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20,700 | WATCH: Hypocrite Mike Pence Calls Democratic Obstruction Of Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee ‘Unprecedented’ | This is unbelievably outrageous.Republicans are literally pretending that the last eight years never happened.In February 2016, Justice Antonin Scalia passed away, leaving a vacancy on the Supreme Court that President Obama was responsible to fill. But Scalia s body was not even cold before Republicans vowed to block any nominee he selected for the position.And so, Republicans did just that and refused to even grant Merrick Garland a hearing despite the fact that he is a moderate centrist who enjoyed support from Republicans in the past.Republicans excused their unprecedented behavior by claiming that lame-duck presidents can t pick Supreme Court nominees and claimed that the American people should get a say in November about who should pick the next Supreme Court Justice.Th GOP has three problems here. First, President Obama was elected twice by the American people and therefore had the right to choose the nominee. Second, there is plenty of historical examples of presidents picking Supreme Court nominees and getting them confirmed during their final year in office. Ronald Reagan is one of them. And finally, the American people did not vote for Donald Trump, they voted for Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million votes.So Trump definitely does not have a mandate and Republicans do not have any excuses for their obstruction.But Democrats certainly do have a really good excuse to block Trump s nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the high court. After all, Republicans created the new precedent last year by refusing to confirm Garland. Republicans literally stole a Supreme Court seat from President Obama and the Democratic Party.But Mike Pence claims that even threatening to obstruct Trump s nominee is unprecedented. During a speech to the Federalist Society, Pence promised that Gorsuch will pick up where Scalia left off. In other words, he ll be a complete dick who wants to repeal every Supreme Court ruling that protects the rights of women, minorities, gay people, the environment, etc until this nation is taken all the way back to the 1850s.And then he said this. Several announced their opposition within minutes of his nomination, and now they re even threatening to use the filibuster procedure in the Senate to stop him. Make no mistake about it, this is an unwise and an unprecedented act .This seat does not belong to any party or any ideology or any interest group, this seat on the Supreme Court belongs to the American people, and the American people deserve a vote on the floor of the United States Senate. Here s the video via YouTube.Democrats should block Trump s Supreme Court pick at all costs. Turnabout is fair play and Republicans are hypocrites for whining about obstruction when they are the ones who totally disrespected President Obama and Merrick Garland in the first place. They only have themselves to blame for what Democrats are threatening to do and they have no right to complain after the way they acted last year. If Republicans wanted Democrats to cooperate with Trump, they should have thought about that before acting like complete traitors toward President Obama.Republicans wanted the Supreme Court to just have eight justices and that has lasted for a year now. It s time for Democrats to extend that wait to another four years. And if Republicans change the rules to force Gorsuch on the Supreme Court, Democrats should impeach him and Trump when they get control of Congress and show Republicans what the word unprecedented really means.Featured image via screenshot | 0 |
20,701 | California bill to fight fashion models' eating disorders advances | SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - A California bill aimed at reducing eating disorders among models cleared its first legislative hurdle on Wednesday, following efforts in several countries to fight extreme thinness in an industry that pressures models to lose weight. The measure would require the state to develop health standards for models and regard them as employees of the brands they represent. “The goal of the bill is not only to protect the health of the workers themselves, but also to help young people who emulate models,” said the bill’s author, state Assemblyman Marc Levine, a Democrat who represents the Marin County suburbs of San Francisco. Last year, France banned excessive thinness in models, partly in response to the death in 2010 of Isabelle Caro, a 28-year-old former French fashion model. She died from anorexia after posing for a photographic campaign to raise awareness about the illness. Israel enacted a similar measure in 2013, while Italy and Spain rely on voluntary codes of conduct to protect models. The California bill passed the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee on Wednesday. It must be approved by additional committees and the full legislature before it can go to Democratic Governor Jerry Brown, who has not said if he would sign it. At Wednesday’s committee hearing activist Sara Ziff, a former fashion model, wept as she recounted abuses she endured as a teenage model, including pressure to strip for photographers. “I felt like I was being treated more like an escort than a model,” said Ziff, 32, who founded the group Model Alliance. By requiring that models be considered employees, she said, the state would protect them from sexual abuse and exploitation, and the risks of developing an eating disorder. The Association of Talent Agents has called the bill unworkable. A licensing requirement for modeling agencies is redundant because California talent agencies are already licensed, association President Karen Stuart said. “This does nothing to reduce the problems that you heard about today,” Stuart said. | 1 |
20,702 | DID CHILD PORN CASE EXPOSE Deep Ties Between Geek Squad and FBI That Went Around The Need For A Warrant | According to court records, Geek Squad technician John Trey Westphal, an FBI informant, reported he accidentally located on a customer s computer an image of a fully nude, white prepubescent female on her hands and knees on a bed, with a brown choker-type collar around her neck. Westphal notified his boss, Justin Meade, also an FBI informant, who alerted colleague Randall Ratliff, another FBI informant at Best Buy, as well as the FBI. Claiming the image met the definition of child pornography and was tied to a series of illicit pictures known as the Jenny shots, agent Tracey Riley seized the hard drive.Not necessarily a problem, considering companies performing computer/electronic device repair are legally required to report discovered child porn to law enforcement. The difference here is the paycheck. This Geek Squad member had been paid $500 for digging around in customers computers and reporting his findings to the FBI. That changes the motivation from legal obligation to a chance to earn extra cash by digging around in files not essential to the repair work at hand.The allegations are made by lawyers for a California doctor charged with possessing child pornography, after the doctor took his computer to a Best Buy store for repair. Computers which require data recovery are typically sent from Best Buy stores around the country to a central Geek Squad City facility in Brooks, Ky., and customers consent to having their computers searched and turned over to authorities if child porn is found.While there is no question that Geek Squad technicians have notified authorities after finding child porn, the new court documents assert that there is a deeper relationship than has previously been revealed between the company and federal authorities. The court is now considering the extent of that relationship and whether it is grounds to throw out a pending child porn case, though it could also have ramifications for the dozens of cases which originate from the Kentucky facility annually.Defense lawyers for the doctor argue that Geek Squad City s technicians acted as government agents by receiving payments from the FBI, regularly speaking with and referring cases to the FBI, and creating a program to search for child porn. If a government agent wants to search a computer, they need a warrant, and the case has raised issues of privacy invasion and violation of constitutional search and seizure rights.Both Best Buy and the U.S. attorney s office in Los Angeles deny any violations in the search of surgeon Mark Rettenmaier s hard drive, for which the FBI obtained a warrant after being contacted by a Geek Squad supervisor. That in turn led to a warrant and search of Rettenmaier s home, which led to the discovery of thousands of images of child pornography, according to a reply brief by assistant U.S. attorneys Anthony Brown and Gregory Scally.Underneath it all is the perplexing and disturbing aversion to adhering to the Fourth Amendment we ve seen time and time again from law enforcement agencies, both at local and federal levels. Anything that can be done to avoid seeking a warrant, and anything that creates an obfuscatory paper trail, is deployed to make sure the accused faces an even more uphill battle once they arrive in court.Read more: WaPo | 0 |
20,703 | Trump adviser, on Moscow visit, dodges questions about U.S. policy on Russia | MOSCOW (Reuters) - A foreign-policy adviser to U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump avoided all questions about how the United States should shape its policy toward Russia on a visit to Moscow on Thursday. Carter Page said at a lecture he gave to students and business figures organized by Moscow’s New Economic School that he did not want to comment on the U.S. election campaign. Page declined to say whether he was planning to meet anyone from the Kremlin, the Russian government or Foreign Ministry during his visit. Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination for the U.S. presidential election, has made contradictory comments about Russia but made headlines with warm words for President Vladimir Putin. Putin called Trump “very talented”, fuelling speculation the Kremlin would be pleased to see Trump in the White House, but later rowed back from those comments. In his lecture on Thursday, Trump’s adviser Page said Western governments had often had a hypocritical focus on democratization, corruption and inequality in the post-Soviet world. He also accused the United States and its partners of “proactive steps to encourage regime change overseas”. “This may understandably advance a certain level of insecurity,” Page said. Relations between the United States and Russia have deteriorated sharply under U.S. leader Barack Obama, undermined by disagreements over the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria. The Obama administration imposed sanctions on Russia in 2014 over Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and fights on the opposing side of the five-year-old Syrian civil war. Page worked in Russia for U.S. investment bank Merrill Lynch in the mid-2000s and said in an interview with Bloomberg in March that he was an investor in Russian gas producer Gazprom. | 1 |
20,704 | Trump Jr. tweet likening Syrian refugees to poisoned Skittles irks candy maker | NEW YORK (Reuters) - The maker of Skittles candies on Tuesday objected to a social media post by Donald Trump Jr. in which the Republican presidential hopeful’s son compared admitting Syrian refugees to the United States to eating poisoned pieces of the brightly colored, fruit-flavored treats. Candidate Donald Trump has opposed letting Syrian refugees enter, while his Democratic rival in the Nov. 8 election, Hillary Clinton, has supported accepting some of those fleeing the war-torn country. In a post on Twitter on Monday accompanied by an image of the candy, Donald Trump Jr. wrote, “If I had a bowl of Skittles and I told you just three would kill you. Would you take a handful? That’s our Syrian refugee problem.” A spokeswoman for Skittles maker Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co said the company did not feel Trump’s analogy was appropriate. “Skittles are candy. Refugees are people,” said spokeswoman Michelle Green, adding that the Mars Inc [MARSIW.UL] subsidiary would refrain from further comment, “as anything we say could be misinterpreted as marketing.” U.S. admission of Syrian refugees has long been a politically sensitive issue, although the country has admitted far fewer than many close allies. Trump has said violent militants could enter the country posing as refugees. In 2015, Democratic President Barack Obama announced plans to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees this year, sparking fierce criticism, mostly from Republicans who said the plan could put Americans at risk. His administration announced in August that it would meet that goal. The younger Trump’s tweet drew return fire from the Clinton campaign and many Twitter users. “Thankful my grandfather was allowed into this country and not compared to a poisonous skittle,” Josh Schwerin, a Clinton spokesman, posted on Monday. Twitter user Neal Rogers on Tuesday, tweeted, “I’d rather die eating a handful of Skittles than live a single day with @realDonaldTrump as president.” Trump’s running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, hit back at the Skittles criticism in an NBC News interview. “It is remarkable to me to see the level of outrage about a metaphor used by (Donald Trump Jr.) when Hillary Clinton’s calling for a 550 percent increase in the Syrian refugee program,” Pence said. A year ago, Clinton said she supported the admission of 65,000 Syrian refugees. The former U.S. secretary of state has not updated that figure in recent months but says all refugees should be vetted. The Clinton campaign did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on Pence’s remarks. Trump adviser Jack Kingston, a former U.S. congressman from Georgia, also defended the tweet in an interview with MSNBC. “What he was doing was making an illustration. I don’t think he was comparing refugees to candy at all,” he said. The hashtag #SkittlesWelcome was trending on Twitter in the United States, as social media users mocked the tweet. | 1 |
20,705 | On visit to Cartagena, Pope to honor 'slave of slaves' role model | BOGOTA/CARTAGENA, Colombia (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Sunday pays homage to the social justice legacy of one of his role models, Saint Peter Claver, who ministered to slaves in Colombia in the 1600s, defying Spanish colonial masters who treated them as chattel. Francis wraps up his five-day trip with a stop in Cartagena, the walled Caribbean port city that was a gateway for the slave trade in the New World. There, he is expected to hammer home his message that Colombia needs to address social inequality as it struggles to nurture a fledgling peace process to end a 50-year civil war. The Spanish-born Claver, who died in 1654, is revered throughout Latin America, particularly by fellow Jesuits like Francis, for his groundbreaking work with the era s poor and marginalized. Claver begged his Jesuit superiors in Spain to send him to Cartagena so he could minister to the victims of the brutal trans-Atlantic slave trade, where African captives were bought and sold in colonial Cartagena s cobblestone streets. He boarded slave ships that arrived with their human cargo, distributing food on board and later ministering to the sick and dying in huts along the beach. Francis, who has made defense of the poor and downtrodden a major plank of his papacy, was greatly influenced by Claver s story from the days when he was a young Jesuit seminarian in his native Buenos Aires. There are a lot of similarities that resonate with Pope Francis and this young, Latino Jesuit who has this transformative encounter with the poor, said Father Sean Salai, a Jesuit priest and author of a book about the saints who influenced Francis. Through their encounter with the poor, both men moved into more of a direct relationship with God s people, Salai said in a phone interview from his base in San Antonio, Texas. In a letter he called himself the slave of the slaves forever, and this encounter with the poor transformed him, much like Pope Francis, who gave up on the idea of doing a doctorate in theology to be closer to the people, Salai said. While Cartagena s colonial historic district is Colombia s top tourist destination, the city, like much of the country, has deep socioeconomic and racial divisions. Poor Afro-Colombian street vendors sell coral and pearl jewelry, coconut milk and tropical fruits to tourists on the steps of the church named after Claver and where his remains are kept behind glass in the altar. Francis will pray before the remains, bless participants in two charity programs and visit a home where today s Jesuits help some 300 members of the city s poor Afro-Colombian community. I came to receive the pope s blessing, to hear him, said Liney Galindo, 32, from northern Barranquilla. May God enlighten him to bring a message of forgiveness, reconciliation, and wisdom to us. Francis also will meet homeless people and young girls in a Church program to prevent child prostitution in a city where young people are often victims of sex tourism and exploited by well-off locals and foreigners. Cartagena s archbishop, Jorge Jimenez, hopes the pope s presence will boost the programs. We need to be able to expand, because here those problems are really big, Jimenez said in an interview. | 1 |
20,706 | re why did attorney general loretta lynch plead the fifth | why did attorney general loretta lynch plead the fifth barracuda brigade print the administration is blocking congressional probe into cash payments to iran of course she needs to plead the th she either cant recall refuses to answer or just plain deflects the question straight up corruption at its finest
percentfedupcom talk about covering your ass loretta lynch did just that when she plead the fifth to avoid incriminating herself over payments to irancorrupt to the core attorney general loretta lynch is declining to comply with an investigation by leading members of congress about the obama administrations secret efforts to send iran billion in cash earlier this year prompting accusations that lynch has pleaded the fifth amendment to avoid incriminating herself over these payments according to lawmakers and communications exclusively obtained by the washington free beacon
sen marco rubio r fla and rep mike pompeo r kan initially presented lynch in october with a series of questions about how the cash payment to iran was approved and delivered
in an oct response assistant attorney general peter kadzik responded on lynchs behalf refusing to answer the questions and informing the lawmakers that they are barred from publicly disclosing any details about the cash payment which was bound up in a ransom deal aimed at freeing several american hostages from iran
the response from the attorney generals office is unacceptable and provides evidence that lynch has chosen to essentially plead the fifth and refuse to respond to inquiries regarding herrole in providing cash to the worlds foremost state sponsor of terrorism rubio and pompeo wrote on friday in a followup letter to lynch more related | 1 |
20,707 | Trump campaign asks Capitol Hill to back him in Khan controversy | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Donald Trump’s presidential campaign appealed to Capitol Hill for support on Monday as his attacks on the Muslim parents of a decorated American soldier killed in Iraq drew sharp rebukes from fellow party members. Trump’s criticism of Khizr Khan and Ghazala Khan, who took the stage at last week’s Democratic convention, sparked growing concern and dismay from Republican lawmakers responding to the latest Trump outburst to blindside his party colleagues. Republican Senator John McCain, a former prisoner of war and the most prominent veteran in Congress, along with the commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, joined the chorus of condemnation, reflecting the highly regarded place the military and its veterans hold with many in the United States. Trump’s dispute with the Khans has dominated the White House campaign in recent days and underlined the uneasy alliance between many leading Republicans and the party’s freewheeling, unorthodox nominee for the Nov. 8 election. Rob Wasinger, a onetime congressional candidate who has been working for the Trump camp on congressional outreach, sent an email to senior Senate aides saying, “We want to get several member statements out today on this, and would really appreciate your help.” A similar appeal was made to Republicans in the House of Representatives, according to a senior aide. Attached to the appeal were talking points lawmakers could use to try to tamp down the controversy growing since last week’s appearance at the Democratic convention by the Khans, the parents of U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed by a bomb in Iraq 12 years ago. Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for Trump, said that the campaign was grateful to have support in Congress and that Republicans are working to keep Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton from winning the presidency. Wasinger refused to comment when contacted by telephone. The appeal did not generate any help for Trump. A senior Senate Republican aide, who asked not to be identified, said Republican senators were pleased with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s statement on Sunday calling Captain Khan “an American hero” and noting “a travel ban on all members of a religion is simply contrary to American values.” At the same time, the aide said the controversy would probably not cause Republican senators to withdraw their endorsements of Trump. In a convention speech delivered with his wife at his side, Khizr Khan showcased his son’s military service and criticized Trump’s call for a temporary ban on Muslims from entering the United States, holding up a copy of the U.S. Constitution and suggesting Trump read it. Since then, Trump has complained he was “viciously” attacked by the couple and suggested Ghazala Khan might not have been “allowed” to speak, implying her silence reflected restrictions placed on women by some traditional Muslims. McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate and current chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, issued a lengthy statement sharply criticizing Trump’s comments. “While our party has bestowed upon him the nomination, it is not accompanied by unfettered license to defame those who are the best among us,” said McCain, a prisoner of war for five years during the Vietnam War. His counterpart on the House Armed Services Committee, Representative Mac Thornberry of Texas, echoed McCain, saying in a statement he was “dismayed at the attacks Khizr and Ghazala Khan have endured after they spoke about their son’s service and sacrifice.” The head of the 1.7 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars also said Trump’s attack on the Khans went too far. Trump and Clinton spoke to the group’s national convention last week. “Election year or not, the VFW will not tolerate anyone berating a Gold Star family member for exercising his or her right of speech or expression,” said Brian Duffy, the national commander of the country’s oldest and largest war veterans organization, referring to families who have lost relatives in wars. President Barack Obama did not mention Trump by name, but said military families who had lost loved ones in service should be honored for their sacrifice. “No one has given more for our freedom and our security than our Gold Star families,” Obama said at the Disabled American Veterans national convention in Atlanta. “Our Gold Star families have made a sacrifice that most of us cannot even begin to imagine. They represent the very best of our country.” In the talking points sent to lawmakers, the Trump campaign said he had been asked about the Khans’ comments during the convention and wished them well. The talking points also noted that Trump “wants to end radical Islamic terror, so that our soldiers like Mr. Khan’s son will be safe.” The list also says Trump had not directly compared his sacrifices to the Khans. Trump said over the weekend he had also made sacrifices in his life by working hard, creating jobs and being successful. The Khans bristled at that suggestion and, in numerous television appearances over the weekend, said Trump was ignorant about Islam and about their family’s sacrifice. Trump’s off-the-cuff insults and controversial proposals such as the Muslim ban and a plan to keep illegal immigrants out by building a wall along the Mexican border, have made many in the party establishment reluctant backers of his White House bid. On Monday, during a town hall event in Columbus, Ohio, Trump told supporters he thought the November election might be “rigged.” Later that day, he said former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders “made a deal with the devil” when he agreed to back Clinton. “She’s the devil,” Trump said, referring to Clinton. In his statement, McCain recalled how Humayun Khan died, saying that when a suicide bomber aimed his vehicle toward a building housing hundreds of U.S. soldiers, the captain told his subordinates to stay away, then ran toward it. McCain thanked the Khans for coming to America, saying “your son was the best of America, and the memory of his sacrifice will make us a better nation – and he will never be forgotten.” In a remarks to television networks on Monday, Khizr Khan said Trump lacked the empathy to be a leader and chided him for throwing the first salvo in their exchange. Trump has tried to shift focus from the Khans. “This story is not about Mr. Khan, who is all over the place doing interviews, but rather RADICAL ISLAMIC TERRORISM and the U.S. Get smart!” Trump said Monday on Twitter. Ghazala Khan wrote an opinion piece in The Washington Post on Sunday saying she had remained silent during her husband’s remarks to cope with making her grief public during the convention. On Sunday, Democratic rival Clinton said Trump had scapegoated the parents. In addition to Senate Majority Leader McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan issued a statement supporting the family. Trump drew similar opprobrium a year ago when he said McCain, who as a naval aviator was shot down and taken prisoner during the Vietnam War, was not a hero because he had been captured. In an open letter, 23 Gold Star families said Trump cheapened their sacrifice and called for an apology. “This goes beyond politics. It is about a sense of decency,” it said. “That kind decency you mock as ‘political correctness.’” | 1 |
20,708 | Support for an independent Catalonia rises to three-year high: poll | MADRID (Reuters) - Support for the creation of an independent state of Catalonia rose to an almost 3-year high in October according to an official regional survey published on Tuesday. Some 48.7 percent of Catalans believe the Spanish region should be independent, according to the poll from Centre d Estudis d Opinio, up from 41.1 pct in June and the highest since December 2014. The poll was based on 1,338 interviews taken between Oct. 16 and Oct. 29. | 1 |
20,709 | Mexican president to meet with Trump at G20 | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto will meet with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump next week at the G20 summit in Germany, the Mexican foreign ministry said on Thursday via Twitter. The election of Trump and his early days in office sent U.S.-Mexico relations to a new low due to his threats to slap tariffs on Mexican-made goods and a plan to build a wall on the southern U.S. border to keep out illegal immigrants. The foreign ministry said the two leaders would review progress in various aspects of the bilateral relationship, and that more details would be published in due course. In late January, a planned meeting between the presidents was canceled following a Twitter dispute over Trump’s pledge to make Mexico pay for the wall. The American president has since shied away from that demand. Trump’s administration also moved toward talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), toning down earlier threats to pull out of the pact with Mexico and Canada. This month, the U.S. and Mexican governments resolved a long-standing dispute over the sugar trade, while agricultural ministers from the three NAFTA countries met and said there were “relatively few” differences over farm trade to resolve in talks. | 1 |
20,710 | CONSERVATIVE Has Message For “DREAMERS” Screaming “He’s not my President!” and It’s HILARIOUS! | Remember when illegal aliens, students, and residents of Berkeley took to the streets to march in solidarity, and publicly affirm that President Donald Trump is Not my President! ? It s really not surprising to see ILLEGAL ALIENS boldly chanting He s not my President! after our former president promised them unconstitutional citizenship rights. Should anyone really take an illegal alien seriously who shouts that President Trump is not my President, when in fact, their president is actually in another country? But then again, what difference does law and order make to students and non-citizens who are used to living under a president, like Barack Obama who openly defied both?Conservative Twitter user Brooks Brown hit the nail on the head with his tweet to Dreamers standing on our soil belching that Trump s NOT MY PRESIDENT' by reminding them that their dreams have gladly come true. https://t.co/9ZLjdyRFSEAll you "Dreamers" standing on our soil belching that Trump's "NOT MY PRESIDENT" your dreams have gladly come true! brooks brown (@bbusa617) September 5, 2017The photo Brown used in his tweet was taken from a video that was filmed during the 2016 campaign season. A group of illegal aliens gathered together to protest Trump on a corner in advance of his arrival at a campaign event in Arizona. | 0 |
20,711 | Obama paints Trump as no friend of the working class | PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - With Hillary Clinton sidelined by pneumonia, President Barack Obama took up the Democrats’ fight against Donald Trump on Tuesday, trying to quash the Republican presidential candidate’s bid to appeal to working-class voters. Obama, whose 50 percent job approval rating could help improve the climate for the Democratic ticket in the Nov. 8 election, rallied party faithful against Trump, the 70-year-old New York real estate developer, at an outdoor event in Philadelphia. “This is a guy who spent 70 years on this earth showing no concern for working people. He spent most of his life trying to stay far away from working people. He wasn’t going to let you on his golf course,” Obama said. Obama’s campaign appearance was his first as a solo act on behalf of Clinton as he tries to ensure Democrats retain control of the White House once his eight years are over in January. The president lauded new census numbers on income growth as proof that his administration’s policies have helped improve the economy, an attempt to undermine Trump’s argument that economic woes are deep. “By so many measures, America is stronger and more prosperous than when we started out on this journey together,” Obama said. Clinton, who was Obama’s secretary of state during his first term, rested at her home in the New York City suburb of Chappaqua, as she recovers from pneumonia. She was diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday but she kept it secret until she nearly collapsed on Sunday at a ceremony in Manhattan marking the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. She is to return to the campaign trail on Thursday, her spokesman Nick Merrill said Tuesday evening. Her campaign said in a statement that she will deliver remarks in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Thursday and “discuss her vision for an America that is stronger together.” Trump appeared at a campaign event in suburban Philadelphia after Obama departed, touting proposals that would allow families to deduct child-care expenses from their income taxes and establish paid maternity leave for women whose employers do not offer it. The plan, he said, was aimed to bolster working-class and middle-class families. With his daughter Ivanka at his side, Trump also appeared to support equal pay for women, traditionally a core issue for Democrats. “We need working mothers to be fairly compensated for their work and have access to affordable quality child care for their work,” Trump said. As he did earlier in the day at a rally in Des Moines, Trump steered clear of mentioning Clinton’s illness but stepped up efforts to wring maximum advantage from her controversial comment that his supporters are “deplorables.” “While my opponent slanders you as deplorable and irredeemable, I call you hardworking American patriots who love your country,” said Trump, who has tried to portray the former first lady as out of touch with ordinary Americans. Clinton said in a speech last week that half of Trump’s supporters belong “in a basket of deplorables” and accused them of being racist and homophobic. She later said she regretted the remark. Trump, who has often bragged about his wealth, has come under fire himself for rhetoric against minorities during his campaign, including describing Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists, suggesting that a judge could not be fair because of his Mexican-American heritage, and proposing a temporary ban on Muslim immigration to the United States. After struggling in opinion polls in August, Trump has erased most of Clinton’s lead in national surveys and is competitive again in many battleground states where the White House race is likely to be decided. The “deplorables” comment featured at a Trump rally in Asheville, North Carolina, on Monday night that saw a resumption of some of the violence that disrupted his events earlier this year. “Never in history has a major party presidential candidate so viciously demonized the American voter,” Trump told the crowd. Five people, including a minor, were arrested at the rally and charged with crimes including second degree trespassing and fighting in public, Asheville police said. A man grabbed an anti-Trump protester’s neck and punched him during the rally, video from NBC and ABC showed. Police said they also obtained an arrest warrant for the suspect in that incident. | 1 |
20,712 | Democrats, seeking unity, give Sanders say in party platform | NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Democratic Party said on Monday it would give U.S. presidential contender Bernie Sanders a prominent say in writing its platform this year, a gesture that could ease tensions between Sanders’ camp and party leaders, whom Sanders has accused of favoring rival Hillary Clinton. Sanders has remained steadfast in his long-shot battle with Clinton for the Democratic nomination for the Nov. 8 presidential election, even though he lags her in the delegate count with only a few state contests remaining. The divisiveness among the Democrats stands in contrast to the Republicans, whose party leaders are slowly rallying behind Donald Trump, their presumptive nominee. Sanders’ tenacity appeared to be paying off. The U.S. senator from Vermont will be allowed to name five members to the 15-member committee that writes the platform at the Democratic National Convention in late July in Philadelphia even if he is not the nominee. Clinton will name six. The party said in a statement the split was based on the results of state votes to date “in an effort to make this the most representative and inclusive process in history.” The party’s chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, will name the committee’s final four members. The Democratic Party’s rules allow the chair to name all 15 members, suggesting the party was trying to accommodate Sanders and his fervent supporters, who still pack rallies by the thousands as he campaigns in California, which will hold its primary on June 7. Sanders did little to dispel the acrimony between himself and the party, which he joined only last year after more than two decades in Congress as an independent, when he said over the weekend he was endorsing Wasserman Schultz’s Democratic opponent in her Florida congressional district. On Monday, he repeated some of his criticisms of Clinton, who he has suggested is vulnerable to influence by corporate donors to her campaign, which she denies. Sanders also told the Associated Press in an interview that if Democratic leaders open the convention’s doors “to working-class people and young people and create the kind of dynamism that the Democratic Party needs, it’s going to be messy.” “Democracy is not always nice and quiet and gentle but that is where the Democratic Party should go,” he added. The Clinton campaign said it was pleased to see Sanders represented, describing the party as a “big tent.” “Hillary Clinton is committed to continue welcoming different perspectives and ideas,” spokesman Brian Fallon said in a statement. Sanders, who has criticized Clinton for being too biased toward Israel, has named a pro-Palestinian activist and a prominent environmentalist among his picks for the committee. Clinton has said she now considers herself the de facto Democratic nominee. Increasingly, she has turned her attention to attacking Trump as a “bully” when speaking at campaign events while urging Sanders supporters to rally to her side. She told labor union members in Detroit on Monday that if elected, she would embrace issues important to Sanders’ supporters, including reform of campaign financing and reducing income inequality. Underlining Clinton’s confidence that she will become the Democratic candidate, her campaign said on Monday she would not participate in a debate with Sanders in California, despite having previously agreed to attend the event hosted by Fox News. Trump is steadily escalating his criticism of both Hillary and Bill Clinton’s relationship with women, using rhetoric that has little precedent in U.S. presidential politics. On Monday, Trump circulated a new online video that shows images of Bill Clinton, the former president, as voices of women play on the soundtrack saying he had assaulted them, before ending with the sound of Hillary Clinton, his wife, laughing. Although none of the women are identified in the video, one of the voices is that of Juanita Broaddrick in an NBC interview from 1999 in which the former nursing-home manager accused Bill Clinton of raping her in a hotel in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1978. The Clintons’ lawyer, David Kendall, said in 1999 that the accusation was false. The Clintons have declined to discuss the accusation and are ignoring his personal attacks, with Hillary Clinton saying instead she will defend vulnerable Americans from the consequences of Trump’s proposals. “Trump economics is a recipe for lower wages, fewer jobs, more debt,” she told the union members on Monday. “He could bankrupt America like he bankrupted his companies. I mean, ask yourself: How can anybody lose money running a casino, really?” | 1 |
20,713 | After FBI report, Clinton aides could find it harder to get security clearances | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI’s harsh criticism of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email system as U.S. secretary of state could make it difficult for some of her closest aides to keep or renew government security clearances, but it would not affect Clinton herself if she is elected president, experts said. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said on Tuesday an FBI investigation had found evidence that Clinton, now the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, and her aides “were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information” at the State Department. Comey said he would not recommend that the Justice Department bring criminal charges - a recommendation accepted by Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Wednesday - but the FBI director noted that people found to have been similarly careless often face consequences in the form of “security or administrative sanctions.” Most administrative sanctions, anything from a reprimand to a dismissal, can’t be imposed on Clinton and three of her closest aides Cheryl Mills, Jake Sullivan and Huma Abedin as they have already left government, experts of the government’s classified information regime said. But legal experts said that if Clinton aides were found to have treated classified material with extreme carelessness that could give the government reason to consider denying them a security clearance in the future or suspending or revoking one they may currently have. “If the system is fair and equitable, then they should all have difficulty maintaining or obtaining a security clearance in the future,” said Mark Zaid, a Washington D.C.-based attorney who specializes in national security matters. Steven Aftergood, a Federation of American Scientists expert on national security and classification policy, noted, however, that Comey had highlighted what he called a problematic security culture at the State Department. “So it might be hard to penalize individuals for this episode if their entire agency embraced similar practices,” Aftergood said. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to elaborate on Comey’s statement, which did not name any of the aides. The Clinton campaign did not respond to questions about the security clearances of Clinton, Mills, Sullivan and Abedin, nor did lawyers for the three aides. Abedin, who has been a personal aide to Clinton for about 20 years, and Sullivan, Clinton’s policy director at the State Department, sent information the government now says is classified to Clinton’s unauthorized private email account, according to email records released by the State Department. It remains unclear if they sent any of the 110 emails that Comey said contained information that was classified at the time they were written. The only author of such emails he identified was Clinton herself. A small number of other department colleagues sent information the government has since marked as classified to Clinton’s account less frequently, the records show. The government forbids handling classified government secrets outside secured channels it controls. Clinton has said she did not knowingly send or receive classified information through her private email server. Both Abedin and Sullivan now hold senior roles in Clinton’s presidential campaign and are widely expected to join a Clinton administration if she is elected on Nov. 8. Mills, who also passed along information the government now deems classified, has continued to work as a lawyer for Clinton but has no formal role in the campaign. It unclear if she will seek a role in a Clinton administration. Some presidential appointments require Senate confirmation, and lawmakers could use any past criticism of an aide’s handling of government secrets as a reason to block their appointment to a Senate-confirmed job, said William J. Leonard, a former director of the federal government’s Information Security Oversight Office. The State Department declined to discuss individual cases and said that as a matter of policy it does not publicly disclose who has a security clearance. But it said it can apply security sanctions, such as putting a black mark on a person’s permanent personnel file that would come up in future background checks, even against former employees. For those former officials who maintain an active security clearance, they could lose it. “Department policy is to maintain files on personnel who are found to have mishandled information to guide current and potential future decisions about employment and security clearances,” John Kirby, a department spokesman, said in a statement. Without knowing precisely what the FBI found about the actions of specific Clinton aides, it is impossible to say what effect there may be on their current or future security clearances. Paul Ryan, the House Speaker and the most senior elected Republican official, said on Wednesday that Clinton should be denied the security clearance required to receive the customary intelligence briefing that government officials give to presidential nominees before the election. Presidents and other elected national officeholders are not required to have background checks to receive government secrets, according to experts and the Central Intelligence Agency. “It would roil our system of representative democracy if a security official could say that the president ... can’t have a security clearance,” said McAdoo Gordon, an attorney with extensive experience in security clearance matters. | 1 |
20,714 | U.N. chief says Trump travel ban 'not best way to protect U.S.' | UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel restrictions on people with passports from seven countries and a freeze on refugee resettlement was “not the best way to protect the U.S.” and should be lifted sooner than later. Guterres’ comments were his first to directly address Trump’s signing of an executive order last Friday on immigration amid a drumbeat of criticism from around the world and protests. The order put a 120-day halt on the U.S. refugee program, barred Syrian refugees indefinitely and imposed a 90-day suspension on people from seven predominantly Muslim countries - Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The White House has described the order as necessary “to protect the American people from terrorist attacks by foreign nationals admitted to the United States.” But Guterres told reporters on Wednesday that “this is not the way to best protect the U.S. or any other country in relation to the serious concerns that exist about possible terrorist infiltration. “I think that these measures should be removed sooner rather than later,” said Guterres, who has issued a series of comments since Friday about the importance of protecting refugees and the dangers of broad-based travel bans. Guterres said travel bans risked playing to the advantage of terrorist organizations seeking to recruit members. “If a global terrorist organization will try to attack any country like the United States, they will probably not come with people with passports from those countries that are hot spots of conflict today,” he said. He said such groups were likely to use people for attacks traveling on the passports of “developed and credible countries,” or who had been living in the United States or other countries for decades. A panel of U.N. human rights experts urged the Trump administration on Wednesday to protect people fleeing war and persecution, and said the executive order contravened international humanitarian and human rights laws. Critics of the order inside the United States have described it as unconstitutional and several states have sued to challenge the travel ban. | 1 |
20,715 | Turkey, Iran and Russia to deploy observers around Syria's Idlib | ANKARA/ASTANA (Reuters) - Russia, Iran and Turkey will post observers on the edge of a de-escalation zone in northern Syria s Idlib region largely controlled by Islamist militants, the three nations said on Friday. The move is part of a broader plan under which Moscow, Tehran and Ankara will set up four such zones in different parts of Syria, an idea described by critics as de facto partitioning of the war-torn nation. While they hailed the agreement as a breakthrough after months of talks, Moscow, Tehran and Ankara provided very few details and said some issues were still to be worked out. They denied charges of aiming to partition the country, however, saying the zones where they plan to deploy forces would be temporary, although they could be extended beyond an initial six-month term. A top aide to President Bashar al-Assad, Bouthaina Shaaban, said attempts to divide Syria had failed, and reiterated the government s vow to take back the entire country, including Idlib and other areas . Turkey s foreign ministry and Russian and Iranian diplomats who attended trilateral talks in Kazakhstan said on Friday their observers would be stationed in safe zones along the border of the Idlib de-escalation area. The Turkish ministry said in a statement the observers mission will be to prevent clashes between the (Syrian) regime and the opposition forces, and any violations of the truce . Russian negotiator Alexander Lavrentyev said the trio will each send about 500 observers to Idlib, and the Russians will be military policemen. Idlib province, in northwest Syria on the border with Turkey, is largely controlled by a rebel alliance spearheaded by the former al Qaeda offshoot Nusra Front. One analyst was unsure how effective the deal would be. I m not sure what this deal means in practice or how or if it is going to get implemented on the ground, said Aron Lund, a Syria specialist and fellow at The Century Foundation. The obvious stumbling block is the fact that much of Idlib is under the control of Tahrir al-Sham, which is viewed internationally as a terrorist group. A deal with Russia and Iran, which support President Bashar Assad s government, marks a shift in the policy of Ankara, which backs some of the rebels and raised objections to Russia and Iran s proposals at a previous meeting in July. But the details of the plan remained unclear as the three countries did not make public any of the documents agreed on Friday apart from their joint statement. Russia s Lavrentyev said that the exact deployment locations of de-escalation control forces in Idlib had yet to be determined. Yezid Sayigh, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Centre, said the agreement could pave way for an offensive against Hay at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). The calls to form a unified opposition army in the northwest under the aegis of groups close to the Muslim Brotherhood suggest that Turkey is preparing a proxy force to move against HTS in western Aleppo and Idlib: as in al-Bab and Jarablus, Turkish units would support opposition forces from behind, he said. A Western diplomat said it was still unclear what the final outcome will be, notwithstanding there was just a closing ceremony . How much devil will be in the detail remains to be seen, the diplomat said. Meanwhile, the Astana trio have started discussing setting up national reconciliation committees in Syria and will continue those discussions in late October, Lavrentyev said. The United Nations, which hosts separate Syria peace talks in Geneva, has previously urged Astana to focus on consolidating the ceasefire and avoid political matters. | 1 |
20,716 | Japan's Abe says won't delay tax hike unless big shock hits economy | TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Sunday the government will proceed with a scheduled sales tax increase in 2019 unless the economy suffers a shock as big as the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers. He also defended the government s plan to divert some of the proceeds from the scheduled tax hike to 10 percent from 8 percent to child care and education, saying that investing in children will undoubtedly lead to stronger economic growth . Our administration has worked on fiscal reform more than any other administration, Abe told a television program as his ruling bloc headed for a big win in Sunday s general election. In order to pay back Japan s public debt, you need economic growth, he said. We d like to proceed with fiscal reform by spurring economic growth and investment, Abe said, suggesting his administration will continue to focus on reflating growth rather than fiscal austerity. Abe s ruling bloc was set for a big win in Sunday s election, bolstering his chances of becoming the nation s longest-serving premier. Abe twice delayed the sales tax hike to 10 percent after an earlier increase to 8 percent tipped Japan into recession. Analysts say increasing the levy is crucial to rein in Japan s huge public debt which, at twice the size of its economy, is the biggest among major industrialized nations. | 1 |
20,717 | common painkillers linked to increased heart failure risk | by sarah jones on fri oct th at pm donald trumps message that everything in the us is crap and we are all drowning in economic hardship that only trump can fix got slapped down today as the us economy roars back share on twitter print this post
donald trumps message that everything in the us is crap and we are all drowning in economic hardship that only trump can fix got slapped down today as the us economy roars back
the advance estimate of gdp for the third quarter of showed that the obama economy grew at an annual rate of the conservative wall street journal headlined this news with us economy roars back grew in third quarter
jason furman chairman of the council of economic advisers summarized the numbers real gdp grew percent at an annual rate in the third quarter with strong export growth and continued strength in consumer spending
this news flies in the face of donald trumps basic economic message of doom and gloom that only he can fix the trump economic plan creates at least million jobs boosts growth up to percent and is revenue neutral trumps website claims
before these numbers trumps previous problem was that trumps economic plan is a big giveaway to the top one percent isnt revenue neutral and would destroy million jobs trump also struggled with analysis that his plan could hurt the economy in the long run
the conservativeleaning tax foundation found that trumps plan would cost the us trillions of dollars and grow the incomes of the top one percent by trumps tax plan could cost the us million jobs
according to a report released at the end of july by moodys analytics hillary clintons economic proposals would create millions of jobs and boost economic growth higher than current projections the analysis shows that if implemented the democratic nominees agenda would create million jobs and accelerate economic growth to an annual average of percent
under trumps plan moodys estimated that unemployment would spike to percent and over million americans would be put out of work the us economy will weaken significantly if mr trumps economic policies are fully implemented as he has proposed the june report said the economy will suffer a recession that begins in early and extends into even longer than the great recession
yikes
trump sells these plans with a broadly negative message that often strays from facts trump earned a pants on fire from politifact for this claim made june th in his presidential announcement speech the last quarter it was just announced our gross domestic product was below zero who ever heard of this its never below zero
but also they note finally since trump was attacking obama for this bad quarter of growth well just throw this out of the quarters of negative growth since world war ii occurred under republican presidents and just under democratic presidents
todays new economic numbers help clinton make the argument that people should vote for her if they want to continue the record setting job growth numbers and economic growth under president obama
hillary for america senior policy advisor jacob leibenluft pounced on the numbers to say todays gdp release shows economic growth at its fastest pace in two years but hillary clinton believes there is still more we need to do to build an economy that works for everyone not just those at the top independent experts agree her plan would create goodpaying jobs through investments in infrastructure innovation and education
the economy is roaring back under president obama and the numbers suggest that it does better under a democratic president donald trump keeps saying clinton is more years of obama which makes a sunny case for her
trump is already struggling with just days to go until the election on november th and these numbers just added more weight to his uphill battle reality has spoken and it doesnt agree with donald trumps vision of america | 0 |
20,718 | EU exec proposes deeper euro zone integration to unite EU | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission proposed on Wednesday ideas for deeper euro zone integration in an effort to help unite the broader European Union, as eurosceptic sentiment grows across the EU and Britain prepares to leave the EU in 2019. The Commission, the EU s executive arm, presented a package of proposals aimed at giving the 19 countries sharing the euro better protection against future financial crises. But plans to tighten cooperation among the 19 euro countries have sparked concern among the eight non-euro countries that they will become second-class members of the EU, with less say - and less funds - in the future. To alleviate those fears, the Commission stressed that all their proposals were open to all EU members, even though that clashes with the thinking of some euro zone leaders, such as French President Emmanuel Macron. Macron has called for creating a euro zone budget of several hundred billion euros, a euro zone finance minister and a euro zone parliament. The Commission proposed creating cash incentives for countries for structural reforms and special funds for non-euro economies, all of which - except Denmark - are obligated to adopt the euro at some point, to prepare for euro adoption. But heavyweight Germany was quick to pour cold water on one key part of the plans putting in doubt just how far they would get. The Commission backed the idea of setting up what it calls a euro zone stabilisation function , because the monetary policy of the European Central Bank cannot deal with economic crises that hit only one or a few countries in the euro zone. That would be a pool of money to protect investment with loans and a relatively limited grant component , the Commission said. To be effective and credible, it should be big enough to pay out at least 1 percent of GDP and be allowed to borrow. Access to the stabilisation function , managed by the Commission, would be for those who stick to EU rules. The money would come from loans from the EU budget, voluntary contributions from governments and loans from the euro zone bailout fund with guarantees from the EU budget. The Commission said that for this to work, a limited borrowing capacity could be constructed in the next EU budget. Germany expressed reservations though. I don t think it makes sense to prejudge anything, but the outgoing government was not convinced that new buffers at the European level are necessary, Germany s acting finance minister Peter Altmaier said. Instead of a euro zone finance minister, the Commission called for naming a pan-European Minister of Economy and Finance, who would also be a senior member of the European Commission and chair meetings of euro zone finance ministers. The minister would also oversee the work of the euro zone bailout fund as the chairman of its board, much like the head of euro zone finance ministers, the Eurogroup, does now. The job might be created when the next European Commission starts work in November 2019, the Commission said, and whoever gets it would be accountable to the European Parliament. Under the current arrangement, the chair of the euro zone finance ministers, the closest thing the bloc now has to a single finance minister, often testifies before the parliament s economic committee, but it has no power over him or her. Euro zone finance ministers have little enthusiasm for allowing the Commission, which is only an observer at their monthly meetings, to chair their talks. Other euro zone integration ideas, floated by Germany, include transforming the euro zone s government-owned and run bailout fund into a European Monetary Fund. The Commission backed that idea, but said the EMF should become an EU institution, which would be overseen by the European Parliament an idea officials have said would not fly with governments. The EMF, which the Commission hopes to get agreement on by mid-2019 from governments and the European Parliament, would also provide a 60 billion-euro backstop for the bank-funded Single Resolution Fund. The Commission did not address the proposal of Germany and backed by Slovakia and the Netherlands to create a sovereign insolvency mechanism that would put pressure on governments to conduct prudent fiscal policy. Economists were not impressed with the Commission proposals. A first browsing of the documents allows us to conclude that hardly anything will change, ING economist Carsten Brzeski wrote in a note to clients. Today s proposals go in the right direction but are not new and clearly not a game changer. | 1 |
20,719 | U.S. Secret Service rejects suggestion it vetted Trump son's meeting | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Secret Service on Sunday denied a suggestion from President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer that it had vetted a meeting between the president’s son and Russian nationals during the 2016 campaign. Donald Trump Jr. has acknowledged that he met in New York with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya after he was told she might have damaging information about his father’s rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton. “Well, I wonder why the Secret Service, if this was nefarious, why the Secret Service allowed these people in. The president had Secret Service protection at that point, and that raised a question with me,” Jay Sekulow, a member of the president’s legal team, said on Sunday on the ABC news program “This Week.” In an emailed response to questions about Sekulow’s comments, Secret Service spokesman Mason Brayman said the younger Trump was not under Secret Service protection at the time of the meeting, which included Trump’s son and two senior campaign officials. “Donald Trump, Jr. was not a protectee of the USSS in June, 2016. Thus we would not have screened anyone he was meeting with at that time,” the statement said. According to emails released by Trump Jr. last week, he eagerly agreed to meet Veselnitskaya, who he was told was a Russian government lawyer. Veselnitskaya has said she is a private lawyer and denies having Kremlin ties. On Friday, NBC News reported that a lobbyist who was once a Soviet counter-intelligence officer participated in the meeting, which was also attended by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and the president’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort. The meeting appears to be the most tangible evidence of a connection between Trump’s election campaign and Russia, a subject that has prompted investigations by congressional committees and a federal special counsel. Moscow has denied any interference and the president and Trump Jr. have denied any collusion. Sekulow’s comments about the Secret Service drew quick criticism, including from Frances Townsend, who advised former Republican President George W. Bush on homeland security. “Ok let’s try to deflect blame & throw those in @SecretService who protect @POTUS @realDonaldTrump @FLOTUS & family under the bus,” she said on Twitter. The Secret Service’s mission is to provide physical protection for the U.S. president. The agency also protects major presidential candidates. But its role in vetting people who meet with a U.S. president or candidates is limited to ensuring physical safety. Trump himself has said he was unaware of the meeting between his son and the Russian lawyer until a few days ago. “The president was not aware about this meeting, did not participate in this meeting,” Sekulow told the CBS program “Face the Nation.” Sekulow added that Trump was not aware of any meetings between his campaign staff and Russians. A federal special counsel and several congressional panels are investigating allegations by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to hurt Clinton and help Trump. They are also investigating potential connections between Russian officials and the Trump campaign. Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on one of the panels investigating the matter, the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CNN: “The level of credibility from the senior level of this administration really is suspect.” Warner said he wanted to hear from everyone who attended the June 2016 meeting. “Whether we will be able to get the Russian nationals to come over and testify is an open question, (but) those people that our committee has jurisdiction over, the Americans, I sure as heck want to talk to all of them,” Warner said. | 1 |
20,720 | Iran sanctions initial steps in response to 'provocative' behavior: U.S. officials | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senior U.S. administration officials said sanctions imposed against Iran earlier on Friday were only the “initial steps in response to Iranian provocative behavior.” The U.S. Treasury sanctioned 13 individuals and 12 entities under its Iran sanctions authority, days after the White House put Tehran “on notice” over a ballistic missile test and other activities. | 1 |
20,721 | Spanish court blocks second law linked to Catalan referendum | MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish court has suspended a Catalan law that outlined a legal framework for an independent state, a court source said on Tuesday, the day after hundreds of thousands rallied in Barcelona to support secession from Madrid. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy s government is increasing the pressure to prevent an independence referendum, scheduled for Oct. 1, from going ahead. It has declared the vote illegal and challenged laws linked to the ballot in the courts. The Constitutional Court, Spain s highest authority on such matters, suspended the law while judges consider whether it is against the country s constitution. It suspended a law approving the Oct. 1 vote last week. The Catalan parliament approved both laws on Wednesday in a move which brought a long-running tussle between the pro-independence regional government and the Madrid-based central government to a head. Rising tension between Madrid and Barcelona has prompted some investors to ditch Spanish sovereign debt. Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, who faces criminal charges for his role in organizing the referendum, only has the power to call an election not a referendum, a government spokesman said on Tuesday. If Puigdemont wants to consult the people, it s very simple, he should call an election, government spokesman and Minister of Education, Culture and Sport Inigo Mendez de Vigo told Antena 3 television. Polls have shown support for independence waning in recent years with those wanting a separate state in a minority. However, a majority of Catalans want to vote on the issue. Most of Catalonia s 948 mayors have pledged to permit use of public spaces for the vote, but Ada Colau, head of the region s biggest city Barcelona, has asked for assurances that civil servants involved will not risk losing their jobs. Justice Minister Rafael Catala on Tuesday warned the regional administration against coercing municipal leaders to take part. I trust they will be left in peace and not be obliged to do what they cannot, Catala told RTVE television. | 1 |
20,722 | TPP trade pact in disarray as Canada holds up talks | DANANG, Vietnam (Reuters) - Efforts to revive the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal foundered on Friday when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau failed to show up for a meeting to agree a path forward without the United States. The lack of a deal on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit underscored the convulsions in global trade policy since U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the TPP early this year in the name of an America First approach. Speaking ahead of the APEC summit, Trump said he only wanted bilateral trade deals in Asia - and deals in which the United States was not at a disadvantage. It was left to President Xi Jinping of China to champion a multilateralist vision of trade with a speech in the Vietnamese resort city of Danang that described globalisation as an irreversible trend. It was partly to counter China s growing dominance in Asia that Japan had been lobbying hard for the TPP pact, which aims to eliminate tariffs on industrial and farm products across an 11-nation bloc whose trade totaled $356 billion last year. Japan said ministers from the 11 remaining countries reached broad agreement to push ahead with it on Thursday, though Canada had said that was not true. The leaders of 10 of the countries arrived for a meeting on Friday, but officials said Trudeau did not. The Canadian side said today they are not yet at the stage where its leader can confirm the agreement reached among ministers, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters, adding that all the other leaders had agreed. Canadian officials said the TPP was not dead and they were still at the table in Danang. They say Canada cannot be rushed into an agreement if it isn t beneficial enough for Canadian jobs. If we need to keep working at other tables, so be it. Let s get it right, said one Canadian official. Canada s position is complicated by renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the Trump administration. An agreement to push forward TPP would have been a boost for the principle of multilateral trade deals as opposed to the Trump approach. APEC, whose leaders hold their full summit on Saturday, has itself been buffeted by the changes under Trump. Talks between trade and foreign ministers from the group failed to reach agreement on their usual joint statement in the face of U.S. demands to remove language about supporting free trade and fighting protectionism. I see a tremendous shift, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said at the summit. I see the rise of anti-globalisation, the rise of more inward-looking (policies), which ironically is against the whole philosophy of setting up of APEC. Trump set out a strong message which made clear there was no turning back - particularly in a region which he believes is taking U.S. jobs by running trade surpluses with the United States. We are not going to let the United States be taken advantage of anymore, Trump said. I am always going to put America first, the same way that I expect all of you in this room to put your countries first. He expressed a willingness to do bilateral deals in the region on the basis of mutual respect and mutual benefit, while saying the United States had suffered from World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules by obeying them while others did not. It signaled clearly a move away from the rules-based multilateral system that the U.S. has actually done very well under, James Fatheree of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce business lobby group told Reuters. We have done well in helping lead the system. President Xi made clear China s aspiration to take that leadership role in a speech that immediately followed Trump s. Should we steer economic globalisation, or should we dither and stall in the face of challenge? Should we jointly advance regional cooperation or should we go our separate ways? Xi asked. Openness brings progress, while self-seclusion leaves one behind. | 1 |
20,723 | Instant View: Comey accuses Trump administration of defaming him | (Reuters) - Former FBI Director James Comey on Thursday accused the Trump administration of defaming him, but declined to offer his opinion on whether President Donald Trump sought to obstruct justice by asking him to drop an investigation into the former national security advisor. The hearing could have significant repercussions for Trump’s presidency as special counsel Robert Mueller and several congressional committees investigate alleged Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election and whether Trump’s campaign colluded with this. * Comey said Trump had repeatedly told him he was doing a great job. * Comey said administration chose to defame him and FBI by saying organization was in disarray. Comey said “those were lies, plain and simple’. * Comey said he has no doubt Russia interfered with U.S. election. Comey says he is confident no votes cast in 2016 election were altered * Comey says it is not for him to say whether Trump tried to obstruct justice in their conversations * Comey says found conversations with Trump very disturbing * Comey says Trump did not ask him to stop Russia investigation * Comey says FBI became aware of Russia cyber intrusion in late summer of 2015 SCOTT WREN, SENIOR GLOBAL EQUITY STRATEGIST, WELLS FARGO INVESTMENT INSTITUTE, ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI: “From the statement released yesterday, just from the headlines, it sounded like it was pretty benign, so the action in the market, not just so far today, but in general over the last couple of months is the market certainly doesn’t think there’s going to be much that comes out of this, and I think largely that’s because if there was something that’s going to come out, as leaky as things seem to be, we would have heard something more than what we’ve been hearing so far. “So I think the market thinks that’s the likely outcome.” JOHN CANAVAN, MARKET STRATEGIST, STONE & MCCARTHY RESEARCH ASSOCIATES, PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY “He didn’t offer that much that was new. He confirmed all the previously reported concerns. Concerns about the interactions (between Comey and Trump) remain. There was a very muted market response. “It leaves us where we were before. It becomes that much more difficult for the Trump administration to put together a fiscal stimulus package. Anything they could put together with tax reform and infrastructure spending would be a lot smaller than had been expected. You are also pushing back the timing on any fiscal stimulus into 2018, possibly in 2019. “A lot of the initial euphoria for strong fiscal stimulus has already been unwound, primarily in the bond market. Even without fiscal stimulus, the economy would be able to maintain its current momentum. We are looking for steady growth next year. In our view, this would allow the Fed to raise next week and likely one more time this year either in September or in December.” DAN SCAVINO JR., WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL MEDIA, ON VERIFIED TWITTER ACCOUNT “Sorry Dems- nothing here. No votes were altered by Russians in the 2016 election. POTUS or team NEVER asked to stop election investigation.” ART HOGAN, CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST AT WUNDERLICH SECURITIES IN NEW YORK “To the extent it doesn’t seem to be a ‘gottcha’ moment here, the market’s plodding along.” “Unless something comes out that’s outside the realm of the expected, that’s what we should expect. I wouldn’t say the market’s taking action either way here. “The market looked at this as one of three major events today. Along with this you’ve got the ECB and the UK election. It’s a pretty catalyst filled day.” “It feels like Comey is pretty good at staying in the middle of the fairway in his responses. “If they haven’t been able to tease anything out of him in the first two hours they’re probably not going to get more. I think the market is looking at this as a non-market moving event much like the ECB meeting was.” THOMAS SIMONS, MONEY MARKET ECONOMIST, JEFFRIES & CO., NEW YORK “(The testimony) doesn’t appear to be super substantive. My read on the prepared remarks yesterday was that there was nothing particularly stirring there. “I think the market is taking less of an alarmist review of this situation because there is no smoking gun here that there has been any illegal activity by high-ranking officials, so it’s not particularly impactful for thinking about the impact for Trump’s economic agenda to go through or anything like that.” JON ADAMS, SENIOR INVESTMENT STRATEGIST AND PORTFOLIO MANAGER AT BMO GLOBAL ASSET MANAGEMENT IN CHICAGO. “We would need to see more evidence as far as explicit direction from the president for there to be a more significant market reaction. We’ve been worried about complacency in the market around political risk as investors have become immune to the daily noise out of Washington. We ask ‘does this impact economic growth or earnings growth?’, and so far the answer is no to both of those questions.” OMER ESINER, CHIEF MARKET ANALYST AT COMMONWEALTH FOREIGN EXCHANGE IN WASHINGTON. “So far we haven’t had any major surprises or any kind of bombshells released. The dollar-yen ran up a little bit as the testimony got underway, suggesting a little bit of a relief on the fact that we are not likely to get a smoking gun from James Comey that we did not already know. “We are not likely to get any new revelation that suggests that the President’s behavior was anything other than maybe inappropriate and certainly likely fell short of the bar for obstruction of justice. “Outside of a little bit of a move higher in dollar-yen, there’s really not much that is going on.” STEPHEN MASSOCCA, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AT WEDBUSH SECURITIES IN SAN FRANCISCO “It’s the James Comey show. Nobody cares. None of this is going to matter. The Republicans are going to say there is nothing to see here, move along. There is no ‘there,’ there, in my opinion, which is why stocks aren’t reacting.... At best what we have here is a president who has zero political experience probably said something he shouldn’t have said. I don’t see it becoming a bigger issue. “I don’t think this is going to move any needle in any direction. It’s not significant enough that the Republicans are going to bail on Trump and the Democrats are going to make a lot of noise about it. But at the end of the day people care about unemployment, job growth and more important issues than this, in my opinion.” BUCKY HELLWIG, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AT BB&T WEALTH MANAGEMENT IN BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA “The hearings should be mostly a non-event for stocks unless there is some kind of unforeseen ‘smoking gun’ either way – detrimental to the president or beneficial to him.” “Because the president did not invoke executive privilege, it raises the likelihood that nothing happens during the hearings; i.e., there is nothing secret or detrimental to keep out of the hearings.” “Separately, it looks like the market is looking for excuses to go higher as it dances around all-time highs. Earnings are rising, rates are falling (supporting higher PEs), and the technical indicators show the market in an uptrend, so if the hearings maintain the status quo, it could move money off the sidelines into stocks.” TOM DI GALOMA, MANAGING DIRECTOR, SEAPORT GLOBAL HOLDINGS, NEW YORK: “At the end of the day, former FBI Director Comey hasn’t really revealed anything new, in my view, so bond prices are either treading water to heading lower.” DONALD TRUMP JR., SON OF U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP ON VERIFIED TWITTER ACCOUNT “Hoping and telling are two very different things, you would think that a guy like Comey would know that. #givemeabreak” FAIZA PATEL, CO-DIRECTOR, LIBERTY & NATIONAL SECURITY PROGRAM AT THE BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE IN NEW YORK CITY “Comey’s notes will be very useful for Mueller. They are detailed, close in time notes so will carry weight, even potentially legal weight. They were made before Comey was fired and so he had no grudge against Trump when he wrote them.” ALAN DERSHOWITZ, PROFESSOR EMERITUS HARVARD LAW SCHOOL, CAMBRIDGE, MA “Nothing I’ve heard so far changes my view that the president did not obstruct justice.” LAURA DONOHUE, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY LAW CENTER, PROFESSOR OF LAW, WASHINGTON D.C. “If the President directed Comey to drop the investigation, with an improper purpose, then it is a violation of the law.” “TIM KAINE, DEMOCRATIC US. SENATOR FROM VIRGINIA, ON VERIFIED TWITTER ACCOUNT “Trump and his team brought their own cloud in with them. It’s not the investigation that’s the cloud. It’s their own actions. #ComeyDay” TERRY SANDVEN, CHIEF EQUITY STRATEGIST AT U.S. BANK WEALTH MANAGEMENT IN MINNEAPOLIS. “Today is about Washington and the drama surrounding former FBI director James Comey’s testimony and the talk about the demise of President Trump’s presidency or growth agenda seems premature, short of a smoking gun. “I think after today’s testimony, focus will quickly shift back to his pro-growth agenda, mainly less regulation, tax reform, healthcare reform and infrastructure spending. “But clearly all eyes are on Washington and I expect equities to generally trend sideways today short of any new revelations coming out of the testimony.” STOCKS: Stocks were little changed as Comey’s testimony kicked off, trading slightly lower-to-flat, then moved slightly ahead. BONDS: U.S. Treasury prices were lower ahead of Comey’s testimony and pared losses as he testified. FOREX: The dollar strengthened against a basket of currencies and then pared gains slightly as Comey’s testimony began. | 1 |
20,724 | U.S. will circulate resolution on North Korea this week | NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. envoy to the United Nations said Monday the United States plans to circulate a new resolution on North Korea this week and wants a vote next week by the Security Council. Ambassador Nikki Haley urged the United Nations to impose the strongest possible measures to deter North Korea from further steps on its nuclear program. She said the United States would engage in negotiations this week on the resolution and said North Korea has slapped everybody in the face with its latest nuclear test. | 1 |
20,725 | Majority of Americans say Clinton won first debate against Trump: Reuters/Ipsos poll | NEW YORK (Reuters) - A majority of Americans say Democrat Hillary Clinton won Monday night’s presidential debate, but her performance doesn’t appear to have immediately boosted her support among likely voters, according to a Reuters/Ipsos national tracking poll released on Wednesday. The online poll, which gathered responses from more than 2,000 people on Tuesday, found 56 percent of American adults felt that Clinton did a better job than Trump in the first of their three televised debates, compared with 26 percent who felt that Trump did better. Of those who thought Clinton emerged the victor, 85 percent were Democrats and 22 percent were Republicans. U.S. presidential debates have historically been seen as a crucial test of candidates’ poise and policies. Monday’s was watched by a record 84 million viewers and was billed as a rare prime-time opportunity for two unpopular candidates to convince millions of undecided voters to back them. Afterward, both candidates claimed victory. ““Every single online poll had me winning,” Trump said at a campaign stop in Council Bluffs, Iowa on Wednesday. “You sit back and you hear how well she did in the debate. I don’t think she did well at all.” Clinton campaign spokesman Jesse Ferguson said the Democrat clearly won the debate as Trump “was unprepared, became unhinged and was incoherent throughout.” Among those who are expected to take part in the Nov. 8 general election, 34 percent said they felt that the debate changed their view of Clinton in a positive way, compared with 19 percent who said the same of Trump. Some 31 percent of likely voters said the debate improved Clinton’s chances of winning the White House, while 16 percent said the debate benefited Trump. Even so, Clinton’s performance seemed to have little impact on her support among America’s likely voters. The poll showed 42 percent supported Clinton while 38 percent supported Trump. Over the past few weeks Clinton has maintained a lead of between 4 and 6 points over Trump. Narrowing the focus to likely voters who watched the debate, Clinton led Trump 44 percent to 39 percent. One possible reason for the lack of movement in her support is that it usually takes several days to measure the full impact of a single event, like a debate, said Donald Green, a political scientist at Columbia University. The Reuters/Ipsos poll is conducted every day in English in all 50 states. Monday’s sample of 2,036 American adults included 1,336 people who were considered to be likely voters from their voting record, registration status and stated intention to vote in the election. Among those likely voters, 1,026 said they watched some portion of the debate on live TV, online or in media clips that were circulated after the debate. The poll has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 3 percentage points for the entire sample and the sample of likely voters. It has a credibility interval of 4 percentage points for the likely voters who watched the debate. National opinion polls have differed this year in how they measure support for Clinton and Trump. Some polls, like Reuters/Ipsos, try to include only likely voters, while others include all registered voters. The Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll gathers responses every day and reports results twice a week, so it often detects trends in sentiment before most other polls. Polling aggregators, which calculate averages of major polls, have shown that Clinton’s lead over Trump has been shrinking this month to about 2 percentage points. | 1 |
20,726 | White House backs Treasury view that Russia's Putin is corrupt | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Treasury official’s assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin is corrupt “best reflects the administration’s view,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at a daily briefing on Thursday. Earlier this week, the BBC reported that Adam Szubin, acting Treasury secretary for terrorism and financial crimes, said in an interview the United States considers Putin corrupt. The Kremlin later described the remarks as an “official accusation.” | 1 |
20,727 | TAXPAYER FUNDED COLLEGE Gives Lessons On “How To Stop White People” | When the majority of students, regardless of color, accept this twisted premise, Obama has won his war on America and has successfully divided us by race The State University of New York at Binghamton (SUNY-Binghamton) is offering a training class titled StopWhitePeople2k16, to instruct residential assistants (RAs) on how to deal with uneducated people who don t believe in ideas like white privilege.The class is just one of several available to RAs at the school, and was discovered by the Binghamton Review, a student newspaper. Residential assistants are students who agree to assist with overseeing and monitoring residential life in return for receiving a free room from the school. Apparently, though, Binghamton RAs also have the responsibility of stopping white people. The premise of this session is to help others take the next step in understanding diversity, privilege, and the society we function within, the class description says. Learning about these topics is a good first step, but when encountered with good arguments from uneducated people, how do you respond? This open discussion will give attendees the tools to do so, and hopefully expand upon what they may already know. (RELATED: Public College Students Warned To Check Your Privilege )Read more: Daily Caller | 0 |
20,728 | Democrat Sen. Wyden warns of diminishing potential for tax reform | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic Senator Ron Wyden thinks Republican leadership is moving away from trying to implement full-scale tax reform this year and instead are turning their attention to simply cutting rates. “If you look at the language of Mitch McConnell in the last couple of days, he’s talking about tax cuts, he’s been saying, ‘Well, I don’t know about tax reform, let’s have a tax cut,’” Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said in an interview with Reuters on Friday. “To me that would really be, again, contrary to what the president campaigned on,” he said. McConnell is the Senate majority leader. Sweeping tax reform had been high on the Republican legislative agenda. But so far, House of Representatives and the Senate, both controlled by Republicans, have been unable to find consensus on a tax package that could pass both chambers and be signed into law by President Donald Trump. Wyden argued there is robust bipartisan agreement that a tax overhaul is needed. “There are plenty of Republicans in Congress - because they talk to me - who would really like to do major tax reform,” he said. Last month, the White House weighed in on the tax discussion, offering only a one-page plan that included deep cuts in rates, many for businesses, but stopped well short of legislative language or providing detail on specific changes. “The tax reform proposal is shorter than drug store receipts I have,” Wyden remarked. Several lawmakers have warned that if tax reform is not completed by the end of 2017, it will become more difficult to pass in 2018, when Congressional midterm elections will be held. The House has begun holding hearings and has developed a “blue print” - including a controversial border adjustment tax proposal that would tax imports while providing credit for exports. Wyden, in an echo of other senators, including Republicans, said that a border adjustment tax would be unlikely to fare well in the Senate - going so far to call it a “grocery tax” that would unfairly hit consumers in the middle class. | 1 |
20,729 | WATCH: Fox News Is Already Blaming President Obama For The Mass Shooting In Orlando | Well that didn t take long.The bodies are still warm and the count of the dead continues, but Fox News already knows who is to blame for the mass shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando and it isn t the man who actually pulled the trigger.No, Fox News is blaming President Obama for the shooting while claiming that it s because he refuses to blame Islam for acts of terrorism even though an investigation is just getting started and hasn t confirmed anything yet. Doesn t the politicization of all of this, the relentless lying by the administration about the Islamic terror threat we face make it harder for people to want to step forward and say what they see? host Tucker Carlson asked after bringing up the San Bernardino shooting to claim that President Obama isn t keeping America safe from terrorism.Fox counterterrorism expert Sebastian Gorka, of course, agreed. Absolutely, it s horrific, he replied before launching into a story about how an administration official allegedly approached him a police training session and told him that the real threat to America is white supremacists.If the story is true, the administration official was not wrong.According to the New York Times:Since Sept. 11, 2001, nearly twice as many people have been killed by white supremacists, anti-government fanatics and other non-Muslim extremists than by radical Muslims.And law enforcement agrees.A survey to be published this week asked 382 police and sheriff s departments nationwide to rank the three biggest threats from violent extremism in their jurisdiction. About 74 percent listed anti-government violence, while 39 percent listed Al Qaeda-inspired violence.Sounds like Fox News needs a new expert, especially since this latest mass shooting has not been concluded to have been an act of terrorism linked to radical Muslims.And while Fox was quick to call this shooting an act of terrorism simply because the shooter has brown skin and the name of Omar Mateen, they refused to call the Charleston mass shooting an act of terror because the shooter was a white supremacist.Clearly, Fox News is still practicing a double standard where right-wing terrorists are treated with kid gloves while anyone with brown skin is immediately labeled a terrorist. Make no mistake, what happened in Orlando is an act of terrorism, but so are mass shootings by white gunmen and it s time for conservative media to stop the bullshit.Also, President Obama is NOT to blame for this shootings. The only person to blame is the asshole who pulled the trigger and our lax gun laws that make it so easy for anyone to get their hands on a gun.But Fox News still wasn t done. They brought Newt Gingrich on the show and he wasted no time demonizing the entire religion of Islam and pinned the blame on President Obama for the shooting. The Obama administration had deliberately and willfully for seven years tried to avoid telling the American people the truth about an ideology which is an enormous threat to our civilization and which is winning the war. Here s the video via YouTube.Seriously, if anyone is making America less safe, it s Fox News for calling over a billion people around the world terrorists even though it is only a few who twist Islam to justify their extremism. It would be like claiming that all Christians are terrorists because conservatives use the Bible to justify discrimination and acts of violence against black people and the LGBT community.Once again, Fox News proves why it is definitely NOT fair and balanced. Featured image via screen capture | 0 |
20,730 | Robert Reich’s Conversation With A Fmr. GOP Rep. Exposes Just How Much Of A Fascist Trump Is | Robert Reich is one of the most respected voices in politics. He also has many friends who are current and former elected officials. He recently posted a most disturbing conversation he had with a friend who just happens to be a former GOP congressman on Facebook, and it exposes just how crazy the Donald Trump phenomenon is, and how much control Trump and his crazy supporters have over the Republican Party. Here is the transcript of that post:Yesterday I spoke with a former Republican member of Congress whom I ve known for years.Me: What do you think of your party s nominee for president?He: Trump is a maniac. He s a clear and present danger to America.Me: Have you said publicly that you won t vote for him?He (sheepishly): No.Me: Why not?He: I m a coward.Me: What do you mean?He: I live in a state with a lot of Trump voters. Most Republican officials do.Me: But you re a former official. You re not running for Congress again. What are you afraid of?He: I hate to admit it, but I m afraid of them. Some of those Trumpistas are out of their fu*king minds.Me: You mean you re afraid for your own physical safety?He: All it takes is one of them, you know.Me: Wait a minute. Isn t this how dictators and fascists have come to power in other nations? Respected leaders don t dare take a stand.He: At least I m no Giuliani or Gingrich or Pence. I m not a Trump enabler.Me: I ll give you that.He: Let me tell you something. Most current and former Republican members of Congress are exactly like me. I talk with them. They think Trump is deplorable. And they think Giuliani and Gingrich are almost as bad. But they re not gonna speak out. Some don t want to end their political careers. Most don t want to risk their lives. The Trump crowd is just too dangerous. Trump has whipped them up into a g*ddamn frenzy.And here is the embed:This is what has happened to one of America s two major political parties. They have propped up a literal fascist and are currently doing all they can to put him in the Oval Office and give him control of the most dangerous nuclear arsenal in the world. That is frighteningly, chillingly irresponsible. If we all die, you know who to thank.These people are cowards, and you cannot be a leader and a coward at the same time. They have no leadership skills. Part of being a good leader is doing the right thing when it counts, and it s clear that the current GOP leadership is incapable of doing that.All I can hope is that the entire GOP is just like Reich s friend and when they enter the privacy of the voting booth, they vote to save the world from that lunatic that somehow rose to the top of the GOP presidential ticket, rather than voting to save their own political hides.Featured image via Joe Raedle/Getty Images | 0 |
20,731 | Argentina blocks some activists from attending WTO meeting | BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina revoked the credentials of some activists who had been accredited by the World Trade Organization (WTO) to attend its ministerial meeting taking place in Buenos Aires next month, the foreign ministry and civil society groups said on Thursday. The 63 activists who had their accreditations rescinded were largely affiliated with the Our World Is Not for Sale network, said organizer Deborah James. The group opposes corporate globalization and has staged protests at previous WTO meetings. A spokeswoman for Argentina s foreign ministry told Reuters some individuals were not allowed to attend because they were determined to be more disruptive than constructive. WTO meetings often attract protests by anti-globalization groups, but they have remained largely peaceful since riots broke out at the 1999 meeting in Seattle. We ve never had this happen before. It s totally unprecedented, James, who is also director of international programs at the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research, said by telephone from Washington, D.C. The group posted a public letter including an email the WTO sent to certain participants on Wednesday discouraging them from traveling to Argentina for the Dec. 10-13 meeting to avoid being turned away at the airport. The Geneva-based WTO did not immediately respond to request for comment after normal business hours. The Financial Times on Thursday quoted WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell saying the WTO had asked the Argentine government to reverse the decision. Argentina s President Mauricio Macri has promoted free-trade policies since taking office in December 2015, and Argentina will host global events as chair of the G20 group of major economies next year. During protests that coincided with a World Economic Forum event in Buenos Aires earlier this year, security forces used water cannons and tear gas to control picketers who had blocked a highway. James said it was unusual for a government that had agreed to host an international gathering to deny entry to people who were accredited by the host organization. The activists represented 20 different groups, including Friends of the Earth International and Global Justice Now. Nearly 500 civil society groups registered. James said she could not tell why some members were rejected and others not, and said she planned to attend. They re not blacklisting me, and I m the organizer. | 1 |
20,732 | Fighting between rebel and army kills 27 in South Sudan | Juba (Reuters) - Twenty-seven people were killed when rebels attacked government forces in South Sudan, a local government official said on Thursday. Three government soldiers and 24 fighters loyal to rebel leader Riek Machar were killed in the fighting in Southern Liech state on Wednesday, Peter Makouth Malual, the region s information minister, told Reuters. Rebel spokesman Lam Paul Gabriel did not have a death toll for the fighting. He told Reuters he was trying to reach commanders on the ground. As expected, the onset of the dry season has led to fresh fighting between the army and rebels. Diplomats and analysts told Reuters earlier this month it was unlikely peace talks would resume to end a war that has already killed tens of thousands and created Africa s largest refugee crisis [L3N1NG5D4]. Crude oil output has been slashed by two-thirds to around 130,000 barrels per day by the violence. South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after protracted bloodshed, then fell into civil war in late 2013, with troops loyal to President Salva Kiir fighting those backing Machar, a former vice president Kiir had sacked. | 1 |
20,733 | OBAMA USES HIROSHIMA VISIT To Blame Religion For Wars…Doesn’t Mention Pearl Harbor [VIDEO] | What a unique way for a President of the United States to spend his Memorial Day weekend apologizing to a nation who wanted to destroy us, but were defeated because of those brave men who gave all to defend our nation against evil Every visit our repulsive apologist President makes to a foreign country is calculated. It s hard to imagine any reason other than campaigning for UN Secretary General for his visits, as he makes his way around to communist and former enemy nations apologizing for America s transgressions . Will America survive the 7 months that still remain in this traitor s term? President Barack Obama delivered a pious anti-war address in Hiroshima highlighting humanity s core contradiction of war, lamenting that humanity tried to justify war because of religion. How easily we learn to justify violence in the name of some higher cause, he said. Every great religion promises a pathway to love and peace and righteousness, and yet no religion has been spared from believers that have claimed their faith has a license to kill. Obama blamed religious zeal or nationalist fervor for inspiring humankind to war throughout history, but urged the world to seek a future filled with peace.Watch here at the 7:50 mark:https://youtu.be/ikI0F7wVomoThe president did not explicitly apologize for America using the nuclear bomb to end World War II but rhetorically painted a vivid scene of the bomb that wasted the entire city. Death fell from the sky and the world was changed, he said, pointing to the wall of fire that ended the lives of thousands of people. Their souls speak to us, they ask us to look inward, to take stock of who we are and what we might become, he said.The president delivered his speech at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima after he laid a wreath of memorial at the and met with survivors of the nuclear attack.Obama wrestled with mankind history of using science and technological innovation to destroy each other, asserted that the nuclear bombs that ended World War II proved the horror that mankind possessed the means to destroy itself. Yet, in the image of a mushroom cloud that rose into these skies we are most starkly reminded of humanity s core contradiction, he said.He argued that it was time for the United States and other countries with nuclear weapons to disarm their stockpiles. We must have the courage to escape the logic of fear and pursue a world without them, he said. Via: Breitbart News | 0 |
20,734 | France tells eastern Libyan military commander to respect U.N. talks | BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - France told eastern Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar he needed to respect the U.N. peace process to stabilize the oil producer, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Thursday. I said there is no alternative (to the U.N. plan) for you, Le Drian told reporters after meeting Haftar in Benghazi. You need to put yourself at the service of your country. | 1 |
20,735 | Ukraine's Poroshenko suggests IMF-backed anti-graft court will take time | KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Friday said he hoped an anti-corruption chamber would be created next month, but expressed doubt that an independent court as envisaged by the International Monetary Fund could be set up before 2019. Under its $17.5 billion aid-for-reforms program, the IMF wants Ukraine to set up a special court to focus on tackling corruption, which remains entrenched. But Poroshenko said it would take time to establish this kind of institution. I hope we create an anti-corruption chamber next month and then, if an anti-corruption court would be created in 2019, 2020 - welcome!, Poroshenko said at the opening of the annual Yalta European Strategy (YES) conference. The proposal of an anti-corruption chamber in existing courts has previously been criticized by reform activists, who say the body would not be sufficiently independent. Poroshenko s comments are at odds with the views of the IMF s first deputy managing director, David Lipton, who visited Kiev this week to meet the authorities and said an anti-corruption court should be a priority. We certainly agree that the creation of an anti-corruption court is an important next step. We encourage the government to do that, Lipton was quoted on Friday as telling newspaper Ukrainska Pravda in an interview. Ukraine has received $8.4 billion from the IMF, helping it recover from a two-year recession following the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014 and the outbreak of a Russian-backed insurgency in its industrial east. But further disbursements depend in part on the adoption of pension reform, a review of gas prices and the creation of an anti-corruption judicial body. Some of these requirements face stiff opposition from populist lawmakers. There are risks of going backwards, Lipton said, referring to Ukraine s progress under the IMF program. He said it was too early to forecast when Ukraine could receive the next tranche of loans. First, we need to see the reforms that are needed for this review to be implemented. He said the focus of this review was pension reform and measures to speed up privatization and ensure concrete results in anti-corruption efforts. Fiscal and energy sector policies must remain consistent with the program also. | 1 |
20,736 | Two key Republicans agree on national flood insurance | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two senior U.S. House of Representatives Republicans said on Friday they have agreed on terms for the reauthorization of the deeply indebted National Flood Insurance Program. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling of Texas said in a statement: “The bill we support will begin to make the flood insurance program more stable and sustainable for the people who count on it. We look forward to bringing this legislation to the House soon and urge our colleagues to support it.” They did not provide any details of the agreement. Lawmakers are wrestling with how to handle the flood insurance program’s expiration on Dec. 8. It is at least $24.6 billion in debt to the U.S. Treasury and likely to face billions of dollars in additional costs due to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which struck Texas and Florida in recent weeks. The program was extended 17 times between 2008 and 2012 and lapsed four times in that period. A 2012 law extended the program to September. In October the House and Senate approved $16 billion of funding to help the program cover claims from recent natural disasters after reaching its borrowing limit. | 1 |
20,737 | If You’re A Domestic Violence Victim In Mississippi, You Can’t Get Divorced | Few states in this country can compete with Mississippi when it comes to enacting legislation which significantly constricts the rights and liberties of women,the LGBT community, minorities, and other marginalized groups.Most recently a state senate bill, 2418, failed to incorporate domestic violence as a justifiable reason for divorce. The state currently allows only 12 justifiable reasons to legally grant a divorce including impotency, adultery, alcoholism, and incurable mental illness among some of the reasons.According to a 2014 report conducted by the Violence Policy Center, Mississippi ranks 5th in the nation in the rate of women murdered by men. In the United States, a woman is beaten or assaulted every 9 seconds. One in three women have been victims of severe physical violence from an intimate partner as some point in their lifetime. A gun being present during a domestic violence situation, where in Mississippi there is virtually no gun control, increases the likelihood of a homicide by 500 percent. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, domestic violence is the third leading cause of homelessness among families.Setting justifiable reasons to legally grant a divorce is already a ridiculous aspect, but rescinding domestic violence off the list of justifiable reasons gives the abusers in a relationship even more power to abuse and control their victim without any repercussions. Domestic violence is rarely an anomaly, rather it is a behavior pattern of an individual, to establish power and control over another person through fear and intimidation, often including the threat or use of violence. Mississippi has caught a lot of negative publicity recently, in addition to North Carolina and other southern states, which have either passed or attempted to pass discriminatory laws against the LGBT community. Mississippi s GOP is disgraceful and they seem bent on trying to get away with passing as many unconstitutional laws as possible.Featured image courtesy of Flickr | 0 |
20,738 | Texas governor signs into law bill to punish 'sanctuary cities' | AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott signed into law on Sunday a measure to punish “sanctuary cities,” despite a plea from police chiefs of the state’s biggest cities to halt the bill they said would hinder their ability to fight crime. The Texas measure comes as Republican U.S. President Donald Trump has made combating illegal immigration a priority. Texas, which has an estimated 1.5 million illegal immigrants and the longest border with Mexico of any U.S. state, has been at the forefront of the immigration debate. “As governor, my top priority is public safety, and this bill furthers that objective by keeping dangerous criminals off our streets,” Abbott said in a statement. The law will take effect on Sept. 1. The Republican-dominated legislature passed the bill on party-line votes and sent the measure to Abbott earlier this month. It would punish local authorities who do not abide by requests to cooperate with federal immigration agents. Police officials found to be in violation of the law could face removal from office, fines and up to a year in prison if convicted. The measure also allows police to ask people about their immigration status during a lawful detention, even for minor infractions like jaywalking. Any anti-sanctuary city measure may face a tough road after a federal judge in April blocked Trump’s executive order seeking to withhold funds from local authorities that do not use their resources to advance federal immigration laws. Democrats have warned the measure could lead to unconstitutional racial profiling and civil rights groups have promised to fight the Texas measure in court. “This legislation is bad for Texas and will make our communities more dangerous for all,” the police chiefs of cities including Houston and Dallas wrote in an opinion piece in the Dallas Morning News in late April. They said immigration was a federal obligation and the law would stretch already meager resources by turning local police into immigration agents. The police chiefs said the measure would widen a gap between police and immigrant communities, creating a class of silent victims and eliminating the potential for assistance from immigrants in solving or preventing crimes. One of the sponsors of the bill, Republican state Representative Charlie Geren, said in House debate the bill would have no effect on immigrants in the country illegally if they had not committed a crime. He also added there were no sanctuary cities in Texas at present and the measure would prevent any from emerging. | 1 |
20,739 | is hillary clintons entourage involved in a satanic pedophile ring | mainstream media calls real news fake because their narrative is collapsing mainstream media calls real news fake because their narrative is collapsing relampago furioso
relampago is the author of the new modern man blog he is a former member of the mainstream media turned dissident he enjoys striking at the establishment using politically incorrect truths and electrifying sjws with logic he is now living the expat dream in the caribbean and does not want to come back to the matrix relampago also maintains a library of red pill book and film recommendations and is a red pill life coach helping other men realize the dream of getting laid on the regular getting out of debt and traveling the world
facebook twitter november manosphere
there are those who think we should only get our news from official sources you know like the blonde telling you what to believe in between hocking a hockey game
if theres anything the election showed us its that the american people are increasingly distrustful of and not listening to the commands laid out by the once mainstream media theyre increasingly reticent to commit national and demographic suicide under the guise of diversity and other nebulous ideals theyre desperate not only to drain the swamp but to restore some sense of national pride and stability to the declining usa
in response the controllers of the presstitutes the people who really run the world are already hard at work trying to find some way to create a false narrative about fake news sites in order to lay the ground work for censorship and control the internet has all but destroyed the corporategovernment narrative and there is a shit fit happening at the highest levels of the propaganda ministry ie cnn abc cbs nbc et al because they have learned the american people know how full of shit they really are
sites like return of kings are on the front lines of this war in support of free speech and it is vitally important we stay on top of our game to avoid a reversion to the managed propaganda the centralized control of mass media gave us over the last years hackers and leakers play right into the hands of the censorship narrative
make no mistake one of the reasons leakers of misdeeds done by politicians and the elite they work for have been allowed to continue leaking dirty laundry is because it plays into the hands of those with designs on censorship and regaining control of the information the sheeple get to listen to having julian assange and edward snowden doing leaks of information and giving them extensive press coverage plays right into the hands of the censorship brigade because they can also play the protecting national security game when the time to silence dissent comes
fake news is only the first assault in what is sure to become a full scale war on free speech on the internet we can be thankful trump won the election rather than the bitch since his election will slow the process of censorship but the aggressiveness of the fake news narrative shows us how determined some people are to shut us up and shut us down
the new york times is already on the front lines of this assault on free speech on the internet only days after the bitch lost the election publisher arthur sulzberger published a mea culpa and promised to rededicate the newspaper to honest reporting
we cannot deliver the independent original journalism for which we are known without the loyalty of our subscribers the new york times promises to give the news impartially without fear or favor we also approach the incoming trump administration without bias
dont buy into it this is whats known in public relations as a diversion tactic while we focus on our seeming victory theyre already moving on to their next false narrative socalled fake news no sooner than the ink dried on the promise to give trump a chance the new york times was moving to shut up the very people who made possible his rise to power the altright and alternative news web sites
while some fake news is produced purposefully by teenagers in the balkans or entrepreneurs in the united states seeking to make money from advertising false information can also arise from misinformed social media posts by regular people that are seized on and spread through a hyperpartisan blogosphere
they did a spurious case study on how a rumor got started about protesters being bussed in to protest at trump rallies never mind the mainstream media is a business that runs lock stock and barrel on fake news almost every narrative they create is a false one one need do no more than a google search to discredit many if not most of the mainstream medias stories the hypocrisy is astounding pulling the plug facebook censorship algorithms are nothing compared to the elites agenda of eliminating free speech online
whether or not the fake news narrative gains traction the next step will be for the elite to create a problem that affects millions of people online then follow through with the hegelian dialectic with a preordained solution to make everyone safer online and to stop the spread of false information while protecting free speech online by destroying it
look for no less than a figurative internet if the elite become desperate enough
theyll pull the plug on the backbone of the internet shutting down ecommerce and communication online for a few days blame it on a fake news story just like benghazi was blamed on a youtube video then spring in to save us from ourselves by passing all sorts of creative laws and restrictions aimed at nothing more than eliminating competition to the corporategovernment narrative and gutting yet another of our bill of rights protections
make no mistake freedom of speech is the most important of amendments to the constitution once that is taken away its game over obama has already floated the idea of silencing those of us who cling to our guns and religion and continues this narrative even after the election of trump
obama has already been floating the idea of official news web sites this is nothing more than proposing the creation of the american equivalent of pravda in the soviet union in which only the stateapproved newspaper was considered the truth and everything else was considered lies obviously the new world order socialist narrative would be the only truth under a system such as this and traditional and conservative views would be relentlessly silenced
check out what the messiah said in berlin recently
in an age where theres so much active misinformation and its packaged very well and it looks the same when you see it on a facebook page or you turn on your television where some overzealousness on the part of a us official is equated with constant and severe repression elsewhere if everything seems to be the same and no distinctions are made then we wont know what to protect if we cant discriminate between serious arguments and propaganda then we have problems
the fact he is saying these things should frighten you it should also make you angry this statement is a pc way of saying the goal of the power structure is to shut us the fuck up they want us to listen to clueless journalists who encourage the idea of microchipping your children and later yourselves so every aspect of your life can be controlled by the government
we must fight back by discrediting the fake news narrative at every turn and informing those who will listen of the possibility of a fake internet designed to give the government a reason to curb free expression on the very libertarian internet of today | 1 |
20,740 | ‘Not-Racist’ Steve King Doubles Down: Nope, Whites Are Definitely The Superior Race | You know what s even more stupid than blaming Melania Trump s plagiarism on My Little Pony? Claiming that whites are the superior race. What s even worse than that? Doing it again.On Monday, Iowa Rep. Steve King replaced his dog whistle with a microphone and openly declared that whites are the superior race. Responding to criticism that the Republican National Convention is filled with loud, unhappy, dissatisfied white people during an appearance on MSNBC, King snapped: This whole business does get a little tired. I would ask you to go back through history and figure out where are these contributions that have been made by these other categories of people that you are talking about, where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization? Than white people? Chris Hayes asked. Than than western civilization itself that s rooted in western Europe, eastern Europe and the United States of America, and every place where Christianity settled the world, King replied after realizing that he had actually uttered the words he was thinking. That s all of western civilization. On Tuesday, King clarified his remarks, explaining that while whites are the superior race, people of other races have also made contributions to civilization. It s pretty close [to what I said]. What I really said was Western civilization and when you describe Western civilization that can mean much of Western civilization happens to be Caucasians. But we should not apologize for our culture or our civilization, King told ABC News. The contributions that were made by Western civilization itself, and by Americans, by Americans of all races stand far above the rest of the world. The Western civilization and the American civilization are a superior culture. King says he was responding to, and correcting, political blogger Charlie Pierce but he s happy that he was able to start a dialogue about how awesome white people are: But what we have is people who are trying to parse something, to hyperventilate about that. I m OK if they do that because it starts the dialogue so we can open up more minds so people can think about what s right for America. So, there you have it: whites have contributed far more than other races, according to King, but he s now willing to admit that maybe others have done stuff too.Watch King s original remarks below:Featured image via Getty Images/Andrew Burton | 0 |
20,741 | Syrian opposition rejects Russia-sponsored peace initiative | BEIRUT/AMMAN/ANKARA (Reuters) - Syria s opposition rejected a Russian-sponsored initiative to reach a political settlement to the civil war, as Turkey protested against moves to involve Kurdish groups, in an early setback to Moscow s peacemaking bid. Having intervened decisively in the Syrian war in 2015 in support of President Bashar al-Assad, Russia now hopes to build on the collapse of Islamic State to launch a political process to end the six-year-old conflict. Syria s government has said it is ready to attend the Nov. 18 Sochi congress which is set to focus on a new constitution, saying the time is right thanks to Syrian army gains and the terrorists obliteration . But officials in the anti-Assad opposition rejected the meeting on Wednesday and insisted any talks be held under U.N. sponsorship in Geneva, the scene of a string of failed peace efforts. The congress amounted to a meeting between the regime and the regime , said Mohammad Alloush, a member of the opposition High Negotiations Committee and a senior official with the Jaish al-Islam rebel group. The HNC was surprised it had been mentioned in a list of invited groups and would issue a statement with other parties setting out the general position rejecting this conference, Alloush told Reuters. The Turkey-based Syrian National Coalition (SNC) political opposition group said the congress was an attempt to circumvent the international desire for political transition in Syria. Russian air power played a big part in the defeat of rebels in opposition-held eastern Aleppo and other areas last year. What kind of Syrian-Syrian dialogue will it be under the sponsorship of the (Russian) criminal? said Eyad Shamsi, another HNC member and the head of a rebel faction. A Russian negotiator said on Tuesday that Syrian groups who choose to boycott the congress risked being sidelined as the political process moves ahead. Russia has invited 33 Syrian groups and political parties to what it calls a Syrian Congress on National Dialogue . Russian President Vladimir Putin first mentioned the idea of the congress last month, saying he believed Moscow and the Syrian government would soon finally defeat militants in Syria. Helped by Russia s air force and an array of Iran-backed Shi ite militias, Assad has defeated many of the Syrian rebels who were fighting to topple him, leaving them confined to enclaves in the west. Damascus and its allies have also recovered swathes of central and eastern Syria from Islamic State in recent months, while a separate campaign by U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has driven IS from other parts of the country. The separate campaigns are now converging on Islamic State s last strongholds in Deir al-Zor province at the Iraqi border. Russia s decision to invite Kurdish groups which dominate the SDF to Sochi triggered objections from Turkey on Wednesday. Ankara, which views the dominant Syrian Kurdish groups as a national security threat, said it was unacceptable that the Kurdish YPG militia had been invited. Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Turkish and Russian officials had discussed the issue and that he had held meetings of his own to solve the problem on the spot . Turkey views the YPG and its political affiliate, the PYD, as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been waging a three-decade insurgency in Turkey. The head of the PYD indicated on Wednesday his group favored attending the congress. Shahoz Hasan, in written comments to Reuters, said the PYD would advocate for its decentralized model for Syria. Although he did not firmly commit to attending, he said a majority among the PYD and its allies now favored going: We are discussing it and the majority view is to attend . | 1 |
20,742 | As sanctions bite, North Korean workers leave Chinese border hub | DANDONG, China (Reuters) - North Korean workers have begun to leave the Chinese border city of Dandong, following the latest round of sanctions seeking to restrict Pyongyang s ability to earn foreign currency income, local businesses and traders say. Almost 100,000 overseas workers, based predominantly in China and Russia, funnel some $500 million in wages a year to help finance the North Korean regime, the U.S. government says. Dandong, a city of 800,000 along the Yalu river that defines the border with North Korea, is home to many restaurants and hotels that hire North Korean waitresses and musicians. Their colorful song and dance performances are a tourist attraction. Thousands of predominantly female workers are also employed by Chinese-owned garment and electronics factories in Dandong, with a significant proportion of their wages going straight to the North Korean state. The Wing Cafe used to advertise its beautiful North Korean waitresses on its shopfront by the Yalu. The sign is now gone, and cafe staff said the waitresses had returned home in recent weeks after their visas expired. There have been changes in government policy, the manager of another restaurant said. It s not convenient to say more. Recent videos circulating on Chinese social media appear to show hundreds of North Korean women waiting in line to clear immigration at Dandong s border gate. A Reuters reporter saw a group of around 50 North Korean women waiting to cross the border on Friday morning. Four traders, who deal in goods ranging from iron ore and seafood to ginseng and alcohol, told Reuters the sanctions had all but crippled the usual trade. More stringent customs checks and patrols by Chinese border police have also made it harder to smuggle goods across the border, according to the traders, who declined to be named due to the subject s sensitivity. The impact has been huge. Dandong s economy has always counted on border trade, said one Chinese trader. In response to Pyongyang s sixth and largest nuclear test last month, the U.N. Security Council on Sept. 11 passed a resolution prohibiting the use of North Korean workers, strengthening an Aug. 5 resolution that put a cap on the number of workers allowed overseas. Successive rounds of U.N. trade sanctions have now banned 90 percent of the North s $2.7 billion of publicly reported exports. The Sept. 11 sanctions also ordered the closure of all joint business ventures with North Korea and added textiles to a list of banned exports, which already included coal, iron ore and seafood. In a statement on Thursday, China s Ministry of Commerce ordered the implementation of the new sanctions across the country within 120 days. The sanctions allow workers to serve out existing contracts. Business people in Dandong, through which most of trade between the two countries flows, said contracts could not be renewed and new visas were not being approved. A Chinese supervisor at a factory making electronic wiring for automobiles said while most of its 300 North Korean workers were on multi-year contracts expiring at different times, those who arrived in Dandong after Aug. 5 had already been forced to leave. He did not say how many. The sanctions have come as a rude jolt to Dandong businesses and traders who had long rolled with North Korea s unpredictability but believed their neighbor s economic reliance on China would keep its belligerence in check. Dandong is one of the larger cities in Liaoning province, whose rustbelt economy has struggled under national campaigns to curb industrial overcapacity and ease pollution. Liaoning was China s worst performer in the first half of 2017, registering GDP growth of 2.1 percent, compared with the national rate of 6.9 per cent, according to official statistics. The economy hasn t been doing well here for the past two years, said one trader. This is making a bad situation worse. | 1 |
20,743 | Irish opposition leader says PM's party preparing for election | DUBLIN (Reuters) - The party of Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar appears to be preparing for an imminent general election, the head of the opposition Fianna Fail party said on Friday. The government looked set to collapse after Fianna Fail submitted a motion of no confidence in the deputy prime minister in violation of a three-year support agreement. I took it from last night that Fine Gael wants a general election and is preparing for one, Fianna Fail s Micheal Martin told state broadcaster RTE. | 1 |
20,744 | White House official attacks court after legal setbacks on immigration | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A White House official on Sunday attacked a U.S. court ruling that blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration as a “judicial usurpation of power” and said the administration was considering a range of options, including a new order. Sustained criticism of the judiciary from the White House comes amid concern among Democrats and legal scholars over Trump’s view of the constitutional principle of judicial independence as the administration seeks to overcome legal setbacks to its travel ban issued on Jan. 27. It has also become the backdrop against which U.S. senators consider Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch, for a lifetime appointment to the nation’s highest court. The Republican president said on Friday that he may issue a new executive order rather than go through lengthy court challenges to the original one, which temporarily barred entry to the United States of people from seven Muslim-majority countries. “We have multiple options and we are considering all of them,” White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller said on ABC’s “This Week.” Miller sharply criticized the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on Thursday that upheld a Seattle federal judge’s suspension of Trump’s executive order. He accused the San Francisco-based court of having a history of overreaching and of being overturned. “This is a judicial usurpation of power,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.” “The president’s powers here are beyond question.” The Trump administration has defended the travel ban on grounds it will prevent potential terrorists from entering the country, although no acts of terrorism have been perpetrated on U.S. soil by citizens of the targeted countries. The ban’s announcement, late on a Friday, sparked a weekend of confusion at airports around the globe and within the federal agencies charged with enforcing it. It also triggered widespread protests and legal challenges. Aware that a new executive order would allow critics to declare victory against the travel ban, the White House has deflected blame and intensified its criticism of the judiciary. “I think it’s been an important reminder to all Americans that we have a judiciary that has taken far too much power and become in many cases a supreme branch of government,” Miller said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “One unelected judge in Seattle cannot make laws for the entire country. I mean this is just crazy,” he said. Miller’s performance on several Sunday news shows won a plaudit on Twitter from Trump, who has himself attacked individual judges and called the courts “so political.” “Great job!” Trump tweeted. Gorsuch condemned the attacks on the judiciary as “disheartening” in private meetings last week with a number of U.S. senators, who pressed the judge to go public. Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist, confirmed the conversations. Legal experts said the Trump administration statements could undermine respect for the constitutional division of powers. Cornell University law professor Jens David Ohlin said that accusing the judiciary of usurping the president’s powers demonstrated “an absurd lack of appreciation for the separation of powers.” “Miller is coming dangerously close to reviving a discredited and dangerous theory that each branch of government, including the president, has independent authority to decide what the law and Constitution mean,” Ohlin said in an interview on Sunday. “In our system of government, the commander in chief executes the laws, but it is the judiciary which interprets both the laws and statutes passed by Congress and the Constitution. That’s their solemn duty,” he added. Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, said Trump’s remarks could diminish popular respect for institutions of law and order by making Americans think “the government’s a joke, that you don’t have to follow what judges say.” Immigration laws give the U.S. president broad powers to restrict who enters the country on national security grounds. But the same laws forbid discrimination based on race, sex, nationality or place of birth or residence. The case also could involve First Amendment protections involving religion. Trump’s executive order banned entry into the United States to refugees and citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days and all refugees for 120 days, except refugees from Syria, who were banned indefinitely. Options for the administration include formulating a new executive action, appealing the 9th Circuit panel’s decision to the full appeals court and appealing the emergency stay to the U.S. Supreme Court, Miller said. | 1 |
20,745 | Rohingya refugees still fleeing from Myanmar to Bangladesh: UNHCR | DHAKA (Reuters) - Rohingya refugees continue to flee Myanmar for Bangladesh even though both countries set up a timetable last month to allow them to start to return home, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR)said on Thursday. The number of refugees appears to have slowed. 625,000 have arrived since Aug. 25. 30,000 came last month and around 1,500 arrived last week, UNHCR said The refugee emergency in Bangladesh is the fastest-growing refugee crisis in the world, said deputy high commissioner Kelly Clements. Conditions in Myanmar s Rakhaine state are not in place to enable a safe and sustainable return ... refugees are still fleeing. Most have little or nothing to go back to. Their homes and villages have been destroyed. Deep divisions between communities remain unaddressed and human access is inadequate, she said. Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed on Nov. 23 to start the return of Rohingya within two months. It did not say when the process would be complete. Myanmar s security forces may be guilty of genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority, according to the top U.N. human rights official this week. Mainly Buddhist Myanmar denies the Muslim Rohingya are its citizens and considers them foreigners. UNHCR would make a fresh appeal to donors for funds after the end of February in next year, Kelly said. | 1 |
20,746 | Syria Ceasefire Deal: A Cynical Ploy by Washington’s ‘Coalition’ to Buy Time for Terrorists | 21st Century Wire says This latest diplomatic development certainly appears positive on its surface, this week s declared Syrian Ceasefire a three-way agreement between Washington, Russia and the Syrian government (and begrudgingly by the West s other regional stakeholders ) looks increasingly like it may just be the latest attempt to buy time so that Washington, Turkey and Saudi Arabia can re-arm and replenish various militant fighting groups currently laying waste to Syria.Since the entrance of the Russian Air Force into the Syrian conflict theatre last October, the Washington-led Axis has gradually lost proxy-control of a number of key terrorist strongholds in Northern Syria, namely in Aleppo, and thus are unable to dictate crucial facts on the ground required to dictate the international media and political narratives. Unable to craft and package these narratives, the West and its dubious coalition are completely unable to sell an escalation of military violence in Syria.The fact that the Washington Axis has already threatened to move to a Plan B even before the agreement has been implemented, indicates that this diplomatic effort may in fact be dead on arrival . Before the ink was even dry on the agreement, sources inside the CIA and the Pentagon went public with a preemptive statement claiming that, Russia cannot be trusted to uphold the ceasefire . The scene is now set.Watch as 21WIRE founder and editor Patrick Henningsen speaks to Sean Thomas from RT International about why the ceasefire deal may not survive the spring . Patrick Henningsen talks Syria Ceasefire with RT International (2016) from 21wire on Vimeo.READ MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Syria Files | 0 |
20,747 | Pakistan deports Turkish school network's former director and family | ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan has deported a former director of a chain of private Turkish schools along with his family, former school officials said on Monday, the day set for a court hearing on the deportation. Turkey has accused the PakTurk Schools, set up in 1995, of having links to Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, or his Hizmet movement, which President Tayyip Erdogan says was behind a failed coup attempt last year. The chain of international schools and colleges denies such links but Pakistan, where Erdogan has made several state visits as the two countries forged close ties in recent years, ordered its Turkish teachers to leave the country last November. The schools remain open, run by Pakistani staff. Mesut Kacmaz, his wife and two daughters were flown out of Pakistan after having being detained since September 20 in the eastern city of Lahore, the former school officials said. The daughters called us and said they had been deported today, and the father and mother were in Ankara for interrogation and they believe they will be jailed afterwards, said one former school official, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals by Pakistani authorities. They were blindfolded and boarded an unmarked flight for Istanbul in the morning, said former PakTurk employee Hasan Huseyin, citing the telephone call by the daughters from Turkey. A Pakistani court had ordered the government not to deport the Kacmaz family until it had ruled on the case, whose next hearing had been scheduled for Monday. Pakistan s Interior Ministry did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters. The Turkish embassy could not immediately be reached for comment. The deportation was confirmed by a Pakistani government official who asked not to identified. The Turkish family was taken into custody by a team of security officials, the official added. On Saturday, they were deported to Turkey from Islamabad on a special plane sent by the Turkish government. More than 400 people were ordered to leave Pakistan but were given protection by the United Nations. About 40 people fled at the time fearing prosecution, while the rest, including Kacmaz s family, received asylum certificates until Nov. 24 this year. On October 13, the certificates were renewed by the U.N. for an additional year, but the next day Mesut s family was deported, the official said. The Turkish embassy in Pakistan has refused to renew the passports of former PakTurk employees living in the country, or issue documents for newborn children, he added. PakTurk educates more than 10,000 students in Pakistan but has employed no Turkish nationals since the South Asian nation asked them to leave. | 1 |
20,748 | Thai authorities close in on Yingluck's escape accomplices | BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai authorities are closing in on the people who helped former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra flee the country last month, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said on Friday. Shinawatra, 50, whose government was ousted by the military in 2014, disappeared from Thailand shortly before a Supreme Court verdict in a negligence case against her. The deputy prime minister told the media that Yingluck left Thailand by crossing to neighboring Cambodia by land via the Aranyaprathet border district in Sa Kaeo province, almost 300 km (186 miles) east of the capital Bangkok. He said authorities had seized a vehicle believed to have been used to take Yingluck to the Cambodian border. The vehicle was found near a house in Nakhon Pathom province, north of Bangkok. Police said the owner, based on the car registration, did not match the person who had the car at the time. Three police officers were questioned on Thursday night. Prawit said the three men admitted to helping drive Yingluck to the border, but no charges have yet been filed. All three of them gave us useful information. We are working on the investigation and consolidation of the evidence, deputy national police chief General Srivara Rangsibrahmanakul said. A police source who does not wish to be named told Reuters that the ongoing investigation has revealed that a former police chief who has closed relationship with the Shinawatra family masterminded Yingluck s escape. Yingluck s whereabouts remain unknown. The Supreme Court has issued an arrest warrant against Yingluck and rescheduled the verdict for her negligence case to Sept. 27. Yingluck faces up to 10 years in prison if found guilty of negligence over a costly rice subsidy scheme that helped to bring her to power in a 2011 general election. Yingluck has accused the military government of political persecution. She pleaded innocent to the negligence charge. | 1 |
20,749 | Trump order frees tax-exempt churches to be more politically active | (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that allows tax-exempt churches to more actively participate in politics and could free religious organizations to deny employees insurance coverage for birth-control pills. The order partially fulfills an oft-repeated campaign promise by Trump, who appealed to religious conservatives in his 2016 run for the White House, although he would need an act of Congress to rescind the underlying law that he has opposed, known as the Johnson Amendment. The order was widely praised by religious organizations that either felt hemmed in by the law or openly violated it, but others denounced it as putting women’s health in jeopardy or weakening the U.S. tradition of separating church and state. “We will not allow people of faith to be targeted, bullied or silenced any more,” Trump said at a signing ceremony at the White House where religious leaders had gathered in support. “No one should be censoring sermons or targeting pastors,” he said. Trump’s order directs the Internal Revenue Service to “alleviate the burden of the Johnson Amendment,” the White House said in reference to a 1954 law sponsored by Lyndon Johnson, then a Texas senator who later became president. Under that amendment, the tax code prohibits organizations that enjoy tax-free status from participating in a political campaign or supporting any one candidate for elective office. The order also asks the government to issue rules that would allow religious groups such as the Little Sister of the Poor to deny their employees insurance coverage for services that they oppose on religious grounds, such as birth-control pills. Those employees would be forced to go outside their employer-provided insurance plan for subsidized contraceptives, said Lori Windham, a lawyer who represents the group. “Today’s announcement is a great day for the Little Sisters,” Windham said. The American Civil Liberties Union had threatened a lawsuit to stop the order but later backed off, saying the most onerous provisions had yet to be enacted and that it falls way short of meeting Trump’s pledge to “totally destroy” the Johnson Amendment. At least one expert said Trump’s order appears legally sound. Rolling back the Johnson Amendment does not favor any particular religious views over others, and the president has broad authority to decide not to enforce certain laws, said Robin Fretwell Wilson, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law. | 1 |
20,750 | Trump visits with Jordan's King Abdullah in Washington | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump met on Thursday with Jordan’s King Abdullah ahead of an annual prayer breakfast in Washington, a White House spokeswoman said. There was no immediate information provided about what Trump and the King discussed. Abdullah, the first Arab leader to hold talks with the new administration, had earlier in the week discussed the fight against Islamic State, the Syria crisis, and other issues with Vice President Mike Pence. | 1 |
20,751 | Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala urge protections for U.S. 'Dreamers' | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico and Central American countries they will lobby U.S. lawmakers to protect young illegal immigrants who saw their lives thrown into limbo on Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would end a program that shields them from deportation. Trump announced plans to halt the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that has protected from deportation nearly 800,000 young men and women who entered the United States illegally as children. Mexico’s deputy foreign minister, Carlos Sada, said Trump’s decision created “anxiety, anguish and fear” for the roughly 625,000 Mexican nationals protected under the program. “They are exceptional. ... This is as emotional for the United States as for Mexico,” Sada said at a news conference immediately following the announcement to end the program. He said his government would press U.S. lawmakers for a quick solution to the uncertainty that “Dreamers,” as they are commonly called, now face in their adopted home. Immigrants who opt to return to Mexico will be welcomed with “open arms,” Sada said, offering them assistance with work, finances and education. The announcement to end DACA, created by former President Barack Obama in a 2012 executive order, came during the final day of talks in the Mexican capital to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement, adding pressure to already tense conversations between Mexico and the United States. El Salvador’s foreign relations minister, Hugo Martinez, said he would meet with U.S. Congress members to find a solution within the next six months, before DACA’s provisions are set to end, aiming to protect the 30,000 to 60,000 Salvadorans who could be affected. “It’s a worrisome situation. ... We will be lobbying to have legislation as soon as possible that opens a way out,” Martinez said. Guatemala’s foreign relations ministry said in a statement that it is counting on the “humanitarian sensibilities” of U.S. lawmakers to ensure thousands of Guatemalans are not forced to leave the country where many grew up. Honduras said in a statement that it would push U.S. Congress to reconsider Trump’s move, and offer consular support for more than 18,500 Hondurans protected by DACA. The director of a Honduras migrant aid center, the Center for Attention for Honduran Migrants, called the U.S. decision “very sad,” and said young Hondurans forced to return home could face violence from gangs and drug traffickers. “Their lives will be much more difficult and put at enormous risk,” said Valdette Willeman, the center’s director. (For graphic on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, click tmsnrt.rs/2wC83sF) | 1 |
20,752 | (Video) Staffer Pleading Fifth On Emails ‘Another Blow’ To Hillary | Bryan Pagliano is in hot water with this and he knows it. Is water boarding an option here? Seriously, they need his testimony but he s obviously not going to incriminate himself so he pleads the fifth.The State Department IT worker who managed Hillary Clinton s private email server while she was secretary of state will plead the Fifth Amendment if called to testify about his work on the Democratic presidential candidate s mysterious email setup, his attorney informed the House Select Committee on Benghazi this week. The committee subpoenaed Bryan Pagliano on Aug. 11, according to The Washington Post. In addition to testifying on Sept. 10, committee chairman Trey Gowdy asked Pagliano to produce documents related to the servers he managed on behalf of Clinton. Pagliano worked on Clinton s 2008 presidential campaign before moving over to the State Department in May 2009, several months after Clinton took office. He left the agency at the same time as Clinton, in Feb. 2013. But in a letter to the Benghazi Committee on Monday, Mark MacDougall, Pagliano s attorney, said that his client would assert his constitutional right against self-incrimination if called to testify. Pagliano is one of numerous Clinton aides that Gowdy s panel intends to interview. Two of Clinton s top aides will testify this week. Clinton herself is scheduled to publicly testify next month. | 0 |
20,753 | EPIC FAIL: Anti-Trump Movement Spent $75 MILLION on 64,000 Ads | 21st Century Wire says The system is running out of options it can use to stop Trump.Watch a video of this report here:CNN is reporting that the anti-Trump movement has spent an estimated $75,723,580 on 64,000 negative television advertisements. Furthermore, that figure only accounts for broadcast television, not cable or satellite.About one out of every four dollars against Trump came from Conservative Solutions PAC, a group supporting Marco Rubio s candidacy.Two groups supporting Cruz wasted nearly $16 million in their effort, while his campaign spent $4.3 million.One group supporting Jeb Bush spent $10 million against Trump.Hillary Clinton s campaign has already spent $5.2 million specifically going after Trump.Yet, despite all of these huge sums of money being spent to try and disparage Trump s run for the presidency they have all failed.Donald Trump is the only candidate still standing on the GOP ticket, and a new poll suggests Trump can indeed beat establishment-darling Hillary Clinton.Most shocking for the establishment, perhaps, is that Trump himself only spent $19 million on campaign advertising around a quarter of what was spent against him.What is the system going to try next to further its campaign to stop Trump?GET THE FULL STORY ON THE 2016 ELECTION: 21st Century Wire Election Files | 0 |
20,754 | EMBARRASSING: Pro-Gun Control Reporter Attempts Hit Job On AR-15’s…Claims He Got “Temporary PTSD”…Viewers Respond: “If you have a man card turn it in immediately” [VIDEO] | What is it about liberal men that makes a woman want to shoot him up with testosterone just to make him tolerable? Gersh Kuntzman of the New York Daily News has been roundly mocked since the publishing of an article headlined What is it like to fire an AR-15? It s horrifying, menacing and very very loud. The article also contains a video of Kuntzman shooting the AR-15, a segment put together one day after the Orlando massacre.He described the experience as an explosion of firepower that was humbling and deafening, but it was a line at the end of the article that people really took issue with. The brass shell casings disoriented me as they flew past my face. The smell of sulfur and destruction made me sick, he said. The explosions loud like a bomb gave me a temporary case of PTSD. For at least an hour after firing the gun just a few times, I was anxious and irritable. It was the temporary case of PTSD that critics found inappropriate and Kuntzman added a note about it after publishing, while linking to a follow-up story showcasing some of the responses he received.Many people have objected to my use of the term PTSD in the above story. The use of this term was in no way meant to conflate my very temporary anxiety with the very real condition experienced by many of our brave men and women in uniform. I regret the inarticulate use of the term to describe my in-the-moment impression of the gun s firepower, and apologize for it. I have also posted a follow up piece here.In the follow-up mentioned, which Kuntzman headlined To gun lovers, you can t even have an opinion on assault rifles unless it s theirs. Here s the proof, the writer opened by saying The gun debate is also a gender war. In all my years in journalism coming up on 30 (thanks) I have never received so much angry mail as I did after yesterday s story. Here is a sampling of the angry mail he received: Kuntzman is an outright liar. Nice try with an extremely stupid article which only appealed to girly boys and women of NYC and like the sheeple they are probably believed the lies. Hey there Cupcake! I have never subscribed to the idea of gender confusion, but after reading your article on the AR-15, I m a believer because there is no way you and I are the same gender. You should surrender your testicles to the Department of Girlymen. I m not sure where it s located, but your girlfriend Barack does! You f king pussy. If you have a man card turn it in immediately. You might be better served writing about feminine hygiene products!!! Maybe you can get some balls through Obamacare! Huntsman said these were only the printable responses he received.Via:Rare.us | 0 |
20,755 | Turkish court remands Turkey's Amnesty chairman in custody, Amnesty says | ANKARA (Reuters) - A Turkish court remanded Amnesty International s local board chairman in custody on Thursday, Amnesty Turkey said, hours after its local director was released by a separate court. The group s chairman, Taner Kilic, has been in prison since June in the coastal province of Izmir on terrorism charges. Prosecutors say he downloaded ByLock, a messaging application used by supporters of Fethullah Gulen, the U.S.-based cleric Turkey says was behind a failed coup last year. On Wednesday an Istanbul court ordered the release on bail of eight human rights activists, including the director of the local branch of Amnesty International, pending a verdict in their trial on terrorism charges. The Izmir court merged Kilic s case with that of the rights activists in Istanbul. The next hearing for all 11 defendants will be held on Nov. 22. Over the last 24 hours we have seen the twin hands of Turkey s fickle justice system at play. While one grants liberty, the other, confronted with no less baseless charges, takes it away, said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International s Secretary General. The release... late last night restored some faith in Turkey s justice system. Today, that faith has been washed away. Separately, prominent activist and businessman Osman Kavala s detention period has been extended for another seven days, one of lawyers representing him told Reuters. Kavala, who took part in several civil initiatives for the protection of human rights and resolutions of the Kurdish issues in Turkey, was initially detained at Istanbul s Ataturk Airport last week, as part of a secret investigation which drew reaction from Ankara s western allies. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said Kavala was behind the Gezi uprising, a referral to the 2013 mass protests against Erdogan s rule. | 1 |
20,756 | Protests called after Porto court agrees woman's adultery was factor in attack | LISBON (Reuters) - A women s rights group has called a rally to protest against a Portuguese court ruling that upheld a light sentence for a woman s attackers on the grounds they may have been driven to it by her adultery, an offence punishable with death in the Bible. Judges Neto de Moura and Maria Luisa Arantes rejected the prosecutors appeal to toughen the suspended sentence and fine, saying the depressive state of the two defendants - the woman s former husband and her former lover - was a mitigating factor. We read in the Bible that an adulteress should be punished with death, the judges in the Porto Court of Appeal wrote. They also referenced the symbolic sentences given to men who murdered adulterous wives in the late 19th century in Portugal. These references are merely intended to stress that the society has always strongly condemned adultery by a woman and therefore sees the violence by a betrayed, humiliated man with some understanding, they wrote in their Oct. 11 verdict. The UMAR Women s Union for Alternative and Response called the verdict in Portugal s second-largest city revolting and said it perpetuated the ideology of victim-blaming . Evoking the Bible does not combine with the rule of law in our country and discredits the judicial norms, UMAR said in a statement. In the 2015 attack, one of the men assaulted and held the victim while the other attacked her with a nail-spiked club. Her injuries were not life-threatening. Both were convicted and sentenced to pay large fines in addition to suspended time in prison of about a year each. UMAR and the feminist movement Por Todas Nos (For all of Us Women) called a protest rally in downtown Lisbon for Friday. Protests were also called in Porto under the slogan Male chauvinism is not justice, but crime . Ultra-orthodox patriarchy - one of the cornerstones of the fascist dictatorship of Antonio Salazar up until the 1974 revolution - still survives in parts of Portugal. | 1 |
20,757 | Turkey hopes for better cooperation with Trump on fighting terror: PM | ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Wednesday he hoped for an improvement in ties with the United States after Donald Trump’s election victory, and called for the extradition of the U.S.-based cleric Turkey blames for a failed July coup. President Tayyip Erdogan, whose relations with outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama have at times been strained, meanwhile said he hoped Trump’s victory would lead to “beneficial steps” for the Middle East and for basic rights and freedoms. Turkey has been frustrated by what it sees as Washington’s reluctance to hand over cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom it accuses of masterminding an abortive putsch four months ago and who has lived in exile in Pennsylvania since 1999. “An area of opportunity has been created for the new president to advance relations with policies taking into account Turkey’s fight against terror,” Yildirim said in a speech broadcast on Turkish television. “A new page will be opened for Turkish-U.S. friendship if you soon hand over the terror group leader who has harmed the friendship between the U.S. and Turkey,” he said, in reference to Gulen. The cleric denies involvement in July’s failed coup. Turkey, a NATO member and sometimes fractious ally in the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, has also been angered by U.S. support for the Kurdish YPG militia in Syria, which it sees as a hostile force linked to Kurdish militants who have fought the Turkish state for more than three decades. A senior Turkish official told Reuters that statements from Trump indicating he would withdraw support from “terror groups” was critically important for Turkey. “We expect the development of better relations in the period ahead,” the official said. “It is a positive development in itself that the United States will put a distance between itself and terror groups like the YPG, and it will be an important step for establishing healthier balances in the Middle East.” Erdogan made only brief reference to the U.S. election result at the end of a speech to a business forum in Istanbul. “I hope that this choice of the American people will lead to beneficial steps being taken for the world concerning basic rights and freedoms, democracy and developments in our region,” he said. | 1 |
20,758 | White Man Murders Cop And Racist Media Stays Silent | Jason Brown, despite the colorful appellation, is about the whitest name I ve heard all day. Except I didn t hear it today. Not in the news anyway. Not on that little trending bar on the side of my Facebook feed, or with a hashtag in front of it on Twitter. Which is weird, because a dude named Jason Brown murdered a police officer in Indianapolis on Thursday.I can t help but think if his skin matched his name, you d already know who I was talking about. In fact, if Jason Brown looked a little more like Michael Brown, you might already know he had previous drug charges. You might even have seen this picture of him by now:Image via TwitterI know you haven t seen that picture until now, though. In fact, I know unless you clicked the link above, you still think I m just making some point about how white people can get away with all kinds of stuff people of color in America can t. I m not, of course. I m just here to provide some contrast for the very limited, very, very sanitized coverage available so far about Jason Brown, from the south side of Indianapolis, Indiana.All that is according to literally everyone the news has bothered to contact so far about this guy who murdered a cop. Perhaps if there was some footage of him selling loose cigarettes.You see, when Jason Brown got in a terrible car accident and officers responded to the scene, they expected to find someone in need of assistance. The slain policeman, Lieutenant Aaron Allan, certainly didn t expect to be met by a driver hanging upside-down in the demolished car, ready to fire multiple shots into his torso.Lt. Allan died later Thursday.So where is the wall-to-wall coverage of this cop murderer? It must be hiding behind this family-provided picture that the news is running with:All I can say is, I ve been working on this article for a while now, and I just came across the very first link that provided any insight as to why he might have completely broken character and started shooting at the officer. An Indy NBC affiliate says the police recovered 13 small bags of weed which of course is possession with intent to deliver. Prison time.I wonder if, when they finally do charge Brown with the officer s murder (since they still haven t), they ll tack on those drug charges too, like they would if he was actually, um Brown?Featured image via Joe Raedle/Getty Images | 0 |
20,759 | Factbox: Contenders for senior jobs in Trump's administration | (Reuters) - The following people are mentioned as contenders for senior roles as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump assembles his administration before taking office on Jan. 20, according to Reuters sources and other media reports. Trump already has named a number of people for other top jobs in his administration. * Elsa Murano, undersecretary of agriculture for food safety under President George W. Bush and former president of Texas A&M University * Chuck Conner, a former acting secretary of the U.S. Agriculture Department and current head of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives * Tim Huelskamp, Republican U.S. representative from Kansas * Sid Miller, Texas agriculture commissioner * Sonny Perdue, former Georgia governor * Navy Admiral Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency * Ronald Burgess, retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former Defense Intelligence Agency chief * Robert Cardillo, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency * Pete Hoekstra, Republican former U.S. representative from Michigan * John Allison, a former chief executive officer of regional bank BB&T Corp and former head of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank * Paul Atkins, a former commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission * Thomas Hoenig, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp vice chairman and former head of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank * Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a venture capitalist, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former Food and Drug Administration deputy commissioner * Jim O’Neill, a Silicon Valley investor who previously served in the Department of Health and Human Services * Paul Atkins, a former SEC commissioner who heads Trump’s transition team for independent financial regulatory agencies * Ralph Ferrara, securities attorney at Proskauer Rose LLP * Daniel Gallagher, A Republican former SEC commissioner The Trump transition team confirmed the president-elect would choose from a list of 21 names he drew up during his campaign, including Republican U.S. Senator Mike Lee of Utah and William Pryor, a federal judge with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. * Dan DiMicco, former chief executive of steel producer Nucor Corp * Jovita Carranza, founder and president of consultants JCR Group. Former vice president at United Parcel Service and former deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration * Robert Lighthizer, former deputy U.S. trade representative during the Reagan administration * Wayne Berman, senior executive with private equity and financial services firm Blackstone Group LP * David McCormick, president of investment manager Bridgewater Associates LP * Pete Hegseth, CEO of Concerned Veterans for America and Fox News commentator * Navy Admiral Michelle Howard * Retired Admiral Thad Allen, former Coast Guard commandant appointed by President Barack Obama to lead government relief efforts after BP Gulf oil spill * Toby Cosgrove, president and chief executive officer of Cleveland Clinic * Luis Quinonez, founder of IQ Management of Virginia and member of Trump’s National Hispanic Advisory Council * Scott Brown, former Republican U.S. senator from Massachusetts * Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor and Republican nominee for vice president in 2008 * Jeff Miller, a former Republican U.S. representative from Florida who was chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee * Larry Kudlow, economist and media commentator * Tom Bossert, former deputy homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush, cyber risk fellow with the Atlantic Council think tank | 1 |
20,760 | EU says Hariri must return to Lebanon, warns against Saudi interference | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union on Monday urged Saad al-Hariri to return to Lebanon, calling on all political forces inside the country to focus on the domestic agenda and warning Saudi Arabia against meddling. Hariri s resignation, announced from Riyadh, and its aftermath have put Lebanon at the forefront of regional rivalry between Shi ite-led Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia Riyadh in recent days. We appeal first of all to the political forces to focus on Lebanon and what they can deliver to their citizens, Prime Minister Hariri to return to his country and the unity government ... to focus on domestic achievements, the bloc s top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, told reporters. We expect no external interference in this national agenda. We believe it is essential to avoid importing into Lebanon regional conflicts, she said after hosting a meeting of all 28 EU foreign ministers in Brussels. She praised the achievements of the Lebanese government under Hariri, who resigned saying he feared assassination. He has criticized the Iran-backed Hezbollah, which is part of his coalition government, for sowing strife in the Arab world and said he could take his resignation back if the group agreed to stay out of regional conflicts. France s foreign minister, speaking on the sidelines of the ministerial gathering in Brussels, also called on other countries not to interfere in Lebanon. We are preoccupied by the situation in Lebanon... we are worried about its stability, we are worried about its integrity, we are worried about non-interference, Jean-Yves Le Drian said. To reach a political solution in Lebanon, all political figures must have complete freedom of movement, he told reporters when asked about Hariri. Germany s Sigmar Gabriel also said Hariri should return as his departure has shaken Lebanon. Their Luxembourgish counterpart Jean Asselborn warned Riyadh that a meltdown in Lebanon would further destabilize the tumultuous Middle East, adding that a hostage crisis, if that is what is happening with the Lebanese Prime Minister in Saudi Arabia, is not very good news for the region. | 1 |
20,761 | White House CLOBBERS Texas Lt. Gov Outrage Over Trans Students, And It’s GLORIOUS | If Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (R) thought he was going to get away with being a completely transphobic jerk regarding transgender students using the bathroom, he thought wrong.After President Obama announced that any public school that refused to let a transgender student use a restroom consistent with their identity would run the risk of losing federal funding, Lt. Gov. Patrick lost his damn mind. He went so far as to say: I believe that it is the biggest issue facing families and schools in America since prayer was taken out of public schools. [Obama] has put a policy in place that will divide the country, not along political lines, but along family values and school districts. He says he s going to withhold funding if schools do not follow the policy. Well in Texas, he can keep his 30 pieces of silver. We will not yield to blackmail from the president of the United States. Yes, folks, he s that much of a bigot. Letting transgender individuals pee in the appropriate bathroom has nothing to do with family values and everything to do with just letting a person pee. However, many Republicans like to label anything that gives them the heebies jeebies as going against their values, so this really shouldn t come as a surprise. They likely used to say the same stuff back when black people wanted to use the same bathrooms as white people. These people are bigots and they re not afraid to make sure everyone knows it, coded language and all.Well, the White House heard what Patrick had to say about President Obama s directive, and hit back hard. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said: Well I think this does underscore the risk of electing a right-wing radio host to elected statewide office. Patrick, of course, is also known as being a very far-right conservative talk show host before being elected as Lt. Governor.Earnest also said: This is not an enforcement action. This is in response to extensive requests for guidance and for information and advice that have been put forward by school administrators and teachers and in some cases, even parents, who are seeking practical solutions to this challenge And the challenge here is not to isolate anybody, it s not to discriminate against anybody, it s not to make anybody unsafe. It s actually to ensure that our schools are as inclusive and respectful and safe as they can possibly be. He added that many schools would welcome this guidance and implement it. In the year 2016, you d think there wouldn t still be such backward, myopic thinking that can t embrace life outside a bubble of what one might think a person should be. However, there is, and because there is, the White House is very open to a dialogue to address concerns. After all, most bigotry and discrimination is the result of lack of knowledge and understanding.Dan Patrick is being Dan Patrick. A man who likes to hear himself speak and doesn t seem to care who he hurts along the way. If he thinks the president asking schools to be inclusive and allow students to choose the bathroom of their gender identity at risk of losing funding is blackmail, then he s clearly a bigot who doesn t want to comply.Good on the White House for smacking his clear bigotry down.Featured Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 0 |
20,762 | Trump assails GM over car production in Mexico, threatens tax | DETROIT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to impose a “big border tax” on General Motors Co (GM.N) for making some of its Chevrolet Cruze compact cars in Mexico, an arrangement the largest U.S. automaker defended as part of its strategy to serve global customers, not sell them in the United States. Trump’s comments marked his latest broadside aimed at an American company over jobs, imports and costs before he takes office on Jan. 20, signaling an uncommon degree of intervention for an incoming U.S. president into corporate affairs. “General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers-tax free across border. Make in U.S.A. or pay big border tax!” Trump said in a post on Twitter. Trump did not provide further details but previously vowed to hit companies that shift production from America to other countries with a 35 percent tax on their exports into the United States. He also has denounced the North American Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada. Trump’s tweet came hours before GM’s rival Ford Motor Co (F.N) announced it would cancel a planned $1.6 billion factory in Mexico and would invest $700 million at a Michigan factory, after it also came under criticism from the Republican president-elect for its Mexican investment plans. Ford’s executive chairman, Bill Ford Jr., said he personally notified Trump of the decision, but after Trump’s early-morning GM tweet. GM, the world’s No. 3 automaker, said it sold about 190,000 Cruze cars in the United States in 2016. All of the sedan versions sold in the United States, or about 185,500, were built at its plant in Lordstown, Ohio. About 4,500 hatchback versions of the Cruze were assembled in Mexico and sold in the United States. “GM builds the Chevrolet Cruze hatchback for global markets in Mexico, with a small number sold in the U.S.” it said in a statement posed on its website. The Cruze is one of GM’s best-selling cars, although its sales numbers were down significantly in 2016. Shares of GM (GM.N) rose 1 percent to $35.19 after falling about 1 percent following Trump’s tweet before the market opened. Since winning the Nov. 8 presidential election, Trump has targeted GM’s rival Ford Motor Co (F.N), United Technologies Inc (UTX.N), Boeing Co (BA.N) and Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N). Trump also has touted decisions by companies to keep some production in the United States, including United’s Carrier unit in Indiana. “In this case, the tweet was specific to General Motors. But I think you’ve seen an overall philosophy during the campaign and since he was elected to stand up for American workers and make sure that American companies don’t benefit from moving their companies overseas and leaving American workers behind,” Trump transition team spokesman Sean Spicer said. Last month, Trump announced the formation of a council to advise him on job creation comprised of leaders from a variety of major U.S. corporations including GM Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra. GM said in 2015 it would build its next-generation Chevrolet Cruze compact in Mexico as automakers look to expand in the Latin American nation to take advantage of low labor costs and free trade agreements. The company said in 2015 it would invest $350 million to produce the Cruze at its plant in Coahuila as part of the $5 billion investment in its Mexican plants announced in 2014, creating 5,600 jobs. GM said last year it would import some Cruze cars from Mexico. Trump, a Republican who will succeed Democratic President Barack Obama, campaigned for president using tough rhetoric on trade and promises to protect American workers, and targeted several companies by name. According to Automotive News, GM began producing the Cruze in Mexico last year, making 52,631 cars there. In comparison, it built 319,536 of them in the United States. Previous versions of the Cruze sold in Mexico were made in a GM South Korea plant, it reported. The shift is part of a larger trend among Detroit’s Big Three automakers to produce more small cars for the North American market in Mexico in an effort to lower labor costs, while using higher-paid U.S. workers to build more profitable trucks, sport utility vehicles and luxury cars. In November, GM said it planned in early 2017 to lay off 2,000 employees at two U.S. auto plants, including the one in Lordstown. U.S. small car sales have been hurt by lagging consumer demand and low gas prices. GM’s U.S. Cruze sales were down 18 percent through November. GM will halt the third shift at the Lordstown plant on Jan. 23, cutting 1,250 jobs. | 1 |
20,763 | Match North Korea overture with Iran offer, Germany tells U.S. | BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany welcomed U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson s announcement that he was probing opportunities for dialogue with North Korea about its nuclear weapons program and called for Washington to take a similar step with Iran. German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel also warned in a statement that going back on a nuclear deal with Iran signed by former U.S. President Barack Obama would risk undermining Washington s credibility in negotiating with North Korea. In 2015, Tehran agreed to restrict its nuclear program in return for the loosening of economic sanctions that had crippled its economy. But U.S. President Donald Trump has called the deal an embarrassment and Washington said last month it was weighing whether to pull out of it. Germany, one of the few Western countries with a permanent embassy in Pyongyang, has advocated peaceful approaches to de-escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula and criticized some of Trump s more bellicose rhetoric regarding the potential nuclear flashpoint. This is exactly the right direction. North Korea would be well advised to take this offer of talks seriously. Gabriel said on Sunday of Tillerson s announcement. He added: I would like to see a similar offer for Iran. If the U.S. canceled its nuclear deal with Iran, that would undermine the credibility of its offer to North Korea. | 1 |
20,764 | TONIGHT’S FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: What Time? Where To Watch…And MORE Inside Scoop | Debate officials have released the details of Monday night s presidential debate between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.This be will the country s first chance to see the candidates go 1-on-1 and answer questions on key issues, including immigration, health care, gun control, abortion rights and foreign policy.Here is a look at what to know for the first 2016 presidential debate:WHAT TIME IS THE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE TONIGHT? The event begins at 9 o clock Eastern time and will run 90 minutes.WHAT CHANNEL IS THE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE ON? The debate will be broadcast on all the major television networks (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, PBS, Telemundo, Univision) and cable outlets (CNBS, CNN, C-SPAN Fox News, Fox Business, MSNBC).HOW CAN YOU WATCH THE DEBATE ONLINE? Facebook and Twitter will both live stream the event. So will all the networks and cable news outlets, as well as the Daily Caller, the Huffington Post, Hulu, Politico, the Wall Street Journal, and Yahoo.NJ.com will be hosting live updates and a discussion.WHERE IS THE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE? Clinton and Trump will share a stage at the David S. Mach Sports and Exhibition Complex at Hofstra University on Long Island, N.Y.WHO IS THE MODERATOR OF THE DEBATE? Lester Holt, the host of NBC s Nightly News. WHO IS DEBATING TONIGHT? Only Clinton and Trump. Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson, Green Party candidate Jill Stein, and independent candidate Evan Mcmullen did not meet the criteria to qualify which was essentially to be at 15 percent in recent national polls. Via: nj.comThe 90-minute debate will be broken into six, 15 minute pods, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced on Sunday.Clinton s podium will be stage left and Trump s podium will be stage right, the CPD said.LIARS FIRST:Clinton will receive the first question. She will have two minutes to answer and Trump will have two minutes to respond.That will be followed by 10 minutes of open conversation and debate.Some of the rules were made by agreement between the campaigns and some were decided by coin toss but CPD wouldn t say which ones.The debate will be held before an audience of 1,000 viewers in the hall. The three largest ticket blocks are going to the two campaigns and Hofstra. The university said they are giving all of their tickets to students, which they say they also did in 2008 and 2012. Via: NBC News | 0 |
20,765 | WATCH: Hillary Exposes The GOP’s Abortion Secret In Under 60 Seconds | Republicans and religious conservatives made a big show on Wednesday by criticizing current Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump over his comments on abortion. The right treated Trump s declaration that under a regime where abortion is outlawed, women would have to be punished as if it were some crazy deviation from what the anti-choice right has been saying for years.In an interview with Business Insider, Secretary Hillary Clinton quickly dispensed with this utterly false notion.https://www.facebook.com/businessinsider/videos/10153507816369071/Clinton, the Democratic presidential frontrunner, said that Trump also revealed what many Republican lawmakers and candidates believe. She cited efforts by GOP governors and state legislatures to curb access to abortion. What s important here is that all the Republicans agree with him. They all want to see women s rights eroded and for abortion to become illegal again, she said. That s why so many state Republican governors and legislators are defunding Planned Parenthood and shutting down clinics that not only provide a safe abortion, but HIV testing, cancer screenings, and so much else. Clinton added, So he tried to walk it back, but I think you have to take him at his word. The official Republican Party Platform, passed at the 2012 Republican National Convention, is very clear on abortion. The text calls for the passage of a so-called Human Life Amendment to the Constitution, which would classify every fetus at every stage as a full, human, life. And as a result, any sort of abortion even for rape or incest would count as a murder. But not only would doctors be subject to arrest, in this world view a murder could not happen without it being solicited by the mother.The end result is, that if abortion law is enacted the way the official Republican Party platform calls for it to be, women, and possibly their spouses, would at best be considered part of a criminal conspiracy to commit murder.Usually the media allows Republicans a pass on this, rarely asking what the logical conclusions in the real world would be of an outright ban on abortion. As Secretary Clinton noted, the only mistake Trump made is in saying in front of cameras what conservative Republicans believe and talk about behind closed doors.Featured image via Facebook | 0 |
20,766 | WOW! CHICAGO RESIDENTS Blast “Democratic Machine” For Ruining The City…”They Want You to Think Donald Trump Is The Problem…White and Black Democrats Are Doing This To Us” [VIDEO] | This isn t the first punch this group of black Chicago residents have delivered to the failed Democrat Party. In 2015, they made a video message directly aimed at Barack Obama and the Democrat Party. The video exposed the lies Obama and the Democrats told Chicago residents to get votes, and then after the election, they ignored the residents while unemployment rates and crime skyrocketed and the city crumbled around them. Watch the VIRAL video HERE.The taxpayer-funded installation of a giant, gold-lettered #RealFake sculpture, placed by Chicago just opposite Trump Tower, serves as the backdrop for a cutting short film, Chicago Carnage, from RebelPundit filmmakers Jeremy Segal and Andrew Marcus featuring community organizers Paul McKinley and Mark Carter.The city of Chicago installed the sculpture just across the Chicago River from Trump Tower in a space that could only be intended to give a giant middle finger to President Trump late last month. The sculpture sits as perfect photo-op to take selfies and group photos flipping off the Trump sign, while standing underneath it right next to the golden sculpture that screams Real Fake.Both say Chicago is a city that is overrun with very real deadly violence and poverty within a few short miles from this sculpture and it is by intentional design under the liberal agenda. It is ironic that this sign would show up right here, and not in front of City Hall, McKinley says. It is a great deception to distract people from real issues. Carter says, They are not trying to resolve the problems in this city, they need things to happen exactly the way they are happening .The fake news is that this city is a city for everyone .This is city for the elite. He goes on to slam the city for looking like a bomb has been dropped, and looking like a third world city. Every day of the week there is a body count, 30 people shot up, 40 people shot up, that s not real fake, says McKinley. They want you to be focused on Donald Trump being the problem, Carter said, to which McKinley asks, why are we all messed up, Trump just got in there? There is nothing fake about this guy, said Carter, he tells you what he s about, the fake is Barack Obama, the fake is Bill Clinton. The Democrat machine is dummying down the people, socially engineering the people into poverty.They want you to believe that there is some white racist Republicans or some white racist conservative doing this. No, this is the democrat machine, these are white and black racist Democrats that are doing this to us.They don t want the killing to stop. They need the people to continue to poor. They need these blood sucking programs, that have never done anything to bring down violence, unemployment and poverty.McKinley says, this is the most racist city and segregated city in the country, right here in Chicago. Rebel Pundit | 0 |
20,767 | U.S.'s Pence, German Foreign Minister agree on NATO's central security role: White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence met with German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel on Thursday and agreed on NATO’s central role in ensuring security in Europe and North America, the White House said on Thursday. Pence and Gabriel also reaffirmed that NATO allies needed to contribute “their fair share to our collective security,” the White House said in a statement. “They also underscored that NATO must adapt to confront threats to our countries such as violent extremism and terrorism,” it said. | 1 |
20,768 | Merkel wants outline coalition deal with SPD by mid-January | BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday she wanted to conclude exploratory talks on a possible coalition with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) by mid-January to end Germany s political deadlock. Merkel was asked if comments by her and President Emmanuel Macron that Germany and France hope to make progress on ideas to reform the euro zone by March were realistic, given the risk that talks with the SPD could falter. I mentioned March because we want to hold exploratory talks by mid-January, Merkel told reporters after a meeting of the executive board of her Christian Democrats (CDU). Merkel s conservative bloc, weakened in a September election that produced a splintered parliament, will hold their first meeting with the SPD on Wednesday. A deal with the SPD is Merkel s best chance of securing a fourth term as chancellor. She implied there was room for maneuver on policy, but appeared to rule out cooperation outside the framework of a formal coalition. If the exploratory talks are successful, the SPD will move on to negotiate a detailed blueprint with the CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, setting out government policy for the next four years. The SPD agreed to enter talks only reluctantly after voters rewarded it in September for the last four years of grand coalition under Merkel by handing it its worst result since 1933. Some in the SPD now want to cooperate with Merkel outside of a formal coalition agreement, in the hope of better preserving a more distinct separate identity in voters minds. But Merkel said a stable government required formal agreements on policy: Anything short of that would mean the exploratory talks were not successful. Should Merkel and SPD leader Martin Schulz fail to reach an agreement, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier could call a new election, something neither party wants as both fear the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) would make more gains. SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil warned Merkel on Monday that party leaders would not win the required blessing from members for renewing their alliance if the SPD gave way on key election promises. He said it would insist on distinctive leftist policies, such as introducing a single citizen s insurance to replace the current dual system: superior private health insurance used mainly by the wealthy, and a more widely accessible public health insurance. Conservatives say switching to a unified system would erode competition and worsen services. But Merkel said on Monday that it was possible to find common ground with the SPD on ways to improve the healthcare system. Immigration is another sticking point. The SPD opposes a conservative plan to prolong a halt to the right of some accepted asylum seekers to bring in family members. It says the measure hampers efforts to integrate the 1.6 million people who entered Germany seeking asylum in 2015 and 2016. Integration works only with families, Klingbeil said. The CSU, which fears losses to the AfD in an election in Bavaria next year, is likely to put up more resistance to SPD policy demands than the CDU, notably on immigration. | 1 |
20,769 | Trump White House Stomps On First Amendment And Blackmails CNN | It s no secret that Donald Trump hates the mainstream media, and specifically CNN, but our Constitution is set up in a way that there s nothing he can do about it. Trump, though, isn t about to let a quaint old piece of parchment paper stand in his way. The White House is threatening to prevent a planned merger between CNN and Time Warner if CNN doesn t start being nice to him.White House advisers have discussed a potential point of leverage over their adversary, a senior administration official said: a pending merger between CNN s parent company, Time Warner, and AT&T. Mr. Trump s Justice Department will decide whether to approve the merger, and while analysts say there is little to stop the deal from moving forward, the president s animus toward CNN remains a wild card.Source: NY TimesWhat s particularly interesting about this is that it comes at the exact same time as the right is accusing CNN of extortion. As you probably recall, Trump tweeted a GIF of him in a wrestling match beating the crap out of a man whose face had been covered by the CNN logo.CNN found the source of that GIF, which was a middle-aged man who has a habit of posting racist and anti-semitic posts on Reddit. Right-wingers were opposed to this statement from CNN:In the story, reporter Andrew Kaczynski wrote that CNN had found but would not identify the Reddit user, whose other posts included racist and anti-Semitic memes, [b]ecause he is a private citizen who has issued an extensive statement of apology, showed his remorse by saying he has taken down all his offending posts, and because he said he is not going to repeat this ugly behavior on social media again. But it was the next line that would leave the pro-Trump internet inflamed and the journalism community scratching its head: CNN reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change. Source: BuzzfeedThe right-wing media and some politicians are full of claims of extortion by CNN. Of course, this is all happening at a time when the Trump administration is trying to get states to reveal sensitive data on all its voters, but it s the privacy of a racist internet troll that s sacrosanct.Now, the Trump administration s response to CNN is an actual threat of extortion. Perhaps he needs to read the Constitution before he burns it.This puts liberals in an uncomfortable position. Virtually no one favors the proposed merger between CNN and Time-Warner and there are numerous reasons to stop it, but if the price for stopping it is to severely damage our free press, it s not worth it. Contact CNN and demand that they stay strong.Featured image via Mark Wilson/Getty Images | 0 |
20,770 | Gorbachev sees Russian democracy far off: biographer Taubman | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, celebrated in the West for championing democracy and helping end the Cold War, sees little chance Russia will turn from czarist-reminiscent, strongman government anytime in coming decades, the U.S. author of a new biography said on Monday. Pulitzer Prize-winning William Taubman interviewed Gorbachev, now 86, eight times for his Gorbachev: His Life and Times and said in the Reuters Global Markets Forum online chat room that Gorbachev was widely disliked in Russia. Here are edited excerpts: Question: How do Russians now see Gorbachev, who was popular in the 1980s? Answer: He is widely despised in Russia. People blame him for the collapse of the USSR, loss of its empire, the economic crash that accompanied the collapse, and also for seeming to be (to them, at any rate) a weak, indecisive leader. Q: Why does Russian President Vladimir Putin ignore Gorbachev, even as he memorializes much Russian history? A: Putin has only gained by ignoring or criticizing Gorbachev. In many ways, Putin s program is the opposite of Gorbachev s. It is as if Gorbachev has bequeathed the program, namely, the reverse of his own. As for Russia s dissatisfaction today, it is apparently growing as economic conditions worsen. But Putin has rallied support by annexing the Crimea, by depicting the West as Russia s enemy, by invoking the old czarist Trinity of principles: autocracy, nationality, and Orthodox religion. Q: Does Gorbachev have much hope of seeing a more democratic government? A: Gorbachev himself says it might take decades to democratize Russia, even the whole 21st century. This from a man who had hoped to see democracy come to the USSR in a few short years. Q: Is Gorbachev content in his late life? A: He insists he is. But I can t imagine he really is. His innate optimism may sustain him. But in addition to all the political attacks on him that continue, he now lives largely alone (except for bodyguards, chefs and chauffeurs) in a big house in the suburbs. ((This interview was conducted in the Reuters Global Markets Forum, a chat room hosted on the Eikon platform.)) | 1 |
20,771 | Neil DeGrasse Tyson SCHOOLS Rapper B.O.B Over Flat Earth Conspiracy (TWEETS) | If you were not aware there is a seriously old and debunked new theory going around the interwebz that the Earth is really flat after all. Yes, seriously. Recently, rapper B.o.B posted a bunch of evidence to support his belief that we ve all been lied to about the shape of our planet. Unfortunately for him, it got really embarrassing when astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson got involved and schooled him.A couple of weeks ago, singer Tila Tequila tweeted about the #FlatEarth movement, claiming that the Earth isn t really round because buildings in New York City are all straight.Why are all the buildings in NYC standing straight up? If earth was round then some of the buildings would have a slight tilt. #FlatEarth Tila Tequila (@AngelTilaLove) January 7, 2016Apparently she isn t the only nutjob, because rapper B.o.B started tweeting the same mind-boggling nonsense:A lot of people are turned off by the phrase "flat earth" but there's no way u can see all the evidence and not know grow up B.o.B (@bobatl) January 25, 2016No matter how high in elevation you are the horizon is always eye level sorry cadets I didn't wanna believe it either. B.o.B (@bobatl) January 25, 2016y'all be like "you're not high enough to see the curve keep going" pic.twitter.com/dzgYpIIao3 B.o.B (@bobatl) January 25, 2016how do you explain the horizon always being at eye level ? https://t.co/Kzuc4r77CK B.o.B (@bobatl) January 25, 2016There is tweet after tweet with this same crazy speak. About twenty tweets into his flat Earthfest, Neil deGrasse Tyson decided that he could no longer handle the dumbf*ckery and slapped down the rapper s loony conspiracy theory:@bobatl Earth's curve indeed blocks 150 (not 170) ft of Manhattan. But most buildings in midtown are waaay taller than that. Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) January 25, 2016@bobatl Polaris is gone by 1.5 deg S. Latitude. You ve never been south of Earth s Equator, or if so, you've never looked up. Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) January 25, 2016@bobatl Flat Earth is a problem only when people in charge think that way. No law stops you from regressively basking in it. Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) January 25, 2016@bobatl Duude to be clear: Being five centuries regressed in your reasoning doesn t mean we all can t still like your music Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) January 25, 2016If you thought B.o.B would listen to one of most prominent astrophysicists in the world, you d be wrong. Instead of admitting that he had no idea what he was talking about, the rapper posted this:@neiltyson why can't the curvature of the earth be measured anywhere in nature? why does only NASA have photos of the curve ? r u a mason? B.o.B (@bobatl) January 25, 2016He continued on like this for the rest of the day, convinced that he knows more than Tyson.Neil deGrasse must have realized that the rapper was completely bat sh*t because he just stopped responding.We don t blame him.Although many American children are taught that Christopher Columbus discovered the Earth was not flat, the belief that it is round dates back all the way to 6 Century B.C., but was proven by Aristotle. It was then reaffirmed throughout history.There are a lot of mindnumbing conspiracy theories out there, but this one is exceptionally stupid. Why B.o.B thinks he knows more than the scientific community is anyone s guess, but he really should keep his crazy off of social media sites before he embarrasses himself further.Featured image via Twitter | 0 |
20,772 | Obama tries to limit fallout from British EU exit vote | PALO ALTO, Calif. (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday tried to limit the fallout from Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, which threatens to harm the U.S. economic recovery, derail his trade agenda and distract U.S. allies from global security issues. Obama, who had argued passionately against Britain leaving the EU in a trip to the country this year, vowed that Washington would still maintain both its “special relationship” with London and close ties to Brussels. “While the UK’s relationship with the EU will change, one thing that will not change is the special relationship that exists between our two nations. That will endure,” he told an event at Stanford University, referring to close ally Britain. “The EU will remain one of our indispensable partners,” Obama said. He spoke to outgoing British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel after the stunning result of Thursday’s referendum, the biggest blow to the European project of greater unity since World War Two. Obama said he was sure Britain’s exit would be orderly and vowed that the United States and Britain would “stay focused on ensuring economic growth and financial stability.” The Brexit result rattled Wall Street and many other financial markets, with global stock markets losing about $2 trillion in value on Friday. “I must say we had looked for a different outcome. We would have preferred a different outcome,” U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, traveling in Ireland, said on Friday. The historic divorce launched by the Brexit vote could sink hopes of a massive U.S.-EU free trade deal before Obama leaves the White House in January. Negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, were already stalled by deeply entrenched differences and growing anti-trade sentiment on both continents. As well as the global economic consequences, Brexit makes it more difficult for Obama and the United States to corral its Western allies into joint action against challenges such as Islamic State, Russia and the rise of China. Britain’s exit could present the next U.S. president with a decision on whether to turn to other key European partners like Germany and France, essentially downgrading the United States’ special bond with Britain, whose foundation was laid in World War Two. Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, called on Washington’s partners in Europe to keep their eye on foreign policy threats. “We must maintain our trans-Atlantic consensus on how to deal with a resurgent Russia and the growing threat of ISIS,” he said. “I urge leaders in London, Brussels and across Europe to not lose sight of these threats and remain coordinated in our response.” The U.S. presidential election candidates are casting an eye across the Atlantic at the unlikely success of Britain’s “Leave” campaign, which has similarities with Republican Donald Trump’s insurgent bid for the Nov. 8 election. Trump’s rise was sustained by a similar brew of anti-establishment and anti-globalization sentiment and concern about immigration that helped the Leave vote. “This is a protest vote against globalization and there is one presidential candidate who won the nomination who has put globalization in his crosshairs - and that’s Donald Trump,” Republican strategist John Feehery said. Biden, in remarks prepared for a speech at Dublin Castle, took a swipe at Trump without mentioning him by name. He warned against “politicians and demagogues peddling xenophobia, nationalism, and isolationism.” Brexit supporter Trump called the result a “great thing.” “People want to take their country back. They want to have independence in a sense. You see it with Europe, all over Europe,” Trump, 70, said in Turnberry, Scotland where he reopened a golf course. Republican Senator Jeff Sessions said Britain’s electoral shock showed that national leaders will be punished if they do not “first ensure they have protected the safety and legitimate interests of their own people.” “Brexit is a warning for America,” said Sessions, a Trump supporter who criticized “radical trade policies that erode the power of the people to control their lives.” Obama had warned British voters against Brexit, in an unusually strong intervention into British politics in April. The White House said on Friday that he stands by a comment made then that Britain would move to the back of the queue when it comes to trade deals with the United States if it left the EU. Obama hopes his former secretary of state Hillary Clinton will win the November election and safeguard his legacy but economic volatility in the United States after Brexit could hurt her chances of beating Trump. In response to Britain’s decision to leave, Clinton said the United States must first safeguard against any economic fallout at home at “this time of uncertainty” and underscore its commitment to both Britain and Europe. The U.S. Federal Reserve sought to calm global financial markets by saying it was ready to provide dollar liquidity following the British vote. U.S. financial regulators said the country’s financial system is functioning in an “orderly manner.” The Financial Stability Oversight Council - which includes the heads of the U.S. Treasury, Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Reserve - “noted that the U.S. financial system continues to function in an orderly manner, and that the Council will continue to monitor ongoing developments,” according to a summary released after a phone call among members. After Brexit, the U.S. central bank’s ambitions for two rate rises this year now look unlikely. Traders of U.S.-interest rate futures even began to price in a small chance of a Fed rate cut, and now see little chance of any hike until the end of next year. “One can forget about rate hikes in the near term,” said Thomas Costerg, New York-based economist at Standard Chartered Bank. “What I’m worried about is that the Brexit vote could be the straw that breaks the back of the U.S. growth picture.” | 1 |
20,773 | AT&T chief executive, Trump meet amid planned Time Warner merger | NEW YORK (Reuters) - AT&T Inc (T.N) Chief Executive Randall Stephenson on Thursday met in New York with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, an opponent of the company’s acquisition of Time Warner Inc (TWX.N). A spokeswoman for Trump confirmed the meeting after Stephenson was seen entering Trump Tower. Stephenson, who was accompanied by Robert Quinn, AT&T’s senior executive vice president for external and legislative affairs, would not answer questions from reporters. AT&T said later on Thursday that the company’s $85.4 billion deal for Time Warner was not discussed. “The conversation focused on how AT&T can work with the Trump administration to increase investment in the U.S., stimulate job creation in America, and make American companies more competitive globally,” AT&T said in a statement. During his campaign for the White House, Trump said AT&T’s proposal to buy Time Warner, owner of CNN and the Warner Bros movie studio, was an example of a “power structure” that was rigged against him and voters. “It’s too much concentration of power in the hands of too few,” said Trump, who has repeatedly accused the media of being biased against him and his campaign. Since the election, Trump has not commented publicly on the AT&T-Time Warner deal, but he has been critical of CNN. He sparred with a CNN reporter on Wednesday during a televised news conference. A person briefed on the matter said AT&T requested the meeting with Trump late last week. As Thursday’s meeting was about to get under way, Trump tweeted: “@CNN is in a total meltdown with their FAKE NEWS because their ratings are tanking since election and their credibility will soon be gone.” Representatives from AT&T and Time Warner declined to comment on Trump’s tweet. A Trump transition official told Reuters earlier this month that the president-elect still opposed the deal, which would require antitrust approval by the U.S. Department of Justice. It could also face a review by the Federal Communications Commission, although the companies are considering ways to structure the deal to avoid that. Time Warner shareholders will meet on Feb. 15 to decide whether to approve the merger. | 1 |
20,774 | Somali army repels al Shabaab after attack, at least 17 killed | MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali government forces have regained control of a town on the border with Kenya after al Shabaab militants stormed an army base there on Monday, causing heavy clashes in which at least 17 people died, the military said. Islamist insurgents attacked the base at Balad Hawo early in the morning with a car suicide bombing before entering the compound, both sides said. We were awoken by a suicide car bomb this morning and then fierce battle followed, Major Mohamed Abdullahi told Reuters from the town. We chased al Shabaab out of the town, he said. Al Shabaab spokesman Abdiasis Abu Musab said the group s fighters left the town after releasing 35 prisoners from the local jail. At least 30 soldiers were killed, he said. According to the military official, at least 10 soldiers and seven al Shabaab militants were killed, though the death toll on both sides could still rise. Formed in 2006, Al Shabaab wants to topple the Western-backed government and impose its strict interpretation of Islam. Somalia has been at war since 1991 when clan-based warlords overthrew dictator Siad Barre and then turned on each other. Al Shabaab carry out frequent attacks on security and government targets, but also on civilians. They also target African Union peacekeeping troops. Residents confirmed fighting had ended and that the militants had left the town. Now Balad Hawo is calm and government forces fully control it, Ahmed Hassan, a resident of the town told Reuters. Hassan said he saw 13 bodies collected from the military base. | 1 |
20,775 | ‘I Don’t Rent To N*****s’: Smoking Gun Proves Trump Family Racism (VIDEO) | New video has surfaced adding to the mountain of evidence that while working alongside his father, Fred Trump, young Donald Trump was part of a real estate business that discriminated against minority applicants.As part of an investigation by NBC News, Stanley Leibowitz, who worked as a rental agent for the Trump Organization, told the news network that he personally witnessed the elder Trump explicitly lay out a racist policy for their apartment properties.In the interview, Leibowitz said that Trump told him I don t rent to the n-word, and indicates that Trump made this statement with Donald Trump in the room and that the younger Trump affirmed the policy.The revelation comes at the same time that the Clinton campaign has released a video highlighting Trump s run-in with the federal government over discrimination.Undercover investigators were sent to Trump properties, and there they repeatedly ran into a policy where black applicants with identical financial backgrounds to white applicants were systematically denied housing. The white applicants were allowed into the Trump properties.One bit of testimony determined that Trump property managers indicated applications from blacks by putting a C on the documents for colored, and that was a sign that they should be denied.The Trumps denied the allegation, but later settled with the government over the policy without admitting wrongdoing.Donald Trump s involvement with his father s business is key to the entire story of his rise to prominence in the real estate world and the media, as is his father s $14 million dollars that he gave to Trump to start his business. But if you accept that, the Trump Organization s history of racial discrimination and the legal entanglements that come with that are also part of the story, and no matter how Trump may try to wave it away it s still there.Featured image via screen capture | 0 |
20,776 | EU executive warms to Franco-German call on emergency border checks | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union s executive offered initial backing on Thursday to a Franco-German proposal to allow more permanent border checks within the bloc s free-travel zone. Five countries in the so-called Schengen travel zone - Germany, France, Denmark, Austria and Norway - restarted border controls after 2015 attacks in Paris and in an attempt to control the movement of refugees and migrants arriving in the bloc in unprecedented numbers the same year. Schengen rules allow for the reintroduction of such frontier controls for up to two years and the ones now in place expire in November. Germany and France, aiming for an extension and the ability to reinstate them in future, asked the EU to change the system to extend the maximum duration to four years. A joint proposal by Paris and Berlin, seen by Reuters, says that would be required in the context of a long-term terrorist threat after a raft of deadly Islamist attacks in Europe. The Commission recognizes that new security challenges have appeared in the past years, as demonstrated by the recent terrorist attacks in Barcelona and Turku, the EU s migration chief, Dimitris Avramopoulos, told journalists after talks with EU s interior ministers. He said the Brussels-based Commission would propose an update to the Schengen borders code later this month. French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb told journalists after the talks in Brussels: We had raised this problem some time ago with my German colleague ... and from what I heard from the Commissioner he indeed wants to make the Schengen code more flexible ... to allow us to protect our borders against terrorism. | 1 |
20,777 | BOOM! FLORIDA PAPER Makes Unprecedented Apology After “Uncomfortably Sizable Number Of Readers” Complain About Anti-Trump Coverage | Is this apology too little too late? After one year of bashing Trump, and with only one week left before the election, does this apology really matter now?A central Florida newspaper has apologized to its readers for the decidedly anti-Donald Trump coverage that has been published during the election.The Daily Commercial published an editorial titled The media, the election and bias on Oct. 23 that explained the paper is reliant on wire services for much of its election coverage and those reports are weighted heavily against Trump. The Daily Commercial hasn t done enough to mitigate the anti-Trump wave in the pages of this paper, it wrote. You deserve a more balanced approach to the coverage of elections and other weighty issues. In what it described as an open letter that it described as part explanation, part reflection and part mea culpa the paper apologized to its readers. | 0 |
20,778 | Japan PM says North Korea has 'no bright future' if it continues current path | TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Wednesday that he wants North Korea to understand it has no bright future if it continues on its current path and that the reclusive country needs to change its policies. Abe told reporters he wants to discuss the North Korea situation with Russian President Vladimir Putin and South Korean President Moon Jae In separately when they meet this week in Vladivostok. Abe and Putin are also expected to discuss economic cooperation and a peace treaty between the two nations. | 1 |
20,779 | Donald Trump Is Destroying The Country’s Reputation And Here’s Proof | During the election, when Donald Trump wasn t bellowing Lock her up about Hillary Clinton, he was manufacturing a narrative in which President Obama had turned our country into a dystopia in which we ve lost all respectability throughout the world.We need a President who isn't a laughing stock to the entire World. We need a truly great leader, a genius at strategy and winning. Respect! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 9, 2014 As usual, Trump was more about projection than the truth. We can t be sure if he knew he was going to destroy our reputation around the world, but he did. In a survey released on Thursday, our standing in the world tumbled all the way from number one to number six. The power and quality of each country s brand image was measured by the Nation Brands Index (NBI) survey, which was conducted by German-based market research firm GfK and British political consultant Simon Anholt. The final NBI score was decided after collecting public opinion on 50 different countries on primarily six categories: its people, governance, exports, tourism, investment and immigration, and culture and heritage. According to popular public opinion, the U.S. dropped to the sixth place while Germany rose to claim the prestigious first spot. Germany stood second in the same survey last year while the first place was held by the U.S. After just a year, the U.S. is lagging behind Germany, France, Britain, Canada and Japan.Source: IBTimesThis isn t the first time the world has taken notice of the fact that we have a greedy, uncivilized, unethical half-wit at the helm of the largest economy and the largest military in the world.In September, a Pew poll found that the world favored Obama over Trump by a significant number. Out of 37 countries, only two liked Trump better. Only Russia (hmmmm) and Israel were happier with Trump. As for the rest of the world, the drop in popularity wasn t just in double digits, it was, as Trump might say, huuuuge! Only 10 percent of Swedes trust Trump not to start World War III. 93 percent of Swedish people trusted Obama. Okay, the survey didn t specify World War but it did ask if they trusted the U.S. president to handle world affairs.The rest of the world wasn t quite as dramatic, but as you can see from this chart below, the world really hates Trump.In July, his results were somewhat better, but he was still wildly hated by the majority of the world s citizens.This is a lot bigger deal than just a few statistics. It took a long time to build our standing in the world. Since World War II, right or wrong, the United States has been seen as a moral leader. We are certainly an economic leader. Now we have no leg to stand on, even when fighting for own interests. We may be witnessing the death of the world s longest living democracy and it s all because millions of people threw a temper tantrum over the fact that a black man was president and that a woman wanted to be president.Featured image via Pool/Getty Images. | 0 |
20,780 | mystery are hillary clintons eye problems becoming more frequent | do you really like sexy women like the one in the photo above are you sure big brother google says why dont you look at this story about alternative lifestyles about men who have realized what terrible misogynists they are for having sexual desires rather than searching for articles on for pickup artistry
sooner rather than later all internet roads will lead to the same new world order socialist philosophy
as profiling of internet users becomes more prolific and the algorithms more sophisticated in the coming years the news and information we search for will be tailored to slowly nudge us one way or the other politically one small step at a time
the management of the information we get to read is already in its infancy
why do you think that free app on your phone that only performs a few functions swells in size with each update that is released do you really think they give a damn about your privacy and are plugging security holes hell no the apps we download are moving from useful lowresource using services to resource hogs necessitating an upgrade in processing power every year or two because they only provide us with a free service in order to hook us so the apps can gather information about everything weve ever written on our devices for social engineers and marketing flacks the apps are becoming more sophisticated in the way they monitor everything we do which is why the apps need all that memory size
and soon apps will be gathering information about everything weve ever said aloud by using the built in microphones on each device and speech recognition technology cia agents confirm microphones can easily be activated even when a device is switched completely off
this type of information will be collected in giant databases such as the utah data center with the ultimate goal being the corporategovernment complex knowing more about us than we know about ourselves
big brother was so yesterday orwells big brother idea never could have imagined the insidious nature of todays information technology
todays information technology has put big brother on steroids
the waking times details this frightful world that is already emerging as anyone who pays attention knows search engines are already tailoring information to what we search for and even what we text people about
mr x weve studied the little virtual bubble you live in and now we can sell you your own special brand of truth
most of the time the information one will see in this internet bubble will be customized to suit a persons interests this is why facebook relentlessly pushes the like a page or product portion of its web site this information is used to build a profile of a person that ultimately will be able to accurately predict the color of their next bowel movement
if a man is interested in nongmo foods advertising and news stories will be tailored to inform him of grocers who sell organics and about news from approved outlets with stories written on the topic most of the time this will be insidious advertising and ads disguised as information
hello audience were going to pitch you on becoming fullfledged obsessed consumers as if there is no other worthy goal in lifeand then were going to profile you from top to bottom to find out exactly what kind of obsessed consumer you are so we can hit you and trigger you with information that uniquely stimulates your adrenal glands
the utah data center is designed to store exabytes of information on all forms of communication including emails cell phone calls and internet searches as well as all types of personal data trailsparking receipts travel itineraries and bookstore purchases
as another example okay we know you are interested in traditional gender roles we the information managers like facebook and google will now to find news stories and customize the information you get to read online in order to cause you to doubt the validity of your beliefs the ultimate goal is to slowly but steadily move you away from believing in traditional gender roles to believing in militant feminism without you realizing what we have done
this type of information management is even more insidious than outright censorship as it will be designed to steer everyone towards what the controllers of society want us to think and buy no matter how far from the ideal consumer and fellow traveler we may be
think of it as a game of plinko on the price is right in which all chips ultimately fall into the perfect braindead consumer slot at the bottom of the maze the social engineers dream is a world of nothing but sexless consumers who perform mindless work in meaningless jobs whose only outlets for pleasure are shopping and eating out and other stateapproved activities
think thats hyperbole travel around the world for six months to a year then come back to the united states and tell me what you think
little information bubbles merge into big information bubbles we become what we are repeatedly exposed to which is why a war is on for your mind
once we have you believing a certain way or questioning your established beliefs the key comes when it is time to steer public perception one way or the other this is where the rubber meets the road in the realm of managing the populace like so many sheeple
but when a big one comes along like the national election in the us the separate tunes come together and ring as one then the overriding need to extend globalisms goals in the person of hillary clinton blot out every other priority then the major media twist whatever they need to twist then its the same bubble for everyone
soon just like the mainstream media on television and in print everything you see online will be directed at making you think behave and vote a certain way the micromanagement and control of information just hasnt become that sophisticated yet
obama already hinted that only official information should be linked up by the corporate interests of facebook google etc look for hillary to implement that idea with an iron fist if she is whisked into the oval office an internet security crisis will likely be engineered in the near future in whichyou guessed itbig daddy government needs to step in and take control of the web from there on out we will be back to corporategovernment propaganda instead of the libertarians dream the current iteration of the internet is
so the awakening we have seen from the brainwashing of the corporate media will be a temporary one if the elite have anything to do with it the groundwork of this new socialist system of micromanaging information is already being laid you already see it every time you do a search
someday soon the only information well be able to find online will be from sources the corporategovernment complex approves of of course there will be renegades and rebels like us who resist but most of the braindead sheeple out there will go along to get along just as has been happening since time immemorial
our options will be to get off the grid or to move to a new internet neither move will be peacefully tolerated by the powers that be
read more are sweatshops coming to america | 0 |
20,781 | EPA chief denies Icahn influence in biofuel regulation | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Investor Carl Icahn never wielded excessive influence on U.S. biofuels policy while acting as President Donald Trump’s adviser on regulation, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency said in a letter to a Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. The letter, dated September 11, was a response to repeated requests by Whitehouse and other Democratic lawmakers for information on Icahn’s dual role as an adviser on biofuels regulation and a majority stakeholder in a refining company, CVR Energy, directly affected by those rules. Icahn ended his adviser role in August after facing criticism his guidance to Trump represented a conflict of interests as it may have benefited CVR. Icahn has denied the allegations. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said in the letter to Whitehouse, seen by Reuters on Tuesday, that Icahn was “one of many” of Trump’s advisers that he met during his confirmation process, and he “made no assurances with regard to the point of obligation or any other substantive issue.” The “point of obligation” refers to a requirement under the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard that refiners blend increasing amounts of biofuels like ethanol into their gasoline every year. Icahn, his company CVR, and a handful of other refiners wanted to shift that responsibility off refiners in a way that would have saved them hundreds of millions of dollars. Icahn proposed the reform to the administration in February. The Trump administration has not made a decision on the request, but environmental regulators are preparing to formally reject it, sources have told Reuters. Icahn, who has an 82 percent stake in CVR, has said his proposal did not constitute self-dealing because it would have benefited some of his competitors too. Pruitt added in the letter that the EPA’s Office of Environmental Information searched the EPA emails of 39 senior leadership employees, and found “no emails to or from any of those employees and Mr. Icahn or CVR on any subject” between Feb. 17 and Aug. 18. A spokesman for Whitehouse said the senator was reviewing Pruitt’s response “for accuracy and to determine whether additional steps are warranted.” Icahn’s proposal to shift the point of obligation would have lowered prices for renewable fuels credits known as RINs. A Reuters review of CVR filings showed the company was building up a large bet on a decline in RIN prices months before Icahn made his reform proposal. Investors, meanwhile, have built up a large short position in CVR in the past three months, according to Reuters data. | 1 |
20,782 | Thin-Skinned Trump Whines About Election Results AGAIN And Gets His A** Handed To Him | It s been two months since the 2016 Election took place but Donald Trump refuses to stop whining about the results.Trump posted on Twitter claiming that the media is saying that he thought he was going to lose as Election Day approached. And it certainly looked like he was going to lose as just about every poll had Trump trailing Hillary Clinton. But as we all know, Russia and the FBI intervened and battleground states flipped to Trump.Rather than ignore the media analysis about something that has been over with for awhile, Trump chose to lash out on Twitter instead and brag about his electoral victory.Various media outlets and pundits say that I thought I was going to lose the election. Wrong, it all came together in the last week and .. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2017I thought and felt I would win big, easily over the fabled 270 (306). When they cancelled fireworks, they knew, and so did I. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2017Seriously, Trump is incapable of just letting things go. And he got ripped apart on Twitter for being so petty and thin-skinned.@realDonaldTrump U R SO TRANSPARENT! The more you insist on repeating this, the clearer it is that you STOLE THE ELECTION W/ PUTIN #treason Stefanie Iris Weiss (@EcoSexuality) January 2, 2017@realDonaldTrump election is sooo 2016 Troy Osinoff (@yo) January 2, 2017@realDonaldTrump put the phone down Donald. Tom Knight (@TJ_Knight) January 2, 2017.@realDonaldTrump Pillow talk with you must be so sad! Ben Berkon (@BenBerkon) January 2, 2017@realDonaldTrump let it go you won. Govern. Lead. Yashar (@yashar) January 2, 2017.@realDonaldTrump Honey enough. We need to be strong and brave and drop this and move forward and President. Bess Kalb (@bessbell) January 2, 2017@bessbell @realDonaldTrump seriously I voted for him and now I m regretting it. John (@john111211) January 2, 2017.@realDonaldTrump I m sure there is a very talented therapist who would be happy to help you work through all of these feelings Sara Schaefer (@saraschaefer1) January 2, 2017@realDonaldTrump the election is over, time to govern. You serve us, not the other way around. Jonathan Boucher (@jonbouch) January 2, 2017.@realDonaldTrump Donald, the more you go on about this the less convincing it is. A big President doesn t go on and on about his feelings. Bess Kalb (@bessbell) January 2, 2017@realDonaldTrump You didn t win. You lost by 2%. Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett) January 2, 2017@realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/nAay1FNWMr Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett) January 2, 2017@realDonaldTrump The year is 2021, Donald continues and another thing about when I won the election ?Brett Druck? (@BrettDruck) January 2, 2017@realDonaldTrump I keep getting You lost we won, get over it in my mentions. Tell Donald, he needs to hear it the most. ?Brett Druck? (@BrettDruck) January 2, 2017Also, it should be pointed out that Trump s electoral victory is one of the smallest in American history, like his hands.With 18 days left before the inauguration, this is what Donald Trump is focusing on. He has to be watching the news constantly in order to catch things like this and then he wastes more time by tweeting about it. At this rate, Trump is going to remain the least prepared president-elect in history if he continues to focus more on what people say about him than the job he is about take over.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images | 0 |
20,783 | U.S. ELECTIONS May Already Be In Serious Jeopardy : ACORN Gives OH Man Cigarettes And Cash To Register To Vote 72 Times…Several More Horror Stories | If you haven t already signed up to help protect the sanctity of our vote in some way do it TODAY! Leisa and I have worked in polling places where crime rate is high and most poll workers are afraid to work. In the city of Detroit, we were surprised to find some very well run polling places. In Pontiac, MI, we experienced something quite different. We saw people using pill bottles as a form of identification. We were physically and verbally threatened by the poll supervisors and watched workers call in reinforcements to stand within our field of vision in an attempt to intimidate us. We are in a war with the Left who has no issue with bending or breaking the rules to win. We re not advocating that anyone put themselves in harms way. We are only suggesting you get involved in some way to protect the sancticy of the vote. Contacting the non-partisan voter integrity organization True The Vote is the best first step. Election integrity and voters rights organization True the Vote announced that it successfully worked with officials in Ohio to remove duplicate voter registrations prior to the Ohio primary. These registrations were originally submitted by left-leaning and Democrat organizations, including ACORN.Approximately 30 percent of voters registered twice in the Cleveland area and they did so with falsified birth dates, social security numbers, and other identification. These were submitted not only by ACORN, but by Field Works, The Strategy Network, Organizing for America, and other left-of-center organizations, says True the Vote (TTV) in a statement obtained by Breitbart Texas.Upon receipt of True the Vote s research, 711 duplicate voter registrations were removed in Cuyahoga County and 465 sets were processed in Franklin County. TTV says it has been notified that thousands of duplicate voter registrations have also been removed in North Carolina. Because of Ohio s consistent role as a decisive swing state in America s elections, it has a duty to ensure that its voter records are in the best shape possible, True the Vote Founder Catherine Engelbrecht said. Having duplicate voters in Ohio s poll books not only creates confusion at the polling place, but raises the possibility of fraudulent double voting. The Buckeye State has recently seen first-hand just how far some are willing to go to see their candidate or cause win. TTV notes that the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) had a well-established track record of giving local election officials questionable voter registration forms for years, especially in Midwestern and other political battleground states.ACORN bragged about submitting more than 1.3 million voter registrations in 2008 alone. After the organization was formally shutdown, 18 employees were convicted or admitted guilt to committing election crimes.A large percentage of the work that ACORN engaged in has been officially questioned.A Cleveland man said he was given cash and cigarettes by ACORN in exchange for registering 72 times. The complaints started an investigation into the organization and witnesses were subpoenaed to testify against the organization.The New York Post reported in 2009 that eleven ACORN workers in Florida were arrested after submitting approximately 1,400 applications of which about 900 were falsified.More than 2,000 applications were falsified in Indiana and submitted just hours before the registration deadline.As it relates to the 30 percent of Cleveland voters that registered twice, TTV founder Engelbrecht said, While many voter records may become duplicated due to data management breakdowns, you have a different issue entirely when nearly a third of the irregularities show a pattern of intentional forgery. Engelbrecht warned, Americans working in the polls and casting ballots must be extra vigilant this year to help spot irregularities that can throw an entire election into question. Via: Breitbart News | 0 |
20,784 | Trump: U.S. has 'no choice' but to deal with North Korea arms challenge | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump unveiled a new national security strategy on Monday, calling for Pakistan to take decisive action against terrorism and saying Washington had to deal with the challenge posed by North Korea s weapons programs. In a wide-ranging speech, Trump said his security strategy for the first time addresses economic security and would include a complete rebuilding of U.S. infrastructure as well as a wall along the southern U.S. border. Trump said the United States wanted Pakistan to take decisive action to help fight extremism, and that Washington had no choice but to deal with the challenge posed by North Korea s nuclear and missile programs. Trump said the security strategy would also end mandatory defense spending limits, frequently called sequester, but did not mention if he had consulted with members of Congress about a possible bill to end the caps established in 2013 budget legislation. We recognize that weakness is the surest path to conflict and unrivaled power is the most certain means of defense. For this reason, our security strategy breaks from damaging defense sequester, Trump said. We re going to get rid of that. | 1 |
20,785 | Trump tax overhaul under intensifying fire as Congress readies bill | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s plan for overhauling the U.S. tax system faced growing opposition from interest groups on Sunday, as Republicans prepare to unveil sweeping legislation that could eliminate some of the most popular tax breaks to help pay for lower taxes. Republicans who control the U.S. House of Representatives will not reveal their bill until Wednesday. But the National Association of Home Builders, a powerful housing industry trade group, is already vowing to defeat it over a change that could affect the use of home mortgage deductions, while Republican leaders try to head off opposition to possible changes to individual retirement savings and state and local tax payments. Trump and Republicans have vowed to enact tax reform this year for the first time since 1986. But the plan to deliver up to $6 trillion in tax cuts for businesses and individuals faces challenges even from rank-and-file House Republicans. House and Senate Republicans are on a fast-track to pass separate tax bills before the Nov. 23 U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, iron out differences in December, send a final version to Trump’s desk before January and ultimately hand the president his first major legislative victory. Analysts say there is a good chance the tax overhaul will be delayed until next year. The NAHB, which boasts 130,000 member firms employing 9 million workers, says the bill would harm U.S. home prices by marginalizing the value of mortgage interest deductions as an incentive for buying homes. The trade group wants legislation to offer a tax credit equaling 12 percent of mortgage interest and property tax payments but says it was rebuffed by House Republican leaders. “We’re opposed to the tax bill without the tax credit in there, and we’ll be working very aggressively to see it defeated,” NAHB chief executive Jerry Howard told Reuters. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, the top House Republican on tax policy, suggested in a statement that the NAHB credit could still be included, saying: “I hope members of Congress will examine it closely to determine if they want it included.” Republicans warned that the Trump tax plan is entering a new and difficult phase as lobbyists ramp up pressure on lawmakers to spare their pet tax breaks. “When groups start rallying against things and they succeed, everything starts unraveling,” Senator Bob Corker, a leading Republican fiscal hawk, told CBS’ Face the Nation. ANXIETY IN HIGH-TAX STATES One of the biggest challenges involves a proposal to eliminate the federal deduction for state and local taxes (SALT), which analysts say would hit upper middle-class families in high income tax states such as New York, New Jersey and California. The states are home to enough House Republicans to stymie legislation. Brady gave ground over the weekend, saying he would allow a deduction for some local taxes to remain. “We are restoring an itemized property tax deduction to help taxpayers with local tax burdens,” Brady said in another statement. But the gesture appeared to do little to turn the tide of opposition to SALT’s elimination. “I’m not going to sign onto anything until the full package is fully analyzed by economists,” Representative Peter King of New York told the Fox News program Sunday Morning Futures. “The fact that we’re getting it at the eleventh hour raises real issues with me,” he added. A lobby coalition representing state and local governments, realtors and public unions rejected Brady’s statement outright, saying the move would “unfairly penalize taxpayers in states that rely significantly on income taxes.” House Republicans have also faced opposition from Trump and others after proposing to sharply curtail tax-free contributions to 401(k) programs and move retirement savings to a style of account that allows tax-free withdrawals, rather than the tax-exempt contributions that are popular with 401(k) investors. House Republicans now say they could permit higher 401(k) contribution limits but continue to talk about tax-free withdrawals. “We will expand the amount that you can invest. But we’ll also give you an option to actually not be taxed later in life,” House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy told Fox News. The current cap on annual 401(k) tax-free contributions is $18,000. Corker said congressional tax committees seem to be falling short of their goal to eliminate $4 trillion in tax breaks to prevent the Trump plan from adding to the federal deficit. “They’re having great difficulty just getting to $3.6 trillion,” said the Tennessee Republican, who has vowed to vote against tax reform if it increases a federal debt load that stands at more than $20 trillion. Ohio’s Republican governor, John Kasich, told Fox News Sunday that spending on entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security should also be reviewed as part of the effort to pay for tax cuts. “It may be separate from the tax bill, but it needs to happen,” Kasich said. | 1 |
20,786 | Support for NZ's Labour Party improves position as frontrunner in election race | WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand s Labour Party on Thursday promised no surprise new taxes until 2020 and improved its position as frontrunner in a national election, with a poll showing its support edging up, threatening the National Party s ten-year grip on power. The result was at odds with a shock survey by another pollster this week that put the centre-right National in the lead and underscored the unusually volatile nature of the race to the vote on Sept. 23. Backing for the Labour Party rose 1 point to 44 percent, the One News-Colmar Brunton poll showed, while support for the National Party also gained 1 point, putting it at 40 percent. In another positive sign for Labour, its potential coalition partner, the Green Party, recovered, rising 2 points to 7 percent, comfortably above the 5 percent threshold needed to gain seats in Parliament. The nationalist New Zealand First Party fell 3 points to 6 percent, making it less likely that Labour would need the populist party to form a coalition government after the election. Poll results have been swinging wildly and a separate Newshub-Reid poll on Tuesday had shown a surprise surge for National, giving it a robust lead of almost ten points. The National Party has vowed to support free trade as global protectionism rises, in particular, by championing the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact, which Labour has said it would renegotiate. An average of polls released by Radio New Zealand on Wednesday, which included the results of Newshub s shock poll, put the two parties at almost even support. Thursday s poll was published on the same day Labour moved to stem criticism of a plan to set up an expert panel to consider new levies, such as a capital gains tax. To avoid any doubt, no one will be affected by any tax changes arising from the outcomes of the Working Group until 2021, said Labour finance spokesman Grant Robertson, in a statement. As rivalry has heated up, Labour leader Jacinda Ardern on Wednesday called National desperate liars in response to an advertisement saying the centre-left party would bring in new taxes and subverting its slogan, Let s Do This into Let s Tax This . Investors have been made jittery by the uncertainty over who will govern, but currency reaction to the latest poll was muted. The New Zealand dollar - the word s 11th most traded currency in 2016 - softened slightly to $0.7240 from $0.7250 shortly before the poll results. | 1 |
20,787 | White House: Congress would have most impact on fighting tax avoidance | ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - The White House said on Thursday that the best way for the government to fight tax avoidance would be for Congress to take action after the U.S. Treasury Department issued major new rules on tax inversions on Monday. “I know that if they are working on any future actions the most impactful thing we could do is if Congress took some action here,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters when asked if the Treasury Department would issue more regulations on tax avoidance. U.S. drug maker Pfizer Inc agreed on Tuesday to terminate its $160 billion agreement to acquire Allergan Plc in a victory for the Obama administration’s push to stop tax-dodging mergers. (Story corrects quote to reflect spokesman saying Congress would have most impact on countering tax avoidance, not that Treasury is working on more action.) | 1 |
20,788 | 30 people killed in attack on cattle herders in northeast Nigeria: police official | BAUCHI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Unidentified attackers killed more than 30 cattle herders in the northeastern Nigerian state of Adamawa, a police spokesman said on Tuesday. The attack, in the Numan area of Adamawa, began on Sunday night and fighting continued into Monday morning, said Othman Abubakar, a police spokesman for the state, adding that an investigation was underway. He gave no further details. Earlier on Tuesday, a suicide bomber killed 50 worshippers during morning prayers in a mosque in the town of Mubi in northeastern Nigeria, police said, in one of the deadliest attacks in the region in years. | 1 |
20,789 | U.S. environmental agency chief says humans contribute to global warming | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, said on Friday he believes human activity plays a role in global warming, but measuring that contribution with precision is difficult. Speaking to reporters at the White House a day after President Donald Trump said he would withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord, Pruitt declined to directly answer questions about whether the president still believed global warming was a hoax, as he had said during the 2016 presidential campaign Pruitt said he had indicated that global warming is occurring, and that “human activity contributes to it in some manner. Measuring with precision, from my perspective, the degree of human contribution is very challenging.” | 1 |
20,790 | Trump to meet scandal-hit Malaysian leader in September | WASHINGTON/KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - President Donald Trump has invited Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is dogged by a corruption scandal being investigated in the United States, to the White House on Sept. 12, officials from both countries confirmed on Thursday. The U.S. Justice Department is conducting a criminal probe into 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a state fund founded by Najib that has lost billions of dollars. The Justice Department has also launched civil lawsuits to seize some $1.7 billion in assets it says were bought with misappropriated 1MDB funds, making it the largest action by the department under its kleptocracy asset recovery initiative. Najib, who is expected to seek re-election in a poll due by 2018, has consistently denied any wrongdoing related to 1MDB since the scandal first erupted in 2015. Filings in the civil cases identified several individuals close to “Malaysian Official 1”, a term Malaysian and U.S. government officials have previously confirmed refers to Najib. Aside from the United States, 1MDB is the focus of money-laundering investigations in at least five other countries, including Switzerland and Singapore. The White House said in a statement that Trump looks forward to “discussing ways to strengthen and broaden our bilateral relationship and expand regional cooperation with one of America’s closest partners in Southeast Asia.” Relations between Malaysia and the United Stated soured in the last months of the Obama administration after the Justice Department filed the lawsuits. The Malaysian leader has tried rebuilding ties with the Trump administration, and he was among the first world leaders to congratulate Trump on his election victory. A U.S. Justice Department filing in May showed that Najib had hired a former campaign aide to Trump to lobby with the U.S. government, but Najib has denied this. Najib has talked to the local media about playing golf with Trump in the past, and claimed he has a picture of the two, with Trump signing off on it saying “To my favorite Prime Minister”. A meeting with Trump could help Najib bolster support within his party ahead of an upcoming election, and refute claims that he would be arrested if he travels to the United States. Najib’s critics fear he could use the meeting to try to derail further investigations into 1MDB. Najib had sought to strengthen ties with China as relations with the United States became strained last year, and Malaysian media has reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit the Southeast Asian country in the coming months, though this has not been officially confirmed. The United States sees Malaysia as an important regional partner in standing up to Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea. The United States has long valued Malaysia’s support in its fight against the spread of Islamist militancy, and Washington has also sought Kuala Lumpur’s backing for its policy toward North Korea. “The two leaders are expected to discuss areas of mutually beneficial cooperation, including national security, the global fight against terrorism and extremism, and trade and investment that will benefit our nations and our peoples,” Malaysia’s foreign ministry said in a statement. Malaysia had backed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the trade agreement that Trump withdrew from earlier this year, dismaying the United States’ Asian partners. | 1 |
20,791 | House and Senate reach deal on U.S. tax legislation: Hatch | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch said on Wednesday that Republicans in the Senate and House of Representatives had reached a deal on tax reform legislation. Asked by reporters, if an agreement had been reached in negotiations to hammer out differences between two competing tax bills, Hatch said: “We have. I think we have a deal.” Hatch said it was more than just an agreement in principle. | 1 |
20,792 | turkeys crackdown on criticism continues as journalists k civil servants arrested | by nick bernabe
following the recent mass arrests of people at the dakota access pipeline construction site located near standing rock north dakota an anonymous donor just donated million to bail out everyone who was arrested at the protests
the news came after tamara francisfourkiller a tribal leader from the caddo nation tribe in caddo county oklahoma was arrested at standing rock francisfourkiller was released after spending two days in jail but her family says she was just an innocent observer in the clashes between militarized law enforcement and native american activists or water protectors
update pm est a statement from red owl legal collectivenational lawyers guild that is advising standing rock has issued a statement saying the million has not been received yet we are waiting on confirmation from the caddo nation tribe
according to local news affiliate news on
family members of caddo nation chairwoman tamara francisfourkiller said an anonymous donor paid million late saturday afternoon to release everyone arrested on thursday at the dakota access pipeline site they said however that francisfourkiller should not have been arrested in the first place
though the donor who sent the million remains anonymous it appears the person is connected to the caddo nation tribe in some way | 0 |
20,793 | Governors met on Obamacare replacement plan with Pence | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ten state governors seeking to avoid millions of dollars in federal healthcare cuts under Republican plans to replace Obamacare pressed their case in a meeting with Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday, according to two people briefed on the talks. The governors are worried that repealing former President Barack Obama’s 2010 healthcare law without a detailed replacement will take coverage away from millions of Americans and land the states with a large financial hit. Pressure from governors is just one of the challenges facing President Donald Trump’s administration as it tries to scrap Obama’s Affordable Care Act, one of the Republican’s signature election campaign promises. During the hour-long meeting, the governors presented Pence and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price with a proposal to reform the Medicaid program for the poor, the sources said. Under Obamacare, more than 30 states - including about a dozen with Republican governors - expanded Medicaid by allowing those who earned incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level to enroll. The governors’ plan would allow those states to maintain the Medicaid expansion and enable other states to also expand, according to a copy of the proposal seen by Reuters. States could choose to expand Medicaid to any income level at or below 138 percent and retain enhanced federal funding for the program. The proposal would also give states more flexibility in how they manage their Medicaid programs and cap spending for certain populations. House Republicans have yet to agree on a single detailed policy proposal and many say it will not be in place before 2019. On Thursday, a draft Obamacare repeal bill by the House Republicans was available for Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to read in a room on Capitol Hill but was not publicly released. It was not clear whether the governors’ demands were addressed in the latest version of the draft bill. “The President and Vice President have been very clear that governors and states will play a critical role in the repeal and replacement of Obamacare,” said Marc Lotter, a Pence spokesman. Ohio Governor John Kasich also met with Trump on Friday and briefed him on the governors’ plan. In his address to Congress on Tuesday, Trump said that state governors should be given “the resources and flexibility they need with Medicaid to make sure no one is left out.” Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady met on Thursday with Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee and discussed the Medicaid expansion. “We’re still a long ways off,” Walker said. “The same things they (lawmakers) hear from their members are the same things we hear in the states, is how do you balance states that didn’t take the expansion and states that did. How do we make sure we find a good way?” he said. | 1 |
20,794 | Jimmy Kimmel Compares Trump And Cruz and The Results Are HILARIOUS (VIDEO) | While many Republicans are lining up behind Ted Cruz because they say that Trump s policies are too extreme, here s some news for them: These two clowns are one in the same. The only difference is Ted Cruz seems to be a bit more slick and polite about his racism than the bombastic Trump. Jimmy Kimmel proved that on his show Jimmy Kimmel Live with an ad he says was created by Mitt Romney which urges Republicans to vote for Ted Cruz. Kimmel said: The Republican establishment seems to be doing all it can do behind the scenes to topple Donald Trump and in front of the scenes too. Mitt Romney, in particular, has his magic underwear in a bunch when it comes to Donald Trump. He s asking voters to stop what he calls Trumpism and support Ted Cruz. In fact Mitt released this powerful ad that really tells the differences between Trump and Cruz in a very easy to follow way. The ad then goes on to show the striking similarities between the two candidates. Whether it s building a wall or deporting 11 million immigrants, the candidates are one in the same. The candidates also agree on no gun control, ending abortion, repealing Obamacare, and oppressing American Muslims.So, why the uproar about Trump? Trump is simply more vocal and bombastic about his plans for America than the creepy Ted Cruz, who comes off more professional but is just as dangerous.Watch the video here:[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGnwlPAZjpM] Featured image via video screenshot. | 0 |
20,795 | Clinton calls Trump a 'loose cannon,' risky choice for president | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton took quick aim at presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump on Wednesday, saying the United States should not take a risk on an unreliable candidate. “He is a loose cannon, and loose cannons tend to misfire,” Clinton said in an interview with CNN, citing Trump stances including an allegation that climate change was a Chinese hoax. Clinton, a former secretary of state, said Trump would have to offer policy specifics in ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election and criticized him for his positions on issues including nuclear weapons and abortion. “He makes these grand statements and grand accusations,” Clinton said of the real estate magnate and former reality TV star. “At some point when you’re running for president, you actually have to put a little meat on the bones. You’ve got to tell people what it is you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it.” Clinton lost the Democratic primary contest in Indiana on Tuesday but still looks set to win her party’s nomination, leading her rival, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, by more than 800 delegates. Trump’s win in Indiana on Tuesday pushed his rivals out of the race and left him as the presumptive nominee. In a preview of the likely general election battle, Clinton laughed when asked if she was ready to take on Trump, saying: “Oh, please.” “This is to me a classic case of a blustering, bullying guy who has knocked out of the way all the Republicans because they were just dumbfounded,” she said. Clinton said she knew how to run a campaign against Trump and took a swipe at Trump’s 16 Republican presidential rivals who started out in the 2016 campaign. “They didn’t know how to deal with him,” Clinton said. “They couldn’t take him on the issues because they basically agreed with them. And they didn’t know how to counterpunch.” Asked how “scorched-earth” the campaign was likely to be, she replied: “You know, he’s the one making that decision. ... He’s the one who’s run the campaign insulting people, demeaning women, degrading people with disabilities, talking about keeping Muslims out of the country, he’s the one that’s been running that kind of very negative, aggressive, bullying campaign. “I’m going to keep staying on the kind of campaign I’m running,” she said. | 1 |
20,796 | Saudi ambassador to U.S. says his society is ready to let women drive | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia s ambassador to the United States, speaking to reporters on Tuesday after the kingdom announced it would permit women to drive, said the decision was not just a major social change but part of the country s economic reforms. I think our leadership understands our society is ready, Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz said. He said women would not need to get permission from a legal guardian to get a license and would not need a guardian in the car when they drive. | 1 |
20,797 | MUSLIM INVASION OF AMERICA In Full Swing: Obama On Pace To Issue Over 1 Million Green Cards To Migrants From Muslim Majority Nations | (Welcome) to America We hope you enjoy our benefits. Please feel free to NOT assimilate Coming soon: Press 1 for English, 2 for Spanish and 3 for Arabic The Obama Administration is on pace to issue more than a million green cards to migrants from majority-Muslim countries, according to an analysis of Department of Homeland Security data.A chart released by the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest Friday details the surge in immigration to the U.S. from majority-Muslim countries since President Barack Obama took office in 2009.Specifically, in the first six fiscal years of Obama s presidency (FY2009 FY2014), his administration issued 832,014 green cards to migrants majority-Muslim countries, the most of which were issued to migrants from Pakistan (102,000), Iraq (102,000), Bangladesh (90,000), Iran (85,000), Egypt (56,000), and Somalia (37,000).The total 832,014 new permanent residents do not include migrants on temporary, nonimmigrant visas which allow foreign nationals to come to the U.S. temporarily for work, study, tourism and the like. As the subcommittee notes, the number also does not include those migrants who overstayed the terms of their visas.Regardless, as the subcommittee explained in its analysis, the U.S. is playing host to immigrants from majority Muslim countries at an increasing pace.Between FY 2013 and FY 2014, the number of green cards issued to migrants from Muslim-majority countries increased dramatically from 117,423 in FY 2013, to 148,810 in FY 2014, a nearly 27 percent increase. Throughout the Obama Administration s tenure, the United States has issued green cards to an average of 138,669 migrants from Muslim-majority countries per year, meaning that it is nearly certain the United States will have issued green cards to at least 1.1 million migrants from Muslim-majority countries on the President s watch. It has also been reported that migration from Muslim-majority countries represents the fastest growing class of migrants.Green cards, or Lawful Permanent Residency, puts immigrants on the path to citizenship and allows for lifetime residency, federal benefits, and work authorization. Included in the totals are refugees, who are required to apply for a green card after one year of residency in the U.S. Unlike other types of immigrants, refugees are immediately eligible for welfare benefits including Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), food stamps, and Medicaid. Via: Breitbart News | 0 |
20,798 | Republican Cruz speaks highly of Rubio when asked about possible VP running mate | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican White House hopeful Ted Cruz said on Wednesday he is looking at who he might select as his vice presidential running mate should he become the party’s presidential nominee, and that he thinks highly of former rival Marco Rubio. Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas, appeared on a CNN town hall with his wife, Heidi, and two daughters and showed a more personal side. He trails front-runner Donald Trump in the race to get 1,237 delegates to seal the nomination, but he expressed confidence he can emerge as the winner if he can chip away at Trump’s lead and force Republicans to pick their nominee at a contested convention in July. Cruz said he and his team are looking at possible vice presidential running mates. “We’re in the process now of looking at a number of different options,” said Cruz without mentioning names. Asked about Rubio, Cruz called him an “amazing communicator” who inspired millions across the country in his presidential campaign. “I consider Marco a friend,” said Cruz, adding that “anyone would naturally look at Marco” for the No. 2 position on the Republican ticket. Cruz and Rubio, a U.S. senator from Florida, engaged in bitter fights over illegal immigration during the campaign. Rubio was forced from the race after losing the Florida Republican primary on March 15. Cruz said they have now put those differences behind them. The town hall included some exchanges that were aimed at showing what Cruz is like at home. Heidi Cruz said that shortly after they were married, her husband once brought home 100 cans of soup, a haul that was so big she took them back. Asked if he had ever not followed his wife’s advice, Cruz said he could not remember any examples, but Heidi Cruz had a ready response for him. “Sometimes you don’t take out the trash when I ask you to,” she said. | 1 |
20,799 | Suicide car bomb kills at least 12 Afghan police | KABUL (Reuters) - At least 12 Afghan police were killed and four wounded when a Humvee packed with explosives drove into their checkpoint in the southern province of Kandahar late on Wednesday, a government official said. Abdul Bari Baryalai, a spokesman for the provincial government, said the attack took place in Maruf district, bordering Pakistan. The attack, in one of the Taliban s heartlands, underlines the threats faced by Afghan security forces, notably police units on the front lines of the battle against insurgents who control or contest about 40 percent of Afghanistan. The incident came on the same day that militants attacked Kabul airport while U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was visiting the Afghan capital. | 1 |
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