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22,600 | Mattis on Tillerson departure: 'There's nothing to it' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis dismissed reports on Thursday that President Donald Trump was considering a plan to oust Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Asked what he made of Tillerson’s reported pending departure, Mattis said: “I make nothing of it. There’s nothing to it.” He was responding to a shouted question at the beginning of a meeting with the Libyan prime minister at the Pentagon. | 1 |
22,601 | YOU’RE FIRED! Is This Billboard Going to Bring Down House Speaker Paul Ryan? | A successful business man has launched a political campaign against Paul Ryan. We love what he s doing even though it s unconventional. Paul Nehlen put up billboards this week that are devastating to the Republican Speaker:Following last night s historic Brexit vote, House Speaker Paul Ryan s primary challenger, Wisconsin businessman Paul Nehlen, seems to have taken a page from the playbook of the U.K. Independence Party (UKIP) with the launch of a new billboard campaign.On Friday morning, Nehlen s campaign went live with a new billboard in Ryan s hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin that is reminiscent of the distinctive UKIP-style campaign.The ad reads: Radical Islam Kills Americans. Vote YES for Immigration Control. Vote NO for Paul Ryan. The billboard then directs viewers to Nehlen s campaign website, ElectNehlen.com.UKIP s national billboard campaign is distinctive for its clear, straight-forward manner of describing the effects of large-scale migration and its impact on workers and Western culture. Via: Gateway Pundit | 0 |
22,602 | Zimbabwe parliament has received motion to remove Mugabe: Speaker | HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe s parliament has received a motion to impeach President Robert Mugabe after the army seized power last week, Speaker Jacob Mudenda said on Tuesday. Mudenda said parliament would adjourn to a hotel to start the impeachment proceedings against the 93-year-old president, who defied his party s Monday noon deadline to resign. Zimbabwean law says a joint sitting can take place anywhere. | 1 |
22,603 | Iraq gives Kurdistan till Friday to hand over control of airports to avoid embargo | BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi government gave the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) until Friday 3:00 p.m (1200 GMT) to hand over control of its airports in order to avoid an international air embargo, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said, according to state TV. The measure is meant as a retaliation against the independence referendum held by the KRG in northern Iraq on Monday. Domestic flights are not involved in the ultimatum and in the worst case, international travel to and from the KRG will be re-routed through Baghdad and other Iraqi airports. Baghdad last week asked foreign countries to stop direct flights to the international airports of Erbil and Sulaimaniya, in KRG territory, but only Iran declared such an air embargo, halting direct flights to and from Iraqi Kurdistan. Humanitarian and emergency flights are exempted, provided they are pre-approved by Baghdad, Abadi said. Baghdad will also ask neighboring countries to shut the border with Iraqi Kurdistan if the KRG doesn t hand over border posts to the central government by Friday. | 1 |
22,604 | Insane Iowa Republicans Literally Want To Let Toddlers Carry Guns | If Iowa Republicans have their way, toddlers will be able to carry guns, which makes the state the scariest in the nation.The Iowa House literally passed a series of gun bills on Tuesday, including House File 2281, that if allowed to become law would let kids under the age of 14 carry a gun. Because what could possibly go wrong?According to Iowa Public Radio,Democrat Kirsten Running-Marquardt asked what kind of gun would fit into the hands of a two or three year old. I ve got the bill right in front of me, Running-Marquardt said. It s a valid question. You re missing the whole point of the bill, replied Johnston Republican Jake Highfill. I think this is one of the best bills we ve done for second amendment rights. Current Iowa law prohibits children under the age of 14 from possessing handguns and ammunition, which is a reasonable measure considering 10,000 kids are injured or killed every year by guns, one-fifth of which are accidents.And that s not even counting the accidental shootings of adults by children who handle guns.Democratic Rep. Mary Mascher pointed out that a nine-year old girl had parental and instructor supervision at an Arizona gun range when she accidentally shot and killed the instructor because she couldn t handle the gun. Unfortunately the instructor and the parents made the wrong decision and someone died, Mascher said. Every three hours in this country a child dies from gun violence. And that s not the only example showing why kids should not be allowed to have access to guns.In January 2015, a five-year-old boy killed his little brother with a gun that he found lying around the house.In August of the same year, a four-year-old boy shot and killed his own mother after finding a gun in the car that he thought was a toy.Then there s the 11-year-old boy who killed a little girl because she wouldn t let him pet her puppy.Or how about the three-year-old boy who has to live with the knowledge that he accidentally shot and killed his mom in 2014 after finding a loaded gun under the couch.And then there s the story of a five-year-old boy who shot and killed his little sister with a rifle he had just been given for his birthday. His parents believed that a child safety feature would be enough to keep the gun from accidentally being fired.The bottom line is that toddlers have no clue what a gun is and lack the physical and mental capacity to handle a firearm responsibly, no matter what the NRA says. And there are clearly many parents who are stupid when it comes to mixing guns and kids, the results of which are horrifying and heartbreaking. And you can be sure that there will be more dead kids and parents if this bill becomes law.The bill now heads to the Democrat-controlled Iowa Senate, where logic and reason will hopefully prevail.Featured image via Freakout Nation | 0 |
22,605 | Texas House approves a bill targeting 'sanctuary cities' | AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The Republican-dominated Texas House of Representative approved on Thursday a bill to punish so-called “sanctuary cities” over criticism from Democrats that the measure could lead to unconstitutional racial profiling. The bill comes as Republican U.S. President Donald Trump has made combating illegal immigration a priority. Texas, which has an estimated 1.5 million undocumented immigrants and the longest border with Mexico of any U.S. state, has been at the forefront of the immigration debate. Texas’ Republican leaders have embraced Trump’s calls to punish localities they believe are shielding immigrants in the country illegally. Any anti-sanctuary city measure may face a tough road after a federal judge this week blocked Trump’s executive order seeking to withhold funds from local authorities that do not use their resources to advance federal immigration laws. On a party line vote after about 16 hours of emotional debate, the Texas House approved the bill that would punish local authorities who do not abide by requests to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. Police who do not cooperate with immigration authorities could be subject to fines and prosecution for a Class A misdemeanor, which can bring up to a year imprisonment. The bill also allows police to ask people about their immigration status during a lawful detention, even for minor infractions like jay-walking. The bill will have to be reconciled with another bill approved by the Texas Senate. Republican Governor Greg Abbott has said he would sign such a measure into law. “This bill has no effect on illegal immigrants if they have not committed a crime or are hanging out with someone who has,” bill sponsor Republican Charlie Geren told the House. Under questioning, Geren told lawmakers there are no local authorities in Texas at present that he would consider a “sanctuary city.” Rene Oliveira, a Democratic representative from the border city of Brownsville, said the bill has sent a chill through immigrant communities worried that even people in the United States legally can be picked up by police for minor infractions and subject to a process aimed at deportation. As the Texas House debated the measure, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, who runs one of the nation’s largest police forces, criticized the bill. “Violent crime is on rise across our Nation & some would rather men & women in blue go after cooks & nannies, instead of hardened criminals,” he wrote on Twitter. | 1 |
22,606 | WATCH: FOX News Host And Commentator Suspended On Same Day For Using ‘Colorful Language’ To Describe Obama | What do you think? Has Americans reached their breaking point? The Fox News and Fox Business networks have suspended on-air host Stacey Dash and commentator Lt. Col. Ralph Peters for cursing on the air about President Obama s handling of the Islamic State terrorist group.https://youtu.be/9RYsIAkyNlIPeters called Obama a pussy after his primetime televised speech on terrorism, while Dash said that he couldn t give a shit about the terrorist group. Both commentators immediately acknowledged that they were wrong for using the epithets, but the suspension still stands.Via: Breitbart News | 0 |
22,607 | VETERAN’S FAMILY ASKS TRUMP FOR HELP After He Asked VA For Help For With PTSD…VA Put Him On 6 Month Wait List…Vet Committed Suicide On 9-11-16 | The demons could wait no longer. Lynne Patton is the Vice President of The Eric Trump Foundation & Senior Assistant to Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump & Donald Trump Jr. She was thrust onto the political scene after making a beautiful video denouncing Trump s critics who dared to call him a racist or bigot . She didn t ask Donald J. Trump or any of the Trump family members for their blessing she just made the video. The video went viral shortly after it was posted and has been viewed almost 4 million times. (We included the video at the bottom of the page.) Lynne has been a force in the Trump campaign ever since. She spoke at the RNC convention and has been spotted with several of the Trump children at various events across the country supporting her boss, Donald J. Trump. Lynne posted a touching and extremely important story on her Instagram account that so moved us, we decided to share it with our followers. There are not enough people speaking up about the horrendous health care our veterans have been subjected to for decades. Trump has made no secret that he is determined to fix the broken VA health care system run by incompetent, and in many cases, negligent employees of a disgusting, inept, government-run program. Lynn Patton addresses Trump s commitment to our nation and to our veterans, who deserve so much more than what we are giving back to them in this beautiful letter that she posted, after being contacted by friends who had just lost their son, a veteran who was suffering from PTSD to suicide:Sometimes people ask me if I ever regret coming forward speaking out making that video back in May. My answer is always the same: No, of course not. Or I relay to them the fact that I couldn t stay silent about the false narrative of bigotry any longer. Or quite simply, I tell people that all did was genuinely tell the truth about this great family as I know it to be. I never expected that the letter I wrote would be anything more than a personal Facebook post with a few friendly comments. Maybe even a few negative ones too. But then a very talented friend insisted on turning that letter into a video & here we are.Everything I ve ever said, posted, written, tweeted, spoken & believed about this family is 100% true. I never expected that simply being honest would result in being asked to speak in front of 24 million people at the Republican National Convention. I never expected that simply being honest would lead to tens of thousands of Twitter followers (good & bad). I never expected that simply being honest would result in being part of a movement. But I would be lying if I didn t admit that it s been a tough few months. Tough physically. Tough mentally. Tough emotionally. It s been a lot of traveling. It s been a lot of laughs. It s been a lot of tears. I ve lost a few friends (who clearly weren t true friends) and, unbeknownst to most, even some of my own family members have ceased communication. I barely see my own boyfriend anymore. A person with whom I have lived for the past 11 years. We are two ships literally passing in the night. Oftentimes, too tired & exhausted to even converse. But yesterday, I received a devastating reminder of why we do what we do. A reminder of why I don t regret speaking out coming forward sharing a very private part of my life on a very public stage.Yesterday, I received a devastating reminder of why I m honored to know & love this family. A reminder of why I walk through the doors of Trump Tower with a smile on my face each & every day. A reminder of why it s an honor to crisscross this country alongside this great man & his family in the pursuit of the greatest office in the world. In pursuit of the betterment of this country. In pursuit of a safer, stronger, more respected & prosperous America. Yesterday, I received a message that my friend s little brother had committed suicide. He was 32 years old.Normally, I would not be sharing something so personal in such an impersonal forum, but I do so at the behest & blessing of his family. Even so, it took me nearly 24 hours to find the strength to write these words. I have no idea how my friend & her incredibly brave family are even functioning, yet alone finding the strength to email me during a time of such unfathomable grief. But then they explained to me that they had no choice. They explained to me that their collective grief, frustration, fury, anger, confusion, sadness and utter betrayal compelled them to contact me. ME. On the same day they were faced with the painful task of burying their son, their brother, their uncle, cousin they reached out to me. You see, my friend s little brother was a veteran. Air Force. Handsome. Brave. Loved. My friend s little brother was a veteran who had been battling the overwhelming demons of depression & post traumatic stress disorder for several years. Alone. Without professional help. And when he finally did find the courage to seek professional help, the VA told him there was a six month waiting list. Six. Month. Waiting. List. But unfortunately, the demons could wait no longer. Instead, my friend s little brother chose to take his own life on September 11, 2016. So you see, I have no choice but to post about his death today. I have no choice but to make this tragedy political. Because it is. Plain & simple. But more importantly, I have no choice but to make his death political because his devastated family has specifically asked me to do so.In his honor. So that no other veteran is turned away during their time of need. They told me that this country now needs Trump to lead us more than ever. That this country now needs a leader who will bring respect, honor & well-deserved attention back to our military, so that these brave soldiers don t feel dejected & alone ridiculed & angry depressed & confused. That said, it is now MY honor to work for a man who will personally ensure that the VA s antiquated, lackadaisical, reckless, reprehensible and irresponsible system of care is overhauled & relaunched becomes one of his very first acts of office.There are people who have been in Washington DC for over 30 years & done absolutely nothing to fix this disgraceful system. NOTHING. Nothing at all to change this unacceptable process. One of them is running for President of the United States. So yes, yesterday, I was reminded why the choice for my boss to leave his company leave an extremely successful & comfortable existence was easy for him.Yesterday, I was reminded why the shockingly vile, hateful & abusive comments I receive on social media mean nothing to me.Yesterday, I was reminded that this election is much bigger than I am than us than you than him. That it s much more important than we could ever fathom to this country, to our veterans, to the unemployed, to the crime victims of illegal immigrants, to our police officers, to our active duty military & to the heartbroken families of the same.This election is, quite simply, a matter of life & death. And today, I, for one, am now personally determined to ensure that my friend s little brother and his 22 military peers who take their lives each & every day did not die in vain.Lynne Patton,?? #DeplorableAndProudHere is Lynne Patton s video: | 0 |
22,608 | Hurricane Irma kills 10 in Cuba, Castro calls for unity | HAVANA (Reuters) - President Raul Castro called on Cubans on Monday to unite in swiftly rebuilding the Caribbean nation in the wake of Hurricane Irma, which killed at least 10 people during a devastating three-day rampage along the length of the island. The storm crashed into Cuba late on Friday, with sustained winds of than 157 miles per hour (253 km per hour). It tore along the island s northern shore for some 200 miles (322 km) - lashing tourist resorts on the island s pristine keys - before turning northward to batter Florida. In Havana, people set about removing debris from the streets on Monday and mopping up homes hit by widespread flooding. The hurricane - the first Category 5 storm to make landfall in Cuba since 1932 - tore off roofs, felled trees and downed electricity poles, leaving millions without power and water. State media said on Monday Irma had seriously damaged Cuba s already dilapidated sugar industry, flooding and flattening an extensive area of sugar cane. Given the immensity of its size, practically no region escaped its impact, Castro said in a statement published in state-run media, urging Cubans to unite to rebuild the country. The task we have before us is immense but, with a people like ours, we will win the most important battle: the recovery. Castro, 86, who has said he will step aside early next year, said authorities had not been able to assess the full extent of damage yet, but the hurricane had impacted housing stock and the power grid, as well as agriculture. The fatalities in Cuba brought the death toll from Irma to 39 in the Caribbean. The hurricane dealt a potentially heavy blow to Cuba s agriculture- and tourism-reliant economy at a difficult moment, with an economic reform program appearing stalled and aid from key ally Venezuela shrinking. Seven of the Cuban dead were in the province of Havana, which only caught the outer reaches of the hurricane but still saw waves of up to 36 feet (12 meters) pummel its historic seafront boulevard on Sunday. The two youngest victims, Mar a del Carmen Arregoit a and Yolendis Castillo, both 27, died when a balcony crashed down onto their bus in central Havana, infamous for its creaking infrastructure. The oldest, Nieves Mart nez, 89, was found floating in water in front of her home in the Vedado district of Havana in the wake of heavy flooding in the capital, according to a statement from civil defense authorities. Large parts of Havana remained underwater on Monday. We have absolutely nothing, we lost it all, the fridge, the washing machine, we lost it all here, said Ayda Herrera, whose home on Havana s seafront boulevard was flooded. Fatalities also were reported in Matanzas, home to the tourist resort of Varadero, and the regions of Ciego de Avila and Camaguey farther east. While many of Cuba s top resorts on the northern islands took a direct hit from the hurricane, Castro said they would be fixed up in time for high tourist season at the end of the year. Many tourists flew home ahead of Irma, but others hunkered down in hotels and shelters. Tropical paradise turned into hell for us, said Spanish tourist Michel Munoz, 31, who said he spent the hurricane sheltering in a Havana convent and had struggled to find food on Sunday as most restaurants were closed. Excavators have started the laborious task of removing debris and fallen trees from roads throughout the island and trucks carried drinkable water to the worst-affected areas. We are working twice as hard as usual to ensure as much bread as possible to the population, said Alain Alfonso, a worker at a bakery in Central Havana. | 1 |
22,609 | Myanmar adviser: Rohingya can return but process to be discussed | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Myanmar national security adviser Thaung Tun told Reuters on Monday that Rohingya Muslims who had fled to neighboring Bangladesh to escape violence in Rakhine State would be able to return but the process would have to be discussed. We will make sure that everybody who left their home can return to their home but this is a process we have to discuss, he said after a ministerial meeting on the crisis hosted by British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. We want to make sure that everybody who needs humanitarian assistance gets it, without discrimination. That is one of the things we agreed on, Tun said. | 1 |
22,610 | Glenn Beck Says He’s Going To Stop Eating To Support Ted Cruz, Tells Fans To Join Him | On the night that Donald Trump won his second straight primary (with a massive lead), a despondent Glenn Beck decided it was time to take action to support his favored candidate, Ted Cruz. He announced on his Facebook page that he would begin fasting on Monday to push Ted Cruz to victory in the upcoming Nevada Republican Caucus somehow.In the post, which raised eyebrows and made eyes roll, the ever melodramatic Beck told his fans: I would like to ask you to join me and my family Monday in a fast for Ted Cruz, our country and the Nevada caucus. https://www.facebook.com/GlennBeck/posts/10153969800938188He also said he would be spending every waking hour until the caucus on February 23 devoted to promoting Cruz. He s not kidding. On Sunday, Cruz will leave behind the guy from Duck Dynasty and replace him with Beck, who will host an event for the candidate in Las Vegas. On Monday, Beck will again join Cruz, this time in Reno.Beck s support for Cruz seems to come singularly from his disdain for Donald Trump. For reasons that remain unclear, Beck has a seething hatred for Trump that borders on obsessive. It s odd because in so many ways bigotry, race-baiting, xenophobia the two are very much alike.In a hilarious show of how little self-awareness he possesses, Beck infamously declared that any Tea Party supporter who favored Trump was actually just a racist.While he questioned whether Trump s supporters are genuine Tea Partiers, Beck said of them, If you were a Tea Party person, then you were lying. You were lying. It was about Barack Obama being black. It was about him being a Democrat. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. Beck is no doubt right that much of the Tea Party movement was based in racism, but supporting Trump isn t contrary to that movement. It s the logical conclusion.It s unclear what Beck hopes to accomplish by starving himself and his family in order to help Ted Cruz get elected. Yet again it appears that Beck is trying to explicitly tie religious ceremony into the race. And fasting appears to be Beck s go to way of getting God s attention. Just last summer, he went on a six day fast to get ready for an appearance in Birmingham. He told his fans: Join us in fasting and prayer that we may all be humble enough to not only hear the path of The Almighty but we may be willing to walk it with honor, Courage, Love and unity. Last week he boldly declared that God killed Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in order to ensure Ted Cruz became president. Apparently unwilling to let go and let God, Beck now hopes to nudge Him along a little bit more with his mass hunger strike.Featured image via Glenn Beck | 0 |
22,611 | Turkey detains main opposition leader's lawyer over coup links | ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey detained the main opposition leader s lawyer on Friday for alleged links to the network accused of carrying out last year s failed coup, in a widening government crackdown. Lawyer Celal Celik was a former top court judge who resigned from his post in September 2011 in protest of the rising influence of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen s network in the judiciary. However, Celik had now been detained at his home in the capital Ankara as part of operations targeting the network. Turkey accuses cleric Gulen of orchestrating the abortive putsch in July 2016. Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, denies involvement. What happened today is a disgrace in the name of democracy. The detention decision concerning my lawyer is an eclipse of the mind, main opposition Republican People s Party (CHP) chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu was cited as saying by broadcaster CNN Turk. President Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling AK Party have recently adapted a harsher rhetoric against Kilicdaroglu, repeatedly accusing him and the CHP of being linked to Gulen s network and acting together with what it calls the terrorist organization . Using Erdogan s acronym for the Gulen network, Kilicdaroglu said the government was supporting the FETO under the banner of a fight against the FETO. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters after Friday prayers that Celik s detention was a legal process, and that he hoped a correct decision would come from the investigations. CHP Spokesman Bulent Tezcan said the detention was a plot against the party. Celik had resigned from his judgeship at the court of appeals to battle the FETO when it was at its most powerful. If Calik s home can be raided, then let it be known that every single person faces this threat, Tezcan said. More than 50,000 people have been jailed pending trial for alleged ties to Gulen s movement and some 150,000 people, including journalists and opposition figures, have been sacked or suspended from jobs in the public and private sectors for the same reason. Rights groups and Turkey s Western allies have expressed concern about the crackdown and suspect the government has used the coup as a pretext to quash dissent. The government says the purges are necessary due to the gravity of the threats it has faced since the failed putsch, in which more than 240 people were killed. | 1 |
22,612 | Trump lacks team and clear plan for quick tax reform | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump has neither a clear White House tax plan nor adequate staff yet to see through a planned tax reform, according to interviews with people in the administration, in Congress and among U.S. tax experts. In an echo of its attempt to roll back Obamacare that ended in an embarrassing collapse in Congress, the Trump administration has vowed quick action on taxes. But it has yet to appoint people with the skills to evaluate complex tax laws, draft legislation and sell it to deeply divided lawmakers. Burned by last week’s failed healthcare measure largely authored by House of Representatives Republicans, Trump is determined not to count on Congress so much this time for handling the details on taxes, his second major legislative initiative. But that only underscores his need for a strong White House tax team, which the administration still lacks. Many policy options are still being studied, from deficit-funded tax cuts to a European-style value-added tax. “They’re still sorting out who’s in charge, who’s going to take the lead,” said William Hoagland, a longtime Senate Republican aide who worked on the last successful comprehensive tax reform effort in 1986. “You need someone who has the ear and support of the president who can sell a tax plan, and you need the technical support for that person,” said Hoagland, now senior vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank. Financial markets have been reassessing expectations of fast action on taxes that have helped fuel a Trump stocks rally. Members of Trump’s tax team are known, but not their exact duties. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn are senior team leaders. Others include White House advisers Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Trump huddled with Mnuchin on Thursday to discuss taxes. “We are at the first stages of this process, beginning to engage with members of Congress, policy groups, business leaders, industry, constituents from around the country, and other stakeholders,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters on Thursday, Trump’s 69th day in office. When Trump was elected in November, Republican lawmakers enthusiastically joined his call to rewrite the tax code and dismantle Obamacare in the first 100 days of his presidency. In early February, Trump promised a “phenomenal” tax plan by early March that never appeared. Mnuchin spoke on Feb. 23 of enacting tax reform by August. Spicer acknowledged this week that the timetable could be slipping. Another senior White House official said the administration had assumed it would still be working on healthcare at this point, not tax reform yet. The official, not authorized to speak publicly, spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity. So far, Trump’s tax campaign is a far cry from President Ronald Reagan’s 1986 effort, in which Don Regan, as Treasury secretary and then White House chief of staff, spent many months developing legislation that won bipartisan support in Congress. “The process under Reagan was much more developed, elaborate and long, and there was a strong bench of top-rate technicians putting things together,” said Steven Rosenthal, senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, a think tank. Under Trump, he said, “None of that is happening.” During the 2016 election campaign, Trump issued a tax plan that partly resembled one developed by House Speaker Paul Ryan, but Trump does not now appear wedded to either. It is a safe bet he will not lean heavily on the plan from Ryan, who drafted and championed the ill-fated plan to gut Obamacare. “Trump now desperately needs a policy victory ... I would expect the president to play a much more activist role,” said Stephen Moore, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a think tank. Moore helped write the Trump campaign tax plan. Mnuchin last week talked about a middle-class tax cut. He also said tax reform in many ways would be “a lot simpler” than healthcare, dismaying tax experts who said that is not so. Comprehensive tax reform is so complex that it has defied Congresses and presidents since Reagan. Tax law is riddled with loopholes embedded in the economy and defended by beneficiaries. Some fundamental questions remain unanswered within the Trump team. For instance, it is unclear if Trump would support a plan that adds to the budget deficit. Past tax reform efforts have tried to be “revenue neutral.” Trump also has sent mixed messages on Ryan’s proposed “border adjustment tax” that would end the corporate deduction for import costs and make export income tax-free, aiming to boost exports and raise new tax revenues. The Trump team is heavy on Wall Street experience, but short on tax expertise. At Treasury, Mnuchin is the only Senate-confirmed political appointee in place. The job of Treasury assistant secretary for tax policy is unfilled. A person familiar with the hiring process for the job said: “Treasury needs more capable tax expertise ASAP, or the White House will yank total control for tax reform from the department for the rest of the year, maybe beyond.” Mark Mazur, who held the Treasury tax job under former Democratic President Barack Obama, said Mnuchin has too much on his plate to concentrate fully on taxes. Mnuchin has praised Treasury’s 100 tax policy career staff, but they can only offer options to Trump appointees, said Mazur, now director of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. “The political appointees are the ones who need to turn the crank on the sausage-making machine,” Mazur said. | 1 |
22,613 | McDonald’s Brings Conservatives’ Nightmares To Life With New Ad That Has Them Fuming (VIDEO/TWEETS) | Over the past few months, McDonalds has been a target for protests in favor of the fast food franchise raising its minimum hourly wage. Now, the company has once again angered the public but for a much more noble cause.This time, McDonald s is taking hits from anti-gay religious groups that are absolutely fuming after McDonald s Taiwan posted an LGBT-friendly advertisement for McCafe onto its Facebook page.The ad, which features a young man coming out to his father, is 90 seconds of pure emotion, capturing a moment that is extremely scary and heart-wrenching for many LGBT youth and adults. In the ad, the young man passes a coffee cup to his father that says, I like boys. The father gets upset and jumps up from the table, leaving his son alone and fighting back tears. A few seconds later the father returns, picks up the same cup of coffee and writes on it I accept that you like boys, as translated by the Shanghaiist.Watch the subtitled ad called Acceptance below:The ad touched the hearts of many and went viral, with over 3.6 million views, more than 92,000 likes and thousands of shares. Unfortunately, not everyone enjoyed or appreciated the ad s accepting and equality-driven message. Chang Shou-yi, the secretary general of the Alliance of Taiwan Religious Groups for the Protection of Family, is actually calling for a boycott on the restaurant after seeing the ad. Shou-yi said: Because McDonald s is frequented by many children, it is especially important to oppose the promotion of same-sex behavior. The secretary general added that the religious group rebukes and boycotts all enterprises that are polluting the next generation. Now, even if you want to just take a leak at a McDonald s bathroom, you can t help but feel polluted. But regardless of the backlash against the ad, the social media response has been extremely supportive:TwitterFacebookIf religious groups want to keep opposing businesses that support LGBT rights, they re going to have very limited places to do business with it s a list that keeps getting shorter as the world moves further away from bigotry and the hateful conservative rhetoric. Even Chick-fil-A, a brand that infamously boasted its opposition to gay marriage, has a franchisee that donated food to a gay pride picnic last year. The religious right is seriously running out of places where their bigotry is welcome.Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
22,614 | Trump flops with Silicon Valley donors; Clinton falls short, too | (Reuters) - When Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman announced last week that she wouldn’t vote for her party’s presidential nominee, Donald Trump, she pledged to raise money for the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, and to urge like-minded Republicans to follow suit. She won’t have to talk her fellow tech industry conservatives into spurning Trump: They already have. His campaign has pulled in less than 6 percent of what Republican nominee Mitt Romney had raised from tech donors by this point in the 2012 race. But raising money for Clinton may prove difficult. While the Democrat has raised 25 times more than Trump from tech donors so far, she has drawn less than half of what President Barack Obama had raised from tech employees by this point four years ago, and less than Bernie Sanders, her opponent in the Democratic primary, collected before he left the race. Tech industry employees – long a reliable source of presidential donations, especially for Democrats – have refused to open their wallets for Trump, and they’ve been stingier than usual with Clinton, too, according to an analysis performed for Reuters by Crowdpac, a nonpartisan political crowdfunding startup that analyzes campaign contribution data. Trump and Clinton together reported having received $3.5 million from tech workers as of June 30, compared with $11 million donated to President Barack Obama and his Republican rival Mitt Romney through June 2012, according to the Crowdpac analysis. In 2008, more than $8.3 million in tech donations had gone to Obama and McCain by June 30. For a graphic tracking contributions from tech workers in the last three elections, see: tmsnrt.rs/2b3nEuk The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment on this story. The Clinton campaign asked for the methodology of the Crowdpac analysis but did not comment on its findings. To quantify the tech industry’s political giving, Crowdpac tallied contributions of more than $200 - the Federal Election Commission’s reporting threshold - from donors who listed technology companies as their employers, as well as individuals who work in related roles, such as software engineers and venture capitalists. Contributions to campaigns, Super PACs and joint fundraising committees were included. The analysis may have missed people who work at small technology companies not yet recognized by Crowdpac, as well as individuals who have given less than $200. Technology firms lobby the government on a range of issues, from privacy and encryption to immigration and trade, and they have a strong interest in who sits in the Oval Office. But this year, campaign finance records and interviews with more than two dozen people in the industry suggest that many would-be donors in Silicon Valley remain unwashed by either candidate. Matt McIlwain, managing director of Madrona Venture Group, gave money to Romney in 2011 and to Republican Marco Rubio in year’s presidential primary election. But he won’t support either Trump or Clinton in the general election. “Candidates need to have that embrace of innovation and articulate how it is a road for anybody in our society,” he said. “I’m not inspired by either of the major party candidates.” Democrats consistently draw more tech money than Republicans, but the giving is unusually lopsided this year. Trump has raised a mere $128,000 from 238 tech donors so far. Clinton, by contrast, has raised $3.4 million from 2,976 individuals in the industry, according to Crowdpac’s analysis. At this point in 2012, Romney had raised $2.3 million and Obama had raised $8.8 million. Silicon Valley Republicans say Trump’s paltry donation totals are no surprise given his public statements attacking the tech industry. Earlier this year, Trump called for a boycott of Apple products after the company stopped cooperating with federal law enforcement efforts to break into the password-protected iPhone of one attacker in the mass shooting in San Bernardino. Trump also accused Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos of orchestrating an online retail monopoly. Trump’s positions on limiting immigration and free trade run counter to some of the industry’s most basic interests. For Clinton, having a long track record in politics is a liability with some donors in an industry that reveres innovation. “She’s an incremental technocrat, and for people who are used to taking on the world, that is not very inspiring,” said Gregory Ferenstein, author of “The Age of Optimists,” a book about politics and Silicon Valley. To be sure, Clinton has many friends in Silicon Valley, and she has had considerably more success than Trump in wooing deep-pocket donors in the industry. Venture capitalist John Doerr, for example, has contributed $569,500 to the Clinton campaign and affiliate Super PACs and fundraising committees, and Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus has given $358,800, according to Crowdpac. Many in the valley reason that backing Clinton is the surest way to thwart Trump. “We want to make it clear what the risks are of a Trump presidency, but it’s much more energizing to get excited about a candidate,” Box Chief Executive Aaron Levie said in an interview. Some of Obama’s biggest Silicon Valley backers have yet to give money in this race, including Pandora Media Chief Executive Tim Westergren, who had donated $74,100 to Obama and to fundraising committees and affiliated Super PACs by June 2012, and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, who had given $35,000, according to a Crowdpac analysis of donations. Reliable GOP donors, too, have held back. Tiger Global Management Founder Charles Coleman and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen - both of whom had given $102,500 to Romney and affiliated Super PACs and fundraising committees by June 2012 - had yet to donate by June 30. Andreessen has endorsed Clinton. Westergren and Khosla did not respond to requests for comment; Coleman and Andreessen declined to comment. Carrie Sheffield, founder of multimedia company Bold, typically votes for Republicans and donated to Romney, but she says she won’t give to - or vote for - Trump. “I don’t think that he’s fit for office,” she said. Both Clinton and Trump have also struggled to convert many donors who gave to their opponents in the primary. Bernie Sanders raised far more in tech donations during the primary than Clinton, pulling in $6.2 million before leaving the primary race, most of it in small contributions. In the Republican primary, Marco Rubio drew $5.3 million in tech donations, thanks to a handful of large gifts from top tech executives, including Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Mark Hurd and Safra Catz. Josh Smith, a Sanders donor who does not plan to vote in the presidential election, said he was troubled by Clinton’s comments in a debate last year urging tech companies to work with law enforcement to prevent attacks. The remarks left some in the industry feeling that Clinton would not protect their livelihoods and did not share their beliefs about “the sanctity of information,” said Smith, founder of Code Corps, which helps developers work on public software projects for social good. Sanders donor Xiaohoa Michelle Ching said she will vote for Clinton, but has had trouble supporting a candidate who has been readying her path to the presidency for so long. “I am not going to go out of my way, even with the threat of a Trump presidency,” said Ching, who is chief executive of Literator, an educational technology startup. Ferenstein predicts that Silicon Valley donations to Clinton will pick up. “You’ll see much more money from Silicon Valley flow to Clinton toward the end of the race,” he predicted, “because people are scared of a President Trump.” | 1 |
22,615 | Turkey says Trump told Erdogan weapons won't be supplied to Kurdish YPG | ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey said on Friday that U.S. President Donald Trump told President Tayyip Erdogan he had issued instructions that weapons should not be provided to Kurdish YPG fighters in Syria, and that the Turkish government hoped to see that order carried out. Our discomfort regarding the provision of weapons to the YPG was conveyed to Mr Trump once again... Trump very clearly said he had given instructions to not provide weapons to the YPG, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a news conference in Ankara. We welcome the promise of not providing weapons to the YPG, and want to see it implemented practically. Cavusoglu also said that Russia, Iran and Turkey would decide jointly who would attend Syrian peace talks. Turkey has said it would not accept the presence of YPG representatives. | 1 |
22,616 | Attacking Trump, Democrat Kaine makes campaign-trail debut | MIAMI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Tim Kaine made his first appearance on the campaign trail as Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential running mate on Saturday, touting an optimistic view of America and leaping to attack Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s record. Joining Clinton at a rally in the battleground state of Florida, the bilingual Kaine peppered Spanish-language phrases into a speech focused on introducing himself to voters unfamiliar with the low-key U.S. senator from Virginia. Kaine criticized Trump’s recent suggestion he might not honor U.S. security commitments to NATO in Europe, and the real estate mogul’s history of casino bankruptcies and founding the failed Trump University. “When Donald Trump says he has your back, you better watch out,” Kaine said, with Clinton sitting at his side nodding. “He leaves a trail of broken promises and wrecked lives wherever he goes. We can’t afford to let him do the same thing to our country.” In contrast, he said, Clinton “doesn’t insult people, she listens to them. What a novel concept.” He said they shared a common creed: “Do all the good you can.” Clinton unveiled her choice of Kaine late on Friday, grabbing the political spotlight from Trump, who accepted the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday night after a chaotic four-day convention. The former secretary of state will formally be nominated as her party’s presidential candidate in the Nov. 8 election at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, which opens on Monday. In choosing the soft-spoken Kaine, a former Richmond mayor and Virginia governor with a long establishment resume, Clinton opted for a steady and experienced hand who she hopes will offer a clear alternative to Trump’s volatile campaign and his Republican vice presidential choice Mike Pence. “Senator Tim Kaine is everything Donald Trump and Mike Pence are not. He is qualified to step into this job and lead on day one,” Clinton told the Miami crowd. Trump was unimpressed, saying on Twitter he had watched the joint appearance and “ISIS and our other enemies are drooling. They don’t look presidential to me!” In his speech, Kaine said he was an optimist and described his childhood in Kansas City helping his father in his metal-working shop and his Catholic mission to Honduras, where he helped teenagers with carpentry and welding and they taught him Spanish. He said in Honduras he learned the values “Fe, familia, y trabajo” — faith, family, and work. Kaine became emotional when he recalled the 2007 shooting deaths of 32 people at Virginia Tech University during his stint as governor, calling it the worst day of his life. He promised to take on the National Rifle Association and fight for “common sense” gun control. Judith Sweeney, 58, from West Park, Florida, said she knew little about Kaine before attending the speech but was impressed by his resume and liked his civil rights work and school reform efforts. “Wonderful, very experienced, an innovator,” she said. Peter Daou, a former adviser to Clinton who now owns a media company, said Kaine’s speech would turn around some of the doubters about the choice. “The combination of his tone, his demeanor, his life story -it just said a lot about her capacity to choose the right person and not listen to pressure from the outside,” he said. Clinton is hoping Kaine will help her appeal to independents and moderates, but some supporters of Clinton’s Democratic primary rival, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, were dismayed by the choice because of Kaine’s past advocacy for an Asian free-trade pact. But in a nod to party liberals, the Clinton campaign said Kaine will not support the final version of the 12-nation Trans Pacific Partnership, which is pending in the Senate. A spokeswoman for Kaine confirmed his opposition to the pact. The decision drew cheers from liberal groups and labor leaders. “We’re glad to see the Clinton-Kaine ticket taking steps to campaign on big, bold, populist ideas that voters want to hear from Democrats,” said Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of the Progessive Change Campaign Committee. Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO labor federation, said Kaine’s decision to join Clinton in opposing the trade pact “sets an irretrievable, progressive path forward for America.” In picking Kaine, Clinton passed over liberal candidates who would have generated more grassroots enthusiasm like U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Hispanic Cabinet members Julian Castro and Thomas Perez. Clinton tried to reassure party liberals, offering an extended list of Kaine’s efforts on behalf of low-income workers, education and civil rights, and for expanded gun control laws and immigration reform. “He fights for the people he represents, and he delivers real results,” Clinton said, applying one of her favorite self-descriptions to him. “When I say he’s a progressive who likes to get things done, I mean it.” Sanders supporters lost their bid to eliminate or reduce the influence of superdelegates, party leaders who are not bound to any candidate, during a meeting of the convention rules committee in Philadelphia. Sanders had complained about the superdelegates, which overwhelmingly backed Clinton. But enough committee members backed the effort to let them take the fight to the convention floor during next week’s convention, participants said. | 1 |
22,617 | Senate bill would count munis toward bank liquidity | CHICAGO (Reuters) - Bonds sold by U.S. states, cities, schools and other issuers in the municipal market could be held as liquid assets by banks under legislation introduced on Tuesday in the U.S. Senate, bolstering the case for purchasing the debt while helping financial institutions weather market crises. The bipartisan measure would classify high-quality municipal bonds at the same level as corporate debt, allowing banks to use munis to comply with new 30-day federal liquidity requirements. Federal rules approved in 2014 and effective next year are aimed at ensuring big banks will be able to access sufficient cash during a financial crisis. But the rules excluded muni bonds from the types of securities that count as high quality liquid assets, or HQLAs. Muni debt issuers fear the exclusion would deter banks from buying muni debt, hurting their ability to fund everything from schools and bridges to water treatment plants and hospitals. “If banks retreat from the muni-bond market, it could choke off a critical source of investment on which our cities and localities rely. This bill protects the stability of our markets while providing continued access to muni bonds for local governments,” Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in a statement. Schumer, along with Senators Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, and Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican, led a group sponsoring the legislation. Putting munis on par with corporate debt “would be acceptable,” according to Washington State Treasurer James McIntire, president of the National Association of State Treasurers (NAST), which has been pushing for the inclusion of munis under the rules. A House bill would also allow banks to count munis toward banks’ liquidity but at a higher face value, 85 percent, versus 50 percent in the Senate bill, according to NAST. | 1 |
22,618 | KKK Poster Boy David Duke Qualifies For Louisiana Senate Debate Being Held At Black University | Former KKK grand wizard David Duke has officially qualified to participate in the Louisiana state senate debate after pulling in a whopping five percent of the vote in a new poll. The debate will be televised and is being held at a historically black university.Duke, who is a well-known white supremacist, announced in July that he was running for a seat on the Louisiana state senate. Not only has he been disavowed by his fellow Republicans, but the Republican National Committee and Louisiana GOP also looked into ways to boot his bigoted butt out of the party altogether.The debate itself is being hosted by Dillard University, a university in New Orleans that is historically black. Regarding this ironic twist of fate, Duke said Dillard is pretty supportive of Black Lives Matter, and I ve been pretty critical of them. He added that he plans to request extra security at the event. Go figure.The poll that determined Duke had garnered the necessary five percent of the vote was commissioned by Raycom Media, which is the owner of four television stations throughout the state of Louisiana. The poll was conducted by Mason-Dixon between Oct. 17 to Oct. 19 and included 625 registered voters.As for the rest of the candidates in the race and their standings in the poll, Politico reports: Louisiana hold its all-party primary on Election Day. A candidate can win the seat with a majority of the vote, but the Senate seat looks almost certain to go to a Dec. 10 runoff between the two top vote-getters that day. GOP State Treasurer John Kennedy led the poll with 24 percent of the vote, followed by Democratic Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell with 19 percent and Democratic attorney Caroline Fayard with 12 percent. Republican congressmen Charles Boustany and John Fleming earned 12 and 11 percent of the vote, respectively. When Duke announced his bid for the senate seat late last summer, he said that his decision to run had been inspired by the success of Donald Trump. In the video he released, Duke said was overjoyed to see Donald Trump and most Americans embrace most of the ideas that I ve championed for years. Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
22,619 | LEFTIST ACTOR GEORGE CLOONEY Announces Break From Acting…“I Don’t Need Money” After LATEST MOVIE TANKS and Actress Accuses Him of Getting Her “BLACKLISTED” For Reporting Sexual Abuse | In fly-over country, and pretty much anywhere in between the east and west coasts of America, people are sick and tired supporting the arrogant, condescending, anti-American, Trump hating, liberal actors and Hollywood is finally starting to feel the pain in their pocketbooks. Over the weekend, the 56-year-old actor, liberal activist, and Harvey Weinstein bestie, George Clooney, told The Sunday Times Hollywood isn t a priority for him anymore. Look, I acted for a long time and, you know, I m 56, explained Clooney. I m not the guy that gets the girl anymore. I shouldn t be the guy that gets the girl. However, there s a more obvious reason why the father of 5-month-old twins has chosen to take a step back from acting. [But], look, if somebody s got Paul Newman in The Verdict, I d jump, he said. But there aren t that many like that. Acting used to be how I paid the rent, but I sold a tequila company for a billion f g dollars. I don t need money. Back in June, Clooney confirmed that he and his business partners nightlife businessman Rande Gerber and real estate mogul Mike Meldeman sold their tequila company Casamigos for $1 billion. Fox NewsBut are the Clooney twins and George s enormous net worth really the reason he s taking a break from acting or could it have more to do with the fact that middle-America has lost their appetite for actors who fund and use their positions to propagandize for leftist causes and politicians?George Clooney s Suburbicon that debuted over the Halloween weekend, notched one of the most dismal wide-release debuts in recent years.Despite debuting on more than 2,000 screens, Suburbicon managed just $2.8 million, making it one of Paramount Pictures worst performing wide-releases ever and marking a new box-office low for Clooney as a director and star Matt Damon.Perhaps one of Clooney s biggest problems is that Americans aren t willing to support the leftist actor, after that little prediction he made about Donald Trump s chances of winning the presidential election in 2016:The arrogant Clooney, who according to Page Six was accused by Vanessa Marquez, a former ER actress, who claims she was sexually and racially harassed daily on set and George Clooney helped blacklist her from Hollywood when she complained.George Clooney is also going to have some trouble shaking his association with accused rapist and serial sexual assaulter Harvey Weinstein, who was at one time, a close personal friend of the actor. say if he s going to stay out of the limelight completely. He was quick to tell The Sunday Times that the current political climate has inspired him to possibly pursue politics. However, the Hollywood star stressed he s not ready to tackle that role.The Sunday Times Clooney won t say if he s going to stay out of the limelight completely. He was quick to tell them that the current political climate has inspired him to possibly pursue politics. However, the Hollywood star stressed he s not ready to tackle that role. So many people since Trump was elected have really been pushing on me to get more involved in actual politics, specifically at the highest office, he explained. I don t have political aspirations. He added, I have always been involved in politics. My father ran for Congress. It s been in our family forever. But, mostly, I can help in ways I actually know very well, like messaging [voters]. Our advice to Clooney would be to stick to the fake world of Hollywood because real Americans don t even want to see your movies, let alone see you making laws on our behalf | 0 |
22,620 | Dem. Senator BLASTS Mitch McConnell For Excluding Women From Panel Drafting New Senate Health Plan | Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced who he has selected to take on crafting the Senate version of the House-passed American Health Care Act (AHCA), but Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is having none of it and blasted McConnell for not putting any of the female senators in the group.Feinstein expressed her extreme displeasure with the decision to exclude women from this important panel on Meet the Press. She told Andrea Mitchell, I don t know what the 13 white men, when you have five Republican women who are excluded from that, that these 13 men are supposed to sit down and put something together. One main problem with leaving women off of this key panel is that as passed by the House, the ACHA drastically changed the way pre-existing conditions are treated. Under the Affordable Care Act, premiums could not be raised nor could coverage be denied to people with pre-existing health issues. While many of these problems can affect men and women, such as depression and acne, some only apply to women. For example, pregnancy and problems with menstruation can be considered pre-existing conditions under the House bill.Feinstein noted that women s health care has to be considered when they draft the Senate bill. As for responses to the House bill, The American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, and the National Physicians Alliance have all come out against the ACHA. Feinstein added, Women s health is a big part of this, and women are a majority of the population and their health interests deserve to be contemplated in any reform. I m really very worried that in the rush to judgment, we create a major healthcare problem for people. And we lose a lot of jobs in so doing and we create a whole atmosphere of unpredictability. For an idea of what they may now consider pre-existing conditions, this is just the short list of what might force someone to pay more under Trump s plan, as passed by the House. By making it legal to charge people more for having these problems, they may not be officially barring them from getting insurance but they will make it too expensive for people to afford it.This list is not complete, but you get the gist. Barring women from any discussions relating to this new draft for the Senate is absolutely absurd and it s just one more reason why we have to keep resisting they can t be allowed to pass this bill without every voice being heard. Call your senators now before it s too late!Featured image via Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images. | 0 |
22,621 | Amnesty International urges Egypt to release detained Nubian activists | CAIRO (Reuters) - Amnesty International urged Egyptian authorities on Tuesday to release 24 Nubian activists detained last week on charges of protesting without permission as they rallied for resettlement on the banks of the Nile river. For half a century, Egypt s Nubians have lobbied the government in Cairo for a return to their homelands on the banks of the upper Nile, desperate to reclaim territory their ancestors first cultivated 3,000 years ago. Egyptian authorities have long since marginalized Nubians, ignoring their demands to return to their historical lands and treating Nubian activism as suspicious on security grounds, Amnesty International s North Africa Campaigns Director Najia Bounaim said in a statement. Instead of flagrantly flouting Nubians rights to freedom of expression and assembly by continuing to detain them over their peaceful protest, the authorities must release these 24 activists from custody immediately. According to the statement, the activists had not marched far before they were surrounded and beaten by security officers. The activists lawyer, Mohamed Abdel Salam, told Reuters last week they were also charged with incitement of protests and disrupting public safety. | 1 |
22,622 | Check Out The ‘Infuriating’ Thing Malia Obama Did That Has Conservatives Calling Her N***** (IMAGES) | The headline from conservative blog USA Politics Today is ominous and tantalizing: What Malia Obama Just Did With Her Friends Will Make You Furious . It makes you want to know if the older Obama daughter has finally done something that could be considered an embarrassment to her parents. She is, after all, a teenage girl. Teenage girls tend to get into trouble no matter who their parents are. The Bush twins are a great example. While living in the White House the daughters of Dubya had their share of adventures, which were mostly chuckled off by liberals and conservatives alike, because again they were teenage girls.Why, then, if we could laugh at the Bush twins ducking their security detail to go drinking can conservatives not forgive the shenanigans of Malia Obama? The answer to that is simple and all you need to do is read any conservative blog s comments to see why. Even when confronted by moderates who don t agree with dragging children into politics, conservatives can t help but allow their true colors to shine through:Yes, those are real comments. They accompany an array of like-minded stupidity. You can find everything from imbeciles calling her mother a Sasquatch to more of the same BS about birth certificates to good old-fashioned American N-word racism. No matter how ridiculous the a-holes who can t help but make fools of themselves sound, their anger must be about something pretty important, wouldn t you think? Here s a screenshot from the propaganda mill site of the entire article explaining exactly what Malia did to deserve such scathing remarks:That s it. No sources, no pictures just a story (that dates back to 2014) that Malia made her friend pay for her breakfast. That breakfast, as reported by Inquisitr and The Christian Science Monitor, ended with an $8 tip on a $45 bill, which the waitress noted was a great tip coming from teens. Rather than report the truth, which is that Malia Obama is a teenage girl who enjoyed frozen chai and eggs Benedict with a friend, conservatives felt the need to skew the story into her being some kind of cheap skate who forced a friend to pay and leave a horrible tip.That s how a scandal is born when the people you re trying to reach are idiots who will believe anything negative you can possibly come up with about the black family living in the White House. They weren t upset when the Bush girls had some fun and got in a little trouble, because teens will be teens, but boy were they ever upset when Malia got into Harvard.Featured image via screen capture | 0 |
22,623 | Look Out, Big Oil: ‘Job Creation’ No Longer An Argument As Solar Outpaces Oil | While jobs in the solar energy sector account for 39 percent of all world-wide energy employment (while oil accounts for 50 percent), Fortune magazine reports that for the first time in quite a while, there are more openings for solar jobs than oil.Think about that. While the world burns for the next barrel of oil, green energy jobs are outpacing the status quo dirty energy that pulled the United States into a massive war.As Fortune finds:This [trend] corresponds with a recent report by The Solar Foundation that highlighted the rapid growth of the U.S. clean energy sector. By the end of this year, the solar sector should have 240,000 workers under its wings, and currently employs around 77% more workers than the coal mining industry.So why is this happening? Well, since the price of oil has plunged by 60 percent in the last 18 months has caused the world s largest oil and gas companies to cut jobs at an alarming rate. BP has announced it will cut 9 percent of its workforce while Chevron says it will cut 10 percent.This comes as reports show that global investment in renewable energy, most of which has come from China and India, heavy polluters, was more than twice that of coal and gas combined from last year s numbers.Tara Sinclair, chief economist of Indeed, issued a warning to those in the energy industry: see out renewable jobs, not oil.The decline in oil prices has not just rocked that industry, but jobs linked to both fossil fuels and renewable energy. Whether or not solar overtakes oil on Indeed, energy workers would do well to position themselves for work in renewable fields such as solar, wind, and hydroelectricity.With Clinton s pledge to build 600 million more solar fields and a promise to rebuild ravaged coal country with renewable energy, the amount of green workers could surge within the next several years (should she win).Is the country, and the world, moving towards a greener economy? Hopefully, it does and will send a powerful and destructive industry packing.Featured image via Wikipedia | 0 |
22,624 | Sarah Huckabee Sanders Just Said The DUMBEST F*cking Thing About Trump Jr.’s Russia Collusion | If you have been vacationing under a rock over the weekend, you might not be aware that Donald Trump Jr. did a naughty. No, he didn t go out hunting for and killing more defenseless animals to pose with he went hunting for Russians. Specifically, he went hunting for a Russian lawyer who claimed to have damaging information about Hillary Clinton. This was an effort to get opposition research on an opponent in an American political campaign from the Russians, who were known to be engaged in spying inside the United States, former Bush ethics lawyer Richard Painter said Sunday of Trump Jr. s meeting. We do not get our opposition research from spies, we do not collaborate with Russian spies, unless we want to be accused of treason. If this story is true, we d have one of them if not both of them in custody by now, and we d be asking them a lot of questions, Painter said. This is unacceptable. This borders on treason, if it is not itself treason. Trump Jr. doesn t even bother disputing the truthfulness of the story, saying he did indeed collude with the Russians in hopes of gaining helpful information about his dad s political opponent. But he says that she had no meaningful information so his engaging in a little light treason is not an issue in the least. According to Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump s husband Jared Kushner and Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort also attended the meeting. Trump s son says he had to listen even if the meeting went nowhere :Obviously I'm the first person on a campaign to ever take a meeting to hear info about an opponent went nowhere but had to listen. https://t.co/ccUjL1KDEa Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 10, 2017Unsurprisingly White House spokesmoron Sarah Huckabee Sanders agrees with Trump Jr. that a little collusion with a Kremlin-connected lawyer isn t a hug deal. In fact, the only real problem is the people who exposed the details, she said during an off-camera press briefing: The only thing I see inappropriate about the meeting was the people that leaked the information on the meeting after it was voluntarily disclosed. Following the admission and the additional leaked details Trump Jr. left out, he hired a criminal defense attorney because he did absolutely nothing wrong and there s nothing to see here.Where there s smoke there s fire, and there s a lot of very, very Russian smoke enough to suffocate our country if nothing is done about it.Featured image via screengrab | 0 |
22,625 | Saudi Arabia suspends any dialogue with Qatar: SPA | DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia on Saturday suspended any dialogue with Qatar, accusing it of distorting facts , just after a report of a phone call between the leaders of both countries suggested a breakthrough in the Gulf dispute. Saudi Arabia s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke by the telephone with Qatar s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani on Friday when they discussed the Gulf dispute, state media from both countries reported earlier. | 1 |
22,626 | Fox News’ Latest Eye-Rolling Tweet Might Be The Funniest Thing On The Internet (TWEET) | There s nothing quite like hypocrisy on the grandest scale imaginable. So large, in fact, that all you can do is sit there and laugh at how absolutely ridiculous something is. This is what just happened on Twitter when they decided to call out media bias.Yes, you read that correctly, Fox News whined about media bias allegedly coming from other news organizations.Not only that, they hashtagged it with #BiasAlert to really add an extra layer of nauseating frosting on to the hypocrisy cake.They tweeted out:#BiasAlert: Candidates refer to NYC blast as bomb but #Trump takes brunt of media criticism https://t.co/KEYMx7ddRk pic.twitter.com/u2MkvGVoOp Fox News (@FoxNews) September 18, 2016Let s just talk about this for a moment. In a tweet that blames other media outlets for correctly going after Trump s irresponsible reaction to a blast in New York City, they are saying that there s media bias.This tweet is the EPITOME of media bias. It is so ridiculous, in fact, that all other tweets with media bias can now be measured against this one in the future to see how biased something actually is. Not only do they display their own bias towards Trump, but they have the audacity to say Bias Alert. That right there is hilarious and kinda sad.Fox News can, without a doubt, be called the media outlet for the Republican party. They so unapologetically swing to defend all things Republican and conservative that they are blind to their own reality.Featured image via Wikimedia Commons | 0 |
22,627 | Betting on the U.S. election via the 'Trump ETF' | NEW YORK (Reuters) - An exchange-traded fund focused on Mexico has become a weather vane for Republican Donald Trump’s chances winning the U.S. presidential election in November, investors said. Mexico has been a prime target for Trump, who has accused the country of taking away jobs from Americans, focusing particular ire on a landmark 1990s trade agreement with the United States’ southern neighbor and Canada. He has said he will renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, commonly known as NAFTA, or pull out of it, and build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to curb illegal immigration. Although a range of factors influence all markets, investors said this week that the U.S.-listed iShares MSCI Mexico Capped ETF (EWW) is increasingly being driven by the prospect of the New York businessman’s election. It has been a good year for equity investors in emerging markets in general after three years of negative returns. But the $1 billion ETF has underperformed and is now in negative territory for the year as the peso has fallen and Trump’s chances of winning the Nov. 8 election have gone up - though predictive models such as FiveThirtyEight and betting markets still forecast a Clinton victory. Short interest in the ETF - essentially bets that it will fall in price - have risen 59 percent since last month as Trump gained steam, according to financial analytics firm S3 Partners LLC. Trump’s worst relative showing in the past few months was Aug. 9, when a closely watched opinion polling average showed him nearly 8 percentage points behind Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Her lead has tightened to about 3 points, according to the RealClearPolitics average, although it is off lows of less than 1 point earlier this month. The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday gave Clinton a 5-point lead over Trump, with 43 percent of likely voters. “Shorting the EWW ETF may be a vehicle to bet on Mr. Trump’s success in being elected the next president of the U.S. and his willingness to address the long-standing Mexican trade imbalance,” Ihor Dusaniwsky, S3 Partners’ head of research, said in an email interview. “In other words, as Trump’s popularity rises, the chances of a negative impact on the Mexican economy rises.” But it is not just shorts. The fund’s price has also tended to suffer when polling averages and betting markets forecast Trump doing better. By contrast, the fund has tended to rise with Clinton’s prospects, according to a Reuters analysis of market data, the polling averages and PredictIt prediction market data over the last quarter. The ETF saw a mild rebound this week after Clinton was seen by most as besting Trump in their first presidential debate on Monday. Much of the negative performance has been driven by the decline of the peso since last month, which hurt returns for U.S. dollar investors even when Mexican stocks hold their value. “There’s no reason for the peso to go from 18.20 to 19.50 (per dollar) unless it’s because Trump has gone from being behind to being dead even with Hillary,” David Garff, president of Accuvest Global Advisors, which sold its last share of the fund in May, said in a phone interview. Mexico’s central bank chief Agustin Carstens said on Friday that “it was a reality” that there was a correlation between his country’s weakening currency and the Trump campaign. “I can’t deny there’s a knee-jerk reaction by the peso when it was perceived (Trump) did badly in the debate,” said Win Thin, global head of emerging market currency strategy at financial services firm Brown Brothers Harriman in New York, “but the peso’s been weakening for several years even before Trump became the nominee.” “The media has been playing this up a bit, but Mexico’s already suffering from low oil prices, sluggish growth,” he said. “The peso is often used as a proxy for the wider emerging markets, so there’s all these other factors that to me are more important to determining the peso exchange rather than Trump.” Even if the peso’s decline has already come to an end, Accuvest’s Garff said Mexican stocks held by the ETF could still be in for pain under a Trump presidency. Four-fifths of Mexico’s exports go to the United States, and Garff said Mexican manufacturers could suffer if the United States forces its NAFTA partners to renegotiate the treaty. Central bank chief Carstens, speaking on local radio, said a Trump victory would hit his country like a hurricane, adding that the scenario for Mexico was better with a Clinton win. “If Trump does try to blow up NAFTA, it will hurt Mexico. No question,” said Garff, the investor. “It is a double whammy.” | 1 |
22,628 | Australian PM to force lawmakers to declare citizenship to end political crisis | SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced plans on Monday to force all lawmakers to declare they are not dual nationals as he seeks to defuse a political crisis that saw his deputy ejected from parliament. Turnbull s center-right coalition government was thrown into disarray last month when the High Court ruled that five lawmakers who were dual nationals, including Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, were ineligible for parliament. The Australian leader has been facing down calls since for a full audit of parliamentarians to ensure they comply with the country s constitution, which bars foreign nationals from sitting in parliament to prevent split allegiances. The High Court ruling expelled three members of the Liberal-National coalition government from parliament, while a fourth resigned days later after confirming he also had dual nationality. The other affected lawmakers were from minority parties, with the main opposition Labor Party yet to be ensnared. Turnbull said his plan, unlike an audit, would put the onus on lawmakers to check their own situation and anybody found to have made a false declaration would be in contempt of parliament. Lawmakers will be required to produce documents to prove any second citizenship has been renounced. Members and senators have been put squarely on notice now and so they will be turning their mind to their own affairs and the issues of citizenship, Turnbull told reporters in Canberra. The new laws would apply to both existing and prospective lawmakers. Those already in parliament would be given 21 days to make a declaration from the date it comes into force, while new lawmakers would have the same period of time from their swearing in. Turnbull said he hoped to push the changes through parliament in the last remaining sitting days this year. That will require support from the Labor Party, which suggested a similar plan last week. Turnbull has said previously that the court s interpretation of the constitution was very strict . He has flagged potential changes to the constitution, noting that more than half of Australia s population of 24 million was either born overseas or has a parent who was born overseas. A referendum would be needed to change the constitution. All seven lawmakers in the High Court case, two of whom were cleared to remain in parliament, accepted that they were dual nationals at the time of their election but claimed they were unaware of their status. Some were conferred a second nationality by birth, others by descent. | 1 |
22,629 | Kathy Griffin & Hillary Clinton Are Losers, Not Victims | 21st Century Wire says Those on the left need to start taking responsibility for their actions.Kathy Griffin, an alleged comedian, has received immense backlash for a stunt she pulled earlier in the week. Griffin apparently thought it would be a great idea to pose with a blood soaked effigy of President Donal Trump s decapitated head.Now, after making the incendiary, and some may say threatening, photograph, she is attempting to turn the narrative around claiming to be a victim of bullying .Similarly, Hillary Clinton is blaming a conspiracy of 1000 Russian agents working against her, fake news, Twitter bots, and misogyny for her election loss. She makes no mention of the fact that it was clear the Democratic voters wanted Bernie Sanders, not her, and that simply not being Donald Trump was not a good enough reason to vote for her.The massive problem with this scapegoating and more is discussed in the following video report: READ MORE TRUMP NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Trump FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 |
22,630 | Trump Has Sent Out His First Email Begging For Money, And It’s Beyond Ludicrous | Ever the self-absorbed, narcissistic candidate, Donald Trump has nevertheless been reduced to doing what every other candidate in any race does sending out fundraising emails asking for donations. His first email, though, doesn t feel like a sincere attempt at raising money. Instead, it s full of the same language he uses to talk about how great he is, with a little twist thrown in to remind everyone of how rich he is, too.Our three-ring political circus began his very first fundraising email with this: I m going to help make it the most successful introductory fundraising email in modern political history by personally matching every dollar that comes in WITHIN THE NEXT 48 HOURS At most, that will raise $4 million, and only if everything goes exactly as planned, including the number of people he believes will donate the needed dollars. Considering that Ben Carson s failure of a campaign has more cash on hand than he does, this fundraising effort already isn t off to the best of starts. It doesn t seem to matter to him, though, as long as he comes off sounding like the winner we all know he s not: Even without this match, this initial effort would have been the most successful first fundraising email in history. I am certain of this. Oh, please. What a prognosticator he is! He then gets into his typical insulting rant, attacking Hillary Clinton and alluding to this delusion he s got that, once he s president, America will win so much that we ll all be sick of it: The bottom line Crooked Hillary has been a DISASTER for our country, and we must win against her this fall.Let s make history again, and keep winning, by making this the most successful first fundraising email ever. And if it s not, he ll get up on a stage somewhere, stand behind a podium, and claim he raised ten times the amount of money he actually raised just so he can look successful. For May, his campaign only raised $3 million, compared to the $26 million that Hillary raised. Hillary also has $40 million more in cash than Trump does. Yet he told NBC News, I understand money better than anybody. Sure he does. So he ll raise $4 million if he s very lucky and claim he raised $40 million. Or at least, that he outraised Hillary even if it s not true. As Slate writer Elliot Hannon said, It will be interesting to see if the email moves the needle. At all.Featured image by Branden Camp/Getty Images | 0 |
22,631 | Trump escalates attacks on judge in Trump University suit: WSJ | (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Thursday escalated his attacks on the federal judge presiding over lawsuits against Trump University, saying the judge had “an absolute conflict” because of his Mexican heritage, the Wall Street Journal reported. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for the Nov. 8 presidential election, is fighting lawsuits that accuse his school venture of misleading thousands of people who paid up to $35,000 for seminars to learn about the billionaire’s real estate investment strategies. In an interview with the newspaper, Trump said U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel had “an absolute conflict” in presiding over the litigation given that he was “of Mexican heritage” and a member of a Latino lawyers’ association. Trump said the background of the judge, who was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrants, was relevant because of his campaign stance against illegal immigration and his pledge to seal the southern U.S. border, the Journal said. “I’m building a wall. It’s an inherent conflict of interest,” Trump said, according to the newspaper. The New York businessman also alleged the judge was a former colleague and friend of one of the Trump University plaintiffs’ lawyers, the newspaper said. The judge and the lawyer once worked together as federal prosecutors, but the lawyer, Jason Forge, in an interview with the Journal, said he had never seen the judge socially. “Neither Judge Curiel’s ethnicity nor the fact that we crossed paths as prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office well over a decade ago is to blame” for Trump’s actions, Forge told the Journal. An assistant in Curiel’s chambers said he was not commenting on the matter, the newspaper said. At a rally in San Diego last week, Trump lashed out at Curiel. “I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump. A hater. He’s a hater,” Trump said. “We’re in front of a very hostile judge. The judge was appointed by Barack Obama,” Trump said, adding he believed Curiel was Mexican. Legal scholars said Trump could face consequences for slamming the judge, although many have speculated that Curiel was unlikely to sanction him formally. Trump has drawn criticism for his comments about immigrants from Mexico, some of whom he has said were criminals and rapists. He has proposed building a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico to prevent illegal immigration and requiring Mexico to pay for it. | 1 |
22,632 | Hanson's 'battler bus' takes the anti-immigrant road in Australia | TOWNSVILLE, Australia (Reuters) - It was early morning last Thursday when Pauline Hanson s rented battler bus started hissing so loudly the election campaign was halted at a petrol station on a stretch of desolate highway near a remote edge of Australia. Unable to get to the rural Queensland state voters she is relying on to deliver her anti-immigration One Nation party its best result in two decades, her supporters came to her. Stranded near the gemstone-mine town of Marlborough, with a population of just a few hundred, Hanson was approached by truckers and travelers, most seeking to get a picture taken with her. I was actually stopping to get something to eat, and as I was looking across I went, Oh there s the battler bus, I ll have to go say hello to Pauline, said truck driver Shane Williams, who came over to look at the engine. I think immigration is a big thing for everybody. I think it s going to be a good thing if Pauline gets some say in parliament keep the bastards honest. Hanson is not a candidate in the Queensland state election on Nov. 25, having last year re-entered the federal parliament on a wave of popular support after a near two-decade absence. But her face is on almost every One Nation party billboard and flyer in Queensland s coal-rich and sugar cane-growing heartland, turning the vote into a test of whether Hanson s resurgence continues, or is pushed back to the fringes. To Australia s most prominent right-wing nationalist it s not about joining a global populist push; it s that the rest of the world is finally catching up. I was espousing a lot of this 20 years ago, Hanson told Reuters in the sunny tropical town of Townsville, a gateway to the Great Barrier Reef marine park. U.S. President Donald Trump s election victory a year ago, however, is resonating across the world, she added. This is definitely the start. People are starting to wake up. You see people had no one else really to vote for. With its blown turbo hose fixed, Hanson s bus rolled down the road, three hours behind schedule, stopping at several towns before arriving at a town hall-style event that evening more than 400 kilometers (249 miles) away. Hanson s town halls are a mix of stump speech and off-the-cuff observations, usually involving battler stories she s heard from locals on the campaign trail: Claims that foreigners are buying up agricultural land and immigrants are not paying taxes; complaints about crippling energy prices and government handouts to Aboriginals; support for a ban on Muslim migrants. Hanson s rhetoric can be blunt, and draws almost instant condemnation in the cities, where she s often viewed as extreme. But in her rural heartland, where one town can be in drought while another gets hit by cyclonic floods, she is the mainstream. She s the only one trying to save our country really, said 20-year-old Jack Roach in Proserpine, a sugar-cane town of 3,500 in Queensland. Polls suggest One Nation might take around 20 percent of the popular vote in Queensland, Australia s third-most populous state, and situated in the northeast. That would mark its biggest electoral success since the 1990s. It s unclear, however, whether that will translate into more than a handful of seats among the 93 parliamentary seats at stake in the election. On the hustings, support appears very strong in towns beyond the black stump - a colloquial term in Australia to describe remote areas - as well as coal-producing areas and sugar cane fields. More vigorous opposition to Hanson s policies comes from more tourist-dependent coastal areas. To her supporters, Hanson is the plain-speaking, anti-politician who can shake up the Liberal-National and Labor political establishment in Australia. She speaks like us, said 24-year-old carpenter Brodie Tophan, who works south of the coastal town of Bowen and approached Hanson for a selfie . People call us racist, but we are just telling it like it is. Australia s modern far right movement was born in 1996 in the city of Ipswich, an inland river port and former coal mining center in Queensland, where Hanson made an unlikely but successful run for political office while managing a fish and chip shop. After using her maiden speech in parliament to warn the country would be swamped by Asians , she co-founded the One Nation party. It enjoyed early electoral success, before imploding over infighting. The party power struggle and Hanson s 11-week imprisonment for electoral fraud in 2003 - eventually quashed - halted her momentum, and she spent years struggling to regain her once formidable connection to voters. Labor parliamentarian Jennifer Howard, who is contesting the seat of Ipswich, said the mainly white area that fostered Hanson s rise in the 1990s has given way to a more diverse population that will hinder One Nation s success. Howard said she used to take her children to Hanson s shop in the late 1980s. My daughter used to say to me, Why is that lady always so angry? Hanson s rage against her political foes looks likely to continue until a better advocate of her nationalist policies emerges. That is yet to happen, with past changes to the party leadership proving unsuccessful, and newer right-wing parties unable to attract anywhere near Hanson s popular support. Moreover, an overtly anti-immigration party is swimming against the demographic tide: Census data shows one-in-three Australians today were born overseas, compared to one-in-five 20 years ago. That s evident even at Hanson s old fish and chip shop, now run by Vietnamese immigrant Thanh Huynh, who described her as interesting without disclosing who she would vote for. The shop s menu offers most of the same items Hanson used to make, including dagwood dogs - or corn dogs - but has some imported ideas, including Vietnamese spring rolls. | 1 |
22,633 | NFL policy on anthem kneeling unchanged, despite Trump rebuke | NEW YORK (Reuters) - National Football League officials weighed the fervor of players protesting racism against U.S. President Donald Trump’s anger at their autumn meeting on Tuesday with supporters of the players kneeling outside in solidarity. The NFL did not seek commitments from its players to stop kneeling during pregame renditions of the U.S. national anthem but rather focused on helping them in their political activism. “We spent today talking about the issues that our players have been trying to bring attention to. About issues in our communities to make our communities better,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters. Trump’s repeated denunciation of the players as unpatriotic for kneeling during the national anthem, which he reiterated as recently as Monday, has only made the practice more widespread. His calls for fans to boycott games if players persist is an unwelcome prospect even for the world’s highest-grossing sports league and have forced the topic high up the agenda of this week’s regularly scheduled meeting in New York City. Outside the Manhattan luxury hotel where team owners, players and their union’s leaders met, about two dozen people showed their backing for the protesting athletes, kneeling on the sidewalk while holding placards that read “Take a knee against police brutality.” The demonstrators later dispersed. The small but growing number of players who have taken to kneeling during the national anthem are protesting the killing by police of unarmed black men and boys across the United States, as well as racial disparities in the criminal justice system. More than half of all NFL players are black. Goodell appeared less interested in stifling the silent protests, despite Trump’s wishes, and instead praised players’ character, saying he wanted to help their political activism. “Today’s discussion with our players was very productive and very important. It reflected our commitment to work together with our players on issues of social justice,” said Goodell. “Our players are men of great character. They have a very deep understanding and tremendous knowledge of the issues that are going on in all of our communities, and their commitment to addressing these issues is really admirable.” Goodell, who cut his news conference off after one question, said the league will meet again with players, probably in the next two weeks, and will spend more time talking to reporters when the two-day meeting concludes on Wednesday. An NFL spokesman had said the president might not see an outright ban on the national anthem protests soon, if ever, and predicted that the meeting would focus on ways for all sides to work together. Along those lines, team owners and 13 players had a “productive meeting” of their own earlier on Tuesday at the league offices about how to collaborate on positive social change and addressing inequality, according to a statement by the NFL and the players’ union, the NFL Players Association. “As we said last week, everyone who is part of our NFL community has a tremendous respect for our country, our flag, our anthem and our military,” the statement said. “In the best American tradition, we are coming together to find common ground and commit to the hard work required for positive change.” Malcolm Jenkins, a player for the Philadelphia Eagles, told reporters that the two sides discussed how to amplify players’ voices and make what he called “long, sustainable changes.” “We all have mutual interests. ... We want to make sure that the quality of product that we put out on the field is great, but at the same time we have a responsibility to the communities that we live in and the communities that we come from,” Jenkins said. Trump wants the league to suspend players if they kneel during the pregame renditions of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” saying on Monday the players were disrespecting the country. His vice president, Mike Pence, walked out of a stadium in Indianapolis earlier this month as players knelt, which Trump said he had instructed Pence to do. Some team owners, including Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, sympathize with the president. Jones has said he would punish players who kneel by keeping them off the field. Jones and Buffalo Bills owner Kim Pegula were among the officials seen heading into Tuesday’s meeting, all of them ignoring shouted questions from reporters. Many officials arrived through a rear entrance to avoid cameras. Players and their union have bristled at Trump’s assertion they are unpatriotic. Though still a minority, more players have begun kneeling since the new football season began, and some sympathetic teammates have linked arms with the kneelers while standing themselves. Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who first popularized the gesture last year, said he settled on kneeling as a form of protest because it is widely seen as a gesture of respect. Kaepernick, who is a free agent, was not invited to attend the meeting. | 1 |
22,634 | Half of Germans want new elections after coalition talks fail | BERLIN (Reuters) - Half of Germans are in favor of calling a new election after Chancellor Angela Merkel failed to reach a deal to form a new coalition with two other parties, while a fifth back forming a minority government, an opinion poll showed on Wednesday. The poll, conducted by INSA for the Bild daily, showed 49.9 percent favoring another election. It also showed 48.5 percent think the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) are right to rule out joining a new grand coalition with Merkel s conservatives, which only 18 percent would favor. The SPD lost ground in the September election after sharing power with Merkel for the last four years. The collapse of talks between Merkel s conservative bloc, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and environmentalist Greens has thrown Germany into political uncertainty and raised the prospect of new elections. The poll showed that 28 percent blame FDP leader Christian Lindner for the failure of the talks, followed by 27 percent, who blame Merkel, while only 13 percent blame Greens leader Cem Ozdemir. Four out of 10 people polled say Merkel should run again as chancellor if new elections are called, while 24 percent would prefer another candidate for her Christian Democrats (CDU), although there is little consensus on who that should be. The poll showed that most voters would prefer a coalition between the CDU and FDP after new elections, followed by a coalition between SPD, Greens and the left-wing Linke. However, the poll showed that a new election would bring little change to the results of the September vote, with the CDU down slightly on 30 percent, the SPD steady on 21 percent, the Greens on 10 percent and the FDP on 11 percent. That would still mean that the only possible coalitions with a majority would be between the CDU and the SPD or between the CDU, FDP and Greens. | 1 |
22,635 | Trump declares Obamacare 'dead,' urges Democratic help for short-term fix | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday declared Obamacare “dead” and “gone,” but urged Republicans and Democrats in Congress to craft a short-term fix of healthcare markets under the 7-year-old law that critics say he has effectively sabotaged. “It’s dead. It’s gone. It’s no longer - you shouldn’t even mention. It’s gone,” Trump said of former Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature 2010 healthcare law that Republicans have repeatedly tried and failed to repeal. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said: “I think we’ll have a short-term fix with Republicans and Democrats getting together.” Trump also said he would work to lower prescription drug prices, which he said were “out of control.” He did not provide details. Last week, the Republican president said he would stop Obamacare’s federal subsidy payments to insurers, which are designed to help lower-income people afford health insurance. Trump said that in stopping the subsidies, he was cutting off the “gravy train” for insurers. But Democrats and some Republicans said Trump’s move to cancel the payments would hurt poor and middle-class people and cause premiums to soar. Democratic attorneys general from 18 states as well as Washington, D.C., filed a lawsuit in federal court in California on Friday to preserve the payments. Trump vowed during his 2016 presidential campaign to kill Obamacare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act, but his fellow Republicans in Congress have been unable to pass legislation to replace it with a more limited healthcare program. Republicans call Obamacare intrusive and ineffective. Democrats defend the law, saying it extended health insurance to millions of Americans. Trump said his goal was to make healthcare more affordable and “that’s what we are doing” by encouraging a bipartisan short-term fix followed by a Republican-only long-term program to be enacted during the first part of next year. It was not yet clear whether the Republican-controlled Congress would agree to help shore up Obamacare and reinstate the subsidies. Congress is already grappling with a crowded agenda that includes tax reform and paying for relief efforts for California’s wildfires and hurricanes that hit Florida, Texas and Puerto Rico. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said he was hopeful that a deal was near to stabilize Obamacare. “If he’s (Trump) now supportive of an agreement that stabilizes and improves the existing system under the Affordable Care Act, we certainly welcome that change of heart,” Schumer said in a statement. Republican Senator Lamar Alexander and Democratic Senator Patty Murray have been trying to craft a bipartisan deal aimed at helping stabilize health insurance markets under Obamacare. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Alexander said: “I hope we can get a result,” but added that any deal he crafted with Murray would have to win the support of rank-and-file senators. He said he and Murray were trying to strike a deal that “extends cost-sharing payments for two years and gives states meaningful flexibility” in administering Obamacare. | 1 |
22,636 | From Chilean refuge, Venezuelan congress deputy defies Maduro | CARACAS (Reuters) - From his refuge at the Chilean ambassador s home, Venezuela s deputy congressional leader has defended civil disobedience against President Nicolas Maduro and urged demoralized opponents to unite and oust him in a presidential vote. All the focus of our struggle now is to have truly free presidential elections, opposition lawmaker Freddy Guevara said in a video released overnight after he entered the Chilean diplomatic residence at the weekend. Venezuela is due to hold a presidential vote in 2018. But foes of Maduro are demanding that the pro-government election board first be reformed, charging the election will be rigged if it is not. Saying he should be tried for violence, authorities have revoked Guevara s parliamentary immunity and banned the 31-year-old leader of hardline Popular Will party from traveling. Guevara, who is vice president of the opposition-led National Assembly, was at the forefront of anti-Maduro street demonstrations between April and July in which at least 125 people died and thousands were injured. Opponents say Maduro s leftist government has run oil-rich Venezuela s economy into the ground and resorted to increasingly authoritarian tactics to retain power. The usurpers of the Supreme Court and State Prosecutor s Office accuse me of crimes I have not committed but based on events I do recognize, Guevara said in the video released via social media. Yes, I called protests and believe in civil disobedience. I organized them and will do it again. Never will they convince me, those who were in the street, nor the international community, that we are guilty when you murdered us. Chief prosecutor Tarek Saab, who recently replaced a dissident prosecutor, presented the case against Guevara to the pro-Maduro Constituent Assembly superbody, which has sidelined congress, in a session late on Monday. Saab blamed Guevara for the shooting, stoning and stabbing of security officials, paying adolescents to protest, and exhorting violence during the protests this year. He didn t care who died, Saab said. The U.S. State Department weighed in on the Guevara case on Tuesday, saying in a statement the government s moves against him were yet another extreme measure to close the democratic space in Venezuela, criminalize dissent and control information. Maduro, 54, has long had his sights on Guevara, nicknaming him Chucky in reference to a horror film s murderous doll. Popular Will founder Leopoldo Lopez is under house arrest, for his role in protests in 2014, and the party is under constant threat of being banned as officials accuse it of terrorism. Mr. Nicolas Maduro, sadly for you, we have taken the decision not to give you any more hostages, Guevara added in his video, explaining his decision to take refuge rather than face trial like Lopez did. Earlier this year the Chilean ambassador s opulent residence in the Country Club zone of Caracas took in five pro-opposition magistrates threatened with jail time. They eventually crossed the border secretly to Colombia before flying to Santiago to be received by President Michelle Bachelet s government, which has joined a chorus of major Latin American nations in denouncing Maduro for rights abuses. Critics say Maduro has turned the country into a dictatorship by twisting elections and detaining opponents. His supporters say Maduro, who inherited the socialist course of his predecessor the late Hugo Chavez, is resisting a U.S.-backed push for a coup, and insist Venezuela s election process is sound. In another overnight development, a local journalist missing since Saturday turned up at dawn wearing only his underwear on a motorway outside Caracas, he and authorities said. Jesus Medina, who works for the DolarToday currency and political website that virulently opposes Maduro, said he was kidnapped, tortured and threatened before being released. To inform is not a crime, Medina said in a video, showing injuries on his face. He declined to give more details of the alleged kidnapping, including the identity of his captors, because the incident was under investigation. The state prosecutor s office opened an investigation. | 1 |
22,637 | Bell-Boeing wins $545 million U.S. defense contract: Pentagon | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A joint project of Boeing Co and Textron Inc unit Bell Helicopter is being awarded a $545 million modification to a previously awarded U.S. defense contract, the Pentagon said. The modification provides for the manufacture of four MV-22 tilt rotor aircraft for the government of Japan, the Pentagon said in a statement. | 1 |
22,638 | Major Venezuelan opposition parties to boycott local polls | CARACAS (Reuters) - Three of Venezuela s largest opposition parties vowed on Monday to boycott mayoral polls later this year in protest at an election system they say is biased in favor of President Nicolas Maduro s ruling socialists. The multi-party Democratic Unity coalition has had a tough 2017, first failing to bring down Maduro in four months of protests that led to 125 deaths, then losing surprisingly to the Socialist Party in a gubernatorial election earlier this month. That has left the opposition weakened and divided, and Maduro strengthened, despite growing foreign pressure on his government over alleged rights abuses and corruption, and an unprecedented economic crisis that has millions skipping food. Three heavyweight movements in the opposition - Justice First, Popular Will and Democratic Action - announced on Monday they did not trust the government-leaning election board sufficiently to participate in the municipal polls in December. Justice First leader Julio Borges, who also heads the opposition-led congress, said authorities cheated in the 2013 presidential election, denied Venezuelans a recall referendum last year, and rigged the Oct. 15 gubernatorial vote. So instead of going into another manipulated vote, the opposition should focus on demanding reforms to the election board in anticipation of next year s presidential poll, he said. The objective remains getting Nicolas Maduro out of power, and in this struggle, the world is with us, he told reporters. To the surprise of some, the Democratic Action party also joined the boycott. Its candidates won four governorships in October s vote and then infuriated many opposition supporters by swearing loyalty to a pro-Maduro legislative superbody. Opposition supporters have been split over participating in elections this year. Some say it is the only way to show they are a majority and undermine Maduro, while a growing number argue there is no point in fighting a dictator via a system rigged in his favor. They are pinning their hopes on international action, including U.S. sanctions against Maduro s government. Maduro, whose personal popularity has plunged since his 2013 election due to food shortages and runaway inflation, said sabotage and insurrection were being planned against the mayoral votes. I declare myself in battle, the 54-year-old successor to Hugo Chavez said in a meeting with governors on Monday. Those who attack the election system must pay. Opposition leaders say the government has long been rigging elections by gross abuse of state funds in favor of socialist candidates, and dirty tricks such the last-minute moving of vote centers in opposition areas for the October ballot. They have also presented some allegations of ballot-rigging. However, Maduro insists Venezuela s system is entirely trustworthy and impossible to hack. It has received international praise in the past, although it was slammed over July s vote for the Constituent Assembly superbody. Maduro says the street protests earlier this year were a mask for a U.S.-backed coup plot, and accuses opponents of wanting to oust him by undemocratic means. Venezuelans want ballots, not bullets, said Maduro. | 1 |
22,639 | Former CIA Chief DESTROYS Trump For Going 2nd Amendment On Hillary (VIDEO) | Just when you thought Donald Trump s constant stream of offensive comments had died down, he goes and calls for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to be shot.Trump s specific advice to his followers was, in the event that Clinton wins the election and can choose her own liberal Supreme Court Justices, that they should perhaps shoot her: Hillary wants to abolish essentially abolish the Second Amendment. If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks. Though the second amendment folks, maybe there is If a citizen had made a death threat like this against a government official, they would receive criminal charges and Trump should be no different. Soon after those shocking words left Trump s mouth, the former head of the CIA went on CNN to drive the point home that Trump should not be given a free pass on this.In an interview with Jack Tapper, retired four-star general Michael Hayden made it perfectly clear that if anyone else had said this about the Second Amendment, they d be in hot water. Hayden said: If someone else had said that outside the hall, he d be in the back of a police wagon now with the Secret Service questioning him. Hayden recalled the advice that he used to give his seniors at the CIA: You re not just responsible for what you say. You are responsible for what people hear. Then, he tore Trump a new one: That was more than a speed bump. That is actually a very arresting comment. It suggests either a very bad taste with reference to political assassination and an attempt at humor or an incredible insensitivity it maybe the latter an incredible insensitivity to the prevalence of political assassination inside of American history. That is a topic that we don t ever come close to, even when we think we are trying to be lighthearted. You can watch Hayden rip Trump apart in the segment below:Featured image via Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images | 0 |
22,640 | Senate panel cancels interview with Trump lawyer, asks him to open hearing | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate panel probing alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election abruptly canceled an interview with President Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen on Tuesday after he issued a statement about his testimony in violation of committee policy. “The committee expects witnesses in this investigation to work in good faith with the Senate,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr and Vice Chairman Mark Warner said in a statement after canceling the closed-door session. Cohen was later asked to appear at an open hearing on Oct. 25. Burr, a Republican, and Warner, a Democrat, said it was against the committee’s policy for witnesses to make public comments before being interviewed. The intelligence panel, other congressional committees and special counsel Robert Mueller are investigating whether Russia intervened to tilt the 2016 election in Trump’s favor and whether Trump or top aides colluded with Moscow. The Russian government denies any attempt to influence the election, and the Republican president has repeatedly denied any collusion, calling the investigations a “witch hunt.” The allegations have shadowed the first months of Trump’s presidency. Two people familiar with the matter told Reuters that Trump was using money donated to his re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee to pay for his lawyers in the probe. While previous presidential campaigns have used those funds to pay routine legal fees, Trump would be the first U.S. president in the modern campaign finance era to use them to cover the costs of responding to a criminal probe, election law experts said. In his statement, Cohen denied that he or Trump colluded with Russia to interfere in the election, and said such charges were made to discredit Trump’s presidency. “I emphatically state that I had nothing to do with any Russian involvement in our electoral process,” Cohen’s statement said. “Given my own proximity to the president of the United States as a candidate, let me also say that I never saw anything - not a hint of anything - that demonstrated his involvement in Russian interference in our election or any form of Russia collusion,” Cohen said. Cohen and his attorney, Stephen Ryan, had traveled to Capitol Hill for the closed-door interview with committee investigators, but were told the meeting had been postponed. “We didn’t want to send a message except for what we do is behind closed doors,” Burr later told reporters at the Capitol. The committee had changed its policy since Trump’s son-in-law and close adviser, Jared Kushner, issued an 11-page statement before meeting with intelligence committee staff in July, he said. Asked if the committee would subpoena Cohen, Burr said he did not think it would need to. Cohen’s name surfaced in a dossier compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele that reported Cohen played an important role in liaison with the Russian government and secretly met with Kremlin officials in Prague in August 2016. The Steele dossier, Cohen said in his statement, was “riddled with falsehoods and intentionally salacious allegations.” “I have never in my life been to Prague or to anywhere in the Czech Republic,” he said. Current and former U.S. intelligence officials have said that while they cannot verify all the details in the Steele dossier, neither have they debunked it entirely. Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, Trump’s nominee to be ambassador to Russia, said at his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday: “There is no question, underline no question, that the Russian government interfered in the U.S. election last year.” He pledged to bring up the issue with the government there. Huntsman previously served as U.S. ambassador to China under Democratic President Barack Obama. | 1 |
22,641 | Impact of firing Sessions could be troublesome for Trump | (Reuters) - President Donald Trump could trigger a political and legal backlash if he escalates his attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions into an attempted purge of U.S. law enforcement officials, lawmakers and legal experts said on Tuesday. In lashing out against an investigation of possible ties between his 2016 campaign and Russia, Trump is slamming Sessions, prompting speculation that the president wants to oust the attorney general.[nL1N1KG11O] If Robert Mueller, the special counsel running the Russia investigation, is Trump’s ultimate target and he moves to fire Mueller, a legal and political showdown could ensue. Senator Angus King, an independent from Maine, told CNN on Tuesday that he expected fellow lawmakers would not tolerate any effort by Trump to replace Sessions with a loyalist, especially if it appeared aimed at undermining Mueller’s investigation. “The senators are going to be very skeptical about this,” said King, who normally votes with Democrats. “My expectation is you’d see a special prosecutor pass by veto-proof majorities in both houses. And the investigation would continue.” Trump, who dismissed James Comey as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation as it was looking into possible Russian connections, was asked about Sessions at a news conference on Tuesday and said, “Time will tell. Time will tell.” These remarks followed Twitter messages by Trump in which he described Sessions as “weak” and “beleaguered.” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told reporters in a Capitol hallway on Tuesday that Sessions is “doing a fine job.” Republican Richard Shelby told reporters Sessions, formerly his fellow senator from Alabama, is “not the president’s lawyer; he is the attorney general of the United States.” Here are basics on the law covering dismissal of Justice Department officials, including Mueller, who was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein because Sessions is recused from matters dealing with the Russia investigation. On what grounds could Mueller be fired? Justice Department regulations say a special counsel can only be removed for “misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity, conflict of interest, or for any other good cause.” Do Trump’s claims that Mueller is on a “witch hunt” and that he is conflicted constitute “good cause?” Probably not. No court has ever interpreted the meaning of “good cause” in this context. But Mueller has a sterling reputation and there is no indication he has exceeded the scope of his mandate, said Andrew Wright, former associate counsel in the Obama White House and professor at Savannah Law School. Campaign donations from members of Mueller’s team to Democrats do not pose a conflict of interest, Wright said. Could Trump directly fire Mueller? Probably not. Department of Justice rules say the special counsel can only be fired by the attorney general or the acting attorney general. Trump has criticized Rosenstein for appointing Mueller and due to Session’s recusal, Rosenstein has sole authority to fire Mueller. But a few constitutional lawyers have said that Trump might be able to lawfully fire Mueller directly. Saikrishna Prakash of the University of Virginia Law School said the special counsel regulations may interfere with the president’s broad power under the Constitution to remove executive branch officials. “I don’t know if that regulation is constitutional,” he said. If Trump fires Sessions or Sessions quits, could Trump handpick an attorney general who would fire Mueller? Normally, the president nominates an attorney general who must win Senate confirmation. If Trump followed this course, the Senate would likely press any nominee on his or her intentions on terminating Mueller, Prakash said. “The Senate is going to want promises that this person will be independent of the White House and not be a toady,” he said. How else could Trump name an attorney general who he believes would fire Mueller? Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, Trump could appoint an interim attorney general, but only someone previously confirmed by the Senate. The law can only be invoked to replace officials who die, resign or are “otherwise unable” to do their job. If Trump invoked the Federal Vacancies Reform Act to replace Sessions, a court may rule that Trump overstepped, Josh Chafetz, a professor of constitutional law at Cornell Law School, said. What about a recess appointment? Trump could try replacing Sessions while the Senate is on summer recess, expected to begin Aug. 11. The constitution grants the president such authority, said Stephen Vladeck, constitutional law professor at the University of Texas School of Law. The Supreme Court ruled in 2014 the president cannot make a recess appointment during recesses of less than 10 days. The Senate calendar is controlled by Trump’s fellow Republicans. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday that Democrats would use every tool at their disposal to block a recess appointment of a Sessions replacement. If Mueller were fired, could he mount a court challenge? Unclear. Vladeck said the special counsel regulations do not address this question. If he brought a lawsuit, Mueller likely would argue the rules would be pointless if there was no way to enforce them, Vladeck said. | 1 |
22,642 | Exposed: These Republicans Blocking Help For Flint Got Disaster Cash For Their States (TWEETS) | Republicans in Congress are holding up a measure to provide relief to the citizens of Flint, Michigan whose water supply has been poisoned.Instead of acting to pass a provision which would remove the compromised pipes bringing water into the homes of the city s mostly black population, Republicans in the Senate are blocking progress.Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters, both Democrats of Michigan, started pushing the issue last week as the Senate began debate on the energy bill. Their provision would provide $600 million in emergency funding to Flint to replace and fix the city s water supply infrastructure and establish a center dedicated to helping people in Flint recover from lead poisoning. Republicans scolded Democrats for using the crisis to play politics, and argued it is a state and local problem.Ahead of the procedural vote, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) delivered scathing remarks on the floor, accusing Republicans of abandoning the people of Flint. One hundred thousand people in Flint, Michigan, have been poisoned, and Republicans do nothing, Reid said. Nine thousand little children all under the age of 6 have been poisoned, their brains attack by the contaminated water. Still, Senate Republicans refuse to help. Republicans are insisting that the money to help Flint must be offset elsewhere in the budget. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) blasted this tactic from Republicans on the Senate floor, noting: This is of catastrophic, almost Armageddon proportion, that an American city has been poisoned. Let s get real. We are now bogged down in Washington wonky budgeteer talk: Where is the offsets? What is this? What is this? Are we human beings? There was also considerable hypocrisy on the behalf of Republicans opposed to helping Flint. Igor Volsky of Think Progress pointed out on Twitter several instances of conservative Republicans who are blocking Flint relief who were all too eager to ask for disaster relief funds for their own states..@SenatorSessions requested fed disaster $ after tornadoes hit AL. But of course doesn't want to send $ to Flint. pic.twitter.com/dNm6d7srOh igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) February 4, 2016.@SenPatRoberts boasted of obtaining disaster $ after drought in KS. Guess how much $ he wants to send to Flint. pic.twitter.com/2fic5UuGKb igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) February 4, 2016.@robportman endorsed disaster $ after drought hit OH.Guess how much $ he wants to spend on #FlintWaterCrisis pic.twitter.com/lEEJ5U9QIZ igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) February 4, 2016.@RandPaul asked Obama for federal $ after storms hit KYGuess how much $ he wants to send to Flint. Just guess. pic.twitter.com/Nz2YhP6TqY igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) February 4, 2016.@SenMikeLee asked for disaster $ after flooding in Utah. Doesn't think Flint residents deserve the same treatment pic.twitter.com/EbOB2rcIuh igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) February 4, 2016Oooo, found @RonJohnsonWI asking for disaster $ for WI in 2011!In 2016, he's blocking emergency $ for Flint. pic.twitter.com/Ke2XXQJHRI igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) February 4, 2016Sen. @jiminhofe boasted of obtaining disaster $ after storms in OK guess how much fed $ he wants to send to Flint pic.twitter.com/ssFHE3lfuB igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) February 4, 2016Featured image from YouTube | 0 |
22,643 | Factbox: U.S. Justice Department's special counsel probe of Russia | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s dismissal of FBI Director James Comey has raised questions about the future of the agency’s probe into Russian attempts to sway the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion with Trump’s campaign. The Justice Department announced on May 17 that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had appointed former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller as a special counsel to lead an independent probe. Here is what to expect: * The FBI’s investigation will continue. Comey’s firing did not end the FBI’s investigation into Moscow’s role in the 2016 election. The career FBI staffers Comey put in charge of the probe will likely continue it, legal experts told Reuters, even as the White House interviews new directors. * Probes underway in the U.S. Congress will also continue. Investigations already underway in the Senate Intelligence Committee and House Intelligence Committee and other panels will progress. Congress could also create a special commission or appoint a special master separate from the committee probes even after Mueller’s appointment, experts said. Senate Republicans, including some from leadership, previously argued that the appointment of a special counsel could imperil ongoing congressional probes. Mueller will not have the authority to demand Congress halt a probe. Though criminal probes can at times complicate congressional matters, legal experts said the complications would be indistinguishable from those created by the already ongoing FBI investigation. * Mueller will steer a parallel probe at the Justice Department. Mueller will interview relevant witnesses, subpoena documents and, if the evidence merits, work with the FBI to bring criminal charges related to the probe. *Mueller will operate with a high degree of independence from the Trump administration. Rosenstein appointed Mueller to head the department’s Russia probe citing department regulations that allow attorney generals to appoint a special counsel from outside the federal government. The department regulations are “not quite as robust” as a law related to the appointment of a special prosecutor that lapsed in the 1990s, according to Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. But “the regulations are designed to give the special counsel a great degree of independence - decisions can be overridden but if they are, to make sure that Congress knows about them,” Levitt said. Rosenstein appointed Mueller because Attorney General Jeff Sessions had to recuse himself from involvement in Russia-related probes because he had not told Congress about his own contacts with Russian officials. *It would be difficult to fire Mueller from the job. Only the attorney general - or in this case Rosenstein, as the acting attorney general in matters related to Russia - has the authority to fire a special counsel. Justice Department regulations state that a special counsel can only be removed “for cause,” such as misconduct, conflict of interest or dereliction of duty, Levitt said. Though Rosenstein, like Comey, serves at the pleasure of the president and could be removed without cause at any time, Levitt cautioned that doing so in order to jeopardize Mueller’s probe would come at a high political cost. “Each of those actions will come with increasing public and congressional scrutiny,” Levitt said. | 1 |
22,644 | Donald Trump Shames Kids For Not Registering To Vote For Him: ‘They Feel Very, Very Guilty’ | Donald Trump is currently leading in the polls in New York State, but he won t be receiving two votes from his own kids. On Monday, Donald Trump admitted his son, Eric, and daughter, Ivanka, forgot to register to vote as Republicans before the deadline in March to be eligible to participate in the New York primaries on April 19th. They were unaware of the rules and they didn t register in time, Trump told Fox News. So they feel very, very guilty. They feel very guilty but it s fine. As we reported over the weekend, both Ivanka and Eric are registered to vote, but not affiliated with either political party. Their oversight is illuminating to the disorganization of the Donald Trump campaign.When Donald Trump first announced his presidential campaign in the Republican primaries last year, media outlets couldn t stop covering the circus sideshow of the Republican Party, which has taken over as Donald Trump is on track to win the Republican Presidential nomination. The funniest thing about it is he barely had to try. A few racist speeches, vague promises, and egotistical rants about how America needs to be great again, and only Donald Trump, a winner, can make it that way, and the majority of Republican voters have rushed to get behind this fascist demagogue. The remainder of the Republican Primary is now left between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, both vying for who can fearmonger more Republicans into supporting them while Republican establishment candidate and Ohio Governor John Kasich, who has his own brand of crazy, tries to hold onto being considered viable.In the defense of Trump s kids, voter registration should be automatic, as states such as Oregon and California have done, and the entire voting process, from registration to casting a ballot should be facilitated. They aren t the only two people who have been shut out of the Democratic process because they either lacked the information necessary to ensure their participation or weren t responsible enough to take the time to register with a party affiliate.Featured image via Flickr | 0 |
22,645 | Germany takes political vacuum in its stride, for now | BERLIN (Reuters) - Largely unperturbed by Angela Merkel s failure to form a government after a September election, many Germans are taking the prospect of several more months of coalition talks in their stride. The country is used to lengthy transitions but this is the longest since reunification in 1990. It is 87 days since the election and few experts see a government in place before March. EU leaders fear delays to euro zone integration plans, some of which are to strengthen the banking system, and many economists warn Europe s biggest economy must reform and invest in broadband and infrastructure to stay competitive. But as caretaker chancellor, Merkel is voting at EU summits, parliament is passing laws required by international mandates, local authorities are wading through asylum applications and a bright outlook in Europe s biggest economy is buoying the mood. I haven t noticed much difference from before, said Nadja Helling, 36, cradling a steaming mug of gluehwein at a Berlin Christmas market. It s not ideal but nobody is panicking. Domestic and foreign demand are driving solid growth and the effects of low borrowing costs and European Central Bank stimulus are supporting record-high employment levels and rising real wages. We have jobs and are enjoying the Christmas markets, said Helling s friend, Silvia. What s the problem? The Munich-based Ifo institute raised its forecasts last week and expects the German economy to expand by 2.6 percent next year, the highest rate since 2011, adding, however, that this might be the peak. The IfW institute in Kiel said the delayed formation of a government does not pose an economic risk , but also sounded a warning for the longer term. A boom may feel good but it carries the seeds of a crisis. The view that a boom is harmless, as long as consumer prices are under control, falls short, said the IfW s Stefan Kooths. The reality experienced by many Germans belies dire warnings from commentators last month about looming instability and even new elections after Merkel, weakened by losing votes to the far-right, was humiliated by the collapse of 3-way coalition talks. She is now wooing the Social Democrats (SPD), reluctant partners after voters punished them for sharing power with Merkel s conservatives over the last four years. Germany s transition pales into comparison with some other EU partners, such as Belgium and the Netherlands where a coalition took 225 days to clinch a deal this year. I suspect the process will take some time yet but people who talk about instability are mistaken. We have a stable caretaker government, an effective parliament and a democracy that is functioning very well, said Nils Diederich, politics professor at Berlin s Free University. Confounding some predictions, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), dogged by infighting, has so far failed to capitalize on the lack of a proper government despite being the third-biggest party. Opinion polls have barely changed since the Sept. 24 election, indicating there is little sense of crisis. The Ifo institute said on Tuesday uncertainty about the shape of the government was growing but that a surprise drop in its business moral survey in December after a record high the previous month was nothing too unusual. Indeed, seasonally adjusted unemployment is at the lowest level since 1990 and Christmas sales forecasts are bright, with the HDE retail industry association expecting sales over the festive season to rise by 3 percent to a record high. Merkel, unruffled as ever, has sought to reassure voters and investors that it is business as usual in Germany, with most incumbent ministers staying on in an interim government. If anything, there is a striking lack of urgency about the talks, partly to keep skeptical SPD rank and file on board. After party leaders meet on Wednesday to draw up a rough timetable, no further talks are expected before January. Meanwhile, the Bundestag lower house has agreed to roll over military missions in Afghanistan and Mali and debated topics from Brexit to planned job cuts by Siemens. Germany s federal structure means much business that affects ordinary people, including dealing with asylum applications, housing and school issues, goes ahead regardless of Berlin. Deutsche Bahn has launched a much delayed fast train link between Berlin and Munich, complete with the usual teething problems, and Christmas markets have opened, albeit with tight security after last year s attack. The impasse has had little effect on Brexit talks because there is consensus among Germany s main parties about the German, and EU, position towards Britain. Plans for euro zone reform, however, are more contentious, although Merkel said on Monday, she hoped to make progress on the issue by March. The main possible negative effect is that the momentum in Europe (for reform), that was desired after the Brexit vote might be lost, said Thomas Jaeger, politics professor at Cologne University. The SPD, determined to stamp its identity on any coalition deal with Merkel, backs deeper integration than Merkel s conservatives, but is split over whether it should agree to a grand coalition with Merkel. Its leader Martin Schulz has championed French President Emmanuel Macron s proposals for a euro zone budget and finance minister and wants a United States of Europe by 2025. The only political crisis in Germany is the struggle for direction by the main parties, in particular the SPD, said Diederich. The SPD needs time to overcome this. | 1 |
22,646 | SHOCKED! FORMER CIA DOUBLE AGENT: Hillary Played ‘Russian Roulette’ With Spies’ Lives [Video] | Morten Storm is a former CIA Double Agent who s shocked by the ineptness of our former Secretary of State in her lack of security with top secret info related to American spies: He said that during his time infiltrating Al Qaeda for the CIA if he had learned that U.S. government officials were treating highly classified intelligence so haphazardly, he would not have worked with them. | 0 |
22,647 | WATCH Trump Absolutely CRUSH His Wife In Viral Video Clip From Inauguration | Many people have long suspected that Trump is abusive, if for no other reason than he s outwardly abusive to so many people. His Twitter feed alone is rife with abuse. He seems to take pleasure in hurting people, and that appears to include his family, because abusers abuse everyone in one form or another.During his inauguration, as he stood facing Melania, he apparently said something extremely hurtful to her. She s smiling and, if you look at his cheeks, he seems to be smiling too, and then suddenly, his smile disappears and he turns pointedly away from her. You can see from the change in her expression that whatever he said just crushed her.Watch below:Wouldn t he want the world to see how happy the two of them are, even if it is a fa ade? What could she have possibly done to warrant this, anyway? Say she really did do something worthy of rebuke he could have, and should have, waited until they were alone to say something to her. The way he did it wasn t just crushing to her, it was probably also humiliating for her.That wasn t the only time he was demeaning, either. When he greeted the Obamas prior to his inauguration, he left her behind in the car, and then left her behind again to walk into the White House. It was President Obama and Michelle who actually escorted Melania inside.But that s where Trump gets satisfaction in shaming and humiliating people as much as possible for even the slightest transgressions. Typical emotionally abusive behavior. Some may say she knew what she was getting into when she got involved with him, but that s victim-blaming, and it comes from those who don t get it.It s extremely unlikely Melania deserved whatever he said to her, or his self-satisfied, deliberately supercilious manner when he turned his back on her.Featured image by Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images | 0 |
22,648 | Rubio’s Campaign Just Committed Suicide In This State For Good Reasons (VIDEO) | Marco Rubio has officially joined the anti-Trump squad. Rubio is now urging his supporters in Ohio to vote for their governor John Kasich.Ohio is Kasich s home state and is the only candidate who has a shot of taking down Trump in their primary election. Michigan proved that Kasich has wide support in the rust belt region of the Midwest, though he did not have enough support in the peninsula to actually take down Trump.Rubio s campaign director, Alex Conant, told CNN that he and the campaign recognize that rallying behind Kasich is their best chance of keeping Ohio s 66 delegates out of Trump s hands. Polls show Trump ahead in Ohio but if non-Trump supporter Republicans go all in on Kasich, it might be enough for the candidate to take the state. If you are a Republican primary voter in Ohio and you want to defeat Donald Trump, your best chance in Ohio is John Kasich, Conant told CNN on Friday.Like any good communications director would Conant took the opportunity to drive the point home that what holds true for Kasich in Ohio, is also true of Rubio in Florida. If you re a voter and Marco Rubio is not necessarily your first choice if you like John Kasich or you like Ted Cruz and you re here in Florida, you need to vote for Marco Rubio because he s the only one who can deprive Donald Trump of those 99 delegates, Conant went on to say. And if we stop Donald Trump here in Florida, we can stop him in Cleveland. He will not be the Republican nominee. Rubio does stand the best chance to steal away with Florida s 99 delegates. That s actually a huge problem for Republicans. Polls show Trump blowing Rubio out of the water in the gator state. In order for Rubio to take Florida, Both Ted Cruz and Kasich supporters would have to go all in for Rubio.That doesn t seem likely. Cruz s campaign has burned many bridges with Rubio s campaign during the election. As the runner-up, Cruz also has to maintain the posturing that comes with that position.One thing is for sure, next Tuesday s elections will probably decide who will take the Republican presidential nomination. For Rubio, it will almost certainly be the end of his significance in the race, if not the end for him altogether.You can watch the relevant portion of the interview below.Featured image from Gage Skidmore via Flickr | 0 |
22,649 | French magazine found guilty over topless photos of British Duchess | PARIS (Reuters) - A French court ruled on Tuesday that celebrity magazine Closer invaded the privacy of Britain s Prince William s wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, when it published topless photos of her in 2012. The court handed the maximum fine of 45,000 euros ($53,500) to both Laurence Pieau, an editor of Closer s French edition, and Ernesto Mauri, chief executive of Italian publisher Mondadori (MOED.MI), the magazine s owner. William and Kate, who announced on Monday that they were expecting a third child, said they were pleased with the court ruling and the matter was now closed. Closer magazine, a weekly round-up of gossip about the rich and famous, published a series of topless photos of Kate, the wife of the second-in-line to the British throne, while on holiday in southern France. Two photographers from a Paris agency, who denied taking the photographs, were ordered to pay smaller fines after also being convicted under French privacy laws. The damages ordered by the court were well short of the 1.5 million euros sought by the royal couple, a subject of fascination for many in Britain and other parts of the world, who filed the suit for what they called at the time a grotesque breach of privacy. This incident was a serious breach of privacy, and their Royal Highnesses felt it essential to pursue all legal remedies, a spokeswoman for the couple said. They wished to make the point strongly that this kind of unjustified intrusion should not happen. The photos were taken as the royal couple relaxed on a balcony of a chateau in the picturesque Luberon region of southeastern France. The pictures rekindled memories for some in Britain of the media pursuit of William s mother, Princess Diana, who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997 while being chased by paparazzi. Closer magazine s lawyers had sought to justify publication of the photos on public interest grounds, saying they disproved rumors circulating at the time that Kate might be anorexic. Jean Veil, a prominent French lawyer hired by the Duchess of Cambridge, said during the trial the article that accompanied the photos was only a pretext for publishing the pictures. | 1 |
22,650 | Bernie Sanders-style, grassroots effort a likely model, say Trump donors | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is likely to launch a small donor fundraising effort akin to the grassroots one that powered another insurgent presidential contender, Democrat Bernie Sanders, according to two top donors who attended the first official meeting of Trump’s national finance team. The Trump finance machine kickoff took place at New York City’s Four Seasons Hotel amid growing concerns about the Republican presidential candidate’s lack of a campaign infrastructure heading into a Nov. 8 election battle against presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. “The pitch to this group in the room was a traditional pitch, but the backroom discussion was, because of this being a populist movement, there’s going to be significant outreach to, you know, those who give $1, $2, $20,” said Trump Texas fundraising co-chairman Gaylord Hughey. “There’s a huge opportunity there.” Sanders, who has effectively lost the 2016 presidential nomination to Clinton, broke fundraising records during his long-shot bid for the presidency, collecting more than $210 million through more than 7.4 million individual contributions, averaging $27 apiece. Trump could well find his supporters eager to pitch in $1, $5 or $20. For a story in May, Reuters found that nearly all three dozen Trump supporters it interviewed were not only unmoved by Trump’s about-face to accept money from outside donors, they said they would also happily contribute. The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment about replicating the fundraising apparatus of Sanders, a democratic socialist U.S. senator from Vermont. Some donors were fearful of the late start of Thursday’s gathering. Normally such a meeting would take place two years earlier in a candidate’s campaign. But others in attendance said they left assured that Trump would be able to easily plug into the Republican National Committee’s robust infrastructure. Trump, a wealthy businessman, became the presumptive Republican nominee last month after seeing off 16 rivals in a largely self-funded primary campaign. The gathering featured talks by Trump, campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, chief strategist Paul Manafort, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, former rival-turned-ally Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey and Republican fundraisers Ray Washburne and Lew Eisenberg. Trump’s late start on fundraising has raised questions about whether he can achieve his previously stated aim of raising $1 billion before November. On the Democratic side, Clinton’s well-oiled operation is well ahead of schedule. Trump is also pulling back from his earlier statements on his fundraising goal. Campaign manager Lewandowski told Reuters on Wednesday that he sees no need for Trump to raise that sum and that Trump may be able to stick to his low-cost style of campaigning. That includes garnering free media, which is estimated will reach a value of $5 billion by November, according to media analytics firm mediaQuant. That is more than double what Clinton is likely to get, mediaQuant says. While Trump shot to the top of the Republican race with freewheeling rhetoric, insults of rivals and promises to get tough on issues such as illegal immigration, even his biggest donors say they are discouraged by the candidate’s attacks in recent weeks on a Mexican-American judge. In comments that have been widely condemned, Trump has suggested that U.S. Federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over a case against Trump University, has an inherent bias because of his heritage. “He needs to stop the campaign infighting, shut up and stop calling an American who was born in Indiana a Mexican,” said Texas billionaire Doug Deason. | 1 |
22,651 | SEAN HANNITY TAKES OFF THE GLOVES After “Hillary Supporter” Megyn Kelly Makes On-Air Crack About Him [VIDEO] | Sean Hannity is taking a page from Trump s playbook. When a member of the mainstream media or a person pretending to be a conservative commentator intentionally misrepresents you you strike back.That s exactly what Hannity did.@megynkelly u should be mad at @HillaryClinton Clearly you support her. And @realDonaldTrump did talk to u. https://t.co/vsQiNMgHut Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) October 6, 2016Maybe Megyn forgot about this EXCLUSIVE interview with Donald Trump:https://youtu.be/UGPvwdrlzCMFrom USA Today: This election has sparked some heated exchanges between family, friends and co-workers and now between Fox News hosts.Conservative pundit Sean Hannity leveled what he might consider the worst insult imaginable at anchor Megyn Kelly in a tweet Wednesday night, which said she clearly supports Hillary Clinton.The tweet was apparently in response to Kelly comments earlier in the evening on The Kelly File when she accused both presidential candidates of avoiding tough interviews. They re both in their own version of a presidential protection program, Kelly said. She said Clinton makes sure she is not in a place where she feels uncomfortable or anything unexpected could come at her, which is why she sat for a half an hour with Mary J. Blige, the singer, which is why she did Entertainment Tonight this evening. But, Kelly didn t stop there. And Donald Trump, with all due respect to my friend at 10 o clock, will go on Hannity, and pretty much only Hannity, and will not venture out to the unsafe spaces these days, which doesn t exactly extend the tent. Trump has made several appearances on Hannity s show and the Fox News personality has been a vocal supporter of Trump.h/t GP | 0 |
22,652 | Philippine president sidelines police in war on drugs, again | MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered police to halt activities in his deadly war on drugs and leave all operations to the drug enforcement agency, amid unprecedented scrutiny of police conduct. Duterte s office on Wednesday made public a memorandum telling police, the military and other state bodies to leave to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) as sole agency the conduct of all campaigns and operations. It was unclear why Duterte had ordered the change in the role of the police, who have been responsible for the vast majority of arrests and killings in the 15-month-old campaign. Neither the presidential spokesman nor the communications secretary immediately responded to Reuters requests for comment. The order could blunt the intensity of the crackdown, since the drug enforcement agency has only a fraction of the manpower of the 190,000-strong police. But it was not the first time the mercurial leader has decreed that the agency lead the drugs war. Duterte suspended police anti-drugs operations in late January, to cleanse a force he called corrupt to the core , but lifted that ban five weeks later, saying drugs were flooding back to the streets and the gains of the war were being lost. The memorandum, signed on Tuesday, ordered the police force at all times to maintain police visibility, as a deterrent to illegal activities , while restricting operations to the drug agency. Its aim was to bring order to the operation or campaign against illegal drugs, thus pinpointing precise accountability , the document said. More than 3,900 Filipinos have been killed in what the police called self-defense after armed suspects resisted arrest. Critics dispute that and say executions are taking place, with zero accountability, allegations the police reject. Police and drug enforcement agency spokesman said the two agencies would follow the president s decision, but did not elaborate. Duterte s move follows the August killing of a teenager by police that sparked rare public outrage after a security camera showed the victim in custody, contrary to a police report that he was a drug dealer who tried to shoot them. It also follows a protest against Duterte last month by thousands of people in Manila, and a series of opinion polls highlighting doubts among many Filipinos about official police accounts, and whether those killed were all drug dealers. A poll released on Sunday showed a sharp decline in public opinion about Duterte s performance and personality, though sentiment about him remained positive overall. Rights lawyers on Wednesday approached the Supreme Court to try and stop the war on drugs, saying it was illegal and allowed the police to circumvent legal procedure. | 1 |
22,653 | HORRIBLE! MAXINE WATERS CALLS Trumps “Kremlin Klan” A “Bunch of Scumbags” [Video] | Notice how the left is still pushing the false narrative that the Russians hacked our election NOT TRUE! | 0 |
22,654 | Rep. Conyers steps down from committee while lawmakers probe harassment allegations | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Representative John Conyers is stepping down as senior Democrat on the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, while lawmakers investigate allegations of sexual harassment against him, Conyers said in an emailed statement on Sunday. Conyers said that while he denied the allegations, his presence during a congressional ethics review of the matter was a distraction. “I cannot in good conscience allow these charges to undermine my colleagues in the Democratic Caucus, and my friends on both sides of the aisle in the Judiciary Committee,” Conyers said. Conyers, 88, from Michigan, is the longest-serving House lawmaker and a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus. The House Ethics Committee said last week it was investigating allegations of sexual harassment against Conyers, who said his office had resolved a harassment case with a payment but no admission of guilt. The allegations against Conyers came to light as Congress reviews policies on how to handle sexual harassment complaints. They followed a string of such complaints against prominent figures in the U.S. media, Hollywood and politics. “In this case, I expressly and vehemently denied the allegations made against me and continue to do so,” said Conyers. Twelve women who said they previously worked for Conyers told reporters in a statement on Sunday that he “was a gentleman and never behaved in a sexually inappropriate manner in our presence.” The group said it supported letting the ethics probe run its course. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called for “zero tolerance” on sexual harassment in a statement released after Conyers’ email. “We are at a watershed moment on this issue, and no matter how great an individual’s legacy, it is not a license for harassment.” | 1 |
22,655 | CNN Host Utterly EMBARRASSES Trump Lackey Who Refuses To Believe Trump Is Losing (VIDEO) | What just happened on CNN would be sad if it weren t so gosh darn funny.It would seem it s not only Donald Trump who is in complete denial that he s losing because that denial has clearly spread to all his campaign surrogates.While being interviewed by Wolf Blitzer stand-in Brianna Keilar during a segment of CNN s Situation Room, Trump surrogate Michael Cohen just made himself look absolutely foolish and kind of insane.Keilar was questioning Cohen about the new shake-up in the Trump campaign where there is yet another new campaign manager. It seems the campaign is in emergency maintenance mode considering how dismal Trump s poll numbers have been across the board, including in pretty much every single battleground state.Keilar reiterates the point that Trump is down, which Cohen must have been trained not to accept, because he replies fast with: Says who? So, Keilar quickly responds with: The polls. Most of them. All of them. However, Cohen clearly not grasping this reality into his head again says: Say s who? And Keilar again says: Polls. I just told you. I answered your question. So Cohen says: Which polls? Keilar again says: All of them. It was awkward to say the least, but really kind of funny, yet scary at the same time that Trump is actually the Republican nominee and this sort of stupidity has now become the norm.Watch the hilariously embarrassing moment here:Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
22,656 | Trump says preparing new executive actions to save coal mining | LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Monday he was preparing new executive actions to save coal mining and put miners back to work. “As we speak we are preparing new executive actions to save our coal industry and to save our wonderful coal miners from continuing to be put out of work. The miners are coming back,” Trump told a rally in Louisville, Kentucky, without providing any details. | 1 |
22,657 | WATCH: Fox Hosts Crudely Brag That Hurricane Matthew Will Hurt Democrats In Florida | Hurricane Matthew is helping Republicans suppress voters who could help Democrats win Florida in November and Fox News is gleeful about it.During a broadcast on Fox Business, host Stuart Varney and guest Tucker Carlson bragged about how Florida Governor Rick Scott refuses to extend the voter registration deadline past October 11th even though a massive hurricane is forcing mass evacuations from the coastal areas. I expect President Obama to go down there, probably Hillary Clinton will go down, and probably Donald Trump, Varney began. So there s going to be the aftermath politics. Who s going to win this one? Carlson responded by basically calling Democratic voters lazy and seemed to relish the idea that weather hurts Democratic voters. The conventional view, and I think it s right, is that anything that makes voting more difficult hurts the Democrats because their voters tend to be less committed and there may be other factors there too. But that is definitely what political consultants believe. If it rains, there s bad weather, if anything gets in the way of easy voting, Democrats suffer. Varney mentioned that Governor Scott, a Trump supporter, has refused Clinton s request to extend the deadline. I guess that would tend to favor the Republican Party in November, he quipped. It favors people who are organized, who know what they re voting for, who have their lives together, Carlson responded. I mean, I guess you could say that favors the Republicans. Varney himself admitted that gloating about the good fortune of Republicans when a hurricane is pounding the state and causing a lot of damage to people s homes is almost crass, but that didn t deter either host one bit. What I m getting at here is you ve got this massive storm, it s arrived, it has hit Florida, Florida is a key state The politicians are going to be all over it. My initial reaction is to say that it favors the Republicans. I hate to be I think that sounds almost crass to be making political judgments when the storm is still hitting But nonetheless, I think that s where its going. Here s the video via Media Matters.Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are locked in a battle for the presidency and Florida is a state that has had historical importance on Election Day, especially when the election is close.And since Democrats lead the GOP in registered voters and have added tens of thousands of new voters to the rolls, especially Hispanics, it s clear that Republicans are using Hurricane Matthew as an excuse to stifle Democratic gains.Florida Governor Rick Scott should extend the deadline but he is only interested in doing things that helps Republicans, even if that means screwing over thousands of Florida residents.Featured Image: Screenshot | 0 |
22,658 | Pope says Myanmar should commit to respect for human rights | NAYPYITAW (Reuters) - Pope Francis said on Tuesday that Myanmar is suffering from civil conflict and hostilities that have lasted all too long and created deep divisions , but in a speech in the country s capital he did not refer to the minority Rohingya Muslims. The arduous process of peacebuilding and national reconciliation can only advance through a commitment to justice and respect for human rights, he said, speaking after Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi had made an address. Religious differences need not be a source of division and distrust, but rather a force for unity, forgiveness, tolerance and wise nationbuilding, the pope added. The pope s visit to Myanmar comes after an exodus of more than 620,000 Rohingya from Rakhine state to the southern tip of Bangladesh following a military crackdown that the United States last week branded ethnic cleansing . His trip is so delicate that some papal advisers warned him against even saying the word Rohingya , lest he set off a diplomatic incident that could turn the country s military and government against minority Christians. Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingya as citizens nor as members of a distinct ethnic group with their own identity, and it rejects the term Rohingya and its use. Pope Francis did not use the word in his speech. | 1 |
22,659 | Islamic State cleared from Syria's Raqqa: monitor | BEIRUT (Reuters) - U.S.-backed militias have completely taken Syria s Raqqa from Islamic State, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias backed by a U.S.-led international alliance, has been fighting Islamic State inside Raqqa since June. | 1 |
22,660 | Republicans Are Working To Make It LEGAL To Injure, Kill Protesters In North Dakota | Oh, North Dakota. They just had to go and set the bar lower for themselves. Instead of figuring out why protesters disrupted a lot during the long fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline and maybe finding a productive solution to disruption, they ll just try and eliminate protesters in a way that skirts the 1st Amendment.And it s really horrific. This allegedly pro-life crowd wants to make it legal for drivers to run over anyone blocking a roadway. They hate protesters to the point where they actually introduced a bill in the state legislature to do just that: A driver of a motor vehicle who negligently causes injury or death to an individual obstructing vehicular traffic on a public road, street, or highway may not be held liable for any damages, the bill reads. A driver of a motor vehicle who unintentionally causes injury or death to an individual obstructing vehicular traffic on a public road, street, or highway is not guilty of an offense. Yeah. Unintentionally. Well, that just makes everything okay, then, doesn t it? Infuriatingly, they say that this is necessary after the DAPL protests, and they claim that pedestrians are intentionally putting themselves in danger if they protest on roads. Because protests are supposed to happen in the background where they won t make people uncomfortable.What s the difference between this and running over someone who s just jaywalking? Isn t that person intentionally putting themselves in danger? The bill doesn t actually mention protesters, so it s somewhat safe to assume that someone guilty of hitting just any jaywalker out there could get away with it, too. No compensation for medical bills or funeral costs, no punitive damages for the family of the victim. It s sick.The big problem here is proving intent. Proving intent, or lack of intent, is really fucking difficult to do. So North Dakota is working on making the world more dangerous for pedestrians and for protesters, because, reasons. Reasons that involve terrifying people into not protesting.Republicans really are a sick breed.Featured image by Alex Wong via Getty Images | 0 |
22,661 | Palestinian killed in Gaza clashes over Trump's Jerusalem move | GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian man on Friday near the Gaza border in clashes over U.S. President Donald Trump s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. The Israeli military said hundreds of Palestinians were rolling burning tires and throwing rocks at soldiers across the border. During the riots IDF soldiers fired selectively toward two main instigators and hits were confirmed, the army statement said. | 1 |
22,662 | At least one person dead, 50 wounded in Iraq after earthquake: officials | ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - At least one person died and 50 were wounded after a major earthquake struck large parts of Iraq on Sunday, according to local officials. Health officials said most of the wounded were in Darbandikhan, 75 kilometres (47 miles) east of the major city of Sulaimaniyah in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region. The earthquake struck along the border with Iran. | 1 |
22,663 | Senators urge Trump administration to act on Myanmar Rohingya | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of Republican and Democratic senators urged the Trump administration on Thursday to use the “full weight” of its influence to help resolve the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar and Bangladesh, in which over 480,000 people have fled their homes. A letter seen by Reuters and signed by four Republican and 17 Democratic members of the 100-seat Senate also calls on Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Mark Green to provide more humanitarian aid. “Despite international condemnation, the Burmese authorities incredibly continue to deny the atrocities,” said the letter. It also notes that current U.S. law, including the Global Magnitsky Act, allows Trump to impose sanctions on people responsible for gross violations of human rights. | 1 |
22,664 | Embarrassing: Watch Trump Attorney Gets Grilled Over Lying About Investigation (VIDEO) | The question as to whether Donald Trump is being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller or not was answered definitively by Trump himself via a tweet he posted on Friday morning. That s why Jay Sekulow, a key member of Trump s legal team, confused the world when he insisted that Trump is in fact not being investigated by Mueller on Sunday.While making his rounds on the Sunday morning political talk show circuit, Sekulow told NBC s Meet the Press host, Chuck Todd, the president is not and has not been under investigation for obstruction. After dropping this nuclear-grade contradiction, Sekulow was forced to defend his position to multiple members of the press. One interview, which aired on Fox News Sunday was particularly brutal for Sekulow. The show s host, Chris Wallace, qualified the reality of the situation well when he said, Oh boy, this is weird. He takes the action that [the Attorney General s office] recommended and now he s being investigated by the Department of Justice. He s being investigated for taking the action that the attorney general and deputy attorney general recommended him to take by the agency who recommended the terminations! You ve now said he is being investigated after saying [he isn t], Wallace observed. No, he s not being investigated! Sekulow shouts at Wallace. You just said he s being investigated, Wallace said. At this point, Wallace is not putting up with Sekulow s inconsistencies. Sir, you just said two times that he s being investigated, the Wallace fires back. And he s not just being investigated for firing Comey, there s also what he said to Comey when Comey was still the FBI director. Sekulow then claims that Wallace is putting words in his mouth, insisting that he has been crystal clear about his assertion that Trump is not being investigated. Sekulow then tries to play of his contradiction as nothing more than him speaking on the legal theory of how the Constitution works. He then accuses Wallace of rephrasing what he is saying.Of course, this is all complete nonsense. That s why Wallace responds confidently, saying, I didn t rephrase it. The tape will speak for itself; you said he is being investigated. You can watch the interview below. Featured image from video screenshot | 0 |
22,665 | EU border controls could be extended in crisis, Commission says | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Temporary border controls inside the European Union s free-travel zone could be extended for up to three years during a crisis, the European Commission proposed on Wednesday, giving it more leeway to stem migration. The proposal by the EU executive comes as border controls in Germany, Austria, Denmark, and Norway expire, part of the European Union s response to a surge of refugees and migrants in November 2015 that tested EU rules on passport-free travel. Those countries must lift the frontier checks by November this year under a two-year-limit set by the bloc in the so-called Schengen area, which is named after a town in Luxembourg and aims to be a symbol of free movement in the bloc. While not referring to the four countries, the Commission s plan, if agreed by EU governments, would allow them to keep the controls in place for another year if they can justify them. EU home affairs commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said the threat of migrants coming through Greece and the Western Balkans was no longer a valid excuse for frontier checks. No internal border control ... in relation to those from the eastern Mediterranean will be possible after November, Avramopoulos told a news conference. All member states maintain the possibility to introduce internal border controls for other threats to their internal security, he said, stressing those must remain exceptional. Germany has long argued it needs the controls to combat the threat of Islamic militancy in Europe. The EU has taken in more than 1.7 million people from the Middle East and Africa since 2014. But after a mass influx in 2015, numbers have gone down steadily following a 2016 deal that closed the route from Turkey to Greece. The EU has also stepped up support for Libya to curb arrivals in Italy. Sweden has lifted its border checks but has stepped up internal controls. Norway is part of Schengen but not the EU. | 1 |
22,666 | DID MILITARY JUDGE Give Army Deserter Bowe Bergdahl A Slap On The Wrist Because of President Trump? | Is this just one more case of an activist judge too blinded by his hate for Trump to deliver the justice he took an oath to uphold? It was announced yesterday that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who walked away from his post in Afghanistan and triggered a search that left some of his comrades severely wounded, was spared a prison sentence by a military judge Friday in what President Donald Trump blasted as a complete and total disgrace. The judge gave no explanation of how he arrived at his decision, but he reviewed evidence that included the five years Bergdahl was held captive by the Taliban and the wounds suffered by troops who searched for him, including one who now uses a wheelchair and cannot speak. Chicago TribuneWhen candidate Donald Trump told a crowd that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl should have been executed for leaving his post in Afghanistan, the crowd cheered We re tired of Sgt. Bergdahl, who s a traitor, a no-good traitor, who should have been executed, Trump said to cheers at a rowdy rally inside a packed Las Vegas theater at the casino-hotel Treasure Island. Thirty years ago, Trump added, he would have been shot. Before everyone starts calling Trump heartless or an idiot, perhaps they should first familiarize themselves with our laws about Americans who commit treason:Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 807; Pub. L. 103 322, title XXXIII, 330016(2)(J), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2148.)Immediately after the news broke about the slap on the wrist given to Bowe Bergdahl in his desertion case, President Trump tweeted about his disgust with the judge s decision:https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/926492915626663939President Trump s harsh criticism of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who walked off his Army post in Afghanistan in 2009 and was captured by the Taliban, will weigh in favor of a lighter sentence for the sergeant, a military judge said on Monday. I will consider the president s comments as mitigation evidence as I arrive at an appropriate sentence, the judge, Col. Jeffery R. Nance of the Army, said during a hearing at Fort Bragg. The judge is expected to sentence Sergeant Bergdahl in the next few weeks.The judge rejected a request that he dismiss the case or cap the length of the sentence on the grounds that the president s comments had precluded a fair hearing. The judge said he had not been influenced by the remarks and that the public s confidence in the military justice system had not been undermined.Sergeant Bergdahl faces up to life imprisonment. He pleaded guilty on Oct. 16 to desertion and endangering the troops who were sent to search for him.He testified on Monday that he deeply regretted that people suffered because of my bad choices. Colonel Nance will also consider aggravating factors presented by the prosecution, including injuries suffered by several service members during the search for Sergeant Bergdahl, as well as the negative impact they say the search had on the military s overall war effort in Afghanistan.Anger over the injuries has driven much of the testimony in the case so far, as service members vividly described a rescue operation that exposed them to enemy fire. Shannon Allen, the wife of Sgt. First Class Mark Allen, who was shot in the head took the stand on Monday.Sergeant Allen, a national guardsman from Georgia, had part of his brain removed during surgery, and is now unable to speak, walk, or take care of himself. His wife has said little publicly, but in a Facebook post after Sergeant Bergdahl was freed, she blamed him for causing her husband s incapacitation. Instead of being his wife, I have become his caregiver, Ms. Allen testified on Monday.Last week, Staff Sgt. Jason Walters testified that his six-man team had only just arrived in Afghanistan when they were sent to search for Sergeant Bergdahl. They had little time to prepare for the rugged terrain of Paktika Province, and little intelligence to go on.On the second morning of the search, an insane amount of fire came out of nowhere, Sergeant Walters said. Militants had them surrounded. In minutes, half the team had been wounded. Sergeant Walters turned to see a cloud of blood spraying from the head of Sergeant Allen. I started treating his wounds, talking to him, telling him to hang on, Sergeant Walters said.The battle subsided only after F-15 fighter jets and Apache helicopters arrived overhead.Only later would the troops learn that the battalion responsible for the area believed that 150 Taliban fighters were near the village where the soldiers were resting when they came under fire. My words can t take away what people have been through, Sergeant Bergdahl told the court on Monday. Offering condolences is not enough. People went through things they shouldn t have had to go through. I grieve for those who have suffered and their families. For entire story: NYT s | 0 |
22,667 | U.S. Energy Department balks at Trump request for names on climate change | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Energy Department said on Tuesday it will not comply with a request from President-elect Donald Trump’s Energy Department transition team for the names of people who have worked on climate change and the professional society memberships of lab workers. The Energy Department’s response could signal a rocky transition for the president-elect’s energy team and potential friction between the new leadership and the staffers who remain in place. The memo sent to the Energy Department on Tuesday and reviewed by Reuters last week contains 74 questions, including a request for a list of all department employees and contractors who attended the annual global climate talks hosted by the United Nations within the last five years. Energy Department spokesman Eben Burnham-Snyder said Tuesday the department will not comply. “Our career workforce, including our contractors and employees at our labs, comprise the backbone of (the Energy Department) and the important work our department does to benefit the American people,” Burnham-Snyder said. “We are going to respect the professional and scientific integrity and independence of our employees at our labs and across our department,” he added. “We will be forthcoming with all publicly available information with the transition team. We will not be providing any individual names to the transition team.” He added that the request “left many in our workforce unsettled.” Andrew Rosenberg, an official at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the Energy Department “made the right choice in refusing this absurd and dangerous request. Federal agencies need the best available science to respond to the growing risk of climate change.” Reuters reported late Monday that former Texas Governor Rick Perry is expected to be named by Trump to run the Energy Department. The agency employs more than 90,000 people working on nuclear weapons maintenance and research labs, nuclear energy, advanced renewable energy, batteries and climate science. The memo sought a list of all department employees or contractors who have attended any meetings on the social cost of carbon, a measurement that federal agencies use to weigh the costs and benefits of new energy and environmental regulations. It also asked for all publications written by employees at the department’s 17 national laboratories for the past three years. Trump transition officials declined to comment on the memo. “This feels like the first draft of an eventual political enemies list,” a Department of Energy employee, who asked not to be identified because he feared a reprisal by the Trump transition team, had told Reuters. Josh Earnest, a White House spokesman, said in a news briefing on Tuesday that the queries “could have been an attempt to target civil servants,” including “scientists and lawyers and other experts who are critical to the success of the federal government’s ability to make policy.” By design, their work transcends the term of any one president, Earnest said. Trump, a Republican, said during his election campaign that climate change was a hoax perpetrated by China to damage U.S. manufacturing. He said he would rip up last year’s landmark global climate deal struck in Paris that was signed by President Barack Obama. Since winning the Nov. 8 election, however, Trump has said he will keep an “open mind” about the Paris deal. He also met with former Vice President Al Gore, a strong advocate for action on climate change. After that meeting, he picked Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a climate change skeptic, to head the Environmental Protection Agency. | 1 |
22,668 | how the camp of the saints predicted the migrant destruction of europe | why is obama threatening russia with world war right before the election october th
it sure seems like an odd time to be provoking a war with russia as i write this we stand just a little bit more than three weeks away from one of the most pivotal elections in us history and barack obama has chosen this moment to strongly threaten the russians as i wrote about on friday reuters is reporting that obama is contemplating direct us military action against syrian military targets and the russians have already indicated that any assault on syrian forces would be considered an attack on themselves the rapidly deteriorating crisis in syria has already caused tensions with russia to rise to the highest level since the end of the cold war but now obama is adding fuel to the fire by publicly considering an unprecedented cyber covert action against russia apparently obama believes that russian hackers are interfering in the election and so he wants payback the following comes from an nbc news article entitled cia prepping for possible cyber strike against russia
the obama administration is contemplating an unprecedented cyber covert action against russia in retaliation for alleged russian interference in the american presidential election us intelligence officials told nbc news
current and former officials with direct knowledge of the situation say the cia has been asked to deliver options to the white house for a wideranging clandestine cyber operation designed to harass and embarrass the kremlin leadership
the sources did not elaborate on the exact measures the cia was considering but said the agency had already begun opening cyber doors selecting targets and making other preparations for an operation
somebody should tell obama that he is not playing a video game a cyber attack is considered to be an act of war and the russians would inevitably retaliate and considering how exceedingly vulnerable our cyber infrastructure is i dont know if that is something that we want to invite
at the end of last week vice president joe biden also publicly threatened the russians
on friday vice president joe biden met meet the press host chuck todd for an interview that has raised serious concern in russia
without bothering to question the authenticity of the claims todd took the allegations of russian hacking at face value opening his interview with a loaded question why havent we sent a message yet to putin
after a moment of stunned silence biden responded were sending a message we have the capacity to do it and it will be at the time of our choosing and under the circumstances that will have the greatest impact
when todd asked if the public will know a message was sent biden replied hope not
the russians firmly deny that they had any involvement in the hacking and so far the obama administration has not publicly produced any firm evidence that the russians were behind it
perhaps the obama administration privately has some evidence but at this point they have not shown that evidence to the american public
so for joe biden to be making these sorts of threats is a very dangerous thing the russians are taking these threats very seriously and they are preparing to protect their interests
the threats directed against moscow and our states leadership are unprecedented because they are voiced at the level of the us vice president
to the backdrop of this aggressive unpredictable line we must take measures to protect our interests to hedge risks a kremlin spokesman said according to ria novosti news agency
here in the united states most people dont even realize that we could be on the verge of a major conflict with russia
but over in russia things are completely different talk of war is everywhere and the potential for war is the number one topic in the russian media right now just check out some of the recent russian media headlines about the conflict between our two nations
in contrast to clinton trump has no appetite for war with russia
and one russian television network recently instructed their viewers to locate the nearest bomb shelter in case a nuclear war between the united states and russia suddenly erupts
a terrifying russian television broadcast explicitly told civilians to find out where their nearest bomb shelter is and repeatedly asked viewers if they were ready for nuclear war
one apocalyptic broadcast told viewers on moscows stateowned tv channel ntv if it should one day happen every one of you should know where the nearest bomb shelter is its best to find out now
i dont believe that the russians are crazy to be thinking that a war might be coming
to me it almost seems as though obama wants one
could it be possible that a conflict with russia will be used to alter change or influence the upcoming election in november
the truth is that it isnt going to take much for the shooting to begin if obama orders airstrikes against syrian forces the russians have said that they will shoot back
ash carter has threatened russia with consequences after blowing up the ceasefire the pentagon supported by the joint chiefs of staff now is peddling potential strikes on syrias air force to punish the regime for what the pentagon actually did blow up the ceasefire one cant make this stuff up
majorgeneral igor konashenkov russias defense ministry spokesman sent a swift message to our colleagues in washington think twice if you believe you can get away with launching a shadow hot war against russia russia will target any stealthunidentified aircraft attacking syrian government targets and they will be shot down
the only serious question then is whether an out of control pentagon will force the russian air force false flag and otherwise to knock out us air force fighter jets and whether moscow has the fire power to take out each and every one of them
i discussed the potential for war with russia in my latest video hopefully cooler heads will prevail and war with russia will be put off
but without a doubt the crisis in syria is not going to be resolved any time soon because it is one giant mess most people dont realize that the syrian civil war has essentially been a proxy war between sunni islam and shia islam from the very beginning jihadist rebels that are being armed and funded by saudi arabia and turkey are fighting hezbollah troops that are being armed and funded by iran and now turkish forces have invaded northern syria and this threatens to cause a fullblown war to erupt between turkey and the syrian kurds of course isis is right in the middle of everything causing havoc blowing stuff up and beheading anyone that doesnt believe in their radical version of sunni islam
it is absolutely insane that the united states and russia could potentially go to war because of this conflict both sides are determined to show the other how tough they are and one false move could set off a spiral of events from which they may be no recovery
the american people very foolishly elected barack obama twice but up until now the consequences have not been quite as dire as many had been projecting
however right here at the end of his second term obama is facing a moment of truth if he ends up dragging us into a war with russia the american people will ultimately bitterly regret putting him into the white house drowning in debt percent of all americans have debt that is at least days past due guest
if he obama ends up dragging us into a war with russia the american people will ultimately bitterly regret putting him into the white house
oh i doubt it most americans just lap up the propaganda fed to them by the mainstream media that has incessantly demonized putin and other foreign leaders where is the outrage over what this administration has done in destabilizing libya and other sovereign nations in the middle east where is the outrage over what the bush administration did in iraq and afghanistan
there is a video on youtube with general wesley clark discussing how the pentagon planned to attack countries in years google it jc teecher
the reality of the general public putting an atheisticmuzzy into the white house will not strike home until their sons and daughters are coming home in body bags guest
no when their sons and daughters come back in body bags their parents will wave that american flag and say that their children died to defend the freedoms of this country good grief jc teecher
oh yea plenty of those folks as well watchmannonthewall
god help us you are both right but there will be far fewer of the first than the second paul patriot
nothing liked a lame duck traitor to recklessly stick his nose in the affairs of others and then leave office in a few months
this traitor should have been impeached after one year of his first termbut the american sheeple demanded the change you could believe in so the way i see it we are bearing the fruits of allowing a traitor to occupy the white house and a apethetic population that is not united and sat back and did nothing to protest if hitlery gets in she will gladly continued the change that obama global elite masters has been determined to accomplish and will transform this nation into a nation unrecognizable to most who call this nation home
i predict if hitlery gets in she will be even more addicted to executive orders than the invader obummer df nj
im not sure obama is really in control of the military at this point gfmucci
sheesh i hope youre right orlando
prayers for us all since all the elite and governments have bunkers to hide in smh we should have never allowed the government coruption to get this far thats why im voting trump if we even make it to that at this point who knows bill g wilminton nc
vote trump donna
yes we need to vote for trump but heres the problem it has now surfaced that states have voters machines that are connected to george soros and friends the second thing is we have to quit being so weak as the american people wanting someone else to fix this for us i do t know that they can this time bill g wilminton nc
donna vote for trump be strong and be happy that you are one of the deplorables donna
thank you didnt get to see this till today but we won snodtblossom
peter esv
but false prophets also arose among the people just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies even denying the master who bought them bringing upon themselves swift destruction and many will follow their sensuality and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed and in their greed they will exploit you with false words their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep for if god did not spare angels when they sinned but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment if he did not spare the ancient world but preserved noah a herald of righteousness with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly lester holt
we knew you were an idiot at least youre a christian idiot snodtblossom
how much prior political experience does trump have nada zip zilch zero he talks the talk but never walked the walk but hey its only the presidency maybe next well grab people off the street wno medical training to do surgery neither did ulysses grant or dwight eisenhower have a prior politcal position though both had a strong military background dwight being the supreme commander of allied forces in world war ii and grant commanding general of the united states army how much military background does trump have nada zip zilch zero
no major us company has filed for chapter more than trumps casino empire in the last years he has filed four business bankruptcies maybe he thinks its just as easy to file bankruptcy wthe entire government and walk away randy wellman
bankruptall major cities in america are bankrupt so it is fitting that we put a person in charge that knows how to go through the processcities states counties the federal gubmint and individually we are all broke now they all thought they could spend money in perpetuity never having to actually pay these debt obligations the check is now on the table and the waiter is nervously tapping his footand btw we dont need a person with experience as their advisors they hire once in office are the ones that actually do the workplanningall we need is a person willing to do us righta person with heart we know killary has done the wrong thing at every turnpick the guy who will do right americadont put another criminal in the spitehouse lazarovic
dont waste your time with bill he aint playin with a full deck oracprez
hillary is going to have him in her team to kickstart the economy pulltheweeds
he has the same amount of military background as obozo and hitlery snodtblossom
both were hillary obama were senators before presidency trump hasnt even been mayor of a rich boy community watchmannonthewall
an interesting thought and one that appears to be supported in some quarters however who purged the military leaders over the past years and placed those who are now in charge where they are the man seems to be a master at creating situations where a defense ofplausible deniability can be invoked there is little doubt much of what he has done has been a well thought out and implemented strategy that creates a lot of confusion and allows no one to be held accountable look at the irs scandals and the gun running to drug dealers in mexico by the doj everything he does is meant to destabilize society mike smithy
perhaps president zero will get another nobel peace prize alan
piece prize similar but completely different john
yeah piece prize for blowing up americans to pieces tracey marie
learn to spell if you are going to troll alwaystomorrow
countdown today october in days i predict mrs clinton will be elected our next president bill g wilminton nc
if trump is as far ahead as i think he is there may not be an election donna
if he causes a war with russia and our idiot gop congress approves it we the people better take up arms to remove them and try them for treason jakartaman
obamas job from the globalist elites was to bring down the usa to the level of greece globalism is the new term for communism btw he has done a terrific job lennie pike
hate democracy much oracprez
clintons account hacked blame russia this is the classic bait and switch love or hate her the line has been sold that the russians were involved in the hacking even if something happens that was a system fault she now has a scapegoat and will hammer the line that russia did it before and will do it again shes blamed china on other occasions so she can even play the line that at this stage we only know that it was an outside attack and be sure that the media will spin it even further for those ratings before long the general public will be demanding action oracprez
can you explain why the us air force has been sending warbirds into the region with transponders off eg over the black sea and through commercial airspace and some painted in russian air force colors with the red star df nj
in the movie the dark knight batman is trying to figure out the jokers motivations
alfred tells the story that one day he found a child playing with a ruby as big as a tangerine the bandit had been throwing the stones away
wayne says so why was he stealing them
alfred says because he thought it was good sport because some men arent looking for anything logical like moneythey cant be bought bullied reasoned or negotiated with
some men just want to watch the world burn snodtblossom
are all these words to go unanswered is this talker to be vindicated will your idle talk reduce others to silence will no one rebuke you when you mock you say to god my beliefs are flawless and i am pure in your sight oh how i wish that god would speak that he would open his lips against you and disclose to you the secrets of wisdom for true wisdom has two sides know this god has even forgotten some of your sin can you fathom the mysteries of god can you probe the limits of the almighty they are higher than the heavens abovewhat can you do they are deeper than the depths belowwhat can you know their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea if he comes along and confines you in prison and convenes a court who can oppose him surely he recognizes deceivers and when he sees evil does he not take note but the witless can no more become wise than a wild donkeys colt can be born humana yet if you devote your heart to him and stretch out your hands to him if you put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent then free of fault you will lift up your face you will stand firm and without fear you will surely forget your trouble recalling it only as waters gone by life will be brighter than noonday and darkness will become like morning you will be secure because there is hope you will look about you and take your rest in safety you will lie down with no one to make you afraid and many will court your favor but the eyes of the wicked will fail and escape will elude them their hope will become a dying gasp loser blo sum one
ignore the blo some one snodtblossom
the wind blows where it wishes you hear its sound but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going so it is with everyone born of the spirit
how can this be nicodemus asked
you are israels teacher jesus replied and do you not understand these things truly truly i tell you we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen and yet you people do not accept our testimony teresa f
oh good youre in the new testament now snodtblossom
momentarily oracprez
you missed the obvious tim all scripture is given by inspiration of god and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness both new and old testament watchmannonthewall
unfortunately there are still many teachers jesus could still ask and you are a teacher in israel and do you not understand these things forget about explaining them to those who are lost bill g wilminton nc
put her on blocki did watchmannonthewall
it is interesting that the man you quote ended up being rebuked by god for his foolish words he was eventually forgiven when god stood up for job and had job pray for the man because of his stupidity in projecting a false picture bearing false witness of him oh that we might take some of this to heart jc teecher
for what it is worth would it not be an easy task for the odramaliberalindustrial war machine to pull off a strike of instant war of immediate reaction with the powers of the iranianrussian regimes in light of a donald trump win next month
easily it could be the catalyst for a chaotic event of stock market crashes and world wide chaos to invoke a martial law edict which would prevent trump from becoming potus and keep the nwo wheels turning
even with a liberal win it could be the one thing that prevents a psychopath from actually taking the reins and continuing a program that is soon to take a hold of the whole world anyway
folks that are awake and seeking truth should pay attention and make changes in their lives accordingly df nj
on the one hand you say government is completely incompetent and a waste of money and then in the next breath you say government is a super genius organization capable of duping everyone into a nwo just like people resist jesus christ and your christian religion people will resist the nwo
one thing is for certain people will continue to copulate and have babies and most people hate their bosses and would not do anything the boss asked them to do if they were not being paid to do it i think having faith in people this way is a faith that is very strong gfmucci
again words from an obviously abused person
and most people hate their bosses and would not do anything the boss asked them to do if they were not being paid to do it
that is a dark and hopeless sounding attitude you have there and it does not reflect reality in my years in the world liberty first
there would be a civil war are they that stupid df nj
the south got their butts kicked the last time i doubt the pussssies in the south have the guts to try it again dlewenz
the civil war of the past is not relevant what we will have is a takeover of all democratic office holders and remove them from office with military and local police support you can call it a constutional rebirth james staten
mark twain said that ever man is entitled to at least one insanity but he was wrong alan
it doesnt need to be an armed revolt just vote for succession and do it donna
your an idiot you make it sound as though it was quick and seamless id say we all lost that war many americans died in that long ruthless war another point i might make here is you better look at the size of trumps rallies to the size of her meetingsoops my bad her rallies also us southern rednecks arent the ones who wont own a gun because you think youre corrupt government is the only ones who should have them civil war is the last thing you liberals want you enjoy being helpless and told what to do and over half the military will not support her or the potus you have now destiny
the us didnt win the war on the battlefield but by the war on southern civilians the marches through south carolina georgia mississippi north carolina where of the houses were burned and all food was taken florida where children of a town were nail inside a church and burned alive athens alabama where the soldiers were given an hour to rape pillage and do any evil thing to the people they could dream up southerners more that other americans should know why the world hates us df nj jc teecher
yep donna
i think there is a chance of that anyway if she gets elected our military will be cut to shreds because they wont serve her pulltheweeds
agreed allan rogan
right on the money forgive the pun a voice in the dark chillawack bc canadathanks neighbour snodtblossom
jct is the biggest fool to ever walk these boards you canadians have bacon for brains tsf
no reason to get regional here were all made of the same stuff canadian or american instead we should appreciate our neighbors for sharing the longest unguarded border on earth crossroads
if jct were a fool hes a fool for christ whose fool are you
nobodys df nj
i think many christians want wwiii to happen i dont understand why people are praying for death and mayhem of innocent woman and children if wwii happens millions of pregnant women will be killed and their babies aborted i just dont understand the death wish by the christians if they want to to meet their maker cant they do it in private karenl
i am a christian were not praying for death to anyone however wwlll is inevitable whether we want it to or not its coming its in the bible we must be wise be ready to meet the lord i just pray that when it does its swift so no one suffers but the enemy is at play certainly wants it aldownunder
i agree wwiii is inevitable but not because its in the bible fiction not true karenl
you are entitled to your opinion even if its wrong no matter how hard scientist have tried to disprove the bible the more they proved every thing is correct in the end every knee will bow every tongue will confess when jesus returns but in rev it speaks about it so its going to happen bc god said it will saveusa
bible is truehas been proven to be trueyou are not obligated to believe ithowever the facts and the events lines up as was told by the lord through the apostles in the holly bible gsob
you are not obligated to believe it
all in the bible jerry c
the holy bible is the only truth on this planet and the deception will get much worse gfmucci
where do you get this bs idea from there isnt one sect of christianity that desire what you described you may be mistaking christianity with islam whose leaders are hoping to bring in their mahdi via violent provocation snodtblossom
whenwhat did i miss saveusa
wwii is past tense a years agoand as of wwiii you are a very poor soul to believe that christians are waiting or wanting to happenif it is true they are not true christiansget your fact straight and read the revelation that may shed some light in your heart bill g wilminton nc
bsare you on drugs alwaystomorrow
bill was your above statement a quote from the bible too new or old testrament bill g wilminton nc
mr gfmucci below says it perfectlyread about it paul patriot
there is no death wish by christians it is in your mind you are not listeningi have told you manyt times beforestop drinking the koolaide that the pied piper of propaganda is feeding you get off yoiu mefds and start thinking for yourself realist
why is it that when trump says there is election interference and rigging going on he is derided and chastised as being ridiculous but hillary can say the russians are doing the same with absolutely no proof and the media take it as the word of god what irony and hypocrisy gfmucci
i call it mindless complicity due to the training of most journalists in our socialistcommunist schools of higher education over the last decades resistance
not just higher education it starts from elementary school indoctrination is the key to controlling future generations its been going on for longer than the last five decades still an awesome comment orange jean
and its not just journalists i went to umassamherst in the s studied anthropology and then grad school in geography anthro was clearly focused on presenting the marxistleninist school of thought on everything geography somewhat less but they have swollowed the global warming hoax hook line and sinker and that was in a state university funded largely with taxpayer money liz the shiz
yup theres nothing like a good old commie education from the peoples republic of massachusetts snodtblossom
trump is ridiculous hes the ronald mcdonald of the usa wo the clown outfit all the world may love a clown but he would make the usa a laughingstock whis incompetency arrogance goinsheep
when you compare the candidates i wonder if youve noticed
donald trump
hasnt killed anyone hasnt lied under oath hasnt committed perjury in congress hasnt leaked national secrets hasnt sold uranium to russia hasnt supplied weapons to militant muslims hasnt stolen money from the state department hasnt peddled national interest in turn for donations hasnt left any americans for dead hasnt provided new toyota trucks to isis
hasnt left a string of body bags behind him including two young boys the list goes on and on but i dont have that kind of time
locker room banter versus treason there is no comparison
first any guy who says that they have never participated in locker room banter or said something sexually explicit when they had a reasonable expectation of privacy is either jesus or a liar there is no comparison between natural male human behavior and treasonous activities
additionally this lowlife ploy by the progressive liberal democrats is disgusting and changes nothing for many of us jfk was having an ongoing affair with marilyn monroe and im sure his secret service agents could have repeated some rather spicy language in which he described their sexual sessions but you know what neither jfks secret service agents nor the mainstream media said anything about the affair much less jfks private conversations about it because they had dignity respect for the office of potus and respect for jfk any one of those things alone should be enough to keep despicable actions of the democrats and the mainstream media from happening around the whole institution of the potus including the potential potus candidates however we see that neither the democrats nor the mainstream media have any honor truth or journalistic integrity remaining
general george s patton and prime minister winston churchill were both as crude as they come in private and often in public but they got the job done when they were called upon maybe you dont consider donald trump in the same ranks as the above three men maybe you dont think donald trump can get the job done either way i couldnt care less what i do care about is the poor state of our country the damage that barack obama the democrats have done and the damage that hillary clinton is sure to do for petes sake look at the shell of a city that used to be detroit mi look at chicago with doubledigit murders just about every week if you want the us to look like these longtime democratrun cities by all means vote for hillary clinton if not then the only other viable option is donald trump
if the worst thing that the democrats the mainstream media and the progressive liberal useful idiots have on donald trump is locker room banter by a man acting like men do then thats nothing to see in my opinion it might actually be beneficial to our country to have an alphamale as potus for a change lynn bowling cosentino
and were not already obama has succeeded in making us look stupid and weak always apologizing for americas actions of past decades other world leaders dont trust him lazarovic
id say youre a mindless brainwashed acolyte of the rush limbaugh institute of advanced conservative studies snicker raymond chow
how is that when you can turn off limbaugh anytime you want but you have no choice when it comes to public education you are one stupid dimwit you are one of the idiots that voted for a dumbass knee grow and now want to put in a dishonest corrupt crooked hog no typo for president lazarovic
it is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere snodtblossom
trump has done nothing but give lippservice he has never worked a steady bureaucratic job in his life he blasts his mouth in obnoxious ways are you insane enough to want this man as a president paleface
it states quite plainly that im referring to lippservice trump thelulzwarrior
that im referring to lippservice trump
we have no troubles believing you snodtblossom
you know i have to edit spelling to avoid censure liz the shiz
lippservice i thought that was you give to your dates after they bought you dinner snodtblossom
mm been a long time since ive done that i had a bf over yrs you know maybe my boss will get brave liz the shiz
its always a good career move to suck up to the boss snodtblossom
hes much harder to get than expected liz the shiz
but i hear hes a big tipper snodtblossom
i am due for a raise da fish
yes beats the crap out of warmonger hillary thepeanut
we do not need this slimy couple in the white house again snodtblossom
ridiculous t rump would be the first one to say offensive things and get us into a war trollingfortrolls
clinton has both public and private positions on issues at least he trump speaks his mind on what is so blatantly wrong with our current system hillary will sell out everyone including you to attain the power and prestige she yearns be careful what you wish for bill g wilminton nc
put snotty on blocki did snodtblossom
bill wears frilly girly panties liz the shiz
and you of course wear government issue boxers snodtblossom
i wear no undies under my mao suit jonodough
yes satin
she and obama want ww more than anything what is wrong with you check it out they have signed a death certificate for the americans goinsheep
did she say that would you post the link of the death certificate watchmannonthewall
adults dont immediately respond to words if they did the us because of obama and hillary would be toast we will be toast anyway any one who thinks russian leadership is going to wait for the us to make the first move unless they allow us one and then hit back xs harder is living in la la land nukes will come out almost immediately no more year wars if hillary wins this is what you have to look forward to if trump wins the neocons might still hijack policy and we may end up there anyway count on putin to play to win it wont be a long war jonodough
i hope they nuke dc first
wow thought police automatically typing in for me with the lowercase d c turning into dc
global control of the internet and free speech now in place liz the shiz
steady bureaucratic job lazy pencil pusher with productivity at best just biding time until they collect a pension paid for by the makers and doers snodtblossom
yes but not everyone can sit there steadily while draining the taxpayers thepeanut
are you insane enough to | 1 |
22,669 | Chris Wallace Just Shoved His Foot So Far Up Trump’s Ass It Came Out His Mouth (VIDEO) | Donald Trump may spend his time furiously tweeting that the Russia investigation the one over which he fired FBI Director James Comey after he requested additional resources is FAKE NEWS, while simultaneously complaining about leaks of classified information that is simultaneously FAKE NEWS and real information, but the rest of us see through his actions that not only is our alleged President hiding about a billion skeletons in his closet, but he has sold out our nation. This is, at this point, something that can be considered a truth because even Fox News can t avoid commenting on The Donald and his administration s shady practices. When I heard that exchange today between Jeff Mason, White House reporter, and Sean Spicer speaking from the podium in the briefing room for the President of the United States, it took my breath away, Wallace told fellow Fox host Shep Smith on Friday, adding:That was what in Watergate they called a non-denial denial. He was asked specifically, is there a recording device in the Oval Office of the President of the United States? He said, I have nothing for you on that. He could have said no. He could have said yes. He said I have nothing for you on that. That is a non-denial denial. Look, it may just be that the President is trolling the press corps and saying work yourself into a frenzy about this and turns out it nothing. But why would he do that? Why would he want to decrease the credibility which is already in question of this White House and comments that are made from that podium? It seems to me that you re playing a very dangerous game with the currency of the credibility of the President of the United States. Every step he s taken this week has cut into the credibility of this White House, the trust of the people inside the White House, Wallace said, and clearly I think the trust that the American people pay to this President and to his White House staff. I ve never seen anything like it and I find it very troubling and troubled. I just don t understand the game that they re playing, he added. Cause it isn t a game. Watch Wallace tear Trump limb from stupid limb below:featured image via screengrab | 0 |
22,670 | White House: Will not rule out more Guantanamo releases this week | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Tuesday declined to rule out the possibility of additional prisoners being transferred from the U.S. naval facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before President Barack Obama leaves office on Friday. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said he could not rule out such a move while speaking to reporters at a daily news briefing, one day after Oman announced that it had taken in 10 prisoners released from the facility. | 1 |
22,671 | Turkey to investigate Galatasaray's 'Rocky' poster over coup links | ANKARA (Reuters) - The Turkish government has launched an investigation into a poster unfurled by fans of Istanbul s Galatasaray soccer team that pro-Turkish media said was clearly linked to organizers of the 2016 attempted coup. Just before Sunday s match kicked between Galatasaray and local rivals Fenerbahce, the home fans opened a giant red and yellow poster behind the goal showing Sylvester Stallone s famous fictional boxer Rocky , with the caption Stand Up and They look big because you are kneeling. Pro-government Turkish media linked the poster and its caption to the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of masterminding the July 2016 failed coup attempt. Pro-government daily Takvim said the poster was a reference to a speech by Gulen, where he was quoted reading from a poem that ends with the words Stand Up Sakarya . Sakarya is a province in northwest Turkey. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Monday ordered authorities to carry out an investigation into the poster, sources from his office said. The game between Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, Turkey s biggest fixture, ended in a 0-0 draw after a match that was marred by violence in which a referee was injured. In a statement, Galatasaray said the accusations were a pathetic attempt to discredit the club, adding that the same poster was used at a match in May. We will use all our legal rights against any institution, person and social media account who tried to put the Galatasaray name next to that of the red-handed leader of the heinous terrorist organisation by using the choreography as an excuse, the club said on its website. Some 50,000 people have been jailed pending trial over suspected links to last year s failed coup and more than 150,000 have been sacked or suspended from their jobs in the military, public and private sectors. Rights groups and Turkey s Western allies have said President Tayyip Erdogan is using the failed coup as a pretext to crush dissent, but the government says the measures are necessary to fight the threats it is facing. Following the statement from Yildirim s office, Galatasaray s shares were down 4.89 percent as of 1535 GMT. Current league leaders Galatasaray are Turkey s most decorated soccer club, with 20 league championships, and became the first Turkish club to win a major European trophy when they won the 2000 UEFA Cup, the predecessor to the Europa league. | 1 |
22,672 | Britain lifts electronic device ban on flights from Cairo: ministry | CAIRO (Reuters) - British authorities have lifted a ban on carry-on electronic devices on planes arriving from Cairo airport, Egypt s Ministry of Civil Aviation said on Friday. The United States and Britain in March imposed restrictions banning electronic devices from being carried on planes coming from certain airports in Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Authorities lifted the ban after confirming that security procedures on Egypt s flights meet the requirements of the British Transportation Security Administration, the ministry said in a statement. | 1 |
22,673 | Bill Maher Hilariously Hammers ‘Evil’ Ted Cruz On Jimmy Kimmel Live (VIDEO) | Jimmy Kimmel couldn t stop laughing as Bill Maher repeatedly mocked the GOP.During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Tuesday night, Real Time host Bill Maher made an appearance to talk about the New Hampshire primary and what he would do if he had no choice but to vote for one Republican candidate in the field. I d kill myself, Maher simply stated.Maher explained that the United States would be a horrible place to live under Republican control, especially for women. The nearest abortion clinic will be in London! he said.Then Maher got the chance to talk about the candidates he doesn t like, and Ted Cruz was at the top of the list. Ted Cruz is always the worst, Maher said. He is smart and evil. The other ones are true dummies, like Rubio, he doesn t know what he s talking about, he just says the words. But Ted Cruz is diabolical. He s smart. This is what I really hate about this and this is what a true cynic is he s smart, but he knows what to say to his dummy base that they will believe. Maher even gave an example. Cruz once told his dummy base that he was a fan of classic rock prior to 9/11, but said he leaned more toward country music after the towers fell. It was a perfect example of Cruz pandering to the stupid rednecks who dominate the conservative base today.Here s the video via YouTube.Maher also reiterated his support of Bernie Sanders, but urged Democrats to vote for Hillary Clinton should she become the nominee because not doing so could send a Republican to the White House, which would doom our nation to at least four years of hell as the GOP passes every policy they ve ever desired to force upon us. Featured image from video screen capture | 0 |
22,674 | Skyscraper fire kills 10 in northern Chinese city of Tianjin | BEIJING (Reuters) - A skyscraper fire in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin killed 10 and injured five early on Friday, state media reported. The fire broke out around 4 a.m. on the 38th floor of a serviced apartment building near the city centre, the official Xinhua news agency said. Xinhua said the fire had been extinguished and that early indications were that the blaze was caused by interior decorating materials used in a renovation catching fire. State broadcaster CCTV said renovation workers working on site were among the casualties. Fire safety has come under scrutiny in China after a deadly blaze last month killed 19 in the far southern fringe of Beijing, which has led to citywide evictions seen by some people as unfairly targeting the vulnerable underclass. Tianjin party secretary Li Hongzhong said authorities would carry out citywide fire safety inspections in response to Friday s blaze, the official Tianjin Daily reported. | 1 |
22,675 | five filipino hostages freed by somali pirates reunite with families | on today at pm nintendo cuts fullyear sales operating profit forecasts october by yuji nakamura and takashi amano bloomberg boost from pokemon go fails to make up for sales outlook slump shares decline in european trading after results release logged | 1 |
22,676 | A LEGEND IN HIS OWN MIND? Joe Biden Has Regrets About Not Running And You Won’t Believe Why | Seriously? VP Biden wants us all to know he regrets not running because he would have been the best president . Yikes!Vice President Joe Biden spoke with GMA in an interview that aired Wednesday morning, where he seemed to show signs of regret that he didn t enter the 2016 race when he had the chance. I planned on running, Biden said. I think I would have been the best president, but it was the right thing, not just for my family, for me. No one should ever seek the presidency unless they re able to devote their whole heart and soul and passion and to just do that. I just wasn t ready to be able to do that. Read more: Mediate | 0 |
22,677 | Indian forces kill militant leader's nephew in Kashmir, police say | SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - Indian soldiers killed a relative of a top Pakistan-based militant in a gunbattle in southern Kashmir, police said on Tuesday, increasing the pressure on the leader whom it wants placed on an international blacklist. India, backed by the United States, has been trying to get Maulana Masood Azhar on a U.N. list of groups and individuals with ties to al Qaeda, blaming his group for a series of attacks in India, including one on its parliament in 2002 and another last year on an airbase. On Monday, soldiers surrounded a village in Pulwama district and killed Talha Rasheed, a nephew of Azhar, along with two associates in the gunfight, police inspector general Muneer Khan said. They were all members of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad group. India has long accused Pakistan of harboring militant groups and giving them material support to carry out a 28-year armed revolt in disputed Kashmir. Pakistan denies the allegations and says it is doing more than any other country in fighting militant groups. Masood has become a thorny issue between India and China which has blocked its repeated requests to sanction him under the UN list of terrorists. | 1 |
22,678 | NOT FUNNY! #PaulRyan Bashes Trump Last Night At Al Smith Dinner [Video] | Paul Ryan attended the Al Smith dinner last night and proceeded to take swipes at President Trump the entire time. Not funny! He just looked like a jerk reading bad and insulting jokes from a script. Watch below:WATCH: Speaker Paul Ryan roasts President Trump at Al Smith dinner. Read more: https://t.co/C6yskrO5Yu pic.twitter.com/PinNgUr7v3 NBC News (@NBCNews) October 20, 2017The Al Smith Dinner is a Catholic fundraiser for needy children that celebrates its 72nd year this year. It s known for its jokes and roasting of political figures. The Catholic fundraiser for New York s neediest children included a who s who of New York politicians, among them Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Emmy Award-winning Patricia Heaton served as the event s first-ever woman emcee.Ryan hit at President Trump several times during his speech: I m learning being Speaker of the House is a stepping stone to becoming ex-Speaker of the House. But just because I m speaker, you did not have to invite me, Ryan quipped.This is probably NOT the best time to focus on bashing President Trump but it s no secret that globalist Ryan isn t a huge fan. He famously said during the 2016 campaign that he would fight against Trump s agenda:The October conference call apparently was intended only for House Republican members. It s unclear which or how many House Republicans took part in the call, whether the participants knew it was being recorded, who made the recording, or whether a recording exists of the entire call. The remarks on the portion provided to Breitbart News certainly sound like they were coming from Speaker Ryan, who seemed to be abandoning his party s presidential nominee altogether just weeks before the election. He says not only will he not defend the Access Hollywood comments, but he will not campaign with Trump at all between this call on Oct. 10, 2016, and the general election for the presidency on Nov. 8 and that Ryan would not defend Trump on anything generally. For entire story- Matthew Boyle, Breitbart NewsLISTEN:Globalist RINOs like Paul Ryan hate Trump s agenda because it focuses on the American people 100%. Ryan has famously supported cheap foreign labor that kills American jobs and has expressed his dislike for Trump s wall that would prevent the flood of illegals we have now. The bottom line is that Ryan is part of the swamp that Trump wants to drain. Let s hope Ryan is out soon! | 0 |
22,679 | Trump's election panel puts hold on voter data request | (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s commission to investigate possible election fraud on Monday put a freeze on its effort to collect sensitive voter data from states in the face of growing legal challenges. In an email, the panel’s designated officer, Andrew Kossack, asked state elections officers to “hold on submitting any data,” the commission said in court filings. Several state elections officials confirmed receiving a letter from the panel stating that it would provide further instructions after a federal judge had ruled on a complaint filed by a watchdog group, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), which is seeking a temporary restraining order. Earlier on Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, alleging violations of federal law requiring transparent government. The bipartisan panel, led by Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, asked the 50 U.S. states for a host of voter data, including birth dates and the last four digits of voters’ Social Security numbers. Most U.S. states have rejected full compliance, which many called unnecessary and a violation of privacy. “This has been a misadventure from the get-go,” Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin, who had refused to give the commission any data, said by phone. In Wisconsin, elections officials halted plans to inform the commission how it could purchase for $12,500 its public voter data, not including Social Security numbers or birth dates. “We’re just putting everything on hold,” said Reid Magney, spokesman for the Wisconsin Elections Commission. Arkansas, however, had already sent in a limited batch of publicly available data, according to the office of Secretary of State Mark Martin, In a court document, the government said it would not download the information from Arkansas and would instead delete it. Representatives for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The commission last week said it would meet on July 19 in Washington near the White House. On Monday, critics cheered the move and expressed hope the commission would permanently abandon efforts to collect voter data. “The commission has effectively conceded,” EPIC President Marc Rotenberg said by phone. State officials from both parties and election experts widely agree that voter fraud is rare. Civil rights groups called the commission a voter suppression tactic by Trump. The Republican president created the panel in May following his claim, without evidence, that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election. | 1 |
22,680 | Twitter BLASTS Whole Foods For Yet Another Expensive, Unnecessary Product (TWEETS) | Whole Foods is a store that many people love. They love the organic food, the appearance of cleanliness and health, and the impeccable customer service. However, lately, this popular chain has found itself under fire for creating and marketing products that are excessively expensive and completely unnecessary often at the expense of the environment due to the packaging, and at the expense of its customers budgets.Everyone remembers the absolute shitstorm caused by the asparagus water last year that the chain sold $6 a bottle for water with a couple of stalks of asparagus in it. Apparently, that did not teach the folks at Whole Foods a lesson, because they have now just had a similar reaction to another ridiculously expensive product oranges that are already peeled, which are going for a whopping $6 a pound.Needless to say, the public has not taken kindly to this move, and many people have taken to Twitter to blast the chain. Here are just a few choice critical tweets:Firstly, it was pointed out how environmentally irresponsible this is:If only nature would find a way to cover these oranges so we didn't need to waste so much plastic on them. pic.twitter.com/00YECaHB4D Nathalie Gordon (@awlilnatty) March 3, 2016 @awlilnatty Fucking hell. That makes me unbelievably angry actually. Talk about necessarily contributing to plastic taking over the planet. Swiftie Be (@StephanieBe) March 3, 2016Others pointed out how ironic the chain s antics are, given its name:@ajdomanico @awlilnatty the irony of this being Whole Foods too Mollie Goodfellow (@hansmollman) March 3, 2016Others made fun of the obviously lazy nature of the people who would purchase this:@ConorS @awlilnatty @MisterVivian next logical step: half eaten. (@Jemppu) March 4, 2016It was pointed out that it could be ableist to assume that everyone can peel an orange; however, that point was quickly followed by the obvious fact that such people are not who Whole Foods is targeting. In fact, due to the fact that most disabled people are not exactly well-to-do, they likely could never even afford to shop at Whole Foods, making that particular point moot:@otherbecky @awlilnatty You know, as well as i do, that that is NOT who that is marketed towards. Also, the packaging is still superfluous. Swiftie Be (@StephanieBe) March 4, 2016All of this and more is true here. This is simply outrageous. Shame on you, Whole Foods. You market to organic food-eating, hippieish, health conscious liberals, and you expect us to put up with this, to not notice? Well, for the second time in their price-gouging attempt, Whole Foods was forced to backtrack, calling the marketing and selling of these pre-peeled oranges a mistake. @awlilnatty Definitely our mistake. These have been pulled. We hear you, and we will leave them in their natural packaging: the peel. Whole Foods Market (@WholeFoods) March 3, 2016You re damn right it was a mistake. Hopefully you people have learned your lesson this time.Featured image via Flickr | 0 |
22,681 | REPORT: ‘Federal Government Escalated the Violence in Oregon’ | KILLED: Rancher and protest spokesman Robert Lavoy Finicum (Image Source: RT International)21st Century Wire says New eye witness testimony indicates that the FBI and other federal agencies were never fired upon, but have shot and killed leading protester, Robert Lavoy Finicum, and wounding one other in a elaborate operation that took place along a rural highway near Burns, Oregon.For 26 days since the protest and occupation began at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge outside of Burns, Oregon there were no one was hurt and there were no injuries. That all changed early Tuesday evening when the FBI and Oregon State Police raised the ante, bringing the 4 week standoff to a dramatic ending.As detailed in yesterday s report, according to 18 yr old passenger and eyewitness, Victoria Sharp, dozens of federal vehicles and armed agents had set-up a pre-positioned roadblocks along an isolated stretch of rural Highway 395 before intercepting two vehicles and firing upon one of them, killing rancher and protest spokesman, Robert Lavoy Finicum, from Chino Valley, Arizona, and wounding Ryan Bundy of Bunkerville, Nevada.A total of 8 persons were detained, 5 of whom were charged with conspiracy to impede federal officers and are waiting arraignment.21WIRE journalist Patrick Henningsen weighs in on the situation in Oregon and discusses its implications with news anchor Rory Suchet from RT International. Watch: UPDATE 1-28-2016 at 11:30PM ET: Due to public pressure and intense speculation about the events of Tuesday evening, and because of the YouTube recording of 18 yr old eye witness Victoria Sharp, the FBI has released the unedited aerial video footage from Tuesday evening s incident which took place along Highway 395 here. According to the official FBI statement: We feel that it is necessary to show the whole thing unedited in the interest of transparency. The FBI video entitled, Complete, Unedited Video of Joint FBI and OSP Operation 01/26/2016 , does show the victim Lavoy Finicum exiting the truck awkwardly in at least two feet of snow, and he clearly does not charge towards the SWAT team, and his hands are clearly held high above his head as he exits his truck when confronted by a SWAT team, before being shot multiple times by marksmen and falling in the snow. Also, the scale and size of this operation is very evident by the footage, and the apprehension of the protesters was not the result of a mere traffic stop as it was wrongly characterized in multiple mainstream media reports. On its own, this FBI drone footage would appear to support previous government and media claims by CNN, Washington Post and others that the victim was indeed reaching towards his waistband which gave federal and state police justification to unleash deadly force. However, it is still not completely clear from this aerial footage whether or not Finicum was holstered (he is said to normally carry a gun on the right hip, but FBI are claiming he had a 9mm gun in his inside left breast pocket), but also whether or not he lowered his arms before, or after he was shot multiple times. For example, if Finicum had his hands in the air and was then was shot in the abdomen first, then any man s natural reaction would be to then lower his hand(s) and clutch the wound. Additionally, if any shots were fired, even in the vicinity, then confusion could have ensued which might have prompted Finicum to reach for his weapon. Either way, it is impossible to make any such a forensic determination without a corresponding audio track which would help to determine if any shots were fired before Finicum s hand(s) could be seen lowering.WARNING: The following images depict violence and death which some readers may find disturbing. Watch: SEE MORE OREGON STANDOFF NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Oregon Standoff Files | 0 |
22,682 | India ruling party pulls ahead in election in Modi state after tight race | NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was set to win an election in Prime Minister Narendra Modi s home state on Monday, the vote count showed, but with a reduced margin, which will be a boost for the opposition. A combined opposition led by the Congress party had mounted a tough challenge in the western state of Gujarat, hoping to weaken Modi in his home base by exploiting discontent over a lack of jobs and a national sales tax that hit business. The BJP won more than 100 seats in the 182-member state assembly, projections by India Today, CNN News18 and TimesNow showed. A party needs 92 seats to rule the state. Congress, led by Rahul Gandhi, who formally took over as party president at the weekend, was set to win more than 70 seats, far better than it had done in the past. A relieved BJP said Modi s popularity remained intact. There is no other leader close, said Shyam Jaju, party vice president. The mood in the BJP headquarters in New Delhi and in Gujarat s main city Ahmedabad was initially tense as early trends showed a close fight. But later workers gathered to shout slogans and cheer victory. Modi s party was also ahead in Himachal Pradesh, the Himalayan state in the north also voting for a new state assembly. Modi faces a general election in 2019, but before then, the opposition aims to slow down Modi s momentum in state elections, with two more next year. Businesses across India have been struggling with the poor implementation of a goods and services tax that aims to harmonize an array of state and federal taxes but entangled them in cumbersome procedures. Modi s shock ban of high-value currency notes in November last year, as part of his fight against corruption, also disrupted small business that forms the bedrock of his support base. Indian stock markets opened weaker, with the 50-share NSE index down almost 2 percent as early trends showed a close contest in Gujarat. But stocks reversed the losses later - the 50-share NSE index was trading up 0.7 percent at 0455 GMT. The partially convertible rupee was trading at 64.32/33 to the dollar versus its previous close of 64.04. The rupee had dropped to a low of 64.74 in early trade. Almost all pre-vote and exit polls had predicted a comfortable victory, but the polls have often gone wrong in the past. To ensure his party s prospects, Modi addressed dozens of rallies during his campaign in Gujarat, performed rituals and even waved from a seaplane on his last day on the campaign trail. If they had lost Gujarat, the BJP would have collapsed like a pack of cards, said Congress member Sharmistha Mukherjee. This is their citadel, they threw everything at it. In the Congress party office in Ahmedabad, posters of Rahul Gandhi were being pasted on the wall. Rahul Gandhi s hard work has paid off in the state and it proves that Modi s governance is not making anyone happy, said a Congress leader, Shaktisinh Gohil. | 1 |
22,683 | Obama to make first visit to U.S. mosque next week | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will make his first visit as president to a U.S. mosque next week in a defense of religious freedom, the White House said, following a rise in anti-Muslim rhetoric in the United States. Obama will visit on Wednesday the Islamic Society of Baltimore mosque, where he will hold a roundtable with the community and deliver remarks, a White House official said on Saturday. At the mosque, the president will “reiterate the importance of staying true to our core values – welcoming our fellow Americans, speaking out against bigotry, rejecting indifference, and protecting our nation’s tradition of religious freedom,” the official said. He has visited mosques outside the United States on his trips abroad. Obama, a Democrat in his last year as president, has appealed to Americans to reject anti-Muslim comments by politicians, most notably Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump. Trump, who is leading the Republican field in opinion polls, called for a ban on Muslim visitors to the United States after a Muslim couple inspired by Islamist militants killed 14 people in a shooting in San Bernardino, California, in early December. According to a Gallup poll in December, Americans are now more likely to name terrorism as the top issue facing the United States than any other issue. | 1 |
22,684 | This Liberal Live Tweeted His Trump Rally Experience And It Is GLORIOUS (TWEETS) | A liberal from Massachusetts recently attended a Trump rally in the city of Lowell and decided to give us all an inside look into the circus that is The Donald Show by live tweeting the entire time he was there and it was brilliant.Daniel Danger wrote an article about his January 4, Trump experience on Storify, adding commentary about the rally in his tweets. He started out by explaining that he is a left-leaning, small business owner who pays a lot of taxes, paid his college loans off, and is pretty ok with guns. He is literally the kind of guy that the Republican Party is always blithering on about and saying they support (well, except the whole liberal thing).While at the rally, Danger started out his tweet-fest by describing some of the people he d encountered:9/11 truthers spotted. Daniel Danger (@tinymediaempire) January 4, 2016The volunteer who was scanning tickets was about 90 years old, half asleep, & the idea of scanning my phone screen made her literally angry. Daniel Danger (@tinymediaempire) January 4, 2016For some reason the guy in front of me is holding like a 5 year old issue of People magazine? Daniel Danger (@tinymediaempire) January 4, 2016A guy is wearing the bottom half of a 10 year old flip-phone around his neck with a length of yarn, he literally keeps shouting mother! Daniel Danger (@tinymediaempire) January 4, 2016 Trash King of Trump Rally. pic.twitter.com/Wp8J3qJJ5g Daniel Danger (@tinymediaempire) January 5, 2016For Us By Us sweatsuit spotted pic.twitter.com/BhWrnWbjbT Daniel Danger (@tinymediaempire) January 4, 2016That picture is so unbelievably perfect because that guy is wearing an African-American line of hip-hop clothing while applauding anti-black sentiments. And then there was this guy .Man wearing a Trump plastic bag pic.twitter.com/NrSd7CpkZu Daniel Danger (@tinymediaempire) January 4, 2016As someone who has been to a Trump event (I stayed outside even though I had tickets because I hate stupid people), I can tell you that his descriptions of the fans are spot on. I cannot tell you how ashamed I was of our country when I saw them first hand. It was the first time I d ever been surrounded by so many ignorant people. For instance, this guy was at the event I went to:Image via FacebookDanger then took a photo of the arena that Trump bragged about filling to capacity. The venue was about half full and he explained later in the evening that seats did fill out, but there were tons of empty spots.Make no mistake, this place is less than half full. pic.twitter.com/osKDaTUtkG Daniel Danger (@tinymediaempire) January 4, 2016When Trump started speaking, the writer explained that he constantly flipped back and forth between topics. He said the candidate did it so often that he couldn t follow him:He is literally changing subjects every two sentences, its impossible to follow. Tom Brady to immigrants to rape to jeb bush in under 60 sec Daniel Danger (@tinymediaempire) January 5, 2016 An injured Tom Brady is better than anyone else. -Trump, who is now talking about a kid getting shot in the face and a woman raped Daniel Danger (@tinymediaempire) January 5, 2016Poll numbers went to him talking about how he s gonna knock the hell out of ISIS, but now he s back to online polls. Daniel Danger (@tinymediaempire) January 5, 2016I wish I could explain how incoherent the last 30 minutes were and how jarring and meaningless his outro was. Total fucking nonsense. Daniel Danger (@tinymediaempire) January 5, 2016 And he s done. That was awful. pic.twitter.com/AhyaiaHXzu Daniel Danger (@tinymediaempire) January 5, 2016To read about his entire experience, including his takeaway from the rally and the demographics of the crowd, go here, it s worth a read.Featured image via Twitter | 0 |
22,685 | report exposes inner workings of facebook and how clinton loyalists control your newsfeed | posted on october by nathaniel mauka
congress overwhelmingly voted for the patriot act nearly years ago and our civil liberties have never been the same since as if this singular bill passed by george w bush wasnt invasive enough allowing big banks to demand our internet data and more the cybersecurity information sharing act cisa makes cyberspying by the shadow government and the financial entities controlling it a forgone conclusion
as with most shadow government legislation the cybersecurity information sharing act is packed with hidden surveillance allowances cisa was quietly passed to allow government to demand that private companies hand over personal information to them at will it also allows companies to mine data under the auspices of governmentcreated urgency
the mere fact that this act passed in late is monumental since it has been before congress in different forms for over a decade the election seems to have offered the perfect cover as americans and activists were too busy arguing over trump vs hillary
scott talbott senior vice president of government relations at the electronic transactions association believes the value of sharing our personal data as a means to be alerted of cyber threats outweighs any hazard to our civil liberties talbott states
the value is that everyone can be alerted to cyber threats and take precautionary countermeasures before they materialize and spread he said before cisa corrective measures could be taken only after the cyber threat had done its damage cisa allows each company to serve as an early warning system to the entire economy
who exactly would be determining if someone is a threat is the meat of the sandwich though cisa is ripe for abuse just as the patriot act has been
the patriot act has made it legal for law enforcement to spy on people without probable cause to enter their homes or even to strip search them before theyve been to court had the opportunity to argue a case or given authorities a motive for this type of interrogation
the stated purpose of the patriot act was to deter terrorist acts in the united states but what do you do when the terrorists have already taken over your country cisa simply expands the reach of a shadow government which has already been proven to reach beyond the boundaries of constitutional law
more importantly who specifically is cisa targeting after multiple hackers have infiltrated computer systems at the white house the state department the pentagon and the office of personnel management along with the democratic national committee and numerous multinational banks run by the cabal is the shadow government simply trying to create a stopgap before their most elusive yet damning information is made public
cisa certainly will expand the reach of government surveillance on citizens as it has been conducted by the the national security agency nsa before former nsa contractor edward snowden exposed it
i think this bill was meant to be a surveillance bill from the start said justin harvey cso of fidelis cybersecurity adding that he is dubious that the stated intent of the bill to use collective intelligence to warn of potential cyber attacks and possibly stop them before they occur will result
under the guise of sharing cyber threats cisa allows companies to wholesalecollect information that may not even be a threat and then pass it along for government bodies to determine if it is indeed a threat if this sounds like circular logic it is just the beginning of the odd verbiage within the bill its justifications for entering every possible orifice for datagathering are more confounded than an octopus in a straight jacket
the government can already enter your personal property including your home your body your cell and your computer but now they will have a legal inroads to declare you a cyberthreat simply for sending an email this begs the question who is the real cyberbully cisa seems to be nothing more than a prevarication covering the acts of an elite few who dont want their secrets exposed
nathaniel mauka is a researcher of the dark side of government and exopolitics and a staff writer for waking times this article distracted by election noone resisted the deep states patriot act was originally created and published by waking times and is published here under a creative commons license with attribution to nathaniel mauka and wakingtimescom it may be reposted freely with proper attribution and author bio dont forget to follow the dc clothesline on facebook and twitter please help spread the word by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks share this | 0 |
22,686 | China's Xi says study capitalism, but Marxism remains top | BEIJING (Reuters) - Communist Party members should study contemporary capitalism but must never deviate from Marxism, Chinese President Xi Jinping said, offering a clear signal there will be no weakening of party control weeks ahead of a key Congress opening. The party brooks no challenge to its rule, and Xi has overseen a sweeping crackdown on civil society since assuming power almost five years ago, tightening the party s grip over the internet, media and security infrastructure, and locking up rights lawyers and dissidents. Speaking at a study session of the Politburo, one of the party s elite ruling bodies, Xi said that while times are changing and society is developing, the basic tenets of Marxism remain true, state news agency Xinhua said late Friday. If we deviate from or abandon Marxism, our party would lose its soul and direction, Xi said. On the fundamental issue of upholding the guiding role of Marxism, we must maintain unswerving resolve, never wavering at any time or under any circumstances. Xi said the party should better integrate the basic tenets of Marxism with the reality of contemporary China and learn from the achievements of other civilizations to create and develop Marxism , Xinhua said. Xi also asked Party members to study contemporary capitalism, its essence and patterns, the report added, without elaborating. China has transformed its economy since it began landmark reforms in the late 1970s, and is now the world s second-largest economy. Private firms are now supported and encouraged, but the state-owned sector remains a major driver of growth and investment, though some industries like iron and steel are suffering from worryingly high levels of over-capacity. Xi said the party must continuously develop socialism with Chinese characteristics, continuously enhance China s comprehensive national strength and fully demonstrate the advantages of China s socialist system. Next month s party Congress, which opens on Oct. 18, will see Xi further cement his grip on power and usher in a new generation of senior leaders. | 1 |
22,687 | Between Berlin and Bavaria: Merkel's uneasy allies | WEGSCHEID, Germany (Reuters) - Two years ago, Wegscheid was on the front lines of Europe s refugee crisis. When Germany voted last week, the village, like many along the Austrian border, swung hard to the far right, straining Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservative alliance. After bruising election losses, Merkel is trying to patch together a tricky three-way coalition of her conservatives and their Bavarian allies, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), and the environmentalist Greens. Her task is complicated by the Bavarian conservatives, who worry about losing their regional dominance in a state election next year. To win support, they are demanding a controversial cap on the number of migrants entering Germany. Merkel dismisses the cap as unconstitutional. The Greens reject it too. On Sunday, the chancellor s Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) - sister parties - will meet to try to resolve their differences. Both suffered heavy losses in the Sept. 24 federal election to the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which won seats in the national parliament for the first time. All along Germany s southern border, where in 2015 thousands of refugees fleeing war in the Middle East poured into Germany, voters deserted the CSU for the AfD. In Passau, the electoral district where Wegscheid lies, the CSU s vote fell 13.4 points from four years ago to 40.5 percent - a low figure in Bavaria, often jokingly called a one-party state. The AfD s share shot up 12.1 points. The politicians are to blame for the AfD being elected, said pensioner Reinhold Turtschan in the baroque market square of nearby Deggendorf, where the AfD s vote soared by 15.2 points, mirroring the CSU s 15.6 point fall. The asylum seekers, I don t want to criticize them, but they get so much money while we pensioners have to be so careful with our finances just to get through the month, he said. The setback in a wealthy, conservative state where the CSU has reigned without a break since the late 1950s has prompted recriminations within the party, with some blaming Merkel s 2015 decision to open the borders to a million migrants. For decades, the CSU has been a national player thanks to its unassailable strength in Bavaria, allowing it to contribute up to a fifth of the joint conservative bloc s lawmakers. The mountainous south-eastern state with its distinctive dialect, lederhosen leather shorts and traditional dirndl dresses rose from Germany s poorest, most agricultural state after World War Two to one of its richest regions today. Now the CSU is in a bind over how best to recover. Those who blame the refugee crisis for the AfD s success demand an immigration ceiling of 200,000 refugees a year. The CDU rejects the idea. Highlighting their tensions, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper this week reported CSU leader Horst Seehofer as saying his party and Merkel s CDU faced their biggest challenge since 1976 - when his predecessor Franz-Josef Strauss threatened to break up their alliance. On Sunday, two sister parties will sit down to agree a common program ahead of coalition talks with the other two parties. Alexander Dobrindt, the CSU s chief in the national parliament, described the cap as non-negotiable . But by holding firm to avoid being outflanked by the AfD, the CSU risks alienating the Greens, who reject an upper limit. In Wegscheid, where in the summer of 2015 residents grew used to being awakened by migrants rapping on windows asking for directions in the dead of night, the mayor, Lothar Venus, doubts the answer is so simple. The AfD only has one theme, refugees. But Germany s issues go far further, he said, standing by the border crossing where people smugglers would drop refugees off, leaving them to walk across the bridge into Germany. He blamed Seehofer, who faces calls for his own resignation, for pushing for a cap he cannot deliver rather than focusing on infrastructure failings, such as poor mobile coverage and slow Internet, that residents complain about. Michael Mayer, a historian at the Academy for Political Education near Munich, said moving right was risky for the CSU. It s the mistake people have always made in Europe: running after the far right first strengthens them and then you lose votes yourself, he said. | 1 |
22,688 | BOOM! SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: I Have Reason to Believe Clinton Camp and DOJ Colluded on Hillary Investigation [Video] | Senator Lindsey Graham: I have reason to believe DNC, Hillary & DOJ Colluded on Hillary email Investigation. So lets get to the bottom of THAT! We should focus on the DOJ and the other intel agencies being politicized causing their efforts to get to the truth to be compromised.Think back on the chance meeting between Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton on the tarmac. Lynch compromised herself when she lied about the reason for their meeting. Yes, she lied. Anyone who thinks they just say on the tarmac and talked about grandkids is a total idiot. There is no way they didn t discuss things about the email investigation into Hillary.Don t forget about the emails from Wikileaks and all of the back and forth about the email investigation. | 0 |
22,689 | LOL! Lawless HS Snowflakes Try To Bust Out Of School For Anti-Trump Protest…School Locks Them In! [VIDEO] | It s about time an adult steps up and takes control of these lawless, out-of-control students. We all know 99% of them were just looking to break out of school early anyhow BUSTED: Students at MD High School Attempt Walkout, School Locks Them In pic.twitter.com/TFGf68eaLP Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) November 18, 2016You get a detention!And YOU get a detention!And YOU get a detention! https://t.co/KqdMMzeLP5 Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) November 18, 2016CONFUSED? Students at Northwestern High in MD Protest US Presidential Election with Flags of Foreign Countries pic.twitter.com/GZ6r6CcLkY Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) November 18, 2016https://twitter.com/AyyeeDanielle/status/799652287757090816 | 0 |
22,690 | SHOULD THIS RACIST GIRL BE FIRED FOR BEHAVING LIKE OUR FIRST LADY? | Perhaps this young girl aspires to be the First Lady someday. Is it really fair to fire her for making racist remarks on social media when our President and First Lady have been on a hate/blame the white man media tour since they entered the White House? Meet Illinois resident Shana Poohpooh Latrice, a Brookfield Zoo employee who made the mistake of sharing an Instagram photo on Facebook with the caption, At work serving these rude ass white people :She made the even bigger mistake of tagging the photo as having been taken at the zoo.As a result, Brookfield Zoo got bombarded with a litany of complaints from pissed-off zoo visitors who found her comments to be clearly hateful and racist. Some even demanded that Latrice be fired for her mistake, and judging by what spokeswoman Sondra Katzen told reporters, that s exactly what s going to happen. This employee s statements in social media are in violation of our policies and do not reflect our institution s values, she said. We have zero tolerance for these kinds of divisive behaviors. We treat all employment matters confidentially, but rest assured that we have taken prompt action to remedy the situation. Via: DownTrend | 0 |
22,691 | Democratic leader vows fair nomination process in 2020 after uproar | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the Democratic National Committee on Saturday vowed to ensure all candidates have an equal chance to win the Democratic presidential nomination after a former party chair accused the committee of rigging the process to aid Hillary Clinton in 2016. DNC Chairman Tom Perez said in a statement the 2020 nominating process would be “unquestionably fair and transparent.” Perez made his comments after former DNC Chairwoman Donna Brazile said in an opinion piece in Politico earlier this week that the nomination process had been “rigged” in Clinton’s favor after she signed a fundraising agreement with the DNC in 2015. Clinton, a former U.S. senator and first lady, beat Senator Bernie Sanders for the nomination but lost the election to Republican Donald Trump in November 2016. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, told CNN this week that Perez needed to assure Democrats, including supporters of Sanders, that the process was fair and she agreed that the 2016 nominating process was “rigged.” Perez said he is “more committed than ever before to restoring voters’ faith in our democratic process because even the perception of impartiality or an unfair advantage undermines our ability to win. That is unacceptable.” Sanders’ campaign manager Jeff Weaver told CNN this week he thought the debate schedule was “rigged.” Perez said the party will “decide the debate schedule in advance, instead of negotiating it after all our candidates have entered the race” and “any and all joint fundraising agreements will be transparent.” Leaked emails in 2016 suggested the party had actively favored Clinton over Sanders. Former Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook on Friday denied the nomination had been rigged in Clinton’s favor. “Hillary Clinton won this primary with almost 4 million votes,” Mook told CNN. “The idea that the DNC could rig a contest frankly is laughable.” Brazile, who replaced former DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz last year after a furor over the contents of the leaked emails, also wrote she contemplated proposing to replace Clinton as the party’s 2016 presidential nominee, the Washington Post reported on Saturday. The Post said she considered replacing Clinton with then-Vice President Joe Biden after Clinton fainted in September 2016. In a soon-to-be published book, Brazile recounts deliberations as interim DNC chair whether to initiate the process of removing Clinton and running mate Tim Kaine, a Virginia senator, the Post reported, saying she ultimately did not seek to remove them. DNC rules give the party’s chair the ability to call a special meeting to consider replacing a nominee in the event of the death, resignation or disability after a candidate has officially been nominated, but only the full DNC has the power to fill vacancies. Brazile’s book “Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House,” is to be released on Tuesday by Hachette Books. | 1 |
22,692 | Boiler Room #95 – Weapons of Mass Penetration | Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 6:00 PM PST | 8:00 PM CST | 9:00 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher and Spore along with Andy Nowicki host of The Nameless Podcast, Jay Dyer Jay s Analysis, Stewart Howe and ACR regular InfidelPharaoh for the 94th episode of BOILER ROOM. Water the kids, put the plants to bed and get your favorite mead horn ready so you can drop deep into the Boiler Room with the ACR brain-trust. Tonight the gang is discussing the myriad of Trump Protests, Anti-fa violence against pro-Trump supporters, weapons of mass migration and the travel ban executive order.Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved!Direct Download Episode #95Reference Links: | 0 |
22,693 | SAY WHAT?! NY PUBLIC School Students Pledge Allegiance To An INTERNATIONAL FLAG? | This is just another example of how public schools are using a globalist approach to indoctrinate our children. Watering down the greatness of America by blurring our border lines that so many brave men fought to preserve is repulsive. Fighting back against this mentality in our PUBLIC schools should be a priority for every parent and grandparent in America!It is widely accepted that American public schools are controlled by liberals. It seems like every day, we see new examples of American schoolchildren being indoctrinated with left-wing ideas.This latest example was brought to our attention by a concerned parent.Kindergarten students from PS75, a public school in New York City, recently took part in a class project in which the children were made to create an American flag with the flags of other 22 other nations superimposed over the stripes. Below the flag read the words We pledge allegiance to an International Flag. Check out the flag the kindergarten class created:This is the type of globalist indoctrination we have come to expect from the public school system, but telling impressionably young American children that their loyalty should lie with some nebulous idea of a global community rather than their own nation is a new low.Read more:Hannity.com | 0 |
22,694 | Hillary’s Response To Trump’s Late Night, Fat-Shaming Tantrum Is Absolutely MAGNIFICENT (TWEETS) | Donald Trump is a jerk. There s no sugar-coating it. He s a bully, and he s proven that fact over and over and over again. His activities early Friday morning were no different.Trump took to Twitter in yet another Twitter tantrum going after both Hillary Clinton and former Miss Universe Alicia Machado. Machado, of course, being the woman he s continually fat-shamed even to this day.Trump tweeted out:Wow, Crooked Hillary was duped and used by my worst Miss U. Hillary floated her as an "angel" without checking her past, which is terrible! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2016Using Alicia M in the debate as a paragon of virtue just shows that Crooked Hillary suffers from BAD JUDGEMENT! Hillary was set up by a con. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2016Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a U.S. citizen so she could use her in the debate? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2016Remember, don't believe "sources said" by the VERY dishonest media. If they don't name the sources, the sources don't exist. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2016Actually, it would seem Trump s sources don t exist according to a Snopes article debunking his claim of a sex tape. And as far as going after any woman for risque photos, he s really not the guy to do that seeing as who is he currently married to. Just saying.Hillary, not about to take this hissy fit lightly, decided to be the grown up in this election. You know, the one not asking people to look at sex tapes, and tweeted out her own series of statements regarding this very topic and beyond.This is unhinged, even for Trump. A few notes. https://t.co/WURWs6aJ5f Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 30, 2016What kind of man stays up all night to smear a woman with lies and conspiracy theories? Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 30, 2016Alicia deserves praise for courageously standing up to Trump's attacks. And he has the gall to blame her and say he "helped"? Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 30, 2016When something gets under Donald's thin skin, he lashes out and can't let go. This is dangerous for a president. Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 30, 2016To Donald, women like Alicia are only as valuable as his personal opinion about their looks. https://t.co/OZv8yg8vjZ pic.twitter.com/PZWmPcORBR Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 30, 2016Trump obsessively bullies Rosie O'Donnell an accomplished actor. He insulted Kim Kardashian for her weight when she was pregnant. Pathetic. Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 30, 2016We've heard Donald's insults for years, and his policies reflect this disregard even contempt for women. Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 30, 2016Trump on equal pay: "Do as good a job" as men.Abortion? Should be "punished."Pregnancy? An "inconvenience."Wives working? "Dangerous." Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 30, 2016Hillary is absolutely correct. Donald Trump despises the thought of women being not only more powerful than him but just in general if they do not fit his standard of existence.If you want my take on the whole thing, this about sums it up:This pretty much sums it up VOTE BLUE pic.twitter.com/diYSJixHIf Sarah Wood (@SarahWoodwriter) May 5, 2016Featured Photos by Spencer Platt, Justin Sullivan/Getty Images | 0 |
22,695 | Fifteen bullet-ridden kidnap victims found in southwest Pakistan | QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani police on Wednesday found 15 bullet-ridden bodies of kidnap victims near the border with Iran, a favored route for human traffickers taking workers illegally to Europe. The bodies were found abandoned in a mountainous region of Buleda, in Baluchistan province, 600 km (370 miles) south of the provincial capital of Quetta, district commissioner Bashir Ahmad Bangalzai told Reuters. He said documents and other belongings found on the bodies suggested that they were en route to Iran illegally. Human smuggling is big business in Pakistan and other poor South Asian countries. There have been instances of workers being killed in border areas, or sometimes dying during road or sea travel. It was not clear what prompted the killings, said Bangalzai. He said all 15 came from Pakistan s eastern province of Punjab. We re getting in contact with their families, he said. A police official said all 15 were reported to have been kidnapped on Tuesday. No one has claimed responsibility. Violence-plagued Baluchistan, which also borders Afghanistan, has long been home to separatist groups seeking a greater share of regional resources and Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda, the Taliban and Islamic State. The violence has raised concerns about security for projects in the $57 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor, a planned transport and energy link from western China to Pakistan s southern deep-water port of Gwadar. | 1 |
22,696 | Trump's ex-adviser Carter Page will not testify in Russia probe: Politico | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, told the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday he would not cooperate with any request to appear before the panel in its investigation of possible Russian interference in the 2016 election, Politico reported. Citing a source familiar with the matter, Politico said Page also informed the committee that if he was called to testify he would decline to answer questions based on his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. (politi.co/2zcViFP) It is not clear whether the committee has formally asked Page to testify in its probe of Russian meddling in the election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign. Page came under scrutiny following media reports he met with associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin last year. Rachel Cohen, a spokeswoman for the committee, declined to comment on the Politico report. Page did not respond to a Reuter’s request for comment. Last week, the committee’s chairman, Republican Senator Richard Burr, told reporters the panel had conducted more than 100 interviews in its nine-month-old probe and planned 25 additional interviews this month. Those who have already come before committee members or investigators include the president’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Russian officials have denied meddling in the U.S. election, and Trump denies any collusion by his campaign or his associates. | 1 |
22,697 | WATCH: Rachel Maddow OBLITERATES Kellyanne Conway Over Trump’s Call For More Nukes | Rachel Maddow just pounded Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trump s former campaign manager and soon-to-be White House counselor, into the ground over the president-elect s call for more nuclear weapons.The MSNBC host confronted Conway with Trump s repeated suggestions that the world needs more nukes. Conway wriggled and squirmed to try to put a positive twist on Trump s calls for expanding nuclear capabilities, but Maddow was not having it. Trump s professional spin doctor even tried to claim that Trump hadn t really suggested that we should have more nuclear weapons at all.News flash, he absolutely did. On Thursday morning, which is just the most recent instance of his thirst for more nuclear weapons, Trump posted this little gem to his Twitter page for all his followers to see.The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2016Maddow completely shut Conway down when she tried to argue that Trump s Twitter rants aren t actually him setting official policy. The president making policy happens whenever the president speaks on a national security matter, Maddo pointed out.Conway may be good at twisting the truth but she utterly failed tonight when she tried to make Trump s insistence that we need more nukes look like anything other than the terrifying invitation for global disaster that it is.Watch Maddow shut Conway down when it comes to Trump s calls for more nuclear weapons, here:Maddow: The president making policy happens whenever the president speaks on a national security matter. https://t.co/Dd7sd2TZnc Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) December 23, 2016Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
22,698 | Trump’s Approval Rating Takes Game-Changing Turn In 11 Pro-Trump States (DETAILS) | Donald Trump s approval rating continues to plummet in its downward spiral, and it seems to be getting lower by the week. The latest bad news for the man baby in the White House will be that more Americans disapprove of Trump s job performance than approve in 31 states across the country. Here s the real kicker this includes 11 states that he d actually won in November!It turns out, not even Trump s most supportive audiences are willing to stand by him after watching him try to burn our country to the ground on a weekly basis. The states that have changed their minds about Trump include Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Florida, Ohio, Iowa, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and two states that shocked everyone Indiana and Texas.You can check out how the states are rating Trump below:Trump has been setting records left and right during his presidency and almost 100% of it is negative. Over the last three months, Gallup noted that the disgraceful POTUS approval rating (39 percent) has set records lows for a president in his second quarter.When many of those states might have supported Trump last year, it seems they re running in the opposite direction now. In Texas and Indiana, there is now a major difference between the states approval of Trump in November, and how the American people feel about him now. For example, in Indiana (where Vice President Mike Pence hails from), Trump had won that state by 19 points in November. Less than a year later, he is now one point underwater. In Texas, Trump had won by nine points last year. Now, he s nine points under in that state.This is not looking good for Trump at all, as he is consistently failing in each of these once pro-Trump states:What this tells us is that even Trump s supporters are getting tired of his bullsh*t and are regretful that they didn t put their vote behind a real presidential candidate. Any Republican who wanted to give Trump the benefit of the doubt is certainly having second thoughts now.To a normal leader, this would be devastating. Any respectable president would be panicking and consumed with how they are going to turn this around. But not Trump! Last week, Trump said that his ridiculously low approval rating of almost 40 percent was not bad at this time even though he d set a record low.Featured image via Win McNamee/Getty Images | 0 |
22,699 | MN: SOMALI MAN RAPES COLLEGE STUDENT…Gets 90-Days In Jail…Allowed to Leave Scene Of Crime Without Arrest by Somali Officer | A 24-year-old Somali man, Ashraf Alaaeldin Mohamed Elgamal, raped an unconscious Minnesota State University student and was given only 90 days in prison and two years of probation.A student at MSU walked back to her apartment, intoxicated, after a party and went to bed. She woke up to find Elgamal raping her. She was drifting in and out of consciousness and when she asked him to stop, he responded: bitch, stop being selfish .The friends of the victim called the police when they walked into her room and saw Elgamal on top of their unconscious friend. The Mankato Public Safety officer who responded was named Mohamed Mohamed and was also Somali. When the officer spoke to Elgamal, he informed him that he was not under arrest and free to leave at any time , even though he was made aware that Elgamal was seen penetrating the unconscious girl and asked to stop. Elgamal claimed the sex was consensual and said he thought the victim accused him of rape because he has a girlfriend. Southern Minnesota News | 0 |
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