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10,700 | RIDICULOUS! SECRET SERVICE Investigating “Possible Threat” On Hillary By Former Trump Adviser | Are they kidding? This was even a lead story on FOX News tonight! A former Trump adviser made a very general comment against Hillary Clinton and the Secret Service jumped all over him. You WILL NOT believe what he said! He stated that, Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason Does that sound like a credible threat to you? No, that s total BS! The things that have been said against Trump are unbelievable and yet nothing happens to those who threaten violence that s much more specific than Mr. Baldasaro s statement. Might we also mention Farrakhan who s constantly spewing hate speech and violent threats. The Secret Service is investigating a Donald Trump adviser who said in a radio interview that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton should be shot for treason on a firing line. Al Baldasaro, a New Hampshire representative who serves on Trump s veterans coalition and as a Trump delegate at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, said in an interview with a Boston talk radio host that Clinton should pay for the 2012 Benghazi attack. She is a disgrace for any, the lies she told those mothers about their children that got killed over there in Benghazi, he said on the Jeff Kuhner Show Tuesday. She dropped the ball on over 400 emails requesting back up security. Something s wrong there. Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason Via: abc7ny | 0 |
10,701 | Trump Just F*cked Up His Spelling So Badly The DICTIONARY Mocked Him On Twitter (TWEETS) | At this point, Donald Trump is known for his spelling errors on Twitter and, well, in general. Not a day goes by that The Donald isn t forced to delete a tweet that looks more like a kindergartener wrote it than normal, tweets in which he calls Hillary Clinton a loose cannon with bad instincts and bad judgement. But on Saturday, he made an unpresidented error and literally got smacked down by the dictionary.Tweeting about China s seizure of a U.S. underwater drone a brash action taken shortly after The Donald created an international incident by chatting with the President of Taiwan and Twitter-trolling China. Since that call, Chinese state-run media has been calling for their nation to recover Taiwan by force an obvious consequence of Trump s extremely lackluster foreign policy skills. The Wall Street Journal reports:The incident on Thursday occurred days after President-elect Donald J. Trump raised China s ire by suggesting his administration could abandon a bedrock agreement on Taiwan s status that has kept peace in the area for decades. Mr. Trump s suggestion that the U.S. would maintain its position on Taiwan only if China makes concessions to American interests came after he broke decades of diplomatic protocol by accepting a phone call from Taiwan s president, hitting one of Beijing s most sensitive issues. Trump, of course, jumped on the opportunity to further provoke China. Unfortunately, he made a rather serious error and was forced to delete and retweet it. Fortunately, George Takei was nice enough to save a copy:Trump deleted it, but not before I saved it. Freudian slip? We can all hope he, too, soon will be "unpresidented." #LearnToSpell pic.twitter.com/tRjYEYVMJl George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) December 17, 2016The rest of the internet joined in mocking Trump s unpresidented remark:It took Trump and his team 87 minutes to fix the word "unpresidented." pic.twitter.com/Bz7NxSqwlo Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 17, 2016.@realDonaldTrump Thankfully the Internet is forever and your #unpresidented tweet is too. pic.twitter.com/VitBfHvzhF Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) December 17, 2016Apparently @realDonaldTrump just tweeted something that shows him to be an uneducated buffoon. In other news, water is wet #unpresidented fatalberton (@fatalberton) December 17, 2016If he hadn't been born rich he'd be the guy who talks to the pigeons in the park. #unpresidented A anda (@GrnEyedMandy) December 17, 2016Little Johnnie, make a sentence with #unpresidented The Electoral College unpresidented Trump in accordance with their Constitutional duty RiotWomenn (@riotwomennn) December 17, 2016I bet 'unprecedented' is spelled correctly in those daily briefings. #unpresidented Stephanie (@KnitingPolitics) December 17, 2016#Unpresidented [uhn-pres-i-den-tid] lacking presidential skills and exhibiting disregard for autocorrect Maciej Kuziemski (@kuziemsky) December 17, 2016Trump says he has the best words, but apparently unpresidented is not one of them. The true heroes of the day are the folks behind the Merriam-Webster Dictionary s Twitter account. Good morning! The #WordOfTheDay is not unpresidented . We don t enter that word, the Dictionary tweeted. That s a new one. Good morning! The #WordOfTheDay is not 'unpresidented'. We don't enter that word. That's a new one. https://t.co/BJ45AtMNu4 Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) December 17, 2016The word of the day is actually lave, which is something his supporters should consider once in a while.The #WordOfTheDay is lave.? https://t.co/Yw6ALyA2U4 Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) December 17, 2016You know Donald Trump isn t having a good day when we both get to see real-world consequences of his actions and he gets humiliated by the dictionary in the most literal sense.Featured image via screengrab/Getty Images (Joe Raedle) | 0 |
10,702 | Merkel presses allies to cut funds for Turkey's EU bid | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European leaders agreed on Thursday to explore cuts in EU funds to Turkey that are linked to Ankara s stalled bid to join the bloc after German Chancellor Angela Merkel pressed for action in response to what she described as unacceptable Turkish behavior on human rights. While praising Turkey for taking in Syrian refugees, Merkel stuck with the tougher tone she adopted during her reelection campaign last month, although she stopped short of calling for an outright end to Ankara s decade-long push to join the bloc. We asked the Commission to make recommendations on changing and reducing the pre-accession aid, Merkel told reporters after the first day of an EU summit. There is no majority for breaking off the talks immediately. On the other hand there is a great deal of scepticism about the current situation. I made the case tonight that we should seek dialogue with Turkey. Earlier she said that the rule of law in Turkey was moving in the wrong direction , in a reference to the large-scale purge that President Tayyip Erdogan has carried out following a failed coup attempt in July 2016. Other countries, including the Netherlands and Belgium, backed a diversion of the funds that EU candidate countries receive while they are in talks to join the bloc. Everyone knows that those negotiations are de facto frozen, are de facto almost dead, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel told a news conference. Launched in 2005 after decades of seeking the formal start of an EU membership bid, Ankara s membership negotiations were always sensitive for France and Germany because of Turkey s status as a large, mainly Muslim country. But the scope of Erdogan s response to last year s coup attempt, his detention of U.S. and European citizens including dual nationals, and his jibes at Germany and the Netherlands for what he has called Nazi-like behavior. Aside from money that the EU gives Turkey as part of its 2016 migration deal, Ankara is set to receive 4.4 billion euros from the EU between 2014 and 2020. Some northern countries say aid meant to help Turkey reform politically now makes no sense because Ankara has cracked down so dramatically after the failed coup. With 50,000 people jailed pending trial, including German-Turkish nationals, EU membership also looks more distant than ever, EU officials say. Turkey is set to receive almost 500 million euros next year for the EU s common budget and European governments are discussing how much to limit that while not hitting projects such as infrastructure and agriculture. The European Parliament has proposed reducing the transfer by 50 million euros next year, with another 30 million euros set aside for further cuts should the relationship with Turkey deteriorate even more. A vote is expected on Wednesday. Providing Turkey money for political reforms does not make sense given the situation, said Siegfried Muresan, a center-right EU lawmaker who is leading EU budget in the parliament. However, EU governments are divided, with Poland, Britain and Sweden maintaining their strong support for Turkey s EU membership and countries such as Austria demanding not just a freeze to accession funds but an end to membership talks. | 1 |
10,703 | Clinton to accuse Trump of embracing nativist political movement | PALO ALTO, California (Reuters) - Democrat Hillary Clinton will accuse Donald Trump of embracing a brand of U.S. political conservatism associated with white nationalism and nativism when she makes a Nevada campaign stop on Thursday. Aides said Clinton will link Trump’s statements about immigration and religion to the rise of a political fringe movement in the U.S. known as the “alternative right”, which opposes multiculturalism and immigration. Clinton’s speech is an effort to keep attention focused on what a top aide called Trump’s “divisive and dystopian vision” as he tries to reverse his slumping position in opinion polls in key battleground states before the Nov. 8 presidential election. Her campaign said Trump’s recent installation of a new campaign leadership team was no indicator that he would move away from past statements criticizing the objectivity of an American judge of Mexican heritage or proposing to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States. “Trump’s newly installed brain trust,” Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said in a statement, “completes Donald Trump’s disturbing takeover of the Republican Party. “Republicans up and down the ticket are going to have to choose whether they want to be complicit in this lurch toward extremism or stand with voters who can’t stomach it,” he said. Trump’s campaign declined to comment on Clinton’s campaign speech, but at a Mississippi rally on Wednesday, the Republican nominee called Clinton a “bigot who sees people of color only as votes, not as human beings.” Trump is set to meet with African-American leaders in New York City on Thursday and said he would unveil an immigration proposal within the next two weeks. In comments broadcast on Fox News on Wednesday night, Trump backed farther away from his hardline stance on deporting millions of illegal immigrants, saying he would be willing to work with those who have abided by U.S. laws while living in the country. When asked by CNN to respond to Trump’s charge that she was a “bigot” on Wednesday evening, Clinton said he was “taking a hate movement mainstream. “He’s brought it into his campaign. He’s bringing it to our communities and our country,” Clinton said. “I will have more to say about this tomorrow.” Her campaign cites Trump’s decision to bring on Breitbart News executive Steve Bannon as his new campaign chief as a sign Trump is strengthening his ties to the alternative right movement. During Bannon’s tenure, Breitbart News increased its coverage of alt-right issues, and Bannon told the magazine Mother Jones during the Republican National Convention last month that the website was “the platform for the alt-right”. The term “alt-right” is used to describe a faction of political conservatives that have used the Internet in recent months to advance views of white supremacism, anti-Semitism and nativism. | 1 |
10,704 | Swiss right-wing's Blocher: Trump win a warning to world establishment | ZURICH (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s U.S. election victory, on the heels of Britain’s vote to exit the European Union, was fuelled by voters who feel neglected and shunned by establishment leaders, prominent Swiss right-winger Christoph Blocher said on Wednesday. Blocher, a top official in the anti-immigration Swiss People’s Party who engineered its ascent to become the biggest faction in the Swiss parliament, said Trump’s win over Democrat Hillary Clinton was a warning to current world leaders not to go over citizens’ heads on issues including immigration. “People feel powerless against those who rule them, and for them, Trump is a release valve,” Blocher said in an interview. “The unexpected result ... should give pause to those who are in power around the world.” Next year, the Netherlands, France and Germany - and possibly Italy and Britain too - will hold elections in which debate is likely to be driven by populist parties over issues including immigration. [nL8N1D83Q4] That was also a central theme in Britain’s June 23 “Brexit” vote to end 43 years of EU membership. [nU8N1B401J] Non-EU Switzerland is seeking to balance demands by voters in 2014 for immigration quotas for EU workers without torpedoing trade agreements with the bloc. Blocher’s party has said alternatives now being considered ignore the will of voters. [nU8N1B401J][nL8N1BX4CB] “When politicians in Berne refuse to take the vote against mass immigration seriously, it will only lead to a shock like it did in America,” Blocher said. Blocher said Europe’s responses to immigration amid violent Islamist attacks in France, Belgium and Germany have helped populist political parties including France’s National Front, as well as the Alternative for Germany, gain traction. [nL4N1DA4PG] “They stand out because they are taking on problems the establishment refuses to tackle. One big question that you have to speak openly about is the immigration from Islamic countries. You can’t just tear down everybody who is critical of this.” | 1 |
10,705 | Obama plan to ease new U.S. visa limits faces skeptics in Congress | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama’s plan to loosen some requirements of a visa law spurred by the deadly attacks in Paris met with open resistance from both Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress on Wednesday. The measure, which went into effect in late January, requires that citizens of 38 countries who previously were able to travel to the United States for up to 90 days without a visa must now obtain one if they have visited Iran, Iraq, Sudan or Syria since March 1, 2011. Ed Royce, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on Wednesday said he wanted to add Libya to the list of countries covered by the restrictions. At a hearing of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, lawmakers voiced particular concern over exempting from the new visa clamp-down some travelers who visit Iran, including those conducting business. “Nowhere does the law include this authority. In fact, Congress explicitly rejected the waivers requested by the White House,” Chairman Michael McCaul, a Republican, said. Lawmakers enacted the visa restrictions on fears that travelers from the mainly European countries in the Visa Waiver Program could easily travel to the United States even if they have, for example, visited countries like Syria, Iran or Iraq, where militants are active. The Nov. 13 attacks in Paris stirred fears about such travel. Some of the Islamic State attackers who killed 130 people that day held European passports that would have allowed them easy entry to the United States. Representative Bennie Thompson, the Homeland Security Committee’s top Democrat, echoed Republican concerns about Obama’s announced plan to allow visa waivers for foreign business people who travel to Iran. “I have some questions about how the (Department of Homeland Security) would go about determining the legitimacy of the business-related purposes,” he said. Administration officials countered that they wanted to shield journalists, humanitarian aid workers and employees of other international organizations, as well as business people helping economic reconstruction efforts in Iran and Iraq in particular, from the tougher requirements. Individuals must qualify for the Visa Waiver Program, with background checks against U.S. counter-terrorism and law enforcement databases. State Department counter-terrorism official Hillary Johnson told the committee there are regular reviews of those who are approved. Gil Kerlikowski, U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner, told the committee an estimated 500,000 people who come into the country under the waiver program have overstayed their visas. He said he did not know how many of them might have traveled to Iran, Iraq, Syria or Sudan. Administration officials expressed concern that if the United States fails to loosen some of the new restrictions, foreign governments might cut back on information sharing, or impose awkward new visa requirements on Americans who travel to their countries. | 1 |
10,706 | Senators urge regulators to ID vehicles with possible faulty Takata air bags | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. Senators urged auto safety regulators to publicly name the makes and models of tens of millions of vehicles with potentially faulty Takata air bag inflators, according to a letter made public late on Thursday. “There may still be 50 million airbags installed in vehicles whose owners not only have no idea, but also no way to find out, that they are driving a car containing potentially lethal airbags,” wrote Senators Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat and Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat. On Wednesday, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) confirmed the Japanese air bag manufacturer would declare between 35 million and 40 million additional inflators defective by 2019, which will prompt automakers to recall vehicles with the inflators. The 50 million inflators that could still be recalled include 27 million side air bags and 23 million frontal air bag inflators. As part of a November agreement with NHTSA, those vehicles must also be recalled by 2019 unless Takata can prove they are safe. Takata must issue five separate defect reports starting May 16 and ending in 2019. Takata said the first report will cover 14 million of the 35 million to 40 million inflators being recalled. The second report is not due until Dec. 31 and subsequent reports are due in 2017, 2018 and 2019. NHTSA spokesman Bryan Thomas said automakers “will provide the information about the models and makes in the coming weeks.” He did not directly respond to the senators demands on the inflators that have not yet been recalled. Takata spokesman Jared Levy declined to comment. The senators want NHTSA to release regular updates regarding testing data on Takata airbags and their failure rates. To date, 14 automakers have recalled 28.8 million Takata inflators in about 24 million vehicles. Three additional automakers are part of the expansion. The latest recall means all Takata ammonium nitrate-based driver and passenger frontal air bag inflators without a chemical drying agent, known as a desiccant, will be recalled. But 23 million Takata frontal air bags with a desiccant have not been recalled. When exposed to moisture, ammonium nitrate, which is used to inflate the air bag, can cause the inflator to rupture with deadly force, spraying shrapnel into vehicle occupants. The defect is linked to at least 11 deaths and more than 100 injuries worldwide since 2008. Takata said it is not aware of any ruptures in the inflators in the vehicles that are part of recall announced Wednesday. | 1 |
10,707 | Cory Booker EVISCERATES RNC’s Hateful Tone, ‘Lock Her Up’ Chants | Senator Cory Booker was none too happy with what went on at the Republican National Convention. The Los Angeles Times reports that the beloved New Jersey senator took to the microphone at a DNC press conference this week to express his anger over the chaotic convention, particularly with regards to the treatment of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Booker was very concerned that his colleagues on the other side of the aisle let their convention take on such a violently vitriolic tone, saying: These chants of lock someone up, take away their liberty, throw them in prisons that s why we had a revolution in this country against those ideas. But what s worse on the spectrum of things that have been spewed in this convention, that s one of the least offensive. He continued: And no one s condemning this in the Republican Party? No one s saying this is not who America is? Senator Booker even tweeted a photo of himself hugging Hillary Clinton, with a message of solidarity pushing back against the disturbing tone of the GOP convention:Proud to be in Cleveland supporting Secretary Clinton and pushing back against the hate, hyperbole and lies. pic.twitter.com/jb2t0kH8jN Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) July 21, 2016Unfortunately, no, the RNC isn t condemning any of this. While this isn t what America is, it is certainly what the Republican Party is. All we have to do is look at the increasing violence at Donald Trump rallies that hasn t deterred people from supporting him at all. In fact, Trump himself often encouraged that violence, right from the podium.Trump is the GOP now. He s their standard-bearer, the leader of their party. That s who they are. They have put a violent, bigoted fascist at the top of their ticket and urged people to vote for him. The hatred and bigotry running through that party is embodied in Donald Trump. I, personally, am not at all surprised that party leaders like Reince Priebus, Paul Ryan, and Mitch McConnell said nothing about the lock her up chants and calls for violence against Hillary Clinton. The Party of Lincoln is now the Party of Trump, and that is A-OK with the GOP. After all, it s who they ve always been, but they just needed someone to be that voice.Featured image via Win McNamee/Getty Images | 0 |
10,708 | China lodges protest after Trump call with Taiwan president | BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China lodged a diplomatic protest on Saturday after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump spoke by phone with President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, but blamed the self-ruled island Beijing claims as its own for the “petty” move. The 10-minute telephone call with Taiwan’s leadership was the first by a U.S. president-elect or president since President Jimmy Carter switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, acknowledging Taiwan as part of “one China”. China’s Foreign Ministry said it had lodged “stern representations” with what it called the “relevant U.S. side”, urging the careful handling of the Taiwan issue to avoid any unnecessary disturbances in ties. “The one China principle is the political basis of the China-U.S. relationship,” it said. The wording implied the protest had gone to the Trump camp, but the ministry provided no explanation. Speaking earlier, hours after Friday’s telephone call, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi pointedly blamed Taiwan for the exchange, rather than Trump, a billionaire businessman with little foreign policy experience. “This is just the Taiwan side engaging in a petty action, and cannot change the ‘one China’ structure already formed by the international community,” Wang said at an academic forum in Beijing, China’s Foreign Ministry quoted him as saying. “I believe that it won’t change the longstanding ‘one China’ policy of the United States government.” In comments at the same forum, Wang noted how quickly President Xi Jinping and Trump had spoken by telephone after Trump’s victory, and that Trump had praised China as a great country. Wang said that exchange had sent “a very positive signal about the future development of Sino-U.S. relations”, according to the ministry’s website. Taiwan was not mentioned in that call, according to an official Chinese transcript. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office also called the conversation a “petty” move by Taiwan that does not change the island’s status as part of China. Beijing is resolute in opposing independence for Taiwan, it added. Trump said on Twitter that Tsai had initiated the call he had with the Taiwan president. “The President of Taiwan CALLED ME today to wish me congratulations on winning the Presidency. Thank you!” he said. Alex Huang, a spokesman for Tsai, said: “Of course both sides agreed ahead of time before making contact.” Trump and Tsai noted that “close economic, political and security ties exist between Taiwan and the United States”, the Trump transition team said in a statement. Taiwan’s presidential office said the two discussed strengthening bilateral interactions and establishing closer cooperation. China considers Taiwan a wayward province and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control. Relations between the two sides have worsened since Tsai, who heads the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, was elected president in January. Chinese state media downplayed the possibility of a major blow-up in Beijing’s relations with Washington as Trump prepares to assume office. Influential state-run tabloid the Global Times said in an online editorial that if Trump really overturned the “one China” principle upon assuming office it would create such a crisis with China he’d have little time to do anything else. “We believe this is not something the shrewd Trump wants to do.” China’s official Xinhua news agency said Trump needed to know Beijing can be a “cooperative partner” as long as Washington respects China’s core interests, including the issue of Taiwan. “China and the United States are not destined rivals,” it said in an English-language commentary. Washington remains Taiwan’s most important political ally and sole arms supplier, despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties, the irony of which was not lost on Trump. “Interesting how the U.S. sells Taiwan billions of dollars of military equipment but I should not accept a congratulatory call,” Trump said in another tweet. Trump has eschewed tradition in other calls with foreign leaders since he won the U.S. election, prompting the White House to encourage him to make use of the diplomatic expertise and counsel of the State Department. Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said on CNN that Trump was “well aware of what U.S. policy has been” on Taiwan. Administration officials said Trump’s team did not alert the White House about the call ahead of time. The White House also said after Trump’s call that “longstanding policy” on China and Taiwan had not changed. Advisers to the Republican president-elect have indicated that he is likely to take a more robust policy toward China than Obama, a Democrat, and that Trump plans to boost the U.S. military in part in response to China’s increasing power in Asia. However, details of his plans remain scant. Trump lambasted China throughout the U.S. election campaign, drumming up headlines with pledges to slap 45 percent tariffs on imported Chinese goods and label the country a currency manipulator on his first day in office. Earlier this week, Trump spoke to Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and praised him, according to the Pakistani leader’s office, as a “terrific guy”. Islamabad and Washington have seen relations sour in recent years over U.S. accusations that Pakistan shelters Islamist militants who kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, a charge denied by the South Asian nation. Trump also invited Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte to the White House next year during what a Duterte aide said was a “very engaging, animated” phone conversation. Duterte has openly insulted Obama, who canceled a planned meeting with him in September. A statement issued by Trump’s transition team made no mention of the invitation. | 1 |
10,709 | U.S. government shutdown possible if Democrats don't act better: Mulvaney | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House budget director Mick Mulvaney accused Democrats on Tuesday of trying to make President Donald Trump look bad by claiming victory in budget negotiations and added that a government shutdown might be inevitable if they do not act better. Asked about Trump’s tweet about a possible government shutdown in September, Mulvaney said: “I think the president is frustrated with the fact that he negotiated in good faith with the Democrats and they went out to try to spike the football and make him look bad.” “We’ve got a lot to do between now and September. I don’t anticipate a shutdown in September, but if the Democrats aren’t going to behave any better than they have in the last couple of days, it may be inevitable,” he said. | 1 |
10,710 | Kenyan police fire tear gas at opposition leader's car: Reuters witness | NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan police fired tear gas at opposition leader Raila Odinga s car, a Reuters witness said. Earlier, police and supporters of Odinga had fought running battles on Friday along the main road to Nairobi s international airport before Odinga landed from an overseas trip. | 1 |
10,711 | South Korean says U.S. must not strike North Korea without Seoul's consent | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump should under no circumstances take military action against North Korea without the consent of the government in Seoul, the chairwoman of South Korea s ruling party, Choo Mi-ae, said on Wednesday. President Trump often emphasizes that he put all options on the table, Choo told a Washington think-tank. We want to make sure that this option of another war is not placed on the table. Under no circumstances should the U.S. go ahead and use a military option without the consent of South Korea. We must seek a peaceful resolution of the matter in any manner that is available to us. The remarks by Choo, who is expected to meet Trump administration officials in Washington, underscored South Korean concerns that any U.S. strikes against North Korea s nuclear and missile programs could provoke devastating North Korean retaliation against South Korea. Visiting Seoul last week, Trump warned North Korea he was prepared to use the full range of U.S. military power to stop any attack, but also urged Pyongyang to make a deal. Trump, who had previously called negotiations with North Korea a waste of time, has offered no clear path to talks and has sent mixed signals about his interest in negotiations. Speaking on his return from Asia, Trump said he and Chinese President Xi Jinping had rejected a freeze for freeze agreement. China and Russia have previously advocated such a plan, where the United States and South Korea stop major military exercises in exchange for North Korea halting its weapons programs. It was not clear if this was what Trump meant. We agreed that we would not accept a so-called freeze for freeze agreement like those that have consistently failed in the past, Trump said. There was no immediate comment from China s embassy in Washington. Pyongyang has shown little interest in negotiations, at least until it has developed a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. Choo, whose president and fellow Democratic Party leader Moon Jae-in has advocated dialogue with North Korea, said Seoul backed Trump s policy of maximum pressure on Pyongyang through sanctions and there should be no talks for the sake of talks. However, she said blocking opportunities for dialogue could prompt North Korean miscalculation. She declined to say whether she was satisfied with the Trump administration s limited efforts to talk to Pyongyang to resolve the crisis stemming from North Korea s efforts to develop nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the United States. | 1 |
10,712 | Russian MP says Flynn was forced to resign to damage Russia-U.S. ties | MOSCOW (Reuters) - A senior Russian lawmaker said on Tuesday it was clear that U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, had been forced to resign in an effort to damage relations between Russia and the United States. Flynn resigned late on Monday after revelations he had discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador to the United States before Trump took office and misled Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations. “It’s obvious that Flynn was forced to write the letter of resignation under a certain amount of pressure,” Leonid Slutsky, head of the lower house of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, was quoted as saying by the RIA news agency. “The target was Russia-U.S. relations, undermining confidence in the new U.S. administration. We’ll see how the situation develops further,” he said. | 1 |
10,713 | Clinton's lead over Trump narrows to 9 points: Reuters/Ipsos | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton’s lead over Republican Donald Trump has dipped into the single digits among likely U.S. voters for the first time in nearly two weeks, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday. The June 27-July 1 poll showed a 9.4 percentage point lead for the former secretary of state over the New York businessman, down slightly from an 11.2 point lead in a previous five-day poll that ended on June 28. Clinton had maintained a double-digit lead in the rolling poll since June 20, as she recovered from a brief boost in Trump’s numbers in the wake of the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, when he renewed a call for a ban on Muslim immigration. Among likely voters, 43.9 percent now support Clinton, compared with 34.5 percent for Trump. Another 21.7 percent of likely voters wouldn’t support either candidate. Clinton is more popular among men and women, young people and minorities, college graduates, and people who live on incomes that are both lower and higher than the national average. Trump has an edge among whites, people with lower levels of education, older Americans and retirees, and he leads among people who frequently attend church. Overall, voters have increasingly sided with Clinton since mid-May, when the two were about even in the poll. Trump is expected officially to become the Republican presidential nominee when the party holds its convention in another 2-1/2 weeks. Clinton is expected to become the Democratic nominee when the Democrats hold their convention a week later. The poll, which included responses from 1,080 likely voters, has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 3.5 percentage points. Clinton’s lead had widened to as much as 14 percentage points in the past two weeks as Republican leaders criticized Trump for his opposition to international trade agreements and a string of nativist comments about Hipsanics and Muslims. Clinton’s campaign, meanwhile, has been dogged by allegations that she mishandled classified emails and failed to protect U.S. diplomats in Libya while secretary of state in Obama’s first administration. She denies wrongdoing. | 1 |
10,714 | MULTIPLE FBI OFFICES Investigated Clinton Foundation BRIBERY Charges,“financial crimes or influence-peddling”…DOJ Appeared To Want To Slow Down Or Stop Investigation | A stunning story of corruption, cronyism and cover-ups and oh yeah, the Clinton s FBI investigators from across the country have been following leads into reports of bribery involving the Clinton Foundation. Multiple field offices have been involved in the investigation. A report in Sunday s Wall Street Journal (WSJ) by Devlin Barrett revealed that agents assigned to the New York field office have been carrying the bulk of the work in investigating the Clinton Foundation. They have received assistance from the FBI field office in Little Rock according to people familiar with the matter, the WSJ reported. Other offices, including Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., have been collecting evidence regarding financial crimes or influence-peddling. As far back as February 2016, FBI agents made the presentation to the Department of Justice (DOJ), the WSJ s sources stated. The meeting didn t go well, they wrote. While some sources said the FBI s evidence was not strong enough, others believed the DOJ had no intention from the start of going any further. Barrett wrote that the DOJ officials were stern, icy and dismissive of the case. Barrett wrote, That was one of the weirdest meetings I ve ever been to, one participant told others afterward, according to people familiar with the matter. It appears there was rift between the FBI and the DOJ about how to move forward with the investigation. Agents in the Washington office were directed to focus on a separate issue related to the actions of former Virginia Governor and Clinton Foundation Board member Terry McAuliffe. Agents inside the FBI believed they could build a stronger case if the investigation of McAuliffe and the foundation were combined.FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe seemed to be caught in the middle of the fight between DOJ officials who appeared to want to slow down or shut down the investigation and FBI agents who were eager to pour more resources into the investigation.Barrett wrote, Are you telling me that I need to shut down a validly predicated investigation? Mr. McCabe asked, according to people familiar with the conversation. After a pause, the official replied, Of course not, these people said. Some of the WSJ sources told Barrett that a stand down order had been given to the FBI agents by McCabe. Others denied that no such order was given.The story gets more complicated when you factor in that McCabe s wife, Dr. Jill McCabe had received a $467,500 campaign contribution in 2015 for a state senate race from McAuliffe.For entire story: Breitbart | 0 |
10,715 | DONALD TRUMP, JR Delivers Powerful Speech: “A President Who Will Unleash The Greatness In Our Nation” [Video] | Donald Trump, Jr was such a natural in his delivery of a very powerful speech at the RNC. He hit on the topics of jobs and education but the main takeaway from his speech is his honesty when speaking about the great character of his father. | 0 |
10,716 | TOUGH TEXAS MAYOR Who Fought Back Against Implementation Of Sharia Law In Her City Will Join Trump Team [VIDEO] | When a group of imams tried to bring a form of Shariah light to Texas, they met an unlikely foe Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne.Van Duyne was thrust into the national media spotlight, and her city was being called ground zero in the battle to prevent Islamic law from gaining a foothold, no matter how small, in the U.S. legal system.The media frenzy was touched off by reports that an Islamic tribunal was being set up in the Dallas, Texas, area. A group of imams from surrounding mosques would sit on what they call a mediation panel, as defacto judges, and mediate disputes between Muslims who voluntarily submit to its edicts. They denied this was a Shariah court, saying the panel would mete out nonbinding decisions in business disputes, divorces and other family matters in full accordance with the law. She worked with state legislators to craft a bill that would declare it illegal for any U.S. court to adopt any foreign legal system for the basis of its rulings. Islam was not mentioned in the bill, nor was any religion.The Irving City Council voted 5-4 to endorse the bill before a packed room full of mostly angry Muslims. WNDWatch: Irving Mayor Van Duyne also made news when she took on clock boy and his family.The mayor said the records would help to describe why it progressed as it did. Nobody is going to walk in and say, Oh you re a 14-year old child, you re totally cooperating, we have all the answers we need, let s arrest you, Van Duyne said, adding she had information that Mohamed was being passive aggressive and non-responsive when police questioned him.Van Duyne also noted that the family seemed more interested in seeking press than resolving the issue.Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne will be joining the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to work under Secretary Ben Carson, a source with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed to The Daily Caller.Van Duyne announced at a luncheon Thursday that she would be joining the Trump administration, but declined to say which department she will be joining, CBS DFW reported. She is expected to make an official announcement sometime next week after completing the necessary paperwork. Daily Caller | 0 |
10,717 | Half The World’s Salmon Supply Threatened As Trump’s EPA Withdraws Alaskan Mining Restrictions | The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave the go-ahead on Friday for a massive copper and gold mining operation to seek permits to mine the headwaters of an Obama-era protected world-class fishery in southwest Alaska.After an agreement through a court settlement, the EPA will start withdrawing restrictions on mining development in the Bristol Bay region, a pristine Alaskan fishery that provides the world with half of its sockeye salmon.This unfortunate agreement comes only four months after Trump came into office, which the Pebble mine supporters hoped would be their ticket to big money through Trump s promises of environmental deregulation.Environmental rights groups are worried this agreement will act as a dangerous precedent for industry to challenge the EPA in court on environmental issues they previously wouldn t have gone after during the Obama Administration. It obviously sends a psychological message to big mining companies that if they were nervous about getting permits in the past that this is their golden opportunity to get their mine through the process. said Brett Harti, the government affairs director for the center for biological Diversity environment group.It s being called a backdoor deal by critics and a slap in the face to the citizens of the Bristol Bay region who petitioned to keep the region protected.The Pebble company sued the EPA in federal court claiming the agency colluded with environmental groups to block the mining project. The suit followed an EPA study that concluded the proposed large-scale mining posed a siginificant risk to the region s salmon and cause adverse effects to Alaskan Natives who based their culture around the salmon resources in the area. The EPA inspector general found no evidence that the EPA predetermined the outcome of the study in any way. Protecting Bristol Bay from the Pebble Mine has been a priority issue for the hook-and-bullet community for 10 years. This was a real test for President Trump, who said all the right things to sportsmen during the election, said Scott Hed, the director of the Sportsman s Alliance for Alaska. This is a direct assault on our values. America s hunters and anglers are extremely disappointed but we will not let up in the fight to protect Bristol Bay. Photo by: Sergi Reboredo/VW Pics/UIG via Getty Images | 0 |
10,718 | BREAKING: FBI AGENTS UNDER INVESTIGATION For Shooting Death Of Patriot, Levoy Finicum [VIDEO] | Support for an investigation into the shooting death of Lavoy Finicum has been growing. Something about his shooting death just didn t seem right. FBI agents involved in the traffic stop that led to the killing of one of the armed occupiers of an Oregon wildlife refuge are under investigation for not disclosing they fired shots that missed Robert LaVoy Finicum, authorities said Tuesday.Oregon State Police troopers fired the three rounds that killed the Arizona rancher during a confrontation on a remote road, law enforcement officials said at a news conference in Bend.CLICK HERE to see the video of FBI Agents shooting and killing Lavoy Finicum.An independent investigation by Oregon authorities found the troopers were justified in shooting Finicum because he failed to heed their commands and repeatedly reached for his weapon, Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norris said.The investigators discovered members of an FBI hostage rescue team who were at the scene failed to disclose they fired two rounds.As they looked into how many shots were fired during the confrontation and by whom, the investigators found a round in the roof of Finicum s truck. We could not explain the fourth shot into the roof of the truck, or its trajectory given the placement of the Oregon State Police troopers at the time, Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson said.The U.S. Justice Department s Office of Inspector General said it is investigating the FBI team s actions, working with Oregon officials.During the news conference, Oregon officials played videos showing Finicum and others in his truck Jan. 26 during the initial stop by law enforcement. Finicum was driving one of two vehicles that were pulled over while carrying key occupation figures.Video taken from the phone of one of his passengers shows the occupants panicking after authorities stop the truck.With his window rolled down, Finicum shouts at the officers: Shoot me, just shoot me! Put the bullet through me. Do as you damn well please. After a conversation with others in the truck, Finicum drives off, leading authorities on a short chase. The song Hold Each Other by a Great Big World was on the vehicle s stereo.Finicum was driving over 70 mph when the truck came to a roadblock, Nelson said.A trooper fired three shots at the truck as it approached because it was a threat to law enforcement, he said. The truck plowed into a snowbank. Finicum got out, and someone from the FBI team fired two more shots, Nelson said.As Finicum stood in the snow, authorities told him multiple times to lie on the ground. Instead, he reached into the inside of his jacket. The troopers fired three rounds, all of which hit Finicum. A loaded pistol was found in his jacket pocket.Oregon investigators said Finicum posed a threat to officers by nearly running over one of them at the roadblock, and by reaching for a gun.Occupation members in the other vehicle, including leader Ammon Bundy, surrendered.Finicum was a high-profile part of the weekslong standoff at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, launched Jan. 2 by a small armed group demanding the government relinquish control of public lands and objecting to the prison sentences of two local ranchers convicted of setting fires.His death became a symbol for those decrying federal oversight, on public lands in the West and elsewhere, and led to protests of what they called an unnecessary use of force. Via: AP | 0 |
10,719 | U.S. Secret Service says 1,100 employees face unpaid overtime | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Secret Service will not be able to pay an estimated 1,100 employees for required overtime work after September due to government-imposed pay caps, the agency’s chief said on Monday. In a statement, Secret Service Director Randolph “Tex” Alles attributed the funding shortfall to the cost of protecting President Donald Trump and his family, and “an overall increase in operational tempo.” The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In an interview with USA Today, which first reported the story, Alles noted that the Secret Service’s mission was set by law and that he did not have authority to curtail it. “The president has a large family, and our responsibility is required in law,” Alles told the newspaper. “I can’t change that. I have no flexibility.” The agency must protect a record 42 people, including 18 Trump family members, up from a total of 31 during the administration of former President Barack Obama, he told USA Today. The problem did not start with the current president’s tenure, “but rather has been an ongoing issue for nearly a decade,” Alles said in the statement. Alles has asked lawmakers to raise the combined salary and overtime cap for agents from $160,000 a year to $187,000 for at least the period of Trump’s first term, USA Today reported. But even if such a proposal was approved, about 130 veteran agents would not be fully compensated for hundreds of hours already amassed, the newspaper said, citing the agency. The White House said in a statement that the Trump administration would work with Congress on the issue. “The president is committed to ensuring the Secret Service and all of those protecting our country have all the resources they need,” it said. | 1 |
10,720 | Speaker's arrest puts Indonesia parliament in graft spotlight, again | JAKARTA (Reuters) - Implicated in five corruption scandals since the 1990s but never convicted, the speaker of Indonesia s parliament Setya Novanto is a political survivor. Last week Novanto was detained by anti-corruption investigators over the biggest graft scandal to hit Indonesia s legislature. The 62-year-old political powerbroker was defiant, denying any wrongdoing and urging parliament and the political party he leads not to unseat him. His lawyer, Fredrich Yunadi, expressed confidence that Novanto would be cleared. In every court we always win, Yunadi told Reuters. But the latest allegations against Novanto have reinforced the perception among Indonesians that their parliament, long regarded as riddled with entrenched corruption, is a failing institution. Politicians and analysts say that is unlikely to change, whatever the outcome of the case. Before Setya Novanto, there were many, many MPs who were put in jail and it didn t have an effect, said Eva Sundari, a member of parliament from the PDI-P party, which sits in the ruling coalition alongside Novanto s Golkar. A Corruption Eradication Commission, known by its Indonesian initials KPK, was established in 2002 after the demise of authoritarian president Suharto. Fiercely independent and able to wiretap suspects without a warrant, it has been a thorn in the side of the country s establishment. But Bob Lowry, an Indonesia analyst at the Australian Institute of International Affairs, said that - the KPK aside - there has never been a systemic approach to tackling corruption that he says runs through all layers of government and politics. You are not dealing with individuals, you are dealing with an entire structure and culture. he said. Novanto is accused of orchestrating a scheme to plunder $173 million, or almost 40 percent of the entire budget for the project, from a government contract to introduce a national electronic identity card. Novanto denies any wrongdoing, writing a letter to other parliament leaders after he was detained asking them to give me an opportunity to prove that I wasn t involved . According to an indictment filed against Novanto s alleged bagman, businessman Andi Agustinus, they stood to be personally enriched to the tune of $42 million. Agustinus has not yet commented on the allegations or entered any plea. He is due to appear in court this week to answer the charges. The rest of the money was funneled to as many as 60 lawmakers, as well as officials, party chiefs, parliamentary staffers and tenderers, according to the KPK, which alleges some of the cash was brazenly divided up in parliamentary meeting rooms. In August a witness in the probe, a U.S.-based consultant to a company that won a contract to supply biometric technology for the identity cards - ironically aimed, in part, at curbing graft - shot himself after a stand-off with police in Los Angeles. Before his death, Johannes Marliem told KPK officers about meeting Novanto at his Jakarta home in 2011, according to a declaration to a court in Minnesota by a Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent, at which the parliament speaker negotiated a discount under which he and Agustinus would get a 40 percent share of a contract worth more than $50 million. Marliem is also alleged to have said he had brought Novanto a $135,000 Richard Mille watch and showed the agent a photo of Novanto wearing it. A consummate political operator, Novanto is a key link between parliament and the government of President Joko Widodo, who is expected to seek re-election in 2019, said Hugo Brennan, Asia analyst at risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft. He gained a measure of international prominence in September 2015 when Donald Trump, then a U.S. presidential candidate, hailed him as an amazing man at a news conference in Trump Tower in New York. Two months later he resigned from the speaker s post after a recording of a meeting emerged in which he was alleged to have attempted to extort $4 billion of shares from the U.S. mining giant Freeport McMoRan. The case got blanket media coverage and hearings were televised live. Within a year, however, Novanto was speaker again after the Constitutional Court ruled the recording inadmissible. Novanto s detention last week came after months of declining to answer summonses for questioning by the KPK. The allegations have once more gripped Indonesia, with newspaper front pages splashing the story and memes mocking Novanto trending on social media. Indonesia was ranked last year at 90 out of 176 countries on Transparency International s corruption perception index. The watchdog has singled out parliament as Indonesia s most corrupt institution, and in July called on President Widodo to protect the KPK against attempts by the legislature to weaken the commission s powers. Critics inside and outside the parliament say the root problem is money politics, which is underpinned by an open-ticket electoral system and campaign financing laws. These laws allow only tiny amounts of public funding, and do not require public disclosure of individual donors, which some lawmakers say perpetuates a system of funding from illicit sources and financial patronage for favors. The open-ticket voting system encourages candidates to spread largesse to voters and community leaders and then recoup the expenditure if they reach parliament, says the PDI-P s Sundari. Lawmaker Aryo Djojohadikusumo told Reuters that, with members of parliament holding the power to micromanage and approve the budgets of individual projects, the temptation to engage in pork-barrel politics is extremely high . However, he believes that parliament s reputation as corrupt has been magnified by the KPK s zeal in going after politicians, who make more headlines than low-level bureaucrats. Critics say many members of parliament are so focused on raising money for future campaigns and personal enrichment that the legislature is not doing its job. According to watchdog Concerned Citizens for the Indonesian Legislature (Formappi), lawmakers in Southeast Asia s biggest economy have ratified just five of 50 priority bills this year. If you want to see Indonesia free of corruption, Fahri Hamzah, one of parliament s vice speakers, told Reuters, you have to start tackling the political financing. | 1 |
10,721 | ART OF WAR: What’s Behind Russia’s ‘Ides of March’ Military Drawdown in Syria? | Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak. Sun Tzu, The Art of War21st Century Wire asks What s behind Russia s decision to drawdown military support in Syria? MAKING A DEAL Putin making a strategic deal before the Geneva III talks. (Photo link theaustralian)This week Russia scaled back its military campaign against ISIS targets in Syria, after systematically directing months of successful airstrikes on terror groups within the embattled nation.Russia s partial departure and tenuous cease-fire in Syria, is a symbolic one, not only for the haunting Ides of March historical significance, but also because it marks the five-year anniversary of Syria s so-called Arab Spring. When the campaign to topple Syrian leadership first began, we were told there was a legitimate grass-roots uprising sweeping across North Africa then through Middle East. The mainstream media gleefully exulted it s praise as an organic movement of change, widely hailed as the Arab Spring . While the Spring was sold to the public as a large protest movement, it was proven to be a well orchestrated socially engineered political uprising used to gain a foothold over Syria opening the door for Western intervention.Back in February, 21WIRE reported that ISIS jihadists were in fact fleeing from Syria, following the destruction of their operational bases within the country: Colonel Steve Warren of the US-led coalition said the terror group s leadership has shifted its base of operations from Syria and Iraq, into Libya after facing immense bombardment: We believe this failure is due to several factors, the first and foremost I believe is the presence of devastating coalition air power. The Whitehouse added that ISIS is also now seeking to send jihadist recruits into Libya instead of Syria and Iraq. While US leadership mentioned that devastating coalition air power led to Syria s good fortune, it failed to directly discuss Russia s large role in silencing ISIS and other known militant fighting groups (some of who are still referred to by Washington as moderate rebels ) through air campaigns of their own.To anyone paying attention to the battleground in Syria, the message was clear Washington now fully acknowledges the eventual eradication of many ISIS fighters, leading US policy makers to rethink their regime change strategy.Recently, 21WIRE discussed a more cynical lens with which to view the cease-fire deal in Syria, noting that this peace agreement, could very well turn out to be a political ploy crafted by Pentagon war makers looking to re-arm militants in the region: This latest diplomatic development certainly appears positive on its surface, this week s declared Syrian Ceasefire a three-way agreement between Washington, Russia and the Syrian government (and begrudgingly by the West s other regional stakeholders ) looks increasingly like it may just be the latest attempt to buy time so that Washington, Turkey and Saudi Arabia can re-arm and replenish various militant fighting groups currently laying waste to Syria. Continuing, we see the West s failure following the loss of proxy militants and why this brokered deal is perhaps their only political play at the moment: The Washington-led Axis has gradually lost proxy-control of a number of key terrorist strongholds in Northern Syria, namely in Aleppo, and thus are unable to dictate crucial facts on the ground required to dictate the international media and political narratives. Unable to craft and package these narratives, the West and its dubious coalition are completely unable to sell an escalation of military violence in Syria. From a propaganda perspective, the latest military move by Russia has prompted policy makers at Western think-tanks to characterize the strategic decision as a sign of a rift between Putin and Assad but as we ll see in the Sputnik News article below, the timing of the military drawdown has everything to do with the upcoming peace talk negotiations in Geneva.More from Sputnik below ART OF WAR Syria s struggles appear to move from the battlefield to the boardroom. (Photo illustration Shawn Helton of 21WIRE)Andrew KorybkoSputnik NewsThe Western and Mideast mainstream media are frenziedly spinning Russia s planned drawdown from Syria as a military defeat and a betrayal of its key ally, but just exactly who is betraying whom? President Putin announced that Russia will begin drawing down its military forces in Syria on 15 March, popularly known as the Ides of March and infamous for being the day that Emperor Julius Caesar was stabbed to death by his own allies.While it may have been chosen innocently enough, the date is rich with symbolism and is quite fitting in describing the changing dynamics that are presently at play in the Mideast.On this peculiar day of the year when things are typically not as they may initially seem to be, what s being popularly portrayed as a defeat and betrayal is anything but, while the ones doing the premature celebrating are ironically the very same forces that should be concerned the most.Nearly two millennia after the Ides of March were fatefully enshrined in history, it s no longer the Roman Emperor that s being betrayed by his allies, but the Turkish and Saudi ones that are being backstabbed by the US.The DrawdownPresidents Putin and Assad coordinated the decision to decrease the Russian troop presence in Syria, agreeing that the anti-terrorist operation had completed its stated aims of combating terrorism and the restoration of security and stability to many regions in Syria .In particular, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu proclaimed that his country carried out more than 9,000 flights which contributed to the Syrian troops liberating 400 towns and over 10,000 square kilometres of territory. The reader is encouraged to consult The Saker s latest article if they re interested in a detailed analysis of everything that Russia has accomplished thus far, but the present piece will now move on to describing the intent behind the drawdown and the contingency measures that are in place for defending Syria from any large-scale aggression against it.From the Battlefield to the Boardroom:Russia s announcement was timed to coincide with the resumption of the Geneva III talks and clearly carries with it the symbolic message that Moscow is doubling down on its diplomatic commitment in resolving the War on Syria.A de-jure partition is absolutely off the table and prohibited by UNSC Res. 2254, but there s a creeping fear among many that a de-facto one could occur if federalization is ever implemented.It s perhaps for this reason why the Syrian government and its people are currently not in favor of this approach, and for curious readers who are wondering exactly what could be so bad about federalization, the author welcomes them to read his earlier published research on the topic that s available at Russia s National Institute for Research of Global Security.After five and a half months of operation, Russia s anti-terrorist air operation has succeeded in the herculean task of bringing the War on Syria to its final logical phase, which is the protracted negotiation process that has just recommenced.The conflict has thus shifted from the battlefield to the boardroom, but in the lamentable event that foreign actors influence their political surrogates to sabotage the ongoing talks and reinitiate large-scale hostilities, Russia has a few back-up measures up its sleeve to make sure that Syria isn t left unsecured.More at Sputnik News READ MORE SYRIAN NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 21st Century Wire Syria Files | 0 |
10,722 | hillary cancels public appearance due to a large crowd of people chanting lock her up | a gateway between western and eastern europe lies on the charles river in the czech republicprague its been a western tourist hotspot for many years now many people consider it a city overrun by the westerners ruined and no longer worth it
ive spent the last month of my travels here in prague and have had a good opportunity to contrast to a place further east ukraine
with that being said here are observations ive made about prague
yes its overrun but
that doesnt mean you cant find places that arent overrun yes if you choose to stay in prague zone youre going to have a drastically different experience there will be hoards of people with selfie sticks and fat western girls wobbling all over old town blocking the already narrow streets
if you head out to prague etc youll have a much different experience youll get to meet some locals try beer other than staropramen and avoid the throngs of tourists
of course its important to note that prague is a beautiful city its natural to want to see some of the sights if you choose to go this route theres simply no way around it
the reaction from locals changes over time
simply put locals are used to westerners and most of them roll their eyes at them however once they know that youve laid down some semipermanent roots theyre far more friendly
just the cashiers at the market below my apartment have done a complete on me in the few weeks ive been here it went from a general coldness that they show all english speakers to genuine warmth
the beauty of the city is unreal
this is my third time in prague and im still blown away by how beautiful of a city it is from the castle to the riverwalks to all the colorful buildings its just a very pleasant place to be there are a lot of beautiful cities in europe but prague is definitely near the top of all of them
you cant really blame people for wanting to come and see it
cheap by western standards expensive by ee simply put if youre looking for shortterm rentalsyoure getting hosed and theres not many ways around it prague landlords know the power of western currency and know that the shortterm stag parties dont mind blowing it
its far far cheaper to sign a lease for a or month period
a meal in a nice restaurant will probably run you between usd this is incredibly cheap compared to places like italy spain or london at the same time its definitely a bit more expensive than places such as kiev budapest or some cities in poland
if you want actual numbers id say its about more expensive than kiev probably about more expensive than budapest the last time i was there was april so keep that in mind and just marginally more expensive than poland
of course as i keep harping on this its going to get cheaper the further you go from the old town area
the girls
i know this is probably a large part of the reason youre reading this so lets break it down the girls are hot theyre not as hot as ukrainian and russian girls but theyre a step above polish women
at this point its easy to see that any and all local czech girls living in prague are basically immune to foreigners you arent going to impress a girl by swooping in for a weekend and renting out a great pad with a view of the old town in fact shed probably rather do almost anything but hang out in that area
however being a foreigner will give you some major value if youre living there in colombia girls will bang you just because youre a foreigner in ukraine theyll probably at least give you one date for being foreign in prague theyll do neither especially the high quality ones
however the same things apply if youre living there or coming back consistently
plus its not exactly rocket science to be higher value than the drunken tourists stumbling around just keep your liquor in check and avoid putting a gopro on your headyoull already be ahead of the game
conclusionis it livable
when you come from a place like ukraine prague feels much more like home the english is better and it has a more western feel you can find the larger supermarkets and other comforts that are often rare in the former soviet union countries ukraine belarus etc
the question is whether or not its worth it to deal with what comes with those western amenitieshigh amounts of tourism and a general feel of it being taken over theres no denying that prague has probably lost a lot of luster for the adventurous single man compared to how it was years ago
however prague is definitely a good spot for a digital nomad to settle in and get some work done the internet is fast the city is interesting and there are good expat groups that put on cool things to do
you could do a lot worse
read more habits all successful seducers share | 1 |
10,723 | WATCH WHAT HAPPENS After Hillary Clinton Sends Her Book To The Ben Carson Campaign [Video] | This is hysterical! I could add a few ways to use her book: | 0 |
10,724 | Disputed CFPB acting director plans to seek preliminary injunction: filing | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The disputed acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said in a court filing on Friday that she plans to seek a preliminary injunction against rival acting director Mick Mulvaney and the Trump administration by Dec. 5. President Donald Trump named Mulvaney, the White House budget director, as acting director of the CFPB on Nov. 24 following the departure of the director, who had named the agency’s deputy director, Leandra English, to temporarily succeed him. A federal judge this week refused to block Trump’s appointment of Mulvaney to lead the consumer watchdog agency, but English is continuing to pursue the issue and indicated in a court filing she would file a motion of preliminary injunction against Mulvaney and the Trump administration by Dec. 5. | 1 |
10,725 | SPINELESS: Paul Ryan Actually RAN AWAY From Reporters After Trumpcare FAIL (VIDEO) | Everyone knows Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has absolutely no backbone, but what he did yesterday was an entirely new low for the Republican Party.Yesterday was a disaster for the GOP to begin with. Donald Trump pathetically failed to gain enough votes for the disastrous American Health Care Act, and the GOP suffered a major humiliation as the glorious plan they ve been promising to implement and do away with Obamacare with for the past seven years deteriorates before their eyes. After such a horrible, embarrassing day, it was clear that Ryan didn t have it in him to face the press and answer the many critical questions that Americans have about Trumpcare.Ryan emerged from the failed discussions over Trumpcare, visibly frustrated and not in the mood to make nice with reporters. He gave a short statement in which he was clearly angry and uncomfortable: For seven and a half years, we have been promising the American people that we will repeal and replace this broken law because it s collapsing and it s failing families, and tomorrow we re proceeding. He ended his address abruptly, literally running off and away from reporters demanding answers. You can watch this disgusting behavior below, courtesy of the Rachel Maddow Show: This is clearly a sign that the GOP knows how badly they ve just failed, and they re aware of how pathetic the party looks right now. This could not be a more painful time for the GOP their disastrous reality television star of a candidate won the election and even though he s only been in the White House a little more than two months, he s f*cked things up more than anyone thought he would. With Trump s help, the Republican Party has done irreversible damage to its reputation and they only have themselves to thank. Ryan s cowardly behavior only solidifies the fact that the GOP is crumbling before our very eyes.Featured image via screenshot | 0 |
10,726 | WATCH: Corporate CEOs SHOCK Trump’s Economic Adviser With Truth About GOP Tax Cuts | Trump s economic adviser, Gary Cohn, has bought into the GOP s tax plan lock, stock and barrel to the point where he likely has a deep belief that trickle-down economics actually works. The thing is, it doesn t, and at a Wall Street Journal event packed full of CEOs, Cohn seemed absolutely stunned that this crowd of corporate leaders wouldn t automatically say they d use the GOP s tax cuts to invest in their own companies.An editor from the Wall Street Journal asked the audience: If the tax reform bill goes through, do you plan to increase investment your company s investment, capital investment? Only a few of them raised their hands indicating they would. Cohn s response was: Why aren t the other hands up? Really? Well, yes, really. It seems so easy to Cohn, apparently. One might even think that he genuinely doesn t understand why most of the CEOs in the room kept their hands down. Cohn now looks incredibly ignorant and stupid.Corporate tax cuts do not result in greater capital investment and these CEOs know it. Anybody who knows anything about business and economics (and even modern history) knows it. It s really quite simple: CEOs will not invest in things like new machinery, new factories, or new jobs when they don t have enough customer demand to justify it.In fact, most money saved from these kinds of tax cuts go toward stock buybacks, which is a controversial practice in which a company buys back its own stock to artificially drive prices up and put more money into the pockets of shareholders and the C-suite. CEO pay also tends to go up when taxes go down.CEOs know this. They want the tax cuts for precisely this reason. Their greed has gotten the best of them and they know tax cuts will make them richer. But they can t, and won t, commit to using the money they ll save on taxes to expanding operations and creating jobs because if they do, they create a PR nightmare for themselves.Watch Cohn get shocked below:1. Tax-overhaul backers say corporate rate cut will encourage investment by businesses 2. During #wsjceocouncil interview with Gary Cohn, WSJ asks CEOs to raise hands if they ll boost investment if rates cut 3. Few CEOS raise hands 4. Cohn asks: Why aren t the other hands up? pic.twitter.com/5PI60NlW0A Tim Hanrahan (@TimJHanrahan) November 14, 2017Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images | 0 |
10,727 | Watch Bill O’Reilly Lose It After A Fox News Poll Delivers Terrible News For The GOP (VIDEO) | Bill O Reilly refused to believe the findings of a poll conducted by his own news organization on Thursday night, because it was simply too bad for him to contemplate. According to the poll, Democraict candidate Bernie Sanders would beat ALL current GOP contenders for President.While endorsing all other sections of the poll, which supported his views, O Reilly flat out loses it with the section which doesn t. The section shows that that Sanders beats Trump by 14 points, Ted Cruz by 12 points, and narrowly defeats John Kasich by 4 points. It s also not the first poll to show this sort of result.Nevertheless, O Reilly wasn t willing to tolerate such information, which flies in the face of his own views on the electability of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. He appeals to his fellow Fox News veterans Geraldo Rivera and Dana Perino to join him in denouncing the results. Rivera immediately obliges, calling the findings: pie in the sky, while Perino makes sympathetic noises.But it s not enough to quell the perplexed O Reilly, who turns to camera saying: I don t believe it, And I have to say, with all due respect the Fox News poll has been good I don t believe this. I just don t. The incident is a perfect example of the phenomenon known as cognitive dissonance. As Chris Mooney explains in Mother Jones:the concept of cognitive dissonance has been well established in psychology and even, to some extent, embedded in public consciousness. Basically, when the mind is faced with an idea that is threatening to one s identity or sense of self an idea that induces unpleasant dissonance one tends to try to either avoid the thought or, perhaps, reinterpret it into something unthreatening or positive.This urge is also known to affect conservatives to a far greater degree than liberals.This doesn t mean every conservative is less likely to open their minds to information which challenges their world view than every liberal, it simply follows the overall trend.It is a major obstacle in the way of liberals seeking to change the minds of conservatives, as whichever way they appeal it is rejected. If liberals appeal in terms of reason and evidence their case is rejected the moment it creates cognitive dissonance. However, if liberals move into more emotive arguments, these are often rejected on the basis of confirming to naive idealism stereotypes by conservatives. So liberals are painted as either policy wonks with no humanity, or airy fairy liberals with no common sense.Meanwhile, the most ridiculous arguments put forward within the normalised conservative worldview go unchallenged, requiring minimal or no evidence, such as Mexico paying for Trump s border wall for example. Mexico has stated on the record this will not happen, and yet it remains fact among Trump supporters. There is little doubt that if the Fox poll had shown Donald Trump or Ted Cruz beating Sanders and Clinton in a head-to-head O Reilly would have considered it water tight.This is something for us to all watch in our own behavior. Do we demand the same level of evidence for arguments that conform to our world view, as those which do not? If the answer is no, then we are no better. If we want a cleaner, better politics it starts with us. Featured image via Screengrab | 0 |
10,728 | Man sets himself on fire outside New Zealand parliament | WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A man has reportedly set himself on fire on the grounds of New Zealand s parliament in Wellington, two days ahead of national elections, police said on Thursday. Ambulance are with the man currently, who s reportedly in a critical condition, New Zealand police said in a statement, adding they have no immediate information on the man s identity. Police told a Reuters witness that the parliament grounds have been closed off. | 1 |
10,729 | South African farmers jailed for forcing black man into coffin | MIDDELBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - Two white South African farmers who were filmed pushed a wailing black man into a coffin were sentenced to jail on Friday for attempted murder, assault and kidnapping. The 20-second video, widely circulated on social media last year, shows the victim, Victor Mlotshwa, cowering inside a coffin as one man pushes the lid down and the other threatens to put petrol and a snake inside. The defendants - Theo Jackson, sentenced to 14 years, and Willem Oosthuizen, sentenced to 11 years - had pleaded not guilty. They said they had caught Mlotshwa trespassing on their farm in possession of stolen copper cables. The case, heard at a court in Middelburg, about 160 km (100 miles) east of the capital, Pretoria, has caused outrage in a country where deep racial divides persist 23 years after the end of apartheid. When she handed down the sentences, Judge Segopotje Mphahlele said she was appalled that the accused had put Mlotshwa into a coffin. The evidence before court indicates that the seriousness of the offence far outweighs the mitigating factors and the personal factors of the offenders, she said. The conduct of the accused fueled social division and racial tension. The defense immediately requested that it be allowed to appeal the sentence, but Mphahlele dismissed their application. The defense then said it would lodge their appeal directly to the Supreme Court of Appeal, saying that the sentence was too harsh, since no one had been killed. South Africa s Justice Minister Michael Masutha said the sentence could serve as a deterrent to others. South Africa is no longer prepared to treat racism with kid gloves and we are ready to act, Justice Minister Michael Masutha said in an interview with eNCA. A large crowd formed outside the packed courtroom. The police presence around the court was heavy. What they did was painful to us, Qgoga Mnyamezeli said outside the court. Hundreds of members of the country s main political parties, including the ruling African National Congress and the main opposition Democratic Alliance party, gathered outside carrying placards, some which said Black Lives Matter! , and shouting slogans in support of Mlotshwa. Black people make up 80 percent of South Africa s 54 million population, but most its wealth remains in the hands of whites, who account for about 8 percent of the population. | 1 |
10,730 | Scientists identify remains of 88 Argentine soldiers on Falklands | BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Forensic scientists have identified the remains of 88 Argentine soldiers buried in anonymous graves on the Falkland Islands after the country s 1982 conflict with Britain, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Friday. The results were presented to Argentine and British delegations, and Argentine authorities would inform the families of the soldiers directly and confidentially, the ICRC said in a statement. Scientists analyzed 122 sets of human remains in 121 anonymous graves in the Darwin Cemetery in the South Atlantic, an ICRC spokeswoman said. One of the graves, which were all marked Argentine soldier only known to God, had two bodies. The ICRC has been interviewing families of dead Argentine soldiers since 2012 and 107 have consented to DNA testing. During Britain s two-month war to reclaim the Falklands, which Argentines call the Malvinas, 255 British troops and about 650 Argentine soldiers died. The majority of the Argentines that perished were on a Navy ship that sank. For us, the process will end when all those who fell are identified, said Ernesto Alonso, a veteran of the war. While the South American country still claims the islands, President Mauricio Macri has adopted a softer tone than his predecessor Cristina Fernandez. The two countries signed an agreement last December to try to identify the soldiers and to divide the $1.5 million of related costs. The ICRC forensic scientists, and two experts each from Argentina and Britain, began their efforts in June. | 1 |
10,731 | Watch: Liberal American Woman in Hot Water After She Attacks Danish Man for Wearing a MAGA Hat…In Denmark [Video] | First hand account of a crazy liberal attacking a danish guy for being a Trump supporter: An American woman wanted to sit at my table. I was wearing a MAGA cap. She became visibly angry with my presence, so my friend started recording her. This took place at Unibar near Aarhus University, Denmark.We chose to take legal action the following day. A case has been opened and she will be charged with politically motivated assault (a hate crime).Political violence is never acceptable no matter ones political affiliation.Yes, she s in trouble and should be. What s wrong with these triggered babies on the left?It s like a cult of people where everyone has to follow. You can t have a free thought or else you re a bad person . This woman ripped into a man who supports OUR president Think about it. He s not even an American but a Danish citizen!Does this remind you of the last few months of the campaign last year? trump supporters were repeatedly assaulted in so many ways but the media refused to acknowledge it. We saw Trump supporters pelted with eggs, chased and tackled and punched. The woman above felt she could get away with doing the same thing. Not so fast! She s in hot water after what she did to this Danish Trump supporter. | 0 |
10,732 | Did OPRAH Just Leave “Nasty” Hillary Wishing She Wouldn’t Have Endorsed Her? [VIDEO] | Four months ago, Oprah, the woman who made her fortune off preying on women s emotions and counting on their inability to think for themselves, gave Hillary s vagina an endorsement. She gave women absolutely no credible reason to support her, but reminded them, when you walk into the voting booth the choice is clear, one candidate has a vagina and the other one does not: Regardless of your politics, it s a seminal moment for women. What this says is, there is no ceiling, that ceiling just went boom! It says anything is possible when you can be leader of the free world. What Oprah s essentially saying to women who hang on her every word is that it doesn t matter if you or your husband don t have a job. It doesn t matter if you live in a town supported by coal that Hillary promised to destroy. It doesn t matter that Hillary left our nation s top secret classified emails exposed for anyone in the world to see, simply because she believed she was above the law, or that every other person in the history of our government has been punished for less serious breaches of our national security. Much like she tried to convince her viewers in 2008 that American needed a black President, she s now trying to convince her viewers they need to elect our first woman for President. Am I the only woman who finds Oprah s dumbing down of women to be an insult to my intelligence? Yesterday, Oprah weighed in on the election and gave an endorsement for Hillary that was an insult to the intelligence of every woman still clinging to her failed network. She essentially told them, you may not be smart enough to follow the news or to understand the seriousness of the content of the emails being leaked that prove Hillary was using her position as Secretary of State to funnel money into her Clinton Foundation. You may not even be smart enough to understand the seriousness of the recent videos released by James O Keefe of Project Veritas that show Democrats admitting to committing massive voter fraud for decades and inciting violence at Trump rallies. You may not even be smart enough to know these people featured in the undercover videos admit that Hillary and the DNC are fully aware of, and are funding their illegal activities. Yes, these same people are tied to Hillary who admit on tape they were responsible for the unprecedented violence a horrified America witnessed at Donald Trump s rally in her hometown of Chicago But let me tell you, that nasty woman you see on TV just ignore what you see, because, as Oprah states, She s not coming over to your house! You don t have to like her, she said. You don t have to like her. Watch Oprah below. She apparently couldn t offer her female viewers one concrete reason to vote for Hillary, so instead she focused on reasons to overlook her negatives and vote for her anyhow. Is this really an endorsement that will help Hillary Clinton win with thinking women or will they just use her endorsement to point out to other women that Oprah couldn t even think of one good reason to vote for Hillary other than the obvious argument used for the low information voter she has a vagina.Here s a video of Hillary speaking down to a young reporter in Oprah s beloved Africa. Maybe Oprah s decided that it s okay for women in positions of power to talk to women like this, as long as you don t invite them over for dinner: | 0 |
10,733 | Turkey wants to bring wounded from Syria's Ghouta for treatment | ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey is working with Russia to evacuate around 500 people from the besieged Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday. There are around 500 people, including 170 children and women who need urgent humanitarian aid, Erdogan said ahead of his departure on an official visit to Sudan. He said he had discussed the issue with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Ankara aimed to bring people in need of assistance to Turkey to provide treatment and care. The Russian and Turkish chiefs of staff would discuss the steps to be taken in operations that would also involve the Turkish Red Cresent and Turkey s Disaster and Emergency Organisation (AFAD), Erdogan said. In November, the U.N. humanitarian adviser for Syria called the situation in eastern Ghouta a humanitarian emergency. | 1 |
10,734 | Iran confirms upholding death sentence for academic over spying | DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran s Supreme Court has upheld a death sentence against a Sweden-based Iranian academic convicted of spying for Israel, the Tehran prosecutor was quoted as saying on Monday, confirming reports by Amnesty International and his family. Ahmadreza Djalali, a medical doctor and lecturer at the Karolinska Institute, a Stockholm medical university, was accused of providing information to Israel to help it assassinate several senior nuclear scientists. Djalali was arrested in Iran in April 2016 and later convicted of espionage. He has denied the charges, Amnesty said. At least four scientists were killed between 2010 and 2012 in what Tehran said were assassinations meant to sabotage its efforts to develop nuclear energy. Western powers and Israel said Iran aimed to build a nuclear bomb. Tehran denied this. The Islamic Republic hanged a man in 2012 over the killings, saying he was an agent for Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. On Monday, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said the Supreme Court recently upheld the death sentence against Djalali, the news site of Iran s judiciary, Mizan, reported. Dolatabadi said Djalali had confessed to meeting Mossad agents repeatedly to deliver information on Iran s nuclear and defense plans and personnel, and helping to infect Defense Ministry computer systems with viruses, Mizan reported. London-based Amnesty International and Djalali s wife said earlier this month that his lawyers were told that the Supreme Court had considered his case and upheld his death sentence. Iranian state television broadcast last week what it described as Djalali s confessions. His wife said he had been forced by his interrogators to read the confession. Djalali was on a business trip to Iran when he was arrested and sent to Evin prison. He was held in solitary confinement for three months of his detention and tortured, Amnesty said. It said Djalali wrote a letter inside prison in August stating he was being held for refusing to spy for Iran. Sweden condemned the sentence in October and said it had raised the matter with Iranian envoys. Seventy-five Nobel prize laureates petitioned Iranian authorities last month to release Djalali so he could continue his scholarly work for the benefit of mankind . | 1 |
10,735 | Watch Trump Turn Into Crazy Repeating Parrot As He Threatens To Sue Ted Cruz (VIDEO) | Saturday night s debate saw Donald Trump and Ted Cruz going at each other repeatedly. More specifically, it saw them calling one another liars. Now, Trump has gone on record saying that Cruz is the biggest liar he s ever known. In fact, Trump seems to believe that these alleged lies on the part of Ted Cruz is enough to bring a lawsuit against the Texas Senator. Watch Trump seem to lose his mind as he repeats the same line over and over like a crazy parrot: So we will bring a lawsuit if he doesn t straighten his act out. He s a lying guy, a really lying guy. Some people misrepresent. This guy s just a plain out liar. In fact, I felt better because Marco Rubio called him a liar the other night on stage. I felt so much better. I said good, politician calls a politician? Now I can actually call him a liar. Well considering that Donald Trump has a pretty tenuous relationship with the truth himself, this isn t really saying a whole lot. That whole field of GOP clowns lies through their teeth for sport, so it s really just hypocrisy at its finest. But hey, at least it s great for entertainment.Watch the video below, as posted to Facebook by Fox News:// < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]> We will bring a lawsuit if he doesn t straighten his act out [Ted Cruz] is a lying guy. Donald J. TrumpPosted by Fox News on Monday, February 15, 2016Featured image from video screen capture | 0 |
10,736 | EUROPE CRASHES AND BURNS, As EU Officials FINALLY Admit Secret About “Refugees” They’ve Known For A While | The Genie is out of the bottle. Europe will never be the same. It s rich history and the uniqueness of each country is gone.Even EU officials are now finally admitting that a lot or, rather, most of the people we have been calling refugees are not refugees. They are economic migrants with no more right to be called European citizens than anybody else in the world. Even Frans Timmermans, Vice President of the European Commission, made this point this week. In his accounting, at least 60pc of the people who are here are economic migrants who should not be here are from North African states such as Morocco and Tunisia. As he told Dutch television:- These are people that you can assume have no reason to apply for refugee status. Swedish officials are coming to a similar conclusion, saying that as many as 80,000 of the mainly young men who have gone to Sweden as refugees in the past year alone are no such thing.Now there are the usual attempts to crowd-please from certain politicians and officials who are talking about how they might have to deport these people. But they won t, will they? Does anybody honestly believe that the Swedish authorities are currently preparing to deport 80,000 fake asylum seekers from their country?Or let us assume that the 60pc figure is correct for Germany and that 60pc of the people who have arrived in Germany in the past year alone should not be there. Given that it has taken in more than a million people in the last twelve months, is Germany now going to deport as many as three quarters of a million fake asylum seekers from its territory? Of course not. They will not even attempt it. Everybody in Europe knows that. And everybody following events and weighing up their chances from outside Europe knows that.Everybody on earth now knows that Europe s present leaders lack either the will or the means to enforce their own laws. So more people will come next year, and the year after that and the year after that. All in the knowledge that once you re in, you re in. If the facts were otherwise then Sweden, Germany and other countries across the continent would currently be preparing to ship hundreds of thousands of people out of Europe and back to their countries of origin. But they re not.And so the numbers coming in will increase, and the politicians will keep posing, and the European peoples will rightly get more and more enraged at the fact that their continent is being taken away from them. Eventually perhaps even the constant bogeyman warnings about the far-right will lose their capacity to scare. Not good times ahead, I d say. Via: UKSpectator Is there is enough courage in America to fight the mass invasion of Muslims into our nation? We have generations of men and women who have given their lives to make America the greatest nation on earth. Are we willing to sit back and let progressive politicians and radical leftist organizations like MoveOn.org turn our country into another Syria, with warring Muslim factions hell-bent on the destruction of Christianity and Judaism? | 0 |
10,737 | Tillerson to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, India, Switzerland | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, India and Switzerland in a week-long trip starting on Friday, the State Department said in a statement released on Thursday. In the Middle East, Tillerson will discuss the conflict with Yemen, Iran, and the ongoing dispute with Qatar, among other issues, the department said. In Geneva, he will meet several international organizations to discuss refugees, it added. His trip, scheduled for Oct. 20-27, also marks Tillerson s first visit to South Asia as secretary, according to the department. | 1 |
10,738 | The Leaker-In-Chief Just Tweeted Classified Info To His 35 Million Followers | We sure Attorney General Jeff Sessions will be all up in this after his promise to stop the leaks coming from the White House. The perpetrator in this instance (and several other instances) is none other the current occupant of the White House. Donald Trump s 17-day vacation at his luxury golf course in Bedminster, N.J. is going swimmingly. Yesterday, as rain poured down, President Bone Spurs began rage-tweeting, seemingly taking out the weather on the media, and attacking a Democratic Senator s military record. On Tuesday morning, the man who said he would have very little time to watch TV when elected started retweeting segments from Fox & Friends.One segment the Vacationer-in-Chief retweeted to his 35 million followers reports on U.S. spy agencies detecting two anti-ship missiles being loaded onto a boat by North Korea in recent days.The report attributes US officials with knowledge of the latest intelligence in the region and quotes one official who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive information. Trump routinely bashes anonymous sources, but only when the information is critical of him. When the president disseminates classified info about US spy satellite capabilities based on anonymous sources Peter Alexander from NBC News tweeted. Old enough to remember when US sent a man to prison for leaking a story like this. Now it gets an RT from POTUS, wrote Josh Gernstein, a Politico reporter covering the White House, according to BuzzFeed.When the president disseminates classified info about US spy satellite capabilities based on anonymous sources. ? pic.twitter.com/rmJitYRUBR Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) August 8, 2017When Nikki Haley was asked on Fox about the spy satellite report on North Korea, she said she can t discuss classified information. I can t talk about anything that s classified. And if that s in the newspaper that s a shame, she said. Well, it s all over the news NOW, isn t it?Watch:Nikki Haley says she can't talk about the story Donald Trump retweeted this morning: "I can't talk about anything that's classified" pic.twitter.com/7kWjJGs3tQ Amber Jamieson (@ambiej) August 8, 2017 I have no reason to comment on it, she said just before bashing leakers who put lives in danger. It s interesting that the panel of Fox & Friends seemed unnerved by leakers after they just leaked sensitive information which the amateur president happily tweeted this his millions of followers. We suggest she give Donald Trump a stern talking to.We suggest UN Ambassador Nikki Haley give Donald Trump a stern talking to.Read more:Photo by Isaac Brekken/Getty Images. | 0 |
10,739 | [VIDEO] OBAMA TELLS HOMETOWN KENYANS: “I’m A Pretty Good President, And If I Ran For A Third Term, I Could Win” | We re not sure what s funnier, the fact that he talks about being a pretty good president or that he actually thinks anyone believes him when he says he can t run again because the Constitution prohibits it, saying: the law s the law. When did this President ever let a little thing like the Constitution or the law get in the way of his agenda? | 0 |
10,740 | U.N. experts urge Aung San Suu Kyi to meet persecuted Rohingya | GENEVA (Reuters) - Myanmar s leader Aung San Suu Kyi should personally meet members of the Muslim Rohingya minority which is being subjected to ongoing persecution by the military, a group of U.N. human rights experts said on Tuesday. Myanmar has rejected U.N. accusations that its forces are engaged in ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims in response to coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents on the security forces on Aug. 25. The military campaign has sent nearly 430,000 refugees fleeing to Bangladesh, the group of seven U.N. officials said. They include the special rapporteurs on human rights in Myanmar, on minority issues and on racism. We call on Aung San Suu Kyi to meet the Rohingya personally, the officials said in a statement. They said the implementation of promises by Suu Kyi to address the crisis, including that perpetrators would be held accountable, would amount to an empty gesture since so many Rohingya had fled. Suu Kyi is Nobel Peace prize winner whose government came to power last year in a transition from nearly 50 years of harsh military rule. She has denounced any rights violations but international pressure on her is mounting and there are calls for her Nobel prize to be withdrawn. Suu Kyi has little if any control over the security forces under a military-drafted constitution that also bars her from the presidency and gives the military veto power over political reform. The 1.1 million Rohingya in Buddhist majority Myanmar are denied citizenship and classified as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, despite claiming roots in the region that go back centuries, with communities marginalized and occasionally subjected to communal violence. | 1 |
10,741 | Zimbabwe president Mnangagwa appoints Chinamasa acting finance minister | HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Monday named Patrick Chinamasa acting finance minister until a new cabinet has been appointed, the chief secretary to the president and cabinet said in a statement. Chinamasa was a former finance minister under Robert Mugabe s government but was moved to a newly created ministry of cyber security during a reshuffle last month. | 1 |
10,742 | Timeline: Zika's origin and global spread | The following timeline charts the origin and spread of the Zika virus from its discovery nearly 70 years ago: 1947: Scientists researching yellow fever in Uganda’s Zika Forest identify the virus in a rhesus monkey 1948: Virus recovered from Aedes africanus mosquito in Zika Forest 1952: First human cases detected in Uganda and Tanzania 1954: Virus found in Nigeria 1960s-80s: Zika detected in mosquitoes and monkeys across equatorial Africa 1969–83: Zika found in equatorial Asia, including India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan 2007: Zika spreads from Africa and Asia, first large outbreak on Pacific island of Yap 2012: Researchers identify two distinct lineages of the virus, African and Asian 2013–14: Zika outbreaks in French Polynesia, Easter Island, the Cook Islands and New Caledonia. Retrospective analysis shows possible link to birth defects and severe neurological complications in babies in French Polynesia March 2, 2015: Brazil reports illness characterized by skin rash in northeastern states July 17: Brazil reports detection of neurological disorders in newborns associated with history of infection Oct. 5: Cape Verde has cases of illness with skin rash Oct. 22: Colombia confirms cases of Zika Oct. 30: Brazil reports increase in microcephaly, abnormally small heads, among newborns Nov. 11: Brazil declares public health emergency November 2015-January 2016: Cases reported in Suriname, Panama, El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala, Paraguay, Venezuela, French Guiana, Martinique, Puerto Rico, Guyana, Ecuador, Barbados, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Curacao, Jamaica Feb. 1: World Health Organization (WHO) declares public health emergency of international concern Feb. 2: First case of Zika transmission in United States; local health officials say likely contracted through sex, not mosquito bite Feb. 5: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says virus being actively transmitted in 30 countries, mostly in the Americas Feb. 8: U.S. President Barack Obama requests $1.8 billion to fight Zika Feb. 12: Brazil investigating potential link between Zika infections and 4,314 suspected cases of microcephaly. Of those, 462 confirmed as microcephaly and 41 determined to be linked to virus Feb. 17: Brazil investigating potential link between Zika and 4,443 suspected cases of microcephaly. Of those, 508 confirmed as microcephaly and most of those cases are linked to the virus. WHO seeks $56 million to fight Zika. Feb. 18: CDC adds Aruba and Bonaire to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 32. Feb. 23: CDC investigating 14 cases of possible sexual transmission of Zika. CDC also adds Trinidad and Tobago and Marshall Islands to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 34. Feb. 25: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases number more than 580 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 4,100 suspected cases of microcephaly. Feb. 27: France detects first sexually transmitted case of Zika. Feb. 29: CDC adds St. Maarten, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 36. March 1: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 641 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 4,222 suspected cases of microcephaly. March 8: WHO advises pregnant women to avoid areas with Zika outbreak and said sexual transmission of the virus is “relatively common.” March 9: CDC adds New Caledonia to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 37. March 15: Cuba reports first case of Zika contracted in the country. March 16: Cape Verde identifies first case of microcephaly. March 18: CDC says during Jan. 1, 2015 to Feb. 26, 2016, 116 residents of the United States had evidence of recent Zika virus infection based on laboratory testing. Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 863 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 4,268 suspected cases of microcephaly. March 19: CDC adds Cuba to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 38. March 21: South Korea confirms first case of Zika. March 22: CDC adds Dominica to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 39. Bangladesh confirms first case of Zika virus. Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 907 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 4,293 suspected cases of microcephaly. March 29: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 944 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil said the number of suspected cases of microcephaly dropped slightly to 4,291. March 31: According to the World Health Organization, there is a strong scientific consensus that Zika can cause the birth defect microcephaly as well as Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that can result in paralysis, though conclusive proof may take months or years. April 1: CDC adds Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 40. April 4: CDC adds Fiji to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 41. April 5: Vietnam reports first Zika infections. April 6: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 1,046 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. The number of suspected cases of microcephaly dropped to 4,046. April 7: St. Lucia confirms first two cases of Zika, contracted locally. April 12: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 1,113 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. The number of suspected cases of microcephaly dropped to 3,836. It was the second week in a row that the overall total figure fell. April 13: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that infection with the Zika virus in pregnant women is a cause of the birth defect microcephaly and other severe brain abnormalities in babies. The CDC said now that the causal relationship has been established, several important questions must still be answered with studies that could take years. CDC adds St. Lucia to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 42. April 14: Colombia confirms two microcephaly cases linked to Zinka. April 18: Peru reports first case of sexually transmitted Zika virus. CDC adds Belize to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 43. April 19: Chilean authorities find Zika mosquito for first time in decades. April 25: Canada confirms first sexually transmitted Zika case. April 26: Brazil says the number of confirmed cases of microcephaly climbed to 1,198 from 1,168 in the week through April 23, but suspected ones under investigation continued to decline to 3,710 from 3,741 a week ago. Brazil registered 91,387 likely cases of the Zika virus from February until April 2, the health ministry said, in its first national report on the epidemic. April 29: Puerto Rico reports first death related to Zika, according to the CDC. The country also confirmed 683 Zika cases, including 65 pregnant women, and five suspected cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome from Zika, the CDC reported. May 4: Panama confirms four microcephaly cases tied to Zika. May 6: Spain gets first case of Zika-related brain defect in a fetus. May 9: CDC adds Papua New Guinea, Saint Barthelemy and Peru to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 46. Honduras suspects first case of microcephaly in Zika patient. May 11: Brazil says the number of confirmed cases of microcephaly dropped to 1,326 in the week through May 7 as doctors and Brazilian health officials find that some suspected cases of microcephaly are not the disorder. Suspected ones under investigation continued to decline to 3,433. May 12: CDC adds Grenada to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 47. May 13: Puerto Rico reports first case of Zika-related microcephaly. May 20: WHO says an outbreak of Zika virus on the African island chain of Cape Verde is of the same strain as the one blamed for birth abnormalities in Brazil. May 24: Brazil reports the number of confirmed cases of microcephaly at 1,434 for the latest week to May 21. Suspected ones under investigation declined to 3,257. May 26: CDC adds Argentina to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 48. June 9: WHO issues updated guidelines on prevention of sexual transmission of the Zika virus, including advising women living in areas where the virus is being transmitted to delay getting pregnant. June 14: El Salvador confirms first case of microcephaly linked to Zika. SOURCES: World Health Organization, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Reuters | 1 |
10,743 | Trump Fans At Wisconsin Game Wear Obama Mask With Noose Attached (TWEETS) | There s no doubt that two men seated near the front row at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wis., are not Hillary Clinton supporters, nor do they support America s first black president. One of the unidentified men wore a Barack Obama costume to Saturday s Nebraska vs. Wisconsin game which displayed a noose around the neck of the president. The other man was pulling the rope around Obama s neck.I can t imagine what it must be like for people of color who have this experience this disgusting amount of hate everyday. I feel sick pic.twitter.com/KmkxkWNcv3 ? (@woahohkatie) October 29, 2016Here s that image again:Employees at the Wisconsin arena ask the football fan to remove the display.The fan also toted a sign critical of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Although the writing on the sign was difficult to decipher in the tweet, judging by the costume we re guessing it wasn t too kind.The situation was brought to the attention of university police on Twitter, but the fan was not removed from the game. The university cited the fan s right to free speech. The Wisconsin police answered tweets from those upset by the costume. Each one said, While we don t support the offensive image of a noose, its a form of free speech. Guest Svcs. asked them to remove it, they did. @mk_rodgers While we don t support the offensive image of a noose, its a form of free speech. Guest Svcs. asked them to remove it, they did. UW-Madison Police (@UWMadisonPolice) October 30, 2016At some point, the men exited the arena, this time with one wearing a Donald Trump costume with a noose around Hillary Clinton s neck.It APPEARS the men were first asked to removed the Obama mask then asked to leave. This was their exit pic.twitter.com/Xv1UxMOfaW ? (@woahohkatie) October 30, 2016The University of Wisconsin released a statement:During the first half of this evening s Wisconsin football game against Nebraska, UW officials were made aware that an individual in the seating bowl had donned a highly insensitive and offensive costume. UW Athletics guest services staff were dispatched to the individual s seating area where they asked him to remove the offensive components of the costume. He complied.UW Athletics policy regarding admission into the stadium with a costume stipulates that no one may be wearing a mask upon entering the facility. Once inside, it is permissible to wear a mask. The costume, while repugnant AND COUNTER TO THE VALUES OF THE UNIVERSITY AND ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT, was an exercise of the individual s right to free speech. The university also exercised its rights by asking the individual to remove the offensive parts of the costume.UW-Madison is dedicated to promoting a campus environment where all people feel valued, safe and able to thrive. To that end, the university continues to encourage all of our community members to engage in discussion over vital issues in ways that promote greater understanding and respect for all persons.What s even more unnerving about the display would be the white people standing around the men seeing nothing wrong with their actions. This was at a football game, not a political event, not that either is acceptable for this sort of behavior.Earlier this month, a man featured a float in a parade displaying Donald Trump executing Hillary Clinton. The float displayed a Trump/Pence sign and a Make America Great Again sign, along with something to do with the Democratic presidential nominee s health.Trump supporters on Twitter are defending the football fans deplorable behavior, but just as the Indiana man questioned Hillary s health, we should question the mental health of Donald s supporters.Only Trump supporters would find this behavior acceptable while disparaging Colin Kaepernick for his form of silently protesting racial inequality.Image via Twitter. | 0 |
10,744 | Russia names nine U.S.-backed news outlets likely to be labeled 'foreign agents' | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia on Thursday named nine U.S. government-sponsored news outlets likely to be labeled foreign agents under a new law that is being rushed through parliament in response to what Moscow says is unacceptable U.S. pressure on Russian media. Russia s lower house of parliament approved the law - allowing Moscow to force foreign media to brand news they provide to Russians as the work of foreign agents and to disclose their funding sources - on Wednesday. The legislation needs approval from the upper house of parliament, which is likely to happen next week, and the signature of President Vladimir Putin before it becomes law. The Russian Justice Ministry on Thursday published a list of nine U.S.-backed news outlets that it said could be affected by the changes, which it said in a statement on its website were likely to become law in the near future. It said it had written to the U.S. government-sponsored Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), along with seven separate Russian or local-language news outlets run by RFE/RL. One of the seven outlets provides news on Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, one on Siberia, and one on the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus region. Another covers provincial Russia, one is an online TV station, another covers the mostly Muslim region of Tatarstan, and the other is a news portal that fact-checks the statements of Russian officials. Russia s broadside against U.S. media is part of the fallout from allegations that the Kremlin interfered in the U.S. presidential election last year in favor of Donald Trump. U.S. intelligence officials accuse the Kremlin of using Russian media organizations it finances to influence U.S. voters, and this week Washington required Russian state broadcaster RT to register a U.S.-based affiliate company as a foreign agent . The Kremlin denies meddling in the election and has said the restrictions on Russian broadcasters in the United States amount to an attack on free speech. The new media law in Russia is retaliation, it says. The draft legislation states that Russian authorities can designate foreign media as foreign agents , making them subject to the same requirements that are applied to foreign-funded non-governmental organizations under a 2012 law. Under that law, foreign agents must include in any information they publish or broadcast to Russian audiences a mention of their foreign agent designation. They also must apply for inclusion in a government register, submit regular reports on their sources of funding, on their objectives, on how they spend their money, and who their managers are. They can be subject to spot checks by the authorities to make sure they comply with the rules, according to the 2012 law, which has forced some NGOs to close. RFE/RL said in a statement it did not want to speculate what steps Russia might take against it next, and looked forward to continuing its journalistic work. VOA Director Amanda Bennett has said the station remains committed to providing independent news to global audiences. | 1 |
10,745 | SUSAN RICE Plays Race, Gender Bias Card On Why She’s Being ‘Picked On’ About ‘Unmasking’ Of Trump Associates | Susan Rice, the Obama national security adviser under fire over her alleged involvement in the unmasking of Trump associates during the 2016 presidential election, suggested in a fresh interview that race and gender might be playing a role in the scrutiny she s faced. PLEASE NOTE OUR PREVIOUS REPORT BELOW ON THE RADICAL PAST AND RACISM OF SUSAN RICE. The nerve of this woman who went on 5 morning shows after Benghazi and LIED to the American people! In an interview with journalist Michael Tomasky for New York Magazine, Rice reportedly questioned the criticism she s faced dating back to the Benghazi controversy. Why me? Why not Jay Carney, for example, who was then our press secretary, who stood up more? she asked.Tomasky noted in the piece that Carney isn t an African-American woman, of course and apparently asked Rice whether that is the key factor. Rice, in response, left the door open: I don t know I do not leap to the simple explanation that it s only about race and gender. I m trying to keep my theories to myself until I m ready to come out with them. It s not because I don t have any. But Rice mentioned other prominent female figures like Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice who faced ad hominem attacks, suggesting a correlation.Asked about the comments, a Republican Capitol Hill source pushed back. This is screaming out for attention She s saying I don t know why they all started picking on me to begin with. As to the suggestion of race and gender being a factor, the source countered, then why would there be a subpoena for a white male? That was a reference to the fact that Rice is not the only focus of the congressional probe into unmasking. Investigators have issued subpoenas to three different agencies: NSA, CIA and FBI.Playing the victim is the usual tactic of leftists like Susan Rice she was a college radical before she cleaned up her resume and put on a business suit:RACIST VICTIM SUSAN RICE HAD A STRING OF FAILURES IN AFRICA BEFORE BENGHAZI HER RACIST CLAIM THAT NATIONAL SECURITY ISN T DIVERSE ENOUGH SO NOT AS EFFECTIVE CAUSED A FIRESTORM:From 1995 to 1997, Rice served as Special Assistant to President Bill Clinton and senior director for African Affairs at the NSC at the White House.The Daily Caller: U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, reportedly the leading contender to be President Barack Obama s next national security adviser, failed during the 1990s to prevent unnecessary deaths in Rwanda, provide adequate security prior to the bombings of the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, or deal effectively with Robert Mugabe s dictatorship in Zimbabwe.A former State Department military adviser to Africa thought Rice s inexperience caused President Bill Clinton s feckless response to the Rwandan genocide when she served as National Security Council director for International Organizations and Peacekeeping. And documents sent to The Daily Caller from the National Legal and Policy Center show Rice failed to take seriously repeated Islamist threats against the U.S. embassies in the prelude to deadly bomb attacks. This woman has ZERO credibility and is a true racist who would be tossed out of her job if she were white and said government was too black. Furthermore, she s giving a commencement speech and she s politicizing it!SUSAN RICE FELT STUDENTS SHOULD BE REQUIRED TO TAKE BLACK HISTORY: In a 1986 book by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, the future diplomat argued for the aggressive inclusion of a black history curriculum in American schools, claiming that its omission had crippling effects by providing a child with no more than a white interpretation of reality. She s yet another one of Obama s minions with a radical racist past who s pushing the Obama agenda of a fundamental transformation . Rice attended Stanford University and was a black radical back in the day is anyone surprised by this? Probably not In a White House often accused of being stacked with loyalists, President Obama s national security adviser said Wednesday there are too many white people in key government posts, endangering national security because they think alike.Speaking at Florida International University s commencement, Susan E. Rice, who is black, said a diversified government workforce is more likely to yield better outcomes than a predominantly white one.Referring to criticism that the U.S. national security workforce is white, male and Yale, Ms. Rice told the graduates, In the halls of power, in the faces of our national security leaders, America is still not fully reflected. By now, we should all know the dangers of groupthink, where folks who are alike often think alike, she said. By contrast, groups comprised of different people tend to question one another s assumptions, draw on divergent perspectives and experiences, and yield better outcomes. Her comments were reminiscent of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who said in a speech in 2001, before Mr. Obama appointed her to the high court, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn t lived that life. Ms. Rice elaborated in her speech on how having more minorities in the national security field would better protect the homeland.Read more: WT Read more: FOX News | 0 |
10,746 | Jailed British-Iranian charity worker faces new charges: family | LONDON (Reuters) - Iranian authorities have opened a new case against a British-Iranian charity worker serving five years in jail in Tehran, leveling charges that could carry a sentence of 16 additional years in prison, her family said on Monday. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested by the elite Revolutionary Guards in April 2016 at a Tehran airport, as she was about to return to Britain with her two-year-old daughter after a family visit. She was convicted of plotting to overthrow Iran s clerical establishment, a charge denied by her family and the Foundation, a charity organization that is independent of Thomson Reuters and operates independently of Reuters News. She was sentenced to five years in prison. In a hearing in Evin Prison, where she is serving her term, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was told on Sunday that a new case had been opened at the insistence of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran s most powerful security force, her family said in a statement. The new charges include joining and receiving money from organizations working to overthrow the Islamic Republic, and attending a demonstration outside the Iranian Embassy in London, the family said. Nazanin and the rest of her family are bewildered at this turn, the family statement said. Her husband Richard Ratcliffe said the Revolutionary Guards were inventing new charges to prevent her early release . Iran s judiciary was not immediately available for comment. Zaghari-Ratcliffe used to work in London for the BBC, which Iran says is seeking to topple the Islamic theocracy. During Sunday s hearing she rejected all the new charges, the family said. Iran refuses to recognize dual nationals and denies them access to consular assistance. On the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in September, Britain s foreign minister, Boris Johnson, said progress in the relationship between London and Tehran would depend to some extent on a resolution of the Nazanin case. | 1 |
10,747 | Construction executives detained in Peru in graft probe | LIMA (Reuters) - Four former and current executives of Peruvian construction companies were detained pending trial on Monday, accused of colluding with Brazilian builder Odebrecht [ODBES.UL] to bribe a former president. Judge Richard Concepcion ordered the men, who deny wrongdoing, to be held in pre-trial jail to ensure they do not flee or obstruct the law, as prosecutors prepare criminal charges. The decision marked the first time executives from major Peruvian companies have been jailed in the Car Wash scandal, Brazil s largest-ever corruption probe that has widened to include other Latin American countries. Odebrecht has admitted to bribing local officials in 12 countries to secure public works contracts over the course of a decade and promised authorities that it would provide details. Prosecutor Hamilton Castro accused Jose Alejandro Grana and Hernando Alejandro Grana, who once headed Peru s biggest construction group Grana y Montero, and Fernando Gonzalo and Jose Fernando Castillo, who work for two private contractors, of providing $15 million of a $20 million bribe that Odebrecht paid. The money was paid to ex-president Alejandro Toledo to secure highway contracts that the companies partnered together on a decade ago and had been disguised on company books as the cost of additional risks covered by Odebrecht, Castro said at a court hearing. The judge also ordered Gonzalo Ferraro, a former Grana y Montero manager who was in local hospital, to be placed under house arrest. All five men deny any wrongdoing and are appealing the judge s ruling, said Ferraro s attorney Roger Yon. Grana y Montero, and the two private companies, JJC Contratistas Generales and Ingenieros Civiles y Contratistas Generales, declined to comment. The three companies have previously denied knowing about or taking part in Odebrecht s bribes. Grana y Montero s U.S.-listed shares closed 6.9 percent lower on Monday. The corruption probe has shaken up the local construction sector as the government prepares to award nearly $8 billion in contracts for rebuilding infrastructure and housing destroyed by flooding. President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who served in Toledo s cabinet when the highway contracts were awarded, has said he knew nothing about the alleged bribe for Toledo. Toledo, ordered to pre-trial detention in February, has denied taking bribes from Odebrecht. Peru is seeking his extradition from the United States. A second former President, Ollanta Humala, has been in pre-trial detention since July and denies allegations he took illicit funds from Odebrecht. | 1 |
10,748 | Racist Cowards Nearly Beat Black Ex-Marine To Death In Wyoming | Clayton Denny is a former U.S. Marine who moved to Sheridan, Wyoming in August to work as a personal trainer and exercise coach. After a bike ride through town on Saturday evening, Clayton decided to cap off his night with a visit to a local bar known as the Beaver Creek Saloon.While there, he overheard Jacob Olson, 26, and Dylan Dygert, 21, say a racial slur. Denny, who is of African-American and Chippewa Cree descent, approached the two men to confront them about it.All seemed to be going well as Denny shook hands with one of the men. But then something changed as the encounter became more heated. The bartender ordered them to take the argument outside. The trio resumed their argument in an alley. Denny turned and walked away and that s when Olson and Dygert attacked. A push, white flash, bits and pieces of pain, Denny recalled about what happened. Dygert and Olson pushed Denny to the ground and began kicking and punching him while yelling racial epithets at him. They beat him so badly that Denny thought he might die.Even Olson believed he may have left Denny for dead as a witness told police that Olson told someone on the phone that he may have killed someone.Aside from scratches, bruises, and cuts, Denny suffered a broken orbital bone, which he would need surgery for in order to drain fluid and clean out an infection. He also suffered two swollen eyes, multiple cuts on his head that had to be stapled, and a concussion.Olson and Dygert have both been arrested by Sheridan police and are being held on $20,000 bond.Of course, they claimed they only attacked and viciously beat Denny in self defense. However, they didn t know that the incident had been caught on video, which clearly showed that Olson and Dygert went after Denny after he had already turned and walked away from them. In other words, Denny wasn t a threat and Olson and Dygert lied to police in an effort to save their racist asses.Both men face 10 years in prison for the racist attack and hate crime charges are being considered by the County Attorney s Office. And if they don t charge them with a hate crime, the Department Of Justice should do it for them.But due to this disgusting attack, Denny says he and his girlfriend have received tremendous support from the Sheridan community. I do want people to know that the community of Sheridan has been awesome. We ve had people stopping by all weekend and all week, just saying, you know giving their condolences and helping us out. It sounds like Denny has all the support he needs to get through this ordeal. Let s just hope Olson and Dygert use their time in prison wisely to think about what they did and learn from it.Featured Image: Billings Gazette | 0 |
10,749 | Feuding Trump aides meet and agree to end 'palace intrigue': source | PALM BEACH, Fla./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top White House aides Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner met and agreed to “bury the hatchet” over their differences, a senior administration official said on Saturday, in a bid to stop infighting that has distracted from President Donald Trump’s message. Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, and Kushner, an influential adviser and Trump’s son-in-law, met on Friday at the request of White House chief of staff Reince Priebus who told them that if they have any policy differences, they should air them internally, the official said. The development at the president’s Mar-a-Lago retreat in Palm Beach, Florida, came at the end of what has been a relatively smooth week for Trump. Trump ordered airstrikes against Syrian targets that drew praise in many parts of the world and staged an error-free summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, complete with his wife, Melania, wearing a red dress to symbolize the main color of the Chinese flag. Priebus’ message to Bannon and Kushner was to “stop with the palace intrigue” and focus on the president’s agenda, the official told Reuters. Both aides left having agreed that it was time to “bury the hatchet and move forward,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Four former advisers to the president said Trump is accustomed to chaos in his decades-long career as a real estate developer but that even he has grown weary of the infighting. “He’s got a long fuse for that kind of thing,” said one former adviser. “I imagine he has gotten tired of this.” The White House dismissed persistent talk that Trump might be on the verge of a staff shakeup. “The only thing we are shaking up is the way Washington operates as we push the president’s aggressive agenda forward,” spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said. The Trump White House has been a hotbed of palace intrigue since he took office on Jan. 20. But the drama has intensified after the failed effort to get healthcare legislation approved by the House of Representatives and the rocky rollout of an executive order attempting to temporarily ban citizens of six Muslim-majority nations from entering the United States. Bannon, former chief of the conservative news organization Breitbart News, has been at odds with Kushner and Gary Cohn, the head of the White House National Economic Council, an administration official and the four former advisers said. The former Trump advisers said Kushner, husband of Trump daughter Ivanka Trump, is trying to tug the president into a more mainstream position, while Bannon is trying to keep aflame the nationalist fervor that carried Trump to his unexpected election victory on Nov. 8. Bannon is getting some of the blame for the administration’s early stumbles because, one former adviser said, “The president demands results.”In what was viewed as a sign of Bannon’s declining influence, he was removed from his seat on the National Security Council this week. Administration officials said this was done at the urging of national security adviser H.R. McMaster, with whom Bannon had clashed. Some of the former Trump advisers said Priebus is at fault for not gaining control of the feuding and said Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs executive, would be a candidate to replace him. Priebus is the former chairman of the Republican National Committee and bucked many in his party by putting the weight of the RNC behind Trump when it was clear he would be the party’s presidential nominee. “”Reince is chief of staff,” said a source familiar with the issue. “He’s not going anywhere.” Republican strategist Charlie Black, who has known Trump for 30 years, said he did not think a shakeup was imminent and that Trump’s White House reflects his traditional approach to running his business. “He’s always had a spokes-to-the-wheel management style,” said Black. “He wants people with differing views among the spokes.” Bill Daley, a former White House chief of staff to President Barack Obama, who got pushed out in a shakeup himself after roughly a year into the job, said it appears that inside the Trump White House there’s a struggle for “the soul and brain of the president.” | 1 |
10,750 | VIRAL PICTURE Shows Just How Messed Up Things Are In Obama’s America | Liberal lunacy has taken over America! We have people fighting for a bike path yet our infrastructure is crumbling. Priorities on a state and national level are so left leaning that it s simply nuts | 0 |
10,751 | Merkel says she would prefer new elections over minority government | BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday that she would prefer new elections to leading a minority government after talks about forming a three-way coalition collapsed overnight. My point of view is that new elections would be the better path, Merkel told ARD television in an interview to be broadcast later in the evening. She added that her plans did not include being chancellor in a minority government. | 1 |
10,752 | Sanctuary cities see legal holes in Trump's immigration orders | (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s executive order directing federal agencies to take away funding from self-proclaimed sanctuary cities had one big exemption for one of his favorite constituencies: the police, who would be protected from cuts. But Trump’s opponents say that very exemption makes it much more likely that a judge could strike down that section of the order as unconstitutional. It is just one example of the legal arguments that cities, immigration groups and other opponents are readying as they prepare to fight an executive order signed by Trump on Wednesday that would cut federal aid to “sanctuary” jurisdictions that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Lawyers for the potential challengers pointed to court rulings that said the federal government can only withhold funds to local jurisdictions if the money is directly tied to the behavior it objects to. The Trump administration cannot cut funds for sanctuary cities’ healthcare and education while preserving money for police, since those jobs relate more closely to immigration enforcement, said Richard Doyle, city attorney in San Jose, California. He said it was not clear whether existing federal funding or only future grants would be targeted. Supporters of the new Republican president’s actions say that sanctuary cities ignore federal law and think the White House will be able to answer with a strong case in court. Federal law allows Trump to restrict public assistance “of any kind where an illegal alien could possibly benefit,” said Dale Wilcox, executive director of the Washington-based conservative Immigration Reform Law Institute. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio in a news conference said his chief legal officer would be in court the “hour” after any specific action to withhold money came through. “There is less here than meets the eye. This executive order is written in a very vague fashion,” said de Blasio, a Democrat. San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, also a Democrat, said his office was still examining whether it could sue before Trump made any specific move to cut funds. Trump’s order directed that funding be slashed to all jurisdictions that refuse to comply with a statute that requires local governments to share information with immigration authorities. Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said the cities can argue “they are fully in compliance with that statute,” since they do share information with federal authorities, but offer limited cooperation when it comes to turning over immigrants who are not convicted criminals. There could also be procedural snarls to implementing the cuts, lawyers who specialize in federal grants said. If the U.S. government seeks to cut off grants to a certain recipient, it must go through a complicated process known as “suspension and debarment,” and cities would have the right to appeal. “It’s fair to say that they don’t understand the scope and reach of federal grants law,” said Edward Waters, who heads the federal grants practice at the law firm Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell in Washington, referring to the Trump administration. The White House would also have to negotiate with states that are home to sanctuary cities. Nearly 90 percent of $652 billion the federal government handed out through more 1,500 separate grant programs in the most recent fiscal year went to states, not directly to cities, according to a Reuters review of federal spending data. If the Trump administration wanted to try to cut off Medicaid money to Chicago, for example, it would have to work through the state government of Illinois, which could pose an additional barrier, Waters said. Advocacy groups for immigrants’ rights said they are also preparing their own legal challenges to other aspects of two executive orders Trump signed on Wednesday, examining sections that deal with expanding detention of immigrants and changing how asylum requests are processed. “All of our legal research is done, most of the complaints are all drafted,” said Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, based in Los Angeles. She said litigation could be filed in the next days. | 1 |
10,753 | Trump's war chest one of smallest in recent presidential campaigns | WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Republican Donald Trump could go down as the least well-funded presidential candidate in recent campaigns - entering the final month of the election still without the cash to match the level of staff and advertising that has helped power the campaign of his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. With less than three weeks until the election, it is too late for Trump to amass the amount of cash he would need to unleash a spending assault that might turn his hobbled campaign around. Through the end of September, Trump raised a total of $163 million - a far cry from Clinton’s $449 million. Trump, a New York real estate developer who has boasted about his wealth, pledged to use millions of his personal assets to fund his campaign. In addition to the $163 million raised, he put in $47.5 million during the primary and then added another $8.6 million. Trump’s fundraising deficit has resulted from a series of campaign crises that made wealthy donors reluctant to contribute to his campaign and reflects that he does not enjoy working the fundraising circuit or calling large-dollar donors to ask them to write checks. That’s a big disadvantage for Trump. And it shows in how he has been outspent trying to win the Nov. 8 election for the White House, particularly in the two largest spending categories: staff and television commercials. When it comes to staff, Trump has spent $5 million, compared with Clinton’s spending of about $38 million. Trump had 168 people on his payroll in September, more than doubling the 82 he had on staff in July. Additionally, Trump spent $5 million on field consultants, part-time workers who are not part of the main staff. Clinton had 815 people on her staff in September. On advertising, Trump has spent $48.7 million while Clinton has spent $204 million - allowing her to blanket the airwaves with a deluge of advertisements. It has also allowed Clinton to inject more money into states that have become closer as Election Day nears. Earlier this week, Clinton’s campaign announced it was spending an additional $2 million in Arizona, a late-game decision to try to win a traditionally Republican state that now appears within her grasp. Overall, Trump has spent about $190 million by the end of September, compared with Clinton’s $401 million. Trump and Clinton can collect donations up to $5,400 from a single individual, but can also collect larger checks that are then divided between the campaign and joint fundraisers with the national and state parties. The funds that candidates raise for the national and state political parties are still used for the common effort of hiring staff and getting voters to turn out to the polls. But those funds cannot be used in the most direct parts of running a campaign, like buying television ads or hiring staff that report to the campaign manager. Trump’s campaign struggled to get organized and build out the infrastructure that is needed to be competitive in the key battleground states. Instead, Trump has been dependent on the infrastructure built by the Republican Party. Trump has raised $244 million through joint fundraising committees with the national parties, of which he got $71 million. By comparison, Clinton has raised $415 million through joint fundraisers, of which $117 million went to her campaign. Since 2008, major party presidential candidates have stopped accepting public funding for their general election campaigns - which placed limits on the amount a candidate could raise and spend. But even the last candidate to accept public funds, Senator John McCain in 2008, raised more that year than Trump did this election. McCain raised more than $300 million. That same year, Barack Obama, in his first presidential race, raised $607 million. In 2012, Mitt Romney raised more than $337 million at this point in the campaign. And Obama had raised $564 million. | 1 |
10,754 | Bernie Supporters Are Asked To Describe Donald Trump With Just One Word (VIDEO) | Is it really possible to describe Donald Trump with just one word? Certainly a few come to mind. Try and pick just one, though. Which one comes to mind first?The conservative media outlet The Blaze trolled a Bernie Sanders event recently and posted a video of Bernie supporters describing both Bernie and Donald Trump with just one word. It wasn t exactly a hit piece; all of Sanders supporters responding enthusiastically for their candidate while completely lambasting Trump. Not much news there. All it did was tell us what we already know, Bernie supporters don t exactly think Trump is all that amazing.First, here are the words most commonly used to depict Bernie Sanders: Inspirational. Consistent. Amazing. Awesome. Equality. Honest. Logical. Compare that to what they think of Trump: Disgusting. Dishonest. **shole. Racist. Bigot. Evil. Insane. Sounds about right.It really just looks like The Blaze likes Bernie Sanders events. Maybe they re #feelingthebern, too? They seem to go there a lot. Although, they didn t particularly like a video of Sanders mocking Republicans Family Values during a speech he gave in Iowa on Friday.Here s what Bernie had to say about Republican s so-called values: They love families. Can t stop talking about families. When Republicans talk about family values what they are saying is that no woman in this room in this country, should have the right to control their own body. I DISAGREE. The race is tight and it s anybody s guess as to who will win Iowa. Bernie s campaign is counting on younger voters to help win the day for him he does have far more of them than any other candidate from either party, after all. When these very same voters get older there will be a dramatic paradigm shift to the left on issues but as of right now it s not clear if the younger vote will help Bernie defeat Hillary. Perhaps it s fitting that we get more of their opinions to see where this country is heading, though. It certainly isn t in the way of Donald Trump.Featured image from screen capture | 0 |
10,755 | ACLU Issues Shocking Warning: It’s Not Safe To Travel In Texas | The Americal Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) issued a shocking warning on Tuesday: Thanks to the xenophobia of Donald Trump and his Republican cronies, it is no longer safe to travel in the state of Texas.The travel alert warns that anyone planning to travel to Texas in the near future [should] anticipate the possible violation of their constitutional rights when stopped by law enforcement. The alert comes amid the passing of a Texas law known as SB4. The law gives a green light to police officers in the state to investigate a person s immigration status during a routine traffic stop, leading to widespread racial profiling, baseless scrutiny, and illegal arrests of citizens and non-citizens alike presumed to be foreign based on how they look or sound. The travel alert applies to all travelers to Texas, including U.S. travelers from other states and U.S. citizens. In addition, this alert applies to all encounters with federal, state, county law enforcement including local police and sheriffs.Constitutional rights no longer mean anything thanks to the hateful nature of Trump s administration. And Republicans, the very people who relentlessly scream about how important our freedom is, are ready to set a match to the Constitution as long as it gets rid of all those icky brown people. Even U.S. citizens aren t safe anymore. We plan to fight this racist and wrongheaded law in the courts and in the streets. Until we defeat it, everyone traveling in or to Texas needs to be aware of what s in store for them, said Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas. The Lone Star State will become a show me your papers state, where every interaction with law enforcement can become a citizenship interrogation and potentially an illegal arrest. It is simply a matter of time before illegal arrests occur. Local law enforcement will have to decide between violating a person s rights and being severely fined, thrown in jail, or even being removed from office for choosing not to do so, Burke added.Lorella Praeli, the ACLU s director of immigration policy and campaigns said, Everyone has constitutional rights in this country. The state of Texas, and every law enforcement officer, must respect those rights. The ACLU stands ready to safeguard those freedoms against those who seek to diminish them. Featured image via John Moore/Getty Images | 0 |
10,756 | life life of luxury elton johns favorite shark pictures to stare at during long transcontinental flights | email
last night the chicago cubs eked out a thrilling game victory in the world series against the cleveland indians and ended a championship drought that had lasted for years this is a historic moment to be sure but there will be no smiling and cheering in chicago fans of the cubs are still too sad over the death of princess diana to do any celebrating
i honestly never thought id see the cubs bring home the trophy but everyone here is still too swept up with grief over lady di to really enjoy themselves right now said cubbies superfan raymon lindley who was among the thousands of fans who gathered outside wrigley field following last nights edgeofyourseat game to light candles in memory of the late princess of wales it would be macabre to celebrate the win in light of what happened to princess diana on that fateful august night in
theo epstein the cursebreaking president of baseball operations for the cubs has shipped the world series trophy overseas to britain where it is to be laid on the grave of the peoples princess while the people of chicago are undoubtedly proud of their cubs no parade has been planned as the general feeling of the city is that it would be too gratuitous at this time
i just called my yearold grandfather who waited his whole life to see the cubs win the world series said longtime seasonticket holder karen hunter we spent the entire call crying about princess diana together she was so young
i would give a thousand cubs world series wins if lady di could be alive for one more day hunter added
history has been made and the cubs finally have their muchsoughtafter championship but fans clearly still have a long way to go before theyre comfortable celebrating the historic achievement aside from the occasional outburst of candle in the wind by groups of bereft fans wrigleyville will remain a quiet and mournful place until the cubs faithful are ready to party with their victorious hometown heroes and its anyones guess as to when that will be | 0 |
10,757 | Fox News Will NEVER Be Able To Say ‘Fair And Balanced’ Again After What Hannity Just Did (AUDIO) | There is a saying In Politics, a gaffe is when you accidentally tell the truth. With that in mind, Sean Hannity just committed the most epic of gaffes during his own radio show when he forgot everything and admitted the truth about not only himself but Fox News as well.The issue being discussed was Hannity s softball interviews with Donald Trump. While most of the Republican establishment are doing everything they can to stop Trump, Hannity has been practically turning over his own show to Trump for his propaganda purposes in every interview he conducts with him.Hannity has gotten some recent blowback on this behavior and took it VERY personally. It got him so worked up and upset, that in a moment of anger-fueled honesty he blurted out, I m not a journalist! Well, look who hit the final stage of grief acceptance.Sean finally admitted the thing he s been denying for years; the fact that he s nothing but a screaming loser who has as much journalistic ability as a rotten egg. I ll be honest, if I m interviewing Hillary Clinton, it s going to be 100 times harder than any Republican, because I believe the Republicans have a far better vision, one that I agree with. I just have less disagreement with them. I m not a journalist, I m a talk show host. Fair and Balanced? The hell you say!It surely has to be uncomfortable for the Fox News executives in charge of Hannity to be put into this pickle. He s a huge cash cow for them, yet now he s admitting that not only himself but Fox News by extension in their employment of him are nothing but hacks stirring a huge stinking pot of propaganda stew that they force feed gullible Americans every night.Listen to Hannity destroy that final scrap of his credibility below:Featured image via youtube screen capture | 0 |
10,758 | Rubio sharpens attacks after latest Trump win in White House race | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Marco Rubio emerged from a razor-thin second-place finish in South Carolina’s presidential primary on Sunday with the Republican field narrowed and his target clear: Donald Trump. Rubio squeaked by rival and U.S. Senate colleague Ted Cruz in a vote on Saturday that cemented the appeal of firebrand outsider Trump as well as the failure of a candidate from one of America’s political dynasties: Jeb Bush. The five remaining Republican candidates are now scrambling for voters in 12 states that hold nominating contests on March 1, also known as Super Tuesday, the next milestone on the road to the Nov. 8 presidential election. Rubio, a first-term senator from Florida who himself has come under attack for lacking governing experience, turned that criticism on Trump, a billionaire businessman and former reality TV star who has never held elective office. Trump is long on rhetoric but short on specifics, Rubio said on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” challenging the front-runner, who finished 10 points ahead in South Carolina, to provide them. “If you’re running to be president of the United States, you can’t just tell people you’re going to make America great again - I think you need to begin to explain exactly how you’re going to do it, policy-wise,” Rubio said, referring to the Trump campaign slogan “Make America Great Again!” Rubio criticized Trump on healthcare policy and said he found his view of Russian leader Vladimir Putin troubling. “I don’t think he fundamentally understands exactly who Vladimir Putin is and or exactly what he’s trying to do,” Rubio said, quickly adding, “This is not an attack or anything of that nature.” In several television appearances, Rubio stressed his intention was not to “go after” Trump but to discuss issues. Rubio has reason to be skittish. A hallmark of Trump’s campaign has been consistent and highly personal savaging of his political rivals - or anyone else he perceives has attacked him, including a milder rebuke of Pope Francis. His most notable target was Bush, whom he began characterizing early on as a “low-energy” loser. In television appearances on Sunday, Trump appeared uncharacteristically modest and took pains to lower expectations that his path to the Republican nomination was now clear. He responded to Rubio’s criticism without attacking Rubio himself, saying on CBS that he had “great knowledge” of foreign policy. Cruz, who had expected his appeal to conservative and evangelical voters to give him an edge in South Carolina, said he was the only candidate who has beaten and could beat Trump. Cruz told NBC’s “Meet the Press” he expects conservatives to rally behind him in his home state of Texas and other contests on Super Tuesday, which include Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas and Oklahoma. The next Republican contest is on Tuesday in Nevada, where Trump is the runaway favorite. Cruz said Trump has embraced liberal ideas, including abortion rights and requiring healthcare coverage, as well as liberal politicians, including Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton. “Republicans want a real conservative,” Cruz said on ABC’s “This Week.” Cruz and Rubio tried to draw voters away from Trump, a political outsider who has bucked the Republican Party establishment and caught its leaders off guard. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus struggled to explain Trump’s appeal when asked on ABC’s “This Week,” if the South Carolina result was a rebuke to the party. “No, I don’t think so,” Preibus replied, saying he believed voters are sick and tired of politics in general. “But who the nominee is going to be is not my choice and - and obviously, uh, we’re going to support whoever that is.” Trump on Sunday looked to just that possibility. He said he believed Clinton, who is competing with Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, would be the eventual Democratic nominee and said he was the only Republican who could win states like New York and Michigan, which lean Democratic. “I will win states that aren’t in play. I will win states that the Republicans don’t even think of,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Those sweeping predictions aside, Trump tried to contain expectations in several television appearances. He called both Rubio and Cruz talented men who could conceivably beat him for the nomination, along with the remaining Republican candidates: Ohio Governor John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson. He then quipped, “You know, crazy things happen in the world of politics.” (Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Additional reporting by Megan Cassella; Editing by Jonathan Oatis) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production. | 1 |
10,759 | Clinton weighs making investment income taxable for Social Security | Nashua, NEW HAMPSHIRE (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday that she would consider making investment income taxable through Social Security deductions in a bid to keep the government program afloat, the Wall Street Journal reported. Clinton, the front-runner for the party’s nomination in the Nov. 2016 contest, made the comments while campaigning in Iowa, where her lead has slipped in recent weeks ahead of the state’s early voting contest. “I am worried about certain recipients because I think it’s important to enhance the benefits,” the Journal reported Clinton as saying at a campaign event in the city of Decorah. “We do have to extend the life of the trust fund and that’s going to take some new funding,” she said. The newspaper reported that Clinton would consider raising to an undisclosed amount the maximum income that would be subject to the 6.2 percent Social Security tax. Under the current rule, money made from investments, as well as pensions, annuities and interest, are not considered income, and only the first $118,500 wages are subject to the tax. Fears over the solvency of the Social Security system have made it an important election issue. Clinton’s main rival for the Democratic nomination, Bernie Sanders, has described Social Security as the nation’s “most successful government program,” and has called for its expansion, which he says will be paid for by lifting the cap on taxable income above $250,000. Voters in Iowa will cast some of the country’s earliest ballot’s in the caucus nominating contest on Feb. 1. (Reporting by Alana Wise; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency. | 1 |
10,760 | FAKE NEWS! RIGGED NBC/WSJ POLL Claims Trump Hits “Historic Lows”…100% FALSE! | The poll below is why people shouldn t trust polls EVER! Always look at the sample size and breakdown of the people. Are they mostly Democrats? This popped up when top news was Googled. THIS IS FAKE NEWS THAT EVEN FOX NEWS IS REPORTING TODAY!The lead story this morning from NBC is that Trump has hit historic lows for a president in the first 100 days FALSE! When we looked a little closer, we found this poll is truly bogus!Here s what we know:The sample size was only 900 people!Please note the number of people who are Strong Republicans 19% If you add the people who consider themselves to be Republicans, it s 38%. Does this sample size reflect a fair sample size? We think not!Here s the take from NBC that s totally skewed:Forty-five percent of respondents in the survey believe Trump is off to a poor start, with an additional 19 percent who say it s been only a fair start. That s compared with a combined 35 percent who think the president s first three months in office have been either good or great. Trump s 100th day in office takes place on April 29.By contrast, in the exact same question from April 2009 NBC/WSJ poll, 54 percent of Americans said that Barack Obama s first 100 days had gotten off to either a good or great start, while 25 percent said they were fair, and 21 percent called them poor.Trump s overall job-approval rating stands at 40 percent down four points from February. It s the lowest job-approval rating for a new president at this 100-day stage in the history of the NBC/WSJ poll.At this same point in time of their presidencies, Obama s overall rating stood at 61 percent in the poll, George W. Bush s was at 56 percent and Bill Clinton s was at 52 percent.By party, 82 percent of Republicans approve of Trump s job, versus just 7 percent of Democrats and 30 percent of independents who give the president a thumbs-up.How can this poll NOT be false when over 54% of the people they polled are Dems?Listen to this ridiculous video saying Trump is scrambling total lies! | 0 |
10,761 | Callista Gingrich becomes Trump's envoy to pope as differences mount | VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Callista Gingrich, wife of the former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, on Friday became U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, which is at odds with Washington over immigration, climate change and Jerusalem. Callista Gingrich, 51, an author, documentary filmmaker and former congressional aide, presented her credentials to Pope Francis at the Vatican to officially assume her role. Her husband Newt Gingrich was an early supporter and vocal ally of U.S. President Donald Trump. Newt Gingrich is expected to continue his role as a political contributor to Fox News from his new base in Rome. Trump s nomination of Callista Gingrich to the post at the Holy See in May caused some controversy because of her marriage to Gingrich, with whom she became involved when he was still married to his second wife. Both are Roman Catholic. On Thursday they attended the funeral at the Vatican of Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned as Archbishop of Boston 15 years ago after covering up years of sexual abuse of children by priests. The pope has implicitly criticized Trump s decision to pull out of the Paris accord on climate change. He said last month that denying climate change or being indifferent to its effects were perverse attitudes that blocked research and dialogue aimed at protecting the future of the planet. Francis is also opposed to Trump s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital. The pontiff has called for respect for the city s status quo, saying new tension in the Middle East would further inflame world conflicts.. On Thursday at the United Nations, where the Vatican has permanent observer status, more than 120 countries defied Trump and voted in favor of a resolution calling for the United States to drop its recent recognition. The U.S. embassy said in a statement that the new ambassador looks forward to working with the Holy See to defend human rights, advance religious freedom, combat human trafficking, and to seek peaceful solutions to crises around the world . | 1 |
10,762 | The Reason This Republican Thinks His Opponent Is Unqualified Is The Most Disgusting Thing You’ll Hear Today | Ohio State Senate Majority Leader Tom Patton is a term-limited Senator who has decided to run for the State House of Representatives to keep his political career alive. His opponent is a young woman named Jennifer Herold, who is the mother of 2 toddlers. Patton, proving that he has more than enough misogyny to be a card-carrying member of the Republican party, has decided Herold is unqualified to run against him.You see, Jennifer Herold isn t a 62-year-old man like Patton is. As a woman under 30 with two children, she has no business in politics. Patton said in a radio interview recently: The gal that s running against me is a 30-year-old, you know, mom, mother of two infants. And I don t know if anybody explained to her we ve got to spend three nights a week in Columbus. So, how does that work out for you? I waited until I was 48 and my kids were raised and at least adults before we took the opportunity to try. Well then. There are so many things wrong with that statement it s hard to choose where to begin. First, don t call her gal. It s insulting and cheapens your attack even more, if that s possible. Newt, Columbus isn t all that far; Mrs. Herold could easily make the commute if she wanted to. It s difficult to imagine a fragile little gal having the ability to oh, say drive a car, we know. Last, have you considered, Senator, that she may have a husband at home who doesn t believe it s the woman s job to take care of the kids 24/7?How old you are and your warped sense of how a modern family works is irrelevant, you insufferable douchebag.It gets worse. While talking polling numbers, Patton said: I want to tell her, Hey Sweetie, I just got 27 percent of the pie in just my district, which is nine times what should have been done. Seriously? Hey, Sweetie? What is unfortunate is that his message will resonate with the sexists who populate his party. They don t like people who don t have penises representing them, because what could a woman possibly know about anything other than child-rearing and pleasing her husband? Patton is the perfect poster boy for the GOP.Herold responded with pure class and dignity in a statement: We realize the sacrifice that is involved in holding such a position. However, Tom Patton has crossed a line by trying to turn the fact that I am a mother of two children into a negative campaign issue. It s insulting for my opponent to suggest that motherhood is a liability. In fact, my experience as a mom is perhaps my greatest strength. Tom, only one man in my life is allowed to call me sweetie. From now on, I respectfully ask you to refer to me as Jen, Jennifer, Ms. Herold, or your opponent. Well said, Ms. Herold. Patton has since apologized, calling his words poorly chosen. What he doesn t seem to understand is that it isn t the words he chose that are disturbing, it s the way he thinks. It s the sexism and utter disrespect for Herold as a woman and a human being that make him so despicable.Too little too late, Senator. Hopefully you get your ass handed to you so you ll have no choice but to stumble off into the sunset and obscurity. Featured image via screen capture | 0 |
10,763 | Earthquake of magnitude 6.1 strikes off southern Japan: USGS | SINGAPORE (Reuters) - An earthquake of magnitude 6.1 struck off southern Japan on Thursday, the United States Geological Survey said. The quake struck 682 km (424 miles) off Japan s island of Kyushu at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles), the agency said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. | 1 |
10,764 | Individual travel scrapped under Trump's new Cuba policy | NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s rollback on his predecessor’s liberalization of travel to Cuba will all but eliminate a burgeoning market for independent tourism, forcing would-be visitors into organized trips, experts said. That policy change could be bad news for airlines that have been helped by demand from solo travelers and families who have booked seats for ad-hoc informal “cultural exchanges” that had passed muster under former President Barack Obama’s loosened rules. “It’s going to frustrate airlines who scheduled service on the premise that travel restrictions would eventually be removed,” Robert Mann, analyst at R.W. Mann & Co, said. “It was an ‘if you build it they will come’ kind of a philosophy.” Now, under directives announced by Trump on Friday, independent travel to Cuba from the United States will once again be forbidden, complicating the already tricky-to-navigate industry. The new policy will ban most U.S. business transactions with the Armed Forces Business Enterprises Group, a sprawling conglomerate involved in all sectors of the economy, including the hotel and hospitality industry, but make some exceptions, including air and sea travel. [nL1N1JD02O] The president’s directive will essentially shield U.S. airlines and cruise lines now serving the island but dim a potentially bright outlook for travel growth between the countries. While the industry at large is bracing for weakened demand following the policy shift, specialized travel agents could potentially see a windfall as travelers rush to book authorized organized trips to the island. “You can’t get through to our call line. We’re receiving 10 times the emails we were this morning,” Tom Popper, president of travel agency InsightCuba, which organizes legal group tours of the tourism-restricted island, said on Friday. U.S. cruise operators and airlines could lose around $712 million in annual revenues if the Trump administration fully reinstates restrictions on travel, Washington lobby group Engage Cuba said in a recent report. (tmsnrt.rs/2rBfMTI) While Trump’s new policy avoids the worst-case scenario of cancelling all commercial flights or severing diplomatic relations, it will still be a blow to a tourism sector betting on Cuba as a new high-growth market. “If the goal is to help Cuban entrepreneurs, adding job-killing regulations on U.S. businesses and increasing government resources to investigate everyday Americans traveling to our island neighbor is not the answer,” James Williams, president of Engage Cuba, said in a statement. Marriott International Inc on Friday urged the White House to improve relations with post-Castro Cuba and recognize tourism as a strategic tool in the effort. Marriott, the world’s biggest hotel chain, operates the Gaviota 5th Avenue Hotel, which is owned by the Cuban military. The Treasury Department said on its website that travel-related commercial engagements established before new regulations from the Office of Foreign Assets Control will be permitted, which appears to exempt the Marriott venture. Airlines for America, an industry trade group, said airlines are reviewing the directive and “will continue to comply with all federal rules and regulations regarding travel to Cuba.” Obama’s initial opening prompted a dash to launch flights into Cuba in mid-2016. Some early entrants, including smaller carriers Frontier Airlines, Silver Airways and Spirit Airlines Inc, have pulled out. While larger U.S. carriers have pared back flights to smaller Cuban cities, American Airlines, Delta, United Continental, Southwest and JetBlue have requested additional flight clearances on various routes to Havana. Cruise operator Carnival Corp downplayed any impact from the change, saying it was “pleased” its ships could continue to sail to Cuba. | 1 |
10,765 | Inside Trump's last-gasp effort to save Senate healthcare overhaul | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Dining on rib-eye steak and peach cobbler with a group of senators, President Donald Trump was cautiously optimistic that Republican efforts to overhaul Obamacare were in good shape. Then came word that two Republican senators not at the dinner - Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas - had announced their opposition to the healthcare proposals put forward by party leaders in the Senate. The setback on Monday night triggered a last-gasp effort by the president and top aides to keep the legislation from dying. He called 49 Republican senators over to the White House for lunch and a scolding on Wednesday, telling them they needed to settle their differences and that they should postpone their summer recess until a deal was done. “For seven years you promised the American people you would repeal Obamacare. People are hurting and frankly inaction is not an option,” said Trump, who desperately wants a legislative victory to make good on his campaign promises to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. It is by no means clear if Trump’s pressure can help Republicans overcome sharp differences between moderates who want to preserve health insurance for their constituents and conservatives insisting on lower costs. But after doing little over the past few weeks to win senators’ support for the controversial legislation, Trump is now staking his reputation on getting them to cut a deal. Senior White House aides said on Wednesday the president sensed the healthcare effort could be salvaged despite the grim outlook. After a series of conversations with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as well as Lee, Senator John Cornyn of Texas and others, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus told Trump he felt it was possible to keep the effort alive. Trump agreed, based on his own talks with senators, and told aides he was hearing that “a lot of people don’t want this to be over,” an aide said. Senator Ted Cruz, who has led conservative criticisms of the proposals, was also sounding more positive. So Trump dispatched Vice President Mike Pence and Priebus to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to see if there was room to maneuver, the aides said. Pence and Priebus worked the room, talking to nearly every senator present and urging them not to concede defeat. The two men reported back to Trump and he decided to invite the Republican senators for lunch, the aides said. At that lunch, beneath the portrait of Abraham Lincoln in the White House’s State Dining Room, Trump made clear he wanted the senators to go back to the drawing board before heading out on vacation in August. “Any senator who doesn’t vote to open debate is really saying they’re okay with Obamacare,” he told the room. “We shouldn’t leave town until this is complete, until this bill is on my desk and until we all go over to the Oval Office, I’ll sign it and we can celebrate with the American people.” Some of the senators who have opposed parts of the legislative effort were strategically placed around the room. Next to Trump was Senator Dean Heller of Nevada and Lee was next to Pence. Trump referred to Heller with a chuckle, “Look, he wants to remain a senator, doesn’t he?” The comment drew a wry smile from Heller. After nearly two hours of talks over lunch, the group agreed to meet on Wednesday night to start talks on whether the hurdles could be overcome. But Cruz said after the meeting that they were still divided on some issues. Every Democrat in the Senate is opposed to the repeal of Obamacare, so it can only pass if Republicans are united. Polls show the proposals are unpopular, so some Republican lawmakers fear a backlash. White House aides said they hope an agreement can be worked out by next week. | 1 |
10,766 | DANIEL GREENFIELD NAILS IT: AMERICA IS BEING RUN JUST LIKE BALTIMORE | DANIEL GREENFIELD NAILS IT! This is one of the best resourced and stated takes on what America s going through that I ve ever read. Thank you Mr. Greenfield! Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam.The Congressional Black Caucus is the most ridiculously corrupt part of an already corrupt Congress. A study two years ago found that a third of black congressmen had been named in an ethics probe during their careers. 5 of the 6 members under review by the House Ethics Committee that year were CBCers. In 2009, every single member of Congress under investigation was from the same old gang.Like the Clinton Foundation, the CBC exists to trade money for influence. The Caucus takes in tens of millions from major corporations and spends it on parties for its members and funnels the rest into fake non-profits. Even the minority scholarships endowed with great ceremony as a way of providing opportunity to their underprivileged constituents have a way of going to their own children and friends.The Congressional Black Caucus claims that it s the conscience of the Congress when it s actually the tip of a corrupt urban political machine that keeps black people in chains. Its members are lying idiots whose only response to criticism (including the ethics charges leveled against them) is to shout racism because that is the job they were chosen for by their real backers and masters.Consider Representative Sheila Jackson Lee; the dumbest member of the CBC notorious for believing that we won the Vietnam War and that our astronauts had planted a flag on Mars.Back in 2002, Sheila Jackson Lee announced on CNN, I happen to represent Enron here in Houston. That was an accurate summary. Her campaign had been funded by Enron. After Enron disappeared, other companies came along eager to funnel money to Sheila Jackson Lee and the CBC.Attempted major mergers between AT&T and T-Mobile and between Time Warner and Comcast were financed with major donations from the participants to the CBC. CBC members enthusiastically signed on to the AT&T merger claiming that it would help black people.It wouldn t have, but it certainly helped CBC members.Cell phone companies, dirty banks and drug companies all benefit from CBC intervention at the expense of their constituents. Like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, the CBC is an example of the merger between corporate corruption and urban political corruption masquerading as civil rights. That s why CBC members are not only noted for being ridiculously corrupt, but also for being ridiculously stupid.In addition to Sheila Jackson Lee, there s Hank Johnson who claimed that an added Marine presence might cause the island of Guam to tip over, Maxine Waters who accused the CIA of selling crack in black neighborhoods or Frederica Wilson who claimed that the term illegal alien is offensive because To me an alien is somebody who is from another planet . Much like the brain of the average CBC member.And who could forget Marcia Fudge s stirring condemnation of the Tea Party. These same people believe if you do not work, you are lazy. These same people believe that if your children don t get a good education, something is wrong with you. These are the craziest people I have seen in my life. Just absolute nuts. They don t understand that the government s job is to take care of its people. Like Sheila Jackson Lee, their stupidity was not an accident.The best corrupt politicians are too stupid to understand the consequences and too shameless to care about ethics. CBC members are carefully selected for their worst qualities. They are national examples of the corrupt urban political machine that has crippled black communities around the country.The next wave of CBC members who sought statewide and national office appeared to be made of better stuff. The wave hit its peak with Obama, who campaigned as a modern non-tribal politician striving for national excellence. Unlike Jesse Jackson, Obama appeared to be a fundamentally different type of urban politician. Their mutual hostility only reinforced that.But the CBC s next wave of smooth-talking Ivy League pragmatists who were supposed to save black communities proved to be just as rotten. After all the publicity, Cory Booker not only didn t turn Newark around, he turned out to be using it as a springboard for higher political office. Once in office, Obama proved to be every bit as tribally racist as any CBC member and twice as corrupt as the worst of them.As he presides over national race riots that he helped fuel, the whole country is getting a taste of what living under the governance of the urban political machine in the inner city looks like.In Baltimore, the latest flash point of Obama s race riots, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, an Oberlin grad and the daughter of an important politician, was supposed to be a step up from the incompetence and corruption of her predecessor who had been convicted of stealing gift cards meant for the poor. Instead she promised that casinos would fix everything and when they didn t, she went on spending.Even without the #BlackLivesMatter riots, Baltimore was on the road to financial ruin just like Chicago and Detroit. The urban political machine found the riots convenient because while it destroyed businesses, it let them blame the city s economic disaster on racism instead of corruption.State s Attorney Marilyn Mosby s already botched prosecution of the police officers is just more political theater to distract the people of the city from what their political establishment has done to them. Like Rawlings-Blake, Mosby and her husband have shown us that the next generation of the political machine is slicker, but no cleaner or more competent than its predecessors.The Baltimore political establishment panders to criminals because it s run by criminals. This is a city whose mayor only has her job because her predecessor was convicted and whose NAACP boss tried to claim that her son s heroin was really insulin which he was using to kill mice in the NAACP offices. Meanwhile Mosby is claiming that someone hacked her Twitter account to favorite racist tweets.When Obama moved into the White House, the corruption of the urban political machine joined him there. His attorney general had been slammed by Congress over Pardongate s paid pardons for fugitives. Holder set the tone for an administration that casually traded cash for political favors. It lied about the economy and terrorism, and when the lies were exposed, it touched off race riots to distract everyone.America is now being run just like Baltimore.Read more: Front Page | 0 |
10,767 | Marco ‘Roboto’ Rubio Short-Circuits Again, Repeats Same Line Twice In 30 Seconds (VIDEO) | Once a broken record, always a broken record. At least that s what Marco Rubio has been demonstrating since his disastrous debate performance on Saturday.As you ll recall, Chris Christie absolutely hammered Rubio for using a canned line about President Obama over and over again. Let s dispel once and for all with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn t know what he s doing, Rubio said during his exchange with the New Jersey governor. He knows exactly what he s doing. He went on to repeat the line several more times, leading to Christie nailing Rubio for being scripted.Rubio s robotic performance has inspired people to troll him by dressing up and appearing at Rubio rallies as robots.One would think that Rubio would more carefully monitor his speeches to make sure that he doesn t come off as a broken record, but he either doesn t give a damn or he thinks voters are stupid and won t notice.On Tuesday, Rubio repeated himself once again during a rally in New Hampshire as he talked about raising his children in the 21st Century, and he actually repeated the same line twice back-to-back. Because as you saw, Jeanette and I are raising our four children in the 21st century and we know how hard it s become to instill our values in our kids instead of the values they try to ram down our throats. In the 21st century it s become harder than ever to instill in your children the values they teach in our homes and in our church instead of the values that they try to ram down our throats in the movies, in music, in popular culture. Here s the video via YouTube:Clearly, Marco Rubio is having a hard time shaking the appearance of being a scripted robot who glitches out, which certainly does not help him look like a viable candidate for president. Not only do we not need a president who will repeat the disastrous policies of past Republican presidents, we do not need a president who relies on canned lines to communicate with the American people.Featured Image: Flickr | 0 |
10,768 | East Congo militia attacks U.N. base, two rebels killed | GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Militia fighters in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo attacked a U.N. peacekeeping base on Friday, triggering clashes that left two of the fighters dead and two peacekeepers slightly wounded, the U.N. mission said. Thirty-four rebels from a Mai-Mai militia have been killed in fighting with Congo s army in the past week, local army spokesman Jules Ngongo said, a spike in violence he attributed to an army crackdown on the militia s harassment of local residents. Friday s attack, in which two rebels were also wounded, was a rare frontal assault on U.N. forces charged with protecting civilians in Congo s east, where dozens of armed groups exploit mineral resources and prey on local residents. Very early this morning, about 30 Mai-Mai attacked, mission spokeswoman Florence Marchal told Reuters, adding that U.N. forces drove off the assailants. It was not immediately clear which Mai-Mai group attacked nor what their objective was. The Mai-Mai comprise a number of armed bands that originally formed to resist Rwandan invasions in the 1990s. They have since morphed into a wide variety of ethnic-based militia, smuggling networks and protection rackets. Congo s mineral-rich eastern borderlands are a tinderbox of ethnic tensions and for more than two decades have been racked by violence that has often spilled across the country s borders. President Joseph Kabila s refusal to step down at the end of his constitutional mandate last December has fueled further unrest in the country s east, where wars between 1996-2003 killed millions, and center, where an insurgency against the central government has killed thousands since last August. Last week, U.N. forces in east Congo s South Kivu province intervened with helicopters and heavy machine guns to help beat back an advance by a separate rebel group on the strategic city of Uvira. The U.N. mission in Congo, known as MONUSCO, is the world s largest with some 18,000 uniformed personnel and a more than $1 billion annual budget. | 1 |
10,769 | U.S. conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly dead at 92 | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Phyllis Schlafly, who became a “founding mother” of the modern U.S. conservative movement by battling feminists in the 1970s and working tirelessly to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment, died on Monday at the age of 92, her Eagle Forum group said. Schlafly, who lived in the St. Louis suburb of Ladue, Missouri, died at her home in the presence of her family, Eagle Forum said in a statement. The cause of death was not given. She was still a conservative force and popular speaker in her 90s, endorsing Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 and praising his policy on immigration. She was a delegate to the Republicans’ convention in Cleveland. Trump said in a statement that he spoke with Schlafly a few weeks ago by telephone “and she sounded as resilient as ever ... She was a patriot, a champion for women, and a symbol of strength.” Schlafly once called feminists “a bunch of bitter women seeking a constitutional cure for their personal problems,” Time said, while insisting that “women find their greatest fulfillment at home with their family.” Her political ardor did not fade with age and in 2014, as President Barack Obama pushed for pay equity for women, Schlafly sparked controversy with a column for the Christian Post saying a man’s paycheck comes first. “The pay gap between men and women is not all bad because it helps to promote and sustain marriages,” she said. “... The best way to improve economic prospects for women is to improve job prospects for the men in their lives, even if that means increasing the so-called pay gap.” Schlafly promoted traditional family values and once told a reporter that she always listed her occupation as “mother” when filling out applications. But she was hardly a typical stay-at-home housewife/mother. Shortly after marrying lawyer Fred Schlafly in 1949, she became active in Republican Party politics in Alton, Illinois, and ran unsuccessfully for Congress twice. She would go on to found the Eagle Forum grass-roots conservative group, write a newspaper column and newsletter and author some 20 books. Her crowning achievement was crusading to prevent the Equal Rights Amendment from being added to the U.S. Constitution and it made Schlafly a leader in the modern American conservative movement. “Phyllis Schlafly courageously and single-handedly took on the issue of the Equal Rights Amendment when no one else in the country was opposing it,” said James C. Dobson, chairman and founder of Focus on the Family. “In so doing, she essentially launched the pro-family, pro-life movement.” Biographer Donald T. Critchlow said defeating the ERA helped usher in a conservative era in American politics and boosted Ronald Reagan to the presidency. In her decade-long fight against the ERA, Schlafly traveled across the country to speak at rallies and persuade state legislators not to approve the ERA. Along the way she often debated feminist writer Betty Freidan, who called Schlafly “a traitor to her sex” and once told her: “I’d like to burn you at the stake.” The intention of the ERA was to ensure women were treated the same as men under state and federal laws. Schlafly’s attack on the proposed amendment was based on the premise that the rights of women already were well protected by the U.S. Constitution. She said the ERA actually would erode women’s standing, leading to homosexual marriages, women in combat, government-funded abortions and loss of alimony. In 1972 she started the Eagle Forum, now located in Clayton, Missouri, along with Stop ERA, bringing in legions of supporters who had been regarded as non-political housewives. In a 1978 appearance at the Illinois capitol she was accompanied by backers bearing loaves of home-made bread. Described by Time magazine as “feminine but forceful” and with her hair always carefully styled, Schlafly said she attended 41 state hearings to testify against the Equal Rights Amendment. When the ERA’s ratification deadline expired in 1982, having been approved by only 35 of the 38 states needed, Schlafly threw a party in Washington. Phyllis Stewart was born Aug. 15, 1924, in St. Louis and grew up in a home she described as Republican but not activist. She put herself through Washington University by firing weapons as an ammunition factory tester and later earned a master’s degree in political science from Radcliffe. In 1978 she graduated from Washington University’s law school. The left attacked Schlafly for promoting domestic life to her supporters while spending so much time pursuing her ambitious political agenda. She responded by saying she never told women they should not work. “I simply didn’t believe we needed a constitutional amendment to protect women’s rights,” Schlafly told the New York Times. Schlafly first became a political presence with her 1964 self-published book “A Choice, Not an Echo,” which championed the conservative politics of Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater. Schlafly also built a reputation as a strident anti-Communist and opponent of arms control treaties. After the ERA’s defeat, she continued to preach conservative causes such as limited government, anti-abortion laws, traditional education, strong defense and keeping out illegal immigrants. She frequently criticized immigration reform and the Obama administration and wrote more than 25 books. Schlafly also was a critic of gay rights, which proved to be a sensitive topic in 1992 when the oldest of her six children, John, who worked for the Eagle Forum, acknowledged he was homosexual. Schlafly’s husband Fred died in 1993. She is survived by six children, 16 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, Eagle Forum said. | 1 |
10,770 | GOP Candidate Completely Screws Up And Admits What Republicans Are Really About (VIDEO) | It s hardly a well-kept secret. Forty years of Republican policies have proven that they don t give a crap about the people who voted them in. Progressives know that, but there are still millions of people who are buying the GOP lie. Now, a GOP candidate for Congress is under fire for being honest. She told a debate crowd on Tuesday that the difference between Democrats and Republicans is that Republicans don t care whether people are able to make a living, even if they work full-time.In a televised debate just two weeks ahead of the high-profile special election that will fill the vacant House seat in Georgia s Sixth Congressional District, Republican Karen Handel delivered her opponent what one commentator called a gift-wrapped present Tuesday night by declaring her opposition to a livable wage. I do not support a livable wage, she said, adding that this is an example of the fundamental difference between a liberal and a conservative. No, that was not out of context. She doesn t think the people who serve our food or the people who sell you your necessities or the people who care for your children are worthy of having a living wage, and it s not just her. It s the entire Republican Party.Here she is saying it:.@karenhandel doesn t want workers to make enough money to livepic.twitter.com/9Gxiahq8Zb jordan ? (@JordanUhl) June 7, 2017Did you catch her contradicting herself? She wants fewer regulations and lower taxes so small businesses can create well-paying jobs, but to her, apparently, well-paying doesn t need to be enough to live on. Also, there s the fact that wages and regulations do not correlate.If Twitter is any indication, she might have just put the final nail in her own electoral coffin. If there s anything Republicans hate, it s honesty.someone explain, with a serious face, how paying people less creates better paying jobs for people who don t make enough to live on. John (@johnwjohnsoniii) June 7, 2017It is class war out in the open. And it isn t Dems waging it. Steve Douglas (@Duramadera) June 7, 2017That SHOULD be enough to hand the election to Ossoff. Northernsmasher (@jaharrison763) June 7, 2017Who needs a livable wage ? Who needs clean air or water? So proud to be a conservative Karen Handel? Adam Bernstein (@Iamthebassman) June 7, 2017Are u fuckng kidding me? U don t support a LIVABLE WAGE? Why should workers not be able to live to support business so they can thrive? Linda Di (@lpassionflower) June 7, 2017OK? so creating more non-livable wage jobs is her goal for small business? American Monkey (@SAmericanMonkey) June 7, 2017If they are living in the gutter outside the workplace they have no excuse for being late. Glenn Holmes (@Koalaburger) June 7, 2017Then again, Republicans are heartless and the people who will be voting for her don t give a sh*t about anyone. Republicans don t believe hard-working Americans deserve a home, food, childcare or healthcare. Corporations, and the wealthy, though, need their tax cuts and an extra subsidy on top of that. The truth is that if a business won t pay living wages, taxpayers end up making up the difference through public benefits like food stamps.This particular election has become a symbolic referendum on Donald Trump and in Republicans in general. That district is generally considered a Republican stronghold, but with ineffective and corrupt leadership in D.C., the Democratic candidate, Jon Ossoff has a decent chance of winning. While it s too early to get polls from last night s debate, Ossoff s odds are looking much better.Featured image via WSBTV video screen capture | 0 |
10,771 | Why The Latest Email Revelations May Help Clinton, Not Hurt Her | On Thursday, the Inspector General of the State Department released a stinging report on Hillary Clinton regarding the use of her private email server. As expected, republicans pounced on the findings in an effort to paint her as an incapable, dangerous criminal (like they haven t already). Democrats, on the other hand, are taking a different approach and surprisingly have a strong defense from the conservative Forbes. Saying the newest findings in the email-gate vindicate rather than harm her, contributor Charles Tiefer, who served as Solicitor of the House of Representatives and as an attorney for the Senate Legal Counsel, says the scandal may not lie with Hillary Clinton but really with the Bush Administration:It does not add any new serious charges or adverse facts. And, it shows she was less out of line with her predecessors, notably Colin Powell, than has been charged. Powell s handling of his email was so similar, in fact, that when House Republicans drag this issue through hearings up to Election Day, Powell should be called as a witness a witness for Clinton. To put it differently, she is having a double standard applied to her.If there is any person in the history of American politics that is the poster child for having double standards applied, it would be Hillary Clinton. For obvious reasons (she s a woman), Clinton seems to bear the brunt of rage from people who remain silent when men (or members of their own party) do the exact same thing: embassy security; mere ambition; votes (think crime bill); paid speeches; and now email procedures.Once again, Hillary Clinton is put on blast for an 83 page report, in which only half a dozen pages actually address the Secretary s personal emails the rest of the pages are appendices, historical context and precedence established by predecessors including Albright, Rice, Powell and now Kerry. And the few pages that do mention her emails mostly discuss broad cyber security policies pertaining to emails.No new information has come out of the report. Just a scathing slap on the wrist for Clinton, who has already admitted that she could have gone about a much better way of handling her emails. But still you ll find Republicans (and indeed some left wing liberals) cry out smoking gun. As Tiefer points out:[T]o the extent that she is criticized because she did not comply with the Department s policies that were implemented in accordance with the Federal Records Act, the report is making a legal judgment that is not particularly strong. Note how she is not labeled as violating any statute, but rather, a real mouthful of mush the Department s policies that were implemented in accordance with the Federal Records Act. So we are talking about obscure, dull, bureaucratic policies. Not a criminal statute. Not even a civil statute just the bureaucratic policies.The fact of the matter is that this is not a smoking gun just a politicized report of things we already knew. Based on the IG s report, Clinton did nothing illegal, she just created a bureaucratic headache. Shouldn t Republicans be giving her a medal given their intense hatred for the rules and procedures established by bureaucracy?So how does this help her? Well, for starters, it doesn t really hurt her. There s no legal framework established for an indictment, yet (unless we are counting on the FBI or the DOJ to somehow find a smoking gun). Second, it s more ammo for Clinton to use against a very sexist double standard that is applied to women in politics and not men. Third, it s another light shone on the Bush Administration, a penchant for lies, crooked shenanigans, and again, double standards.Featured image via Justin Sullivan/Getty Images | 0 |
10,772 | JUDGE HANDS ILLEGAL ALIEN Who Tried To Kill Trump A Shocking Plea Deal | 19 year old native British man, Michael Sanford, pled guilty on Sept 14th to one count of being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm and one count of disrupting an official function, both of which are felonies.When Sandford was first arrested he was initially charged with an act of violence on restricted grounds after he attempted to grab a police officers gun with the intent to kill Trump at a Las Vegas rally, but he was later indicted on the firearm and disruption charges.Sandford s father, Paul Davey, said that his son had met a woman and moved to the United States to be with her. Court papers show his tourist visa expired in August 2015, making him an illegal alien.Sandford could have faced 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each offense, according to the plea agreement. He acknowledged in the document that it is almost certain that he will be deported from the United States with no possibility of returning. The plea agreement in Nevada federal court recounts the bizarre details leading up to Sanford s crimes, but differs from the initial criminal complaint in that it stops short of stating that Sandford wanted to shoot Trump. Instead, Sanford, who had overstayed a tourist visa by nearly a year, confessed to seizing the officer s gun and interfering with Trump s speech. Prosecutors have recommended a sentence of 18 months to two years. Although court papers do show he confesses to special agents that he wanted to kill Trump, his plea leaves out talk of a plot to assassinate him.Court Documents: CBS video of the arrest Check out Trumps response to the attempted assassination at minute mark 3:23 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QgGWdtcNEUIt is amazing what you can get away with in this country lately. A slap on the wrist basically is what Michael Sandford with be getting for the attempted murder of a Presidential Candidate. It s sickening.H/T [ Breaking 911 ] | 0 |
10,773 | OBAMA TAKES LEGALLY BINDING DRAFT TO UN SECURITY COUNCIL TO ENSURE NEXT PRESIDENT CAN’T UNDO IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL | Our current President must have staff working around the clock finding ways to circumvent Congress Last March, 47 Republicans led by Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas wrote a letter warning Iran s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that a future U.S. president could legally revoke any nuclear deal that had been negotiated by Barack Obama s administration with the stroke of a pen. They clearly didn t realize that the White House has a way of making that much harder to do.The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, on Monday circulated a legally binding draft to the 15-member U.N. Security Council that, if adopted, would give the body s backing to the landmark nuclear pact trading billions of dollars in sanctions relief for greater international scrutiny of Iran s nuclear energy program. It also instructs states to refrain from taking any actions that would undermine the agreement. The 14-page draft resolution, obtained by Foreign Policy, is likely to be put to a vote by early next week.The decision to take the deal to the Security Council before the U.S. Congress has concluded its own deliberations on the agreement places lawmakers in the uncomfortable position of potentially breaching a binding resolution by voting down the deal. The strategy has infuriated some Republican lawmakers, who see the administration making an end run around Congress.During a Tuesday phone call to Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) pressed him to put off a Security Council vote. I urged that the Obama administration not seek action at the U.N. Security Council on the agreement before Congress can review it in detail during the legislatively mandated congressional review period, Royce said in a statement.Congress is currently weighing whether to accept or reject the deal brokered by the United States, Iran, and five world powers. Under the terms of a U.S. law passed this year, lawmakers can prevent the president from lifting congressional sanctions on Iran, which would blow up the landmark nuclear deal.However, if a resolution is approved by the Security Council early next week, any president, Democrat or Republican, would be legally bound to enforce its terms. If Congress were to veto the deal, Congress the United States of America would be in noncompliance with this agreement and contrary to all of the other countries in the world. I don t think that s going to happen, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters Tuesday.Kerry suggested that the nuclear accord will likely win growing acceptance in Washington if Iran fully implements its obligations and is able to demonstrate that they re not able or ready to make a bomb. I am convinced that whoever is our next president will see the wisdom of this agreement and they will leave it in place, he added.On Capitol Hill, there are currently two schools of thought about the wisdom of taking a resolution to the U.N. Security Council prior to a vote in Congress.For some Republicans, the move is a dangerous subjugation of U.S. sovereignty and an insult to Congress s oversight role. Given that huge bipartisan majorities in both houses voted for legislation to prevent the president from implementing the agreement before congressional review, I think members from both sides of the aisle will see this tactic as an end run on Congress, said Jamil Jaffer, a Republican and former chief counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.Others, even those skeptical of a deal, prefer that the U.N. take action first so that Congress can better understand the accord it s approving or rejecting. It actually makes sense that we would go second because then we ll know what we re voting on, said a congressional aide who focuses on the Iran nuclear portfolio. If we went first, we d be in the uncomfortable position of approving something that could change depending on what s agreed on at the U.N. Indeed, the United States and its negotiating partners have not included some of the most controversial provisions for instance, a decision to lift an embargo on conventional weaponry in five years and ease restrictions on the development and import of ballistic missile technology in eight years in the nuclear accord that will be reviewed by Congress. Instead, those provisions are embedded in the new U.N. Security Council resolution, which congressional critics of the deal will have no power to block.The new draft resolution provides weaker restrictions on Iran s ballistic missile program than those contained in previous resolutions, which banned Iran from undertaking any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. The draft under consideration would only call upon Iran not to engage in such activities. It also includes no explicit prohibition on Iran s development or import of conventional missile technology. That means Iran can continue to advance its conventional ballistic missile program without violating the terms set by the U.N. Security Council.But acquiring foreign supplies for its missile program will still be constrained by the deal. A U.S. administration official familiar with the deliberations noted that the draft requires that any company trying to supply Iran with missile-related technology seek approval from a committee composed of representatives from key powers, including the United States. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Washington would use its position to veto the import of any sensitive missile technology into Iran. The practical effect of the new resolution is to preserve the same prohibitions contained in existing resolutions, said the official. It prohibits effectively any transfer of missile technology, conventional or nuclear. According to an individual familiar with the talks, the compromise on the arms embargo and ballistic missile sanctions came at the eleventh hour of negotiations in Vienna. Iran, backed by Russia, insisted that a final deal lift all restrictions on conventional arms and ballistic missiles immediately. Seeking to break the impasse, Kerry did some maneuvering between the Iranians and Russians and got it to a five-eight compromise, meaning the conventional-arms embargo would be in effect for another five years and restrictions on ballistic missile technology would extend for eight years rather than lift immediately. This was a Kerry special, said the individual.Prior to the conclusion of the nuclear talks, Republicans such as New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte grilled Obama administration officials about the dangers of lifting sanctions on Iran that deter it from obtaining conventional weapons or ballistic missiles.Responding to a question from Ayotte last week, Gen. Martin Dempsey, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that under no circumstances should we relieve pressure on Iran relative to ballistic missile capabilities and arms trafficking. When Dempsey s remarks were raised during a press conference with Obama on Wednesday, the president pushed back, saying, We are not taking the pressure off Iran with respect to arms and with respect to ballistic missiles. Instead, the president asserted, the new resolution would keep those restrictions in place while leaving Washington with a host of other multilateral and unilateral authorities that allow us to take action where we see Iran engaged in those activities, whether it s six years from now or 10 years from now, he said.Via: FP | 0 |
10,774 | WOW! SENATOR GRASSLEY OUTS Schumer And Schiff…LIED To Media Even Though They KNEW Trump Wasn’t Under Investigation For Collusion With Russians [VIDEO] | A top Republican took to the Senate floor Thursday to blame fired FBI Director James B. Comey for fanning conspiracy theories about the U.S. election that played right into Russia s hands. Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican who, as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has oversight of the FBI, also accused Mr. Comey of working to shade the truth by agreeing to the Obama administration s attempt to soft-pedal the criminal probe of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.Despite rampant public speculation, Mr. Comey kept hidden the fact that the president wasn t under investigation allowing conspiracy theories and speculation to run wild, Mr. Grassley said.But Mr. Comey refused, saying later that he had feared saying something he d later have to correct. None of this fiasco had to happen if Mr. Comey had just been transparent with the public, as I urged him to, Mr. Grassley said. They played right into Russia s hands, he added.The senator s remarks were striking. A fiercely independent lawmaker, Mr. Grassley has used his office to probe both Democrats and Republicans.He s now in charge of one of the probes on Capitol Hill looking into Mr. Comey s firing and other aspects of the 2016 election brouhaha. We re going to go where the facts take us, Mr. Grassley said.He said Democrats ended up fostering the very Russian meddling in American democracy that they decried and he specifically fingered Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, saying the New York Democrat knew from Mr. Comey that Mr. Trump wasn t under investigation but told the public differently.Mr. Grassley said that as a member of the Gang of Eight the four high-ranking lawmakers in each party who get the most thorough intelligence briefing Mr. Schumer knew Mr. Trump wasn t being probed. But Mr. Schumer told the media that the president was under investigation. And, of course, that further helped feed media hysteria, Mr. Grassley said. The minority leader even tried to say the Senate shouldn t vote on the Supreme Court nomination because the president was under investigation. And the whole time he knew it wasn t true, Mr. Grassley said.He said Mr. Comey told him and Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the ranking Democrat on his committee, about Mr. Trump being in the clear in March.Watch Grassley expose Democrat lawmakers and their lies to the American public:That s the same time Mr. Schumer was demanding a vote on Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch be delayed, saying the president was under investigation. Washington Times | 0 |
10,775 | Numbers Prove Trump A Liar: RECORD Job Growth Will Be The Legacy Of Obama Administration (DETAILS) | Barack Obama has been accused again and again of ruining the economy but where s the proof? Oh wait, there is none because he s done the exact opposite of that. In fact, president Obama has broken records by creating jobs.According to the majority of Republicans, Obama has done just about nothing right. He gets zero credit for the good things he s done and all the credit for anything that goes slightly wrong. Well, that has to change. Obama has done everything he can for America and is still doing so. Obama is currently on a 78 month long streak of creating jobs. In those 78 months he s created over 15.1 MILLION jobs. That s more than any other president in history.On the off chance that a republican president had managed something like this, they would be receiving plenty of praise. In fact Jesse Lee tweeted a rather accurate remark on that:In alt universe where Romney won, these #s would be getting chiseled under his face on Mount Rushmore as we speak. https://t.co/7prryK5nPF Jesse Lee (@jesseclee44) September 2, 2016It s ridiculous how poorly Obama has been treated since he s been in office. He s worked harder than president-elect Donald Trump ever will, and has made so much progress for this country. Yet all he has received is criticism and sarcastic remarks: thanks Obama. Well it s time for us to start saying thank you to Obama, and mean it.Featured Image via Getty Images | 0 |
10,776 | France's Macron will travel to Saint Martin on Tuesday | PARIS (Reuters) - French president Emmanuel Macron will travel to the battered Dutch-French island of Saint Martin on Tuesday following the passage of hurricane Irma and fellow storm Jose. Emmanuel Macron will leave to Saint Martin on Tuesday morning with goods and reinforcements, French interior minister Gerard Collomb told journalists on Sunday after a meeting with Macron at the Elysee palace in Paris. According to a provisional death toll, Irma killed 10 people in the French part of Saint Martin and in nearby island of Saint Barthelemy. Seven people are still reported missing. | 1 |
10,777 | Lebanon ex-PM meets French, UK, EU, U.S. diplomats in Riyadh: PM's office | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Saad al-Hariri, who resigned as Lebanon s prime minister last weekend, met the French ambassador to Saudi Arabia in Riyadh on Thursday, Hariri s office said in a statement. Hariri, who quit in a video broadcast from Saudi Arabia on Saturday but has not yet returned to Lebanon, also met diplomats from the European Union, Britain and United States in the past two days. | 1 |
10,778 | Pelosi re-elected to House Democratic leadership post | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi was re-elected to her post on Wednesday, beating back a challenger who accused Democrats of ignoring the working-class Americans who flocked to Republican Donald Trump in elections this month. Pelosi, 76, a Californian who has been in Congress for 30 years and led the party in the House for 14 of them, defeated 43-year-old Tim Ryan, a seven-term representative from the Rust Belt region of northeastern Ohio. The vote, taken by secret ballot, was 134-63. Ryan had brought his challenge complaining about the Democrats’ track record under Pelosi’s guidance, noting Democrats have only been in the majority in the House of Representatives for four of the past 18 years. He said Wednesday that he had been “biting his tongue” until the Nov. 8 national election, when Trump won the White House with the support of many working-class Americans, and Republicans kept control of the House and Senate. Democrats gained only about a half-dozen seats in the House of Representatives, when some had thought they would make double-digit gains. Ryan said after the vote he was satisfied his concerns had at least been heard by Democratic leaders, and there might be change. “If the message of the Democrats now is about working class people ... if that’s our focus, we will right this ship,” he said. Pelosi also suggested there had been a lesson learned. “Never again will we have an election where there’s any doubt in anyone’s minds where the Democrats are when it comes to America’s working families,” she told reporters. It was the biggest challenge to Pelosi’s leadership since 2010, when then-Representative Heath Shuler got just 43 votes. Ryan’s backers stressed they fear the party will be doomed to its minority status if it continues to move away from working-class people, traditionally part of the Democrats’ base. “We talk more about free-range chickens than we do working people on the Democratic side sometimes,” Representative Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts said before the vote. “We have to convince the American people, the American worker, that we’re in their corner. And Donald Trump did that. He took that away from us,” Lynch said. But Representative Eliot Engel, a Pelosi supporter, said “you really can’t blame her” for the party’s disappointing showing in November. “It was a loss of support at the top and it trickled all the way down,” Engel said. | 1 |
10,779 | Liberty Report talks to Vanessa Beeley: ‘Everything the US media says about Aleppo is wrong’ | 21st Century Wire says Why are western media lying and producing a fictional narrative regarding the situation unfolding in Aleppo, Syria?Ron Paul Liberty Report co-host Daniel McAdams talks with 21WIRE special contributor Vanessa Beeley about what is really happening in Aleppo right now. Beeley also reveals new information about the western covert creation, a pseudo NGO called the White Helmets in Syria.What s really going on in Aleppo? Are Assad and Putin exterminating the population for sport? Is it a war against US-backed moderates ? That is what the mainstream media would have us believe. Watch: SUPPORT 21WIRE and its work by Subscribing and becoming a Member @ 21WIRE.TV | 0 |
10,780 | Did Ron Paul Just Confuse Al-Qaeda With ISIS, Or Does He Simply Not Know The Difference? (TWEETS) | Former Texas Congressman Ron Paul added yet more fuel to the argument that older people should stay away from Twitter when he either confused ISIS with Al-Qaeda or simply proved that he has absolutely no idea what he is talking about in a misinformed tweet on Monday night:Remember: there was no al-Qaeda until our foolish invasion of Iraq based on neocon lies. Ron Paul (@RonPaul) August 22, 2017One could only wish that the 82-year-old Paul, a man who has run for president three times as both a Libertarian and Republican, and one who also holds a degree in Medicine from Duke University, would be slightly more intelligent, but apparently that just isn t the case. We currently have a President in office who is concerned the with mainstream media spouting fake news, yet doesn t call out fellow or former Republicans when they do the exact same thing, however, fortunately there were plenty of people on Twitter who were willing to do so on Trump s behalf.Actually he's right. No Al Qaeda in Iraq before we invaded. mike nakadai (@cinemiike) August 22, 2017Alzheimer's is terrible. Thoughts and prayers. nosferatu (@ChrisRosendin) August 22, 2017I still remember. ? pic.twitter.com/wCqRtf5dbB WeGovernUSA (@WeGovernUSA) August 22, 2017Was it over when when Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?Germans?Forget it, he's rolling. Wulander (@WuShocks) August 22, 2017Even if we were to give Paul the benefit of the doubt and believe he made a simple absent-minded error, his factually-deficient tweet proves that it is people like him who are the main source of this fake news problem. All it would ve taken was a little fact-checking and proof-reading to see the error in his propaganda, but maybe we can clear it up for him if he is able to see the flaw in his tweet, wants to retract the statement, but can t be bothered with the research.Al-Qaeda was founded by Osama Bin Laden, Abdullah Azzah, and other Arab volunteers in the 1980s to fight the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, however, they will forever go down in history for the 9/11 terror attacks, an event that definitely happened before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. ISIS, on the other hand, achieved notoriety following the U.S. invasion of Iraq, but they still existed before then, founded in 1999 by Jordanian Salafi jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi under the name Jam at al-Taw d wa-al-Jih d and pledging their allegiance to Al-Qaeda in 2004.See, Ron, fact-checking isn t that difficult and it helps prevent opening old wounds, or ones that are still reasonably fresh with the pain still being felt to this day, wounds such as 9/11.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images | 0 |
10,781 | Bombshell Report Shows GOP Presidential Campaign A Complete DISASTER In Multiple States | Presidential elections are won by well-prepared, well organized multimillion dollar efforts that are executed at the state level. Some of the best models of this have been President Bush s campaign in 2004 and President Obama s campaigns in 2008 and 2012. What needs to be done and how it should be done are known by seasoned campaign operatives and candidates who put the people in place to make it happen.Donald Trump s presidential campaign, and the Republican Party s planning to help his campaign in multiple states that are key to winning, are a complete disaster with only four months to go until the election, according to a new report from the Associated Press.With early voting beginning in less than three months in some states, the review reveals that the national GOP has delivered only a fraction of the ground forces detailed in discussions with state leaders earlier in the year. And that is leaving anxious local officials waiting for reinforcements to keep pace with Democrat Hillary Clinton in the states that matter most in 2016.The Republican Party s massive failure gets even worse when you zoom in to swing states, as the Associated Press has:Some examples of Republican shortfalls: Ohio Republicans thought they were going to see 220 paid staffers by May; in reality there are about 50. Plans for Pennsylvania called for 190 paid staffers; there are about 60. Iowa s planned ground force of 66 by May actually numbers between 25 and 30. In Colorado, recent staff departures have left about two dozen employees, far short of the 80 that were to have been in place.AP even found that Trump s headquarters in Florida, one of the most important states in the fight for the electoral college, was closed and its voice mailbox full. Florida has 29 electoral votes and in 2012 was decided by a margin of 0.87 percent on the ground organizing is key to winning it.These failures at the state organizing level don t even take into account the massive disparity in campaign advertising between Clinton and Trump. While she has been pumping out ads in important states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Colorado, and New Mexico along with super PACs that support her, Trump hasn t been advertising at all. In 2012, Mitt Romney s campaign was outspent by President Obama, but he was actually spending money Trump isn t spending on much, besides many of his own entities who showed up as campaign vendors.Republicans, especially in 2012, derided President Obama s background as a community organizer, but they could do with one right now to organize for their candidate in the communities he needs in order to have a chance at winning. That doesn t seem to be happening.Featured image via Flickr | 0 |
10,782 | Trump to visit Utah next week, expected to announce monument decision | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is set to visit Utah on Monday and is expected to announce his decision on whether to reduce the size of two national monuments where drilling and mining are banned, an administration official said on Tuesday. Trump is expected shrink the Bears Ears National Monument, set aside by former Democratic President Barack Obama, and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, preserved by former Democratic President Bill Clinton. The trip was first reported by the Salt Lake Tribune. Trump has pushed to roll back regulations that prevent development. To that end, he had ordered a review of the size of 27 monuments: land with cultural, historical or scientific importance preserved from development by past presidents under the Antiquities Act. Last month, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Trump would travel to Utah in early December, and U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, said Trump would reduce the size of the monuments. Environmental groups and Native American tribal organizations plan to protest Trump’s planned visit on Saturday at Utah’s state capitol at what they call “The Rally Against Trump’s Monumental Mistake.” The announcement is expected to touch off a legal battle with environmental groups and Native American tribes. The Navajo Nation and the four other tribes that created and co-manage the Bears Ears monument plan to file a lawsuit the next day. “We will be fighting back immediately. All five tribes will be standing together united to defend Bears Ears,” said Natalie Landreth, an attorney for the Native American Rights Fund. The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and other conservation groups also plan litigation against the Trump administration to challenge changes to both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase, said Steve Bloch, director of SUWA. Bloch said conservation groups are concerned that Trump’s announcement will include an order to offer areas in the monuments for public lease sales for coal mining or oil and gas drilling. Industry groups like the oil lobbying organization the American Petroleum Institute have said in the past that both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante were unfairly designated as monuments and needed to be reviewed. Some Utah county officials welcome a reduction in the size of the monuments, which they say has restricted road access to protected areas. In Kane County, where 60 percent of land is located within Grand Staircase, commissioner Dirk Clayson plans to attend Trump’s event if he is invited. “We are grateful that somebody is listening to our local voice,” he said. | 1 |
10,783 | Trump Won’t Give Sean Spicer The Boot Because ‘That Guy Gets Great Ratings’ | White House press secretary Sean Spicer is a trainwreck. After all, this is the guy who said Hitler really wasn t that bad. Everybody tunes in daily to see what ridiculous assertion will come out of his mouth this time, and apparently, that is all the job security he needs in Donald Trump s administration.According to the Washington Post, Trump has no intention of firing Spicer because he gets great ratings, and in Trump s White House, ratings matter far more than facts. The WaPo article explores Trump s obsession with cable news and revealed that Spicer s job is safe as long as he can keep people turning in to watch him crash and burn. I m not firing Sean Spicer, Trump said, according to sources. That guy gets great ratings. Everyone tunes in. The Washington Post reports that most of the televisions in the West Wing display four channels at all times CNN, Fox, Fox Business and MSNBC. The article also noted that during an intimate lunch recently with a key outside ally in a small West Wing dining room, for instance, Trump repeatedly paused the conversation to make the group watch a particularly combative Spicer briefing. Spicer has become a laughing stock. Saturday Night Live has had a blast lampooning him in recent months, with Melissa McCarthy playing the role of the press secretary. The fact that Spicer was portrayed on SNL by a woman seemed to be more upsetting to Trump than any of Spicer s numerous gaffes.The press secretary kicked off his very first press conference by claiming that Trump s inauguration really didn t have a pathetic turnout, despite pictures proving he was full of it. And things have only gone downhill from there. But as long as America keeps tuning in for Spicer s daily dumpster fires press briefings, he can rest assured that Trump is going to keep him around. Because priorities.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 0 |
10,784 | Mnuchin not worried by lower U.S. tax receipts, has funding plan | OTTAWA (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Friday said he was not worried by lower-than-expected tax revenues, saying that he has a backup plan for funding government if Congress did not raise the debt ceiling by August. Government tax receipts for early 2017 were 3 percent lower than expected, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said in a May 5 report. “Receipts are coming in somewhat lower, and I think that’s in expectation of that we’re going to do tax reform,” Mnuchin told a news conference in Ottawa, the Canadian capital, where he met with Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau. “I’ve been consistent in (saying) we hope Congress deals with the debt limit as soon as possible, but in any event, we’re not concerned,” he added. The weaker tax revenues have forced the Treasury to borrow more money than expected to cover the federal budget deficit, which is putting the government on track to hit its legal debt limit sooner than it forecast, experts say. Mnuchin wants lawmakers to raise Washington’s borrowing limit before they break for a long recess in August. Asked what would happen if Congress did not act before then, he replied: “We will be fine if they (Congress) don’t do it beforehand. ... We have plans and back-up plans for funding the government.” Pressed as to what he had in mind, Mnuchin said: “They are Treasury secretary superpowers.” President Donald Trump has made tax reform one of his biggest priorities. He has proposed cutting the corporate income tax to 15 percent, down from the current top corporate rate of 35 percent, though because of loopholes few multinational companies pay that rate. “Nothing is higher on my priority list than getting tax reform done this year. ... It is critical for economic growth,” Mnuchin said. Some Canadian politicians and business leaders are concerned that if Trump cuts corporate taxes, it could make companies north of the border less competitive. “As the U.S. moves forward with their plans, we’ll make sure we understand them well to ensure our tax system stays appropriate,” said Morneau, who gave no further details. Morneau said he and Mnuchin also spoke about lumber and trade. Canada softwood lumber exports have emerged as a trade irritant ahead of talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. Washington in April imposed preliminary anti-subsidy duties averaging 20 percent on imports of Canadian softwood lumber. | 1 |
10,785 | Schiff says accepted White House invitation to review intelligence | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee said on Thursday he had accepted the White House’s invitation to review intelligence information, although he does not know if that information is the same as reviewed by the committee’s Republican chairman, Devin Nunes. Representative Adam Schiff said the White House’s handling of the materials raises “profound questions,” noting that White House staff has no reason to pass information to a congressional committee chairman rather than just delivering it to President Donald Trump directly. | 1 |
10,786 | Timeline: Zika's origin and global spread | The following timeline charts the origin and spread of the Zika virus from its discovery nearly 70 years ago: 1947: Scientists researching yellow fever in Uganda’s Zika Forest identify the virus in a rhesus monkey 1948: Virus recovered from Aedes africanus mosquito in Zika Forest 1952: First human cases detected in Uganda and Tanzania 1954: Virus found in Nigeria 1960s-80s: Zika detected in mosquitoes and monkeys across equatorial Africa 1969–83: Zika found in equatorial Asia, including India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan 2007: Zika spreads from Africa and Asia, first large outbreak on Pacific island of Yap 2012: Researchers identify two distinct lineages of the virus, African and Asian 2013–14: Zika outbreaks in French Polynesia, Easter Island, the Cook Islands and New Caledonia. Retrospective analysis shows possible link to birth defects and severe neurological complications in babies in French Polynesia March 2, 2015: Brazil reports illness characterized by skin rash in northeastern states July 17: Brazil reports detection of neurological disorders in newborns associated with history of infection Oct. 5: Cape Verde has cases of illness with skin rash Oct. 22: Colombia confirms cases of Zika Oct. 30: Brazil reports increase in microcephaly, abnormally small heads, among newborns Nov. 11: Brazil declares public health emergency November 2015-January 2016: Cases reported in Suriname, Panama, El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala, Paraguay, Venezuela, French Guiana, Martinique, Puerto Rico, Guyana, Ecuador, Barbados, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Curacao, Jamaica Feb. 1: World Health Organization (WHO) declares public health emergency of international concern Feb. 2: First case of Zika transmission in United States; local health officials say likely contracted through sex, not mosquito bite Feb. 5: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says virus being actively transmitted in 30 countries, mostly in the Americas Feb. 8: U.S. President Barack Obama requests $1.8 billion to fight Zika Feb. 12: Brazil investigating potential link between Zika infections and 4,314 suspected cases of microcephaly. Of those, 462 confirmed as microcephaly and 41 determined to be linked to virus Feb. 17: Brazil investigating potential link between Zika and 4,443 suspected cases of microcephaly. Of those, 508 confirmed as microcephaly and most of those cases are linked to the virus. WHO seeks $56 million to fight Zika. Feb. 18: CDC adds Aruba and Bonaire to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 32. Feb. 23: CDC investigating 14 cases of possible sexual transmission of Zika. CDC also adds Trinidad and Tobago and Marshall Islands to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 34. Feb. 25: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases number more than 580 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 4,100 suspected cases of microcephaly. Feb. 27: France detects first sexually transmitted case of Zika. Feb. 29: CDC adds St. Maarten, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 36. March 1: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 641 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 4,222 suspected cases of microcephaly. March 8: WHO advises pregnant women to avoid areas with Zika outbreak and said sexual transmission of the virus is “relatively common.” March 9: CDC adds New Caledonia to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 37. March 15: Cuba reports first case of Zika contracted in the country. March 16: Cape Verde identifies first case of microcephaly. March 18: CDC says during Jan. 1, 2015 to Feb. 26, 2016, 116 residents of the United States had evidence of recent Zika virus infection based on laboratory testing. Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 863 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 4,268 suspected cases of microcephaly. March 19: CDC adds Cuba to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 38. March 21: South Korea confirms first case of Zika. March 22: CDC adds Dominica to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 39. Bangladesh confirms first case of Zika virus. Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 907 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 4,293 suspected cases of microcephaly. March 29: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 944 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil said the number of suspected cases of microcephaly dropped slightly to 4,291. March 31: According to the World Health Organization, there is a strong scientific consensus that Zika can cause the birth defect microcephaly as well as Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that can result in paralysis, though conclusive proof may take months or years. April 1: CDC adds Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 40. April 4: CDC adds Fiji to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 41. April 5: Vietnam reports first Zika infections. April 6: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 1,046 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. The number of suspected cases of microcephaly dropped to 4,046. April 7: St. Lucia confirms first two cases of Zika, contracted locally. April 12: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 1,113 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. The number of suspected cases of microcephaly dropped to 3,836. It was the second week in a row that the overall total figure fell. April 13: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that infection with the Zika virus in pregnant women is a cause of the birth defect microcephaly and other severe brain abnormalities in babies. The CDC said now that the causal relationship has been established, several important questions must still be answered with studies that could take years. CDC adds St. Lucia to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 42. April 14: Colombia confirms two microcephaly cases linked to Zika. April 18: Peru reports first case of sexually transmitted Zika virus. CDC adds Belize to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 43. April 19: Chilean authorities find Zika mosquito for first time in decades. April 25: Canada confirms first sexually transmitted Zika case. April 26: Brazil says the number of confirmed cases of microcephaly climbed to 1,198 from 1,168 in the week through April 23, but suspected ones under investigation continued to decline to 3,710 from 3,741 a week ago. Brazil registered 91,387 likely cases of the Zika virus from February until April 2, the health ministry said, in its first national report on the epidemic. April 29: Puerto Rico reports first death related to Zika, according to the CDC. The country also confirmed 683 Zika cases, including 65 pregnant women, and five suspected cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome from Zika, the CDC reported. May 4: Panama confirms four microcephaly cases tied to Zika. May 6: Spain gets first case of Zika-related brain defect in a fetus. May 9: CDC adds Papua New Guinea, Saint Barthelemy and Peru to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 46. Honduras suspects first case of microcephaly in Zika patient. May 11: Brazil says the number of confirmed cases of microcephaly dropped to 1,326 in the week through May 7 as doctors and Brazilian health officials find that some suspected cases of microcephaly are not the disorder. Suspected ones under investigation continued to decline to 3,433. May 12: CDC adds Grenada to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 47. May 13: Puerto Rico reports first case of Zika-related microcephaly. May 20: WHO says an outbreak of Zika virus on the African island chain of Cape Verde is of the same strain as the one blamed for birth abnormalities in Brazil. May 24: Brazil reports the number of confirmed cases of microcephaly at 1,434 for the latest week to May 21. Suspected ones under investigation declined to 3,257. May 26: CDC adds Argentina to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 48. June 9: WHO issues updated guidelines on prevention of sexual transmission of the Zika virus, including advising women living in areas where the virus is being transmitted to delay getting pregnant. June 14: El Salvador confirms first case of microcephaly linked to Zika. June 23: CDC reports seven babies in the United States with microcephaly or other Zika-related birth defects such as serious brain abnormalities, and five lost pregnancies from either miscarriage, stillbirth or termination. June 28: First baby with Zika-related birth defect microcephaly born in Florida. June 30: CDC adds Anguilla to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 49. Guinea-Bissau confirms three cases of Zika, government says. Spain records first case of sexually transmitted Zika virus, health authorities said. July 8: CDC confirmed that a Utah resident’s death last month is the first Zika-related death in the continental United States. July 14: CDC adds Saint Eustatius to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 50. July 15: New York City’s health department reports the first female-to-male transmission of the Zika virus. July 18: CDC reports that caregiver of Utah man who died of Zika tested positive for virus. July 19: Florida health officials are investigating a case of Zika virus infection that does not appear to have stemmed from travel to another region with an outbreak. July 21: CDC reports 400 pregnant women in U.S. with evidence of Zika infection, up from 346 a week ago. The health agency also reports three more babies born in U.S. with birth defects linked to the Zika virus, bringing total to 12. Florida Department of Health said it was investigating a non travel-related case of Zika in Broward County, marking the second such case in the U.S. July 22: New York City health officials reports first baby born with Zika-related birth defect. July 25: Spain reports first case in Europe of baby born with Zika-related defect. CDC issues updated recommendations for preventing and testing for Zika infection, warning that the virus can be transmitted through unprotected sex with an infected female partner. July 26: Honduras detects 8 cases of babies with Zika-related defect. CDC adds Saba to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 51. July 27: Paraguay reports first cases of microcephaly linked to Zika. July 29: Florida authorities report what is believed to be the first evidence of local Zika transmission in the continental United States. Aug. 1: Florida identifies 10 more cases of Zika virus caused by mosquitoes, bringing total to 14. CDC issues guidelines for pregnant women who live in and traveled to affected area in a Miami neighborhood. Aug. 2: Health authorities in Florida add one more case of locally transmitted Zika, bringing total to 15. CDC adds Antigua, Barbuda, and Turks and Cacos to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 54. Aug. 3: U.S. researchers said they launched Zika vaccine clinical trial. Aug. 4: Cuba reports two cases of locally transmitted Zika. Aug. 5: Florida health authorities report another locally transmitted case, bringing total to 16. Aug. 9: Texas health officials said death of infant born with microcephaly is linked to Zika, the first casualty in the state associated with the virus. Cayman Islands reports first locally transmitted Zika case. SOURCES: World Health Organization, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Reuters | 1 |
10,787 | Adios, Three Amigos: Obama heads to last summit with Canada, Mexico | WASHINGTON/OTTAWA (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will meet with the leaders of Canada and Mexico on Wednesday for his final “Three Amigos” summit, a meeting that may signal how keen the North American partners are to tout trade at a time of rising protectionist sentiment. The Ottawa summit comes on the heels of Britain voting to leave the European Union after more than 40 years. It also falls ahead of a U.S. presidential election on Nov. 8 where presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has made stagnant wages and U.S. manufacturing job losses focal points of his insurgent campaign. The so-called Brexit vote is bound to be an important theme for Obama’s meetings with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Canada had negotiated a trade deal with the EU that is slated to take effect next year. The Brexit may delay its ratification and hurt Canada’s commodity-driven economy. The referendum results are also seen as a setback to talks on a U.S.-EU trade deal. Mexico, which already has a trade deal with the EU, has prepared a draft proposal for a pact with the United Kingdom. At the summit, leaders will also look at how best to foster trade with each other, said Mexico’s Finance Minister Luis Videgaray. “One of the important issues, without doubt, is how to give a fresh impulse and greater value to North American integration,” Videgaray said. All three are part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the 12-nation trade deal that Obama had cast as an update of the North American Free Trade Agreement. He wants to finalize the TPP as part of his economic legacy in Asia. The TPP has become a target of both the left and the right in the U.S. election, and Congress has so far been unenthusiastic about ratifying the deal. The United States is the top export market for both Canada and Mexico. In 2015, U.S. trade with Canada and Mexico totaled $663 billion and $584 billion, respectively. But in Canada, only one in four people say the 22-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is good for the country, a poll released on Monday showed. The long-running Canada-U.S. battle over softwood lumber seems more likely than not to resume as early as October. Given all the controversy over trade, the leaders may decide to try to focus their summit talking points on other topics. “I expect them to try and stay away from it,” said Carlo Dade, director of the Canada West Foundation’s Center for Trade and Investment Policy. Ahead of the summit, the White House revealed that the leaders would commit to a new regional goal of 50 percent of power coming from clean energy by 2025, up from about 37 percent in 2015. The three countries also plan to unveil a plan to fight heroin production. At a joint press conference, the leaders are likely to field questions about the upcoming U.S. election and its implications for both Canada and Mexico. It will also be Obama’s first chance on an international stage to promote his recent endorsement of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, his former secretary of state. In March, Pena Nieto roundly condemned Trump, who has promised to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico to keep out illegal immigrants and drugs, and has complained about what he calls unfair trade. Mexico also named a new ambassador to aggressively promote its contributions to the U.S. economy. On Canada, Trump has so far been mostly silent. “That doesn’t mean Canadians don’t feel the sting” of his protectionist ideas, said Chris Sands, director of the Center for Canadian Studies at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. Trudeau is likely to tread carefully so as to not endanger relations with a potential president. “It’s unlikely there will be any formal discussion of Trump, who of course is the elephant in the room. In some ways, it’s better if there isn’t,” said one official involved in the summit. “The message the leaders will be sending is eloquent enough - the three nations are closely integrated and cooperate well and that’s how the relationship should work,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. On trade, Pena Nieto and Trudeau are also cognizant that talk is cheap on the campaign trail. “I have to tell my Canadian friends this often - it doesn’t mean it will be the agenda once you get to the White House,” said David Wilkins, the U.S. ambassador to Canada from 2005-09 during the George W. Bush administration. Obama provides a good case in point. In his 2008 presidential campaign, he demonized NAFTA, but once in office, he began working on the TPP, a deal he has said would fix his concerns about NAFTA. “There’s very much a ‘Keep calm and carry on’ approach and we’re going to ignore some of the domestic politicking and see what happens when it happens,” said a Canadian source familiar with the summit talks. | 1 |
10,788 | Trump Now Says Wall May Not Need A Wall To Cover Entire US-Mexico Border | Keeping in line with his constant backtracking and just generally erratic ways, President Donald Trump has taken a softer stance on what was seen as essentially his core campaign promise by claiming that the 2,000 mile long wall he initially intended to build along the border with Mexico may not need to cover the full distance due to natural borders that already exist. You have mountains. You have some rivers that are violent and vicious. You have some areas that are so far away that you don t really have people crossing, the President told reporters aboard Air Force One on his recent flight to Paris. But you ll need anywhere from 700 to 900 miles. Trump made the construction of a big beautiful wall, with a big beautiful door, a solid structure 30 feet high in an effort to curb illegal immigration the cornerstone of his 2016 election campaign, insisting that Mexico would pay for it with the cost estimated to be in the vicinity of $20 billion, although he later stated that could be cut by covering the wall in solar panels. Naturally Mexico has refused to pay, most likely because they never requested the border wall in the first place, however, Trump still believes he will find a way to get them to cough up the cash after construction begins.But if you believe that the President s insistence that Mexico will reimburse the US for construction for the wall is the only flaw in his plan, you are sadly mistaken. First of all, almost all of that 700 to 900 miles that Trump mentioned, less than half of the length of the US-Mexico border, already has walls and fences. In fact, the current border wall is already 650 miles long. Also, as for the rivers that are violent and vicious, yes a large part of the border in Texas consists of the Rio Grande, but some parts of that river are barely more than a trickle of water.President Trump also now believes the border wall needs to be transparent. You have to be able to see through it, he said. As horrible as it sounds, when they throw the large sacks of drugs over, and if you have people on the other side of the wall, you don t see them. They hit you on the head with 60 pounds of stuff? It s over. We re now six months into his presidency and Trump has only requested $1.6 billion from Congress for the project, or roughly 8 percent of the total estimate. Maybe he has just learned that according to Pew Research Center, approximately 66 percent of the illegal immigrants in the US have been here for at least a decade, that the amount of illegal Mexican immigrants has been in decline for the last 10 years and is now one million less than it was in 2007, or that Mexicans only make up 52 percent of illegal immigrants in the United States.Featured image via Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images | 0 |
10,789 | House tax chief says Obamacare taxes not part of tax reform | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives will not seek to repeal Obamacare taxes as a part of expected tax reform legislation, the top House Republican on tax policy said on Monday. “We never envisioned bringing Obamacare taxes into that (reform) effort and I still don’t,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady told reporters. Obamacare taxes “go away when we repeal and replace. And so regrettably, they stay in place,” Brady said. | 1 |
10,790 | Breitbart Attacked Jake Tapper And His Hilarious Response Shut Them Up (TWEETS) | CNN host Jake Tapper put Breitbart in their place on Friday after they attacked him on Twitter.The white nationalist-supported website that spews alternative facts on a daily basis dared to attack Tapper because they think they made him change his coverage of Donald Trump.After Trump s disastrously embarrassing press conference on Thursday, Tapper told Trump to start acting like a legitimate president and stop whining. Everybody at home needs to ask themselves how would you react if that were your boss coming in and giving a speech to the employees, Tapper said. How would you react if that was somebody in your family that you were trying to have a conversation with? You would think this is very difficult to assess in a positive way. The person is not dealing with the world in which we live. He said things that weren t true President Trump, if you re watching, you legitimately won the presidency. Now get to work, and stop whining about it. Breitbart appears to think they forced Tapper to call Trump legitimate even though Tapper has never referred to Trump as illegitimate.When you make Jake Tapper drop the Russkies hacked the election meme. #4DChess https://t.co/7EG12f8CkT Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) February 17, 2017But they clearly messed with the wrong news anchor because Tapper fired back and hit Breitbart where it hurts the most.@BreitbartNews Such a good doggy. Now go get your treat from Bannon. Arf! Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 17, 2017Yep, Tapper literally mocked Breitbart for being Bannon s lapdogs.Tapper even nailed a Breitbart supporter by telling her in Russian to be quiet because the adults are talking.@eplerjc @JuliaGulia809 Better yet . . Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 17, 2017Needless to say, Tapper is being hailed as a media hero today.@jaketapper No Fucks Tapper is the hero 2017 needs. John Epler (@eplerjc) February 17, 2017The moral of this story is don t mess with Jake Tapper. You ll get burned into oblivion.Featured image via screenshot | 0 |
10,791 | Trumping Trump, Vattenfall to build Scottish wind farm near golf resort | STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden’s Vattenfall will invest 3 billion Swedish crowns ($349 million) in a Scottish offshore wind farm that U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump tried to stop being built near his luxury golf course in Scotland. State-owned utility Vattenfall, which will take 100 percent ownership of the project from Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group, described its investment as a vote of confidence in Britain after the nation’s decision to leave the European Union. “The decision to invest ... comes only a few weeks after the British referendum on leaving the EU and demonstrates Vattenfall’s continuing long-term commitment to wind power in Great Britain,” the company said in a statement. Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she would not rule out the possibility of Scotland remaining in the EU. Sturgeon said that a second independence referendum is now a possibility, though she has also emphasized that another vote would not take place until it is clear that most Scots are in favor of breaking from the United Kingdom. Vattenfall said the wind farm will have capacity of 92.4 megawatts, which could potentially supply about 130,000 households with energy. It will also serve as a center for testing and developing new technologies for offshore wind power. In December last year Britain’s top court threw out a bid by Trump to stop the 11-turbine wind farm from being built near his multimillion-dollar resort. The Trump Organization had denounced the Scottish government as “foolish, small minded and parochial”. The Scottish National Party’s foreign affairs spokesman Alex Salmond replied that Trump was “three times a loser”. Construction is expected to start in the latter part of 2017, with the wind farm expected to start generating electricity in spring 2018. Onshore construction activity will start later this year. | 1 |
10,792 | (VIDEO) NYPD’S SLAIN OFFICER BRIAN MOORE MOURNED AS THOUSANDS GATHER TO HONOR HIM | Nearly 30,000 police officers gathered in tribute to NYPD police officer Brian Moore. This should send a message to our newly sworn in DOJ director who was just too busy to attend this very important funeral. What was she doing? She was announcing a civil rights investigation into the Baltimore case of Freddie Gray. Could this not wait until next week? Couldn t she put the politics aside for just one day? Shameful!Their agony was seared on their faces and into a city s heart.The father, mother and sister of NYPD Officer Brian Moore sobbed throughout his funeral Mass on Friday, bereft of all but his heroic memory and a shiny new detective s shield posthumously awarded. With great honor and great sadness I posthumously promote Police Officer Brian Moore, Shield 469, to detective first grade, a choked-up Police Commissioner Bill Bratton told the 27,000 mourners, who crowded St. James Roman Catholic Church in Seaford, LI, or listened to a live feed on the streets outside. Holding the 25-year-old cop s new gold shield aloft at the altar, Bratton noted the grim significance of its number. His family will receive this, Shield 9002, Bratton said as Moore s father, Raymond, a retired NYPD sergeant, watched tearfully in the front pew. That number follows shields 9000 and 9001, bestowed upon Detective Rafael Ramos and Detective Wenjian Liu, he said, recalling the posthumous honors for the two Brooklyn cops killed in December when a gunman ambushed their patrol car in Bedford-Stuyvesant. I hope the 9000 series never sees another, Bratton added, his voice breaking with emotion. But that is an idle hope. We are the police. Detective Brian Moore knew it, and so do we all. Read more: NYP | 0 |
10,793 | Dipsh*t Adjusts Gun He Was Hiding In His SOCK Shoots Himself, Stranger At Graduation Ceremony | Millions of Americans across the country have concealed carry permits that allow them to carry their guns with them almost everywhere they go. The vast majority of these people, including my brother, have the common sense to purchase holsters to place their deadly weapons in; but then we have dumbasses like the one in Augusta, Kansas who thought, I don t need no stinkin holster! I ve got a perfectly good sock! As you can imagine, this isn t going to end well.Two people were hurt in an accidental shooting at Augusta High School s graduation ceremony over the weekend. According to Augusta Police Chief Tyler Brewer, a man was adjusting his gun when it went off, hit him, ricocheted and hit another woman. The shooting took place in a crowded stadium and was completely preventable, but the man was apparently an imbecile:Police told KWCH [News] the gun owner has a permit, and was carrying a small, semi-automatic gun in his sock. The gun in his sock was uncomfortable and he was apparently adjusting it when it went off.He. Was. Carrying. His. Gun. In. His. Sock. HIS SOCK!HIS SOCK!The brilliant, brilliant man ended up with a bullet wound in his foot and the woman with one in her calf. They are both expected to be okay. Chief Brewer said he plans on pursuing charges against the idiot because the shooting happened on school grounds. Imagine that, a gun owner who used his sock as a holster broke the law? Didn t see that coming.The NRA and the silly Republican politicians who are in their pocket claim that Democrats want to steal their firearms because we want stricter gun control laws. This is completely false, of course, and to my knowledge President Obama has still not carried out his nefarious gun grabbing plot, but right-wingers still believe it is going to happen. They argue about even basic laws like mandatory safety classes. Seriously. This shouldn t be a problem but it is and hundreds of people every year are hurt in shootings, like this one, that could have been prevented if the gun owner knew how to handle the weapon they so enthusiastically carry.But what do I know? I m just the sister of someone who owns an arsenal of guns and I ve never been shot once. I wonder why that is? Oh yeah, cause my brother knows that a sock isn t a fucking holster.Featured image via The Chive | 0 |
10,794 | Tea Party Candidate Wants To Be Elected So Bad, He’ll Betray His Own Party Horrifically To Do It | Art Halvorson, a Tea Partier with a major agenda, is running for office against Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA), who is the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Ordinarily, this wouldn t be news, except that Halvorson is literally willing to do anything it takes to beat Shuster. Even if it means running as a Democrat.There s a reason to gag here, because it s like Halvorson is actually willing to infiltrate the Democratic Party in order to accomplish his aims. In fact, the worst kind of Tea Partier is one who will literally do anything, no matter how slimy, to win an election kind of like Donald Trump. There s a reason the Tea Party is such a problem.A spokesperson for Shuster hit the nail on the head on Halvorson s absolute buttfuckery: By running for Congress as a Democrat after beating the other Democrat by 41 votes in the primary, Art Halvorson has proved that he cares about one thing and one thing only himself, said Casey Contres, a campaign spokesman for Shuster. Not only is he betraying Democrats by calling their party Godless while forcing them to accept him as their nominee, but he is also betraying the will of the Republican primary voters that have twice rejected his attempt to get a job in Congress. He s betraying the will of the Republican primary voters, that have rejected him. Here s a clue that he s unhinged: Halvorson lost his primary against Shuster, but he doesn t think that s the end of it. That s disgusting right there, because the Tea Party is supposed to be all about the will of the people over tyranny. They want small government, and think the people should hold the power. Does Halvorson think that the primary didn t reflect what the people of Pennsylvania s 9th District somehow? How is this kind of manipulation in keeping with what the Tea Party stands for?Simple answer: It doesn t.Halvorson is sick, like the entire Tea Party.The oddest thing is that he wants to let voters know that he s a Republican running as a Democrat, so they know they need to actually swallow their pride and (gasp!) vote Blue! But he faces a ridiculous battle. Gillian Kratzer, chairwoman of the Blair County Democrats, which is where Halvorson is running, says that Democrats won t be fooled. She believes he should know that Democrats won t support him. Republicans probably won t, either.Halvorson embodies Tea Party desperation at its finest. Many don t see how he ll win, but all that matters to him is himself. Who knew a Tea Partier could be so selfish? Oh wait.Featured image via Art Halvorson s Twitter account | 0 |
10,795 | Trump EPA pick says backs biofuels program, but open to tweaks | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, said on Wednesday he would honor the intent of the U.S. biofuels program, but remained open to tweaking it. The Renewable Fuel Standard requires the EPA set annual quotas for the use of ethanol and biodiesel in transportation fuels. More than a decade old, the standard is fiercely defended by the U.S. corn industry that provides most of the ethanol, but it has been a source of frustration for oil refiners. They say the goals are unrealistic without an overhaul in automobiles and infrastructure, and are calling for changes. Pruitt said during his confirmation hearing on Wednesday that he was committed to Congress’ plan, laid out in 2007, to annually increase the amount of ethanol and other renewables blended with petroleum fuels. He said the waivers that EPA has already used to set requirements below those targets to accommodate market conditions should be used “judiciously”. He explained his view that the EPA should not use those waivers to “undermine commitments” from Congress but that they are needed in some cases, including when there is lower-than-expected fuel demand. The comments quelled some concerns from within the industry over the nominee, who as Oklahoma’s attorney general had described the program as “flawed” and “unworkable.” Renewable Fuels Association Chief Executive Officer and President Bob Dinneen described Pruitt’s comments as “heartening” in a statement. While generally supportive of program, Pruitt said it was too soon to say whether it needed to be altered. Oil refiners including HollyFrontier Corp and Delta Air Lines Inc’s Monroe Energy have requested that the responsibility of blending renewables like ethanol into their fuel be shifted from them to companies further down the supply chain. The EPA moved to deny the request, but is seeking public comment on the decision. When asked about the idea, Pruitt said he did not want to “pre-judge” the outcome of the comment period. Trump has separately tapped billionaire and RFS critic Carl Icahn as a special advisor on regulations, raising industry speculation that the incoming administration will be more likely to consider the change. Pruitt is one of several of Trump’s senior Cabinet picks to face Senate hearings since last week. | 1 |
10,796 | To applause and boos, Kerry urges Congress to ratify Pacific trade pact | CHICAGO (Reuters) - Failure to approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal would be a major setback for U.S. interests in Asia as Washington seeks to deepen alliances in the region, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday, urging Congress to ratify the pact. The 12-nation Pan-Pacific trade deal championed by President Barack Obama has been pilloried by both major-party nominees in the U.S. presidential race, Democrat Hilary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump. While Republicans have traditionally backed free trade deals, Trump has blamed them for U.S. job losses and threatened to rip them up or renegotiate them if he wins the Nov. 8 election. “If we see the TPP rejected, it would be a gigantic self-inflicted wound – a setback to our own interests in the region,” Kerry told the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, in remarks that drew a smattering of applause and boos. “It would amount to a conscious turning of our backs on the Asia Pacific at the very moment that we ought to be linking arms – it would be an act that will hurt American workers, slow our economy, hinder our ability to advance the full range of U.S. objectives” in the fast-growing region, he added. Republican leaders have said there is no point in bringing the trade deal for a vote in the “lame-duck” session of Congress after the election. But Kerry urged Congress to approve the deal after the election, saying: “It’s the right thing to do for America – and no matter what the loudest voices may be shouting – it is also the popular choice.” There are concerns in Washington that failure to pass the TPP would prompt Southeast Asian nations to turn to China and Russia. Kerry said the trade deal was a “litmus” test of Washington’s capacity to lead and was necessary if the United States wanted a steady and reliable presence in the region. His comments came amid tensions with China over the disputed South China Sea, increased concerns over North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons programs, and questions over the future of the U.S.-Philippines alliance. | 1 |
10,797 | Florida Governor Rick Scott Tax Cut His Way Into Massive HIV/AIDS Comeback | Rick Scott has been governor of Florida for just over one term but already the state is feeling the effects of his conservative fanaticism. While the rest of the country continues to combat the spread of HIV and the number of people dying from AIDS drops, Florida is seeing the reverse.In a comprehensive review of how Scott s war against government led to his deep slashes in public health funding, the Miami Herald discovered two disturbing facts: Florida now leads the nation in HIV cases, and its biggest county, Miami-Dade, is ground zero.New cases last year totaled 6,240, the highest since 2002. Miami-Dade and Broward together account for 38 percent of that total.Although Florida is among the nation s fastest-growing states, Scott has pushed every year to trim the state work force, and nearly one quarter of those reductions have been in the Department of Health.The 67 county health departments, largely funded by the state health agency, have declined to 10,519 positions compared to 12,759 in the year Scott took office. It s indicative of the neglect of this administration across the board in social services, said Sen. Oscar Braynon, D-Miami Gardens. We have a rise in AIDS and we have a reduction in public health spending. We re now cutting just to be cutting. Indeed, Scott is often cited as one of the conservative movement s standard bearers. He s a tax-cutting superstar in the same vein as Kansas Governor Sam Brownback (who imploded his state s economy) and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder (whose neglect poisoned an entire city).However, he differs from his fellow conservative tax-slashers in that he doesn t even seem remorseful for the negative impact he s had. At least Brownback had the decency to break down in tears after destroying his state s job growth. In a disturbing reminder of the Reagan era, when conservative politicians intentionally ignored the AIDS epidemic contributing to the deaths of thousands by their apathy, Scott appears to be unconcerned about this surge in HIV cases. Or perhaps he s just grown used to it. After his first year in office, the number of HIV cases has grown hand-over-fist.Making matters worse, Scott has routinely fought against working with Obamacare in his state. For years. All the while, HIV cases piled up as his budget cuts took hold. This spells disasters for the victims of HIV because the best and only way to prevent it from turning into the much deadlier AIDS illness is careful health management. You can t get that if your governor has refused to expand access to health insurance to spite the President.As we ve seen around the country, Republicans who have grown used to screaming about the tyranny of big government are met with disaster when they attempt to get rid of it. Far from the freedom of living a life of liberty and self-determination, states that try to cut government spending only cause misery for the citizens they are trying to liberate. It s easy to say as a concept that government is bad, but harder to accept that you can no longer get healthcare or build safe roads without it.Florida is learning the hard way that government spending isn t always wasteful. Oftentimes it is being used to keep the real threats like illness and poverty at bay.Feature image via Gage Skidmore/Flickr | 0 |
10,798 | WATCH: Chuck Schumer CRUSHES Trump’s Tweeting In Fiery Speech That He Will HATE | Trump s team is working very hard to accommodate the Narcissist in Chief on everything, up to and including how he will, or won t, be more responsible with his tweeting. Sean Spicer, Trump s pick for White House press secretary, actually championed Trump s approach to disseminating information via Twitter by calling it a direct pipeline to the American people. Spicer also played up the results Trump gets when he tweets.Not everyone likes or appreciates this, and Trump has proven that his use of Twitter, now that he s actually been elected, is dangerous in several ways. Senator Chuck Schumer, the incoming Senate Minority Leader, absolutely destroyed Trump in a speech about it today: So, Mr. President, the issues facing this country are many These issues are too important for mere words. Our challenge is too entrenched for mere tweeting. Making America great again requires more than 140 characters per issue. With all due respect, America cannot afford a Twitter presidency. We have real challenges and we have real needs to get things done. And many Americans are afraid, Mr. President-elect, that instead of rolling up your sleeves and forging serious policies, for you, Twitter suffices. In other words, Schumer just said what we re all thinking: Trump needs to buckle down instead of playing around on social media while avoiding real work. The presidency is a serious job and requires a serious head.To deal with the issues that Schumer lists in his speech creating jobs, raising incomes, making college and healthcare affordable, rebuilding our infrastructure, making trade laws work for American workers, keeping Americans safe from violence and terrorism, and taking care of our vets Trump actually has to work. He can t fuck around while everyone else tries to do his job for him. That s something he doesn t seem to get.Trump won t like any of this especially since he recently said he likes Schumer more than many Congressional Republicans. Trump no doubt expects return favors for daring to say that.Trump uses Twitter to brag about things he s done, and also about things he hasn t done. He also uses it to blast individual companies for not doing exactly what he wants, when he wants, and sends their stocks tumbling. One of these days, those tumbles won t be temporary and he ll actually bankrupt someone with a single tweet.And that s assuming he doesn t get us into a nuclear war via his damned Twitter account. Schumer is right. We can t afford a Twitter presidency. We can t afford a president who does nothing and claims credit for every good thing that happens via Twitter. If Trump doesn t step up to the plate, someone else will have to.Watch this segment of Schumer s speech in full below:.@SenSchumer: America cannot afford a Twitter presidency. Watch his complete remarks here: https://t.co/jaQiaVstYx pic.twitter.com/sVovDH72Lf CSPAN (@cspan) January 3, 2017Featured image by Win McNamee via Getty Images | 0 |
10,799 | Trump's new hire Scaramucci makes conciliatory debut with media | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If President Donald Trump, who refers to the media as “fake news,” wants his staff to use a more conciliatory approach with journalists, new communications director Anthony Scaramucci may be implementing such a shift - for now. The Wall Street financier and Republican fundraiser walked into the White House briefing room on Friday and immediately did what Sean Spicer, the outgoing press secretary, did not do on his first day in January: engage, in a friendly manner, with reporters. Wearing a blue tie and an American flag pin on a dark suit, Scaramucci bantered with correspondents, pledged to be transparent and even made respectful remarks about CNN, the cable network with which Trump and Spicer have sparred repeatedly. He made fun of himself, joking about his short stature and apologizing to Trump from the podium for having called the New York businessman a hack politician in 2015. “He brings it up every 15 seconds, all right?” Scaramucci said to laughter, referring to the president. “I should have never said that about him. So, Mr. President, if you’re listening, I personally apologize for the 50th time for saying that.” Trump was probably listening. Reporters peppered Scaramucci with questions on press-related issues that have dogged the relationship between the Trump presidency and the journalists that cover it. Did he support having briefings televised? “I obviously am committed to being transparent because I’m standing here. But I’d like to talk that over with the president,” he said. He noted that CNN had apologized when it reported something false about him and that he had accepted the apology. “There feels like there’s a little bit of media bias, and so what we hope we can do is de-escalate that and turn that around. And let’s let the message from the president get out there to the American people,” he said. He announced the new press secretary to take over from Spicer, who resigned earlier on Friday, would be Sarah Sanders. Spicer’s debut at the White House podium in January featured a long scolding of reporters for their portrayal of Trump’s Inauguration Day crowd numbers. Asked on Friday whether he agreed with Trump’s contention, for which there is no evidence, that 3 million people voted illegally in the 2016 election, Scaramucci answered carefully. “So if the president says it, let me do more research on it, but my guess is that there’s probably some level of truth to that,” he said. “I think what we have found sometimes the president says stuff, some of you guys in the media think it’s not true or it isn’t true, and it turns out it’s closer to the truth than people think.” | 1 |
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