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1,400 | Jay Clayton sworn in as chairman of the U.S. SEC | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Wall Street attorney Jay Clayton was officially sworn in as chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy on Thursday, the agency announced. As head of the SEC, which polices U.S. financial markets, Clayton is expected to focus on ways to reduce regulatory burdens to help pave the way for more initial public offerings. With Clayton’s arrival, it will make it easier for the SEC to get more rule-writing done now that it has three members, instead of two. President Donald Trump has yet to nominate the other two commissioners to help round out the five-member panel. | 1 |
1,401 | TN First Sgt. Cites ‘Toxic Leadership’ In Curse-Filled Resignation Letter (VIDEO) | After more than 20 years of service within the National Guard, First Sgt. Dennis Carter submitted his resignation, effective May 31, 2016. In the letter, Carter shreds what he describes as the toxic leadership that exists at the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment, located in Lebanon, TN.The now-retired First Sergeant directed his anger at his superior officers, writing that the Senior NCO s leadership abilities are so substandard I doubt he could lead a pack of Kindergartners to the playground, nor would they follow him. He also had harsh words for others, including a Colonel. Carter wrote that his leadership style is so toxic that his social security number should be replaced with the telephone number of the poison control center The former Sgt. didn t just submit the resignation letter to his superiors, he posted it on social media as well.WSMV published a redacted version of Carter s letter on June 24. Read it for yourself below.Image credit WSMV via Dennis CarterCarter is not the first one to criticize or question the leadership of Tennessee-based National Guardsmen.The U.S. military launched a criminal investigation into sexual misconduct involving the 775th Engineering Detachment. The investigation involved allegations that at least half of the Guardsmen had sexual relations with prostitutes in an area of the world which was known for sex trafficking.The investigation revealed that many of the girls the Guardsmen had sex with were under the age of 18.As WSMV reports here:The military documents show a lieutenant said there were ring leaders who told the soldiers what to say and how to stay out of trouble.Another soldier told investigators that some of the men bragged about the sex and that a medic handed out condoms.When the soldiers were later interviewed, the documents show one sergeant made a spontaneous statement that several of the women (referring to the prostitutes) were younger than his daughter. The investigation also revealed that some of the soldiers allowed the prostitutes to enter a room with weapons and secret documents.A second investigation was opened after authorities found evidence of drug use by at least one of the soldiers.In February, WSMV reported that the Tennessee National Guard promotes individuals who have engaged in serious misconduct violations. Video published here shows two Guardsmen being pulled over by the TN Highway Patrol for DUI. These men should have been removed from duty, but were promoted instead.During an interview with WSMV, Carter blasted TN National Guard Leadership, saying: I m out, so I don t have anything to lose. But there are a lot of people that are still in and there s a lot of horror stories that have been done badly by the leadership in the guard. Watch the interview below, courtesy of WSMV. WSMV Channel 4 Image credit: video screen capture courtesy of WSMV | 0 |
1,402 | Treasury Secretary Mnuchin was sent gift-wrapped box of horse manure: reports | (Reuters) - A gift-wrapped package addressed to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s home in a posh Los Angeles neighborhood that was suspected of being a bomb was instead filled with horse manure, police told local media. The package was found Saturday evening in a next-door neighbor’s driveway in Bel Air, the Los Angeles Police Department told the Los Angeles Times and KNBC television, the NBC affiliate in Los Angeles. The package also included a Christmas card with negative comments about President Donald Trump and the new U.S. tax law signed by Trump last week. Reuters could not reach LAPD officials for comment on Sunday. An LAPD bomb squad X-rayed the package before opening it and found the horse manure inside, police told local media. Aerial footage from KNBC showed officers investigating a large box in wrapping paper, then dumping a large amount of what they later identified as the manure and opening the card that was included inside. Mnuchin, who KNBC said was not home when the package was discovered, is a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc executive and Hollywood film financier. A road in Bel Air was closed for about two hours, KNBC reported. The U.S. Secret Service is also investigating the incident, according to the TV station. | 1 |
1,403 | BARACK OBAMA GOES THERE…Compares President Trump To Hitler In Front Of Chicago Audience | Crains Chicago Business American democracy is fragile, and unless care is taken it could follow the path of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.Mixed in with many softer comments, that was the somewhat jaw-dropping bottom line of Barack Obama last night as, in a Q&A session before the Economic Club of Chicago, the Chicagoan who used to be president dropped a bit of red meat to a hometown crowd that likely is a lot closer to him than the man whose name never was mentioned: President Donald Trump.Obama s comments came after a series of playful questions from moderator and Ariel Investments President Mellody Hobson in the great Batman vs. Superman debate, for instance, we learned Obama sides with Batman before she eventually asked him what he s learned as a world citizen of sorts.One thing he s learned is that things don t happen internationally if we don t put our shoulder to the wheel, Obama said, speaking of the U.S. No other country has the experience and bandwith and ideals. . . .If the U.S. doesn t do it, it s not going to happen. Obama gave one specific example, but it was a solid one: Ebola. To fight the virus the U.S. did everything from build an airport tarmac in Africa to send in medical teams and ferry medicos from other countries. We probably saved a million lives by doing that, he said.At least indirectly, those comments could be seen as criticism of Trump, whose foreign policy focuses on an America first paradigm that critics say distracts from this country s unique role.Obama moved from that to talking about a nativist mistrust and unease that has swept around the world. He argued that such things as the speed of technical change and the uneven impact of globalization have come too quickly to be absorbed in many cultures, bringing strange new things and people to areas in which people didn t (used to) challenge your assumptions. As a result, nothing feels solid, he said. Sadly, there s something in us that looks for simple answers when we re agitated. Still, the U.S. has survived tough times before and will again, he noted, particularly mentioning the days of communist fighter Joseph McCarthy and former President Richard Nixon. But one reason the country survived is because it had a free press to ask questions, Obama added. Though he has problems with the media just like Trump has had, what I understood was the principle that the free press was vital. The danger is grow(ing) complacent, Obama said. We have to tend to this garden of democracy or else things could fall apart quickly. That s what happened in Germany in the 1930s which, despite the democracy of the Weimar Republic and centuries of high-level cultural and scientific achievements, Adolph Hitler rose to dominate, Obama noted. Sixty million people died. . . .So, you ve got to pay attention. And vote. | 0 |
1,404 | Trump Attempts New Year’s Eve Do-Over Tweet And Gets CRUSHED By Americans He Called ‘Enemies’ | If Donald Trump had sent proper New Year s greetings to the American people to begin with, he wouldn t be getting humiliated.But he royally f*cked up on New Year s Eve morning by referring to millions of Americans as his enemies. Happy New Year to all, including to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly they just don t know what to do. Love! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2016Insulting the American people in this way only serves to further divide, and outrage understandably ensued.Fast-forward about 12 hours later and Trump apparently decided that he needed a mulligan. So he took another shot at it by wishing all Americans a happy new year without referring to anyone as a loser or an enemy.TO ALL AMERICANS-#HappyNewYear & many blessings to you all! Looking forward to a wonderful & prosperous 2017 as we work together to #MAGA?? pic.twitter.com/UaBFaoDYHe Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2017But Americans didn t forget about his previous New Year s message and proceeded to rip Trump a new one all over again.@realDonaldTrump Oh to all of us this time? Half of us aren t enemies this time? Jordan Uhl (@JordanUhl) January 1, 2017@realDonaldTrump Who wrote this tweet for you? Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) January 1, 2017@realDonaldTrump Even your enemies nitwit? Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) January 1, 2017@realDonaldTrump you know working together means you ve got to stop trolling everyone who doesn t agree with you Don t you Donald? Tom Knight (@TJ_Knight) January 1, 2017@realDonaldTrump Seriously the bar is low. If no one gets nuked in 2017, I ll be pleasantly surprised. Matt Peterson (@mattbpete) January 1, 2017@realDonaldTrump You will never be my president, you fraudulent pile of orange excrement. pic.twitter.com/tQpER7DL1N AynRandPaulRyan (@AynRandPaulRyan) January 1, 2017@realDonaldTrump If there s any violence or PISSED OFF people in the streets we can blame your last tweet, idiot. #TerroristTrump #StaySafe pic.twitter.com/e79lYHDgoG ErinHazel??#RESIST (@ErinRHazel) January 1, 2017@realDonaldTrump Earlier today you acted like a juvenile, did you get an Editor? pic.twitter.com/geXAdEr7YX Jolene Sugarbaker (@JolenesTrailer) January 1, 2017Donald, your Twitter antics reveal that you are a weak, insecure individual in need of a blankie. @realDonaldTrump America Resurgent (@ProgressOutlook) January 1, 2017@realDonaldTrump This message leaves out all the passive aggressive shit you sent this morning about losers and haters. Have ya been hacked? pic.twitter.com/BLIumNgQme Kristina Wong (@mskristinawong) January 1, 2017@realDonaldTrump If you re serious about helping Americans, pay some damn taxes and tell Putin to stay out of our computers and elections. MatthewDicks (@MatthewDicks) January 1, 2017@realDonaldTrump Wait, are your many enemies included in this #HappyNewYear too? Ian Boothby (@IanBoothby) January 1, 2017@realDonaldTrump All Americans??? I thought we were the enemy. You can stuff your #MAGA where the sun doesn t shine. #TinyFingeredPuppet pic.twitter.com/TVVqYoqZQO Jaly (@JalyIV) January 1, 2017Yeah, it definitely was not a good idea to call millions of Americans enemies. But it s an even worse idea for Trump to pretend he didn t send that first tweet and to assume that Americans will just forgive and forget.Clearly, Donald Trump is unfit to be president. He is incapable of being a president for all Americans.Featured image via Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images | 0 |
1,405 | WATCH: Paul Ryan Gets His A** Handed To Him By Fox Host On GOP Healthcare Plan | Even Fox News understands that the Republican healthcare bill will leave millions of Americans in financial ruins.That s why Chris Wallace put the screws to House Speaker Paul Ryan on Sunday.So far, the GOP healthcare bill has been universally panned and Republicans who still support the bill are struggling to defend it.The bill will not only strip health insurance from tens of millions of Americans, it will make the cost of healthcare skyrocket, especially among senior citizens whose costs are projected to be ten times what they pay now under the Affordable Care Act.During an interview on Fox News Sunday, Wallace pointed out to Ryan that the GOP healthcare bill would force senior citizens with an annual income of $26,500 to spend $14,600 a year on health insurance instead of the $1,700 they currently spend thanks to subsidies provided by the Affordable Care Act.Wallace then slammed Ryan for saying that the GOP plan is what freedom looks like, even though seniors would be forced to spend over half of their income on healthcare. That s definitely NOT freedom. You said that part of that is that this is what freedom looks like, Wallace began. But is the major decrease in the number of people according to the CBO who will have health insurance, is it freedom or is it that some people will no longer be able to afford health insurance under your plan? This isn t freedom, Wallace continued. This isn t people voluntarily deciding not to have health insurance. It s that your plan makes it unaffordable for people. Ryan responded by going on an incoherent rant about how the Affordable Acre Act is not going to last, even though Republican sabotage is the reason why the Affordable Care Act is having problems in the first place. And then he started talking about how the GOP bill will make insurance plans less expensive even though Wallace just got done telling him the exact opposite. We re not going to make people buy something that s so expensive that they can t afford, that the market is not going to offer, Ryan said. And so where I dispute that comparison is it suggests that we re going to have the same kinds of plans being offered in 10 years that Obamacare would otherwise offer. The person in their 50s or 60s does have additional health care costs than, say, a person in their 20s and 30s You re right in saying and we agree we believe we should have even more assistance and that s one of the things we re looking at for that person in their 50s and 60s. We re going to let people buy what they want to buy, Ryan continued. We re going to have more plans being offered, more choice and competition. He also claimed that gutting healthcare regulations would cause prices to drop.Here s the video via YouTube:Ryan s argument in defense of Trumpcare is that the CBO didn t examine everything. The problem is that if they had the GOP plan would have looked even worse.Getting rid of regulations won t make healthcare more affordable. It just gives insurance companies more freedom to screw over their customers.As the GOP healthcare bill currently stands, senior citizens will end up paying ten times as much for healthcare than they do now.The Affordable Care Act created competition among health insurance companies and slowed down the rising cost of premiums while covering tens of millions of Americans who previously could not afford coverage.The GOP bill repeals all of that and Ryan s defense was not only confusing, it was full of empty promises in a desperate effort to convince the American people that Republicans care about them.Featured image via screenshot | 0 |
1,406 | Massachusetts governor signs bill hiking tax on recreational pot | BOSTON (Reuters) - Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker on Friday signed a bill raising the tax on retail sales of recreational marijuana to 20 percent, up from the 12 percent rate proposed in a successful 2016 ballot initiative. The state is one of eight in the United States to have legalized use of the drug by adults 21 and older. Marijuana possession was legalized on Dec. 15, 2016, but retail sales of the drug remain illegal until Jan. 1, 2018, a delay intended to give state and local authorities time to decide how to regulate the trade. Baker, a Republican, opposed legalization as did several senior state officials, and he voiced concern about the future after signing the law. “I don’t support this. I worry terribly about what the consequences will be,” Baker told reporters. “We appreciate the careful consideration the legislature took to balance input from lawmakers, educators, public safety officials and public health professionals, while honoring the will of the voters regarding the adult use of marijuana.” The law also allows cities and towns to ban or limit marijuana sales and creates a five-member Cannabis Control Commission with responsibility for overseeing the sale of recreational and medical marijuana. The measure approved by voters called for legal retail sales of the drug to begin on July 1, but state legislators pushed that date back by six months to allow time to develop regulations. Legalization backers, who had protested the delay, called on state officials to move quickly in appointing the new control commission. “The state will benefit greatly from the tax revenues and jobs created by the new industry, and we are confident lawmakers will secure appropriate funding to get the regulatory system up and running on the current timeline,” said Jim Borghesani, a spokesman for Regulate Mass, which supported the ballot initiative. | 1 |
1,407 | Watch How Anti-American Actress, Emily Blunt “Dixie-Chicked” Herself Only Days Before Her New Movie Release [VIDEO] | Does anyone remember these girls?Dixie who?Just days before the release of the drug cartel thriller Sicario, actress Emily Blunt is taking more fire for saying during an interview last weekend she regrets becoming a U.S. citizen after watching the first Republican presidential debate.The star told The Hollywood Reporter, I became an American citizen recently, and that night, we watched the Republican debate and I thought, This was a terrible mistake. What have I done? During the interview, Blunt also described Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)15% as pretty impressive. Tuesday, on Fox & Friends, co-host Anna Kooiman hit back hard at Blunt for those and other comments, saying, You know what, then why don t you leave Hollywood, California, and let some American women take on the roles that you re getting? Because Americans are watching your movies and lining your pockets. Co-host Brian Kilmeade agreed, saying, I agree with you. Longtime co-host Steve Doocy then compared Blunt s comments to those made by the country group the Dixie Chicks, who never rebounded after making critical, anti-war comments of President George W. Bush in 2003. You know what Emily Blunt just did? She just Dixie Chicked herself. She has alienated half the country, and now will think twice about going to one of her movies, said Doocy. I actually didn t know she was, and I ve seen a lot of movies, Kilmeade said.He added, Congratulations You re an American citizen and you re very unhappy. https://youtu.be/h3DmvsASbaUBlunt doubled down on the comment Tuesday during a conversation with PEOPLE, when the mag asked her if filming the movie scared her. You know, what scared me was watching the Republican debate after becoming a citizen, she said at a New York screening of Sicario.Blunt has now appeared four times in the last week to make disparaging comments about becoming an American. The actress became a naturalized citizen on Aug. 4 in Los Angeles, CA.Her comments are being portrayed by numerous media outlets as if they were made as a joke, while a number of those outlets are discounting Fox & Friends for holding her accountable for making them. Via: Breitbart NewsHere she is on the Jimmy Kimmel show admitting that she looks down her nose at Americans. I m not sure I m entirely thrilled about it. People ask me about the whole day. They were like, Oh, it must have been so emotional. I was like, It wasn t! It was sad! I like being British. : | 0 |
1,408 | North Carolina lawmakers reach deal to repeal transgender bathroom law | (Reuters) - North Carolina Republican lawmakers said late on Wednesday they had reached a deal to repeal the state’s controversial law prohibiting transgender people from using restrooms in accordance with their gender identities. The compromise, reached with Democratic Governor Roy Cooper and set to go before the legislature for a vote Thursday morning, would still ban local municipalities, schools and others from regulating bathroom access. It would also effectively forbid cities from offering their own job and restroom protections to vulnerable groups for nearly four years. “Compromise requires give and take from all sides, and we are pleased this proposal fully protects bathroom safety and privacy,” the state’s top Republican lawmakers, Senate leader Phil Berger and House of Representatives Speaker Tim Moore, said in a statement released late Wednesday. The pair announced the deal at an impromptu news conference. The compromise with Cooper, a staunch opponent of the bathroom law, was reached hours before the state was reportedly set to lose its ability to host any NCAA basketball championships. The college athletic association is one of numerous organizations to sanction or boycott North Carolina in the wake of the law’s passage last year. Cooper said earlier this week that the measure could end up costing the state nearly $4 billion. He said he supported the compromise. “It’s not a perfect deal, but it repeals House Bill 2 and begins to repair our reputation.” But it remained unclear whether the compromise would be acceptable to those who believe North Carolina was unfriendly to the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. In an impassioned news conference before the deal was announced, several leading LGBT activists decried its provisions, including the bar on municipalities regulating employment practices and “public accommodations”. “This is a dirty deal,” said Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign. He vowed to continue fighting North Carolina in court and in the public sphere if the new measure passes and is signed by Cooper. On Twitter Wednesday night, San Francisco-based Levi Strauss & Co., which has publicly opposed North Carolina’s transgender bathroom law, urged lawmakers to reject what it called a “backroom” deal. (This version of the story corrects Griffin quote in paragraph 12, replacing “bill” with “deal”) | 1 |
1,409 | Trump directly scolds NATO allies, says they owe 'massive' sums | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday intensified his accusations that NATO allies were not spending enough on defense and warned of more attacks like this week’s Manchester bombing unless the alliance did more to stop militants. In unexpectedly abrupt remarks as NATO leaders stood alongside him, Trump said certain member countries owed “massive amounts of money” to the United States and NATO — even though allied contributions are voluntary, with multiple budgets. His scripted comments contrasted with NATO’s choreographed efforts to play up the West’s unity by inviting Trump to unveil a memorial to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States at the new NATO headquarters building in Brussels. “Terrorism must be stopped in its tracks, or the horror you saw in Manchester and so many other places will continue forever,” Trump said, referring to Monday’s suicide bombing in the English city that killed 22 people, including children. “These grave security concerns are the same reason that I have been very, very direct ... in saying that NATO members must finally contribute their fair share,” Trump said. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg defended Trump, saying that although he was “blunt” he had “a very plain and clear message on the expectations” of allies. But one senior diplomat said Trump, who left the leaders’ dinner before it ended to fly to Italy for Friday’s Group of Seven summit, said the remarks did not go down well at all. “This was not the right place or time,” the diplomat said of the very public harangue. “We are left with nothing else but trying to put a brave face on it.” In another unexpected twist, Trump called on NATO, an organization founded on collective defense against the Soviet threat, to include limiting immigration in its tasks. And Trump did say that the United States “will never forsake the friends who stood by our side” but NATO leaders had hoped he would more explicitly support the mutual defense rules of a military alliance’s he called “obsolete” during his campaign. Instead, he returned to a grievance about Europe’s drop in defense spending since the end of the Cold War and failed to publicly commit to NATO’s founding Article V rule which stipulates that an attack on one ally is an attack against all. “Twenty-three of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying for their defense,” Trump said, standing by a piece of the wreckage of the Twin Towers. “This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States, and many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years,” Trump said as the other leaders watched. Nicholas Burns, a former long-time diplomat and ambassador to NATO from 2001-2005, now a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, said every U.S. president since Harry Truman had pledged support for Article V and that the United States would defend Europe. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump was “100 percent” committed to collective defense. “We are not playing cutesie with this. He is fully committed,” Spicer said. Praise was always going to be in short supply after Trump’s sharp election campaign criticism of the alliance, which he blamed for not doing more to combat terrorism. Last year, Trump threatened to abandon U.S. allies in Europe if they did not spend enough on defense, comments that were particularly unnerving for the ex-Soviet Baltic states on Russia’s border which fear Moscow might try a repeat of its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea. Although he has since softened his tone in phone calls and meetings with Western leaders, Trump’s sharp words on Thursday recalled his awkward meeting with Angela Merkel in March, when he pressed the German chancellor for Germany to meet NATO’s military spending target. NATO diplomats planned to placate Trump with a pledge on Thursday to agree to national plans by the end of this year showing how NATO allies will meet a promise to spend 2 percent of economic output every year on defense by 2024. But Trump increased the pressure, calling that agreement made at a summit in Wales in 2014 “the bare minimum”. “Even 2 percent of GDP is insufficient ... 2 percent is the bare minimum for confronting today’s very real and very vicious threats,” Trump said. He also made his presence felt at his first NATO summit, literally, pushing his way past Montenegro’s prime minister, Dusko Markovic, whose country joins the organization next month, in footage that went viral. Spicer said he had not seen the video but assumed the U.S. president was moving to his designated spot. NATO nonetheless strived to impress Trump with allied jets flying overhead and a walk through the new glass headquarters, which replaces a 1960s prefab structure. Trump, a real estate magnate, called the building “beautiful” and joked that he did not dare ask how much it cost. | 1 |
1,410 | ‘I Learned That In 8th Grade!’ – Sarah Sanders Schools Liberal Reporter On #DACA [Video] | White House Spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders called out a liberal reporter today when he asked a question about DACA: I learned that in 8th grade! She went on to say that it s the job of Congress to step up on immigration reform: With all due respect, the American people elected Congress to do tough things. For those in Congress who can t do the heavy lifting, they should get out of the way and let someone in who can do the work .The entire presser is below. All we can say is we re so lucky Sarah is in this position! She does a great job!Her comment is at the 6:20 point here:And you knew THIS would happen: Republican leaders are cowards or are all for illegals The Washington Examiner reported: Mitch McConnell praises Trump s DACA move but doesn t commit to fast immigration fix. McConnell left out a specific pledge to take up DACA legislation, which Trump has called on Congress to do. FIGURES! | 0 |
1,411 | londons first underground farm produces herbs | october
scientists have heard hugely unusual messages from deep in space that they think are coming from aliens
a new analysis of strange modulations in a tiny set of stars appears to indicate that it could be coming from extraterrestrial intelligence that is looking to alert us to their existence
the new study reports the finding of specific modulations in just out of the million stars that have been observed during a survey of the sky the work found that a tiny fraction of them seemed to be behaving strangely
and there appears to be no obvious explanation for what is going on leaving the scientists behind the paper to conclude that the messages are coming from aliens this article was posted wednesday october at am share this article | 1 |
1,412 | WATCH: Black Vanderbilt Professor Exposes The REAL RACISTS In “The Inconvenient Truth About The Democrat Party” | Why is the media not asking why Democrats are so hell-bent on vandalizing, protesting and destroying Confederate monuments, when they themselves, are the political party responsible for slavery in America? They so passionately believed in enslaving blacks, that they were willing to send their fathers and sons to war to ensure that blacks would remain slaves in the South.Americans need to ask themselves why the media never mentions that the Democrats are the party responsible for slavery when they make them out to be some sort of heroes for attempting to whitewash (pun intended) an important part of our American history. In the video below, Vanderbilt professor Carol Swain brilliantly lays out the truth about the Democrat Party and how they have fought for decades to keep blacks down in America. | 0 |
1,413 | Europe will do everything to preserve Iran nuclear deal: EU diplomat | ZURICH (Reuters) - European countries will do their utmost to preserve a deal limiting Iran s nuclear program despite misgivings by U.S. President Donald Trump, a senior European Union diplomat said on Wednesday. This is not a bilateral agreement, it s a multilateral agreement. As Europeans, we will do everything to make sure it stays, Helga Schmid, secretary general of the EU s foreign policy service, told an Iranian investment conference in Switzerland s financial capital. The deal was brokered in 2015 by the bloc between Iran, the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China. Trump is weighing whether the pact serves U.S. security interests as he faces an Oct. 15 deadline for certifying that Iran is complying, a decision that could sink an agreement strongly supported by the other world powers that negotiated it. Schmid said Europe has concerns about Iran s role in regional affairs, but that those issues were not part of the nuclear accord known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. I m absolutely convinced we will not be in a better place to address any of these issues by ditching the JCPOA, Schmid said. The world does not need a second nuclear proliferation crisis. One is already too many, she added in an apparent reference to Washington s standoff with North Korea. Nicholas Hopton, Britain s ambassador to Iran, said the U.N. nuclear watchdog s reports had shown Iran was fully complying with terms of the accord. We hope that President Trump will recertify the deal and that the U.S. will continue to play a constructive and important role in the implementation of the JCPOA, he told the conference. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Tuesday the United States should consider staying in the Iran deal unless it were proven that Tehran was not abiding by the agreement or that it was not in the U.S. national interest to do so. Although Mattis said he supported Trump s review of the agreement, the defense secretary s view was far more positive than that of Trump, who has called the deal agreed between Iran and six world powers an embarrassment. | 1 |
1,414 | Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan pledge to improve ties in wake of trade war | ALMATY (Reuters) - The leaders of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan pledged on Monday to improve relations, after ties between the two former Soviet republics degenerated into a trade war under the previous Kyrgyz leadership. The standoff between Astana and the government of former Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev strained a Russian-led economic bloc and disrupted supplies of Kyrgyz goods to some European countries. We have established a constructive and trust-based dialogue in all areas, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev s office quoted him as telling his Kyrgyz counterpart Sooronbai Jeenbekov. Jeenbekov was elected president last month. In the run-up the vote, his predecessor and backer Atambayev accused the Kazakh government of interfering in Kyrgyz politics and supporting an opposition candidate. Astana denied those charges but introduced tough border controls that nearly halted the flow of goods out of Kyrgyzstan, which is landlocked and sends most of its exports out through Kazakh territory. Kyrgyzstan filed complaints both to the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union, a post-Soviet bloc, and the World Trade Organization, accusing Kazakhstan of imposing a blockade . Bishkek also briefly suspended operations at a copper and gold mine operated and run by Kazakhstan-based and London-listed Kaz Minerals. But tensions started easing after Jeenbekov, a former prime minister, took office this month. Last week, Bishkek informed the WTO it had settled its dispute with Astana. Kyrgyzstan will continue to carry out its foreign policy aimed at deepening and intensifying bilateral ties with Kazakhstan, Jeenbekov s office quoted him as saying at the meeting in Astana. | 1 |
1,415 | The Koch Brothers And Warren Buffett Try To Take Down Elon Musk Over Solar Power | Billionaire Investor Warren Buffett has portrayed himself as a proponent for fixing income and wealth inequality, famously telling congress they should tax the wealthy more, as he claims to pay lower-income tax rates than his secretary. In reality, his actions have hurt working class and middle class people, through his lobbying efforts in favor of the Electric utility companies he owns.In Nevada, Buffett s utility company NV Energy, strongly opposed the emergence of solar power in the state brought by Elon Musk s Solar City, which made it affordable for homeowners to install solar panels. Because the solar panels often put energy back into the grid, utility companies like the ones Warren Buffett owns wind up paying those residents for energy. Nevada Senator Harry Reid in regards to Buffet s company told the Las Vegas Sun, looking at this as a lawyer, my personal feeling is that this is a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Buffett s lobbying efforts pushed Nevada s utility regulator, the Public Utilities Commission, to remove incentives for homeowners to have solar panels, making solar power once again unaffordable for Nevada residents. The decision effectively derailed the fastest growing market for solar power in the country.A petition for Buffet to ease his opposition to solar power was signed by over 100,000 renewable energy advocates in protest. Actor Mark Ruffalo, who called the public utility commission, the anti-Robin Hood, also participated in the protests.At the end of 2015, Solar City ceased operations and installations in Nevada as a result of the Public Utilities Commission decision, resulting in the loss of 550 jobs. The decision could set a precedent across the country in opposition of solar power, which not only has been championed by billionaire Warren Buffett, but the Koch brothers as well, over the argument solar power makes the market place unfair for competitors.Koch advocacy groups didn t directly enter the fight in Nevada between Elon Musk s Solar City and Warren Buffett s utility companies, but they have lobbied in nearby states against incentives for solar power.In Florida, which has the third best solarity of any state in the country, the Koch Brothers have led efforts to keep solar power out of the state to protect electricity sales of investor owned utilities, as it remains ranks 16th in the nation in solar production. For investors, more infrastructure on the electric grid yields more profits, but solar power directly threatens those profits. In Florida, the average household pays more than 40 percent higher for electrical consumption than the national average. 61 percent of Florida s electricity generation comes from natural gas, and 23 percent from coal.The Koch s grassroots political group, Americans For Prosperity, called for Florida to fight against the choice for Solar. Many organizations who have received millions in donations from the Koch Brothers helped struck down an initiative to open up Florida to solar power on voters ballots in 2016, including 60 Plus and the National Black Chamber of Commerce, whose latest convention was sponsored by Koch Industries. Despite the lobbying efforts of the Koch Brothers, solar power has bipartisan support, as the ballot initiative to open up solar power in Florida was led by tea party founder Debbie Dooley, who now directs the group, Conservatives for Energy Freedom.As Solar power becomes more accessible and affordable for Americans, utility companies and their investors, especially the most powerful ones such as Warren Buffet and the Koch brothers, are obstructing solar s growth through lobbying state governments. Despite the obstructions, solar power is gaining bipartisan support across the nation. Let s say if the only thing we had was solar energy if that was the only power source if you just took a small section of Spain you could power all of Europe, said Elon Musk in a speech at Sorbonne University in Paris this past December. It s a very small amount of area that s actually needed to generate the electricity we need to power civilization. Or in the case of the U.S., like a little corner of Nevada or Utah would power the United States. The technology exists to harness the energy from the sun, which more of hits the Earth in one hour than humanity uses in an entire year. Sooner or later relics of old capitalism like Warren Buffett and the Koch Brothers are going to have to join the 21st century in this transition to renewable energy.Featured Image Courtesy of Occupy Democrats | 0 |
1,416 | FBI found Clinton-related emails on devices belonging to aide, ex-congressman: NYT | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New emails the FBI is examining related to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private computer server were discovered after the agency seized electronic devices belonging to Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her husband, Anthony Weiner, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing law enforcement officials. | 1 |
1,417 | WATCH: Jorge Ramos Makes Sean Hannity Look Like A Complete A**hole | Univision anchor Jorge Ramos made Fox host Sean Hannity look like the angry Trump puppet that we all know him to be.Over a ten minute span, Hannity lost his temper with Ramos time and time again as he repeatedly tried to convince Ramos that Republican front-runner Donald Trump is not a racist and that he has confronted Trump about his hateful and bigoted rhetoric.Ramos relentlessly slammed Hannity for coddling Trump just as as he blasted Bill O Reilly for doing the same during an interview last week.Ramo pointed out that Trump is unfairly labeling all undocumented immigrants as horrible criminals who rape and murder. Hannity defended Trump by claiming that Trump only said some are rapists and murderers.However, Hannity is wrong as usual.When Trump delivered his announcement that he was running for president in last June, he characterized most Mexicans as rapists and criminals. Only some, he assumed, were good people. In other words, he did not say only some commit crimes. He said only some were good people and he only assumed that. When Mexico sends its people, they re not sending the best. They re sending people that have lots of problems and they re bringing those problems. They re bringing drugs, they re bringing crime. They re rapists and some, I assume, are good people, but I speak to border guards and they re telling us what we re getting. He later doubled down on the racist remark. The Mexican Government is forcing their most unwanted people into the United States, Trump said in a statement. They are, in many cases, criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc. Armed with truth on his side, Ramos refused to back down and continued criticizing Hannity until the Fox News blowhard shouted, I don t need any lectures from you, Jorge Ramos! Hannity accused Ramos of not reporting truthfully and just like when he took down O Reilly, Ramos smacked Hannity around with facts until he was forced to end the interview as Ramos got in the last word.Here s part one and two of the interview via Fox.Jorge Ramos once again bested a Fox News host in their own house and proved once again who the real journalist in the room is. Now if only Trump would agree to sit down for an interview with Ramos. We would really see fireworks then. Featured Image: Screenshot | 0 |
1,418 | THOUSANDS Of Containers ROTTING At San Juan Port After STRIKING Union Drivers Allegedly REFUSE To Deliver Goods…LIBERAL Mayor Has Some Explaining To Do | San Juan s mayor railed against President Trump s acting DHS Secretary for expressing optimism about the progress the US has made in their relief efforts for residents of Puerto Rico. San Juan s mayor, Carmin Yulin Cruz, used CNN as a vehicle to criticize the efforts of the US in getting much-needed supplies to the residents of San Juan. Only hours after the mayor of San Juan criticized the efforts of the Trump administration, tweets from the Mayor of San Juan, (that were sent out before Hurricane Maria) surfaced on Twitter responding to Hillary s tweet, as she trashed President Trump, saying he doesn t deserve to be President. .@realDonaldTrump hater, the Mayor of San Juan is the perfect example of an opportunistic politician. Go ask PR Gov about responsiveness. pic.twitter.com/us3p78P9zK Dan Scavino Jr. (@DanScavino) September 30, 2017Now, the truth about why those thousands of containers filled with supplies are allegedly not getting to the citizens is revealed, and the truth is, it has nothing to do with President Trump or our DHS Conservative Treehouse Puerto Rican born and raised, Colonel Michael A. Valle ( Torch ), Commander, 101st Air and Space Operations Group, and Director of the Joint Air Component Coordination Element, 1st Air Force, responsible for Hurricane Maria relief efforts, has the following comment: They have the generators, water, food, medicine, and fuel on the ground, yet the supplies are not moving across the island as quickly as they re needed.Col. Valle is a firsthand witness of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) response supporting FEMA in Puerto Rico, and as a Puerto Rican himself with family members living in the devastation, his passion for the people is second to none. It s just not true, Col. Valle says of the major disconnect today between the perception of a lack of response from Washington verses what is really going on on the ground. I have family here. My parents home is here. My uncles, aunts, cousins, are all here. As a Puerto Rican, I can tell you that the problem has nothing to do with the U.S. military, FEMA, or the DoD. It s a lack of drivers for the transport trucks, the 18 wheelers. Supplies we have. Trucks we have. There are ships full of supplies, backed up in the ports, waiting to have a vehicle to unload into. However, only 20% of the truck drivers show up to work. These are private citizens in Puerto Rico, paid by companies that are contracted by the government .. (link)Colonel Valle blames the conditions of the roads for the lack of truck drivers to move supplies around Puerto Rico, but the video below tells another story.The ports are so full of relief supplies they can t fit any more in the available space. CNBC ground report confirms Colonel Valle s ground report. WATCH:The reason for truck drivers not showing up? The Puerto Rican Teamsters Union, Frente Amplio, is refusing to move the product.Thomas Wictor shared a video of an interview between a man (he calls the toothless guy ) and a reporter. Wictor translates their conversation in several tweets that are found below the video: (1) Well, I didn't think it was true, but it is: Puerto Rican truck drivers are refusing to work.https://t.co/obMCPH2NtA Thomas Wictor (@ThomasWictor) October 1, 2017(13) I didn't think it would be possible for a union to go on strike during a national emergency, but it happened.Stunning, really. Thomas Wictor (@ThomasWictor) October 1, 2017(12) There you have it.As I said before: This is ALL THE FAULT OF PUERTO RICO. Thomas Wictor (@ThomasWictor) October 1, 2017(11) Since the country doesn't care about truckers, the truckers won't help. Thomas Wictor (@ThomasWictor) October 1, 2017(10) The governor didn't understand the suffering of the working man, so now the truckers will show the country what suffering is. Thomas Wictor (@ThomasWictor) October 1, 2017(9) This is all the governor's fault, the toothless guy says. He passed a law, and now he has to live with it. Thomas Wictor (@ThomasWictor) October 1, 2017(8) Three weeks earlier, nobody cared about the plight of the truckers, so now the truckers don't care about the country. Thomas Wictor (@ThomasWictor) October 1, 2017(7) The toothless guy says the truckers are not responsible for helping the country. That's the governor's job. Thomas Wictor (@ThomasWictor) October 1, 2017(5) The reporters says, "But all this stuff is in the past. In the present, it's an emergency." Thomas Wictor (@ThomasWictor) October 1, 2017(4) The toothless guy says that the governor's policies have impacted truckers, so now truckers will show the country THEIR OWN suffering. Thomas Wictor (@ThomasWictor) October 1, 2017(3) The reporter CONFIRMS that the truck drivers are refusing to work in order to get revenge on the governor. Thomas Wictor (@ThomasWictor) October 1, 2017(2) The toothless guy is complaining about a law that the governor passed three weeks ago. Thomas Wictor (@ThomasWictor) October 1, 2017 | 0 |
1,419 | Top Democrats in Congress accept Trump offer to meet on year-end priorities | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic leaders in Congress said on Monday they had accepted an invitation from President Donald Trump to meet with him and Republican leaders to discuss year-end legislative priorities, including efforts to fund the government and avoid a shutdown. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who canceled a previous meeting with Trump after he issued a disparaging note on Twitter, said in a statement they hoped the president would remain open-minded about reaching a deal with Democrats. “We need to reach a budget agreement that equally boosts funds for our military and key priorities here at home,” they said, listing a series of political priorities. “There is a bipartisan path forward on all of these items.” | 1 |
1,420 | South Sudan army, rebels clash hours after ceasefire | NAIROBI (Reuters) - South Sudan s army clashed with rebels in an oil-producing region early on Sunday, both sides said, shattering a ceasefire hours after it came into effect. Both sides accused the other of starting the fighting around the town of Koch in Unity state. Seventeen aid workers fled the violence, according to a humanitarian source. There were no immediate details of casualties. The government and rebel groups signed a ceasefire on Thursday in the latest attempt to end a four-year civil war and let humanitarian groups reach civilians. The ceasefire formally came into force on Sunday morning, but fighting broke out soon afterwards, according to a humanitarian security report seen by Reuters. Our forces came under heavy fire this morning in Koch county, Dickson Gatluak, a spokesman for the government side, said. Our forces acted in self defense and repulsed the attacking forces and defeated them, he added in a statement. Rebel spokesman Lam Paul Gabriel said the army attacked first and rebel forces were now pursuing government soldiers towards the town. The world s youngest country plunged into war in late 2013 after President Salva Kiir sacked his deputy, Riek Machar. The dispute erupted into fighting that spread across the country, largely along ethnic lines between forces loyal to Kiir, who is Dinka, and Machar, who is Nuer. The violence, which the United Nations says has amounted to ethnic cleansing, has forced a third of the population to flee. Earlier this year, pockets of the country plunged briefly into famine. | 1 |
1,421 | Texas 'bathroom bills' stall in special legislative session | AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Texas measures to restrict access for transgender people to bathrooms in schools and public buildings appear doomed after moderate Republican powerbrokers blocked the bills and hundreds of businesses opposed them. The so-called “bathroom bills” have caused rifts among Republicans who control the state’s legislature, leaving no likely path to passage before a 30-day special session wraps on Wednesday, analysts and lawmakers said on Monday. “The bathroom bill in this session is dead and buried with dirt over its coffin,” said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston. Enactment in Texas, the most populous Republican-dominated state, could give momentum to other socially conservative states for additional action on an issue that has become a flashpoint in the U.S. culture wars. But House Speaker Joe Straus, a pro-business Republican who controls the agenda in the body, has shown little interest in passing a bathroom bill, which he said was not a priority. On Monday, opponents of the bills delivered a list with signatures from 50,000 people who opposed a bathroom bill to Straus and other prominent Republicans, including Governor Greg Abbott. Straus’ position was reinforced by a well-financed campaign from major corporations including Texas-based energy companies Halliburton (HAL.N) and ExxonMobil Global Services (XOM.N), which have said the bills were discriminatory and would make it hard for them to recruit top talent. Supporters of the legislation, who say it can help protect women and children from sexual assaults, have not given up. But they acknowledge there is only a slim chance of success, with lawmakers still trying to reach deals on almost all of the 20 priority items set by Abbott for the session. Opponents are still worried bathroom bill language could be attached as an amendment to another bill, but as of Monday afternoon, no such action had been taken. Senate Bill 3, which made it through the Senate and stalled in the House, requires people to use restrooms, showers and locker rooms in public schools and other state and local government facilities that match the sex on their birth certificate, as opposed to their gender identity. A push for bathroom bills nationally sputtered after North Carolina partially repealed such a measure in March after boycotts by athletic organizations and businesses that have cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars. Opponents of the Texas measures include global tech giants IBM (IBM.N) and Apple (AAPL.O), major Texas city police chiefs, who contested claims the bills would protect public safety, and the National Hockey League’s Dallas Stars team. Republican Representative Ron Simmons, who sponsored a version of the bathroom legislation in the Texas House, said the privacy issue at the heart of the bills is supported by a wide majority of Republican primary voters. “Just because we don’t pass legislation doesn’t mean that the issue is not going to be there,” he said. | 1 |
1,422 | comment on are you on pace to reach your goals by goals for the neomasculinity movement during trumps first term | the election of donald trump is already having an enormous impact on the economy th
sent shockwaves through the us economy and the us financial system since november th the dow has hit a brand new alltime record high the us dollar has strengthened greatly and bank stocks are way up but not all of the economic news is good news unlike stocks bonds have reacted very negatively to trumps election victory the past week has been an absolute bloodbath for bond traders and as you will see below this is going to have dramatic implications for all us consumers moving forward
over just a two day period more than a trillion dollars was wiped out as bond yields spiked all over the globe as cnn has noted this type of violent reaction in the bond market has only happened three other times within the past ten years
the rate on year treasury notes has surged to from before the election last weeks spike in treasury rates was so big that it had only happened three times before in the last decade
blackrocks russ koesterich called it a violent reaction
the move stands to have broad repercussions for all americans not only will the us government have to pay more to borrow money but mortgage rates and car loan costs should also rise thats because treasuries are used as the benchmark for many other forms of credit
as interest rates rise virtually everyone in our society is going to feel the pain
those that need an auto loan in order to purchase a vehicle are going to find that loan payments are significantly higher than they were before
credit card rates will also go up and those just getting out of school will discover that their student loan payments are even more suffocating
but the biggest impact will be felt in the housing market the average rate on a year fixed mortgage just hit the psychologicallyimportant percent barrier and that could mean big trouble for the housing market in
the average contract rate on the popular year fixed mortgage hit percent according to mortgage news daily a level most didnt expect to see until the middle of next year rates have now moved nearly a half a percentage point higher since donald trump was elected president
the situation on the ground is panicked damage control said matthew graham chief operating officer of mortgage news daily people were trying to lock loans quickly last week and are now facing a tough choice to lock today or hope for a bounce many hoped for a bounce last week heading into the long weekend and we obviously didnt get it
rising interest rates was one of the key factors that precipitated the financial crisis of and many fear that it could happen again
and without a doubt this rise in rates is going to affect the affordability of homes that are already on the market
if youre going to buy a house and your mortgage payment went up by or you may buy a smaller house theres impact on interest rate sensitive sectors like autos and housing and also corporate bonds themselves where financial engineering has helped juice up the equity market said george goncalves head of rate strategy at nomura
in addition rising rates will make it more difficult for those with adjustable rate mortgages to keep their homes foreclosure activity was already up percent during the month of october and many are projecting that we could see another giant spike in foreclosures during the months ahead that is similar to what we saw during the last financial crisis
many trump supporters dont really care what the rest of the world thinks of our new president but this is an area where what the rest of the world thinks really really matters
the truth is that the rest of the planet is not all too fond of trump and if that makes them a lot less eager to lend us money that is a major problem
the only way that we can maintain our massively inflated debtfueled standard of living is to continue to borrow gigantic mountains of money from the rest of the world at ultralow interest rates
if the rest of the world starts demanding higher rates of return now that trump is president we are going to experience economic pain on a scale that most americans dont believe is possible
one of our big lenders has been china and right now they are deeply a trump presidency might mean trump has talked very tough about trade with china and the chinese are gearing up for a major trade war the following comes from cnbc
during his election campaign this year trump spoke of a percent import tariff on all chinese goods while failing to outline how it would work should any such policy come into effect china will take a titfortat approach according to an opinion piece in the global times a newspaper backed by the communist party
a batch of boeing orders will be replaced by airbus us auto and iphone sales in china will suffer a setback and us soybean and maize imports will be halted china can also limit the number of chinese students studying in the us the global times article read
most trump supporters assume that since trump has been a very successful businessman that he will be able to strengthen the us economy
but it isnt that simple
the only reason we are able to live the way that we live today is because we have been able to borrow trillions upon trillions of dollars at irrationally low interest rates
the moment the rest of the world decides that they are not going to loan us money at irrationally low interest rates any longer the game is over and it wont really matter who is in the white house at that point
so watch interest rates very carefully if they keep going up it is inevitable that a major economic slowdown will follow no matter what economic policies the new trump administration implements november th tags bank stocks bond crash bond traders bonds donald trump economic news feel the pain financial foreclosure foreclosure activity foreclosure activity rising foreclosure help foreclosures foreclosures rising good news home foreclosures pain stocks the dollar the dow the pain the stock market the us dollar the us economy the us financial system trump us consumers category housing crash the economy mleblanc
crash and burn house prices crash and burn houses go sky high while wages remain stagnant not sustainable time for a correction an excessive correction genada
to lose weight you have to take some pain eat less work out same goes with making our economy work for americans we are going to need to take some pain to be able to improve the economy and make it work for every american and not just the top
the rates had to go up they couldnt really go down anymore and its going to have some negative impacts but those impacts are due to living beyond our means and making bad choices now we will need to pay for that a bit
lack of lending from others will require us to produce at all and thats a good thing producing at home will lead to more jobs and make us less depend on others less
then the final major truth about the world economy is and you have detailed many times is that the worlds debt is far in excess of what can be payed its time for write downs and admit this then after the pain of that to put things in place to prevent this from happening again retired
ultimately we have them all by the gonads with the eu sinking into bankruptcy america will be the last major consumer market left standing the american consumer economy is over of the total economy the exporting nations have no where else to sell their consumer products raw materialsthey will need to keep the american economy afloat as for the debtit will never be paidit will be rolled over indefinitely alsothere will be financial chaos around the world when america drops the hammer on the outside world most of the big money from outside will be drawn to america for securitysouth florida is already a haven for wealthy venezuelans who had money parked here for hard times in their homelandcalifornia is in a similar situation with offshore chinese wealth most of the world is part of a global financial system based on american dollars as the worlds reserve currencya large part of the world arein effect provinces in an american financial empireamerica is their bankerthey cant extricate themselves from the dollar america paul anders
bottom line is one day soon this house of cards is coming downtrump or no trump but if he can drain the swamp and get the political cesspool back on track i think its worth the pain pain is coming sooner or later anyways retired
the main thing is to get rid of the central bankers get a leash on the fire economywhich is mostly huge overhead is sucking the life out of the real productive economy if it takes pain in the correction we will need to handle it if we want to turn the economic corner castiel
screw the chinks screw those stupid and ignorant liberals screw the elitesi hope they all burn scott | 1 |
1,423 | Paul Ryan Sharpens His Backstabbing Knife, Prepares War With White House (VIDEO) | During Donald Trump s meltdown during his rally in Phoenix Tuesday evening, he threatened to shut down the government unless Congress funds his border wall. The former reality show star launched a rant which was so insane that people are starting to question whether he s fit to hold office. We re pretty sure that House Speaker Paul Ryan is wondering that, too, after Trump s screamy-ragey speech.On Wednesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said he doesn t think a government shutdown is necessary, however, we ve noticed that when the Republican leader says something in stark contrast to Trump s rhetoric, he never says it to his face. Like, for example, when he tweeted his denouncement of the Nazis who marched in Trump s name in Charlottesville, Virginia, with one of them murdering Heather Heyer, 32, and injuring 19 others, he failed to tag @RealDonaldTrump.But anyway, Ryan said during a press conference in Hillsboro, Oregon, I don t think a government shutdown is necessary, and I don t think most people want to see a government shutdown, ourselves included. Ryan continued to say that Congress in the House has already done its work on this issue and left it up to the Senate. Given the time of year it is, and the rest of the appropriations we have to do, we re going to need more time to complete our appropriations process, particularly in the Senate, he said.Talking Points Memo reports:Trump on Tuesday night suggested he would push to tie funding for his proposed border wall to a government spending bill Congress must pass in the fall to avert a shutdown. I don t think anyone s interested in having a shutdown. I don t think it s in our interest to do so, Ryan added. I don t think you have to choose between the two. Watch:.@SpeakerRyan: "I don't think a government shut down is necessary, and I don't think most people want to see" one. https://t.co/9ZBdrCglu6 pic.twitter.com/ClqY5NAABp This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 23, 2017Perhaps Ryan should have a sit down with Trump and explain to him what happens during a government shutdown. On the other hand, Trump doesn t seem to care about very much. Ryan is trying to distance himself from the very president he supports. He s playing it safe, knowing full well that Trump won t last much longer in office. Ryan wants to come out of the madness with his hands clean so he can say, Hey, I called Trump out without actually calling him out. That said, he s going to have a battle on his hands to keep the government open and it looks like he s ready for that. We re certain several of his Republican colleagues would back him up on that.Image via screen capture. | 0 |
1,424 | Hoping to change his luck in Congress, Trump turns to Democrats | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fresh off striking a budget deal with Democrats, Donald Trump is toning down his rhetoric and looking to cut deals on such American hot-button issues as immigration and tax reform in search of a much-needed legislative victory. Eight months in office, the Republican president is openly courting and pressuring Democrats for support on taxes and, for now at least, steering away from hardline positions on immigration that might antagonize them. The approach is still in its early stages. In the past Trump has briefly taken a more moderate direction only to quickly return to his conservative base. But White House aides say the driving force behind the change of tactics is a desire to secure some wins in Congress after months of failure. Internal squabbling among Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress, killed their efforts to overhaul healthcare. The divisions threaten to undermine the push for a tax overhaul, especially in the Senate, where Republicans hold a narrow 52-48 majority. “We learned this summer that keeping 50 or 52 Republicans (in the Senate) is not something that’s reliable,” Marc Short, Trump’s liaison to Congress, told reporters this week. Frustrated with Republican leaders, Trump is moving away from a strategy that relies on passing legislation on strict party lines. He hosted seven senators at the White House on Tuesday, including three Democrats, and had dinner plans on Wednesday with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer. Hours before the dinner, Trump told reporters his tax plan might include a tax increase on the wealthy, a welcome gesture for Democrats, who oppose cutting taxes on the rich. Trump’s bipartisan moves followed a series of staff changes. He replaced chief of staff Reince Priebus, a longtime Republican operative, with John Kelly, a former Marine general with strong relationships on Capitol Hill, and ousted more polarizing aides, including Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka. Last week Trump went so far as to take Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp along with him to her home state of North Dakota for a tax-reform rally. Her state leans strongly Republican, and Heitkamp is seen as vulnerable in next year’s midterm elections. Hurricanes that struck Texas and Florida have forced Trump to focus on governing. He has petitioned Congress for financial aid backed by both parties. But not everyone has been pleased with Trump’s outreach to Democrats. Immigration hardliners, including some in his party, were furious when the White House said it would not insist on funding for a proposed Mexican border wall as a condition of legislation that would help young undocumented immigrants known as “Dreamers” who were brought to the United States as children. Conservatives said this forfeited some leverage. Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which seeks to limit legal and illegal immigration, said he worried that Democrats would take advantage of Trump’s eagerness to strike a deal on Dreamers. “Trump is the kind of guy who goes on foot to the car dealership and can’t get a ride home without buying a car,” Krikorian said. Some Republican lawmakers said Trump’s courtship of Democrats on tax reform made them nervous, especially since details of the plan had yet to be worked out. “Now Trump is talking about doing bipartisan stuff with Chuck and Nancy on taxes,” Republican Representative Dave Brat said. “I don’t want to open the door to that until we see what does this tax plan look like.” But some conservatives said a bipartisan legislative strategy made sense. “People inside the Republican party need to understand that the president has to search wherever the votes are,” said Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union. | 1 |
1,425 | overcoming anxiety spirit communications | coming ice age consciousness afterlife coming ice age consciousness afterlife date thursday november
first half researcher robert felix has been predicting that the next ice age could begin any day and now hes saying that day may have already arrived hell discuss the evidence that earths climate is shifting including news of advancing glaciers and forecasts of a brutal winter ahead
second half researcher into the borderline areas of human consciousness anthony peake will discuss scientific studies into the endoflife process and the evidence of continuity of consciousness after physical death hell also share radically new explanations for such phenomena as precognition angelic encounters and doppelgangers websites | 0 |
1,426 | WATCH: CONSERVATIVE SOCIAL MEDIA GIANT Announces, “I’M DONE!” After Facebook Banned Him For Video He Posted 18 Months Ago, YouTube Takes Away Earnings For Criticizing Islam | Hilarious and spot-on conservative, social-media giant, Paul Joseph Watson announced on Twitter that he was done! . After waking up to discover that Facebook banned him for a parody video that made fun of feminism that he posted over 18 months ago, Watson had had enough!YouTube has been banning pro-Trump videos. Watson mentioned the dynamic pro-Trump duo Diamond and Silk and how they re talking about filing a class-action suit against YouTube for demonetizing their videos because all of their advertisers may not agree with their (pro-Trump) views. Watson claims YouTube has demonetized every single video he s made that criticized Islam.Watson says he needs to seriously think about whether it s worth investing hundreds and hundreds of hours my time every year into something that could completely disappear when I wake up tomorrow morning. I ll probably ride it until the wheels fall off, but this is it for now. We defeated Hillary. We hit a million subscribers. We had a good run. Better to burn out than to fade away Watch: | 0 |
1,427 | Will Your Hometown Be Taking In Obama’s Refugees? Here’s The List Of Cities Where They’re Being Transplanted | Our friend Ann Corcoran has been exposing the truth about the US State Department s radical Refugee Resettlement Program for years. Finally, America is waking up to this shocking program that brings hundreds of thousands of mostly muslim refugees into our country all supported by our tax dollars Just before the weekend, we learned that out of the fifty states, California, Texas and New York will be getting the largest dump of Muslim refugees coming from the Middle East. They are also unscreened Muslims as well. So, if you were wondering if a town near you was going to be a dumping ground for potential jihadists, we ve got a complete list for you.The Obama State Department has released a list of 190 cities in the United States that they will be releasing these unvetted and unscreened Muslim refugees into.Ann Corcoran has been covering what is going on and it isn t just the Obama administration who is neglecting their constitutional duties. It s also a Republican-controlled House and Senate.Corcoran writes:Has Congress been shirking its duty for decades?Sure looks like it! Because of the proposals to bring in as many as 100,000 Syrians in the next 12 months, there must be hearings! Come on Trey Gowdy! Come on Bob Goodlatte! Where are you?History tells us that the House (and the Senate) have been shirking their duties under the Refugee Act of 1980 for twenty years!She went on to point out that history:Take a trip down memory lane to the House debate on the Immigration in the National Interest Act of 1995 (HR2202) spearheaded by Rep. Lamar Smith and see what was said about the consultation process and how it has been ignored to America s great detriment.From House Report 104-469 (hat tip: Richard Falknor at Blue Ridge Forum). Report is dated March 4, 1996. Former Democratic Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman who was involved with the passage of the Refugee Act of 1980, as chairman of he immigration subcommittee, is quoted as confirming the importance of the consultation process and Congress role!The Refugee Act of 1980 intended to provide Congress with a meaningful role in the process of determining refugee admissions. In the words of former Representative Elizabeth Holtzman, then Chair of the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and International Law, Importantly, for the first time, the bill requires that Congress be consulted before refugees are admitted, and spells out in detail the elements of that consultation. 55 Additionally, the Report of the House Committee on the Judiciary regarding the Refugee Act of 1980 stated the following: \55\ 125 Cong. Rec. H11966, H1167 (daily ed. Dec. 13, 1979) (statement of Rep. Holtzman).The Committee has made every effort to assure that Congress has a proper and substantial role in all decisions on refugee admissions. In the past, the Attorney General s consultation with this committee regarding admissions has been merely a matter of courtesy or custom. * * * The Committee cannot overemphasize the importance it attaches to consultation. The Congress is charged under the Constitution with the responsibility for the regulation of immigration, and this responsibility continues with respect to refugee admissions.56 \56\ House Report 96-608 at 12-14 (1979).In the past several years, the refugee consultation process has devolved into a single meeting between the Executive Branch and the House and Senate Judiciary Committees near the end of the fiscal year the very type of process which the 1980 Act expressly rejected. As an example, the refugee consultation for fiscal year 1996 occurred in the middle of September 1995 two weeks prior to the beginning of fiscal year 1996. The failure of the Administration to consult with Congress on the number and allocation of refugee admissions until just prior to the beginning of the fiscal year meant that the series of discussions between the President and Congress called for in section 207(d)(1) of the INA did not take place. [This is exactly what is happening right now! ed]The current process of determining refugee admissions does not provide Congress with a meaningful role in this process, as intended in the Refugee Act of 1980. The number of refugee admissions for a particular fiscal year should not be set unilaterally by the President. As former Chairwoman Holtzman stated: * * * there is no substitute for public scrutiny, public disclosure, public debate on an issue of such importance as the admission of refugees to the United States. 57 The only way to have an adequate public debate on the issue of refugees is to give Congress a more meaningful role in determining number and allocation of refugee admissions. \57\ 125 Cong. Rec. H37203 (daily ed. Dec. 20, 1979).One should not be surprised to find the designated terror group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) behind trying to move some of these potential jihadists into areas like St. Louis. Via: The Washington Standard | 0 |
1,428 | Republican presidential candidate Cruz: 'Radical Islam' behind Belgium blasts | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Tuesday called the blasts in Belgium “the latest in a string of coordinated attacks by radical Islamic terrorists,” adding that they “are no isolated incidents.” “Radical Islam is at war with us,” he said in a statement posted online. | 1 |
1,429 | Iran says will never use its weapons against anyone, except in self-defense | ANKARA (Reuters) - Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted on Friday that Tehran would never use its military might against any country, except in self-defense, in reaction to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tough approach towards Tehran. “We will never use our weapons against anyone, except in self-defense. Let us see if any of those who complain can make the same statement,” he tweeted. | 1 |
1,430 | Takata parts involved in blast were shipped properly: NTSB | (Reuters) - An initial check showed that Takata Corp 7312.T air bag parts and material involved in a deadly explosion in a truck in Texas last week were being shipped properly, a U.S. regulator said on Wednesday. A spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board said the agency’s hazardous material team made the determination along with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which conducted an initial survey of shipping documents. The NTSB said it will decide in the next few weeks whether a deeper investigation is needed into the incident, which occurred on Aug. 22 near Quemado, Texas, and left one woman dead and four other people injured.. Such a probe was called for earlier on Wednesday by two U.S. senators, Richard Blumenthal and Edward Markey, both Democrats who are members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. The NTSB said in a statement that it has asked to review all documents related to the incident. “Initial indicators are that the materials were packaged properly. If the review of documents and other information shows cause to investigate, the NTSB will do so,” it said in a statement. Takata’s air bag inflators, which contain ammonium nitrate, have been linked to at least 14 deaths and more than 150 injuries and resulted in the largest vehicle recall in history. Prolonged exposure of the defective Takata inflators to hot and humid conditions has been found to cause air bags to explode with excessive force, spraying shrapnel into passenger compartments. The NTSB “must investigate this incident and determine whether this company took appropriate precautions,” said a statement by the senators, both Democrats. The senators noted that ammonium nitrate is also used in agricultural fertilizers and as an explosive for construction and mining industries. They said they want to protect against future incidents in highway shipments of the chemical compound. “We also seek answers on what steps must be taken to ensure other towns and communities aren’t endangered by the shipment of ammonium nitrate on our highways,” they said. The NTSB, an independent safety investigation agency, focuses on studying accidents to determine if lessons can be learned that could lead to increased safety. The Texas Department of Public Safety is also investigating the incident, and the NTSB said it stands by to assist Texas officials upon request. | 1 |
1,431 | (VIDEO) MINE OWNER HAMMERS EPA ON TOXIC SPILL AND MAKES A DIRE PREDICTION | Gold King Mine Owner Todd Hennis says he warned the EPA for years about the mine mess, but they ignored him. | 0 |
1,432 | Rich tycoon takes on Iraqi Kurdish leaders over independence | SULAIMANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - On the eve of an independence referendum in Iraq s Kurdistan region, one man is campaigning against a Yes vote which he fears could stoke tension in the Middle East. With the 5 million Kurds in Iraq who are eligible to vote united by dreams of statehood, the outcome of the Sept. 25 referendum in the autonomous region in northern Iraq is in no doubt. But with Baghdad making clear it opposes independence for a region that has abundant oil reserves, some voters fear now is not the time to start moves to break away from Iraq and rich businessman Shaswar Abdulwahid Qadir has taken up their cause. Despite being branded a traitor by political enemies, he has taken on the establishment by launching a No for now campaign to explain the economic and political risks of a Yes vote. A No vote is better for our people, better for Kurdistan s future, the 39-year-old businessman told Reuters after a rally on Saturday in a soccer stadium in Sulaimaniya, Iraqi Kurdistan s second largest city. Warning against the consequences of an independence declaration, he said: It will bring to our people an unstable situation after the referendum. Qadir s goal is not to resist independence forever. But he fears a Yes vote now would unleash the wrath of governments in Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria which could see it as a precedent that could encourage separatist-minded Kurds in those countries. Iraq s parliament voted on Tuesday to reject the referendum and authorized the prime minister to take all measures to preserve Iraq s unity. Western powers want a delay because they are worried the vote will derail cooperation between Iraq and the Kurds against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Qadir is almost alone among Kurds in raising his voice openly against the Yes campaign led by President Masoud Barzani and his Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), which say independence would be preceded by dialogue with Baghdad. But Qadir believes there are others who share his concerns. At the rally in Sulaimaniya, Qadir was welcomed into the stadium by dancers in colorful traditional dress and by a crowd chanting his name. But he delayed the start by an hour to allow the stadium he helped refurbish to fill up and it never did. About 2,500 people attended, filling only about one third of the arena. After he began speaking, a scuffle broke out when a man in the crowd tried to throw something at Qadir during his speech. The businessman says he is undeterred by criticism and attacks which he says have affected his business. I m ok with all of it, because I believe in another way for Kurdistan, he said. Critics say Qadir has used his media conglomerate to advance his agenda and the fortune he made through a business empire that includes real estate, television stations and a theme park make his life very different to those he says he represents. Many Kurds have been hit by Baghdad s decision to cut funding to Iraqi Kurdistan in 2014 in protest at its construction of a pipeline to export oil to Turkey. Such actions by Baghdad have increased antagonism among the Kurds, who suffered under late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and increased their desire for independence a desire uniting the about 30 million Kurds in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. But interviews by Reuters in several cities in Iraqi Kurdistan showed that some voters are worried about the possible fallout of the referendum even though they favor independence. Some are worried it could embolden the entrenched elite in Iraqi Kurdistan, which has long been plagued by political disunity and where Barzani has been a powerful force for more than two decades and president since 2005. This referendum is not for the country, it s for the dictators in power, said Ahmed Nana, a 22-year-old barista at a coffee shop in Sulaimaniya. We all want a passport, a nationality, we want a reason to be proud, to have our own country. But right now, this referendum is a sideshow to distract from our political problems. Parliament has not met since a coalition government broke up in 2015 and some factions support independence but not necessarily under Barzani s leadership. The regional government has called presidential and parliamentary elections for Nov. 1, but many Kurds doubt the voting will go ahead and the independence referendum has widened political divisions. Nothing has polarized Kurdish society as much as this vote, said Bahra Saleh, an analyst at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani. Compounding the stalemate is the economic crisis triggered by Baghdad s decision to cut funding and compounded by low oil prices and the conflict with Islamic State. The region is billions of dollars in debt and public salaries have been steeply cut since 2014, particularly affecting civil servants, Peshmerga fighters and teachers. Before holding the referendum, the regional government needs to prepare the region economically for the region to sustain itself, said Mohammad Tofiq Raheem, a leader of the Gorran party which was part of the coalition that ended in 2015. The regional economy depends partly on Turkey s goodwill to allow oil exports but also on trade with Iraq. There is also a generational split. Older Kurds hope the long struggle for statehood, dating at least to the division of the Middle East by colonial powers after World War One, will now end but younger people are driven by more than nationalism. Independence is what we ve been dreaming of for years, the said Saleh, the analyst. But not like this. In a way that makes sense, in a way that won t risk civil war. | 1 |
1,433 | OSAMA BIN LADEN’S YOUNGEST WIFE Speaks Out For First Time: Tells Chaotic Story Of Night U.S. Navy SEALs Killed Her “Frightened” Husband | The family of Osama bin Laden has spoken out for the first time about what it was like to watch the 9/11 mastermind and al-Qaeda terrorist die in a hail of US military gunfire.Amal bin Laden, the fourth and youngest wife of the man who was at the top of the US s most wanted list for over a decade, has recounted the story of the night he died at the hands of SEAL special forces.She and their six children lived in their safe house in the mountains of Abbottabad in Pakistan when bin Ladin was killed on May 11, 2011.Amal bin Laden told the story of the night to Cathy Scott-Clarke and Adrian Levy for their book The Exile: The Flight of Osama bin Laden, which has been excerpted in the Sunday Times UK.Along with Amal bin Laden and her children, also living in the house was bin Laden s second wife Khairiah and third wife Seham and son Khalid, 22.First wife Najwa had married him as a teen and bore him 11 children, but left him two days before the 9/11 attacks.By 11pm on May 1, 2011, after dinner, the dishes, and prayer, bin Laden was fast asleep while his fourth wife lie next to him.Outside, the streets were dark due to an electricity shortage, something that was a common occurrence in the area, but Amal awoke uneasily just past midnight.She heard a chop chop chop sound and thought she saw shadows dancing on the windows.Bin Laden sat up, looking frightened. Americans are coming, he said, panting. Then there was a loud screeching noise and the house rocked.The pair clutched at each other and crept to the balcony. It was a moonless night and difficult to see, Amal said.On the lawn, out of their sight, were two US military Black Hawks, and 24 SEALs were stealthily rushing over the lawn and towards the compound.Up on the second floor balcony, Seham and Khalid could see the Americans approaching.Bin Laden called to his son to come to him and, still in his pajamas, Khalid grabbed an AK-47, which Amal knew he hadn t fired since he was 13.Amal and Seham comforted the children, who were crying. They all went to the top floor and huddled.They heard a blast as the SEALs blew off the gate to the house. They want me, not you, bin Laden finally said, telling his family to go downstairs. But oldest daughters Miriam and Sumaiya hid on the balcony while Seham and son Khalid went downstairs.Upstairs, Amal, bin Laden and their young son Hussein remained in the room and prayed. Amal said she realized someone within their inner circle had betrayed them.The SEALs were now in a hallway and blasted a locked door before heading upwards.One of the forces members, who spoke Arabic and knew what Khalid looked like, called to him, and when Khalid glanced over the balcony, he was shot.Sumaiya and Miriam rushed the SEALs but they were quickly flicked against a wall by the Arabic-speaking man.SEAL Robert O Neill walked past them and entered the room. Amal was in front of her husband. She rushed O Neill and was shot by someone as other SEALs entered the room.Amal felt pain tear through her leg and she collapsed onto the bed and passed out.O Neill would later describe shooting bin Laden, and thinking He s going down .More SEALS crashed into the room and fired rounds into bin Laden.Meanwhile, Amal said she awoke but knew she had to play dead. She closed her eyes and tried to slow her breathing.Little Hussein, who had witnessed everything, was grabbed by a SEAL, and water was thrown in his face, according to Amal.She remained motionless as Miram and Sumaiya were grabbed by the forces and held over the bodies of their father, and voices demanded that they make an identification.At first Miriam gave a fake name, but Sumaiya said Tell them the truth, they are not Pakastanis . My father, Miriam said. Osama bin Laden. Safiyah, then 11, was hiding on the balcony when he was also grabbed by a SEAL and told to make an identification. Safiyah was crying hysterically but told the men it was her father.Khairiah, who was in the hallway, was also grabbed by a SEAL. Stop f***ing with me, the SEAL yelled, according to the account. Who s that? Osama, she murmured. For entire story: Daily MailNavy SEAL Robert O Neill who tells his story of how they found and how he killed Osama Bin Laden to FOX News here: | 0 |
1,434 | BREAKING: WATCH LIVE FEED FROM “Freedom Of Speech Rally II” IN FRONT OF PHOENIX MOSQUE | Pretty much people just yelling at each other so far. pic.twitter.com/jfNdizcAX5 Adam Housley (@adamhousley) May 30, 2015About 10 more officers now have come to form a human wall between the two sides. About 30 total pic.twitter.com/RU8pgX21j7 Adam Housley (@adamhousley) May 30, 2015 | 0 |
1,435 | MY POPE JUST INVITED A RADICAL, Pro-Abortion Socialist Named Bernie To The Vatican…Should Conservative Catholics Be Outraged? | Funny I seem to remember being taught as a young Catholic girl that charity begins at home .Pope Francis invited Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders to the Vatican April 15 just ahead of the April 19 make or break New York primary.Sanders has been invited by the pontiff to a conference hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. The conference will be dealing with social, economic, and environmental issues. Sanders announced the Vatican visit on MSNBC s Morning Joe. Sanders made clear he has some differences with the pope but liked that he is injecting a moral consequence into the economy. Sanders, who is Jewish, is married to Catholic Jane O Meara Sanders. When announcing the news, Sanders said he, was very moved by the invitation, which just was made public today. The senator went on to jokingly say that, you know, people say Bernie Sanders is radical read what the pope is writing. Via: Daily Caller Meanwhile back in Pope Frances home country of Argentina, economic crises besiege them with the regularity of earthquakes over a tectonic plate. These crises can be devastating, wiping out family savings, employment and life plans. It seems we re always recovering from or preparing for some sort of economic shock. Sometimes, our survival strategies can even contribute to the subsequent crisis.Last month Argentine voters very narrowly opted for a political sea change, voting out the Peronist faction led by Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (she and her deceased husband governed the country for the last 12 years) and electing the conservative mayor of Buenos Aires, Mauricio Macri, to replace her.The business-friendly president-elect ran in opposition to a government that has been highly divisive, defined by extensive social spending and statist economic policies that antagonized large business interests and foreign investors. Kirchner leaves office with a high approval rating of about 50 percent, thanks to popular policies such as a per-child conditional cash transfer policy for poor families and a focus on human rights, such as gay marriage. But the economy is stagnant, annual inflation is around 25 percent, and the fiscal deficit could amount to an alarming 6 percent of the country s GDP this year.President-elect Macri has promised to shock the highly regulated economy into market-based reality. One element of his approach will be the elimination of strict currency controls put in place to prevent capital flight. The cost could be a devaluation of up to 60 percent. Economists, like gym gurus, always seem to argue that a bright future can only be attained with short-term pain.The government s official exchange rate allows you to buy a dollar for about 9.6 pesos. But since 2011, access to dollars has been highly limited in an attempt to keep people and companies from taking money out of the country.U.S. dollars, with the enduring value they represent, are the holy financial grail. From small wads stuffed under a mattress to a security box filled with piles of cash, dollars are the gold standard for Argentines. Dollars are perceived as the objective measure of value to the point where property, perceived to have enduring value of its own, is priced in dollars.Via: Huffington Post | 0 |
1,436 | BREAKING: Trump Kicks Reince Priebus Out Of White House (TWEET) | Donald Trump s White House has been going through a lot of insane changes lately, and it is certainly looking like a sign of an inevitable implosion.It was just a few days ago that White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer resigned over Trump s hiring of Anthony Scaramucci as his new Communications Director. Now, another key player in Trump s administration is out thanks to the Mooch White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus. Trump announced this shocking change in staff over Twitter, remarking that retired four-star general and Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kennedy would be taking Priebus place:We might have seen this coming yesterday, Scaramucci told the New Yorker that Priebus was a f*cking paranoid schizophrenic and made several other vulgar comments about the former Republican National Committee president.While this story is still developing, these rapid changes in staff show an administration that is clearly in trouble and struggling to keep its head above water as it self-destructs. Trump s staff is being turned over at an unprecedented rate, and the amount of in-fighting between even the top staffers is like nothing we ve ever seen before. But what else can you expect when you appoint the most vile, corrupt individuals to help you run a country?If the leaks coming from the White House weren t concerning enough, the recent changes in staff serve as a telling sign that things are falling apart on a daily basis and Trump is desperate to save his failing presidency. Already, Trump s new Communication Director Anthony Scaramucci has become one of the most hated, abrasive characters in Trump s administration and is causing trouble with other staffers. We can only imagine what this administration will look like in the weeks to come and it s probably safe to say that recovery will be impossible.Featured image via Win McNamee / Getty Images | 0 |
1,437 | Trump to announce transportation secretary pick: spokesman | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump will nominate a transportation secretary on Tuesday afternoon, a spokesman told Fox News, as he continues to fill out his domestic policy team. Trump transition team spokesman Jason Miller said the Cabinet selection would be announced in the early afternoon. He did not elaborate. | 1 |
1,438 | Adele Just Made A Beyonce Comparison That Has Conservative Christians Going Crazy (VIDEO/TWEETS) | Mega music star Adele took some time during a concert in Denmark to offer some words about American music queen Beyonce and her album Lemonade. Adele had nothing but good things to say about Beyonce , calling her the sickest artist around. But, she went a step further in a statement that has earned the ire of conservative Christians. Here s what Adele said: She is Jesus f***ing Christ. It s unbelievable. I ve been listening to her for 17 years, and she s still making music that blows my mind. Watch video here: Adele calls Beyonce 'Jesus Christ' during a live show ? pic.twitter.com/DaJv8kuJoQ WORLDSTARHIPHOP (@WORLDSTAR) May 4, 2016 Later in an Instagram post, Adele said that she enjoyed worshiping the American music icon. Here s what she said: I m not late on this I ve just been speechless. Beyonce is the most inspiring person I ve ever had the pleasure of worshipping. Her talent, beauty, grace and work ethic are all in a league of their own. I appreciate you so much! Thank god for Beyonc . Although the comparison was harmless, many people felt a personal affront and made their feelings known on Twitter. One person went so far as to pray for Adele s soul when she meets Jesus. Others accused the star of losing her mind (see below).In the end, it s simply one musician expressing admiration for another. @shaykimberlyy ikr Satan (@allhailsatan_) May 8, 2016Adele calling Beyonc Jesus Christ makes me kinda not like her anymore Alexvnder (@alexanderdaname) May 7, 2016@Adele Comparing @Beyonce to Jesus Christ is very offensive on every level. It is just plain evil. You need to apologize quickly. Joshua Adams (@AllJesusChrist) May 8, 2016Of course the right wing went crazy over this. No one is surprised, but their freakouts are downright pathetic these days. Way to go Adele anything to anger these loons is definitely a good thing.Featured image via video screenshot. | 0 |
1,439 | ‘BUBBA’ BAFFLES With Claim Of Very Few Murders By Muslims…How Influx of Muslims Has ‘Deeply Enriched’ Us [Video] | Bubba Bill Clinton celebrated his election 25 years ago at very liberal Georgetown University. He made the usual slams against President Trump that we expect nowadays and then turned to gun violence in America He bemoaned the state of gun violence and then he pivoted to made this very baffling claim about Muslims and native-born Americans:President Clinton also said: In spite of the horrible killings in San Bernardino and Fort Hood, and what happened in New York City just a few days ago, the aggregate murder rate of Muslims is one third that of the native-born. How many people know that? If all your neighbours knew it, would it make a difference? How nice except it s NOT TRUE!(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 = 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.11'; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));Bill Clinton: 'Good news is important to make good decisions' The aggregate murder rate of Muslims is one third that of the native born. How many people know that?"Bill Clinton gives his view that when talking about immigration "good news is important to make good decisions .Posted by Channel 4 News on Tuesday, November 7, 2017It s an eye-catching statistic. But we can t find any evidence that it s true.channel4 reported:President Clinton appears to be blurring two different concepts when he talks about a murder rate of Muslims compared to the native-born . He is confusing religion with immigration status here, and the two groups are not mutually exclusive. Clearly, you can be a native-born American Muslim. So it s not absolutely clear what he means, but we can only presume from the context that he is saying Muslims perhaps Muslim immigrants specifically are less likely to murder people than others.There are two official sources of national homicide statistics in the US: the FBI and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Neither of these organisations records the religion of the offender. So it s not possible to construct a murder rate of Muslims from official figures.So did Clinton just read this and deduce what he wanted to or did some low level staffer offer this as fact? we ll probably never know but this calls attention to the blithering BS that the Clinton grifters dole out on a regular basis. Another recent gem was on a late-night talk show where he claimed that we must fill America with more third world refugees so we can truly feel sufficiently diverse as a nation What is he smoking? Our State Department has issued over 30,000 foreign visas to people from terror-sponsored nations since 2007. Yes, we re covered up in Muslim refugees We get it: The goal is to change America s demographic which will change elections so more democrats will win Correct? It s that fundamental change Obama was working on for 8 years open borders, refugees, diversity lottery We get it and that s why we voted for Donald Trump .JUST LISTEN TO THIS GLOBALIST ELITIST CONTINUE THE NARRATIVE THAT MASS MIGRATION IS GREAT:Does he really believe this? We don t know if he does but we do know that he wants YOU to believe it so the Dems will have more votes and cheap labor. Yes, those Democrats they really have your back, don t they?Read more: channel4 | 0 |
1,440 | Chris Christie Has Disgusting Response To Angry NJ Residents, He Sounds Just Like Trump Now | Once New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was defeated while running as a Republican candidate in the 2016 election, he quickly kissed up to Donald Trump and became one of the disgraceful POTUS biggest advocates. Judging from how Christie has conducted himself over the last few days, he still admires the hell out of Trump.People have been furious with Christie recently, after photos surfaced of him enjoying a New Jersey beach with his family a luxury that wasn t afforded to any other New Jersey resident. Why not? Because Christie decided to shut down several state parks, beaches, and more over the Fourth of July weekend due to a budget stalemate that Christie was a major part of.In an interview on Monday with Good Day Philadelphia, Christie responded to all of the backlash he s received for enjoying a beach that was closed to everyone else. His response could have been written by Trump himself. He simply said: I m sorry they re not the governor. Over the weekend, Christie had a similar moronic response to his use of the beach house where he was photographed: That s the way it goes. Run for governor, and you can have the residence. Heartless, disrespectful, and despicable and extremely close to something Trump had said recently when he went off the rails at a rally to honor veterans. Trashing the media, Trump said: I m the president, and they re not. This really isn t a good look for Christie. After all, his approval rating in his final six months in office is pathetically low, at 15% which is another thing he has in common with the disturbingly unpopular Trump.Voters have been so outraged over this, it s safe to say that Christie won t be New Jersey s governor for long. Hopefully, we can say the same for Trump.Featured image via Joe Raedle/Getty Images | 0 |
1,441 | WILL TRUMP PULL A “ROMNEY” In His First Debate? Says He Won’t Mention Bill’s Infidelities Unless Hillary Does This… [VIDEO] | Who could forget Mitt Romney s second and third debates with Barack Obama? After the first debate, most Americans were pretty sure that Mitt had successfully exposed Barack as the amateur that he is. But something strange and unexpected happened when Mitt came back for round two. Either he was given bad advice, or he just decided he really didn t want to be President after all. Whatever the case, the next two debates for Mitt were abysmal. He clearly rolled over and played dead, while Barack, with the help of his co-debater Candy Crowley, lied to the american people, as Mitt stood by idly and never uttered a single objection. That was the night Mitt passed on the keys to the White House in favor of civility. Sorry America, but civility doesn t work with the Left who has shown a clear pattern of winning at all cost no matter the consequences America is counting on Trump to use every resource available to take down Hillary in the first debate. If Hillary enabled her husband to prey on, rape or to use his position as President of the United States to gain sexual favors in the Oval Office, we expect Trump to bring it up. We also expect him to answer to all of the women who claimed Hillary threatened them if they spoke out against her perve If Hillary really is the champion of women that she claims to be, she should be ready and willing to defend herself. Please Trump, we beg of you don t pull a Romney! It s up to Hillary Clinton whether or not the first presidential debate ends up including an exchange over her husband s White House affair with Monica Lewinsky, Republican Donald Trump said Monday night. I don t think I m looking to do that, Trump told Fox News host Bill O Reilly when asked whether he was planning to bring up the affair something Trump raised in media interviews during the primaries. I don t know what I m going to do that exactly. It depends on what level she hits you with, if she s fair, if it s unfair, Trump said. But certainly I m not looking to do that. Trump, who slashed through his GOP opponents one-by-one in televised debates during the primaries, said he ll decide on the spot whether to launch personal attacks on Hillary Clinton based on whether she treats him with respect. I have absolutely no idea. I think this. If she treats me with respect, I will treat her with respect. It really depends, Trump said.Watch here:https://youtu.be/BnLtdAlfuuM People ask me that question, oh you re going to go out there and do this and that. I really don t know that. You re going to have to feel it out when you re out there. She s got to treat me with respect. I m going to treat her with respect. I d like to start off by saying that because that would be my intention, he said.One longtime Clinton advisor isn t so sure Trump will unilaterally disarm when it comes to Lewinsky. You can t put it beyond Trump that Monica Lewinsky will play a role in this debate, former Clinton and White House counsel Greg Craig told Politico in August. She s got to be prepared to deal with the [Clinton] Foundation and Wall Street and super PACs and all of that. They need to be less focused on dealing with his policy proposals and more on dealing with the unexpected. He s going to be in attack mode, probably the whole time, Craig said.At several stages in the campaign, Trump has brought up Lewinsky, Bill Clinton rape accuser Juanita Broderick, Whitewater, the death of former Clinton aide Vince Foster, and other 90s era scandals and allegations. Via: Daily Mail | 0 |
1,442 | Insurgents burn bus in southern Thailand | BANGKOK (Reuters) - Armed insurgents stopped and torched a Bangkok-bound passenger bus on a highway in southern Thailand on Sunday, police said. All 14 passengers, as well as the bus driver and his assistance, survived the attack, although their luggage were burned with the bus. The attack occurred in Yala, one of the predominantly ethnic Malay Muslim provinces in the south where a separatist insurgency has dragged on for more than a decade. More than 6,500 people have been killed since 2004. Police said at least 10 gunmen were involved in the latest attack. They all escaped, blocking the road with tree trunks and nails to thwart any pursuers. An army spokesman was not available for comment. As with most violence in Thailand s deep south, there was no claim of responsibility. The insurgents are fighting for secession from predominantly Buddhist Thailand. Thailand s military government has, since 2015, held talks brokered by Malaysia, aim at ending the violence. The process, which aim to established a safety-zone as a confidence-building measure by early next year, has been stalled. | 1 |
1,443 | Meghan McCain: Ted Cruz Is ‘The Thinking Man’s Trump’ Because Bible Stuff (VIDEO) | There are many, many things I would call Senator Ted Cruz, but a thinking man would never come to mind but apparently, that s exactly how Meghan McCain.During a conversation on Tuesday s episode of Outnumbered on Faux News, Weekly Standard columnist Stephen Hayes commented that he believes Cruz is winning his battle with Donald Trump because the frontrunner is not a true conservative. And Ted Cruz looks like he just waking up to that fact after having tightly embraced Donald Trump, Hayes said. I think that s the risk for Cruz even if I agree with him on his substantive critique of Trump. Host Andrea Tantaros wondered out loud if Cruz has made a mistake by not fighting harder against Senator John MCCain and seven other lawmakers comprehensive immigration bill. Because, you know, the party of family values must never, ever support a bill that would keep families together. After Tantaros musings, Meghan McCain made her silly thinking man statement: That s red meat for conservatives in Iowa, Meghan McCain agreed. What I think is fascinating is Donald Trump was at Liberty University yesterday, Jerry Falwell s school, very religious school obviously. He quoted Corinthians wrong and now it s become this meme all over the Internet. Ted Cruz, in many ways, is the thinking man s Donald Trump, she asserted. He s a religious man that I think a lot of people especially in the hardcore evangelical parts of Iowa can digest as being much more religious. And I think that s going to play really well for Ted Cruz. What?First of all, being able to quote the Bible does NOT make him a thinking man, it makes him a parrot. Secondly, if Ted Cruz were a religious man his policies would be ones that help the poor, accept immigrants, promote peace instead he believes in the exact opposite of all of those things.Meghan McCain used to make some sense when she spoke, but now it seems that the Fox stupidity has seeped into her brain and made her as ignorant as everyone else on that network.Watch the video below:Featured image via video screenshot | 0 |
1,444 | OOPS! LIST OF TOP 10 CORPORATE TAX DODGERS Are All Hillary Donors…Compliments Of Bernie Sanders | The hypocrisy of our media is astounding! What about Hillary s major corporate donors like GE for example, that have been working the loopholes in our tax system for decades? Does anyone care that Hillary has been taking money from some of America s biggest corporate tax dodgers for several years? Bernie Sanders recently outed the 10 biggest multinational corporations that paid no federal taxes for at least one year between 2008 and 2012. Sanders has made reining in corporate tax dodgers a key point of his presidential platform. In a recent press release, the Sanders campaign laid out the Vermont senator s plans to force multinational corporations to pay their fair share in taxes:As it turns out, all ten of those same companies are some of Hillary Clinton s biggest donors, whether to her campaign or to her family foundation.1. GENERAL ELECTRIC According to data from the nonpartisan group Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ), GE posted $33.9 billion in U.S. profits, yet somehow got $2.9 billion in refunds in that same time period. According to the book Clinton Cash, then-Secretary of State Clinton lobbied the Algerian government for a GE power plant contract. After Algeria awarded the contract to GE, Jeffrey Immelt CEO of GE gave a donation to the Clinton Foundation. Sanders also pointed out that while Immelt sat on the board of the New York Federal Reserve, the Fed gave GE $16 billion in financial assistance.2. BOEING Boeing is one of the nation s biggest corporate tax dodgers, making over $20 billion in profits between 2008 and 2012 and paying an overall income tax rate of negative one percent during those years. Clinton Cash author Peter Schweizer noted that after Secretary Clinton successfully lobbied the Russian government to enter into a $3.7 billion contract to buy Boeing s aircraft, the aerospace company gave the Clinton Foundation a hefty donation of $900,000.3. VERIZON In the four years between 2008 and 2012, Verizon pocketed over $30 billion in profits and paid a tax rate of -1.8 percent, according to CTJ. The Sanders campaign s research claims that in 2012 alone, Verizon would have paid $630 million in income taxes had they been unable to stash U.S. profits in offshore tax havens.Verizon has given between $118,000 and $300,000 to the Clinton Foundation in recent years. And as Zaid Jilani reported in Alternet last year, Hillary Clinton is the favored candidate of numerous Verizon executives, many of whom have given the maximum donation to her 2016 effort:Verizon vice-presidents Lydia Pulley, Kathleen Grillo, and Donna Epps each gave $2,700 to Hillary for America. Verizon senior vice-president Thomas Edwards and vice-president Chris Debosier pitched in $1,000. Leecia Eve, a former Hillary staffer who today is a lobbyist for Verizon gave $2,700. Another Verizon lobbyist, David Lamendola, gave Hillary $1,000.To contrast, Sanders appeared at a rally for striking Verizon workers in New York City last year, demanding the company meet the workers demands and admonishing its executives for the company s greedy practices.4. BANK OF AMERICA In 2010, Bank of America got a whopping $1.9 billion refund from the IRS despite making $4.4 billion in profit. And the Institute for Policy Studies reported that Bank of America has over 300 foreign subsidiaries in countries and territories universally known as tax havens, like the Cayman Islands and Bermuda.In his recent groundbreaking report for The Intercept, Jilani reported that Bank of America paid Hillary Clinton $225,000 in speaking fees after her tenure as Secretary of State.5. CITIGROUP Citigroup was the largest recipient of federal bailout money, getting an astonishing $2.5 trillion after the financial crisis even though they played a major role in the financial meltdown. Citi also paid $0 in federal income taxes in 2010 despite making profits in excess of $4 billion. Had the bank been unable to utilize offshore tax havens, it would have paid $11.5 billion in federal taxes in 2012.According to campaign finance database OpenSecrets.org, Citigroup is Hillary Clinton s top donor, having given over $824,000 in campaign contributions throughout her political career.6. PFIZER The Connecticut-based pharmaceutical giant is notorious for its tax avoidance strategies, paying $0 in federal income tax between 2010 and 2012 and getting a $2.2 billion tax refund despite posting $43 billion in global profits.Pfizer executives gave nearly $40,000 to Clinton s presidential campaign between April and September 2015. And Pfizer itself has given between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation, according to donor records obtained by the Washington Times.7. FEDEX In 2011, FedEx made $2.7 billion in profit, yet they were given a $135 million tax refund from the IRS that same year. FedEx also receives $1 billion a year in corporate welfare from the U.S. Post Office its chief competitor to use its aircraft to transport U.S. mail.FedEx has given anywhere between $100,000 and $250,000 to the Clinton Foundation. The company was also one of four corporations to bundle a $2.5 million donation to Clinton s new diplomacy center (Boeing was another).8. HONEYWELL Despite making over $3 billion in combined profits between 2009 and 2010, Honeywell paid $0 in federal income taxes and got roughly $510 million in refunds. Honeywell CEO David Cote was also one of the loudest voices on the Fix The Debt campaign, calling for the Social Security and Medicare age to be raised to 70.Honeywell, a prominent weapons manufacturer, also gave $50,000 to the Clinton Foundation while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State. At the same time, Honeywell and others had their weapons shipped to countries blasted by international watchdogs for their deplorable records on human rights.9. MERCK Merck is one of the nation s largest pharmaceutical companies and biggest tax dodgers in 2009, Merck pocketed $5.7 billion in profits, yet paid $0 in federal taxes. Merck successfully got out of paying $18.69 billion in federal taxes in 2012 by stashing $53.4 billion of its U.S. profits in overseas tax havens.The Center for Responsive Politics reports that Merck donated between $250,000 and $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation after becoming a member of the Clinton Global Initiative in 2006. It also spent millions on lobbying the U.S. State Department during Hillary Clinton s tenure as Secretary of State.10. CORNING CTJ reports that between 2008 and 2012, Corning made over $3.4 billion in profits and got a $10 million tax refund, paying a 0.1 percent federal tax rate. The Sanders campaign pointed out that Corning CEO Wendell Weeks has called for the retirement age to be raised to 70, while he himself has a $22.8 million retirement account.While Clinton headed up the State Department, Corning lobbied heavily for multiple policies on which it stood to reap financial gains, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Clinton, in turn, lobbied China to lower tariffs on the type of goods manufactured by Corning. The company has also donated between $100,000 and $250,000 to the Clinton Foundation and paid the former Secretary of State $225,000 in speaking fees after she announced her presidential campaign. Via: U.S.Uncut | 0 |
1,445 | Rand Paul SERIOUSLY Just Told Us Those Investigations Into Hillary Were Partisan Witch Hunts | A scant few Republicans on Capitol Hill want investigations into Michael Flynn s ties to Russia, and by extension, Trump s. Others are sweeping it away by saying the issue took care of itself with Flynn s resignation. And then there s Rand Paul, who just told us the truth about why they were so insistent on investigating every last little thing about Hillary, but won t investigate Flynn or Trump despite far more demonstrable evidence of treason.While Paul may have a small point when he says it s not always a good idea to do investigation after investigation, that would really only apply if the GOP was impartially doing its job.They aren t. They never were. Paul s actual words were: I just don t think it s useful to be doing investigation after investigation, particularly of your own party. Really. It s a good idea to waste time, effort and money repeatedly investigating Hillary s emails and her handling of Bengazi, but it s not worth it to investigate real treason when it means investigating your own party?Please.At least he s finally admitted it. We already saw this with Jason Chaffetz and other Republicans saying they didn t think they were going to investigate the Trump administration s ties to Russia, but Paul just put it out there in the open.Furthermore, it seems he s suddenly quite interested in doing anything else: We ll never even get started with doing the things we need to do like repealing ObamaCare if we re spending our whole time having Republicans investigate Republicans. I think it makes no sense. But if Flynn and the president were Democrats, it would make all the sense in the world. Paul and others would be screaming TREASON! over and over and setting up special independent panels everywhere to get to the bottom of this.It s possible even likely that they re afraid of how all this reflects on them. Make no mistake, it reflects badly. Not only do they look like complete idiots for not stopping Trump during the primaries when they had the chance, but now they look like treasonous hypocrites. The funny thing is, they d be less complicit in the treason if they d investigate it.Featured image by Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images | 0 |
1,446 | WATCH: Jimmy Fallon Takes HILARIOUS Dig At Trump During Opening Speech At Golden Globes | Tonight s the night of the Golden Globe Awards, and comedian Jimmy Fallon was tapped to emcee the event. Before he even started his opening monologue, his teleprompter failed, so he ad libbed the whole thing. And he used the opportunity to take an awesome dig at Donald Trump for it.We all know by now that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by more than 3 million, but Trump still won thanks to the way the Electoral College works. Fallon touched on that when he said: This is the Golden Globes, one of the few places left where America still honors the popular vote. Our manchild of a leader doesn t like things like this very much. Trump has been railing off and on about the popular vote controversy, despite the fact that his electoral votes secured his win, despite the fact that the electors still voted for him on Dec. 19, and despite the fact that Congress just certified that vote over the protests of several House Democrats and many Americans. He has been quiet of late about it, but he still seems to be smarting over his popular vote loss.Fallon didn t stop there, though. He also compared Trump to Game of Thrones King Joffrey, saying: [Game of Thrones] has so many plot twists and shocking moments, a lot of people are wondering what it would be like if King Joffery had lived. Well, in 12 days we re gonna find out,were carefully tabulated by the accounting firm Ernst and Young and Putin. Watch Fallon s digs below:#GoldenGlobes: Watch Jimmy Fallon ad-lib his opening monologue after the teleprompter malfunctions https://t.co/6xAQpyikLp pic.twitter.com/Gk3Q048kKA Hollywood Reporter (@THR) January 9, 2017Everyone can argue until the cows come home about whether Fallon was actually funny tonight, but nobody can argue that he took a serious dig at the ridiculously egotistical and thin-skinned Trump in front of millions of Americans. It ll be interesting to see if he replies.Featured image by Paul Drinkwater/NBCUniversal via Getty Images | 0 |
1,447 | american woman in bikini desecrates french catacombs for her female indiana jones brand | why you should become a minimalist why you should become a minimalist february comments lifestyle
the most abused word in the english language is need if youre reading this post i contend there is little that you actually need beyond what you currently possess you have ample electricity to power your computer in a climatecontrolled environment with running water and food in your wellstocked refrigerator why then do you always hear people talking about how they need more stuff
humans have a deeplyrooted drive to compete with each other and advertisers capitalize on this impulse take a moment to picture the average person that you meet what do they have to take pride in buying the newest thing allows them to join the club of consumers and for a fleeting moment to be measured on an equal playing field despite their personal shortcomings the internal pain of their lifes problems dissipates for the split second they can boast superiority over everyone who doesnt have the same shiny widget
this conspicuous consumption creates a selffulfilling egoinvestment in the broken system although borrowing money for useless luxury purchases subjugates people into debt slavery the mentality is if i paid for this hunk of metal and im working overtime to pay it off it must be worth it and so are other things that the commercials are telling me to buy quite literally we are working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we dont need
if youre reading this blog you are likely a male aged who wants to do one or more of the following quit your job travel explore a locationindependent income get yourself in shape take charge of a relationship and learn valuable life skills a minimalist mentality helps you do all of these things
having fewer possessions forces you to properly place a higher value on experiences this will make it safer and more fulfilling to travel because you are in touch with what truly makes you happy if youre working on a side hustle or starting a business the desire for needless possessions drains your disposable income levels and prevents you from taking risks if my business fails will i have to give up my car lease preempt this loss aversion by having less to lose
if you want to move to a better city with a higher cost of living having excess stuff sets a floor on how much rent youll pay to house your crap and in turn how much you can spend on leisure activities if youre a distractable person like me removing visual noise from your area makes you more likely to create things with your mind and less likely to fixate on your environment
throwing or giving useless things away is a good first step since possessions have a psychic weight that you may not realize until you rid yourself of them to fully embrace this mindset you must also kill the desires that have been inculcated in you since birth cut down on your consumer impressions by watching less tv and trying to rationally dissect the techniques used in the few advertisements you encounter find fulfillment in hobbies and work rather than chasing the rush and eventual hedonic adaptation from consuming much like a drug successive bouts of consumerism create a higher baseline where your overall happiness is no different but you end up having a bunch of useless crap that ties you down
girls can also be troublesome in this endeavor ever notice that when a girl spends extended time in your living space she beings to tell you that you need a new this or a replacement that a good friend once told me all human beings have an innate desire to create most women cant so they redecorate limit your exposure to women who attempt to thwart a separation from consumerism ironically men likely to lead a minimalistnomadic lifestyle are simply more attractive to primesmv women think about whether the starving artist or the bottle service guy throwing money around ends up getting more ass as always watch how women behave rather than listening to what they say when they are protesting your lifestyle change
ask yourself this if your house burned down and you had nothing but the clothes on your back what would you be worth to society and to yourself how would you feel about losing all of the possessions you own most people plugged into the matrix would rather die than think about replacing aunt gladyss vase or baby pictures they havent looked at in a decade this is an illusion once you begin to divorce yourself from this emotional investment to stuff you will implicitly place more value on your skills and past experiences
minimalism is not a synonym for frugality or cheapness i dont wear a potato sack while pedaling a used tricycle to work every day i simply choose to allocate my money to experiences and a few possessions that will fulfill me and advance my lifes purpose rather than enslave myself into debt for trinkets that will collect dust somewhere
taking the red pill is about learning to separate your priorities and desires from those that society forces upon you i dont promise that adopting this mindset will make everybody happy but it will certainly help to clarify what contributes to your individual sense of self and will allow you to focus on the internal and external traits that exemplify a man of value | 1 |
1,448 | Criticized for Egypt ties, France to raise human rights with al-Sisi | PARIS (Reuters) - President Emmanuel Macron, conscious of criticism of France s policy on Egypt, will raise his concerns over human rights when he meets Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Paris next week, his office said on Thursday. The two countries have nurtured closer economic and military ties in recent years and with Sisi s rise to power that relationship has improved with both sides concerned by the political vacuum in Libya and the threat from jihadist groups in Egypt. But human rights organizations at home and overseas have accused France under Macron of remaining silent in the face of increasing violations of freedoms by Sisi s government as the 2018 presidential elections approach. This first meeting ... will enable them to discuss subjects of common interest such as regional crises and the fight against terrorism, but also the human rights situation which France is especially vigilant about, the presidency said in a statement referring to Sisi s Oct 23-25 visit. Rights groups are in particular critical of the relationship between Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who in his previous role as defense minister, developed a personal relationship with Sisi, and say Paris has abandoned its principles for economic and security interests. French officials dismiss this criticism and say the new administration is following a policy of not openly criticizing countries over human rights so as to be more efficient in private and work on a case by case basis. In a report in September, Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounced widespread and systematic use of torture by Egyptian security forces. The United Nations on Oct. 13 condemned an anti-gay crackdown in Egypt. HRW earlier slammed French indulgence towards repression in Egypt. According to two NGO officials aware of talks between Macron and human rights groups on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in September, Macron had told them that while he acknowledged the worsening human rights situation in Egypt, his priority was to ensure Sisi continued to fight terrorist groups. Faced with the lack of progress in respecting human rights and on democratic standards, the United States decided in August to freeze the payment of $195 million in military aid. Under the previous government, France concluded several major military agreements with Egypt, including the sale of 24 Rafale combat aircraft, a multi-mission frigate and two Mistral warships in contracts worth some six billion euros. | 1 |
1,449 | Factbox: After U.S. House Speaker Ryan, Trump to meet ex-rivals Fiorina, Santorum | (Reuters) - Donald Trump was scheduled to hold additional meetings on Friday and Monday as he forms his administration before taking over from Democratic President Barack Obama on Jan. 20. The Republican president-elect has held more than 90 meetings so far, according to his transition team. Trump was to see the following people in coming days, according to his team: * U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican * Former Trump rival for the 2016 presidential nomination * Former CEO of Hewlett-Packard Co * U.S. senator from West Virginia, a Democrat * Meeting originally scheduled for Dec. 9 * U.S. Representative from Idaho, a Republican * Serves on House Judiciary and Natural Resources committees * Was scheduled to meet with Trump on Dec. 8 * Former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, a Republican * Former Trump rival for the 2016 presidential nomination Technology industry leaders invited for a meeting with Trump, according to media reports citing transition officials. | 1 |
1,450 | Attorney General Sessions to unveil leak probes soon: reports | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions plans to announce soon several criminal investigations into intelligence leaks, news outlets reported on Wednesday, as the country’s top law enforcement official faced mounting criticism from President Donald Trump. The announcement has “been in the works for some time and will most likely happen sometime in the next week,” Fox News reported, citing an unnamed U.S. official. The Washington Post also reported the planned announcement, citing multiple unnamed officials. The investigations will look at news stories that publicized sensitive intelligence material, according to the reports. Officials at the U.S. Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment. On Tuesday, Trump tweeted that Sessions has not aggressively pursued people who leaked intelligence secrets during his time in office, one of a series of criticisms apparently aimed at pushing the former Republican Alabama senator to step down. Trump also said again that he was frustrated that Sessions had recused himself from a federal investigation into possible collusion between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia, but stopped short of saying whether he would fire him. Top Republican lawmakers have rallied to Sessions’ defense as allies of the attorney general said Trump appeared to be trying to pressure him to quit by repeatedly criticizing him on Twitter and in interviews. The latest apparent leak involved Sessions himself. On Friday, the Washington Post reported that Russia’s ambassador to Washington was overheard via surveillance by U.S. spy agencies telling his bosses that he had discussed campaign-related matters, including issues important to Moscow, with Sessions during the 2016 presidential race. The newspaper cited current and former U.S. officials familiar with U.S. intelligence intercepts. Earlier this month, a report written by Republican members of the Senate’s homeland security panel said the Trump administration faced an “alarming” amount of media leaks that posed potential danger to national security and urged law enforcement officials to step up their investigations. Separately, Trump’s new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, told Fox News on Wednesday he expected Trump would soon announce a plan to stem leaks, adding that there seemed to be some “political holdovers from the Obama administration that are not helping.” Scaramucci said he recognized it was “impossible” to eliminate leaks in Washington but added: “We’re going to try and hit a cultural reset on these leaks not only here in the White House, but I’m going to be working with the agencies and the departments to do that.” “Now one of the big problems here that I’m discovering in the (communications) team is that senior people are really the guys doing the leaking and they ask junior people to leak for them,” Scaramucci told Fox News in a separate interview later on Wednesday. On Tuesday, he told reporters on Air Force One after Trump’s trip to Ohio that he would probably restructure the communications operation at the White House and fire staff if leaks did not cease: “If the leaks continue, then I’ve got to let everybody go.” Scaramucci said there were no immediate plans to fire anyone else following the resignation of senior assistant press secretary Michael Short earlier on Tuesday. Leaks of classified intelligence that endanger national security have customarily prompted investigations, including by the administration of President Barack Obama, Trump’s predecessor. | 1 |
1,451 | Egypt court sentences Mursi to 25 years in Qatar spy case | CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced ousted president Mohammed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood to 25 years in prison in a final ruling over a case accusing him of spying for Qatar, judicial sources said. Mursi, democratically elected after Egypt s 2011 revolution, was overthrown in mid-2013 by then-general Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, now the president, following mass protests against his rule. He was immediately arrested. Egypt s Court of Cassation reduced Mursi s sentence in the Qatar case to 25 years in its final ruling, from an original 40 years. Mursi is already serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted for the killing of protesters during demonstrations in 2012. Since toppling Mursi, Sisi has clamped down on dissent. Mass trials have been held for thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters, and hundreds have received death sentences or lengthy prison terms. In 2014, Egypt charged Mursi and nine others with endangering national security by leaking state secrets and sensitive documents to Qatar. Egypt s relations with Doha were already troubled by Qatar s backing of Mursi. Egypt is one of four Arab nations in a Saudi-led bloc that cut relations with the Gulf state on June 5, accusing it of backing militant groups and cooperating with their arch-foe Iran, allegations Doha denies. | 1 |
1,452 | Republican Collins will stay in U.S. Senate, focused on healthcare | (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a moderate Republican who helped block her party’s efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act this year, said she planned to remain in her current office rather than run for governor. The four-term incumbent attracted national attention this summer as one of three Republican senators who voted in July against a bill to repeal the law often called Obamacare, a move that angered U.S. President Donald Trump. She said on Friday that remaining in the Senate would allow her to use her powerful voice in reforming the U.S healthcare system. Collins, who like all Republicans in the Senate in 2009 voted against the sweeping healthcare legislation, said she believed urgent action was needed to improve it but criticized the way repeal efforts had been handled over the summer. “When we’re dealing with an issue that affects millions of Americans, we need to understand the consequences of what we are doing, not vote on bills in the middle of the night that have had no substantive hearings,” Collins, 64, told a group of business leaders in Rockland, a city on the state’s midcoast. “We must stop allowing partisanship to be the pre-existing condition that prevents meaningful healthcare reform.” Urgent action is needed to stabilize the insurance markets, including creating high-risk pools, she said. She wants to require employers to offer healthcare coverage only to people who work 40 hours a week or more, raising the threshold from 30 hours. For weeks, Collins had flirted publicly with the idea of launching a bid to succeed Governor Paul LePage, a fiery conservative first elected in 2010 on a wave of support from the populist Tea Party movement. State laws forbid LePage from seeking a third term. Collins and LePage mark out the two poles of the state’s Republican Party. Collins’ independence makes her an increasingly powerful player in Washington, one veteran Maine political observer said. “She is at the very center of virtually every big policy debate and big vote in the U.S. Senate,” said Mark Brewer, professor of political science at the University of Maine. “She remains an incredibly important player on any issue she wants to focus on.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell welcomed the news: “Her decision to remain in the Senate is important not only for the people of Maine, who she serves so well, but for the nation as a whole.” | 1 |
1,453 | Democrats win bitter Virginia governor's race in setback for Trump | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Ralph Northam won a bitter race for Virginia governor on Tuesday, dealing a setback to President Donald Trump with a decisive victory over a Republican who had adopted some of the president’s combative tactics and issues. Northam, the state’s lieutenant governor, overcame a barrage of attack ads by Republican Ed Gillespie that hit the soft-spoken Democrat on divisive issues such as immigration, gang crime and Confederate statues. Trump, who endorsed Gillespie but did not campaign with him, had taken a break from his Asia trip to send tweets and record messages on Tuesday supporting the former chairman of the Republican National Committee. But after the outcome, Trump quickly distanced himself from Gillespie. “Ed Gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for,” Trump tweeted. “With the economy doing record numbers, we will continue to win, even bigger than before!” At his victory party, Northam told supporters the sweeping Democratic win in Virginia sent a message to the country. “Virginia has told us to end the divisiveness, that we will not condone hatred and bigotry, and to end the politics that have torn this country apart,” Northam said. The Virginia race highlighted a slate of state and local elections that also included a governor’s race in New Jersey, where Democrat Phil Murphy, a former investment banker and ambassador to Germany, defeated Republican Kim Guadagno for the right to succeed Republican Chris Christie. Murphy had promised to be a check on Trump in Democratic-leaning New Jersey. Guadagno, the lieutenant governor, was hampered by her association with the unpopular Christie. Murphy’s win and the Northam victory in Virginia, a state Democrat Hillary Clinton won by 5 percentage points in the 2016 presidential election, provided a much-needed boost for national Democrats who were desperate to turn grassroots resistance to Trump into election victories. Democrats had already lost four special congressional elections earlier this year. But a strong turnout in the Democratic-leaning northern Virginia suburbs of Washington helped propel Northam, who in the end won relatively easily. With nearly all precincts reporting, he led by a 53 percent to 45 percent margin. Exit polls in Virginia showed that one-third of the voters went to the polls to oppose Trump, and only 17 percent went to support him. Democrats also swept the other top statewide Virginia races, winning the offices of lieutenant governor and attorney general, and gained seats in the Virginia House of Delegates. Democrat Danica Roem beat a long-time Republican incumbent to become the first transgender person to win a state legislative race. “This is a comprehensive political victory from statehouse to courthouse. Thank you Donald Trump!” Democratic U.S. Representative Gerald Connolly of Virginia told Northam’s supporters at a victory party in northern Virginia. In Virginia, Democrats had worried that if Gillespie won, Republicans would see it as a green light to emphasize divisive cultural issues in their campaigns for next year’s elections, when all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and 33 of the U.S. Senate’s 100 seats come up for election. Republicans now control both chambers. Gillespie, speaking to crestfallen supporters in Richmond, Virginia, said he had run a “very policy-focused campaign.” But voters in Arlington County - a suburban Democratic stronghold bordering Washington - said national politics were important to their votes. “Trump talks about draining the swamp, but Gillespie kind of is the swamp,” said Nick Peacemaker, who works in marketing and considered himself a Republican until Trump won the party’s presidential nomination. Peacemaker said Gillespie seemed to shift closer to Trump’s policies after securing the Republican gubernatorial nomination. In local races across the country, Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio in New York and Marty Walsh in Boston both easily won re-election. Voters were also picking mayors in Detroit, Atlanta, Seattle and Charlotte, North Carolina. | 1 |
1,454 | In Puerto Rico, a sinkhole of rebuilding struggles | BAYAMON, Puerto Rico/NEW YORK, (Reuters) - Along a stretch of highway in suburban Bayamon, Puerto Rico, construction workers tried desperately to make progress repairing a 100-foot-long sinkhole before the clouds rolled in. Previous rains had suspended work, as workers watched earth fall back into the hole. It has not wanted to stop raining since Hurricane Maria, said Carlos Rivera, a 26-year-old contract worker at the site last month. Cars backed up for miles along Puerto Rico Highway 2 on either side of the colossal construction site, which swallowed four of five lanes. The 20-foot crater was among thousands of sites damaged by a storm that exposed an already fragile infrastructure in Puerto Rico, decimating water, power and roadways all at once. Fixing just this one sinkhole required maneuvering a set of vexing logistical and financial hurdles that reveal why rebuilding this isolated island will take so much more time and work than in any storm-ravaged region of the mainland United States. The hole is only one of 3,500 reported incidents of hurricane damage to Puerto Rico-owned roadways, with repair costs estimated at $250 million. A U.S. territory, Puerto Rico was already in trouble when Maria hit on Sept. 20 as the strongest storm to strike the island in nine decades. Its economy had been in recession for a decade, pushing the island into bankruptcy to restructure about $120 billion in bond and pension debt. The task of rebuilding is made that much harder by the challenges and expense of bringing supplies and equipment to an island, which will depend heavily on U.S. aid and likely struggle to finance its expected share of the rebuilding. The storm cut all power and cell service, felled trees, destroyed 230,000 homes and damaged another 400,000. One of the casualties was this stretch of Highway 2, the vital 143-mile artery between San Juan and Ponce. Running west from San Juan before looping south, the road transports thousands of people a day between the San Juan suburbs and the island s bustling capital. Hurricane Maria s rains flooded the pipes under Highway 2 until one burst. Water gushed out of the old pipe deep below the roadway, scouring out a hole into which the ground eventually collapsed. Officials could not ignore the sinkhole, which squeezed eastbound traffic into a single westbound lane and detoured westbound traffic. Tempers began to fray as residents endured a one-mile drive for nearly an hour. The problem fell to Puerto Rico Transportation and Public Works Secretary Carlos Contreras Aponte. His department oversees the island s Highway and Transportation Authority (PRHTA), which manages a third of Puerto Rico s 9,300 miles of roadway. The most pressing problem facing Contreras was logistics: how to rebuild a road with no power, limited trucks, no electrical light, and no cell phones. As of this week, less than half the island s power had been restored, according to the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority. Puerto Rico s antiquated electric grid was decimated by the storm and now needs a complete rebuild. Electricity is required to run the machinery used for extracting rock and other raw materials to produce asphalt. Since the storm, contractors have had to bring in diesel-powered generators to power the machinery, a cumbersome and expensive task, Contreras said. That s something that s happening in every industry here, creating a shortage of generators, Contreras said. Another scarce commodity: trucks. With much of the population cut off from power and communication, the island was forced to divert hundreds of trucks and drivers to help bring supplies to needy citizens. That left few vehicles behind to transport the equipment and materials needed to fix infrastructure, including Highway 2 s sinkhole. The truck drivers, many have been hired by other companies, the secretary said. Among those competing for trucks: Puerto Rico s own water and sewer authority, known as PRASA. PRASA president Eli Diaz-Atienza told Reuters in an interview in October that his agency had just 125 trucks to service the island s 3.4 million residents. He has requested trucks from FEMA, tapped the U.S. Army National Guard for vehicles, and contracted with private sector firms to repurpose vehicles such as milk trucks. We ll never have enough trucks, Diaz said. Replacements for damaged traffic signals at all of Puerto Rico s 1,200 intersections must be flown to the island from the states, a more expensive and complicated process than trucking them. We don t have those supplies here in Puerto Rico because we never had to repair the equipment at all of the intersections at once, Contreras said. Through it all, communications remain a problem. With cell service iffy, the roads department has resorted to using runners who travel hours to areas of the island without phone service to relay reports of damage. The travel time and word-of-mouth communication has led to incorrect, incomplete or confusing information and further delays, Contreras said. Sometimes we get a description of a problem, and then when we send the technical people, it s a completely different story, he explained. One problem this particular sinkhole managed to avoid was money. Because it lay on a major thoroughfare, Contreras decided to prioritize it, funding repairs with an expected $1 million of the $42.5 million in emergency funds from the Federal Highway Administration. Puerto Rico officials could not be reached for comment on the final costs and time required to repair the roadway. But a Reuters witness who drove down Highway 2 this week said the area had been paved over and traffic was moving easily. The triage process that pits some rebuilding projects over others reflects the broader financial ruin in Puerto Rico. Initial U.S. aid packages won t be nearly enough, so agencies like PRHTA - and cities and towns, too - will rely heavily on the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency to finance rebuilding over the long term. No municipality in Puerto Rico has the money to build the infrastructure that s needed, said Angel Perez, mayor of Guaynabo, where damage to municipal property is estimated at $25 million to $30 million - a big hit for a San Juan suburb whose total budget is about $130 million. Cash-strapped cities and towns here are also scrambling to pay up front costs of rebuilding projects. In a major emergency, Puerto Rico is treated the same as a U.S. state, a FEMA spokesman said. It is eligible for the same FEMA aid and other types of federal funds made available when a state suffers a catastrophe, he said. Rebuilding aid is typically conditioned on a cost-sharing agreement that would require Puerto Rico to match a quarter of expenses. That share was reduced to 10 percent this month, the White House said. Still, Puerto Rico s financial crisis and the crippling blow of the storm mean the territory could still be hard-pressed to put up its share. The longer projects take, the more costly they get, Contreras said, as relentless Caribbean rain continues to erode damaged stretches of highway, particularly those buried by mudslides. At the Highway 2 sinkhole, construction worker Silvano Monica, 62, said the work was just a small start: There are roads and bridges with problems like this all over the island. | 1 |
1,455 | readers enraged by msm election reporting you misled your readers blinded by journalistic bigotry | ago
remember a few months ago when liberals thought there was no way donald trump would ever take the presidency remember when in their arrogance many celebrities promised to leave the country if he was ever elected looks like its time to start packing
the list of celebrities that were supposedly set to lose after this election include liberal comedians like jon stewart and amy schumer stewart spent the majority of the election season calling trump and his supporters racists sexists and bigots i would consider getting in a rocket and going to another planet because clearly this planets gone bonkers he said in an interview with people magazine
the list also includes the everpeachy lena dunham who promised to stand by her threat no matter what
i know a lot of people have been threatening to do this but i really will dunham said in april at an awards ceremony i know a lovely place in vancouver and i can get my work done from there
below is a list of at least celebrities who promised to leave if trump won the election
comedian jon stewart | 0 |
1,456 | Obama says he will stay in Washington after he leaves White House: USA Today | (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Thursday he plans to remain in Washington after his term in office ends in January so that his youngest daughter can finish high school, USA Today reported. “We’re going to have to stay a couple of years so Sasha can finish. Transferring someone in the middle of high school - tough,” he said while eating lunch at a Milwaukee restaurant, USA Today reported. | 1 |
1,457 | GOP Congress Just Delivered Trump The Biggest Insult Possible; They Are Completely Ignoring Him | If there s one thing Donald Trump fears the most, even more than negative press coverage or pending criminal indictments, is irrelevance. Trump, though, is tweeting his way right into irrelevance, so much so that the GOP Congress, which has been shaking in its boots over losing the support of Trump voters, is now completely ignoring him.Over the weekend, Trump tweeted, Unless the Republican Senators are total quitters, Repeal & Replace is not dead! Demand another vote before voting on any other bill! Unless the Republican Senators are total quitters, Repeal & Replace is not dead! Demand another vote before voting on any other bill! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017The Republican Congress didn t flinch:Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) warned reporters Monday not to leap to conclusions that Republicans won t be able to pass a healthcare bill, but he appeared to hint that a second vote isn t imminent. What we do know is next is nominations and hopefully [Senate Minority Leader Charles] Schumer will agree to break the logjam and that would be a good use of our next two weeks, the No. 2 Senate Republican said.Source: The HillAnother Republican echoed the non-response:Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), another member of Senate GOP leadership, said Republicans could circle back to healthcare when they reach a consensus. Until then, it s time to move on and put wins on the board, he said. Obviously we didn t give up and we didn t quit and we gave it our best shot, and we can come back to this at a later time, Blunt said, asked about Trump s tweets.Another GOP rep thinks Trump will be gone by the mid terms.Ouch. So much for the bully pulpit.There are so many reasons not to take Trump seriously, like the fact that he isn t a legitimate president and that massive populist movement that had the GOP bowing at Trump s feet really doesn t exist.Or, how about the fact that Trump and his White House are likely going to be buried in criminal indictments any minute. That s not a bad reason for the GOP to start distancing themselves.Maybe it s the constant state of chaos that is hurting Trump s image, or perhaps it s the fact that he seems to know absolutely nothing about how this country works.Everyone who has watched the news over the last few days knows that repealing Obamacare failed to get through the Senate in a slim simple majority vote.Trump realized it right after the vote:3 Republicans and 48 Democrats let the American people down. As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal. Watch! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017Since, though, he s been on a Twitter rant about getting rid of the filibuster, even though there were no filibusters:If Republicans are going to pass great future legislation in the Senate, they must immediately go to a 51 vote majority, not senseless 60 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017 Even though parts of healthcare could pass at 51, some really good things need 60. So many great future bills & budgets need 60 votes . Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017Republican Senate must get rid of 60 vote NOW! It is killing the R Party, allows 8 Dems to control country. 200 Bills sit in Senate. A JOKE! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017The very outdated filibuster rule must go. Budget reconciliation is killing R s in Senate. Mitch M, go to 51 Votes NOW and WIN. IT S TIME! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017Republicans in the Senate will NEVER win if they don t go to a 51 vote majority NOW. They look like fools and are just wasting time Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017 .8 Dems totally control the U.S. Senate. Many great Republican bills will never pass, like Kate s Law and complete Healthcare. Get smart! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017No, no they don t. If they did, you would be on trial.If the Senate Democrats ever got the chance, they would switch to a 51 majority vote in first minute. They are laughing at R s. MAKE CHANGE! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017They actually did have the chance and Harry Reid didn t do it.Don t give up Republican Senators, the World is watching: Repeal & Replace and go to 51 votes (nuke option), get Cross State Lines & more. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2017Once again, Donald, they tried getting 51 votes and they failed.What s most surprising about the GOP s change of heart toward their Dear Leader is that it s taken this long. He s long shown himself as an erratic petulant man-child who s loyal to exactly one person him. At this point, all Republicans can do is hope that they can stand far enough away so they won t be hit by shrapnel from his exploding administration.Featured image via Pool/Getty Images | 0 |
1,458 | Trump backtracks on cyber unit with Russia after harsh criticism | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday backtracked on his push for a cyber security unit with Russia, tweeting that he did not think it could happen, hours after his proposal was harshly criticized by Republicans who said Moscow could not be trusted. Trump said on Twitter early on Sunday that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed on Friday forming “an impenetrable Cyber Security unit” to address issues like the risk of cyber meddling in elections. The idea appeared to be a political non-starter. It was immediately scorned by several of Trump’s fellow Republicans, who questioned why the United States would work with Russia after Moscow’s alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. “It’s not the dumbest idea I have ever heard but it’s pretty close,” Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. Ash Carter, who was U.S. defense secretary until the end of former Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration in January, told CNN flatly: “This is like the guy who robbed your house proposing a working group on burglary.” Trump’s advisers, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, had recently sought to explain Trump’s cyber push. Mnuchin said on Saturday that Trump and Putin had agreed to create “a cyber unit to make sure that there was absolutely no interference whatsoever, that they would work on cyber security together.” But Trump returned to Twitter on Sunday to play down the idea, which arose at his talks with Putin at a summit of the Group of 20 nations in Hamburg, Germany. “The fact that President Putin and I discussed a Cyber Security unit doesn’t mean I think it can happen. It can’t,” Trump said on Twitter. He then noted that an agreement with Russia for a ceasefire in Syria “can & did” happen. Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona acknowledged Trump’s desire to move forward with Russia, but added: “There has to be a price to pay.” “There has been no penalty,” McCain, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, told CBS’ “Face the Nation” program according to a CBS transcript. “Vladimir Putin ... got away with literally trying to change the outcome ... of our election.” Trump argued for a rapprochement with Moscow in his campaign but has been unable to deliver because his administration has been dogged by investigations into the allegations of Russian interference in the election and ties with his campaign. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating the matter, including whether there may have been any collusion on the part of Trump campaign officials, as are congressional committees including both the House of Representatives and Senate intelligence panels. Those probes are focused almost exclusively on Moscow’s actions, lawmakers and intelligence officials say, and no evidence has surfaced publicly implicating other countries despite Trump’s suggestion that others could have been involved. Moscow has denied any interference, and Trump says his campaign did not collude with Russia. Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN’s “State of the Union” program that Russia could not be a credible partner in a cyber security unit. “If that’s our best election defense, we might as well just mail our ballot boxes to Moscow,” Schiff added. Separately, U.S. government officials said a recent hack into business systems of U.S. nuclear power and other energy companies was carried out by Russian government hackers, the Washington Post reported on Saturday. Trump said he “strongly pressed President Putin twice about Russian meddling in our election. He vehemently denied it.” He added: “We negotiated a ceasefire in parts of Syria which will save lives. Now it is time to move forward in working constructively with Russia!” In Trump’s first attempt at ending the six-year Syrian civil war, the United States, Russia and Jordan on Friday reached a ceasefire and “de-escalation agreement” for southwestern Syria. The ceasefire was holding hours after it took effect on Sunday, a monitor and two rebel officials said. Any joint U.S.-Russia cyber initiative would have been a different matter. Depending how much it veered into military or espionage operations, it could have faced major legal hurdles. Language in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act prohibits the Pentagon, which includes the National Security Agency and the U.S. military’s Cyber Command, from using any funds for bilateral military cooperation with Russia. Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, also noted restrictions on sharing information with Russia that would clearly prohibit offering Moscow a sense of U.S. cyber capabilities. Russia would be similarly adverse to revealing its capabilities to the United States, he noted. “It just will not happen,” McFaul told Reuters. | 1 |
1,459 | Trump, now president, pledges to put 'America First' in nationalist speech | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump took power as the 45th president of the United States on Friday and pledged to end what he called an “American carnage” of rusted factories and crime in an inaugural address that was a populist and nationalist rallying cry. Striking a defiant tone, Trump said American workers have been devastated by the outsourcing of jobs abroad. “From this day forward it’s going to be only America First,” the Republican told thousands of people gathered on the National Mall to see him take over from Democrat Barack Obama. With Obama and three other former presidents sitting nearby, Trump accused previous U.S. administrations of enriching Washington at the expense of struggling American families. Underscoring the deep divisions in the country, protests against Trump turned ugly in downtown Washington. Black-clad activists smashed store windows, blocked traffic and fought with police in riot gear who responded with tear gas and stun grenades. Police said more than 200 people were arrested. Aerial pictures of the crowds of Trump supporters on the Mall showed a much smaller turnout at midday on Friday than that in comparable photos from Obama’s first inauguration in 2009. Estimates of Friday’s crowd size were not immediately available from police. The inaugural address was vintage Trump, with plenty of material gleaned from dozens of campaign rallies he staged last year on the road to victory on Nov. 8 over Democrat Hillary Clinton, who attended the ceremony with her husband, former President Bill Clinton. Trump said the United States has enriched foreign industry at the expense of American companies, subsidized the armies of other countries while letting the U.S. military become depleted, and spent trillions abroad while allowing infrastructure at home to crumble. “The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed across the entire world,” he said. Trump accused the Washington establishment of protecting itself but abandoning regular citizens who have suffered from poverty and crime. “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now,” he said. “Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs, will be made to benefit American workers and American families,” he said. Trump, 70, takes over a country divided after a savage election campaign. The grim vision of America he often paints is belied by statistics showing low levels of unemployment and crime nationally, although Trump won many votes in parts of the nation where manufacturing industry has been badly hit. While Trump positioned himself as a champion of working Americans, the Tax Policy Center non-partisan think tank estimates that his tax proposals would not only add $7.2 trillion in U.S. government debt over the first 10 years, but are skewed to help the wealthiest Americans. Hours after taking the oath of office, Trump, who repeatedly promised to repeal Obama’s signature health-care law, signed his first executive order, directing U.S. agencies to delay, waive or grant exemptions from any provisions of the Affordable Care Act deemed burdensome for states or individuals. Republicans in Congress hope to repeal the health care law, also known as Obamacare, and replace it. Sitting behind the presidential Resolute Desk, Trump signed the order in a hastily arranged ceremony. In the Oval Office, which Obama vacated Friday morning, gold drapes had already been hung in place of crimson ones. Trump’s election was greeted with concern by many countries around the world, in part because of the potential for an isolationist foreign policy. In an interview after Trump was sworn in, German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said, “What we heard today were high nationalistic tones.” “I think we have to prepare for a rough ride,” Gabriel told public broadcaster ZDF, adding that Europe should stand together to defend its interests. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto congratulated Trump on his inauguration, but cautioned that the sovereignty, national interest and protection of Mexicans would be paramount. Mexicans have been angered by Trump’s pledge to build a wall along the southern U.S. border to keep out illegal immigrants, and to make Mexico pay for it. Trump has also frequently criticized U.S. companies that have manufacturing operations in Mexico. U.S. stocks closed higher on Friday in a modest advance, marking the first time in more than 50 years that a new commander-in-chief has been welcomed by a rising equity market on his first day in office. Pope Francis urged Trump to be guided by ethical values, saying he must take care of the poor and the outcast. In Moscow, Russians hoping Trump will usher in a new era of detente celebrated his inauguration. Russian nationalists held an all-night party at what used to be the main Soviet-era post office in Moscow. In the city of Zlatoust, craftsmen released a limited series of silver and gold commemorative coins, engraved with “In Trump We Trust.” Trump signaled the possibility of a more aggressive approach to Islamic State militants. “We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones, and unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the earth,” he said. The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly voted on Friday to confirm retired General James Mattis as defense secretary and retired General John Kelly as homeland security secretary, making them the first Trump Cabinet nominees to be approved. New Vice President Mike Pence swore both in Friday night. After repeating the 35-word oath of office in the ceremony, Trump stretched his arms wide and hugged his wife, Melania, and other members of his family. Ceremonial cannon blasts fired. The Trumps rode in a heavily armored limousine to lead an inaugural parade to the White House. The couple and their 10-year-old-son, Barron, hopped out of the limo and walked part of the parade route, waving to cheering well wishers. Later, they watched some of the parade from a reviewing stand built on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House. Trump takes office with work to do to improve his image. An ABC News/Washington Post poll this week found only 40 percent of Americans viewed him favorably, the lowest rating for an incoming president since Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1977, and the same percentage approved of how he has handled the transition. Trump’s rise, while welcomed by Republicans tired of Obama’s eight years in office, raises a host of questions for the United States. Trump campaigned on a pledge to take the country on a more isolationist, protectionist path and he has vowed to impose a 35 percent tariff on imports from U.S. companies that went abroad. More than 60 Democratic lawmakers stayed away from the proceedings to protest Trump. Many demonstrators will participate in a “Women’s March on Washington” on Saturday. Protests are also planned in other cities in the United States and abroad. Trump’s to-do list has given Republicans hope that, since they also control the U.S. Congress, they can approve sweeping tax reform and roll back many federal regulations they say are stifling the U.S. economy, as well as repeal and replace Obamacare. “He’s going to inject a shock to the system here almost immediately,” Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway told Fox News. Democrats, in search of firm political footing after the unexpected defeat of Clinton, are planning to fight him at every turn. Trump’s critics have been emboldened to attack his legitimacy because his win came only in the Electoral College, which gives smaller states more clout in the outcome. He lost the popular vote to Clinton by about 2.9 million. Trump’s critics also point to the conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia used hacking and other methods during the campaign to try to tilt the election in the Republican’s favor. Trump has acknowledged the finding - denied by Moscow - that Russia was behind the hacking but said it did not affect the outcome of the election. | 1 |
1,460 | Kaine's crime-busting past may hurt Clinton's outreach to blacks | RICHMOND, Va. (Reuters) - Democrat Hillary Clinton’s pick of Tim Kaine as her vice presidential running mate could hamper her efforts to reach out to African-American voters because of Kaine’s past embrace of crime-fighting strategies that have driven up the U.S. prison population and are unpopular in the black community. The now-defunct Project Exile that Kaine backed was so unusual it was championed by Republicans and Democrats alike and by both the top U.S. gun lobby group and gun-control advocates. But the federal program launched in 1997 in Richmond, Virginia, was also criticized at the time as a racially biased initiative that condemned young black men to lengthy prison terms. Clinton has come under fire herself from black activists for her past support for tough-on-crime policies of the 1990s now blamed for a surge in U.S. prison population and heightened tensions between law enforcement and black communities. One of her fundraisers got disrupted earlier this year by activists who asked her to “apologize for mass incarceration.” Clinton named Kaine as her running mate late on Friday, making what is considered a safe choice for her battle against Republican presidential rival Donald Trump. As Richmond mayor from 1998 to 2001, Kaine, 58, was a vocal supporter of Project Exile, crediting it with reducing the city’s murder rate. Its goal was to literally live up to its name by making illegal gun possession a federal, not a state, crime, which allowed prosecutors to send convicted felons, most of them black, to a distant federal penitentiary for at least five years. Sam Sinyangwe, co-founder of Campaign Zero, a group focused on curtailing police violence, said Kaine’s choice could exacerbate Clinton’s problems rallying support of African-Americans, particularly younger people. “To select somebody like (Kaine) is not a sign of good leadership potential in a president,” Sinyangwe said. Nicole Lee, a civil-rights lawyer and activist in Washington, D.C. who is African-American, also expressed concern. “Project Exile broke black families,” she said. “This is not a benign thing to be for. These measures were not used against white kids in the suburbs with guns, they were used against black kids in the cities.” To defeat Trump in the Nov. 8 presidential election, Clinton needs high turnout among blacks and other minority voters to offset Trump’s popularity among white voters. During the 1990s, she supported tough-on-crime initiatives backed by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, but now vows to “end the era of mass incarceration.” Her campaign is trying to walk a political tightrope after the killings of two black men by police and the shooting deaths of police officers in Texas and Louisiana. She has offered support for the Black Lives Matter movement, while also strongly condemning the killings of police officers. Officials who were in Richmond during Kaine’s mayoral tenure believe the community, ravaged by the crack-cocaine epidemic and an escalating murder rate, had to take dramatic steps. Amy Dudley, a spokeswoman in Kaine’s Senate office, said the senator stood by the program, believing that it reduced gun violence. Jerry Oliver, the police chief at the time and an African-American, said the program focused on black communities out of necessity. “We had to be where the problems were,” he said. The National Rifle Association, the nation’s biggest gun lobby, was an early proponent of Project Exile as was the gun-control advocacy group Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. As Richmond’s first white mayor in more than a decade, Kaine was widely credited for helping to bridge racial divisions in the city, but Project Exile drew fire from defense lawyers and community advocates who argued that the program unfairly targeted African-Americans. Kevin Ring, vice president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a Washington advocacy group lobbying against federal sentencing minimums, said that Kaine, like Clinton, will have to demonstrate to black voters that he has “evolved” on the issue. “There are some that will be bothered. There will be questions,” Ring said. Kaine supports legislation that would roll back some mandatory minimum federal sentences and give judges more discretion, although his office says he still supports firm sentences for illegal gun possession. Kaine’s backing of Project Exile also makes him odd bedfellows with Trump, who has made law and order a central theme of his candidacy. Trump has called for the program’s revival and his campaign website said it was “tremendous.” | 1 |
1,461 | TILLERSON SLAMS BIDEN COMMENT: ‘Show Me Your Results and I’ll Tell You Your Commitment’ | WE LOVE HIS STYLE! Secretary of State Rex Tillerson slammed a comment from former Vice President Joe Biden about how budgets reflect priorities: Don t tell me what you value; show me your budget and I ll tell you what you value, Biden had said. Sen. Chris Coons (D., Del.) mentioned Biden s quote during Tuesday s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing with Tillerson. Coons used the quote to reference the Trump administration s proposed funding cuts to the State Department s budget. Tillerson said that results gauged values more than funding. Amen!Coons was basically using a quote from Biden to push the notion that the State Department isn t spending enough money. Notice how Coons is also unhappy with not spending or hiring fast enough at the State Department. He doesn t get that the Trump administration is results oriented and not funds oriented. Secretary Tillerson continued: Having the funds are certainly appreciated and needed, but then we have to be able to deliver working with other aid agencies and working with the situation on the ground to have the aid reach those most in need, he said.Tillerson said in order to effectively solve international aid issues, the State Department must look at the results desired before calculating how much money is necessary to do so. He highlighted that it was irresponsible to just throw money at the problem. The statement that show me your funding and I ll show you your level of commitment, I do not agree with. Funding does not equal results, Tillerson said. Show me your results, and I ll tell you your commitment. What are the results, and then I ll tell you what I need to deliver on those results.The best line comes at the end:Giving me a pot of money and suggesting that confirms our success and commitment is just simply I have to take exception to that, I ve never had that experience, he said.Great! Americans are so lucky to have someone like Secretary Tillerson!Via: WFB | 0 |
1,462 | BREAKING NEWS: Man With Laptop On American Airlines Flight To Honolulu Subdued After Attempting To Break Down Cockpit Door [VIDEO] | Tick tock. America will now wait until conservative news sources release his motive.UPDATE: The man who attempted to breach the cockpit has been identified as a Turkish man. Flight attendants, an off-duty Los Angeles police officer and other passengers were able to stop the man and secure him in a seat. It was all kind of surreal, said Penny Lorenzen, a passenger on the flight.Her husband was among those who got up to try to stop the man. It took seconds, said Lee Lorenzen, of Orange County, Calif. He was pushing against the cart and a bunch of guys grabbed him. They found some duct tape. There were pillows and blankets. And they taped him to his chair. Hawaii News Now A man was subdued after he tried to breach the cockpit of an American Airlines flight to Honolulu, a source familiar with the situation told ABC News.American Airlines said in a statement that law enforcement met the plane upon landing in Honolulu following a disturbance on the flight. The plane was escorted by two F-22 fighter jets for the duration of the flight following the disturbance, U.S. Pacific Command said in a statement. ABC NewsA source at the TSA told ABC News that the man was waiting for the bathroom near the cockpit when a flight attendant asked him to sit down. He had a laptop with him and appeared to try the cockpit door before he was subdued, the source said.The man, whose identity was not immediately available, was escorted off American Airlines Flight 31, after it landed safely at 11:35 a.m. Hawaii Standard Time, according to a statement from the airline.A government source confirmed that he had been loitering near the restroom and was carrying a laptop. Flight attendants asked him to return to his seat and he refused.He then seemed to lunge towards the cockpit door. That s when several passengers subdued him.He was arrested on the ground by the FBI.The flight, which originated from Los Angeles, was to arrive in Honolulu about noon. The flight departed from Los Angeles International Airport at 8:34 a.m. local time. NBC Los AngelesLATEST: 2 F-22 fighter jets escorted American Airlines Flight 31 to Honolulu Int l Airport due to disturbance on board, Pacific Command says pic.twitter.com/Ee8zTg4PN3 ABC News (@ABC) May 19, 2017 | 0 |
1,463 | Pence trims Asia trip to deal with domestic priorities | PAGO PAGO, American Samoa (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has cut short the final leg of his Asia trip to race back to Washington, where the Trump administration faces a critical week on tax reform and a funding plan to keep the government running, an aide said on Sunday. Pence, who has been traveling in Asia to reassure allies and partners about President Donald Trump’s commitment to the region, had originally planned to spend two nights in Honoluluat the end of a trip that took him to South Korea, Japan, Indonesia and Australia. While he spoke with business leaders in each country, Pence’s trip was overshadowed by rising tensions in North Korea, where it is feared another nuclear test could be conducted soon in defiance of United Nations sanctions. Pence will now spend one night in Hawaii and is slated to be back in Washington on Tuesday morning, his aide told reporters before Air Force Two landed at Pago Pago in American Samoa for refueling. Trump has a busy week ahead. Funding appropriated by Congress to run the government runs out on Friday, so he and lawmakers must agree on new legislation or the government will shut down on Saturday. Saturday is also Trump’s 100th day in office, a benchmark used by pundits to assess the initial accomplishments and shortfalls of his young presidency. Trump plans to outline principles for tax reform onWednesday, a top brief for Pence. While in Honolulu, Pence will meet leaders of the U.S.Pacific Command and is also slated to speak to U.S. troops and their families, the aide said. Pence had planned to tour the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor but will no longer do that, the aide said. | 1 |
1,464 | FBI Release Oregon Video Footage Depicting Death of Robert Lavoy Finicum – But Questions Remain | 21st Century Wire says..UPDATE 1-29-2016 at 01:30PM ET: Due to public pressure and intense speculation about the events of Tuesday brought on by a YouTube recording of the testimony of key eyewitness Victoria Sharp, the FBI has released the unedited aerial video footage from Tuesday evening s incident which took place along Highway 395. According to the official FBI statement: We feel that it is necessary to show the whole thing unedited in the interest of transparency. The FBI video entitled, Complete, Unedited Video of Joint FBI and OSP Operation 01/26/2016 , does show the victim Lavoy Finicum exiting the truck awkwardly in at least two feet of snow, and he clearly does not charge towards the SWAT team, and his hands are clearly held high above his head as he exits his truck when confronted by a SWAT team, before being shot multiple times by marksmen and falling in the snow. Also, the scale and size of this operation is very evident by the footage, and the apprehension of the protesters was not the result of a mere traffic stop as it was wrongly characterized in multiple mainstream media reports.The FBI has also titled their release as unedited which shows a window of 26 min and 29 seconds, but it would be interesting to see any drone footage prior to where their clip begins, to further determine how long the drone was filming the vehicles of Finicum and Bundy. This is important because it would shed further light the premeditated nature of the confrontation that the media and government sources have called a traffic stop . On its own, this FBI drone footage would appear to support previous government and media claims by CNN, Washington Post and others that the victim was indeed reaching towards his waistband which gave federal and state police justification to unleash deadly force. However, it is still not completely clear from this aerial footage whether or not Finicum was holstered (he is said to normally carry a gun on the right hip, but FBI are claiming he had a 9mm gun in his inside left breast pocket), but also whether or not he lowered his arms before, or after he was shot multiple times. For example, if Finicum had his hands in the air and was then was shot in the abdomen first, then any man s natural reaction would be to then lower his hand(s) and clutch the wound. Additionally, if any shots were fired, even in the vicinity, then confusion could have ensued which might have prompted Finicum to reach for his weapon. Either way, it is impossible to make any such a forensic determination without a corresponding audio track which would help to determine if any shots were fired before Finicum s hand(s) could be seen lowering. WARNING: The following images depict violence and death which some readers may find disturbing. Watch:Watch the edited version here: Finicum appears to temporarily lose his balance in the snow at the very moment he looks to be hit by agents.What is clear however from this video is that armed agents did not shoot to disable their suspect, but shot to kill and even had a laser sight trained on him for many minutes after he was downed. Clearly, multiple SWAT shooters could be seen emerging from the woods. After killing Finicum, police then left the victim to bleed to death laying in the snow and did not check on him for at least another 8 minutes.Flash-bang rounds can be seen around the 14:00 mark of the FBI s unedited version, and the FBI has said that it fired CS gas and non lethal rounds (possibly pepper spray rounds, or rubber bullets) are said to have been fired at the truck while the passengers were inside. This begs the question: with nonlethal rounds already in play why did multiple SWAT shooters use so many deadly rounds against Finicum when he exited the truck with his hands up?READ MORE OREGON STANDOFF NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Oregon Files | 0 |
1,465 | HILLARY CHEATED! Who Really Fed Hillary The Answers To Her Questions At Veteran’s Forum? | She never does things the way the rest of us do. She s always got an angle she s always got a way around doing things the way the everyday people she claims she represents do them. How can any female say that lying, cheating and conniving Hillary is a role model for woman with a straight face? Crooked Hillary Clinton wore an ear piece in last night s Commander in Chief Forum hosted by NBC and MSNBC. This was the first event where both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were invited to attend together. Each candidate received a short period with host Matt Lauer. It was expected that both candidates would provide unaided answers to the questions asked but it appears Hillary did not.Donald Trump tweeted after the event his disdain for candidate Clinton using the ear piece which provided her a boost in answering questions. Trump tweeted We can t let Hillary get away with wearing an ear piece during tonight s Veteran Forum .https://twitter.com/P0TUSTrump/status/773724216247984129Trump s not the only one who noticed:My article is the top fat link on Drudge. Nice. https://t.co/mw4f4s1xot pic.twitter.com/jiamqzVV33 Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) September 8, 2016Others noted her cheating ways as well accusing Hillary of eye movements and gaps between speech that showed she was listening and not thinking My article is the top fat link on Drudge. Nice. https://t.co/mw4f4s1xot pic.twitter.com/jiamqzVV33 Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) September 8, 2016https://twitter.com/AltStreamMedia/status/773732560824180736bocavista2016: RT BlkMan4Trump: #NBCNewsForum I think we all know who was on the other end of #HillarysEarPiece pic.twitter.com/XqjIbMd5It #N TrumpIsBlackLikeMe (@BlackManTrump) September 8, 2016Actor James Woods asks reminds us of Wikileaks email from Huma to Hillary regarding her earpiece :pic.twitter.com/T3gpMPelJl James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) September 8, 2016Cheating like this is not totally unexpected. President Obama was accused of doing the same thing in the debates in 2012 with candidate Romney and some have warned that this may happen again a few weeks ago. The picture of the wireless earpiece above is similar to one Obama may have used during those debates. As noted by thetruthdivision.com if you go back and watch the second and third debates in 2012, examine Obama s mannerism and head movements while he was watching Mitt Romney speak.Via: The Truth Division h/t GP | 0 |
1,466 | FEMALE REPORTER Assures Viewers Germany’s Carnival Is Free Of “Rapefugees,” As Men Sexually Assault Her On Live TV [VIDEO] | It s hard to tell if the men assaulting this female reporter are refugees or Germans. One thing is clear however, there is now an attitude permeating Germany that it s okay to openly commit sexual assault on women. Hmmm .isn t there a culture in the Middle East that has the same mindset? This is a perfect example of the Left putting an ideology before the most vulnerable in their society. To hell with protecting their women and children, welcoming Muslim males, who have no intention of assimilating with Europeans, appears to be the primary concern of progressives in the failed EU expiriment. The sex attack on the Belgian TV journalist Esmeralda Labye (42): she was attacked by two men while the camera was running on a live broadcast for the channel RTBF. The incident occurred around 1.30 am in the Old Market. The perpetrators are still at large.On the evening Labye spoke in a television broadcast about the events in Cologne: At first it was only fooling around behind me. Then a hand landed on my breast. I was shocked. https://youtu.be/DYQB81Bpd9MLive from the carnival in Cologne, the presenter on the national broadcaster, Esmeralda Labye, was explaining that things are going relatively well , while passers-by were making obscene gestures and whispering in her ear.Reminder: The final carnival festivities in Cologne, one of the most popular events in Germany, began last Thursday, surrounded by a heavy security after violence that took place at New Year . A total of 2,500 police officers were deployed, three times more than last year .The New Year s night was marred by violence , including sexual abuse , attributed to North African asylum seekers or immigrants.Via: DH.be | 0 |
1,467 | Report: Trump Won’t Be Handling Foreign Or Domestic Tasks As President | Donald Trump is officially the Republican nominee for President of the United States. Mike Pence is officially the nominee for Vice President of the United States. According to a new report from the New York Times, guess who will be doing almost all of the work?Hint: it won t be Donald Trump.The report, published today, chronicles just how Trump came to settle on Pence instead of the likes of John Kasich, Newt Gingrich, Condoleezza Rice and so forth. But several paragraphs concerning former presidential candidate John Kasich shows the true side of Donald Trump, one that Democrats have been trying to warn the American public about for over a year:One day this past May, Donald Trump s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., reached out to a senior adviser to Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, who left the presidential race just a few weeks before Donald Jr. wanted to make him an offer nonetheless: Did he have any interest in being the most powerful vice president in history?When Kasich s adviser asked how this would be the case, Donald Jr. explained that his father s vice president would be in charge of domestic and foreign policy.Then what, the adviser asked, would Trump be in charge of? Making America great again was the casual reply.And there you have it. What exactly does he mean when he says making America great again if he doesn t want to do the only things needed? Trump doesn t want the responsibility of actually being president, he just wants the title and the prestige. Instead of taking it upon himself to deliver on his promises, he s going to dump everything on Mike Pence and sit back and relax while the world crumbles (because everyone knows that wall isn t being built).Congratulations, Republicans, you really picked a winner. He hadn t even decided on who his Vice President would be when he figured out he doesn t want to put in the work to be President.Mike Pence is now poised to become the most powerful V.P. in American historyAnd Republicans say Democrats are lazy and Democrats disgrace the office of the presidency? Once again, the GOP is caught in a corner they can t back out of and it s all thanks to Donald J. Trump.On the second night of the Republican National Convention, Trump s youngest daughter, Tiffany, exulted that her father was a hard worker who never gave up, never stopped dreaming, and never stopped achieving. Well, it turns out he gave up being president of the United States before he has even started.Donald Trump, time and time again, has shown himself to be a lazy, pandering, egomaniacal, narcissistic blowhard. And, not surprisingly, he picked a vice president with the same attributes. I can t wait to see how his duped electorate tries to justify this. They will somehow blame it on Hillary Clinton or President Obama, because that s what Republicans are good at blaming others.If Democrats don t get out and vote, say hello to President Trump eh, President Pence.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 0 |
1,468 | “STOP BLAMING WHITE PEOPLE For Trump’s Win Last Night…America Voted For Actual Change” [VIDEO] | Stop blaming white people for Trumps win last night. America voted for actual change. pic.twitter.com/UlISJcOIIg Stacy Washington (@StacyOnTheRight) November 9, 2016 | 0 |
1,469 | EMBARRASSING! NYC MAYOR DE BLASIO Can’t Tell The Difference Between Trump And Obama’s Immigration Policy [Video] | CNN s Jake Tapper raised the point that Obama and former President Jimmy Carter had both taken similar moves during their presidencies as Trump did with his executive order restricting immigration from certain countries with terrorism problems. Now there have been times in the nation s history when detainees I m sorry, not detainees when refugees or immigrants from a specific country were put on hold, were suspended, Tapper said. Barack Obama did it with Iraqis for six months, Tapper continued. Jimmy Carter did it with Iranians during that hostage crisis. How is this different? Read more: WFB | 0 |
1,470 | Insight: Emails show how Republicans lobbied to limit voting hours in North Carolina | (This version of the November 3 story officially corrects paragraph 13 to read Chapel Hill, instead of Raleigh. The White House initially misidentified Obama’s location in a transcript of his remarks) By Julia Harte ASHEBORO, N.C. (Reuters) - When Bill McAnulty, an elections board chairman in a mostly white North Carolina county, agreed in July to open a Sunday voting site where black church members could cast ballots after services, the reaction was swift: he was labeled a traitor by his fellow Republicans. “I became a villain, quite frankly,” recalled McAnulty at a state board of elections meeting in September that had been called to resolve disputes over early voting plans. “I got accused of being a traitor and everything else by the Republican Party,” McAnulty said. Following the blowback from Republicans, McAnulty later withdrew his support for the Sunday site. In an interview with Reuters, he said he ultimately ruled against opening the Sunday voting site in Randolph County because he had “made a mistake in reading the wishes of the voters.” He declined to discuss the episode further. This year’s highly charged presidential contest between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump has stoked accusations by both parties of political meddling in the scheduling of early voting hours in North Carolina, a coveted battleground state with a history of tight elections. In emails, state and county Republican officials lobbied members of at least 17 county election boards to keep early-voting sites open for shorter hours on weekends and in evenings – times that usually see disproportionately high turnout by Democratic voters. Reuters obtained the emails through a public records request. The officials also urged county election boards to open fewer sites for residents to cast ballots during early voting that began on Oct. 20 and ends on Saturday. Civil rights advocates and Democrats launched their own campaigns for expanded early voting hours. The tug-of-war yielded mixed results. The state did ultimately add nearly 5,900 more hours and 78 more sites to vote early than in 2012. But several counties opened only one polling site during the first week of early voting, slightly denting turnout across the state. Voter turnout dropped by 20 percent in the counties that had multiple polling sites during the first week of early voting in 2012 but just one site during the first week in 2016. “We currently have more early voting locations and hours open than ever were open under Democrat control,” said North Carolina Republican Party executive director Dallas Woodhouse, denying his party was trying to suppress the Democratic vote. President Barack Obama praised the expanded early voting opportunities during an election stop in North Carolina on Wednesday. “Those who wanted to suppress the vote, they’re going to fail,” he said at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill. “Right now, there are more one-stop early vote sites in North Carolina than ever before.” Counties that Obama, a Democrat, won in 2012 increased their Sunday hours this year by 16 percent, while counties that voted for his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, decreased them by nearly a quarter, the records show. State Republican officials say keeping polls open during evenings and weekends, or “off-hour” times, drains county resources. In two emails, on Aug. 11 and Aug. 14, Woodhouse urged Republicans serving on county election boards to follow the “party line” on curtailing the early voting period. “Many of our folks are angry and opposed to Sunday voting,” he wrote. “Six days of voting in one week is enough. Period.” Keeping polling sites open for the full 17-day early voting period “may be wasteful and unnecessary,” he added. Woodhouse’s emails were subsequently published by local media, but he was not alone in lobbying to limit voting hours, the Reuters review of public records shows. The review counted similar emails from at least four other Republican Party officials to election boards, each of which is composed of two Republicans and one Democrat. The same day that Woodhouse sent his Aug. 11 email, Elaine Hewitt, a member of the Rowan County Republican Executive Committee, sent the county elections board two proposed schedules for early voting, both of which included just one site for the first four days and no sites on Sundays. “With all of the opportunities to vote by mail, early in person Monday - Saturday, and on Election Day, there is no justification for requiring election workers to work on Sundays,” she wrote. Garry Terry, the chairman of the Republican Party for North Carolina’s First Congressional District, sent an email on Aug. 13 to elections board members in his region, reminding them to act “in the best interest of the Republican Party” by opposing Sunday voting and restricting early voting to one location. Hewitt and Terry did not respond to requests for comment. Woodhouse defended the actions of the Republican officials, telling Reuters that Republican opposition to Sunday voting was not discriminatory but was rather based on the belief that people should not be required to work on Sundays. The Sunday polling site that McAnulty first supported and then opposed would have been located at the Randolph County Board of Elections office and would have cost around $1,000 to operate, according to the office director. “If it’s not wasteful and it allows more people to vote... the board has historically been for that,” Margaret Megerian, the Democratic member of board, told Reuters. In contrast with the Republicans’ email campaign, the Democratic push to expand early voting hours has largely taken shape in public forums. In Democratic-leaning Guilford County, the state’s third largest, a county board of elections meeting on Aug. 8 attracted about 75 people after word spread that the board was planning to halve the number of early voting sites, from 24 in 2012. The Rev. Nelson Johnson said in an interview that the proposal by the board’s Republican chairwoman would “prevent voting especially by people who can’t easily take time off” and said it “absolutely” had a racial intent. Johnson, who is African American, leads a community center in Greensboro, North Carolina. Board Chairwoman Kathryn Lindley told Reuters she believed “a lesser number of sites would cause less confusion about which places were going to be open,” and that it was “ludicrous” to think her suggested plan had been discriminatory. The board ultimately agreed to 25 early voting sites and one day of Sunday voting before the November election. Johnson said the decision was “a significant triumph.” Lindley said Johnson’s group had no influence on the final outcome. Guilford’s plan also included one restriction that particularly angered Democrats. In the first week of early voting in 2012, residents could vote at 16 sites. This year, that has been reduced to one. Mary Cranford, 52, a registered Republican, was fourth in line on the first day of early voting in Guilford. She was able to vote but said she was upset that only one site was open for the first week. She said she voted for Clinton this year. “I can’t believe what’s been done to keep some people from voting in this state,” she said. Just 7,916 people voted in the first week of early voting in Guilford this year, compared to 60,732 in 2012, according to state elections board records. The general counsel for Clinton’s campaign and other plaintiffs filed a court motion on Oct. 1 demanding Guilford and four other North Carolina counties expand their early voting opportunities. The court denied it, saying that changing the early voting plans “would create logistical difficulties.” | 1 |
1,471 | Trump slams Sessions as not tough enough, assails intel leaks | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump criticized his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, as not being tough enough on Tuesday, adding to speculation his longtime supporter might be on the way out, and accused American intelligence agencies of high-level leaks. “I want the attorney general to be much tougher,” Trump said at a news conference. “I want the leaks from intelligence agencies, which are leaking like rarely have they ever leaked before, at a very important level. These are intelligence agencies we cannot have that happen.” Asked about Sessions’ future, Trump said: “Time will tell. Time will tell.” | 1 |
1,472 | Bombshell Report Shows The Russian Meeting Was No ‘Nothing Burger’ | While the defense of three members of Trump s camp meeting with Russians last year has taken more turns than a roller coaster, one defense has been constant: It s a nothing burger. While Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort did meet with Russians to get dirt on Hillary Clinton, the argument is that it doesn t matter because they didn t actually receive any dirt.Of course that argument gave us a whole host of botched bank robber and To Catch a Predator analogies, basically saying that if you intend to commit a crime and you act upon it, you have committed a crime, whether or not you get the goods.No matter how flawed that defense is, though, it turns out it s not even true. Trump Jr., Kushner and Manafort were given some dirt on Hillary Clinton. From near the bottom of an AP article:Veselnitskaya brought with her a plastic folder with printed-out documents that detailed what she believed was the flow of illicit funds to the Democrats, Akhmetshin said. Veselnitskaya presented the contents of the documents to the Trump associates and suggested that making the information public could help the campaign, he said. This could be a good issue to expose how the DNC is accepting bad money, Akhmetshin recalled her saying.Trump Jr. asked the attorney if she had sufficient evidence to back up her claims, including whether she could demonstrate the flow of the money. But Veselnitskaya said the Trump campaign would need to research it more. After that, Trump Jr. lost interest, according to Akhmetshin. They couldn t wait for the meeting to end, he said.Akhmetshin said he does not know if Veselnitskaya s documents were provided by the Russian government. He said he thinks she left the materials with the Trump associates. It was unclear if she handed the documents to anyone in the room or simply left them behind, he said.So if the members of the Trump campaign didn t take the information, it was only because they would have had to do some of their own legwork. Not only is this administration the most crooked in American history, they are the most lazy. They didn t just want some opposition research from the Russians. They appeared to want the Russians to do all their work for them.Featured image via Win McNamee/Getty Images. | 0 |
1,473 | Khamenei says Iran will 'shred' nuclear deal if U.S. quits it | ANKARA (Reuters) - Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday Tehran would stick to its 2015 nuclear accord with world powers as long as the other signatories respected it, but would shred the deal if Washington pulled out, state TV reported. Khamenei spoke five days after U.S. President Donald Trump adopted a harsh new approach to Iran by refusing to certify its compliance with the deal, reached under Trump s predecessor Barack Obama, and saying he might ultimately terminate it. I don t want to waste my time on answering the rants and whoppers of the brute (U.S.) president, Khamenei said in a speech to students in Tehran quoted by state television. Trump s stupidity should not distract us from America s deceitfulness ... If the U.S. tears up the deal, we will shred it ... Everyone should know that once again America will receive a slap in its mouth and will be defeated by Iranians. Trump s move put Washington at odds with other parties to the accord - Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and the European Union - who say Washington cannot unilaterally cancel an international accord enshrined by a U.N. resolution. Khamenei, who has the final say on Iran s state matters, welcomed European support but said it was not sufficient. European states stressed their backing for the deal and condemned Trump ... We welcomed this, but it is not enough to ask Trump not to rip up the agreement. Europe needs to stand against practical measures (taken) by America. Under the deal, Iran agreed to curb its disputed uranium enrichment program in return for relief from international sanctions that crippled its economy, and U.N. nuclear inspectors have repeatedly certified Tehran s compliance with the terms. Trump accuses Iran of supporting terrorism and says the 2015 deal does not do enough to block its path to acquiring nuclear weapons. Iran says it does not seek nuclear arms and in turn blames the growth of militant groups such as Islamic State on the policies of the United States and its regional allies. In decertifying the nuclear deal last week, Trump gave the U.S. Congress 60 days to decide whether to reimpose economic sanctions on Tehran that were lifted under the pact. In a major shift in U.S. policy, Trump also said Washington will take a more confrontational approach to Iran over its ballistic missile program and its support for extremist groups in the Middle East. Tehran has repeatedly pledged to continue what it calls a defensive missile capability in defiance of Western criticism. The United States has said Iran s stance violates the 2015 deal in spirit as missiles could be tipped with nuclear weapons. Tehran has said it seeks only civilian nuclear energy from its enrichment of uranium, and that the program has nothing to do with missile development efforts. EU foreign ministers on Monday urged U.S. lawmakers not to reimpose sanctions on Tehran but also discussed Iran s missile program, which they want to see dismantled. They must avoid interfering in our defense program ... We do not accept that Europe sings along with America s bullying and its unreasonable demands, Khamenei said. They (Europeans) ask why does Iran have missiles? Why do you have missiles yourselves? Why do you have nuclear weapons? The Trump administration has imposed new unilateral sanctions targeting Iran s missile activity. It has called on Tehran not to develop missiles capable of delivering nuclear bombs. Iran says it has no such plans. Iran has one of the biggest ballistic missile programs in the Middle East, viewing it as an essential precautionary defense against the United States and other adversaries, primarily Gulf Arab states and Israel. Americans are angry because the Islamic Republic of Iran has managed to thwart their plots in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and other countries in the region, Khamenei said. Supporters of the deal fear Trump s decision to decertify the deal could eventually unravel it, causing more tension in the crisis-hit Middle East, where Shi ite Iran is involved in a decades long proxy war with U.S. ally Sunni Saudi Arabia. If the deal falls apart, Iran s anti-Western hardliners will gain authority in a backlash against pragmatic President Hassan Rouhani, who engineered the accord to help end Iran s political and economic isolation, analysts and insiders say. | 1 |
1,474 | France says North Korea close to long-range missile capability | PARIS (Reuters) - France s foreign minister said on Friday that North Korea would have capability to send long-range ballistic missiles in a few months and urged China to be more active diplomatically to resolve the crisis. The situation is extremely serious... we see North Korea setting itself as an objective to have tomorrow or the day after missiles that can transport nuclear weapons. In a few months that will be a reality, Jean-Yves Le Drian told RTL radio. At the moment, when North Korea has the means to strike the United States, even Europe, but definitely Japan and China, then the situation will be explosive, he said. Le Drian, who spoke to his Chinese counterpart on Thursday, said everything had to be done to ensure a latest round of United Nations sanctions was implemented and urged China, Pyongyang s main trade partner, to do its utmost to enforce them. North Korea must find the path to negotiations. It must be diplomatically active. | 1 |
1,475 | Republican Donald Trump says he has 'unlimited' access to campaign money | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he is willing to tap into his personal funds to cover any fundraising deficit he faces against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, after finishing May more than $40 million behind her in cash. “If need be, there could be unlimited ‘cash on hand’ as I would put up my own money, as I have already done through the primaries, spending over $50 million,” Trump said in a statement. “Our campaign is leaner and more efficient, like our government should be.” | 1 |
1,476 | Islamic State claims air base attack in Egypt's North Sinai | CAIRO (Reuters) - Islamic State has claimed an attack on an Egyptian military airport that killed one officer and wounded two near the town of Arish in North Sinai on Tuesday, the group s Amaq news agency said in a statement. Security sources meanwhile said an army officer and five militants had been killed in clashes as security forces carried out arrest raids near the Arish air base on Wednesday. The Amaq statement said Islamic State fighters used a Kornet anti-tank missile in the Tuesday attack that targeted the interior and defense ministers who were visiting the area. Neither minister was harmed, a security source said. Islamic State s Sinai branch has for years waged attacks against security forces, and in the past year expanded targets to include Christians and other civilians. An attack on a mosque last month which killed more than 300 people, the deadliest in Egypt s modern history, was widely attributed to Islamic State, but the group did not claim it. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered security forces to use heavy force to stamp out the Sinai insurgency within three months after that attack. | 1 |
1,477 | GOP Senator Incapable Of Answering This Simple Question About Trump’s Border Wall (VIDEO) | Donald Trump s proposal to build a wall between the United States and Mexico is absolutely ridiculous. It s unnecessary, counter-productive, and an insult to our national neighbor. The fact that Trump thinks that Mexico should foot the bill for the mega-project serves as the cherry on top of the giant pile of bullsh*t that Trump has served to his supporters insisting that it is made of ice cream.The proposal is just one of many elephants in the room that the GOP is refusing to give any coherent opinion on. That s why when Republican Senator Bob Corker appeared on ABC s This Week, the show s host George Stephanopoulos pressed the Senator for some clarity on the matter.Here s a transcript of the exchange:GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator, let me go ahead, let s talk about his ideas. You are the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and you ve said his call for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration is not a serious proposal. The former head of the CIA Michael Hayden said this morning it s a recruiting tool for ISIS. If Donald Trump as president, moved to impose that ban would you support it or try to stop it?SEN. BOB CORKER No, I would not support it and I ve already issued statements to that effect and what I understand is he has stepped away from those statements.STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, he has said he still supports those statements. He s also said in every speech that he talks about building a wall on our border and getting Mexico to pay for it. Is that realistic and what would it do to our relations with Mexico?CORKER: You know, obviously we do need to have good relations with Mexico and Canada. We do. That s one of the things that makes our country in such a stable environment having two friends on our borders unlike many countries around the world. There is a security issue. I authored an amendment during the immigration debate that actually makes building a wall look like Ned in the first reader meaning it was even more difficult and by the way, I mean, a tougher security border measure by the way, every Democrat in the Senate voted for that measure. So there s no question that we have agreement in our country that we need greater security. It s strongly bipartisan and I hope that we will implement that because it is a security threat.STEPHANOPOULOS: But is it realistic to expect Mexico to pay for the wall?CORKER: Again, I think people agree with that what s that?STEPHANOPOULOS: Is it realistic for people to expect Mexico to pay for that wall?CORKER: Well, again, I don t want to get into a debate about the nuances of that. I mean it s a statement that he has made. I thought this interview was going to be more about the foreign policy arena. I think he has a tremendous opportunity there.STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, our relations with Mexico is foreign policy.CORKER: Okay. Well, look, as to how the wall is paid for, that s something that Congress certainly will debate. My guess is there will be additional debates regarding how the actual security measures will be put in place but securing our border has been something that people on both sides of the aisle have supported for years and we need to do that and it s understandable that it s become an issue because it s lingered for so long. We had an opportunity to deal with this years ago. It wasn t dealt with. Needs to be dealt with now. And hopefully we ll move beyond that very quickly.Surprise, surprise. No clear answers on one of the most important topics of the election cycle. If you can t answer a simple question about what may become part of your party s platform it might be a good sign that it is time to jump off the ship.These days, it s looking more and more like top members of the Republican Party are embarrassed to be a member of that party. The Republican National Convention is coming up fast, sooner or later the GOP is going to have to decide if they are willing to go completely off the deep end and agree to support Trump s fascist proposals.You can watch the interview below. Featured image from video screenshot | 0 |
1,478 | Trump’s First Government Agency Visit: CIA | RT . President Donald Trump spoke at CIA Headquarters on his first stop as the newly inaugurated commander in chief telling the intelligence agency that despite media reports he is not at war with the intelligence community. The reason you re my first stop is as you know I have a running war with the media- they are among the most dishonest beings on earth, they say I have a feud with the intelligence community. The reason you re my first stop is exactly the opposite, Trump said. I am so behind you, he told CIA officials at Langley, Virginia.Trump continued with examples of the dishonest media claiming they skewed attendance figures for his inauguration citing lower numbers and showing images of an empty field.He also called out Time magazine for running a false story stating that he had removed Martin Luther King s bust from the Oval Office when it was in fact just blocked from view by a cameraman.Trump told the CIA that he has a great respect for the agency and believes it is going to be one of the most important groups in the country in making us safe again. URGENT: We will not impose our way of life, but we will shine for others to follow Trump https://t.co/cVbgG3xchI pic.twitter.com/a31zfkm3RX RT (@RT_com) January 20, 2017 There is nobody that feels stronger about the intelligence community and CIA than Donald Trump, he saidHe had nothing but praise for the agency highlighting their importance going forward. I love you, I respect you, we re going to start winning again and you will be leading the charge, he told some 400 officers who came in on their time off for the historic visit.READ MORE: Intelligence insiders call Russian dossier complete fraud TrumpTrump s favourable comments about the CIA come amidst a tense period with the intelligence community after he refused to accept US intel reports on Russia s alleged interference in the election.Just last week Trump branded outgoing CIA chief Brennan as the leaker of fake news after Brennan criticised him for tweeting and told him to understand the Russian threat.Trump questioned whether the CIA director had leaked a recent unsubstantiated dossier to the media that claimed Russia had collected compromising financial or personal information about him Continue this report at RTREAD MORE TRUMP NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Trump Files | 0 |
1,479 | How The GOP Became The Party Of White Supremacists Under Donald Trump | The Republican Party has always had a problem with racism. That s no accident; after all it was their racist Southern Strategy that got them the votes of racist white southerners once the Civil Rights Act was signed. Modern day Republicans like to point out that it was the Democrats who were the party of the Ku Klux Klan and other racists, but the parties switched sides once the Civil Rights Act was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, because Southern Democrats couldn t abide the idea of de-segregating the south and starting down the path of trying to kill racism as a matter of policy and practice as they knew it. That s how the racists wound up in the GOP, and the Democrats lost the South for a generation. It s also why, to this day, the GOP has such a hard time with minority voters. However, something amazing has happened to the Republican Party in this area with Donald Trump as its titular head. They have literally become the party of white supremacists and they aren t even trying to hide it anymore.Just a few years ago, no one would have thought this possible not even elected Republicans themselves. For instance, when notoriously racist Rep. Steve King ( R- Iowa) made his infamous comment about Mexican immigrants having calves the size of cantaloupes because they re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert, then- House Speaker John Boehner said, from a podium to the press that the comments were hateful, and offensive. There were also reports that Boehner said privately that King is an asshole for saying what he said.That was just three years ago in 2014. To compare, here in 2017, when King made a much worse remark the infamous and openly white nationalist we can t restore our civilization with somebody else s babies tweet current House Speaker Paul Ryan was tepid in his response, only saying that he is sure that Rep. King misspoke. To top it all off, King tweeted that in support of far-right Dutch candidate for high office Geert Wilders, who literally wants to outlaw the religion of Islam. Something tells me that if given the chance, Steve King would outlaw Islam in America.Wilders understands that culture and demographics are our destiny. We can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies. https://t.co/4nxLipafWO Steve King (@SteveKingIA) March 12, 2017When King doubled down on the remarks, Speaker Ryan said nothing. Further, only a few GOP elected officials had the nerve to rebuke King almost all of them minorities. This is because these people know who their base is, who Donald Trump s base is, and they know they need the racists and white supremacists that helped propel Trump to the White House to get reelected.This is all perfectly in line with Trump s infamous call to ban Muslims from entering the nation, and of course, there was former New York Mayor and close Trump confidante Rudy Giuliani s admission that Trump asked him to put together a way for him to ban Muslims that would pass Constitutional muster:Then, we get to the Donald Trump campaign itself. Let s not forget Trump entered the political arena by trying to delegitimize the first Black president by spreading the racist lie that President Barack Obama was not born here, and forcing him to show his birth certificate in a show me your papers, boy, type of way. Even when Trump let his birtherism go, he still lied and said Hillary Clinton started it.Also, we all remember how long it took Trump to disavow David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan when Jake Tapper asked him about it. Only then did House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rebuke him. However, that was before Trump had secured the nomination, too. There was radio silence from GOP leadership on the open racism and anti-Semitism and misogyny of the Trump campaign unless they were cornered, as when #NeverTrump conservative radio host Charlie Sykes forced House Speaker Paul Ryan to answer for Trump s repeated retweets of anti-Semitic images.As for the Trump Administration itself there are no words for the level of bigotry allowed therein. First, we have Trump campaign CEO turned White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon, who ran the openly racist and anti-Semitic website Breitbart.com prior to joining Trump s campaign. Bannon is a literal white supremacist. He has said that one book that shapes his world view is a French novel called Camp of Saints, which fantasizes that immigrants conveniently of the black and brown variety are coming to destroy the white race. Every educated analysis of the novel reveals that it is virulently racist (this is a book that also happens to be a favorite of Steve King). Then, we have head speechwriter and immigration policy maker Stephen Miller, who shares this ideology and has for a long time; after all, this is a guy who spent his high school years harassing Latino students. Then, there is adviser Sebastian Gorka, who wore a medal from a Hungarian Nazi group to Trump s inauguration. The group said they were proud to see Gorka wearing the medal.Through all of these clearly white supremacist appointments, prominent GOP leaders have been silent. Nothing from House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, or any of the others. In fact, when asked about Bannon, Speaker Ryan only said he hadn t met him. Well, I haven t met David Duke either, but I let his past work inform my opinion of him. When McConnell was asked about Bannon, he was silent, then told the reporters in his office, It s great to be with you guys today. Then, aides rushed the reporters out before anyone could press further.What did Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have to say today about Steve Bannon s appointment? Not much. pic.twitter.com/bPZ2UtRkxW The Last Word (@TheLastWord) November 16, 2016And let s not forget Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the guy who they all say isn t a racist but was deemed too racist to be confirmed to a federal judgeship by a GOP-controlled Senate in Ronald Reagan s administration in 1986. There s also White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer s saying that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler never used chemical weapons all while referring to Nazi death camps as Holocaust Centers. And there is the White House s engaging in Holocaust denial by omitting any mention of Jewish people from their Holocaust Remembrance Day statement. It turns out that this was deliberate, which is definite Holocaust denial because while other minorities died in the Holocaust as well, Hitler s Final Solution was to eradicate the Jewish people from the planet. In short, the Holocaust was specifically about Jews, and the White House is deliberately denying this. Here is video of their statements regarding their omission of the original purpose of the Holocaust, and why they deliberately omitted the mention of Jews:I could go on, but you get the picture. The GOP, in the past, had no issue rebuking open white nationalism. They do now because that is literally who they are. There are white supremacists working in the White House, and all throughout Trump s government. And the mainstream leadership of the Republican Party has absolutely no problem with that at all because the people with those same repugnant ideas are their base. This is who the GOP is.So, I implore you to look at all the evidence provided here and think if you are a Republican, but you abhor racism, anti-Semitism, and white supremacy, why are you still a member of the GOP?Featured image via BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images | 0 |
1,480 | Trump on Twitter (Feb 17) - Tom Price, Boeing, NSA | The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS. The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy. @realDonaldTrump : -Despite the long delays by the Democrats in finally approving Dr. Tom Price, the repeal and replacement of ObamaCare is moving fast! [0513 EST] -Going to Charleston, South Carolina, in order to spend time with Boeing and talk jobs! Look forward to it. [0638 EST] -Thank you for all of the nice statements on the Press Conference yesterday. Rush Limbaugh said one of greatest ever. Fake media not happy! [0643 EST] -General Keith Kellogg, who I have known for a long time, is very much in play for NSA - as are three others. [0816 EST] -Join me at 11:00am: Watch here: 45.wh.gov/XYQXNw [1034 EST] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR) | 1 |
1,481 | Dealmakers say a Trump presidency would be bad for M&A | (Reuters) - A Donald Trump presidency would be bad for corporate dealmaking, according to a global survey of people who advise companies on mergers and acquisitions, or M&A. Nearly two-thirds of 1,500 respondents - including investment bankers, lawyers and people who work for private equity firms - said a Trump presidency would create uncertainty that would deter executives from launching bids. The survey was conducted in April by Intralinks Holdings Inc IL.N, which provides confidential meeting rooms used by companies when they allow would-be bidders to look through their accounts. “The real story is that dealmakers crave less disruption, and Trump has been a polarizing figure on a global scale,” Matt Porzio, vice president of strategy at Intralinks, said in a phone interview on Wednesday. Trump is the front-runner for the Republican nomination for the Nov. 8 election. His unpredictable style and fiery rhetoric have some investors worried that as president he could trigger trade wars, hurt the economy and add a lot of volatility to financial markets. The New York real estate developer prides himself on his ability to make good deals, and M&A professionals in the United States were less concerned about his impact on business than their peers elsewhere. According to the survey, 46 percent of U.S. dealmakers said they believed Trump would have a negative impact on M&A activity, compared with 83 percent of dealmakers in Latin America. Trump has sparked controversy with his call for building a wall along the Mexican border and for deporting 11 million illegal immigrants from the United States. Some 71 percent of dealmakers based in Europe and 75 percent in Asia thought Trump would be bad for business. Globally, only 45 percent of respondents thought that U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a self-described socialist who is competing with Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, would be bad for M&A activity. But the same proportion - 45 percent - thought Clinton would have a positive impact on mergers and acquisitions, making her the candidate viewed to have the highest positive impact on corporate tie-ups. | 1 |
1,482 | no title | vote for trump we can do it get out and vote and take a friend or friends we want a safe countryclinton need to take her pocket book and bill home do you want bill to be first lady in our white house do you remember the last timetrump will work for all the people instead of his pocket book wont that be nice please vote thank you | 1 |
1,483 | Stephen Colbert And His Audience Absolutely Pummeled Bill O’Reilly, And It Was Spectacular (VIDEO) | When appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert it s probably best to expect the unexpected. And in the case for Fox News host Bill O Reilly, it was probably best to expect his far right-wing humor to not be appreciated whatsoever by either Colbert or his audience.Within the first few moments of his appearance, he alienated pretty much everyone by saying those over on CNN and MSNBC are on crack. He was trying to convince people that Fox News is #1 in the ratings for a reason. Little does he realize that if people want their right-wing hate TV, they only have one place to go, whereas facts are dispersed everywhere else. So when O Reilly made his remark about the other networks, the crowd audibly booed him and was not impressed whatsoever.Then, just moments later, O Reilly thought it wise to do a Bernie Sanders impersonation while also saying that Sanders and Trump are the same person. Here s the thing: Colbert and his audience, are likely going to have a liberal response, so you can only guess how this Sanders bashing was received not well. Colbert even asking the Fox News host after his Sanders impression, are you having a stroke? After a huge back and forth about what O Reilly deems best for the nation, and when Colbert explains what actually is best for the nation, they end their debate cordially, but it was obvious the Late Show host was visibly annoyed with the Fox News toady.Colbert ended the interview with this amazing statement: You re a great model to do an impression of for ten years. Which is a complete slam at O Reilly s ridiculously conservative viewpoints and show.All in all, this was one of the best smackdowns of O Reilly ever.Here s the full appearance: Part 1:Part 2:Video/Featured image: YouTube | 0 |
1,484 | Puerto Rico evacuates area near crumbling dam, asks for aid | SAN JUAN (Reuters) - Many people living near a crumbling dam in storm-battered Puerto Rico have evacuated, Governor Ricardo Rossello said on Monday, as he asked for more government aid to avert a humanitarian crisis after Hurricane Maria. Much of the Caribbean island, a U.S. territory with a population of 3.4 million, is still without electricity five days after Maria struck with ferocious winds and torrential rains, the most powerful hurricane to hit Puerto Rico in nearly a century. There have been growing concerns for some 70,000 people who live in the river valley below the Guajataca Dam in the island s northwest, where cracks were seen on Friday in the 88-year-old earthen structure. Rossello said he was working on the assumption that the 120-foot (35-meter) dam would collapse. I d rather be wrong on that front than doing nothing and having that fail and costing people lives, he said in an interview with CNN. Most of the people in the near vicinity have evacuated. It was unclear if the governor was saying that most of the 70,000 valley inhabitants had left the area, or only the several hundred people living in the small towns closest to the dam. About 320 people from those towns have moved to safety, according to local media. The fear of a potentially catastrophic dam break added to the immense task facing disaster relief authorities after Maria, which was the second major hurricane to strike the Caribbean this month. The storm killed at least 29 people in the region, at least 10 of those in Puerto Rico, which was already battling an economic crisis. Rossello said that before the storms struck, he had been embarking on an aggressive fiscal agenda that included more than $1.5 billion in cuts. This is a game changer, he told CNN. This is a completely different set of circumstances. This needs to be taken into consideration otherwise there will be a humanitarian crisis. Brock Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and Tom Bossert, senior adviser to the Department of Homeland Security, met with Rossello on Monday. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters in Washington that the administration was engaged in a fact-finding process to figure out how much help Puerto Rico needs. The federal response has been anything but slow, Sanders said at the daily briefing. In fact, there s been an unprecedented push through of billions of dollars in federal assistance that the administration has fought for. Many structures on Puerto Rico, including hospitals, remain badly damaged and flooded, with clean drinking water hard to find in some areas. Few planes have been able to land or take off from damaged airports. The storm has also put a big strain on PREPA, the island s electricity utility, which declared bankruptcy in July after accumulating a $9 billion debt and years of underinvestment. From preliminary FEMA reports, it is estimated that 55 percent of transmission towers may be down, and that more than 90 percent of the distribution system could have been destroyed. More than 91 percent of Puerto Rico s cellphone sites are also out of service, the Federal Communications Commission said. There are more than 10,000 federal staff, including more than 700 people from FEMA, doing recovery work in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to FEMA. The National Weather Service warned of further flash floods in the west of the island on Monday as thunderstorms moved in. Maria would likely be downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm on Tuesday night, the National Hurricane Center said. As of 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) on Monday, the center said, it was about 300 miles (480 km) south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, heading slowly north. The storm was unlikely to hit the continental United States directly, but the NHC said large swells were affecting the U.S. East Coast. A tropical storm warning was in effect for much of the North Carolina coast and officials issued a mandatory evacuation order for visitors to Ocracoke Island in the Outer Banks that went into effect at 5 a.m. EDT (0900 GMT) on Monday. | 1 |
1,485 | Trump Wants To Impose An Ideological Litmus Test On Immigrants (Which He Couldn’t Even Pass) | There cannot be any bigger example of irony in American politics than Donald Trump s newest proposal for immigrants coming into the United States.According to a new report, Donald Trump will put forth a proposal that will test incoming immigrants on their support for American values as a litmus test for citizenship. What will these questions entail? Whether or not these immigrants support gender equality, gay rights, religious freedom and the rule of American law.The irony is rich a man who has no respect for gender equality, gay rights, religious freedom or the rule of law is going to ask hardworking immigrants if they support the things he does not. Maybe it s a catch 22 perhaps if the immigrants answer YES to any of the following a Trump Administration would deny them entry.Suppose an immigrant comes through and is asked if he or she does not support gay rights. Like many Christians in this country, many Muslims or Catholics from South America do not support same-sex marriage. If a Muslim or a South American Catholic answer that they do not support same-sex marriage, would a Trump Administration brand them, ultimately, as anti-gay?Remember, Donald Trump doesn t support same-sex marriage.In other words, he himself would most likely fail his own immigration test.Trump s senior policy adviser, Stephen Miller, told the Associated Press that the aim of the new litmus test was to selectively determine who our friends are and which immigrants would best be equipped to fight against radical Islamic terrorism. So there it is this isn t a test on all immigrants; it s really a test on Muslims cleverly disguised as a legitimate part of immigration customs.I guess that whole adhering to religious freedom thing doesn t ring true for Trump or his lily white allies. Miller also told the AP that the purpose of the litmus test is to fill the cracks left by gaps in traditional vetting from countries that are, well, predominantly Muslim (even though our vetting process is meticulous).Once again Trump s policy proposal has fallen flat. When your own candidate couldn t pass such a subjective test, it s best not to make others take it.Featured image via Jeff Swensen/Getty Images | 0 |
1,486 | 'Rage against the machine': U.S. voters reject a 'rigged' system | (This November 9th story has been refiled to clarify that Keyes comment in 3rd paragraph from end was said in jest) By Andy Sullivan and Michelle Conlin WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a bitterly divisive presidential election, at least one thing united U.S. voters: a feeling that the country’s economic and political systems were tilted against them. A Reuters/Ipsos Election Day poll of 45,000 voters found an electorate burning with resentment against Wall Street, politicians and the news media, increasingly alienated from a country that is changing in ways it doesn’t like. This sense of alienation transcended partisan boundaries, uniting supporters of Republican victor Donald Trump and his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. “This is rage against the machine,” said Carrie Sheridan, a former supporter of Democratic President Barack Obama, as fellow Trump supporters celebrated the real-estate mogul’s victory early Wednesday by pouring champagne on each other at his $200 million luxury hotel near the White House. Some 75 percent of poll respondents, Republicans and Democrats alike, agreed that the country needs a “strong leader” to take the country back from the rich and powerful. Seven out of ten agreed that the economy is “rigged” to benefit wealthy insiders. Most backed the notion that their leaders were out of touch: 77 percent of Trump supporters and 56 percent of Clinton supporters agreed that traditional politicians didn’t care about people like them. (Graphic of Reuters/Ipsos poll: tmsnrt.rs/2ffJJ9A) This sense of disconnection ran deepest among Trump supporters. Some 73 percent agreed with the idea that “more and more, I don’t identify with what America has become,” while 61 percent said they felt like strangers in their own country. Most Clinton supporters said they didn’t share those sentiments. Nine out of ten Trump supporters said mainstream media is more interested in making money than telling the truth. Trump, who travels in his own 757 jet, might seem like an unlikely candidate to benefit from this anti-elite sentiment. But by 8 p.m. Eastern time, lines had formed at the velvet ropes by 8 p.m. Eastern time outside Trump’s new hotel in between the White House and the U.S. Capitol, where a steak costs $60 and wine is sold by the spoonful. “These are shadow voters, voters who have never voted before,” said Preston Parry, 20, who was watching the results with a throng of friends, all of them wearing suits and Trump campaign trucker hats. Despite his gilded lifestyle, Trump capitalized on working-class fears of a rapidly changing country. Styling himself as a “blue-collar billionaire,” he promised to bring back manufacturing jobs back to forgotten factory towns and sharply curtail immigration. He drew overwhelming support from white working-class voters in Rust Belt states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, winning enough states to capture the White House even as he lost the popular vote. Trump’s scathing characterization of Clinton as a corrupt career politician also resonated in an year when many voters said they were primarily casting a vote against one of the candidates. Some 46 percent of Trump supporters said they backed him because they didn’t want Clinton to win, while 40 percent of Clinton supporters said they were motivated primarily to stop Trump from reaching the White House. Those who made up their minds in the last week of the campaign were more likely to cite opposition to one of the candidates as their main reason for voting. Politicians like Clinton are “taking away from what we were as a country and saying we should change because of the people coming in, the immigrants and refugees,” said John Scherer, a 57-year-old former maintenance worker in Portsmouth, Ohio. Scherer’s sentiments were widely shared by Trump supporters, as 72 percent agreed with the idea that immigrants threaten traditional American beliefs and customs. Three-quarters of Clinton backers, by contrast, said immigrants strengthened U.S. society. The Reuters/Ipsos Election Day poll was conducted online in English in all 50 states, including more than 45,000 people who already voted in the presidential election. Voter dissatisfaction isn’t exactly new. Surveys have consistently found since 2002 that most people believe the country is on the wrong track, a period that encompasses a Republican and Democratic president, two wars, a deep recession and a slow recovery. Trump supporters were more likely to share this frustration. Some 70 percent who backed the Republican real-estate mogul said they felt the country was on the wrong track, while only 23 percent of Clinton supporters agreed, according to the Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll. Those figures could quickly turn on their head as the reality of a Trump presidency sinks in. Across the country, Clinton supporters used unusually harsh language when describing the election result. In Washington, D.C., non-profit manager Trisha Postyuk said she saw her vote for Clinton as “a triumph over evil.” In St. Petersburg, Florida, cafe owner Amanda Keyes, 33, said racist and sexist attitudes are going to take many years to overcome. “Misogyny will continue to bubble through the country but I can only hope that the old people will die,” she said jokingly. At Trump’s hotel, a couple from Atlanta looked at a text message from a friend who had bet them $100 that Trump would lose. “Please don’t ever text me again,” the message said. | 1 |
1,487 | WATCH: SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM DROPS BOMBSHELL… FINALLY Confirms The Fake Russian Dossier Was Used To Obtain FISA Warrant To Spy On Trump | Everyone suspected the sketchy Steele Dossier was what corrupt FBI and DOJ officials used to get the October 2016 FISA warrant against Trump. FBI and DOJ officials refuse to answer that question publicly.Rep Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said in a statement: We now know that the so-called Steele dossier was paid for by the Democratic Party in an effort to gin up negative information regarding then-candidate Trump. What the American people deserve to know is whether the information compiled by Steele on the Democrats dime was used by the Obama administration to obtain approval to conduct surveillance against Trump associates. The FBI has stonewalled producing these documents for months and their production shouldn t be limited to closed door viewing by a small number of members of Congress. The Trump administration should immediately declassify all the documents used to obtain surveillance warrants against Trump or his associates. Immediately after his inauguration, President Trump came out swinging over the fake Russian dossier. He even went as far as to blame the intelligence community. President Trump was immediately criticized for his comments, and the media behaved as though he was insane to even insinuate such a wild theory. As it turns out, he wasn t too far off the mark.CT Despite a hundred different ways congressional investigators have asked the question, and despite numerous on-camera questions to FBI and DOJ officials about the 2016 FISA process, no-one had definitively confirmed the Christopher Steele Russian Dossier was the underlying evidence for the 2016 FISA application to gain wiretaps and electronic surveillance upon presidential candidate Donald Trump. UNTIL NOW.Senator Lindsey Graham just confirmed the sketchy Steele Dossier was used to get the wiretap and surveillance warrant from the FISA court. Brian Kilmeade understood what he was hearing was serious, but didn t quite catch the specific gravity of it. Watch at starting at the 04:10 mark: The back-story to the FISA warrant is the cornerstone. The back-story contains both the FBI and the DOJ scheme. Expose it, remove it, and the entire muh Russia conspiracy collapses under the weight of sunlight This is critical and important because the specific use of the Steele Dossier underpins the BIG UGLY and exposes the entire top-tier apparatus of the FBI Counterintelligence Division (Peter Strzok, Bill Priestap, James Baker, Andrew McCabe) and the DOJ National Security Division (John Carlin, Stuart Evans, Mary McCord and Sally Yates), as well as DOJ Bruce Ohr and FBI lawyer Lisa Page directly to conspiracy charges.The 2016 FBI counterintelligence operation was surveillance on the Trump Campaign and was thinly disguised under the fraudulent auspices of a FISA warrant, sold as a defense of U.S. democracy from Russia, which permitted the wiretaps and surveillance etc.The DOJ involvement surrounds legal arguments, processing of FISA applications, and use of the legal system to support the FBI operation with actionable legal framing (against Trump). The DOJ National Security Division carried out that collaboration with the FBI.Tablet Mag did a deep dive into the Fusion-GPS connection to the creation of the Steele Dossier; and more specifically how Fusion-GPS head Glenn Simpson and his wife Mary Jacoby were instrumental in getting the dossier assembled and into the hands of the White House prior to the DOJ and FBI applying for the FISA warrant SEE HERE.Tablet Mag outlines how Mary Jacoby even bragged about getting the Russiagate narrative started:A Tablet investigation using public sources to trace the evolution of the now-famous dossier suggests that central elements of the Russiagate scandal emerged not from the British ex-spy Christopher Steele s top-secret sources in the Russian government which are unlikely to exist separate from Russian government control but from a series of stories that Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson and his wife Mary Jacoby co-wrote for TheWall Street Journal well before Fusion GPS existed, and Donald Trump was simply another loud-mouthed Manhattan real estate millionaire.Understanding the origins of the Steele dossier is especially important because of what it tells us about the nature and the workings of what its supporters would hopefully describe as an ongoing campaign to remove the elected president of the United States.[ ] In a Facebook post from June 24, 2017, that Tablet has seen in screenshots, Jacoby claimed that her husband deserves the lion s share of credit for Russiagate. (She has not replied to repeated requests for comment.) It s come to my attention that some people still don t realize what Glenn s role was in exposing Putin s control of Donald Trump, Jacoby wrote. Let s be clear. Glenn conducted the investigation. Glenn hired Chris Steele. Chris Steele worked for Glenn. This assertion is hardly a simple assertion of family pride; it goes directly to the nature of what became known as the Steele dossier, on which the Russiagate narrative is founded. (read more)The Tablet-Mag outline shows the distinct trail of the finished Steele Dossier entering into the White House and how President Obama likely saw and reviewed the content.However, missing from this report is an origination angle even more nefarious.Remember, previous media reporting -in conjunction with Clinton campaign admissions- have confirmed the DNC and Clinton Campaign financed Fusion-GPS through their lawyers within Perkins Coie. Fusion then hired Nellie Ohr the wife of DOJ Deputy Bruce Ohr who thereafter sub-contracted with retired British MI6 agent Christopher Steele to write/research/provide credibility for the dossier. The dates here are important because they tell a story.The origin of the Clinton effort with Fusion-GPS was April 2016. That s the same month Fusion hired Nellie Ohr, wife of DOJ Deputy Bruce Ohr, to gather opposition research on candidate Trump. It would be most likely that Nellie Ohr was in contact with Christopher Steele. DOJ Deputy Attorney Bruce Ohr was later demoted for his unreported contacts with Christopher Steele and Fusion-GPS founder Glenn Simpson in October 2016; the same month the FISA warrant was granted.However, there was another event in this April 2016 timeline which enhances the trail of the Dossier origination. [Hat Tip Katica] Check this out:In April 2016 Mary Jacoby shows up on White House visitor logs meeting with President Obama officials. In April 2016 the Clinton Campaign and DNC hired Fusion-GPS to organize the Russia research, that later became known as the Steele Dossier .(link to White House Logs)The wife of Glenn Simpson (Fusion GPS), Mary B. Jacoby, with years of Russia-angled reporting including Donald Trump visits the White House in April 2016, at the same time as the DNC and Clinton hire Fusion GPS to conduct the opposition research on Donald Trump, surrounding Russia?This timeline is entirely too obvious to be coincidental.Expand slightly and consider:April: Mary Jacoby, wife of Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson, visits the White House. The Clinton Campaign and DNC then hire Fusion GPS to conduct Opposition Research , with a Russian emphasis. Fusion GPS then hires Nellie Ohr who specializes in Russian-centric counterintelligence. Nellie Ohr then contacts MI6 agent Christopher Steele to write a Russian Dossier. A month later, May 2016: Nellie Ohr s husband inside the DOJ, Bruce Ohr, is then working with FBI counterintelligence head Peter Strzok. By June 2016: Peter Strzok, Bruce Ohr, and DOJ Attorney Lisa Page then apply for the first FISA warrant.[June 24th, 2017, Mary Jacoby appears on Facebook taking credit for the origination of the Russiagate narrative.]This timeline is so transparent it s deafening.[More from the Tablet] Simpson and Jacoby had ID d Manafort as a world-class sleazeball and they were right. A slick Georgetown Law grad running in GOP circles since the Reagan campaign, Manafort used his talents and connections to get paid by some very bad people. I would only add here that, in my personal experience, journalists are not in the habit of forgetting major stories they ve written, especially stories with a character like Manafort at the center.So when the Trump campaign named Paul Manafort as its campaign convention manager on March 28, 2016, you can bet that Simpson and Jacoby s eyes lit up. And as it happened, at the exact same time that Trump hired Manafort, Fusion GPS was in negotiations with Perkins Coie, the law firm representing the Clinton campaign and the DNC, to see if there was interest in the firm continuing the opposition research on the Trump campaign they had started for the Washington Free Beacon. (more)Mary Jacoby and Glenn Simpson Fusion GPSIf the counterintelligence FISA warrant was obtained through deception, misleading/manipulated information, or fraud; and that warrant is what led to the wiretapping and surveillance of candidate Donald Trump and General Flynn; and that warrant was authorized by FISA Court Judge Contreras who was the judge in Flynn s case, and is now recused the entire tenuous FBI and DOJ operation begins to collapse and the outline of a conspiracy becomes clearly evident.The back-story to the FISA warrant is the cornerstone. The back-story contains both the FBI and the DOJ scheme. Expose it, remove it, and the entire muh Russia conspiracy fraud collapses under the weight of sunlight.Go HERE to see the entire fascinating investigation compiled by The Conservative TreehouseWATCH President Trump tell FOX Business Lou Dobbs what he thinks about the Democratic efforts to smear him during his presidential campaign in an exclusive interview. | 0 |
1,488 | Syria condemns Trump stance on Iran deal | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria s Foreign Ministry on Sunday condemned the U.S. administration of President Donald Trump for its position on the Iran nuclear deal, saying in comments to state media that it would increase regional tension and threaten security and peace. Syria condemns the aggressive policies of the U.S. administration against the interests of the people, and which will increase the atmosphere of tension in the region and the world, state news agency SANA quoted an official source at the ministry as saying. Trump refused on Friday to formally certify that Tehran was complying with the 2015 accord even though international inspectors say it is. He warned he might ultimately terminate the agreement. Syria is a close ally of Iran, which has given extensive military and financial aid to President Bashar al-Assad in his more than six years of war against rebels seeking to oust him. The nuclear deal was also signed by China, Russia, France, Britain, Germany and the European Union, leading European allies to warn that putting it into limbo risks undermining U.S. credibility abroad. The U.S. Congress will now have 60 days to decide whether to reimpose economic sanctions on Tehran that it lifted under the pact. | 1 |
1,489 | Chris Cuomo SHREDS Republican For Ignoring This One Really HORRIFYING Factor Of Trumpcare (VIDEO) | The Republican Party is trying its hardest to gloss over the fact that its new health care replacement is a disaster that is going to hurt the American people more than anything.At a time when it s been widely reported that Americans are overwhelmingly satisfied with their Obamacare and would like to keep it, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) went on CNN in an attempt to promote Trumpcare. Unfortunately, he didn t anticipate being taken to the woodshed by host Chris Cuomo.Cuomo pushed back on Jordan s agenda and absolutely refused to let him get away with praising the new Republican health care plan without acknowledging the fact that literally MILLIONS of Americans will lose their health insurance thanks to Trump and the GOP. Cuomo also railed against Jordan s vision, stating that a free market for health insurance has never been executed anywhere else in the world, because all other developed countries make sure their citizens have health coverage. Cuomo said: You use government as if it s a bad word in this context, but to be fair, there is no place that you ll find that has this kind of marketplace when it comes to health insurance. You re saying it like it s something that should be understood. It s never existed anywhere else that you can point to, and remember, you have to be okay with having less people having health insurance to get some people to have it cheaper. Jordan tried to say that he wanted all people to have better insurance, but Cuomo saw right through his bullsh*t and promptly called him out: They will lose coverage. The way you re fixing it right now millions of people may lose their coverage, you need to own that. Jordan could barely come up with a response to that other than a pathetic promise that those who got their health coverage through Obamacare would eventually be transitioned into the new system.You can watch Cuomo rip Jordan apart below:Featured image is a screenshot | 0 |
1,490 | LIBERAL ELITIST SENATOR Says “Obamacare is NOT hurting people” BUT He Previously Said Something Completely Different [Video] | Do you just want to wring this guy s neck for claiming that Obamacare isn t hurting people ? It s obvious this Democrat hasn t been out of the Beltway in years He s another lying politician because in the video below this one he claims that premiums and deductibles are going up How is that NOT hurting people?Please enlighten Senator Van Hollen on the nightmare of Obamacare! Here s his contact information:SENATOR CHRIS VAN HOLLENVAN HOLLEN TWITTERVAN HOLLEN FACEBOOKPLEASE CONTACT THIS CLUELESS SENATOR AT ANY OF THE LINKS ABOVE!VAN HOLLEN IS A FLIP FLOPPER! HE SAYS IN THE VIDEO BELOW AT THE :30 POINT THAT PREMIUMS AND DEDUCTIBLES WERE RISING HOW DOES THAT NOT HURT PEOPLE???Van Hollen responds to Camerota s question of whether Obamacare is hurting people: Let s start with that question the president poses one more time, If Obamacare is hurting people, why shouldn t it hurt the insurance companies and why should Congress not be paying what the public pays?' Camerota said. What is the answer to that? Well, first of all, Obamacare is not hurting people, Van Hollen responded. In fact, what would have really hurt people was if we would have passed Trumpcare. Van Hollen began to explain how the GOP replacement would have failed, but was cut off by Camerota. Right, but you know not everyone is delighted with Obamacare and people have grave reservations about it, Camerota said. Alisyn, nobody has said it s perfect, Van Hollen said. We ve said from the very beginning, we need to improve the exchanges. The senator then went on to list what needs to be improved and how it can be done. The first order of business is for the president to stop trying to sabotage the exchanges. There are a couple of things totally within the power of the Trump administration, Van Hollen said. | 0 |
1,491 | EU to impose arms embargo on Venezuela, lays basis for sanctions: diplomats | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union is set to impose an arms embargo on Venezuela and will consider further sanctions in response to the political crisis in the South American country, two EU diplomats said. The measures will bring the EU more into line with the United States, which imposed sanctions earlier this year, and they signal a change of tone in Brussels, which had previously resisted taking a tougher approach toward Caracas. The steps were approved today, paving the way for approval (by the bloc s foreign ministers) next Monday, an EU diplomat said, adding that the ministers backing was a formality. Spain has long pushed for sanctions on those close to President Nicolas Maduro, whom Washington accuses of installing a dictatorship, but the EU has been divided over whom to target, while Britain is a significant arms supplier to Venezuela. Diplomats said the turning point for EU governments was regional elections that appeared to favor Maduro s ruling Socialists last month. Polls had suggested the opposition would easily win a majority but in the end it won only a handful of governorships, according to the pro-government electoral board. However, the decisions taken by EU ambassadors at a meeting on Wednesday only prepare the legal basis for sanctions, without any names. Travel bans and asset freezes would only be imposed on Venezuelan officials should the evolution of the situation require it , a second EU diplomat said. Once approved, the arms embargo will be accompanied by a ban on exports of equipment that could be used for internal repression and of surveillance equipment, the diplomats said. Critics said it was hypocritical for the bloc to target Venezuela while European countries sold weapons to Saudi Arabia. The idea of imposing an arms embargo on Venezuela while refusing to impose one on Saudi Arabia is beyond parody, not least because of Saudi Arabia s murderous assault on Yemen, which has created one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in the world, said U.S. philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky. But it is easily understandable on the assumption that principles and values are intended for oratorical flourishes, while what matters is tens of billions of dollars in arms sales, Chomsky said in an email to Reuters. Saudi Arabia intervened militarily in Yemen s civil war starting in 2015, attacking Houthi militia and loyalists of a former president said to be supported by Iran. The war has killed more than 10,000 people. | 1 |
1,492 | U.S. chief justice refuses to force vote on Obama high court pick | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday rejected a New Mexico lawyer’s long-shot bid to force a Senate confirmation vote on President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court pick, Merrick Garland, after Republican senators refused to act on his nomination. Steven Michel, a Santa Fe environmental attorney, filed suit in U.S. federal court in August, arguing that the Republican-led Senate’s failure to act on Garland’s nomination deprived Michel of his rights as a voter under the U.S. Constitution’s 17th Amendment, which outlines how senators are elected. The U.S. Constitution calls on the president to nominate Supreme Court justices, with confirmation of the selection in the hands of the Senate. The Senate, in a move with little precedent in U.S. history, simply refused to consider Garland’s nomination, saying the winner of the Nov. 8 presidential election between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton should make the pick. Michel lost in lower courts before Roberts denied the emergency application on Monday without comment. Obama nominated Garland, a moderate appeals court judge, on March 16 to fill the vacant seat on the high court created by the Feb. 13 death of long-serving conservative Antonin Scalia. Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, will now make the appointment. On Jan. 18, Garland will resume hearing cases in his current position as chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, according to the court’s calendar. Garland had stepped aside from hearing cases after Obama nominated him to the Supreme Court. The court currently has four conservative justices and four liberals. Scalia’s replacement could tilt its ideological balance for years to come, restoring the long-standing conservative majority just at a time when it appeared liberals would get an upper hand on the bench. This could be pivotal in a wide range of issues including abortion, the death penalty, religious rights, presidential powers, transgender rights, federal regulations and others. Trump previously unveiled a list of 21 conservative jurists he would consider for the job and said this month he had whittled the list down to “probably three or four.” Last week, Trump’s incoming chief of staff, Reince Priebus, said the announcement would be made close the new president’s Jan 20 inauguration. | 1 |
1,493 | Spain arrests four former Venezuelan officials for U.S. probe | MADRID/CARACAS (Reuters) - Spanish authorities arrested a former Venezuelan deputy minister and three former executives at Venezuelan state companies for alleged links to money laundering and international corruption, Spain s Civil Guard said on Friday. The operation was carried out with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The District Court for South Texas has issued an international detention order for extradition for involvement in criminal acts related to money laundering and international corruption, the Civil Guard said in a statement. The statement does not specify the names of those arrested but does include their initials and the position of one of them. It says that person is a former energy vice minister. Venezuela and its state oil company PDVSA have been involved in several corruption scandals in recent years. Neither PDVSA nor the Venezuelan government responded immediately to requests for comment. About 10 people have pleaded guilty as part of a U.S.investigation into a $1 billion bribery plot involving payments to PDVSA officials, which became public with the arrest of two Venezuelan businessmen in 2015. | 1 |
1,494 | (VIDEO) FEC CHAIRWOMAN WON’T DROP EFFORT TO REGULATE POLITICAL WEBSITES LIKE DRUDGE | It s pretty obvious that the FEC chairwoman is just another political hack for the left. Ann M. Ravel is determined to regulate new media like Drudge and says she s frustrated that her last bid was met with threatening misogynist responses. Be aware of this attempt at silencing free speech and political activity as we move towards the most important election of our time in 2016.Some irony from her speech: (around the 36 min. mark) We have to talk to people to get them to understand the influence of government or governmental policies on their lives. People have to realize that campaign finance and policies influenced by only a small number of people has a profound relationship on things that touch them in their daily lives. You ve gotta love how our FEC Chairman refers to people who agree with her wanting to regulate political sites on social media as regular people. After backing down amid concerns she wanted to regulate political speech, the chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission has renewed talk about targeting campaign and political activities on the internet.Ann M. Ravel, discussing election regulation during a speech in New York, suggested it was time to produce thoughtful policy targeting internet political activity. She also expressed frustration that her last bid was met with threatening misogynist responses to me. She was speaking at a day-long conference hosted by the Brennan Center for Justice, the New York City Campaign Finance Board, and the Committee for Economic Development when she was asked about regulating the internet, Google and Facebook.When the Democrats on the FEC first raised the possibility of regulations, opponents feared they were going to target conservative groups, activities and news sites. A proposal to delve into the issue died in a 3-3 vote.Republican Commissioner Lee E. Goodman, the previous chairman, warned that regulations would silence voices on the internet and that sites with a political bent, even in the media, could face rules requiring them to disclose donors and finances. Read more: WEHERE S THE VIDEO OF HER SPEECH SCARY STUFF! | 0 |
1,495 | Sen. Heinrich Just Wiped The Floor Jeff Sessions During Intel Hearing (VIDEO) | Attorney General Jeff Sessions appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday afternoon and not surprisingly, there were a lot of things he really didn t want to talk about. When he refused to answer the questions of Sen. Martin Heinrich, the Democrat from New Mexico went the f*ck off.Sessions repeatedly said that he couldn t talk about this or that because it would be inappropriate to reveal his private conversations with Donald Trump. But Heinrich was not satisfied with any of this nonsense. Attorney General Sessions, has the president ever expressed his frustration to you regarding your decision to recuse yourself? Heinrich asked.Sessions began to say that he was not able to share this information with the committee when Heinrich cut him off. You re invoking executive privilege? the senator asked. I m not able to invoke executive privilege. That s the president s prerogative, Sessions replied.At this point, Heinrich unleashed his wrath.My understanding is that you took an oath, you raised your right hand here today and you said that you would solemnly tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and now you re not answering questions.You re impeding this investigation, so my understanding of the legal standard is that you either answer the question. That s the best outcome.You say this is classified, can t answer it here. I ll answer it in closed session. That s bucket number two. Bucket number three is to say I m invoking executive privilege. There is no appropriateness bucket. It is not a legal standard. Can you tell me why what are these long-standing DOJ rules that protect conversations made in the executive without invoking executive privilege?Sessions insisted that he was just protecting the president s constitutional right by not giving it away before he has a chance to review it. But Heinrich told him that he couldn t have it both ways. The attorney general continued to argue that his silence was consistent with the policies of the Department of Justice. But when Heinrich asked to see those policies, Sessions ended up saying that it was his judgment that it would be inappropriate to share this information. There are also other privileges that could be invoked. One of the things deals with the investigation of the special counsel as other Sessions began to say when Heinrich interrupted him again to remind him that there are multiple investigations going on.We re not asking questions about that investigation. If I wanted to ask questions about that investigation, I d ask those of rod Rosenstein. I m asking about your personal knowledge from this committee which has a constitutional obligation to get to the bottom of this.There are two investigations here. There is a special counsel investigation. There is also a congressional investigation, and you are obstructing that congressional delegation investigation by not answering these questions, and I think your silence, like the silence of Director Coats, like the silence of Admiral Rogers speaks volumes.Sessions never did provide a satisfactory to Heinrich s question, but Heinrich just became one of my favorite senators today. You can watch Sen. Heinrich wipe the floor with Jeff Sessions below:Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
1,496 | Erdogan says Turkey backing FSA move on Idlib | ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Turkish soldiers were not in Syria s Idlib yet, but that Free Syria Army was carrying out the operation, news channel NTV reported. Erdogan said in an earlier speech that a major military operation was underway in the Syria s northwest province of Idlib, which Free Syrian Army rebel groups said they were preparing to enter with Turkish backing. NTV reported that Erdogan told reporters after his speech that Russia was backing the operation from the air, while Turkish soldiers were supporting it from inside Turkish borders. | 1 |
1,497 | North Korea says rockets to U.S. 'inevitable' as U.S. bombers fly off North Korean coast | UNITED NATIONS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea said on Saturday targeting the U.S. mainland with its rockets was inevitable after Mr. Evil President Donald Trump called Pyongyang s leader rocket man , further escalating rhetoric over the North s nuclear weapons and missile programs. North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho s remarks to the United Nations General Assembly came hours after U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers escorted by fighters flew in international airspace over waters east of North Korea in a show of force the Pentagon said showed the range of military options available to Trump. Ri s speech capped a week of rising tensions between Washington and Pyongyang, with Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un trading insults. Trump called Kim a madman on Friday, a day after Kim dubbed him a mentally deranged U.S. dotard. On Saturday, the mudslinging continued with Ri calling Trump a mentally deranged person full of megalomania and complacency who is trying to turn the United Nations into a gangsters nest . Ri said Trump himself was on a suicide mission after the U.S. president had said Kim was on such a mission. President Evil is holding the seat of the U.S. President, Ri said, warning that Pyongyang was ready to defend itself if the United States showed any sign of conducting a decapitating operation on our headquarters or military attack against our country . Now we are finally only a few steps away from the final gate of completion of the state nuclear force, Ri told the annual gathering of world leaders. He said sanctions would have no effect on Pyongyang s resolve to develop its nuclear weapons, with the ultimate goal being balance of power with the U.S. Trump announced new U.S. sanctions on Thursday that he said allow targeting of companies and institutions that finance and facilitate trade with North Korea. Earlier this month the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted its ninth round of sanctions on Pyongyang to counter its nuclear and ballistic missiles programs. The U.S. bombers flight was the farthest north of the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea that any U.S. fighter jet or bomber has flown in the 21st century, the Pentagon said. This mission is a demonstration of U.S. resolve and a clear message that the President has many military options to defeat any threat, said Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White. We are prepared to use the full range of military capabilities to defend the U.S. homeland and our allies. North Korea has launched dozens of missiles this year, several flying over Japan, as it accelerates its program aimed at enabling it to target the United States with a nuclear-tipped missile. Pyongyang conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sept. 3 and has threatened to test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific. Ri met with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres after delivering his speech. Guterres expressed concern to Ri over the escalating tensions and appealed for de-escalation, the United Nations said in a statement. The Pentagon said the B-1B bombers came from Guam and their U.S. Air Force F-15C Eagle fighter escorts came from Okinawa, Japan. Previous shows of force with bombers have stayed south of the demilitarized zone. The patrols came after officials and experts said a small earthquake near North Korea s nuclear test site on Saturday was probably not man-made, easing fears Pyongyang had exploded another nuclear bomb just weeks after its last one. China s Earthquake Administration said the quake was not a nuclear explosion and had the characteristics of a natural tremor. The CTBTO, or Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty Organization, which monitors nuclear tests, and officials of the South Korean meteorological agency also said they believed it was a natural quake. The earthquake, which South Korea s Meteorological Agency put at magnitude 3.0, was detected 49 km from Kilju in North Hamgyong Province, where North Korea s known Punggye-ri nuclear site is located, the official said. All North Korea s nuclear tests registered as earthquakes of magnitude 4.3 or above. The last registered as a magnitude 6.3. Tensions have continued to rise around the Korean Peninsula since Pyongyang carried out its sixth test, prompting a new round of U.N. sanctions. Trump told the United Nations on Tuesday the United States would totally destroy North Korea if it threatened the United States or its allies. North Korea s nuclear tests to date have all been underground, and experts say an atmospheric test, which would be the first since one by China in 1980, would be proof of the success of its weapons program. The United States and South Korea are technically still at war with North Korea because the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce and not a peace treaty. The North accuses the United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, of planning to invade and regularly threatens to destroy it and its Asian allies. (For graphic on Nuclear North Korea, click tmsnrt.rs/2lE5yjF) (For graphic on a tally of nuclear tests, click tmsnrt.rs/2xWf6jA) | 1 |
1,498 | Trump's energy pick Perry softens stance on climate change | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Rick Perry, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to run the U.S. Energy Department, said during a Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday that global warming caused by humans is real, but that efforts to combat it should not cost American jobs. The comment marks a shift for the former Texas governor, who had previously called the science behind climate change “unsettled” and a “contrived, phony mess.” It also clashes with Trump’s statements during his campaign for the White House that global warming is a hoax meant to weaken U.S. business. “I believe the climate is changing. I believe some of it is naturally occurring, but some of it is also caused by man-made activity. The question is how do we address it in a thoughtful way that doesn’t compromise economic growth, the affordability of energy or American jobs,” Perry said. Perry’s 3-1/2-hour hearing before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources was one of the shortest and least contentious in a long list of sessions to vet Trump Cabinet nominees since last week. The committee has not yet scheduled its vote on Perry’s nomination. As energy secretary, Perry, 66, would oversee a substantial chunk of Trump’s energy portfolio. He would lead a vast scientific research operation credited with helping trigger a U.S. drilling boom and advancements in energy efficiency and renewable energy technology, and would also be in charge of maintaining the United States’ nuclear weapons arsenal. Trump, who will be sworn in as president on Friday, has promised to bolster the U.S. oil, gas and coal industries, in part by undoing federal regulations curbing carbon dioxide emissions. He has also suggested pulling America out of a global climate change pact signed in Paris in 2015, calling it expensive for U.S. industry. He sees Perry, who was governor of Texas from 2000 to 2015 and whose nomination has the support of the energy sector, as someone who can help usher in jobs growth. Perry added during his hearing that he regrets having previously called for the department’s elimination - a proposal he made during his failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. That proposal, which has become known as his “oops” moment, came during a presidential candidate debate when he could not initially remember all of the three Cabinet-level departments he wanted to eliminate: Commerce, Education and Energy. “After being briefed on so many of the vital functions of the Department of Energy, I regret recommending its elimination,” he said in his opening remarks. Democrats on the committee expressed worry that Perry would weaken the Energy Department’s functions and potentially target its army of scientists focused on climate research. Perry sought to assuage them. “I am going to protect the men and women of the scientific community from anyone who would attack them,” he said in response to a question from Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington state about whether he would cut the department’s climate science budget. When pressed on whether there would be budget or staff cuts to key research programs at the department, Perry said: “I will be an advocate (for the programs) ... but I’m not sure I’m going to be 1,000 percent successful.” He distanced himself from a questionnaire the Trump transition team sent to the department in December demanding names and publications of employees who had worked on climate issues. After an uproar by critics who said it amounted to a witch hunt, the team disavowed the survey. “I didn’t approve it. I don’t approve of it. I don’t need that information,” Perry said. Perry said much of his focus running the department would be on renewing the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal. More than half of the department’s $32.5 billion budget goes to maintaining nuclear weapons and cleaning up nuclear waste. “As a former Air Force pilot during the days of the Cold War, I understand the deterrent value of our nuclear weapons systems, and the vital role they play in keeping the peace,” he said. Perry said he was generally supportive of a state’s right to block the siting of nuclear waste dumps, like Yucca Mountain in Nevada, but fell short of ruling out the federal government’s power to impose them over state objections in some cases. Nuclear waste disposal is one of the top hurdles to growth in the U.S. nuclear power industry. Department leadership under Perry would represent a pivot from being run by learned scientists to a person who is known for close ties to energy interests. The current energy secretary, Ernest Moniz, is a nuclear physicist who led technical negotiations in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, while the previous head, Steven Chu, is a Nobel Prize-winning physicist. Perry recently resigned from the board of directors of Energy Transfer Partners LP, the company building the Dakota Access Pipeline opposed by Native Americans and environmentalists. | 1 |
1,499 | Trump lays out new Iran strategy Friday, complicating European ties | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will lay out a more confrontational strategy toward Iran by the United States on Friday in a speech in which he is likely to strike a blow at an international Iran nuclear deal, complicating U.S. relations with European allies. U.S. officials said Trump was expected to announce that he will not certify the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, believing the agreement is not in the national interests of the United States. He had certified it twice before but aides said he was reluctant to do so a third time. Trump could have a last minute change of heart before he outlines his administration s new approach toward Iran in speech at the White House at 12:45 p.m. EDT (1645 GMT) on Friday. The step would not withdraw the United States from the deal but would give the U.S. Congress 60 days to decide whether to reimpose the sanctions on Tehran that were suspended under an agreement that was negotiated by the United States and other world powers during the administration of former President Barack Obama. International inspectors say Iran is in technical compliance with the accord, but Trump says Tehran is in violation of the spirit of the agreement and has done nothing to rein in its ballistic missile program or its financial and military support for Hezbollah and other extremist groups. White House Chief of Staff John Kelly said the U.S. approach toward Iran is to work with allies in the Middle East to contain Tehran s activities. We have footprints on the ground, naval and Air Force is there to just demonstrate our resolve, our friendship, and try to deter anything that any country out there may do, Kelly said. European allies are warning of a split with the United States on the issue. This week, Trump has heard appeals from British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron for the United States to certify the deal for the sake of allied unity. It s imperative that Europe sticks together on this issue, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel told the RND German newspaper group. We also have to tell the Americans that their behavior on the Iran issue will drive us Europeans into a common position with Russia and China against the USA. Signed by the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China, the European Union and Iran, the deal lifted sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program. Trump has called the accord an embarrassment and the worst deal ever. European officials have categorically ruled out renegotiating the deal, but have said they share Trump s concerns over Iran s destabilizing influence in the Middle East. The threat of new action from Washington has prompted a public display of unity from the rival factions among Iran s rulers. CIA Director Mike Pompeo on Thursday kept up a steady drumbeat of Trump administration criticism of Iran, saying Tehran is mounting a ruthless drive to be the hegemonic power in the region. Iran s intelligence service and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are the cudgels of a despotic theocracy, with the IRGC accountable only to a Supreme Leader. They re the vanguard of a pernicious empire that is expanding its power and influence across the Middle East, Pompeo said in remarks at the University of Texas in Austin. In Tampa, Florida, the head of U.S. Central Command said he was concerned about Iran s long-term activities in the region and he would continue to focus on protecting U.S. troops, even as Iran has said U.S. regional military bases would be at risk if further sanctions were passed. Iran is kind of a long-term destabilizing actor in the region and so we remain concerned about their activities as well, U.S. General Joseph Votel told reporters. | 1 |
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