel was not reaching a decision," Barr said. "And when we pressed him on it, he said his team was still formulating an explanation."Barr said he and Rosenstein, who is stepping down later this month, felt that, because of the massive interest in the probe, they had the responsibility to provide the public with some conclusion to avoid leaving such a high-profile investigation unresolved for several weeks while they worked to redact the report and make it public."I analogize it to announcing after an extended trial what the verdict of the trial is," Barr said. He added that the letter to Congress was not intended as a summary of the entire report, but a snapshot of the investigationβs bottom-line conclusions.Later Wednesday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., slammed Barr for his testimony and handling of the Mueller report, saying he had been βvery adroit and agileβ in his responses during the hearing.βBut I think history will judge you harshly and maybe a bit unfairly because you seem to have been the designated fall guy for this report,β Blumenthal said.Barrβs credibility was undermined at the Justice Department and with Congress and the public. Blumenthal said, because the attorney general ignored in his press conference the day the report was released and in his letter to Congress that, as the senator saw it, Mueller had found substantial evidence of obstruction.Barr responded that he had not exonerated Trump, repeating that he and Rosenstein did not have sufficient evidence to establish an obstruction offense.βEveryone can decide for themselves, Thereβs an election in 18 months," Barr said, adding, "We have to stop using the criminal justice system as a political weapon.βRepublicans defend BarrRepublican senators defended the attorney general during the hearing, with some asking questions that allowed Barr to justify his conclusions about Mueller's investigation.Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Mueller had βample resources,β took a lot of time and talked to numerous people over the course of his nearly two-year probe, and yet the special counsel found βno collusion, no coordination, no conspiracyβ between the Trump campaign and the Russian government during the 2016 presidential campaign.Mueller's report, however, detailed numerous contacts between Trump associates and Russians over the course of the 2016 campaign and during the transition.βThe president never did anything to stop Mueller from doing his job,β Graham claimed, adding, βFor me, itβs over.βAfter the hearing, Graham told reporters he would not call on Mueller to testify before his committee despite Feinstein's request that he do so.Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said during the hearing that Barr had been subjected to βslanderous treatment, the Kavanaugh treatment," referring to last year's confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who vehemently denied accusations of sexual assault.Cruz said that Democrats and journalists continually alleged there was Trump campaign collusion with Russia, βsome using extreme rhetoric calling the president a traitor.ββWe heard very little of that in this hearing today,β Cruz said, adding that Democratsβ principal line of attack had morphed into accusations based on the Mueller letter released Wednesday morning.βIf this is their whole argument, they ainβt got nothing,β Cruz said.Democratic presidential contender Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., however, said Mueller's report outlined a βdeep litany of lies and deceit and misconduct," adding, βYou seem to be excusing a campaign that literally had hundreds of contacts with a foreign adversary.βBarr responded, βThereβs no indication that [the Trump campaign] engaged in the conspiracy to hack or that they engaged in any action with respect to the dissemination that was criminal.βReaction to Mueller's letterIn statements after reports surfaced about Mueller's letter to Barr, several key House Democratic leaders called for Mueller to testify, while several others, including 2020 presidential contenders, demanded Barr resign.House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said Tuesday that he had demanded a copy of the letter and repeated his request that the special counsel testify before Congress."The Department of Justice has also been reluctant to confirm a date for Special Counsel Mueller to testify," he said. "Given this eveningβs reports, I will press the Department to schedule that hearing without delay.βHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., tweeted Tuesday night that she also thought Barr had been misleading and called for Mueller to testify.βAttorney General Barr misled the public and owes the American people answers," Pelosi wrote. "Itβs time for DOJ to release the full report & all underlying docs β and finally allow Mueller to testify. Americans deserve the facts. Barr must stop standing in the way.βHouse Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., echoed her in a post on Twitter.βBarr misled Congress and the American people to protect the President," he wrote. "There must be consequences. We must see the letter, get the full report and docs, and hear directly from Mueller.βHouse Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., meanwhile, said in an interview Wednesday on βCBS This Morningβ that, based on the existence of Mueller's letter, Barrβs statements to Congress about not knowing what the special counsel thought about his handling of Mueller's report were βdeliberately false and misleadingβ and βmost people would consider that to be a lie.βI note with interest AG Barrβs 4/10 Senate testimony. βQ: Did Bob Mueller support your conclusion? A: I donβt know whether Bob Mueller supported my conclusion.β Now it appears that Mueller objected in this 3/27 letter. https://t.co/IiK5zJYtAS β (((Rep. Nadler))) (@RepJerryNadler) May 1, 2019βHe knew exactly what he was being asked by Congress, and he knew his answer was false," Schiff said. "So, look, there's no sugar-coating this. I think he should step down.β | 8d1754d835c46868 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
media_bias | CNN - Editorial | https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/25/opinions/impeachment-inquiry-of-trump-opinion-granderson/index.html | Trump voters are waiting ... and watching | 2019-09-25 | media_bias | LZ Granderson is a journalist and political analyst . He was a fellow at the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago and the Hechinger Institute at Columbia University . He is the sports and culture columnist for the Los Angeles Times and co-host of ESPN LA 710 's `` Mornings With Keyshawn , LZ and Travis . '' Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @ lzgranderson . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author . View more opinion articles on CNN .
( CNN ) βWhen the euphoria from the announcement that the US House will pursue an impeachment inquiry of President Trump wears off for Democrats and others who oppose Trump 's administration , and all the talking heads have spoken , remember this -- it 's important : Trump did n't change the country ; he revealed it .
The latest chapter in the most bizarre political saga in modern memory may very well lead to Trump 's removal . Or it may not .
It may encourage Americans to follow the news more closely , it may prompt them to stay further away . It could derail Trump 's re-election bid or provide his supporters with an energizing rallying cry . Certainly Trump 's team is hoping for the latter , considering that Trump 's 2020 campaign manager , Bradley Parscale , tweeted , `` Democrats have officially paved the way for a @ realDonaldTrump landslide victory . The witch-hunt continues , '' which feels like a stretch considering Trump comfortably lost the popular vote and his Electoral College victory margin ranked 46th of 58 US elections
Regardless of Parscale 's misplaced bravado , the real issue is n't what happens to Trump anyway . It 's what happens to the nearly 63 million people who voted for him .
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is correct : `` No one is above the law . '' But for many who voted for Trump in the first place , this development is n't about the law , the Constitution or the sanctity of democracy . It is about winning . And if being willfully ignorant of Trump 's alleged misdeeds helps Republicans win , they 'll take it . | FSOIOBZszrYxnop3 | 0 | Donald Trump | -1.3 | White House | -0.8 | Impeachment | 0.6 | Joe Biden | 0 | Ukraine | 0 |
elections | Salon | http://www.salon.com/2014/08/27/mitch_mcconnell%E2%80%99s_secret_father%E2%80%99s_day_gift_to_the_koch_brothers/ | Secret audio nails Mitch! Endangered McConnell busted humiliating himself on tape | 2014-08-27 | Mitch McConnell, Election 2014, Koch Brothers, Elections | This year Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell chose to spend Father β s Day with two GOP political sugar daddies , Charles and David Koch , at their annual retreat , this time at the lovely St. Regis Monarch Bay resort in Orange County , California . As befit the day , McConnell brought the love : `` I want to start by thanking you , Charles and David , for the important work you 're doing . I do n't know where we 'd be without you . ''
It β s a good thing McConnell sucked up to the wealthy right-wing industrialists . He could be looking for a job soon , once Kentuckians ( and opponent Alison Lundergan Grimes ) hear the audiotape of the session obtained by the Nation . ( A transcript can be found here . )
The same weekend ISIL began approaching Baghdad , and Eric Cantor had just lost his primary for , among other reasons , being too cozy with big donors , McConnell took time to schmooze the Kochs and their network of funders and organizers . He wasn β t the only Senate candidate there : the next day , GOP Senate nominees Joni Ernst of Iowa , Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Cory Gardner of Colorado joined the retreat , the Nation 's Lauren Windsor has reported , and all pledged allegiance to the Kochs .
β The exposure to this group and to this network , and the opportunity to meet so many of you , really started my trajectory , β kvelled Ernst , who attended the summit last year . ( You can hear audio of her remarks at the Huffington Post ) .
But only McConnell was devoted enough to spend Father β s Day addressing the Kochs β and only McConnell said anything substantive enough to ensure him home-state trouble .
Kentuckians may find themselves chagrined to learn that McConnell promised the Kochs and their friends that he would intensify gridlock if Republicans win control of the Senate . While legislation requires 60 votes , he noted , budget bills only require a simple majority , and he promised to attach β riders β defunding Obamacare , financial regulation laws and the entire Environmental Protection Agency to any spending bill -- riders that President Obama would likely veto , which could trigger another government shutdown .
He also attacked Democrats for wasting time on their β gosh darn proposals β β like raising the minimum wage , which Kentuckians support by almost 2-1 , and extending unemployment insurance , likewise backed by his state β s voters .
We can pass the spending bill , and I assure you that in the spending bill , we will be pushing back against this bureaucracy by doing what 's called placing riders in the bill : No money can be spent to do this or to do that . We 're going to go after them on healthcare , on financial services , on the Environmental Protection Agency , across the board . And we 're not going to be debating all these gosh darn proposals . That 's all we do in the Senate is vote on things like raising the minimum wage -- cost the country 500,000 new jobs ; extending unemployment -- that 's a great message for retirees ; the student loan package the other day ; that 's going to make things worse . These people believe in all the wrong things .
Kentuckians can decide who believes in all the wrong things come November .
In June the Nation first reported on the annual Koch retreat , loftily titled β American Courage : Our Commitment to a Free Society , β and heavily focused on helping the GOP take back the Senate . 2016 contender Sen. Marco Rubio attended along with McConnell , but it was the man the Kochs hope will be the Senate majority leader come January who headlined the crucial session `` Free Speech : Defending First Amendment Rights . ''
If dollars themselves could vote in Kentucky politics , McConnell would defeat Grimes in a landslide . At the Koch retreat , the Senate veteran depicted himself as a tireless soldier for the freedom of money in politics . He described the right to make unlimited political contributions as `` the one freedom , that without which we ca n't do anything . '' His fealty to the cause of money in politics got embarrassing at times .
According to the Nation , McConnell talked about his many filibusters of campaign finance reform the way other men his age describe war battles . `` The worst day of my political life was when President George W. Bush signed McCain-Feingold into law , '' McConnell told the Kochs and their friends . Others might say 9/11 , or the day President Reagan was shot ( or further back , the assassinations of President Kennedy , Bobby Kennedy or Martin Luther King Jr. ) But not Mitch .
The only people he praises more than the Koch brothers are the five-member Supreme Court majority that voted to abolish McCain-Feingold in the Citizens United decision , calling the John Roberts-led bench :
The best Supreme Court in anybody 's memory on the issue of First Amendment political speech ... [ Now ] you can give to the candidate of your choice , You can give to Americans for Prosperity , or something else , a variety of different ways to push back against the party of government ... I 'm really proud of this Supreme Court ... It 's only five to four , and I pray for the health of the five .
When David Koch himself , during the question and answer session , complained about a New York Times editorial lamenting the influence of big Koch money , and asked about Democrats β attempts to start the process of amending the Constitution to state that Congress may in fact regulate campaign contributions , McConnell was at his feistiest .
`` This is an act of true radicalism , '' McConnell declared . `` It shows how far they 're willing to go to quiet the voices of their critics ... The IRS , the SEC and the FEC . They 're on a full-tilt assault to use the power of the government to go after their critics . ''
By comparison with the seasoned McConnell , Senate candidates Joni Ernst , Tom Cotton and Cory Gardner were restrained , as Lauren Windsor reports in the Huffington Post . A grateful Gardner , happy about all the Koch-related third-party money flowing into his race , told the crowd that among the people most excited about his run was β the station manager at Channel 9 in Denver because he knew the activity that would be taking place on the airwaves . β
Tom Cotton likewise thanked the group for its role in his success . β [ The Koch-funded ] Americans for Prosperity in Arkansas has played a critical role in turning our state from a one-party Democratic state β¦ building the kind of constant engagement to get people in the state invested in their communities , β Cotton explained .
But only McConnell went on record endorsing the Koch brothers ' entire big money agenda , while mocking popular `` gosh darn '' Democratic policies like a minimum wage hike , restoring extended unemployment insurance and easing the student loan burden . McConnell 's role in blocking her student-loan compromise earned him a visit to Kentucky by Sen. Elizabeth Warren , on behalf of Grimes . `` Mitch McConnell says it 's more important to protect the billionaires , '' she told the crowd . `` And that 's what this race is all about . ''
It would be ironic if the Koch brothers won their GOP Senate majority , but McConnell was n't around to lead it . | d2179658220f945e | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
cia | Guest Writer - Right | https://spectator.org/the-cia-is-running-scared/ | OPINION: The CIA Is Running Scared | 2019-06-17 | CIA, Defense And Security | Last Wednesday the intelligence community launched its first attack on Attorney General William Barr β s investigation into its illegal acts and abuses of power during the 2016 election . In a New York Times article entitled β Justice Department Seeks to Question CIA in its Own Russia Investigation , β the IC makes clear its fear of the results of Barr β s investigation of their spy operation on candidate Trump in 2016 that continued through his early presidency .
The article , obviously written at the behest of its intelligence community sources β β current and former American officials β β is the first of many concerted attacks on Attorney General William Barr β s investigation of the joint CIA/FBI spy operation . Many other articles , based on carefully crafted leaks to the media and Congress , are sure to follow because current and former high-ranking officials of those agencies ( and probably the NSA as well ) have a lot to lose .
John Durham , the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut , is running the investigation under Barr β s direction . From the Times report , we can easily deduce the fact that those who ran the spy op β including CIA Director Gina Haspel β are running scared from the Durham investigation .
Start with the sourcing : β current and former American officials. β That includes all of the people who were in the Obama White House , Comey β s FBI , Brennan β s CIA , and everyone else who β s ever held a government job in , for example , the Obama White House .
While the Justice Department review is not a criminal inquiry , it has provoked anxiety in the ranks of the C.I.A. , according to former officials . Senior agency officials have questioned why the C.I.A. β s analytical work should be subjected to a federal prosecutor β s scrutiny .
Two points are made there and both are clearly wrong .
It damned well is an investigation not a β review. β James Comey β probably at the behest of then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch β only referred to the FBI β s investigation of Hillary Clinton β s felonious use of a private , unsecured email system as a β matter. β By doing so he tried to exclude the possibility that it was a criminal investigation despite the fact that it very much was one . So is the Barr/Durham investigation . It β s not a β review. β By definition , such an investigation is an investigation into possible criminal actions .
The reason the CIA β s β analytical work β is being subjected to a federal prosecutor β s scrutiny is that there is a lot of evidence of criminal conduct by the CIA and FBI . That β s one of the fundamental differences between the Barr/Durham investigation and the Mueller investigation into the imaginary conspiracy between candidate Trump and his campaign and the Russians .
Mueller & Co. had no evidence that a crime had been committed before their investigation began . ( Or after , for that matter . ) The Mueller investigation was , as I β ve noted elsewhere , consistent with the method used by Stalin β s secret police chief Lavrenti Beria : show me the man and I β ll show you the crime .
In the Barr/Durham investigation , it β s pretty damned clear that in their abuse of power under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act the FBI , and possibly the CIA , made false statements to the FISA court , under oath , to justify surveillance warrants on Carter Page and others . Those false statements β sworn affidavits in support of the FISA warrants β are , at least , violations of 18 U.S. Code Section 1001 which bars such false statements . Those are real crimes , not imaginary ones . Whatever other crimes are discovered while investigating them will come out as well .
In my May 27 column I described President Trump β s May 23 executive order , which is in two parts . The first part requires the intelligence community to cooperate with Barr β s investigations . The second part gives Barr the authority to declassify β or reduce the level of classification of β anything pertinent to his investigation .
But the CIA isn β t going to cooperate . As the Times article says , Haspel has told her officials to cooperate but β and here β s the big catch β still work to protect β β¦ critical pieces of intelligence whose disclosure could jeopardize sources , reveal collection methods or disclose information provided by allies , according to current and former American officialsβ¦ β
Either the CIA is going to cooperate β as the president ordered β or it isn β t . Clearly , it isn β t . There β s no limitation on the cooperation Trump ordered , but Haspel and her people are going to drag their feet , and probably hide evidence and lie to protect themselves from the investigators .
That part of the Times story reveals the CIA β s attitude , which may be imputed to Haspel . Again , it says , β Senior agency officials have questioned why the CIA β s analytical work should be subjected to a federal prosecutor β s scrutiny . β
That β s it in a nutshell : the CIA believes it should not be accountable for its misdeeds , even if laws have been broken .
The Times report says that Durham β s investigators intend to question senior CIA officials β presumably under oath β and are partly focused on the CIA β s conclusion that Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was intended to benefit Donald Trump .
They will be intensely interested in the facts and opinions that drove the IC β s judgment . The January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment concluded that the Russians interfered to benefit Trump . As I wrote in my June 3 column , either John Brennan , Obama β s CIA director , or then-FBI director James Comey insisted on using the unverified information from the Steele Dossier ( the opposition research paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign ) in the ICA to reach that conclusion .
The January 2017 ICA has been used by the media incessantly to prove their assertion that Trump conspired with the Russians to rob the election from Clinton . Durham will find out who insisted on using the Steele Dossier β when it was known to be unverified β to make a devastating conclusion on behalf of the entire intelligence community .
The senior CIA officials Durham β s investigators will question will obviously include CIA Director Gina Haspel , who has the most to lose . She could be fired from her position , lose her reputation , and β if the evidence proves that she violated the law β sent to jail . She and several ( many ? ) other current and former CIA and FBI officials have just as much at risk .
The leaks the Times published say , among other things , that one of the CIA officers that Durham wants to question works at the CIA β s counterintelligence branch and would have been a conduit to pass intelligence to the FBI on Russian attempts to reach out to the Trump campaign .
Another person to be questioned was involved in the CIA β s assessment of Russian activities in 2016 .
These people would obviously be on Durham β s list . It β s not rocket science β just thorough investigative technique β to find out what those people did and what they know . Who did they talk to ? What emails and text messages did they send ? There β s a ton of information to be had .
Durham β s investigators will begin with people such as those but first they β ll want to get the relevant documents from the CIA . Those documents will include an enormous volume of classified emails , text messages , and other communications among the top CIA officials and between them and the FBI β s senior officials β James Comey , Andrew McCabe , Peter Strzok , James Baker and Bruce Ohr β who ran the FBI β s part of the spy op on Trump from the Justice Department .
The CIA will stall as much as it can and β despite the president β s order to cooperate with the DoJ investigation β hide or destroy documents . And , of course , the CIA officials will lie to protect themselves . They have too much at stake to do otherwise .
The Times story goes on to say that , β Critics of the administration say the review is simply an attempt to discredit the Russia inquiry that was taken over by Mr. Mueller and could threaten to reveal closely guarded secrets . They have pointed to Mr. Barr β s adoption of β spying , β a term invoked by critics of the Russia inquiry , to describe investigative activities. β ( Again , β review β not investigation . )
Of course those unnamed critics would say that . They β be they the current and former intelligence community officials on whose behalf the article was written or just reporters and editors of the New York Times β desperately want to keep the credibility of their case against Trump alive . To do that they have to attack Barr to diminish the investigation β s credibility .
There β s more , so much more , for Durham β s team to dig into at the CIA , the FBI , and , probably , the NSA . They β re going to be very busy for the rest of this year and probably into 2020 .
When Durham β s results are finally published , the reason that many in the intelligence community are now running scared will be too obvious for any except the Democrats and the Trump haters in the media to ignore . | ab7bb4b9eb2c9130 | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
taxes | Reuters | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-tax-legal-analysis/battle-over-trump-tax-returns-could-extend-into-2020-election-idUSKCN1RS11D | Battle over Trump tax returns could extend into 2020 election | 2019-04-16 | Trump Tax Returns, Taxes | ( βββ ) - The U.S. Congress has strong arguments for obtaining President Donald Trump β s tax returns , but first faces a long court battle that could extend into the 2020 presidential election , some legal experts said .
Democratic Party leaders , who took control of the House in November , have recently stepped up pressure on Trump to release tax records from 2013 to 2018 , which legal experts said could shed light on the president β s business dealings .
Richard Neal , chairman of the House Ways and Means committee , which oversees tax matters , has given the Internal Revenue Service until April 23 to produce the documents .
Trump β s personal lawyer , William Consovoy , in a letter to the Treasury Department on Monday , accused Neal β s committee of using its β investigatory tools to unlawfully retaliate against a political opponent . β
Lawmakers can go to court and ask a judge to force disclosure of the tax returns , but such a process could unfold slowly and become an issue in the 2020 election , legal experts said .
β I expect Trump will stall at every opportunity , β said Steven Rosenthal , a tax lawyer with the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center in Washington , adding that β delay is a victory for Trump . β
Consovoy did not immediately respond to a request for comment .
A law from 1924 says that the IRS β shall furnish β any tax return requested by the chair of the Ways and Means committee .
β If you look at the plain language of the statute , Neal is on strong footing here , β said Jessica Levinson , a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles .
But this does not mean that Congress has unlimited power to request tax returns , experts said .
If Congress invokes this statute , it must be acting with a legitimate legislative purpose , legal experts said , citing a 1957 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court .
In that decision , the Court said that Congress was not a β law enforcement agency β that can seek information to uncover crimes .
Neal said in an April 4 statement that the documents will aid Congress in evaluating whether the IRS has been effective in enforcing tax laws against the president .
β The IRS has a policy of auditing the tax returns of all sitting presidents and vice presidents , yet little is known about the effectiveness of the law , β Neal said .
Consovoy in Monday β s letter said that β no one actually believes β Neal β s β invented β reasons for wanting the tax returns .
Ross Garber , a lawyer in Washington focusing on political investigations , called Consovoy β s argument β plausible β and said it was possible a court would side with the president .
Garber said Congress β authority to request the documents would be stronger if it were conducting impeachment proceedings . Courts have held that Congress β investigative powers are broader in the impeachment context , he said .
But Edward Kleinbard , a tax law professor at the University of Southern California , said Neal β s stated reason for demanding the tax returns β ensuring that tax laws are being enforced against Trump β was more than sufficient .
β The integrity of tax system depends on peoples β willingness to assess tax against themselves . The president of the U.S. is the taxpayer-in-chief , and he sets the standard , β Kleinbard .
Related Coverage House panels issue subpoenas to Deutsche Bank , others in Trump probe
Kleinbard , who formerly served as chief of staff to Congress β Joint Committee on Taxation , noted that Trump was the first U.S. president in nearly 40 years who has not voluntarily released his tax returns to the public .
Trump has said he can not make the returns public because they are under audit .
Kleinbard called that argument β nonsense , β saying nothing prohibits a person under audit from releasing his tax returns . | 28c798c866c3d2f8 | 1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
fbi | Reason | https://reason.com/blog/2019/03/26/mueller-report-john-brennan-collusion | OPINION: Stop Listening to the Spymasters and Generals | 2019-03-26 | fbi | For weeks , former CIA Director John Brennan has hinted that he believed Special Counsel Robert Mueller 's investigation would end with the indictment of President Trump or another member of the Trump family . He suggested as much during a recent appearance on MSNBC , in which host Lawrence O'Donnell desperately tried to convince his audience that Brennan knew something they did n't .
Now that Attorney General William Barr has received Mueller 's report , and is not considering charges against the Trump family , Brennan is singing a different tune .
`` I do n't know if I received bad information , but I think I suspected there was more than there actually was , '' he admitted on MSNBC 's `` Morning Joe '' program Monday morning .
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper , who for weeks promoted the idea that Trump is an `` unwitting asset '' of Russian President Vladimir Putin , maintained that the cloud of suspicion had not been liftedβindeed , he said this even before the summary of the report had been released .
`` I doubt that the Mueller report is going to explain the strange and disturbing deferential behavior of the president toward Vladimir Putin , his refusal to call out the Russians for their meddling in the election , to the extent I assert in my book , I think the Russians actually turned the election for Trump , '' Clapper told CNN .
Clapper , readers may recall , once lied under oath to Congress about the National Security Agency 's warrantless electronic surveillance of U.S. citizens .
The `` deep state '' theoryβthe idea that a shadow government of military and intelligence officials secretly runs the government , or is working to subvert Trump 's White Houseβcurrently beloved by many conservative activists is excessively conspiratorial . But it is true that many people in media , in politics , and the broader public at large are all too willing to give the benefit of the doubt to intelligence officials who got things very wrong , violated civil liberties , and misled Congress .
Neither the military , nor the CIA , nor the FBI , nor any other branch of the federal government is immune to politics . Many like to pretend that Brennan is some objective , just-the-facts purveyor of raw information , but he 's just as self-interested as anyone else in politics .
Blindly trusting the intelligence community has had disastrous results , and one of the few admirable things about Trump is that he 's not been afraid to disregard the opinions of those who seem to always prefer the military option over the diplomatic one . It 's long past time the rest of us did the same . | rOoyk9Kfb92mnaEC | 2 | Politics | 1.2 | CIA | -0.5 | FBI | 0.2 | null | null | null | null |
environment | Axios | https://www.axios.com/trump-paris-climate-agreement-formal-withdrawal-6e3140dd-5b96-474b-a0e8-9c8f8a5b4800.html | Trump begins formal withdrawal from Paris Climate Agreement | 2019-11-04 | environment | Why it matters : While today is more procedural than symbolic in nature , the U.S. beginning the exit process is likely to further dampen the 2015 climate deal 's aspirations and remove any slim chance that Trump would ever re-engage on the matter , like he suggested in 2017 he would be willing to .
What they 're saying : A White House spokesman did n't comment beyond writing by email that `` the president has already announced that the U.S. is not a part of the Paris Climate Agreement . ''
Pompeo wrote on Twitter : `` Today we begin the formal process of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement . The U.S. is proud of our record as a world leader in reducing all emissions , fostering resilience , growing our economy , and ensuring energy for our citizens . Ours is a realistic and pragmatic model . ''
The big picture : The U.S. is the only country in the world not to support the accord , whose goal is to drastically slash greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades to keep Earth 's global temperature from rising 2Β°C within this century .
Where it stands : The planet 's temperature has already increased about 0.8Β°C since 1880 , according to NASA , and the world is n't even close to meeting the Paris goals . In fact , trends are going in the opposite direction . Global carbon dioxide emissions just reached an all-time high .
Reality check : In a Rose Garden speech in June 2017 , Trump criticized the accord as a bad deal for America because it allowed China to continue increasing its emissions and because it would hurt the bottom lines of U.S. businesses . But most big companies β even oil producers β say they support the accord .
What we 're watching : If a Democrat wins the White House in 2020 , he or she would have to submit a letter to rejoin the accord , at which point there is a 30-day delay . The U.S. could then be back into the agreement as soon as Feb. 21 , 2021 .
Go deeper : Paris + 2 : Climate jolted faster than projected | r2Uz2teYQP43B9zx | 1 | World | 0 | Donald Trump | 0 | Climate Change | 0 | Carbon Emissions | 0 | United States | 0 |
china | The Flip Side | https://www.theflipside.io/archives/conflict-in-china | Conflict in China | china | The left is critical of both Trump β s comments about Hong Kong and the decision to label China a currency manipulator .
β President Trump has essentially given China β s rulers a green light to crush the pro-democracy protests . His flippant remarks could have grave consequencesβ¦
β What the Chinese Communist Party does , of course , is its responsibility , and it is the Party that will bear the responsibility if Hong Kong β s crisis ends in bloodshed . But the rest of the world , and particularly the United States , has a duty to warn against the slaughter of innocents , and to stand up for the values of free societies . Trump had the opportunity to warn China against a heavy-handed response . He could have summoned up a joint effort with America β s allies to urge Chinese restraint . He could have warned Beijing , even if mildly . Instead , he gave the Chinese government a free pass . β
β The struggle over Hong Kong β s future has far-reaching international ramifications β symbolic , political and practical . The crushing of its freedoms would be a grim triumph for the advancing forces of global authoritarianismβ¦ [ but ] it seems clear Xi will not resort to force , and de facto direct rule from Beijing , unless he feels he has no choice . He knows the outcome of such action would definitively give the lie to the favourite Communist party conceit of China β s β peaceful rise β . Xi knows the overseas repercussions could be immensely damaging , dwarfing in intensity the criticism of the abuses endured by Xinjiang β s Muslim Uighurs . β
Regarding the decision to label China a currency manipulator , β this is an idea that American politicians have talked about for ages , but no U.S. president has ever been willing to move forward on . At one time , it might have marked the beginning of a dramatic confrontation between the world β s two top economic powers . But the timing now is a bit silly , as it β s been years since China actually fit the typical definition of a currency manipulator , and calling it one today probably won β t change much about the trade battle that β s already underway . More than anything , it β s a fairly low-stakes rhetorical move in a high-stakes economic showdownβ¦
β These days , Beijing mostly uses its resources to prop the renminbi up , not push it down . If officials let the country β s currency float on the open market , the way the U.S. dollar does , it would almost certainly crash immediately , which would be terrible for American manufacturers . In other words , China has actually been doing U.S. companies a favor by putting a floor under the renminbi . β
β The new focus on currency manipulation is particularly misguided . China is engaged in a wide range of unfair trade practices , including subsidizing domestic manufacturing , impeding the sale of foreign goods and stealing intellectual property . But experts generally agree that China is not manipulating its currencyβ¦ Mr. Trump is frustrated that the dollar β s exchange value has climbed on his watch , making it harder for American companies to win foreign buyers . The primary cause , however , is simply that the American economy has outperformed the rest of the developed world . Secondarily , Mr. Trump himself has pumped up the dollar by backing a combination of tax cuts and spending increases that have expanded government borrowing , increasing demand for dollars to buy federal debt . β
β If Chinese policies do not change , we will have only demonstrated our impotence to China and the worldβ¦ Further , the president β s flailing bluster , in which the treasury secretary is now a full participant , risks real economic damage as businesses and consumers become fearful and hold off on spending . There is a growing concern that exchange-market developments will be an excuse for yet more tariffsβ¦
β There is a final problem with the Treasury Department β s manipulation claims . The United States has an enormous agenda with China β North Korea , Taiwan , Hong Kong , aggressiveness in the Pacific region , unfair trade practices and much more . We have only limited capacity to shape Chinese behavior . Should we not focus on areas where our position is clearly right and the stakes are high rather than areas where our claims are dubious and prosecuting them damages our economy ? β
β Trump β s defenders will say this evidence is all circumstantial . But circumstantial evidence is not weak evidence : it β s simply evidence based on the circumstances in which an act of wrongdoing is committed β such as the license plate of a car that speeds away from a bank just after that bank is robbed . Criminals are convicted on such evidence all the time . They will also say that there β s no explicit quid pro quo proposal here . Butβ¦ β even when a corrupt deal is struck implicitly , the government can still prosecute extortion on a quid pro quo basis . Circumstantial evidence can be enough to prove a criminal exchange. β β¦ β β In the absence of an explicit quid pro quo over restarting aid , the context and circumstances are what will become the focus of the investigation . There is enough here to support impeachment . Whether it is also enough to convince Republicans and lead to removal is another matter . β | kZkJ84tLijzCEc86 | 1 | Banking And Finance | 0.2 | Markets | 0 | Stimulus | 0 | null | null | null | null | |
politics | Los Angeles Times | http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-stormy-horseface-20181016-story.html | Trump calls Stormy Daniels 'Horseface,' the latest insult from a man known for demeaning women | 2018-10-16 | Politics | President Trump called porn actress Stormy Daniels βHorsefaceβ in a tweet Tuesday, an extraordinary provocation even for a man whose habit of denigrating the appearance of women draws frequent accusations of misogyny. Trumpβs insult came a day after a federal judge in Los Angeles dismissed a defamation suit that Daniels filed against the president. The judge ordered her to pay Trumpβs legal fees. βGreat, now I can go after Horseface and her 3rd rate lawyer in the Great State of Texas,β Trump tweeted. Daniels alleges that Trump, who will hold a campaign rally Monday in Houston, had sex with her in 2006. The presidentβs former personal lawyer Michael Cohen says Trump approved an illegal $130,000 payoff to Daniels just days before the 2016 presidential election to keep her from talking about the affair. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, responded to Trumpβs insult on Twitter, saying heβd demonstrated his βhatred of women and lack of self control.β Paid Content James P. Frantz, CEO and Lead Trial Attorney, Frantz Law Group, APLC By LA Times Studios Trumpβs attack came three weeks before a midterm election that is largely a referendum on the president, with polls showing women turning strongly against his Republican allies in Congress. Danielsβ lawyer, Michael Avenatti, a potential candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, called Trump βa disgusting misogynist and an embarrassment to the United States.β Trump has a long history of making demeaning remarks about women. He once called Rosie OβDonnell fat, ugly and disgusting. He criticized Cher for βmassive plastic surgeries that didnβt work.β He praised the ex-husband of Arianna Huffington for leaving her for a man, calling her βunattractive both inside and out.β During the 2016 presidential campaign, he insulted GOP rival Carly Fiorina, saying: βLook at that face. Would anyone vote for that?β In an βAccess Hollywoodβ audio recording released just before the 2016 election, Trump was heard boasting in 2005 that women let him grab their crotches because he was a star. In June 2017, Trump tweeted that MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski was βbleeding badly from a face-liftβ on a visit to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. More recently, he called former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman a βdog.β Shortly before he attacked Daniels on Tuesday, Trump twice called Sen. Elizabeth Warren βPocahontasβ on Twitter, reprising an insult that many consider racist to mock the Massachusetts Democratβs release Monday of a DNA test showing a bit of Native American blood in her ancestry. In an interview later on Fox News, Trump gloated about getting Daniels and Avenatti to pay his legal fees in the defamation case. βTheyβll pay a lot,β he told anchor Trish Regan. On Monday, Judge S. James Otero of U.S. District Court in Los Angeles dismissed Danielsβ lawsuit alleging Trump defamed her on Twitter. His April 18 tweet mocked her story of a man confronting her years ago in a Las Vegas parking lot and warning her to keep quiet about Trump. βA total con job,β Trump tweeted. As a public official attacking the credibility of a political adversary, Otero ruled, Trump had a 1st Amendment right to challenge Danielsβ allegation that she was threatened. michael.finnegan@latimes.com Twitter: @finneganLAT UPDATES: 3:45 p.m.: This article was updated with President Trumpβs comments to Fox News and his tweets about Elizabeth Warren. 10:20 a.m.: This article was updated with more details on the defamation lawsuit. 10 a.m.: This article was updated with additional details on President Trumpβs history of insulting women. This article was originally published at 8:35 a.m. Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond. In your inbox twice per week. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Follow Us Michael Finnegan is a former Los Angeles Times crime and politics reporter. He covered federal courts in California and state and national election campaigns, including every presidential race from 2000 to 2020. He was previously a City Hall and statehouse reporter at the New York Daily News. Politics World & Nation California World & Nation Politics Politics Politics Politics Subscribe for unlimited accessSite Map Follow Us MORE FROM THE L.A. TIMES | af1a83f2e5ab7a95 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
world | The Daily Wire | https://www.dailywire.com/news/british-conservatives-cave-on-pro-growth-economic-agenda-prime-minister-might-be-ousted | British Conservatives Cave On Pro-Growth Economic Agenda, Prime Minister Might Be Ousted | 2022-10-18 | World, Liz Truss, United Kingdom | British Prime Minister Liz Truss may be ousted six weeks into her tenure after she and fellow ministers caved on most portions of an aggressive economic reform package. Truss, who replaced outgoing head of government and fellow Conservative Party member Boris Johnson last month, unveiled a tax cut and energy production plan in the first days of her premiership. After investors concerned about the governmentβs ability to meet debt obligations jettisoned their assets, Truss announced that she would eliminate portions of her plan and dismissed finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng. βWe need to act now to reassure the markets of our fiscal discipline,β she said in a statement. βI have therefore decided to keep the increase in corporation tax that was planned by the previous government.β Beyond canceling the higher corporate tax rate, Truss had planned to slash the basic income tax rate to 19% and launch discussions about special economic zones across the country. Truss had formerly doubled down on her growth agenda during a number of local radio interviews that followed the market headwinds. βI understand that families are struggling with their fuel bills, and we had to take urgent action to get our economy growing, get Britain moving, and also deal with inflation,β she explained. βAnd of course, that means taking controversial and difficult decisions. But Iβm prepared to do that as prime minister, because whatβs important to me is that we get our economy moving.β Amid the political turmoil, which comes immediately after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, more than 100 ministers in her own party are preparing to oust Truss, according to a report from The Daily Mail. βShe has lost the confidence of the markets and she is hemorrhaging support. We need to cauterize the wound, and fast,β one unnamed minister told the outlet. βThere is an overwhelming desire among colleagues for it to be over β people want it done this week.β In a portion of her agenda that appears to remain intact, Truss also pushed for higher fossil fuel production and set the goal of becoming a net exporter of energy by 2040. She also announced a new round of oil and gas leases for the North Sea and lifted her nationβs moratorium on shale gas production, including the technique of fracking, by which pressurized liquid is injected into underground rocks to extract fuels. βWe are cutting off the toxic power and pipelines from authoritarian regimes and strengthening our energy resilience,β Truss said during a speech to the United Nations General Assembly. βWe will ensure we cannot be coerced or harmed by the reckless actions of rogue actors abroad. We will transition to a future based on renewable and nuclear energy while ensuring that the gas used during that transition is from reliable sources including our own North Sea production.β The policy comes as much of the continent struggles with soaring energy prices amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Member states of the European Union are currently weighing various measures to help member states cope with a freeze in Russian energy exports and the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline system. At the beginning of this year, Britain had a top personal income tax rate of 45%, which is lower than most European countries, yet higher than the 37% rate in the United States, according to a report from the Tax Foundation. Truss had argued in an opinion piece that politicians should begin focusing βon growing the pieβ rather than fighting over βhow to slice upβ the pie. Already have an account? Your information could be the missing piece to an important story. Submit your tip today and make a difference. Stay up-to-date on the latestnews, podcasts, and more. We won't sell or share your personal information to inform the ads you see. You may still see interest-based ads if your information is sold or shared by other companies or was sold or shared previously. Dismiss Opt out California residents may click hereto view our California Privacy Notice. To submit a request to exercise any of your privacy rights Click Here. Under certain state laws, the use of cookies that collect information for advertising and other specified purposes may be considered to be a type of selling or sharing of personal information. You may opt out of this type of sale or sharing of your personal information by clicking this toggle to the left (gray) position. These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our Site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the Site. Our Site uses cookies for targeted advertising. These cookies may be set through the Site by our advertising partners, and may be used by those companies to help show you more relevant advertisements on other websites. | 173d594b99cf24c4 | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
politics | CNN Digital | http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/03/politics/donald-trump-intelligence-briefing-russian-hack-delay/index.html | Trump derides intel briefing on 'so-called' Russian hacking | 2017-01-04 | Politics | Story highlights Trump took to Twitter Tuesday evening to once again deride US intelligence agencies It's his latest attempt to undermine their conclusion that Russia hacked Democratic groupsWashington CNN βPresident-elect Donald Trump took to Twitter Tuesday evening to deride the US intelligence agencies due to brief him on alleged Russian hacking of American political groups.The "Intelligence" briefing on so-called "Russian hacking" was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange! β Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017It was his latest attack on a key body he will rely on as commander in chief and again put him at odds with the agenciesβ unanimous conclusion that Russia hacked Democratic Party groups and individuals to interfere in the US presidential election.Trump suggested that intelligence officials postponed an β βintelligenceβ briefing on so-called βRussian hackingβ β that they were set to deliver to him this week because they might need more time βto build a case.β He called the alleged delay βvery strange.βTrump tweeted Wednesday, βJulian Assange said βa 14 year old could have hacked Podestaβ - why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!βJulian Assange said "a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta" - why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info! β Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017Trump said last week that he would receive an intelligence briefing on the Russian breaches this week and suggested it would come early on, telling reporters on New Yearβs Eve that they would know more about the subject βTuesday or Wednesday.βBut US intelligence officials disputed Trumpβs tweet alleging a delay.Top US intelligence officials have been scheduled to brief Trump on the full report on Russian hacking President Barack Obama ordered once it was completed, but the meeting was not set to take place until later in the week, according to US officials.The meeting was never scheduled for Tuesday, as even Obama has yet to receive the full-fledged briefing on the Russian hacking, one US official said.And a US intelligence official told CNN that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was never scheduled to be in New York City, where Trump is, on Tuesday β and was perplexed about the βdelayβ Trump claimed was taking place.Trump on Tuesday did receive a classified intelligence briefing β the Presidential Daily Briefing β which Trump has elected to receive only sporadically. But it did not dive deeply into the Russian hacking.WikiLeaksβ Assange: Russia didnβt give us emailsUS officials briefed on the matter said Clapper, National Security Agency Director Adm. Mike Rogers, FBI Director James Comey and CIA Director John Brennan are scheduled to attend the meeting with Trump providing him details on the Russian hacking.While Obama met with the heads of US intelligence agencies in his first weeks as president-elect, Trump has yet to do so eight weeks after he was elected, which US officials said was due to Trumpβs scheduling conflicts.Instead, the President-elect has repeatedly questioned their assessment of Russian cyber activity.Before the election, when 17 US intelligence agencies issued a public statement concluding that Russia orchestrated the hack of the Democratic National Committee, Trump immediately cast doubt on those conclusions, arguing it was impossible to distinguish between a Russian government operative and βsomebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.βAfter Obama then slapped a series of sanctions on Russia, Trump issued a statement calling for the country to βmove on to bigger and better thingsβ and then tweeted praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin for not retaliating against the sanctions.Trump continued his skepticism on New Yearβs Eve, telling reporters once again that it βcould be somebody else.ββI know a lot about hacking. And hacking is a very hard thing to prove,β he said.He added that he also knows βthings that other people donβt know, so they canβt be sure of the situation.βOn Tuesday, Russia again denied intervening in the US election campaign.Reacting to a US intelligence official who told CNN the administration traced the hack to specific keyboards, which featured Cyrillic characters, Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov said: βI donβt understand what this means exactly but Cyrillic characters can be used everywhere.ββOnce again I reject any possibility that official Russia can be involved in any way,β he added.In December, Peskov said it was βindecentβ of the US to βgroundlesslyβ accuse Russia of intervention in the US election campaign. | 6a1cbdd8238dae9d | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
national_security | National Review | https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/04/syria-strike-long-term-strategy-needed/ | The Next Syria Strike | 2018-04-12 | national_security | Syrian President Bashar al-Assad addresses Parliament members in Damascus in 2016 . ( SANA/Handout via Reuters )
Bashar al-Assad β s gas attack on the anniversary of President Trump β s missile strike against his regime was an invitation to get hit again , and the president is indeed promising another strike .
We weren β t enthusiastic over the first one . Assad is , as Trump is now wont to say , an animal . He has destroyed his country in order to rule the rubble . He has brought untold suffering by every means possible and has no compunction about using banned chemical weapons as an instrument of terror .
There is obviously utility in maintaining an international norm against the use of these especially cruel weapons . Our worry about Trump β s first act was that pinprick strikes usually don β t accomplish much and they establish an implied responsibility for ensuring that the regime never resorts to gas again , a foolhardy commitment absent a larger Syrian strategy .
Indeed , Assad β s latest gassing comes on the heels of Trump β s publicly saying that he wants to pull out of Syria entirely . The regime clearly took heed . Now the president is in the position of taking more military action to prevent the use of chemical weapons , on humanitarian grounds , in a conflict he wants to completely wash his hands of . This is awkward , to say the least .
There is no doubt that Trump inherited a mess . As an escape from his red-line fiasco , Obama welcomed the Russians into Syria ; and Moscow , together with Iranian forces , then buttressed the regime sufficiently that it now has all but won the civil war .
Trump retroactively enforced Obama β s red line and in so doing created a red line of his own that he is compelled to enforce , especially with North Korea and China watching . The larger question , still , is : What is our strategy in Syria ?
We have made considerable progress against ISIS , but there are other considerations . If Syria remains a running sore , it will continue to destabilize the Middle East and , through its refugee flow , Europe . If Russia and Iran are allowed to work their will uncontested , it will be a boon to Russia β s strategic resurgence and to Iran β s drive for regional hegemony .
We shouldn β t contemplate overthrowing Assad ; we β re not in a position to accomplish that . But we should try to expand the territory held by our allies , toward the longer-term goal of a diplomatic settlement . Via carrots and sticks , we should push the Turks to work with us , their NATO ally , rather than Russia and Iran . Any of our reconstruction assistance should flow only to areas controlled by our proxies . We should back Israel in its shadow war with Iranian forces . We should exact whatever price we can , diplomatically and in increased sanctions , for the complicity of Russia and Iran in Assad β s barbarity .
And we should get an authorization from Congress for using force in Syria rather than stretching Bush-era authorizations to justify red-line strikes and other operations in the country .
One way or the other , the missiles are going to fly . What remains to be seen is if this the beginning of a more robust Syria strategy or a substitute for one . | CFu1NGkDRErQZOSI | 2 | Syria | 0.1 | National Security | 0 | Defense And Security | 0 | null | null | null | null |
elections | Politico | http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0612/77493.html | Conservative activists: Bring it on | 2012-06-17 | elections | Sarah Palin contrasted Scott Walker 's efforts with those of Republicans in Congress . | AP Photos Conservative activists : Bring it on
LAS VEGAS β Mitt Romney may top the 2012 ticket this fall , but conservative activists gathered here are buzzing about another heavyweight Republican that sparks far more passion among their ranks than the former Massachusetts governor .
Following the failure of Democrats and labor unions to oust him two weeks ago , Wisconsin Gov . Scott Walker is being hailed as a conquering hero by conservatives nationwide . The 750 activists who descended on Sheldon Adelson β s Venetian hotel for the right β s answer to Netroots Nation see Walker β s bold and unapologetic brand of conservatism as the way to win in 2012 .
While Romney β despite being the presumptive GOP presidential nominee β didn β t dominate conversation here , Walker and his victory cast a large shadow over just about everything . And although the Wisconsin governor didn β t attend the conservative confab , he is the standard by which activists plan to now judge all other Republicans .
Romney did not loom large here , except as a vessel for conservative β s intense determination to unseat President Barack Obama . But conservatives here left no doubt that they will go after any Republican who goes wobbly , both rhetorically and by supporting primary challengers .
β We β re going to hold whoever wins accountable , and that wasn β t the case in 2001 , β said Tim Phillips , president of the Koch-backed non-profit Americans for Prosperity Foundation that organizes the conference . β There β s a movement now that we have never had with a Republican president . There was nothing like what we have now during the Bush years . If there had of been , I think it would have ended different on No Child Left Behind , Medicare expansion , the spending , the earmarks [ and ] everything else . β
Phillips slammed Michigan β s Republican Gov . Rick Snyder , for instance , as being too cowardly to take on Big Labor .
β Governor Walker wasn β t seeking confrontation at all , β he said . β It β s just that if you β re going to show leadership and going to be bold , sometimes that requires confrontation . β
Sarah Palin , the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee , contrasted Walker β s courageous reforms against congressional Republicans backing off 2010 promises to cut the budget by $ 100 billion in their first year .
β The permanent political class broke promises they never intended to keep , β Palin said .
The former Alaska governor drew cheers when she told the crowd in a Friday night speech never to spin or cover up for GOP screw-ups .
β No matter what happens in November , please do not get co-opted by the permanent political class , β she said . β You need to stay outside the machine . β
In a brief interview with βββ , Palin explained that the down-ballot races β where she has picked candidates β are just as important this year as the presidential contest . Palin has endorsed Indiana β s Richard Mourdock , Nebraska β s Deb Fischer and Texas β Ted Cruz in Senate primaries . | No4pekAmAjXfFXqj | 0 | Presidential Elections | 0.1 | Elections | 0.1 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
national_security | Washington Times | https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/feb/7/ice-shut-out-border-talks-warns-democrats-plans-wo/ | ICE, shut out of border talks, warns Democrats' plans would free thousands of criminals | 2019-02-07 | national_security | A briefer from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stood outside the closed-door meeting Wednesday while negotiators working on a homeland security spending deal heard from border experts , who made their pitch for a border wall .
The ICE briefer never made it in the room , an administration official said .
If he had been allowed to speak , he would have told them that the limits they β re pondering to immigrant detention , proposed by Democrats , would lead to 30,000 people being released back onto the streets , including thousands of migrants with criminal records .
Even Senate Republicans β ante would mean cuts to ICE β s ability to hold all the illegal immigrants the agency says need to be detained if the government is going to begin to make a dent in the illegal immigration problem .
While most of the public focus in the negotiations has been on President Trump β s call for a border wall , the number of detention beds available to hold illegal immigrants is just as big of a sticking point β and perhaps even more critical to achieving Mr. Trump β s stated goal of cutting illegal immigration .
β ICE was disappointed not to be able to address the conference committee directly , β the administration source told The βββ .
Left outside the room , ICE has instead produced a briefing document for the negotiators . The document defends the president β s call for 52,000 detention beds and says both Democrats β plan β cutting ICE to about 35,520 beds β and even Senate Republicans β proposal of about 40,520 beds would mean dangerous migrants would have to be set free .
β Up to 30,000 releases of criminals , illegal aliens with criminal charges and recent border crossers β would not be held , ICE said . In some cases ICE would even be forced to break the law to release migrants deemed subject to β mandatory detention β by Congress , the briefing says .
Not only would that cut down on deterrence of illegal immigration , but it would mean fewer criminals would be ousted from American communities , ICE argued .
Both Democrats and Republicans negotiating the spending bill acknowledged beds are a major sticking point , along with the wall .
β It β s one of the things that are being negotiated , β said Sen. Jon Tester , Montana Democrat .
He disputed ICE β s claim that 30,000 migrants , including thousands of criminals , would be released under the Democratic plan .
β I really doubt that would be the case , but we β ll see , β he said .
Lawmakers also said they were happy to hear from Border Patrol officials Wednesday , who provided a secret briefing about what they need in terms of border wall .
β That was really the focus of the meeting , rather than ICE β s role . We β ll have funding in the package for ICE . The pushback that we β ve been getting is on the border barrier funding , β said Sen. John Hoeven , North Dakota Republican .
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby , Alabama Republican , said they heard from the people they thought they needed β and that was the Border Patrol .
β I guess you look back in retrospect , say we could have brought so and so in . I thought the meeting yesterday was overall very good β told us some things that we needed from the experts β not something we politically thought of , β he said .
Immigration experts , though , said detention beds are a critical component if Congress β s goal is to reduce illegal immigration .
β The border wall β s not unimportant , but we β re going to get more bang for the buck for detention than for extra fencing , β said Mark Krikorian , executive director at the Center for Immigration Studies , which advocates for stricter immigration controls .
β I β m not against extra fencing , I β m for it , but we put inordinate emphasis on it , when in fact holding people in detention to make sure they show up [ for deportation ] is going to be a more effective deterrent to future people , β he said .
But detention is anathema to immigrant-rights advocates and some left-wing Democrats in Congress .
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , New York Democrat , led a rally on Capitol Hill on Thursday where she said ICE β does not deserve a dime . β
Fellow freshman Rep. Ayanna Pressley , Massachusetts Democrat , said she didn β t want to see either Customs and Border Protection or ICE get any more money .
β The deal reached by the conference committee should not allocate one more dollar to this department or to the ICE and CBP agencies , β she said .
Democratic negotiators are aware of that sentiment , and an aide tracking the deal-making said the number of detention beds in a final agreement is β very important β to Democrats .
β Limiting the number of ICE detention beds is a way of controlling the Trump administration β s cruel immigration policies , β the Democratic aide said . β If history is a guide , there has to be some compromise on both beds and border infrastructure and we are working to ensure there is a workable glide path downward on beds . β
The aide also countered ICE β s claims of mass releases , saying the agency wouldn β t have to release everyone at once but could ratchet down its detention and come up with better priorities for who has to be held .
But Democrats β proposal would not only cut the number of beds , it would also limit who could be held , cutting the number of people able to be detained from ICE β s arrests within the interior of the U.S. to 16,500 .
β ICE is currently detaining recent border crossers who have passed asylum interviews for too long , and they are arresting many people in the interior of the United States who are not criminals or who have minor criminal records , including many with only immigration violations , β the Democratic aide said .
ICE currently has about 46,000 people in detention , well above the mandated floor of 40,520 . Of those , about 21,000 are from interior arrests β mostly criminals . Democrats β plan would mean perhaps 4,500 of them would have to be released in order to meet the 16,500 limit , according to an administration official .
Democrats say they want to see illegal immigrants put on ankle monitoring devices or given counseling and regular check-ins , rather than be put into detention .
Their plan would raise the number of people in alternatives to detention from 82,000 to 100,000 .
In particular , Democrats want to phase out family detention , calling it cruel .
ICE says that would force them into a catch-and-release policy . Already , one ICE office in El Paso , Texas , is releasing 300 to 500 family members a day .
Immigrant-rights advocates say it β s cheaper to release someone on alternatives than to hold them in detention . A 2014 audit found keeping someone on alternatives for a day costs just 7 percent of what it does to keep someone detained .
Some 30 percent of illegal-immigrant parents caught and released with an ankle bracelet cut the bracelet off in the first days after being released , an ICE official testified to Congress last year .
And since people in detention have their cases heard faster , they are deported faster .
Homeland Security says that in 2017 , 2,430 migrants were deported after being kept on alternatives to detention , at a cost of $ 183 million . That works out to $ 75,360 per deportation .
The department says if that money had been used for detention , it could have helped deport 10 times as many people .
There are one million migrants who have been ordered deported but who are still free in the U.S. , ICE says .
Homeland Security spokeswoman Katie Waldman said if Congress wants to cut into the current surge of illegal immigration , it must pony up for detention beds .
β Without the necessary detention authority and sufficient funding for family beds to enable ICE to detain family units when they are ordered removed , ICE will still only be able to remove a very small percentage of family units , thereby increasing the pull factors and further contributing to the border crisis , β she said .
Democrats , though , say the administration is inflating the border situation .
While Republicans β border security plans focus on illegal immigration , Democrats say the bigger threat is drug-smuggling . Rather than boost border agents and deportation officers , they have called for more technology and officers at ports of entry to screen cars and trucks for banned drugs , and Homeland Security agents to target drugs , gangs and cybersecurity .
Democrats β plan also calls for millions of dollars in additional funding to improve conditions at detention facilities . | AwSr3PjnSoS7HL9Q | 2 | Border Crisis | 0.1 | ICE | -0.1 | National Security | 0 | Defense And Security | 0 | null | null |
culture | John Gable, AllSides Co-founder | https://www.allsides.com/blog/human-frailty-anger-and-forgiveness-will-smith-and-chris-rock-oscars | Human frailty, anger and forgiveness - Will Smith and Chris Rock at the Oscars | 2022-03-28 | Culture, Movies, Oscars, Violence In America, Justice, Comedy, Toxic Masculinity, Race And Racism, Men's Issues, Women's Issues | Γ Did we make a huge mistake? When it comes to the news, we go out of our way to avoid cheap tactics like clickbait. But clickbait works β thatβs probably why you are reading this. (Sorry, did we get ya?) Still, we believe it's important to avoid sensational clickbait when it comes to the news. That's why we provide balanced news and multiple perspectives. If you agree, we need your support to keep AllSides online and thriving. Become a Sustaining Member for ad-free access and premium benefits. Join us to support news with integrity. In a nation so often defined by growing polarization and disdain for each other, we just experienced a raw, unscripted moment that could potentially teach us something about ourselves. In the hurricane of reactions to what happened at the Oscars, letβs not miss this opportunity to notice and learn from the human frailty, anger and potential for forgiveness that could help us all build a bridge across differences that divide our nation, our communities, and our families. In case you missed what happened at the Oscars, here it is in a nutshell: Chris Rock, the comedian who often pushes boundaries, made a joke that went too far. He made a joke about how Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smithβs wife, shaved her head. Jada has been publicly battling an auto-immune disease that also causes hair loss. Will Smith walked up on stage and smacked Chris Rock in the face. Will sat back down, and as Chris tried to continue with a smile, Will loudly with profanity berated Chris for using his wifeβs name, and Chris then agreed to stop using Jadaβs name. The actual exchange was muted in the live broadcast, but caught on Japanese television and shared on Twitter. The show continued, but awkwardly at first, and the feeling in the room changed. Then Will Smith won the Oscar for best actor. Vanity Fair (Lean Left bias) covered it all well. Get balanced news in your inbox weekly. There has been an avalanche of opinions about what happened. A short, impartial list of the different perspectives: To me, this is what teachers would call a βteachable momentβ or, for me and the rest of us, a learning moment. Willβs acceptance speech provided the opportunity not just for him, but for all of us to learn. He clearly was shaken by what had just happened. He felt that he was called to be a protector, just like the person he had played in the movie βKing Richardβ. He said he understood that in his position he is supposed to have a thick skin. Then he quoted something that Denzel Washington had just told him: βAt your highest moment, be careful, that's when the devil comes for you.β To me, that was a turning point. That showed a deep and honest reflection on what just happened. He then apologized to the Academy and fellow nominees (but not to Chris Rock, as some have pointed out, but he did publicly apologize to Chris Rock the next day). His tears were real, the feelings were raw, the confusion and inner conflicts were genuine. Inc. had a good piece about things we can learn about how to respond when we make mistakes. I donβt feel qualified to offer an opinion on who was right, wrong, whether the response to what happened was too much or too little, or on many deeper issues this raises. I do want to remind us that we are all just human beings doing the best we can. Whether it is to make people laugh, protect our family, earn respect from others, or just get through the day, most of us are just trying our best. I would like the modern media and pop culture to recognize that celebrities, whether in entertainment or politics, are just people. Sometimes our pop culture and media promote callousness β whatever pain they cause is OK in the service of a joke, better ratings, journalism, or a self-righteous political or moral belief. The saying βit comes with the territoryβ is too often used as an excuse to treat others as less than human. From the death of Princess Di to a high school kid wrongly defamed for bigotry by politicians, comedians and news journalists, the media and pop culture can often be heartless or numb to the personal consequences of their behavior. Letβs all take a step back from callous behavior toward each other. Letβs empathize with the other person, even if they are βwrongβ politically, represent the other side, or are useful fodder for a joke or political point β even if they are politicians, journalists, comedians or celebrities. And letβs see if we can forgive each other when we mess up. A little more human understanding and forgiveness β in all directions β can go a long way. John Gable is CEO of AllSides. He has a Lean Right bias. This piece was reviewed by AllSides News Editor Joseph Ratliff (Lean Left bias). Andy Gorel February 21st, 2025 AllSides Staff February 20th, 2025 AllSides Staff February 20th, 2025 AllSides Staff February 20th, 2025 AllSides uses cookies and other similar technologies to enable you to use our site. We also use cookies to enable you to personalize your use of our site, provide you enhanced functionality, and improve the performance of our site. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. You can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. | f2757c369459ec0b | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
defense | CNN (Web News) | http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/09/politics/petraeus-cia-resignation/index.html | CIA chief Petraeus resigns over affair | 2012-11-09 | defense | Story highlights David Petraeus , a retired four-star general , led forces in Iraq and Afghanistan
Source : The FBI investigated a tip that he was involved with his biographer
He and his wife , Holly , live in Virginia , and have two grown children
Only two people know how the affair started , but the world knows now about its inglorious end .
Admitting to the extramarital affair , David Petraeus stepped down as director of the CIA on Friday in a surprise move that shocked the intelligence community just days after President Barack Obama was re-elected .
Immediate praise for the man poured in . The president hailed Petraeus ' dedication and patriotism , while leaders from both parties said he would be missed .
It appeared an abrupt end to a spectacularly successful career in public service .
`` After being married for over 37 years , I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair . Such behavior is unacceptable , both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours , '' Petraeus said in a letter to colleagues , explaining his decision to step down .
JUST WATCHED FBI investigates Petraeus and biographer Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH FBI investigates Petraeus and biographer 02:08
JUST WATCHED 2010 : Petraeus thanks soldiers , wife Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 2010 : Petraeus thanks soldiers , wife 01:40
`` Teddy Roosevelt once observed that life 's greatest gift is the opportunity to work hard at work worth doing . I will always treasure my opportunity to have done that with you and I will always regret the circumstances that brought that work with you to an end , '' he said .
According to a U.S. official , the FBI had a tip that Petraeus was involved with his biographer , Paula Broadwell , and investigated the alleged affair to determine whether it posed a security risk .
The FBI was not investigating Petraeus for wrongdoing . The concern was that he could potentially be blackmailed or put `` in a vulnerable spot , '' the official said .
Broadwell spent a year with Petraeus in Afghanistan interviewing him for the book she co-wrote , `` All In : The Education of General David Petraeus . ''
It is not clear whether Broadwell is the woman with whom Petraeus has admitted having an affair . CNN has not been able to reach Broadwell for comment .
Other sources close to the CIA director told HLN anchor Kyra Phillips that the woman involved in the affair was not under Petraeus ' command . The woman was not a member of the armed forces and not a CIA employee , they said .
Petraeus , 60 , had a distinguished 37-year career in the military before joining the CIA , helping turn the tide against insurgents while commanding forces in Iraq and Afghanistan . Earning praise from both sides of the political aisle , the retired four-star general took the helm of the CIA in September 2011 .
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper hailed Petraeus , saying his `` decision to step down represents the loss of one of our nation 's most respected public servants . ''
Petraeus met with Obama on Thursday to offer his resignation and explain the circumstances behind it , according to a senior administration official . The president accepted Petraeus ' resignation during a phone call Friday , said the official .
`` By any measure , he was one of the outstanding general officers of his generation , helping our military adapt to new challenges and leading our men and women in uniform through a remarkable period of service in Iraq and Afghanistan , where he helped our nation put those wars on a path to a responsible end , '' Obama said in a statement .
`` As director of the Central Intelligence Agency , he has continued to serve with characteristic intellectual rigor , dedication and patriotism . ''
The president expressed confidence that the CIA will continue to move forward , under the direction of Acting Director Michael Morell .
Morell , a career agency officer , was sworn in as deputy director of the CIA in May 2010 . He previously served as associate deputy director and director for intelligence .
Petraeus assumed command of the NATO International Security Assistance Force and U.S . Forces Afghanistan in July 2010 , after serving for more than 20 months as commander of United States Central Command . He previously commanded multinational forces in Iraq , leading the so-called surge .
The general literally wrote the book on counterinsurgency techniques by overseeing development of the Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual .
Before his nomination as CIA director , Petraeus was considered the nation 's most well-known and popular military leader since Colin Powell .
But his reputation was potentially tarnished by the controversy over the terror attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi , Libya , that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in September .
Petraeus was expected to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee next week on the Benghazi attack . Morell will take his place , according to the office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein , who is chairman of that committee .
`` I wish President Obama had not accepted this resignation , but I understand and respect the decision . David Petraeus is one of America 's best and brightest , and all Americans should be grateful for his service , '' she said .
Rep. Peter King , chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security , described Petraeus as a `` true American patriot . ''
`` This is a real loss for the country ; a real loss for the CIA , '' he told CNN 's Erin Burnett .
Petraeus and his wife , Holly , live in Virginia . They have two grown children . | CNJDjs7YMRBqBEKA | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
middle_east | Townhall | http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2015/04/06/white-house-democrats-criticizing-iran-deal-are-principled-but-republicans-are-trying-to-kill-a-deal-n1981429 | White House: Democrats Criticizing Iran Deal Are "Principled" But Republicans Are Trying to Sabatoge | 2015-04-06 | middle_east | As negotiations between the United States and Iran continue over the terror regime 's nuclear program , the White House is arguing any criticism about Congress not being involved in negotiations is coming from Republicans with political motives .
But a closer look at members of Congress criticizing the White House deal with the Iranians shows it is n't just Republicans who are concerned about being frozen out of the process . A number of Democrats have also voiced their concerns . In fact , Democrats in the Senate are so skeptical of the White House refusal to involve Congress that Republican Bob Corker may have enough votes to override a deal should the President sign one at the end of June .
Regardless of bipartisan opposition , the White House is pinning opposition and criticism of the current deal and process on Republicans . The administration is painting Republican concerns as illegitimate while at the same time entertaining the same concerns of `` principled '' Democrats .
`` My view is that there are a number of members of Congress that have considered this in a principled way . And those are members of Congress with whom we can have legitimate conversations about our efforts to try and prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon , '' Earnest said Monday afternoon . `` There are a substantial number of members of Congress , all of them Republicans as far as I can tell , who have engaged in an effort to just undermine the talks from the very beginning . ''
Earnest once again slammed Senator Tom Cotton ( R-AR ) and other Republicans who sent a letter directly to Iran 's Ayatollah last month explaining how any deal reached by the White House without Congress will be temporary .
It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system . Thus , we are writing to bring to your attention two features of our Constitutionβthe power to make binding international agreements and the different character of federal officesβwhich you should seriously consider as negotiations progress .
First , under our Constitution , while the president negotiates international agreements , Congress plays the significant role of ratifying them . In the case of a treaty , the Senate must ratify it by a two-thirds vote . A so-called congressional-executive agreement requires a majority vote in both the House and the Senate ( which , because of procedural rules , effectively means a three-fifths vote in the Senate ) . Anything not approved by Congress is a mere executive agreement .
Second , the offices of our Constitution have different characteristics . For example , the president may serve only two 4-year terms , whereas senators may serve an unlimited number of 6-year terms . As applied today , for instance , President Obama will leave office in January 2017 , while most of us will remain in office well beyond thenβperhaps decades .
What these two constitutional provisions mean is that we will consider any agreement regarding your nuclear-weapons program that is not approved by the Congress as nothing more than an executive agreement between President Obama and Ayatollah Khamenei . The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time .
We hope this letter enriches your knowledge of our constitutional system and promotes mutual understanding and clarity as nuclear negotiations progress .
A deal is expected by the end of June after talks were extended last week . Guy has all of the details about what the deal looks like at this point and where talks may end up in coming months . | VD2a4AGEyyrRidUy | 2 | White House | -0.3 | Middle East | 0 | Iran | 0 | Iran Negotiations | 0 | null | null |
us_house | USA TODAY | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/07/trumps-tax-returns-democrats-make-request-eventually/2789713002/ | Democrats move slowly on demand for Trump's tax returns, despite vowing to tackle it right away | 2019-02-07 | us_house | WASHINGTON β House Democrats will hold their first hearing on presidential tax returns Thursday afternoon .
But even the hearing β a broad look at legislative proposals on presidential and vice presidential tax returns β is a cautious step on something Democrats have been salivating over for almost four years .
Democrats have been trying to get their hands on President Donald Trump 's tax returns since he flouted tradition and refused to release them during his presidential campaign . When he took office , Trump continued to keep them private . Vice President Mike Pence has released his documents .
Before the 2018 election , now-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told The San Francisco Chronicle 's editorial board that requesting Trump 's tax returns β is one of the first things we β d do β that β s the easiest thing in the world . That β s nothing . ''
But since taking back control of the House in January , Democrats have taken a cautious approach to obtaining the documents .
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal , D-Mass. , is the only member of the chamber who can request the president 's tax returns . So far , he has n't done it .
Erin Hatch , a spokeswoman for the committee , said Neal expects that when he eventually does make the request , it could end up in an unprecedented court battle and he wants to be prepared .
β Chairman Neal is building a case in the event that the administration decides to disregard federal law , '' she said .
Pelosi told reporters Thursday that obtaining Trump 's tax returns was complicated , and Democrats needed to approach it cautiously .
`` It 's not a question of just sending a letter , '' Pelosi said . `` I know that there β s impatience because people want to knowβ¦ but we have to do it in a very careful way . β
`` Our chairman Rich Neal , I think , has been very circumspect . I think leadership is about action , but it 's also about restraint , '' said Rep. Brian Higgins , D-N.Y. , a member of the committee . `` Will it occur ? Absolutely . The question is when will it occur to maximize the effectiveness . ''
Higgins said Neal has not specified a date to the committee that he would make the request , `` but without question , both implicitly and implied , there will be a request at some point that he will make to get those tax returns . ''
`` At some point '' may not be fast enough for some of the caucus ' most progressive members .
`` I 'd like to know exactly what that timeline looks like , but I do n't see why we 're not moving it quickly . They need to move that quickly , '' said Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal , a co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus .
Jayapal said that her caucus was willing to give a bit of slack because of the partial government shutdown that took up most of the first month after Democrats took power , but progressives were ready to see some movement .
Thursday 's tax hearing agenda is not focused on Trump , though the president could always come up . Instead lawmakers plan to explore a provision in H.R . 1 , a bill being pushed by House Democrats that would reform ethics , voting rights and money in politics . The bill would also require presidential and vice presidential candidates to release their tax returns .
The legislation is likely to move through the House , but it is not expected to pass the GOP-controlled Senate . If Democrats want Trump 's tax returns they 'll have to use their oversight privilege , a role the party relishes .
β The House is a separate and co-equal branch of government . We have ( a constitutional ) responsibility to serve as a check and balance on an out-of-control executive branch , '' House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries of New York said Wednesday . `` We will not be bullied by the president of the United States . ''
Even though it 's their duty to conduct oversight , Democrats will not abuse their power , Jeffries said .
`` The House is going to proceed with restraint with regular order . And that β s why hearings will take place , including the one on exploring taxes related to the president and the vice president before any action is taken , '' he said . | Sa6wWUZ2Y1vCYqxV | 1 | Donald Trump | -0.1 | US House | -0.1 | Politics | -0.1 | Democratic Party | 0 | null | null |
us_congress | Washington Times | http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/dec/16/budget-deal-increases-federal-deficit-by-hundreds-/ | Budget deal increases federal deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars | 2015-12-16 | us_congress | Having reached a deal on a nearly $ 2 trillion deal to keep the government open , President Obama and congressional leaders tried to build support Wednesday for the massive bill , which hikes spending across government , thrilling Democrats , and extends a host of special interest tax breaks , exciting Republicans .
Racehorses and NASCAR racetracks , school teachers and college students , green energy companies and the big oil giants all made out well in the deal , reached overnight after weeks of negotiations . The chief loser , meanwhile , is the federal deficit , which grows by hundreds of billions of dollars under the terms of the tax deal .
Mr. Obama gloated over the agreement , saying he got nearly everything he wanted and gave up very little , only ceding ground in allowing two Obamacare taxes to be postponed and agreeing to lift the decades-old ban on exporting crude oil .
Republicans , meanwhile , said they were in too weak of a position to prevail over Mr. Obama on a giant list of grievances , including trying to reel in his expansive use of executive power , his new rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions and his plans to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees in the U.S. this year .
β We β ve played the cards we were dealt as best as we could , β newly minted House Speaker Paul D. Ryan , Wisconsin Republican , told reporters Wednesday morning in explaining why he wasn β t able to win any of those changes .
Instead , Mr. Ryan said Republicans should be happy with the end of the oil export ban and with extending the dozens of tax breaks , predicting they would both spur new jobs and help keep the economy on track .
SEE ALSO : Tax deal doles out year-end goodies for NASCAR tracks , racehorses , college students
But many Republicans were not convinced , saying the deal deepens deficits and unravels the budget gains the GOP won during the previous four years without winning any of the restrictions they wanted to impose on Mr. Obama .
Sen. Jeff Sessions , Alabama Republican , said the measure was a β betrayal β of the trust conservative voters put in GOP leaders by giving them power last year . He said Congress should have at least reined in Mr. Obama β s refugee plans .
β There is a reason that GOP voters are in open rebellion , β Mr . Sessions said .
The new deal combines two big bills β an agreement to extend dozens of popular special tax breaks , totaling some $ 680 billion in lost revenue , and a full-year spending bill , which spends $ 1.149 trillion on basic government operations in fiscal year 2016 , which ends Sept. 30 .
The House will vote on the tax provisions Thursday and the spending provisions Friday , sending them as a joint package to the Senate for a final vote and an eventual presidential signature .
β We feel good about the outcome . We succeeded , β said White House press secretary Josh Earnest .
Even on one of the few setbacks for President Obama β the lifting of a ban on U.S. crude oil exports β Mr . Earnest said the loss was not particularly troubling because the U.S. already exports 4.3 million barrels of refined petroleum per day and another 500,000 barrels of crude oil via waivers of the ban . And in exchange for that loss , the spokesman said Democrats won the biggest spending hike in history on renewable energy .
Mr . Earnest praised Mr. Ryan , saying he made a β good faith effort β to work with the president . But the spokesman also said Mr. Ryan and his Senate counterpart , Majority Leader Mitch McConnell , were rightly afraid of being blamed for gridlock .
β Look , the other undeniable factor here is that Senator McConnell and Speaker Ryan didn β t want to preside over a government shutdown , β Mr . Earnest said .
The spending bill spans 2,009 pages , which works out to an average of nearly $ 572 million per page .
β I don β t think any of us are going to know what β s truly in it by the time it comes up [ for a vote ] Friday , β Rep. James P. McGovern , Massachusetts Democrat , chided his colleagues . He said those on both sides of the aisle are going to have to cast votes based on the statements of their leaders β putting them all in a tricky position .
Republicans managed to settle a few scores in the new massive spending bill , including blocking the IRS and the Securities and Exchange Commission from writing new campaign finance rules and demanding the State Department clean up its act after former Secretary Hillary Clinton β s unique email arrangement . They also cut several million dollars from the American contribution to the U.N. Population Fund , which has been a target of pro-life conservatives for years .
But the bill keeps most of the president β s priorities intact , and even boosts funding for them . After years of cuts , the IRS gets an additional $ 290 million next year .
The bill also spends $ 750 million in Central America , particularly on Mr. Obama β s strategy of trying to boost the economies and governments of the region , hoping it will stem some of the surge of illegal immigrant children who β ve jumped the border in recent years . It β s less than Mr. Obama sought , but does amount to at least somewhat of a congressional imprimatur of his plans .
The spending bill is months overdue , and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle vowed to try to do better next year β both in acting sooner and in trying to pass the dozen individual spending bills that are supposed to fund basic operations .
That process broke down this year when Senate Democrats gummed up the works in their chamber and an internal GOP dispute halted work in the House . It took a last-minute budget deal in October , which broke the 2011 debt deal and boosted spending on both domestic and defense priorities , to break the logjam and set the stage for this week β s final action .
The 233-page tax breaks bill , meanwhile , contains breaks for NASCAR racetrack owners , teachers who pay classroom costs out of pocket , college students paying tuition or fees , wealthy Americans who want to bequeath part of their money to charities and dozens of other special interests .
Also included is a permanent extension of the research and development tax credit , created by Congress in the early 1980s as a temporary boost to the slumping economy . It β s been extended 16 different times , but the new bill writes it into the tax code for good .
Congress is also delaying two key taxes designed to pay for Obamacare β s generous new benefits , upsetting the careful economics underpinning that law and deepening deficits even more .
Robert L. Bixby , executive director of the budget watchdog Concord Coalition , said the decisions amounted to β fiscal lunacy , β saying Congress spent all year tightening its belt only to blow down the doors in the final days .
Extending the tax breaks also contradicts the calls from presidential candidates in both parties , who have promised on the campaign trail to eliminate these kinds of loopholes and use the savings to lower rates .
But Republicans said that by setting these tax breaks out of bounds , they have narrowed the conversation next year and made it easier to get a big deal done .
β By passing this bill now , Congress will have the freedom in the new year to move forward with comprehensive tax reform that grows our economy , β House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady , Congress β s top tax-writer , said . | II1v4O3V7vnNI6re | 2 | Federal Budget | -1.7 | Deficit | -1.7 | US Congress | 0.2 | null | null | null | null |
facts_and_fact_checking | Poynter | https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2020/u-s-fact-checkers-debunked-at-least-10-hoaxes-involving-pennsylvania-and-florida-on-election-day/ | U.S fact-checkers debunked at least 10 hoaxes involving Pennsylvania and Florida on Election Day | 2020-11-04 | Facts And Fact Checking, Elections, 2020 Election, 2020 Election Fact Checking | Fact-checking organizations based in the United States debunked at least 10 claims and photos regarding the electoral process in two states on Election Day. An overview of this work shows that Florida and Pennsylvania were heavily targeted by disinformers on Nov. 3. But the consequences of these acts are yet to be determined. A false photo caption claimed the photo showed an unidentified civilian removing an official ballot box from a polling location in Philadelphia on Election Day. The person in the photo is an election worker who was transporting the ballots as part of their official duties, Jane Roh, a spokesperson for Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, told PolitiFact in a text. Fact-checkers also emphasize that election workers donβt wear uniforms. A similar case popped up in Erie County, Pennsylvania. where a man allegedly threw out more than 100 ballots cast for President Donald Trump. According to PolitiFact, this came from an Instagram story from a person unaffiliated with the county. It has since been debunked. A Republican activist posted a tweet apparently showing a sample ballot outside Bucks County poll center in Pennsylvania with the names of the Republican candidates blurred out. The activist claimed the sign was too close, which violates electioneering laws, and called it a βvoting scam.β This was not a scam, according to PolitiFact. Thereβs no evidence this sign was too close, and journalists on the ground said they saw the same sign at another polling location that was appropriately far enough away. A comparable claim was made by a conservative columnist who tweeted images of a sign with the names of Democratic candidates outside a Philadelphia high school being used as a polling location. According to AFP, the office of District Attorney Lawrence Krasner tweeted that the claim is βdeliberately deceptive.β After investigating, members of the Election Task Force found out that the sign was further than 10 feet from the poll center as established in the law. A viral Facebook post misleadingly suggested that voters in the Pennsylvania counties of York, Lebanon and Dauphin were prevented from voting by the state Department of Health due to potential COVID-19 exposure. The post further claimed officials threatened to arrest voters trying to exercise their franchise. FactCheck.org pointed out that the post, which was spread by a popular conservative radio host, was misleading for several reasons. βA poll watcher in Philly was just wrongfully prevented from entering the polling place,β Will Chamberlain, editor-in-chief of the conservative magazine Human Events, tweeted Nov. 3. Chamberlainβs tweet was retweeted by Mike Roman, director of Election Day operations for President Donald Trumpβs campaign. But Kevin Feeley, spokesman for the city commissioners, told FactCheck.org in a phone interview that βit was a mistake.β Three times in a row The Washington Post Fact Checker debunked claims made by Trump on Twitter that he was leading solidly in states as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. They also debunked the claim that Trumpβs lead in Pennsylvania had magically disappeared because of corrupt officials in the commonwealth. When it comes to Florida, a post on Facebook claimed that 23% of mail-in ballots in Miami-Dade County, Florida, were rejected for missing signatures. But thatβs false, according to CheckYourFact.org. Less than one percent of mail-in ballots have been preliminarily rejected for not having a signature in Miami-Dade County as of Nov. 2, according to a spokesperson for the countyβs elections department. On the afternoon of Election Day, several social media posts warned that groups of protesters were planning riots and violence in Miami-Dade County. But according to a statement from the Southeast Florida Fusion Center of the Department of Homeland Security and Miami-Dade Police Department, there was no evidence of such a thing. Univision warned its audience about the viral falsehoods being distributed by text. When Trump accused Zelenskyy of starting the war between Ukraine and Russia, journalists loudly spelled out the truth Notes that cite fact-checkers earn more trust from X users and combat misinformation faster The nonpartisan US Government Accountability Office did, in March 2024, and the estimate includes all federal agencies since 2003 Inviting a radio show to broadcast from the Pentagon probably isnβt dangerous, but it further shows the Trump adminβs intent to favor friendly media These unglamorous stories β lawsuits, house fires and council meetings β once formed the backbone of civic life. Their loss leaves us in the dark. Get the Poynter newsletter that's right for you. Support responsible news and fact-based information today! | f5b1c762b1a5b460 | 1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
elections | USA TODAY | http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/09/08/fact-check-trump-clinton-msnbc-commander-in-chief-forum/89973830/ | Fact check: Trump and Clinton at the 'commander-in-chief' forum | 2016-09-08 | elections | CLOSE Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were grilled on hot topics like terrorism , Vladimir Putin and their temperaments during a Commander-in-Chief Forum sponsored by NBC News .
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump made some inaccurate claims during an NBC β commander-in-chief β forum on military and veterans issues :
β’ Clinton wrongly claimed Trump supported the war in Iraq after it started , while Trump was wrong , once again , in saying he was against the war before it started .
β’ Trump said that President Obama set a β certain date β for withdrawing troops from Iraq , when that date was set before Obama was sworn in .
β’ Trump said that Obama β s visits to China , Saudi Arabia and Cuba were β the first time in the history , the storied history of Air Force One β when β high officials β of a host country did not appear to greet the president . Not true .
β’ Clinton said that Trump supports privatizing the Veterans Health Administration . That β s false . Trump said he supports allowing veterans to seek care at either public or private hospitals .
β’ Trump said Clinton made β a terrible mistake on Libya β when she was secretary of State . But , at the time , Trump also supported U.S. action that led to the removal of Moammar Gadhafi from power .
β’ Trump cherry-picked Clinton β s words when he claimed Clinton said β vets are being treated , essentially , just fine. β Clinton had said the problems in the Department of Veterans Affairs were not as β widespread β as some Republicans claimed , but she went on to acknowledge problems , including the issue of wait times for doctors .
The forum , sponsored by NBC News and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America , was held Sept. 7 at the Intrepid Sea , Air & Space Museum in New York City . Today show host Matt Lauer , and members of the military and veterans in the audience , questioned the candidates separately .
Trump said he β was totally against the war in Iraq , β while Clinton claimed that he supported the Iraq War before and after it started . The facts don β t support either candidate β s strong assertions .
Our review of Trump β s statements before and after the Iraq War started found no evidence that Trump opposed the war before it started . In fact , he expressed mild support for invading Iraq when asked about it on the Howard Stern radio show on Sept. 11 , 2002 β about six months before the war started .
Stern asked Trump if he supported a war with Iraq , and Trump responded , β Yeah , I guess so . β
In the NBC commander in chief forum , Trump cited an Esquire article that appeared in August 2004 to show his opposition to the war . But that article appeared 17 months after the war started .
As for Clinton , who as a senator voted in October 2002 to authorize the war in Iraq , the Democratic nominee claimed that Trump β supported it before it happened , he supported it as it was happening and he is on record as supporting it after it happened . β
But just as there is no evidence that Trump opposed the Iraq War before it started , the Clinton campaign offered no evidence that Trump supported the war β after it happened . β
The Clinton campaign cited Trump β s interview on March 21 , 2003 , with Neil Cavuto of Fox Business just two days after the war started .
Cavuto asked Trump about the impact of the war on the stock market . Trump said the war β looks like a tremendous success from a military standpoint , β and he predicted the market will β go up like a rocket β after the war . But Cavuto does not ask Trump whether the U.S. should have gone to war with Iraq or whether he supports the war , and Trump doesn β t offer an opinion .
As early as July 2003 , Trump expressed concern on Hardball with Chris Matthews about money being spent in Iraq rather than in the U.S. Two months later , Trump told MSNBC β s Joe Scarborough , β I guess maybe if I had to do it , I would have fought terrorism but not necessarily Iraq . β
Clinton invited her audience to read Trump β s comments on the Iraq War . They can read our timeline , β Donald Trump and the Iraq War . β
Trump said President Obama set a β certain date β for withdrawing troops from Iraq , but that date was actually set by President George W. Bush .
NBC β s Matt Lauer asked Trump about his tendency to respond , when pushed for details on his military proposals , that he β s not going to give details because he wants to be β unpredictable. β Trump responded , β Absolutely , β and went on to criticize Obama for revealing the withdrawal date .
Trump : `` If I win , I don β t want to broadcast to the enemy exactly what my plan is . β¦ This is what Obama does β 'we β re going to leave Iraq on a certain date . ' ``
As we said then , Republicans and Democrats disagree on whether Obama or Bush is to blame for withdrawing all combat troops from Iraq at the end of 2011 . But that date was set when Bush signed the Status of Forces Agreement on Dec. 14 , 2008 . It said : β All the United States Forces shall withdraw from all Iraqi territory no later than December 31 , 2011 . β
In the NBC forum , Trump also called the withdrawal of troops β a terrible decision. β As we β ve explained before , Condoleezza Rice , Bush β s secretary of State , later wrote that Bush wanted an agreement for a residual force to remain , but Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki objected .
Once Obama took office in January 2009 , he had three years to renegotiate the deal , which his administration tried to do , to leave a residual American troop force . But Maliki still didn β t agree . Negotiations broke down in October 2011 over the issue of whether U.S. troops would be shielded from criminal prosecution by Iraqi authorities . Whether Obama did enough is a matter of opinion : His then defense secretary , Leon Panetta , later wrote that the president didn β t press hard enough for a deal . But some experts say Iraq was more closely aligned at the time with Iran and there wasn β t a deal to be made with Maliki .
So , both presidents had a role in the withdrawal of troops . But Trump wrongly said that Obama was the one who set a β certain date β for withdrawal and let U.S. enemies know about it , when that date was set before Obama was sworn in .
It β s worth noting that Trump said in a March 16 , 2007 , interview on CNN that the troops should be withdrawn quickly from Iraq .
Trump , March 16 , 2007 , on CNN : `` You know how they get out ? They get out . That β s how they get out . Declare victory and leave , because I β ll tell you , this country is just going to get further bogged down . β¦ And there β s nothing β by the way , we β re keeping the lid on a little bit but date we leave anyway it β s all going to blow up . β¦ So , I mean , this is a total catastrophe and you might as well get out now , because you just are wasting time . ''
Trump said that Obama β s visits to China , Saudi Arabia and Cuba were β the first time in the history , the storied history of Air Force One β when β high officials β of a host country did not appear to greet the president .
That β s not true . Other presidents have encountered similar low-key greetings on foreign trips aboard the presidential aircraft .
Trump referred to the fact that Cuba β s president , Raul Castro , did not greet Obama at the airport on his historic visit to Cuba in March , that Saudi Arabia β s King Salman did not meet Air Force One at the start of Obama β s trip to Riyadh in April , and he referred to China β s handling of the president β s arrival in Hangzhou last Saturday for a Group of 20 meeting .
Whether or not those arrivals constituted snubs of a U.S. president as Trump claims is a matter of debate . But Trump is wrong on the facts when he claims it has not happened before . It has .
In 1984 , for example , Ronald Reagan landed in Beijing and was received by China β s foreign minister rather than the president , whom he met only later . Similarly , on a 1985 trip to West Germany , Reagan was met by the foreign minister and not Chancellor Helmut Kohl .
These and other examples were dug up by our friend Glenn Kessler , the Washington Post β s β Fact Checker , β who researched a Trump claim in April that Cuba β s and Saudi Arabia β s handling of Obama β s visits were β without precedent. β Kessler said of Trump , β once again he β s wrong , wrong , wrong . β
Kessler also noted that during Richard Nixon β s historic 1972 visit to China he was greeted at the airport by the country β s number two man , Premier Zhou Enlai . His boss , Chairman Mao , didn β t even agree to meet with Nixon until after he had arrived at a guest house .
Clinton said that her plan to overhaul the Veterans Health Administration would not include privatization , which she said Trump supports .
Clinton : `` I will not let the VA be privatized . And I do think that there is an agenda out there β supported by my opponent β to do just that . I think that would be very disastrous for our military veterans . ''
But Trump refuted that statement when it was his turn to discuss his plan to help veterans . β I would not do that , β Trump said , referring to Clinton β s claim that he supports privatization .
Trump : `` And by the way , I never said take the VA , the Veterans Administration , private . I wouldn β t do that . Too much respect for our people . I heard it was said that I said that . I would not do that . But I do believe , I do believe , when you β re waiting in line for six , seven days , you should never be in a position like that . You go out , you see the doctor , you get yourself taken care of . ''
Trump β s campaign published β The Goals Of Donald J. Trump β s Veterans Plan β on its website last October . It doesn β t call for the VA to be completely privatized .
One of the biggest changes that plan would make to the current VA health care system is allowing veterans to get care at any non-VA medical center that accepts Medicare .
β Under a Trump Administration , all veterans eligible for VA health care can bring their veteran β s ID card to any doctor or care facility that accepts Medicare to get the care they need immediately , β the plan states .
β The power to choose will stop the wait time backlogs and force the VA to improve and compete if the department wants to keep receiving veterans β healthcare dollars , β the plan says .
Trump β s proposal would seemingly go further than the Non-VA Medical Care Program , which allows eligible veterans to access care outside of the VA under certain circumstances , such as when VA medical centers can not provide services . The program requires pre-approval for veterans to receive care at a non-VA facility in non-emergency situations .
Trump β s proposal would also go further than the bipartisan Veterans Choice Act of 2014 that President Obama signed into law , creating a temporary program , separate from the Non-VA Medical Care Program , that allows eligible veterans to receive health care at a non-VA facility if they would have to wait more than 30 days for an appointment at a VA medical center , or if they live more than 40 miles from the nearest VA hospital .
Trump stuck to the idea of allowing veterans to choose between public and private hospitals when he released his most recent β Ten Point Plan To Reform The VA β in July .
Point 10 of the plan says : β Mr . Trump will ensure every veteran has the choice to seek care at the VA or at a private service provider of their own choice . Under a Trump Administration , no veteran will die waiting for service . β
Trump reinforced that part of his plan during the NBC News forum as well .
Trump : `` Under a part of my plan , if they have that long wait , they walk outside , they go to the local doctor , they choose the doctor , they choose the hospital , whether it β s public or private , they get themselves better . ''
To be clear , Trump supports giving veterans a choice between VA hospitals and private ones . That β s not the same thing as supporting the complete privatization of the system that provides care to veterans .
Trump criticized Clinton for making β a terrible mistake on Libya β when she was secretary of State . But , at the time , Trump also supported U.S. action that led to the removal of Moammar Gadhafi from power .
Trump made his claim in response to a question posed by Lauer on whether Trump will be β prepared on Day One , β if elected president , to tackle β complex national security issues . β
Trump , Sept. 7 : `` One hundred percent . Hey , Matt , again , she made a mistake on Libya . She made a terrible mistake on Libya . And the next thing , I mean , not only did she make the mistake , but then they complicated the mistake by having no management once they bombed you know what out of Gadhafi . I mean , she made a terrible mistake on Libya . ''
This isn β t the first time Trump has ignored his past support for the U.S. intervention in Libya .
During the 10th GOP debate , Trump said he had β never discussed that subject β when Sen. Ted Cruz called him out on supporting U.S. action in the country . But , as we wrote , Trump said in 2011 that the U.S. should go into Libya β on a humanitarian basis β and β knock [ Gadhafi ] out very quickly , very surgically , very effectively and save the lives . β
Trump made that comment in a video posted to his YouTube channel in February 2011 :
Trump , Feb. 28 , 2011 : `` I can β t believe what our country is doing . Gadhafi , in Libya , is killing thousands of people . Nobody knows how bad it is and we β re sitting around . We have soldiers all over the Middle East and we β re not bringing them in to stop this horrible carnage . And that β s what it is , a carnage . β¦ Now we should go in . We should stop this guy which would be very easy and very quick . We could do it surgically , stop him from doing it and save these lives . This is absolute nuts . We don β t want to get involved and you β re going to end up with something like you β ve never seen before . Now , ultimately the people will appreciate it and they β re going to end up taking over the country eventually . But the people will appreciate it and they should pay us back . But we have to go in to save these lives . These people are being slaughtered like animals . β¦ We should do it on a humanitarian basis . Immediately go into Libya , knock this guy out very quickly , very surgically , very effectively and save the lives . ''
Even though Trump now says Clinton β s support for intervention in Libya was a β terrible mistake , β it doesn β t change the fact that five years ago he supported Gadhafi β s removal .
Trump twisted Clinton β s words when he claimed Clinton said β vets are being treated , essentially , just fine. β Clinton said the problems in the Department of Veterans Affairs were not as β widespread β as some Republican supporters of privatization of the VA claim , but she went on to acknowledge problems in the VA system β including the issue of wait times for doctors β and what she would do to address them .
Trump highlighted the issue of wait times to see a doctor as β one of the big problems β in the VA , and then suggested Clinton doesn β t think the VA has problems .
Trump : `` And by the way , Hillary Clinton six months ago said the vets are being treated , essentially , just fine , there β s no real problem , it β s over-exaggerated . ''
Lauer interrupted , noting that Clinton β went on after that and laid out a litany of problems within the VA . β
Trump insisted his version was accurate , adding , β I β m telling you β¦ she said she was satisfied with what was going on in the Veterans Administration . β
That β s not accurate . The comments in question from Clinton came during an interview with MSNBC β s Rachel Maddow on Oct. 23 , 2015 . Maddow asked about talk among some Republicans of abolishing the VA and privatizing it . β The reason they are able to propose something that radical is because the problems at the VA seem so intractable , β Maddow said .
Maddow asked if Clinton had any β new ideas for trying to fix β the VA . Here was Clinton β s response , with the part Trump is referring to in bold .
Clinton : `` Yeah , and I don β t understand that . You know , I don β t understand why we have such a problem , because there have been a number of surveys of veterans , and overall , veterans who do get treated are satisfied with their treatment . β¦ Now , nobody would believe that from the coverage that you see , and the constant berating of the VA that comes from the Republicans , in part in pursuit of this ideological agenda that they have . '' Maddow : `` But in part because there has been real scandal . '' Clinton : `` There has been . And β but it β s not been as widespread as it has been made out to be . `` Now , I do think that some of the reforms that were adopted last year should be given a chance to work . If there is a waiting period that is just unacceptable , you should be able to , in a sense , get the opportunity to go out , have a private physician take care of you , but at the cost of the VA. `` But I think it goes deeper than that , because if you look at not only VA health care , but the backlog on disability determinations , there β s something not working within the bureaucracy . And I have said I would like to literally appoint a SWAT team to bring in people and just tackle the disability , have an ongoing review of the care that is being given , do more to make sure that every VA hospital is delivering care to the highest standard of the community , because , unfortunately , some are doing a lot better job than others are . ''
Clinton accused Republicans of underfunding the VA because they β want it to fail β so they can privatize it .
Clinton added , β But we have to be more creative about trying to fix the problems that are the legitimate concern , so that we can try to stymie the Republican assault . β
Indeed , the Clinton campaign website states that Clinton wants to β fundamentally reform veterans β health care to ensure access to timely and high quality care. β The campaign says Clinton β was outraged by the recent scandals at the VA , and as president , she will demand accountability and performance from VA leadership. β The site specifically mentions Clinton β s dissatisfaction that β [ m ] any veterans have to wait an unacceptably long time to see a doctor or to process disability claims and appeals β and promises she will β [ b ] uild a 21st-century Department of Veterans Affairs to deliver world-class care . β
Trump cherry-picked the part of Clinton β s response that said problems in the VA have β not been as widespread as it has been made out to be , β to make the blanket claim that Clinton is β satisfied with what was going on in the Veterans Administration β and that β vets are being treated , essentially , just fine. β But Trump is leaving out the parts of Clinton β s answer that acknowledged problems in the VA β including the wait time issue Trump highlighted as one of his biggest concerns . | 25LvLlxBUnZpdg3L | 1 | Presidential Elections | -0.6 | Elections | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
politics | CNN (Web News) | https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/07/politics/trump-tax-returns-lawsuit/index.html | Judge dismisses Trump request to keep taxes secret in New York | 2019-10-07 | politics | New York ( CNN ) A federal judge on Monday dismissed President Donald Trump 's effort to prevent his tax returns from being turned over to a New York grand jury .
The ruling raises the likelihood that Trump 's tax returns will be provided in response to a subpoena from the Manhattan district attorney 's office , although any material obtained through a grand jury subpoena is covered by grand jury secrecy rules , meaning it would likely become public only if it were used as evidence at a trial .
Dismissing Trump 's `` extraordinary '' claim that any occupant of the White House enjoys `` absolute immunity from criminal process of any kind , '' US District Judge Victor Marrero said in a 75-page opinion that such a position `` would constitute an overreach of executive power . ''
The judge described Trump 's assertion of immunity as `` repugnant to the nation 's governmental structure and constitutional values . ''
An attorney for Trump filed an emergency notice of appeal to the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals minutes after the district judge filed his decision , and the appeals court immediately ordered a temporary stay of the subpoena .
`` The Radical Left Democrats have failed on all fronts , so now they are pushing local New York City and State Democrat prosecutors to go get President Trump . A thing like this has never happened to any President before . Not even close ! '' Trump tweeted
Trump attorney Jay Sekulow said his legal team was `` very pleased '' by the temporary stay issued by the appeals court .
The skirmish over the subpoena stems from an investigation by the district attorney 's office , which is examining the circumstances surrounding hush money paid during the 2016 presidential campaign to two women who alleged having affairs with Trump a decade ago . Trump has denied the affairs .
The investigation concerns whether the Trump Organization violated any New York state laws -- including potentially filing false business records -- in its effort to reimburse Michael Cohen , Trump 's former attorney , who paid some of the hush money on Trump 's behalf . Cohen is serving a prison sentence after pleading guilty in a federal case concerning the payments .
As part of its probe , the DA 's office sent Trump 's accounting firm , Mazars USA , a grand jury subpoena seeking tax returns and related documents going back to 2011 , and Trump subsequently sued to try to block it .
On Monday , following the ruling , a spokeswoman for the company said , `` Mazars USA will respect the legal process and fully comply with its legal obligations . ''
A spokesman for the district attorney 's office declined to comment .
In his opinion , Marrero allowed that some aspects of the criminal process could impede a President 's ability to perform his duties . `` Certainly lengthy imprisonment upon conviction would produce that result , '' he wrote .
But , Marrero added , `` that consequence would not necessarily follow every stage of every criminal proceeding , '' and in particular , he said , does n't extend to a president 's compliance with a grand jury subpoena for records the president controls .
The judge wrote that the issues at hand stretched back to questions addressed by the Founding Fathers .
`` Shunning the concept of the inviolability of the person of the King of England and the bounds of the monarch 's protective screen covering the Crown 's actions from legal scrutiny , the Founders disclaimed any notion that the Constitution generally conferred similarly all-encompassing immunity upon the President , '' Marrero wrote .
Courts have ruled that a president can be subjected to a civil suit concerning conduct that took place before he took office and must comply with subpoenas regarding third parties , Marrero pointed out . `` The notion of federal supremacy and presidential immunity from judicial process that the President here invokes , unqualified and boundless in its reach as described above , cuts across the grain of these constitutional precedents , '' he wrote .
Marrero also rejected other arguments made by Trump 's counsel , including that the lawsuit should be considered in federal court , rather than state . `` The President provides no compelling proof that New York courts could fail to adequately adjudicate his immunity claim , relying instead on the unsubstantiated allegation that he would risk 'local prejudice , ' `` the opinion states .
`` [ T ] he President 's prophecies that he will be indicted and denied due process in state proceedings are , at best , speculative and unripe , '' he wrote .
And in a 30-page section of the opinion that could have implications beyond Trump 's lawsuit , Marrero repudiated the conclusions of a set of Justice Department memos that held the President ca n't be indicted or criminally prosecuted , documents that prosecutors including special counsel Robert Mueller have said prevented them from pursuing cases against the President .
`` [ T ] he Court rejects the DOJ Memos ' position , '' Marrero wrote . `` It concludes that better-calibrated alternatives to absolute presidential immunity exist yielding a more appropriate balance between , on the one hand , the burdens that subjecting the President to criminal proceedings would impose on his ability to perform constitutional duties , and , on the other , the need to promote the courts ' legitimate interests and functions in ensuring effective law enforcement attendant to the proper and fair administration of justice . ''
He cautioned that preventing the pursuit of criminal justice in the face of an assertion of immunity `` should be an absolutely last resort . ''
`` It should be justified by exacting reasons of momentous public interest such as national security , and be reviewable by a court of law , '' Marrero wrote . `` Above all , its effective should be not to shield the President from all legal process , especially in circumstances where it may appear that a claim of generalized immunity is invoked more on personal than on official grounds , and work to place the President above the law . ''
The ruling is also a setback for the US Justice Department , which had asked last week to temporarily block the subpoena , to allow time for `` appropriate briefing of the weighty constitutional issues involved . ''
`` The President 's complaint raises a number of significant constitutional issues that potentially implicate important interests of the United States , '' Justice Department officials wrote in a court filing .
On Monday , Justice Department attorneys said they would participate in Trump 's appeal , saying they would serve as amicus counsel in support of him . | 7MRS9LywELoQXjak | 0 | Trump Tax Returns | -0.8 | Politics | -0.8 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
us_military | CNN (Web News) | http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/03/politics/bowe-bergdahl-release/index.html?hpt=po_t1 | Obama defends prisoner exchange for Bergdahl | 2014-06-03 | us_military | Story highlights Official : Intel indicated Bergdahl 's location a few times , but it was too risky to get him
Bergdahl was freed in exchange for 5 held at Guantanamo , who are moved to Qatar
Official : Bergdahl left on his own but no definitive finding he deserted , probe finds
Some hail the American soldier 's release , while others criticize the move
The Army will conduct `` a comprehensive , coordinated '' review into the case of Sgt . Bowe Bergdahl -- the recently freed soldier whom some have deemed a hero , others a deserter -- the military branch 's civilian leader announced Tuesday .
Secretary of the Army John McHugh began a statement on Bergdahl 's case by saying that `` we are grateful that an American soldier is back in American hands '' and insisting `` our first priority is ensuring Sgt . Bergdahl 's health and beginning his reintegration process . ''
McHugh did n't address specific questions surrounding how the soldier ended up detained in Afghanistan or what he did while in that situation . But he did say that the military 's review `` will include speaking with Sgt . Bergdahl to better learn from him the circumstances regarding his disappearance and captivity . ''
`` All other decisions will be made thereafter , and in accordance with appropriate regulations , policies and practices , '' McHugh said .
Authorities have n't given any indication that such a decision is coming anytime soon .
JUST WATCHED Why did Bergdahl leave his outpost ? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Why did Bergdahl leave his outpost ? 02:36
JUST WATCHED President Obama defends Bergdahl rescue Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH President Obama defends Bergdahl rescue 02:03
JUST WATCHED Carney defends Bergdahl prisoner swap Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Carney defends Bergdahl prisoner swap 02:45
Speaking Tuesday in Warsaw , Poland , President Barack Obama said that Bergdahl had not then been interrogated by U.S. officials because he is still undergoing medical care . Nor had he met yet with his family , according to the President .
Bergdahl -- who was released by his Taliban captors in exchange for five prisoners held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay , Cuba -- is at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany . The five prisoners headed to Qatar as part of the exchange .
Bergdahl will remain at that U.S. Army medical center in Germany until he completes treatment , a U.S. defense official there told CNN . After that , Bergdahl will return to the United States and go to a San Antonio military base , the official said .
In his statement Tuesday , McHugh suggested Bergdahl 's medical treatment will be a driving force in what happens next and when it does .
`` There is no timeline for this , and we will take as long as medically necessary to aid his recovery , '' McHugh said .
The release of Bergdahl , the last American soldier held captive from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts , spurred celebration in many circles .
But others challenged the move -- including some critical because he was let go in exchange for Guantanamo detainees , plus many of those who served with Bergdahl who characterized him as a deserter whose `` selfish act '' ended up costing others ' lives .
According to firsthand accounts from soldiers in his platoon , Bergdahl -- sometime before he was set to go on guard duty -- shed his weapons and walked off an observation post with nothing more than a compass , a knife , water , a digital camera and a diary .
The team leader , Evan Buetow , recalled to CNN 's Jake Tapper that Bergdahl `` did not agree with the war effort in Afghanistan '' and had said various things that , in retrospect , led him to believe the soldier had `` walked away . ''
`` It was a gut feeling I had , '' Buetow said Tuesday . `` ... When he comes up missing and all of his sensitive items are left behind , it just kind of hit us in the head . ''
At least six soldiers were killed in subsequent searches for Bergdahl , according to soldiers involved in operations to find him . The Pentagon was not able to provide details on specific operations in which any soldiers killed during that time were involved .
Also , many soldiers in Bergdahl 's platoon said attacks seemed to increase against the United States in Paktika province in the days and weeks following his disappearance .
Buetow conceded that he and others may never know if this violence was coincidental or if Bergdahl gave his captors information voluntarily or after being tortured . Yet he found it `` incredibly suspicious '' that attacks after Bergdahl disappeared seemed to become `` far more directed . ''
As to those U.S. soldiers who died , Buetow said , `` Those soldiers would not be on those patrols , in those specific areas when they were killed , unless Bergdahl left . And that 's a fact to me . ''
All this said , the exact circumstances of his disappearance are very uncertain .
Published accounts have varied widely , from claims that he walked off the post to claims that he was grabbed from a latrine .
Noting everything that he left behind , an Army fact-finding investigation conducted in the months after his 2009 disappearance concluded that Bergdahl left his outpost deliberately and on his own free will , according to a U.S. military official briefed on the report . The official spoke to CNN Tuesday on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the information .
There was no definitive finding Bergdahl deserted because that would require knowing his intent -- something Army officials could n't do without talking to the soldier . The investigation included interviews with members of Bergdahl 's unit , none of whom reported seeing him go , the official said .
In 2012 , Rolling Stone reported that Bergdahl 's unit had discipline and other issues during its time in Afghanistan .
Addressing the matter Tuesday , Obama stressed that we `` we do n't leave men and women in uniform behind '' and insisted prisoner swaps `` happen ... at the end of wars . ''
`` Whatever the circumstances may turn out to be , we still get an American soldier back if he is held in captivity . Period . Full stop , '' Obama said . `` We do n't condition that . ''
Intelligence indicated where Bergdahl was being held a couple of times during his five years in captivity , a U.S. official said . But any mission to get him was deemed too risky -- especially for Berghdal .
JUST WATCHED Team leader : Bergdahl 'not a hero ' Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Team leader : Bergdahl 'not a hero ' 02:51
JUST WATCHED Obama defends Bowe Bergdahl swap Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Obama defends Bowe Bergdahl swap 03:25
JUST WATCHED Cupp : Bergdahl abandoned his unit Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Cupp : Bergdahl abandoned his unit 03:54
JUST WATCHED Hagel : 'Unfair ' to judge Bergdahl Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Hagel : 'Unfair ' to judge Bergdahl 00:59
JUST WATCHED Bergdahl 's squad leader : He deserted us Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Bergdahl 's squad leader : He deserted us 02:18
Instead , the United States worked through a third party to arrange a prisoner swap . The five Taliban prisoners freed from U.S. custody were transferred to Qatar , where Obama said he 's confident they wo n't endanger the United States on the battlefield or elsewhere .
Several factors help mitigate the risk of the exchange , two senior U.S. officials said . They include :
β’ They 've been in Guantanamo for a long time and therefore likely do n't have networks as extensive as they once had ;
β’ Most U.S. troops will out of Afghanistan in a year ;
β’ Personal assurances from Qatar 's emir to closely monitor them .
The detainees wo n't be under house arrest , yet one U.S. official says , `` We think the Qataris are going to keep a very , very close eye on them . ''
Asked about why Congress was n't consulted about the exchange , the President said that over the years , the White House had talked with Congress about the possible need for such an exchange , and that officials had to move quickly when the opportunity arose .
`` This was likely the last , best opportunity to free him , '' White House spokesman Jay Carney told CNN 's Wolf Blitzer , adding that `` we did the right thing '' in negotiating a deal much like `` we exchanged prisoners '' with the Germans and Japanese after World War II .
As to Bergdahl , he is in stable condition at Landstuhl for treatment of conditions related to five years of captivity , the hospital said Tuesday . Citing privacy laws , the medical center did not provide specifics about his medical condition .
He is undergoing a period of `` reintegration '' that includes decompression and help from doctors , security officers , lawyers , chaplains , his family and more , the hospital said .
`` The goal is to return him to family and society and on the path to complete recovery , '' the medical center said , adding that there is no timeline for the recovery process .
McHugh 's comments Tuesday followed those of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey , who stressed that questions of Bergdahl 's conduct is separate from the effort to recover any missing U.S. soldier .
`` As for the circumstances of his capture , when he is able to provide them , we 'll learn the facts , '' Dempsey said . `` Like any American , he is innocent until proven guilty . ''
He added : `` Our Army 's leaders will not look away from misconduct if it occurred . '' | UuGWBQmp6NzkNzz4 | 0 | US Military | 0.4 | Defense And Security | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
world | The Guardian | https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/15/polish-czech-and-slovenian-prime-ministers-travel-to-kyiv-ukraine | Polish, Czech and Slovenian prime ministers travel to Kyiv | 2022-03-15 | World, Ukraine, Ukraine War, European Union | Leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia express βunequivocal supportβ for Ukraine after making perilous journey by train to meet Zelenskiy Volodymyr Zelenskiy told reporters βwith allies like this we will win this warβ after the prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia made a perilous train journey to Kyiv to offer their support. In a press conference after the meeting Czech prime minister Petr Fiala told Ukrainians βEurope stands with youβ. βThe main goal of our visit and the main message of our mission is to say to our Ukrainian friends that they are not alone,β he said. The leader of Polandβs ruling party said an international peacekeeping mission should be sent to operate in Ukraine. βI think that it is necessary to have a peace mission - Nato, possibly some wider international structure - but a mission that will be able to defend itself, which will operate on Ukrainian territory,β Jaroslaw Kaczynski said during the conference, which was broadcast on Polish television. βIt will be a mission that will strive for peace, to give humanitarian aid, but at the same time it will also be protected by appropriate forces, armed forces,β he said. The comments followed an extraordinary meeting with the three EU leaders in a capital which is close to being encircled by Russian forces. They are the first western visitors to Kyiv since the war began two weeks ago. In footage of the meeting posted on social media, Zelenskiy was heard briefing the EU leaders on the latest military and humanitarian situation and the negotiations with Russia. βThey are shelling everywhere,β Zelenskiy is heard telling them. βNot only Kyiv but also the western areas.β He also informed the Czech, Polish and Slovenian prime ministers, Fiala, Mateusz Morawiecki and Janez JanΕ‘a, that three Chechen brigades had been identified among the Russian forces. Zelenskiy expressed gratitude for their visit, calling it a βpowerful testimony of supportβ. On arrival in Kyiv, after a three-hour journey, a photograph of the three leaders and KaczyΕski, who had accompanied them, was published of them studying a map of Ukraine in a wood-panelled room on a train. Morawiecki tweeted: βIt is here, in war-torn Kyiv, that history is being made. It is here, that freedom fights against the world of tyranny. It is here that the future of us all hangs in the balance. EU supports Ukraine, which can count on the help of its friends β we brought this message to Kyiv today.β Fiala tweeted: βThe aim of the visit is to express the European Unionβs unequivocal support for Ukraine and its freedom and independence. βAt the same time, we will present a broad package of support for Ukraine and its citizens during the visit. The international community has also been informed of this visit by international organisations, including the United Nations.β In statements from their respective capitals ahead of the meeting with Zelenskiy, it was said that they would be offering their support to Ukraineβs president as representatives of the other 24 EU heads of state and government. JanΕ‘a tweeted: βEurope must guarantee Ukraineβs independence and ensure that it is ready to help in Ukraineβs reconstruction.β The visit came as the emergency services in Kyiv said at least five further people had been killed due to shelling in the capital, including on a 15-storey apartment building shortly before dawn on Tuesday. A downtown subway station that had been used as a bomb shelter was also damaged. City authorities tweeted an image of its blown-out facade. Kyiv has been spared the worst of the fighting since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February but the Russian military has been gradually encircling the capital. The Polish government said the visit by the three EU leaders to Ukraine and its capital was made in agreement with the presidents of the European Commission and Council, Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel. The leaders were in Kyiv, the statement had said, as βrepresentatives of the European Councilβ. βThe purpose of the visit is to confirm the unequivocal support of the entire European Union for the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine and to present a broad package of support for the Ukrainian state and society,β the Polish governmentβs statement said. But EU officials in Brussels said there was some nervousness about the visit and diplomats for some capitals said they had not been notified until minutes before the trip was announced. The meeting came as MPs from across the continent voted to expel Russia from the Council of Europe, the continentβs leading human rights organisation, over the invasion of Ukraine in a further sign of the Kremlinβs estrangement from the western democratic order. The vote has huge symbolic value, although it became something of a formality, after Russia announced earlier on Tuesday that it was quitting, effectively jumping before it was pushed. MPs from the Council of Europeβs 46 other member countries voted for a resolution that said: βIn the common European home, there is no place for an aggressor.β The EU member states also formally agreed on a fourth sanctions package on Tuesday morning, including an asset freeze and travel ban on the Chelsea football club owner, Roman Abramovich. He is described in the EUβs legal text as βa Russian oligarch who has long and close ties to Vladimir Putinβ. βHe has had privileged access to the president, and has maintained very good relations with him,β the text adds. βThis connection with the Russian leader helped him to maintain his considerable wealth. βHe is a major shareholder of the steel group Evraz, which is one of Russiaβs largest taxpayers.β | 3c506005abe8bad3 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
supreme_court | Reuters | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-jury/u-s-supreme-court-requires-unanimous-jury-verdicts-for-serious-crimes-idUSKBN2221YS | U.S. Supreme Court requires unanimous jury verdicts for serious crimes | 2020-04-21 | Justice, US Constitution, Supreme Court | WASHINGTON ( βββ ) - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the constitutional guarantee of trial by jury requires a unanimous verdict for serious crimes , siding with a Louisiana man convicted of murder and paving the way for potentially hundreds of defendants found guilty by divided juries to receive new trials .
Only two of the 50 states , Louisiana and Oregon , have permitted non-unanimous verdicts . Writing for the court in the 6-3 ruling , conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch noted that the non-unanimous verdict requirement in both states traced back to past racist policies intended to reduce the power of non-white jurors to influence the outcome of trials .
The ruling , overturning a 1972 Supreme Court precedent , means that Evangelisto Ramos , who was convicted by a 12-member jury on a 10-2 vote , is likely to get a new trial . Ramos , found guilty in the 2014 New Orleans murder of a woman named Trinece Fedison whose body was found in a trash can , was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole .
The justices concluded that the U.S. Constitution β s Sixth Amendment , which guarantees the right to an impartial trial , requires that jurors be unanimous to convict in serious criminal cases . Gorsuch noted that historically some minor crimes do not require a jury trial .
Louisiana updated its law to prohibit non-unanimous verdicts starting last year but that change did not apply retroactively .
The ruling could benefit hundreds of inmates convicted with non-unanimous verdicts in Louisiana and Oregon by leading to new trials .
β We are heartened that the court has held , once and for all , that the promise of the Sixth Amendment fully applies in Louisiana , rejecting any concept of second-class justice , β said Ben Cohen , a lawyer for Ramos .
The office of Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said in a statement that the state β s priorities have not changed as a result of the ruling .
β Our law has since been changed and the Supreme Court has now issued this new ruling , yet our focus remains the same : to uphold the rule of law and protect victims of crime , β the statement said .
Gorsuch said there is evidence that when the Sixth Amendment was enacted , it was assumed there must be a unanimous verdict .
β This court has repeatedly and over many years recognized that the Sixth Amendment requires unanimity , β Gorsuch wrote .
Two other conservative justices , Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh , joined Gorsuch and three liberal justices - Ruth Bader Ginsburg , Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor - in the majority .
A 1972 Supreme Court ruling that state court juries did not have to be unanimous drove the divisions among the justices in the case . The majority voted to overrule that precedent , but the three dissenting justices said there was not a compelling reason to overturn it .
Writing in dissent , conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the ruling β imposes a potentially crushing burden on the courts and criminal justice systems β in Louisiana and Oregon .
Liberal Justice Elena Kagan and conservative Chief Justice John Roberts also were in dissent .
How the court addresses overturning its own precedents is a topic of contention , with high stakes for abortion rights .
Abortion rights activists fear that the court β s 5-4 conservative majority may seek to undermine or overturn its landmark 1973 ruling that legalized the procedure nationwide . The court is currently weighing a challenge to Louisiana abortion restrictions that could indicate which way it is heading , with a ruling due by the end of June . | 56e4be38168d0bc8 | 1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
foreign_policy | CNN (Web News) | http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/22/world/meast/mideast-obama-trip/index.html | Obama gets diplomatic coup before heading to refugee-flooded Jordan | 2013-03-22 | foreign_policy | Story highlights Obama takes a cultural tour of an ancient city before returning to Washington
In a last-minute move , Netanyahu calls Turkey to make an apology -- on Obama 's initiative
Jordan has 460,000 Syrian refugees with more coming , King Abdullah says
U.S. President Barack Obama wraps up his trip to the Middle East on Saturday with a walking tour of the ancient city of Petra in Jordan .
The city 's breathtaking architecture features buildings partly carved into stone cliffs and combines eastern culture with ancient Greek constructions . It is a UNESCO world heritage site
Shortly after a stroll through arid the landscape renowned for its colorful interplay of light and shadow , the president will return to Washington , DC .
Just before departing for Jordan on Friday , Obama scored a diplomatic coup when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to Turkey for a 2010 commando raid that killed nine activists on a Turkish vessel in a Gaza-bound flotilla .
The apology , long sought by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan , eased strained feelings between Turkey and Israel , two vital U.S. allies in the Middle East .
It happened in a phone call to Erdogan during a final meeting between Obama and Netanyahu at an international airport in Tel Aviv , minutes before Air Force One departed for Jordan to complete the president 's Middle East swing .
Obama hailed the development as an important step forward for both countries .
Friday in Jordan , Obama focused on the civil war in neighboring Syria , with King Abdullah telling reporters that the conflict has caused 460,000 refugees to flood his country and more were on the way .
That equals 10 % of Jordan 's population , and the total could double by the end of the year , the king said in asking for more help from the international community as his country also deals with internal reforms in response to economic woes that are raising public dissatisfaction .
Obama said he was working with Congress to provide an additional $ 200 million to Jordan this year to help deal with the refugee influx , but he remained steadfast in his refusal to pledge U.S. military assistance to the Syrian opposition movement .
However , Obama repeated past warnings that his stance on military involvement could change if the Syria uses chemical weapons .
Jordan is suffering from refugee fatigue . Masses of people have fled there for from neighboring countries whenever conflict was rife . The Syrian conflict comes on top of the flood of refugees that came from Iraq just a decade ago .
The country is a close U.S. ally and has been one of the most stable in the region , but it has seen recent internal turmoil and discontent .
King Abdullah has a reputation for benevolence , unlike autocratic rulers such as Syria 's Bashar al-Assad or deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein . One house of the Jordanian parliament is democratically elected .
However , a bad economy and allegations of corruption by public officials have stoked dissatisfaction with him .
In November , crowds took to the streets calling for King Abdullah 's downfall because of rising gasoline prices .
More recently , comments attributed to King Abdullah in the The Atlantic caused further anger toward the king , who was quoted as calling the opposition Muslim Brotherhood a `` Masonic cult '' and referring to tribal elders in his country as `` old dinosaurs . ''
The royal court says some of King Abdullah 's comments in the Atlantic Magazine article were taken out of context by local Jordanian and international media outlets who reported on the article .
In Israel , the last-minute diplomacy added a flourish to Obama 's first visit to the Jewish state as president .
While the two nations have a key strategic partnership , with the United States supplying military aid and diplomatic support as Israel 's most vital ally , Obama and Netanyahu had famously frosty relations during the president 's first term .
With both beginning new terms after Obama 's re-election last year and Netanyahu 's recent formation of a new government , the president 's visit was an opportunity to reset the relationship and signal unified positions on major issues such as the Middle East peace process and Iran 's efforts to develop a nuclear weapon .
Obama and Netanyahu met several times during the president 's three days in Israel , which also included a state dinner where Israeli President Shimon Peres awarded him the country 's highest civilian honor .
Before leaving Israel , Obama paid tribute to the father of modern Zionism in a symbolic visit to Theodor Herzl 's grave .
Joined by Peres , Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry , Obama also visited the grave of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin , who was assassinated in 1995 .
Obama placed a stone at each grave from the grounds of the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington in a gesture to link the African-American struggle for freedom with the struggle by the Israeli people for a homeland .
The president also visited the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem , where he turned up the `` eternal flame '' of remembrance of the millions of Jewish victims of Nazi death camps in World War II .
JUST WATCHED President Obama in the West Bank Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH President Obama in the West Bank 02:18
In Israel , Obama urged young Israelis in a speech to pressure their leaders to seek peace with Palestinians .
He asked Israelis to empathize with the plight of Palestinians , and he drew applause when he criticized the Israeli government 's controversial policy of building new settlements in disputed territories .
During a visit with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah , the West Bank , Obama stressed the need for direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians for a two-state solution .
`` The Palestinian people deserve an end to occupation and the daily indignities that come with it , '' he said at a news conference with Abbas , adding that Palestinians deserve `` a future of hope '' and a `` state of their own . ''
Abbas said the Israeli settlements are `` more than a hurdle to peace , '' calling them illegal and saying it was Israel 's duty to stop building them .
He envisioned a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders with Jerusalem as capital -- a scenario unacceptable to Israel . | mPmymzOXjWVpJk07 | 0 | Foreign Policy | 1.1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
white_house | CNN (Web News) | http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/21/politics/obama-to-do-everything-i-can-to-close-gitmo/index.html?hpt=po_c1 | Obama to do 'everything I can' to close Gitmo | 2014-12-21 | White House, Barack Obama, Guantanamo, Politics | Story highlights President Obama promised during his campaign in 2008 to close the military prison in Cuba
But he has been unable to deliver in the face of opposition on Capitol Hill
He said he still hopes to fulfill one of his first promises as president
President Barack Obama says he plans to push to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility during his final two years in office -- potentially fulfilling a major campaign promise that he has n't yet accomplished .
`` I 'm going to be doing everything I can to close it , '' Obama said in an interview with CNN 's Candy Crowley that aired Sunday on `` State of the Union . ''
`` It is something that continues to inspire jihadists and extremists around the world , the fact that these folks are being held , '' Obama said . `` It is contrary to our values . ''
JUST WATCHED Obama : We 're not going to be intimidated Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Obama : We 're not going to be intimidated 01:02
JUST WATCHED Obama : I 'm not being `` rolled '' by Putin Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Obama : I 'm not being `` rolled '' by Putin 01:37
The President 's comments follow a flurry of executive action at the start of what he called his `` fourth quarter '' in the Oval Office -- after Republicans walloped Democrats in November 's midterm elections , taking control of both houses of Congress .
After the election , Obama quickly announced an overhaul of U.S. immigration rules and new regulations aimed at curbing environmentally-harmful emissions . He followed those moves this week with a deal that represented the biggest steps to thaw the economic freeze with Cuba in decades .
The Guantanamo Bay , Cuba detention facility -- which Obama pledged to shut down as part of his 2008 campaign , but saw his plans thwarted when Congress passed a law prohibiting him from doing so -- could be another target ripe for executive action .
Obama has transferred many of the detainees housed at that facility to other countries in recent months , and said Friday he 'll continue trying to do that , since Congress wo n't allow him to shift those detainees into federal Supermax facilities within the United States .
`` We are going to continue to place those who have been cleared for release or transfer to host countries that are willing to take them , '' Obama told Crowley .
The toughest challenge , he said , is dealing with `` some really hard cases '' in which `` we know they 've done something wrong and are still dangerous . ''
Still , Obama said , he wants to shut the facility down . `` I think that it does not make sense for us to spend millions of dollars per individual when we have a way of solving this problem that 's more consistent with our values , '' he said . | 1d487cac8c281aa5 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
economy_and_jobs | Washington Examiner | https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/new-jobless-claims-fall-to-881-000-last-week | New jobless claims fall to lowest level since mid-March | 2020-09-03 | Jobless Claims, Unemployment Benefits, Labor Department, Economy And Jobs | The number of new applications for unemployment benefits dipped to 881,000 last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday in an encouraging sign for the economy. Forecasters had projected 950,000 new jobless claims. Instead, claims fell to the lowest level since mid-March, before the pandemic induced mass layoffs. The drop hints at a slowdown in layoffs, which would be good news for the reeling labor market. But it also could be an artifact of changes the Labor Department made to its calculation of jobless claims. The agency employed a new methodology for adjusting for seasonal changes in employment, such as teachers returning to work or students quitting their jobs to return to school. The extreme rise in jobless claims caused by the pandemic made such adjustments difficult. We won't sell or share your personal information to inform the ads you see. You may still see interest-based ads if your information is sold or shared by other companies or was sold or shared previously. Dismiss Opt out | af3e3c31aaecb3ad | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
civil_rights | Christian Science Monitor | http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2015/0408/After-S.C.-police-shooting-a-radically-different-response-video | After S.C. police shooting, a radically different response | 2015-04-08 | civil_rights | This time , the fatal shooting of an apparently unarmed black man by a white police officer resulted in something different : a swift , decisive , and broad-based consensus that the officer should be charged with murder .
A bystander video that surfaced Tuesday appears to show Patrolman 1st Class Michael Slager of North Charleston , S.C. , shooting Walter Scott in the back after a routine traffic stop on Saturday . Mr. Scott was attempting to flee .
Certainly , the compelling nature of the video evidence led to Mr. Slager being arrested , quickly charged by prosecutors , and then fired from the force .
But the reaction by local authorities also hints at how much has changed in the seven months since a white police officer fatally shot a black teenager in the streets of Ferguson , Mo .
There was no attempt to close ranks around the officer . Instead , the mayor and police chief visited the victim β s family on Wednesday morning and announced they would provide a police escort for Scott β s funeral . The mayor also issued an executive order that all the city β s police officers must start wearing body cameras .
Slowly , and perhaps inconsistently , the wide latitude that society has long given police officers who say their lives are in danger is beginning to change .
The victim β s father said on NBC β s β Today β show Wednesday that without the bystander video , β It would have never come to light . They would have swept it right under the rug , like they did with many others . β
But the existence of the video , along with the momentum for reform spawned by a half-dozen other recent incidents from Los Angeles to Madison , Wis. , β some with videos of their own β is threatening the traditional deference given to police .
β There is β and police departments are starting to know this β there is a crisis of legitimacy , β says Jeannine Bell , a professor at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law who studies policing and hate crimes . β And this crisis does not help the difficult job that police officers already have of fighting crime and protecting citizens β it absolutely does not . β
For the most part , the majority of white Americans have long given police the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the use of force . Combining data from 2011 to 2014 , for example , a Gallup study last August found that nearly 60 percent of whites had β a great deal or quite a lot of confidence β in police departments , ranking them just below the military and small businesses as the nation β s most trusted institutions . By contrast , only 37 percent of blacks expressed such confidence β a fact well known even before the incidents in Ferguson and New York .
Charging a police officer with murder remains extremely rare . During the past five years , police in South Carolina have shot at 209 suspects , killing 79 , according to a report in The State . Only three officers were accused of wrongdoing in these shootings , however , and none of them was convicted . Indeed , such numbers reflect the same picture from jurisdictions around the country , in which police officers are rarely charged when accused of misconduct .
The police killings during the past year have shed light on a system , including grand jury procedures , that is run by police and prosecutors who work closely together on a day-to-day basis β a fraternity , one former prosecutor told the Monitor last year , that creates a β challenging environment for a prosecutor to seek an indictment , let alone a conviction , of a police officer . β
It is this situation that is coming under such intense scrutiny now .
β There is no question that people β s attitudes will continue to change with respect to police agencies and the presumed honesty of police officers , especially if laws do n't change , β says Martin Lijtmaer , a criminal defense attorney in Los Angeles , via e-mail . β Existing laws foster a culture of secrecy . β
He notes that in California , defense attorneys have to overcome substantial hurdles to get a court to order the disclosure of misconduct complaints against police officers . β Even then , β he says , β the information one gets is limited and subject to burdensome protective orders which prevent wider disclosure . β
Scathing reports this year by the Justice Department on the behavior and culture of several police departments and criminal justice systems have only added to the pressure .
β The bottom line is , these incidents are a wake-up call , not just for law enforcement , but the community as well , β says Tod Burke , professor of criminal justice at Radford University in Virginia .
A former Maryland police officer , Dr. Burke emphasizes the need for officer support , even in the face of public outcry .
β But if the officer is in the wrong , the police agency needs to be the first to recognize it , β he says . β It shouldn β t take the public going , β Hey , your officers are messing up. β It should be , β We β re messing up , and we need to correct it . β β | aap7SALCXuO1i5fH | 1 | Civil Rights | -0.1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
politics | CNN - Editorial | https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/16/politics/donald-trump-james-comey-moral/index.html | OPINION: Trump now faces Comey's moral assault | 2018-04-16 | politics | Washington ( CNN ) James Comey , anointing himself as America 's moral conscience , called on the nation to recognize that Donald Trump 's actions add up to an immoral , malignant presidency that insults core democratic values .
Comey set up an unprecedented public challenge from someone of his stature to a sitting commander in chief , framing the most penetrating critique of Trump 's White House yet from an establishment figure .
`` The foundation of this country is in jeopardy when we stop measuring our leaders against that central value of the truth , '' Comey said in an exclusive interview with ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos .
His indictment came at the start of a media blitz to promote his book `` A Higher Loyalty , '' publishing Tuesday -- 11 months after he was fired . The action sparked claims the President was trying to obstruct justice over the Russia probe and led to the appointment of a special counsel .
The former FBI director 's appearance threw into focus questions that will be at play over the next 10 days : Which version of events will Americans find most credible -- that of the former FBI director or the man who fired him ? Will Comey 's healthy sense of his own ego and place in history serve to alienate any undecided Americans rather than convince them of his arguments about Trump ?
And -- ultimately -- will there be a political price to pay for the President ?
The media buzz around the interview and its Washington reverberations could also carry consequences . The New York Times published a full-page op-ed reminding the President he 's not above the law , a reminder of how real fears of a systemic political crisis in the event Trump attempts to fire special counsel Robert Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein , who is overseeing his probe .
Another issue is whether Comey 's critique about the President can penetrate the permanent storm that whirls around Trump and fundamentally reshape already polarized opinion about the President 's behavior .
recent ABC News poll showed that Americans found Comey more believable than Trump , by a margin of 48 % to 32 % . If the fierce campaign by Trump world to discredit the former FBI director 's book fails to shift that number , it could suggest that the President is in for lasting political damage .
But it 's not as if Comey 's view of the President represents a sudden shock to the electorate . For example , his descriptions of a President prone to lying are borne out by the facts of the last 15 months . The picture he paints of an almost feudal patriarchy presided over by Trump appears to be validated by the way the President casually fires aides on Twitter and undermines his top aides .
Still , most criticisms of the President by elites like Comey merely serve to solidify the views of his supporters that he is being unfairly maligned .
Comey called for a national moment of reflection , in which everybody , regardless of partisan views , to evaluate the President and to consider whether he presents a threat to America itself .
The simplicity of that challenge seemed an attempt to cut through the chaos , recriminations , wild mood swings and political meltdowns of the last 15 months , in which perspective has often been the victim of the next outrage .
Comey discounted previous theories by some Trump critics that the President is incapable or not mentally up to the job , arguing that what he sees as an ego-driven presidency based on lies , demands for loyalty from subordinates and calculated deceit is no accident .
`` He strikes me as a person of above average intelligence who 's tracking conversations and knows what 's going on . I do n't think he 's medically unfit to be president . I think he 's morally unfit to be president , '' Comey said .
`` A person who sees moral equivalence in Charlottesville , who talks about and treats women like they 're pieces of meat , who lies constantly about matters big and small and insists the American people believe it , that person 's not fit to be president of the United States , on moral grounds , '' Comey said .
Comey stressed that he was not making a political point , saying he did not care what people thought about hot button issues like guns or immigration .
`` There 's something more important than that that should unite all of us , and that is our president must embody respect and adhere to the values that are at the core of this country . The most important being truth , '' he said . `` This president is not able to do that . He is morally unfit to be president . ''
Comey 's deliberative , forensic manner contrasted to the emotional , angry tirades in which his nemesis , Trump , prefers to communicate was on display on another extraordinary day in the melodrama of the current presidency .
`` Slippery James Comey , a man who always ends up badly and out of whack ( he is not smart ! ) , will go down as the WORST FBI Director in history , by far ! '' Trump wrote on Twitter Sunday .
Slippery James Comey , a man who always ends up badly and out of whack ( he is not smart ! ) , will go down as the WORST FBI Director in history , by far ! β Donald J. Trump ( @ realDonaldTrump ) April 15 , 2018
Comey 's interview also laid bare the most fundamental clash between him and the President . The former FBI director is a man who reveres the institutions of justice and government . Trump has shown by his behavior and public comments -- for instance by bemoaning how he ca n't control the Justice Department -- that he sees them as symptoms of a corrupt establishment .
Even so , Comey said his preferred solution to the Trump presidency would not be impeachment , but a rejection by voters .
`` I think impeaching and removing Donald Trump from office would let the American people off the hook and have something happen indirectly that I believe they 're duty bound to do directly , '' Comey said . `` People in this country need to stand up and go to the voting booth and vote their values . ''
The interview did not appear to contain any significant new information relevant to the questions at the center of Mueller 's investigation over alleged collusion between Trump 's 2016 campaign and Russia and whether the President obstruct justice .
But Comey also would not rule out the possibility that Trump was compromised by a Russian intelligence operation .
`` It is stunning and I wish I was n't saying it , but it 's just -- it 's the truth . I can not say that . It always struck me and still strikes me as unlikely , and I would have been able to say with high confidence about any other President I dealt with , '' Comey said . `` But I ca n't , it 's possible . ''
He went a step further in an interview with USA Today that was released shortly after the ABC sitdown aired .
`` There 's a non-zero possibility that the Russians have some , some sway over him that is rooted in his personal experience , and I do n't know whether that 's the business about the activity in a Moscow hotel room or finances or something else , '' he said .
The hotel room reference was apparently in regard to a claim that Russian authorities recorded Trump watching prostitutes urinate in a hotel suite . The allegation was included in a dossier -- portions of which remain unconfirmed -- that was commissioned as opposition research during the 2016 election and compiled by a former British intelligence agent , Christopher Steele .
There is no indication that such a tape exists and Trump has vehemently denied it .
JUST WATCHED Trump unloads on Twitter at Comey Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Trump unloads on Twitter at Comey 01:44
Comey 's book , and the media tour on which he is embarking , is also highlighting some of the criticisms of his own character and behavior which are helping to shape the Trump team 's pushback against him .
While he may not deserve to be branded a `` slimeball , '' as Trump did on Sunday , Comey does risk coming across as a disgruntled ex-employee and someone seeking vengeance for his dismissal . He has a highly developed sense of his own morality and sometimes comes across as holier than thou .
He is also raising the question of whether he is further damaging the FBI 's creed of being apolitical by mounting such a frontal attack on a sitting President .
The fierce counter-attack by Trump , the White House and the Republican National Committee is less an attempt to defend the President 's behavior or dispute Comey 's points than to raise questions about his integrity and motivation in order to devalue his devastating takedown of Trump .
`` James Comey 's publicity tour reaffirms that his true higher loyalty is to himself , '' said RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel in a statement issued at the end of the ABC News show on Sunday night . `` The only thing worse than Comey 's history of misconduct is his willingness to say anything to sell books . He has no credibility and President Trump was right to follow through on the bipartisan calls for him to be fired . ''
Trump 's team has seized on Comey 's admission that he reopened the investigation into Hillary Clinton 's emails days before the election because he thought she would win and did not want her to be compromised as president by the idea that the FBI concealed the fact it was still investigating her .
`` The guy knew exactly what he was doing . He thought Hillary Clinton would win . And he thought this would give him some cover , '' said White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on ABC News `` This Week '' on Sunday .
`` When the person that is supposed to lead the highest law enforcement agency in our country starts making decisions based on political environments instead of on what is right and what is wrong , it 's a really dangerous position , '' she said . | bByvvgTsa7WXhKKc | 0 | James Comey | 0.5 | Donald Trump | -0.1 | Politics | -0.1 | null | null | null | null |
elections | USA TODAY | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/03/01/pete-buttigieg-ends-history-making-bid-for-white-house/4915514002/ | After rising from relative obscurity to become a viable White House candidate, Pete Buttigieg ends his campaign | 2020-03-01 | elections | Former South Bend , Indiana , Mayor Pete Buttigieg announced he was ending the presidential campaign in which he made history as the first openly gay man to win delegates in the race for the nomination of a major political party .
His exit comes a day after his disappointing fourth-place finish in South Carolina and two days before Super Tuesday , when he was expected to continue to struggle amid the dominance of Sen. Bernie Sanders and resurgence of former Vice President Joe Biden . Buttigieg 's departure from the once-crowded field also comes a day after billionaire Tom Steyer suspended his campaign .
`` A year ago , we launched our campaign for the American presidency , '' Buttigieg said Sunday night to a packed room in South Bend , moments after his emotional husband Chasten had introduced him . `` We began this unlikely journey with a staff of four in a cramped office right here in South Bend . Hardly anyone knew my name and even fewer could pronounce it . ''
The crowd laughed and erupted in chants of , `` Mayor Pete , Mayor Pete . ''
β I will no longer seek to be the 2020 Democratic nominee for president , but I will do everything in my power to ensure that we have a new Democratic president come January . β
As Buttigieg announced his decision , the crowd responded by chanting `` 2024 ! 2024 ! , '' a seeming nod to their hope he runs again .
`` Our goal has always been to help unify Americans to defeat Donald Trump , and to win the era for our values , '' Buttigieg said . `` So we must recognize that at this point in the race . The best way to keep faith with those goals and ideals , is to step aside and help bring our party and our country together . So tonight , I am making the difficult decision to suspend my campaign for the presidency . ''
Buttigieg 's success in the campaign , even aside from his personal story , was a remarkable achievement . As the mayor of a midsize Midwestern town , he rose from relative political obscurity to become a viable candidate for the White House .
His narrow , one-delegate victory over Sanders in Iowa was overshadowed by the vote-counting chaos there β and his win remained in doubt until it was confirmed after a final recanvass and recount were completed .
`` By every conventional wisdom , by every historical measure , we were never supposed to get anywhere at all , '' Buttigieg said .
A week after Iowa , Sen. Amy Klobuchar surged into a third place finish in New Hampshire , eating into Buttigieg 's support among the center-left bloc of voters . He finished second there to Sanders by 1 percentage point . His campaign never found its footing after that , and he failed to reach 15 % support in both Nevada and South Carolina .
Buttigieg 's exit before Super Tuesday also bucks the past 20 years of history in the Iowa Democratic caucuses . Every Democratic winner of the caucuses since 2000 has gone on to be the Democratic Party 's nominee .
But with his victory in Iowa , Buttigieg achieved what would have been considered politically impossible just a decade ago .
And on the night of the caucuses , an emotional Buttigieg was clearly struck by the significance of what he had accomplished .
He said his campaign 's success taught him to `` believe in American belonging '' and that it left him `` remembering how it felt to be an Indiana teenager , wondering if he would ever belong in this world . ''
`` Wondering if something deep inside him meant that he would forever be an outsider . That he might never wear the uniform , never be accepted , never even know love . Now that same person is standing in front of you , a mayor , a veteran , happily married , and one step closer to becoming the next president of the United States . ''
Buttigieg came out in a 2015 op-ed in the South Bend Tribune , months before being elected to his second mayoral term with 80 % of the 10,000-plus votes cast .
In June , he told The Des Moines Register that he did not want his sexuality to be the only thing he was known for .
`` I am proud of who I am , '' Buttigieg said . `` I β m certainly very proud of my marriage and my husband . We don β t shy away from that . It β s also not the only thing that defines me . ''
Buttigieg 's Democratic opponents immediately responded with well wishes as news of his departure from the race broke .
`` Thank you , @ PeteButtigieg . I know you 'll continue giving back and serving our country for many years to come , '' Sen. Elizabeth Warren tweeted .
President Donald Trump reacted to Buttigieg 's dropping out Sunday by again implying Democrats are trying to get Sanders out of the race .
`` Pete Buttigieg is OUT . All of his SuperTuesday votes will go to Sleepy Joe Biden . Great timing . This is the REAL beginning of the Dems taking Bernie out of play - NO NOMINATION , AGAIN ! '' the tweet said .
Buttigieg , a former Navy intelligence officer who served in Afghanistan , was one of the few military veterans in the race . As a Rhodes Scholar with degrees from Harvard University and the University of Oxford who speaks multiple languages , he also had some of the highest academic credentials in the race .
During the campaign , he pitched himself as a moderate alternative to progressive candidates like Sanders and Warren , one who was also younger and more in tune with the current Democratic party than Biden .
At 38 , he was the youngest of the presidential candidates , yet he failed to connect with voters under age 30 , who , ironically , tended to favor the 78-year-old Sanders . On the other hand , he performed well with older voters .
' I want to be brave like you ' : Boy , 9 , asks Pete Buttigieg for help coming out as gay
From the beginning , Buttigieg 's candidacy was haunted by headlines about his inability to win the support of minority voters , particularly African-Americans . Despite this efforts to make strides with black and Latino communities , his poll numbers remained dismal with those demographics . And that lack of support left him unable to compete as the race moved into more diverse states like Nevada and South Carolina .
During the campaign , Buttigieg faced criticism for his response to a police shooting of an African-American man in South Bend , as well as the lack of diversity on the town 's police force .
His campaign did find enthusiastic support among wealthy Democratic donors and was a top recipient of donations from Wall Street contributors . Those contributions led Sanders to paint him as the candidate of the powerful corporations , who would not represent the interests of working Americans .
Buttigieg , who trailed only Sanders and Warren in contributions of less than $ 200 , defended his campaign 's acceptance of large-donor donations . He told Fox News that while he was `` not a fan of the current campaign finance system '' he was `` also insistent that we have got to go into this with all of the support we can get . ''
Contributing : Maureen Groppe , βββ ; Barbara Rodriguez , The Des Moines Register ; Andrew Clark , The Indianapolis Star | N8uK66rB8OFxf1FM | 1 | Pete Buttigieg | 1.1 | Bernie Sanders | -0.3 | South Carolina | -0.2 | Moderates | -0.2 | Joe Biden | -0.2 |
immigration | Christian Science Monitor | http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2016/1031/Illegal-immigration-The-hopes-and-lies-driving-children-to-the-US | Illegal immigration: The hopes and lies driving children to the US | 2016-10-31 | immigration | Perhaps no issue divides Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump more sharply than what to do about illegal immigration . Part 2 of a five-part series on the view from the US-Mexico border .
McALLEN , TEXAS β When she stepped off the smuggler β s raft on the north shore of the Rio Grande and took her first tentative steps into the United States , Carolina didn β t quite know what to expect .
There was no guide to lead her beyond the river β s edge . The coyote pointed up the steep bank and then pushed off to paddle the empty raft back across the river to Mexico .
The 46-year-old grandmother made the perilous month-long journey from El Salvador with her 28-year-old daughter , Elena , and her 3-year-old granddaughter , Julianni .
They had traveled more than a thousand miles from Central America , eluding capture by Mexican authorities , and surrendering $ 14,500 to thieves and smugglers .
Now , in a dusty no-man β s-land at the southern edge of Texas β Rio Grande Valley , came their moment of truth .
When Carolina and Elena spot a Border Patrol truck a few hundred yards away , they do not run for cover to try to avoid being caught and sent home . Instead , they shout and wave their hands above their heads to attract the agents β attention .
They are not alone in using this counterintuitive tactic . It has become a reliable method to gain entry to the United States for more than 137,000 unauthorized migrants this year from troubled parts of Central America .
In an election year dominated by harsh talk about illegal immigration and criminals flooding across the Mexican border , the scene on the north bank of the Rio Grande is far different than one might expect .
Instead of rapists and drug traffickers , these new arrivals are babies and toddlers , boys and girls , and young teens . They are moms and dads , and even the occasional grandmother .
The vast majority of them are coming by raft across the Rio Grande in south Texas β more than 200 a day , every day from El Salvador , Guatemala , and Honduras . Many of them are children arriving unaccompanied , some as young as two .
Once inside the US , virtually all of them are turning themselves in .
This tactic reached unsustainable proportions in 2014 , overwhelming the Border Patrol β s ability to handle the crush of humanity . It fell off a bit in 2015 , but this year the numbers rose sharply again , matching levels of the 2014 crisis .
β It is crazy . It has gotten to the point where we are running out of Border Patrol agents , β says Christopher Cabrera , an agent based in the Rio Grande Valley and vice president of the National Border Patrol Council , the agents β union .
β They are turning themselves in to deputy sheriffs , to the constables ; there have even been a couple of cases where they turned themselves in to the grounds crew cutting the grass at a state park . β
Some analysts argue that President Obama β s unilateral executive action offering special legal status to millions of children of unauthorized immigrants already living in the US has sent a strong signal encouraging would-be immigrants from Central America to try to gain the same benefits for their own children .
Others say the rising tide of migrants from Central America is driven by the intense threat from violent criminal gangs and widespread corruption in that region . People are fleeing out of desperation in the face of extortion rackets and soaring murder rates .
Still other analysts point to lies made by smugglers in Central America promising wonderful benefits for any child who makes it to the US .
β Flat-out lies , that β s what β s bringing people by the trainload into the United States , β says Juanita Molina , a migrant rights activist in Arizona . β It is not that we [ in the US ] are creating opportunities for them or we are taking them in , β she says . β People are being lied to and exploited . β
The Obama administration has tried to create a credible deterrent to this illicit trafficking by detaining and deporting some families and children . But the glacial pace of the US immigration system seems incapable of sending a single unified message of deterrence .
While some migrants are being sent home , others are winning their cases in immigration court and being allowed to stay .
Perhaps most important from the migrants β perspective , once they arrive in the US and are processed by the Border Patrol , they are being released and permitted to travel in the US pending a formal removal hearing before an immigration judge . Such hearings can take years , analysts say . In the meantime , the children and parents are safe in the US .
The paradox here is that the lies told by the smugglers appear to have come true , at least for some migrants .
β What the smugglers will do is say , you pay me $ 5,000 and I β ll take your kid to the border , β says Jason De Leon , a University of Michigan anthropology professor studying Central American smugglers . β They β ll go into detention and then they β ll get released to a family member β which oftentimes is actually what happens . β
The legs of Carolina β s pants below the knees are still damp from her watery arrival in the US . After spotting the two women with the toddler , the responding Border Patrol agents hand them bottles of ice-cold water from their personal cooler , rather than from the case of unchilled water in the back of the truck .
Carolina and her daughter immediately start drinking . The fear and apprehension on their faces begins to melt away . Elena even manages a brief , slight smile .
Carolina is asked what she and her daughter were thinking upon arriving in the US . β We knew that they would not kill us , β she says , referring to the Border Patrol agents . β The United States has always been supportive and protective of rights . β
Elena says they paid $ 9,000 to a smuggler who abandoned them in Mexico . They paid a second smuggler $ 4,500 . β It was our life savings , β she says . β We sold our house and everything . β
For Carolina , the trip to the US has a double objective . She says it is aimed at improving her daughter β s life and saving Julianni β s .
The criminal gangs in El Salvador begin recruiting at age 10 or 12 , she says . But they had already started demanding money .
Carolina , Elena , and Julianni weren β t the only new arrivals in the Rio Grande Valley that morning . About three hundred yards away and around a corner , other Border Patrol agents were busy with a different group of 23 , also from El Salvador .
Oscar , 30 , stands in the shade with his 7-year-old son , Daniel . He says he paid the smugglers $ 4,000 for him and $ 1,000 for his son . They β d been on the road 28 days .
Asked why he came to the US , Oscar says simply : β The future of my child . β
Warren Richey/The βββ Danel ( left ) and Oscar crossed the US border near McAllen , Texas , with a group of 23 unauthorized immigrants from El Salvador .
The trip was necessary , he says , because a criminal gang had killed his two brothers . Afterward , gang members came to him and demanded $ 5,000 , he says .
Instead of paying the gang , he decided to pay smugglers . β The risk is much higher to stay there than to come here , β he says .
And your wife , he is asked . Where is she ? He does not answer . He is unable to speak the words . His eyes have filled with tears .
β I will work here as much as I can , β Oscar says , β and send money back [ to her ] . β
What happens next for the newly arrived has become an established routine .
After turning themselves in , the unauthorized migrants are interviewed by Border Patrol agents who must verify their identities . They check to make sure she or he isn β t on a terror watch list or have a criminal record . Then they are interviewed by other federal agents . When that review is complete , most are given a notice to appear before an immigration judge . It is in that hearing that they must prove why they should not be deported .
Most unauthorized migrants from Central America are seeking refugee status .
Mr. Cabrera says Border Patrol agents recognize a familiar pattern among new arrivals from Central America . He says they appear to have been coached on how to make a claim for asylum . To do so , they must demonstrate they have a credible fear of persecution or severe mistreatment if returned to their home country .
β They β ll tell you three or four times their story and all their stories are cookie-cutter stories , β he says . β I β m sure there are quite a few bona fide asylum cases , but when you hear the same story 100 times a day word-for-word exactly the same way , you start to doubt it after a while . β
Cabrera says the smugglers and their clients are exploiting a loophole in US immigration policy . He calls it a new version of β catch and release . β
β If someone comes in and claims a credible fear , we give them [ a notice to appear in immigration court ] , and now they are free to move about the country for an indefinite period of time until their case can be adjudicated , β he says .
The agent says that years ago it took six months to convene that hearing . Now it can take years because of a shortage of immigration judges and a growing backlog of immigration cases β even when Central American cases are supposed to be expedited .
In the meantime , the migrant is living and working in the US . In effect , the so-called unauthorized immigrant is nonetheless authorized to remain in the country β pending her deportation .
Some walk through that open door with no intention of ever showing up for their court hearing or complying with a removal order , analysts say . Given the government β s priority of focusing on noncitizen criminals for deportation , they are unlikely to face serious consequences for gaming the immigration system in this way provided they are not convicted of committing a serious crime , these analysts say .
β The single biggest factor driving our illegal immigration right now is our catch and release program , β Brandon Judd , president of the National Border Patrol Council , told a Senate panel in May .
He said once a notice to appear for an immigration hearing is issued to an individual , other legal constraints fall away . β If you are an unaccompanied minor we will not only release you , but will escort you to your final destination , β he said .
β If you are a family unit , we will release you . If you claim credible fear , we will release you , β he added .
It is not merely a policy preference . Under a longstanding federal court order , this release process must be expedited when migrant children are involved .
The government is not without tools to force compliance with immigration laws . In some cases , officials are requiring unauthorized migrants to wear a tracking device on their ankle to guarantee court appearances and , if necessary , departure from the country .
Nonetheless , critics say inconsistent US policies are sustaining a lucrative black market in the smuggling of children .
It is the policy of the US government to help a child who arrives alone at the border to reunite with a parent in the US , even if that parent does not have legal authorization to live or work in the US .
This creates a strong incentive for unauthorized migrants in the US to pay smugglers to bring their children across the border illegally , often at great risk to the children . Once the child surrenders to the Border Patrol , the US government helps facilitate the reunion with the parent .
β So for the smugglers all they have to do is drop someone off β on the US side of the border , says Professor De Leon .
It is a money-making machine for Central American smugglers and the Mexican cartels that control the south side of the US-Mexico border , officials say .
It is also an effective way for the cartels to divert Border Patrol resources that might otherwise be in position to intercept illicit narcotics , human trafficking victims , or other unauthorized migrants with criminal records who are still being smuggled into the US , these officials say .
Nonetheless , the US government itself is helping to complete the final stage of child-smuggling operations run by criminals in Central America and Mexico . It is an illicit smuggling operation in which parents themselves are also complicit .
β How could any parent put their child to that risk , β Cabrera asks . β It would have to be pretty dire circumstances at home for me to risk my child β s life . And if I thought such a trip was necessary you can bet I am going with them , β he says . β I am not going to leave them in the care of a stranger . β
β You can β t leave kids in a car alone for 20 minutes in a Wal-Mart parking lot , and yet we are having parents put their kids on top of a train and travel through three countries to get here and then [ the US government ] is reuniting them with their parents , β he adds .
Cabrera says a US citizen who engaged in similar conduct would lose his or her parental rights . β But here we are giving the child back to that parent who put them in that situation , β he says .
β Are there dire circumstances [ in Central America ] ? Yes , but still you can β t make that child go it alone , β he says . β It is just inconceivable . β
In April , a 2-year-old girl was deposited on the north bank of the Rio Grande by a smuggler . He had used a Sharpie to write the girl β s name , her mother β s name , and the mother β s US-based telephone number on the girl β s white T-shirt .
β We have seen kids 2- and 3-years-old , who are by themselves , β says Cabrera . β When you see an 11-year-old or a 6-year-old by themselves , it is scary . But to have a 2-year-old abandoned alone on the riverbank is just insane . β
Border Patrol agents have a responsibility as law enforcement officers to uphold the law . But most of them are parents , too .
β I remember a little girl in downtown Nogales [ Arizona ] , she was maybe 10 years old , β says Border Patrol Agent Felipe Jimenez .
β She was walking up the street towards me . She had a little backpack and I thought she was getting ready to go to school , β he says .
β She knocks on the side window [ of the Border Patrol truck ] . I rolled down the window . She asked , β Can you help me ? I β m trying to find my mom . β β
The agent says he started to reach for his cellphone to call the Nogales Police Department . But then the girl added : β I think she β s in the Carolinas . β
β I said , β Hold on , you think she β s in the Carolinas ? β
β Then I asked her , β Did you just come across the border illegally ? β β
β She said , β Yeah. β The girl pointed to a spot down the street in the shadow of the 20-foot rust-colored fence that divides the US side of Nogales from the Mexican side . β I spent the night over there in that ditch . β β
β I had to actually break away from the situation for a little bit , β to collect his emotions , Agent Jimenez says . The agent β s daughter was about the same age at the time .
Jimenez said he was wondering how she did it , how she could make it all the way from Honduras to Arizona . That β s when she pulled a Bible out of her backpack .
β Jesus protected me , that β s what she told me , β Jimenez said . β She was 10 , and it broke my heart . β
US Border Patrol A 2-year-old girl was dropped on the American side of the Rio Grande in this T-shirt , which stated her name , her mother 's name , and her mother 's phone number in the US . ( The personal information has been blurred out for the photo . )
Such stories are hardly unusual . Ms. Molina tells of a 19-year-old Honduran woman who crossed the desert in Arizona two years ago in the middle of the summer with her newborn son in her arms .
β I asked her why would she take such a huge risk with her infant son , β Molina says .
The woman told Molina that when she was late in her pregnancy , criminal gang members killed her husband and threatened that the moment she gave birth they would return , kill the child , and force her into sex industry work . β They wanted to make her a sex slave within the cartel , β Molina says .
Desperate , the woman formed an escape plan . β Every day after she gave birth she got up and started walking around and walking around , β Molina says , describing a makeshift training regimen . β About three days after giving birth she felt she was strong enough to make the journey. β And she did .
The young mother told Molina : β I would rather die trying to live than to just sit there [ in Honduras ] and wait for a horrible fate . β
There are two kinds of smuggling operations involving parents and children from Central America .
One facilitates a mother or father traveling with their own child .
In the second , parents already living or working in the US without legal authorization are paying smugglers to transport their child away from that dangerous region and across the US-Mexico border . These children are traveling unaccompanied .
As director of Catholic Charities in the Rio Grande Valley , Sister Norma Pimentel rejects the suggestion that parents are wrong to put their lives and the lives of their children in the hands of smugglers .
She recalls the biblical story of Moses and what his mother did to save his life , placing him in a floating basket and trusting that the river would carry him to safety .
β I think parents [ in Central America ] are having no other option than saying this is a death sentence if they stay here . I can only have compassion for a mother or a father who finds themselves with no other option but to send the child into the unknown and danger , and to not know whether he or she will be alive . β
She says that people who doubt this truth should travel to the Rio Grande Valley and witness what is happening .
β They need to see for themselves that mother , that child , that face , and tell them that they wouldn β t help them , β she says .
In the summer of 2014 , with thousands of Central American children and families arriving in the US , the Border Patrol was overwhelmed trying to process them all . Some families released into the community were overwhelmed , too .
What they needed was a safe place where they could rest and have a nutritious meal before starting the next phase of their journey .
Seeing that need , Sister Norma β borrowed β the parish hall adjacent to the Sacred Heart Catholic Church and opened the Immigrant Relief and Welcome Center . It is two blocks from the bus station in downtown McAllen .
She put out an invitation on social media to the community for all those who wanted to help . The response was overwhelming .
β Everybody , every denomination , doctors , nurses , students , families , the county government , even the Border Patrol , thought let β s be part of this response , β she says .
The effort was positive and unifying across the community because it focused on helping individuals in need . β We are all about helping that family , that child , that mother β it is a human response to a human crisis , β Sister Norma says .
The families arrive at the center after being released from Border Patrol processing . They have been given a date to appear in immigration court . In addition , they β ve had time to contact a family member or friend in the US to send money to pay for a bus ticket .
They are permitted to spend one night at the immigrant relief center while waiting for their bus . The center serves sandwiches and the Salvation Army provides soup every day . They are also provided sandwiches for their bus trip .
Warren Richey/The βββ The shelves of the Immigrant Relief and Welcome Center in McAllen , Texas , hold items donated from members of the community .
The relief center is jammed with tables overflowing with donated clothing sorted by size for children and adults , shoes , baby supplies , and other essentials . Two large , air conditioned tents have been set up outside in the parking lot . Each contains 30 cots . One tent is for men and one for women .
Volunteers at the center say that more than 100 family members pass through the center on an average day . On the day in mid-September when a news reporter visited , the count was 170 .
In the past two years , Sister Norma estimates that the Immigrant Relief and Welcome Center has helped 45,000 individuals .
Among them is Jose , a 40-year-old baker from El Salvador , who made the month-long trip to the US with his 16-year-old daughter . They crossed much of Mexico inside the refrigerated trailer of an 18-wheeler . That part of the trip was very difficult , he says . β It was cold . β
After six days in a Border Patrol detention facility , they were dropped off at the immigrant relief center and had tickets for a midnight bus to Oakland , Calif. , where Jose β s brother lives . The brother sent money for bus fare .
His plan is to work in Oakland and eventually raise enough money to return to El Salvador to bring the rest of his family β a wife and a daughter , 14 , and son , 12 β to the US . β We are not members of a gang , we just want a better life , β he says .
Also part of the plan ; his eldest daughter will attend high school in the US β and , hopefully , college . β She would be the first . β
Warren Richey/The βββ Jose made the monthlong journey to the US from El Salvador with his 16-year-old daughter . He now has to work off $ 7,000 in debt .
Jose had to borrow the $ 7,000 to pay the smuggler . It is an enormous amount of money in El Salvador , and before anything else , he has to pay back that loan or it will fall to his wife and children .
For Jose it is not just getting to America , it is being able to stay in America long enough to work and pay off that debt .
Before being released to travel to Oakland , Jose was instructed that he and his daughter must appear at a future hearing before a US immigration judge to determine if they can remain in the US or be removed immediately to El Salvador .
Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox . By signing up , you agree to our Privacy Policy
Asked about this , Jose nods , knowingly . He lifts the cuff of his pants leg . A thick black bracelet with a tracking device encircles his ankle .
Part 1 : Trump β s wall on the border : Will it work ?
Part 2 : The hopes and lies driving children to the US
Part 3 : Alejandra , age 7 , is facing a judge alone . Is that due process ?
Part 4 : Nature β s wall : the human toll of crossing the US border
Part 5 : A drop of water in the desert , and a flood of migrants | TZNGtooIzvXiIMxG | 1 | Unauthorized Immigration | 0.2 | Immigration | 0.2 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
politics | NPR Online News | http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2015/05/10/405523379/political-postcard-still-love-for-bill-clinton-in-a-place-called-hope | Political Postcard: Still Love For Bill Clinton In A Place Called Hope | 2015-05-10 | politics | Political Postcard : Still Love For Bill Clinton In A Place Called Hope
Mike Huckabee kicked off his second run for the White House this week in Arkansas , a state where he has deep roots that he shares with another famous politician β Bill Clinton .
Huckabee and Clinton were both governors of the Southern state for more than a decade , and they also both hail from the same hometown β Hope .
Hope was prominent in Huckabee 's announcement with TV monitors emblazoned with the double entendre , `` Hope . ''
`` We will make that journey from Hope to higher ground , '' Huckabee said during his announcement .
Clinton , of course , made this line famous in 1992 : `` I still believe in a place called Hope . ''
The two men spent their youth going to some of the same schools and hanging out at some of the same places , though not at the same time , since Clinton is nine years older .
But with Clinton a hero to rank-and-file Democrats , and Huckabee courting evangelical voters , ideology is not a shared trait .
Before the Huckabee rally this week , Helen Wood was ready to cheer the newest addition to the GOP field .
`` Very nice day , '' Wood said . `` Big things happening in Hope . ''
She 's a retiree from a local school and a Huckabee backer . But she also offered this when asked about the other man from Hope : `` I have great respect for what President Clinton did as a president when he was in office . ''
Certainly , there are plenty of Clinton critics in Arkansas . But Clinton and Huckabee remain popular in the state . Roby Brock , who runs a multimedia political and business news outlet based in Little Rock , said it 's because both are so good at the retail politics that Arkansas demands β lots of handshaking and remembering everybody 's name .
`` He could still talk to a guy who was fixing a car on his back in an engine shop , '' Brock said of Clinton . `` And Mike Huckabee has got those same blue-collar roots and can communicate that very well . ''
As for what any of this means for Hillary Clinton , Brock noted that she 's not as popular as her husband in Arkansas . Not by far , but he said she does benefit from some residual good will .
Clinton grew up in the suburbs of Chicago , a far cry from Hope . So , it is strange to listen to tape of her from back when she was Arkansas ' first lady and hear a hint of the South in her voice .
Now , unlike it did with Bill Clinton , who was able to win Arkansas twice when he ran for president , do n't look for the state to get behind Hillary Clinton 's presidential run .
Arkansas has gone through a political transition and has become a solidly Republican state .
But even a Huckabee fan this week smiled at the notion of Bill Clinton moving back into the White House .
`` I love him , too , '' said 28-year-old Brandi Tuttle , owner of L.K . 's Closet , a children 's clothing store in town . She said she is actually Clinton 's fourth cousin , and she added that if he becomes the first first gentleman in U.S. history , `` I think he 'll do great , because he 's been there before , and he 's known how to do it . ''
When it came to Hillary Clinton , though , Tuttle was curt .
`` I really do n't have any feeling or say either way , '' Tuttle said , adding , `` I do n't know her . '' She 's just `` not like the ones born and raised . ''
Huckabee 's announcement this week could very well be the most attention Arkansas gets in the entire 2016 presidential campaign , but folks in Hope and elsewhere have been enjoying their connection to three potential big players in the race . | iWNRTXFNU0drh3e2 | 1 | Bill Clinton | 0.2 | Politics | 0.1 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
supreme_court | The Epoch Times | https://www.theepochtimes.com/supreme-court-nominee-barrett-faces-final-day-of-questioning-in-confirmation-hearings_3539517.html?utm_source=morningbriefnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2020-10-15 | Supreme Court Nominee Barrett Faces Final Day of Questioning in Confirmation Hearings | 2020-10-15 | Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett | Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett continued to defend her judicial independence and impartiality during the third day of the confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Following an 11-hour hearing the day before, Barrett on Oct. 14 faced a second day of questioning from committee members, who quizzed her about voting rights, Medicare, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), climate change, immigration, among other social issues. Some senators made further attempts to press the judge into acknowledging constitutional limits on presidential power. Barrett, who exercised prudence during the first round of questioning, continued to invoke the standard that judges shouldnβt offer their opinion on cases, hypotheticals, or βgradeβ precedents, and should avoid expressing their views on issues that might come before the courts. If you found this article interesting, please consider supporting traditional journalism As an independent media without a corporate or billionaire backer, The Epoch Times continues to operate thanks to readers like you. If you're committed to supporting independent journalism, please consider subscribingβour limited-time introductory offer is just $1 per week. Under the CPRA, you have the right to opt-out of the sale or sharing of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalized ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link.If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences. | 350ce0fbbd75d49e | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
isis | Townhall | http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2016/03/15/house-vote-declares-isis-extermination-of-christians-a-genocide-n2134088 | House Unanimously Votes to Declare ISIS Extermination of Christians a Genocide, State Department Drags Its Feet | 2016-03-15 | isis | Republicans and Democrats in the House voted unanimously late Monday night to officially declare the extinction of Christians by ISIS a genocide . More from AP :
Ratcheting up the pressure on the Obama administration , the House has overwhelmingly approved a resolution that condemns as genocide the atrocities committed by the Islamic State group against Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria .
The non-binding measure , passed Monday by a vote of 393-0 , illustrated the heavy bipartisan support for action on Capitol Hill . Secretary of State John Kerry is leaning toward making a genocide determination against the Islamic State and could do so as early as this week , when a congressional deadline for a decision has been set .
Last week Houston based law firm Andrews Kurths LPP sent a letter to the State Department , Kerry and President Obama laying out the legal case and evidence supporting a genocide declaration .
β As many governments , legislative bodies , non-governmental organizations , and world leaders have already concluded , the available evidence demonstrates that ISIS β s actions rise to the level of genocide . Furthermore , we understand that recent information received from on-the-ground interviews in the region and other sources establishes without question that ISIS is committing genocide and makes clear that claims that it is offering jizya or dhimmi status are a publicity stunt or extortion payments that pervert these classical terms , β the letter , submitted on behalf of The Philos Project , The American Mesopotamian Organization , The Assyrian Aid Society of America and The Iraqi Christian Relief Council , states .
β The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide ( β Genocide Convention β ) prohibits the intentional destruction , in whole or in part , of an ethnic or religious group by , inter alia , killing members of the group , causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group , or deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction , β the letter continues . β Publicly available information strongly suggests that ISIS is subjecting Assyrian and other Iraqi and Syrian Christians living in areas under the control of ISIS to genocidal conditions . ISIS purportedly offers the Assyrian Christians three options : ( 1 ) convert to Islam , ( 2 ) assume dhimmi status and pay an associated jizya tax , or ( 3 ) leave the territory . The facts suggest that , in reality , there is no choice . Those who refuse or are otherwise unable to comply are executed , and in many instances the option of paying the jizya tax is not made available . The evidence therefore suggests that the jizya tax is not a real option and may be just a pretext to justify ISIS β s atrocities . That ISIS purports to permit Assyrian Christians to pay a jizya tax to avoid conversion , execution , or displacement does not preclude a finding that ISIS β s persecution of such Christians violates the Genocide Convention . β
The State Department is supposed to decide by Thursday whether to agree with the House 's genocide declaration on behalf of the Obama administration , but the deadline is likely to be missed as Secretary of State John Kerry punts the issue for political reasons . For months the White House has hesitated to use the term , citing legal definitions and consequences .
Experts on Middle East terrorism and genocide pleaded with Kerry last week during a special meeting in Washington DC to make the declaration .
Several experts on Middle East terror made direct pleas to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to label Christian slaughter in the region as β genocide β Thursday morning during a press conference in Washington , D.C .
β The U.S. is better than this , β said humanitarian and author Johnnie Moore , who published a book last year called Defying ISIS .
β What will Kerry tell his grandchildren β if we don β t take action against this Christian slaughter ? he urged .
Moore was just one voice in an important event hosted by the Knights of Columbus to unveil their new in depth report on the rampant murder of religious minorities in the Middle East . The KOC sent its almost 300-page compilation , the largest of any of its kind , to the State Department on Wednesday in hopes of receiving an urgent response from the administration .
The Knights β request for a meeting with Kerry has gone unanswered . Since October , the secretary of state has been claiming the agency simply doesn β t have enough facts to call what 's happening to Christians in Iraq , Syria and elsewhere genocide .
With the KOC 's report , Kerry doesn β t have that excuse anymore . | ps8RlRaDv8ByLbxv | 2 | ISIS | -0.1 | US House | -0.1 | State Department | 0 | Middle East | 0 | null | null |
us_senate | Fox Online News | http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/12/07/democrats-forced-franken-out-to-ramp-up-their-strategy-to-bring-down-trump.html | Democrats forced Franken out to ramp up their strategy to bring down Trump | 2017-12-07 | us_senate | In the comedy movie β Anchorman , β comedian Will Farrell advises his TV audience to β stay classy. β On Thursday , former β Saturday Night Live β comedian Al Franken didn β t follow that advice and resigned from the U.S. Senate in a particularly classless way .
Even after eight women told reporters that the Minnesota Democrat had groped or forcibly kissed them , Franken denied he had done anything wrong .
Franken said from the Senate floor that β some of the allegations are simply not true β and that he remembered other accusations differently . He then tried to wrap himself in a feminist flag by vowing he had always been a β champion of women β and saying β I respect women . I don β t respect men who don β t . β
Nonetheless , Franken announced he would resign from the Senate seat he β d held for eight years in coming weeks because he couldn β t defend himself before the Ethics Committee and at the same time focus on being a senator .
Political observers say the speed with which Democrats forced Franken and Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers , the longest-serving member of Congress , to resign over sexual misconduct allegations is breathtaking .
Franken said earlier that he was confident he could ride out the Ethics Committee probe of his pre-Senate behavior and seek forgiveness from the voters . What forced him into his sudden departure was the decision by his party β s leadership to sacrifice him so they could spend the next year before the midterm elections painting Republicans as waging a β war on women . β
Franken himself signaled what the Democratic playbook will be in 2018 . He said it was ironic that he is leaving office when President Trump , who has been accused of sexual misconduct by several women , sits in the Oval Office . Franken also said his departure was ironic because Republican Roy Moore , who has been accused of sexual misconduct with teenage girls in Alabama nearly 40 years ago , may win a special election to the Senate from that state Tuesday .
β Democrats see the Russia probe petering out , the economy growing and ISIS in retreat , β former Reagan political director and Fox News contributor Ed Rollins told me this week . β They have to change the argument to Republicans are complicit in the abuse of women . β
Political observers say the speed with which Democrats forced Franken and Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers , the longest-serving member of Congress , to resign over sexual misconduct allegations is breathtaking .
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand , D-N.Y. , was sending birthday greetings and displaying pictures of herself with President Bill Clinton just last year . Then last month , she suddenly announced that Clinton should have resigned the presidency back in 1998 for his misbehavior with women .
β She abandoned the sinking Clinton ship with such alacrity , the rats were left gaping in astonishment , β a GOP senator drolly observed this week of his New York colleague .
Some savvy Democrats agree that the party β s shift from backing the right of Franken and Conyers to due process to calling for their heads may look too opportunistic to have long-lasting political benefits .
Democratic strategist Christy Setzer told The Hill newspaper : β There β s no good way to message β Our side β s sexual harassment isn β t as bad as your side β s . β
Setzer was joined in the assessment by Democratic Rep. Kathleen Rice of New York , a former district attorney now in her second term in Congress . Rice was one of the first in Congress to call for the resignations of Franken and Conyers , and she isn β t impressed that her fellow Democrats delayed for so long in demanding they resign .
β When you make decisions based on politics , sometimes you forfeit the moral high ground , and that β s what I think happened , β Rice told a news conference . β You have the president endorsing Roy Moore and you have Nancy Pelosi somewhat defending Conyers by calling him an β icon. β I just think at that point both sides lose , and none of us have clean hands when it comes to this issue . β
But that doesn β t mean that sex scandals and investigations won β t dominate coverage of Congress in the coming election year . No doubt there are other members in both parties who have sordid episodes in their past that will be uncovered by either social or mainstream media .
In addition , many Republicans have already said that should Roy Moore be elected senator from Alabama on Tuesday , he will be the immediate subject of an Ethics Committee probe . And many Democrats want to immediately move to expel Moore from his Senate seat should he win .
Of course , the new sensitivity and attention being paid to sexual misconduct allegations is welcome and long overdue . But there is a real danger in a rush to judgment and a minimization of the due process rights of people in public life .
Almost all of Franken β s alleged misconduct occurred before he became a senator . Moore β s alleged misconduct with teenage girls dates back to the 1970s and 1980s .
Can the Senate really afford to become preoccupied with investigating the background of senators for behavior that allegedly occurred long before they were elected ?
Al Franken and Roy Moore are creepy narcissists . But even β deplorable β people deserve due process . And the rest of us shouldn β t be subjected to the hypocrisy of people who β ve downplayed the issue of sexual misconduct for years from turning it into a political football . | 2Wzy4NisX7RHhnV0 | 2 | Al Franken | -0.7 | Democratic Party | -0.1 | US Senate | 0 | Politics | 0 | null | null |
fbi | Townhall | https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2020/04/30/flynn-attorney-on-explosive-new-documents-theres-more-coming-and-its-worse-n2567913 | Flynn Attorney on Explosive New Documents: There's More Coming and It Gets Worse | 2020-04-30 | fbi | During an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity Wednesday night Sidney Powell , a top attorney representing General Michael Flynn against the FBI , said explosive new documents showing agents framing her client are only the beginning .
`` The documents I 've seen so far in addition to the ones you have in your hands now are even more stunning . It 's just absolutely appalling what these agents and then the Special Counsel operation did to General Flynn . It 's abuse of their authority at every turn , '' Powell said . `` These documents were n't easily discovered . The emails have been in the FBI the whole time but the handwritten notes , as I understand it , may not have been . We still do not know who the author of those is . They 're devastating evidence of lengths they were willing to go to dsiregard all prior protocols , all prior rules , their standard practice in other cases to warn of 1001 violation . All of that . None of that applied to General Flynn . They only had special violations of every protocol known for him because they were determined to take him out . ''
`` I can β t thank Attorney General Barr and Mr. Jensen and Mr. Durham enough for having the integrity and fortitude to get to the bottom of this because that β s what it takes , '' she continued .
Powell has asked U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan to vacate the case .
Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy broke down the new documents and said it 's clear FBI agents put Flynn in a perjury trap .
`` I think what we 're seeing is a meticulously planned out scheme to try to get a 33-year combat veteran of the United States to say something inaccurate so that they 'd have a basis to charge him with false statements or otherwise get him fired , '' McCarthy said . They did not have a legitimate investigative reason for doing this . There was no criminal predicate . There was no reason to treat him as a criminal suspect . ''
`` For years a number of us have been arguing that this looked like a perjury trap . We 're now seeing the paper trail start to catch up with what common sense has said for a longtime , '' he continued . | y3YzPZugeBZHrx8d | 2 | Michael Flynn | 1.3 | FBI | -0.8 | Defense And Security | 0.8 | Russia Probe | -0.7 | null | null |
polarization | BBC News | http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40915569 | Charlottesville: Trump criticised over response to far-right | 2017-08-13 | Polarization | US President Donald Trump is facing criticism from both Republicans and Democrats for his response to violence at a Virginia white supremacist rally .
A woman was killed and 19 were injured when a car ploughed into a crowd of counter-protesters in Charlottesville .
Mr Trump condemned violence by `` many sides '' - but stopped short of explicitly condemning the far-right .
The White House has since clarified in a statement that his condemnation included white supremacists .
`` The president said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence , bigotry and hatred . Of course that includes white supremacists , KKK , neo-Nazi and all extremist groups , '' a spokesperson said on Sunday .
There were dramatic scenes later in the day as one of the organisers of the march , Jason Kessler , was chased away by protesters during a press conference .
Hundreds of white nationalists converged for Saturday 's `` Unite the Right '' march , called to protest against the removal of a statue of a general who had fought for the pro-slavery Confederacy during the US Civil War .
The far-right demonstrators , who included neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan ( KKK ) members , clashed with counter-protesters . People punched and kicked each other , and pepper spray , used by both sides , filled the air .
The crowd in Charlottesville , almost entirely white and male , put their arms up in Nazi salutes and cheered on the former grand wizard of the KKK , David Duke .
As the rally was dispersed , a car was driven into a crowd of counter-protesters , the force of the crash flinging people into the air .
A 32-year-old woman , Heather D Heyer , was killed in the crash , Charlottesville Police Department said .
Twenty-year-old James Fields from Ohio , the alleged driver , is in detention on suspicion of second-degree murder and the FBI has opened a civil rights investigation .
Apart from the car-ramming incident , Charlottesville police said at least 15 were wounded in other violence related to the far-right march .
The governor of Virginia , Terry McAuliffe , said that his only message for the white supremacists who had come to Charlottesville was `` Go home '' .
March organiser Jason Kessler was heckled , booed and eventually forced to run away during a press conference for `` Unite the Right '' on Sunday .
Amid protester chants of `` shame on you '' , Mr Kessler blamed the police for not preventing the violence , which he condemned . But he also reiterated the organisers ' right to hold the rally .
Some observers say that Mr Trump 's election to the White House has re-energised the far right across the US .
The Southern Poverty Law Center , a civil rights organisation , says that `` Trump 's run for office electrified the radical right , which saw in him a champion of the idea that America is fundamentally a white man 's country . ''
Mr Trump said he condemned `` in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred , bigotry , and violence on many sides '' .
`` The hate and the division must stop right now , '' he told reporters , speaking in New Jersey , where he is on a working holiday . `` We have to come together as Americans with love for our nation . ''
But his comments did not explicitly condemn the white extremist groups involved in the rally .
Asked whether the car-ramming was domestic terrorism , Mr Trump 's National Security Adviser HR McMaster said `` anytime that you commit an attack against people to incite fear , it meets the definition of terrorism '' .
Mr Trump 's daughter too also appeared to offer stronger condemnation than her father .
Clues for how the president would react to such a situation were scattered across his presidential campaign .
In February 2016 , Mr Trump initially declined to disavow support from the Klu Klux Klan and David Duke , the former Klan leader who became a Louisiana Republican politician .
`` Any candidate who can not immediately condemn a hate group like the KKK does not represent the Republican Party , and will not unite it , '' Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina , the first black Republican elected from a Southern state since 1881 , said .
After a week , Mr Trump gave a firm statement denouncing the KKK , but his initial hesitance would be an issue for the remainder of his presidential race .
If , as Mr Trump 's critics suggest , his statements following the Charlottesville incident were yet another `` dog whistle '' to white supremacists , there 's evidence that the message was clearly heard .
`` Trump comments were good , '' one poster on the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer wrote . `` He did n't attack us . He just said the nation should come together . ''
Mr Trump 's comments did not go far enough for many Democrats and members of Mr Trump 's Republican party .
Republican Senator Cory Gardner tweeted : `` Mr President - we must call evil by its name . These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism . ''
`` Very important for the nation to hear [ President Trump ] describe events in # Charlottesville for what they are , a terror attack by # whitesupremacists , '' Republican senator Marco Rubio tweeted .
Another senior Republican , Ted Cruz , called the car-ramming a `` grotesque act of domestic terrorism '' and there were more strong words from Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah .
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said `` the president 's talk of violence 'on many sides ' ignores the shameful reality of white supremacism in our country today '' .
Mr Trump 's former Democratic rival for the presidency , Hillary Clinton , said `` every minute we allow this to persist through tacit encouragement or inaction is a disgrace and corrosive to our values '' . | 9bc219971251bd96 | 1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
treasury | Fox Online News | http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/27/lois-lerner-blackberry-deliberately-destroyed-after-start-congressional-probe/ | IRS lawyer: Lois Lerner's Blackberry deliberately destroyed after start of congressional probe | 2014-08-27 | treasury | Lois Lerner β s BlackBerry was intentionally destroyed after Congress had begun its probe into IRS targeting of conservative groups , a senior IRS lawyer acknowledged in a sworn declaration .
Thomas Kane , Deputy Assistant Chief Counsel for the IRS , wrote in the declaration , part of a lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch against the IRS , that the BlackBerry was `` removed or wiped clean of any sensitive or proprietary information and removed as scrap for disposal in June 2012 . ''
That date - June 2012 - is significant because by that time , ex-IRS official Lerner had already been summoned before congressional staffers who interviewed her about reports of the IRS ' targeting of conservative groups .
`` We had already talked to her . Our personal staff and Oversight Committee staff had sat down with Ms. Lerner and confronted her about information we were getting from conservative groups in the state of Ohio and around the country , '' Rep. Jim Jordan , R-Ohio , told Fox News .
`` If you intentionally destroy evidence , that is a crime . If you make a statement in court saying the evidence is not available and it is , that is also a crime , '' said Jay Sekulow , Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice .
The IRS did not immediately respond to Fox News β request for comment .
News of the BlackBerry 's destruction followed Monday β s statement by Judicial Watch that Justice Department attorneys said in a Friday phone call the federal government backs up all computer records to ensure continuity of government in event of a catastrophe , but retrieving the Lerner emails would simply be `` too onerous . ''
An administration official told Fox News Monday night that Judicial Watch misinterpreted the Friday phone call . `` There was no new back-up system described last week to Judicial Watch , '' he said . `` Government lawyers who spoke to Judicial Watch simply referred to the same email retention policy that Commissioner ( John ) Koskinen had described in his Congressional testimony . ''
But Cleta Mitchell , an attorney who represents other conservative groups suing the IRS , cited a whistleblower who bolsters Judicial Watch 's interpretation .
`` I received information from a former Department of Homeland Security official who had security clearances . He just retired in April , '' Mitchell said . `` He contacted me and he contacted Judicial Watch and some members of Congress and said there is backup material . ''
The dueling versions are not likely to sit well with District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan , who is presiding over Judicial Watch β s lawsuit against the IRS . `` He gave the IRS not one , but two opportunities in court filings with him to tell him where they were , '' said Tom Fitton , president of Judicial Watch . `` There was no mention of this backup system to the court at that time . ''
According to Sidney Powell , author of `` Licensed to Lie : Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice , '' Sullivan is known to scold government lawyers who withhold evidence .
Powell said Sullivan appointed an independent counsel to investigate DOJ 's prosecution of now deceased Republican Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska.Sullivan described the Stevens prosecution as `` the worst case of misconduct he 'd seen in 25 years . ''
Sullivan also said , `` When government does not meet its obligations to turn over evidence , the system falters . '' | pAeCdZW8Os83u33n | 2 | IRS | -2.1 | Lois Lerner | -1.7 | Treasury | 0 | Banking And Finance | 0 | null | null |
immigration | Guest Writer - Left | http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/20/opinion/the-supreme-court-the-nativists-and-immigrants.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region&_r=0 | OPINION: The Supreme Court, the Nativists and Immigrants | 2016-01-20 | immigration | As soon as 26 states took it upon themselves to sue President Obama over the sensible , humane executive actions he took in late 2014 to protect millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation , it was inevitable that the lawsuit would land on the Supreme Court β s doorstep .
On Tuesday morning , the justices announced that they would hear the case , which means a decision will most likely come down by the end of June . The states should never have been allowed standing to sue in the first place , and their substantive claims are groundless .
There are more than 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States . No one , besides Donald Trump , believes the nation has the resources , or the will , to deport them all . The clearest solution is to focus on removing those who pose an actual threat to public safety while deferring action on most of the rest and helping them β come out of the shadows. β In 2012 , the Obama administration allowed young immigrants who were brought here as children to be given work permits and be exempted from deportation , a program that has worked well . In November 2014 , the president announced a plan to offer work permits and a three-year reprieve from deportation to as many as five million undocumented parents of American citizens or permanent residents , provided they had no criminal record and had lived in the country at least five years .
Getting hardworking people who have deep roots in their communities out of the shadows isn β t a new issue . In a 1980 presidential debate , George Bush decried the harsh efforts to marginalize undocumented immigrants . β We β re creating a whole society of really honorable , decent , family-loving people that are in violation of the law , β he said . Mr. Obama , along with other reality-based politicians on both the left and the right , understands this , but congressional Republicans have refused to pass any meaningful immigration reform . | Y2rpVAZAGphGJAKb | 0 | Immigration | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
healthcare | Washington Times | http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/14/mick-mulvaney-i-dont-believe-facts-are-correct-cbo/ | Mick Mulvaney: βI donβt believe the facts are correctβ in CBO report | 2017-03-14 | Healthcare | Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said Tuesday he doesnβt believe the projections from the Congressional Budget Office on House Republicansβ bill to repeal parts of Obamacare are correct. βI donβt believe the facts are correct,β Mr. Mulvaney said on MSNBCβs βMorning Joe.β βIβm not just saying that because it looks bad for my political position. Iβm saying that based upon a track record of the CBO being wrong before, and we believe the CBO is wrong now,β he said. He said the CBO assumes, for example, that as soon as the individual mandate in Obamacare is gone, someone would go off of Medicaid. βLook, the CBO β really good at counting numbers. Maybe not that good at making decisions about coverage,β Mr. Mulvaney said. The CBO projected on Monday that the Republican health care plan would reduce the federal deficit by more than $300 billion over the course of a decade, but that it would also result in 24 million fewer people having health insurance, including 14 million fewer in 2018. SEE ALSO: CBO: Republican health plan will lead to 24M fewer insured by 2026, save more than $300B Overall, Congressβs official budget score-keeper projected that 52 million people would be uninsured by the end of the time period, compared to 28 million otherwise. β’ David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com. Copyright Β© 2025 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission. SEE MORE VIDEOS Stopping the illegal alien invasion βXβ marks the danger spot in the battle against hostile cyber threats Carville says Trump playing 4D chess while Democrats still looking for board | dd9460d83b2695dc | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
race_and_racism | Fox Online News | https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-fires-back-at-squad-challenges-house-to-rebuke-them-for-filthy-and-hate-laced-remarks | Trump fires back at Squad, challenges House to βrebukeβ them for βfilthy and hate lacedβ language | race_and_racism | President Trump fired back Tuesday at the four freshman congresswomen who denounced his administration and renewed calls for his impeachment at a rare joint press conference , claiming Democrats have given them a `` free pass '' for their `` vile '' language and challenging colleagues to rebuke them .
House Democrats , in fact , are planning to formally rebuke Trump for weekend tweets urging those same lawmakers to `` go back '' to where they came from -- though all but one of them was born in America . But the president , while refusing to back down from his statements , has sought to chastise Democrats for rallying to the side of those lawmakers .
AOC 'SQUAD ' REFERS TO TRUMP AS 'OCCUPANT ' OF WHITE HOUSE , CONDEMNS 'RACIST ' REMARKS , AS TRUMP FIRES BACK
β The Democratic Congresswomen have been spewing some of the most vile , hateful , and disgusting things ever said by a politician in the House or Senate , & yet they get a free pass and a big embrace from the Democrat Party , β Trump tweeted Tuesday morning . β Horrible anti-Israel , anti-USA , pro-terrorist & public shouting of the Fβ¦word , among many other terrible things , and the petrified Dems run for the hills . β
He added : β Why isn β t the House voting to rebuke the filthy and hate laced things they have said ? Because they are the Radical Left , and the Democrats are afraid to take them on . Sad ! β
The lawmakers he 's referring to are Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , Ilhan Omar , Rashida Tlaib , and Ayanna Pressley .
All four congresswomen held a press conference on Monday to address the president 's prior statements against them . Omar described Trump 's rhetoric as `` garbage , '' accused him of carrying out `` the agenda of white nationalists , '' and said his remarks were a `` blatantly racist attack on four duly elected members of the United States House of Representatives , all of whom are women of color . ''
Tlaib said Trump was running a `` lawless '' administration and joined her colleagues in calling for his impeachment .
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , who until recently was engaged in a public war of words with the β Squad β freshmen , has in the wake of the controversy called for a resolution to condemn Trump β s comments , which she labeled as β xenophobic. β This is expected to be considered Tuesday .
Omar previously has been criticized by prominent members of both parties for making remarks widely deemed anti-Semitic . The House failed to pass a resolution condemning her directly , instead altering the message to condemn hate in general , including from the right .
During Monday 's press conference , Omar defended herself , saying , `` Every single statement that we make is from a place of extreme love for every single person in this country . ''
Trump 's reference Tuesday to profane language was likely related to Tlaib 's famous vow to `` impeach the motherf -- -- - . ''
TRUMP BROADSIDES UNITE WARRING DEMS β BUT FOR HOW LONG ?
Trump β s accusation that the Democratic establishment is reluctant to take any action against the four congresswomen follows several days of ugly comments between party members . After Pelosi dismissed them as just being β four people β who β didn β t have any following β in Congress , Ocasio-Cortez accused the speaker of targeting women of color .
The internal feuding only paused when Trump posted his tweets about those lawmakers Sunday morning -- saying the `` Democrat Congresswomen '' should go back and fix the `` corrupt '' and `` crime infested places '' they came from and then `` come back and show us how it 's done . '' | Fhk5B4ujHtIaFObI | 2 | Donald Trump | -0.4 | The Squad | -0.3 | Race And Racism | -0.1 | null | null | null | null | |
gun_control_and_gun_rights | CNN (Web News) | http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/16/politics/nra-guns/index.html?hpt=po_t1 | Gun lobby may emerge victorious when smoke clears | 2013-04-16 | Gun Control And Gun Rights | Story highlights The gun lobby has beat back challenges from lawmakers , public opinion
Background check legislation once deemed a sure thing struggles to gain support
Senate plans to begin voting on gun amendments on Wednesday
The nation 's powerful gun lobby has faced headwinds from vocal lawmakers , a galvanized presidential administration and an American electorate that polls show favors tougher gun laws following December 's school massacre in Connecticut .
Yet , when the hundreds of hours of legislative debate , on camera pleas , backroom negotiations and intense lobbying have ended , groups like the National Rifle Association may find that they have narrowed the scope of gun control legislation .
`` If you have 100 missiles coming at you and you knock out 99 , I would say you were successful , '' Richard Feldman , president of the gun rights group , the Independent Firearm Owners Association , said of efforts by gun rights groups .
`` After the Sandy Hook massacre , I was very worried , '' said Feldman , who served as regional political director for the NRA during its rise to power in the 1980s .
`` The talk was about an assault weapons ban , a gun registry , background checks . Everything was on the table . But the only thing legislatively coming down the pike , the only thing we 're talking about is background checks . I would count that as a success for the NRA , '' he added .
The Senate has taken up legislation backed by President Barack Obama and many Democrats that would toughen laws against gun trafficking and straw purchases , and devise ways to improve school safety .
A bipartisan compromise by Sens . Joe Manchin , D-West Virginia , and Pat Toomey , R-Pennsylvania , to expand background checks is the first item up for debate . But Manchin said on Monday that it did n't have enough support yet .
A minimum of 60 votes are needed to clear procedural hurdles . As things stand now , supporters need at least seven votes from Republicans , the party most closely aligned with NRA views on gun rights .
Though smaller gun rights groups , such as the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms , support the measure , the NRA reiterated its threat to hold those who back the compromise politically accountable .
The NRA exerts political clout through a rating system that identifies friends and foes of its positions in Congress .
It directs substantial contributions to political campaigns it favors or opponents of candidates it dislikes . The NRA was also able to marshal its large and active membership base to press lawmakers on the upcoming gun vote .
`` NRA is opposed to Manchin-Toomey , and it will be a scored vote , '' NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said , meaning lawmaker ratings with the organization will be affected by how they vote .
A high rating is a political plus for congressional lawmakers from conservative states or districts , especially those up for re-election in 2014 .
`` There is a lot of member contact going on right now that is n't so obvious , '' said Alan Lizotte , dean and professor at the State University of New York at Albany 's School of Criminal Justice .
`` This is n't one of those debates where we 're seeing a lot of ads . But this is where groups like the NRA are strong at using members in states to reach out to lawmakers , '' he said .
The NRA 's message both in public and private conversations with lawmakers is clear .
`` The NRA is forever . Your vote on that issue is forever . And when the next election comes along we 're going to talk about that , '' Lizotte said of the NRA 's message to lawmakers .
The Manchin-Toomey amendment will be one of perhaps dozens to be debated on the broader package of gun laws pushed by President Barack Obama following the shooting deaths of 20 first-graders and six educators at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown , Connecticut .
In debate expected to last two weeks , senators will consider efforts by both sides to either expand or weaken the gun package .
Key issues that had some momentum coming out of Newtown but are fiercely opposed by the NRA appear to have a slim chance of passage .
These include a Democrat-driven push for banning semiautomatic firearms modeled after military assault weapons and limiting ammunition magazines to 10 rounds .
Republicans will push an NRA proposal to make state concealed weapons permits acceptable throughout the country , a concept opposed by many Democrats .
The assault weapons proposal by Sen. Dianne Feinstein , the Manchin-Toomey compromise and the plan around concealed weapons will all be up for votes beginning on Wednesday as amendments , Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said .
The powerful gun lobby and its allies in Congress have been able to use a sophisticated campaign . They have consistently shifted the focus among various provisions , raised new arguments to old issues , and proposed solutions that would expand weapons use and training instead of increasing regulation .
The gun lobby has had a hand in helping to shape or steer the direction of many amendments to the overall bill , gun policy experts say .
Take , for example , the ban on semi-automatic firearms modeled after military assault weapons proposed by Feinstein , a California Democrat , and backed by Obama .
Fiercely opposed by the National Rifle Association , Republicans and some Democrats , Reid calculated that it would be best not to include it in the main bill because it would invite a filibuster .
In the House , Speaker John Boehner , R-Ohio , has said the chamber would look at anything the Senate approved . But he 's not promising a vote .
`` What the NRA does as well if not better than any organization in this country I do what you do in the old civics courses . You educate your supporters , '' Feldman said . `` You get them to communicate their views with elected officials in a targeted manner . '' | 9f8a226359c9a4d9 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
state_department | Guest Writer - Left | http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/12/13/why-rex-tillerson-would-be-disaster-as-secretary-state.html | OPINION: Why Rex Tillerson would be a disaster as Secretary of State | 2016-12-13 | Rex Tillerson, State Department, Politics | On Tuesday morning , after a weekend of anonymously-sourced winks and nudges , President-elect Trump formally announced that he will nominate ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson to be the next Secretary of State .
He is a CEO , not an experienced diplomat . Moreover , he is simply too close to Russia and Vladimir Putin to be an effective or credible advocate for American interests around the world .
Tillerson has direct economic interests in Russia having cut multi-billion dollar deals with Putin himself as well as Kremlin confidant Igor Sechin , the head of Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft . When Sechin isn β t palling around with Tillerson , he keeps busy selling nuclear capabilities to Venezuela or negotiating oil deals with Cuba . Tillerson doesn β t seem to mind , and even appeared with Sechin after he had been formally sanctioned by the United States .
We can not allow the State Department to be led by a friend and ally of Vladimir Putin and continue the disastrous diplomacy of negotiation and appeasement that has handed Putin his greatest victories .
Tillerson β s loyalty to Russia has not gone unnoticed , and Putin personally awarded him Russia β s β Order of Friendship β in 2013 .
Since then , Putin has invaded Ukraine , murdered 298 civilians on Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 , and directed the Russian Air Force to attack aid convoys and hospitals in Syria . Yet Tillerson has remained a staunch and vocal opponent of sanctions against Russia , even as Putin β s body count continues to climb .
Senator John McCain has called Tillerson β s β friendship award from a butcher [ β¦ ] an issue that I think needs to be examined. β Marco Rubio has expressed β serious concerns about his nomination , β since β the next Secretary of State must be someone who views the world with moral clarity . β
And it β s not as if Tillerson would be the first Putin pal in Trump β s cabinet .
Michael Flynn , Trump β s choice for National Security Advisor , has been honored by Russian state propaganda network RT , sitting at Putin β s right hand during the awards dinner . Just as Tillerson has opposed sanctions against Russia over the invasion of Ukraine , so too has Flynn urged that America β move forward β from Putin β s bloody interventions in Ukraine and Syria .
Together , Tillerson and Flynn are a dangerous pro-Putin combination that threatens to undermine American values , allies , and interests around the world .
Neither Tillerson nor Flynn are likely to take the urgent action needed to successfully deal with the Russians , or apply the pressure that will get Putin to back down . They will not strengthen NATO , finish the missile shield in Europe , arm Ukraine , or aggressively disrupt Putin β s relentless cyberwarfare and propaganda operations .
Indeed , we agree with the bipartisan group of senators calling for a full investigation of Russian hacking and election meddling .
To Rex Tillerson , we say : keep your day job . To Michael Flynn , we say : seek new employment , as your son is now doing .
There are perfectly good candidates for Secretary of State who share our worldview and would perform admirably , such as Mitt Romney and John Bolton .
We don β t need a National Security Advisor or a Secretary of State who believes that we just need to negotiate better with Vladimir Putin .
That β s the same trap that snared George W. Bush and Barack Obama , and enabled Putin β s decade of aggression . We need a National Security Advisor and a Secretary of State who see Russia as among the greatest , if not the greatest threat , our country faces .
We can not allow the State Department to be led by a friend and ally of Vladimir Putin and continue the disastrous diplomacy of negotiation and appeasement that has handed Putin his greatest victories .
America needs a Secretary of State who will stand up to Putin . Rex Tillerson is not the man for the job . | daa2e26a7303c395 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
middle_east | Guest Writer | http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/10/15/obama-makes-right-call-to-tough-it-out-in-afghanistan.html | OPINION: Obama makes the right call to tough it out in Afghanistan | 2015-10-15 | middle_east | The president now plans to continue a U.S. ground force presence in Afghanistan to help hold off the Taliban until he leaves office . This is an uncommon turnaround for a president who hasn β t changed his mind on foreign policy since drawing his ( much-ballyhooed and promptly ignored ) β red line β in Syria .
So what does this rare shift have to say about Obama β s foreign policy and America β s future role in Afghanistan ? Not much .
Mr. Obama started his presidency hoping to use Afghanistan to demonstrate his willingness to roll up his sleeves and get his hands dirty in the national security business . He asserted that , unlike β Bush β s War β in Iraq , fighting in the place where the 9/11 attacks were concocted was worth it .
In approving a surge in Afghanistan , the president made much of his role as decider-in-chief . Yet , even as he sent in more troops , he tipped his hand that Afghanistan was not as much an exception to the talk-don β t-fight Obama Doctrine as the tough-guy image he sought to cultivate .
It makes complete sense for Mr. Obama to tough it out in Afghanistan , but don β t expect the change in plans to make things better for the Afghans or the larger security picture . The U.S. presence is the bare minimum to hold on .
The president gave commanders only half the force and half the time they requested to do the job right . It turned out , the commanders were right . Mr. Obama , however , had his eye on the next election and wanted to go into the race showing he had put the war on a glide-path to wind down and pull out .
Signaling a limited-time interest in fighting an enemy rarely ends well . The Taliban adopted the logical and predictable strategy of simply waiting out Mr. Obama . Also predictably , the half-measure surge and overly ambitious transfer of responsibility to the Afghan military resulted in unnecessarily heavy casualties for Afghan security forces , a persistent Taliban , and a shaky security situation .
Nevertheless , Afghanistan is far from a total failure . Indeed , compared to the president β s other foreign policy dalliancesβfrom the Russian β reset β to Libya to Syria to Iraq to Ukraineβ it ranks as his best achievement yet .
Which is why Mr. Obama is reportedly backing away from his plan to yank virtually all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by the end of next year . Instead , he has agreed to leave the current force of 9,800 troops in place throughout β most β of next year , and keep 5,500 in theater thereafter .
It β s a good call . With the Taliban flexing its muscles anew and the Islamic State making inroads there , completely pulling out makes little sense . Mr. Obama can ill afford another complete foreign policy disaster on his watch . Further , virtually everyone βthe U.S. military , the Afghans , Pakistan , India , our NATO alliesβ wants the U.S. to stay and see the job through .
In addition , there is zero domestic pressure for the president to make good on his campaign promise . An appearance of Code Pink is about as common as a Yeti sighting . And in the debates thus far , presidential candidates have devoted about as much time to Afghanistan as they have to defunding Public Television .
It makes complete sense for Mr. Obama to tough it out in Afghanistan , but don β t expect the change in plans to make things better for the Afghans or the larger security picture . The U.S. presence is the bare minimum to hold on . More forces with loser rules of engagement would make the country much safer , much faster .
But holding on is probably the best we can hope for with this president . Here β s hoping the next Commander in Chief β s attitude toward Afghanistan will focus more on solving problems than just wishing they would go away . | t3P7Hl59P4RLpsT9 | 1 | Afghanistan | -0.6 | Middle East | 0.1 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
elections | Washington Times | http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jan/14/republican-debate-winners-and-losers/ | Winners and losers in the sixth Republican debate | 2016-01-14 | elections | Seven Republican presidential hopefuls made their case for the nation β s top job during the sixth prime-time GOP debate from North Charleston , South Carolina , on Thursday night .
Fireworks came fast and furious , and some candidates fared far better than others . Here is how The βββ saw it :
Ted Cruz : With their fake friendship on the rocks , Mr. Cruz , a favorite of tea partyers and religious conservatives , held his own in the escalating feud with Donald Trump , his top rival ahead of the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses .
Donald Trump : β The Donald β has taken conventional wisdom , crumpled it up into a ball and whipped it off the forehead of the GOP establishment , his rivals and the rest of the political universe . Nothing changed last night .
Marco Rubio : Mr. Rubio came off as sensible and less of a firebrand than Mr. Cruz , which could help him consolidate the more moderated-minded elements of the party behind his candidacy . He was laser-focused on bashing President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton .
SEE ALSO : AP FACT CHECK : Claims from the Republican debate
Chris Christie : With another solid debate performance , the New Jersey governor is rising toward the top tier of candidates when it matters most . Got one of the best lines with his curt β you blew it , Marco β dismissal .
Jeb ( ! ) Bush : The former Florida governor wants voters to believe that he is best prepared to take on Donald Trump , the schoolyard bully . He mounted his best defense yet against the billionaire , but his awkwardness keeps holding him back .
Ben Carson : The thrill appears to be gone . Mr. Carson had to do something to inject new energy into his campaign . He didn β t .
John Kasich : Ran with his cranky routine . Not a good look .
All the participants in the totally overlooked and quickly forgotten 6 p.m. undercard debate : Mike Huckabee , Carly Fiorina and Rick Santorum . And Rand Paul gets a big β L β for skipping the event altogether after missing the cut for the prime-time debate . | B0IuGFksxoc1PHzR | 2 | Republican Party | -2 | Debates | 0 | Presidential Elections | 0 | Elections | 0 | null | null |
joe_biden | New York Post (News) | https://nypost.com/2022/10/06/biden-to-pardon-all-federal-convictions-of-simple-marijuana-possession/ | Biden to pardon all federal convictions of simple marijuana possession | 2022-10-06 | Joe Biden, Marijuana Legalization, Criminal Justice, Drugs, Public Health, Culture, Federal State And Tribal Powers, Department Of Health And Human Services, Justice Department, Xavier Becerra, Merrick Garland, 2022 Elections | President Biden on Thursday issued one of the largest mass pardons in US history to roughly 6,500 people convicted in federal court of simple marijuana possession, as well as thousands more charged locally in DC.Biden also ordered a federal review of potβs Schedule I status that lumps it together with such drugs as heroin and LSD, which could begin the process toward federal legalization.Biden told The Post in July that he was βworking onβ fulfilling his 2019 campaign pledge to free βeveryoneβ in federal prison for marijuana offenses β and the president received pressure from Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a Democratic Senate candidate, to embrace marijuana reform ahead of the midterm elections due to broad public support.Nineteen states, DC and two US territories have passed laws since 2012 allowing recreational marijuana use β in defiance of federal law, which still deems possession of the drug for any reason outside limited research a crime.βHe is following through on his campaign commitment,β a senior administration official told reporters moments before Biden tweeted about his actions.βThe president is calling on governors to take action as well. This is important as the vast majority of marijuana possession convictions are state convictions,β an official said.3 President Biden is set to pardon about 6,500 people convicted federally for marijuana possession and thousands more under DC local law. Hans PenninkHowever, the sweeping action stops short of freeing everyone from prison for pot crimes because it will only apply to simple possession, whereas most people in federal prison are accused of distributing the drug.All 6,500 people expected to be pardoned federally are not currently in prison, an official said, and βthere is no individual currently in federal prisons solely for simple possession of marijuana.βThere are 2,700 federal pot inmates, according to a recent congressional estimate β some with life sentences, including Pedro Moreno, 62, who distributed marijuana imported from Mexico from 1986 to 1996. Another federal inmate, Luke Scarmazzo, 42, has served 14 years of a 22-year sentence for running a medical marijuana business in California.βI will die in prison for marijuana unless I receive executive clemency,β Moreno told The Post in April. βAll I can do is hope President Biden was sincere when he said he will free all the pot prisoners.β3 This is one of the largest mass pardons in history and could move the country toward the national legalization of marijuana. APAmy Povah, founder of the CAN-DO Foundation, which advocates for clemency for non-violent offenders, told The Post on Thursday, βSimple possession is typically not a federal crime so Iβm elated for those pardon recipients and look forward to seeing the list of 6,500 individuals who will benefit.βBut Povah added, βI canβt wait for those who are currently incarcerated and have survived a historic pandemic under tortuous conditions to get the relief they were promised, as well.βBiden broke the news of his dramatic marijuana actions on Twitter as he traveled from an event at IBMβs facilities in Poughkeepsie, NY, to a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in New Jersey. Later Thursday, Biden was due to appear at a fundraiser for Senate Democrats in New York City alongside Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who sponsors federal pot legalization legislation.βSending people to jail for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives β for conduct that is legal in many states,β Biden tweeted. βThatβs before you address the clear racial disparities around prosecution and conviction. Today, we begin to right these wrongs.Never Miss a Story Sign up to get the best stories straight to your inbox. Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newslettersThe president added, βIβd also like to note that as federal and state regulations change, we still need important limitations on trafficking, marketing, and underage sales of marijuana.βMayor Eric Adams praised Bidenβs moves, saying, βFor too long, underserved communities β particularly communities of color β have faced disproportionate rates of drug-related incarceration, and I applaud President Biden for taking these tremendous strides toward finally delivering equity to those disproportionately harmed by the βWar on Drugs.ββBidenβs decision to publicly call on Attorney General Merrick Garland and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to evaluate the scheduling of pot under the Controlled Substances Act may have far-reaching effects on research and potentially interstate sales.Marijuana is currently a Schedule I drug, which means itβs considered to have a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical value. Schedule II lists drugs including cocaine and fentanyl, and lower schedules become easier to research and prescribe.3 Biden told The Post in July that he was βworking onβ fulfilling his 2019 campaign pledge to free βeveryoneβ in federal prison for marijuana offenses. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty ImagPot advocates have lobbied unsuccessfully for decades to reschedule marijuana β including at public smoke-ins outside the White House when former βChoom Gangβ toker Barack Obama was president.Some cannabis reform advocates say the government should consider delisting marijuana altogether and treating it like any other farmed product.The dramatic turnabout for Biden on the issue comes about a month ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections as high inflation and rising gas prices threaten to sink Democratic candidates. Last year, the Biden White House fired at least five staffers who admitted to past pot use.The actual pardons will be distributed by the Justice Department to applicants in one of the largest such reprieves since President Jimmy Carter in 1977 pardoned the roughly 500,000 men believed to have violated US draft laws during the Vietnam War, of whom 209,517 were formally accused.A pardon proclamation released by the White House Thursday says, βActing pursuant to the grant of authority in Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution of the United States, I, Joseph R. Biden Jr., do hereby grant a full, complete, and unconditional pardon to (1) all current United States citizens and lawful permanent residents who committed the offense of simple possession of marijuana in violation of the Controlled Substances Actβ¦ or in violation of D.C. Code 48β904.01.. and (2) all current United States citizens and lawful permanent residents who have been convicted of the offense of simple possession of marijuana in violation of the Controlled Substances Act, as currently codified at 21 U.S.C. 844.βThe proclamation says βthe Attorney General, acting through the Pardon Attorney, shall administer and effectuate the issuance of certificates of pardon to eligible applicants.βPardons alleviate various tangential consequences of a criminal conviction for housing, employment, and other issues, such as federal student aid.Biden as a senator authored or advocated for some of the nationβs harshest drug laws in the 1980s and β90s, but he pivoted ahead of the 2020 election with promises of mass clemency as he fended off younger Democratic rivals who supported legalization.Biden said on a debate stage in 2019: βI think we should decriminalize marijuana, period. And I think everyone β anyone who has a record β should be let out of jail, their records expunged, be completely zeroed out.βMembers of both political parties support β and oppose β cannabis policy reform.Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) is pushing legislation to release current federal pot inmates and President Donald Trump last year commuted the sentences of seven people serving life terms for marijuana β including two men who were given life without parole under the three-strikes provision of the Biden-authored 1994 crime law.Michael Pelletier, a 66-year-old wheelchair-bound paraplegic, was among those released by Trump last January. He received a life sentence for smuggling Canadian pot into Maine before both opened regulated recreational markets.βI thank President Trump every day that I wake up in a comfortable bed in a beautiful home in Florida surrounded by loving family, rather than the screeching sound of the P.A. system announcing another lock down due to violence,β Pelletier told The Post this year. βIt breaks my heart knowing there are still people serving life without parole for cannabis. I hope Biden will free all pot prisoners because I personally know several people who voted for him based on that campaign promise alone.βA recent Gallup poll found that 68% of Americans, including half of Republicans, support legalizing pot, and federal legalization is widely considered inevitable due to overwhelming support among younger adults. | cdbc041396171d23 | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
economy_and_jobs | CNN Digital | https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/07/economy/june-jobs-report-final/index.html | The US labor market cooled off in June, adding just 209,000 jobs | 2023-07-07 | Economy And Jobs, Jobs Report, Unemployment | Minneapolis CNN βThe US job market cooled back down in June, adding just 209,000 jobs, and fueling optimism that the economy is on course to nail that elusive soft landing of lowering inflation without triggering a recession.The June job gains, released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, were nearly 100,000 positions below Mayβs stronger-than-expected showing of 306,000 and also fell below economistsβ expectations for a net gain of 225,000 jobs.Itβs the lowest monthly gain since a decline in December 2020, and β excluding the losses seen during the first year of the pandemic β Juneβs total is the smallest since December 2019. That being said, last monthβs job growth still outpaces the pre-pandemic average.βThe job growth is slowing, but I donβt actually think thatβs necessarily a bad thing,β Rucha Vankudre, senior economist for labor market analytics company Lightcast, told CNN. βIn some ways this is great. Weβre continuing to see the soft landing that weβre hoping for.βThe unemployment rate ticked down to 3.6% from 3.7% the month before, according to the report.US employers have now added jobs for 30 consecutive months.In June, the overall labor force participation rate was unchanged for the fourth consecutive month at 62.6%, but more women are working than ever before. The participation rate for women between 25 and 54 years old climbed to an all-time high of 77.8%, continuing a record-breaking streak.βIn the tug of war between the labor market and the economy, there is still a push and pull, yet the labor market remains strong,β Becky Frankiewicz, president and chief commercial officer of ManpowerGroup, said in commentary issued Friday.A long, slow cooldownWhile the Federal Reserve has tried to cool the economy with 10 consecutive rate hikes, the labor market initially remained impervious to those efforts β especially when nearly half a million jobs were added in January.Through the first half of 2023, the economy has added 1.67 million jobs, the 12th largest January to June total on record, BLS data shows.Service industries have driven much of the job growth in recent months as sectors such as leisure and hospitality sought to claw back from the deep job losses delivered by the pandemic as well as to respond to the release of pent-up demand from consumers who had previously suppressed experiential spending.However, since January, the pace of monthly job gains has moderated considerably from what was seen during the past two years, and April and May were even cooler than previously thought as they were revised down by 77,000 jobs and 33,000 jobs, respectively. Additionally, job growth has tailed off somewhat in leisure and hospitality.In June, sectors such as government, as well as health care and social assistance, saw the biggest job gains: 60,000 and 65,200, respectively.There are indications of some slowing in other industries. In June, the number of people employed part-time for economic reasons grew by 452,000 to 4.2 million, an increase that was partially reflective of people βwhose hours were cut due to slack work for business conditions,β the BLS noted in Fridayβs report.More rate hikes on deck?Fed officials have been hoping their aggressive rate-hiking campaign would bring about a slowdown in the job market, and especially in wage gains, which are viewed as a contributor to inflation.Fridayβs report showed that average hourly earnings growth was unchanged at 0.4% from the month before and also unchanged at 4.4% year-over-year.βThe Fed would probably like to see [wage growth] come down a little more,β Lightcastβs Vankudre said. βBut itβs so much better than we were a year ago or even in the past six months.ββIn the post-pandemic economy, weβre experiencing some structural and demographic change that has resulted in an economy thatβs far less sensitive to interest rates than it has been during previous business cycles,β Joe Brusuelas, RSM US chief economist, told CNN. βSo when I see the job gains at this pace, my sense here is that weβre going to need some additional help in terms of cooling of overall inflation, in core services [excluding housing], for the Fed to finally wrap up its efforts to restore price stability.βBrusuelas said he anticipates that the Fed will resume its rate-hiking ways during its upcoming policymaking meeting later this month and increase its benchmark rate by another quarter point.βWeβre not yet there at the peak in the interest rate hike cycle, but weβre getting closer to it,β he said. | 1d97521a0b00b714 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
environment | New York Post | https://nypost.com/2019/10/10/temperature-drops-more-than-50-degrees-as-all-out-blizzard-sets-sights-on-dakotas/ | Temperature drops more than 50 degrees as βall-out blizzardβ sets sights on Dakotas | 2019-10-10 | environment | A β potentially historic β fall snowstorm is set to wallop a large stretch of the country β evolving into an β all-out blizzard β as it passes over the Dakotas and sending an arctic blast into much of the northern US , forecasters predict .
Denver was downright balmy on Wednesday with a high in the lower 80s β but the temperature had already plummeted into the upper 20s by 1 a.m. as snow began to fall , according to Accuweather . From 1 to 3 inches of snow is expected to fall in the Mile High City on Thursday .
A similar drastic change happened in Rapid City , South Dakota , which reached a high of 80 degrees Tuesday β but the mercury dipped 40 degrees Wednesday , the weather service reported . As much as 1 foot of snow could fall in the city , according to predictions .
An β all-out blizzard β is expected to slam the region spanning central and northeastern South Dakota into central and eastern North Dakota , AccuWeather chief broadcast meteorologist Bernie Rayno said .
Most of the Dakotas will see 6 to 12 inches of snow , but 12 to 24 is likely β with 30 inches possible from north-central South Dakota to central and northeastern North Dakota , Accuweather predicted .
β A significant , and potentially historic , October winter storm is expected to impact the northern Rockies into the central and northern Plains through Saturday , β the National Weather Service said in a tweet . β Significant travel disruptions , power outages , and impacts to agriculture and livestock are all anticipated . β
Winds from the northwest will average around 15 to 30 mph with frequent gusts above 40 mph over the northern and central Plains , according to forecasters . The Dakotas could be battered with gusts up to 60 mph .
Gusty winds will also send a chill way out to the south and east , over the middle Mississippi Valley , Great Lakes and Ohio Valley this weekend , according to Accuweather .
Temperatures in Minneapolis will drop from the low 70s to around 40 , and from the 70s to about 50 in Chicago over the weekend , forecasters say . | mjV8bNARSPjZxU6y | 2 | Disaster | -0.2 | Environment | -0.1 | Midwest | -0.1 | North Dakota | 0 | null | null |
economy_and_jobs | CNN Digital | https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/05/politics/mulvaney-shutdown-meeting-cnntv/index.html | Mulvaney: Saturday shutdown meeting 'did not make much progress' | 2019-01-06 | Federal Budget, Economy And Jobs | Washington CNN βProgress in talks to reopen the government remains at a standstill after Saturdayβs meeting with Trump administration officials and congressional staff, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Saturday.Mulvaney told CNNβs Jake Tapper that they βdid not make much progressβ at the meeting, adding that he thought Democrats were βactually, in my mind, there to stall.ββWe didnβt make much progress at the meeting, which was surprising to me,β Mulvaney said. βI thought we had come in to talk about terms that we could agree on, places where we all agreed we should be spending more time, more attention, things we could do to improve our border security. And yet the opening line from one of the lead Democrat negotiators was that they were not there to talk about any agreement.βPresident Donald Trump also said in a tweet Saturday afternoon that the meeting didnβt make βmuch headway.ββV.P. Mike Pence and team just left the White House,β Trump wrote. βBriefed me on their meeting with the Schumer/Pelosi representatives. Not much headway made today. Second meeting set for tomorrow. After so many decades, must finally and permanently fix the problems on the Southern Border!βMembers of the Trump administration and congressional leaders have met several times since the government partially shut down two weeks ago, but prospects of the government opening anytime soon seem bleak as both sides appear reluctant to budge on funding for border security and a wall.A source in Saturdayβs meeting said βbaby stepsβ were made, but Democrats are asking for an official justification from the Trump administration of the demand for $5.6 billion in wall funding and border security.The administration will produce that justification Saturday night or Sunday in an attempt to further talks by Sunday afternoon.A second source familiar with the meeting said Democratic aides made clear that they βneedβ the government open, and then they will continue to negotiate border security.Democratic staff in the room also said it will grow increasingly hard to start formal negotiations with parts of the government closed, a Democratic source familiar with the discussion said. But administration officials rejected the demand, the source said.βIt will be difficult to make real progress as long as the President keeps the government closed,β a Democratic aide briefed on the meeting said.Democrats want an updated budget request because the last one is a year old and asked for only $1.6 billion. They want to see what the Department of Homeland Security would be willing to cut to make the request work from a budgetary standpoint.A House GOP leadership aide called Saturdayβs discussion βproductive,β adding that it was βbeneficialβ to have Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen βfinally be able to outline the crisis at the border in detail without interruption, given her prior efforts were cut off by Democrat leaders.βAn aide to the vice president said the participants in the meeting did not discuss a dollar figure in any depth, but talked about priorities for border security.The group agreed to meet again on Sunday, the House GOP leadership aide said.Another Republican leadership aide said Sundayβs meeting would focus on a budget sheet justification, re-outlining what the administration says it needs to secure the border.However, a Democratic source familiar with Saturdayβs discussion said the vice president made it clear that the White House will not move off of the $5.6 billion proposal.On Friday, Trump told members of Congress he had no plans to move on from his demand for $5.6 billion to build a border wall, according to a person familiar with the meeting.Mulvaney on Saturday reiterated that Trumpβs demand for funding for a border wall has not changed.βI think the President has said for a long time that itβs 5.6 billion for border security, including the wall,β Mulvaney said. βWe recognize that things like technology are important, border crossings are important, but certainly a barrier is important.βTrump said during the meeting Friday that he was prepared to keep the government closed for an extended period of time, according to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who told reporters that Trump said βheβd keep the government closed for a very long period of time β months or even years.ββAbsolutely I said that,β Trump confirmed from the Rose Garden after the meeting. βI donβt think it will, but Iβm prepared.βHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement Saturday afternoon that the House will begin passing individual spending bills next week to reopen parts of the government, beginning with legislation to fund the Treasury Department and the IRS in order to process Americansβ tax refunds on time. But there is no indication the Senate will take up the measures or that the White House would support them since it threatened earlier this week to veto a bill to fund all of the closed departments except Homeland Security.Trump continued to attack Democrats on Saturday morning in a series of tweets.βThe Democrats could solve the Shutdown problem in a very short period of time,β he wrote. βAll they have to do is approve REAL Border Security (including a Wall), something which everyone, other than drug dealers, human traffickers and criminals, want very badly! This would be so easy to do!β | c3be0f41afaf346f | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
culture | New York Post | https://nypost.com/2019/08/23/the-tragic-and-overlooked-fallout-from-the-60s-sexual-revolution/ | The tragic β and overlooked β fallout from the β60s sexual revolution | 2019-08-23 | culture | Declining life expectancy , mass shootings , alarming rates of mental illness , rising white nationalism , the opioid crisis : By many measures , our society is in trouble , and we are ignoring a root cause : the unprecedented familial dispersion that followed the 1960s sexual revolution .
At heart , that revolution aimed to radically sever human sexuality from marriage and child-rearing , from the responsibilities society had hitherto imposed on the individual sexual appetite . Afterward , fatherless homes , family shrinkage and breakup , childlessness and abortion all became commonplace . The net effect of these changes is having fewer people to call one β s own .
Many Americans would say that their own lives have been enhanced mightily by the new liberties wrought by the β 60s revolution . Perhaps . But if we examine what these same changes have delivered at a collective level , an unsettling picture emerges .
One feature of the new landscape is widespread loneliness . And while initial studies were trained on the isolated elderly , scholarly focus is rapidly expanding as social-science data reveal ravaging isolation at the opposite end of the spectrum .
On July 30 , the same day that a shooter murdered two people at a Walmart in Southaven , Miss. , the latest survey by YouGov reported that 30 percent of young people in their sample of 1,254 say they β always or often β feel lonely .
Like any social phenomenon , the systemic outbreak of loneliness has more roots than one . But surely its fundamental source , for young and old alike , is the arithmetical one : the fact that more and more people now pass through life without father , sister , brother , children , cousins or varying combinations of the above β and sometimes without any of the above .
Or consider another signal development of the age that also contributes to social disunity : identity politics . In this case , too , dots connect to post-1960s kinship implosion . β The Combahee River Collective Statement , β agreed by all to be the founding document of such politics , is a manifesto acclaiming group identity as the most important source of power and protection .
It was issued in 1977 , just as the first generation born after the sexual revolution came of age . It was the creation of a group of black feminists , representing a demographic cohort that was the first to experience rising and disproportionate rates of abortion and fatherlessness .
β The only people who care enough about us to work consistently for our liberation are us , β these feminists said plaintively . That statement captured a sad reality that would soon become true for many more Americans : not even having family to count on .
The fracturing of the post-1960s family and the flight to collective identities have not only been occurring at the same time . As the timeline and other evidence show , they can not be understood apart from one another .
Identity politics is also a product of the revolution in another way . Whether one looks left or right , to politics or culture , the question , β Who am I ? β has become the most frantic of our time . Traditionally , that question has been answered at least in part via primordial relations : I am a sister , a daughter , a cousin , a mother , a grandmother .
When answers that revert to family identity are more attenuated than ever before , β Who am I ? β gets answered in a different way . Today β s identity communities operate as the robust family once did actually , offering members a secure place in the group , surrounding them with a simulacrum of siblings and loved ones and having their backs . But they remain shaky substitutes for the real thing .
So yes , let β s do everything we can to help our country as disparate voices urge : Reduce racism , rein in vile forms of electronic entertainment , flag potential killers , work toward a more civil order . America still won β t get better for good without a thorough diagnosis of our underlying malady .
If we are truly to recover and move on , we must begin with an honest reckoning of the impact of decades of decisions taken in the name of β choice β β whose collective deleterious effects on society are such that no single individual would have chosen them .
Mary Eberstadt is author of the new book β Primal Screams : How the Sexual Revolution Created Identity Politics. β She can be contacted at maryeberstadt.com . | RsXIGZjE7CxaqGer | 2 | Family And Marriage | 0.2 | Culture | 0 | Birth Control | 0 | Women's Issues | 0 | Men's Issues | 0 |
immigration | Fox News | http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/11/04/washington-support-for-immigration-reform-heats-up-as-time-runs-out/ | Washington support for immigration reform heats up as time runs out | 2013-11-04 | immigration | President Obama and other supporters of immigration reform see an open road on Capitol Hill toward passing legislation and have stepped up efforts with less than 20 working days left in this legislative session .
The White House confirmed Monday that Obama will hold a Roosevelt Room meeting on immigration reform , after a Republican senator influential in getting such legislation passed in his chamber expressed optimism that the Republican-led House could be poised to follow .
The administration has not released the names of the meeting attendees . But Press Secretary Jay Carney , in confirming the session , suggested the White House will continue to tout reform support from both political parties and big business , including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce .
β Immigration reform will reduce the deficit by $ 850 billion over the first 20 years , β Carney told reporters . β It β s good for the economy and the right thing to do . We hope the House will follow the Senate and take action . β
A Senate Budget Committee spokesman said Carney delivered the talking points used by the business lobbyists pushing this immigration plan .
`` But what does the Congressional Budget Office β s report actually show ? '' he asked . `` The immigration plan would increase on-budget deficits , spike unemployment and slash workers β wages . The White House is offering its full-throated endorsement of a plan to displace millions of low-income U.S. workers at a time of crippling joblessness . β
Exactly how House leaders will address immigration reform has re-emerged as one of the biggest questions in Washington , with just 17 working days remaining on their legislative calendar .
Sen. Jeff Flake , R-Ariz , says the big Capitol Hill lobbying effort last week by business , religious and law-enforcement leaders appears to have jump started a purported House plan that could get support from the chamber β s small-but-powerful conservative caucus because it would not provide a β special β path to citizenship for the country β s estimated 11 million illegal residents .
β I think that we β ve got a good shot at a breakthrough there , β Flake told the Arizona Republic . β The House can move this as fast as they want if they decide to do this . There is time and space on the calendar between now and the end of the year , if we decide we can do it . β
The Senate passed legislation this summer that creates a new -- or special -- 13-year path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants that includes background checks and paying back taxes and penalties while not having to first return to their native country for a waiting period .
However , many conservatives say living in the United States illegally and being allowed to stay until achieving citizenship is β amnesty . β
Flake says the House β s step-by-step plan would allow so-called β dreamers β -- young people brought to the United States illegally as children -- to stay . And the older illegal population could try to achieve citizenship through existing or non-special channels such as their children or employer sponsors , according to the newspaper .
A Senate GOP staffer said the concern is whether incremental House measures -- starting with border security -- get passed and implemented in succession or simply passed and packaged in a way that would make them essentially tantamount to the Senate β s comprehensive bill .
Some of that concern was belied last week when Texas GOP Rep. Michael McCaul said he would not let chamber negotiators meet with their Senate counterparts in conference , amid concerns they could get steam rolled by upper chamber leaders like Chuck Schumer , D-N.Y .
β I am not going to go down the road of conferencing with the Senate bill and I told [ House Speaker John ] Boehner that he needs to stand up and make that very clear , β McCaul , chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee , told conservative radio talk show host Laura Ingraham . β We β re not going to conference with the Senate period . β
Still , critics fear the bills could be combined through other legislative tactics and that anything given Senate approval would have enough support from rank-and-file Republicans to get a floor vote and enough Democratic support for passage . | vW0a1MaShV7fbo0N | 2 | Immigration | -0.1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
labor | The Guardian | https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/06/house-vote-bill-workers-unions | House to vote on legislation to protect workers' rights to form and join unions | 2020-02-06 | US House, Unions, Labor, Economy And Jobs | The US House of Representatives will vote on a bill on Thursday to protect US workers β right to form and join unions that supporters are calling the β most ambitious pro-labor legislation β in decades β and which one Republican lawmaker has dismissed as β the worst bill in Congress β .
The Protecting the Right to Organize ( Pro ) Act has strong support from congressional Democrats and labor leaders . Republican Kevin Hern of Oklahoma , who owns 10 McDonald β s franchises and has an estimated net worth of $ 93m , has called the bill an attempt to β rewrite our country β s labor laws in order to strengthen the coercive power of labor unions at the expense of workers and the economy β .
Some 215 Democrats in the House currently co-sponsor the Pro Act . Three Republicans are currently co-sponsors .
β This will protect people β s rights to form unions . Those who join a union are likely to get better wages , better benefits , and work in a safer workplace , β Democratic congressman Bobby Scott , the author of the bill , told βββ .
The Pro Act amends the National Labor Relations Act and the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act by allowing the NLRB to assess monetary penalties against corporations for labor law violations and impose liability against corporate executives . It also grants the board the right to reinstate workers fired for retaliation while their case is pending review .
FedEx mounts big-money push to head off unionization by US workers Read more
The bill also makes it illegal for corporations to force workers to attend captive audience meetings to persuade them against forming a union , forces corporations to disclose contracts with union-avoidance consultants , and requires mediation and arbitration between newly formed unions and corporations to settle disputes over first contract negotiations .
A 2018 Princeton study found unionized workers have received 10-20 % higher wages than non-union workers in similar job positions over the past eight decades . Congressman Scott said studies show labor unions have also helped eliminate gender and racial pay disparities as wages are negotiated in contracts for all workers .
β The pay disparity in unions is virtually non-existent , β he said . β For those interested in eliminating pay disparities , there is virtually no disparity between men and women , and minorities and whites , in terms of wages . Everyone gets paid exactly the same . β
Union membership in the US hit a record low in 2018 , with only 10.5 % of American workers belonging to a labor union . Rising income inequality has been tied to a significant decline in US union membership over the past few decades . Advocates of the Pro Act are hopeful the legislation is a step forward in working to address the problems facing American workers .
β There is a crisis in our country regarding income inequality and workers β ability to exercise their countervailing power , β said Sharon Block , the co-director of Clean Slate for Worker Power , an initiative of Harvard Law School β s Labor and Worklife Program .
β I think the Pro Act is the most ambitious pro-labor legislation we β ve seen in years , decades maybe . There is an urgency to start to fix the problem the Pro Act addresses , but it can β t be the end of the conversation of what we need to do for workers to rebuild or build countervailing power , as we see this incredible increase of corporate power , the influence of corporations , and the wealthy β s influence on our political system . β | d1e3a3fd1d1be4fd | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
elections | Politico | http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/politico-caucus-new-hampshire-sanders-trump-218965 | Insiders: Sanders and Trump will win New Hampshire | 2016-02-09 | elections | Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are overwhelming favorites in New Hampshire , but that doesn β t mean Tuesday β s primaries are devoid of drama .
The New Hampshire operatives , strategists and activists who comprise The βββ Caucus β most of whom are backing Hillary Clinton or one of the more traditional Republican candidates β do n't believe that anyone can threaten Sanders and Trump for first place , according to a survey conducted on the eve of the first-in-the-nation primary . Roughly 90 percent of New Hampshire insiders picked Sanders and Trump to win their respective primaries on Tuesday , with only a handful giving Clinton or any of the other GOP hopefuls ( namely Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz ) much of a chance .
The insiders are closely watching the margins by which both front-runners prevail β they expect that Clinton will spin a closer-than-anticipated race as a moral victory in the Democratic race , and they anticipate that a close second-place finish from one of the GOP candidates could give that candidate momentum headed into South Carolina and the rest of the primary calendar .
β I am a realist , β said one Democrat , who like all respondents completed the survey anonymously . β As a strong Hillary supporter , I would love to say she will win ; but I think Bernie Sanders has the advantage . However , he will NOT win by the margins the polls are showing . I think it will only be 3 or 4 percentage points , which is great considering he is practically a native son in New Hampshire . β
β This is a real test : voters taking ballots and voting in an election , β a GOP insider said of Trump and the Republican primary . `` It will be interesting to see if survey voters turn into real voters . I think largely they will , but I do n't see Trump winning by more than 5 points . β
Most New Hampshire Democrats think Sanders can β t be beat , but some hold out hope that Clinton β s organization will make it close .
If Clinton β who trails by between 7 and 23 points , depending on the poll β keeps the race close , or even catches Sanders from behind , it will be because of a stronger ground game , insiders said .
β I know all the polls say Bernie , β said one Democrat . β I know he has an advantage , particularly in the western part of the state where we share media markets [ with Vermont ] . I know he has drastically outspent her here . I know he 's able to fuel his ground operation with thousands of Vermonters getting bused in . All reasonable data points should point to a big , big Sanders win . That being said , it does not feel that way on the ground . β
β I still believe Bernie 's lead is single digits , β another Democrat added , β and I still believe that if it 's single digits , Hillary 's superior field operation can close the gap . β
But would a close finish fuel Clinton 's efforts to beat back Sanders in other states , starting with the Nevada caucuses and South Carolina primary later this month ? One Democratic insider said Sanders would win New Hampshire , but the race would be β closer than polls are showing and enough for Hillary Clinton to claim a strong comeback and get the resulting momentum . β
Sanders β backers , meanwhile , insist that defeating Clinton in New Hampshire would be a momentous victory , regardless of the margin .
β This local βββ expects a Sanders victory to be in single digits , but his campaign has already won in New Hampshire , β said one Democrat . β Sanders has denied the Clinton coronation sought by Democratic Party leaders . He has utilized opportunities presented by his candidacy to jumpstart a national conversation about the systemic shortcomings of our system of government . Sanders continues to highlight the struggle for the soul of the Democratic Party . β
Republicans don β t see anyone toppling Trump and are focused on the race for second place .
Trump is poised for a wire-to-wire victory in Tuesday β s GOP primary , Republican insiders said .
β This question has not been in doubt for the last six months , β said one Republican .
β Sadly , unless we get a lot of snow , the Donald will still win , β added another . ( Significant snow accumulation isn β t expected on Tuesday . )
There were a couple of GOP holdouts who maintained that Trump would fall short .
β Historically , New Hampshire has always given the race to the surging candidate over the plateaued front-runner , β said a Republican who picked Rubio to win . β Trump could still win , but it would be going against history . β
Another Republican backing Cruz on Tuesday night suggested Trump β may have severely damaged himself over eminent domain β in last Saturday β s ABC News debate .
One Republican suggested Trump , after finishing second in Iowa last week , needs to run up the score in New Hampshire to sustain his image .
β Trump needs to win big as the polls show [ a ] double-digit lead , β said the Republican , β or his message of [ being ] the best , greatest winner ever wears thin . β
A number of Republicans β in addition to a handful of Democrats β used the survey to project the GOP field beyond Trump and which candidates would continue on to South Carolina .
β Trump wins but under 30 [ percent ] , β said a Republican who picked John Kasich and Jeb Bush to finish second and third , respectively β with Rubio , Cruz and Chris Christie fourth through sixth .
β The other β winner β will be the winner of the governor primary , β another Republican added , highlighting Bush , Christie and Kasich . β The highest finisher , assuming he 's in the top 3 , can move on . The others will be finished . β
One Democrat wondered how far Rubio would fall following last Saturday β s uneven debate performance .
β Rubio did real damage to himself at the debate , β the Democrat said . β With still so many undecided , it will make a difference . I expect him to come in third now . β
These are the members of The βββ Caucus , not all of whom participated in this survey :
New Hampshire : Charlie Arlinghaus , Arnie Arnesen , Patrick Arnold , Rich Ashooh , Dean Barker , Juliana Bergeron , D.J . Bettencourt , Michael Biundo , Ray Buckley , Peter Burling , Jamie Burnett , Debby Butler , Dave Carney , Jackie Cilley , Catherine Corkery , Garth Corriveau , Fergus Cullen , Lou D β Allesandro , James Demers , Mike Dennehy , Sean Downey , Steve Duprey , JoAnn Fenton , Jennifer Frizzell , Martha Fuller Clark , Amanda Grady Sexton , Jack Heath , Gary Hirshberg , Jennifer Horn , Peter Kavanaugh , Joe Keefe , Rich Killion , Harrell Kirstein , Sylvia Larsen , Joel Maiola , Kate Malloy Corriveau , Maureen Manning , Steve Marchand , Tory Mazzola , Jim Merrill , Jayne Millerick , Claira Monier , Greg Moore , Matt Mowers , Terie Norelli , William O β Brien , Chris Pappas , Liz Purdy , Tom Rath , Colin Reed , Jim Rubens , Andy Sanborn , Dante Scala , William Shaheen , Stefany Shaheen , Carol Shea-Porter , Terry Shumaker , Andy Smith , Craig Stevens , Kathy Sullivan , Chris Sununu , James Sununu , Jay Surdukowski , Donna Sytek , Karen Testerman , Kari Thurman , Colin Van Ostern , Deb Vanderbeek , Mike Vlacich , Ryan Williams , Ethan Zorfas
Nevada : Adam Khan , Andres Ramirez , Andrew Diss , Barbara Buckley , Bob Cavazos , Brendan Summers , Chip Evans , Chuck Muth , Dan Hart , Daniel Stewart , Ed Williams , Emmy Ruiz , Erven T. Nelson , Greg Bailor , Heidi Wixom , Jack St. Martin , James Smack , Jay Gertsema , Jeremy Hughes , Jim DeGraffenreid , Jon Ralston , Kristen Orthman , Laura Martin , Linda Cavazos , Lindsey Jydstrup , Mac Abrams , Mari St. Martin , Marla Turner , Megan Jones , Michael McDonald , Michelle White , Mike Slanker , Neal Patel , Nick Phillips , Oscar Goodman , Pat Hickey , Paul Smith , Pete Ernaut , Peter Koltak , Riley Sutton , Robert Uithoven , Roberta Lange , Ryan Erwin , Ryan Hamilton , Sam Lieberman , Scott Scheid , Yvanna Cancela , Zach Hudson
South Carolina : Andrew Collins , Antjuan Seawright , Barry Wynn , Bob McAlister , Boyd Brown , Brady Quirk-Garvan , Bruce Haynes , Catherine Templeton , Chad Connelly , Chip Felkel , Cindy Costa , Clay Middleton , David Wilkins , Dick Harpootlian , Donna Hicks , Drea Byars , Ed McMullen , Elizabeth Colbert-Busch , Ellen Weaver , Erin McKee , Gary R. Smith , Glenn McCall , Inez Tenenbaum , Isaiah Nelson , Jaime R. Harrison , James Smith , Jason Perkey , Jay W. Ragley , Jim Hodges , Jimmy Williams , Joe Erwin , Joel Sawyer , John Brisini , Kevin Bishop , Kim Wellman , Laurin Manning , Le Frye , Luke Byars , Matt Moore , Mikee Johnson , Morgan Allison , Phil Noble , Scott Farmer , Tony Denny , Trey Walker , Tyler Jones , Walter Whetsell , Warren Tompkins , Will Folks
Iowa : Tim Albrecht , Brad Anderson , Rob Barron , Jeff Boeyink , Bonnie Campbell , Dave Caris , Sam Clovis , Sara Craig , Jerry Crawford , John Davis , Steve Deace , John Deeth , Derek Eadon , Ed Failor Jr. , Karen Fesler , David Fischer , Doug Gross , Steve Grubbs , Tim Hagle , Bob Haus , Joe Henry , Drew Ivers , Jill June , Lori Jungling , Jeff Kaufmann , Brian Kennedy , Jake Ketzner , David Kochel , Chris Larimer , Chuck Larson , Jill Latham , Jeff Link , Dave Loebsack , Mark Lucas , Liz Mathis , Jan Michelson , Chad Olsen , David Oman , Matt Paul , Marlys Popma , Troy Price , Christopher Rants , Kim Reem , Craig Robinson , Sam Roecker , David Roederer , Richard S. Rogers , Nick Ryan , Matt Schultz , Tamara Scott , Joni Scotter , Karen Slifka , John Smith , AJ Spiker , Norm Sterzenbach , John Stineman , Matt Strawn , Phil Valenziano , Jessica Vanden Berg , Nate Willems , Eric Woolson , Grant Young | 6Cbf0wjxJ0un6C7f | 0 | Bernie Sanders | 0.2 | Donald Trump | 0.2 | Presidential Elections | 0 | Elections | 0 | null | null |
homeland_security | National Review | http://www.nationalreview.com/article/444823/national-security-immigration-muslims-screen-sharia-supremacism-islam-ideology-religion | American Security and Islamic Reform | 2017-02-11 | homeland_security | Wouldn β t it be interesting , wouldn β t it get us to the crux of the immigration debate , if our best news anchors β I β m looking at you , Chris Wallace and Bret Baier β would put that question to every major politician in Washington ?
Instead , the press is asking not just the wrong question but one that utterly misses the point , namely : β How many terrorist attacks have been committed by immigrants from this handful of Muslim-majority countries ? β It is the same wrong question posed by the imperious federal judge in Seattle who suspended President Trump β s temporary travel ban on aliens from those countries β seven of them . It is the same wrong question that animated the incorrigible Ninth Circuit appeals court in upholding this suspension β and intimating along the way that Trump , and by implication all who fear for the future of our country , are anti-Muslim bigots crusading against religious liberty ( the Ninth Circuit being notoriously selective when it comes to protecting religious traditions ) .
Does the Trump administration realize it β s the wrong question ? I wonder . Instead of attacking the question β s premise , the administration undertakes to answer it . It seems not to grasp that the security argument is not advanced , much less won , by compiling a list of terrorist plots .
Islam does need reform . This is critical to our national security for two reasons that bear directly on the question of which aliens should , and which should not , be allowed into our country .
First , reform is essential because the broader Islamic religion includes a significant subset of Muslims who adhere to an anti-American totalitarian political ideology that demands implementation of sharia β Islamic law . This ideology and the repressive legal code on which it rests are not religion . We are not talking about the undeniably theological tenets of Islam ( e.g. , the oneness of Allah , the acceptance of Mohammed as the final prophet , and the Koran as Allah β s revelation ) . We are talking about a framework for the political organization of the state , and about the implementation of a legal corpus that is blatantly discriminatory , hostile to liberty , and β in its prescriptions of crime and punishment β cruel .
Islam must reform so that this totalitarian political ideology , sharia supremacism ( or , if you prefer , β radical Islam β ) , is expressly severable from Islam β s truly religious tenets . To fashion an immigration policy that serves our vital national-security interests without violating our commitment to religious liberty , we must be able to exclude sharia supremacists while admitting Muslims who reject sharia supremacism and would be loyal to the Constitution .
Islam must reform so that this totalitarian political ideology , sharia supremacism , is expressly severable from Islam β s truly religious tenets .
Second , sharia supremacists are acting on a β voluntary apartheid β strategy of gradual conquest . You needn β t take my word for it . Influential sharia supremacists encourage Muslims of the Middle East and North Africa to integrate into Western societies without assimilating Western culture . The renowned Muslim Brotherhood jurist Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi , who vows that β Islam will conquer Europe , conquer America , β urges Muslim migrants to demand the right to live in accordance with sharia . Turkey β s sharia-supremacist president , Recep Tayyip Erdogan , admonishes that pressuring Muslims to assimilate is β a crime against humanity. β The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation , a bloc of 57 Muslim governments that purports to speak as a quasi-caliphate , promulgated its β Declaration of Human Rights in Islam β in 1990 β precisely because what the United Nations in 1948 presumptuously called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is neither β universal β nor suitable to a sharia culture .
Voluntary apartheid does not require insinuating terrorists into migrant populations . It requires insinuating assimilation-resistant migrant populations into Western countries . Those populations form sharia-supremacist enclaves , which ( a ) demand the autonomy to conduct their affairs under Islamic law as a challenge to the sovereign authority of the host country and ( b ) become safe havens for incitement , radicalization , paramilitary training , fundraising , and jihadist conspiracy β the prerequisites for terrorism .
The problem is not that our β See No Islam β policies may be letting some small percentage of trained terrorists into the country ( although that is certainly a problem ) . The main problem is that we are creating the conditions under which anti-American enclaves can take root , the Constitution can be undermined , and today β s young Muslim teenager becomes tomorrow β s radicalized jihadist .
We can not grapple with these challenges if we are intimidated into silence by such questions as whether a β Muslim ban β is being proposed ; whether heightened scrutiny would be tantamount to a β religion test β ; how many refugees or aliens from this or that Muslim-majority country have been charged with terrorism crimes ; whether Muslims would be disproportionately affected by immigration exclusions ; and whether a ban on a few Muslim-majority countries can be justified if most Muslim-majority countries are exempted .
Such questions are designed to make vetting Muslims seem inconceivable . They are meant to exhaust you into conceding : β If we have to fret so mightily about the potential impact of immigration laws against Muslims , how could we possibly contemplate examining Muslims directly to sort out sharia supremacists from pro-American Muslims ? β You are to pretend that there is no obvious subset of Muslims who are hostile to our country . You are to assume that screening for hostile Muslims would be illegal because to ask about Islam would offend religious liberty β but because you know there are hostile Muslims , you silently hope the authorities have figured out some sneaky , roundabout way to screen for them without appearing to screen for them .
Enough of that . We need to move beyond the β are we targeting Muslims β nonsense and get to the critical question : How do we embrace our Islamic friends while excluding our sharia-supremacist enemies ?
Here β s a suggestion : Bring our Muslim friends , loud and proud , into the process .
It is the reform Muslims who tell us that Islam can separate sharia from spiritual life and that pro-Western Muslims do exactly that .
The only people who may have more interest than we do in Islamic reform are Islamic reformers : courageous Muslims who embrace American constitutional principles of liberty and equality . And at great risk to themselves : Under the supremacist view of sharia , those who depart from Islamic-law principles set in stone a millennium ago are apostates , subject to the penalty of death . You β re not supposed to question that , though , because it β s , you know , β religion . β
How about we stop consulting with the Muslim Brotherhood and other sharia supremacists who tell us Islam is just fine as is , even as its aggressions mount ? How about we bring the reformers very publicly into the vetting process , to help the administration tell the good guys from the bad guys ? To help the administration show that it is not Muslims but anti-American totalitarians that we seek to exclude ?
It is the reform Muslims who tell us that Islam can separate sharia from spiritual life and that pro-Western Muslims do exactly that . It is the sharia supremacists who are outraged by the very suggestion that reform is possible , let alone necessary . If we continue taking our cues from the latter , it means that their noxious political ideology is part and parcel of Islam , and therefore that screening to keep that ideology out of our country is a violation of First Amendment religious liberty .
In other words , if you β re unwilling to say that Islam needs reform , then we can β t vet . . . and we are doomed . On the other hand , if Islam does need reform , isn β t it imperative that we identify the Muslims who resist reform β the sharia supremacists who seek not to join but to radically change our free , constitutional society ? | eprZHAPLY9mRjz5S | 2 | Defense And Security | -0.3 | Islam | -0.2 | DHS | -0.1 | null | null | null | null |
middle_east | Washington Times | http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/3/al-qaeda-operatives-unleashed-benghazi-attack-repo/ | Al Qaeda operatives unleashed in Benghazi attack: report | 2013-05-03 | middle_east | U.S. investigators believe several members of al Qaeda β s Yemeni branch took part in last year β s Sept. 11 terror attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi , Libya β and may have been deployed specifically for the undertaking .
CNN reported a senior federal law enforcement official said β three or four members of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula , β as the Yemeni branch is called , took part in the attack , which killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens , State Department officer Sean Smith , and former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty .
The news came after the FBI released pictures of three suspicious men they would like to identify as part of their ongoing probe into the attack . The grainy images of the men came from the extensive surveillance camera footage of the attack .
β We are just seeking information about them at this point , β an FBI official told The βββ this week .
CNN said it did not know whether any of the three pictures showed the al Qaeda suspects .
Another anonymous source briefed on the investigation told CNN that Western intelligence services suspect the men may have been sent by the group specifically to help carry out the attack .
β But it has not been ruled out that they were already in the city and participated as the opportunity arose , β the network added .
Among the article β s authors is President George W. Bush β s homeland security advisor Fran Townsend , now a consultant to CNN and a frequent on-air contributor .
If the men were sent especially to Benghazi , it would suggest a degree of cooperation and planning for the attack β which was initially and erroneously characterized by Obama administration officials as growing out of a protest against a U.S. made anti-Islam video which maligned the Muslim Prophet Mohammed . | bFCdXZqVo3mJ4RI2 | 2 | Middle East | -1.6 | Benghazi | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
taxes | John Stossel | https://reason.com/reasontv/2018/04/10/stossel-the-great-american-tax-ripoff | OPINION: The Great American Tax Ripoff | 2018-04-10 | Taxes | Tax Day gets a lot of attention , but βββ says that attention is misleading , because the April 17 deadline is only for income tax . That 's just a fraction of the taxes that Americans pay .
You probably know about property , payroll , and sales taxes , but there are also lots of hidden taxes . Kristin Tate reports on them in her new book , How Do I Tax Thee ? A Field Guide to The Great American Ripoff .
Tate found a hundred hidden taxesβa rifle tax , airplane and hotel taxes , dog license fees , a blueberry tax in Maine , a sliced bagel tax in New York City ( whole bagels are n't taxed ) , and so on .
Our camera followed her as she asked people if they knew about these taxes . Few did .
When people did know about them , like the dog license fee , they assumed it went to cover the public costs of dogs . But , Tate says , `` in most cities it does n't go to dogs . It just goes to the general fund like all of these other fees . ''
Stossel assumed 911 fees went to maintain the emergency system . But Tate says they usually do n't .
`` In most states and cities the 911 fees just go to general funds , '' she said . In Chicago , `` they hiked their 911 fee in 2008 . The reason for the hike was to fund their Olympic bid . ''
But when Chicago lost its Olympic bid , the 911 fee hike stayed in place .
`` Once they put [ taxes ] there , they almost never go away , '' Stossel suggested .
The views expressed in this video are solely those of βββ , his independent production company , Stossel Productions , and the people he interviews . The claims and opinions set forth in the video and accompanying text are not necessarily those of Reason . | d03ad601b46a248f | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
justice | Fox News Digital | http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/07/28/joyce-mitchell-pleads-guilty-to-helping-killers-escape-from-new-york-prison/?intcmp=hplnws | Joyce Mitchell pleads guilty to helping killers escape from New York prison | 2015-07-28 | Criminal Justice, Justice | It seems you clicked on a bad link and stumbled upon our 404 page | 5e7f5a060bb715b9 | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
elections | Reuters | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election/close-fought-ohio-race-fuels-democratic-hopes-for-november-idUSKBN1KT0U2 | Close-fought Ohio race fuels Democratic hopes for November | 2018-08-08 | Midterm Elections, Ohio, Democratic Party, Elections | ( βββ ) - As Republican candidates backed by President Donald Trump clung to small leads in closely watched races in Ohio and Kansas on Wednesday , nervousness grew in Republican circles about their ability to continue extending millions of dollars in aid to candidates in November β s Congressional elections .
Republican Troy Balderson may have eked out a victory in a special election for a U.S. House of Representatives seat in a reliably conservative district in Ohio , but was leading the Democrat Danny O β Connor by only about 1,700 votes or less than 1.0 percent . The final result could be days away as state officials count more than 8,000 provisional and absentee ballots .
In the Kansas primary to select a Republican candidate for November β s mid-term U.S. elections , Kris Kobach was unable to convert an endorsement by Trump into a resounding victory . He clung to a 191-vote lead over his Republican primary opponent , current Governor Jeff Colyer , with potentially thousands more provisional and absentee ballots outstanding .
Credit for Balderson β s narrow margin in Ohio is going to the $ 4 million-plus the party and outside groups pumped into the district in the final weeks to boost voter turnout . The infusion of cash into a district that has been represented by Republicans for 30 years further triggered alarm bells for the party .
That kind of cash from the national party or its allies may not be available for every at-risk Republican on the ballot in November , with Democrats already raising more money in many seats .
β After last night β s results , endangered members should be burning up the phone lines to donors - either to build their own fundraising or look for a job . The party won β t be able to save everyone , β said Joe Brettell , a Texas-based Republican strategist .
In November , all 435 U.S. House members and one-third of the Senate stand for reelection . Democrats need to pick up 23 seats to take control of the House , and there are dozens of seats currently held by Republicans with larger Democratic populations than the Ohio district .
β Moving forward , we can not expect to win tough races when our candidate is being outraised , β said Corry Bliss , executive director of the Congressional Leadership Fund , a Republican Super PAC that supported Balderson in Ohio . β Any Republican running for Congress getting vastly outraised by an opponent needs to start raising more money . β
Bliss β s group as of mid-July had raised $ 96.6 million and had $ 73.3 million in remaining cash .
Republicans hope Balderson β s narrow win on election night will jolt the field out of complacency .
The biggest unknown may be just how much cash remains for Republicans to tap .
Republican candidate Troy Balderson , in Ohio 's 12th congressional district , gestures at a polling station during Tuesday 's special election in Newark , Ohio , U.S. , August 7 , 2018 . βββ/Shannon Stapleton
Casino executive Sheldon Adelson , historically a large donor , has already kicked in $ 30 million to help Republicans .
But network of donors managed by Charles and David Koch have gone in the opposite direction , warning Republicans they may not support their candidates in large part because of Trump β s protectionist trade policies .
There may still be a well of cash for Republicans thanks to the deep-pocketed donors delighted last year when Republicans passed sweeping tax cuts .
β There is going to be an awful lot of thank-you checks written for the tax bill , β Brettell said .
In Democratic circles , the Ohio results were cast as a win , even if their candidate was not victorious . Other Republicans , including Vice President Mike Pence and Ohio Governor John Kasich , had rushed to Balderson β s aid in a district Kasich once represented .
β He should be running scared this fall , β David Pepper , chair of the Ohio Democratic Party , said of Balderson , who faces O β Connor in a rematch on Nov. 6 . β He β s not going to have Donald Trump , Mike Pence and all that money bailing him out . β
Both races left unanswered questions about whether Trump will be able to lift endangered members to victory , regardless of how much cash they have .
Trump took credit for Balderson β s lead , writing on Twitter that the campaign took β a big turn for the better β after he appeared in the district on Saturday . Mark Weaver , a Columbus-based Republican strategist who did not work for Balderson , said Trump β s visit helped fuel the party β s get-out-the-vote efforts in the race β s final days .
But Pepper noted that Trump β s presence energizes Democrats as well , adding that β if he thinks that finish in this district is a good result , all power to him . β
The Ohio race mirrored other special federal elections over the past 12 months , including upsets by Democrat Conor Lamb in a Pennsylvania congressional race in March and by Democrat Doug Jones over Roy Moore for an Alabama Senate seat in December of last year . Trump stumped for both candidates in losing efforts .
In those races , rural voters favored Trump-supported candidates , but turnout in those regions lagged heavy suburban turnout , where Democrats expanded on margins won by Hillary Clinton in 2016 .
Kobach had hoped to ride his ties to Trump to victory after the president endorsed him in a tweet , but even as Kobach sought to declare himself the virtual winner on Wednesday , he acknowledged he could still lose , and a protracted recount could aid Democrats .
Kansas state law allows for a recount if the vote margin is within half a percentage point , but the candidate has to request the recount . The candidate who requests the recount must pay for it if the results are unchanged by that process , Kobach said . | b8b625b70b643586 | 1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
national_security | Rich Lowry | https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/03/southern-border-crisis-central-american-migrants/ | OPINION: Yes, Thereβs a Crisis at the Border | 2019-03-08 | national_security | Migrants from Honduras approach the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Tijuana , Mexico , December 26 , 2018 . ( Mohammed Salem/Reuters )
Every indication is that the border situation is going to get increasingly worse .
We interrupt the talk of the president β manufacturing β a crisis at the border with this hair-raising report about the crisis at the border .
Alarming new numbers about border apprehensions from U.S. Customs and Border Protection should puncture the lazy conventional wisdom about the border being under control , except in the lurid imagination of President Donald Trump .
More than 76,000 migrants were apprehended crossing the southern border last month , the highest February in more than 10 years and the highest month of the Trump administration . The number of apprehensions tops any month during the 2014 border surge under President Barack Obama , which no one had a problem calling a crisis at the time .
Every indication is that the situation is going to get worse . We could be about to experience a migrant surge worthy of Angela Merkel at her most openhanded , even though , in immigration terms , Viktor Orban β the Hungarian prime minister who favors tough border enforcement β is president .
Yes , there were more overall apprehensions in the 2000s . But it was a different population , made up overwhelmingly of adult males from Mexico who might be apprehended trying to cross multiple times and were reliably returned home when they were caught . Now , we are apprehending people but not returning them .
Migrants are coming in greater numbers from Central American countries instead of Mexico , and are primarily families and children . In an astonishing shift , in 2012 , 10 percent of apprehended migrants were families and children ; in recent months , it β s been 61 percent .
The rules for dealing with migrants from noncontiguous countries and with family units make it all but impossible to swiftly return or detain them , not to mention that our physical facilities were built with single adults in mind .
There is no mechanism to return these migrants home , to hold them after they cross the border , or to remove them once they are in the interior . And word has gotten out . There β s a reason that the subset of migrants that we can β t stop from getting into the country is growing so rapidly .
Needless to say , a spiraling border crisis is maddening for a president committed to controlling the border , which is why we β ve seen such frenetic activity from Trump .
He β s tried to prosecute all adults crossing the border illegally , and had to abandon it in the ( understandable ) firestorm over the resulting family separations . He β s tried to jawbone Mexico into helping , with some success , although migrants are still traveling through Mexico in large numbers . He β s tried to tighten up asylum policy but been blocked in the courts . He β s tried to get Congress to fix the rules for dealing with migrants , to no avail . And , of course , he β s tried to build a wall .
Trump β s rhetoric may be over the top , but the impulse to get a handle on this is absolutely correct .
First , there β s the question of basic sovereignty . If we are going to welcome a large number of migrants from three or four foreign countries , we should make that decision as a conscious policy , rather than slip-sliding into it unawares .
Then there β s the matter of assimilation and legality . Poorly educated immigrants , like the ones coming from Central America , have the hardest time assimilating , and they will lack legal status on top of it .
Finally , there β s the humanitarian question . Migrant families show up needing medical attention that we aren β t well prepared to provide . We β d be much better positioned to tend to the migrants under our care if the numbers weren β t overwhelming .
But we are at a stalemate . The New York Times editorialized the other day that Trump declared β that there β s a crisis at the border , contrary to all evidence. β Then , the paper ran a news story headlined , β Border at β Breaking Point β as More than 76,000 Migrants Cross in a Month . β
Both of those pieces can β t be right . There β s manufacturing a crisis , and then there β s ignoring one for fear of conceding anything to Trump . | VIENN1hMCdFFIa8U | 2 | Border Crisis | -0.8 | National Security | 0 | Defense And Security | 0 | null | null | null | null |
defense | Washington Times | https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/feb/24/patrick-shanahan-acting-defense-secretary-floats-w/ | Pentagon chief floats 'wholesale redesign' of U.S. border security | 2019-02-24 | defense | EL PASO , Texas β Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said Saturday after visiting the U.S.-Mexico border that the government needs a broader , more effective approach to border control . He suggested the Pentagon might contribute with its expertise in surveillance and monitoring .
β How do we get out of treating the symptoms and get at the root of the issue , β Shanahan said in an interview while flying back to Washington .
Considering how the military could reinforce efforts to block drug smuggling and other illegal activity comes as the Pentagon weighs diverting billions of dollars for President Donald Trump β s border wall .
Shanahan said he was not volunteering the Pentagon to take over any part of border control , which is the responsibility of the Department of Homeland Security . But he said his visit led him to question whether there should be a β wholesale redesign β of the way border control is done by the federal government .
Shanahan said the Pentagon is willing to continue supporting the DHS but wants to see a longer-term solution .
β I don β t want to just add resources and not fix the problem , β he said .
The Pentagon , for example , has agreed to temporarily provide active-duty troops to operate Border Patrol vehicles whose cameras can surveil wide areas along the border . Shanahan said this will free up the Border Patrol to do other important aspects of their mission . He said this is a function that could be developed more fully with the benefit of decades of U.S. military experience with ground and aerial reconnaissance and surveillance around the world .
In addition to speaking with Border Patrol agents and other leaders during his visit , Shanahan flew in a V-22 Osprey aircraft along dozens of miles of border west of El Paso , including two areas where DHS is proposing to replace vehicle barriers with 18-foot and 30-foot border walls .
Shanahan and the Joint Chiefs chairman , Gen. Joseph Dunford , visited a border site called Monument Site 3 where a stretch of 18-foot border wall stands atop a huge landfill . They also got an up-close look at Border Patrol vehicles used for surveillance . Vehicle-mounted surveillance cameras can see as far as eight miles away .
During the visit Shanahan tried his hand at firing a couple of Border Patrol weapons , including one that fires plastic bullets .
The two border control sites farther west are on a list of high-priority projects DHS submitted to Shanahan on Friday to support its request for money to pay for construction of roads , replacement of vehicle barriers and dilapidated pedestrian fencing , and installation of lighting . The pedestrian fencing would include detection systems that could alert border patrol agents when someone is attempting to damage or break through the fencing . The money would come from the Pentagon β s drug interdiction programs .
One such project proposed by DHS , dubbed β El Paso Project 1 , β includes segments of border west of El Paso , in Luna and Dona Ana counties , New Mexico . This is among areas DHS cites as known drug smuggling corridors used by Mexican cartels .
These projects are separate from , but related to , those which Shanahan is expected to pay for by diverting money that Congress appropriated for military construction projects . This could total as much as $ 3.6 billion , although Shanahan has not yet determined that the diversion is justified . His visit Saturday was meant to help him decide whether to approve such spending .
DHS has yet to provide the details that Shanahan says he needs before making his decision on the repurposing of military construction funds . He has said he is likely to provide the full $ 3.6 billion the White House is expecting , plus $ 2.5 billion from the drug interdiction program . Trump authorized the use of these military funds when he declared a national emergency to build a wall .
Wall construction would be done under contracts managed by the Army Corps of Engineers , whose commander , Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite , accompanied Shanahan on Saturday . The Corps has built 126 miles ( 203 kilometers ) of border wall in the last two years - mostly replacement barriers , Semonite told reporters .
Democrats in Congress , meanwhile , are seeking to block Trump β s emergency declaration to stop the diversion of Pentagon funds for his border wall . The House is to vote Tuesday on a resolution to block Trump .
There are about 2,900 active-duty troops and about 2,100 National Guard troops on the border in support of Customs and Border Protection . That combined total of 5,000 is expected to grow to 6,000 by March 1 as the Pentagon provides additional support .
The border mission for active-duty forces began on Oct. 30 , 2018 , as Trump asserted that caravans of Central American migrants posed an urgent national security threat . Critics dismissed his use of the military on the border as a political gimmick on the eve of midterm congressional elections . The active-duty mission has since been extended to Sept. 30 . | 3kiUJFQUCJVHnAth | 2 | Border Crisis | -0.3 | Defense | -0.2 | National Defense | -0.2 | Defense And Security | 0 | null | null |
healthcare | Politico | http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/conservatives-obamacare-repeal-republicans-117364.html?hp=t2_r | Conservatives fear GOP leaders giving up on Obamacare repeal | 2015-04-27 | healthcare | Many House conservatives backed the budget last month and spared GOP leaders another showdown with their right flank for one big reason : They were under the impression the spending blueprint would help them β finally β get an Obamacare repeal to the president β s desk .
Now they β re concerned that Speaker John Boehner and company have other plans .
Conservatives are adamant that reconciliation β the rarely used fast-track procedure that allows the Senate to pass legislation with a simple majority rather than 60 votes β be used to pass a repeal of the health care law . They believed GOP leaders were on board .
But as House and Senate lawmakers have met to hash out a compromise budget over the past few weeks , conservatives noted that House Republican leaders have been talking about leaving their options open . An Obamacare repeal is a possibility , but so is a health care β fix β should the Supreme Court knock down some Obamacare tax credits in a case to be decided within a few months .
The ambiguity is causing consternation within the House Freedom Caucus , the few dozen conservatives who β ve repeatedly given Boehner grief over big-ticket items that have split the GOP . Some conservatives are pushing Republican leaders to clarify their intentions β with a public announcement , a provision in the budget or a private assurance .
β It β s imperative that [ Obamacare repeal ] be the focus for our reconciliation instructions , β said Rep. Jim Jordan ( R-Ohio ) at a Heritage Foundation event last week , referring to the guidance the budget has to include in order to employ the procedure .
House Republicans have already voted more than 50 times to try to defund , alter or overturn the health care law that conservatives despise . The latest effort , if it happens , would no doubt fail , too β and there are some indications that GOP leaders are ready to move on . But getting a bill to President Barack Obama β s desk and forcing him to veto it would send a powerful symbolic message to the Republican base that House conservatives haven β t given up on scuttling the law .
The topic took center stage during a recent caucus meeting . It also came up during a press luncheon last week with the most conservative House members . Rep. Bill Flores ( R-Texas ) , who chairs the conservative Republican Study Committee , has been voicing concerns .
No one is threatening to bail on the budget , at least not yet , but conservatives β angst is palpable .
Jordan , who chairs the Freedom Caucus , was perhaps the linchpin of House leaders β success getting their budget across the finish line despite dissatisfaction from fiscal conservatives and defense hawks . Believing that reconciliation would later be used to approve a repeal of Obamacare , Jordan supported the winner-take-all strategy that allowed conservatives to register dissatisfaction with the spending numbers but back the budget when it reached the House floor .
β We told [ the voters ] time and time again , we are committed to getting rid of this law , β Jordan said recently . β So , let β s make sure we keep this thing front and center in the political debate , put it on the president β s desk [ and ] actually make him veto it . β
The debate comes as House and Senate budget conferees prepare to announce a budget deal as early as Monday . A key sticking point in the negotiations has been over reconciliation : Senate budgeters want to use the process only for an Obamacare repeal . The House version gives reconciliation authority to more than a dozen committees , including many that have little or nothing to do with health care . That means , theoretically , they could try to find savings in the farm bill , transportation or an overhaul of the Tax Code .
House leaders fought hard to keep their open-ended version , with leaders talking recently about β flexibility β to look beyond an Obamacare repeal .
β We haven β t gotten specific directions ; no one has come out and said we β re definitely going to do this , β said Rep. John Fleming ( R-La . ) , a Freedom Caucus member . β Whenever it β s discussed , it β s : β These are the various things we could put into [ reconciliation ] , β and the first one is always the repeal of Obamacare . But no one has ever come out , that I β m aware of , and said , point-blank , β Obamacare is going to be it . β β
A spokesman for Boehner ( R-Ohio ) said the party needs to focus on the bigger picture : Getting a budget passed .
Without an agreement , β there is no possible way we can get a repeal of Obamacare to the president β s desk , β said Michael Steel . β That β s why we β re focused on reaching an agreement , and then passing it . β
One of the key reasons Republican leaders have held back on committing to an Obamacare repeal is because they want to see how the Supreme Court rules in King v. Burwell , which seeks to invalidate tax subsidies obtained through federal exchanges . Millions of people now depend on those subsidies to afford health care under the law , and Republicans could be blamed if the high court strikes them down and the party doesn β t offer a replacement .
So GOP leaders are eyeing reconciliation as a way to approve a potential β fix β for Obamacare should the need arise . Some Republicans think it could give the GOP a golden opportunity to force Obama β s hand : When he finds himself in a jam , with millions stranded over health care , they hope he could be forced to accept a GOP alternative that helps those individuals .
But some conservatives want no part of what they view as an attempt to rescue the law .
β Save Obamacare ? β an exasperated Rep. Tim Huelskamp ( R-Kan. ) said when asked his opinion of a King v. Burwell fix . The Freedom Caucus member voted against the House budget because of what he called a β weak β commitment to repealing the Affordable Care Act . β I don β t know why we would save Obamacare . β¦ I β m worried about stopping Obamacare . Fixing it ? β
Rep. Mick Mulvaney ( R-S.C. ) said there will be a β whole-scale uprising in the base β if reconciliation isn β t used to repeal the Affordable Care Act . He echoed Huelskamp on the King case .
β I don β t think King v. Burwell is the magic bullet , β he said . β The overwhelming majority of folks at the [ Freedom Caucus ] meeting β and we have 40 members β believe that Plan A has to be reconciliation to pass a repeal . β
Republican Study Committee Chairman Bill Flores ( R-Texas ) said Republicans are split over what to do if the Supreme Court invalidates the health care subsidies . Some want to β build a bridge β for the nearly 8 million people who could lose their subsidies , giving them some sort of financial assistance to replace the health care tax credits until Republicans come up with a new health care law .
Others just want to pin it squarely on the White House and their adversaries on the left , who wrote the law and β should own those laws , β Flores said in an interview .
β There β s not a good consensus at this point , β Flores said , adding that he β s not keen on replacing the subsidies .
He and Sen. Mike Lee ( R-Utah ) released a joint statement last week urging budget conferees to focus on repeal . They β re considering a β Dear Colleagues β letter to fellow Republicans to press their case .
β Though there are many important reforms to be addressed by Congress , reconciliation is a tool that works best when it is focused and precise , β the statement read . Both lawmakers β support using narrow reconciliation language which is focused on the full repeal of Obamacare . β
Other stanch conservatives , like GOP Reps. Mark Meadows of North Carolina and Matt Salmon of Arizona , seem open to using reconciliation to fix King .
β As much as I β ve been a strong opponent of the Affordable Care Act β¦ we β ve got to do the responsible thing and make sure those people aren β t harmed in the process , β Meadows told βββ .
But most conservatives who seem open to the idea stressed that the same bill must also repeal Obmamcare β what they call β repeal-plus . β
Under tricky reconciliation rules , it β s unclear whetherthey could both replace the subsidies and repeal the law as a whole .
Another Freedom Caucus member said that , even if it were possible to both repeal Obamacare and fix the potential subsidies problem , there β s a chance repeal would be dropped as a practical matter because Obama would never sign such a bill .
Jordan also noted that any legislation passed through reconciliation could never win the president β s signature without being bipartisan β and thus likely to clear the Senate β s usual 60-vote threshold , anyway .
Right now , the Ohio Republican is pressing his argument on reconciliation .
β If there β s some wiggle room there , we want to make sure it stays focused on the Affordable Care Act , β he said . β We β ve just got to make the case . β | yZOlDRi3WmXkydBT | 0 | Conservatives | -0.1 | Healthcare | 0 | Obamacare | 0 | null | null | null | null |
technology | New York Post (News) | https://nypost.com/2020/11/18/democrats-use-big-tech-hearings-to-demand-more-censorship/ | Democrats demand more censorship from Big Tech bosses | 2020-11-18 | Technology, Free Speech, Censorship, Social Media, Twitter, Facebook | Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee spent Tuesdayβs hearing chiding the CEOs of Facebook and Twitter for not stepping up their censorship efforts β despite Twitterβs unprecedented gagging of The Postβs account for two weeks and frequent masking of President Trumpβs tweets. Members of the panel grilled Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for over four hours Tuesday as the pair face accusations of anti-conservative bias and censorship by the right and being lax on βmisinformationβ by the left. They appeared to be unaware of the recent news that Twitter had slapped warning labels on more than 300,000 βpotentially misleadingβ tweets regarding the 2020 election. Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked Zuckerberg during her questioning what Facebook had done to quell βthe spread of misinformationβ by Trump with regard to his posts about winning the 2020 presidential election. βSenator, Iβm very worried about this, especially any misinformation or content that could incite violence and during such a volatile period like this, one of our top priorities is making sure that people donβt use our platform to organize any violence or civil unrest,β Zuckerberg replied. To Feinstein, the answer was insufficient. She went on to lambaste the Facebook founder over a group on his site called βStop the Steal,β a grassroots initiative that planned protest events across the country demanding vote recounts. βAfter President Trump falsely claimed that the election was being stolen, a group called βStop the Stealβ was started on Facebook,β the highest-ranking Democrat on the panel remarked. βYou shut the group down but substantial damage already had been done. Trump supporters, some of them armed with assault weapons, held βStop the Stealβ rallies outside election offices,β she went on. The California Democrat, 87, also pressed Dorsey on whether he thought the site had gone far enough by labeling the commander-in-chiefβs tweets when they contained βmisinformation,β a move over which the platform has faced accusations of censorship. βI do believe that connecting people to the larger conversation, to give them more context, is the right avenue,β Dorsey told Feinstein, making it clear the site had no intention of formally censoring the president by taking down his tweets outright. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) urged Dorsey to go further in his platformβs efforts to fight βmisinformation,β urging the CEO to clamp down on communication linked to βclimate denialism.β βMisleading information is a huge problem, itβs hard to define it completely and cohesively. We wanted to scope our approach to start β to focus on the highest severity of harm,β the Twitter founder replied. βWe focus on three areas: manipulative media, which you mentioned, civic integrity around the elections specifically, and public health, specifically around COVID,β he added. Coons responded by arguing that the company needed to go further, remarking, βIβd urge you to reconsider that, because helping to disseminate climate denialism in my view further accelerates one of the greatest existential threats to our world.β Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) pressed Zuckerberg on his unwillingness to ban former White House adviser Steve Bannon from his platform for saying, in a posted clip from his podcast, that the heads of infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray should be put βon pikes.β Twitter banned Bannon for the remark β made this month on his show βWar Roomβ β but Facebook only removed the video. βSteve Bannon in a Facebook Live video called for beheadings of Dr. Fauci and FBI Director Wray for not acting more favorably toward President Trump. How many times is Steve Bannon allowed to call for the murder of government officials before Facebook suspends his account?β Blumenthal asked Zuckerberg. Advertisement He then lambasted the Facebook chief for allowing βdestructiveβ information to be seen publicly. βI recognize the steps β theyβre really baby steps β that youβve taken so far. The destructive, incendiary information is still a scourge on both your platforms,β he continued. Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) blasted Zuckerberg for allowing conservative news outlets such as Breitbart and the Daily Caller to take part in its group of βthird-party fact-checkers,β an outside panel of reporters it allows to assess content for veracity. She went on to accuse him of pandering to conservatives, insisting he shut them out in order to βstop driving division.β βMr. Zuckerberg, Iβm really wondering at what point you will stop giving in to baseless claims of anti-conservative bias and start exercising your control over Facebook to stop driving division,β she said. Both Twitter and Facebook took extraordinary censorship measures against The Post in October over its exposΓ©s about Hunter Bidenβs emails β with Twitter baselessly charging that βhacked materialsβ were used. The Postβs primary Twitter account was locked for two weeks because its articles about the messages obtained from Bidenβs laptop broke the social networkβs rules against βdistribution of hacked material,β according to an email The Post received from Twitter, despite the materials the articles were based on not being βhacked.β Facebook limited the spread of The Postβs stories on its platform, and the social network added that the story would be βeligible for review by independent fact-checkers.β Unknown | f99839223878925f | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
abortion | Fox News Digital | https://www.foxnews.com/politics/liberal-group-protests-conservative-supreme-court-justice-homes | Liberal group calls for protests at conservative Supreme Court justices' homes | 2022-05-05 | Abortion, Roe V Wade, Supreme Court, Protests, Politics | Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. Left-wing activist groups are planning to send protesters to the homes of conservative Supreme Court justices following a leak indicating the court may soon overturn Roe v. Wade. The activists are organizing under the moniker "Ruth Sent Us" and have published the supposed home addresses of Justices Amy Coney Barrett, John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch. "Our 6-3 extremist Supreme Court routinely issues rulings that hurt women, racial minorities, LGBTQ+ and immigrant rights," the group's website reads. "We must rise up to force accountability using a diversity of tactics." Demonstrators protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday, May 4, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Fox News is told there has been a strong police presence at the justices' homes following the leak. The group says they will visit the homes on May 11. The D.C. Police Department has erected fencing around the Supreme Court building in anticipation of escalating protests this weekend. Police have also activated protest-response units through Sunday. The move comes after a draft copy of Justice Samuel Alito's opinion upholding a Mississippi abortion law leaked to Politico. The decision would overturn Roe v. Wade if adopted by four other justices. Chief Justice John Roberts described the leak as a "betrayal" of the court on Tuesday and ordered an investigation into the incident. SUPREME COURT SET TO OVERTURN ROE V. WADE, LEAKED DRAFT OPINION SHOWS: REPORT Republicans on Capitol Hill have also expressed outrage over the nearly unprecedented leak, while Democrats have sounded the alarms in defense of abortion. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called for the leaker to be prosecuted, saying the move was a transparent attempt to subvert the court's ruling. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP "Somebody, likely somebody inside the court itself, leaked a confidential brief to the press, to stir up a pressure campaign," McConnell, R-Ky., said. "Whoever committed this lawless act knew exactly what it could bring about." Anders Hagstrom is a reporter with Fox News Digital covering national politics and major breaking news events. Send tips to Anders.Hagstrom@Fox.com, or on Twitter: @Hagstrom_Anders. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content. Subscribed You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! | c659c5343113f7f1 | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
justice | CBN | http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/politics/2018/may/doj-to-investigate-fbis-possible-trump-campaign-spy | DOJ to Investigate FBI's Possible Trump Campaign Spy | 2018-05-21 | FBI, Russia Probe, Justice | The Department of Justice has asked its inspector general to investigate possible infiltration into Donald Trump 's 2016 presidential campaign .
The president demanded the investigation because he believes the FBI did more than monitor his staff for possible Russian influence . He wants to know if the Obama administration used the bureau to spy on him and his campaign .
President Trump tweeted up a storm over the weekend -- writing , `` I hereby demand that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump campaign for political purposes-and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama administration . ''
The president 's tweets were in response to articles appearing in The Washington Post and The New York Times reporting that the FBI used an informant -- a retired American professor living in the United Kingdom -- to pass on information he learned while advising the campaign .
Hours later , the Justice Department announced it asked its inspector general to look into the matter . Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said if anyone did infiltrate the Trump campaign , the DOJ would need to know about it and then take action .
US Rep. Adam Schiff ( D-CA ) , the ranking minority member of the House Intelligence Committee , does n't believe the FBI had a spy in the Trump campaign ...
`` This claim by the president and the suggestion by Giuliani that there is a political spy embedded in the Trump campaign is nonsense and you hear it in the same terms that Trump often speaks which is 'people are saying , ' or ' I 'm hearing , ' or 'we 're being told , ' he said . `` That 's another way of saying this is patently untrue , but we 'd like to spread it anyway . ''
President Trump has criticized the FBI and Department of Justice for months . He commented on Fox News last April saying , `` You look at the corruption at the top of the FBI-it 's a disgrace . And our Justice Department which I try to stay away from , but at some point , I wo n't . ''
On Fox News Sunday , Sen. Lindsey Graham ( R-SC ) , expressed concerns about fake and unverified information used by the DOJ as evidence to obtain foreign intelligence surveillance warrants .
`` I want to make sure that the FBI and the Department of Justice did not try to -- in their own way try to change the outcome of the election . Did they use techniques and tactics approved by the court , or did they just make this up themselves ? '' Graham asked .
And as President Trump asked for an investigation , one of his lawyers Rudy Guiliani , said Special Counsel Robert Mueller told him he may wrap up the Russian Collusion investigation-at least the president 's part of it by September first .
All may depend on the president and if he 'll agree to a possible interview with Mueller . | c559cddda7dd8275 | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
politics | Fox Online News | http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/08/23/trump-rips-cohen-for-flipping-praises-manafort-in-exclusive-fnc-interview.html | Trump rips Cohen for 'flipping,' praises Manafort in exclusive FNC interview | 2018-08-23 | politics | President Trump blasted his former attorney , Michael Cohen , for β flipping β on him and praised another ex-lieutenant with legal trouble , Paul Manafort , in an exclusive β Fox & Friends β interview with Ainsely Earhardt airing Thursday morning .
The sit-down comes during a dizzying week that saw Cohen plead guilty and Manafort get convicted for crimes that mostly had to do with their personal business dealings . But Cohen also admitted making hush money payments on behalf of Trump in what prosecutors say amounted to campaign violations .
β [ Cohen ] makes a better deal when he uses me , like everybody else , β Trump said . β And one of the reasons I respect Paul Manafort so much is he went through that trialβyou know they make up stories . People make up stories . This whole thing about flipping , they call it , I know all about flipping . β
He continued : β For 30 , 40 years I β ve been watching flippers . Everything β s wonderful and then they get 10 years in jail and theyβthey flip on whoever the next highest one is , or as high as you can go . β
Cohen , Trump 's former longtime personal attorney and self-described β fixer , β pleaded guilty Tuesday to five counts of tax evasion , one count of bank fraud , one count linked to an unlawful corporate contribution , and one count stemming from an illegal campaign contribution . The tax and fraud charges were tied to his dealings with a taxi business , while the campaign finance charges related to arranging payments to adult film star Storm Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal β at the direction β of then-candidate Trump .
Cohen is facing up to 65 years in prison on all the counts , but prosecutors have pledged to reduce his sentence sharply as part of the plea deal .
β It almost ought to be outlawed . It β s not fair . Because if somebody β s going to giveβspend five years like Michael Cohen , or 10 years , or 15 years in jail because of a taxi cab industry , because he defrauded some bankβthe last two were tiny ones , β Trump explained . β You know , campaign violations are considered not a big deal , frankly . But if somebody defrauded a bank and he β s going to get 10 years in jail or 20 years in jail , but if you can say something bad about Donald Trump and you β ll go down to two or three years , which is the deal he made . β
Trump said that β in all fairness β to Cohen , β most people are going to do that . β
β I β ve seen it many times , β Trump said . β I β ve had many friends involved in this stuff . It β s called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal . β
He laid out a scenario in which β you get 10 years in jail , but if you say bad things about somebody in other words , make up stories if you don β t know . Make up . They just make up lies . I β ve seen it many times . β
β They make up things and now they go from 10 years to they β re a national hero . They have a statue erected in their honor . It β s not a fair thing , but that β s why [ Cohen ] did it , β Trump said .
Trump also seemingly distanced himself from Cohen , downplaying a relationship which spanned over a decade .
β He was a lawyer for me , one of many , '' Trump said . `` You know , they always say , 'the lawyer , ' and then they like to add 'the fixer . ' β Well , I don β t know if he was a 'fixer . ' I don β t know where that term came from . But he β s been a lawyer for me . Didn β t do big deals , did small deals . Not somebody that was with me that much . β
He added : β You know , they make it sound like I didn β t live withβwithout him . I understood Michael Cohen very well . Heβwell , it turned out he wasn β t a very good lawyer , frankly . β
Trump said that Cohen worked for him for about 10 years , and he would β see him sometimes , β but noted that while Cohen was involved in big deals , Trump had β outside lawyers β and β inside lawyers , too . β
β I always found him to be a nice guy , β Trump said .
At issue involving the president is the $ 130,000 payment to Daniels in the weeks prior to the 2016 presidential election in exchange for her silence about an alleged affair with Trump , as well as the McDougal case . McDougal was paid $ 150,000 by the parent company of the National Enquirer for her , separate , story about an alleged 2006 affair with Trump , which it never published . Cohen admitted Tuesday to making an excessive campaign contribution and causing an unlawful corporate contribution .
But Trump insisted he only knew about hush-money payments made by Cohen β later on , β despite Cohen β s claims to the contrary .
β Later on I knew . Later on . What he did βand they weren β t taken out of the campaign finance , that β s the big thing . That β s a much bigger thing , β Trump said . β Did they come out of the campaign ? They didn β t come out of the campaign , they came from me . β
He added : β In fact , my first question when I heard about it was , did they come out of the campaign , because that could be a little dicey . And they didn β t come out of the campaign and that β s big . But they weren β tβ¦that β s not even a campaign violation . β
β If you look at President Obama , he had a massive campaign violation but he had a different attorney general and they viewed it a lot differently , β Trump said . Trump was referring to Obama 's 2008 campaign being fined $ 375,000 by the Federal Election Commission for a series of missing notices for more than 1,300 contributions . They totaled $ 1.8 million .
Trump , though , went on to criticize Attorney General Jeff Sessions , saying he β never took control of the Justice Department . '' When asked whether he would fire Sessions or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein , he maintained that he wants to β stay uninvolved β with the DOJ .
β Jeff Sessions recused himself , which he shouldn β t have done . Or he should have told me , β Trump said . β Even my enemies say that Jeff Sessions should have told you that he was going to recuse himself and then you wouldn β t have put him in . He took the job and then he said I β m going to recuse myself . I said , β what kind of man is this ? β β
Trump added that the β only reason β he appointed him as attorney general was β because I felt loyalty . β
β He was an original supporter . He was on the campaign . He knows there was no collusion , β Trump said . β And what β s come out of Manafort ? No collusion . What β s come out of Michael Cohen ? No collusion . β
This week , Manafort , Trump 's former campaign chairman , was charged on eight counts of tax fraud as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller β s investigation . Unlike Cohen , Trump noted in the exclusive interview with β Fox & Friends , β Manafort did not β flip . β
`` I have great respect for what he 's done in terms of what he 's going through . You know , he worked for Ronald Reagan for years . He worked for Bob Dole . He worked , I guess his firm worked , for [ Sen. John ] McCain . He worked for many , many people many , many years , and I would say what he did , some of the charges they threw against him , every consultant , every lobbyist in Washington probably does , '' Trump said .
He added : `` If you look at Hillary Clinton 's person , you take a look at the people that work for Hillary Clinton , and look at the crimes that Clinton did with the emails and she deletes 33,000 emails after she gets a subpoena from Congress , and this Justice Department does nothing about it and all of the other crimes that they 've done . ''
Trump said he `` did n't know Manafort well , '' and that his charges were `` on things totally unrelated to the campaign . ''
`` And by the way , they got Cohen on [ charges ] totally unrelated to the campaign , '' Trump explained . `` I 'm not involved . I was n't charged with anything . You know , people do n't like to say that , but I was n't charged . '' | QbinbthV41Y0C66M | 2 | Donald Trump | -0.6 | Michael Cohen | -0.6 | Politics | 0 | null | null | null | null |
elections | John Stossel | http://townhall.com/columnists/johnstossel/2016/07/27/clinton-cash-n2198790 | Clinton Cash | 2016-07-27 | Politics | The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent the views of Townhall.com .
This week , as Democrats fawn over Hillary Clinton , I 'm struck by how both Clintons continue to thrive despite their remarkable record of sleazy dealings .
The just released documentary `` Clinton Cash , '' based on a book by Peter Schweizer , explains how they make big money by selling access to themselves .
In a conversation , Schweizer told me how the Clintons use `` speaking fees '' to get around bribery laws .
`` If somebody gave a politician or family member money for a favor , that 's breaking the law . But if you say it 's a speaking fee , and you pay double or triple the normal rate , that seems to be legal . ''
Since Bill Clinton left office , he 's earned more than $ 126 million giving speeches . Nothing wrong with that . Bill likes to talk , and if people want to pay big bucks to hear him or just to say they were near him , so be it . It 's their own money .
But what suggests influence peddling , says Schweizer , is that before Hillary became secretary of state , Bill 's usual fee was less than $ 200,000 . But after Hillary became secretary of state , he made as much as $ 750,000 per speech .
That 's `` evidence that people paying him expect to get something in return , '' says Schweizer . `` She becomes appointed secretary of state , a friend of the president of Nigeria suddenly offers ( Bill ) $ 700,000 apiece for two speeches . An investment firm in Moscow that 's tied to the Kremlin who had never paid for him to speak before suddenly gave him $ 500,000 . ''
Those are just two of many examples cited in `` Clinton Cash . ''
Sometimes the Clintons launder the money through the Clinton Foundation . It 's collected more than $ 2 billion to `` improve global health and wellness . ''
But Sean Davis of The Federalist examined Clinton Foundation records and concluded only about 15 percent of the money goes to actual charity work to help needy people .
Most is spent paying Clinton cronies and other well-connected people to schmooze with governments and charities , which supposedly helps those governments and charities help people . I doubt it helps much .
Even the earthquake in Haiti became a moneymaking opportunity for the Clintons . After the earthquake , the Clinton Foundation announced that it would work with governments and businesses to help rebuild Haiti . Actual rebuilding has been meager .
A Clinton Foundation press release promised an industrial park that would create `` up to 60,000 jobs . '' Just 7,000 jobs have been created .
What the Foundation has managed to do is help Clinton `` friends . '' One , Irish billionaire Denis O'Brien , runs Digicel , a company that wanted a grant to build Haiti 's cellphone network .
`` Four weeks after their application , '' says Schweizer , Digicel sponsored a speech for Bill Clinton in Jamaica and `` paid him $ 225,000 . Within four months of that speech , Digicel would receive the first installment of that grant money . ''
Hillary Clinton 's brother , Tony Rodham , even managed to cash in . The Haitian government awarded an exclusive gold mining contract to a company called VCS mining . VCS , says Schweizer , `` has no experience in mining , very little experience in Haiti , and it raises the question , of all the companies out there , why did the Haitian government pick this one company ? ''
The Clintons will tell you that it had nothing to do with the facts that Hillary 's brother got a job with VCS and the chairman happens to be a Democratic donor .
The worst example in `` Clinton Cash , '' says Schweizer , is the Ericsson telecom deal . The Swedish company Ericsson was in trouble with the State Department because it sold telecom equipment to repressive regimes .
Says Schweizer , `` WikiLeaks cables show the State Department sort of busting up the Swedish foreign minister , saying you need to get Ericsson into line . Ericsson decides that this would be a great time to sponsor a speech by Bill Clinton . They had never done so before . They decided to go big , $ 750,000 for a 20-minute speech . Bill gives the speech and literally seven days later , the State Department comes out with a statement saying we 're not going to take further action against Ericsson . We 're going to ask them to police themselves . ''
Hillary Clinton would like you to believe that electing a woman ( Electionbettingodds.com shows she is favored 67 percent to 32 percent ) means you 've picked an `` outsider '' who will put a stop to Washington favoritism . Do n't believe it . | 1470a8ada7e24452 | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
elections | The Flip Side | https://www.theflipside.io/archives/dems-debate-2 | Dems Debate | elections | Some suggest that Congress β remove Trump from office , so that he can not abuse incumbency to subvert the electoral process , but let the American people make the judgment on whether or not he gets a second termβ¦ Removing Trump from office for the remainder of his term would disable him from abusing presidential power again and protect the integrity of the electoral process from inappropriate interference . At the same time , letting him run for a second term would permit the American electorate to decide whether Trump , despite his attempt to subvert the system , should have another chanceβ¦ Decoupling removal from disqualification lowers the stakes and changes the constitutional calculus . As long as Trump can run again , Republicans can not hide behind a claim that they are [ the ] ones protecting voter choice by opposing impeachment. β Edward B. Foley , Politico
Regarding the discussion about automation , β Study after study is published every year warning the public about the looming threat of robots . The McKinsey consulting firm estimates that automation could kill 73 million US jobs in the next 10 years . The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ( OECD ) estimates 13.6 million lost US jobs . Nearly a dozen separate studies say it could be anywhere from 3 million to 80 million . That β s a huge differenceβ¦ will a quarter of all US jobs really disappear , as one of the debate moderators suggested ? No one has a damn clue . β Alexia FernΓ‘ndez Campbell , Vox
β Last week , an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found that a plurality believe Trump has worsened the nation β s security . And the poll was conducted mostly before Trump gave a green light to Turkey β s invasion of northern Syriaβ¦ For several decades β since the early Cold War , really β Republicans have usually been able to convince the country that they were the ones to be trusted to keep Americans safe . But , as with so much else , President Trump has squandered that durable advantageβ¦ [ and ] left an enormous opening for Democrats to establish themselves as the champions of national security . β Dana Milbank , Washington Post
β A great fun fact about Pete Buttigieg is that he once won a β Profiles in Courage β essay contest in high school with a piece celebrating his political hero : Sanders . And while the two are clearly running in different lanes in 2020 , they have gone through a similar experience as candidates . Sanders began 2016 as a protest candidate , only partway through realizing that he could actually , truly win the whole shebang . He had to pivot from being a gadfly to a plausible nomineeβ¦ [ Buttigieg now has ] to make the same pivotβ¦ β He β s running as an Indiana pragmatist , not the heir to Sanders β s legacy his teenage self would β ve been excited about . And while this surely annoys Beto O β Rourke and Amy Klobuchar , he is the candidate in that lane with the most fundraising prowess and the most plausible path to the nomination in the polling ( especially in Iowa , where he β s in fourth , but not that far down from first ) . If Biden fades out , Buttigieg stands to take his place . β Dylan Matthews , Vox
β If there was any doubt that Elizabeth Warren is the new front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination , Pete Buttigieg , Amy Klobuchar , and Beto O β Rourke cleared that up pretty quickly tonightβ¦ β The tenor of the critiques Warren received tonight were far milder versions of the attacks she β ll have to fend off from Republicans if she β s the nomineeβthat her unabashedly progressive agenda will turn off middle-of-the-road voters , that the candidate who boasts about all her plans is being evasive about her most far-reaching proposal . How she responds over the next few months might well determine whether she keeps her perch atop the primary race . But for Warren , being the target of everyone β s rhetorical fire is undoubtedly a good problem to have. β Russell Berman , The Atlantic
β Focusing a conversation about America β s deeply messed up , unaffordable and unfair health care system with a β gotcha β question about whether fixing it would require tax increases serves no one other than moderators looking to frame progressive proposals entirely around their costsβ¦ no serious person can claim the government wouldn β t need to raise money to finance a single-payer systemβ¦ β The real question is who would pay those taxes and how the burden of new taxes would compare to what American households are currently paying in premiums , co-payments and care their insurance plans don β t cover at all . And that β s to say nothing of the millions of uninsured Americans , who today face unlimited costs when they get sick or injured. β Jeffrey Young , Huffington Post
β Now , it is true that instituting universal health-care coverage would cost a lot of money and require raising taxes . But it β s also true , as Warren ( and Sanders ) keep trying to remind everyone , thatβ¦ it would save the U.S. money on health care overall , because it would eliminate or cut back on the many types of medical spending that currently come out of consumers β pockets . As they could possibly do a betterjob pointing out , universal-coverage systems , rather than being crazy hypotheticals that exist only on paper , have been implemented in America-like countries like Canada and the U.K. without inducing society-ruining catastrophes. β Ben Mathis-Lilley , Slate
The right believes Buttigieg and Klobuchar had a good night , and criticizes Warren β s response on healthcare .
The right believes Buttigieg and Klobuchar had a good night , and criticizes Warren β s response on healthcare .
β Klobuchar and Buttigieg managed to stand outβ¦ [ Klobuchar ] was lively , common-sense , and pugnacious , particularly with Warren . Most of the other candidates are now in the state where they β re terrified of telling any primary voters anything they don β t want to hear , so they promise all things to all people , and that none of it will require any sacrifices or offsets . The corny humor and jokes about nagging her daughter would probably work in a general-election battle in the Midwestβ¦
β Buttigieg has always turned in well-prepared performances ; if his previous nights had any problem , it was that they were smooth to the point of slickness ; he still has that vibe of listening to a presentation from McKinsey Consulting . But if tonight was the pressure night for most of the second tier , with other candidates eager to promise the moon , Buttigieg seemed like the relaxed voice of reasonβ¦ Every candidate tries to tell personal stories about what shaped their values , but Buttigieg does this better than most with his discussion of growing up in South Bend and serving in Afghanistan . β
β [ Buttigieg ] was calm but resolved . America 's word matters greatly not simply for its moral essence , but for the strategic understanding that word proffers in others . The understanding of enemies that America is challenged at one 's peril . The understanding of allies that America is a force to align with in pursuit of a better future . The understanding of neutral nations that America is a nation to respectβ¦ Buttigieg was also right about something else , something too many on the Left and Right ignore or pretend to ignore : the basic truth that there is a foreign policy middle road between endless war and total withdrawal from the worldβ¦
β His plans deserve close scrutiny . Chinese anti-ship missiles and Russian air defense bubbles wo n't be defeated by a larger foreign aid budget and nicely tinged calls to peace . And it must be said that Democrats do not have as supreme a record on foreign policy as they presently wish to presume . Trump 's predecessor was weak on China and weak on Russia . Those nations rose in threat to America thanks to the space President Barack Obama gave them . Still , Buttigieg deserves credit for speaking plainly about the importance of American leadership . Without that leadership the world would be poorer , less free , and less safe . β
β Joe Biden was , once again , seemingly left alone for the most part . Up until the end of the debate , he wasn β t really hit too hard , and even after the divisions over Medicare For All , Biden β s record in the Senate and as Vice President , and a rather chauvinist attempt to take credit for Elizabeth Warren β s time as head of the consumer finance agency she touted as a major accomplishment , Biden still stood tall . The problem is that all of this happened to Biden as an afterthought . Everyone was focused on Warren . Everyone was worried about Sanders β health . Everyone was looking for Buttigieg and others to step up . And no one really cared how well Biden did . That is a bad thing for him . β
β Sen . Elizabeth Warren deservedly drew heat from several rivals over her stubborn refusal to acknowledge that implementing a $ 32 trillion plan to provide free health insurance to everybody would require increasing middle-class taxesβ¦ She 's trying to make the case that because middle-class Americans would be getting free healthcare , their costs would go down overallβ¦
β [ But ] it 's one thing to argue that people are getting a better deal by sending money to the government in exchange for services . It 's another to refuse to acknowledge they are paying taxes . For instance , people may believe that paying property taxes and sending their kids to public school is a good deal on net . But they still think of property taxes as taxes and increases in property taxes as tax increasesβ¦
β Even looking at things on a net tradeoff basis , however , Warren 's numbers [ on healthcare ] do n't add up . An analysis of the 2016 Sanders campaign proposal from the liberal Urban Instituteβ¦ found that the plan would increase overall health spending in the U.S by $ 6.6 trillion over a decade . The largest revenue raiser Warren has proposed during her campaign is a $ 2.75 trillion wealth tax , or less than half this amountβ¦ The clearest proof that middle-class taxes will have to go up is that other countries with socialized health insurance systems along the lines of what Warren is advocating have higher middle-class taxes than the U.S . β
Regarding her candidacy as a whole , β Warren seems to have concluded that if a rule-breaking candidate like Donald Trump can be elected president , then the old political rules don β t apply any more . So she has endorsed Medicare for All and backs eliminating private health insurance ; she has said she β d ban fracking for oil and natural gas ; she supports decriminalizing illegal border crossing , health care for illegal immigrants who get across , and paying reparations to the descendants of slavesβ¦
β Warren obviously hopes that her calls for federal oversight of large corporations and her call for a 2 % wealth tax on multimillionaires will resonate with non-affluent Trump voters . But those voters seem more concerned with elites β political correctness than convinced that Warren β s proposal will send their way any money somehow mulcted from corporationsβ¦ β `` This is not to say that Warren is a sure loser . Any Democratic nominee has a serious chance of beating Donald Trump . But it says something interesting about the Democratic Party that its current top three are in their 70 's and all from overwhelmingly Democratic states . β
β If a dozen drones or missiles can do the kind of damage to the world economy as did those fired on Saturdayβshutting down about 6 percent of world oil productionβimagine what a U.S.-Iran-Saudi war would do to the world economy . In recent decades , the U.S. has sold the Saudis hundreds of billions of dollars of military equipment . Did our weapons sales carry a guarantee that we will also come and fight alongside the kingdom if it gets into a war with its neighbors ? β¦ the nation does not want another war . How we avoid it , however , is becoming difficult to see . John Bolton may be gone from the West Wing , but his soul is marching on . β
Others note , β I β d hate to be a Democratic member of Congress trying to convince Joe Sixpack that this is a whole new ballgame . The transcript shows Trump being Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky trying to ingratiate himself with the big dog by , for instance , mentioning that he stays at Trump hotels . Trump β s conversation is typically scattershot , wandering all over the field , leaving a reasonable listener puzzled about what the takeaways are supposed to beβ¦ β β I think Joe Sixpack β s response is going to be a hearty shrug . After all that has emerged about Trump so far , his approval rating is closely tracking Obama β s approval at the same point in his presidency . To get Mr. Sixpack β s attention you are going to have to do better than this . β | 9sZSSVcsAh959ka1 | 1 | Politics | -0.6 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | |
cia | CNN (Web News) | http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/10/politics/dick-cheney-the-reports-full-of-crap/index.html?hpt=po_c2 | Cheney: 'The report's full of crap' | 2014-12-10 | cia | Story highlights Dick Cheney called the Senate Intelligence Committee 's report on CIA interrogation techniques a `` terrible piece of work ''
He said he has no regrets about the tactics used after the 9/11 terrorist attacks
Former Vice President Dick Cheney called a Senate panel 's report on U.S. interrogation tactics during George W. Bush 's administration is `` deeply flawed '' and a `` terrible piece of work . ''
`` The report 's full of crap , '' he said in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday evening .
Bush 's Republican vice president insisted that the Central Intelligence Agency 's rough tactics -- which the report said included mock executions , beatings , `` rectal rehydration '' and feeding , sleep deprivation and more -- helped the United States `` catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 . ''
JUST WATCHED Could report lead to war crime charges ? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Could report lead to war crime charges ? 01:59
JUST WATCHED Global fallout over torture report Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Global fallout over torture report 02:59
JUST WATCHED Cheney to Obama : Get the U.S. on offense Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Cheney to Obama : Get the U.S. on offense 02:33
JUST WATCHED Gonzales : Torture report may be 'biased ' Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Gonzales : Torture report may be 'biased ' 03:53
`` It did in fact produce actionable intelligence that was vital in the success of keeping the country safe from further attacks , '' he said .
Asked specifically about the rectal rehydration instance detailed in the report , Cheney said : `` I do n't know anything about that specific instance -- I ca n't speak to that . ''
He also said he had n't actually read the report . Its full 6,000 pages have n't been released , but a lengthy summary was issued Tuesday . Cheney said he 'd `` seen parts of it . I read summaries of it . ''
Contrary to the report 's conclusion that Bush did n't know the extent of the CIA 's efforts , Cheney said the President was involved in discussions about the interrogation techniques , and that Bush even pointed out some of those conversations in a book he wrote after leaving office .
He said he has no regrets about the tactics used after the Sept. 11 , 2001 , al Qaeda attacks .
`` I think what needed to be done was done , '' Cheney said . `` I think we were perfectly justified in doing it . And I 'd do it again in a minute . '' | lAHakZWW74deuALr | 0 | Dick Cheney | 0.8 | CIA | 0.5 | Defense And Security | 0 | null | null | null | null |
homeland_security | CBN | http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2015/December/San-Bernardino-Case-Feds-Uncover-Earlier-Plot | San Bernardino Case: Feds Uncover Earlier Plot | 2015-12-10 | Terrorism, DHS, Defense And Security | There are new concerns about the battle against ISIS both at home and in the Middle East . Disturbing new information is coming out about the San Bernardino shooters - and a possible new arrest .
The FBI says the couple who launched the terror attack in San Bernardino -- Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik -- was radicalized long before they met online and before the terror group emerged as the global threat it 's become .
`` Our investigation to date ... indicates they were actually radicalized before they started courting or dating each other online , '' FBI Director James Comey said .
This oversight raises new fears about potential problems with the government 's visa program .
Malik came to the United States on a fiancΓ©e visa in 2014 . The government did n't detect her radical views before letting her into the country . But the FBI says it does n't believe ISIS has terror cells in the United States .
`` So far as we can tell , they have not succeeded in penetrating our borders with their operatives . That 's an aspiration of theirs , '' Comey said .
Meanwhile , as the FBI continues trying to unravel the information left behind by the killers , word of an earlier plot has surfaced .
Farook 's friend , Enrique Marquez , who is accused of purchasing the assault-style rifles used in the San Bernardino attack , claims he and Farook planned an attack in 2012 .
Investigators are trying to piece that new information with what they already have , including a picture of a San Bernardino area high school that was found on Farook 's cell phone .
Fox News reports that federal authorities are expected to bring charges against Marquez .
While investigators look into terrorism at home , some senators have serious questions about how the war against the Islamic State is going in Iraq and Syria .
Defense Secretary Ash Carter testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee Wednesday , saying the United States is ready to help push back ISIS in Iraq .
The United States is prepared to assist the Iraqi army with additional unique capabilities to help them finish the job , including attack helicopters and accompanying advisers , if requested by Prime Minister Abadi , '' Carter said .
Sen. John McCain , R-Ariz. pressed Carter for more U.S. troops on the ground to fight ISIS .
`` There are 20,000 to 30,000 of them . They are not giants . Somebody is going to have to convince me that air power alone is going to do the job , '' he said .
As lawmakers debate what to do about ISIS in the Middle East , many analysts believe that San Bernardino was only the beginning of successful homegrown attacks in the United States . | cd5da792a71f0f71 | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
media_bias | Vox | http://www.vox.com/new-money/2016/11/16/13637310/facebook-fake-news-explained | Facebook's fake news problem, explained | 2016-11-16 | media_bias | News stories are supposed to help ordinary voters understand the world around them . But in the 2016 election , news stories online too often had the opposite effect . Stories rocketed around the internet that were misleading , sloppily reported , or in some cases totally made up .
Over the course of 2016 , Facebook users learned that the pope endorsed Donald Trump ( he didn β t ) , that a Democratic operative was murdered after agreeing to testify against Hillary Clinton ( it never happened ) , that Bill Clinton raped a 13-year-old girl ( a total fabrication ) , and many other totally bogus β news β stories . Stories like this thrive on Facebook because Facebook β s algorithm prioritizes β engagement β β and a reliable way to get readers to engage is by making up outrageous nonsense about politicians they don β t like .
A big problem here is that the internet has broken down the traditional distinction between professional news-gathering and amateur rumor-mongering . On the internet , the β Denver Guardian β β a fake news site designed to look like a real Colorado newspaper β can reach a wide audience as easily as real news organizations like the Denver Post , the New York Times , and Fox News .
Since last week β s election , there has been a fierce debate about whether the flood of fake news β much of it prejudicial to Hillary Clinton β could have swung the election to Donald Trump . Internet giants are coming under increasing pressure to do something about the problem .
On Monday , Google announced that it was going to cut fake news sites off from access to its vast advertising network , depriving them of a key revenue source . Facebook quickly followed suit with its own ad network .
At the same time , CEO Mark Zuckerberg has signaled reluctance to have Facebook become more active in weeding out fake news stories . He described it as β a pretty crazy idea β to think fake news on Facebook could have swayed the election . He says Facebook will look for new ways to stop the spread of fake news , but he also argues that β we must proceed very carefully β and that Facebook must be β extremely cautious about becoming arbiters of truth ourselves . β
The importance of this issue is only going to grow over time . More and more people are getting their news from the internet , putting more and more power in the hands of companies like Google , Twitter , and especially Facebook . The leaders of those companies are going to be under increasing pressure to use that power wisely .
In the 1990s and early 2000s , it was common to think of the internet as a decentralized , even anarchic , place where no one was really in charge . Online-only news organizations were still in their infancy , so that most people either got their news from traditional sources like newspapers or cable news shows , or else they went to the home pages of conventional news organizations like the New York Times , the Atlantic , or Fox News .
The rise of social media sites has changed things in two major ways .
First , social media has drastically lowered barriers to entry in the news business . It has always been easy for anyone to publish a website , of course . But as news consumption is increasingly driven by social media sharing , it β s becoming easier than ever for no-name sites to reach a big audience .
At the same time , a handful of big tech companies β Twitter , Google , and especially Facebook β have gained a huge and growing influence over what news people see . 44 percent of US adults tell pollsters they got news from Facebook in 2016 . That β s vastly larger than other news-focused social media sites like Twitter ( 9 percent ) and Reddit ( 2 percent ) . And while many people get their news from television programs or newspapers , those media are divided among many competing news organizations . This means that Facebook has a larger influence over ordinary Americans β media diets than almost any other news organization .
Normally we think that organizations with a lot of power have an obligation to use that power responsibly . But the leaders of the largest technology companies have resisted thinking of themselves in those terms . They like to think of their sites as neutral platforms that help users share information with each other β without the company making value judgments of its own .
But this isn β t how power works . When an authority figure turns a blind eye to a problem that β s happening under his watch , the problem doesn β t go away . It festers , often becoming an even bigger problem over time .
Fake news is a problem , but we don β t know how big it is
The problem of fake news is so new that we don β t have definitive data on how big of a problem it is . But there are some reasons to think it could be very significant .
We know that low-quality news stories have proliferated on Facebook . For example , investigations by BuzzFeed and the Guardian found that a group of cynical Macedonian hucksters had created dozens of right-wing news sites that publish low-quality pro-Trump news stories . Some are plagiarized from other conservative news sites . Others appear to be totally made up , with headlines like β Proof surfaces that Obama was born in Kenya , β β Bill Clinton β s sex tape just leaked , β and β Pope Francis forbids Catholics from voting for Hillary ! β
β Yes , the info in the blogs is bad , false , and misleading but the rationale is that β if it gets the people to click on it and engage , then use it , β β a Macedonian student told BuzzFeed .
Other fake news is generated by partisan bloggers taking news tidbits out of context and drawing totally wrong conclusions from them . For example , some confused conservative bloggers misread a leaked email from Clinton adviser John Podesta as evidence that Democrats were manipulating public poll results . In fact , Democrats were using a standard polling technique called oversampling on Democrats β own internal polls β but that didn β t stop the story from spreading among online conservatives .
And fake news hasn β t only circulated on the right-hand side of the political spectrum . A story about Pope Francis endorsing Bernie Sanders was also made up .
As the internet β s most popular news source , Facebook appears to have the biggest fake news problem . But it β s not a problem that only afflicts Facebook . In the wake of last week β s election , one of the top search results on Google was a post claiming that Trump won the popular vote β he didn β t .
Facebook is worried about being seen as biased against conservatives
Publicly , Facebook β s CEO has downplayed the site β s role in distributing fake news online . But privately , there β s a raging debate inside Facebook about how it could do more .
BuzzFeed reports that some Facebook employees are frustrated by Zuckerberg β s blasΓ© response to concerns about fake news on the social media platform .
β What β s crazy is for him to come out and dismiss it like that , β one anonymous engineer wrote , according to BuzzFeed . β He knows , and those of us at the company know , that fake news ran wild on our platform during the entire campaign season . β
One reason Facebook β s management has been so cautious on this issue is that it β s still smarting from the controversy earlier this year over Facebook β s trending news feature . Until this summer , Facebook employed a team of professional journalists to curate the trending news box that appeared in the right-hand rail next to the Facebook newsfeed .
Then in May , one of Facebook β s trending news editors told Gizmodo that the team was routinely suppressing trending stories that slanted in a conservative direction . That caused a massive backlash , including questions from Republicans in Congress about Facebook β s editorial policies . This led to Facebook terminating the entire trending news team . Today , Facebook uses software to choose which headlines appear in this box .
But with the human editors gone , Facebook had a new problem : It started to see fake stories showing up in the trending box . Facebook β s trending news algorithm simply wasn β t sophisticated enough to distinguish an accurate news story from an inaccurate one .
The current debate over fake news on Facebook can be seen as a much broader version of the same controversy . Nobody is going to defend fake news per se . But once you start injecting human editorial judgment into content decisions , questions of bias are inevitably going to come up .
This is a particularly tricky issue because it β s not easy to draw a line between articles that are totally fake and articles that are just highly misleading or based on shoddy reporting .
For example , after BuzzFeed reported that 43 percent of articles from a hyperpartisan site called Right Wing News were either β mostly false β or a β mix of true and false , β the site β s editor insisted that many of the articles classified as false were actually accurate . One story claimed that the Clinton Foundation devoted only 10 percent of its revenue to charity , a figure it got from a Federalist article that only counted grants to third-party organizations , not charitable activities carried out by the Clinton Foundation itself , in calculating total charitable spending .
It seems pretty clear that the Federalist and Right Wing News are in the wrong here . It β s not reasonable to count a foundation β s own charitable programs as overhead . But if Facebook were to classify this story as fake news and ban it from the site , some conservatives are going to see that as evidence of left-wing bias .
Also , any effort to weed out fake news at Facebook β s scale is going to lead to some straight-up mistakes . If these mistakes disproportionately target conservative viewpoints , that β s going to create a backlash that will hurt Facebook β s brand with tens of millions of conservative Facebook users .
β This is an area where I believe we must proceed very carefully , β Zuckerberg wrote in a Sunday Facebook post . He argued that many stories β express an opinion that many will disagree with and flag as incorrect even when factual . I am confident we can find ways for our community to tell us what content is most meaningful , but I believe we must be extremely cautious about becoming arbiters of truth ourselves . β
Most of the discussion about how Facebook could address fake news has assumed that the goal is to banish fake news from the platforms . But there are a couple of other approaches that might ultimately work better .
One is that rather than banning fake news , Facebook could give a boost to high-quality news . It β s hard to say whether Right Wing News is a fake news site , but it β s easy to say that the New York Times and the Washington Times are legitimate news sources . And Facebook β s newsfeed algorithm decides which news stories to show users first . Giving high-quality news sources a bonus in the newsfeed algorithm could improve the average quality of news users read without Facebook having to make tricky judgments about which news is and isn β t fake .
A second approach would be to change how Facebook presents dubious news stories instead of banning them outright . Right now , when users post a link , Facebook expands that into a β card β showing an image , headline , and short sentence describing the article . This format is standardized so that a New York Times article is formatted in the same way as an article from a no-name blog .
But Facebook could change that . Instead of presenting an identical summary card for every link , it could present different kinds of cards β or no card at all β depending on the perceived quality of the source . Credible news sources could show full cards like they do now . Less credible sources could show smaller cards β or no cards at all .
And Facebook could hire a team of fact-checkers to examine the most widely-shared stories . If a story checks out , Facebook could show an icon verifying that the story is authentic . If it doesn β t check out , Facebook could include a prominent link to a story explaining that the story is inaccurate . Users would still be free to read the story and disagree with Facebook β s verdict . But they β d at least be aware that a particular article β s claim is disputed .
Ultimately , some level of controversy is inevitable for a topic this political . Any effort to crack down on fake news is going to generate a certain amount of backlash from people whose stories are labeled as bogus . But critics say Zuckerberg has an obligation to try to do something to stem the flood of fake news on his platform . | NqE1NexjCFqFSz7T | 0 | Facebook | -0.5 | Media Bias | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
joe_biden | The Daily Wire | https://www.dailywire.com/news/ben-shapiro-slams-russian-disinformation-claims-after-hunter-biden-says-laptop-certainly-could-be-real | Ben Shapiro Slams βRussian Disinformationβ Claims After Hunter Biden Says Laptop βCertainlyβ Could Be Real | 2021-04-03 | Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, Politics, Russia, Media Industry, Media Bias | Hunter Biden declined to challenge the authenticity of the laptop that prompted news reports and a subsequent blackout by big tech companies on Bidenβs overseas business dealings and other affairs. Biden told CBS Newsβ Tracy Smith in an interview set to air on April 4 that he does not know if the laptop at the center of reports on emails between him and his business associates is his or not. The laptop also allegedly contained images of Biden using illicit drugs and engaging in sexual acts with an unidentified woman. βFor real, I donβt know. I really donβt know what the answer is. Thatβs the truthful answer,β Biden told Smith in a clip of the interview released Friday by CBS News. βOf course, certainly [it could have been my laptop]. There could be a laptop out there that was stolen from me. It could be I was hacked. It could be that it was Russian intelligence.β Months after it was alleged that a laptop revealed Hunter Biden's business interests in China and Ukraine, the president's son tells Tracy Smith that the laptop "could be" his Watch the full interview this weekend on #CBSSunday pic.twitter.com/DhtY5IcPeg β CBS Sunday Morning π (@CBSSunday) April 2, 2021 Social media giants Facebook and Twitter took action in October to limit the spread of stories on Bidenβs overseas business dealings while his father was running for the White House. Pundits, journalists, and experts dismissed the Biden laptop stories as Russian disinformation. Facebook limited the storiesβ reach in order to fact check the claims. Twitter claimed that the stories violated the platformβs rules against hacked materials, which CEO Jack Dorsey later said was βwrong.β In response to the CBS interview, Daily Wire cofounder and editor emeritus Ben Shapiro pointed out the absurdity of snuffing the story when Hunter Biden, the central figure in the stories, never denied the authenticity of his alleged laptop. βRemember, the laptop was Russian disinformation and thus the story had to be downplayed on Facebook and removed from Twitter entirely,β Shapiro said. Remember, the laptop was Russian disinformation and thus the story had to be downplayed on Facebook and removed from Twitter entirely https://t.co/PZtbwSz3YW β Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) April 2, 2021 Biden allegedly left three laptops at a computer repair store in Delaware in April 2019. The storeβs owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, believed that Biden was the one to drop the laptops off, and Bidenβs signature appeared on documents outlining the work order and totaling the cost at $85. As The Daily Wire reported: βThe document allegedly signed by Biden details repair work that was to be performed on three MacBook Pro laptops at βThe Mac Shopβ in Wilmington, Delaware. Aside from the signature, the paperwork notes Bidenβs name in the βbill toβ section for a cost of $85,β Fox News reported, adding that the signature had not yet been verified to be Hunter Bidenβs. Other documents reveal that the FBI had communicated with the owner of the computer repair store, John Paul Mac Isaac. He had received a subpoena to testify before U.S. District Court in Delaware on Dec. 9, 2019. βOne page shows what appears to be serial numbers for a laptop and hard drive taken into possession,β Fox News stated. The hard drive, later handed over to reporters, sparked a series of stories on emails and other data gathered from it. A laptop was reportedly handed over to the FBI for further investigation. Biden announced in December that his βtax affairsβ were under investigation by the U.S. Attorneyβs Office in Delaware. Already have an account? Your information could be the missing piece to an important story. Submit your tip today and make a difference. Stay up-to-date on the latestnews, podcasts, and more. We won't sell or share your personal information to inform the ads you see. You may still see interest-based ads if your information is sold or shared by other companies or was sold or shared previously. Dismiss Opt out California residents may click hereto view our California Privacy Notice. To submit a request to exercise any of your privacy rights Click Here. Under certain state laws, the use of cookies that collect information for advertising and other specified purposes may be considered to be a type of selling or sharing of personal information. You may opt out of this type of sale or sharing of your personal information by clicking this toggle to the left (gray) position. These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our Site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the Site. Our Site uses cookies for targeted advertising. These cookies may be set through the Site by our advertising partners, and may be used by those companies to help show you more relevant advertisements on other websites. | f5d9517d4ca28bd1 | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
fiscal_cliff | Washington Times | http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/dec/2/geithner-its-gops-move-avoid-fiscal-cliff/ | Barbs fly on ΓΒ’Γ’βΒ¬ΓΕfiscal cliffΓΒ’Γ’β¬ÒβΒ’ but still no agreement | 2012-12-02 | fiscal_cliff | Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner pushed back Sunday at Republican attacks on the Obama administration β s proposal rolled out four days earlier to avoid falling off the β fiscal cliff , β saying if GOP leaders don β t like it , they should come up with a plan of their own .
But while Mr. Geithner says he is still optimistic a deal will be worked out before critical year-end deadlines , House Speaker John A. Boehner , Ohio Republican , said Sunday that talks with the administration are going nowhere and accused President Obama of trying to ram through the White House plan without negotiating in good faith .
Both sides say the other is digging in and playing partisan hardball at the expense of the fragile economy .
β If they β ve got some different suggestions , [ if ] they want to go further in some areas , then they should lay it out to us , β Mr. Geithner told β Fox News Sunday. β β We are waiting to hear from them . β
The administration on Thursday floated a budget framework to Republicans calling for $ 1.6 trillion in tax increases coupled with promised spending cuts of $ 400 billion . Mr. Geithner also said tax reforms in the president β s plan would raise $ 600 billion .
β We laid out a very detailed , carefully designed set of spending , savings and tax changes that help put us back on a path to fiscal responsibility , β he said .
Mr. Geithner said he is hopeful a deal can be brokered before hitting the early January fiscal cliff , when George W. Bush-era tax cuts expire and a series of defense and domestic spending cuts kick in β a scenario that would trigger a crippling recession , many economists say .
Mr. Obama and most Democrats want to extend the tax cuts only for individuals making less than $ 200,000 and couples earning less than $ 250,000 β about 98 percent of all taxpayers . Republicans want to continue the cuts for everyone .
Mr. Geithner said if negotiations fail , the blame will rest with a β small group β of Republicans in Congress who β decide they β re going to block an agreement because they β re not prepared to see tax rates rise modestly for just 2 percent of the wealthiest Americans . β
GOP leaders dismissed the president β s plan almost immediately last week , saying it doesn β t include enough spending cuts and raises taxes too much . Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell , Kentucky Republican , reportedly laughed when shown the plan β s details last week , while Mr. Boehner said Sunday he was β flabbergasted . β
β I looked at [ Mr. Geithner ] and said , β You can β t be serious , β β Mr. Boehner told β Fox News Sunday. β β We β ve got seven weeks between Election Day and the end of the year . And three of those weeks have been wasted with this nonsense . β
GOP leaders , including Mr. Boehner , have denied they don β t have a plan of their own , pointing to their postelection offer to allow the government to raise tax revenue through ending some deductions and closing loopholes β though they have held strong against raising tax rates . They say it β s now the Democrats β turn to bring more to the negotiating table β namely bigger cuts to major entitlements such as Medicare .
Mr. Boehner also chafed at a provision in the administration β s plan that calls for Congress to relinquish its power to raise the debt limit , calling that idea β silliness . β
The speaker said he still is willing to work with the president to hammer out a deal before the new year . He declined to offer specific details , though he said recent budget plans by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan , Wisconsin Republican , offer plenty of examples on how to lower the debt and deficit .
β I don β t want any part of going over the cliff . I β m going to do everything I can to avert that , β he said .
Sen. Lindsey Graham , South Carolina Republican , sounded even more pessimistic , predicting on CBS β β Face the Nation β on Sunday that β I think we β re going over the cliff. β He also called the president β s proposed entitlement reforms β a joke . β
β The president β s plan does nothing but damn us to becoming Greece , β Mr. Graham said of the European country facing a budget crisis and 25.4 percent unemployment .
Mr. Geithner said Republican leaders in Congress are β in a very difficult place β because they are struggling to win support for a plan from their members , many of whom are committed to taking a hard-line stance against the president .
β We β re going to continue to look for ways to solve this problem , but ultimately [ Republicans ] have to come to us to say what they think they need , β the secretary said Sunday on ABC β s β This Week. β β What we can β t do is to keep guessing about what works for their caucus . β
Sen. Claire McCaskill , Missouri Democrat , told NBC β s β Meet the Press β on Sunday she β almost feel [ s ] sorry β for Mr. Boehner because β there is incredible pressure on him from a base of his party that is unreasonable about this . β
Mrs. McCaskill suggested her party hold firm because β if Republicans refuse to deal and the Bush tax cuts expire for everyone at year β s end β public pressure would force them to cave as soon as Congress returns to Washington in early January .
β They are going to get stuck with a raising of the rates of the top 2 percent either in a very painful way , or in a way that we can all suffer a little bit [ and ] address all three legs of the stool β entitlements , cuts and revenues β in a way that makes sense , β she said .
β It β s time for us all , maybe together , hold hands and say , let β s look at some of the things we β ve got to do structurally . β | iNm1YasjoKJrmAmm | 2 | Fiscal Cliff | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
middle_east | Daniel DePetris | https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/as-war-in-gaza-resumes-where-does-it-go-from-here | As war in Gaza resumes, where does it go from here? | 2023-12-04 | Middle East, Israel Hamas Violence, Israel, Palestine, Gaza, Hamas, Defense And Security, World, Foreign Policy, Ethnic Cleansing, Terrorism, Refugees | Regrettably for the people of Gaza, it was always a matter of when, not if, the war would resume. On Friday, that time arrived as Israeli aircraft continued bombing operations against Hamas infrastructure in the enclave after talks to extend a weeklong humanitarian truce broke down over a dispute about additional prisoner exchanges. Secretary of State Antony Blinken blamed Hamas for the breakdown, arguing that the terrorist group started sending rockets into Israel even before the pause was scheduled to expire. After it ended, the Israel Defense Forces didnβt miss a beat, hitting 200 terrorist targets in Gaza. The Hamas-run Health Ministry reports that approximately 100 people have been killed thus far.For those who believed the short-lived truce would snowball into a broader ceasefire leading to a termination of the war, the resumption of the fighting comes as a significant disappointment. There was a hope, particularly in the minds of Qatari mediators, that a few days of calm would be able to whet the appetites of Israel and Hamas for more serious discussions about cutting the conflict short and perhaps even produce momentum for comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. There havenβt been any peace talks on a two-state solution in nearly a decade.WISCONSIN EX-RACE CAR DRIVER COULD PLAY SPOILER TO GOPβS PLANS TO OUST TAMMY BALDWINYet, while you couldnβt blame anybody for hoping for such an idealistic scenario, the ideal was delusional, grossly underestimating the pervasive difficulties of establishing such a dialogue in the current environment and ignoring what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has emphasized repeatedly over the last week: Once the truce expired, Israel would continue military operations in Gaza as if the previous week didnβt even happen. Indeed, Netanyahu probably wouldnβt be capable of stopping the war even if he wanted to; his coalition, which leans on extremist ministers who believe every Palestinian on the face of the Earth is a terrorist sympathizer, would bolt the government if the campaign to eradicate Hamas wasnβt renewed. Netanyahu was only able to sell the truce to his Cabinet after pledging that the war would eventually go on.The collapse of the truce doesnβt mean the truce itself was ineffective. A few hiccups aside, both sides stuck with the terms. Hamas released 105 people from captivity, including 81 Israelis, while Israel released 210 Palestinian women and minors in return. There wasnβt any Israeli bombing in Gaza during the duration of the truce, and Israeli ground operations ceased. Hamas rocket fire into southern Israel was virtually nonexistent. Aid trucks into Gaza increased, and toward the end of the pause, about 200 trucks were crossing the Egypt-Gaza border daily (granted, the supply was still woefully inadequate to the demand). The biggest beneficiaries were the more than 2 million Gazans who would otherwise be stuck in the middle of a combat zone.Alas, the respite is now over. The question now is: What comes next?The answer to this is self-evident. The IDF will likely spend the next days and weeks consolidating its control over northern Gaza before it moves forces toward the south, where the bulk of Hamasβs leadership resides. Unfortunately for the IDF, this is also where the bulk of Gazaβs people are living (in large part due to Israelβs own evacuation orders). The Israelis will have to contend with an extremely difficult operating environment, made even more difficult by the fact that Palestinians who previously fled to the south on Israelβs own instructions are still being prevented from returning to the north.Washington is watching very closely as to how Israel proceeds. Notwithstanding President Joe Bidenβs public declarations of unconditional support for Israel, thereβs no question the administrationβs tone has shifted on how Israel is prosecuting the war. And for good reason: Far too many Palestinian civilians have been killed, entire neighborhoods in northern Gaza have been rendered uninhabitable, and the drip-drip-drip of humanitarian aid into the enclave simply isnβt enough given the immense need.CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINERBlinken delivered his most emphatic public statement on the need to take better care of civilians as Israel proceeds with its campaign. βI underscored the imperative to the United States that the massive loss of civilian life and displacement of the scale we saw in northern Gaza not be repeated in the south,β Blinken told a press conference after his meetings this week with the Israeli war Cabinet. βAs I told the prime minister, intent matters, but so does the result.βIn short: The war is going to get a lot worse before it gets any better. And the longer the war goes on, the more likely the Biden administrationβs position on the war will grate on the Israelis β and vice versa.Daniel DePetris (@DanDePetris) is a contributor to the Washington Examinerβs Beltway Confidential blog. His opinions are his own. | ed4473a3c6fe2a14 | 1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
foreign_policy | New York Post | https://nypost.com/2020/02/24/donald-and-melania-trump-marvel-at-taj-mahal-during-india-tour/ | Donald and Melania Trump marvel at Taj Mahal during India tour | 2020-02-24 | foreign_policy | President Trump and first lady Melania Trump took a hand-in-hand stroll Monday through the well-manicured grounds and along a reflecting pool of the famed Taj Mahal in India .
On their flight to Agra during the president β s first official visit to the country , Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he β d never been to the iconic 17th-century mausoleum , but that he β s heard it β s β incredible . β
Larger-than-life-size cutouts of Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted the president along the route from the airport as crowds waved tiny Indian and American flags .
They arrived at the UNESCO world heritage site just as the sun was beginning to set .
The first couple held hands in front of the iconic symbol of lasting love before walking back toward the mausoleum .
β It β s truly incredible , β Trump said . The first lady described the Taj Mahal as β lovely β and β beautiful . β
β Do you want to do a press conference now ? β the president jokingly asked reporters , CNN reported .
Noticeably absent were the hordes of rhesus monkeys that roam the site and that local police were prepared to shoo away if they posed a threat to the commander-in-chief .
Earlier , the president was greeted and cheered by a raucous crowd of more than 100,000 people inside a huge cricket stadium . | Jx4ELcVa5lXbdnpW | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
politics | BBC News | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47102614 | Virginia Governor Ralph Northam refuses to quit over racism row | politics | Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has denied he was in a racist photo that appeared in his 1984 student yearbook page after initially apologising for it .
Mr Northam , a Democrat , said he recognised that people would find this `` hard to believe '' .
He also admitted blackening his face to impersonate singer Michael Jackson at an event in the same year .
Top US Democrats have called on him to resign . But he says he will stay on .
The picture showed a man in blackface and another man in Ku Klux Klan robes .
Former Vice-President Joe Biden said Mr Northam had lost all moral authority . Black politicians in Virginia called it `` disgusting '' and Republicans also urged him to resign .
He said he had initially taken responsibility for the photo , which he described as `` clearly racist and offensive '' .
But he said that on reflection with his family and friends he had concluded that he was neither of the people in the photo .
`` It has taken time to make sure that it 's not me but I 'm convinced I 'm not on that photo , '' he said .
He said that he had however blackened his face at a dance contest in San Antonio . `` It is because my memory of that is so vivid that I do not believe I am in the photo in the yearbook , '' he said .
Mr Northam said he was not asking for forgiveness for his past actions but for `` the opportunity to demonstrate without a shadow of a doubt that the person I was then is not the person I am today '' .
The statement on Saturday came after he said on Friday that he was `` deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused then and now '' .
Mr Northam 's yearbook page , which came from the paediatric neurologist 's time at Eastern Virginia Medical School , was first published by conservative website Big League Politics .
The Virginian-Pilot newspaper tweeted a picture of the page which it said it obtained from the medical school library .
An official from the medical school verified the photo and told the Huffington Post that it had come from a `` student-produced publication '' .
The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus , which comprises African Americans elected to the state legislature , described the images as `` disgusting , reprehensible and offensive '' .
`` These pictures rip off the scabs of an excruciatingly painful history and are a piercing reminder of this nation 's sins . Those who would excuse the pictures are just as culpable , '' it said in a statement .
In a tweet , Mr Biden said Mr Northam should resign immediately .
Calls for his resignation also came from four Democratic candidates for president - Senators Kirsten Gillibrand , Kamala Harris and Cory Booker , and Texan mayor Julian Castro .
The photo also prompted a swift backlash from conservatives , including Jack Wilson , the chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia , who called on Mr Northam to step down .
`` Racism has no place in Virginia , '' he said in a statement . `` These pictures are wholly inappropriate . If Governor Northam appeared in blackface or dressed in a KKK robe , he should resign immediately . ''
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren , who is considering a presidential run in 2020 , also called for Mr Northam to resign .
The Ku Klux Klan is one of the oldest and most infamous hate groups in the US , and has targeted African Americans , Jews , Catholics and immigrants , according to the Southern Poverty Law Center , which tracks hate groups .
The group has a long history , with KKK membership peaking in the 1920s . | 2CNzQFXZdQgRqxZm | 1 | Politics | -0.3 | Ralph Northam | -0.1 | Mark Herring | 0 | Justin Fairfax | 0 | Virginia | 0 | |
polarization | Washington Times | http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/sep/11/climate-change-activists-want-punishment-for-skept/ | Calls to punish skeptics rise with links to climate change, hurricanes | 2017-09-11 | polarization | Calls to punish global warming skepticism as a criminal offense have surged in the aftermath of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma , but it hasn β t discouraged climate scientists like Judith Curry .
A retired Georgia Tech professor , she argued on her Climate Etc . website that Irma , which hit Florida as a Category 4 hurricane on Saturday , was fueled in large part by β very weak β wind shear and that the hurricane intensified despite Atlantic Ocean temperatures that weren β t unusually warm .
That is the kind of talk that could get policymakers who heed her research hauled before the justice system , if some of those in the climate change movement have their way .
β Climate change denial should be a crime , β declared the Sept. 1 headline in the Outline . Mark Hertsgaard argued in a Sept. 7 article in the Nation , titled β Climate Denialism Is Literally Killing Us , β that β murder is murder β and β we should punish it as such . β
The suggestion that those who run afoul of the climate change consensus , in particular government officials , should face charges comes with temperatures flaring over the link between hurricanes and greenhouse gas emissions .
β In the wake of Harvey , it β s time to treat science denial as gross negligence β and hold those who do the denying accountable , β said the subhead in the Outline article , written by Brian Merchant .
Brad Johnson , executive director of Climate Hawks Vote , posted last week on Twitter a set of β climate disaster response rules , β the third of which was to β put officials who reject science in jail . β
Climate skeptics have taken note of the alarming trend . β Ever since Hurricane Harvey , the global warming-hurricane hysteria has ratcheted up to levels I haven β t seen since 2006 , β said Ms. Curry .
Anthony Watts , who runs the Watts Up With That blog , listed some of the threats to criminalize skeptics under the headline , β Hate on Display β climate activists go bonkers over # Irma and nonexistent climate connection . β
Climate Depot β s Marc Morano said the heightened vitriol aimed at those who dispute the link between climate change and extreme weather events is a sign that the global warming narrative is losing steam with the public and policymakers .
β Activists have been frustrated with record number of polar bears , no acceleration of sea level , the Pause , no trends or declining trends in extreme weather and the public β s apathy , β said Mr. Morano , whose book β The Politically Incorrect Guide to Climate Change β is slated to be released in February .
β Trump has added to all of that , and we are now seeing them blow their gaskets in frustration , β he said .
Given the heated exchanges fueled by the two hurricanes , the climate change debate is clearly far from resolved .
President Trump has said he plans to pull out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement , drawing an outcry from those who argue that rising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are driving higher temperatures and natural disasters such as drought , wildfires and hurricanes .
β The effects of climate change are no longer subtle . We are seeing them play out before us here and now . And they will only worsen if we fail to act , β said a Sept. 7 op-ed in The Washington Post co-authored by Penn State climatologist Michael E. Mann .
White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert deflected questions at a Monday press briefing about whether Harvey and Irma were caused or made worse by human-driven climate change , saying that β causality is outside of my ability to analyze right now . β
β I will tell you that we continue to take seriously the climate change , not the cause of it , but the things that we observe , β Mr. Bossert said . β And so there β s rising floodwaters β I think 1 inch every 10 years in Tampa β things that would require prudent mitigation measures . β
Meanwhile , Pope Francis said the two Category 4 storms offer proof of catastrophic climate change , even though they are the first two major hurricanes to make landfall on the U.S. mainland in 12 years .
β You can see the effects of climate change with your own eyes , and scientists tell us clearly the way forward , β said the pontiff , adding that leaders have a β moral responsibility β to take action .
An analysis by Colorado State University meteorologist Philip Klotzbach found that the latest hurricanes weren β t unprecedented in terms of their power upon making landfall in the U.S .
His chart showed that Irma made landfall in Florida at 929 mb , or millibars , tying it for the seventh most powerful storm to hit the mainland since record-keeping began in the 1850s .
In Texas , Hurricane Harvey ranked 17th at 938 mb , placing it in a three-way tie with an 1898 Georgia hurricane and Hurricane Hazel in 1954 .
The push to prosecute climate skeptics comes even though the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has concluded that it is β premature to conclude that human activities β and particularly greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming β have already had a detectable impact on Atlantic hurricane or tropical cyclone activity . β
β That said , human activities may have already caused changes that are not yet detectable , β said the Aug. 30 statement .
On the other side is billionaire Richard Branson , owner of Virgin Airlines , who rode out Irma on his private island in the British Virgin Islands and cited the hurricanes as evidence of human-caused global warming .
β Man-made climate change is contributing to increasingly strong hurricanes causing unprecedented damage , β Mr. Branson said in a Friday statement . β The whole world should be scrambling to get on top of the climate change issue before it is too late for this generation , let alone the generations to come . β
Mr. Watts said the air pressure graphic should prompt global warming activists to take a deep breath .
β With Irma ranked 7th , and Harvey ranked 18th , it β s going to be tough for climate alarmists to try connecting these two storms to being driven by CO2/global warming , β Mr. Watts said in a post . β But they β ll do it anyway . β | uK4CDU9SK1EPttiG | 2 | Climate Change | -0.1 | Hurricane | 0 | Polarization | 0 | null | null | null | null |
impeachment | New York Post | https://nypost.com/2019/10/16/last-giuliani-crony-busted-at-jfk-airport-for-campaign-finance-violations/ | Last Giuliani crony busted at JFK Airport for campaign finance violations | 2019-10-16 | impeachment | The feds arrested the final Rudy Giuliani crony charged with violating campaign finance laws β nabbing the man early Wednesday at JFK Airport , according to law enforcement sources .
David Correia β s lawyer , Jeffrey Marcus , said his client had been traveling β in the Middle East β last week when the indictment came up charging him , Lev Parnas , Igor Fruman , and Andrey Kukushkin with conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws .
Correia was arrested Wednesday after his flight touched down at JFK .
Fellow Giuliani pals Lev Parnas , Igor Fruman and Andrey Kukushkin were arrested last week after the feds learned the Russian businessmen had booked one-way tickets to Vienna . Correia was also indicted , but remained at large until Wednesday .
Prosecutors claim the men schemed to channel illicit funds into local elections , and also conspired with an unnamed Russian national to inject foreign funds into Republican campaigns .
Correia is charged with scheming to hide foreign donations to a state-level Nevada political campaign , and planning to use a marijuana dispensary as a money-laundering front .
Correia β who co-owned a company called β Fraud Guarantee β with Parnas β remained largely silent during his brief Manhattan federal court appearance later Wednesday , only speaking when asked by Manhattan federal magistrate court judge Stewart Aaron if he understood the indictment .
β I β ve seen a copy , I haven β t read the whole thing , β he replied .
He was released on $ 250,000 secured bond , and is due back in court Thursday to be arraigned on conspiracy charges .
Giuliani allegedly used Parnas as his Ukrainian fixer , and leaned on the men and their connections as he investigated former Vice President Joe Biden and his son in Ukraine .
Parnas and Fruman are also accused of plotting with Republican ex-Rep. Pete Sessions in an attempt to oust former United States Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch from the region at the behest of foreign politicians .
Sessions is now cooperating with the federal investigation , his spokesman says .
Parnas and Fruman are scheduled to appear before a Manhattan federal court judge on Oct. 23 . | gVd6jn5gRk2M1zKp | 2 | Campaign Finance | -0.2 | Rudy Giuliani | -0.1 | Ukraine | -0.1 | Elections | -0.1 | Donald Trump | 0 |
politics | Politico | http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trump-divided-transition-232229 | Trump marginalizes D.C. transition staff | 2016-12-06 | politics | While Donald Trump dines on frog legs with Mitt Romney and meets with a parade of lawmakers and governors in his gold-plated Midtown skyscraper , most of his transition staff are hunkered down in Washington , D.C. , writing detailed governing plans for his first 100 days .
But so far , Trump and his inner circle have largely ignored those plans as they focus on top appointments and lean on the advice of politicians , CEOs and donors , rather than on their transition staff , say sources close to the transition .
The president-elect , meanwhile , has been more likely to set policy on Twitter than through consultation with his D.C. advisers .
β The senior people are all focused on Cabinet appointments , β said a Republican official involved in past transitions . β I wonder how much time , attention and decision-making is being allocated to the rest of the government . β¦ It is not a recipe for smooth governance . ''
The New York-D.C. transition divide reflects Trump β s tendency to focus on personnel and , especially , personality , over policy . Experts say that bent , combined with his improvisational style and the divisions between the teams will complicate his transition to the White House , making it less likely he β ll have a cohesive roadmap for governing on Day One .
Lisa Brown , a former top official for the Obama-Biden transition , warns that failing to engage on policy could hamper his administration 's governing efforts .
β It is hard to get the government to do things . It β s not like you flip a switch , β she said . β Even reversing regulations , as Trump has said he wants to do , is a long process . β
Indeed , some Obama administration officials worry the Trump transition is far behind in coming up with department-by-department transition plans . EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy , for example , told reporters on Monday that her agency has had only one visit from one person from the transition team .
A Trump transition official disputed any divide between New York and D.C. , or that the transition is falling behind , saying the senior team is β providing clear guidance for New York and D.C. every single day . β¦ The operations are seamless and working well . β
To be sure , past transitions have also suffered from geographic divides . Barack Obama spent much of his time in Chicago ahead of his inauguration and Hillary Clinton β s close aides were also largely based in New York City . The influence of lower-level transition policy staff has always paled in comparison to those aides who have the president-elect β s ear .
β Any transition team only has the power to make recommendations , unless someone on that team ends up in the government , β says Charlie Black , a long-time GOP operative and lobbyist , who is not working for the Trump transition .
But former transition officials say Trump β s operation is unusual in the way it β s leaving so much of the policy and second-tier personnel appointments to D.C. transition team members , many of whom are volunteers with little power and no connection to Trump β s key advisers .
On the Obama transition team , for instance , John Podesta ran interference between the president-elect and the massive D.C. transition operation and kept a tight rein over it . While Vice President-elect Mike Pence is technically doing this job , he β s also the governor of Indiana and vice president-elect , responsible for advising on Cabinet picks and reaching out to Capitol Hill .
β Personnel is so important in this administration because they don β t have a clear roadmap for policy , β said a Republican official involved in past transitions . β Whoever they pick at Education or as the domestic policy chief will be writing a lot of it . β
That official noted that if they had , say , a well-defined tax plan , parts of it would already have been shared with the Joint Tax Committee or Congressional Budget Office to see how much revenue would really be lost . β For this gang , I don β t think this stuff matters very much , β he said .
People close to Trump say they expect him to rely heavily on Pence and other policy staffers once he enters the White House , freeing up Trump to stake out a broader strategic and political vision .
`` I don β t necessarily think he β s saying , 'Boy , I β d really like to breathlessly wait for the Ways and Means subcommittee to put out the first draft of the tax reform bill , β '' said one person close to Trump 's transition team .
Trump has few real ties to Washington β s network of Republican policy wonks and is much more likely to take advice from son-in-law Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon , Trump β s incoming chief strategist , than from veterans of Republican presidencies .
β There is an expectation that Trump will adjust to Washington , but I keep telling people that Washington needs to adjust to him , β says a lobbyist close to the transition . β There is less influence from Washington than there is from the orbits directly around him . β
Still , it is the D.C. transition staff that will build the bridge between the Obama and Trump administrations . It is assembling the all-important β beachhead β teams that will enter federal agencies on Jan. 20 and run things for several months if need be while Trump β s nominees are awaiting Senate confirmation . The teams will consist of appointees who don β t require confirmation , like chiefs of staff , who will work with existing career employees to ensure a seamless transition , two people familiar with Trump β s transition told βββ .
Right now , though , the only access the D.C. staff has to Trump β s inner circle is through Pence and his top aides , creating a β bottleneck β of information , says one lobbyist with transition ties . β Everyone is inundating him and his people with their content . He only has so many asks himself . β
One D.C.-based transition staffer said he gets most of his information about what β s happening with the transition from watching the comings and goings at Trump Tower on the news . β It β s pretty secretive , β the person said . β What you all know is about what I know . All the work that β s being done on personnel is literally being done out of New York , not here . β
Rick Dearborn β a former aide to Jeff Sessions β is running the transition day-to-day , but he is not a part of Trump β s core inner circle , which besides Kushner , Bannon and Pence includes Reince Priebus , Trump β s incoming chief of staff , and Kellyanne Conway , his campaign manager and pollster .
Dearborn did not respond to an interview request . A transition official would not comment on whether Dearborn spends the majority of his time in New York at Trump Tower or D.C .
Much of the big-picture policy work for the first 100 days is being led by a former aide to Sessions ( R-Ala. ) , Stephen Miller , who splits his time between New York and D.C. , according to a transition official .
Transition staff told βββ that communication between New York and D.C. is improving now that Pence has assumed control . Pence has made regular visits and calls to the D.C. office , and he is likely to take a leading policy role in the administration .
But as the transition team grows in size , it β s becoming harder for policy experts to get the attention of Trump β s inner-circle . Recently , the transition team has added a new layer of top advisers β more than a dozen business executives β putting even greater distance between the president-elect β s top advisers and the people making the majority of the policy suggestions .
β The executive team is doing high-profile vetting , recommendations and recruitment , β said Rep. Devin Nunes , part of the transition β s so-called executive committee . β They β re not asking what our policy is going to be on X , Y , or Z . β
Multiple people close to the transition said the best way to influence Trump β s policies is to talk to his core advisers in New York . β New York is the fun and the TV cameras , and D.C. is the people who are going into the Pentagon and Labor and Interior . It is not the glamorous end of the stick , β a GOP strategist added .
Transition staff in D.C. , many of whom are well-respected in their fields and have direct experience working in federal agencies , have been told not to expect jobs in the Trump administration . Two sources , one inside the transition and one close to it , told βββ that transition leaders have said that members of the agency landing teams will not be tapped for Senate-confirmed jobs β an edict that immediately relegates them to those with less pull and stature .
One transition official said she was not aware of any such policy and that most of the landing team members are volunteers , adding that β every citizen is allowed to apply for these jobs . ''
In another sign of the D.C. team β s lesser influence , one Republican lobbyist said he declined to give up his clients and join the transition team because the D.C.-based staff have so little control over Trump β s agenda .
The D.C.-based transition operation has several teams preparing for the hand-off of power , and the heads of all of these teams talk on a daily phone call , a transition official said .
Policy implementation teams are focused on broad policy themes like immigration , energy and health care . Agency-action teams are focused on charting out an agenda for dozens of federal agencies .
And the landing teams , a sub-group of the agency-action teams , are tasked with going into federal agencies and figuring out the logistics of the transition from inside the government .
But little coordination is occurring between the so-called landing teams that go into federal agencies on behalf of Trump and his multiple layers of top advisers . β It β s not clear how much synergy the landing teams have with the folks who will actually be taking in these Cabinet positions , β said one source who β s met with transition officials multiple times .
β If I am on the Treasury landing team , and I β ve never met Steve Mnuchin , how much sway am I going to have ? β | rvaHkQqFSJFp0qET | 0 | Politics | 0.4 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
world | BBC News | https://www.bbc.com/news/health-53409521 | Fertility rate: 'Jaw-dropping' global crash in children being born | 2020-07-15 | Family And Marriage, World, Public Health | The world is ill-prepared for the global crash in children being born which is set to have a `` jaw-dropping '' impact on societies , say researchers .
Falling fertility rates mean nearly every country could have shrinking populations by the end of the century .
And 23 nations - including Spain and Japan - are expected to see their populations halve by 2100 .
Countries will also age dramatically , with as many people turning 80 as there are being born .
The fertility rate - the average number of children a woman gives birth to - is falling .
If the number falls below approximately 2.1 , then the size of the population starts to fall .
In 1950 , women were having an average of 4.7 children in their lifetime .
Researchers at the University of Washington 's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation showed the global fertility rate nearly halved to 2.4 in 2017 - and their study , published in the Lancet , projects it will fall below 1.7 by 2100 .
As a result , the researchers expect the number of people on the planet to peak at 9.7 billion around 2064 , before falling down to 8.8 billion by the end of the century .
`` That 's a pretty big thing ; most of the world is transitioning into natural population decline , '' researcher Prof Christopher Murray told the BBC .
`` I think it 's incredibly hard to think this through and recognise how big a thing this is ; it 's extraordinary , we 'll have to reorganise societies . ''
It has nothing to do with sperm counts or the usual things that come to mind when discussing fertility .
Instead it is being driven by more women in education and work , as well as greater access to contraception , leading to women choosing to have fewer children .
In many ways , falling fertility rates are a success story .
Japan 's population is projected to fall from a peak of 128 million in 2017 to less than 53 million by the end of the century .
Italy is expected to see an equally dramatic population crash from 61 million to 28 million over the same timeframe .
They are two of 23 countries - which also include Spain , Portugal , Thailand and South Korea - expected to see their population more than halve .
China , currently the most populous nation in the world , is expected to peak at 1.4 billion in four years ' time before nearly halving to 732 million by 2100 . India will take its place .
The UK is predicted to peak at 75 million in 2063 , and fall to 71 million by 2100 .
However , this will be a truly global issue , with 183 out of 195 countries having a fertility rate below the replacement level .
You might think this is great for the environment . A smaller population would reduce carbon emissions as well as deforestation for farmland .
`` That would be true except for the inverted age structure ( more old people than young people ) and all the uniformly negative consequences of an inverted age structure , '' says Prof Murray .
The number of under-fives will fall from 681 million in 2017 to 401 million in 2100 .
The number of over 80-year-olds will soar from 141 million in 2017 to 866 million in 2100 .
Prof Murray adds : `` It will create enormous social change . It makes me worried because I have an eight-year-old daughter and I wonder what the world will be like . ''
Who pays tax in a massively aged world ? Who pays for healthcare for the elderly ? Who looks after the elderly ? Will people still be able to retire from work ?
Countries , including the UK , have used migration to boost their population and compensate for falling fertility rates .
However , this stops being the answer once nearly every country 's population is shrinking .
`` We will go from the period where it 's a choice to open borders , or not , to frank competition for migrants , as there wo n't be enough , '' argues Prof Murray .
Some countries have tried policies such as enhanced maternity and paternity leave , free childcare , financial incentives and extra employment rights , but there is no clear answer .
Sweden has dragged its fertility rate up from 1.7 to 1.9 , but other countries that have put significant effort into tackling the `` baby bust '' have struggled . Singapore still has a fertility rate of around 1.3 .
Prof Murray says : `` I find people laugh it off ; they ca n't imagine it could be true , they think women will just decide to have more kids .
`` If you ca n't [ find a solution ] then eventually the species disappears , but that 's a few centuries away . ''
The researchers warn against undoing the progress on women 's education and access to contraception .
Prof Stein Emil Vollset said : `` Responding to population decline is likely to become an overriding policy concern in many nations , but must not compromise efforts to enhance women 's reproductive health or progress on women 's rights . ''
The population of sub-Saharan Africa is expected to treble in size to more than three billion people by 2100 .
And the study says Nigeria will become the world 's second biggest country , with a population of 791 million .
Prof Murray says : `` We will have many more people of African descent in many more countries as we go through this .
`` Global recognition of the challenges around racism are going to be all the more critical if there are large numbers of people of African descent in many countries . ''
You might think the number should be 2.0 - two parents have two children , so the population stays the same size .
But even with the best healthcare , not all children survive to adulthood . Also , babies are ever so slightly more likely to be male . It means the replacement figure is 2.1 in developed countries .
Nations with higher childhood mortality also need a higher fertility rate .
Prof Ibrahim Abubakar , University College London ( UCL ) , said : `` If these predictions are even half accurate , migration will become a necessity for all nations and not an option .
`` To be successful we need a fundamental rethink of global politics .
`` The distribution of working-age populations will be crucial to whether humanity prospers or withers . '' | 46a0cb3f1be28962 | 1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
2024_presidential_election | New York Times (News) | https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/14/us/politics/presidential-election-third-party-candidates.html | In a Tight Presidential Race, Third-Party Candidates Present a Wild Card | 2024-10-21 | 2024 Presidential Election, Politics, Independent Party, Libertarian Party, Green Party, Jill Stein, Cornel West, Chase Oliver, Robert F Kennedy Jr, Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, Battleground States | With a month to go before what is widely expected to be an extraordinarily close election, an extra element of unpredictability looms: In every battleground state, there is at least one third-party or independent presidential candidate on the ballot.None of these candidates will come anywhere close to winning the presidency. Jill Stein, the Green Party nominee, is polling at about 1 percent nationally, according to New York Times polling released last week. Same with Chase Oliver, the Libertarian Party candidate.But their presence on the ballot in just a few states could take just enough votes away from the major party candidates to tip the balance of the Electoral College and the election, in what is known as the βspoilerβ effect.To be a spoiler in the election, a third-party candidate would βeither have to have a large amount of support, or the election has to be remarkably close,β said Bernard Tamas, a professor of political science at Valdosta State University who has written a book on third parties in U.S. politics. | 019f66563f4d78d9 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
healthcare | Vox | http://www.vox.com/2014/12/29/7459571/medicaid-doctor-pay-cut | Obamacare cuts Medicaid doctor pay 42 percent in 2015. Here's why. | 2014-12-29 | healthcare | Thousands of Medicaid doctors are bracing for a tough start to 2015 : a 42 percent pay cut .
The Affordable Care Act temporarily boosted payment rates for primary care doctors who see Medicaid patients in 2013 and 2014 . The idea was to make sure doctors kept participating in Medicaid β which typically has low reimbursement rates β even as the program expanded to cover millions more Americans this year .
That earlier Obamacare pay raise was big , averaging out to a 73 percent increase for primary care doctors across the country . But it was also temporary , lasting only two years , and is set to run out on December 31 . That means , beginning January 1 , 2015 , Medicaid doctors will earn less each time they see a patient β or , they could decide to pull out of the program altogether . Nobody is totally sure which way doctors will go .
Here 's a quick guide to why the raise happened , why it 's running out , and what it means for the future of Obamacare .
1 ) Obamacare raised Medicaid 's primary care payments in 2013 and 2014
It 's long been true of the American health care system that Medicare ( the federal insurance program that covers the elderly ) pays doctors more than Medicaid ( the state-federal insurance program that covers the poor ) .
On average , Medicaid paid doctors about two-thirds of what Medicare pays β although , as this map shows , there 's lots of variation across the country .
Even though Medicaid paid less , it has usually done a pretty good job making sure patients can get in to see primary care doctors . But there was a worry that , after Obamacare , that might not be the case . Medicaid is one of the two big programs the law relies on to expand health insurance coverage ( the other is the marketplaces ) . Forecasters had estimated that 13 million additional people would join the program in Obamacare 's first decade , and 7 million of those people would sign up in the first year .
Research has found that doctors are more likely to accept new Medicaid patients when their payment rates are higher . And the Affordable Care Act included a provision that aimed to entice doctors to sticking with β or perhaps joining β the program as it expanded to cover millions more Americans .
Beginning in 2013 , the law bumped Medicaid primary care doctors ' reimbursement rates up to match those of Medicare ( specialists did not get any increase ) . The law funded the increased payments through the end of 2014 , setting up a looming cliff that we 're now approaching .
2 ) Doctors will see a 42 percent pay cut in 2015
That 's an estimate from the Urban Institute , which ran the numbers on how payment rates will change in 2015 .
The decline will vary a lot from state to state . That 's because each state sets its own payment rates for primary care doctors . In a state like California , for example , which tended to pay Medicaid doctors very low rates , Obamacare has doubled their fees . But in North Carolina , where the two programs fees were more similar , the pay rate increase was much smaller .
3 ) The federal government will not extend the pay cut
Mostly because it 's expensive : the two years of the pay-bump cost the federal government $ 11 billion .
Medicaid advocacy groups have lobbied Congress a bit to extend the pay cut for at least two years now . And Sens . Patty Murray ( D-WA ) and Sherrod Brown ( D-OH ) did introduce legislation that would extend the pay bump until 2016 .
`` We β re ready to lobby for what β s right to improve the situation , '' Roland Goertz , chair of the Academy of Family Physicians , had said in 2012 about extending the pay cut . `` We β re ready to go to the mat for what works , and we need to be going in this direction . ''
But the issue has n't gotten traction ; the Murray-Brown bill has languished in committee since its introduction this past summer . And that means , barring any last minute miracle , Medicaid payment rates will decline in many states β but not all β on Thursday .
4 ) Fifteen states are stepping in to extend the payment raise
Medicaid is a joint federal-state program , with the two governments splitting the bill for patients ' coverage . And , according to the Kaiser Family Foundation , 15 states will step in and provide funding to either fully or partially continue the payment increase .
What 's notable about this map , however , is that the states stepping in tend to be those that were already paying Medicaid doctors pretty well in the first place . They are places like New Mexico that , before Obamacare , paid primary doctors 85 percent of the Medicare rate , or Mississippi , which paid 90 percent .
The states that have a much bigger gap between Medicaid and Medicare payments , like California , are not generally not stepping in to avert the payment cut . This is probably due to the fact that fixing the bigger gaps is so much more expensive .
5 ) Nobody knows what this will mean for Medicaid patients ' access to care
The worry among Medicaid advocates is that lower payment rates will translate into fewer doctors being willing to see patients . This is a articulated in a recent New York Times article , citing data from Ohio :
A survey by the Ohio State Medical Association found that some Ohio doctors began accepting Medicaid patients because of the rate increase in 2013 . Ohio doctors who were already participating in the program said they had accepted more Medicaid patients after the rate increase . And almost 40 percent of Ohio doctors indicated that they planned to accept fewer Medicaid patients when the extra payments lapsed .
Previous studies have shown that states that pay more for primary care in Medicaid do have more doctors accepting new patients . This chart from Health Affairs shows the correlation :
Those are the reasons for concern β but there are also reasons to think things might go okay , too . Medicaid patients tend to have just as good access to primary care as patients in private coverage . One 2012 study commissioned by the federal government found that Medicaid patients are equally as likely to have had a routine check-up in the past year as those with private insurance . The real challenges in access tend to happen when patients seek speciality care .
And it 's worth keeping in mind there were thousands of doctors who saw Medicaid patients prior to the Affordable Care Act 's pay bump . These are people who , even before they got a big raise , thought it made sense to see these patients at lower rates . That gives decent reason to think that these doctors will stick around after the pay increase disappears , too . | Kwz2QMkxOiFKInmg | 0 | Healthcare | 0.2 | Obamacare | 0.1 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.