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22,700 | Colin Kaepernick Is Not Alone Anymore – Fellow Athletes Join His Protest (IMAGES) | Colin Kaepernick has been taking a whole lot of heat since he made the decision to sit during the national anthem in protest of the way people of color are treated in the United States. On Thursday night, Kaepernick once again refused to stand while the Star Spangled Banner was sung, but this time, he wasn t the only one.Image via InstagramKaepernick was joined in his protest Thursday night by fellow 49er Eric Reid, a safety, who knelt beside the quarterback as the national anthem rang out through the stadium before they played the San Diego Chargers. Reid also serves as the representative for the player s union and has been supportive of Kaepernick all week, despite the uproar over his protest.However, it is not only his teammates who are joining Kaepernick s protest. Seattle Seahawks cornerback Jeremy Lane also sat while the national anthem was sung on Thursday night before the start of their game against the Oakland Raiders.Image via Instagram.The 49ers have played four exhibition games this year and Kaepernick has not stood for the national anthem at any of these games. Nobody seemed to notice until his first game in uniform, which was last Friday. Kaepernick explained that he wasn t standing as a protest of the way the lives of minorities are continually snuffed out by those who are sworn to serve and protect them. He noted that the only consequence for these murders is a paid vacation. I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color, Kaepernick said. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder. It is good to see other teammates and professional football players standing beside Kaepernick and standing up for all African American lives in America. Hopefully, their numbers will grow and they will continue to use the national platform at their disposal to help bring awareness to the systemic racism plaguing not only the country in general but the criminal justice system in particular.Kudos to you gentlemen. Kudos to you.Featured image via Instagram | 0 |
22,701 | Appellate judge Kelly considered for Supreme Court: NYT | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House is vetting federal appellate Judge Jane Kelly for a possible U.S. Supreme Court nomination to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing a person with knowledge of the process. The FBI has been conducting background interviews on Kelly, the Times said, citing the unnamed source. Scalia, a long-serving conservative justice, died on Feb. 13. The White House declined to comment on the report. Kelly, a white woman and former public defender, has served on the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals since April 2013. She was confirmed to the post by the Senate on a 96-0 vote. She had been mentioned by legal experts as a potential nominee in part because her earlier nomination to the appeals court was supported by Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee that would review any Supreme Court nomination. Grassley said at the time that Kelly was “well regarded in my home state of Iowa” and that he was “pleased to support” her nomination. Kelly, 51, served as a clerk for now-retired Judge David Hansen, a friend of Grassley who served on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Republican leaders have so far rebuffed President Barack Obama’s appeal to hold confirmation hearings and a vote on a nominee, including in a face-to-face meeting on Tuesday at the White House that failed to budge them from their vow to block anyone he offers for the job. Republicans say the decision on who to nominate should be left to the next president, who takes office next January after the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election. Republicans hope to win back the White House then. Under the U.S. Constitution, the president nominates Supreme Court justices and the Senate must confirm them. Without Scalia, the court has four conservative and four liberal justices, meaning any potential Obama nominee could tip the court to the left for the first time in decades. Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, a moderate Republican, took himself out of consideration for appointment to the Supreme Court last week, a day after his name surfaced in connection with the Scalia vacancy. | 1 |
22,702 | DIAMOND and SILK Have Message For GOP Candidates Who Don’t Embrace Trump After Ed Gillespie Loses Governor’s Race In VA | After Ed Gillespie lost the VA Governor s race tonight, President Trump tweeted, Ed Gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for. Don t forget, Republicans won 4 out of 4 House seats, and with the economy doing record numbers, we will continue to win, even bigger than before! While President Trump tried to help Gillespie by using his enormous influence on social media, the truth is, Ed Gillespie didn t want Trump to campaign with him in a state that has been a blue state since 2004. Virginia was one of the few so-called swing states that went for Hillary in the 2016 presidential election.Ed Gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for. Don t forget, Republicans won 4 out of 4 House seats, and with the economy doing record numbers, we will continue to win, even bigger than before! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 8, 2017On Oct 7, 2017, the Washington Examiner reported that Virginia s Republican nominee for governor Ed Gillespie was keeping President Trump at arm s length, suggesting that he viewed him as a liability in his campaign against Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam.Trump, in an unexpected Thursday evening tweet, urged Virginians to vote for Gillespie on Nov. 7, while charging that Northam was soft on gang violence. Gillespie welcomed the president s get-tough-on-crime message, but didn t have much to say about Trump himself.That didn t go unnoticed by one big Trump supporter, John Fredericks, a talk radio host in Southern Virginia who asked Gillespie during a Friday conference call with reporters whether he wanted the president to campaign for him down the stretch.Fredericks told the Washington Examiner in a subsequent interview that Gillespie s hesitance to embrace Trump could cost him on Election Day. Ed failed to capitalize on a golden opportunity to amplify the president s enthusiastic endorsement of him, said Fredericks, who served as the vice chairman of the Trump campaign in 2016. I was flabbergasted that the Gillespie campaign chose to downplay the president s tweet, he added. This is a game changer. If Ed can motivate Trump voters to show up on Nov. 7, he ll win this election. A simple re-tweet and thank you would have gone a long way in solidifying Trump voters support for Gillespie. After it was announced that Gillespie had lost the race, Diamond and Silk, who are Trump s #1 fan girls, tweeted a message to Republican Politicians that s running for office: If you don t support our President and his agenda, then the people will not Support you! #AlwaysBetOnTrumpA message to these Republican Politicians that's running for office: If you don't support our President and his agenda, then the people will not Support you! #AlwaysBetOnTrump pic.twitter.com/nRxdTWKOgK Diamond and Silk (@DiamondandSilk) November 8, 2017Time will tell, but it was probably the biggest mistake of Ed Gillespie s political career to not ask President Trump to campaign in Virginia on his behalf. | 0 |
22,703 | DEPLORABLE! HILLARY’S Campaign Is In PANIC Mode…Their Latest “RACIST FROG” Story Proves It [VIDEO] | What happens when Hillary s poll numbers take a nose-dive after she s caught having convulsions in a press-free zone, passes out, and has to lifted into her vehicle by secret service? What happens when the public realizes Hillary is a sociopathic liar and they decide they can no longer support her, even if her genitalia matches theirs? They panic and then they resort to the most despicable act of all impugning the character of Donald J. Trump by using a FROG to paint him as a racist! pinning him to ONE person on Twitter who used Pepe the Frog to push a White Nationalist message. According to the liberal rag The Daily Beast the Twitter user is a self-proclaimed 19 yr old White Supremacist. The Hillary campaign is desperate, and is looking for any excuse they can think of to take down their formidable opponent, Donald J. Trump. How do they do it? With a frog From the Hillary.com website:Over the weekend, Donald Trump s son and one of his closest advisers posted an odd photo on their social media accounts:This raised some important questions.That s Pepe. He s a symbol associated with white supremacy.That s right.Here s the short version: Pepe is a cartoon frog who began his internet life as an innocent meme enjoyed by teenagers and pop stars alike.But in recent months, Pepe s been almost entirely co-opted by the white supremacists who call themselves the alt-right. They ve decided to take back Pepe by adding swastikas and other symbols of anti-semitism and white supremacy. We basically mixed Pepe in with Nazi propaganda, etc. We built that association, one prominent white supremacist told the Daily Beast.Trump has retweeted his white supremacist supporters with regularity, but the connection between the alt-right and his campaign continues to strengthen. Trump has been slow to disavow support from Ku Klux Klansmen (HILLARY IS THE ONLY CANDIDATE WHO HAS RECEIVED OVER $20,000 IN DONATIONS FROM THE KKK AND HAS BEEN OPENLY ENDORSED BY THE HATE GROUP) and white supremacy groups, and he recently hired Breitbart.com s Steve Bannon as his campaign CEO (and Bannon isn t shy about the fact that his news organization is the platform for the alt-right ).Now white supremacists have given Pepe the cartoon frog some Trump hair and the candidate s own son says he is honored to be grouped with him.Let me get this straight: Trump s presidential campaign is posting memes associated with white supremacy online?Yes.Like all great art, Pepe was open to endless interpretation, but at the end of the day, he meant whatever you wanted him to mean. All in good fun, teens made Batman Pepe, Supermarket Checkout Girl Pepe, Borat Pepe, Keith Haring Pepe, and carved Pepe pumpkins.But he also embodied existential angst. Pepe, the grimiest but most versatile meme of all, was both hero and antihero a symbol fit for all of life s ups and downs and the full spectrum of human emotions, as they played out online.On social media, Pepe became inescapable. Katy Perry tweeted a crying Pepe with the caption Australian jet lag got me like, racking up over 10,000 retweets. Nicki Minaj posted a twerking Pepe on Instagram with the caption Me on Instagram for the next few weeks trying to get my followers back up, which 282,000 users liked. And then, recently, things took a turn: Pepe became socially unacceptable.Here is a screen shot of the PARODY account @JaredTSwift the Daily Beast and Hillary s campaign refer to:Yep that s it. Pepe the Frog was used by a singe Twitter user who clearly identifies his account as PARODY, so if Trump or anyone associated with Trump uses Pepe the Frog (who has been used by literally hundreds of thousands of social media users) Trump must be a racist! There is absolutely no mention of Jared Taylor Swift s support for Donald J. Trump in his bio or in his Pepe the Frog posts. But that s how these liberal rags roll, and Hillary jumped right on that bandwagon without any evidence whatsoever, in a desperate effort to tie Trump to this ONE anonymous PARODY Twitter user.This YouTube video does a great job of mocking Hillary and her campaign for attempting to pin a racist label on the cartoon frog in hopes that it would in turn make American voters believe Trump is a racist just like the cartoon frog Enjoy: | 0 |
22,704 | FLORIDA COUPLE SPOTS MAN With “Death to America” Sign Then Take Matters Into Their Own Hands [Video] | This is yet another example of just how crazy it has become under Obama s divisive administration. It seems like every day is a protest. Patriotism needs to make a comeback with the next president After a couple spotted a man holding a sign that read Death to America on a curb in Middleburg, Florida, they decided to take matters into their own hands by physically beating up the man and snatching the sign away from him in a Tuesday encounter that was caught on camera.The man and woman were driving past the curb in a gray Nissan when they saw Charles Brownett standing there with his sign, which read Death to America according to WJAX-TV. The woman in the car allegedly shouted at Brownett, Why don t you leave America? to which he responded, Give me some money, the Clay County Sheriff s Office report stated. | 0 |
22,705 | Trump Gets Revenge On Women’s March By Signing Executive Order That Will Kill A Bunch Of Women And Girls | How mad is Trump that millions of women made him look like a fool? Mad enough to kill, apparently. While he can t order the executions of American women for defying him yet President Pussygrabber did the next best thing. He signed an executive order that will lead to the deaths of multitudes of women and girls worldwide.On Monday, The Donald continued the path of destruction he began with his first executive order attacking Obamacare by unleashing an assault on the women and girls of the world. One of Trump s growing number of executive orders reinstates the global gag rule, which blocks federal funding for international, nongovernmental organizations that provide or promote abortions.In short, if your organization were to partner with Planned Parenthood to inform girls and women across the globe about reproductive health like, say, the Clinton Foundation, people like Trump could argue that you are promoting abortion by mentioning it as a medically legitimate option.The policy was originally developed by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. Ever since then, Presidents who care about human rights like Obama and Clinton have been rescinding it. Republicans, however, being part of a party that combats women s rights at every turn, typically reinstate it.How harmful is it? Mother Jones reports:According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, women in poor countries suffer the most from this policy. A 2003 analysis found that the rule leads to unsafe abortions, which are the second-leading cause of death for women of reproductive age in Ethiopia and account for more than 40 percent of the maternal mortality rate in Kenya. Peru has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Latin America, in part because of its high rate of clandestine abortions.The United States currently spends about $600 million annually on family planning and reproductive health programs in foreign countries. The Guttmacher Institute, a think tank that studies reproductive health care, estimates that a loss of this funding would translate to 38,000 more abortions. Marie Stopes International, one of USAID s biggest family planning partners, estimates that the global gag rule will lead to an additional 2.2 million abortions worldwide.Trump s order comes on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade and directly follows a nationwide three-million women march against Trump and his hate. This didn t go unnoticed in Trump s homeland of Twitterville:1/21: 2.5 million women march.1/22: 44th anniversary of Roe v. Wade1/23: Trump starts rolling back women's rightshttps://t.co/mqQwVonBQQ Kate Black (@KateBlackDC) January 23, 2017Trump this weekend: 'Didn't see the point' for this Women's MarchTrump today: Reinstates Global Gag Rule, hurting women worldwide Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) January 23, 2017This is the vindictive asshole's idea of punishment for the women's march, I presume https://t.co/4830aPJIuB Dina/Alex (@SkulldelaCreme) January 23, 2017two days after the women's march and trump already reinstates the global gag rule . Paige Calian (@paigecalz) January 23, 2017This is why we march Trump just reinstated the global gag rule on abortion and family planning. https://t.co/v7YLBOS32G via @voxdotcom Daveon Coleman (@DaveonMarjan) January 23, 2017I'd bet my life that this is 100 percent retaliation for the Womens March https://t.co/yin1QVEveM#WomensMarch George D. (@xdelmar59) January 23, 2017Trump reinstates the gag rule = "revenge" on the women's march. I think it is clearer than ever that his first impulse is revenge. Gwendolyn Ann Smith (@gwenners) January 23, 2017millions of women around the world march in part for reproductive rights and two days later trump reinstates the global gag rule nasty woman (@kaarahoffmaan) January 23, 2017It's pretty clear that Trump reinstating the Global Gag Rule is directly in reaction to the Women's March that took place around the world. Sepie (@sepiemoini) January 23, 2017Was this retaliation? Well, many people are saying including a former British spy that Trump once paid some nice Russian ladies to pee on a bed for him because Obama had slept there at one point. Past that, he has displayed an almost impressive level of vindictiveness in all of his dealings, ever. Unfortunately, this is exactly the sort of thing we can expect from a small-minded, thin-skinned, bigoted bully who was handed too much power by a minority of the population and over the protests of more people than he was able to attract to his inauguration.Be sure to spend every day telling him to go fuck himself. It s the only way we re going to get through this.Featured image by Joe Raedle via Getty Images/screengrab | 0 |
22,706 | John Kerry commits more U.S. military aid for ex-Soviet Georgia | TBILISI (Reuters) - Secretary of State John Kerry told ex-Soviet Georgia that the United States would help it bolster its army as he reassured a close U.S. ally days before a NATO summit expected to focus on the threat a resurgent Russia poses. Kerry, on his first visit to Georgia as Secretary of State, made the commitment ahead of a NATO summit in Warsaw on Friday at which members of the Western military alliance plan to announce action to deter possible Russian military aggression. Georgia and former Soviet states such as Moldova and Ukraine have become increasingly concerned by Russia’s intentions after the Kremlin annexed Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014 and launched air strikes in Syria last year. Moscow says such fears are unfounded and based on what it calls anti-Russian hysteria. In a memorandum of understanding signed on Wednesday by Kerry and Georgian Prime Minister Georgy Kvirikashvili, the United States promised to bolster Georgia’s ability to defend itself against potential threats. That meant greater military and security cooperation, enhanced information sharing, and help building up defense capacity, such as improving combat readiness and supporting defense procurement, the document said. Until now, U.S. security support has focused on training Georgian troops for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. “The United States stands firm in its commitment to Georgia’s sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders,” Kerry told reporters. Georgia, which is crisscrossed by strategically important oil and gas pipelines, fought and lost a short war with Russia in 2008. Moscow then recognized two breakaway pro-Kremlin Georgian regions - South Ossetia and Abkhazia - as independent countries, though most other countries have not. “Russia’s occupation and militarization of parts of Georgia’s territory are unacceptable,” said Kerry. “We continue to call on Russia to fulfill its obligations under the 2008 ceasefire agreement, including a withdrawal of its forces to pre-conflict positions.” Moscow for its part has accused the West, notably Washington, of stirring anti-Russian feelings in former Soviet states it deems part of its own sphere of influence. Kerry visits Ukraine next, on Thursday, before heading to Warsaw to join U.S. President Barack Obama for the NATO summit. In Ukraine, Kerry’s third visit there since Russia annexed Crimea, he will focus on the implementation of the Minsk peace accords and the country’s reform agenda. It will be Kerry’s first chance to meet new Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman. | 1 |
22,707 | Sweden stops some new aid for Cambodia in protest over crackdown | PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Sweden said on Tuesday it was stopping new aid for Cambodia, except in education and research, and would no longer support a reform programme after the main opposition party was outlawed by the Supreme Court at the government s request. The announcement marked the first concrete action by a European Union country in protest at a political crackdown in which veteran Prime Minister Hun Sen s main rival has also been arrested and civil rights groups and independent media attacked. The United States cut election funding and said it would take more punitive steps after last week s ban on the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP). The European Union has also threatened action. Sweden s embassy in Phnom Penh said the country was reviewing its engagement with Cambodia. We will not initiate any new government-to-government development cooperation agreements, except in the areas of education and research, it said in a statement. As a consequence, it would be unable to support decentralisation reform in its current form. That reform aims to strengthen lower levels of government, such as local communes. The CNRP won control of more than 40 percent of the communes in elections in June, but has now had to give them up to the ruling Cambodian People s Party (CPP). The CNRP was banned after its leader, Kem Sokha, was arrested for alleged treason. The government says he sought to take power with American help. He rejects that allegation as politically motivated, to allow Hun Sen to extend his more than three decades in power in next year s general election. Responding to the Swedish statement, a senior official said Cambodia welcomed friendship with Sweden or other countries, but said they must understand the CNRP had been banned because the courts found it had committed treason. People should respect the Cambodian people s decision in accordance with the principle of democracy and the rule of law, said Huy Vannak, undersecretary of state at the Interior Ministry. Sweden, which has given Cambodia an estimated $100 million in aid over five years, ranked third among individual EU member states in Cambodia s database of donors last year, after France and Germany. Swedish fashion group H&M is also a key buyer from Cambodia s garment factories - the country s main export earner. But Western donors have less sway than they once did since China has emerged as Cambodia s biggest aid donor and investor. Meeting on Monday on the sidelines of a meeting of Asia-Europe foreign ministers in Myanmar, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Cambodian counterpart Prak Sokhon that China supported the government s actions. China has repeatedly expressed its support for Cambodia, making no criticism of the government led by Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge commander, who is one of Beijing s most important allies in Southeast Asia. (The story adds dropped word after in paragraph 1) | 1 |
22,708 | Just 10 Days Before The Orlando Shooting, Pres. Obama Issued A HUGE Warning | Here s what we know about the Orlando shooter: the FBI was watching him very closely because of alleged terrorist sympathies. Even though he was on the government s radar, he was able to purchase his weapons legally just days before he killed 50 people and wounded 53 others.Some Americans are just now learning, for the first time, that individuals on watchlists (or who are being monitored by the FBI) can legally buy a gun, no problem, and they cannot be stopped. This is also known as the Terror Gap, and like the Charleston Loophole (which allowed Dylann Roof his gun used to kill nine black churchgoers), it exposes fatal cracks in our system.But just 10 days before the Orlando shooting, President Obama warned the people that this fatal crack was detrimental to our national security, and no one paid attention.When asked by a gun owner at a PBS News Hour discussion why he wants to control and restrict and limit gun manufacturers, gun owners and responsible use of guns and ammunition to the rest of us, the good guys, and not the bad guys, President Obama responded with:What I have said is precisely what you suggested, which is, why don t we treat this like every other thing that we use? I just came from a meeting today in the Situation Room in which I got people who we know have been on ISIL Web sites, living here in the United States, U.S. citizens, and we re allowed to put them on the no-fly list when it comes to airlines, but because of the National Rifle Association, I cannot prohibit those people from buying a gun.This is somebody who is a known ISIL sympathizer. And if he wants to walk in to a gun store or a gun show right now and buy as much as many weapons and ammo as he can, nothing s prohibiting him from doing that, even though the FBI knows who that person is.And 10 days later, an ISIL sympathizer walked into a nightclub with his legally bought guns and unleashed the worst shooting in American history.In December, a simple bill in the Senate was shot down by Republican lawmakers. It s purpose? Anyone who appears on watchlists or is being flagged by the government as a terrorist sympathizer may not purchase gun. Every Republican (and one Democrat) voted no. Republicans are so beholden to the NRA that they couldn t even ban potential terrorists from having access to weapons.So the next time Republicans want to blame President Obama, remind them that he tried to warn us, and that our Republican Senate has blood on their hands.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images | 0 |
22,709 | White House agrees to detail ethics waivers | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House will comply with a request from the U.S. government’s ethics agency to provide information on which former lobbyists are working in the administration, an administration official said on Friday. Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), said in a letter that the administration was not seeking to impede efforts by the Office of Government Ethics to obtain that information, despite earlier protests from Walter Shaub, the director of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE). “OMB shares the belief that the executive branch must uphold the highest ethical standards in accordance with the law,” Mulvaney wrote. “Our concern was, and is, protecting the process related to the data call.” Shaub, an appointee under President Barack Obama in the final year of five-year term, had requested in April copies of waivers the administration of President Donald Trump granted to former lobbyists now appointed to positions in the government. Those requests were sent to agencies across the administration, seeking waivers that would allow former lobbyists to work on issues they had been involved with as paid advocates. But OMB requested a stay of that request, prompting a fierce response from Shaub. He called the request “highly unusual” and said his agency has the authority to take “corrective action proceedings” against agencies that refuse its requests. In his Friday response, Mulvaney said the requested stay was not an attempt to stifle OGE efforts but rather to provide more time to “ensure sufficient consideration was given to legal questions.” “OMB has never sought to impede OGE,” he wrote. Mulvaney closed the letter by saying the OMB did not grant any lobbyist waivers itself. Shortly after taking office in January, Trump signed an executive order barring lobbyists who joined the administration from working on issues related to their prior work. But the administration has the power to grant waivers to particular hires, exempting them from that restriction. | 1 |
22,710 | Italian woman jailed in Denmark for ordering murder online in bitcoin | COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - An Italian woman who ordered the murder of her boyfriend through a website and paid a hitman in bitcoin digital currency was sentenced on Friday to six years in a Danish jail. The 58-year-old woman ordered the murder - which was never carried out - in March, transferring 4.1 bitcoin, then worth around $4,000, to the hitman s virtual wallet, the court found. Bitcoin can be transferred electronically between users without an intermediary such as a bank, making it potentially attractive for buying illegal goods or services. The woman, who has lived in Denmark for 30 years, will be expelled after serving her sentence, the court said. The intended murder victim was present at the court hearing north of Copenhagen on Friday and spoke with the woman after the verdict, the Danish public broadcaster said. | 1 |
22,711 | Photo Of GOP Meeting To Kill Maternity Care Goes Viral After People Notice Totally Offensive Detail | In a stunning example of just how out-of-touch and heartless the Republican Party is towards women s healthcare, Vice President Mike Pence convened a meeting to discuss the topic of stripping maternity care requirements from health insurance and forgot to invite even a single woman.Needless to say, an image of the meeting is now blowing up on social media as Americans sit in stunned amazement that this is how Congress and the White House think of the women who make up half the country.Democratic politicians were equally outraged. Massachusetts Representative Jim McGovern tweeted his anger over the sheer audacity of this meeting. The picture clearly struck a nerve because the tweet quickly racked up thousands of retweets.This is outrageous: Not a single woman in the room as @Mike_Pence and @HouseGOP propose removing maternity coverage in #Trumpcare. pic.twitter.com/wwY6WsN206 Jim McGovern (@RepMcGovern) March 23, 2017(Pictured above: Some dicks, a lot of assholes, but not a single uterus.)And the group was taking women s health so seriously that it appears one member actually fell asleep during the meeting:@RepMcGovern @DaithiFall @mike_pence @HouseGOP and one dude who s clearly dozed off pic.twitter.com/7RV9qj2whN Kevin Byrne (@KevByrneBox) March 23, 2017Trump and Paul Ryan have been frantically offering deals to the fringe right-wing of the GOP in the hopes that they will agree to pass the Obamacare-replacement known as the American Health Care Act. The bill has been nothing short of a disaster for Republicans. For starters, it keeps many of the items that infuriate conservatives intact, while at the same time doing everything that Obamacare did, but less well. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that over 24 million people would likely lose their health insurance thanks to this bill. For many people, it would also cause their premiums to skyrocket.Rather than fix the bill or better yet, keep the ACA Trump and Ryan are making huge concessions to the ultra-right. One such concession is to remove the health care part of the health care bill. Republicans are considering dropping the so-called essential health benefits of the ACA, allowing insurers to pick and chose what they want to cover. Naturally, things like maternity care and emergency services would be the first to go. Which brings us back to the House Freedom Caucus and its all-male members.In a dimly lit room, the group of conservative white men sat around a table and weighed the relative merits of providing maternity care to women. To give one an idea of how dismissive these elderly GOPers were towards giving health care to women, here s how Trump s Press Secretary Sean Spicer framed it:Sean Spicer on healthcare: "I think if you're an older man you can generally say that you're not going to need maternity care." Liam Stack (@liamstack) March 23, 2017The mothers, daughters, sisters, wives and in some cases, mistresses might see things a bit differently.Featured image via Twitter | 0 |
22,712 | U.S., China to step up cooperation on North Korea | NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang agreed on Monday to step up cooperation in the United Nations Security Council and in law-enforcement channels after North Korea’s fifth nuclear test, the White House said. China and the United States are also targeting the finances of Liaoning Hongxiang Industrial, a Chinese conglomerate headed by a Communist Party cadre, that the Obama administration thinks has a role in assisting North Korea’s nuclear program, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. U.N. diplomats say the two countries have started discussions on a possible U.N. sanctions resolution in response to the nuclear test earlier this month, but Beijing has not said directly whether it will support tougher steps against North Korea. Obama met Li on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly session in New York. “Both leaders condemned North Korea’s September 9 nuclear test and resolved to strengthen coordination in achieving the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, including by invigorating cooperation in the United Nations Security Council and in law enforcement channels on North Korea,” a White House statement said. China is isolated North Korea’s most important diplomatic backer and its biggest trading partner. It has been angered by Pyongyang’s repeated nuclear and missile tests and signed on to increasingly tough U.N. sanctions, but it has said it believes such steps are not the ultimate answer and called for a return to talks with North Korea. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Japanese counterpart last week China opposes “unhelpful” unilateral sanctions on North Korea but will work within the United Nations to formulate a response. Washington has pressed Beijing to do more to rein in North Korea. The United States has said it is willing to negotiate with the North if the country commits to get rid of its nuclear weapons, which Pyongyang has refused to do. The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) is preparing as early as this week to announce legal action against Chinese firms suspected of providing financial assistance to Pyongyang, the Journal reported, citing officials familiar with the matter. It said DoJ prosecutors visited Beijing twice last month to make their Chinese counterparts aware of alleged criminal activities being committed by Liaoning Hongxiang Industrial. A social media post last week from the police in Liaoning, the northeastern border province of China, said they were investigating the firm’s alleged long-term involvement in “serious economic crimes” and that relevant suspects were cooperating. A report by Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul and C4ADS in Washington says it identified more than $500 million in trade from January 2011 to September 2015 between the North and the Liaoning Hongxiang Group, which states on its website that it trades heavily with the North. The figure includes more than $360 million in imports from North Korea by one group company, Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development Co., an industrial machinery and equipment wholesaler. “While no judgment is being made on the final use of these funds, trade at this volume is of particular note. By one estimate, this amount would have been almost enough to both fund North Korea’s uranium enrichment facilities, and to design, make and test its nuclear weapons,” the report said. Certain assets related to the company, its founder and top executive Ma Xiaohong, and some of her relatives and associates, have been frozen by Chinese authorities in recent weeks, according to government and corporate filings cited by the Journal. The Asan report said its trading of goods that could qualify as potential military and nuclear dual-use products under U.S. export restrictions were of particular concern. The companies identified have had dealings with sanctioned North Korean entities, the report said. Chang Yong-seok, senior researcher at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies, Seoul National University, said this case was symbolic and could have real practical impact. “This was the U.S. taking China into consideration and working with China. More such cases may follow if the U.S. or South Korea have firm evidence ... Chinese companies that have capacity for producing or securing goods for North Korea may be worried now,” he said. China’s Foreign Ministry said relevant departments were investigating Liaoning Hongxiang Group and were following the provisions of U.N. resolution 2270, which imposed tighter sanctions on North Korea in March in response to its fourth nuclear test in January and the launch of a long-range missile a month later. Representatives of the U.S. Department of Justice and Hongxiang Industrial were unavailable for comment. The Liaoning Hongxiang Group is also heavily involved in North Korea-related shipping, with Ma and other people associated with the group owning and operating a combined fleet of 10 ships that regularly sail between the North and China. Ma, who served on Liaoning’s People’s Congress before resigning at the weekend, is described by Chinese media as the most successful businessperson in Dandong involved in cross-border trade with North Korea. Government records say Ma’s investment in Hongxiang was frozen on Sept. 2. | 1 |
22,713 | Senate blocks Democrats' plan to deny firearms to those on 'watch lists' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Monday blocked Democratic legislation aimed at stopping sales of firearms to people on “terrorism watch lists.” The Senate fell 13 votes short of clearing the measure for approval, as the chamber also defeated three other gun control measures stemming from the June 12 shootings in Orlando that killed 49 people and wounded 53 others. | 1 |
22,714 | littleloved by scholars trump also gets little of their cash | why american surrogates are in demand for chinese families kalee thompson hollywood reporter november
the first time dianna barindelli carried a baby that wasnt her own was in we were done having kids but i still wanted to be pregnant says the modesto calif stayathome mom whose own daughters are and barindelli signed up with the center for surrogate parenting in encino one of the most exclusive surrogacy agencies in the world in she matched with a chinese couple unlike many agencies csp first shows parent applications to the surrogates rather than the other way around its little things that youll connect with people over says barindelli who was attracted to pictures of the couples extended travels and their traditional wedding photos
the embryo transfer took place in late barindelli emailed the mom weekly sending updates and ultrasound pictures with wechat an app that offers instantaneous translation the intended parents ips planned to be there for the birth but the baby boy arrived two weeks early hours before they arrived says barindelli i texted and made sure the mom was ok with him staying in my room i cleared everything with her i didnt want her to feel bad that she wasnt there
barindelli who used her surrogacy fees to set up a college fund for her girls is pregnant again this time with the baby due feb of a taiwanese couple she may not be done her first chinese couple emailed her recently soon after their sons first birthday they still have frozen embryos and hope that barindelli now will carry their second child
commercial surrogacy is banned in most parts of the world as well as in many us states until recently infertile couples singles and gay wouldbe dads had a handful of options to turn to when it came to finding a surrogate among them india thailand nepal and mexico where surrogacy services have cost a quarter of the to bill typical in the us but in the past few years those countries have started enforcing laws banning international surrogacy meanwhile chinathe worlds most populous country with a growing wealthy elite and where some doctors believe infertility is more common than in the uslifted its decadeslong onechild policy the result is a soaring chinese demand for us surrogacy services one that is flourishing particularly in california with its culturally friendly enclaves excellent physicians and favorable state laws that regard ips as a babys legal parents even before birth if proper court documents are filed snip
snip despite csps southern california location percent of its clients now are foreigners up from percent a decade ago rival agency growing generations clients have included sarah jessica parker and rock director todd holland also sees half of its clients coming from overseas as does gifted journeys a boutique agency in pasadena at san diegos expect miracles surrogacy international clients account for percent of ips and of foreigners participating in this permutation of californias birth tourism the number of chinese ips is growing the fastest making up the most common single foreign nationality for many agencies right now
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most local agencies have a mix of caucasian latina and africanamerican surrogates i cant think of a time when weve had an asian surrogate says growing generations bergman multiple agency heads say chinese ips tend to strongly prefer a caucasian surrogate people really have this fantasy because of a lot of the marketing that was done in china says gifted journeys wilsonmiller they have this picture of blond surrogates who look like movie stars carrying the baby with their traditional families snip
the concept of crossrace surrogacy can confound friends family and associates of surrogates and ips alike in august comedian glozell green who is africanamerican and her husband also africanamerican had a baby girl via a surrogate our surrogate is a blueeyed blonde the youtube star told potential ips gathered in a culver city hotel in early october people in her life kept asking if the baby was going to be white
surrogate selection aside california has the added allure of numerous enclaves where families can be surrounded by chinese speakers and businesses people from china can stay in irvine for example and they have chinese tv on their cable packages throughout california there are places they can go and shop and find stuff in chinese if they go to kansas or oklahoma its total culture shock says expect miracles anderson snip
of course any baby born via surrogate in the us has birthright citizenship the chinese couples really like that because a lot of them want to come back and forth says molly obrien a fertility lawyer with offices in torrance who frequently travels to china to participate in information sessions for wouldbe parents often sponsored by doctors offices or assistedreproduction agencies maybe they eventually want that child to be able to go to college here unlike the us china forbids dual citizenship and most americanborn chinese babies remain us citizens most chinese couples just keep that american passport its only if you want to use the government services that youve got to be chinese says csps synesiou
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22,715 | Former California lawmaker sentenced for laundering bribe to his brother | SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - A former California lawmaker was sentenced to six months in prison and six months in home confinement Monday for laundering a bribe accepted by his brother, also a former legislator. Thomas Calderon, 62, pleaded guilty on June 6 to one count of money laundering in the case. He admitted to depositing $30,000 in an account held by his political consulting company, the Calderon Group, that had been offered as a bribe by an undercover agent to his brother in 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice said Monday. “Tom Calderon was all too aware of the bribe payments to his brother and that his brother had agreed to a quid pro quo with the undercover agents,” United States Attorney Eileen M. Decker said in a press release. “Tom Calderon facilitated these bribe payments by helping to conceal his brother’s corrupt activities from the public.” Calderon’s attorney, Shepard Kopp, said the longtime political hand from the blue collar Los Angeles suburb of Montebello was deeply remorseful for his actions. “If he had it to do all over again he would obviously make a different decision,” Kopp said. “But it’s important to view Tom and his life and public service as a whole rather than this one episode. He’s been trying to better the lives of the people in his community on the east side of Los Angeles for more than 30 years.” He was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Court Judge Christina Snyder to a year and a day in custody - half of it in federal prison - and 100 hours of community service. Calderon, a Democrat, served in the state assembly from 1998 to 2002, representing Montebello and other suburbs northeast of Los Angeles. His brother, Ronald Calderon, 59, also of Montebello, was a Democratic state senator in 2013, when the FBI raided his office as part of the corruption case. The brothers were indicted in the case the following year. Ron Calderon, who took a leave of absence from the state Senate until his term ended in 2014, pleaded guilty to mail fraud in the case and is set to be sentenced next week. | 1 |
22,716 | BREAKING: Trump Is Playing With Fire, And He Just Brought Us One Step Closer To Nuclear War | North Korea just made it abundantly clear that they have no intention of backing down from Trump, and that Trump, for all his dick-swinging, does not scare them. In fact, according to the U.K. s Mirror, North Korea just let loose with a blistering warning to Trump over his posturing: Our toughest counteraction against the US and its vassal forces will be taken in such a merciless manner as not to allow the aggressors to survive.We ve got a powerful nuclear deterrent already in our hands and we certainly will not keep our arms crossed in the face of a US pre-emptive strike. Their vice foreign minister also added this: Whatever comes from the US, we will cope with it. We are fully prepared. The army and people will courageously counter those who encroach upon our dignity and sovereignty and will always mercilessly ravage all provocative options of the US. They ve also flat-out said, We will go to war if they choose, clearly putting the ball in our court as to whether or not war happens.Trump reportedly threatened to hit North Korea with Tomahawks the same missiles we launched into Syria to destroy absolutely nothing if they go ahead with a nuclear test this weekend. But that s not all we also recently test-dropped an inert nuclear bomb to ensure that our military planes can carry and deliver it.There s a slim chance we could decide to use that on North Korea.It s not that North Korea isn t a problem. It s that this military show is having the opposite effect of what Trump no doubt thinks should be happening, despite North Korea being a very aggressive regime. And there will be collateral damage if we launch a pre-emptive strike at North Korea. They ll hit our bases in South Korea, but they may also retaliate directly against our allies in the region, including Japan.If it s nuclear war, well, the whole world will suffer.China is begging both us and North Korea to cool it. Russia has also asked both countries to be very careful. South Korea has warned us not to start anything on the peninsula without their consent as a military ally. Trump has got to stop fanning his peacock feathers and actually start considering the wider consequences of his actions, including show he s putting on near the Korean peninsula at the moment.Featured image by Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images | 0 |
22,717 | U.N. AMB NIKKI HALEY SHOWS PHOTOS…SHOCKS U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL “We will continue to see pictures that we can’t unsee” [Video] | BREAKING: In UN, Amb. Haley shows images of children victimized by Syria chemical attack: Look at those pictures! https://t.co/iVGlbSX3fz NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) April 5, 2017 We saw rows of lifeless bodies, some still in diapers, some with visible scars of a chemical weapons attack. What option do we have after Syria s Assad gassed his own people? Russia and Iran are assisting Syria so that makes it even harder to deal with: If Russia has the influence in Syria that it claims to have, we need to see them use it. The truth is that Assad, Russia, and Iran have no interest in peace. We know that yesterday s attack was a new low, even for Assad s regime. Nikki Haley following yesterday s attack in Syria: How many more children have to die before Russia cares? https://t.co/0ICwAh1wuC Axios (@axios) April 5, 2017What s the end game here?Preisdent Trump called out Obama for establishing a red line but doing nothing about it. When the UN consistently fails in its duty to act collectively, there are times we are compelled to take our own action Nikki Haley | 0 |
22,718 | Trump cyber security team, policy slow to take shape: officials | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has not announced a point person dedicated to cyber security policy or staffing in his administration, an omission that could make the United States more vulnerable to threats and worsen a government cyber talent shortfall, current and former national security officials said. They and multiple sources involved with the Trump transition organization said they were unaware of any person in the Trump orbit who is dealing specifically with cyber security, and that there has been minimal contact with federal agencies. The apparent lack of expertise or prioritization coincides with U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, having pivoted to digital warfare to address the growing national security and economic threats that nation-states and extremist groups pose in cyberspace. In response to a request for comment, a Trump spokeswoman referred to a cyber-security “vision” on Republican Trump’s campaign website, which calls for an immediate review of U.S. cyber defenses and vulnerabilities and lists high-profile hacks as “key issues” without further explanation. It did not mention cyber attacks on Democratic Party political organizations during the election campaign that the U.S. government said were carried out by Russia to interfere with the Nov. 8 vote. Trump praised WikiLeaks for publishing leaked emails from his opponent Hillary Clinton’s campaign and also questioned whether Russia was responsible for the hacks. A former National Security Agency (NSA) official who reviewed the “vision” statement said it was short on detail. Kellyanne Conway, a senior advisor to Trump who managed his campaign, told reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower Wednesday that reports of a rocky transition process were false. “You don’t form a federal government overnight,” she said. The ousting of former Republican lawmaker Mike Rogers from Trump’s transition team on Tuesday left a void of expertise on cyber and intelligence matters for the president-elect, officials said. Rogers, who chaired the House Intelligence Committee while in Congress was talked about in Washington as a potential CIA Director or Director of National Intelligence. Former Defense Intelligence Agency Director Michael Flynn and retired lieutenant general Ronald Burgess are part of Trump’s transition team. They were focused on intelligence and security matters, according to a Trump team document that has circulated among Washington trade and lobbying organizations in the week since the New York businessman’s stunning election victory. Flynn is a contender to be the next Director of National Intelligence or White House National Security Adviser, according to people close to him and multiple media reports. A less likely possibility, according to the people, is Flynn would be named head of the National Security Agency. But neither Flynn nor Burgess are experts on cyber security, nor have they indicated an interest in the subject to Obama administration officials, sources close to the Trump and Obama teams said. The federal government has struggled for years to keep pace with the rising need for cyber talent. A July memo from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget found a critical shortage of talent across the country was worsened in government, caused in part by an inability to compete with lucrative salaries in the private sector. James Norton, a former George W. Bush administration official who helped set up the Department of Homeland Security’s first cyber security team, said that Trump’s transition team may be waiting to move forward on the issue until after cabinet-level security posts are filled. “Cyber will be a priority,” said Norton, now president of Washington-based consulting firm Play-Action Strategies LLC. “There’s a little bit of fog, but I think that will clear once the names of the nominees are out.” But finding and retaining qualified technical people to serve in government may become even more difficult under a Trump presidency because of disagreements with his policies and politics, three former national security officials said. The president-elect’s bombastic statements on the campaign trail frequently alarmed tech companies and at times elicited public mockery, such as when Trump called for closing off parts of the Internet to limit militant Islamist propaganda or urged his supporters to boycott Apple when it refused to help the FBI unlock an iPhone tied to one of the San Bernardino, Calif., shooters. Susan Hennessey, a former attorney in the office of the general counsel at the NSA, said she has been urging people in the intelligence community to keep working in Trump’s administration because their expertise will be necessary to protect the country and resist potential abuses of executive power on issues such as surveillance. “In candor, I’m sad to be asking former colleagues whom I respect to consider setting aside their conscience in order to serve their country,” said Hennessey, who now serves as managing editor of the national security blog Lawfare. “I can’t and don’t blame anyone who feels they can’t stay.” A current national security official who has been approached by the Trump transition team said all or most political appointees in the Obama administration are expected to be sent packing after Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. He predicted that as much as five to 10 percent of the federal workforce also might leave. Richard Clarke, a former senior White House advisor on counterterrorism and cyber security in both the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, said Trump’s election presents an opportunity to civil servants to help shape or resist the president-elect’s opinion on policy matters. He said many of the same concerns about Trump existed within the federal bureaucracy when former President Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980. “These people like Reagan and Trump are not well-grounded in policy,” Clarke said. “They don’t have a lot of firm beliefs that stem from years of analysis and experience,” Clarke told Reuters. “You can change their mind if you do it subtly, if they trust you. And you may not even know you’ve changed their mind, because they don’t know what their mind is.” Some parts of government are more effective than others at “slow-rolling” the president’s impulses, Clarke said. But “you can’t slow-roll work that needs to be done,” such as improving cyber security and addressing cyber threats, he said. | 1 |
22,719 | ICC reports Jordan to U.N. Security Council for not arresting Sudan's Bashir | AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The International Criminal Court (ICC) said on Monday it would refer Jordan to the U.N. Security Council for failing to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir when he visited Amman in March. The court issued arrest warrants for Bashir in 2009 and 2010 over his alleged role in war crimes including genocide in Sudan s Darfur province. Jordan, as a member of the ICC, is obliged to carry out its arrest warrants. Sudan is not a member of the Hague-based permanent international war crimes court, and the ICC therefore does not have automatic jurisdiction to investigate alleged war crimes there. However, the U.N. Security Council referred the case to the international court in March 2005. The Security Council has the power to impose sanctions for a failure to cooperate with the ICC, but has so far not acted on court referrals. A diplomatic row broke out when Bashir visited South Africa in 2015 and Pretoria failed to arrest him. South Africa s government argued that doing so would have been a violation of the immunity Bashir enjoys as a head of state. That argument was rejected by South African courts as well as the ICC. The ICC ultimately did not refer South Africa to the Security Council, however, saying it was not clear that doing so would have any effect. Kenya and South Africa have threatened to withdraw from the ICC over perceived bias against African countries. Burundi, which is under ICC investigation, has actually withdrawn. Bashir is accused by ICC prosecutors of five counts of crimes against humanity including murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture and rape, as well as two counts of war crimes for attacking civilians and pillaging. He faces three counts of genocide allegedly committed against the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups in Darfur, Sudan, from 2003 to 2008. | 1 |
22,720 | EU's Juncker courts eurosceptic easterners with dinner invite | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker has invited the leaders of four eastern European countries to a dinner, according to a letter seen by Reuters, in an effort to ease tensions between them and wealthier western member states. In his letter, dated Oct. 2 and addressed to the leaders of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Juncker stressed the paramount importance of EU unity, strained by disputes over immigration and other issues as well as by Brexit. While Prague and Bratislava have sometimes struck a more moderate tone, Warsaw and Budapest have constantly been at loggerheads with the bloc s executive Commission in Brussels, as well as with EU heavyweights Germany and France, over what the bloc increasingly sees as their flouting of democratic rules. Juncker proposed a dinner with the leaders of the four Visegrad group nations in Brussels on Oct. 18, ahead of an EU summit on Oct. 19-20, citing the need to build a more united, stronger and more democratic Europe despite Britain s exit. I believe that preserving the unity of the (remaining) 27 in this process is of paramount importance, he said. The eastern states, especially Poland and Hungary, have resisted an EU program for all member states to accept refugees after a mass influx of people in 2015-16, mostly Muslims from the Middle East and Africa. Other points of contention include a reform of EU s labor rules, which France and some other western states say give unfair competitive advantage to cheap workers from the east. Some western countries, notably Italy - on the frontline of taking in refugees and migrants from across the Mediterranean - have suggested cutting the generous aid provided to the easterners through the EU budget if they fail to show European solidarity over migration. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico s recent reassurances that his country, a member of the single-currency euro zone, sees itself firmly at the heart of the EU seem to have gone down well in Brussels. The Commission has responded by saying it would work with Slovakia and other eastern member states in tackling what they see as the malpractice of second-class food products being sold by big Western multinationals on their home markets. Soothing relations with Poland and Hungary, however, will prove more challenging. Poland, led by the eurosceptic Law and Justice party (PiS), is under an unprecedented EU investigation over the rule of law following a series of reforms that critics say threaten the independence of the Polish judiciary. The EU also faces a tough challenge agreeing its next multi-year budget that runs from 2021, with generous handouts to the eastern nations under particular threat as Britain, a leading net donor, prepares to leave the bloc in 2019. After pro-EU centrist Emmanuel Macron won the French presidency this year, Brussels hopes a reinvigorated Paris-Berlin alliance can help usher in reforms needed for the bloc to thrive despite Brexit. The Franco-German axis is promising to be the strongest in years. They (the easterners) either play along that or they lose, a senior EU diplomat said. | 1 |
22,721 | Saudi women can drive at last but some say price is silence | RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabian women were given the right to drive last week after nearly three decades of campaigning, but some activists say that breakthrough has come with a price: their silence. While the royal decree ending the ban on women driving has been hailed as proof of a new progressive trend in the deeply conservative Muslim kingdom, some women say they have been cowed into not speaking about it - a charge the government denies. Four women who previously participated in protests against the ban told Reuters they had received phone calls instructing them not to comment on the decree. Two women said around 25 activists had received such calls. As Saudi Arabia pushes through reforms over the objections of conservatives, the leadership is trying to modernize without losing the support of its traditional base. Some Islamist clerics seen by the government as dabbling in politics have been detained after an apparent crackdown on potential opponents of the kingdom s rulers last month which now appears to have paved the way for lifting the driving ban. Activists and analysts say the government is also keen to avoid rewarding activism, which is forbidden in the absolute monarchy, and seems determined not to antagonize religious sensitivities. But seemingly inviolable Saudi norms are being turned on their head, with some religious clerics who supported policies such as bans on women driving and gender mixing now apparently changing their minds. The changes suggest a possible shift in the power balance toward the Al Saud ruling family away from the Wahhabi clerical establishment. In the first protest against the driving ban, in 1990, 47 women drove around central Riyadh for nearly an hour until they were detained by the religious police, then fired from their jobs and barred from traveling. One participant, a university professor now in her 60s, recalls that act of defiance which sparked a new era in the Saudi women s rights movement. On the first loop, we were not caught. But the second time, we were caught. I think somebody called. I remember one man, he was in front of us in his car. He went like this, she said, wagging her finger. That meant he didn t want us to drive. More protests followed, but the government has not acknowledged the activists efforts since ending the ban. Activists who said they had received phone calls ordering them to remain silent spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals. He was very straightforward. He said you are ordered not to comment on the women driving issue or procedures will be taken against you. You are held accountable for anything posted after this call, one of the callers said. Another woman, Tamador al-Yami, apologized on Twitter for being unable to comment for reasons beyond my control . Everybody knows.. everybody who follows.. we don t need to say it out loud :) she wrote. & it doesn t matter, what matters is the win, and we won . The government says the allegations are false and cites women who have spoken out, with op-eds in the New York Times and CNN. No one has been censored or warned about expressing their views, an Information Ministry statement said. Saudi Arabia welcomes both the enormous interest and contributions to the debate, especially those from our own citizens. Ending the driving ban is part of the kingdom s Vision 2030 reform program aimed at diversifying the economy away from oil and opening up Saudis cloistered lifestyles. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 32, is the face of that change. Many young Saudis regard his recent ascent to power as proof their generation is taking a central place in running a country whose patriarchal traditions have for decades made power the province of the old and blocked women s progress. Yet the crown prince has been noticeably absent from the rollout of the new driving policy, which was presented to the media in Washington rather than Riyadh. That may reflect the riskiness of the move, which was welcomed by many but met with confusion and outrage by others. Saudi media has tagged news about the ban: The king wins with women driving . Police however issued two arrest warrants over the weekend for men who posted threats against women drivers. Activist Hala al-Dosari, who lives in Boston, said lifting the ban had also been intended to silence women activists. The monarchy wants to be central for the Saudi state inside and outside as the owners of any reform. They are not willing to have their position contested, she said. How can they convince the world they are the patrons of modernization when the women of Saudi Arabia are challenging those notions? Eman al-Nafjan, who participated in a driving protest in 2011, said she was relieved the ban had been lifted but frustrated that the role of women activists had been overlooked. Were our efforts the reason the ban was lifted? Or was it a decision that had been made regardless of our struggles? she wrote the day after the royal decree. The professor who took part in the 1990 protest said her family had not expressed strong opinions about her activism all those years ago, but one relative now thinks she is a celebrity. My niece thinks I m someone special, she said. She says, Oh, auntie! What you did! | 1 |
22,722 | Trump vows to cut plane costs after meeting defense executives | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump emerged from a meeting with the CEOs of Boeing and Lockheed Martin on Wednesday and said he was working to lower costs on planes sold to the government, including a new Air Force One fleet and the F-35 fighter jet. “Trying to get the costs down, costs. Primarily the F-35, we’re trying to get the cost down. It’s a program that’s very very expensive,” Trump told reporters after meeting with the aerospace executives and military advisers. | 1 |
22,723 | Canada imposes sanctions on 30 Russians over death of lawyer | OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada imposed sanctions on Friday against 30 Russian officials whom it said were complicit in the 2009 prison death of Sergei Magnitsky, an anti-corruption lawyer who was jailed after alleging a massive tax fraud. The measures which freeze the assets of the officials and bar them from visiting Canada were enacted through a new law giving the government the right to penalize those it says are guilty of human rights violations, the foreign ministry said in a statement. Among those targeted are Alexander Bastrykin, Russia s top investigator and a close aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The United States blacklisted him in January 2017, citing Magnitsky s death. Today s announcement sends a clear message that Canada will take action against individuals who have profited from acts of significant corruption or who have been involved in gross violations of human rights, said Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland. Moscow said last month it would retaliate if Canada banned individuals under the new law. The Russian embassy in Ottawa later issued a statement denouncing the sanctions as absolutely pointless and reprehensible . Canada has repeatedly condemned Moscow over Russia s 2014 annexation of Ukraine s Crimea region and imposed sanctions along with other Western nations. The United States adopted a law in 2012 freezing any U.S. assets of Russian investigators and prosecutors said to have been involved in the detention of Magnitsky. In retaliation, Moscow barred Americans from adopting Russian children. In addition to penalizing the 30 Russians, Canada also imposed sanctions on 19 officials from Venezuela and three from South Sudan. | 1 |
22,724 | Southeast Asia summit draft statement skips over Rohingya crisis | MANILA (Reuters) - A draft of the statement to be issued after a Southeast Asian summit makes no mention of the exodus of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar s Rakhine state following a military crackdown that has been described by the United Nations as ethnic cleansing. One paragraph of the communique, seen by Reuters on Monday, mentions the importance of humanitarian relief provided for victims of natural disasters in Vietnam and a recent urban battle with Islamist militants in the Philippines, as well as affected communities in northern Rakhine state. The statement was drawn up by the Philippines, current chair of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) - which includes Myanmar - whose leaders met for a plenary session in Manila on Monday. The draft did not give any details of the situation in northern Rakhine or use the term Rohingya for the persecuted Muslim minority, which Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has asked foreign leaders to avoid. The government in mostly-Buddhist Myanmar regards the Rohingya as illegal migrants from Bangladesh and does not recognize the term. Well over 600,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh to find shelter in refugee camps after military clearance operations were launched in response to attacks by Rohingya militants on security posts on Aug. 25. The plight of the Rohingya has brought outrage from around the world and there have been calls for democracy champion Suu Kyi to be stripped of the Nobel peace prize she won in 1991 because she has not condemned the Myanmar military s actions. In September, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the situation in Rakhine was best described as ethnic cleansing. Some members of ASEAN, particularly Muslim-majority Malaysia, have voiced concern. However, in keeping with ASEAN s principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of one another, the issue appears to have been put aside at the summit. In September, Malaysia disavowed a statement issued by the Philippines on behalf of ASEAN s foreign ministers as misrepresenting the reality because it did not identify the Rohingya as an affected community in Rakhine state. Suu Kyi, who did not mention the crisis in a speech after arriving in Manila on Sunday, criticized ASEAN s principle of non-interference herself in 1999 when she was fighting for democracy in a country then ruled by a military junta. This policy of non-interference is just an excuse for not helping, she wrote in an opinion column in the Thai daily the Nation at the time. In this day and age, you cannot avoid interference in the matters of other countries. Roberto Romulo, a former Philippine foreign minister, told the Philippine news channel ANC that there appeared to be no discussion about the Rohingya at the ASEAN summit. They re treating with a great deal of respect a discredited Nobel Peace Prize winner like Aung San Suu Kyi, he said. Amnesty International Philippines representative Wilnor Papa told ANC that the ASEAN leaders would talk about terrorism and peace and order ... but there are a whole lot of elephants in the room they won t be talking about, that people are trying to ignore. | 1 |
22,725 | Japanese woman, confined by parents for years, found frozen to death: police | TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese police said on Wednesday they have arrested a couple whose 33-year-old daughter froze to death in a tiny room where they had confined her for years because they believed she had a form of mental illness that made her violent. Western Japan s Osaka Prefectural Police Department said Airi Kakimoto s body was found in a state of extreme malnutrition after her parents reported the death on Saturday. She was 145 cm (4.76 ft) tall and weighed just 19 kg (42 lb). Police said Yasutaka Kakimoto, 55, and Yukari Kakimoto, 53, had confessed that they fed their daughter only once a day and kept her in a 3-square-metre room for some 15 years. Our daughter was mentally ill and, from age 16 or 17, she became violent, so we kept her inside the room, police quoted her parents as saying. People with mental and physical disabilities and their families can still suffer stigma and shame in Japan despite some changes in public attitudes. Police said the parents added the small room - fitted with a camera and a double door that could only be unlocked from the outside - to their house and equipped it with a makeshift toilet and tube to a water tank outside. About 10 surveillance cameras were installed outside the single-storey home, which was surrounded by a 2-metre high fence, police said. The parents found their daughter dead on Dec. 18 but they reported the death Saturday. We wanted to be together with our daughter, police quoted them as saying. Police said the couple were arrested on suspicion of illegally disposing of a body, a step that often precedes more serious charges. | 1 |
22,726 | Merkel tells Rajoy of support for unity of Spain | BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke to Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Saturday to discuss the Catalan crisis and stressed her support for the unity of Spain while encouraging more dialogue, her spokesman said on Monday. Merkel also discussed the Catalan situation with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Saturday. She spoke with both about the current situation in Spain and, in the talks with Prime Minister Rajoy in particular, she affirmed her support for the unity of Spain, the German government spokesman told a regular news conference. Merkel also discussed ways to strengthen internal dialogue within Spain as far as the constitution allows, he said. Concern is mounting in Europe over a possible declaration of independence by the Catalan regional parliament and the reaction of the Spanish government, which could exacerbate what is already Spain s worst political crisis for decades. Merkel will host European Council President Donald Tusk for informal talks in Berlin on Wednesday, her spokesman said, but declined to speculate whether they would discuss the Catalan crisis. | 1 |
22,727 | Republican Senator Hatch rejects bipartisan healthcare deal | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch on Wednesday rejected a bipartisan healthcare deal aimed at stabilizing Obamacare, saying the Senate bill was too costly. “No way to pay for it. Oh my gosh, give me a break. I appreciate the innovation and the attempt to do it right. But it doesn’t help,” the Utah Republican told reporters. “I certainly don’t think it’s a good idea.” As the Republican head of the Senate finance panel, Hatch oversees legislation that addresses the financial aspects of healthcare policy. | 1 |
22,728 | European leaders and Obama to discuss Russia sanctions in Berlin: sources | BERLIN (Reuters) - European leaders and President Barack Obama on Friday will discuss extending sanctions imposed on Russia for its intervention in Ukraine, and possible new sanctions for its bombing in Syria, sources familiar with the plans said. The meeting in Berlin, hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and including the leaders of Britain, France, Italy and Spain, comes a little over a week after Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election. Trump has indicated that he will seek a rapprochement with Russia, raising doubts in Europe about the future of the sanctions regime introduced by Washington and Brussels in 2014 following Russia’s intervention in eastern Ukraine. A German official said the plan was to agree a rollover of EU sanctions against Russia, which are due to expire at the end of January, in the coming weeks. There is concern that Trump might move in the opposite direction after his inauguration on Jan. 20. European leaders will therefore be seeking clarity from Obama, who met Trump last week and said afterwards the president-elect would maintain core relationships around the world, including with NATO. Obama arrived in Berlin on Wednesday evening after visiting Greece. “We’re in a really critical situation,” said the German official. “We have to prevent a situation where the EU rolls over the sanctions and then the new U.S. president comes in and lifts them.” Obama and Merkel are expected to hold talks on Thursday followed by a news conference at which they will raise the issue of Syria, a source said. European officials fear that Russia will use the time before Trump’s inauguration to launch new offensives in Syria and Ukraine. Two diplomatic sources said the issue of Syria would also come up at the Friday meeting. “Syria will definitely be on the agenda,” said one, citing coordinated Russian missile strikes against rebels in Syria launched on Tuesday from an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean. The Kremlin has said it is maintaining a moratorium on air strikes in the city of Aleppo. European Union leaders last month condemned Russia for its bombing of civilians in Aleppo and signaled that they could introduce new sanctions for its actions there if the bombing continued. The Syrian opposition has been pressing Western countries to expand sanctions to include some Russian firms that are supplying weapons and bank notes to Syria. Syrian opposition leaders are due to meet with EU leaders, including EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, in Brussels on Friday. Another source said European leaders were keen to send a signal to Trump, making it more difficult for him to reverse U.S. policy and cosy up to Russia. | 1 |
22,729 | THEY KNEW! Federal Government Knew Flint, MI Water Was POISONED, Kept It Hidden…10 Have Already Died | This story is for anyone who believes the government is capable of basic addition. Even though this news is out there for everyone to see, the Left continues to use this crisis as an opportunity to try to pin the gross negligence of the EPA on the Republican Governor of Michigan. Flint, MI is a Democrat ruled, crime ridden, poverty stricken hell-hole. Stay tuned for the environmental injustice narrative Obama will soon be pushing. He s just waiting for the right time to demand federal funds be funneled into Democrat ruled, failing cities across America you know, to prevent further environmental crises. We all know #BlackLivesMatter would have already been there if someone was able to pin this on the rich, white Republican Governor of MI The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency s top Midwest official said her department knew as early as April about the lack of corrosion controls in Flint s water supply a situation that likely put residents at risk for lead contamination but said her hands were tied in bringing the information to the public.Starting with inquiries made in February, the federal agency battled Michigan s Department of Environmental Quality behind the scenes for at least six months over whether Flint needed to use chemical treatments to keep lead lines and plumbing connections from leaching into drinking water. The EPA did not publicize its concern that Flint residents health was jeopardized by the state s insistence that such controls were not required by law.Instead of moving quickly to verify the concerns or take preventative measures, federal officials opted to prod the DEQ to act, EPA Region 5 Administrator Susan Hedman told The Detroit News this week. Hedman said she sought a legal opinion on whether the EPA could force action, but it wasn t completed until November.The state didn t agree to apply corrosion controls until late July and didn t publicly concede until October that it erroneously applied the federal Lead and Copper Rule overseeing water quality.An EPA water expert, Miguel Del Toral, identified potential problems with Flint s drinking water in February, confirmed the suspicions in April and summarized the looming problem in a June internal memo. The state decided in October to change Flint s drinking water source from the corrosive Flint River back to the Detroit water system.Critics have charged Hedman with attempting to keep the memo s information in-house and downplaying its significance.As soon as the lack of corrosion controls became apparent, state and federal officials should have acted to protect the public, said Virginia Tech researcher Marc Edwards, whose water analysis in 2015 helped uncover Flint s lead contamination. At that point, you do not just have smoke, you have a three-alarm fire and should respond immediately, said Edwards, who, along with the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, has obtained dozens of key documents related to Flint s crisis through public record requests. There was no sense of urgency at any of the relevant agencies, with the obvious exception of Miguel Del Toral, and he was silenced and discredited. About five months after being alerted to the lack of corrosion controls, a researcher at Hurley Medical Center in Flint began in August detecting high levels of lead in the bloodwork of city children. Lead poisoning can cause learning disabilities and, at high levels, may lead to seizures, coma and death, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Hedman defended her agency s handling of the Flint water situation, saying her water quality staff repeatedly worked to convince the DEQ that corrosion controls were needed to no avail. Let s be clear, the recommendation to DEQ (regarding the need for corrosion controls) occurred at higher and higher levels during this time period, Hedman said in a Detroit News interview. And the answer kept coming back from DEQ that no, we are not going to make a decision until after we see more testing results. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder announced yesterday that 10 people have died from Legionnaire s disease in Flint, Mich. Eighty-seven cases of Legionnaire s disease have been found in and around Flint in the past 18 months.Flint s long-running water problems with drinking water have shaken Michigan s government, leading to last month s resignation of DEQ Director Dan Wyant and last week s state declaration of an emergency in the city. An independent task force appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder to review the situation placed the bulk of the blame for Flint s crisis on the DEQ.The federal government s actions are worth exploring, said Chris Kolb, co-chairman of the task force. We have made a request to speak with a number of EPA employees, said Kolb, president of the Michigan Environmental Council and a former Democratic state representative.Flint s water crisis gained a national profile in the past week, as President Barack Obama s chief of staff said Sunday the White House is very concerned and is monitoring the situation very closely. Former Obama Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a Democratic presidential hopeful, called on the administration Tuesday to step up with assistance for Flint as well as do an expedited review of the city s water infrastructure.DEQ-EPA battleDEQ and EPA staffers were at loggerheads over dueling interpretations of the Lead and Copper Rule a 25-year-old regulation designed to protect drinking water from metals contamination. The interpretation of the rule proved to be crucial after the city under Snyder-appointed emergency managers switched from Lake Huron water provided by the Detroit system to Flint River water as a cost-saving move in the spring of 2014.Following the switch, DEQ officials argued water testing, including two six-month periods of sampling, needed to be completed before making a decision on the need for corrosion controls. EPA officials, according to Hedman, wanted the controls implemented immediately out of concern for public health.If they knew Flint s lack of corrosion measures would likely result in lead reaching the drinking water by June, testing would show it had why didn t EPA officials inform the public when the DEQ failed to act?Hedman said federal law clearly lays out the state and federal responsibilities in overseeing safe drinking water. The EPA s role is to establish treatment standards and monitoring techniques, and provide technical assistance, she said. The state acts as the primary regulator of water operations. It is important to understand the clear roles here, Hedman said. Communication about lead in drinking water and the health impacts associated with that, that s the role of DHHS, the county health department and the drinking water utility. In addition, EPA officials argue that there wasn t sufficient early evidence for any sweeping steps to be taken.Hedman said the EPA talked with its legal counsel about its authority to compel action a question that wouldn t be straightened out for months. In the interim, she said her agency urged Michigan to have its Department of Health and Human Services provide information on precautions for residents.EPA s lack of urgencyBut critics such as Edwards contend Hedman acted with no urgency, even behind the scenes. A week after the June 24 memo was circulated, an email exchange between Hedman and then-Flint Mayor Dayne Walling showed no sense of alarm over the threat to public health and more concern about procedure. The preliminary draft report should not have been released outside the agency, Hedman wrote in the July 1 email. When the report has been revised and fully vetted by EPA management, the findings and recommendations will be shared with the city and DEQ will be responsible for following up with the city. The revised and vetted memo was released four months later in November. Edwards has described Del Toral s original memo as 100 percent accurate in its assessment of the looming problem.Flint s drinking water ills led to the resignations last month of both Wyant and DEQ spokesman Brad Wurfel. It also caused the October reassignment of Liane Shekter Smith, then chief of DEQ s Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance. The crisis prompted Snyder to switch Flint back over to the Detroit water system in mid-October until a new regional water authority using Lake Huron as its source is completed later this year.Despite all of the moves, officials warn that unfiltered Flint water is still not safe to drink.There has been no fallout for federal environmental officials. There s been a failure at all levels to accurately assess the scale of the public health crisis in Flint, and that problem is ongoing, said state Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint. However, the EPA s Miguel Del Toral did excellent work in trying to expose this disaster. Anyone who read his memo and failed to act should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Congressman Dan Kildee, D-Flint Township, stressed that the lion s share of responsibility for Flint s situation lies with the state DEQ.Yet he has questions about how the Lead and Copper Rule ostensibly a safeguard for the public may have contributed to EPA s response. If changes are necessary, he wants them made. There is a legitimate concern about EPA s performance in terms of alerting the public, Kildee said. And frankly, as a member of Congress, I want to know when there s the potential of a health crisis in my district. Via: The Detroit News | 0 |
22,730 | WATCH: Morning Joe Tells Trump To Stop Appointing Crazy People If He Doesn’t Want A National Meltdown | The more unsavory people Donald Trump appoints, the angrier Americans will get.If Trump truly wanted unity in the country he would not have appointed racists like Steve Bannon and Jeff Sessions to positions in his administration.Sessions, who once called the NAACP un-American while expressing his fondness of the KKK, is Trump s pick to be the Attorney General, who leads the Justice Department.Bannon s ties to white nationalists is also concerning since he is now Trump s chief policy strategist.And former General Michael Flynn and admirer of Vladimir Putin is now Trump s national security adviser.Clearly, Trump is placing insane right-wing extremists in high government positions, which is only scaring millions of Americans even more.And even Joe Scarborough is getting concerned that if Trump doesn t stop putting crazy people in positions of power that he s going to cause the country to have a full blown meltdown. If you re going to get a couple loyalists that have said some crackpot things in the past, you better have some steady hands at State, at Defense, and at Treasury or this goes into a full blown meltdown, Scarborough said during Friday s edition of Morning Joe before adding that Trump better listen to them, too.Here s the video via YouTube. Scarborough s comments is at the 6:30 mark.Indeed, and seeing as how Trump is meeting with Mitt Romney to discuss the Secretary of State position, it sounds like Trump may finally be ready to appoint a sane person to a key position. Romney may be a flip-flopper but he s way more moderate than Trump or anyone else on his team and won t say or do things that pisses off the world.Also, as the Morning Joe panel pointed out, Romney would be a voice of reason in an administration that is full of unreasonable people thus far.The only question is whether Trump would actually listen to anything Romney has to say or will he just ignore Romney in favor of the extremists around him?Featured Image: Screenshot | 0 |
22,731 | A Van Struck Down Muslims In London | A horrifying incident took place in the early hours of Monday morning in Finsbury Park in London.A van plowed into a group of Muslim worshipers as they were leaving prayers at a pair of North London mosques.Yep you read that right. A terrorist attack has happened in London against Muslims. This incident follows two recent terrorist attacks in London in which vehicles have been used as weapons, both on bridges over the Thames River. So far this attack has left one person is dead and 10 others injured. This is being treated as a terrorist attack, said Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu told reporters. He added that the driver of the van was arrested on suspicion of murder.According to the Washington Post, witnesses said the driver of the vehicle was heard shouting that he wanted to kill Muslims.Thankfully, the driver didn t get away. The Washington Post reports that Abdulrahman Aidroos and his friends were attending to an elderly man who had collapsed on the ground when suddenly he saw a man in a van driving straight into us. When the driver of the van jumped out of the vehicle and tried to run I tackled him on the floor until the police came, Aidroos told the BBC. When he was running, he said I want to kill more people, I want to kill more Muslims. It s absolutely appalling and to think another human being has done this.Though it s clear there s something wrong with this attacker, we need to stop fear mongering when it comes to Muslims. The worst has now happened as a result.Muslims are entirely separate from ISIS just like the KKK is separate from the Christian church. Just like Nazism is entirely separate from Germans. There are bad people evil people in the world. But attacking innocent people won t stop the problem or rid the world of evil. It just hurts innocent people and their loved ones.We need to stop being so divided and scapegoating other people. That won t solve any problems it ll just create new ones.Featured Image by Carl Court/Getty Images | 0 |
22,732 | Trump Jr Was Paid $50k For An Event Hosted By Russian Allies In October (DETAILS) | It s not just people tied to alleged president Donald Trump s campaign and administration who are linked to Russia, it s also his eldest son. According to the Wall Street Journal, Donald Trump Jr. was likely paid at least $50,000 for an appearance late last year before a French think tank whose founder and wife are allies of the Russian government in efforts to end the war in Syria.On Oct. 11 at the Ritz Hotel in Paris, hosted by the Center of Political and Foreign Affairs, Trump s son addressed a dinner.We re not sure how a murderous thug like Vladimir Putin would be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize:Its president, Fabien Baussart, and his Syrian-born wife, Randa Kassis, have cooperated with Russia in its drive to end the Syrian civil war, according to U.S., European and Arab officials. In December, Mr. Baussart formally nominated Russian President Vladimir Putin for the Nobel Peace Prize.Mrs. Kassis is a leader of a political faction endorsed by Russia in negotiations to end the war in Syria. The couple said they don t represent Russia and are solely focused on ending the Syrian conflict. Donald Trump Jr. has been participating in business-related speaking engagements for over a decade discussing a range of topics including sharing his entrepreneurial experiences and offering career specific advice, the company s vice-president for marketing said.But it appears to be about more than sharing experiences.Mrs. Kassis heads a political party, the Movement for a Pluralistic Society, which is part of a faction endorsed by Russia in international negotiations aimed at ending the six-year Syrian conflict. She regularly visits Moscow to coordinate policy with Russia s Foreign Ministry, said Arab and European officials, and portrayed in Russian state media.In interviews, Mrs. Kassis said she stressed to Donald Trump Jr. in October the need for the U.S. and Russia to cooperate in ending the Syrian conflict. She said she passed on Mr. Trump s views to Russian diplomats in subsequent trips she s made to Moscow.Embattled Attorney General is the seventh person associated with Trump s campaign or administration with ties to Russia. Sessions lied under oath, saying that he had not spoken with Russian officials while working on Trump s campaign. Trump s son s financial connection to an entity associated with the Kremlin brings up even more questions.Donald Trump s financial debt to Russia, along with allegations that Russia is blackmailing him, and his pro-Russian political policies while praising Vladimir Putin, make the issue of releasing his taxes even more important now. American banks stopped lending the former reality show star money. Deutsche Bank, an entity who has loaned Donald a hell of a lot of money, was recently fined 502m over Russia money laundering claims.There s a reason so many Americans were concerned over Trump s massive amount of conflicts of interest. One of them being that he could be beholden to a hostile foreign entity such as Russia. But, Trump supporters wanted a man with zero political experience in office, some of them doing so in the belief that their candidate would create jobs. So far, Trump has created weekend vacations for himself, scandals and held thank you rallies. #MAGA!Photo by John Moore/Getty Images. | 0 |
22,733 | Jailed British-Iranian charity worker received letter from ex-UK PM Cameron: prosecutor | BEIRUT (Reuters) - A British-Iranian charity worker serving a jail sentence in Tehran received a letter from ex-prime minister David Cameron that showed she had ties to the British government, a prosecutor said on Tuesday, according to Mizan, the news site of the Iranian judiciary. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, a charity organization, is serving a five-year jail sentence after being convicted of plotting to overthrow Iran s clerical establishment. The prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, said the letter demonstrated Zaghari-Ratcliffe s importance to the British authorities but he did not say when it was sent or provide any other details about it. A spokeswoman at the British Foreign Office said she was not immediately able to comment on whether Cameron had written a letter, but confirmed that both he and his successor, Theresa May, had raised the Zaghari-Ratcliffe case with Iranian authorities. We will continue to raise all our dual national detainees, including Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe s case, with the Iranian government at every available opportunity, she added. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested by the elite Revolutionary Guards in April 2016 at a Tehran airport, as she was about to return to Britain with her two-year-old daughter after a family visit. Her family and the Thomson Reuters Foundation have both denied the charges against her. Thomson Reuters is a charity organization that is independent of Thomson Reuters and operates independently of Reuters News. Last week her family said Iranian authorities had opened a new case against Zaghari-Ratcliffe, leveling charges that could carry a sentence of 16 additional years in prison. The new charges include joining and receiving money from organizations working to overthrow the Islamic Republic, and attending a demonstration outside the Iranian Embassy in London, the family said. The Foreign Office spokeswoman referred Reuters to a statement it issued last week in which it expressed concern that Zaghari-Ratcliffe was facing additional charges and said it was seeking more information from the Iranian authorities. On Tuesday Jafari Dolatabadi also said Zaghari-Ratcliffe was responsible for teaching online journalism for the BBC Persian language service with the goal of attracting and teaching individuals for propaganda operations against Iran , Mizan reported. Francesca Unsworth, director of the BBC World Service Group, said earlier this year that Zaghari-Ratcliffe had never worked for the BBC s Persian service. | 1 |
22,734 | Texas governor approves adoption bill that critics contend discriminates | AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The Texas governor signed a law on Thursday to protect the religious rights of faith-based groups in state child welfare programs, but critics said it could be used to discriminate against LGBT and non-Christian families in adoptions. Republican Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 3859 which allows faith-based groups working with the Texas child welfare system to deny services “under circumstances that conflict with the provider’s sincerely held religious beliefs.” It was supported by several Christian groups. The bill’s sponsor, Republican Representative James Frank, said on social media,”HB 3859 bans no one” and has a mechanism for the state to offer alternative providers to anyone denied the right to be adoptive or foster parents because of the provider’s religious beliefs. He said the legislation would help troubled children find homes. Abbott’s office was not immediately available for comment. Democrats and civil rights groups said the bill could allow private, faith-based agencies to block parents who practice a different religion or who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. LGBT rights groups have said they would challenge the adoption bill in court, arguing discrimination in the name of religion had no place in the state. “This law’s clear intent is to allow service providers that receive state tax dollars to misuse religion as a license to discriminate against LGBT families and children in the state’s child-welfare system,” said Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, a civil rights group. Texas next month holds a special 30-day session of the Republican-controlled legislature with one item on the agenda, a bill that would limit access to public bathrooms for transgender people. Critics contend the legislation would promote discrimination. | 1 |
22,735 | Bernie Sanders Hits Back At The Media In The Most Brilliant Way | On Wednesday, The Washington Post published a harsh editorial that ripped Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders for his progressive politics.The article, entitled Bernie Sanders Fiction-filled Campaign, said that the Vermont senator was guilty of making fantastical claims and peddling his own brand of fiction to a slice of the country that eagerly wants to buy it, insulting the millions of Americans that support the anti-establishment candidate. The vicious piece ends with, It merely proves that many progressives like being told everything they want to hear. The piece predictably gathered tons of support and backlash alike. Alternet even noted that the Post was probably somewhat biased against Sanders because its owner, Jeff Bezos, is an arch-libertarian worth $53.2 billion and has a whole host of investments in private health care. But regardless of others defense of Sanders, the Vermont senator himself had the most brutal message of all. On Thursday morning at a Bloomberg Politics event, Sanders was asked about the piece and he didn t hold back. He absolutely ripped the Post s Editorial Board: That s not a new argument. We ve been hearing that months and months, and that s in a sense what this campaign is about. People are telling us, whether it s the Washington Post editorial board or anybody else, our ideas are too ambitious can t happen. Too bold really? Well, here s something which is really bold. In the last 30 years, there has been a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class and working families of this country. The middle class has become poorer and trillions of dollars have been transferred to the top one-tenth of 1 percent Where was The Washington Post to express concern that the middle class was shrinking? Where was The Washington Post talking about this radical transformation of America? And he was just getting started. When the discussion went to foreign policy, Sanders took another opportunity to slam the media source. Sanders unloaded on the Post s previous record with the Iraq War, which had already received tons of criticism. Sanders quipped, Check out where all the geniuses on the editorial page were with regard to the invasion of Iraq. In 2014, it was discovered that the media source had published more than 140 stories aggressively promoting to war months before the invasion. That was a powerful comment from Sanders, as he had nearly stood alone in Congress when he voted against the Iraq War.Featured image is a screenshot via Comedy Central | 0 |
22,736 | Actress goes solo to push for end to Philippines drug war | MANILA (Reuters) - Mae Paner is a policeman-turned-assassin, a widowed Zumba dancer, a photojournalist and an orphaned child. They are all characters in her new one-woman show against a bloody war on drugs in the Philippines. Paner, better known by her stage name Juana Change , said she wanted to add her voice to the condemnation of President Rodrigo Duterte s fierce 15-month-old campaign which has killed thousands of people. I feel very strongly that we have our work cut out for us as artists to wake people up, to wake our president up, and to tell him that we are against his war on drugs, Paner told Reuters Television. Paner portrays four characters who are affected by the drugs war, from the assassin grappling with his guilt and the journalist scarred by images of the nightly carnage, to widows and orphans crying out for justice. Filipinos remain largely supportive of the campaign as a solution to tackling rampant crime, which Duterte says stems mostly from drug addiction. Human rights groups, the Catholic Church and opposition lawmakers have raised alarm about the killings that have focused largely on the urban poor and have not spared young people. More than 3,800 people have been killed in police anti-drugs operations in the past 15 months and at least 2,100 other homicides were likely drug related. Police reject allegations by human rights groups that they are executing suspected users and dealers. Some audience members who watched a recent performance of Paner s play said they hoped it would prompt Filipinos to ask questions about the drugs war. The more this play is staged - wherever it may be shown, wherever more people can watch it - the more people can think and have much more informed opinions on this matter, said Pastor Kakai Pamaran. | 1 |
22,737 | Wasserman Schultz wins Florida Democratic nod in House race: Miami Herald | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, who last month lost her job as head of the Democratic National Committee, won a bid on Tuesday to be her party’s nominee for a seventh term in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Miami Herald reported. The newspaper projected that Wasserman Schultz defeated Tim Canova, a law professor who is an outspoken Wall Street critic. He is aligned with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who lost the Democratic presidential nomination to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. | 1 |
22,738 | OBAMA AND DOJ’S RADICAL DIRECTOR To Meet Monday On Gun Control Executive Action | When Loretta Lynch was confirmed as the new Director of the DOJ, it was clear that our Senate had once again caved to the radical agenda of the Obama administration. Lynch is nothing more than Eric Holder in a dress. So now we have a power grab on gun control that could have been predicted because Lord knows Obama needs to fulfill his agenda on everything before leaving office. Bottom line is that our Senate failed us Blame them for this mess because it could have been avoided.President Barack Obama will meet Monday with Attorney General Loretta Lynch to discuss options for tougher gun restrictions and is expected to announce in the coming days a new executive action with the goal of expanding background checks on gun sales.Described as imminent by people familiar with the White House plans, the set of executive actions would fulfill a promise by the President to take further unilateral steps the administration says could help curb gun deaths.Plans for the action are not yet complete, and those familiar with the process warn that unforeseen circumstances could delay an announcement. But gun control advocates are expecting the new actions to be revealed next week, ahead of Obama s annual State of the Union address, set for January 12.The White House wouldn t comment directly on the exact timing or content of Obama s executive orders. White House spokesman Eric Schultz said that the President expected a set of recommendations on unilateral action to arrive at the beginning of the year.Plans began to become clearer on New Year s Day with a White House announcement accompanying Obama s weekly address that on Monday the president would meet with Lynch. Change, as always, is going to take all of us, Obama said in his weekly address. The gun lobby is loud and well organized in its defense of effortlessly available guns for anyone. The rest of us are going to have to be just as passionate and well organized in our defense of our kids. That s the work of citizenship to stand up and fight for the change that we seek. Read more: cnn | 0 |
22,739 | WHEN IN ROME: Erdogan Thugs Rough-up Press, Protesters in Washington – No Outrage From White House | 21st Century Wire says NATO s ugly stepchild, Turkey, has been having trouble of late.After shooting down a Russian jet back in November and then lying about it after-the-fact, Turkey was then exposed for its seedy role in facilitating the flow of oil stolen by ISIS from Syria, and then sent into Turkey.In addition to shifting ISIS oil, it was then revealed how weapons and terrorists have been moving freely into Northern Syria from Turkey with the full knowledge of the Turkish security services. The Turkish MP who broke this story was then charged with treason by the Erdogan government. If that wasn t enough, Turkey then began a campaign of state oppression by targeting journalists and newspapers who were critical of leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan s political machine (still clinging to power in Ankara). The embattled authoritarian regime then took its act on the road, to a city which always welcomes its dictators with open arms Washington DC.Unfortunately, Erdogan s henchmen thought they were still in Ankara when they attacked journalists and protesters yesterday in the nation s capital. Erdogan s thugs forgot they were in the US, where some press and citizens still have rights.As expected, total silence on the incident by President Obama and his US State Department. Silence is consent. Of course, if this happened at a Donald Trump event, we would never hear the end of it from the media and the Obama administration but because it s by a NATO member (and an actual fascist government), well then, that s perfectly acceptable for mandarins in Washington.Clearly, Turkey s media crackdown knows no borders RTThe security detail for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan clashed with opposing activists for the second day in a row in Washington, DC, removing journalists and even confronting city police after law enforcement refused to remove protesters from the area.With Erdogan set to give a speech at the Brookings Institute on Thursday, a group of protesters opposing his crackdown on free speech in Turkey, his government s treatment of the country s Kurdish population, and what they say is his tolerance of Islamic State, gathered near the DC-based think tank to express their opposition.Protesters chanting" #Erdogan is commander in chief of ISIS" outside the Brookings where he is speaking soon pic.twitter.com/EE1akSSHeO Paulina Leonovich (@Polly_evro) March 31, 2016The scene quickly devolved into chaos as demonstrators tried to get closer to Brookings, with journalists tweeting that Erdogan s security scuffled with protesters.Erdogan s security detail became physical with reporters, removing one journalist from Brookings, kicking another, and throwing a female reporter to the sidewalk, according to Foreign Policy magazine.Journalist Adem Yavuz Arslan has been kicked out of #Brookings building by Erdogan's men. They are pressuring Brookings to take me out, too Ali H. Aslan (@aliHaslan) March 31, 2016Continue this story at RTREAD MORE TURKEY NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Turkey Files | 0 |
22,740 | White House defends move to curb regulations | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House defended the president’s executive order to U.S. agencies to rescind two government regulations for every new rule introduced, after several advocacy groups filed a lawsuit on Wednesday challenging the Trump administration over the move. The National Resources Defense Council, Communications Workers of America, and Public Citizen said in their lawsuit that the Jan. 30 order would harm the public. They said it would “block or force the repeal of regulations needed to protect health, safety, and the environment, across a broad range of topics - from automobile safety, to occupational health, to air pollution, to endangered species.” The White House defended the order, saying that it was part of the administration’s efforts to help companies create jobs and that the groups are making assumptions about the order’s impact. “The lawsuit presumes a lot of outcomes that are wildly inaccurate,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters at a daily press briefing. He added that over-regulation has hurt economic growth and that reviewing regulations should be welcomed. The order does not apply to most of the financial reform rules introduced by the Obama administration or to rules mandated by statutes. Republican President Donald Trump’s order is a part of his party’s larger effort to undo many of the actions of former President Barack Obama, a Democrat who left office last month after two four-year terms. In Congress, conservative lawmakers have already moved to stamp out five Obama-era rules on corruption, the environment, labor and guns. Companies have lauded the effort to deregulate, saying it will help boost their businesses and the larger U.S. economy. On Wednesday, Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp, whose chief executive has backed Trump’s efforts, said easing rules will make it easier to do business in the United States. In addition to Trump, Wednesday’s lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia named federal departments and agencies, particularly those with jurisdiction over environmental, transportation and energy issues. The groups argued that Trump overstepped his constitutional power and that the order “directs federal agencies to engage in unlawful actions that will harm countless Americans, including plaintiffs’ members.” | 1 |
22,741 | WATCH: Shocking Number Of Swedish Citizens WALK BY GIRL BEING RAPED By “Middle Eastern Man” In Car [VIDEO] | During the Democrats first debate last month, Bernie Sanders said we should look to countries like Denmark, like Sweden and Norway, and learn from what they have accomplished for their working people. Denmark s Prime Minister came out swinging, demanding that Sanders get his facts straight, Denmark is not a socialist nation, it has a market economy. Democrats have been working for decades to adopt the progressive policies based on political correctness that permeates most European nations.Sweden, the Rape Capitol of the world, is a perfect example of how well their politically correct, open-border policies have worked out for them. As the Muslim invasion of these European nations escalates, we are seeing this indifferent attitude of live and let live that only benefits those Muslim invaders who have no intention of assimilating in their host nations. This video shows how a nation gripped with fear reacts with apathy towards the criminal as opposed to taking action to save the supposed victim. It illustrates how easily a group of invaders can overtake a nation conditioned to accepting everyone, so as not to offend anyone. Sadly, we live in a country which has the highest rate of reported cases of rape. And this land is called Sweden. Rape is a very serious crime which not only affects our country, but the rest of the world. So in our new social experiment, we put Swedish citizens up for a test. This video is a great example of what happens to a nation who puts political correctness before the safety and security of its citizens: A poor girl can be heard screaming for help from the backseat of a car. There is no question she is being sexually assaulted, yet one after another, Swedish citizens continue to walk by pretending not to hear.At one point in the video, the rapist a brave passerby took action to stop him. Sadly, most of the other apathetic citizens were satisfied to look the other way, so as not to get involved. The biggest sin of the humankind is indifference. | 0 |
22,742 | Japan's Abe agrees with Putin North Korea nuclear test threatens peace | TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Thursday that he agreed with Russian President Vladimir Putin that North Korea s latest nuclear test is a serious threat to regional peace and a challenge to global nuclear non-proliferation regime. Abe made the comments after holding talks with Putin on the sidelines of an economic forum in Russia s eastern port city of Vladivostok. We completely agreed that North Korea s nuclear test is a serious threat to the peace and stability of Korean peninsula as well as the region, and a grave challenge to the global non-proliferation regime, Abe told reporters. | 1 |
22,743 | WATCH: Fox Host Whines How It’s Not Fair That Men Can’t Condescend To Women | Ahead of tomorrow night s debates, where Hillary will have an abundance of facts, figures, experience and knowledge at her disposal while Trump will only have misogynistic insults and outright lies at his, a Fox host is complaining that television is home to reverse sexism. Why?Because men can t condescend to women on TV, and that s just not fair.Wah wah wah someone bring the guy a tissue before he blows his nose all over the women he s working with. Bill Hemmer was speaking with Jessica Tarlov about the debate, and Tarlov said she feels it s absolutely appropriate for Hillary to criticize Trump s misogyny and racism while onstage. When Tarlov began listing specific examples of Trump being racist and misogynistic, she said, I could go on, obviously, to which conservative lobbyist Matt Schlapp said, You are! Hemmer cut in with: We work in television. And I ve always thought that when a man and a woman is on television, a woman can be sarcastic or even, perhaps, a little condescending toward a man and it s okay. But a man can never do that to a woman and get away with it. Watch below:While Hemmer s logic might sound reasonable on the surface, here s why it s not: Reverse oppression (racism against whites, sexism against men, discrimination against straight, cisgender people, etc.) doesn t exist because oppressors can t suddenly become the oppressed. Oppression, particularly by straight, white, cis, Christian men, is woven into our society. It s insidious. And while yes, men can experience prejudice and stereotype, our society is built by men, for men. Prejudice and stereotype are not the same as oppression.It s not about one person being an asshat to another, which is what Hemmer is really whining about and equates with so-called reverse sexism. When Schlapp responded to Tarlov s litany of Trump sins with, You are! he was putting her in her place, not arguing her point. That is sexist. That s relegating her and her arguments into the background as irrelevant on the basis of her gender, not the merits of her argument.As a woman, Tarlov can t send a man back into the background because he s not in the background to begin with, as she is. That s just the way it is.Since Hemmer works for Fox Noise, though, it s only natural that he probably won t even attempt to understand this.As far as Trump and the debates, Hillary won t be putting Trump in the man s place when she calls him out on his sexism, racism, etc. She can t but he can try and put her in her place and he does it all the time. She s calling out fundamental flaws in Trump that make him unsuited to lead a country that desperately needs its oppressive structures torn down. He, on the other hand, will build on those very structures.Featured image via screen capture from embedded video | 0 |
22,744 | Lebanese president presses Saudi to say why Hariri has not returned | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon s president called on Saudi Arabia on Saturday to clarify why Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri could not return home, a week after he stunned his country by resigning while in the kingdom. A senior Lebanese official said President Michel Aoun had told foreign ambassadors Hariri had been kidnapped and should have immunity. Hariri s shock resignation has thrust Lebanon back into the frontline of a power struggle between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi ite Iran - a rivalry that has wrought upheaval in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Bahrain. Lebanon does not accept its prime minister being in a situation at odds with international treaties, Aoun said in a statement. He said any comment or move by Hariri does not reflect reality due to the questions over his status following his resignation in a broadcast from Saudi Arabia. Lebanese authorities believe Riyadh is detaining Hariri who flew to Saudi Arabia on Nov. 3, two top Lebanese government officials, a senior politician close to Hariri and a fourth source have said. French President Emmanuel Macron echoed similar concerns, saying in a call with Aoun on Saturday that Lebanese political leaders should enjoy freedom of movement . Macron, who made an unscheduled visit to Riyadh earlier this week, will receive the Lebanese foreign minister in Paris on Tuesday, the Elysee statement said. Riyadh says Hariri is free and decided to resign because Iran s Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, was calling the shots in his coalition government. Hariri has made no public remarks since quitting last week, when he said he feared assassination and accused Iran along with Hezbollah of sowing strife in the Arab world. Hariri, whose family made its fortune in the Saudi construction industry, has also given no sign of when he might return to Beirut. The Lebanese premier took part in a ceremony in Riyadh on Saturday welcoming Saudi King Salman from Medina, his media office said. Hariri met with the Turkish and British ambassadors at his Riyadh home in the afternoon, it said. Sources close to Hariri say Saudi Arabia has concluded that the prime minister - a long-time Saudi ally - had to go because he was unwilling to confront Hezbollah. His phone was confiscated after he arrived in Riyadh, and the next day he was forced to resign on a Saudi TV channel, senior sources close to Hariri and top Lebanese political and security officials said. Aoun wants Saudi Arabia, with which we have brotherly ties and deeply rooted friendship, to clarify the reasons preventing Prime Minister Hariri s return, his office said. France and other Western countries have looked on with alarm at the rising tensions in the region. We would like Saad al-Hariri to have all his freedom of movement and be fully able to play the essential role that is his in Lebanon, a French foreign ministry spokesman said on Friday. Hariri s resignation unraveled a political deal among Lebanon s rival factions that made him prime minister and Aoun, a Hezbollah ally, president last year. The coalition government included Shi ite Hezbollah, a heavily armed military and political organization. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday that Saudi had declared war on Lebanon and his group, accusing Riyadh of forcing Hariri to resign to destabilize Lebanon. The comments mirrored an accusation by Riyadh earlier this week that Lebanon and Hezbollah had declared war on the Gulf Arab kingdom. Hariri s political party denounced on Saturday Iranian intervention in Arab countries and attacks against Saudi Arabia. The Future Movement party said it stands by the premier and was waiting impatiently for his return to Lebanon to handle his national responsibilities in leading this stage. In a statement, the United States called Hariri a trusted partner and referred to him as prime minister. The White House rejects any efforts by militias within Lebanon or by any foreign forces to threaten Lebanon s stability ... or use Lebanon as a base from which to threaten others in the region, it said. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had told reporters on Friday there was no indication Hariri was being held against his will but that the United States was monitoring the situation. The resignation of Hariri comes amid an anti-corruption purge in Riyadh in which dozens of senior princes and businessmen have been rounded up. | 1 |
22,745 | Russia to help Syria rebuild energy facilities - Russian Deputy PM | OSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will be the only country to take part in rebuilding Syrian energy facilities, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Monday, after holding talks in Syria with President Bashar al-Assad, the RIA news agency reported. Rogozin was speaking a week after President Vladimir Putin ordered a significant part of Moscow s military contingent in Syria start withdrawing, declaring their work largely done. His comments offered a glimpse of how Moscow hopes it can be involved in Syria s economy, which has been badly damaged by six years of conflict. The Syrian leadership would like to only cooperate with Russia ... in rebuilding all of the country s energy facilities, RIA quoted Rogozin as saying. Mr. President Bashar al-Assad said today that Syria has no desire to work with companies from countries which betrayed Syria at a certain moment, he was cited as saying. The Interfax news agency also quoted Rogozin as saying that Russia and Syria would create a joint company to exploit a Syrian phosphates deposit, while RIA cited him as saying that Moscow planned to use Syrian sea ports to import Russian grain for Syria and other countries like Iraq. These are very important agreements which will allow us to win this war, Interfax quoted Rogozin as saying. | 1 |
22,746 | Marine’s Awesome Response To College Kids Who Want You To Pay For Their Education Goes Viral | To all the college students who think it s okay to demand that hard-working Americans pay for your college debt, this Marine has a message for you.#MillionStudentMarch Students:I wanted money for school, so I marched too #millionstudentmarch This one was about 25 miles #USMC pic.twitter.com/bS6QN0KDtb James Erickson (@SayHiJames) November 12, 2015Here s the interview that supposedly inspired his message:https://youtu.be/Zmji36q8E4oVia: 100% FED Up! | 0 |
22,747 | Bilderberg to Meet Next Week in Chantilly, Virginia | Mark Anderson AFPWith a little help from the Virginia police in the Fairfax County Sully District, as well as the obscure Bilderberg media-relations outlet and its May 19 late-coming online announcement, it s been confirmed that Bilderberg 2017 will take place in Virginia, June 1-4, at the Westfields Marriot in Chantilly.The Bilderbergers are naturally attracted to that snooty, secluded hotel, since they ve met there before in 2002, 2008, and in 2012, the year that Jim Tucker, the late AFP Bilderberg hound, made his last appearance covering the shadowy group after chasing these sons of smokestack billionaires since the mid-1970s.The annual Bilderberg gatherings are perhaps the most exclusive and obscure among all the meetings of economic ministers (G7, G20 etc.), the World Economic Forum, and other, more familiar global groupings.( ) Coming out of last year s meeting in Dresden, Germany, the Bilderbergers are facing an altered world, what with the U.S. president being Donald Trump whose early actions as president included pulling the U.S. out of the Bilderberg-favored Trans-Pacific Partnership. Britain also voted just after last year s Bilderberg meeting to exit the European Union. Early Bilderbergers, beginning with their first meeting in Holland in 1954, helped build the EU through all its intermediate stages to the present Continue this story at AFPREAD MORE BILDERBERG NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Bilderberg Files | 0 |
22,748 | Connecticut governor vetoes budget as spending cuts loom | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy on Thursday vetoed the $40.7 billion biennial budget passed by lawmakers earlier this month, saying the bill would undermine the state’s fiscal stability, education system and economic development. Malloy, a second-term Democrat who is not running for reelection, had said he would not approve the Republican-supported budget. Without a budget, which is now nearly three months overdue, the state could implement severe cuts on Oct. 1 under an emergency spending plan put in place by Malloy. Republican lawmakers, who do not control the legislature but won support for their budget from a handful of Democrats, have said they may try to override the governor’s veto, which was expected. As the state continues to wrangle over how to close a 2-year, $3.5 billion budget gap, some Connecticut cities are in the firing because of reduced state aid. Credit ratings agency S&P Global Ratings on Thursday put nine cities and a school district on alert for possible downgrades. The warning “reflects Connecticut’s ongoing budget impasse and brinkmanship, which could reduce significant amounts of municipal aid payments to local governments,” said S&P analyst Victor Medeiros. “The credit quality of these municipalities could deteriorate further due to weaker reserves and liquidity concerns.” The cities - which include its largest, Bridgeport, and New Haven - are likely to dip into their reserves to offset losses in state aid. The drain on reserves would “make their financial position all the more precarious,” Medeiros said. The capital city, Hartford, was not on the list but has been downgraded four times in the last few weeks. On Wednesday, it fell multiple notches deeper into junk territory as it faces a potential bankruptcy. Under the Republican plan, Hartford would have lost $6.8 million dollars of state support “at a time when its financial future is in peril, almost certainly forcing it into bankruptcy,” Malloy said in his veto message. Malloy also took issue with proposals to cut state public pension benefits, which could lead to expensive court challenges from public employee unions, and an education funding plan that he said was inequitable. State Senate Republican President Pro Tempore Len Fasano said in a statement that the veto had “put Connecticut in chaos.” The veto means that cuts under Malloy’s “draconian executive order will remain in effect and create destruction for low and middle income families” unless lawmakers vote to override it, Fasano said. | 1 |
22,749 | Danish PM says world needs U.S. 'not to close in on itself' | COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen joined other European leaders in congratulating Donald Trump on winning the U.S. presidential election but said the world now needs the United States “not to close in on itself”. “I have during the election campaign expressed concerns over signs that the US is closing in on itself, which is unfortunately also the case in Europe,” Rasmussen told a group of reporters on Wednesday. He said a more protectionist United States could create problems for a small export-reliant country like Denmark, just like Britain leaving the EU could. | 1 |
22,750 | trump vs clinton a risk vs a disaster | check out hillarythemed haunted house anticlinton yard signs label clinton liar criminal murderer published mins ago
fox news just in time for halloween a new york home has been turned into a hillary clintonthemed haunted house
facebook user brian mckibbin posted a video of the residence in bellmore nassau county and its quickly gone viral
it shows a front yard covered with prodonald trump and anticlinton signs labeling her a liarcriminal and murderer
since the video was posted last week its been viewed more than million times | 1 |
22,751 | House Republicans Just Spit On The Grave Of An American Hero (VIDEO) | A group of House Republicans are so determined to make every issue a partisan battle to the death that they just spit on the grave of an African American hero to do it.One of the least controversial jobs a legislator can do is sign off on the memorializing of public buildings. In this case, to designate a Winston-Salem post office the Maya Angelou Memorial Post Office. But even this small act of recognition of an African American of enormous cultural contribution was a step too far for 9 Republicans. As ABC News reports:Republican Reps. Mo Brooks of Alabama, Ken Buck of Colorado, Jeff Duncan of South Carolina, Glen Grothman of Wisconsin, Andy Harris of Maryland, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Michael Burgess of Texas, Steven Palazzo of Mississippi and Alex Mooney of West Virginia voted against the bill.A spokesperson for Rep. Andy Harris said the Maryland Republican voted against renaming the post office because Angelou was a communist sympathizer. His parents escaped communism and he feels that he cannot vote to name a post office in the United States in honor of someone who supported the communist Castro revolution in Cuba, the spokesperson said in a statement. Who s next to get a post office? Jane Fonda? The gang of pro-Confederacy Republicans apparently sought revenge with their votes. They argued an equivalent between fighting against Angelou s Post Office, and opposition to memorializing public buildings in the name of Confederacy figures.What s sad about this, is that you really would have to be a bigot of the highest order to entertain the idea that Maya Angelou and the Dixie plantation owner who would have kept her as livestock, stand as equals in our history.Angelou s credentials as an American of great talent, wisdom and cultural contribution are without question. She never killed anybody, she never enslaved anybody. Her legacy was in words. Those words are still moving people after her body left the earth. She was the kind of hero that the American story really needs.As New York Democrat Steve Israel put it in a written statement: Naming post offices is one of the most benign and bipartisan duties we perform in the House of Representatives, and there is rarely any opposition, That s why I was shocked today as nine Republicans voted against naming a post office after Maya Angelou, indisputably one of our country s greatest poets, authors and civil rights activists. Unfortunately for the Republicans, the vote passed 371-9 (plus one Republican voting Present ). So Maya Angelou will be honored, regardless of attempts to undermine the celebration of an American hero, simply because she happened to be African American. Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/Wikimedia Commons | 0 |
22,752 | ‘Auntie’ Maxine Waters’ Showdown In Senate Inspires Gospel Anthem For The Silenced | I ll admit it: I am not a huge fan of tribute songs. Making music is something sacred, and it s so hard to take topical songs seriously, unless it s like Bob Dylan? Punk music? I m not sure, but contemporaneous talk-singing is just not my bag usually, and that s generally what people come up with as protest songs. That said, this gospel jam from Mykal Kilgore, a YouTube (and movie) star, is entirely different. It was inspired by a testy exchange last week between the always-feisty Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. From the video description:Our beloved Auntie Maxine Waters laid this sermon down so good that I had to sing about it! Whenever anybody tries to distract me or block me (even with praise or platitudes) I m gonna have to let them know that I m #ReclaimingMyTime.It s a common tactic for old white Republican assholes either in Congress or before it: When they don t want to answer questions from women, Democrats, or especially women Democrats, they waste the time allotted to their questioner with meaningless compliments or interruptions. If they re creative types (did you know Mnuchin was a movie producer?), they can usually get away with wasting all of the time they would normally spend answering questions.When Rep. Waters grilled Mnuchin on July 27th during a House Financial Services Committee hearing about why she hadn t heard back on her request for information from the Treasury on Donald Trump s ties to Russian banks, that s exactly what Mnuchin tried to do. Rather than answering her question, the Treasury Secretary immediately launched into a spiel about everything you ve done for the state of California, prompting Waters to remind him that he was on her time, not his own. I m reclaiming my time, she said, noting that it was limited.Like the infamous nevertheless, she persisted exchange between Mitch McConnell and Elizabeth Warren during the confirmation hearing for Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the exchange almost immediately became a meme.But rather than inspiring a line of shirts, the Thursday snapshot of what it s like for women in Congress became lyrics for a surprisingly good song.Now reclaim a little of your time, and watch the video:Featured image via Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty Images | 0 |
22,753 | clinton isnt letting up as she hammers trump for pimping his hotel instead of campaigning | a pollster who is in the field in two swing states is reporting that he is seeing no early impact from the fbi reviewing new emails in the hillary clinton investigation in two swing states
geoff garin of hart research tweeted from the field still early but i was in the field in two states last night and saw absolutely no impact from the reporting on the comey letter
geoff garin geoffgarin october
it is still early but if this were the election shifting news that republicans were hoping for the impact would have been immediate the reality is that if the public opinion polls tighten in the final days of the campaign it will be because republicans are coming back to trump
there are few undecided voters in this election and even if all the republican base come home to trump it wont be enough for trump to win because he is losing where the presidential election is really held trump is getting crushed at the state level
republicans have been trying to build hillary clintons emails into a story for years and they have failed at every turn
hillary clinton led the election while under congressional investigation hillary clinton led the election while under fbi investigation hillary clinton is leading the election today the message that republicans and the media dont want to hear is that voters are sick of the emails and they dont care
voters are smarter than republicans and the press give them credit for the hillary clinton email scandal has never broken out of the right wing bubble because there is no evidence that clinton did anything wrong
if the polls tighten a little this will be the best news in the world for hillary clinton and democrats because it will destroy any potential for democratic complacency and get their voters out and to the polls
what geoff garin witnessed is probably going to end up being very accurate james comeys letter to congress is unlikely to move swing states and change the outcome of the presidential election | 1 |
22,754 | october shocker fbi has explosive information on trump conspiring with putin | politics vintage cars are parked in the forecourt of buckingham palace in london part of a display of historic britishbuilt motor vehicles to commemorate queen elizabeth iis th birthday photo by afp
thousands of britons have signed a petition to express their outrage over queen elizabeths use of million in taxpayers money to repair the buckingham palace
more than people had signed the petition as of sunday two days after the government of prime minister theresa may allowed the royal family to repair the palace with public funds
the uk parliament should discuss the petition when it hits the mark
on friday the chancellor of the exchequer philip hammond granted the yearold queen a percent rise in funding required for the palaces refurbishment over the next years
the money would be used to replace cables pipes and boilers installed years ago to prevent a catastrophic event that might destroy the palace according to master of the queens household tony johnstoneburt
petitioners argued that the royals should foot the massive bill themselves given the vast extent of their wealth
the crown and its estates should be made to fund its own renovations wrote mark johnson who posted the petition
protesters said the money could be used to mend the faltering national health service nhs or help families get more affordable homes amid a housing crisis britains queen elizabeth ii rides a carriage with colombias president juan manuel santos after the ceremonial welcome at horse guards parade in central london november photo by afp
it is wholly unreasonable to cut the benefits of the sick and disabled take away housing benefits from the poor and then pay for this said one signatory of the petition
the antimonarchy campaign group republic also took issue with the announcement denouncing it as a disgrace
whats worse is this appalling increase is only a small part of the annual cost of the royal family which we put at m said graham smith a member of the group
over the past years the uk government has been generous towards the royal family despite cutting billions in public money
under former treasury minister george osborne the queens sovereign grant for was increased by percent bringing the total to million a year now the annual grant would be inflated by twothirds rising to million in
the grant is financed by the profit coming from the royal familys acres of land across the uk loading | 1 |
22,755 | WATCH: THESE ARE THE LEFTISTS Mitt Romney, John McCain, Marco Rubio and Our Liberal Media Attacked President Trump For Not Defending | Earlier this week, prominent members of the GOP like Mitt Romney, John McCain and Marco Rubio attacked President Trump for condemning both sides for the violence in Charlottesville, VA last weekend. Today, two police officers were killed in an apparent ambush today in Kissimmee, Florida. Both men woke up, put their uniforms on and committed to protecting total strangers. Instead of protecting them, these two brave men, Officer Matthew Baxter and Sergeant Sam Howard were ambushed and murdered by the cowards police believe dialed 911 for help.On the other side of the nation, at almost the same time that two innocent police officers were being murdered, brave Boston police officers and Massachusetts State Police were defending 50 pro-free speech Americans, who were surrounded by 30,000 hateful and violent protesters who were threatening American citizens for daring to take a stand for the First Amendment. The pro free-speech Americans had to be carted away in by police in wagons, as violent leftists waited for them to exit the Boston Commons area where they gathered with American flags and peacefully spoke to one another about the importance of free speech in America.Here s a picture of some of the White Supremacists defending free-speech in Boston today:https://twitter.com/TruthinGov2016/status/898987969373011969Watch CNN totally lie to their viewers, as they twist the narrative of the FREE SPEECH rally, calling it an Alt-Right rally:#BlackLivesMatter organized march started in Boston against racism & Alt-light rally at #BostonCommon & in solidarity w #Charlottesville. pic.twitter.com/hEljI0lyxG Sara Sidner (@sarasidnerCNN) August 19, 2017Brave Boston police officers were deployed to keep the peace. Keeping 30,000 angry leftists away from 50 peaceful Americans is no easy task when you have people on the left who are itching for a fight. Their fight is not just with Americans who want to protect our First Amendment Right to free speech, it s also with the cops. Former GOP presidential candidates like Mitt Romney, John McCain and Marco Rubio took to social media to trash President Trump for not embracing the violent left (the same groups of leftist agitators who were in Charlottesville that are now in Boston). What these sore losers have clearly forgotten is how Barack Obama and his administrations embraced the war on our law enforcement. What these clowns don t see is that cops being murdered or innocent Americans being beaten bloody because they don t hold the same leftist views is never going to end, unless we have a leader who is willing to call them out.Watch this large group surround and threaten one young man who was all by himself because he was wearing a Trump hat. Can anyone imagine this happening to anyone wearing an Obama hat while he was president? How about you Mitt Romney? Are you okay with this?Guy wearing @realDonaldTrump red cap quickly surrounded, people yelling "shame." Forced to remove.#BostonFreeSpeechRally #BostonCommon pic.twitter.com/2lU2MN11at Jonathan Choe (@choenbcboston) August 19, 2017Here s an example of the peaceful left that so many Americans were enraged about President Trump not defending in Charlottesville last weekend. This is what our law enforcement are dealing with every day in America, courtesy of Barack Obama, Eric Holder, Loretta Lynch, Al Sharpton and Black Lives Matter.Joe Biggs of Infowars was at the FREE SPEECH event and documented how the police officers had to rescue them from being attacked by massive group of violent leftists (language warning).Just before we loaded up and rolled out of the common. pic.twitter.com/ZHgl3yVuoo Joe Biggs (@Rambobiggs) August 19, 2017Watch, as the Massachusetts State Police attempt to move violent protesters back so they can help the small group of free speech Americans escape without being harmed or worse by violent leftist agitators. Anybody wanna be a cop? Too much love in Boston, not sure I can handle it #freespeechrally pic.twitter.com/VMp6whV3RB Kyle (@K_y_l_e___) August 19, 2017Here s a photo of the FREE SPEECH Americans being carted away in police wagons for their own safety from the large mob of violent leftists:That was fun ride pic.twitter.com/dJbaRN9uyf Joe Biggs (@Rambobiggs) August 19, 2017Watch this female senior citizen being attacked and dragged on the ground by an Antifa thug for the crime of holding an American flag.:Here s a look at the person who attacked her. Please share this with everyone to help us identify this person: Found Pic Of Antifa Thug At #Boston Common Free Speech Rally That Assaulted Woman. Let's FIND HIM, Report To @bostonpolice#freespeechrally pic.twitter.com/RW1tJ2yLHg Deplorable R z rbak (@MediaJuggernaut) August 19, 2017 | 0 |
22,756 | Senate unanimously backs tougher North Korea sanctions | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate voted unanimously on Wednesday to toughen sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear program, human rights record and cyber activities, as U.S. lawmakers sought to crack down on Pyongyang for its nuclear tests. The House of Representatives passed a similar bill last month. Differences between the two are expected to be resolved quickly and Senate Democrats said they expected President Barack Obama would sign the measure into law. The White House has not threatened a veto, but a spokesman told reporters he did not have a response to the bill. Lawmakers said they wanted to make Washington’s resolve clear not just to Pyongyang, but to the United Nations and other governments, especially China, North Korea’s lone major ally and main business partner. The Senate vote for the “North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act” was 96-0. Backing for the bill was so strong that two Republicans vying to be their party’s 2016 presidential nominee, Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, both left the campaign trail to vote. Senator Bernie Sanders, a Democratic contender, missed the vote. “China, the very entity that could do something about this, is blocking the U.N. Security Council’s action toward this being done on a multilateral basis,” said Republican Senator Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “It will be much more effective if we can get the international community to support us,” said Senator Ben Cardin, the panel’s top Democrat. He drew parallels to U.S. sanctions that became multilateral regimes against Iran and South Africa. Congress has been clamoring for a clampdown since Pyongyang tested a nuclear device in January. Its weekend satellite launch fueled the calls. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Senate on Tuesday that North Korea has followed through on plans to re-start a plutonium production reactor and could begin to assemble a plutonium stockpile within months. The Senate bill would sanction anyone who engages in, facilitates or contributes to North Korea’s proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, arms-related materials, luxury goods, human rights abuses, activities undermining cyber security and the provision of materials for such activities. Penalties include the seizure of assets, visa bans and denial of government contracts. Unusually, the measure makes most of the sanctions mandatory, rather than giving the president the option to impose them. He can temporarily waive them by making the case that doing so would threaten national security. | 1 |
22,757 | Trump says he's considering keeping parts of Obamacare: WSJ | (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump told the Wall Street Journal he is considering retaining parts of President Barack Obama’s healthcare law including provisions letting parents keep adult children up to age 26 on insurance policies and barring insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. The Republican businessman during the U.S. presidential campaign called for repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, and labeled the 2010 law “a disaster.” In an interview published on Friday, his first since winning Tuesday’s election, Trump told the Journal a big reason for his shift was his meeting at the White House on Thursday with Obama, who suggested areas of the Affordable Care Act to preserve. “I told him I will look at his suggestions, and out of respect, I will do that,” Trump said. “Either Obamacare will be amended, or repealed and replaced,” Trump told the Journal. Some Republican lawmakers and advisers have recommended keeping those two provisions in place even if they are able to repeal the law in Congress, as they have attempted to do for years. The law has enabled millions of Americans who previously had no health insurance to obtain coverage, but Republicans oppose it and call it a government overreach. Other urgent priorities during his first few weeks as president, Trump said, would be deregulating financial institutions to allow “banks to lend again,” and securing the U.S. border against drugs and illegal immigrants. Asked whether he would pursue a campaign promise to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate defeated Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server while secretary of state, Trump told the paper: “It’s not something I’ve given a lot of thought, because I want to solve healthcare, jobs, border control, tax reform.” Trump also told the Journal he would create jobs through infrastructure projects and improved trade deals, and would preserve American jobs by potentially imposing tariffs on the products of U.S. companies that relocated overseas. | 1 |
22,758 | Trump Just Tweeted The FBI To Show Them A Fox News Story Because Of Course | The Toddler-in-Chief has been busy this morning lashing out at Hillary Clinton, John Podesta s brother and vigorously trying to prove that former President Barack Obama had his phones wiretapped, a conspiracy theory which has never been backed by evidence. And now Trump tagged the FBI s Twitter account (and that s totally not weird at all, k?) to alert the agency to allegations by Fox News of electronic surveillance against him.Trump tweeted, @FoxNews from multiple sources: There was electronic surveillance of Trump, and people close to Trump. This is unprecedented. @FBI .@FoxNews from multiple sources: "There was electronic surveillance of Trump, and people close to Trump. This is unprecedented." @FBI Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 3, 2017Earlier, Trump tweeted, Such amazing reporting on unmasking and the crooked scheme against us by @foxandfriends. Spied on before nomination. The real story. Such amazing reporting on unmasking and the crooked scheme against us by @foxandfriends. "Spied on before nomination." The real story. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 3, 2017That didn t go down well on Twitter.@realDonaldTrump @FoxNews @FBI "Quick, the guy we're investigating for corruption just tweeted some Fox News bullshit put Russia on hold!" Mike P Williams (@Mike_P_Williams) April 3, 2017Yet another Donald Trump tweet that has not aged well. pic.twitter.com/UT9Q37zOOl Mike P Williams (@Mike_P_Williams) April 3, 2017In a nutshell, this is the real story of what happened.@realDonaldTrump @FoxNews @FBI NOBODY WIRE-TAPPED TRUMP.The FBI wiretapped some shady Russians.Trump was caught because he was in contact w the shady Russians. Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett) April 3, 2017@realDonaldTrump @FoxNews @FBI Why did you tag the FBI when you can get the info from them? You don't have to wait for FOX. This is unprecedented. You are the President. Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) April 3, 2017@tonyposnanski @realDonaldTrump @FoxNews @FBI Ha ha ha! He is tagging the FBI with Fox news "Intel"! You just can't make this shit up Carlos El Trucker (@jcm209) April 3, 2017@realDonaldTrump @FoxNews @FBI YES! We, THE PRESIDENT, need to watch FOX NEWS to get our intel, and we relay this intel to the FBI via posting it on TWITTER! This is #MAGA Christoph Rehage (@crehage) April 3, 2017@realDonaldTrump @foxandfriends On this matter, we must follow the President's own words pic.twitter.com/qAupTOxXya Rob Szczerba (@RJSzczerba) April 3, 2017Trump has been critical in the past of media outlets using anonymous sources, but to the surprise of no one, he s not doing that in this instance as he deflects from his Russia scandal.As president , Trump has access to U.S. intelligence agencies, the same ones he s blasted in the recent past. Instead, though, Trump s go-to source for information is cable news.Early this morning, Trump lashed out at Hillary Clinton to try to get the public to focus on her instead of his own Russia scandal. Was the brother of John Podesta paid big money to get the sanctions on Russia lifted? Did Hillary know? he tweeted just after 6:00 in the morning.The amateur president followed that tweet up with another one, saying, Did Hillary Clinton ever apologize for receiving the answers to the debate? Just asking! Well, Donald, she isn t the President. Apparently, he doesn t know that. Has Donald apologized for that botched mission in Yemen yet? Or his birther conspiracy theories about America s first black President? Or how about his pussy grabbing remarks in which he advocates for sexual assault. Or calling Mexicans rapists. Instead of apologizing, he doubles down. It s what he does.Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images. | 0 |
22,759 | Gere faults Trump for blurring meaning of 'refugee' and 'terrorist' | BERLIN (Reuters) - Actor and activist Richard Gere said on Friday that U.S. President Donald Trump has managed to merge the meaning of the words “refugee” and “terrorist” in the minds of many Americans. Gere also told a news conference at the Berlin Film Festival just before the world premiere of his new film “The Dinner” that he found it discouraging to see term “refugee” go through such a dispiriting change of meaning in the United States. “The most horrible thing that Trump has done is conflated two words – refugee and terrorist,” Gere, 67, told more than 100 journalists. “It means the same thing in the U.S. now. That’s what he’s accomplished to a large segment of our population.” Trump ordered a travel ban on refugees and citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries on Jan. 27. A U.S. appeal court in San Francisco refused to reinstate a temporary ban on the order. Trump criticized the court decision. “A ‘refugee’ used to be someone that we had empathy for ...someone we wanted to help who we wanted to give refuge to,” Gere said. “...Now we’re afraid of them and this ...is the biggest crime in itself: conflating these two ideas.” Gere met Chancellor Angela Merkel this week while in Berlin for the festival. She told Trump in a phone call two weeks ago the global fight against terrorism was no excuse for banning people from Muslim-majority countries. In the film “The Dinner”, Gere plays a famous politician who meets his wife and his brother at a hip restaurant to discuss a horrible crime committed by their sons. In an interview with Reuters before the news conference, Gere said he was encouraged by protests in the United States against Trump’s policies. “I am essentially an optimist so I am seeing this as an opportunity for people to show up the day after he was inaugurated,” Gere said. “There were millions of people in the streets in New York. It wasn’t angry demonstrations. It was positive demonstrations that were kind of a unity of purpose.” More than a million migrants, many of them fleeing conflict and persecution, have arrived in Germany over the last two years. “The Dinner” is one of 18 films at the ‘Berlinale’, competing for Golden and Silver Bears. The festival runs until Feb. 19. | 1 |
22,760 | ALL OF AL FRANKEN’S APOLOGIES To Women He Groped Have One Disturbing Thing In Common | Al Franken returned to DC this week after a series of bombshell allegations of sexual harassment by several women. He claims to be tremendously sorry for his serial groping incidents but can t seem to recall them Yes, you ll love this Clintonesque tactic where you just claim you have no idea how this happened Daily Caller reported:The Minnesota Democrat has faced more and more outcry, even from within his own party, as the allegations continue to stack. In total, four women have now accused Franken of inappropriately touching or groping them without consent. Many in progressive circles are now calling for Franken s resignation. To date, Franken s office has said he will not resign and instead has issued controversial apologies to the women. The apologies issued by Franken range in length and content, however there is one very disturbing trend that each of them has in common.WHEN YOU READ THE FOUR APOLOGIES BELOW, WHAT IS THE COMMON THREAD? Franken is unaware that he is sexually assaulting women. Franken regularly states in his apologies that he is unaware that his groping was offensive and often does not remember if it even happened.2. I take thousands of photos at the state fair surrounded by hundreds of people, and I certainly don t remember taking this picture. I feel badly that Ms. Menz came away from our interaction feeling disrespected. 3. It s difficult to respond to anonymous accusers, and I don t remember those campaign events. 4. I take a lot of pictures in Minnesota, thousands of pictures, tens of thousands of people, those are instances that I do not remember. It has from the stories it has been clear that there are some women and one is too many who feel that I have done something disrespectful at that assert them and for that I am tremendously sorry. | 0 |
22,761 | Bullets and burns: Portraits of injured Rohingya refugees | COX S BAZAR, Bangladesh (Reuters) - The two Rohingya Muslim brothers, six-year-old Mohamed Heron and four-year-old Akhter, held each other as they showed burns on their arms and torsos that their uncle says resulted from Myanmar s armed forces firing rockets at their village. Two of their siblings, one seven years old and the other a 10-month-old infant, died in the attack, according to their uncle, Mohamed Inus. Their father was held by the military and has not been heard of since. These two children survived when our village was fired on with rockets, Inus told Reuters at Kutupalong refugee camp, near Cox s Bazar in Bangladesh. They were among a number of Rohingya who showed their wounds to a Reuters photographer who visited Kutupalong and the nearby camps at Balukhali, Leda and Nayapara. (Click reut.rs/2hBZZoK to view the photo essay) Fleeing along with other villagers who abandoned their scorched homes, the boys reached Bangladesh after a three-day trek. At Kutupalong, they were treated for three weeks for their burns at a M decins Sans Fronti res (MSF) clinic. Since the ethnic violence erupted in late August, thousands of Rohingya have crossed the border each week, often travelling for days and even weeks, trekking through forests and over mountains, with many making a hazardous river or sea crossing on the last leg of their flight to fellow-Muslim Bangladesh. Bangladeshi hospitals and international aid agencies are struggling to provide medical care for all the refugees, many of whom have suffered horrific injuries and psychological trauma. Since the crisis began, Chittagong Medical College Hospital has received 261 casualties suffering wounds from gunshots or explosions, according to its director, Brigadier General Jalal Uddin. Sixteen have died from their wounds and some have been crippled. We have had to amputate the limbs of some patients, Jalal Uddin said. Sadar Hospital in Cox s Bazar had treated 1,467 Rohingya since the exodus began for injuries including bullet wounds, broken bones, and cuts inflicted by knives or machetes, residential medical officer Shaheen Abdur Rahman Chowdhury said. More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since Myanmar s military launched what it described as clearance operations following a series of attacks by Rohingya militants on security posts in Rakhine state in late August. Rights monitors and fleeing Rohingya say the army and Rakhine Buddhist vigilantes have mounted a campaign of arson aimed at driving out the Muslim population. The U.N. rights agency said it was a textbook example of ethnic cleansing . Myanmar, an overwhelmingly Buddhist nation, rejects the charge, saying its forces targeted insurgents of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, whom it has accused of setting fires and attacking civilians. At the camps in Bangladesh, other Rohingya victims of the violence recounted the horrors they had lived through. Anwara Begum, 36, said she woke to find her home in Maungdaw township, in the northernmost part of Rakhine state, in flames. Before she could get out the burning roof caved in on her and her nylon clothes melted onto her arms. Her husband carried her for eight days to reach the Kutupalong camp in Bangladesh. I thought I was going to die. I tried to stay alive for my children, she said, adding she was still waiting for treatment for her burns. His right arm swathed in bandages from the knuckles of his hand to well above the elbow, Imam Hossain, 42, lay exhausted on the roadside near the Kutupalong camp. He was returning home after teaching at a madrassa in his village when three men attacked him with knives. The next day, he made his wife and two children leave with other villagers fleeing to Bangladesh. He reached Cox s Bazar later. He was still searching for his family. I want to ask the Myanmar government why they are harming the Rohingya, he said. Why do Buddhists hate us? Why do you torture us? What is wrong with us? Suffering burns to his limbs and torso, Mohamed Jabair, 21, had feared that he had also lost his sight in an explosion that ripped through his village home. Knocked unconscious and badly burned, Jabair was carried by his brother and others for four days to Cox s Bazar. I was blind for many weeks and admitted to a government hospital in Cox s Bazar for 23 days. I was frightened that I would be blind forever, he said. Jabair said money sent by relatives in Malaysia had run out and he could no longer afford treatment. Bowing to show deep cuts arcing across his scalp, 17-year-old Nur Kamal described how soldiers assaulted him after they found the young shopkeeper hiding in his home in Kan Hpu village in Maungdaw. They hit me with a rifle butt on my head first and then with a knife, Kamal said. His uncle found him unconscious in a pool of blood. It took them two weeks to get to Bangladesh. We want justice, Kamal said. We want the international community to help us obtain justice. Her husband, daughter and one son were killed when soldiers fired on Kalabarow s village in Maungdaw. The 50-year-old woman was hit in her right foot. For several hours, she lay where she fell, pretending to be dead, before a grandson found her. During their 11-day journey to Bangladesh, a village doctor amputated her infected foot and four men carried her on a stretcher made of bamboo and a bedsheet. As we walked through the forest, we saw burnt villages and dead bodies. I thought we would never be safe, she said. Abdur Rahaman, a 73-year-old merchant from Maungdaw, was ambushed while walking on a mountain path with other refugees. A machete thrown at his feet severed three toes as he ran from his attackers. With his foot bleeding through a tourniquet made from his longyi, or sarong, Rahaman walked for two more hours, before his nephew and friends carried him across the border. Our future is not good, he said. Allah must help us. The international community has to do something. Curled up in a ball, 11-year-old Ansar Allah shows a large, livid scar on his right thigh - the result of a gunshot wound. They sprayed us with bullets, as our house was burning, his mother Samara said. It was a bullet half the size of my index finger, she said, before adding, I can t stop thinking, why did God put us in that dangerous situation? Setara Begum, 12, was among nine siblings in their home in Maungdaw when it was hit by a rocket. I saved eight of my nine children from the burning house, but Setara was trapped inside, said her mother, Arafa. I could see her crying in the middle of the fire, but it was difficult to save her. By the time we could reach her, she was badly burned, Arafa said. Setara s father carried her for two days to Bangladesh. The young girl received no treatment for the severe burns to her feet. Her feet healed. But she has no toes. The trauma has scarred her psychologically. She has been mute from that day, and doesn t speak to anyone, her mother said. She only cries silently. Her face heavily bandaged, Momtaz Begum told how soldiers came to her village demanding valuables. I told them I was poor and had nothing. One of them started beating me saying, If you have no money, then we will kill you . After beating her, they locked her in her home and set fire to the roof. She escaped to find her three sons dead and her daughter beaten and bleeding. Momtaz fled to Bangladesh, where she spent 20 days at the MSF clinic being treated for burns to her face and body. What can I say about the future, if now we have no food, no house, no family. We cannot think about the future. They have killed that as well. | 1 |
22,762 | COMEY RESPONDS TO FIRING…What He Said Will Make Liberal Heads Explode | Since the moment word got out about the firing of FBI Director James Comey, Democrats and their allies in the leftist media have been falling all over themselves to spew their hatred towards Trump and his unfair firing of James Comey. Even though for months, Democrats and the leftist media have been outraged at Comey for the reopening of the FBI investigation into Hillary s e-mails just prior to the election, all is forgiven now. It s time for the media and the Democrats to come together, regroup and focus on the real target President Trump.But now, FBI Director James Comey has made a statement about the firing, and it s not exactly what the media was hoping for. Comey took the high road when he sent a letter on Wednesday to agents and friends regarding President Trump s firing of him the day before. I have long believed that a President can fire an FBI director for any reason, or for no reason at all, he wrote, according to CNN. I m not going to spend time on the decision or the way it was executed, Comey added. I hope you won t either. It is done, and I will be fine, although I will miss you and the mission deeply. -The HillWatch MSNBC s Morning Joe hacks Mika Brzezinski and fake conservative Joe Scarborough attempt to trash Trump s reasoning for firing Comey. Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had the perfect response: If Hillary Clinton had won, she would have immediately fired James Comey :Watch Senator Chuck Schumer defend FBI Director James Comey after crying about his mishandling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation him for months: | 0 |
22,763 | Investors buoyed by Trump's readiness to move on from Obamacare | (Reuters) - Wall Street’s predilection for a glass-half-full view of President Donald Trump was on full display Friday as investors backed off fears that a failure to repeal Obamacare would endanger Trump’s entire agenda in favor of optimism that he would simply get on with tax cuts and infrastructure spending. As the clock ticked down to a close vote in the House of Representatives set tentatively for Friday afternoon, U.S. stocks were little changed even as it appeared that the Republican leadership had yet to secure the support needed to pass the measure. That was in stark contrast with earlier in the week when equities suffered their biggest one-day drop since the November election on grounds that the shaky prospects for a successful repeal of the Affordable Care Act - known popularly as Obamacare - was a litmus test for everything championed by Trump. “I think investors are of the belief that Trump is just going to pivot to taxes,” said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in Chicago. “I think it’s a pivot from what we saw on Tuesday.” Indeed, Trump delivered lawmakers an ultimatum late Thursday, saying the time for negotiation had ended and that he was willing to leave the ACA in place and get on with his other priorities. S&P E-mini futures rallied about 0.25 percent in overnight trading following the statement. “If this goes on the back burner, and they start addressing corporate tax rates or infrastructure, that would be a positive for the market because the administration is not going to look at this and say, ‘Hey, this thing is going to take a while.’ They want to win,” said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama. “So they will go on to something that they could get through more quickly, which will be beneficial to the market,” Hellwig said. U.S. stocks have rallied hard since Trump was elected on Nov. 8, with the benchmark S&P 500 gaining around 10 percent in that span. Most of the gains have come as investors embraced prospects for the pro-growth and pro-business agenda Trump touted during his campaign. But more recently, doubts have arisen over Trump’s ability to deliver on the agenda as the effort to repeal Obamacare grew more rancorous. Stocks have drifted sideways for the last several weeks. Even amid the more sanguine mood on Friday as the vote approached, not all investors were ready to embrace the notion that a failure to repeal Obamacare could be so readily overlooked given how far the market has come since the election. “If the Republicans cannot settle their own conservative-moderate division on healthcare then that divide will be exacerbated for any other issue they attempt,” said Joseph Trevisani, chief market strategist at Worldwide Markets in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. Still, with less than about 90 minutes to go to the House vote, there was little evidence of the angst evident earlier in the week when investors saw the vote as a clear pass-fail test for Trump’s agenda. “I think what Trump did by saying that they are going to take a vote and if it doesn’t go they will move on to the next item is kind of a positive thing, because I think the more important things are fiscal stimulus and tax reform,” Tom Tucci, head of Treasuries trading at CIBC in New York said. “I know a lot of people are saying this will foreshadow the battle there, but I think there’s a lot more support on that end.” | 1 |
22,764 | LOL! ONE WORD THAT DESCRIBES HILLARY Perfectly Appears Behind Her At Rally…She’s Not Going To Like It! | Most sane Americans are gonna love it!h/t Weasel Zippers | 0 |
22,765 | WATCH: McCain Scorches His Own Party’s Sham ‘Investigation,’ Says Congress Is Not Credible In Russia Probe | Arizona Senator John McCain seems to be the lone patriot left in the GOP right now, along with perhaps South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. It seems McCain has had just about enough of the shady shenanigans regarding the so-called investigation into the Trump campaign s ties to Russia and possible collusion. During an interview on Wednesday, McCain called for a new, independent commission, saying to Greta Van Susteren on MSNBC: It s a bizarre situation, and what I think, the reason why I m calling for this select committee or a special committee, is I think that this back-and-forth and what the American people have found out so far that no longer does the Congress have credibility to handle this alone. And I don t say that lightly. These tough remarks come as things heat up on Capitol Hill regarding Russia, with the Republican Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes (R-CA), and the Ranking Democrat, Adam Schiff (D-CA), now openly feuding over how things are being handled. This is especially true since Nunes decided to brief Trump the very subject of this investigation before briefing his own committee.It s high time the rest of the Republican Party grew a pair and put country before party and put a stop to this nonsense. Impeach Trump, investigate his entire administration, and if/when criminal wrongdoing is found, prosecute them.Watch the video below:Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 0 |
22,766 | Spain gives Catalan leader 8 days to drop independence | (This October 11 story has been refiled to add Puigdemont s first name, title in paragraph three.) By Blanca Rodr guez and Sonya Dowsett MADRID/BARCELONA (Reuters) - Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Wednesday gave the Catalan government eight days to drop an independence bid, failing which he would suspend Catalonia s political autonomy and rule the region directly. His move could deepen the confrontation between Madrid and the northeastern region but also signals a way out of Spain s biggest political crisis since a failed military coup in 1981. Rajoy would probably call a snap regional election after activating Article 155 of the constitution that would allow him to sack the Catalan regional government. Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont issued a symbolic declaration of independence from Spain on Tuesday night but then immediately suspended it and called for negotiations with the Madrid government. The cabinet has agreed this morning to formally request the Catalan government to confirm whether it has declared the independence of Catalonia, regardless of the deliberate confusion created over its implementation, Rajoy said in a televised address after a cabinet meeting called to consider the government s response. He later told Spain s parliament the Catalan government had until Monday, Oct. 16 at 0800 GMT to answer. If Puigdemont was to confirm he did declare independence, he would be given an additional three days to rectify it, until Thursday, Oct. 19 at 0800 GMT. Failing this, Article 155 would be triggered. It is not yet clear if the Catalan government will answer the requirement but it now faces a conundrum, analysts say. If Puigdemont says he did proclaim independence, the central government will step in. If he says he did not declare it, then far-left party CUP would probably withdraw its support for his minority government. Rajoy has two objectives: if Puigdemont remains ambiguous, the pro-independence movement will get more fragmented; if Puigdemont insists on defending independence then Rajoy will be able to apply Article 155, said Antonio Barroso, deputy director of the London-based research firm Teneo Intelligence. Either way, Rajoy s aim would be to first restore the rule of law in Catalonia and this could at some point lead to early elections in the region. The stakes are high - losing Catalonia, which has its own language and culture, would deprive Spain of a fifth of its economic output and more than a quarter of exports. Puigdemont had been widely expected to unilaterally declare Catalonia s independence on Tuesday after the Catalan government said 90 percent of Catalans had voted for a breakaway in an Oct. 1 referendum. Central authorities in Madrid had declared the referendum illegal and most opponents of independence boycotted it, reducing turnout to around 43 percent. Madrid responded angrily to Puigdemont s speech to Catalonia s parliament, saying his government could not act on the results of the referendum. Neither Mr. Puigdemont nor anyone else can claim, without returning to legality and democracy, to impose mediation... Dialogue between democrats takes place within the law, Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said. Invoking Article 155 to ease Spain s worst political crisis in four decades would make prospects of a negotiated solution even more remote. A spokesman for the Catalan government in Barcelona said earlier on Wednesday that if Madrid went down this road, it would press ahead with steps towards statehood. We have given up absolutely nothing...We have taken a time out...which doesn t mean a step backwards, or a renunciation or anything like that, Catalan government spokesman Jordi Turull told Catalunya Radio. Spanish Socialist opposition leader Pedro Sanchez said he would back Rajoy if he had to activate Article 155 and that he agreed with the premier to launch constitutional reform within six months to address how Catalonia could fit better in Spain. It was not clear how the Catalan government would respond to that offer. Puigdemont s speech also disappointed supporters of independence, thousands of whom watched proceedings on giant screens outside parliament before sadly leaving for home. Financial markets, however, were encouraged that an immediate declaration of independence had been avoided. After Puigdemont s speech, Spain s benchmark IBEX share index rose as much as 1.6 percent, outperforming the pan-European STOXX 600 index. The rally propelled the main world stocks index, the MSCI s 47-country All-World index, to a record high. Spain s 10-year government bond yield - which moves inversely to the price - dropped 5 basis points to 1.65 percent in early trade, according to Tradeweb data. At European Union headquarters in Brussels, there was relief that Spain, the euro zone s fourth-largest economy, now had at least bought some time to deal with a crisis that was still far from over. One EU official said Puigdemont seems to have listened to advice not to do something irreversible . The EU has been cool to Puigdemont s calls for European mediation. The Catalan crisis has deeply divided the region itself as well as the Spanish nation. Opinion polls conducted before the vote suggested a minority of about 40 percent of residents in Catalonia backed independence. Some of Catalonia s largest companies have moved their head offices out of the region and others were set to follow if Puigdemont had declared independence. | 1 |
22,767 | Peru's Kuczynski urges people to accept Fujimori pardon and 'turn the page' | LIMA (Reuters) - Peru s President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski defended his pardon for Alberto Fujimori on Monday as justified clemency for an ailing man whose authoritarian government in the 1990s helped the country progress, after Peruvians protested for a second day. Addressing Peruvians for the first time since pardoning Fujimori on Christmas Eve, Kuczynski appealed to Peruvians protesting his decision to turn the page and accept it. The pardon has pitched Kuczynski s center-right government into a fresh political crisis less than a week after Congress nearly removed him from office in the wake of a graft scandal. Earlier on Monday, police fired tear gas to disperse crowds in downtown Lima in a second day of unrest, while a third lawmaker announced he was abandoning Kuczynski s political party. Fujimori, who like Kuczynski is 79, is a deeply divisive figure in Peru. While many consider him a corrupt dictator, others credit him with ending a severe economic crisis and quashing a leftist rebellion during his decade in power. The pardon cleared Fujimori of convictions for graft and human rights crimes, 12 years into a 25-year prison sentence. Kuczynski, a former Wall Street banker, reiterated that the pardon was a response to fears that Fujimori might die in prison. But - for the first time since running for office a year ago - he also defended Fujimori s decade in power. It s clear his government, which inherited a country submerged in a violent and chaotic crisis at the start of the 1990s, incurred in significant legal transgressions regarding democracy and human rights. But I also think his government contributed to national progress, Kuczynski said in a televised address. The remarks placed Kuczynski more firmly on Fujimori s side of Peru s biggest political faultline, and triggered a fresh wave of criticism of Kuczynski from Fujimori s foes. You ve got to be pretty stingy, President Kuczynski, to not say a word of solidarity for the victims and their loved ones, Gisela Ortiz, a Peruvian human rights activist, said on Twitter after his speech. Just a week ago, Kuczynski fanned fears of a new rise of Fujimori s rightwing movement, denouncing its bid to remove him from office as a legislative coup attempt that threatened Peru s democracy. Many of Fujimori s detractors, who helped Kuczynski win last year s runoff election, joined Kuczynski in calling for lawmakers to defeat the presidential vacancy motion. But it was a rebel faction among Fujimori s supporters in Congress which unexpectedly saved Kuczynski from the vote, fueling speculation that it was part of a deal to trade votes for a pardon for Fujimori. The pardon s for President Kuczynski, it s not for Fujimori, leftist lawmaker Marisa Glave said on local TV channel Canal N. The lawyer who defended Kuczynski before Congress last week, Alberto Borea, said he was opposed to the pardon and did not know it was in the works. Chanting traitor and the pardon has got to go, many Peruvians marching on Monday called for Kucyznski to resign and new elections to be held. So far, three ruling party lawmakers have announced their resignations from Kuczynski s party, which controls about a fifth of congressional seats. The deputy human rights minister has also resigned, a government source said. Fujimori remained at a hospital in Lima, where he was taken from prison late on Sunday to treat a drop in his blood pressure and an abnormal heart beat, according to his doctor. | 1 |
22,768 | No cult of personality around Xi, says top China party academic | BEIJING (Reuters) - China has learnt from history and will not allow a Mao Zedong-style cult of personality to form around President Xi Jinping, one of the ruling Communist Party s top official academics said on Monday. Xi cemented his political authority at a key twice-a-decade party congress last month, enshrining an eponymous political ideology in the party s constitution and breaking with recent precedent by unveiling a new leadership line-up without a clear successor. The extent to which he now dominates Chinese politics has prompted comparisons with Mao and fueled speculation he could seek to stay on in some capacity beyond the end of his customary second five years in power, in 2022. Xie Chuntao, the director of the Central Party School s academic department, said the respect and love ordinary Chinese felt for Xi was natural and heartfelt and bore no similarities to a cult of personality. The Chinese Communist Party has had a cult of personality before, Xie told a news briefing. This lesson has long been had, and I believe this will not recur. The Central Party School is the training ground for top cadres and is influential in interpreting and disseminating party directives. Xi s official portrait on the People s Daily s front page, following the unveiling of the party s new top leadership last month, dwarfed a group photograph of the members of the Politburo Standing Committee. Since Deng Xiaoping introduced the concept of collective leadership three decades ago to ward off the rise of another Mao-like cult of personality, the official portraits of all newly-selected Politburo Standing Committee members have been presented together on the front page in a grid. Xie acknowledged the photo treatment was out of the ordinary, but said Xi deserved the prominence. He argued collective leadership still very much existed, albeit with a larger individual role for Xi. It is an objective fact that he is a strong leader, Xie said. If there isn t someone with the trust of the people and strong ability ... then i think it s hard to do anything well. | 1 |
22,769 | FBI officials said Clinton 'has to win' race to White House: NYT | (Reuters) - Senior FBI officials who helped probe Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign told a colleague that Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had to win the race to the White House, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. Peter Strzok, a senior FBI agent, said Clinton “just has to win” in a text sent to FBI lawyer Lisa Page, the Times reported. The messages showed concern from Strzok and Page that a Trump presidency could politicize the FBI, the report said, citing texts turned over to Congress and obtained by the newspaper. nyti.ms/2AOHylP Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz is investigating the texts in a probe into FBI’s handling of its investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server for official correspondence when she was Secretary of State under former President Barack Obama, the report added. Strzok was removed from working on the Russia probe after media reports earlier this month suggested he had exchanged text messages that disparaged Trump and supported Clinton. Strzok was involved in both the Clinton email and Russia investigations. Republicans, including Trump, have in recent weeks ramped up their attacks on the FBI and questioned its integrity. Special Counsel Robert Mueller and congressional committees are investigating possible links between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia. Russia denies meddling in the 2016 U.S. elections. The FBI, the Democratic National Committee and the White House did not respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours. Reuters was unable to contact Peter Strzok and Lisa Page for comment. | 1 |
22,770 | LIST OF 22 TIMES OBAMA Called Phony Climate Change More Serious Than Terrorism | Oh the irony of a terror attack by Muslims taking place on American soil on the heels of Obama s return from phony Climate Change Summit in Paris ISIS has taken responsibility for the horrifying attacks in Paris that have left more than 150 dead and hundreds wounded. French President Francois Hollande is calling for the closure of his country s borders. President Barack Obama didn t condemn Islamic radicals for the attacks, but he did call them an outrageous attempt to terrorize innocent civilians and an attack on all of humanity and the universal values we share. Friday s deadly attacks thwarted Al Gore s long-planned Paris webcast and star-studded concert to promote climate change awareness. Out of solidarity with the French people and the City of Paris, we have decided to suspend our broadcast of 24 Hours of Reality and Live Earth, the group said in an online statement.Coincidentally, in July 2008, Al Gore called climate change a more dangerous threat than terrorism. I think that the climate crisis is, by far, the most serious threat we have ever faced, Gore told ABC News.Below are 22 times Obama or his administration officials claimed climate change a greater threat than radical Islamic terrorism.In a January 15, 2008 presidential campaign speech on Iraq and Afghanistan, Barack Obama said the immediate danger of oil-backed terrorism is eclipsed only by the long-term threat from climate change, which will lead to devastating weather patterns, terrible storms, drought, and famine. That means people competing for food and water in the next fifty years in the very places that have known horrific violence in the last fifty: Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. Most disastrously, that could mean destructive storms on our shores, and the disappearance of our coastline. On January 26, 2009, Obama delivered remarks at the White House on the dangers of climate change:These urgent dangers to our national and economic security are compounded by the long-term threat of climate change, which, if left unchecked, could result in violent conflict, terrible storms, shrinking coastlines, and irreversible catastrophe.In May 2010, the Obama White House released it s national security strategy, which said, At home and abroad, we are taking concerted action to confront the dangers posed by climate change and to strengthen our energy security. The document declared climate change an urgent and growing threat to our national security. On September 6, 2012, during his Democratic National Convention speech, Obama said, Yes, my plan will continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is heating our planet, because climate change is not a hoax. More droughts and floods and wildfires are not a joke. They are a threat to our children s future.On January 23, 2013, in an address before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Secretary of State John Kerry declared climate change among the top threats facing the United States.February 16, 2014, Secretary of State John Kerry addressed students in Indonesia and said that global warming is now perhaps the world s most fearsome weapon of mass destruction. In a June 2014 interview, Obama said:When you start seeing how these shifts can displace people entire countries can be finding themselves unable to feed themselves and the potential incidence of conflict that arises out of that that gets your attention. There s a reason why the quadrennial defense review which the secretary of defense and the Joints Chiefs of Staff work on identified climate change as one of our most significant national security problems. It s not just the actual disasters that might arise, it is the accumulating stresses that are placed on a lot of different countries and the possibility of war, conflict, refugees, displacement that arise from a changing climate.During a September 2014 meeting with foreign ministers, Secretary of State John Kerry called Climate change a threat as urgent as ISIS.On September 24 2014, the Obama USDA launched its Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture. In a memo posted by Secretary of State John Kerry, among other Obama administration officials, read, From India to the United States, climate change poses drastic risks to every facet of our lives. On October 29, 2014, in an address to the Washington Ideas Forum, Obama s Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said:From my perspective, within the portfolio that I have responsibility for security of this country climate change presents security issues for us. There s a security dynamic to that. As the oceans increase, it will affect our bases. It will affect islands. It will affect security across the world. Just from my narrow perspective, what I have responsibility for, that s happening now.During his 2015 State of the Union address, Obama said, No challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change. In a February 2015 address to college students in Iowa, Vice President Joe Biden said Global warming is the greatest threat to your generation of anything at all, across the board. On February 09, 2015, in an interview with Vox, Obama said he absolutely believes that the media sometimes overstates the level of alarm people should have about terrorism as opposed to climate change. On February 10, 2015, when asked to confirm if this means Obama believes the threat of climate change is greater than the threat of terrorism, Earnest responded, The point the president is making is that there are many more people on an annual basis who have to confront the impact, the direct impact on their lives, of climate change, or on the spread of a disease, than on terrorism. During his April 18, 2015 weekly address on climate change, Obama said, Wednesday is Earth Day, a day to appreciate and protect this precious planet we call home. And today, there s no greater threat to our planet than climate change. In May 2015, the White House released a 1,300-page National Climate Assessment that declared climate change among the world s foremost threats.May 20, 2015 President Obama said in his keynote address to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy graduates: Climate change, and especially rising seas, is a threat to our homeland security, our economic infrastructure, the safety and health of the American people. On July 13 2015, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy and Obama s U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican Kenneth F. Hackett wrote in a joint blog post on the EPA website, praising Pope Francis for dedicating his second encyclical to urging swift action on global warming.McCarthy and Hackett wrote:As public servants working in both domestic policy and diplomacy, we understand the urgent need for global action. Climate impacts like extreme droughts, floods, fires, heat waves, and storms threaten people in every country and those who have the least suffer the most. No matter your beliefs or political views, we are all compelled to act on climate change to protect our health, our planet, and our fellow human beings.An Obama Defense Department report released on July 29, 2015 says climate change puts U.S. security at risk and threatens the global order:The report reinforces the fact that global climate change will have wide-ranging implications for U.S. national security interests over the foreseeable future because it will aggravate existing problems such as poverty, social tensions, environmental degradation, ineffectual leadership, and weak political institutions that threaten domestic stability in a number of countries.The report finds that climate change is a security risk because it degrades living conditions, human security, and the ability of governments to meet the basic needs of their populations. Communities and states that are already fragile and have limited resources are significantly more vulnerable to disruption and far less likely to respond effectively and be resilient to new challenges.In his August 28, 2015 weekly address, Obama said This is all real. This is happening to our fellow Americans right now, he said. Think about that. If another country threatened to wipe out an American town, we d do everything in our power to protect ourselves. Climate change poses the same threat, right now. In a September address at the United Nations Climate Summit Obama said, For all the immediate challenges that we gather to address this week terrorism, instability, inequality, disease there s one issue that will define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other, and that is the urgent and growing threat of a changing climate. During a September 28 address at the United Nations, President Obama said that We can roll back the pollution that we put in our skies, adding that No country can escape the ravages of climate change. Via: Breitbart News | 0 |
22,771 | It’s Official: The United States Government Is Censoring Climate Data | A disturbing new report reveals that the staff at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have officially been instructed to begin censoring information on climate data. In fact, they are no longer even supposed to use the words climate change at all.According to emails between staff at the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the staff has been told to use the term weather extremes instead.The Guardian reports the following regarding an email dated February 16:A missive from Bianca Moebius-Clune, director of soil health, lists terms that should be avoided by staff and those that should replace them. Climate change is in the avoid category, to be replaced by weather extremes . Instead of climate change adaption , staff are asked to use resilience to weather extremes .The primary cause of human-driven climate change is also targeted, with the term reduce greenhouse gases blacklisted in favor of build soil organic matter, increase nutrient use efficiency . Meanwhile, sequester carbon is ruled out and replaced by build soil organic matter .Moebius-Clune explained that we won t change the modeling, just how we talk about it there are a lot of benefits to putting carbon back in the sail [sic], climate mitigation is just one of them. She claims a colleague from the USDA s public affairs team advised them to tamp down on discretionary messaging right now. Jimmy Bramblett, deputy chief for programs at the NRCS told senior employees that Trump was behind the decision to begin censoring important climate change data. It has become clear one of the previous administration s priority is not consistent with that of the incoming administration. Namely, that priority is climate change. Please visit with your staff and make them aware of this shift in perspective within the executive branch, Bramblett wrote on January 24.The USDA issued a statement on January 23 that said, interim operating procedures outlining procedures to ensure the new policy team has an opportunity to review policy-related statements, legislation, budgets, and regulations prior to issuance. This guidance, similar to procedures issued by previous administrations, was misinterpreted by some to cover data and scientific publications. This was never the case and USDA interim procedures will allow complete, objective information for the new policy staff reviewing policy decisions, the statement added.And it isn t just the USDA. Since Trump took office, all mention of climate change has been scrubbed from the websites for both the White House and the Department of the Interior. The EPA has also removed its sections on climate change while they are updating language to reflect the approach of new leadership. This is troubling, to say the least. These records reveal Trump s active censorship of science in the name of his political agenda, said Meg Townsend, open government attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. To think that federal agency staff who report about the air, water, and soil that sustains the health of our nation must conform their reporting with the Trump administration s anti-science rhetoric is appalling and dangerous for America and the greater global community. 2017-NRCS-00240-A-3 by The Guardian on ScribdFeatured image via Mark Wilson/Getty Images | 0 |
22,772 | Uganda postpones bill to extend Museveni's rule after protests | KAMPALA (Reuters) - Ugandan authorities postponed a bill to extend leader Yoweri Museveni s rule after protesters took to the streets against it on Thursday, confronting police who fired teargas. Parliament speaker Jacob Oulanyah told lawmakers during a raucous session that the legislation due to be introduced on Thursday afternoon was bringing tension and would come back on another, unspecified date. Activists, campaign groups, religious leaders and even some members of Museveni s own ruling party have objected to the proposed change to the constitution, saying it is undemocratic. Groups of students at Makerere, a public university in the capital Kampala, rallied to start marching toward parliament before police dispersed them with teargas. Protesters regrouped through the morning, throwing stones back at police. We are not going to allow anybody to hold protest marches. The teargas was to deter that, police spokesman Asan Kasingye said. Museveni, aged 73, has already been in power for more than three decades. The change to the constitution would have removed a rule banning anyone older that 75 running for president that currently bars him from running for re-election at polls in 2021. The move to amend legislation mirrors similar tactics used in Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic Congo to extend limits, a trend that has alarmed democracy watchdogs. Museveni won plaudits in the early years of his rule for restoring stability after years of turmoil, and became a key Western ally who sent Ugandan troops to fight Islamist militants in Somalia. But accusations of rampant rights violations, entrenched graft and dysfunctional public services have since fueled opposition to his rule. Police have also raided the premises of at least two pro-democracy organizations in Kampala, including that of the local unit of Johannesburg-based ActionAid International. Security personnel blockaded staff inside their offices late on Wednesday and conducted searches, staff members of the organizations told Reuters. There was intelligence that we got that they received funding for people who are planning to cause chaos and violence, police spokesman Kasingye said. Local media said Kampala s mayor Erias Lukwago - an opposition party member - was detained early on Thursday, though Kasingye said he was unaware of the reports. Museveni s bid has also met increasing denunciation from some members of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) Party, exposing cracks. The NRM counts about three-thirds of all parliament members. Ultimately... Museveni has ample patronage at his disposal and, when push comes to shove, few lawmakers will be prepared to risk political exile by not backing the president, said Charlotte King, a Uganda analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit. The U.S. Embassy in Kampala condemned the raids on pro-democracy groups. The United States is deeply concerned that recent arrests and raids stifle the Ugandan people s right to free expression and tarnish Uganda s global image, it said in a statement. | 1 |
22,773 | Moderate Republicans warn of trouble for tax reform | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Twenty moderate Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives warned on Friday that efforts to overhaul the federal tax code could be jeopardized by demands for including major spending cuts in a fiscal 2018 budget resolution. In a June 30 letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan, lawmakers from the moderate Tuesday Group said that including hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to mandatory programs could be “extremely problematic” for tax reform and asked for a budget delay until Senate Republicans finish their debate on healthcare legislation. “We fear that if the House persists on pursuing this course, it could imperil tax reform,” wrote the lawmakers, who were led by Representative Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania. Republicans must pass a 2018 budget resolution to unlock a key legislative tool known as reconciliation, which the party needs to move a tax bill forward without support from Democrats. But members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus say they will back a spending plan only if it cuts mandatory programs including Medicaid and food stamps, reductions that moderates oppose. “House Republicans have made significant progress on budget decisions and these family discussions will continue amongst the conference,” Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong said in a statement. The Freedom Caucus and Tuesday Group each represents enough House Republicans to stymie legislation on its own. Outside organizations including powerful business lobby groups are increasingly worried that the disagreement could lead to a political stand-off that prevents tax reform from occurring. “No other reforms under consideration rise to the importance of pro-growth, comprehensive tax reform,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Federation of Independent Business said in a joint letter to Republican and Democratic congressional leaders on Wednesday. Republican moderates also worry that adding mandatory cuts to a reconciliation bill would create unpalatable legislation that reduces benefits for the poor while granting tax cuts to corporations and wealthy individuals, according to aides. The House Budget Committee canceled plans to send a resolution for fiscal 2018 to the floor this week, after the chairmen of several other committees rejected efforts to wring $250 billion in mandatory spending from spending. Freedom Caucus members want much larger cuts. | 1 |
22,774 | In abrupt shift on Syria, Trump turns to military advisers | WASHINGTON/PALM BEACH (Reuters) - Hours after a poison gas attack in Syria killed dozens of civilians on Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s intelligence advisers provided evidence Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad was behind the atrocity, officials said. Trump, who had long said the top U.S. priority in Syria should be to fight Islamic State, immediately ordered a list of options to punish Assad, according to senior officials who took part in the flurry of closed-door meetings that played out over two days. Confronting his first foreign policy crisis, Trump relied on seasoned military experts rather than the political operatives who had dominated policy in the first weeks of his presidency and showed a willingness to move quickly, officials involved in the deliberations said. On Thursday afternoon, Trump ordered the launch of a barrage of cruise missiles against the Shayrat air field north of Damascus, which the Pentagon says was used to store the chemical weapons used in the attack. “I think it does demonstrate that President Trump is willing to act when governments and actors cross the line ... It is clear that President Trump made that statement to the world,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters. Senior administration officials said they met with Trump as early as Tuesday evening and presented options including sanctions, diplomatic pressure and a military plan to strike Syria drawn up well before he took office. “He had a lot of questions and said he wanted to think about it but he also had some points he wanted to make. He wanted the options refined,” one official said. On Wednesday morning, Trump’s military advisers said they knew which Syrian air base was used to launch the chemical attack and that they had tracked the Sukhoi-22 jet that carried it out. Trump told them to focus on the military plans. “It was a matter of dusting those off and adapting them for the current target set and timing,” said another official. That same afternoon, Trump appeared in the White House Rose Garden and said the “unspeakable” attack against “even beautiful little babies” had changed his attitude toward Assad. Asked then whether he was formulating a new policy on Syria, Trump replied: “You’ll see.” By late afternoon on Thursday, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff met at the Pentagon to finalize the plan for the military strikes as Trump headed to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for a summit meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. At another meeting there, Trump signed off on the missile attacks and went to dinner with Xi. Two U.S. warships – the USS Ross and the USS Porter – fired 59 cruise missiles from the eastern Mediterranean Sea at the targeted air base at around 8:40 p.m. ET (00:40 GMT), just as the two presidents were finishing their meals. Throughout the three days of meetings, Trump’s key military advisers were national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, officials said. In a White House marked by palace intrigue, McMaster has jostled for influence with Stephen Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, who lost his seat on the National Security Council on Wednesday just as the military preparations were developing. Tillerson’s State Department told allies on Thursday that a strike against Syria was imminent, without providing details, one official said. But the move angered Russia, a major ally of Assad, and appeared to diminish chances of closer cooperation with Moscow that Trump has said is possible, especially in fighting the Islamic State militant group. Tillerson played down suggestions that Trump was dropping his “America First” approach to foreign policy. And one of the other officials involved in the planning said the cruise missile launch was a “one-off” strike rather than the start of an escalating campaign. | 1 |
22,775 | Guatemala Congress again votes to maintain president's immunity | GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemala s Congress on Thursday once again voted to maintain beleaguered President Jimmy Morales immunity and shield him from a probe into suspected illicit campaign funding, a move that could raise tensions among anti-graft protesters. For the second time this month, lawmakers discussed a motion, pushed by the attorney general s office and the United Nations-backed International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), to remove Morales immunity. Although the motion enjoyed greater support than before, the 70 votes in favor fell short of the two-thirds of Congress necessary for it to pass. The commission wants to determine the origin of some $800,000 in funds Morales managed as secretary general of the conservative National Convergence Front (FCN) party he led from 2015 to 2016. Morales has denied any wrongdoing. Critics say lawmakers threw their lot in with Morales as they fear the scope of a larger commission investigation into all major parties campaign financing. The latest vote, in which 42 lawmakers voted against the motion with 46 absent, came the day after thousands of Guatemalans took to the streets, calling for the resignation of Morales and lawmakers, whom they blame for trying to trip up anti-graft investigators. Today ... Congress has exposed itself in front of the people with this decision, said Raul Romero, a conservative lawmaker from the Force party, who voted in favor of stripping Morales immunity. In August, Guatemala s attorney general and CICIG jointly sought to investigate Morales, a former comedian, over the illegal financing allegation. Two days later, Morales declared the head of the U.N. body persona non grata. Under the leadership of Ivan Velasquez, a veteran Colombian prosecutor, the commission has caused problems for Morales, first investigating his son and brother, and then training its sights on him. The Guatemalan president won office in 2015 running on a platform of honest governance after Perez Molina was forced to resign and imprisoned in a multi-million dollar graft case stemming from a commission investigation. | 1 |
22,776 | Latest From Conservatives: God Was Answering Victims’ Prayers By Letting Them Get Shot | We are 308 days into 2017, and so far there have been 378 mass shootings most done by angry white men with too many guns and with domestic violence issues. It s difficult to spin that fact in any way that doesn t spit in the face of our nation s gun lust, but conservatives try. One even says it s a good thing.Donald Trump called it a mental health issue, one that has no proposed solutions, just days after he called for a complete policy change after an ISIS connected terrorist plowed into people in New York.Even Trump s tone-deaf reaction seemed compassionate compared to a conservative blogger and Lutheran pastor who says that God was answering the victims prayers by taking them to heaven.Hans Fiene wrote his column in The Federalist in response to liberals who say that thoughts and prayers are not enough to quell the mass shooting epidemic. God wanted them dead, he said, and that s what prayer is all about.When we pray these words, we are certainly praying that God would deliver us from evil temporally that is, in this earthly life. Through these words, we are asking God to send his holy angels to guard us from those who would seek to destroy us with knives and bombs and bullets. It may seem, on the surface, that God was refusing to give such protection to his Texan children. But we are also praying that God would deliver us from evil eternally. Through these same words, we are asking God to deliver us out of this evil world and into his heavenly glory, where no violence, persecution, cruelty, or hatred will ever afflict us again. Just like those who put Christ to death, and just like those who have brought violence to believers in every generation, this man only succeeded in being the means through which God delivered his children from this evil world into an eternity of righteousness and peace. Perhaps instead of eternal damnation, the shooter who murdered 26 parishioners should receive sainthood.Featured image via Facebook. | 0 |
22,777 | Trump says Supreme Court decision on travel ban 'a clear victory' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump praised the Supreme Court’s decision on Monday to review the legality of his temporary ban on travelers from six Muslim-majority countries and all refugees, and to allow it to be partly implemented in the meantime. “Today’s unanimous Supreme Court decision is a clear victory for our national security,” Trump said in a statement released by the White House, adding: “Today’s ruling allows me to use an important tool for protecting our Nation’s homeland.” | 1 |
22,778 | Britain's Johnson says looks forward to continuing UK-U.S. partnership with Trump | LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who has previously criticized U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, congratulated him on his victory on Wednesday and said he looked forward to continuing the partnership between the two nations. “I believe passionately in the importance of the UK - US relationship and am confident we can take it forward together,” Johnson, who was formerly mayor of London, said on his Twitter feed. Last year, Johnson said that he feared going to New York because of “the real risk of meeting Donald Trump” after the billionaire said parts of London were now so radicalised they could no longer be policed by officers, who feared for their lives. | 1 |
22,779 | Russia's Sibur says had no direct dealings with Wilbur Ross | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian petrochemical holding Sibur said on Monday it had no direct dealings with U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and that its ties to its partners were not in breach of sanctions imposed on Russia over the Ukraine crisis. Sibur was commenting on reports that Ross has kept investments in Navigator Holdings, a shipping firm which has supplied services to Sibur. Stakeholders in Sibur include an associate of Russian Vladimir Putin who is subject to U.S. sanctions. In a statement, Sibur said that in the first half of this year, Sibur spent $15.9 million on services provided by Navigator, or 2.8 percent of Sibur’s overall expenditure on logistics. It said Navigator was never a sole contractor for shipping Sibur’s petrochemical products. “All negotiations and meetings were held solely by Sibur management and solely with management of those companies (which were shipping Sibur’s liquefied petroleum gas) and without shareholders’ involvement,” Sibur said in an emailed statement. “In connection with the introduction in 2014 of sanctions with regard to one of the company’s shareholders, our counter-parties conducted all necessary checks into whether there were any restrictions on working with Sibur. No such restrictions were found,” the statement said. “Sibur expresses its surprise at the politically-charged interpretation in certain media publications of regular commercial activities, over many years, which from the outset were reflected in the company’s published accounts.” Sibur’s shareholders include Gennady Timchenko, a close Putin ally who has been under U.S. sanctions since 2014. Another Sibur shareholder is Putin’s son-in-law, Kirill Shamalov. Shamalov did not reply to an email from Reuters seeking comment. Spokesman for Volga Group, an investment vehicle for Timchenko’s assets, declined to comment. The New York Times and other publications, citing leaked documents from an offshore law firm, reported that partnerships used by Ross have a 31 percent stake in Navigator Holdings. Reuters has not independently verified the documents. | 1 |
22,780 | Irish PM 'doing everything he can' to avoid election: spokesman | DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar is doing everything he can to avoid a snap general election, his spokesman said, but the crisis that has brought his minority government to the brink showed no obvious sign of resolution on Sunday. Varadkar has two days to end the standoff with the party propping up his government before it submits a motion of no confidence in his deputy prime minister, a move that Varadkar says will force him to call a snap election before Christmas. The crisis has erupted less than three weeks before a summit on Britain s plans to leave the European Union, where Ireland will play a major role in deciding whether the negotiations can move onto the next phase. Talks between Varadkar and Micheal Martin, the leader of the main opposition party, Fianna Fail, will continue on Sunday ahead of Martin bringing the motion of no confidence in Deputy Prime Minister Frances Fitzgerald before parliament on Tuesday. The Taoiseach (prime minister) is doing everything he can to avoid an election, and hopes it will be possible to reach agreement with Micheal Martin, Varadkar s spokesman said in a statement on Sunday. The spokesman added that there was no question of Fitzgerald being asked to resign over her handling of a legal case involving a police whistleblower. Fianna Fail say this is the only way to avoid an election. The Sunday Times newspaper reported that the leaders agreed the outline of a deal that would allow an ongoing judge-led tribunal to investigate the issue but that sources in Varadkar s Fine Gael party said an election was unavoidable if Fianna Fail continued to call for Fitzgerald to step down. Varadkar is due to play a major role in the Dec. 14-15 EU summit on Brexit, telling fellow leaders whether Dublin believes sufficient progress has been made on the future border between EU-member Ireland and Britain s province of Northern Ireland. The government has said enough progress has not been made to date and Ireland s EU Commissioner Phil Hogan said on Sunday that Dublin would continue to play tough over its threat to veto talks. The border is one of three issues Brussels wants broadly resolved before it decides whether to move the talks on to a second phase about trade and EU officials have said a snap election in Ireland would complicate that task. Bosses at a number of Ireland s top companies were quoted by the Sunday Business Post as telling the parties to step back from the brink. This thing of bringing the country to a standstill at a critical time is just unacceptable, Dalata Hotel Group (DHG.I) chief executive Pat McCann told the newspaper. Politicians say they also know there is no appetite among voters for an election just 18 months after the last one and an opinion poll on Saturday suggested there would be little change with another minority administration the most likely outcome. | 1 |
22,781 | Trump brand to exit Toronto skyline after buyout deal | TORONTO (Reuters) - The name Trump will be removed from a high-rise hotel and condo development in downtown Toronto after the project’s new owner, JCF Capital ULC, reached a deal with Trump Hotels to buy out its management contracts for an undisclosed amount. U.S. President Donald Trump never owned the project, but his company had signed a long-term branding and management deal with the building’s developer, Talon International Development Inc, which defaulted on its construction loan last year. JCF Capital ULC earlier this year bought units in the 65-story Trump International Hotel & Tower that were not owned by individuals in a court-run sale. In a statement announcing the buyout on Tuesday, JCF Capital did not say whether it had reached a deal yet with another group to take over the management and branding of the building in Toronto’s financial district. Sources told Reuters earlier in June that Marriott International Inc’s (MAR.O) St. Regis brand was the lead bidder to take over the brand and management rights, with one saying that the Trump Organization had agreed to sever its connections. “We are pleased to have reached this agreement with JCF and have enjoyed our relationship with them as the new owners of this property,” Eric Danziger, chief executive of Trump Hotels, said in the JCF statement. JCF is a vehicle created by Juniper Capital Partners LLC and Cowie Capital Partners Inc to buy the tower. Trump’s business interest will receive at least $6 million for walking away from its long-term contracts, and the Trump signage could be removed as early as Aug. 1, Bloomberg reported, citing a person it did not identify. The tower, which opened in 2012 after construction delays, has had a troubled history, including lawsuits from unhappy investors and has also been the scene of several protests against President Trump’s policies and statements. His business connections around the world have sparked lawsuits and criticism about potential conflicts of interest since he took office in January. Since its opening, Talon had sold less than half of the tower’s residential condos, and the hotel’s occupancy rates have been lower than some investors in the rooms had hoped. A court last year ordered the developer to pay damages to one investor for “negligent misrepresentation” and for another sale to be rescinded. | 1 |
22,782 | Eastern Congo rebels aim to march on Kinshasa: spokesman | GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - A rebel spokesman in eastern Congo said on Friday that his movement intended to march across the country to the capital Kinshasa to depose President Joseph Kabila, who refused to quit power at the end of his mandate last year. Led by self-proclaimed general William Yakutumba, the rebel force, calling itself the National People s Coalition for the Sovereignty of Congo (CNPSC), has emerged as one of the strongest groups in Democratic Republic of Congo s lawless eastern borderlands since its formation in June. Analysts doubt that the CNPSC has the capacity to make a move on the capital. However it briefly captured some strategic towns in June and advanced this week to within a few kilometers of the city of Uvira along Lake Tanganyika, forcing U.N. helicopters to intervene to help Congolese troops drive them back. Congo has been beset by a wave of prison breaks, rebellions and lawlessness since Kabila s refusal to step down in December. We are even going to reach Kinshasa, Dalton Waubwela Mwila, secretary-general of the CNPSC, told Reuters in a telephone interview. Our ultimate objective is to be in Kinshasa. Kabila s father, Laurent, came to power in 1997 on the back of a rebellion that started in eastern Congo, marching the more than 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) to the capital, but he crucially received backing from the armies of neighbouring Rwanda and Uganda. Waubwela said that the CNPSC includes a number of armed groups in eastern Congo, including in its home province of South Kivu and the neighbouring provinces of North Kivu, Tanganyika and Maniema, where heavy fighting was also reported this week. Yakutumba formed a militia bearing his name in 2007 and established himself as a warlord, gold smuggler and arms trafficker in South Kivu s Fizi territory, but looks to be trying to raise an insurrection with nationwide support. Regional wars in eastern Congo, which holds vast reserves of gold, tin, coltan and other minerals, between 1996-2003 killed millions and spawned dozens of armed groups that continue to exploit natural resources and prey on local populations. Waubwela claimed that the coalition includes more than 10,000 men, but analysts estimate the size of the militia at closer to 300-450, and say it would require significant foreign backing or fresh alliances to be able to occupy much territory, let alone threaten Kabila in Kinshasa. Waubwela said the rebels have armed themselves with weapons captured from Congolese forces. Speaking to reporters in the eastern city of Goma on Thursday, the army s top general, Didier Etumba, dismissed the CNPSC as a flash in the pan that the army would put out . But the rebellion is yet another security headache for Kabila, who is also trying to tame a brutal insurgency in central Congo s Kasai region, which has killed up to 5,000 people and displaced 1.4 million more in the past year. | 1 |
22,783 | Republicans Get Skewered On Twitter After Hilarious #GOPMovies Hashtag Goes Viral (TWEETS/VIDEO) | The Republican party has become the butt of nearly every single political joke, and they have only themselves to blame for turning the GOP into a laughing-stock. With the ridiculous antics of the party s presidential candidates and politicians, there isn t a day that goes by that conservatives aren t making Americans shake their heads in either shame or disbelief.Comedy Central s late-night show @midnight decided to have fun with the GOP by challenging Americans to come up with new titles for classic movies, but with a Republican spin. Using the #hashtagwars segment of the show, host Chris Hardwick asked his guests to come up with new GOP-related movie titles on the spot, and it was absolutely hilarious. You can watch the segment below:Here were some of the highlights:TwitterTwitterTwitterThe #GOPMovies hashtag produced so many comedic results, that Comedy Central encouraged Twitter users to join in on ripping Republicans. The network tweeted: For all we know, #GOPMovies are our future! Check out these examples and give us your own! Twitter was more than happy to oblige. According to social media analytics firm Zoomph, the #GOPMovies hashtag was tweeted out approximately 20 times per minute as users scrambled to capture the Republican party s racism, bigotry and all-around hateful rhetoric in their revamped movie titles. Hardwick even joined in with his own: Saving Paul Ryan a jab the speaker of the House of Representatives.Here are some of the other amazing responses:TwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterDonald Trump was also a major topic in #GOPMovies. Just the front-runner s hair alone got a lot of responses:TwitterTwitterSo did Trump s skin:TwitterAnd his anger issues:TwitterTwitterSeriously, Trump could have gotten his own hashtag. Many Twitter users also took aim at the front-runner s other antics, including his promise to build a great wall , his 1% status and his alliance with Sarah Palin.TwitterTwitterTwitterThe Republican party s war on women was also a major point of discussion:TwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterAs was the GOP s obsession with being racist and hurting minorities:TwitterTwitterAll of the responses were amazing, but this tweet pretty much summed #GOPMovies up for everyone:Twitter#GOPMovies marks the second time that Comedy Central has taken a major jab at Republicans in the last few months. Last year, Hardwick and Comedy Central hit back at the GOP with the hashtag #GOPSongs right before the Dec. 15th GOP debate in Las Vegas. Just like #GOPMovies, it went viral, proving that Americans don t even take Republicans seriously anymore.One thing is for sure these tweets deserve an award for perfectly capturing how awful and depressing the GOP is while making us laugh.Featured image is a screenshot | 0 |
22,784 | A Fed Up Reporter Just Stood Up To Sarah Huckabee As She Was Smearing The Free Press (VIDEO) | Donald Trump s war on the free press just entered a dark new phase. After spending the election smearing reporters, sometimes personally, his administration has only gotten worse once in power. Trump continues to attack any media that dares criticize him, and his staff have begun cancelling press briefings and blocking recording devices in the White House. On Tuesday, Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee attended the first on-camera press briefing in over a week only to begin a disgustingly, dishonest smear of the free press.People watching in horror as Trump and his team undermine the media s ability to have a check on their power have been begging reporters to stand up for themselves and their duties and one finally did.In a powerful moment, Brian Karem of The Sentinel, couldn t take it anymore. Standing up, he cut Huckabee off and said what has been on everybody s mind: Come on! You re inflaming everybody, right here, right now with those words. This administration has done that as well.Why in the name of heavens is anyone of us replaceable, and if we don t get it right, the audience has the opportunity to turn the channel or not read us. [Meanwhile], you have been elected to serve four years at least, there s no option other than that. Huckabee tries to stop him, but Karem keeps going: We re here to ask you questions. You re here to provide the answers and what you just did is inflammatory to people* [note: *Trump supporters] all over the country who look at this and say See once again, the president is right and everybody else is fake media.' MUST WATCH: White House reporter @BrianKarem pushing back against Sarah Huckabee Sanders and saying what many people have been thinking. pic.twitter.com/hW49e0tdWY Yashar Ali (@yashar) June 27, 2017Karem isn t exaggerating. Trump has crafted his persona to be above criticism. To his followers, he can do no wrong. He has repeatedly reinforced this dangerous behavior by labeling reporters fake news and accusing them of lying. This has had the effect of cutting off a large portion of the country from getting any reliable information about what Trump is doing. Many of his fans only listen to him or watch his talking heads on Fox News.Huckabee, with Trump s approval, has tried to stoke this fire, bashing the media whenever she gets the chance. She and Trump are noticeably silent about the obvious lies he has said repeatedly throughout his campaign and time in office. Karem followed up on his appearance at the White House with a tweet that summed it up nicely.So, when we are wrong we correct ourselves but when has POTUS ever done that? We are not FAKE news. Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) June 27, 2017Trump has never apologized or admitted wrongdoing for a single lie he s said and there s a lot of them. The New York Times has created an exhaustive list of Trump s verifiable lies and it spans pages and pages. The analysis included this insane detail:Trump achieved something remarkable: He said something untrue, in public, every day for the first 40 days of his presidency. The streak didn t end until March 1.So who pushes more fake news CNN or Trump?Featured image via Twitter | 0 |
22,785 | U.S. warns of sanctions on any country trading with North Korea | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Wednesday that if the United Nations does not put additional sanctions on North Korea over nuclear tests, he has an executive order ready for President Donald Trump to sign that would impose sanctions on any country that trades with Pyongyang. I have an executive order prepared. It s ready to go to the president. It will authorize me to stop doing trade, and put sanctions on anybody that does trade with North Korea. The president will consider that at the appropriate time once he gives the U.N. time to act, Mnuchin told reporters on a flight back to Washington from North Dakota, where Trump gave a speech on tax reform. | 1 |
22,786 | Hispanic backers sour on Trump after immigration speech | WILMINGTON, Ohio/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some of Donald Trump’s Hispanic backers distanced themselves from the Republican nominee on Thursday for standing by a hardline approach to illegal immigration in a key speech after indicating for weeks that he may soften his approach. Trump tried to clarify confusion about immigration, his signature policy issue, in a speech on Wednesday. He said the only way undocumented foreigners could live in the United States legally if he is elected on Nov. 8 would be to leave the country and apply for re-entry. But the businessman, trailing Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in opinion polls, did back away from earlier promises to deport immediately the 11 million immigrants in the United States illegally and said he would prioritize those with criminal records. While polls show a large majority of Hispanic voters oppose Trump, the withdrawal of support from among his small group of Latino backers underscores how difficult it is for Trump to broaden his support with minorities and moderate voters. Alfonso Aguilar, who recently organized a support letter on behalf of Trump, said he felt “disappointed and misled” by the fiery speech and withdrew his backing. “For the last two months he said he was not going to deport people without criminal records. He actually said that he was going to treat undocumented immigrants without criminal records in a humane and compassionate way,” Aguilar told CNN. He is the president of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles group. Trump used his Wednesday appearance in Phoenix to clarify his stance on illegal immigration. But instead of moderating his message as many expected, Trump returned to the hardline rhetoric that powered him to victory in the Republican presidential nomination race over 16 rivals, heartening conservatives drawn to Trump by the issue. Some members of a council Trump formed last month to advise him on Hispanic issues expressed reservations about or cut ties to the New York real estate developer’s candidacy after the Phoenix speech. Jacob Monty, a Texas attorney and member of the group, said he was withdrawing his support and would not vote in the election. “There was nothing pro-business in that speech,” Monty told MSNBC. “We were hoping for some glimmer of the Donald Trump that we met with a week and half ago, but it never came.” Panel member Ramiro Pena, a Baptist pastor in Texas who spoke at the Republican National Convention in July, wrote in an email to party leaders that he believed Trump would lose the election and that the advisory panel was a “scam.” But other Latino advisers, including Florida pastor Mario Bramnick and Kentucky State Senator Ralph Alvardo, said they would continue working with the Trump campaign. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus downplayed the fallout from Trump’s speech, telling CNN that the nominee made clear he first wants to build the border wall and deal with criminal elements, then have a “humane conversation” about other illegal immigrants. “Somehow or another no one is talking about that piece,” Priebus said. At a campaign rally on Thursday in Wilmington, Ohio, Trump said his immigration plan would treat everyone with “dignity, respect and compassion” but prioritize compassion for American citizens and include some kind of ideological screening. “We only want to admit those into our country who share our values and love our people,” Trump said. Trump gave his Phoenix address, which was flagged as a major policy speech, just hours after he met with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in Mexico City. At a joint press conference after the meeting, Trump said the pair discussed his campaign promise to build a border wall but not which country would pay for it. Pena Nieto said on Twitter on Wednesday night he had “made it clear” Mexico would not be paying for the wall. Trump supporters at the Wilmington rally said they approved of the candidate’s immigration policies but moderate Republicans in Arizona, where Latinos make up more than 30 percent of the population, told Reuters they were less swayed by his message. Clinton’s campaign called Trump’s immigration speech a “disaster” and said it would begin running advertisements in Arizona, a sign it sees a chance of winning a state that has long backed Republican presidential candidates. Clinton raised about $143 million in August for her presidential bid and the Democratic Party, her campaign announced. Trump has not yet released his fundraising totals for the month of August. | 1 |
22,787 | ‘Christians’ Create Grisly Haunted House Claiming Pulse Nightclub Victims Got What They Deserved | Chicago doesn t tend to be one of the cities one thinks of when one thinks of the religious right. Unfortunately, they do exist here, and some of them decided to do something unspeakably disgusting and cruel for Halloween. Calling themselves Christians, which they aren t, they put together a haunted house with 10 rooms one of which showed the mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando.Pulse was a club frequented by the LGBTQ community, and there are many on the religious right who seem to think that the victims of that horror simply got what was coming to them. The so-called Christians who put this atrocity together called it, THE ROOM: A JOURNEY TO HELL. What s the implication there? It s pretty clear. In each of the 10 rooms were scenes in which people supposedly made choices that would send them to hell. The inclusion of the Pulse shooting indicates that the group who put this together believes that the clubgoers who were brutally murdered that night went to hell due to their choice of living the homosexual lifestyle. Ergo, getting murdered was what they deserved for willfully committing that sin.The haunted house was to happen at Fernwood Elementary School, which is part of Chicago Public Schools. An elementary school is not an appropriate venue for anything like this, even though children under 13 were supposedly prohibited from going through it. CPS very wisely decided not to allow the haunted house at all, according to the Windy City Times, and a spokesperson for CPS said: The event organizers mischaracterized the true content of the event, and we did not approve any association with the activities the organizers have now advertised. The event will not be held on CPS property. Because of course they did.The event organizers posted an ad on Facebook asking for volunteers for the event, and the event has now been banned there, too, as well it should be. This is Christian extremism run amok, and there is no place for this kind of gruesome hatred in our society.Featured image by Gerardo Mora via Getty Images | 0 |
22,788 | U.S. judge orders Virginia to extend voter registration through Friday | (Reuters) - A federal judge on Thursday ordered Virginia to reopen its voter registration window and allow residents to continue to sign up through midnight Friday, after its online registration portal was unavailable to many users earlier this week. U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton’s order came in response to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday by the activist New Virginia Education Fund, which complained that the state’s online voter registration portal had worked erratically in the days leading up to the state’s initial Monday deadline to register. The lawsuit argued that the problems risked illegally denying thousands of people the right to vote in the Nov. 8 election. Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe this year restored the right to vote to thousands of ex-felons, a move seen as potentially tipping what had been a traditional Republican stronghold in Democrats’ favor. “I am pleased that the court has agreed with the request to extend Virginia’s voter registration period after unprecedented web traffic prevented many people from completing their registrations online before the original deadline,” McAuliffe, a Democrat, said in a statement on Thursday. “The Commonwealth will fully comply with the court’s order and extend our registration process online, in person and through the mail.” State law gives the power to extend voting registration to the legislature, so McAuliffe had been unable to act until the judge’s ruling, noted Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond School of Law. The Republican-controlled legislature had declined to take any action following the flurry of complaints on Monday. “The real question is if this leaves enough time to get the word out to people who had been blocked from registering and may not know that the issue has been resolved,” Tobias added. Shortly after the judge’s decision was handed down in an Alexandria courtroom, the state’s Department of Elections updated its Web site to show the new deadline. Representatives of the New Virginia fund did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Recent polls show Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton leading Republican New York real estate developer Donald Trump in the state. The decision comes the week after a judge in North Carolina gave residents in counties hard hit by Hurricane Matthew additional time to register to vote. Similar steps were also taken in parts of Georgia, South Carolina and Florida following the storm. | 1 |
22,789 | JUDICIAL WATCH Email Release Shows Huma Was Asked To Plan “Healthy” Hillary’s Funeral | A long-time aide to Hillary Clinton sought to map out her funeral and Bill Clinton s in 2010 because planning is best done when they are still with us, according to an email released on Wednesday by Judicial Watch.Capricia Marshall, who was chief of protocol for the State Department when Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state, wrote to Huma Abedin, Doug Band and Cheryl Mills on Feb. 23, 2010, saying everytime someone significant passes, I am flooded with requests about the Clintons arrangements. Planning is necessary and best done when they are still with us, she wrote to top Clinton aide Abedin. As well, Huma, I would make the same suggestion to you for her it will be a little different And once affirmed it will be very hard for someone to deny the type of ceremony she wanted as well I understand that the President can request certain arrangements for her that she/her rep cannot (ie if you want the motorcade to go through DC stop somewhere), Marshall wrote in one email.She told the aides she needed to contact the military to prepare for the funerals as Protocol has a lot to do with planning, notification etc. Judicial Watch, a government watchdog group, released 1,184 pages of emails on Wednesday. NYP | 0 |
22,790 | Watch Joe Biden Tells Us EXACTLY What Trump Is, BRILLIANTLY Rips Him From End To End (VIDEO) | With more and more coming out about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, it s become abundantly clear that he in no way should be allowed near the Oval Office.Between his racism, sexism, Islamophobia, insulting disabled people as well as Gold Star families, and now the leaked Access Hollywood footage which is leading to women everywhere to reveal they ve been sexually assaulted by Trump, he s not fit to lead anything.Appearing on Late Night with Seth Meyers Vice President Joe Biden laid it all out on the table and told Seth, as well as the world, why Donald Trump isn t fit to lead as well as how absolutely horrible he is to women.Biden said: First of all, what I found astounding, is that he would so publicly, no matter who he was talking to, that he would acknowledge that he engaged in the textbook definition of sexual assault. He didn t say, you know, I go up and I ask if, I just go up and grab and I can do this and then I see in the paper today, one of the pageants, I guess Miss Teen America, the teen girls, I guess three, four, five in a room, they were getting dressed, they were naked, he walked in and said don t worry girls, I ve seen all this he stood there. I mean, this is absolutely outrageous behavior. Biden then drives the point home: I ve spent most of my career trying to figure out how to begin to change the culture in this country that we treat women with respect and with dignity. And Biden truly has with his It s On Us campaign which is leading the effort to combat sexual assault nationwide.What Donald Trump has done to women isn t only outrageous, it s illegal. Unwanted sexual advances is the definition of sexual assault, and Trump needs to be held accountable for his actions.Watch the video here: He engaged in the textbook definition of sexual assault A stunned Joe Biden on the Trump tape: pic.twitter.com/O9u6rP3AsH Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 13, 2016Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
22,791 | U.S. Commerce Secretary says market access, protectionism top China issues | HONG KONG (Reuters) - U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Wednesday the U.S. relationship with China was too lopsided and listed market access, protectionism and intellectual property as the biggest problems amid trade tensions between the two countries. Ross said both sides were frank and open, and articulated good points of view during his trip to Beijing, which was a good sign, although neither made concessions. “The most important thing to push for with China is better market access for companies operating there physically and for companies exporting there,” Ross said. “Ranking equal with that would be less protectionist behavior.” The U.S. Commerce Department said in a statement on Tuesday that Ross had pressed China on the “need to rebalance bilateral trade and investment relations” and urged it to take “meaningful action” on trade issues. China’s relationship with the United States has been strained by the Trump administration’s criticism of China’s trade practices and by demands that Beijing do more to pressure North Korea to halt its nuclear weapons and missile programs. Ross, speaking to reporters in Hong Kong two days after his visit to Beijing, also said overcapacity was still a big issue in some sectors and highlighted new industries such as robotics as potential threats. “There apparently are something like 400 robotics companies in China right now and people in the industry tell me maybe 360 of those are in it to get the subsidies and tax breaks and are not really serious about the product,” he said. On Monday, Ross told Chinese Premier Li Keqiang that the United States hoped for “very good deliverables” when U.S. President Donald Trump visits China, likely in November. He did not specify what “deliverables” the United States was hoping for. Ross is due to lead a trade mission to China as part of President Trump’s visit there. | 1 |
22,792 | hillary we did not lose a single important person in libya | email
hillary supporter robert dougherty from jacksonville north carolina bragged on facebook today about how he committed voter fraud
robert boasted on how he voted for some of his facebook friends using their identities and tells them not to worry about voting because hes already done it for them
and hes bragging about it on facebook
robert boasts about how they give you a sticker every time you vote
he says he will continue to vote all next week
isnt north carolina nice they give you a sticker every time you vote no id required
there isnt a need for you to wait in line anymore took care of it for you gave you a straight democratic ticket
amazing how many addresses you get from google going again until saturday and all next week
robert either thinks voter fraud is a big joke or hes one stupid hillarysupporting criminal
what do you think will voter fraud play a key role in the election | 0 |
22,793 | Kurdish officials say thousands flee Kirkuk since Iraqi army takeover | BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Kurdish officials said on Thursday thousands of their people had fled Kirkuk region fearing persecution since Iraqi armed forces retook it following a referendum on Kurdish independence that was rejected by Baghdad. The officials said roughly 100,000 people had gone, though that number could not be confirmed independently, and many Kurdish neighborhoods in Kirkuk city appeared to be operating normally. The United Nations voiced concern at reports that civilians, mainly Kurds, were being driven out of parts of northern Iraq retaken by Iraqi forces and their houses and businesses looted and destroyed, and urged Baghdad to stop any such abuses. A mayor from the town of Khanaqin, Mohammed Mulla Hassan, said a Kurdish man was killed and six wounded by Iraqi security forces while protesting at the army s takeover there. Kurdish troops had left Khanaqin, near the border with Iran, on Tuesday to avoid clashing with advancing Iraqi forces. Central government forces swept into Kirkuk, a multi-ethnic city of more than 1 million people and the hub of a major oil-producing area, largely unopposed on Monday after most Kurdish Peshmerga forces withdrew rather than fight. Iraqi forces also took back control of Kirkuk oilfields, effectively halving the amount of output under the direct control of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in a serious blow to the Kurds independence quest. Baghdad s recovery of Kirkuk, situated just outside the KRG s official boundaries on disputed land claimed by Kurds, ethnic Turkmen and Arabs, put the city s Kurds in fear of attack by Shi ite Muslim paramilitaries, known as Popular Mobilisation, assisting government forces operations in the region. Nawzad Hadi, governor of Erbil, the KRG capital, told reporters that around 18,000 families from Kirkuk and the town of Tuz Khurmato to the southeast had taken refuge in Erbil and Sulaimaniya, inside KRG territory. A Hadi aide told Reuters the total number of displaced people was about 100,000. Hemin Hawrami, a top aide to KRG President Masoud Barzani, tweeted that people had fled looting and sectarian oppression inflicted by Popular Mobilisation militia. U.N. relief officials said they had received allegations that 150 houses had been burned and 11 blown up in Tuz Khurmato and offices of Turkmen political parties in Kirkuk assaulted. The U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq issued a statement urging the Baghdad government to take every action to halt any violations and ensure all civilians are protected and that the perpetrators of acts of violence, intimidation and forced displacement of civilians be brought to justice . Khanaqin, mainly populated by Kurds, also lies in a long contested territory just outside KRG boundaries. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Wednesday that security was being maintained in Kirkuk by local police backed by the elite Counter Terrorism Service, trained and equipped by the United States mainly to fight Islamic State militants. All other armed group should not be allowed to stay, Abadi said. Sunni Muslim Kurds comprise the largest community in Kirkuk followed by Sunni and Shi ite Muslim Turkmen, Sunni Arabs and Christian Assyrians, according to the Iraqi Planning Ministry. In another sign of rising tensions, Iraq s Supreme Justice Council ordered the arrest of KRG Vice President Kosrat Rasul for allegedly saying Iraqi troops were occupying forces in Kirkuk. Iran and Turkey joined the Baghdad government in condemning the Iraqi Kurds Sept. 25 referendum, worried it could worsen regional instability and conflict by spurring their own Kurdish populations to push for homelands. The Kurds long-time big power ally, the United States, also opposed the vote. With the referendum having given Abadi a political opening to regain disputed territory and tilt the balance of power in his favor, the KRG cabinet on Thursday welcomed his call for talks to resolve the crisis. Abadi had said on Tuesday he considered the referendum a thing of the past , and asked that the KRG cancel the outcome of the vote as a precondition for negotiations to begin. In a statement, the KRG cabinet said, It will not be possible to resolve the issues through military operations . It added: (We have) asked the international community to help both sides start a dialogue to solve the outstanding issues based on the Iraqi constitution. KRG Peshmerga forces deployed into Kirkuk in 2014 when Iraqi government forces fell apart in the face of a lightning offensive by Islamic State insurgents, preventing the oilfields from falling into jihadist hands. Iraqi armed forces also took control of Kurdish-held areas of Nineveh province north of Kirkuk, including the Mosul hydro-electric dam, after the Peshmerga pulled back. Crude oil flows through the KRG pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan have been disrupted by a gap between incoming and outgoing personnel since Baghdad s retaking of Kirkuk. An Iraqi oil ministry official in Baghdad said on Thursday that Iraq would not be able to restore Kirkuk s oil output to levels before Sunday because of missing equipment at two fields. The official accused the Kurdish authorities previously in control of Kirkuk of removing equipment at the Bai Hasan and Avana oil fields, northwest of the city. Kurds have sought independence since at least the end of World War One when colonial powers carved up the Middle East after the multiethnic Ottoman Empire sundered, leaving Kurdish-inhabited land split between Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. | 1 |
22,794 | NEW BIOGRAPHY Exposes Barack Obama’s Dream Of Becoming Donald Trump | Barack Obama s white college girlfriend Sheila Miyoshi Jager, who is now a professor at Oberlin College, tells a story of a very calculating man who was not about to let her race get in the way of his political ambitions: In the winter of 86, when we visited my parents, he asked me to marry him, she told Garrow. Her parents were opposed, less for any racial reasons (Barack came across to them like a white, middle-class kid, a close family friend said) than for concern about Obama s professional prospects, and because her mother thought Sheila, two years Obama s junior, was too young. Not yet, Sheila told Barack. But they stayed together.In early 1987, when Obama was 25, she sensed a change. He became. . . so very ambitious very suddenly, she told Garrow. I remember very clearly when this transformation happened, and I remember very specifically that by 1987, about a year into our relationship, he already had his sights on becoming president. Discussions of race and politics suddenly overwhelmed Sheila and Barack s relationship. The marriage discussions dragged on and on, but now they were clouded by Obama s torment over this central issue of his life . . . race and identity, Sheila recalls. The resolution of his black identity was directly linked to his decision to pursue a political career, she said.At Harvard, the Obama the world has come to know took clearer form. In his late 20s now and slightly older than most classmates, he had a compulsion to orate in class and summarize other people s arguments for them. In law school the only thing I would have voted for Obama to do would have been to shut up, one student told Garrow. Classmates created a Obamanometer, ranking how pretentious someone s remarks are in class. If Garrow is indeed correct in concluding that Obama s romantic choices were influenced by his political ambitions, it is no small irony that Michelle Obama became one of those most skeptical about Obama s political prospects, and most dubious about his will to rise. She constantly discourages his efforts toward elective office and resents the time he spends away from her and their two young daughters. Obama vented to a friend how often Michelle would talk about money. Why don t you go out and get a good job? You re a lawyer you can make all the money we need, she would tell him, as the couple struggled with student loans and the demands of family and political life. (Garrow sides with Michelle, highlighting how, on the day after Sasha was born, Barack went downtown for a meeting.)As he considered a U.S. Senate bid, Obama s team commissioned a poll that covered, among other questions, his name. Barry, as he was known from childhood into his early college years, polled better than Barack, but Obama never considered resurrecting the old name. He had made his choice, of identity and image, long ago. Sheila recalls that one of the few times Obama became genuinely angry with her was in Hawaii, when she heard relatives calling him Barry, and she did so as well, just for fun. He became irrationally furious, she said. He told me that under no circumstances was I ever to use that name with him. There was no going back.The sense of destiny is not unusual among those who become president. (See Clinton, Bill.) But it created complications. Obama believed that he had a calling, Garrow writes, and in his case it was coupled with a heightened awareness that to pursue it he had to fully identify as African American. Obama had considered Donald Trump long before either man won the presidency, and brushed off his existence as a misguided national fantasy. Americans have a continuing normative commitment to the ideals of individual freedom and mobility, Obama wrote in the old Harvard book manuscript, now more than 25 years old. The depth of this commitment may be summarily dismissed as the unfounded optimism of the average American I may not be Donald Trump now, but just you wait; if I don t make it, my children will. For entire story: The Washington Post | 0 |
22,795 | Trump on Twitter (Aug 14) - Luther Strange, Merck Pharma, Charlottesville | The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS. The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy. @realDonaldTrump : - Heading to Washington this morning. Much work to do. Focus on trade and military. #MAGA [0626 EDT] - Luther Strange of the Great State of Alabama has my endorsement. He is strong on Border & Wall, the military, tax cuts & law enforcement. [0638 EDT] - The Obstructionist Democrats have given us (or not fixed) some of the worst trade deals in World History. I am changing that fast! [0654 EDT] - Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President’s Manufacturing Council,he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES! [0854 EDT] - .@Merck Pharma is a leader in higher & higher drug prices while at the same time taking jobs out of the U.S. Bring jobs back & LOWER PRICES! [1809 EDT] - Big day in Washington, D.C., even though White House & Oval Office are being renovated. Great trade deals coming for American workers! [1817 EDT] - Leaving for New York City and meetings on military purchases and trade. [1822 EDT] - Made additional remarks on Charlottesville and realize once again that the #Fake News Media will never be satisfied...truly bad people! [1829 EDT] - Feels good to be home after seven months, but the White House is very special, there is no place like it... and the U.S. is really my home! [2306 EDT] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR) | 1 |
22,796 | Betsy DeVos: Black Colleges That Came From Jim Crow Are Models Of ‘School Choice’ | Donald Trump s secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, doesn t just have trouble with grammar. Apparently, she struggles with American history as well.Following Trump s meeting with the leaders of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), DeVos sent out a tweet that can only be described as completely clueless. According to the new education secretary, HBCUs are pioneers of school choice. Wowwowwow. These paragraphs are from a real, official US Department of Education statement from Betsy DeVos released today. pic.twitter.com/I2FDZfzdmt Ankit Panda (@nktpnd) February 28, 2017DeVos couldn t have gotten things more backward if she had tried. Historically black schools aren t models of school choice. In fact, it is the exact opposite. These schools arose because there was no choice. Slaves were forbidden from learning how to read and write. Following their emancipation, most white schools refused to let black students in.The first HBCUs were started to educate black teachers so that black children would have a shot at receiving any type of education at all. Later, in addition to the private institutions that had been founded, southern states set up public colleges to serve blacks rather than integrate existing schools.If DeVos really believes this is something to aspire to, it certainly does explain a lot. As secretary of education, she plans to fix our broken education system by diverting federal funds from public schools to private schools, which are largely unregulated. Critics argue that this will serve only to accelerate the resegregation of American schools.Following the integration of public schools in America, white parents who didn t want their children to share classrooms with black students opted to send their children to private schools. In the decade following the passage of the Civil Rights Act, approximately half a million white students left public schools for private ones.Maybe DeVos isn t just an idiot with no understanding of history after all. Between her tweet and her vision for the future of American schools, we are forced to ask if taking our children and their education back to the days of Jim Crow has really been her intention all along.Featured image via Mario Tama/Getty Images | 0 |
22,797 | U.S. military to indefinitely delay ban on cluster bombs | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon will indefinitely delay a ban on the use of older types of cluster bombs due to take effect on Jan. 1, 2019, officials said, arguing that safety improvements in munitions technology failed to advance enough to replace older stockpiles. Cluster bombs, dropped by air or fired by artillery, scatter bomblets across a wide area, but sometimes fail to explode and are difficult to locate and remove. That can lead to civilian deaths and injuries long after conflicts end. The U.S. military had hoped to transition to cluster munitions that explode at least 99 percent of time, greatly reducing the risks. But with just over one year to go before the ban’s slated implementation, a Pentagon spokesman told Reuters that safety technology had not progressed enough to replace existing stockpiles with safer weaponry. Reuters has seen a copy of the memo changing U.S. policy and confirmed the changes with Pentagon officials. “Although the Department seeks to field a new generation of more highly reliable munitions, we cannot risk mission failure or accept the potential of increased military and civilian casualties by forfeiting the best available capabilities,” the Pentagon memo says. The memo, which was expected to be signed by Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Thursday, called cluster munitions “legitimate weapons with clear military utility.” Disclosure of the new policy met sharp criticism from Congress and human rights groups. Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat who has helped lead efforts to restrict use of cluster bombs, said the Pentagon was, in effect, “perpetuating use of an indiscriminate weapon that has been shown to have high failure rates.” Senator Dianne Feinstein called the move “unbelievable.” Human Rights Watch disputed the idea that the U.S. military needed the weapons, saying that with the exception of a single strike in Yemen in 2009 it had not used the weapons since 2003 in Iraq. “We condemn this decision to reverse the long-held US commitment not to use cluster munitions that fail more than 1 percent of the time, resulting in deadly unexploded submunitions,” said Mary Wareham, arms division director at Human Rights Watch. Pentagon spokesman Tom Crosson acknowledged it has been years since the U.S. military has used any significant amount of cluster munitions and the new Pentagon policy puts emphasis on eventually shifting to safer cluster munitions. Still, it was unclear at what point in the future the Pentagon might be required to stop using its existing stockpiles, since there would also need to be not just higher-tech weaponry, but sufficient quantities of new cluster munitions for U.S. stocks. The new policy does not allow the Pentagon to buy any additional cluster bombs that do not satisfy new standards that were outlined in the memo. The new rules broaden the definition of which types of munitions meet safety requirements beyond the 99 percent detonation rate. Under the new policy, the Pentagon says bombs that have advanced self destruct or deactivation technology would also be acceptable for future acquisition. Such weaponry must meet a series of criteria, including having a way to render submunitions inoperable within 15 minutes of being armed. The Pentagon policy also prohibited purchasing weaponry that is banned under the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The convention strictly prohibits the use of cluster munitions. But it exempts certain types of munitions that the Pentagon says it would nonetheless classify as cluster munitions. | 1 |
22,798 | Clinton camp says FBI should say what it knows about Trump's Russia ties | WASHINGTON/FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. (Reuters) - A top aide to Hillary Clinton urged the FBI on Tuesday to disclose what it knows about any ties between Donald Trump and Russia, accusing the agency of unfairly publicizing its inquiry into Clinton’s email practices while staying quiet about the Republican presidential candidate. The Federal Bureau of Investigation opened a preliminary inquiry in recent months into allegations that Trump or his associates might have had questionable dealings with Russian people or businesses, but found no evidence to warrant opening a full investigation, according to sources familiar with the matter. The agency has not publicly discussed the probe. A week before Election Day, the Clinton campaign was trying to contain damage from the announcement by FBI Director James Comey on Friday that his agency was looking into newly discovered emails that might relate to Clinton’s use of a private server while she was secretary of state. Clinton has voiced confidence the FBI will not find anything problematic. She campaigned on Tuesday in the battleground state of Florida, where she was joined in Dade City by former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, whom Trump had mocked for gaining weight. Chants of “Lock her up!” from dozens of Trump supporters gathered nearby could be faintly heard while Clinton spoke. In Ft. Lauderdale, a young man who yelled, “She’s a liar” was escorted out of the rally. Several other protesters removed during the course of her speech. “I am sick and tired of the negative, dark, divisive, dangerous vision and behavior from people who support Donald Trump,” Clinton said as another protester was removed from the rally. Trump and other Republicans have seized on Comey’s announcement, which did not indicate any wrongdoing by Clinton, to ratchet up criticism of the Democratic candidate. She leads in most opinion polls ahead of the Nov. 8 election. Trump urged people on Tuesday who voted early for his Democratic rival to cancel their ballots and switch to him. “This is a message for any Democratic voters who have already cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton and who are having a bad case of buyer’s remorse, in other words you want to change your vote,” Trump told a Wisconsin rally. “So if you live here or in Michigan or Pennsylvania or Minnesota, you can change your vote to Donald Trump.” Several states, including those cited by Trump, have a process to allow voters who cast early ballots to change their votes, either by submitting new ballots or showing up at their polling place on Election Day. Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook questioned why the FBI director had not released any information about the agency’s Russia inquiries. “If you’re in the business of releasing information about investigations on presidential candidates, release everything you have on Donald Trump. Release the information on his connections to the Russians,” Mook said on CNN. The FBI inquiry reviewed allegations that Trump or his associates might have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or engaged in contacts or commerce with people in Russia who are subject to U.S. or international financial sanctions. The U.S. government has blamed Russia for cyber attacks on Democratic Party organizations. Democrats criticize Trump for taking what they say is a pro-Russia foreign policy stance. Russia’s possible role in the campaign again came into focus when online magazine Slate said a group of computer scientists had been alarmed by records showing thousands of apparent connection attempts between an email server operated on behalf of the Trump Organization and computers inside a Russian company, Alfa Bank in Moscow. Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks said the server, which had been used to send out hotel marketing material, had been dormant for years. Prominent U.S. cyber security company FireEye said it had been hired by Alfa Bank to investigate the records and had been granted access to the bank’s systems in Moscow to look for evidence of any relationship with Trump’s company or any signs of hacking or infection. FireEye said so far it had found no emails being sent back and forth or any other link. Opinion polls showed Clinton’s lead has narrowed slightly since early last week but it was too early to say whether the email controversy was hurting her. Clinton led businessman Trump in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll of likely voters released on Monday, by 44 percent to 39 percent. Clinton, hoping to be the first woman elected president, strengthened her lead over Trump in polls after the release last month of a 2005 video in which the Republican bragged in vulgar terms about groping women. But in a dramatic twist, Comey told Congress in a letter on Friday that the FBI was reviewing the newly discovered emails. Comey had announced in July that the FBI had completed a probe into the email practices, concluding there were no grounds to bring any charges. Clinton’s team has been pressing the FBI to provide details on the new trove of emails, which Comey said may or may not be significant in the case. Little is publicly known yet about the emails, other than that they were found during an unrelated probe into former U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Comey’s letter has provided Republicans with fresh fodder for attack in the waning days of the campaign. U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Tuesday that a Clinton presidency would bog down in “scandal baggage.” Congressional Republicans, who had been concerned Trump risked damaging their majorities in the House and Senate, were also encouraged by his recent statements on efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. A campaign aide said if Trump wins, he would ask Congress to begin working on legislation to repeal the law before the Jan. 20 inauguration. | 1 |
22,799 | Jorge Ramos SLAMS Fox Hosts O’Reilly And Hannity For Coddling Trump (VIDEO) | And he did it right to O Reilly s face.During an appearance on the O Reilly Factor on Wednesday night, Univision anchor Jorge Ramos nailed the Fox News host and fellow Fox colleague Sean Hannity for treating Donald Trump with kid gloves rather than grill him and challenge him over his extreme racist rhetoric.After O Reilly suggested that Univision is not treating Donald Trump fairly, Ramos made him admit that the channel has been tough on both Democrats and Republicans, but particularly tough on Republicans because, We cannot allow racism and discrimination to be normal. But that s a subjective thing, O Reilly claimed in defense of Trump. When you say that Mexican immigrants are criminals or rapists, that is for many people a racist remark, Ramos shot back. But he didn t say all of them were, O Reilly said before reading a Donald Trump quote about Mexico sending the worst of their citizens over the border to the United States. O Reilly even insisted to a stunned Ramos that all Mexican immigrants bring drugs with them.Ramos fired back with statistics proving that the vast majority of immigrants are law-abiding. But O Reilly shrugged off the statistics because he doesn t think it s fair to be countered with facts.Not wanting anything to do with facts, O Reilly went back to accusing Ramos and Univision of not being objective toward Trump. O Reilly accused Ramos specifically of demonizing Trump as a racist.However, considering what Trump has said about Muslims and Hispanics since his campaign began and the fact that white supremacists, the KKK, and neo-Nazis have flocked to his campaign to support him, it s fair to say that Ramos is absolutely right to label Trump a racist and it is amazing that other media outlets have failed to do the same.And that s why Ramos turned the accusations around on O Reilly himself, accusing him of not being tough on Trump. Of course, O Reilly objected even though he has repeatedly let the Republican front-runner off the hook. And the fact that O Reilly attempted on multiple occasions during this interview with Ramos to defend Trump s racism pretty much proved Ramos correct. You ve talked to him so many times, and you and Sean Hannity let him get away with everything, Ramos declared.Then Ramos annoyed O Reilly with those pesky facts again as he reported that 81 percent of Latinos have a negative opinion of Trump because of the things he has said throughout his campaign. O Reilly tried to claim that they have a negative opinion because of Univision. You know, because all Latinos get their news from Univision and can t possibly have an independent opinion about Trump based on what he has said. I don t know what s in his heart, but I know what s coming out of his mouth, Ramos responded about Trump when O Reilly complained that Univision hasn t called Hillary Clinton a racist. And then the interview ended.Here s the video via Media Matters.Donald Trump is a racist and any person looking at Trump objectively knows it. His words on multiple occasions cannot possibly make him look like anything else but a racist, especially when white supremacists endorse him and he fails to denounce them. Univision is actually performing a service for the American people by calling Trump what he is while other media outlets, especially Fox News, coddle him in order to draw ratings. It s a disgrace to journalism and Fox News and Bill O Reilly ought to be ashamed of themselves. Featured image via Dangerous Minds | 0 |
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