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22,000 | Millionaire Sean Hannity Tried To Fake Being Middle Class, Gets DESTROYED On Twitter (TWEETS) | Fox News host and Donald Trump cheerleader Sean Hannity got busted for trying to pretend that he is something that he s not.In the process of yet again defending Trump, this time after his disastrous debate appearance on Monday night, Hannity lashed out at the press: Now, my overpaid friends in the media, well, they have their chauffeured limousines, they like their fine steakhouses and expensive wine lifestyles. Based on that statement, you might think that Hannity was just a regular Joe Sixpack, toiling away for a middle-class income at best, trying to make ends meet while paying his mortgage, electric bill and keeping his family fed.But of course, as the host of a highly rated cable news show and a nationally syndicated radio show, Hannity is anything but underpaid.For his radio show alone, Hannity earns at least $20 million a year, and he has also signed a multi-million-dollar contract for his Fox News program.A few years ago, Hannity listed his waterfront home in New York for sale, asking $3.6 million for 4 bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms set on 2 acres of land on the Long Island Sound. Hardly the home of a middle class family.Almost immediately, journalists and political operatives and pundits started making fun of Hannity s weird statement on Twitter. The fact that Hannity, whose wealth is well-known, would attack journalists for being rich struck many as completely absurd. It was pointed out that he reportedly has a net worth of $80 million, has a private jet he s used to ferry politicians like former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich around, and even has done ads for the pricy steak house Ruth s Chris.Hannity thought he could get away with this white lie on Fox News, where this sort of thing happens all the time, but especially since he has attached himself to Trump, it isn t going to work anymore.Sean Hannity travels on a GD private jet. Sonny Bunch (@SonnyBunch) September 28, 2016This was once Hannity's house pic.twitter.com/QhArXKx1zJ Colin Jones (@colinjones) September 28, 2016Hannity is literally describing himself here. https://t.co/lQgEh4HMqe John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) September 28, 2016Hannity awakens in his mud hut, built with his own hands, before walking to Fox News (uphill both ways). He eats air & dresses in moonbeams. Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox) September 28, 2016Finally, Hannity has clarified to me why I had to leave the media: I get carsick in big cars, I don't eat beef and I don't drink. Liz Mair (@LizMair) September 28, 2016Sean Hannity has a net worth of $80 million https://t.co/Plqx1kkpCv Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) September 28, 2016Never forget when zillionaire TV star Sean Hannity pretended to be scandalized by Obama having Dijon mustard https://t.co/GCfXpfvvVb https://t.co/cR2Qd45JE2 James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) September 28, 2016Fun fact about many right-wing talkers who rail against cocktail parties is that they attend many and usually do so as paid speakers. T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) September 28, 2016Private jets cost more than limos right? Or did they get cheaper? https://t.co/Nr0Ig6xYQV Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) September 28, 2016Yeah, I'm sure Hannity takes the LIR home https://t.co/bURPRNftAt andrew kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) September 28, 2016@oliverdarcy he used to do ads for Ruth Chris Tim Miller (@Timodc) September 28, 2016It will be priceless to see Hannity s reaction to getting called out in the next few days for sure. But, he brought it on himself.Featured image via YouTube | 0 |
22,001 | From a river town in Slovenia to Trump Tower, and the White House? | SEVNICA, Slovenia (Reuters) - If Melania Trump succeeds Michelle Obama as First Lady, she may trace her road to the White House back to 1987 and a chance encounter in the capital of her native Slovenia. “I was leaving a fashion show in Ljubljana and saw her in front of the building. She was probably waiting for a friend,” said Slovenian photographer Stane Jerko. “She was tall and slim so she caught my eye and I approached her and suggested that she come in for a trial photo shoot.” Jerko says the resulting black-and-white pictures of the 17-year-old known then as Melanija Knavs – round face, bare feet, hair in a ponytail – launched a career that would take her to Milan and the United States, where she met Donald Trump at a party in New York in 1998. Though not quite a tale of rags to riches, the lifestyle she leads as the third wife of the billionaire businessman is a far cry from her roots in Slovenia, a tiny former Yugoslav republic of 2 million people comparable in size to New Jersey and nestled below the Julian Alps between Italy, Croatia, Austria and Hungary. Residents of the small town of Sevnica in southeastern Slovenia, where Melania grew up on the banks of the River Sava, say her father sold car parts and that her mother worked for a factory that made children’s clothing. She was often seen sewing late into the evening at home. Some media reports have said her father was a member of the then ruling Communist Party, like many other people in socialist Yugoslavia, but Reuters could not independently confirm this. The Trump campaign team offered Reuters a different account of her childhood and career, saying Melania began modelling at the age of five, that her mother was a fashion designer and her father a manager in a car company. “Her father was never a member of the Communist Party,” a spokesperson said. Since taking a gilded escalator with her husband at his Fifth Avenue Trump Tower skyscraper in June last year when he announced his decision to run for president, Melania has adopted a low profile in his campaign for the Republican Party nomination. She does not appear at his rallies, where Trump occasionally brings out his children instead, though he rarely fails to mention her. “When I saw whom she married I noticed a number of similarities between Donald Trump and Melanija’s father,” said Mirjana Jelancic, who said she was a childhood friend of Melania. “They have similar features and behaviour and are both hard workers. I think she met a soul mate in him, someone she can feel safe with.” The Knavs family lived in an apartment block, moving when Melania was a teenager to a modest two-storey house above the Sava on the outskirts of Sevnica, where a well-maintained medieval castle sits on a hill overlooking the town of some 4,500 people. Melania’s parents still live in the house, which has a small garden and a few fruit trees, though they spent a lot of time in the United States, where Melania’s sister Ines also lives. The house was empty when Reuters reporters visited and repeated phone calls went unanswered. Jelancic recalled Melania as a model student keen on the arts, geography and history. “She loved reading. She always carried books with her,” said Jelancic. “I also remember she had wall bars at home and trained regularly to keep her body in shape.” “Melanija liked beautiful clothes and knew how to wear them,” said Jelancic, now headmistress at Melania’s former elementary school. “She liked to give them a personal touch by redesigning them and was very good at upgrading old things. It was clear she would work in fashion though she never said that she wanted to be a model.” “I remember her telling me how she cannot wait to go to Ljubljana where she attended a high school for design. She had a wish to see the world.” It was in Ljubljana that she was discovered and began modelling full-time, coming second place in a 1992 national beauty pageant the year after Slovenia declared independence from Yugoslavia and fought a ten-day war to strike out alone. “She was shy at first but learnt quickly and showed great interest in every detail of the shoot,” said Jerko. “She was like a sleeping chrysalis that transformed into a glamorous butterfly,” he gushed. The future Mrs Trump did not look back, changing her name to the more easily pronounceable Melania Knauss. No one in Sevnica spoken to by Reuters recalled having seen her there in recent years. She did, however, donate an ambulance to the local health clinic to celebrate the birth of her son, Barron, in 2006, a year after marrying Trump, 24 years her senior. Some speculated that the town might receive another donation or more publicity if Trump wins the presidency. Those Reuters spoke to would not be drawn on his politics, which are stridently anti-immigration. Jerko, a youthful 78 years-old with short grey hair and beard, still keeps a file with Melania’s pictures and measurements. “I’m sure she would be happy if her husband became U.S. president. I think she is very proud of his achievements and I believe I had something to do with where she is today.” | 1 |
22,002 | babylon mystery religion series | my newest podcast discusses the role of modern travel on the development of men after reviewing how travel is most commonly used i share the specific benefits travel can offer along with the mistaken ideas of what naive people think travel can accomplish i discuss seven of my favorite travel rules for men and also take an aside to discuss the growing phenomenon of finding a foreign wife which is harder than many men think i close out the podcast by prescribing a strategy of using travel to maximum your strength and potential
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previous podcast how to become more resilient | 0 |
22,003 | South Africa's Tutu asks Myanmar's Suu Kyi to help Rohingya | JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Retired South African cleric and anti-apartheid campaigner Archbishop Desmond Tutu urged Myanmar leader and fellow Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday to intervene to help Rohingya Muslims fleeing her country. Western critics have accused Suu Kyi of not speaking out for the Rohingya, who have been fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh, following an army counter-offensive against militant attacks. Tutu said in an open letter to Suu Kyi that: I am now elderly, decrepit and formally retired, but breaking my vow to remain silent on public affairs out of profound sadness about the plight of the Muslim minority in your country, the Rohingya. My dear sister: If the political price of your ascension to the highest office in Myanmar is your silence, the price is surely too steep ... We pray for you to speak out for justice, human rights and the unity of your people. We pray for you to intervene, Tutu wrote. Tutu, 85, has been living with prostate cancer for nearly two decades and has largely withdrawn from public life. The Rohingya comprise some 1.1 million people who have long complained of persecution and are seen by many in Buddhist-majority Myanmar as illegal migrants from Bangladesh. We have to take care of our citizens, we have to take care of everybody who is in our country, whether or not they are our citizens, Suu Kyi said earlier on Thursday in comments to Reuters Television s Indian partner, Asian News International. Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 as a champion of democracy, did not refer specifically to the exodus of the minority Rohingya. | 1 |
22,004 | France's Sapin says Brexit would affect London as finance hub | LONDON (Reuters) - London’s status as a global financial center would probably be affected to some extent if Britain votes to leave the European Union in next month’s referendum, French finance minister Michel Sapin said on Thursday. “The City (of London) is a considerable financial force and I don’t think that (Brexit) would transform all the elements that constitute its strength,” Sapin said through a translator during a visit to London. “But I don’t think that it would be without effects which would have to be seen.” Some French banks had told him Brexit would have consequences for them and that some of their activities based in London might not carry on as they were, he said. | 1 |
22,005 | Russian, Iranian presidents discuss Iraqi Kurdish vote - Rouhani's office | LONDON (Reuters) - Russian President Putin and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani discussed the Iraqi Kurdish independence referendum and the Syrian civil war in a telephone call, a senior Iranian official was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency. Assessing the current situation in the region, especially in Iraq and Syria, was the main focus of the two leaders, Hamid Aboutalebi, Rouhani s deputy chief of staff of for political affairs, said. They stressed on the necessity of maintaining the unity of Iraq and security and stability in the region, he added. | 1 |
22,006 | Charlottesville Vice-Mayor Responds To Trump’s Silence On White Supremacy, This Is BRUTAL (VIDEO) | As more time passes after the violent riots related to the white nationalist rally that took place yesterday in Charlottesville, Virginia, Americans become more and more disappointed by Donald Trump and his failure to denounce white supremacy.One very noteworthy criticism of the racist Commander in Chief comes from none other than the Vice-Mayor of Charlottesville, who blasted Trump in an interview with CNN s Wolf Blitzer today. Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy stated that his community has come together in solidarity to fight against the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who were responsible for riots that resulted in the death of a counter-protester. And while Trump has continued to pretend he has no connection or responsibility for the riots, Bellamy directly called him out and held him accountable.In the interview, Bellamy stated that if white supremacists under the guidance of their president, number 45 returned to Charlottesville, the community wouldn t hesitate to drive them back out. He said: They can continue to come, but our community will not break. The people here of Charlottesville, white people, black people, yellow people, old people, young people, we re a community that rallies around together. This is a community that I saw pick me up on my darkest and deepest moments to encourage me and they ve done the same for other people. We re a resilient group. Bellamy then spoke directly to Trump, pointing out that he has the responsibility to condemn white supremacists, which he still has not yet done. Bellamy said: So 45, we re looking for your leadership. Condemn that white supremacist attacks. Condemn these domestic terrorists. Tell them to leave. You re their leader. Stand up. It was the perfect message to send Trump, and he will look even worse if he ignores Bellamy and fails to respond. Hopefully, Trump will start acting like a leader and speak out against these attacks.You can watch Bellamy shred Trump below:Featured image via screenshots | 0 |
22,007 | Trump Just Broke A New Record, Finally Has A ‘Win’ That Will Shock America (IMAGE) | Donald Trump doesn t have any legislative wins under his belt yet, but there s one thing he s been really good at shattering records with his historically low approval rating.Thanks to a new Gallup poll, we now know that Trump s disapproval rating has a three-day rolling average of 60 percent, beating his own previous record. You can check out the stats below:According to Gallup: Trump s approval ratings are also near his administration s low point when looking at the three-day approval ratings Gallup reports daily. For June 10-12, Trump averaged 36% approval, one point above his low of 35% measured March 26-28. Trump s current three-day average of 60% disapproval is, by one point, the highest of his administration. Now that a vast majority of Americans many of which are probably Republicans or Trump voters are finally admitting that they want Trump out of the White House, we couldn t be happier. It s clear that Trump s insane Russia scandal is taking a toll on his standing with the country, and his many losses are undoubtedly helping him become more unpopular by the day.These numbers from Gallup come just as the Senate Republicans are trying to roll out another health care bill which will probably only make Trump s ratings plummet even more, considering how badly the first stab at Trumpcare hurt Trump s ratings.Trump loves boasting about his wins and records, but it s unlikely that he s going to want to brag about the fact that no president in history has gotten so unpopular so quickly and the chances are, Trump is going to keep going down because he sabotages himself almost every day with his erratic behavior and social media habits. It won t be long before even more of the country turns against him, especially as Trump s Russia investigation is currently heating up. He can t hide from the facts for long America won t let him.Featured image via Pool / Getty Images | 0 |
22,008 | Obama urges China to address industrial excess capacity: White House | UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Monday and urged China to accelerate efforts to address the problem of industrial excess capacity, the White House said. In a meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Obama also urged Beijing to establish a level playing field to allow all firms to compete fairly in China, a White House statement said. | 1 |
22,009 | Glenn Beck’s Bullsh*t Defense Of Bigoted Bathroom Bills Is Pure Stupidity (AUDIO) | Glenn Beck has shared his opinion on the bigoted Bathroom Bill in North Carolina which forces transgender people to use toilets contrary to their gender identity. Beck s bullsh*t defense of the plans is just about the stupidest thing you ll hear all day and we re in an election cycle.Beck argues that his support of the bathroom bills popping up across the nation s red states is absolutely nothing to do with bigotry and transphobia. According to Beck: It has nothing to do with hate. It has everything to do with common sense. But we have detached from common sense. He then, of course, launches into the same entirely hateful, ignorant, fear-mongering which Ted Cruz and Curt Schilling have engaged in during the course of the debate. He creates the specter of his young daughter being confronted by a man pretending to be a woman in the bathroom invoking primal fear. Beck and others state is as a fact that this will happen all the time without a bathroom bill, despite the sum total of zero cases to date.But Beck is far from alone in his stupidity.Curt Schilling was recently fired by ESPN after sharing a Facebook post in support of the anti-transgender bill passed in North Carolina. The post consisted of an image, featuring a man in a wig, his T-shirt cut to expose breasts, and a bizarre black outfit of women s clothing. The image was accompanied by text which read: LET HIM IN! to the restroom with your daughter or else you re a narrow-minded, judgmental, unloving racist bigot who needs to die. Former player Schilling then added: A man is a man no matter what they call themselves. I don t care what they are, who they sleep with, men s room was designed for the penis, women s not so much. Now you need laws telling us differently? Pathetic. ESPN later issued a statement claiming Schilling s unacceptable conduct violated their policy of inclusiveness: ESPN is an inclusive company. Curt Schilling has been advised that his conduct was unacceptable and his employment with ESPN has been terminated. GOP presidential hopeful Ted Cruz has also come out in support for the bills on the same bigoted basis. Cruz told ABC News Saturday: There is no greater evil than predators and if the law says that any man, if he chooses can enter a women s restroom, a little girl s restroom and stay there and he cannot be removed because he simply says at that moment he feels like a woman, you re opening the door for predators. However, using a caricature of a cross-dressing predator to invoke fear about transgender people using the gender identity appropriate bathroom is plain bigotry. One could just as readily argue the opposite, as transgender men did en masse with the hashtag Using the hashtag #WeJustNeedToPee. Bearded transgender men posted pictures of themselves in the women s bathroom, next to women entering cubicles and doing their makeup.Michael Hughes, from Minnesota, posted the picture below, asking: Do I look like I belong in a women s bathroom?Under the North Carolina law, Michael would be legally compelled to use the women s bathrooms despite the fact that he would clearly cause some degree of confusion and worry by doing so.Surely the long-term answer is to remove the gender apartheid from toilets altogether? Plenty of countries around the world do just fine using mixed bathrooms. Why not us?Featured Image via Flickr Creative Commons | 0 |
22,010 | RUSH LIMBAUGH FURIOUS Trump Is Allowing “Loser” Democrats To Use Threat Of Government Shut Down To Thwart Funding For Wall [LISTEN] | The Trump administration had proposed $1 billion for the wall in a spending bill, which if passed by Congress and signed into will by Friday, will prevent a government shutdown.However, Democrats have said they would not vote for a bill that included such funding, and reportedly the White House has backed off of its push for that funding because of it.Limbaugh warned against caving to Democrats out of fear that Republicans would be blamed for the shutdown and insisted if there were such a cave this go-around, Democrats would use similar tactics against the White House and congressional Republicans in the future.Go HERE for the audio clip of Rush Limbaugh s show where he discusses funding for the wall and the Democrat threat of a government shut down.Transcript as follows:I m not happy to have to pass this on. I m very, very trouble to have to pass this on. And I want to say at the outset that I hope my interpretation is wrong and I hope this is not the case but it looks like from here, right here, right now it looks like President Trump is caving on his demand for a measly $1 billion from the budget for his wall on the border with Mexico. The Democrats are threatening a government shutdown. It s the same old, same old and I was hoping that Trump would throw this shutdown thing right back in their face and have everybody realize they re the ones engineering these shutdowns that nobody would notice anyway unless a big hullaballoo was made about it. Breitbart News | 0 |
22,011 | 3.57 Degrees: Kevin Bacon’s Cultural Mantle Shattered By Zuckerberg | 21st Century Wire says Unless you have been living under a rock for the last 20 years, you would have heard about the cultural meme known as the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon , Hollywood s own lowbrow revision derived from John Guare s famous 1990 play about the Six Degrees of Separation .So popular was Bacon s cultural quirk, that the Gods of Google even launched a web tool called the Baconator where users can plug in the name of anyone in order to measure how many degrees of separation there are between you and them. If I m about to go to work with someone, I ll check their name on the call sheet, and then I ll go to Google, and you can put in their name plus bacon number, and that will tell you how many degrees of separation there are. It ll tell [me] if I worked with them, said Bacon to TV host James Corden recently.Just as the Baconator was getting going, Kevin was usurped, like everyone and everything else, by the ever-engulfing digital vortex known as Facebook and its hoodie-wearing billionaire co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.Poor Kevin. According to new data published by the social networking behemoth, Facebook people are separated by only 3.57 degrees of separation. Casey Williams from the Huff Post explains, One caveat about this research, though: It applies only to the 1.59 billion people who are active on Facebook. Given that there are more than 7 billion people on the planet, and that over four billion still lack regular access to the Internet, it s unlikely that the new theory holds for humans at large. The down side of course (although Facebook will never publish its trolling data), is that you are also more closely connected with thousands, if not millions of trolls and their phony, malicious sock-puppet accounts too.Even worse, as 21WIRE discovered late last week Facebook can and will, without any warning whatsoever and with ZERO human feedback on their end block and disable your ability to share information with your peers through its user groups. When asked, the reason given by Facebook was simply, You re going too fast. No, we re not kidding Once again, thank you Mr. Zuckerberg for allowing your robots to kill people s ability to share news and information.When they say degrees of separation they really mean separation.READ MORE SCI-TECH NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Sci-Tech Files | 0 |
22,012 | PANDA ‘PHOTOBOMBS’ MELANIA TRUMP On Trip to Beijing Zoo and ‘Amazing’ Great Wall of China | First Lady Melania Trump toured the Beijing Zoo and The Great Wall of China during her extended stay in China. While President Trump went on to APEC in Vietnam, Melania enjoyed the Panda Exhibit where a beautiful panda photobombed her in a great shot with 20 young school children: Notice the adorable bald eagle stuffed animals that Melania passed out to the children The children, who held Chinese and American flags, were waiting for her outside of the zoo s Panda House.Melania has a way with children The children sang for her as she exited the zoo s Panda House.GREAT WALL:First Lady Melania Trump admired China from a rare position on Friday as she walked an empty section of the Great Wall along the outskirts of Beijing during a personal tour.Wearing a long tan skirt, black jacket and ballet flats, the 47-year-old former model took a cable car up to her destination, where she was greeted at the wall by an official.Mrs. Trump signed a guest book at the wall and accepted a scroll as a gift.She then climbed a flight of stairs and spent 30 minutes walking the Mutianyu section of the long wall one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.As she returned to her cable car, Mrs. Trump paused to look out over the expanse. This is beautiful. This is amazing, she said according to a US official standing with her on the platform.Read more: Daily Mail | 0 |
22,013 | UNREAL! OBAMA DEFENDS Black Lives Matter By Race Baiting…Again! [Video] | Obama is such a race baiter! | 0 |
22,014 | Obama Commuted Manning’s Sentence | 21st Century Wire says In yet another interesting end of term move, Obama has commuted Bradley/Chelsea Manning s sentence. He is now scheduled to be released in May of 2017 rather than 2045. Is this a power play against Trump? A potential call of bluff to Julian Assange, who s said he would turn himself over to the US courts if Obama frees Manning?Adam Garrie of The Duran brings some interesting analysis to the table in the article below. Adam Garrie The DuranWith less than three days left until he leaves office, Barack Obama has commuted Bradley/Chelsea Manning s sentence. Manning was to be released in 2045 but will now be released in May of this year.This surprise move is not the morally courageous move that it may appear to be. Obama, content to leave office sans dignity is clearly making a challenge to Julian Assange who recently challenged Obama to pardon Manning in return for Assange voluntarily traveling to the US to face what some would call justice, but anyone would a brain would call a show trial.Although I am personally happy that Manning will be released early (why the delay though), my sincere advice to Julian Assange is to do the following:With Donald Trump in power it may be possible to strike some sort of bargain whereby Assange can receive safe passage to Ecuador or any other country willing and able to grant him unconditional asylum. This would have to be guaranteed by President Trump.If Assange fights this battle from within the United States, elements of the deep state or worse yet, rogue agents working on behalf of the deep state or anti-Assange political interests, could take matters into their own hands.In another kick of the political football, Obama has now put yet another problem on Donald Trump s White House doorstep what to do if Assange makes good on his promise?The best thing that could possibly happen is for Assange to negotiate safe-passage out of Britain, brokered by a Trump administration. If anyone thinks the absurd charges in Sweden could impact this, they do not realise who has pulled the strings all along in this matter.If my suggestion is brought on board, Trump can tell his pro-Assange grassroots supporters (think Ron Paul followers and Infowars listeners) that he did the right thing regarding Assange. At the same time, he will be able to tell his deep state and Congressional opponents that he acted pragmatically rather than ethically in order to move on from the Assange problem instead of dragging out in a kangaroo court. Absurd though it is, some American politicians would sooner praise a pragmatic decision vis- -vis an ethical one.In any case, Manning won t be free until May of this year and a lot can happen Continue this report at The DuranREAD MORE US NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire US NewsSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER@ 21WIRE.TV | 0 |
22,015 | found this nugget in podesta files fastwalkers and dsp program | kids being made to vote for president in school page link i live in west virginia my kids came home today from school and was talking about voting at school for the next president they explained something similar to a ballot where they had to put a check mark beside who they wanted as president along with their home address and signature i have never heard of this as my kids have never had to do this before or was i notified that my kids would be voting my kids are age and in grade school and another in middle jr high school i asked them if they were given any documentation from school about the nominees they showed me paper that spoke about all of hillarys achievements and on the back it shows trumps however the paper seemed biased speaking of hillarys accomplishments and barely spoke of trump other than he built a few buildings and was on a tv show i do not own a actual camera other than my phone so the pic is bit blurry picture of document again sorry for the blurry picture my kids have been going to school here all their lives i have never seen this before might be something new has anyone else seen this before edit on pmpt by apoc because no reason given link originally posted by apoc i live in west virginia my kids came home today from school and was talking about voting at school for the next president they explained something similar to a ballot where they had to put a check mark beside who they wanted as president along with their home address and signature i have never heard of this as my kids have never had to do this before or was i notified that my kids would be voting my kids are age and in grade school and another in middle jr high school i asked them if they were given any documentation from school about the nominees they showed me paper that spoke about all of hillarys achievements and on the back it shows trumps however the paper seemed biased speaking of hillarys accomplishments and barely spoke of trump other than he built a few buildings and was on a tv show i do not own a actual camera other than my phone so the pic is bit blurry urlhttppostimgorgimagevtvwykvblurry picture of _url again sorry for the blurry picture my kids have been going to school here all their lives i have never seen this before might be something new has anyone else seen this before this has been done for years i remember it happening when i was in nd grade more than years ago i have heard that polling grade school children on presidential elections is actually more accurate than scientific polls children tend to hear what their parents opinions are on the subject without all the filters they subconsciously vote the way their parents will vote supposedly | 0 |
22,016 | France’s President Threw AWESOME Shade At Trump After He Pulled Us From Paris Agreement | French President Emmanuel Macron wasted no time in condemning Trump for pulling the United States out of the Paris climate agreement. He signed a joint press release that included Italy and Germany saying the agreement will not be renegotiated, he blasted us later on his own during a press conference, and now he s throwing shade at Trump on Twitter.But Macron isn t just attacking Trump over the Paris agreement. He s also trolling Trump and his followers over their Make America Great Again! chant. What did he do? Check it out:pic.twitter.com/3g5LYO9Osj Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) June 1, 2017In a way, Macron began trolling Trump when he was in Europe last week. During a meeting, where he and Trump shook hands, it became a white-knuckled affair from which Trump tried twice to escape. Later on, Macron flatly admitted that his side of the handshake wasn t innocent. It was to send Trump a subtle message that the world will not let him bully them into submission on anything.One White House staffer, however, has something else to say about Trump s pissing off our Western allies, and it s not good. In fact, it s patently disgusting:Pressure from leaders abroad also backfired. One senior White House official characterized disappointing European allies as a secondary benefit of Trump s decision to withdraw.Trump can t even correctly interpret a study from MIT that says, if all the signatories of the Paris agreement kept their pledges, global warming would slow by between. 0.6 degrees and 1.1 degrees Celsius by the year 2100. Trump, however, cited the study and claimed that it would only produce a 0.2 degree reduction in global temperature.MIT doesn t support Trump in his decision, either. Basically, nobody except people who are in love with and brainwashed by Donald Trump support his decision.Featured image by Aurelien Meunier via Getty Images | 0 |
22,017 | Copts call for action over church closures in southern Egypt | MINYA, Egypt (Reuters) - Coptic Christians in the south of Egypt renewed calls on local authorities for an end to discrimination, after a number of churches have been closed down in recent weeks. Two churches in two separate villages in the southern province of Minya have been shut down by the authorities, a statement by the Minya diocese said. It said worshippers were harassed at both churches and pelted with rocks at one of them. We have kept quiet for two weeks after the closure of one of the churches, but due to our silence the situation has worsened ... it is as if prayer is a crime the Copts must be punished for, the statement, dated Saturday, read. A third church was closed following rumors of a pending attack, but the diocese said no attack has taken place since and the church remains closed. The Minya security directorate spokesman declined to comment. The governor s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Coptic Christians, who make up 10 percent of Egypt s population of nearly 95 million, say they have been persecuted for years. Many feel the state does not take their plight seriously enough. Nonetheless, the Copts are vocal supporters of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who has vowed to crush Islamist extremism and protect Christians. He declared a three-month state of emergency in the aftermath of two church bombings in April which has since been renewed. Though Islamic State has long waged a low-level war against soldiers and police in Egypt s Sinai peninsula, it has stepped up its assault on Christian civilians in the mainland. In an attack claimed by the group in May, gunmen ambushed a group of Coptic Christians traveling to a monastery in Minya, killing 29 and wounding 24. | 1 |
22,018 | Muslim Woman Who Turned In Paris Terrorist Shares Important Thought With The World | Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the planner of the terrorist attacks that hit Paris on November 13, 2015, was killed after a raid led by French authorities who stormed an apartment in the town of Saint-Denis. It has now been revealed that police found Abaaoud in part thanks to information given to them by a Muslim woman.She has now revealed her faith because she wants the world to know the following:But until now, the public has been unaware that the critical tip in the hunt for Abaaoud came from a Muslim one of millions who now face a backlash in Europe fueled by anger over the attacks in Paris and Brussels, as well as fear and resentment of a rising tide of refugees. It s important the world knows that I am Muslim myself, the woman said, citing that as a reason for being willing to speak to The Post. It s important to me that people know what Abaaoud and the others did is not what Islam is teaching. Too often after terrorist incidents, people particularly conservatives act as if Islam is the only faith that extremists use as justification for mass murder, ignoring the history of other faiths (including Christianity) being perverted.When terrorists have hit America the hardest, their attacks did not discriminate by faith. In fact, one estimate says that 32 Muslims were killed in the 9/11 attacks.Ironically, even though his administration declared war on Iraq, it was President George W. Bush who often went to great lengths to point out there was a distinction between those who practice peaceful Islam, and the terrorist hijackers. And that sentiment has continued with President Obama, who pointed out that when discussing Americans and those with Islamic faith, it s not them or us, it s just us. This woman s example shows that blanket condemnations of Muslims, as agitators like Donald Trump have engaged in, are backwards and just flat-out incorrect.Featured image via YouTube | 0 |
22,019 | Tucker Carlson slams Vox.com over ‘Fake News’ | 21st Century Wire says The mainstream media continues to deflect from its own collapse in credibility in the wake of Hillary Clinton s epic electoral meltdown by inventing a synthetic fake news crisis and scapegoating Clinton s loss on bloggers and cheap eastern European hoax websites. In addition to mainstream media constantly pushing out actual fake news, corporate media giants have also created their own fake alternative media as well. Here are a number of media operatives appearing on TV pretending to be alternative media but in reality are really funded by the major broadcast media empires. One of these is a political news website called Vox.com. It s designed to look like an edgy alternative news source, but in reality, Vox is just another establishment consensus reality-building tool. Silicon Valley investors have pumped tens of millions of dollars into this media outlet, with the lead investor being none other than NBC Universal who are one of the biggest peddlers of actual fake news globally (just ask their phony news anchor Brian Williams). Watch as FOX host Tucker Carlson takes apart hypocritical Vox staffer Timothy Lee over the issue of fake news circulating on the internet, revealing how Vox is also a producer of fake news too. As Carlson rightly points out this issue really boils down to freedom of speech.Caveat: Certainly, FOX News is not immune to pushing their own brand of fake news, especially when it comes to promoting US wars overseas, but it does have a number of capable pundits who have exposed a number of key revelations during the course of this historic 2016 Election. Special thanks to High Energy for this clip:. READ MORE MSM FAKE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Fake News FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 |
22,020 | China warns against attempts to contain Beijing before Trump visit | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China s ambassador to Washington said on Monday U.S. President Donald Trump s state visit to Beijing next week was a historic opportunity to boost cooperation between the world s two largest economies, but warned against attempts to contain Beijing. Cui Tiankai also stressed the urgency of efforts to find a negotiated solution to the crisis over North Korea s nuclear and missile programs and warned of a more dangerous situation if tensions between the United States and Pyongyang continued. Cui sought to play down differences over China s massive trade surplus with the United States, saying Beijing was looking for ways to cut this and he was confident of significant outcomes from Trump s Nov. 8-9 visit on the trade and economic fronts. Speaking after senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, outlined an Asia-Pacific strategy involving greater cooperation between Japan, India, and Australia in the face of China s rise, Cui said relationships should not be seen as a zero-sum game at the expense of another county. I don t think it will really serve the interests of these countries if their aim is to sort of contain China ... I don t think anybody would be able to contain China, he said. Cui said Washington should not try to interfere in regional efforts to resolve disputes in the South China Sea, a vital strategic waterway that China claims, most of which is contested by several Asian countries. Maybe it would be better for the U.S. to let the regional countries ... find a way a way of managing the situation. Cui was asked about a call on Friday by a senior U.S. State Department official for revival of four-way dialogue between the United States, Japan, India and Australia to deepen security cooperation and coordinate alternatives for regional infrastructure financing to predatory Chinese options. I don t think any attempts to form exclusive clubs in the region ... would help anybody, he said. When people are saying these things about China, they might just look into the mirror...it might be describing themselves. Despite the cautionary words, Cui said he was sure the summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping would be successful, following on from their first meeting in Florida in April. This is a historic opportunity, he said. Cui reiterated China s call for Washington to return to talks, while stressing Beijing s willingness to step up pressure on Pyongyang through U.N. sanctions. We are ready to take up more cost and make greater efforts if there are more Security Council resolutions he said. | 1 |
22,021 | Trump Sends Lawyers After 17-Year-Old Girl Over Website Where Kittens Scratch Him | What happens when a thin-skinned bully becomes President? Apparently, he will even threaten children who hurt his precious little fee-fees.A 17-year-old girl known only as Lucy from San Fransisco created a cute website for her resume that featured kittens punching Donald Trump. Lucy created TrumpScratch.com as a fun little project. It s pretty simple users click on The Donald s face to punch him with tiny kitten paws.But her project, which was intended for fun, caused Lucy to fall into a legal nightmare because at his core, Donald Trump is nothing more than a schoolyard bully who can t deal with any form of criticism whatsoever.After the website was live for three weeks, Lucy received a cease and desist letter from Trump s general counsel.The letter calls Trump a well-known businessman and informs Lucy that As I m sure you re aware, the Trump name is internationally known and famous. And, of course, as a public figure he opens himself up to criticism even if it is in the form of a kitten-themed website it took a high school girl three hours to code. I was going to just let this go, but I think it s, pardon my French, fucking outrageous that the president of the United States has his team scouring the internet for sites like mine to send out cease and desists and legal action claims if we don t shut down, Lucy told the Observer. Meanwhile, he tweets about The Apprentice ratings and sends out power-drunk tweets about phone tapping. HOW ABOUT BEING THE PRESIDENT? She changed the website to KittenFeed.com, but says they still came at me. It s so sad that his administration is focused more on being liked, burying real news and taking down sites like mine as they supposedly make him look bad, she says.You can view her masterpiece here.Featured image via screengrab | 0 |
22,022 | Trump Is Full Of Sh*t, He Most Certainly Has Said That Global Warming Is A Chinese Hoax (VIDEO) | Donald Trump is an established denier of climate change and lover of absurd conspiracy theories. During the first presidential debate on Monday, Hillary Clinton slammed him for claiming that global warming is a Chinese hoax: Donald thinks that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese, Clinton said on the debate stage. I think it s real. I think science is real. Trump promptly interrupted her to declare that he hadn t ever said anything of the sort. I did not, I did not, countered Trump. I do not say that. Go figure, this was a boldfaced lie. In 2012, Trump tweeted this:Trump later claimed he was just joking after Bernie Sanders nailed him to the wall for this ridiculous theory, but he still insisted that climate change is a hoax that benefits China. Well, I think the climate change is just a very, very expensive form of tax. A lot of people are making a lot of money. I know much about climate change. I d be received environmental awards. And I often joke that this is done for the benefit of China. Obviously, I joke, Trump said to Fox News in January. But this is done for the benefit of China because China does not do anything to help climate change. They burn everything you could burn; they couldn t care less. They have very you know, their standards are nothing. But they in the meantime, they can undercut us on price. So it s very hard on our business. The GOP nominee has repeatedly claimed that global warming is a hoax. He argued this point on Fox News in 2014.And his Twitter feed abounds with similar statements.Sooner or later, you d think Trump would learn that lying about what he has said doesn t work, especially if it was said on television or social media. But apparently, this is a lesson that hasn t quite sunk in yet.Watch Trump lie about claiming that global warming is a Chinese hoax, here:Featured image via Win McNamee/Getty Images | 0 |
22,023 | Germany probes expenses at Paris embassy; no other embassies affected | BERLIN (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel has ordered a special inspection into past irregularities in billing of expenses at its embassy in Paris, but the ministry said it was not aware of similar problems at other embassies. Walter Lindner, a senior ministry official, disclosed the probe in a letter to Greens lawmaker Franziska Brantner in letter dated Friday, and said it could trigger new recommendations for billing practices at all foreign offices. The letter marked the first confirmation by the ministry of irregularities at the Paris embassy after French daily Le Monde reported that the embassy had set up an undeclared cash fund to pay staff for special events at the embassy for third parties. In the letter, first reported by the Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper, Lindner said the ministry had revamped billing procedures in Paris in spring 2016 after discovering that the previous form of billing had not met the usual standards. The changes were triggered after a former butler and head waiter accused the embassy of using fake invoices to channel money into a fund used to give staff undeclared cash for overtime work at events hosted on behalf of private companies such as BMW and Mercedes. Lindner said the changes implemented in Paris ensured a transparent accounting of the use of the embassy by third parties, but the thorough review now under way could also trigger recommendations for all foreign missions and embassies. Brantner urged the ministry to hold those accountable for the problematic billing practices in Paris - some of whom still worked for the ministry. In addition, all foreign offices must be carefully examined to ensure that such practices are not occurring elsewhere, Brantner said in a statement. She also called for protection of whistleblowers. | 1 |
22,024 | Republican Congressman Rejects Trump In Scathing Open Letter, Will Vote For Hillary | The GOP tent continues to get smaller as the first House Republican has decided to vote for Hillary Clinton against the divisive Donald Trump.New York GOP Rep. Richard Hanna, unlike many of his Republican colleagues, has a conscience. Therefore, he can t hold his nose and support the Republican nominee.Many Republicans continue to support Trump even though he has made blatantly racist comments and preached hate on the campaign trail. But Hanna has had enough.In an open letter written for Syracuse.com, Hanna ripped Trump:Months ago I publicly said I could never support Trump. My reasons were simple and personal. I found him profoundly offensive and narcissistic but as much as anything, a world-class panderer, anything but a leader. Little more than a changing mirror of those he speaks to. I never expect to agree with whoever is president, but at a minimum the president needs to consistently display those qualities I have preached to my two children: kindness, honesty, dignity, compassion and respect.I do not expect perfection, but I do require more than the embodiment of at least a short list of the seven deadly sins.Then Hanna slammed the Republican Party for alienating a large swath of Americans while becoming incapable of nominating a candidate who is electable:I have long held the belief that the Republican Party is becoming increasingly less capable of nominating a person who is electable as president. The primary process is so geared toward the party s political base, which ignores the fact that we have largely alienated women, Hispanics, the LGBT community, young voters and many others in general.Hanna went on to call Trump deeply flawed and blasted him for the way he has treated John McCain and for the way he is treating Humayun Khan s family now. Hanna is ashamed that his party continues to still support Trump even though he is insulting military families and veterans across the country.And that why he is throwing his support and most importantly, his vote -to Hillary Clinton.Secretary Clinton has issues that depending on where one stands can be viewed as great or small. But she stands and has stood for causes bigger than herself for a lifetime. That matters. Mrs. Clinton has promoted many of the issues I have been committed to over the years including expanding education and supporting women s health care.While I disagree with her on many issues, I will vote for Mrs. Clinton. I will be hopeful and resolute in my belief that being a good American who loves his country is far more important than parties or winning and losing. I trust she can lead. All Republicans may not like the direction, but they can live to win or lose another day with a real candidate. Our response to the public s anger and the need to rebuild requires complex solutions, experience, knowledge and balance. Not bumper sticker slogans that pander to our disappointment, fear and hate.Now that one Republican in Congress has the balls to vote for Hillary in rejection of Trump, how many others will do the same?Featured image via Sara D. Davis/Getty Images | 0 |
22,025 | MSNBC Producer Reminds Idiot Trump That ‘Morning Joe’s’ Ratings Are Setting Record Highs (TWEET) | Donald Trump spent his week on Twitter blasting Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, hosts of MSNBC s Morning Joe. Rather than focus on something important, like the fact that his party is trying to kick millions of people off of their health care and leave them to die, he would rather spout off about the host of a cable news show bleeding badly from a facelift. I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don t watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came.. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017 to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year s Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017He continued his attack, tweeting about Morning Joe being low-rated fake news. Refusing to let it drop, he attacked again on Saturday, writing that Scarborough is crazy and Brzezinski is as dumb as a rock. Watched low rated @Morning_Joe for first time in long time. FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2017Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses. Too bad! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 1, 2017But MSNBC producer Jesse Rodriguez decided to set the record straight and remind Trump that Morning Joes is currently experiencing record high ratings. Apparently, our tweeter-in-chief missed the memo that the show had MSNBC s highest rating ever in the time period in the key demographic last quarter.Just a reminder about the @Morning_Joe ratings https://t.co/N6GTH99siw Jesse Rodriguez (@JesseRodriguez) July 1, 2017Thanks to our viewers: Morning Joe had MSNBC s highest rating ever in the time period in the key demographic last quarter. pic.twitter.com/HL2J1SciBv Jesse Rodriguez (@JesseRodriguez) June 27, 2017Ironically, Trump s own ratings have been sinking lower by the day. Maybe instead of attacking women on Twitter because he thinks are mean to him on TV, he should focus on doing his job and maybe try to not embarrass himself, the office of the presidency, and our entire country on a daily basis. Just a thought.Featured image via Getty/Olivier Douliery | 0 |
22,026 | Arizona GOP Poised To Ban Social Justice Classes, Events, And Lectures In Public Schools | Another day, another assault on the First Amendment from the freedom-loving Republican Party.In Arizona, a state facing an unprecedented teacher shortage, the Republican-led State House has introduced a bill to ban social justice courses, lectures and events from public schools, including state universities.HB 2120, introduced by Reps. Bob Thorpe and Mark Finchem, seeks to:15-112. Prohibited courses, classes, events and activities; enforcement; exceptions A. A school district or charter school in this state shall not include in its program of instruction any courses, or classes, EVENTS OR ACTIVITIES that include DO any of the following:And if the schools don t comply with the law (intentionally or unintentionally)? They lose 10 percent of their already depleted funds:B. If the state board of education or the superintendent of public instruction determines that the school district or charter school has failed to comply with subsection A OF THIS SECTION within sixty days after a notice has been issued pursuant to this subsection, the state board of education or the superintendent of public instruction may direct the department of education to withhold up to ten per cent PERCENT of the monthly apportionment of state aid that would otherwise be due the school district or charter school.In other words: don t teach anything that helps build up tolerance and acceptance of any repressed minority group or you will be punished with the money your districts so desperately need.When it comes to the state university system (institutions of higher learning), the legislation almost mirrors that for public k-12 schooling:A UNIVERSITY UNDER THE JURISDICTION OF THE ARIZONA BOARD OF REGENTS OR A COMMUNITY COLLEGE UNDER THE JURISDICTION OF A COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT SHALL NOT INCLUDE IN ITS PROGRAM OF INSTRUCTION ANY COURSES, CLASSES, EVENTS OR ACTIVITIES THAT DO ANY OF THE FOLLOWING:Like K-12 institutions, state colleges and universities would be stripped of 10 percent of their state funding if found to be intentionally or unintentionally in violation.The problem with this law is clear: it s too broadly written, it stifles education, and it deprives students of their ability to learn about different ideologies and current events in today s America. On the surface, it sounds good no public school should be able to promote violence, resentment or hatred towards the United States government or any group of people. However, once we start telling people they can t advocate for the social justice of anyone, no matter who it is being oppressed, we become complacent with discrimination and oppression of peoples all across the globe.Does this mean professors wouldn t be able to lecture or promote the human rights of those living in Israeli-Palestinian territory? Does it mean they cannot promote the never forget mantra of Nazi Germany atrocities because it s promoting social justice for Jews, Poles, the disabled, Gay and Romani people?The list and the subsequent debate could go on and on.This Orwellian, revisionist history is dangerous and it s un-American. It stifles freedom of speech even speech we may not agree with and shields students from different opinions and outlooks on life. Students paying thousands of dollars to attend a state university should not have their right to speak and learn freely striped of them by their government.The snowflake Republicans are at it again, and this time they re the ones who need a safe space from the big, bad social justice warriors.Featured image via KTAR News | 0 |
22,027 | Clinton condemns 'apparent terrorist attacks' in New Jersey, New York, Minnesota | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on Sunday condemned what she called the “apparent terrorist attacks” in Minnesota, New Jersey and New York. The three attacks on Saturday involved a stabbing in a Minnesota mall that wounded nine people, a bombing in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood that injured 29 and a pipe bomb explosion in New Jersey. | 1 |
22,028 | The World Mocks Trump After He Threatens Iran With War Via Twitter (TWEETS) | Before most of us were awake, Trump was busily focusing on solving the world s problems, diligently working to provide a better life for every American was busy moving his thumbs to tweet out more of his unhinged ravings. Iran is playing with fire they don t appreciate how kind President Obama was to them, Trump tweeted. Not me! Iran is playing with fire they don't appreciate how "kind" President Obama was to them. Not me! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 3, 2017Trump seems to be referencing an Iranian official rightfully mocking him as an extremist who has alienated the majority of Americans and regularly engages in groundless ranting. These remarks come after Trump put the country ON NOTICE via a mean tweet:Iran has been formally PUT ON NOTICE for firing a ballistic missile.Should have been thankful for the terrible deal the U.S. made with them! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2017Naturally, the people of the internet jumped on Trump s latest attempt to destabilize the world via Twitter:.@realDonaldTrump This is not how foreign relationships work, you rotting carcass of derangement and deception. Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) February 3, 2017@realDonaldTrump you are the worst at diplomacy. Please stop. Jack Slater (@Jack_Slater) February 3, 2017.@realDonaldTrump This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a tweeter Oliver Duggan (@OliDuggan) February 3, 2017@realDonaldTrump It wasn t kind. It s called diplomacy. You don t understand because you re a narcissistic bully endangering us all. MatthewDicks (@MatthewDicks) February 3, 2017@realDonaldTrump you don't use these words in a Tweet when you are seconds away from a suitcase which can end the world. Impeach Donald Trump (@Impeach_D_Trump) February 3, 2017@realDonaldTrump The Iraq war was a costly, destabilizing disaster. Not sure that a sequel is in our best interests. Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) February 3, 2017.@realDonaldTrump it's called diplomacy, Donald. You know, things that leaders of nations do with one another to avoid war and death. Nader (@BonsaiSky) February 3, 2017.@realDonaldTrumpTwo things I know:-I am infinitely more qualified than you to be president-I am wholly unqualified to be president [email protected] (@ScratchPolitics) February 3, 2017@realDonaldTrump Does Bannon whisper instructions at you like a shoulder devil or does he control you like a ventriloquist puppet? TechnicallyRon (@TechnicallyRon) February 3, 2017.@realDonaldTrump you're going to get everyone killed. Just stop it. Darren Bell (@darren_bell) February 3, 2017@realDonaldTrump Oh my God you're going to bring about the end of the world. This is how it happens. Jeremy Botter (@jeremybotter) February 3, 2017@realDonaldTrump your childish attitude to foreign affairs is likely to lead to a world war. You are unfit for office Steve Clark (@steveclarkuk) February 3, 2017@realDonaldTrump "Almost everything went wrong" because our novice POTUS spends too much time on Twitter being a bully. pic.twitter.com/GTEzuRjpHw John Harris (@YahyaJohn) February 3, 2017@realdonaldtrump The President of the United States is on Twitter trash talking Iran. Unbelievable! Mary Wooten (@mfwooten1) February 3, 2017@realDonaldTrump stop threatening war on twitter you fucking moron Jeff Lewis (@ChicagoPhotoSho) February 3, 2017@realDonaldTrump Trump is playing with fire he doesn't appreciate how many Americans see through his bullshit and want him impeached Salandar #RESIST (@lizsalandar) February 3, 2017@realDonaldTrump Yesterday Iran was "Put on Notice", and today they're "Playing with Fire" here comes 4 years of cheesy expressions. Christopher Buck (@StopherBuck) February 3, 2017@realDonaldTrump Sure, antagonise a country that is fighting ISIS. Zak Pullen (@zak_pullen) February 3, 2017@realDonaldTrump What're you gonna do, champ, drop some more commandos into a mine field? j/o power & assoc. (@bizmarkiedesade) February 3, 2017@realDonaldTrump Is this guy really the President? Really? 62m thought THIS was a good idea. Really? Embarrassing. kevinchesters (@hairychesters) February 3, 2017@realDonaldTrump FYI, Iran is 1300 miles North East Yemen. So, make sure that you have smart enough bombs to not hit the wrong country! Mohamed Alabsi (@Mohamed_Alabsi) February 3, 2017Over this past week Trump has started numerous diplomatic fires, threatening to send troops to Mexico to deal with bad hombres and somehow managing to f*ck up relations with Australia, one of our closest allies. When you hear about the tough phone calls I m having, don t worry about it, Trump recently told the crowd at the National Prayer Breakfast. We have to be tough. We re taken advantage of by every nation in the world, virtually. It s not going to happen anymore. Trump s horrible attitude has plunged the United States into an uncertain period of turmoil in which he is lashing out at everyone including our allies to satisfy his gigantic and undeserved ego. Think about it: the leader of the free world just openly threatened hostile action toward another nation via Twitter.This is bad. Really bad.Featured image via Getty Images(Win McNamee)/screengrab | 0 |
22,029 | Daughter Chelsea casts Clinton as great mom, driven public servant | PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Chelsea Clinton took the stage of the Democratic National Convention on Thursday to portray her mother Hillary Clinton as a loving, smart and playful woman qualified to be elected president of the United States. In a 12-minute introduction received warmly in a packed Philadelphia arena, Chelsea Clinton countered criticism that her mother is an untrustworthy politician who struggles to show compassion in front of American voters. “She’s a woman driven by compassion, by faith, by a fierce sense of justice and a heart full of love,” the only child of presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton and former U.S. President Bill Clinton told the crowd. Hillary Clinton took the stage minutes later to become the first woman to accept the presidential nomination of a major U.S. party. Chelsea Clinton, a 36-year-old mother of two, was the last in a series of speakers at the four-day gathering who sought to cast Hillary Clinton in a familial light ahead of the Nov. 8 election against Republican Donald Trump. She called her mother a “wonderful, thoughtful, hilarious” person who made time during her childhood to attend dance and piano recitals, and to gaze at the sky with her to find “shapes in the clouds”. “That feeling of being valued and loved, that’s what my mom wants for every child. It is the calling of her life,” Chelsea Clinton said. President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden had also given speeches supporting Clinton, casting her as qualified for the Oval Office because of her experience as a former secretary of state, U.S. senator and first lady, but also because of her loyalty and passion. Chelsea Clinton, who has been in the public eye since her childhood in the White House, took a low profile after her father left office in 2001. She married investment banker Marc Mezvinsky and served as vice chair of the Clinton Foundation charity. After her mother’s presidential bid she re-entered public life to hit the campaign trail, endearing herself to supporters with stories of Clinton as a mother and grandmother to her children, Charlotte, aged 2 come September, and Aidan, born in June. Trump has also relied on his children to soften his image. His eldest daughter Ivanka spoke at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last week, depicting the New York businessman as “color-blind and gender-neutral” to counter critics who have called his comments about immigrants and women bigoted and callous. Both candidates’ children say they are friends, a relationship they struck up before their parents launched campaigns for the White House. | 1 |
22,030 | Europe, global environment mean Germany needs stable government, Merkel says | BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany needs a stable government as soon as possible in order to respond to proposals for reforming the European Union and to deal with an uncertain global environment, Chancellor Angela Merkel told a news conference on Monday. Speaking after a meeting of her Christian Democrat (CDU) party s leadership, she said she would hold meetings with the Social Democrats (SPD), leader of the Social Democrats (SPD), who have agreed under pressure to enter coalition talks with Merkel s camp after first refusing to do so. There are European elections in 2019 ... so there is a big expectations that we take positions, she said, referring to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker s and French President Emmanuel Macron s proposals on the future governance of the currency and economic union. She also mentioned conflict in the Middle East, tensions with Russia and relations with the U.S. as factors that meant Germany needed to be capable of acting . | 1 |
22,031 | White House says it had no 'advance warning' of FBI probe of Clinton | ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - The White House on Friday said it was not given any prior notice on the FBI’s announcement that it was investigating additional emails relating to Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email system. “We did not have advance warning,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters traveling with President Barack Obama to a campaign event for Clinton in Orlando, Florida. Schultz said news of the Federal Bureau of Investigation probe has not affected Obama’s support for Clinton. “I don’t think anything has surfaced to changed the president’s opinion and views of Secretary Clinton,” he said. | 1 |
22,032 | Secret Service probing agent, photographer fight at Trump rally | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Secret Service is investigating an incident at presidential candidate Donald Trump’s rally in Radford, Virginia in which an agent shoved a Time magazine photographer to the ground, an agency spokesman said on Tuesday. “We are investigating the matter fully to find out what our employee did and what the other person did,” Kevin Dye told Reuters. Video footage of the altercation on Monday, which was posted on the Internet, shows Time magazine photographer Christopher Morris getting close to the agent, who threw him to the ground and Morris kicking the agent from the floor. The magazine said Morris was knocked to the ground after stepping out of the press hold to take a picture of protesters. A Trump campaign spokeswoman acknowledged the incident, but said the campaign was not aware of the details. In a statement published in Time, Morris said he had covered the White House for nine years without altercations with the Secret Service. “The rules at Trump events are significantly stricter than other campaigns and make it very difficult to work as a photographer, as many others have pointed out before me,” Morris said. “I regret my role in the confrontation, but the agent’s response was disproportionate and unnecessarily violent.” Free speech advocates have decried Trump’s treatment of protesters and reporters at his rallies, including ushering out dissenters and shouting at the press. The Secret Service said it would never intervene to quiet protesters or restrict journalists unless there was a public safety matter. “The Secret Service’s role is to protect the candidate and the public,” Dye said. “(Agents are) not in any way responsible for removing protesters. We have a strong commitment to upholding the First Amendment.” Trump and Ben Carson are the only two Republican presidential contenders to receive Secret Service protection, along with Democratic contenders Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Candidates must request the coverage. White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Tuesday acknowledged that the Secret Service has indicated it would “look at this particular situation.” | 1 |
22,033 | no title | the article explains a lot of the background to the white helmets and asks some important questions about the relations between government and ngos or as the author terms them neargovernment organisations the author should also be commended for the extensive bibliography
the author suggests that the truth about the white helmets may lie somewhere in the middle that the white helmets is a dualpurpose organisation with both humanitarian and propaganda functions
the author offers no evaluation of the video evidence provided by the white helmets which to a number of people seems incontrovertably fake and staged if this video evidence is indeed faked then it invites the question why is this necessary where are all the real casualties hasnt the russian bombing killed any civilians at all
the scd or white helmets counts nearly rescue workers this claim comes only from the white helmets it could well be that the foreign office is paying for salaries but whether those drawing
them are occupied in fulltime humanitarian work is another matter
after watching carefully the dubious video footage of rescue scenes and the far more convincing footage of white helmets participating in torture and abuse of prisoners it is difficult to see how the white
helmets are anything more than a set of expensive props and uniforms provided to extremist groups in aleppo and idlib and donned for propaganda purposes or when other uniforms are in the wash
furthermore given that the white helmets are funded by the governments and organisations who are totally unmoved by the plight of civilians in the greater part of syria the idea that these bodies would pay for humanitarian duties on the part of the white helmets seems somewhat optimistic
if the white helmets are have a dualpurpose function it is not propagandisthumanitarian but propagandistterrorist
i would also take issue with the statement the sad thing is that avaaz has learned nothing from its own campaign for a nofly zone in libya this view like the idea that the us etc keep making mistakes is following a mistaken policy presupposes that avaaz is wellintentioned that it opposes the destruction of iraq libya syria iran russia | 0 |
22,034 | General DESTROYS Trump For Insulting The Military (VIDEO) | A retired general has had enough of Donald Trump denigrating the men and women of the U.S. military currently engaged in the fight against ISIS and other terrorist elements. In an appearance on CNN, retired Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling blasted Trump for his recent claim that simply asking generals to come up with a plan to defeat ISIS would lead to the terrorist group s end in a neat and tidy thirty-day period.The former commanding general decried Trump, calling his orders simplistic and insulting to individuals working to defeat ISIS. It shows a complete lack of understanding of the threat and the ways to fight it, Hertling said. It s a sophomoric approach to elements of national security policy because if he s just calling in the military, he s missing the point that there are several other elements of national security that will help defeat ISIS. Trump has been all over the map on ISIS, as he has been on hundreds of other issues. The former reality TV star has claimed that ISIS is on the march (it is in retreat) and that he has a plan to defeat ISIS (which he is keeping secret). Trump has also claimed that he knows more than all the generals on how to win the war on terrorism.In reality, Trump s reckless comments have proven to be the right kind of material for ISIS leaders attempting to recruit new members. Compared to the measured tones offered by President Obama and Secretary Hillary Clinton, Trump s rhetoric attacking Islam often sounds like the clash of civilizations the radical Muslim world wants so badly.Daily, American military assets are fighting against ISIS elements, most notably American fighter jets that have been bombing ISIS targets in multiple countries for years now, in addition to work via intelligence agencies with governments fighting the ISIS threat. To minimize their work as Trump does is a clear insult.Featured image via screen capture | 0 |
22,035 | Schiff: Nunes decision to leave probe on Russia offers 'fresh start' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top Democrat on the U.S. House Intelligence Committee said the panel chairman’s decision to step aside on Thursday gives the committee an opportunity for a “fresh start” as it examines Russian interference into the U.S. election. U.S. Representative Adam Schiff, speaking to reporters, also said materials viewed by the panel’s Republican chairman, Devin Nunes, at White House would now be made available to all the members on the committee. | 1 |
22,036 | Denmark passes law that could ban Russian pipeline from going through its waters | COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark passed a law on Thursday that could allow it to ban Russia s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from going through its waters on grounds of security or foreign policy. The measure amends Denmark s regulatory framework to allow the authorities to cite security or foreign policy as reasons to block a pipeline. Previously these were not valid grounds for objection. Denmark has been caught in a geopolitical conflict as Russia s Gazprom and its European partners have sought to build Nord Stream 2, a giant pipeline to pump natural gas to Germany through the Baltic Sea, bypassing existing land routes over Ukraine, Poland and Belarus. The proposed route goes through Danish waters, but the pipeline consortium is investigating an alternative route north of the Danish island Bornholm which would run in international waters and therefore not be impacted by a potential Danish ban. Nord Stream 2 has already applied for permission in Denmark and its application is being assessed at the Danish Energy Agency. The change to the law will take effect from Jan. 1 but apply to applications that have already been submitted. In June, Danish energy and climate minister Lars Christian Lilleholt said he expected the agency to have completed its assessment during early 2018. | 1 |
22,037 | httpsyoutubebfpfcy_bsm | httpmediaarchivesgsradionetddukemp
dr duke and pastor dankof on trumps america first foreign policy
today dr duke had pastor mark dankof as his guest for the hour they talked about donald trumps appointments to his new cabinet they gave low marks to representative mike pompeo as the new cia director for his past policy positions although they noted his loyalty to trump as a potential silver lining they also panned nikki hailey as the un ambassador which however does allow trump supporter henry mcmaster succeed her as south carolina governor
the most hopeful prospect is congresswoman tulsi gabbard from hawaii who is a potential secretary of state she has supported trumps desire to reconcile with russia and has been the most vocal opponent in congress of the obama administrations efforts to overthrow syrian president assad her appointment would go a long way towards wresting control of american foreign policy from jewish neocons and putting americas interests first again
this is another great show that you wont want to miss please share it widely
our show is aired live at am replayed at et pm eastern and am eastern | 1 |
22,038 | GOP Senator Loses His Sh*t On Twitter Over Trump’s Colorado ‘Temper Tantrum’ (TWEETS) | On Monday morning, Donald Trump appeared on Fox & Friends and raged over his loss in Colorado. The Republican frontrunner s tantrum was so bad that it caused a GOP Senator to absolutely lose his shit on Twitter.Senator Cory Gardner was livid that Trump has been bashing the state after his loss, especially since the rules for delegate counts were set up months ago. However, it was only after his embarrassing defeat that he decided he no longer wanted to play by the rules typical Trump. After all of the whining, Senator Gardner decided to put The Donald in his place in an epic rant:If you can t figure out the Colorado GOP delegate process how can you figure out how to balance the national budget? Cory Gardner (@CoryGardner) April 12, 2016 If you cannot navigate the @cologop convention what is your plan for Putin? #copolitics Cory Gardner (@CoryGardner) April 12, 2016How can you protect Israel at the UN when you re completely baffled by the @cologop convention process? -CG #copolitics Cory Gardner (@CoryGardner) April 12, 2016 How on earth are you going to defeat ISIS if you can t figure out the @cologop convention? -CG #copolitics Cory Gardner (@CoryGardner) April 12, 2016The answer to those questions, of course, is that he has no plans. He never has. He tells his poorly educated supporters that he does, but he can t give out all of his secrets because someone might steal his ideas. His supporters, in turn, tell everyone else this load of baloney as if it s completely normal that a man who is running for President of the United States is refusing to tell people what he is going to do for the country. The senator had a lot more to say:Spoke to dozens of Trump supporters this weekend, listened to his surrogate speak twice, not 1 person complained abt process until he lost. Cory Gardner (@CoryGardner) April 12, 2016 .@tedcruz showed up to the @cologop convention. @realDonaldTrump only sent a surrogate. Cruz swept. Elections are won by those who show up. Cory Gardner (@CoryGardner) April 12, 2016Darryl Glenn came out of nowhere to win @cologop convention for US Senate. That should be the story. Not @realDonaldTrump s temper tantrum. Cory Gardner (@CoryGardner) April 12, 2016I ve attended CO GOP conventions for years. It requires organization & attn to grassroots to win. Cruz had it. Trump didn t. End of story. Cory Gardner (@CoryGardner) April 12, 2016That should be the end of the story, but Trump is a terrible loser. Instead of just admitting that Cruz won fair and square, someone must have cheated. It s a conspiracy!The reality is that Trump throws these fits because it furthers the narrative that he is the underdog fighting against the big, bad GOP establishment. And because his supporters do not have the common sense of a toddler, they believe him.It s not every day that a Republican senator so thoroughly owns Trump, so we must give credit where credit is due: bravo Senator Gardner.Featured image via Andrew Renneisen/Getty Images (altered) | 0 |
22,039 | Pastor freed from prison in Iran to return to U.S. on Thursday: wife | (Reuters) - A pastor from Idaho who was among five American prisoners released by Iran over the weekend will return to the United States on Thursday from Germany, his wife said on Wednesday. “Saeed will be landing on American soil Thursday evening,” Naghmeh Abedini said in a Facebook posting. Saeed Abedini, 35, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was detained in 2012. He was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2013 after being accused of harming Iran’s national security by setting up home-based churches in his native country. “He will spend a few days with his parents and then the kids and I will join him on Monday,” his wife said. The couple have two young children. The Americans’ release coincided with the implementation of a nuclear deal under which international economic sanctions against Iran were lifted in return for curbs on Iran’s atomic program. The White House offered clemency to seven Iranians who were convicted or facing trial in the United States. Abedini, along with Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian and former Marine Amir Hekmati, arrived at a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, on Sunday. Also released by Iran were Iranian-American Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, who stayed behind, and American student Matthew Trevithick. | 1 |
22,040 | HILARIOUS HYPOCRISY ON DISPLAY: 3 INTOLERANT Leftist Groups Stop D.C. Gay Pride Parade…Force Them To Take Alternate Route [VIDEO] | Protesters affiliated with the group No Justice, No Pride blocked this year s Capital Pride Parade on three separate occasions, delaying the parade and forcing participants to use an alternative route, in protest of the participation of police officers and certain corporate sponsors.#NoJusticeNoPride in prisons pipelines or deportations #blackqueertranslivesmatter pic.twitter.com/VZf00WjKiE JaneSee (@StreetSignsLife) June 10, 2017The No Justice, No Pride group first conducted its own march down the planned parade route with signs like rainbows don t cover death merchants and no pride in police violence. They then blocked the route at 15th and P Streets NW. Police formed a barricade around the demonstrators, allowing them to continue the protest, while re-routing the official parade down 16th Street. No arrests have been reported. The DCistSo today #blacklivesmatter stopped the D.C. Pride parade. pic.twitter.com/tFlhfLPcIO Fras (@DangerCW) June 10, 2017Pride parade fans were furious over the hijacking of their parade by leftist activist groups like Black Lives Matter and lashed out at the thugs who forced them to re-route the parade:Overheard at #DCPride, @capitalpridedc board member: We don t negotiate with terrorists describing #NoJusticeNoPride B. Loewe (@BstandsforB) June 11, 2017The video below shows an interesting exchange that took place during the parade. A female leftist activist attempts to explain to a male gay parade participant that his definition of pride no longer exists, and that in fact, the radical groups who are hijacking their planned parade have redefined what pride will now mean:#NoJusticeNoPride blockades have been divisive. Parade-goer: "This isn't the time and place." pic.twitter.com/W1EbsdmsTN Alejandro Alvarez (@aletweetsnews) June 11, 2017This gay Democrat suggested that the protesters should commit mass suicide:This pride participant was clearly not happy with the leftist agitators:This is the response of pride goers to a protest over police violence and private prisons. @GetEQUAL @FIF_dc #NoJusticeNopride pic.twitter.com/Th4yc6CdLT Drew Ambrogi (@DrewAmbrogi) June 10, 2017 | 0 |
22,041 | Andrea Mitchell SLAMS Donald Trump For Being A Complete Idiot On Foreign Policy (VIDEO) | When NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell calls a presidential candidate uneducated on foreign policy, we should listen.Because that s precisely what she had to say about Republican front-runner Donald Trump on Sunday during an appearance on Meet The Press.Mitchell has been NBC s foreign affairs expert for over 20 years so she knows what she is talking about. So whenever Trump has opened his mouth to talk about international affairs, she is taken aback. He cannot stick to a subject. It is remarkable, Mitchell told Chuck Todd. And when he doesn t know something, he just changes the subject, and makes it all about himself. Todd had just referenced an interview where Trump changed the topic rather than answer a question about whether he would use a nuclear weapon against ISIS.Chuck Todd mentioned that national security talk is especially noticeable to people like Mitchell who have literally spent their careers keeping up with foreign policy. He would cancel defense treaties with Japan and South Korea against North Korea, Mitchell said in reference to a Trump interview with the New York Times. He would be okay if Japan and South Korea go nuclear. American policy for decades since World War II has been trying to keep nukes out of that arena. Then Mitchell explained how Trump would hurt America by cutting off our oil supply from Saudi Arabia if the Saudis refuse to pay the United States more money for defense, which would likely hit our economy like a ton of bricks as oil prices rise and the price of gas skyrockets. If we re going to make America less dependent on foreign oil, we have to do so gradually because all at once would be a disaster.But she was particularly concerned about the fact that Trump doesn t seem to understand that Iran isn t allowed to buy American planes, nor does he know that China is North Korea s biggest trading partner. He is completely all over the lot Mitchell said. On Iran, he complains that Iran isn t buying our planes. It had to be pointed out to him that Iran is still under sanctions and cannot buy American planes. He thinks North Korea and Iran are the biggest trading partners, when North Korea s biggest trading partner is China. And then she finished slaying Trump with a single line that should worry every American. He is completely uneducated about any part of the world. Todd went on to consult Katy Tur about what she has learned about Trump s lack of foreign policy chops, and she mentioned that Trump doesn t understand the function of US military bases around the world and why they are there, which would be a very important thing to know to be an effective commander-in-chief of our armed forces.Here s the video via YouTube:Donald Trump is an idiot when it comes to domestic policy and foreign policy, but considering the issues we face internationally whether it be terrorism, rising tensions in the Middle East, competing with China on the world economic stage, and dealing with a refugee crisis, the last thing America needs is a leader who doesn t know anything about any of these issues beyond campaign rhetoric that lasts a full sentence before the subject is changed.Presidents cannot just change the subject rather than deal with a foreign policy crisis. They have to figure out a solution to the problem and being uneducated about the situation to begin with doesn t exactly build confidence that the problem will be solved competently.And since Trump has proven that he can t do that, it doesn t make any sense whatsoever to elect him to the highest office in the land with a greatest responsibility in the world.Featured image: screenshot | 0 |
22,042 | Republican Senator Corker says he is still undecided on tax bill | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Senator Bob Corker on Wednesday said he was still undecided on whether to support his party’s tax legislation even as congressional Republicans announced a deal on a final plan. Corker, whose party has a slim majority in the Senate and can only afford to lose two votes, told reporters: “My deficit concerns have not been alleviated, so like in many tough votes around here, you’ve got to make a decision.” | 1 |
22,043 | Right-Wing Media Won’t Let Slain DNC Staffer RIP | The story of a slain DNC staffer complicates as an ex-detective claims there is new evidence behind his murder. On Monday, a private investigator suggested that Seth Rich was communicating with WikiLeaks before he was murdered. And right-wing news outlets are taking his every word as true.Seth Rich served as a DNC staffer for two years until his untimely death at the age of 27. Washington, DC police maintain that his murder resulted from a botched burglary that July night last year in Northwest DC. But according to the leading Right-wing outlets, like Fox & Friends, the Drudge Report, and Breinbart, an ex DC Officer presents damning new evidence of Rich s ties to WikiLeaks. What kind of evidence? The invisible kind, of course.Rob Wheeler, the former detective and Fox News contributor, told Fox 5 DC, on Monday, that his private investigation into the murder has led him to believe there is a cover-up. The key to his theory is Rich s missing laptop. [The police and FBI] haven t been forthcoming, Wheeler told the station. He claimed that a source within the department told him they were given orders to suspend the investigation. The DC Police, when asked for a response, called his claims false. His parallel investigation, which was offered to the Rich s family free of charge, led him to suggest there is some tangible evidence of wrongdoing. I believe that the answer to solving his death lies on that computer, which I believe is either at the police department or either at the FBI, concluded Wheeler.He went on to entertain a possible cover-up going as far as the Mayor s office. But no independent source has yet to corroborate his claims. Wheeler s comments come months after various internet threads and right-leaning media outlets have mentioned Seth Rich as a functional actor in conspiracies involving the Podesta emails and WikiLeaks documents that had an impact on the 2016 presidential election. According to Yahoo News, suspicions grew when infamous hacker Grucifer 2.0 named Rich as the whistle blower and WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, offered a $20,000 award for finding the perpetrator of the heinous crime. But there is still no confirmed evidence that Seth Rich was the leak. Not one email, witness, or clue.In fact, Rich s family has denounced the claim that he was a whistleblower, and they have distanced themselves from the special investigator. Representative for the family, Brad Bauman, told Business Insider, that there is a special place in hell for media outlets that try and manipulate the legacy of a murder victim in order to forward their own political agenda. He added that even if emails did show up, they would not be a high enough bar of evidence because the family believes those pushing conspiracy theories will stop at nothing. His final statement sternly distanced the family from the private investigator. The services of the private investigator who spoke to the press was offered to the Rich family and paid for by a third party, and contractually was barred from speaking to the press or anyone outside of law enforcement or the family unless explicitly authorized by the family. Featured image via Getty/Drew Angerer | 0 |
22,044 | RNC Leader’s Backstage Rant Shows What The GOP Really Thinks Of Donald Trump (VIDEO) | Footage has been released of a leader of the Republican National Committee ranting for a full five minutes about the need for a rebellion against Presidential candidates like Donald Trump. The video serves as evidence that it s not just liberals who know that conservatives are going to lose in 2016 with extremists like Trump on the ticket.The star of the footage Holland Redfield, who represents the U.S. Virgin Islands uses some rather colorful language in his incitement against the likes of trust fund tycoon Donald Trump. If I didn t say this, I d go home very troubled. Redfield tells the audience of the private, RNC Winter Meeting. When we have allowed the party to be representing a tremendous amount of anger we are playing a very dangerous game.Does the tail wag the dog, or does the dog wag the tail? He rails against the gutter-level language being used by candidates like Trump and others, and the disrespect for ethnic minorities which risks making the party unelectable to Americans who aren t white. Not only is this morally reprehensible, but it s electoral suicide in a rainbow nation.And what happens when a party member voices concerns about these issues? Redfield argues that we re almost terrorized as members of our party. Shut up. Toe the line, embrace each other, and let s go forward. Redfield refuses to name Trump because he fears: I will be targeted. It is likely Redfield speaks for a sea of moderate conservatives across the United States who cease to feel represented by a party which has been seized by Christian and right-wing extremists. These moderate conservatives might well be forced into the position of voting Democrat in 2016, or abstaining altogether, with the absence of a GOP candidate who speaks to their vision of America. The Eisenhower Republicans, who aren t afraid to invest public money to make America a world leader in education, science, technology and engineering; who would rather the U.S. spent a little less on engaging in permanent war overseas, and a little more on roads, schools, and hospitals at home. How could they ever vote for a Trump, or a Ted Cruz?This video of this desperate plea for a new direction by this lone RNC leader speaks to the bigger crisis for conservatives in America. The religious right has pulled the entire party off it s axis, and is speaking to an ever smaller, echo chamber of extreme conservatism. In doing so, they are doing the job of putting a Democrat in the White House in 2016 all by themselves.Featured Image via Flickr Creative Commons | 0 |
22,045 | Of All The Candidates Running For President, Only One Pays Their Interns | Here s a nice little factoid for you: out of all the candidates running for president this year, only one actually pays their interns. Can you take a guess as to who that one person might be? It s none other than your favorite democratic socialist, Senator Bernie Sanders.You heard that right: No one else, not Donald Trump, not even Hillary Clinton, pay their interns, not in a house, not in a tree, not anywhere (to borrow a line from Dr. Suess).The Washington Post ran an unofficial investigation from the angle of how Presidential candidates ignore the costs of unpaid internships despite their rhetoric to the contrary. It s particularly fitting considering they talk a big game about the eroding middle class and rising social inequality, yet they treat their own workers like slaves.Even the leading Republican candidates talk about income inequality openly, even though they may not get as much press coverage on the topic, yet still, somehow Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, and Donald Trump don t care enough to pay their interns. Not Bernie Sanders, though. He pays his interns $10.10 an hour. Not too shabby!While we will admit this is nowhere close to the $15.00 an hour Bernie advocates for on the campaign trail, it s far and above anything else the other candidates are offering.If you believe in a higher minimum wage, this should be important to you. If you think workers need to be treated with respect, this difference between the candidates should be important to you. What better predictor is there for how a candidate is going to conduct themselves in office than how they conduct their own campaign?Featured image via Flickr | 0 |
22,046 | COMEDY GOLD! DR BEN CARSON’S Comment To Liberal Democrat…Funny! [Video] | Dr. Ben Carson: You remind me of Columbo. .@SenSherrodBrown: I ve heard that before. pic.twitter.com/iKEqBeFZb4 CSPAN (@cspan) January 12, 2017 | 0 |
22,047 | BREAKING: Obama Threatens Great Britain With Trade Penalties If They Leave The EU | ITV Reporter: British reporters in various degrees of politeness they have said to you that you should really keep your views to yourself. With that in mind, Mr. President, do you still think it was the right thing to intervene in this debate? ANd what happens if the UK does decide in June to leave the European Union?Barack Obama: This is a decision for the people of the United Kingdom to make. I am not coming here to fix any votes Maybe some point down the line there might be a UK-US trade agreement but it s not going to happen anytime soon because our focus is in negotiating with a big block the European Union to get a trade agreement done. And the UK is going to be in the back of the queue. Not because we have a special relationship but because given the heavy lift on any trade agreement, us having access to a big market with a lot of countries rather than trying to do piecemeal trade agreements is hugely inefficient. | 0 |
22,048 | Pence puts North Korea on notice not to test U.S. resolve, citing Syria strike | SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence put North Korea on notice on Monday that neither the United States nor South Korea would tolerate further missile or nuclear tests by the reclusive state, with the U.S. attack on Syria showing its resolve. Pence and South Korean acting president Hwang Kyo-ahn expressed disappointment over China’s retaliatory actions against South Korea in response to the deployment of U.S. missile defense system THAAD in the South, but reaffirmed their plan to go ahead with its deployment. | 1 |
22,049 | Britain's Johnson seeks to clarify remarks on jailed aid worker in Iran | LONDON (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that his remarks last week about a jailed Iranian-British aid worker could have been clearer, and said he had not wanted to add credence to Iranian allegations against her. On Nov. 1, Johnson said that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been teaching people journalism before her arrest in Iran in April 2016. The UK government has no doubt that she was on holiday in Iran when she was arrested last year and that was the sole purpose of her visit, Johnson said. My point was that I disagreed with the Iranian view that training journalists was a crime, not that I wanted to lend any credence to Iranian allegations that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been engaged in such activity, he said. I accept that my remarks could have been clearer in that respect and I am glad to provide this clarification. Johnson said he would travel to Iran in the coming weeks and discuss all consular issues there. | 1 |
22,050 | U.S. chief justice alarmed at Trump administration immigration case stance | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts took issue on Wednesday with the Trump administration’s stance in an immigration case, saying it could make it too easy for the government to strip people of citizenship for lying about minor infractions. Roberts and other Supreme Court justices indicated support for a deported ethnic Serb immigrant named Divna Maslenjak over her bid to regain her U.S. citizenship after it was stripped because she falsely stated her husband had not served in the Bosnian Serb army in the 1990s after Yugoslavia’s collapse. Roberts seemed particularly concerned that the government was asserting it could revoke citizenship through criminal prosecution for trivial lies or omissions. He noted that in the past he has exceeded the speed limit while driving. If immigrants failed to disclose that on a citizenship application form asking them to list any instances of breaking the law, they could later lose their citizenship, the conservative chief justice said. “Now you say that if I answer that question ‘no,’ 20 years after I was naturalized as a citizen, you can knock on my door and say, ‘Guess what, you’re not an American citizen after all?’” Roberts asked Justice Department lawyer Robert Parker. Roberts described the administration’s interpretation as inviting “prosecutorial abuse” because the government could likely find a reason for stripping citizenship from most naturalized citizens. “That to me is troublesome to give that extraordinary power, which, essentially, is unlimited power, at least in most cases, to the government,” Roberts added. President Donald Trump has sought to restrict immigration and deport people who have entered the United States illegally. Maslenjak entered the United States with her husband and two children in 2000, granted refugee status over a claimed fear of ethnic persecution in Bosnia at the hands of Muslims. They settled in Ohio. She became a U.S. citizen in 2007. At issue is her concealment of her husband Ratko’s service in a Bosnian Serb Army brigade that participated in the notorious 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica. Maslenjak’s citizenship was revoked. She and her husband were deported to Serbia last October. Liberal Justice Stephen Breyer shared Roberts’ concern, noting he had once walked into a government building with a pocketknife on his key chain in violation of the law. “It’s, to me, rather surprising that the government of the United States thinks that Congress is interpreting this statute and wanted it interpreted in a way that would throw into doubt the citizenship of vast percentages of all naturalized citizens,” Breyer said. Conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy also rebuked Parker, saying, “It seems to me that your argument is demeaning the priceless value of citizenship.” There are around 20 million naturalized U.S. citizens, according to the Migration Policy Institute. The legal question is whether Maslenjak’s false statements had a material effect on the U.S. decision to grant her refugee status. The government argued it only matters that she made a false statement, not whether it had any impact on its decision to grant refugee status. At a 2009 hearing to help her husband avoid deportation after he was convicted of making a false statement by concealing his military service, she admitted that when she had applied to be a refugee she had not revealed that from 1992 to 1997 the family lived in Bosnia and her husband served in the military. She was later convicted of lying on her citizenship application. This was the last oral argument of the court’s current term. A ruling is due by the end of June. | 1 |
22,051 | WATCH: ARROGANT Sexual Predator and Sometimes “Comedian” Louis C.K. Tells Stephen Colbert “Donald Trump Is An Insane Bigot and Hitler” | The not so funny comedian Louis C.K. appeared on the Stephen Colbert show mostly to talk about his decision to send an email to his fans, where he told them that Donald Trump is an insane bigot and Hitler . After the self-righteous comedian got some laughs from Colbert s liberal audience, Colbert asked them to settle down, that Louis C.K. admitted that after he sent the email, he regretted it. C.K. went on to say that he didn t really regret it, he just regretted saying it , or in other words, he regrets that he was outed as a whiny, liberal, crybaby who can t control his emotions (our translation). One of the most interesting lines in the interview came after the Trump bashing where the outed sexual predator tells Colbert, I wouldn t take it back. If you went back and fixed all the mistakes you made, you erase yourself. You know, there s just no point to that. Good luck trying to erase yourself after you ve been outed creep Here s part of Louis C.K. s email to his fans: Please stop it with voting for Trump. It was funny for a little while. But the guy is Hitler. And by that I mean that we are being Germany in the 30s. Do you think they saw the shit coming? Hitler was just some hilarious and refreshing dude with a weird comb over who would say anything at all.And I m not advocating for Hillary or Bernie. I like them both but frankly I wish the next president was a conservative only because we had Obama for eight years and we need balance. And not because I particularly enjoy the conservative agenda. I just think the government should reflect the people. And we are about 40 percent conservative and 40 percent liberal. When I was growing up and when I was a younger man, liberals and conservatives were friends with differences. They weren t enemies. And it always made sense that everyone gets a president they like for a while and then hates the president for a while. But it only works if the conservatives put up a good candidate. A good smart conservative to face the liberal candidate so they can have a good argument and the country can decide which way to go this time.Trump is not that. He s an insane bigot. He is dangerous.Watch Louis C.K. joke around with Stephen Colbert about his disdain for President Trump, calling him a Gross crook, dirty, rotten, lying sack of sh*t. The not so funny comedian was outed today as a serial sexual predator.NPR reported that Louis C.K. masturbated in front of multiple female colleagues, to their shock and dismay, according to women who spoke on the record to The New York Times about their experiences.The famous comic has been surrounded by rumors of sexual misconduct for years specifically, allegations that he would masturbate in front of female colleagues.Last year, the comedian Roseanne Barr told The Daily Beast that C.K. was about to get busted for his conduct. It s Louis C.K., locking the door and masturbating in front of women comics and writers. I can t tell you I ve heard so many stories, she said. Comedian Tig Notaro acknowledged the allegations this summer and said C.K. needed to handle them.But previously, those stories were shared secondhand. Now, five women have spoken to the Times directly, with only one requesting anonymity. You can read the full story which goes into much more detail over at the New York Times.This Twitter user nailed it when it comes to just how disgusting Louis C.K. really is:Guys like Louis CK could just pay a sex worker. Could even request the sex worker play like she's uncomfortable if they likes. But they don't want that. The pleasure is in the actual discomfort of their victims, the power to overwhelm or make them just take it. It's horrendous. Rae Sanni (@raesanni) November 9, 2017And here s the icing on the cake Louis C.K. admitting how he loves to masturbate everywhere on Fox News with Greg Gutfeld.This is Louis CK pic.twitter.com/el0FesJIhX Jacob Wohl (@JacobAWohl) November 9, 2017 | 0 |
22,052 | BREAKING: Trump Reportedly Considering Replacing Reince Priebus | Everyone knows not to talk to her in the White House unless you want to see it in the press, Got News editor Charles Johnson quoted a source close to the president as saying in February. The only question is whether or not she s doing it at the behest of [White House Chief of Staff] Reince Priebus or if she s doing it to advance herself in DC media circles. BreitbartAn exclusive report from Axios claims that Trump may be looking to replace Priebus:President Donald Trump is considering a shake-up of his White House that could include the replacement of White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and the departure of his chief strategist Steve Bannon, according to a report in Axios.Axios says a top aide to Trump says it s unclear if the president is willing to pull that trigger. But Axios writes possibilities for chief of staff include House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican; Wayne Berman of Blackstone Group; and National Economic Council head Gary Cohn.A top aide to Trump said he s contemplating major changes, but that the situation is very fluid and the timing uncertain: Things are happening, but it s very unclear the president s willing to pull that trigger. Insiders tell me that the possibilities for chief of staff include:House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who developed a bond with Trump as one of the earlier congressional leaders to support him, and remains a confidant.Wayne Berman of Blackstone Group, a Washington heavy-hitter who was an Assistant Secretary of Commerce under President George H.W. Bush, and a key adviser on eight presidential campaigns.David Urban of the Washington advisory firm American Continental Group, and a former chief of staff to the late Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). Urban helped Trump win an upset victory in Pennsylvania, and was in constant cellphone contact with the candidate throughout the campaign.Gary Cohn, Trump s economic adviser and the former #2 at Goldman Sachs, who has built a formidable team and internal clout.The West Wing Game of Thrones has been raging ever since Trump took office. But the war between the nationalists and the moderates, led by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, burst into the open this week after Bannon was taken off the National Security Council, setting off a torrent of leaks against him. | 0 |
22,053 | FAKE BOMB INCIDENT Wasn’t First Time Muslim Clock Boy Was In Trouble | Even though the Muslim Clock Boy s attention seeking radical father won t allow the school to tell their side of the story, sooner or later the real truth eventually leaks out Before he was put in handcuffs for bringing a homemade clock to school and became an overnight celebrity, Ahmed Mohamed racked up weeks of suspensions and clashed with authority while in middle school, the Dallas Morning News reported.While attending Sam Houston Middle School in Irving, Texas, Mohamed mastered electronics and English, once built a remote control to prank the classroom projector and bragged of reciting his First Amendment rights in the principal s office, according to the report.Despite rumors about the 14-year-old s past disciplinary problems, Mohamed s status as a minor has prevented the Irving Independent School District from speaking out on the matter.Critics have argued that his past behavior may have influenced how school officials responded to the clock that officials thought could have been a hoax bomb. Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne recently told TheBlaze that the Mohamed family has ignored requests by the school district to allow officials to speak out about the case. The context, she said, would help explain why the situation progressed as it did.However, his seventh-grade history teacher, Ralph Kubiak, has become the first person to open up about the weird little kid that sat in his classroom. I saw a lot of him in me. That thirst for knowledge he s one of those kids that could either be CEO of a company or head of a gang, he told the Dallas Morning News.Kubiak also confirmed that Mohamed would regularly bring gadgets to school that were much more complicated than the clock assembled in a pencil box that recently got him into trouble.Via: The Blaze | 0 |
22,054 | Trump to hold news conference next week on U.S. veterans issues | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he will hold a news conference on April 27 to discuss veterans issues, as he tries to elevate an issue he campaigned on heavily last year. Trump made the statement as he signed into law the Veterans Choice Program Extension and Improvement Act, which allows veterans to obtain more access to healthcare outside the Department of Veterans Affairs system. The news conference was scheduled to be held as Trump nears the 100-day benchmark of his presidency on April 29. Trump spent a lot of time advocating for better treatment for veterans during his presidential campaign last year. He said that at the news conference he would discuss progress at the VA since he took office on Jan. 20. | 1 |
22,055 | BREAKING: Putin Directly Orchestrated Hacks To Get Trump Elected (VIDEO) | It s no secret that Russia was behind the election hacks of Donald Trump s political opponents with the express goal of getting Donald Trump elected as well as mobilizing a Kremlin-funded troll army to pose as Trump supporters and spread propaganda on his behalf. But it s almost inconceivable that Vladimir Putin actually got his own hands dirty or is it?Intelligence official now report that Vladimir Putin was not only aware of the attacks on our election (and more specifically, Hillary Clinton), but directly participated in them and by participated, we mean that he orchestrated the entire thing. NBC reports:Two senior officials with direct access to the information say new intelligence shows that Putin personally directed how hacked material from Democrats was leaked and otherwise used. The intelligence came from diplomatic sources and spies working for U.S. allies, the officials said.Putin s objectives were multifaceted, a high-level intelligence source told NBC News. What began as a vendetta against Hillary Clinton morphed into an effort to show corruption in American politics and to split off key American allies by creating the image that [other countries] couldn t depend on the U.S. to be a credible global leader anymore, the official said.Trump has repeatedly denied not only knowledge of the Russian operation headed by a man he once said he wanted to be his new best friend, but denied that they happened at all.So here s where we stand: Donald Trump won the election thanks to the direct interference not only of Russia but of Vladimir Putin himself after Trump personally asked Russia to hack his enemies on national U.S. television. Since winning, he has appointed numerous pro-Russia people who will likely cater to Putin s whims, including one that a Russian political commentator calls a Christmas gift from Trump to Russia. Or, of course, he could be called a thank you gift. Trump once said he could shoot someone in broad daylight and not lose a single supporter. On December 19, we learn whether or not he can hand our country over to the enemy and still manage to assume office. Electors have a historically hard job and this will be the truest test of their patriotism imaginable. Will they stand up to Trump, or will they drive the final nail in our country s coffin?Watch a CBS report on this newest, most terrifying information, below:NEW: US intelligence sources confirm hacks could not have occurred without Putin s blessing, @jeffpeguescbs reports https://t.co/xSIJMLms3X pic.twitter.com/HpmgR7cg7f CBS News (@CBSNews) December 15, 2016Featured image via Getty Images (Justin Sullivan/Ian Walton) | 0 |
22,056 | Saudi Arabia intercepts Yemeni missile, second in a month | DUBAI (Reuters) - A ballistic missile fired by Yemen s armed Houthi group at Saudi Arabia was shot down on Thursday near the south-western city of Khamis Mushait, the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya channel reported. It was the second ballistic missile fired from Yemen this month, after an earlier rocket was brought down near King Khaled Airport on the northern outskirts of the capital Riyadh. A Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen has closed air, land and sea access in a move it says is meant to stop a flow of Iranian arms to the Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen. The blockade has cut food imports to seven million people on the brink of famine. Air defense intercepted a ballistic missile, fired by the Houthis toward Khamis Mushait, Arabiya said on its Twitter account, without giving details. The Houthis and allied militias loyal to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who have fired dozens of missiles into Saudi territory during a 2-1/2 year war, said on their official news agency they had launched a mid-range ballistic missile that hit its military target with high precision . SABA, quoting a military source, added the successful test was a new start of locally made missile launches . Saudi Arabia and its allies, who receive logistical and intelligence help from the United States, accuse the Houthis of being a proxy of Iran. The coalition has launched thousands of air strikes against the Houthis who still control much of Yemen s main population centers including the capital Sanaa and the strategic port and city of Hodeidah. The conflict has led to one of the world s worst humanitarian crises and killed at least 10,000 people. | 1 |
22,057 | Indian journalist shot dead at her residence | NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A senior Indian journalist was shot dead on Tuesday in the southern city of Bengaluru by unidentified assailants, police said. The body of Gauri Lankesh, the editor of an Indian weekly newspaper, was found lying in a pool of blood outside her home. People in front of her house heard gunshots, the city s Police commissioner, T. Suneel Kumar, told reporters. We found four empty cartridges from the scene. Lankesh was known as a fearless and outspoken journalist. She was a staunch critic of right-wing political ideology. Last year, she was convicted of criminal defamation for one of her articles. While the motivation for the killing was not immediately clear, political leaders, journalists and activists took to Twitter to express their outrage and denounce intolerance and any threat to free speech. Karnataka state s chief minister Siddaramaiah called it an assassination on democracy . | 1 |
22,058 | It’s Already Happening: Potential Trump Pick Leaks Sensitive Information In Hilariously Stupid Way (IMAGE) | Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has reportedly been in the running for Secretary of Homeland Security, and as an early Trump supporter, he s got a pretty good chance of getting a position within the administration.On Sunday, he had a meeting with Trump that lends credence to that assumption. Eager for any political opportunity, he appeared in a photograph with overlord Trump, and in that photograph, papers concerning his plans for our homeland security can be clearly seen.And read.Here s the picture in question, taken by the Associated Press:In his haste to be photographed with the president-elect, he left sensitive information facing directly toward the camera. And as reported by the Topeka Capital-Journal, the paper is clearly legible in the original photograph.The document calls for updating and reintroducing the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System. The program was implemented in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, but largely suspended in 2011. All aliens from high-risk areas are tracked, the document reads.The document then calls for extreme vetting questions for high-risk aliens ; echoing Trump s campaign rhetoric. High-risk aliens would be questioned about support for Sharia law (Islamic religious law), jihad, the equality of men and women and the U.S. Constitution.The document also asks for reducing the intake of Syrian refugees to zero.In other words, Trump s current top pick for Homeland Security wants a registry, wants to violate religious freedoms through extreme vetting, is completely against actually helping anyone, and is too stupid to put the damn papers in the binder before posing for a picture.Also included in the document, but hidden partially by his arm so that context is unavailable: the Patriot Act, voter rolls, and possible amendments to the Voting Rights Act. Considering Trump s rhetoric and what the rest of the paper contains, that is terrifying. It looks as though Republicans want to use the Department of Homeland Security to suppress the Democratic vote.Kobach was the one who designed the previous registry system for immigrants as well the one that was abandoned in 2011 because it was completely useless, and is also un-American in concept:Right off the bat, Kobach starts his list by detailing the way he will institute the Muslim registry. First, he wants to restart the highly ineffective and civil rights-violating Bush screening and tracking policy known as NSEERS. The program forced Muslim immigrants to register and then routinely check in with immigration officials while they were in the US or face jail or deportation. It was also a disaster. Obama scrapped the whole thing in his first term. (Source)It didn t even result in a single terrorist being prosecuted. In fact, none of these methods will work beyond appeasing the disgusting impulses of the xenophobic right wing now running our country. Alienating communities and painting enemies where there are none does nothing but help the people you re trying to fight. But in the case of fascists like Trump, creating an enemy is a good thing: It allows them to justify seizing greater power while they erode civil liberties. Mark my words he will come for the press, for protesters, and even for voters. He doesn t believe in the same basic rights you and I do he doesn t even understand them.In many ways, this incident is a fair representation of the Trump campaign (and pending administration) as a whole: Incompetent, inhuman, and deeply immoral.Featured image by Drew Angerer via Getty Images | 0 |
22,059 | Bizarre Reason Right-Wing Actor James Woods Is Suing A Twitter User For $10 Million | Right-wing actor James Woods is so upset that a liberal made fun of him on Twitter that he is suing for $10 million dollars. Woods, who has been in Hollywood for several decades, is part of a secretive Hollywood club of conservatives called Friends of Abe.A Twitter user, who goes by the name of Abe List has been sued by Woods, after he called the actor a cocaine addict. Woods is now attempting to uncover the true identity of the Twitter user and get an award of damages for the tweet.The spat began when Mr Woods posted on Twitter about a row between Bruce Jenner and Planned Parenthood.He wrote: USATODAY app features Bruce Jenner s latest dress selection but makes zero mention of Planned Parenthood baby parts market. Abe List replied: Cocaine addict James Woods still sniffing and spouting. He also referred to Mr Woods as a joke and a ridiculous scum clown-boy .Woods often uses his account to post attacks and smears against President Obama and other liberals (he called Al Sharpton a pimp ). In his lawsuit, Woods whines that Abe List is a cowardly individual who was the mastermind of a malicious online campaign to discredit the actor.In response Lisa Bloom, who is a lawyer representing Abe List, has pointed out that suggestions that Mr Woods was on drugs was not meant to be taken literally. While Hollywood obviously leans heavily to the left, there are of course conservatives in that industry like there are everywhere else. Yet, it is an article of faith that Hollywood conservatives are somehow frozen out from opportunities in the industry, which helped lead to the creation of the Friends of Abe group. Deceased right-wing provocateur Andrew Breitbart was among the founders of the group, along with Gary Sinise, Kelsey Grammer, Lionel Chetwynd, Jon Voight. They hosted Donald Trump for a get together in July of 2015.While Woods is not an A-list actor, he has steadily worked in Hollywood, and recently appeared in the TV series Ray Donovan and in the movie White House Down, hardly the resume of someone being persecuted for his conservative beliefs.Ever the victim.Featured image via YouTube | 0 |
22,060 | Britain to Trump: 'No vacancy' for Farage as ambassador | LONDON (Reuters) - Britain on Tuesday dismissed U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s unprecedented expression of support for Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage to be made British ambassador to Washington, saying pointedly that there is no vacancy for the job. Trump, who after his election victory met Farage before any EU leaders, said on Twitter that “many people” would like to see the former metals trader turned politician as Britain’s ambassador. “Many people would like to see @Nigel_Farage represent Great Britain as their Ambassador to the United States. He would do a great job!” Trump said. Prime Minister Theresa May, who congratulated Trump on his victory, was swift to reject such an undiplomatic proposal, with a spokesman saying Britain already had an excellent ambassador to Washington and that London would appoint its own envoys. “We have first rate ambassador in Washington,” Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who campaigned for Brexit, told the British parliament. “There is no vacancy for that position.” It is highly unusual in the modern era for leaders to publicly suggest to foreign nations whom they would like to see as ambassador, though during strained relations they sometimes reject or expel envoys. Trump’s suggestion provoked anger, support and even hilarity in Britain, with one lawmaker, Conservative Simon Burns, joking that perhaps Britain should suggest Hillary Clinton as its preferred choice as ambassador to London. But the apparent public suggestion about who to appoint as ambassador by the man who will lead Britain’s most powerful ally puts Prime Minister May in a difficult position just as she tries to build ties with Washington ahead of leaving the EU. London is trying to gauge whether Trump would support a special trade deal with Britain as it negotiates a divorce from the EU. Britain also places great store on what it calls its “special relationship” with the United States. Farage, who spent decades campaigning for Britain to leave the European Union and helped force former Prime Minister David Cameron to call the June referendum that brought the Brexit vote, spoke at a Trump rally during the U.S. campaign and visited the president-elect after his victory. As leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and one of the key figures of the successful Brexit campaign, Farage has repeatedly angered EU leaders by predicting the collapse of the EU, which he says is run by an out-of-touch elite of “idiots”. Farage said Trump’s suggestion that he serve as ambassador had come “like a bolt from the blue” but Trump understood loyalty in a way that those in the “cesspit” of career politics did not. “I am in a good position with the President-elect’s support to help. The world has changed and it’s time that Downing Street did too,” Farage said in an article written for the Breitbart news website. “I would do anything to help our national interest and to help cement ties with the incoming Anglophile administration,” Farage said. A photograph of Trump greeting Farage in front of a gilded elevator shortly after the U.S. election caused consternation in EU capitals, many of whom view Trump with a mixture of fear and puzzlement. His suggestion of Farage also provoked anger among some British lawmakers. “Many people think you should mind your own business and talk about pussy-grabbing less, but hey, life is a constant disappointment,” Jess Phillips, a lawmaker for the opposition Labour Party, said on Twitter in a reference to Trump’s previous vulgar comments about groping women. Accused by his critics of being a racist and a bigot, Farage peppers his speeches with jokes and the odd expletive while railing against what he calls the doomed European superstate and immigration into Britain. He is a member of the European parliament but has failed in his efforts to win election to the British parliament. Farage said Trump would be a great president after “the political revolution” that brought Brexit in Britain and Trump to power in the United States. “In the United Kingdom the people have spoken but the players at the top have, I am afraid, stayed the same,” Farage, 52, said. “Those who supported Remain now hold senior positions. Worst still, those who were openly abusive about Trump now pretend to be his friend,” said Farage. Farage has urged May to build ties with Trump, who provoked criticism in Britain with his call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States. Queen Elizabeth might invite Trump for a state visit to Britain next year. Farage made light of allegations of sexual assault against Trump during the U.S. campaign by encouraging him to “come and schmooze” May but adding “don’t touch her for goodness sake”. When U.S. President Barack Obama said before the referendum that Britain would be at the back of the queue for a trade deal, Farage said it was disgraceful to intervene in the sovereign affairs of Britain. In a radio interview after the U.S. election, Farage described the U.S. president as: “That Obama creature – a loathsome individual who couldn’t stand our country.” The way ambassadors are chosen in the United States and Europe differ significantly. It is common practice for the United States to appoint celebrities or campaign donors as envoys, for example when Richard Nixon appointed Shirley Temple as his envoy to Ghana in 1974. European states mostly appoint career diplomats or officials with long experience as ambassadors. Kim Darroch, the current British ambassador in Washington, did not reply to emails from Reuters requesting comment on Trump’s remarks. His email bounced back with an out of office reply saying that the ambassador was traveling. | 1 |
22,061 | Trump says Taiwan president 'called me' to offer congratulations | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump said on Friday that Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen called him on Friday to congratulate him on his election win. Trump’s conversation with Tsai was the first such contact with Taiwan by a president-elect or president since President Jimmy Carter adopted a one-China policy in 1979 and is likely to infuriate Beijing. “The President of Taiwan CALLED ME today to wish me congratulations on winning the Presidency. Thank you!” Trump said in a Twitter message. | 1 |
22,062 | Puerto Rico's fiscal challenges not over: governor | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Puerto Rico, the U.S. commonwealth that recently declared a historic default, could be shut out of debt markets for two more years as it battles with fiscal challenges, the island’s governor said on Tuesday. Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla said emergency fiscal measures in response to a $70 billion debt were not sustainable and that “Puerto Rico will not endure any more austerity.” He said a new law enacted by Washington allowing the federal government to appoint a control board would undercut self-government, but added it would help the island confront its fiscal problems. “Our challenges are not over and prosperity will not return overnight,” the governor said during a discussion at the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington. “It will take maybe two years until the market opens back to Puerto Rico if we do the right thing,” Garcia Padilla said, adding the government had been producing fiscally sound budgets that would help win back creditors. The island has been shut out of debt markets for about a year. Citing falling debt levels, he said it was a “moment of opportunity” in Puerto Rico, which has struggled with high debt loads and a weak economy for years. Puerto Rico defaulted on $779 million of constitutionally backed debt on July 1, among its most senior bonds, opting to pay for essential services for its citizens over obligations to creditors. Garcia Padilla said the Puerto Rican government would take steps on its own to get its fiscal affairs in order, therefore minimizing meddling by the oversight board. For example, he said that if the island’s government passed responsible budgets on its own, the control board would not need to impose its own fiscal plans. Garcia Padilla said, however, that while the government must become more efficient to improve its fiscal situation, that should be done through attrition rather than laying off workers. Asked by a reporter about steps that could be taken to shore up the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or PREPA, and the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority, or PRASA, Garcia Padilla said: “PREPA is pretty advanced. We’ll be able to reduce a lot the debt related to PREPA. We want to do the same with PRASA. I think we’ll be able to do it.” | 1 |
22,063 | Josh Groban Mocks The Hell Out Trump Meeting With Kanye West, And It’s HILARIOUS (TWEET) | Because nothing in this world makes sense anymore, while Donald Trump meets with people who may or may not fill his future cabinet roles in his administration, the president-elect also took time to meet with Kanye West. You know, because why not, right?Here s the dynamic duo in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York City:NEW YORK, NY DECEMBER 13: (L to R) President-elect Donald Trump and Kanye West stand together in the lobby at Trump Tower, December 13, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)Well, not being able to let that moment come and go without comment, the brilliant and clearly hilarious singer Josh Groban tweets out: Word is Kanye and Trump have been in the lab co-writing some ?tweets. Apple is even considering making a larger, signature caps lock. Word is Kanye and Trump have been in the lab co-writing some ?tweets. Apple is even considering making a larger, signature caps lock. josh groban (@joshgroban) December 13, 2016You see, both Kanye West and Donald Trump are tweet happy and, well, do so not always in the sanest of ways.Now, if you want to be mortified, check out West s tweets following the meeting with Trump:I feel it is important to have a direct line of communication with our future President if we truly want change. KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) December 13, 2016Scarier yet, the insinuation that he ll be running himself in 2024, you know, to give Trump two terms. And really, at this point, why not? It seems we really don t give a damn who runs the nation anymore.#2024 KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) December 13, 2016Now, all of this could be rather hilarious if it wasn t remarkably terrifying making the entirety of the sane world want to curl into a fetal position and cry themselves to sleep.However, thank you, Josh Grobin, for some much needed levity.Featured Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images Twitter | 0 |
22,064 | Republicans Kill Trump’s Dream To Repeal Obamacare, Ready To Work With Democrats (DETAILS) | Despite the humiliating failure Donald Trump and the Republican Party brought upon themselves by trying to repeal and replace Obamacare, Trump continues to keep pressuring GOP lawmakers to do his pathetic bidding and pass some form of Trumpcare. Even as it s clear to everyone else that lawmakers must move on and focus on other things, Trump is threatening to withhold ACA payments from insurance companies. However, Trump has just been handed a devastating blow as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell makes moves toward a bipartisan approach to health care.This is seriously the last thing Trump wants, but it s happening and the GOP doesn t care how Trump feels about it. According to CBS News: A week after an attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act failed, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he d consider a bipartisan effort to continue payments to insurers to avert a costly rattling of health insurance markets.McConnell told reporters Saturday there is still a chance the Senate could revive the measure to repeal and replace Obamacare, but he acknowledged the window for that is rapidly closing. Everyone knows that the Obamacare repeal is hopeless. Americans are strongly against it, and nothing the Republican Party has put forward over the last few months has even been close to an alternative. Republicans are slowly becoming aware that a bipartisan bill might be their only chance to have some sort of impact on health care and if Congress approves a bipartisan bill with enough support to override a presidential veto, Trump will be forced to sign the bill whether he likes it or not.Trump s presidency looks more and more like a failure every single day. Even the members of his own party are ignoring him and moving away from his agenda. Trump isn t a president, he is a joke.Featured image is a screenshot | 0 |
22,065 | Connecticut's governor says no return to pre-recession prosperity | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy delivered a downbeat address on Wednesday, outlining plans to slash government spending and admitting to “a visceral feeling” that there was no going back to the prosperity of pre-recession years. The short and somber address came on the heels of a presentation by Malloy’s top budget official, who called for $570 million of reductions next year on top of millions in cuts and tax hikes in previous years. “Our national economy, while making progress from the Great Recession, was fundamentally changed,” Malloy, a Democrat, said at his annual state of the state address. “A shifting workforce, the rapid rise of technology, and stagnant wage growth have made this recovery tougher for everyone, everywhere.” Connecticut has consistently lagged the national economic recovery and has been hit by job losses in its key financial and high-tech manufacturing industries. The state has one of the worst funded pension systems in the nation. With required payments set to balloon to $6 billion by 2032, the system presents a significant risk to the budget. “Connecticut is not going back to that pre-recession reality,” Malloy told the Democrat-dominated legislature. “It just doesn’t exist anymore.” Connecticut’s woes show how U.S. states have shared unevenly in the recovery since the financial crisis of 2007-2009. Andrew Cuomo, governor of neighboring New York, felt confident enough to tout a $100 billion infrastructure plan in January. “It’s been a really hard recovery,” said Douglas Offerman, an analyst at Fitch Ratings. “The old paradigm that you would exceed your past peak in every expansion doesn’t appear to be holding right now.” Ben Barnes, Malloy’s top budget official, said the replacement of higher-paying jobs with lower- and middle-wage positions had been a “major story” in Connecticut’s budget ills. Barnes proposed cuts of 5.75 percent to the budgets of state agencies, which could mean the elimination of several thousand jobs. He said cuts to discretionary spending would amount to 15 percent over two years. At the start of the legislative session, Malloy urged lawmakers to pass an early budget and not wait until the last day of the fiscal year on June 30. But he said he would not circumvent the process. The governor proposed overhauling the way the state runs its budget to bring the process more in line with revenue projections, shifting away from a “current services” model. He also said lawmakers should implement a spending cap. | 1 |
22,066 | Saudi Arabia intercepts Houthi missile fired toward Riyadh; no reported casualties | RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi air defenses shot down a ballistic missile fired by Yemen s Houthi group towards Riyadh on Tuesday, the Saudi-led coalition said, in an attack that could escalate a proxy war between the kingdom and Iran. There were no reports of casualties or damage. In contrast, a U.N. human rights spokesman said coalition air strikes had killed at least 136 non-combatants in war-torn Yemen since Dec. 6. The Iran-aligned Houthi movement said it had aimed the missile at the Saudi royal court at al-Yamama palace, where a meeting of Saudi leaders was under way. It described the attack as a new chapter in the conflict. The Saudi-led coalition said the missile, the latest of several fired towards Riyadh, had been directed at residential areas and there had been no damage. Quoting a statement from the coalition, Saudi state news agency SPA said Iranian-made missiles were a threat to regional and international security. It accused the Houthis of using humanitarian entry points into Yemen to smuggle in missiles from Saudi Arabia s regional arch-foe Iran. Coalition forces confirm intercepting an Iranian-Houthi missile targeting (the) south of Riyadh. There are no reported casualties at this time, the government-run Center for International Communication wrote on its Twitter account. Saudi palaces, military and oil facilities are within range of such missiles, the Houthis said in a statement carried by the group s Al-Masirah television. The U.S. State Department condemned the missile attack and called on Iran to stop arming the Houthis. At the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said the Houthi missile strike bears all the hallmarks of previous attacks using Iranian-provided weapons. Haley said she was exploring, with some U.N. Security Council colleagues, several options for pressuring Iran to adjust their behavior. Haley is likely to struggle, however, to convince some members, like veto powers Russia and China, that U.N. action is needed. Saudi Arabia and Iran are locked in struggle for influence in the Middle East. The conflict in Saudi Arabia s backyard Yemen has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced over 2 million. The Houthis for their part have fired several missiles at the kingdom, but have not caused any serious damage. The attack came as the Houthis marked 1,000 days since the Saudi-led coalition began military operations in Yemen in March 2015 after the Iran-aligned group drove Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile. The enemies had their own mirage calculations ... but over 1,000 days, there has been this great steadfastness, said Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, a Houthi leader, in a speech on the group s Al-Masirah TV. The United Arab Emirates, a close ally of Saudi Arabia and part of its coalition, said the latest Houthi attack underscored the need to keep the military campaign in Yemen going. With every Iranian missile fired by the Houthi militia against civilian targets, the necessity of (Operation) Decisive Storm becomes clear, United Arab Emirates Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash wrote on his Twitter account. Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri condemned the attack, saying such actions exacerbated divisions in the region. Saudi Arabia and Iran are also competing for influence in Iraq and Syria. Reuters witnesses described hearing a blast and said they saw smoke in the northeast of Riyadh. Saudi Arabia s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has described what Riyadh says is Iran s supply of rockets to the Houthis as direct military aggression that could be an act of war. Iran has denied supplying such weaponry to the Houthis, who have taken over the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and other parts of the country during its civil war. Saudi Arabia said on Nov. 4 it had intercepted a ballistic missile over Riyadh s King Khaled Airport, an attack that led the coalition to close Yemeni ports. On Nov. 30, Saudi Arabia shot down another missile near its southwestern city of Khamis Mushait. Last week, the United States presented for the first time pieces of what it said were Iranian weapons supplied to the Houthis, describing them as conclusive evidence that Tehran was violating U.N. resolutions. The arms included charred remnants of what the Pentagon said was an Iranian-made short-range ballistic missile fired from Yemen in the Nov. 4 attack, as well as a drone and an anti-tank weapon recovered in Yemen by the Saudis. | 1 |
22,067 | Request to Halt Construction of DAPL Declined | 21st Century Wire says A request by Native American tribes seeking to halt the construction of the final link in the highly politicized and controversial Dakota Access Pipeline has been declined by a federal judge in Washington DC.The tribes at Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux were not successful in claiming that the project will prevent them from conducting religious ceremonies at Oahe Lake but District Court Judge James Boasberg declined their request citing no imminent harm to the tribes practices could be shown.As noted by RT and AP below, the project is headed up by Energy Transfer Partners, who s representatives argued that this halt in construction request over the issue of preventing tribes religious ceremonies was exceedingly tardy and not construction related. The denial of this request is not coming as a surprise to many who are well aware that the DAPL project was more than 90% complete back when Obama signed a temporary hold on the project, which could have been largely a political move, leaving this issue for the Trump administration to handle. RTA federal judge in Washington, DC has dismissed a request by a group of Native American tribes seeking to stop construction of the final link of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline.Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes claimed the project will prevent them from practicing religious ceremonies at Oahe Lake which they say is surrounded by sacred ground. District Court Judge James Boasberg stated there was no imminent harm to the tribes religious practices as oil is not flowing through the pipeline yet.The ruling will allow Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the $3.8 billion, 1,170 mile pipeline, to finish the final 1,100ft (335m) connection under Lake Oahe in North Dakota, completing the project.The company s stock rose 0.3 percent after the announcement, according to Seeking Alpha.Boasberg will more thoroughly consider the request at a February 27 hearing, AP reported.The US Army Corp of Engineers filed documents favoring Energy Transfer Partners, having granted the final easement for DAPL last Tuesday. The Corps said that the tribes will have plenty of time to argue their case before the pipeline begins working, thus a work stoppage wasn t warranted.Energy Transfer Partners had argued that the tribes argument that the work threatened their religion was exceedingly tardy and not construction-related, AP reported.The decision allows construction on DAPL to continue while the lawsuits against the project to proceed.Boasberg previously rejected a request by tribes to block the project in September. However, that ruling was superseded by the Obama administration s decision in December to delay construction, pending an environmental review.However, one of President Donald Trump s first acts in office was to sign a presidential memoranda ordering the removal of obstacles to the construction of both the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone XL Continue this report at RTREAD MORE DAPL NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire DAPL FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 |
22,068 | ABC NEWS Gets DESTROYED On Twitter For Waiting Several Hours To Admit They Got Major Detail In Flynn Story Wrong…#FakeNewsABC | After ABC News broke the General Flynn-Trump story, the stock market began its freefall, Americans were stunned by the news, and the media, who s been searching for blood in the water since Trump s inauguration, was in a feeding frenzy over the prospect of President Trump being caught directing General Flynn to meet with the Russians when he was actively campaigning. As it turns out, ABC News got it wrong. But no worries, several hours later, they clarified how the story should have read ABC News major report on Michael Flynn and President Trump s direction on reaching out to the Russians has been corrected. Hours later. And Twitter is ripping the network over it.Per multiple reports earlier, Brian Ross report that Flynn is expected to testify Trump directed him to meet with Russians as a candidate was followed minutes later by a drop in the stock market.But as Ross clarified on World News Tonight (video here), it was as President-elect, not as a candidate, and that is kind of a major difference. MediaiteABC News also tweeted out a clarification and deleted its earlier tweet:CLARIFICATION of ABC News Special Report: Flynn prepared to testify that President-elect Donald Trump directed him to make contact with the Russians *during the transition* initially as a way to work together to fight ISIS in Syria, confidant now says. https://t.co/ewrkVZBTbc pic.twitter.com/GQAKwT1Eda ABC News (@ABC) December 2, 2017Twitter users responded to the clarification by ABC News, who should NEVER have gotten this story wrong in the first place. Jim VandeHei, CEO and co-founder of Axio slammed ABC for moving the markets and setting off a frenzy with their massive mistake:Astonishing. The story moved markets, set off a media frenzy, suggested worst possible outcome. This is called a massive correction, or retraction, not clarification. https://t.co/uVUamf4jYY Jim VandeHei (@JimVandeHei) December 2, 2017Associate editor of the Daily Caller reminded ABC News that their clarification was actually a huge correction. That's a huge correction https://t.co/EIMaE0EkGu Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) December 1, 2017David Rubin reminded ABC News why no one trusts them anymore: Reason nobody trusts the mainstream media 14,761 .Reason nobody trusts the mainstream media 14,761 https://t.co/1RQ7FRbava Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) December 2, 2017Twitter user Echo Lew called out ABC News for blaming their source and not Brian Ross, their reckless reporter who actually made the mistake:Blame it on a source and not your reckless reporter @BrianRoss 'on air' tremendous mistake. Echo Lew (@PhinsnNoles) December 2, 2017ABC News has apparently earned a new name to go along with their acronym.ABC Always Broadcasting Crap BNL NEWS (@BreakingNLive) December 2, 2017And then, finally, Twitter user Jake Blum called ABC News out for reporting fake news :This is so incredibly irresponsible and reckless. Sowing damage to the legitimacy of our government. Hard for you all to push back on the fake news label when this is so damn common. Jake Blum (@RealJakeBlum) December 2, 2017 | 0 |
22,069 | In abrupt shift, Trump warms to China and NATO, sours on Russia | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After less than three months in office, President Donald Trump has abruptly shifted his stance on an array of foreign policy issues from the U.S. relationship with Russia and China to the value of the NATO alliance. Trump, who ran for the White House on a pledge to shake up the status quo in Washington, repeatedly lashed out at China during the campaign, accusing Beijing of being a “grand champion” of currency manipulation. Candidate Trump also dismissed the NATO military alliance as obsolete and said he hoped to build warmer ties with Russia. But at a White House news conference and in a newspaper interview on Wednesday, he offered starkly different views on those issues, saying his relationship with Moscow was souring while ties with Beijing were improving. He also lavished praise on NATO, saying it was adapting to changing global threats. “I said it was obsolete. It’s no longer obsolete,” Trump said as he stood at a news conference alongside NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in the White House East Room on Wednesday. The reversals on Russia and NATO could reassure U.S. allies in Europe who were rattled by Trump’s overtures toward Moscow during the campaign. But the president’s talk of “bonding” with Chinese President Xi Jinping could sow confusion in Asia, where U.S. allies are fearful of a rising China. Trump’s apparent shifts toward a more conventional foreign policy came amid infighting within his administration that has lately seen a decline in the influence of political operatives, mainly his chief strategist, Steve Bannon. Six months ago, candidate Trump suggested he was eager for an alliance with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “If he says great things about me, I’m going to say great things about him,” Trump said last September. “ALL-TIME LOW” On Wednesday, however, Trump said he had growing concerns about Russia’s support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. “We may be at an all-time low in terms of a relationship with Russia,” said Trump, who ordered the firing of U.S. cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield last week to punish Assad for suspected use of poison gas in Syria’s civil war. While criticizing Russia on Wednesday, Trump said he and Xi had bonded during the Chinese president’s visit to the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where they dined together with their wives and held talks. Ahead of that visit, Trump had predicted “difficult” discussions on trade. The improving ties with Beijing were underscored when Trump told the Wall Street Journal in an interview on Wednesday that he would not declare China a currency manipulator as he had pledged to do on his first day in office. Trump, a former real estate developer, took office in January as a government novice whose foreign policy mantra during was a vow to keep America safe and build up the U.S. military. Christine Wormuth, former undersecretary of defense in the Obama administration, said Trump had a “steep learning curve” on foreign policy when he came into office but that it was beginning to even out. “He’s starting to have a more nuanced and deeper understanding of a lot of issues,” said Wormuth, now a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The evolving Trump foreign policy appears to reflect less of the influence of his campaign team and more the views of Defense Secretary James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, all of whom are deeply skeptical of Russia. Trump’ former national security adviser, retired General Michael Flynn, was forced to resign on Feb. 13 for contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the United States before Trump took office. The new tone on foreign policy comes as Trump has been trying to settle the palace intrigue inside the White House, where Bannon, former chief of the conservative Breitbart News organization, has been at odds with the more mainstream Jared Kushner, the senior White House adviser who is Trump’s son-in-law. In an interview with the New York Post on Tuesday, Trump offered only lukewarm support for Bannon. “I like Steve, but you have to remember he was not involved in my campaign until very late,” Trump said. | 1 |
22,070 | U.S. rejects Cambodian accusations, calls for opposition leader's release | PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Washington s ambassador to Cambodia on Tuesday rejected government accusations of interference by the United States as inaccurate, misleading and baseless and called for the release of detained opposition leader Kem Sokha. It was the strongest U.S. response since the Sept. 3 arrest of Kem Sokha, who has been charged with treason and accused of plotting with the United States to take power from Prime Minister Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge commander who has ruled Cambodia for more than 30 years. Hun Sen, now one of China s closest regional allies, has stepped up rhetoric against Washington alongside a crackdown on opponents, independent media and other critics ahead of a general election next year. The U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia said on Tuesday that the pressure had forced it to stop operations in Cambodia. On dozens of occasions over the past year, the United States has been subject to intentionally inaccurate, misleading and baseless accusations, Ambassador William Heidt said in a statement. All of the accusations you have heard in recent weeks about the United States - every one of them - are false. Heidt called for the release of Kem Sokha, an end to pressure on civil society and dialogue between the government and opposition to salvage elections and restore ties between the two countries. If Cambodia s national elections were held today, no credible international observer would certify them as free, fair and reflecting the will of the Cambodian people, Heidt said. American and Western companies were feeling less welcome in Cambodia and fewer will invest , he said. Government spokesman Phay Siphan said the evidence of American collusion came from Kem Sokha himself and that Cambodia did not see the United States as an enemy. We just use our rights to tell the U.S. not to interfere in our domestic affairs, he told Reuters. On Monday, 65-year-old Hun Sen threatened that Kem Sokha s Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) would be dissolved if it continued to back him. Kem Sokha, 64, is the only serious election rival to Hun Sen, who could face his biggest electoral challenge next year. The opposition will not boycott the July 2018 general election in which it faces Hun Sen s ruling Cambodian People s Party (CPP), senior CNRP member Son Chhay told a news briefing on Tuesday. The evidence presented against Kem Sokha so far is a video recorded in 2013 in which he discusses a strategy to win power with the help of unspecified Americans. His lawyers have dismissed it as nonsense, saying he was only discussing election strategy. Complaining of a relentless crackdown on independent voices , Washington-based Radio Free Asia said it was being forced to close its local bureau after almost 20 years in the country. Recent developments have intensified to an unprecedented level, as Cambodia s ruling party shamelessly seeks to remove any obstacle or influence standing in its way of achieving absolute power, said the station s president, Libby Liu. She said RFA would continue to cover Cambodia. | 1 |
22,071 | House panels seek documents on Puerto Rico utility deal | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. congressional committee on Thursday set a Nov. 2 deadline for the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) to provide information related to its $300 million contract with a small Montana firm to repair damage to the utility’s infrastructure caused by Hurricane Maria. “Specifically, the size and terms of the contract, as well as the circumstances surrounding the contract’s formation, raise questions regarding PREPA’s standard contract awarding procedures,” the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, Rob Bishop, said in a letter to PREPA’s executive director, Ricardo Ramos. Media reports that Whitefish Energy Holdings entered the contract with PREPA to fix the utility’s power grid raised questions among Democrats in Congress and others when it was disclosed that the Montana firm won the contract without a competitive bidding process. The two-year-old company had only two full-time employees and was rapidly hiring workers to tackle the job of patching up the destroyed power grid that has left most of the U.S. territory without electricity for weeks following the destructive hurricane. While Bishop’s letter said emergency circumstances could “necessitate” emergency relief contracts, “Transparency and accountability in government contracting, however, is not to be compromised.” Separately, U.S. Representatives including Greg Walden, a Republican, and Frank Pallone, a Democrat, asked Whitefish in a letter to provide documents related to the contract to the Energy and Commerce committee before Nov. 9. Whitefish founding partner Ken Luce said his company appreciated the efforts to gather information so lawmakers have “confidence in the overall process to support the people of Puerto Rico” and Whitefish’s capabilities. And two Democratic U.S. senators urged the head of a congressional watchdog office to probe the PREPA contract, saying they were concerned about the bidding process and potential high costs. Senators Maria Cantwell and Ron Wyden wrote a letter to Eugene Dodaro, the U.S. comptroller general at the non-partisan Government Accountability Office, a copy of which was seen by Reuters. The senators said they were also concerned about reports of “contemporaneous communications between Whitefish and senior members of the federal executive branch, including Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke,” as the contract was being discussed. A Washington Post report this week said the chief executive of Whitefish, Andy Techmanski, and Zinke acknowledged that they know each other and that one of the secretary’s sons worked at one of Techmanski’s construction sites. Both Zinke’s office and Techmanski said the secretary had no role in Whitefish securing the contract. The Interior Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the senators’ letter. Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello has defended the contract saying it was necessary to put workers in place quickly. Whitefish, which has hired workers mostly through subcontracts, has called criticism “unfounded.” | 1 |
22,072 | ‘Shoot Hillary In The F*ckin Head’: Conservatives Freak Out Over Benghazi Movie | The new movie about the attack on the U.S. facility in Benghazi, Libya, is stirring up conservatives and their now legendary hatred of Hillary Clinton.Gawker writer Christopher Hooks went to the premiere of Michael Bay s 13 Hours at the Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington, Texas. After interviewing some of the attendees, he came back with a report on the intense Clinton hate that the movie had activated. It wasn t pretty.Certainly, the people who d come to the stadium because they didn t like Clinton felt fired up after seeing it. She s a piece of shit, said one man who declined to give his name and didn t make eye contact. But I already knew she s a piece of shit. I hope it defeats Hillary, said another, Don Lochran. They covered the whole thing up. It was Lochran who then suggested bombing them all.Others were less sanguine. Oh yeah. I d shoot Hillary Clinton in the fuckin head. I don t like the bitch at all, said Len Toomey, who identified himself as a veteran of Desert Storm and Somalia. He d seen the movie with some VFW friends. Choke her. She should be in the pisser and I should be pissin on her every night. Whether you back Clinton or not, the abject misogyny and hate that base conservatives have for her is grotesque to behold. About the only thing rivaling it in intensity is their hatred for President Obama.To many factions of the right and those are often the same people yelling the loudest for Donald Trump s white power presidential campaign the former Secretary of State and First Lady is the absolute devil incarnate.In this go-around they erroneously believe she and the President left men to die in Benghazi, when in fact real life is NOT like an action movie and forces were constrained by the reality of time and space in how they could respond. Even so, they did eventually get on the scene, something conservatives leave out of their Benghazi storytelling.13 Hours is unlikely to change anyone s minds pro or con with Clinton, but it at least is serving a purpose in once again putting on display just how hateful the right can be without even trying that hard.Featured image via Paramount Pictures | 0 |
22,073 | Trump University lawyers ask judge for another shot at ending class action | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lawyers for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump asked the California federal judge he attacked last week as biased based on his Mexican heritage to end the Trump University fraud class action currently scheduled to go on trial in November. In filings late on Friday, Trump’s lawyers argued the case should not continue as a class action including all students who took the classes in California, New York and Florida. The lawyers claimed the students’ cases were too dissimilar to be heard as a class because they were exposed to different marketing and advertisements and were told different things by Trump University employees. San Diego U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel is overseeing two class action lawsuits over Trump University. Last week, the presidential candidate said Curiel had treated him unfairly because he was a Mexican opposed to Trump’s proposal to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. The judge was born in Indiana to Mexican parents. Trump’s lawyers on Friday sought permission from Judge Curiel to renew an earlier motion to decertify the class. The judge previously ruled the case could proceed as a class action on the issue of liability, though each student would have to prove damages separately. In April, Trump’s lawyers also filed a motion to decertify the class in the other California case. The judge has not yet ruled on that motion. If the judge were to decertify the classes, former Trump University students would have to bring individual lawsuits. Trump and his for-profit real estate seminars have been accused of bilking students who paid as much as $35,000 for an opportunity to learn the businessman’s real estate investment strategies. The students claim they were defrauded, including by false claims that he had handpicked instructors to teach them his secrets. “Given TU students’ radically different experiences, plaintiffs cannot show that TU students were exposed to the same ‘core’ misrepresentations,” Daniel Petrocelli, a lawyer for Trump, wrote in Friday’s filing. Lawyers for the plaintiffs declined to comment on the filing. | 1 |
22,074 | Twitter Throat-Punches Trump After His Latest Stupid Lie About The New York Times (TWEETS) | On Wednesday, failing President Donald Trump attempted to distract from his ongoing troubles with his administration s numerous, suspicious, and likely treasonous ties to Russia by once again attacking media he considers adversarial which, of course, is anyone but Fox News and Breitbart at this point. In this case, he once again went after the failing New York Times. Remember when the failing @nytimes apologized to its subscribers, right after the election, because their coverage was so wrong, Trump tweeted. Now worse! Remember when the failing @nytimes apologized to its subscribers, right after the election, because their coverage was so wrong. Now worse! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2017No. No one remembers that because it didn t happen. Trump, of course, is referencing a 200-word letter printed by the Times after the election thanking readers for their loyalty and pledging to rededicate itself to the same high journalistic standards to which the publication has always held itself. At no point did the Times which has broken numerous stories that were uncomfortable for The Donald and doubled its subscriptions in 2016 (so much for failing, huh?) say its excellent coverage was bad nor did they apologize to their readers. If the people of our great country could only see how viciously and inaccurately my administration is covered by certain media! Trump added, failing to note that only right-wing media covers him inaccurately.If the people of our great country could only see how viciously and inaccurately my administration is covered by certain media! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2017Naturally, Americans dropped by to let Trump know what they think of his alternative facts :@realDonaldTrump you have moved from fake news to fake memories. Matt Haig (@matthaig1) March 29, 2017@realDonaldTrump @nytimes No one remembers because you're lying. You are reporting FAKE NEWS. You are the problem here. You need to go. Mike P Williams (@Mike_P_Williams) March 29, 2017.@realDonaldTrump wasn't true the last two times you said it, still not true now pic.twitter.com/FwFko0yFsS Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) March 29, 2017(Here's the NYT letter Trump is referring to. It's really not an apology at all.) https://t.co/pnDJ04RR31 Zach Schonfeld (@zzzzaaaacccchhh) March 29, 2017.@realDonaldTrump generally I don't remember things that never happened. Alex Zalben (@azalben) March 29, 2017@realDonaldTrump @nytimes no one remembers this, no, because IT NEVER HAPPENED YOU CRAZY OLD FUCK Jason Bailey (@jasondashbailey) March 29, 2017@realDonaldTrump @nytimes Remember when your GREAT LEGAL MIND pal Judge Napolitano was fired by Fox 4 a false story????? Gina (@Gina660) March 29, 2017@realDonaldTrump @nytimes Wasn't an apology. Was a thank you to subscribers and a declaration of continued excellence in journalism pic.twitter.com/N7BsGM2uxe Jennifer Barnett (@jenzerb) March 29, 2017Trump s desperation is becoming more and more obvious by the day. He s running scared and it s up to the FAKE NEWS media to make sure he goes down in flames.Featured image via Getty Images (Pool)/screengrab | 0 |
22,075 | WHERE’S THE MEDIA? FOX NEWS Reported In February About 3 Pakistani Muslim Brothers Who Were Caught Accessing Unauthorized Top-Secret Government Intel…NOW We Find Out They SOLD Classified SECRETS To Foreign Agents [VIDEO] | B b but the Russians! How can the media be bothered with one of the most incredible and VERY REAL stories of espionage that includes a major threat to our national security when they ve got a fake Russian-Trump connection to prove On February 10, 2017, Fox News Maria Bartiromo went NUTS on Varney and Company!Here is the transcript of Maria s incredible and under-reported story to Stuart Varney:3 Congressional IT employees have been fired for accessing members computer networks without permission. Maria s on the show, knows more about this. Can you fill me in a bit.Here are their names Stuart. let me tell you what the 3 people that were fired on Thursday: Abid, Imran and Jamal Awan. They were barred from computer networks at the House of Representatives on Thursday because they accessed Congressmen and Congress people s computer networks unauthorized. At a minimum they were fired. At a minimum we know that they accessed computers unauthorized and they did so in foreign intelligence, foreign affairs and intelligence committees. Okay? So they were getting very important information, government information. They accessed these computers. That is the least of it. There s also some talk that people are looking into what ties they have into terrorism. Are they impacted by the Muslim Brotherhood? Are they a part of the Muslim Brotherhood? One of them has a criminal background!How is it possible that 3 brothers are hired, Muslim brothers just saying, to work in Congress and deal with our most intelligent and sensitive information, number one? They were all making $160,000! Why were they paid so much? 22 years old one of the guys, the other was 25. They re making $160,000, $161,000 and $165,000. And one of them has a criminal background!I hear what you re saying, I mean, these intelligence committees handle our terror strategies right?They got in on Benghazi by the way.Yes, and they also worked for many Democrats in the House.They are thinking that they may be also one of the reasons Debbie Wasserman Schultz got hacked.There s so much more to come on this Stuart, it s an incredible story. I think it s amazing!As it turns out, Maria Bartiromo was correct. There is way more to this story!Here is the incredible breakdown of what happened with former DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz s Pakistani Muslim IT employee and why he potentially poses a real threat to our national security. Daily Caller s investigative reporter Luke Rosa also lays out how Wasserman Schultz has impeded the criminal investigation of the Awan brothers:Abid, Imran, and Jamal Awan were barred from computer networks at the House of Representatives in February.Three Pakistani brothers who managed the IT affairs for several Democratic government officials were relieved of their duties in February on suspicion that they accessed specific computer networks without permission, also known as hacking.Imran Awan, who started working for Wasserman Schultz in 2005, received $164,600 in 2016, with close to $20,000 of that coming from Wasserman Schultz.His brother Jamal, who started working as a staffer in 2014, was paid $157,350.12 in 2016. Abid, who started working in 2005, was paid $160,943 in 2016.Imran s wife, Hina Alvi, who was employed as a staffer since February 2007, was paid 168,300 in 2016. Rao Abbas was paid $85,049 in 2016.Most of the House Members fired the Awans subsequently. Only Debbie Wasserman Schultz kept Imran Awan on the pay roll up to the day he got arrested for bank fraud after trying to flee the country.The rest of the family fled to Pakistan and brought with them tens of thousands of tax-payer money with them.Democrats were willing or unwillingly compromised by the Awans and sensitive information leaked to foreign Enemies. GPOn Monday Judge Napolitano dropped this bomb on the Imran Awan investigation.Judge Napolitano says Awan was selling US secrets to foreign agents.Even Fox News liberal host Geraldo Rivera went off on this unbelievable story. Where is the rest of the mainstream media? Why are they ignoring this story? | 0 |
22,076 | In One Cowardice Move, GOP Congress Just PROVED They’re As Racist As Trump | In one of his first moves since becoming the President-Elect, Donald Trump has chosen one of the worst human beings in the country as his Chief Strategist. Steve Bannon was the Editor in Chief of Breitbart News, a site that s popular with white nationalists. Democrats in Congress have penned a letter asking Trump to fire Bannon. Every single Republican sided with the white nationalist. If that doesn t tell you everything you need to know about today s Republican party, nothing will.Why do white nationalists flock to Bannon s former site? Well, for one thing, the site defends white nationalists. If you want to be creeped out, read this. If you aren t sure what the alt-right is, this article will tell you in chilling detail about the pro-Russian isolationists who believe in studying race differences, with, of course, white Christians coming out on top.Then there are articles blaming African-Americans, really for nearly everything, but especially for crime.In normal times, Washington conservatives and the Bannon alt-right can t stand each other. The alt-right is isolationist. Washington conservatives are hawkish. More significantly, as the Washington Post put it:Constitutional conservatives can t stand the alt-right. Conservatives real conservatives believe that only a philosophy of limited government, God-given rights and personal responsibility can save the country. And that creed is not bound to race or ethnicity. Broad swaths of the alt-right, by contrast, believe in a creed-free, race-based nationalism, insisting, among other things, that birth on American soil confers superiority. The alt-right sees limited-government constitutionalism as pass ; it holds that only nationalist populism on the basis of shared tribal identity can save the country. It s a movement shot through with racism and anti-Semitism.Not this year. Donald Trump has effectively normalized the underbelly of racism. While Congress for years has been hinting at their own racism with their refusal to acknowledge the legitimacy of our first African-American President, few have admitted their racism, until now.If you still aren t convinced, those applauding the Bannon appointment include former KKK leader David Duke and the chairman of the Nazi Party. Nearly every civil rights group opposed the appointment.When Democrats wrote the letter, signed by 169 members of Congress, to fire Bannon, not a single Republican was brave enough or had enough integrity to agree that a white nationalist shouldn t be in the White House.Here s one of the key passages:Since the election there have been a number of incidents across the country in which minorities, including Muslim-Americans, African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and Jewish-Americans have been the targets of violence, harassment and intimidation. Mr. Bannon s appointment sends the wrong message to people who have engaged in those types of activities, indicating that they will not only be tolerated, but endorsed by your administration. Millions of Americans have expressed fear and concern about how they will be treated by the Trump administration, and your appointment of Mr. Bannon only exacerbates and validates their concerns.Very proud to be leading 169 Members of Congress asking @realDonaldTrump to rescind his appointment of alt-right leader Steve Bannon. pic.twitter.com/JSz9IPT9Gv ((David Cicilline)) (@davidcicilline) November 16, 2016There is little political fallout from disavowing a white nationalist, at least you d think, but the Republican voters have proven that racism and white supremacy no longer belong in the closet. The mostly white Republicans in Congress might still keep pretending that they aren t as racist as their party s President Elect, but their failure to sign this letter was really all we needed to know.Featured image via Scott Olson/Getty Images. | 0 |
22,077 | Cuba’s Raul Castro meets with U.S. Chamber of Commerce president | HAVANA (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce met with Cuban President Raul Castro and in separate meetings with members of Castro’s economic cabinet on Friday, as they prepare for the advent of a more hostile Trump administration next week. The chamber has been urging the Cuban government to sign a number of agreements with major companies such as General Electric (GE.N), negotiated over the last 18 months, before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20. A brief government statement said chamber President Thomas Donohue and Castro discussed “issues of mutual interest.” “The goal of the U.S. business community has shifted from seeking more from Cuba to preserving what exists from the soon-to-be Trump administration,” John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, said. “U.S. companies need the Cuban government to quickly and substantially expand its purchases of products and services and permit a highly visible presence of companies,” he said. Donohue was accompanied by Maurice Greenberg, chairman and chief executive officer of C.V. Starr & Co Inc, a major U.S. insurance company. The chamber has opposed the U.S. trade embargo for decades and is a strong supporter of the normalization process begun by President Barack Obama. That process has included the signing of 17 agreements between the two former Cold War foes and the use of executive orders to punch holes in the embargo, which can be lifted only by the U.S. Congress, now controlled by Republicans. Travel to the Communist-run Caribbean island from the United States has increased, with the start of direct flights and cruises and roaming agreements signed, but there have been no manufacturing or trade deals inked. Cuba and the Obama administration have been scrambling to deepen and cement their detente, through bilateral agreements and commercial links, since Trump’s election in November. Cuba agreed earlier this month to export charcoal to the United States, the first export in half a century, and in December Google (GOOGL.O) reached an agreement to place servers on the island to quicken access to its products. Trump has said he will dismantle the still-fragile detente unless Cuba gives the United States a better deal, while providing no specifics. Trump is expected to review Cuba policy upon taking office and has named Jason Greenblatt, a Trump Organization executive and chief legal counsel, as negotiator for sensitive international issues, including Cuba. | 1 |
22,078 | GOP Senator Caught On Hot Mic Trashing His Own Party Over Roy Moore And Donald Trump (VIDEO) | Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) is liberated now that he has announced his retirement. In his resignation speech on the Senate floor, Flake issued a scathing takedown of Trump, and it seems his views have not changed. At a town hall on tax reform, Flake was caught on a hot mic while he was chatting with the mayor of Mesa, Arizona, fellow Republican John Giles. Flake said of extremist candidates and officials like Alabama Senate candidate and alleged pedophile Roy Moore, and the current president Donald Trump: If we become the party of Roy Moore and Donald Trump, we are toast. Giles responded: And I am not throwing smoke at you, but you are the guy. Just for fun, think about how much fun it would be, just to be the foil, you know, and point out what an idiot this guy [Trump] is. Giles then encourages Flake to foil the idiot Trump in 2020, and the two continue yucking it up about how ridiculous the kinds of people who are emerging as the face of their party are. It took a staffer reminding Flake of the mic to stop the conversation, but we ve certainly heard enough to know where he stands on the current state of the GOP.So, in other words, Jeff Flake, who is one of the most conservative members of the United States Senate, is fed up with the extremism in the GOP. He clearly thinks people like Roy Moore and Donald Trump have zero business being anywhere near the levers of power, and yet here we are. Trump is in the Oval Office, and Moore is a heartbeat away from being seated in the United States Senate.Watch the comments below:Featured image via Win McNamee/Getty Images | 0 |
22,079 | UK minister offers parliament new vote on any Brexit deal | LONDON (Reuters) - British Brexit minister David Davis said on Monday the government would allow parliament the opportunity to debate, scrutinize and vote on any final Brexit agreement, offering a concession to Conservative Party rebels. Prime Minister Theresa May is under pressure to offer a meaningful vote on any deal for Britain s departure from the European Union. Members of her own party are willing to vote against the government to stymie a bill which she says is needed to sever ties with the bloc. I can now confirm that once we ve reached an agreement we will bring forward a specific piece of primary legislation to implement that agreement, Davis told parliament. This also means that parliament will be given time to debate, scrutinize and vote on the final agreement we strike with the European Union. This agreement will only hold if parliament approves it. May s blueprint for Britain s exit from the EU faces a crucial test starting on Tuesday, when lawmakers will debate the EU withdrawal bill that she says is crucial to give companies confidence that the rules will not change after Brexit. Lawmakers have proposed 186 pages of amendments to the bill, which largely copy and paste EU rules and regulations into British law but also, critics say, hand the government wide-ranging powers and cut parliament out of some Brexit planning. Davis said the government would allow parliament the chance to vote on a withdrawal agreement and implementation bill once it has secured a Brexit deal with the European Union, which both sides aim to do by late next year. This confirms that the major policies set out in the withdrawal agreement (with the EU) will be directly implemented into UK law by primary legislation, he said. Primary legislation means making law by acts of parliament or statute. Some lawmakers welcomed the move, but others said the change in procedure would mean that if Britain failed to negotiate a deal with the EU, parliament would have no say, and that there would not be time for a proper chance to have sway over a deal. Hasn t he just given the game away on what a sham offer this is? Totally worthless to parliament, essentially trying to buy off people, Chris Leslie, a member of the opposition Labour Party and a pro-EU campaigner, said. | 1 |
22,080 | Republicans seek Trump presidency votes in Israel | JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli branch of the U.S. Republican party began a campaign on Monday to get American voters living in Israel to cast absentee ballots in favor of Donald Trump. According to the Israeli chapter of the Republican party, around 300,000 Americans are eligible to vote in the November presidential elections. They live in Israel or in settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Marc Zell, the head of Republicans Overseas Israel branch, said the campaign aimed to rekindle interest in U.S. politics among second- and third-generation citizens, many of whom have children who will be eligible to vote for the first time. “We want to try to attract new voters who perhaps in the past had no special interest in voting in the U.S. elections,” Zell told Reuters. Tzvika Brot, who is heading the campaign, estimated that about three-quarters of American-Israelis would support the Republican party. A Democratic party representative in Israel disputed that estimate, telling Israel Radio the majority of Israeli and U.S. Jewish voters had always preferred the Democrats. A poll of Jewish Israelis conducted in May found 40 percent of respondents backed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and 31 percent supported Trump. The poll didn’t specify whether those who responded were eligible to vote in the U.S. election. The pro-Trump drive opened at a shopping mall in the central Israeli town of Modiin and will focus on areas with high concentrations of American-Israelis. Brot said he hoped the new votes being sought might help tip the balance in swing states. Trump, who has accused the administration of President Barack Obama of lacklustre support for Israel, won his party’s nomination for the presidency last month. He has rejected last year’s nuclear deal with Iran and called for more investment in missile defense in Europe. His views, including a vow to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and a proposal to impose a temporary ban on Muslims seeking to enter the country, have polarized the Republican party and caused widespread consternation. Trump has also been criticized for his lack of foreign policy knowledge. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said last month he would put at risk U.S. and world security with his “politics of fear and isolation”. | 1 |
22,081 | Trump's plan to halt 'catch and release' of migrants could hit a wall | GUADALUPE, Mexico/TORNILLO, Texas (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s plan to end the policy of “catch and release” - where illegal immigrants are caught and then freed pending hearings - could hit a wall, immigrant advocates warn, and not the one he is planning to build on the Mexican border. “OK, Mr Trump, you don’t want them released, show me where you are going to hold them - show me the building,” said Ruben Garcia, the director of Annunciation House, a Roman Catholic charity in El Paso, Texas, that gives shelter to migrant families. Garcia’s group received more than 400 migrants released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement just between Monday and Wednesday, the day Trump announced tougher measures to curb illegal immigration. “They are releasing them not because they want to do catch and release, but because detention centers don’t have enough space,” said Garcia. That underscores one potential problem of ending the practice of “catch and release” - almost half the immigrants apprehended by U.S. officials are now Central American families or children, and only a tiny number of detention spaces are available for those categories of immigrants. Trump did announce plans to increase the number of family detention centers, but establishing them will take time and could face legal challenges, legal experts on immigration said. A Reuters review of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol data shows an accelerating trend of Central American families who hand themselves in at the border and are released while awaiting deportation or a decision on an asylum request. In the last three months of 2016, the number of people - almost all of them families and children - who handed themselves in to agents along the U.S.-Mexican border rose by a quarter versus the same period the year before, CBP data shows. Agents apprehended a total of 136,670 people crossing the Mexican border, the highest number since 2008, and 48 percent of those were unaccompanied children or families with children. Nearly 45,000 parents with children were apprehended in the October-December quarter, but the border currently has beds for only around 3,300 people in this category of immigrants, mostly at the Karnes and Dilley detention centers in Texas, according to ICE data from 2016. Because most of the families are from Central America, they cannot immediately be turned around and sent back to Mexico. Lack of space in detention centers for parents with children means that almost all such migrants, who are mostly fleeing poverty and violence in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, are fitted with an electronic ankle bracelet, given a court date and released. Many end up requesting asylum, a process that can take five or more years to be resolved, immigration lawyers say. Even without requesting asylum, it can take years to deport families through the United States’ bunged-up immigration courts. Trump could expand a policy practiced under former President Barack Obama of using military bases to temporarily house more immigrants. The Fort Bliss base in El Paso has housed thousands of children since September, for example. He could also explore ways to refit other existing facilities to help handle the flood of families. Building more detention centers like Karnes and Dilley will take longer. They also typically face legal challenges by civil rights lawyers concerned about the living conditions in them. Trump could also seek to expand an Obama program aimed at increasing the number of Central American asylum seekers who make their initial claim from their home country. In the long term, he could ask Mexico to let immigrants make the asylum claims from there, although ties between the two countries are now seriously frayed because of Trump’s vow to force Mexico to pay for a wall on the southern U.S. border. Garcia, the shelter director, acknowledged that if Trump was finally successful in opening thousands more detention spaces for families, that would slow the numbers coming. “The word would spread that the probability they will be locked up and put on a plane had become much higher,” Garcia said. Central Americans are usually deported from the United States on flights back to their home countries. While the number of “turn-ins” - those who hand themselves in to U.S. authorities - are highest around McAllen, Texas, the jump has been particularly noticeable in the El Paso sector of the border with Mexico. Here, 60 percent of the immigrants apprehended between October and December were children or families. For years a quiet spot on the immigration map, El Paso saw 5,200 families apprehended in the period, nearly three times as many compared to the same period a year ago, and 1,972, or double, the number of unaccompanied children. U.S Border Patrol agent Jose Romero has observed the trend first-hand along the tall, rust-colored fence punctuated with rural border crossings stretching some 40 miles (65 km) from El Paso to beyond Tornillo, Texas. “A lot of the traffic we are seeing right now is family groups ... coming across and they are looking for an agent right away to turn themselves in,” Romero said, calling it a change from the past, when more people were trying to sneak in undetected. “They want to be apprehended.” The fence, finished in 2010, ends abruptly near pecan orchards and irrigation ditches on the Texan side, across the Rio Grande from Mexico’s drug war-torn Valle de Juarez, a cotton-farming region now littered with burned-out homes. Last February, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Obama’s secretary of commerce, Penny Pritzker, opened a major new border crossing from Tornillo on the Texan side, to Guadalupe on the Mexican side, hoping to boost trade between the countries. By November, truck traffic was still light across the bridge. Instead, ICE opened a temporary holding center, with 500 places in white tents on the asphalt on the U.S. side of the bridge, to help process some of the surging numbers of migrant families apprehended by U.S. officials in the surrounding area. | 1 |
22,082 | U.S. Senate panel approves Trump pick for top Treasury tax job | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-led U.S. Senate Finance Committee unanimously on Thursday approved President Donald Trump’s pick for the Treasury Department’s top tax policy job, sending the nomination on to consideration by the full Senate. David Kautter, a former Senate legislative aide and long-time tax policy expert, would play a key role in the Republican push to overhaul the U.S. tax code this year, if confirmed by the 100-seat chamber as assistant Treasury secretary for tax policy. “I’m hoping that he can be confirmed by the full Senate in short order,” said Senator Orrin Hatch, the finance committee’s Republican chairman. No floor vote has been scheduled. Kautter was most recently a tax partner at the firm RSM, which provides tax and audit services. He was also director of American University’s Kogod Tax Center and had a long career at the auditing and consulting firm Ernst & Young LLP. Republicans are trying to pursue tax reform along partisan lines though a parliamentary procedure known as reconciliation, which would allow them to pass tax legislation by a simple majority in the Senate. Republicans control the chamber by only a 52-48 margin and would need 60 votes for tax reform without reconciliation. Democrats reject the Republican approach to tax reform, which they say would benefit corporations and the wealthy but do little for middle-class families. Senator Ron Wyden, the finance panel’s top Democrat, said he decided to support Kautter because he believed the nominee would work to make tax reform a bipartisan effort between Republicans and Democrats. “Bringing both sides together on the tax reform question is the key to a major set of economic reforms that will help us create more good-paying jobs and grow wages for working-class families,” Wyden said. “It is my hope that Mr. Kautter can help bring Republicans and Democrats together.” Democrats initially criticized Kautter for not doing more as national tax director at Ernst & Young to prevent a tax avoidance scandal involving tax shelters for wealthy clients that led to criminal charges more than a decade ago. Kautter told lawmakers in a hearing this week that he regretted not doing more. | 1 |
22,083 | MICHIGAN STATE POLICE CHIEF Under Fire For Sharing Meme On Social Media About NFL Players Anti-Cop Movement | Has the Left and the leftist media managed to make Americans forget why this whole kneeling in protest against the American flag in the NFL started? Have Americans forgotten the statement made by Colin Kaepernick when asked why he kneeled during our national anthem while every other player stood in respect for our flag?When the San Francisco 49 ers QB Colin Kaepernick was asked why he kneeled during our national anthem, his response was about police brutality, and about his belief that cops were essentially getting away with murdering blacks with no consequences.Here is Kaepernick s official statement:One day before 5 police officers were murdered in Dallas, TX by a Black Lives Matter supporter, Cleveland Browns player Isiah Crowell posted an image on his Instagram account of a man wearing an ISIS-like image of a man wearing an all-black outfit and black mask standing behind a police officer and stabbing him in the neck with a knife.The Cleveland Browns made the following statement on behalf of Crowell for his disgusting actions: We have spoken to Isaiah regarding his extremely disturbing and unacceptable social media decision. It was completely inappropriate and we have made him aware of our high level of disappointment. Isaiah has apologized but also knows that just an apology is insufficient and that he must take steps to make a positive difference after a very negative and impactful post. The NFL made no apology for Crowell s terrorist-like post aimed to incite violence against our law-enforcement officers. Should law enforcement officers be forced to remain silent in the face of a movement created to disparage and discredit the amazing work they do every day because of a Black Lives Matter, anti-cop movement that has permeated the NFL?Stephen Loomis, President of Cleveland Police Patrolmen s Association spoke out against Cleveland Brown s player Isiah Crowell. Lommis said he thinks the store-bought apology isn t enough. He needs to go to Dallas, help the families who lost their loved ones last week, write them a check, look them in the eyes and give a heartfelt apology. Loomis says Crowell s post was as offensive as putting a picture of historical African-American men being hung from a tree in the 60s. He adds that if Crowell doesn t go to Dallas and make a donation, I will pull Cleveland officers, sheriffs, state troopers out of First Energy Stadium this season if he doesn t make it right. As for Crowell admitting he was wrong and acted out of rage Loomis says, You re a grown ass man, and you claim you were too emotional to know it was wrong? Think we ll accept your apology? Kiss my ass. TMZOn Sunday, the Patriots were booed wildly by fans when the team took a knee during our national anthem. Today, the leftist Detroit Free Press attempted to smear Michigan State Police Col. Kriste Kibbey Etue for sharing a message on social media criticizing the NFL players protests.Here is the post that Etue did NOT create, but shared privately with her friends on Facebook. The message in this post is pretty clear. It s a message to the NFL letting them know that Americans will not sit back silently and allow millionaires who are obviously not grateful to be living in the United States disrespect our flag, our law enforcement officers, and our veterans.The Detroit Free Press used a statement from ONE SOURCE, Leonard Mungo, a Detroit attorney who, in 2015, filed a class action lawsuit against the Michigan State Police, who Mungo claimed were not hiring enough black and Hispanic troopers. The Detroit Free Press quote from Mungo said the posting demonstrates kind of a dangerous mindset for someone in her powerful position. It s scary that they don t understand that America is defined by its freedoms, and one of these freedoms is freedom of speech, Mungo said. It also has implications for why the state police don t have representative numbers of African Americans in their ranks, he said.Shanon Banner, a spokeswoman for Etue, said the colonel s Facebook post was not about race and was posted not publicly, but so that only Etue s friends would see it. As a public servant, Col. Etue has great respect for the armed forces and those who fight to protect our freedoms, Banner said in an e-mail to the Free Press.Etue did not create the post, Banner said. It s a meme that is posted in other places around the Internet, she said.Etue, who heads the statewide police department, shared the meme entitled Dear NFL on her Facebook page Sunday. It was a post widely shared on social media by those critical of hundreds of NFL players this past weekend who locked arms and/or kneeled during the pre-game playing of the national anthem. Some forms of the meme are calling for a boycott of the NFL until these silent gridiron protests end.The Michigan State Police issued an apology from Etue on their Facebook page. Americans should be asking why Etue has to apologize for standing up for law enforcement officers and veterans she defended in her post? While the left is screaming about the rights of the NFL players to disrespect our flag, perhaps someone should ask them when Col. Etue s First Amendment Right become null and void? As a side note, The Detroit Free Press is home to Stephen Henderson, the race-obsessed, angry editorial editor who attempted to label Kid Rock (the single father of a black son and NAACP award winner) as a racist , stirring up hate and negativity towards the beloved Detroit rocker who does so much for the residents of the city of Detroit. | 0 |
22,084 | Commander of Lesotho defense force shot dead, South Africa calls for calm | MASERU (Reuters) - Lesotho s top military leader, Khoantle Mots omots o, and two senior officers were shot dead on Tuesday at an army barracks, the government said. While it was not immediately clear what the motivation for the shooting was, the kingdom has been subject to several coups and periodic political violence since gaining independence from Britain in 1966, and South Africa called for calm. Colonel Tanki Mothae, the principal secretary for the defense force, told Reuters the two senior officers were under investigation for the murder of another former Lesotho defense commander in 2015. Prime Minister Thomas Thabane, who fled the country in 2014 after a coup attempt and whose wife was shot dead in June, offered no details about the killings during a news conference other than saying the incident was being investigated. Neither Mothae nor the prime minister confirmed South African media reports that the two officers had killed the defense commander and then died in a gunfight with soldiers. South African President Jacob Zuma condemned in the strongest terms possible the senseless and regrettable killing and called for calm and restraint in the mountainous country that is entirely surrounded by its large neighbor. Lesotho is a major supplier of water to South Africa s industrial heartland. Zuma also said the Southern African Development Community (SADC) would send a ministerial fact-finding mission to Lesotho on Thursday to assess the situation. South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has made frequent trips to Lesotho to try to secure peace among political rivals as a facilitator for SADC. Lesotho has been through bouts of political turbulence since the attempted coup in 2014 and its last three elections - most recently in June - have failed to produce winners with clear majorities. | 1 |
22,085 | U.S. urges North Korea to curb actions that raise tensions in northeast Asia | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday condemned an attempted missile launch by North Korea and urged Pyongyang to refrain from actions that create tensions in northeastern Asia. “The United States, and the rest of the international community, calls on North Korea to refrain from actions including this failed missile test that further raise tensions in the region and focus instead on taking concrete steps toward fulfilling its international commitments,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. “The United States strongly condemns North Korea’s missile test,” he told a news briefing. The U.S. military’s Strategic Command assessed that North Korea attempted to launch an intermediate-range ballistic missile on Monday but that the test was a failure. | 1 |
22,086 | Corker says he expects Senate to confirm Tillerson as secretary of state | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker said on Wednesday he expects the Senate will confirm Rex Tillerson, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be secretary of state. Corker’s comments came after the close of an approximately nine-hour hearing in which senators vigorously questioned Tillerson on his views on Russia, sanctions, climate change and other issues, including China. “I feel good about his confirmation,” Corker told reporters. “I’m going to support his confirmation.” Corker said he felt Tillerson had acquitted himself well in addressing senators’ concerns about his relationship with Russia, although Corker acknowledged that members still had questions. He said he expected Tillerson would spend Thursday answering further questions and talking to more senators. | 1 |
22,087 | Republican Sandoval withdraws as possible Supreme Court pick | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, a moderate Republican, took himself out of consideration for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday as Senate Republicans dug in on their vow not to act on any nominee by President Barack Obama. Asked if the White House was disappointed by Sandoval’s decision, Obama spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters, “He’s obviously entitled to make decisions about his own career.” Sandoval’s name surfaced as a possible nominee on Wednesday, but Senate Republicans quickly said they still would not hold hearings or vote on any Obama nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the Feb. 13 death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. Obama’s appointee could pivot the court to the left for the first time in decades. Sandoval, a Mexican-American who was Nevada’s first Hispanic governor, did not offer a reason for his withdrawal. “Earlier today, I notified the White House that I do not wish to be considered at this time for possible nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States,” he said in a statement. “The notion of being considered for a seat on the highest court in the land is beyond humbling and I am incredibly grateful to have been mentioned.” Earlier on Thursday, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton expressed concern about Sandoval, urging Obama to pick a “true progressive.” But Nancy Pelosi, the top House of Representatives Democrat, called it a “good idea” for Obama to consider Republicans as well as Democrats. The Republican-led Senate must confirm any nominee. Sandoval, 52, was appointed a judge by Republican President George W. Bush before becoming governor. He took a traditional Republican stance backing gun rights but held more moderate views on social issues, supporting abortion rights. Obama will meet next Tuesday with Senate Republican and Democratic leaders regarding a court nominee, officials said. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said they will use the meeting to reiterate the Republican stance that the Senate will not act on any Supreme Court nominee until the next president takes office in January 2017, following the Nov. 8 presidential election. Republicans hope to win back the White House then. The fight over the nomination got nastier as Grassley accused Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of “childish tantrums” after Reid called Grassley the most obstructionist Judiciary Committee chairman ever. Reid responded: “A childish tantrum, when we’re asking him to do his job?” | 1 |
22,088 | Clinton calls Trump's proposal to dismantle Dodd-Frank 'reckless' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Tuesday criticized Republican Donald Trump’s proposal to dismantle the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, calling the idea “reckless.” “Latest reckless idea from Trump: gut rules on Wall Street, and leave middle-class families out to dry,” Clinton said on Twitter. Trump, in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, called the 2010 law a “very negative force.” | 1 |
22,089 | trump declared the winner | by jon rappoport but after trumps stunning victory the media narrative will continue riots are okay now we are a nation deeply divided this horrible | 0 |
22,090 | U.S. consumer finance agency official sues to stop Trump appointment | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The deputy director of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau late on Sunday filed a lawsuit seeking to halt President Donald Trump from naming an official to run the watchdog agency on an interim basis. Leandra English, who was named acting director by outgoing agency chief Richard Cordray on Friday, is seeking a temporary restraining order barring Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s head of the Office of Management and Budget, from taking control of the agency as Trump had sought. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, argues that Trump overstepped his legal authority in attempting to place Mulvaney in the post, maintaining Cordray had legal grounds to name his successor until a full-time director is named by Trump and confirmed by the Senate. | 1 |
22,091 | France condemns latest North Korean missile launch | PARIS (Reuters) - France on Friday condemned the latest missile launch from North Korea, and reiterated its willingness to work with U.N. Security Council and European Union members to ensure the situation with North Korea did not worsen. North Korea fired a second missile over Japan far out into the Pacific Ocean on Friday, South Korean and Japanese officials said, deepening tensions after Pyongyang s recent test of its sixth and most powerful nuclear bomb. Faced with this threat, France is ready to work - notably within the U.N. Security Council and the European Union - on strengthening measures that will help to allow the Pyongyang regime realize it has no interest in escalating the situation, and to help bring it back to the negotiating table, a statement from the French Foreign Ministry said. | 1 |
22,092 | BREAKING: PUTIN TIRED OF WAITING FOR Obama’s DOJ To Release Hillary’s Highly Classified Emails…Set To Release Them In Near Future | This is not the first time Putin has warned the US to hurry up with its release of Hillary s emails. Biden better get the emergency campaign team ready. If Putin releases the unedited, corrupt version of Hillary s highly classified emails, Crooked Hillary will not likely be able to overcome the damage that will be done to what s left of her reputation. Reliable intelligence sources in the West have indicated that warnings had been received that the Russian Government could in the near future release the text of email messages intercepted from U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton s private e-mail server from the time she was U.S. Secretary of State. The release would, the messaging indicated, prove that Secretary Clinton had, in fact, laid open U.S. secrets to foreign interception by putting highly-classified Government reports onto a private server in violation of U.S. law, and that, as suspected, the server had been targeted and hacked by foreign intelligence services.The reports indicated that the decision as to whether to reveal the intercepts would be made by Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin, and it was possible that the release would, if made, be through a third party, such as Wikileaks. The apparent message from Moscow, through the intelligence community, seemed to indicate frustration with the pace of the official U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the so-called server scandal, which seemed to offer prima facie evidence that U.S. law had been violated by Mrs Clinton s decision to use a private server through which to conduct official and often highly-secret communications during her time as Secretary of State. U.S.Sources indicated that the extensive Deptartment of Justice probe was more focused on the possibility that the private server was used to protect messaging in which Secretary Clinton allegedly discussed quid pro quo transactions with private donors to the Clinton Foundation in exchange for influence on U.S. policy.The Russian possession of the intercepts, however, was designed also to show that, apart from violating U.S. law in the fundamental handling of classified documents (which Sec. Clinton had alleged was no worse than the mishandling of a few documents by CIA Director David Petraeus or Clinton s National Security Advisor Sandy Berger), the traffic included highly-classified materials which had their classification headers stripped. Russian (and other) sources had indicated frustration with the pace of the Justice Dept. probe, and its avoidance of the national security aspects of intelligence handling. This meant that the topic would be suppressed by the U.S. Barack Obama Administration so that it would not be a factor in the current U.S. Presidential election campaign, in which President Obama had endorsed Mrs Clinton. via: Oilprice.com | 0 |
22,093 | Australian citizenship crisis deepens as eighth lawmaker falls | SYDNEY (Reuters) - The citizenship crisis engulfing Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull s government deepened on Tuesday as an eighth lawmaker exited parliament and the main opposition party drafted in a high-profile candidate for a key by-election. Turnbull s center-right government has already lost its majority in parliament, accounting for four of the eight lawmakers to be forced out or to resign from parliament in recent weeks because they were dual citizens. That status is banned under the Australian constitution to prevent split allegiances. Adherence to that rule in a country where more than half the population of 24 million was either born overseas or has a parent who was born overseas has only come under the spotlight in the current crisis, with the High Court confirming a strict interpretation of the law. Jacqui Lambie, an independent and outspoken senator for the island state of Tasmania, confirmed on Tuesday that she was the eighth lawmaker in a parliament of 226 to fall foul of the dual citizenship law, with political analysts warning that several more are likely to fall. The opposition Labor Party upped the stakes on Tuesday by announcing it was putting forward former state premier Kristina Keneally to contest the seat vacated by a lawmaker in Turnbull s Liberal Party. The by-election in the inner Sydney seat of Bennelong, along with another one for the seat of former Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, who was ejected by last month s High Court ruling, will be key to restoring Turnbull s small majority in parliament. This is a chance which I think a lot of people in Australia would like to have that has fallen to the people of Bennelong to send a message against the dysfunction and the chaos of the current government, the policy paralysis, the failure of leadership, Labor leader Bill Shorten told reporters on Tuesday. While Joyce is widely expected to win back his safe rural seat after renouncing his New Zealand citizenship, the entry of the popular Keneally into the Sydney race has made that contest far less certain. Previously a safe conservative seat, it fell to the Labor Party in 2007, before the conservatives won it back in 2010. Elections are notoriously volatile, anything is possible, Nicholas Economou, a political scientist at Monash University, told Reuters. Voters often use by-elections to give a stinging rebuke to a government that s at war with itself and that s what this government is. It s game on in Bennelong. The citizenship crisis has hit Turnbull hard, with a poll released on Monday showing he had slipped to a new low in voter popularity amid criticism that he has failed to act decisively. Independent lawmakers have threatened to use their new-found power in the lower house to push through controversial legislation that has been blocked by the government, including a Royal Commission into the banking sector. The government and main opposition party cobbled together a deal on Monday to agree to a deadline of Dec. 1 for all politicians to disclose the birthplace of their parents and grandparents. Lambie vowed to immediately renounce her UK citizenship, granted by descent courtesy of her Scottish-born father. I won t be laying down, I ll just get up and get back on and go again, simple as that, she told local radio. Lambie, 43, a former army corporal, has become one of Australia s most recognizable and colorful politicians in her short time in office. She has garnered headlines for a range of controversial comments, including her belief that China could invade Australia and applauding Russian President Vladimir Putin s very strong leadership . | 1 |
22,094 | Trump backers sue San Jose for allowing 'mob' assault | (Reuters) - Police in the California city of San Jose, motivated by the political leanings of city officials, allowed an angry mob to assault Donald Trump supporters as they left a rally for the presumptive Republican presidential candidate last month, a lawsuit filed on Thursday alleges. The civil lawsuit, filed by 14 Trump supporters against the city of San Jose, its mayor, police chief and a number of other individuals, says police funneled Trump supporters outside the city’s convention center directly into a crowd of hundreds of “physically violent and aggressive” protesters. The plaintiffs add that city officials directed roughly 250 San Jose police officers not to intervene amid a melee of “violent criminal acts perpetrated by dozens of anti-Trump protesters.” The San Jose City Attorney, Richard Doyle, said he had not yet read the complaint, but that police made many arrests and the city is “committed to first amendment rights and protecting people.” A police department spokesman referred inquiries to Doyle’s office. Mayor Sam Liccardo, a Democrat, said in statement that the city will do “everything necessary” to prosecute those who acted illegally. “The ludicrous accusation that I somehow directed the police department to ‘stand down’ at the rally is utterly false,” Liccardo said. Tense and sometimes violent demonstrations have peppered Trump’s political rallies in New Mexico and California in recent months. Protesters are also expected to converge on the Republican National Convention next week in Cleveland. Hundreds of people in San Jose, many angry over Trump’s statements about immigration, gathered outside his event last month. Members of the crowd waved Mexican flags, chanted anti-Trump slogans, and burned Trump hats along with at least one U.S. flag. The lawsuit alleges Liccardo, police chief Edgardo Garcia, and some 40 other people stripped Trump backers of their rights to free speech and assembly. According to the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified compensation, one Trump backer was pelted with eggs and spat on, while another, a 71-year-old woman, had her hair pulled and her glasses broken. At one point, the lawsuit says, a 14-year-old boy was struck in the back of his head as members of the crowd shouted, “Kill him!” Speaking at a campaign event the day after the events in San Jose, Trump described the rally as “a love fest inside. No problems whatsoever.” But then his supporters “walked out and they got accosted by a bunch of thugs,” he said. | 1 |
22,095 | U.S. conducts missile defense test off Hawaii coast | (Reuters) - The U.S. Missile Defense Agency and the Navy successfully conducted a missile defense test off the coast of Hawaii, MDA said in a statement on Wednesday. The test, scheduled well in advance, was done from the USS John Paul Jones and comes a day after North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan. The test, using Standard Missile-6 guided missiles, intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile target. North Korea said its missile launch was to counter U.S. and South Korean military drills, and was a first step in military action in the Pacific to contain the U.S. territory of Guam. The launch was condemned by the United Nations as an outrageous act. The MDA said the test gives the naval component of the missile defense system higher ability to intercept ballistic missiles in their terminal phase. Japan has been worried that the United States has so far declined to arm it with a powerful new radar, Reuters reported on Wednesday. Japan is seeking a land-based version of the Aegis ballistic missile defense system, operational by 2023, as a new layer of defense to help counter North Korea s missile advances. | 1 |
22,096 | STATE WORKERS Busted For Blatant EBT Fraud Worth $1,000,000 | Seven Delaware state workers were indicted and arrested for the theft of one million dollars from the EBT Program. The way they did it is just blatant! There are so many reports every week of fraud in the EBT system that it s beyond past time for reform! This program is out of control!Attorney General Matt Denn announced today the arrests and indictments of seven former state of Delaware employees for theft of federal money. All seven were employed by the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS), and were responsible for issuing Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards, and three previous arrests were also related to the same investigation.Two of the defendants were indicted and arrested last week, two others were indicted and remain at large, one was indicted and arrested previously and still faces charges, and two have already been convicted and sentenced.Based on internal audits conducted by DHSS s Audit and Recovery Management Services, investigators learned of fictitious and unauthorized EBT accounts created by Division of Social Services case workers responsible for case creation and maintenance, with each of the fraudulently created cases issued varying amounts of food benefits in the form of EBT cards. The investigation revealed that the fraudulent EBT cards were delivered to State Service Centers in New Castle and Kent County, and intercepted by the suspects working at those locations. Once intercepted, the cards were personally used or sold at a discount.These indictments are the result of a months-long joint effort of prosecutors and investigators from the Department of Justice s Criminal Division, Fraud Division and the Office of Civil Rights and Public Trust, along with the DHSS Audit and Recovery Management Services. The investigation eventually revealed more than $959,000 in total fraudulent benefits issued by several state workers. This case is part of an intensified focus our office is trying to bring to fraud being committed against the state s public benefit programs, Attorney General Matt Denn said. These arrests come as the result of an in-depth investigation, supported by many agencies. We appreciate the cooperation from the Office of the Inspector General and the Audit and Recovery Management Services. From the Department of Justice, I specifically want to thank Deputy Attorneys General Matt Frawley, Phillip Casale, Allison Reardon and Dennis Kelleher, along with Special Investigators Robert Irwin, Brittney Ketler, Frank Robinson, and John Ciritella. Indicted and arrested last week were:Detrich Simmons-Heath, 54, of Chestertown, Maryland charged with Theft over $100,000, Forgery First Degree, Falsifying Business Records, and Official Misconduct. Released on $6,000 unsecured bond. Kamilah Laws, 39, of Wilmington charged with Theft over $50,000, Forgery First Degree, Falsifying Business Records, and Official Misconduct. Released on $5,000 unsecured bond. Indicted last week and still at large are:Jo Ellen Edwards, 61, of Felton charged with Theft over $100,000, Forgery First Degree, Falsifying Business Records, and Official Misconduct. Shirlene Davis, 29, of Newark charged with Theft over $100,000, Forgery First Degree, Falsifying Business Records, and Official Misconduct. Previously indicted, charges pending:Nicole Stevens, 43, of Dover, was arrested in November 2015 on charges of Theft over $1,500, Official Misconduct, Forgery First Degree, Falsifying Business Records, and four counts of Unlawful Use of a Payment Card for stealing $8,092. Previously convicted and sentenced:Allison Rivera, 49, of Dover, pled guilty to Theft over $1,500, Unlawful Use of a Payment Card, and Falsifying Business Records, and was sentenced in April 2016 to two years of Level II probation, and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $27,751.58. Angelette Brown, 45, of Camden, pled guilty to Theft over $1,500, Unlawful Use of a Payment Card, and Official Misconduct and was sentenced to April 2016 to two years of Level II probation, ordered to do 240 hours of community service, and forced to repay the $15,957 she took.Read more: FOX | 0 |
22,097 | competing theories on why the fbi reopened the hillary email server investigation | eight ways to strengthen our democracy beyond voting the strength of our civic life depends on what we do outside elections by chuck collins chuck collins
throughout this trying election season weve been told how much is at stake with our vote but the success of any democracy depends on continuing to pay attention long after we cast our ballots
so lets pledge to strengthen our democracy with a few resolutions to focus our intentions and keep us moving forward over the next four years
change your media diet
way too much ink airtime and mental real estate has been consumed by the horserace reporting on electionsits all about whos winning and losing so unplug from the talk shows that interview pollsters and engage in partisan bickering all day find the commentators and independent media outlets that strengthen our civic life
turn off corporate media
this election has been very profitable for big media corporations but bad for our democracy as cbs chairman les moonves remarked man who would have expected the ride were all having right now the moneys rolling in and this is fun
our differences have been compounded by media reports that amplify the loudest and most partisan utterances election coverage this year has encouraged us to view one another as cartoon caricatures not neighbors
reject the consumer mentality in elections
were encouraged to view national elections like consumers buying a car but presidential elections can make most of us feel like spectators not participants election day is a small part of our real democracythink of voting as a tiny fraction of your civic life
make your voice heard
pledge to communicate with your elected officials all year round not just when they want your vote call write email and attend community forums when a politician hears from a dozen constituents with the same concern it matters
a few resolutions must address our polarized political atmosphere the only way to break through this is by connecting with people we dont always agree with
for instance the liberal california sociologist arlie hochschild spent five years interviewing conservative tea party activists in louisiana making friends and asking deep questions she urges us all to scale the empathy wall and learn each others stories
heres a few easy ways to get started
try a social media fast
social media is amazing but it mostly serves as an echo chamber to reinforce our existing views its not a substitute for talking to people asking questions and learning why people support certain policies
practice the art of civil discourse
find ways to meet others facetoface to engage in conversations not soapbox speeches and debates look at the living room conversation movement that brings people together across political divisions their goal is to encourage authentic respectful conversations to strengthen relationships and advance understanding of the challenges opportunities and solutions before us
finally other resolutions should focus on changing our polarizing election system
eliminate the wealth primary
long before voters cast their ballots in a primary big money donors have winnowed the field and selected who will stand for election people all across the political spectrum agree that we need fundamental campaign finance reform to reduce the influence of big money including the repeal of citizens united
break the twoparty duopoly
a growing number of voters have declared independence from the two major parties so why do we allow other voices and perspectives to be excluded from presidential debates our democracy would benefit if we had real choices outside the two major parties as they do in most other countries in the world
the strength of our civic life depends on what we do outside elections and especially after the deeply toxic experience of we all need to step up to protect our real democracy from those who profit from division
chuck collins coedits inequalityorg at the institute for policy studies and is author of the new book born on third base a one percenter makes the case for tackling inequality bringing wealth home and committing to the common good distributed by otherwordsorg permalink | 0 |
22,098 | Tim Kaine Can’t Hold Back His Tears During Heart Wrenching Health Care Hearing | On Wednesday, Senate Democrats held a shadow hearing to hear what the American people have to say about the GOP health care bill. It was an emotional scene, with story after story about how much harm the American Health Care Act will cause. After listening to one particularly heartbreaking story, Sen. Tim Kaine was so moved that he was unable to hold back his tears.I remember standing at the mailbox with my tiny baby she was still under 10 pounds at 11 months old cradled in my arms, and opening an envelope from the children s hospital with a bill inside for $64,000, more than my husband s annual salary, for merely renting the surgical room and equipment used during her heart surgery the month before, said Cyndi Johnson, a math teacher from Bloomington, Indiana.Johnson continued, explaining that before the Affordable Care Act became the law of the land, the medical costs she found herself paying out of pocket for her baby were spiraling with no end in sight. In order to provide around the clock care for her daughter, Johnson had to quit her job. But Obamacare changed all that. She explained that if the ACA hadn t removed the lifetime cap, her daughter would have reached it before her fifth birthday.As a parent, absolutely nothing else matters when your child is sick, Johnson said. Your world shrinks and everything else just falls away. I would have sold my house, my car, done literally anything to keep my daughter healthy and no family should have to make that horrible choice. All the senators had the hearing were moved by Johnson s testimony, but Tim Kaine choke back his tears.Mrs. Johnson, tears just started rolling down my face, Kaine said. The people who passed this law couldn t care less what any of you think or what any of your experiences are. Just think, instead of Mike Pence, who can t wait to snatch health care away from sick babies, we could have had Tim Kaine as our vice president. But, her emails.Featured image via Justin Sullivan/Getty Images | 0 |
22,099 | German SPD leaders vote to start exploratory talks with conservatives | BERLIN (Reuters) - Leaders of Germany s Social Democrats have voted unanimously to begin exploratory talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives about forming a coalition government, Andreas Nahles, head of the SPD s parliamentary group, said on Friday. Nahles said party leaders would work on substantive issues in the talks, with a party conference in January to determine the way forward. She said the SPD, which suffered its worst post-war election losses in September, planned to enter the talks with an open and constructive attitude with an eye to improving the lives of ordinary Germans. | 1 |
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