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2024_presidential_election | Breitbart News | https://www.breitbart.com/2024-election/2024/08/15/rfk-jr-has-no-plans-back-harris-after-reportedly-seeking-meeting-cabinet-deal/ | RFK Jr. Has βNo Plansβ to Back Kamala Harris After Reportedly Seeking Meeting for Cabinet Deal | 2024-08-16 | 2024 Presidential Election, Politics, Kamala Harris, Robert F Kennedy Jr, Democratic Party, Independent Party, Cabinet | Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared Thursday that he has βno plans to endorseβ Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race after reportedly wishing to discuss a potential exchange of an endorsement for a cabinet position with Harris.The Washington Post was the first to report on Kennedyβs request for a meeting, citing officials within the Kennedy campaign.In a Wednesday night text reported by the New York Times, Kennedy wrote, βWeβve reached out repeatedly through the highest level intermediaries. Weβve been told that they have no interest in talking with me.βIn a post on X Thursday, Kennedy attacked βHarrisβs Democratic Partyβ that his father, the late U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, and uncle, the late President John F. Kennedy, would find βunrecognizable.ββThe Democratic Party of RFK and JFK was the party of civil liberties and free speech. VP Harrisβs is the party of censorship, lockdowns, and medical coercion,β Kennedy, who left the Democrat Party last year, said.He continued:Kennedy Democrats were anti-war. Kamalaβs is riddled with neocon warmongers. The RFK/JFK dems were allies of Main Street, cops, firefighters, and working people. VP Harrisβs is the Party of Big Tech, Big Pharma and Wall Street. My dad and uncleβs party was the champion of voting rights and fair elections. VP Harrisβs is the party of lawfare, disenfranchisement, and the coronation of its candidates by corporate donors and party elites.He also contrasted the pride his uncle and father took in their debate skills and βability to articulate a coherent vision for our countryβ with the attitude of Harris, who is βscared to debate and canβt survive an unscripted interview,β he wrote.βInstead of outlining a vision, she relies on middleschool tactics β memes, forged headlines, infantile slogans (Joy!) and name calling (βRepublicans are weirdβ)β he added.He concluded by writing that while he does not have βplans to endorseβ her, he does have βa plan to defeat her.β | 2e00f1ac497e4074 | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
national_security | Politico | http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/23/brennan-russia-tried-to-recruit-us-persons-to-influence-presidential-campaign-238719 | Brennan: Russia may have successfully recruited Trump campaign aides | 2017-05-23 | national_security | Brennan : Russia may have successfully recruited Trump campaign aides The former CIA director also says the FBI probe into whether Russia meddled in the election is β well founded . β
Former CIA Director John Brennan said on Tuesday that he had concerns that Russian officials may have successfully recruited aides from Donald Trump β s campaign to help in the Kremlin β s efforts to influence last year β s presidential election .
`` I encountered and am aware of information and intelligence that revealed contacts and interactions between Russian officials and U.S. persons involved in the Trump campaign that I was concerned about because of known Russian efforts to suborn such individuals , '' he told lawmakers . `` And it raised questions in my mind again whether or not the Russians were able to gain the cooperation of those individuals . ''
His remarks , before the House Intelligence Committee , are the most direct acknowledgment yet by a current or former U.S. official that Russia sought to recruit Americans to help in its effort to affect the 2016 contest . The remarks also further complicate matters for President Donald Trump , who has dismissed the investigations into Russia β s election meddling as a β witch hunt . β
Brennan said that by the time he stepped down as CIA director on Jan. 20 , β I had unresolved questions in my mind about whether or not the Russians had been successful in getting U.S. persons , involved in the campaign or not , to work on their behalf , again , either in a witting or unwitting fashion . β
He said he believed the FBI β s investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Moscow is β certainly well founded and needed to look into these issues . β
The House and Senate Intelligence Committees are also investigating Russia β s meddling in the presidential election , including allegations of coordination between the Trump campaign and Moscow . And the FBI β s investigation became more serious last week β and potentially more troublesome for Trump β with the naming of a special prosecutor , former FBI Director Robert Mueller , to oversee it .
Brennan made clear on Tuesday that he is not in a position to say whether the interactions he saw between U.S. persons and Russia amounted to collusion , noting that the CIA gathers intelligence but does not investigate crimes . He said he passed evidence collected by the CIA to the FBI , which handles such investigations .
βββ Playbook newsletter Sign up today to receive the # 1-rated newsletter in politics Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from βββ . You can unsubscribe at any time . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply .
β I know that there was a sufficient basis of information and intelligence that required further investigation by the bureau to determine whether or not U.S. persons were actively conspiring and colluding with Russian officials , '' Brennan explained .
Asked by Rep. Tom Rooney ( R-Fla. ) if he saw any evidence of collusion during his time as CIA director , Brennan responded : β I was worried by a number of the contacts that the Russians had with U.S. persons . β
A White House spokesman said in a statement Tuesday that the hearings `` back up what we 've been saying all along : that despite a year of investigation , there is still no evidence of any Russia-Trump campaign collusion . ''
Brennan also told lawmakers he believes he was the first U.S. official to discuss with Russia its efforts to interfere in the presidential election . He said that last August he contacted the head of Russia β s Federal Security Service , Alexander Bortnikov , and raised the issue of Russia 's election meddling . He said he warned Bortnikov that such interference would have a negative impact on U.S.-Russia relations .
He said Bortnikov denied that Russia was meddling in the election but also pledged to relay Brennan β s message to Russian President Vladimir Putin .
β It should be clear to everyone that Russia brazenly interfered in our 2016 presidential election process and that they undertook these activities despite our strong protest and explicit warnings that they not do so , β Brennan told lawmakers .
Brennan also denounced the leaks of classified information that continue to appear in the news media , including details from Trump β s recent Oval Office meeting with Russia β s foreign minister and ambassador .
`` These continue to be very , very damaging leaks , and I find them appalling , and they need to be tracked down , '' Brennan said .
Brennan was asked to comment on reports that Trump shared sensitive intelligence with the Russian officials during the Oval Office meeting that might have jeopardized a sensitive intelligence-sharing relationship with a foreign partner . The former CIA chief noted that classified intelligence is routinely shared with foreign countries , but that if Trump made a spontaneous decision to do so , he would have violated β two protocols . β
β One is that such intelligence , classified intelligence , is not shared with visiting foreign ministers or local ambassadors . It 's shared through intelligence channels because it needs to be handled the right way , β Brennan said . β Secondly , before sharing any classified intelligence with foreign partners , it needs go back to the originating agency to make sure that the language in it is not β even just providing the substance β going to reveal sources and methods and compromise the future collection capability . β
Several lawmakers asked Brennan about whether Russia collected damaging information on Hillary Clinton that it did not release during the presidential campaign .
Brennan declined to comment on whether such damaging information exists but said that it β s possible Russia saved up some information that it could have released if Clinton had won the election to damage her presidency . | 7X2zcJBV8JSjSumA | 0 | Russia Probe | -0.7 | John Brennan | 0 | National Security | 0 | Defense And Security | 0 | null | null |
elections | Washington Times | http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/26/trailing-polls-romney-deploys-celebrity-friends/ | Romney, Obama locked in a duel for OhioΓΒ’Γ’β¬ÒβΒ’s working-class voters | 2012-09-26 | elections | WESTERVILLE , Ohio β Scrambling to regain his footing in the Buckeye State , Mitt Romney enlisted the help Wednesday of a golf legend and a television star with the sort of blue-collar credentials that could resonate with the state β s working-class voters . President Obama , meanwhile , made his own Ohio pitch to college crowds at Bowling Green and Kent State .
The dueling visits spoke volumes about the critical role that Ohio β a state where manufacturing jobs in the automobile industry and other sectors have been lost in recent years as companies have shifted operations overseas β is expected to play in the coming presidential election .
Bloomberg News reported this week that between the two campaigns and their supporters , there have been 29,000 ads aired here in the month before Sept. 17 β more than any other state in that time .
The ad blitz comes during a crucial stretch of the race , with both campaigns urging Ohioans to take advantage of state law that allows them to start early voting next week .
The stakes could not be higher for Mr. Romney : No Republican has won the presidency without Ohio , and the latest round of polling does not bode well for his chances of capturing the state come Election Day .
Mr. Romney kicked off his celebrity twofer by linking up with golf legend Jack Nicklaus , an Ohio native , at a campaign rally outside Columbus , and then teamed up with Mike Rowe , host of the Discovery Channel β s β Dirty Jobs , β at a business β roundtable β meeting in the Cleveland suburbs .
Mr. Romney used the stops and another in Toledo to warn that Mr. Obama will continue to saddle future generations with trillions in debt and to hammer the president for failing to crack down on China β s unfair trade practices .
β We β re going to crack down on China when they cheat . They β ve stolen our jobs . That β s got to stop , β Mr. Romney said at the event with Mr. Nicklaus , who told the crowd of about 2,000 that the former Massachusetts governor was the right man for the job .
Mr. Rowe did not endorse Mr. Romney , saying instead his experience on β Dirty Jobs β has taught him thatthe nation is disconnected with the plumbers , public works employees and tradesman that make β civilized life possible for the rest of us. β The reality TV star said a greater emphasis should be placed on promoting those professions as good jobs .
β I mean , there β s got to be a better way to be happy and successful in your career than simply assuming a massive amount of debt and exiting an educational program that gives you a degree without training , β he said .
The flash of star power could be just what the doctor ordered for the Romney campaign , as the appearances coincided with a new CBS/New York Times/ Quinnipiac University poll that held ominous signs for the Republican nominee in Ohio , as well as in Florida and Pennsylvania .
The survey found Mr. Obama holds a 53 percent to 43 percent edge over Mr. Romney among likely Ohio voters . Those surveyed also gave Mr. Obama a 6-point advantage when it comes to the economy β a month after the two candidates were even on the issue .
The poll came on the heels of a Washington Post survey released Tuesday that gave Mr. Obama an 8-point lead here . It also showed that more likely voters in Ohio trust the Democrat more when it comes to handling the economy and think he has a better understanding of the problems people are facing on the economic front .
Part of the problem for the Romney camp is that the improving employment picture in Ohio muddies the Republican candidate β s argument that Mr. Obama β s policies are suffocating job creation . That attack has put Ohio Gov . John Kasich , a Republican , in the tricky position of explaining the state β s success without undercutting Mr. Romney β s message .
β I hope you all know that Ohio β s coming back , β Mr. Kasich said Wednesday . β From 48th in job creation to No . 4 . No . 1 in the Midwest . From 89 cents in a rainy-day fund to a half a million dollars , and we have grown 123,000 jobs in the state of Ohio . Our families are going back to work . β
He added , β But every day I have to face the headwinds that come from Washington . β
The Romney camp is downplaying the recent surveys , suggesting their internal polling numbers tell a different story .
β After the debates and after the campaigns and after all the ads are over , the people of Ohio are going to say loud and clear on Nov. 6 , β We can β t afford four more years ; we must do better , β β Mr. Romney said .
Mr. Obama countered Mr. Romney β s criticisms at the rally at Bowling Green State University , telling the young crowd that the Republican β s tough talk on China rings hollow .
β It sounds better than talking about all the years he spent profiting from companies that sent our jobs to China , β Mr. Obama said . β So , you know , when you hear this newfound outrage , when you see these ads he β s running promising to get tough on China , it feels a lot like that fox saying , β You know , we need more secure chicken coops . β β
Mr. Obama was referring to Mr. Romney β s $ 75,000 investment in CNOOC Ltd. , the Chinese state-owned oil company , which was revealed when former Massachusetts governor released his 2011 tax return last week . Mr. Romney β s blind trust purchased the shares , then dumped them , Mr. Obama charges , when the presidential candidate decided he was going to start talking tough on China .
In the past week , Mr. Obama has repeatedly attacked Mr. Romney for the CNOOC investment , even after a report in BuzzFeed said the White House had applauded the Chinese company β s efforts to foster the development of carbon capture and storage in both countries . | FKRGFRFagjAsmNjD | 2 | Ohio | 0.1 | Mitt Romney | -0.1 | 2012 | 0 | Battleground States | 0 | Barack Obama | 0 |
elections | CNN (Web News) | http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/03/politics/republican-debates-cnbc-donald-trump/index.html | What's behind the debate over the Republican debates? | 2015-11-03 | elections | Just three debates in , the saga over the CNBC Republican showdown in Colorado last week has dashed the hopes of party bosses that the storm of controversy and recrimination over debates that clouded the 2012 campaign -- and hampered eventual nominee Mitt Romney -- could be avoided .
Last time around , candidates griped that there were too many debates -- there were 20 in all -- and that their frequency and need for preparation interrupted campaigns and elevated long-shot hopefuls who had no chance of winning the nomination in the media spotlight .
This time , especially following the CNBC debate Wednesday , candidates are complaining that the moderators are taking too much airtime , keep interrupting those on stage and are biased against conservatives . Front-runners say that those stuck in single digits in the polls should n't even be in the debates while the dark horses complain that being confined to second-tier events is killing their campaigns .
But while the candidates have been quick to jump on the moderators and the networks hosting them , in truth each candidate has reasons for wanting a different format that most suits his or her campaign . The result has been another round of controversy and recrimination .
Sunday 's meeting of campaign operatives produced a tentative truce with a modest set of demands for changes to the format of future debates , but even that initiative split the GOP field . By Monday night , Donald Trump , John Kasich , Chris Christie and Carly Fiorina had declined to sign on .
The issue is likely to persist as long as the GOP field remains bloated , guaranteeing constant tensions as each candidate jockeys for position -- whether for more time on screen or fewer minutes in the hot seat .
Here is how the Republican White House hopefuls are playing the debate over debates for their own advantage .
What he wants : Trump has made no secret of his desire for cuts in the size of the top-tier GOP debate . He 's publicly warned the likes of Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul they should n't even be sharing a stage with him .
`` There are too many people on the debate stage . It should be five . Let the other eight or nine or 10 go onto the second debate , '' Trump 's special counsel Michael Cohen said on CNN 's `` New Day '' on Monday . Trump , who faded during a three-hour-long debate on CNN in September , has also led calls for the events to be limited to two hours .
Why he wants it : The billionaire front-runner is a master of manipulating the media and does n't want to share his spotlight . The more candidates he can exclude from the stage , the less competition he has to confront head on at the top .
What he wants : The former neurosurgeon has called for the GOP to abandon the current format for televised debates . He says journalist moderators ask `` gotcha '' questions and wants debates to be stripped from the networks and carried on YouTube or Facebook and become more of a forum-style event , according to The Wall Street Journal .
Why he wants it : Since Carson is not a professional politician , he has far less experience in the cut-and-thrust of debate than many of his competitors . His soft-spoken , laid-back style seems a better fit for less adversarial settings . And some of his answers on the details of policy have been shaky during the past two debates , giving him even more incentive to avoid such scrutiny .
What he wants : Rubio is happy to take the chance to turn tough questions or those he deems unfair into a chance to lash the `` liberal '' media . He 's called the moderators of the CNBC debate biased and says they asked trivial questions . And he did n't wait until the showdown was over last week before castigating the media as a de facto arm of the Democratic Party .
`` The Democrats have the ultimate super PAC ... called the mainstream media for every single day , '' Rubio said while on the debate stage .
Why he wants it : Rubio wants to have his cake and eat it , too . He 's got strong political reasons to slam the media , as doing so delights conservative voters who harbor suspicions about his record , including on immigration .
But the Florida senator also wants to ensure GOP debates remain on platforms such as cable television outlets that draw huge audiences and are introducing him to a wide spectrum of voters before a possible general election campaign .
Rubio has improved his performance in each of the three Republican debates so far and his sharp political skills -- evidenced in his putdown of Jeb Bush in Colorado -- are ideally suited to such an adversarial setting .
What he wants : Jeb Bush probably can not wait until the next Republican debate , on November 10 , to try to dispel memories of his lifeless and disjointed showing in the CNBC clash . He partly blamed the moderators of the CNBC debate for his woes , telling NBC 's `` Meet the Press '' on Sunday that the event was `` weird '' and that he was stopped from answering a Rubio slapdown by moderators .
Why he wants it : Bush is fighting a narrative of decay that is beginning to envelop his campaign after his disaster in the Rockies . He must seize on any and all debate opportunities to try to ignite a comeback narrative .
What he wants : The New Jersey governor has one thing to say to those who complain that the debates are unfair : Bring it on .
`` Do not count me in this group that is doing this moaning and complaining about this , '' Christie told CNN 's `` New Day '' on Monday . `` The presidency is almost never scripted . We should n't have these debates scripted either . ''
JUST WATCHED Christie : Not 'moaning and complaining ' about debates Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Christie : Not 'moaning and complaining ' about debates 01:29
Why he wants it : Christie has his own comeback narrative to work on as he languishes at 1 % in national polls . So any time he can get into a debate with the front-runners , he benefits -- as he did after a strong performance in the Colorado debate .
Christie is another candidate who does well when the back-and-forth heats up , so he would join a debate every week if he could . Debate appearances also allow him to exploit the `` straight shooter '' persona he adopted as governor of the Garden State and which he is using to try to haul himself into contention in the New Hampshire primary -- his best chance for a decent result in an early voting state .
What he wants : Thank the Texas senator for getting this ball rolling . Cruz , using the forensic debating skills honed at Harvard Law School and as one of the most talented Supreme Court litigators of his generation , lacerated the CNBC debate as it was still going on . He followed up that coup by demanding debates hosted by the high priests of the conservative talk radio scene -- Rush Limbaugh , Sean Hannity and Mark Levin .
JUST WATCHED GOP candidates skewer debate moderators Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH GOP candidates skewer debate moderators 02:11
Why he wants it : Cruz , who is quietly building a strong challenge for the nomination , is keen to do anything he can to dominate the conservative voting bloc , which also happens to revere the trio of talk show hosts . Though his rivals appear unlikely to allow it to happen , such a spectacle would leave Cruz basking in reflected glory .
What she wants : `` I 'll debate anyone , any time , any place , '' the only woman in the GOP field tweeted Monday . Fiorina would also be keen to get key conservatives into the mix . In another tweet , she said that conservative radio host Glenn Beck should be considered .
Why she wants it : In a sense , Fiorina 's campaign barely exists off the debate stage . Her fiery showing in the undercard debate on Fox in August nudged her poll numbers up sufficiently to get her into the top-tier debate CNN hosted in September .
But away from the debate stage , Fiorina has struggled to keep in the public eye , and her hopes of a future in Republican politics rely on as much exposure as possible .
What he wants : The Ohio governor is another candidate who wants more debates and is seeking the moral high ground by being happy to take any question that comes up . He told CNN 's Dana Bash on `` State of the Union '' Sunday that he is `` the governor of the seventh-largest state in America , and I have had so many questions thrown at me over the course of my time . ''
Why he wants it : Kasich is billing himself as the kind of candidate the Republicans need , someone who can win his own crucial general election swing state and others like it . So parrying hostile questions from moderators that other candidates consider biased and reaching out to the vast cable television audience watching the debates makes strategic sense .
What he wants : Trust the libertarian Republican to have an idea far from the mainstream . The Kentucky senator and veteran filibusterer joked that he 'd back a 13-hour debate and give each candidate an hour to talk . He says having no moderator at all would be worth looking at and hit out at `` gotcha '' questions .
Why he wants it : At this point , with his campaign falling well short of expectations , the more time before a national audience Paul can get , the better .
What he wants : Mike Huckabee , the former cable news pundit and Arkansas governor , said on Fox News after Wednesday 's debate that changes that were needed in the debate format because running for president was a serious business and candidates should n't be part of a TV station 's effort to drive up ratings .
Why he wants it : Huckabee 's campaign has barely made a ripple this time around , after he won the Iowa caucuses in 2008 on the way to coming second in the GOP delegate count . So any publicity is good publicity and Huckabee 's brand of folksy humor is tailor-made for the debate stage .
What they want : Each man , stuck in the purgatory of undercard debates , wants a chance to hit prime time . South Carolina Sen. Graham , for instance , wants two GOP debates of seven candidates each .
`` We have too many people on one stage and too few on the other , '' Graham told CNN on Monday .
Former New York Gov . Pataki believes that if Americans only get to see him , they will view him as a potential commander in chief . As many Americans as possible must be exposed to the candidates , he said , as it 's `` the best way to pick a president . '' | 8nn5hBG0T8N4WKw8 | 0 | Debates | -0.3 | Presidential Elections | 0.1 | Elections | 0 | null | null | null | null |
justice_department | Politico | http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/5-questions-on-irs-debacle-91234.html?hp=f2 | 5 questions on the IRS debacle | 2013-05-05 | justice_department | Ultimately , about 75 groups were subjected to additional review by the IRS . | REUTERS 5 questions on the IRS debacle
A classic Washington scandal is unfolding β complete with accusations of lies , abuse of power and questions about coverups .
To add to the intrigue , it involves one of the most hated government agencies : the Internal Revenue Service .
It all started Friday , when an IRS official β in an apparently off-handed remark β acknowledged and apologized for wrongly targeting conservative groups seeking nonprofit status .
A firestorm quickly ensued and only deepened over the weekend with revelations that senior IRS officials have known about the targeting practice for several years . Republicans , meanwhile , are calling for additional investigations .
Here are five big questions on the rapidly evolving scandal :
1 . What did senior IRS officials know ; when did they know it ; and were any laws broken ?
This is what β s clear : Low-level employees in the IRS β s Cincinnati office began flagging conservative groups as early as 2010 , according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration . Lois Lerner , who directs the agency β s tax-exempt groups unit , said applications were scrutinized if they included words such as β patriot β or β tea party . β
For now , it appears that the Cincinnati employees took the initiative on their own to start flagging the applications . Lerner has vehemently dismissed GOP accusations that political motivations fueled the program .
She said the IRS often centralizes applications that need more study when there β s a sudden growth in similar requests for nonprofit status , but that process wasn β t carried out appropriately this time .
Lerner has so far declined to say when she first learned of the targeting practice and told reporters on Friday she didn β t remember when she notified her bosses .
But a TIGTA report due out this week will say that senior IRS officials knew about the activities as early as 2011 . That would seem to contradict testimony then-IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman provided to Congress in 2012 when he told lawmakers that the agency wasn β t providing extra scrutiny to groups because of their political affiliations .
Meanwhile , the details of what the IRS was after are becoming more clear . Lerner said that some of the groups , for instance , were asked for member or donor lists , which isn β t a typical IRS practice .
Lerner said it β s not illegal for the IRS to flag groups for extra review when the agency notices a spike in applications from the same type of organizations .
The IRS developments couldn β t come at a worse time for the White House , which has spent months courting GOP support for everything from gun control to an overhaul of immigration laws .
If the administration β s recent GOP charm offensive bought any goodwill , it seems to be on short supply now .
Sen. Susan Collins ( R-Maine ) is exactly the type of moderate lawmaker who might support the administration β s policy goals . But she made clear on Sunday that she isn β t pleased with how the White House β and President Barack Obama in particular β is handling the IRS debacle .
β I think that it β s very disappointing the president hasn β t personally condemned this and spoken out , β Collins said on CNN β s β State of the Union. β β The president needs to make it crystal clear that this is totally unacceptable in America . β
Meanwhile , Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell ( R-Ky. ) has called for Obama to order a β transparent , governmentwide review β to see if similar practices are happening elsewhere in the administration . | XB6PalKxq57oVN3V | 0 | Justice | -0.7 | Justice Department | -0.4 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
white_house | USA TODAY | https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2018/10/11/melania-trump-says-shes-one-most-bullied-people-world-interview/1598488002/ | Melania Trump says she's one of the most bullied people in the world | 2018-10-11 | white_house | Melania Trump says bullying is one of the issues she 's using her first lady platform to address . And in a new clip from her interview with ABC News ' Tom Llamas , part of her first TV interview as first lady which will air in its entirety Friday , Trump says she 's experienced her fair share of bullying firsthand .
`` I could say I 'm the most bullied person in the world , '' she said in the preview clip , which aired on `` Good Morning America '' on Thursday . `` One of them . If you could see what people really say about me . ''
Trump 's experiences inspired her Be Best campaign , dedicated to the emotional , physical and social well-being of kids , with pillars including managing children 's health , social media use and the consequences of the opioid addiction epidemic .
`` That 's why my Be Best initiative focuses on social media and online behavior . We need to educate the children of social and emotional health , so when they grow up they know how to deal with these issues , '' she said .
Trump also said that despite the steady stream of Trump aides exiting the White House , there are still some staffers in the West Wing she does n't trust and that she 's identified them to her husband β though not to Llamas .
Asked how she feels about a possible second term , she said , `` I 'm enjoying Washington and living in the White House . ''
In another preview clip of her interview that aired Wednesday , Trump said she was disappointed to find that some groups turned down her request to collaborate with them .
`` It 's sad to see that organizations and foundations I want to partner with choose not to because of the β¦ administration , '' she said , `` and I feel they are choosing the politics over helping others . ''
Trump also gave her thoughts on # MeToo , which seemed to boil down to supporting women when their claims can be backed by evidence .
`` I support the women , and they need to be heard , '' she said . `` We need to support them , and also men , not just women . ''
And it appeared , as her husband often does , she feels the media could do better . When asked if men who stand accused of assault or misconduct in the news have been treated unfairly , Trump said : `` You need to have really hard evidence , that if you accuse ( someone ) of something , show the evidence . ''
`` Being Melania β The First Lady '' airs on ABC on Friday ( 10 p.m. ET/PT ) . | ot5ZtC48NKvkldiS | 1 | Melania Trump | -0.2 | White House | 0.1 | Politics | 0.1 | Sexual Assault | 0 | null | null |
us_congress | Washington Times | http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/aug/25/congress-didnt-grasp-importance-russian-election-h/ | Congress didnβt grasp importance of Russian election hack, CIA chief warned colleagues, memo shows | 2017-08-25 | us_congress | The head of the CIA during last year β s White House race warned his colleagues afterwards that certain members of Congress failed to grasp the seriousness of Russia β s involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election , according to a newly released document .
Dated Dec. 12 , 2016 , the internal memo issued by then-CIA Director John Brennan and recently obtained by BuzzFeed News suggests the former spy chief was wary of how unnamed lawmakers reacted to information concerning Russia β s role in last year β s election .
β Since last summer , the administration has provided extensive , detailed classified and unclassified briefings to members and staff from both parties on Capitol Hill . In recent days , I have had several conversations with members of Congress , providing an update on the status of the review as well as the considerations that need to be taken into account as we proceed , β Mr. Brennan wrote , BuzzFeed revealed Thursday .
β Many β but unfortunately not all β members understand and appreciate the importance and gravity of the issue , and they are very supportive of the process that is underway , β Mr. Brennan wrote , according to the memo .
The members of Congress who failed to β understand and appreciate the importance β of Russia β s election meddling included Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. John Cornyn , the majority whip , three intelligence sources told BuzzFeed News . Both Republicans had downplayed the significance of the CIA probe , and Mr. Cornyn tweeted days earlier that allegations of Russian hacking were β hardly news , β BuzzFeed reported .
Coupled with difficulties in Congress , Mr. Brennan also wrote in the memo that a β constant barrage β of inaccurate and misleading news reports , β including comments by named and anonymous sources , β had complicated the probe .
β Despite these distractions , you continue to carry out your responsibilities with outstanding integrity and focus , and you are making constant contributions of great consequence to our national security , as well as to peace and stability around the globe , β Mr. Brennan wrote in the memo . β Never have our national security challenges been so numerous and complex , nor has the need for your service been so great . β
The memo was sent to colleagues following consultations between Mr. Brennan and other intelligence community leaders as U.S. investigators intensified its ongoing probe into Russia β s alleged election meddling on the heels of President Trump β s win a month earlier . It was obtained by BuzzFeed through a Freedom of Information Act request .
The U.S. intelligence community ultimately concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized an interference campaign targeting Mr. Trump β s former opponent , Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton , and released an official report in early January formally blaming Moscow for meddling in the election and outlining its involvement , spurring separate probes in the House , Senate and Justice Department . Russia has denied the allegations . | 6utV3APYZvgi8uFu | 2 | Russia | -1.3 | Congress | -0.8 | US Congress | -0.8 | Hacking | 0 | Politics | 0 |
free_speech | Reason | https://reason.com/archives/2017/04/26/the-bipartisan-urge-to-suppress-dissent | The Bipartisan Urge to Suppress Dissent | 2017-04-26 | Ann Coulter, Free Speech | The University of California at Berkeley 's inhospitality to conservative speakers , the subject of a federal lawsuit filed on Monday , prompted a Twitter rebuke from President Trump a few months ago . Yet his administration seems determined to demonstrate that suppression of opposing views is a bipartisan impulse .
Berkeley College Republicans ( BCR ) , which invited conservative commentator Ann Coulter to speak on campus this Thursday evening , and Young America 's Foundation ( YAF ) , which underwrote her visit , argue that Berkeley 's vague , unwritten policy regarding `` high-profile speakers '' unconstitutionally discriminates against unpopular viewpoints . As a result of that policy , which was adopted after violent protests prompted the university to shut down a February 1 appearance by former Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos , Berkeley canceled Coulter 's speech , then offered to reschedule it for next Tuesday afternoon , in the middle of the `` dead week '' between classes and exams .
BCR says it felt compelled to cancel an April 12 talk by another conservative journalist , David Horowitz , after the university insisted that it take place at an inconvenient location and end by 3 p.m. , meaning most students would be in class while Horowitz was speaking . BCR and YAF say the restrictions imposed by Berkeley in the name of public safety have not been applied to left-leaning speakers and amount to an `` unlawful heckler 's veto '' that marginalizes conservative voices .
After the Milo melee in February , Trump suggested on Twitter that Berkeley risks losing federal funds if it `` does not allow free speech . '' If the president were sincerely committed to protecting First Amendment rights , he would issue similar warnings to the Department of Homeland Security ( DHS ) , which recently demanded that Twitter reveal the identity of a DHS gadfly , and the Justice Department , which is considering criminal charges against people who share classified information leaked by others .
Last month a special agent in charge at Customs and Border Protection ( CBP ) , a division of DHS , issued a summons to Twitter seeking records that would unmask the person or persons behind @ ALT_USCIS , an account that regularly criticizes the Trump administration 's immigration policies . There did not seem to be any legal justification for the summons , which looked like a blatant attempt to intimidate critics .
DHS dropped the summons the day after Twitter filed a lawsuit arguing that it threatened the First Amendment right to engage in pseudonymous political speech . Last week , in response to inquiries by Sen. Ron Wyden ( D-Ore. ) , DHS Inspector General John Roth revealed that his office is investigating whether the CBP summons was `` improper . ''
The day before Roth expressed concern about government inquiries that might have `` a chilling effect on individuals ' free speech rights , '' CNN and The Washington Post reported that the Justice Department is once again looking for a way to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for sharing classified documents with the public . The Obama administration abandoned that project after concluding that charging Assange with violating the Espionage Act would create a precedent that could be used against any news organization that publishes stories based on `` defense information '' from sources who obtained or divulged it illegallyβa very common journalistic practice .
CIA Director Mike Pompeo says we should n't worry about that because Assange is not a real journalist , a debatable and constitutionally irrelevant point . The `` freedom of the press '' that is guaranteed by the First Amendment is not the freedom of people who work for officially recognized news outlets ; it is the freedom to use technologies of mass communication .
That freedom extends to everyone in the United States , whether or not he is a professional journalist or an American citizen . If Assange broke the Espionage Act by distributing classified material within the U.S. , that means he used `` the press '' there .
Trump , who declared `` I love WikiLeaks ! '' when it was revealing embarrassing information about Hillary Clinton , has changed his tune now that he perceives a threat to his government 's secrets . When he was asked about a potential criminal case against Assange last Friday , Trump said , `` It 's OK with me . '' | bdf35e9486585a97 | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
nsa | Politico | http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/edward-snowden-92687.html?hp=f2 | Experts: 'Treason' a tough sell in Edward Snowden case | 2013-06-13 | nsa | Snowden said in an interview that he 's 'neither a traitor nor hero . ' Experts : 'Treason ' a tough sell in Snowden case
Edward Snowden has been called a β traitor β and accused of β treason β for his leaks of some of the nation β s top secrets .
Treason is a crime so old that it β s the only one specifically defined in the U.S. Constitution , but legal experts suggest it β s a charge that Snowden will most likely never face . And β traitor β seems to fit better in the world of Benedict Arnold and dueling pistols than in today β s sea of electronic surveillance and top secret security clearances .
Constitutionally , treason is defined as β whoever , owing allegiance to the United States , levies war against them or adheres to their enemies , giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere . β
That β s a tough sell in Snowden β s case , legal experts say .
β I do not believe it is treason , β said George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley . β There is nothing to suggest that his motivation was to assist our enemies or a foreign power . β
A more obvious set of charges for the former Booz Allen Hamilton analyst β s leak of secrets from the National Security Agency would include illegal disclosure of classified information and unauthorized removal and retention of classified information , Turley added .
Bradley Manning , the Army private accused of leaking classified information to WikiLeaks , was charged with β aiding the enemy , β among other charges , but not with treason .
If convicted in his court-martial , now under way in Fort Meade in Maryland β headquarters of the sprawling NSA β he could face life in prison .
There are a number of specific conditions that have to be met for a leaker like Snowden to have committed treason , said John Harrison , a University of Virginia law professor who specializes in constitutional law and history .
β Unless the potential defendant is someone who engaged in hostilities , β¦ the question is whether he adhered to the U.S. β s enemies and gave them aid and comfort , which , in turn , depends on who is an enemy , β Harrison said . If the enemy is considered to be a member of Al Qaeda , it opens up all sorts of other questions about the definition of enemy that are still murky in current law .
Harrison clarified , however , that treason isn β t an impossible charge for Snowden .
β If you think that one , Al Qaeda and similar groups are the enemy for purposes of treason ; two , his actions assisted them in operations against the U.S. ; and three , that was his intention , β Harrison said , β then the argument that it was treason is pretty good . β
House Speaker John Boehner , for one , called Snowden a β traitor β Tuesday on ABC β s β Good Morning America , β adding that his disclosure of information puts Americans β lives at risk and violates the law . | B7ocIpH65goBmWWC | 0 | Defense And Security | -0.9 | NSA | 0.3 | Verizon Phone Records | 0.2 | null | null | null | null |
world | CNN (Web News) | http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/02/africa/russian-plane-crash-egypt-sinai/index.html | Russian plane crash in Egypt: 'External influence' blamed | 2015-11-02 | Plane Crash, World | ( CNN ) How close are authorities to pinpointing what caused a Russian passenger jet to break up in midair and crash in Egypt 's Sinai Peninsula ?
The airline says technical faults or human errors could n't have caused Metrojet Flight 9268 to crash .
An Egyptian soldier prays as emergency workers prepare to unload bodies of victims at a military airport north of Suez , Egypt , on October 31 .
An Egyptian soldier prays as emergency workers prepare to unload bodies of victims at a military airport north of Suez , Egypt , on October 31 .
Journalists and spectators wait for ambulances to arrive at the Zeinhom morgue in Cairo on October 31 .
Journalists and spectators wait for ambulances to arrive at the Zeinhom morgue in Cairo on October 31 .
Employees with the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations wait in Moscow for their flight to Egypt on October 31 .
Employees with the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations wait in Moscow for their flight to Egypt on October 31 .
People light candles and leave flowers at the Russian Embassy in Kiev , Ukraine , on October 31 .
People light candles and leave flowers at the Russian Embassy in Kiev , Ukraine , on October 31 .
Villagers watch an ambulance as it drives to unload bodies on October 31 .
Villagers watch an ambulance as it drives to unload bodies on October 31 .
The tail of the jet sits in a field on October 31 .
The tail of the jet sits in a field on October 31 .
An item of clothing lies at the site where the plane crashed on October 31 .
An item of clothing lies at the site where the plane crashed on October 31 .
Ismail , center , and other officials visit the site of the plane crash on October 31 .
Ismail , center , and other officials visit the site of the plane crash on October 31 .
Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail , third from right , visits the site of the plane crash with military and government officials on October 31 .
Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail , third from right , visits the site of the plane crash with military and government officials on October 31 .
Egyptian paramedics load the bodies of victims into a military plane at a military air base by the Suez Canal on Saturday , October 31 .
Egyptian paramedics load the bodies of victims into a military plane at a military air base by the Suez Canal on Saturday , October 31 .
People place flowers and messages in front of the Russian Embassy in Cairo on November 1 .
People place flowers and messages in front of the Russian Embassy in Cairo on November 1 .
Candles , toys , flowers and portraits are left at Pulkovo International Airport outside St. Petersburg on November 1 .
Candles , toys , flowers and portraits are left at Pulkovo International Airport outside St. Petersburg on November 1 .
More debris is shown on November 1 . The crash site is in a remote area of a region plagued by a violent Islamic insurgency .
More debris is shown on November 1 . The crash site is in a remote area of a region plagued by a violent Islamic insurgency .
Debris belonging to the Russian airliner is shown at the site of the crash on November 1 .
Debris belonging to the Russian airliner is shown at the site of the crash on November 1 .
Egyptian army soldiers guard the luggage and other belongings of passengers piled up at the site of the crash on November 1 .
Egyptian army soldiers guard the luggage and other belongings of passengers piled up at the site of the crash on November 1 .
A piece of the engine sits on the ground at the crash site on November 1 .
A piece of the engine sits on the ground at the crash site on November 1 .
Egyptian military personnel stand near the tail of the jet in Hassana on Sunday , November 1 .
Egyptian military personnel stand near the tail of the jet in Hassana on Sunday , November 1 .
Russian emergency personnel collect personal belongings of victims at the crash site in Hassana , Egypt , on November 2 .
Russian emergency personnel collect personal belongings of victims at the crash site in Hassana , Egypt , on November 2 .
People visit a makeshift memorial at the airport in St. Petersburg on November 3 .
People visit a makeshift memorial at the airport in St. Petersburg on November 3 .
The wreckage of Flight 9268 is seen in this image provided on Tuesday , November 3 .
The wreckage of Flight 9268 is seen in this image provided on Tuesday , November 3 .
The militant group ISIS published this image of what it claims is the bomb that brought down Metrojet Flight 9268 on Saturday , October 31 . The photograph shows a soft-drink can and two components that appear to be a detonator and a switch . Flight 9268 crashed in Egypt 's Sinai Peninsula en route to the Russian city of St. Petersburg . All 224 people on board were killed .
But Russian officials say it 's too soon to tell what made the passenger jet plunge to the ground Saturday , killing all 224 people on board
Experts agree it 's too early to know for certain , and officials have downplayed an apparent claim by Islamic militants that they brought down the Airbus A321-200 , saying technical failure is the most likely reason for the crash .
Flight 9268 was on its way from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg early Saturday when it dropped off radar about 23 minutes into the flight , Egyptian officials say .
`` There was nothing abnormal before the plane crash , '' Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Hossam Kamel said Saturday . `` It suddenly disappeared from the radar . ''
The website Flightradar24 , which tracks aircraft around the world , said it had received data from the Russian plane suggesting sharp changes in altitude and a dramatic decrease in ground speed before the signal was lost .
A U.S. satellite that was over Sinai at the time of the crash detected a heat flash , according to a U.S. official directly familiar with the latest information in the investigation . U.S. intelligence and military officials are analyzing the data to determine whether the flash occurred in midair or on the ground and what that can tell them about what happened to the plane , the official said .
Analysts say heat flashes could be tied to a range of possibilities : a missile firing , a bomb blast , a malfunctioning engine exploding , a structural problem causing a fire on the plane or wreckage hitting the ground .
`` The number of heat signatures is crucial , '' said CNN aviation analyst Miles O'Brien . `` If , in fact , only one was detected , that in some respects might steer one away from a missile launch and onto some idea of an explosion onboard the aircraft . ''
Alexander Smirnov , a Metrojet official , told reporters in Moscow on Monday the airline had ruled out technical problems and human error . Protection systems on the plane would have prevented it from crashing , he said , even if there were major errors in the pilot 's control equipment .
`` Therefore the only reason that could explain the plane 's breaking up in the midair can be a certain impact , a purely mechanical ( and/or ) physical impact on ( the ) flying vessel , '' he said .
The vague comment made translation difficult , with some interpreting that the executive said an `` external influence '' caused the crash .
The head of the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency , however , quickly pushed back .
`` It is completely premature to speak about the reasons of this , as there are not grounds . And I 'd like to call on the aviation community to refrain from any premature conclusions , '' Transport Agency chief Alexander Neradko told the state-run Russian news agency Sputniknews.com
Learning that the plane broke into pieces while in the air helps reduce the list of possible causes of the crash , but there are still plenty of scenarios , said CNN aviation analyst Peter Goelz .
`` It narrows it down a little bit , but there are a number of issues that could have affected this plane , '' said Goelz , a former managing director of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board , or NTSB . `` And terrorism has not been ruled out . ''
He suggested the disaster could have resulted from `` some sort of catastrophic failure , perhaps caused by an earlier maintenance problem . It could have been a center fuel tank that might have exploded . ''
The A321-200 was built in 1997 , and the airline company Kogalymavia , which flies under the name Metrojet , had been operating it since 2012 , Airbus said . The aircraft had clocked around 56,000 flight hours over the course of nearly 21,000 flights , the plane maker said .
And so far , officials have said all its inspections were in order .
The aircraft passed a routine inspection before takeoff , Egyptian Airports Co. chief Adel Al-Mahjoob said Saturday .
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According to the Aviation Safety Network , which tracks aircraft incidents , the same plane 's tail struck a runway while landing in Cairo in 2001 and required repair . At the time , the aircraft was registered to the Lebanese carrier Middle East Airlines , registration records show .
Kogalymavia 's Andrei Averyanov said the plane had been damaged in 2001 , but had most recently been thoroughly checked for cracks in 2013 . Not enough time had passed for major cracks to develop to a critical size since then , he said .
Smirnov said that he had personally flown the plane in recent months and that it was `` pristine . ''
There were 217 passengers and seven crew members on board Flight 9268 . Of the passengers , 209 were Russian , four were Ukrainian and one was Belarusian . The citizenships of three other passengers are unknown .
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Russian media reported that the disaster created a large number of orphans in Russia , as a lot of parents left their young children with relatives while they took vacations in Sharm el-Sheikh .
Most of the bodies retrieved at the crash site are intact , a medical source in Sinai told CNN on Monday , and showed no major burns .
The photo of 10-month-old Darina Gromova posted by the baby 's mother before a family trip to Egypt .
So far , two flights carrying remains of victims have flown to Russia , according to the TASS news agency . The first flight carried 130 bodies and dozens of body fragments . It was unclear how many victims ' remains were aboard the second flight , which landed in St. Petersburg early Tuesday .
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has promised Russian President Vladimir Putin that he will allow `` the broadest possible participation of Russian experts in the investigation , '' according to the Kremlin , and Russian officials have joined their Egyptian counterparts at the crash scene . Putin has also ordered Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to open an investigation , the Kremlin said .
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Aviation investigators from France and Germany , the countries where the plane was manufactured , are also taking part .
The aircraft 's engines were manufactured in the United States . If the plane 's engines become a focus of the investigation , the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board will likely dispatch a team to Egypt as well , a U.S official with knowledge of the investigation said .
The plane 's black boxes , which were recovered at the crash site Saturday , have not yet been read or decoded , Smirnov said .
Sharm el-Sheikh , where Flight 9268 began its journey , is a beach resort dotted with palm trees at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula . The plane crashed about 300 kilometers ( 185 miles ) farther north , near a town called Housna , according to Egyptian authorities .
The Sinai Peninsula has been a battleground between ISIS-affiliated militants and Egyptian security forces . The conflict has killed hundreds of people .
The militants appeared to claim responsibility for bringing down the Russian passenger jet in a statement posted online Saturday , but officials in Egypt and Russia disputed it .
Mahjoob , the airport official , said there was no evidence of a terrorist attack . And Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said the claim that terrorists brought down the plane with an anti-aircraft missile `` can not be considered reliable , '' according to RIA Novosti .
The Egyptian military said militants in Sinai have shoulder-fired , anti-aircraft weapons that shoot only as high as 14,000 feet , far short of the more than 30,000 feet at which Flight 9268 was flying when it dropped off radar .
Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov refused to discount terrorism , telling CNN 's Matthew Chance on Monday that `` only ( the ) investigation can rule out something . ''
Metrojet executives also said Monday that it was too early in the investigation to speculate or draw any conclusions . But Smirnov referred to purported footage of the crash posted by militants , saying : `` Those images you have seen on the Internet , I think they are fake . '' | 7f63c682d66fe140 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
politics | CNN (Web News) | http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/31/politics/message-control/index.html | Changing the subject: GOP resists White House effort to control message | 2013-05-31 | Politics | Story highlights In midst of controversies , Obama pushes Congress on student loans
When President Barack Obama headed to the Jersey Shore this week to tout the recovery effort from Superstorm Sandy , congressional Republicans sought to keep the nation 's focus on Washington .
On the same day Obama played `` Touchdown Fever '' with New Jersey Gov . Chris Christie on the Point Pleasant boardwalk and urged Americans to come spend money in the devastated region , House GOP committee leaders ensured that a series of controversies dominating the start of the president 's second term remained in the headlines .
Obama quoted from the Tom Waits song `` Jersey Girl '' popularized by local hero Bruce Springsteen , while GOP officials announced subpoenas of State Department records involving last year 's deadly Benghazi terrorist attack , questioned if Attorney General Eric Holder lied to Congress about cracking down on journalists and announced another congressional hearing on IRS targeting of conservative groups .
And on Friday , Obama stood in the Rose Garden to push Congress to extend student loan rates that are set to double on July 1 if the White House and Republicans ca n't strike a deal .
It 's all part of a high-stakes showdown over political messaging , with the White House trying to shift the focus from the controversies that Republicans seek to emphasize in their efforts to retain their House majority and perhaps win control of the Senate in next year 's congressional elections .
`` Voters react against what they perceive to be excess and overkill , '' said Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway , who noted that recent polls show the public believes one of the current controversies -- the IRS targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status -- amounted to government overreach .
`` Any political party that overreaches usually gets slapped back by the public , '' she added , referring to losses suffered by parties in power in mid-term elections in 1994 , 2006 and 2010 .
The GOP narrative depicts a government gone wild , with party leaders and strategists accusing the Obama administration of routinely abusing its powers . To bolster their argument , they lump the three controversies together in an effort to create a sweeping example of leaders avoiding accountability and responsibility .
`` Benghazi . The IRS . AP phone records . The failures for which Barack Obama will be remembered are not just those of one man or one administration , '' Republican strategist Alex Castellanos , a CNN contributor , recently wrote in an opinion piece . `` They are the failures of an old idea -- that big , old , dumb , top-down , factory style government can manage the complexities of modern times . ''
Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin , the 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee , complained of `` an arrogant abuse of power '' by the president .
`` Now in his second term , now that he 's implementing his agenda , we are seeing big government in practice , '' the House Budget Committee chairman said Wednesday on Fox .
Asked if the controversies would bring Republican victories in next year 's congressional elections to take control of the Senate while retaining their majority in the House , Ryan said it was `` just way too premature to make a comment like that . ''
For his part , Obama seemed to acknowledge his political troubles at a fundraiser on Wednesday night in Chicago , telling supporters that `` sometimes we take a bad turn , sometimes we make mistakes . ''
At the same time , the president complained of `` obstructionism for the sake of obstructionism '' by political foes who appeared interested `` only in scoring political points or placating a base , as opposed to trying to advance the interests of the American people . ''
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`` We 've got to figure out a way to work around that , '' he continued , declaring that the solution would be for Democrats to regain majority control in the House next year .
Obama 's schedule this week demonstrated how the White House took a `` business as usual '' approach that emphasized low-risk issues for the president , such as Tuesday 's visit to New Jersey for a bipartisan review of recovery efforts with Christie , a leading Republican .
The joint appearance benefited both men by portraying them as reasonable leaders able to work with political foes on major issues such as responding to a crisis like last year 's storm .
Other events on the president 's agenda included two Chicago fundraisers and remarks at an Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Celebration at the White House , all following last week 's major speech on security issues including U.S. drone policy and closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility that houses terror suspects .
Despite the White House efforts to shift the focus from the Washington controversies , Wednesday 's briefing with reporters by chief spokesman Jay Carney showed the difficulty .
While the first questions were about other matters -- a reported drone strike , the Syrian civil war and cyber-security issues with China -- CNN 's Jim Acosta then asked about GOP accusations that Holder may have lied to Congress about the secret subpoenas and search warrants obtained by the Justice Department in recent years for information from journalists involved in reporting classified information .
Reporters from NBC , CBS and Fox quickly followed up on the same topic , forcing Carney to defend Holder and reiterate Obama 's confidence in him .
On Thursday , White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One from Chicago that Obama would later attend his annual hurricane season briefing . He then faced more questions about Holder , with Earnest expressing Obama 's confidence that the controversies would not affect the attorney general 's ability to do his job .
Republicans have taken particular aim at Holder , an old nemesis from his days in the Clinton administration who has been a political lightning rod in the Obama administration .
He was cited for contempt of Congress by House Republicans last year in a dispute over documents related to the botched `` Fast and Furious '' gun-walking operation . Holder rejected the vote boycotted by most House Democrats as political theater .
Critics now seek to link him to two cases stemming from Justice Department investigations of classified leaks -- one involving secret subpoenas last year of phone records of Associated Press journalists , and the other about subpoenas and search warrants obtained in secret three years ago for phone records , e-mails and security badge details of Fox correspondent James Rosen .
Some Republicans attempt to group the classified leaks cases with the other controversies -- IRS targeting of conservative groups and erroneous talking points from the administration four days after the terrorist attack in Benghazi , Libya , last September that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans .
`` I think it is time for Mr. Holder to step aside , '' Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis of Florida told Fox News on Wednesday . `` We need a new attorney general , especially with all of these matters that are now going to need investigation from the IRS to the DOJ treatment of reporters . I just do n't think he is in a position where he can do that in a way that the American people expect . ''
Obama and Democrats joined Republicans in condemning the IRS targeting , which is under investigation by congressional committees as well as Holder 's Department of Justice .
The classified leaks investigations also raised concern among Democrats including Obama , who ordered Holder to conduct a review of how the government investigates such cases .
However , Democratic strategist Stephanie Cutter , a CNN political contributor , described Republican calls for Holder to resign as overkill , noting that GOP legislators had demanded an investigation into classified leaks in the first place .
`` I think that if the president took action every time a House Republican criticized a member of his Cabinet , we 'd have a pretty empty government , '' Cutter said when asked if Holder was proving a liability to Obama . `` ... For average Americans , they 're not really paying attention to this and they 're wondering , you know , why should n't the Department of Justice investigate , you know , intelligence leaks about some of our most pressing national security issues ? ''
A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday appeared to back up some of Cutter 's assertion .
According to the survey , 44 % of registered voters r esponded that the IRS probe of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status was the most important of the controversies facing the Obama administration , while 24 % said the handling of the Benghazi attack was the biggest concern . Only 15 % called the Justice Department 's seizure of journalists ' phone records as the most important .
By contrast , 73 % of respondents said the economy was a higher priority than the three controversies , according to the survey . However , it also showed that more than three-quarters of respondents wanted a special prosecutor -- rather than Holder -- to investigate the IRS targeting .
To liberal political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson , Republicans have attacked Holder as part of a broader strategy to tarnish the administration .
`` Typing Holder as the font of secrecy , manipulation and wrongdoing in the Obama administration will be played and replayed in the run-up to the 2014 elections , '' Hutchinson wrote Thursday on his website . `` The aim will be to paint Holder as an incompetent , conniving political hack who supposedly typifies the poor and untrustworthy judgment of Obama in picking his political appointees . ''
Conway , the GOP pollster , argued that the controversies all started with problematic acts by the administration .
`` It 's an advantage to the party out of power if the party in power is seen to be obfuscating or hiding the truth , '' she said , noting that `` these are not investigations that began in ( Republican House Speaker ) John Boehner 's office . ''
Jonathan Turley , a George Washington University constitutional lawyer , noted that most recent presidents faced accusations if not outright evidence of scandal in their second terms .
In the Obama administration , Turley said , Holder serves the role of `` sin-eater , '' or `` people that would take your sins away for a price . ''
`` Holder is the ultimate sin-eater in the beltway , '' Turley argued on CNN . `` He protects the president and he has an important use in that sense . '' | 76da9ce494e30b36 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
impeachment | Reuters | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-impeachment/as-trump-fumes-public-impeachment-hearings-set-to-grab-spotlight-idUSKBN1XL1C2 | As Trump fumes, public impeachment hearings set to grab spotlight | 2019-11-12 | Impeachment, Donald Trump, US House, Politics | WASHINGTON ( βββ ) - A senior Pentagon official detailed confusion and concern in the U.S. national security apparatus after the White House blocked aid to Ukraine without explanation , according to testimony released on Monday by the congressional impeachment panel into U.S. President Donald Trump .
Testimony by Laura Cooper , deputy assistant secretary of defense , was the latest to be made public that showed the internal machinations of the administration as Trump insisted that nearly $ 400 million in aid slated for Ukraine be withheld until its president publicly launch an investigation into one of Trump β s top political rivals .
Also on Monday , acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney withdrew a motion to join a lawsuit seeking to have a judge settle whether he can be compelled by Congress to testify in the inquiry . Instead , Mulvaney will file his own lawsuit .
The congressional panel also released testimony on Monday from Catherine Croft and Christopher Anderson , both advisers to Ambassador Kurt Volker on Ukraine policy , who described their concerns about the Trump administration β s Ukraine policy . Volker was Trump β s special representative for Ukraine negotiations until he resigned in September .
The new transcripts come two days before the impeachment inquiry by Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives committees enters a crucial new public phase .
The first on-camera hearings in the investigation are set for later this week and focused on accusations that Trump improperly withheld security money as leverage to pressure Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden .
On Wednesday and Friday , U.S. diplomats William Taylor , George Kent and Marie Yovanovitch are due to detail in public their concerns , previously expressed in testimony behind closed doors , that Trump and his administration sought to tie the security aid to investigations that might benefit his 2020 re-election bid .
The public testimony before the House Intelligence Committee will be carried by major broadcast and cable television networks and is expected to be viewed by millions of people , as Democrats seek to make the case for Trump β s removal from office .
Trump took to Twitter on Monday to fume again about the investigation . He said he would release this week a transcript of an earlier call he had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy .
Cooper β s Oct. 23 closed-door testimony became the scene of one of the most explosive moments of the inquiry so far , when about two dozen Republican lawmakers and allies of Trump stormed the secure room where she was speaking . Critics denounced the lawmakers β actions , saying they had compromised U.S. security by taking phones into the secure room .
In her testimony , Cooper described at some length the approval process for the $ 391 million in aid to Ukraine , including that the Pentagon had determined that Kiev had met anti-corruption requirements for the release of the funds .
U.S. President Donald Trump gestures while exiting a Veterans Day Parade and Wreath Laying ceremony in Manhattan , New York City , U.S. , November 11 , 2019 . βββ/Andrew Kelly
Trump and some of his supporters have argued that the funds - approved by the U.S. Congress to help combat Russia-backed separatists in the eastern part of Ukraine - were blocked by Trump to press Zelenskiy β s government to fight corruption , not to seek an investigation of Biden and his son .
β All of the senior leaders of the U.S. national security departments and agencies were all unified in their - in their view that this assistance was essential , β Cooper said , according to the transcript .
Cooper said the U.S. military was concerned that denying U.S. assistance would make it harder for Kiev to negotiate with Moscow .
β They are trying to negotiate a peace with Russia , and if they are seen as weak , and if they are seen to lack the backing of the United States for their armed forces , it makes it much more difficult for them to negotiate a peace on terms that are good for Ukraine . β
The impeachment investigation began in September after a whistleblower within the U.S. intelligence community brought a complaint against Trump over his July 25 call with Zelenskiy .
Democrats , who control the House , have argued that Trump abused his power in pressing a vulnerable U.S. ally to carry out investigations that would benefit Trump politically . Biden is a leading contender for the Democratic nomination to face the Republican president in the 2020 election . His son Hunter Biden served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company called Burisma .
Trump has denied there was a quid pro quo - or exchanging a favor for a favor - in his dealings with Ukraine . He defended his call with Zelenskiy as β perfect β and branded the probe a politically motivated hoax . Trump wrote on Twitter on Monday that the inquiry should be ended and the unnamed whistleblower , the whistleblower β s lawyer and β Corrupt politician β Schiff should be investigated for fraud .
Democrats consider the open hearings to be crucial to building public support for a vote on articles of impeachment - formal charges - against Trump . If that occurs , the 100-seat Republican-controlled Senate would hold a trial on the charges .
Republicans have so far shown little support for removing Trump from office , which would require two-thirds of senators present to vote to convict him . | 4ad98033afff4962 | 1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
supreme_court | USA TODAY | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/05/29/supreme-court-conservatives-winning-streak-letter-law/642832002/ | For Supreme Court's conservatives, it's all about the letter of the law | 2018-05-29 | supreme_court | WASHINGTON β Conservatives are controlling most of the Supreme Court 's closely divided cases so far this term by sticking to the words written by Congress .
The justices have settled challenges involving the rights of workers , immigrants , prisoners and patent owners by painstakingly defining the meaning of `` for , '' `` shall , '' `` any '' and `` other , '' along with `` satisfy '' and `` salesman . ''
The result has been a series of 5-4 decisions written by Justices Neil Gorsuch , Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito that rely on `` textualism '' β letting the statutes under review speak for themselves . It 's what the late Justice Antonin Scalia preached , and what President Trump promised he would seek in choosing Gorsuch as Scalia 's successor .
`` Since the court lost the foremost textualist in its history , you β d just naturally expect that it would have become a little less textualist . And that just doesn β t seem true , '' says former U.S. solicitor general Paul Clement , who has argued more than 90 cases at the Supreme Court .
β The terms of the debate have shifted , β Clement says . β You don β t want to walk into the court without a textualist argument . β
This is what Gorsuch , the newest justice now entering his second year on the court , promised during his Senate confirmation in 2017 β to `` try to understand what the words on the page mean , not import words that come from us . ''
Thus it was last week , when he refused to read into the National Labor Relations Act any rules for handling legal disputes under the Federal Arbitration Act . Gorsuch 's opinion for the court held that employers can insist that workers settle labor disputes individually through arbitration .
`` This court is not free to substitute its preferred economic policies for those chosen by the people β s representatives , '' he said .
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg led the liberals ' dissent , noting that the NLRA guarantees workers the right to unionize , bargain collectively and `` engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection . ''
The judicial dispute boiled down to the word `` other '' β Gorsuch declaring it must be related to union membership or collective bargaining , Ginsburg contending the law `` speaks more embracively . ''
The court was similarly word-bound in another 5-4 decision written by Gorsuch last month that said an administrative board created to review patents can not pick and choose which parts of a patent to review .
The law passed by Congress `` is both mandatory and comprehensive , '' Gorsuch said . `` The word 'shall ' generally imposes a nondiscretionary duty . And the word 'any ' naturally carries 'an expansive meaning . ' It means the board must address every claim the petitioner has challenged . ''
In dissent , Ginsburg called Gorsuch 's conclusion a `` wooden reading '' of a law that Justice Stephen Breyer said was `` technical , unclear , and constitutes a minor procedural part of a larger administrative scheme . ''
In February , Gorsuch 's 5-4 opinion for the court held that under federal law , prisoners who win civil rights suits must pay up to 25 % of their award `` to satisfy '' attorneys ' fees . Lower court judges can not limit a prisoner 's contribution , the court said .
`` When you purposefully seek or aim 'to satisfy ' an obligation , especially a financial obligation , that usually means you intend to discharge the obligation in full , '' Gorsuch wrote .
In dissent , Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the law lets judges limit the amount prisoners must pay . The phrase `` to satisfy '' does n't necessarily mean in full , she said , citing other contexts ranging from credit card payments to college course credits .
Supreme Court experts say Gorsuch 's addition has merely returned the court to Scalia 's brand of textualism .
`` The court is no more textualist than it was when Scalia was on the court , '' says Irving Gornstein , executive director of the Supreme Court Institute at Georgetown University Law Center . `` The only thing that has changed is that one textualist has been replaced by another . ''
But Jeffrey Fisher , co-director of the Stanford Law School Supreme Court Litigation Clinic , says Gorsuch `` seems to be trying to put some fresh wind in the sails of textualism . And it seems he β s having some success . ''
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas also stuck to the letter of the law in recent 5-4 rulings . Alito ruled that illegal immigrants can be detained indefinitely while their cases are reviewed , rather than given intermittent bail hearings .
`` Nothing in the statutory text imposes any limit on the length of detention , '' he said , nor does it say `` anything whatsoever about bond hearings . ''
Breyer argued for the court 's four liberal justices that such a law would be unconstitutional and should therefore be reinterpreted . Rather than focus only on the words , he said the court should consider `` the relevant constitutional language , purposes , history , traditions , context and case law . ''
And in a second case involving workers ' rights , Thomas 's 5-4 ruling found that service advisers at car dealerships can be excluded from the Fair Labor Standards Act 's wage and hour protections because their duties are akin to salesmen and partsmen , who are specifically excluded .
`` The phrase 'primarily engaged in β¦ servicing automobiles ' must include some individuals who do not physically repair automobiles themselves but who are integrally involved in the servicing process , '' Thomas wrote .
To which Ginsburg had her own textualist retort : `` Service advisors neither sell nor repair automobiles . ''
Elizabeth Wydra , president of the liberal Constitutional Accountability Center , says conservatives often accuse liberals of reading into statutes what they want them to say . The court 's conservatives , she says , also are guilty of that .
β There β s going to be a battle about what is actual textualism , '' Wydra says . `` And the liberals aren β t giving up that fight . β
Decisions to come : Immigration , gay rights , politics , abortion , taxes , technology : Crunch time at the Supreme Court
Betting on sports : Supreme Court strikes down ban on sports betting in victory for New Jersey
Will Kennedy retire ? : No vacancy ( yet ) : Liberals , conservatives prepare to battle for control of Supreme Court | eSymMMNcjfkSqKeB | 1 | Conservatives | 0.7 | Supreme Court | 0.3 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
disaster | The Hill | http://thehill.com/latino/354561-white-house-lets-jones-act-waiver-expire-for-puerto-rico | White House lets Jones Act waiver expire for Puerto Rico | 2017-10-09 | disaster | The White House has let a 10-day shipping waiver expire for Puerto Rico , meaning foreign ships can no longer bring aid to the hurricane-ravaged island from U.S. ports .
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security confirmed on Monday that the Jones Act waiver , which expired on Sunday , will not be extended .
U.S. lawmakers and Puerto Rican officials had been pushing the administration for an exemption from the Jones Act , a century-old law that only allows American-built and -operated vessels to make cargo shipments between U.S. ports .
They argued that the waiver would help deliver gasoline and other critical supplies more quickly and cheaply to the island in the wake of Hurricane Maria . The island could be rebuilding and without power for months .
The Trump administration issued a weeklong waiver for Texas and Florida after hurricanes Harvey and Irma , extending it for an additional week in September to bolster relief efforts .
But the White House did not initially lift the shipping restrictions for Puerto Rico , sparking widespread public outcry and fueling accusations that Trump is treating the U.S. territory differently than the states hit by hurricanes .
The administration agreed to temporarily lift the shipping restrictions for Puerto Rico on Sept. 28 .
But officials have warned that the biggest challenge for relief efforts is getting supplies distributed around Puerto Rico once they arrive , while the U.S. shipping industry maintains that there are adequate domestic companies available to assist with Puerto Rico β s recovery efforts .
Lawmakers in Congress are still pushing to roll back the Jones Act , with Sens . John McCain ( R-Ariz. ) and Mike Lee ( R-Utah ) recently introducing legislation that would permanently exempt Puerto Rico from the shipping law .
At McCain β s request , the bill was put on the Senate calendar under a fast-track procedure that allows it to bypass the normal committee process , but it has not been scheduled for any floor time .
β Now that the temporary Jones Act waiver for Puerto Rico has expired , it is more important than ever for Congress to pass my bill to permanently exempt Puerto Rico from this archaic and burdensome law , '' McCain said in a statement .
`` Until we provide Puerto Rico with long-term relief , the Jones Act will continue to hinder much-needed efforts to help the people of Puerto Rico recover and rebuild from Hurricane Maria . β | KwixzxGzapFsBy1d | 1 | Disaster | -0.2 | General News | -0.1 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
ebola | Fox Online News | http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/10/29/maine-officials-threaten-to-order-returning-ebola-nurse-to-follow-quarantine/ | Maine officials threaten to order returning Ebola nurse to follow quarantine protocol | 2014-10-29 | ebola | Maine health officials said Tuesday that they are prepared to go to court to force nurse Kaci Hickox to comply with the state 's `` voluntary '' 21-day quarantine period for health care workers who have treated Ebola patients , as the nurse vows to defy the state .
Hickox , on Wednesday , told NBC 's `` Today '' that she does n't `` plan on sticking to the guidelines '' and is `` appalled '' by the home quarantine policies `` forced '' on her .
`` I truly believe this policy is not scientifically nor constitutionally just , and so I 'm not going to sit around and be bullied around by politicians and be forced to stay in my home when I am not a risk to the American public , '' she said , saying she 's in `` perfectly good health . ''
Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew earlier declined during a news conference to comment specifically on Hickox , who was confined against her will at a New Jersey hospital before traveling home to Maine . But Mayhew said her department and the attorney general 's office were prepared to take legal steps to enforce a quarantine if someone declines to cooperate .
`` We do not want to have to legally enforce in-home quarantine , '' she said . `` We 're confident that selfless health workers who were brave enough to care for Ebola patients in a foreign country will be willing to take reasonable steps to protect residents of their own country . However we are willing to pursue legal authority if necessary to ensure risk is minimized for Mainers . ''
Hickox 's lawyer insisted Tuesday that she was not under quarantine and said she was seeking time to decompress at an undisclosed location in Maine .
Hickox , who volunteered in Africa with Doctors Without Borders , was the first person forced into New Jersey 's mandatory quarantine for people arriving at Newark Liberty International Airport from three West African countries .
Hickox , who spent the weekend in a quarantine tent , said she never had Ebola symptoms and tested negative in a preliminary evaluation , and New Jersey Gov . Chris Christie and New York Gov . Andrew Cuomo were sharply criticized for ordering mandatory quarantines .
In Maine , a quarantine comes into play only when people have had contact with Ebola patients ; others who 've been to the three countries will be monitored , officials said .
On Monday , Hickox traveled from New Jersey to Maine , where her boyfriend is a senior nursing student at the University of Maine at Fort Kent . Her boyfriend opted to leave Fort Kent to spend time with her during the quarantine period , officials said Tuesday .
If Hickox were to show Ebola symptoms , then her boyfriend and any others who had contact with her also would be subject to quarantine , Mayhew said .
The news of Hickox 's return to Maine swept across the town of Fort Kent and the university campus , which has 1,400 students .
Faith Morneault , a 19-year-old behavioral science student , said news that Hickox may be headed to Fort Kent had caused `` a lot of panic '' among students . But she said she understands her desire to go home .
`` You ca n't freak out in this situation . You have to understand it , '' she said .
Another student , 20-year-old behavioral science major Kayla Michaud , said students also are worried because of the potential presence of Hickox 's boyfriend in the school community .
`` If she 's in quarantine , is he going to be quarantined , because we do n't all want to be contaminated with the Ebola virus , '' she said .
Paul Berube , who works at a local credit union , said he thinks some residents are `` overreacting . ''
`` Listen , we do n't live in a Third World country . We have some of the best medical hospitals here . We 're prepared for it . We ca n't stop living . We need to live one day at a time and just be happy , '' said Berube , 58 . | yZqloL8398xk6Irw | 2 | Quarantine | -0.4 | Public Health | -0.1 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
education | Vox | http://www.vox.com/2014/9/1/6089041/teacher-wars-dana-goldstein-where-teacher-tenure-comes-from | The US has had the same arguments about teachers for 100 years | 2014-09-01 | education | Should teachers be judged based on their students ' test scores ? Should they get tenure and job protections that other workers do n't ? Should education schools recruit the best and the brightest , or change how they teach future teachers entirely ?
Those are some of the hottest questions in the education debate . And it turns out that none of them are anything new : Americans have been arguing about teachers and comparing our schools to other countries ' for as long as the country has had schools .
In her new book , The Teacher Wars : A History of America 's Most Embattled Profession , journalist Dana Goldstein explores the history of teaching in the US from the early 19th century through Teach for America . For more than 100 years , Americans have argued about who should be able to teach , what role teachers play in helping kids escape poverty , and how teachers should be judged on their work .
Goldstein and I talked Friday about teachers ' unions , teacher tenure , and the strong sense of dΓ©jΓ vu her book sheds on today 's education policy debates .
Libby Nelson : We spend a lot of time talking about who should be a teacher , or why good teachers are important , in a way we do n't about other professions β even professions that play critical roles , such as doctors . Why are teachers so central ?
Dana Goldstein : The first reason has to do with the role that we expect teachers to play in our inequality debate . We 're having this huge national conversation about socioeconomic inequality and to somewhat of a lesser extent about poverty , especially childhood poverty . And really we see teachers held up as people who can help us solve this problem .
Because we have a relatively weak social safety net , we 're really asking them to close these gaps between life outcomes for middle-class kids and life outcomes for poor kids . We are in a way setting ourselves up to be somewhat disappointed . That 's not to say that teachers do n't make an impact . We know from the latest economic research that teachers do have a big impact on kids . But as big as the impact is , it is a secondary impact . The home , the parenting , the neighborhood and the socioeconomic status of the family are still the primary impact .
So that 's one reason why teaching is controversial and embattled .
The second reason has to do with the fact that teaching is a unionized profession . It really comes down to what [ American Federation of Teachers President ] Randi Weingarten says to me , that America looks at teachers as `` islands of privilege . '' Only 7 percent of workers are in unions . So the fact that teachers have this strong body representing their interest , they have generous pensions they can look forward to , that they enjoy strong due process β these are things that make teachers unlike most workers . And it 's totally natural that Americans look at that and say , what 's going on ? Why do teachers have so much more protection than the rest of us ?
LN : So why do they ? Where did these job protections come from ?
The German system was considered a model for the United States
DG : Teacher pensions and teacher tenure both date back to the early 20th century . Tenure starts in New Jersey in 1909 . At the time , it was a consensus policy that good-government reformers and teachers ' unions agree about . They look at the German system , which was considered a model for the United States at the time . And they notice that teachers there are more respected and the profession was considered more prestigious . Two of the things German teachers have are tenure and pensions .
So this is something that is sort of supposed to offset the low pay and make the job more attractive . At the time , you see 95 percent of primary school teachers being female in most American cities . Reformers want to bring more men into the profession and these are some of the policies they think might help .
It does n't necessarily work out the way they think it will . But that 's what they 're thinking . And another thing that 's going on is teachers are being fired for a lot of ridiculous reasons . We see teaching jobs being part of the patronage machine in major cities . For example , the city councilman 's sister-in-law will get the teaching job . We see teachers being fired because they 're pregnant , because they 're African American , because they take a stance against IQ testing , which was a very big part of urban education reform at the time . A lot of sensible people were looking at these kind of retaliatory firings and saying , `` Tenure is a good idea . We need to protect educators . ''
LN : When did teachers ' unions shift from being the ally of the good-government reformers to being viewed as special interest groups that protect their own , as they 're often seen today ?
DG : It really happened in the 1960s and 1970s after the unions gained collective bargaining rights . Everything the unions achieved before collective bargaining was through political lobbying , and in particular the way that the female-dominated teachers ' professions were able to ally with male organized labor .
After the unions have collective bargaining rights in the '60s , they were actually able to meet with mayors and school boards at the bargaining table and they were legally empowered to make demands and have negotiations with the people who supervise teachers ' work . At this time you see jumps in pay and jumps in retirement support that the unions are negotiating .
LN : One idea that comes up over and over in the book is that so many of these debates are debates we 've had before . Why is this so cyclical ?
DG : As a nation , we do n't seem to care to learn the lessons of history . I think education is particularly cyclical , maybe more so than other policy areas .
we do n't seem to care to learn the lessons of history
Americans have been fascinated by standardized testing for a very long time . Even back into the early 19th century there were crazes for various ways of testing and categorizing kids . We see the pupil change method develop in the 1920s and the 1930s . That 's really that era 's version of value-added measurement [ which aims to determine how effective teachers are based on student test scores ] . It does find differences between effective and ineffective teachers , but it also finds the differences are rather small , and it finds teachers themselves resist being evaluated in this way . So we 're really seeing a very similar conversation now .
We constantly see business-oriented philanthropists in each generation get interested in education , which makes a lot of sense because they 're interested in educating the next generation of workers , and they bring experience from the corporate sector that 's relevant to education . But you see that they have an interest in data-driven reforms in each generation . And they are attracted to that because it reminds them of how they would make decisions in the business world .
LN : What can we learn from these debates we 've had before and are now having again ? What lessons do you hope people draw from this history ?
DG : I think the most promising reform that we have not tried , ever , is to actually look at what the best teachers , the most effective teachers are doing in their classroom at the instructional level and create structures and systems for them to share and teach those skills to other educators . We 've created a system in which teachers are very autonomous and alone for a lot of their workdays and they do n't spend that much time with other adults .
What teachers really need is more time to collaborate with one another to share good ideas . This is more than a bottom-up than a top-down reform model , and generally in the US we have not tried bottom-up change . We have tried to make change come from the top down , and that model is fundamentally at odds with our political system and our political structures .
LN : Why have other countries been more successful than the US at creating a teacher-led , bottom-up education system ?
DG : Our school system is earlier . It 's older . It dates back to the 19th century , and in many ways the one-room schoolhouse is the model of our system , where an adult is working alone . One adult .
Japan , South Korea , Finland β these were systems that were completely reformed after World War II . There is a lot more modern or contemporary thinking that has gone into these systems . We are still living with the legacy of an early 19th century education system .
Those countries also have very strong national governments , so they set standards for the schools and have a much greater power at the level of implementation . Our federal government only controls 13 percent of local school funding . Through incentive programs , the Obama administration has actually been very successful at getting local schools to do things because they want every last dollar they can get . And yet once they promise to do something like evaluate teachers in new ways , there 's actually nobody watching at the implementation level to make sure they do it in a smart , strategic way .
We have these top-down reform priorities and the federal government is successful in getting schools to adopt them , but there 's no quality check on that process . That 's fundamentally different than other nations . | cUkKlT9OnFRbeJul | 0 | Education | 0.2 | Teachers | -0.1 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
technology | Newsmax (News) | https://www.newsmax.com/politics/trump-facebook-oversight-board-decision/2021/05/05/id/1020188/ | Facebook Board Upholds Trump Ban But Orders New Review | 2021-05-05 | Technology, Facebook, Donald Trump | Facebook's Oversight Board decided Wednesday morning to uphold the site's ban of former President Donald Trump's account -- but the Board also ordered a new review of the "indefinite suspension" to take place within six months, leaving the door open slightly for a future Trump reinstatement.Trump slammed the decision as "a total disgrace.""What Facebook, Twitter, and Google have done is a total disgrace and an embarrassment to our Country," he said in a statement. "Free Speech has been taken away from the President of the United States because the Radical Left Lunatics are afraid of the truth, but the truth will come out anyway, bigger and stronger than ever before."The People of our Country will not stand for it! These corrupt social media companies must pay a political price, and must never again be allowed to destroy and decimate our Electoral Process."The determination by the Board also applies to social app Instagram, which is owned by Facebook."The Board has upheld Facebook's decision on January 7, 2021, to restrict then-President Donald Trump's access to posting content on his Facebook page and Instagram account," the Board said.But the Board added:"However, it was not appropriate for Facebook to impose the indeterminate and standardless penalty of indefinite suspension. Facebookβs normal penalties include removing the violating content, imposing a time-bound period of suspension, or permanently disabling the page and account."The Board insists that Facebook review this matter to determine and justify a proportionate response that is consistent with the rules that are applied to other users of its platform. Facebook must complete its review of this matter within six months of the date of this decision. The Board also made policy recommendations for Facebook to implement in developing clear, necessary, and proportionate policies that promote public safety and respect freedom of expression."The Board's lengthy statement was not signed by any individual members. The Trump decision was prepared by an anonymous five-member panel and "approved by a majority of the Board," Facebook said."Facebook is more interested in acting like a Democrat Super PAC than a platform for free speech and open debate," House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., tweeted on Wednesday. "If they can ban President Trump, all conservative voices could be next. A House Republican majority will rein in big tech power over our speech."The leading social media sites suspended Trumpβs accounts β each of which attracted legions of followers and detractors eager to amplify or castigate the 45th presidentβs every pronouncement β soon after the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol breach.Twitter, in particular, had been ramping up its policing of the then-sitting presidentβs account for months after the November election, saddling many of his tweets with disclaimers and warnings, and, in an unprecedented move, locked and then suspended Trumpβs account on Jan. 6. Facebookβs move to suspend Trumpβs account came the next day, close on Twitterβs heels.Twitter announced on Jan. 8 it had permanently suspended Trumpβs account, but Facebook dragged out the process.On Jan. 21, Facebook VP of Global Affairs Nick Clegg wrote that Trumpβs indefinite suspension on that platform and Instagram would be referred to the Oversight Committee."The board was established last year to make the final call on some of the most difficult content decisions Facebook makes," Clegg wrote in the post. "It is an independent body and its decisions are binding β they canβt be overruled by CEO Mark Zuckerberg or anyone else at Facebook."The drama over social media silencing a sitting president β who remains a leading contender to run for the office again in 2024 β has morphed into a clarion call for many Republicans, especially those who may already have been wary of the power of social media companies.Congressman and senators in recent months have frequently railed at the power to limit information amassed by social media companies, and discussion of what can be done to stop the slide on the slippery slope has even reached the Supreme Court."We will soon have no choice but to address how our legal doctrines apply to highly concentrated, privately owned information infrastructure such as digital platforms," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in an April dissent that suggested the highest court in the land may soon step in to the fray.Trump was relatively quiet after leaving the White House on Jan. 20, but in the past few months has reemerged as a force within GOP politics.Aides close to Trump have frequently floated talk of the former president starting his own social media company, but Trump has also found workarounds to the bans β releasing short, often tweet-sized statements that are then posted countless times by reporters, fans, and critics β that have allowed him to maintain a presence on Facebook and Twitter.Trump told Heather Childers on Newsmax TVβs "American Agenda" last month that social media companies have not succeeded in stifling his voice.Said Trump: "They havenβt silenced me." | f2dc34aae14a0bdb | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
terrorism | CNN (Web News) | http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/19/opinion/bergen-terrorism-root-causes/index.html | OPINION: 'Jihadi John': The bourgeois terrorist | 2015-02-19 | terrorism | Peter Bergen is CNN 's national security analyst , a professor of practice at Arizona State University and a vice president at New America . He is the author of `` Manhunt : The Ten-Year Search for bin Laden -- From 9/11 to Abbottabad. `` This is an updated version of an article originally published February 19 .
( CNN ) This is how top national security reporters Souad Mekhennet and Adam Goldman of the Washington Post , who broke the story that Mohammed Emwazi has been identified as the notorious ISIS terrorist known as `` Jihadi John , '' describe him : `` a Briton from a well-to-do family who grew up in West London and graduated from college with a degree in computer programming . ''
They go on to say that Emwazi `` was raised in a middle-class neighborhood in London '' and attended the University of Westminster , which is a university in London that was founded in the early 19th century .
Emwazi poses something of a problem for the Obama administration 's narrative about who becomes a terrorist and why . Last week , the administration hosted a three-day conference on `` Countering Violent Extremism , '' which is a government euphemism for how best to deal with Islamist terrorism .
We heard from Obama administration officials and even the President himself that terrorism has something to do with lack of opportunities and poverty . Obama said that `` we have to address grievances terrorists exploit , including economic grievances . ''
He said , `` when millions of people -- especially youth -- are impoverished and have no hope for the future , when corruption inflicts daily humiliations on people , when there are no outlets by which people can express their concerns , resentments fester . The risk of instability and extremism grow . Where young people have no education , they are more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and radical ideas ... ''
The President did acknowledge that terrorists can be rich like Osama bin Laden , who was the son of a Saudi construction magnate and attended the top high school and the best university in Saudi Arabia . It 's hard to imagine someone with more opportunities . Think the Trump family Saudi-style , minus the bling , and throw in a deep admiration for the Taliban .
But , in fact , Osama bin Laden is more the rule than the exception . Take not only Emwazi/Jihadi John , but also the notorious British terrorist , Omar Sheikh , who attended the London School of Economics and who kidnapped American journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan in 2002 .
Pearl was the first of al Qaeda 's victims to be beheaded . The terrorist who beheaded him was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed , who attended North Carolina A & T State University in Greensboro a nd studied mechanical engineering .
Take Mohamed Atta , the son of an Egyptian lawyer , who had worked on a doctorate in , of all things , urban preservation at a German university and who led the 9/11 attacks . Or the present leader of al Qaeda , Ayman al Zawahiri , a surgeon who comes from a leading Egyptian family that counts ambassadors , politicians and prominent clerics amongst its ranks .
JUST WATCHED Report : Injustice , not unemployment , leads to extremism Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Report : Injustice , not unemployment , leads to extremism 02:50
Nearer to home we can also point to the Fort Hood shooter , Maj. Nidal Hasan , who was not only an officer in the U.S. Army and a psychiatrist , but is also from a comfortably middle-class family in Virginia .
Let 's also add to the mix Faisal Shahzad , who tried to blow up a bomb-laden SUV in Times Square on May 1 , 2010 . He had obtained an MBA in the United States and had worked as a financial analyst for the Elizabeth Arden cosmetics company . His father was one of the top officers in the Pakistani military .
`` Who becomes a terrorist ? '' turns out , in many cases , to be much like asking , `` Who owns a Volvo ? ''
'Who becomes a terrorist ? ' turns out , in many cases , to be much like asking , 'Who owns a Volvo ? ' Peter Bergen
Indeed , New America has studied the backgrounds of some 250 U.S.-based militants since 9/11 who have been indicted in or convicted of some kind of jihadist terrorist crime . They are on average middle class , reasonably well-educated family men with kids . They are , in short , ordinary Americans .
Similarly , in his important 2004 book `` Understanding Terror Networks , '' psychiatrist Marc Sageman , a former CIA case officer , examined the backgrounds of 172 militants who were part of al Qaeda or a similar group . Just under half were professionals ; two-thirds were either middle or upper class and had gone to college ; indeed , several had doctorates .
In a 2006 study , Swati Pandey and this author examined the educational background of 79 terrorists responsible for five of the worst anti-Western terrorist attacks of the modern era -- the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 , the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998 , the 9/11 attacks , the Bali nightclub bombings in 2002 , and the London bombings on July 7 , 2005 .
We found that more than half of the terrorists had attended college , making them as well-educated as the average American . Two of our sample had doctoral degrees , and two others had begun working toward their doctorates .
Significantly , we found that , of those who did attend college and/or graduate school , 58 % attained scientific or technical degrees . Emwazi/Jihadi John reportedly studied computer programming , which makes him typical of the anti-Western jihadist terrorists we examined .
Of course , large-scale insurgent groups such as ISIS and the Taliban recruit foot soldiers who join the cause to get a paycheck . But the people running these organizations are in it for ideological reasons .
The diagnosis that poverty , lack of education or lack of opportunities have much to do with terrorism requires a fundamentally optimistic view of human nature . This diagnosis leads to the prognosis that all we need to do to solve the terrorism problem is to create societies that are less poor , better educated and have more opportunities .
The fact is , working stiffs with few opportunities and scant education are generally too busy getting by to engage in revolutionary projects to remake society . And history , in fact , shows us that terrorism is generally a bourgeois endeavor . This was just as true of the Russian anarchists of the late 19th century as it was of the German Marxists of the Baader-Meinhof gang of the 1970s and of the Japanese terrorist group Aum Shinrikyo in the 1990s .
Post-9/11 research demonstrating that Islamist terrorism is mostly a pursuit of the middle class echoed an important study about Egyptian militants that was undertaken by the French academic Gilles Kepel during the mid-1980s .
Kepel researched the 300 Islamist militants who were tried in the wake of the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat . Around one in five were professionals such as engineers , a quarter worked as government employees , just under half were artisans or merchants , one in 10 were in the military or police , and only one in 10 were farmers or were unemployed . Of those who were students , around a third were studying in the elite fields of medicine and engineering .
Similarly , the Library of Congress issued a study two years before the 9/11 attacks that asked the question : `` Who Becomes a Terrorist and Why ? '' The conclusion , based on a survey of all the published literature , was that there were only a few `` major exceptions to the middle- and upper-class origins of terrorist groups . ''
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There are , of course any number of exceptions to the prototypical middle-class terrorist . The terrorists who attacked Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris last month and the Copenhagen cafΓ© that was hosting the Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks earlier this month were from the margins of society .
But for every example of poverty or lack of opportunities as a purported rationale for terrorism , it 's easy to supply important counterexamples . The `` underwear bomber '' Umar Abdulmuttalab , who tried to set off a bomb on a U.S. passenger jet flying over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009 , is the son of one of the richest men in Africa and attended University College London , which routinely rates among the best universities in the world .
Anwar al-Awlaki , the late leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula , who tasked the underwear bomber to blow up an American plane over an American city , was studying for his Ph.D. at George Washington University before he took up arms with al Qaeda . Awlaki 's father was a Cabinet minister in Yemen .
So if it 's clearly not deprivation that is driving much Islamist terrorism , what is ?
For that we must turn to ideology , specifically religious ideology . And this is where the Obama administration has to perform some pretzel logic . It is careful to explain that the war on ISIS is not a war on Islam and that ISIS ' ideology is a perversion of the religion . Fair enough . But the administration seems uncomfortable with making the connection between Islamist terrorism and ultra-fundamentalist forms of Islam that are intolerant of other religions and of other Muslims who do n't share their views to the letter .
ISIS may be a perversion of Islam , but Islamic it is , just as Christian beliefs about the sanctity of the unborn child explain why some Christian fundamentalists attack abortion clinics and doctors . But , of course , murderous Christian fundamentalists are not killing many thousands of civilians a year . More than 80 % of the world 's terrorist attacks take place in five Muslim-majority countries -- Afghanistan , Iraq , Nigeria , Pakistan and Syria -- and are largely carried out by groups with Islamist beliefs .
This week the United Nations released a report showing that civilian casualties in Afghanistan were at the highest level since the organization started counting them six years ago . The Taliban were responsible for three-quarters of these deaths .
The Taliban and other Islamist terrorist groups are not , of course , secular organizations . To treat them as if they were springs from some combination of wishful thinking , PC gone crazy and a failure to accept , in an increasingly secularized era , that some will kill in the name of their god , an all-too-common phenomenon across human history .
Indeed , while ISIS and like-minded groups and their fellow travelers are not representative of the vast majority of the world 's Muslims , their ideology is rooted in Salafist ultra-fundamentalist interpretations of Islam , and indeed they can point to verses in the Quran that can be interpreted to support their worldview .
A well-known verse in the Quran commands Muslims to `` fight and slay the nonbelievers wherever you find them , seize them , beleaguer them , and lie in wait for them in every stratagem [ of war ] . '' When bin Laden made a formal declaration of war against `` the Jews and the Crusaders '' in 1998 , he cited this Quranic verse at the beginning of his declaration .
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ISIS ' distinctive black flags are a reference to a supposed saying of the Prophet Mohammed that `` If you see the black banners coming from the direction of Khorasan then go to them , even if you have to crawl , because among them will be Allah 's Caliph the Mahdi . ''
In other words , coming out of Khorasan , an area that now encompasses Afghanistan , will come an army that includes the Mahdi , the Islamic savior of the world . The parent organization of ISIS was al Qaeda , which , of course , was headquartered in Afghanistan at the time of the 9/11 attacks .
Last year , ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi named himself caliph , which means that in his own mind and in the eyes of his followers he is not only the leader of ISIS but the overall leader of Muslims everywhere .
These beliefs may seem like a crazy delusion to most of us , but it 's important to understand that they are theological in nature , and this theology is rooted in ultra-fundamentalist Islam .
ISIS sees itself as the vanguard army that is bringing back true Islam to the world . This project is of such cosmic importance that they will break any number of eggs to make this omelet , which accounts for their murderous campaign against every ethnic group , religious group and nationality that they perceive as standing in their way . ISIS recruits also believe that we are in the end times , and they are best understood as members of an Islamist apocalyptic death cult .
What does that mean for policy makers ? It means that the only truly effective challenges to this reasoning must come from Islamic leaders and scholars who can make the theological case that ISIS is an aberration . This , too , is an Islamic project ; it is not a jobs project . | qBlGXxFb8vCSpVc2 | 0 | Terrorism | -3.3 | Income Inequality | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
impeachment | USA TODAY | https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/2020/01/24/lev-parnas-ex-giuliani-ally-could-key-figure-trump-impeachment/4531125002/ | The middleman: How Lev Parnas joined Team Trump and became Rudy Giuliani's fixer in Ukraine | 2020-01-24 | impeachment | The state funeral for former President George H.W . Bush in 2018 featured a who 's who of U.S. political heavyweights .
The nation 's four living former presidents and their wives were in the first row of the National Cathedral in Washington , D.C. Alongside were President Donald Trump and his wife . Bush 's eldest son , former president George W. Bush , sat nearby with his wife and extended family .
Among the mourners was the man once known to millions as America 's Mayor and now Trump 's personal lawyer : Rudy Giuliani . He was accompanied by β who ?
The chubby man in the dark suit was Lev Parnas , a Soviet-born businessman known to few at the time . Now , the 47-year-old Florida resident is famed as Giuliani 's associate in pressing for an investigation that could discredit former Vice President Joe Biden , a Trump rival in the 2020 presidential race , by digging up dirt in Parnas ' native Ukraine .
Parnas ' relationship with Giuliani was n't all business . He 'd honored Giuliani by naming him godfather of his young son . Just a few weeks before the final farewell for the nation 's 41st president , Giuliani invited Parnas to join him at Shelly 's Back Room , a clubby Washington retreat for cigar and whiskey aficionados .
`` Sounds good I 'll meet you there , '' Parnas answered via text . He said he 'd bring Rep. Pete Sessions , a Texas Republican and longtime Giuliani ally who had just lost his seat in the midterm elections .
Parnas ' uninvited attendance at the funeral illustrated the meteoric rise and curious position of a man who played Sancho Panza to Giuliani 's Don Quixote , a status enabled in part by large contributions to Republican politicians and Trump-related campaign committees .
Lev Parnas , in a WhatsApp message to a major GOP donor I 'm officially part of team trump
Parnas is no longer cigar buddies with America 's Mayor . Instead , he 's dishing about his work with Giuliani in Ukraine and providing reams of messages and documents to House impeachment investigators .
He says the evidence shows Trump approved of his work to pressure Ukraine to investigate Biden . House investigators agree . They 've sent it to the Senate for potential consideration in Trump 's impeachment trial , currently underway in the Senate .
While Parnas has described his turnabout and prime-time TV interviews as patriotic truth-telling , he 's also angling for leniency in a campaign finance case brought against him by federal prosecutors in New York .
Parnas ' journey to a state funeral and Manhattan federal court started with his family 's emigration from Odessa , Ukraine , to the U.S. when he was three years old .
Now a naturalized U.S. citizen , he grew up in Brooklyn , home to many immigrants from Eastern Europe .
Over the years he sold condos and closed deals . He signed up and fell out with business partners . He started new ventures and watched them fold . He was evicted and sued . He was a doting father described by some as a con man .
By March 2019 , jetting around the world with Giuliani , he seemed to have reached a milestone . `` I 'm officially part of team trump , '' he wrote in a WhatsApp message to Harry Sargeant III , a wealthy Florida energy mogul and GOP donor .
That may have been true until last week , when House impeachment investigators disclosed the trove of material Parnas turned over .
They contend the evidence bolsters their case that Trump should be removed from office for his role in a scheme to withhold nearly $ 400 million in U.S. military aid from Ukraine unless government officials there investigated Biden 's family .
Giuliani associate Lev Parnas claims Trump knew about Ukraine Rudy Giuliani 's associate Lev Parnas said President Trump `` knew exactly what was going on '' in Ukraine . βββ
`` President Trump knew exactly what was going on , '' Parnas told MSNBC 's Rachel Maddow .
His story , told through impeachment investigation records , court filings and other records and interviews , shows how someone with campaign cash β or the promise of it β managed to become part of Trump 's orbit despite some unwelcome baggage . Parnas ' attorney , Joseph Bondy , did not respond to an interview request .
`` I went from being a top donor , from being at all the events where we would just socialize , to becoming a close friend of Rudy Giuliani 's , to eventually becoming his ally and his asset on the ground in Ukraine , '' Parnas told CNN 's Anderson Cooper .
Parnas said his first connection with the Trump family came early in his career , selling Brooklyn apartments for Fred Trump , the president 's father . Records of his addresses from the mid-1990s link him to a real estate company not far from the elder Trump 's office .
By 1997 , Parnas was living in Boca Raton , Florida , where he registered to vote as a Republican . Two years later , he got a license to carry a concealed weapon .
Parnas was a broker for three companies that were expelled by a Wall Street association that self-regulates financial brokerages and brokers . He was not personally implicated in any of the alleged wrongdoing .
By the mid-2000s , Parnas had moved on to Edgetech International , a penny-stock company registered in Nevada . Serving as CEO , he ran the company from a Florida office and marketed an early mobile internet device known as the PC Edge . The company ultimately folded .
Lev Parnas arrives at federal court in New York City , where he is charged with violating federal campaign finance laws , on Dec. 2 , 2019 . Seth Wenig , AP
`` Sometimes we were buying Rolexes , '' he told The Washington Post . `` And sometimes we were selling the Rolexes to make the rent . ''
And then there were the times he did n't make the rent . The owner of an apartment complex in Boca Raton repeatedly sued him for failing to pay . A law firm in Hollywood , Florida , sued him in 2012 to collect nearly $ 27,000 in legal bills for battling eviction from another property .
In November 2010 , Parnas met with Michael Pues , the New Jersey owner of a stone industry company , at the Millennium Hotel in New York City . At the time , Parnas was Pues ' investment broker .
Pues had signed up after Parnas touted himself as `` the youngest stockbroker out there , '' someone who was `` driving around in a Bentley '' and never lost money for his clients , according to a court filing .
In late 2010 , Parnas asked Pues to invest in a movie called `` Anatomy of an Assassin . '' Parnas introduced Pues to Rudy Durand , a Hollywood writer and producer . Durand and actor Jack Nicholson met with Pues in Manhattan 's swank Carlyle Hotel to discuss the project , the court filing shows .
Michael Pues , who is pursuing Parnas for a loan he never paid I trusted him with everything . He used to call me family .
Pues said he was impressed . He agreed to provide a short-term , $ 350,000 loan from his family 's trust . He has n't been repaid , despite years chasing Parnas in court .
A federal judge in Brooklyn issued a $ 350,000 judgment against Parnas and his Parnas Holdings company in late 2015 . With interest , the debt has soared to more than $ 678,000 .
Pues testified that Parnas agreed verbally to return the money after 45 days . But after making the loan , he said he was unable to reach Parnas again .
Instead , a Parnas associate responded by saying the company could n't repay . Pues said he felt conned by the man he once trusted .
`` I trusted him with everything . He used to call me family , '' he said in a court hearing .
Durand , who appeared in court as a witness for the Pues family trust , testified `` that at one time he liked and trusted Lev , but that he later found him to be a con artist , '' according to the judgment .
Despite the debts , Parnas still had access to funds . In October 2016 , the closing stretch of the presidential election , he provided financial backing for the son of the man who gave him one of his first jobs .
On the same day that month , Parnas contributed $ 50,000 to the Trump Victory political action committee and $ 2,700 to the Donald J. Trump for President campaign committee , the maximum allowed for the general election .
He had n't donated to federal campaigns before , elections records show . `` I never was in politics , '' he told CNN . `` I was just a businessman trying to get by . ''
The PAC contribution listed Parnas ' employer as Fraud Guarantee , a company he created in part to ensure that Google searches of his name would produce positive results , rather than surface prior allegations of fraud , The Wall Street Journal reported .
Parnas ' company , which offered products and services to guard against investment fraud , had no sign of any customers at the time of the contributions . However , it later received a $ 1.5 million investment from Magnolia Ventures , a New York City-based venture capital fund .
This Facebook screen shot provided by The Campaign Legal Center , shows President Donald Trump standing with Lev Parnas , top left photo , at the White House in Washington , posted on May 1 , 2018 . AP
Parnas ' donations gave him a seed of credibility among Trump allies . Shortly after Trump took office in January 2017 , Parnas tried to advance his business prospects .
He contacted Michael Cohen , who at the time was Trump 's personal lawyer and longtime problem fixer , and asked for a meeting with the president , according to a person with knowledge of the matter .
Parnas wanted to discuss a proposal to prevent fraud and waste in government , the person said . It 's unclear whether such a meeting took place , though Parnas told CNN he met Cohen a couple of times .
Cohen is serving a three-year prison sentence for evading taxes , lying to Congress and banks , and arranging secret payments to buy the silence of two women who said they had sexual affairs with Trump years before he was elected . Trump has denied the claims .
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This Facebook image posted on on May 21 , 2018 , shows ( from left ) Donald Trump Jr. , Tommy Hicks Jr. , Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman . It was provided by The Campaign Legal Center . AP
By 2018 , Parnas ' donations started to pay off in the form of invitations to Trump fundraisers and other events .
In May 2018 , Parnas posted a photo to Facebook . He and Igor Fruman , a Belarus-born business associate and future co-defendant , were sitting at a table with Donald Trump Jr. and Tommy Hicks Jr. , a wealthy Trump fundraiser from Texas .
On social media , Parnas posted photo after photo with GOP figures . Trump . Trump Jr. Hicks . And others that Parnas ' attorney has publicized recently in response to Trump allies ' efforts to disavow or discredit him . They include Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway and former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders .
In May 2018 , Parnas and Fruman contributed $ 325,000 to America First Action , a pro-Trump super PAC .
That donation would eventually land them in federal court . Prosecutors accuse them of concealing the true source of the money , part of a scheme to win influence by funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to U.S. election candidates and campaign committees .
But in the short term , the transaction apparently helped put Parnas in touch with Joseph Ahearn , the director of development for America First Policies , the PAC 's sibling nonprofit . Ahearn kept Donald Trump Jr. apprised of Ukraine-related issues .
On March 20 , Ahearn sent Parnas a WhatsApp message asking , `` What should I send Don to tweet ? '' according to documents Parnas ' lawyer provided to House impeachment investigators .
Parnas forwarded some news stories . `` Have jr retweet it , '' he said . Ahearn responded , `` Sent . ''
A few days later , Parnas sent Ahearn a link to a Daily Wire story headlined , `` Calls Grow To Remove Obama β s U.S . Ambassador To Ukraine . '' The same day , Trump Jr. tweeted the link .
Hicks , the wealthy Trump family loyalist who 's now the co-chair of the Republican National Committee , also exchanged messages with Parnas . He advised Parnas that the owner of The Daily Caller , a conservative news and opinion website , was a friend .
`` We should let him know what we know at the right time , '' he messaged Parnas , who responded `` 100 % . ''
Harry Sargeant III , in a WhatsApp message to Lev Parnas Just becoming expensive to fly you guys everywhere LEV
But even as Parnas corresponded and hobnobbed with political elites , he had to figure out how to pay for it all , and how to support his family .
Sargeant , the Florida businessman , funded some of Parnas ' travel as he jetted to Ukraine and elsewhere in Europe , documents released by House impeachment investigators show .
On April 10 , Parnas messaged Sargeant via WhatsApp after discovering that a trip to Vienna had been canceled .
`` Just becoming expensive to fly you guys everywhere LEV , '' Sargeant replied .
Sargeant 's attorney has said his client loaned the funds after Parnas said he was broke and pledged to repay it .
Parnas seemed eager to defuse the situation . β We are never expecting you to pay for it my brother that β s why we wanted to do the loan so we don β t have to bother you , '' he told Sargeant .
At one point , Parnas asked Sargeant to call , dangling the prospect of `` juicy stuff . '' When Sargeant asked what it was , Parnas demurred . A week later , he told Sargeant , `` Working hard to save our country my brother ! ! ! ! ''
Giuliani told Reuters that Parnas ' Fraud Guarantee firm paid him $ 500,000 for legal and technical consulting work in 2018 . The money actually came from Charles Gucciardo , a Republican donor and Trump supporter from Long Island , The New York Times reported .
Gucciardo agreed to invest in Fraud Guarantee because it was a `` company that Rudolph Giuliani was going to be the spokesman and the face of , '' said Gucciardo 's attorney , Randy Zelin , according to the report .
That deal meant Giuliani was working for Parnas . Yet in a May 2019 tweet , he identified Parnas and Fruman as his legal clients .
Their relationship apparently strengthened as Giuliani realized Parnas ' language ability and Fruman 's contacts in Ukraine could help him investigate the financial dealings of Hunter Biden , the son of Joe Biden . The younger Biden had been a well-compensated board member of Burisma Holdings , a Ukraine energy company .
Giuliani has alleged that Joe Biden abused his office by urging the 2016 firing of Viktor Shokin , at the time Ukraine 's chief prosecutor , out of concern that Shokin might implicate Hunter Biden in a corruption investigation .
But Biden , officials in Ukraine and the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine have said many in the international community wanted Shokin gone because he did n't do enough to battle corruption .
Parnas seemed to be in constant communication with Trump allies and Ukrainian officials who might advance his efforts to implicate Biden in a scandal . `` I was the middleman between two worlds , '' Parnas told Cooper on CNN .
Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas : ' I 'll be vindicated ' Two associates of Rudy Giuliani were arraigned Wednesday on charges they used straw donors to make illegal campaign contributions to politicians and committees to advance their business interests . ( Oct. 23 ) AP Domestic
Parnas was Giuliani 's go-between with Yuriy Lutsenko , who until August was the chief prosecutor in Ukraine . In WhatsApp messages written in Russian , Lutsenko complained about U.S . Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and pressed for her removal .
Giuliani wanted her out , too , apparently believing she could hinder his Ukraine investigation . He referred to her as a `` crooked Ambassador '' in a May text to Parnas that was included in the material turned over to House impeachment investigators .
As for Trump 's view , he apparently was recorded telling associates that he wanted Yovanovitch fired , ABC News reported on Friday . The purported remarks were made as Trump met with a small gathering that included Parnas and Fruman , the report said . If authenticated , the remarks could undercut Trump 's statements that he did not know the business associates
Yovanovitch has denied any wrongdoing and insisted she never criticized Trump or his administration , as some Trump supporters claim .
As the weeks of early 2019 dragged on and Yovanovitch remained in Kyiv , Parnas sought to reassure an increasingly irritated Lutsenko .
`` It 's just if you all do n't decide on the madame - you all question all my statements . Including the one on B , '' Lutsenko told Parnas on March 22 , a possible reference to Biden . Three days later , he complained : `` You ca n't remove one stupid woman from office . ''
`` She is not a simple stupid woman , believe me , '' Parnas responded . `` Well , she wo n't get away for long . ''
Dispatch from Ukraine : Trump 's conspiracy theories thrive in Ukraine , where a young democracy battles corruption and distrust
Around May 2018 , Parnas and Fruman met separately with Sessions , a Texas Republican and longtime Giuliani backer . They pledged to raise $ 20,000 for Sessions ' reelection , according to the criminal indictment against the Soviet-born partners .
Sessions wrote a May 9 , 2018 , letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claiming he had evidence Yovanovitch had disparaged Trump and asking for her removal . Sessions later said the letter was unrelated to Parnas and Fruman .
Sessions , who received a federal grand jury subpoena in the campaign finance case , has said he had no involvement in the alleged scheme .
Parnas sent Giuliani a copy of Sessions ' letter in December 2018 . Later that day , Parnas texted : `` Just spoke with Pete I 'll update you tomorrow . ''
Former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch testifies before the House Intelligence Committee on Nov. 15 , 2019 , in the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump . Jack Gruber , βββ
In April 2019 , Giuliani texted Parnas an update that appeared to refer to either Pompeo or Trump : `` He fired her again . ''
`` I pray it happens this time I 'll call you tomorrow my brother , '' replied Parnas .
Pressed by Trump , the Department of State abruptly recalled Yovanovitch to Washington , D.C. , the next day .
After Trump 's July phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky , an unidentified whistleblower filed a complaint that ultimately triggered the impeachment proceedings against Trump .
The whistleblower complained that the president appeared to abuse his office with an improper quid pro quo : withholding congressionally-approved U.S. military aid for Ukraine while pressing Zelensky for an investigation of the Biden family .
Trump has denied the allegations , calling the phone call `` perfect '' and characterizing the impeachment proceedings as a hoax .
In October , three months after that complaint , Parnas and Fruman were arrested before they boarded a plane to Europe with one-way tickets . The indictment alleged that their scheme , carried out with help from an unidentified Ukrainian government official and funding from a Russian national , was aimed at buying `` potential influence with candidates , campaigns , and the candidates ' governments . ''
Then Giuliani learned that federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York , the office he once led and the one that charged Parnas and Fruman , were investigating his business dealings .
The day after Parnas and Fruman were arrested , House impeachment investigators issued subpoenas . The two initially said they would not cooperate . At the time , their attorney was John Dowd , a longtime Giuliani ally and former lawyer for Trump .
But Parnas changed lawyers and decided to cooperate . His disclosures to House investigators torpedoed his relationship with Giuliani .
Giuliani declared Tuesday he was `` heartbroken '' over the rupture . He told Fox News ' Laura Ingraham he would n't respond to all of Parnas ' accusations about their dealings , saying , `` He in very large part did not tell the truth . ''
Trump repeated an earlier denial that he did not know Parnas . In response , Bondy tweeted a video showing Parnas with his arm on Trump 's shoulder during a Mar-a-Lago event in Florida as he introduced the nation 's commander-in-chief to a Ukrainian government official .
No recent selfies of Parnas and GOP heavyweights have surfaced . Instead , his lawyer has posted photos of Parnas smiling with the TV journalists who interviewed him about his exploits .
Here β s the β I don β t know him at all , don β t know what he β s about , don β t know where he comes from , know nothing about him β guy , w Lev Parnas & Roman Nasirov , former head of Ukrainian Fiscal Service , at Mar-a-Lago 12/16 . @ POTUS . @ realDonaldTrump @ Acosta # LevRemembers # LetLevSpeak pic.twitter.com/5B5QY2DJEg β Joseph A. Bondy ( @ josephabondy ) January 16 , 2020 | RpPSRIRJZfXK0Yf9 | 1 | Lev Parnas | 0.3 | Ukraine | -0.1 | Rudy Giuliani | 0 | Impeachment | 0 | Politics | 0 |
terrorism | Washington Times | http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/28/house-investigator-subpoenas-all-communications-on/ | House investigator subpoenas all communications on Benghazi talking points | 2013-05-28 | terrorism | House Republicans β chief investigator issued a subpoena Tuesday for State Department documents that he said would shed light on how the administration wrote the β talking points β that were used to give a wrong impression of the September terrorist attack in Benghazi , Libya .
Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell E. Issa told Secretary of State John F. Kerry to provide all communications regarding the talking points from 10 department officials , including Victoria Nuland , who was chief spokeswoman at the time , and Deputy Secretary William Burns .
β The State Department has not lived up to the administration β s broad and unambiguous promises of cooperation with Congress , β Mr. Issa said in a letter to Mr. Kerry that accompanied the subpoena .
The White House released some emails two weeks ago that showed Ms. Nuland expressing reservations about some of the information in early versions of the talking points , which then were edited to delete references to al Qaeda . Mr. Issa said those emails only raise more questions about who else was involved in the editing process .
The final talking points used by Susan E. Rice , U.S. ambassador to the United Nations , five days after the Sept. 11 assault , linked the attack to protests in Cairo , reportedly fueled by anger against an American-made video denigrating Islam β s Prophet Muhammad .
The State Department said Tuesday that it β remains committed to working cooperatively with the Congress β and promised to β take stock of any new or outstanding requests for information , and determine the appropriate next steps . β
β All of us β in the administration , in the Congress , in the media β we should all be focused on the issue of protecting the American diplomats and development experts who are working every day to advance America β s national interest and global leadership , β department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said .
Republicans have charged that the administration altered the talking points to try to improve President Obama β s re-election chances by obfuscating al Qaeda links to the attack , which killed four Americans , including U.S . Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens .
β This is an evidence-based follow-up , β said committee spokesman Frederick R. Hill Jr. , referring to the White House release May 15 of 100 pages of email printouts showing the voluminous interagency correspondence about what to say in the talking points .
The administration counters that the intelligence evaluation was fluid in the days immediately after the attack and that parts of the early draft of the talking points have been proved to be incorrect , justifying the editing .
Republicans say the emails already released show that officials at Foggy Bottom were trying to shield the State Department β and its leaders , principally Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton β from criticism for having ignored warnings about deteriorating security in Benghazi .
In one email among those released , Ms. Nuland , a career department official who was serving as spokeswoman , said early edits didn β t go far enough to β resolve all my issues or those of my building leadership . β
β It is very clear that there were broader discussions [ about the talking points ] within the State Department that have not yet been divulged , β Mr. Hill said .
In his letter , Mr. Issa said that despite Mr. Kerry β s pledges to be transparent with Congress , and the appointment of his chief of staff as the point man for document production , the committee β s requests have been β largely ignored . β
The subpoena gives the department until June 7 to comply .
The subpoena is the second Mr. Issa has issued during his investigation , which began more than eight months ago . Earlier this month , he issued one to the veteran career diplomat who led the State Department-chartered investigation into the assault , in which dozens of heavily armed extremists attacked first the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi and then a nearby CIA base known as the annex .
The subpoena to Thomas R. Pickering was withdrawn last week after the retired ambassador voluntarily agreed to be interviewed by House investigators behind closed doors .
The 10 officials whose communications were subpoenaed Tuesday are : Mr. Burns , Ms. Nuland , Principle Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Elizabeth Dibble , Acting Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Beth Jones , Undersecretary for Management Patrick Kennedy , Counselor and Chief of Staff to Mrs. Clinton Cheryl Mills , Deputy Secretary for Management Thomas Nides , Deputy Assistant Secretary Philippe Reines , Director of Policy Planning Jake Sullivan and Assistant Secretary for State for Legislative Affairs David Adams . | jBQmuxuh6OlucpuR | 2 | Benghazi | 0.2 | Terrorism | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
supreme_court | New York Times (News) | https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/30/us/scotus-census.html | A Census Case That Goes to the Heart of American Democracy | 2020-11-30 | Supreme Court, Immigration, Donald Trump, White House, 2020 Census | U.S. Immigration Advertisement Supported by For two centuries, census totals used to apportion Congress have included all residents. The Supreme Court on Monday heard the Trump administrationβs argument for only counting citizens. By Michael Wines On Monday, the Supreme Court heard arguments on a question that goes to the heart of American democracy: Must the government count everyone living in the country, citizens or not, in the census totals that the House of Representatives uses to reallocate its 435 seats among the states? For more than two centuries, the answer has been βyes.β Both Article 1 of the Constitution and the 14th Amendment require that House seats be allotted according to βthe whole numberβ of persons in each state. That phrase has long been read to include all the nationβs residents, whether American citizens, foreigners admitted here on visas or immigrants with no documents at all. But President Trump signaled in a memorandum this summer that he intended to exclude unauthorized immigrants from the 2020 census totals that he hoped to send to the House next year for use in reapportionment. Federal courts have ruled in three separate lawsuits that Mr. Trump lacks that authority, saying in one case that the question was not even close. But the Supreme Court will have the final say. Hereβs a rundown of some of the basics behind the issue: First and foremost, the allocation of political power. No precise count of unauthorized immigrants exists. Mr. Trump has ordered the Census Bureau to come up with an estimate, but many experts put the number at about 11 million. Advertisement Many are concentrated in states with large immigrant populations, such as New York and Texas, and in states like California and Florida where undocumented immigrants also are in demand for farm work. Some of those states and a few others could lose House seats if unauthorized immigrants were excluded from census totals. Conversely, some states with few unauthorized immigrants could pick up those seats. Alabama, for example, appears set to lose one of its seven House seats in the next reapportionment; the state is arguing in a separate lawsuit that undocumented immigrants are illegally depriving its citizens of fair representation. Many experts feel that restricting the count to citizens would tend to benefit states that are rural and Republican at the expense of ones that are urban and Democratic. But the Republican Partyβs gains probably would be small, most say, given that big Republican states like Texas would be among those that could be affected by the change. The Justice Department argues that federal law gives the president discretion to make policy judgments about whom the census counts. That discretion includes setting the definition of an βinhabitantβ or βusual residentβ of the United States, two terms that have historically been used to describe people who qualify to be counted in a census. The presidentβs lawyers say federal law gives βvirtually unfettered discretionβ to the Commerce Department β the federal agency that oversees the Census Bureau β to decide what data is used in counting individual residents of states. Opponents of the presidentβs plan say 230 years of history are on their side. Noncitizens have been counted in every census β and used in every reapportionment of the House β since the very first census was conducted in 1790. In the nationβs early history, a substantial share of the population had migrated from other countries, and for many decades thereafter, some states actively recruited foreigners to provide labor and boost political representation. The framers of the Constitution elected to exclude some people from being counted β specifying βIndians not taxedβ and, most notoriously, deciding to count someone who was enslaved as three-fifths of a person β but left noncitizens intact. The drafters of the 14th Amendment debated whether to count all immigrants for apportionment purposes, and elected in the end to do so. Advertisement The opponents also say that the Constitution explicitly requires that the decennial census be used for reapportionment, and that Mr. Trump has no authority to deduct unauthorized immigrants from that census before sending population totals to the House. Three courts β in New York, Maryland and California β have ruled against the White House on varying grounds and in some cases barred the Commerce Department from sending a count of unauthorized immigrants to the White House. The California court ruled that excluding noncitizens violated both federal law and the Constitution. In New York, a panel of three judges, two appointed by President George W. Bush and one by President Barack Obama, said unanimously that βthe merits of the partiesβ dispute are not particularly close or complicated.β The panel said federal law required the government to produce a single set of population figures for reapportionment, making Mr. Trumpβs plan for a separate estimate of unauthorized immigrants moot. The judges also said that βso long as they reside in the United States, illegal aliens qualify as βpersonsβ in a βstateβ as Congress used those words.β Because of that, the judges said, there was no need to take up the question of whether the presidentβs plan also violated the Constitution. It would be extremely hard, if only because many of them are trying their best to avoid being seen for fear of deportation. The Trump administration had ordered the Census Bureau to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census in an attempt to come up with a tally, but the Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that the Commerce Department had failed to offer a plausible explanation of why the question was needed. Advertisement On the presidentβs order, a Census Bureau task force is working to provide a count anyway, mostly by sifting through federal and state records that show conclusively who is a citizen β and by implication, who is not. A handful of records, such as compilations of people marked for deportation, do identify people who are in the county illegally, but those tallies are a small fraction of the entire population of unauthorized immigrants. It appears unlikely that the bureau will produce an estimate of unauthorized immigrants by the Dec. 31 statutory deadline for sending population totals to the White House. Indeed, Census Bureau officials told the Commerce Department this month that the 2020 census itself could not be completed until after Mr. Trump leaves office on Jan. 20. The bureauβs experts nevertheless are racing to complete a count of unauthorized immigrants for delivery to Mr. Trump in early or mid-January. Michael Wines writes about voting and other election-related issues. Since joining The Times in 1988, he has covered the Justice Department, the White House, Congress, Russia, southern Africa, China and various other topics. More about Michael Wines Advertisement | 3a77f57d62ba37c9 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
coronavirus | Foreign Policy | https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/27/un-security-council-unsc-coronavirus-pandemic/ | U.N. Security Council Paralyzed as Contagion Rages | 2020-03-27 | United Nations, UN Security Council, United States, Public Health, World, Coronavirus | The United Nations Security Council is watching the greatest global health crisis in a century unfold from the sidelines , quarreling over the wisdom of working online , batting down proposals to help organize the response to the pandemic , and largely ignoring the U.N. secretary-general β s appeal for a global cease-fire .
The paralysis comes at a time when the United States is pressing the 15-nation council to adopt a resolution that would largely blame China for unleashing the pathogen on the world . The initiativeβwhich appears to be part of a broader U.S. strategy to deflect responsibility for its own sluggish response to the spread of the virusβis certain to be blocked by China , which wields veto power .
The council β s inaction marks a stark contrast from the Security Council β s previous response to international threats , from al Qaeda β s 9/11 attack on the United States to the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa . During that health crisis , the Obama administration rallied the council behind a plan to flood the region with medical workers and to shift the mandate of a U.N. peacekeeping mission in the regionβworking with the support of the U.S. militaryβto help contain the spread of disease , which killed over 10,000 people .
In an effort to fill the current political vacuum , U.N. Secretary-General AntΓ³nio Guterres on Monday issued a call for a sweeping global cease-fire to allow war-wracked countries and insurgent forces to turn their attention to battling the virus . His peace envoys in Yemen and Syria have taken up the call for a cease-fire .
[ Mapping the Coronavirus Outbreak : Get daily updates on the pandemic and learn how it β s affecting countries around the world . ]
β The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war , β he said . β That is why today , I am calling for an immediate global cease-fire in all corners of the world . It is time to put armed conflict on lockdown and focus together on the true fight of our lives . β
Some council diplomats have weighed in on the issue . But the council has yet to lend its concerted voice to the appeal .
Kelly Knight Craft , the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations , said in a teleconference on Thursday that Libya must find β a political path to stability , as continued conflict threatens to fuel the spread of COVID-19 . β
β This is not the time for violence , but rather for all actors to immediately suspend military operations , reject toxic foreign interference , and improve the ability of health authorities to combat this global pandemic , β she said in her prepared remarks .
The Russian foreign ministry issued a statement calling for a humanitarian pause in some regional armed conflicts , as well as an end to economic sanctions . But it insisted that such a pause would not apply any constraints on its military operations in places such as Syria , where it says it is fighting terrorism .
β We are highly concerned over the situation on territories controlled by terrorist groups , who could not care less about people β s wellbeing , β according to the Russian statement . β We are confident that counter-terrorist measures must be carried on . β
On Friday , the president of the U.N. General Assembly Tijjani Muhammad Bande , organized a televised press conference with the U.N. Secretary-General , the Security Council president , and the president of the U.N. Economic and Social Council to draw attention to the crisis .
During the press conference , China β s U.N. ambassador defended the council β s response to the crisis , saying β we are calling for cessation of hostilities , we are calling for ceasefire , and we are calling for unhindered access for humanitarian access . β
Meanwhile , six governments , Ghana , Indonesia , Liechtenstein , Norway , Switzerland , and Singapore , proposed the 193-member General Assembly step in and adopt a resolution underscoring the β central role β of the U.N. in addressing the crises . By late Friday , the co-sponsors had secured signatures of support for the measure from 147 nations .
β In this moment of great uncertainty and global anxiety , it is important for the voice of the U.N. General Assembly to be heard loud and clear , β according to a letter from the co-sponsors of the resolution . β We believe that the United Nations system has a central role to play in mobilising and coordinating the global response to this pandemic . β
The U.N. Security Councilβwhich held its last meeting on U.N. premises on March 12βhas been riven by a range of procedural and political disputes .
Read More U.S. and China Turn Coronavirus Into a Geopolitical Football Beijing is using the outbreak to boost its reputation for global cooperation while Washington plays the blame-Beijing game . Exclusive | Colum Lynch , Robbie Gramer U.N . Diplomacy In The Age of Contagion Some delegations are repatriating vulnerable staff from New York amid a surge in coronavirus infections . Report | Colum Lynch U.N. Calls for Rolling Back Sanctions to Battle Pandemic Secretary-General Guterres says it β s time for β solidarity not exclusion. β Report | Colum Lynch
In the days following the suspension of meetings , China , which holds the presidency of the Security Council this month , and the U.N. secretariat have labored to construct a secure teleconferencing system to conduct meetings remotely .
The United States , meanwhile , proposed the council officially acknowledge the need to continue its work online .
β In the event of a serious public emergency , including a public health emergency , that renders a physical meeting of the Security Council impractical , the Security Council may hold meetings using video conferencing as a last resort to ensure the participation of all members and to function continuously , β reads a U.S. proposal presented to the council . β Security Council meetings held through virtual means are deemed to be meetings pursuant to the United Nations Charter and the Security Council β s Provisional Rules of Procedure . β
But Russia blocked the U.S. proposal , arguing that all formal sessions of the Security Council must take place inside the U.N. Security Council chamber .
β We shouldn β t be afraid to gather from time to time in [ the ] UNSC Chamber , β Russia β s Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia wrote in a March 16 letter to the Chinese ambassador . β In the current circumstances it is important to show the rest of the world that [ the ] U.N. and its Security Council are functioning . β
Nebenzia said Moscow was prepared to explore , on a case-by-case basis , the possibility of letting some delegations participate in council discussion by teleconference , but only if Russia and other members were permitted to meet inside the U.N. Security Council chamber . So far , Russia has agreed to discuss U.N. activities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Libya on Tuesday and Thursday with the council by teleconference . But it has insisted that the meetings carry no official weight . On Thursday , the council managed to issue a press statement condemning a terrorist attack at the Dharamshala Sikh temple in Kabul , which killed 25 people .
Russia has denied it is holding up deliberations , saying it has allowed televised video conference meetings to take place . The β Security Council remains active , β Russia β s U.N. mission wrote Thursday on Twitter . β Discussions of # DRC via VTC on Tuesday initiated by [ Russia ] clearly demonstrated that . Today # Libya was discussed int his format . # Syria is pending on 30 March . β
The council , however , has so far been unable to convince Russia to renew the mandates for U.N. operations in Somalia and Sudan , or to grant an extension to a panel of experts monitoring sanctions against North Korea .
But Russia was not alone in gumming up the council β s works .
Listen Now : Do n't Touch Your Face A new podcast from βββ covering all aspects of the coronavirus pandemic Learn More
Last week , Estonia , one of the council β s 10 temporary members , sought support for a Security Council statement that voiced concern that the pandemic β may constitute a threat to international peace and security β and called for greater international cooperation in confronting the pathogen .
But that initiative was blocked by South Africa and China , which argued that the pandemic did not constitute a threat to peace and security and should be addressed in institutions like the World Health Organization .
France , meanwhile , has since opened discrete discussions involving the council β s four other key powers , Britain , China , Russia , and the United States , on a resolution that would address the pandemic . The French initiative infuriated some of Paris β s European colleagues , which claim they were not consulted . In any event , the French draft appeared unlikely to be adopted . The United States proposed an amendment to the text that would refer to the coronavirus as the β Wuhan virus , β a move in line with Trump administration efforts to blame China for the initial spread of the virus . The U.S. initiativeβwhich was first reported by NBCβis certain to be blocked by China .
The initiative comes after foreign ministers of the G-7 industrial powers , meeting via videoconference , failed to adopt a statement on the pandemic after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted that it refer to the pathogen as the β Wuhan virus . β
The council β s inaction contrasts with its previous approach to global health crises in Africa over the past two decades .
In January 2000 , U.S. Vice President Al Gore presided over a U.N. Security Council meeting to discuss the threat posed by HIV to regional security in Africa . The then-U.S. ambassador to the United Nations , Richard Holbrooke , who spearheaded the effort , subsequently insisted the U.N. supply its peacekeepers with condoms to halt the spread of HIV . Shortly after , the National Security Council declared HIV , the virus that causes AIDS , a national security threat .
In September 2014 , Samantha Power , then-U.S. ambassador to the United Nations , presided over the first emergency session of the Security Council to address the Ebola epidemic in West Africa . During the meeting , the council adopted a resolution declaring Ebola a β threat to international peace and security β and urged the world to send more health care workers and supplies to the hardest-hit countries : Liberia , Sierra Leone , and Guinea .
β This would be a good moment for an initiative from the Security Council to get out in front of this , rather than appearing irrelevant in the face of a global crisis , β said Karin Landgren , the executive director of the Security Council Report , a nonprofit . β The big picture is that countries have largely turned inward and there isn β t an immediate thought to how they could best come together to address this . β
β It is high time that the Security Council address this threat to international peace and security , β Mona Ali Khalil , a former U.N. lawyer , wrote on the news site PassBlue . β The Security Council has a responsibility to coordinate a prompt and effective global response . β
If the council is unwilling , she added , the U.N. chief should β invoke his authority β under the U.N. Charter to bring the matter before the council .
Rob Berschinski , who was involved in negotiations over the Ebola resolution for the United States , told βββ it defies logic to contend that the current pandemic is not a threat to international peace and security .
β It β s likely that various conflicts and crisis scenarios are going to be directly impacted by this , β said Berschinski , who outlined a series of steps the council could take to coordinate the international response in a piece published by Just Security .
β It β s reasonable to say , β We β re going to take care of America first , β β Berschinski told βββ . β But at the same time it would be a massive mistake not to be setting up structures that are undoubtedly going to be necessary to fight this disease internationally , for months , and perhaps years . β
As for assigning responsibility for the virus β s spread , that can wait until later , he said .
β I think China deserves a considerable amount of blame for the way its government covered up in the initial stages of the pandemic , β Berschinski said . β But at this point we need to make the global health security that threatens hundreds of thousands of lives , if not more , a priority over this seemingly petty argument over who is more to blame . β | 953d4ec18ca63b81 | 1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
politics | Washington Times | http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jun/10/hillary-clinton-clarifies-poverty-quip-everything/ | Hillary Clinton clarifies poverty quip: "Everything in life has to be put into context" | 2014-06-10 | politics | Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was forced to explain β and recast β what she meant when she complained of her family β s financial struggles after leaving the White House .
The subject was broached on ABC β s β Good Morning America , β when host Robin Roberts asked Mrs. Clinton if she could understand America β s head-scratching reaction to her claim that the Clintons were β dead broke β upon leaving the White House and needed to hit the lucative speaking circuit to build their bank accounts .
β Yes I can , but everything in life has to be put into context , β she said , The Hill reported . β As I recall , we were something like $ 12 million in debt . β
Mrs. Clinton then recalled how her husband , former President Bill Clinton , had been born into poverty and had to work hard for his money and career advancements , all the while paying off student loans , The Hill reported .
β We understand what that struggle is because we had student debts β both of us β we had to pay off , we had to work , I had a couple jobs in law school , he had lots of jobs , β Mrs. Clinton told ABC . β We have a life experience clearly different in very dramatic ways from every American , but we also have gone through a lot of the same challenges as many people have . β
On Monday night , to ABC News , she said : β We came out of the White House not only dead broke , but in debt . We had no money when we got there , and we struggled to , you know , piece together the resources for mortgages , for houses , for Chelsea β s education . You know , it was not easy . β
Her speaking fees sometimes hit the $ 200,000 level , while Bill Clinton routinely pockets $ 500,000 per 45-minute pep talk . | d0TK3sneFfmQT2JI | 2 | Hillary Clinton | -0.9176 | Politics | -0.3816 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
elections | New York Times (News) | http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/01/us/politics/donald-trump-interview-bill-hillary-clinton.html?ref=politics&_r=0 | Donald Trump Opens New Line of Attack on Hillary Clinton: Her Marriage | 2016-10-01 | Presidential Elections, Elections | Advertisement Supported by By Patrick Healy and Maggie Haberman Donald J. Trump unleashed a slashing new attack on Hillary Clinton over Bill Clintonβs sexual indiscretions on Friday as he sought to put the Clintonsβ relationship at the center of his political argument against her before their next debate. Mr. Trump, aiming to unnerve Mrs. Clinton, even indicated that he was rethinking his statement at their last debate that he would βabsolutelyβ support her if she won in November, saying: βWeβre going to have to see. Weβre going to see what happens. Weβre going to have to see.β In an interview with The New York Times, he also contended that infidelity was βnever a problemβ during his three marriages, though his first ended in an ugly divorce after Mr. Trump began a relationship with the woman who became his second wife. Advertisement Speaking by phone from a campaign swing in Michigan, he said that he was βabsolutely disgustedβ that Mrs. Clinton had allied herself politically with a Miss Universe winner, Alicia Machado, whom Mr. Trump had derided for gaining weight. Explore the paths to victory available for the presidential candidates. Mr. Trump said that Mrs. Clinton, who has portrayed Ms. Machado as a victim of Mr. Trumpβs cruel insults, had βmade this young lady into a girl scout when she was the exact opposite.β He asserted, without offering any evidence, that Ms. Machado had once participated in a sex tape. Find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the First Draft newsletter. Advertisement | 8dfcf1f293a7afba | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
elections | Politico | https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/15/bernie-sanders-base-in-disarray-259514 | Bernie world descends into disarray | 2020-05-15 | elections | Even Our Revolution , the group started by Sanders in 2016 , lacks access to his new email list that made him the best Democratic fundraiser this year .
Many of Sanders β allies were demoralized by what they saw as Our Revolution failing to live up to its potential after his first presidential run . Now , in the wake of a second unsuccessful campaign , some fear they β re witnessing a repeat of the 2016 wreck unfold in real time .
β I feel like I β m in some kind of simulation that β s having a glitch . All of the same things that happened in 2016 are happening over again , β said a former senior aide to Sanders , who was granted anonymity to speak candidly . β The question is , what do we do now ? ... There 's just nothing comparable on the left to the Bernie campaign . β
There is already discord over new organizations that have sprouted since Sanders dropped out last month . Several progressives are incensed over a super PAC that longtime Sanders adviser Jeff Weaver created to help elect presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden , seeing it as a betrayal of the Vermont senator 's opposition to big-money groups .
Others worry that Once Again , another PAC started by different top aides to amass more Sanders delegates at the National Democratic Convention , is a waste of time since the primary is all but over .
β For the top aide to come out of the gate of the campaign and say , I β m starting a super PAC to persuade Bernie 's grass-roots base to vote for Biden , and Biden has not made any policy promises that would even meet the minimum requirement to earn your adversary β s voters , that β s just a slap in the face , β said Winnie Wong , a former senior adviser for Sanders β campaign . β A lot of Bernie 's very active base are really enraged and pretty horrified . β
Much of the tension over the future of Sanders β army stems from what happened at Our Revolution after his first campaign . When Weaver took it over in 2016 , most of the staff quit in protest , including some who were opposed to his desire to raise large donations through an independent expenditure .
Then , in the 2018 midterms , Our Revolution flipped zero Republican-held House seats β a fact that moderates pointed to in the presidential primary to portray Sanders and other left-wing candidates as unelectable .
Several aides and allies believe its problems are partly attributable to the lack of a clear direction . According to three former staffers at Our Revolution , the group undertook a months-long process with aides in 2018 , led by adviser Max Berger , to chart a more distinct path .
They settled on an ambitious plan : to try to take over the Democratic Party and transform it into a left-wing social democratic party . But board chairman Larry Cohen opposed the idea β believing that it was too similar to the goal of the Democratic Socialists of America β and it was scrapped .
β What we saw after β 16 was a real lack of clarity about what work people should actually do , β said Berger , who went on to join Elizabeth Warren β s presidential campaign .
β There β s some anxiety within the progressive movement and Sandersworld that the Sanders Institute and Our Revolution were letdowns after 2016 . '' A former Sanders aide
Cohen dismissed Our Revolution β s critics , pointing to a 2020 mission plan developed with polling . It lays out three priorities : winning issue fights , building a progressive party and electing more liberals . While the organization didn β t dispute that the group unseated no Republicans in 2018 , an aide said about one-third of its endorsed candidates won in the midterms .
Advisers at Once Again said their group is needed to collect enough delegates required to influence the party platform at the convention . They said it formed in part to keep Sanders voters from growing dispirited over the news of Weaver β s super PAC .
Weaver , for his part , argues that an independent expenditure is needed to raise money quickly in the remaining months of the general election . If Biden won and passed into law , say , a $ 15 hourly minimum wage , it would show voters that the progressive movement can deliver , he said .
β You can β t ask people decade in and decade out to make small-dollar contributions , knock on doors , make phone calls , and text their friends without demonstrating that the movement can have positive , real results , β Weaver said . β If it β s just a sort of left debating society , if it β s just the purity Olympics , we are going to fail miserably . β
While his allies launch and fight over their own PACs , Sanders is still deciding his next steps , according to people close to him .
Faiz Shakir , Sanders ' 2020 campaign manager , said Sanders wo n't create a new group , while other former aides said that is a possibility . The Sanders Institute β another organization founded after 2016 by his wife , Jane , and son , which shut down during his 2020 campaign β is expected to return . His new email list has been transferred to the Friends of Bernie Sanders PAC .
In a sign of tension between Sanders and Our Revolution , Cohen said he has not asked for that list and doesn β t know whether he will receive it , despite the fact that the group was given the prized donor data in 2016 .
Rep. Ro Khanna ( D-Calif. ) , a former campaign co-chair , said he 's told Sanders that he should remain a visible leader of the progressive movement . Sanders , who is 78 , seemed to agree , according to other aides .
β Bernie Sanders will continue to be a leader , if not the leader , for tens of millions of people in this country who want to see real progressive change , β said Weaver , who still advises Sanders despite their disagreements over the super PAC .
In recent weeks , Sanders has spent time selecting people to serve on the β unity β policy task forces he formed with Biden in an effort to nudge the presumptive democratic nominee to the left . He also has held numerous online sessions on the coronavirus , worked on progressive legislation , and endorsed and raised money for a slate of liberal candidates β the markings of what Sanders sees as his role now , Shakir said .
After Sanders β campaign ended , he held a call with thousands of volunteers and allowed groups that endorsed him to make a pitch to them . He also posted on his website a list of groups that he encouraged supporters to join , including the Democratic Socialists of America and Our Revolution .
But many of Sanders β former aides and allies said they want more direction . Some of his ex-staffers who are members of the DSA are considering sending him a letter to ask him to more vocally encourage his supporters to join the group .
Pamela John , a top volunteer for Sanders , created a petition that called on Sanders to gift his digital assets , including his texting tool and online organizing data , to Our Revolution or another group to elect progressive candidates and support left-wing goals . It was signed by thousands of other volunteers .
`` It just seems unthinkable that it would cease , '' she said in an interview , referring to Sanders ' volunteer networks .
Others have acted on their own . Former Sanders volunteers in Rhode Island are launching a group next week called Reclaim Rhode Island . There is also still an operating Slack channel of Sanders volunteers , which Once Again and Our Revolution said they have tapped to recruit volunteers absent access to the official data .
Some former aides see Sanders as personally uninterested in managing a legacy grassroots group and unfamiliar with some of the technical details of his 2020 operation β s infrastructure .
2020 Election Results Who β s winning 2020 ? We β ll tell you . The latest election results sent straight to your inbox . Sign Up Loading By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from βββ . You can unsubscribe at any time . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply .
β There β s some anxiety within the progressive movement and 'Sanders world ' that the Sanders Institute and Our Revolution were letdowns after 2016 . And people are not sure if Bernie and Jane understand that , β said one former Sanders aide . β The fact that campaign staffers are launching a new PAC every week is a sign that there β s not much intention and strategy from the top going into sustaining the Sanders movement for the long term . β
Shakir said that because the left lacks the institutional infrastructure that moderate Democrats have at their disposal , progressives sometimes expect Sanders to shoulder all of the burden .
`` You can not ask a candidate who had a campaign to be the kind of long-term solution for this , '' Shakir said .
Other ideas ex-Sanders staffers and advisers are discussing include forming an alliance of progressive groups to better coordinate , or dedicating a super PAC to left-wing congressional and state candidates who are typically badly outspent by moderates .
Claire Sandberg , Sanders β former national organizing director , said that one of the biggest problems the left is facing is the lack of an electoral infrastructure that can carry on from campaign to campaign . Utilizing Sanders β data and organizing network could change that , but progressives should explore other options if he does n't want to , she said .
β It β s challenging for insurgent down-ballot campaigns to start from scratch with no networks of progressive volunteers and donors to tap and no data on who the progressive voters in their districts are , β she said . β The simplest way to create that enduring electoral infrastructure would be to not dismantle what already exists . '' | wK2FI615z2hBkjQq | 0 | Bernie Sanders | -0.8 | Presidential Elections | 0 | 2020 Election | 0 | Elections | 0 | null | null |
violence_in_america | NPR (Online News) | https://www.npr.org/2023/03/27/1166268762/nashville-school-shooting-covenant | 3 children and 3 adults are dead in a shooting at a Christian school in Nashville | 2023-03-28 | Violence In America, Mass Shootings, School Shootings, Schools, Education, Gun Violence, Tennessee, Religion And Faith, Christianity, Private Schools, Assault Weapons | By Joe Hernandez , James Doubek School buses with children arrive at Woodmont Baptist Church to be reunited with their families after a mass shooting at The Covenant School on Monday in Nashville. Seth Herald/Getty Images hide caption School buses with children arrive at Woodmont Baptist Church to be reunited with their families after a mass shooting at The Covenant School on Monday in Nashville. Three children and three adults were killed in a shooting at a private religious school in Nashville, authorities said. The shooter, who police said was a 28-year-old from the Nashville area, was shot dead by two officers. Police initially identified the shooter as a woman but a spokesperson later told WPLN's Alexis Marshall that the shooter was assigned female at birth and used he/him pronouns. The shooting occurred at The Covenant School. The three children who died were students, and the three adults who died were staff members, Nashville police spokesperson Don Aaron said in a press briefing Monday. Authorities identified the victims Monday afternoon: Koonce served as the head of the school, according to the school's website. The first call came in at 10:13 a.m. The shooter "entered the school through a side entrance and traversed her way from the first floor to the second floor, firing multiple shots," Aaron said. On Monday evening, Nashville police posted photos of the scene. Police said the shooter entered the building by shooting out the glass in a door. Once on the second floor, the shooter fired at arriving police vehicles from a window. The shooter had two assault-style rifles and one pistol, authorities said, and the shooting took place in a "lobby-type area" in an upper part of the school. The shooter was dead by 10:27 a.m., Aaron added. Two of those guns were obtained legally, police said. Police said the shooter was a former student but have not said anything about a potential motive. On Monday afternoon, police identified the shooter as Audrey Hale of Nashville. Hale had no criminal history. Hale had multiple rounds of ammunition and was "prepared for a confrontation with law enforcement," Nashville Police Chief John Drake said. He said the shooter had maps drawn of the school and its entry points. Drake said the parents of the children who were killed have been notified. "I was literally moved to tears to see this and the kids as they were being ushered out of the building," he said earlier. Children arrive at Woodmont Baptist Church to be reunited with their families after a mass shooting at The Covenant School on Monday in Nashville. Seth Herald/Getty Images hide caption Children arrive at Woodmont Baptist Church to be reunited with their families after a mass shooting at The Covenant School on Monday in Nashville. At least five of the victims were transported to emergency departments at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. A spokesperson for the hospital confirmed to NPR that three children and two adults sent to the hospital had died. Aaron said he was not aware of any other gunshot victims from the shooting. He said a responding officer had a wound from cut glass. A reunification center for parents and students was set up nearby with mental health specialists available. According to its website, The Covenant School is a private school associated with the Covenant Presbyterian Church serving students from preschool through sixth grade. On a regular day there would be about 209 students and 42 staff members at the school, Aaron said. This photo provided by the Metro Nashville Police Department shows officers at an active shooter event that took place at The Covenant School, Covenant Presbyterian Church, in Nashville, Tenn., Monday. Metro Nashville Police Department via AP hide caption This photo provided by the Metro Nashville Police Department shows officers at an active shooter event that took place at The Covenant School, Covenant Presbyterian Church, in Nashville, Tenn., Monday. Mayor John Cooper said Nashville was joining the "dreaded, long list" of cities and towns that have suffered school shootings. "My heart goes out to the families of the victims," Cooper said. "Our entire city stands with you." Tennessee state Rep. Bob Freeman, whose district includes the school, said it was "an unimaginable tragedy for the victims, all the children, families, teachers, staff and my entire community. I live around the corner from Covenant and pass by it often. I have friends who attend both church and school there. I have also visited the church in the past. It tears my heart apart to see this," WPLN reported. State Sen. Jeff Yarbro, who represents Nashville, said on Twitter: "My heart breaks for the families at Covenant. As a parent, I both ache for them and rage with them that fear of this kind of tragedy is just accepted as just part of what it means to raise kids these days." President Biden called the Nashville shooting "sick" and "heartbreaking," saying it was "a family's worst nightmare." "We have to do more to stop gun violence. It's ripping our communities apart, ripping at the very soul of our nation," he said at the White House. According to the national Gun Violence Archive website, there have been 130 mass shootings in the U.S. this year. 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banking_and_finance | Fox Business | https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/biden-jerome-powell-second-federal-reserve-term | Biden taps Jerome Powell for second term as Fed chair, spurning progressives | 2021-11-22 | Banking And Finance, Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, Joe Biden, Economic Policy, Economy And Jobs, Inflation, Unemployment | Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Biden announces his nominees for Chair and Vice Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System President Biden announced Monday that he will nominate Jerome Powell to a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve, signaling that he believes the battle-tested central bank chief, who navigated the U.S. economy through the depths of the worst recession in nearly a century, is the best person for one of the most high-stakes jobs in the world. The announcement ends months of speculation over whether Biden would stick with Powell, a Republican nominated by former President Donald Trump in 2017, or attempt to reshape the central bank by tapping Lael Brainard, the sole Democrat on the Fed's Board of Governors, to lead it. Only one Democrat has been selected for the top post in more than three decades. Brainard has instead been chosen as vice chair of the board of governors, the No. 2 job at the Fed; she will succeed Richard Clarida, whose term expires Jan. 31, 2022. The nominations now head to the Senate for confirmation. The Fed chair β one of the most powerful players in Washington, with the ability to dictate the pace of economic growth β is typically nominated for a second term, often to reinforce the central bank's independence from politics. Powell's four-year term was slated to end in February. FED TO TAPER BOND PURCHASES BY $15B A MONTH AS IT EXITS PANDEMIC-ERA POLICY Choosing whom to tap is one of the most consequential economic decisions that Biden has made during his first year in the Oval Office, particularly as the White House seeks to quell growing voter unrest about the state of the U.S. economy amid surging prices for everything from meat to gasoline to clothing. "Iβm confident that Chair Powell and Dr. Brainardβs focus on keeping inflation low, prices stable, and delivering full employment will make our economy stronger than ever before," Biden said in a statement. Together, they also share my deep belief that urgent action is needed to address the economic risks posed by climate change, and stay ahead of emerging risks in our financial system." Jerome Powell, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, during a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images) The Fed closely tracks inflation and is responsible for keeping consumer prices stable while also pushing for full employment. The coming months could see central bank policymakers forced to make difficult policy decisions as they seek to balance the contrasting goals; although inflation is currently at a 31-year high, the labor market β despite a faster-than-expected recovery, with unemployment tumbling from 14.6% in March 2020 to 4.6% in October 2021 β has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels. Fed officials began slowing their massive bond-purchase program this month, the first step toward unwinding the unprecedented amount of fiscal support for the U.S. economy during the pandemic. Powell has previously signaled the Fed will conclude tapering the $120 billion monthly bond purchases before moving to raise interest rates from their rock-bottom level. BIDEN PICKS LAEL BRAINARD AS FED VICE CHAIR: 5 THINGS TO KNOW Members of Biden's economic team, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, favored Powell for a second term after he steered the U.S. through the coronavirus pandemic. Biden, in making the decision, lauded Powell for the "decisive" action the central bank took in the early days of the pandemic, which many economists credited with staving off a deeper and more painful downturn. But the move is sure to infuriate some progressive lawmakers, who had urged Biden to replace Powell with a candidate more focused on mitigating climate change risks and who favored stricter bank regulation. Under Powell, the Fed reduced certain regulations on big banks, including making it easier for them to make risky trades and easing tests that examine if they could withstand another major economic downturn. The left was also critical of a trading scandal that forced two top Fed officials to resign and Powell to overhaul the central bank's conflict-of-interest rules in order to contain the controversy. Lael Brainard, governor of the U.S. Federal Reserve, during the National Association of Business Economics (NABE) annual meeting in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., on Monday, Sept. 27, 2021. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images) Sen. Elizabeth Warren called Powell, to his face, a "dangerous man" and pledged to oppose him if he were renominated. Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Jeff Merkley of Oregon also released a statement on Friday opposing Powell's reappointment. A source familiar with the matter told FOX Business that Biden and his administration have regularly engaged with a wide range of lawmakers and stakeholders on the matter, including both progressive and moderate Democrats on Capitol Hill. Biden met with Warren at the White House to gather her input on this decision, and has been in close contact with Senate Finance Chairman Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. Powell and Brainard are remarkably aligned on monetary policy and have both argued that a recent inflation surge β prices rose 6.2% over the past year, the government reported recently β is likely to abate as pandemic-induced disruptions in the supply chain ease. But Brainard, unlike Powell, has been a vocal advocate for stricter regulation of banks, and has dissented on 23 Fed board votes since Powell became chairman in 2018, garnering her approval from Democratic lawmakers. GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE Still, Powell won widespread support on Capitol Hill during the coronavirus pandemic for the quick and unprecedented action that the Fed took to prevent a full-blown financial crisis and has secured support from a key group of Senate Republicans, who have indicated they could help him get confirmed in a deeply divided 50-50 Senate. He was confirmed last time by an 84-13 vote. "When the pandemic hit in 2020, Chairman Powell acted swiftly and took extraordinary and necessary steps to help stabilize financial markets and the economy," Sen. Pat Toomey, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee., said in a statement on Monday morning. "I look forward to supporting his confirmation." President Joe Biden speaks to reporters after returning to the White House from Walter Reed Medical Center on Nov. 19, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images / Getty Images) Although he was nominated by Trump in 2018, Powell faced relentless criticism from the former president, who repeatedly threatened to fire the Fed chairman and admonished him as a "bonehead" for trying to normalize policy. In nominating Powell, Trump also broke with precedent in passing over Yellen, the former Fed chair was nominated by then-President Barack Obama, for a second term. Powell has been closely aligned with Biden and Democrats, pledging to keep the Fed's foot on the gas until the labor market reaches pre-pandemic levels and all Americans benefit from the recovery. In March 2020, the Fed slashed interest rates to near zero and launched a massive bond-buying program, pushing the central bank's balance sheet to a stunning $8 trillion. Policymakers only began withdrawing support for the economy this month, announcing in early November that they would reduce the $120 billion in Treasury bond and mortgage-backed security purchases by $15 billion a month. Powell has given no hint that higher inflation will prompt him or other Fed officials to raise interest rates from their rock-bottom level, steadfast in his stance that those developments are not a reason to accelerate the central bank's plans. He has suggested the Fed will wait until the tapering of bond purchases concludes and until officials determine the labor market is fully recovered. FOX Business' Edward Lawrence contributed to this report Get a brief on the top business stories of the week, plus CEO interviews, market updates, tech and money news that matters to you. We've added you to our mailing list. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. | b437a2726aa54fc8 | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
us_house | Politico | http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/speaker-five-reasons-to-not-run-214587 | 5 reasons nobody wants to be House speaker | 2015-10-09 | us_house | Friends don β t let friends run for Speaker of the House of Representatives .
Rep. Kevin McCarthy β s abrupt and shocking ( well , not that shocking ) withdrawal from the race to succeed John Boehner has raised an existential question the ochre Ohioan himself always asked rebellious members : Who the hell would want this job ?
We have our answer . Nobody with the slightest sense of political self-preservation or the scantest hope of having a future . McCarthy ( looking ten years older than he did a week ago ) used English words to explain his β later-for-you statement ( β If we 're going to unite and be strong , we need a new face to do that '' ) but had he answered in song , it would have been β zip-a-dee-doo-dah ! β Stunned members were said to be openly weeping in the cloakroom , but nary one of the tear-soaked super-majority was rushing to raise his hands shouting β Pick Me ! Pick me ! β
When asked if he was interested in the gig , Rep. Mac Thornberry , conservative from Texas cattle country , told reporters on the Hill , `` I 'd rather be a vegetarian . β
This is because the overstuffed 247-member House majority ( brilliantly secured in perpetuity by Bush-era electoral gerrymandering ) is , like New York in the 1970s or the Washington Nationals right now , essentially ungovernable .
Here are five reasons why only a fool , hero , caretaker ( or some combination of all ) would want the job Boehner dearly hopes to vacate by month β s end , but can β t .
1 . Ted Cruz is running for president . It β s been jokingly said that the Texas tea party god , who often crossed the rotunda to whip up ultra-conservatives against Boehner β s budget deals , is β Speaker Cruz. β He β s lashed Boehner as a sell-out and cheered the 2013 government shutdown , and even with his nemesis gone , Cruz is going to continue to barbecue the GOP β establishment β β i.e . anybody who has a job that requires them to compromise with the White House . And that β s basically the job description .
Moreover , bashing Congress is the mouth-breathing of political discourse , anyone can do it , and often does . At present , the overall Congressional approval rating is about 16 percent β and that β s pretty good , considering it touched high single digits in recent years . Donald Trump , who had no particular beef with McCarthy but is on good terms with Cruz , offered a don β t-let-the-door-hit-you tweet because , you know , why not ? β Great , Kevin McCarthy drops out of SPEAKER race . We need a really smart and really tough person to take over this very important job ! β he wrote before suggesting his daughter Ivanka take the job .
Presumably , he loves her too much to have been serious .
2 . The β catastrophic β 2013 government shutdown didn β t scare the tea party . Boehner , who had a Midwestern plastic salesman β s love for a folksy maxim , was fond of saying that the tea party wing of his party would recede once they had β touched the stove β β by shutting down the government .
Nope . Cruz delivered his celebrated semi-filibuster against Obamacare , and his members scuttled attempts to cut a stopgap deal with the White House . After a 16-day shutdown , the two sides agreed to a short-term funding deal β with polls showing 8 in 10 Americans blamed Republicans for the disruption , with tea party support tanking nationally .
Democrats predicted the GOP would pay a steep price for their recklessness in the 2014 elections . Not only were the wrong , they were historically wrong : Midterms are , by their nature , base elections , so fired-up anti-Obama Republicans romped , picking up nine Senate seats and the majority . They added 13 new members in the allegedly disgraced House , achieving a commanding majority the likes of which hadn β t been seen since Hoover β s day . Instead of touching the stove β they tossed it at Boehner β s head . When Phillip Bump of the Washington Post analyzed the post-shutdown polling , he concluded β if there is a repeat of the government shutdown , how it affects 2016 -- if at all -- is probably impossible to predict . β
3 . If you have any chance of winning , you 're automatically the β establishment. β McCarthy is safely in the red zone of any standard definition of β conservative β but to his party β s right wing , he might as well have been King Boehner II . The tea party , fresh off deposing the last speaker , was leery of anybody who followed the pre-ordained lines of succession β despite McCarthy β s reputation as glad-handing bridge builder willing to hear out their complaints . When Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz hopped in the race , he didn β t cite policy objections with McCarthy β or even any specific ideological breach -- but McCarthy β s connection to the prior regime . β You don β t just give an automatic promotion to the existing leadership team ; that doesn β t signal change , β he told FOX News after his announcement . β I think they want a fresh face and a fresh new person who β s actually there at the leadership table in the speaker β s role . β
McCarthy didn β t do much to help his cause . His unfathomably ill-advised declaration that the House Benghazi committee existed for the purpose of degrading Hillary Clinton β s β poll β numbers might have been enough to kill his candidacy anyway . But other numbers actually doomed him . The ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus backed little-known Florida Rep. Daniel Webster ; Combined with Chaffetz β s handful of backers , that put McCarthy below the 218 votes he needed to get the big job β and the laid-back Bakersfield native was disinclined to bargain for his future with a group of hard-core rebels who would have likely demanded major concessions to back someone they regarded as soft .
4 . Paul Ryan does n't want to be speaker -- yet . The disciplined House Ways and Means chairman is regarded as his party 's brains and conscience but he 's not quite ready to be its sacrificial leadership lamb . Plus he delivered a passionate pep talk on behalf of his fallen friend McCarthy . The former 2012 vice-presidential candidate is n't much more conservative that McCarthy , but he 's arguably the one Republican with the national stature to overcome the reflexive insurrection from the right . So far , no good . `` While I am grateful for the encouragement I 've received , I will not be a candidate , '' the Wisconsin Republican said in a statement on Thursday .
Why not ? A Ryan pal offered this explanation to me : `` Because he 's not a f -- -ing moron . '' Translation : Ryan has a real future . No speaker has ever been elected president ( Since James Polk in the 1840s , anyway ) β and no speaker dragged into ugly budget crises by his strife-stricken party is ever , ever going to be .
That said , Ryan - a devout Catholic with an abiding sense of obligation to his party - would be hard-pressed to turn down the job if , say , 240 House members begged him on bended knee . Until Thursday it seemed unlikely , but my colleague Anna Palmer says Ryan has cancelled a couple of fundraisers over the next few days , so stay tuned .
5 . Your best friend will be Nancy Pelosi . The last speaker to really run the place is still a force to be reckoned with , and even with her shrunken cadre of 177 members β the minority leader is in control . Most ( if not all ) of Pelosi β s people stick with her on any critical vote , especially budget roll-calls , and Boehner has increasingly relied on her to ram through measures his right wing won β t support . That β s proven to be a useful partnership for all involved ( Tea party members , ever worried about primary challengers on their right , get to say they fought the good fight but were betrayed ) .
But there β s a devastating long-term political cost to working closely with Pelosi on these deals β a reviled doyenne of San Francisco liberalism : Conservative activists and the Levin-Hannity-Rush-Coulter talk radio powerhouses will hammer you for being a Republican in Name Onlyβ¦ just like John Boehner . | i8y2RXp46Fdv7UqS | 0 | Politics | -0.7 | US House | 0.1 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
healthcare | ABC News | http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-administration-plans-making-90-percent-cut-obamacare/story?id=49551071 | Trump administration plans on making 90 percent cut to Obamacare ad budget | 2017-09-02 | Healthcare, Obamacare | The Trump administration plans on making a 90 percent cut to the advertising budget for Obamacare during the upcoming enrollment period .
Interested in Health Care Overhaul ? Add Health Care Overhaul as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Health Care Overhaul news , video , and analysis from βββ . Add Interest
In 2016 , the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services spent $ 100 million on Obamacare advertising and outreach , but for this year β s open enrollment period , CMS plans on spending $ 10 million .
They also plan on cutting grant money for Navigator programs ( which are required by the ACA ) , which receive funds to assist with public enrollment in Obamacare . Navigator programs in this upcoming enrollment period will only receive funding based on their performance during the previous enrollment period . If a Navigator program , for example , only reached 70 percent of its enrollment goal , they will only receive 70 percent of the previous year β s funding in the next enrollment period .
Randal Serr , director of Take Care Utah , the network of Navigator programs in Utah , told βββ it β s an β absurd β way to measure funding .
β The cuts undervalue the work that Navigators do -- we don β t just help people enroll , we help them stay healthy , keep their insurance , we make sure doctors and medications are covered . A lot of times we spend days or weeks helping them navigate glitches in the system . β
CMS claims that they have not found any correlation between advertising spending and enrollment increases , and Navigator programs have been costly . These cuts are simply a way to save money and save Americans from β a bad deal , β according to the Department of Health and Human Services .
β Trump Admin is deliberately sabotaging our healthcare system . When number of insured drops & costs rise , American ppl will know who to blame , β wrote Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer , D-New York , on Twitter .
Trump Admin is deliberately sabotaging our healthcare system . When number of insured drops & costs rise , American ppl will know who to blame https : //t.co/CiVvqphiWE β Chuck Schumer ( @ SenSchumer ) August 31 , 2017
Sen. Chris Coons , D-Delaware , echoed concerns that this is a way to get less people enrolled . β Plain and simple : this is the Trump Administration working to ensure that * fewer * people get health insurance , β he wrote on Twitter .
Plain and simple : this is the Trump Administration working to ensure that * fewer * people get health insurance . https : //t.co/nMVudG9WFh β Senator Chris Coons ( @ ChrisCoons ) August 31 , 2017
β Judging effectiveness by the amount of money spent and not the results achieved is irresponsible and unhelpful to the American people . Under the Trump Administration , we β re committed to more responsible , effective government . Obamacare β s Navigator program has been ineffective . During the upcoming enrollment period , Navigators will be funded in proportion to their performance , β said Department of Health and Human Services press secretary Caitlin Oakley in a statement .
β A healthcare system that has caused premiums to double and left nearly half of our counties with only one coverage option is not working . The Trump Administration is determined to serve the American people instead of trying to sell them a bad deal . β | 24531cf43b33233c | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
middle_east | Townhall | https://townhall.com/tipsheet/timothymeads/2017/12/30/iran-protests-n2428347 | Iranian Women Defy Islamic Dress Code as Anti-Government Protests Sweep Nation | 2017-12-30 | middle_east | Protests beginning Thursday sparked by economic unrest in Iran have quickly turned into massive demonstrations , not just against economic policy , but against the Islamist controlled government as a whole . These gatherings are the largest form of anti-government demonstrations in the middle eastern country since 2009 . Citizens continued demonstrations Saturday in the cities of Teheran , Kermanshah , as well as nearly 20 other locations chanting against Iran 's President Hassan Rouhani as well as the Supreme Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
What started as smaller protests against poor economic conditions , allegations of corruption , as well as the Iranian government 's involvement in foreign nations has quickly engulfed Iran in the largest showing against the theocratic state in nearly a decade . Labor protests are not abnormal in Iran , but the political and religious nature of these protests have given hope to thousands , if not millions , of people that this dissent shows an opportunity for true reform in the country .
While it is not certain what the Iranian government 's response will be to its citizens , the United States warned the Iranian government that the β world is watching β in a series of statements sent out by the President , Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders , and the State Department .
Many reports of peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with regime β s corruption & its squandering of the nation β s wealth to fund terrorism abroad . Iranian govt should respect their people β s rights , including right to express themselves . The world is watching ! # IranProtests β Donald J. Trump ( @ realDonaldTrump ) December 30 , 2017
Reports of peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with the regime β s corruption and its squandering of the nation β s wealth to fund terrorism abroad . The Iranian government should respect their people β s rights including their right to express themselves . The world is watching β Sarah Sanders ( @ PressSec ) December 30 , 2017
We are following reports of multiple peaceful protests by Iranian citizens . The United States strongly condemns the arrest of peaceful protesters in # Iran . We urge all nations to publicly support the Iranian people . https : //t.co/4spSF6IX1i # Iranprotests pic.twitter.com/jDbEDM0P8F β Department of State ( @ StateDept ) December 30 , 2017
Other United States officials showed support for the protesters as well .
( 2/2 ) I stand with the Iranian people in their demand for prosperity and freedom , and call upon my colleagues in the Congress to join me . # utpol # FreeIran β Senator Hatch Office ( @ senorrinhatch ) December 29 , 2017
Since the 1979 Iranian Revolution , which established Islamic rule in the once free and prosperous country , women have been historically oppressed . However , brave women are now taking to the streets in defiance of Sharia law . These protests are reminiscent of 1979 when thousands of women publicly condemned the government imposed veiling of women .
FLASHBACK : Over 100,000 Iranian women march against forced veiling in 1979 # IranProtest pic.twitter.com/NPxrjZiS5Z β Josh Caplan ( @ joshdcaplan ) December 30 , 2017
# IranProtests : Hundreds of thousands across # Iran chant `` We do n't want Islamic Republic ! '' & `` Clerics shame on you , let go of our country ! '' Woman in video took off her # Hijab to protest Islamic dress code imposed on Iranian women since 1979 . # IStandWithHer pic.twitter.com/CHNwrTsWPA β Mark Vallen ( @ mark_vallen ) December 29 , 2017
In a blow to the Ayatollah , Iranian police announced they would not arrest women who refused to abide by Islamic dress code . β Those who do not observe the Islamic dress code will no longer be taken to detention centers , nor will judicial cases be filed against them , β Tehran police chief General Hossein Rahimi said to the press .
It is unclear how long these protests will occur nor what the outcome will be . βββ coverage will continue in the following days as more details and events occur . | M9n7082wn2SVG0wH | 2 | Iran | -0.6 | Middle East | -0.4 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
capital_punishment_and_death_penalty | The Daily Caller | https://dailycaller.com/2019/12/03/scotus-daniel-lee-death-penalty/ | Justice Department Asks Supreme Court To Allow Execution Of Four Child Murderers | 2019-12-03 | Capital Punishment And Death Penalty, Justice | The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court Monday night to clear the way for four federal executions , after a judge in Washington , D.C. , put them on hold .
The first of the executions is set for Dec. 9 . The condemned inmate is Daniel Lewis Lee , who belonged to a white supremacist organization . A jury sentenced him to death for the 1999 murders of three people , among them an 8-year-old girl . Juries also convicted the other convicts β Alfred Bourgeois , Dustin Lee Honken and Wesley Ira Purkey β for the murders of children .
Attorney General William Barr revived the federal death penalty after a 17-year hiatus in July . The attorney general directed the Bureau of Prisons to use a single-drug pentobarbital lethal injection protocol for capital punishment , clearing the way for long-stalled executions to proceed .
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said that β uniform procedure β violates a provision of the Federal Death Penalty Act ( FDPA ) . That provision says federal executions must be carried out β in the manner prescribed by the law of the state β in which the death sentence issued .
Though all the relevant states allow lethal injection , Chutkan said the word β manner β encompasses both the means used and the procedural particulars . The judge found there are technical differences between the Barr protocol and relevant state practices , such as how the catheter should be inserted .
β β Manner β means β a mode of procedure or way of acting , ' β Chutkan β s decision reads . β The statute β s use of the word β manner β thus includes not just execution method but also execution procedure . β
β That reading is implausible , β Solicitor General Noel Francisco countered in Monday night β s legal filing at the Supreme Court . β For virtually the entire history of the United States , beginning with the First Congress , federal statutory references to the β manner β of execution have been understood β including by this Court β to refer to the mechanism for inflicting the death penalty , not to every β procedural detail β that might be employed in an execution. β ( RELATED : The Supreme Court Heard Its First Gun Rights Case In Years . It Could Be A Misfire )
Elsewhere in the application , Francisco said Chutkan β s decision would allow states to β effectively veto a federal execution simply by making unavailable state officials or resources that are required by state law for the execution . β
Francisco asked the justices to put Chutkan β s ruling on hold or toss it out completely . If the justices agreed , the inmates might be executed before they have a chance to fully litigate their claims . However , the administration says the public has a strong interest in the implementation of criminal penalties and the crux of the dispute is β purely procedural and likely harmless . β
The Supreme Court struggled to conceal heated internal rifts over capital punishment during its last term . In one decision , Justice Neil Gorsuch led a five-justice majority that urged lower courts to avoid β unjustified delay β in executions . | 8fff9f584f330fc8 | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
federal_budget | Fox Online News | http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/10/01/greatest-generation-veterans-to-face-barricades-at-memorial-in-their-honor/ | 'Greatest generation' veterans sweep past barricades at memorial in their honor | 2013-10-01 | federal_budget | What was meant to be a final gathering of heroes Tuesday instead became a final victory for dozens of World War II combat vets who refused to let the government 's budget battle block a visit to their memorial in the nation 's capital .
With bagpipers playing `` Amazing Grace , '' nearly 200 veterans from Mississippi and Iowa swept past barricades and security guards at the World War II Memorial in Washington in order to keep a commitment to visit the site , which was closed today due to the partial government shutdown . The veterans , in their 80s and 90s , were accompanied by Rep. Steven Palazzo , R-Miss. , a former Marine who earlier vowed not to let the National Park Police keep them from a planned visit to the open-air monument .
`` Well , I would have been so down-and-out if I got all the way up here and was n't able to get in , '' Navy veteran Oscar Leroy Russell , 90 , who is blind after he suffered a stroke , told FoxNews.com .
Some veterans on hand wiped away tears when they saw a crowd waving the American flag as they came out of their bus .
`` These men and women did n't cower to the Japanese and Germans , '' Palazzo said . `` I do n't think they 're about to let a few National Park Police stand in their way . ''
Palazzo , who was joined by several other members of Congress , moved the barricades at the memorial and police did not try to stop the veterans ' access .
`` I β m not going to enforce the 'no stopping or standing ' sign for a group of 90 World War II veterans , '' a U.S. Park Police officer , who declined to give his name , told The Washington Post . β I β m a veteran myself . β
The veterans are traveling as part of Honor Flight , a program that enables World War II veterans to partake in an expense-paid trip to view the memorial . Tuesday 's trip is the second-to-last flight , with the last scheduled for November . But prior to their arrival early Tuesday , there was fear that the government shutdown and federal worker furloughs would mean no access to the monuments on the National Mall .
But with lawmakers leading the charge , the American military heroes , some in wheelchairs , surged into the memorial .
`` It 's better to ask for forgiveness than permission , '' Palazzo said . β We lined the veterans up along the blockade , we saw an opening and we took it . ''
Joe Cleveland , of Union , Miss. , told The Mississippi Press that he would `` be thinking about the many battles that have been fought and thanking all those who were willing to go fight for our country . ''
Palazzo noted his grandfather , Manuel McCarty , served in World War II at Guadalcanal and Okinawa . Palazzo was 7 years old when his grandfather died and said he sees his grandfather in these veterans .
`` I only have a couple of memories of my grandfather , '' said Palazzo , who has taken part of Honor Flights before . `` But each time I see these men , I envision how he 'd be . ''
Congressman Bill Huizenga , of Michigan , told GulfLive.com that `` this is the best civil disobedience we 've seen in Washington in a while . '' | n9JpzBwDHf0EwlnN | 2 | Government Shutdown | 0.5 | Federal Budget | 0.5 | Economy And Jobs | 0 | null | null | null | null |
politics | The Economist | https://www.economist.com/united-states/2023/11/26/desantis-v-newsom-the-presidential-match-up-that-isnt | DeSantis v Newsom: the presidential match-up that isnβt | 2023-11-30 | Politics, Ron DeSantis, Gavin Newsom, Florida, California, Sean Hannity, Fox News, 2024 Presidential Election | Catch up on global daily news Dive into compelling long reads Tune into engaging conversations Watch engaging short films Gain insights from experts Curated news, direct to your inbox Unlimited digital access to all reporting, podcasts, newsletters and events PICTURE IT: two of Americaβs most powerful governors take the debate stage. One is sporting copious amounts of hair gel. The other may, or may not, be wearing lifted boots to appear taller. Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California, and Ron DeSantis, his Republican counterpart in Florida, spend 90 minutes trying to convince viewers that their own state represents the very best of America, and that their relative youth and respective flavour of crusading politics are just what the country needs. Donald Trump is heckling both men in ALL CAPS on Truth Social, from his armchair at Mar-a-Lago, having decided not to seek a second term. Joe Biden is looking forward to retirement, secure in the belief that his presidency was a bridge to the next generation. Sean Hannity, of Fox News, does a passable impression of a neutral moderator. A daily newsletter with the best of our journalism Not for the reasons espoused by Robert F. Kennedy junior The teardown of USAID threatens a programme that benefits farmers Amid a measles outbreak they are lobbying for more βmedical freedomβ Elon Musk has joined a war of ideas under the guise of a budget fight The more government lawyers who quit over their own scruples, the better for him Americaβs government has a big problem, but DOGEβs approach is unlikely to fix it To enhance your experience and ensure our website runs smoothly, we use cookies and similar technologies. Copyright Β© The Economist Newspaper Limited 2025. All rights reserved. | 63f6891e01cca476 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
healthcare | CNN (Web News) | http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/12/politics/obamacare/index.html?hpt=po_c1 | Democrats losing patience with Obamacare | 2013-11-12 | Obamacare, Healthcare | Story highlights Democrats say White House has until Friday to come up with fix to Obamacare problems
That 's when House Republicans will vote on bill reversing insurance cancellations
Bill Clinton weighs in , says Obama should honor the vows he made on coverage
Democratic Senator has her own proposal to address health care issues
Congressional Democrats are upping the pressure on President Barack Obama to fix what 's ailing his signature health care initiative with some in the party warning they may be forced to back a House Republican proposal if the White House does n't offer an alternative by week 's end .
`` We 've got to get out of the bunker and fix these problems , '' a senior congressional Democratic source told CNN 's Chief Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash of flaws in the newly rolled out law that have energized Republican efforts to weaken the President and his allies and derail a policy they have long considered unworkable .
The White House has until Friday to devise a solution to the problem-plagued roll out of the Affordable Care Act , the source said .
That 's when House Republicans will take up a bill to address one of the more politically potent Obamacare problems for the President and Democrats -- those losing their health coverage due to the law despite Obama 's assurances in selling it to the public that Americans could keep their plans if they wanted .
The House bill would allow those insurance plans to extend into next year and gut a major part of the law by allowing anyone to purchase them , even though the existing policies do n't meet the tougher requirements of the Obamacare initiative .
JUST WATCHED Roundtable : What was Clinton thinking ? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Roundtable : What was Clinton thinking ? 05:13
JUST WATCHED Holmes : Clinton concerned about 2016 Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Holmes : Clinton concerned about 2016 04:53
JUST WATCHED Bill Clinton to Obama : Keep your word Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Bill Clinton to Obama : Keep your word 02:39
Among other things , the Affordable Care Act prohibits discrimination for preexisting conditions and mandates coverage for mental health , prenatal care and other issues . This is a primary reason why insurance companies are dropping existing coverage .
`` In the absence of a solution that Democrats can support from the White House , you will see more and more Democrats voting for the Upton bill , '' the Democratic source said of the plan being advanced this week by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton of Michigan .
Although the rocky rollout of the Obamacare website and expected low enrollment figures for the first five weeks of the program are embarrassments for the President and Democrats in Congress who rammed through the health law in 2010 without Republican support , it is the policy cancellations that are really driving Democrats to put more pressure the White House .
Obama has apologized to those losing their coverage despite his assurances to the contrary and appears to be taking a hit for his Obamacare woes , according to the latest polling .
His approval rating among American voters has dropped to its lowest number in Quinnipiac University polling since he became President with new doubts being raised about trust .
Things could get even more heated on Wednesday when White House Chief Technology Officer Todd Park will testify before a congressional committee investigating the rocky rollout of the HealthCare.gov website , the Obama administration said .
Park had been subpoenaed to appear by House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa .
Rep. Steny Hoyer , the No . 2 Democrat in the House , told reporters that Obama needs to come up with a solution `` sooner rather than later . ''
While New York Democratic Rep. Steve Israel , chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee , criticized the House GOP plan , saying he believes it would increase premiums and remove consumer protections .
`` We should do something so long as it actually fixes the problem and does n't make the problem worse . '' Israel told reporters Tuesday , saying it would be helpful if the White House came out with a proposal before Friday 's House vote .
He noted a White House official will meet with Democrats on Wednesday and played down the notion they are breaking with the administration on the issue .
But Rep. John Larsen of Connecticut , a loyal liberal and former House Democratic leader , said he has n't seen details of the House GOP bill , but said he thought it could `` make sense '' and that there `` could be support '' depending on the approach .
Hoyer said earlier he had n't ruled out being open to Upton 's bill , but his spokeswoman says he 's now opposed since Upton has said he wo n't make changes and Democratic leaders will likely urge their caucus to vote against it .
Boosting pressure further on Obama was former President Bill Clinton , who said on Tuesday that the President should find a way to uphold his initial promises about health policies .
`` I personally believe , even if it takes a change in the law , the President should honor the commitment the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they 've got , '' Clinton said during an interview with the website OZY.com .
A growing number of Democrats have called for changes or delays to the program as many face tough reelection bids in 2014 and are feeling pressure from challengers and constituents .
Although he did n't go nearly as far as Clinton , Sen. Richard Durbin , D-Illinois , said he is open to changes as well and noted that Obama should have been more careful with his words in the first place .
`` A couple more sentences added would clarify it , '' the Senate 's second-highest Democrat said on CNN 's `` Newsroom '' with Ashleigh Banfield . `` The president apologized . He said very clearly he was sorry if he misled people . ''
Durbin added that Republicans and Democrats `` need to be open to constructive changes to make this law work better . ''
Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana , introduced a narrower bill than what House Republicans are planning with Upton 's plan and said that she has growing support in the Senate , including Dianne Feinstein , Joe Manchin , Mark Pryor and Kay Hagan -- all Democrats .
She noted her proposal would allow people who have individual insurance , which she says makes up about 5 % of the market , to keep their coverage . Insurers would have to notify those customers what minimum coverage requirements are not being met .
`` First of all , ( Obama ) apologized . And he 's also apologized for the poor roll out . And again , these things are real problems and they have to be fixed , '' Landrieu told CNN 's Chief Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash .
`` But the promise of the Affordable Care Act , let me say again , is worth fighting for . And Republicans that continue to think that they 're going to undermine it , repeal it , or defund it are wrong . They 're on the wrong side of history , '' she said .
White House spokesperson Jay Carney said Obama agreed with Clinton and is working to address the matter of people losing their coverage . He has already set in motion an aggressive effort to fix the website problems .
Carney rejected the Upton bill as `` not an effective fix '' because it opens up the plans to anyone , not just the people who 's plans are being canceled .
`` The President has instructed his team to look at a range of options '' to find solutions for people who have lost their plans , Carney said .
Democratic anger over the cancellation of insurance policies come as people wait for the release of enrollment numbers .
The Obama administration is expected to release them by the end of this week but has yet to say exactly when .
White House officials are is lowering expectations , cautioning the numbers `` will be lower than we hoped and we anticipated , '' Carney said .
It is blaming a faulty federally run website that is hindering the ability of consumers to sign up for coverage .
`` We are working 24-7 to ensure that the site is working smoothly for the vast majority of users by the end of November , '' said Chris Jennings , deputy assistant to the President for health policy .
Consumers have until December 15 to submit payment for coverage that begins January 1 . The overall sign-up deadline for 2014 is next March 31 . | dbb6208c06666183 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
lgbt_rights | CNN (Web News) | http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/03/opinion/stanley-chick-fil-a/index.html | Is Chick-fil-A turnout a preview of November? | 2012-08-03 | Conservatives, LGBTQ Issues | Story highlights Timothy Stanley : Chick-fil-A dustup so preposterous it almost seems a brilliant sales gimmick
He says U.S. has odd tendency to turn statements of principle into a nationwide movement
He says it might be pre-election warning : Culture wars can be blended with economic worries
Stanley : Chick-fil-A protest support could preview voter turnout if Romney plays it right
Wednesday marked Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day . Across the United States , conservatives gathered in chicken restaurants to show support for the company after its president , Dan Cathy , came out against gay marriage . Democratic mayors in Chicago and Boston at first threatened to halt expansion of the Chick-fil-A chain to their cities , which turned a question of sexual morality into a debate about freedom of speech . The motto of conservative Christians seems to be , `` They 'll take my chicken from my cold dead hand ... ''
Writing as a European , this story combines two of the things we most readily associate with America : Jesus Christ and fast food . It certainly reflects a uniquely American phenomenon . There are religious businesspeople and raging conservatives in other parts of the world , but only the United States enjoys all the elements that could turn a statement of conscience into nationwide movement .
Where else in the world would a ) the president of a chicken restaurant chain feel it was within his remit to publicly endorse `` the traditional family , '' b ) liberal mayors totally overreact by trying to stop his business ' expansion , c ) a former presidential candidate declare an `` appreciation day '' for the restaurant , and d ) hundreds of people actually show up to eat there in solidarity ?
The whole scenario seems so preposterous as to be contrived , which makes me wonder if it was a brilliant sales gimmick . Yet , we have no reason to doubt the strength of Cathy 's faith and , after all , Chick-fil-A is n't the only company with a taste for Christian witness . Norm Miller , chairman of Interstate Batteries , discusses his faith on his company 's website and offers advice on prayer .
In-N-Out Burger prints `` John 3:16 '' on the bottom of its paper cups . Hobby Lobby says it is committed to `` honoring the Lord '' and closes all its stores on a Sunday . Are there other corporations out there with a hidden religious agenda that we all missed because we were n't looking for it ? Is Ronald McDonald the acceptable face of Seventh-Day Adventism ?
Time will only tell whether or not this is an important moment in the revival of conservative religious activism . However , it does offer two immediate warnings about the November election .
JUST WATCHED Same-sex smooches planned at Chick-fil-A Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Same-sex smooches planned at Chick-fil-A 01:32
JUST WATCHED Blocking construction of Chick-fil-A Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Blocking construction of Chick-fil-A 02:51
First , culture will matter . There 's always a tendency to presume that in presidential elections `` it 's the economy stupid . '' The polls confirm that voters still place moral questions very low on their list of priorities . But cultural issues keep on coming up in ways that we did n't expect : contraception in February , gay marriage in May , guns in July , and now we 're back to gay marriage . It could be that bad jobs reports are so common that they 've become the background noise of the campaign , while the matters related to sex and violence compete more colorfully for our attention .
But no , something more complex is taking place : Economics and culture are becoming synonymous .
In rallying to Cathy 's defense , some conservatives have pointed out that his company has created jobs and that attempts to block its growth are bad for middle-class Americans . They made the same case against Michael Bloomberg 's war on supersized drinks . There 's a theme to the complaints emerging : that in their pursuit of liberal ends the Democrats are costing jobs , while patriotic conservatives like Cathy are repairing the economy and spreading the gospel .
Mitt Romney is now running billboard ads that lampoon Obama 's claim that businesses need government support to flourish . The implicit choice that the right is trying to establish is `` hardworking , self-reliant Christian businessmen '' vs `` welfare-supporting , anti-growth , atheistic bureaucrats . '' Hence , debates that can seem only to be about culture can actually become a way of discussing who is to blame for our economic woes .
America is settling down into two , surprisingly partisan , camps of voters who probably wo n't change their minds significantly until voting day . If that pattern holds , then turnout is all important . In 2004 , the ability of the Bush team to get out their religious vote swung them a relatively close election . If Mitt Romney can effectively establish the link between economics and culture , and then motivate conservatives to turn out in big numbers , then the Chick-fil-A moment could prove prophetic . | 35e2d365bb708a27 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
gun_control_and_gun_rights | Fox News | http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/11/washington-has-already-failed-on-newtown/ | Washington Has Already Failed on Newtown | 2013-04-11 | gun_control_and_gun_rights | β There is a whole new sort of group of individuals now who β I don β t know what the numbers are β that never hunt at all . But they own guns for one of two reasons , self-protection or they just like the feel of that AR-15 at the range . They like the way it feels . β
-- Vice President Joe Biden on MSNBC discussing his call for gun control measures .
How did legislation intended to honor victims of a school shooting become legislation that would have done nothing to prevent that school shooting ?
Special interest groups , left and right , bear considerable blame . So do the realities of 2014 electoral politics . A Senate with badly atrophied legislative muscles doesn β t help . Neither does it help to have a president both impatient and disengaged from the lawmaking process .
But the chief failing on legislation to prevent other mass killings like the one in Newtown Conn. , is a failure of imagination .
Washington is not a very imaginative place , but few failures of creative thinking rank with what we β ve seen here in response to the December massacre that left 26 dead .
Consider the journey of Sen. Joe Manchin , D-W.Va. , who was the first NRA-backed Senate member to open the door to firearms legislation . Manchin has been wrongly criticized for suggesting openness to banning some guns and then retreating . What Manchin did was suggest that he was willing to discuss gun control as part of a larger conversation that included mental health , the glorification of violence in media , and school safety .
By the time President Obama β s gun task force was halfway finished with its work , it was clear that those other considerations were going to be window dressing at best . Gun control advocates , fearing that every day that passed from the raw emotions of the killings , made their hopes of getting a gun ban in place dwindle , decided to ditch what is complicated or innovative and fall back to old and largely failed ideas .
While murder rates have dramatically declined in America over the past two decades , the phenomenon of mass killings has become a cultural sickness . Broken families , a corroded culture , the isolation and alienation of the Internet age , the inadequacy of mental health care and failing schools all play a part . These are matters of the heart and soul of a society , and these killings are terrible symptoms of chronic disease .
Manchin was calling for something that would explore and address some of these root causes , but before the conversation could begin , the gun grabbers were already grabbing and the cold-dead-handers were already gripping tighter . The moment was gone . The attacks had begun , and what was a moment of national dialogue reverted to pointless political shouting matches .
Today , Manchin is trying to sell a compromise on firearms background checks that would have done nothing to prevent the Newtown killings , since the perpetrator there didn β t buy the weapons . He took them from his mother , whom he also killed .
Manchin , a red-state Democrat working with blue-state Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania , is trying to broker a deal that would expand criminal and mental health background checks by pressuring states to share data on prohibited purchasers and to include sales that take place through a commercial enterprise .
An individual could sell another individual a gun without a background check , but if a commercial entity is involved β hosting a gun show or an Internet site β mandatory checks would be required .
Even as gun control proponents bemoan the deal as β watered down , β gun rights groups remain worried that the legislation could be altered to create a federal firearms registry . The Manchin-Toomey plan forbids the creation of such a list , but conservatives hold little trust when it is the Obama Justice Department that is doing the enforcement .
But even if Manchin-Toomey somehow survives the Senate and passes the House , it would not prevent the next Newtown . Or the next Aurora . Or the next Tucson . Or the next Blacksburg . All of the weapons said to be involved in those mass killings were legally purchased from gun merchants and subject to full federal background checks .
And while gun control advocates can be happy that the expanded system may mean fewer gun sales , there β s little reason to think that Manchin-Toomey would do much to help the problem of greatest concern in the Democratic Party : street crime . As the urban party , Democrats are still more focused on ordinary gun violence , especially related to the drug trade .
Manchin and Toomey have staked out center ground on the issue of firearms background checks , and something might eventually pass the Senate and be modified again in the House . Yes , there is a call for a commission on mass violence , but the success rate for Washington commissions is abysmal .
Whatever happens , one thing we now know is that anything that does pass in the name of Newtown won β t address what happened in Newtown .
β I think they cleverly were able to get the press to believe that there was a huge concession with the change in the calculation of inflation , which creates a miniscule shift in the curve on Social Security . It 's a quarter of a penny on the dollar . It is a very small change . β
Chris Stirewalt is digital politics editor for βββ , and his POWER PLAY column appears Monday-Friday on FoxNews.com . Catch Chris Live online daily at 11:30amET at http : live.foxnews.com . | tAYcfYvylPOGQzG8 | 2 | Gun Control And Gun Rights | -0.4 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
elections | New York Times - News | http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/us/politics/primary-elections-preview.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=a-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&mtrref=www.nytimes.com&gwh=6385E7225D53942F817018F65B49EEF0&gwt=pay | Ohio and Florida are the Big Prizes as 5 States Vote | 2016-03-16 | elections | If Mr. Trump dispatches Ohio β s two-term governor and Florida β s young senator , it would suggest that he is close to wresting the Republican nomination . And that would quickly force other elected Republicans there to decide how tightly they want to embrace a candidate who , even with his victories in the primary , could prove repellent to the sort of up-for-grabs voters most coveted in these pre-eminent swing states . This calculation could also prove consequential in the Senate campaign , as both states have Republican-held seats at stake that could determine the balance of power in that chamber .
Even as Ohio β s economy has recovered since the Great Recession , manufacturing jobs have continued to vanish . Should Mr. Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont on the Democratic side win Ohio , it will be in part because of their ferocious assault on the United States β international trade agreements β a line of attack that also lifted them in Michigan . The economic conditions in the state have undermined support for free trade among voters and leaders in both parties . That augurs for a general election where the eventual party nominees will confront immense pressure to abandon the bipartisan free-trade consensus that has shaped every modern presidential administration .
Illinois and Missouri have a lot in common ( besides being Midwestern states that share the Mississippi River ) . Both have been obscured by the action in Florida and Ohio , which are winner-take-all contests for Republicans and elimination races for Mr. Kasich and Mr. Rubio .
But Illinois and Missouri , which allocate a handful of delegates to the statewide winner and the rest to the top vote-getter in each of their congressional districts , could be just as important . If Mr. Trump overwhelms his competition in each , capturing every congressional district , he could effectively turn them into winner-take-all states .
But Mr. Kasich has aggressively campaigned in the Chicago area , and Mr. Cruz has stumped in nearly every corner of both the states . If together they can win a substantial number of the combined 26 congressional districts in both contests , it would limit Mr. Trump β s haul and mitigate the impact of his winning Florida , Ohio or both . | K6hNUtBQtYVqxspE | 0 | Presidential Elections | 0.2 | Elections | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
sports | CNN (Web News) | http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/18/sport/us-swimmers-olympics-robbery-questions/index.html | 2 US swimmers pulled from plane in Rio over questions in robbery | 2016-08-18 | sports | Rio de Janeiro ( CNN ) One of the US swimmers involved in an controversial incident at a Rio de Janeiro gas station said Friday that men with badges pulled guns on them and ordered them to pay money in order to leave the scene .
Bentz 's statement describes how Lochte , a 12-time medalist who initially said the swimmers were robbed , was the member of the group who damaged property and argued with armed men who appeared to be security guards .
Bentz said the swimmers had been ordered out of a cab and were sitting on a curb as the security guards held their guns when Lochte stood up and got into a heated argument with the guards .
A man who spoke English and Portuguese -- Bentz thinks he was a customer -- offered to translate . The man told the Americans they needed to pay the guards in order to leave .
`` I gave them what I had in my wallet , which was a $ 20 bill , and Jimmy gave them 100 reals , which is about $ 50 in total , '' Bentz said .
The guards lowered their guns and the swimmers left , walking down the street to find another cab to take them back to the Olympic Village .
Bentz , in a statement released by the University of Georgia , where he is a rising junior , said the swimmers had stopped at the store to use the bathroom . Lochte had pulled a metal advertising sign off a wall as the quartet of swimmers urinated behind the gas station , he said , but there was no damage to a bathroom or its door , which was locked .
The swimmers were trying to leave in a cab when two security guards ordered them out of a cab . Bentz said that as Jack Conger and James Feigen walked away from the car a man held up a badge and pulled a gun on the Americans .
`` I yelled to them to come back toward us and they complied , '' he said . `` Then the second guard drew his weapon and both guards pointed their guns at us and yelled at us to sit on a nearby sidewalk . ''
In his statement , Bentz apologized to US officials , his teammates and his university .
Bentz also said the guards put down their guns after being paid .
A photo posted by Ryanlochte ( @ ryanlochte ) on Aug 19 , 2016 at 7:11am PDT
Earlier this week , Lochte said on Twitter and in a television interview with Olympics broadcaster NBC that the four swimmers were robbed after getting out of the cab .
The case quickly spiraled into an international matter involving consular officials , lawyers and judicial orders . Police accused the swimmers of fabricating the robbery story and being involved in vandalism . Authorities brought three of them in for questioning , Bentz and Conger having been pulled off a plane bound for the United States . Lochte had already returned to the United States by the time police began their investigation .
Bentz said Friday he never made a false statement to anyone , he said . He characterized his interaction with investigators as being a witness .
Lochte originally said that he and fellow swimmers were pulled over in their taxi and robbed at gunpoint early Sunday .
`` I wanted to apologize for my behavior last weekend -- for not being more careful and candid in how I described the events of that early morning and for my role in taking the focus away from the many athletes fulfilling their dreams of participating in the Olympics , '' he said Friday on Instagram .
He said he accepted responsibility for his role in the case and had `` learned some valuable lessons . ''
CNN contributor Christine Brennan reported Friday that Lochte will eventually be suspended , according to sources with knowledge of the investigation .
When asked for a comment , USA Swimming told CNN to refer to its latest statement which reads , `` USA Swimming will undergo a thorough review of the incident and determine any further actions , per our Code of Conduct . ''
CNN also reached out to the US Olympic Committee , which referred to a statement issued Thursday night that said the organization will `` further review the matter , and any potential consequences for the athletes , when we return to the United States . ''
Lochte also did not , however , roll back on his allegations the swimmers had been robbed at gunpoint by men posing as police .
Police said that security guards used guns to control the athletes , adding that the Americans were drunk , and took 100 reals ( $ 20 ) to cover the damage the men caused .
`` It 's traumatic to be out late with your friends in a foreign country -- with a language barrier -- and have a stranger point a gun at you and demand money to let you leave , '' Lochte said on Instagram .
`` I should have been much more responsible in how I handled myself and for that am sorry to my teammates , my fans , my fellow competitors , my sponsors , and the hosts of this great event . I am very proud to represent my country in Olympic competition and this was a situation that could and should have been avoided . ''
The public had awaited Lochte 's response after the release of closed-circuit TV footage Thursday that appeared to support at least some of the police 's assertions .
JUST WATCHED Video shows US swimmers at gas station Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Video shows US swimmers at gas station 02:15
Lochte omitted details that led up to what he called a robbery , some of which appeared in the video footage .
But his apology and the video still do not clear up the biggest question -- were the swimmers robbed ?
Lochte , Bentz and police do all agree on one thing : A gun was brandished , and money exchanged hands .
The stories , however , seem to diverge at a single point -- when Lochte re-entered a taxi after stopping at the station .
On Wednesday night , authorities took the extraordinary step of pulling Conger and Bentz from their flight home for questioning . The pair flew to Miami on Friday morning . Bentz returned to Atlanta later in the day and did n't answer questions from reporters at the airport .
Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz arrive back on home soil
Police said in a statement on Facebook that that Feigen had agreed to make a contribution of 35,000 reals ( nearly $ 11,000 ) to a Brazilian charity organization .
The decision was made , police said , in a court appearancse to answer accusations that the swimmers had made false claims they were robbed .
The US Olympic Committee 's earlier statement also apologized for the athletes ' behavior after the video footage came to light .
`` On behalf of the United States Olympic Committee , we apologize to our hosts in Rio and the people of Brazil for this distracting ordeal in the midst of what should rightly be a celebration of excellence , '' a committee statement said .
JUST WATCHED Brazilian police : Lochte , US swimmers not robbed Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Brazilian police : Lochte , US swimmers not robbed 01:03
The statement said that an `` argument ensued between the athletes and two armed gas station security staff , who displayed their weapons , ordered the athletes from their vehicle and demanded the athletes provide a monetary payment . Once the security officials received money from the athletes , the athletes were allowed to leave . ''
Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes said Friday he felt `` pity and contempt '' for the swimmers , saying he accepted the US committee 's apology .
`` I believe that all of us need to accept the apologies of the US Olympic Committee , the same way our Olympic Committee would have had to apologize if the assault had occurred . The apologies have been more than accepted , '' he said .
JUST WATCHED Police : Ryan Lochte lied about Rio gas station robbery Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Police : Ryan Lochte lied about Rio gas station robbery 02:32
Lochte 's attorney , Jeff Ostrow , said the incident still amounted to a robbery and the new information and video did not change that view .
The police early on appeared to have doubts about the 32-year-old swimmer 's veracity .
First , they learned on social media that four Americans had reportedly been mugged -- a story Lochte told in hair-raising detail to the US media -- civil police Chief Fernando Veloso said at a news conference Thursday .
JUST WATCHED Lochte previously busted for disorderly conduct , public urination Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Lochte previously busted for disorderly conduct , public urination 02:27
They tracked down witnesses , including three of Lochte 's fellow swimmers at the scene , reviewed surveillance tapes and made a ruling on whether the accounts looked or sounded like a robbery .
`` The surveillance tapes show that there was no violence against the athletes at the gas station , '' Veloso said . `` Their claim that they are a victim of an assault or robbery or any kind of violence is not true . ''
Veloso said the other swimmers say it was Lochte who created the lie . `` The only person that continues to say there was a robbery is ( Lochte ) , '' he said after the news conference .
The investigation showed security guards stopped the athletes from leaving the station until police could be called . One pulled a gun on Lochte after he became angrily confrontational , Veloso said .
But Veloso insisted there was no evidence the guard 's actions were unreasonable .
Atlanta-based swimming coach Jason Turcotte , who trained Bentz in high school at the Dynamo Swim Club , said he and his swimmers have continued to support the embattled Olympian medalist throughout what he believes is a scandal that has been blown out of proportion .
Turcotte said the 20-year-old swimmer , who won a gold medal in the men 's 4x200-meter freestyle relay , handled the kerfuffle well ever since he and Conger were removed from a plane . According to Turcotte , Bentz fully cooperated with Rio authorities when asked to provide testimony , where he said that he was not robbed .
He added : `` We 're not perfect . Everyone makes mistakes , but once you make a mistake , then the clock starts with how you handle it . In a sea of drama , he handled it pretty well , and now he 's home . '' | ctsoQDsns4K7BLip | 0 | Sports | -0.5 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
fbi | Politico | https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/11/horowitz-barr-trump-russia-probe-082448 | Horowitz pushes back at Barr over basis for Trump-Russia probe | 2019-12-11 | fbi | Graham was also critical of the FBI β s decision to send an agent working on the Crossfire Hurricane investigation , as the Russia probe was named internally , to a more generic defensive briefing the bureau did for the Trump campaign .
The ranking Democrat on the panel , Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California , highlighted Horowitz β s finding that the FBI had a legitimate basis to open the investigation into the Trump campaign in July 2016 . She said that conclusion undercut Trump β s repeated claims that he was the target of a vendetta by FBI officials .
β This was not a politically-motivated investigation . There is no β Deep State , β β Feinstein said . β Simply put , the FBI investigation was motivated by fact , not bias . β¦ The FBI was obligated to investigate possible Russian ties to the Trump campaign . β
Feinstein also faulted Barr for continuing to claim publicly that it is possible the FBI β s Russia probe was tainted by political motivations .
β I believe strongly that it β s time to move on from the false claims of political bias , β she said .
Democrats downplayed the numerous failures detailed in Horowitz β s 400-plus-page report and pointed out that FBI Director Christopher Wray had promised to address them .
The inspector general let most of those characterizations pass without comment , although when Sen. Kamala Harris ( D-Calif. ) referred to β several errors β in the FISA process , Horowitz did chime in .
β Maybe more than several , β he said , alluding to his report β s identification of 17 significant facts that the FBI omitted or misstated in its submissions to the FISA court .
Despite claims by Feinstein and other Democrats that the watchdog had essentially cleared the FBI of claims that bias affected the investigation , Horowitz declared later in the exchange on Wednesday that inaccuracies and omissions relating to the Page surveillance were so numerous and inexplicable that he could not say there was no intentional misconduct or improper purpose at work .
β It is unclear what the motivations were , β the inspector general said . β We were not able to make that conclusion . β
However , Graham warned his Democratic colleagues not to dismiss Horowitz β s findings solely because Trump was the target of the FBI .
β It β s Trump today , it could be you or me tomorrow , β the chairman said . β There is a mountain of misconduct . Please don β t ignore it . β
Graham blasted the FBI for not briefing then-candidate Donald Trump during the campaign about the specific threats that agents perceived from Russia .
β They never made any effort to brief Donald Trump about suspected problems in his campaign . β¦ Why did they not tell him that ? β the chairman asked .
Graham was also critical of the FBI β s decision to send an agent working on the Crossfire Hurricane investigation , as the Russia probe was named internally , to a more generic defensive briefing that the bureau did for the Trump campaign .
Wray has agreed not to do that again β at least with briefings to a presidential nominee β s campaign . But not every senator agreed that the FBI tactic the bureau deployed in 2016 was outrageous .
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse ( D-R.I. ) noted that Michael Flynn , a key Trump adviser , was at the time a focus of a counterintelligence investigation by the FBI . He later pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI while serving as national security adviser in the White House and is awaiting sentencing .
β It was an unusual circumstance that a participant in that briefing on the part of the Trump campaign was the subject of an FBI investigation , β Whitehouse said . β We should not draw the conclusion that there β s no way that the FBI should ever be given access to evidence that arises in the course of an intelligence briefing . β
Graham used a sizable chunk of his lengthy opening statement to read anti-Trump text messages exchanged by a top FBI agent on the Russia probe , Peter Strzok , and an FBI attorney , Lisa Page . The South Carolina Republican said the messages were improper for anyone involved in such a probe , though the report notes that neither Strzok nor Page were in charge of the investigation .
Graham did not mention that the inspector general found pro-Trump texts sent by other agents dealing with the Russia probe , nor did the senator revisit his own cutting criticism of Trump during the 2016 campaign .
Graham faulted the FBI for assigning agents and lawyers who had strong views about Trump to the Russia investigation . He did not explain how FBI supervisors should have known about the political leanings of those involved , given legal prohibitions on using political views in staffing decisions .
Comey has claimed that the report β s finding vindicates him against claims of mounting a biased , unjustified investigation , but in response to a question from Graham , Horowitz said the part of the probe that focused on Page is something no one at the FBI should be proud of .
β I think the activities we found here don β t vindicate anybody who touched this FISA , β the inspector general said .
Despite the partisan divide evident at the hearing , there was some consensus that the inspector general β s findings could complicate the process for renewing certain surveillance authorities that recently got a short-term extension set to expire next March .
Graham said he β d been too quick in the past to dismiss warnings from colleagues such as Sen. Mike Lee ( R-Utah ) that FISA oversight was weak and the system was susceptible to abuse .
Lee opened his comments on Wednesday by slamming what he called Democrats β β absolutely crazy β take on the new report , but went on to say the findings demonstrated that his predictions about the surveillance regime had proven prescient .
β It calls into question the legitimacy of the whole FISA program , β Lee said . β This really pushes us over the edge . β¦ Every American really should be terrified by this report . β
Another longtime critic of that surveillance process , Sen. Dick Durbin ( D-Ill. ) , pointed to the long history of inaccurate claims and broken promises by the government to the secretive court . He went on to say that he welcomed the new skepticism from some Republicans about those powers .
β Let β s have a fulsome conversation after this about the future of the FISA court and the representations that are made to it , β Durbin said . | HSjoLDdQaLsJqq8L | 0 | FISA | -0.3 | Surveillance | -0.3 | FBI | -0.2 | Justice Department | -0.1 | Democratic Party | -0.1 |
campaign_finance | Politico | http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/2016-contenders-off-and-running-in-the-money-race-103014.html?hp=t1_3 | 2016 contenders off and running in the money race | 2014-02-20 | campaign_finance | Political outfits associated with top prospects raised at least $ 86 million last year . '16ers off and running in money race
Prospective 2016 candidates say they β ll wait until after this fall β s elections to decide their plans β but their allies are already building the foundations for campaigns and ramping up outreach to the super-rich donors who will be called on to fund them .
Political outfits associated with 10 top presidential prospects in each party raised at least $ 86 million last year for committees that could help launch or support campaigns the minute they announce , according to a βββ analysis of recently filed campaign reports and interviews with the prospects β allies .
Wisconsin Gov . Scott Walker is headed to Dallas this week for a reelection fundraiser with rich Texas Republicans at the mansion of billionaire real estate titan Harlan Crow . Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas invited Foster Friess to be his guest at last week β s State of the Union . Rick Santorum met last month in the Northern Virginia offices of his political guru John Brabender with top advisers , several of whom are on the payroll of his political outfit Patriot Voices . And Louisiana Gov . Bobby Jindal , who recently started a nonprofit that can accept unlimited donations , last week met some of the right β s most prolific donors at a Koch brothers β retreat in the California desert .
Many of the biggest Democratic donors and top campaign operatives are aligning behind Hillary Clinton . But that hasn β t stopped prospective rivals from assembling their campaign-style operations and working the circuit , including Maryland Gov . Martin O β Malley , who recently hired a top New York fundraiser to solicit big checks from Wall Street .
The early money is flowing into state and federal reelection campaign committees , leadership PACs , super PACs and nonprofit groups created to boost pet causes . These outfits spent more than $ 50 million last year paying consultants and staff , funding political travel , donating to allies and buying ads .
This new pre-exploratory phase is critical to launching a presidential bid in the Citizens United age . Prospective candidates need a stable of rich allies to bolster their efforts well before the campaign starts β and fend off attacks from opponents who also have wealthy friends who can destroy a candidacy before it even launches with a single mega-donor check .
β It takes an enormous amount of time and work , β said Paul Begala , a top strategist to Priorities USA , a super PAC and sister nonprofit group that recently pledged its allegiance to Hillary Clinton . Begala said readying a presidential campaign in the Citizens United age reminded him of an old saying , β The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago . The second best time is today . And this is 20 years ago . This is why we β re starting now . β
The 2016 Democratic presidential nomination is widely considered Hillary Clinton β s for the taking . The infrastructure that β s arisen around her β without either her involvement or any surefire indication that she is even going to run β dwarfs anything any other Democrat could possibly muster and is unique in the annals of modern campaign finance .
Clinton β s inner circle has been keeping close tabs on a network of groups that together form a sort of Hillary shadow campaign that combined to raise more than $ 12 million in 2013 to build a voter database and a grass-roots army , and later to air ads for a presumptive 2016 run .
On the second to last day of 2013 , the billionaire currency trader George Soros β who had already given $ 25,000 to the Ready for Hillary super PAC that is spending big money building a voter file and grass-roots donor network for Clinton β stroked a $ 500,000 check to the American Bridge super PAC , which is defending Clinton against attacks from Republicans .
While Clinton has not been personally soliciting campaign dollars , all the members of Congress generating presidential buzz are actively raising smaller money into campaign committees and leadership PACs that , unlike super PACs , are beholden to federal contribution limits .
Sens . Cruz , Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida , along with Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin are stretching the potential of such so-called hard-dollar fundraising through an innovative twist β joint committees that merge their various accounts and increase the maximum size of the donations they can accept to $ 10,000 a pop .
Rubio and Ryan , favorites of GOP establishment donors , raised $ 8 million and $ 4.8 million last year , respectively , through their various accounts . Both men spent heavily on digital operations , while Rubio spent $ 120,000 on ads defending the gun control stance of fellow GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire , whose opposition to expanded background checks had come under attack in ads funded by billionaire Michael Bloomberg . Ayotte , who is up for reelection in 2016 , could be a key presidential endorser in her state β s first-in-the-nation primary .
Cruz , a favorite of the anti-establishment tea party , pulled in $ 4.1 million primarily from small donors , but he has worked of late to make inroads with deeper pockets who could subsidize a 2016 presidential run . He took as his guest to last week β s State of the Union the Wyoming investor Friess , whose $ 2 million in super PAC spending helped lift Santorum to a surprisingly strong showing in the 2012 GOP primary .
Asked by Fox Business Channel β s Neil Cavuto whether he was β jumping ship from Rick Santorum to Ted Cruz , β Friess laughed . β I am just so impressed with Ted Cruz , β he said , β but I am a Rick Santorum guy through and through . β
In addition to his super PAC largesse , Friess spent time on the trail with Santorum β s 2012 campaign , though it struggled to raise hard money , and still owes $ 512,000 to various vendors , including $ 383,000 to Brabender and $ 10,000 to a NASCAR team he paid to sponsor . In the run-up to 2016 , Santorum is building a more robust operation through Patriot Voices , which last year raised $ 2.7 million into a federal PAC and a 501 ( c ) ( 4 ) nonprofit β cash that went toward a political staff , travel and boosting candidates in key early states .
Yet it β s the sugar-daddy courtship that has been especially competitive on the GOP side of the ledger . Call it the Friess effect , wherein big checks are seen as a more efficient way to jump-start a campaign .
Supporters of Texas Gov . Rick Perry , who raised $ 5.6 million into a super PAC supporting his 2012 campaign for the GOP nomination , recently transferred $ 200,000 in leftover cash into a nonprofit expected to set the stage for another presidential campaign . | WtXdF7S88x5SzMIB | 0 | Election2016 | 0.2 | Campaign Finance | 0.2 | Elections | 0.2 | null | null | null | null |
middle_east | Townhall | http://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2016/06/17/dozens-of-administration-officials-call-for-strikes-against-assad-n2179936 | Dozens of Officials Break With Administration, Call for Strikes Against Assad | 2016-06-17 | middle_east | Protesting the Obama administration β s policy in Syria , dozens of State Department officers have signed an internal document calling on the administration to order targeted military strikes against Damascus to force regime change as the only way to defeat ISIS , the Wall Street Journal reports .
The β dissent channel cable β was signed by 51 State Department officers involved with advising on Syria policy in various capacities , according to an official familiar with the document . The Wall Street Journal reviewed a copy of the cable , which repeatedly calls for β targeted military strikes β against the Syrian government in light of the near-collapse of the ceasefire brokered earlier this year . The views expressed by the U.S. officials in the cable amount to a scalding internal critique of a longstanding U.S. policy against taking sides in the Syrian war , a policy that has survived even though the regime of President Bashar al-Assad has been repeatedly accused of violating ceasefire agreements and Russian-backed forces have attacked U.S.-trained rebels .
While use of the β dissent channel β is not unique , according to U.S. officials , the number of diplomats signing on was .
β It β s embarrassing for the administration to have so many rank-and-file members break on Syria , β a former State Department official who worked on Middle East policy told the Journal .
The cable warns that the U.S. is losing prospective allies among Syria β s majority Sunni population in its fight against the Sunni extremist group Islamic State while the regime β continues to bomb and starve β them . [ β¦ ] It calls for the U.S. to change course and create a more robust partnership with moderate rebel forces to fight against both Islamic State and Mr. Assad β s government . Many Syrian Arab rebels have been reluctant to join the U.S.-led coalition because of its singular focus on Islamic State and not on the regime . Such a force would shift β the tide of the conflict against the regime [ to ] increase the chances for peace by sending a clear signal to the regime and its backers that there will be no military solution to the conflict . β
The Obama administration has attempted to steer clear of attacking Assad β s regime because they argue it could embroil the U.S. in direct conflict with Russia and Iran .
But in the cable , officials say Russia and Assad have not taken past negotiations and ceasefires seriously ; thus , they suggest a β more muscular military posture β going forward , the Journal reports .
β Failure to stem Assad β s flagrant abuses will only bolster the ideological appeal of groups such as Daesh , even as they endure tactical setbacks on the battlefield , β the cable reads . | NpoFNdO7gkLroRvW | 2 | Middle East | -2.6 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
world | Fox Online News | http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/04/22/frances-macron-speaks-to-very-special-relationship-with-trump.html | France's Macron speaks to 'very special relationship' with Trump | 2018-04-22 | world | French President Emmanuel Macron insisted Sunday that he has a solid relationship with President Trump , ahead of his Washington visit this week , but also appeared to caution the president about his aggressive stances on Iran , climate change and international trade , in an exclusive β Fox News Sunday β interview .
β You can not make a trade war with your allies , β Macron said in the interview conducted on Friday in France . β It β s too complicated . If you make war against everybody , you make trade war against China , trade war against Europe , war in Syria , war against Iran -- come on -- it doesn β t work . You need allies . β
Macron spoke ahead of his visit this week to the United States that includes a dinner Monday with wife Brigitte , Trump and first lady Melania Trump at Mount Vernon , the home of America 's first president , George Washington , on the banks of the Potomac River in Virginia .
The trip will mark the first time that Trump has hosted an official state visit since taking office last year and will include a state dinner Tuesday night at the White House and Macron making a joint address to Congress on Wednesday .
The 40-year-old Macron said Sunday that he has a β very special relationship β with Trump , suggesting they β re political β mavericks β mutually committed to fighting terrorism and reducing the influence of rogue nations and dictators .
However , he suggested that Trump stay in the so-called Iran Nuclear Deal , in which economic sanctions are lifted on Iran in exchange for leaders winding down their nuclear program , ahead of a May 12 sanctions deadline .
β I β m not satisfied with the situation with Iran β but don β t leave the deal without a β better option , β said Macron , adding that the issue would be discussed this week . He also expressed optimism that Trump in the coming days will exempt European countries from the international tariffs he intends to impose on aluminum and steel .
β You don β t make trade war with your allies , β he repeated . β Let β s see what he will decide on May 1 . I just say , where are your priorities ? β
Trump last year said the U.S. will withdraw , for economic reasons , from the so-called 2015 Paris Agreement , in which world leaders agreed to reduce carbon emissions .
Macron , a former investment banker elected last year on a centrist , anti-establishment platform , also attempted to settle a controversy about whether he indeed persuaded Trump to keep U.S. forces in Syria -- after the two countries and the United Kingdom recently participated in a U.S.-led missile strike on chemical weapons facilities in Syria connected to regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad .
The French president suggested the U.S. at least maintain a diplomatic presence in Syria , considering a regime change would β fuel the new terrorists β and create a vacuum in which the β Iranian regime β would thrive .
β It β s not automatically U.S. forces , but that β s U.S. diplomacy and that β s your presence , β Macron told β Fox News Sunday β host Chris Wallace . β We will have to build a new Syria after war . And that β s why I think the U.S. role is very important to play . β
Macron also said he β ll ask Congress for its support in efforts to stamp out terrorism and reign in rouge nations .
He described the U.S. as β one of the last resorts β for peace and multilateralism . And he thinks special counsel Robert Mueller β s investigation into whether the 2016 Trump presidential campaign colluded with Russia to influence the outcome of the White House race has β no impact β on Trump β s credibility and his effectiveness on the world stage .
Macron also said β I β m not the one to judge β Trump over current controversies or investigations .
He said he and Trump β have a very special relationship because both of us are probably the maverick of the systems on both sides . I think President Trump β s election was unexpected in your country , and probably my election was unexpected in my country . And we are not part of the classical political system . β¦ We are very much attached to the same values β¦ . especially liberty and peace , β he said . β And I think the U.S. today has a very strong role to play for peace in different regions of the world and especially the Middle East . β | cKSzNwOvMh49Xvq3 | 2 | France | 0.5 | Emmanuel Macron | 0.4 | Donald Trump | 0.2 | World | 0 | null | null |
economy_and_jobs | New York Post (News) | https://nypost.com/2020/10/06/fed-chief-jerome-powell-urges-more-covid-19-stimulus-spending/ | Fed chief Jerome Powell calls for more coronavirus stimulus spending | 2020-10-06 | Economy And Jobs, Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, Coronavirus, Women's Issues, Race And Racism, Economic Policy | Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell on Tuesday called for more government spending to support the nationβs nascent economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Both the central bank and Congress should continue their aggressive efforts to shore up the economy even though employment, consumer spending and other key measures have rebounded from their collapse in the spring, Powell argued in a virtual speech to the National Association for Business Economics. The risks of policymakers βoverdoing itβ with stimulus are fairly small, Powell said, but providing too little support would weaken the recovery by leading to more bankruptcies, hurting productivity and choking wage growth. βEven if policy actions ultimately prove to be greater than needed, they will not go to waste,β Powell said. βThe recovery will be stronger and move faster if monetary policy and fiscal policy continue to work side by side to provide support to the economy until it is clearly out of the woods.β Powell and other Fed officials have urged Congress to pass another spending package to blunt the economic damage from COVID-19 as the central bank injected trillions of dollars into financial markets and slashed interest rates to near zero. Powellβs latest comments came as the Trump administration and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi worked to hash out a stimulus deal. President Trump expressed support for a spending bill while he was hospitalized with the coronavirus over the weekend, but it remains uncertain when an agreement will be reached. The recovery remains βincompleteβ even though stimulus efforts so far β including Marchβs $2.2 trillion CARES Act β have helped prevent the recession from spiraling further out of control, Powell said. He also noted that the βburdens of the downturn have not been evenly shared,β with women and people of color suffering deeper job losses than other groups. βCombined with the disproportionate effects of COVID on communities of color, and the overwhelming burden of childcare during quarantine and distance learning, which has fallen mostly on women, the pandemic is further widening divides in wealth and economic mobility,β Powell said. Unknown | d426bb27ec45baf5 | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
elections | Politico | http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/one-reason-bernies-staying-in-oregon-and-west-virginia-222844 | Sanders poised for May win streak | 2016-05-06 | elections | Here β s one reason Bernie Sanders is reluctant to give up the fight : May is shaping up to be a pretty good month for him .
On the heels of his Indiana victory Tuesday , Sanders is well-positioned for wins in the upcoming West Virginia and Oregon primaries . That might explain his it β s-just-a-flesh-wound approach to the nearly insurmountable delegate math confronting him , and his dogged insistence that he β s taking his long-shot presidential campaign all the way to the July Democratic convention .
β We 're going to stay in until the last vote is counted , and that will be in the [ June 14 ] primary in Washington , D.C. , '' Sanders said in an interview Wednesday with NPR 's Steve Inskeep .
For Hillary Clinton , the prospect of additional Sanders wins is more headache than threat . But even if there β s little chance the Vermont senator can win the nomination , every victory raises new questions about why Clinton can β t finish him off .
`` It 's a nuisance , it 's a distraction , because he ca n't win the nomination and every dollar that he spends and every time she has to defend against an attack or answer some accusation of his is money and time not spent defining Donald Trump and the Republican nominee '' said Democratic strategist Joe Trippi . `` That 's all it is at this point . I think people gave him a wide berth when he had a numeric chance but there is no math that ends up with his being the nominee , so at this point I think even the wins do n't do anything but continue the inevitable problem of he ca n't get there from here . ''
Sanders points to his record of winning 18 states and the narrow margin separating him and Clinton in national polls as cause for remaining in the race . He contends that he β s the strongest Democratic candidate against presumptive GOP front-runner Donald Trump , and holds out hope that more super delegates in the states where he won will ultimately line up in his camp .
Wins in West Virginia and Oregon , following his victory last week in Indiana , would bolster his argument , which is why the senator is highlighting them in interviews but doesn β t mention Kentucky , which votes on May 17 along with Oregon but doesn β t appear be a Sanders-friendly state .
β We β re going to fight in West Virginia . I think we β ve got a shot to win there β we β ve got a good shot to win in Oregon , and I think we β ve got a good shot to win in some other states soβ¦ . We β re in this race till the last vote is counted , β said Sanders .
West Virginia , where Sanders led Clinton in a recent automated Public Policy Polling poll , appears well-suited for the Vermont senator . With its large union presence , small African-American population , and high level of poverty , Sanders ' campaign officials see the state β s May 10 primary as a ripe target for the Vermont senator 's message of economic inequality .
`` Yeah I think we 'll do well there . Just 30,000 feet up , I see very good public polling and we usually run ahead of the public polls , '' said Pete D'Alessandro , Sanders ' Indiana state director , adding that Sanders β focus on inequality would be a potent argument in the state . `` It 's been resonating in West Virginia for even longer than it 's been resonating in Indiana , so I think those are just working people that are going to be ready for that message . ''
Sanders has another edge in West Virginia β Clinton didn β t do herself any favors with a March comment where she said β we β re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business β during a March town hall . That comment , which received widespread news coverage , resurfaced earlier in the week when she was confronted at a West Virginia roundtable discussion by an unemployed coal miner about the remark .
β How you can say you are going to put a lot of coal miners out of jobs and then come in here and tell us how you are going to be our friend ? Because those people out there do n't see you as a friend , β the miner said .
Clinton apologized for her choice of words , but they continue to resonate in the state : Beth Walker , a candidate for the non-partisan West Virginia Supreme Court , used the comment in a recent ad .
Sanders is using the same playbook as in Indiana by emphasizing a pillar of his policy platform that connects to local economic circumstances . In Indiana , he zeroed in on manufacturing and trade ; in West Virginia β s coal country , he has focused on poverty . His first stop during a multi-event swing on Thursday was a poverty forum in the McDowell County , one of the poorest counties in the state .
West Virginia Democratic Party vice chairman Christopher Regan , who has endorsed Sanders , said the senator will do best in the college communities around the state .
`` Huntington and Cabell County where Marshall [ University ] is . There 's also Morgantown for WVU [ West Virginia University ] , '' Regan said , ticking off several other regions with colleges where he expected Sanders to do well in . `` But I honestly think his support will be broad and deep in West Virginia . I 'm confident that he will find that he has a great deal of support hereβ¦I think this is Bernie country . ''
Kentucky and Oregon , on May 17 , are next up on the primary calendar . Kentucky is the harder sell for Sanders . Both are closed primary states but Clinton has long relationships there and solid support from top Kentucky Democrats .
`` Except for small pockets and Louisville , I believe that Kentucky Democrats will heavily support Hillary Clinton , '' said former Kentucky Democratic Party chairman Patrick Hughes , who is unaligned . `` I think even if this is n't true , that [ Kentucky voters ] view Bernie Sanders as way too liberal for Kentucky . He 's going to have a harder time culturally and politically convincing Democrats in Kentucky to get behind him . ''
Oregon , however , is far more fertile ground for Sanders . Like the other Northwestern states where Sanders has won , its population is overwhelmingly white . And , in places like Portland , it embraces Sanders β brand of progressive politics β the state β s largest city ranks third among big cities in per-capita contributions to his campaign . Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley is the lone U.S. senator to have endorsed Sanders .
There 's also the fact that Oregon 's vote-by-mail system helps a grassroots-oriented campaign like Sanders β , argued Stacey Dycus , an Oregon-based Democratic strategist .
β Because we 're a vote-by-mail election state we have a three-week-long Election Day and that 's where the grassroots campaigns really make the difference , β Dycus said , adding that that voting system allows grassroots-based campaigns β to get on the phone and call people who are their supporters and say β your ballot hasn β t been received yet . β β
Clinton allies shrug off the prospect of impending Sanders victories , noting that they won β t affect the ultimate outcome . And the campaign itself has already begun shifting into general election mode .
`` Even the people who support Bernie , I think , at this juncture see that the outcome is going to be that Hillary is the nominee , they just want to be treated respectfully and they want Bernie treated respectfully , '' Clinton donor Jay Jacobs said . `` They want , I think , a recognition that his message was an important and a valid one and I think that we should do that . ''
In briefings , the Clinton campaign has stressed to donors that no single primary left on the calendar can alter the course of the primary or bring Sanders over the finish line . Rather , the delegate count is what matters . Clinton is just 178 delegates short of the 2,383 total delegates she needs to clinch the nomination while Sanders needs close to 1,000 .
`` It 's not about necessarily winning every single caucus , every single primary , it 's about amassing the lead in the pledged delegates and that 's what we 've been doing , '' Jacobs said . `` We 're getting closer and closer , we 're under 200 to go . And you take a look at that and that 's what you keep your eye on . You keep your eye on the ball . '' | ew0nH4yOWnDESXOU | 0 | Presidential Elections | -0.5 | Elections | -0.3 | Bernie Sanders | 0.1 | null | null | null | null |
justice | USA TODAY | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/06/16/philando-castiles-mother-reacts-not-guilty-verdict/102936184/ | 'Mad as hell,' Philando Castile's mother reacts to not guilty verdict | 2017-06-16 | justice | After a jury found the Minnesota police officer who killed Philando Castile not guilty on Friday , Castile 's mother Valerie pushed back against the decision .
`` People have died for us to have these rights and now we 're devolving . We 're going back down to 1969 . Damn . What is it going to take ? I 'm mad as hell right now , yes I am , '' she said .
Valerie Castile defended her son , who was killed in July , saying he would never jeopardize someone 's life , especially with his girlfriend and her child in the car at the time . Philando Castile was killed during a traffic stop , and his girlfriend live streamed the moments after on Facebook Live .
`` I will continue to say murder because where in this planet do you tell the truth and you be honest and you still be murdered by the police of Minnesota ? '' Valerie Castile asked .
Later Friday , thousands of people gathered on the steps of the state Capitol in St. Paul , holding signs and banners and chanting in response to the not guilty verdict .
After the hourlong rally , protesters took to the streets . Saint Paul Police escorted the crowd , which they estimated to be about 2,000 people .
The protest was peaceful , but a smaller group splintered off and walked down an entrance ramp to block Interstate 94 , quickly snarling traffic and leading to the freeway β s shutdown in both directions , The Associated Press reported .
Jeronimo Yanez was cleared of a manslaughter charge as well as two lesser charges . After the verdict was read , Valerie Castile yelled an expletive and family and friends left the courtroom in tears .
`` My son loved this state . He had one tattoo on his body , and it was of the Twin Cities , '' Valerie Castile said . `` My son loved this city , and this city killed my son . ''
Valerie Castile also addressed the crowd directly after leaving the courthouse , expressing her disappointment .
`` The system continues to fail black people , and it will continue to fail you all . Like I said , because this happened with Philando , when they get done with us , they coming for you , for you , for you and all your interracial children , '' Valerie Castile said . `` Y'all are next , and you will be standing up here fighting for justice just as well as I am . ''
Minnesota officer acquitted of manslaughter in shooting Philando Castile during traffic stop
Facebook Live violence horrifies users , who say Facebook 's still not doing enough
Minn. officer charged with manslaughter in death of Philando Castile | WpHMQFU3gCMIqFiz | 1 | Justice | 0.3 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
white_house | NPR Online News | http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/05/18/407631522/obama-to-limit-police-acquisition-of-some-military-style-equipment | Obama To Limit Police Acquisition Of Some Military-Style Equipment | 2015-05-18 | white_house | President Obama said military-style equipment used by police departments `` can alienate and intimidate local residents and send the wrong message , '' as he ended federal transfers of such weapons to local law enforcement .
Obama 's remarks , made in Camden , N.J. , are an attempt to ease tensions between police and minority communities in the wake of several high-profile police-involved shootings .
Under new recommendations , police forces will be banned from acquiring some types of military-style equipment from federal agencies . The proposal was one of several made by a White House task force that Obama is putting into place using an executive order on Monday .
According to a report issued by the White House , the task force recommended banning the sale of some equipment β such as tracked armored vehicles , weaponized aircraft and high-caliber weapons and ammunition β after weighing their utility to local police and the `` the potential negative impact on the community if the equipment was used arbitrarily or inappropriately . ''
Local police departments can still buy this equipment on their own . They just ca n't buy them from the feds or buy them using federal money .
`` Obama 's visit to one of New Jersey 's poorest cities comes as he seeks to ramp up federal funding for community policing initiatives in the wake of a series of high-profile incidents that have frayed trust between officers and residents in Ferguson , Mo. , New York and Baltimore , among other cities . `` Camden has long been among New Jersey 's most crime-ridden cities , but reforms over the past two years have led to falling crime statistics and an increased number of officers in the community . ''
Based on a fact sheet distributed by the White House , here are a few other initiatives Obama will highlight Monday :
-- Police Data Initiative will help police departments across the country track things like use of force and police stops . Data scientists will help some police departments polish an early warning system , using data to flag problems .
-- Twenty-one jurisdictions will also release big data sets that will help `` communities gain visibility into key information on police/citizen encounters . ''
-- The White House will release a body-cam tool kit that will help police plan and implement body-cam programs .
-- The Department of Justice `` will begin taking applications for grants designed to advance the practice of community policing in law enforcement agencies through hiring , training and technical assistance , the development of innovative community policing strategies , applied research , guidebooks , and best practices that are national in scope . '' | xZsiKsBTj5jjuXaf | 1 | White House | -0.3 | Police | 0 | Politics | 0 | null | null | null | null |
national_security | CBN | http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/politics/2018/july/trumps-no-preconditions-offer-to-meet-with-iran-leaders-gets-pushback-from-pompeo | Trump's 'No Preconditions' Offer to Meet with Iran Leaders Gets Pushback from Pompeo | 2018-07-31 | Mike Pompeo, Iran, National Security, Defense And Security | WASHINGTON β President Donald Trump 's announcement that he 's willing to meet with Iran 's leaders is receiving a mixed reaction from his secretary of state .
Monday , the president told reporters that not only is he willing to meet with Iranian leaders , he 's willing to meet them without any preconditions .
`` If they want to meet , I 'll meet . Any time they want . Any time they want . Good for the country . Good for them . Good for us . And good for the world , '' he said .
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says he supports the president 's desire to talk with Iranian leaders β but not without preconditions .
`` If the Iranians demonstrate a commitment to make fundamental changes to how they treat their own people , reduce their malign behavior , agree that it 's worthwhile to enter into a nuclear agreement that actually prevents proliferation , then the president said he is prepared to sit down and have a conversation with them , '' Pompeo told CNBC .
Meanwhile , Iran has rejected Trump 's offer to meet and instead has filed a lawsuit against the US in the International Court of Justice in hopes of blocking US sanctions set to be reinstated after the US pulled out of the nuclear deal .
The president 's latest announcement on Iran caught some by surprise as it comes one week after he posted a bold tweet to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani .
`` NEVER , EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE , '' the president tweeted in all caps .
To Iranian President Rouhani : NEVER , EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE . WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH . BE CAUTIOUS ! β Donald J. Trump ( @ realDonaldTrump ) July 23 , 2018
He was reacting to President Rouhani , who that day said America `` must understand well that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace and war with Iran is the mother of all wars . ''
The president 's strong stance was praised by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , while other leaders called for restraint between the two countries for fear they were on the brink of war . | f666d2ba31d344dc | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
world | Al Jazeera | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/india-colonial-era-sedition-law-caa-protesters-200120100338578.html | How India uses colonial-era sedition law against CAA protesters | world | New Delhi , India - In the first week of the new year , police in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand registered a criminal complaint against more than 3,000 people protesting against a new citizenship law , accusing them of `` sedition '' among other charges .
India has seen nationwide protests since mid-December following the passage of Citizenship Amendment Act ( CAA ) that activists and opposition politicians have described as divisive , discriminatory and against the country 's secular constitution . The new law is being challenged in the Supreme Court .
The sedition provision , which was drafted by the British colonial rulers in 1870 , comes under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code .
Rights activists say the law has been used to suppress dissent in India particularly against marginalised communities and minorities .
Nationwide protests are taking place across India since December 13 against CAA [ Javed Sultan/ Anadolu ]
Over the past 18 months , more than 10,000 tribal farmers in mineral-rich Jharkhand state were accused of sedition in 19 police cases for opposing acquisition of lands for so-called developmental projects .
Law is not meant to suppress people 's voice , but to create a sense of security among the people . Hemant Soren , Chief Minister of Jharkhand state
Following criticism , Jharkhand 's newly elected Chief Minister Hemant Soren announced the withdrawal of sedition charges slapped by his predecessor belonging to Prime Minister Narendra Modi 's Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP ) .
Soren told βββ that he had asked for an inquiry into why the police used the charge against those who peacefully demonstrated in Wasseypur - a working-class Muslim neighbourhood in Dhanbad district , which was the subject of the 2012 Bollywood hit Gangs of Wasseypur .
`` Charge of sedition is a serious allegation which needs to be applied with careful scrutiny . In this case , we have asked the officials to drop the charges and provide an explanation . ''
`` Law is not meant to suppress people 's voice , but to create a sense of security among the people . My government will respect law and protect people , '' said Soren , who comes from the Santhal tribal community .
Soren government has also dropped charges against more than 10,000 Adivasis slapped by the previous BJP government .
The sedition provision punishes anyone seen to `` excite , or attempt to excite feelings of disaffection against the government '' , even though this may be by their words alone . It is a non-bailable offence , and has life imprisonment as the maximum punishment .
Jawahar Raja , a lawyer based in New Delhi , explained that once police add the sedition charge , the maximum quantum of punishment increases , and the courts then view it as a serious offence , making it harder for the accused to secure bail , even if booked only for a speech offence . `` The process of a long-drawn trial then becomes the punishment , '' said Raja .
Aloka Kujur was among the more than 10,000 slapped with sedition cases in Jharkhand . She says `` the police booked her under sedition for a Facebook post in 2018 '' .
Kujur , who publishes magazines on literature and art , said the police issued a warrant to confiscate her property for her post that mentioned the threat to a rape victim .
`` I faced threats online . The local newspapers started publishing official statements saying that anyone with Marxist and Maoist books will be arrested . I had to give away my small collection of books , as I was unsure what will the police misconstrue against me using this sedition charge , '' she said .
Police continue to misuse the provision even though the Supreme Court in 2016 said criticising the government does not amount to sedition [ File : Danish Siddiqui/Reuters ]
Kujur recounts how prosecution lawyers called her `` anti-national '' in the court during her trial .
In a similar case , an 83-year-old Jesuit priest , Stan Swamy , who has documented police abuse in tribal areas across the country , was charged with sedition in 2018 for his Facebook posts . One of his posts was a statement by the then home minister calling for dialogue .
Swamy declined to speak to βββ as he is facing police case in the western Maharashtra state . His associate Solomon said because of the sedition charge , the elderly activist was forced to stop writing on human rights abuses .
Our state governments are using colonial-era laws to suppress even peaceful dissent of our own people . Sadaf Jafar , activist
Referring to the recent sedition cases , a senior Jharkhand police official admitted that the local police acted with excessive hostility against anti-CAA protesters .
`` I can not comment on use of sedition in previous cases against tribal farmers , but in this instance , the district police action shows a lack of knowledge and a lack of professional competence , '' Anil Palta , additional director general of police ( training ) , Jharkhand , told βββ .
`` If a provision of prevention of assembly of more than four persons , Section 144 is violated , the protesters ought to have been booked under Section 188 , for disobedience , a bailable order . It was very far-fetched of the district police to apply sedition charges . ''
The harsh police action against anti-CAA protesters particularly in BJP-ruled states has alarmed rights activists .
More than 20 people have been killed in India 's most populous state Uttar Pradesh ( UP ) where some of the initial protests turned violent . Authorities in the state have also said they would seek compensation from protesters for damages to state properties .
Sadaf Jafar , a political activist , was arrested from Lucknow , the capital of UP during anti-CAA protests .
`` The police arrested me and imprisoned me for 20 days , I was not allowed to inform anyone , '' Jafar told βββ .
`` We are supposed to be in an elected democracy , but our state governments are using colonial-era laws to suppress even peaceful dissent of our own people . ''
Jafar alleged she was tortured and called Pakistani in custody because of her Muslim name . `` They beat me so much that three weeks later , my ankles are still swollen and blue , and my limbs hurt when I breathe . ''
Repeated cases of sedition show the police have been brainwashed to act like colonial masters . Solomon , activist
βββ reached out to the office of the director general of police of UP and the circle officer of the area where Jafar was held but received no response at the time of the publication of the article .
Last December , about 600 anti-CAA protesters were accused of sedition in UP but later police dropped the charge .
Across India , a number of people have been slapped with sedition charges for protesting against the law that people say is part of Modi 's Hindu supremacist agenda as it makes faith as the basis for citizenship .
In the BJP-ruled Karnataka state , police invoked sedition case against a student for holding a `` Free Kashmir '' placard on January 9 .
Last August , the Hindu nationalist government stripped Indian-administered Kashmir of its special status and imposed a crippling communications and security lockdown in the Muslim-majority region .
Subsequently , thousands of Kashmiris , including minors , were thrown into jails under Public Safety Act ( PSA ) , which Amnesty International has dubbed `` lawless law '' . Under PSA people can be imprisoned for up to two years without trial .
Between 2016 and 2018 , the National Crime Records Bureau data shows , 332 people were arrested under the sedition provision , but only seven were convicted .
Lawyers point out that the problem is not the conviction , but opposition to the government is termed `` anti-national '' , making it easier for the police to make arrests citing any protests as a threat to national security .
Legal scholars pointed out that the police continue to misuse the provision even though the Supreme Court in 2016 reiterated that criticising the government does not amount to sedition , or even to defamation .
`` Though the court upheld the Section 124A of sedition to be constitutional , it has watered down the provision , '' said Chitranshul Sinha , a Supreme Court lawyer and author of The Great Repression - The Story of Sedition in India .
He added that the Supreme Court said only an action that incites or has the `` tendency '' to incite violence or public disorder can be construed as seditious . `` But the definitions of 'tendency ' , 'public disorder ' have been left open so wide to interpretation that the police routinely use it to suppress dissent , '' he explained .
Gautam Bhatia , a lawyer and scholar , said colonial-era laws that criminalised any opposition has no place in a democracy .
In his book Offend , Shock or Disturb : Free Speech Under the Indian Constitution , Bhatia has documented how during India 's independence movement , the British colonial government had accused Indian nationalist leaders , including Mahatma Gandhi , and cultural activists under the same section for their writings , speeches , and theatre plays .
`` The sheer breadth of its language allows it to be misused , '' said Bhatia .
`` The police book thousands as 'unnamed ' claiming they will add the names as they get further evidence , and as the case proceeds they are allowed to file supplementary charge-sheets in which they , for instance , can add names of any farmers from a village or a demonstrator or a political organiser , thus keeping a sword dangling over their heads to chill dissent . ''
Modi , who has been accused of turning authoritarian , has plans to overhaul the Indian Penal Code , most of which draws from the British colonial laws . But it has caused concern among activists as the right-wing government may further add stringent provisions in the law .
It recently amended the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act to empower the government to declare individuals `` terrorists '' and seize their properties .
Rights activists fear the law can be misused - a charge the government has denied .
Solomon , the Jharkhand activist , told βββ : `` Repeated cases of sedition show the police have been brainwashed to act like colonial masters . '' | J3aWaBH38LqLmGBF | 0 | Narendra Modi | -0.7 | India | 0.1 | Genocide | 0 | Free Protest | 0 | Authoritarianism | 0 | |
elections | NPR Online News | http://www.npr.org/2016/05/10/477190080/demographics-and-history-tilt-the-map-in-clintons-favor-over-trump | Hillary Clinton Has Edge Over Donald Trump In General Election | 2016-05-10 | elections | Hillary Clinton Has Edge Over Donald Trump In General Election
Hillary Clinton would have a significant electoral advantage over Donald Trump in the general election , based on an NPR analysis .
The Democratic former secretary of state would start out with already exactly enough electoral votes to win the presidency , 270-191 , based on states considered safe , likely and to lean toward either candidate . The ratings , which will be updated at least monthly until Election Day , are based on fundamentals β historical trends and demographics , plus reporting and polling ( both public and private ) .
But there is also the potential that this fall 's presidential battlegrounds could be re-sorted β pitting white , working-class voters , whom Trump is appealing to , against Latino voters , who appear to be in Clinton 's corner . Traditional ways of thinking about the map should and will be challenged . So in addition to our current ratings , we also explore several possibilities and scenarios , including Trump 's potential path and even two potential ties , based on Trump doing well in the Upper Midwest and Clinton racking up wins in competitive states where the Latino vote is important .
Safe D ( 164 ) : California , Connecticut , Delaware , Hawaii , Illinois , Maine * ( 3 electoral votes ) , Maryland , Massachusetts , New York , Rhode Island , Vermont , Washington , D.C. , Washington state
Likely D ( 37 ) : Maine ( 1 EV ) , Minnesota , New Jersey , New Mexico , Oregon
Lean D ( 69 ) : Michigan , Nevada , New Hampshire , Pennsylvania , Virginia , Wisconsin
Likely R ( 44 ) : Georgia , Indiana , Missouri , Nebraska * ( 1 EV ) , Utah
Safe R ( 136 ) : Alabama , Arkansas , Idaho , Kansas , Kentucky , Louisiana , Mississippi , Montana , Nebraska ( 4 EVs ) , North Dakota , Oklahoma , South Carolina , South Dakota , Tennessee , Texas , West Virginia , Wyoming
* Nebraska and Maine allocate their electoral votes by congressional district β 3 in Maine and 4 in Nebraska are considered safe for Democrats and Republicans , respectively ; 1 each could potentially be in play . Barack Obama won 1 delegate out of Nebraska ( Omaha ) in 2008 .
Colorado , Florida , Iowa , North Carolina and Ohio are considered pure tossups at this point , according to the analysis . So even if Trump , who is the de facto Republican nominee , were able to get all of those , he would still come up short .
Considering strictly who is leading in public surveys , as curated by the website RealClearPolitics , Clinton would be ahead by a landslide 332-206 .
But that includes states where polling is within the margin of error . And , at this point , polling is almost irrelevant . The cases have not been litigated yet ; the campaigns have not been waged ; neither candidate has even officially crossed the magic number to win his or her respective primaries yet .
Bottom line : There is a lot of time to go .
( One note about Colorado : The only poll in the RCP average of the state is one Quinnipiac poll from November showing Trump up 11 . That 's hardly a good indicator of what will happen this upcoming November , but for the sake of having something to go on , it 's why we put Colorado red . For a more up-to-date primer on the state of play in Colorado with on-the-ground reporting , check out Colorado Public Radio 's Ben Markus ' report here . It notes how the gender gap may be the biggest hurdle for Trump in Colorado . )
Democrats start out with an electoral edge because of demography β especially growing Latino populations in key states β as well as Democrats ' clustering in big cities in big states , like California , New York and Illinois .
Republicans , on the other hand , have seen their greatest appeal in the South and rural areas of the West and Midwest . Their biggest electoral vote state is Texas .
So looking at just the seats considered `` safe , '' Clinton β or any Democrat β would start with a 164-136 advantage .
Donald Trump would argue that he can pick off some of these traditionally safe and likely Democratic states , notably his home state of New York , as well as bordering New Jersey , where Trump backer Chris Christie is governor . But there 's just no evidence of that yet . Here 's why :
-- Trump may have won the New York primary , but the Republican primary was 91 percent white , according to exit polls . The 2012 general election was only 67 percent white . ( New Jersey 's primary comes up June 7 , and Trump will probably win it . But that state , too , is far more diverse in a general election than in a GOP primary . )
-- Neither state has gone Republican in almost 30 years .
-- And Barack Obama won them both twice : New York by at least 28 points ; New Jersey by at least 15 .
Because of Christie and because of Trump 's proximity , we move New Jersey to `` likely '' instead of `` safe . '' But more would need to happen to move either into a `` lean '' category . And if polling does show them coming into play , it means other , more potentially reachable states have also very likely moved in Trump 's favor .
It 's tempting to be safe and put the usual suspects in the tossup column . Significant resources will be spent in Wisconsin , Michigan , Pennsylvania , Nevada , New Hampshire and Virginia . Those are places where the fight will be waged .
But that does n't necessarily mean they 're tossups . It also does n't mean Republicans ca n't win there , but Clinton starts with an edge , because of history in some places and demography in others .
Obama won all of these states twice . He won them by an average of 6 points in 2012 and 10 in 2008 . Pennsylvania and Michigan have n't gone Republican since 1988 ; Wisconsin , since 1984 ( although it was the closest state in 2004 ) .
Nevada , Virginia and New Hampshire had all once been swing states β George W. Bush won all three in 2000 , but John Kerry won Nevada and New Hampshire . And Obama won all of them . Nevada and Virginia , in particular , have shifted more Democratic because of demography β Hispanics in Nevada ; and in Virginia , Hispanics as well as Asians and exurban growth .
Arizona : On the Republican side , the only lean state is Arizona . The state has gone Republican for the past 20 years β and arguably Bill Clinton won it only because Ross Perot pulled votes from George H.W . Bush . But the state has a significant percentage of Hispanic voters . It 's something that has sitting Sen. John McCain , the 2008 GOP nominee , concerned that with Trump at the top of the ticket , it could fire up Latinos and get more out to the polls . Even though the state is 30 percent Hispanic , that group made up just 18 percent of the electorate in 2012 .
Georgia : Another state to watch . Its demography has become much more nonwhite , and Republicans won it by only 5 and 8 points in 2008 and 2012 , respectively . One poll showed a Trump-Clinton race a dead heat , but given its presidential and down-ballot history , we are leaving it as `` likely '' GOP until there 's more hard evidence .
Utah : Though one poll in March ahead of the GOP primary showed Clinton winning by 2 points , we put that in likely for Trump , because ( a ) Utah has a long history of voting Republican ( it has n't gone Democratic since 1964 ) , and ( b ) there was a very high number of undecided voters . In other words , no one was near 50 percent , and a Republican is far more likely to get there .
Florida : You could argue that the Sunshine State is at least a finger on the scale for Democrats given its rapidly changing demography . The poll average has Clinton with a 5-point lead β and better ones in the average have it high single digits . That all makes you think . But , for now , we leave it a tossup , given its history . In addition to the tight races in 2000 and 2004 , Obama won it by only 2 points in 2008 and less than 1 point in 2012 .
The real sorting , though , will be between white , working-class voters and Latinos . Which group is more motivated could determine the election .
Republicans start at a demographic disadvantage in 2016 and have been at one for the past couple of election cycles , in large measure because the face of America is changing . It 's especially getting more Hispanic and Asian . Latinos , in particular , have affected American politics in profound ways , and they are still underrepresented at the polls .
Pollsters project that the share of the white vote will be its lowest in history , being at or possibly even dipping below 70 percent for the first time . That gives Democrats a significant advantage in key states like Florida , Virginia , New Mexico , Colorado and Nevada . It also could put in play places like Arizona and Georgia . Democrats hope one day that will mean Texas , too , which is already majority minority . But there are more Latino Republicans in Texas than anywhere in the country .
Plus , in the Midwest , an area Trump has to likely do well in if he hopes to win , the population has decreased , and voters , especially white ones affected directly by trade , have gotten older .
This path is dependent on Trump being able to use his populist , protectionist and anti-globalization rhetoric to fire up white , working-class voters affected by outsourcing in the Rust Belt and Upper Midwest . Trump believes he can do that with an anti-free trade message , especially against the wife of the president who signed the North American Free Trade Agreement .
To do it : He would have to win all the `` likely '' and `` safe '' Republican states , then sweep Pennsylvania ( 20 ) , Ohio ( 18 ) , Michigan ( 16 ) , Wisconsin ( 10 ) and Iowa ( 6 ) .
That would mean Trump could lose Virginia , Florida and Colorado β and you could even take away Iowa , and he still gets to 270 .
It also means he could trade Florida for Pennsylvania and win , too , by a wider margin , 285-253 .
Of course , this is also dependent on Trump being able to maintain Arizona and even North Carolina and Iowa , which have seen Latino growth .
There are at least two different 269-269 ties that we could come up with through Trump 's `` trade winds '' route . They both , of course , depend on Florida . If there is a tie , it goes to the House , which is controlled by Republicans . ( Here 's an explanation . ) | 6AmBSFQxyHpJI4Ml | 1 | Polls | 0.2 | Presidential Elections | -0.1 | Elections | 0 | null | null | null | null |
elections | Salon | http://www.salon.com/2015/09/22/scott_walker_never_stood_a_chance_why_this_awkward_koch_backed_midwesterner_was_outrageously_overrated/ | Scott Walker never stood a chance: Why this awkward, Koch-backed midwesterner was outrageously overrated | 2015-09-22 | Presidential Elections, Elections | This story has been corrected since it was originally published. About a year and a half ago, I wrote a piece here about a phenomenon I called The Great Whitebread Hope, which is an ongoing Republican establishment fantasy of electing an upper-Midwestern "reformer" in the LaFollete tradition who can bring together all the disparate factions of the party and offer up an image of respectable, mature, pragmatic leadership (and incidentally pick up some badly needed electoral votes from somewhere). In 2008, it was former Gov. Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin, whom beltway political mavens had built up for years as an exciting Republican reformer with big "new ideas" (like welfare reform and school vouchers). In the wake of the Bush debacle, he was especially attractive as an "outsider" who could make the American people forget what they'd just endured. Unfortunately, like Walker, on the stump Thompson was frighteningly unprepared, even making embarrassing gaffes about Jews and Israel, and he dropped out in August of 2007. Undeterred by this embarrassment, the establishment once again anointed a Midwestern Governor as the GOP's salvation for exactly the same reasons in 2014, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who also flamed out before any votes were cast. This year it was Scott Walker, who "suspended" his campaign yesterday after having been in precipitous free fall from front-runner to last place and facing the prospect of being booted from the main debate stage and forced to spar with Lindsey Graham at the kids' table next time out. If you donβt count Gerald Ford, who backed into the presidency by being appointed vice president and succeeding Nixon when he resigned, the GOP has never nominated a governor and only one politician from the Midwest since Alf Landon back in 1936: Senator Bob Dole in 1996. (And neither of them were exactly resounding victories β Landon only got two electoral votes and Dole was soundly defeated by the incumbent Bill Clinton.) Eisenhower more accurately belonged to the nation, not the region where he was born and his executive experience was in saving the world from fascism so such parochial electoral concerns were not particularly relevant. But while it's true that the modern electoral map is very daunting for the GOP, they seem peculiarly fixated on this region. Walker took the early lead in the Midwestern savior race, but for months people were also talking up Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as similarly excellent choices to lead the GOP out of the wilderness. Back in 2014, as they all made pilgrimages to the Republican Governor's Association, Politico described them this way: "[They are] Rust Belt success stories who can revive the partyβs Reagan Democrat coalition and speak to the middle class in a way Mitt Romney could not. And Republicans looking to shed the image as the party of the 1 percent say a Midwestern state executive whoβs created jobs and balanced budgets might be just what the GOP needs." The fact that they seemed to be able to transcend the party's, shall we say, cruder side was also a big selling point. As Walker put it during his apparently impressive appearance: "Strong leadership, combined with Midwestern nice, thereβs just a certain appeal to that." By strong leadership he meant that one should be as crackpot right-wing as one can get away with and not be Michele Bachmann. And Walker was that guy in every way. The New Republic described him this way: "Scott Walker, the battle-hardened governor of Wisconsin, is the candidate that the factional candidates should fear. Not only does he seem poised to runβhe released a book last weekβbut he possesses the tools and positions necessary to unite the traditional Republican coalition and marginalize its discontents." He took his marching orders from The Club For Growth, Americans for Prosperity and anti-immigration guru Jeff Sessions. He had evangelical credentials equal to those of Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum. His record of union bashing was second to none. And he certainly seemed nice, so nice in fact that he appeared to be something of a grinning simpleton at times, particularly on social media, where his tweeting of his dinner menus and constant pictures of himself riding on a Harley were ruthlessly mocked. While all the constituencies in the party who were presumed to be his greatest fans gave him plenty of chances, his gaffes and flip-flops made them doubt his sincerity and abilities. He had been widely assumed to be the Koch brothers' choice due to their involvement in the union busting and recall campaign in Wisconsin. And they were admittedly very impressed with him until he started making embarrassing mistakes, like saying that Ronald Reagan's greatest foreign policy achievement was taking on the air traffic controllers union, and flip-flopping on immigration several times, finally landing on the opinion that even legal immigration should be ended. Not ready for prime time doesn't begin to describe it and the Kochs have known that for a while now. Additionally, for reasons that remain somewhat elusive, the Christian right just didn't trust him. To someone who isn't a member of that club, his tiny deviations from the dogma seemed understandable, but they saw it differently. With other candidates in the race with strong conservative evangelical credentials (as well as Trump, who rightly notes that many evangelicals love him too) that constituency never materialized for him either. And even aside from the now predictable consecration as this year's Midwestern savior, the rationale for Walker's campaign was built on the fallacy of his alleged prowess in bending the Legislature to his will and dominating at the ballot box. Apparently, managing to win in years that were national Democratic electoral bloodbaths and only being recalled once makes you a giant slayer in the Republican Party these days. And having a legislative majority that had been building an agenda and a game plan for many years before you were elected counts as a demonstration of heroic power. (Juggling numerous scandals and managing to avoid indictment is likewise considered a useful skill -- which, come to think of it, it actually is in the GOP.) The sad fact is that Walker has been the most overrated politician in the country based largely upon the Republicans' quixotic desire to find a leader who can put a respectable face on its increasingly disreputable base -- and the media's odd willingness to not believe what their eyes were telling them: that Walker was a terrible candidate. Like Pawlenty and Thompson before him, he may have looked good on a PowerPoint presentation, but in reality he showed few signs of life on the debate stage or on the stump. The good news for Washington's pundits and establishment Republicans is that there's still some hope for their Midwestern hero scenario to come true in 2016. There is another one in the race: Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Whether or not he can make the cut is still unknown, but if there's one thing you can say about him, it's that he's anything but dull. Unfortunately, the Republican electorate seems mesmerized by "outsider" amateurs this year so far and Kasich is the embodiment of a lifelong politician who took some time out to cash in -- he's the fourth richest Republican running -- and then jump back in to become governor, and then president. He also has a habit of diluting his hardcore conservatism with some pragmatic deal-making from time to time, which is unlikely to be acceptable unless he adopts some Trumpish attitudes about Mexicans and Muslims to cover it. But whatever happens this time out, for those who believe in the Great Whitebread Hope as the only salvation for a fractured party that needs someone who can convince the country it hasn't gone completely stark raving mad, there's every reason to believe that the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die. Heather Digby Parton, also known as "Digby," is a contributing writer to Salon. She was the winner of the 2014 Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism. 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 | 1020cc906b24153f | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
elections | Politico | http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/ted-cruzs-2016-passion-play-116665.html?hp=t2_r | Ted Cruz's passion play | 2015-04-04 | elections | Ted Cruz β s aggressive pursuit of the evangelical vote began with a deliberate choice of venue for his presidential announcement two weeks ago : Liberty University , which bills itself as the largest Christian university in the world .
The Texas Republican senator β s strategic play for Christian conservatives comes into even sharper focus this weekend as he rolls out the first television ad of the 2016 race . Titled β Blessing , β the commercial is aimed directly at evangelical and social conservative voters in early voting states , timed for Easter weekend and slated to air during popular Christian-themed programming .
It β s an exercise in narrowcasting that telegraphs exactly how Cruz intends to win the GOP nomination against better-funded and better-known rivals . His advisers say the Liberty University backdrop , the TV ads and even his recent two-day tour of Iowa are all part of a detailed blueprint designed to tap into the power of two distinct GOP wings β evangelicals and the tea party movement .
With establishment voters breaking toward former Florida Gov . Jeb Bush , Florida Sen. Marco Rubio , and Wisconsin Gov . Scott Walker β and libertarian-oriented conservatives likely to go for Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul β the Cruz team believes the Texas Republican must flat-out win the tea party set and finish either first or second among Christian conservatives , a bloc that dominates the GOP base in Iowa and South Carolina .
β I don β t think he could have had a better strategy , all the way from his launch to his swing through Iowa , β said Bob Vander Plaats , an influential social conservative leader in Iowa . β He β s had a strong announcement , and he β s going to be a strong candidate . β
He could face competition , however , from several proven vote-getters among social conservatives β former Arkansas Gov . Mike Huckabee and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum , the past two winners of the Iowa GOP caucuses β or from Louisiana Gov . Bobby Jindal .
β It β s a crowded field , β said Tony Perkins , president of the Family Research Council , a prominent Washington , D.C.-based conservative group . β There are several candidates who will be competing for the same base of support . β
A 44-year-old born-again Baptist and the son of a preacher , Cruz told advisers early on of his intent to pursue the evangelical vote as part of a plan to break through in a crowded field . In February , Cruz gave the green light to begin planning for the official announcement . After considering several possible venues , the Cruz team settled on the Lynchburg , Virginia , university founded in 1971 by the late Rev . Jerry Falwell .
The location was an unorthodox choice since most presidential candidates typically hold their announcement events in their home states or early-voting states . But the campus is rich with religious symbolism , and it gave Cruz a direct pipeline to the voters he wanted to reach .
β The culture of the Cruz campaign , from the candidate to the grass-roots activists , is to do things differently , β said Jason Miller , a Cruz adviser .
Even before the formal rollout , the senator and his wife , Heidi , had been courting influential social conservatives such as Vander Plaats , the president and CEO of Iowa β s Family Leader . In 2012 , Vander Plaats endorsed Santorum , but he hasn β t yet decided who to back in 2016 .
Cruz has been β very serious about reaching out , β Vander Plaats said .
Cruz returned to Iowa this week for a two-day swing where he came out in defense of Indiana β s controversial Religious Freedom law , highlighted his opposition to same-sex marriage and argued that he would be the Republican candidate best positioned to turn out Christians who hadn β t voted in the past two presidential elections . The Texas senator also managed to capture front-page stories in two of Iowa β s largest daily newspapers .
β Given the crowds he drew this week , it β s the most energy I β ve ever seen for a candidate this early in the process , β said Steve Deace , a socially conservative radio show host in the state .
Yet it β s the ads this weekend that might deliver the biggest burst of attention . The actual amount of the buy β $ 34,000 β is a pittance by political standards . But by being first out of the gate with a televised spot , Cruz has generated a national splash . More important , he β ll be reaching his target audience at an especially opportune time β the Christian holy days of Easter weekend .
The 30-second β Blessing β spot isn β t subtle . It features the senator talking about the β transformative love of Jesus Christ β and includes images of his family and others in prayer . β God β s blessing has been on America from the very beginning of this nation , β he says in the ad . β This is our fight , and that is why I β m running for president of the United States . β
A screenshot of Ted Cruz for President 's video release `` Blessing . '' | βββ
The ads aired nationwide on Friday evening during Fox News β showing of β Killing Jesus , β a film adaptation of conservative host Bill O β Reilly β s book about the Crucifixion . They will also run in Iowa , New Hampshire , South Carolina and Nevada during the Easter Sunday evening premiere of NBC β s β A.D . : The Bible Continues , β a program the network is billing as an epic , 12-part series focusing on β the exciting and inspiring events that followed the Crucifixion of Christ . β
In the weeks leading up to the purchase , the Cruz campaign pored over ratings numbers for β The Bible , β a 2013 miniseries ( to which β A.D. β is a sequel ) that was a smash hit for the History Channel . The campaign discovered , for example , that β The Bible β received particularly high viewership among residents of Greenville , South Carolina , an evangelical-rich locale in a critical early primary state .
β We β re going to challenge conventional political norms and do things you might not find in a Washington , D.C. , playbook , β said Miller , β and so far we β ve done just that . β | LhkTnNVysERjwJG2 | 0 | Ted Cruz | 0.4 | Presidential Elections | 0.3 | Elections | 0.2 | null | null | null | null |
economy_and_jobs | Vox | https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/4/20/17260578/cory-booker-job-guarantee-bill-full-employment-darity-hamilton | Cory Bookerβs new big idea: guaranteeing jobs for everyone who wants one | 2018-04-20 | economy_and_jobs | Sen. Cory Booker ( D-NJ ) has a big idea : give 15 local areas federal money so they can guarantee all their residents a job .
The Federal Jobs Guarantee Development Act , announced by Booker on Friday , would establish a three-year pilot program in which the Department of Labor would select up to 15 local areas ( defined in the bill as any political subdivision of a state , like a city or a county , or a group of cities and counties ) and offer that area funding so that every adult living there is guaranteed a job paying at least $ 15 an hour ( or the prevailing wage for the job in question , whichever β s higher ) and offering paid family/sick leave and health benefits .
The idea of a government job guarantee ensuring all adults who want employment get it has a long history in American politics , but it has gained popularity as the Democratic Party has sought to embrace bigger and more ambitious economic policies in the wake of the 2016 election .
Booker β s plan is essentially a pilot version of a proposal from Duke β s Mark Paul and William Darity , Jr. and the New School β s Darrick Hamilton , economists who have , together and individually , advocated a job guarantee for years , well before the current surge in enthusiasm . Most recently , Paul , Darity , and Hamilton wrote up their proposal for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities , a highly influential left-of-center think tank , in a clear sign the idea was gaining traction . Booker β s bill is an even bigger step forward .
β The federal jobs guarantee is an idea that demands to be taken seriously , β Booker said in a statement . β Creating an employment guarantee would give all Americans a shot at a day β s work and , by introducing competition into the labor market , raise wages and improve benefits for all workers . β
The idea of a job guarantee serves both a policy and a political purpose .
On the policy side , a job guarantee would , in theory , effectively end recessions in America . Right now , the US government β s strategy when the economy stops growing is to use a combination of monetary stimulus ( in which the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates or buys up billions of dollars of long-term bonds ) and fiscal stimulus ( as in the 2009 stimulus package , which blended a boost in spending with temporary tax cuts ) .
For a variety of political and institutional factors , the Fed and Congress weren β t able to do enough in 2008 to 2010 to prevent unemployment from breaking 10 percent , and they certainly weren β t able to effect a full recovery within a couple years . Returning to normal unemployment rates took nearly a decade , resulting in years of human misery and lost wage gains that a healthier and faster recovery could β ve delivered .
Job guarantee advocates argue that their plan effectively creates a permanent form of fiscal stimulus that politicians wouldn β t need to scramble to pass whenever disaster hits . Instead , if the economy took a turn for the worse and companies started shedding jobs , the government would automatically soak up anyone who β s laid off and give them work . That , in turn , would put more money in consumers β pockets , boosting demand and improving business β prospects . Before you know it , the economy β s back to normal .
Advocates argue the policy could prove beneficial during economic booms as well . The fruits of economic recoveries and booms aren β t evenly shared , demographically . As of March 2018 , 60.7 percent of white people in America were employed , but only 58.4 percent of black people were .
Once black men β s disproportionate representation in prisons and jails is accounted for , the gap grows still larger . In 2016 , the most recent year for which we have data , a mere 27.7 percent of people with disabilities age 16 to 64 were employed , compared to 72.8 percent of nondisabled people .
Nor do booms affect all geographic areas equally . There are still 337 counties or county-equivalents with a combined labor force of over 6.7 million people that have unemployment rates of 7 percent or higher as of February 2018 . Seventy-eight counties , like Yuma , Arizona , still have unemployment rates in excess of 10 percent .
A job guarantee would , in principle , lessen those inequalities . People in struggling regions would be guaranteed work without having to move . Black Americans and disabled Americans wouldn β t be expected to wait until employers have run out of white and nondisabled people to hire until they get their chance .
Finally , advocates argue that the policy would lead to an increase in wages for everyone . That β s a big benefit at a time when unemployment is low but wage growth is still sluggish .
Think of it this way : Walmart pays its employees a minimum of $ 10 per hour ; part-time employees aren β t guaranteed benefits like health insurance or a 401 ( k ) match .
If you β re a part-time employee at Walmart , and all of a sudden you can get $ 15 an hour , work full time , and earn full benefits by working for the federal government β wouldn β t you ? And , knowing that , wouldn β t Walmart try to increase wages to keep you ?
Advocates say Walmart would . And they have some empirical evidence on their side from India , where a type of job guarantee known as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme functions largely as an insurance system , offering a source of income for rural farmers during the dry season .
A group of economists β UC San Diego β s Karthik Muralidharan and Paul Niehaus and the University of Virginia β s Sandip Sukhtankar β found that the job guarantee , they estimate , increased earnings for low-income households by 13.3 percent . Ninety percent of that increase is due to higher wages and increased work in the private sector , not the job guarantee program itself .
Just as job guarantee advocates would predict , the program bid up wages everywhere . Perhaps the most surprising result was that the program not only increased wages , but increased employment in the private sector .
The political case for a job guarantee β and the challenges it faces
The fact that Cory Booker , a rising star in the Democratic Party and a likely 2020 contender who faces considerable skepticism from the left due to his stances on education and Wall Street , has endorsed experimenting with a job guarantee is a clear indication that some in the party think it could be a political winner as well as a policy advance .
In the wake of the 2016 election , liberal commentators have latched onto the job guarantee as a way to forge a cross-racial working-class coalition . They need a plan that appeals to both to the white Wisconsin and Michigan voters who switched from Obama to Trump and to black and Latino workers left behind by deindustrialization . The ideal plan would both improve conditions for lower-income Americans while supporting Americans β strong intuition that people should work to earn their crust .
β A federal job guarantee is both universalβit benefits all Americansβand specifically ameliorative to entrenched racial inequality , β Slate β s Jamelle Bouie noted .
β The job guarantee asserts that , if individuals bear a moral duty to work , then society and employers bear a reciprocal moral duty to provide good , dignified work for all , β Jeff Spross added in the influential center-left journal Democracy .
β If Democrats want to win elections , they should imbue Trump β s empty rhetoric with a real promise : a good job for every American who wants one , β wrote Bryce Covert in the New Republic . β It β s time to make a federal jobs guarantee the central tenet of the party β s platform . β
As with any sufficiently big idea , however , a job guarantee comes with risks . It would be expensive , for one thing . Paul , Darity , and Hamilton β s plan , as outlined for the CBPP , would cost $ 543 billion per year , they estimate . For context , that rivals the size of Medicare , which will cost $ 707 billion this year , and the size of the defense budget , which totals $ 622 billion . The Center for American Progress has proposed a more modest $ 158 billion per year government jobs plan , but it wouldn β t actually guarantee a job to all who sought one , as Paul , Darity , and Hamilton have proposed . Booker β s bill doesn β t have an estimated cost yet .
Second , it β s not clear what exactly participants in a job guarantee scheme would do . Most proposals are somewhat vague on this point , mentioning everything from child care to infrastructure . The Booker bill leaves most of this up to localities to figure out . Cities , counties , and other areas would get a chance to apply for the program , and the Department of Labor would be required to pick a mix of urban and rural areas to try the idea out in . Once the program was up and running , the vast majority of jobs offered would be in the public sector , and participants who need more skills development would be offered up to eight weeks of training .
Positions meeting β a list of national job priorities β¦ that shall include child care , care for seniors and individuals with disabilities , [ and ] infrastructure activities β would be encouraged , and private sector employers would benefit from the Work Opportunity Tax Credit , a benefit which currently gives employers a few thousand dollars toward wages when they hire veterans , welfare or food stamp recipients , ex-felons , and other people with barriers to employment . But beyond that , the bill doesn β t give many specifics .
A job guarantee would ideally provide for jobs that are nice to have but could be nixed when the economy improves and the program shrinks in size . Those are pretty hard to identify . If a job guarantee were enacted in a recession , and many of the enrollees became child care providers , what happens when the economy improves and workers find jobs in the private sector ? It wouldn β t be tenable to eliminate a universal child care program because the economy improved . Nor , if the program employed bus drivers , would it make much sense to cut bus routes .
The Booker bill requires that the program be subject to an ongoing rigorous evaluation , which would help determine how well-equipped local governments are to make those kinds of distinctions . That would be a welcome addition to the research literature , as there β s some past evidence suggesting programs like this struggle to succeed . Berkeley economist David Card recently conducted a meta-analysis of more than 200 evaluations of programs meant to boost labor markets , along with fellow economists Jochen Kluve and Andrea Weber . While they found a variety of impacts of different programs , one constant was that public employment programs that simply hired people directly performed worst .
β Public sector employment subsidies tend to have negligible or even negative impacts at all horizons , β the study concludes . β This pattern suggests that private employers place little value on the experiences gained in a public sector program. β One reason , they suggested , was that the programs did nothing to help build skills that would make participants more employable .
A job guarantee , though , would be on an entirely different scale , and the Booker bill would enable an evaluation that could determine if its effects are more like the successful Indian program or the failed efforts that Card , Kluve , and Weber studied .
With Donald Trump in the White House and Republicans in charge of both houses of Congress , it β s doubtful Booker β s bill will become law anytime soon . But that β s not really the point . Until his proposal , the closest thing there was to a job guarantee bill in Congress was Rep. John Conyers β s ( D-MI ) Humphrey-Hawkins 21st Century Full Employment and Training Act , named after a largely failed 1970s bill pushed by civil rights activists and unions to enact a job guarantee . But the bill fell short of establishing a formal guarantee , and Conyers has since resigned from Congress in a sexual harassment scandal .
Booker has put the idea back on the Democratic agenda , and in a form that could be readily passed at relatively minimal cost ( given the pilot program nature ) when Democrats are next in power . That β s an important step , and one that significantly improves the odds that the idea will be part of the next Democratic president β s to-do list . | cy1ZpbSYcjUt8aHh | 0 | Cory Booker | 1.4 | Economy And Jobs | 1.2 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
elections | Reuters | http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-idUSKCN0WA19S | Trump wins deal another blow to establishment Republicans | 2016-03-12 | Donald Trump, Presidential Elections, Elections | MIAMI ( βββ ) - U.S. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump came under fire from his rivals on Thursday for saying Muslims hate the United States at a debate where the gut-punching attacks of earlier forums gave way to a suddenly civil tone with a serious focus on the issues .
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Fayetteville , North Carolina March 9 , 2016 . Picture taken March 9 , 2016 . βββ/Jonathan Drake
Trump , who has voiced skepticism about U.S. military involvement abroad in the past , for the first time said America β s effort against Islamic State militants might require between 20,000 and 30,000 U.S. troops , a number similar to what some Republican hawks have proposed .
The CNN-hosted debate at the University of Miami was crucial , coming days before votes in Florida and Ohio that will determine whether U.S . Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Ohio Governor John Kasich will be able to continue with their increasingly long-shot candidacies .
With previous assaults on Trump having failed to knock him down , Rubio and U.S . Senator Ted Cruz of Texas chose a more civil approach , raising questions about Trump β s policy positions without attacking him personally .
Trump , for his part , used the debate to try to attract establishment Republicans , saying he is generating support from non-Republicans who could help carry the party to victory in the Nov. 8 election . And he eschewed the inflammatory , personal attacks on his rivals that have drawn both cheers and boos in prior debates .
β The Republican Party has a great chance to embrace millions of people that it β s never known before . They are coming by the millions . We should seize that opportunity , β he said .
But he stuck to positions that many establishment Republicans reject , such as his belief , as stated in television interviews , that followers of Islam β hate us . β
β We have a serious problem of hate . There is tremendous hate , β said Trump , who has proposed a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States .
Rubio , Cruz and Kasich said the United States needs to maintain good relations with Muslim countries in the Middle East to help in the fight against Islamic State militants .
β We are going to have to work with people in the Muslim faith even as Islam faces a serious crisis within it , β Rubio said .
β If you go anywhere in the world you β re going see American men and women serving us in uniform that are Muslims , β he said .
β Anyone out there that has the uniform of the United States on and is willing to die for this country is someone that loves America , β he added .
Rubio shifted to a more positive tone after his anti-Trump tirades of the past two weeks . But he and Cruz repeatedly sought to raise questions about Trump β s policy positions from trade to the Middle East .
Cruz pointed to areas where Trump has been a late-comer to the conservative movement , such as his past support for Democratic causes and candidates . He also noted how Trump has asked his supporters at rallies to demonstrate support by raising their right hand , a scene that produced photographs that some critics said looked like Nazi Germany .
β At Donald β s rallies recently he β s taken to asking people in the crowd to pledge their support to him . I have to say I think that β s exactly backwards . We are here pledging our support to you , not the other way around , β Cruz said .
Trump , in discussing how he would consider placing between 20,000 to 30,000 U.S. troops on the ground to defeat Islamic State militants , vowed to complete the mission quickly and bring troops home to focus on rebuilding the United States .
β We really have no choice , we have to knock out ISIS , β Trump said . β I would listen to the generals , but I β m hearing numbers of 20,000 to 30,000 . β
It was the most detailed view yet of Trump β s thinking about Islamic State . He has previously talked of β knocking the hell β out of ISIS without offering specifics .
Next Tuesday β s Florida and Ohio Republican primaries both award delegates on a winner-take-all basis , meaning that the winner of the popular vote is awarded the state β s entire slate of delegates .
So far , 25 states and Puerto Rico have held nominating contests , and Trump has amassed a solid lead in the delegate race . According to the Associated Press , Trump has 458 delegates , followed by Cruz at 359 , Rubio at 151 , and Kasich at 54 .
There are a total of 367 delegates at stake on Tuesday , including a total of 165 in Florida and Ohio .
Trump on Thursday appeared to try to appear more presidential , something he has pledged often in the past to do so but never has . On Thursday he modulated both the tone of his voice and the tenor of his remarks , which in prior debates have drawn sharp criticism for being vulgar .
β I would say this , we β re all in this together . We β re going to come up with solutions , we β re going to find the answers to things , and so far I can β t believe how civil it has been up here , β Trump said .
Republican U.S. presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson arrives to speak at the 2016 Conservative Political Action Conference ( CPAC ) at National Harbor , Maryland March 4 , 2016 . βββ/Joshua Roberts
The two-hour debate included a sober discussion of pressing foreign and domestic policy challenges , including illegal immigration , reform of Social Security , free trade deals , the role of the federal government in education and Israel .
( Additional reporting by Ginger Gibson , Alana Wise , Amanda Becker ; Writing by Steve Holland ; Editing by Leslie Adler )
This article was funded in part by SAP . It was independently created by the βββ editorial staff . SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production . | 7bd7b609cf6faccd | 1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
white_house | Reuters | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-nytimes/senior-trump-official-describes-resistance-inside-administration-ny-times-op-ed-idUSKCN1LL32W | Senior Trump official describes resistance inside administration: NY Times Op-Ed | 2018-09-06 | White House, New York Times, Politics | WASHINGTON ( βββ ) - Many senior officials in President Donald Trump β s administration have been working from within to frustrate parts of his agenda to protect the country from his worst impulses , an anonymous Trump official wrote in the New York Times on Wednesday .
In the column , the official described β early whispers β among members of Trump β s Cabinet to take steps to remove him as president , but added they decided against it to avoid a constitutional crisis .
The official wrote that the root of the problem was that Trump is amoral and not moored to any discernible principles that guide his decision-making .
β It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era , but Americans should know that there are adults in the room , β the author wrote .
Asked about the column during a White House event , Trump called it a β gutless editorial , β bashed the New York Times as β failing , β and ticked off economic achievements that he said were proof of his leadership .
Staring into the cameras , he said : β Nobody is going to come close to beating me in 2020 because of what we β ve done . β
The Republican president later fired off a one-word message on Twitter : β TREASON ? β
In another tweet , he said : β If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist , the Times must , for National Security purposes , turn him/her over to government at once ! β
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo , on a visit to India , said he was not the author of the memo .
β I come from a place where if you β re not in a position to execute the commander β s intent , you have a singular option , that is to leave , β he told reporters at an impromptu briefing at the U.S. embassy in New Delhi .
Related Coverage Pompeo says did not author New York Times 'resistance ' column
β And this person instead , according to the New York Times , chose not only to stay but to undermine what President Trump and this administration are trying to do . β
The Times took what it called the rare step of publishing an opinion column by the official under an agreement to keep the author β s name secret . It said the senior administration official β s job would be jeopardized by its disclosure .
The article further fueled accusations by critics that Trump was unstable and unfit for the presidency , and seemed likely to resurrect talk among some Democrats about potentially impeaching the president should they take control of the U.S. House of Representatives in November elections .
There was an immediate guessing game in Washington about who wrote the article and whether it came from someone within the White House or in another government agency .
The opinion piece followed publication on Tuesday of the first excerpts from a book by famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward describing chaos in the White House .
Woodward reported that Defense Secretary James Mattis rejected a recommendation from Trump for the U.S. military to kill Syrian President Bashar al-Assad , according to excerpts published by the Washington Post .
Mattis dismissed the book as β a uniquely Washington brand of literature , β and Trump has called it β total fiction . β
In the Times piece , the official wrote : β Given the instability many witnessed , there were early whispers within the Cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment , which would start a complex process for removing the president .
β But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis . So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until β one way or another β it β s over , β the author added .
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a meeting with Republican House and Senate leadership in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington , D.C. , U.S. Sept. 5 , 2018 . βββ/Leah Millis
Under the 25th Amendment , adopted in 1967 , the vice president and a majority of either Cabinet officials or β such other body as Congress may by law provide β may declare in writing that the president β is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office . β
It has never been used to strip a president from power and would be a complicated process .
β We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous , β the writer said . β But we believe our first duty is to this country , and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic . β | f453e0f12b1808ac | 1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
politics | Associated Press | https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-transgender-athletes-3606411fc12efffec95a893351624e1b | Trump signs executive order intended to bar transgender athletes from girlsβ and womenβs sports | 2025-02-05 | Politics, Transgender Issues, Transgender Athletes, Transgender Rights, Trump Administration, Executive Orders | President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday intended to ban transgender athletes from participating in girlsβ and womenβs sports.The order, titled βKeeping Men Out of Womenβs Sports,β gives federal agencies wide latitude to ensure entities that receive federal funding abide by Title IX in alignment with the Trump administrationβs view, which interprets βsexβ as the gender someone was assigned at birth.βWith this executive order, the war on womenβs sports is over,β Trump said at a signing ceremony in the East Room that included lawmakers and female athletes who have come out in support of a ban, including former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines.White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the order βupholds the promise of Title IXβ and will require βimmediate action, including enforcement actions, against schools and athletic associationsβ that deny women single-sex sports and single-sex locker rooms.The timing of the order coincided with National Girls and Women in Sports Day, and is the latest in a string of executive actions from the Republican president aimed at transgender people.Trump found during the campaign that the topic resonated beyond the usual party lines. More than half the voters surveyed by AP VoteCast said support for transgender rights in government and society has gone too far. He leaned into the rhetoric before the election, pledging to get rid of βtransgender insanity,β though his campaign offered little in the way of details.The order offers some clarity. For example, it authorizes the Education Department to penalize schools that allow transgender athletes to compete, citing noncompliance with Title IX, which prohibits sexual discrimination in schools. Any school found in violation could potentially be ineligible for federal funding.Enforcing Trumpβs orders will be a priority of the embattled department. In a call this week, the acting director of the Office for Civil Rights told staff they would need to align their investigations with Trumpβs priorities, according to people who were on the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity to AP for fear of reprisals.Already since Trump took office, the department has opened an inquiry into Denver public schools over an all-gender bathroom that replaced a girlsβ bathroom, while leaving another one exclusive to boys.βΆ Follow todayβs live updates on the Trump administrationTrump also issued a warning to the International Olympic Committee ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The president said he had empowered Secretary of State Marco Rubio to make it clear to the IOC that βAmerica categorically rejects transgender lunacy. We want them to change everything having to do with the Olympics and having to do with this absolutely ridiculous subject.βThe IOC has essentially passed the buck on transgender participation, deferring to the international federations for each sport.That could change, however, when a new IOC president comes on to replace the retiring Thomas Bach. Former track star Sebastian Coe, now the leader of World Athletics, is among the candidates up for election in March. Coe has been a strong proponent of limiting participation in female sports to cisgender women.Trump also said that Director of Homeland Security Kristi Noem will βdeny any and all visa applications made by men attempting to fraudulently enter the United States while identifying themselves as women athletes to try and get into the Games.βOrganizers for the 2028 Olympics did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The order is the latest of a series of moves by the Trump administration targeting transgender people.Previous ones have sought to have the federal government reject the idea that people can transition to a gender other than the one assigned at birth. That has implications for areas including passports and prisons. Heβs also opened the door to barring transgender service members from the military; called to end federal health insurance and other funding for gender-affirming care for transgender people under age 19; and restrict the way lessons on gender can be taught in schools.The latest order was condemned by trans-rights advocates, including the National Womenβs Law Center and GLAAD.βContrary to what the president wants you to believe, trans students do not pose threats to sports, schools or this country, and they deserve the same opportunities as their peers to learn, play and grow up in safe environments,β said Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Womenβs Law Center.Pushback on some of the administrationβs initiatives has already begun in court. Transgender people have sued over several of the policies and more are likely to come. Civil rights lawyers handling the cases have asserted that in some instances, Trumpβs orders violate laws adopted by Congress and protections in the Constitution β and that they overstep the authority of the president.There could be similar questions for this order, for instance: Can the president demand that the NCAA change its policies?NCAA President Charlie Baker said its Board of Governors was reviewing the order and βwill take necessary steps to align NCAA policy in the coming days, subject to further guidance from the administration.β Baker, who said last year he was aware of fewer than 10 active NCAA athletes who identified as transgender, noted the order at least provides a uniform policy instead of a patchwork of state laws.The order came a day after three former teammates of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas filed a lawsuit accusing the NCAA, Ivy League, Harvard and their own school, Penn, of conspiring to allow Thomas to compete at conference and national championships.The lawsuit, which makes similar allegations to those filed last year by Gaines and others, alleges the defendants violated Title IX by allowing Thomas to swim βand acted in bad faith.β___Associated Press writers Darlene Superville, M.L. Price, Collin Binkley, Bianca VΓ‘zquez Toness, Geoff Mulvihill and Eddie Pells contributed to this report.___AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports | b1c73d423571479d | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
elections | Washington Times | http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/feb/29/donald-trump-eyes-super-tuesday-landslide-as-repub/ | Trump eyes Super Tuesday landslide as Republicans beg voters to back away | 2016-02-29 | elections | ATLANTA β The GOP presidential field mounted a last-ditch effort to derail Donald Trump ahead of Super Tuesday β s slate of primaries , with Sen. Marco Rubio demanding the billionaire businessman begin making his signature clothing lines in the U.S. , while Sen. Ted Cruz accused him of plotting to go back on his vow to deport illegal immigrants .
Stunned by polls showing Mr. Trump easily leading in most of the dozen states that vote Tuesday β and a new poll showing him approaching majority support among Republicans nationwide β Republican leaders , strategists and candidates pleaded with voters to back away from Mr. Trump .
But Mr. Trump is also starting to build momentum among some of those leaders , having earned the support in the last week of six governors or members of Congress , as well as other lower-ticket state officials who say his stance on immigration makes him the only viable candidate for the GOP .
β Now , more than ever , America needs Mr. Trump β s aggressive approach to the problem of illegal immigration , β Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach , the architect of many of the state-level immigration crackdown proposals in recent years , said in a statement adding himself to Mr. Trump β s list of supporters .
Voters also continue to build support behind Mr. Trump , with a CNN/ORC survey of registered Republicans and GOP-leaners showing him with 49 percent of the vote nationally . That suggests that Mr. Trump was right in saying that he would pick up supporters when other candidates withdrew from the race , such as New Jersey Gov . Chris Christie and former Florida Gov . Jeb Bush .
Mr. Trump began celebrating early at a rally in Valdosta , Georgia .
SEE ALSO : Ted Cruz to Trump : Tell NYT to release off-the-record comments about immigration
β Tomorrow is a big day and I want you to lead the pack , β he told the crowd at Valdosta State University . β We are going to have a lot of success . β
Hitting on familiar campaign themes , the real estate mogul and reality TV star lamented that the U.S. does not win in trade , at the border , in education or in fighting ISIS . And he vowed as president to reverse that losing streak .
β You are going to look back and you β re going to say that was an evening when we really became great again , β said Mr. Trump , his voice rising . β We are going to win at every single level . We are going to win at the borders . We are going to win with our military . We are going to win , win , win . We are going to make America great again β greater than ever before . β
Mr. Rubio and Mr. Cruz were desperate to find a hole in Mr. Trump β s armor , and took aim at his populist positions on immigration and trade , telling voters the businessman is trying to defraud voters .
Mr. Cruz , joined later in the day by Mr. Rubio , demanded Mr. Trump call The New York Times editorial board and get it to release the tape or transcript of an off-the-record session they held in January . According to a report on BuzzFeed.com , Mr. Trump may have told the paper he β s willing to be more flexible on his strict immigration stance .
β I call on Donald : Ask The New York Times to release the tape , β Mr. Cruz told reporters . β And do so today , before the Super Tuesday primary . β
The paper told BuzzFeed it would decide what to do if Mr. Trump did call for its release .
Mr. Rubio and Mr. Cruz are battling to be the candidate the anti-Trump forces rally behind . But neither has shown any inclination to withdraw and create the one-on-one matchup that could derail Mr. Trump .
β There is only one campaign that has beaten , and that can beat , Donald Trump , β Mr. Cruz said again ahead of a Texas rally on Tuesday .
He said he β s leading Mr. Trump in polling in Texas and running β neck-and-neck β with him in the other Super Tuesday states . But polling suggests a more complicated picture , with some surveys showing Mr. Trump running almost even with Mr. Cruz in Texas . And Mr. Rubio tops Mr. Cruz in the latest polling in most of the other Super Tuesday states .
Still , Mr. Rubio trails Mr. Trump in his own home state of Florida , which votes March 15 .
Mr. Rubio made a last-ditch appeal at a rally in Atlanta , warning that Mr. Trump was conning Republican voters and that he could not win the White House in a general election .
β A vote for Donald Trump tomorrow is a vote for Hillary Clinton in November , β said Mr. Rubio , his voice hoarse from nonstop campaigning .
β I will go to all 50 states and every territory . I will continue to speak out until I literally have no voice left , β he said . β I will go anywhere and speak to anyone before I will let a con artist get ahold of the Republican nomination . β
The crowd responded enthusiastically . And yet , their fervor was dampened by the daunting task confronting their candidate , who trails in Georgia and every other Super Tuesday state .
The Rubio campaign is hoping he can place second in most of the contests , giving him a reason to fight on to Florida .
β I just keep hoping , β said Rubio supporter Jenna Tagliaferri , 49 . β I hope he doesn β t give up and Cruz will drop out first . β
Mr. Trump , meanwhile , continues to fan the flames of the civil war within the GOP .
Evangelical leaders begged their flock not to back him , with the Christian Post penning an editorial calling the businessman β misogynist and a philanderer. β But Mr. Trump continues to do very well among evangelical voters .
At the same time , Mr. Trump is holding his own among moderate GOP voters , and has been helped by defending the non-abortion services provided by Planned Parenthood , according to Democracy Corps , a Democratic firm .
β When Trump is talking Planned Parenthood , he knows something , β said Stan Greenberg , the Democracy Corps pollster .
Mr. Greenberg said the divisions within the GOP are deep , and could explode in a disastrous way for Republicans come November .
Sen. Ben Sasse , Nebraska Republican , underscored the potential split when he announced he would not be able to support Mr. Trump as the GOP β s nominee . In a battle between Mr. Trump and Hillary Clinton , Mr. Sasse said he β d find a third candidate .
At the same time , Mr. Trump has begun to win the backing of other Republicans . After entering last week without a single governor or member of Congress supporting him , he now has three House members , Govs . Chris Christie of New Jersey and Paul LePage of Maine , and Sen. Jeff Sessions backing his campaign .
The endorsements of Mr . Sessions and Mr. Kobach could be particularly important , joining that of Maricopa County , Arizona , Sheriff Joe Arpaio . Together the three represent the chief faces of the push to crack down illegal immigration at the federal state and local levels .
Mr. Kobach said Mr. Trump β stands head and shoulders above the other candidates β when it comes to toughness on illegal immigration .
He even said he had thoughts for ways Mr. Trump could live up to his pledge to make Mexico pay for the border wall , including using a section of the USA Patriot Act to dock some of the billions of dollars in remittances Mexicans working in the U.S. send back home to Mexico every year .
β’ Stephen Dinan and Bradford Richardson contributed to this article . | e3XgQ3eyPlWSp0PY | 2 | Presidential Elections | 0.3 | Elections | 0.3 | Donald Trump | -0.2 | null | null | null | null |
race_and_racism | The American Mind | https://americanmind.org/features/preserving-the-american-way-of-life/americas-dangerous-new-era-demands-a-new-kind-of-greatness/ | Americaβs Dangerous New Era Demands a New Kind of Greatness | 2020-06-04 | Violence, Violence In America, Race And Racism, Coronavirus, Western Civilization, George Floyd Riots, Riots, 1619 Project | You can tell Tom Klingenstein is a good leader by his focus on mission . He proposes β preserving the American way of life β as the new why of the Republican Party .
Klingenstein β s essay sets a powerful frame for understanding America β s escalating ideological divide . To succeed , we must combine his attention to mission with two other ingredients : urgency and vision .
This week , of all weeks , it should be obvious to anyone paying attention that we can not take for granted America β s continued success as a nation . Yet many Republicans have a situational understanding of America that is stuck in the 1990s . The rise of Trump shook things up , but the prevailing party Zeitgeist remains high on Chamber of Commerce talking points and end-of-history self-satisfaction . Party leaders come across as complacent , stale , and unserious . Where is the sense of urgency ?
Think about what β s gone down just in the last 90 days .
40 million job losses with new claims every week . 40 million !
Trillions of dollars of new debt and stimulus spending , dollars as well-spent as Iraq War spending .
Riots fueled by leftwing extremists in urban centers across the U.S.βincluding my D.C. neighborhood , in which a car crashed on a street corner where I walk with my toddler son .
The Pulitzer Prize awarded to the 1619 Project , agitprop that fundamentally challenges and opposes the founding premise of the United States .
Geopolitical flexing from China , a communist-led regime that will soon overtake us as the world β s largest economy ( a bigger threat than the Soviet Union ever was ) .
More evidence showing how the FBI and intelligence community were weaponized to undermine Trump and remove Michael Flynn .
It β s been wild to observe all of this . Police have gone from cracking down on haircuts to putting down a nationwide insurrection . The nation β s capital is still smoldering as I write this , and Republican senators are tweeting platitudes blaming all sides of the political spectrum for the riots .
For many this is a blackpill moment . It is tempting to swallow this pill and embrace Aris Roussinos β s conclusion that β America is a failed state. β But though Roussinos β s diagnosis is apt , his conclusion goes too far . Going full blackpill seems irresponsible , an abdication of our children β s future and our nation β s history . There β s something juvenile and too easy about swallowing it whole . It also strikes me as misinformed .
No , America is not a failed state . But here β s the thing : we must act like it could become one . Because it could ! We must take half of the blackpill . It is only by acknowledging that America could swiftly collapse that we can muster the urgency and seriousness needed to preserve the American way of life . The GOP needs to embrace this threat awareness in our collective nervous system . Like Israel , we must think of ourselves as under ongoing existential threatβbecause we are . No more denial and complacency .
Thus , any new GOP mission must be combined with a sense of visceral emergency and a style of politics that recognizes the fragility of the situation , not just in America but across Western democracies . Updating the party platform so the words say β preserving the American way of life β is not enough . The GOP needs alignment around a situational assessment that arouses fierce urgency .
Some may question whether the GOP is the best vehicle for this effort considering how divided and compromised the party is . Given our two-party system , I β m not sure we have any other choice , though we can all agree it is not enough . We must continue to build on the new type of Republican that emerged in 2016 and shift institutional incentives and party ideology in the direction Klingenstein suggests .
Part of this must involve better defining β the American way of life β and turning to an inspiring vision of the future . Klingenstein correctly points out that it moves us beyond β muh principles β and GDP growth to something more complete and human . It is very similar to MAGA , although one of its benefits is that it moves us beyond MAGA .
β Preserving the American way of life β has the same implicit nostalgia as MAGA . MAGA says again , while Klingenstein talks about preserving . Klingenstein indulges in nostalgia in the way he describes the American way of life . For him it is an idealized version of the culture and values of the Greatest Generation . Even the image on his postβpresumably chosen by editorsβreinforces mid-20th century nostalgia . It β s a picture of a lily-white family with two kids , circa 1950s .
Is the vision inspiring enough ? Maybe ! My sense is that it is not .
Instead of a failed state , some friends now refer to America as a β joke nation. β This is clown world , they say . I can β t blame them for this perspective as we witness the incompetency of political institutions during the pandemic , the gender-denying extremes of contemporary liberalism , and sketchy , Jeffrey Epstein-type scandals . As Darren Beattie tweeted two weeks ago , has anyone contact-traced Ghislaine Maxwell yet ?
The question we need to ask ourselves is : What would it look like to be a serious nation with a serious mission and an inspiring vision ? What would it look like to have a competent elite committed to building a bright future for American citizens ?
This is where the GOP needs to go . The new Republican Party needs to look forward to a future we build together , not just backward . We have to move beyond nostalgia . We need a vision of a future that inspires young people and attracts smart people . It can not just be about preserving the American way of life , or recovering it , but advancing it .
America is not a museum . Our vision can not be to live the lives our grandparents led , though that doesn β t mean we can β t extract some of the timeless principles and values from that era . Our shining city on a hill needs to be in the future , a future whose picture we need to paint .
The GOP must paint this compelling vision of future America . We must sell it and set it in motion . We must marry it with Silicon Valley calls to build and technology-fueled decentralization .
We are at a moment in American history that demands reconciling nostalgia with aggressively building the future , radicalism with preserving tradition , and normativity with contemporary culture . Klingenstein β s proposal is the beginning of an important synthesis . Let β s build on it and make it real . | 28dba0b9cdb01605 | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
veterans_affairs | USA TODAY | http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/26/va-veterans-affairs-scandal-mcdonald-phoenix/14620397/ | Report: VA scandal probe targets potential obstruction of justice | 2014-08-26 | veterans_affairs | The Justice Department and the FBI have joined the Veterans Affairs inspector general to investigate allegations of obstruction of justice at dozens of veterans hospitals across the country , according to a long-awaited report released Tuesday .
The report by the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General said 93 VA health care sites across the country are being investigated in connection with falsifying scheduling records to hide delays in veterans ' health care and `` attempting to obstruct OIG ( Office of Inspector General ) and other investigative efforts . ''
`` These investigations confirmed wait-time manipulations were prevalent throughout '' the VA health system , the report said .
The document cited a `` breakdown of the ethics system '' within the VA health care program .
`` The report can not capture the personal disappointment , frustration and loss of faith of individual veterans and their family members with a health care system that often could not respond to their mental and physical needs in a timely matter , '' the report said .
The VA system of 150 hospitals and 820 clinics serves about 6 million veterans each year .
The inspector general report focused largely on problems at the VA hospital in Phoenix , the epicenter of the scandal . Reports of deaths among veterans awaiting care first surfaced there , but investigators said they have not found conclusive evidence linking the deaths to delayed care .
Investigators found thousands of veterans in the Phoenix hospital who were not being seen by doctors and whose names were kept on secret lists to hide them from official records that might reflect scheduling delays . The VA has since worked to contact nearly all veterans whose care was delayed to either get them to a VA physician or pay for their care by private doctors .
Investigators said hospital executives and senior clinical staff were aware that false scheduling practices were being used .
Investigators learned that dozens of Phoenix VA scheduling staffers penciled into records the wrong dates or `` fixed '' other appointment data to mask delays in care . Some workers said they were instructed to do so by superiors .
Sharon Helman , the hospital director who has been placed on administrative leave with two other senior colleagues , instituted a program during 2013 billed as an effort to improve access for veterans , In fact , it was misleading and filled with inaccurate or unsupported data , the report said .
She cited those efforts in her self-assessment , and it factored into her job rating and ultimately led to a 1.5 % pay increase from $ 169,900 to $ 172,449 , plus a bonus of $ 8,495 , according to the report . During the subsequent investigation , the VA rescinded both the pay increase and the bonus .
The report outlined 45 cases of shabby treatment and delays for veterans at Phoenix . Among them : staff trying to set up a promised appointment for a veteran three months after he died ; coronary bypass surgery done on a veteran in his 60s five months late because no cardiology appointment was ever scheduled ; after 10 months of delay , a veteran in his 40s who feared he had skin cancer was finally examined and the lesions found to be benign ; another in his 70s tested likely for prostate cancer but waited 11 months before a biopsy led to a diagnosis .
The VA concurred with all 24 recommendations for improvement in the 143-page report issued Tuesday .
As news media began reporting on the problems in Phoenix , the Inspector General 's office was flooded with 225 allegations of wrongdoing at that hospital and nearly 450 connected with VA clinics and hospitals around the country .
Allegations emerged of veterans kept waiting months to see a doctor , their names kept off official waiting lists and tabulated in secret ; and of appointment data being altered to make health care performance results look better .
As the inspector general launched an investigation , later joined by the Justice Department , whistle-blowers at VA hospitals and clinics across the country came forward to describe similar patterns .
The anticipated release of the report Tuesday prompted VA officials to prepare a full-court public relations response ahead of time . Selected news media were granted interviews with top VA officials days in advance . President Obama delivered remarks before the American Legion on Tuesday in Charlotte heralding steps to correct failings .
The new VA secretary , Robert McDonald , speaking at the same event , said the agency is working hard to change its practices and image .
`` From here on out , we want veterans to know that when they walk through the VA 's doors , employees are 'all in ' when it comes to meeting our missions , living our values and keeping veterans first and foremost in all that they do , '' McDonald said . `` Without that , there can be no trust . ''
He said the number of veterans waiting for appointments has declined since May by 57 % .
Talking points and a news release assembled by the VA ahead of the report 's release emphasized apologizing for what went wrong but also highlighting the investigation 's finding that none of the dozens of deaths of veterans waiting for care at the Phoenix VA hospital could be linked conclusively to the delays .
Sam Foote , a physician and whistle-blower in the scandal who worked at the Phoenix VA hospital and is now retired , said Tuesday that up to 63 veterans died while awaiting care at the hospital .
The scandal caught fire in April when Rep. Jeff Miller , R-Fla. , chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee , disclosed during a hearing on problems at the Phoenix facility that `` it appears there could be as many as 40 veterans whose deaths could be related to delays of care . ''
Miller issued a statement in reaction to Obama 's speech Tuesday , saying that so far no one has been fired in the scandal . `` What we need from the president right now is more follow-through and less flash when it comes to helping veterans , '' Miller said .
McDonald listed what job actions have been taken so far in the wake of the scandal , explaining that three senior executives and four high-level employees have been placed on administrative leave pending investigations ; and two dozen health-care personnel have been removed from their positions .
A preliminary report issued in May concluded that the problems of delayed care and manipulated records were systemic . Then-VA Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned May 30 and his chosen replacement , McDonald , was confirmed by the Senate in July . | rkwuG2F24h3kTtRz | 1 | Barack Obama | 0.1 | Veterans | -0.1 | Veterans Affairs | -0.1 | Politics | 0 | null | null |
free_speech | AllSides | https://www.allsides.com/topics/free-speech?search=free%20speech | Free Speech | 2021-08-04 | Free Speech, Big Tech, Technology, Media Bias, Online Censorship, Section 230 | More headline roundups Should colleges protect students against harmful speech? Or would that harm their ability to build resiliency? David A. Foster December 4th, 2024 David A. Foster November 17th, 2024 David A. Foster September 11th, 2024 David A. Foster August 28th, 2024 Explore how people across the political spectrum use these terms differently. Explore more Red Blue Translator terms Similarity Hub is a project between AllSides and More Like Us that highlights survey data on topics on which Americans largely agree. Its goal is to correct political misperceptions, highlight common ground, and help people feel calmer and more united. Explore more data in the Similarity Hub Discover more common ground on Free Speech Discover other opportunities to cross partisan dividesMore opportunities to cross divides AllSides Balanced Searchβ’ gives you recent news from outlets on all sides of the political spectrum so you can get the full picture. Looking for results from think tanks and policy groups? Try the Balanced Think Tank Search. Search for balanced coverage on any topic: 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. | 046585159426f468 | 1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
sports | Guest Writer - Left | https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/08/politics/world-cup-women-team-donald-trump/index.html | OPINION: World Cup winners paint President Trump into a corner | 2019-07-08 | Sports | ( CNN ) Megan Rapinoe and her team did what Donald Trump told them to do β they finished the job . Now the question is , how will the President honor World Cup winners who have carved out a remarkable political and societal legacy ?
USA 's win over the Netherlands in the World Cup final in France on Sunday did not just spark celebrations among their fans . It validated the team 's status as icons whose willingness to go beyond soccer soundbites inspired youngsters , created critics who chafed at their politics and challenged perceptions of how athletes should behave .
A public feud between Rapinoe and Trump during the tournament pulled her team into the political storm that constantly rages around the President .
But the star forward 's success in leading her team to glory made a statement that resonated far beyond partisan politics . The USA team is driving the evolution in women 's soccer -- which lacks the support and attention in the game 's traditional heartlands in Europe and South America that it has in the US but is beginning to catch on .
And in the United States , the national team is fighting a lawsuit to be paid the same as their male counterparts , becoming an emblem of the wider movement to end the gender wage gap .
The team 's triumph also comes as other female athletes , like 15-year-old Coco Gauff at Wimbledon and the five-time world champion USA women 's hockey team break their own sporting barriers and confirm the promise of Title IX non-discrimination for female athletes .
Megan Rapinoe of the US celebrates with teammates Alex Morgan and Samantha Mewis after scoring her team 's first goal during the 2019 FIFA Women 's World Cup France Final yesterday at Stade de Lyon on July 7 in Lyon , France .
Its outspoken members also connect with an era of shifting societal attitudes that led to the # MeToo movement which exposed generations of sexual harassment in business , the media , the arts and Hollywood -- as Democratic women candidates are lining up for the chance to take on Trump in 2020 .
On the face of it , the USA World Cup winners ought to be the kind of cause the President can quickly embrace , since they are the epitome of one interpretation of his motto , `` America First . ''
But while other key political figures from all sides of the ideological spectrum quickly tweeted rapturous praise , it took Trump several hours to offer his congratulations .
JUST WATCHED Trump weighs in on equal pay for female athletes Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Trump weighs in on equal pay for female athletes 01:59
`` Congratulations to the U.S. Women 's Soccer Team on winning the World Cup ! Great and exciting play . America is proud of you all ! '' Trump tweeted from his golf club in New Jersey .
The President made no mention of an invitation to the White House for the team β the root of his original showdown with Rapinoe β or of the possibility of other honors for the back-to-back World Cup winners . The US delegation to the final in France also lacked a bit of firepower , given that it was led by a comparatively junior official , Karen Dunn Kelley , the deputy Secretary of Commerce .
Trump told reporters Sunday that he would look at a visit by the team but had n't really thought about it , but he again congratulated the US players .
The World Cup winners have long refused to let their results do all the talking .
`` You ca n't win a championship without gays on your team . It 's never been done before , ever , '' Rapinoe said , according to several media outlets including the Guardian in the UK last week .
JUST WATCHED Rapinoe : We are a proud , strong and defiant group of women Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Rapinoe : We are a proud , strong and defiant group of women 00:54
Rapinoe 's confidence to voice her political views put her at odds with Trump after Rapinoe said she would n't attend a White House celebration if the team won the World Cup .
It led to the extraordinary spectacle of a sitting President publicly remonstrating with the captain of the team wearing US colors at a tournament overseas -- an episode that helps to encapsulate the exposed political nerves of the Trump era and turned into a dividing line between conservatives and opponents on cable TV .
Trump responded to Rapinoe on June 26 in the traditional manner he reserves for his critics .
`` Megan should never disrespect our Country , the White House , or our Flag , especially since so much has been done for her & the team , '' Trump said .
The spat might seem a personal matter , but the World Cup winners captured America 's heart in a way that suggests his political antennae might have failed him .
`` He has basically painted himself in a corner of being against Megan Rapinoe , '' USA TODAY columnist Christine Brennan said on CNN 's `` State of the Union . ''
`` I think we will see more of this because these women are empowered as never before and they are speaking out against a President that they do n't respect . ''
Rose Lavelle of the US team celebrates after scoring her team 's second goal during the match between the US and the Netherlands .
Rapinoe made no excuses for the willingness of her team to engage in issues beyond wins and losses at a news conference following the World Cup final .
`` We say what we feel . All of us really , I know that my voice sometimes is louder , but in meal rooms , in conversations , everybody is in this together , '' Rapinoe said , with her medal around her neck . `` We are such a proud and strong and defiant group of women . ''
Leading political figures , including first lady Melania Trump , Secretary of State Mike Pompeo , 2020 Democratic hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former President Barack Obama all beat Trump to Twitter to congratulate the team .
Obama quickly tweeted : `` Congrats to the record breakers on the @ USWNT , an incredible team that 's always pushing themselvesβand the rest of usβto be even better . Love this team , '' Obama tweeted .
Trump 's tweeted lecture on the nature of patriotism was similar to his comments about NFL players who took a knee during the national anthem to protest police-involved killings of black males , a societal issue that the President leveraged into a base play and turned into a huge political controversy .
The US team 's defender , Becky Sauerbrunn , celebrates after the final whistle during the France 2019 Women 's World Cup football final match between the US and the Netherlands yesterday .
`` You just can not shake that girl . She 's going to do her thing , at her own damn speed , to her own damn rhythm , and she 's going to apologize to exactly NO ONE for it , '' Bird wrote .
A White House welcome for championship winning teams has usually been one of the least controversial , unifying moments of a presidential term . However , during previous administrations some athletes refused invitations on political grounds .
But it has become a rising issue since Trump became President , as a growing list of invitees , especially minorities , decline to show up because they disagree with Trump politically .
The comportment of the USA team in France has not been to the taste of every fan . Their aggressive approach and goal scoring celebrations struck some opponents as disrespectful .
But the political legacy of the USA World Cup winners may eventually go beyond lifting their sport to new credibility and a fight with the President that will eventually be forgotten .
Before the World Cup started , the team lodged a gender discrimination class action lawsuit against the US Soccer Federation . They argued that they did the same job as their male counterparts and got lower wages and worked in worse conditions .
Megan Rapinoe scores her team 's first goal from the penalty spot past Sari Van Veenendaal of the Netherlands .
They could not have made a more eloquent case for themselves and they 've done more to sell international soccer in the US than the men 's national team which has never won the World Cup .
Cries of `` Equal Pay , Equal Pay , '' rang around the stadium in Lyon , directed at FIFA officials , before the US team got their hands on the iconic golden World Cup trophy .
`` I mean we put on as all players ... every player at this World Cup ... put on the most incredible show that you can ever ask for , '' Rapinoe said . `` We ca n't do anything more . ''
Some female politicians have taken up the cause the players , including New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , who tweeted Sunday : `` At this point we should n't even be asking for # EqualPay for the # USWMNT - we should demand they be paid at least twice as much . ''
Defenders of the status quo say that men 's soccer is far more popular and makes more money , suggesting higher salaries for male stars are justified . Trump referred to such arguments on Sunday .
`` I would like to see that but you also have to look at numbers , '' he said . `` You have to see year round what is the attendance for women 's soccer outside of the women 's World Cup . But I would like to see it . '' | 8dcc9765c4537920 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
state_department | ABC News | http://abcnews.go.com/US/secretary-state-john-kerry-declare-isis-committed-genocide/story?id=37713938 | ISIS Has Committed Genocide, Obama Administration Declares | 2016-03-17 | Genocide, ISIS, Christians, State Department, Politics | Secretary of State John Kerry announced today that the terror group ISIS is guilty of committing genocide against Christians , Yazidis and Shia Muslims .
Kerry 's statement comes on the same day that a congressional deadline urging the Obama administration to make its own judgement was set to expire . Earlier this week , the House overwhelmingly approved a resolution 393-0 that actions taken by ISIS against Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria constitute genocide .
`` My purpose in appearing before you today is to assert that , in my judgement , Dae'sh is responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control including Yazidis , Christians and Shia Muslims , '' Kerry said from the State Department briefing room , using a local moniker to describe ISIS . `` Da'esh is genocidal by self-proclamation , by ideology and by actions in what it says , what it believes and what it does . ''
The U.S. military returned to Iraq in August of 2014 to halt the ISIS massacre of the Yazidis , an ancient ethnic minority living in the Sinjar area . That intervention led to an anti-ISIS coalition and the ongoing military effort . ISIS , comprised mostly of Sunni Muslims , has targeted Shia Muslims , a group it labels as disbelievers .
`` One element of genocide is the intent to destroy an ethnic or religious group in whole or in part , '' Kerry said . `` Its entire world view is based on eliminating those who do not subscribe to its perverse ideology . ''
`` The fact is that Da'esh kills Christians because they are Christians , the Yazidis because they are Yazidis , [ and ] Shia because they are Shia , '' he added .
It 's unclear what impact such a declaration from the United States will have . Although there are legal definitions associated with the term , there are no legal obligations to enforce a response . The last time a U.S. administration declared genocide during an ongoing conflict was in 2004 when Colin Powell determined it applied to the actions of the Sudanese government Darfur . That , however , did not compel the U.S. to act .
Kerry did not indicate any policy shift in the ongoing U.S.-led effort to degrade and defeat ISIS . | 477cabc7925993fc | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
media_bias | Fox News | http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/04/03/media-score-triple-bogey-presidency-but-trump-is-just-getting-started.html | Media score a triple-bogey presidency, but Trump is just getting started | 2017-04-03 | media_bias | The mainstream media scorecard is in : Donald Trump β s presidency is stuck in a giant sand trap .
I don β t use the golfing metaphor out of the blue . The cover of the Economist depicts Trump buried in a massive hole on the greens . And the New Yorker β s cover has him swinging on the White House lawn , having smashed out many of the building β s windows .
Many journalists and commentators aren β t bothering to wait for the end of the first 100 days . They are practically writing off Trump after 10 weeks . And many are doing so with a certain relish , having covered his campaign with such skepticism or hostility that they can barely hide their sense of vindication . There is an I-told-you-so flavor to what they say and write every time he ticks downward in another poll .
Obviously , a president new to politics has made mistakes and missteps . But to make sweeping judgments this early is myopic .
Jack Kennedy had the disastrous Bay of Pigs military failure at around this time in his tenure . Bill Clinton had a rocky first six months and spent nearly two years on the Hillary health care bill , which never passed . Presidents often bounce back from their initial stumbles .
That , of course , requires the Oval Office occupant to learn from early misfires and make course correctionsβsomething the Trump team is strategizing about after the failure of the ObamaCare replacement bill .
It was that loss that seemed to open the punditry floodgates , along with the intelligence probes about Russia and surveillance that have put the White House on the defensive .
A few examples : Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson , a former Bush White House staffer and NeverTrumper , has a piece titled β Trump β s Failing Presidency Has the GOP in a Free Fall . β
β So a party at the peak of its political fortunes is utterly paralyzed . A caucus in control of everything is itself uncontrollable , β Gerson writes .
From the left , Salon weighs in with β Chaos in the West Wing : Donald Trump β s management style is a terrible fit for the White House . β
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin , on β Morning Joe , β says Trump is floundering :
β I don β t think he β s taken control of the agenda in any way . He β s lost control of the bully pulpit . β
To be sure , Trump has improved economic confidence , launched the Keystone pipeline , ended the Pacific trade deal and issued a spate of executive orders . It may take a while , but Neil Gorsuch is virtually certain to wind up on the Supreme Court .
Still , with Republicans controlling the White House and both houses of Congress , there was a tendency to believe that the president would push through an ambitious agenda .
But the GOP is a deeply divided party , with strains that were less apparent when it was in the minority .
Kellyanne Conway told me the other day that this is the price of success . With the Republicans winning more elections in blue states , she says , it β s become a big , geographically diverse party with big differences among its members . This ranges from the strongly held views of the Freedom Caucus to the moderate Tuesday Group .
Trump β s challenge is to pull those factions together into a working majority , with or without Democratic help .
And on that score , he is only on the first hole . | Wz2TE3nN5ZiaOYfN | 2 | Media Bias | -0.8 | Donald Trump | -0.4 | Media Watch | 0 | null | null | null | null |
free_speech | Washington Times | https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jul/24/political-correctness-warriors-at-berkeley-could-e/ | Political correctness warriors at Berkeley could end up criminalizing language | 2019-07-24 | free_speech | The modern usage of the notion of β political correctness β that emerged along with the American civil rights movement seems quaint considering the naked efforts at censorship in today β s world wielded by social justice frauds .
The latest shenanigans in the liberal bastion of Berkeley , California , don β t surprise anyone . The Berkeley City Council unanimously decided to eliminate gender from its law books , changing how the city interacts with its citizens .
This , like most actions taken by the left , can be excused as a well-meaning gesture , but it β s not . This is about training people to accept legal changes in language promoting and codifying a political agenda .
The moment you allow partisans to change language , you are unlocking the door to politicians and activists working together to control everything you say , and ultimately criminalize language itself .
The New York Times reported on Berkeley β s latest effort at language control . β Manhole will be replaced with maintenance hole . Sisters and brothers will be replaced with siblings and he or she will be banished in favor of they even if referring to one person , β The Times said . β The law would apply to traffic , health and safety regulations , garbage collection , environmental rules , construction permits , all of the business of the city . β
Berkeleyside , a local news site , reported on the city β s bizarre effort , β The rationale for this change states β amending the municipal code to include gender-neutral pronouns by illuminating any gender preference language within the municipal code will promote equality. β β This includes , by the way , referring to pregnant women now as β pregnant employees , β because β equality , β or something .
That , of course , is not true . Remember , the left usually tries to convince people to accept the absurd by inserting either β It β s for the children , β β It β s for the whales , β and the ubiquitous β It β s for equality , β because who can be against any of those things ?
The left has always been desperate to make contradicting them bigoted at least and ultimately illegal . One would think they would be more interested in persuading people on issues that matter to them . But even they believe they can β t . The left can not win discussions and debates on the issues , so their only solution is to silence non-conformists with assignments of bigotry and β hate , β hoping to silence and even ruin detractors .
β In recent years , broadening societal awareness of transgender and gendernonconforming [ yes , they have that as one word ] identities has brought to light the importance of non-binary gender inclusivity . Therefore , it is both timely and necessary to make the environment of City Hall and the language of city legislation consistent with the principles of inclusion , β CBS News reported .
We are assured by a representative for the city that Berkeley β s approximately 1,500 employees , according to The Times , β are not obliged to follow the new rules and conversation . β
And yet with this move , touted as something to make people feel more included , yet how safe would anyone in that environment feel simply using terms like β he β and β she ? β Part of the conditioning of an act like this is to brainwash others to see a person using regular gender pronouns as a bigot , expanding the existential danger of using an unapproved pronoun .
We know the left wants to make it impossible to escape condemnation and punishment of whatever they β ve determined to be racism , sexism , homophobia , bigotry in general , of everyone . And the only way to do that is to change the language and definitions .
The end goal of the left everywhere is to create an environment relying on fabricated language standards allowing for the arrest and/or ruination of those who use the wrong words or communicate in a way that someone finds offensive .
You think I β m going too far ? It β s already happening . In England this past December , the Daily Mail reported that a mom was arrested for calling a transgender activist a man .
Kate Scottow was arrested in front of her children and locked in a cell for seven hours after calling a transgender woman a man on Twitter , said the newspaper .
β Three officers detained Kate Scottow at her home before quizzing at a police station about an argument with an activist on Twitter over so-called β dead naming. β [ as an example , if one were to refer to Caitlyn Jenner as Bruce ] . The 38-year-old β¦ had her photograph , DNA and fingerprints taken . β¦ More than two months after her arrest β¦ she has had neither her mobile phone or laptop returned which she said is hampering her studies for a masters in forensic psychology , β the newspaper reported .
Make no mistake , this is where we β re headed β making it possible to ruin someone β s life for being rude .
Moreover , Human Events reported , β A British doctor has been sacked from his government job following his refusal to refer to a hypothetical person described as a β six-foot-tall bearded man β with feminine pronouns . Dr. David Mackareth β¦ alleges that the topic of transgenderism and gender fluidity came up in a conversation with a line manager who asked him : β If you have a man six foot tall with a beard who says he wants to be addressed as β she β and β Mrs , β would you do that ? β¦ Describing it as an β interrogation , β the doctor claims his boss told him that it was β overwhelmingly likely β he would lose his job unless he complied . β
The doctor did not comply , was fired and is now suing , Human Events reported .
Refusing to allow the left to change the language doesn β t make you a bigot , it makes you someone who cares about the freedom in this country that all of us count on , especially minorities who rely on the government not being powerful , intrusive and controlling . That is our fight , especially as totalitarian control continues to be masked as β tolerance . β
β’ Tammy Bruce , president of Independent Women β s Voice , author and Fox News contributor , is a radio talk-show host . | FWFIaLRqWyLs33ju | 2 | Free Speech | -0.2 | Political Correctness | 0.1 | Censorship | 0.1 | null | null | null | null |
energy | Vox | https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/2/16599576/rick-perry-fossil-fuels-sexual-assault | Rick Perry actually tried to argue that fossil fuels can help fight sexual assault | 2017-11-02 | energy | The energy secretary on Thursday actually said this during a discussion about energy policy and Africa : β But also from the standpoint of sexual assault . When the lights are on , when you have light that shines the righteousness , if you will , on those types of acts . So from the standpoint of how you really affect people β s lives , fossil fuels is going to play a role in that . I happen to think it β s going to play a positive role . β
The implication is that fossil fuels power lights , and those lights can then help prevent or at least expose sexual assault . This manages to be both offensive and wrong .
For one , this claim attempts to use a serious topic β sexual assault β to score some political points for one of Perry β s long-held beliefs about the fossil fuel industry . It just feels gross , as Emily Atkin of the New Republic pointed out on Twitter . How about if instead of talking about the wonders of fossil fuels , we talk about how men just need to stop treating other people like objects ?
Obviously Perry 's use of sexual assault victims to promote Trump 's fossil fuel agenda is offensive . Let 's just get that out of the way . β Emily Atkin ( @ emorwee ) November 2 , 2017
Looking at the substance , the implication that you need fossil fuels to turn on lights is also false . There are also alternative energy sources β nuclear , solar , power , hydro , and so on β that work . As Atkin pointed out in her Twitter thread , there are even β huge untapped resources for renewable energy β in Africa .
In Africa specificallyβwhere Perry was talking aboutβthere is β huge untapped resources for renewable energy β https : //t.co/B4L0WBt8B0 β Emily Atkin ( @ emorwee ) November 2 , 2017
Even the underlying assumption of Perry β s comments is questionable . As Christopher Ingraham pointed out over at the Washington Post , the evidence on whether lighting stops and deters crime is mixed . Here are some of the studies :
A 2007 systematic review of the research , covering 13 studies , found that US studies had mixed results , although UK studies reported much more positive outcomes .
A 2015 study in England and Wales concluded , β There is no evidence that reduced street lighting is associated with increases in road traffic collisions or crime . β
A 1997 report to Congress found , β Lighting has received considerable attention . Yet , evaluation designs are weak and the results are mixed . We can have very little confidence that improved lighting prevents crime , particularly since we do not know if offenders use lighting to their advantage . β
This is such a contentious topic in the empirical research that CityLab β s 2014 article on it , by Mike Riggs , was titled β Street Lights and Crime : A Seemingly Endless Debate . β
When it comes to Perry , though , it means that his statements range from ridiculous and wrong to questionable . | tODmG5u7tviQmOWL | 0 | Energy | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
gun_control_and_gun_rights | HuffPost | http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/29/obama-executive-actions-guns_n_3836183.html?utm_hp_ref=politics | Obama Offers New Executive Actions On Gun Control | 2013-08-29 | Gun Control And Gun Rights | HuffPost turns 20 this year, and our mission is clearer than ever: We won't back down when it comes to providing free and impartial journalism. The next four years will reshape America as we know it, but we will never bow to political pressure.For the first time, we're offering an ad-free experience to qualifying contributors who support our fearless newsroom. We hope you'll join us. You've supported HuffPost before, and we'll be honest β we could use your help again. We won't back down from our mission of providing free, fair news during this critical moment. But we can't do it without you.For the first time, we're offering an ad-free experience to qualifying contributors who support our fearless journalism. We hope you'll join us. You've supported HuffPost before, and we'll be honest β we could use your help again. We won't back down from our mission of providing free, fair news during this critical moment. But we can't do it without you.For the first time, we're offering an ad-free experience to qualifying contributors who support our fearless journalism. We hope you'll join us. Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages. Do you have info to share with HuffPost reporters? Hereβs how. Do you have info to share with HuffPost reporters? Hereβs how. 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 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. | a0be7eda0a4f8a4d | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
world | NPR Online News | https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/01/01/792845714/unicef-estimates-400-000-babies-will-be-born-on-new-years-day | UNICEF Estimates 400,000 Babies Will Be Born On New Year's Day | 2020-01-01 | world | UNICEF Estimates 400,000 Babies Will Be Born On New Year 's Day
The baby girl cooing in a hospital in the Pakistani capital was long awaited . Her mother , Ambreen Saddam , 28 , had been trying to conceive for four years . She gave birth at 9 a.m. , Islamabad time , Jan. 1 , 2020 . That date made the birth even sweeter , says Saddam .
`` It 's a very happy time for us , '' she says , lying beside her tiny , five-pound baby , who was wrapped in a bright pink blanket in a crammed maternity ward at a sprawling health compound in the city .
In some ways , the world is also celebrating with her .
UNICEF , the United Nations children 's agency , estimates that some 400,000 babies will be born on New Year 's Day β `` an auspicious day for childbirth around the world , '' it said in a press release .
UNICEF says the Pacific island nation of Fiji will most likely have delivered 2020 's first baby β and it 's expected to have 39 births on Jan. 1 . The United States will deliver the last baby of New Year 's Day , where women are expected to welcome 10,452 babies into the world .
The births also offer a quick snapshot of global demographic trends .
UNICEF says over half those births will happen in just eight countries : India , with 67,385 expected births , followed by China , Nigeria , Pakistan , Indonesia , the United States , the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia , with 8,493 expected births .
Those babies add to the world 's current population of about 7.7 billion β a population that the U.N. expects to peak at nearly 11 billion in 2100 . Much of that growth will happen in nine countries and four of them are in Africa β Egypt , Tanzania , Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo .
UNICEF says it is calling attention to newborns β babies under one month old β because it 's such a risky time . It estimates that in 2018 , newborns accounted for 47 % of all deaths of children under five years old , despite what UNICEF says is `` remarkable progress in child survival '' over the decades .
In Pakistan , that translates into 700 babies dying a day , says Samia Rizwan , a health specialist at UNICEF . `` Newborn mortality , especially in some countries , has been very high , and Pakistan is one of them . ''
What concerns her , she says , is that `` newborns are dying because of preventable causes , which are birth asphyxia , prematurity and sepsis . ''
Rizwan says these babies can survive their first perilous days β and live into the decades beyond β if more investment is put into getting women to give birth in institutions where they can have skilled health attendants and get appropriate medications .
Despite well-intentioned efforts by the Pakistani government , she says nearly one-third of women in the country do n't have access to a skilled birth attendant β a nurse , a midwife or doctor .
Even women who do get a skilled attendant often do n't get their full attention , because `` they are overburdened , '' says Rizwan . And those attendants ca n't always follow up after birth .
Rizwan says that 's largely because Pakistan 's high birthrate means public health services are constantly overwhelmed . `` We are facing a challenge of rising population , '' she says .
At least for now , Ambreen Saddam might just stick to her one little girl , who does n't have a name . She winces when we ask if she 'll have another . `` Not for now , '' she says , laughing . | y012YGbYgljYCs3O | 1 | Children | 0.7 | World | 0.2 | Poverty | 0 | null | null | null | null |
us_senate | BBC News | http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43079903 | Immigration effort to protect Dreamers collapses in US Senate | 2018-02-16 | Immigration, US Senate, Politics | The US Senate has failed to pass any of four proposals on immigration , including protections for young immigrants brought to the US illegally .
Support for the most promising bipartisan bill failed after President Donald Trump called it a `` total catastrophe '' and threatened to veto it .
The legislative collapse leaves the status of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals ( Daca ) recipients in limbo .
Mr Trump ended Daca and gave Congress until 5 March to find a solution .
Daca recipients , known as so-called Dreamers , had been protected from deportation under the Obama-era programme that President Trump rescinded in September .
He gave Congress a six-month window to find a pathway for citizenship for the 1.8m people affected , while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell imposed a deadline on his chamber to pass an immigration bill by the end of this week .
After the flurry of failed votes , Mr Trump tweeted that Democrats are to be blamed .
`` Can not believe how BADLY DACA recipients have been treated by the Democrats ... totally abandoned !
`` Republicans are still working hard , '' Mr Trump wrote on Friday morning .
The leading bipartisan bill was brought to the floor by Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine .
It offered $ 25bn ( Β£17bn ) for border security , including funds for Mr Trump 's planned wall along the US-Mexico border , as well as protections for so-called Dreamers .
But the White House railed against the bill , saying it would weaken enforcement of current law and encourage more illegal immigration .
`` This amendment would drastically change our national immigration policy for the worse by weakening border security and undercutting existing immigration law , '' White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement ahead of the vote on Thursday .
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions also spoke out against the bill .
The proposal fell short of the 60 votes needed , with 54 senators for it and 45 others against the measure .
Mr Trump urged senators to support a bill brought to the floor by Republican Senator Chuck Grassley . The Trump-backed measure received the fewest votes , with only 39 members supporting it .
A third measure focusing just on Daca and border security , brought by Republican John McCain and Democrat Chris Coons , fell short 52-47 .
A fourth measure focused on punishing so-called sanctuary cities , which refuse to co-operate with federal immigration enforcement efforts , also failed .
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised a flurry of votes on a variety of immigration proposals this week , and that 's what happened . For a week the Senate spun its wheels , with numerous impassioned speeches , and then did exactly nothing .
None of the measures introduced - Donald Trump 's preferred plan , a bipartisan compromise bill , another bipartisan compromise bill - garnered the 60 votes necessary to break a filibuster . So nothing is what Daca recipients are going to get , at least for now .
The House of Representatives will take up its own version of immigration reform - something very similar to Mr Trump 's proposal of Daca protections combined with border security , a wall and sweeping changes to legal immigration - but it will be dead on arrival in the Senate . A version in the lower chamber only got 39 votes .
And so legislation that is supported by a vast majority of Americans will not even sniff the president 's desk . Instead , the blame game will begin in earnest , while Daca recipients are left hoping the courts will keep them from being forced back into the legal shadows or deported to nations they barely know .
The collapse comes as the US Supreme Court is due to consider one of two federal court rulings blocking the White House from ending Daca as the 5 March deadline looms .
The Trump administration is appealing a ruling by a US judge in San Francisco , who found the government 's argument that the Daca programme was illegal was based on a `` flawed legal premise '' .
The judge in January ordered the government to begin processing renewal applications from people who had previously been covered , but not for those who had never before received protection under the scheme .
A US judge in New York issued a similar decision earlier this week , ruling the justice department 's reasons for revoking the programme were too arbitrary and could not stand .
Despite the Senate 's failed effort , lawmakers suggest there could be debate on attaching a short-term extension of protections for Daca recipients in a government funding bill that needs to pass in Congress by 23 March to avoid a shutdown .
`` This does not have to be the end of our efforts to resolve these matters , '' Senator McConnell said .
Republicans Bob Corker and John Cornyn also said after the vote there could be another opportunity to address immigration in the funding bill . | 71d814f2e3c6275f | 1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
labor | Vice | https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qjdqbm/open-covid-pledge-to-fight-coronavirus | People Are Open-Sourcing Their Patents and Research to Fight Coronavirus | 2020-04-08 | labor | A global group of scientists and lawyers announced their efforts to make their intellectual property free for use by others working on coronavirus pandemic relief effortsβand urged others to do the sameβas part of the `` Open Covid Pledge . ''
Mozilla , Creative Commons , and Intel are among the founding members of this effort ; Intel contributed to the pledge by opening up its portfolio of over 72,000 patents , according to a press release .
Participants are asked to publicly take the pledge by announcing it on their own websites and issuing a press release .
`` Immediate action is required to halt the COVID-19 Pandemic and treat those it has affected , '' the pledge states . `` It is a practical and moral imperative that every tool we have at our disposal be applied to develop and deploy technologies on a massive scale without impediment . We therefore pledge to make our intellectual property available free of charge for use in ending the COVID-19 pandemic and minimizing the impact of the disease . ''
From there , people and companies are asked to adopt a license detailing the terms and conditions their intellectual property will be available ; while pledgers are permitted to write their own license based on their needs , the organizers wrote `` Open COVID License 1.0 '' as a template for immediate use , which grants usage rights to anyone working toward `` minimizing the impact of the disease , including without limitation the diagnosis , prevention , containment , and treatment of the COVID-19 Pandemic . '' The license is effective until one year after the World Health Organization declares the pandemic to be over .
Other participating organizations and institutions include Berkeley and UCSF 's Innovative Genomics Institute , Fabricatorz Foundation , and United Patents .
β Scientists and researchers need the freedom to make Covid-19 innovations and inventions without the threat of being sued by intellectual property owners , '' Intel β s General Counsel , Steve Rodgers , said in a press release . `` On behalf of Intel employees around the world , and especially our inventors who have worked so hard to create Intel β s intellectual property , we encourage intellectual property holders around the world to join us in this pledge . β
β These unprecedented times call for creativity and generous sharing of knowledge , β Jennifer Doudna , Executive Director of the Innovative Genomics Institute of UC Berkeley and UCSF , which took the pledge , said . β Enabling individuals and organizations across the world to work on solutions together , without impediments , is the quickest way to end this pandemic . β
Update 4/8 , 10:55 p.m. : A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Stanford , Harvard and MIT took the Open Covid Pledge . This article is now updated . | QlurFiFNdHkFS4Ox | 0 | Coronavirus | 0.6 | Public Health | 0.6 | Labor | 0.2 | Science | 0.1 | Business | 0 |
general_news | Washington Times | http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/25/obama-says-nation-must-do-more-fallen-heroes/ | Obama: Nation must do more for fallen heroes | 2013-05-25 | Holidays, General News | WASHINGTON β President Obama says the nation must do more than just remember its fallen heroes on Memorial Day. In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama says the country must care for the loved ones the fallen leave behind. He says the country must also make sure that all veterans receive the care and benefits they have earned. Obama says that, above all, the armed forces must have the support needed to carry out their missions at home and abroad. In the Republican address, Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe thanks the nation for its prayers and support following Mondayβs deadly tornado in his home state. He recalls past natural and man-made disasters in Oklahoma and says that while the state was hard hit, βweβre not knocked out.β Copyright Β© 2025 The Washington Times, LLC. 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 | a9016f762c1af21b | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
campaign_finance | The Daily Caller | https://dailycaller.com/2019/11/18/federal-election-commission-poll/ | Overwhelming Majority Of Voters Desire More Vigilant Enforcement Of Campaign Finance Laws | 2019-11-18 | Voting, Public Opinion, FEC, Elections, Campaign Finance | The overwhelming majority of 2020 general election voters would like to see the Federal Election Commission ( FEC ) take a more active role in enforcing existing campaign finance laws on the books as corruption was rated the most serious problem facing the country , a poll released Monday found .
The poll of 855 likely 2020 presidential voters , commissioned by the Campaign Legal Center , a bipartisan watchdog organization , found that 54 % of respondents viewed corruption in politics as the most pressing issue facing the country , outranking rising healthcare costs , climate change , illegal immigration and wage stagnation .
Other major concerns for voters include unlimited dark money donation to political campaigns and the political influence corporations and special interests have on the political system , the poll found .
The belief that the FEC needs to take a more active role in enforcing campaign finance laws was shared across party lines . Some 66 % of Republicans and 77 % of Democrats said the commission should be doing more aggressive in carrying out its mandate .
β Voters have a right to know which wealthy special interests are spending big money to secretly influence our vote and our government , β Campaign Legal Center president Trevor Potter said in a statement . β Real transparency about who is spending big money on elections will mean more government accountability , less influence for wealthy special interests and less political corruption . β
The FEC has only had three active commissioners on its six-member board following Republican Matthew Petersen β s departure at the end of August , leaving the commission hamstrung as it is unable to meet its four-member quorum to take any official actions . ( RELATED : FEC Hamstrung As Third Commissioner Announces Resignation )
β For the last two months , the FEC has been unable to launch any new investigations , issue any advisory opinions , promulgate any rules , or render any decisions on pending enforcement actions , β FEC Chairwoman Ellen Weintraub , a Democrat , said in a Nov. 1 statement . β With only three commissioners presently serving , the agency charged with administering and enforcing the federal campaign-finance laws that will govern the 2020 election is hamstrung as we approach that election . β
My report on the State of the @ FEC : It has been two full months since the Commission had enough commissioners to do its most important work . Enforcement of federal # campaignfinance law is suffering . Only @ POTUS and the Senate can fix this ! Full report : https : //t.co/yBNZKxpnWR pic.twitter.com/GpYRDxU1I1 β Ellen L Weintraub ( @ EllenLWeintraub ) November 1 , 2019
The FEC has 303 matters on its enforcement docket , 90 of which are awaiting an official vote from the commissioners on whether or not to proceed with an official investigation , Weintraub said .
β We can not launch new investigation sin any of them , even if the three remaining commissioners agreed to do so , β Weintraub said .
While there are three empty seats on the FEC , President Donald Trump has only nominated one FEC commissioner so far in his tenure β Texas attorney Trey Trainor , whose nomination has sat in the senate for two years without a confirmation hearing , the Center for Public Integrity reported . | d1e87efe47cc4d19 | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
supreme_court | SCOTUSblog | https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/06/in-6-3-ruling-court-strikes-down-new-yorks-concealed-carry-law/ | In 6-3 ruling, court strikes down New Yorkβs concealed-carry law | 2022-06-23 | Supreme Court, Gun Control And Gun Rights, New York, Gun Violence, Clarence Thomas, Stephen Breyer, State Governments | This article was updated on June 23 at 4:06 p.m. The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a New York handgun-licensing law that required New Yorkers who want to carry a handgun in public to show a special need to defend themselves. The 6-3 ruling, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, is the courtβs first significant decision on gun rights in over a decade. In a far-reaching ruling, the court made clear that the Second Amendmentβs guarantee of the right βto keep and bear armsβ protects a broad right to carry a handgun outside the home for self-defense. Going forward, Thomas explained, courts should uphold gun restrictions only if there is a tradition of such regulation in U.S. history. Thursdayβs landmark decision came less than six weeks after a gunman killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket, and less than a month after 21 people β 19 children and two teachers β were shot to death at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. In response to those shootings, the Senate this week reached an agreement on bipartisan gun-safety legislation that, if passed, would be the first federal gun-control legislation in nearly 30 years. The 80-page bill would (among other things) require tougher background checks for gun buyers under the age of 21 and provide more funding for mental-health resources. The state law at the heart of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen required anyone who wants to carry a concealed handgun outside the home to show βproper causeβ for the license. New York courts interpreted that phrase to require applicants to show more than a general desire to protect themselves or their property. Instead, applicants must demonstrate a special need for self-defense β for example, a pattern of physical threats. Several other states, including California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, impose similar restrictions, as do many cities. The lower courts upheld the New York law against a challenge from two men whose applications for concealed-carry licenses were denied. But on Thursday, the Supreme Court tossed out the law in an ideologically divided 63-page opinion. The court rejected a two-part test that many lower courts have used to review challenges to gun-control measures. That test looked first at whether a restriction regulates conduct protected by the original scope of the Second Amendment and then, if so, whether the restriction is fine-tuned to advance a significant public interest. Instead, Thomas wrote, if βthe Second Amendmentβs plain text covers an individualβs conduct,β the government has the burden to show that the regulation is consistent with the historical understanding of the Second Amendment. Applying that new and more stringent standard to the New York proper-cause requirement, Thomas found that the challengersβ desire to carry a handgun in public for self-defense fell squarely within the conduct protected by the Second Amendment. The amendmentβs text does not distinguish between gun rights in the home and gun rights in public places, Thomas observed. Indeed, he suggested, the Second Amendmentβs reference to the right to βbearβ arms most naturally refers to the right to carry a gun outside the home. After reviewing nearly seven centuriesβ worth of historical sources, beginning in the 1200s and going through the early 1900s, Thomas concluded that although U.S. history has at times placed some βwell-defined restrictionsβ on the right to carry firearms in public, there was no tradition of a broad prohibition on carrying commonly used guns in public for self-defense. And with rare exceptions, Thomas added, there was no historical requirement that law-abiding citizens show the kind of special need for self-defense required by the New York law to carry a gun in public. Indeed, Thomas concluded, there is βno other constitutional right that an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers some special need.β Thomas rebuffed New Yorkβs effort to justify its proper-cause requirement as an effort to regulate guns in βsensitive placesβ β specifically, crowded urban areas, like Manhattan, where people are likely to gather. Thomas agreed that, as a historical matter, there have long been laws restricting guns in places like courthouses and polling places. Moreover, he continued, restrictions that apply to the modern versions of βsensitive placesβ may also pass constitutional muster. Although Thomas left open exactly what might qualify as a βsensitive place,β he made clear that urban areas do not meet that definition. The stateβs βargument would in effect exempt cities from the Second Amendment and would eviscerate the general right to publicly carry arms for self-defense,β Thomas concluded. In a concurring opinion joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Brett Kavanaugh sought to portray the scope of Thursdayβs decision as limited. The ruling will not bar states from imposing any licensing requirements, Kavanaugh contended. There are 43 states, he noted, that use licensing schemes that include requirements such as background checks, firearms training, a check of mental health records, and fingerprinting. Such schemes are objective, Kavanaugh explained, rather than granting βopen-ended discretion to licensing officialsβ and requiring βa showing of some special need apart from self-defense.β Indeed, he continued, the Second Amendment βallows a βvarietyβ of gun regulations.β Kavanaugh quoted at length from the late Justice Antonin Scaliaβs opinion for the court in District of Columbia v. Heller, the 2008 opinion affirming the right to keep a handgun in the home for self-defense. β[N]othing in our opinion,β Scalia wrote, βshould be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.β Justice Stephen Breyer dissented, in an opinion joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Noting that over 45,000 Americans were killed by guns in 2020, Breyer emphasized that states have tried to reduce the likelihood of gun violence βby passing laws that limit, in various ways, who may purchase, carry, or use firearms of different kinds.β But Thursdayβs decision, Breyer argued, βseverely burdens the Statesβ efforts to do so.β Arguing that the question before the court was βthe extent to which the Second Amendment restricts different States (and the Federal Government) from working out solutions toβ gun violence βthrough democratic processes,β Breyer faulted his colleagues for striking down the New York law without an evidentiary record that would allow it to determine how the New York scheme actually works in practice, βwithout considering the Stateβs compelling interest in preventing gun violence and protecting the safety of its citizens, and without considering the potentially deadly consequences of its decision.β Breyerβs dissent drew fire from Justice Samuel Alito, who filed a concurring opinion that was sharply critical of Breyerβs description of the effects of guns on U.S. society. That discussion, Alito posited, is largely irrelevant to the courtβs actual holding β which, Alito stressed, βdecides nothing about who may lawfully possess a firearm or the requirements that must be met to buy a gun. Nor does it decide anything about the kind of weapons that people may possess.β More broadly, Alito pushed back against the contention by Breyer and New York that βthe ubiquity of guns and our countryβs high level of gun violence provide reasons for sustaining the New York law.β In Alitoβs view, people want the right to carry a gun precisely because of those conditions. Just as he did at the oral argument in November, Alito suggested that βmany Americans have good reason to fear that they will be victimized if they are unable to protect themselves. And today, no less than in 1791,β Alito concluded, βthe Second Amendment guarantees their right to do so.β In a statement released by the White House, President Joe Biden said that he was βdeeply disappointedβ by Thursdayβs ruling, which he described as contrary to βboth commonsense and the Constitution.β Echoing Kavanaughβs concurring opinion, Biden invoked Scalia and stressed that the Second Amendment is not absolute. βFor centuries,β he said, βstates have regulated who may purchase or possess weapons, the types of weapons they may use, and the places they may carry those weapons. And the courts have upheld these regulations.β As Biden released his statement, the Senate took a pivotal bipartisan vote that moved the federal gun-control package to the brink of passage. It is expected to head to Bidenβs desk by the end of the week. This article was originally published at Howe on the Court. Posted in Merits Cases Cases: New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen Recommended Citation: Amy Howe, In 6-3 ruling, court strikes down New Yorkβs concealed-carry law, SCOTUSblog (Jun. 23, 2022, 10:36 AM), https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/06/in-6-3-ruling-court-strikes-down-new-yorks-concealed-carry-law/ ABOUT RESOURCES JOB POSTINGS PRIVACY POLICY CONTACT US Sign up to receive a daily email digest from follow.it by entering your email. Notifications | 512add93953529e5 | 1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
elections | NPR Online News | https://www.npr.org/2020/02/11/804657736/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-hampshire-primary | Everything You Need To Know About The New Hampshire Primary | 2020-02-11 | elections | Everything You Need To Know About The New Hampshire Primary
After the Iowa results meltdown , New Hampshire takes center stage Tuesday night . This election is run by the secretary of state 's office and not the state party . It 's also a more-straightforward primary ( with a couple kinks we explain below ) rather than a complicated , math-heavy caucus .
There is lots at stake , as New Hampshire has served to reinforce or reset the Democratic primary race over the past five decades . As always , be ready for surprises , especially because through the years , a third to half of voters have made up their minds in the last week .
Here are some key questions , things to watch and the stakes for the candidates :
First , let 's set the table . Yes , in a general election , New Hampshire is very competitive . It went Democratic in the 2016 election , but it was the closest of all states ( by raw vote ) β just 2,700 votes separated Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump , and Trump 's team is closely watching and targeting it in 2020 .
This question comes up repeatedly , because , like Iowa , New Hampshire is not a diverse state . It , too , is more than 90 % white . In 2016 , 93 % of New Hampshire Democratic primary voters were white . It has been first for a very long time β 100 years this year actually .
Then , about 50 years ago , New Hampshire passed a law requiring it be first and gave sole power to the secretary of state to set the primary date . Bill Gardner is that secretary of state . He has been in the job about as long as the law has been on the books and has fought against efforts β Democratic and Republican β to move it .
Polls open at 8 a.m . ET and close , in most places , at 7 p.m . ET . But there are 221 towns in New Hampshire , and they all set their own times . Some scarcely populated towns famously begin voting at midnight to gain attention .
But all polls will be closed by 8 p.m . ET .
We will start seeing results after 7 p.m . ET for most places , but there will be no calls from the news networks or The Associated Press ( which NPR relies on for calls ) until at least 8 p.m . ET . At that point , expect the Republican primary ( yes , there is one ) to be called for President Trump .
This is always tricky , because , um , Iowa . The state predicts we might know around 9:30 p.m . ET , but stay loose on that one . Check NPR 's New Hampshire live blog throughout the day for updated live results . Also , because this is a delegate race , check out our new delegate tracker to see how many delegates are allocated to each candidate and where the race stands now .
Twenty-four pledged delegates . There are nine more automatic delegates , which used to be superdelegates , but they matter less this year because they ca n't vote on first ballot at the Democratic National Convention unless there 's an overwhelming majority for one candidate .
Sixteen of the delegates are allocated proportionally by congressional district . ( There are two of them . ) Another eight are allocated by statewide vote ( five at large , three pledged leaders and elected officials ) . Those odd numbers will be important going forward in states to come because the overall winner essentially gets the extra delegate .
That represents just 1 % of the total number of delegates available ; after New Hampshire , just 2 % of total delegates will be allocated ( including Iowa ) . A candidate needs 1,991 delegates to win the nomination , so there 's a long way to go .
Are there thresholds for getting delegates like there were in Iowa ?
Yes . Like Iowa , there 's a 15 % to win any delegates . That 's true in every Democratic primary and caucus . The difference in New Hampshire is there is no re-sorting in a second round . You vote , it 's done . You get 15 % , you get delegates . You do n't , well , you do n't .
The record for turnout in the Democratic presidential primary in New Hampshire is about 288,000 . That was set in 2008 in the race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton . The second-highest turnout was in 2016 between Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders about 251,000 .
New Hampshire is known for high voter participation . In the 2016 general election , it was actually the third-highest turnout state behind Minnesota and Maine .
It 's a primary , so voters head to the polls like they would in a general election . It 's `` semi-open , '' meaning independents can participate . About 40 % of the state are independents , and given that there is no competitive GOP primary happening , one might expect to see a higher percentage of independents turn out on the Democratic side than in 2016 .
In 2016 , independents made up 40 % of the electorate , according to the exit polls , but there were competitive primaries on both sides . In 2008 , it was 44 % , but in 2004 β the last time there was a competitive Democratic primary with an incumbent Republican president up for reelection β 48 % of the electorate was independents .
Do n't confuse independents with moderates , though . Sanders , who won the 2016 primary by more than 20 points , won three-quarters of independents . He won a slightly lower percentage of self-described moderates , 59 % .
Aside from independents , which other voters are important to watch ?
The shape of the electorate is very important and will get more important as the race winnows and support solidifies . The more liberal the electorate , the better it is for Sanders . And the Democratic electorate in New Hampshire has grown increasingly liberal .
In 2004 , just 48 % who turned out identified as liberal ; in 2008 , that jumped to 56 % , as Obama turned out lots of young and new voters . But in 2016 , more than two-thirds ( 68 % ) of the New Hampshire Democratic electorate was liberal . If that trend holds , that 's good for Sanders .
Young voters , under 30 , made up about a fifth in 2016 , and they broke overwhelmingly for Sanders . The percentage of young voters in 2016 ( 19 % ) was actually higher than in 2008 ( 18 % ) when Obama ran . Sanders needs that trend to continue , as he wins big margins with young voters .
The more white and the more people there are with college degrees voting , the better for former South Bend , Ind. , Mayor Pete Buttigieg . He finished with the delegate lead over Sanders in Iowa , and he hopes to do well again in New Hampshire . With it being 93 % white in 2016 and 60 % with college degrees , that lines up for Buttigieg .
Older voters were roughly a fifth . That number probably needs to be higher to help former Vice President Joe Biden , whose support is declining in the state . And there 's no guarantee he even wins them now . He won the highest percentage of voters 65 and older in Iowa , but Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Buttigieg won significant shares , too .
There have been four poll leaders in New Hampshire during this race . But Sanders is now the favorite . He leads by 7 points in an average of the polls over Buttigieg , who has surged since Iowa .
But this is New Hampshire , where things can change quickly and a third or more tend to say they made up their mind in the last week . Remember , Obama had an 8-point lead in the polls over Clinton in 2008 and lost the primary by less than 3 points , so be prepared for anything to happen .
Everything . Here are some things in particular to look for :
1 . Can Sanders expand his base ? Sanders was promising high turnout in Iowa , but it did n't happen . Turnout was more on pace with 2016 than 2008 . That 's not exactly a groundswell of support and an overwhelming movement . But New Hampshire is Take 2 for Sanders and the rest . Can they show they have fired up Democrats enough to take on Trump this year ?
Sanders did well in urban areas and college towns . He needs to show he can reach beyond that . The Democratic Party does n't need help winning in those places . Still , a win would be a win , and Sanders would be in the pole position for the nomination if he takes the state , especially considering that moderates and establishment Democrats do n't appear to be coalescing around anyone any time soon .
2 . For Buttigieg , New Hampshire is nice , but ... Again , New Hampshire is a very white state , and Buttigieg has struggled in polling with voters of color . He needs to perform well in New Hampshire , but then the real test comes when the race moves to Nevada and South Carolina , which have much more diverse electorates .
3. Who finishes third ? This might be the biggest and most important question of the night . Biden is fading fast . He has been hoping that South Carolina and his support with African American voters would be his firewall . ( In fact , he 's heading to South Carolina Tuesday night , instead of staying in New Hampshire . ) But South Carolina is weeks away , and there may be evidence he 's already declining with African Americans . A Quinnipiac poll out Monday showed former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg , who has now spent more than $ 350 million on ads , eating into Biden 's support with black voters . Can Biden really survive a fifth-place showing in New Hampshire ?
Meanwhile , Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren , who finished third in Iowa , needs to be able show she can beat Sanders and Buttigieg , the two candidates most eating into her support . She polls second with progressives to Sanders and second with college-educated whites to Buttigieg . New Hampshire is an opportunity for her to show she 's right in the mix with them and deserves another shot when the electorate gets more diverse . But if she does n't perform well .... ?
4 . How far can Klobuchar go ? She has seen a sharp spike since coming close to Biden in Iowa and after her strong debate performance in New Hampshire Friday . She 's actually now polling third , slightly ahead of Warren and Biden . If she were to take third , wow . Moderates not thrilled how Biden has held up and think Buttigieg is too young and inexperienced are looking around .
And Klobuchar has a good case to make . She 's 59 , been a productive senator , and won reelection by a lot in a Midwestern state Trump came close in . But is it too little , too late ? She needs the donations to pour in if she 's going to have a shot , and that starts with a surprising finish in New Hampshire β ahead of some of the field 's heavyweights .
5 . How long do lower-performing candidates continue on ? Wealthy venture capitalist Tom Steyer has the personal resources to go as long as he wants , but he has seen little payoff in the results . He 's making a serious push in South Carolina , but no polling so far indicates he can win the state . That effort might wind up wounding Biden more than any other candidate , as he 's making inroads with black leaders and voters .
Andrew Yang has a deep well of support , but it 's not very wide . He wound up with fewer than 2,000 votes in Iowa out of 170,000 . Yang is a serious person with a serious message , but if he finishes in single digits again in New Hampshire , he and his supporters have to ask themselves why he 's running β is it to make a point or is it to win ? And if it 's to make a point , for how long , and will his supporters wholeheartedly get behind whoever winds up becoming the Democratic nominee ? | gUPyhFANHqFZ6wag | 1 | Bernie Sanders | 0.6 | New Hampshire | 0.2 | Pete Buttigieg | 0.2 | Presidential Elections | 0 | Elections | 0 |
fbi | The Intercept | https://theintercept.com/2020/05/14/new-documents-from-the-sham-prosecution-of-gen-michael-flynn-also-reveal-broad-corruption-in-the-russiagate-investigations/ | New Documents From the Sham Prosecution of Gen. Michael Flynn Also Reveal Broad Corruption in the Russiagate Investigations | 2020-05-14 | fbi | Watch our latest episode of SYSTEM UPDATE exploring this topic here or on βββ β s YouTube channel .
Gen. Michael Flynn , President Obama β s former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and President Donald Trump β s former national security adviser , pleaded guilty on December 1 , 2017 , to a single count of lying to the FBI about two conversations he had with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak while Flynn served as a Trump transition team official ( Flynn was never charged for any matters relating to his relationship with the Turkish government ) . As part of the plea deal , special counsel Robert Mueller recommended no jail time for Flynn , and the plea agreement also seemingly put an end to threats from the Mueller team to prosecute Flynn β s son . Last Thursday , the Justice Department filed a motion seeking to dismiss the prosecution of Flynn based , in part , on newly discovered documents revealing that the conduct of the FBI , under the leadership of Director James Comey and his now-disgraced Deputy Andrew McCabe ( who himself was forced to leave the Bureau after being caught lying to agents ) , was improper and motivated by corrupt objectives . That motion prompted histrionic howls of outrage from the same political officials and their media allies who have spent the last three years pushing maximalist Russiagate conspiracy theories . But the prosecution of Flynn β for allegedly lying to the FBI when he denied in a January 24 interrogation that he had discussed with Kislyak on December 29 the new sanctions and expulsions imposed on Russia by the Obama administration β was always odd for a number of reasons . To begin with , the FBI agents who questioned Flynn said afterward that they did not believe he was lying ( as CNN reported in February 2017 : β the FBI interviewers believed Flynn was cooperative and provided truthful answers . Although Flynn didn β t remember all of what he talked about , they don β t believe he was intentionally misleading them , the officials say β ) . For that reason , CNN said , β the FBI is not expected to pursue any charges against β him . More importantly , there was no valid reason for the FBI to have interrogated Flynn about his conversations with Kislyak in the first place . There is nothing remotely untoward or unusual β let alone criminal β about an incoming senior national security official , three weeks away from taking over , reaching out to a counterpart in a foreign government to try to tamp down tensions . As the Washington Post put it , β it would not be uncommon for incoming administrations to interface with foreign governments with whom they will soon have to work . β
What newly released documents over the last month reveal is what has been generally evident for the last three years : The powers of the security state agencies β particularly the FBI , the CIA , the NSA , and the DOJ β were systematically abused as part of the 2016 election and then afterward for political rather than legal ends . While there was obviously deceit and corruption on the part of some Trump officials in lying to Russiagate investigators and otherwise engaging in depressingly common D.C. lobbyist corruption , there was also massive corruption on the part of the investigators themselves , exploiting and abusing their vast and invasive investigative and prosecutorial powers for ideological goals , political subterfuge , election manipulation , and personal vendettas . The former category ( corruption by Trump officials ) has received a tidal wave of endless media attention , while the latter ( corruption and abuse of power by those investigating them ) has received almost none . For numerous reasons , it is vital to fully examine with as much clarity as possible the abuse of power that drove the prosecution of Flynn . To begin with , cable and other news outlets that employed former Obama-era intelligence operatives , generals , and prosecutors to disseminate every Russiagate conspiracy theory they could find β virtually always without any dissent or even questioning β have barely acknowledged these explosive new documents . More disturbingly , liberals and Democrats β as part of their movement toward venerating these security state agencies β have completely jettisoned long-standing , core principles about the criminal justice system , including questioning whether lying to the FBI should be a crime at all and recognizing that innocent people are often forced to plead guilty β in order to justify both the Flynn prosecution and the broader Mueller probe . But the most critical reason to delve deeply into this case is that it reveals one the most dangerous abuses of power a democracy can suffer : The powers of the CIA , FBI , and NSA were blatantly and repeatedly abused to manipulate election outcomes and achieve political advantage . In other words , we know now that these agencies did exactly what Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer warned they would do to Trump when he appeared on Rachel Maddow β s MSNBC program shortly before Trump β s inauguration :
This turned out to be one of the most prescient and important ( and creepy ) statements of the Trump presidency : from Chuck Schumer to Rachel Maddow - in early January , 2017 , before Trump was even inaugurated : pic.twitter.com/TUaYkksILG β Glenn Greenwald ( @ ggreenwald ) April 8 , 2019 | hSbMkqZPmztoRd4X | 0 | Corruption | -0.6 | Russia Investigation | -0.6 | FBI | -0.5 | Russia | -0.3 | Justice Department | -0.3 |
culture | Noah Rothman | https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/18/opinion/jussie-smollett-attack.html | Jussie Smollett and a Perfect Crime | 2019-02-18 | culture | Consider some of the β hate crimes β that have garnered tremendous attention in the past two years .
A week before the 2016 presidential vote , a historic black church in Mississippi was spray-painted with pro-Trump graffiti and set ablaze , prompting a national spasm of anxiety amid the prospect that the bad old days were back . The Republican Party was hounded for comment on the episode , and reporters attributed the event to the β tense β state of β American politics. β The person charged in this crime was , however , a parishioner , and an official said the arson was designed to appear β politically motivated , β but was not .
Shortly after Mr. Trump β s election , a woman in Ann Arbor , Mich. , insisted that she was approached by a white man who threatened to set her on fire if she did not remove her hijab . A Michigan lawmaker tied the case to the president-elect , who he said empowered β devastating racism , sexism and xenophobia. β But the police came to the conclusion that the whole thing was a hoax .
A week after the election , an Episcopal church in Indiana gained national attention when it was painted with homophobic slurs , swastikas and pro-Trump language . The self-identified gay man who later confessed to the crime was the church β s organist . Investigators said he hoped to β mobilize a movement after being disappointed β by the election results .
A few weeks later , an 18-year-old Muslim woman alleged that a group of the president β s supporters attacked her at a New York City subway station and tried to rip her hijab off her head . New Yorkers rallied to her defense . Anti-racist demonstrations in Grand Central Station were organized , and significant police resources were devoted to investigating the case . She was later charged with misleading investigators .
All of these events occasioned deep dives by the press into the forces of racial animus Mr. Trump unleashed during his campaign . But there was no chastened soul-searching when the deceptions were exposed . And few entertain the possibility that the attention these allegations generate has created an incentive structure for prospective hoaxers .
Perhaps most damningly , the kind of scrutiny and anger reserved for incidents of racial hatred seem limited to episodes that confirm what social justice activists believe should constitute American bigotry . There have been no similar national paroxysms amid a sharp uptick in violence targeting New York City β s Jewish population . Maybe that β s because Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn don β t register for these activists as prototypical victims of violent prejudice .
The real tragedy in all of this is that hate crimes are , in fact , on the rise in the Trump era , particularly against Jews and Muslims . It is natural and noble to want to respond proactively to that condition . But well-intended observers risk indulging their biases by suspending disbelief . Whether it is Donald Trump implying that the criminal acts of one illegal immigrant are indicative of a plague of migrant violence or establishment Democrats citing one dubious story to indict half the country , there is no justice in treating individuals not as individuals but as representatives of their tribe . | 2xNg0pz45yXhnEWj | 2 | Race And Racism | -0.4 | Social Justice | -0.4 | Identity Politics | -0.4 | Culture | 0 | Culture War | 0 |
justice_department | Guest Writer - Right | https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/05/william-barr-contempt-congress-dirty-politics/ | OPINION: Holding Barr in Contempt Is a Case of Dirty Politics | 2019-05-15 | William Barr, Justice Department, Justice | Attorney General William Barr speaks during a farewell ceremony for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein at the Justice Department in Washington , D.C. , May 9 , 2019 . ( Leah Millis/Reuters )
Instead of praising Barr for releasing to the public what amounts to an off-the-shelf roadmap for impeachment , Democrats are cavalierly talking about throwing Barr in jail .
Ever since Donald Trump came down that Trump Tower escalator to announce his candidacy for president , we β ve heard a great deal about the abuse of norms β constitutional norms , democratic norms , norms of decency , all kinds of norms . For Trump supporters , the president β s frequent violations of norms , while occasionally regrettable , were for the most part welcome because they proved he was willing to fight to win . This was necessary , the theory went , because the Left didn β t care about norms anymore ; they only cared about winning .
But this view β that the other side plays dirty so we must too β is hardly new to American politics . The sentiment is practically baked into politics . But the degree and intensity of the baking has increased and has come to define whichever side has been out of power over the past few decades .
President Clinton β s impeachment on charges of lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice came after years of frustration with what was perceived as β Slick Willie β s β flouting of political norms . The 2000 presidential election recount in Florida and the Supreme Court β s role in settling the Bush-Gore recount dispute was all the evidence progressive online activists ( called the β netroots β in pre-Twitter nomenclature ) needed to argue that Democrats needed β fighting Dems β to play as dirty as they imagined Karl Rove , Bush β s supposed Rasputin , was playing .
Partisans invariably think the other side is cheating perhaps just a little bit more than they really are , so when they decide to fight fire with fire , they emulate the worst-imagined tactics of the enemy , creating a race-to-the-bottom dynamic .
And that brings us to the Democrats β rush to create a β constitutional crisis β where there isn β t one . Last week , the House Judiciary Committee voted to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress for refusing to hand over a fully unredacted version of the Mueller report in compliance with a subpoena .
It β s a wild overreaction given that Barr β s decision to release the Mueller report almost in its entirety was purely discretionary . By law , and by custom , Barr was under no obligation to release anything , since the norm is for the Department of Justice to stay silent if it fails to find prosecutable crimes . His only objectionable transgression against traditional norms was offering a Trump-friendly memo accurately , if tendentiously , summarizing the report β s conclusions .
That was enough for Democrats to lock in to a β cover-up β narrative . Never mind that Barr soon waived all executive privilege claims and released the whole report , redacting only a sliver of material that relied on confidential grand jury testimony and a few sentences that might reveal sources and methods of intelligence gathering . The latter is stuff the Russians would presumably love to see , the former is stuff Barr is barred by law from releasing . If you read the report β and by the fact that you can read it β it β s clear there was no cover-up .
As a compromise , Barr invited congressional leaders to look at an even more unredacted version . Representative Jerrold Nadler ( D. , N.Y. ) , chairman of the House Judiciary Committee , refused to even look at the report , saying a 99.9 percent redaction-free report wasn β t good enough . The notion that a few sentences of blacked-out information are the real β smoking gun β is absurd .
Instead of praising Barr for releasing to the public what amounts to an off-the-shelf roadmap for impeachment , Barr is not only being charged with contempt , but Democrats are cavalierly talking about throwing Barr in jail .
The Democrats are on much better legal footing in their pursuit of the president β s tax returns , but even here the effort amounts to responding to one violation of norms with another .
Trump should have abided by custom and released his returns , as past presidents have done and as he said he would . But the law says Congress can demand to see them . The law is a bad one prone to abuse , but the Trump administration will still have to comply . But in listening to Democrats explain why they want the returns , you can see how corrupting the desire to get Trump has become .
On MSNBC β s Morning Joe , Representative Bill Pascrell Jr. ( D. , N.J. ) offered his reason for wanting the tax returns : to rub the truth in the faces of β the people who follow Mr. Trump , his base. β Pascrell wants them to say , β We β ve been had. β β I can β t wait for that to happen , β he added .
Pascrell will be sorely disappointed by the capacity of Trump β s base to absorb negative revelations about the president . But that β s beside the point . The White House is wrong when it claims Congress must have a β legislative purpose β to see the returns . But democratic norms suggest that Congress shouldn β t require confidential tax returns to be spilled out just for the purpose of saying β nyah , nyah β to voters or to prove that Democrats are just as willing to fight dirty . | 65c7744a60ad37e7 | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
national_defense | The Flip Side | https://www.theflipside.io/archives/possible-troop-withdrawal | Possible Troop Withdrawal | national_defense | The left believes Sanders β s chances have improved , but notes that obstacles still remain .
β [ The Iraqi Parliamentary ] vote was nonbinding , and the Iraqi caretaker government can not pass laws , but the vote does indicate that a majority in parliament wants U.S. forces to leave , and that makes such an outcome increasingly likelyβ¦
β Whether Iraq ultimately evicts U.S. forces or not , this attack [ on Soleimani ] has already had consequences for U.S. operations against ISIS , which were β paused β Sunday to strengthen American defenses in anticipation of Iranian reprisals . This suspension might enable ISIS to reconstitute its fighter networks and to once again pose a serious threat to Iraqi security . β
β In undertaking the strike , the Trump administration may have sacrificed a valuable American counterterrorism partnership with Iraq at the altar of a risky pressure campaign against Iran with no end in sightβ¦ Iraq remains ground zero for fighting the Islamic State , which only a few years ago menaced the entire region as the world β s most dangerous terrorist organization . There are already signs of resurgence . That becomes more likely should the Defense Department and intelligence agencies lose their counterterrorism footprint inside Iraqβ¦
β A wiser American approach in Iraq would have invested in Iraqi nationalists β seeing not just counterterrorism , Iranian infiltration , and oil , but the concerns of a young population that braved militia bullets to demand reforms to corrupt , broken politics . Mr. Trump has made clear his priorities lie elsewhere . β
β Even short of a withdrawal , pressure to constrain the U.S. military in Iraq will have serious effects on a campaign against ISIS that is far from over . Trump has made no secret of his inclination to pull remaining American forces out of Syria , and the Iranians will turn up the heat to try to encourage that instinct . Mounting protests in Lebanon against Iran and Hezbollah will at least temporarily recede , deferring the hopes of Lebanese whose nonviolent , cross-sectarian demonstrations held the promise of a new political era in that embattled countryβ¦
β As we β ve argued before , we β re at this dangerous juncture because of Trump β s foolish decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal , his through-the-looking-glass conception of coercive diplomacy , and his willing hard-line enablers in Tehran . When the deal was in place , Iran remained an adversaryβbut U.S. unmanned aircraft weren β t being shot down by Iran in international waters , Gulf shipping and infrastructure weren β t being hit by Iranian mines and missiles , and U.S. personnel weren β t being targeted by Shia militias in Iraq . β
Regarding Trump β s threat to sanction Iraq , β The president has relied heavily on sanctions in executing his foreign policy , but it isn β t clear that they have influenced behavior . Experts were skeptical about the usefulness of the administration β s sanctions on Venezuela as soon as they were imposed , and the situation there now does not align anymore with US goals than it did when sanctions were put in place last Augustβ¦
β Similarly , sanctions on North Korea , Russia , and even Iran have not altered behavior in the manner the US has hoped ; in fact , they have resulted in countries developing ways to circumvent the US financial systemβ¦ Should sanctions come down on Iraq , they could push the country to take similar actions β even further embracing Iran . β
β The main question about the strike isn β t moral or even legalβit β s strategic . Soleimani was a supremely powerful leader of a state apparatus , with his own cult of personality , but he was not a terror kingpin . His death doesn β t decapitate anything . He had the blood of tens of thousands of peopleβoverwhelmingly fellow Muslimsβon his hands , but he was only the agent of a government policy that preceded him and will continue without himβ¦The only reason to kill Soleimani is to enter a new war that the United States can winβ¦ [ Yet ] No one seems to have thought past the action itselfβ¦ β β What would [ a ] war [ with Iran ] look like ? How will Iran fight it ? How will the U.S. respond ? What credible allies will we have , after Trump β s trashing of the nuclear deal thoroughly alienated Europe ? Who will believe any intelligence about Iran β s actions and intentions from an administration that can β t function without telling lies ? β¦What is our war aim , and how can it be aligned with Trump β s obvious desire to be rid of any entanglement in the region ? What will happen if Jerusalem becomes a target and Israel enters the conflict ? What will the American people accept by way of sacrifice , when nothing has prepared them for this ? There β s no sign that anyone in power , least of all the president , has even asked these questions , let alone knows how to answer them . β
β By declaring that the United States will respond with airstrikes to any attacks on American targets or assets , Mr. Trump is drawing a bright red line that Iran can not cross . And yet , Iran relies on a network of proxy actors from Yemen , Syria , Iraq and Lebanon . Must they all respect Mr. Trump β s red line ? There are plenty of hotheads in those proxy forces that will be incensed by the assassination , the same way young men with weapons and minimal discipline often areβ¦ Mr. Trump can β t keep an entire region from crossing his red line , making violent conflict all the more likely if the president holds to itβ¦ β β It is crucial that influential Republican senators like Lindsey Graham , Marco Rubio and Mitch McConnell remind Mr. Trump of his promise to keep America out of foreign quagmires and keep Mr. Trump from stumbling further into war with Iran . β | axyOcuV3W1ajxJMJ | 1 | Iran | -1.3 | US Military | -0.4 | Defense And Security | -0.4 | National Defense | 0 | null | null | |
elections | Politico | http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/21/donald-trump-georgia-election-karen-handel-239790 | Trump spikes the ball after Georgia election win | 2017-06-21 | elections | Rattled by Donald Trump β s tumultuous first five months in office , the Republican Party breathed a collective sigh of relief Tuesday after a much-needed special election victory in Georgia . The White House also exhaled : After Republican Karen Handel was declared the victor in a race billed as a referendum on the new president , Trump fired off a series of celebratory tweets .
β Well , the Special Elections are over and those that want to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN are 5 and O ! All the Fake News , all the money spent = 0 , β wrote Trump .
In the run-up to the Georgia race , Republicans worried that a loss could be the harbinger of a 2018 train wreck . There were fears that a Handel loss could ripple across the political landscape , spurring GOP retirements , dampening candidate recruitment and turbo-charging Democrats looking to bounce back following the soul-crushing 2016 election .
The contest , the most expensive House race ever , was viewed by many as the first major strength test of the Democratic resistance to Trump . In the final days before the election , several White House aides said they didn β t know whether Handel would be able to fend off Jon Ossoff , a 30-year-old filmmaker and former congressional aide who became a cause celebre among liberals nationwide .
Morning Score newsletter Your guide to the permanent campaign β weekday mornings , in your inbox . Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from βββ . You can unsubscribe at any time .
But she did , and the president β s supporters viewed the outcome as proof that Trump continues to connect with voters .
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich , an informal Trump adviser and a past occupant of the Georgia seat , contended that the handful of special elections this year revealed that voters were tuning out the Russia scandal that has consumed Washington . He argued that the political establishment , much as it did during the 2016 campaign , continued to underestimate the connection many Americans felt with the president .
β He may be resonating with people in a way that some don β t get , β Gingrich said . β Maybe there β s a whole new conversation taking place in a way that none of us understand . β
It would be a mistake to say Republicans are in the clear . With Trump confronting an expanding federal probe into his 2016 campaign β s ties to Russia , party strategists concede they are still facing serious headwinds in their efforts to retain the House majority in 2018 .
And Tuesday β s results weren β t entirely rosy . Handel β s win disguised the fact that the party only narrowly held on to a Republican-oriented Georgia seat , and barely won another race Tuesday for a conservative South Carolina seat that few thought would be competitive . Both outcomes could easily be interpreted as warning signs for the GOP .
Still , given the national spotlight on Georgia , Republicans breathed easier after the race was called for Handel .
β The Democrats threw the kitchen sink at this deal and they β ve come up empty again . They haven β t won an election all year , and they probably won β t until November in New Jersey , β said Scott Reed , the chief political strategist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce , which spent more than $ 1 million on ads boosting Handel .
On Tuesday evening , Trump , who previously traveled to Georgia to appear with the Republican candidate , weighed in with four tweets highlighting Handel β s performance and one congratulating Ralph Norman in South Carolina . A text message sent to Trump supporters noted that Democrats β lose again ( 0-4 ) . Total disarray . The MAGA Mandate is stronger than ever . β
Handel β s win could have immediate implications for her party , possibly helping to dissuade veteran lawmakers β some of whom have been spooked by Trump β s underwater approval ratings β from forgoing reelection bids . Hoping to nudge along Republican retirements , Democrats have been recruiting challengers to longtime GOP House members like California Reps. Ed Royce and Dana Rohrabacher and New Jersey Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen , who haven β t faced serious challenges in recent years but are likely to in 2018 . The approach is similar to the one Republicans used with success in 2010 , the year the GOP recaptured the House majority .
The Georgia outcome could also give a boost to Republican recruiting , which stalled as the political environment worsened for the party . Several blue-chip GOP recruits , including Wisconsin Rep. Sean Duffy and Indiana Rep. Susan Brooks , had announced they would not be running for Senate β choosing to run for reelection to safe House seats rather than pursue Senate seats in an uncertain environment . Now , as Republicans try to persuade other House members to run for Senate , including Fred Upton in Michigan and Luke Messer in Indiana , the Georgia outcome could offer reassurance .
For Republicans confronting the hurdle of running in areas where Trump is unpopular , Handel β s campaign seemed to offer a template for how to run . In a suburban Atlanta district filled with upper-income and highly educated voters , Handel managed to win over Republican voters who had cooled on Trump . In days leading up to the election , one GOP poll found that Trump β s approval rating in the district had plummeted to 45 percent .
Handel maneuvered carefully , declaring her support for the president without fully embracing him . She had Trump and Vice President Mike Pence to the district but chose to hold private fundraisers with them rather than public rallies . On the trail , Handel said that she wouldn β t be an extension of the White House .
Rather than talking about Trump , Handel focused her fire on Ossoff , casting him as a liberal and tying him to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi , a reviled figure in conservative districts like the one he was running in .
But the biggest source of relief for Republicans was the revelation that the party β s base hasn β t abandoned the president .
While Trump has failed to follow through on many of his big-ticket campaign promises , polling continues to show that most bedrock Republicans approve of the job he is doing . That dynamic played out in Georgia where , confronting a mammoth Democratic turnout operation and an energized liberal base , GOP voters turned out in droves .
What β s still unclear is whether the Georgia win will encourage GOP lawmakers to get behind Trump β s troubled legislative agenda . The president has vowed to pass health care and tax reform and an infrastructure package β yet all three face high hurdles on Capitol Hill .
As they digested Tuesday β s results , Republicans cautioned that electoral peril still lies ahead β they pointed out that special elections like the one in Georgia are often poor indicators of the political environment .
In the lead-up to the 2010 election , for example , Republicans fell short in a special election for an upstate New York congressional seat the party had held since Reconstruction . At the time , operatives and analysts duly issued doomsday predictions . When the midterms arrived , Republicans captured 63 seats and the House majority .
Republicans continue to see plenty of reason for concern . They note that historical trends aren β t favorable , either . During a closed-door meeting with lawmakers last week , House Speaker Paul Ryan reminded the GOP Conference that midterms are traditionally unkind for the party in power during a president β s first term .
β I don β t care who the Republican president is , we know the history of midterm elections , β said Vin Weber , a former GOP congressman and longtime party strategist . β Regardless of the president , we β re going to see a substantially more energized Democratic base next year . The question is , do we lose the majority or come close to losing the majority ? β | WwFhtPY7f9FtJMqx | 0 | Donald Trump | 0.7 | Georgia | 0.3 | Elections | 0.2 | null | null | null | null |
healthcare | Politico | http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/obamacare-repeal-senate-republicans-236209 | Senate Republicans: From 'hell no' to 'not so sure' on Obamacare | 2017-03-18 | healthcare | DES MOINES , Iowa β Joni Ernst promised to β unload β on Obamacare in a 2014 campaign ad that featured her firing a gun as a narrator described what she would do to the Democratic health care law .
But three years after winning election to the Senate on a vow to seek an β immediate '' repeal of the law , the Iowa senator is being very careful about pulling that trigger .
β I am legitimately undecided on this , β she said here Friday after relentless attempts by questioners in the state β s two largest cities to pin her down on the health care bill under consideration in the House in the state β s two largest cities . β And you will hear that from a number of my colleagues , as well . β
Ernst was part of a Republican wave election that year that brought 12 new GOP members to the Senate and secured a Republican majority . Without exception , the winners used the unpopular law and its bungled launch to propel them to victory .
But as Obamacare β s popularity has improved , those same senators are now among the most prominent critics of the Republican proposal to undo the law being pushed by Speaker Paul Ryan and President Donald Trump . A Congressional Budget Office estimate this week that the plan would leave 24 million more people uninsured and increase premiums in the short term has only heightened the anxiety .
Indeed , now Ernst is using the word β deliberative β when describing her state of mind about replacing Obamacare . She emphasizes that pre-existing conditions must be covered and that children up to the age of 26 be able to remain on their parents β insurance plan , both of which the Republican alternative would require .
Ernst insists she still wants to dismantle the law , but admits it β s not quite as simple as the β repeal and replace β mantra seemed in 2014 .
β We have to take this up and move cautiously , β she said after an event in Cedar Rapids , a Democratic bastion . β When digging into it , it is much more complicated than simply saying β repeal Obamacare . β β
Health care is clearly top of mind in Iowa , where about 150,000 Iowans have benefitted from the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare and nearly 50,000 more have used subsidies to buy healthcare on the Obamcare exchanges . While the longtime swing state has veered more firmly into the Republican column the past two election cycles , how Ernst handles the Obamacare debate could determine just how tough a reelection challenge she receives in 2020 .
β You β re talking about people getting kicked off health care . If Medicaid is rolled back and Ernst votes for it , they β re going to have a reason to be mad , β said Brad Anderson , Barack Obama β s Iowa director in 2012 .
What β s remarkable is that Ernst β s ambivalence about the current repeal plan is echoed by a majority of the Senate Republican class of 2014 , by and large a very conservative bunch . They β re now threatening to make Majority Leader Mitch McConnell β s life far more difficult if and when the House sends over its plan to roll back Obamacare β s Medicaid expansion and replace its subsidies with skimpier tax credits .
Sens . Cory Gardner of Colorado and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia are balking at plans to reverse the Medicaid expansion . Sens . Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Steve Daines of Montana are worried about the CBO projections of fewer people covered and only marginally lower premiums over time .
Those senators all supported a complete repeal of Obamacare in the past .
Sen. Tom Cotton ( R-Ark . ) , a magnet for attention , has been taking the fight to Speaker Paul Ryan β s plan , warning that House Republicans could get steamrolled in the next election if they vote for it . During his 2014 campaign , the Republican vowed to β start over β on Obamacare β not far off from the advice he β s now offering his House counterparts .
β There β s not a reason to rush . We should get it right , β Cotton said in an interview this week . β I am speaking out for the people I serve in Arkansas . And I just don β t think this bill is going to work for them . β
Such blunt assessments are not Ernst β s style . But people who know her say she β s similarly apprehensive about where Republicans are going on health care .
β The way she β s approaching the future of Obamacare is consistent with the job she β s been doing as a senator since she 's been elected . Thoughtful , deliberate and going her own way , β said Matt Strawn , a former Iowa GOP chairman . β Most of the Republicans I talk to don β t want to be in the business of taking away peoples β coverage . β
Ernst bobbed and weaved as she was berated over almost any negative comment she made about the health care law at a pair of rollicking town hall meetings on Friday . Constituents shouted at the former lieutentant colonel in the Iowa National Guard to β answer the question ! β β particularly about potential cuts to Medicaid β but Ernst she gave away little about which way she β s leaning on perhaps the most consequential decision of her political career .
Sen. Tom Cotton , a magnet for attention , has been taking the fight to Speaker Paul Ryan β s health care plan .
Ernst she said that she wants an opportunity to amend the House proposal before committing to anything .
β I will continue to evaluate this , β she said in Cedar Rapids . β I want to make sure it works for Iowans . ''
Some Democratic constituents at the events were nonetheless convinced that she β ll fall in line with Republicans , and just didn β t want to deliver the bad news to liberal crowds .
β I would assume so , β said Perry Howell of Iowa City , who was holding a sign that read , β Sen . Ernst please don β t castrate Obamacare β β a reference to a viral ad she ran in 2014 vowing to make Washington squeal like a pig . β She had very politic answers . She knows that she β s in a hostile environment . β
β She wants to appear cautious . But I don β t think she is . How does she not really see what a disaster [ the House bill ] is ? β fumed Peter Fisher of Solon , who works for a left-leaning think tank .
Ernst β s colleagues disagree . They say she β s been privately raising concerns centered around the Medicaid expansion β but it β s just not like her to throw bombs or invite public party infighting . The first female combat veteran to serve in the Senate , Ernst has cut a low-key , heads-down profile in the Senate as she works to build seniority and a power base in the cliquey chamber .
βββ Pulse newsletter Get the latest on the health care fight , every weekday morning β in your inbox . Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from βββ . You can unsubscribe at any time .
β She β s very concerned about the Medicaid states . Hers is one of them . The present solution in the House is not something that is easily supportable , β said Sen. John McCain ( R-Ariz. ) , who campaigned tirelessly for Ernst .
Ernst wouldn β t go that far in her public remarks at the two town halls followed by lengthy sessions with reporters . Perhaps it β s because she was prepared for incoming fire from the swath of Democratic voters who pressed her not just on Obamacare , but also climate change , Planned Parenthood and gun control .
Though Ernst generally handled the combative crowds calmly , not taking apparent offense at the jeers and signs that caricatured her as β Miss Piggy. β But she did bristle at one point when someone asked how she could be considering a plan that would cut benefits while she enjoyed generous government insurance .
β I don β t take the Senate insurance . I am on TriCare , β Ernst responded . β I don β t have the fancy Senate plan . β
Though Ernst was in unfriendly if not hostile territory , tours of the state β s more liberal urban areas are a near-requirement as she follows in the footsteps of Sen. Chuck Grassley ( R-Iowa ) , who β s famous for his 99-county tours .
And despite ample evidence that some the questioners coordinated ahead of time β using similar phrases and distributing signs among themselves to egg Ernst on β the senator said the concerns she heard on Friday were all β valid . β
β There β s a level of angst out there and most of it centers on health care , β Ernst said after the event at Drake University in Des Moines . β It β s a very personal issue . It β s an emotional issue β¦ I understand that . '' | M8huLlIwR2WSf4qb | 0 | Healthcare | -0.5 | Obamacare | 0.4 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
economy_and_jobs | New York Times (News) | https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/06/business/economy/unemployment-benefits.html | Unemployment Benefits Expire for Millions Without Pushback From Biden | 2021-09-06 | Economy And Jobs, Life During Covid-19, Unemployment, Coronavirus Recovery, Sustainability | Trump Administration Advertisement Supported by The president has encouraged some states to continue helping the long-term unemployed, but administration officials said it was time for enhanced federal aid to end. By Jim Tankersley and Ben Casselman WASHINGTON β Expanded unemployment benefits that have kept millions of Americans afloat during the pandemic expired on Monday, setting up an abrupt cutoff of assistance to 7.5 million people as the Delta variant rattles the pandemic recovery. The end of the aid came without objection from President Biden and his top economic advisers, who have become caught in a political fight over the benefits and are now banking on other federal help and an autumn pickup in hiring to keep vulnerable families from foreclosure and food lines. The $1.9 trillion economic aid package Mr. Biden signed in March included extended and expanded benefits for unemployed workers, like a $300-per-week federal supplement to state jobless payments, additional weeks of assistance for the long-term unemployed and the extension of a special program to provide benefits to so-called gig workers who traditionally do not qualify for unemployment benefits. The expiration date reached on Monday means that 7.5 million people will lose their benefits entirely and another three million will lose the $300 weekly supplement. Republicans and small business owners have assailed efforts to extend the aid, contending that it has held back the economic recovery and fueled a labor shortage by discouraging people from looking for work. Liberal Democrats and progressive groups have pushed for another round of aid, saying millions of Americans remain vulnerable and in need of help. Advertisement Mr. Biden and his advisers have pointedly refused to call on Congress to extend the benefits further, a decision that reflects the prevailing view of the state of the recovery inside the administration and the presidentβs desire to focus on winning support for his broader economic agenda. The presidentβs most senior economic advisers say the economy is in the process of completing a hand off between federal assistance and the labor market. As support from the March stimulus law wanes, they say, more and more Americans are set to return to work, drawing paychecks that will power consumer spending in the place of government aid. And Mr. Biden is pushing Congress this month to pass two measures that constitute a multi-trillion-dollar agenda focused on longer-run economic growth: a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a larger, partisan spending bill with investments in child care, education, carbon reduction and more. That push leaves no political oxygen for an additional short-term aid bill, which White House officials insist the economy does not need. Administration officials say money that continues to flow to Americans from the March law, including new monthly payments to parents, will continue to sustain the social safety net even as the expanded federal jobless aid expires. Mr. Biden has called on certain states β those with high unemployment rates and a willingness to continue aid to jobless workers β to use state relief funds from the March law to help the long-term unemployed. So far, no state has said it plans to do so. Advertisement On Sunday, Mr. Bidenβs chief of staff, Ron Klain, told CNNβs βState of the Unionβ that the March law was also allowing states to help those out of work by offering employment bonuses and job training and counseling. βWe think the jobs are there,β Mr. Klain said, βand we think the states have the resources they need to move people from unemployment to employment.β Mr. Biden has faced criticism from the left and the right on the issue, and he has responded with a balancing act, supporting the benefits as approved by Congress but declining to push to extend them β or to defend them against attacks by leaders in some states. Throughout the summer, business lobbyists and Republican lawmakers called on the president to cut off the benefits early, blaming them for the difficulties some businesses were facing in hiring workers, particularly in lower-paying industries like hospitality. Soon after the backlash began, Mr. Biden defended the benefits but called on the Labor Department to ensure that unemployed workers who declined job offers would lose their aid. But roughly half of the states, nearly all of them led by Republican governors, moved to cut off benefits early on their own. Mr. Biden and his administration did not fight them, angering progressives. The administration is essentially extending that policy into the fall, by calling on only willing states to fill in for expired assistance. Advertisement βI donβt think we necessarily need a blanket policy for unemployment benefits at this point around the country,β Labor Secretary Martin J. Walsh said in an interview on Friday, βbecause states are in different places.β Privately, some administration officials have expressed openness to the idea that economic research will eventually show that the benefits had some sort of chilling effect on workersβ decision to take jobs. Critics of the extra unemployment benefits have argued that they are discouraging people from returning to work at a time when there are a record number of job openings and many businesses are struggling to hire. Evidence so far suggests the programs are playing at most a limited role in keeping people out of the work force. States that ended the benefits early, for example, have seen little if any pickup in hiring relative to the rest of the country. Even in the industries that have had the hardest time finding workers, many people donβt expect a sudden surge in job applications once the benefits expire. Other factors β child care challenges, fear of the virus, accumulated savings from previous waves of federal assistance and a broader rethinking of work preferences in the wake of the pandemic β are also playing a role in keeping people out of work. βI think itβs a piece of the puzzle but I donβt think itβs the big piece,β said Ben Fileccia, the director of operations and strategy for the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association. βItβs easy to point to, but I donβt think itβs the true reason.β Advertisement Progressives in and outside of Congress have grown frustrated with the administrationβs approach to the benefits, warning it could backfire economically. Job growth slowed in August as the Delta variant spread across the country. βMillions of jobless workers are going to suffer when benefits expire on Monday, and it didnβt need to be this way,β Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon and the chairman of the Finance Committee, said in a news release last week. βItβs clear from the economic and health conditions on the ground that we shouldnβt be cutting off benefits now.β Elizabeth Ananat, a Barnard College economist who has been studying the impact of the pandemic on low-wage workers, said that cutting off benefits now, when the Delta variant has threatened to set back the recovery, was a threat to both workers and the broader economy. βWeβve got this fragile economic recovery and now weβre going to cut income from people who need it, and we are pulling back dollars out of an economy that is still pretty unsteady,β she said. Ms. Ananat has been tracking a group of about 1,000 low-income parents in Philadelphia, all of whom were working before the pandemic. More than half lost their jobs early in the pandemic last year. By this summer, 72 percent were working, reflecting the strong rebound in the economy as a whole. But that still left 28 percent of the group who were unemployed, either because they could not find work or because of child care or other responsibilities. Advertisement βWeβre going into a new school year where thereβs going to be a lot more uncertainty than there was this spring for parents,β Ms. Ananat said. βEmployers are again going to be dealing with a situation where they have people who want to work, but what the heck are they supposed to do when their kid gets sent home to quarantine?β Measures of hunger and other hardship have fallen this year, as the job market has improved and federal aid, including the expanded child tax credit, has reached more low-income families. But the cutoff in benefits could change that, Ms. Ananat said. βIn the absence of some kind of solution, this cliff comes and that number is going to go back up,β she said. βThis is a significant group of people who are going to be in a lot worse shape.β Jim Tankersley is a White House correspondent with a focus on economic policy. He has written for more than a decade in Washington about the decline of opportunity for American workers, and is the author of "The Riches of This Land: The Untold, True Story of America's Middle Class." More about Jim Tankersley Ben Casselman writes about economics, with a particular focus on stories involving data. He previously reported for FiveThirtyEight and The Wall Street Journal. More about Ben Casselman Advertisement | 01bf7bf98e8186fb | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
media_bias | Reuters | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia/trump-without-evidence-says-nbc-fudged-2017-russia-interview-idUSKCN1LF19Q | Trump, without evidence, says NBC fudged 2017 Russia interview | 2018-08-30 | Donald Trump, NBC, Media Watch, Media Bias | WASHINGTON ( βββ ) - U.S. President Donald Trump sought to backtrack on comments last year in which he tied his decision to fire FBI Director James Comey to a probe into Russian election meddling , accusing NBC News on Thursday of β fudging β their interview , but offering no supporting evidence .
Trump made his accusation as the man who took over the federal Russia investigation from Comey , Special Counsel Robert Mueller , digs deeper into a probe that has already led to a series of indictments of former Trump aides .
Trump fired Comey on May 9 , 2017 , a move that Comey said later was aimed at undercutting the probe .
The Trump administration said at the time of Comey β s dismissal that the president had acted on the recommendation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and No . 2 Justice Department official Rod Rosenstein .
In an interview with NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt that aired two days after the firing , Trump accused Comey of being incompetent and noted the recommendation , but also raised the issue of the Russia investigation , saying he was thinking of β this Russia thing β when he fired him .
In a Twitter post on Thursday , Trump accused the news outlet and Holt , of β fudging my tape on Russia , β but gave no evidence to back up his claim .
In addition to looking into Russia β s alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election , which Moscow denies , Mueller is investigating any collusion with Russia by Trump β s campaign and any attempt by the president to impede the probe .
The Comey firing could be central to a potential obstruction of justice case . Legal experts have said Mueller β s team must weigh whether the president acted with an improper , or β corrupt , β intent when he took actions such as firing Comey .
Trump has denied any collusion with Russia , or any obstruction of justice . He has said since the interview with Holt that he did not fire Comey over the federal probe .
Trump said in the Holt interview , β regardless of recommendation , I was going to fire Comey knowing there was no good time to do it And in fact , when I decided to just do it , I said to myself β I said , you know , this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story . It β s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should β ve won . β
Representatives for NBC News , part of Comcast Corp ( CMCSA.O ) , declined to comment on Trump β s tweets on Thursday .
Representatives for the White House did not respond to a question about Trump β s accusation .
In the most dramatic day yet in the Russia investigation , federal prosecutors last week secured the conviction of Trump β s former campaign manager for financial crimes and a plea agreement from the president β s longtime attorney that included pleading guilty to campaign finance violations .
Trump , in a string of tweets last week , said he had nothing to hide from Mueller β s probe .
Trump β s tweets on Thursday were his latest attack on the news media . He has repeatedly called critical reports about him β fake news β and on Thursday he also called for the firing of CNN β s president , Jeff Zucker .
Representatives for CNN , owned by AT & T ( T.N ) , declined to comment .
U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions from the news media during an event at which he announced a grant for a drug-free communities support program in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington , U.S. , August 29 , 2018 . βββ/Leah Millis
U.S. news organizations have pushed back against the stream of criticism from Trump .
Federal authorities on Thursday charged a California man with threatening to kill Boston Globe employees for the newspaper β s role leading a defense this month of press freedoms by hundreds of news organizations .
Shares of AT & T and Comcast did not move on the president β s tweets . | ab329613e031ab2b | 1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
healthcare | The Hill | http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/332159-five-changes-the-senate-could-make-to-the-obamacare-repeal-bill | Five changes the Senate could make to the ObamaCare repeal bill | 2017-05-05 | healthcare | GOP senators are making it crystal clear . The House β s ObamaCare repeal-and-replace bill is getting changed .
Senators say the legislation can β t pass the upper chamber in its current form , and they are looking to put their own stamp on the bill .
Here are five big changes that senators will be eyeing .
The Senate is likely to change the bill to provide more tax credits to better help low-income people afford health insurance .
Sen. John Thune John Randolph ThuneRepublicans show signs of discomfort in defense of Trump Embracing President Mike Pence might be GOP 's best play GOP battens down the hatches after release of Trump whistleblower complaint MORE ( S.D . ) , the No . 3 Senate Republican , is already working on an amendment to ramp up the credits .
The issue was also raised Thursday during a meeting in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison ( Mitch ) Mitchell McConnellOvernight Defense : Dems subpoena Giuliani for Ukraine docs | DOJ says Trump contacted foreign countries over Russia inquiry | Top Armed Services Republican Thornberry to retire | Milley sworn in as top general βββ 's 12:30 Report : Trump steps up attacks on whistleblower , Schiff US sanctions Russian individuals for interference in 2018 elections MORE β s ( R-Ky. ) office that was focused on possible changes to the bill .
Sen. John Barrasso John Anthony BarrassoTo stave off a recession , let 's pass a transportation infrastructure bill Overnight Defense : GOP wary of action on Iran | Pence says US 'locked and loaded ' to defend allies | Iran 's leader rules out talks with US GOP senator : Iran is behind attack on Saudi Arabia MORE ( R-Wyo . ) , part of the leadership team , acknowledged afterwards that changes to tax credits were β part of the active discussion . β
Under the House bill , a single 64-year-old making $ 26,500 would have to pay more than half his or her salary β $ 14 , 600 per year β in premiums , according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office . This stark datapoint made the rounds on social media after CBO scored the bill in March .
In part , this is because insurers can only charge older adults three times more than those who are younger and generally healthier under the Affordable Care Act . The House bill lets carriers charge older adults five times as much as young people . Also , tax credits are more generous for those with lower incomes under ObamaCare , and thus , lower premiums .
Medicaid has emerged as one of the thorniest issues of the ObamaCare repeal and replace debate .
ObamaCare allowed states to expand the healthcare program for low-income and disabled people . Washington , D.C. and 31 states have taken the federal help , according to the Kaiser Family Foundation . This has provided coverage to an estimated 9.6 million people , according to the American Action Forum .
Lawmakers from expansion states don β t want to see their constituents lose coverage . Lawmakers from states that didn β t expand don β t want to be penalized for staying true to their conservative principles .
β We need to get a balance to make sure that states are treated fairly , β Barrasso told βββ .
After the House passed its bill , Sens . Rob Portman Robert ( Rob ) Jones PortmanHillicon Valley : Democrats seize on whistleblower complaint to push for election security | Google taps GOP Senate aide to lead lobbying | Warren calls for congressional tech office Google taps Senate GOP aide to lead lobbying efforts Senators fret over prospect of Trump trial MORE ( R-Ohio ) and Dean Heller Dean Arthur HellerThis week : Barr back in hot seat over Mueller report Trump suggests Heller lost reelection bid because he was 'hostile ' during 2016 presidential campaign Trump picks ex-oil lobbyist David Bernhardt for Interior secretary MORE ( R-Nev. ) quickly said they couldn β t support the current version of the measure , citing Medicaid as a major concern .
One option for the Senate would be to delay the House bill β s plan to eliminate the expansion in 2020 . States can no longer choose to expand after 2020 , and the federal government will cut off enhanced federal funding that same year .
β They β re at least going to push out the date that it phases out maybe further , β said Joe Antos , a resident scholar at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute .
This would be easier than doing away with the provision altogether , as it would not greatly raise the cost of the bill , Antos said .
β It β s that age-old gimmick that Congress always does when there β s something that β s unpleasant , they push it way out , β Antos said .
About 24 million more people could be without health coverage by 2026 under the House β s bill , according to a March CBO analysis .
The House passed its latest bill before CBO could finish a new analysis .
This could be a big problem in the Senate , where a number of Republicans are worried about passing a measure that could leave more people in their states uninsured .
β That 's not what President Trump promised , β Sen. Bill Cassidy ( R-La . ) told CNN in March . β That 's not what Republicans ran on . β
The issue of ensuring people retain coverage was an important one in the House debate , but it is likely to be even more intense for senators representing entire states , not smaller districts .
The talk show host gave an impassioned speech this week on his show , tearfully explaining how his child was born with a heart defect . In a video that went viral , Kimmel made the case for why people with pre-existing conditions should have health coverage .
Cassidy suggested a new litmus test for a Senate bill .
β I ask , does it pass the Jimmy Kimmel test ? , β Cassidy told CNN . β Will a child born with congenital heart disease be able to get everything she or he would need in the first year of life ? I want it to pass the Jimmy Kimmel test . β
Cassidy was answering a direct question about whether he would support a bill that imposed caps on the amount of money an insurer would have to spend on a policy , but the meaning of his remarks appeared broader .
He and other Republicans will want a bill that definitively ensures people who pre-existing conditions will not be left without coverage .
A key amendment in the House backed by Reps. Tom MacArthur ( R-N.J. ) and Mark Meadows ( R-N.C. ) lets states opt out of a core ObamaCare requirement called community rating , which prohibits insurers from charging sicker patients more money .
Critics of the House bill insist this will lead to higher costs or less coverage for those with pre-existing health conditions .
β We can not pull the rug out from under states like Nevada that expanded Medicaid and we need assurances that people with pre-existing conditions will be protected , β Sen. Dean Heller ( R-Nev. ) , one of the most vulnerable senators in 2018 , said in a statement .
ObamaCare requires insurers cover a list of services , such as maternity care and substance abuse and mental health treatment .
The MacArthur amendment lets states opt of this mandate , and it β s unclear if this will fly in the upper chamber .
The Senate parliamentarian has control over the strict parameters of what can be in a reconciliation bill , the fast-track budget maneuver Republicans are using to repeal and replace ObamaCare because it only requires 51 votes to pass .
β I do think that the language of the MacArthur amendment allowing waivers from the essential health benefits and community ratings rules is definitely something that is going to be challenged under the Byrd rule and is definitely vulnerable , β Ed Lorenzen , senior adviser for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget , said .
He cautioned , though , that it β s hard to know for sure how the Senate parliamentarian will rule . | pd9uvtXhTZ5ggCBI | 1 | Healthcare | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
holidays | Fox Online News | http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/11/10/veterans-day-let-thank-our-veterans-by-standing-with-their-families/ | OPINION: Veterans Day: Let's thank our veterans by standing with their families | 2014-11-10 | holidays | Over the past several years , over 2 million veterans from the post-9/11 generation have returned to civilian life and our communities . Many faced the immense stress of combat in Afghanistan and Iraq . Our nation owes them enormous gratitude , which we must demonstrate in far more than words or symbols . Our veterans deserve the opportunity for personal and professional success long after their military service .
For most , that means having the opportunity to work and move up in the world , a journey that is usually undertaken not as an individual , but as a family . So our national commitment must be to make sure not only that every veteran can find a job , but also that military spouses have a fair shot at building successful careers . Doing so will not only repay a debt we owe , but also deliver enormous benefits to our entire economy .
The good news is that progress has been made to address veteran unemployment . From September 2013 to September 2014 the unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans was cut from 10.1 percent to 6.2 percent due to both an improving jobs market , as well as focused hiring efforts .
As just a few examples , JPMorgan Chase and over 170 other companies work together as part of the 100,000 Jobs Mission , which is on pace to hire 200,000 veterans by the end of the year , while Starbucks committed to hiring 10,000 veterans and spouses by 2018 and is well on the way toward that goal .
In addition to employing veterans , it β s equally important to be aware of and bring attention to their plight as companies such as HBO have done through an effective mix of programming that spotlights their tremendous sacrifices and many contributions .
More must still be done . Nearly 160,000 post-9/11 veterans remain unemployed and their unemployment rate is still above the civilian rate . That is both shameful and illogical . Given the unique skills and attributes veterans offer , their unemployment rate should , if anything , be below the national average .
But even if we reach the goal of full employment for veterans , it wouldn β t be sufficient . Like most American families , most military spouses choose to seek work outside the home for reasons both financial and personal . Yet too often they face daunting obstacles .
Military families must frequently relocate . That forces spouses to face constant searches for new jobs , along with forfeiture of seniority and advancement opportunities , and the loss of state-based professional certifications and licenses .
In essence , every time the military sends a servicemember a transfer notice , his or her spouse must restart their career path from square one . That burden , which is inherent in military service , largely explains why a recent survey found that 90 % of military spouses report that they are underemployed and earn less than their civilian peers .
To address this problem , we need to start by making a national commitment to military spouses . The Department of Defense has created a platform for doing so in the Military Spouse Employment Partnership ( MSEP ) , which helps connect spouses to job opportunities . Already , tens of thousands of spouses have found opportunities through that system , but more companies need to get involved .
We must also do more to help military spouses address the challenge of frequent relocations . One way is by encouraging employers to share information about job applicants from the military community . Recently , some members of the 100,000 Jobs Mission created the Military Talent Exchange , a portal that allows businesses to pass around resumes so that military spouses on the move can find jobs in new markets .
Job portability is another area that requires more exploration . No company can guarantee that all jobs will follow a military spouse wherever they go . But efforts must be made to accommodate such moves as best we can and look for ways to make jobs as portable as possible .
Training and education are another part of the solution . Again , flexibility is the key . One innovative idea comes from the Institute for Military and Veterans Affairs at Syracuse University , which provides free on-line job training programs . By allowing participants to access the program anytime , anywhere it is uniquely suited to the needs of military families .
In order to make the investments necessary to scale these and other programs , employers must recognize that this is not about charity . Hiring veterans and military spouses is an investment that offers a tremendous return . The U.S. military does a better job than just about any organization on the planet at creating a culture of teamwork , adaptability and dedication to mission . That culture forever changes veterans and the spouses who share the experience of service .
These men and women can achieve great things in civilian life . When we give them the opportunity they so richly deserve , then they can help us all build a country and an economy that is more resilient , more team-oriented and more generous of spirit .
In short , our veterans and their spouses will do for our economy what they have already done for our national security β make it stronger .
On November 11 , Starbucks , Chase and HBO will be the presenting sponsors of The Concert the Concert for Valor on the National Mall in Washington , D.C . | dt5Byo4kU2bYrv0X | 2 | General News | 0.8 | Veterans Day | 0.6 | Veterans | 0.6 | Holidays | 0 | null | null |
coronavirus | Vice | https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pke8n7/coronavirus-has-closed-vape-shops-but-left-cigarettes-readily-available | Coronavirus Has Closed Vape Shops, but Left Cigarettes Readily Available | 2020-03-26 | coronavirus | As cities across the country have shut down in hopes of slowing the coronavirus , a few `` essential '' services have been allowed to remain open . Banks can fulfill financial needs . Restaurants can offer takeout . Pharmacies can have pain relievers on the shelves .
One type of business that has not always been allowed to stay running : vape shops . And that has become a source of frustration to a growing number of often-maligned vape shop owners and manufacturers in the burgeoning industry , who feel that it could lead to people returning to traditional and more harmful cigarettes .
In states where non-essential businesses have closed , convenience stores and gas stations have continued to sell traditional cigarettes , much to the chagrin of vape advocates .
`` Unfortunately , cigarettes are well-stocked , '' said Rick Avila , a co-founder of Liquid Nicotine Wholesalers , one of the largest nicotine suppliers in the U.S. `` If we cut off one and not the other , people will just go back to smoking . ''
Vape shop owners believe their stores are just as necessary as laundromats during an epidemic . They note that the open-system vapes they favor are not available in corner stores , which typically only have disposable products like JUUL and Puff Bars for purchase . In their view , vape shops sell effective smoking-cessation tools and provide a necessary public health service at a time of global stress and uncertainty .
Vapes are essentially `` in the same category as nicotine replacement products , '' like patches or gum , said Michael Siegel , a professor of community health sciences at Boston University and a longtime tobacco control expert . `` It would make sense to treat them in a similar way to pharmacies . ''
In other countries , the vape industry has fared better amid global pandemic . The shops have been deemed `` essential '' in locked-down nations including Spain , Italy , France , and Switzerland . That has n't been the case in the United Kingdom , which has so far led the global charge to promote vaping as a much safer alternative to smoking combustible cigarettes . There , like in the U.S. , vape stores have largely been forced to close .
For some in the vape industry , the reaction in the U.S. has been more absurd than it 's even been in the past . `` To restrict access for people to have this harm-reduction product and have them return to cigarettes during a time when we 're facing a respiratory pandemic does n't seem to make a lot of sense to me , '' said Dave Norris , who owns Blue Door Vaping , a string of vape shops in and around Harrisburg , Pennsylvania .
When Norris called me , he was driving through Pennsylvania , delivering orders to customers in the area . Some had been stockpiling with an apocalyptic fervor , concerned they would n't be able to get their hands on their favorite flavors or devices for months . And because the state mandated that Norris shutter his vape shops , he had no other way to get his inventory out to his patrons . With the state 's new rules , he was n't even sure whether what he was doing was legal . His license to conduct business there is for a physical location .
It 's one of the reasons , he said , that it 's not as simple as telling vapers to just order online during the coronavirus epidemic . Like other vape shop owners , he does n't have the means to do it , and his workers would also suffer financially as a result . He would n't need them .
`` I 've never had an online presence , in part because the age verification is expensive , '' said Dan Donahue , who runs two shops under the name Good Karma Vapor in New Jersey .
Donahue had already been worried about losing his shops . He was anticipating up to an 80 percent loss in sales , when New Jersey 's full-blanket flavor ban went into effect on April 20 . ( The ban is more severe than the federal sales moratorium on vaping products , which only forbids the flavored pods popular among teenagers . ) The outbreak of COVID-19 might have just sped up the inevitable . When Governor Phil Murphy announced last week that he would be asking non-essential businesses to shut their doors for the time being , Donahue was torn . He did n't have a choice but to lay off his staff , hoping it would be temporary .
`` As a person who uses vape products myself and has for nine years , I know how necessary it is to have them , '' he said . `` My moral dilemma , though , was not having the personal protective equipment for my employees , to keep them and the public safe . ''
At the moment , however , like the rest of society , those in the vape industry face a much more real and immediate threat to their survival . Some , like Avila , are even having their factories and plants pump out hand sanitizer as well .
`` The irony of all this is we have so many good people in this industry doing the right thing , '' Avila said , `` and all we ever do is get bad-mouthed . '' | VfJ4xiKdXZPkGXbO | 0 | Vaping | 0.6 | Public Health | 0.1 | Cigarettes | 0 | Business | 0 | Coronavirus | 0 |
elections | Politico | https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/05/trump-convention-speech-white-house-391752 | Trump confirms he's considering delivering convention speech from White House | 2020-08-05 | Presidential Elections, 2020 Election, Donald Trump, White House, Elections | 2020 elections The president has already drawn significant criticism for staging campaign-style events at the official residence. President Donald Trump. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo By Quint Forgey 08/05/2020 09:28 AM EDT Link Copied President Donald Trump on Wednesday confirmed reports that he is considering accepting the Republican Partyβs 2020 presidential nomination in a nationally televised address delivered from the White House. βIβll probably do mine live from the White House,β Trump told βFox & Friendsβ of his nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention later this month, adding that he had not officially settled on a location for the prime-time remarks. βIf for some reason somebody had difficulty with it, I would β I could, you know, go someplace else,β Trump said. βThe easiest, least expensive and, I think, very beautiful [option] would be live from the White House.β The acknowledgment from the president comes after The Washington Post reported Tuesday that convention planners were weighing the White Houseβs South Lawn as the site of Trumpβs speech β a choice of venue that would represent an extraordinary breach of protocol and modern political norms. Trump has already drawn significant criticism in recent weeks for staging campaign-style events on the White House premises, launching attacks at presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden from the seat of power of the federal governmentβs executive branch. Presidents have typically avoided mixing campaigning with the business of governing and the trappings of the official residence. Even prior to his general election campaign against Biden, Trump provoked controversy over his selection of settings for high-profile gatherings. Last October, he announced plans to stage the upcoming G-7 summit of world leaders at one of his familyβs resorts, only to reverse his decision days later. Trump revealed last month that he was canceling GOP convention keynote events recently relocated to Jacksonville, Fla., amid a surge in Covid-19 cases there. And last week, Trump said he would accept the Republican nomination in the conventionβs original host city of Charlotte, N.C. β which he spurned in June over its coronavirus-related public health restrictions. Your guide to Donald Trumpβs unprecedented overhaul of the federal government. Your guide to Donald Trumpβs unprecedented overhaul of the federal government. Loading You will now start receiving email updates You are already subscribed Something went wrong Β© 2025 POLITICO LLC | f0a6f5832edf74c6 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
impeachment | Associated Press | https://apnews.com/b2d16168986dd61accd475143c544665 | Trumpβs idea of executive power is also impeachment defense | 2020-01-25 | Donald Trump, White House, Ukraine, US Senate, Executive Branch, Impeachment, Politics | FILE - In this Oct. 2 , 2019 , file photo , President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington . Trump 's guiding principle is the idea that he 's the president - and that means he can do what he wants . It 's governed how he operates with his staff , world leaders and lawmakers . ( AP Photo/Evan Vucci , File )
FILE - In this Oct. 2 , 2019 , file photo , President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington . Trump 's guiding principle is the idea that he 's the president - and that means he can do what he wants . It 's governed how he operates with his staff , world leaders and lawmakers . ( AP Photo/Evan Vucci , File )
WASHINGTON ( AP ) β Donald Trump has always been a man of absolutes .
Something is the best or the worst , a person is a winner or a total loser , an event has never happened before , even when it has .
Absolutism was the unwritten credo of his career in business and is the guiding light of his presidency as he makes an assertion rarely heard from an American president : that he can do as he pleases .
Now that approach faces its ultimate test as a foundation of Trump β s defense in his impeachment trial , namely that he is cloaked with unrestrained authority . How that question is answered , both by the Senate in the impeachment trial and by voters in November , will define how Americans view the concept of presidential power .
Trump β s position reaches well beyond the charges of abuse of power and obstruction of justice made in the articles of impeachment the Senate is now considering . The views were outlined in papers by his legal team and are expected in arguments in the trial as soon as Saturday .
β I have the right to do whatever I want as president , β Trump declared last year , citing Article II of the Constitution . β It gives me all of these rights at a level nobody has ever seen before . β
Not since Richard Nixon told the interviewer David Frost , β When a president does it , it means it β s not illegal , β has a president come close to making an assertion of power as sweeping as Trump β s .
House Democrats prosecuting the impeachment case charge that Trump abused his office by asking Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden while withholding crucial military aid , and obstructed Congress by refusing to turn over documents or allow officials to testify . Republicans defend Trump β s actions as appropriate and cast the process as an effort to weaken the president in the midst of his reelection campaign .
In their trial memo , Trump β s attorneys contend that the obstruction charge is not valid because he was asserting his legal right and immunity granted to him by his position , adding that to question that would cause β grave damage β to the separation of powers .
β President Trump has not in any way β abused the powers of the Presidency , β β they argued . β At all times , the president has faithfully and effectively executed the duties of his office on behalf of the American people . β
And his lawyers have said his election gives him the right to refuse subpoenas given to his cabinet and staff , to decline to hand over documents to investigators , and to shut down certain witnesses .
β In order to fulfill his duties to the American people , the Constitution , the Executive Branch , and all future occupants of the Office of the Presidency , President Trump and his Administration can not participate in your partisan and unconstitutional inquiry under these circumstances , β White House Counsel Pat Cipollone wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi .
Rep. Adam Schiff , the lead impeachment manager , has urged senators to remember the Constitution β s framers sought to prevent a chief executive from wielding power as if it β was conferred upon him by divine right . β
The American Revolution was fought so that β no person , including and especially the president , would be above the law , β Schiff told the Senate on Wednesday . β Nothing could be more dangerous to a democracy than a commander in chief who believed that he could operate with impunity , free from accountability . β
That is not a view Trump shares . He has declared that he has an β absolute right β to wield executive authority at least 29 times since his election , according to an βββ review of his comments in Factba.se , which compiles and analyzes data on Trump β s presidency .
That included when he shut down the government over a border wall battle , threatened to close the U.S.-Mexico border , fired Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch , asked other countries to investigate corruption , shared classified intelligence with Russia and said he could pardon himself .
β Trump β s usage is , I think , novel β without precedent β in U.S. history of presidential rhetoric , β John Wooley , co-director of the The American Presidency Project at the University of California-Santa Barbara , said in an email .
During his impeachment trial President Bill Clinton didn β t assert executive privilege nearly as much β he gave his DNA , handed over documents and allowed staff to participate . Republicans who controlled the House impeached him on the charges of obstructing justice and lying to a grand jury in connection with his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky . His defense was structured on inconsistencies in the perjury allegations and claims that the investigation had been tainted by political bias .
β In essence , there was more evidence of a crime , perjury , but it was not serious enough to show he should be removed from office , β said Bill McCollum , a former Florida congressman who was the impeachment manager during the Clinton trial . β We are just looking at a very different scenario here . β
Many presidents have sought to strengthen their hands against Congress and the judiciary , despite George Washington β s warning , in his farewell address , against seeking β security and repose in the absolute power of an individual β leader .
Andrew Jackson β whose portrait hangs in Trump β s Oval Office β asserted in response to Senate censure that it was β settled by the Constitution , the laws , and the whole practice of the Government that the entire executive power is vested in the President of the United States. β His critics widely caricatured him as β King Andrew . β
Throughout the 20th century , presidents increasingly acted unilaterally as the executive branch grew dramatically .
β Most of the modern presidents have tended to take a pretty expansive view of the meaning of Commander in Chief powers , β Wooley said .
Franklin D. Roosevelt holds the record for issuing executive orders β more than 3,000 of them , an average of 307 per year β as he led the nation out of the Great Depression and through World War II . By comparison , Trump has issued 136 , or 47 per year , which is more frequent than any president since Ronald Reagan , whose average was 48 , the American Presidency Project database shows .
But no other president to appears to have declared that he was personally invested with such unlimited powers , according to database searches of The American Presidency Project and the University of Virginia β s Presidential Recordings Program , which also includes transcripts of the secretly recorded conversations of John F. Kennedy , Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon .
And while White House recordings show Lyndon B. Johnson asserting his war powers authority to send U.S. troops to Vietnam , β it is not Trumpian β it β s not a claim of , β I have the absolute right , the absolute authority , β β said Marc Selverstone , who chairs the Presidential Recordings Program . β Trump of course takes this to a different degree altogether , β he said .
Trump has also claimed absolute immunity from criminal investigations β he asserted it in his efforts to keep his tax returns from being revealed in court .
Trump has also said he could not be sued by a former contestant on β The Apprentice , β who accused of him of defamation . In those cases , his New York attorneys claimed he could not be charged with a crime .
Trump β s lawyers are also asserting there must be a crime for him to be impeached . But legal scholars say the Constitution β s standard of β high crimes and misdemeanors β for impeachment is vague and open-ended to encompass abuses of power even if they aren β t , strictly speaking , illegal .
Each side got 24 hours over three days to present their case . After the House prosecutors finished Friday , the president β s lawyers will follow Saturday . They are expected to take only Sunday off and push into next week . | 78880c938fa3defa | 1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
immigration | CNN (Web News) | http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/28/house-immigration-compromise-includes-tougher-path-to-citizenship-than-senate-bill/?hpt=po_t1 | House immigration compromise includes tougher path to citizenship than Senate bill | 2013-06-28 | Immigration, US House | Washington ( CNN ) - An emerging immigration compromise in the House differs sharply from the measure passed by the Senate this week by making it harder for undocumented immigrants to get on a path to citizenship .
Members of the bipartisan House group negotiating the bill would require that border security measures are in place before any process toward eventual citizenship could begin . Lawmakers working on the House plan agreed to include security `` triggers '' to their proposal in hopes of attracting support from more House Republicans who have been highly critical of the Senate bill . The Senate rejected a similar GOP proposal .
`` Border security triggers the rest of it , '' Texas Republican Rep John Carter , one of seven lawmakers working on an immigration deal , told reporters on Capitol Hill on Friday .
A Democratic congressional source familiar with the House discussions told CNN `` there are triggers that must be met before registration and deferred adjudication can begin , '' referring to the citizenship process for those 11 million undocumented workers already in the country .
This approach contrasts with the Senate immigration bill that passed Thursday , which allows undocumented workers in the country to gain provisional legal status once immigration legislation is signed into law , but then requires a series of security and enforcement provisions to be in place before those immigrants can gain full citizenship .
Carter declined to lay out the details in the House plan , only saying `` certain triggers have to be met . ''
The Democratic source told CNN that in addition to the border security trigger , the House proposal also contains requirements for interior enforcement and so-called `` e-verify '' rules that employers would need to meet to demonstrate they are tracking potential employees who might be in the country illegally .
The Senate immigration bill , which passed on Thursday , was already a non-starter for most House conservatives . Many House Republicans say they will not agree to any path to citizenship before getting assurances that what they see as the larger issue is addressed firstβ inadequate controls at the border . They also want a major crack down on those overstaying their visas inside the U.S .
House Speaker John Boehner repeated Thursday that has no intention of taking up the Senate passed immigration bill , and said the House would work on its own immigration measures . The House Judiciary Committee has already passed a series of smaller bills . Boehner has called on the bipartisan group to finish its work , though he hasn β t promised a vote on the measure .
Mindful of his party 's focus on security issues , the speaker also stressed he wants strong enforcement measures in order to avoid another influx of undocumented workers , which many argue was the result of the last major congressional effort on immigration reform . `` People have to have confidence that the border is secure before anything else is really going to work . Otherwise , we repeat the mistakes of 1986 , '' Boehner said .
Rep Mario Diaz Balart , R-Florida , another Republican working on the House comprehensive immigration bill , would n't give details on the bill 's border security provisions , but he said they would be different from the Senate , and the issue is central to putting together a reform package that would get significant bipartisan support in the House .
`` If we 're going to do this it has to be enforceable , '' Diaz-Balart said .
It β s unclear how House Democrats will respond to the inclusion of these triggers .
Without mentioning any specifics , House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi suggested Thursday that Democrats should swallow some concessions and get behind the bill that the bipartisan group of lawmakers is drafting .
Referring to that proposal Pelosi said it was `` not everything I would have wanted in a bill , nonetheless a compromise , and one that we can all support . '' She conceded the plan included `` poison pills '' which she called `` not lethal . ''
While Carter emphasized border security was a key part of the deal the group was discussing , he also said it 's unrealistic to completely prevent all illegal crossings .
`` Anybody who thinks you can totally secure the southern border has never been to southern border . I 've been down there all my life . I 'm telling you , you can build a 40 foot wall and put machine guns on it you ca n't secure the southern border . There 's too much wild country , '' Carter said .
Carter said he expects the bipartisan House group to finish its bill over the July 4th congressional recess . The Democratic source told CNN that after a brief huddle on Friday afternoon the bipartisan House group committed to moving ahead with its work . For the last several weeks members of the group have claimed that there were on the verge of unveiling legislation , but they 've repeatedly hit delays and still haven β t ' released any outline or details .
But the Texas Republican suggested there was a push from House Speaker John Boehner to finalize the bill . He said Boehner hasn β t weighed in on substance of the immigration effort , but wants it done . `` All he 's said was β finish it , β '' Carter said . | cf73606140a4cf78 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
middle_east | Fox News | http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/31/islamic-militia-groups-says-it-has-secured-us-compound-in-libya/ | Islamic militia group says it has 'secured' US compound in Libya | 2014-08-31 | middle_east | An Islamic militant group said Sunday it has β secured β a U.S. Embassy compound in Libya β s capital city of Tripoli .
American personnel evacuated the area roughly a month ago amid ongoing fighting in the country .
An Associated Press journalist walked through the compound Sunday after the Dawn of Libya , an umbrella group for Islamist militias , invited onlookers inside .
Windows at the compound had been broken , but it appeared most of the equipment there remained untouched .
The breach of a deserted U.S. diplomatic post likely will reinvigorate debate in the U.S. over its role in Libya , more than three years after supporting rebels who toppled dictator Moammar Gadhafi .
A commander for the Dawn of Libya group said his forces had entered and been in control of the compound since last week .
`` We 've seen the reports and videos and are seeking additional details . '' a senior State Department official told βββ late Sunday . `` At this point , we believe the Embassy compound itself remains secure but we continue to monitor the situation on the ground , which remains very fluid . ''
`` We continue to work with the Government of Libya and other parties on issues of concern . Our Ambassador and other officials remain engaged both in Washington and from our Embassy in Valetta , Malta , where Embassy staff from Tripoli were recently relocated , '' the official said .
No U.S. military or assets were guarding the property after the State Department pulled out .
On Sept. 11 , 2012 , U.S . Ambassador Christopher Stevens , former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty , and State Department information management officer Sean Smith were killed in a terror attack on a U.S. outpost in Benghazi , Libya .
A video posted online showed men playing in a pool at the compound . In a message on Twitter , U.S . Ambassador to Libya Deborah Jones said the video appeared to have been shot in at the embassy 's residential annex .
However , two sources with first-hand knowledge of the embassy and other U.S. facilities in Libya say the YouTube video in which the militia members are diving from a roof into pool was taken at the CIA annex in Tripoli that was abandoned when U.S. Embassy personnel and the ambassador pulled out July 26 . It is about a mile away from the U.S. Embassy in Libya .
When CIA abandoned the annex in July , it would no longer be considered sovereign US territory .
Jones also said the compound appears to be `` safeguarded , '' not `` ransacked . ''
The fighting prompted diplomats and thousands of Tripoli residents to flee . Dozens were killed in the fighting .
On July 26 , U.S. diplomats evacuated to neighboring Tunisia under a U.S. military escort . The State Department said embassy operations would be suspended until the security situation improved .
The Dawn of Libya militia is deployed around the capital and has called on foreign diplomats to return now that the fighting has subsided . | O2GPXzw3BUgCkNxl | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
terrorism | Washington Times | http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/20/wrap-terror-boston-failed-background-checks-bill-w/ | The Wrap: From terror in Boston to ricin-laced letters sent to Obama, the week that was | 2013-04-20 | terrorism | A terror attack in Boston was followed by a massive manhunt for bombers Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan .
On the international stage , the father of the Boston Marathon bombers , Anzor Tsrnaev , spoke from the Russian city of Makhachkala . Mr. Tsrnaev said β all hell would break loose β if his 19-year-old son was killed by authorities .
Here β s a recap , or wrap , on the week that was from The βββ :
β’ Police capture Marathon Bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Watertown
Police have finally bagged the second Boston Marathon bombing suspect Friday night .
In a dramatic end to the daylong manhunt , 19-year-old suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured alive after police zeroed in on his hideout inside a boat stored for the winter in a Watertown , Mass. , backyard .
β’ Boston β bombers are brothers β from Chechnya ; police name both
The two suspects involved in Monday β s marathon bombings in Boston were brothers and hailed from overseas , various media reported Friday . Fox News said Suspect No . 2 who wore the white hat at the Boston Marathon bombings has been identified as Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev , 19 . He hails from Chechnya and had been in the United States for a little more than a year , Bill Hemmer from Fox News reported .
β’ Senate shoots down background checks for guns , angers Obama
Senators dealt a devastating blow to gun control efforts Wednesday , defeating the background check compromise that was the centerpiece of President Obama β s post-Newtown push for stiffer laws and leaving advocates struggling to figure out what to do now .
President Obama angrily blamed the defeat Wednesday of his centerpiece gun-control proposal on lies spread by the National Rifle Association , calling it β a pretty shameful day for Washington . β
β The gun lobby and its allies willfully lied about the bill , β Mr. Obama said in the White House rose garden about 90 minutes after the vote . β It came down to politics . β
β’ WOLF : The 1-percenter who doesn β t pay his β fair share β β President Obama
Resolved : No American citizen shall be required to pay federal income taxes at a rate higher than the country β s millionaire president pays . Let β s call it the Alternative Maximum Fairness Tax : Calculate your current tax rate , compare it to the president β s and pay the lower of the two .
Two bombs explode near the finish line of the Boston Marathon , killing three and injuring more than 100 .
Boston bombing suspect Dzhohar Tsarnaev said on his Russian social media page that his world view was β Islam , β while his older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev talked about being β very religious β and complained there β are no values anymore , β according to an English-language Russian newspaper .
β’ Al Qaeda magazine on pressure cookers : β Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom β
CAIRO β Homemade bombs built from pressure cookers , a version of which was used in the Boston Marathon bombings , have been a frequent weapon of militants in Afghanistan , India and Pakistan . Al-Qaeda β s branch in Yemen once published an online manual on how to make one , urging β lone jihadis β to act on their own to carry out attacks .
β’ Texas fertilizer plant blast β like a war zone β ; more than 160 hurt , some fatally
Police on Thursday were still searching for survivors of a devastating Waco , Texas , fertilizer plant explosion that killed up to 15 and injured at least 160 . Waco Police DepartmentSgt . William Patrick Swanton told Fox News early Thursday morning that the death count is still unknown and could range between 5 and 15 , The number of injured is upwards of 160 , based on reports from three hospitals that have passed along injury updates to police .
β’ Sen. Max Baucus : Health law heading for β train wreck β
A senior Democratic senator who helped write President Obama β s health care law stunned administration officials by saying openly he thinks it β s headed for a β train wreck . β
Sen. Max Baucus of Montana , chairman of the Senate Finance Committee , delivered his tough-love assessment of efforts to implement the Affordable Care Act during a budget hearing that featured Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius .
β’ FBI arrests Mississippi man in ricin-tainted mailings to Obama , senator
The FBI said late Wednesday that it had arrested a Mississippi man accused of sending letters tested positive for the poison ricin to President Obama , a U.S. senator and a Mississippi justice official .
The arrest capped a day in which official Washington was on edge after several senators reported questionable mail delivered to their offices at the Capitol and in their respective states . | A2AHk5AFtKEDfoIl | 2 | Terrorism | -0.1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
healthcare | Washington Times | http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/18/amid-delays-obama-pitches-benefits-health-law/ | Amid delays, Obama pitches benefits of health law | 2013-07-18 | healthcare | Campaigning for the viability of his health care law , President Obama Thursday put on display at the White House families who have received rebate checks from their insurance companies , while ridiculing Republican lawmakers who are trying to repeal the program .
β I recognize that there β s still a lot of folks in this town at least who are rooting for this law to fail , β Mr. Obama said . β Some of them seem to think this law is about me . It β s not β I already have really good health care . β
He chided Republican lawmakers for β refighting these old battles , β holding dozens of votes to repeal parts or all of the 2010 Affordable Care Act .
β Sometimes I just try to figure out why , β Mr. Obama said to laughter from his invited guests . β Maybe they think it β s good politics . β
The president was joined by families who have benefited from the health care law provision that provides consumers with a refund if their insurance company doesn β t spend a set percentage of premium dollars on medical care and improving health care quality , rather than administrative costs or overhead .
Mr. Obama was introduced by Morgan Theriot , a self-employed woman from Silver Spring , Md. , who received a $ 267 refund check from her insurance company last summer after it didn β t meet the requirement to spend at least 80 percent of her premium dollars on her health care .
SEE ALSO : House votes for delays on Obamacare ; some Democrats give support to GOP move
β I β m curious β what do opponents of this law think that folks here today should do with the money they were reimbursed ? β Mr. Obama asked . β Should they send it back to the insurance companies ? Do they think that was a bad idea , to make sure that insurance companies are being held accountable ? β
But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell , Kentucky Republican , said the president isn β t telling Americans the full story .
β What he won β t say is that next year , Obamacare will impose a new sales tax on the purchase of health insurance that will cost Americans about $ 8 billion , β Mr. McConnell said Thursday . β If the administration is concerned with saving people money on their health care , I have some advice for them . Work with us to repeal Obamacare and start over . β
Speaker John A. Boehner , Ohio Republican , said the GOP will continue its efforts to repeal the law .
β The picture that the president paints of his health care law looks nothing like the reality facing struggling American families , β Mr. Boehner said . β The law is costing American jobs ; it β s forcing people to give up health plans they like ; and it β s driving up the cost of care for families across America . In my home state , many Ohioans will pay nearly $ 200 more a month , on average , for individual plans . This law has to go . β
For the law to work as its supporters envision , more young and healthy people need to sign up for insurance under the various health exchanges being set up in states . The audience at the White House included community groups who will be working at the grassroots level across the country to help enroll Americans in the new health insurance marketplaces this fall .
Mr. Obama β s pitch came a day after the House voted to delay mandates in the federal health care law requiring individuals and large employers to have coverage , with dozens of Democrats joining Republicans in poking a symbolic hole in the president β s signature achievement .
Thirty-five Democrats joined with House Republicans to give large businesses a one-year reprieve on the requirement to provide health insurance for full-time employees , helping pass that provision on a 264-161 vote .
The House also voted 251-174 to give individuals the same one-year break , with 22 Democratic lawmakers joining Republicans . The measures are certain to go nowhere in the Democrat-controlled Senate .
The president chuckled at Republican lawmakers for repeatedly voting to repeal provisions of the law .
β Yesterday , despite all the evidence that the law is working the way it was supposed to for middle-class Americans , Republicans in the House of Representatives voted for nearly the 40th time to dismantle it , β he said . β We β ve got a lot of problems in this country , and there β s a lot of work that Congress needs to do . β
Mr. Obama said Americans are already seeing benefits from the law , including in New York , where officials this week said individuals buying insurance on the state-based health care exchange in 2014 will see their premiums drop by an average of 50 percent compared with last year β s direct-pay individual rates .
The president β s progressive allies launched a TV ad campaign timed to coincide with the president β s message . Americans United for Change went on the air with a new TV ad , β Hands Off Obamacare , β attempting to put the GOP on the defensive for trying to strip away provisions of the health law .
β Republicans want to take your benefits away and put insurance companies back in charge , β says the announcer in the ad . β Obamacare is working . Tell Republicans β hands off Obamacare . β
The administration announced July 2 that it was postponing for one year , until 2015 , the law β s requirement for employers with more than 50 workers to provide health insurance for all full-time employees .
Sharon Stiller , an employment law specialist at the New York firm of Abrams , Fensterman , said many of her employer-clients expect the law β s definition of β part-time β employee to be changed . Currently the law defines a part-timer was any employee who works less than 30 hours per week .
β The word on the street is that there may be some changes with respect to the definition of β part-time , β Ms. Stiller said . β It β s harder for employers to decide to do the necessary planning because they β re not sure exactly what the final criterion will be . β | 0jApxXStP9FZ2aiP | 2 | Barack Obama | 0.9 | Healthcare | 0.3 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
elections | Politico | https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/22/republicans-biden-bipartisan-1338090 | βWrong on most everythingβ: GOP smacks down Bidenβs bipartisanship | 2019-05-22 | elections | Joe Biden is making his bipartisan bona fides a centerpiece of his presidential campaign , boasting recently that he persuaded three Republican senators to support the economic stimulus that helped save the country from catastrophe .
β It was my job to find them . To persuade them to vote for it . And I did , β he said in Philadelphia this weekend .
The only problem : Olympia Snowe is retired , Arlen Specter is dead and Susan Collins will be defeated if Democrats get their way next year .
So when the former vice president talks about the GOP having an β epiphany β and working with him if and when he beats President Donald Trump , lawmakers in both parties are skeptical .
β If anyone can do it , it would be Joe Biden , β said Sen. Joe Manchin ( D-W.Va. ) . β But a lot of those people are gone . States have changed . Washington β s changed . β
The centrist wing of the GOP has been hollowed out not just by retirements and death but by the party β s sharp turn right in recent years . The number of Republicans eager to collaborate with a Democratic president might be relegated to Collins and Lisa Murkowski ( R-Alaska ) on some days , and it would take more than them to build the 60-vote coalition Biden would need to advance his agenda .
And the Senate Republicans that remain in the relative middle of the GOP say that while their party may have changed , so has Biden as he runs as a standard progressive .
β He does have relationships , that β s true . But he doesn β t sound like the old Joe Biden that most of us knew when he was here in the Senate , β Sen. John Cornyn ( R-Texas ) said .
β I love Joe Biden , β said Sen. Lindsey Graham ( R-S.C. ) , one of the few GOP dealmakers who once worked with Biden . β I think he β s been wrong on most everything . β
Biden β s approach is in stark contrast to that of other leading Democratic candidates , who are advertising ways that they can steamroll or make end runs around Republicans rather than cooperate with them . Kamala Harris is looking at executive actions , Elizabeth Warren is threatening to end the filibuster and Bernie Sanders hopes to use arcane parliamentary maneuvers to jam `` Medicare for All '' through budget reconciliation .
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell led the GOP blockade against Obama β s entire agenda while in the Senate minority . And in the majority , he β s sidelined Democrats as he β s sought to repeal the Affordable Care Act , cut taxes and confirm conservative judges under Trump .
Warren chuckled when asked about Biden β s view of the Republican Party .
β I will not support a world where there β s one set of rules when the Republicans are in power and a different set of rules when the Democrats have the majority , β she said on Tuesday .
McConnell enjoyed a working relationship with Biden during President Barack Obama β s first term , but liberals say that there β s little reason to believe the Kentucky Republican would be in a mood to cut deals with a President Biden . Exacerbating the tension is the increasing extinction of Democratic and Republican moderates .
β I don β t know how anyone could live through the past 10 years of American politics thinking the fever in the Republican Party is going to break , β said Ezra Levin , co-executive director of progressive organization Indivisible . He said Biden β s view is β dangerous β because it might force the next president to squander time trying to work with a recalcitrant McConnell .
β I think Mitch McConnell has invested his life in obstruction and he 'll invest whatever time he has left here in obstruction , β Sen. Jeff Merkley ( D-Ore. ) said .
Some senators in both parties are holding out hope that partisan tensions will thaw after 2020 . Sen. Tim Kaine said his motto is β high hopes and low expectations β and pointed out that he and McConnell sponsored legislation together this week .
Sen. Kevin Cramer ( R-N.D. ) emphasized his support of Trump but was complimentary of Biden β s message and credited the former vice president β s lead in the polls to his bipartisan approach .
`` I do n't know about an epiphany but Joe Biden , to his credit , he 's got a history of working well with Republicans , β Cramer said .
Some of Biden β s staunchest allies think it would be wrong not to approach his campaign with a message of restoring bipartisanship .
Biden knows β exactly how hard it is to make progress in the face of Republican obstruction , β said Sen. Chris Coons , who has endorsed his fellow Delaware Democrat . β But he β s willing to step forward , give it his best and make progress on our behalf . β
Obama predicted in 2012 that the GOP β s β fever β would break if he could win reelection . And his victory did lead the Republican Party to conduct a lengthy autopsy , with 14 Republican senators soon working on comprehensive immigration reform with Democrats .
But that bill died in the GOP-led House and Republicans soon pushed a government shutdown in a failed bid to repeal Obamacare . Senate Democrats killed the filibuster on most nominations amid a Republican blockade and the rest of Obama β s legislative agenda never got off the ground after the GOP took the Senate in 2014 .
By the time 2021 rolls around , a full nine of the 14 pro-immigration GOP senators will be gone , though some newcomers , like Mitt Romney of Utah and Cory Gardner of Colorado , have some centrist sensibilities on the issue .
Though Biden is portraying Trump as an aberration , the decision to stifle Obama β s priorities was made by Republicans long before the reality-show businessman entered politics .
β It β s a different environment , different atmosphere . Obviously , when he was here he was one of those guys who had relationships on the other side and tried to work with folks , β said Sen. John Thune ( R-S.D. ) . β But if you look at the more recent evolution of the Senate and the dynamics ? It would be a bit of reach to say it will be real easy to come in and get a lot of stuff done . β
Biden acknowledges the criticism his throwback view receives : In Philadelphia , he said his critics are claiming his view is β not the way it works anymore. β He vowed to sometimes forge ahead without Republicans .
Yet even if Democrats keep the House and take back the Senate , they are unlikely to have a filibuster proof majority or anything close to it ahead of a pitched battle for Senate control in 2020 . That means passing something like landmark Obama-era bills such as the Recovery Act , Obamacare or the Dodd-Frank financial reforms , would require the help of perhaps a half-dozen or more Republicans .
Even senators supporting Biden in the presidential primary said that the task of getting the GOP to work with Democrats could prove impossible .
β Every year it gets harder and harder . I understand that sentiment because it is really hard to work with ideologues and many of them are , β Sen. Bob Casey ( D-Pa. ) said . β But you also can β t eliminate or foreclose the possibility that there β s a way to get some consensus . β
Republicans say they are skeptical Democrats have any interest working across the aisle anyway after fighting Trump for years .
β Today β s Democratic Party is consumed with rage and hatred for President Trump , β Sen. Ted Cruz said . The Texas Republican ran against Trump and led the fight to shut down the government over Obamacare in 2013 . β It β s hard to see how Democrats prevailing at the polls would cause them to step back from the anger . β
Even if the reality is that gridlock will reign no matter who wins the presidency , polls show that Biden β s hopeful message is popular among Democratic voters . In a recent CNN poll , 77 percent of respondents said working with Republicans was important to them ; only beating Trump was listed as a higher priority .
β I think people want this place to come together , β Sen. Chris Murphy ( D-Conn. ) said . β So it β s a smart political message . β | xUD1kk2jFwJrgjB7 | 0 | Joe Biden | -0.3 | Election2020 | 0 | GOP | 0 | Presidential Elections | 0 | Elections | 0 |
north_korea | Reuters | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-southkorea/north-korea-says-denuclearization-pledge-not-result-of-u-s-led-sanctions-idUSKBN1I703M | North Korea says denuclearization pledge not result of U.S.-led sanctions | 2018-05-06 | North Korea, Nuclear Weapons, World | SEOUL ( βββ ) - North Korea said on Sunday its intention to denuclearize , unveiled at a historic inter-Korean summit , was not the result of U.S.-led sanctions and pressure , warning the United States not to mislead public opinion .
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ( inside a vehicle ) bids farewell to South Korean President Moon Jae-in as he leaves after a farewell ceremony at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas , South Korea , April 27 , 2018 . Korea Summit Press Pool/Pool via βββ
Impoverished North Korea has been hit by a series of U.N. and U.S. sanctions in recent years in a bid to rein in its nuclear and missile programs .
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in vowed β complete denuclearization β of the Korean peninsula in the first inter-Korean summit in more than a decade on April 27 , but the declaration did not include concrete steps to reach that goal .
The North β s official KCNA news agency said Washington was β misleading public opinion β by claiming the denuclearization pledge was the result of sanctions and other pressure .
The United States should not β deliberately provoke β the North by moving to deploy strategic assets in South Korea and raising human rights issues , KCNA said , citing a foreign ministry spokesman .
β This act can not be construed otherwise than a dangerous attempt to ruin the hardly-won atmosphere of dialogue and bring the situation back to square one , β the spokesman was quoted as saying .
It would not be conducive to resolving the issue of denuclearization if Washington miscalculated North Korea β s β peace-loving intention β as a sign of weakness and continued to pursue its pressure and military threats , KCNA said .
U.S. President Donald Trump , who plans to meet Kim over the next few weeks , has said he will maintain sanctions and pressure on the North and β not repeat the mistakes of past administrations β and has said his tough stance had led to the breakthrough .
Trump told the National Rifle Association β s annual convention in Dallas on Friday that he had toned down his rhetoric in anticipation of the talks after labeling Kim β Little Rocket Man β last year and threatening him with β fire and fury β .
Moon said Trump deserved a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the standoff with the North .
The White House said that Trump β s national security adviser , John Bolton , met his South Korean counterpart , Chung Eui-yong , on Friday and both said there were no plans to change the U.S.βSouth Korea bilateral defense posture .
North and South Korea are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce , not a peace treaty . South Korea said U.S. troops need to stay in the area even after a peace treaty is concluded to replace the armistice .
The United States stations 28,500 troops in South Korea , a legacy of the war . | db473efe6368485f | 1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
coronavirus | Associated Press | https://apnews.com/article/canada-truck-blockade-protest-coronavirus-police-1f2c87b2c31fef9cdce65449a0035334 | Canadian police start arresting protesters in Ottawa | 2022-02-18 | Coronavirus, Freedom Convoy, Canada, Vaccine Mandates | OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) β Police arrested scores of demonstrators and towed away vehicles Friday in Canadaβs besieged capital, and a stream of trucks started leaving under the pressure, raising authoritiesβ hopes for an end to the three-week protest against the countryβs COVID-19 restrictions.By evening, at least 100 people had been arrested, mostly on mischief charges, and nearly two dozen vehicles had been towed, including all of those blocking one of the cityβs major streets, authorities said. One officer had a minor injury, but no protesters were hurt, interim Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell said.Police βcontinue to push forward to take control of our streets,β he said, adding: βWe will work day and night until this is completed.βThose arrested included four protest leaders. One received bail while the others remained jailed.The crackdown on the self-styled Freedom Convoy began in the morning, when hundreds of police, some in riot gear and some carrying automatic weapons, descended into the protest zone and began leading demonstrators away in handcuffs through the snowy streets as holdout truckers blared their horns.Tow truck operators β wearing neon-green ski masks, with their companiesβ decals taped over on their trucks to conceal their identities β arrived under police escort and started removing the hundreds of big rigs, campers and other vehicles parked shoulder-to-shoulder near Parliament. Police smashed through the door of at least one RV camper before hauling it away.Scuffles broke out in places, and police repeatedly went nose-to-nose with the protesters and pushed the crowd back amid cries of βFreedom!β and the singing of the national anthem, βO Canada.β Later police on horses were used to push back the crowd for a time.Police said late in the afternoon that protesters had assaulted officers and tried to take their weapons. Some began dismantling equipment at a stage where they had played music for weeks, saying they didnβt want it to get destroyed.Many protesters stood their ground in the face of one of the biggest police enforcement actions in Canadaβs history, with officers drawn from around the country.βFreedom was never free,β said trucker Kevin Homaund, of Montreal. βSo what if they put the handcuffs on us and they put us in jail?βBut a steady procession of trucks began leaving Parliament Hill in the afternoon.βThere are indications we are now starting to see progress,β Ontario Premier Doug Ford said.Police would not disclose how many protesters or vehicles remained downtown. All indications were that police would be working into the weekend to clear the area.The capital and its paralyzed streets represented the movementβs last stronghold after weeks of demonstrations and blockades that shut down border crossings into the U.S. and created one of the most serious tests yet for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. They also shook Canadaβs reputation for civility, with some blaming Americaβs influence.Authorities had hesitated to move against the protests, in part because of fears of violence. The demonstrations have drawn right-wing extremists and veterans, some of them armed.With police and the government facing accusations that they let the protests get out of hand, Trudeau on Monday invoked Canadaβs Emergencies Act. That gave law enforcement extraordinary authority to declare the blockades illegal, tow away trucks, arrest the drivers, suspend their licenses and freeze their bank accounts.Ottawa police made their first move to end the occupation late Thursday with the arrest of two key protest leaders. They also sealed off much of the downtown area to outsiders to prevent them from coming to the aid of the protesters.The emergency act enabled law enforcement authorities to compel tow truck companies to assist. Ottawa police said earlier that they couldnβt find tow truck drivers willing to help because they either sympathized with the movement or feared retaliation.As police worked to dismantle the siege, Pat King, one of the protest leaders, told truckers, βPlease stay peaceful,β while also threatening the livelihoods of the tow truck operators.βYou are committing career suicide,β King warned on Facebook. βWe know where the trucks came from.βKing himself was later arrested by officers who surrounded him in his car.Ottawa police had made it clear for days that they were preparing to retake the streets. On Friday, even as the operation was underway, police issued another round of warnings via social media and loudspeaker, offering protesters one more chance to leave and avoid arrest.Some locked arms instead as officers formed a line to push them back.Dan Holland, a protester from London Ontario, packed up his car as police closed in. βI donβt want to get beat up by this police,β he said.Children bundled up in coats and hats stood amid the crowd. Police said the protesters had put the youngsters in the middle in the confrontation.The Freedom Convoy demonstrations initially focused on Canadaβs vaccine requirement for truckers entering the country but soon morphed into a broad attack on COVID-19 precautions and Trudeauβs government.Ottawa residents complained of being harassed and intimidated by the truckers and obtained a court injunction to stop their incessant honking.Trudeau portrayed the protesters as members of a βfringeβ element. Canadians have largely embraced the countryβs COVID-19 restrictions, with the vast majority vaccinated, including an estimated 90% of the nationβs truckers. Some of the vaccine and mask mandates imposed by the provinces are already falling away rapidly.The biggest border blockade, at the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, disrupted the flow of auto parts between the two countries and forced the industry to curtail production. Authorities lifted the siege last weekend after arresting dozens of protesters.The final border blockade, in Manitoba, across from North Dakota, ended peacefully on Wednesday.The protests have been cheered on and received donations from conservatives in the U.S.___Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press writer John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed. | 6d5acdf7495485d4 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
national_security | Fox Online News | https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-emmanuel-macron-nato-france-needs-alliance-brain-dead | Trump slams Emmanuel Macron's rebuke of NATO, says France needs the alliance the most | national_security | President Trump on Tuesday tangled with French President Emmanuel Macron in a tense exchange in front of reporters in London , where Trump asked Macron if he β d like to take back β some nice ISIS fighters β and then dinged him for his β non-answer β β just hours after he challenged the French president 's rebuke of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ( NATO ) .
β I have not spoken to the president about that β would you like some nice ISIS fighters ? β he asked Macron , when asked about ISIS fighters from Europe captured in Syria . β I can give them to you , you can take every one you want . β
TRUMP TALKS UP 'SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP ' WITH MACRON , HOURS AFTER THREAT TO SLAP TARIFFS ON FRENCH WINE
After Macron β s answer , in which he urged Trump to β be serious β and called for a broader push against ISIS overall , Trump took another swipe .
β This is why he β s a great politician , because that β s one of the greatest non-answers I β ve ever heard , β Trump joked .
That exchange came hours after Trump criticized a β very , very nasty statement β about the NATO alliance β referring to comments Macron made that recent U.S. troop actions in Syria contributed to the β brain death β of the military alliance .
β Nobody needs NATO more than France , β Trump said , alluding to France being invaded twice during both World Wars . β It β s a very dangerous statement for them to make , β Trump said . β Frankly , the one that benefits the least is the United States . We are helping Europe unite and go against a common foe β may not be a foe β I ca n't tell you . ''
β It is a very tough statement to make when you have such difficulty in France when you look at what is going on , '' Trump continued . `` They have had a very rough year . You just ca n't go around making statements like that about NATO . It is very disrespectful . ''
Macron β s remarks came weeks after Turkey β a member of NATO β invaded northern Syria .
FRANCE 'S MACRON CLAIMS NATO EXPERIENCING A 'BRAIN DEATH ' IN WAKE OF US TROOPS MOVEMENTS IN SYRIA
`` What we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO , '' Macron told The Economist magazine in the wake of the United States ' decision to withdraw troops from northeastern Syria . He said the U.S. appears to be `` turning its back on us . ''
`` So as soon as you have a member who feels they have a right to head off on their own , granted by the United States of America , they do it , '' Macron said , referring to Turkey 's military offensive into Syria following the troop withdrawal . `` And that 's what happened . ''
But on Tuesday the two were more conciliatory , with Macron repeatedly saying they β agree β on Trump β s quest to get countries to stump up more in defense spending . As part of the NATO alliance , countries commit to spending at least 2 percent of their own gross domestic product ( GDP ) in the bloc 's defense . A number of countries have spent less than that , including France and Germany , while the U.S. spends significantly more .
That push appears to work , with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg telling Congress earler this year that it had a `` real impact '' and that allies are now adding billions β with European allies and Canada expected to have spent an additional $ 100 billion by the end of next year .
`` NATO has come a long way in three years and it 's become very , very powerful and it 's become I think a much fairer statement in terms of the United States , '' Trump said Tuesday .
Macron noted that the U.S. has β overinvested β for decades and that he is a strong advocate of a stronger European component in NATO . But he also warned against putting too much emphasis on the cost , rather than the overall strategy .
β When we talk about NATO , it is not just about money , we have to be respectful with our soldiers , β he said . He also called for allies to unite on a definition of terrorism β noting that in the Syria conflict , Turkey has been fighting against the Kurds , which have traditionally stood alongside the West in fighting against ISIS .
Another issue between the two countries is Macron β s recent decision to impose a French digital services tax on American companies , including Facebook , Google and Twitter .
The White House this week announced that the tax , which it claims β discriminates β against U.S. companies , will be met with tariffs of up to 100 percent on $ 2.4 billion worth of French products such as cheese , yogurt , sparkling wine and makeup , The Washington Post reported .
β I β m not so in love with Facebook , Google , or Twitter β well , I do well on Twitter from the other side , β Trump said . β But I don β t want France taxing American companies . β
He repeated that sentiment in the press conference on Tuesday : β They β re not my favorite people because they β re not exactly for me β but that β s OK , I don β t care , they β re American companies and we want to tax American companies .... that 's not for somebody else to tax . β
This comes as Trump is set to meet with NATO members during a two-day summit in London . Trump would not confirm if he 'll meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip ErdoΔan . Turkish media in late November quoted Erdogan 's adviser saying the country was considering dropping out of NATO . | b5OPWcLFxlbfl1bs | 2 | Donald Trump | 0.2 | Emmanuel Macron | 0.2 | NATO | -0.2 | National Security | -0.1 | Defense And Security | 0 | |
impeachment | CNSNews.com | https://cnsnews.com/article/national/susan-jones/mcconnell-slap-dash-impeachment-will-be-dumped-senate | McConnell: 'A Slap-Dash' Impeachment Will Be 'Dumped' on the Senate | 2019-12-17 | Donald Trump, Impeachment, Mitch McConnell, Congress, Ukraine, White House, Politics | ( βββ ) - `` The most unfair impeachment inquiry in modern history is about to wind down after just 12 weeks , '' Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ( R-Ky. ) said in a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday , one day before the anticipated vote by the full House to impeach President Donald Trump .
A slap-dash work product will be dumped on us over here in the Senate . I will have much more to say to our colleagues and the American people if and when the House does move ahead . But as we speak today , House Democrats still have the opportunity to do the right thing for the country and avoid setting this toxic new precedent . The House can turn back from a cliff and not deploy this constitutional remedy of last resort to deliver a pre-determined partisan outcome .
McConnell also addressed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ( D-N.Y. ) , who set out his vision of the anticipated impeachment trial in an eleven-paragraph letter , delivered to McConnell `` by way of the news media . ''
`` The Democratic leader 's letter is an interesting document from the very beginning , '' McConnell said . `` For example , in the second of its 11 paragraphs , our colleague literally misquotes the Constitution . That error actually aligns with our colleague 's apparent confusion about some of the deeper questions . ''
In his letter to McConnell , Schumer said the Senate should exercise its `` sole power of impeachment under the Constitution with integrity and dignity . ''
McConnell noted that Schumer `` attributed to the Senate , quote , 'the sole power of impeachment . '
`` Well , there is his problem ... That 's the role the Constitution gives actually to the House , not to the Senate . They give it to the House . Article 1 , section 2 says the House of Representatives 'shall have the sole power of impeachment . ' Does n't sound ambiguous to me . ''
McConnell noted that Article 1 , section 3 says the Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments . `` We do n't create impeachments over here , Mr. President , we judge them , '' McConnell clarified .
Schumer , in his letter to McConnell , requested that the Senate call four witnesses , including former National Security Adviser John Bolton and Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and two other men who worked with Bolton and Mulvaney .
McConnell seemed to dismiss that request on Tuesday , as follows :
`` The House chose this road . It is their duty to investigate . It is their duty to meet the very high bar for undoing a national election . As Speaker Pelosi herself once said , it is the House 's obligation to quote , 'build an iron-clad case to act . ' That 's speaker Pelosi . 'It 's the House 's obligation to build an iron-clad case to act , ' end quote . If they fail , they fail .
`` It 's not the Senate 's job to leap into the breach and search desperately for ways to get to guilty , '' McConnell continued :
In fact , our colleague is already desperate to sign up the Senate for new fact-finding , which House Democrats themselves were too impatient to see through . Well , that suggests something to me . It suggests that even Democrats who do not like this president are beginning to realize how dramatically insufficient the House 's rushed process has been . Look , I hope the House of Representatives sees that , too . If House Democrats ' case is this deficient , this thin , the answer is not for the judge and jury to cure it over here in the Senate . The answer is the House should not impeach on this basis in the first place . But if the House plows ahead , if they send it up here in the Senate , we certainly do not need jurors to start brainstorming witness lists for the prosecution and demanding to lock them in before we 've even heard opening arguments .
McConnell said he looks forward to meeting with Schumer `` very soon and getting our important conversation back on the right foot . '' | 149f80b3062c873e | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
holidays | The Guardian | https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/28/thanksgiving-trump-turkey-politics-family-dinner | How to celebrate Thanksgiving β without mentioning Trump | 2019-11-28 | Thanksgiving, Family And Marriage, Tradition, History, Holidays, General News | This Thanksgiving , plan on observing a day of silence β Trump silence . Try to enjoy this day of togetherness and gratitude without uttering the name of the 45th president . Ask your friends and family attending your Thanksgiving Day dinner to honor your plan .
Kamala Harris and Mindy Kaling 's Indian cooking melted my heart β and made me cringe Read more
We understand that this will not be easy . And so we have prepared a list of FAQs to help prepare you and yours for a day of Trump silence .
Traditionally , many families take a moment before the meal begins to say grace or recite a short prayer of thanks . This year , in lieu of those blessings we recommend that all present repeat the following together :
I like the idea , but a full day ? I don β t think I can do it . Frankly , it seems impossible .
This is a common sentiment . We recognize that not everyone will be able to go an entire day . For guests at your meal who feel they must talk about Trump , we recommend they pretend to be smokers , step outside , and furiously shout to themselves until they feel they can return to the table . You might also encourage them to call an MSNBC emergency Trump hotline where they can bark expletives for a small fee . They can return once they have recovered their composure .
This , too , is a common question . But recall , there are many things to talk about besides Trump . You can use this as a chance to ask your children about their education or lives in general ; to discuss recent breakthroughs in phyllotaxis , the study of mathematical patterns in plant life ; to compare with friends how many cups of coffee you drink in a day , and when in the day you drink them . The topics are virtually limitless .
Is it OK to at least talk about what a loathsome , boot-licking toady Devin Nunes is ?
We think not . Remember , this may seem like a point of universal agreement , but ol β Uncle Ernie , with his aluminum foil hat , may feel differently !
This is a difficult one . However innocent your intent , we do worry that in a β divided β household , this may come across as a subtle but unmistakable provocation . We would urge you , maybe for just this year , to stick with the cranberry sauce . Similarly , under no circumstances should you consider swapping the traditional turkey main course for chicken kiev .
Tread carefully here . Be careful not to deviate from the script of Pilgrims celebrating their survival in Plymouth with their Native American frenemies . By no means allow this to slip into a tale of heavily armed white supremacists stealing food from the undocumented ancestors of Elizabeth Warren . Consider skipping the Thanksgiving story altogether ; try telling a heart-warming Hanukah tale instead .
What if , during dessert , a guest suddenly blurts out : β He could win in 2020 ! ! WHAT THEN ? ? ? β
This is bound to happen . Preparation is the key . Not responding is the first step . We recommend then gently escorting your guest to a quiet room in the house . Give them time for a good cry and several minutes of deep , clearing breaths . Should the episode repeat , we suggest discreetly wrapping your guest β s head with duct tape .
I receive notifications of the president β s tweets on my iPhone . What if in the middle of our meal , I see that he has tweeted a fresh outrage against basic human decency and the precepts of constitutional governance ? Can I at least mime this to others at the table ?
Yes , of course . After all , we must be realistic about what we β re asking of people . | 28a4c2cbc6de5d0a | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
culture | Salon | http://www.salon.com/2013/12/27/2013_the_worst_tweets_of_the_year_2/ | 2013: The worst tweets of the year | 2013-12-27 | Culture | Picking out the worst tweets of the year is like picking out the prettiest snowflake . There are just too many to see , let alone single out . And in a year crowded with the likes of Geraldo Rivera and Amanda Bynes and Kenneth Cole , it was hard to choose . But for their sheer inanity , hastiness or just plain crabbiness , we 've got to give a big hand to those who really went beyond the call of duty this year , revealing so much in so few characters .
A late entry in the year 's competition , but a powerful one . While heading off on a December trip , the PR exec , who has subsequently `` parted ways '' with her employer , tweeted , `` Going to Africa . Hope I do n't get AIDS . Just kidding . I 'm white ! '' That she could be so horribly wrong and then so unsatisfyingly unavailable for the duration of an international flight led to an inevitable # hasjustinelanded hashtag Twitter storm . It also caused a fury of Internet rage , a deleted tweet and an apology `` for the pain I caused . '' One upside -- some clever person registered justinesacco.com -- and had it redirect to Aid for Africa .
The author and professional fly in the ointment of religion had faint praise for Islam in August , when he dryly noted the religion 's poor showing in the Nobels . Gosh , if only the whole system of faith were built on prize winning , it might have been a real burn .
All the world 's Muslims have fewer Nobel Prizes than Trinity College , Cambridge . They did great things in the Middle Ages , though . β Richard Dawkins ( @ RichardDawkins ) August 8 , 2013
The Republican representative for Texas 's 36th congressional district is very , very angry , very , very often . He calls `` Obamacare less popular than Chlamydia '' and uses his Twitter feed to sell bumper stickers that say , `` If babies had guns , they wouldn β t be aborted . '' In short , he 's a veritable geyser of awful commentary .
Democrats : Oppose cookies in schools because they may be unhealthy . Support unregulated abortion clinics . β Rep. Steve Stockman ( @ StockmanSenate ) July 10 , 2013
Maybe he was just tired of all the attention BatKid got . In December , the TV writer cracked about sick children β comedy gold ! And for what it 's worth , joke writers , a child does n't have to be terminally ill to qualify for Make-A-Wish .
I 'm all for Make-A-Wish as long as they can guarantee the kid wo n't pull through at the last minute . β Gary Janetti ( @ GaryJanetti ) December 8 , 2013
When late-night host Jimmy Kimmel poked fun of West on his show in September , the rapper went into full caps-lock mode , ranting , `` JIMMY KIMMEL PUT YOURSELF IN MY SHOES β¦ OH NO THAT MEANS YOU WOULD HAVE GOTTEN TOO MUCH GOOD PUSSY IN YOUR LIFEβ¦ '' and `` YOU CAN β T PUT YOURSELF IN MY SHOES . YOUR FACE LOOKS CRAZYβ¦ IS THAT FUNNY ? β¦ OR IF I HAD A KID SAY IT WOULD IT BE FUNNY ? ? ? '' and telling him he resembled SpongeBob . Naturally the whole thing ended with Kanye doing much deleting , guesting on Kimmel 's show , and warning him , `` You shoulda saw the second set of tweets ! ''
In one of the summer 's strangest meltdowns , a man who built his reputation as a `` male feminist '' β and who 'd announced just days before he was going offline to get away from the `` toxicity of take-down culture '' -- had what he called an `` episode , '' posting dozens of tweets in which he detailed how he 'd `` hurt so many people with lies . '' Though Schwyzer called himself `` a reminder of what [ the ] manipulative mentally ill can do , '' his saddest revelation of all was the weary observation about his own infamy .
Well , that was a manic episode . β Hugo Schwyzer ( @ hugoschwyzer ) August 9 , 2013
Being microinfamous sucks . β Hugo Schwyzer ( @ hugoschwyzer ) August 9 , 2013
On Oscar night , the usually brilliant humor site belly flopped badly by remarking of the 9-year-old Best Actress nominee , `` Everyone else seems afraid to say it , but that QuvenzhanΓ© Wallis is kind of a c -- t , right ? '' Even Onion fans were n't amused . The post was quickly deleted , and the company CEO called it a `` senseless , humorless comment masquerading as satire . ''
This is not how you remember Pearl Harbor β with an anthropomorphized piece of canned pasta . But tell that to the clueless soul who was at the Twitter wheel December 7 , when the brand did exactly that , advising , `` Take a moment to remember # PearlHarbor with us '' and featuring its jaunty , orange-sneakered mascot waving a flag . Though the tweet was quickly yanked , the most troubling mystery of the whole controversy is the lingering question as to why SpaghettiOs has almost 13,000 twitter followers .
It has n't been a great year for the impulse-control-challenged former `` 30 Rock '' star and short-lived MSNBC host . In April , incensed that a reporter suggested Baldwin 's wife had been tweeting during James Gandolfini β s funeral , he raged about the `` little bitch '' and `` toxic little queen '' and warned he 'd like to put his foot in one of the writer 's orifices -- except that he worried `` You 'd dig it too much . '' Unsurprisingly , Baldwin deleted the entire sputtering mess soon after .
The reliably toxic professional troll capped off America 's summer of racially explosive ugliness in August by declaring that `` I am thankful this week that America is big enough and great enough to survive grown-up Trayvon Martin in the White House ! '' He must have changed his mind about his gratitude though β he deleted the tweet soon after .
It 's always hard to pick just one incident of the Donald being utterly nonsensical on Twitter , but there 's got to be a special prize for his entirely predictable tinfoil-hatted reaction to the December death of Loretta Fuddy .
How amazing , the State Health Director who verified copies of Obama β s β birth certificate β died in plane crash today . All others lived β Donald J. Trump ( @ realDonaldTrump ) December 12 , 2013
On the historic day DOMA was overturned , the Director of Issues Analysis for the American Family Association expressed the deep fear of homophobes everywhere . It was almost too hilariously ridiculous to offend . Almost . Happy new year , tweeters . And sodomy-based marriage for all ! | 25feb268882d58c7 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
terrorism | Politico | http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/obama-war-on-terror-90479.html?hp=t1 | Terror takes a front seat | 2013-04-23 | terrorism | President Obama has taken pains not to cast the Boston attack as part of a larger conflict . Terror takes a front seat
President Barack Obama wasn β t shy about invoking Osama bin Laden β s killing during the 2012 campaign β but when it comes to his larger approach to terrorism he β s pursued a policy of speaking softly and ordering lots of drone strikes .
That delicate balance was shattered by the Boston Marathon attack , thrusting a downplayed anti-terror campaign into the spotlight and the issue of terrorism to the top of Obama β s second-term priorities , at least in the short term .
Obama , whose 2008 election was propelled by opposition to the Iraq War , has jettisoned the clash-of-civilizations rhetoric favored by George W. Bush β even as he β s embraced or ramped up many of the same anti-terror methods β the deployment of unmanned drones , warrant-less wiretapping , the open-ended use of Guantanamo Bay to warehouse potential terrorists .
Those two seemingly contradictory strategies are bound by a single motive : Obama wanted to go after terrorists without allowing the War on Terror to devour a second presidency , hoping to put it on the back burner behind domestic issues , the economy and his top foreign policy priority of rebuilding America β s image around the world .
β He β s got this disconnect between his body language , his emotions and his actions , β says former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer , who thinks Obama has charted the right course in the wake of the Boston attacks so far . β It β s a reflection of how he wants to prioritize the public discussionβ¦ He β s been pretty tough and good on anti-terror policy but he doesn β t want to talk about it that muchβ¦ He doesn β t want this to be the conversation , he doesn β t want to lean in to it emotionally like [ we ] did .
Obama and his advisers have counseled moderation and engagement to deal with the challenge of radicalization over the years , but the marathon attacks are already spurring demands for a tougher response . The standard Obama approach doesn β t seem like it β s going to work β there β s deep concern about the independent , homegrown nature of the attackers and key Congressional Republicans immediately criticized the administration for its decision not to classify the captured bomber as an enemy combatant .
β Even if it turns out that these guys aren β t foreign-directed , that you had at least one American citizen launching a homegrown terrorist attack on American soil , that changes the game , β says Matt Miller , a former Justice Department spokesman under Attorney General Eric Holder .
β For years , the president and experts have warned about this kind of homegrown terrorism , coming from communities in our midst , but it hasn β t happened and the public didn β t really pay that much attention to the threatβ¦ The issue of radicalization of our own people is now a reality , and that β s something this administration has feared for a long time , β he added .
In statements to the press , and in his speech at the memorial service for the three people killed at the marathon last week , Obama has taken pains to avoid casting the attack as part of a larger conflict , warning people not to draw β premature β conclusions from the reports surfacing about the Chechen brothers accused of detonating a pair or crude but murderous homemade pressure-cooker bombs .
But , as commander-in-chief , he β s also been careful to strike a defiant tone , keeping the door open to a broader response if the attack is found to be part of a larger plot . | eWGOypg3N8lFm23O | 0 | Boston Bombing | -0.8 | Terrorism | -0.8 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
immigration | Townhall | https://townhall.com/tipsheet/cortneyobrien/2018/11/20/judge-asylum-n2536253 | A Judge Just Ruled Asylum Claims Must Be Accepted Anywhere Along Border | 2018-11-20 | Immigration | The White House announced earlier this month that migrants hoping to enter the U.S. could only claim asylum at certain points of entry, not just anywhere along the border. Critics accused President Trump of circumventing Congress and rights groups like the ACLU challenged the decision in court. The opponents have now won a short term victory. Judge Jon S. Tigar of the United States District Court in San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order on Monday blocking the new rule. "Whatever the scope of the presidentβs authority, he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden,β Tigar wrote. Brandon Judd, President of the National Border Patrol Council, responded on Fox News Tuesday, saying that the judge βjust encouraged migrants to break the law.β The White House is expected to appeal the decision. President Trump has sounded off on the migrant caravan heading toward the U.S.-Mexico border, calling it an "invasion." He sent about 5,000 troops to the border to prevent the caravan from entering the U.S. DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has been active on Twitter sharing how her agency is dealing with the overwhelming amount of asylum seekers. Parents Want Their Rights Back Media's Panic Attack Over DOGE Sends Liberal Elites & Dems Packing WILDCARD WEDNESDAY: DOGE, Bill Belichick, and Droves of Democrats JD Vance Has a Message for Young Men Tax Cuts on the Line: AFPβs Akash Chougule Optimistic About GOPβs βOne Big, Beautiful Billβ Dems' Humiliating Moment During Fiery DOGE Hearing WILDCARD WEDNESDAY: Things You Should Hear About, but Arenβt 'Root Out This Corruption!' Katie Pavlich Questions Comer, Habba on Left Wing Scheme Trump's Victories Are Causing Mass Democrat Panic Speaker Johnson on DOGE, Israel, Reforming FBI & More | This Week on Capitol Hill Is This the End of Margaret Brennan's Career? RFK Jr. Confirmed! Big Pharma in Shambles Over MAHA Agenda?! Stephen Miller Rips White House Reporters for Covering Up Biden Cognitive Decline to Their Faces Budget Battles in Congress: Akash Chougule Breaks Down Trumpβs Latest Move Javier Milei Surprises Elon Musk With A Special Gift This Week on Capitol Hill: Trump's Last Call for Hamas Brave, Bold, and Bada**: Stacy Washington Dems Plan Elon Musk Impeachment While Media Panics Over 'Constitutional Crisis' Something Remarkable Happened When Trump Saved Women's Sports From Gender Ideology Stephen Miller Ends CNN Host's Career! Trump Torches Critics! Title IX Is Still in Trouble Democrats Enraged at Trump Wins Threaten Impeachment and Revolution Chaos? Congressman Wesley Hunt Is Loving It. The Circus and the Tidal Wave: WILDCARD WEDNESDAY Joe & Mika Rage: Liberal Media Melts Down When Trump Takes Control! Townhall.com is the leading source for conservative news and political commentary and analysis. Copyright Β© Townhall.com/Salem Media. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you | 58307c8b78f30106 | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
politics | Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/07/fact-checking-eighth-democratic-primary-debate/ | Fact-checking the eighth Democratic primary debate | 2020-02-08 | 2020 Election, Democratic Party, New Hampshire, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Iowa Caucus, Politics | clockThis article was published more than 5 years ago The eighth Democratic presidential debate of the 2020 campaign, hosted by ABC, WMUR (Channel 9), and Apple News, had seven candidates, lasted 2Β½ hours β and did not have many statements that merited fact-checking. Here are eight claims that caught our attention. Our practice is not to award Pinocchios in debate roundups. | e8cf2d5f761a055d | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
white_house | Washington Times | http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/feb/16/trump-blasts-media-for-ignoring-early-successes-un/ | Trump blasts βout of controlβ media for ignoring early successes | 2017-02-16 | white_house | President Trump struck back at the news media and mounted a defense of his still-young administration Thursday , saying the press was β out of control β with attacks on him , and that the White House was running like a β fine-tuned machine . β
At a hastily arranged press conference , Mr. Trump accused news organizations of ignoring his successes and attempting to undermine him with β fake news , β saying that much of the news media was working to protect the special interests and status quo in Washington that he was elected to destroy .
β The media β s trying to attack our administration because they know we are following through on pledges that we made , and they β re not happy about it , β he said at the freewheeling press conference , where he answered questions from a variety of new outlets for more than an hour .
β I see [ news ] stories of chaos , chaos , yet it is the exact opposite , β said Mr. Trump . β This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine despite the fact that I can β t get my Cabinet approved . β
He rattled off early successes , including the record highs in the stock market , major companies such as Ford opting to keep factories in the U.S. , the cancellation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and ordering the Pentagon to devise new plans to destroy the Islamic State .
Mr. Trump said he called the press conference to β take my message straight to the people . β
SEE ALSO : Chris Collins : Donald Trump β relaxed , β β focused , β but frustrated with the news media
The president chose to put himself in front of the White House press corps amid a tumultuous week .
His nominee for labor secretary , fast-food executive Andrew Puzder , withdrew his nomination Wednesday due to dwindling support from Senate Republicans .
Mr. Trump forced his national security adviser , Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn , to resign Monday because he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about conversations with the Russian ambassador during the transition .
Mr. Trump had previously blamed Mr. Flynn β s downfall on the news media and illegal leaks from the intelligence community that exposed his erroneous statements denying he talked to the ambassador about U.S. sanctions against Russia .
He said the relentless news stories about his alleged connections with Russia were a β ruse . β
Still , the rough week and the confusion that followed the rollout of his executive order for an extreme vetting program bellied his claims of the administration performing like a β fine-tuned machine . β
He also claimed the rollout of extreme vetting to temporarily halt visitors from seven predominantly Muslim countries , which was suspended by federal court rulings , was β very smooth . β
β Let me tell you about the travel ban . We had a very smooth rollout of the travel ban . But we had a bad court . Got a bad decision , β he said .
Mr. Trump opened the press conference by announcing his new pick to run the Labor Department , former National Labor Relations Board member R. Alexander Acosta . But he quickly launched into his rebuke of the news media .
Making a case for his early successes , the president said the news media had underreported the β mess β he inherited from President Obama .
β As you know , our administration inherited many problems across government and across the economy , β he said . β To be honest , I inherited a mess . It β s a mess . At home and abroad , a mess . β
Listing problems that include jobs leaving the U.S. , threats of North Korea and the β disaster β in the Middle East , the president vowed to fix all of it . β We β re going to take care of it all . I just want to let you know , I inherited a mess , β he said .
Predicting that the news media would distort his actions during the press conference , Mr. Trump said he could imagine headlines declaring : β Donald Trump rants and raves at the press . β
β I β m not ranting and raving . I β m just telling you . You know , you β re dishonest people , β he told reporters gathered in the East Room of the White House . β But I β m not ranting and raving . I love this . I β m having a good time doing it . β
Indeed , Mr. Trump relished sparring with reporters at the unconventional White House event that harked back to his face-offs with the press on the campaign trail .
In another nod to his wild run for presidency , Mr. Trump will hold a campaign-style rally Saturday at the Orlando-Melbourne International Airport in Melbourne , Florida .
β I just heard that the crowds are massive that want to be there , β Mr. Trump said at the press conference .
Richard Benedetto , a scholar on the relationships between the White House and the press , said that he was not surprised by Mr. Trump β s aggressive push back against the new media .
β President Trump feels , with some credibility , that he is under siege by the news media , β said Mr. Benedetto , a journalism professor at American University . β Just check the headlines . And he knows that if he doesn β t fight back , no one else will come to his defense .
β It might not win many converts , but it appeals to his base , which is all he has right now . When a president β s job approval falls below 40 percent , it signals that his base is eroding . He is at 40 percent , β said the professor .
The White House press corps bristled at the criticism and pounced when Mr. Trump made an erroneous claim that his Electoral College victory was the largest since Ronald Reagan .
In fact , Mr. Trump β s 304 electoral votes were surpassed by the winner in five of the seven other post-Reagan elections .
However , Mr. Trump has regularly made the claim that his Electoral College victory was the largest for a Republican since Reagan , with is closer to the truth . The last Republican with a larger win was President George H.W . Bush , with 426 electoral votes in 1988 .
β Why should Americans trust you ? β asked a TV news reporter after noting the discrepancies .
β Well , I don β t know , I was given that information , β Mr. Trump said . β I actually , I β ve seen that information around . But it was a very substantial victory . Do you agree with that ? β
The president singled out several news organizations for ridicule , including The New York Times , The Wall Street Journal and CNN .
In an exchange with a CNN reporter , Mr. Trump said the network β s evening anchor had β hatred and venom coming from his mouth . β
Mr. Trump also clashed with a reporter from the Jewish news magazine Ami who asked about the increase of anti-Semitic incidents in recent weeks .
Angered by the perceived insinuation that he was anti-Semitic , Mr. Trump said that was β not a fair question . β
β So here β s the story , folks . Number one , I am the least anti-Semitic person that you β ve ever seen in your entire life . Number two , racism , the least racist person , β said Mr. Trump , who shouted down the reporter when he attempted to interject .
β Quiet , quiet , quiet , β said Mr. Trump . β See , he lied about [ that ] . He was gon na get up and ask a very straight , simple question . So you know , welcome to the world of the media . But let me just tell you something β that I hate the charge . I find it repulsive . β
He also appeared to offend a black reporter who asked about Mr. Trump β s plans to help inner cities and whether he would seek input from the Congressional Black Caucus .
β I tell you what , do you want to set up the meeting ? β he asked April Ryan , a reporter from American Urban Radio Networks .
When Ms. Ryan said no , Mr. Trump asked , β Are they friends of yours ? β
The exchange was characterized as racist across Twitter and the news reports .
In an earlier response to the same reporter , Mr. Trump said that he would soon sign an executive order in support of Historically Black Colleges and Universities .
He also pledged to make good on his campaign promise to improve education , reduce crime and expand job opportunities in American β s urban communities .
β I was very strong on the inner cities during the campaign , β Mr. Trump said . β I think it β s probably what got me a much higher percentage of the African-American vote than a lot of people thought I was going to get . We did , you know , much higher than people thought I was going to get . And I was honored by that , including the Hispanic vote , which was also much higher . β
Mr. Trump did fare slightly better among black and Hispanic voters than 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney . He captured 8 percent of the black vote and 29 percent of the Hispanic vote , compared to Mr. Romney β s 6 percent and 27 percent , respectively . | SOcabXwGa4bp5rTR | 2 | White House | -0.3 | Politics | -0.2 | Media Bias | 0.1 | null | null | null | null |
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