Unnamed: 0 int64 | title string | text string | label int64 |
|---|---|---|---|
21,100 | Merkel dismisses hecklers as polls point to fourth term | WISMAR, Germany (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel is on track to win a fourth term in Sunday s national election despite a dip in support for her conservatives, a poll showed on Tuesday, and she shrugged off calls to quit from far-right hecklers. Merkel has been repeatedly booed during the election campaign, particularly in Germany s formerly Communist east, where support is strongest for the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), set to enter parliament for the first time. An opinion poll published on Tuesday by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily put the AfD on 10 percent, up two points since the end of August, while Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian CSU allies slipped two points to 36.5 percent. However, the CDU/CSU remain far ahead of the center-left Social Democrats, which were also down two points on 22 percent, according to the poll conducted by Allensbach for the FAZ, while the business-friendly Free Democrats edged up to 11 percent. People who whistle and heckle contribute little, Merkel told a CDU rally in the northeastern port town of Wismar, not far from where she grew up. Merkel was unperturbed when a man shouted Traitor to the fatherland during her speech, while several dozen supporters of the far-right National Democratic Party gathered outside, carrying posters reading Merkel must go! Hundreds of AfD party members and anti-Islam activists rallied together in the eastern city of Dresden on Monday, counting down the days to a vote set to make the AfD the first far-right group in Germany s parliament in more than 50 years. The AfD has capitalized on discontent over the influx of one million migrants into Germany in 2015 and 2016, but the other parties all refuse to work with the AfD and no one wants to sit next to them in parliament. Merkel contrasted Tuesday s hecklers with the contribution of 30 million Germans who are involved in voluntary associations, including those who help support refugees. But she added that the recent wave of migrants should not and will not be repeated . Another poll, conducted by Forsa for RTL television and Stern magazine, showed support for Merkel s CDU/CSU bloc fell one percentage point in the last week to 36 percent, its lowest since April, while the SPD was unchanged on 23 percent. SPD leader Martin Schulz has been campaigning against inequality, but his message has failed to gain traction at a time when unemployment is at its lowest in decades. The Allensbach poll showed that 21 percent think the CDU has done the best job to address the issues that interest voters, compared to 15 percent for the SPD and 14 percent for the AfD. In fresh positive news from the economy, the Mannheim-based ZEW research institute said the mood among German investors improved more than expected in September as worries about the stronger euro faded. The ZEW survey suggested markets expect Europe s biggest economy to continue its solid performance in the coming months, buoyed by record-high employment, rising real wages and ultra-low borrowing costs that are supporting a consumer-led upswing. With Merkel s conservatives commanding a solid poll lead, the main question in Germany now is who she will govern with after the election, rather than whether she will stay in power. The latest polls put support for the far-left party Die Linke at 9-10 percent, and the environmentalist Greens on 8 percent. This means that only another grand coalition of Merkel s conservatives with the SPD or a three-way alliance of the conservatives, FDP and Greens would have a stable majority. The Allensbach poll showed 23 percent of voters would prefer a coalition of conservatives with the FDP, while 14 percent want a continuation of the current grand coalition and 10 percent favor an alliance of SPD, Linke and Greens. | 1 |
21,101 | Hariri returns to Lebanon for first time since resigning as PM | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Saad al-Hariri landed in Beirut on Tuesday, his media office said, returning home for the first time since he resigned as Lebanon s prime minister in a broadcast from Saudi Arabia and plunged his country into political crisis, Hariri s sudden resignation on Nov. 4 thrust Lebanon to the forefront of a regional power struggle between the Sunni monarchy of Saudi Arabia and Shi ite Islamist Iran, whose powerful ally Hezbollah is part of the Lebanese government. | 1 |
21,102 | Republican leaders condemn bigotry, but won't talk about Trump | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican leaders in the U.S. Congress condemned white supremacist groups on Tuesday after their party’s front-runner in the presidential contest, Donald Trump, failed to disavow support for an ex-Ku Klux Klan leader, but the leaders declined further comment on Trump’s controversial White House bid. The comments from the two top Republicans in the U.S. Congress, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, came as many of the party’s lawmakers struggle to come to terms with the growing possibility that Trump will be their nominee. Trump’s policies are often at odds with those of conservatives, and his comments on the campaign trail have often been both incendiary and crude. He has racked up victories in three of the four states that have already held their nominating contests. The comments from Ryan and McConnell coincided with “Super Tuesday,” the biggest voting day in the race to pick the 2016 presidential nominees for the November election. Ryan said any Republican nominee must reject any group “built on bigotry” while McConnell said Senate Republicans condemned groups such as the Klan and “everything they stand for.” The Klan, whose roots reach back to the Civil War, is known for its segregationist, racist views. In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Trump did not immediately repudiate support from David Duke, a former Klan leader who is also a former Louisiana state representative. Trump later said he had not heard the questions well because of a bad earpiece. Both Ryan and McConnell said they did not want to weigh in further on the presidential race, something they have declined to do for months. Ryan, a former vice presidential candidate who will chair the Republicans’ national convention in July, reiterated on Tuesday he would support whomever is his party’s nominee. A number of Southern states are among the 11 states holding Republican nominating contests on Tuesday, including Virginia, and opinion polls show Trump is likely to consolidate his status as the favorite to win the nomination. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid scoffed at Ryan’s remark a few hours later. Reid said Republicans were afraid to withdraw their support publicly because the Trump “millions” might turn on them. “Republicans say they’ll support a man who refuses to denounce the Ku Klux Klan. So until they withdraw their support, talk is really cheap,” Reid said. McConnell sidestepped a question on whether it was true, as reported over the weekend by The New York Times, that he had told fellow Republicans in private that they could drop Trump “like a hot rock” if he becomes the party’s presidential nominee. McConnell said he did not recall saying anything like that to reporters. In recent days other lawmakers on Capitol Hill have become more outspoken on Trump. A handful of lawmakers have endorsed him, including Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, a conservative. On Sunday evening, Senator Ben Sasse, a conservative Republican from Nebraska, announced on Facebook that he could not support Trump because his “relentless focus is on dividing Americans and on tearing down rather than building back up this glorious nation. “If Donald Trump ends up as the GOP nominee, conservatives will need to find a third option,” Sasse wrote. But in the halls of Congress on Tuesday, there appeared to be few lawmakers prepared to distance themselves from Trump who had not done so already. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who gave up his own presidential quest in December, said, “The party’s been burned and the country’s going to get burned” by Trump. To avoid this, he said, the party should consolidate around an opponent to Trump instead of diffusing the opposition among so many candidates. Trump is now one of five remaining Republican contenders. The others are Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Ohio Governor John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson. Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who had endorsed Jeb Bush before he dropped out, said lawmakers have not shied away from criticizing Trump. “That has happened continually. Many of us did it when he made comments about John McCain many months ago,” she said, referring to how Trump had mocked the military record of McCain, a Republican senator from Arizona. As a Navy pilot, McCain was shot down over Vietnam. Trump said he liked people who weren’t captured. | 1 |
21,103 | MSNBC Anchor Embarrasses GOP Rep, Schools Him On The Constitution (VIDEO) | House Republican Steve King received a lesson on what the Constitution says during an interview with Tamron Hall.The MSNBC host and Iowa Rep. were discussing the death of Justice Antonin Scalia and whether or not President Obama is allowed to nominate someone to fill his vacant seat on the Supreme Court.Hall noted that Republican Senator Chuck Grassley also opposes President Obama picking the next Supreme Court Justice, but pointed out that Grassley s past statement on the subject of nominating and confirming judges in the final months of a presidency is going viral.During the final months of the Bush Administration, Grassley said that the Senate has never stopped confirming judicial nominees during the last few months of a president s term. In addition, Hall informed King that most confirmations only last on average under 80 days in the Senate and there are still over 300 days left in Obama s final year. Hall wanted King to explain why Republicans are running away from their previous position when it comes to doing their constitutional duty and King tried to spin what Grassley said as if the Supreme Court is not part of the judicial branch. You ll find Chuck Schumer in his own words, and others also that contradict themselves, and you re going to see, if people have been in that senate long enough, that they have been on the opposite side of this equation, there will be arguments that are made on both sides of this. But if I heard Chuck Grassley s words right, he said judicial nominees, he didn t say Supreme Court justices. And that s when Hall absolutely embarrassed King by asking him to actually read what the Constitution says. And others would say please see the words correctly in the Constitution, it clearly states the role of the President, and that of the Senate. Hall then ended the interview before King could spill any more bullshit out of his mouth.Here s the video via YouTube.Republicans are always bragging about how much they love the Constitution, but just like the Bible, they apparently have never read it.If Steve King needs a refresher on what the Constitution says, I suggest he read Article II Section 2 which reads:[The President] shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session. Featured image from video screen capture | 0 |
21,104 | BREAKING: LA SHOOTER ADMITTED HE WAS OBAMA SUPPORTER…Media Still Attempts To Make Tea Party Connection | Another horrible story about a deranged killer with mental health issues. I Was For His (Barack Obama s) Re-Election, I Liked His Spending Lafayette officials identified the Grand Theater shooter as John Russell Houser from Alabama. WJBF reported:The gunman who opened fire inside a packed movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana, Thursday night, was 59-year-old John Russell Houser, police said at a news conference today.Houser is among three people who died, police said.Nine others were injured.Houser is from Phoenix City, Alabama, and has no known connection to Lafayette, police said. Houser was described as a drifter by police, who said he had likely been in Lafayette since early July.The shooting occurred at the Grand 16 Theater on Johnston Street where a screening of Amy Schumer s Trainwreck was reportedly playing. Conditions of those injured range from non-life-threatening to critical and their ages ranged from the late teens to their 60s, Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft said at a news conference.The shooting comes one week after James Holmes was convicted of killing 12 people and wounding 70 others in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.Police said they believed one person had been released from the hospital as of early Friday morning. They also said that one person was in surgery and not doing well.Houser was estranged from his family and had mental health issues.He applied for gun but did not pass the background check.Houser also supported Barack Obama.He wrote this in his Manifesto (why do mass murderers always seem to have a rambling manifesto?) I accepted this it came to me that the president is doing exactly what Tim McVeigh did, only the president is much more effective. The way I see it, the faster he wrecks this nation, which in no way resembles what it s founders envisioned, the faster working people with morals may re-assume command.ie I was for his re-election. I like his spending habits.etc Via: Gateway PunditA screen shot of the story from leftist rag,The Daily Beast:From the Daily Beast Officials say they know little about Houser, and are requesting that people with information about him contact local authorities. A Google search for the name reveals a Tea Party Nation page registered to a person with that name. Authorities have not confirmed whether the page, registered in June 2013, belonged to the shooter. The owner of the Tea Party Nation page identifies his hometown as Phenix, Alabama. He appears to have called himself Rusty Houser on another forum in which he describes himself as very conservative and asks how to find white-power groups.And for good measure, the Daily Beast is doubling down on their unsubstantiated claim about the LA killer: | 0 |
21,105 | Lesbian Couple In New Jersey Insists State Is Forcing Them To Have Sex With Men (VIDEO) | Two women in New Jersey are suing the state for one horrific obstacle that is in their path to having children the women are lesbians, and they say the state is forcing them to have sex with men before they are allowed fertility treatments.According to the suit, the women were denied insurance coverage for their fertility treatments because of the wording of an N.J. law that requires women to prove their infertility not only through medical diagnosis, but through unprotected heterosexual sex. The law, the four women argue in the suit, discriminates against infertile gay couples trying to conceive.State law requires large insurance providers to cover costly fertility treatments for patients medically unable to have children. The couples take issue with how the law defines infertility, which includes the inability to become pregnant after one or two years of unprotected sex, depending on a woman s age. Insurance companies have been able to deny coverage to gay patients who, although they have been medically diagnosed infertile, do not fit the definition, the suit says.Source: New Jersey.comErin Krupas is infertile. Her doctor confirmed it, but that s not enough for New Jersey law. She needs to prove it by having sex with a man.You wouldn t think of a law like this existing in mostly blue New Jersey, but remember they did elect Chris Christie twice. He s still vehemently opposed to marriage equality, despite the fact that it s the law of the land. Christie didn t sign this archaic law, but you can bet he has no intention of making lives better for LGBT couples.I hate defending insurance companies, but they are caught in the middle here. Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield vehemently maintains that they do not discriminate against LGBT couples, but they have to follow state law. They are not being named in the lawsuit.Here s the video:Let s all hope this law is overturned. This is state-mandated rape. There s no other way to describe it. | 0 |
21,106 | EY says cooperating with authorities in Italy probe | MILAN (Reuters) - Accounting firm EY said on Thursday it was cooperating with Milan magistrates in an investigation into whether one of its former employees in Italy had sold it confidential government information. On Nov. 21 we became aware of the investigation targeting EY in Italy. We are examining it carefully and seriously and we are fully cooperating with the judiciary, EY said in a statement, adding it was not in a position to comment further. Italian magistrates suspect that Susanna Masi, a Treasury official and former EY employee, was paid some 220,000 euros ($260,000) between 2013-2015 in return for sensitive material, judicial sources involved in the case said on Wednesday. The sources said the confidential material included information on planned tax reforms which could have given EY previously known as Ernst & Young an unfair advantage over its rivals. Masi s lawyer, Giorgio Perroni, has denied any wrongdoing by his client. [nL8N1NS5SS] | 1 |
21,107 | Storms to challenge Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands' credit quality: Moody's | (Reuters) - Moody s Investors Service said on Tuesday that Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands will face new challenges to credit quality and finances after the U.S. territories were battered by hurricanes Irma and Maria. Both territories will be heavily reliant on relief from the U.S. federal government, as they were hit by storms at a time when they were already suffering financial distress, Moody s said. Puerto Rico is undergoing a debt restructuring under federal oversight and the U.S. Virgin Islands has extremely weak liquidity. Moody s Analytics preliminary estimate of Maria s total cost to Puerto Rico, including lost output, is $45 billion to $95 billion, representing about 65-135 percent of the territory s gross national product. | 1 |
21,108 | VIDEO SURFACES OF DISGRACED Alleged Pedophile Kevin Spacey Laughing About Killing Trump | Earlier today, it was reported by TMZ that an adult actor has revealed that Academy award-winning actor and House of Cards star, Kevin Spacey attempted to sexually assault him when he was 14-years-old and Spacey was 26-years-old.From Spacey s tweet: I honestly do not remember the encounter, it would have been over 30 years ago. But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior, and I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years. Spacey s remarks were not well received in either the gay or straight community.The smug anti-Trump actor once told CNN s Dana Bash that his role as President of the United States on the House of Cards T show would have killed Donald Trump before the election. Spacey then went on to mock the President calling him a reality President. Based on the recent allegations against Spacey, we re thinking he wishes he could trade past s with Donald Trump today.Watch:Netflix has just announced that they are canceling the 6th season of House of Cards. Media Rights Capital and Netflix are deeply troubled by last night s news concerning Kevin Spacey, the companies said in a joint statement today. In response to last night s revelations, executives from both of our companies arrived in Baltimore this afternoon to meet with our cast and crew to ensure that they continue to feel safe and supported. As previously scheduled, Kevin Spacey is not working on set at this time. | 0 |
21,109 | More than 300 Syrian refugees rescued, arrive in Cyprus | NICOSIA (Reuters) - Two boats crowded with 305 Syrian refugees arrived in Cyprus overnight, police said on Sunday, one of the largest group landings of migrants to the island since the outbreak of the Syrian war in 2011. The vessels were tracked sailing to the north-west of the island and were thought to have set off from the Turkish coastal city of Mersin. For their safety they were towed to harbor, a police spokesman said. One of the vessels had been taking in water, the spokesman added. Cyprus is the closest European Union member state to Syria, yet many fleeing conflict have largely avoided the island because it has no direct easy access to the rest of the continent. The single largest group arrival since the Syrian conflict started was 345 people who were rescued in September 2014. Police said they were questioning a 36 year old Syrian man believed to have been steering one of the vessels. The others would be taken to a reception center west of the capital, Nicosia. The Syrians, who included many minors, appeared in good health. A woman and her infant were taken to hospital for precautionary reasons, the spokesman added. | 1 |
21,110 | Rights watchers slam Myanmar's ban on protests in biggest city | YANGON (Reuters) - Human rights monitors on Wednesday urged Myanmar to withdraw a ban on protests in its largest city, Yangon, amid fears that free speech is under pressure under the government led by democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi led efforts to end decades of military rule and won a landmark election in the Buddhist-majority country in 2015, but her civilian government shares power with the military and has no control over the army and police. She has also been roundly criticised in the West for failing to rein in the military over its alleged role in atrocities against minority Rohingya Muslims which the United Nations has described as textbook ethnic cleansing. The ban on protests, issued this month by a military-controlled ministry, restricts all applications for processions or assemblies in central Yangon in order to avoid public annoyance and anxiety and disturbance of traffic , according to official documents reviewed by Reuters. The curb came weeks before Pope Francis visit to Yangon, when he is expected to raise the Rohingya, hundreds of thousands of whom have fled the country after a Myanmar army offensive in August. It underscores rising concerns over free speech after recent arrests of journalists and activists in Myanmar. There is no legitimate reason for imposing a ban on all protests in major sections of Burma s largest city, said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, referring to Myanmar by its old name. This directive was issued by a military officer and should be seen by the civilian government as a direct challenge to its commitment to basic rights for Burmese citizens. The government needs to reverse this ban and uphold the rule of law and refuse to capitulate to arbitrary actions by the military. The order, issued by Yangon Region Security and Border Affairs Minister Colonel Aung Soe Moe, instructs authorities in 11 townships to deny all applications for assemblies. It does not say how long the curb will last. A senior official from the military-run General Administration Department in Yangon s Ahlone Township confirmed that his office has received the order. He declined to be named as he s not authorized to speak to the media. Reuters was unable to contact Yangon s police deputy chief by telephone. The office of Yangon s chief minister Phyo Min Thein declined to comment. A Myanmar court last week jailed for two months two journalists along with their interpreter and driver for violating an aircraft law by filming with a drone. Police on Sunday arrested an ultra-nationalist Buddhist monk who has a history of stoking sentiment against the Rohingya. Since Suu Kyi s government took power last year, 93 people including journalists and activists have been charged or arrested under a controversial law that some worry is used to curb criticism of the authorities, according to advocacy group Research Team for Telecommunications Law. | 1 |
21,111 | us navy iran giving terrorists missiles to fire at us ships | hillarys secretary of state after send a check for million to iran
were talking about tehran joe biden of course who is good pals with the iran lobby biden is reportedly hillarys fantasy cabinet pick for secretary of state because the democrats have decided that secretary of state is a job too important to be trusted to experienced diplomats but should instead be reserved strictly as a consolation prize for failed presidential candidates
heres a flashback on bidens views
democratic vicepresidential candidate joe biden was quoted monday as telling senior israeli officials behind closed doors that the jewish state will have to reconcile itself to a nuclear iran in the unsourced report army radio also quoted biden as saying that he opposed opening a additional military and diplomatic front army radio said israeli officials expressed amazement over the remarks attributed to him israel will have to reconcile itself with the nuclearization of iran army radio quoted biden as telling the unnamed officials
bidens people loudly denied the report but he had a history of being tight w ith the iran lobby
some might call it reaching out to american muslims but to many iranians living in california a fundraiser for sen joseph biden ddel at the home of a prominent proiran lobbyist on feb sent a wrongheaded message to the ruling clerics in tehran
when we learned that sen biden was planning to hold a fundraiser at the california home of dr sadegh namazikhah we immediately contacted his office to express our dismay a prominent iranianamerican activist tells insight why dismay
dr namazikhah is wellknown in the los angeles area for his support of the ruling clerical regime in tehran and is one of the regimes leading unofficial lobbyists in america we thought that sen biden might not know his background getting the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee to appear at this event will certainly be seen by the regime in tehran as a show of support
on the eve of the fundraiser which brought an estimated into bidens reelection coffers a biden staffer told the activist that the senators staff had all the facts necessary to make a decision and he was planning to attend the fundraiser despite the protests
several participants who paid to attend the event tell insight that biden arrived at pm stayed until and delivered a sweeping condemnation of president george w bushs axis of evil formula
as senator biden was not only undermining bush but fundraising off it at the home of supporters of a terrorist enemy state
biden also impressed many of those present with his friendly attitude toward the islamic republic of iran the senator said that iran always wanted to be an ally of the united states and to have good relations with the us according to housang dadgostar a prominent lawyer as iranianamericans we dont want anything to happen to the iranian government or to the iranian people as a result of this war on terrorism says mohsen movaghar a los angeles businessman both men belong to the member board of directors of namazikhahs iranian muslim association of north america iman
namazikhah denied any official contact with the iranian government but he tells insight that he regularly travels to iran something many expatriates do and that he actively supports moderates within the ruling clergy such as iranian president mohammad khatami in their efforts to bring reform to the islamic system
namazikhah and other iman board members say bidens office contacted them to inquire if they would hold a private fundraiser for the senator who is up for reelection this year after meeting with them at a protehran gala in new york last december that event was sponsored by the americaniranian council aic a proregime lobbying group trying to get congress and the bush administration to lift the trade embargo on iran
but biden had the perfect post reaction
after september th biden suggested sending million to iran no strings attached as a gesture of good faith to the arab world
at the tuesdaymorning meeting with committee staffers biden launches into a streamofconsciousness monologue about what his committee should be doing before he finally admits the obvious im groping here then he hits on an idea america needs to show the arab world that were not bent on its destruction
seems to me this would be a good time to send no strings attached a check for million to iran biden declares
he surveys the table with raised eyebrows a how do ya like that look on his face
traitor says what | 1 |
21,112 | Trump Kicks Off His Tuesday By Lying About President Obama And Get RIPPED APART By Twitter (TWEETS) | Tuesday morning, Donald Trump started off his day by tweeting yet another outrageous lie about President Obama, apparently unsatisfied with his weekend tweetstorm accusing his favorite Muslim Kenyan socialist nemesis who totally isn t an American citizen of tapping his wires at Trump Tower. 122 vicious prisoners, released by the Obama Administration from Gitmo, have returned to the battlefield. Just another terrible decision! Trump claimed after apparently seeing a Fox News report that 122 have returned to the battlefield except not even Fox News was stupid enough to attempt to pass that off on President Obama.122 vicious prisoners, released by the Obama Administration from Gitmo, have returned to the battlefield. Just another terrible decision! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 7, 2017In reality, 113 of those who have returned to their old ways were released under George W. Bush, while 9 were released under President Obama.This is something anyone even The Donald can easily fact check, but for some reason we will never understand he is so committed to the lie that he ignores verifiable data that proves him wrong. Naturally, the American people stopped by to tell him where he can stick his fabrications:Trump's Gitmo tweet is a boldfaced LIE.111 prisoners released under GEORGE BUSH returned to the battlefield pic.twitter.com/rOpYog3177 Jordan Uhl (@JordanUhl) March 7, 2017Without even digging into it, Trump took what he saw on Fox News and blamed Obama.Except, it was Bush. pic.twitter.com/qfseaUdnkl Jordan Uhl (@JordanUhl) March 7, 2017@realDonaldTrump I see you got your Infowars briefing this AM. Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) March 7, 2017@realDonaldTrump Which battlefield are they headed to? Bowling Green? Kristina Wong (@mskristinawong) March 7, 2017Hmm, @realDonaldTrump, I wonder what intelligence agency gave you that info Oh right. My bad, bro. pic.twitter.com/v0CiImFIB5 Josh S nchez (@jnsanchez) March 7, 2017@realDonaldTrump remember when he claimed a sitting president wiretapped him? That was idiotic.Oh wait, that was you. Anthony Domanico (@ajdomanico) March 7, 2017@realDonaldTrump A huge number of them are from Russia, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, yet those countries are not in the travel ban. Why? Dave Hogg ? (@Stareagle) March 7, 2017@realDonaldTrump So, Donnie. Buddy. Do you have fact checkers? Kelly Scaletta (@KellyScaletta) March 7, 2017@realDonaldTrump what do you do when the President is a brainwashed, uninformed conspiracy theorist? Impeach. KG ? (@KG_NYK) March 7, 2017@realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/CDWixIRRXH Stephen Patten (@StevePatten) March 7, 2017Trump is getting desperate in his attempts to distract Americans from his administration s numerous ties to Russian oligarchs. He has even demanded and Republicans have acquiesced that any probe into his Russia contacts be bogged down by an investigation into his stupid claims about President Obama tapping his wires. You re not campaigning anymore, Trump. Facts matter now, because most of us do still care about the truth.Featured image via Getty Images (Chip Somodevilla)/screengrab | 0 |
21,113 | Iraqi army helicopter crash kills seven, military says | BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Iraqi army helicopter crashed during a routine flight on Sunday, killing all seven people on board, a military statement and Iraqi air force officers said. The Russian-made Mi-17 helicopter went down near the southern province of Kut, the statement said. Two pilots and five army officers were killed, Iraqi air force officers told Reuters. A technical malfunction caused the crash, the military statement said. Iraq is slowly rebuilding its air force, once one of the world s largest, after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. | 1 |
21,114 | life steps to rolling the perfect joint | email
the president has to be kicking himself over this one
as his term in office comes to a close it seems as if barack obama may have missed out on a pretty spectacular opportunity earlier today the president was told that he had been allowed to sleep in the white house this whole time after he spent nearly two full terms living in a hotel by reagan national airport
sorry mr president but its true you really blew your chance on this one
having booked an extended stay at the airport hilton upon his inauguration back in barack and his family have resided in an atriumview room with two double beds and complimentary wifi for the past eight years but earlier this week when a senior advisor asked the president why he had chosen to live by the airport instead of the white house you could tell that obama hadnt realized the choice was his to make until that very moment
yes obamas accomplished a lot over the years but hes got to be wondering how much more progress he might have made living at pennsylvania avenue he would have had a lot more time to work on signature policies like the affordable care act if he hadnt wasted so much of his mornings commuting from the airport to the oval office on the dc metro theres no doubt the countless hilton rewards points obama has accrued is a nice perk but that doesnt soften the blow of leaving the neoclassic mansion built exclusively to house the commander in chief and his family empty for two full terms
this is something obama is going to regret for a long time to come
nobody ever explicitly told me that i could live there until now said a clearly disappointed obama as he waited patiently for a set of fresh towels while sasha and malia love being on the same floor as the pool here i now wish we had stayed at the lavish squarefoot private residence in the white house for the past eight years one time in i slept underneath my desk after a late night and i was worried someone was going to find me there in the morning and yell at me now im being told we apparently have a personal chef and dozens of butlers this sucks
sorry barry but this ones kind of on you our advice to whoever the next president is dont miss your chance like he did | 0 |
21,115 | REP PETER KING: “Intel Community Carrying Out Disinformation Campaign Against Trump ” [VIDEO] | https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JebHe3049aA | 0 |
21,116 | Scientists Planning A March On Washington To Protest Trump | Now that the Women s March successfully outnumbered President Trump s pathetic inauguration (which humiliated and enraged him), there s a new group planning a march in the nation s capital: scientists.For years scientists have become the brunt of the GOP s rage over facts and environmentalism. Their echos of Well, I m not a scientist was always safeguarded by the intelligence and compassion of President Obama and his commitment to tackling the threat of climate change.Well now those are the days of that past, and we have a president who believes climate change is a hoax made up by the Chinese to make competition harder for the United States.And as such, it should come as no surprise that the new Administration is taking authoritarian measures to clamp down on scientists ability to combat climate change. From blackouts to gag-orders, agencies responsible for scientific research (Agriculture, EPA, Park Services) have seen their life s work sullied by a petulant man-baby and his band of alternate facts promoting hooligans.Well, like the women of America, they aren t going to take it.Starting from the poplar sharing website Reddit, two scientists called for a March on Washington similar to the Women s March. In just two days, a Facebook page sprang up, accumulating over 88,000 likes (and still growing rapidly).Dubbed the March for Science, the group hopes to have a protest in D.C. as well as sister cities Seattle and Boston, which have currently have plans in the works. A date will be announced in about a week, according to the group.In an email to the Washington Post, one of the chairs of the Facebook group, science writer and public health researcher Caroline Weinberg, wrote:We were inspired (well, infuriated) by the current attacks on science from the new administration. Slashing funding and restricting scientists from communicating their findings (from tax-funded research!) with the public is absurd and cannot be allowed to stand as policy.With a pledge to be welcoming to all (with special emphasis on the minority community), the visionaries for the march have one simple message: Anyone who believes in empirical science can participate. That s it. That s the only requirement. An inclusive, fact based uprising of intellectuals of all stripes and backgrounds, here to promote the safety and survival of the planet. Now that s what America is all about.Featured image via Flickr | 0 |
21,117 | A MASSIVE Screw Up May Have Just Cost Trump The Nomination – And It’s All His Fault | The people insisting the only thing standing in the way of Donald Trump s path to the nomination is Donald Trump himself may have finally been vindicated. In an explosive story first broken by TIME, Republican officials in South Carolina floated the idea that Trump may have given away his landslide victory in the state by brashly announcing that he would no longer adhere to the Loyalty Pledge if he didn t get the nomination.South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Matt Moore gave credence to the anti-Trump claims. Breaking South Carolina s presidential primary ballot pledge raises some unanswered legal questions that no one person can answer, he told TIME. However, a court or national convention Committee on Contests could resolve them. It could put delegates in jeopardy. What does this mean for Trump? The 50 delegates he won in South Carolina could simply walk away and over to his opponents. That sends his delegate count a lot further away from the crucial 1,237 finish line, and maybe give his opponents the push they need to realistically challenge him at a brokered convention. And adding to the problem: Other states which include the loyalty pledge in their bylaws could also move to strip Trump of his delegates.All of this to say, Trump s massive ego is costing him the election. Having early on floated the idea that he wouldn t support a Republican candidate if it wasn t himself, Trump eventually caved and signed a document stating: I, Donald J. Trump, affirm that if I do not win the 2016 Republican nomination for President of the United States I will endorse the 2016 Republican nominee regardless of who it is. Suddenly, with opposition to his nomination mounting, Trump has returned to saying he will not adhere to that pledge, telling Anderson Cooper matter-of-factly: No. I don t anymore, arguing that he s been treated unfairly by the GOP.Trump has repeatedly ignored conventional wisdom and used his gut to direct his campaign early on, Trump s campaign manager told staffers that the motto of the campaign would be Let Trump Be Trump and while it often works to his advantage (who would have thought calling John McCain a loser for being a POW would pay off?), his increasingly erratic behavior makes him a ticking time bomb. Cracks are beginning to emerge. His polls are tanking and there are signs that the anti-Trump members of the Republican Party are finally coalescing around his chief rival, Ted Cruz. He may have enough momentum to get the nod, but needlessly handing away delegates isn t doing him any favors.In the end there was only one serious contender against Trump and that was himself. For all of his arrogance, it is fitting that his own misplaced hubris would be the one thing that got the better of him. Having run as an outsider for his entire campaign, Trump is learning that bashing the party you plan to run for isn t welcomed with open arms. They let Trump be Trump and he didn t disappoint.Featured image via Darren Hauck/Getty Images | 0 |
21,118 | Trump announces push to speed up 'desperately-needed infrastructure' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Friday pledged new efforts to speed approvals for highways and other projects as part of his proposal for a $1 trillion boost to fix aging U.S. infrastructure. At the U.S. Transportation Department, Trump said his goal was to solve “one of the biggest obstacles to creating this new and desperately-needed infrastructure – and that is the painfully slow, costly and time-consuming process for getting permits and approvals to build.” Trump said the White House is moving ahead with “massive permit reform” and setting up a new council to help project managers navigate bureaucratic hurdles. “This Council will also improve transparency by creating a new online dashboard allowing everyone to easily track major projects through every stage of the approval process,” Trump said. He said the council will make sure that any federal agency that “consistently delays projects by missing deadlines will face tough, new penalties. We will hold the bureaucracy accountable.” The White House is also creating a new office in the Council of Environmental Quality “to root out inefficiency, clarify lines of authority, and streamline federal, state and local procedures so that communities can modernize their aging infrastructure without fear of outdated federal rules getting in the way.” Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said the department is asking for public input on other changes it can make to speed approvals. Trump said it took “four years to build the Golden Gate Bridge and five years to build the Hoover Dam – but today it can take 10 years just to get the approvals and permits needed to build a major infrastructure project.” The Republican president, who was a New York-based real state developer before taking office, has repeatedly decried the process of winning approval for highway permitting. “It includes 16 different approvals involving 10 different federal agencies being governed by 26 different statutes,” Trump said. He spoke in front of two huge charts detailing the hurdles to build highways and held up a massive report that he said was needed before a Maryland highway was built. “How can a country prosper under such restraints?” Trump asked. “Why should we continue to accept what is so clearly unacceptable? I was not elected to continue a failed system – I was elected to change it.” The administration proposes $200 billion in government funding over 10 years as part of a goal of getting $1 trillion in public and private infrastructure spending. Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer has said the budget cuts $206 billion in infrastructure spending across several Cabinet departments, however, including $96 billion in planned highway trust fund spending. | 1 |
21,119 | U.S. House Republicans finalize list of rules to kill in Wednesday vote | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans pressed ahead in their deregulatory push on Tuesday, with the U.S. House of Representatives Rules Committee officially adding a regulation on methane and one intended to root out pay discrimination to the list of rules the whole chamber will vote to kill on Wednesday. On Monday, the committee sent three other recently enacted rules on the environment, corruption and guns to the full House to axe under the Congressional Review Act, which has only been used effectively once, in 2001. The Republican-controlled House is expected to vote to overturn all five regulations on Wednesday, and then hand them off to the Senate. Agencies cannot create a new rule to replace any part of an overturned regulation, and Democrats at Tuesday’s committee hearing argued that House Republicans were closing off the possibility of enacting regulations that could be needed in the future. They also pressed for more time to consider rolling back regulations that often took months and years to craft. “What we’ve been doing today and yesterday ... I would characterize as mindless legislating,” said Representative Jim McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts. “I worry that this whole process is going to subject a lot of vulnerable people, and a lot of working people, as well as our environment to some pretty dark consequences.” New York’s Louise Slaughter, the committee’s senior Democrat, while talking about the methane rule during the one-hour hearing bluntly said: “I disagree wholeheartedly with what you’re doing.” Democrats, though, have little power to stop the overturning of regulations. Only simple majorities in both chambers are needed to kill a rule. In the past, Republicans’ nullification attempts were met with veto threats by former president Barack Obama, a Democrat. Now, a fellow Republican occupies the White House, President Donald Trump. Critics of the methane rule say the regulation, which covers emissions from oil and gas operations on federal and Indian land, is not necessary. They cast it as a duplicative regulation that usurps state rights and slows down the distribution of natural gas through excessive red tape. Supporters, meanwhile, say that the rule keeps oil and gas companies from polluting the environment, brings in royalties to the federal government, and reduces wasted methane. Those wanting to see the pay-discrimination rule overturned have similar complaints, saying that other rules already cover the area and that requiring federal contractors to collect information on their employees will be expensive and time-consuming. | 1 |
21,120 | Spain's Rajoy calls on Catalonia leaders to cancel referendum | MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Wednesday called on Catalonia regional leaders to cancel a planned referendum on splitting from Spain because it goes against the country s laws. Don t go ahead. Go back to the law and democracy. This referendum is a chimera, Rajoy said in a televised speech. | 1 |
21,121 | Trump withdrawal from climate deal gets mixed response from U.S. companies | NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday withdrawing the country from the Paris climate accord would stave off an economic crisis and protect American jobs - but many American companies seemed to disagree. Criticism of his decision rolled in from blue-chip companies like Facebook Inc, Apple Inc , Ford Motor Co and Microsoft Corp , while the response from fossil fuel groups with the most to gain from a relaxation of U.S. carbon emissions standards was muted. Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk and Walt Disney Co CEO Robert Iger said they would leave White House advisory councils over Trump’s decision. In an interview on Thursday, the president of the World Coal Association, Benjamin Sporton, told Reuters that he had mixed feelings about Trump’s announcement, adding he was eager to see a U.S. policy that actively promotes a place for coal in the global energy mix. “What we really need to see, if the president wants to re-enter the deal, is that he can change the agreement to recognize the role of all sources of energy, including coal,” Sporton said, adding his group had described to administration officials the benefits of remaining in the agreement. The American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industry’s biggest trade group, meanwhile, issued a statement saying it had never taken an official position on the Paris accord. A number of its members, including Exxon Mobil Corp and ConocoPhillips, had publicly supported the deal. “For us, our position on the Paris agreement... we need a framework like that to address the risks of climate change,” Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods told reporters on the sidelines of the company’s annual general meeting on Wednesday. Some other groups expressed measured support for Trump’s decision, saying it provided an opportunity to fix problems with the deal. “Manufacturers support the spirit of the Paris Agreement and the effort to address climate change through a fair international agreement. But as the president has acknowledged, certain elements of this deal were not equitable for U.S. manufacturers,” said Ross Eisenberg, vice president for energy and resources policy at the National Association of Manufacturers, in a statement to Reuters. A spokesman for Peabody Energy Corp, America’s largest publicly traded coal miner, had said on Wednesday that the company would support a decision by Trump to withdraw from the Paris deal because the “accord is flawed on a number of levels.” Trump vowed during his campaign to pull the United States out of the Paris deal, arguing the pact would cost the United States trillions of dollars, kill jobs, and stymie economic growth without providing tangible benefit. His critics have argued, however, that the risks of climate change require action, and that a shift to a low-carbon energy economy can create more jobs than it eliminates. Spokespeople for other extractive oil and mining groups, like the National Mining Association and the American Fuel & Petrochemicals Manufacturers, declined to comment on Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris accord. But a number of other business leaders derided it in forceful terms. “Today’s decision is a setback for the environment and for the U.S.’s leadership position in the world,” said Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein in his first-ever tweet. “Disappointed with today’s decision on the Paris Agreement. Climate change is real. Industry must now lead and not depend on government,” tweeted General Electric Co’s Jeff Immelt. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, meanwhile, posted to Twitter: “Decision to withdraw from the #ParisAgreeement was wrong for our planet” and “Apple is committed to fight climate change and we will never waver”. “Withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement is bad for the environment, bad for the economy, and it puts our children’s future at risk,” wrote Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a Facebook post. | 1 |
21,122 | BREAKING SCARE: DONALD TRUMP RUSHED OFFSTAGE After Protester Tackled To The Ground [Video] | Secret Service agents rushed Donald trump offstage on Saturday evening during a rally in Reno, Nevada after they determined a protester in the audience posed a threat to the Republican presidential candidate. Go! Go! agents shouted as they whisked him away and a combination of local police and private security wrestled the suspect to the ground. Thousands of people scattered like a sea of bodies, screams rang out and authorities dragged the man away as he kicked and strained after someone shouted gun in the audience, causing the ensuing chaos. Read more: Daily Mail | 0 |
21,123 | Blaze in firecracker workshop kills six in eastern India | BHUBANESWAR, India (Reuters) - Flames swept through an illegal firecracker workshop in the eastern Indian state of Odisha on Wednesday, killing at least six people, police said. The fire broke out as workers were making crackers for Thursday s celebrations of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, district police chief Niti Shekhar told Reuters. The blaze injured seven others, leaving some with serious burns, he said. They had stocked crackers in the cottage illegally. Some workers were making the crackers and some were present to purchase the crackers, he added. Local television channels showed fire and smoke billowing out of the workshop in a cottage in Bahabalpur village, about 200 km (120 miles) from state capital Bhubaneswar. | 1 |
21,124 | Raytheon wins $614 million modification of U.S. defense contract: Pentagon | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Defense Department awarded Raytheon a $614 million modification for a contract previously valued at $630 million, the Pentagon said in a statement on Monday. Raytheon is tasked with manufacturing 17 missiles, performing support for production and engineering, providing quality assurance, and audit and engineering efforts. Work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona, and is estimated for completion in March 2020, the statement said. | 1 |
21,125 | WATCH: Father Of Slain Muslim-American Soldier Just Ripped Trump A New One Over Muslim Ban | Donald Trump just got his ass handed to him by a Gold Star father for signing the despicable Muslim ban.Kahzir Khan is the father of Captain Humayun Khan, an American soldier who sacrificed his life in Iraq in 2004 for his fellow soldiers when he was killed by a car bomb that was intended to kill hundreds of American troops at the guard post he was inspecting.Captain Khan is buried at Arlington National Cemetery with the star and crescent adorning his gravestone. He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart for his heroism and has become a shining example of why Donald Trump s attacks against Muslims are bullshit.During an appearance on MSNBC with Joy Reid, Kahzir Khan had strong words in response to Donald Trump s Muslim ban, which has caused worldwide chaos as travelers from seven nations have been detained or prevented from entering the country. Even green card holders are being detained.The executive order is a direct violation of the Constitution because it targets people based on religious beliefs, which is why Khan once again talked about his son. I am so saddened for my country, for my nation, for the country and nation for which we have fought and that we continue to defend, Khan told Reid. I invite Donald Trump and his racist and his Islamophobe coterie to go to the Arlington Cemetery and go to section 60, face all the tombstones there and if they have any shame, any shame at all, they should refrain from this un-American activity, un-American banning of Muslims, patriotic Muslims coming to the United states. And he didn t stop there. Khan continued slamming Trump and Republicans for abandoning the Constitution and humanitarianism. We are equal citizens and we will remain equal citizens. We defend the values of this country. We defend the Constitution of this country and we will remain standing also on our side, the majority of this country on our side. Donald Trump never got the majority votes of this country, we have the majority vote of this country. This is the time for Republicans to stand up for their values, otherwise like Donald Trump they will be part of this dark chapter that he s trying to write, that he has surrounded himself with unpatriotic Americans. Khan even took Trump minions Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon to the woodshed. They are operating my country, they are running this government by anecdotes, by alternative facts. What is that? This is how they are going to be dealing with the dignity of this country, the dignity of this nation? This country, this nation still remains a beacon of hope and we will stand in their way now and forever to not let them violate the basic foundations, the basic values of this country. The majority of this country is on our side and these protests are a reflection of that. They should get used to it and they should begin to understand what true America is, the true values of this country. We remain standing and we shall prevail. This is an ugly chapter, this is an ugly beginning but we will fix it. Here s the video via VidMe.Thousands of Muslims serve our country and risk their lives for our freedom every day. But this ban only serves as propaganda for ISIS and other terrorist organizations to use as a recruitment tool.Terrorists can point to this ban and say that America hates Muslims and we will pay the price for it. And so will our troops. Donald Trump is not making America safe. He giving terrorists a reason to kill more Americans like Captain Khan.Featured image via screenshot | 0 |
21,126 | Hong Kong soccer fans defy Beijing by booing Chinese national anthem | HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hundreds of Hong Kong soccer fans booed and jeered the Chinese national anthem at an Asia Cup qualifier match on Tuesday in defiance of Communist Party rulers in Beijing. The booing of the anthem, The March of the Volunteers , has become a fixture at football matches in the Chinese-ruled territory, with some parallels to protests in the United States where American football players have knelt during the national anthem, an act denounced by U.S. President Donald Trump. Now the former British colony is preparing to introduce a law that will penalize people who boo the anthem, a measure that critics say undermines the city s autonomy and freedoms guaranteed when it returned to China 20 years ago. Details of the law, including jail terms and the scope of enforcement, have yet to be set. China extended the law to cover Hong Kong earlier this month. Chinese President Xi Jinping in recent years has ushered in new legislation aimed at securing the country from threats both within and outside its borders, besides presiding over a sweeping crackdown on dissent and free speech. Chinese officials have said the anthem law is necessary to safeguard the authority of the state. Several hundred fans greeted the anthem before the match against Lebanon with jeers and boos, with some unfurling banners that said Die for Hong Kong , while others yelled We are Hong Kong in English, rather than the local Cantonese dialect. Some security guards signaled to the supporters to behave. I m not scared even if it becomes law ... I will go to the toilet instead of sitting when the national anthem is on, Hong Kong supporter Bendter Chong said when asked if he would continue to jeer the anthem when the law is enacted. Tensions between Hong Kong and mainland China have increased in recent years amid calls for greater democracy. Mass street protests in 2014 paralyzed parts of the city although they failed to secure concessions on electoral reform from Beijing. Most of the jeering was from youths, underscoring how the younger generation has become increasingly disaffected by political tension and economic hardship. Security was tight at the Hong Kong Stadium, the venue for the city s annual Rugby Sevens tournament, where about 10,000 gathered for the match. The stadium has capacity for 40,000. The game ended Lebanon 1, Hong Kong 0. I m not sure about the law, but for sure people will be more behaved, said Hong Kong supporter Fai Chan. But it is still a matter of whether it is worth our respect. Hong Kong returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997 under a one country, two systems arrangement that guarantees a high degree of autonomy, including an independent judiciary and freedom of expression. In 2015, Hong Kong football fans booed the Chinese anthem during a World Cup qualifier, prompting a fine for the Hong Kong Football Association from world body FIFA. The association was warned by the Asian Football Confederation recently over the conduct of fans and said a repeat violation may result in more severe punishment . | 1 |
21,127 | Trump considering lawyer for White House Russia role: sources | (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is considering adding a veteran Washington lawyer to the White House counsel’s office to deal with Russia-related issues, people familiar with the matter said. Ty Cobb, a white-collar defense lawyer with the firm of Hogan Lovells and a former federal prosecutor, met with Trump about a week ago, another person said. White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said the administration had “no announcement at this time.” Cobb did not respond to requests for comment except to say he was on vacation. Cobb, 66, represented a number of individuals in government investigations during the Clinton administration, including former Democratic National Committee fundraiser John Huang and former White House aide David Watkins. Trump has been seeking a senior-level lawyer to join the office led by White House Counsel Don McGahn to focus on the various Russia investigations, one of the people said. In addition to a probe by special counsel Robert Mueller, several congressional panels are investigating Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and potential collusion by Trump’s campaign. Moscow has denied any interference and Trump has denied any collusion. The role Cobb met with Trump about is separate from the legal team gathering to represent the president personally. That team, led by New York lawyer Marc Kasowitz, now includes constitutional lawyer and evangelical radio talk show host Jay Sekulow, Washington lawyer John Dowd, and Michael Bowe, a partner at Kasowitz’s firm. According to sources familiar with the matter, lawyers from major firms have turned down joining Trump’s outside legal team, citing conflicts at their firms and concerns Trump would not listen to them. Others lawyers have also turned down the role for which Cobb is being considered. William Burck, a partner at Quinn Emanuel, and Emmet Flood, a partner at Williams & Connolly, both turned down the opportunity, according to people familiar with the matter. Cobb, a distant relative of the famous baseball player of the same name, graduated from Harvard University and earned his law degree at Georgetown. In the 1980s, he was a federal prosecutor in Baltimore, where he led a regional drug and organized crime task force. Cobb has some experience with leaks, which Trump has repeatedly complained about in relation to the Russia probes. In 2006, Cobb represented former CIA official Mary McCarthy, who was fired after she was accused of providing classified information to reporters. No charges were brought against McCarthy. (This version of the story has been refiled to add dropped words in paragraph four) | 1 |
21,128 | Trump, South Korea's Moon agree to boost defenses: White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in agreed to strengthen their defense posture amid rising tensions with North Korea, the White House said on Friday. Trump and Moon, who met on Thursday, committed to strengthen their “combined defense posture, including through South Korea’s acquisition and development of highly advanced military assets” and “agreed to the enhanced deployment of U.S. strategic assets in and around South Korea on a rotational basis,” the White House said in a statement. | 1 |
21,129 | Watch Trump’s Campaign Manager Crash And Burn While Claiming Trump Doesn’t Lie (VIDEO) | Defending Donald Trump is no easy task, but even his most prominent campaign members are struggling to make sense of his behavior and comments.When MSNBC s Morning Joe had campaign manager Kellyanne Conway on board to talk ahead of the Monday night debate between Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, Trump s righthand woman couldn t have been any more defensive and avoidant. In all honesty, she failed miserably to make her candidate look good, and choked under the pressure.Bloomberg Politics host Mark Halperin, who was also a guest on Morning Joe with Conway, asked the Trump campaign manager about Trump falsely accusing the debate moderator, NBC s Lester Holt, of being a Democrat. He asked: He said Lester Holt was a Democrat. Lester Holt is a Republican. How could he say such a thing that just black-and white factually incorrect? It was a fair question, and Conway wasn t ready for it. Her response was basically that Trump was not a liar; he just spoke without knowing the truth. Conway responded: I don t know that he knew what Lester Holt s voter registration is. Halperin wasn t letting it go. He pressed Conway, repeating back to her what she d just said: Without knowing then, he asserted he was a Democrat? Conway then tried to use one of her boss favorite interview tactics dancing around questions. She fired back: First of all, if you tell me the media are not overly populated with Democrats, that s false. At this point, Halperin is getting frustrated and tries to keep Conway focused. He points out just exactly what was wrong in Trump s comments about Holt: I m asking about a very specific thing. He made a factual claim about the moderator who deserves the right to be treated fairly and it was just wrong. And it s a metaphor for his frequently in public stating things with no basis, that are wrong. Again, instead of responding, Conway began talking about the backlash NBC s Matt Lauer received after being too nice to Trump. It then becomes obvious that Morning Joe s Mika Bzrezinki is also losing her patience, when she says, This is a filibuster while Conway rants on. Halperin once again tries to bring the conversation back: You re not answering what I asked you. I m asking you how someone running for president can assert on the eve of the debate that the moderator is a Democrat, which is factually incorrect? How can he do that? He shouldn t have asserted he didn t say, I don t know what he is, but I think he s biased, he said he s a Democrat. Conway left this topic again to attack Hillary Clinton and the media, and Brzezinski had to refocus her by saying, I don t understand what that has to do with Mark s question. We were asking why he lied about Lester Holt. Conway finally says, I don t think he lied and Brzezinski corrected her, Um, I think he did. Conway then gave this moronic reply: Mika, a lie would mean he knew the man s party registration. Co-host Joe Scarborough had to cut the conversation short, but not before an exasperated Halperin could ask, So as president, would he say things that are false without knowing the truth? You can watch the interview below:.@KellyannePolls: Trump didn t lie about Lester Holt, a lie would mean that he knew the man s party registration https://t.co/dZWTCwpoim Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) September 26, 2016Featured image is a screenshot | 0 |
21,130 | France says U.S. sanctions on Iran, Russia look illegal | PARIS (Reuters) - France’s foreign ministry on Wednesday said new U.S. sanctions against Iran, Russia and North Korea appeared at odds with international law due to their extra-territorial reach. The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday for these sanctions, which could affect European firms. The foreign ministry said in a statement that French and European laws would need to be adjusted in response and added that discussions would be necessary at European Union level because of the potential impact on European citizens and firms. | 1 |
21,131 | U.S. to expand refugee program for Central Americans fleeing violence | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will expand its program helping the thousands of people fleeing violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday. The announcement follows backlash from Democrats in the U.S. Congress who called on the Obama administration to halt its deportations of families who fled the three crime-infested Central American countries and entered the United States without documentation. The expanded Refugee Admissions Program would offer “a safe and legal alternative to the dangerous journey many are currently tempted to begin, making them easy prey for human smugglers who have no interest but their own profits,” Kerry said in a speech at the National Defense University. President Barack Obama previously said the United States would take in 3,000 refugees from Latin America by October this year. A State Department spokesperson said the administration does not have plans to take in more than 3,000 refugees from the region, but it may adjust the number “should conditions require.” He said the U.S. government would work with the United Nations and non-governmental organizations to identify people in need of refugee protection. He specifically mentioned those targeted by criminal gangs, including human rights activists. “We also continue to explore additional options, including for those who may be at imminent risk of harm,” Kerry said. Once the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights refers a potential refugee to the United States for resettlement, the case is reviewed at a Resettlement Support Center, according to the State Department. The United States operates nine centers globally, but only one is in the Western hemisphere - in Quito, Ecuador. The State Department spokesperson said the Quito center operates a branch office in San Salvador, El Salvador. Kerry did not say whether the United States would deploy any federal workers to the region or had plans to open additional centers. The Department of Homeland Security has received more than 6,000 applications from minors in Central America, some of whom have begun to arrive in the United States as refugees, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said on Jan. 4. He said he expected the pace of child refugee arrivals to increase. | 1 |
21,132 | Trump’s Own Staff Thinks He’s A Joke, Laughs Off His July 4th Ultimatum | As the Russian investigation is getting uncomfortably close to home for Donald Trump and as his insistence on profiting from the office of the presidency could come crashing down on his head, the White House is panicking. This time, though, the staff doesn t seem to care. After Trump delivered a July 4th ultimatum to his Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, he laughed it off.Politico reports that Trump set July 4th as a deadline for a staff shakeup. This is at least the third such ultimatum Trump has given his chief of staff and none of them (so far) have come to fruition. He threatened Priebus on the 100-day mark of his presidency and then again as Memorial Day approached. The shakeups never happened and Priebus still has his job. It s become comical that every holiday becomes a referendum on Reince, said one adviser to the president.Sensing his impending doom even before he was criticized for fallout related to the firing of FBI director James Comey, Reince had joked, I ve got one foot on a banana peel and another out the door, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation.Source: PoliticoThis time, though, Trump means it for realz. He even floated some names as replacements. Oh, wait, he s actually done that before:Trump has openly floated the idea of other potential chiefs of staff, including former campaign aide David Urban and Wayne Berman, a Blackstone executive and advisor to Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman. Shortly after national security adviser Michael Flynn was fired in February, Trump invited New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to the White House to help brainstorm about a new chief of staff, according to a White House official and outside adviser with knowledge of the situation.What Trump doesn t seem to realize (or perhaps he does) is that firing Priebus isn t going to help him with his legal problems. An entirely new staff isn t going to help him. Trump is in over his head and he refuses to learn or even to listen to advice.While he might be sincere this time, the more likely story is that Trump simply wants to change the headlines for the day. Rumors of a staff shakeup take the focus off the Russian investigation, sort of.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 0 |
21,133 | Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont to deliver speech at 1500 GMT | MADRID (Reuters) - The president of Catalonia s regional government, Carles Puigdemont, will deliver a speech at 5 p.m. (1500 GMT), his office said on Thursday. Puigdemont is set to call a snap regional election, according to his political allies, a move that could help break a one-month deadlock between the Madrid government and separatists seeking a split from Spain. | 1 |
21,134 | Trump to Senate Republicans: kill Obamacare now, replace later | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump urged Republican senators in a tweet on Friday to repeal Obamacare immediately if they cannot agree on a new plan to replace it, muddying the waters as congressional leaders struggle for consensus on healthcare legislation. Senate Republican leaders had set Friday as the target for rewriting legislation for a simultaneous repeal and replacement of extensive parts of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, the law dubbed Obamacare that expanded health insurance coverage to 20 million people. The deadline seemed unlikely to be met given that most senators had left Washington ahead of next week’s recess, without agreement on a clear direction for the healthcare bill, and Trump’s tweet did not appear to gain political traction. Financial markets showed little reaction to Trump’s suggestion, with the benchmark S&P 500 index edging about 0.15 percent higher on the day. Shares of most health insurers gained fractionally while hospital stocks were little changed. Trump wrote on Twitter Friday morning, “If Republican Senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date!” The White House said later that Trump was still “fully committed” to pushing the Republican draft healthcare bill through the Senate, although it was looking at every option for repealing and replacing Obamacare. “The president hasn’t changed his thinking at all,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters. The current Senate legislation would repeal parts of Obamacare, roll back its expansion of the Medicaid government healthcare program for the poor, eliminate most of Obamacare’s taxes and replace Obamacare insurance subsidies with a system of tax credits to help individuals buy private health insurance. Conservative and moderate Republicans have spent recent days pushing and pulling the bill in opposite directions as Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell sought common ground. Moderates want more equity for low-income Americans, while conservatives are fighting to loosen insurance regulations. Shortly before his January inauguration, Trump urged lawmakers to repeal and replace Obamacare at the same time. Congressional Republicans had considered earlier this year first repealing, then replacing Obamacare, but backed away after some lawmakers protested that that approach could create a gap in insurance coverage for millions. On Friday, Republican Senator Ben Sasse who had suggested that Congress first repeal Obamacare and then replace it, tweeted: “Glad you agree, Mr. Pres.” Conservative Senator Rand Paul also backed the idea. But others on Capitol Hill sounded annoyed. A senior Senate Republican aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that if lawmakers had been able to get the votes for repealing Obamacare first, then replacing it, “senators would have done that in January. It doesn’t have the votes, and it’s a waste of valuable time to discuss it.” Annie Clark, a spokeswoman for moderate Republican Senator Susan Collins, said the lawmaker would not support the strategy. McConnell’s spokesman declined to comment on Trump’s tweet. A senior House of Representatives Republican, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, said in an interview for CSPAN’s “Newsmakers” program that lawmakers’ goal should continue to be “not simply repealing but to start to put into place the elements that can make healthcare affordable.” | 1 |
21,135 | Emails in Clinton probe dealt with planned drone strikes: WSJ | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Emails between U.S. diplomats in Islamabad and State Department officials in Washington about whether to challenge specific U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan are at the center of a criminal probe involving Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The 2011 and 2012 emails were sent via the “low side” -government slang for a computer system for unclassified matters - as part of a secret arrangement that gave the State Department more of a voice in whether a CIA drone strike went ahead, according to congressional and law enforcement officials briefed on the FBI probe, the Journal said. Some of the emails were then forwarded by Clinton’s aides to her personal email account, which routed them to a server she kept at her home in suburban New York when she was secretary of state, the officials said, according to the newspaper. Investigators have raised concerns that Clinton’s personal server was less secure than State Department systems, and a recent report by the State Department inspector general found that Clinton had broken government rules by using a private email server without approval, undermining Clinton’s earlier defenses of her emails. The still-secret emails are a key part of the FBI investigation that has long dogged Clinton’s presidential campaign, the officials told the Journal. Clinton this week clinched the Democratic presidential nomination for the Nov. 8 election and was endorsed by President Barack Obama on Thursday. The White House rebuffed questions by reporters on Thursday on whether Obama’s endorsement might be seen as unduly influencing a criminal investigation by the U.S. Justice Department involving Clinton. White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters that Obama “has reiterated his commitment to this principle that any criminal investigation should be conducted independent of any sort of political interference.” The emails, which did not mention the “CIA,” “drones” or details about the militant targets, were written within the often-narrow time frame in which State Department officials had to decide whether or not to object to drone strikes before the CIA pulled the trigger, the officials said, according to the Journal. Law enforcement and intelligence officials said State Department deliberations about the covert CIA drone program should have been conducted over a more secure government computer system designed to handle classified information, the Journal reported. | 1 |
21,136 | WSJ REPORTER RIPS INTO DEM CANDIDATES For Their Lame Rhetoric On ISIS: “Remarkable displays of unintelligible garbage” [Video] | THE WSJ S MARY KISSEL NAILS IT ON THE DEM DEBATE WITH THE THREE CANDIDATES WHO WERE GIVING NO SOLUTIONS ON ISIS: It was one of the most remarkable displays of unintelligible garbage rhetoric that I have ever seen. Amen to that!Mary Kissel: The barbarians are at the gates. We ve seen attacks now from London to Madrid to Beirut to over the Sinai. It is time for American leadership. Hillary said this isn t America s fight. Look, Democrats are dangerously divorced from reality. Hillary says that. President Obama wants to close Gitmo. He said we contained these people. No, we haven t contained them. Bernie Sanders, who s leading in some polls, says the greatest challenge is climate change. What we need is American leadership and the majority of the American people understand we need to send troops back to the Middle East before this global disorder comes to our shores.Marie Bartiromo: I thought it was actually extraordinary, the debate last night. There was no real solution from any of the candidates. They were talking a lot saying nothing whatsoever.Mary Kissel: Saying essentially nothing. It was one of the most remarkable displays of unintelligible garbage rhetoric that I have ever seen. | 0 |
21,137 | University Of Texas Police Kick Humiliated Nazis Off Campus Before They Could Start Trouble | This is how police should deal with Nazis and white supremacists.The tiki torches were doused early at the University of Texas on Friday night after campus police quickly chased the group of racists off the premises.They were attempting to invade the campus and hold a rally on the Main Mall, which likely would have included Nazi chants and waving Confederate and Nazi flags.But police put a stop to it before the rally could even begin.After police informed the public of the service provided, university president Gregory Fenves released a statement strongly condemning white supremacy. The actions of white supremacists and other hate groups are completely anathema to UT s values, and I abhor what they represent, Fenves said. These are difficult times for our nation, with movements fueled by hatred increasingly taking root, as we saw in Charlottesville and elsewhere. We must continue to denounce these ugly, un-American ideas in the strongest terms. The actions of a hate group do not define us. They never will. White supremacists and Nazis have been emboldened since Donald Trump refused to condemn them in response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia earlier this year. Instead, Trump blamed both sides and claimed that a lot of Nazis are fine people. University of Texas president Gregory Fenves said what Trump should have said in the first place.Featured Image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 0 |
21,138 | Trump strikes blow at Iran nuclear deal in major U.S. policy shift | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump struck a blow against the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement on Friday in defiance of other world powers, choosing not to certify that Tehran is complying with the deal and warning he might ultimately terminate it. Trump announced the major shift in U.S. policy in a speech in which he detailed a more aggressive approach to Iran over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and its support for extremist groups in the Middle East. He accused Iran of not living up to the spirit of the nuclear agreement and said his goal is to ensure Tehran never obtains a nuclear weapon, in effect throwing the fate of the deal to Congress. He singled out Iran s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for sanctions and delivered a blistering critique of Tehran, which he accused of destabilizing actions in Syria, Yemen and Iraq. We will not continue down a path whose predictable conclusion is more violence, more terror and the very real threat of Iran s nuclear breakout, Trump said. Trump s hardline remarks drew praise from Israel, Iran s arch-foe, but was criticized by European allies. The move by Trump was part of his America First approach to international agreements which has led him to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks and renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. His Iran strategy angered Tehran and put Washington at odds with other signatories of the accord - Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and the European Union - some of which have benefited economically from renewed trade with Iran. Responding to Trump, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Friday on television that Tehran was committed to the deal and accused Trump of making baseless accusations. The Iranian nation has not and will never bow to any foreign pressure, he said. Iran and the deal are stronger than ever. European allies have warned of a split with the United States over the nuclear agreement and say that putting it in limbo as Trump has done undermines U.S. credibility abroad, especially as international inspectors say Iran is in compliance with the accord. The chief of the U.N. atomic watchdog reiterated that Iran was under the world s most robust nuclear verification regime. The nuclear-related commitments undertaken by Iran under the JCPOA are being implemented, Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency said, referring to the deal by its formal name. U.S. Democrats expressed skepticism at Trump s decision. Senator Ben Cardin said: At a moment when the United States and its allies face a nuclear crisis with North Korea, the president has manufactured a new crisis that will isolate us from our allies and partners. While Trump did not pull the United States out of the agreement, he gave the U.S. Congress 60 days to decide whether to reimpose economic sanctions on Tehran that were lifted under the pact. If Congress reimposes the sanctions, the United States would in effect be in violation of the terms of the nuclear deal and it would likely fall apart. If lawmakers do nothing, the deal remains in place. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker was working on amending the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act law to include trigger points that if crossed by Iran would automatically reimpose U.S. sanctions. The trigger points would address strengthening nuclear inspections, Iran s ballistic missile program and eliminate the deal s sunset clauses under which some of the restrictions on Iran s nuclear program expire over time. Trump directed U.S. intelligence agencies to probe whether Iran might be working with North Korea on its weapons programs. The president, who took office in January, had reluctantly certified the agreement twice before but has repeatedly blasted it as the worst deal ever. It was negotiated under his predecessor, former President Barack Obama. Trump warned that if we are not able to reach a solution working with Congress and our allies, then the agreement will be terminated. We ll see what happens over the next short period of time and I can do that instantaneously, he told reporters when asked why he did not choose to scrap the deal now. The Trump administration designated the entire Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps under an executive order targeting terrorists. The administration stopped short of labeling the group a Foreign Terrorist Organization, a list maintained by the State Department. The Revolutionary Guard is the single most dominant player in Iran s security, political, and economic systems and wields enormous influence in Iran s domestic and foreign policies. It had already previously been sanctioned by the United States under other authorities, and the immediate impact of Friday s measure is likely to be symbolic. The U.S. military said on Friday it was identifying new areas where it could work with allies to put pressure on Iran in support of Trump s new strategy and was reviewing the positioning of U.S. forces. But U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said no changes in force posture had been made yet, and Iran had not responded to Trump s announcement with any provocative acts so far. | 1 |
21,139 | Ivanka Trump Sets Record Straight In Eye-Opening Interview: More Female Executives In Trump Organization Than Males [Video] | So much for the media s attempt to make Donald Trump out to be a woman hater Ivanka Trump plans on going out to campaign for her dad and after seeing this interview i think it s a great idea. Ivanka Trump is no Paris Hilton. She s a serious businesswoman who ll be a great asset to her dad s campaign. | 0 |
21,140 | Trump daughter Ivanka to get West Wing office | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, is getting an office in the White House West Wing, stepping up her highly visible role in helping advise her father. A White House official on Monday confirmed reports that Trump’s 35-year-old daughter would be getting her own West Wing space, as well as access to classified information and a government-issued phone. She is not expected to have an official title and will not be paid a salary. Ivanka Trump will be joining her husband, Jared Kushner, who is a chief adviser to the president and is a regular presence at his father-in-law’s side. When Kushner’s job was announced earlier this year, aides said Ivanka would not take on a role in her father’s White House but would focus on settling her family in Washington. Since then, she has been a frequent behind-the-scenes adviser. Last Friday, she sat next to visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel when Merkel visited the White House. | 1 |
21,141 | Federal Judge Questions Trump’s Legitimacy After Attack On Fellow Judge For Halting Muslim Ban | The judicial branch of our government is getting sick and tired of Donald Trump s tirades.After Trump signed an unconstitutional executive order banning travelers from seven countries from entering the United States, worldwide chaos ensued.Thousands of people were detained and denied their rights as attorneys raced to their rescue. A federal judge then blocked the order and Trump has been attacking U.S. District Court Judge James Robart ever since.The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 4, 2017What is our country coming to when a judge can halt a Homeland Security travel ban and anyone, even with bad intentions, can come into U.S.? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 4, 2017Because the ban was lifted by a judge, many very bad and dangerous people may be pouring into our country. A terrible decision Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 4, 2017The judge opens up our country to potential terrorists and others that do not have our best interests at heart. Bad people are very happy! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 5, 2017Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril. If something happens blame him and court system. People pouring in. Bad! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 5, 2017If the U.S. does not win this case as it so obviously should, we can never have the security and safety to which we are entitled. Politics! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 8, 2017Trump has literally been whining about Judge Robarts decision for over a week and acts like judges aren t allowed to act as a check and balance against the executive branch.And his behavior toward Robarts has angered one federal judge so much that he is calling Trump s legitimacy into a question, which is a yuuuge deal.Federal District Judge Dan Polster explained to the Cleveland Anti-Defamation League on Wednesday and explained that checks and balances exist because the Founding Fathers were fearful of a president who might want to be a king or dictator, which is exactly how Trump is acting.Polster continued by telling the audience that he doesn t think any federal judge will be intimidated by Trump because they took an oath to support and defend the Constitution and it means a lot and I think that oath means even more today. With that said, Polster believes Trump undermined his legitimacy by attacking the judicial branch for halting the executive order. This is serious business, because you start calling into question the legitimacy of someone, that undermines the whole system, all right? I think to say it publicly, that s his right. But it calls into question, and some might even say forfeits, his or her own legitimacy. So I ll leave it at that. It s an important question, but that s how I feel. When you call into question the legitimacy of a federal district court judge, that s a line that shouldn t be crossed. And there you have it. Trump s attacks on our judicial branch are literally starting to backfire on him as judges start to speak out publicly against him. While Trump has the right to disagree with judges, personally attacking them disgraces the office he holds and diminishes the power of the executive branch. It makes Trump s position look weak and desperate. And it could affect the decisions judges make in the future on executive orders and laws Trump signs. In short, trying to bully judges is not a good idea.Read more:Featured image via Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images | 0 |
21,142 | BREAKING BOMBSHELL! Julian Assange Claims Murdered DNC Staffer May Have Been Wikileaks Source…Offers $20,000 REWARD For Info Leading To Killer [Video] | Seth Rich was hired by the Democrat Party as the official voter expansion data director. Although there is no connection yet, he was clearly privy to information that could potentially harm the Democrat Party, and more specifically Hillary Clinton s chances of winning the election in November. He was shot in the back several times but wasn t robbed. He was just left to die a short distance from his home in gun-free Washington D.C .Read entire story HERE.Julian Assange: Whistleblowers go to significant efforts to get us material and often very significant risks. As a 27 year-old, works for the DNC, was shot in the back, murdered just a few weeks ago for unknown reasons as he was walking down the street in Washington.Reporter: That was just a robbery, I believe. Wasn t it?Julian Assange: No. There s no finding. So I m suggesting that our sources take risks.Watch Assange interview here: Meanwhile, Julian Assange has offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to conviction of person or people who murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich.And the plot thickens ANNOUNCE: WikiLeaks has decided to issue a US$20k reward for information leading to conviction for the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich. WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 9, 2016 | 0 |
21,143 | U.N. vote a resounding global 'No' to U.S. intimidation: Iran's Zarif tweets | Ankara (Reuters) - The United Nations General Assembly s vote on Jerusalem on Thursday was a clear international rejection of U.S. President Donald Trump administration s thuggish intimidation , the Iranian foreign minister said on Twitter. Mohammad Javad Zarif said on his Twitter feed: A resounding global NO to Trump regime s thuggish intimidation at #UN . | 1 |
21,144 | GOP’s Attempt At Voter Suppression In Ohio Is Struck Down In Court | Fearing that the 2016 presidential election will be a disaster with Hillary Clinton and Senate Democrats looking pretty favorable Republicans have, of course, have been working overtime to suppress the vote in a key battleground state: Ohio.As everyone knows, no person elected president has ever won without winning Ohio. Even though Clinton wouldn t need Ohio (as long as she nabs Virginia, North Carolina and Florida) to win, that hasn t stopped Republicans from already attempting to rig the election.However, their hopes of doing just that were destroyed in court, when a federal judge issued a ruling that the state s new laws restricting the collection and counting of absentee ballots and poll workers aiding voters were unconstitutional on racial grounds. Judge Algenon Marble wrote in his decision:Voter suppression tactics have not disappeared but are now merely cloaked in ostensibly race-neutral language.Judge Marble also noted that the state s decision to bar poll workers from helping minorities fill out ballots unless the voter affirmed that he or she was disabled or illiterate was in violation of the Constitution, for it established a literacy test on those seeking to vote:The Court agrees with Dr. Timberlake that these inequalities, rooted in historical discrimination against African-Americans, have significant and far-reaching effects with specific and direct consequences for voting. Because low literacy levels are also correlated with substandard education and the Court has credited Dr. Timberlake s findings that African-Americans suffer from lower educational attainment than whites in Ohio, the Court concludes that African-Americans would also suffer from higher costs associated with the five-field requirement and the prohibition on poll-worker assistance because they would face disproportionately more challenges filling out the forms. Because African-Americans move more frequently than whites, they may be more likely to be forced to vote provisionally. They are also more likely to be homeless. And because they are more likely to have inflexible schedules or lack access.In other words: the state of Ohio, which is run by Republicans, attempted to circumvent black voters by instilling on them an option: know how to spell or your vote doesn t matter.Republicans literally just tried to turn black people away from voting in 2016.This is what Republicans do: they disenfranchise black voters because they know their days of white rule are coming to and end.Featured image via Andrew Burton/Getty Images | 0 |
21,145 | september new homes sales riseback to level | october daily contrarian reads by david stockman my daily contrarian reads for thursday october th | 0 |
21,146 | Boiler Room #99 – Almost to 100! | Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room tonight 6:00 PM PST | 8:00 PM CST | 9:00 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for bar fly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher and Spore along with Infidel Pharaoh, Funk Soul, Andy Nowicki of Alt-Right Blogspot, Jay Dyer from Jays Analysis and Randy J for the 99th episode of BOILER ROOM. Water the kids, put the plants to bed and get your favorite mead horn ready so you can drop deep into the Boiler Room with the crew. Tonight the gang is discussing the latest a myriad of news and main stream media shenanigans that have taken place since the last meeting of the ACR brain-trust know as THE BOILER ROOM.Direct Download Episode #99Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved!Reference Links: | 0 |
21,147 | More Trump Victims Surface As Condo Scam Is Revealed, Millions Lost As He Profited (VIDEO) | Donald Trump has a pattern of business behavior that he has repeated several times over his career when he isn t on a reality show pretending to be a billionaire genius. A loud, splashy launch of a project followed by a high pressure sales job that dazzles prospective customers, followed by mismanagement and poor business decisions that result in a failed business but somehow Trump makes money for himself.The pattern has repeated itself with Trump University, Trump Steaks, Trump Magazine, and now the Los Angeles Times has revealed the seedy underbelly of Trump Ocean Resort, a condo community that was supposed to be built in Baja with homes overlooking the Pacific Ocean.Guess what happened next?In the end, nothing at all was built at Trump Ocean Resort, and Simms lost her money. As did about 250 other buyers, most of them from Southern California.All told, two years of aggressive marketing yielded $32.5 million in buyer deposits, every bit of it spent by the time Trump and his partners abandoned the project in early 2009 as the global economy was reeling. Most of the buyers sued them for fraud.In this case, Trump did what he has often done in real estate deals licensed his name to a third party developer, but not actually do the building himself. Trump has often portrayed these properties he really had nothing to do with as part of his real estate empire, and the media has gone along with the fairy tale.The people who lost money in these condos say that is what happened here, and that Trump s children Donald Jr. and Ivanka were part of a ruse to make it seem as if Trump was one of the main developers instead of just a name attached like a cheap sticker. We are developing a world-class resort befitting of the Trump brand, Ivanka Trump said in a video on the Trump Baja website. I m very excited about it. I actually chose to buy a unit in the first tower. Her father appeared in the same video saying he was proud that when I build, I have investors that follow me all over. The sales team even told prospective buyers that Trump himself had purchased a condo in the development, but he actually never did. Trump even signed a letter given to prospective customers identifying himself as one of the builders but he wasn t.The company doing the actual building, after months of inactivity on the construction site, eventually sent a letter to people who had bought in telling them that they would not be able to proceed with construction due to a lack of money and the economic turndown in 2008-9. They also said they wouldn t be providing refunds of the millions of dollars they had taken.The Trumps did get $500,000 in licensing fees for their involvement in the scheme. Another pump and dump Trump mission completed.Featured image via screen capture | 0 |
21,148 | Senate intelligence panel requests Trump campaign documents: Washington Post | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate Intelligence Committee, investigating Russian meddling in U.S. 2016 election, has asked President Donald Trump’s political organization to hand over all documents going back the campaign’s launch in June 2015, the Washington Post reported on Friday, citing two people briefed on the request. The letter from the Senate panel seeking all documents, emails and telephone records arrived at Trump’s campaign committee last week and was addressed to its treasurer, the Post said. This marked the first time the Trump campaign organization has been drawn into the bipartisan committee’s investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election, it said. Dozens of former campaign staffers are expected to be contacted soon to ensure they are aware of the request, the Post said, citing the two people. The letter was signed by Republican Senator Richard Burr, the committee’s chairman, and Senator Mark Warner, its top Democrat, according to the Post, which said representatives for Burr and Warner declined to comment. The Senate panel’s investigation is among several in Congress into Russian interference in the election, and is separate from a probe into the matter being led by a special counsel appointed last week by the Justice Department, former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller. Trump’s campaign committee, based at Trump Tower in New York, is now led by Michael Glassner, a former deputy campaign manager, and John Pence, a nephew of Vice President Mike Pence, the Post said. Glassner did not immediately respond to a request for comment and a White House representative had no immediate comment, the Post said. Trump’s administration has been dogged by concerns about its ties to Russia and questions over whether Trump associates may have cooperated with Russians as they sought to meddle in last year’s election on Trump’s behalf. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in January that Moscow tried to sway the November vote in Trump’s favor. Russia has denied involvement, and Trump has denied any collusion between his campaign and Russia. Controversy has engulfed Trump since he fired FBI Director James Comey on May 9 as Comey oversaw an investigation into possible collusion between his presidential campaign and Russia. | 1 |
21,149 | Obamacare whiplash leaves states, insurers with dueling price plans | NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s reversals in the past week on maintaining Obamacare subsidies to insurers are sowing new confusion over what kind of health insurance will be available to consumers, and at what price, when enrollment for 2018 begins in two weeks. Trump said last week his administration would stop paying billions of dollars in subsidies that help insurers give discounts to low-income households, one of several moves to dismantle the signature healthcare law of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama. Since then, Trump has alternately supported, and dismissed, an effort by Republican and Democratic senators that would reinstate the subsidies for two years, until a broader replacement to the 2010 Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, can be negotiated. “We are worried that consumers on (Obamacare) plans will be confused by all the back and forth and proposed policy changes and that this will cause them to not seek out assistance,” said Bryna Koch, special projects coordinator at the Arizona Center for Rural Health, which helps consumers choose and sign up for individual health plans offered under Obamacare. Trump, who promised during his election campaign to repeal and replace Obamacare, which he has called a “disaster,” has said the subsidies amount to a bailout for insurance companies. By law, health insurers must still offer the discounts on deductibles, co-pays and other out-of-pocket costs, even if the government stops reimbursing them. Insurers say they do not profit from the subsidies. Anticipating Trump’s move, insurers proposed higher prices on monthly premiums in 2018 to recoup the money. In all but a handful of states, they submitted two sets of premium rates – a lower rate to use if the subsidies remained, and a higher rate to use if the funding was cut. The fate of the subsidies remained in limbo on Thursday. A senior White House aide said that Trump would demand steps toward repealing Obamacare in any healthcare legislation, comments that cast doubt on the prospects for the bipartisan effort to shore up insurance markets. A California court is expected to consider on Monday a request by Democratic attorneys general to keep the subsidies flowing until a legal challenge to Trump’s decision is resolved. If the funding is not restored when 2018 enrollment opens on Nov. 1, many consumers will see premium rates that are on average 20 percent higher than they would have been otherwise. Even before Trump’s decision on the subsidies, the Congressional Budget Office said the Republican president’s policies to roll back Obamacare enrollment efforts would lead to 4 million fewer people signing up for insurance in 2018 than previously forecast. The CBO still expects 11 million people to sign up for next year - an increase from this year’s enrollment of 10 million. The federal government has already halted a subsidy payment to the insurance industry for October. But leading insurers are not yet sure whether that is the last word. Anthem Inc Chief Executive Officer Joseph Swedish told Reuters he could not yet predict how ending the subsidies or restating them through “potential congressional action” would affect pricing next year. Anthem has submitted premium rates that account for the subsidies being cut. Should the subsidies be restored at any time after Nov. 1, insurers may be able to revert to the lower monthly premium rates, or provide rebates for consumers. “A midyear change in premiums would be highly unusual, but this would be the right thing to do,” said Marc Harrison, CEO of Intermountain Healthcare, a Utah-based health plan and hospital chain. “Intermountain Healthcare would pursue this.” Washington state’s insurance regulator said it would allow insurers to change rates as soon as practical - even the next month - if lawmakers reinstate the funding, an approach backed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. But that could run up against federal government objections. The Affordable Care Act does not allow for changes to premium rates after they have been finalized, an official for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said. At the same time, the administration is working to approve higher rates in several states that did not take into account Trump’s cut in subsidies for 2018. | 1 |
21,150 | Factbox: Trump's 10-point immigration plan | NEW YORK (Reuters) - In a speech on Wednesday in Phoenix, Arizona, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump outlined his plan for reforming the U.S. immigration system. The New York businessman has made immigration a central issue of his bid for the White House, taking a harder line than his Democratic rival, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, ahead of the Nov. 8 election. Trump’s plan includes: 1. Building a wall along the border between the United States and Mexico. Trump emphasized that this would be a physical wall, albeit bolstered by technology. 2. Ending “catch and release,” a term often broadly used to refer to practices under which not everyone apprehended by immigration agents is necessarily deported. 3. Immediate deportation of undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes. Trump has promised to begin these deportations on his first day in office. Going forward, undocumented immigrants arrested for committing a crime would be placed into immediate deportation proceedings. 4. Blocking funding for “sanctuary cities,” places that limit, to differing extents and through different methods, how much they help immigration officials in the apprehension and deportation of undocumented immigrants. 5. Cancellation of executive orders and enforcement of immigration laws. This point would particularly hit two of President Barack Obama’s executive actions, known by their abbreviations: DACA and DAPA. The actions gave a certain legal status to certain undocumented immigrants, such as those brought to the United States as children or those who now have American children. 6. Suspending visas to immigrants from parts of the world where screening procedures are deemed inadequate. Trump singled out Syria and Libya as two countries from which immigration would be suspended. 7. Ensuring that other countries take back their citizens when the United States moves to deport those immigrants. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that these people cannot be detained indefinitely, but without a country to which to return they often are simply released from detention. Trump said he would force the immigrants’ home countries to take them back. 8. Completing a biometric entry-exit visa tracking system. Many undocumented immigrants enter the country legally, and then overstay their visas. In those cases, this kind of system would be more effective than a border wall. While such a system has been discussed for years, the logistics remain a major challenge. Putting in such a system would likely require major overhauls of U.S. points of entry, such as airports and ports. 9. Making it harder for undocumented immigrants to get jobs and benefits. Trump specifically cited the E-verify system as part of this. That system allows employers to check whether their employees are legally eligible to work in the United States. Trump also mentioned ending access to benefit programs such as public housing or food stamps. 10. Serving the best interests of American workers. Trump’s final point serves as something of a catch-all for his immigration proposal. But he also mentioned a few specific goals here, such as limiting immigration. He also talked about being more selective about who gets to enter the country, for example limiting immigration to people who can be financially self-sufficient. | 1 |
21,151 | Turkey's Erdogan says U.S. decision to suspend visa services 'upsetting' | KIEV (Reuters) - Turkey s President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday a U.S. decision to suspend visa services in Turkey was upsetting, adding that Turkish foreign ministry officials had contacted their U.S. counterparts over the issue. Above all, the decision is very upsetting. For the embassy in Ankara to take such a decision and implement, it is upsetting, Erdogan told a news conference during a visit to Ukraine. | 1 |
21,152 | Clinton Foundation plans to spin off flagship health project | NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation would spin off its flagship health project into a “completely independent” charity if Hillary Clinton were to win the U.S. presidency in November, the charity announced on Wednesday. The Clinton Health Access Initiative, which has focused on reducing the cost of HIV medicine in sub-Saharan Africa, currently accounts for about two thirds of the foundation’s annual income and expenses, according to disclosures online. The promise to carve it out of the foundation aims to quash concerns that donors might try to seek special access in a Clinton White House. Bill and Chelsea Clinton, Hillary Clinton’s husband and daughter, would step down from the health project’s board and the project would no longer use the Clinton name and instead would go by its acronym, CHAI, if the family returned to the White House next year, the announcement said. Clinton has defended her family’s philanthropic organizations against accusations by Donald Trump, her Republican rival, and others that wealthy donors, abroad and at home, might expect favorable treatment from the U.S. government. She has said no donor ever received inappropriate favors, but her staff have said she recognizes reorganization would be necessary to avoid any appearance of conflicts of interests. On Tuesday, New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said his office had opened an inquiry into the Donald J. Trump Foundation to ensure the Republican presidential nominee’s charity was complying with state laws governing nonprofits. The inquiry followed reports by The Washington Post regarding Trump’s Foundation and his contributions to the charity. He has refused to release his tax returns, which would show charitable giving. Long-time Clinton associates Bruce Lindsey, Ira Magaziner and Maggie Williams would also step down from CHAI’s board, and the remaining board members would replace all five in consultation with global health experts, the charity said. Magaziner, who has been friends with Bill Clinton since they were students at Oxford University, would remain as the project’s chief executive. The board would draft a “succession plan” by the end of the year, the announcement said. “If Secretary Clinton is elected president, the changes outlined here will be implemented and CHAI would become an organization completely independent of the Clinton Foundation,” the statement said. Bill Clinton set up the foundation as he prepared to leave the White House in 2001. Hillary Clinton joined its board after leaving the U.S. State Department in 2013 but stepped down last year to seek the presidency. The foundation announced last month that it would no longer accept donations from foreigners or corporations for its other work besides CHAI, and said it would close overseas fundraising arms in Sweden and the United Kingdom. | 1 |
21,153 | Trump to name Exxon Mobil CEO Tillerson as U.S. secretary of state: Fox News | (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will name Exxon Mobil Corp Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson as his choice for secretary of state, Fox News reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources. | 1 |
21,154 | IRANIANS CELEBRATE NUCLEAR DEAL WITH OBAMA BY CHANTING “Death To America” | Obama is probably huddled somewhere in the White House with Kerry and Jarrett trying to figure out what more we can do to make Iran like us The main prayer service in the Iranian capital has been interrupted by repeated chants of Death to America despite this week s landmark nuclear deal with world powers that was welcomed by authorities in Tehran.The chanting by several hundred hard-liners came as conservative cleric Mohammad Ali Movahedi Kermani was leading the Friday prayers at the Tehran University campus.He praised Iranian nuclear negotiators for their efforts in concluding the nuclear deal and criticized the United States for its tough sanctions on Iran.Anti-U.S. chants are frequent at gatherings of hard-liners in Iran.Via: AP | 0 |
21,155 | Trump struggles to win over moderate Republicans on healthcare overhaul | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Time was running short for President Donald Trump to attract enough votes to pass a new bill to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system this week as Republican party moderates held out, fearing a backlash from voters worried about losing insurance benefits. A senior House of Representatives Republican aide said on Tuesday night no decision had been made on bringing legislation to the floor this week before the House is due to start a week-long break late on Thursday. A bill would need to be filed by late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning to hold the vote before the break. Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina, who heads the conservative House Freedom Caucus faction that helped block Trump’s first attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, said earlier on Tuesday Republicans were still “a handful of votes away.” The lack of movement among Republicans puts Trump in danger of his second major legislative setback, raising questions about his ability to secure passage of other parts of his agenda, including a major tax reform plan. Most House Freedom Caucus Republicans have gotten on board with the new proposal, but Democrats are vowing to oppose any attempt to unravel Democratic former President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare overhaul. The latest Republican plan would allow states to opt out of Obamacare provisions that force insurers to charge sick and healthy people the same rates. That is seen as a concession to conservatives to attract their votes. Trump insisted in an interview with CBS News that aired on Sunday that the protections for those with pre-existing conditions would remain. “I think it’s time now” for a healthcare vote, the Republican president said at the White House on Tuesday. Even if a plan passes the House, it is expected to face a tough fight in the Senate, where Republicans have a narrower majority. Republicans contend that Obama’s signature 2010 healthcare law, which allowed some 20 million Americans to gain medical insurance, is too intrusive and expensive. The White House sent Vice President Mike Pence to the Capitol on Tuesday to meet Republican holdouts on the party’s latest effort to pass a healthcare overhaul. Republicans remain divided over key aspects of the healthcare bill, with some lawmakers worrying about a potential spike in the number of people without coverage, or sharp increases in insurance premiums. Representative Daniel Webster, whose central Florida district is home to many retirees, said Pence told him he would try to work out problems caused by proposed Medicaid spending caps that would limit nursing-home beds. “I just think it’s going to cost us a lot in Florida,” Webster said. Another Florida Republican, Thomas Rooney, said confusion over the potential loss of coverage for pre-existing conditions had his constituents scared that “they’re going to die because of a vote that we might be taking.” Conservative groups such as the Club for Growth and Heritage Action started to increase pressure on moderate Republicans who were resisting the bill, such as Representative Billy Long of Missouri. “Billy is using liberal talking points to distort the truth,” Club for Growth President David McIntosh said, adding that Long “may want to keep Obamacare.” Left-leaning groups, including the Center for American Progress (CAP), were pushing their members to call lawmakers to urge them to oppose the healthcare bill, including via 7,000 medicine bottles delivered to congressional districts. Emily Tisch Sussman, a CAP organizer, said those efforts had generated “tens of thousands” of phone calls. Patient advocacy groups, including the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association, also oppose the reworked bill, while the American Medical Association and others have expressed concerns. | 1 |
21,156 | Florida Judge Blames Rape Victim For Attending Music Festival | The Ultra Music Festival in Miami is one of the largest electronic dance music festivals in the World. Over 170,000 people attended this year, and with it came several arrests, but one of the most horrific was the rape of a tourist from Brazil, which was blamed by a Florida judge due to the festival.Transit worker for the Department of Transportation and Public Works in Miami, Carl Lee Wilt, allegedly took the 22-year-old girl into a utility closet after she was prevented from boarding a public transit train for being too intoxicated, according to the police report.A witness harassed police officers in the area for 15 minutes until they decided to knock on the utility door, which Wilt opened five minutes later with his pants undone. Police said Wilt admitted to sexually assaulting the girl, but apparently stopped when she defecated herself.The girl told officers she had no recollection of how she met Wilt or what happened during their encounter.Miami-Dade judge Nushin Sayfie ordered Wilt be held without bond, who faces kidnapping and sexual battery charges, but then proceeded to blame the victim and the Ultra Music Festival for the rape. This is why we shouldn t let our kids go to Ultra right here, Sayfie said, who was appointed by former Republican Florida Governor Charlie Crist in 2007. Her argument is straight out of the 1984 Kevin Bacon film, Footloose, in which a small town has banned dancing and rock music. Unlike policing victims behavior, educating people about rape can make lasting progress toward prevention. One study showed that after just one hour of education on sexual assault, men were less likely to believe myths about rape or consider being sexually coercive, wrote Suzannah Weiss in a 2015 article for Bustle. Once we recognize that sexual assault can happen to anyone, we can stop wondering what the victim did to deserve it and start wondering what allowed the perpetrator to go through with it. That s the only way we can gain the control we crave and create the just world we want to believe in. It is deeply disturbing this type of blame-the-victim language is coming from a judge in one of the biggest cities in the country. Carl Lee Wilt would have raped someone given the opportunity to, no matter whether there was a dance festival going on or not. Judge Sayfie should reevaluate her own judgment on these issues before presiding over another similar case. Featured image via Flickr | 0 |
21,157 | Will Hillary Clinton Return The Artifacts She Took When Leaving The White House? | What the heck! Hillary and Bill really are the grifters I ve always said they were. Here s proof:Hillary Clinton bristled during Saturday s Democratic debate when she was asked about her role as First Lady, which put her in charge of the Clinton administration s White House floral and dining arrangements.But perhaps this Christmas season Clinton could actually return some of the items that she and her husband walked off with during their departure in 2001.As the White House s keyboards were losing their W buttons, so too was the First Lady making off with an historic haul in the form of gifts and presents from friends. Some actual White House artifacts ended up being part of the loot, according to Sally Bedell Smith, author of the 2007 book, For Love Of Politics. [The Clintons ] financial-disclosure forms revealed that they walked away with $190,027 worth of furniture, china, flatware, art, and other gifts, nearly half of it acquired in their final year. It also turned out that they took some property that actually belonged to the permanent White House collection. How did Clinton obtain these gifts, despite the fact that she was legally banned, as a United States Senator, from taking gifts over $50?She took advantage of her status as First Lady to get around the rules, and claimed that she got the gifts at White House during Christmas time, days before she was sworn in to the Senate.The Associated Press reported in 2001 that as A Senator, Mrs. Clinton Is Prohibited From Accepting Most Gifts Worth More Than $50. But Since The Presents Arrived While She Still Was First Lady, No Such Limit Applied. Read more: Breitbart | 0 |
21,158 | Belgian-based businessman challenges Grace Mugabe's diamond ring claim | HARARE (Reuters) - A Belgian-based businessman on Friday challenged Zimbabwean First Lady Grace Mugabe s accusation that he duped her of a $1.35 million diamond ring and asked her to provide the court with evidence to back her lawsuit. President Robert Mugabe s wife Grace this week sued Jamal Hamed in a Harare High Court, accusing him of failing to deliver the 100 carat jewel she said she had ordered from him for her wedding anniversary last year. Grace, 52, who is seen as a possible successor to her 93-year-old husband, said Hamed had instead provided an inferior ring worth $30,000 and when she had complained had refunded only $120,000. But Hamed filed his own court application disputing the claim and demanded that Grace should supply the court with details such as a copy of the sale agreement and proof of payment before he put in his defense. Hamed s lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said she had deposed the court papers on behalf of her client on Friday. In the court papers seen by Reuters, Hamed, a British national, said Grace should also provide proof that he in fact owned Zimbabwean companies the first lady wished to be sold to recover the money When, exactly, is it alleged the payment was done? Full dates are required. Full details of the account holder, the account number and a copy of the account statement are required, Hamed said in the court application. Grace s lawyer Wilson Manase did not answer his phone when contacted for comment. The court case has lifted a veil on the wealthy lifestyle of Mugabe and his wife, nicknamed Gucci Grace for her reputed dedication to shopping, at a time Zimbabwe is in the grip of a severe U.S. dollar crunch and cash shortages. | 1 |
21,159 | Chinese envoy exchanges views on Korean peninsula issue in North Korea | BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese envoy exchanged views on the Korean peninsula issue with North Korean officials during a visit to North Korea, China s state news agency Xinhua said on Monday. It did not immediately give details, but Song Tao, head of the international department of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, has been in Pyongyang to discuss the outcome of the recently concluded Communist Party Congress in Beijing. | 1 |
21,160 | East Libyan forces make new push to end Islamist resistance in Benghazi | BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Eastern Libyan forces on Thursday expelled Islamist fighters from one of their last strongholds in the country s second-largest city of Benghazi, military officials said. The battle for Benghazi between the Libyan National Army led by Khalifa Haftar and an array of Islamist militants and other fighters has been part of a broader conflict since Libya slipped into turmoil following the 2011 fall of strongman Muammar Gaddafi. Several Islamists and one soldier were killed when special forces moved into the Khreibish district, one of the remaining pockets of resistance after Haftar declared victory in the battle for in Benghazi in July. Ten soldiers were wounded. Commander Wanis Bukhamada told Reuters on Thursday evening his special forces controlled almost the entire district after a day of heavy fighting. Tonight will be the last night for Daesh in Khreibish, he said, using a derogatory name for Islamic State. Haftar launched his Operation Dignity campaign in May 2014, slowly gaining the upper hand against Islamist militants and former rebels who fought Gaddafi in the 2011 uprising. Haftar is aligned with a government and parliament in eastern Libya. He has rejected a U.N.-backed government based in the capital, Tripoli, as he has gradually strengthened his position on the ground. | 1 |
21,161 | china airport security robot gives electroshocks | suspect captured in ambushstyle killings of two iowa cops
usa today
authorities captured a yearold male suspect without incident wednesday hours after an earlymorning ambushstyle killing of two police officers in the des moines metro area
the suspect in the backtoback killings was identified as scott michael greene said urbandale police spokesman sgt chad underwood before capturing him police had described greene who was last seen driving a blue ford f with an iowa license plate as armed and dangerous
greene was taken into custody by the dallas county sheriffs department while walking along a rural road in redfield about miles west of where the shootings occurred
according to police greene flagged down a passing department of natural resources officer handed over his id and told the officer to call police no shots were fired and there was no struggle according to police
the suspect was taken by ambulance to a des moines hospital with an unknown injury
in a late morning news conference police identified the slain officers as urbandale police officer justin martin and des moines police sgt anthony tony beminio
the attacks began around am ct when police departments from both cities responded to reports of gunfire at the intersection of th street and aurora avenue in urbandale
the first officers arriving on the scene found martin fatally wounded about minutes later some two miles away beminio was was shot near the intersection of merle hay road and sheridan ave while responding to reports of the first officers shooting beminio was transported to iowa methodist medical center where he died scott michael greene photo des moines police
both officers were gunned down in their patrol cars
it doesnt look like there was any interaction between these officers and whoever the coward is that shot them while they sat in their cars a visibly emotional parizek told reporters
in all appearances it looks that these officers were ambushed he added officer from des moines and another from urbandale were shot and killed in their cars dmpolice said officersdown
daniel p finney newsmanone november
des moines police fearing officers were being singled out paired up its patrol officers so none were on the street alone parizek said
theres literally a clear and present danger if youre a police officer he said
police did not offer many details on how investigators identified greene as a suspect underwood said he was identified through a series of leads and a series of investigative tips
as of an earlymorning news conference police were still notifying the family members of the slain officers and planned to withhold the officers names years of service and other details until later in the day parizek said
attorney general loretta lynch condemned the killings saying violence has no place in the united states of america
let me be clear there is no message in murder the attorney general said referring to simmering distrust between law enforcement and many communities across the country violence creates nothing it only destroys a des moines police officer was found fatally shot in a vehicle near the intersection of merle hay road and sheridan avenue in des moines on wednesday nov photo brian powers the des moines register
its the first time des moines has seen a police officer shot and killed in the line of duty since two officers were gunned down in separate incidents in
two des moines officers susan farrell and carlos puentemorales died earlier this year when their vehicle was struck headon by a wrongway drunk driver
the killing of the urbandale officer appeared to be the citys first for an officer shot in the line of duty underwood said at the news conference
parizek thanked the community for its support when the department lost farrell and puentemorales as well as with this tragedy
i dont even know where to begin on how bad this year is he said but this is what we do we come in day in and day out we go out there and provide the same level of service regardless of whats going on in our personal and professional lives officers investigate the scene at merle hay and sheridan ave where an officer was found shot at about am on on wednesday nov in urbandale
in a statement iowa gov terry branstad called the attack on the officers an attack on the public safety of all iowans
we call on iowans to support our law enforcement officials in bringing this suspect to justice he said our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the police officers who were tragically killed in the line of duty as well as the officers who continue to put themselves in harms way
iowa sen joni ernst extended her thoughts and prayers to the families of the officers killed
although the investigation is still unfolding what appears to be an ambush attack of police in the line of duty is an attack on the community at large and all of the men and women who risk their lives every day to protect us ernst said this was a senseless act of violence and it cannot be tolerated
finney and haley report for the des moines register follow them on twitter newsmanone and charlyhaley stanglin reports for usa today in mclean va | 0 |
21,162 | DINGBAT NANCY STRIKES AGAIN! Watch Nancy Pelosi Refer To NRA As Part Of Intelligence Committee [VIDEO] | Let s play a fun game called, What the hell did Nancy just say? Every time Nancy opens her mouth, she proves that President Trump s election has caused her and her dingbat counterpart Rep. Maxine Waters to become completely unhinged.Here is the transcript from Nancy Pelosi s most recent appearance at the Peter G. Peterson Foundation s 2017 Fiscal Summit. Can someone please tell us exactly what Nancy is trying to say here? Talk about Russia s undermining our elections. They did it. Thisss .isss (mumble, mumble) isn t any question. They hacked, they leaked, they disrupted. The question is, was there collusion between the (mumble) campaign and the next. You can t know until you have the full-fledged (mumble mumble). To have a President say to the. If he did. To the uh director of the FBI or the DNI, the Director of National Intelligence, or the NRA .person that um uh that that uh that they should uh not go forward uh it raises questions that uh needs to be answered in a facts and law way and not a hearsay Watch:As if Nancy s ridiculous NRA slip wasn t bad enough, she goes on to clarify why she is uniquely qualified to speak on such important matters as Russian collusion with the Trump campaign because of her vast experience in working with the United States intelligence community, in fact, Nancy claims she has more experience than anyone else. Too bad she doesn t even know the NRA isn t part of the intelligence community: | 0 |
21,163 | Obama says will continue to try to affect change in Syria | BERLIN (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday said it would be naive to expect a 180-degree turn by Russia or Syrian President Bashar al Assad, but the United States and its allies would continue to try to affect change to end the deadly Syrian crisis. Obama spoke at a joint news conference after a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. | 1 |
21,164 | From new tax office, Catalonia hopes to grab billions from Madrid | BARCELONA (Reuters) - In a glass building overlooking Barcelona s port, empty desks and computers wait for new workers of Catalonia s tax agency. As in other Spanish regions, the agency already collects some taxes on wealth, inheritance, gambling and transport. But the regional government has spent 18 million euros expanding the agency in the hope that it will gain independence from Madrid in an Oct. 1 vote that the Spanish government considers illegal. From the shiny port office with a 20 year lease, it is hoping to wrestle control of the rest of the region s finances, claiming billions of euros of income tax and corporate revenue currently going to the Spanish government. Catalonia has increased the agency s staff by 75 percent to 700 since January and plans to fill the empty desks by the end of the year if the vote goes through. It has also opened a dozen new regional offices. This is Catalonia s most tangible investment in the institutional infrastructure needed for a fledgling state and highlights its government s determination to secede. It says it will declare independence within 48 hours of a yes vote. It also shows that they are likely to keep pushing for independence, even if they lose the vote. In a future transition, it would not be acceptable for them to keep our taxes, because they are ours and they keep a lot, said Catalan Treasury Secretary Josep Lluis Salvado. Madrid has declared the vote unconstitutional so there are widespread doubts about whether Catalonia can even stage a credible vote. It may also not go in the Catalonian government s favor. Polls show less than half of Catalonia s 5.5 million voters want self-rule although most want the chance to vote on the issue. It is also not clear that companies would pay up: Barcelona s business lobby says no private firms would obey Catalan tax demands unless approved by Madrid. But the Spanish government appears to be rattled. On Wednesday police entered the Catalan economy and budget department and the tax office as part of a raid on regional government offices, seizing documents and cutting off phone lines, according to a department official. It was the latest step in Madrid s campaign to prevent the referendum from going ahead. During the raids, police arrested Salvado, the junior economy minister Josep Maria Jove and three other department officials, the official said. They remain under arrest, the official said. Catalonia s resolve also worries some investors in Spanish bonds and the tax agency s expansion suggests an early post-independence flashpoint with Madrid could be a financial one. Catalonia, with an economy larger than Portugal s, says it receives an unfair redistribution of tax revenues from Madrid. Each year, it pays about 10 billion euros ($12 billion) more in taxes to Madrid than it gets back, or around 5 percent of regional economic output, according to data from the Spanish Treasury. In contrast, Spain s poorest region, Andalusia, receives almost 8 billion euros more than it pays in. The money issue is one of the roots of the problem, the feeling that Catalonia is being ripped off, said Angel Talavera, a Catalan economist at consultancy Oxford Economics. If its agency took over all forms of taxation, it would also collect income, company and value-added taxes, bringing total receipts to 42 billion euros, Salvado said. The agency collected about 3 billion euros last year, according to a spokeswoman for the Catalan economy and budget department. To avoid financial collapse, an independent Catalonia would need those tax revenues, economists say. It has 75 billion euros in public debt, 35 percent of its economic output, one of the highest of all Spain s regions, and its government bonds are already classified as junk by credit rating agencies. Investors are growing nervous as the referendum nears: the additional yield that Catalan bonds pay over Spanish short-term debt is at close to a nine-month high of about 300 basis points. The Catalan government last issued a bond in 2012, two years ahead of a previous failed independence referendum. It is not currently considering any bond issues, a spokeswoman said. Upon a declaration of independence, Salvado said Catalonia would seek to open talks with Madrid to take over all taxation in phases. It would start in October by pocketing 2.5 billion euros in taxes from about 700 public Catalan firms that currently goes to Madrid. Later, the agency would collect tax from private firms and individuals. It could take years and the agency would need at least another 4,000 employees, Salvado added. The principal challenge is to make sure the taxpayer does not perceive a change, he said. Spain s Treasury has told Catalan businesses that paying taxes to the regional tax agency could constitute a crime. Madrid also took legislative steps last week to prevent the Catalan government from using Spanish public funds to pay for the ballot. At the moment companies view it as impossible, they don t consider it, Jordi Alberich, director of Barcelona-based business association Cercle d Economia, told Reuters. The Catalan government also lacks the database needed to correctly collect personal income and company taxes, according to Carlos Cruzado, the head of the Spanish Treasury s workers union. Salvado said the agency had sufficient data on taxpayers inheritance and wealth taxes to make a start on taking over other forms of taxation, but they would seek to negotiate access to Spain s historical tax records. He did not expect a positive response. The Spanish state is going to use its preferred word - No . | 1 |
21,165 | TRUMP’S STATEMENT On Muslim Immigration Is Spot On: “We have no choice!” [Video] | Donald Trump: With fifty people dead and perhaps more ultimately and dozens more wounded we cannot afford to talk around issues anymore. We have to address these issues head on. I called for a ban after San Bernardino and it was met with great scorn and anger. And now many are saying although the pause is temporary we must find out what is going on. We have to do it. | 0 |
21,166 | Trump Suspects Bannon Is The White House Leaker. But Who Leaked THAT? | According to a new report Saturday from Axios, a source very close to Donald Trump has indicated that Trump believes his chief strategist Steve Bannon is to blame for leaks coming out of the White House regarding other members of Trump s staff. It would be easy to say at this point that Bannon s position at Trump s right hand is in jeopardy, but the fact that Trump is simply talking about it instead of firing him already may indicate otherwise.This could be an elaborate test to see if the news that Trump suspects Bannon makes it out of the White House, which of course it has meaning whoever the president told about his suspicions is, if not the leaker, at least also a leaker. Or it could be that Bannon is innocent, and the Axios source is the leaker, trying to throw everyone off the trail. Most likely, however, is that Donald Trump is a loose-lipped dipshit who doesn t care who his audience is, he just wants to look like he knows what he s doing. Even having a suspicion means he s thinking about it, right?Bannon has not commented on the news, nor is he likely to. The notorious white supremacist has more to worry about right now with his movement than whether or not he keeps his job at the White House. After Saturday s vehicular murder of one protester and grievous injury to 3 dozen others following Friday s torchlight rally of the alt-Right and KKK, more attention will surely be paid to nationalist hate groups across the country, regardless of what Trump or Bannon wants.The odds of Trump finally getting rid of the Breitbart impresario of intolerance are much higher now that his new Chief of Staff, General John Kelly, has already set a precedent with the firing of Anthony Scaramucci.Then again, it could be that Bannon knows where all the bodies are buried, so to speak, and Trump can t risk getting rid of him whether he trusts him or not. All I know is, both Donald Trump and Steve Bannon are unhappy, and that makes me smile.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 0 |
21,167 | Pence delays Middle East trip in case needed for U.S. tax vote | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will delay an upcoming Middle East trip by a few days in case a tie-breaking vote is needed from him for tax cut legislation in Congress, a senior White House official said on Thursday. Pence will now leave some time on Tuesday on a trip that will begin with a visit to Cairo for talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the official said. He had initially planned to leave late on Saturday. As vice president, Pence can cast a tie-breaking vote in the U.S. Senate, and with a close vote expected along party lines on the tax legislation, it was decided to keep him in the country just in case. Republican Senator John McCain, who is fighting brain cancer, was in hospital on Wednesday. “We don’t expect his vote to be needed but we don’t want the scenario where he’s on the other side of the world and we have to come back,” the official said. Pence is set to hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday in Jerusalem. Pence’s press secretary, Alyssa Farah, said that during the trip, Pence would reaffirm the U.S. commitment to U.S. allies in the Middle East and to working together with them in the fight against Islamist militants. “He looks forward to having constructive conversations with both Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Sisi to reaffirm President Trump’s commitment to our partners in the region and to its future,” she said in a statement. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has refused to meet with Pence in protest of President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. | 1 |
21,168 | Gunmen kill 13 Niger gendarmes in attack near Mali border | NIAMEY (Reuters) - Gunmen on pick-up trucks and motorcycles coming from Mali killed 13 gendarmes and wounded five more in an attack on their base in western Niger, security sources said on Saturday. The village is a few dozen kilometers (miles) from where militants killed four U.S. soldiers in an ambush on Oct. 4 that has thrown a spotlight on a U.S. counter-terrorism mission in Niger, a country that straddles an expanse of the Sahara. Niger s military officials confirmed the attack. The assailants crossed over the border from Mali and drove up to the village of Ayorou, about 40 km (25 miles) inside, before springing their attack, the security sources said. They were heavily armed. They had rocket launchers and machine guns. They came in four vehicles each with about seven fighters, said a security source on the scene. Reinforcements later arrived and stopped them as they tried to cross back over the border, another security source on the scene said, triggering a gun battle. They escaped into Mali and were being pursued, he added. Land and air forces are pursuing the assailants with a view to neutralising them, a statement from Niger s military said, confirming the death toll. In the initial attack one of the assailants was killed in an exchange of fire but others managed to make off with four Nigerien army vehicles, the first security source said. Since taking over swathes of northern Mali in 2012, and then being scattered by a French-led counter-offensive the following year, Islamist militants have established themselves in lawless spaces across the desert. They have used these areas as a springboard for a wave of attacks that threaten to destabilize West Africa. Fighters have inflicted damage on military outposts, killed security officials and civilians, kidnapped Westerners and sometimes mounted high-profile attacks on hotels and resorts across the region, including in Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. Several Islamist groups and well-armed ethnic militia operate in the area along the Mali-Niger border. There have been at least 46 attacks there since early last year. However, officials suspect many of them, including the ambush on the joint U.S.-Niger patrol, to be the work of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, led by Arabic-speaking north African militant Adnan Walid al-Sahrawi. He has pledged allegiance to Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, although the extent of their ties are not known. No group has yet claimed responsibility for Saturday s attack, nor the one that killed the U.S. soldiers. Responding to its ever growing militant threat, Mali on Saturday announced a year extension of a state of emergency. I hope we won t need to continue extending the state of emergency, Defence Minister Tiena Coulibaly told reporters. We hope that before Oct. 31, 2018, order will be restored. The increasingly fluid, cross-border nature of the militant threat forced the Sahel countries Mali, Niger, Chad, Mauritania and Burkina Faso to launch a joint force known as G5 Sahel in July, to try better coordinate policing their deserts. But it has yet to receive a commitment to more than a fraction of the donor funding that it needs. A U.N. Security Council delegation was in Mali on Saturday to discuss the force. This tragedy is one more element that ... underlines the urgency of a strong and determined response through the creation of the joint G5 Sahel force, French permanent representative to the U.N. Francois Delattre told journalists during the meetings. | 1 |
21,169 | Syrian Kurdish militia open fire on Turkish border post: CNN Turk | ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Syrian Kurdish PYD forces sprayed a Turkish border post with gunfire late on Tuesday, wounding one soldier, and Turkey responded with artillery fire, private broadcaster CNN Turk said The gunfire came from Afrin province in northwest Syria, it added. No further information was immediately available. Turkey views the PYD and its armed YPG affiliate as offshoots of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a decades-long insurgency in Turkey and is designated a terrorist group by Ankara, the United States and the European Union. | 1 |
21,170 | CAMPUS CRAZINESS: Student’s Grade Goes Down For Using The Word “Mankind” [Video] | A battle for mankind is taking place inside a Northern Arizona University classroom. An English major at NAU contacted an educational watchdog this week after she was penalized for refusing to use a gender-neutral term in lieu of mankind. A follow-up email by Dr. Anne Scott said that anyone who does not abide by the letter or spirit of the class must be docked for their decision. Included with class rules were several examples of what was and wasn t OK to use, student Cailin Jefferstold Campus Reform Tuesday. In one of these examples she stated that we could not use the word mankind. Instead, we should use humankind. I thought this was absurd, and I wasn t sure if she was serious. Dr. Scott took one point out of 50 off Ms. Jeffers paper and noted that the Modern Language Association is working to have gender-neutral guidelines adopted on a national level. I will respect your choice to leave your diction choices as is and to make whatever political and linguistic statement you want to make by doing so, the professor wrote. By the same token, I will still need to subtract a point because your choice will not be made in the letter or spirit of this particular class, which is all about having you and other students looking beneath your assumptions and understanding that mankind does not mean all people to all people. It positively does not. An email was sent to the entire class shortly afterward, which stated the crucial need to recognize that our word choices mean a great deal and have consequences in terms of what we reveal about our assumptions about ourselves and others, and the world generally. Via: WT | 0 |
21,171 | WATCH: Obama Takes A PERFECT Shot At Trump’s Never Ending Tweeting | President Obama appeared at a campaign rally alongside Hillary Clinton, and just couldn t resist getting in a dig or two about our wannabe Tweeter-in-Chief (because really, he makes it so easy). He said that generally, people don t understand the job that is being President of the United States, and then went into expert-marksman mode to hit Trump for his tweeting and lack of experience: Everybody can tweet, but nobody actually knows what it takes to do the job until you sit behind the desk. I mean, Sasha tweets, but she doesn t think that she s thereby should be sitting behind the desk. The implication is that his daughter, Sasha, is smarter than King Dunce because she knows tweeting is just tweeting. King Dunce uses Twitter as a weapon, talking himself up and tearing down anybody he doesn t like with childish namecalling, complete ignorance, and outright lies. What his tweeting does is actually show him for the fraud he is.Watch him hit Drumpf below, via ABC News:.@POTUS takes shot at Donald Trump at Clinton rally: Everybody can tweet https://t.co/i2lNlfUQnT https://t.co/Lr5grwuuQz ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) July 5, 2016Obama also talked up Hillary s qualifications in that speech, explaining how he s come a very long way in how he sees her since the 2008 election cycle, when they were opponents. She, likewise, praised Obama, saying she d been privileged to see him in so many different roles. Then she took her own shot at the Dunce-in-Chief s birtherism and tweeting, saying: And Donald, if you are out there tweeting, it is Hawaii. The snark is strong in these two. Tweetle-Drumpf hasn t tweeted a response to this yet, but if he does, it will lack the sharp edge of experience and intelligence that Obama and Hillary display, even in their snarkiness.Featured image via screen capture from embedded video | 0 |
21,172 | Turkey's Erdogan gets warm welcome in mainly Muslim Serbian town | NOVI PAZAR, Serbia (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan received a rapturous welcome on Wednesday during a visit to the Serbian town of Novi Pazar, capital of the Muslim majority Sandzak region that has seen mass emigration to Turkey since the violent breakup of Yugoslavia. Erdogan, on a two-day visit to Serbia, hopes to boost Turkey s economic and cultural influence in the Balkan region, which was part of the Ottoman empire for centuries, at a time of increased tensions with the European Union and United States. We have special relations with this region. Your happiness is our happiness, your pain is our pain, Erdogan told more than 10,000 people gathered in front of the municipality building. Sandzak is the biggest bridge linking us with our brothers in Serbia, he said, with Serbia s President Aleksandar Vucic standing close by. Turkish influence is already strong among fellow Muslims in Bosnia, Albania and Kosovo, but mainly Orthodox Christian Serbia is traditionally much closer to Russia. However, Belgrade and Ankara, which both want to join the EU but are frustrated by the slow pace of progress, are keen to increase bilateral trade. Erdogan said Turkey would finance the construction of a road linking Sandzak with the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, reconstruct an Ottoman-era hammam and build a bridge in Novi Pazar. In Belgrade on Tuesday, Erdogan pledged gas and Turkish investments for the Balkans and he signed deals with Vucic to expand a bilateral free trade agreement. In Novi Pazar, local people waved Turkish flags and the green and blue flags of Serbia s Muslim community, and chanted Allahu Akbar (God is greatest). A big banner read Welcome Sultan and was signed by Ottoman grandchildren . Erdogan is our nation s leader, Vucic is our state leader, this is the greatest day for us Muslims to have them both here, Ismail Ismailovic, 28, from the nearby town of Tutin, farmer, sporting long beard and white embroidered Muslim skull cap. It was a far cry from the 1990s when Serbia and Turkey were sharply at odds in the conflicts that tore apart Yugoslavia. Turkey sees itself as the historic defender of Muslims across the Balkan region. I know I am not going to be welcomed here like Erdogan is, said Vucic, who was a firebrand Serbian nationalist during the wars of the 1990s but has turned strongly pro-EU. But at least I can come out and say that I am working in your best interest. | 1 |
21,173 | Facebook says likely Russian-based operation funded U.S. ads with political message | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc said on Wednesday it had found that an operation likely based in Russia spent $100,000 on thousands of U.S. ads promoting divisive social and political messages in a two-year-period through May. Facebook, the dominant social media network, said 3,000 ads and 470 “inauthentic” accounts and pages spread polarizing views on topics including immigration, race and gay rights. Another $50,000 was spent on 2,200 “potentially politically related” ads, likely by Russians, Facebook said. U.S. election law bars foreign nationals and foreign entities from spending money to expressly advocate the election or defeat of a candidate. Non-U.S. citizens may generally advertise on issues. Other ads, such as those that mention a candidate but do not call for the candidate’s election or defeat, fall into what lawyers have called a legal gray area. Facebook announced the findings in a blog post by its chief security officer, Alex Stamos, and said that it was cooperating with federal inquiries into influence operations during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Facebook briefed members of both the Senate and House of Representatives intelligence committees on Wednesday about the suspected Russia advertising, according to a congressional source familiar with the matter. Both committees are conducting probes into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, including potential collusion between the campaign of President Donald Trump and Moscow. Facebook also gave its findings to Robert Mueller, the special counsel in charge of investigating alleged Russian interference in last year’s presidential election, a source familiar with the matter said. The company produced copies of advertisements as well as data about the buyers, the source said. Mueller’s office declined to comment. Facebook said it found no link between the Russian-purchased advertising and any specific presidential campaign. The ads were mostly national in their focus and did not appear to reflect targeting of political swing-states, the company said. Even if no laws were violated, Facebook said the 470 accounts and pages associated with the ads ran afoul of the social network’s requirements for authenticity and have since been suspended. Facebook did not print the names of any of the suspended pages, but some of them included such words as “refugee” and “patriot.” More than $1 billion was spent on political ads during the 2016 presidential campaign, thousands of times more than the presumed Russian spending identified by Facebook’s security team. But the findings buttress U.S. intelligence agency conclusions that Russia was actively involved in shaping the election. Facebook previously published a white paper on influence operations, including what it said were fake “amplifier” accounts for propaganda, and said it was cracking down. As recently as June, Facebook told journalists that it had not found any evidence of Russian operatives buying election-related ads on its platform. Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called the Facebook report “deeply disturbing and yet fully consistent with the unclassified assessment of the intelligence community.” “We are keenly interested in Russia’s use of social media platforms, both the use of bots and trolls to spread disinformation and propaganda, including through the use of paid online advertising,” he said in a statement. A Facebook employee said Wednesday that there were unspecified connections between the divisive issue ads and a well-known Russian “troll factory” in St. Petersburg that publishes comments on social media. Ellen Weintraub, a member of the U.S. Federal Election Commission, said U.S. voters deserve to know where the ads are coming from and that the money behind them is legal. “It is unlawful for foreign nationals to be spending money in connection with any federal, state or local election, directly or indirectly,” Weintraub said in a phone interview. She declined to comment on the Facebook ads, saying she could not discuss subjects that could come before the agency. Facebook declined to release the ads themselves, prompting a sharp rebuke on Twitter from Pierre Omidyar, the billionaire founder of First Look Media, a producer of feature and documentary films, television and podcasts. “Facebook keeps the targeted political ads it publishes secret, emboldening criminals,” wrote Omidyar, the eBay founder who also provided funding to launch media organization The Intercept. “I don’t see how that can possibly be legal.” Facebook’s disclosure may be the first time a private entity has pointed to receiving Russian money related to U.S. elections, said Brendan Fischer, a program director at the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington nonprofit that advocates for more transparency. “Whoever may have provided assistance to Russia in buying these Facebook ads is very likely in violation of the law,” he said, adding that Facebook has a legal duty to act if it is aware of similar activity in the future. | 1 |
21,174 | BREAKING: HILLARY CLINTON’S Comments On The ‘Rights’ Of The ‘Unborn” Will Send A Chill Up Your Spine [Video] | The unborn person is how Clinton describes the baby in the womb. So if the unborn is a person then wouldn t it have rights? This interview with Clinton shows what a cold-hearted woman she is. She s all for late-term abortion like Obama is but we skewer Trump for being pro-life? The unfavorable ratings with women should be sky high for Clinton. In an interview with Chuck Todd on NBC s Meet the Press airing on Sunday, Clinton said that while it doesn t mean that you don t do everything possible to try to fulfill your obligations [to help the unborn person], it does not include sacrificing the woman s right to make decisions. SHE S JUST COLD Read more: Daily Caller | 0 |
21,175 | Japan PM stresses importance of TPP trade pact in Clinton meeting | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Monday and stressed it was important for the United States to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal that she opposes, Japanese officials said. Abe and Clinton met for about 15 minutes at Abe’s hotel in New York, where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly, the officials said. The meeting was held at Clinton’s request, they said. The two stressed the importance of strengthening the U.S.-Japan security relationship and both outlined their known positions on the 12-nation TPP, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The pact has been agreed, but not ratified by the United States or Japan. Clinton, the Democratic candidate in the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election, has opposed the deal, which is unpopular with labor unions and environmental groups, although she championed it while serving as secretary of state. In a speech to U.S. business leaders in New York on Monday, Abe described TPP as a “pillar” of the U.S. rebalance of policy emphasis to Asia, which comes in response to China’s rise. “Through the TPP, the U.S. can make clear its commitment to playing a leadership role in the growing Asia-Pacific,” he said. “Japan and the U.S. must each obtain domestic approval of the TPP as soon as possible,” Abe said. “Success or failure will sway the direction of the global free trade system, and the strategic environment in the Asia-Pacific.” Abe said he would pursue TPP approval at an upcoming session of Japan’s parliament. “Japan will spare no effort, and we count on the U.S. to do the same,” he said. On Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama engaged Ohio Governor John Kasich, a high-profile political foe, to help press Republicans to approve the TPP before he leaves office in four months. The unusual move is a sign of how the White House intends to make a final full-court push to convince Republican leaders in the U.S. Congress to approve the deal in a “lame duck” session after the election. The TPP has been pilloried by both Republican and Democratic candidates. Republicans traditionally have backed free trade deals, but their presidential candidate, Donald Trump, has blamed them for U.S. job losses and threatened to tear them up should he win. Abe had no meeting with Trump, who has accused Tokyo of not pulling its weight in its security alliance with Washington. The Japanese officials said Trump had not requested a meeting. | 1 |
21,176 | Quake of magnitude 6.2 strikes off Papua New Guinea: USGS | SINGAPORE (Reuters) - An earthquake of magnitude 6.2 struck off the Pacific Ocean nation of Papua New Guinea on Monday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. There were no immediate reports of any damage or injuries from the quake, which struck 125 km (78 miles) east of the town of Rabaul, at a depth of 70 km (44 miles). | 1 |
21,177 | After Las Vegas massacre, Democrats urge gun laws; Republicans silent | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sunday’s massacre in Las Vegas spurred a ritual-like response from U.S. politicians following the mass shootings that have left a trail of victims across the country: Democrats renewed demands for tougher gun laws while Republicans offered up prayers but showed no signs of supporting such legislation. One day after the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, which left at least 59 people dead and over 500 injured, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, said in a statement on Monday: “The whole country stands united in our shock, in our condolences and in our prayers.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, also a Republican, led his chamber in a moment of silence following the “devastating” massacre and urged “national mourning” and prayer. Democrats were not falling in line. “Thoughts & prayers are NOT enough. Not when more moms & dads will bury kids this week, & more sons & daughters will grow up without parents,” Senator Elizabeth Warren said in a morning tweet. Senator Chris Murphy, whose home state of Connecticut was the scene of a mass shooting in 2012 that killed 20 6-year-olds and six adults, was blunter. “It’s time for Congress to get off its ass and do something,” Murphy said in a statement. Murphy said he would introduce a new background check bill and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi also urged passage of legislation toughening checks on gun sales. The Connecticut tragedy sparked serious negotiations in Congress on tighter gun laws, including tougher background checks for gun buyers. But the effort failed in 2013 amid strong opposition from gun groups such as the National Rifle Association. Subsequent mass shootings have brought a similar call for Congress to act on tougher gun laws, only to see Republicans and some Democrats balk at what they see as infringements on the right to bear arms embedded in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, asked whether President Donald Trump might now favor tighter gun laws, told reporters: “I think that’s something that we can talk about in the coming days and see what that looks like moving forward.” She said the administration would not want laws created that would fail to “stop these types of things from happening.” Nevada’s two U.S. senators, Republican Dean Heller and Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, on Monday both issued statements offering prayers to victims and thanks to first responders, but neither mentioned anything about gun laws. Ryan, when asked in an interview last month with the Associated Press about steps to diminish gun violence, said many mass shootings were at the hands of people with mental illnesses and said Congress needed to ensure that federal funds were available to address such illnesses. “But if you’re saying that this Republican Congress is going to infringe upon Second Amendment rights, we’re not going to do that,” he said. The House, however, recently passed a massive funding bill for next year that would cut $306 million from the government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration. Democrats on Monday wrote to Ryan asking that he stop from further consideration a bill before the House that would make it easier to buy gun silencers, something that gun control advocates oppose. Supporters argue the bill would protect more gun users from damage to their hearing. Senate Democrats were holding the floor into the evening on Monday to talk about the Las Vegas massacre and the need for gun controls. One California politician offered another possible path forward. Gavin Newsom, the state’s current lieutenant governor and a candidate for governor in the 2018 election, suggested that California act on its own. “We are heartbroken that we can’t pass commonsense gun laws in our nation,” Newsom said in a statement. “If the Republican leadership of Congress and this president continue with their moral and intellectual abandon, California has and must continue to chart the path of rationality.” California has already acted on gun control, with voters last November approving a proposition outlawing possession of ammo magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. As has been the case following past mass shootings in the United States, the Las Vegas murders raised expectations of brisk gun sales by people who fear that gun control laws will be become stricter, driving up the shares of gun makers. American Outdoor Brands rose 3.2 percent while Sturm Ruger & Co rose 3.5 percent. That followed a trend seen following the June 12, 2016 shooting at an Orlando, Florida, nightclub, when American Outdoor gained 7 percent and Ruger jumped 8.5 percent. #GunControlNow was among the top trending hashtags on Twitter in the United States on Monday. | 1 |
21,178 | Trump Comes For McConnell AGAIN With Latest Statement: ‘Fulfill My Campaign Promises For Me Or Quit’ | Donald Trump seems to think that he can bully Congress into doing his bidding, even though they are a separate and co-equal branch of government. His current target is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who Trump is blaming for the failure of the disastrous Trumpcare bill that would have taken healthcare from millions. First, Trump ordered McConnell to get back to work on the healthcare bill, as if McConnell works for him. Now, during a presser amid the North Korea crisis, Trump suggested that at some point McConnell should step down as Senate Majority Leader.When Trump was asked about his attacks on McConnell and his feelings on whether or not the Senate GOP leader should continue in the post, he said: I ll tell you what, if he doesn t get repeal and replace done, and if he doesn t get taxes done, meaning cuts and reform, and if he doesn t get a very easy one to get done, infrastructure, he doesn t get them done, then you can ask me that question. Trump then made it clear that he intends to continue hammering McConnell in public, and he wants the help of the press in doing so: That means ask me that question. Let s hope he gets it done. This is a very clear warning shot, and we know that Trump is a bully. He is angry that he has been humiliated on his signature campaign promise, which is to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act on day one. It is now well past the 200 day mark, and the GOP has proven that even with control of all three branches of the federal government they cannot achieve anything major on the legislative front. It is clear that Trump is taking this personally, that he is feeling aggrieved, and that right now he blames Mitch McConnell for that failure.McConnell better use his Article 1 powers and check the orange fool sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. He should see now that no one is safe from Trump s ire if he believes they have done something disloyal, something to betray him.McConnell would be wise to push back, lest he allow Trump to believe that he can be pushed out by an unruly wannabe dictator.Read more:Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images | 0 |
21,179 | BUSTED: Trump Running Mate Mike Pence Caught Suppressing Up To 10,000 Black Votes | The math for the election is very simple: The more black voters, the worse the results will be for the Republican Party and the party s presidential nominee, Donald Trump. As a result, the Republicans have a perverse incentive to keep black voter numbers as low as possible.And now it appears that Trump s running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, may be doing his part to emulate the Jim Crow south and bar black voters from being registered.Connie Lawson, the Secretary of State for Indiana, sent a letter to state election officials telling them that Patriot Majority USA, a group trying to register black voters were nefarious actors operating in the state. Lawson told officials to snitch to authorities if they received voter registration forms from the group. Combined with state police executing a search warrant against the group, it gave the appearance of vote suppression, according to Craig Varoga, the group s president.The publicity surrounding the actions taken by Lawson and Indiana s state police have cast a shadow over the nonprofits, with many stories accusing them of voter fraud.Varoga said the Oct. 4 police action prevented the group from registering 5,000 to 10,000 additional voters ahead of Indiana s Oct. 11 voter registration deadline. He s worried that clerks won t count some of the 45,000 applications the group had already collected.Republicans, as they often do in election years, have mounted an assault on voter registration drives and mobilization efforts. They have particularly targeted these efforts to minority communities. North Carolina Republicans were recently rebuked by the federal courts when the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals declared most of a 2013 law invalid, since documents revealed that it was designed specifically to target minority voters with a voter ID law, and by banning same-day registration, early voting, and out-of-precinct voting.The judge in that case, Diana Gribbon Motz, wrote, The State s very justification for a challenged statute hinges explicitly on race specifically its concern that African Americans, who had overwhelmingly voted for Democrats, had too much access to the franchise. In Indiana, the Pence regime seems to be working to do the same deed.Featured image by Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Flickr | 0 |
21,180 | Trump's auto review may only slow march to better fuel efficiency | DETROIT (Reuters) - When U.S. President Donald Trump announced a review last week of tough Obama-era vehicle emissions and fuel-efficiency standards, he proclaimed that the “assault on the American auto industry is over.” But rules set by the Environmental Protection Agency may take a backseat to consumers demanding vehicles that guzzle less gas and automakers having to meet tougher standards if they want to export cars overseas, according to auto industry analysts. In the end, U.S. carmakers may just gain a few more years to meet the more stringent targets that former President Barack Obama’s administration negotiated with the companies in 2012, analysts said. If Europe and China continue to toughen their emissions standards, “the U.S. might become an outlier,” American Axle President Mike Simonte told Reuters on Thursday. Trump’s move was widely seen leading to a rollback or loosening of more stringent targets, which would slash vehicle exhaust emissions while effectively doubling average fuel economy to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. Automakers have argued the rules for 2022-2025 are too expensive and could cost American jobs, so the Trump administration’s review was seen as a win for them. On a conference call Thursday with investors, Bob Shanks, Ford Motor Co’s chief financial officer, said, “We are not seeking a rollback in any way. We just want to have a conversation around the levels we want to achieve.” Despite what the EPA may want, California and nine other states in the Zero Emission Vehicle program — eight in the northeast, plus Oregon — are expected to move ahead on Friday with the previously established targets. Those states account for nearly 30 percent of U.S. auto sales. The potential divide with the rest of the country could create a “two-tiered environment with two sets of regulations,” said Mark Wakefield, managing director of AlixPartners’ automotive practice. This “could drive costs higher if automakers have to build two versions of the same vehicle to meet the two different standards.” The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group that sued to overturn the Obama-era rules on behalf of several big automakers, wrote the White House on Thursday urging talks to begin quickly with California to ensure that national standards remain in place. “Automakers seek certainty, predictability and rationality – over time – from the regulatory process,” the group’s CEO Mitch Bainwol wrote. Kristin Dziczek, director of the Center for Automotive Research’s labor and industry group, said U.S. automakers could find it hard to export cars to markets such as China and Europe with tougher regulatory regimes if the U.S. targets were rescinded. “I don’t think we’re going to see a rollback,” she said. “At most, I think we may see a slowing of the timetable” for implementing the tougher standards. AlixPartners’ Wakefield said if China, the world’s largest market, continues pushing electric vehicles while America backpedals, it could lead to “some movement of investment from the U.S. to China, especially as the latter market continues to grow.” General Motors Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV referred Reuters to public comments made by the industry’s lobbying group, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, a climate change skeptic, said the Obama administration estimated it would cost $200 billion over 13 years to comply with stricter standards, which he believes will lead to higher prices for consumers and jobs leaving the country. Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said the auto industry expected to miss the 2022-2025 targets regardless of who occupied the White House, but he believes the EPA’s recent move may carry relatively little weight. “Of all the things that are likely to drive fuel economy, I would rank the EPA a distant third on the list, behind consumer preferences and the direction of technology,” he said. United Auto Workers union President Dennis Williams said while around 60 percent of U.S. auto sales are currently trucks and SUVs, consumers value fuel-economy improvements for those vehicles. “The automakers shouldn’t make the mistake of sliding backward,” Williams said. “We’re here to protect our (union) members, but we understand that in doing so we also have to look at the future.” | 1 |
21,181 | Dan Rather Breaks The Internet With SEARING Rebuke Of Trump’s ‘Andrew Jackson’ Comment | With Trump in the White House, former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather has an awful lot to say, probably because he s been around the political block a couple thousand times, and Trump is a dangerous buffoon, the likes of which we ve never seen. He doesn t comment on everything, and he apparently didn t want to comment on Trump s idea that Andrew Jackson was angry about the Civil War. But he sees something in that absurdity that he felt he needed to point out.According to his Facebook post on the topic, the sheer craziness of this obsession by Donald Trump with Andrew Jackson and the Civil War is a carnival act unlike anything I have ever seen at the White House. These are the rantings of someone who really should be focused on the job of governing. Should we not conclude that he approaches policy decisions with the same half-baked conspiracies with which he apparently approaches history? Trump, at the very least, has been approaching his presidency with the grand level of ignorance with which he approaches history. He recently told Reuters that he didn t think being the president would be so hard. He also said that nobody knew healthcare could be so complicated.Sure, Trump. The only people who did know are, well, pretty much everyone with the most basic understanding of our current political situation.That isn t all Rather blasted Trump about. He also dropped this truth bomb, with hell of a burn at the end, on Trump: To be President of the United States is to part of the great American story. To not understand that story is to not understand the presidency. Maybe Frederick Douglass can give Mr. Trump some advice. Apparently, he s an example of somebody who s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more. This post was shared nearly 18,000 times in five hours, and garnered 70,000 reactions in that same time. Read it below:Featured image by Kirk Irwin via Getty Images for SiriusXM | 0 |
21,182 | Mexico says president Pena Nieto to meet Trump on Wednesday | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto will meet U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for a private meeting on Wednesday, Pena Nieto’s office said via Twitter on Tuesday. The Mexican presidency said the government had sent an invitation to both Trump and Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton for talks and that Trump’s team had accepted. A spokesman for the Mexican presidency said the meeting would be in Mexico and that details of the encounter were still being worked out. | 1 |
21,183 | Three teenagers arrested over assaults during California Trump protest | (Reuters) - Three teenagers were arrested on Wednesday and accused of three separate assaults during a demonstration that turned violent outside a rally for presidential candidate Donald Trump last week in San Jose, California, police said. The three unidentified juveniles, all males, were accused of taking part in a number of skirmishes between Trump supporters and anti-Trump demonstrators last Thursday outside the San Jose Convention Center. Trump held a rally there in the lead-up to Tuesday’s California primary for the Republican party’s presidential nomination. Two of the teenagers, aged 16 and 17, face charges of felony assault with a deadly weapon. The third, also 16, faces a misdemeanor battery charge, the San Jose Police Department said in a statement. One of the teenagers is accused of using a blunt object to strike a victim from behind. The victim suffered visible injuries, according to police. Four others were arrested during the protests last week. Two 19-year-olds and an 18-year-old face charges of felony assault with a deadly weapon, while another 19-year-old faces a misdemeanor charge of refusal to disperse. It is unclear whether the seven charged were Trump supporters or among the hundreds of protesters who were seen on news clips waving Mexican flags, chanting anti-Trump slogans, and burning Trump hats and at least one U.S. flag. Protesters, many angry over Trump’s comments against illegal immigration, have gathered at his rallies for months. Trump, now the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee for the Nov. 8 presidential election, canceled a rally in Chicago in March after clashes broke out between his supporters and protesters. | 1 |
21,184 | no title | return of kings has a great variety of information about many subjects improving your social life health and fitness tourism among several others still our political perspectives might be offputting to some readers on the left although you could tune out whatever you dont agree with you might do well to take a closer look not all of us agree on everything but we do have a rough consensus on some items
our views on the political establishment the left blames corporations while the right blames the government when in reality the two interests work together to subvert the will of the people
its pretty easy to see that this site has a mainly conservative perspective especially on social matters not all of us started out that way many of us began our journey away from the political orthodoxy after realizing what a mess feminism has made of society others have been turned off by political correctness once upon a time i used to be liberal and i know im not the only one be that as it may some of us are actually friendly to liberalism
by the way we dont give a free pass to the mainstream conservative establishment either unfortunately the government in countless ways seeks to amass power for itself while producing fear and dependency in the populace really its not a democrat problem or republican problem theyre basically two sides of the same coin heads they win tails you lose
surely youre in favor of progress one good question though is what exactly this constitutes also who gets to define what is progress all that might seem rhetorical but these are important matters likely you see change as a good thing but whos setting the agenda deciding which direction that change goes actually we have answers for all that
in fact we might have some more in common with you than you expect dont care for agribusiness neither do we are you troubled by the influence of the ultrawealthy in the political process we are too do you suspect that the powerful have set up a system of managed democracy where theyre pulling the purse strings of both the republicans and the democrats if you supported bernie sanders youve probably figured that one out already we understand you
todays political and social scene
you might be disenchanted by some of the things going on with the democratic party today perhaps youve heard of their hypocrisy and contempt for the public are you troubled by some of the clinton scandals maybe even wondered if there was more to it than you expected
perhaps your questioning goes deeper you might wonder who hijacked liberalism it once stood for helping the working man but some time in the s it turned into so much squabbling divisiveness actually theres a reason for that the culture war began long before the s that wasnt about liberation but rather a deliberate attempt to spread divisiveness and weaken the fabric of society
also taxpayers have spent untold money on social programs but why dont they solve problems instead they create intergenerational poverty you might be shocked to learn that encouraging dependency along with taxing and spending to oblivion was actually a stratagem meant to crash the system thats not about helping the disadvantaged its about using them schemes like thesecausing societal upheaval so a socialist paradise will magically fall into placeare pretty reckless
you might shake your head in bewilderment at online mobs of misguided youths spewing bile about things that dont really matter sure youre against police brutality as am i but deep down you also fear what will come of all this open contempt for the law and violence against police the authorities take a pretty dim view of cop killers kind of sounds like someone behind the scenes wants to start a lot of trouble doesnt it
finally you might wonder if the people on top of the liberal establishment really give a damn about the common people we think its rotten that theyre using so many wellmeaning people for the cynical ends of amassing money and power
likely you have some nagging concerns about whats going on in society today why are women both liberated and spoiled and sometimes even hostile cant the feminists see that things arent really so bad sure youre all about tolerance and have lots of gay friends but you privately wonder if there should be sensible limits you might be uncomfortable with all the evangelizing of alternative lifestyles especially if you have children in school
you consider the press to be the bedrock of a free society but you have doubts about journalistic integrity hey we understand the propaganda is everywhere even in shows for young children the media has been feeding you bullshit all your life and we think their lying is rotten you deserve better than that
starting to reconsider
a diehard social justice warrior will seethe with rage for me bringing up these uncomfortable facts even if youre a moderate you might be reluctant to consider any of this we understand rethinking deeply held beliefs is a painful process for so many things youll see that what youve been told is right is actually wrong and what is wrong is really right
many on the left have been there before and found their way out for me someone explained that im not responsible for the worlds problems its not your fault the endless attempts in college to ram opinions down my throat hardened my resolve others whove made the journey have different stories some got religion others realized that their past fanaticism has hurt others some wondered why decades of costly social programs havent accomplished anything some came to see that preferential treatment in hiring decisions is anything but fairness
its in your best interests to purge the misconceptions and guilt trips from your mind still you dont have to abandon everything and embrace the polar opposite some have reached a synthesis position
welcome to the other side
if youve read this far with an open mindand checked out some of the referenced articlesthen you might be confused perhaps youre tempted to reject our message on the other hand you might be shocked and even angry about whats been going on in politics and society
we understand enlightenment is a painful process were here for you the truth hurts but well do the best we can to tell it like it is which is much more than can be said for what youll see on television ive merely scratched the surface here stick with us and youll see how deep the rabbit hole goes
read more the step social justice warrior recovery program | 0 |
21,185 | Trump’s Latino Adviser Severs Ties With The Campaign After Embarrassing Mexico Trip | Donald Trump thought he hit a slam dunk with moderate and independent voters when he decided to visit Mexico. Pundits and right-wing demagogues declared it presidential and said the visit was proof of a softening on immigration.Then Trump went to Arizona, and well, that all changed.Instead of taking a softer approach to the issues of Mexico, immigration and illegal immigration, Trump launched into his classic talking points that a wall will be built (and that Mexico will pay for it), that the United States is being swamped with 30 million illegal immigrants (even though that number is closer to 11 million), and that Mexican immigration poses the same threat as ISIS.Well the speech In Arizona was the last straw for one Trump adviser, Jacob M. Monty, who advises the Republican nominee on Latino issues, among other things.Just last week, Monty posted on his Facebook that Trump is the only candidate who has the skill and will to work with Congress to improve security and deal compasionately with the undocumented population in the US. In a Facebook post on Thursday, Monty denounced Trump and severed ties after he refused to take his advice and instead pandered to xenophobia:And with that, another Trump staffer leaves do to the candidate s blatant racism, xenophobia and lack of respect for those who know what s best.Although Monty has not said who he will be supporting at this point for the presidency, Trump s camp should take the opportunity to truly reflect on who they want to vote for him: the angry whites that will vote for him regardless of how soft he goes on immigration, or conservative leaning Hispanic and Latino voters he desperately needs?Another public embarrassment for the Trump campaign couldn t have come quick enough. This Mexico trip certainly did not work out well in the candidate s favor.Thank you, Jacob Monty, for putting principle over party! Maybe this decision will have Trump s closest advisers thinking long and hard about how to pursue sensitive issues that affect millions of proud people.Featured image via Jacob M. Monty/Facebook | 0 |
21,186 | DHS Officials Tried To Stop Trump’s Unlawful Muslim Ban — Steve Bannon Overruled Them | Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday which enacted the Muslim ban he has been promising for months. A federal judge temporarily blocked the order on Saturday. But now, it appears that Trump s advisor Steve Bannon, who just happens to be a white supremacist, overruled the Department of Homeland Security to pass the bigoted ban in the first place.Like most of Trump s actions, he didn t really bother to consult anybody except for his inner circle about this executive order. He says that he only surrounds himself with the best people but none of them actually have a clue WTF they are doing when it comes to the law. When Trump signed the order nobody even knew what countries were affected by the ban.According to CNN, the policy team at the White House developed the executive order on refugees and visas, and largely avoided the traditional interagency process that would have allowed the Justice Department and homeland security agencies to provide operational guidance. It wasn t until after Trump had signed his name on the dotted line that DHS really got a chance to sit down and try to determine if the order was even legal. A person with knowledge of the matter said that homeland security staff didn t even get to lay eyes on the order until Friday. Even Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and Department of Homeland Security leadership didn t get to see the document until just before Trump signed it into law. The administration also chose not to allow the Office of Legal Counsel to provide legal guidance on the matter.After they were finally allowed to review the order, DHS reportedly decided that the ban could not apply to green card holders, who are legal residents of the U.S., but Trump s Bannon overruled them. CNN reports:It was finally decided that decisions on whether or not to allow green card holders to enter the U.S. would be made on a case by case basis, but directives issued to airlines clearly state that lawful permanent residents are not included and may continue to travel to the USA. This would include green card holders as they are lawful permanent residents of the United States.A source close to the administration said that Bannon had been heading up the directives regarding green cards. No doubt Bannon, with his racist alt-right ideologies, is running point on this whole mission. This is what happens when you let a white supremacist run the country.Featured image via Win McNamee/Getty Images | 0 |
21,187 | South Carolina Exit Poll Finds 75 Percent Of Republicans Believe This Horrific Trump Idea | In another show of just how disturbing the Republican Party s base has become, an astonishing number of primary voters marching out of the polls in South Carolina proudly said they supported Trump s idea to ban Muslims from entering the United States.According to a CBS News exit poll conducted during the South Carolina primary, a staggering 75 percent of voters said they supported Trump s proposal to ban Muslims. This is in line, but actually slightly up, from an earlier South Carolina poll that found Trump supporters overwhelming favored legalizing discrimination against Muslims.There s also 62/23 support among Trump voters for creating a national database of Muslims and 40/36 support for shutting down all the mosques in the United States, something no one else s voters back. Only 44% of Trump voters think the practice of Islam should even be legal at all in the United States, to 33% who think it should be illegal. To put all the views toward Muslims in context though, 32% of Trump voters continue to believe the policy of Japanese internment during World War II was a good one In the days after the San Bernardino terror attack, Trump demanded that America ban Muslims even American citizens currently abroad from entering the country. He ordered a total and complete shutdown on Muslims indefinitely. Or as he put it: Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life. Certain political observers believed that Trump s proposal to ban Muslims even American citizens abroad from entering or re-entering the United States was so far beyond the pale that he would suffer in the polls because of it. Jeb Bush even risked his own campaign to call Trump out on it.Donald Trump is unhinged. His "policy" proposals are not serious. Jeb Bush (@JebBush) December 7, 2015Unfortunately for common decency (and Jeb Bush), Trump s supporters loved the idea. His polls actually went up. Republicans have since only embraced Trump s bigoted ideas at ever scarier levels of enthusiasm.Given the hatred coming out of the election booths, it s no surprise to learn that Donald Trump is projected to win South Carolina by a massive margin. If moderate Republicans are wondering how the GOP went so wrong, they might want to look at what the voters are actually saying: Trump represents discrimination, bigotry, and hatred. And they absolutely adore him.Featured image via Darron Birgenheier/Flickr | 0 |
21,188 | after vets fight war feds demand money back | bill clintons son danney williams has youtube channel restored youtube had deactivated channel hosting popular documentary linking williams to bill clinton infowarscom october comments
youtube has decided to reverse its ban on a channel registered by a man who claims to be bill clintons longlost son
your youtube account was suspended due to repeated or severe violations of our terms and our community guidelines and as such cannot be restored the company wrote earlier this week to danney williams after he filed an appeal to restore his channel
for decades williams has been on a mission to reunite with the person he believes to be his biological father the nd president of the united states william jefferson clinton
the most popular video on the channel a nineminute minidocumentary posted two weeks ago produced by filmmaker joel gilbert features the yearold williams recounting memories from his childhood which prompted the search for his father
arguing the channel had absolutely zero violations of any kind gilbert places blame for the suspension squarely at google and the clinton campaigns feet
its obvious to me that the fix is in gilbert wrote in a statement the only possible explanation is that the clinton campaign requested youtubegoogle to silence danny to run him off the plantation as danny said hillary clinton did to him and his aunt when he was a small child and they were chased off the grounds of the arkansas governors mansion in
youtube later restored williams channel early thursday morning claiming a review confirmed it was not in violation of its terms of service
last week danney went to las vegas the site of the third us presidential debate where he held a press conference alongside his lawyers announcing his intention to seek a dna sample from bill clinton in order to settle the paternity dispute
danney and his lawyers claim a previous dna test carried out by the tabloid star magazine failed to obtain a blood sample from clinton an assertion confirmed by one of stars former editors to world net daily
i dont remember ever seeing any laboratory test that was done on clintons dna former star magazine editor phil bunton stated to wnd
watch infowars exclusive instudio interview with danney williams from earlier in october newsletter sign up get the latest breaking news specials from alex jones and the infowars crew related articles | 0 |
21,189 | Lithuania says east-west schism within EU benefits Russia | WARSAW (Reuters) - Lithuania said a growing rift between some eastern and western European Union states over issues such as migration posed a threat to the bloc at a time of increased Russian military assertiveness. Frictions between ex-communist states in Europe s East and the wealthier West have increased since the 2015 migration crisis and Britain s decision to leave the bloc, as leaders try to quell popular disenchantment with the EU. Nationalist politicians in Poland and Hungary have called for sweeping reform to bring more power back to member states at the expense of Brussels bureaucracy and refused to take part in efforts to relocate migrants from the Middle East. I believe it s a worry, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told Reuters on the sidelines of a security conference in Warsaw, when asked about Polish and Hungarian assertiveness within the EU. We would like to see more cohesion, he said. I know who is gaining. Those who are not happy with our cohesion, Linkevicius said, adding that he was referring to Russia. We are taking it very seriously not to help those who would like to divide East and West. Lithuania, alongside Poland, has been particularly worried about Russia since Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. NATO has sought to reassure allies in the region by sending troops to the Baltics, Poland and the Black Sea, setting up a network of NATO outposts, holding more exercises and preparing a rapid response force. Some western officials have expressed concern that parts of the Baltic states, which have large ethnic Russian minorities, could be seized by Moscow, much as Russia took control of Crimea. Linkevicius said good relations with EU powerhouses Germany and France within the EU were crucial because of their ability to help militarily. Poland, in particular, has seen ties with Paris and Berlin deteriorate since 2015, when the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party took power, over issues such as military procurement, wartime reparations and the EU s single market rules. | 1 |
21,190 | Netanyahu lobbies world powers to stem Iraqi Kurd setbacks | JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is lobbying world powers to prevent further setbacks to Iraqi Kurds as they lose ground to Baghdad s army, Israeli officials say. Israel has been the only major power to endorse statehood for the Kurds, partly, say analysts, because it sees the ethnic group - whose population is split among Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran - as a buffer against shared adversaries. Iraqi armed forces retook the oil-rich Kirkuk region this week, following a Sept. 25 referendum on Kurdish independence that was rejected by Baghdad, delivering a blow to the Kurds statehood quest. Israeli officials said Netanyahu raised the Iraqi Kurds plight in phone calls with German Chancellor Angela Merkel last week and with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. It has also come up in his contacts with France and the Israeli national security adviser, Meir Ben-Shabbat, has been discussing the matter with Trump administration officials in Washington this week, the officials said. A Netanyahu government official, who declined to be named, given the sensitivity of Israel-Kurdish ties, suggested Israel had security interests in Kurdistan, given its proximity to Israel s enemies in Tehran and Damascus. This (territory) is a foothold. It s a strategic place, the official said without providing further detail. He said Israel wanted to see Iraqi Kurds provided with the means to protect themselves, adding: It would be best if someone gave them weaponry, and whatever else, which we cannot give, obviously. Israel has maintained discreet military, intelligence and business ties with Kurds since the 1960s, in the absence of open ties between their autonomous region in northern Iraq and Israel. Netanyahu s recent lobbying has focused on Kurdish ambitions in Iraq, where the central Baghdad government has grown closer to Israel s foe Iran. The issue at present is ... to prevent an attack on the Kurds, extermination of the Kurds and any harm to them, their autonomy and region, something that Turkey and Iran and internal Shi ite and other powers in Iraq and part of the Iraqi government want, Netanyahu s intelligence minister, Israel Katz, told Tel Aviv radio station 102 FM on Friday. It was not clear to what extent Netanyahu s outreach may have been solicited by the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, which shies away from public engagement with Israel, worried about further alienating Arab neighbours. The United Nations has voiced concern at reports that civilians, mainly Kurds, were being driven out of parts of northern Iraq retaken by Iraqi forces and their houses and businesses looted and destroyed. The prime minister is certainly engaging the United States, Russia, Germany and France to stop the Kurds from being harmed, Katz said. Another Israeli official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, framed Netanyahu s efforts as a moral imperative. They (Kurds) are a deeply pro-Western people who deserve support, he said. | 1 |
21,191 | U.S. appeals court hears arguments on Trump travel ban | SEATTLE/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday wrestled with a bid by President Donald Trump to show that his latest travel ban targeting people from six Muslim-majority countries is legal. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hearing in Seattle came two days after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Trump’s travel ban to take effect while litigation over its ultimate validity unfolds. The ban targets people from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen seeking to enter the United States. The Republican president has said the travel ban is needed to protect the United States from terrorism. The state of Hawaii, however, challenged it in court, and a Honolulu federal judge said it exceeded Trump’s powers under immigration law. Trump’s ban also covers people from North Korea and certain government officials from Venezuela, but the lower courts had already allowed those provisions to go into effect. The same three judge 9th Circuit panel which limited a previous version of Trump’s ban heard arguments on Wednesday. Some of the judges appeared more cautious toward the idea of blocking the president’s policy. Judge Michael Daly Hawkins asked Hawaii’s lawyers whether Trump’s latest proclamation is more sound than prior versions. The current one, he said, is based on specific findings that some foreign governments do not share enough information to properly vet immigrants. “You would trust Kim Jong Un to say this person is this person, you gotta let him in?” Hawkins said. Judge Ronald Gould said the court would issue a ruling “as soon as practicable.” Trump issued his first travel ban targeting several Muslim-majority countries in January, which caused chaos at airports and mass protests. He issued a revised one in March after the first was blocked by federal courts. That expired in September after a long court fight, and was replaced with the current version. The ban has some exceptions. Certain people from each targeted country can still apply for a visa for tourism, business or education purposes, and any applicant can ask for an individual waiver. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is set to hear a separate challenge to the ban on Friday, and the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to ultimately decide the issue in the coming months. | 1 |
21,192 | Cruz Campaign Donates Water To Flint–But Only To People Who Qualify For Their ‘Generosity’ | Ted Cruz is fast approaching Donald Trump as the most hated man in America. As GOP insiders and long-time public figures denounce Cruz as someone nobody in congress would work with, he continues to take his campaign in directions that guarantee that Democrats and Independents will despise him even more. Apparently, Cruz thinks he can get elected with the votes of the extreme-right only, which is where his platform is and will always be directed.In what may be the worst case of discrimination and idiocy ever by a presidential campaign, Ted Cruz 2016 donated an undisclosed amount of bottled water to residents of Flint, restricting their generosity to people with the right frame of mind. Cruz s campaign staff took to the streets to get much-needed water to those working and visiting the fraudulent pregnancy crisis centers that dupe women into believing they re going to receive medical advice and treatment but are instead cornered and fed anti-abortion rhetoric and religious indoctrination.Cruz s Michigan state campaign director, Wendy Lynn Day, announced in a Facebook post begging for donations that the campaign had worked with anti-abortion group Flint Right to Life to coordinate this absolutely idiotic and ridiculously ignorant plan. The water is for expecting moms and moms of little ones. Cruz state director @WendyLynnDay: Donating water to #Flint babies both supports the city and shows "the pro-life values of Senator Cruz." Chad Livengood (@ChadLivengood) January 20, 2016The pro-life values of Senator Cruz apparently include denying children who have already been exposed to massive amounts of lead from Republican incompetence water they so desperately need because their parents aren t currently seeking anti-choice counseling from a place where zealots wear lab coats to make people think they re physicians.The malfunctioning moral platitudes of these people are astounding. While most of the GOP field feigns ignorance to an issue they want nothing to do with, Cruz 2016 has taken a proactive role in alienating an entire city in the middle of a crisis unless they conform to the beliefs of Ted Cruz. Pro-life Ted Cruz, who thinks carpet bombing whole villages full of innocent people is OK as long as you kill some terrorists along the way, hasn t personally commented on the issue, but his campaign works directly on his behalf.Certainly the several people who work at these madhouses are appreciative of the clean water donations while tens of thousands of others line up to receive actual charity from people who care about the already born.Featured image via tedcruz.org, altered | 0 |
21,193 | After Trump Attacks Family Of Fallen Soldier, His Mother Issues A Heartbreaking Response | The mother at the center of Donald Trump s attack on the family of a slain purple heart recipient responded to the Republican presidential candidate.In an interview with ABC News, Trump claimed that Ghazala Khan did not speak as her husband Khizr Khan spoke at the 2016 Democratic Convention because of their Islamic faith.Trump said, If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me. In his appearance, Mr. Khan discussed that his family emigrated to the United States and spoke about how his son served with distinction in the military, losing his life in Iraq. Khan pointed out that if Trump s proposed ban on Muslims were in place, his son would have not been able to serve.ABC reporter Mary Bruce spoke to Ghazala Khan, and she responded to Trump s smear. She said, Running for President is not an entitlement to disrespect Gold Star families and [a] Gold Star mother. Khan also explained that she did not speak at the convention because I was in pain. Khan responds to Trump, telling ABC: running for President is not an entitlement to disrespect Gold Star families and [a] Gold Star mother Mary Bruce (@marykbruce) July 30, 2016Mrs. Khan tells ABC she was too overcome by grief to speak at the DNC, "I was in pain" Mary Bruce (@marykbruce) July 30, 2016In interviews Mrs. Khan has said she still is filled with grief over the loss of her son, and 12 years later still has trouble entering rooms in their home with his picture. She discussed this in an interview with MSNBC s Lawrence O Donnell the night after the couple appeared at the convention.Hillary Clinton released a statement after Trump decided to attack the Khan family on Saturday: I was very moved to see Ghazala Khan stand bravely and with dignity in support of her son on Thursday night. And I was very moved to hear her speak last night, bravely and with dignity, about her son s life and the ultimate sacrifice he made for his country. That, Donald Trump is leadership. Once again, you show you are completely unfit for the office you seek.Featured image via screen capture | 0 |
21,194 | Critic of Rwandan president to face criminal trial on Friday | KIGALI (Reuters) - A critic of Rwandan President Paul Kagame will appear in court on Friday charged with inciting insurrection and forgery, the prosecutor s office said on Thursday. Diane Shima Rwigara, a 35-year-old accountant, is the latest political opponent of Kagame to face criminal charges. She was barred from contesting the presidency in an August election he won with 98.8 percent of the vote. She has repeatedly accused him of stifling dissent and criticized his Rwandan Patriotic Front s tight grip on the country since it fought its way to power to end a genocide that killed more than 800,000 people in 1994. The Court will examine the serious grounds justifying provisional detention of the suspects, the prosecutor s office said on Twitter. The office noted that the other two suspects to appear in court are Rwigara s mother Adeline and sister Anne. The three women have been in detention for around two weeks. They were first taken from their home in the Rwandan capital on Aug. 30 on tax evasion allegations related to the family s tobacco company. That charge was not listed in those filed on Tuesday. Kagame has been widely praised for restoring stability in Rwanda and presiding over a rapid economic recovery after the genocide in the East African nation. But human rights groups say he has muzzled independent media and suppressed potential democratic opponents. Some critics of the government have been imprisoned or killed. Rwanda last month charged another opposition official and eight others with forming an armed group and seeking to overthrow the government. With each arrest in Rwanda, fewer and fewer people will dare to speak out against state policy or abuse, read a Human Rights Watch in a report released last month. | 1 |
21,195 | Rights group questions Italy's work with Libya stopping migrants | ROME (Reuters) - Europe s top human rights organization asked Italy for more information on its work intercepting migrants at sea, warning that any moves to return them to Libya would break international treaties. The Council of Europe said on Wednesday it had written to the Italian government a day after an Italian navy ship helped Libya s coastguard as it headed off 228 migrants. The coastguard later brought the refugees back to Libya. Italy would break the European Convention on Human Rights if it had a direct role in returning migrants to Libya, where they face a real risk of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the Council s human rights commissioner, Nils Muiznieks wrote. Italy s interior minister, Marco Minniti, told Ansa news agency the country s ships had never returned migrants to Libya after a rescue. Italy s activities are aimed at training, equipping and giving logistical support to the Libyan coast guard, not in returns, he added. Andrea Doria destroyer provided a Libyan coast guard vessel with life-jackets as it took migrants off of two rubber boats on Sept. 27, according to Italy s navy. The coastguard later posted pictures online of it bringing the migrants back to Libya, and said they were taken to detention centers. The United Nations has condemned Libyan detention centers as inhuman because of abuse and a lack of basic hygiene, medical care and even food. The Council of Europe said on Wednesday Muiznieks wrote to Minniti on Sept. 28. Italy and the European Union have provided training, equipment, repairs and vessels to the Libyan coastguard in an effort to bolster its ability to stop to the departure of overcrowded migrant boats. More than 600,000 migrants have set out for Europe from Libya since 2014. With Italy facing an election early next year, Minniti has spearheaded efforts to try to provide money and equipment to Libyan authorities that agree to fight people smuggling. Sea arrivals to Italy have fallen 25 percent this year over the same period of 2016 as the Libyan coast guard working in tandem with an armed group west of Tripoli clamped down on departures. Departures from east of Tripoli and from Tunisia, however, are now on the increase. | 1 |
21,196 | Long speech, lots of tea: party meeting with Chinese characteristics | BEIJING (Reuters) - The speech was long, the refreshments austere, but Zhang Weiguo, a Communist Party official from Hubei province in central China, was thrilled. It was strongly persuasive, infectious, cohesive, and had rally-appeal, Zhang said after Chinese President and party boss Xi Jinping gave a nearly three-and-a-half hour speech in Beijing s cavernous Great Hall of the People to kick off the 19th Communist Party Congress. I came out of the auditorium feeling infected, my motivation infinitely enhanced. The scene is a far cry from a convention of the Democratic or Republican Party in the United States, with their rock concert-like atmosphere, balloons falling from the rafters and raucous cheering crowds. Instead, most delegates wore conservative business suits, turned pages of the speech in unison, and clapped politely on cue, giving the start of China's most important political event in five years the vibe of an academic conference. This is party politics with Chinese characteristics. Delegates from China s dozens of ethnic minority groups were required, as always, to wear traditional costumes, often with elaborate headgear - and news photographers swarmed. An Olympian wore the national team s jacket. Military men and women, as well as police, donned crisp uniforms. All, including Xi, wore red identifications badges. Entering the Great Hall for the event required airport-level security checks, with x-ray machines and metal detectors. Outside food and drink were not allowed. Journalists, many of whom had queued in the rain since before dawn, were permitted one mobile phone each. Inside, Xi laid out a vision for a strong and confident China stretching decades into the future. The speech will be the subject of intensive study by party members across the country in coming months and serve as a model for its content and language. Still, it was a marathon even by Chinese politicians standards, and some in the audience dozed off. For those needing a refreshment, uniformed servers standing in order by height poured tea and hot water into Great Hall of the People paper cups outside the main auditorium. One server who had been present for the 18th Party Congress five years ago said nothing had changed. Everything s the same. Our service is getting better, though, he said. On stage, where the party s powerful Central Committee and former leaders sat, hosts and hostesses periodically marched from the wings in unison to pour fresh steaming water into porcelain mugs. At the two-hour mark, some started taking toilet breaks. Luo Jialin, a member of the Sichuan province delegation, rushed to the post office at the Great Hall of People and bought five books of congress-themed stamps with the Great Hall postmark for 450 yuan ($68). They are very commemorative, so I want to bring some back home, said Luo. The speech was broadcast live and images of groups of people watching it quickly circulated on social media - doctors at a hospital, Tibetan monks, prisoners in a detention center, and even children in kindergarten. One posting showed a cat sitting in front of a TV broadcasting the speech. Printed copies of Xi s speech for foreign reporters were produced in 12 languages, including Lao and Portuguese, up from eight five years ago. The Chinese version ran to 68 pages. Pictures of the seldom-seen 91-year-old former President Jiang Zemin peering at his copy through a chunky magnifying glass flew across the internet. Later, someone identified Jiang s magnifying glass as German-made and posted a picture of an ad for it on Taobao. Price tag: 1,598 yuan, or about $240. ($1 = 6.6219 Chinese yuan renminbi) | 1 |
21,197 | fms of iran syria russia meet in moscow | prison planetcom october yuge record breaking votes in texas its not bernie fans or obama voters for hillary clinton alll donald trump folks wednesdaywisdom pictwittercomsnfmhwxg
deplorable trumpcat darren october this | 0 |
21,198 | life pieces of meat i have seen held and in one case gone on vacation with | steps to rolling the perfect joint posted today looking to enjoy a little bit of relaxation youll probably want to practice the lost art of joint rolling with just easy steps anyone can roll the perfect joint but enjoy responsibly step fill the tub step get the weedthe dark fruit the bush that grows in the shadow of the valley of the shadow of weed the jesters hiccup the liquid daydream fresh from the icecube tray the wisdom tooth of the vegetables ogre israeli nightshade the arizona iced tea of drugs the dad baffler the sweet teen poison the sickly crop of the wind farm the flower the devil dares not pickout of your fridge set it aside step a filter keeps fire from squirming into your throat and laying its eggs in your brainstem build the filter by pouring a mixture of egg whites and ground hen bones into a filter mold and leave it at your parents house over a long weekend to set step get your rolling paper by stripping a few inches of skin off the paper wretch with a hot carrot peeler it may take a few tries to get a good swath step to break up the weed place it on an active fault line in a bowl full of gravel step once a major tectonic event has ground your weed pound it into a paste using a book about a curious incident step wrap your index finger in paper and feed the weed paste into your port a chilly sensation means your body has accepted the paste and will pass it on a prickling sensation means your body has rejected the paste and will hopefully pee it out someday step seal the joint by licking your paperedup finger like a naughty little thing youre filthy arent you step remove finger twist paper and voilà the perfect joint for any mouth step dunk the joint in the tub so you arent tempted to smoke it and become insane start over at step one
dont get discouraged if you dont get it right on the first try like all things in life practice makes perfect | 0 |
21,199 | OOPS! Here’s Proof The Left Used “Schlonged” When Referring To One Of Their Own In 2011 [VIDEO] | I m sure it just slipped the feeble minds of the leftist media If it weren t for double standards, the left would have no standards at all.Take, for example, the current liberal outrage over Schlonggate: Donald Trump s use of the Yiddish word schlong to characterize Hillary Clinton s eventual loss to Barack Obama in her 2008 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.Among the accusations hurled at Trump was that the use of this pejorative for penis was misogynistic. One critic with a vivid imagination even posited that it was a racial slur aimed at Obama.But it turns out that the taxpayer-funded NPR allowed that very term to be used four years ago in reference to another female politician, Geraldine Ferraro, to recall an almost identical political defeat. Talk of the Nation host Neal Conan used schlonged, moreover, in the same breath in which he mentioned Ferraro s untimely death, as noted by PJ Media s Michael Walsh.Here is the transcript.Sad news to report from this past weekend. Geraldine Ferraro died of blood cancer at the age of 75, the three-term congresswoman from Queens, the first woman to run for vice president of the United States in 1984, the first woman on a major party ticket to do so . And Chris Cillizza, that ticket went on to get schlonged at the polls, but that s a historic moment. [Emphasis added]Here s the Reverend Manning s hysterical take on Trump s use of the word schlonged | 0 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.