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2,300 | China denies links to alleged cyber attacks in United States targeting exiled tycoon Guo | BEIJING (Reuters) - China has denied responsibility for alleged cyber attacks in the United States appearing to target exiled tycoon Guo Wengui, who has levelled corruption allegations against senior Communist Party officials and applied for political asylum. The Ministry of Public Security said in a statement provided to Reuters on Sunday an investigation had found no evidence of Chinese government involvement in the alleged cyber attacks. The law enforcement agency said China had also provided the U.S. government with evidence that Guo, who has applied for political asylum in the United States, fabricated documents used to support his claims. It said China would make an official request for U.S. authorities to investigate the matter. The falsified official documents and the false information he fabricated are sensational and outrageous, the ministry said in a rare English-language statement. Guo denied the documents were forged and said the Ministry of Public Security s statement should not be believed. The Washington-based Hudson Institute think tank was scheduled to host Guo last Wednesday in a rare public appearance, but canceled the event the day before without explanation. The event would have coincided with the visit of an official Chinese delegation to the U.S. capital for a high-level law enforcement and cyber security dialogue between the two countries. The Hudson Institute said it had detected a Shanghai-based attack aimed at shutting down access to its website several days earlier. The suspected attack was raised by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions during a meeting with China s Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun on Wednesday, a Department of Justice spokesman told Reuters on Sunday. China had pledged to cooperate , the spokesman said. However, the New York-based Guo Wengui said: Just because the Ministry of Public Security said China didn t do it doesn t make it true. Why did the U.S. raise it in their meeting? he told Reuters. Guo Wengui applied for U.S. political asylum in September, but said this week the law firm representing him, Clark Hill PLC, had backed out after being targeted by Chinese hackers. Clark Hill lawyer Thomas Ragland, who lodged the asylum claim, confirmed he was no longer representing Guo Wengui, without elaborating. Guo Wengui held a news conference at the National Press Club on Thursday, after his Hudson event was called off, where he produced what he claimed were top secret official documents showing China had sent secret agents into the United States. China s Ministry of Public Security said the documents shown by him were clumsily forged and full of obvious mistakes . Guo Wengui has made wide-ranging corruption allegations against senior Communist Party leaders through a daily stream of Twitter and YouTube posts since the start of the year, which he says are aimed at disrupting a key five-yearly Communist Party congress that begins next week. The Chinese government has been seeking to discredit Guo Wengui, who is the subject of an Interpol red notice issued at Beijing s request, as a criminal suspect who should not be trusted. | 1 |
2,301 | UNBELIEVABLE! VINTAGE VIDEO EXPOSES Racist First Family: Michelle Obama’s mom says Barack’s mixed race “didn’t concern me as much as if he was completely white” | This is an old video that exposes so much about the phony race issues that Obama and the Robinson s (Michelle s maiden name) seem to be so obsessed with. Please watch this very informative video to the end. You will see pictures of Obama s white uncle and aunt that, for some reason, have been hidden from plain site. There is also an interesting picture of Barack s extended White and Asian family. Why did the press work so hard to keep these photos, and this video hidden during his campaign and presidency? It s pretty clear that Barack learned how to work the system from his father/sperm donor, Barack Hussein Obama Sr. But life changed dramatically when he was only two, and his father abandoned his wife and son to accept a scholarship at Harvard. After completing his PHD, Obama Sr. returned to Kenya. Barry saw his father only one more time when he was 10 and his father returned to Hawaii for a visit.At age 6, young Barry did gain a stepfather. His mother met and married a Muslim graduate student at the University of Hawaii who was from Indonesia. Barry and his mother moved to Indonesia and soon, a half-sister was born. Indonesia s poverty and its politics, which had victimized (Is it possible to be a part of Barack s life if you re not a victim?) his step-father, left a lasting impression on the young bi-racial child trying to fit into yet another culture.It was in Indonesia where Barry first saw magazine stories and ads about blacks bleaching their skin. That was (apparently) when he realized, (at the age of 10 yrs) there were power relationships in race. So when most boys Barry s age are worrying about building tree forts, catching frogs, riding their bikes or securing the neighborhood paper delivery job, Barack was concerned with power relationships in race? Really?Punahou occupies a privileged position, not just on the hillside, but in Hawaii society. In his memoir, Dreams From My Father, Barack Obama recalled how his grandfather pulled strings to get him in. [F]or my grandparents, my admission into Punahou Academy heralded the start of something grand, an elevation in the family status that they took great pains to let everyone know, Obama wrote.For generations, Punahou educated the children of plantation owners, businessmen and politicians. Pal Eldredge graduated from Punahou in the 1960s. In the beginning, we were known as the haole school, says Eldredge.Haole is Hawaiian for foreigner or white person. Eldredge says that when young Obama arrived as a fifth-grader in 1971, the school s complexion was just beginning to change. We didn t have a lot of African-Americans. So your first thing is, Oh, we ve got an African-American. Terrific! says Eldredge.He was teaching at Punahou at the time, and he remembers the future president as a pudgy, cheerful kid. He used to wear these shorts and striped T-shirts a lot, and sandals. But after you got to know him, not only was he a bright student, but he was just a funny, all-around kid, and everybody liked him, says Eldredge.As usual, Barry can turn a story of privilege into a story of victimhood like nobody s business: In his memoir, Obama dwells on moments at Punahou when his race made him feel conspicuous, such as the time he was teased for playing with the only other black child in his grade. When I looked up, I saw a group of children, faceless before the glare of the sun, pointing down at us. Coretta has a boyfriend! Coretta has a boyfriend! Obama writes.In the book, Obama s struggles with racial identity grow as he reaches high school, and he recalls intense discussions with another black student, an embittered boy he calls Ray. Ray is really Keith Kakugawa. He s part black, part Japanese.Kakugawa says he and young Obama did have some heart-to-hearts about race but, in general, it wasn t a big issue at the school because Punahou kids had to stick together. Because we knew once we left that school, there was a target on our backs. No matter what race you are, you re Punahou. You re the rich, white kids. Period, Kakugawa says. He wasn t raised black, because he was raised in a white family, and raised as if he were a white boy.' -Barack Obama s uncleReporter asks Obama: Were you essentially raised as a white child? Obama: No. I don t think so. I mean I was raised as an Indonesian child, and as a Hawaiian child and as a black and white child. Sorry Barry wrong again! As much as you try to deny it, you were not only raised as a white child, but a white child with more privilege than 90% of the rest of the White population. You were in the 1% of the White population, but you quickly learned to take advantage of all the benefits that come with being black when it was time to apply for college scholarships. Like his dad, young Barry accepted a scholarship (FREE education) to the mostly White Occidental College in Los Angeles. But he was dissatisfied and transferred to Columbia University in New York City in his Junior year. Hoping to find more black students or at least a broader black community. That is where Barry changed his name to Barack.Michelle Obama met Barack when she was tasked by her law firm to recruit him. Michelle was surprised when she saw he was from Hawaii and asked her (racist) self: What normal black people grow up in Hawaii? WATCH at the 13 minute mark:Michelle s racist mom was a little worried about the mixed heritage of her future son-in-law. When asked about her concern about his race, she had this to say about Barack: That [his mixed race] didn t concern me as much as if he was completely white. When Barack Obama lost his first election, many questioned if, given his heritage and Harvard Law degree, if he was black enough? Michelle Obama was furious over the charge of her husband not being black enough. She had this to say about Barack being black enough: I m as black as it gets. I was born on the south side. I come from an obviously black family you know, we weren t rich. I ll put my blackness up against anyone s blackness in the the state. | 0 |
2,302 | Congress subcommittee grills U.S. banks regulator about data breaches | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Members of Congress on Thursday grilled the main U.S. banking regulator about a recent raft of data breaches, highlighting two incidents where workers downloaded more than 10,000 sensitive and private records onto portable storage devices before leaving the agency’s employ. After the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp uncovered those two breaches, it conducted a review and found five other instances when employees improperly stored and took personal information for tens of thousands of individuals, according to Representative Barry Loudermilk, a Republican who chairs a House of Representatives subcommittee on oversight and technology. Altogether, more than 160,000 people were affected, Loudermilk said at a hearing covering the breaches. “To date, FDIC has failed to notify any of those individuals that their private information may have been compromised,” he added. The highest-ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, Representative Don Beyer, said the concerns were shared by members of both parties and added the FDIC was too slow in notifying Congress about the breaks in data security. It should have informed lawmakers within seven days of the incidents, he said. The FDIC’s chief information officer and chief privacy officer, Lawrence Gross, told the hearing the agency is working to eliminate employees’ use of portable media and has installed technology blocking most employees from downloading data from its systems to DVDs, CDs and flash drives. It is also looking into “digital rights management” software limiting the time period someone can access information and putting up other barriers to redistributing information. Gross, who started his role in November, said he is conducting a “top to bottom review” of the agency’s information technology policies and planned to hire an independent third party to conduct an assessment. The FDIC has said the downloads were inadvertent. But members of Congress remained skeptical that the breaches were not intentional. “In at least one case...a former employee who downloaded such data was evasive about her actions and not cooperative when initially confronted,” said Representative Bill Johnson. “Some FDIC employees also suggest that it was highly improbable that this former employee’s actions were accidental. In addition this former employee is now working for a U.S. subsidiary of a non-U.S. financial services company which raises additional concerns.” | 1 |
2,303 | Syrian militias aim to push Islamic State out of Raqqa within a month | RAQQA, Syria (Reuters) - U.S.-backed militias expect to push all Islamic State fighters out of their former Syrian headquarters of Raqqa in less than a month, a Kurdish commander told Reuters on Monday. Under the banner of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the militias have hemmed the jihadists into a few districts in the north of the city. The Kurdish and Arab militias pushed into the city in June after fighting for months to encircle it with the help of U.S.-led jets and special forces. As the noose tightens, the reaction of Daesh gets fiercer, said Jihan Sheikh Ahmed, spokeswoman for the Raqqa offensive, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State. In the coming days, the battles will be at their most intense... We expect, under our plan, that we will be able to liberate Raqqa in less than a month. Islamic State has lost much of its territory in Syria this year under separate offensives by the SDF and the Russia-backed Syrian military. Its fighters have fallen back to its last major footholds, the cities and towns in the fertile strip along the Euphrates river downstream of Raqqa. The SDF said last week that, after seizing 80 percent of Raqqa, the battle for the city had entered its final stages. With the Kurdish YPG militia at its forefront, the SDF has closed in from three directions. Islamic State militants put up tough resistance, planting scores of mines around their districts, Ahmed said. SDF forces sought to meet up from several axes to squeeze the Islamic State enclave, said a field commander in the northeast of Raqqa. Shefkar Hemo said his fighters had faced fewer mortar shells and car bombs recently, with the jihadists relying more heavily on snipers. The breach of enemy lines is clear on the ground... Daesh are hiding behind civilians, he said. Another field commander in the city said the latest phase of the battle had proved difficult. SDF officials estimate that 700-1,000 Islamic State fighters are holed up in a pocket in the city. Ahmed said she did not expect them to surrender and the SDF would never allow them passage out. Thousands of civilians remain trapped there too, and Ahmed accused Islamic State snipers of targeting them. Daesh is also entrenched in the National Hospital, which they consider a main position, she said. Our forces besieged the hospital, but were being cautious to avoid damaging it, she said. Earlier this month, Physicians for Human Rights said that poorly-equipped hospital was the last medical facility operating in the city. The New York-based group said intense bombing by the U.S.-led coalition had hit civilian facilities. The coalition says it is careful to avoid civilian casualties during bombing runs in Syria and neighboring Iraq. The caliphate that Islamic State declared in 2014, spanning both countries, lost its de-facto Iraqi capital of Mosul in July when Iraqi forces took the city. | 1 |
2,304 | Thousands rally in Philippines, warn of Duterte 'dictatorship' | MANILA (Reuters) - Thousands of Filipinos rallied on Thursday to denounce Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and warn of what they called an emerging dictatorship, in a major show of dissent against the controversial but hugely popular leader. Politicians, indigenous people, priests, businessmen, and left-wing activists held marches and church masses accusing Duterte of authoritarianism and protesting at policies including a ferocious war on drugs that has killed thousands. Signs saying Stop The Killings and No To Martial Rule reflected fears that Duterte would one day deliver on his threat to declare nationwide military rule like that imposed by late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The rallies marked the 45th anniversary of the start of that era, remembered by many Filipinos as brutal and oppressive. Effigies of Duterte were burned, including one which bore both his face and that of late Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. A protester with a toy gun played dead on the ground in a reenactment of one of a spree of drug-related killings that activists say are executions staged by police. Police reject those allegations. Anti-Duterte Senator Risa Hontiveros said democracy was under threat by a Dutertatorship with a policy of killing . Vice President Leni Robredo, who was not Duterte s running mate, said Filipinos should recognize signs of rising tyranny . It s sad that we seemed to have not learned our lessons, Robredro said. There s a culture of violence around us. Marcos declared martial law in 1972 and held power for 14 years until his removal in a bloodless, army-backed people s power uprising. He abolished democratic institutions and was accused of killing, torturing and disappearing thousands of opponents. Duterte has expressed admiration for Marcos. His critics are alarmed by his autocratic rhetoric and a vicious disdain for his detractors. But he won last year s election by a big margin and has maintained one of the highest public approval ratings of a Philippines president. Several thousand turned out on Thursday to show their support for Duterte at a rival rally that entertained crowds with live music, dancing and food. This is to tell the people that here we are, we are the majority who are happy with the government and not those few who are just griping , said rally organizer Benny Antiporda, a former journalist. Millions of Filipinos admire Duterte s down-to-earth style, his decisiveness and even his imperfections. His supporters at home and among the diaspora see him as a champion of ordinary people and the best hope for change that presidents from the political elite failed to bring. The anti-Duterte demonstrators criticized his pro-China stance and the destruction in southern Marawi City by military air strikes targeting Islamist militants. Others decried what they see as his cozy relationship with the still-powerful Marcos family. It seems that what we fought for in 1972, is again back. The total disrespect for human life, dignity, human rights. And that was how we started, said Rene Saguisag, a former senator and human rights lawyer. In some ways, it may be worse. | 1 |
2,305 | nc state provides students with postelection comfort food therapy | go to article
theres a scene at the end of the remarkably terrible film the league of extraordinary gentlemen in which sean connerys allan quartermain has died and is buried the audience breathes a sigh of relief this wretched film dragged itself across the finish line and thats the end of it | 1 |
2,306 | Ten days to crack Brexit deal, EU tells May | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union handed Prime Minister Theresa May a 10-day absolute deadline to improve her Brexit divorce offer or face failure in persuading EU leaders to open trade talks with Britain at a December summit. Without a deal next month, time will be very tight to agree arrangements before Britain leaves the EU in March 2019, adding to pressure on businesses to avoid potential losses and move investments. We need to see progress from UK within 10 days on all issues, including on Ireland, European Council President Donald Tusk tweeted after meeting May in Brussels for one hour following an EU summit. A deal on the Northern Ireland border became suddenly trickier on Friday as the Dublin government looked set to fall. Tusk said it was still possible the other 27 EU leaders would conclude at a summit on Dec. 14-15 that Britain had made sufficient progress toward meeting three key conditions for them to approve the opening of trade talks in the new year. But, added the former Polish premier who chairs the bloc s summit meetings, that was still a huge challenge . EU officials expect the crunch to come when May returns on Monday, Dec. 4, to meet the EU chief executive, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, and his chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier. Tusk presented the timeline ... with December 4 as the absolute deadline for the UK to make additional efforts, allowing Barnier to be in a position to recommend sufficient progress, an EU official said. May agreed to this time frame. The UK will need to give credible assurances as to how to avoid a hard border before December 4, as it is still unclear how this can be done, the official added. A further complication lay in Ireland, where Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who has warned of a veto without big British moves on the border issue, may call a snap election next week over a separate issue. May told reporters after meeting Tusk that the two sides were still making progress toward closing gaps on a financial settlement, rights for expatriates after Brexit and how to avoid a hard border that may disrupt the peace in Northern Ireland. But she added: There are still issues across the various matters that we are negotiating on to be resolved. She repeated a line she first used in September that Britain would honour our commitments . But there was no sign of details that EU counterparts are demanding over payments before they accede to London s call for talks on a post-Brexit trade pact. On the Irish border, May said: We and the Irish government continue to talk about solutions for that. We have the same desire. We want to ensure that movement of people and trade across that border can carry on as now. For months, the EU s demand for Britain to pay something like 60 billion euros ($72 billion) has seemed the toughest nut to crack. But EU negotiators have been encouraged by apparent leaks in the British media indicating that May has won backing from Brexit hardliners in her cabinet to offer a large sum. Now, Ireland could be a sticking point. The Irish issue is very worrying. The chances of sufficient progress in December were only 50-50. Now maybe less, an official handling Brexit talks from one of the other 27 EU states told Reuters on the sidelines of Friday s summit. Barnier threw the Union s weight behind Ireland on Friday, telling Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney there was strong solidarity for Ireland and Irish issues are EU issues . Coveney, who accused the government s opponents of being irresponsible in calling a no-confidence motion for Tuesday over an unrelated issue, said Ireland would not agree to opening EU trade talks with Britain if it was unhappy over the border. May s Northern Irish, pro-Brexit allies, on whom she depends for a slim parliamentary majority, accused Dublin of trying to force Northern Ireland, or the whole of the United Kingdom, to stay in a customs union with the EU, depriving it of the freedom to set its own commercial regulations. EU officials say the best way to avoid a hard border is to keep regulations the same - whether just for Northern Ireland or across the UK. Britain has rejected the former because it would divide Northern Ireland from the British mainland. Brexit campaigners say Britain should not have to follow EU rules. | 1 |
2,307 | Russia supports Iraq's territorial integrity: Lavrov | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari that Moscow supported Iraq s territorial integrity and sovereignty, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday. Iraqi Kurds are expected to vote on Monday to back an independence drive that neighboring countries and Western powers fear could break up the country and stir broader regional ethnic and sectarian conflict. The Russian side confirmed its constant support for the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq, the ministry said in a statement. | 1 |
2,308 | Iran fulfilling nuclear deal commitments: IAEA chief | ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Iran is fulfilling its commitments under the nuclear deal with world powers and U.N. inspectors are facing no problems in their verification efforts, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director-general said on Monday. U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier this month that he would not continue to certify the multinational 2015 agreement, reached under his predecessor Barack Obama, and warned that he might ultimately terminate it. Iran would abandon the agreement if it were deemed not be serving its national interests, President Hassan Rouhani said in reaction to Trump s decision. But he also said, No president can revoke an international deal...(and) Iran will continue to honour its commitments under the deal. The other parties to the accord - Britain, Germany, France, Russia, China and the European Union have all reaffirmed their commitment to it and urged the United States not to back out. IAEA chief Yukiya Amano, whose inspectors are tasked with monitoring compliance with the deal, reiterated that Iran was adhering to it. The IAEA can state that such nuclear-related commitments are being implemented, Amano told a news conference in Abu Dhabi following a trip to Iran on Sunday where he met with Rouhani and other officials. I requested that Iran ... fully implement the nuclear-related commitments. This (was) the main thrust of the meeting in Iran ... Regarding the activities of our inspectors, they are discharging their responsibility without problem, he said. Under the agreement, Iran undertook to restrict its nuclear programme to help ensure it could not be put to developing atomic bombs in exchange for the lifting of trade and financial sanctions that had hobbled its oil-based economy. Amano added that he had told Iranian officials the nuclear deal was a significant gain for verification . Speaking on the sidelines of an international conference on nuclear power in the United Arab Emirates, Amano declined comment on U.S. policy towards Iran and on Iran s absence from the meeting, which draws together IAEA member states. | 1 |
2,309 | NATO to send more troops to Afghanistan after U.S. shift | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO is set to agree on Thursday to increase its Afghanistan training mission by some 3,000 troops, alliance officials said, after the United States switched tack in long-running efforts to defeat Taliban militants and end the conflict. Fresh NATO personnel will not have a combat role but the alliance hopes more soldiers can train the Afghan army and air force to complement U.S. President Donald Trump s strategy to send more American counter-terrorism troops to the country. We have decided to increase the number of troops ... to help the Afghans break the stalemate, to send a message to the Taliban, to the insurgents that they will not win on the battleground, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference on Tuesday. NATO defense ministers are expected to approve the deployment in the latter part of a two-day meeting that starts on Wednesday. The troops would be deployed from the start of 2018, a NATO official said. The West says it is determined to stabilize a country facing resurgent rebels 16 years after the United States sought to topple the Taliban rulers who had harbored the al Qaeda militants behind attacks on New York and Washington. Stoltenberg said an attack on Tuesday on a television station in Kabul underlined the importance of fighting militants and supporting Afghan security forces. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the assault, without giving evidence. Trump s envoy to NATO, Ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchinson, said the U.S. goal was to show Taliban militants they could not win in military combat. Trump s strategy in Afghanistan, unveiled in August, rests on providing more troops, a stronger Afghan army, support from regional allies such as India and a harder line with Pakistan. U.S. officials say Pakistan provides refuge and support to the Taliban and other extremist groups, which Pakistan denies. We d like to see Pakistan come in, in a positive effort to help stabilize Afghanistan, Hutchinson said. There have been several attempts in recent years to broker a settlement between the Western-backed government in Kabul and the Taliban, but all have failed. Without the militants at the table, experts say it is hard to envisage a peace settlement. NATO allies have already promised almost $3 billion to help the United States fund the Afghan military until 2020, which is developing an air force to complement its ground forces. Troop contributions had rested on NATO allies seeing more details about Trump s strategy, diplomats said. The NATO contribution would boost the training mission, called Resolute Support, to around 16,000 troops, Stoltenberg said. About half the additional troops would come from the United States and the rest from NATO allies and partner countries. U.S. Army General John Nicholson, the commander of the Resolute Support mission and of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said in February that a few thousand more troops would make a difference. About 11,000 U.S. troops are serving in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said in August, including almost 7,000 in Resolute Support, according to NATO data. Under Trump s new strategy, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in September that more than 3,000 additional U.S. troops would be deployed to Afghanistan. Taken together, the new deployments could take the total number of Western troops in the country to above 20,000, according to current and projected troop numbers well below a 2011 peak of more than 100,000. | 1 |
2,310 | Obama pledges more than $450 million aid to help Colombia peace plan | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Thursday he would ask the U.S. Congress for more than $450 million in aid to help Colombia end “half a century of wrenching conflict” and implement a peace accord aimed at ending Latin America’s longest war. If approved, the aid would help with security and fighting the drug trade, as well as educating and retraining members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the leftist rebel group at war with the government since 1964. “After half a century of wrenching conflict, the time has come for peace,” Obama said after meeting with Colombian President Juan Manual Santos. The U.S. government would also commit $33 million to a global program to help the country remove land mines in the next five years, and Obama said he would help mobilize more international aid if the peace deal is reached. Three previous attempts at an accord failed, but the government and FARC are on the verge of an agreement after four years of talks. Santos thanked the U.S. government for its long-standing bipartisan support for “Plan Colombia,” $10 billion in funding between 2000 and 2015 for military and social programs that he said helped keep Colombia from becoming a failed state. The new program, dubbed “Peace Colombia,” would provide about 25 percent more U.S. funding compared with 2016 levels. “Just as the United States has been Colombia’s partner in a time of war, I indicated to President Santos we will be your partner in waging peace,” Obama said at a White House reception. A jump in U.S. aid is “fundamental” to the success of the peace plan, particularly given a 20 percent hit to Colombia’s budget from the plunge in oil prices, said Douglass Cassel of the University of Notre Dame, who has been an adviser to Santos for the past year. “The government of Colombia will do everything it can, but it’s clear that it doesn’t have sufficient resources on its own to do the job the way it ought to be done without significant support from the United States and the European Union,” Cassel said in an interview. | 1 |
2,311 | Spanish tourist shot, killed by police in Rio de Janeiro slum | RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Police shot and killed a Spanish tourist in a Rio de Janeiro slum on Monday after the car she was riding in failed to stop at a police road block, authorities said. Rio s police confirmed in a written statement that Maria Esperanza Ruiz Jimenez, 67, died after being shot by a police officer in the Rocinha slum. The Rio state security secretariat, which oversees all police forces, said the shooting would be investigated. Rocinha has been the scene of severe violence for a month as rival gangs have clashed with each other for control over the drug trade. Intense shootouts between the gangs and also with police have taken place almost daily. Several other slums in the city that hosted the 2016 Olympics have also seen increased shootouts. For several months police have struggled to maintain control of the city. President Michel Temer in July authorized the use of about 9,000 army soldiers to help patrol Rio, but it has had little effect on tamping down the violence. | 1 |
2,312 | DISNEY Introduces New Marvel Comic Books: Captain America (Captain Socialist) Beats Up Conservative Terrorists Defending U.S. Borders And More [VIDEO] | Indoctrination by Disney pretty much covers every demographic: toddlers with sippy cups watching the Disney channel and Disney movies, teens reading Marvel comic books, young women watching an abortion being performed on ABC s Scandal while Silent Night plays in the background, and full grown men kicking back with a beer watching sports on ESPN.Watch this unbelievable summarization of Disney s new Marvel comic book:h/t Weasel Zippers | 0 |
2,313 | Trump Responds To Elizabeth Warren’s Brutal Tweets Against Him – Fails Miserably (VIDEO) | Donald Trump is proving, yet again, that he is terrified of strong women. Not to mention the fact he s also got the thinnest skin around when it comes to being able to take criticism thrown against him. He also can t help but throw insults, especially at women, because when you have nothing to arm yourself in a battle of wits, throw insults.After being just absolutely pummeled by Elizabeth Warren on Twitter Monday morning, Trump was asked what he felt about her calling him a loser etc., and Trump being Trump responded as such: Who s that, the Indian? You mean the Indian? And then follows it up by claiming that country is so divided and it s the fault of people like Warren. The problem with the country right now [is] it s so divided, and people like Elizabeth Warren really have to get their act together because it s going to stay divided. Of course, sliding in there that maybe he s to blame as well, but really this diversionary tactic is typical of Trump to get the topic away from him being called out so tremendously well and turned back onto the person who threw down the gauntlet against him.Trump cannot take criticism and Warren knows this. How he responds makes him look juvenile and weak, so hopefully Warren as well as all others who are trying to prevent him from getting into the Oval Office continue to put him on the defense, because he really just can t handle it. .@realDonaldTrump takes a shot at Elizabeth Warren: https://t.co/OEiy1Fj6Ca pic.twitter.com/eT2B8w5hcx POLITICO Video (@POLITICOvideo) March 21, 2016Featured image via video screen capture/Twitter | 0 |
2,314 | North Korea says sanctions hurting women, children | GENEVA (Reuters) - North Korea said on Wednesday it was working to uphold women s rights and gender equality but that sanctions imposed by major powers were taking a toll on vulnerable families. Han Tae Song, ambassador of the Democratic People s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to the United Nations in Geneva, also urged South Korea to return 12 waitresses kidnapped while working in China in April 2016, calling it a crime against humanity . Seoul has said the 12 women and one man had chosen to defect to the South. U.S. President Donald Trump arrived earlier in the day in China seeking help to rein in North Korea, telling the reclusive state s leader he was putting his country in grave danger by developing nuclear weapons. The United States and other hostile forces impede the enjoyment by our people of their human rights in every possible way, resorting to the vicious ways and means of all kinds in their attempt to stifle the ideas and system of the DPRK, Han told the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. Washington, he said, had manipulated sanctions resolutions against his country at the U.N. Security Council that violated North Korean sovereignty and rights to existence and development, he said. Due to these inhumane economic sanctions, vulnerable peoples like women and children are becoming...victims. Such sanctions against humanity which block even the delivery of the medical equipment and medicines for maternal and child health and the basic goods for daily life including even children s bicycles threaten the protection and promotion of our women s rights and even the right to survival of the children. South Korea imposed unilateral sanctions on 18 North Koreans on Monday, barring any financial transactions between those sanctioned and any South Koreans, as part of international efforts to dry up Pyongyang s illegal cash flows. Japan said on Tuesday it would impose additional sanctions on North Korea in response to the continuing threat posed by its missile and nuclear programs. The U.N. panel, composed of 23 independent experts, was examining North Korea s record as part of a regular review. Its findings are due to be issued on Nov 17. | 1 |
2,315 | Obama LIES To French Reporter, America “One Of Largest Muslim Countries In The World” [VIDEO] | Barack Hussein Obama has been laser focused on making the promotion of Islam in America a priority since his first day in office. He s also made a point of discrediting Christians in America. Is it any wonder he s ignored the slaughter of Christians in the Middle East? Does anyone care he s sending Christian refugees back to extremist Muslim nations from the US, while bringing in hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees? Here is a perfect example of the master Muslim propagandist:OBAMA TO FRENCH REPORTER: We have to educate ourselves more effectively on Islam. If you actually took the number of Muslims Americans ah, we d be one of the largest countries in the world. REALLY? Is #38 one of the largest Muslim countries in the world Barry?HERE are the FACTS:Eighty-three percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians. Most of the rest, 13 percent, have no religion. That leaves just 4 percent as adherents of all non-Christian religions combined Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and a smattering of individual mentions. | 0 |
2,316 | Pope implicitly criticizes U.S. for leaving Paris climate accord | ROME (Reuters) - Pope Francis implicitly criticized the United States on Monday for pulling out of the Paris agreement on climate change, praising it as a means to control the devastating effects of global warming. The United States is the only country out of 195 signatories to have withdrawn from the accord, which aims to cut emissions blamed for the rise in temperatures. U.S. President Donald Trump announced the decision in June shortly after visiting the pope, a strong supporter of the deal. At the time a Vatican official said the move was a slap in the face for the pope and the Vatican. We see consequences of climate change every day, the pope said in an address to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) at its headquarters in Rome. Thanks to scientific knowledge, we know how we have to confront the problem and the international community has also worked out the legal methods, such as the Paris Accord, which sadly, some have abandoned, he said. Under the deal, United States had committed to reducing its own emissions by 26 to 28 percent, compared with 2005 levels, by 2025. Many world leaders have criticized Trump for deciding to pull out. In his Spanish-language address to the U.N. agency, Francis denounced negligence toward the delicate equilibriums of the ecosystems, the presumption of manipulating and controlling the limited resources of the planet, and the greed for profit. Agriculture ministers and diplomats from the Group of Seven (G7) world power nations attended the gathering, which marked FAO s World Food Day. We can t be satisfied by saying someone else will do it, the pope said. Ending local conflicts and curbing the effects of climate change were two of the prerequisites for dealing with world food security, Francis also said. The yoke of poverty caused by the often tragic movement of migrants can be removed by prevention, consisting of development projects that create jobs and offer the capacity to respond to climactic and environmental changes, he said. | 1 |
2,317 | Kremlin: U.S. arms license for Kiev may trigger new bloodshed in east Ukraine | MOSCOW (Reuters) - The approval by the United States of an export license for Ukraine to buy certain light weapons and small arms from U.S. manufacturers may provoke hotheads among Ukrainian nationalists to seek to unleash a new bloodshed in eastern Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Thursday. | 1 |
2,318 | Bad blood over Obamacare fight lingers as Congress returns | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When the U.S. Congress returns from summer vacation on Tuesday, for the first time in years gutting Obamacare will not be the main order of business on the healthcare agenda. But leftover hard feelings in the wake of the long, partisan Obamacare wars could poison other issues. Among them will be a measure to keep federal funding flowing to an insurance program that helps millions of children and pregnant women. The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) must be reauthorized by a vote of Congress by Sept. 30. If that does not happen, the program is expected to run out of money. Another issue will be stabilizing the individual insurance market created under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, former Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement. In recent months, the Trump administration has worked to undermine it and insurers have raised premiums by double digits or exited the market. Republicans in Congress spent six months trying to make good on a seven-year campaign promise to repeal and replace Obamacare, also a top campaign promise by President Donald Trump, while Democrats remained unanimously opposed. The effort, which inflamed partisanship and exposed deep divisions within the Republican Party, ended with a dramatic failed Senate vote in July, leaving the law in place, but damaged. Reauthorization of CHIP is typically not contentious. The program has bipartisan support. But lobbyists and industry officials said that any healthcare effort in Congress could become partisan in this political climate. “Anything having to do with healthcare after the process we’ve gone through is subject to being controversial,” one health industry lobbyist said last week. Serving as a backdrop for Congress’ deliberations, including hearings scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, will be Trump and his Twitter account. In several tweets, Trump has chastised lawmakers, sometimes by name, for failing to deliver on their promise to get rid of Obamacare. If that continues, already-rocky relations between Trump and fellow Republicans could worsen. Several congressional aides, lobbyists and industry officials said they were skeptical that lawmakers would be able to move past the bitter months-long Republican push to gut Obamacare and somehow achieve bipartisan cooperation on healthcare. The Obamacare markets’ problems have worsened amid conflicting messages from Trump and the Republicans’ effort to dismantle the healthcare law. Republican aides and lobbyists said there was little appetite to try once more to repeal and replace it. They said Republicans, controlling the White House, House of Representatives and Senate, were unlikely to take up the repeal-and-replace effort for the remainder of 2017. Trump’s administration has moved to undercut Obamacare, slashing its advertising budget by 90 percent and backing off enforcement of the so-called individual mandate, the requirement that everyone purchase insurance or pay a fine. | 1 |
2,319 | Lebanon's Middle East Airlines lifts electronics ban on London flights | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon s national carrier Middle East Airlines (MEA) on Friday lifted restrictions on carry-on electronic devices on planes traveling from Beirut to London, the airline said. Britain implemented curbs on electronic items in the cabin in March on direct flights from Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia in response to unspecified security threats. Passengers had to check devices larger than a mobile phone such as laptops into the plane s hold. These devices can as of Friday be carried in the cabin on direct MEA flights from Beirut to London, provided specific random additional security measures are implemented at the London flight segregated gate, MEA said in a statement. Britain s Ambassador to Lebanon Hugo Shorter confirmed the ban had been lifted for MEA flights to London with immediate effect on his Twitter page on Friday. British Airways, which operate the only other direct route from Beirut to London, has not lifted the restrictions, the airline told Reuters on Friday. | 1 |
2,320 | Clinton campaign chairman testifies in House Russia probe | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, on Tuesday appeared before the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, which has begun interviewing witnesses in its probe of how Russia may have influenced the 2016 election. Committee members declined to comment on the discussion to reporters as they left the panel’s secure hearing room. Podesta stopped and commented briefly. “They asked me to come forward to give to the best of my knowledge what I knew about that, and I was happy to cooperate with the committee in their investigation of Russian interference with the democratic process in the United States,” he said. Republican President Donald Trump, who defeated Clinton in the election, recently has accused former Democratic President Barack Obama of doing too little to address Russian cyber attacks while he was still in the White House. On Monday, Trump demanded on Twitter that investigators apologize for looking to Russian interference and possible collusion with his campaign. He accused Obama of having “colluded or obstructed,” without providing evidence. [nL1N1JN12O] Asked whether he thought Obama had done enough, Podesta said, “I think the president and the entire administration were dealing with an unprecedented incidence of the weaponization of the fruits of Russian cyber activity and making the best judgments they could on behalf of the American people.” During the 2016 campaign, hackers penetrated the Democratic National Committee’s email server and separately stole emails from Podesta’s personal account. The emails were then posted online and used to embarrass Clinton, including by Trump, who frequently used their content as political ammunition. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia was behind the hacking and that it was seeking to boost Trump’s chances of winning the White House. Russia has denied trying to influence the election, and Trump has dismissed such allegations as sour grapes by Democrats and their supporters unable to come to terms with his surprise victory in November. The House intelligence panel is conducting one of several investigations into Russian meddling in the election and possible collusion with members of Trump’s campaign, as is Department of Justice Special Counsel Robert Mueller.[nL1N1IC249] The House panel began bringing in witnesses for interviews this week, and a few more are expected before lawmakers leave Washington by Friday for their weeklong July 4 holiday recess. | 1 |
2,321 | RUBIO DOUBLES DOWN ON Putting Illegal Aliens Before Americans | If Rubio isn t smart enough to see that Trump s catapult to the top of the GOP contenders happened the moment he took a strong stand against politicians putting illegal aliens before Americans, then is he really smart enough to run our nation? And maybe even more importantly, if Rubio does recognize the majority of voters across the board want to elect a President who will stop the invasion of illegal aliens into our country, who is he planning to represent if he were to get the nomination?Sen. [score]Marco Rubio[/score] (R-FL) is doubling down on his support for in-state tuition for illegal aliens.On ABC, George Stephanopoulos asked Rubio about his work in the Florida statehouse in which he co-sponsored legislation to provide in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants. Stephanopolous asked Rubio directly: Do you stand behind that position now? Rubio said that he absolutely stands behind that legislation:RUBIO: It was a very narrowly drafted bill. You had to have a certain GPA, you had to live in the U.S. a long time, you had to graduate from a Florida high school. It was very narrowly tailored to high-performing students who found themselves in a situation where they were brought here by their parents when they were 5, didn t even speak another language except English and therefore couldn t attend college because they were being charged like they were from out of state. They still had to pay for college but they paid for what people paid when they lived in Florida. They had to be high school graduates of Florida.STEPHANOPOULOS: So you stand behind that?RUBIO: Yes, of a narrowly tailored bill like that, absolutely.In theory, this legislation means that an American student wishing to attend a Florida state university, who is from the neighboring state of Georgia, would have to pay higher tuition costs than an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, who has been living unlawfully in Florida and attending American public schools for the past thirteen years on the taxpayer dime. Illegal aliens are also eligible for generous child tax credits, a benefit protected in the Gang of Eight bill. Indeed, the taxes requirement in the Gang of Eight bill would have meant illegal aliens could receive tax payments in the form of free cash from the IRS, since poor illegal aliens have no tax liability.Rubio s plan to discount college tuition for illegal aliens will serve as a further magnet to new illegal immigration, and will also increase competition for college slots and post-college jobs for American youth who are already struggling. Moreover, due to affirmative action policies, these illegal aliens will not have their tuition discounted but their applications given preferential treatment as well.By contrast, front-runner Donald Trump told NBC s Chuck Todd that same day that he opposes Rubio s legislation to give illegal aliens taxpayer-funded tuition discounts.TODD: Senator Rubio sponsored a bill back in Florida (back when he was in the State House) to give in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants. There s a lot of states that allow in-state tuition for the children of undocumented immigrants. I ve not heard your position on that.TRUMP: I m opposed to it.TODD: Totally opposed?TRUMP: They re here. They re not here legally. I m opposed to itTODD: Even kids born to illegal immigrants?It is perhaps interesting to note that Chuck Todd seems a bit confused about U.S. immigration policy illegal alien tuition discounts are for foreign-born youth who are themselves illegal immigrants. Under current policy, the US-born children are automatic birthright citizens, meaning no legislation is required to make them eligible for all the benefits enjoyed by Americans. Indeed, illegal immigrants primarily access welfare programs through their U.S.-born children. As a September 2015 report from the Center for Immigration Studies noted, analysis shows that legal immigrant households make extensive use of most welfare programs, while illegal immigrant households primarily benefit from food programs and Medicaid through their U.S.-born children. Regardless, Trump made clear in the interview he would ensure that neither illegal alien youth (DREAMers) or birthright citizenship children, would be eligible for such benefits. Trump made clear he would move to eliminate birthright citizenship so that the US-born children of illegal aliens would no longer made automatic citizens. Again, by contrast, Rubio supports birthright citizenship a position which is supported by only 20% of Republicans according to the most recent Rasmussen Reports immigration survey issued on December 27, 2015.Rubio s Sunday endorsement of discount college tuition for the foreign-born illegal alien youth is in keeping with his longstanding support for DREAM amnesty proposals, which have been a passion of Gang of Eight co-member [score]Dick Durbin[/score].While Rubio briefly distanced himself of his support for DREAMer amnesty in 2010 in order to get elected to the U.S. Senate and indeed attacked attacked his opponent [score]Charlie Crist[/score] specifically for his support of the DREAM Act upon arriving in the U.S. Senate, Rubio quickly used his new position of power to begin working on a plan to legalize so-called DREAMers. In 2012, Rubio wrote: They re not in compliance with immigration law, and, thus, not American citizens. But they are culturally as American as anyone else s children Rubio s statement might be news to Laura Wilkerson whose 18-year-old son, Joshua, was gruesomely murdered by his DREAMer classmate. In her Congressional testimony last summer, Wilkerson told lawmakers how her son was, beaten, strangled, tortured until he died. He was tied up, thrown in a field, and set on fire [During his trial], we had to hear this kid on the stand muttering about, In my country In my country never to finish that sentence. We listened to him tell us repeatedly that his killing skills took over . Wilkerson told lawmakers, You cannot you cannot stand by and ignore our families our American families. You re elected by Americans, not any other country. You should be for Americans. Yet Rubio remains so committed to amnesty for illegal immigrants who allegedly entered as minors that he has said he will not immediately revoke President Obama s lawless 2012 executive amnesty for DREAMers. In a Spanish-language interview with Jorge Ramos, Rubio said: Well, DACA is going to have to end at some point. I wouldn t undo it immediately. The reason is that there are already people who have that permission, who are working, who are studying, and I don t think it would be fair to cancel it suddenly. But I do think it is going to have to end. And, God willing, it s going to end because immigration reform is going to pass. Rejected-Majority Leader [score]Eric Cantor[/score] similarly supported Rubio s efforts to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants. Cantor declared, One of the great founding principles of our country was that children would not be punished for the mistakes of their parents. This prompted Cantor s then-primary challenger Rep. [score]Dave Brat[/score] (R-VA) to describe Cantor s declaration as one of the most radical pro-amnesty statements ever delivered by a sitting representative. Brat wrote, In what was billed as a new agenda for the Republican Party, Cantor declared that citizenship for illegals was required by the great founding principles of our country. With this remark, Cantor declared his support not only for amnesty now, but amnesty forever. Ken Palinkas, the former head of the nation s immigration caseworkers Citizenship and Immigration Services has similarly explained how the DREAM Act would represents a promise of perpetual amnesty :If it is improper to apply immigration law to one specific group of illegal aliens, then why should we expect future illegal aliens in this group to be treated any differently?Indeed, government reports have documented how the 2014 illegal alien minor surge on our southern border was caused, in large part, by the promise of amnesty for alien youth.As Senator [score]Jeff Session[/score] has written, It cannot be the policy of the United States that any of the 2 billion people in the world who have yet turn to turn 18 have a right to illegally enter the United States and claim residency. Polling data suggests that in the event Rubio s position on this controversial DREAMer amnesty begins to receive large-scale media coverage something that has not happened yet it could pose problems for him in New Hamspshire, where he is currently in second place. As The Hill reported in 2014, More people in New England oppose illegal immigration compared to the rest of the country Nearly 80 percent of people in that region said illegal immigrants threaten U.S. beliefs and customs, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.New Hampshire also voted for Pat Buchanan in 1996 who, like Trump, is opposed to both the cheaper foreign labor and cheap foreign imports Senator Rubio has sought to import.Via: Breitbart News | 0 |
2,322 | Trump to make remarks at White House at 3 p.m. EST | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is slated to give remarks to reporters at the White House at 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT) on Tuesday, the White House said. | 1 |
2,323 | PHILIPPINES: 2016 Washington’s Fury as Philippine’s Elections Threaten US Anti-China Policy | Duterte takes clear lead in Philippine elections. (Photo: IBT)Andrew Korybko The DuranMay 2016: As Filipinos choose their next President on Monday, prospect of election of anti-establishment candidate threatens the geopolitical viability of the US s Pivot to Asia.The Philippines votes for its next President on Monday. Whilst the rest of the world pays little attention, strategists in Washington are worried.The electoral frontrunner is Rodrigo Duterte, an eccentric, no-nonsense former mayor from the southern island of Mindanao who commands a Trump-like popularity and an equally loyal following. He has shaken Philippine politics to its core over the past couple of months, defying establishment pundits who just as they did with Trump wrongly predicted that his campaign would fizzle out over the course of each passing week.Having totally underestimated just how dissatisfied most Filipinos are with the status quo, Duterte s rivals missed the chance to outshine him by his anti-system rhetoric. With the race in its final days that is now too late. Instead also paralleling what happened with Trump there are desperate calls for coalitions and deals to stop him.Should these fail and should Duterte win on Monday, he promises a geopolitical revolution unlike anything the Philippines has ever seen in its history. Pivoting To Asia Through The PhilippinesThe US s Pivot to Asia was announced by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the fall of 2011 with the unstated but obvious goal of containing China. Key to this strategy is the rebalancing as the Pentagon calls it of an estimated 60% of its overseas forces to the Asia-Pacific theatre. Such a major deployment requires many more bases than the US currently has in the region. The US has therefore sought the help of the loyal leader of its former Philippines colony, Benigno Aquino III, to find a way to re-open its bases in the Philippines which under popular pressure were closed in the 1990s.Using the China threat as the plausibly justifiable reason for doing so, but aware that the Philippines people still resent their former coloniser and are proud of having forced the US to close its Philippines bases at the end of the Cold War, the US has devised what it calls an Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) that allows for the rotational presence of American troops in at least five separate bases, one of which is located on the strategic island of Palawan that abuts the South China Sea.Although not legally permanent or officially controlled by the US, this wink-and-a-nod arrangement would in reality allow the US to redeploy its forces to the Philippines, returning the Philippines archipelago to the role of the US s second unsinkable aircraft carrier (alongside Japan) which it had during the Cold War.The China Containment Coalition The Pentagon plans to use the Philippines as the maritime lynch of its China Containment Coalition (CCC), gathering all of its allies navies together and deploying them within provocative striking range of China s claimed islands.The other three members of the US-led Quadrilateral Security Dialogue Japan, India, and Australia would find their own way to rotate their military units throughout the Philippines islands as well, thereby forming the core of the CCC.To add a regional element to this mix, the plan is for the Philippines and Vietnam, both of which contest some of China s maritime claims, to intensify their strategic cooperation to the point of a mutual defence treaty. This would draw Vietnam into the network of the anti-China coalition being built up by Washington by using the defence ties between Vietnam and the Philippines to making the members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue de facto allies of Vietnam.Altogether, the Pentagon plan is to produce a critical mass of hostile states near China s southern maritime border which backed by the US could quickly counter any moves by Beijing thereby containing it to the East Asian mainland.Duterte s RevolutionEverything was proceeding according to plan until Duterte began to question the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement . While his running mate has said Duterte would honour the agreement, he added that he would do so from a position of strength .Back in October 2014, Duterte went on record to say the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement should be scrapped if it allowed US servicemen in the Philippines to avoid justice for any crimes they committed.This pinpoints an issue very sensitive for Filipinos who have vivid memories of how US troops were able to escape punishment for acts of gross misbehaviour whilst the US military occupied its bases in the Philippines. Public anger over this issue was one of the key factors in mobilising local opposition to the bases and explains why many Filipinos oppose their return.Since it is impossible to imagine such an incident not arising at some point, it is all but inevitable that a situation will occur which will fulfil Duterte s criterion for scrapping the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement Taken together with Duterte s assertion that he intends to deal with the US from a position of strength it is easy to see how this might trigger the process of revoking the agreement.No Filipino politician has previously spoken about the US in this way. Moreover other things he has said also suggest an intention to send a strongly independent line.Not surprisingly the Pentagon-affiliated publication Starts and Stripes , which writes for US servicemen servicemen and their families, published a scathing critique of Duterte just last week. Here are some excerpts: With Filipinos set to choose among five candidates on May 9, Duterte, the incumbent mayor of Davao City who has said the U.S. should not meddle in our affairs, holds a strong lead, according to the most recent poll released Sunday.Duterte is very popular now because people are sick and tired of the same old, same old, said Virginia Bacay Watson, a professor at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu. He s kind of a fresh face, fresh perspective, compared to the other elites who are running. Duterte has presented himself to voters as a straight-talker who is not part of the Manila elite someone who can get things done even if he needs to bend the rules to do so. That includes the country s foreign affairs. He feels that American influence is too strong, that we re too dependent on U.S. intervention in anything we do, said Babe Romualdez, an opinion columnist for The Philippine Star newspaper who has interviewed the candidates one-on-one about their platforms on the U.S. military and relations with China. He was an activist when he was a student and young lawyer, Romualdez said. I get a sense that he s saying the same things that most of the militants say. In Romualdez s interview with the front-runner, the candidate said we really don t need the Americans to deal with the Chinese because the Chinese want to talk to us alone. If I become president I m going to reach out to the Chinese and talk to them alone without American intervention, he said.Duterte publically opposed the Visiting Forces Agreement with the U.S. of which the EDCA was an amendment and claimed in 2013 that he had rejected a request by the U.S. to establish Davao as a base of operations for drones.Earlier this year, he was quoted saying that although the country was now bound by the EDCA, he had reservations about the presence of foreign troops. He added, We will not allow the building of structures. Clearly, Duterte is not the sort of leader the Pentagon envisaged for the Philippines. If he becomes Philippine President there will inevitably be concern in Washington that its elaborate plans for an anti-Chinese coalition in the region could be scuttled.The New Silk Road Pays A Pit Stop To The PhilippinesWorse still for the US Duterte is saying the Philippines and China could have peaceful and pragmatic relations with each other, engaging in bilateral dialogue over their disputes without the meddling interference of the US.What that would mean for the US is that the Philippines might become a tacit Chinese ally, which would completely upend the regional strategic balance.That is not what Duterte is actually calling for, but he did say is that he not only would be open to talking to Beijing, but would even further and engage in joint exploration in the South China Sea. Further, in seeking to develop the decades-neglected infrastructure of one of the most promising economies of Asia, Duterte has suggested that he would be open to inviting China to build a railroad and other types of connective projects that Beijing has become globally renowned for. This would of course mean replacing US contractors traditionally heavily entrenched in the Philippines with cheaper and possibly more efficient Chinese ones potentially causing US companies to lose out from billions of dollars of construction deals.Joint maritime exploration and infrastructure cooperation between the Philippines and China has the potential to turn the entire Philippines archipelago into the latest pit stop for China s New Silk Road, presenting the US with its biggest geopolitical setback since the reunification of Crimea with Russia.Concluding ThoughtsThe entire future of the US s Pivot to Asia hangs in the balance as Filipinos go to the polls in what is shaping up to be the most pivotal election in their country s history.While the US and its allied politicians are preaching a campaign of anti-Chinese fear mongering and war, Rodrigo Duterte is bucking the system and preaching the benefits the Philippines could reap from more pragmatic policies.By questioning the need for the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement and subtly threatening to subvert it, Duterte has made himself the US s enemy number one amongst politicians from the Asia-Pacific. No other individual is speaking out in this way and unlike others who have come before him, he seems to command a high level of genuine people support.If Duterte succeeds in winning the Presidency, it could represent a paradigm shift in Philippine history and the region s geopolitics, resulting in the US losing its second unsinkable aircraft carrier and having its Pivot to Asia ie. its plan to contain China fail before it has even properly got underway.***READ MORE PHILIPPINES NEWS AT 21ST CENTURY WIRE S: PHILIPPINES FILESSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 |
2,324 | Bulgaria's parliament speaker resigns 'to avoid political upheaval' | SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria s parliament speaker Dimitar Glavchev resigned on Friday in a move he said was to avoid political upheaval as the country prepares to take over the six-month rotating European Union presidency in January. The opposition Socialists had demanded Glavchev s resignation and said they would boycott parliament sessions until he stepped down after he banned their leader, Kornelia Ninova, from the chamber over what he called offences to deputies and members of the government on Wednesday. Glavchev, who described his resignation as a moral act , said it was his intention to restore calm in the parliament and not cast a shadow over Bulgaria s EU presidency. I have always said that the state and its stability are more important than anything, said Prime Minister Boyko Borissov. Parliament voted to appoint Tsveta Karayancheva, a senior member of the ruling center-right GERB party, to replace Glavchev. Glavchev made a mistake, but his resignation is just a preventative measure and it will not lead to a parliamentary crisis or the fall of the government, Daniel Smilov, an analyst with Bulgaria s Centre for Liberal Strategies, told Reuters. GERB is trying not to complicate the situation. The center-right GERB, led by Borissov, returned to power for a third term since 2009 after a snap election in March. His coalition government has a one-seat majority but is also supported by a small populist party. | 1 |
2,325 | 'Like any EU citizen': Belgium's Catalan asylum fix | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgium has given a cool welcome to Catalonia s ousted leader and may not offer the safe haven from Spanish justice that it once extended as it grapples with separatist troubles of its own. Carles Puigdemont was not invited by the Belgian government, Prime Minister Charles Michel said in a curt statement, a day after he arrived unannounced following his dismissal by Madrid on charges of rebellion over Catalonia s independence bid. He will be treated like any other European citizen, Michel said, noting Puigdemont was entitled to move freely within the EU. He has the same rights and duties ... no more, no less. Deputy premier Kris Peeters was even brusquer, saying: When you declare independence, it s better to stay with your people. Puigdemont himself told a news conference in Brussels that he was there to engage with the European Union which has shunned his pleas and not to exploit Belgium s reputation as a place of political asylum for citizens of other EU states. Nonetheless, he traveled to a small town in western Flanders on Monday to hire a human rights lawyer with a successful track record of fighting extradition to Spain on behalf of Basque separatist sympathizers. The lawyer, Paul Bekaert warned, however, that EU rules have made it harder. He told Reuters that the European Arrest Warrant system had removed exceptions previously made for extraditions to face political charges like sedition in other EU states. Politics, too, may play a part. Eighteen months before the next Belgian federal election, there have already been tensions over Catalonia within the coalition, where Flemish nationalists sympathetic to the Catalans are a major force and Michel, a French-speaking liberal, has lately tried to mollify Madrid. On Tuesday, Spain s High Court called Puigdemont and 13 members of his sacked administration to testify on Thursday. It also said it had started processing rebellion and sedition charges against Puigdemont and other Catalan leaders. Bekaert said Puigdemont, who faces up to 30 years in jail if Spanish prosecutors follow through on plans to charge him with sedition and misuse of public funds, saw no hurry to file for asylum, a simple procedure that would halt any extradition. However, asylum requests from EU citizens are rarely accepted nowadays and are often rejected within days. As an EU citizen, Puigdemont has to demonstrate that there is a clear risk of prosecution against him, that the sentence he could face could be disproportionate, that he doesn t have a fair trial in Spain, said Dirk Vanheule, a law professor at Antwerp University and president of Belgium s Refugee Council. If he fails to demonstrate that from the beginning, the asylum proceeding can be terminated within five days. Koen Lemmens, a human rights lawyer and professor at Leuven University, said the Belgian asylum agency would not take into account potential diplomatic embarrassment. But it would be up to Puigdemont to prove he would not get a fair trial. The Belgian government looks unwilling to back him up. Michel annoyed Spain by speaking out against police violence as people voted in the Oct. 1 independence referendum. But he also slapped down his Flemish nationalist immigration minister for suggesting at the weekend that Belgium might grant asylum. That did not stop the French-speaking Socialist opposition from accusing Michel of damaging Belgium s credibility abroad. The issue may not fade quickly. Any EU citizen can stay for up to three months without permission. And despite support for Madrid from the Belgian government, judges refused in 1996 and again, under new EU rules, in 2004 to extradite Luis Moreno and Raquel Garcia, whom it accused of aiding Basque militants. The N-VA has soft-pedaled demands for splitting the richer, Dutch-speaking half of Belgium off but with elections looming it must be wary of the small, anti-immigration Vlaams Belang, whose leader attended Puigdemont s Brussels news conference. VB leader Tom Van Grieken called on N-VA ministers to break with Michel s refusal to recognize Catalan independence. Mark Demesmaeker, an N-VA member of the European Parliament, told Reuters he met Puigdemont in Barcelona a month ago and said he did have a case for asylum as the EU looks the other way . The fact he is coming here already says plenty enough about the situation in Spain and Catalonia, Demesmaeker told Reuters. He has no faith in the Spanish judiciary. | 1 |
2,326 | Seeking to extend martial law in Philippine south, Duterte says militants regrouping | MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday asked Congress to extend martial law on the southern island of Mindanao for a year, arguing that Islamist militants have been regrouping since a five-month urban conflict ended there in October. He said fighters who survived the battle for Marawi City were determined to establish a Southeast Asian wilayat or governorate - for Islamic State and named militant Abu Turaifie as potentially the radical group s next regional emir . The previous emir , Isnilon Hapilon, and another rebel commander loyal to Islamic State were killed in October as the military closed in on fighters who had occupied the heart of Marawi since May 23. More than 1,100 people - mostly militants - were killed and 350,000 displaced by the Marawi unrest. In his letter to the Senate and House of Representatives, Duterte said militants were radicalizing and recruiting local people, reorganizing themselves and building their finances. These activities are geared towards the conduct of intensified atrocities and armed public uprisings, he said, adding that they were aimed at establishing a global Islamic caliphate and a wilayat , not only in the Philippines but the whole of Southeast Asia. A group led by Turaifie - who heads a splinter group of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and, according to Duterte, is said to be Hapilon s potential successor - was planning bombings in the Cotabato province south of Marawi. Intelligence reports indicate that militants are plotting to attack another city, Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said on Monday. Duterte placed restive Mindanao, which has a population of 22 million, under military rule after the attack on Marawi, and martial law was due to be lifted there on Dec. 31. Lawmakers will vote on his request for a one-year extension at a joint session on Wednesday, Congress majority leader Rodolfo Farinas told reporters. Continuing martial law beyond the initial 60-day limit requires lawmakers approval, but the constitution does not limit any extensions. Martial law allows for tougher surveillance and arrests without warrant, giving security forces greater rein to go after suspected extremist financiers and facilitators. Duterte has long warned that Mindanao faced contamination by Islamic State, and experts say Muslim parts of the predominantly Catholic southern Philippines are fertile ground for expansion, due to their history of marginalization and neglect. Critics of Duterte, who has held open the possibility of extending military rule to the whole country, have slammed the imposition of martial law in Mindanao as a misuse of power and evidence of the president s authoritarian tendencies. Martial law is a sensitive issue in the Philippines, bringing back memories of the 1970s rule of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who was accused of exaggerating security threats to justify harsh measures to suppress dissent. Human rights group Karapatan questioned why martial law should be extended in Mindanao nearly two months after the military s victory in Marawi City. This is a dangerous precedent that inches the entire country closer to a nationwide declaration of martial rule, it said in a statement. | 1 |
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i grew up in a working class family and have experienced the deep racism of a society that views vietnamese americans as the targets of war ive lived through successive democratic party administrations with little to celebrate the bill clinton era brought nafta which outsourced my aunts union job and forced her into the lowwage service sector my mother never found a living wage job and relied on my fathers public sector union position to meet our familys needs in the st century obama expanded bushs war on terror which merged my fathers job with into the department of homeland security
downward pressure on wages and working conditions forced my father to refinance our home multiple times to pay college expenses for my sister and i even then my sister and i graduated with large sums of student debt i have worked four jobs in three years and only one has paid a truly living wage another four years of a democratic party president was not going to make anything better for my family that is not to say that donald trump was the answer to the structural problems of exploitation but trumps victory is not the end of the world either
trumps victory is the product of global capitalisms decay millions of people voted for trump for a variety of reasons namely because he clearly labeled problems and outlined solutions to them i dont agree with all of his solutions white nationalism stains his domestic and international agenda trumps call to further militarize the usmexico border yet make peace with russia is a contradiction in and of itself a white nationalist billionaire who speaks the language of racism on the one hand and the interests of peace on the other is not exactly a model of consistency
however trumps consistency is not the most important aspect of this election millions of people have shown their disgust with the twoparty system of the capitalist class a number of mostly white workers and whites from the petty business class voted for trump trump also received more votes than expected from the black and latino electorate meanwhile the elections produced a low turnout for clinton from the historic democratic party bases of black voters latino voters and women voters clinton may have won the electoral vote but the balance of forces ensured the ruling class would gamble on trump trumps base of white workers and petty business elites angered by thirty years of monopoly capitalist assault are more of a threat at the moment than the millions of democratic party voters who are now without a home the round table of elites called the electoral college could not afford any more damage to the democratic party than what transpired during the election
so the democratic party is now on its deathbed and there is only one class of people willing to resurrect it white liberals a large section of the democratic party base wanted bernie sanders to be their next president they did not hold their nose for clinton the legitimate concerns that immigrants and oppressed people possess with trumps racism should not be led into the bowels of the democratic party yet for white liberals this is the ultimate mission
more brian cloughley the greatest achievement of mr trump would be engage in positive discussions with russia and china arise president trump or why its not the end of the world as we know it trumps sexual predator characteristics his grandfather was a pimp but at least he paid the women he hired the significance of the gops attempted purge of donald trump trumps victory has energized the white liberal section of the united states to fight back white liberals began the process in a deep state of mourning over clintons loss they then placed blame for trumps victory on russia lowvoter turnout and the white working class white liberals have blamed everyone except hillary clinton and the democratic party now white liberals in the us hope to wage a crusade against trump in hopes of a democratic party recovery it is all too clear that their primary intention is to get ahead of the genuine forces that rejected both trump and clinton and lead them into the democratic party graveyard
white liberals love to hide their own racism and ruling class sensibilities through a process of appeal and betrayal they speak with the authority of moral righteousness on the one hand and the knife of oppression on the other they talk down to the struggle of peoples oppressed by white supremacy and attempt to steer it in a way that benefits their class interests white liberals despise the working class because they understand that there will come a day when it destroys the system that they profit so handsomely from
white liberals usually originate from the ruling class the managerial class and various stripes of the professionalized sector their class has ordained themselves the true leaders of human rights based on race gender and sexual equality however white liberals speak of human rights on the basis of a complete abandonment of the material struggle for liberation in other words the white liberal is the ultimate counterrevolutionary force in us society it has wielded the socalled struggle for human rights as a weapon to prevent the emergence of classconsciousness among the oppressed and its genuine leaders
the elections have shown that the broad class arrangement of white liberals is indeed in crisis and only has itself to blame white liberals cannot acknowledge that it was their brand of politics that led to the trump moment their dominance over the left in the us ensured that no organized force existed strong enough to challenge the ills of capitalist decline millions of people voted for sanders based on his demands for material relief millions of people voted for trump for the similar reasons his racism and sexism notwithstanding whatever racism and sexism existed in his rhetoric could not trump the fact that the trade deals and wars he spoke out against in part drove ordinary people to vote for him if the trump base wanted racism and sexism primarily they would of voted for ted cruz or jeb bush in the primaries
so white liberal anger about trumps victory is not directed at sexism racism or any other aspect of trumps politics white liberals are afraid of the sharpening contradictions of us society that threaten to squeeze them out of their privileged position under the racist and capitalist order millions of people are now asking where white liberalism was during the massive loss in working class income and wealth that occurred over the last forty years where were the white liberals during the endless wars that have been waged even more fervently by democratic party administrations where were the white liberals during the erection of the largest police and prison state in the world the institutions that murder and incarcerate black americans in record numbers and deport undocumented peoples at historic rates
the answer is that white liberals were supporting the us capitalist systems assault on the oppressed every step of the way this is what they are trying to hide with their anger over trump we cannot defeat trumps white nationalism if the white liberal is not defeated with just as much vigor white liberal ideology has a history of infecting social movements as it spreads it breeds the germs of democratic party control over these movements but the democratic party made its own bed by acting as the more effective evil of the ruling class if a powerful movement of the working class is to emerge in the age of trump then we must fight hard against the white liberal forces working hard to resuscitate the democratic party and build an independent party of our own | 0 |
2,328 | Taiwan's Tsai: no major policy shifts, despite Trump call - reports | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said she does not anticipate any major policy shifts affecting the region despite her unprecedented call with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump that deeply rankled China, according to media reports on Tuesday. In a meeting with a small group of American reporters, Tsai played down the significance of the exchange last Friday with Trump. The telephone call was the first with a U.S. president-elect or president since President Jimmy Carter switched diplomatic recognition to China from Taiwan in 1979. The call prompted a diplomatic protest from Beijing on Saturday and, on Monday, reassurance from the Obama administration that Washington is committed to the “One China” policy. China regards Taiwan as a renegade province. “I have to stress that one phone call does not mean a policy shift,” Tsai told reporters from U.S. outlets that included USA Today, National Public Radio and the Washington Post. “I do not foresee major policy shifts in the near future because we all see the value of stability in the region,” she added, according to the reports. Tsai added: “The phone call was a way for us to express our respect for the U.S. election as well as congratulate President-elect Trump on his win.” Republican Trump, a real estate developer who has never previously held public office, takes office on Jan. 20 after winning the Nov. 8 election. In a statement on the meeting with journalists, Tsai’s office made no mention of her remarks regarding the call with Trump. Instead, it said Tsai told journalists that Taiwan and the United States shared many common values and that Taiwan was a major market for U.S. exports. | 1 |
2,329 | GLENN BECK’S BIZARRE FAREWELL To 40 Employees From Fake Oval Office [VIDEO] | What the what? I had to start firing people, people that I counted as my friends, best friends, partners. And the process that I began was the hardest process of my life. Yeah, almost as hard as picking myself up off of that carpet when I was facing suicide, that carpet that smelled like soup. But this time I had something I didn t have before: I had you. I knew you existed. I knew that you believed in the same principles I believe and that we no, that I had made a promise to you. Our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. In a special video posted to his website today, Glenn Beck addressed news reports of the latest mass layoffs at his troubled media empire.According to a report yesterday in the Daily Beast, Beck laid off 40 employees of his Blaze media organization in order to satisfy the requirements of a multimillion-dollar bank loan taken out recently to keep Beck s revenue-challenged enterprise running. As the Daily Beast noted, This latest round of mass firings comes as no surprise to insiders at The Blaze and Mercury Radio Arts, which laid off dozens of employees last May on a day referred to internally as Black Monday, around the same time that Beck was purchasing a private jetliner and a $200,000 Maybach sedan. In the video released today, Beck is seen seated at a replica of the Resolute desk in his mock Oval Office set delivering the opening monologue of his radio show. Via: Breitbart News | 0 |
2,330 | WATCH: MUSLIM WOMAN ADMITS OBAMA CAME TO MOSQUE TO GET VOTES…Human Rights Attorney Destroys Obama’s Decision | WOW! There aren t too many non-political people willing to stand up to the lies of Obama and his ties to radical Islam. Human rights attorney, Brooke Goldstein tears Muslim woman who attended the radical DC mosque with Barack Obama yesterday apart with facts: | 0 |
2,331 | TALENTLESS Gigi Hadid Makes Ridiculous “Apology” For Mocking Immigrant Melania’s Accent: “I believe Melania understands show business” | Here s Gigi Hadid s ridiculous apology to Melania, where she basically says she s been mocked before too and Melania should understand and deal with it. Apparently no one ever taught Hadid how to offer an actual heartfelt apology:pic.twitter.com/6NuxjKx68o Gigi Hadid (@GiGiHadid) November 22, 2016 | 0 |
2,332 | N. DAKOTA LEGISLATOR Proposes Bill To PROTECT MOTORISTS If They Hit Pipeline Protesters Intentionally Blocking Roads | Protesters who take to the streets in North Dakota might want to look both ways for changes in the rules of the road.A bill sponsored by state Rep. Keith Kempenich, R-Bowman, would protect drivers from legal consequences if they inadvertently hit, injure or kill pedestrians who are obstructing traffic.The legislation is a direct response to the massive protests around the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, Kempenich said. The ongoing protests have shut down a nearby highway for months and stalled construction of a pipeline that would carry crude from the North Dakota oil patch. If you stay off the roadway, this would never be an issue, Kempenich said. Those motorists are going about the lawful, legal exercise of their right to drive down the road. Those people didn t ask to be in this. The legislation has drawn withering criticism from Standing Rock supporters, who worry that it could be open season for protesters on North Dakota roads.Kempenich said he wants to shift the blame for a crash from drivers to the people who choose to protest in traffic. The legislation, he said, would not protect someone who deliberately tries to run down a protester, and it would not let drivers off the hook if they hit a jaywalker or a child chasing a ball into the street. This bill puts the onus on somebody who s made a conscious decision to put themselves in harm s way, he said. You can protest all you want, but you can t protest up on a roadway. It s dangerous for everybody. Star TribuneHighways shouldn t be used as staging areas for protests, Kempenich said. They re intentionally putting themselves in danger, he said, adding that accidents could result.Blocking roads or highways has also been a tactic adopted on occasion by protesters in other movements, such as Black Lives Matter.A spokeswoman for the pipeline protests said she is concerned the bill, if passed, would give careless drivers a free pass to kill or maim people who are exercising their free speech rights. It is basically giving permission for vehicular homicide, and that is wrong, said Joye Braun, an organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network. Nobody has the right to take the life of another person. The network is an activist group that opposes the pipeline, which would carry Bakken crude oil across the Missouri River just north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Protesters say the pipeline s path crosses sacred land and could endanger the tribe s source of drinking water.Braun said she once was struck by a woman who objected to her video-recording a protest outside a fast-food restaurant in Mandan, and she worries the bill would embolden people to harm pipeline protesters. I believe there is a small element who may use this as an excuse to attack people, Braun said.The proposal has attracted some national attention. Robert Reich, a former U.S. labor secretary and liberal commentator, has criticized the bill.-Inforum | 0 |
2,333 | Trump says U.S.-China relationship must improve | DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump said on Thursday the United States needed to improve its relationship with China, which he criticized for its economic policies and failure to rein in North Korea. “One of the most important relationships we must improve, and we have to improve, is our relationship with China,” Trump told a rally in Iowa. The United States and China are the world’s two biggest economies. “China is not a market economy,” he said. “They haven’t played by the rules, and I know it’s time that they’re going to start.” Trump criticized China repeatedly during his presidential campaign and drew a diplomatic protest from Beijing last week after speaking by phone with President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, which China considers a wayward province. It was the first such top-level contact with Taiwan by a U.S. president-elect or president since President Jimmy Carter adopted a “one-China” policy in 1979, recognizing only the Beijing government. Trump kept up his criticism of Beijing during the rally, which was part of a “thank you tour” to express gratitude to states that helped him win an upset victory over Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton last month. “You have the massive theft of intellectual property, putting unfair taxes on our companies, not helping with the menace of North Korea like they should, and the at-will and massive devaluation of their currency and product dumping,” Trump said of China. “Other than that, they’ve been wonderful, right?” China is not currently viewed as a currency manipulator by either the U.S. Treasury Department or the International Monetary Fund. The World Trade Organization says Chinese tariffs on imported goods are generally higher than U.S. tariffs. Trump brought his pick for ambassador to China, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, onstage, saying Branstad always encouraged him not to say anything negative about China in his state. “I have so many friends there,” Trump said Branstad would tell him. Branstad has said he and Chinese President Xi Jinping have a 30-year friendship. The Iowa governor has visited China at least six times, and Xi has been to Iowa twice. Trump repeated his campaign message that he planned to prioritize the United States and American workers over global interests. The Trump administration, which takes office on Jan. 20, would focus on two rules: “Buy American and hire American,” he said, adding he would keep pressuring companies not to move jobs overseas. | 1 |
2,334 | WOW: Intercepted Communications Implicate Three Top Trump Advisors In Plot With Russia | By now, you have probably heard that the FBI and five other intelligence agencies have, for months, been investigating ties between many of Trump s top-level people and Russia. On Thursday, The New York Times told us who it is:The counterintelligence investigation centers at least in part on the business dealings that some of the president-elect s past and present advisers have had with Russia. Mr. Manafort has done business in Ukraine and Russia. Some of his contacts there were under surveillance by the National Security Agency for suspected links to Russia s Federal Security Service, one of the officials said.Mr. Manafort is among at least three Trump campaign advisers whose possible links to Russia are under scrutiny. Two others are Carter Page, a businessman and former foreign policy adviser to the campaign, and Roger Stone, a longtime Republican operative.The F.B.I. is leading the investigations, aided by the National Security Agency, the C.I.A. and the Treasury Department s financial crimes unit. The investigators have accelerated their efforts in recent weeks but have found no conclusive evidence of wrongdoing, the officials said. One official said intelligence reports based on some of the wiretapped communications had been provided to the White House.Counterintelligence investigations examine the connections between American citizens and foreign governments. Those connections can involve efforts to steal state or corporate secrets, curry favor with American government leaders or influence policy. It is unclear which Russian officials are under investigation, or what particular conversations caught the attention of American eavesdroppers. The legal standard for opening these investigations is low, and prosecutions are rare.In short, it s unlikely that anyone will be charged, but we as Americans have every reason to be concerned with the people with whom Trump surrounds himself. Manafort, naturally, calls the allegations a Democrat Party dirty trick and completely false. I have never had any relationship with the Russian government or any Russian officials. I was never in contact with anyone, or directed anyone to be in contact with anyone, he adds. On the Russian hacking of the D.N.C., my only knowledge of it is what I have read in the papers. Politifact confirmed last year that Manafort has many relationships with pro-Putin politicians in Ukraine at minimum.While Trump will attempt to connect this to the 35-page pee pee dossier published by Buzzfeed the one handed to Trump and Obama by intelligence agencies the FBI says that the decision to open the investigation was not based on those in the least:The F.B.I. investigation into Mr. Manafort began last spring, and was an outgrowth of a criminal investigation into his work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine and for the country s former president, Viktor F. Yanukovych. In August, The Times reported that Mr. Manafort s name had surfaced in a secret ledger that showed he had been paid millions in undisclosed cash payments. The Associated Press has reported that his work for Ukraine included a secret lobbying effort in Washington aimed at influencing American news organizations and government officials.Mr. Stone, a longtime friend of Mr. Trump s, said in a speech in Florida last summer that he had communicated with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group that published the hacked Democratic emails. During the speech, Mr. Stone predicted further leaks of documents, a prediction that came true within weeks.In a brief interview on Thursday, Mr. Stone said he had never visited Russia and had no Russian clients. He said that he had worked in Ukraine for a pro-Western party, but that any assertion that he had ties to Russian intelligence was nonsense and totally false. The whole thing is a canard, he said. I have no Russian influences. The Senate intelligence committee has started its own investigation into Russia s purported attempts to disrupt the election. The committee s inquiry is broad, and will include an examination of Russian hacking and possible ties between people associated with Mr. Trump s campaign and Russia.Investigators are also scrutinizing people on the periphery of Mr. Trump s campaign, such as Mr. Page, a former Merrill Lynch banker who founded Global Energy Capital, an investment firm in New York that has done business with Russia.In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Page expressed bewilderment about why he might be under investigation. He blamed a smear campaign that he said was orchestrated by Mrs. Clinton for media speculation about the nature of his ties to Russia. I did nothing wrong, for the 5,000th time, he said. His adversaries, he added, are pulling a page out of the Watergate playbook. What further details will the investigation reveal? Only time will tell but Donald Trump is now our President, and his cozy relationship with Vladimir Putin is terrifyingly clear. All you have to do is look at his Twitter account.Featured image via Getty Images (Chip Somodevilla/Win McNamee/Spencer Platt) | 0 |
2,335 | ULTIMATE DISRESPECT: VA Sent Mail Related To Disability Claims From Vets To Shredder | Our current government can t be bothered with resolving these heinous acts against our veterans who rely on our government for their health care. They ve got more pressing issues in our military that need to be addressed, like pushing a gay agenda in our military:The VA s Office of Inspector General said it launched an unannounced inspection of the Los Angeles office after hearing allegations that the VA staff there was shredding mail related to veterans disability compensation claims. Though the OIG said it can t measure how often this might have happened, it did say it found some examples of mail lined up for the shredder that instead should have been opened and read. Although we cannot quantify or identify claims-related documents that the VARO may have shredded prior to our review, we found nine claims-related documents that VARO staff incorrectly placed in personal shred bins for non-claims related documents, the OIG reported. Eight of the nine documents had the potential to affect veterans benefits and one had no effect on the veteran s benefits. The OIG said the placement of these letters in shred bins means that they were able to bypass the first level of control, which requires letters to be reviewed before they are shredded. Of the nine claims-related documents, five did not have required initials of both the employee and supervisor and the remaining four had only the employee s initials, the report said. If staff and their supervisors followed VBA policy, these nine claims-related documents would not have been placed in personal shred bins that are designated for non-claims related documents. The report said if the OIG had not stepped in, it is likely that. staff would have inappropriately destroyed the nine claims-related documents we found. It added that a records management officer was supposed to be on staff in Los Angeles to prevent this from happening, but said there was no one in that position from August 2014 until February 2015. The original records officer was promoted, and the office s assistant director determined that it was not necessary to fill the position. Officials who tried to take over that role lacked training regarding maintaining, reviewing, protecting and appropriately destroying veterans and other governmental paper records, the report said.The OIG said the Los Angeles office couldn t provide any documentation at all on what documents it had shredded over the past two years.The watchdog recommended that the Los Angeles office should implement a plan and assess the effectiveness of training when it comes to handling, processing and destroying these records. The arbitrary destruction of mail by officials at the Los Angeles VA is a stark reminder of the need for true reform of the Veterans Administration, said Concerned Veterans for America CEO Pete Hegseth. Rather than make sure each veteran s voice was heard, and each claim was handled professionally, VA officials instead effectively silenced those who fought for our freedom and security, casually sending their letters to the shredder. Here is the watchdog report:Vash RedVia: Washington Examiner | 0 |
2,336 | CNN Just Told Kellyanne Conway To Go F*ck Herself In The BEST Way Possible (TWEETS) | Vice President Mike Pence chose to appear on ABC, NBC, CBS and (of course) Fox News this Sunday, but is snubbing CNN following the Trump administration s announcement that surrogates will not appear on networks that do not promote his agenda.CNN reached out to the White House and according to a spokeswoman they were offered Trump s propaganda minister Kellyanne Conway, the woman responsible for alternative facts as an alternative to lies and the infamous Bowling Green Massacre that killed the credibility of anyone remotely associated with Donald Trump.Now CNN could have taken what they were offered, but this is a woman who spends the majority of her time screaming about fake news and attacking anyone who confronts her with anything resembling a fact. Because of this, CNN did what everyone should do and told Conway to f*ck off.Brian Stelter, host of CNN s Reliable Sources, tweeted Friday that In lieu of Pence, the W.H. offered Kellyanne Conway for an interview, but CNN declined. Per a CNN spokeswoman: In lieu of Pence, the W.H. offered Kellyanne Conway for an interview, but CNN declined https://t.co/qVDgi5jWOa Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) February 4, 2017Stelter recently questioned whether any news organization should allow Conway to run her mouth in a tweet promoting his column on the Bowling Green Massacre. Some critics say TV networks should think twice before booking Kellyanne Conway, he said. What do you think? Some critics say TV networks should think twice before booking Kellyanne Conway. What do you think? https://t.co/u1qBe0Xd9r Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) February 3, 2017He s probably on to something. Kellyanne Conway is entertaining, but she is a fact checker s worst nightmare in that they need to rest sometimes. Limiting her exposure may save lives that would otherwise be lost to exhaustion and sleep deprivation.Featured image via screengrab | 0 |
2,337 | WATCH: Morgan Freeman Uses His Brilliant Movie Scripting Skills To Explain Just How Dangerous The Russia Scandal Is | So many people want to call the Special Counsel investigation into the Trump campaign s potential collusion with the Russian government to fix the 2016 presidential election fake news. They listen to every word out of Donald Trump s mouth, all the while being blind to his systematically dismantling our democratic institutions and potentially our republic as we know it. However, there is a huge anti-Trump resistance movement going, and we aren t going to sit idly by while this dangerous man potentially with the aid of the Russian government destroys all we hold dear as a nation. Well, whether the government cares about this or not, plenty of ordinary and not so ordinary citizens do care. One such person is iconic actor Morgan Freeman.Freeman has joined with other concerned citizens to raise awareness about the seriousness of the Russia probe. In his trademark, unmistakable baritone, Freeman announces in a new video for the newly launched Committee to Investigate Russia: We have been attacked. We are at war. Also with this new and potentially powerful organization is actor Rob Reiner. In his most ominous and godly voice, Freeman continues in the Committee s launch video: My fellow Americans, during this past election, we came under attack by the Russian government. I ve called on Congress and our intelligence community to use every resource available to conduct a thorough investigation to determine exactly how this happened. Freeman couches the whole thing as if it were some wildly brilliant movie script but in the end reminds us all that it s not, that this is indeed very real and that Trump and Russia are very dangerous. Therefore, we must act.Also involved in the project are anti-Trump GOPers who have more patriotism in their pinkie fingernails than the cowards in Congress could ever know such as radio host Charlie Sykes and Atlantic editor David Frum.This truly is a brilliant project. Perhaps Freeman s compelling voice and brilliant way of expressing this crisis will break the Trump fever before we all perish from it. We can hope, that s for sure.Watch this incredible video below:For generations, ppl have fought to protect democracy. Now it s our turn. Watch Morgan Freeman explain Russia s plot to undermine the U.S. pic.twitter.com/t65wckbmxS Investigate Russia (@InvestigateRU) September 19, 2017Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
2,338 | Exclusive: U.S. stopped Philippines rifle sale that senator opposed - sources | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department halted the planned sale of some 26,000 assault rifles to the Philippines’ national police after Senator Ben Cardin said he would oppose it, Senate aides told Reuters on Monday. Aides said Cardin, the top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was reluctant for the United States to provide the weapons given concerns about human rights violations in the Philippines. News of the thwarting of the weapons sale was met with disappointment among the Philippine police and government on Tuesday, but they said alternative suppliers would be found. Police spokesman Dionardo Carlos said the Philippines had yet to be notified about the sale being stopped. The relationship between the United States and the Philippines, a long-time ally, has been complicated lately by President Rodrigo Duterte’s angry reaction to criticism from Washington of his violent battle to rid the country of illegal drugs. More than 2,300 people have been killed in police operations or by suspected vigilantes in connection with the anti-narcotics campaign since Duterte took office on June 30. The U.S. State Department informs Congress when international weapons sales are in the works. Aides said Foreign Relations committee staff informed State that Cardin would oppose the deal during the department’s prenotification process for the sale of 26,000-27,000 assault rifles, stopping the deal. U.S. State Department officials did not comment. Ronald dela Rosa, the Philippine national police chief and staunch supporter of the war on drugs, said he liked the American rifle, but suggested China as an alternative small-arms provider. “We really wanted the U.S. rifles because these are reliable,” he told broadcaster ABS-CBN. “But if the sale will not push through, we will find another source, maybe from China.” In October, Duterte told U.S. President Barack Obama to “go to hell” and said the United States had refused to sell some weapons to his country, but he did not care because Russia and China were willing suppliers. According to some U.S. officials, Washington has been doing its best to ignore Duterte’s rhetoric and not provide him with a pretext for more outbursts. An open break with the Philippines could create problems for the United States in a region where China’s influence has grown. | 1 |
2,339 | More than a third of German voters undecided before election, poll shows | BERLIN (Reuters) - Support for Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives has slipped and over a third of Germans are still unsure how they will vote, an opinion poll showed on Friday, fuelling uncertainty about what kind of coalition will emerge from an election on Sept. 24. The weekly survey, conducted by pollster Forschungsgruppe Wahlen for ZDF television, showed support for Merkel s conservative bloc falling 2 points to 36 percent a result that would still make it the largest group in parliament. Support for its nearest rivals, the left-leaning Social Democrats (SPD), rose by 1 point to 23 percent. The business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) and the anti-immigration, euro-hostile Alternative for Germany (AfD) were both on 10 percent. The poll of 1,383 voters, conducted from Sept. 12 to Sept. 14, also showed that 39 percent of those surveyed were still unsure how they would vote. More than ever, all these polls should be taken with a grain of salt now. There surely could be some surprises on election night, said Gero Neugebauer, political scientist at Berlin s Free University. He doubted the SPD could overtake Merkel s conservatives, who he expected to be the largest parliamentary party with the Social Democrats the second biggest. But in the fight among the smaller parties for third place and possible power in a coalition, everything is still up in the air, Neugebauer added. With the election likely to install six parties in parliament, up from four now, Germany will be marked by a more fractured political landscape after the vote. This could make coalition-building difficult. Friday s poll showed support for the far-left Linke stood at 9 percent, with the environmentalist Greens on 8 percent. Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, a senior Social Democrat, told broadcaster SWR he favored a so-called traffic light coalition with the FDP and Greens. However, the poll put support for such an alliance at just 41 percent. [B4N1JZ031] The survey showed there would be sufficient support for both a repeat of the incumbent grand coalition of Merkel s conservatives and the SPD, and for a so-called Jamaica coalition of the conservatives, FDP and Greens. However, Greens co-leader Cem Ozdemir sounded a skeptical note about a possible three-way Jamaica tie-up a reference to the parties colors: black (conservatives), yellow (FDP) and green (Greens). I don t see how we should get together with the FDP, he told the daily Berliner Zeitung. FDP leader Christian Lindner also played down the likelihood of such an alliance. The Greens have long since bid farewell to Jamaica by raising their demands to the max, he told Der Spiegel magazine. Lindner, a potential finance minister if the FDP joins a ruling coalition, also set out red lines on euro zone policy ahead of potential coalition negotiations. I fear that Chancellor Merkel and French President Macron are agreed on new pots of money in the euro zone to create a gigantic financial transfer system, he said, before taking aim at European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. Mr Juncker wants to expand the euro zone, though its consolidation should be the priority now. Neither would be on with us, Lindner added, with reference to a transfer system and euro zone expansion. Neugebauer said the FDP was fishing in the AfD s waters. FDP leader Lindner has turned a former pro-European party into some kind of AfD-light, he added. The poll s margin of error was some 3 percentage points. With support for Merkel s conservatives and the FDP natural allies who have ruled together in the past at 46 percent, the margin of error suggests they could yet squeak into power. A separate poll released on Thursday showed support for the SPD had slumped to its lowest level this year - at 20 percent - with Merkel s conservatives steady at 37 percent. There is high volatility not only because of those who are still undecided, said Neugebauer. There are also many swing voters who change tack at the last minute for tactical reasons to ensure or prevent a certain coalition option. | 1 |
2,340 | Breitbart Star Just Lost His Precious Book Deal After HORRIFYING Suggestion That Child Abuse Is Okay | It looks like Breitbart superstar Milo Yiannopoulos 15 minutes of fame has ended after a teensy weensy little pro-pedophilia video has surfaced. We get hung up on this sort of child abuse stuff to the point where we are heavily policing consensual adults, Yiannopoulos can be heard saying during a podcast, adding that it s normal in the homosexual world (it s not) for young boys and older men to have relationships :In the homosexual world, particularly, some of those relationships between younger boys and older men the sort of coming of age relationship those relationships in which those older men help those young boys discover who they are and give them security and safety and provide them with love and a reliable, sort of rock, where they can t speak to their parents.According to Yiannopoulos, 13-year-old boys are sexually mature people who can have relationships, which are positive experiences, with older men. During the interview, the Trump supporter and (until recently) CPAC headliner explained that he is advocating for man-on-child sex.Here is a longer cut where Milo Yiannopoulos says that he "is advocating" for legal sex between 13 year olds! & older men. #CPAC2017 pic.twitter.com/1fiuv7TSKs The Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) February 19, 2017Though CPAC leadership has always been perfectly fine with Yiannopoulos claiming that Donald Trump grabbing women by the pussy isn t sexual assault and all the other horrific things he says and does, the conservative icon was disinvited following the revelations about what sort of person he is. Even the vile white supremacists at Breitbart have decided that he might have gone too far and these are the people who worked under President Steve Bannon!But what probably hurts most about all this for Milo, who calls Donald Trump daddy, is that he lost his precious book deal. Publisher Simon & Schuster announced Monday that Milo s precious book isn t happening anymore: After careful consideration, Simon & Schuster and its Threshold Editions imprint have cancelled publication of Dangerous by Milo Yiannopoulos. He s not taking this well. after apologizing for calling the 13-year-old boys he referenced boys rather than young men, the normally boisterous right-wing figure was reduced to simple sentences whining about what his pedophilia advocacy has cost him:(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));They canceled my book.Posted by Milo Yiannopoulos on Monday, February 20, 2017 because he s the real victim here:(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));I've gone through worse. This will not defeat me.Posted by Milo Yiannopoulos on Monday, February 20, 2017Milo would complain on Twitter, but he has been banned from that platform ever since he led a racist mob attack on Saturday Night Live s Leslie Jones.Sadly, he probably will get through this given the enthusiastic response from conservatives, who don t care if Milo thinks it s OK to molest children: Sorry, Milo the free market has spoken, and its invisible hand slapped you across the face.Featured image via screengrab | 0 |
2,341 | GOP Rep. Steve King: The Time ‘Has Passed’ For Release Of Trump’s Tax Returns (VIDEO) | Donald Trump s refusal to release his tax returns has been an issue that has dogged him for his entire campaign. While it is not legally required for presidential candidates to release those documents, it has been tradition for them to do so in the interest of transparency for the electorate. However, Trump refuses. He uses being audited as an excuse, but that makes no sense since all of the returns from previous years are not being audited, and, even if they were, that would not prevent him from releasing them. Trump isn t releasing his taxes because there is something in there that he doesn t want us all to see. It s as simple as that.Well, GOP Rep. Steve King made an appearance on MSNBC s Morning Joe on Monday morning, and of course, Trump s tax returns became a topic of conversation. Rep. King says of the matter: I just think the window for that has passed. When he said that he wouldn t release his returns till the audit was over, and he d been being audited for 13 years, I d say that for him to release them is just a forgone conclusion. Donald Trump will not release his tax returns. King added: If he drops it now, into this presidential intense sprint around to the final turn part of the race, I think that would be the only discussion we would hear all the way until November. Well, Rep. King, they ll be talking about it anyway. Trump should release his returns so that people can see that he has nothing to hide. You re right in saying that it is way past time for him to release these tax documents, and you re likely right that he won t do it, because there s probably some very damning things in there that would hurt his candidacy even more than the heat he is taking for refusing to release.Watch Rep. King s remarks below:.@SteveKingIA: The window for Trump tax returns has passed https://t.co/lPQJ34Kaor Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) August 15, 2016Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
2,342 | Exclusive: Death certificate offers clues on Russian casualties in Syria | MOSCOW (Reuters) - An official document seen by Reuters shows that at least 131 Russian citizens died in Syria in the first nine months of this year, a number that relatives, friends and local officials say included private military contractors. The document, a death certificate issued by the Russian consulate in Damascus dated Oct. 4, 2017, does not say what the deceased was doing in Syria. But Reuters has established in interviews with the families and friends of some of the deceased and officials in their hometowns that the dead included Russian private military contractors killed while fighting alongside the forces of Moscow s ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The presence of the Russian contractors in Syria - and the casualties they are sustaining - is denied by Moscow, which wants to portray its military intervention in Syria as a successful peace mission with minimal losses. The Russian defense ministry did not immediately respond to detailed questions submitted by Reuters. Requests for comment from the Russian consulate in Damascus did not elicit a response. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a statement provided to Reuters on Friday: We do not have information about individual citizens who visit Syria. With that, I consider this question dealt with. Reuters sent questions to a group of Russian private military contractors active in Syria through a person who knows their commanders, but did not receive a response. The official death toll of military personnel in Syria this year is 16. A casualty figure significantly higher than that could tarnish President Vladimir Putin s record five months before a presidential election which he is expected to contest. A Reuters count of the number of Russian private contractors known to have been killed in Syria this year, based on interviews with relatives and friends of the dead and local officials in their hometowns, stands at 26. Russian authorities have not publicly released any information this year about casualties among Russian civilians who may have been caught up in the fighting. The Russian Foreign Ministry, in response to Reuters questions, said the consulate in Syria was fulfilling its duties to register the deaths of Russian citizens. It said that under the law, personal data obtained in the process of registering the deaths was restricted and could not be publicly disclosed. In August, Igor Konashenkov, a Russian defense ministry spokesman, said in response to a previous Reuters report that information about Russian military contractors in Syria was a myth , and that Reuters was attempting to discredit Moscow s operation to restore peace in Syria. A Russian diplomat who has worked in a consulate in another part of the world, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said the figure of 131 registered deaths in nine months was unusually high given the estimated number of Russian expatriates in Syria. Although there is no official data for the size of the community, data from Russian national elections shows there were only around 5,000 registered Russian voters in the country in 2012 and 2016. It is as if the diaspora is dying out, he said. High numbers of deaths are usually recorded by Russian consulates only in tourist destinations such as Thailand or Turkey, he said. Russian consulates do not register the deaths of military personnel, according to an official at the consulate in Damascus who did not give his name. The consular document seen by Reuters was a certificate of death issued to record the death of Sergei Poddubny, 36. It was one of three death certificates seen by Reuters. Poddubny s certificate, which bears the consulate s stamp, lists the cause of death as carbonization of the body - in other words, he was burned. It said he was killed on Sept. 28 in the town of Tiyas, Homs province, the scene of heavy fighting between Islamist rebels and pro-Assad forces. Several Russian contractors were killed in the area earlier this year, friends and relatives told Reuters. Poddubny s body was repatriated and buried in his home village in southern Russia about three weeks later. He had been in Syria as a private military contractor, one of his relatives and one of his friends told Reuters. Poddubny s death certificate had a serial number in the top right corner, 131. Under a Justice Ministry procedure, all death certificates are numbered, starting from zero at the start of the year and going up by one digit for each new death recorded. The Russian diplomat confirmed that is the procedure. Reuters saw two other certificates, both issued on Feb. 3. The numbers - 9 and 13 - indicate certificates for at least five deaths were issued on that day. They were both private military contractors, according to people who know them. The death of a Russian citizen would have to be registered at the consulate in order to repatriate the body back to Russia via civilian channels, according to the Russian diplomat. A death certificate from the consulate would also help with bureaucracy back home relating to the dead person s assets, the diplomat said. The bodies of Russians fighting on the rebel side are not repatriated, according to a former Russian official who dealt with at least six cases of Russians killed in Syria and the relatives of four Russian Islamists killed there. A few thousand Russian citizens with Islamist sympathies have traveled to rebel-held areas since the conflict began in 2011, according to Russian officials. | 1 |
2,343 | U.S. Senate panel puts self-driving cars in fast lane | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate panel on Wednesday unanimously gave the green light to a bill aimed at speeding the use of self-driving cars without human controls, a measure that also bars states from imposing regulatory road blocks. The bill still must clear a Senate vote, but it appears on track to passage. This should rev up profits for automakers, technology companies and ride service providers, hastening the day when their robot cars can carry passengers on the same U.S. roads as cars driven by people. General Motors Co, Alphabet Inc, Ford Motor Co and others have lobbied for the landmark legislation, while auto safety groups urged more safeguards and have pledged to keep fighting for changes. However the measure will not speed the process for self-driving commercial trucks, which remain in a slower lane despite support from several Republican senators. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved the bill, and the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a similar measure last month. Automakers would be able to win exemptions from safety rules that require human controls. States could set rules on registration, licensing, liability, insurance and safety inspections, but not performance standards. Senator John Thune, the Republican who chairs the Commerce Committee, said the bill “underscores the bipartisan desire to move ahead with self-driving vehicle technology.... The safety and economic benefits of self-driving vehicles are too critical to delay.” Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, sought to amend the bill to require human controls in case of emergency, but dropped that proposal. Some senators argued it would be more dangerous to allow human drivers to seek to take over driverless cars. Even with the legislative victory, developers of self-driving technology face technical challenges. There are also the complications of driverless vehicles sharing the road with human drivers. GM told California its self-driving cars were involved in six crashes in September. The accidents were all minor, and the automaker has blamed them on human drivers and one bicyclist who hit its self-driving vehicles. Neither the House nor the Senate bill would speed approval of self-driving technology for vehicles over 10,000 pounds, a step pushed by trucking organizations. Labor unions raised safety and employment concerns, and Democrats resisted that part of the proposal. Teamsters President Jim Hoffa said the “safe development of advanced heavy trucking technology must encapsulate the life-and-death issues that are specific to that industry, not consider such consequences as an inconvenient after-thought.” He said Congress should also consider U.S. jobs. Tesla Inc, Alphabet, Uber Technologies Inc and others have said they are working on self-driving trucks. After lengthy negotiations, congressional aides added language to the bill aimed at preserving legal rights to sue over defective vehicles. This resolved a dispute that threatened to derail the bill. Within three years, the bill would allow automakers to each sell up to 80,000 self-driving vehicles annually if they could demonstrate they are as safe as current vehicles. Auto safety advocates complained it lacked sufficient safeguards. The phase-in schedule was revised to initially allow 15,000 per manufacturer in the first year and up to 80,000 after three years, down from 50,000 to start and up to 100,000 in three years. It would eliminate the cap after four years. The bill grants the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) authority to exempt vehicles from federal safety requirements and the agency would have to make a determination within six months of getting a request. The Self-Driving Coalition, a group of automakers, tech firms and advocates for the disabled, said the legislation “will help ensure that the United States leads the world in self-driving innovation.” Under the measure, NHTSA must write permanent rules on self-driving cars within a decade and regulators must study how to encourage U.S. production of self-driving equipment and also look at the impact of self-driving vehicles on infrastructure, traffic congestion and fuel consumption. Companies would need to disclose what information self-driving cars are collecting about individuals and how it is used. Companies would need to disclose if consumers could opt out of data collection. | 1 |
2,344 | Sean Hannity Just Got OWNED By George W. Bush’s CIA Director | Sean Hannity openly supports Donald Trump for president and has turned his media platform into the Republican nominee s propaganda machine.Indeed, Hannity is Trump s chief propagandist and there is no low that he won t sink to in order to attack Hillary Clinton and defend Trump.Of course, Hannity denies that he s a propagandist, but if anyone knows what a propagandist looks like, it s the CIA and former CIA Director Michael Hayden says Hannity is a true propagandist. After years of bashing Wikileaks and the group s founder Julian Assange, Hannity has just recently began praising them because they are releasing private emails from Hillary Clinton s campaign team.Wikileaks obtained these emails by illegally hacking servers in the United States, which constitutes foreign espionage against this country. But Sean Hannity is cheering them on anyway in what amounts to endorsing crimes against the United States.And Hayden ripped Hannity and Fox News a new one for doing so in a response to Brookings Institute senior fellow Benjamin Wittes. FOXNews has almost completely jumped the shark, Hayden wrote. They have given up any semblance of conservatism and focused on an almost visceral hatred of all things Clinton and Obama. Hannity has entered the pantheon of a true propagandist. And his behavior reminds me of a conversation I had with a political office in the mid-1980s when I was the air attach to Bulgaria. I asked this officer what truth was to him. He responded without hesitation, Truth is what serves the party. And there you have it. Former CIA and NSA Director Mike Hayden responds to @seanhannity s endorsement of foreign espionage against the US. pic.twitter.com/HwbNJjKmDB Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) October 23, 2016Bulgaria was part of the Eastern Bloc in the 1980s ruled by the Bulgarian Communist Party and an ally of the Soviet Union.So Hannity is following in the footsteps of communist propagandists, which tells you just how dangerous conservatives have become in recent years.Featured Image: Screenshot | 0 |
2,345 | U.S. lawsuit seeks disclosure of court orders on decryption | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The Electronic Frontier Foundation sued the U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday in an attempt to obtain any secret court orders forcing companies like Apple Inc (AAPL.O) or Google (GOOGL.O) to decrypt user communications. The tech advocacy group’s lawsuit, filed in San Francisco federal court, seeks to force DOJ to disclose whether it has ever sought or obtained a decryption order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. | 1 |
2,346 | Trump seizes on U.S. jobs report to target Democratic economic policies | WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said a U.S. jobs report on Friday that showed the weakest hiring in more than five years proved that Democratic economic policies are pushing the country in the wrong direction. The report gave Trump his biggest opening yet to target Democratic rival Hillary Clinton on the economy, after months of mostly solid economic indicators. “It’s going the wrong way folks. They’ve been kidding themselves, they’re playing games. It’s going the wrong way,” Trump told a rally in Redding, California. Clinton, the front-runner to be the Democratic nominee for the Nov. 8 election, has credited President Barack Obama for reviving the U.S. economy after the 2008 recession but has also said that the recovery is not over. In a CNN interview, Clinton acknowledged the figures were “disappointing to anybody.” “I think President Obama inherited a terrible situation and I’ve said that repeatedly over the past year and we’ve come a long way out of the ditch we were dropped into by failed Republican policies,” Clinton told CNN’s Jake Tapper. The unemployment rate in May fell three-tenths of a percentage point to 4.7 percent, the lowest level since November 2007, but that was in part due to people dropping out of the labor force. Overall, nonfarm payrolls increased by only 38,000 jobs in May. If disappointing jobs reports continue, Trump could use Clinton’s pledge to build on Obama’s work against her to woo working-class voters in states such as Ohio. The state has lost well-paying manufacturing jobs and is also a key presidential battleground - closely competitive because it does not lean heavily Republican or Democratic. Clinton, a former secretary of state, is likely to finally clinch the Democratic nomination over challenger Bernie Sanders on Tuesday when six states hold nominating contests. One is California, the most populous U.S. state, with the most Democratic delegates of any other state and where both candidates have been campaigning heavily. In a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday, some 46 percent of likely voters said they supported Clinton, while 35 percent said they supported Trump, and another 19 percent said they would not support either. The survey of 1,421 people was conducted between May 30 and June 3. Trump, a real estate developer, has already sewn up the Republican nomination. In the general election campaign, job creation plans are expected to be a priority, particularly in states that have been hit hard by manufacturing-sector job losses. Trump has promised to toss out international trade deals to revive U.S. manufacturing and sweep away a slew of environmental regulations to bolster the ailing energy sector. Job creation in the manufacturing and construction sectors fell sharply in May, according to Friday’s jobs report. Trump has already begun working economic numbers into his stump speeches. He has said he could put 15 states that have voted for Democratic presidents in recent elections in play, including Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, which have all lost manufacturing-sector jobs. Peter Morici, a conservative economist and professor in the business school at the University of Maryland, said the poor jobs numbers reflected trends that have driven voter frustration and fueled the populist campaigns of both Trump and Sanders. He said Trump needed to add detail to his economic policies, such as detailing changes to social programs like Medicaid, which provides healthcare for the poor. “We can’t just turn around and cut income taxes without doing something about those things,” Morici said. Republican strategists agreed that Friday’s jobs report created an opportunity for Trump to differentiate his policies from Obama’s or Clinton’s. “It allows Donald Trump to tout how he would do things differently as president and focus on some of the job-creation plans that he has,” Republican strategist Ron Bonjean said, adding it would also allow Trump to talk about his record as a businessman. Trump has been fleshing out his foreign policy ideas and has released a tax plan, but he has been light on other details, such as how he would oversee the U.S. financial system. | 1 |
2,347 | Biden meets PM Abadi in Baghdad to discuss security: state TV | BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden met Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Thursday to discuss political and security issues during an unannounced trip to Baghdad, state television said. The trip is the first time that Biden, the point person for the White House on Iraq, has visited the country since the United States withdrew its forces in 2011. He is the third and highest-level U.S. official to visit Iraq this month. | 1 |
2,348 | OBAMA’S FEDERAL AGENTS CAUGHT Spying On Law-Abiding Gun Show Customers | Big brother is alive and well 3 months only 3 months In Obamaland surveillance on Muslim terror suspects is considered Islamaphobia, surveillance on Black Lives Matter riots is considered racism, but surveillance on law-abiding gun owners is an important crime-fighting tool. It turns out that federal agents have been spying on customers at guns shows and tracking their movements. Why? Because the current administration is hostile to legal gun ownership and completely inept.The Wall Street Journal originally broke this story but they have a stupid business model and put the article behind a pay wall. Thankfully there is this thing called the Internet where all information is available for free and Fox News has the scoop:The first problem you may notice in this illegal surveillance is how insanely pointless the operation is. There was no way this would ever yield any results if you understand California gun law. The Golden State does not have the gun show loophole that liberals love to blame for all crimes involving a gun. Even at a gun show, a person purchasing a firearm must undergo a background check and wait 10 before taking possession of the weapon.All gun transfers in California go through a federally licensed firearms dealer with no exceptions. Handgun purchases are limited to one every 30 days and require additional licensing. The state maintains a firearms registry. This is the last place in America where a person would try to make a straw purchase. Even less so for someone trying to buy guns, smuggle them into Mexico, and arm the drug cartels.On top of all that, California also bans many popular handguns and all assault rifles. Do the feds really think there is a vibrant black market in Mexico for California-compliant weapons? Apparently so.And despite the feds claim, this was completely illegal it is most certainly not. The government can t just start spying on Americans without probable cause that a crime is being committed. The feds went fishing here and they forgot to bring bait, rods, and reels. They also didn t pick a spot with any fish.If the feds want to know how guns are getting from the US to Mexico they should go ask former Attorney General Eric Holder who green-lit Operation Fast and Furious. In that, the BATF let guns go walking from US gun stores right into the hands of the Mexican drug cartels. One of those guns was used to kill a US border patrol agent. Via: Downtrend | 0 |
2,349 | U.S. budget proposes allowing new toll roads, higher airline security fees | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration wants to allow states to expand the use of tolling on interstate highways while sharply cutting grants for transit projects and raising airline passenger security fees, according to the White House budget released on Tuesday. The overall budget proposal is $76 billion, which the administration said is about the same as for 2016. About $60 billion of that is annual “mandatory spending,” including road repairs paid through gas tax collections. The Transportation Department’s “discretionary” budget is being cut by 12.7 percent, or $2.4 billion to $16.2 billion. The administration proposes $200 billion in government funding over 10 years as part of a goal of getting $1 trillion in public and private infrastructure spending. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao told reporters local communities know best what projects they need. Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer said the budget cuts $206 billion in infrastructure spending across several Cabinet departments, including $96 billion in planned highway trust fund spending. Schumer said the administration would cut funds from states and cities “to pay wealthy hedge funds and Wall Street to build more toll roads.” Chao said Schumer has called for $1 trillion in direct government funding, which is “not very realistic” and would add to the deficit. Administration officials said they expect that by 2022 there will be a new mechanism to make up for lost revenue. The budget projects a $15 billion reduction in funding in 2023 and does not include any funding to make up for that. Congress has been adding tens of billions of dollars annually to pay for crumbling roads because gas tax revenue is not keeping up with repair needs. The administration also proposes to allow for private companies to construct and operate highway rest stops. It also wants to raise the airline passenger security fee by $1 to $6.60 per one-way trip, which would generate $530 million for the Transportation Safety Administration. The budget would end subsidies for Amtrak to operate long-distance train service, cutting $630 million of the $1.4 billion in annual government support for passenger rail service. The Trump budget would eliminate the Obama administration’s TIGER grant program, saving $5 billion over 10 years in the program that has funded transit projects. It also would cut $18 billion out of another government transit grant program called New Starts. The administration also proposes to privatize the nation’s air traffic control system, which budget documents suggest would boost the budget deficit by about $45 billion over 10 years. | 1 |
2,350 | SAN JUAN MAYOR On Video Disrespecting Our Constitution…But She Takes Our Money [Video] | With Puerto Rico teetering on financial oblivion and asking for financial help from the U.S., it s pretty shocking to see the anti-American attitude of the San Juan Mayor in the video below. In case you haven t heard, Puerto Rico is $74 billion in debt after decades of poor management and government corruption. They re angling for a bailout from us but check out the disrespect given during the swearing in of the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico: Is it time to cut Puerto Rico off?San Juan Mayor Carmen Yul n Cruz has scored political points among the sort of liberals who bring us the news by indulging in hysterical hyperbole after Hurricane Maria, and more importantly, by sparring with Trump. This ought to make her even more of a rock star among liberals:When taking the oath of office, Cruz delayed repeating the words that she would uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, turning her back to the woman administering the oath for a long moment. After turning her back and pausing, Cruz does swear to defend the Constitution, and then enthusiastically repeats to uphold the Puerto Rican Constitution.Her approval rating was as low as 24% earlier this year. She manages to prop it up by pandering to anti-American sentiment, much like the regimes in Cuba and Venezuela. Read more: moonbattery: | 0 |
2,351 | Chelsea Clinton Has A Little Advice For Sean Spicer After He Defends Hitler | White House Secretary Sean Spicer decided to rewrite history on Tuesday, arguing that Adolf Hitler wasn t such a bad guy after all because he didn t use chemical weapons like Assad. While most of us were facepalming and shouting gas chambers, Chelsea Clinton stepped forward with a classy tweet offering Spicey a little advice. I hope @PressSec takes time to visit @HolocaustMuseum, the former first daughter tweeted this afternoon. It s a few blocks away, she added helpfully.I hope @PressSec takes time to visit @HolocaustMuseum. It s a few blocks away. https://t.co/24fNoMUyS8 Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) April 11, 2017Spicer made his humiliating comments on Tuesday, which also happens to be the day Jews are celebrating the Passover seder. He was trying to convince the world that Donald Trump was right to bomb Syria but only ended up proving that he s a total idiot.When Spicer was called out on his ridiculous assertion that Hitler didn t gas millions of people in concentration camps, he grabbed a shovel and dug his hole deeper. Passing the point of no return, the press secretary argued that Hitler didn t gas his own people, just the Jews. And apparently, they don t count.Everybody except Trump s loyal base of anti-Semitic holocaust deniers knows that Spicer s version of history is a long, long way from the truth and it may be the worst excuse ever used to justify military action.People are justifiably outraged. The Anne Frank Center issued a statement calling for Spicer s resignation. Spicer s statement is the most evil slur upon a group of people we have ever heard from a White House press secretary, said Steven Goldstein, the organization s executive director. Sean Spicer now lacks the integrity to serve and President Trump must fire him at once, he added.Spicer would be wise to take Clinton s advice and study up a little on the holocaust before the next time he decides to spout off about what a swell guy Hitler was.Featured image via Marcus Ingram/Getty Images | 0 |
2,352 | New Zealand Labour leader says will not yet concede election | WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand Labour leader Jacinda Ardern said on Sunday it would be difficult to complete coalition talks before all votes were tallied in an election that left both major parties needing the nationalist New Zealand First party to form a government Speaking outside her home in Auckland, Ardern told media that her centre-left party would not concede, despite lagging almost 10 points behind the incumbent National Party, which received 46 percent of the vote in Saturday s election. A final tally of all votes, which will include overseas ballots, will not be released until Oct. 7. New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has declined to say which party he will favor to form a coalition government and reiterated that he will not rush into a decision. | 1 |
2,353 | Here’s What Black Voters Think Of Donald Trump’s Pathetic Attempt To Woo Them | Donald Trump is arrogant and narcissistic enough that he probably thinks he convinced black voters to support him. He is very wrong.As it turns out, black voters are overwhelmingly unimpressed by Trump s pathetic outreach effort. And Republicans have no one to blame but themselves.For years, Republicans have stereotyped black people as poor people who live in violent neighborhoods and want free stuff. Donald Trump has made that view the centerpiece of his plea to African-Americans. You re living in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed what the hell do you have to lose? Trump asked during a speech earlier this week.And his message has only strengthened the resolve of black voters to NOT vote for him.The New York Times actually went out and talked to black voters, unlike Trump, who was speaking to an all white audience while telling black people what their lives are like. I hear him not talking to black people, but talking to white people about black people so they will think he cares about black people, said former Atlanta Daily World publisher Alexis Scott. The real thing that he s trying to do is to try to protect some of the white vote by suggesting to them that he cares. He is giving voice to every stereotype he s ever heard, Scott continued. I heard someone say, It s like he only watches The Wire, and that s what he knows about black people. National Urban League president Marc Morial wasn t a fan of Trump s depiction of black people either. It s an inaccurate portrayal of the community that seeks to define the community by only its biggest challenges, Morial told the Times. Black America has deep problems deep economic problems but black America also has a large community of striving, successful, hard-working people: college educated, in the work force. Retired postal worker Demeitrus Williams concurs. Who s he talking about? he wondered before answering his own question. I don t know most of the black people I know are educated and live in nice neighborhoods. Everybody in my family is required to have a degree. Indeed, characterizing all black people as living in poverty is a huge mistake that is not based in facts. While the percentage of blacks living in poverty is still high compared to white people, only 26 percent of African-Americans live that reality.And the criticism goes beyond the people the New York Times spoke to.Charlotte Observer columnist Eric Frazier slammed Trump and the Republican Party for trying to sucker black voters into voting for them even though they don t support any of the issues African-Americans care about. Blacks vote Democrat today because Democrats fought for their votes, Frazier wrote. The party that once welcomed cross-burning Klansmen did an about-face on civil rights and earned the black vote.Are you fighting to get those votes back? Nope.The path to do so is clear, if you re interested. Embrace affirmative action and let racist base voters walk. Pass criminal justice reform. Champion black entrepreneurship and the rebuilding of the inner cities. Reach out to churchgoing black families; their traditionalist social values mirror yours. In contrast, Republicans have only moved farther to the right into the open arms of white supremacists and are working constantly to weaken or destroy the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act.So what do black voters have to lose by voting for Trump? Their rights and their freedom, which is why Republicans can expect to continue losing the black vote for years to come.Featured image via Jeff Swensen/Getty Images | 0 |
2,354 | Hillary Clinton attacks proposed Trump budget cuts as 'cruelty' | WELLESLEY, Mass. (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton assailed the man who beat her to the White House, slamming as “unimaginable cruelty” President Donald Trump’s proposal to cut $3.6 trillion in government spending over the next decade in a speech on Friday. The defeated Democratic candidate did not name the Republican president in her remarks to the graduating class at her alma mater, Wellesley College. But she took several veiled swipes at the businessman-turned-politician, whose budget proposal earlier this week proposed sharp cuts in programs for healthcare and food assistance. “Look at the budget that was just proposed in Washington. It is an attack of unimaginable cruelty on the most vulnerable among us,” Clinton told a crowd at the all-women’s college, located in Boston’s suburbs. “It grossly underfunds public education, mental health and even efforts to combat the opioid epidemic.” White House officials have described the proposed budget as providing tax cuts that they say would stimulate economic growth and create more private-sector jobs. As with all presidential budget proposals, the proposal was more of a wishlist that is unlikely to be approved in its current form by Congress. Clinton, a former secretary of state, warned against an erosion of accepted standards of truth in U.S. public discourse, and also appeared to be attacking Trump on this issue. “You are graduating a time when there is a full-fledged assault on truth and reason. Just log on to social media for 10 seconds, it will hit you right in the face,” she said, citing hoax online reports that her campaign was tied to a Washington pizzeria that operated a child sex ring. “When people in power invent their own facts and attack those who question them, it can mark the beginning of the end of a free society,” Clinton said. “This is not hyperbole, it is what authoritarian regimes throughout history have done.” She also urged graduates of the liberal-leaning school, which is located in one of the most Democratic states in the country, not to retreat into their own partisan echo chambers, saying, “your learning, listening and serving should include people who don’t agree with you politically.” Clinton has had a long public career since graduating in 1969 from Wellesley. She was first lady during her husband Bill Clinton’s two terms in the White House and was later elected to the U.S. Senate representing New York state. She made an unsuccessful presidential run in 2008 before serving as the country’s top diplomat during President Barack Obama’s first term. Clinton, 69, has gradually returned to the public eye since her upset November defeat, saying that she will not run for office again but will serve as an activist citizen. | 1 |
2,355 | why cant hillary clinton stop telling stupid lies | obama attacks fbi chief for investigating hillary november daniel greenfield
richard nixon called he wants his old job back there hasnt been a president and a party who were this blatantly corrupt ever theres no question that obama has made history its just the wrong kind of history
initially the white house chose not to join hillarys war on the fbi then obama threw all caution to the winds and decided to echo the spin chambers lines about innuendo and incomplete information never mind that it was obamas own doj which was blocking fbi efforts to secure the emails and resolve the issue
its a sad day in america when the white house actively seeks to obstruct and intimidate an fbi investigation and when the media cheers on this brand of corrupt thuggery | 1 |
2,356 | Corker Has Last Word On Day Care Donnie: ‘On The Path To WWIII’ | Tennessee Republican Senator Bob Corker announced last month that he wouldn t be seeking reelection when his term expires at the end of next year, but now President Donald Trump and Corker have had a public falling out on Trump s beloved platform, Twitter.It all kicked off on Sunday morning when Trump posted a series of tweets claiming that he denied Corker s request for an endorsement. Todd Womack, Corker s chief of staff, refuted the claim later in the day, saying in a statement that the President called Senator Corker on Monday afternoon and asked him to reconsider his decision not to seek reelection and reaffirmed that he would have endorsed him, as he has said many times. Trump s Corker-directed fit of tweet-rage came just days after the Senator publicly criticized the President, a move that never sits well with Trump, leading him to try and seek revenge:Senator Bob Corker "begged" me to endorse him for re-election in Tennessee. I said "NO" and he dropped out (said he could not win without Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 8, 2017..my endorsement). He also wanted to be Secretary of State, I said "NO THANKS." He is also largely responsible for the horrendous Iran Deal! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 8, 2017 Hence, I would fully expect Corker to be a negative voice and stand in the way of our great agenda. Didn't have the guts to run! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 8, 2017Senator Bob Corker is clearly the thicker-skinned of the two. However, he wasn t going to let an opportunity like this go to waste and decided to respond to the President s barbs, calling the current administration out for being exactly how many see it:It's a shame the White House has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning. Senator Bob Corker (@SenBobCorker) October 8, 2017Corker later decided enough was enough and opted to tell it like it is in a phone interview with The New York Times on Sunday night, claiming that Trump was treating the presidency like a reality show, making reckless threats against other countries that put the United States on the path to World War III. He concerns me, Mr. Corker said. He would have to concern anyone who cares about our nation, he said. He was far from done. I know for a fact that every single day at the White House, it s a situation of trying to contain him, the Senator said in the interview.When it came to the tweets, Corker simply confirmed what we already knew. I don t know why the president tweets out things that are not true, he said. You know he does it, everyone knows he does it, but he does. The Senator s criticism had clearly stuck in the President s craw a little. Trump is a man who always needs to have the last word and, being unable to shake Corker s snide tweet or his brutal honesty with The New York Times, made the following tweet Sunday evening:Bob Corker gave us the Iran Deal, & that's about it. We need HealthCare, we need Tax Cuts/Reform, we need people that can get the job done! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 8, 2017Featured image via Sara D. Davis/Getty Images | 0 |
2,357 | UK counter-terrorism police charge 14-year-old boys with murder plot | LONDON (Reuters) - Two 14-year-old boys from northern England who were arrested by British counter-terrorism detectives have been charged with conspiracy to murder, police said on Wednesday. The teenagers, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were arrested on Saturday and are due to appear at Leeds Magistrates Court on Thursday. | 1 |
2,358 | Black Woman SHUTS DOWN Hundreds Of Marching Neo-Nazis With One Powerful Message (VIDEO/IMAGES) | Never underestimate the impact a single person can have. Just last weekend, one of the most powerful stands against racism we ve seen this year was performed by a lone black woman.Tess Asplund, who is a 42-year-old anti-racism activist in Sweden, took a courageous stand against hundreds of neo-Nazis from the far-right group Nordic Resistance Movement. As she saw the group of 300 white men marching down the street, Asplund protested by standing in front of the advancing group of men, looked them dead in the eyes and raised her fist in an act of defiance. The group pushed her out of the way, but not before the iconic moment was captured on camera. This photograph has now been shared around the world.Twitter#TessAsplund sfida i nazisti svedesi con un pugno chiuso. Immagine simbolo dell antifascismo. pic.twitter.com/vQ7X3nb4Sm Antonio Sicilia (@siciliantonio) May 5, 2016Even famous author J.K. Rowling was inspired by Asplund s message.TwitterTwitterWhat Asplund did was more than courageous, and the impact of her protest was felt around the world. In an interview with the Guardian, Asplund shared what inspired her to take such bold action: It was an impulse. I was so angry, I just went out into the street. I was thinking: hell no, they can t march here! I had this adrenaline. No Nazi is going to march here, it s not okay. Although Asplund said she s been overwhelmed and extremely embarrassed by the amount of attention the photo has gotten, she hopes that it will inspire others. Asplund said: I have fought against racism for 26 years. I am 42 now. And if this is a thing that makes people pay attention to the fight against racism and xenophobia, then that s very good. But I don t want people to see me as a symbol. There were a lot of others who were there against the racists in Borlange. Because of all the attention the photo has gotten, Asplund reveals that her friends are concerned for her safety, but it is a small price to pay if it gets more people to stand up to racism and hate. Now it s a circus. I am in shock. The Nazis are very angry, so I am a little Oh shit, maybe I shouldn t have done that, I want peace and quiet. These guys are big and crazy. It s a mixed feeling, but I am trying to stay calm. If this picture of me can get more people to dare to show resistance, then it s all good. The people must unite and show that it is not okay that racism is becoming normalized and that fascists are running around on our streets. The image was captured by David Lagerlof, who happened to be the only photographer at the scene. Even he was incredibly moved by what Asplund did. He said: I happened to be at the right place. What I think people are reacting to in this photo is that she can t really pose a threat to them, but she puts herself in a very dangerous situation, because this group is violent, and she stands there all alone and faces them. It s like David and Goliath. Although this incident with the Nordic Resistance Movement happened it Sweden, it might not be too far from something that could happen in the United States. With the rise of presumptive Republican nominee Trump and his massive following of racists and white supremacists, we can only expect that the bigotry and hate is going to ramp up as we get closer to the general election. Asplund is an inspiration to all of us, and a brilliant reminder that we should never let hate win. One person can have a massive impact, so there is no excuse not to stand up to Trump s divisive rhetoric.Featured image via Twitter | 0 |
2,359 | Democrats pick Perez to lead party against Trump | ATLANTA (Reuters) - U.S. Democrats elected former Labor Secretary Tom Perez as chairman on Saturday, choosing a veteran of the Obama administration to lead the daunting task of rebuilding the party and heading the opposition to Republican President Donald Trump. Members of the Democratic National Committee, the administrative and fundraising arm of the party, picked Perez on the second round of voting over U.S. Representative Keith Ellison, a liberal from Minnesota. Following one of the most crowded and competitive party leadership elections in decades, Perez faces a challenge in unifying and rejuvenating a party still reeling from the Nov. 8 loss of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. He immediately made Ellison his deputy. After losing the presidency and failing to recapture majorities in Congress, party leaders are anxious to channel the growing grassroots resistance to Trump into political support for Democrats at all levels of government across the country. “We are suffering from a crisis of confidence, a crisis of relevance,” Perez, a favorite of former Obama administration officials, told DNC members. He promised to lead the fight against Trump and change the DNC’s culture to make it a more grassroots operation. Perez, the son of Dominican immigrants who was considered a potential running mate for Clinton, overcame a strong challenge from Ellison and prevailed on a 235-200 second-round vote. Ellison, who is the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Congress, was backed by liberal leader U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The showdown between candidates backed by the establishment and progressive wings of the party echoed the bitter 2016 primary between Clinton and Sanders, a rift Democrats will try to put behind them as they turn their focus to fighting Trump. Those divisions persisted through the months-long race for chair, as many in the party’s liberal wing were suspicious of Perez’s ties to the establishment and some Democrats raised questions about possible anti-Semitism in Ellison’s past. Some Ellison supporters chanted “Not big money, party for the people” after the result was announced. But both Perez and Ellison moved quickly to bring the rival factions together. At Perez’s urging, the DNC suspended the rules after the vote and appointed Ellison the deputy chairman of the party. “I am asking you to give everything you’ve got to support Chairman Perez,” Ellison told DNC members after the vote. “We don’t have the luxury, folks, to walk out of this room divided.” Perez said the party would come together. “We are one family, and I know we will leave here united today,” Perez said. “A united Democratic Party is not only our best hope, it is Donald Trump’s nightmare.” Trump took a dig at Perez and Democrats in a tweet offering his congratulations on the election. “I could not be happier for him, or for the Republican Party!” Trump said. Perez and Ellison wore each other’s campaign buttons and stood shoulder-to-shoulder at a news conference after the vote. Perez said the two had talked “for some time” about teaming up, and Ellison said they had “good synergy.” “We need to do more to collaborate with our partners in the progressive movement,” Perez said, adding he and Ellison would look for ways to “channel this incredible momentum” in the protests against Trump and against Republican efforts to repeal President Barack Obama’s healthcare plan. Sanders issued a statement congratulating Perez and urging changes at the DNC. “It is imperative that Tom understands that the same-old, same-old is not working,” Sanders said. “We must open the doors of the party to working people and young people in a way that has never been done before.” The election offered the DNC a fresh start after last year’s forced resignation of chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who stepped aside when the release of hacked emails appeared to show DNC officials trying to help Clinton defeat Sanders in the primaries. Both Perez and Ellison have pledged to focus on a bottom-up reconstruction of the party, which has lost hundreds of statehouse seats under Obama and faces an uphill task in trying to reclaim majorities in Congress in next year’s midterm elections. Perez said he would redefine the role of the DNC to make it work not just to elect Democrats to the White House but in races ranging from local school boards to the U.S. Senate, pledging to “organize, organize, organize.” “I recognize I have a lot of work to do,” he said. “I will be out there listening and learning in the weeks ahead.” Perez fell one vote short of the simple majority of 214.5 votes needed for election in the first round of voting, getting 213.5 votes to Ellison’s 200. Also on the first ballot were four other candidates — Idaho Democratic Party Executive Director Sally Boynton Brown, election lawyer Peter Peckarsky, and activists Jehmu Greene and Sam Ronan. Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, withdrew just before the voting, while Brown, Greene and Ronan dropped out after the first round. | 1 |
2,360 | Trump Supporters Attacked By Liberal Protesters: Taking Political Violence to New Level | 21st Century Wire says Trump protests are getting out of hand, yet again. This time in Portland Oregon. Liberal progressive protesters have taken to the streets in opposition to the President s latest controversial executive order instituting a 7 nation travel ban. Lets see how it turned out:Protesters surrounded Trump supporters outside the Portland airport and bullhorned in their faces bumper sticker slogans like, No Fear, No Hate! and then Peaceful Protest! Anyone who s not seen the full video at this point might still think this was a protest and not a violent mob bordering on a riot.The extreme left protestors chased the Trump supporters into the Portland airport and things got ugly. One of the Trump supporters was sucker punched, which seems to be an escalation of violence among protesters, similar to the recent sucker punch of Alt-Right leader, Richard Spenser in Washington DC last week.As the man who was assaulted hit the ground the protestors gathered around him and proceeded to continue to taunt, chant and ridicule the injured Trump supporter. Phrases like, That s how you talk to a Nazi! That s right! were said by anti-Trump activists, Your boy got knocked out! and Wooo! Hunt the Nazis! The victim of the assault, Grant Chisholm, 39 year old from Portland says that he was hit three times in the head with something metallic in the assault. They almost killed me tonight, said Chisholm.Chisholm claims he dropped in and out of consciousness while other protesters attempted to kick him, according to a report at Oregonlive.com, although this is not verifiable in the video footage.The extreme left has always claimed to be the tolerant and accepting of political identities, but look how they behave when they lose the election. Is this tolerance, acceptance of different views when their protests consist of violence, cowardly sucker punch assaults and hateful chants accusing anyone with a remotely conservative world view of being a Nazi?Watch the assault happen in the video below:. READ MORE TRUMP NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Trump FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 |
2,361 | Philippine police chief defends deadly drug war of the 'Davao Boys' | MANILA (Reuters) - The police chief of the Philippines on Wednesday stood by the head of a secretive unit behind dozens of killings in the country s war on drugs, saying officers fired only in self-defence and the death toll reflected the danger and the scale of the narcotics problem. National police chief Ronald dela Rosa was responding to a Reuters Special Report that spent four months examining killings by one group of policemen from or near Davao City, the hometown of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Dela Rosa said police district 6 in Quezon City had Metro Manila s most serious drug problem and he personally sent squad commander Lito Patay there because he was a very professional and very dedicated officer capable of dealing with it. Patay handpicked and headed a unit of 10 men who called themselves the Davao Boys , which racked up the highest number of kills in Quezon City, a violent frontline in Duterte s ferocious anti-narcotics campaign. Police station 6 officers killed 108 people in anti-drug operations from July 2016 through June 2017, the campaign s first year, accounting for 39 percent of Quezon City s body count, according to official crime reports analyzed by Reuters. A majority of the killings were carried out by the squad run by Patay, who was reassigned to Quezon City just a few weeks after Duterte unleashed his crackdown. He (Patay) was chosen because I have big trust in him, he has the balls to face the problems. He will fight, dela Rosa told reporters. He is not an officer who is after money, who will be assigned in an area only to collect money, he is not that kind of officer. He has focus. I assigned him there because I know he can deliver. Asked about the high rate of killings in areas under Patay, he said deaths were inevitable where the drugs trade was rampant. So what s the problem? The worst drug problem is there in station 6, so if you hit the problem head on, you face the problem head on then, there would always result in casualties, he said. Nearly 4,000 mostly urban poor Filipinos have been killed in anti-drug operations since July 2016. Police reject activists allegations they have executed drug users and peddlers and say they kill only when their lives are in danger. Dela Rosa said Patay has since been reassigned to another province to make him eligible for promotion, reflecting his success in convincing drug suspects in Quezon City to surrender to the authorities. He said Patay had been given a free hand at station 6 and had command responsibility over his operations. It is his own call whatever he does there, he has to solve the drug problem, dela Rosa said. The story of the Davao Boys also highlights a larger dynamic: Many of the drug war s key police officers - dela Rosa included - hail from or served in Duterte s hometown, where the campaign s brutal methods originated during his time as mayor. Duterte has repeatedly denied he ordered the killings of criminals and drug dealers during his 22 years as Davao mayor, or his 17 months as president. Dela Rosa appeared frustrated when asked by a reporter if he personally had ordered the deaths of drug suspects in Quezon City. He said Patay s men had no alternative but to kill armed criminals who refused to go quietly. He was placed there to address the drug problem, and not to kill those who deserved to be killed, he said of Patay. If they resist, why would you risk your life? You have to fight back. | 1 |
2,362 | EU urges Spain to talk to Catalans, condemns violence | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The EU executive urged Spain to talk to Catalan separatists on Monday, condemning violence but also calling for unity, a day after Spanish police beat people trying to vote in an independence referendum in Catalonia. Edging into a minefield it has tried hard to avoid, despite a danger for stability in Spain and the euro zone, the European Commission issued a cautiously balanced statement. It voiced trust in Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy s ability to manage this internal matter , but also called for dialogue and reminded Madrid of a need to respect citizens basic rights. We call on all relevant players to now move very swiftly from confrontation to dialogue. Violence can never be an instrument in politics, the Commission said in a statement read out by chief spokesman Margaritis Schinas, just before Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont asked for EU mediation. Pressed by reporters, Schinas declined to say specifically that the EU was condemning Spanish police tactics, though it was their actions at polling stations on Sunday which mostly shocked fellow Europeans and generated public pressure that saw other governments including Germany and France call for more dialogue. Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker spoke to Rajoy later on Monday after being in contact over the weekend, though the EU spokesman declined to say whether the Union would mediate, an unusual step for Brussels to take within one of the bloc s own member states. Aides said Juncker spelled out the Commission position and was also in a listening mode . Donald Tusk, the former Polish prime minister who chairs summits of EU national leaders, said after his own conversation with Rajoy that he shared the Spanish premier s constitutional arguments but also appealed to him to find ways to prevent a further escalation and the use of force. The Commission statement also supported Madrid s line that the vote, which Catalan leaders said recorded a huge result for independence, was not legal under Spain s constitution. Brussels has in the past given little or no encouragement to separatist movements inside the European Union, whether those of the Catalans, Scots, Flemings or others. These are times for unity and stability, not divisiveness and fragmentation, it said. Any breakaway state would have to leave the EU and re-apply to join, the statement also noted. Even that could only happen if the split were amicable. This distinguishes Scotland, which held a referendum agreed with London in 2014, from Catalonia, where Spain s Constitutional Court has said the 1978 constitution forbids secession. For all the reluctance of other Europeans to be drawn into the dispute in public, there has been growing unease in Brussels about the way the conservative government in Madrid has handled the confrontation with Barcelona, reviving emotions rooted in 20th-century civil war and dictatorship. As pictures of heavily armoured Spanish police clubbing women on the ground stunned Europe on Sunday, the few governments that spoke out included those of Scotland, Slovenia, which emerged from the bloody collapse of Yugoslavia, and Belgium, where repeated rounds of devolution have averted a final split between French- and Dutch-speakers. On Monday, Berlin joined the calls for dialogue, warning against a spiral of escalation . Germany s BDI industrial federation warned that splitting the highly industrialised region from Spain would be very damaging for both sides. | 1 |
2,363 | California attorney general to sue over Trump subsidy cut | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said on Friday that he will lead a coalition of states suing to prevent President Donald Trump from ending Obamacare subsidies to health insurers that help low-income people pay out-of-pocket medical expenses. California will be joined by Kentucky, Massachusetts, Connecticut and other states, Becerra, a Democrat, told reporters. The lawsuit appears to be separate to a similar effort led by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. | 1 |
2,364 | Puerto Rico’s Governor Pleads For Help After Trump Threatens To Abandon Recovery Efforts | Donald Trump took his angry little fingers to his Twitter account Thursday morning, threatening to abandon recovery efforts in Puerto Rico where the majority of the hurricane-devastated island s residents remain without power, water and food.Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello immediately responded on Thursday to President Trump s warning, saying that the U.S. territory s residents are only asking for the same assistance that other Americans would receive. You know, like in Texas and Florida, two states which helped bring Trump to power. And yet, Trump did not issue threats to those states. The U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico are requesting the support that any of our fellow citizens would receive across our Nation, Rossello tweeted.The U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico are requesting the support that any of our fellow citizens would receive across our Nation. Ricardo Rossello (@ricardorossello) October 12, 2017Some Puerto Rican officials, like San Juan Mayor Carmen Yul n Cruz, have pleaded for help, but in return, she received a backlash of hate from the amateur president who called her nasty. Cruz shamed Trump on Twitter Thursday. It is not that you do not get it; you are incapable of fulfilling the moral imperative to help the people of PR, she tweeted. Shame on you! @POTUS It is not that you do not get it; you are incapable of fulfilling the moral imperative to help the people of PR. Shame on you.! Carmen Yul n Cruz (@CarmenYulinCruz) October 12, 2017Flashback: I say to all of you gathered here today to the people of Puerto Rico: We are with you, we stand with you, and we will be with you every single day until Puerto Rico is restored bigger and better than ever before, Mike Pence said just last week.Trump said basically the same thing in a Sept. 29 speech, We will not rest, however, until the people of Puerto Rico are safe. Trump added: These are great people. We want them to be safe and sound and secure. And we will be there every day until that happens. Two weeks later, Trump threatens to pull recovery efforts from the island while shaming the island for its debt even though he filed for bankruptcy six times.Photo by Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images | 0 |
2,365 | U.S. firm Air Products, China's Yankuang plan to build $3.5 billion coal-to-syngas plant in China | BEIJING (Reuters) - A top Chinese coal miner, Yankuang Group, and U.S. industrial gas supplier Air Products and Chemicals Inc on Thursday said they planned to build a $3.5 billion coal-to-synthesis gas (syngas) plant in China. The announcement on the facility in the province of Shaanxi comes as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s state visit to China, the world’s biggest consumer of coal. The deal is yet to be finalised, although the companies said in a statement that they would look to do this as soon as possible. Syngas is a combination of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and some carbon dioxide that is typically manufactured by gasifying a solid hydrocarbon fuel. It can be used to create energy or to help churn out products such as methane or methanol. Under the agreement, Air Products and Shaanxi Future Energy Group Co (SFEC), a subsidiary of Yankuang, will form a joint venture, in which Air Products will have a majority stake. It will build, own and operate an air separation, gasification and syngas clean-up system in the city of Yulin to supply SFEC, the firms said in a statement. The air separation units are expected to produce about 40,000 tonnes per day (TPD) of oxygen to support the production of about 2.5 million normal cubic meters an hour of syngas. SFEC will supply coal, steam and power and receive syngas under a long-term, onsite contract. Air Products currently supplies SFEC’s Phase 1 project in Yulin with 12,000 TPD of oxygen. The addition of Phase 2 would make the complex one of the largest coal-to-fuel and chemicals facilities in China, with SFEC Phase 2 producing 4 million tonnes per year of liquid fuels and downstream chemicals, it said. The companies expect the overall project to come onstream in 2021. | 1 |
2,366 | White Supremacist Trump Ally Gets Punched While Screaming ‘Clinton Is A Rapist’, Cries Like A Baby (VIDEO) | On some level, it s gratifying that punching Nazis in the face has become a national sport more popular than baseball. On one hand, violence is almost always inexcusable. On the other, they re Nazis. Mike Cernovich, a Donald Trump ally who invented the popular right-wing lie that Hillary Clinton secretly runs a child prostitution operation out of a D.C. pizza shop s basement (the place doesn t even have a basement) showed up at a Tax Day anti-Trump rally and began screaming Bill Clinton is a rapist at the top of his lungs like a f*cking moron. Then things got weird(er).Cernovich posted a video in which he claims he was assaulted by the crowd who was swarming around him chanting mean things. Cernovich drew attention to himself by calling Bill Clinton a rapist, which of course invited a negative response. At this point, no one touched him but he screamed for police to help him. She s touching me, Cernovich said before repeating I m under assault over and over and over and over. It s really kind of magical in a pathetic sort of way. Man takes the stage at anti-Trump rally, declaring, Bill Clinton is a rapist! Crowd rushes man. pic.twitter.com/rIo4gE4RF7 Mike Cernovich (@Cernovich) April 15, 2017It s funnier from another point of view:While Cernovich was not attacked in this video, another shows someone walk up and deck him in a perfect example of be careful what you wish for. .@Rambobiggs Violent leftist caught taking a shot at Cernovich at anti-Trump rally! pic.twitter.com/zxF0XxckuO Mike Cernovich ?? (@Cernovich) April 15, 2017Cernovich was not injured. In fact, as one of the videos shows, his first concern was posting the video on social media so he could capitalize on this opportunity to play the victim: I was just assaulted, so we need to go live, Cernovich says as he composes a tweet and runs away to whine to people who think #Pizzagate is a real thing.Recently, Donald Trump Jr. said that Cernovich should receive the Pulitzer for his false report that former Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice improperly monitored the Trump campaign.Enjoy the video. I did.Featured image via screengrab | 0 |
2,367 | Trump orders review of financial rules to prevent future crises | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the Treasury Department on Friday to examine two powers given to regulators to police large financial companies following the 2008 financial crisis, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. In his first visit to the Treasury building, Trump signed two memos that analysts view as largely affirming existing priorities he has outlined. One temporarily bars regulators from identifying new non-bank financial institutions as “systemically important financial institutions,” or SIFIs, while also ordering a review of this process, Mnuchin said in a briefing with reporters. SIFIs face added regulatory oversight and must hold more capital as a buffer against losses to safeguard against risk to the financial system. The other memo directs regulators to temporarily halt the use of “orderly liquidation authority” to dissolve troubled financial institutions unless the president directs it in an emergency. Trump will order a review of this as well, Mnuchin said. Still, the government has never attempted to use its orderly liquidation authority. The memo directs the Treasury to review the authority for 180 days, focusing on whether it exposes taxpayers to losses and encourages companies to take on more risk, or whether a revamped bankruptcy process would be preferable. Critics, including Republicans in Congress, argue the authority effectively gives some firms “too big to fail” status, which could encourage them to take on more risk and necessitate government intervention if they fail. Trump has long said financial sector oversight could curb economic growth. While the two memos indicate that revisiting the rules remains a priority, they overlap with an earlier executive order the president signed in February directing a review of all financial rules. The impact of the memos may be limited. Mnuchin had previously said his team was already looking into both the SIFI designation process and the use of orderly liquidation. The Trump administration has been expected to reduce the number of companies subject to SIFI-level policing. Only two insurers, American International Group Inc (AIG.N) and Prudential Financial Inc (PRU.N), are designated as SIFIs because they pose a systemic threat to the financial system. Banks with more than $50 billion in assets such as JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) and Bank of America (BAC.N) are automatically designated as SIFIs by law. Republicans, who have criticized the SIFI process as opaque and arbitrary, have introduced legislation to curb it. The Financial Stability Oversight Council, a panel of top regulators that Mnuchin now chairs, oversees the process. “The president will be instructing me to put a hold on that for designations until we do a thorough review and make sure that it’s a fair and transparent process,” said Mnuchin. | 1 |
2,368 | trump hillary would lead to world war | the deleter of the free world hillarys emails might not be missing after all files backed up on multiple platforms never subpoened by fbi published mins ago
new york post for months now weve been told that hillary clintons missing emails were permanently erased and destroyed beyond recovery but newly released fbi notes strongly suggest they still exist in several locations and they could be recovered if only someone would impanel a grand jury and seize them
in a may interview with fbi agents an executive with the denver contractor that maintained clintons private server revealed that an underling didnt bleachclean all her subpoenaed emails just ones he stored in a data file he used to transfer the emails from the server to clintons aides who in turn sorted them for delivery to congress
the platte river networks executive whose name was redacted from the interview report said prn tech paul combetta created a vehicle to transfer email files from the live mailboxes of clinton executive services corp email accounts and then later used bleachbit software to shred the vehicle but the email content still existed in the live email accounts | 1 |
2,369 | Vietnam jails student activist six years for propaganda against the state | (Reuters) - A Vietnamese student activist was jailed for six years plus four years of probation by a local court on Wednesday for conducting propaganda against the state, his lawyer said. Despite sweeping reforms to its economy and growing openness to social change, including gay, lesbian and transgender rights, Vietnam s sole Communist Party retains tight media censorship and does not tolerate criticism. Phan Kim Khanh, 24, is a student studying international relations and the eldest child of a Catholic farming family in a remote area north of capital Hanoi. He had written blogs criticizing the government before he was arrested earlier this year. The proof used in court against Khanh was vague, lawyer Ha Huy Son told Reuters, adding he was not certain if Khanh wants to appeal. Human Rights Watch on Tuesday called on Vietnam to drop all charges and release Khanh. The bogus crime of conducting propaganda against the state is designed to silence peaceful critics of the Vietnamese authorities, said Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch s Asia director. Vietnam ought to get rid of these laws and stop persecuting students and ordinary people for just talking about the country s problems on the internet. | 1 |
2,370 | Republican governors steer clear of 'dump-Trump' push | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As Republican leaders desperately seek ways to derail the presidential campaign of billionaire Donald Trump, many of the party’s 31 state governors are staying out of the fray. New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez endorsed Marco Rubio on Friday, making her only the 10th governor to back one of the four Republican presidential rivals left in the race. Much more typical is Governor Rick Scott of Florida, who said on Thursday he would not endorse a candidate before his state’s hotly contested March 15 primary. Such reluctance to commit contrasts sharply with previous elections, when governors lined up solidly behind eventual nominees, helping to winnow the field of candidates early on. The 2016 election differs because a chaotic race has divided Republicans, convincing many to keep a low profile in hopes of avoiding a possible backlash from voters who are increasingly contemptuous of party leaders, Republican officials say. “It’s a lose-lose political situation,” said Fergus Cullen, a former New Hampshire Republican Party chairman. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie last week took a risk, after dropping out of the presidential contest himself, and endorsed Trump, the billionaire businessman. That decision has done little for either of them, according to a new poll. Almost two-thirds of 1,372 adults polled, both Republicans and Democrats, said Christie’s endorsement made no difference in their feelings toward Trump, the Republican front-runner. The nationwide Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted Feb 29-March 4. Christie has faced relentless criticism since he announced his support for Trump last week. Six newspapers in his home state have called on him to resign. In past elections, a governor’s endorsement could produce a burst of positive news coverage and the support of well-connected local leaders for a presidential contender. That would encourage other elected officials to endorse the candidate as well, creating an impression that the candidate was a favorite of those who knew best and encouraging others to drop out of the race, said David Karol, a University of Maryland political science professor who has found that endorsements were a strong predictor of electoral success between 1980 and 2004. “The absence of most of the governors this late in the process really indicates the paralysis and division in Republican elite circles,” Karol said. Ahead of Election Day on Nov. 8, many governors did not want to talk about Trump, who has unnerved his party’s establishment with his abrasive tone and policy positions, including plans to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border, deport 11 million illegal immigrants and temporarily bar Muslims from entering the country. Eighteen undecided Republican governors, contacted by Reuters, declined to be interviewed on their views of the race. National Republican leaders are struggling for a strategy to stop Trump from becoming the nominee, as Democrats revel in the chaos they hope will boost their chances of keeping the White House. George W. Bush, elected president in 2000, had the support of 26 of the party’s 30 Republican governors before primary voting even started, according to figures compiled by James Madison University political science professor Martin Cohen, who with Karol is a co-author of “The Party Decides: Presidential Nominations Before and After Reform.” In 2012, 10 of 29 Republican governors had endorsed Mitt Romney by the time he clinched the presidential nomination. This year, governors are not sending a clear signal to voters. Five have endorsed Rubio, a senator from Florida who has won one nominating contest so far. Two have endorsed John Kasich of Ohio, the only governor left in the race, who has won no contests. Two have Trump. One has backed Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. Three others endorsed candidates who have since dropped out of the race. The governors who have made endorsements so far have had little impact. Rubio lost in Tennessee, South Carolina and Arkansas, despite the backing of governors in those states. Kasich got only 4 percent of the vote in Alabama on Tuesday after that state’s Governor Robert Bentley endorsed him. Iowa Governor Terry Branstad called on voters in his state to reject Cruz before the state’s February caucuses. Cruz won. So far, only Texas Governor Greg Abbott has picked a winner. He endorsed Cruz, who won Texas on Tuesday. Trump has put many governors in a difficult position. The real estate developer is expected to easily win Mississippi’s Republican primary next Tuesday, for example, but his support for Planned Parenthood and government-backed health insurance, among other policies, put him at odds with the conservative positions backed by Governor Phil Bryant. Bryant will support Trump should he end up being the party’s nominee, but he has not decided whether to endorse a candidate before the primary, an aide told Reuters. In theory, governors should be in a position to shape the outcome of this year’s nominating contests. Republicans at the state level have delivered tax cuts, abortion restrictions and other conservative victories from Maine to Arizona, while their counterparts in charge of Congress have been locked in a stalemate with Democratic President Barack Obama. But the plethora of establishment-minded candidates this year has made it more difficult for governors and other senior officials to decide who to back, let alone try to shape the outcome with an endorsement. Republican governors in Maryland, Florida, Wyoming, Indiana, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Arizona, Nebraska and Michigan declined to say whether they would back Trump if he were the party’s nominee. Governors in Utah, Oklahoma, North Carolina and Georgia have yet to endorse a candidate but would back Trump if he won the nomination, aides said. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker told reporters this week he would not vote for Trump in November. (Additional reporting by Nick Carey, Sharon Bernstein, Ian Simpson, Alex Dobuzinskis and Scott Malone; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh, Howard Goller and Alistair Bell) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production. | 1 |
2,371 | Russia: Pence Balkans comments expose Washington's Cold War ideology | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Accusations made by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence that Russia is working to divide the Balkans from the West are destabilizing southern Europe and expose Washington’s Cold War mentality, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. Pence made the comments on Wednesday in Montenegro on the final leg of a tour designed to reassure Eastern Europe of Washington’s commitment to its security despite doubts sowed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s lukewarm support for NATO. “It is regrettable to note that Washington is sliding ever deeper into the primitive ideology of the Cold War era, which is completely detached from reality,” the ministry said. It had called on the United States to stop defaming Russia and its foreign policy, which it said was based on respect for allies and a readiness to work with international partners, the ministry said in a statement. Trump signed into law new sanctions against Russia on Wednesday, a move Moscow said amounted to a full-scale trade war and an end to hopes for better ties with the new U.S. administration. | 1 |
2,372 | Barzani says 'yes' vote won independence referendum, calls on Baghdad to engage in dialogue | ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Kurdistan Regional Government President Masoud Barzani said on Tuesday the yes vote had won in the independence referendum the KRG held in northern Iraq on Monday. In a televised address, he called on Iraq s central government in Baghdad to engage in serious dialogue (...) instead of threatening the KRG with sanctions. Iraq s prime minister has ruled out holding talks on Kurdish independence. We may face hardship but we will overcome, Barzani said, calling on world powers to respect the will of millions of people who voted in the referendum. | 1 |
2,373 | Yemen war needs a political solution: U.S. defense secretary | RIYADH (Reuters) - A political solution through U.N.-brokered negotiations is needed to resolve the conflict in Yemen, U.S. Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said on Tuesday as he made his first trip in the role to Saudi Arabia. At the same time, officials have said the United States is considering deepening its role in the Yemen conflict by more directly aiding its Gulf allies, who are fighting Iranian-supported Houthi rebels. At least 10,000 people have been killed and more than 3 million displaced in the war, now in its third year. Millions of people are also struggling to feed themselves. The Houthis control the capital Sanaa and large swathes of territory. The United States backs the Saudi-led coalition which is trying to restore the Aden-based government of Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power, including through a devastating aeriel bombing campaign. “It has gone on for a long time, we see Iranian supplied missiles being fired by the Houthis into Saudi Arabia and this is something, with the number of innocent people dying inside Yemen, it has simply got to be brought to an end,” Mattis told reporters on his way to Riyadh. Seven ceasefires brokered between government and rebel forces by the United Nations have failed while U.N.-backed peace talks have repeatedly broken down. “We will work with our allies, with our partners to try to get it to the U.N.-brokered negotiating table,” Mattis said. He gave no details on what additional support, if any, the United States would provide to the Saudi-led coalition. But he said he was looking to deepen and broaden the relationship between the two countries on the trip. Mattis is expected to meet senior Saudi officials including King Salman and Deputy Crown Prince and Defence Minister Mohammed bin Salman. Jon Alterman, head of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said Saudi Arabia was concerned strategically about Iran, its main rival in a regional power struggle. “The near-term Saudi concern is how they send a message to the Iranians in Yemen, and they would like full-throated American support,” Alterman said. The review of possible U.S. assistance, which already includes intelligence support, would come amid evidence that Iran is sending advanced weapons and military advisers to the Houthis. Congressional sources say the Trump administration is on the verge of notifying Congress of the proposed sale of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia. Increased military support for the Saudi-led coalition could fuel controvesy over the air campaign, which has killed a number of civilians and destroyed infrastructure, including hospitals. The United States’ involvement in Yemen has also focused on battling al-Qaeda, whose affiliate there has taken advantage of the chaos caused by the war. Mattis will also be visiting Egypt, Qatar and Israel on a trip which may give clarity on the Trump administration’s tactics in the fight against Islamic State militants and its willingness to use more military power than former President Barack Obama did. One of the main questions from allies about Syria is whether Washington has formulated a strategy to prevent areas seized from militants from collapsing into ethnic and sectarian feuds or succumbing to a new generation of extremism, as parts of Iraq and Afghanistan have done since the United States invaded them. U.S.-backed forces are fighting to retake the Islamic State strongholds of Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria, and questions remain about what will happen after that and what role other allies such as Saudi Arabia, can play. Administration officials said the U.S. strategy in Syria — to defeat Islamic State while still calling for the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad — is unchanged, a message Mattis is expected to reinforce. | 1 |
2,374 | WHY IS THE MEDIA HIDING This Endorsement?…KKK Klan Leader On Hillary: “She’s A Democrat, The Klan Has ALWAYS Been A Democratic Organization”[VIDEO] | It s time for the media to start doing their job. Instead of making baseless claims about Trump to fulfill their insatiable desire to label him a racist, perhaps they should be questioning Hillary about her DOCUMENTED racist history Dolly Kyle, a long-time friend of the Clinton s, wrote a scathing tell all book exposing the sickening hidden truth about Bill and Hillary Clinton. Hillary s war on just about anyone who is beneath her, or who would dare to get in the way of her ascent to the White House.Kyle claims that when the Clinton s were behind closed doors they were a very different couple than the public sees. Behind the Reverend Jesse Jackson s back, the Clinton duo called him, That G**damned n****r .When will the media do their job and report the truth about this horrible opportunist? | 0 |
2,375 | Ukraine gives cautious welcome to Putin's peacekeepers offer | BERLIN (Reuters) - Ukraine on Thursday welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin s declared openness to deployment of United Nations peacekeepers in separatist-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine, but said Russian troops must not join such an operation. Putin told German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday that UN peacekeepers might be deployed not only on the Donbass contact line separating the sides of the conflict but in other parts where inspectors of the international OSCE monitoring group operate. Kostiantyn Yeliseyev, foreign policy adviser to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, said Putin s comments were a good sign but the devil is in the detail. In my view, as soon as we deploy UN peacekeeping we can speak about a real positive breakthrough in the field of the political settlement of the situation in Donbass, he said. Russia, which is a party to the conflict, must not take part in the future UN peacekeeping operation, he said. We believe this UN peacekeeping operation must be deployed along the whole occupied territory of Donbass including the uncontrolled part of the Ukrainian-Russian border. The conflict between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists has claimed more than 10,000 lives since it erupted in 2014. Russia denies Western accusations it fomented the conflict and provided arms and fighters. Germany and France have tried to persuade both sides to implement a peace deal agreed in Minsk in 2015 but with little success. German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Monday European sanctions imposed on Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis should be phased out gradually if an internationally agreed ceasefire deal was implemented. But Yeliseyev said sanctions should stay in place until the Minsk peace deal is implemented in full. That is why we want all German politicians to be vigilant and not to speculate, not to make any kind of irresponsible statements which don t stop the aggression but, on the contrary, will stimulate and motivate the aggressor country, he said. Turning to Russian war games starting on Thursday in Belarus, the Baltic Sea, western Russia and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, Yeliseyev said Ukraine was concerned the exercises could destabilize the region and that Moscow might keep troops and weaponry near Ukraine for possible future offensive operations . | 1 |
2,376 | Senators, Trump open to ban on some gun sales after Orlando | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. senators signaled on Wednesday a new willingness to consider restrictions on the sale of guns after the Orlando nightclub massacre, with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and others in his party ready to discuss limited gun control measures. With Republicans and the National Rifle Association gun lobby under pressure to respond to the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history, Trump said he would meet with the NRA to discuss ways to block people on terrorism watch or no-fly lists from buying guns. Emotions have run high in Congress since Sunday’s mass shooting with Democrats stalling Senate proceedings on Wednesday in a bid to push for tougher gun control legislation. Democratic senators planned to speak on the Senate floor well into Wednesday night. The Senate began discussions on legislation to ban firearm sales to the hundreds of thousands of people on U.S. terrorism watch lists after a gunman who had been on such a list killed 49 people at a gay nightclub on Sunday. But following a full day of wrangling, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said that negotiations “were little more than a smokescreen by Republicans trying to give themselves political cover while they continue to march in lock-step with the NRA’s extreme positions.” Reid said there were no Republican proposals “that come close to attracting Democratic support.” Earlier on Wednesday, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urged senators to offer ideas on how to prevent another attack like the one in Orlando. “I do not believe this was some random act of violence,” McConnell said. “It seems clear this was cold-blooded murder committed by a terrorist who picked his targets with deliberate malice.” On Tuesday, McConnell said that “nobody wants terrorists to have firearms.” Earlier in the week, some Democrats in the House of Representatives interrupted a moment of silence for the victims, with shouts of “Where’s the bill?” to protest the Republican-led chamber’s refusal to consider tougher gun laws. If Congress was to pass a gun control measure, it would mark the first time in more than 20 years that lawmakers agreed on how to address the hot-button issue. A ban on semi-automatic assault weapons, such as the one used in Orlando, had gone into effect in 1994 and expired 10 years later. Republicans over the years have blocked gun control measures saying they step on Americans’ right to bear arms as guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution. Senator John Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican, confirmed that he and Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein were holding private talks on a possible compromise bill stopping weapons sales to those on watch lists. Another Republican, Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, also is working on a bill that would keep guns from people on watch lists, a gun control group said. Toomey, who is in a possibly difficult re-election bid this year, took to the Senate floor urging compromise. “So there’s an obvious opportunity here guys, to work together and find a solution,” he said, adding, “This is not rocket science to figure this out.” A spokeswoman for Toomey, E.R. Anderson, said the senator was seeking bipartisan support for an approach that he had tentatively agreed on with gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety, which is backed by ex-New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Everytown spokeswoman Erika Lamb said the group was encouraged by the discussions but added, “We are not there yet and our support for any compromise legislation is contingent on support from both Republicans and Democrats.” Toomey’s bill would allow the U.S. attorney general to create a new list of “likely terrorists” and block any person on the list from buying or selling a gun. If someone was denied a gun, he or she would be entitled to a swift court hearing where the attorney general would have to turn over the evidence against the person. Democrats were dubious. One problem, a Democratic aide said, was that under the proposal officials would just have three days to try to block sales to anyone not already on the new list. Congressional Republicans and the NRA have thwarted previous gun control measures backed by President Barack Obama and other Democrats after other mass shootings, and supporters of new restrictions remained cautious about the moves. “The Cornyn bill is outlandish and is worse than nothing. From what I’m told all of the compromises proposed by Cornyn and Toomey are not at all acceptable,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, a Democrat of New York. Feinstein, speaking to reporters following a closed briefing from the Obama administration on the Orlando massacre, held out little hope her talks with Cornyn would bear fruit. “I don’t think it’s going to work out,” she said, but added she was still engaged in talks. Trump said on Twitter he would meet with the NRA “about not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no-fly list, to buy guns.” His campaign did not specify what he might support legislatively, and a spokeswoman declined to give details about the timing or nature of the meeting. The NRA, a politically influential lobbying group that claims more than 4 million members, said in a statement it was “happy to meet” with Trump, whom it endorsed for president on May 20. The group said in a statement that anyone on a terrorism watch list who tries to buy a gun “should be thoroughly investigated” by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and any sale to that person delayed, a position the lobby group has long held. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who has supported gun control efforts, on Monday said she was “bewildered” that Republicans in Congress in December had blocked a Democratic effort to restrict gun sales to people on the watch lists. The U.S. government maintains two terrorism watch lists: a no-fly list barring people from flying to and from the United States and a larger one that subjects travelers to greater scrutiny at airports and border crossings. An FBI official said in 2014 there were 64,000 people on the no-fly list and 800,000 on the broader list. The Orlando gunman, Omar Mateen, the U.S.-born son of Afghan immigrants, was on the broader list at one time. NRA Executive Director Chris Cox also voiced backing for legislation offered in December by Cornyn, who proposed to put gun sales on hold for 72 hours for people on watch lists. Critics have said such background checks could take longer to complete. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said it was too soon to tell if Republicans would support “common sense” steps like blocking firearm sales to people on the no-fly lists. | 1 |
2,377 | TV EXECUTIVES In Discussion About CANCELLING Thursday Night NFL Games | Capitalism at work. It s funny how the loss of real money has a way of helping to remind NFL owners and the networks who support them, who are writing the checks. One hint it s not the guys disrespecting our flag.Network executives are scrambling to solve the growing problem of crashing ratings for the National Football League, by cutting games to end the perceived over-saturation of football on TV.To put an end to the sliding ratings, the executives are proposing that fewer games may be the ticket to stop that over-saturation, with one idea being to cut Thursday Night Football by a whopping ten games.The idea to trim Thursday Night Football from 18 games a season to only eight was first reported by Sports Business Journal and was part of a plan to reverse the ratings crash that also includes pulling games played in the U.K. back to 1 PM eastern time (6PM London time).Indeed the amount of football on TV has exploded in the last decade.Ratings are still down despite the small rise seen in Week 7. NBC Sports is off 21 percent from 2015, CBS Sports is down 14 percent compared to 2015, and ESPN s Monday Night Football has sunk 17 percent over 2015. -BreitbartRasmussen reports that nearly one-third (32 percent) of adults say they re less likely to watch NFL game telecasts because of the Kaepernick-led player protests against racial injustice. The telephone/online survey of 1,000 American adults was conducted Oct. 2-3.This letter from a die-hard Pittsburg Steelers fan hits the nail on the head, as it relates to how NFL fans feel about the players who continue to disrespect our flag: I want to thank you for freeing up my Sundays. Some of the earliest memories of my life are watching Steelers games with my dad. I was once a season-ticket holder. I have occasionally missed a few games on TV through the years due to scheduling conflicts, but I can honestly say in my 44 years of living, I have never intentionally turned off a Steelers game. That changed today. As I sat down to watch the Steelers-Bears game today, I learned from the sideline reporter that the Steelers chose not to participate in the national anthem. I realize that there is a lot of injustice in our country. I realize that there are a lot of people upset at the current administration. I realize that we live in a free country where people have the freedom to not participate in the national anthem. I also have the freedom to not spend another minute or dollar on your product. I am of the opinion that this is quite possibly the worst way to go about protesting. If you want to hold a rally at Heinz Field to allow your players to voice their opinions, that would be fine. If you want all the Steelers and NFL players to march on Washington D.C., fine. But to not participate in the national anthem is an insult to every serviceman who has served or has passed away defending this country. If you are truly that unhappy with the country, feel free to play for the CFL. So thank you, Steelers and NFL, for freeing up my Sundays. I will no longer waste my time or money watching your product. The weather today the in Pittsburgh area is beautiful and I can not think of a better day to spend it outside, away from the TV. Jim Coletti, former fan | 0 |
2,378 | Congo military plane crashes in Kinshasa, killing 12: minister | KINSHASA (Reuters) - A military cargo plane crashed in Democratic Republic of Congo s capital Kinshasa on Saturday, killing its 12 crew members, the defense minister said. I confirm that a military aircraft crashed this morning, said Defense Minister Crispin Atama Tabe. All 12 members of the crew died. According to an army officer who witnessed the incident, the cargo plane caught fire shortly after taking off from Kinshasa s N djili Airport and crashed in a nearby reserve controlled by the military s elite Republican Guard units. The officer, who asked not to be named, said that there were both Congolese and foreigners among the dead. An agent at Congo s aviation agency, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the plane was an Antonov 12 destined for the eastern city of Bukavu. It was not immediately clear if anyone was killed or injured on the ground. Soldiers prevented journalists from approaching the crash site, but billowing smoke could be seen from several kilometres away, a Reuters witness said. Air accidents are relatively frequent in Congo due to lax safety standards. All Congolese commercial carriers are banned from operating in the European Union. | 1 |
2,379 | Trump Fan WILLFULLY Gives Reporter Kurt Eichenwald Epileptic Seizure – Deplorables CHEER (TWEETS) | Newsweek s Kurt Eichenwald, who also serves as a senior editor at Vanity Fair and goes hard at conservatives in his reporting, is an avid Twitter user. He also has epilepsy, and some deplorable fuckwits have taken advantage of that and his Twitter presence to literally harm him they ve sent him tweets with strobe effects specifically intended to induce an epileptic seizure.What kind of a black-hearted animal does someone have to be to do something like this? It s not bad enough that these deplorables were threatening Eichenwald s kids following his on-air brouhaha with Fox News Tucker Carlson? They have to go after him and literally harm him?Epileptic seizures are not a joke. They can be very serious. And make no mistake, intentionally inducing a seizure in someone, especially as harassment, ought to be considered assault under the law if it isn t already. In fact, Eichenwald s wife took to Twitter on his account to call this jackass out on that:@jew_goldstein This is his wife, you caused a seizure. I have your information and have called the police to report the assault. Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016@jew_goldstein s account was suspended at the time of this writing, but that s a mere slap on the wrist for what they did.Another horribly sick thing here is all the responses to Ms. Eichenwald s tweet. Right-wing nutjobs clearly don t give a damn about what happened. Take a look at a sampling, if you can (this writer s heart is breaking):@kurteichenwald @jew_goldstein Yes, Police, I d like to report an assault by JEW GOLDSTEIN' AltRight_GOP (@WeDaGOPNow) December 16, 2016@WeDaGOPNow @Trump_a_right @jew_goldstein @kurteichenwald His tweets loud like a bomb I was traumatized TheRightStuff (@ThaRightStuff) December 16, 2016@ThaRightStuff @WeDaGOPNow @Trump_a_right @jew_goldstein @kurteichenwald finally someone is actually literally shaking Sally Baker (@SallyBakerCake) December 16, 2016@kurteichenwald @jew_goldstein BWAHAHAHAH THIS IS THE FUNNIEST AAAARRGH cough aaaaackkk ..DAMMIT NOW IM HAVING A SEIZURE! HELP! Alpha Mike Foxtrot (@AlphaMikeFox2) December 16, 2016@TrumpetyTrumpet @kurteichenwald @TuckerCarlson Can you lead with this tomorrow? Also, an explicit mention of the maestro, @jew_goldstein tx Bill Smith #7933 (@Trump_a_right) December 16, 2016The Dallas Morning News reported earlier that Eichenwald is taking a short break from Twitter, which is confirmed in his own tweetstorm over this incident. Eichenwald says that this specific tweet read, You deserve a seizure, in addition to containing the strobe video. His break from Twitter is for self-protection. His tweetstorm over this is below and contains a warning to anyone else who might consider doing this to him. Here s hoping there are actually consequences and he doesn t ever have to worry about this again.For self-protection, I am taking a short twitter break. I will be spending that time with my lawyers & law enforcement going after 1 of u Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016Last night, for the second time, a deplorable aware I have epilepsy tweeted a strobe at me with the message you deserve a seizure on it Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016 it worked. This is not going to happen again. My wife is terrified. I am disgusted. All I will be tweeting for the next few days are Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016 copies of documents from the litigation, police reports etc. Once we have the lawsuit filed, we will be subpoenaing Twitter for the Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016 identity of the individual who engaged in this cross-state assault. At this point, the police are attempting to determine if this is Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016 a federal crime because it appears to be cross state. This kind of assault will never happen again without huge consequences. This Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016 individual will be going to court, and he will be paying a price. And if any of you others ever try this again, I will make sure it Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016 happens to you. Online anonymity does not protect criminals. Thats why subpoenas exist. You are facing a criminal investigation and a Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016 lawsuit. So if any of you others think about trying this cute prank, consider the consequences. They will be severe. Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016Again, I will not be seeing your comments or tweeting for awhile except to upload copies of litigation and police documents. Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016Otherwise, I ll be back once it is clear from the paperwork i will be tweeting that this is not a joke. See you soon. Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016Featured image by Charles Eshelman via Getty Images | 0 |
2,380 | Iranian students feel robbed of their American dreams | DUBAI (Reuters) - The new U.S. immigration curbs have cast uncertainty over the futures of thousands of Iranian students in the United States, with many losing hope of being able to finish their studies or find a job in the country. President Donald Trump’s executive order bans travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries including Iran for three months, and there is little certainty of what will happen after that. Many of the students have spent their families’ life savings to pay for an American higher education, which they hope will be a ticket to a well-paid job in the West or Iran. Now they fear if they leave the country, they will not be allowed back in. They also do not know what status they will have after the three months are up, and whether they will be allowed to study, live or work in the United States. Amin Amouhadi, 32, studies at the University of Georgia. His girlfriend, who is also Iranian, is about to finish her PhD in Canada. “We were planning to get married in a month and move in together but the current ban and its possible consequences have put the future of all our plans in jeopardy,” he told Reuters. “I might quit my PhD program, (and) try to find a university in Canada to apply for. I can’t think of any other plan.” The United States is the most popular destination for Iranians studying abroad, despite decades of hostility between the two countries. The trend goes right to the top; Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s cabinet boasts more U.S. doctorates than did the cabinet of Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama. About 8,700 Iranian students were at U.S. universities in 2014, a fifth of the estimated 50,000 Iranians studying abroad, according to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. More than 3,000 Iranian students have received PhDs from American universities in the past three years, over 7,000 U.S. academics including 40 Nobel Laureates said in a petition against the order signed by Trump on Friday. They said the ban could lead to the departure of many talented individuals. Mohammadreza Jalaeipour, a post-doctorate student at Harvard University, has canceled a study visit to Oxford University in Britain because he was afraid he would not be able to return. The 34-year-old said he was not hopeful of extending his studies in another American university or receiving a visa for a job in the United States. “This discriminatory and inhumane order is targeted to harm Iranian society. It shows that the U.S. government is dishonest when it says they have no problem with the Iranian people and they are only against the Iranian government,” he said. Medical students could be among the hardest hit. Roozbeh Esfandiari is an Iranian who studied medicine in the United States before gaining a job as a researcher at Harris County psychiatric center in Houston. He said U.S. medicine school qualifications could not be easily transferred to other countries, so it would be a major blow for Iranian graduates if they were unable to work in the United States after several years of study. “This news (Trump’s order) is a headache for Iranian doctors applying for residency,” he said. The Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates said on its website that it was aware of the executive order and was evaluating the potential impact on international medical students and graduates. Even before Trump’s order, the road to American higher education has always been a tough one for Iranians. Since there is no U.S. embassy in Iran, students must travel to embassies or consulates in other countries to apply, which can cost them thousands of dollars. Student visas can take many months to secure. Because of security concerns, Iranians can face background stiff checks. Zahra Razavi, a computer science student at the University of Rochester, said her husband had applied for a U.S. visa several times under the Obama administration, with no success. The Trump order has crushed their lingering hopes of living together in the United States, she added. “This disaster has caused depression and deep anxiety in me. It’s impossible to continue this way. I have no choice but to say goodbye to my dreams and quit my studies.” Shirin Sajadi, an Iranian psychotherapist in Boston, wants to help shell-shocked students from her homeland by offering them free psychotherapy sessions. “There’s a sense of facing crisis and the need to make sense of the chaos surrounding us,” she told Reuters. “Many immigrants have come to this country when they had nothing but hope for a better life. They’ve worked hard, played by the rules and hoped to succeed. But now that hope is gone.” | 1 |
2,381 | French police find more explosives after raid near Paris | PARIS (Reuters) - French police unearthed a second stash of explosive materials near Paris on Thursday after a similar find in a nearby suburb on Wednesday, a justice official said as three suspects were questioned by anti-terrorism investigators. Thursday s swoop was carried out at a garage rented by one of the three detained in the wake of Wednesday s raid on an apartment in Villejuif, on the southern edge of the French capital, the source said. Materials used to produce TATP, an explosive often used by suicide bombers, were found at the flat after a plumber phoned police to report suspect activity there, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said. Two people in their 30s and 40s were arrested in the immediate wake of Wednesday s raid, said Collomb, who added that the suspects were being questioned on suspicion of terrorist activity despite talking of a bank heist. A third man was arrested overnight, a source said. Those under investigation spoke of wanting to blow up a bank with the TATP but they way we see it is they have links with terrorism, and this is the channel of investigation, Collomb told public radio station franceinfo. That line of inquiry was prompted by information found in telephone communications after the raid, he added. The minister spoke before developments later in the day in which police found explosive materials at a garage in Thiais, southeast of Paris. More than 230 people have been killed by Islamist-inspired attackers in the past three years in France, which along with the United States and other countries are bombing Islamic State bases in Iraq and Syria. TATP, an unstable explosive, has been used by militants in several attacks in western Europe in recent years, including Manchester in May, Brussels in 2016 and Paris in 2015. | 1 |
2,382 | MSNBC Host Actually CHOKES While Saying Giuliani Could Be Attorney General (VIDEO) | Republican nominee Donald Trump has finally made some decisions on a few of his Cabinet members if he wins the election tomorrow, and it s almost just as depressing as imagining him getting into the White House. Following the theme of giving the most offensive GOPers more power, Trump has decided that New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani deserves to be his Attorney General.When MSNBC reported on Trump s list of bigot helpers, host Tamron Hall could barely get the words out about Giuliani. When she tried to deliver the news about the former NYC mayor, she choked up and coughed, making it hard to actually complete her sentence. Hall said: New this morning, Trump campaign sources tell NBC News among those being considered to serve in a Trump administration. Rudy Giuliani for Attorney General, excuse me Hall tried to move on and talk about Newt Gingrinch being chosen as Trump s Secretary of State, but she was already coughing. She recovered quickly, perhaps putting the shock and disgust of Giuliani s new position on the back burner for now, and went through the rest of Trump s choices with zero issues.You can watch Hall get sick to her stomach over the Giuliani news below:Having Giuliani as a major help to Trump in the White House is terrifying. He s not only defended Trump s racism, misogyny and other offensive comments by the business mogul, but he s also been caught lying a fairly good amount. Giuliani is basically just like Trump, and giving both of these idiots more power is just about the worst decision that America could make in this election. This isn t just about Trump anymore it s about the future of America, and making sure that more of these clueless GOPers don t gain more influence than they already have.Featured image is a screenshot | 0 |
2,383 | Donald Trump Has A Much Bigger Problem With Speaking Fees Than Clinton Ever Did | For months now, the right and some on the left have been politicizing the fact that Hillary Clinton, like virtually all people who have been in positions of power, gets paid to speak for large audiences. Clinton earns large paychecks for the speaking engagements around $200k a piece, much of which has been donated to the Clinton Foundation. So why doesn t anyone talk about the fact that Donald Trump made far more in speaking fees for a company that is essentially a pyramid scheme?Well, to be fair, the right-wing Daily Caller is talking about it.Trump s presidential financial disclosure, which was released on Wednesday by the Federal Election Commission, shows that he has been paid $450,000 each for three speeches given on behalf of ACN Inc., a North Carolina-based multi-level marketing company. The celebrity and real estate billionaire spoke most recently at ACN s annual convention which was held in Charlotte in February.Trump first became involved with ACN in 2006. In 2009 and 2011, company executives appeared on the mogul s NBC reality show, Celebrity Apprentice. During one of those episodes, a video phone ACN was selling was a featured product.Like all multilevel marketing companies, ACN (American Communications Network) is more about recruiting people people who have to pay $499 just for the privilege of selling products plus an annual fee and training expenses. That s all kind of standard, but Robert Fitzpatrick, who runs the website called Pyramid Scheme Alert, says ACN is one of the worst. They don t seem to care about sales at all, but they do care about offering false hope and Trump is part of that.I ll let this video tell you more:Here s another:There are negative reviews all over the internet about ACN. While they have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, that s only after the Bureau had to field 203 complaints over the last three years.It s doubtful Trump cares. Trump sells his name to anything that might give him a profit. Trump University should be enough to show that Trump is a scam artist and a fraudster. The fact that Trump chose to get in bed with a Multilevel Marketing Company with dubious, at best, ethics, says all we need to know about the man who could be president.Featured image via Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images. | 0 |
2,384 | Boiler Room #100.2 – Part Duh! Wire Tapped, Reality For Sale & Conspiracy Theorist Swag | Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room tonight 6:00 PM PST | 8:00 PM CST | 9:00 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for bar fly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher and Spore along with Daniel Spaulding of Soul of The East, Funk Soul (ACR/21WIRE contributor) and Basil Valentine of Sunday Wire for the second chapter of the 100th episode of BOILER ROOM. Water the kids, put the plants to bed and get your favorite mead horn ready so you can drop deep into the Boiler Room with the crew. Tonight the gang is discussing American forces being sent into Syria, the utter insanity of the leftist media distracting their audience with false realities being sold to the highest bidder, the dilerbrate destruction of critical thinking among the population, Vault 7 releases from wikileaks and the wiretapping of (then) Presidential Candidate Trump.Direct Download Episode #100.2Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved!Reference Links: | 0 |
2,385 | Rohingyas must go home but to safety, Bangladesh says | GENEVA (Reuters) - Bangladesh called on Myanmar on Monday to allow nearly 1 million Rohingya Muslim refugees to return home under safe conditions, saying that the burden had become untenable on its territory. About 600,000 people have crossed the border since Aug. 25 when Rohingya insurgent attacks on security posts were met by a counter-offensive by the Myanmar army in Rakhine state which the United Nations has called ethnic cleansing. This is an untenable situation, Shameem Ahsan, Bangladesh s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, told a U.N. pledging conference. Despite claims to the contrary, violence in Rakhine state has not stopped. Thousands still enter on a daily basis. Vital humanitarian aid must continue, Ahsan said, adding: It is of paramount importance that Myanmar delivers on its recent promises and works towards safe, dignified, voluntary return of its nationals back to their homes in Myanmar. Bangladesh s interior minister was in Yangon on Monday for talks to find a durable solution , he said. But Myanmar continued to issue propaganda projecting Rohingyas as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh , Ahsan said, adding: This blatant denial of the ethnic identity of Rohingyas remains a stumbling block. Myanmar considers the Rohingya to be stateless, although they trace their presence in the country back generations. Filippo Grandi, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, later told journalists that the two countries had begun talks on repatriation . Conducive conditions have to be recreated in Rakhine, he said. This must include a solution to the question of citizenship, or rather lack thereof for the Rohingya community, Grandi said. Khaled al-Jarallah, deputy foreign minister of Kuwait, called on Myanmar authorities to cease the practice of stripping the Rohingya minority of their right of citizenship, which as a result deprives them of the right to property and employment . Jordan s Queen Rania visited Rohingya refugee camps on Monday and called for a stronger response from the international community to the plight of the Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh to escape systematic persecution in Myanmar. One has to ask, why is the plight of this Muslim minority group being ignored? Why has the systematic prosecution been allowed to play out for so long? she asked after touring the camps. The United Nations has appealed for $434 million to provide life-saving aid to 1.2 million people for six months. A total of $344 million has been raised so far, a final U.N. statement said. We need more money to keep pace with intensifying needs. This is not an isolated crisis, it is the latest round in a decades-long cycle of persecution, violence and displacement, U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told the talks. An estimated 1,000-3,000 Rohingya still enter Bangladesh daily, William Lacy Swing, head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. He called them: these most rejected and vulnerable people in the world. Joanne Liu, president of the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) or Doctors Without Borders, described them as the walking dead . There are only 210 hospital beds for 1 million refugees, malnutrition is on the rise and latrines are lacking to prevent contamination, she said. The camp is a time-bomb, ticking towards a full-blown health crisis. | 1 |
2,386 | PUBLIX Grocery Chain Directs All Stores To BLOCK National Enquirer Magazines With Trump On Cover [VIDEO] | Following a month-long series of National Enquirer covers featuring President-elect Donald Trump, the Florida-based Publix grocery chain has directed stores to block the cover of the National Enquirer with white plastic covers to shield allegedly offensive content.The store made the move after receiving customer complaints.Photos taken at a Central Florida Publix on December 28 show the public being protected from viewing the National Enquirer cover featuring the Trump family. The Enquirer is placed by Publix between other tabloids that do not have censor shields blocking their covers.Trump s name and photo was featured on the front page of the Enquirer on issues dated November 28, December 5, 12, 19, 26 in 2016 and the most recent issue dated January 2, 2017 that featured the Trump family on the cover. The publication dates are generally about a week-and-a-half ahead of the actual date the issue is released for sale. GPThe cover-up by Public was first reported by WFTX-TV on December 21 after a tip by an outraged Trump supporter.Watch here:A Publix shopper turned to Four in Your Corner after seeing magazines with President-elect Donald Trump s picture being covered at the grocery store.He was shopping at the Publix on Del Prado Boulevard and Kismet Parkway in Cape Coral. I lift it up and there was a picture of Donald Trump, the President-elect. I was like Wow, really? I mean, what s next?' Walter Indyk said.The white screen covers are usually for magazines with inappropriate language or pictures. I was flabbergasted. I was amazed. I couldn t believe it, Indyk said. I was like This guy s going to be the President. They have the nerve to cover his picture up at the check out aisle?' I don t understand what is trying to be protected here, Rachael McDonnell of Cape Coral said. Whether everybody likes it or not, Trump is the President-elect. Indyk called the Manager, who he said told him they got a lot of complaints about having the magazine there, and it was a corporate-wide decision.Four in Your Corner reached out to Publix corporate office. A spokesperson said in a statement, in part: The National Enquirer receives the most customer complaints about front page content, so they were added to the list of magazines required to be covered, just last week. The National Enquirer has been sold at the checkout aisles of Publix for decades without being covered up until after Trump won the presidency on November 8 and was subsequently featured on the cover week after week.The Gateway Pundit s Florida Man Kristinn Taylor spoke with a Publix manager who acknowledged the controversy was instigated by complaining phone calls. The manager suggested Public could be pressured to reverse the decision by phone calls from those who disagree with the decision. Gateway Pundit | 0 |
2,387 | Trump says 'we have a great relationship with China' after critical tweet | CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the United States had a “great relationship with China” as he stood beside former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, the new U.S. ambassador to Beijing. “We have a great relationship with China and I really like President Xi,” Trump said in a speech at an Iowa community college. The comment came a day after Trump said Chinese efforts to persuade North Korea to rein in its weapons programs had failed. | 1 |
2,388 | Trump Used Foundation Donations To Pay Off And Settle Private Lawsuits | Another day, another real Trump controversy. While the media hyper-focuses on Hillary Clinton s pay-for-play scandal (that wasn t actually a scandal, just crappy reporting from the Associated Press), a Washington Post report has found a major smoking gun regarding the Trump Foundation:Donald Trump spent more than a quarter-million dollars from his charitable foundation to settle lawsuits that involved the billionaire s for-profit businesses, according to interviews and a review of legal documents.Totaling over $258,000 in Foundation money, Trump may have been involved in has violated laws against what is known as self-dealing (something Trump is used to) which prohibits nonprofit leaders from using their charity s money to benefit themselves or their private businesses.So not only has the Trump Foundation been found to have illegally contributed to politicians, it has been found to be engaging in self-dealing. And people think the Clinton Foundation is immoral?Here are some of the examples:According to the Post:In those cases, tax experts said, Trump was not allowed to simply keep these items and display them in a home or business. They had to be put to a charitable use.He did not use the paintings nor the helmet for charitable use, but rather personal use. Which is, as tax experts and the laws say, is illegal.So turns out the only crooked one in this race is Donald Trump, and the only fraud isn t the Clinton foundation, but the Trump Foundation. Illegal contributions, illegal lawsuit payoffs, and personal gifts with other people s money (for non charitable use).Of course, the Clinton campaign hit on the issue, saying Trump is a fraud who believes the rules don t apply to him, and that Clearly the Trump Foundation is as much a charitable organization as Trump University is an institute of higher education. Ouch.Let s see Fox News and the Trump camp try to spin this.Simply put, Trump needs to be forced to pay back all that he stole from donors and all that was used illegally. And if doesn t, he should be prosecuted for being the fraud he is.Featured image via Spencer Platt/Getty Images | 0 |
2,389 | U.S. announces $364 million more in aid for Syrians | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department said on Tuesday it was providing an additional $364 million in humanitarian assistance to help Syrians caught up in the country’s civil war, bringing total U.S. humanitarian spending for Syria to about $5.9 billion. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration Anne Richard said the funding would help provide food, shelter, safe drinking water, medical care and other support for millions of Syrian refugees and the communities that host them. Richard told a State Department briefing about three-quarters of the additional funding would help people still inside Syria and the rest would assist Syrians who have fled the country. She also said the United States had admitted some 85,000 refugees over the past fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. That figure included about 12,500 Syrian refugees, exceeding the administration’s goal of 10,000, she said. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the push for additional humanitarian aid funds came in part because of deteriorating conditions in Aleppo after the collapse of a ceasefire sponsored by the United States and Russia. The forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have launched a massive push against rebel-held areas of the city, where some 250,000 civilians are believed to be trapped. Intensive bombing has killed hundreds of people, many of whom died in buildings collapsed by bunker-buster bombs. “Until the past few weeks we felt like we were on a firm path towards a possible diplomatic resolution to this. We still believe that’s possible,” Toner told a briefing. “That doesn’t mean we’re not mindful ... of the tremendous humanitarian suffering that’s going on right now in Aleppo. And that’s why we’re working so hard to ramp up our assistance,” he added. While saying the United States continued to seek a diplomatic resolution of the problem, he left the door open to other action. “We’ll continue to weigh all options. Those discussions are ongoing. I don’t want to rule anything out, but right now we’re focused on the diplomatic one,” Toner said. He noted the United States has warned that failure to achieve a ceasefire could lead to an escalation of the conflict. “We cannot dictate what other countries ... may or may not decide to do in terms of supporting certain groups within Syria,” Toner said. “You may have a further deterioration on either side ... and by deterioration I mean more arming and more conflict between them, and intensification of the conflict.” | 1 |
2,390 | FEMALE SAILOR FACES DISCIPLINE By US Navy For Posting Video Of Herself Sitting In Protest Of National Anthem…Because…”It’s Racist” | ***WARNING***If you watch this video, you will encounter strong language and even stronger stupidity A female sailor who posted a video of herself sitting through morning colors in protest of supposed racism in the national anthem is being disciplined by the U.S. Navy.Disciplinary actions toward the female sailor are ongoing, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy told Military Times. We are always doing training to make sure that sailors know the pros and cons of using social media, and they must always observe appropriate conduct, and they re always subject to the UCMJ at all times, she added.The national anthem basically says land of the free, home of the brave, except for hirelings and slaves and I just can t support anything like that, the female sailor said in the video she posted on Facebook. She continues I think Colin had a really good point when he said we had bodies in the streets. | 0 |
2,391 | Russia says high-level contacts with North Korea possible: Ifax | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov said Moscow had not had high-level contacts with the new North Korean leadership but they were possible, the Interfax news agency reported on Friday. In theory they (contacts) are possible, Interfax quoted Morgulov as saying. Morgulov said Russia had many communication channels with North Korea, which in one way or another are bearing fruit . | 1 |
2,392 | Exclusive: Congressional committee questions operation of WHO cancer agency | LONDON, (Reuters) - Two influential U.S. Congressmen have asked the World Health Organization’s cancer agency to get ready to testify about its work assessing if substances cause cancer, citing concerns about its “scientific integrity”. Their letter to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), seen by Reuters and sent on Wednesday, is part of ongoing investigations by two Congressional committees into IARC that were fueled by the agency’s review of glyphosate, the primary ingredient of Monsanto Co’s weedkiller Roundup. A letter to IARC director Chris Wild from the Republican chairmen of the House Committee on Science and the Subcommittee on Environment said they are “concerned about the scientific integrity” of IARC’s “monograph” program, which assesses whether various substances can cause cancer in people. IARC, a semi-autonomous part of the WHO based in Lyon, France, has in recent years assessed whether substances as diverse as coffee, mobile phones and processed meat cause cancer - reports that have all caused controversy. A spokeswoman for IARC said she could not immediately comment on whether the letter had been received. IARC says its methods are scientifically sound and its monographs are “widely respected for their scientific rigor, standardized and transparent process and ... freedom from conflicts of interest”. In a second letter seen by Reuters, the Congressmen, Lamar Smith and Andy Biggs, expressed concern that IARC’s assessment meetings, deliberations and drafts are not made public. “It is an affront to scientific integrity to keep ‘confidential’ a scientific process that directly influences policy and individual taxpayers,” Smith and Biggs wrote. “With United States’ taxpayer dollars funding (part of the monograph program), it is this (Science) Committee’s duty to ensure sound science and transparency within the agency.” Citing data from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), the letter to Wild said that since 1985, IARC has received more than $48 million from NIH, more than $22 million of which went to the monographs program. It added that Smith’s Committee on Science, Space and Technology may soon hold a hearing to receive testimony from IARC on how it conducts its reviews. It asked Wild to provide “names and contact information of IARC-affiliated individuals who would serve as potential witnesses for this hearing”. The second letter, sent on Wednesday to acting U.S. Health Secretary Eric Hargan, asked his department to provide “all documents and communications between or among members of the IARC monograph program and any research institutes or agencies within HHS.” In this letter, the lawmakers said their aim was to understand the extent to which the taxpayer-funded National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Institutes of Health are involved with IARC’s monograph process. This is “to ensure scientific integrity and an honest use of taxpayer dollars”, the letter said. In an assessment in 2015 that put it at odds with many government regulators, including those in the United States, Europe and Japan, IARC classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic”. A Reuters investigation in October found that a draft of a key section of IARC’s assessment of glyphosate underwent significant changes before the report was made public. Reuters also reported in June on how the chairman of the IARC glyphosate panel was aware of new data showing no link between the weed-killer and cancer in humans, but the agency did not take it into account because it had not been published. The Congressional committee letters cited these Reuters investigations as well as other media reports, saying they revealed “troubling evidence” about the way IARC operates. In the letters, Smith and Biggs asked IARC to respond by Nov. 8, and the department of Health and Human Services to respond by Nov. 15. | 1 |
2,393 | WATCH: Fox Host Stuart Varney Agrees That Trump Won’t Make America Great By Insulting People | Trump supporter and Fox host Stuart Varney has finally had enough if Trump s petty Twitter insults.Donald Trump s attack on Meryl Streep was a step too far for Fox Business host Stuart Varney and his guests on Monday.During the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night, Streep delivered an amazing defense of Hollywood, the press, disabled people, and foreigners without mentioning Trump by name. There was nothing good about it, Streep said of Trump s campaign. But it was effective, and it did its job. It made its intended audience laugh and show their teeth. It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter- someone he outranked in privilege, power, and the capacity to fight back. It kind of broke my heart. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose. Predictably, instead of letting it go, Trump lashed out at Streep on Twitter.Meryl Streep, one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood, doesn t know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes. She is a .. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2017Hillary flunky who lost big. For the 100th time, I never mocked a disabled reporter (would never do that) but simply showed him . Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2017 groveling when he totally changed a 16 year old story that he had written in order to make me look bad. Just more very dishonest media! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2017Now, Trump has been throwing these little hissy fits for quite some time now, especially after becoming president-elect, which is really embarrassing because presidents usually do not hurl insults like a petulant child at people who disagree with them.And Fox Business host Stuart Varney, who is a big supporter of Trump, agrees that he crossed the line and only hurt himself and the office he will hold on January 20th.During his show, journalist Elizabeth MacDonald expressed her thoughts about Trump s tirade. How does name calling make American great again? she asked. Doesn t that undercut Mr. Trump s agenda by responding in ways like this? I mean, he demeans himself. You cannot expect people to climb on board with your agenda when your judgement is so poor in making attacks like that. Indeed, such attacks only divide our country and reflect poorly on Trump as he continued to destroy the dignity of the presidency even though he s not even the president yet. I got it and I think you re right, Varney replied simply before moving on to a new story.Here s the video via YouTube:Every time Donald Trump lashes out at someone on Twitter he embarrasses himself, the office of the presidency, and this nation. He needs to learn to ignore criticism, or better yet, listen to it and learn from it instead of throwing a temper tantrum.Featured image via screenshot | 0 |
2,394 | FORMER COP Who Worked With Muslim Terrorist Complained About Homophobic, Racist Comments…Talked Of “Killing People”…Quit Job After MUSLIM Employer IGNORED Complaints | This is what happens when people are more concerned about hurting someone s feelings or profiling someone than reporting someone s behavior to the proper authorities. If the Muslim employer won t take action after a hateful and unhinged employee is talking about his desire to want to kill people, it s time to take it to the next level.A former Fort Pierce police officer who once worked with 29-year-old Omar Mateen, the assailant in an Orlando nightclub shooting that left at least 50 dead, said he was unhinged and unstable. Daniel Gilroy said he worked the 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. shift with G4S Security at the south gate at PGA Village for several months in 2014-15. Mateen took over from him for a 3 to 11 p.m. shift.My Palm Beach Post A licensed security guard who held a firearms license, Mateen started working for G4S in 2007, according to a company newsletter. While there, he had been a screener at an area courthouse, said Daniel Gilroy, a co-worker.Gilroy worked with Mateen after he transferred to a security guard detail at PGA Village in Port St Lucie.Mateen took his prayer mat to work and prayed regularly, but, Gilroy found Mateen s attitudes toward and comments to gays, African-Americans and women crude.And then there was the screaming. Mateen was constantly agitated and on the verge of an outburst, said Gilroy, who could hear his rants even outside of the guard house.Fed up, he told Mateen he wasn t interested in being friends.That s when he went boiled-rabbit crazy, said Gilroy, with Mateen texting him, pleading for a reconciliation of friendship, and accusing him of betrayal so frequently that Gilroy s girlfriend believed the two men might have been having an affair.Rather than continue, Gilroy quit his job.Mateen s former wife was also on the receiving end of his outbursts.Speaking to the press Sunday night, she described violent outbursts and beatings. My family literally had to rescue me, she said.Greg Davis, a St. Lucie County man, said a friend who worked with Mateen told me (Mateen s) demeanor recently had drastically changed. He was working out, he really bulked up. He showed up with a rental van the last night he was at work. That s strange because he loved his car, said Davis.None of the erratic behavior showed up in the mosque, or was obvious to his neighbors. I would wave and say hello, said Esmerelda Gonzalez, whose parents live next door to Mateen s former home onBayshore Boulevard. We never talked beyond that. He came over and bought stuff at a yard sale we had. He came over once and asked if he could use our property for parking because he was having a family gathering. Visitors sometimes came to the house at odd hours, sometimes as early as 4 a.m., said Gonzalez, but she thought nothing of it.At the mosque, Rahman said he can t remember ever having a conversation with Mateen.Mateen, he said, attended sporadically frequently with his toddler son in tow but his three sisters were regular faces, sometimes performing chores and cleaning the mosque.If Mateen leaned toward an extremist version of Islam, he kept it from his imam, who wept as he began Sunday evening prayers at the mosque. There is nothing outside the door that says you can t come in and worship God and be here and pray if you are gay, Rahman said. And Rahman said he speaks out against terrorist groups at every gathering. They have hijacked our religion, Rahman said. They have caused more trouble for us than anything. Gilroy, a former Fort Pierce police officer, said Mateen frequently made homophobic and racial comments. Gilroy said he complained to his employer several times but it did nothing because he was Muslim. Gilroy quit after he said Mateen began stalking him via multiple text messages 20 or 30 a day. I quit because everything he said was toxic, Gilroy said Sunday, and the company wouldn t do anything. This guy was unhinged and unstable. He talked of killing people. Gilroy said this shooting didn t come as a surprise to him.Via: Florida Today | 0 |
2,395 | U.S. military, in Iraq, urges Iraqis, Kurds to avoid escalation | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Monday its commanders in Iraq were urging Iraqi and Kurdish forces to avoid escalation and played down reports of fighting, after Iraqi government forces responded to a Kurdish vote on independence by capturing the Kurdish-held city of Kirkuk. Pentagon spokesman Colonel Robert Manning declined to speculate on whether the United States might cut off military aid and training to Iraqi forces in the event a major conflict, saying: I m not going to speculate on that but I will tell you that we re looking at all options for planning considerations ... We encourage dialogue. | 1 |
2,396 | Trump sends letter to Vietnam's president to promote ties | HANOI (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has written to Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang to promote more cooperation between the two countries, the government website cited Quang as saying. Vietnam and the United States had advanced ties to a new level under the Obama administration amid a dispute with China over South China Sea issues, while Trump has also expressed his hope for a stronger relationship. Trump sent a letter to Quang “affirming his wishes to promote cooperation on economics, trade, regional and international issues”, the Vietnamese government website said. Quang made the remarks during a meeting with the U.S. ambassador to Vietnam on Friday. Quang emphasized that Vietnam welcomes U.S. efforts to improve cooperation with countries in the region to maintain the freedom of navigation and aviation. U.S. Ambassador Ted Osius was reported as saying that Trump is considering attending the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam this year. Vietnam had been expected to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade deal which Trump pulled the U.S. out of in January, but Hanoi has also been building links with the United States amid a maritime dispute with China. China claims most of the South China Sea, while Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Brunei claim parts of the sea that commands strategic sea lanes and has rich fishing grounds along with oil and gas deposits. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said last month he was ready to visit the United States to promote ties, particularly trade. | 1 |
2,397 | Dakota Access Pipeline Protest Fund Asks For Only $5K But Get MUCH More | Efforts to stop protesters opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline have backfired spectacularly. Just last week, police in riot gear forcefully removed protesters from the area while the demonstrators were in a prayer circle. Crowdsourcing commenced on a GoFundMe page seeking $5,000 to help those camping in protest of the $3.8 billion pipeline.Instead, more than $1 million poured in on one GoFundMe page alone. Combined, $3 million has been raised for to help with legal costs, food and other supplies for protesters of the 1,200-mile pipeline. As of now, $1,302,643 has been raised and that figure keeps increasing each time the page is refreshed.CBS reports:It may also give protesters the ability to prolong their months-long encampments that have attracted thousands of supporters, as the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe pursues the fight in court.More than $200,000 was raised between Thursday and Friday alone. It still feels unreal sometimes because it is such an astronomical figure to me, Ho Waste Wakiya Wicasa, the protester who set up the GoFundMe account said. The money goes as quickly as it comes, but without it having been as much as it is, we certainly wouldn t have been able to be as productive as we have been in the fight, he added.So far, more than 400 people have been arrested and that number includes the roughly 140 protesters who were taken into custody on Thursday when officers used tear gas and fired bean bags to get the demonstrators off the private land recently acquired by Energy Transfer Partners. However, the tribe says that authorities are infringing on tribal sovereignty and failing to respect two treaties ratified by the federal government.Standing Rock Sioux Chairman David Archambault called for peace in a statement during the standoff. Remain peaceful and prayerful and don t react to law enforcement aggression, he said.This week, the tribe asked the Department of Justice to open an investigation over local and state authorities violating civil rights. One hundred years from now they re going to hear those songs. They re going to hear that memory of what happened here at this camp, said Faith Spotted Eagle. The 68-year-old Native American says they are not protesters. They are water protectors. The land is sacred and the water is, too.You can contribute to this important cause here.Photo by Alex Wong via Getty. | 0 |
2,398 | Is A GOP Civil War Coming? RNC Chair Accidentally Spoke The Truth About 2016 Nomination Process | Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus committed the grave Republican sin of being honest during a radio interview recently. While discussing the details of the Republican convention delegates, Priebus possibly without realizing it heavily implied something many have been suspecting: the fact that the Republican party will try to steal the nomination from Donald Trump.Priebus was attempting to explain the process of how Republican delegates work, and seemed to be justifying the concept of them not voting to represent the will of the people from their home states. He came right out and admitted that at the later stages of balloting, delegates will not be bound to candidates and can vote for whomever they want to nominate regardless of the popular vote in the state primaries. The big giveaway, though, was the following statement he gave after that: By the way, this is a nomination for the Republican Party. If you don t like the party, then sit down. The party is choosing a nominee. To say that won t sit well with Trump voters and possibly even Cruz voters is an understatement. Trump s crew won t agreeably sit by only to see the Republican establishment walk away from them and install their preferred candidate as the nominee in his place.Reince didn t exactly come out and say it plainly, but he definitely is starting to lay out a framework of plausible deniability when it comes to a possible up-ending of the nomination process. By trying to explain away how a sleeper candidate can be squeezed in at the last minute, and spreading out the blame among many different delegates some of whom are virtually unknown to regular voters the RNC can just throw up their hands and say there was nothing they could do, because of the rules. Many sources have been hinting at either Paul Ryan or Mitt Romney being rolled out as the panic-button replacement for Trump. The importance of this can t be understated. A very sizeable amount of the 2016 RNC delegates were previously in the camp of the Romney/Ryan ticket in 2012, and the odds favor a majority of them jumping ship to one of those two in lieu of Trump if a legitimate opportunity to do so arose.If the Republicans keep on this track and risk it all in an anything but Trump move, 2016 could be historical for the fact it might split the GOP permanently.Listen to the full interview where the RNC chair accidentally tells the truth below:[soundcloud url= https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/257440153 params= auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true width= 100% height= 450 iframe= true /]Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty | 0 |
2,399 | Puerto Rico oversight board appointed | WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Wednesday appointed a seven-member board to oversee a financial restructuring for Puerto Rico, a majority Republican panel that some market analysts saw as favorable for bondholders of the U.S. territory, which has been crippled by a $70 billion debt crisis. Among the board members, who Obama appointed on the recommendation of legislative leaders, are Arthur Gonzalez, a Democrat and a retired bankruptcy judge who oversaw the Chapter 11 cases of Chrysler and Enron, and Carlos Garcia, a Republican and the former head of Puerto Rico’s Government Development Bank who now runs private equity firm BayBoston. The other appointees are Republicans Andrew Biggs, David Skeel and Jose Carrion III, and Democrats Jose Ramon Gonzalez and Ana Matosantos. The idea of a fiscal control board, known colloquially as La Junta in Puerto Rico, is largely reviled on the island, which has a 45 percent poverty rate and whose chronic economic slump has helped spur rampant outmigration. Among the messages by protesters and graffiti artists plastered around San Juan are: “Wake up! They’re selling our homeland!” and “Say no to oppression.” But from a market perspective the board figures to be a positive for creditors of the island, said David Tawil, president of hedge fund Maglan Capital. He particularly cited Garcia, calling him “an investor guy, very intertwined with everything that has happened up until now.” And the Democrats on the panel are more moderate than expected, Height Securities analyst Daniel Hanson said in note. Jose Gonzalez, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York, may be the “key swing vote” for creditor-friendly policies, Hanson said. Keefe Bruyette & Woods analyst Chas Tyson, in a note last week, listed Jose Gonzalez, a former Santander executive, as a potential creditor ally because of his “significant experience in Puerto Rico’s banking sector.” The board was created under the federal law known as PROMESA, passed earlier this year, which will bring Puerto Rico’s finances under federal oversight and give it the authority to restructure some of its debt. The board will be tasked with assessing and certifying annual budgets and a fiscal recovery plan presented by the island’s government, as well as facilitating debt restructuring talks on the island, possibly through a bankruptcy-like process. One interesting pick is Skeel, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Though Republicans are generally seen as creditor-friendly, Skeel, a restructuring industry veteran, has repeatedly called for a broad-based restructuring in Puerto Rico. But he has also stressed that creditor rights should be protected in such a scenario, possibly a good sign for the fate of Puerto Rico’s general obligation debt. That debt is viewed as sacrosanct in municipal debt markets, but it has no legal security under bankruptcy law, which has given some GO holders reason to fret. Importantly, much of the negotiation tactics may be driven by the team of lawyers and financial advisers the board will ultimately select to represent it. Restructuring consultant Martha Kopacz, of Phoenix Management Services, and veteran bankruptcy lawyer Richard Levin, of Jenner & Block, are among the professionals said to be lobbying to represent the board, according to people familiar with the situation. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, both Republicans, each chose two members of the board, while House and Senate Minority Leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, Democrats, made one pick apiece. Obama chose the seventh member. | 1 |
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