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21,900 | AWESOME! Conservative Women Speak Up About What They Like In A Politician [Video] | No matter what candidate you re supporting, this is a great example of what Americans REALLY want in a leader. Just listen to these women and you ll hear that they want honesty and strength in our next president. This video was recorded at the Grand Rapids, MI Trump Rally: (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));Women like Donald Trump at Grand Rapids, Michigan rallyWomen like Donald Trump at Grand Rapids, Michigan rallyPosted by The American Mirror on Tuesday, 22 December 2015 | 0 |
21,901 | FLASHBACK: Remember When Obama Was Caught Telling Russian President He’d Have “More Flexibility” After He Won Re-Election? [VIDEO]…Why Didn’t Anyone Question “Russian Interference” In His Defeat Of Mitt Romney Who Called Russia “Our Biggest Threat”? | Here s Obama defending Russia during a debate and calling out Romney for saying Russia was our biggest threat:And no one was concerned about Russian interference in the 2012 elections? | 0 |
21,902 | Iceland's president asks leftist opposition leader to form new government | REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Iceland s president asked the leader of the Left-Green Movement, Katrin Jakobsdottir, on Thursday to form a new government, although it came second in Saturday s parliamentary election. The mandate deals a blow to Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson of the Independence Party who called the snap election in September after less than a year in office as a scandal involving his father prompted a government ally to drop out of his ruling coalition. The Nordic island of 340,000 people, one of the countries hit hardest by the 2008 financial crisis, has seen an economic rebound spurred by a tourism boom. But a string of political scandals have hurt trust in government in recent years. The election result showed a Left-Green-led coalition was possible if they joined forces with the Social Democrats, the Progressive Party and the Pirate Party. Together, they would hold 32 of parliament s 63 seats. Jakobsdottir s has said she may try to form a broad-based government. The Independence Party, which has dominated Icelandic politics for decades, fell short of a parliamentary majority. (This version of the story corrects the prime minister s first name in paragraph 2 to Bjarni, not Bjarne) | 1 |
21,903 | Syrian rebels say U.S. responsibility doesn't end with raid | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels welcomed a U.S. missile attack on a Syrian army airbase on Friday but said Washington’s “responsibility” did not end there and military action should continue to prevent the Syrian government using airbases and banned weapons. A statement from the Free Syrian Army - an alliance of rebel groups - said it welcomed the raid against the base near Homs city, calling it the “correct starting point” for confronting terrorism and finding a “just political solution” to the war. “We view that the responsibility of the United States is still great, and does not stop with this operation,” the statement said, warning that the government and its allies could commit “acts of revenge” against civilians. | 1 |
21,904 | Mattis praises China's efforts on North Korea, dials up pressure on South China Sea | SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The United States is encouraged by China’s efforts to restrain North Korea but Washington will not accept Beijing’s militarization of islands in the South China Sea, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Saturday. The comments by Mattis, during the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, show how U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is looking to balance working with China to restrain North Korea’s advancing missile and nuclear programs while dealing with Beijing’s activities in the South China Sea. U.S. allies have been worried by Trump’s actively courting Chinese President Xi Jinping to restrain North Korea, fearing Washington might allow China a more free rein elsewhere in the region. Some allies have also expressed concern that Washington’s withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific trade partnership and the Paris global climate accord signals the United States is diluting its global leadership role. Speaking at the dialogue, Asia’s premier security forum, Mattis said the United States remained fully engaged with its partners. “Like it or not, we are a part of the world...What a crummy world if we all retreat inside our borders,” he said. “Once we have exhausted all possible alternatives, the Americans will do the right thing,” Mattis added, paraphrasing a quotation by British wartime leader Winston Churchill. “So we will still be there and we will be there with you.” Nevertheless, reversing or slowing North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs has become a security priority for Washington, given Pyongyang’s vow to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. The Trump administration has been pressing China aggressively to rein in its reclusive neighbor, warning all options are on the table if North Korea persists with its weapons programs. “The Trump administration is encouraged by China’s renewed commitment to work with the international community toward denuclearization,” Mattis said. “Ultimately, we believe China will come to recognize North Korea as a strategic liability, not an asset.” However, Mattis said seeking China’s cooperation on North Korea did not mean Washington would not challenge Beijing’s activities in the South China Sea. The U.N. Security Council on Friday expanded targeted sanctions against North Korea after its repeated missile tests, adopting the first such resolution agreed by the United States and China since Trump took office. In another sign of increased pressure on North Korea, Japan’s navy and air force began a three-day military exercise with two U.S. aircraft carriers in the Sea of Japan on Thursday. Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada, speaking at the Singapore forum, said Tokyo backed the United States using any option to deal with North Korea, including military strikes, and was seeking a deeper alliance with Washington. But she also said she was concerned about the situation in the South China Sea and in the East China Sea. China’s claims in the South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes each year, are contested by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. China and Japan both claim islands in the East China Sea. LOW-KEY China, which sent only a low-key delegation to the forum, said its ties with the United States were vital for the region. “I believe that if China and the United States can ensure no conflict, as well as maintain mutual respect, cooperation and trust, it will contribute greatly to security in the Asia Pacific and the world,” Lt Gen He Lei, the head of Beijing’s delegation, told reporters. Allies around the world have been concerned about the commitment of the United States since Trump took office on Jan. 20 because of his “America First” rhetoric and expectations that he would concentrate on a domestic agenda. “We are still trying to figure out his (Trump’s) policy in our region,” said Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein. “I would like to know very clearly what are the true intentions of the new administration.” Mattis sought to ease concerns for allies in the Asia-Pacific, saying the region was a priority and the primary effort was alliance building. He added, however, that countries must “contribute sufficiently to their own security.” In a sign of the U.S. commitment to the region, Mattis said that soon about 60 percent of overseas tactical aviation assets would be assigned to the region and he would work with the U.S. Congress on an Asia-Pacific stability initiative. Mattis said the United States welcomed China’s economic development, but he anticipated “friction” between the two countries. “While competition between the U.S. and China, the world’s two largest economies, is bound to occur, conflict is not inevitable,” Mattis said. While eager to work with China in dealing with North Korea, Mattis said the United States did not accept China placing weapons and other military assets on man-made islands in the South China Sea. “We oppose countries militarizing artificial islands and enforcing excessive maritime claims,” Mattis said. “We cannot and will not accept unilateral, coercive changes to the status quo.” | 1 |
21,905 | Boeing says current Air Force One contract worth $170 million | SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (Reuters) - Boeing Co on Tuesday responded to a call by President-elect Donald Trump about the costs of a new Air Force One, saying that it currently had only a $170 million contract to determine the capabilities of the new presidential aircraft. “We look forward to working with the U.S. Air Force on subsequent phases of the program allowing us to deliver the best plane for the president at the best value for the American taxpayer,” said spokesman Todd Blecher. Trump on Tuesday said costs for the new plane were expected to reach $4 billion and urged the government to cancel a contract with Boeing for the jet. The budgeted costs for the Air Force One replacement program are $2.87 billion for the fiscal years 2015 through 2021, according to budget documents. But the production contract has not yet been awarded to Boeing. | 1 |
21,906 | What will be in Obama's final budget proposal? | (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is set on Tuesday to unveil his budget proposal for fiscal year 2017, his final year in office. But since the Republican-controlled Congress controls the purse strings, much of Obama’s budget will likely stay on the drawing board. The following are some of the proposals that will be included: The Pentagon will ask for more than $7 billion for the fight against Islamic State, up about 35 percent from the previous year’s budget request to Congress, and wants a fourfold increase for military training and exercises in Europe to support NATO allies. In a long-shot bid to raise $20 billion to expand transit systems and research self-driving cars, Obama will propose a $10-a-barrel tax on crude oil. The budget will propose a 1.6 percent pay increase for military and civilian federal personnel. Obama will ask for $1.1 billion in new funding to expand treatment for people addicted to heroin and prescription pain killers, a growing epidemic. Obama pledged more than $450 million in aid to Colombia to help with security and integrating rebel combatants into society under a pending peace deal to end Latin America’s longest war. Obama wants to expand the earned income tax credit, or EITC, to low-income workers without children. Other proposals include $12 billion over 10 years to supplement food stamps for poor families when school meal programs are closed in the summer, $2 billion in emergency aid for families in crisis, a combined $328 million in education and housing grants to poor neighborhoods, and a $15 million pilot program to help poor families move to better neighborhoods. The budget will include three years of federal funding to 19 state governments that passed up an earlier offer to expand Medicaid coverage for more than 4 million low-income people. Obama will ask for tweaks to a tax on certain health insurance plans that is unpopular with labor unions. The White House will ask for $5.5 billion in incentives for businesses that hire young people and $200 million for apprenticeship programs. Obama will ask for $4 billion for states and $100 million for school districts to expand computer science in schools. The budget will include $1 billion over five years to help coal-mining regions with economic development. The White House will ask for $755 million for Vice President Joe Biden’s “moonshot” effort to find new cancer treatments. The budget will include $700 million in agricultural research grants, double the spending level in 2016. Obama has proposed $500 million to boost access to mental healthcare as part of his push to address gun violence. Obama will propose $95 million for a new office responsible for background checks for federal employees. As part of reforms to the criminal justice system, Obama will ask for $24 million for better housing for inmates with serious mental illnesses. Obama will propose tax credits for small businesses offering 401(k) plans or expanding access to retirement savings programs. Obama will seek to expand unemployment insurance to more types of workers, provide wage insurance for workers moving to lower-paid positions, and provide incentives to states for retraining or relocating workers. Obama will ask for funding to hire 200 new ATF staff to enforce gun laws. | 1 |
21,907 | Trump vows to broker Israeli-Palestinian peace, offers no new policies | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump vowed on Wednesday to do “whatever is necessary” to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians as he hosted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House, but gave no sign of how he could revive long-stalled negotiations. In their first meeting, Trump pressed Abbas to do more to stop “incitement to violence” against Israelis and, according to the White House, urged him in private to halt payments to families of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, a demand long pressed by Israel. Even as Trump boldly predicted he would achieve peace where other presidents had failed, he stopped short of explicitly recommitting his administration to a two-state solution to the decades-old conflict, a long-standing foundation of U.S. policy. Some Palestinians said they were disappointed by the omission. Despite what many experts see as a long-shot bid, Trump told Abbas: “I will do whatever is necessary. ... I would love to be a mediator or an arbitrator or a facilitator, and we will get this done.” Abbas reasserted the goal of a Palestinian state, saying it must have East Jerusalem as its capital with the borders that existed before the 1967 Middle East war. Most Israelis want all of Jerusalem as their capital and reject a full return to 1967 borderlines as a threat to their security. Trump has faced deep skepticism at home and abroad over the chances for him to achieve any quick breakthrough, not least because his administration has yet to articulate a cohesive strategy for restarting the moribund peace process. Abbas’ White House talks followed a February visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who moved to reset ties after a combative relationship with the Republican president’s predecessor, Democrat Barack Obama. Trump sparked international criticism at the time, when he appeared to back away from a two-state solution, saying he would leave it up to the parties to decide. Palestinian statehood has been the objective of successive U.S. administrations and the international community. The meeting with Abbas, the Western-backed head of the Palestinian Authority, was another test of whether Trump, in office a little more than 100 days, is serious about pursuing the kind of comprehensive peace deal that eluded his predecessors. Trump insisted he was ready to try to reach the “toughest deal.” But when he later sat down to lunch with the Palestinian leader, he said it was “maybe not as difficult as people have thought over the years.” Trump, who said he decided to “start a process” but offered no new policy prescriptions or timetable, may be underestimating the challenge when trust between the two sides is low, analysts said. “You can’t just pretend you only have to handle a few key issues and that’s it,” said David Makovsky, a member of Obama’s negotiating team during the last talks, which collapsed in 2014. Still, plans are being firmed up for Trump to visit Netanyahu in Jerusalem and possibly Abbas in the West Bank on May 22 and 23, say people familiar with the matter. That has sparked speculation about a meeting of the three. U.S. and Israeli officials have declined to confirm the visit. Trump and Abbas appeared friendly but businesslike as they stood at side-by-side lecterns. But that was a far cry from the way Trump and Netanyahu interacted in February. Abbas promised that under “your courageous stewardship and your wisdom, as well as your great negotiating ability,” the Palestinians would be partners seeking a “historic peace treaty.” But under pressure at home to avoid major concessions, the 82-year-old leader said: “It’s about time for Israel to end its occupation,” referring to Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Abbas, however, did not repeat in public his demand that Israel freeze settlement construction on land Palestinians want for a state as a condition for negotiations. U.S. lawmakers have warned that Palestinian funding could be cut off unless Abbas halts PLO stipends to families of prisoners whom Israel considers terrorists but many Palestinians see as heroes. There was no indication Abbas, who governs in the West Bank while Hamas militants rule Gaza, bowed to pressure on the issue, especially with hundreds of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike. In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the promises Abbas made at the White House “don’t obligate anyone.” Questions have been raised about Trump’s choice of son-in-law Jared Kushner to oversee the peace initiative, along with Trump’s longtime business lawyer, Jason Greenblatt, as envoy. Efforts to enlist Israel’s Sunni Arab neighbors, who share Israeli concerns about Shi’ite Iran, to help rejuvenate peacemaking, have yet to yield results. National security adviser H.R. McMaster described Trump’s foreign policy approach as “disruptive,” saying his unconventional ways could create an opportunity to help stabilize the Middle East. But Trump’s unpredictability has even at times rattled a close ally like Israel. His pro-Israeli campaign rhetoric suggested he might give Netanyahu free rein. But Trump’s promise to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv is on the back burner, and he caught Netanyahu off-guard by asking him to put unspecified limits on settlement activity. | 1 |
21,908 | Head of Syrian opposition's HNC resigns: statement | BEIRUT (Reuters) - The head of the Syrian opposition s High Negotiations Committee (HNC) resigned on Monday, nearly two years after he was picked to chair the Saudi-backed umbrella group that brings together the armed and political opposition to President Bashar al-Assad. Riyad Hijab, a former Syrian prime minister under Assad, did not explain his reasons for stepping down in a statement posted on social media. The HNC has been the main representative of the Syrian opposition since its formation at a meeting in Saudi Arabia in December, 2015, and has taken part in U.N.-led diplomacy aimed at ending the conflict that erupted in 2011. The war has been going Assad s way since Russia sent its air force to support him militarily in 2015. The Damascus government has been steadily regaining control of territory, thanks also to the support of Iran-backed forces such as Lebanon s Hezbollah. Saudi Arabia is due to host an expanded conference for the Syrian opposition this month, aiming to unify its position ahead of more U.N.-backed peace talks, the Saudi state news agency SPA reported last week. Previous rounds of Geneva peace talks have failed to make headway towards a resolution of the war. | 1 |
21,909 | Former intelligence chief Clapper: Comey was uneasy with Trump dinner - MSNBC | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on Friday said James Comey has told him he was “uneasy” with a planned dinner in January with President Donald Trump that has come under renewed scrutiny this week after Trump fired the now-former FBI director. Clapper, in an interview with MSNBC, said he had spoken with Comey at an unrelated event hours before the White House dinner and that the FBI chief “was uneasy with it” because of the potential appearance of compromising the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s independence. | 1 |
21,910 | Nate Silver: There’s a 79% Chance That Hillary Clinton Is Our Next President (VIDEO) | Nate Silver is great at predicting the outcomes of political races. He predicted all 50 states correctly in the last presidential race, which involved presumptive nominees Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. In the race before that when John McCain unleashed Sarah Palin upon us, he correctly predicted the outcomes of 49 out of 50 states. Well, the legendary political analyst has now weighed in on the 2016 presidential race, and he predicts overwhelmingly that Hillary Clinton will be the next Commader-in-Chief.While appearing on Good Morning America with George Stephanopoulos, Silver said: Here s how to think about it: We re kind of at halftime of the election right now, and she s taking a seven-point, maybe a 10-point lead into halftime.Good Morning America. There s a lot of football left to be played, but she s ahead in almost every poll, every swing state, every national poll. Silver isn t, poll-wise, wrong, either. According to a recent poll, Clinton beats Trump in Iowa, Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia. These aren t small wins, either they are from 4 to 17 points. So, in other words, the nation definitely appears to favor Clinton over Trump. Silver said of the numbers: It s been a crazy year, politically. For example, Arizona looks like a toss-up. Maybe Georgia. Maybe Missouri, North Carolina again. Likewise, if Trump gains ground on Clinton then maybe a state like Maine used to be a swing state, not so recently could be in play, too. In other words, Trump is in trouble, as he should be. The nutjobs who are uneducated and uninformed who helped Trump rise to claim the Republican presidential nomination do not represent the nation. This is where the GOP messed up they lined up behind a charlatan who is running the greatest reality television show scam the American people have ever seen, and he s gonna lose.Remember, if you realize how dangerous Trump is, vote blue, no matter who.Featured image via Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images | 0 |
21,911 | Beijing hits brakes on subway boom over debt concerns | SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China has hit the brakes on subway projects in at least three cities and Beijing is asking others to slow down their plans, local governments and media have reported, indicating concerns over high debt from city-level infrastructure spending. China has been in the grips of a metro-building binge with more than 50 cities working on over 1 trillion yuan ($150.8 billion) worth of projects, after population restrictions were loosened last year to allow more cities to have metro systems. Such infrastructure spending has helped to shore up economic growth but is now being scrutinized more closely after the government pledged to clamp down on financial risks. Policymakers have warned about the risk of asset bubbles due to high levels of corporate and household debt in the economy. China s overall debt has jumped to more than 250 percent of GDP from 150 percent at the end of 2006. Financial magazine Caixin, citing unnamed sources close to the matter, reported that authorities in Inner Mongolia s Hohhot and Baotou cities have scrapped approved projects worth billions of dollars in recent months due to concerns over finances. Xianyang city which wants to build six lines to link up to central Shaanxi province s capital of Xi an, said in a statement this month some of its plans had not yet been approved by the state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission. The NDRC has become more cautious about approving metro construction plans and it will be difficult to achieve approval within the year, it said, adding that one of the factors was debt concerns over the Baotou metro. The Economic Observer newspaper said it was told by the Wuhan city planner that the NDRC was re-evaluating the country s subway construction situation. The Baotou city planner declined to comment when contacted by Reuters on Wednesday. The NDRC and authorities in Hohhot and Wuhan did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Guotai Junan analyst Gary Wong said such a crackdown on metro projects was appropriate given that many remote and financially weak cities had undertaken metro projects. He said he did not anticipate a large impact on locomotive suppliers such as CRRC Corp who have shifted focus to metros to offset the slowing high-speed rail market. They are already full with orders, even if they don t get new orders at the moment they will still be busy for the next 2-3 years, he said. China would overtake Europe and the Americas if all 50 cities went ahead with their metro plans, data from the International Association of Public Transport showed. Europe has 46 cities with metro systems, and America has 33 cities. The China Association of Metros said in July that 30 cities currently have metros. | 1 |
21,912 | Italy calls confidence votes in Senate on new electoral law | ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni s government on Tuesday called a series of confidence votes to pass a new electoral law as the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, which is likely to be hurt by the new legislation, pledged to protest on the streets. The government is resorting to the confidence votes to avoid secret voting in the Senate, where it has a narrow majority and at least four members of the ruling Democratic Party have said they will not cast a ballot. The confidence votes will be held by open ballot starting on Wednesday afternoon, with the final confidence vote to be held on Thursday. The government is forced to resign if it loses such a vote. A centrist group that is not formally part of the government s majority has said it will provide up to 10 votes to help pass the law if needed. The bill, dubbed the Rosatellum, is supported by the Democratic Party (PD) and mainstream center-right opposition parties. It favors parties which group together ahead of the election. It is likely to hurt 5-Star, which refuses to join any alliance, and left-wing parties that do not want to join a coalition with the PD. The 5-Star Movement, which tops many opinion polls, has called a street protest in front of the Senate for Wednesday afternoon, against what it sees as an attempt by its mainstream rivals to scupper its chances at the election. It will be joined by the leftist Democratic and Progressive Movement (MDP), which split from the PD this year, and other small left-wing groups. Apart from the PD, the legislation is supported by Silvio Berlusconi s center-right Forza Italia (Go Italy!) and the right-wing Northern League. The Rosatellum is the best compromise possible among political adversaries, according to the PD parliamentary party leader, Ettore Rosato, after whom the reform has been named. In two separate rulings, the Constitutional Court struck down previous laws, leaving the upper and lower houses with different rules. President Sergio Mattarella has called on parliament to come up with a mew electoral law that applies equally to both houses before a national vote, due by May of next year. All previous attempts to harmonize the rules have failed, most recently in June when dissident deputies used a secret vote to up-end part of the proposed legislation. While the current law would harmonize rules for both houses, polls suggest it will not hand any coalition or party a clear mandate to govern. The proposed election law would distribute almost two-thirds of the seats in parliament on a proportional basis, while a third would be decided in a first-past-the-post vote on specific candidates. Coalitions would need to get 10 percent of the national vote to get into parliament, while parties running alone would need only 3 percent. Candidates would be chosen by party chiefs. | 1 |
21,913 | Pope, Orthodox leader make climate change appeal to 'heal wounded creation' | VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis and Orthodox Christian leader Patriarch Bartholomew called on Friday for a collective response from world leaders to climate change, saying the planet was deteriorating and vulnerable people were the first to be affected. The appeal comes three months after U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from a global agreement, struck in Paris, to limit greenhouse gas emissions. We urgently appeal to those in positions of social and economic, as well as political and cultural, responsibility to hear the cry of the earth and to attend to the needs of the marginalized, Francis and Bartholomew said in a joint statement. Above all , the leaders of the world s 1.2 billion Catholics and up to 300 million Orthodox Christians asked for a response to the plea of millions and support (for) the consensus of the world for the healing of our wounded creation. The joint message was not addressed to any specific world leaders. Many were dismayed when the U.S. backed out of the Paris accord, a decision a senior Vatican official later called a disaster . | 1 |
21,914 | SEX OBJECTS FOR HILLARY…Jennifer Lopez Shakes A*S On Stage In Thong For Crooked Hillary…You Can’t Make This Stuff Up! [VIDEO] | Pop star Madonna got raunchy while introducing comedian Amy Schumer at a performance in New York City Tuesday night, promising the crowd sexual favors in exchange for their support of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. If you vote for Hillary Clinton, I will give you a blowjob. OK? the 58-year-old Rebel Heart singer told an audience at New York s Madison Square Garden Tuesday night. I m really good. I m not a douche, and I m not a tool. I take my time, I have a lot of eye contact, and I do swallow. BreitbartWatch the classless Lopez perform for Hillary here:.@JLo booty shake @HillaryClinton GOTV concert Miami Florida pic.twitter.com/zrFokjtKpH Tamara Gitt (@tamaragitt) October 30, 2016And then there s this special act in Lopez s concert for Hillary. Every mom supporting Hillary will want to teach her daughters to try this at home How to spin this.https://t.co/iKfSnjDf7c pic.twitter.com/D0HDStnGiA Arma Obscurum (@ShootingHipster) October 30, 2016J-Lo campaigns with Hillary at last night's rally in Miami. pic.twitter.com/Dr6yqCdBH8 Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) October 30, 2016And finally, the Champion of Women joined da ho and her ex on stage:Hillary Clinton joins Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony on stage https://t.co/jnBiRtZ1BD pic.twitter.com/xNaA2XNLoj Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) October 30, 2016 | 0 |
21,915 | German minister upsets fellow conservatives over Muslim holidays | BERLIN (Reuters) - German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere has upset fellow members of Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservative bloc by proposing that Germany introduce Muslim public holidays. Germany is home to around 4.5 million Muslims, many of whom have a Turkish background. Many of the more than a million migrants who have arrived in the country from the Middle East and elsewhere over the last two years are also Muslims. Speaking on the campaign trail ahead of an election in the northern state of Lower Saxony due on Sunday, de Maiziere - a member of Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU) - said he was open to certain regions of Germany having Muslim public holidays. He pointed out that All Saints Day was only a public holiday in Germany s Catholic regions and added: In places where there are many Muslims, why can t we think about introducing a Muslim public holiday? In a speech posted in an audio clip on local news website regionalwolfsburg.de he also said Germany s public holidays were generally Christian, and should remain that way. His proposal prompted a backlash from fellow conservatives, who are due to start tricky three-way coalition talks with the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens next week. The conservatives won a September election but suffered their worst result since 1949 as they lost support to the far-right. Senior CDU member Wolfgang Bosbach told the newspaper Bild that everyone in Germany could celebrate whatever religious festivals they wanted but added: Whether the state should also protect non-Christian holidays with legal regulation in future is a different issue entirely. Alexander Dobrindt, a senior figure in the Christian Social Union (CSU) - the Bavarian sister party of Merkel s CDU - told the same newspaper that Germany s Christian heritage was non-negotiable, adding: We won t consider introducing Muslim public holidays in Germany. A spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry said de Maiziere remained of the view that Germany s public holidays were of a Christian nature and don t have any other roots . The constitution sets out that Germany s individual states decide on religious public holidays so the federal interior minister has no influence on whether there should be Muslim public holidays, the spokeswoman added. She said the northern city states of Hamburg and Bremen had signed agreements with some Muslim organizations so that Muslim pupils could have such time off school and workers could take holidays for festivals important to Islam, adding that some other states did the same. | 1 |
21,916 | Trump, UK's May talk Middle East peace - White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May talked about ways to move towards peace in the Middle East in a phone call on Tuesday, the White House said. The president and Prime Minister discussed next steps in forging peace in the Middle East, the White House said in a brief statement that made no mention of Trump s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital. Both leaders also emphasized the urgency of addressing the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. Trump also congratulated May on the decision by European Union leaders to move to the second phase of the Brexit negotiations, the White House said. | 1 |
21,917 | U.S. Senate Intelligence committee wants more information from Comey | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee said on Wednesday it asked former FBI Director James Comey to appear before the panel in both public and closed sessions, stepping up its investigation of Russia’s alleged interference into the 2016 U.S. election. It also said it had asked Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe to send any notes or other memos prepared by Comey about communications he may have had with senior White House and Department of Justice officials related to the investigation into Russia and the election. | 1 |
21,918 | the man who spoke softly but carried a big stick | rand paul returns to us treasury i promised kentuckians i would stand for smaller more efficient government published mins ago
global dispatch following in the footsteps of his father former texas congressman ron paul us senator rand paul announced recently that he saved more than from his official fy operating budget bringing the total amount dr paul has returned to the taxpayers to over since taking office in january
its easy to picture washingtons outofcontrol spending as a massive untamable beast said dr paul so i determined to show change is possible by starting in the area under my control while working everywhere else i could to stop business as usual
i promised kentuckians i would stand for smaller more efficient government balanced budgets and spending restraint im proud my staff and i have kept that pledge while operating one of the most active federal offices | 1 |
21,919 | Ex-soccer star 'King George' nears goal of Liberia presidency | MONROVIA (Reuters) - George Weah has been here before: on the goal line of the Liberian presidency, one run-off vote from victory. Unlike in 2005, however, his support is much wider and many expect him at last to succeed. The 1995 European soccer player of the year won 39 percent of votes in first round presidential polls last week, with 95 percent of votes counted. The final result is due on Wednesday. That was 10 percentage points more than closest rival Vice President Joseph Boakai, and a better score than he had in earlier contests, but short of the 50 percent needed to win. A run-off between Weah and Boakai will be held in November. The result shows how support has grown steadily for the former AC Milan striker, who lit up television screens in Liberia in the 1990s with his mazy runs, briefly distracting fans from a 1989-2003 civil war that killed tens of thousands. Now King George , as his supporters call him, has to persuade the majority that he can run a country as well as he kicks a ball. His rhetoric has been light on policy so far. In an interview on Oct 8 he spoke vaguely about a need for better roads. We will seek a government of inclusion where everyone can work together and make our country a better one for all of us, he told Reuters. Weah grew up in Clara Town slum in the capital Monrovia, playing football there and in Cameroon, where manager Arsene Wenger spotted him and took him to Monaco. He went on to play for Milan and Paris St Germain, and later in his career for Chelsea, Manchester City and Marseille. He became the first non-European to win the Ballon d Or in 1995, the same year he picked up the African and world player of the year awards. His rags-to-riches story has inspired supporters from similarly lowly backgrounds. Weah is grass roots, a son of the soil - he is a star, but he has the country at heart, said Oliver Myers, an unemployed 39-year-old from the Rehab neighborhood outside Monrovia. Others are wary of his lack of political experience and education, and question his ability to govern a country that remains 12th from bottom of the U.N. Human Development Index. Weah s populism and inability to articulate a coherent platform ... are deeply concerning, said Liberian political analyst Robtel Neajai Pailey in a recent opinion piece for Liberian website The Bush Chicken. Success at football does not translate into success in the presidency of a traumatized, poorly managed, post-war nation. Doubts over Weah s experience could still sink his ambitions in next month s run-off, as in 2005, when he won the first round but lost the second to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who went on to rule for 12 years. Weah refused to take part in televised debates attended by most other major candidates, and his choice of running mate Jewel Howard-Taylor - ex-wife of Charles Taylor, the former president and warlord serving 50 years in Britain for war crimes in neighboring Sierra Leone - has raised eyebrows. Johnson Sirleaf was credited with shoring up peace after the civil war, but criticized for failing to tackle elite graft and doing little to lift most Liberians out of poverty. Development has been hindered by an Ebola outbreak and a drop in the price of iron ore. Poor roads still leave most of rural Liberia stranded during the rainy season, often without electricity. In Monrovia, where derelict buildings line the main highways, most live on pitted dirt streets with little access to clean water. Boakai, 72, Sirleaf s deputy for 12 years, has struggled to separate himself from her during his campaign, despite promoting his humble beginnings. As Weah gained popularity, he was elected to the Liberian senate in 2014, defeating the president s son Robert Sirleaf. He still plays football every Sunday in Monrovia. While people have reservations about his lack of education, he is seen as the candidate for change, a diplomat told Reuters on Monday. It will take a lot for Boakai to turn this one around. Thomas Kojo, who played with Weah on the Liberia national team, thinks his former teammate s passion for his country will take him far. The heart George has for Liberia is unbelievable, Kojo said in an interview outside Weah s compound in Rehab on Monday. He made sure the national team was always trying to bring (home) some pride. Weah paid for the national team s kit when the Football Association couldn t afford it during the war, and gave players up to $600 spending money and similar bonuses if the team won, Kojo said. He once chartered a flight for the team when they were stranded in Ivory Coast without a flight to a game. The football team was the only good image to come from Liberia when all people saw was the killing, Kojo said. He made sure he was there for us. | 1 |
21,920 | South Africa to increase spending on higher education: Zuma | JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa will raise subsidies to universities to 1 percent of gross domestic product over the next five years from nearly 0.7 percent at present as recommended by a commission on higher education funding, President Jacob Zuma said on Saturday. As a result of this substantial increase in subsidy to universities, there will be no tuition fee increment for students from households earning up to 600,000 rand a year during the 2018 academic year, Zuma said in a statement. | 1 |
21,921 | Republican Cruz apologizes for email implying Carson might exit race | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz apologized to Ben Carson on Tuesday over an email his campaign sent on Monday night that implied Carson was about to drop out of the race and that his Iowa backers should be urged to vote for Cruz instead. A staffer for Cruz sent the email after rumors began circulating that Carson would return to Florida following Iowa’s caucuses on Monday rather than go straight to New Hampshire or South Carolina, other early voting states in the state-by-state nominating contests for the Nov. 8 election. “The press is reporting that Dr. Ben Carson is taking time off from the campaign trail after Iowa and making a big announcement next week,” the email read, according to CNN. “Please inform any Carson caucusgoers of this news and urge them to caucus for Ted Cruz.” Carson said he was simply leaving Iowa to avoid a winter storm and to get fresh clothes before continuing his campaign on Wednesday. The retired neurosurgeon, who said his fourth-place performance in Iowa would have been better had the email never been sent, criticized the move as “a dirty trick” and said the Cruz campaign should face some kind of consequences. “What this does is makes me more determined than ever to try to save our country,” Carson said on Fox News on Tuesday. In an apology released on Tuesday afternoon, Cruz, who won the Iowa Republican caucuses, categorized the email as a regular update the campaign would send to grassroots leaders. But the U.S. senator from Texas acknowledged another email should have been sent once Carson clarified he was not dropping out. “This was a mistake from our end, and for that I apologize to Dr. Carson,” Cruz wrote. Carson accepted the apology, his communications director, A. Larry Ross, said in a statement later on Tuesday. “This incident further demonstrates that we need an individual who is not a politician to lead and to heal our nation, not someone driven by ambition,” Ross said, adding that Carson would continue his campaign in New Hampshire and South Carolina. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said he would not interfere in the situation. “You take them at their word for it, and you move on to the next state,” he said on CNN. The question remains whether the dispute will hurt Cruz, a favorite of conservative evangelicals looking to win over Carson supporters should Carson drop out. Dartmouth University political scientist Linda Fowler said it could hurt Cruz if other candidates start to pick up on the interaction and say: “There’s a reason why nobody likes Ted Cruz, and here it is.” (Reporting by Megan Cassella, Additional reporting by Emily Stephenson; Editing by Peter Cooney and Cynthia Osterman) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency. | 1 |
21,922 | Senate joins House to pass sweeping new health bill | (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to support sweeping legislation that will reshape the way the Food and Drug Administration approves new medicines. It will also provide funding for cancer and Alzheimer’s research, help fight the opioid epidemic, expand access to mental health treatment and advance research into precision medicine. Two years in the making, the 21st Century Cures Act was passed last week by the House of Representatives and will now go to President Barack Obama to sign into law. Supporters say it will speed access to new drugs and devices, in part by allowing clinical trials to be designed with fewer patients and cheaper, easier-to-achieve goals. “For the second consecutive year, the Senate is sending the President another Christmas miracle for his signature,” Senator Lamar Alexander, a Republican from Tennessee said in a statement. “Last year, it was the Every Student Succeeds Act, and this time, it’s the 21st Century Cures Act — a bill that will help virtually every American family.” Critics of the legislation say it gives massive handouts to the pharmaceutical industry and will lower standards for drug and medical device approvals. “This gift – which 1,300 lobbyists, mostly from pharmaceutical companies, helped sell – comes at the expense of patient safety by undermining requirements for ensuring safe and effective medications and medical devices,” consumer watchdog Public Citizen said in a statement. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren was among the handful of senators who voted against the bill, as was independent senator and former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Each decried what they described as big handouts to the pharma industry. Even so the bill passed 94-5. The House passed it by a vote of 392-26. The $6.3 billion act, sponsored by Republican Representative Fred Upton, authorizes $4.8 billion for the National Institutes of Health and $500 million to the Food and Drug Administration. It also calls for $1 billion over two years to battle the opioid epidemic. On Tuesday the Drug Enforcement Administration issued a report showing that in 2014 about 129 people died every day as a result of drug poisoning. Of those, 61 percent are opioid or heroin related. “Opioids such as heroin and fentanyl - and diverted prescription pain pills - are killing people in this country at a horrifying rate,” Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg said. “We face a public health crisis of historic proportions.” The bill also calls for $1.8 billion in funding for Vice President Joseph Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative designed to bolster cancer research by reducing bureaucracy and promoting research collaboration. Critics note that the money described in the bill must be appropriated by separate funding bills and that the money may ultimately never materialize. Yet the changes to the clinical trial process, something long sought by the drug industry, will be set in stone regardless of whether money for the research projects is forthcoming. Among those changes: Greater prominence will be given to “real world” evidence gathered outside the framework of a randomized, controlled clinical trial, the gold standard for determining whether a drug is safe and effective. Such evidence could be much easier for drug companies to collect. “The passing of 21st Century Cures Act is a show of extraordinary bipartisan unity after a divisive election that should be celebrated,” said Ellen Sigal, chair of the patient advocacy group Friends of Cancer Research. Under the Act patient input will be formally incorporated into the FDA’s drug review process. Funding for the Act will be offset by reductions in some Medicaid payments and through the sale of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The White House supports the bill but said earlier it was concerned that draining the Petroleum Reserve “continues a bad precedent of selling off longer term energy security assets to satisfy near term budget scoring needs.” | 1 |
21,923 | Pro-Houthi fighters call powerful Yemen ally 'evil', escalating feud | DUBAI (Reuters) - Fighters loyal to the armed Houthi movement on Wednesday decried as evil the group s main ally in Yemen s civil war, ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, widening an unusual public rift as they fight a Saudi-led coalition for control of the country. The Popular Committees , a body of rank and file pro-Houthi combatants, condemned Saleh s description of them in a speech as a militia, criticizing the former leader who remains one of Yemen s most powerful politicians and military figures. What (Saleh) said transgressed a red line and he could have only fallen into this because he s evil and void of every good, patriotic or religious characteristic, the collection of tribal and volunteer fighters said in a statement. The tactical alliance between Saleh and the Houthis has often appeared fragile, with both groups suspicious of each other s ultimate motives and sharing little ideological ground. While president, Saleh waged six wars against the Houthis from 2002 to 2009 and was for many years an ally of convenience for Saudi Arabia. Big switches of loyalty are a feature of Yemen s byzantine political landscape, particularly since 2011 Arab Spring unrest which led to Saleh s fall in 2012. A war of words has escalated in recent days between the Iran-allied Houthis and Saleh, who together run northern Yemen. The two factions have traded barbs on responsibility for challenges such as unemployment and mounting hunger after 2-1/2 years of fighting the internationally recognized government, based in the south and backed by the Saudi-led coalition. The alliance intervened in the civil war in 2015 to restore the government to power in the capital Sanaa. But the conflict, which has killed at least 10,000 people, is in stalemate. At least 30 people were killed in an air strike that hit a small hotel north of Sanaa on Wednesday, the Houthis said. The Saudi-led coalition has controlled Yemeni air space since the war began. Based in the southern port city of Aden, the government struggles to impose its writ over militias and armed groups there, but strife now looms for its northern foes. In a speech on Sunday, Saleh summoned party supporters to hold a mass rally in Sanaa on Aug. 24, a planned show of force that has deeply irritated the Houthis. Their leadership convened on Wednesday and recommended the announcement of a state of emergency and suspension of all party activity , telling Saleh s supporters any mass gatherings should be made on battlefronts, not in public squares. In comments that may deepen Houthi suspicions, the United Arab Emirates Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, spoke approvingly of the rift, saying it may represent an opportunity to break (Yemen s) political deadlock. | 1 |
21,924 | VAN JONES AND CNN’S DON LEMON ON OBAMA’S “I’m fearless” RACIST SPEECH AT CHARLESTON PASTOR’S FUNERAL: “Once You’re Fearless, Once You Don’t Give A Damn…No One Can Stop You” [VIDEO] | Not a bad imitation of a black pastor from a guy who quit going to church when he entered the White House because according to Reverend Wright, of the Black Liberation Church where Barack and Michelle Obama attended for several years: Church is not their thing. It never was their thing. CNN s Don Lemon: You know, Brooke, um this is quite possibly one of the most powerful and extraordinary moments that I ve witnessed ah on television, especially a speech coming from the President. I ve never really at a loss for words, and I m almost at a loss for words right now. I mean, Van and I couldn t even look at each other.Van Jones (racist and self proclaimed communist): Yeah Because this is what happens in the black church every single morning.DL: Not only that, this is what many people around the country wanted to hear from this president, for a long, long time. It s time to step into your legacy.Van Jones: It really is. This is a different President, this year, I think has transformed him. I think a year ago Ferguson, then Baltimore, now Charleston. I think you re seeing the 3.0 version. When he first came on the scene, he was trying to talk about race, even his book was about race. He was trying DL: But he was getting hit.VJ: He kept getting hit. He became a politician. Yeah..he became the racial pi ata of the blacks saying he wasn t doing enough, the whites saying he was doing too much. Suddenly in this speech he just decides to give over to the cadences.DL: He said it in the podcast man. He said: I am fearless. And you know, once you re fearless, and once you don t give a damn no one can stop you. And I think the President is in that mode now. He knows this is his legacy.Obama was supposed to be delivering a eulogy for Pastor Clementa Pinckney, but instead he chose to turn it into another one of his divisive racist rants. Oh and by the way once the left has removed every trace of the Confederate flag, he s coming after your guns. Then, and only then will his legacy be complete. Molon Labe https://youtu.be/FWVq1WnICqYAnd for anyone who is interested in hearing the most off-key version of Amazing Grace sung by a muslim, you can see it here:https://youtu.be/WmRAxJIa0u8Not bad for a guy who quit going to church when he entered the White House because according to Reverend Wright, of the Black Liberation Church where Barack and Michelle Obama attended for several years: Church is not their thing. It never was their thing. | 0 |
21,925 | Algeria picks up 286 boat migrants en route to Europe | ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algeria s coastguard has picked up 286 illegal migrants heading across the Mediterranean to Europe by boat, the Defence Ministry has said. The migrants were detained on several boats between Thursday and Saturday, according to a ministry statement carried on Sunday by the state news agency, APS. Algeria has so far seen relatively few attempts to cross to Europe by boat, compared to the hundreds of thousands of mostly African would-be migrants who have set off in search of prosperity or security from elsewhere along the north African coast, mostly from Libya. Most illegal crossings from Algeria take place in summer, when sailing conditions are more favorable. Neighboring Tunisia has recently seen a surge in such departures as young unemployed people seek work in Italy. Algeria s economy is also suffering as its vital energy revenues have been hit by a sharp fall in prices. | 1 |
21,926 | As Canada prepares for legal pot, ex-cops get into the business | TORONTO (Reuters) - A former Canadian police chief and several colleagues who fought against making marijuana use legal have switched sides and embraced the looming legalization of cannabis with a leap into business. With Canada s legalization of a multi-billion dollar marijuana industry set for next year, former police officers who once argued for mandatory jail time for minor marijuana offences are among those in line to capitalize on the change. The most high profile is Julian Fantino, a former Toronto police chief and Conservative cabinet minister who fought against the legalization of pot and who said he now sees the value of a legal medical pot industry. For a lot of us, until you get into this thing, all we know is the stigma associated with marijuana. And there is that, of course, but ... it s only a matter of time, before it becomes a recognized, therapeutic, prescribed drug, Fantino said in an interview. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to legalize recreational marijuana use in his 2015 election campaign and new legislation will let adults grow, buy or possess small amounts of marijuana as of July 1, 2018. Under the new law, private or government retailers will be able to sell marijuana and licensed producers will be able to grow it. The Canadian cannabis black market is estimated to be worth between C$7 billion ($5.77 billion) and C$10 billion a year, with rates of youth use among the highest in the world. Analysts expect it will take time for legal trade to push aside unsanctioned competition. Fantino and his partners - a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer, a former fire chief and a former member of parliament - are promoting their company Aleafia, which provides patients with authorizations for medical marijuana, as well as other medical services. Medical marijuana is already legal. Fantino said he would absolutely be pursuing the business even if Canada was not legalizing the lucrative recreational industry. But his change of heart has met with skepticism in some circles. Toronto Star newspaper columnist Royson James wrote the hypocrisy stinks to high heaven. On Twitter, pot activist Jodie Emery called the news infuriating. The Canadian Broadcasting Corp introduced an interview with Fantino by noting he had once compared weed to murder. Fantino said the quote was taken out of context and he did what I could to apply the laws of the land with conscience. Other ex-cops are getting into the business side of marijuana. Former deputy Toronto police chief Kim Derry has been involved in medical marijuana businesses since 2012. Derry is president of Met-Scan Canada, which he said provides security for about half a dozen marijuana growers. He expects that number to grow once recreational production becomes legal. From a background of criminal activity, I certainly know how (grow operations) operated in the past, Derry said. I know all the pieces, through a chain of supply, where there s weaknesses. The government s effort to legalize marijuana is headed up by another former Toronto police chief, Bill Blair, who succeeded Fantino in 2005 before they both turned to politics. Blair said retired police officers have been getting calls for advice on medical marijuana production since related laws came into effect in 2013. I think many are being sought out for their expertise in public service and regulatory law and security around these things, he said, adding he does not think its unseemly for police officers to make money off cannabis. For me, it s entirely consistent with my life s work and I wouldn t comment on anyone else s history or motives. Pot possession remains illegal until July and Canadians continue to be prosecuted for it - 17,733 people in 2016, according to Statistics Canada. Studies have found marginalized communities are disproportionately targeted. The government is developing ways to track each marijuana plant from seed to point of sale and test for quality. It has yet to draft detailed advertising rules or finalize tax levels. | 1 |
21,927 | U.N. warns against any hasty returns of Rohingya to Myanmar | GENEVA (Reuters) - Peace and stability must be restored in Myanmar s northern Rakhine state before any Rohingyas can return from Bangladesh, under international standards on voluntary repatriation, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Friday. Some 20,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar to Bangladesh in November, and at least 270 so far in December, bringing the total since violence erupted on August 25 to 646,000, according to the UNHCR and International Organization of Migration (IOM). The two countries have signed an agreement on voluntary repatriation which refers to establishing a joint working group within three weeks of the Nov. 23 signing. UNHCR is not party to the pact or involved in the bilateral discussions for now. It is critical that the returns are not rushed or premature, UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told a briefing. People can t be moving back in into conditions in Rakhine state that simply aren t sustainable. Htin Lynn, Myanmar s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, said on Tuesday that his government hoped returns would begin within two months. He was addressing the Human Rights Council, where the top U.N. rights official said that Myanmar s security forces may be guilty of genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority. The UNHCR has not been formally invited to join the working group, although its Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees Kelly Clements is holding talks in Bangladesh, Edwards said, adding that discussions were still at a very preliminary stage . He could not say whether UNHCR was in talks with Myanmar authorities on its role, but hoped the agency would be part of the joint working group. Edwards, asked whether the two-month time was premature, said: The return timeline of course is something that we are going to have to look closely at ... We don t want to see returns happening either involuntarily or precipitously and before conditions are ready. In all, Bangladesh is hosting a total of more than 858,000 Rohingya, including previous waves, IOM figures show. We have had ... a cycle of displacement from Rakhine state over many decades, of people being marginalized, of violence, of people fleeing and then people returning, Edwards said. Now this cycle has to be broken, which means that we have to find a way to ensure that there is a lasting solution for these people. WFP spokeswoman Bettina Luescher said that it had distributed food to 32,000 people in northern Rakhine in November. Everybody agrees that the situation is very dire on ground, that all of the U.N. agencies need more access, that the violence has to stop and that these people can live in safety where they want to live, she said. | 1 |
21,928 | Executive actions ready to go as Trump prepares to take office | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump is preparing to sign executive actions on his first day in the White House on Friday to take the opening steps to crack down on immigration, build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border and roll back outgoing President Barack Obama’s policies. Trump, a Republican elected on Nov. 8 to succeed Democrat Obama, arrived in Washington on a military plane with his family a day before he will be sworn in during a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol. Aides said Trump would not wait to wield one of the most powerful tools of his office, the presidential pen, to sign several executive actions that can be implemented without the input of Congress. “He is committed to not just Day 1, but Day 2, Day 3 of enacting an agenda of real change, and I think that you’re going to see that in the days and weeks to come,” Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said on Thursday, telling reporters to expect activity on Friday, during the weekend and early next week. MORE FROM REUTERS * Trumponomics may be wrong medicine for U.S. economy today * Graphic: The presidential touch on markets * Politics Live: Latest on Trump's inauguration Trump plans on Saturday to visit the headquarters of the CIA in Langley, Virginia. He has harshly criticized the agency and its outgoing chief, first questioning the CIA’s conclusion that Russia was involved in cyber hacking during the U.S. election campaign, before later accepting the verdict. Trump also likened U.S. intelligence agencies to Nazi Germany. Trump’s advisers vetted more than 200 potential executive orders for him to consider signing on healthcare, climate policy, immigration, energy and numerous other issues, but it was not clear how many orders he would initially approve, according to a member of the Trump transition team who was not authorized to talk to the press. Signing off on orders puts Trump, who has presided over a sprawling business empire but has never before held public office, in a familiar place similar to the CEO role that made him famous, and will give him some early victories before he has to turn to the lumbering process of getting Congress to pass bills. The strategy has been used by other presidents, including Obama, in their first few weeks in office. “He wants to show he will take action and not be stifled by Washington gridlock,” said Princeton University presidential historian Julian Zelizer. Trump is expected to impose a federal hiring freeze and take steps to delay a Labor Department rule due to take effect in April that would require brokers who give retirement advice to put their clients’ best interests first. He also will give official notice he plans to withdraw from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, Spicer said. “I think you will see those happen very shortly,” Spicer said. Obama, ending eight years as president, made frequent use of his executive powers during his second term in office, when the Republican-controlled Congress stymied his efforts to overhaul immigration and environmental laws. Many of those actions are now ripe targets for Trump to reverse. Trump is expected to sign an executive order in his first few days to direct the building of a wall on the southern border with Mexico, and actions to limit the entry of asylum seekers from Latin America, among several immigration-related steps his advisers have recommended. That includes rescinding Obama’s order that allowed more than 700,000 people brought into the United States illegally as children to stay in the country on a two-year authorization to work and attend college, according to several people close to the presidential transition team. It is unlikely Trump’s order will result in an immediate roundup of these immigrants, sources told Reuters. Rather, he is expected to let the authorizations expire. The issue could set up a confrontation with Obama, who told reporters on Wednesday he would weigh in if he felt the new administration was unfairly targeting those immigrants. Advisers to Trump expect him to put restrictions on people entering the United States from certain countries until a system for “extreme vetting” for Islamist extremists can be set up. During his presidential campaign, Trump proposed banning non-American Muslims from entering the United States, but his executive order regarding immigration is expected to be based on nationality rather than religion. Another proposed executive order would require all Cabinet departments to disclose and pause current work being done in connection with Obama’s initiatives to curb carbon emissions to combat climate change. Trump also is expected to extend prohibitions on future lobbying imposed on members of his transition team. Washington was turned into a virtual fortress ahead of the inauguration, with police ready to step in to separate protesters from Trump supporters at any sign of unrest. As Obama packed up to leave the White House, Trump and his family laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery and attended a concert at the Lincoln Memorial. Trump spoke earlier to lawmakers and Cabinet nominees at a luncheon in a ballroom at his hotel, down the street from the White House, announcing during brief remarks that he would pick Woody Johnson, owner of the New York Jets of the National Football League, as U.S. ambassador to Britain. “We have a lot of smart people. I tell you what, one thing we’ve learned, we have by far the highest IQ of any Cabinet ever assembled,” Trump said. Trump has selected all 21 members of his Cabinet, along with six other key positions requiring Senate confirmation. The Senate is expected on Friday to vote to confirm retired General James Mattis, Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, and retired General John Kelly, his homeland security choice. Senate Republicans had hoped to confirm as many as seven Cabinet members on Friday, but Democrats balked at the pace. Trump spokesman Spicer accused Senate Democrats of “stalling tactics.” Also in place for Monday will be 536 “beachhead team members” at government agencies, Vice President-elect Mike Pence said, a small portion of the thousands of positions Obama’s appointees will vacate. Trump has asked 50 Obama staffers in critical posts to stay on until replacements can be found, including Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work and Brett McGurk, envoy to the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State. The list includes Adam Szubin, who has long served in an “acting” capacity in the Treasury Department’s top anti-terrorism job because his nomination has been held up by congressional Republicans since Obama named him to the job in April 2015. The Supreme Court said U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts, who will administer the oath of office on Friday, met with Trump on Thursday to discuss inauguration arrangements. | 1 |
21,929 | Paul Ryan says confident tax reform will pass in 2017: Axios | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans will be able to push through tax reform by the end of this year even as they continue to debate whether or not a final plan will include a border adjustment tax, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said an interview with Axios news outlet on Wednesday. Asked if he could envision a scenario where tax reform passes the House of Representative without including a border adjustment tax, Ryan said yes but added that internal negotiations are still ongoing. | 1 |
21,930 | California Democrats To Raise Minimum Wage In State To $15 An Hour | California Democrats are taking a page from Oregon s book and appear set to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour despite gloom and doom predictions from Republicans.Lawmakers are prepared to vote for a gradual increase of wages that would not only give workers $15 an hour by 2022, it would also tie future wage raises to inflation, which has been a longtime goal of progressives such as Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.According to the Los Angeles Times: The negotiated deal would boost California s statewide minimum wage from $10 an hour to $10.50 on Jan. 1, 2017, with a 50-cent increase in 2018 and then $1-per-year increases through 2022. Businesses with fewer than 25 employees would have an extra year to comply, delaying their workers receiving a $15 hourly wage until 2023. Governor Jerry Brown and his Democratic allies compromised with labor unions on the raise after unions successfully got wage initiatives on the November ballot that would have increase the wage from $10 an hour to $15 an hour immediately rather than over a period of time.The new deal would give businesses and the government time to prepare for wage increases instead of having to deal with them all at once.But the bottom line is that California is about to join Oregon as the second blue state to step up to lead the nation on the minimum wage and treating workers well.Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed her state s minimum wage bill into law earlier this month, drawing praise from labor unions and President Obama, who called the effort one that will boost the paychecks of hardworking Americans and help support millions of workers trying to make ends meet and urged Congress to do the same.But Republicans refuse to do anything that will help American workers at a time when wealthy CEOs are raking in profits at record numbers while their hardworking employees struggle to survive on a daily basis. Many Republican-controlled state legislatures have even passed laws banning cities and counties from raising the local minimum wage on their own, which makes it incredibly clear that Republicans don t care about the the strife of workers and their families while Democrats are consistently proving that they are committed to helping Americans do more than just get by. Featured image via Wikimedia | 0 |
21,931 | CHAOS AND MOB RULE at Charlottesville City Council Meeting: “That’s not the rules!” [Video] | This is mob rule AGAIN! The best part of this video is when Mayor Mike Signer says that s not the rules He must not have been watching the news lately. The rules don t apply to these kooks.This is like a bunch of toddlers who are warned over and over to stop misbehaving. Is this what America wants? We hope people on all sides see how horrible this is!It s hard to feel sorry for the mayor and city council when they supported this mayhem. The real culprit in all this is their governor. Perhaps they should go visit him to ask questions about what he did to turn the rally/ protest into a violent riot.OUR LATEST ON THE VIRGINIA GOVERNOR: Why did the Democrat VA Governor throw gasoline on the fire after violent protests broke out in Charlottesville? Why did the radical Democrat governor of Virginia LIE about weapons being stashed around the city of Charlottesville prior to the march? Was he just doing his part as a prominent member of the Democrat Party to help create more racial division in America? Why did he lie about Virginia police officers being underprepared for the violence and chaos that took place, when police officers claim they were completely prepared? Was he trying to shine a negative light on the police force assigned to Charlottesville, as part of the Democrat Party s ongoing plan to undermine the credibility of our law enforcement?Last week, Virginia police officers were speaking out, and setting the record straight. They were not about to remain silent while their governor made up stories to boost his party s race dividing, cop-hating narrative.Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas is not just sitting around and wondering how the Clinton bestie was able to get away with lying about what happened in Charlottesville, while the media ignored Governor McAuliffe s part in inciting violence.Sunday on Fox News Channel s Fox & Friends Weekend, Gohmert called for a Department of Justice investigation of Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D-VA) and Charlottesville, VA Mayor Michael Signer for possibly facilitating the violence that took place in Charlottesville earlier this month.Gohmert said, The way forward s not gonna be easy. And I think the Justice Department needs a full investigation of the governor, of the mayor. They said in court there would be violence at Charlottesville, and then the witnesses and the photographs show they herded these groups to create violence so they could brag. We need a Justice Department investigation into Kessler. You don t just go all of a sudden from having multiracial roommates and a Jewish girlfriend to all of a sudden being a white supremacist that wants to join the Republican party. There s something very, very wrong in all of this. He added, Like they were the violence at Trump events, they may have been behind this violence getting started. They facilitated it, anyway. -Breitbart | 0 |
21,932 | 'Safer than London!' North Korea opens door to Russian tourists | MOSCOW (Reuters) - North Korea has opened its doors to Russian tourists, issuing a license for the first travel agency in Moscow to promise clients full immersion in the nation s culture and enjoyment safer than an evening walk in London . NKOREAN.RU, a Russian company licensed by North Korea s government, offers organized tours for groups of up to 10 people or individuals to show the travelers the multi-faceted life of this most closed of countries . Guests to North Korea must necessarily be checked before their trip and will always be accompanied by a guide who will monitor the adequate behavior of the tourist and guarantee his safety. Pictures of strategic and military facilities are banned and long talks with locals are not recommended . North Korea has conducted two nuclear tests and dozens of missile tests since the beginning of last year, significantly raising tension on the heavily militarized Korean peninsula and in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. Two tests of inter-continental ballistic missiles in July triggered a new round of tougher global sanctions. Faced with economic problems made harder by multiple sanctions, the Pyongyang government is keen to develop tourism to earn cash. The most pricey tour, 15 days full immersion in the culture of North Korea costing 118,090 rubles ($1,997), includes visits to a farm, a mineral water factory, a Buddhist temple, walks in the mountains and an introduction to national cuisine. Visits to numerous museums to founding leader Kim Il-Sung are also on offer. Other less demanding tours include relaxation on a beach, an aviation show and even a beer festival. It is unclear how popular these trips will be among Russians who have already developed a fondness for visiting Europe and the affordable resorts of Turkey and Thailand. | 1 |
21,933 | South African opposition walks out of parliament during Zuma questions | CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa s main opposition party walked out of parliament on Thursday, saying President Jacob Zuma was refusing to answer questions on how much the state had spent on legal fees fighting corruption allegations against him. The walkout was led by Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane who asked how much had been spent since 1 May 2009 to defend 783 corruption charges against Zuma that were dropped by the National Prosecuting Authority. The charges were reinstated by the High Court last year. Zuma lost an appeal to have the charges dropped and is still trying to prevent the NPA from filing the charges. | 1 |
21,934 | Trump Just Threw The WORST Insult YET Out To The White House Press Corps | Donald Trump hates the press, unless the press is the far-right wing rags that kiss his ass nonstop, and report only what he likes. On Friday, Sean Spicer held a press gaggle in his office and included some of those rags, while excluding established media outlets with long histories in the White House. The AP and TIME Magazine boycotted the gaggle in solidarity with The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, CNN and Politico.CNN and The New York Times hit back pretty hard, and the White House Correspondents Association likewise hit back. Now, with the White House Correspondents dinner coming up in a couple of months, Trump is yet again insulting the press. He just announced on Twitter he s not going to attend the dinner this year.I will not be attending the White House Correspondents Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 25, 2017The president generally attends the dinner and gets up onstage to poke fun at himself and everyone in existence, and it s generally hilarious. Trump, however, is at war with the press as evidenced not just by Spicer s treatment of certain media outlets, but also by his own speech at CPAC, where he railed against the fake news media.He does it all the time on Twitter, too, and some press outlets are getting tired of it.As far as the dinner, CNN and MSNBC have indicated that they might not attend this year. Vanity Fair and The New Yorker have both announced they won t be there. A list of attendees hasn t been published yet, but we can probably expect more outlets to refuse to attend even if Trump isn t going to be there.Featured image by Olivier Douliery via Getty Images | 0 |
21,935 | Second court rejects Trump bid to stop transgender military recruits | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal appeals court in Washington on Friday rejected a bid by President Donald Trump’s administration to prevent the U.S. military from accepting transgender recruits starting Jan. 1, the second court to issue such a ruling this week. Four federal judges around the country have issued injunctions blocking Trump’s ban on transgender people from the military, including one that was also handed down on Friday. The administration has appealed the previous three rulings. In a six-page order, the three-judge-panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the administration had “not shown a strong likelihood that they will succeed on the merits of their challenge” to a district court’s order blocking the ban. On Thursday the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it was denying the administration’s request while the appeal proceeds. The two courts’ actions could prompt the administration to ask the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. Also on Friday, a federal trial court in Riverside, California, blocked the ban while the case proceeds, making it the fourth to do so, after similar rulings in Baltimore, Seattle and Washington, D.C. U.S. District Judge Jesus Bernal said without the injunction the plaintiffs, including current and aspiring service members, would suffer irreparable harm. “There is nothing any court can do to remedy a government-sent message that some citizens are not worthy of the military uniform simply because of their gender,” he added. The administration had argued that the Jan. 1 deadline for accepting transgender recruits was problematic because tens of thousands of personnel would have to be trained on the medical standards needed to process transgender applicants, and the military was not ready for that. The Obama administration had set a deadline of July 1, 2017, to begin accepting transgender recruits, but Trump’s defense secretary, James Mattis, postponed that date to Jan. 1. In an August memorandum, Trump gave the military until March 2018 to revert to a policy prohibiting openly transgender individuals from joining the military and authorizing their discharge. The memo also halted the use of government funds for sex-reassignment surgery for active-duty personnel. | 1 |
21,936 | Amid election jitters, many big funds stay aggressive but cash tempts | BOSTON/LONDON (Reuters) - Stocks are listing, bonds are drifting and suddenly gold is back in vogue. Global investors appear to be facing the prospect that next week’s U.S. presidential election may not play out as they have been expecting. Until last Friday, when the FBI said it had re-opened a probe of Democrat Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, the prevailing view among the investment set had her coasting to victory. And most investors have said in surveys they were more comfortable with that outcome than a victory by Republican Donald Trump. Now, though, several polls depict an ever-tightening race as the clock counts down to Election Day on Tuesday, although the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Clinton still with a 6-point lead. Investors generally see Clinton as a known quantity who would not make major changes that would upend financial markets, while Trump’s positions have been difficult to nail down. Yet against the tumultuous political backdrop, some of the biggest American stock funds remain either too sanguine, too confused or too focused on extending the bull market to guard against an Election Day result that could shock the world like the Brexit vote did in June. U.S. large-cap mutual funds, which oversee $4 trillion in assets, are heading into the showdown for the White House with only a thin layer of cash to absorb any potential shocks from the stock market. Gerry Sullivan, who runs USA Mutuals’ $234 million Barrier Fund, said it would be hard to reposition his portfolio even if he knew the election results ahead of time. “There is so much confusion,” Sullivan said. U.S. funds that invest in stocks with large market capitalizations are not showing any drastic moves toward precaution. Overall, they have only 3.1 percent of their assets dedicated to cash, according to the latest data from Morningstar Inc. These same funds held more cash, about 3.4 percent, before Barack Obama defeated John McCain in 2008. Multi-asset investors are more defensively positioned, especially those outside the United States, according to the latest Reuters asset allocation poll. Funds in Europe held 8.1 percent of their portfolios in cash in late October, while U.K.-based funds had some 9.6 percent of their holdings parked on the sidelines. “Investors are holding higher-than-normal levels of cash,” said Mark Haefele, global chief investment officer for UBS Wealth Management in London, who oversees around $2 trillion in assets. “That’s one way of hedging the uncertainty.” Nonetheless, Haefele said: “We’ve not seen significant de-risking around the election, but we have seen generally a consistent level of caution in the global client base.” With uncertainty about the outcome on the rise, a risk-off mood has enveloped markets around the world. The S&P 500 index has declined for eight days in a row, its longest losing streak since the market crash in October 2008, while a benchmark for global stocks, the MSCI All-World Index, has dropped for seven of the last eight sessions. Both sit near four-month lows. Safe-haven bonds, recently under pressure from expectations the U.S. Federal Reserve is on track to raise interest rates this year, have seen only a modest boost in the meantime, but gold has surged to a one-month high near $1,300 an ounce. “The trades you’re seeing in the market at the moment will go further in the event of a Trump victory,” said Mike Bell, global market strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management in London. “You’d expect more downside to U.S. equities, the dollar and Treasury yields.” More than half of the stock and bond fund managers polled by Northern Trust in the third quarter said they expected the election to cause a large increase in market volatility. Prices for certain S&P 500 index options expiring in the days after the election indicate a market swing of between 2 and 4 percent, in either direction, by then. Still, portfolio managers sitting on a lot of cash, some with more than 20 percent of assets, say the stockpile is not a sign of worry about the outcome of the race. “It’s due to the diminished risk-reward profile of investment opportunities in a mature profit cycle,” said Meggan Walsh, a portfolio manager at the $18 billion Invesco Diversified Dividend Fund. “We do not feel the election is an investable event.” Some value-oriented large-cap fund managers say the stock market is over-valued and they are on high alert for a market correction as the election coincides with a bull market nearing completion of its eighth year. “It can be tempting to forget that nasty downturns happen with some regularity, and there is never a bell rung to announce their arrival,” portfolio managers Arik Ahitov and Dennis Bryant recently warned investors in the $800 million FPA Capital Fund. After Britain surprised the world with a vote to leave the European Union, the S&P 500 Index tumbled nearly 4 percent on June 24. It soon recovered, however, and had regained record territory by mid-August. Even in Britain, the referendum’s unexpected outcome has yet to show it has long-lasting effects for investors outside of the currency market, where the British pound has sunk to a three-decade low against the dollar. London’s FTSE 100 index is up around 14-percent from its post-Brexit trough. The FPA Capital Fund managers had nearly 28 percent of the fund’s $800 million in assets in cash during the third quarter. They see the stock market as too expensive and are ready for a high level of panic, if that happens, according to their October letter to investors. “An elevated level of forced selling, combined with a lack of liquidity, might result in challenges for many fully invested products such as index funds, many ETFs, and funds that have no to very low levels of cash cushions,” the FPA Capital Fund portfolio managers said. “In a down market, cash helps mitigate losses and affords one the opportunity to buy when others are being forced to sell, generally the best time to buy.” | 1 |
21,937 | ‘It’s Bullcrap:’ GOP Rep Claims Taxpayers Don’t Pay His Salary (VIDEO) | Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) held a town hall earlier this week and it did not go well for him. The Republican congressman told his constituents that taxpayers don t pay his salary and saying otherwise is bullcrap. You say you pay for me to do this? That s bullcrap, video shows Mullin saying. I pay for myself. I paid enough taxes before I got here and continue to through my company to pay my own salary. This is a service. No one here pays me to go, he added.Go figure, no one was impressed with his remarks. When his constituents pushed back, Mullin tried to spin his comments, saying, this is a service for me, not a career, and I thank God this is not how I make my living. Amy Lawrence, Mullin s spokeswoman, told the press that he was just trying to say that he doesn t want to be a career politician, that s all. The congressman reiterates in the video that his work as the representative of the Second District of Oklahoma is a service, Lawrence said. His aspiration is to be a career legislator and not a career politician. He is not, nor does he ever aspire to be, a career politician. His priority will always be to serve his constituents to the best of his ability. Mullins owns Mullin Plumbing, a lucrative company with multiple smaller subsidiaries. But comprehending exactly how this negates the salary he earns as a congressman requires a special type of mental gymnastics. For the record, base pay for a U. S. congressman is $174,000.The good news for Mullin is that after telling his constituents that they don t pay his salary, he probably won t have to worry about the possibility of becoming a career politician.You can watch Mullin sabotage his career below: Featured image via Wikipedia | 0 |
21,938 | Trump Is Literally Sabotaging The Case Against The NYC Terrorist By Not Keeping His Mouth Shut | If Donald Trump keeps tweeting about the NYC terrorist like this he will prevent justice from being served.Earlier this week, a terrorist killed eight people using a vehicle. Police captured him alive. So now we not only can get information that could be vital, we can try him in a court of law and get justice for the victims and their families.But justice won t happen if a fair trial cannot be had.And that s why Trump needs to stop tweeting about it right now.On Wednesday night, Trump seriously damaged the suspect s ability to get a fair trial by calling for him to receive the death penalty.NYC terrorist was happy as he asked to hang ISIS flag in his hospital room. He killed 8 people, badly injured 12. SHOULD GET DEATH PENALTY! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 2, 2017Trump opened his big mouth again on Thursday morning, spouting about how he wants to send the suspect to Guantanamo Bay prison. However, such a move is illegal because the suspect holds a green cardWould love to send the NYC terrorist to Guantanamo but statistically that process takes much longer than going through the Federal system Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 2, 2017 There is also something appropriate about keeping him in the home of the horrible crime he committed. Should move fast. DEATH PENALTY! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 2, 2017Also, there are no such statistics that Trump is referring to. So not only is he making it impossible for the suspect to receive a fair trail, he is demonstrating his complete ignorance of the justice system.Featured Image: Alex Wong/Getty Images | 0 |
21,939 | WATCH: Trump Assumes Black Reporter Can Set Up A Meeting With Black Lawmakers For Him | After claiming that he s the least racist person, Donald trump literally assumed a black reporter could set up a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus for him.Seriously, that actually happened during Trump s first solo press conference on Thursday.After talking about our inner cities like they are apocalyptic crime-infested war zones, American Urban Radio Networks reporter April Ryan asked Trump if he will work with the Congressional Black Caucus. Trump s response was to assume that because Ryan is black she ll know the CBC members. He then told her to set up a meeting with them as if she is his servant. And then he accused Rep. Elijah Cummings of refusing to meet with him.Ryan: When you say inner cities, are you gonna include the CBC, Mr. President, in the conversations with your urban agenda, your inner city agenda, as well as Trump: Am I gonna am I gonna include who?Ryan: Are you gonna include the Congressional Black Caucus and Trump: Well, I would. I tell you what, you want to set up the meeting? Do you want to set up the meeting?Ryan: No, no, no I m just a reporter.Trump: Are they friends of yours?Ryan: I know some of them Trump: No, go ahead, set up the meeting. Let s go. Set up a meeting, I would love to meet with the black caucus. I think it s great, the Congressional Black Caucus, I think it s great. I actually thought I had a meeting with Congressman Cummings, and he was all excited, and then he said, oh, I can t move. It might be bad for me politically. I can t have that meeting. I was all set to have that meeting. You know we called him and called him. And he was all set. I spoke to him on the phone, a nice guy.Ryan: I hear he wanted that meeting with you as well.Trump: He wanted it. But we called called called called. I can t make a meeting with him. Every day, I walk in, I said, I would like to meet with him, because I do want to solve the problem. But he probably was told by Schumer or somebody like that, some other lightweight.He was probably told he was probably told, don t meet with Trump. It s bad politics. That s part of the problem in this country. Okay. One more.Here s the video via The Washington Post.The fact is, however, that the Congressional Black Caucus has already tried to set up a meeting with Trump but he ignored the letter they sent him.Hi, @realDonaldTrump. We re the CBC. We sent you a letter on January 19, but you never wrote us back. Sad! Letter: https://t.co/58KiuHmITF The CBC (@OfficialCBC) February 16, 2017And one Twitter user suggested a reason why Trump didn t respond.@OfficialCBC @realDonaldTrump too many words, too few maps. megan larson (@meganjlarson) February 16, 2017Or, Trump is just a racist and doesn t want to be seen meeting with black people in the White House.Featured image via screenshot | 0 |
21,940 | Alex Jones Threatens Wolf Blitzer With Gunfire Ahead Of Megyn Kelly Interview (VIDEO) | Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly s interview with Trump supporter, conspiracy theorist, fake news purveyor, and general asshole Alex Jones is set to air soon but that doesn t mean that Jones intends to be his usual terrible self no matter how many advertisers run screaming from Kelly s show.On Wednesday Jones, who lost custody of his children over his insane rants and violent attitude, set his sights on CNN s Wolf Blitzer on Thursday:Wolf Blitzer has a guest on: So, this man wasn t a monster, he was just tired of things. Wolf Blitzer: Ok, thanks for your view. Hmm, very interesting. What happens, Wolf Blitzer, when somebody pumps rounds into your little pumpkin head and says, It s just political ? Hah. You people. You guys better have some helicopter jump jets and be ready to get out of here real quick if the actual civil war kicks off, Jones added before attempting to claim that he was somehow innocent in his call for violence against Blitzer: I mean, I m not the one that s calling for violence; you re going to get wrecked bad. There are a lot of people like Santa Claus been making a list, been checking it twice about who s been naughty and nice. And you kick off Civil War 2, baby, you ll think Lexington and Concord was a cake walk. Despite Jones attempt to sic his disgusting fans on Blitzer, NBC still plans to allow his interview to air.Watch Jones outburst below: Featured image via screengrab | 0 |
21,941 | Foreclosure crisis snarls Clinton, Sanders' efforts to reach Nevada voters | (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopefuls Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are flooding Nevada with volunteers ahead of this week’s key nominating contest but they face a problem - the addresses, phone numbers and other personal data they need to reach many voters are out of date. Nevada, which is more than a quarter Latino, was one of the states worst affected by the 2008 financial meltdown, with hundreds of thousands of families unable to pay their mortgages and forced to move in a crisis that by some estimates hit minorities twice as hard as whites. With the foreclosed homes often switching hands multiple times - from homeowner to bank to investor and back to another homeowner in just a few years - keeping up with voters who at some point lived in those homes is difficult. (For a graphic, click here: tmsnrt.rs/20OgmO4 ) The Nevada Democratic caucus on Feb. 20 has emerged as an unusually important test of Sanders’ and Clinton’s political strength. Clinton is under pressure to keep her wide lead among Latinos, while Sanders must erode it to show he has a path to the nomination that does not rely mainly on the young white voters who make up the core of his support base. “This ongoing (foreclosure) crisis makes reaching potential voters more difficult,” Sanders’ campaign said in a statement emailed to Reuters. The Clinton campaign said the voter lists supplied by the Democratic Party needed “significantly” more work to update, forcing them to spend valuable canvassing time building up their own private data. Las Vegas, Nevada’s biggest city, has seen some of the country’s highest foreclosure rates since 2008, hitting No. 1 among more than 200 U.S. metro areas from 2009 to 2011, according to RealtyTrac, a provider of real estate data and analytics. Even now, the city and its surrounding area rank No. 17. Data that might have been corrected in the 2012 general election has, in many cases, already fallen out of date again because the Nevada housing market has continued to see wave after wave of foreclosures, the campaigns said. The Democratic party’s voter file is based primarily on voter registration records across the country. But the time between when a person moves and when their voter registration file gets updated can vary because different states and counties have different rules about how to handle those changes, which are not automatic. “Not just our modeling and turnout operation but our recruitment operation is based on having very clean data,” said Jorge Neri, Clinton’s Nevada organizing director. Underscoring the problem, about a fifth of the 1 million voters registered in Clark County, where Las Vegas is located, are tagged as inactive, according to Joseph Gloria, the county’s registrar of voters - meaning their mail has been returned to the county elections office as undeliverable. Latinos make up almost 32 percent of Las Vegas. Personal information on voters forms the lifeblood of modern election campaigns. It can be used for just about every aspect of a ground operation - from building the so-called turf packets that volunteers scoop up to go knock on doors, to guiding the thousands of phone calls made by volunteers. Campaign strategy is often based on the voter file, which can tell a campaign everything from where they need to turn up more supporters to what areas they can consider strongholds – or weak points. Clinton staffers first arrived in Nevada last April, campaign officials said, targeting the state early because it has the third nominating contest in the presidential race for the Democrats. But because so much of the file was out of date, the Clinton campaign had to work harder just to find voters and make sure their information was correct. Door knocking, for example, was often much more time consuming: People listed at certain addresses might have moved, requiring volunteers to engage with new residents from scratch and, perhaps, find out where the previous occupants had gone. That brand-new information, in turn, created more work as volunteers were forced to spend time inputting the new information into the campaign’s own database. The problem complicated normal operations, Neri said. “Had we had cleaner lists, had we had not such a transient population, we would be focused more on the volunteer recruitment,” he said. The Sanders campaign is also knocking on doors and phone banking, said Joan Kato, the state director. But, she added, the campaign was using community outreach efforts too, such as house parties and speaking to student groups, to gather data from attendees. Kato did not say how much extra work the voter file problem had created for the campaign. Latinos make up about 27 percent of Nevada’s population and they lean heavily Democrat, meaning they are a prize voter bloc for Clinton and Sanders. There hasn’t been enough polling in Nevada recently to show who is ahead among Latinos. But nationally Clinton has the advantage: Among Latinos who describe themselves as Democrats, 54 percent support Clinton and 37 percent back Sanders, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling from Oct. 1 to Feb. 12. Latino Decisions, a polling and research firm, said Latinos are expected to form up to 20 percent of the voters in Nevada this year up from 8.4 percent in 2012, as tallied by Pew Research Center. The importance of a good voter file can’t be underestimated, according to Ethan Roeder, who was President Barack Obama’s data director in the 2008 and 2012 elections. “You can run a campaign without a voter file. You just can’t run a successful campaign,” he said. (Additional reporting by Chris Kahn, editing by Richard Valdmanis and Ross Colvin) SAP is the sponsor of this content. It was independently created by Reuters’ editorial staff and funded in part by SAP, which otherwise has no role in this coverage. | 1 |
21,942 | Is This Dem Senator Switching Parties? Calls Out NFL Owners In Player Protest: ‘Right thing to do’ [Video] | Rumors continue to swirl around West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin who told voters during a Facebook live Q & A that he thinks NFL owners should step in and tell players protesting during the national anthem they won t tolerate it. The Democrat Senator has been brushing off talk that he s switching parties to become a Republican. He often agrees with the Republican party and has recently commented that he doesn t give a sh*t if he s reelected. Manchin came down on the side of the president in the NFL controversy and had some heartfelt comments about why he stands for our anthem. He called on the NFL owners to address the disrespect in kneeling during the anthem:SENATOR JOE MANCHIN: This is something the owners have to address. The owners of these football teams, that have these contracts with these players and the conditions these players are going to be playing under, has to step in here and say, I m not going to tolerate it. The only thing that you and I can do right now is turn off the TV if you don t want to watch, don t go to the game if that s a team you don t respect for whatever reason. I think everyone should stand and show respect for the flag that represents the greatest nation on earth that s shed more blood and lost more lives for the cause of freedom that you and I enjoy. HEARTFELT COMMENTS ON THE RIGHT THING TO DO Senator Manchin spoke about why he believes this is the right thing to do : When I was a young person it was just taught to me that was the right thing to do. When I got older and I realized all the sacrifices that were made for me people that went to war, people that didn t return when I realized all of that, I said that s my patriotic duty that I can say thank you for the flag that represents the greatest country on earth. Well said! | 0 |
21,943 | Young migrants face more dangers after reaching Italy | ROME (Reuters) - Mamadu Bassir sits eating a breakfast of warm milk and cookies in a migrants shelter in Rome - one of nearly 65,000 lone youngsters who have survived the perilous sea journey from North Africa to Italy in the past four years. His meal finished, the gangly 17-year-old tells the story of his trip from Guinea, via a Libyan prison where a guard knocked out three of his teeth with a club, to his crossing of the Mediterranean, where he watched a friend drown in front of him. Both fell into the water as migrants scrabbled out of their deflating rubber boat to reach rescuers. Bassir could not swim but someone threw him a life-jacket just in time. I fell in the sea, but Italians saved me, he says. Then he puts his head on the table and starts to cry. For many of his fellow young migrants, the dangers do not stop when they reach dry land. Four months ago, Italy passed a law aimed at protecting child immigrants, even those who do not qualify as refugees, providing them with housing, food, healthcare and an education. But without adult guidance and under pressure to send money home, campaigners say thousands end up back in the hands of smugglers or exploited to work long hours for little pay. Many want to reach relatives in other European countries, but increased border security in France, Switzerland and Austria often means they have to pay high fees to be smuggled north. They (the minors) are the most vulnerable elements of this big phenomenon called migration, said Kostas Moschochoritis, head of humanitarian group Intersos, which operates the shelter for unaccompanied minors in Rome where Bassir, who has nowhere to go, has been sleeping. It has hosted 4,000 unaccompanied minors since 2011, and just opened a new shelter with more beds on the outskirts of the capital. More than 5,000 minors have left the communities where they had been living this year, said Raffaela Milano, a director at Save the Children in Italy. Of these, it s inevitable that some are exploited. We have the stereotype in Europe that they are adults because they have been through so much. It s not true. They are still kids, Milano said. Syed Hasnain, a 28-year-old Afghan, arrived in Italy a decade ago. His mother sent him away when he was 10 years old to keep the Taliban from taking him to fight. Now he helps youngsters like Bassir. The fundamental thing that they want to do when they arrive in Italy is to get a job, Hasnain said. Italians cannot give him jobs because the teenagers, mostly boys, do not yet speak Italian, so he goes to the people from his country... they know that he needs money because his family puts pressure on him to send money home, Hasnain said. The majority of them, they say, I miss my family, my country, my culture, my society, but the main thing that I miss is my mum, he said. For now, Bassir is making his way with the help of charities like Intersos. He is taking Italian classes, and has an immigration lawyer helping get the documents he needs to either work legally or to go to school. He longs to see his mother in Guinea, but is determined to stay where he is. If I stay in Europe, I ll have more of a future, he says. | 1 |
21,944 | Clinton says Trump presidency would be 'disastrous' for U.S. economy | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday that if Republican rival Donald Trump wins the White House, it will be a disaster for the U.S. economy, predicting a “Trump recession.” “Now I don’t say this because of typical political disagreements - liberals and conservatives say Trump’s ideas would be disastrous,” Clinton said. “Economists on the right, the left and the center all agree Trump would throw us back into recession.” Clinton’s speech in Columbus, Ohio, a state that will be a battleground in the Nov. 8 election, was the second in which she has argued the wealthy businessman is “temperamentally unfit” to lead the country. The first was on foreign relations and national security. “Donald Trump has said he is qualified to be president because of his business record,” Clinton said. “So let’s take a look at what he did for his businesses: He’s written a lot of books about business. They all seem to end at Chapter 11; go figure,” Clinton said, in a jab referring to Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Clinton then said Trump, a self-described “king of debt,” had allowed businesses to amass huge debts and declare bankruptcy, leaving hundreds of people without jobs and wiping out shareholders. Allowing the United States to accrue similar debt would rattle investors and could lead to economic catastrophe, she added. On Twitter during Clinton’s speech, Trump said, “I am ‘the king of debt.’ That has been great for me as a businessman, but is bad for the country. I made a fortune off of debt, will fix U.S.” Clinton also said the likely Republican nominee’s tax plan - which aims to simplify the tax code, along with slashing the top corporate tax rate to 15 percent from 35 percent - would benefit the wealthy over working families. The nonpartisan Tax Foundation estimated the plan would increase the federal deficit by $9.5 trillion over the next decade. The former secretary of state also said Trump’s plan to scrap trade deals could start “trade wars” and that the agreements should instead be renegotiated if they do not benefit American workers. Clinton said Trump’s plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and deport undocumented immigrants would shake the workforce and prove disastrous for the U.S. economy, creating a “Trump recession.” The tussle over the economy came as the two continued preparing for what is expected to be a fierce campaign. Trump was slated to give a speech criticizing Clinton in New York on Wednesday. As the presumptive Democratic nominee spoke on Tuesday, Trump’s campaign tested what appeared to be a more active rapid-response operation, sending emails saying Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, had backed bad trade deals and that her immigration plan would lower wages. | 1 |
21,945 | U.S. has lost trust in South Sudan, Trump envoy tells president | JUBA (Reuters) - The United States has lost trust in South Sudan’s government for fueling the country’s civil war and it must bring peace or risk losing support from Washington, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the nation’s President Salva Kiir. Haley was the first senior member of President Donald Trump’s administration to visit South Sudan, which spiraled into civil war in 2013, just two years after gaining independence from Sudan. She met one on one with Kiir for some 45 minutes. “I let him know that the United States was at a crossroads and that every decision going forward was going to be based on his actions,” Haley told reporters after the meeting in the capital Juba. The United Nations has warned that the violence in South Sudan, which has forced some 4 million people to flee their homes, was providing “fertile ground” for a genocide. Kiir’s government has denied U.N. allegations of ethnic cleansing. Haley had to cut short a visit to a camp for South Sudanese displaced by the violence amid rowdy anti-Kiir protests. “He understood that Americans were disappointed in his leadership in South Sudan, I made that very clear. And he understood that all the aid or help that he hopes will go forward is not a given,” she said. Haley did not elaborate on what further action Washington could take, but said that Kiir “got what I was trying to say.” On Monday she said Washington was considering how to pressure Kiir into peace, though noted that withdrawing aid may not work. The Trump administration last month imposed sanctions on two senior South Sudanese officials and the former army chief. “We have lost trust in the government and we now need to regain that trust and the only way to regain that trust is through the actions of taking care of all of the people,” Haley told South Sudan’s Eye Radio. She demanded that Kiir allow full and consistent humanitarian aid access and bring peace and stability to the country. She said she pushed a timeline for Kiir to act, but declined to elaborate. Nhial Deng Nihal, a senior adviser to Kiir, said the president told Haley his government and a U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan had established “mechanisms that work jointly to improve and address the humanitarian problems.” He also told reporters that Kiir said government troops “will also be observing a cessation of hostilities in order to create an atmosphere for dialogue.” The civil war was sparked by a feud between Kiir, a Dinka, and his former deputy Riek Machar, a Nuer. It has plunged parts of the world’s youngest nation into famine. A fragile peace deal broke down last year and Machar fled the country. He is being held in South Africa to stop him stirring up trouble, sources told Reuters in December. Haley had to cut short a visit to a camp in Juba, where U.N. peacekeepers are protecting some 30,000 displaced people, after hundreds of rowdy pro-Machar protesters blocked nearby roads, yelling “Salva Kiir is a killer” and “Welcome USA.” Protesters held a large sign that read “South Sudan IDPs (internally displaced people) and refugees love President Trump, the peacemaker and supporter of human rights.” A spokeswoman for the U.N. mission said the protest “started to gain momentum after (Haley) left, IDPs became upset that she was not able to meet with them.” Haley was meeting with a displaced family when she had to leave early due to security concerns. The previous U.S. administrations of President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama were heavily involved in the birth of South Sudan, which signed a peace accord with Sudan in 2005 and gained independence in 2011. | 1 |
21,946 | Japan's Abe may have won election, but many don't want him as PM | TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may have won a major election victory on Sunday, but half the people surveyed post-election by the Asahi newspaper don t want him to stay prime minister. It seems the election victory has boosted the approval rating for Abe s administration, but not him. Public support rate for Abe s administration grew to 42 percent in the survey, conducted between Oct. 23 and 24, up from 38 percent in its previous survey in mid-Oct. But 47 percent of respondents don t want Abe to continue as prime minister, exceeding 37 percent who want him to stay, said the survey published on Wednesday. Abe s disapproval rating slipped to 39 percent from 40 percent, according to the Asahi s survey. Abe is due to remain prime minister until September 2018 when his tenure as Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader ends and a new vote for LDP leader is held Abe s LDP-led coalition won a combined 313 seats in Sunday s national election, keeping its two-thirds super majority in the 465-member lower house, local media said. Several experts noted the ruling bloc s win was less a victory for the long-ruling LDP than a defeat for a divided opposition. The Asahi s survey also showed 51 percent of respondents said the number of seats the ruling bloc s won was too many , while 32 percent expressed the seat number was good. And 54 percent of respondents said they were concerned about Abe s policies, exceeding 29 percent who said they have positive expectations, the Asahi said. A Yomiuri newspaper survey on Wednesday showed the approval rating for Abe s administration was up at 52 percent from 41 percent in its previous survey early this month. Asked reasons for the LDP s winning majority on its own, only six percent said it was high hopes for Abe , 10 percent said appreciation of ruling parties achievements while 44 percent cited fragmentation of opposition, the Yomiuri said. | 1 |
21,947 | Former Wisconsin sheriff joins pro-Trump super PAC | (Reuters) - Former Wisconsin sheriff David Clarke, an African-American who criticized the Black Lives Mater movement and was previously under consideration for a position with the Trump administration, has joined a super political action committee that backs the president, officials said on Tuesday. Clarke, 61, will serve as spokesman and senior advisor for America First Action, his office and the political action committee said in two separate statements. “I will help make sure we elect the candidates who will do what they promise in support of President Trump’s agenda,” Clarke said in a statement from his office. “Just as important, I will see to it that the will of the American people is not derailed by the left or the self-serving Washington establishment,” he added. Clarke, who spoke at the Republican National Convention last summer and campaigned for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, resigned his job on Thursday and said he would announce his plans this week. The 38-year law enforcement veteran was appointed Milwaukee County sheriff in 2002 and re-elected several times. Although he ran as a Democrat, he moved steadily to the right. “David Clarke is an American patriot, and we are very proud to welcome him,” America First Action President Brian Walsh said in the political action committee’s statement. Clarke has become one of the most polarizing critics of the Black Lives Matter movement, which grew out of protests against police killings of unarmed black men. Clarke said in May he was taking a job as assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, but the following month media reported he had withdrawn his acceptance of the job. | 1 |
21,948 | New York Daily News Cover SAVAGES White House For Spicer’s Hitler Gaffe (IMAGE) | The New York Daily News is not known for subtlety when it comes to its covers. The snarky newspaper pulled no punches when it came to using its cover to go after White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer for calling concentration camps Holocaust Centers and invoking Nazi butcher Adolf Hitler when talking about Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Wednesday morning s cover reads: Nazis murdered 2.7 million Jews, gassing 6,000 a day in Auschwtiz alone FORGOTTEN BY WHITE HOUSE Here is the image of that cover via New York Daily News Twitter:Of course, The New York Daily News isn t the first to go after Spicer for these remarks. The Anne Frank Center has called on Donald Trump to fire Spicer, as has House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Further, this is part of a disturbing pattern of anti-Semitism from Team Trump. During the campaign he regularly retweeted white supremacists, most infamously when he tweeted a picture of Hillary Clinton over a pile of money with a Star of David that said, Most Corrupt Candidate Ever. This tweet caused such an uproar that House Speaker Paul Ryan was forced to speak out about it. After he was elected, Trump s White House deliberately left any mention of Jewish people out of their Holocaust Remembrance Day statement. And, of course, no one can forget that we have avowed white supremacists working in the West Wing.To that end, if this administration doesn t want to be called bigots, they need to stop acting like it. Get rid of the racists, homophobes, xenophobes, and other assorted overtly bigoted people.Don t hold your breath on that one, though. We ll have four years of this kind of stuff. The only silver lining may be that in the end, the GOP can no longer say that they don t traffic in bigotry, since it s right there in the White House for all to see, while their party is in charge.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images | 0 |
21,949 | Lunatic Glenn Beck Prepares To Move His Show To Israel Ahead Of Government Collapse (VIDEO) | Glenn Beck is a paranoid lunatic, and he has just done one more thing to further cement that idea. Beck announced on the Friday edition of his show that his staff is, on his orders, preparing to move his entire broadcasting network out of the country. Why? Because this idiot thinks that the America that we all know and love is on the brink of collapse, and when that collapse comes, the new government will silence him. Beck told his equally idiotic followers: We have to pick up our pace on finding another place to broadcast. I need to know if I can get to Jerusalem, where they won t shut this down and we can be able to broadcast into the United States. This could end quickly. The worst part of all of this is that this announcement came after an audience member asked what she could do to prepare her family for the coming apocalypse. She has already relocated from California to Texas on Beck s lunatic suggestion. She has also followed more of Beck s terrible advice, and is reading the Left Behind series to her children, which warns of coming worldwide disaster.As if all of that is not bad enough, Beck s child was present during these doomsday prepper declarations, and of course was alarmed. Instead of comforting her and anyone else who might be rightfully disturbed by these ideas, Beck says that today s children should be warned as well because they re the giants that are going to fix this, they have to know. He went on to warn that reading Left Behind is important because they have to know that this might be the time You have an army on earth now that says they are the army of the Antichrist, they are the army of Armageddon. This is about as irresponsible as it gets, and Beck doesn t seem to be slowing down this crazy train anytime soon.Watch the insanity below, via Right Wing Watch:Featured image from screen capture via Right Wing Watch | 0 |
21,950 | China, Singapore look to put difficulties behind them | BEIJING (Reuters) - China and Singapore on Tuesday sought to put recent difficulties in their relationship over Taiwan and the disputed South China Sea behind them as Singapore s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong began a trip to Beijing. Singapore is not a claimant to any disputed part of the South China Sea but is home to the biggest port in Southeast Asia, and has made clear its open economy depends on continued free navigation in the area. China is also suspicious of Singapore s good military relations with the United States and self-ruled Taiwan. Meeting in the Great Hall of the People, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told Lee that China and Singapore had maintained mutual respect. Singapore, Li said, is an important member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and next year will be rotating chair of ASEAN. I trust this will inject new energy into not just China-Singapore relations but also China-ASEAN relations, he said. China is worried it could face fresh criticism over its actions in the South China Sea when Singapore becomes ASEAN s chair, and is putting pressure on the city-state to make sure that doesn t happen, people familiar with the situation have told Reuters. Lee said he was grateful for the attention to the bilateral relationship but also for the opportunity to discuss how to work together in the regional context and with ASEAN. Singapore hopes it will be able to bring China and ASEAN closer together, Lee added. The visit of Lee so close to the opening of next month s Communist Party Congress demonstrates the maintenance of high level visits between the two countries, said Bai Tian, the vice director of the Asian department at the Chinese Foreign Ministry. This is an important political signal, Bai said. Overall development of bilateral ties was fairing well, and both leaders agreed to strengthen coordination and cooperation on international and regional matters , according to a readout of the meeting provided by the Chinese foreign ministry. The United States and Singapore announced an enhanced defense relationship in late 2015, which included deployments of long range P-8 surveillance planes out of Singapore - aircraft which frequently track Chinese submarines. Singapore also has close though unofficial ties with self-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a Chinese province. Tensions between the two countries burst into the open last November when Hong Kong port authorities impounded nine Singaporean armored military vehicles being shipped home from training grounds in Taiwan. Hong Kong released the vehicles earlier this year amid rare open debates in both Singapore and China about a deteriorating relationship. | 1 |
21,951 | Zimbabwe opposition calls for peaceful return to democracy | HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) called for a peaceful return to constitutional democracy on Wednesday after an overnight military coup against 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe. The MDC, the main political challenger to Mugabe s ZANU-PF party for the last two decades, also said it hoped the military intervention would lead to the establishment of a stable, democratic and progressive nation state . | 1 |
21,952 | White House not aware of other nations planning to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Thursday it was not aware of any other country that planned to follow President Donald Trump s lead and recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital. I m not aware of any countries that we anticipate that happening at any point soon, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters. I m not saying that they aren t, but I m not aware of them. | 1 |
21,953 | Kurds abandon territory in the face of Iraq government advance | BAGHDAD/KIRKUK (Reuters) - The Baghdad government recaptured territory from Kurds across the breadth of northern Iraq on Tuesday, making startlingly rapid gains in a sudden campaign that has shifted the balance of power in the country almost overnight. In the second day of a lightning government advance to take back towns and countryside from forces of the Kurdish autonomous region, Kurdish troops known as Peshmerga pulled out of the long disputed Khanaqin area near the Iranian border. Government troops took control of the last two oilfields in the vicinity of Kirkuk, an oil city of 1 million people which the Peshmerga abandoned the previous day in the face of the government forces advance. A Yazidi group allied to Baghdad also took control of the town of Sinjar. Baghdad s military operation has redrawn the map of northern Iraq, rolling back gains by the Kurds who infuriated Baghdad last month by holding a referendum on independence. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday the referendum is finished and has become a thing of the past . Addressing a news conference in Baghdad, he called for a dialogue with Kurdish leaders under the constitution . Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) President Masoud Barzani said the vote for independence won t be in vain . He did not call for dialogue, but added, Kurds have always been against waging wars and have worked in pursuit of peace. The KRG governs three mountainous northern provinces making up the autonomous region. It has also held a wide crescent of additional territory in northern Iraq, much of which they seized after helping drive out Islamic State militants since 2014. Abadi ordered his troops on Monday to raise their flag over all Kurdish-held territory outside the autonomous region itself. They achieved a swift victory in Kirkuk, reaching the center of the city in less than a day. The fighting in one of Iraq s main oil-producing areas has helped return a risk premium to oil prices. After months of range-bound trading, benchmark Brent crude is now above $58 a barrel, up almost a third from its mid-year levels. Oil officials in Baghdad said all the fields near Kirkuk were working normally on Tuesday after the last came under central government control. Kirkuk, situated just outside the KRG autonomous region, is the base of Iraq s Northern Oil Company, one of the two giant state energy firms that provide nearly all government revenue. Oil minister Jabar al-Luaibi said Baghdad would now try to nearly double the output of the Kirkuk oil fields to more than 1 million barrels per day. The Iraqi army advances create a dilemma for Washington, which has armed and trained both sides in its successful campaign to drive Islamic State insurgents out of Iraq. We don t like the fact that they re clashing, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday. We ve had for many years a very good relationship with the Kurds as you know, and we ve also been on the side of Iraq. So far most of the advances appear to have come unopposed, with Kurds withdrawing before government forces move in. There have been reports of just one serious battle, in the early hours of Monday on the outskirts of Kirkuk. The U.S. military said on Tuesday it had received mixed accounts of the death toll in that clash, with between three and 11 combatants killed. The International Committee of the Red Cross said the transfer of control appeared to have taken place with a minimum of fighting, with the number of wounded no higher than in the dozens. ICRC regional deputy director Patrick Hamilton told Reuters that he was concerned roads were closed, especially access to Mosul, the former Islamic State urban battlefield where hundreds of thousands of people still depend on aid. In Kirkuk, one of Iraq s most diverse cities, members of the Turkmen ethnic group who opposed Kurdish rule celebrated on Monday, driving through the streets firing weapons in the air. By Tuesday, the once ubiquitous green, red and white Kurdish flag with a blazing yellow sun had vanished from the streets. U.S.-trained Iraqi special forces and local police patrolled to maintain order. Markets, shops and schools were open as normal. Some Kurdish families who had left the city on Monday were already returning home. They said thousands of Kurdish fighters in convoys formed a long queue in efforts to flee Kirkuk towards the Kurdish regional capital Erbil, clogging the road and making it difficult for civilians to leave. For the Kurds, the loss of territory, particularly Kirkuk, which Kurdish folklore views as the heart of their homeland, is a severe blow just three weeks after they voted to declare the independent state that had been their goal for decades. Our leaders abandoned us in the middle of nowhere. Our future is dark, said retired Kirkuk teacher Malla Bakhtiyar. He said he tried to escape on Monday but returned with his wife and sons after an Arab neighbor phoned, begging him not to leave and assuring him the city was safe. University lecturer Salar Othman Ameen blamed the Kurdish authorities for calling the independence referendum prematurely. We feel broken now. The referendum was a catastrophic decision ... Our Kurdish leadership was supposed to think of the consequences before moving along with independence vote. Now we have lost what we have achieved over three decades. The setbacks led to recriminations among the two main Kurdish political parties - the KDP and PUK, which each control separate units of Peshmerga. Barzani said political rivals had ordered the withdrawal of Kurdish forces from Kirkuk, and officials in his KDP accused the PUK of his long-time rival Jalal Talabani of treason for abandoning the city. Talabani, who served as ceremonial Iraqi president in Baghdad from 2003 to 2014, died two weeks ago. His widow denied blame for the fall of Kirkuk and said her party had tried to avert the advance through contact with U.S. and Iraqi officials. The advances were a second resounding triumph for Abadi, the soft-spoken Iraqi prime minister, months after his forces recaptured Mosul from Islamic State. Abadi had faced threats from Iran-backed Shi ite armed groups to take matters into their own hands if he did not act decisively to take on the Kurds. If elections were held tomorrow, I would vote with 10 fingers for Abadi. He succeeded in keeping Iraq a single state, said Adel Abdul Kareem, a Baghdad lawyer. When Kurdish leaders were threatening Baghdad, Abadi was always smiling. We did not expect he was hiding a tornado behind this smile. He proved he was a smart leader, and with his wisdom he won against Masoud (Barzani) with a knockout in the second round. For the Kurds, the loss of Kirkuk restores the status quo in place before they seized it in 2014, which saw their self-ruled region prosper under an Iraqi constitution that guaranteed them a fixed percentage of Iraq s total oil income. Control of Kirkuk and its oil had made it seem more plausible for them to break away; without it, independence is problematic, since they would be financially worse off than inside Iraq with a share of its overall oil income. | 1 |
21,954 | Zimbabwe's opposition to decide on Mugabe impeachment Tuesday: chief whip | HARARE (Reuters) - Lawmakers from Zimbabwe s main opposition party MDC will hold a meeting on Tuesday to decide whether to join their ruling party rivals to impeach 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe, the minority chief whip said. Although Mugabe s ZANU-PF has the required two-thirds membership to remove Mugabe, participation by the opposition could give a boost to a process that was started by the military s intervention last week. | 1 |
21,955 | Trump raps Merkel over migrants, says U.S. could have good relations with Putin | PARIS (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential contender Donald Trump said German Chancellor Angela Merkel was wrong to let in thousands of migrants into Germany and that the refugee crisis could trigger revolutions and even the end of Europe. “I think Angela Merkel made a tragic mistake with the migrants,” Trump told French conservative weekly Valeurs Actuelles, which said it was the billionaire’s first in-depth campaign interview with European media. “If you don’t treat the situation competently and firmly, yes, it’s the end of Europe. You could face real revolutions,” Trump was quoted as saying, according to the French translation. The 69-year-old property magnate also said Brussels had become a breeding ground for terrorists and some neighborhoods in Paris and elsewhere in France had become no-go zones. “Unfortunately, France is not what it used to be, and neither is Paris,” he said. He also said tight French gun laws were partly responsible for the killing of dozens of people at the Bataclan concert hall last November by Islamist militants. “I always have a gun with me. Had I been at the Bataclan, I can tell you I would have opened fire,” he said. Trump further said he thought the United States could have very good relations with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and that nothing could be worse than the current situation where President Barack Obama and Putin scarcely spoke with each other. “He (Putin) said I was brilliant. That proves a certain smartness,” said Trump. The French magazine said the interview was conducted at Trump’s office in New York’s Trump Tower a week before the Iowa caucuses, in which he finished second among candidates seeking the Republican nomination for November’s presidential election. Trump was widely expected to win Tuesday’s primary in New Hampshire, which is part of the state-by-state process of picking party nominees for the Nov. 8 election to replace Democratic President Barack Obama. (Reporting by Michel Rose; Editing by Mark Heinrich) SAP is the sponsor of this content. It was independently created by Reuters’ editorial staff and funded in part by SAP, which otherwise has no role in this coverage. | 1 |
21,956 | Violence flares in Washington during Trump inauguration | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Black-clad activists among hundreds of demonstrators protesting Donald Trump’s swearing-in on Friday clashed with police a few blocks from the White House, in an outburst of violence rare for an inauguration. At least 217 people were arrested in the melees, police said. The burst of civil disorder followed a fierce presidential campaign that ended in a stunning victory for Republican Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton on Nov. 8 and left the country divided. Many of Trump’s supporters traveled to Washington to cheer their new president on Inauguration Day. Tens of thousands of detractors are expected to march peacefully on Saturday. In the violence, knots of activists in black clothes and masks threw rocks and bottles at officers wearing riot gear, who responded with volleys of tear gas and stun grenades as a helicopter hovered low overhead. At one flash point, a protester hurled an object through the passenger window of a police van, which sped away in reverse as demonstrators cheered. Earlier, activists used chunks of pavement and baseball bats to shatter the windows of a Bank of America branch and a McDonald’s outlet, all symbols of American capitalism. Multiple vehicles were set on fire, including a black limousine. A knot of people dragged garbage cans into a street a few blocks from the White House and set them ablaze, later throwing a red cap bearing Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan into the flames. Police said six officers were injured in scuffles with protesters. The people arrested would be held overnight before making court appearances on Saturday, Peter Newsham, interim chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, told a news conference. Newsham added that police would continue to monitor security around the night’s celebrations. Friday’s protests played out just blocks from Pennsylvania Avenue, where New York businessman-turned-Republican politician Trump took part in the traditional parade a newly sworn in president takes from the U.S. Capitol to the White House. The various protest groups scattered around the city chanted anti-Trump slogans and carried signs with slogans including “Trump is not president” and “Make Racists Afraid Again.” “Trump is not going to be stopped at the top, he’s going to be stopped from the bottom, from people rising up,” said Ben Allen, a 69-year-old retired teacher from San Francisco. “We support the right of everybody in this country, no matter what nationality, what religion, the color of their skin, to be respected as a human being, and this guy doesn’t respect anybody.” Trump supporter Ryan Shiring, 21, stood nervously with a group of friends near a pile of smoldering trash cans. “We thought there would be protests but we didn’t expect violence,” said Shiring, a college student from Hartford, Connecticut. “We were hoping for a completely peaceful transfer of power.” Democratic officials, including Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, condemned the violence. The U.S. Secret Service, Washington police and other law enforcement agencies had about 28,000 officers in place to secure a roughly three-square-mile (7.8 square km) of the city. Trump, a former reality TV star, angered many liberal Americans during his stunningly successful campaign with demeaning comments on women and immigrants. His inauguration speech was a populist and nationalist rallying cry. Protesters and police said the violent activists were acting independently of organized opposition to Trump. The Disrupt J20 group on Twitter said its anger was not directed only at Trump, and that it would also have demonstrated had Democrat Hillary Clinton won the election last November. Not far from the White House, Bob Hrifko, a member of the Bikers for Trump group, said he was struck in the face with an aluminum chair when he tried to intervene in a scuffle involving police and protesters. “We need more order. This ain’t right,” said Hrifko, who was bleeding from a cut under his eye. The number of people who turned out for the midday swearing-in ceremony in the rain appeared to be significantly smaller than the estimated 2 million who attended Democrat Barack Obama’s first inauguration in 2009. Overhead video of the National Mall showed sections of the white matting laid down to protect the grass were largely empty. The city’s Metro subway system reported ridership levels as of 11 a.m. (1600 GMT) at less than half of what was seen in 2013 or 2009 and roughly on par with George W. Bush’s second inauguration in 2005. Sympathy protests were held around the nation and the world, in cities including Los Angeles, Tokyo and London. In Seattle, one person was shot in the abdomen during a demonstration at the University of Washington, the Seattle Police Department said on Twitter. Demonstrators gathered there to protest Trump and conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos, who gave a talk on campus, local media reported. In Portland, protesters threw rocks, bottles and flares at police dressed in riot gear, who fired irritant and flash-bang devices back at them, according to local media and police. But in Moscow, Russians hoping Trump will usher in a new era of detente with their country celebrated his inauguration. In Washington, David Guthrie, a long-haired, bearded, 36-year-old from South Bend, Indiana, stood stark naked on a street corner with an obscenity and “Trump” written on his buttocks in black magic marker. As he stood, he was pepper sprayed by police, but stood with his eyes clenched, saying he wanted to prompt “a national conversation on the illegitimacy of the Trump presidency.” “I need a shower,” he said, as fellow protesters helped him walk away, wrapped in a silver blanket. | 1 |
21,957 | State Department OKs possible sale to Canada of $5.23 billion in military equipment | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department has approved the possible sale to Canada of 18 fighter jets and other weapons worth an estimated $5.23 billion, a Pentagon agency said in a statement on Tuesday. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency said it notified the U.S. Congress on Monday of the possible sale to Canada of 18 Super Hornet fighter aircraft and other equipment, including sidewinder missiles. It said the principal contractors will be Boeing Co, Northrop Grumman Corp, Raytheon Co and General Electric Co. | 1 |
21,958 | Warnings Issued After NRA Fans Plan To Open Carry Guns Near President Obama | Once again pro-gun forces in America are trying to intimidate anyone trying to reduce gun violence even the President himself.Ahead of President Obama s town hall about his executive action to reduce gun violence, warnings were issued about the likelihood of gun fans parading around outside the event brandishing their weapons.President Obama s town hall event on gun violence at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. on Thursday night is likely to provoke strong emotions. And the school s police chief is warning students and faculty that protesters could be carrying weapons on campus legally. Please be advised that it is lawful to carry firearms in Virginia, and this includes at public outdoor spaces on our campus, Thomas Longo, GMU s interim chief of police said in an email to the school s internal listserv. Though students are on winter break, the chief wrote that the University Police will have officers present to ensure that all protesters remain law-abiding. Over the last few years the so-called open carry movement has paraded around with weapons in public as a way for gun extremists to show off to everyone how supposedly macho they are.In some cases, these protesters have taken their weapons into restaurants, supermarkets, and major chain stores like Target. Understandably, most parents don t want to have guns swinging around while they re trying to buy their weekly groceries and some stores have begun to ban the open carry crowd.The NRA who chickened out when CNN invited them to this town hall has pushed the president as the gun confiscator-in-chief, when in reality at best Obama has pushed for expanded background checks and limits on gun magazines. Now those who have been teed off by this organization who pays its executives handsomely from their annual dues have been driven to brandish guns outside an event under heavy secret service protection.It isn t smart, it s dangerous, and at best it will continue to make the pro-gun side of the debate come across as unhinged extremists.Featured image via Wikimedia | 0 |
21,959 | Republican Congress takes on Washington, D.C., laws to local outrage | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A vote by U.S. House Republicans on Monday to strike down a Washington, D.C., law that would allow doctor-assisted suicide has put the conservative Congress on a collision course with the liberal city that hosts it, local officials said. In the District of Columbia, where just 4 percent of the population voted for President Donald Trump, city leaders worry that Republicans will overturn progressive laws on issues like gun control and abortion, to the outrage of locals who have long complained of curtailed rights. One of the most liberal U.S. cities, Washington is unique in that the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the option to block its legislative moves. Its 680,000 residents pay federal income taxes but have no voting representative in Congress. “This is yet another attempt by this House committee to trample the autonomy of the D.C. Government and undermine our local control,” Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, who signed the assisted suicide law in December, said in a statement after the signing. Monday’s vote by the House Oversight Committee, headed by Utah Representative Jason Chaffetz, took the first step in overturning the measure letting doctors help terminally ill patients end their lives. The full House and Senate would now have to vote and Trump would have to sign a repeal by Friday, the 30-day deadline for Congress to act. “Congressman Jason Chaffetz has sent a signal to D.C. residents that Congress has zero respect or concern for their will or the will of their elected officials,” Bowser said. Bowser called the vote a power grab by legislators who espouse states’ right to make their own laws but differ when the heavily Democratic city is involved. The vote was the first in a series of Republican-sponsored measures taking on city laws. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida last month introduced legislation that would bar city lawmakers from passing gun control laws and repeal local firearm registration requirements. Rubio said the measure, aimed at Washington, was needed to protect residents’ constitutional right to bear arms. The House also has approved a bill that would permanently ban the District from using local tax funds for abortions for poor women. Congress granted the 68-square-mile (117-square-km) enclave a mayor and council in the 1970s and has voided only a handful of District laws since then. But Chaffetz has pledged to intensify scrutiny, saying at Monday’s hearing that the assisted suicide law could create “a marketplace for death.” Washington’s city council has passed laws in recent years on issues dear to liberal Democrats nationally. These include a $15-an-hour minimum wage, legalized recreational marijuana and one of the country’s most generous family leave laws. “The District is a progressive jurisdiction in the midst of a conservative Congress,” Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District’s congressional representative, said in a phone interview. Washington leaders have relied on the Senate, which has long had less appetite than the House to interfere with District laws. The city also had an ally in Democratic President Barack Obama. That protection is gone, Norton said. | 1 |
21,960 | HILLARY’S OVER-THE TOP REQUIREMENTS FOR SPEAKING | Private jets, lots of cash, presidential suites you name it! Unreal!Late last month an IB Times report showed that Goldman Sachs paid Bill Clinton some $200,000 for a speech ahead of an effort to lobby The State Department (then led by Hillary Clinton) on Export-Import Bank legislation tied to a $75 million purchase order from a Chinese company to a Goldman-owned aircraft manufacturer.The idea that the paid speech and the authorization of an Export-Import Bank loan to the Chinese firm were related was of course dismissed as preposterous by Goldman (draw your own conclusions) but what certainly isn t preposterous is the fact that the Clintons reap millions for speaking engagements and as you can see from the following, if you want a Clinton, a quarter-million in cash isn t all you ll need to budget for.THE FULL LIST IS HERE:Hillary Speaking FeesAs a reminder, Hillary is running for everyday Americans. Via: zero hedge | 0 |
21,961 | War and the prize: how some Nobel laureates turn away from peace | OSLO (Reuters) - Myanmar s leader Aung San Suu Kyi is the latest in a long line of Nobel Peace Prize laureates to disappoint many of those who once applauded her, and probably won t be the last, a cautionary tale for the 2017 laureate who will be named next week. Suu Kyi is facing international criticism, including from fellow peace prize winner Desmond Tutu, for not doing more to stop what the U.N. says are mass killings, rapes and the burning of villages taking place in Rakhine state. The violence has forced 421,000 Rohingya Muslims into neighboring Bangladesh. That is a turnaround from 1991, when the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded her the prize and praised her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights . Once awarded, the prize cannot be withdrawn. This has happened many times before that laureates have been criticized, said Professor Geir Lundestad, who was the secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee from 1990 to 2014. Lundestad said the prize remains a force for good, even if some winners later fall short of its ideals: Aung Sang Suu Kyi was a very important spokeswoman for human rights in Burma and much of Asia. You cannot take that away from her. The Nobel prizes were established by Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, whose fortune came in part from making and selling arms. The peace prize, worth 9 million Swedish Krona ($1.1 million) will be announced on Oct. 6 and can go to one or more individuals or organizations. A number of winners of the peace prize have gone on to launch wars or escalate them. Israeli leader Menachem Begin ordered the invasion of Lebanon in 1982, four years after sharing the Nobel with Egypt s Anwar Sadat for their Camp David peace accord. Sadat was assassinated by an Islamist army officer in 1981. Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat shared the 1994 prize with Israel s Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres for the Oslo accords, which have not brought a lasting settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Rabin was assassinated by a far-right nationalist in 1995 and Peres was voted out of office eight months later. Arafat later presided over the Palestinians during the second intifada, a violent uprising against Israeli occupation. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, awarded the prize in 1990 for his role in bringing the Cold War to a peaceful end, sent tanks in 1991 to try to stop the independence of the Baltic countries, though he later let them become independent. U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger shared the 1973 prize with North Vietnam s Le Duc Tho for what turned out to be failed efforts to end the Vietnam War. Tho declined the award, the only laureate ever to do so, accusing Washington of violating the truce. The war ended in 1975 with the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese. When U.S. President Barack Obama won in 2009 just months after taking office, even he said he was surprised. By the time he came to Oslo to collect the prize at the end of the year, he had ordered the tripling of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the considerable controversy that your generous decision has generated, he said in his speech. I m responsible for the deployment of thousands of young Americans to battle in a distant land. Some will kill, and some will be killed. And so I come here with an acute sense of the costs of armed conflict. Among Suu Kyi s critics is Tutu who, in a Sept. 7 letter to his dearly beloved younger sister writes: If the political price of your ascension to the highest office in Myanmar is your silence, the price is surely too steep. On Sept. 19, Suu Kyi condemned rights abuses in Rakhine state and said violators would be punished. While Western diplomats and aid officials welcomed the tone of her message, some doubted if she had done enough to deflect global criticism. Dan Smith, the director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize might even have harmed the Rohingya. She has an aura, he said of Suu Kyi, adding that maybe her stellar international reputation masked the true awfulness of abuses over many years of the Rohingya. When she responded to questions about the Rohingya by saying why are you focusing on them, not on other issues?, people were inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt. Suu Kyi was the rare winner, like Nelson Mandela, to rise from political prisoner to national leader. Mandela stepped down after five years as South Africa s first black president with his reputation largely unblemished, but some of his allies from the apartheid-era liberation movement faced scandals in office. Maybe it s this move from the image of the bold, heroic defender of human rights and ordinary people ... into what is inevitably a more grubby world of politics where compromises are made that tarnishes reputations, said Smith. Even saints face criticism. Mother Teresa, the 1979 Nobel winner canonized by Pope Francis last year, was faulted in 1994 by British medical journal The Lancet for offering neither diagnoses nor strong pain killers to dying patients in her Calcutta hospice. The decision to give the award in 2012 to the European Union was criticized at the time. Brussels was then imposing tough financial bailout conditions on member Greece that many economists said destroyed livelihoods. Tutu, among others, also faulted the EU as an organization that uses military force. The risk of disappointment arises because Nobel committees pick laureates for the hope they carry or a recent achievement, rather than the sum of a career, said Asle Sveen, a historian of the Nobel Peace Prize. It is a always a risk when they promote somebody, because they are getting involved in politics, he told Reuters. And they cannot predict what is going to happen in the future. That is what makes the Nobel Peace Prize different from all the other peace prizes, said Sveen. Otherwise you would give the prize to very old people just before they die. Among the favorites are parties to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, such as Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini and John Kerry, the U.S. Secretary of State at the time. The deal, which saw Iran agree to curbs on its nuclear program in return for the lifting of international sanctions, has been criticized by hardliners in both Tehran and Washington. U.S. President Donald Trump called it an embarrassment to the United States in a speech at the United Nations this month, and has suggested Washington could repudiate it. Experts on the prize say it is precisely the sort of breakthrough among foes that the committee tends to recognize. This is the first time that a country subjected to Chapter VII (of the U.N. Charter) has seen its situation resolved peacefully, said Henrik Urdal, Director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, referring to how Iran s nuclear program is no longer labeled a threat by the U.N. Security Council. Focusing on the EU and Iran would also be a signal to the United States that the Iran nuclear deal has a broad support base, Urdal told reporters. Other possible contenders are Pope Francis, Syria s White Helmet rescue crews, the UN refugee agency UNHCR and its high commissioner Filippo Grandi. UNHCR has already won twice. Last year s prize went to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for his efforts to end half a century of war that killed a quarter of million people. | 1 |
21,962 | Obama, Trudeau mark better Canada ties with climate, trade accords | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and new Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday ended a frosty period in bilateral ties by agreeing to tackle climate change and strive to settle a long-lasting trade dispute over Canadian softwood lumber exports. The neighboring countries are traditionally close but relations had soured under former prime minister Stephen Harper, who hectored the White House in a failed bid to push through U.S. approval for the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Obama and Trudeau, whose Liberals came to power last November promising better cooperation with Washington, pledged joint steps to fight global warming, including cutting methane emissions from oil and gas operations. The countries committed to cutting emissions of methane by 40 to 45 percent below 2012 levels by 2025, to take steps to fight climate change in the Arctic, and to speed development of green technologies. They also told officials to look for solutions to a lengthy dispute over exports of Canadian softwood lumber, as well as promising to make it easier for goods and people to cross the long shared border. “I am grateful that I have him as a partner ... When it comes to the central challenges that we face, our two nations are more closely aligned than ever,” Obama told a news conference after talks with Trudeau. “The President and I agree on many things including, of paramount importance, the direction we want to take our countries in to ensure a clean and prosperous future,” said Trudeau. In another sign of friendlier bilateral ties, Trudeau invited Obama to address the Canadian Parliament this year. Americans have been captivated by the photogenic Trudeau, 44, whose father, Pierre Trudeau, was prime minister from 1968 through 1979, and again from 1980 to 1984. His visit will be capped by a state dinner on Thursday but that could be overshadowed by the race to succeed Obama in November’s presidential election. Candidates for the Republican nomination will hold a debate on Thursday night. Trudeau declined to say what he would do in case the next president was Donald Trump, who has mused about tearing up the North American Free Trade Agreement. “The friendship between our two countries goes far beyond any two individuals or any ideologies,” he said. “I have tremendous confidence in the American people, and look forward to working with whomever they choose to send to this White House later this year.” | 1 |
21,963 | Russian lawyer who met Trump Jr. says ready to testify to Congress | MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian lawyer who met Donald Trump Jr. after his father won the Republican nomination for the 2016 U.S. presidential election has said she is ready to testify to the U.S. Congress to dispel what she called “mass hysteria” about the encounter. President Donald Trump’s eldest son eagerly agreed in June 2016 to meet Natalia Veselnitskaya, a woman he was told was a Russian government lawyer who might have damaging information about Democratic White House rival Hillary Clinton, according to emails released by Trump Jr. Veselnitskaya has previously said she is a private lawyer, that she never obtained damaging information about Clinton, and that she has no ties with the Kremlin. “I’m ready to clarify the situation behind this mass hysteria – but only through lawyers or testifying in the Senate,” Veselnitskaya said in an interview with Russia’s Kremlin-backed RT TV channel released late on Tuesday. In Washington on Wednesday, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters she was not aware of Veselnitskaya’s offer. Feinstein said she had not yet discussed calling Veselnitskaya to testify with committee chairman Chuck Grassley, a Republican. Russian officials have repeatedly denied allegations by U.S. intelligence agencies that Moscow interfered in the presidential campaign to help Trump win the White House. Trump has denied any collusion between his campaign and Russia. Leaders of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee have said they wanted to speak to everyone who attended the meeting as part of their investigation of Russia and the U.S. election. | 1 |
21,964 | CONSERVATIVE ACTIVIST, Author Mike Chernovich Calls On Americans To Join Him In Disrupting TRUMP ASSASSINATION Play In Central Park | The Washington Post [Compost] reports: So far, three major corporate sponsors and the NEA have felt it necessary to distance themselves from the show, Eustis said in an interview Thursday. And I feel just heartsick for the NEA. That they re forced to distance themselves from a work of art oh, my God. Eustis was referring to the statement the National Endowment for the Arts issued Monday, after the Public s production of Shakespeare s storied play came under attack from ultraconservative websites and even from one of the sons of President Trump, who questioned whether it was taxpayer-supported. They targeted the production because of the obvious references it draws to the current president and the depiction in the play of the assassination of its Caesar-as-Trump figure, played by Gregg Henry.Donald Trump Jr. tweeted a message asking if the assassination of his father should be funded by taxpayers: No NEA funds have been awarded to support this summer s Shakespeare in the Park production of Julius Caesar and there are no NEA funds supporting the New York State Council on the Arts s grant to Public Theater or its performances, the NEA declared, in what struck many in the arts world as an extraordinary act of disavowal. It came as two high-profile corporate supporters of Shakespeare in the Park, Delta Air Lines and Bank of America, withdrew financial backing, and a third, American Express, said that its contributions go exclusively to the Public s main theater in downtown Manhattan and it did not condone the interpretation staged in Central Park.Instead of recognizing that the theater group had crossed a line that should not have been crossed, Eustis is willing to take a loss at the box office in order to keep the assassination of President Trump on stage in front of thousands of families in Central Park: As for the Public s future in this climate, Eustis said, This is damaging for us and we definitely lost money, and nobody likes losing money. But we will survive it. Here is the link to get FREE tickets to the performance. Click HERE to see a video about how to get FREE tickets.New York!Who wants to go watch the Trump assassination play maybe use some "free speech" during the play?https://t.co/64WAPvQjBT pic.twitter.com/7zDQcjNX7y Mike Cernovich (@Cernovich) June 15, 2017These Twitter users suggest skipping the ticket process and instead use the same techniques as leftist agitators, like whistles and drums or bongos and cowbells to disrupt the production:If it's in a park can't we just go to the park and bring our whistles and drums Ralph Butler (@secure1man) June 15, 2017bongos and cowbells for everyone Deplorable Snuzzlez (@SnuzzleBabiez) June 15, 2017 | 0 |
21,965 | U.S. Senate Republican leader opposes new Russia investigation | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate majority leader, Republican Mitch McConnell, said on Wednesday he did not support any additional investigation into whether Russia influenced the 2016 U.S. election, saying as he opened the Senate that it would “impede” probes already under way. But the chamber’s Democratic minority leader, Chuck Schumer, reiterated his calls for a special counsel to look into the matter. Schumer said the need was more urgent after Republican President Donald Trump abruptly fired FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday. | 1 |
21,966 | Delay seen, again, on Trump growth agenda after Comey sacking | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Not even a week after the Trump administration and Congress rekindled optimism that they could soon make progress on a pro-growth agenda including tax cuts, the unexpected firing of the head of the FBI late Tuesday presented investors with a fresh reason to second-guess their confidence in the “Trump trade.” At the least, financial market participants viewed President Donald Trump’s abrupt dismissal of FBI Director James Comey as an unwelcome distraction, while some fretted it could tie Washington in knots for months, potentially postponing already-delayed reforms. The takeaway for the stock markets: don’t bet on any quick legislation around trade, the budget, healthcare or infrastructure. “There is nothing good out of this for markets,” said Michael Purves, chief global strategist at Weeden & Co. “It will weigh on Trump’s ability to cut deals with Congress. It costs him negotiating leverage.” Jack Ablin, Chief Investment Officer at BMO Private Bank, said, “on a medium-term basis, it does undermine the administration’s power to get things done.” Trump's election last November unleashed a powerful upswing in U.S. stock markets on the premise that he would cut taxes and regulation and usher through a major infrastructure spending package. The benchmark S&P 500 .SPX has gained 12 percent since Election Day, while shares of tech stocks and smaller companies have performed even better. Nagging concerns about Trump’s ability to get things done, along with some anxiety about stretched equity valuations, have combined to cap the rally, and stocks have done little since early March. Around midday Wednesday, the S&P was near unchanged, as were other market benchmarks. The administration recovered some credibility last week when the House of Representatives voted to repeal major portions of former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act after failing to do so a month earlier. The simple achievement of advancing the healthcare bill to the Senate had been seen by investors as a signal that enacting tax cuts was doable, the big question was just how soon - this year or next. “There’s a tremendous amount of hope baked into the market that Trump is going to be able to act, particularly on tax reform,” said Brad McMillan, Chief Investment Officer for Commonwealth Financial in Waltham, Massachusetts. Edward Perkin, Chief Equity Investment Officer at Eaton Vance, said if the date to pass tax “is pushed out it’s not so much a problem, but if people question if it will ever happen, then that’s a problem.” The degree to which this further alienates Democrats on Capitol Hill, especially in the Senate, was another concern given how narrow support has been so far for Trump’s agenda. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a senior Democratic lawmaker from California, was not optimistic that tensions between the parties would ease anytime soon. “I had been hopeful that we could have a line of activity that’s going to bring a very divided country together,” Feinstein told Reuters Wednesday. “The problem out there is that people are so divided.” Should the Comey episode weaken Trump’s bargaining ability with lawmakers, it may actually act as a catalyst for a tax bill, just one that might resemble congressional Republicans’ version more than Trump’s. “An ongoing special investigation or shift in the balance of power could actually make Trump more eager to sign off” on the previously existing congressional tax plan, analysts at NatWest Markets said. Of course, some had already adopted the view that Trump’s promised reforms were a distant hope, at best. “Investors are realizing that the fiscal policy agenda is being pushed out farther on the horizon,” Michael Arone, Chief Investment Strategist at State Street Global Advisors (STT.N). | 1 |
21,967 | what the election has exposed | reply
according to numerous reports and stories that have been published through the years among the many alleged secrets the vatican has there is a device called the chronovisor the device enables its user to observe future as well as past events many believe this device is one of the greatest guarded secrets humanity has ever had
some even believe it is a crucial tool which has allowed the vatican to preserve its influence and power through the years
ever since h g wells composed his novel the time machine many people have been left fascinated by the idea of time travel even theoretical physics dreams of the possibility of making it work one day everything related to time travel today is related to science fiction or so it seems at least interestingly on may an italian newspaper shocked the world when they published an article with a provoking headline a machine that photographs the past has finally been invented
the news article indicated that dozens of scientists created an artifact that allowed them to photograph the past and even witness important historical accounts directly connected with jesus christ
the alleged device which according to many is nothing more than science fiction was built in the s by a team of scientists led by father pellegrino maria ernetti an italian physicist who eventually became a priest
it is believed that the team received important help from nobel laureate enrico fermi and famous rocket scientist wernher von braun
the chronovisor is a relatively small object that is equipped with a number of antennas and is composed entirely of precious alloys cathode tubes some dials and levers reports by father ernetti suggest that whoever uses the device is able to capture and record specific locations important events and follow in history noteworthy individuals according to father ernetti he had observed among other historical events christs crucifixion and photographed it as well view image the image to the left is the one obtained using the chronovisor on the right is a similar image located in a church in perugia
it is even said that under the perfect conditions the device offers its user the ability to foresee what was going to happen in the near future
however father ernetti remained secretive and stated he was not at liberty to reveal further details about the chronovisor
father ernetti did however reveal that the chronovisor worked by processing residual electromagnetic radiation left over by numerous processes
according to numerous reports father ernetti used the chronovisor to witness important historical events with the most notable being the crucifixion of christ
however father ernetti revealed that thanks to this invention had managed to witness the destruction of sodom and gomorrah and other major historical events such as the founding of rome in bc also thanks to the chronovisor father ernetti was able to recompose the missing work thyestes written by ennio quinto and represented in rome in ac in its original version and the original text of the the two stone tablets written by god exodus which were given to moses on mount sinai apart from witnessing the likes of napoleon roman philosopher cicero and other great and momentous historical and biblical episodes
french priest françois charles antoine brune was one of the first to hear about the chronovisor according to father françois he met father ernetti in the s when the two were traveling across the grand canal of venice as the two were experts in ancient languages they began to talk about the bible and its interpretation through the years supposedly these are the blueprints of the chronoviso r image
father brune that was very intrigued when the father ernetti revealed that there was a machine that could answer all questions related to the bible
when father françois asked about the machine father ernetti described the chronovisor saying that it was device that functioned just like a tv but instead of receiving transmissions from local stations the chronovisor was able to tune into the past and allow the viewer to see and hear events that had occurred centuries before
ernetti told brune that the machine worked by detecting images and sounds that humanity had created which were floating in space
it is said that this intriguing device and the project behind it were canceled by the vatican but not destroyed some believe the chronovisor is located somewhere in the vatican hidden in one of the many chambers hidden away from society
however there are other versions that suggest that father ernetti and his team decided to voluntarily dismantle the device because since it could tune anywhere and anytime in the past if it were to fall into the wrong hands it could create the scariest dictatorship the world has ever seen
interestingly before father ernetti died in april he wrote a letter in which he insisted that the device was real and was not a hoax as many believed
father ernetti claimed that the alleged photograph the chronovisor had captured of jesus christ on the cross showing the sorrowful face of a bearded man gazing towards the heavens was real even though some critics argue that the image was a reproduction of a statue of jesus located in a church in perugia
critics also claim that the alleged text the device managed to observe of thyestes included latin words that did not exist at the time it was made
in father ernetti also said that pope pius xii forbade us to do disclose any details about this device because the machine was very dangerous it can restrain the freedom of man
however in the vatican issued a decree in which it warned that anyone using an instrument of such characteristics would be excommunicated according to many this was an unnecessary warning since according to them the chronovisor never existed so why issue a warning if it was just another hoax
what do you think about the story behind the chronovisor do you think it is another top secret object kept away from society by the vatican sf source rise earth | 1 |
21,968 | Trump pick for No. 2 at Commerce Dept withdraws name: source | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s choice for deputy secretary of commerce, Todd Ricketts, has withdrawn his nomination, a source close to Ricketts said on Wednesday. Ricketts, a co-owner of the Chicago Cubs baseball team, pulled his name from consideration due to difficulties untangling his financial holdings to the satisfaction of the government ethics watchdog, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. “I hope there are other opportunities to contribute to his administration in the future,” Ricketts said in a statement. | 1 |
21,969 | DID HILLARY Just Lose Her “Get Out Of Jail Free” Card?…Senior Trump Advisor: “Trump Has Not Ruled Out Criminal Probe” Against Hillary | A senior Donald Trump adviser is calling Hillary Clinton s decision to join a recount effort incredible and noting that the president-elect has not ruled out pursuing a criminal investigation into his former Democratic rival.Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway told CNN s State of the Nation that Trump has not ruled out a criminal probe into Clinton s use of a private email server as secretary of state, even though Trump recently indicated he d rather not do so.Conway said, He s been incredibly gracious and magnanimous to Secretary Clinton at a time when, for whatever reason, her folks are saying they will join in a recount to try to somehow undo the 70-plus electoral votes that he beat her by. She added, The idea that we are going to drag this out now where the president-elect has been incredibly magnanimous to the Clintons and to the Obamas is pretty incredible. Trump took to Twitter Sunday morning to condemn the Green-Party backed recount effort as a scam. Clinton s team joined the effort in Wisconsin after Green Party nominee Jill Stein filed paperwork formally requesting a recount. AP | 0 |
21,970 | DELEGATES FOR DUMMIES: How They’re Awarded…And How Many Your Candidate Needs To Win [VIDEO] | Stop counting the votes! Your candidates nomination based strictly on the number of delegates they are able to obtain from each state following their elections.WATCH this great video explaining how Hillary can receive less votes, but still win with super delegates:The nominating contests that will determine the Democratic and Republican nominees for the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election are about to enter a critical phase. On March 1, known as Super Tuesday, primaries or caucuses are being held in about a dozen states, and they could be turning points in both parties.But the key to winning the nomination for each party is ultimately not about the popular vote. It is about securing the number of delegates needed to win the nomination at each party s convention July 18-21 in Cleveland for the Republicans and July 25-28 in Philadelphia for the Democrats.Like so many things in politics, there are twists and turns in how the popular vote is used to select each party s candidate.The following is a guide to the nominating process:Q: Is the delegate selection process the same for the Republican and Democratic parties?A: No. The parties set their own rules. One thing that is the same is that at each party convention, a candidate needs to reach only a simple majority of the delegate votes to win the nomination.Q: How many delegates are there?A: The Democratic convention will be attended by about 4,763 delegates, with 2,382 delegates needed to win the nomination. The Republican convention will be attended by 2,472 delegates, with 1,237 delegates needed to win.Q: I keep hearing about superdelegates. Are they different from other delegates? Do both the Republicans and Democrats have superdelegates?A: Superdelegates, officially known as unpledged delegates, are a sort of wild card in the nominating process, but only the Democrats have them.The category was created for the 1984 Democratic convention, and according to political scientists, they are a legacy of the 1980 convention when there was a fight for the nomination between President Jimmy Carter, who was seeking a second term in the White House, and Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. Members of Congress were frustrated by their lack of influence, because delegates elected to support one candidate could not switch to support another. So Democratic members of the House of Representatives led an effort to win a role for themselves. That resulted in the creation of superdelegates. Unlike other delegates, superdelegates may change what candidate they are supporting right up to the convention.There is no fixed number of superdelegates because the group is defined by various categories whose members change from one election cycle to another. Here is who gets to be a superdelegate:All Democratic members of the House of Representatives and the Senate; the Democratic governors; the Democratic president and vice president of the United States; former Democratic presidents and vice presidents; former Democratic leaders of the U.S. Senate; former Democratic speakers of the House and former Democratic minority leaders. Throw in the members of the Democratic National Committee and the former chairs of the DNC and you finally have the whole pool of superdelegates.Q: What about the other delegates? Do they get to choose which candidate to support?A: Both the Democratic and Republican parties send delegates to their conventions based on the popular vote in the primary elections and caucuses held in each of the 50 states. But the parties have different rules on how delegates are allotted to a candidate.The Democratic Party applies uniform rules to all states. In each state, delegates are allocated in proportion to the percentage of the primary or caucus vote in each district. But a candidate must win at least 15 percent of the vote to be allocated any delegates.The Republican Party lets states determine their own rules, although it does dictate some things. Some states award delegates proportionate to the popular vote, although most such states have a minimum percentage that a candidate must reach to win any delegates. Some other states use the winner-take-all method, in which the candidate with the highest percentage of the popular vote is awarded all the delegates. Other states use a combination of the two methods.States that use the proportionate method may instead use the winner-take-all method if one candidate wins more than 50 percent of the popular vote.In addition, the Republican Party requires that all states with nominating contests held between March 1 and March 14 use the proportional method, meaning that all the states holding votes on Super Tuesday will have to award delegates proportionally.Q: What happens to delegates if a candidate drops out of the race?A: Another good question, because we have certainly seen that happen this year.For the Democratic Party, in every state, delegates are reallocated to the remaining candidates.Nomination About Delegates, Not VotesThe power brokers of the Democrat party are not about to let crazy uncle Bernie represent them in the presidential election this year. He is anxious to flatten the economic map in the nation and go much further than Obama has in stealing from the rich and destroying the wealth generating engine of the country. Perhaps the elite wish things to do down a bit differently than what Sanders has in mind.It turns out that the New Hampshire primary, which Bernie won in a landslide, will probably award him fewer delegates than Hillary receives.Sanders won 60 percent of the vote, but thanks to the Democratic Party s nominating system, he leaves the Granite State with at least 13 delegates while she leaves with at least 15 delegates.New Hampshire has 24 pledged delegates, which are allotted based on the popular vote. Sanders has 13, and Clinton has 9, with 2 currently allotted to neither.Under Democratic National Committee rules, New Hampshire also has 8 superdelegates, party officials who are free to commit to whomever they like, regardless of how their state votes. Their votes count the same as delegates won through the primary.New Hampshire has 8 superdelegates, 6 of which are committed to Hillary Clinton, giving her a total of 15 delegates from New Hampshire as of Wednesday at 9 a.m.The two remaining superdelegates remain uncommitted, so Hillary actually comes out ahead in overall delegate count. Clinton has 394 delegates that includes both super delegates and ones that are picked up in primary elections, while Bernie now has only 42. In other words the fix is in, and Clinton will absolutely be the Democrat nominee for president unless she is indicted for her illegal acts dealing with top secret government documents.But as with the assigning of delegates, it seems that the will of the people, along with their clearly declared votes, will be ignored and the coronation will still take place. As some of my friends like to say, Hillary for Prison, 2016! May it be so.For the Republican Party, it varies by state. In some states, delegates are required to stick with their original candidate at least through the first ballot at the Republican National Convention. In some other states, if a candidate drops out, his or her delegates may immediately pledge to another candidate. There is also a middle ground in which those delegates are reallocated to the remaining candidates. Via: NYPost | 0 |
21,971 | Ferrer victory was my best match, says Murray | MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Andy Murray thinks he played his best tennis of the tournament during his Australian Open quarter-final victory over David Ferrer on Wednesday after a tough few days when he was distracted by his father-in-law’s illness. The 28-year-old Scot came through a three-hour, 20-minute tussle with the Spanish eighth seed 6-3 6-7(5) 6-2 6-3 to take his place in the semi-finals for the sixth time in seven years. His win contributed to the best week for Britain at a Grand Slam for nearly 40 years, with Johanna Konta into the last four of the women’s draw and Murray’s brother Jamie into the last four of the men’s doubles with Brazil’s Bruno Soares. “I think today was probably the best match I played, especially in the second and third set. I started hitting the ball better from the back of the court. “Obviously the last few days have been tough and maybe I hadn’t played my best tennis and managed to get through.” Murray endured a worrisome few days after Nigel Sears, the father of his wife Kim and coach of Ana Ivanovic, collapsed in the stands at the Rod Laver Arena and was taken to hospital on Saturday. Sears was discharged on Sunday after being examined by a cardiologist and given the all-clear to join his pregnant daughter back home in Britain, leaving Murray free to focus on his tennis. The former Wimbledon champion, four times a losing finalist at Melbourne Park, has now reached the semi-finals or better at four of his last five grand slams. “Obviously I want to win these events. That’s why I’m still playing. After a tough year in 2014, I think I’m now sort of established again at the top of the game and giving myself chances. “That’s all I can keep doing. And working hard. I’ll give it my best in the next few days.” Murray will play Milos Raonic, who beat Gael Monfils in the last quarter-final, as he bids to reach a fifth Australian Open final. Reflecting on the strong British showing, Murray said: “It’s pretty good for us to have people competing in almost all of the competitions.” “It’s been a good Australian Open so far. Hopefully we can keep it going.” | 1 |
21,972 | BURN! SEBASTIAN GORKA HUMILIATES MSNBC On Use of ‘Radical Islamic Terrorism’ [Video] | It s probably not the wisest decision to argue with Dr. Sebastian Gorka about the use of the phrase radical Islamic terrorism especially if you have absolutely no idea what you re talking about in the first place.Dr. Sebastian Gorka defended the Trump administration s use of the phrase radical Islamic terrorism in an appearance on MSNBC Tuesday. We will call it radical Islamic terrorism. We will target the ideology, and we will call them out for being evil, Gorka stated. MSNBC s Ali Velshi and Stephanie Ruhle then tried to criticize Gorka s use of the phrase.Velshi asked Gorka how it would help stop terror attacks if the White House called the problem radical Islamic terrorism. Gorka then engaged a clever metaphor to help them understand. Gorka argued, If you, God forbid, caught cancer, and the hospital was forbidden from calling it cancer and said, You have the flu. Go home and hydrate and take some aspirins, would you actually have the right treatment?.' Ruhle responded, smugly, that there s still no cure for cancer and that it doesn t matter what you call it if it will still kill you.Velshi then accused Gorka of not having a good answer. Gorka fired back by saying that if you misdiagnose anything, whether it s a serious disease or a serious international geopolitical threat, you will never solve it. The White House Adviser then criticized the Obama administration for blaming this geopolitical issue on economic conditions and societal disenfranchisement It is about people having an ideology that is evil, and it has to be destroyed. Read more: The Gateway Pundit | 0 |
21,973 | Trump administration wants clean debt ceiling hike: CNBC | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House budget director Mick Mulvaney has disclosed that the entire Trump administration is now on board with a “clean” debt ceiling increase, without spending cuts, a CNBC reporter said on Thursday in a tweet. The reporter, John Harwood, also tweeted that Mulvaney said the administration will not raise taxes on wealthy individuals. | 1 |
21,974 | YALE Will Tack New Fee Onto Already Outrageous Tuition Costs To Help Fight Phony Climate Change | It s amazing the sheep mentality of students attending a school that should be promoting individual thought and encouraging students to not buy into propaganda without first exploring the facts.The price of carbon dioxide emissions could be the next thing to drive up the cost of a university education, as Ivy Leaguers at Yale plan to set precedent by becoming the first school in the U.S. to enact a campus-wide carbon charge after signing a pledge at the White House earlier this week.More than 200 universities attended a White House climate change summit Thursday to sign a pledge on taking steps to transition to a low-carbon economy and reduce the effects of global warming. Many scientists blame greenhouse gas emissions, primarily carbon dioxide, for raising the Earth s temperature, causing more severe weather, droughts and coastal flooding.President Obama has been enlisting academic institutions and businesses to reduce their carbon emissions in the runup to a major United Nations climate conference in Paris Nov. 30. Obama intends to agree to a deal there that would commit the U.S. to reducing its emissions 26-28 percent by 2030.Thursday s pledge reads: Today our school pledges to accelerate the transition to low-carbon energy while enhancing sustainable and resilient practices across our campuses. Although it does not obligate campuses to enact so-called carbon charges, Yale University has chosen to begin testing out the idea this year.On Friday, Yale said the pledge renews the university s commitment to maintaining a leadership role on climate change. It notes that in 2005, the university established itself as a global leader for climate change action with an aggressive target of reducing greenhouse gases by 43 percent by 2020. And to that end, it announced a series of practices that includes the launch of a campus-wide, internal carbon charge experiment. Based on a report issued earlier this year by Yale, the charge appears to be derived from an economic model the White House has developed called the social cost of carbon metric. Republicans have criticized the administration s use of the metric in creating costly regulations to reduce emissions, saying the White House has not been transparent in the creation of the metric. In September 2014, Yale convened the Presidential Carbon Charge Task Force to consider whether it would be feasible and effective to institute a university-wide carbon charge, the university said. Based on the task force s recommendation, and consistent with Yale s policy of leading by example on sustainability, Yale will soon announce a campus-wide plan for testing internal carbon charge mechanisms. The task force said Yale would implement a pilot project on carbon pricing. The task force s report said the charge on carbon dioxide emissions would provide incentives for decision makers to reduce reliance on carbon-intensive activities. Via: Washington Examiner | 0 |
21,975 | Image of the United States has plunged under Trump, survey shows | BERLIN (Reuters) - The image of the United States has deteriorated sharply across the globe under President Donald Trump and an overwhelming majority of people in other countries have no confidence in his ability to lead, a survey from the Pew Research Center showed. Five months into Trump’s presidency, the survey spanning 37 nations showed U.S. favorability ratings in the rest of the world slumping to 49 percent from 64 percent at the end of Barack Obama’s eight years in the White House. But the falls were far steeper in some of America’s closest allies, including U.S. neighbors Mexico and Canada, and European partners like Germany and Spain. Trump took office in January pledging to put “America First”. Since then he has pressed ahead with plans to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, announced he will pull out of the Paris climate accord, and accused countries including Canada, Germany and China of unfair trade practices. On his first foreign trip as president in early June, Trump received warm welcomes in Saudi Arabia and Israel, but a cool reception from European partners, with whom he clashed over NATO spending, climate and trade. Just 30 percent of Mexicans now say they have a favorable view of the United States, down from 66 percent at the end of the Obama era. In Canada and Germany, favorability ratings slid by 22 points, to 43 percent and 35 percent, respectively. In many European countries, the ratings were comparable to those seen at the end of the presidency of George W. Bush, whose 2003 invasion of Iraq was deeply unpopular. “The drop in favorability ratings for the United States is widespread,” the Pew report said. “The share of the public with a positive view of the U.S. has plummeted in a diverse set of countries from Latin America, North America, Europe, Asia and Africa”. The survey, based on the responses of 40,447 people and conducted between Feb. 16 and May 8 this year, showed even deeper mistrust of Trump himself, with only 22 percent of those surveyed saying they had confidence he would do the right thing in world affairs, compared to 64 percent who trusted Obama. Both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, with confidence ratings of 27 percent and 28 percent respectively, scored higher than Trump. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, with a confidence rating of 42 percent, scored highest among the four leaders in the survey. The countries with the lowest confidence in Trump were Mexico, at 5 percent and Spain at 7 percent. The only two countries where ratings improved compared to Obama were Russia, where confidence in the U.S. president surged to 53 percent from 11 percent, and Israel, where it rose 7 points to 56 percent. Globally, 75 percent of respondents described Trump as “arrogant”, 65 percent as “intolerant” and 62 percent as “dangerous”. A majority of 55 percent also described him as a “strong leader”. The survey showed widespread disapproval of Trump’s signature policy proposals, with 76 percent unhappy with his plan to build the wall on the border with Mexico, 72 percent against his withdrawal from major trade agreements and 62 percent opposed to his plans to restrict travel to the U.S. from some majority-Muslim countries. On the positive side, the survey showed that 58 percent of respondents had a positive view of Americans in general. And in many regions of the world, a majority or plurality of respondents said they expected relations with the United States to stay roughly the same in spite of Trump. | 1 |
21,976 | Right Wing Fear Profiteers Warn Of Coming ‘Civil War’ Over Scalia’s ‘Murder’ | Honestly, while Republicans may be quaking in their boots over the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, right wing con artists must be squealing in glee. The sudden death of Scalia is a veritable gold mine of fear and anger that the conservative entertainment complex can mine for years to come. Despite there being absolutely nothing suspicious about a 79 year old overweight man that smoked and drank dying of a heart attack, the right is building a delightful cottage industry of Scalia conspiracies and warning of the all the horrors to come because he died:On his most recent Prophetic Perspective on Current Events broadcast, right-wing televangelist Rick Joyner declared that something smells like a rat in the recent death of Justice Antonin Scalia and warned that America could descend into civil war over efforts to replace him on the Supreme Court.Joyner said that you can t help but think that something suspicious is going on regarding Scalia s death since no autopsy was performed. They rushed him in there and started the embalming process like they didn t want an autopsy, he said. I m not saying that he was murdered, but you can t help but wonder. Joyner went on to say that just as the Supreme Court s Dred Scott decision eventually plunged this nation into the Civil War, the court s recent marriage equality decision is likewise tearing this nation apart and could soon result in a violent conflict.Of course, the Lawd JAYSUZ Christ will save you from the coming civil war and collapse of civilization but ONLY if you donate $49.99 a month to HIS servants on Earth to prove how much you love JAYZUS!Hundreds of other sleazy fear profiteers are following suit and whipping the right wing into a frenzy of paranoia that the liberals have begun their War on Murika and may be coming to get YOU any time now! But not if you buy this doomsday prepper set for 5 easy installments of $99.99!But all of their disgusting exploitation of the stupid and gullible, the right does have a point about the impending violence. Even if Obama is forced to appoint a moderate conservative to the Court, that tilts it sharply away from the far right. Even worse, all signs point to a Democratic president and Congress in 2017 and Anthony Kennedy will be 80 years old next year. With a 5-4 left-leaning Court, everything the right has built in the last 30 years with the help of massive judicial activism will fall apart.With scumbags like Rick Joyner happily egging them to make a quick buck, there is literally zero chance we will not see an increase in domestic terrorism as the conservative base loses their freedom to oppress everyone else. Murika.Featured image via Motherjones | 0 |
21,977 | Senate approves Carson for housing secretary job | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday to confirm retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet. Carson, who ran for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination and later endorsed Trump, becomes the only African-American in the Trump Cabinet. The Senate confirmed his appointment by a vote of 58 to 41. Carson was sworn in by Vice President Mike Pence later on Thursday. During his confirmation hearing in January, Carson, 65, told the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs that he would monitor any potential conflicts of interest between his agency and properties controlled by Trump. He also told lawmakers he was fit to lead HUD, an agency whose mission includes helping the poor get housing, even though he has sometimes criticized its work. | 1 |
21,978 | LEAKED DOCUMENTS: GEORGE SOROS GAVE 600K To Pro-Refugee Groups To Influence “Attitudes” | Leaked documents from left-wing financier George Soros s Open Society Foundations continue to reveal the extent to which the group has influenced the political response to Europe s refugee crisis. Internal documents show OSF used $600,000 in reserve funding in March 2016 to bring pro-refugee positions into the political mainstream. Jordi Vaquer, OSF s regional director for Europe, approved a $600,000 proposal entitled, Countering the anti-migrant rhetoric and toxic narratives surrounding migration in Europe. According to OSF documents, half of the $600,000 would go towards lobbying efforts. All $600,000 came from OSF s Europe Reserve Fund. A summary of the proposal notes that the proposed reserve fund allocation will allow for additional resources to be allocated towards countering xenophobic attitudes in Europe, move parts of the political mainstream towards more pro-refugee positions, and build constituencies around a more progressive approach to migration and asylum. Read more: Daily Caller | 0 |
21,979 | Chicago launches ad campaign to counter Trump's immigration efforts | CHICAGO (Reuters) - Chicago is starting an advertising campaign to reassure immigrants that they are welcome in the third-largest U.S. city, in a show of defiance to a crackdown by President Donald Trump on people who have entered the country illegally. Mayor Rahm Emanuel said on Monday he was not worried about the “One Chicago” campaign upsetting the Trump administration. Starting this week, signs will appear at more than 200 locations including digital billboards, trains and newspaper racks with photos of Chicago immigrants highlighting the diversity of their backgrounds. Radio and TV spots will start this week with similar stories. A new website, onechi.org, features links for free legal aid and “know your rights” training.The campaign’s slogan is “Three million residents, three million stories, one Chicago.” The mayor’s office said the campaign was costing taxpayers nothing. The advertising was designed on a pro-bono basis by the ad agency Ogilvy Chicago and uses city-owned public-service advertising space. “I’m not worried because we’re not only on firm legal ground but firm moral ground,” Emanuel said. “We’re all immigrants and we’re not going to let them divide us and say that person is not allowed here.” Trump already has threatened to withhold federal funds from cities such as Chicago that offer sanctuary to illegal immigrants who commit no serious crimes. The Justice Department in April singled out Chicago and New York, saying they were “crumbling under the weight of illegal immigration and violent crime,” even though experts say illegal immigration had little to do with Chicago’s spike in murders. Last month, a U.S. judge blocked a portion of Trump’s executive order that sought to withhold most federal funds from so-called sanctuary cities as part of the administration’s efforts to toughen immigration enforcement. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memo on Monday saying that only Department of Justice and Homeland Security grants would be at risk for cities that “willfully refuse” to comply with federal law. Sanctuary cities generally offer safe harbor to illegal immigrants and often do not use municipal funds or resources to advance the enforcement of federal immigration laws. Emanuel, whose grandparents came to the United States as immigrants from Moldova, said the campaign was meant to reassure those feeling frightened about deportation. Chicago officials estimates there are about 300,000 undocumented immigrants in the city. “I see it with kids all across Chicago – they are nervous about their parents and nervous about their own safety because of the government and the rhetoric,” he said. | 1 |
21,980 | Kid Rock hints online he will run for U.S. Senate | DETROIT (Reuters) - Recording star Kid Rock, an outspoken supporter of Republican President Donald Trump, hinted in website and social media messages on Wednesday that he intends to run for the U.S. Senate in 2018, promising a “major announcement” to come soon. The 46-year-old Michigan native drew attention on Twitter and his Facebook page to a “Kid Rock ‘18 for U.S. Senate” website. It featured a photo of the goateed singer-songwriter wearing a leather jacket, dark glasses and white fedora, seated in a plush, star-spangled chair beside a stuffed deer above the tagline: “Are you scared?” The site also displays images of a T-shirt, baseball cap and bumper sticker emblazoned with the campaign logo, “Kid Rock for US Senate” and a box of alternating slogans, including, “In Rock We Trust,” “Party to the People” and “You Never Met a Politician Quite Like Me.” “I have a ton of emails and texts asking me if this website is real ... The answer is an absolute YES,” he said on his verified Twitter account. “Stay tuned, I will have a major announcement in the near future.” Reached by email, the musician’s spokesman, Kirt Webster, referred only to Rock’s Facebook page, which bore the same message. His music label, Warner Bros Records, also posted a website offering sales of Kid Rock for U.S. Senate merchandise. Born Robert James Ritchie in the Detroit suburb of Romeo, Michigan, he rose to fame in 1998 as his debut album “Devil Without a Cause” sold some 14 million copies. He gained additional celebrity through his courtship of actress Pamela Anderson and their brief marriage in the 2000s. While no mention was made in Wednesday’s online postings about Rock’s political affiliation or in which state he would run, he presumably would seek to challenge Michigan’s Democratic incumbent senator, Debbie Stabenow, who is up for re-election in 2018. The Capitol Hill-based newspaper Roll Call reported that Rock’s name surfaced as a possible candidate earlier this month during a state Republican Party convention in Michigan, which Trump carried in the 2016 presidential race, though no official decisions were announced. Stabenow seemed to shrug off the prospect of a political challenge from Rock, saying in a Twitter post: “I know we both share a love of music. I concede he’s better at playing guitar and I’ll keep doing what I do best: fighting for Michigan.” According to Roll Call, Rock endorsed Republican Mitt Romney for president in 2012 and initially supported Ben Carson for the Republican nomination in 2016 but switched to Trump when the former reality-TV star became the party’s nominee. Afterward, Rock released a line of pro-Trump merchandise, including a T-shirt that read “God Guns & Trump.” In April, Kid Rock joined fellow rocker and conservative activist Ted Nugent and former Alaska Governor and onetime Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin for a White House visit and dinner with Trump. Kid Rock would not be the first showbiz figure to make a leap into politics. Besides Trump, he would follow the likes of singer Sonny Bono, who served as a U.S. congressman from California during the 1990s; pro-wrestler and actor Jesse “The Body” Ventura, elected Minnesota governor in 1998; and comedian Al Franken, now serving his second U.S. Senate term from Minnesota. | 1 |
21,981 | Pro-refugee German mayor stabbed in suspected political attack | BERLIN (Reuters) - The mayor of a small town in western Germany known for pursuing liberal migrant policies was stabbed in the neck at a kebab shop on Monday evening and seriously hurt in an attack that officials suspected was politically motivated. The conservative mayor of Altena, Andreas Hollstein, appeared at a news conference on Tuesday to describe the attack which left him with a 15 cm long cut on his neck, covered in a white plaster. I feared for my life, said the 57-year-old mayor who has received a German integration prize from Chancellor Angela Merkel. He said the attack took place in an atmosphere of growing social tension and hate. The attacker asked him if he was the mayor, before saying: You let me die of thirst and let 200 refugees into Altena, Hollstein recalled. Then the man plunged a 30 cm long kitchen knife into him. Police told reporters that the suspect, identified only as Werner S., had been arrested. They believed his motives were xenophobic and political, although they took it to be a spontaneous attack, adding he had alcohol in his system. The attack comes as Germany struggles to deal with an increasingly fractured society. Many voters are still angry about the influx of more than 1.6 million people seeking asylum in the two years to the end of 2016. In a September election, some 13 percent of Germans voted for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) which campaigned hard against Merkel s open-door migrant policy. It brings us no further forward if we transmit political views with hate, Hollstein said. He said his wife had warned him about possible attacks due to his policies but he was determined to continue his work. I will push for refugees and for other people in a weaker social situation, he vowed, thanking the owner of the shop and his son for probably saving his life. Under his leadership, the town of Altena, with 17,000 residents and 450 refugees, has taken in more migrants than it was allocated. Politicians including Merkel expressed their shock. I am horrified by the knife attack on the mayor Andreas Hollstein - and very relieved that he can already be back with his family. Thanks also to those who helped him, Merkel said via her spokesman on Twitter. The attack is reminiscent of the stabbing two years ago of a candidate for mayor of Cologne, Henriette Reker, in an anti-refugee attack. She was seriously hurt but went on to win the election and become mayor. | 1 |
21,982 | Trump proposes 15 percent business tax rate: White House summary | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Wednesday proposed slashing the U.S. tax rate on corporate and pass-through business profits to 15 percent from 35 percent or more, while also offering tax cuts to average Americans in a rough outline of his tax policy goals. A one-page summary of his proposals, released at a White House briefing, said Trump also wants to reduce the number of tax brackets to three from seven, double the standard deduction that Americans can claim on their tax returns and repeal the estate tax and alternative minimum tax. Under U.S. law, only Congress can make major tax law changes. Lawmakers initially greeted Trump’s plan as a starting point for further discussion on overhauling the tax code. | 1 |
21,983 | mann verhaftet nachdem er in singlebörse komplizin zum pferdestehlen suchte | zu wild geschaukelt spielendes kind stürzt in benachbartes hirschgehege miros love klose stellt neue freundin vor einmal drin alles hin elefant kauft bei real viel was er anbohrt fleißiger heimwerker in seenot kölsch besser schnell trinken bevor es alt wird keine disco sohn vater debattiert nicht wegen partyverbot salamitiktak ferrero lüftet geheimnis um neue dragees mit wurstgeschmack nur scheibchenweise klysod tsc oga tom huh evw adl jetzt bestellen der postillonnewstickerkalender nur der postillon newsticker artikel teilen | 0 |
21,984 | Exclusive: U.S. envoys told to be coy on re-engaging in Paris climate deal - cable | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. diplomats should sidestep questions from foreign governments on what it would take for the Trump administration to re-engage in the global Paris climate agreement, according to a diplomatic cable seen by Reuters. The cable, sent by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to embassies on Friday, also said diplomats should make clear the United States wants to help other countries use fossil fuels. In the wake of President Donald Trump’s announcement in June that the United States would withdraw from the accord, the cable tells diplomats to expect foreign government representatives to ask questions like: “Does the United States have a climate change policy?” and “Is the administration advocating the use of fossil fuels over renewable energy?” If asked, for example, “What is the process for consideration of re-engagement in the Paris Agreement?”, the answer should be vague: “We are considering a number of factors. I do not have any information to share on the nature or timing of the process,” the cable advises. A U.S. State Department official declined to comment on the cable. (Click here for a link to the cable: here ) Trump, a Republican, had campaigned on a promise to “cancel” the Paris deal, saying he believed it would cost the U.S. economy trillions of dollars while leaving developing nations such as China unfettered. In a sharp difference with the previous administration of President Barack Obama, a Democrat, Trump has several times called climate change a hoax. In June, Trump left the door open to re-engagement if terms improved. The United States will “start to negotiate, and we will see if we can make a deal that’s fair,” he said. The State Department guidance clarifies that right now, “there are no plans to seek to re-negotiate or amend the text of the Paris Agreement.” But it adds: “The President is sincere in his commitment to look for a path to re-engage that takes into account his concerns for U.S. economic growth and energy security.” The Paris accord, agreed by nearly 200 countries in 2015, seeks to limit planetary warming by curbing global emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that scientists believe drive global warming. The United States, under the Obama administration, had promised to cut emissions as much as 28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025. Separate from the diplomatic cable, the Trump administration is reviewing a draft report written by scientists across 13 federal government agencies that shows the effects of climate change pose dire, near-term threats to the United States. The Environmental Protection Agency declined to comment on the draft, which The New York Times published on Monday. The report puts the White House in the awkward position of either clearing the report’s findings or editing them. The diplomatic guidance makes clear that the United States intends to attend global climate summits during the prolonged process of withdrawing from the Paris deal to protect U.S. interests. The next summit is in November. A U.S. official said a major priority in these talks would be to beat back attempts to have separate standards in the guidance on emissions cuts for rich and poor nations - long a sticking point in negotiations. “There’s certainly nothing in the policies of this administration that would make us think that we should be acting differently,” the official said on condition of anonymity to discuss the internal memo. The cable also anticipates questions over why the United States has changed its policy to make it easier for global development banks such as the World Bank to finance coal-fired power projects. In 2013 the Obama administration said the United States would oppose most coal projects, guidance since altered by the Trump administration. “The new principles will allow the (United States) the flexibility to approve, as appropriate, a broad range of power projects, including the generation of power using clean and efficient fossil fuels and renewable energy,” the cable said. | 1 |
21,985 | City Of Chicago Just Told Trump To Go F*ck Himself With A Huge Golden Statue (IMAGES) | Donald Trump s giant tower in Chicago now has a very appropriate neighbor a sign that puts it (and Trump) into context.Our so-called President has recently found himself the subject of ridicule for hanging up fake TIME Magazine covers at his properties in an effort to keep his massively undeserved ego satisfied. Recently, it was discovered that he invented a fake Civil War battleground to make one of his golf courses seem more important. He screams FAKE NEWS about real facts and calls lies the truth. Nothing about him (outside of his hatred for all that is good and decent) is real and now there s a sign to say it.Chicago artist Scott Reeder created a giant (appropriately golden) statue that says simply REAL FAKE, which is on loan to the city of Chicago and was placed there as part of their Year of Public Art program. It sits across the river from Trump Tower in the perfect location for a great photo:Art sculpture installed on Chicago River infront of Trump Tower. pic.twitter.com/X934EUxhKj Erin (@etray2) June 29, 2017According to city spokeswoman Christine Carrino, any insult is entirely in the eye of the beholder but what s wonderful about art is that it is completely open to interpretation. The spot has become very popular with the extreme majority of Americans who happen to be in Chicago sightseeing. And why not? It looks quite nice at night: I LOVE Chicago!!! #DumpTrump #TrumpSucks #?A post shared by brandon (@brandonbbbbbbb) on Jun 28, 2017 at 7:31pm PDTDonald Trump is a joke a really bad, really dangerous joke that is popular with Nazis, racists, and other bigots and needs to be stopped. It s good to see the city of Chicago recognize that.A week after the sign was installed, Trump decided to send federal agents into the city for unrelated but unfortunately timed reasons. It almost, given the circumstances, seems like his decision to make good on his January threat to send in the feds was somehow related to this joke at his expense. But he wouldn t be that petty, would he?No, seriously, would he?Featured image via screengrab | 0 |
21,986 | Michigan Militia Vows To ‘Take Up Arms’ To Protect The People Of Flint From Further Poisoning | You know the water crisis in Flint, Michigan is bad when a group of white, anti-government militiamen decide that they have to protect a minority community. Last week, the Genesee County Volunteer Militia (GCVM) put a call out for like-minded patriots to join them in a protest against the tyrannical government in Flint: To help our effort, The GCVM are requesting a show of support on Sunday, January 24, 2016 from Patriots and Patriot groups across the land as a united front, standing with all citizens of the City of Flint, MI. We ask Militia, Oath Keepers, III%, Home Guard, and all other like groups to wear your uniforms and insignia to this event. All others are welcome to join us as well! We ask that you only wear side arms and not long rifles, this is not about our 2nd Amendment, this is about the infringement on the good people of Flint. . God Bless the Republic. The Detroit Free Press reports that about thirty armed militiamen dressed in fatigues showed up for the event on Sunday and handed out clean water to the people in the community.Maj. Matt Krol, Executive Officer/Information Officer of the GCVM said that his group did not believe it was a racial issue and explained, We re here to defend this community. We re not going to allow (the government) to step on the people of Flint any longer. He added: If it means having to take up arms in defense we will do that as well. Okay, a couple of things here need to be addressed. First of all, thousands of people would not be sick and ten people would still be alive if Flint was a majority white, upper-class community. Race very much played a part in what happened, but so did their socioeconomic status. As we know, the two often go hand in hand.Secondly, arming themselves is not going to make the water in the community clean. That is just nonsense and it is the kind of insanity that makes the rest of us look at them and think that they are a bunch of nuts even when they are trying to do something good.When this story first popped up across my Facebook newsfeed I thought, Ahhh here come the racist gun nuts trying to make a name for themselves on the backs of the minority community in Flint. But as it turns out they were joined by African-Americans as well. Twenty-seven-year-old, La Mont Williams of Chicago defended GCVM and said: There s really no motivation other than the people of Flint need help and we re in the position where we can help People need water. You can t go three days without drinking water and if you can come out here and help, I ve been met with nothing but love, my little brother has been met with nothing but love and everyone seems to appreciate just two guys coming from Chicago and helping out. And I m pretty sure, the more the merrier. The militiamen definitely deserve to be commended for their work this weekend. While other groups like them often give the movement a bad name, they were really only interested in helping the desperate people in Flint.Bravo. Watch:Featured image: video screenshot | 0 |
21,987 | That Constitution The Bundy Terrorists Tote Around Is A Perverted Version Of The Real Thing (VIDEO) | You may have seen the pocket version of the United States Constitution the Bundy Bunch carries around. The distinctive picture of George Washington on the cover is a clear giveaway that not only do these imbeciles not understand the laws of our land, they rely on the interpretations of a man whose thoughts on the hallowed document have been compared to a warm bucket of spit. It s a convenient version for the right-wing terrorist; it retains the original spelling and punctuation from the 18th century, leaving it completely intact and just the way they like it. Read between the lines, however, and you ll find the thoughts and analysis of a man who once called President Eisenhower a Soviet agent. His name is W. Cleon Skousen, once referred to by TIME Magazine as an exemplar of the right-wing ultras. Skousen s commentary has long been mocked as an attempt to connect the constitution to religion, making it a favorite among zealots and meatheads like the Oregon patriots. It holds dear the idea that America was founded as a Christian Nation and includes such revolutionary insights as this:-W. Cleon SkousenIt s not only his own thoughts added that make Skousen s pamphlet such a perversion of the actual constitution but the thoughts of some of the founders themselves, taken completely out of context and used as talking points to sell a disturbing message. For example, John Adams, who said, Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people, was taken from a letter to militia intended to see them do more good deeds for the people.The pamphlet, available for 35 cents, has zero respect in the educated world. Scholars have repudiated its teachings for decades and its author ended up dying in obscurity without ever achieving his goal of convincing people who government was of the people, by the people, and for God.Ammon Bundy, who has been photographed both at the current occupation and at the Bundy ranch incident in 2014, had the principles of the Skousen Constitution ingrained in him by his father, Cliven Bundy, who told the LA Times: It s something I ve always shared with everybody and I carry it with me all the time. That s where I get most of my information from. What we re trying to do is teach the true principles of the proper form of government. The proper form of government is apparently one discredited right-wing nutjob s distorted views of a document that has been proven time and time again to have nothing to do with religion. The modern conservative just loves it, however, because it embodies everything they believe in. With the Skousen atrocity of critical thought in their pockets, they are prepared to do whatever it takes to see that they can do whatever they want while denying actual constitutional rights to people who disagree with them.The terrorists in Oregon have decided to use one very specific portion of the pamphlet that pertains to The Enclave Clause, which they believe means that the federal government cannot own land. They believe that because it says it, right there in black in white, in the one and only Skousen mockery of the constitution.Here s Bundy Buffoon Jon Ritzheimer, making a ridiculous argument for the Enclave Clause, which he clearly doesn t understand, while holding his very own copy of this perverted pamphlet:https://www.facebook.com/scrappyphx.rider/videos/472699262917879/You can read about the ACTUAL meaning of the Enclave Clause HERE.It s absolutely amazing that so many people have decided to be influenced by one discredited man s interpretation of a document that is over 200 years old. While this is America and everyone is entitled to their opinion, Article 3 Section 2 pretty clearly reserves the right to decide matters of law and equity arising under the Constitution to the Supreme Court, who typically (though not always) rely on a couple of centuries of precedent, not the opinion of one asshole, to make their decisions. They sit in a really big building in Washington DC that is most definitely owned by the federal government.The bottom line is, these people have been seriously misguided by a strange and lonely man whose views have been circulated among extremists and laughed at by scholars since the 1960s.Featured image via screen capture | 0 |
21,988 | South Korean military fires warning shots at North Korean troops searching for defector: Yonhap | SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean guards fired around 20 warning shots at North Korean troops searching for a defector who fled across the heavily militarized border between the two countries on Thursday, South Korea s Yonhap news agency reported. | 1 |
21,989 | U.S. Congress panel postpones work on Puerto Rico debt bill | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Legislation to help Puerto Rico climb out of a debilitating debt crisis hit new resistance in the U.S. Congress on Wednesday, prompting Republicans to cancel a planned work session that was set for Thursday on the measure. The House Natural Resources Committee’s planned “markup” of legislation Republicans unveiled late on Tuesday was being called off, panel Chairman Rob Bishop announced in a statement. He said the Obama administration was still negotiating provisions and that it would be “unfair to all members to force a vote” with the talks ongoing. One congressional aide said the abrupt move was being taken because there was not enough support among panel members to get the legislation approved and sent to the full House of Representatives for debate. It was unclear when the committee would reschedule a work session. Earlier on Wednesday, a U.S. Treasury official told the committee that the U.S. Congress must allow Puerto Rico to erase a share of its debt or investors will face a long, uncertain fight to recover their money from the cash-strapped island. Republicans who control Congress outlined a plan this week to help Puerto Rico write off billions of dollars in debt if an agreement with creditors is out of reach. That plan would create a forum for investors to negotiate with Puerto Rico officials while the island’s government tries to curb deficit spending that has created $70 billion in debt. Such a plan would signal to Wall Street that the Puerto Rico financial crisis is manageable, said Antonio Weiss who is handling the issue for the Treasury Department. Without congressional action, Weiss said, investors face years of combat in the courts. “Chaos will ensue and the (Puerto Rico) economy will face another lost decade,” he told the Natural Resources panel of the House of Representatives. As a territory of the United States, Puerto Rico answers to Congress and its people are American citizens. Roughly 2.5 percent of the island’s population is migrating to the mainland each year to escape the financial crisis, Weiss said. House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday said the Congressional rescue plan was the right move but many Republicans disagree. Wall Street would be rattled if Congress rewrote the terms of Puerto Rico debt and that could sour investor appetite for other municipal bonds, said Representative Jeff Duncan of South Carolina. “I believe we’re going down a slippery slope here,” Duncan said on Wednesday at a hearing on the proposal. Rather than meddle in markets, he said lawmakers should stand aside and let Puerto Rico settle its disputes with investors. Rob Wittman, a Virginia Republican who also sits on the Natural Resources panel agreed. “Congressional intervention at this point would serve to alter the rule of law,” he said in a statement. Weiss told lawmakers that the current rescue plan was not perfect but it was the cheapest option since it only involves rewriting some rules for investors. “The alternative to this legislation ... will in fact become a bailout,” Weiss said. He noted that the Zika virus is spreading across Puerto Rico and the island is poorly-equipped to handle that emergency while the financial crisis looms. | 1 |
21,990 | The Gun Industry Is Hating Trump And The GOP, And The Reason Why Is Hilarious | One would think that the gun industry would thrive under an entirely Republican government, because more people would feel good about the government s stance on gun legislation. The NRA loves Republicans because they always push to loosen gun laws, even in the face of horrific tragedy (especially in the face of horrific tragedy). Oddly enough, such is not the case. The gun industry is suffering under Donald Trump, and the reason why is quite amusing, to say the least.The gun industry, which the NRA represents whether they want to admit it or not, thrives on fear specifically, fear of losing gun rights. Conservatives abject fear that the government will make buying guns more difficult, and will probably also come and take the guns they already have, really only happens under Democrats. So they go out and buy up more guns so that a) They already have their guns, and b) So they re better able to defend themselves when the big, bad, tyrannical blue people come to steal what they think is their only method of holding onto their freedoms.Under President Obama, various gun manufacturers share prices soared because of the increased sales. The market responded badly to Trump s election, however, and these same manufacturers shares plummeted and have not recovered. The post-election market boom that other industries enjoyed didn t touch the gun industry. You can see the huge dip two major manufacturers took in November, just after the election, and how much they ve struggled to recover below:Image via Yahoo! FinanceOf course, gun manufacturers are trying to spin the Republicans victories as a positive on their earnings calls. In February, Michael Fifer, the CEO of Sturm, Ruger, said: You ve got more concealed carry in more states You ve got more new shooters coming along [ ] All that stuff drives demand. And in some municipalities, you have the cops backing off. They re being seen by the media too often as the enemy. And so, they re backing off, and crime rates in those cities are soaring to the roof. Those people could care less who s President. They want to defend themselves. But as of today, share prices continued their slumps. For an industry that thrives on fear of Democrats, a Republican government is a dreadful thing.Featured image via Spencer Platt/Getty Images | 0 |
21,991 | THE VIDEO HILLARY CLINTON Does NOT Want You To See | Spread this EVERYWHERE! | 0 |
21,992 | U.S. top court takes up Republican challenge to Maryland electoral district | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday added a second case to its docket on a contentious issue that could have major consequences for American elections, agreeing to decide whether Democratic lawmakers in Maryland unlawfully drew a congressional district in a way that would prevent a Republican candidate from winning. The court’s agreement to take up an appeal by Republican voters in Maryland regarding the U.S. House of Representatives district came two months after the justices heard arguments in a high-profile challenge by Democratic voters to Republican-drawn state legislative districts in Wisconsin. Both cases target a practice known as partisan gerrymandering that aims to entrench one party in power and that critics have called a distortion of the democratic process. The justices have not yet issued a ruling in the Wisconsin case. Each case presents a different legal theory as to why limits should be placed on partisan gerrymandering, and the court’s decision to take up a second case on the issue hints that at least some of the nine justices are seriously considering cracking down on it. Gerrymandering, a practice dating back two centuries in American politics, involves manipulating boundaries of legislative districts to benefit one party and diminish another. Legislative districts around the United States are redrawn every decade after the national census to reflect population changes. The “redistricting” in most states is done by the party in power though some states assign the task to independent commissions. The Supreme Court for decades has been willing to invalidate state electoral maps on the grounds of racial discrimination but never those drawn simply for partisan advantage. In the Maryland case, the Republican voters targeting the Democratic-drawn electoral map appealed a 2-1 ruling in August by a panel of three federal judges sitting in Baltimore rejecting their challenge. Maryland’s sixth congressional district, the focus of the case, was previously held by a Republican and now is held by Democrat John Delaney. When the Supreme Court heard arguments in the Wisconsin case on Oct. 3, the justices appeared closely divided, with conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy likely to cast the deciding vote. The Republican challengers in Maryland take aim at a single electoral district, not the whole state as in the Wisconsin case. They argue that the district should be struck down because it was drawn by Democrats as a form of retaliation on the basis of past party affiliation based on the Constitution’s guaranteed rights of free association and free speech. The challengers in the Wisconsin case argued that the Republican electoral map violated Democratic voters’ rights to equal protection under the law as well as free speech and association. In the Wisconsin case, the legal argument advanced by the Democratic challengers was that an electoral map would be unlawful if the intent was to discriminate against minority party voters, the map had a sizable effect in accomplishing that goal and that there was no other justification for the map. The theory was based in part on measuring the number of “wasted” votes in each district cast for a losing candidate and comparing each party’s total wasted votes on a statewide basis. The results, plaintiffs said, show whether one party’s votes are more likely to be wasted than the other party’s, which would show evidence of unconstitutional extreme partisan gerrymandering. | 1 |
21,993 | Internet Heroes Make Trump-Putin Facebook Friendship Anniversary Video; It’s BRILLIANT (VIDEO) | The internet is full of hidden gems, and this hostile political environment and corrupt Trump administration has given us some of the most hilarious, powerful memes and videos we ve seen in a while. The latest masterpiece to grace the internet was inspired by the friendship anniversary videos we ve been seeing on everyone s Facebook feed the ones that celebrates close friendships with a highlight reel of all the time you ve spent connecting on Facebook.Well, two geniuses filmmakers Evan and Adam Nix have given us something truly amazing with a new friendship anniversary video of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Poking fun at their disturbingly close and suspicious relationship, the Nix brothers got super creative and took a lighthearted approach to a concerning issue that most of America is extremely worried about. This video was released right as Trump is facing new criticism for his praise and defense of Russia, and his relationship with Putin and Russia has been called the biggest scandal in recent months.The Nix Bros. hilariously start the friendship anniversary out by stating A few months ago today you rigged the election together The video goes through several pinnacle points of Trump and Putin s weird connection, even once striking a sentimental tone in their friendship: And while there are several dictatorships, there s only one like yours ;) That s terrifying! At the very end, the video closes with a statement almost every American even conservatives know to be true: We are all totally fucked. You can watch the film below: The short film is absolutely genius, and worth every second. The Nix Bros. are known for their funny political videos, and we re so happy they weighed in on Trump and Putin with their satirical brand of comedy. At a time when the chaotic Trump administration is undoing everything America has worked to become, we all need a good laugh every now and then.Featured image is a screenshot | 0 |
21,994 | Russian submarine fires cruise missiles at Islamic State targets in Syria's Deir al-Zor: RIA | MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian submarine on Tuesday fired cruise missiles at Islamic State targets in Syria s Deir al-Zor province, the RIA news agency cited Russia s defense ministry as saying. The submarine, Veliky Novgorod , launched three Kalibr missiles from the eastern Mediterranean, the agency reported. | 1 |
21,995 | South Korea to resume building two new nuclear reactors, but scraps plans for 6 others | SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea will resume the suspended construction of two new nuclear reactors from midnight, its energy ministry said on Tuesday, but has torn up plans to build six more reactors as Seoul seeks to meet pledges to cut reliance on nuclear power. The move will restart work on the two reactors that was frozen after President Moon Jae-in came to power in May on a ticket calling for scaling back nuclear power. It comes after results of a survey unveiled last week found a majority of South Koreans actually backed the projects. The world s fifth-biggest nuclear energy user currently runs 24 nuclear reactors, generating a third of the country s total electricity needs. Construction work (for the two new nuclear reactors) will begin immediately after midnight, Paik Un-gyu, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, told a news briefing in the capital. But in a bid to press on with Moon s commitment to boost use of natural gas and renewable sources in the nation s energy mix, the ministry said Seoul will also cancel all plans to construct a further six nuclear reactors. The number of nuclear reactors operating in South Korea will be cut to a net 14 by 2038 it said. The ministry said it will use alternative fuels such as solar and wind power to replace the six nuclear reactors with a projected combined capacity of 8.8 gigawatts (GW). Additionally, the Asia s fourth-largest economy will not allow extending the lifespan of 14 aging nuclear power stations, totaling 12.5 GW of capacity, the statement said. The energy ministry said it will reflect changes in the country s long-term energy mix plan, which is expected to be finalised in November. | 1 |
21,996 | Pentagon to review Raytheon GPS control system again in three months | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Defense Department on Wednesday said it would conduct another comprehensive review of Raytheon Co’s long-delayed ground control system for next generation GPS satellites in about three months, following Tuesday’s “deep dive review.” “We will conduct another comprehensive review in approximately three months to assess progress against the plan,” said Pentagon spokesman Mark Wright. He said additional information would be released as it became available. Pentagon chief arms buyer Frank Kendall, Air Force Secretary Deborah James and other officials met with Raytheon Chief Executive Tom Kennedy in Colorado on Tuesday to review progress on the $3.6 billion program after years of schedule delays and technical challenges. | 1 |
21,997 | WOW! SCRUBBED 1998 GEORGE SOROS Video Resurfaces!…Admits He Confiscated Property From Jews In WWII…Hung Out With Hillary In Haiti [VIDEO] | Knowing there were problems ahead for the Jews, Soros father, who was a successful lawyer, bribed a government official to take 14 year old George Soros in and say he was his Christian godson. While hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews were being shipped off to the death camps, George Soros accompanied his appointed godfather around confiscating property from Jews. George admitted it wasn t difficult at all to take part in taking property from the Jews. Kroft asked Soros if it bothered him?Soros: It created no problem at all.Kroft: No feeling of guilt? Soros: No.Soros makes it very clear in the interview that it didn t really bother him at all. He said he was 14 years old, and that s when his character was formed.Soros: I would say that that s when my character was made. It was a tremendous threat of evil. It was a very personal experience of evil. Kroft: Do you believe in God?Soros:No.Kroft: Soros told us God was created by man, not the other way around. Here is the video that was just uncovered only hours ago: | 0 |
21,998 | NRA’s Response To The Florida Shooting Spree That Left 3 Dead Speaks Volumes | On Sunday, while Floridians braced themselves for Tropical Storm Colin, a gunman decided to Second Amendment two innocent people to death in Cape Coral. According to authorities, the first shooting occurred at about 5:45 p.m. when a gunman killed a motorcyclist at a busy intersection. The suspect then drove to a Circle K gas station where he shot two people, killing one of them. Shortly after the second shooting, police spotted the murderer s car, stopped it and confronted him. The police say that the suspect violently resist[ed] officers and he was killed after firing at officers. Two people were found with gunshot wounds in his car, but police have not determined if they were shot by officers or the gunman.Basically, Sunday was another violent day in America. Of course, the biggest pro-gun group, the National Rifle Association, spoke out right away and condemned the shootings. They demanded to know who this shooter was and how he got a gun. They spoke out against Florida s lax laws that allow nearly everyone to buy a weapon. They demanded action and said they want to stop this from happening ever again because dammit! this is America and people should be able to drive down the road or buy a candy bar without being gunned down.Just kidding. The NRA did no such thing; instead, they responded with silence. As usual.Two innocent people are dead and the biggest gun group in the country completely ignored it. They pretended that it didn t even happen because they don t give a shit about the lives and safety of the citizens they claim to protect. They do not care that a man was riding his motorcycle on a Sunday evening and never made it home thanks to some gun nut. They do not care about the two people in the Circle K who were shot and the one who passed away from their injuries. They do not care about the thousands of other mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles and CHILDREN who are killed every single year in this country.Instead of issuing a statement of remorse and sympathy to the loved ones of the victims, the NRA used their time to attack Hillary Clinton and journalist Katie Couric on Twitter.Oh look: @HillaryClinton won t say if the #2A guarantees an individual right https://t.co/n84mk7pJjm NRA (@NRA) June 6, 2016 There s still time to sign up, but the clock is ticking! https://t.co/CUDLrWHQ1N#firekatie#UndertheGunpic.twitter.com/Fp7mcvfugq NRA (@NRA) June 6, 2016That was more important than acknowledging the loss of life in Florida and it speaks volumes about their real priorities. The NRA doesn t care about us, they care about their rhetoric.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images | 0 |
21,999 | Myanmar police arrest Buddhist monk over U.S. embassy protest, newspaper says | YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar police arrested on Sunday an ultra-nationalist Buddhist monk who has a history of stoking sentiment against Rohingya Muslims, the country s beleaguered minority, a Myanmar newspaper reported. Parmaukkha was held under an arrest warrant for his role in an unauthorized protest outside the U.S. embassy in Yangon last year, according to The Voice s website. The monk was detained when he went to Dagon Myothit (North) police station in Myanmar s biggest city to apply for permission to protest outside a municipal building. That protest concerned a local issue unrelated to the crisis in Rakhine state, where a military campaign has forced more than 600,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh since late August. Reuters was unable to contact the station or Yangon s police chief by telephone. The arrest comes just days before U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visits Myanmar on Nov. 15 to meet with the country s leadership for talks on the Rohingya crisis. Parmaukkha was a co-founder of Ma Ba Tha, the Burmese language acronym for the Association for Protection of Race and Religion, but he quit the radical Buddhist and anti-Muslim group last year, citing political differences. Parmaukkha had told Reuters that Ma Ba Tha had lent support to the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) during the 2015 election, in a vain bid to stop Aung San Suu Kyi s National League for Democracy from winning power. The demonstration outside the U.S. embassy in 2016 was to protest the United State s policy of using the term Rohingya for the Muslims in northern parts of Rakhine. Many people in Myanmar regard the largely stateless Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, and they are excluded from the 135 national races recognized by law. At the time of the protest last year, an embassy spokesman said the United States supports the right to demonstrate and added that around the world, people have the ability to self-identify . | 1 |
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