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21,200 | HOW DID HILLARY’S MUSLIM AIDE Get Security Clearance With VERY SHADY Terrorist Connections [Video] | We ve all had questions about Huma Abedin but did you know how connected she is to the Saudi government? Does anyone doubt that the Saudis are bankrolling everything the Clintons do? The information below is fantastic and should be seen by anyone even remotely considering voting for Hillary Clinton. Huma Abedin is the definition of shady! The mainstream media has done nothing to seriously vet the connection between the Clinton and Saudi Arabia, and the key role Huma Abedin plays in the life and work of Hillary Clinton are one core link. Abedin not only lived in Saudi Arabia from the time she was two years old, but her mother currently lives in Saudi Arabia and runs the Journal for Muslim Minority Affairs as well as being a dean at a woman s college there.Despite the fawning coverage she has received, there are many unanswered questions about Abedin, especially given her complete access to Hillary Clinton, one of the most powerful people in the world, a former Secretary of State and possible future president. As Vanity Fair William Cohan writes in his piece:Over the years Huma has served in several positions, with increasingly important-sounding titles. She has been Hillary s body woman, her traveling chief of staff, a senior adviser, and a deputy chief of staff when Hillary was secretary of state. Now, based in Brooklyn, she is the vice-chair of Hillary s 2016 presidential campaign.The Facts about Huma Abedin and Abdullah Omar Nasseef To his credit, Cohan s Vanity Fair piece on the secretive Abedin confirms a number of facts that have been reported by conservative media for a couple of years but have been twisted and convoluted by the mainstream media.For example, the Vanity Fair article flatly lays out the information that Huma Abedin was an assistant editor at a publication called the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs from 1996 until 2008. He writes:When (Huma) Abedin was two years old, the family moved to Jidda, Saudi Arabia, where, with the backing of Abdullah Omar Nasseef, then the president of King Abdulaziz University, her father founded the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs, a think tank, and became the first editor of its Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, which stated its mission as shedding light on minority Muslim communities around the world in the hope of securing the legitimate rights of these communities. It turns out the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs is an Abedin family business. Huma was an assistant editor there between 1996 and 2008. Her brother, Hassan, 45, is a book-review editor at the Journal and was a fellow at the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies, where Nasseef is chairman of the board of trustees. Huma s sister, Heba, 26, is an assistant editor at the Journal.As the masthead of this 1996 issue of the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs shows, Huma Abedin was an assistant editor at Journal. Down the masthead you can see the name of Abdullah Omar Nasseef.Aside from helping found the Abedin s family business it s beyond dispute that Abdullah Omar Nasseef was the secretary-general of a group called the Muslim World League. That s not controversial and Cohan does acknowledge this in Vanity Fair:In his early years as the patron of the Abedins journal, Nasseef was the secretary-general of the Muslim World League, which Andrew McCarthy, the former assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the Blind Sheik, Omar Abdel Rahman, in the wake of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, claims has long been the Muslim Brotherhood s principal vehicle for the international propagation of Islamic supremacist ideology. Although it describes itself a nongovernment organization, the Muslim World League is an effectively an arm of the Saudi Arabian government. As a lawsuit posted on the Philadelphia Enquirer website states a full time employee of the Muslim World League testified as follows: Let me tell you one thing, the Muslim World League, which is the mother of IIRO (International Islamic Relief Organization) is a fully government funded organization. In other words, I work for the government of Saudi Arabia. I am an employee of that government.Second, the IIRO is the relief branch of that organization which means that we are controlled in all of our activities and plans by the government of Saudi Arabia.Keep that in mind, please I am paid by my organization which is funded by the [Saudi] government the [IIRO] office, like any other office in the world, here or in the Muslim World League, has to abide by the policy of the government of Saudi Arabia. If anybody deviates from that, he would be fired; he would not work at all with IIRO or with the Muslim World League.According to the group s own website, the Muslim World League: is engaged in propagating the religion of Islam, elucidating its principles and tenets, refuting suspicious and false allegations made against the religion. The League also strives to persuade people to abide by the commandments of their Lord, and to keep away from prohibited deeds. The League is also ready to help Muslims solve problems facing them anywhere in the world, and carry out their projects in the sphere of Da wah, education and culture. The League, which employs all means that are not at variance with the Sharia (Islamic law) to further its aims, is well known for rejecting all acts of violence and promoting dialogue with the people of other cultures.The group s claim about rejecting all acts of violence is specious given its connection to the Saudi government and the Kingdom s advocacy for sharia law, which it practices with gusto.Desperate to retain the Saudi royal family s iron grip, Saudi Arabia banned all public gatherings. The Saudi Arabian government uses both public beheading and crucifixion as punishments, for example, and in 2012 sentenced a 16-year-old who d protested against the government to both. Saudi Arabia recently sparked international outrage when it executed over 40 people deemed terrorists. Many were beheaded.Following 9/11, the Saudis came under intense government scrutiny for their role in funding terror through ostensively charitable groups. In 2007, ABC News reported Saudis Still Filling Al Qaeda s Coffers:Despite six years of promises, U.S. officials say Saudi Arabia continues to look the other way at wealthy individuals identified as sending millions of dollars to al Qaeda. If I could somehow snap my fingers and cut off the funding from one country, it would be Saudi Arabia, Stuart Levey, the under secretary of the Treasury in charge of tracking terror financing, told ABC News.The mainstream media has done nothing to serious vet the connection between the Clinton and Saudi Arabia, and the key role Huma Abedin plays in the life and work of Hillary Clinton are one core link. Abedin not only lived in Saudi Arabia from the time she was two years old, but her mother currently lives in Saudi Arabia and runs the Journal for Muslim Minority Affairs as well as being a dean at a woman s college there.Further tying the Clintons to the Saudis is big money. CNN reported in 2008 that donations to the William J. Clinton Foundation include amounts of $10 million to $25 million from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Vanity Fair points out Huma s ties there after Clinton left her role as Secretary of State:In addition to the State Department and Teneo jobs, Huma was hired as a consultant to the William J. Clinton Foundation to help plan for Hillary s post-State philanthropic activities, and as a personal employee of Hillary s.The Saudis have denied the accusation they ve funded terrorism and also say they complied with U.S. orders, telling ABC that after the Sept. 11 attacks, the country took prompt action and required Saudi banks to identify and freeze all assets relating to terrorist suspects and entities per the list issued by the United States government. One of the organizations specifically singled out for funding terrorism was founded by the Abedin family benefactor. In 1988, Naseef also founded the charitable giving arm of the Muslim World League, an entity called Rabita Trust.Remember the League s connection to the Saudis as stated earlier and it s clear that Naseef was not a loose cannon but effectively acting as an employee of the Kingdom.One of the other founders of the Rabita Trust was Wa el Hamza Julaidan, who that same year would also become one of the four founders of Al Qaeda. In 1984, Julaidan had worked with Osama bin Laden to set up mujahedin training camps in Afghanistan. As U.S. News reported in 2003:Afghanistan forged not only financial networks but important bonds among those who believe in violent jihad. During the Afghan war, the man who ran the Muslim World League office in Peshawar, Pakistan, was bin Laden s mentor, Abdullah Azzam. Another official there was Wael Julaidan, a Saudi fundraiser who would join bin Laden in founding al Qaeda in 1988. Documents seized in raids after 9/11 reveal just how close those ties were. One record, taken from a Saudi-backed charity in Bosnia, bears the handwritten minutes of a meeting between bin Laden and three men, scrawled beneath the letterhead of the IIRO and Muslim World League. The notes call for the opening of league offices . . . for the Pakistanis, so that attacks can be made from them. A note on letterhead of the Saudi Red Crescent Saudi Arabia s Red Cross in Peshawar asks that weapons be inventoried. It is accompanied by a plea from bin Laden to Julaidan, citing an extreme need for weapons. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, the government froze the assets of the Rabita Trust for funding terrorism. As the New York Times reported in October, 2001:The Bush administration vowed today to seize the assets of more individuals it says support terrorism, including a prominent businessman from Saudi Arabia, a United States ally whose reluctance to move against people and groups with ties to Osama bin Laden has become a politically sensitive Also on the list is Rabita Trust, a Pakistani charity that at least until recently had Pakistan s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, on its board. Administration officials said they warned President Musharraf of the impending order against the Rabita Trust and encouraged him to disassociate himself from what they described as its founder s links to Al Qaeda, Mr. bin Laden s terrorist network.In March, 2002 federal law-enforcement officials conducted raids on 15 organizations that the Treasury Department suspected of laundering money. The New York Times reported:One other place searched today was the office of the International Islamic Relief Organization at 360 South Washington Street in Falls Church, Va., another Washington suburb.That charity has a parent, the Muslim World League, that officials said was also searched. Corporate records show that the Muslim World League, which is financed in part by the Saudi government, is based at the same address as the relief organization, in Falls Church, but that it has used the Herndon building as a mailing address.Last October, the Treasury Department listed another Islamic charity financed by the Muslim World League, the Rabita Trust, as having connections to Al Qaeda.The connection of Abdullah Omar Nasseef to terror funding in general and Al Qaeda specifically is clear and convincing; just as clear and persuading as his connection to the Abedin family is.The Muslim World League was the mother organization of two groups the government believed were involved in funneling money to terrorists the Rabita Trust and the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO). Both groups are listed on the Treasury department s website. Both Naseef s co-founder Wa el Hamza Julaidan himself and the Rabita Trust as an organization were placed by lists of terror funders by both the United States and the United Nations.The Treasury Department met cited the Rabita Trust for providing logistical and financial support to al Qaida. The Treasury Department s discussion of the IIRO goes into detail about the money and logistics support they provided terror groups and includes information that shows that these provide both legitimate charity services but also act as a money laundering operation to get funds to terror groups:International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO)The IIRO was established in 1978 and, according to its website, the organization has branch offices in over 20 countries in Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.Abd Al Hamid Sulaiman Al-Mujil (Al-Mujil) is the Executive Director of the IIRO Eastern Province (IIRO-EP) branch office in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Al-Mujil has been called the million dollar man for supporting Islamic militant groups. Al-Mujil provided donor funds directly to al Qaida and is identified as a major fundraiser for the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).Read more: Breitbart News | 0 |
21,201 | Trump advisers to meet Tuesday to discuss Paris climate agreement | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Advisers to President Donald Trump will meet on Tuesday to discuss whether to recommend that he withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord, a White House official said on Monday. The accord, agreed on by nearly 200 countries in Paris in 2015, aims to limit planetary warming in part by slashing carbon dioxide and other emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Under the pact, the United States committed to reducing its emissions by 26 to 28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025. Trump has said the United States should “cancel” the deal, but he has been mostly quiet on the issue since he was elected last November. Environmental groups want Washington to remain in the Paris agreement, even if the new administration weakens U.S. pledges. A White House official said Trump’s aides would “discuss the options, with the goal of providing a recommendation to the president about the path forward.” The meeting comes before a summit of the Group of Seven wealthy nations in late May, the deadline for the White House to take a position. White House officials, led by the National Economic Council, have recently been asking publicly traded energy companies for advice on whether to stay in the agreement. Peabody Energy has consulted with White House officials, and Cloud Peak Energy Inc confirmed to Reuters it had told White House advisers it was in its interests for the United States to remain in the agreement to ensure there was a global role for high-efficiency coal plants. On Monday, liquified natural gas exporter Cheniere Energy sent a letter to George David Banks, who handles international energy issues at the NEC, to recommend remaining in the Paris agreement so “the United States can leverage competitive advantages in natural gas and energy technology.” The advisers expected to attend Tuesday’s meeting include Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt. Perry, a former Texas governor, at his confirmation hearings in January softened a previous position that the science behind climate change was “phony.” Last week, Pruitt, a former Oklahoma attorney general, said the United States should exit the agreement because it was a “bad deal” for the country. Justin Guay, climate program officer for the Packard Foundation, said countries like China and India would continue to shift toward clean energy even if the United States retreated, adding: “It is most important that the U.S. stays at the table.” | 1 |
21,202 | ALL HELL IS ABOUT TO BREAK LOOSE Between European Vigilante Group “Soldiers Of Odin” And ISIS Inspired “Soldiers Of Allah” | European nations have naively opened their borders to millions of Muslim males who have no intention of assimilating. As they make their way across Europe, police forces find themselves ill-equipped to handle the extreme increase in sexual assault and violence, so citizens are now finding themselves in a position where they are being forced to take matters into their own hands.A group of young concerned Germans made a video warning that they would no longer sit back and watch their culture and history being destroyed. The video can be viewed by clicking HERE.On February 4, 2015, we reported about a fast growing group of vigilantes who call themselves the Soldiers of Odin. The self-styled Soldiers of Odin march in a mob, wearing bomber jackets with their logo on the back. They have vowed to take direct action to protect their wives, girlfriends and children after a migrant influx to the liberal Scandinavian country. Persons linked to Islamist groups in Oslo say that they have formed a group called Soldiers of Allah .Via a central source in the Islamist environment, the Norwegian newspaper VG has received a statement, and photographs of the planned uniform.The group has been named Jundullaah which translates to Soldiers of Allah . In response to the group of unbelievers in Soldiers of Odin, who are patrolling the streets, we Muslims have chosen to create a group to patrol the streets, initially in the capital Oslo, to forbid evil and call for the good, says the statement.The planned uniform , is decorated with the black flag of the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS) on the back, with a small logo on the chest.On Tuesday, Labour s Muslim deputy chairman, Hadia Tajik, said that the Soldiers of Odin defy Norway s rules on private security businesses and she tried to illustrate the problem as follows: It is as if the Islamists would be the uniformed ones, take to the streets and call themselves guards or vigilantes. It is very undesirable and unfortunate for our country, devastating, said Tajik.Now it s exactly what is about to happen.Great tip, Tajik.The information that Islamists in Oslo are in the process of establishing a group, is also confirmed by the temporary spokesman of the Prophet s ummah who calls himself Abu Arijon. He said that the plan is to start in Oslo, then Drammen and T nsberg.Many of the people in Soldiers of Allah come from the environment around the Islamist group the Prophet s Ummah, where spokesman Ubaydullah Hussain currently is in custody and charged with recruiting for IS. Soldiers of Allah inform in the statement themselves, that almost everyone in the group is on the Watch List of the Police Security Service (PST). Is PST aware of the group Soldiers of Allah planning to patrol in Oslo? We can not comment on individuals or individual groups, says senior adviser in PST, Siv Als n, to VG.So there it is. Regular street battles could soon be a reality in Norway. Soldiers of Odin against Soldiers of Allah, with the police in between. However, it will most likely not be started by the Soldiers of Odin, but the rabid Islamists in the soldiers of Allah. And then, even though the Soldiers of Odin claim to be a peaceful group, the Viking has clearly awaken illustrated by the logo on the back. And being attacked by Islamists, they will have no other choice than to go berserk again, after a thousand years in hibernation.All hell is breaking loose in countries all across Europe. Are Americans paying attention, or has Obama s manufactured race war distracted us from his plan to seed Muslims in our small towns and communities across America through the US State Dept. Refugee Resettlement Program? | 0 |
21,203 | NATO says Catalonia issue domestic matter to be resolved by Spain | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Spain remains an important NATO ally and Catalonia is a domestic issue that should be resolved by the Spanish institutional framework, a NATO official said on Friday. Asked about the Catalan parliament s declaration of independence, a NATO official said: Spain is a committed ally, which makes important contributions to our shared security. The Catalonia issue is a domestic matter which should be resolved within Spain s constitutional order. | 1 |
21,204 | Four U.N. peacekeepers killed in two separate attacks in Mali | BAMAKO (Reuters) - Four United Nations peacekeepers and a Malian soldier were killed and 21 people were wounded in two separate attacks by unknown assailants in Mali on Friday, the U.N. mission there said. Regional armies, U.N. forces and French and U.S. soldiers are struggling to halt the growing influence of Islamist militants, some with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State, in West Africa s Sahel region. Mali s U.N. mission, MINUSMA, has suffered the highest number of fatalities among current U.N. peacekeeping operations. I condemn in the strongest terms this attack that has once again befallen the MINUSMA force as well as the (Malian army), U.N. mission head Mahamat Saleh Annadif said in a statement. In the first incident on Friday, three peacekeepers and a Malian soldier were killed when they came under attack during a joint operation in the Menaka region near the border with Niger, an area that has seen a spike in violence over the last year. Sixteen other peacekeepers and one civilian were also wounded. Later in the day at around noon (1200 GMT), a MINUSMA convoy in the central Mopti region was the target of what the mission described as a complex attack by militants using explosive devices and rocket launchers. One U.N. soldier was killed and three others were seriously wounded, MINUSMA said in a statement. The mission did not specify the nationalities of the soldiers killed or wounded in either of the attacks. A 2013 French-led military intervention drove back militants who had seized control of Mali s desert north a year earlier, but they have regrouped and launch regular attacks against Malian soldiers, U.N. peacekeepers and civilians. Islamist groups are now increasingly exploiting the porous borders between Mali and neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso to expand their range of operations, alarming Western powers. France and the United States both have troops deployed in the West Africa. A new regional force composed of soldiers from Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad - the so-called G5 Sahel nations - launched its first operations late last month. | 1 |
21,205 | Watch Glenn Beck’s BIZARRE Ritual With Child At Campaign Rally | Right wing radio host and pundit Glenn Beck has been on the campaign trail stumping for Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz. On Saturday at a rally in Provo, Utah, Beck involved a young child in a strange and unsettling campaign moment in order to demonstrate his belief that the conservative Republican is the Christian choice to be the next president.Beck brought up a young boy onto the stage with him, and told the audience that the child s father had contacted him and told Beck that the child had been fasting, apparently in the hopes that Cruz would win the upcoming Utah caucus and after that the election. In response, Beck yelled to the audience and put his hand on the boy s forehead while crying, saying, This is the priesthood rising! This isn t something completely new. About a month ago, ahead of the Nevada caucus, Beck asked his followers to join him in fasting for Cruz. He wrote, I would like to ask you to join me and my family Monday in a fast for Ted Cruz, our country and the Nevada caucus. After some criticized the crass act of invoking religious fasting in order to help a right-wing political candidate, Beck struck out against his doubters and wrote, if we ve turned into Christians that deny the power of about to do and the power of fast and prayer in this nation, then we have become Europe. Beck, who was removed from Fox News Channel after his conspiracy theories and race-baiting attacks on President Obama led to many sponsors dropping his program, has often wrapped himself in the clothing of a religious prophet during his career.The host has claimed that he turned his life over to his Mormon faith after a life of drugs and other substances while he worked as a morning zoo radio personality in the 1980s. Since then, Beck has made millions publishing conservative books, selling gold and other survivalist items to his devoted followers.Featured image via YouTube | 0 |
21,206 | BOOM! WATCH TREY GOWDY Scorch FBI Director Comey In House Hearing On Hillary’s E-mail Scandal [Video] | FACT CHECK! Wow! No one knows how to question like Gowdy! | 0 |
21,207 | Report shows 1,300 unfilled jobs, strain for German defense procurement | BERLIN (Reuters) - The German military s procurement agency has 1,300 unfilled jobs, accounting for about 20 percent of its entire workforce, a report by the Defence Ministry showed on Wednesday, putting further strains on an already troubled acquisition system. The gaps affect mainly high-level jobs in the technical and military sectors, which means the situation will remain problematic for the medium- to long-term, necessitating continued use of external consulting firms, the report said. Lack of qualified personnel affects the processing of complex weapons programs, many of which have run into delays in recent years in the wake of reforms instituted by Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen after she took office in 2013. Use of external support services should not be understood as the beginning of a long-term solution, but as an efficient tool to bridge the time until personnel changes can fully take effect, the report said. Von der Leyen kicked off reforms to improve the transparency and efficacy of the military acquisition system, but critics say the changes have complicated the process and resulted in delays. The ministry failed to sign contracts for two of the biggest programs, a new missile defense system and the MKS180 warship, during von der Leyen s first tenure in the job. The ministry did sign a contract for five new corvettes, but faced criticism for awarding the contract without a competition. Von der Leyen had argued that no competition was needed since the ships were follow-on orders for an existing design. Separately, a ministry spokesman said at-sea testing of the new F125 frigate built by ThyssenKrupp and privately held Luerssen, would be delayed due to unexpected repairs. The first new F125 frigate was now expected to enter into service in early 2018 instead of December, the spokesman said. ThyssenKrupp said delays could happen with any complicated weapons program, but the ship was still expected to be delivered to the German military next year. The first of the four new F125 warships, slated to cost 650 million euros each, was initially slated to enter service in 2014. | 1 |
21,208 | Peru's Kuczynski says will not resign over Odebrecht scandal | LIMA (Reuters) - Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said late on Thursday that he would not resign over a scandal involving payments that Brazilian builder Odebrecht paid a decade ago to a company he controlled while holding public office. In a televised address to the nation flanked by members of his cabinet, Kuczynski denied any wrongdoing and said that while he owned the company, Westfield Capital Ltd, he was not manager of it when it received the payments. Prior to the message, the leaders of several parties in the opposition-controlled Congress said they would seek to oust him if he would not resign. | 1 |
21,209 | Mexico finance minister resigns to seek presidency for ruling party | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico s finance minister resigned on Monday to seek the 2018 presidential nomination of the ruling party, anticipating a major break with tradition as it seeks outside help to clean up its tarnished image and stay in office for another six years. Jose Antonio Meade had been widely expected to run for the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), whose credibility has been seriously undermined by corruption scandals, gang violence and accusations of electoral fraud. Meade is not a PRI member, and his reputation for honesty has persuaded many party grandees that he is the best bet to take on the front-runner in the July 2018 presidential race, the leftist former mayor of Mexico City, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. PRI hopefuls can register from Dec. 3, and early indications suggested Meade would not face any major challengers. The PRI will formally elect its candidate on Feb. 18. He was warmly received by party members on a whistle-stop tour of organizations affiliated to the PRI in Mexico City on Monday. All the other early PRI favorites for the presidency expressed their support for him on Twitter. Soft-spoken and measured in tone, Meade, 48 first entered the Cabinet under the previous center-right administration of the National Action Party, or PAN. His ability to draw votes from other parties is viewed as one of his principal assets. He ll be an attractive candidate for those who don t necessarily support the PRI, tweeted Daniel Karam, who headed the Mexican Social Security Institute during Meade s initial Cabinet stint under the PAN. Eager to mend its reputation, the PRI changed its statutes in August to make it easier for outsiders to run for the job the party has held for most of the past century. At an event at his official residence, President Enrique Pena Nieto said Harvard-educated former World Bank official Jose Antonio Gonzalez Anaya would leave his job as chief executive of state oil company Pemex to replace Meade in the Finance Ministry. In a brief address at the ministry afterward, Meade said he would run for the presidency after 20 years of serving my country continuously with integrity and honesty. Lopez Obrador, twice runner-up for the presidency, has railed relentlessly for years against government graft. He quickly lashed out on Twitter against the PRI as corrupt and predictable after Meade made his announcement. Meade remains unknown to much of the Mexican public, and in opinion polls he lags far behind the veteran Lopez Obrador, who has sought to characterize all of the main opposition parties as corrupt extensions of the PRI. Serving as energy, then finance minister in 2011, Meade became foreign minister when Pena Nieto took office in December 2012. He later switched to the Social Development Ministry before returning to the Finance Ministry last year. Seen by allies as a discreet and diplomatic official, Meade s grasp of finance and economics is matched by few in Mexico, and his academic career includes degrees in law and economics as well as an economics doctorate from Yale. Crucially, argue his supporters, he has avoided the damaging scandals that have engulfed the PRI under Pena Nieto, who cannot constitutionally seek a second six-year term. I thank (Meade) for his dedication and commitment and I wish him success in the project he has decided to undertake, Pena Nieto said at the event at his Los Pinos residence. TV images showed Meade driving toward Los Pinos behind the wheel of a modest compact car, a frequent prop among Mexican politicians seeking to project the common touch. Gonzalez Anaya, who is related by marriage to influential former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, will be replaced at Pemex by Carlos Trevino, a senior executive at the company. | 1 |
21,210 | Trump hustled off stage in Nevada by security agents | RENO, Nevada (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was hustled off the stage by security agents at a campaign event in Reno on Saturday after a perceived threat in the crowd. Two security agents grabbed Trump by the shoulders and rushed him back stage. The threat was unclear, but a man near the front of the crowd was pounced on by other security agents. TV video showed the man being escorted away by a group of police officers, with his hands behind his back. Trump returned to the stage a few minutes later to continue his rally speech, three days before Tuesday’s election. “We will never be stopped,” Trump said. | 1 |
21,211 | Republican Committee Passes Bill That Would Prohibit Almost All Abortions In Florida | Florida Republicans war on women is going strong this week. On Monday, Republicans in the House made the first step towards violating the Constitutional rights of every woman in the state by voting to allow a bill to progress that would ban nearly all abortions.The House Criminal Justice Committee voted 8-3 to pass House Bill 865, the Florida For Life Act. The bill defines life as starting at conception and would require two physicians to certify that an abortion is required to save the life of the mother. Chances of the bill actually making it to the House or Senate floor for a vote are slim, but Republicans claim they knew that when they voted on it. In fact, the only reason they proposed the bill was to appease Rep. Charles Van Zant. The lawmaker is in his final term and his filed the bill every year he has been in office.Rep. Ross Spano (R-Womanhaterville), who voted for the bill told the Associated Press that he was just wasting time by voting for it: The bill, probably, frankly, in all due respect, is never going to get a hearing in the Senate. Although this bill has a very small chance of making it through the other channels it needs to go through before it is brought to a full vote, there is a possibility that it may. Florida s is bleeding red at the state level and Republicans across the country have been chomping at the bit to destroy women s rights. The fake Planned Parenthood videos that were spread by alleged felons renewed the GOP s determination to outlaw abortions.According to the AP:The bill is one of several pieces of anti-abortion legislation now advancing in the Florida Legislature.Other bills that have received approval by at least one committee include measures that would prohibit Medicaid payments to any clinic where abortions are performed; require doctors who perform abortions to have local hospital admitting privileges; and require abortion clinics to meet the same construction standards and other licensing requirements as walk-in surgical centers; and prohibit use of fetal tissue resulting from an abortion for research.In other words, they are hitting women from every possible angle and trying to wedge their unwelcome elephant firmly in our uteri. They don t care that they are wasting time and therefore, wasting money by voting on these bills because ideology ALWAYS comes before the Constitution and fiscal responsibility in the mind of a Republican.Featured image: Instagram | 0 |
21,212 | NAACP DEMANDS An Apology From Trump For Telling The Truth About Cong. John Lewis | The Hill reported:The NAACP President Cornell William Brooks is calling on Donald Trump to apologize to Alabama Rep. John Lewis, after attacking the civil rights icon in a series of tweets. By disrespecting John Lewis, Donald Trump dishonored Lewis sacrifice & demeaned Americans & the rights, he nearly died (for). Apologize, Brooks tweeted.More and more Democrats are bailing on the Inaugural Let them! You know they didn t want to go anyway Some of the Dems who aren t going are as radical as they come so why even have them there.Please tell us what John Lewis has done LATELY for America | 0 |
21,213 | Trump’s Twitter Meltdown During The VP Debate May Be The Whiniest, And Craziest, Yet (TWEETS) | We all already know that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is a loose cannon, especially when it comes to his Twitter habits. Tuesday night during the vice presidential debate was no different.Trump began the night by already assuming CNN is against him, so he declared he d turn to the Republican media branch, Fox News.Wow, @CNN is so negative. Their panel is a joke, biased and very dumb. I'm turning to @FoxNews where we get a fair shake! Mike will do great Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016From there he let everyone know (at least we had a warning this time) that he was about to light up Twitter with his repeated nonsense.I will be live-tweeting the V.P. Debate. Very exciting! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016Then, he told us to enjoy his live-tweeting, because of course he did.Here we go Enjoy! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016Things started decent enough, with Trump even throwing both his running mate Mike Pence and Hillary Clinton s running mate Tim Kaine a compliment.Both are looking good! Now we begin! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016Then the sh*t started to hit the screen:"@RoadkingL: @mike_pence Wow, Kaine couldn't go 12 seconds without a lie. Marines and military are scared of the liar running. #bengazi" Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016"@lainey34210: @realDonaldTrump Great opening Pence?" Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016"@Susiesentinel: #pence is so much more likeable than Kaine #cbsnews @realDonaldTrump" Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016Keep in mind he s quote retweeting people because he clearly can t move his tiny thumbs fast enough to keep up."@bigdog_joey: @realDonaldTrump @timkaine is so angry. Our @mike_pence looks great. kaine can't defend all those lies #makeamericagreatagain Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016"@elisac006: @nycmia @realDonaldTrump I agree. Kaine looks like a fool!!" Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016Not only like a fool! but also apparently like a Batman villain:"@Jnelson52722: @realDonaldTrump @Susiesentinel Kaine looks like an evil crook out of the Batman movies" Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016Then some lies:"@TeamTrump: .@mike_pence & @realDonaldTrump are PROVEN job creators and are prepared to bring JOBS BACK to the American people! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016.@mike_pence is doing a great job so far, no contest! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016 "@ifdanyt: @realDonaldTrump Loving @mike_pence he's so likeable and sensible. Kaine is just talking bull! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016And more lies:"@bcuzimdamomma: @FreeDavidKing No she only gets #Americans killed #Benghazi we need @realDonaldTrump #MAGA" Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016.@timkaine wants to tough on crime fails to talk about defending rapists and murders #VPDebate Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) October 5, 2016With a bit of racism and lack of acknowledging a disconnect within these very communities:Law enforcement officers bring communities together & keep us safe. @mike_pence & @realDonaldTrump RESPECT & stand by them! #Debates2016 pic.twitter.com/ugUaKugjFO Official Team Trump (@TeamTrump) October 5, 2016Then some more lies:"@GeeVeeM: @realDonaldTrump @Susiesentinel Pence is so prepared! He did his homework to outperform Kaine." Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016.@HillaryClinton Sneers At Millions Of Average Americans.https://t.co/gEfURjRCfu #VPDebate #BigLeagueTruth Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016I agree Mike thank you to all of our law enforcement officers! #VPDebate"Police officers are the best of us "@Mike_Pence Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016ALL CAPS:WHAT THEY ARE SAYING ABOUT MIKE PENCE DOMINATING THE DEBATE:https://t.co/mUw9S5GgNM #VPDebate Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016And really big lies:.@mike_pence and I will defeat #ISIS.https://t.co/oCIIDwtptV #VPDebate Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016MORE CAPS:CLINTON S FLAILING SYRIA POLICY WAS JUDGED A FAILURE:https://t.co/ICZxn7Q3vZ #VPDebate Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016.@timkaine is the ANTI-DEFENSE SENATOR. #VPDebate #BigLeagueTruth https://t.co/qWkvGFARA1 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016CAPS AND LIES:ICYMI: PENCE: I RAN A STATE THAT WORKED; KAINE RAN A STATE THAT FAILED. https://t.co/XuWaueNkH0 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016Then more lies:.@timkaine is wrong for defense: https://t.co/QN9qqoq1kH #BigLeagueTruth #VPDebate Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016Sanctions Relief From Clinton-Obama Iran Nuclear Deal Likely Go to Terrorists:https://t.co/lM80JriF9k #BigLeagueTruth #VPDebate Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016AND CAPS:CLINTON S CLOSE TIES TO PUTIN DESERVE SCRUTINY:https://t.co/wPYm5vQoyt #VPDebate Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016Quick pause, how much projecting is there in that last tweet, or hell all the tweets? You can pretty much assume anything Trump says to attack Clinton has been used against him.Okay .MORE LIES IN ALL CAPS:CLINTON IS WEAK ON NORTH KOREA:https://t.co/8pRednmnFX #VPDebate Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016Then he simmers for a moment, but still lies:.@HillaryClinton s Careless Use Of A Secret Server Put National Security At Risk: https://t.co/OiAEMnrGcy #VPDebate#BigLeagueTruth Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016Clinton s Top Aides Were Mired In Conflict Of Interest At The State Department: https://t.co/wWfdaECtVu#VPDebate #BigLeagueTruth Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016Retweets! (tiny thumbs need a break):"@Gsimmons03Ginny: @realDonaldTrump ..Kaine is awful, Trump and Pence are the ticket..no more lies, we are ready to see America Great Again! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016"@AnyoneTennis: @timkaine Cannot believe how often the moderator interrupts #Pence vs the other guy so obvious @FoxNews" So true! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016Then before the debate was even over:Mike Pence won big. We should all be proud of Mike! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016Let s put it this way, Trump still probably thinks he won his debate with Hillary as well. And while Pence did as good of a job as he could, staying calm, etc. while Kaine was feistier, he still couldn t defend Trump s blatant misogyny and racism. Hell, Pence himself is a misogynist, against the LGBT community, and fiercely anti-worker and anti-immigrant.All in all, this tweetstorm during the VP debate shows us, yet again, how ill-suited Trump is for the office of the presidency and simply isn t fit to lead.Featured Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images, Twitter | 0 |
21,214 | Republicans hammer on at Iran deal on presidential campaign | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential candidates took swipes on Tuesday at the lifting of sanctions against Iran, but they disagree on how they would to handle Tehran if they win the White House at the Nov. 8 election. Iran can expect an abrupt shift in relations with the United States to a more aggressive posture under a Republican president, a reversal of the warming trend nurtured by Democratic President Barack Obama. With only two weeks to go before the first nominating contest in the presidential race, Republican candidates have devoted large sections of their stump speeches to Iran, giving Tehran as much time as they devote to their condemnations of Islamic State militants, also known as ISIS. “I would say this,” Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Tuesday. “The convergence of an aggressive Iran in the region and ISIS are the two threats that we have to deal with and from day one we have to confront those ambitions.” Obama has carried out a 2008 campaign pledge to negotiate with Iran by striking an agreement last year to curb Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. That deal was capped over the weekend when the United States along with other countries lifted sanctions against Iran, and Washington swapped prisoners with the Islamic Republic. While Republican condemnations of Obama’s Iran policy abound, there is a split among the candidates as to how far to go with Tehran. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz from Texas and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio say they would rip up the nuclear deal and start over, on the thinking that the United States would be able to persuade European allies to reimpose economic sanctions. “The Europeans are going to have to decide do they want to deal with the Iranian economy or the American economy,” said Cruz foreign policy adviser Victoria Coates. “That’s the choice we have to put to them.” A Rubio adviser said the Senator from Florida feels strongly that Iran had gotten the better of the Obama administration and that Rubio would only begin to discuss better relations with Tehran if it were willing to respect human rights and change its stance on Israel. “I am going to cancel that ridiculous deal,” Rubio said last week in Mount Pleasant, S.C. Other candidates like Ohio Governor John Kasich and front-runner Donald Trump are more cautious, preferring to wait and see what the situation is with Iran once the next president is sworn in on Jan. 20, 2017. Kasich told Reuters that the United States should be working with U.S. allies now to ensure Iran sticks to the deal reining in its nuclear program and only if there are any violations the sanctions should be quickly reimposed. “I think as time goes on it’s going to be harder because people are addicted to money,” he said. “I don’t know where we’re going to be in 10 months. No one knows where we’re going to be.” Trump has said it would be tough to rip up the agreement with Iran on its nuclear program but has vowed that if he were elected president he would “police that contract so tough they don’t have a chance.” Republican Senator John McCain, the party’s 2008 presidential nominee, told Reuters the argument over whether to stick to the Iran agreement is academic because he believes Iran will violate the nuclear deal. “I think the best thing to do is evaluate it on Inauguration Day,” he said. “You’re going to have between the election and the Jan. 20 swearing-in to evaluate whether they have adhered to it and make a judgment then. But I think it’s a very bad agreement.” (Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Alistair Bell) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency. | 1 |
21,215 | REVEALED: The Dark Agenda Behind Globalization and Open Borders | The T.I.N.A. Doctrine There Is No Alternative Brandon Smith Alt-MarketWhen people unfamiliar with the liberty movement stumble onto the undeniable fact of the conspiracy of globalism they tend to look for easy answers to understand what it is and why it exists. Most people today have been conditioned to perceive events from a misinterpreted standpoint of Occam s Razor they wrongly assume that the simplest explanation is probably the right one.In fact, this is not what Occam s Razor states. Instead, to summarize, it states that the simplest explanation GIVEN THE EVIDENCE at hand is probably the right explanation.It has been well known and documented for decades that the push for globalism is a deliberate and focused effort on the part of a select elite; international financiers, central bankers, political leaders and the numerous members of exclusive think tanks. They often openly admit their goals for total globalization in their own publications, perhaps believing that the uneducated commoners would never read them anyway. Carroll Quigley, mentor to Bill Clinton and member of the Council on Foreign Relations, is often quoted with open admissions to the general scheme: The powers of financial capitalism had (a) far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the systems was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland; a private bank owned and controlled by the world s central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world. Carroll Quigley, Tragedy And HopeThe people behind the effort to enforce globalism are tied together by a particular ideology, perhaps even a cult-like religion, in which they envision a world order as described in Plato s Republic. They believe that they are chosen either by fate, destiny or genetics to rule as philosopher kings over the rest of us. They believe that they are the wisest and most capable that humanity has to offer, and that through evolutionary means, they can create chaos and order out of thin air and mold society at will.This mentality is evident in the systems that they build and exploit. For example, central banking in general is nothing more than a mechanism for driving nations into debt, currency devaluation, and ultimately, enslavement through widespread economic extortion. The end game for central banks is, I believe, the triggering of historic financial crisis, which can then be used by the elites as leverage to promote complete global centralization as the only viable solution.This process of destabilizing economies and societies is not directed by the heads of the various central banks. Instead, it is directed by even more central global institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the Bank for International Settlements, as outlined in revealing mainstream articles like Ruling The World Of Money published by Harpers Magazine.We also find through the words of globalists that the campaign for a new world order is not meant to be voluntary. When the struggle seems to be drifting definitely towards a world social democracy, there may still be very great delays and disappointments before it becomes an efficient and beneficent world system. Countless people will hate the new world order and will die protesting against it. When we attempt to evaluate its promise, we have to bear in mind the distress of a generation or so of malcontents, many of them quite gallant and graceful-looking people. HG Welles, Fabian Socialist and author of The New World Order In short, the house of world order will have to be built from the bottom up rather than f rom the top down. It will look like a great booming, buzzing confusion, to use William James famous description of reality, but an end run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece, will accomplish much more than the old-fashioned frontal assault. Richard Gardner, member of the Trilateral Commission, published in the April, 1974 issue of Foreign Affairs The New World Order cannot happen without U.S. participation, as we are the single most significant component. Yes, there will be a New World Order, and it will force the United States to change its perceptions. Henry Kissinger, World Action Council, April 19, 1994I could quote globalists all day long, but I think you get the general idea. While some people see globalism as a natural offshoot of free markets or the inevitable outcome of economic progress, the reality is that the simplest explanation (given the evidence at hand) is that globalism is an outright war waged against the ideal of sovereign peoples and nations. It is a guerrilla war, or fourth generation warfare, waged by a small group of elites against the rest of us.A significant element of this war concerns the nature of borders. Borders of nations, states and even towns and villages, are not just lines on a map or invisible barriers in the dirt. This is what the elites and the mainstream media would like us to believe. Instead, borders when applied correctly represent principles; or at least, that is supposed to be their function.Human beings are natural community builders; we are constantly seeking out others of like-mind and like-purpose because we understand subconsciously that groups of individuals working together can (often but not always) accomplish more. That said, human beings also have a natural tendency to value individual freedom and the right to voluntary association. We do not like to be forced to associate with people or groups that do not hold similar values.Cultures erect borders because, frankly, people have the right to vet those who wish to join and participate in their endeavors. People also have a right to discriminate against anyone who does not share their core values; or, in other words, we have the right to refuse association with other groups and ideologies that are destructive to our own Continue this story at Alt-MarketREAD MORE NWO NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire NWO Files | 0 |
21,216 | Florida nightclub massacre prompts Rubio to reconsider political future | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, who announced his retirement from the Senate after ending his Republican presidential bid in March, said on Monday he would reconsider his future after being urged to seek re-election in the aftermath of the Orlando nightclub massacre. The Florida Republican told radio host Hugh Hewitt in an interview that the worst mass shooting in U.S. history “most certainly has impacted my thinking in general, at least, about a lot of things.” But Rubio said he has not considered the rampage from a political perspective. “When it visits your home state, when it impacts a community you know well, it really gives you pause to think a little bit about your service to your country and where you can be most useful to your country,” Rubio said. “My family and I will be praying about all this and we’ll see what I need to do next with my life in regards to how I can best serve.” Hewitt urged Rubio to remain in the Senate, describing the lawmaker who sits on the Senate intelligence and foreign relations committees as one of the “very few people” who know the security issues raised by Sunday’s rampage. News of the interview brought an attack on Rubio’s voting record from Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who referred to the Republican repeatedly as “the junior senator” from Florida. “How can he speak of running for office again when he voted to let potential terrorists buy assault weapons and explosives?” Reid asked on the floor of the Senate. “That is how he voted. The junior senator voted against every gun safety measure.” Rubio, who is also seen as a potential vice presidential running mate for Republican Donald Trump, announced that he would retire from the Senate and take a break from politics after losing Florida’s presidential primary in March to Trump. Before Sunday, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and others had urged him to seek re-election, citing polling data that showed he would win re-election and help Republicans retain their Senate majority. Rubio has backed his friend and fellow Republican, Florida Lieutenant Governor Carlos Lopez-Cantera, in Florida’s August primary contest for his Senate seat. If he were to run for re-election, Rubio would have to decide by a June 24 filing deadline. | 1 |
21,217 | BOOM! Mother Of Black Son Murdered By Blacks: “I Don’t Preach Black Lives Matter, Because Black Lives Only Matters When Law Enforcement Is Involved” [VIDEO] | We all know the reality of the Black Lives Matter movement. It s heartbreaking that these community organizing jack-holes can t put as much effort into finding ways to save the lives of young black males who are killed by young black males Meanwhile, the LAPD have offered a $50K reward for information leading to the arrest of the thug or thugs who committed this senseless murder of a young man with a bright future Alongside the 21-year-old victim s mourning mother, Los Angeles police on Tuesday announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in a fatal shooting near Hyde Park in January.Gerrik Thomas was shot about 6:30 p.m. Jan. 25 in the 3100 block of West 54th Street.Lead Detective Connie Zych said police are investigating the crime as gang-influenced, though Thomas was not a gang member. She said he worked as a security guard and was a nursing student.Los Angeles Police Department officials said during a news conference that Thomas was walking to a store from his grandmother s house when a silver Chevrolet Camaro with a black top pulled up to him and two men asked him where he was from.Thomas was shot and later died at a hospital. During the news conference, police showed surveillance footage leading up to the shooting.The victim s mother, Demicha Lofton-Thomas, said she had been talking to her son just before the shooting occurred. Just imagine if I would have stayed on that phone one minute later. I would have heard that shot that took my son s life, Lofton-Thomas said.Here s what she had to say about Black Lives Matter: Via: KTLA | 0 |
21,218 | Moscow seeks support for Russia-Chinese roadmap on North Korea | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged world powers on Friday to get behind a joint Russian-Chinese roadmap for settling the crisis over North Korea s weapons program. Speaking at a conference on non-proliferation in Moscow, Lavrov said that the break-up of a deal on Iran s nuclear program would send an alarming message about international security mechanisms, and could impact the situation on the Korean peninsula. | 1 |
21,219 | Deputy head of nationalist Finns Party quits leadership post after harassment | HELSINKI (Reuters) - A senior politician in Finland s euroskeptic Finns Party said on Tuesday he would step down from the leadership of the party, formerly part of a coalition government, after harassing a lawmaker in parliament. Finnish media quoted a female MP from another party as saying that Teuvo Hakkarainen, a deputy chairman of the nationalist Finns Party, last week grabbed her neck and kissed her in parliament caf despite her objections. I am very sorry for what happened, alcohol does not suit me ... I have hurt (her), Hakkarainen said in his Facebook page. I will step down from the position of the party s second deputy chairman. Finns Party s lawmakers issued a warning to Hakkarainen over the incident, saying any harassment was unacceptable. Hakkarainen will remain a member of the Finns Party parliamentary group. Hakkarainen was part of a new hard-line leadership nominated by the party in June, a development that led to it being kicked out of the government by Prime Minister Juha Sipila. More than half of its lawmakers subsequently left the party and formed a new group to keep their government seats. The Finns Party, formerly called True Finns , rose from obscurity during the euro zone debt crisis with an anti-EU platform, complicating the bloc s bailout talks with troubled states. Hakkarainen was fined earlier this year for a Facebook post calling for a Muslim-free Finland which a district court said amounted to agitation against an ethnic group. The party currently has polling support of about eight percent, down from 18 percent in 2015 general election. | 1 |
21,220 | WHOA! PAUL RYAN JUST LIED TO O’REILLY About Bill House Passed To Pause Somali Refugee Program [VIDEO] | And people wonder why American voters are flocking to Trump like flies on cow-pies In a Wednesday interview with Fox News s Bill O Reilly, House Speaker Paul Ryan made a demonstrably false declaration about his efforts to pause the Somali refugee program. During the interview, O Reilly criticized Ryan for failing to message on immigration controls and asked Ryan specifically about the Somali refugee crisis in Minnesota.O Reilly: We have a Somali problem up in Minneapolis-St. Paul. [We] have a problem there and those are refugees from Somalia. And if, God forbid, some refugee comes in and blows people up, it s going to be grisly. Watch here:https://youtu.be/UBo5DG9Twp4Ryan replied by explaining that he passed a bill to pause the refugee program. Ryan said: Right. Right. That s why just so you know that s why we passed a bill pausing this refugee program, because we don t think the refugee program works. That s why we don t want it to continue right now. However, Ryan did no such thing. The bill Ryan championed did not in any way pause the Somali refugee program it applied solely to refugees from Syria and Iraq.The House bill would not have affected the Somali refugee program at all, said Numbers USA Director of Government Relations Rosemary Jenks.Jenks further noted that, The bill the House passed would in no way pause the refugee program. They had the option of taking up the Babin bill, which would have paused the refugee program, but they refused to do that All [the House bill] required was that the government sign off that individuals had been vetted. It didn t even change the fact that we don t have any information by which to vet them. As National Review s Rich Lowry explained at the time, the Ryan-championed House bill when you get down to it, it doesn t do anything, Lowry wrote in a piece entitled, Uh, the House Bill to Pause the Syrian Refugee Program Doesn t Really Pause the Syrian Refugee Program. Hot Air s AllahPundit said that Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein s bill was more substantive than the Ryan-backed bill because it was not strictly limited to refugees from Iraq and Syria:When you compare the House GOP s bill to what Senate Dems are pushing, it s the Democratic bill that s more substantive. Dianne Feinstein wants to add an exception to the current policy of waiving the visa requirement for visitors from France; the exception would require a visa for anyone who s visited Iraq or Syria in the last five years.Reports seem to confirm O Reilly s concerns about assimilation with regards to the Somali population of Minnesota.Last year, filmmaker Ami Horowitz interviewed Muslim residents of the Cedar Riverside section of Minneapolis, many of whom said that they would prefer to live under Sharia law. As CBS has reported, The Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis is sometimes called Little Mogadishu given that it is the center of the nation s largest concentration of Somalis. CBS notes that the area is also fertile ground for Islamic terrorist groups recruiting new fighters. As the Minneapolis Star Tribune has reported, a Congressional report found that Minnesota leads the nation in would-be ISIL terrorists from U.S. During the last two years, more than 20 Somali-Americans from Minnesota have left to fight alongside terrorists under the banner of ISIL, a report from 2015 states.A separate report from the Star Tribune writes:No state in the country has provided more fresh young recruits to violent jihadist groups like Al-Shabab and, more recently, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Over the last decade, dozens of mostly young men have abandoned the relative comfort and security of life in the Twin Cities to fight and, in many instances, die, in faraway lands the exodus of local men abroad, its impact on the families and the Twin Cities Somali-American community the largest in the U.S. has been profound.During the interview, O Reilly pressed Ryan on his failure to message on immigration controls: With all due respect, I didn t even know Harry Reid was blocking that bill [on Iraqi and Syrian refugees]. Ya know, you guys got to get out there. And you ve got to bang the drum on this thing. Like him or not, Trump bangs that drum. And you guys don t. I mean, I didn t know until you just told me tonight that Harry Reid who is a villain he blocked Kate s Law, he s trying to block this You guys should be screaming at the top of your lungs. In response, Ryan laughed and said: We passed the bill in January. For entire story: Breitbart News | 0 |
21,221 | Independent Catalonia would need to apply to join EU: Juncker | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - An independent Catalonia would have to apply to join the European Union, the president of the executive European Commission said on Thursday, adding that such a policy would apply to any new state. Catalonia s parliament has laid the ground for a referendum on independence from Madrid on Oct. 1, although Spain s Constitutional Court has suspended the vote. Judges are now considering whether the legislation contravenes Spain s constitution. If there were to be a yes vote in favor of Catalan independence, then we will respect that opinion. But Catalonia will not be able to be an EU member state on the day after such a vote, Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said on YouTube and broadcast by Euronews. Echoing a stance made by his predecessor, Jose Manuel Barroso, Juncker said any newly independent state must follow the same EU membership procedures as all aspirants, citing Scotland and, in jest, his home country, Luxembourg. If northern Luxembourg were to cede from the south, the same rules would apply, Juncker said. The EU s accession negotiations are an arduous process that involve complying with all EU standards and rules and winning the consent of all EU governments. This means that Spain would be able to block Catalonia s EU accession if it wished. Croatia was the last country to join the EU, in 2013 after first applying for membership in 2003. | 1 |
21,222 | HERE’S WHY TRUMP’S Muslim Ban Is Absolutely Necessary | The biggest thing a president can do for the people is to protect them from an enemy. If you refuse to define the enemy then you really can t fight it correctly. Obama and Hillary Clinton have both repeatedly denied that we re at war with Islam and refused to name it ISLAMIC EXTREMISM. On the other hand, Donald Trump has defined the enemy and is ready to defend Americans from it by banning Muslims until we can figure out what s going on . Our own FBI and DHS have stated that WE CANNOT PROPERLY VET THE REFUGEES COMING TO AMERICA. Yes, you would think Obama would be cautious like Jimmy Carter and other past Presidents have and ban Muslims. Noooo .Obama is doing just the opposite! He s flooding towns across America with Muslims!A Muslim ban is necessary and needs to happen ASAP!Gen. David Petraeus is now auditioning to become Hillary Clinton s vice presidential pick. There s really no other way to interpret his recent column in The Washington Post, slamming Donald Trump for proposing a temporary ban on Muslim immigration.Calling Mr. Trump s statements hate speech, Gen. Petraeus essentially argues that anyone who dares to tell the truth about Islamic terrorism will only incite more Muslims to become Islamic terrorists, by telling Muslims that the United States is at war with them and their religion. That statement assumes that the overwhelming majority of Muslims from Dearborn, Mich., to Kuala Lumpur are illiterate, stupid and blind.Practicing Muslims understand their religion far better than we do in the West. They understand that no one has hijacked Islam, as the apologists would have it; but that groups of Islamists, from al Qaeda to the Nusra front to the Islamic State, are seeking to apply Islamic doctrine Shariah law in its entirety.You can t win a war if you don t know the enemy. Our enemy today is Islamic supremacism, those who seek to establish an Islamic caliphate with the ultimate goal of replacing our Constitution with Shariah law.Rather than sweep that reality under the table, Mr. Trump has recognized that we simply have no tools at present to deal with this threat, and that the first responsibility of the president is to protect the security of Americans.Just days after the San Bernardino shootings last December, we learned that the Department of Homeland Security had shut down an intelligence-based screening program that had identified the mosque that shooter Syed Farook attended as a recruitment center for jihadis.Screening programs like the one whistleblower Phil Haney had devised are precisely what we need. We also need better screening at airports and U.S. consulates around the world. But programs like this take time to devise and put in place.Critics often mistakenly accuse Mr. Trump of imposing a permanent ban on all Muslims because of their religion. But he understands that any screening program that profiles individuals because of their religion, ethnicity or nationality will overwhelm our national security system with masses of individuals who pose no threat to us at all.A better approach is the one adopted by Israel at Ben Gurion Airport, where Israeli screeners attempt to identify actual threats by focusing on behavior and activity, not religion or ethnicity.Ever wonder why the Israeli college kids doing the screening ask you where you were staying in Israel and what you were doing? Because they know all the hotels and how far they are from just about everything. If you say you were staying in a Tel Aviv beach hotel and were visiting family in Ramallah, they probably would ask you why you didn t stay in Jerusalem, which is much closer.How did you get back in forth? Did you know a taxi driver? What was his name? If you rented a car in Tel Aviv, which check point did you drive through to get into the West Bank? Did somebody tell you to go to a particular check point? And on and on.Even good legends eventually break down. And while this intense questioning at the airport is time-consuming and often annoying, the Israelis understand that if they make a mistake, people will die.I don t know what type of system our national security establishment will ultimately propose we put in place. But until we have one, we in the United States are ill-equipped at present to distinguish between a nonpracticing Muslim, or a Muslim who does not accept the supremacist doctrines of Shariah law, and one who does.The former pose no threat and are potential allies in the war against the Islamists. The latter pose an existential threat to America and must be utterly defeated.Read more: WT | 0 |
21,223 | WATCH: Fox News Host Viciously Attacks Michelle Obama In HIGHLY Disrespectful Rant | Fox News banshee Jeanine Pirro threw a hissy fit this weekend because First Lady Michelle Obama correctly stated how most people feel since Donald Trump became president-elect.On Friday, Mrs. Obama sat down for her final interview as First Lady with Oprah Winfrey and expressed what millions of Americans are feeling right now as President Obama enter the last month of his presidency. We feel the difference now, she said. See, now, we are feeling what not having hope feels like. Hope is necessary. It s a necessary concept and Barack didn t just talk about hope because he thought it was just a nice slogan to get votes. Indeed, the only ones who didn t feel hope in 2008 were conservatives who vowed from day one to sabotage President Obama at every turn, hurling racism and hate every step of the way for the last eight years. But even more Americans are going to sorely miss him and the optimism he brought to the office. Donald Trump, however, is no Barack Obama. As Trump continues to hire people who hate the department they have been picked to head and picks fights with foreign nations and is poised to dismantle every program that made this country great already, millions of Americans are horrified and living in fear of what this nation is about to become.Of course, Pirro had a problem with Michelle Obama telling the truth, so she lashed out at her for five minutes by blaming her for everything from beheadings in the Middle East to protests against police.Basically, Pirro bitched about Michelle Obama in every little way and acted like a petulant child. To try and convince America that once you and Barack exit the White House, hope is removed for America is an outrage, Pirro whined. But I get it, for you hope is gone. You and your family and friends won t be able to fly to another 46 countries, with security and hair and make-up in tow. Michelle, you may not realize it, but Americans rejected you and everything you stand for. Hope is when people 30,000 at a time stand in line in the cold with their children hoping to get a glimpse of a man they think can change the course of their lives from the downward spiral that you and Mister Hope and Change have put them on. Here s the video via YouTube.Of course, Americans did not reject the Obamas in this election at all. In fact, Obama s approval rating is higher than Trump s and millions would have preferred voting for him a third time. Also, Russia helped Trump steal the election and Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by nearly three million votes. Most Americans also fear a Trump presidency. Someone should explain to Pirro that fear is the opposite of hope.As someone who claims to support women s rights, one would think Pirro would also be concerned about Trump being in the White House considering the way he has treated women over the years. Pirro is also pro-choice, which goes against Republicans who currently aim to eliminate Roe v. Wade in the next four years. So women across the country have every reason and right to be losing hope since their freedom could be seriously restricted. But apparently, Pirro forgot about women and the plight they are about to face.Once again, Pirro is demonstrating that she s a racist bitch who hates successful women for speaking their minds and telling the truth.Featured Image: Screenshot | 0 |
21,224 | Saudi king says kingdom has made progress in tackling terrorism | MECCA, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Saudi King Salman, receiving dignitaries attending the annual Muslim haj pilgrimage, said on Saturday the kingdom had made progress in eradicating terrorism aimed at attacking its holy sites, state news agency SPA reported. Saudi Arabia, which stakes its reputation on its guardianship of Islam s holiest sites and organizing the haj, has been hit by bombings in recent years and uncovered plots to carry out attacks in Mecca. The limbs of terrorism have sought to harm the holy cities, paying no attention to their sanctity, SPA quoted King Salman as telling foreign dignitaries at a reception he held in Mecca, where more than 2 million pilgrims are performing haj. But the kingdom, by the grace of God and in cooperation with its sisters and friends, has made big successes in eradicating terrorism and has worked decisively and with determination to dry its sources, he added, without elaborating. Salman also said Saudi Arabia had devoted all its material and human resources to ensure the safety of pilgrims who come from all over the world to perform the five-day ritual, a religious duty to be undertaken once in a lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford the journey. We are determined, with God s permission, to continue to provide the highest level of services for the two holy mosques ... to ensure the safety of those who seek the sacred house of God, he said. The pilgrimage has frequently been hit by stampedes and fires. In the most recent incident, hundreds of pilgrims were killed in a crush two years ago. | 1 |
21,225 | Republican Lindsey Graham LOSES IT, Blames Trump For GOP’s ‘Death Spiral’ | Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has been worried about the mayhem Donald Trump was going to subject the GOP to since the very start of his campaign, and now that Trump is failing miserably in the polls, Graham is afraid the Republican Party could lose the majority in the U.S. Senate.According to a New York Times article, Graham unleashed on Trump, who he says is in a self-created death spiral and continues to bring the GOP down with him. Graham, who is not supporting Trump, said: People are getting pretty nervous about our candidates because he s in a death spiral here and nobody knows where the bottom is at. And although Trump is choosing to live in denial about the fact that Hillary Clinton is leading him by so much that it would be nearly impossible for Republican candidates to survive, Graham is well aware of what is at stake. However, Graham says that it might be dangerous for the GOP to disavow Trump this far into the presidential race because it might discourage conservatives from showing up at the polls at all. Graham said: It s going to be like Weekend at Bernie s you got to make him look alive, even if he s not. After Trump had a few weeks of spewing some of the most offensive, controversial comments he d ever made, the presidential nominee made some massive changes to his campaign, although it s probably too late. Earlier this week, Graham said that Trump had alienated voters so much that he stands no chance against Clinton in November, no matter what he does. Graham said: Mitt Romney got 27 percent of the Hispanic vote. By 2050, a majority of the country will be African-American, Hispanic, Asian and others, and we re losing demographically. We ve gone from 44 percent with Bush to 27 percent with Romney, and I don t think Donald Trump s gonna get 20 percent. Graham s right. Currently, Trump is only polling at 2% with African American voters and don t expect the Hispanic population, whom Trump offended several times earlier this year, to be any more promising. Trump has single-handedly destroyed the GOP, and Graham knows it may never fully recover.Featured image via Justin Sullivan / Getty Images | 0 |
21,226 | Expulsion of Australian ministers cast doubt over more than 100 government decisions: opposition Labor | SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia s main Labor opposition party said on Monday it was considering a legal challenge to more than 100 decisions made by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull s conservative government, after two of his cabinet ministers were expelled from parliament. Among the parliamentary votes in question was the government s defeat of a proposed wide-ranging inquiry into Australia s scandal-hit banking sector. A powerful inquiry into Australia s banks, which are under fire after scams involving money-laundering, misleading financial advice, insurance fraud and interest-rate rigging, was approved by the upper house Senate this year, but fell one vote short of passing the lower house. The government lost its one-seat lower house majority on Friday when a court ruled Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce was ineligible to sit in parliament as he had held dual citizenship when elected, in contradiction to the constitution. Former cabinet colleague Fiona Nash, along with three other politicians, were also expelled. The ruling has cast doubt over the validity of parliamentary votes Joyce and Nash have cast, said Tanya Plibersek, acting leader of the Australian Labor Party We re going to look at all of our options, Plibersek said on Monday in an interview with Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio. We are very concerned about the fact that Barnaby Joyce has been voting at a time when he shouldn t have been in the Federal Parliament and we narrowly lost votes because of that. Joyce has said many of those decisions were made by cabinet collectively rather than himself personally and so ought to remain valid. Plibersek said legal challenges could be mounted by anyone aggrieved by the government s decisions. She flagged challenging a narrowly-won vote that cut Sunday pay rates for some workers, as well as decisions taken by Joyce and Nash in their capacity as ministers. That includes a decision to relocate a government department headquarters to Joyce s electorate and decisions on water-rights allocation and the rollout of a national fast-internet scheme. Constitutional law academic George Williams said the issue was not so clear cut. It s certainly uncharted waters, said Williams, Dean of Law at the University of New South Wales. The court would look very carefully in particular at decisions taken since August, when Joyce and Nash realized they may be dual nationals. It s not clear what the result would be, he said. The Australian constitution bars politicians with dual citizenship from being elected to the national parliament. Both Joyce and Nash said they were not aware they held dual citizenship and have since renounced their New Zealand and British citizenships, respectively. Turnbull s minority government now relies on three independent lawmakers to remain in office. Joyce is expected to win a by-election for his seat on Dec. 2, which would restore the government s one-seat majority. | 1 |
21,227 | Ex-CIA Official: Someone Needs To Give Trump A Binky And ‘Put Him In The Crib’ (VIDEO) | The current occupant of the White House took to his Twitter account on Friday to issue a threat to former FBI Director James Comey. According to White House press secretary Sean Spicer, though, the threat wasn t really a threat. That s not a threat, Spicer said during the crazy-time press briefing. He simply stated a fact. The tweet speaks for itself. Well, former CIA official Philip Mudd somewhat agrees with Spicer. He said he s breathing a sigh of relief after Trump s Twitter storm because it can t be taken seriously. Mudd said that Trump cannot intimidate the FBI. You feel like you have to give the President of the United States a pacifier and a rattle and put him in the crib, he told CNN s Kate Bolduan.Mudd called Trump s tweets a joke. Believe me, I know this is going to sound facetious but I m breathing a sigh of relief. You can t take this seriously, Mudd said. You could have taken this seriously from President Bush or President Obama, from President Bush s father, from President Clinton. You can t take this seriously. Mudd was referring to Trump s tweet this morning. James Comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press! he wrote.For someone who called Trump s tweets a joke, Mudd certainly wasn t laughing. In fact, he seems pissed off at Trump s attempt to threaten the former FBI Director. You re threatening the FBI, who s in the midst of an investigation of presidential aides? The FBI s been around since 1908. The President of the United States has been around for three and a half months, Mudd said. If you think you re going to intimidate the former FBI director and the dozens of people in the workforce who are conducting this investigation with the Department of Justice, you ve got another thing coming, he added. Don t worry about it, Mudd said while addressing anyone who is concerned about Trump s recent behavior. Nobody in the investigation would take this seriously. Watch:Ex-CIA official Phil Mudd: "You feel like you gotta give the POTUS a pacifier and a rattle and put him in a crib." https://t.co/6En4Oplg6l CNN (@CNN) May 12, 2017 No one believes this guy anymore, he said after bashing Trump for inflating his inauguration crowd size.Mudd has a healthy resume in the Intelligence field. He s the former director of the CIA s Counterterrorism Center. Trump launched a war on the Intelligence community and the media and he will lose that battle. But first, someone give the fake POTUS his binky, please.Photo by Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images. | 0 |
21,228 | Georgia congressman being eyed for top Trump health post: Politico | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Representative Tom Price of Georgia is under consideration to be secretary of health and human services during a Trump administration, Politico reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources. Price, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, had endorsed Donald Trump’s candidacy in May. The congressman has been a leading voice among Republicans pushing to repeal President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law. | 1 |
21,229 | Ex-ally of Malaysian PM Najib held in graft probe: source | KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A senior Malaysian opposition leader was detained by anti-corruption authorities on Thursday, a source said, as part of a nationwide campaign against graft launched by Prime Minister Najib Razak. Hundreds of people including many high-profile figures have been arrested this year by the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC), at a time when a multi-billion dollar scandal involving state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) hangs over Najib. Shafie Apdal, a former close ally of Najib, was detained at the MACC office in the state of Sabah in connection with a RM1.5 billion ($355 million) embezzlement probe, according to a source in the anti-graft agency. The investigation covers alleged corruption involving projects doled out by the federal government through the Rural and Regional Development Ministry between 2009 and 2015, when it was run by Shafie. He will be brought before a magistrate for a remand hearing tomorrow, said the source, who was not authorized to issue statements on behalf of the MACC. Shafie could not be contacted. Darell Leiking, Deputy President of his Parti Warisan Sabah party, described the arrest as political persecution. We shall ensure that we shall fight for justice for all those who this (Najib) regime intends to suppress and intimidate, Darell told Reuters. Prior to Shafie s arrest, the anti-graft agency detained two of his brothers and several senior Warisan leaders. Shafie, a former vice-president of Najib s ruling United Malay National Organisation (UMNO), quit the party after he was suspended for questioning the prime minister over his handling of the 1MDB scandal. He later founded Warisan to run for office in his home state. Over the past two years, Najib has grappled with the 1MDB scandal which has been the subject of investigations in at least six countries for money-laundering and misappropriation of funds. Malaysia s attorney-general closed the 1MDB probe in January 2016, and cleared Najib of any wrongdoing. | 1 |
21,230 | Trump invites Netanyahu to Washington for visit: White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Washington in early February during a phone call in which they discussed the importance of strengthening the U.S.-Israeli relationship, the White House said on Sunday. In his first call with Netanyahu since taking office on Friday, Trump stressed his “unprecedented commitment to Israel’s security.” “The president and the prime minister agreed to continue to closely consult on a range of regional issues, including addressing the threats posed by Iran,” the White House said in a statement. Trump also said peace between Israel and the Palestinians could only be negotiated between the two parties, but that the United States would work with Israel to achieve that goal. Relations between Israel and the Obama administration ended on a contentious note, when the United States declined to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a halt to Israeli settlement-building. The readout from the White House did not include any mention of moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, an action that would likely spark anger in the Arab world. Earlier on Sunday, the White House said it was only in the early stages of talks to fulfill Trump’s campaign pledge to relocate the embassy. “We are at the very beginning stages of even discussing this subject,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said in a statement. Aides said no announcement of an embassy move was imminent. Washington’s embassy is in Tel Aviv, as are most foreign diplomatic posts. Israel calls Jerusalem its eternal capital, but Palestinians also lay claim to the city as part of an eventual Palestinian state. Both sides cite biblical, historical and political claims. Any decision to break with the status quo is likely to prompt protests from U.S. allies in the Middle East such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt. Washington relies on those countries for help in fighting the Islamic State militant group, which the new U.S. president has said is a priority. The U.S. Congress passed a law in 1995 describing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and saying it should not be divided, but successive Republican and Democratic presidents have used their foreign policy powers to maintain the embassy in Tel Aviv and to back negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians on the status of Jerusalem. In early December, then-President Barack Obama renewed the presidential waiver on an embassy move until the beginning of June. It is unclear whether Trump would be able to legally override it and go ahead with relocation of the embassy. U.S. diplomats say that, despite the U.S. legislation, Washington’s foreign policy is in practice broadly aligned with that of the United Nations and other major powers, which do not view Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and do not recognize Israel’s annexation of Arab East Jerusalem after its capture in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel approved building permits on Sunday for hundreds of homes in three East Jerusalem settlements in expectation that Trump will row back on the previous administration’s criticism of such projects. | 1 |
21,231 | Tapper SLAMS Trump For BIZARRE Behavior At ‘Wild’ And ‘Unhinged’ Presidential Presser (VIDEO) | There is certainly no love lost between CNN and the Trump Administration. Indeed, Donald Trump himself has called the mainstream news outlet one of the most credible and trusted in the nation and world fake news for daring to report on the chaos coming out of the Trump White House. This hairy relationship is definitely on full display on a regular basis when it comes to the host of The Lead and and State of the Union on CNN, Jake Tapper.Joining fellow CNN host Wolf Blitzer, Tapper took to the airwaves on Thursday to blast the bizarre and chaotic mess that passed for Trump s first presidential press conference since his inauguration. Tapper said of the spectacle, in which Trump was supposed to discuss his new nominee for Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta: It was a wild press conference. He talked about [CNN reporter] Jim Acosta more than he talked about Alexander Acosta. He talked about Hillary Clinton more than he talked about Alexander Acosta. Tapper then went on to say that the presser was really just a way for Trump to rant, lamenting that Trump stepped on his own messages and activities in his first month as president and instead of focusing on these accomplishments it was an airing of grievances. It was Festivus. It was complaints about the media. At one point he said the leaks were real but the news is fake, which doesn t make any sense what so ever. He said things that were not true. If you are a soldier in harm s way right now, if you are a hungry child in Appalachia or the inner city, if you are an unemployed worker in the hallowed shell of a steel town, that s not a president who seemed rather focused on your particular needs and wants. That s a president that s focused on his bad press. Tapper then went one to sum it up thusly: It was unhinged, it was wild. A lot of Americans are going to watch that press conference and think, that guy wasn t focused on me and I don t know what he was focused on. Tapper is exactly right. Trump is clearly losing it in a fit of rage, and there s absolutely nothing to do but to conclude that he held that press conference to attack the media and other people he perceives to be enemies. He wanted to unload in front of a national and international audience, because he cannot accept the fact that most of what is going so wrong in his fledgling administration is the fault of his own ill-tempered, impulsive actions, and of the incompetence of his White House staff.In short, this man is in way over his head. He is most definitely unhinged and he has the nuclear codes.Watch Tapper annihilate Trump below:Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
21,232 | Canada, Mexico vow to stick with NAFTA talks, Mexico works on Plan B | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The leaders of Mexico and Canada on Thursday pledged to work toward a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) even as talks taking place in the United States turned sour due to hard-line U.S. demands. Speaking in Mexico City as a fourth round of talks to rehash NAFTA was held near Washington, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said they were committed to a “win-win-win” deal. The talks in the United States hit obstacles, with tensions increasing dramatically Thursday due to U.S. demands that include adding a so-called “sunset clause” to NAFTA that would force negotiations of the $1 trillion pact every five years. Two sources with direct knowledge of the talks in Arlington, Virginia described the atmosphere as “horrible” and highly charged. “We will not be walking away from the table based on the proposals put forward,” Trudeau said at a news conference in response to a question about whether the clause was a poison pill for the talks. Asked whether bilateral deals were possible if talks failed, Pena Nieto said Mexico would keep working with both Canada and the United States to reach a deal that was beneficial for all three countries, but he suggested there could be other ways to move forward. “I think that Canada and Mexico share that the NAFTA agreement is a good mechanism, not the only one, but it is a good mechanism to boost the development of the region,” Pena Nieto said. U.S. President Donald Trump says NAFTA, originally signed in 1994, has been a disaster for the United States and he has frequently threatened to scrap it unless major changes are made. Besides the sunset clause, the United States also wants to modify dispute settlement mechanisms and boost the amount of U.S. content that autos must contain to qualify for tax-free status. Business leaders from all three countries have said the U.S. proposals could derail the talks. Earlier on Thursday Mexican Finance Minister Jose Antonio Meade said Mexico was analyzing tariffs and import substitution plans in case NAFTA was scrapped. “We have the possibility of identifying tariff measures, we have the possibility to identify other markets to be our providers and other markets that we can turn to,” Meade told senators in the capital. “We’re working on that, we have been working and perfecting the analysis to identify not only industries but companies that could help the contingency if we don’t reach a satisfactory negotiation.” Meade did not give details of what tariffs were being analyzed. In 2011, Mexico successfully used targeted tariffs on U.S. goods such as pork and cheese to win a dispute over trucks. Meade’s comments and the tensions at the talks drove the peso to a nearly five-month low of 18.92 against the dollar, a fall of more than 1 percent in the session. The currency has shed close to 4 percent since Oct. 3 on concerns the NAFTA talks could founder. | 1 |
21,233 | Billionaire Liberal Governor Boosted State’s Economy By Taxing The Rich | Many Republicans often argue raising the minimum wage or increasing taxes on the rich would kill jobs and hurt the economy, But Minnesota s Democratic Governor, Mark Dayton, completely debunked those arguments in practice.Dayton, a billionaire who s great-grandfather started Dayton s, which would later become Target, inherited a $6.2 billion deficit when he took office as the Governor of Minnesota in 2011 after Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty ran the state into the ground.Dayton was a former U.S. Senator, and of the few to vote against the Iraq War, but he left office disenfranchised with politics in Washington DC, as he felt his liberalism left his hands tied in terms of enacting meaningful legislative reforms.In his home state, he had much better success enacting liberal policies. Governor Dayton reduced the deficit and increased tax revenue by taxing individuals who made more than $150,000 two percent more, from 7.85 percent in state income tax to 9.85 percent, or over $2 billion in extra revenue for the state annually. He also increased the minimum wage and passed an equal pay for women law, despite conservatives in the state criticizing him for these efforts.The result was the creation of over 170,000 new jobs to Minnesota s economy, which now has one of the highest employment rates in the country. The median income in the state is also $8,000 more than the national average. That multi-billion dollar budget deficit he inherited is also now a $1 billion surplus.In contrast, during the same time Wisconsin s Republican Governor Scott Walker broadened poverty levels to the highest they have been in decades by decreasing taxes on the wealthy. Trickle down economics is a myth perpetuated by Republicans that continues to damage our economy and increase poverty. Any conservatives who maintain these arguments should just be pointed to the success Democratic Governor Mark Dayton has had in boosting Minnesota s economy with his progressive reforms, and he implemented them with a Republican controlled State Legislature for his first two years in office. The publication Mother Jones dubbed him the most successful governor in the country in 2015.Featured image courtesy of Flickr | 0 |
21,234 | BREAKING NEWS: First Charges Filed In Special Counsel Mueller’s Russia Probe…As Pressure Mounts For Mueller To Resign | After months of finding no evidence of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign, is this sudden development a distraction from the real news about Crooked Hillary Clinton s Russian and friends actual Russian collusion?A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., has reportedly approved the first charges in special counsel Robert Mueller s investigation into Russia s meddling in the 2016 election.CNN reported Friday that the charges are sealed under a federal judge s order, with sources telling the network that those charged could be taken into custody as soon as Monday.It is unclear what the charges are, the network reported. A spokesman for the special counsel s office declined to comment to CNN. The HillMany Twitter users think Mueller s Friday night charges only serve as a distraction from the REAL scandals, like Uranium One and the Clinton and DNC involvement in the phony Trump Russia dossier:fake Mueller charges are designed to distract the American people from the REAL scandals: Uranium One, Fusion GPS & the Clinton Foundation pic.twitter.com/W2ui9mQYV8 Raven (@KazeSkyz) October 28, 2017Reactions when you heard Mueller filed the first charges in his investigation? pic.twitter.com/gxFmzX6Zbl Donald J. Trump (@AKADonaldTrump) October 28, 2017FOX News Special Counsel Robert Mueller is facing a fresh round of calls from conservative critics for his resignation from the Russia collusion probe, amid revelations that have called into question the FBI s own actions and potentially Mueller s independence.This week s bombshell that a controversial anti-Trump dossier was funded by the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign has Republicans asking to what extent the FBI which received some of the findings and briefly agreed to pay the same researcher to gather intelligence on Trump and Russia used the politically connected material.Hill investigators also are looking into a Russian firm s uranium deal that was approved by the Obama administration in 2010 despite reports that the FBI then led by Mueller had evidence of bribery involving a subsidiary of that firm. Critics question whether Mueller s own ties to the bureau as well as fired FBI director James Comey now render him compromised as he investigates allegations of Russian meddling and collusion with Trump officials in the 2016 race. The federal code could not be clearer Mueller is compromised by his apparent conflict of interest in being close with James Comey, Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., who first called for Mueller to step down over the summer, said in a statement to Fox News on Friday. The appearance of a conflict is enough to put Mueller in violation of the code. All of the revelations in recent weeks make the case stronger. Outgoing New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie, a former federal prosecutor and Trump ally, also suggested Friday that Mueller consider stepping aside. If the facts that you just laid out are true, then somebody with Bob Mueller s integrity will step aside and should if in fact those facts, as you laid them out, are true, Christie said on Fox & Friends, in response to various conflict-of-interest allegations. | 0 |
21,235 | 'Nasty woman' and Ken Bone: election's viral stars a hit for Halloween | NEW YORK (Reuters) - With the U.S. election just days away, Americans can expect to see an occasional “nasty woman” and “basket of deplorables” knocking on doors this Halloween alongside the usual parade of goblins, ghosts and ghouls. Revelers are planning costumes inspired by the campaign for the Nov. 8 election, seeking catharsis and humor at the end of the often bitterly fought White House race between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton. Ted Wright, a marketing executive from Atlanta, said he and his wife were planning to dress as a “bad hombre” and “nasty woman,” respectively, references to Trump’s much-ridiculed remarks about some Mexican immigrants and Clinton during a presidential debate on Oct. 19. “This is one of those elections where it’s very difficult to discuss [it] in polite company,” said Wright, 49, a Republican who said he would not vote for Trump. “That is why we’re going ‘bad hombre’ and we’re going ‘nasty woman.’” Hannah Hemperly, a 22-year-old recent college graduate, said she planned to dress up as a “nasty woman” as well. “When (Trump) was calling (Clinton) a ‘nasty woman,’ I think I just felt solidarity with Hillary,” said Hemperly, who lives in Chicago and planned to vote for the Democratic nominee. Jake West, who works at a Chicago-area architecture firm, said he was going to assemble a group of friends to dress as a “basket of deplorables,” a reference to Clinton’s infamous put-down during a fundraiser of some Trump supporters. West, 43, latched onto the idea “because that word, that phrase, ‘basket of deplorables’ has been flying around so much.” More traditional election-related costumes were also popular ahead of the fancy dress parties and parades planned for the days around Halloween, Oct. 31. Foam Clinton and Trump masks priced at $12.99 were among the top-sellers at Spirit Halloween, according to a spokeswoman for the chain, which specializes in costumes and party supplies. By Wednesday, the Clinton mask had sold out online. Corey Campbell of Virginia said he would shave his beard to mark a briefly famous moment in the campaign. Campbell planned to dress as Ken Bone, the mustachioed, red sweater-wearing audience member who became a social media sensation after he cut into the campaign acrimony to ask an earnest question about energy policy during a town hall presidential debate on Oct. 9. Campbell, who said he was leaning toward voting for Trump, called Bone “a bright moment in this crazy campaign cycle.” “I think the only way you could not have a little campaign fatigue after this cycle is if you haven’t been paying attention.” | 1 |
21,236 | Defying Trump, California lawmakers vote to become 'sanctuary state' | (Reuters) - California lawmakers voted on Saturday to make the most populous U.S. state a so-called sanctuary by banning police from asking for the immigration status of people who have been arrested and limiting their cooperation with immigration officers. The measure was one of numerous bills passed on the last day of the legislature’s session this year, positioning California in opposition to conservative policies supported by the Trump Administration and the Republican controlled Congress. Illinois’ Republican Governor signed a bill last month protecting people from being detained simply because of their immigration status or because they are the subject of an immigration-related warrant. | 1 |
21,237 | WATCH Sean Hannity Humiliate Himself For 2nd Night In A Row With LUDICROUS Russia ‘Conspiracy’ | What is up with Sean Hannity lately? Last night, he asked whether there would be outcry if a theater company put on a play in which an Obama lookalike was killed, completely ignoring or forgetting the fact that that very thing happened in 2012. Tonight, though, in pushing his point that the Russia investigation is just one huge witch hunt, he made a truly ridiculous comparison to another conspiracy theory.Hannity was trying to defend his lord, hero, and savior, Donald Trump, by complaining about the Russia investigation to Jay Sekulow, part of Trump s legal team. He asked Sekulow whether he thought the whole Trump-Russia conspiracy was like birtherism.Seriously. Watch below:Sean Hannity just defended DONALD FREAKING TRUMP by comparing the Russia conspiracies to birther conspiracies Can t make this shit up pic.twitter.com/rrjulSuRaO Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) June 20, 2017Yes, you just watched Sean Hannity try to make the Russia scandal sound as empty and vapid as all of the quests to prove President Obama wasn t a natural-born citizen of the U.S., even though Obama proved them wrong. The Russia scandal and birtherism aren t comparable at all for a lot of reasons.Hannity even promoted the birther conspiracy on his show, going so far as to tell Obama to show the birth certificate. Get it over and done with, and asking why the White House wouldn t release it.So he should know all about it. But since when do facts actually matter to Sean Hannity?Featured image via Rob Kim/Getty Images | 0 |
21,238 | WATCH: CNN Host Calls Out Trump Supporter For Urging People To Grab Their Guns If Trump Loses | This election is already the nastiest one on record in American political history. The aftermath could end up being the bloodiest if Trump supporters follow through on their threats. If she s in office, I hope we can start a coup, Trump supporter Dan Bowman declared at a rally earlier this month. She should be in prison or shot. That s how I feel about it. We re going to have a revolution and take them out of office if that s what it takes. There s going to be a lot of bloodshed. But that s what it s going to take I would do whatever I can for my country. Bowman is not alone either. Many Trump supporters are simply waiting for Trump to give the word on Election Day, like this person who aimed a gun at Hillary while she was on television during the debate.This all stems from Trump s assertion that the election is rigged for Hillary Clinton and that Second Amendment people should do something to stop her.And right-wing radio hosts like Joe Walsh are only throwing gas on the fire. November 8th, I m voting for Trump, the disgraced former Tea Party lawmaker wrote on Twitter before adding, On November 9th, if Trump loses, I m grabbing my musket. You in? On November 8th, I m voting for Trump.On November 9th, if Trump loses, I m grabbing my musket.You in? Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) October 26, 2016During an interview with CNN on Friday, Walsh claimed that he was merely calling for civil disobedience. If I wanted people to take up arms, why would I recommend people take up an antique like a musket? Walsh told Chris Cuomo. I mean, seriously, in 2016 I want people to go out and find a musket, grab their musket? That s just silly. But that doesn t explain why he said everyone should grab their guns if Trump loses. A musket is, in fact, a gun and definitely implies that people should grab their guns.In fact, Walsh doesn t even care if Trump loses fair and square, he still wants people to revolt against the government with their guns. If she wins fair and square, then the anger that a lot of Americans have toward our political system and she s part of that we ve got to double down and triple down and do whatever we can to defend our freedom. That phrase, grab your musket, is a phrase I ve used probably a hundred times in the last two or three years. Cuomo didn t let Walsh get away with trying to spin his own words, however. The CNN host reminded Walsh of another tweet he posted in the wake of the killing of police officers in Dallas. Words matter, context matters, Cuomo pointed out. You say, This is now war, watch out Obama, watch out Black Lives Matter punks, real America s coming after you. You only take this one way you take it provocatively. Trump is the master of this, and you have to now argue whether that s a good thing or a bad thing. You tell me why it s good. Walsh then dropped his civil disobedience spin and went straight to talking about grabbing guns and going to war against the federal government, which would be treason. Look, when I say, grab your musket, man, and let s go to war if Hillary wins, the Republican Party s going to be in our sights. Because all these people are pissed off again at what we believe, Chris, is a corrupt political system. Here s the video via Twitter.Former Rep. Joe Walsh: When I said grab your musket if Trump loses, I meant we need to defend our freedom https://t.co/lgJho3xleM CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 28, 2016Trump supporters are dangerous threats to public safety and our democracy. This nation s government needs to be prepared for the strong possibility that right-wing nuts will attempt a bloody coup or commit acts of violence wherever they are in the country in retaliation of a Hillary victory. That means President Obama should put the military and National Guard on standby. If these idiots want a war, let s see how they do against professionals who have actually been in one.Featured Image: Screenshot | 0 |
21,239 | China's Xi set to codify legal clout, anti-graft campaign at congress | BEIJING (Reuters) - China s Communist Party once shunned the rule of law, preferring to rely on what Chairman Mao Zedong called rule of man essentially using the authority of party leaders to govern. In recent years, though, as China s economy modernizes, the party has increasingly been turning to the law to exert central authority over the bureaucracy and keep citizens under control, according to legal experts and diplomats. And under President Xi Jinping, that trend has been accelerating, they say. Emblematic of that drive is a move to enshrine in law Xi s signature anti-graft campaign, which has ensnared nearly 1.4 million party members in the past five years. The move, announced last year, will be finalised at the Communist Party Congress that opens Wednesday. Don t underestimate the importance of writing these things down, says Jessica Batke, who covered China for the U.S. State Department and now writes on China s leadership for the Hoover Institution. Legal reforms are part of efforts by the Communist Party under Xi to grant more freedoms to ordinary people, while drawing red lines and creating harsher punishments for those who cross them, Batke said. Human rights groups often criticize China for only paying lip service to the rule of law and say the Communist Party systematically ignores due process when prosecuting activists and dissidents. Courts are being pushed by the Communist Party to be more accessible and fair in the hope that law becomes an effective tool to resolve disputes and stabilize society. But the reforms also help the leadership enforce central control by codifying previously informal restrictions, or campaigns like the anti-corruption drive, legal experts say. What Xi is trying to do is centralize power in order to exert that power over China s unruly bureaucracy, said Carl Minzer, a Chinese law expert at Fordham Law School in New York. Under Xi, the legislature has issued a flurry of new laws governing issues like internet controls, espionage and even how to sing the Chinese national anthem. New rules and laws are also being used to punish people who oppose the party, according to Maya Wang, a Hong Kong-based researcher for Human Rights Watch. The justice ministry has taken a tougher line on lawyers taking on rights cases. Last year it ordered law firms to support Party activities, which activists say raises the risks of taking on sensitive cases for lawyers. This month, Zhu Shengwu became the first lawyer to be stripped of his license for online posts critical of the Communist Party under the new measures. His posts had mocked the anti-corruption campaign and said the party was lawlessly administering justice. Under Xi Jinping s rule of law reform, political and executive power has been legalized so as to erode the possibility of resistance, said Fu Hualing, an expert on Chinese law at the University of Hong Kong. Xi s anti-corruption campaign will be overseen by a new National Supervision Commission, which will be given legal authority with a law still being drafted. The new body will take over from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and merge multiple anti-graft units into a single body, according to an announcement from the CCDI last year. It will also expand the graft campaign s purview to include employees at state-backed institutions. The CCDI, justice ministry and the National People s Congress, China s legislature, did not respond to requests for comment. The extent of the commission s power is closely tied to the fate of Wang Qishan, who has overseen the anti-graft campaign and is expected to stay in a leadership role despite being past the customary retirement age of 68, sources have told Reuters. Wang s exact position is likely to be made clear at the congress. One scenario would see him usher in the next phase of the graft fight as head of the super-ministry. Wang has said that the new commission should be granted detention powers by law, raising concerns among rights activists that practices like the informal detention of suspects for questioning could be validated. Rights groups consider the practice illegal and say that suspects are often tortured. Details about the commission are expected to be announced next year at an annual meeting of the National People s Congress, according to diplomats and legal experts. | 1 |
21,240 | Highlights: French President Macron's speech on the EU | PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron laid out his vision for reform of the European Union on Tuesday, detailing a desire for a major overhaul of the single currency bloc and ideas on deeper defense and immigration cooperation. Macron was setting out his ideas before German Chancellor Angela Merkel begins the task of building a coalition government after she suffered a sharp fall in support in Sunday s election, which may hamper her ability to help him deliver reform. Below are highlights from his speech: A more fragile Europe is today exposed to waves of globalization. The only path that assures our future is the rebuilding of a Europe that is sovereign, united and democratic. At the beginning of the next decade, Europe must have a joint intervention force, a common defense budget and a joint doctrine for action. We must provide Europe with a joint civil protection force. It is only with Europe that we can efficiently protect our borders and welcome those who need protection in a dignified manner, and at the same time send back those who are not eligible for asylum. We must create a European asylum office, which accelerates and harmonizes our procedures. Says he wants the gradual creation of a European border police to assure the better protection of Europe s borders. We can no longer see Africa as a threat but as a partner. Development aid must be increased. We need a tax on carbon at the borders of Europe. This is indispensable. Studies show that a carbon price below 25-30 euros per tonne is not efficient. Macron says Europe needs an agency for disruptive innovation ... let us finance research in new areas such as Artificial Intelligence. We cannot accept that there are European firms that are taxed and internationals one that are not. Says he wants EU heads of states to take up the issue of a tax on value where it is created, which will enable us to review our tax systems profoundly, to tax without complacency those companies that set up outside Europe for the sole purpose of escaping tax. A durable economic power can only be built around a single currency. It is from this economic and monetary union that we can create an integrated Europe. The fundamental issue is not a mechanism which will magically solve all our problems ... it is not about mutualizing our past debts or solving the financial problems of one country or another. What is at stake is to reduce unemployment which affects one in five European youths. Macron says Europe needs its own budget to finance joint investments and assure stability when confronted by economic shocks ... A budget can only go hand in hand with strong political leadership led by a common minister and a strong parliamentary supervision at the European level. Macron says wants to define a common corporate tax band ; Europe needs to define a minimum wage that reflects the economic reality of each country. We need a Europe that is simpler, more transparent and less bureaucratic. Simple, efficient, protective, the single market should become a space for convergence rather than competition. In the context of a wider Europe: We cannot continue with a (European) Commission of 30 members, as if each country must have its own members. It has no sense and does not reflect the European project. A Commission of 15 members should be our target. FRANCO-GERMAN AXIS To Germany: Why not set ourselves the objective that by 2024 we integrate totally our markets by applying the same rules to our companies, from corporate law to bankruptcy regulation. On Merkel: We share the same European ambitions and I know her commitment to Europe. I m proposing to Germany a new partnership We will not agree on everything, not immediately, but we will discuss everything. This Europe which has allowed us to turn our backs on war needs to be ambitious once again. | 1 |
21,241 | technocracy the real reason why the un wants control over the internet | by nathaniel mauka congress overwhelmingly voted for the patriot act nearly years ago and our civil liberties have never been the same since as | 0 |
21,242 | WATCH #BlackLivesMatter Students Panic When Asian Student Turns Tables On Them…Talks About Racial Harassment By Blacks | After watching this video, it becomes very clear that these students want nothing to do with racial harmony. This movement is about black power. It s about treating people a certain way based solely on the color of their skin. There is nothing about this movement that attempts to bring people together. The black students have taken over the movement and kicked the Asian, White and Hispanic students who are supporting them to the curb. This divisive #BlackLivesMatter movement will go down as one of the most deceitful movements in our nations history Students at Claremont McKenna College in California who are demanding a racially segregated safe space for marginalized identities, silenced and embarrassed an Asian woman when she described how she had been racially harassed by an African-American man.The exchange is damning because it illustrates how the safe space students don t really care about racism, they only care about race baiting and exploiting identity politics in order to obtain power. | 0 |
21,243 | SHOCKING PHOTOS Raise Questions On Hillary’s Health | Photos of multiple staffers helping Hillary Clinton up stairs to a house were recently making the rounds on social media these photos have raised questions about Clinton s health. Twitter is all abuzz over the photos which show Clinton struggling to get up the stairs. What s up with this or is it no big deal? Hillary has a history of trip and fall | 0 |
21,244 | Trump Stands By Wiretapping Lie Despite EVERY Investigation Confirming It’s Bullsh*t | According to White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, Donald Trump is standing by his claim that former President Obama tapped the phones at Trump Tower even though everyone has confirmed it s bullsh*t.During Monday s press briefing, which took place while FBI Director James Comey s testimony before the House Intelligence Committee was on a break, Spicer was asked about the fact that Trump s wiretapping claims had been shot down by the FBI, the Justice Department, and everybody else except for a few random conspiracy theorists. He said that there is no information to support the allegations that the President made against President Obama, ABC s Jonathan Karl said, referring to Comey, before Spicer abruptly cut him off mid question. At this time, Spicer said. So is the President prepared to withdraw that accusation and apologize to the President? Karl asked. No, Spicer replied. We started a hearing. It s still ongoing. And then, as Chairman Nunes mentioned, this is one of a series of hearings that will be happening. While testifying on Monday, Comey said that the Department of Justice has no information whatsoever to support Trump s ridiculous assertion that Obama, or anybody else for that matter, wiretapped Trump Tower. Comey said he would not characterize Trump s tweets about the alleged wiretapping, and said only that he has no information to support the accusation.On Friday, the Justice Department sent documents related to Trump wiretapping claims to the committee. Reps. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and Adam Schiff (R-Calif.) have both said publicly that there was nothing in those documents to back of Trump s accusation. We know there was not a wiretap on Trump Tower, Nunes said.But none of this is enough to get our narcissistic tweeter-in-chief to admit that he is full of sh*t. Oh no, not Trump. He ll never back down. He lives in his own reality and is totally incapable of admitting that he is wrong. Ever. This is a terrifying trait to have in the leader of the free world, that s for sure.Watch Spicer say Trump still believes Obama tapped his phones, here:Featured image via Mark Wilson/Getty Images | 0 |
21,245 | Spain's Socialist leader to meet PM as Catalonia signs independence document | MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish Socialist opposition leader Pedro Sanchez was on his way to meet Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in Madrid on Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the party said, as Catalan officials signed a document declaring independence. It was not clear whether the document, which followed a largely symbolic declaration in parliament in Barcelona, had any legal basis. | 1 |
21,246 | Trump retreats on comments on raising taxes on the wealthy | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump backtracked on Monday on his remarks about raising taxes on wealthy Americans, saying the rich might simply get a smaller tax cut than he originally proposed. Trump walked away from his Sunday comment that taxes on the wealthy would “go up” once his broad tax policy proposals, which include tax cuts for rich Americans, were negotiated with Congress. That appeared to be a break with traditional Republican support for lower taxes in all income brackets. On Monday, Trump said he did not mean to imply he was willing to raise taxes for people in higher-income brackets from their current level, but was referring to potential adjustments to his own tax policy proposal. “I may have to increase it on the wealthy - I’m not going to allow it to be increased on the middle class,” Trump said on CNN. “Now, if I increase it on the wealthy, that means they’re still going to be paying less than they are paying now. I’m talking about increasing it from my (original) tax proposal.” The proposal, released in September, included broad tax breaks for businesses and households, with the highest income tax rate cut to 25 percent from the current 39.6 percent. Trump, a billionaire real estate developer, said on Monday that lowering taxes on the middle class and businesses was his priority. “I’m not talking about a tax increase. I’m talking about a tremendous tax decrease, OK?” Trump said on the Fox Business Network. He said proposals always changed in negotiations with Congress but that he was committed to cutting taxes. The contradictory statements came as Trump began pivoting to a general election race against likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Trump effectively clinched the Republican nomination for the Nov. 8 presidential election last week after his last two rivals dropped out of the race. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former Bush administration official who also advised Republican John McCain during his failed 2008 presidential run, said Trump was trying to make his economic plans add up. “He’s gone from wildly unrealistic to impenetrable” on the subject of taxes, Holtz-Eakin said, adding that Trump’s comments about the outcome of possible negotiations with Congress “makes me confused as to what he really wants.” Trump did win support from influential anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist, who said on CNBC on Monday that some people with a lot of tax credits might see some increase, but that rates would drop overall under Trump’s plan. “He’s made it very clear he wants lower taxes,” Norquist said. “Trump’s tax cut would be a tax cut for every American.” Norquist’s group, Americans for Tax Reform, asks all Republican candidates to sign a no-new-taxes pledge, but Trump has not signed one yet. Norquist said he was confident the candidate would sign, given his public comments. The Clinton campaign was happy to take Trump at his word that he planned to cut wealthy Americans’ taxes. It cited an analysis of Trump’s proposal by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimating it would give the wealthiest Americans an average annual boost of more than $1.3 million a year. “This is a tax plan by the billionaire for the billionaires,” Clinton adviser Jake Sullivan said. “And after some confusing comments over the weekend, he actually doubled down today on the fact that his tax plan would have massive cuts for the wealthy. Who knows what he’ll say tomorrow?” Trump also sought on Monday to clarify comments he made last week about the U.S. debt. He said he never espoused restructuring or defaulting on government debt but would buy it back at a discount if interest rates go up. “He should stop talking about the debt because he hasn’t said anything that makes any sense yet,” Holtz-Eakin said. Trump’s candidacy has opened a rift in the Republican Party, with many leaders appalled by his rhetoric on immigrants, Muslims and women and concerned that some policy positions such as his opposition to free trade run counter to Republican orthodoxy. U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, who said last week he was not yet ready to endorse Trump, said on Monday he would step down as co-chairman of the July 18-21 Republican National Convention if Trump wants him to. Trump on Sunday did not rule out pushing Ryan out from the speaker’s traditional role as convention chairman. Ryan and Trump will meet on Thursday to try to iron out their differences. Later on Thursday, the candidate will meet with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other members of the Senate Republican leadership, a Senate Republican aide said on Monday. Trump said on Monday that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a former presidential rival who endorsed his candidacy shortly after dropping out of the race, would lead his White House transition team. Republican U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, another vanquished presidential rival, sought on Monday to quash speculation he might emerge as the vice presidential running mate for Trump, saying he still had deep reservations about the former reality television star. | 1 |
21,247 | BREAKING NEWS: Hollywood Kingpin, and Top Hillary Donor, Harvey Weinstein Just Got Some VERY BAD NEWS From His Own Company | Last week, after the news about Hollywood kingpin Harvey Weinstein being hit with multiple accusations of sexual harassment, Donald Trump Jr., asked if Hillary would disavow the embattled Hollywood producer who made significant contributions to her campaign for President against his father. Weinstein also held considerable influence over Hollywood dolts to support her.Will She/they all Disavow? Embattled Hollywood Producer Harvey Weinstein Raised Big Bucks For Hillary Clinton & Dems https://t.co/6PHQaAQFNm Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) October 6, 2017That s a great question Donald Jr. And what about Pocahontas, aka Senator Elizabeth Warren? Will she disavow and return campaign contributions from the guy who championed women in office, while simultaneously using his position to sexually harass them? How very Hollywood.Does anyone remember the outrage and the Hollywood celebrities including Ashley Judd, who is now one of his accusers who took to DC wearing p*ssy hats to show their disgust for a conversation between two men that was recorded about a certain female? How many of those same women were simultaneously begging Harvey Weinstein, who was apparently a well known sexual predator, for a job? Well, today Harvey got some very bad news Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced co-founder and CEO of The Weinstein Company, has been fired effective immediately, his board of directors said on Sunday.The statement said: In light of new information about misconduct by Harvey Weinstein that has emerged in the past few days, the directors of The Weinstein Company Robert Weinstein, Lance Maerov, Richard Koenigsberg and Tarak Ben Ammar have determined, and have informed Harvey Weinstein, that his employment with The Weinstein Company is terminated, effective immediately. The company has been under intense pressure since The New York Times broke an investigative story on Thursday detailing three decades of sexual misconduct, including propositioning actresses and harassing female employees. More ugly stories continued to dribble out over the weekend, including a vulgar report by a news anchor that Weinstein masturbated in front of her and other stories of inappropriate propositions.Internally Weinstein continued to fight for his survival, insiders have told TheWrap. His advisors including his brother Bob told him that he needed to take the allegations seriously and not merely pay lip service. They wanted him to leave for six months and get treatment for sex addiction or whatever his behavior may be called.Weinstein told TheWrap in an interview on Thursday that he was sincere in his apology and intention to make amends. But reports continued to leak out of the company internally that the CEO was determined to dictate the terms of his leave of absence and treatment.Harvey and Bob Weinstein co-founded the indie film company Miramax in 1979 and grew it into a powerhouse brand that made art-house films mainstream and reshaped the Academy Awards race with aggressive marketing and buzz.The company was bought by Disney in 1993, where the brothers continued to run the company and dominate the Oscar race until they left in 2005 to launch the new privately held The Weinstein Company. The brothers have a 44 percent stake in the firm, according to the Times.For entire story: The Wrap | 0 |
21,248 | UPDATE: CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY THAT STATUE REMOVED AFTER LIBS COMPLAIN OF “WHITE SUPREMACY” AND “RACISM” Replaces With Ferguson Protestors [VIDEO] | This is a perfect example of the effort by liberals to erase our American history. Like it or not, we have a history and we should never try and erase the good OR the bad. The priest is praying over the Indians who re wearing just what Indians wore back then. Why is this racist? Why is this anything but a moment in time captured in a statue? Saint Louis University has removed a statue on its campus depicting a famous Jesuit missionary priest praying over American Indians after a cohort of students and faculty continued to complain the sculpture symbolized white supremacy, racism and colonialism.Formerly placed outside the university s Fusz Hall in the center of the private Catholic university, the statue will go to the university s art museum, a building just north of the bustling urban campus.The statue features famous Jesuit Missionary Pierre-Jean De Smet S.J. praying over two American Indians dressed in traditional clothing. Last Monday, just two days after graduation, it was removed from the location it has called home on campus for decades.A university spokesperson told St. Louis Magazine the statue will be placed within the historical context of a collection that s on permanent display in our SLU Museum of Art. The statue is set for the museum s Collection of the Western Jesuit Missions. In more recent years, there have been some faculty and staff who have raised questions about whether the sculpture is culturally sensitive, SLU spokesman Clayton Berry said.Berry did not respond to The College Fix s request for comment.The De Smet statue has long drawn the ire of progressive students and scholars at the Jesuit university who argue the statue was a symbol of racism and white supremacy, among other oppressions.In a recent op-ed published in SLU s University News, senior Ryan McKinley stated the sculpture sent a clear, unwelcoming message to American Indians at Saint Louis University.Via: College Fix | 0 |
21,249 | (VIDEO) ANTI-TERROR EXPERT WARNS OF RISK IN CLOSING GITMO AFTER TWO FORMER DETAINEES ARRESTED | As Obama pushes to close GITMO, two former detainees are arrested in Belgium. Once again, Obama puts the safety of Americans second to his political agenda and legacy. | 0 |
21,250 | Stephen Colbert Just Got Himself Thrown Off The RNC Stage Before It Even Began (VIDEO) | Stephen Colbert showed up at the site of the disastrous clusterf*ck that will be the Republican National Convention on Sunday. The late night host and his crew visited with convention-goers and made preparations for his coverage of the upcoming event. But the comedian decided to have a little fun with the level of access he was granted when he jumped up on the stage and hijacked the microphone.Dressed as his Hungry For Power Games character, Colbert launched into an assault on Trump and his new sidekick, Indiana Governor Mike Pence. Colbert declared that Trump has formed an alliance with Indiana Governor Mike Pence just before he pretended to fall asleep. Sorry, I blacked out there for a moment, Colbert says, before slamming down a gavel and announcing, it is my honor to hereby launch and begin the 2016 Republican National Hungry For Power Games! As a security guard attempts to remove him, Colbert drops the most memorable line of this stunt:The former Comedy Central host is then escorted off the stage.Stephen Colbert just ran onto the RNC stage. pic.twitter.com/Uvd9hJPeX9 Breaking911 (@Breaking911) July 17, 2016Colbert s Hungry For Power Games is a segment from his late night show, and probably one of the more entertaining things he has done since leaving Comedy Central. Watch a clip of that below:Colbert and Jon Stewart will be teaming up to cover the convention a welcome surprise for everyone who misses the contributions these two have traditionally made to political comedy.Featured image via screengrab | 0 |
21,251 | Clinton: DNC should authorize additional Democratic debate next week | ADEL, Iowa (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called on the Democratic National Committee on Wednesday to authorize an additional debate in New Hampshire next week for the party’s candidates. “I am, you know, anxious if we can get something set up to be able to be there,” she said in an interview with MSNBC which will air later Wednesday. “So, let’s try to make it happen.” She said she would like to see DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and the campaigns of the other two candidates, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley, to agree to the new debate. | 1 |
21,252 | Deadly Somalia blast reveals flaws in intelligence efforts | NAIROBI/MOGADISHU (Reuters) - The size and methods of the latest truck bombing in Mogadishu show how international and Somali government efforts to stop the killings are failing, partly because intelligence gathering to counter such attacks is so disjointed, security sources say. More than 300 people were killed in the bombing in the heart of the capital on Saturday, the deadliest attack in the history of the Horn of Africa nation. The Islamist insurgency al Shabaab was blamed for the blasts, which happened when a car bomb and a truck bomb headed for the airport detonated prematurely. Somali security services and the donor nations working with them are both to blame for disorganization in the divisions that are supposed to be working to detect and stop such attacks, said Hussein Moalim Mohamud Sheikh Ali, a former national security adviser to the president. The national security architecture is in tatters, he told Reuters. The Shabaab attacks are a symptom of the greater political dysfunction of the state. The increasing frequency and growing size of the attacks threaten the fragile security gains made in Somalia ahead of the withdrawal of African Union peacekeepers at the end of the year. They also are a concern for other countries in the region where al Shabaab is active, such as Kenya and Uganda. In 2016, 723 people died in 395 attacks in Somalia, up from 46 dead in 36 attacks in 2010, according to a confidential report produced earlier this year by Nairobi-based thinktank Sahan Research. Initial swab tests at the site of the attack showed traces of potassium nitrate, a fertilizer component, indicating al Shabaab is now manufacturing explosives as well as buying them or harvesting them from munitions, experts say. Competing programs funded by different donor nations and the lack of a centralized database are hurting efforts to analyze intelligence related to improvised explosive devices (IEDs), four Western and one Somali security source told Reuters. A letter from Somalia s minister of internal security addressed to the United States, Britain and the United Nations in May complained of competition and secrecy among agencies gathering intelligence. Multiple actors involved means this process is highly disorganized ... causing a severe problem for the governmental counter-terrorism efforts, said the letter, seen by Reuters. The pressure is building on President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, who must ensure Somalia s fledgling security forces are ready to step in when the 22,000-strong AU force leaves. His government is already stalling on releasing a report into a joint U.S.-Somali raid on Bariire in August that residents say killed 10 civilians. Political disagreements threaten co-operation between Somalia s federal and regional forces. Last week the minister of defense and army chief resigned, without giving reasons. The interior ministry spokesman resigned this week. Somali police did not respond to requests for comment. HIGH-GRADE EXPLOSIVES Obtaining high-grade military explosives - the material that makes a bomb explode - involves harvesting them from captured munitions, or buying them from someone else. Making their own explosive allows the insurgents to build more and bigger bombs, according to the Sahan report and an upcoming report from a U.N. panel of experts that monitors an arms embargo on Somalia. According to the U.N. report which is due to be published next month, the U.S. Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center, which is funded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has confirmed the presence of potassium nitrate in six major vehicle-borne bomb incidents since 2016. The potential use of HME (home-made explosive) by al Shabaab would allow the group to rely less on the process of harvesting explosives from munitions, which is slow and laborious allow(ing) the militant group to increase the frequency and explosive weight of its IEDs, said the report. Al Shabaab, which wants to overthrow Somalia s U.N.-backed government and impose strict Islamic law, has not yet claimed responsibility for Saturday s attack, in keeping with previous incidents in which large numbers of civilians have been killed. Mass civilian deaths have caused deep divisions among fighters, a security source with knowledge of discussions within the group said. A former top al Shabaab commander, Mukhtar Robow Abu Mansur, condemned the attack and was photographed by local media donating blood. Robow defected to the government in August after the U.S. government removed a $5 million bounty for his capture. Two Mogadishu-based security sources outlined the events leading up to the latest attack to Reuters. They said a car bomb and a truck bomb were deployed to hit Mogadishu International Airport, a warren of buildings ringed by barbed wire and blast walls that house contractors, diplomats and a European Union military training mission. One bomb would have breached a checkpoint, opening the way for a larger bomb, one of the Western security contractors told Reuters. They also had fighters nearby ready to come inside the base. The driver of the car bomb had been driving through checkpoints for a week ahead of the attack, paying small bribes and getting security forces used to his presence, he said. A larger truck entered the city and passed through one checkpoint, but was stopped at one known as Kilometer Five. Panicking, he tried to force his way through, but got snarled in traffic next to a fuel truck. I could see the truck speeding. I also heard few gunshots behind it. Police must have been chasing it, said Mohamed Ali, 21, who was injured in the blast. As it advanced it came to many cars in the street, then the truck driver swerved abruptly to the left lane, but its tyres got stuck in the highway divider. What followed was the blast and smoke. The fireball tore through the intersection, incinerating hundreds of civilians. Many were too badly burned to be identified and were buried in mass graves. The driver of the car bomb was detained at another checkpoint by soldiers who had taken him out for questioning before its bomb also detonated. Three security sources told Reuters he identified himself as al Shabaab. | 1 |
21,253 | Clinton campaign says 'confident' FBI conclusion in email probe won't change | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign said on Friday that the campaign was “confident” the FBI would again recommend against pressing charges against the former secretary of state relating to her use of a private email server once it wraps up the latest leg of its investigation. “The (FBI) Director owes it to the American people to immediately provide the full details of what he is now examining,” campaign chairman John Podesta said in a statement after the FBI said it was examining new emails for whether they contained classified information. “We are confident this will not produce any conclusions different from the one the FBI reached in July,” he said. | 1 |
21,254 | KARMA: Conservative Group’s Plan To Sabotage LGBTQ Dance Hilariously Backfires (IMAGE/VIDEO) | Thanks to a conservative group that tried to ruin an organized dance for LGBTQ teens, thousands of dollars were raised so those very teens could have the night of their lives.The Australian Same Sex Gender Diverse Formal is an annual gala hosted by Minus 18 for LGBTQ teenagers, giving them a place to feel safe and at home without the ridicule that might happen at most school dances. Minus 18 wrote on the event page: Imagine being told by your school that the clothes you feel comfortable wearing to a formal aren t considered normal or don t conform to a dress code. Imagine not being allowed to take a partner of the same sex, or being too afraid to attend altogether. It isn t unusual for LGBTQ teens to be bullied or banned when they try to bring a same-sex date or wear attire that doesn t satisfy strict gender norms. The Formal is a place where teens can be themselves and feel comfortable wearing whatever with whomever, without worrying that others will take issue with it. Knowing just how important LGBTQ events are, Minus 18 was also crowdfunding for any students who couldn t afford their $40 tickets to the dance.Unfortunately, some people just can t let others be. The Stop Safe Schools Coalition, a conservative group of bigots that go out of their way to ruin schools and groups that foster safe and inclusive environments for same-sex attracted, intersex, and gender diverse students, staff and families, decided to try and ruin the gala.Using their 700+ Facebook fans, the right-wing group begged people to buy up as many tickets as possible so that LGBTQ teens wouldn t be able to. The group posted: The more tickets sold to us the more youth we protect. They are non-refundable unfortunately so if you are then unable to attend you can t get your money back or a ticket sold to someone else. Little did they know, that while these homophobes thought they were robbing tickets from LGBTQ teens, they were actually buying them FOR the teens! What The Stop Safe Schools Coalition had actually done was share Minus 18 s crowdfunding campaign which allowed conservatives to unknowingly making donations to send needy LGBTQ students TO the dance. As one person hilariously pointed out on the Facebook page: You realize that if the conservatives do buy all the tickets, you can just allow registered people on a waiting list in for free? They re effectively subsidizing tickets for those who can t buy one. This is one time where the stupidity of conservatives actually paid off. Thanks to their ignorance, Minus 18 DOUBLED their crowdfunding goal of $15,000 for 500 tickets. Now, thanks to the hate group, $30,000 has been raised and Minus 18 is using the extra money to find a bigger venue so even more teens can come!To see how amazing and important the Same Sex Gender Diverse Formal is for LGBTQ teens, you can watch footage from last year s event below:Featured image from Minus 18 | 0 |
21,255 | Turkish PM says Idlib operation aims to prevent migrant wave from Syria | ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey s military operations in Syria s rebel-held province of Idlib aim to prevent a wave of migration into Turkey, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Tuesday. Turkey has said it will provide assistance to rebels it has long backed as it implements a de-escalation agreement designed to reduce fighting with pro-government forces in the area, the most populous pocket of Syria still in rebel hands. On Sunday, a Turkish army reconnaissance team scouted the Idlib province before an expected military operation to impose peace in the bitterly contested Syrian northwest. The reason for our activities is to prepare the groundwork and prevent a potential migrant wave into our country and lower tensions, Yildirim told a parliamentary meeting of the ruling AK Party. Turkey, which is already hosting around three million Syrians, has been one of the biggest supporters of rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the six-and-a-half-year war, but its focus has moved from ousting him to securing its own border against jihadist and Kurdish groups. Yildirim also said Turkey aimed to create control points in Idlib for future deployments, and that the activities of the armed forces in Idlib would help prevent internal conflicts between civilians and militant groups in the region. | 1 |
21,256 | Honduras election tribunal says to hold partial re-count in presidential vote | TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras election tribunal will re-count 4,753 ballot boxes that have cast a shadow on the results of the country s presidential election, the tribunal chief said on Thursday, bowing to a demand by the Organization of American States (OAS). Nearly two weeks since Honduras Nov. 26 presidential election, the result remains unknown, with allegations of electoral fraud sparking protests and a chorus of international concern over events in the poor Central American nation. Official results showed Honduras conservative President Juan Orlando Hernandez with a narrow 1.6 percentage point lead over center-left opposition leader Salvador Nasralla. However, no victor has yet been declared by the election tribunal. The tribunal declared Nasralla the leader in an announcement on the morning after the vote, with just over half of the ballot boxes counted. However, it gave no further updates for about 36 hours. Once results then started flowing again, Nasralla s lead quickly started narrowing. On Thursday, after meeting with the United States top diplomat in Honduras and the OAS country representative, tribunal chief David Matamoros said there would be a re-count of ballot boxes that arrived after the 36-hour pause, and which the opposition has claimed are tainted. This is a process we want to undertake in front of the eyes of the world, and we want to invite civil society, Matamoros said at a press conference in the capital, Tegucigalpa. The OAS, which on Wednesday said it may call for new Honduran elections if irregularities undermine the credibility of results, had previously called for a recount of those 4,753 ballot boxes. It remains to be seen if the opposition will accept the tribunal s offer. Nasralla on Wednesday evening called for an international arbiter to oversee a recount of the entire 18,000-odd ballot boxes, saying he no longer recognized the Honduran tribunal because of its role in the process. Separately, Honduras security ministry said on Thursday it was removing the curfew from three more departments, meaning only six of the country s 18 departments are still under curfew. | 1 |
21,257 | Austrian Chancellor's party sues Foreign Minister ahead of election | VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria s ruling Social Democratic Party (SPO) is suing Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, the chairman of its junior coalition partner, after he accused Chancellor Christian Kern s party of secretly accepting a 100,000 euro ($119,120) donation. The lawsuit marks a new low in the already strained relationship between the coalition partners, who have engaged in public squabbles for years. Polls for parliamentary elections scheduled for Oct. 15 show Kurz s conservative People s Party (OVP) ahead of the SPO. The lawsuit relates to an interview shown on public broadcaster ORF on Monday in which Kurz said industrialist Hans-Peter Haselsteiner, a vocal supporter of the pro-business Neos party, donated 100,000 euros to the SPO via opaque channels. The lawsuit filed at Vienna s commercial court on Friday said the SPO s good reputation, economic progress and honor was damaged by Kurz s comments as it implied dishonesty. The SPO wants party donations to be capped at 20,000 euros. With a view to the upcoming parliamentary elections, there is a very concrete danger that the (SPO) will achieve a worse result because of this accusation, the lawsuit, seen by Reuters, said. The SPO said it has not been offered or received any donations from Haselsteiner, who is a key shareholder of construction group Strabag. Haselsteiner denied Kurz s accusations in newspaper Der Standard. The SPO wants Kurz to publicly retract his comments. In an emailed statement, the General Secretary of Kurz s OVP said Haselsteiner had donated money to an association that is critical of the OVP and hence indirectly supports the SPO. She said the SPO should make all its donations public. Kurz s spokesman was not immediately available for comment. | 1 |
21,258 | Factbox: Humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh as 270,000 Rohingya flee Myanmar | (Reuters) - About 270,000 Muslim Rohingya fleeing violence in Myanmar have sought refuge in Bangladesh in the past two weeks, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said on Friday. This has brought to 357,000 the number of Rohingya who have sought refuge in Bangladesh since October 2016. The exodus has put pressure on aid agencies and communities already helping hundreds of thousands of refugees from previous violence in Myanmar. Following are some details on the crisis gathered from U.N. sources working in the Cox s Bazar district of Bangladesh, on the Myanmar border. - The number of new arrivals has increased considerably in part because of a survey carried out on Sept. 6 and 7, when inter-agency teams visited host communities previously left out of calculations. About 75,000 people were identified in previously unvisited communities at nine locations. - There is immediate need for food for the majority of the new arrivals, who do not have, or have finished, their own supplies, and are getting food from host communities or refugees who came across the border last year. - Most of the food being distributed is high-energy biscuits with 47,522 new arrivals getting them. Supplies of rice are scheduled to go out from Sept. 9. - Water is scarce while sanitation and hygiene facilities in all makeshift settlements and refugee camps, especially at Shamlapur and Leda, where the number of fresh arrivals is increasing rapidly, are stretched. Limited space to build new facilities is a chronic problem. - There are serious concerns about malnutrition, especially among children under five and pregnant or lactating women, some of whom are being enrolled in targeted feeding programs. - Many pregnant women are very hungry, some having not eaten for several days. Seven babies have been born. - There is also a need for safe spaces for women with eight reported cases of gender-based violence, including 2 cases of sexual violence. - As of Sept. 7, a total of 299 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children have been identified and registered since Aug. 25. - An estimated 51,100 children need schooling. | 1 |
21,259 | Racist Charleston Church Shooter Seems To Think He Is Entitled To A Literal White Supremacist As His Public Defender | By now, everyone knows that Dylann Roof, the South Carolina white supremacist who shot up am historic Black Church in Charleston South Carolina, did it because the parishioners were Black. They invited him to their worship service, and after he sat there with them for more than an hour, he killed them. Well, Roof has been sentenced to die, and his case is not in the appeals process. Like all people, no matter how despicable, Roof is entitled, via the law, to a competent defense. Since he cannot afford his own team of attorneys, they have been provided for him in the form of public defenders. There s just one problem with that, though: According to Dylann Roof, his lawyers are the wrong color.Appointed to represent Roof are public defenders Alexandra Yates and Sapna Mirchandani, who are Jewish and Indian, respectively. Those facts seem to be the only things that are wrong here, rather than their actual defense of Roof. This isn t the first time race has entered into Roof s court proceedings; he had similar mishaps with his original attorney during the trial portion of his ordeal. The man representing him during that time, David Bruck, is Jewish. Roof said of the issues there: His ethnicity was a constant source of conflict even with my constant efforts to look past it. Trust is a vital component in an attorney client relationship, and is important to the effectiveness of the defense. Because of my political views, which are arguably religious, it will be impossible for me to trust two attorneys that are my political and biological enemies. To that end, the racist murderer, who seems to be more or less representing himself at this point, penned a missive from prison, firing his public defenders on the basis of their ethnicity:As if all of this weren t bad enough, Roof threatened his original lawyer, David Bruck, with death if he ever got out of prison.Luckily, the judge presiding over Roof s case sees his racism for what it is, and is denying this so-called motion. In short, if anyone deserves the death penalty, it s this piece of less-than-human excrement. No sympathy here, despite my usual opposition to the death penalty. If anyone deserves to die for his crimes, it s Dylann Roof.Featured image via video screen capture from ABC News Video | 0 |
21,260 | BREAKING! NEW Wikileaks Email: Confidential Auditor’s Report States Clinton Foundation Is Engaging In ILLEGAL Conduct | The report exposed in an email shared by Wikileaks shows the results of a review that was completed in 2011, by Jennifer Reynoso, a New York lawyer. The report states that the Clinton Foundation is missing several policies/procedures that are required by law (e.g.,record retention policy). The report goes on to give the following recommendation:In addition to pointing out that employees of the Clinton Foundation are underpaid as compared to comparable positions in other companies, the email also states that the overall morale of the company is low and the staff would like to see more structure. STAFF MORALE IS LOW AND STAFF IS HUNGRY FOR MORE STRUCTUREIronically, the staff complained about a policy not being made available for an employee to blow the whistle on potential wrongdoings within the non-profit. Given Bill Clinton s history as a sexual predator and his role in the Clinton Foundation, it shouldn t come as a surprise that there isn t a strong Sexual Harassment policy in place. | 0 |
21,261 | Putin, Trump to discuss North Korea on Tuesday: IFX cites Kremlin aide | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump will discuss North Korea when they hold a telephone conversation on Tuesday, Interfax news agency cited Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov as saying. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier on Tuesday that the conversation would focus on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s visit to Russia which he made on Monday. | 1 |
21,262 | The Trump presidency on Feb 16 at 8:08 p.m. EST | (Reuters) - Highlights of the day for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday: Trump dismisses a growing controversy about ties between his aides and Russia as a “ruse” and a “scam” perpetrated by a hostile news media, and denies any of his associates had contacts with Moscow before last year’s election. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, at NATO headquarters in Brussels, says he does not see the conditions for military collaboration with Russia - a blow to Moscow’s hopes for repairing ties with the United States following Trump’s election. Trump says he will issue a new executive order to replace his controversial directive suspending travel to the United States by citizens of seven mostly Muslim countries. Trump announces his new choice to lead the Department of Labor, former National Labor Relations Board member Alexander Acosta, after his original pick withdrew under congressional pressure. Trump’s choice for national security adviser, retired Vice Admiral Robert Harward, has turned down the offer, a senior White House official says. The Senate moves closer to approving President Donald Trump’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency even as nearly 800 former officials urge the chamber to reject the nominee. U.S.-ISRAEL The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations says the United States still supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a day after Trump suggested he was open to new ways to achieve peace. Trump’s uttering the phrase “one-state” - rather than a two-state solution to the conflict, the bedrock of international diplomacy for two decades - took him to a place in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict where past presidents feared to tread. Trump’s nominee to be ambassador to Israel faces repeated heckling at a Senate confirmation hearing before apologizing for his stinging criticism of liberal American Jews and promising to be less inflammatory in an official capacity. The confirmation hearing for Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee, conservative federal appeals court Judge Neil Gorsuch, will begin on March 20, the panel’s Republican chairman says. Businesses shut their doors, students skip class and thousands of demonstrators take to the streets in cities across the United States on Thursday to Trump’s immigration policies. Trump and Republicans in Congress say they will soon unveil plans to repeal and replace Obamacare, providing a timeframe for a legislative goal they have struggled with for weeks. | 1 |
21,263 | Why Niger and Mali's cattle herders turned to jihad | NIAMEY/NAIROBI (Reuters) - When Doundou Chefou first took up arms as a youth a decade ago, it was for the same reason as many other ethnic Fulani herders along the Niger-Mali border: to protect his livestock. He had nothing against the Republic of Niger, let alone the United States of America. His quarrel was with rival Tuareg cattle raiders. Yet on Oct. 4 this year, he led dozens of militants allied to Islamic State in a deadly assault against allied U.S.-Niger forces, killing four soldiers from each nation and demonstrating how dangerous the West s mission in the Sahel has become. The incident sparked calls in Washington for public hearings into the presence of U.S. troops. A Pentagon probe is due to be completed in January. Asked by Reuters to talk about Chefou, Nigerien Defence Minister Kalla Mountari s face fell. He is a terrorist, a bandit, someone who intends to harm to Niger, he said at his office in the Nigerien capital Niamey earlier this month. We are tracking him, we are seeking him out, and if he ever sets foot in Niger again he will be neutralized. Like most gunmen in so-called Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, which operates along the sand-swept borderlands where Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso meet, Chefou used to be an ordinary Fulani pastoralist with little interest in jihad, several government sources with knowledge of the matter said. The transition of Chefou and men like him from vigilantes protecting their cows to jihadists capable of carrying out complex attacks is a story Western powers would do well to heed, as their pursuit of violent extremism in West Africa becomes ever more enmeshed in long-standing ethnic and clan conflicts. For now, analysts say the local IS affiliate remains small, at fewer than 80 fighters. But that was also the case at first with al Qaeda-linked factions before they tapped into local grievances to expand their influence in Mali in 2012. The United Nations this week released a report showing how IS in northern Somalia has grown to around 200 fighters from just a few dozen last year. The U.S. military has ramped up its presence in Niger, and other neighboring countries, in recent years as it fears poverty, corruption and weak states mean the region is ripe for the spread of extremist groups. For centuries the Tuareg and Fulani have lived as nomads herding animals and trading - Tuareg mostly across the dunes and oases of the Sahara and the Fulani mostly in the Sahel, a vast band of semi-arid scrubland that stretches from Senegal to Sudan beneath it. Some have managed to become relatively wealthy, accumulating vast herds. But they have always stayed separate from the modern nation-states that have formed around them. Though they largely lived peacefully side-by-side, arguments occasionally flared, usually over scarce watering points. A steady increase in the availability of automatic weapons over the years has made the rivalry ever more deadly. A turning point was the Western-backed ouster of Libya s Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. With his demise, many Tuareg from the region who had fought as mercenaries for Gaddafi returned home, bringing with them the contents of Libya s looted armories. Some of the returnees launched a rebellion in Mali to try to create a breakaway Tuareg state in the desert north, a movement that was soon hijacked by al Qaeda-linked jihadists who had been operating in Mali for years. Until then, Islamists in Mali had been recruiting and raising funds through kidnapping. In 2012, they swept across northern Mali, seizing key towns and prompting a French intervention that pushed them back in 2013. Amid the violence and chaos, some of the Tuareg turned their guns on their rivals from other ethnic groups like the Fulani, who then went to the Islamists for arms and training. In November 2013, a young Nigerien Fulani had a row with a Tuareg chief over money. The old man thrashed him and chased him away, recalls Boubacar Diallo, head of an association for Fulani livestock breeders along the Mali border, who now lives in Niamey. The youth came back armed with an AK-47, killed the chief and wounded his wife, then fled. The victim happened to be the uncle of a powerful Malian warlord. Over the next week, heavily armed Tuareg slaughtered 46 Fulani in revenge attacks along the Mali-Niger border. The incident was bloodiest attack on record in the area, said Diallo, who has documented dozens of attacks by Tuareg raiders that have killed hundreds of people and led to thousands of cows and hundreds of camels being stolen. That was a point when the Fulani in that area realized they needed more weapons to defend themselves, said Diallo, who has represented them in talks aimed at easing communal tensions. The crimes were almost never investigated by police, admits a Niamey-based law enforcement official with knowledge of them. The Tuareg were armed and were pillaging the Fulani s cattle, Niger Interior Minister Mohamed Bazoum told Reuters. The Fulani felt obliged to arm themselves. SELF-DEFENSE Gandou Zakaria, a researcher of mixed Tuareg-Fulani heritage in the faculty of law at Niamey University, has spent years studying why youths turned to jihad. Religious belief was at the bottom of their list of concerns, he told Reuters. Instead, local grievances were the main driving force. Whereas Tuareg in Mali and Niger have dreamed of and sometimes fought for an independent state, Fulani have generally been more pre-occupied by concerns over the security of their community and the herds they depend on. For the Fulani, it was a sense of injustice, of exclusion, of discrimination, and a need for self-defense, Zakaria said. One militant who proved particularly good at tapping into this dissatisfaction was Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, an Arabic-speaking north African, several law enforcement sources said. Al-Sahrawi recruited dozens of Fulani into the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJWA), which was loosely allied to al Qaeda in the region and controlled Gao and the area to the Niger border in 2012. After French forces in 2013 scattered Islamists from the Malian towns they controlled, al-Sahrawi was briefly allied with Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an al Qaeda veteran. Today, al-Sahrawi is the face of Islamic State in the region. There was something in his discourse that spoke to the youth, that appealed to their sense of injustice, a Niger government official said of al-Sahrawi. Two diplomatic sources said there are signs al-Sahrawi has received financial backing from IS central in Iraq and Syria. How Chefou ended up being one of a handful of al-Sahrawi s lieutenants is unclear. The government source said he was brought to him by a senior officer, also Fulani, known as Petit Chapori. Like many Fulani youth toughened by life on the Sahel, Chefou was often in and out of jail for possession of weapons or involvement in localized violence that ended in deals struck between communities, the government official said. Yet Diallo, who met Chefou several times, said he was very calm, very gentle. I was surprised when he became a militia leader . U.S. and Nigerien sources differ on the nature of the fatal mission of Oct 4. Nigeriens say it was to go after Chefou; U.S. officials say it was reconnaissance mission. One vehicle lost by the U.S. forces was supplied by the CIA and kitted with surveillance equipment, U.S. media reported. A surveillance drone monitored the battle with a live feed. The Fulani men, mounted on motorbikes, were armed with the assault rifles they first acquired to look after their cows. | 1 |
21,264 | WORLD FAMOUS DESIGNER Tells Americans To “Deal” With Trump’s: “Mrs. Trump is a very nice woman and pretty handsome. Good body, no? And this Ivanka is… | Fashion Designer Kari Lagerfield who was rumored to dress Melania Trump for her husband s inauguration has no plans of letting his political views get in the way of his fashion business.The 83-year-old hasn t voted in 40 years since he became an official resident of Monaco, and the designer says that he prefers to keep business and politics separate.Via Page Six:The designer reveals he loved Michelle Obama, and Mrs. Trump is a very nice woman and pretty handsome. Good body, no? And this Ivanka is quite cute, no? He says, I knew [Donald] Trump before, when he was not in politics. I m not American, but he s a democratically elected president so people have to deal with it. (Source: Daily Mail, Page Six) | 0 |
21,265 | UK parliament to consider Northern Ireland budget in mid-November | LONDON (Reuters) - The British government expects to bring a budget for Northern Ireland before parliament at Westminster in mid-November, after the region s largest parties failed to reach agreement on forming a government, the Northern Ireland minister said on Thursday. I would expect the budget bill to be considered in this House shortly after the November recess, which ends on Nov. 13, James Brokenshire told parliament on Thursday. | 1 |
21,266 | U.S.-backed forces in final push against Islamic State Raqqa | RAQQA, Syria (Reuters) - U.S.-backed militias battled foreign fighters defending the last pocket of Islamic State s one-time Syrian capital of Raqqa on Monday, bringing their four-month offensive for the city to the brink of victory. A Reuters correspondent saw smoke rising above the city and heard mortar fire, but did not see air strikes while in Raqqa. A field commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias, said he expected the operation to end on Monday. The U.S.-led coalition that backs them said it could not give a timeline. SDF spokesman Mostafa Bali said they were fighting Islamic State in only one small zone of Raqqa in the evening, around the city s national hospital and stadium. Bali said he could not determine how much longer the battle would take. The clashes are ongoing, he added. A convoy of Syrian Islamic State fighters quit Raqqa on Saturday night with their families, leaving only 200-300 foreign jihadists to mount a last stand, the SDF has said. The SDF is now poised to end Islamic State s rule over a city where it had launched a string of lightning victories in 2014 and plotted attacks on civilian targets across the West. Its defeat in Raqqa mirrors its collapse across Iraq and Syria, where its enemies have driven it from cities, killed its leaders in air strikes and regained the oil fields that funded its self-declared caliphate. Islamic State lost Mosul in Iraq, its largest city and most prized possession, after months of fighting in July. The militants, which at their height ruled millions of people in both countries, are now forced back in Syria into a strip of the Euphrates valley south of Deir al-Zor and desert on each side. We have conducted some (air) strikes in the last 24 hours, but I suspect that that will pick up here very soon with the SDF advancing into the final remaining areas of the city, said coalition spokesman Colonel Ryan Dillon. The SDF said they gained control of six more districts on Monday. The coalition has supported the SDF with air power and special forces throughout its Raqqa campaign, which began in November with an offensive to isolate the city. The battle inside Raqqa started in June, and the intense air strikes and street-to-street fighting drove many of its people to refugee camps and left much of the city a mess of concrete debris. The field commander in Raqqa described Monday s fighting as a clearing operation and said he expected it to be completed by the end of the day with the SDF controlling the whole city. Ilham Ahmed, a senior Kurdish leader who co-chairs the SDF s political affiliate, said earlier she expected the end of the offensive to be declared within hours or days. A Reuters correspondent was with an SDF sniper unit on a frontline facing the hospital complex that represents one of Islamic State s last strongholds in the city, and saw two men in camouflage clothing climb a building and raise a flag. Cars in the streets below had loudspeakers mounted on their roofs broadcasting messages to the last Islamic State fighters telling them they would not be ill-treated if they surrendered. Another SDF field commander, who gave his name as Ashraf Serhad, said he had heard that 250 IS fighters remained and on Sunday he had seen several vehicles leave the hospital carrying some who had surrendered. Saturday night s convoy included about 100 IS fighters and nearly 200 family members, said Omar Alloush, a member of the Raqqa Civil Council set up under SDF auspices to run the city. The fighters who left in the convoy, as part of a deal brokered by tribal leaders, are being held by security forces before interrogation and may be tried in court, he added. The deal also allowed civilians to leave IS-held districts. Dillon said about 3,500 civilians had left the militant-held parts of the city in the past week. The strongest group in the SDF is the YPG, a Kurdish militia that Turkey regards as an extension of the PKK, which has waged an insurgency against Ankara for three decades. YPG influence across swathes of northern Syria including in majority Arab areas, and its backing by the U.S., has provoked disquiet in Turkey. The U.S.-backed offensive has pushed Islamic State from most of northern Syria, while a rival offensive by the Syrian army, backed by Russia, Iran and Shi ite militias, has driven the jihadists from the central desert. When the jihadist group was entrenched in Syria and Iraq, it turned Raqqa into a planning and operations hub. Many of its leaders were at times based there, and former hostages said Mohammed Emwazi, better known as Jihadi John, imprisoned them along with those he later executed in a building near the city. The group killed dozens of captured Syrian soldiers there in July 2014 and made the city the site of a slave market for Yazidi women captured in Iraq and given to fighters. The coalition has said Raqqa was a center for attacks abroad, and in November 2015, after militants killed more than 130 people in Paris, France launched airstrikes on Islamic State targets in the city. But as the group defends its last patch of bomb-cratered ground in the city, the cost of the battle lies evident all around. Much of Raqqa lies ruined, hundreds of civilians have been killed, and thousands more have fled. | 1 |
21,267 | Egyptian court upholds leading activist's jail sentence | CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt s Court of Cassation upheld a five-year jail sentence against prominent opposition activist Alaa Abdel Fattah on Wednesday, judicial sources said, a final ruling that cannot be appealed. Abdel Fattah, who has already served more than three years in prison, was jailed for protesting without permission in breach of a 2013 law that rights groups say effectively bans protests. The blogger and software engineer was a leading voice amongst the tech-savvy liberal youth who initially led the 2011 uprising that ended the 30-year-rule of Hosni Mubarak. He is one of several activists jailed since the military overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in 2013 after mass protests and cracked down on his Muslim Brotherhood movement and secular democracy activists. The government has proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization but denies it has cracked down on secular democracy activists. Prosecutors said Abdel Fattah was guilty of organizing a protest in November 2013 because he had promoted it on social media. Rights groups say authorities were only able to prosecute Abdel Fattah, who did not attend the protest, by invoking a century old law of assembly that institutes collective punishment for all those involved in an illegal gathering. They say the 1914-era law was in fact repealed in 1928 and courts should not be using it. They have sued the president over its use but there has been no response from the government. Abdel Fattah is also on trial in a separate case where he is accused of insulting the judiciary, a charge that carries up to three years in jail. A verdict is scheduled for December. Egyptian rights activists say they face the worst crackdown in history under general-turned-president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who they accuse of erasing freedoms won in the 2011 uprising. Sisi, seen in the West as a bulwark against extremism in the region, has urged his critics to not judge Egypt s rights records by western standards, saying security and economic prosperity are also human rights. | 1 |
21,268 | UH OH! BILL CLINTON Unloads On Obama! [Video] | Unlike when I was president, a lot of things are coming apart around the world now. Bill ClintonIt seems like the chummy feelings between the Clintons and Obama are on the rocks. In the past couple of weeks Chelsea Clinton pulled out a couple zingers to jab Obama. Today, Bill clinton jumped into the mix with some brutal criticisms of the Obama years:Former President Bill Clinton unloaded on the Obama administration and Black Lives Matter protesters during a campaign event Thursday for his wife in Pennsylvania.Clinton took a veiled jab at Obama s handling of world affairs, saying, Unlike when I was president, a lot of things are coming apart around the world now. We like to just think about our economic issues, but you have to worry about a collapse in Europe dragging back the American economy. You have to worry about the largest number of refugees since World War II. And all this stuff comes home. Clinton told listeners at Spokane Falls Community College that if they believed the U.S. had finally come to the point where we could put the awful legacy of the last eight years behind us and the seven years before that where we were practicing trickle-down economics and no regulation in Washington, then you should vote for [Hillary]. Read more: wnd | 0 |
21,269 | Illinois marked 14th straight budget deficit in FY 2015: audit | CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois’ overall financial condition deteriorated in fiscal 2015 as tax collections fell, with the state recording its fourteenth straight budget deficit, according to an annual audit released on Tuesday. The nation’s fifth-largest state ended fiscal 2015 on June 30 with a general fund deficit that grew to $6.9 billion from $6.7 billion in fiscal 2014, the comprehensive annual financial report by Illinois Auditor General Frank Mautino showed. A temporary income tax hike enacted in 2011 partially expired midway through fiscal 2015, decreasing collections by $1.8 billion. “The state continues to show an inability to generate sufficient cash from its current revenue structure to pay operating expenditures on a timely basis,” the audit said. It also warned that budget deficits, along with growing unfunded liabilities for pensions and retiree healthcare, and credit rating downgrades “may impact the state’s ability to access credit markets to pay operational expenditures more timely and may increase interest costs of those borrowings.” Illinois, which already pays a big penalty in the U.S. municipal bond market, has the worst-funded pensions and the lowest credit ratings among the 50 states. The state is in its 10th month without a full fiscal 2016 budget due to an impasse between its Republican governor and Democrats who control the legislature. Lawmakers returned to session this week after their spring break without any deal in sight for a fiscal 2016 or 2017 budget. The state’s liabilities, led by a $108.6 billion unfunded pension liability and $32.5 billion in payments due on bonds, dwarfed nearly $22 billion in assets, including buildings, infrastructure and equipment, resulting in a net deficit of $125.3 billion compared with $121.2 billion in fiscal 2014, the audit said. This left Illinois in the worst shape of the 42 U.S. states that have filed fiscal 2015 audits. Of the seven states that ended the fiscal year with a net position in the red - a list that also includes New Jersey, California and Kentucky - Illinois had the largest overall net deficit. Illinois’ budget stabilization fund was unchanged at $275.7 million, an insufficient amount to address cash management needs, according to state Comptroller Leslie Munger. Her office reported a $6.58 billion unpaid bill backlog on Tuesday. | 1 |
21,270 | microsoft introduces windows update with creative focus | radioactive fukushima wood becomes power in german machine
october by brian parkin bloomberg
httpwwwbloombergcomnewsarticlesradioactivefukushimawoodbecomespoweringermanbiomassplant
entrade contracts megawatts of power sales to fukushima
lighty radiated wood turned to power in biomass plants
wouldnt this radioactive shit get into the air this way is my big concern | 0 |
21,271 | House Speaker Ryan's campaign fundraising tops $17 million in first quarter | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Wednesday that he has raised $17.2 million in congressional campaign contributions during the first three months of 2016 through a network of political action committees organized to help House Republicans in the November election. The announcement came a day after Ryan strongly rejected any notion that he could become this year’s Republican presidential nominee. It underscored his role in helping fellow Republicans as he works to win agreement on a budget resolution and to shape his caucus into an effective mouthpiece for Republican social and fiscal policy. The first-quarter fundraising allowed the Wisconsin congressman to transfer $11 million to the National Republican Congressional Committee during the period, including a monthly NRCC record of $6.3 million in March, according to Ryan’s political office. The figures also provide new evidence of Ryan’s fundraising prowess, which has shown signs of surpassing the performance of his predecessor, Ohio Republican John Boehner, by some measures. All told, Ryan has now raised $23.5 million as speaker, through a network that includes his Team Ryan joint fundraising committee, his Ryan for Congress campaign committee and his Prosperity Action political action committee, his staff said. | 1 |
21,272 | Saudi king receives ex-Lebanon PM Hariri in Riyadh | RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi King Salman received former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri in Riyadh on Monday following his resignation, Saudi media reported. Hariri announced his resignation on Saturday from Riyadh, saying he believed there was an assassination plot against him and accusing Iran, Saudi Arabia s arch-rival, and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of sowing strife in the Arab world. King Salman met the resigned Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri a short while ago, a presenter on Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television said. Hariri s resignation toppled a coalition government that included Shi ite Muslim group Hezbollah, thrusting Lebanon back into the frontline of the Saudi-Iranian regional rivalry and risking an open-ended political crisis. State news agency SPA carried pictures of Hariri and King Salman greeting each other and then sitting together in a palatial setting. Hariri s surprise resignation in a televised speech aired on al-Arabiya TV had drawn criticism and was met with controversy in Beirut. Some have even questioned whether Hariri s resignation was voluntary. Lebanese Justice Minister Salim Jreissati said on Monday that Lebanon s president would not take any steps regarding Hariri s resignation before Hariri returns from abroad, stressing that the resignation must be voluntary. President Michel Aoun said earlier on Monday that political leaders had been responsive to calls for calm, strengthening security and national unity after Hariri s shock resignation. | 1 |
21,273 | Trump ally Stone offers to testify in Russian meddling probe | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Roger Stone, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump, said on Sunday he has offered to testify before a congressional committee investigating possible Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and ties to the Trump campaign. Stone, an informal adviser to Trump, told ABC’s “This Week” he had not received a reply from the House of Representatives intelligence committee on his offer of public testimony. Along with former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who has also offered to appear before the panel, Stone was among the Trump associates whose communications and financial transactions were being examined by the FBI and others as part of a larger investigation into possible links with Russian officials, according to a Jan. 20 report in the New York Times. Without citing any names, FBI Director James Comey confirmed at the committee’s public hearing last week that the FBI was investigating possible Russian ties to Trump’s campaign as Moscow sought to influence the 2016 election. Stone said he was anxious to testify in public. “I reiterate again, I have had no contacts or collusions with the Russians,” he told ABC, adding later, “There is no collusion, none, at least none that I know about, in Donald Trump’s campaign for president.” At Monday’s intelligence committee hearing, Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the panel, cited concern over Stone’s communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Guccifer 2, who claimed responsibility for hacking the Democratic groups. Stone said he had spoken to Assange through an intermediary and to Guccifer on Twitter in an exchange he made public. Stone also cast doubt on whether Guccifer was a Russian agent. “Just because the intelligence services say something, as we know from history, does not make it true,” he said, reflecting the doubts that Trump himself has sown about U.S. spy agencies. Carter Page, another Trump campaign adviser whose contacts with Russians were mentioned by Schiff at Monday’s hearing, also has offered to appear before the committee, according to multiple media reports. The U.S. intelligence community has concluded that Russia sponsored the hacking of Democratic Party groups during the 2016 campaign to benefit Republican Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton. Russia has denied the allegations of meddling. Trump has dismissed the idea of any coordination between his campaign and Russia and has accused Democrats and the media of using the issue to attack him. The House committee investigation was marred on Wednesday after its Republican chairman, Representative Devin Nunes, announced to the public and briefed Trump that U.S. intelligence may have swept up communications by Trump associates before telling the committee. Nunes apologized to the intelligence panel the next day. However, he further alienated Democrats on the committee on Friday when he canceled a hearing with intelligence officials from former Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration in order to have a classified briefing with the directors of the National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation. The committee’s top Democrat, Adam Schiff, suggested the cancellation came after pressure from the White House. Schiff and other Democrats said last week’s actions raised more doubts about whether Nunes, a Trump ally who served on the president’s transition team, can conduct a credible investigation. “I think the chairman has to make a decision whether to act as a surrogate of the White House as he did during the campaign and the transition or to lead an independent and credible, investigation,” Schiff told CBS’ “Face the Nation.” | 1 |
21,274 | Trump Attacks Union Leader Who Called Him Out For ‘Lying His Ass Off’ | A Carrier union leader called Donald Trump out for his lies about the deal that supposedly saved American jobs from moving to Mexico. So what did Trump do? Tell the truth? Take responsibility for his actions? Recant his bogus claims? Oh, heck no! He attacked him on Twitter. Because of course he did.On Wednesday, United Steelworkers 1999 President Chuck Jones said Trump and his second in command, Mike Pence, used misleading numbers and pointed out that some of the jobs they took credit for saving weren t ever even leaving to begin with. What they re doing, they re counting in 350 odd more that were never leaving this country at all, Jones told Burnett. If you re dealing with people s livelihoods, you sure as hell ought to know what the numbers are. Jones said that, for some unknown reason, he believed Trump would do the right thing at his Dec. 1 press conference and tell the truth that 550 jobs weren t saved. But he got up there, Jones said, and, for whatever reason, lied his ass off, Jones said.Not being one to handle criticism well, Trump blew his top when Jones called out his B.S. and took to Twitter to voice his anger.Chuck Jones, who is President of United Steelworkers 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers. No wonder companies flee country! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2016If United Steelworkers 1999 was any good, they would have kept those jobs in Indiana. Spend more time working-less time talking. Reduce dues Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2016So now, among all the other groups Trump has taken aim at, he is going after union leaders. The heroes of the very white working class, blue collar folks who voted him into office have now become the latest victims to feel the brunt of Trump s billionaire boots. That sure didn t take long. All they had to do was quit kissing his ass and call him out for being the pathological liar that he is and he turned on them in a heartbeat. Is anybody here surprised? No? Didn t think so.Featured image via Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images | 0 |
21,275 | [Video] POLICE HAVE VERY GOOD REASON FOR BLOCKING NEWLY “ELECTED”MAYOR From Entering City Hall Office | This mayor s involvement in potential illegal activity will get little attention this story will be a full blown case of racial injustice in 5 4 3 2 1 Betty McCray, newly-elected mayor of Kinloch, Missouri, showed up at City Hall this week to get to work. But when she arrived, the police wouldn t let her in the door.The reason why? Those non-existent illegal voters who cast ballots for the candidate.The election, which was held April 7, was hotly contested and the results have been questioned by McCray s opponents. However, the St. Louis County Board of Elections certified the results and swore McCray in after city officials refused to.The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that deputies met her in the parking lot, and she was served with articles of impeachment by City Attorney James Robinson. Robinson also told her that she was suspended.After being blocked from entering the building, McCray held a press conference in the parking lot: I won. The people spoke, McCray told the press after she had been served papers and told she could not enter the building. I was sworn in by the St. Louis County. Today I take office. I want them out, I want the keys. It was rumored that McCray was going to fire multiple city employees, once in office.Kinloch, which is located near Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, once thrived with more than 10,000 residents. But airport development has led to homes being purchased by the airport authority and demolished.Today, Kinloch, which has fewer than 300 residents, is marked by pilfered coffers, shady land deals and increasingly bitter fights over the last remnants of political power.During the past five years, the city has seen the imprisonment of a former mayor on federal fraud and theft charges, the hiring of a convicted felon as city manager, the selling of a previous city hall building to an alleged drug dealer and the unseating of at least two aldermen. McCray won the mayoral contest by garnering 38 votes compared to her opponent, the incumbent mayor s, 18.Prior to the election, the city alerted the County Board of Elections said that they believed there were 27 voters registered illegally. McCray s camp alleges that these voters were living in city-owned housing and evicted because they supported her.The bad blood goes back further. McCray is a former Alderman, who served under a mayor who has since been convicted of federal fraud charges. Members of the current administration accuse her of benefiting financially from land deals under that mayor, Keith Conway.McCray told Fox2 she was going to file an injunction in the St. Louis County courts, and then attempt to enter City Hall again.Via: IJReview | 0 |
21,276 | Militants kill U.N. peacekeeper in Central African Republic | DAKAR (Reuters) - Christian militiamen killed a Mauritanian U.N. peacekeeper in an attack on a camp for displaced people in a Central African Republic diamond-mining town on Monday, the United Nations mission there said. Fighters armed with AK-47s and makeshift weapons also wounded one Zambian and two Mauritanian peacekeepers during the 90-minute gunfight at the police checkpoint in the town of Bria, the U.N. added. The country has been riven by sectarian conflict since 2013 when Muslim Seleka rebels ousted President Francois Bozize. That triggered a backlash by Christian anti-balaka fighters. As many as 100 people died in Bria in June during a day of clashes between rival factions. The area is coveted by militia for its surrounding diamond mines. It also hosts tens of thousands of people displaced by the conflict. Even with 13,000 troops, the U.N. mission has struggled to restore order to a country the size of France and has lost 14 peacekeepers in attacks this year alone. | 1 |
21,277 | Liberals Push to Paint White House BROWN Because it “Symbolizes White Supremacy by Being White” | Mark Dice rolls out another gem that displays just how gullible the voters are. Here ya go: | 0 |
21,278 | Former CIA director worried Russia tried to recruit Americans | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former CIA Director John Brennan said on Monday there was enough contact between Americans and Russian officials during the 2016 U.S. election that there was definitely grounds for an investigation into possible collusion with Moscow, and also concern about Russian efforts to recruit Americans. “I had unresolved questions in my mind about whether or not the Russians had been successful in getting U.S. persons, involved in the campaign or not, to work on their behalf,” Brennan testified to the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee. Brennan declined to provide any indication about the identity of those people. | 1 |
21,279 | British minister to be investigated over sexual harassment allegation | (Note: Readers might find some language offensive in paragraph 2) LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May has ordered an investigation into a report that one of her ministers asked a female secretary to buy sex toys for him, as she tries to tackle a culture of sexual harassment in politics. Mark Garnier, a junior international trade minister, asked secretary Caroline Edmondson to buy two sex toys and he also called her sugar tits , the Mail on Sunday reported. Garnier told the paper that the comment was part of an amusing conversation about a television show, and that asking her to buy the toys was good humored high jinks . Edmondson, in comments to the paper, disputed Garnier s recollection of the incidents, including his assertion that they were high jinks . The report came after another British newspaper, the Sun, on Friday described a culture of sexual harassment among lawmakers and their staff working in parliament. Garnier was not immediately available for comment to Reuters through his constituency or parliamentary offices. May s spokeswoman said on Friday after the Sun s report that any unwanted sexual behavior was completely unacceptable and any minister who acted inappropriately would face serious action . Health Minister Jeremy Hunt said on Sunday May had asked officials to investigate if Garnier, whose role is outside the cabinet immediately surrounding May, had broken the government ministers code of behavior. These stories, if they are true, are obviously totally unacceptable, Hunt told BBC television. The Cabinet Office will be conducting an investigation as to whether there has been a breach of the ministerial code in this particular case, but as you know the facts are disputed. May, in a letter released to media, also asked John Bercow, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, the House of Commons, on Sunday for his advice about changing the culture there. I believe it is important that those who work in the House of Commons are treated properly and fairly, as would be expected in any modern workplace, May said in the letter. She said measures such as a disciplinary procedure suggested by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority and a voluntary code of conduct offered by the Conservative Party to its lawmakers did not go far enough. I believe that we must establish a House-wide mediation service complemented by a contractually binding grievance procedure available for all MPs (lawmakers) irrespective of their party banner, she said in the letter. It is vital that staff and the public have confidence in parliament, and resolving this employment irregularity on a cross-party basis can play an important role in this. Reports of inappropriate behavior in British politics, and in other industries, came in the wake of dozens of allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. Weinstein has denied having non-consensual sex with anyone. Britain s environment minister Michael Gove apologized on Saturday after he likened being interviewed by a BBC radio presenter to entering Weinstein s bedroom. After the analogy was widely criticized, Gove, a cabinet minister, apologized for what he said was a clumsy attempt at humor . The Sun newspaper said on Friday that women working in politics in Westminster had created a WhatsApp instant messaging group to discuss their experiences of harassment and warn others about potential perpetrators. The prime minister was very clear when we responded to the reports about Harvey Weinstein in the last few weeks that any unwanted sexual behavior is completely unacceptable, and that is true in any walk of life including politics, May s spokeswoman said on Friday. | 1 |
21,280 | Coretta Scott King’s Daughter Speaks Up And AGAINST Republicans, And It’s Brilliantly BRUTAL | When it comes to strategizing an offense against Donald Trump and the Republicans, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King s daughter Bernice King might just be on to something.While the words and actions of Trump are horrific all by themselves, it s important to remember that he is not working alone. He has the support of those working closely around him and the support of the Republican party. So far, they ve been backing his ideas and confirming all his nominations for his Cabinet.Here s what King has to say about all of this:Some Wise Advice Circulating:1. Use [Trump s] name sparingly so as not to detract from the issues. I believe that everyone, regardless of their beliefs, deserves the dignity of being called by their name. However, this is a strategic tactic. While we are so focused on him we are prone to neglect the questionable policies that threaten freedom, justice and fairness advanced by the administration.2. Remember this is a regime and he s not acting alone;3. Do not argue with those who support him and his policies it doesn t work;4. Focus on his policies, not his appearance and mental state;5. Keep your message positive; those who oppose peace and justice want the country to be angry and fearful because this is the soil from which their darkest policies will grow;6. No more helpless/hopeless talk;7. Support artists and the arts;8. Be careful not to spread fake news. Check it;9. Take care of yourselves; and10. Resist!Keep demonstrations peaceful. In the words of John Lennon, When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system s game. The establishment will irritate you pull your beard, flick your face to make you fight! Because once they ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don t know how to handle is non-violence and humor. When you post or talk about him, don t assign his actions to him, assign them to The Republican Administration, or The Republicans. This will have several effects: the Republican legislators will either have to take responsibility for their association with him or stand up for what some of them don t like; he will not get the focus of attention he craves; Republican representatives will become very concerned about their re-elections. King posts this only one day after Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) got shut down by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on the Senate floor for reading Coretta Scott King s letter from 30 years ago condemning Jeff Sessions.It s time to remember that it s not only Trump we have the responsibility to hold accountable, but all Republicans, and this post from Bernice King is definitely a good start.Read more:Featured Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images | 0 |
21,281 | Republican tax bill would add $1.7 trillion to deficit: CBO | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican tax bill being debated in the U.S. House of Representatives would add $1.7 trillion to the federal budget deficit over 10 years, when recent changes put forth by the head of its tax-writing panel and estimated debt service costs are included, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said. “By CBO’s estimate, additional debt service would boost the 10-year increase in deficits to $1.7 trillion,” the office said in a letter on Wednesday to Representative Richard Neal, the top Democrat on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee. | 1 |
21,282 | Trump HUMILIATED, Gets Booed After Telling Construction Workers They Voted For Him (VIDEO) | Trump humiliated himself on Tuesday while speaking to a roomful of construction workers at the North America s Building Trades Unions National Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. when he claimed that pretty much everyone present voted for him. If you watch the Democrats now the anger, the anger and hatred and they re trying to figure out where did all these people came that voted for Donald Trump? The Donald said before bragging about his heroic ascendancy to the Oval Office. I had the support of I would say, I would say almost everybody in this room, Trump bragged. We had tremendous, we had tremendous support. No, we did. There was scattered applause, but the sound that will be playing over and over in Trump s head for the next week is the chrous of boos that accompanied his claim. According to the Huffington Post s Igor Bobic, the boos began after one man yelled Nope, nope in response to Trump s allegation that he and others present voted for him.Trump says he had the support of almost everybody in this room.""Nope, nope! one man in audience says, followed by laughter, boos Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) April 4, 2017Despite his bloviations, Trump knows he is wildly unpopular. He recently became the first President* to skip the White House Correspondents Dinner in recent memory and even broke with the tradition of throwing out the first pitch of the baseball season which was probably smart:BREAKING: "Impeach Trump" banner unfurled by The Resistance during Washington Nationals opening game. pic.twitter.com/T9ZWV2012V Rogue CPI (@RogueCPI) April 3, 2017Watch Trump embarrass himself below:Featured image via screengrab | 0 |
21,283 | California governor, legislature agree on final budget | (Reuters) - California Governor Jerry Brown announced on Tuesday that state lawmakers had reached an agreement about the state’s 2017-2018 budget. Both houses of the state legislature will likely vote on the new budget on Thursday, the constitutional deadline for lawmakers to adopt a budget bill. California’s Department of Finance had not totaled the final budget numbers as of Tuesday morning, according to department spokesperson H.D. Palmer. The budget adds $1.8 billion to the state’s rainy day fund, expands access to California’s Earned Income Tax Credit and boosts funding for schools and infrastructure repairs, according to the governor’s office. It also sends more money to the nation’s largest public pension fund, California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), to help reduce the fund’s unfunded liability. “This budget keeps California on a sound fiscal path and continues to support struggling families and make investments in our schools,” Brown said in a statement on Tuesday. “This budget makes historic investments in healthcare, education, and childcare, and lays down a multi-billion dollar investment to start fixing our roads and infrastructure,” said Senate President pro tem Kevin de León. Brown proposed a state budget in January for the new fiscal year and revised his budget up 2.2 percent to $183.4 billion in May. | 1 |
21,284 | Obama Just Made A VERY Powerful Statement About Trump’s Attempts To Repeal Obamacare (VIDEO) | President Barack Obama appeared today at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation s Goalkeepers event, an event aimed at effecting change on a global scale in the areas of world hunger, education access and quality, clean energy, healthcare, gender equality, clean water, climate action, and a host of other goals the Foundation wants to help us work toward.Many speakers were on hand for the event, including President Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, will.i.am, Malala, Stephen Fry, and more, all with stories of empowerment and positive change and possibility. But in America s current climate of fear and unease about what will happen with health care in this country, it was President Obama s speech that was particularly emblematic of the struggle we face in determining the outcome of the American way of life when it comes to insurance, medical care, and ongoing health concerns.This is in stark contrast with what we see in everyday life in America, where we seemingly can t even agree on whether or not white supremacists are bad, or if it s okay to run over protesters. We are engaged in a fight for our very lives, and at least legislatively speaking, Obama knows how hard it looks from where we are.From the video you re about to watch: [W]hen I see those people trying to undo that hard-won progress, for the 50th or 60th time, with bills that would raise costs or reduce coverage, or roll back protections for older Americans or people with pre-existing conditions the cancer survivor, the expecting mom, or the child with autism, or asthma, for whom coverage once again would be almost unattainable it is aggravating.And all of this being done without any demonstrable economic, or actuarial, or plain common sense rationale it frustrates. And it s certainly frustrating to have to mobilize every couple months to keep our leaders from inflicting real human suffering on our constituents. President Obama couldn t be more right. Although he is diplomatic here and does not call out Donald Trump and the Republicans by name, it is vital that we hold them to account. It is absolutely imperative that we make sure they cannot tear away at the fabric of our society and rip away at the moral cloth we ve woven in beginning the process of ensuring every American has access to health care.Watch the video here:Featured image via Yana Paskova/Getty Images | 0 |
21,285 | Canada suggests it could quit NAFTA talks over dispute mechanism | OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada laid down a tough line ahead of talks on modernizing NAFTA on Monday, suggesting it could walk away if the United States pushed to remove a key dispute-settlement mechanism in the trade deal. Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, giving the most substantive outline yet of Canada’s goals, said she was “very optimistic” the negotiations would be a success. North American Free Trade Agreement members Canada, Mexico and the United States hold their first session in Washington on Wednesday. Canada, heavily reliant on exports to the United States, opposes Washington’s push to scrap the so-called Chapter 19 dispute settlement mechanism, under which binational panels make binding decisions on complaints about illegal subsidies and dumping. The United States has frequently lost such cases. “Canada will uphold and preserve the elements in NAFTA that Canadians deem key to our national interest – including a process to ensure anti-dumping and countervailing duties are only applied fairly when truly warranted,” Freeland said in a speech at the University of Ottawa. Noting that Canada had withdrawn its chief negotiator from 1987 talks on a bilateral trade treaty with the United States over the same issue, Freeland said “our government will be equally resolute.” Freeland later sidestepped reporters’ questions about whether maintaining Chapter 19 was a make-or-break issue for Canada, saying she would let her U.S. counterparts know how important the matter was to Ottawa. Trade among the three nations has quadrupled since NAFTA came into effect in 1994, surpassing $1 trillion in 2015. But U.S. President Donald Trump regularly calls the treaty a disaster and has threatened to walk away from it unless major changes are made, citing U.S. job losses and a trade deficit with Mexico. Toronto trade lawyer Mark Warner said there few surprises in Freeland’s announcement, given Ottawa had already signaled its stance on major issues. “It’s the beginning of a negotiation. Everybody expects posturing,” he said by phone, noting Washington had reacted calmly to previous Canadian statements about the importance of dispute settlement. Freeland, who predicted there would be moments of drama during the talks, said Canada wanted a progressive trade deal featuring stricter environmental and labor standards as well as a focus on climate change, a concept Trump has little time for. Canada, like Mexico, sends the majority of its exports to the United States and would be hurt by U.S. protectionist moves. The United States runs a slight surplus in trade of goods and services with Canada, which has mounted a major outreach campaign to persuade U.S. business leaders and politicians that NAFTA is a success. “American partners have been listening,” Freeland said. “They understand ... our relationship, the greatest economic partnership in the world, is balanced and mutually beneficial.” Freeland stressed that Canada would protect tariffs and quotas that keep domestic dairy prices high and imports low. U.S. dairy farmers strongly dislike the system. A modernized NAFTA should take into account technological advances and make it easier for professionals to move from one member nation to another, she added. | 1 |
21,286 | Voter Confronts Trump: How Could My Daughters ‘Look Up To President Trump As A Role Model?’ (VIDEO) | Yesterday, Republican presidential front runner Donald Trump got an unexpected question from a voter during a New Hampshire town hall on CNN.The man confronting Trump was Joseph Manzoli, who described himself as a father with three daughters. Manzoli asked Trump what every self-respecting parent in America should be asking themselves: what kind of role model would the next president be for my children? Manzoli asked: I have three wonderful daughters at home. And I want nothing more for them than to look as their president as a role model. Throughout the course of this campaign, you ve said some disparaging comments about women, about people from other countries, other religions, and about everybody who s disagreed with you. Explain to me how I can look at my daughters and have them look up to President Trump as a role model. You can see how Trump answered below:Trump joked and asked if CNN had put Manzoli up to asking such a question before trying to convince his audience that he had loads of respect for women and had employed a staggering number of female executives. He said: Nobody has more respect for women than I do. Thirty years ago, I had a woman building a major, major construction job in New York City. And that never happens. That just didn t happen. I have so many women executives. I have been great to women. And women have been great to me. They ve done a great job. Trump clearly forgot to mention his infamous long-standing, one-sided feud with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, his appalling comments about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, as well as his long history of misogynistic behavior toward women. He also failed to tell this concerned father that sexism is just as alive in the background of his campaign as it is in his interviews and speeches! According to a former staffer, Trump s only paying his female staffers HALF of what his male employees are making for the same job. What a role model!Trump was just as insincere when he addressed his own comments about minorities like immigrants and Muslims. In defending the extremely racist and offensive things he s said about immigrants, Trump answered: I do bring up things that people don t want to bring up. I talk about immigration stronger than anybody else. I talk about building a wall. If you look at New Hampshire, you have a tremendous heroin problem. It s coming from the border! And then he had the nerve to claim that tons of people were agreeing with his proposal to ban all Muslims from coming in the United States. When I brought up the Muslim problem. You know, it s very interesting. I brought that problem up and all of a sudden, the world started going wild. And now the world is agreeing with me. We have to do something. There is a serious problem. If Trump is going to be the next role model for our younger generations, America is in deep trouble. Featured image from video screenshot | 0 |
21,287 | Trump seeks to ax Appalachia economic programs, causing worry in coal country | PAINTSVILLE, Kentucky (Reuters) - President Donald Trump has proposed eliminating funding for economic development programs supporting laid-off coal miners and others in Appalachia, stirring fears in a region that supported him of another letdown on the heels of the coal industry’s collapse. The 2018 budget proposal submitted to Congress by the White House on Thursday would cut funds to the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) and the U.S. Economic Development Administration. The Washington-based organizations are charged with diversifying the economies of states like West Virginia and Kentucky to help them recover from coal’s decline. The proposed cuts would save the federal government $340 million and come as the Republican president seeks to slash a wide array of federal programs and regulations to make way for increased military spending. But they are perceived by some in Appalachia as a betrayal of his promises to help coal miners. “Folks that live in Appalachia believe that the ARC belongs to them,” said federal ARC Co-Chair Earl Gohl, bemoaning the proposed cut. “It’s really their organization.” Republican Congressman Hal Rogers, who represents eastern Kentucky’s coal counties, said he would fight to restore the funding when Congress negotiates the budget later this year. “It’s true that the president won his election in rural country. I would really like to see him climb aboard the ARC vehicle as a way to help us help ourselves,” Rogers said. Four hundred of the 420 counties ARC operates in voted for Trump in November’s election. The 52-year old agency has run more than 650 projects in Appalachia’s 13 states between 2011 and 2015 costing hundreds of millions of dollars. Its programs, some launched under Democratic former President Barack Obama, are expected to create or retain more than 23,670 jobs and train and educate over 49,000 students and workers, the organization said. Trump vowed during his campaign that the White House would put American coal miners back to work, in part by cutting environmental regulations ushered in by Obama, mainly aimed at curbing climate change but characterized by Trump as hampering the industry. However, many industry experts and coal miners doubt that rolling back regulation alone can revive the coal mining industry, which faces stiff competition from abundant and cheap natural gas in fueling U.S. power generation. Rigel Preston, a 38-year old former surface miner, said ARC programs helped him land a job as a paid intern at technology company Interapt after he lost his benefits. He said that, while he and many members of his family in eastern Kentucky hope Trump will deliver on his promise to revive the coal industry, he believed the region’s future lay elsewhere. “From my experience from the coalfield, I know that that is a finite job and coal will run out eventually,” Preston said. Preston was among several former miners and other east Kentuckians at an event in Paintsville this week held by Interapt and ARC to announce Interapt’s plan to hire another hundred people from the region this summer. Interapt last year launched a program called TechHire Eastern Kentucky, supported by ARC, which provides 36 weeks of paid training in code and paid internships. Interapt Chief Executive Ankur Gopal, a 37-year-old tech entrepreneur, expanded his Louisville-based company out to eastern Kentucky with the vision of lifting that part of his home state out of economic stagnation. “There is a skilled workforce and opportunity that can be found here in eastern Kentucky,” Gopal said. “This is not just a bunch of people that are waiting for coal mines to reopen.” ARC has worked on economic development in Appalachia since its founding in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s “war on poverty.” In recent years it has focused on helping states in the region deal with the coal industry’s sharp decline and the loss of 33,000 coal mining jobs between 2011 and 2016. So far, ARC has had no official contact from the president’s transition teams, said co-chair Gohl, an Obama appointee who remains in the job. The cuts to its funding were recommended to the administration by the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based think tank. Nick Loris, an energy fellow at the foundation, said the work that ARC and the Economic Development Administration do should be devolved to state and local governments “to encourage transparency and reduce duplicative federal spending.” States have said their budgets are already strapped. In addition to all of West Virginia and part of Kentucky, the ARC covers parts of Alabama, Georgia, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. | 1 |
21,288 | George H.W. Bush May Have Just Dealt An Incredibly Stinging Blow To The Trump Train | Guess who George H.W. Bush is voting for? He lost to Bill Clinton in 1992, and his son is George W. Bush. Yet it seems that the elder Bush finds Trump so distasteful a candidate that he s actually going to cast his vote for Hillary Clinton.According to Politico, Bush Sr. had originally planned on keeping quiet about this election. Considering the fact that he s a Republican, and therefore expected to weigh in on the side of the Republicans chosen candidate, this is actually pretty major. But it wasn t Bush himself who revealed his vote. It was Kathleen Kennedy Townsend daughter of the late Robert Kennedy who let this particular interesting tidbit slip: On Monday, Townsend posted a picture on her Facebook page shaking hands next to the former president and this caption: The President told me he s voting for Hillary!!' She stood by that later on when talking to Politico. According to her, George H.W. Bush would rather vote for his former rival and successor s wife than the god-awful train wreck that is Donald Trump.A spokesman for the Bush family refused to actually confirm this he said that George H.W. s vote is a private decision and will remain so. He himself isn t commenting, but it seems that those who are in his inner circle aren t being so tight-lipped, if Kennedy is to be believed.Bush Sr. did make it clear back in May that he had absolutely zero intention of endorsing Trump. That s a bold, but wise, move for any Republican, since Republicans are supposed to be on the side of freedom and Trump is on the side of dictatorship and authoritarianism.His love of Russian president Vladimir Putin would suggest that he s also on the side of autocracy. None of these three things meshes with the democracy Republicans say we ve built in even the smallest way.Earlier in the summer, an administration official for George W. Bush announced that she would vote for Hillary, adding her name to an ever-growing list of Republicans and conservatives who can t find it within themselves to support Trump. Jeb Bush has said he can neither vote for Hillary nor Trump.A former Republican president refusing to stand for the current Republican nominee is a stinging blow indeed.Featured image by Scott Halleran/Getty Images | 0 |
21,289 | trump and his supporters are fighting a rigged system | exclusive dem senators private email hacked dcleaks obtains emails of colorado democratic senator andy kerr mikael thalen october comments
infowars has exclusively learned that the email account of colorado democratic senator andy kerr has been hacked
the emails shown to infowars by the website dcleaks include hundreds of discussions from march to july with one email concerning marijuana legislation oddly claiming to be from december of
taken from kerrs gmail account the emails which are currently password protected mostly surround requests and comments by kerrs constituents on a wide range of political topics
speaking with infowars david pourshoushtari communications director for the colorado state senate democrats said kerr was unaware of the hack but that the senator declined to provide an official statement until the situation could be assessed
while the exact reasoning behind the hack is currently unknown kerr may have been targeted as part of the same hacking campaign that compromised the emails of other political figures including clinton campaign chairman john podesta
it is also unclear whether kerr like podesta fell victim to a phishing attack that would have resulted in the senator putting his email password into a fake google login page
earlier this month the former chief of protocol of the united states capricia marshall who was one of clintons insiders at the state department similarly had her emails appear on dcleaks
the website also made headlines in august after publishing hundreds of documents connected to billionaire donor george soros
according to the us government and many in the cybersecurity community russian state hackers are responsible for the recent spate of election season hacks dcleaks has similarly been accused of being a publishing front for the russian government newsletter sign up get the latest breaking news specials from alex jones and the infowars crew related articles | 0 |
21,290 | International reaction to arrest of Reuters reporters in Myanmar | (Reuters) - Several countries, the United Nations and journalist groups are demanding the release of Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo from detention in Myanmar. The reporters were arrested on Dec. 12 after being invited to meet police officials on the outskirts of Yangon. They had worked on stories about a military crackdown in Rakhine state, scene of around 650,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh since August. Myanmar s Ministry of Information has said the reporters illegally acquired information with the intention to share it with foreign media, and released a photo of them in handcuffs. It said the reporters and two policemen faced charges under the British colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years, though officials said they have not been charged. Their exact whereabouts are not known. We and their families continue to be denied access to them or to the most basic information about their well-being and whereabouts, Reuters President and Editor-In-Chief Stephen J. Adler said in a statement calling for their immediate release. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo are journalists who perform a crucial role in shedding light on news of global interest, and they are innocent of any wrongdoing, he said. Here are comments on their detention from governments, politicians, human rights groups and press freedom advocates around the world: Two U.N. human rights experts called on Thursday for Myanmar to release the two reporters, saying it was putting Myanmar on a dangerous path by using the Official Secrets Act to criminalize journalism. Journalism is not a crime. These detentions are another way for the Government to censor information about the military s role in Rakhine State and the humanitarian catastrophe taking place, said Yanghee Lee and David Kaye, who are the U.N. special rapporteur on Myanmar and on freedom of expression respectively. - A spokeswoman for Norway s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Wednesday: Norway expects the Myanmar authorities to ensure the full protection of their rights and to release the journalists as quickly as possible. - Human Rights Watch said the detentions appeared to be aimed at stopping independent reporting of the ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya. Brad Adams, the group s Asia director, said, Their secret, incommunicado detention lays bare government efforts to silence media reporting on critical issues. - In Washington, the leading Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee called for their immediate release. This is outrageous, said Senator Ben Cardin. It just brings back the memory of the horrible practices with the repressive military rule. - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said last week the United States was demanding their immediate release or information as to the circumstances around their disappearance. On Tuesday, the State Department reiterated the U.S. demand for the reporters immediate release. - Republican Thom Tillis and Democrat Chris Coons, leaders of the U.S. Senate Human Rights Caucus, said they were gravely concerned about the reporters arrests and that press freedom was critical to ensuring accountability for violence against the Rohingya. Democratic congressman Ted Lieu, a member of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, called the arrests outrageous and a direct attack on press freedom. - Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kano said in response to a question from a Reuters reporter on Tuesday, Freedom of the press is extremely important, including in order to protect fundamental human rights. The Japanese government would like to watch (this matter) closely. Tokyo-based Human Rights Now called on Japan on Wednesday to take a stronger stance. - The European Union urged Myanmar on Monday to release the reporters as quickly as possible. A spokeswoman for EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said, Freedom of the press and media is the foundation and a cornerstone of any democracy. - U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said countries should do everything possible to secure the journalists release and press freedom in Myanmar. It is clearly a concern in relation to the erosion of press freedom in the country, he said. - Britain, Holland, Canada and Sweden have demanded the release of the Reuters reporters. Australia has expressed concern and Bangladesh has denounced the arrests. - Vijay Nambiar, former special adviser on Myanmar to the U.N. Secretary-General, said in a statement to Reuters on Monday that the detentions had caused widespread disappointment within and outside the country that is likely to further damage the international reputation and image of Myanmar, already under stress as a result of its handling of the Rakhine crisis. - President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani called on Myanmar to protect media freedoms and release the reporters. - The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) called on Myanmar to immediately disclose the reporters whereabouts. All detainees must be allowed prompt access to a lawyer and to family members, Frederick Rawski, ICJ s Asia-Pacific Regional Director, said on Monday. - The Committee to Protect Journalists said the arrests were having a grave impact on the ability of journalists to cover a story of vital global importance . - Reporters Without Borders said there was no justification for the arrests and the charges being considered against the journalists were completely spurious . - Advocacy group Fortify Rights demanded Myanmar immediately and unconditionally release the Reuters journalists. - Myanmar s Irrawaddy online news site called on Dec. 14 for the journalists release in an editorial headlined The Crackdown on the Media Must Stop. It said it is an outrage to see the Ministry of Information release a police record photo of reporters handcuffed as police normally do to criminals on its website soon after the detention. It is chilling to see that MOI has suddenly brought us back to the olden days of a repressive regime. - The Southeast Asian Press Alliance said the journalists were only doing their jobs in trying to fill the void of information on the Rohingya conflict. - The Protection Committee for Myanmar Journalists, local reporters who have demonstrated against prosecutions of journalists, decried the unfair arrests that affect media freedom . - The Foreign Correspondents Club of Myanmar said it was appalled by the arrests and gravely concerned about press freedom in Myanmar. - The Foreign Correspondents Club in Thailand, Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines, Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club and Foreign Correspondents Club of Hong Kong have issued statements supporting the journalists. | 1 |
21,291 | HILLARY PANICS…Totally Freezes When Protesters Shout…Secret Service Jumps Onstage [Video] | Listen and watch Hillary freaks out and goes into phony mode with her politician speak This woman is nuts!Secret Service agents surround @HillaryClinton after protesters disrupt her rally pic.twitter.com/6JpsjPN6I8 POLITICO (@politico) August 4, 2016 | 0 |
21,292 | “GET USED TO IT”: Obama’s DHS Secretary Says Illegals Are “In Effect” US Citizens! [Video] | Jeh Johnson is supposed to enforce border security but hasn t done so for a looong time. We have waaay more than 11 million illegals in this country thanks to Obama s open border policy. We re in deep trouble and it s not good. Please try and wake your neighbors up by giving them any and all info you can on the invasion of America that s been happening full force since Obama go into office. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told an audience today that illegal aliens are not going away and are in effect US citizens.The nation s top immigration officer said that the 11 million undocumented aliens in the United States are not going away, are in effect citizens, and added that deporting the few the administration wants out is unpleasant.Jeh Johnson, secretary of Homeland Security, told Harvard University students this week that the administration is focused on its plan to integrate illegals into America, despite the policy being tied up in court.Johnson said that he plans to be in the front row of the Supreme Court April 18 when the case is discussed.But in the meantime, he is making the case that the illegals here, estimated at a much higher 15.7 million by the Center for Immigration Studies, have essentially become American. The proof: They go to school, have licenses to drive, and can even practice law in California. THIS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED TREASON! SKIP TO THE 25:00 MARK FOR HIS COMMENTS ON ILLEGALS: | 0 |
21,293 | LOL! “BLACK STUDENTS UNITED” Demands “Racist” Cornell University Stops Recruiting Blacks That Aren’t Like Them | EAG Black Students United which represents people of the African diaspora penned a letter to university administration recently in response to allegations that a white student from the Psi Upsilon fraternity severely beat a black student from the Kappa Sigma fraternity in mid-August.Cornell closed down the Psi Upsilon fraternity as it works to develop and implement steps to be a more equitable, inclusive and welcoming university, according to The Washington Post.John Greenwood, the 19-year-old student accused of the beating, faces a third-degree assault charge and possible hate crimes. Greenwood apologized for using abhorrent language during the dispute, but his attorney has maintained that Greenwood was in no way involved in any physical altercation of any kind, according to The Cornell Daily Sun.Black Students United want more to be done, and they re using the unfortunate incident to pressure school officials into a list of 12 demands at least some of which target other black students.The demands are prefaced with a diatribe on Cornell s inherently white supremacist system that allegedly perpetuates a daily assault of racism against black students on campus. We attend a university that s obsessed with the optics of our black and brown faces but is indifferent to the justice we week. This is not an indictment of white people; this is an indictment of a system that perpetuates white supremacy and shelters our peers under the warm blanket of white privilege all the while, we are left to freeze in our frigid reality of racist epithets, essentialist curriculum, and apathetic governance, the letter read. In post-racial America, our classmates call us niggers from their pickup trucks in broad daylight. In post-racial America, we are berated by airborne bottles on our own campus. In post-racial America, we are told we have a chip on our shoulder. We are called everything but our name. Above all else, in post-racial America we are bombarded by the deafening silence that allows the centuries-old hum of white supremacy to grow louder, it continued. Silence is violence. Because Cornell is racist, and its Interfraternity Council is an alleged arm of the white supremacist system, Black Students United drew up a list of 12 demands that will help set things right.They include a system of mandatory coursework for all students that s focused on race, gender, discrimination, white privilege and other social justice causes from the perspective of oppressed people, as well as mandatory training for staff on the same issues.Black Students United want Psi Upsilon shut down and to use the building as an adequate and appropriate space for the people of the Africa diaspora to utilize for programs of any kind, in perpetuity. The group also demands mandatory diversity and inclusion training for all greek members on campus, a special minority liaison position on the University Assembly, Cornell Health to hire at least two black psychologists and one black doctor in coming years, a new student-led dispute resolution process, and a limit on different types of black students admitted to the Ivy League school. We demand that Cornell Admissions to come up with a plan to actively increase the presence of underrepresented Black students on this campus. We define underrepresented Black students as Black Americans who have several generations (more than two) in this country, the letter read.The problem is there are too many black students from other places outside of the U.S., Black Students United argued. The Black student population at Cornell disproportionately represents international or first-generation African or Caribbean students, BSU wrote. While these students have a right to flourish at Cornell, there is a lack of investment in Black students whose families were affected directly by the African Holocaust in America. Cornell must work to actively support students whose families have been impacted for generations by white supremacy and American fascism. The demands also include a call for an Anti-Racism Institute to educate the campus and community about the horrors of white supremacy and political education, among other things. | 0 |
21,294 | HILARIOUS! Leonardo DiCaprio Is “Outed” As Climate Change Hypocrite, Forced To Do The Unimaginable | Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the most outspoken advocates for man-made global climate-change in America, he is also of the biggest hypocrites. Thanks to alternative news sources, DiCaprio has been outed more than once for his extravagant energy- wasting lifestyle. The lifestyles of climate change advocates like DiCaprio and Al Gore are being questioned every day by reasonable people who want to know why these self-appointed climate change czars are asking everyday citizens to adjust the way they live, while these hypocrites continue to travel by jet or on board massive private yachts with absolutely no reasonable explanation.It looks like DiCaprio is sick and tired of being called a hypocrite and has traded in the private jets in favor of doing the unimaginable traveling with the common man on a commercial flight.Leo DiCaprio is currently shoring up environmentally friendly plans for his foundation s annual gala and auction in St-Tropez, sources tell us.We hear that the star is ditching any private jets and will fly commercial to the glitzy French f te on Wednesday. NYPPerhaps DiCaprio doesn t want to be the laughing stock of the climate change crowd again this year, like last year when he was caught making several trips across the world by private jets to attend glitzy climate-change events.In May 2016, Leonardo DiCaprio took a private jet twice to pick up an environmental award in New York before flying back to a glitzy gala in France.The actor and environmentalist, 41, was spotted in Cannes, where the Film Festival is currently underway.But he left the French Riviera for a brief trip to New York City, where he collected an honor at the Riverkeeper Fishermen s Ball on Wednesday, Page Six reported.He then hopped back on another private jet to attend the amfAR gala in Antibes, about eight miles from Cannes, just 24 hours later.DiCaprio has been accused of hypocrisy as he can often be heard preaching about saving the environment and fighting climate change while taking private jets to do so.The actor, who turned his Oscars speech into a pressing warning against climate change in February, accumulated more than 8,000 of air travel in just a couple of days. | 0 |
21,295 | Trump says Britain would be better off outside EU | WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Thursday he thought Britain would be better off out of the European Union, the opposite stance to that taken by his likely rival Hillary Clinton and by many political leaders around the world. Britons will vote in a referendum on June 23 on whether to leave the 28-member EU, a momentous decision with trade, investment, defense and political ramifications that stretch far beyond Britain’s borders. “I would say that they’re better off without it personally, but I’m not making that as a recommendation - just my feeling,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News television, adding that he wanted Britons to make their own decision. “I think the migration has been a horrible thing for Europe. A lot of that was pushed by the EU,” he said, without providing any specifics. Initial reaction to Trump’s comments, which went further than what he had previously said on the subject, was muted in Britain where the focus was on the incoming results of local and regional elections. Given Trump’s controversial statements and his negative image in the eyes of many Europeans, including Britons, it is not clear whether his endorsement would be good, bad or indifferent for Britain’s “Leave” campaign. A spokesman for the campaign declined to comment. U.S. President Barack Obama made a passionate intervention in the EU debate during a visit to London last month, saying EU membership magnified Britain’s role in the world and made it more prosperous. Obama warned Britons their country would find itself “in the back of the queue” for a trade deal with the United States if they voted to leave the EU. The “Remain” camp, led by Prime Minister David Cameron, has repeatedly said that none of Britain’s significant allies wants it to leave the bloc. On Thursday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe became the latest foreign leader to say it would be better for Britain and its allies if it remained in the European club. After Obama’s intervention, the “Remain” campaign published an advertisement with side-by-side photos of Obama smiling and Trump with a distorted facial expression and a finger in the air. The slogan read: “Obama thinks the UK is stronger in Europe. Trump thinks the UK should leave Europe. Whose side are you on?” The image suggested that the official “Remain” campaign viewed Trump as repellent to British voters. A spokesman for the campaign had no immediate comment on Friday. | 1 |
21,296 | Hillary Clinton: ‘Israel First’ (and no peace for Middle East) | Robert Fantina CounterpunchAlthough the United States is still ten months from its next exercise in electoral futility, most polls do not indicate what former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is most anxious to see: a runaway victory for her candidacy. It is a good sign that, despite the fact that she has no real contrasting opponent on the Democratic side, the coronation she expected isn t going to happen.One might say that this writer focuses too much on Mrs. Clinton s adoration of Israel. But by looking at her comments about that apartheid nation, one gets a clear view of some broader, very troubling perspectives that Mrs. Clinton seems to hold.On January 6, an opinion piece appeared in The Jewish Journal, written by Mrs. Clinton. It is a fawning, maudlin essay, typical of the writing of anyone seeking national political office in the U.S. who knows they must pay homage to their Israeli lord and master. A few points from this essay tell much about Mrs. Clinton. I m especially concerned about the new wave of violence inside Israel itself brutal stabbings, shootings, and vehicle attacks that seek to sow fear among the innocent. The number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank alone by settler and IOF (Israel Occupation Force) terrorists is at a ten-year high. Why is Mrs. Clinton not especially concerned about the continuing wave of violence against Palestinians, in an area that even the U.S. says Israel occupies illegally? Do not these vicious attacks seek to sow fear among the innocent ? Only a two-state solution negotiated between the parties can provide Palestinians independence, sovereignty, and dignity, and provide Israelis the secure and recognized borders of a democratic Jewish state. Why, oh why, does Mrs. Clinton continue to make this ridiculous statement? The borders of the Jewish state are recognized by most of the world, including the United Nations, and consist of those determined prior to 1967. There is nothing to negotiate. Does Mrs. Clinton disdain international law? It appears that she feels Israel, like the U.S. in its international dealings, is, indeed, above the law. BIBI FIRST: Hillary Clinton will never tell Israel no .And this writer must point out, once again, that negotiations, which have proceeded on and off for twenty years or so, can only be effective when each side wants something the other has, that it can only obtain by surrendering something it has. Israel wants all of Palestine, and takes it, piece by piece, with complete impunity. Why should Palestine agree to pointless negotiations?Mrs. Clinton refers to the secure and recognized borders of a Jewish state, but does not seem to consider the secure and recognized borders of a Palestinian state. We must continue to fight against global efforts to delegitimize Israel. The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, known as BDS, is the latest front in this battle. BDS demonizes Israeli scientists and intellectuals even young students and compares Israel to South African apartheid. That s wrong and this campaign should end. The most significant efforts to delegitimize Israel are made by Israel itself. Its racist society, wherein Israeli Jews have more rights than anyone else in Israel; its apartheid system of segregation; its complete disdain for the human rights of the Palestinians; the racist, murderous statements made by government officials all further delegitimize the country, and demonize it, and rightly so. Israel is often compared to South African apartheid, and the comparison is valid.And it is not just in the context of Palestine and Israel that Mrs. Clinton demonstrates either gross ignorance, or gross dishonesty. Her essay also contained these pearls of wisdom: We must work with our friends and partners to deny ISIS territory in the Middle East, dismantle the global infrastructure of terror, and toughen our defenses at home. We can t just contain ISIS we must defeat ISIS. Is that really the U.S. s goal? Garikai Chengu, a researcher at Harvard University, suggested in September of 2014 that ISIS is made-in-the-USA, an instrument of terror designed to divide and conquer the oil-rich Middle East and to counter Iran s growing influence in the region. In a June, 2015 column in The Guardian, Associate Editor Seumas Milne said this: [T]he U.S. and its allies weren t only supporting and arming an opposition they knew to be dominated by extreme sectarian groups; they were prepared to countenance the creation of some sort of Islamic state despite the grave danger to Iraq s unity as a Sunni buffer to weaken Syria. Continue this article at Counterpunch READ MORE 2016 ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 Files | 0 |
21,297 | knifewielding man shot dead outside us embassy in nairobi | uk express october
the european leaders controversial statements reportedly included hollande saying the justice system was full of cowards that there were too many immigrants and that there was a problem with islam
mr hollande also spoke harshly about senior politicians in the book which was released just as he intended to make public his desire to run for the presidency again in
he blamed us president barack obama for creating isis saying i dont know what would have happened if we had carried out strikes what i can say is that we did not carry out strikes and theres daesh
now party members are giving up on the leader following the hapless blunder
the party are scrambling to pick up the pieces looking to prime minister manuel valls who is disliked in the party and segolene royal the environment minister and an ex partner of mr hollande who is equally unsuccessful in electoral races
political scientist bruno cautres im stunned by the speed of his collapse this article was posted wednesday october at am share this article | 1 |
21,298 | UPDATE: TRANSGENDER TARGET BOYCOTT Reaches Boiling Point…Loses $4 BILLION In 30 Days…CEO Defends Dangerous Bathroom Position | Note to Target CEO: When you endanger the safety of little girls and women in your stores, you re giving placing a target on your back a whole new meaning. Only two days ago in women s bathroom in Chicago, an 8 year old girl was choked by a man until she was unconscious. He proceeded to drag into a bathroom stall. Fortunately, her mother overheard her screams and was able to come to her rescue. Is this really the kind of America we want? Is Target ready to accept responsibility for crimes against women and children in their bathrooms and changing rooms?UPDATE: Target is facing a nationwide backlash for its support of transgender rights.More than 1.2 million people have signed a pledge to boycott the retailer after it announced last month that it would welcome transgender customers to use any bathroom or fitting room that matches their gender identity.Critics have been holding protests and demonstrations at stores across the country, and they are showing no signs of dying down.Many are demanding access to bathrooms of the opposite sex to support claims that perverts can now prey on children and women as a result of the policy.The boycotters goal is to force Target to reverse its policy, or at least make the retailer suffer for it by spending their money elsewhere. Breitbart NewsThe CEO of retail giant Target is zig-zagging between the many customers who are angered by his decision to open single-sex bathrooms to the other sex, the gender-identity progressives who pushed for the disastrous transgender policy, and the Wall Street stock-pickers who have chopped roughly $4.5 billion off the company s value. We re going to continue to embrace our belief in diversity and inclusion, just how important that is to our company, CEO Brian Cornell said in a May 11 appearance on CNBC s Squawk Box business show. But we re also going to make sure our focus on safety is unwavering, he added.To mollify the public angered by his removal of single-sex restrooms and changing rooms, the company will add family bathrooms to all of its stores, he said.We re committed over the next few months, to make sure every one of our stores has that option, because we want to make sure that our guests be welcomed in our stores. But if there s a question of safety, I can tell you and others, our focus on safety is unwavering, and we want to make sure we provide a welcoming environment for all our guests, one that s safe, one that s comfortable.But Cornell did not offer to return single-sex changing rooms, which is likely the most unnerving element in the company s new open-door, pro-transgender agenda.The company can t easily add family changing-rooms without using up scarce space in their retail stores and can t reestablish single-sex changing-rooms without angering many progressive professionals in the media and fashion industries. Those progressives professionals would likely claim the company is unfairly gender policing its customers, even though transgender advocates say only 1 in every 300 Americans are transgender. Other estimates say the ratio is only 1 transgender for every 2,400 Americans.So Cornell tried to reassure and flatter progressives about the justice of his company s brand-damaging, revenue-reducing April 19 decision. We took a stance, Cornell said, as he suggested that single-sex bathrooms are just like a racist refusal to use African-Americans in commercial advertising in the 1960s.We ve had a long history embracing diversity and inclusion. A couple weeks ago, one of our team members sent me a note reminding me that if we went back to the mid-60s, our company was one of the very first to use African-American models in their advertising, and back then, it wasn t well received.In the company s initial April 19 statement, the store said, we welcome transgender team members and [customer] guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity. The statement came as Americans were recognizing and rejecting the revolutionary political agenda behind the push for transgender status.Since April 19, We had a lot of tough feedback. But sitting here today, we know we made the right decision, Cornell insisted.That tough feedback includes a consumer boycott that now has 1.2 million supporters, much damage to the company s brand, and a massive sell-off on Wall Street that has chopped the company s share price from almost $84 on April 19 to $75.70 on May 11.That s a loss of $8.30 per share, or 10 percent, or almost $5 billion since April 19. Of course, some part of that loss is due to President Barack Obama s weak economy but no company is helped by many management decisions that anger so many customers. Via: Breitbart News | 0 |
21,299 | BENGHAZI SPOKESLIAR SUSAN RICE TELLS CNN: ‘We should expect’ Iran To Use Funds It Gets For Terrorist Operations [VIDEO] | Tell us Susan what s worse, Iran with a nuclear weapon and billions of dollars to help fund muslim terrorists or Iran with a nuclear weapon and frozen assets? President Obama s National Security Advisor, Susan Rice, told CNN s Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday that we should expect Iran to use the money it gets under sanctions relief for military and even terrorist operations.As part of Obama s nuclear agreement with Iran, tens of billions of dollars frozen as part of the sanctions on Iran will be released over time provided Iran complies with a list of deadlines outlined in the agreement. What do we think they ll spend that money on? We think, for the most part, they re going to need to spend it on the Iranian people and their economy which has tanked, she told Blitzer.Of course, murderous regimes like Iran don t generally limit themselves to domestic infrastructure projects and welfare schemes, which Rice quickly acknowledged. But yes, it is real, it is possible, and, in fact, we should expect that some portion of that money would go to the Iranian military and could potentially be used for the kinds of bad behavior that we have seen in the region up until now, she said.By bad behavior Rice is presumably referring to Iran s funding of terrorist organizations, and its expanding military operations throughout areas such as Yemen.Despite the fact that the Obama administration fully expects Iran to use its newly released billions to fund terrorism, Rice told Blitzer those concerns didn t play an important role in negotiations. The goal here, Wolf, was never, and was not designed to prevent them from engaging in bad behavior in the region. They re doing that today, she said. The goal is to ensure that they don t have a nuclear weapon, and therefore, when they are engaging in that bad behavior, are that much more dangerous. Rice s acknowledgement of Iran s bad faith might not bother the administration, but it is likely to cause a little concern in congress.After all, Iran s bad behavior is a pretty good indication that the murderous regime in Tehran has no intention of cleaning up its act which makes it somewhat hard to trust they will abide by an Obama sponsored agreement.Via: BizPacReview | 0 |
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