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2,500 | BOMB THREAT AND CRITICISM HITS HISPANIC BBQ OWNER’S PLANS FOR WHITE APPRECIATION DAY | In the initial interview with the owner of this BBQ restaurant it was clear that this guy had good intentions. His intent was that we re all Americans and that we have special months and days for others but not one thing for whites. Could be that people might think he s doing this for the publicity but if that s the case, he got more than he bargained for DENVER The Hispanic restaurant owners who ignited an uproar over their plans to hold White Appreciation Day next month were forced to evacuate their barbecue joint late Friday after a bomb scare.Co-owner Edgar Antillon said Rubbin Buttz BBQ in Milliken, Colorado, was shut down for several hours during the dinner rush after a bomb threat in posts on social media, but he later said that the eatery plans to reopen Saturday.Shortly before the evacuation, Mr. Antillon told the Washington Times that he has received numerous threats and criticism over the restaurant s plan to hold White Appreciation Day on June 11. Mr. Antillon and Miguel Jiminez bought the restaurant last month. It s been phone calls, it s been emails, it s been on social media, said Mr. Antillon. Some are just, Hey, you re an idiot, and others have been legit threats. The former owners of this establishment are receiving threats even though they have nothing to do with this thing. It s unfortunate. He announced Thursday on Twitter that white customers would receive 10 percent off their tab on White Appreciation Day, but he emphasized Friday that the discount would apply to all patrons, regardless of their race. It s like we ve said many times before, if a black person comes in here and says, Hey, what about my discount, they re going to get a discount, Mr. Antillon said. If a Mexican comes in here and says, I want a discount, they re going to get a discount. Nobody s going to be turned down for anything. Read more: WT | 0 |
2,501 | The GOP Has Made Such A Mockery Of Elections Even Canada Gets To Poke Fun At Us (VIDEO) | Canada is just fun. Our great white neighbor to the north just shed a decade of hate and ignorance in favor of Prime Minister Centerfold and a slew of not just leftish but downright liberal political and social reform. In other words, Canada joined the rest of the civilized world in evolving faster than America ever could.They ve had advantages, of course. I can t quite remember exactly who it was but back in the 80s some comedy news person, possibly Stewart Pankin, said that the first words in Canada s National Anthem should be changed to Oh, America thank God we re next to you Yes, you can laugh. For much of its existence and in many ways still, that is true. Anything bordering something as massive and internationally strategic as the United States Of America is going to benefit greatly from a relationship that is symbiotic by nature.Still, Canada is doing OK for itself and would like to offer 34 million of the most polite people in the world as candidates for president. Not any one individually; all of them. They say they ll do it in shifts. Canada has run for president before, but failed to pick up enough votes to get by the mandatory tooth-brushing guy.In this perfectly hilarious depiction of what Canada thinks, stereotypes get hit long and hard. The friendly guy in the sweater sporting the majestic eagle and the ever-noble moose is as polite as he is passively condescending. His endearing accent and inherent whiteness come through strong as he questions us about our choices and offers real-world solutions: Yes, the irony at the end would be just hilarious, wouldn t it? Trump has said that his wall will have doors. If Trump is elected president it would only be fitting for Canada to build a solid wall with no doors, because we re obviously 317 million or so .absolutely crazy people. Trump would have to pay for it by his own rules.Luckily for us there truly is no scenario where Donald Trump being President would actually be good for America. One thing is for sure, if the stars align in the manner that puts any Republican in the White House with the current class of crazies running our congress, I m moving to Canada. Featured image from screen capture | 0 |
2,502 | 83 Yr Old Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg Gives Rare Interview To BBC: Talks Retirement…Expresses “Hope” In Anti-Trump Protesters[VIDEO] | Speaking to BBC Newsnight in a rare interview, Justice Ginsburg reiterated the importance of the free press. I read the Washington Post and the New York Times every day, and I think that the reporters are trying to tell the public the way things are, she said.Justice Ginsburg was nominated by Bill Clinton and is regarded as a liberal.Justice Ginsburg was careful to avoid commenting directly on Donald Trump s presidency.Before the election, in July 2016, Justice Ginsburg criticised Donald Trump calling him a faker . She later said she regretted making the comments.Watch: Think of what the press has done in the United States, she said citing the Watergate scandal. That story might never have come out if we didn t have the free press that we do. Asked about the rise of the so-called post truth world , Justice Ginsburg said: I am optimistic in the long run. A great man once said that the true symbol of the United States is not the bald eagle. It is the pendulum. And when the pendulum swings too far in one direction it will go back. Some terrible things have happened in the United States but one can only hope that we learn from those bad things. Justice Ginsburg said she was encouraged by the Women s March, which saw millions in the US and around the world take part in anti-Trump protests. I ve never seen such a demonstration both the numbers and the rapport of the people in that crowd. There was no violence, it was orderly. So yes, we are not experiencing the best times but there is there is reason to hope that that we will see a better day. Justice Ginsburg has been on the Supreme Court since 1993 and at 83 years-old is the oldest serving member.Asked how much longer she would stay in post, she said: At my age you have to take it year by year. I know I m OK. What will be next year? She added: I m hopeful however, because my most senior colleague the one who most recently retired, Justice John Paul Stevens, stepped down at age 90. So I have a way to go. BBC | 0 |
2,503 | HOLY MUSLIM INDOCTRINATION! Sesame Street Introduces Hijab Wearing Muppet | Where s The Muppet Dressed As A Nun?Oh wait that would probably be offensive to non-Christians Sesame Street unveiled a fresh face Thursday: a hijab-wearing Afghani Muppet named Zari who will teach kids about girl empowerment, social and emotional wellbeing. Zari will first appear in season five of Baghch-e-Simsim, which is the Afghan version of Sesame Street.The popular children show s Twitter account was abuzz with Zari content Thursday.Introducing Zari! Our new friend in Afghanistan, joining #BaghcheSimSim for #Season5! She's a very special girl! pic.twitter.com/ggI0qpPR78 Sesame Workshop (@SesameWorkshop) April 7, 2016Via: Breitbart News | 0 |
2,504 | Poland's new government wins vote of confidence in parliament | WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland s new government led by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki won a vote of confidence in parliament just before midnight on Tuesday, voting records showed, opening the way for the Cabinet to start functioning. Morawiecki, 49, was named prime minister last week in a government reshuffle, replacing Beata Szydlo as the ruling Law and Justice party gears up for elections over the next three years. He said Warsaw s economic policy - based on generous public spending and a growing focus on building domestic capital - should not change, but his government would aim to improve Poland s external relations. | 1 |
2,505 | Boeing, Lockheed Martin winners in Trump's 2017 supplemental request | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly half of President Donald Trump’s 2017 $30 billion supplemental defense budget proposal would go to buy and modernize warplanes, warships and missiles, a down payment on Trump’s promises to boost military spending. Although Congress must approve the $13.5 bln request and is likely to make changes, Boeing Co would be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the administration’s proposal, which included $2.3 billion for 24 F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet jet fighters. This is 10 more than the U.S. House of Representatives approved on March 8 in its 2017 base spending bill. The Navy will use the additional money to bolster its aging fleet of fighters, Lieutenant General Anthony Ierardi, the director of Force Structure, Resources and Assessment for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Reuters. In a Dec. 22 tweet, before he was inaugurated, Trump had suggested buying more Boeing F/A-18s, which he called “comparable” to the Lockheed Martin F-35, despite the fact that the F-35 is a stealth aircraft difficult for enemy radar to detect. The 1990s-vintage F/A-18 is does not use stealth technology. The Navy also proposed $920 million to buy six Boeing P-8 submarine-hunting aircraft. The Army requested $708 million for 20 Boeing Apache attack helicopters. Lockheed Martin is also one of the big winners in the administration’s proposal. Pentagon officials said the request for additional 2017 funds would help accelerate planned acquisitions of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. The Pentagon budgeted $596 million to buy five of the stealthy jets, which cost between $95 million and $123 million each, depending on the model. In the past, President Trump had complained about the “tremendous cost and cost overruns” of the F-35 program, which is the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program. The Pentagon budgeted $151 million for Lockheed’s THAAD missile defense and $376 million for 17 Blackhawk helicopters made by Sikorsky Aircraft, a Lockheed subsidiary. The proposal also requested $433 million to complete the third version of the DDG-51 Navy destroyer being built by General Dynamics Corp at Bath Iron Works in Maine. A General Accounting Office report published on Aug. 4 said the Navy “has not demonstrated sufficient acquisition and design knowledge” to provide an accurate estimate of the vessel’s cost. The administration’s supplemental request takes the base Pentagon budget for fiscal 2017 to $541 billion, analyst Robert Stallard of Vertical Research said in a report on Thursday. Congress will likely consider the request before April 28, when the current Defense Department funding expires. (This story has been refiled to correct data in paragraphs 2 and 10.) | 1 |
2,506 | White House to Democratic leaders: 'stop the political grandstanding' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will proceed as planned to meet with Republican congressional leaders on Tuesday and criticized Democratic leaders for bowing out, the White House said. “The president’s invitation to the Democrat leaders still stands and he encourages them to put aside their pettiness, stop the political grandstanding, show up and get to work,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement. | 1 |
2,507 | UK Brexit minister says 'good prospect' of agreeing transitional deal with EU | LONDON (Reuters) - There is a good prospect Britain will negotiate a transitional arrangement with the European Union before it leaves the bloc in March 2019, Britain s Brexit minister David Davis said on Thursday. Davis said Britain had only raised the issue of transition briefly with the EU so far in negotiations as it is not among the first four issues due to be discussed. Asked by a lawmaker what prospects there were for bespoke transitional arrangements being agreed and implemented by March 2019, Davis told parliament: We are finding that the (European) Commission is open to discussion of transition ... I think there is a very good prospect. Parliament is on Thursday due to begin debating legislation to sever political, financial and legal ties with the EU, and the opposition Labour Party has said it cannot support the bill without it being amended to better protect workers rights. Junior Brexit minister Steve Baker told lawmakers the government would not accept any amendments to the bill that compromised its purpose. | 1 |
2,508 | White Man Yells ‘F*cking N*****s,’ Shoots At Crowd In Black Candidate’s Campaign HQ (VIDEO) | On Monday, as a crowd of supporters gathered inside the campaign headquarters of Zena Stephens, an African-American woman who is running for Sheriff of Jefferson County, Texas, a man opened fire on the building.According to local CBS affiliate KFDM, witnesses say a white man fired shouted fucking niggers, before opening fire from the passenger side of a white jeep.No one was injured during the attack, but the glass doors leading into Stephens campaign headquarters were shattered. Stephens said the weapon appeared to be either a BB gun or an air rifle.Someone from Stephens campaign headquarters followed the vehicle, helping police to locate and apprehend the suspects.Five people have been detained in connection with the incident.During an interview with KFDM, Stephens referred to the attack an example of ignorance. Whether we re getting ready for an election or not, the candidate said, it s just an example of ignorance. Anytime you try to hurt somebody it s just ignorance. Here s more on the story from KFDM.This is a clear case of voter intimidation. Whomever fired that shot should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.The words the shooter, reported as either fucking niggers, or fuck them niggers, leave no room for doubt as to whether or not this was a racially-motivated hate crime.Ahead of Super Tuesday, white supremacists began placing robocalls supporting Donald Trump, claiming that whites in the U.S. and Europe are under attack from people of color.After the candidate refused to call the Ku Klux Klan a hate group earlier this week, Trump s son stumped for him on Fox and Friends, where he offered to pay to ship Black people out of the country.Trump s almost singular message, that non-whites are responsible for all of the problems facing his narrow-minded, bigoted supporters, has done nothing to make America great again.As everyone with a conscience and a soul has been saying for months, Trump s message is making America hate again.The right-wing is taking America back, alright. They re taking the country back to the days of Jim Crow, and racially motivated voter suppression and voter intimidation.Featured image via video screen capture KFDM | 0 |
2,509 | MAID SCREAMS, BEGS FOR HELP As She Holds On To Window Of High-Rise Apartment By One Knuckle…Boss Films Her Fall [VIDEO] | While immature, snowflake college students freak out over the pronouns their fellow students and teachers use to address them, people in so many countries around the world are facing real human rights violations that most of us can t even imagine.The floor looks clean in this high-rise apartment, seven stories above Kuwait City traffic. Not a smudge in sight on the picture window. On the other side of the glass, the maid is hanging on by one knuckle, screaming. Oh crazy, come here, a woman says casually in Arabic, holding a camera up to the maid. Hold on to me! Hold on to me! the maid yells.Instead, the woman steps back. The maid s grip finally slips, and she lands in a cloud of dust, many stories below.The maid an Ethiopian who had been working in the country for several years, according to the Kuwait Times survived the fall. The videographer, her employer, was arrested last week on a charge of failing to help the worker.It s still unclear what led to the fall. But it was not the first time a domestic servant had fallen off of a building in Kuwait, an oil-rich country where foreign workers are cheap, plentiful and live largely at the mercy of their employers. Washington Post | 0 |
2,510 | South Korea says delay in joint U.S. drills depends on halt to North Korea provocations | (Reuters) - Any delay in South Korea-U.S. military drills would depend on whether North Korea carries out provocations during the 2018 Winter Olympics, an official at Seoul s presidential Blue House said on Wednesday. South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Tuesday he was willing to try to ease tensions ahead of next year s Winter Olympics in South Korea by curtailing joint military exercises with the United States. | 1 |
2,511 | Expert On Voting Fraud DESTROYS Trump’s Lies In BLISTERING Twitter Attack (TWEETS) | Terrified and unable to accept that he s destroyed almost all chances of winning this election, Republican nominee Donald Trump is STILL whining that everything is rigged from claims of media bias, sabotaged debate microphones, dishonest polls, and voter fraud. Trump isn t letting it go, and even his own party isn t willing to support him on his ridiculous claims anymore. Earlier Monday, Trump tweeted: Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day. Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on? So naive! Well, someone came forward to put Trump s lies to rest once and for all. Election law expert Rick Hasen finally had enough of Trump s idiocy and issued some brutal fact-checking on Twitter. Hasen was the perfect person to come forward and annihilate Trump he s spent his career studying voter fraud, and was more than qualified to drop this brilliant truth bomb on unsuspecting Trump. In an epic Tweetstorm, Hasen ripped Trump a new one and proved that Trump s fear mongering about voter fraud has been taken way out of proportion and is a blatant exaggeration:TwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterAnd these are only a FEW of the tweets of Hasen slamming Trump. You can see the full sh*tshow here. Hasen didn t stop with a social media rant, either he wroteHasen didn t stop with a social media rant, either he wrote a scathing op-ed on Talking Points Memo: Claims of voter fraud are often exaggerated by orders of magnitude. Consider the claims about non-citizen voting. Matt Drudge recently had a headline stating: Report: 1,000+ Illegal Voters in Virginia. And Dan Scavino, Jr. tweeted: Terrible. We know who the 1,000+ illegal aliens ARE NOT VOTING FOR! A fixed presidential election in the making .will we ever know!?!? But if you look at the underlying report, they have identified only 31 actual non-citizen voters in Virginia over the last 10 years. No doubt there are some more, as not all the counties have responded yet. But it is not 1,000 plus non-citizens voting in Va. ( In the 8 jurisdictions that provided us with lists of aliens recently removed from their voter rolls, we discovered that 31 non-citizens had cast a total of 186 votes between 2005 and 2015. The most alien votes were cast in 2012 followed by 2008, the year President Obama was elected to his first term. (emphasis omitted)). Don t believe all the hype. Non-citizen voting is a real, but pretty small, problem (because the penalties are high and the payoff low). Unfortunately, we know Trump isn t going to shut up because he only gets louder after being proven wrong. Thank goodness we only have to tolerate a few more weeks of him.Featured image via Jeff Swensen / Getty Images | 0 |
2,512 | UNREAL! OBAMA SAYS HIROSHIMA TOUR to Honor “All” WWII Dead [Video] | Barack Obama s historic visit to Hiroshima this week will honour all those who were lost in World War II the US president said Wednesday, hours after arriving in Japan for a Group of Seven summit. | 0 |
2,513 | Union leader shot dead near South African Lonmin mine, second death in two weeks | JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) said on Saturday another member of its leadership had been shot dead, execution-style, this time at a Lonmin owned-mine on the platinum belt in the west of the country. A senior official of the union was shot and killed outside an Impala Platinum (Implats) mine two weeks ago, and the union said five of its members had been killed since July. AMCU president Joseph Mathunjwa said Mvelesi Biyela, a health and safety officer at Lonmin s Wonderkop mine near Marikana in Rustenburg, was shot on Friday evening in front of his wife and six-year-old daughter while they were on their way home. This is the fifth killing of one of our members since about the end of July, Mathunjwa said. We will not fight back with bullets, guns and anonymous hit men but with mass action, AMCU said in a press statement. Lonmin confirmed that Biyela was employed at its Rowland Shaft, and that it was informed by police late on Friday that unknown assailants had shot and killed him. We have no idea at all what is behind these killings but it is very concerning, especially when it happens in such a brutal manner. For now we are leaving it to the police to find out the causes, said Lonmin spokeswoman Wendy Tlou. A resurgence of violence in the same area that saw South Africa s longest strike in 2012 and 34 AMCU members gunned down by police has unnerved investors in the ailing sector. Labour and social strife in South Africa s platinum belt, the source of more than 70 percent of known reserves of the precious metal, has piled pressure onto an industry already hit by depressed prices. | 1 |
2,514 | Trump seeks input from U.S. energy companies on Paris climate pact | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s administration has been contacting U.S. energy companies to ask them about their views on the U.N. global climate accord, according to two sources with knowledge of the effort, a sign Trump is reconsidering his 2016 campaign pledge to back out of the deal. The sources, who asked not to be named because they are not authorized to speak publicly on the subject, said many of the companies reached by the administration had said they would prefer the United States remain in the pact, but would also support reducing U.S. commitments in the deal. The accord, agreed by nearly 200 countries in Paris in 2015, would limit planetary warming in part by slashing carbon dioxide and other emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. As part of the deal, the United States committed to reducing its emissions by between 26 and 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. The sources did not name the companies contacted. One of the sources said the companies were “publicly traded fossil fuel companies,” and added the White House would consider their input in making a decision on the Paris accord shortly. The source said the White House has been leading the discussions with the fossil fuel companies and the State Department, which represents the United States in climate negotiations, had not taken part. A White House official declined to comment. Trump has called climate change a hoax and vowed during his campaign for the White House to “cancel the Paris Climate Agreement” within 100 days, claiming it would be too costly for the U.S. economy. Since being elected he has been mostly quiet on the issue. In a New York Times interview in November he said he would keep an open mind about the Paris deal. He and members of his family and inner circle also met with climate change advocate and former Vice President Al Gore in December. Officials for Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, Peabody Energy Corp and others did not immediately comment when asked about whether they had been contacted by the White House about the Paris accord. But several, including Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips, have expressed public support for the pact. The World Coal Association, which represents Peabody and other miners, has also said it supports the deal. Exxon Mobil Chief Executive Darren Woods recently called the pledges that came out of the Paris agreement an “effective framework” for dealing with emissions, and pointed to Exxon’s own work to cut its carbon emissions. In comments on Exxon’s website, Woods wrote: “I believe, and my company believes, that climate risks warrant action and it’s going to take all of us – business, governments and consumers – to make meaningful progress.” Rex Tillerson, Exxon’s former CEO and now U.S. Secretary of State, also supported remaining a part of the climate change discussion during his confirmation hearing. He said he did not see climate change as an imminent national security threat but said the U.S. would be “better served by being at that table” and remaining a party to climate change negotiations. Conoco CEO Ryan Lance similarly said he favored the U.S. remaining in the Paris agreement, during CERAWeek comments last week, in part because it could create opportunities for its natural gas operations and its investments in carbon-capture and storage. Benjamin Sporton, the president of the World Coal Association, had a similar stance: “With a number of well-developed carbon capture and storage projects, the United States is already a global leader in cleaner coal technology. Given the role given to low emissions coal technology in the Paris Agreement by many developing economies, there are clear benefits to remaining within the agreement.” J. Robinson West, former chairman of Magellan Petroleum Corp., and now a managing director at Boston Consulting Group, said President Trump’s anti-Paris accord sentiments probably reflected his dealings with the CEOs of smaller companies that operate only in the U.S. “The independents are anti-climate change ... all this stuff costs them money. The global companies operate all over the world. They have to operate at one standard - the highest standard - wherever they operate,” he said. Global oil companies have spent heavily on environmental initiatives in recent years. Exxon Mobil, for example, logged $4.9 billion in environmental spending in 2016, about 2.24 percent of total revenue, according to its annual report with the Securities and Exchanges Commission. ConocoPhillips spent $627 million, or 2.57 percent of revenue. | 1 |
2,515 | Republicans Just Granted Themselves Special Status In Their Latest Healthcare Bill | If you have a pre-existing condition, Obamacare currently protects you from being turned down for insurance on the basis of that condition. Republicans want to take that away because insuring sick people just eats too much profit, and healthcare is a privilege, not a right anyway. The latest iteration of their ridiculous healthcare plan will allow states to decide whether insurers have to cover people with pre-existing conditions, because of course it does, but it also contains a brand-new amendment that s patently disgusting.It carves an exemption out for members of Congress and their staffs. Insurers would still be required to provide coverage for them regardless of pre-existing conditions. Vox confirmed it last night: A spokesperson for Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) who authored this amendment confirmed this was the case: members of Congress and their staff would get the guarantee of keeping these Obamacare regulations. But don t Republicans hate Obamacare? Well, their relationship with Obamacare is actually considerably more complex than we tend to give it credit for. Contrary to popular belief, we taxpayers don t subsidize Congress health insurance the way many people think. In fact, we never did. Until 2013, they were covered under the Federal Employee Health Benefits program, which is a health insurance marketplace where they (and every other federal employee) purchase health insurance with all the same bullshit as everyone else, and have their premiums taken out of their paychecks.The Office of Personnel Management contributes to each employee s premium, but where private sector employers cover an average of 83 percent of their employees premiums (or 72 percent for family plans), OPM covers 72 to 75 percent, whichever is less depending on a variety of factors, across the board.In 2013, all of Congress was kicked off of FEHB thanks to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA). He proposed an amendment to the ACA that would require all members of Congress to purchase health insurance through the exchanges, and for their staffs under the small business provision.So that s what they ve been doing for health insurance for the last four years. Where their own lives are concerned, Obamacare s popular provisions are good things. Where the rest of the country is concerned, though, well, we all know how they feel about the rest of us. The prohibition on denying insurance due to pre-existing conditions is one of the most popular provisions and they want to gut it.For everyone but themselves.Can they get any more obvious about where their true priorities lie?Featured image by Mark Wilson via Getty Images | 0 |
2,516 | Senate leader McConnell: discussed Cabinet, Obamacare with Trump | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said he discussed Cabinet appointments and health care during a meeting with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Monday before confirmation hearings begin this week on Cabinet nominees. “The president elect and I had a good meeting about the Senate agenda, which of course includes confirming the Cabinet appointments, getting further down the road toward repealing and replacing Obamacare,” McConnell told reporters after the meeting at Trump Tower. Trump’s nominees will be properly vetted, he added. | 1 |
2,517 | Palin curtails Florida appearances for Trump rally after husband's accident | TAMPA, Fla. (Reuters) - A serious snowmobile accident involving Sarah Palin’s husband forced the former vice presidential nominee to curtail a Florida campaign trip on Monday for Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump. Todd Palin was in intensive care at an Alaska hospital after the accident on Sunday, an aide to the former Alaska governor said, adding she had been on the phone with doctors and family members all morning. Palin, who has endorsed Trump, had been scheduled to campaign for him later on Monday in The Villages, Florida. Florida is one of five states holding nominating contests on Tuesday for the Nov. 8 election. Trump campaign officials said Palin was returning to Alaska to be with her husband. They said they looked forward to her being back on the campaign trail soon and that Trump’s thoughts and prayers were with the Palin family. Before being able to catch a flight to Alaska, Palin stopped at a town hall-style event for Trump in Tampa, telling the crowd: “Thank you guys for your prayers for my husband who is recovering right now in ICU after a little wreck on a snow machine.” Trump, taking the stage after Palin, said: “Her husband is a tough cookie but when you’re too tough, you break ribs every once in a while.” Palin, Republican Senator John McCain’s running-mate in the 2008 presidential election won by Democrat Barack Obama, held a separate campaign rally for Trump in Florida on Sunday. Todd Palin, 51, is a veteran participant in Alaska’s 2,000-mile (3,200-km) Iron Dog race involving snowmobiles that takes place each February, according to the race’s website. The contest features about 40 two-man teams. Palin has been on a winning tandem three times, most recently in 2007, race organizers said. While competing in 2008, Palin was injured when his vehicle struck a snow-hidden barrel and he was thrown some 70 feet (20 meters), the Alaska Dispatch News reported, adding he was not seriously injured. | 1 |
2,518 | McConnell rules out action this year on high court | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Sunday ruled out Senate confirmation of Democratic President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee this year, even if after the November election it appears the next president may pick a liberal who Republicans would like even less. In television interviews, McConnell said Republican senators had no intention of confirming Democrat Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, even if Democrats win the White House in November, putting them in the position to nominate someone more liberal than Garland when the new president takes office in January. “I can’t imagine that a Republican-majority Congress, in a lame-duck session, after the American people have spoken (in the election), would want to confirm (Garland),” McConnell told CNN. “That’s not going to happen,” McConnell told Fox News on Sunday. “The principle is the same, whether it’s before the election or after the election. The principle is the American people are choosing their next president and their next president should pick this Supreme Court nominee.” Nominees to the lifetime Supreme Court post require Senate confirmation. But McConnell says the Republican-run Senate will not hold a hearing or a vote on Garland. Republicans have said they want the next president to make the selection, hoping their party wins November’s election. Billionaire businessman Donald Trump is the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. Garland, 63, is widely viewed as a moderate, admired by both Democrats and Republicans. Republican Senators Orrin Hatch and Jeff Flake last week raised the possibility of Senate action on Garland late this year if Democrats keep the White House in the Nov. 8 election. McConnell seemed keen to shut down that idea on Sunday, saying the Republican majority would not want to confirm Garland “even if it were soon to be in the minority.” Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid told “Meet the Press” that he thought the Republican facade against Garland would break, because some Republican senators already have said they would be willing to meet Garland, and one Republican - Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois - has said there should be a vote. “McConnell is leading his Senate over the cliff. And I am telling everybody that’s watching this, the senators aren’t going to allow that,” Reid said. The White House said it would stand by Obama’s nominee. “We will stand by him from now until he is confirmed and he’s sitting on the Supreme Court,” White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said on Fox News on Sunday. | 1 |
2,519 | North Carolina lawmaker dismisses U.S. deadline to change bathroom law | WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (Reuters) - Republican leaders in North Carolina on Thursday refused to back down from a law regulating which restrooms can be used by transgender people after the federal government told the state the law violated the U.S. Civil Rights Act. The state’s leading Republican lawmaker, House Speaker Tim Moore, told reporters in Raleigh that North Carolina would not be “bullied” into meeting the U.S. Justice Department’s Monday deadline to change the law. North Carolina is the first U.S. state to pass a law requiring transgender people to use public bathrooms that correspond with the sex on their birth certificate instead of the gender with which they identify. Republican legislators in several other states have proposed similar laws, making transgender rights a hot-button social issue in an election year. The Justice Department’s challenge is similarly unprecedented, though the agency has in the past intervened on behalf of transgender individuals who have alleged discrimination. The Republican National Committee urged state legislators in January to resist federal policies that allow transgender people to use restrooms of their choice at public schools. The Justice Department said in letters to North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory and other state officials on Wednesday that the state had until Monday to decided if it would stop discriminating against transgender state employees. McCrory affirmed his support for the “very common-sense rule” before a group of business leaders on Wednesday night but said he did not know if the state would fight the Justice Department. His office did not respond to questions on Thursday. If McCrory does not stand down from enforcing the law, the Justice Department’s civil rights division could push for a court order. If a federal judge sides with the agency, North Carolina would have to comply or face a reduction in federal funding. On Thursday, Republican Senate leader Phil Berger’s spokeswoman, Amy Auth, said state lawyers were reviewing the letter. Berger on Wednesday said the department’s position represented “a gross overreach.” North Carolina’s Secretary of Public Safety and officials at the University of North Carolina also received similar letters on Wednesday. Margaret Spellings, president of the University of North Carolina system, said her office would respond to the department’s letter by the deadline. “We take this determination seriously and will be conferring with the Governor’s Office, legislative leaders, and counsel about next steps,” she said. Justice Department spokeswoman Dena Iverson would not say whether the department would take legal action against the state. The state law is being challenged in federal court by critics including the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal, which advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights. “We’ve never before seen a state do something as aggressive as require mandatory discrimination against its own transgender employees,” said Peter Renn, an attorney with Lambda Legal, in a phone interview with Reuters. Jillian Weiss, an attorney who has argued in federal court for transgender rights, said the Justice Department’s action against North Carolina showed the federal government was willing to intervene when states passed laws reducing rights based on gender identity and sexual orientation. Weiss predicts Mississippi, where a law allowing businesses to refuse service to gay people takes effect in July, will be the department’s next target. | 1 |
2,520 | UK's Daily Mail to pay Melania Trump damages over modeling claims | LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s Daily Mail agreed on Wednesday to pay Melania Trump an undisclosed sum and issue an apology after it published an article saying the U.S. First Lady had offered “services beyond simply modeling” in her former job. President Donald Trump’s wife, 46, had sued the publisher of the Daily Mail in Britain and also filed a $150 million (120 million pound) lawsuit against it in New York, claiming the article had cost her millions of dollars in potential business. A person familiar with the situation said the settlement was worth less than $3 million, including legal costs and damages. The Daily Mail, which runs what it calls the world’s largest English-language newspaper website, apologized for the article on Wednesday and issued a retraction on its home page. “An article on 20th August 2016 about Melania Trump... questioned the nature of her work as a professional model, and republished allegations that she provided services beyond simply modeling,” publisher Associated Newspapers said. “We accept that these allegations about Mrs Trump are not true and we retract and withdraw them .... we have agreed to pay her damages and costs.” At the High Court in London, Trump’s lawyer said the article, headlined “Racy photos and troubling questions about his wife’s past that could derail Trump”, was published as a two-page spread and accompanied by an old photo of Melania Trump standing naked with her front against a wall but looking back at the camera. “Readers of the newspaper that day could not fail to miss the article”, John Kelly told the court. “The article included false and defamatory claims about the claimant which questioned the nature of her work as a professional model. “The suggestion that such allegations even merit investigation is deeply offensive and has caused a great deal of upset and distress to the claimant,” he said. | 1 |
2,521 | New Poll: Clinton Picks Up Unprecedented, Historical Support Among Young Voters | Several weeks ago, polls and pundits were spelling doom and gloom for Hillary Clinton. Why? Support among millennial voters the biggest voting bloc in the country were dwindling for the Democrat nominee, and were instead attracted to third party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein.Two polls, released within days of each other, showed over a third of millennials backing a third party candidate, severely cutting into Clinton s chances of winning over the Obama coalition.But as the race comes to a close, millennials are finally seeing the big picture: do we elect and accomplished, qualified politico or a racist, sexual predator? Luckily, millennials have chosen the former over the latter.A new poll just released by USA Today Rock The Vote, with the help of Ipsos, found that Hillary Clinton holds a 40 point lead over Donald Trump when it comes to millennial voters, 68 percent to 20 percent. Johnson nabbed 8 percent and Stein a dismal 1 percent.Almost 7 in 10 young people now support Clinton. To put that into context, President Obama won the youth vote with 66 percent support in 2008, and 67 percent in 2012. That means that Clinton is on track, just barely, to ushering in a historical and unprecedented win among young voters which would propel her to the White House.A study conducted by the Center for Research and Information on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University found that, when it came to the 2012 election, the youth vote was the decisive factor in who won. The study found that because millennial voters came out in droves to support Obama, at least 80 electoral votes were awarded, all from key swing states Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida and Virginia. Coincidentally, all those states are considered swing states in the 2016 election (with the exception of Virginia).If 68 percent of just half of the millennial population votes for Hillary Clinton on November 8, she wins, hands down, and that s not even taking into consideration her gains among white, college educated women and men (who typically vote Republican). That s also not taking into consideration her gains made with Asian-Americans and Cuban Americans.Clinton has the numbers to win. She has made gains all across the board, and Trump is under-performing Mitt Romney in crucial swing states, with typical GOP voters, and with those who typically don t vote GOP. The only thing that can hold Clinton back is Democrats not showing up to vote, especially young people.This is why this year s Get Out the Vote will be detrimental to results in the coming weeks. With early voting underway (in record numbers), Democrats have a real opportunity to start off on strong footing and cruise into the November general election.Featured image via Ethan Miller/Getty Images | 0 |
2,522 | DRUNKS and EMPTY SEATS: Crooked Hillary Panders To Patrons At Florida Bar…Speaks To Empty Seats In Ft Lauderdale Baptist Church [VIDEO] | The woman whose criminal investigation has been reopened by the FBI is speaking to a sparsely populated black church in Ft. Lauderdale Florida. We are only 9 days away from the election people and this woman still can barely fill a phone booth with legitimate supporters Hillary Clinton at mount olive baptist church Fort Lauderdale pic.twitter.com/czgRUBR9sn Amy Sherman (@AmySherman1) October 30, 2016Maybe the attendance was low because good Christian people probably have better things to do on a Sunday then go to church to listen to a sociopathic liar or maybe blacks just don t like being insulted by Hillary, like in this email released by Wikileaks.BOMBSHELL Racist Hillary Clinton Calls " Blacks, Muslims and Rom*** Never Do Wells " !!#PodestaEmails #TrumpTapes pic.twitter.com/7nJL2fZWjz STOCK MONSTER (@StockMonsterUSA) October 8, 2016Hillary Clinton has just arrived at New Mount Olive Baptist Church in Fort Lauderdale, FL for Sunday church service (of course) pic.twitter.com/McRUE3mCmR Liz Kreutz (@ABCLiz) October 30, 2016Her speech in church followed an early afternoon stop at a local bar where Hillary was drumming up support from drunks:https://twitter.com/NCSBM/status/792759839495639041 | 0 |
2,523 | BOILER ROOM – EP #47 – Establishment Hitmen & Media Hacks | Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 6 PM PST | 9 PM EST every Wednesday. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher, & Spore along with Daniel Spaulding of Soul of the East, Andy Nowicki from Alt Right Blogspot, Patrick Henningsen of 21stcenturywire & ACR/21Wire contributor Randy J. In this broadcast listeners will be hearing us go around the BOILER ROOM on the typically unexpected variations of conversation including what we ve deemed Pre-Trump-Matic Stress Disorder, voting machine and facial hacking, Hollywood celebs who think Trump is Hitler, Beck getting away with threats of multiple stab wounds, the Orwellian use of the term establishment, our analysis of mainstream media behaving as disinformation operatives, Syria, Yemen, Libya and the Boiler Room break-down on the new bombshell video showing the LaVoy Finicum assassination in Oregon. Is the Federal narrative of Tinicum s death up against the ropes?! If you want to participate, bring something interesting to throw into the boiler Join us in the ALTERNATE CURRENT RADIO chat room.BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE! LISTEN TO THE RECORDING IN THE PLAYER BELOW ENJOY! | 0 |
2,524 | Syrian army encircles IS in al-Mayadin: Syrian military source | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria s army and its allies have encircled Islamic State in the city of al-Mayadin, southeast of Deir al-Zor, in eastern Syria, a Syrian military source said on Sunday. Al-Mayadin is one of the last strongholds of Islamic State as it falls back upon the fertile area downstream of Deir al-Zor in the Euphrates valley and launches counter attacks in the central desert after losing swathes of territory this year. Units of our armed forces with the allied forces continue their advance on a number of fronts and axes in Deir al-Zor and its countryside... and encircle Daesh terrorists in the city of al-Mayadin, the military source said. The army and its allies reached Deir al-Zor in September after a months-long offensive across the Syria desert, and have in recent weeks pushed down the Euphrates towards al-Mayadin. However, counter attacks by Islamic State in the central desert region have put pressure on the main supply road to Deir al-Zor from western Syria. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is backed in the war by Russia, Iran and Shi ite militias including Lebanon s Hezbollah, and its campaign against Islamic State has mostly been on the west bank of the river. A U.S.-led coalition is also supporting a rival campaign against the jihadists, mostly on the east bank, where it is close to recapturing Raqqa, and has also advanced downstream to hold areas opposite Deir al-Zor. U.S. officials have previously said that Islamic State had relocated some of its diminished command and propaganda structures to al-Mayadin as it was forced from territory elsewhere. | 1 |
2,525 | Wall Street elite stunned at Trump triumph | NEW YORK (Reuters) - From plush penthouse apartments on the Upper East Side to bars in midtown Manhattan, New York’s financial community watched in stunned dismay on Wednesday as Republican Donald Trump clinched the White House. An early party mood quickly soured as donors and supporters of Hillary Clinton realized that the Democratic candidate, Wall Street’s preferred choice because she represented the status quo, had lost. Many were stuck for words. “Not really much to say,” said Marc Lasry, a billionaire credit investor. Trump’s unpredictable pronouncements and opposition to free-trade agreements have made the real estate mogul unpopular with many financiers, who fear that he could disrupt global trade and damage geopolitical relationships. The U.S. dollar sank and stocks plummeted as investors fled risky assets. S&P 500 index futures crashed. Joseph Peiffer, a lawyer who has represented investors and others in class-action lawsuits, cracked open a third bottle of wine, his “only in the case of an emergency” bottle, while watching the returns during an election night party he hosted for about 20 friends and family members in his hometown of New Orleans. “This seems like enough of an emergency to break it open,” he said. Trump’s pronouncements on the financial sector have perplexed Wall Street. On the one hand, he has pledged to dismantle much of the regulation put in place after the financial crisis, known as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law. On the other hand, he has called for a “21st century” version of the 1933 Glass-Steagall law that required the separation of commercial and investment banking. Trump has not said what that version would entail other than saying that he would prioritize “helping African-American businesses get the credit they need.” “Sometimes you hear him on the stump criticizing the banks,” Peiffer said. “Then his policy paper says he wants to deregulate the bank. The two things don’t jive. But who knows what he really thinks. And we won’t know that until he does it.” For Trump supporters who work on Wall Street, his victory is a vindication. “I’m very happy,” said Matthew Tyrmand, a private investor and contributor to the Breitbart News website, who was attending a Young Republicans party at a bar off Madison Avenue. Tyrmand, who had shorted stocks ahead of the election - a bet that stock prices will fall - said he had been called “delusional” for predicting a Trump win. Tyrmand said Trump would be good news for markets because he understands the benefit of letting businesses fail. He predicted equity markets would go through a prolonged correction before recovering. “We will be healthier long term,” he said. Around Tyrmand, other Trump supporters hugged one another, sang “God Bless America”, clinked glasses and called out “M-A-G-A!” - the acronym for Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.” But in one corner of the bar, a man and a woman downed shots before starting on fresh pints of beer. Asked if the drinks were out of celebration or depression, the response was quick: “Depression,” the man said, declining to give his name. “But either way we drink” Matthew Farley, a lawyer with Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP in New York, said he had been warning friends and colleagues about an electoral upset for months. “I told them that ... a significant portion of the country wanted someone to do a cannonball into the pool and mess up the status quo,” said Farley, who advises Wall Street brokerages on regulation and arbitration issues. “The cannonball party is not united. They’re progressives and conservatives, but they’re fed up with the status quo and all they know is that anything is better than what we got.” Trump supporter Steven Chiavarone, associate portfolio manager for Federated Global Investment Management Corp, a fund that invests in stocks, bonds and currencies globally, said the market gyrations should not be seen as a harbinger of doom. “The world doesn’t end. Assuming capitalism survives, you manage through the volatility and then find the opportunity.” | 1 |
2,526 | university of lethbridge is an indicator that canada is on a downwards spiral interview with prof anthony hall | syrian military forces continued to advance against jeish alfatah in eastern aleppo and captured their operations room a military source said on monday shares
following hours of nonstop clashes the army soldiers pushed jaish alfatah militants back from a part of hananou housings and seized full control over militants operations room that led the battle with the government forces in the districts of oweijeh and the northern side of hananou the source said
with the loss of control over their operations room in the northern side of hananou housing project jaish alfatah will significantly lose its power in the districts of alheidariyeh sakhour sheikh khezr alarz alhamra and old sheikh najjar the source underlined
meantime a long convoy of more army soldiers arrived in aleppo on sunday to join the government forces antiterrorism operation in the eastern districts of the city
several hundred soldiers arrived in aleppo province to join the army men and liwa alquds forces operation in the neighborhoods of baaeidin bostan alpasha and hananou the sources said
hundreds more of army soldiers are also due to enter aleppo province in the next few days another source disclosed
the source said that army forces are fully ready to enter the eastern neighborhoods of aleppo adding the armys special forces and commandoes have deployed in positions overlooking the eastern neighborhoods of aleppo waiting for their commanders order to start their operation
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by aht staff the progovernment troops could bring the terrorists in alrashedeen region to verge of collapse after taking full control of housing proj
by aht staff russian navy fleet starts strikes at terrorists positions in syrias aleppo kamal aljafa termed moscows kaliber cruise missile attacks on terrorist centers in western aleppo city and the town of albab north of
by aht staff jaish alfatah leader admits receiving financial military aid from saudi arabia | 0 |
2,527 | AUTHOR OF CHILDREN’S BOOKS Gets DESTROYED On Social Media After Mocking 11-Yr Old Barron Trump’s Reaction To Beheaded Dad Image | Children s author and father of two, Ken Jennings took to Twitter to bully 11-year old Barron Trump after entertainment site TMZ reported that Barron saw the photo of the bloodied and decapitated head of his father being held up by comedian Kathy Gifford while watching TV:TMZ reports: Barron Trump was watching TV & saw @kathygriffin holding the severed head. He thought it was his dad. My heart is broken. Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) May 31, 2017Although Jennings holds the record for the longest winning streak on the game show Jeopardy, it turns out he s really not that smart after all Children s author Ken Jennings obviously found the report about an 11-yr old boy being traumatized by a decapitated image of his dad on TV to be humorous, as he tweeted this disgusting comment in response to this heartbreaking story:Barron Trump saw a very long necktie on a heap of expired deli meat in a dumpster. He thought it was his dad & his little heart is breaking Ken Jennings (@KenJennings) May 31, 2017Twitter users came after Jennings. Some of them even sent tweets to Simon and Schuster asking them to stop working with this vile bully of children. Here are some of their response to Jennings tweet:I always try to be polite to people on here but this is a bridge too far. If this joke reflects who you are, you're an asshole. Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) May 31, 2017Which books so I won't purchase? Wow! A children's book author mocking a child bc he thought his dad was dead! WTF is up w/ these people?!?! Don't Get Mad (@DontBeSad2017) May 31, 2017Sorry, @KenJennings, unfollow. I don't need the trashy humor. Get that from all directions all day long. Not signing up for more. Ebookwormy (@Ebookwormy1) May 31, 2017I can't believe anyone as intelligent as you doesn't see the problem with mocking a child any child in this way. Juli Caldwell (@ImJuliCaldwell) May 31, 2017Let's tell Third Place Books, as listed on his Twitter bio, what we think about supporting this loser! @ThirdPlaceBooks Lady Liberty (@DutyOfAPatriot) May 31, 2017Haha would you get a load of this guy he actually thinks hes edgy for insulting an 11 year old child. aidan (@LangNasty) May 31, 2017Even Donald Trump Jr. replied to Jennings vile tweet attacking his young brother: It takes a real man to pick on an 11 year old. Yet another low from the left, but they will rationalize this away with their usual excuses. https://t.co/JDF3VsVEJ1 Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 31, 2017Jennings replied to Donald Trump Jr. that he will kill as many white rhinos as it takes to prove his masculinity to Donald Trump Jr. How very clever I will kill as many white rhinos as it takes to prove my masculinity to Donald Trump Jr. https://t.co/mm8YzH2NPB Ken Jennings (@KenJennings) May 31, 2017Facebook users also had plenty to say about Jennings vile remarks about Barron Trump on his Facebook page. Here are a few of their comments to Jennings:Takes a big tough guy to mock a child. A real genius doesn t make fun of a child. Pathetic.For such a smart man you certainly were quick to ruin your writing career. Maybe you and Kathy Griffin can go on an apology tour.You are truly a pile of human excrement .. your publisher should be ashamed.Does it really make you feel like a man to pick on an innocent 11 year old boy? You are a total douche!!!!Jennings you are a spineless sniveling coward. Why don t you talk smack to someone your own size you sick low life scumbag. | 0 |
2,528 | U.S. investigation finds no Afghan civilian casualties in Kunduz strike | KABUL (Reuters) - A U.S. investigation into reports that at least 13 civilians were killed during an operation in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz last week found no evidence of any civilian casualties, a statement from the U.S. military in Kabul said on Tuesday. United States Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A) has investigated allegations of civilian casualties in Kunduz province during the period of November 3 and 4; no evidence of civilian casualties has been found, the statement said. Officials in the Chahardara district outside Kunduz city said 13 people in two villages had been killed by U.S. air strikes in the area, while some reports said as many as 65 people had been killed. However, other Afghan civil and military officials denied the reports and said civilians had been evacuated before a combined operation in the area began. They said dozens of Taliban insurgents had been killed. We can confirm operations occurred in this area and numerous enemy combatants were killed, as also confirmed by Kunduz Governor Omarkhail and Ministry of Defense Spokesman Major General Dawlat Waziri, the U.S. statement said. The USFOR-A investigation was conducted independently and concluded that there were no civilian casualties. Specifically, no hospitals or clinics in the local area indicated treatment of people with wounds from armed conflict, it said. The issue of civilian casualties has taken on increasing sensitivity as the United States has stepped up air strikes against the Taliban as part of a more robust strategy aimed at breaking the stalemate with the insurgents. United Nations figures from last month showed a 52 percent increase in civilian casualties from air strikes in the first nine months of the year from the previous year, with 205 killed and 261 wounded. | 1 |
2,529 | Brexit deal guarantees no hard border in Ireland: Irish foreign minister | DUBLIN (Reuters) - The agreement reached by Brexit negotiators early on Friday fully guarantees that there can be no hard border on the island of Ireland once Britain leaves the European Union, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said. Deal Confirmed! Ireland supports Brexit negotiations moving to Phase 2 now that we have secured assurances for all on the island of Ireland - fully protecting GFA (Good Friday Agreement), peace process, all-Island economy and ensuring that there can be NO HARD BORDER on the Island of Ireland post Brexit, Coveney said on Twitter. Very good outcome for everyone on the island of Ireland - no Hard Border guaranteed!, he added. | 1 |
2,530 | New York City watchdog decries 'irregularities' in primary voting | NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York City official on Tuesday ordered an audit of the city’s election authorities, citing “deep concern over widespread reports of poll site problems and irregularities” as voters cast their ballots in the state’s primary election. New York Republicans and Democrats are holding presidential nominating contests for the Nov. 8 election. Delegate-rich New York, the fourth most populous U.S. state, is a big prize for the candidates. “There is nothing more sacred in our nation than the right to vote, yet election after election, reports come in of people who were inexplicably purged from the polls, told to vote at the wrong location or unable to get into their polling site,” city Comptroller Scott Stringer said. Stringer said his office had received reports of polling stations that failed to open on time and were unable to tell voters when they would be operational. A voter in the borough of Queens reported a broken machine and staff instructing voters to place their ballots in a “slot” for processing at a later time. In a letter to the New York City Board of Elections, the comptroller cited reports that polling staff were unable to operate voting machines, were giving out conflicting information and erroneously directing voters to alternate sites. Of particular concern, Stringer said, were allegations of widespread removal of eligible voters from registration rolls and incorrect party affiliations on voter records. Stringer said eligible Democratic voters in Brooklyn fell by 120,000 from November 2015 to April 2016 without explanation. Board of Elections officials could not immediately be reached for comment. | 1 |
2,531 | “We are progressive”: Activist Defends $190K Payout To Illegal Alien By Taxpayers For Being Turned Over To ICE [Video] | Immigration advocate Roberto Hernandez joined Tucker Carlson to debate the controversial payout of $190K to an illegal for being turned over to ICE. You won t believe the reasoning! This is insane!An illegal immigrant is set to be awarded $190,000 from San Francisco after police turned him over to immigration authorities, which is a violation of the city s sanctuary policy. Pedro Figueroa-Zarceno, who is from El Salvador and was living in the U.S. illegally, walked into a police station on December 2, 2015, to recover his stolen car. When he left the station, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) immediately took him into custody. Figueroa-Zarceno recently reached the massive settlement agreement with the city attorney s office. The agreement must be approved by the city s Board of Supervisors.Tucker argued it s insane that the city is paying Hernandez because they actually enforced U.S. federal immigration law. You shouldn t pay a criminal for breaking the law, Tucker said.Hernandez said that San Francisco has a sanctuary policy because citizens and city leaders believe that the federal government s immigration policy has failed. In San Francisco, we are different. We are progressive. We think different. We re leaders when it comes to being humanitarians, Hernandez said.Tucker asked why San Francisco is willing to ignore federal law, but only for illegal immigrants. If I m wanted for tax evasion in another state and the San Francisco police turn me over to the feds, why shouldn t I be able to sue the city of San Francisco for cooperating with the federal authorities? | 0 |
2,532 | Ivanka Trump Sends Out #WorldRefugeeDay Tweet, Gets Stomped On By Twitter Users Everywhere | Ivanka Trump decided on Tuesday evening to send out a tweet in honor of World Refuge Day, and once again, she apparently forgot who her father is. On #WorldRefugeeDay we remember the plight & courage of the 22 million+ refugees globally. We must work to restore peace & end this crisis, she wrote, seemingly oblivious to the cruel and bigoted stance her own father has taken against refugees.On #WorldRefugeeDay we remember the plight & courage of the 22 million+ refugees globally. We must work to restore peace & end this crisis. https://t.co/CMMn8zno10 Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) June 20, 2017Not surprisingly, Twitter users everywhere were ready to remind Ivanka that her father has made it his mission to ban refugees from entering the United States as part of his unconstitutional Muslim Ban.Your father retweeted this, hon. Your own father. pic.twitter.com/AsZWgge4XL Iskandrah (@iskandrah) June 20, 2017I mean yeah, you re right but based on everything you and your dad have done I guess I would just say shut up? Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) June 20, 2017Please tell me this is a joke. Impeach Donald Trump (@Impeach_D_Trump) June 20, 2017 By going to the Supreme Court to ban them from AmericaIf you care, DO SOMETHING, because like your purses, were just not buying this Orli Matlow (@HireMeImFunny) June 20, 2017But not too hard, and definitely lets not open our doors to them. pic.twitter.com/vakBX4YLb0 AMBER (@NineteenPercent) June 20, 2017So have we figured out what the hell is going on then? Justin (@JustinDecker) June 20, 2017R u kidding me, ur father is trying to get a travel ban to keep refugees out. This just makes me laugh stay at home with ur kids. WH NOT 4 u RUTKRU (@MSKRUM) June 20, 2017Oh the irony. Alan Davis (@Socialism4Jobs) June 20, 2017Did you just lap yourself in the race for most self deluded? pic.twitter.com/OQBVRmubPj Dana Resigns (@frreigns) June 20, 2017 We remember the plight and courage of the 22M+ Sadly remembering them is ALL you re doing. Elaine (@emac66) June 20, 2017When you say WE must work, who exactly are you talking about? Jerry Mathers (@HandsAtlanta) June 20, 2017This is a joke right? I mean you know @POTUS , your father, disagrees with this and is attempting to block all refugees, right? Right? Paul Dickinson (@prdickinson) June 20, 2017Are these the same refugees your daddy wanted to keep out of our country? #Complicit Mandy E (@amandaJeberly) June 21, 2017Are you serious right now?! You tweeting you care about refugees while your father is actively screwing them pic.twitter.com/PxF1IGmUMw AE ?????? (@iamchefapple) June 20, 2017Sorry, Ivanka. No one is buying it. Your words are empty and hollow, just like your father s soul. You had to see this response coming, right?Featured image via Win McNamee/Getty Images | 0 |
2,533 | Turkey raises oil threat after Iraqi Kurds back independence | ERBIL, Iraq/ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey threatened potentially crippling restrictions on oil trading with Iraqi Kurds on Thursday after they backed independence from Baghdad in a referendum that has alarmed Ankara as it faces a separatist insurgency from its own Kurdish minority. Iraq s Kurds endorsed secession by nine to one in a vote on Monday that has angered Turkey, the central government in Baghdad, and other regional and world powers, who fear the referendum could lead to renewed conflict in the region. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi s office said he had been told by Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim in a call that Turkey would break with past practice and deal only with the Baghdad government over oil exports from Iraq. Most oil that flows through a pipeline from Iraq to Turkey comes from Kurdish sources and a cut-off would severely damage the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), which relies on sales of crude for almost all its hard currency revenues. So far the pipeline is operating normally despite Turkish threats to impose economic sanctions on the Kurdish autonomous region in Iraq. Turkish officials, however, ramped up pressure on the Kurds on Thursday. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin the Kurdish government made a big mistake by holding the referendum and must be prevented from bigger mistakes. He said Turkey and Russia agreed the territorial integrity of Iraq and Syria must be preserved. Yildirim said separately that Turkey would respond harshly to any security threat on its border after the referendum, although that was not its first choice. Yildirim also said he agreed with Abadi to coordinate economic and trade relations with the central government in Baghdad. He said Turkey, Iran and Iraq may meet to discuss the referendum. Turkish government spokesman Bekir Bozdag said Turkish armed forces would stop training Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces, which protected oil fields from capture by the Islamic State. With the region s largest Kurdish population, Turkey has been battling a three-decade insurgency in its largely Kurdish southeast and fears the referendum will inflame separatist tensions at home. The United Nations offered on Thursday to help solve the problem between the KRG and Baghdad, the Iraqi foreign ministry said following a meeting between Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari and Jan Kubis, the top U.N. envoy in Iraq. The United States was willing, if asked, to help facilitate talks to try to ease tensions between the two sides, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. Kurdish officials say they can withstand an economic blockade because they are self-sufficient in terms of power generation and fuel supply and have fertile agricultural land. They also say that three quarters of the trucks that cross the Turkish border are heading to territory controlled by Baghdad rather than to the Kurdish region, so the Turkish and Iraqi economies would suffer from any blockade. But travel to the Kurdish region will become harder if airports in Erbil and Sulaimaniya are closed to international flights. Their autonomous region in Iraq is the closest the Kurds have come in modern times to a state. It has flourished amid Iraq s civil war but may struggle to maintain investment if it is blockaded economically. Kurdish officials say that Abadi s tough response to the referendum vindicates Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani s decision to hold the referendum because they believe Baghdad will not cooperate under any circumstances. The officials feel that if Baghdad, Turkey, Iran, the United States and the world line up against them, and the Kurds cannot see an end to their hardship, Barzani could come under pressure at home to declare independence. A diplomatic drive to forestall Monday s referendum failed to persuade Kurdish leaders, some of the United States closest Middle Eastern allies, former U.S. officials and experts said. There were expectations that the United States, which said it would not recognize the vote, could use its ties to the Iraqi Kurds to persuade Barzani to cancel the referendum in exchange for a guarantee of talks with Baghdad. The U.S. bid to stop the referendum failed, experts said, in part because the aging Barzani sees fulfilling aspirations for an independent Kurdish state as his legacy. The United States, major European countries and nearby Turkey and Iran all opposed the referendum as destabilizing at a time when all sides are still fighting Islamic State. A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition said there had been a loss of focus in the fight against Islamic State since the referendum. Baghdad has heaped pressure on the Kurds, demanding they cancel their referendum, while parliament urged the Iraqi government to send troops to take control of oilfields held by Kurdish forces. Baghdad also demanded that foreign governments close their diplomatic missions in the Kurdish capital Erbil. Foreign airlines have begun cancelling flights to Kurdish airports after Iraq said international flights to Erbil and Sulaimaniya would be suspended from Friday. Turkey told its citizens to leave northern Iraq before the ban came into force. Kurdish authorities have rejected Baghdad s demands that they should annul the referendum and hand over control of their international airports, instead offering to hold talks with Baghdad in an attempt to defuse the airports crisis. Erdogan and Putin met in Ankara on Thursday. Russia s interest in the region is growing. Oil major Rosneft (ROSN.MM) is increasing investment in Kurdistan and the Kurds have been developing strong ties with Moscow. Russia is one of the biggest investors in the economy of Iraqi Kurdistan at this moment, said Kirill Vertyayev, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow. There is a certain conflict of interest because neither Baghdad nor Ankara are happy about Russia s economic expansion in Iraqi Kurdistan ... that s why Russia is acting carefully, he said. The Kurds consider Monday s referendum to be an historic step in a generations-old quest for a state of their own, while Iraq considers the vote unconstitutional. Barzani, who is KRG president, has said the vote is not binding, but meant to provide a mandate for negotiations with Baghdad and neighboring countries over the peaceful secession of the region from Iraq. Baghdad has rejected talks. The Kurds were left without a state of their own when the Ottoman Empire collapsed a century ago. Around 30 million live in Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran. The Kurds say the referendum acknowledges their contribution in confronting Islamic State after it overwhelmed the Iraqi army. | 1 |
2,534 | U.S.-South Korea military exercise to start Aug. 21: Pentagon | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A joint U.S.-South Korean military exercise will start on Aug. 21 as planned, the Pentagon said on Friday as the United States and North Korea traded threats of war. The annual joint military exercise, called Ulchi-Freedom Guardian, is expected to go ahead as originally scheduled and will start on Aug. 21, said Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Logan, a Pentagon spokesman. | 1 |
2,535 | Court ruling allows Syrian youth to bring family to Germany | BERLIN (Reuters) - A Berlin court ruling that permits the parents and siblings of a 16-year-old Syrian migrant to join him in Germany will now take effect after the foreign ministry abruptly dropped an appeal of the decision, German broadcaster ARD reported on Friday. ARD said Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, a member of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), decided to drop an appeal filed just days ago, allow the ruling to take effect, following intense criticism by top SPD leaders. The ruling was the first to deal with the right of under-age migrants to bring their families to Germany and could set a new precedent, ARD reported. The foreign ministry had no immediate comment on the issue, but Gabriel told the broadcaster: We know that it is bad, of course, when minors are here without their parents. It s a good thing that we now have clarity. The ministry s reversal on the issue comes as Gabriel s party prepares to enter talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives about continuing the grand coalition that has ruled Germany for the past four years. Migration - and the issue of allowing migrants to bring family members to Germany - could be a key topic in the coalition talks, which are due to begin on Jan. 7. Merkel had failed to reach agreement with two smaller parties. The case in question centers on a Syrian youth who arrived in Germany in the summer of 2015 with an older cousin, and was granted only subsidiary protection rather than full asylum. In 2016, the government had decided to suspend family re-unifications for two years for migrants with subsidiary protection , which is granted to people who are not considered as being persecuted individually but in whose home country there is war, torture or other inhumane treatment. The court said that rejecting the family reunification in this case violated child welfare protections guaranteed under the European human rights convention and the U.N. Refugee Convention. | 1 |
2,536 | BREAKING VIDEO: CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS MEMBERS Rehang “Cops as Pigs” Painting In Capitol Building…Shameful! | TAKE IT DOWN! BLM Supporter, Dem Congressman Hangs COP-HATING, Race-Baiting Art-Work In U.S. Capitol BuildingJust keep it up Democrats and soon you won t have any supporters | 0 |
2,537 | Federal judge refuses to overturn Trump pardon of Arpaio | PHOENIX (Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday upheld President Donald Trump’s pardon earlier this year of 85-year-old former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, rejecting legal challenges by outside groups. U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton said that she had considered the petitions filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona and other organizations, including one staffed by lawyers who worked for former Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration, but found no legal grounds to overturn the pardon. Bolton did not rule on a request by Arpaio’s attorneys to take the further step of vacating his conviction. Trump, a Republican who has promised to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, has praised Arpaio’s crackdown on illegal immigrants in Maricopa County, Arizona, that drew condemnation from civil rights groups. Arpaio was convicted in July of willfully violating a 2011 injunction barring his officers from stopping and detaining Latino motorists solely on suspicion they were in the country illegally. He had not yet been sentenced when Trump issued the pardon in August. | 1 |
2,538 | Watch A Trump Supporter GO BONKERS Trying To Defend Trump’s Neo-Nazi Tweet (VIDEO) | Anyone trying to defend Donald Trump after his disgusting anti-Semitic tweet is having a really hard time.First, former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski got shut down at his new gig on CNN for insisting that there was nothing wrong with Trump tweeting out an anti-Hillary Clinton meme that blatantly used the Star of David and originated from a website frequented by neo-Nazis and white supremacists. It didn t go well for Lewandowski, and it didn t go well for Michael Caputo, who tried to come to Trump s rescue earlier today.In a Monday morning interview with CNN, the former Trump campaign advisor tried to make the case that Trump shouldn t be apologizing for the anti-Semitic post. According to Caputo, there was nothing to be sorry about: This was not intended to offend anyone. Caputo also denied that the star s shape was the Star of David, and insisted that it was merely a geometric image that some associate with the horrible days of Nazi Germany. Reminding everyone that the Trump campaign did in fact fix the Star of David debacle by slapping a circle over it, Caputo continued: This was an unforced error, there s no question about it, otherwise they wouldn t have changed it. But to apologize for it? I don t think so. TwitterThe interview got even more insane as Caputo insisted that almost no one found the image offensive (which is a lie) and accused the media of making a big deal of the red Star of David s appearance on the image to distract people from focusing on the FBI investigation on Hillary Clinton s emails.Unable to take this nonsense any longer, CNN s John Berman stepped in and pointed out that the meme had appeared on a site that was trafficked by neo-Nazis. This caused Caputo to basically lose his mind and fire back, Do you know that? Do you know that? Berman replied, Yes! , which inspired Caputo to basically lie again and say that Trump s social media team had no control in choosing what images were tweeted from Trump s Twitter account because they were deluged at all times [with] incoming images from people who make them who want the campaign to use them. That s the dumbest excuse Caputo could have come up with, but there s probably some truth in it. Basically, Caputo is saying that Trump s social media staff has been so overwhelmed with people sending them Nazi images, they felt obligated to post one. Sounds about right.You can watch Caputo epically fail at defending Trump below: Featured image via Marc Piscotty / Getty Images | 0 |
2,539 | WATCH: Trump Supporter Gets Totally CRUSHED By Robert Reich For Defending Anti-Labor Cabinet Pick | Trump mouthpiece Kayleigh McEnany attacked former Labor Secretary Robert Reich on Thursday night and quickly discovered that she was out of her depth.While CNN awaited Donald Trump s appearance at a rally, Anderson Cooper turned to Reich for his thoughts on Trump conflicts of interest and his cabinet selections.Reich slammed Trump s picks, pointing out that he has chosen people to run departments that they want to destroy. For instance, Jeff Sessions has been chosen to run the Department of Justice and he s an opponent of civil rights and the Voting Right Act. Betsy DeVos hates public education and she has been chosen to run the Education Department. And Andrew Puzder was recently chosen to run the Labor Department even though he is hostile towards workers and opposes minimum wage, overtime pay, and basic labor regulations.Well, of course, Kayleigh McEnany threw a hissy fit about what Reich said and she proceeded to attack him and offer a pathetic defense of Trump s choices. I just want to quickly say to Secretary Reich, I thought it was really unfair the way you characterize the cabinet picks, she began. You know Jeff Sessions is a great guy. He s not against the Voting Rights Act. But that s not true. Jeff Sessions is, in fact, against the Voting Rights Act. He has often claimed that its provisions are unconstitutional and actually cheered when the Supreme Court gutted a key piece of it in 2013.And then McEnany defended Trump s Labor pick. I think the pick today, Mr. Puzder, is a guy who his employees have said he cares about the cashier the same way he cares about the business owners, McEnany said. I think it s really unfair to characterize him that way. She continued to defend Puzder by noting that he only opposes the federal minimum wage, which really doesn t help since without federal minimum wage many red states would set their already low wages even lower. She then accused Reich of attacking Puzder just because he s a conservative. Just because he s conservative, it doesn t mean he s anti-worker, she whined.But Reich was prepared for such bullshit and promptly ripped McEnany a new one. I m not saying he s anti-worker because he s conservative, Reich replied. I m saying he s anti-worker because he s anti-worker. The Department of Labor came into his restaurants and found that half his restaurants had wage and labor violations that violated the law of the United States. You think that s pro-worker? You think it s pro-worker that his weekly paycheck equals the average yearly paycheck of his workers and he s against a minimum wage increase? You think that is pro-worker? I m sorry I ve never heard of that. McEnany then resorted to accusing Reich of being a socialist and claimed that Puzder is qualified because he s a rich fast food CEO. Of course, she doesn t mention that he s a staunch opponent of the Fight for $15, a movement by fast food workers to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. In other words, he has a conflict of interest because by taking the Labor Secretary job he can destroy the drive for fair wages that his own employees are part of.And Reich called McEnany out for it. But why should they be Secretary of Labor when they are in charge of enforcing the labor laws and they have a record of not even obeying the labor laws? he asked.McEnany then spouted bullshit about how trickle-down will work because it worked in the 1980s, which forced Reich to shut her down. It did not work in the 1980s, Reich forcefully declared. Wages were flat The median wage started to flatten and decline. And that s because we had a president who believe in supply-side trickle-down economics and nothing trickled down Nothing nothing trickled down to typical workers. Here s the video via YouTube.Indeed, the only people who saw gains because of Reagan s policies were the wealthy. And his economic policies are still punishing Americans to this day and all Republicans want to do is double down on them like they did in Kansas, and as we all know, Kansas economy has imploded.The next time McEnany thinks about attacking a former Labor Secretary who was also a former Harvard professor and current professor at the University of California at Berkeley, she should just keep her mouth shut. She won t embarrass herself that way.Featured Image: Screenshot | 0 |
2,540 | Trump-Corker spat complicates drive for tax reform in U.S. Senate | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A public feud between President Donald Trump and influential fellow Republican Bob Corker could narrow the path for a tax overhaul in the U.S. Senate, where a Republican go-it-alone effort is already showing signs of disunity. Days after the Republican-controlled Congress took important steps toward advancing tax legislation, Trump’s Twitter attacks on Senator Corker over the weekend threatened to further alienate the president from other key Republicans such as Senator John McCain, whose “No” vote was pivotal in the party’s failure to repeal Obamacare in July. Although a foreign policy specialist, Corker is also a key player in the tax debate. He helped the Senate move closer to legislation by agreeing to a budget resolution that would allow tax reforms to reduce government revenue by up to $1.5 trillion over a decade, but he wants savings elsewhere and has vowed not to vote for a tax package that adds to the federal deficit. Republicans hope Corker will ultimately vote for tax reform in hopes of boosting economic growth. But Trump’s tweets do not help, especially now that Corker has decided against seeking re-election next year and is free to vote whichever way he wants without having to face voters again. Republicans are desperate to push through tax reform, seeing it as their last good chance to get a major legislative victory in the first year since 2006 that the party has controlled the White House and both chambers of Congress. Trump and top Republican lawmakers have unveiled a plan to slash taxes for businesses and individuals, the first comprehensive overhaul of the U.S. tax code since 1986. They hope to get it done by January. The tax push has been dogged by delays and distractions such as Trump’s criticisms of his own party’s leaders, including Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan. The latest incident erupted on Sunday when Trump lashed out at Corker in a series of derisive tweets saying the lawmaker had “begged” him for his endorsement ahead of the midterm election next year and announced his retirement after being turned down. Corker replied by describing the White House as an adult day care center, and told the New York Times that Trump risks setting the country on the path to “World War Three”. The spat complicates things for Republicans as they try to move tax legislation through the Senate, which they control by a slim 52-48 margin. Most Democrats oppose the plan, and Republicans cannot pass it if they lose support from more than two lawmakers of their own party. “This is a delicate balance,” said Stephen Moore, a fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation who helped write Trump’s campaign tax plan. “It all comes down to whether you can get 50 votes in the Senate. Right now, by my count, they’re at about 48. A few votes short.” Divisions have emerged over proposals to repeal the federal inheritance tax and a popular deduction for state and local taxes. Senate Republican Rand Paul has expressed unhappiness over reports that Trump’s tax plan could raise taxes on some middle-class Americans. Republicans need to keep Corker on board and prevent him from becoming a maverick like McCain, known for his sharply independent streak. “Bob Corker, at this point, is as free as John McCain is to do what he thinks is right,” said William Galston, who was a domestic policy adviser to former President Bill Clinton. Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist with close ties to Congress and the White House, said he thinks most Republican senators will get in line despite their concerns over Trump’s treatment of their colleagues. “While it may really bother other Senate Republicans and it’s unnerving that one of their own is being attacked, most aren’t retiring and know they must still work with the White House or answer to frustrated voters,” Bonjean said. | 1 |
2,541 | Trump picks opponent of higher minimum wage for Labor Department | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump named fast-food executive Andy Puzder to head the U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday, drawing criticism from labor advocates worried about his opposition to a higher minimum wage and government regulation of the workplace. Puzder, chief executive of CKE Restaurants Inc, which operates the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s fast-food chains, has frequently argued in the media that higher minimum wages would hurt workers by forcing restaurants to close. He has bashed a new Labor Department rule aimed at extending overtime pay to more than 4 million U.S. workers and has praised the benefits of automation in the fast-food industry. Fast-food workers, who are largely not unionized, are engaged in a multi-year campaign known as the “Fight for $15,” which is supported by labor unions, to raise minimum wages to $15 an hour. They have had state-wide successes in New York and California and in cities and municipalities such as Seattle. The federal minimum wage is $7.25. Workers in states that have higher minimum wages are entitled to the higher rate, the Labor Department says. Trump, in a statement released by his transition team, praised Puzder for a “record fighting for workers” and said he would ensure occupational safety standards. “He will save small businesses from the crushing burdens of unnecessary regulations that are stunting job growth and suppressing wages,” Trump said. In the same statement, Puzder, 66, said he agreed with Trump that “the right government policies can result in more jobs and better wages for the American worker.” The Labor Department regulates wages, safety and discrimination in the workplace. Republican Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in last month’s election by carrying swing states - and some traditionally Democratic states - in the U.S. Rust Belt after promising to create jobs and to review or cancel trade deals that he said were bad for workers. National labor leaders had urged their rank-and-file members to back Clinton, saying Trump’s appointments and policies would not align with his promises to workers. Labor leaders have been girding for Trump to appoint pro-business regulators at the Labor Department and the National Labor Relations Board, and to roll back key regulatory initiatives of the Obama administration such as the Labor Department rule granting overtime pay to more than 4 million salaried workers, both unionized and not unionized. “He was talking a good game when he was running for president, as far as helping workers and leveling the playing field for them, but with the nominations he’s made it’s just the opposite,” said Lee Saunders, president of the public employees union AFSCME. Shake-ups are expected under Trump at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, which enforces federal anti-discrimination laws. Trump will have an early opportunity to shape the EEOC when he replaces its general counsel, Obama appointee David Lopez, who is leaving the agency this month, and a vacancy on the commission. Trump will also be able to fill two current vacancies on the five-member NLRB early in his term, likely tipping the agency to a more business-friendly posture. Although just 11.1 percent of U.S. workers were represented by a union in 2015 - down from 20.1 percent in 1983, the first year government statistics were kept - labor unions are a powerful force in Democratic politics. But union members’ support for Clinton at the election was lower than it had been for President Barack Obama four years ago. About 51 percent of voters from union households backed Clinton, with 42 percent supporting Trump, a CNN exit poll showed. Democrat Obama won 58 percent of the same voters in his 2012 re-election win against Republican Mitt Romney. Business groups welcomed the appointment of Puzder. Robert Cresanti, president of the International Franchise Association, an industry group, praised him as an “exceptional choice” who would bring “business experience and policy acumen on so many issues impacting employers and employees.” Democrats were critical. “In Andrew Puzder, Trump found a labor secretary that would help him roll back the minimum wage, end the overtime rule that will raise wages for millions, weaken safeguards for workers, and to wipe out unions,” said American Bridge, a liberal advocacy group. Trump’s decision to pick Puzder comes as he engaged in a Twitter dispute with the head of a local United Steelworkers union in Indiana. United Steelworkers Local 1999 President Chuck Jones, who represents workers at United Technologies Corp’s Carrier plant in Indianapolis, criticized Trump for inflating the number of jobs that would be saved by his intervention in the company’s decision to move some production to Mexico. Trump responded on Twitter that Jones had done a “terrible job representing workers.” Jones said after speaking to the company that 800 jobs would remain in Indianapolis, of which 730 will be union jobs and 70 management positions. Trump said last week that a deal by Indiana to give the company $7 million in tax breaks would keep 1,100 jobs in the region. “Our people, at that point in time, got their hopes back up that they might have a job,” Jones told CNBC on Thursday. “All he had to do is come back and say I was misled by (United Technologies),” Jones said about Trump. “Instead of doing that he goes on the attack on me?” | 1 |
2,542 | 3 PEOPLE LINE UP TO SEE Tim Kaine Speak In A CLASSROOM…Mike Pence Packing LARGE VENUES Across America [VIDEO] | The only way Hillary and Tim Kaine can win this election at this point, is through massive voter fraud. The enthusiasm for Trump and Pence has been enormous from the beginning and has only increased, while Hillary and Tim can barely fill a phone booth only days before the general election Tim Kaine was speaking in Room 102 of Building U at Florida SouthWester State College s Thomas Edison (Lee) Campus.NBC called these three people a small line. Small line forming at Tim Kaine event venue at FSW campus in Fort Myers. @NBC2 is here! pic.twitter.com/YJktz4VT0p DeliaDAmbraTV (@DeliaDAmbraTV) November 5, 2016By the time the doors opened to a tiny room inside the college, there were a dozen people ON A COLLEGE CAMPUS who were enthusiastically waiting to see Hillary s lapdog VP:Line growing at Tim Kaine event in Ft Myers @NBC2 pic.twitter.com/TmqejZLj5O DeliaDAmbraTV (@DeliaDAmbraTV) November 5, 2016Via: Gateway PunditCompare Tim Kaine s lackluster response to his rallies to Trump s VP candidate Mike Pence, who s packing large venues with supporters. Check out the support Pence is getting in critical swing states across America.Michigan:Great morning in Holland, MI! With just 3 days to go, we're heading to WI and VA to deliver our closing argument to the American people. pic.twitter.com/sfMhiiudxK Mike Pence (@mike_pence) November 5, 2016Virginia:Huge crowd tonight at George Mason University! We're on the path to victory, and Virginia is ready for Election Day! #MAGA pic.twitter.com/mt9GElZ5L3 Mike Pence (@mike_pence) November 6, 2016Florida:Thank you Miami! A @realDonaldTrump administration will be on the side of freedom & a better life in this hemisphere #Cuba #Venezuela pic.twitter.com/R1HzSE9s9E Mike Pence (@mike_pence) November 5, 2016North Carolina:Thank you Greenville! Great to have the 'Women for Trump' bus tour join us this afternoon at our rally as they crisscross North Carolina pic.twitter.com/JYujYul0QJ Mike Pence (@mike_pence) November 4, 2016Pennsylvania:Great rally in Pennsylvania! @realDonaldTrump will fight for a government of, by and for the people. We will #MakeAmericaGreatAgain! pic.twitter.com/8abi3CYVO6 Mike Pence (@mike_pence) November 4, 2016 | 0 |
2,543 | Russian ex-minister Ulyukayev jailed for eight years over $2 million bribe | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Former Russian economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev was found guilty of soliciting a $2 million bribe and sentenced to eight years in jail on Friday, in a case that has shone a rare light on infighting among the elite ahead of a presidential election. Ulyukayev, the most senior serving official to be arrested in decades, was found guilty of accepting the bribe last year from Rosneft (ROSN.MM) chief executive Igor Sechin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin. Sechin took part in an elaborate sting operation on Nov. 14 2016 involving Russia s FSB security service which ended in the arrest of Ulyukayev, 61, the latest twist in what several sources said was a Kremlin turf war. People have ambitions and they are fighting over them, said one senior source who knows several of the people involved in the case. Ulyukayev, who denied the charges, said he d been set up. He said he thought the bag with the bribe was a gift of expensive alcohol. He said he would appeal and a source close to Ulyukayev said his lawyers hoped Putin might pardon him if that failed. The case s denouement comes just months before a March presidential election which incumbent Putin is expected to win. If, as expected, he is re-elected he will be 71 at the end of his new term and is barred by the constitution from running for a third consecutive term. With that deadline looming, turf wars take on extra importance because they could help decide who runs Russia after Putin. The verdict and the harsher-than-expected sentence Ulyukayev was widely forecast to get a suspended sentence is likely to be interpreted as a sign that Sechin s place at Putin s side is safe and that he is increasingly influential, something that has alarmed other members of the elite. We re dealing with a court that has been hijacked by personal interests, Gleb Pavlovsky, an ex-Putin adviser, wrote on social media. State prosecutors had said that Ulyukayev had asked for the bribe in exchange for approving the sale of the state-controlled oil company Bashneft (BANE.MM) to Rosneft, something he initially opposed. Boris Neporozhniy, a state prosecutor, hailed Friday s verdict as a sign of the supremacy of the law, while a spokesman for Rosneft, the oil firm Sechin runs, said Ulyukayev had been caught red-handed and that the evidence against him had been rock solid. Before his arrest, Ulyukayev had been one of the leading figures in a faction of economic liberals who argued for less state control over the economy. Sechin is widely seen as the main champion of the opposite view, that the state should consolidate its grip, particularly over the energy sector that provides a large share of Russia s state revenue through its two biggest companies, Rosneft and Gazprom. He is backed by others, many of them with a background in state security, who share his view. Two sources said the way Ulyukayev s trial had been conducted showed that his rivals for influence in the ruling elite had used the trial to try to push back against him. They did that by lobbying officials for the trial to be held in public, and by leaking elements of the prosecution case to the media, the two sources said. Sechin has publicly opposed the court s decision to release audio tapes of the sting operation. The fact that the trial has been held in public and not behind closed doors showed the limits of Sechin s influence, the sources said. Ulyukayev, who was handcuffed and placed in a courtroom cage after the verdict, looked shocked and said he had been treated unfairly. Of course it s unjust, he told reporters. When one reporter pointed out he d received the minimum custodial sentence for the charges, Ulyukayev held up his handcuffed hands and said: You call this the minimum? When asked about the case on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment. Former Russian finance minister Alexei Kudrin, an adviser to Putin and a strong advocate of less state control over the economy, strongly criticised the verdict. It s a terrible, groundless verdict, Kudrin said on social media. It s weak work by the investigation... Many face such injustice these days. | 1 |
2,544 | Bernie Sanders Gets Some Pretty Outspoken Praise From Biden (VIDEO) | Vice President Joe Biden has nothing but glowing praise for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Biden, who contemplated a run for the presidency but decided to opt out, said of Sanders: Bernie is speaking to a yearning that is deep and real. And he has credibility on it. And that is the absolute enormous concentration of wealth of a small group of people, with a middle class now being left out. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkFFh2M8rAc]Biden was referring to Sanders consistent record of speaking out on and pushing initiatives about income inequality throughout his career. Sanders has made the issue a central theme of his campaign. Biden also believes the issue of income inequality is of vital importance to the country. He said: There used to be a basic bargain. If you contributed to the profitability of an enterprise, you share in that profit, and that s been broken. Productivity is up and wages are stagnant. Sanders strength is with young voters, with polls showing that he leads in double digits in that demographic. Many millennials, for example, have enormous college debt and they continue to have a tough time in the job market. Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, an organization that encourages young people to get involved in politics, said: Part of it is really sort of the age that they grew up in. If you think about the millennials, that age group, they turned 18 as President George W Bush took office. That s the world they grew up in: their country is at war, it seemed to have lost purpose. And then as they were graduating from college the recession hit. So the social contrast that people generally have that you invest in your education and you get paid off was a myth for them. One thing is his genuineness. He s been consistent warrior against economic inequality since the 60s, and he hasn t changed a bit. Although Biden has not officially made an endorsement, he did meet with Sanders last October to discuss campaign finance reform.Bernie Sanders campaign is moving in the right direction, gaining momentum at the right time more than any other candidate despite the fact that the media has not paid attention to him. If the current polls are indicative of things to come, the Republicans better look out. Polls show him trouncing all Republican candidates, including Donald Trump by a wide margin.Featured Image: Marc Nozell (flickr) | 0 |
2,545 | Austrian police hunt gunman after two killed in shooting | ZURICH (Reuters) - Austrian police are searching for a 66-year-old man suspected of shooting dead two neighbors and wounding a third before escaping in a white Volkswagen van. The suspect from the Graz area is suspected of killing a 64-year-old man and a 65-year-old woman and wounding a 48-year-old woman in a dispute among neighbors, Styria province police said in a statement. The suspect fled in a Volkswagen van whose number plate matched that of one with a poster reading Heil Hitler across its rear window that was shown on an Austrian website. The website offers users a platform to criticize alleged abuses of power by justice officials. Police warned residents not to approach the suspect amid a search stretching across neighboring provinces. | 1 |
2,546 | Hacking Electronic Voting Machines is Easy | 21st Century Wire says It s the big dirty secret that neither political party in the US wants to seriously discuss because they both use these very systems to fix elections. How easy is it to rig an election with electronic voting machines? Watch as Princeton computer scientists Ariel J. Feldman, J. Alex Halderman successfully hack a Diebold (now Premier) electronic voting machine. They did this research as graduate students working with Edward W. Felten. Watch: SUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 |
2,547 | JUDGE JEANINE IS FURIOUS! “Hillary Won’t Stop Lying!” [VIDEO] | Can you blame her for losing her cool with Crooked Lying Hillary? Share this with all of your undecided friends!https://youtu.be/CCkXOix0g2Y | 0 |
2,548 | Trump, Republicans set timeframe for introducing Obamacare replacement | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress said on Thursday that they will soon unveil plans to repeal and replace Obamacare, providing a timeframe for a legislative goal they have struggled with for weeks. Republicans, who control the White House, the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, have long vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act but have had difficulty agreeing on a detailed plan for replacing the signature domestic policy of former Democratic President Barack Obama. But announcements from Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan claimed progress. “We’re doing Obamacare, we’re in the final stages,” Trump told a news conference. “So we will be submitting sometime in early March, mid-March.” Earlier Thursday, Ryan told reporters on Capitol Hill that House Republicans would introduce legislation to repeal and replace Obama’s program after a 10-day recess that begins on Friday. “After the House returns following the Presidents Day break, we intend to introduce legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare,” Ryan said at a press conference. Presidents Day is on Monday and the House returns on Feb. 27. Ryan spoke shortly after many House Republicans huddled in a closed session with newly-installed U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price to discuss their options to change the 2010 law. The session was part pep talk and part laying out of talking points that can be delivered to constituents during the recess. A 19-page “policy brief” was distributed to lawmakers, and it included some details of the emerging House Republican healthcare strategy. In the weeks ahead, Republicans intend to repeal the penalties for Obamacare’s mandate requiring individuals to get coverage and employers to provide it, the policy brief said. The House Republican replacement plan for Obamacare will include an age-based monthly tax credit that Americans who do not get health insurance through their employer can use to buy health insurance and take from job to job, the brief said. House Republicans plan to unwind the expansion of the Medicaid healthcare program for the poor that happened under Obamacare, and eventually cap federal Medicaid payments to states, the document said. And they plan to repeal cuts that Obamacare made in payments to hospitals treating large numbers of uninsured. Lawmakers left the meeting saying there was plenty more work ahead on thorny issues. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady said there is “a range of options” for giving states more say over Medicaid. He also said there were options to offset the cost of a Republican plan, such as capping the tax exclusion for employer-based healthcare plans. | 1 |
2,549 | Pentagon delivers draft plan to defeat Islamic State to White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Pentagon-led preliminary plan to defeat Islamic State was delivered to the White House on Monday and U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was expected to brief senior administration officials, a Defense Department spokesman told reporters. Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis told reporters that it was the framework for a broader plan and looked at Islamic State around the world, not just Iraq and Syria. Davis said the plan would define what defeating Islamic State meant and was one that would “rapidly” defeat the militant group. He added that Mattis would discuss the plan, which is primarily a written one with accompanying graphics, with members of the Cabinet-level Principals Committee. The review of U.S. strategy comes at a decisive moment in the U.S.-led coalition effort against Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria, and could lead to relaxing some of the former Obama administration’s policy restrictions, like limits on troop numbers. The Trump administration has said defeating “radical Islamic terror groups” is among its top foreign policy goals. The Baghdad-based U.S. commander on the ground, Army Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, has said he believes U.S.-backed forces would recapture both of Islamic State’s major strongholds - the cities of Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria - within the next six months. Iraqi forces expect a fierce battle against Islamic State to retake Mosul. In Syria, the United States must soon decide whether to arm Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters, despite objections from NATO ally Turkey, which brands the militia group as terrorists. The U.S. military-led review includes input from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, as well as from the Treasury Department and the U.S. intelligence community. Davis said that in addition to diplomacy, the plan would include a military framework that builds on capabilities and goals on the battlefield. Experts have said the Pentagon could request additional forces, beyond the less than 6,000 American troops now deployed to both Iraq and Syria, helping the U.S. military go farther and do more in the fight. They also said the Pentagon may focus on smaller-scale options like increasing the number of attack helicopters and air strikes as well as bringing in more artillery. The military may also seek more authority to make battlefield decisions. | 1 |
2,550 | WOW! STERLING HTS, MI CITY COUNCIL Caves On Mega-Mosque Project In Middle Of Christian Neighborhood…Council Member CAUGHT On VIDEO Admitting Mosque Is Part Of “Religious War” | In September 2015, the Sterling Heights, MI City Council representing a city of 130,000 people in southeastern Michigan, denied the proposal for a mega-mosque in a residential neighborhood populated largely by Christian refugees who fled Islamic persecution in Iraq.Sterling Heights already has two mosques, but a third, the American Islamic Community Center, applied for a permit and was rejected after it was determined its proposed use was incompatible with the residential area. Too much traffic, too little parking, the city planning commission decided by a 9-0 vote against the mosque in September 2015.But in December, the mosque sued the city and the Obama Justice Department joined in, claiming the real reason the mosque was denied was because the city was caving to anti-Muslim bigotry in the community. A settlement deal was announced last night during a Sterling Heights City Council meeting.As expected, the attorney for the mosque developers claimed the reasons these mostly Christian refugees from Iraq are in opposition to a mosque being built in their residential neighborhood fake :Sterling Heights, MI residents spoke out against the proposed mega-mosque during a planning commission meeting where the residents were given an opportunity to have their views heard by the city council:Many of the Sterling Heights residents who live in the area of the proposed mosque are Christian-Iraqi refugees who fled persecution of Muslims in their native land. The last thing they want is an Islamic mega-mosque erected in their backyards. Before announcing the decision to go ahead with the proposed plan for building the mega-mosque in a local neighborhood, Sterling Heights City Councilman Doug Skrzyniarz claimed the primary reasons for going ahead with the plans were to avoid costly litigation while allowing officials to have more say in the mosque s layout. We have reduced our financial risk and we ve been able to have input on what the actual development is going to contain, Councilman Doug Skrzyniarz told the large crowd. But it s what he said next, that s NOT being reported by local or national news outlets that was even more telling and it happens near the end of the video: | 0 |
2,551 | Car bomb kills four Libyan troops at checkpoint: security sources | BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - A car bomb at a checkpoint killed four troops from Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar s forces on Thursday, in an attack claimed by Islamic State, officials and security sources said. Haftar s Libyan National Army is one of the most powerful armed brigades in Libya, where rival factions and their military backers have competed for control since the fall of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in a 2011 uprising. The car bomb explosion that targeted a checkpoint in Nawfiliya town has resulted in two killed of Sirte Security Directorate and some other wounded, LNA spokesman Ahmad Mesmari told Reuters. Two security sources later said two more soldiers had died. Islamic State claimed the attack, according to the militant group s AMAQ news agency. Haftar s forces have been fighting against Islamist militants and other foes in eastern Benghazi and are besieging the city of Derna to try to oust militants there. Thursday attack in Nawfiliya was 80 km (50 miles) from Ras Lanuf, part of Libya s Oil Crescent and one the OPEC country s major oil exporting terminals. Libyan officials are concerned Islamic State may try to regroup there after defeat in nearby Sirte city last year. | 1 |
2,552 | Merkel, responding to Trump, says Europe's fate is in its own hands | BERLIN (Reuters) - Europe’s destiny lies in its own hands, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday in response to comments from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who said in a newspaper interview he believed other countries would leave the EU after Britain. “I think we Europeans have our fate in our own hands,” Merkel told a joint news conference with New Zealand’s prime minister. Asked about Trump’s criticism of her migrant policy, Merkel said: “I am personally waiting for the inauguration of the U.S. president. Then of course we will work with him on all levels.” | 1 |
2,553 | Episode #199 – SUNDAY WIRE: ‘Trigger Warning: ID Politics’ with Gilad Atzmon and Jay Dyer | Episode #199 of SUNDAY WIRE SHOW resumes on Aug 20th, 2017 as host Patrick Henningsen brings you this week s LIVE broadcast on the Alternate Current Radio Network covering all the top news stories both at home and internationally LISTEN LIVE ON THIS PAGE AT THE FOLLOWING SCHEDULED SHOW TIMES:5pm-8pm UK Time | 12pm-3pm ET (US) | 9am-12am PT (US) This week we deliver another LIVE broadcast from the UK, as SUNDAY WIRE host Patrick Henningsen is joined by two incredible guests to discuss the disturbing political situation in America. In the first hour we ll be joined by artist and the brilliant and controversial best-selling author and internationally acclaimed jazz artist, Gilad Atzmon, to discuss Charlottesville and the problem of Left vs Right identity politics in the West, as well its roots in Jewish ID politics, and how society might be able overcome the downward spiral it currently finds itself in. In the second hour we re joined by author and analyst, Jay Dyer, from JaysAnalysis.com to talk about America s new culture wars and why Leftist activists are now pulling down statues across the country and how this might accelerate to more censorship and ceremonial book burning activities. In the final segment, we hear a thought-provoking interview with an American man who managed to turn from hating all Muslims to adopting a more open-minded, civil approach to dialogue proving that communication is the key to conflict resolution. Our guest Gilad Atzmon s book, Being In Time: A Post Political Manifesto is available now on: Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and gilad.co.uk. Also guest Jay Dyer s book, Esoteric Hollywood: Sex, Cults and Symbols in Film is available now at Amazon.com. SUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TVStrap yourselves in and lower the blast shield this is your brave new world *NOTE: THIS EPISODE MAY CONTAIN STRONG LANGUAGE AND MATURE THEMES*Download Episode #199Sunday Wire Radio Show Archives | 0 |
2,554 | Trump nixes Abrams for No. 2 State Department job: sources | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has nixed Elliott Abrams for the No. 2 position at the State Department after learning that the Republican foreign policy veteran had criticized him during the 2016 election campaign, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. Trump decided not to nominate Abrams, who had been the leading candidate for deputy secretary of state, after meeting him at the White House on Tuesday along with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, two sources told Reuters. Abrams, 69, who served in foreign policy roles for presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, was Tillerson’s pick for the job, and the administration’s newly installed top diplomat tried and failed to convince the president to reconsider and offer him the job, one of the sources said. Trump’s resistance to hiring his former Republican critics has slowed his ability to fill positions in his administration, especially in the foreign policy and national security areas. The leaves former diplomat Paula Dobriansky as a potential choice for the position. She has been on Trump’s short list, an official said. While Abrams did not sign either of two highly publicized letters from members of the Republican foreign policy establishment during the campaign pledging not to back Trump, he did criticize him both in his writings and media interviews during the presidential primaries. Abrams, 69, a neoconservative who has long advocated an activist U.S. role in the world, last served in government in the Bush White House, first as a Middle East expert on the National Security Council and later as a global democracy strategy adviser. He was assistant secretary of state during the Reagan administration and was convicted in 1991 on two misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress during the Iran-Contra scandal. He was later pardoned by President George H.W. Bush. | 1 |
2,555 | BIZARRE 2006 FILM Starring Former White House Staffer OMAROSA Surfaces With Crazy Plot Around Stealing Donald Trump’s Hair | There are conflicting reports about why the outrageous Omarosa Manigault Newman is leaving her undefined job at the White House. It was first reported that she was escorted out of the White House by Secret Service after General Kelly had enough of her nonsense, and fired her. Omarosa appeared on Good Morning America the following day to refute those claims, saying she resigned from her job and was not fired or escorted out of the White House as reported. So who is Omarosa, and why is she such a polarizing figure? Does this 2006 video that just emerged offer any clues?A pop-culture polymath sent Page Six a link to Soul Sistahs, an ultra-camp, hyper-kitsch, uber-low-budget 10-minute sci-fi short film.While the plot is virtually incomprehensible, as far as we can tell it focuses on an intergalactic yenta in a housecoat who kidnaps Omarosa in an attempt to steal Donald Trump s hair as part of a difficult-to-understand get-rich-quick scheme.The mini-flick was made back in 2006 two years after Omarosa shot to fame on Trump s NBC show The Apprentice. In this vaguely Barbarella -inspired work, the aging villain drugs Omarosa by feeding her spiked cake, whereupon the red PVC-clad former director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison goes off on a motorcycle to steal the future president s hair in a showdown on top of a CGI-created Trump Tower.The film, which has been viewed a mere 6,000 times as our source put it: It s a cult classic. I m the cult was made by former In Touch Weekly photo director Michael Todd, tabloid veteran Matt Coppa and his brother Andrew Coppa. NYP | 0 |
2,556 | Defying Trump, Iran says will boost missile capabilities | LONDON (Reuters) - Iran will strengthen its missile capabilities and not seek any country s permission, President Hassan Rouhani said on Friday rejecting demands from U.S. President Donald Trump. Rouhani spoke at a military parade where an Iranian news agency said one of the weapons on display was a new ballistic missile with range of 2,000 km (1,200 miles), capable of carrying several warheads. The Tasnim news agency, which quoted the head of the Revolutionary Guards aerospace division, Amirali Hajizadeh, gave few other details of the missile. Iranian state television showed footage of the firing of Khoramshahr missile but did not specify if the test-fire happened on Friday or in the past. At the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump said Iran was building its missile capability and accused it exporting violence to Yemen, Syria and other parts of the Middle East. He also criticized the 2015 pact that the United States and six other powers struck with Iran under which Tehran agreed to restrict its nuclear program in return for relief from economic sanctions. In a speech broadcast on state television, Rouhani said: We will increase our military power as a deterrent. We will strengthen our missile capabilities ... We will not seek permission from anyone to defend our country. All countries in the world supported the nuclear deal in the United Nations General Assembly this year ... except the United States and the Zionist regime (Israel), Rouhani said. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said that the agreement must be changed or the United States could not stick with it. Iran has said its nuclear accord cannot be renegotiated. The prospect of Washington reneging on the deal has worried some of the U.S. allies that helped negotiate it, especially as the world grapples with North Korea s nuclear and ballistic missile development. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said tensions on the Korean peninsula underlined the importance of the Iranian deal, and that China would continue to support it. Trump put Iran on notice in February for test-firing a ballistic missile and imposed new economic sanctions in July over its missile program and malign activities in the Middle East. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that the U.S. imposition of unilateral sanctions on Iran was illegitimate and undermines the collective nature of international efforts. | 1 |
2,557 | JUST RELEASED: Texts Between Anti-Trump Mueller Team Members Call Trump ‘Loathsome Human’…’Awful’ | Fox News just revealed what we knew but it s out in the open now: Text messages between FBI officials Peter Strzok and mistress Lisa Page in 2016 referred to then-candidate Donald Trump as a loathsome human and an idiot. HOW CAN THEY EVEN BEGIN TO BE NEUTRAL IN THIS SHAM OF AN INVESTIGATION?More than 10,000 texts between Strzok and Page were being reviewed by the Justice Department after Strzok was removed from Special Counsel Robert Mueller s Russia probe after it was revealed that some of them contained anti-Trump content.The bulk of the messages obtained by Fox News were sent on March 4 of last year, as Trump held a sizable lead in the GOP primary race. God, Trump is a loathsome human, Page texted Strzok on that date. Yet he many[sic] win, Strzok responded. Good for Hillary. Later the same day, Strzok texted Page, Omg Trump s an idiot. He s awful, Page answered. America will get what the voting public deserves, said Strzok, to which Page responded. That s what I m afraid of. WHY REASSIGNED AND NOT FIRED?Strzok, who was an FBI counterintelligence agent, was reassigned to the FBI s human resources division after the discovery of the exchanges with Page, with whom he was having an affair. Page was briefly on Mueller s team, but since has returned to the FBI.The messages disclosed were sent during the 2016 campaign and contain multiple discussions about various candidates BUT THE MOST DAMAGING ARE THE RIPS ON TRUMP. | 0 |
2,558 | How Fox News Is Trying To Cover Up Its Harassment Lawsuit | Lawyers working on behalf of Roger Ailes, the chairman of the right-wing Fox News Channel, filed a legal motion on Friday that would hide the details of former anchor Gretchen Carlson s sexual harassment allegations from the public.Ailes lawyers have asked that the lawsuit be moved from federal courts in New Jersey and into arbitration. They claim that Carlson is orchestrating a tar-and-feather campaign and that constitutes a breach of her contract with Fox News. They claim that the document she signed with the network mandates that disputes go into arbitration, and that a legal case with a jury can t go forward.Carlson s lawyers say the gambit is just an attempt to stop Fox s dirty laundry from being aired in public.Ms. Carlson s lawyers said Mr. Ailes was trying to force the case into a secret proceeding, and away from the public spotlight of a trial. Gretchen never agreed to arbitrate anything with Mr. Ailes, and the contract on which he relies does not mention him and is not signed by him, her lawyers, Nancy Erika Smith and Martin Hyman, said in a statement. Gretchen intends to fight for her right to a public jury trial, a right protected by the discrimination laws and our Constitution. Ms. Carlson did not name Fox News in the lawsuit. Mr. Ailes is the only defendant.Carlson alleges in her lawsuit that she was demoted to a daytime timeslot on the network after she rebuffed sexual advances from Ailes and complained about sexism from her co-hosts on Fox & Friends, particularly conservative host Steve Doocy.Ailes alleges that she was demoted and let go because of poor ratings. Since the allegations were first publicized, Carlson s lawyers say they have been deluged by complaints from women about Ailes, including one allegation about a 16-year-old female.Ailes is a long-time conservative who worked as part of Richard Nixon s operation, was associated with the infamous Willie Horton ad, and has a history of racially charged and sexist comments. He denies Carlson s claims.Featured image via YouTube | 0 |
2,559 | emp event forthcoming | link this guy didnt even win reelection but he thinks hes got a mandate of some sort to take up arms if the candidate he supports doesnt win in november link to tweet wreckless selfserving selfaggrandizing illiberal undemocratic moronic and contrary to the very rule of law his candidate purports to stand for when hes not ginning up cancerous fantasies among the froathymouthed sheep who fancy themselves as revolutionaries akin to the american colonists muskets lol okay alex jones no joe youre just an asshole blathering about civil war if your pick of leader doesnt win the day theres nothing laudable about that unbelievable how carelessly people like walsh are yapping about something that could result in millions of dead people and the end to america as we know it make trump president or else edit on by theantediluvian because no reason given | 0 |
2,560 | Judge in Michigan blocks deportation of 100 Iraqis | (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the deportation of about 100 Iraqi nationals rounded up in Michigan in recent weeks who argued that they could face persecution or torture in Iraq because they are religious minorities. U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith in Michigan issued an order staying the deportation of the Iraqis for at least two weeks as he decides whether he has jurisdiction over the matter. Goldsmith said it was unclear whether the Iraqis would ultimately succeed. The arrests shocked the close-knit Iraqi community in Michigan. Six Michigan lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives urged the government to hold off on the removals until Congress can be given assurances about the deportees’ safety. The Michigan arrests were part of a coordinated sweep in recent weeks by immigration authorities who detained about 199 Iraqi immigrants around the country. They had final deportation orders and convictions for serious crimes. The roundup followed Iraq’s agreement to accept deportees as part of a deal that removed the country from President Donald Trump’s revised temporary travel ban. Some of those affected came to the United States as children and committed their crimes decades ago, but they had been allowed to stay because Iraq previously declined to issue travel documents for them. That changed after the two governments came to the agreement in March. A U.S. Department of Justice spokeswoman could not immediately be reached for comment on the ruling. Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union representing the Iraqis in Michigan, said: “The court’s action today was legally correct and may very well have saved numerous people from abuse and possible death.” The U.S. government has argued that the district court does not have jurisdiction over the case. Only immigration courts can decide deportation issues, which can then only be reviewed by an appeals court, it said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has said that people with convictions for murder, rape, assault, kidnapping, burglary and drugs and weapons charges were among the Iraqis arrested nationwide. The ACLU argued that many of those affected in Michigan are Chaldean Catholics who are “widely recognized as targets of brutal persecution in Iraq.” Some Kurdish Iraqis were also picked up in Nashville, Tennessee. In a letter on Thursday, Tennessee Representative Jim Cooper, a Democrat, asked the Iraqi ambassador whether Iraq would be able to ensure safe passage for them if they were returned. | 1 |
2,561 | CNN ANCHOR Piles On Bill O’Reilly With Silly Sex Allegation…Once Dated Anthony Weiner | The accusations surrounding Bill O Reilly have been relentless. Nothing has been proven but in the news business you have to be aware of every move. Our litigious society will sue for any reason and that s just what this is .While appearing on his program early on in her career, Powers told CNN s Anderson Cooper that O Reilly kept screwing up fellow female commentator Margaret Hoover s name on air. Like Powers, Hoover has a blonde mane. Powers says O Reilly didn t know their names, but simply knew them for being in a sea of blonde women who appeared on Fox News.Powers said O Reilly thanked them for their blonde-ness. The pundit said she approached O Reilly s executive producer about what she believed to be his abhorrent behavior. She said she wouldn t appear on his show again if he acted like this and demanded an apology.But she wasn t getting one. O Reilly refused.Powers said she quit O Reilly s show for three years and then returned. We actually ended up having a quite a good relationship, she said.Powers said management brushed it off, saying that O Reilly was an Archie Bunker type, referring to the racist father figure in the priceless 1970s sitcom All in the Family. She then went to her boss, who said there was nothing they could do. She also complained to former Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes who she recalled saying, It s Bill. He s a jerk. Nobody likes him. And then Roger said, you know, Bill likes to put up dirty pictures and ask pretty girls to talk about them. And then he said, what am I going to do, he makes so much money, what am I going to do? Powers said she quit O Reilly s show for three years and then returned. We actually ended up having a quite a good relationship, she said.The pundit knows a little something about dealing with so-called powerful men in public life.In 2002, she briefly dated Anthony Weiner. Initially, she defended him. But we all know how that soap opera turned out. When news of what his secret sexting and sending out pictures of his ding dong came to light, she called for his resignation from Congress.Read more: Daily Caller | 0 |
2,562 | Long-stalled email privacy bill advances in Congress | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Legislation that would require law enforcement to obtain a search warrant before asking technology companies to hand over old emails unanimously moved forward in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, notching a long-awaited win for technology companies and digital privacy advocates. The House Judiciary Committee voted 28-0 to approve the Email Privacy Act, which would update a decades-old law to mandate federal authorities get a warrant to access emails or other digital communications that are more than 180 days old. Currently, law enforcement and civil agencies can ask a service provider to turn over such aged private communications with only a subpoena, which is subject to less judicial oversight than a warrant. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said he planned to bring the bill to a full vote the week of April 25, boosting its chances to become law this year. If the bill passes the House as expected, it will head to a gridlocked Senate, where more than a quarter of the lawmakers, including No. 2 Republican John Cornyn, has endorsed similar legislation. Debate over law enforcement access to Americans’ electronic communications intensified this year with the Justice Department’s pursuit of a court order to force Apple to help unlock an encrypted iPhone linked to one of the San Bernardino, California, shooters. Prior to Wednesday’s vote, the bill had gained sponsorship from 315 of a possible 435 House lawmakers, making it the most supported bill in the chamber to not earn a vote. Disagreements over whether civil agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission should be allowed to rely on subpoenas continually slowed the bill, which has floated around Congress for several years. The White House also has said it favors reforming the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, but it has not endorsed specific legislation. A package of minor amendments from Representative Bob Goodlatte, the Republican chairman of the committee, was adopted Wednesday, including the removal of a requirement to serve warrants to the subject of an investigation. The bill requires a warrant to be given only to the email provider. That change and others prompted ire from a coalition of more than 50 civil liberties groups, trade associations and technology companies, including Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook. While maintaining their support, the coalition said in a letter to the committee that the bill “does not achieve all of the reforms we had hoped for.” | 1 |
2,563 | U.S. frustration simmers over Belgium's struggle with militant threat | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Shortly after last November’s attacks on Paris by a Brussels-based Islamic State cell, a top U.S. counter-terrorism official traveling in Europe wanted to visit Brussels to learn more about the investigation. When the official tried to arrange meetings, however, his Belgian counterparts were not welcoming, according to U.S. officials familiar with the events. The Belgians indicated it was a bad time to speak to foreign officials as they were too busy with the investigation, said the officials, who asked not to be identified. Belgian officials declined to comment on the incident. The brush-off was one small sign of mounting U.S. frustration over Brussels’ handling of its worsening Islamic militant threat. Concern that the small European nation’s security and intelligence officials are overwhelmed — and that its coordination with allies falls short — have again come to the fore following the Islamic State-claimed attacks on Tuesday that killed at least 31 people. Several U.S. officials say that security cooperation has been hampered by patchy intelligence–sharing by Brussels and wide differences in the willingness of different agencies to work with foreign countries, even close allies. One U.S. government source said that when American investigators try to contact Belgian agencies for information, they often struggle to find which agency or part of an agency might have relevant information. Belgium has ordered a sharp increase in security budgets following the Paris attacks, despite being under steady pressure to limit its debt levels under euro zone rules. The government has promised to recruit around 2,500 more federal police, who pursue major crimes, to make up for a shortfall of close to a fifth of the full-strength force of 12,500. It also says it thwarted a major attack in January 2015, and is eager to cooperate with European and U.S. counterparts. “These attacks show that more coordination with the United States is clearly desirable,” Guy Rapaille, the president of the committee that provides oversight of Belgium’s security and intelligence services, told Belgium’s state broadcaster RTBF. “But you have to remember that big powers guard their intelligence very closely.” U.S. officials acknowledge the recent Belgian efforts to step up funding and recruitment. Yet they say Belgian security services are outmatched by the threat in a country that, per capita, has supplied the highest number of foreign fighters to Syria of any European nation. “They’re way behind the ball and they’re paying a terrible price,” Rep. Adam Schiff, ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told Reuters. Asked on Wednesday whether Belgium was too complacent over the threat posed by Islamic militancy, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said: “I want to stay clear of saying that Belgium was somehow caught by surprise or not aware. You know, we collaborate, we work with Belgium closely.” Some U.S. counter-terrorism officials say much of the gap between Washington and Belgium — and some other European countries — is cultural. Europeans’ deeper commitment to personal privacy sometimes prevents or delays sharing of information such as travel data — that is taken for granted in the United States. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the U.S. government radically reshaped its counter-terrorism agencies. It broke down walls between law enforcement and intelligence authorities, and created new coordinating institutions such as the Director of National Intelligence and National Counterterrorism Center. Belgium, by contrast, is a patchwork country divided between French and Dutch speakers and with multiple levels of government. Belgian security chiefs have repeatedly complained that they cannot handle up to 900 home-grown Islamist militants, among the highest per-capita rates in Europe. Belgium does not divulge the exact number of personnel in its security services and military intelligence, but security experts say they appear under-resourced compared to European counterparts. “Add to that the problem of two languages (French and Flemish), lack of Arabic speakers, and weak coordination between national and local government, you have a huge discrepancy between threat and response,” said former CIA official and White House advisor Bruce Riedel, now at the Brookings Institution. | 1 |
2,564 | ONE HILARIOUS TWEET Perfectly Sums Up How Irrelevant CNN Has Become | Nunes dropped a bombshell that Obama admin spied on Trump.London attack claimed lives of 5 people. Wounded 40.Meanwhile on CNN: https://twitter.com/TEN_GOP/status/844693397168283648If you thought this was a joke, and that CNN couldn t possibly have aired something so ludicrous as a entire segment dedicated to the possibility that President Trump may be afraid of stairs, think again Conservative comedian Mark Dice puts CNN s embarrassing news story into perspective: | 0 |
2,565 | Trump Is Raising Your Healthcare Premiums, And That’s A Fact | It seems like a lifetime since March 23rd, 2010. But thanks to a pretty significant bill signed that day, at least there are no lifetime caps on your health insurance anymore. In fact, there were so many rules and regulations inside Obamacare that benefited consumers instead of insurers that the GOP went absolutely insane trying to undo them. That s no small wonder: Insurance companies gave Republican candidates and conservative groups nearly 37 million dollars in the last election cycle of 2015-16 alone.But the one thing Obamacare didn t do couldn t do was clamp down on premiums. Not without changing the way the entire industry is regulated. The fact is, premiums have been skyrocketing for a long time, and for a simple reason. Insurance companies know you need them more than they need you. In other words, because they can. But an interesting thing happened after the ACA was signed: The rising cost of premiums slowed to less than half the growth rate they were undergoing during the Bush years. Why? Because more people were getting insured.Republicans point to raw numbers and call it an increase that happened under Obama. But the premium increase from 2010 to 2016 was much, much smaller than it would have been without the changes to the system that Obamacare wrought. What will they point to now that premiums are on a fast track again? They won t point to Republican policy or Donald Trump. But I will.The Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-partisan, non-profit health care think tank, has been studying premium growth for nearly 20 years. In fact, if you ve ever read stats on health care who s insured, median cost, what might happen if various bills were passed you were likely looking at KFF data. And according to their latest study, there s a definitive reason that premiums are going up at the rate they re back to: Because Donald Trump is sabotaging the ACA.Trump s constant description of Obamacare as failing is already unhelpful. But his threats to stop cost-sharing subsidy payments are worse. And even worse than that, his persistent badgering of the GOP Congress to repeal Obamacare entirely even without a replacement plan has insurance companies scrambling to figure out how to stay in business. If Donald Trump got his way, after all, the number of people without health insurance in America would double in a very short time. And if you don t have insurance, they don t have a customer.So what s the effect of Trump s sabotage? Premiums are about to go through the roof. Just by threatening to stop enforcing the individual mandate the mechanism that makes Obamacare even work Trump has caused insurers to request rate increases from regulators anywhere from 1.2 percent to 20 percent. And his threats to stop cost-sharing payments bumps that startling figure up to 23 percent.For years, Republicans liked to point to any increase in premiums as the fault of Obamacare. But premium growth slowed as America got used to the idea of a larger risk pool, and it hasn t started under Obama in the first place. Now we can point directly to the actions of Donald Trump as the reason premiums are once again on the rise.Featured image via Joe Raedle/Getty Images | 0 |
2,566 | After euro zone, Germany's Schaeuble faces new challenge in far-right | BERLIN (Reuters) - In his eight years as German finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble earned a reputation in the euro zone as a feisty disciplinarian, insisting on painful austerity measures for debt-ridden countries like Greece. Now poised to become president of Germany s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, Schaeuble, 75, will instead try to impose discipline on fractious lawmakers, including a far-right, eurosceptic party, following Sunday s federal election. As custodian of Germany s public finances, Schaeuble has proven a trusted, if awkward, ally for Chancellor Angela Merkel, securing for her the support of skeptical lawmakers on the right of their conservative bloc for three Greek bailouts - a feat he achieved by ensuring the aid came with hairshirt austerity. By agreeing to move to the Bundestag, Schaeuble has opened the way for the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) to take over his coveted ministry, helping to unblock talks on a new three-way coalition likely also to include the Greens. To the alarm of Merkel s conservatives, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is now the third largest party in the Bundestag - and the highly experienced, resilient Schaeuble is viewed as the best qualified to tame recalcitrant lawmakers. Leading AfD candidate Alexander Gauland has vowed his party would hunt the new government, whatever its make-up. Already Germany s longest serving lawmaker, Schaeuble brings to his new job a fierce intellect, constitutional expertise and a sharp tongue he is not afraid to use, even against Merkel. Do you know what you are doing? he recalled asking her when she sounded him out about becoming finance minister in 2009. I m loyal ... but uncomfortable. So it has proved. Once Merkel s boss before their roles were reversed, Schaeuble dominated Germany s policy response to the euro zone crisis and intervened when he felt the chancellor was on the wrong track - and not only in the field of finance. In November 2015, soon after Merkel opened Germany s borders to migrants pouring in from the Middle East, he said the country risked facing an avalanche of refugees triggered by careless actions. He subsequently defended Merkel s open-door migrant policy, however, accusing the AfD of fuelling fears. So far, there is no one in Germany who has received one euro less for his family or his children because refugees have come here, he said last September. Calling out the AfD in that way will now be a full-time job for Schaeuble, a man who has devoted his career to reunifying Germany and securing its place in a European project he has long championed and tried to strengthen, however controversially in the eyes of many Greeks and others. His laser-like focus on budgetary rigor has seen Germany run a budget surplus for the last three years, though critics say his insistence on austerity policies deepened the euro zone crisis and hampered its economic recovery. Although he is relinquishing the powerful finance ministry, as Bundestag president Schaeuble will technically outrank Merkel. The position ranks second in the state hierarchy after the president of the republic and ahead of the chancellor. He has outranked her before: As head of their Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in 1998 following then-chancellor Helmut Kohl s election loss, Schaeuble named Merkel as his deputy. It was a pairing that would last less than a year and a half. Caught up in a party funding scandal surrounding Kohl, he was forced to resign as party leader in 2000, with Merkel taking over. But Schaeuble is a survivor. Wheelchair-bound since a deranged man shot him at an election campaign event a few days after German reunification in 1990, he lives for the job and signaled before the election his readiness to stay in politics. This drive has won the respect of fellow conservatives and lawmakers from other parties, who want him to bring his unparalleled weight to the role of Bundestag president, normally a low-profile position. A brilliant speaker with natural authority, he also possesses the tactical wit to rein in AfD MPs if they were to stage calculated affronts against established political culture, said Carsten Nickel of Teneo Intelligence. Despite his conservative views on financial matters, Schaeuble has been a leading voice calling for better integration of Muslims into German society. As German interior minister in 2006, Schaeuble founded the German Islam Conference. At a 10th anniversary celebration last year, he said there was no question that Islam belongs to Germany, but he also underscored the importance of cracking down on criminals and terrorists among the migrants who entered the country. Economic policymakers in southern Europe longing to see the back of him may come to regret his departure as the FDP - now likely to take the finance ministry - is even more hawkish than Schaeuble. The pro-business FDP wants euro zone countries to be able to leave the currency bloc rather than stay under an interminable rescue policy , and it favors winding down the lending capacity of the euro zone s ESM rescue fund. Schaeuble is one of the most pro-European politicians that I know, so from a common eurozone perspective it couldn t go better with someone else, let alone an FDP minister, said one euro zone official. | 1 |
2,567 | Swedish airport explosive suspect released without charge: prosecutor | STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A man arrested on suspicion of trying to carry explosives onto a plane in western Sweden will be released from custody and is no longer a suspect, the prosecutor said on Friday The suspicious objects have been analysed during the day and the man is no longer suspected of any crimes, the prosecutors office said in a statement. The man was stopped as he tried to get onto a flight at Gothenburg s Landvetter airport on Thursday morning when a regular security check flagged up signs of explosive materials. | 1 |
2,568 | youtube bans clintons black son | skype sex scam a fortune built on shame moroccan boomtown getting rich from men tricked on internet published mins ago
bbc news one night a young palestinian man living abroad fell victim to an online scam involving a web camera and a beautiful woman here samir not his real name tells the story of how he was trapped and below the bbcs reda el mawy visits the moroccan boomtown where many of the scammers are based
warning this story contains descriptions of sexual acts
it happened when i was home alone this girl added me on facebook i didnt think it was anything strange i often get friend requests from old school friends who i dont know well
the next day she sends me a message hi how are you i saw your profile and i liked you so i looked at her profile and i mean she was really hot | 1 |
2,569 | Republicans offer few tax plan details at high-profile event | SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (Reuters) - Republican tax writers from the U.S. House of Representatives promoted their legislative goals at a special gathering in California on Wednesday, but offered few new details about provisions that may end up in their long-sought overhaul plan. As Wall Street analysts warned that President Donald Trump’s controversial statements about Virginia protests on Saturday that turned deadly were hurting Republicans’ prospects for progress on domestic policy, the lawmakers assembled in Santa Barbara to say their tax reform agenda is moving forward. Kevin Brady, chairman of the tax-writing U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, spoke in broad brushstrokes about the effort at Rancho del Cielo, the country home of former President Ronald Reagan, a Republican who oversaw the last major tax code overhaul in 1986. “If you look at today’s tax code you can’t even recognize the principles that made the Reagan reforms such a triumph for the American people,” Brady said. Asked whether the plan would have specific provisions, Brady said: “We’re working through the details of the overall tax plan with the White House, President Trump, and Senate tax writers as well.” “We have more work to do. I anticipate continuing to work through August with the White House and Senate, bring forward a tax reform plan at the Ways and Means Committee after we return,” Brady said, adding he wanted to get legislation to Trump before the end of the year. Brady was joined by Representatives Peter Roskam, David Schweikert and Carlos Curbelo, all Republican committee members. Market expectations for tax reform have declined in recent weeks, analysts said, and dimmed further after Trump’s Tuesday press conference, where he said both sides were to blame for a deadly rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, between neo-Nazis, white supremacists and counter-protestors. Before the event, Curbelo, the son of Cuban exiles who emigrated to the United States, told reporters that Trump’s remarks marked “the lowest point yet” in his presidency. “In a way we’ve become accustomed to working in a very distracting environment. That’s not new. Now this is on a whole different scale,” he said. “While you have all of these other headlines, the public isn’t going to be paying very much attention to the legislative agenda.” Still searching for his first major legislative achievement after 208 days in office, Trump has refocused on overhauling the tax code, but he has been constantly distracted by controversies involving North Korea, race relations and investigations of possible ties between his 2016 campaign and Moscow. Trump was forced to disband two high-profile business advisory councils on Wednesday after corporate CEOs quit the committees in protest over his remarks about the violence in Charlottesville. Brady has remained bullish on the chances for a tax overhaul even after a Republican push to dismantle Obamacare collapsed in July. At Wednesday’s event he told reporters the differences between a healthcare and tax overhaul are “just about everything.” As they did with Obamacare, the party has launched a nationwide publicity campaign for tax reform without first hammering out the final details of their proposal. The 1986 tax overhaul under Reagan was the result of a multi-year, bipartisan negotiation. Republicans are seeking to do key portions of tax reform within months, without Democratic support. Republicans have not yet introduced tax legislation and party leaders have already discarded key pieces of their initial, ambitious plan. No revenue-raising provisions have been agreed upon to replace those that were discarded. Corporate lobbyists and independent experts have said Congress and Trump are far apart on critical issues, such as how to slash rates without ballooning the federal deficit. Brady downplayed those differences on Wednesday, saying they planned to unify behind “one bold plan.” | 1 |
2,570 | U.S. says 'administrative error' blocked Indonesia military chief's travel | JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia s military chief was temporarily barred from traveling to the United States at the weekend due to an administrative error , the U.S. embassy in Jakarta said in an online statement on Wednesday. General Gatot Nurmantyo was about to board a flight to the United States on Saturday when he was told that the Customs and Border Protection Agency had denied him entry, even though he had a visa and an official invitation from the chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff to attend a conference in Washington. General Gatot Nurmantyo and his wife were delayed in their ability to board their flight due to an administrative error. The error was quickly corrected. We have taken appropriate measures to prevent this matter from occurring again, the U.S. embassy said in a statement, without elaborating. The incident prompted top U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and envoys in Jakarta to apologize to Indonesia as it demanded details as to why Nurmantyo was blocked, where he had been able to travel to the United States on official trips before. U.S. Homeland Security Department said earlier this week that the U.S. embassy in Jakarta had informed Nurmantyo s office that he might be delayed in boarding his flight because of unspecified U.S. security protocols . It added that the U.S. government was unable to resolve the problem before Nurmantyo arrived at the airport and he was denied boarding. The general was eventually cleared and booked on another flight but he chose not to travel. Nurmantyo told reporters on Tuesday that he did not travel on a later flight because he had informed President Joko Widodo of the issue and that he would only travel on further orders from the president . There s no signal (from the president) so I no longer have the initiative to go, Nurmantyo said, adding he was disappointed at not being able to meet his friend and counterpart General Joseph F. Dunford, who had invited him to attend an anti-terrorism conference. | 1 |
2,571 | Death toll in Egypt north Sinai mosque attack rises to 235: state television | CAIRO (Reuters) - The death toll in a militant attack on a mosque in Egypt s north Sinai region has risen to 235, Egyptian state television reported, quoting the public prosecutor. | 1 |
2,572 | WHY LIBERAL ACTRESS JENNIFER GARNER Is Bucking Hollywood Haters…Wants To Meet With President Trump | Jennifer Garner has not given up on Donald Trump s Washington.The 44-year-old actress spent the weekend lobbying the town s pillars of power to support early education for poor rural children. She spent Friday on Capitol Hill meeting dozens of top staff members. On Saturday, she delivered the keynote address before the annual National Governors Association winter meeting here. A potential sit-down with Ivanka Trump, who is advocating for more funding for child care, fell apart because of scheduling conflicts, but Garner remained optimistic about a face-to-face discussion soon.Other Hollywood liberals have shunned the new commander in chief notably during Sunday s Academy Awards ceremony, when many jokes were told at President Trump s expense. But Garner, a true-blue Democrat who campaigned for Hillary Clinton last year and held a fundraiser for Barack Obama in 2008, is taking a unique approach: pushing a cause that would benefit the new administration s political base.The West Virginia native has long worked to bring assistance to poor, rural communities in desperate need of it. She has no plans to change that just because most of those communities went big for Trump in last year s election. In fact, she sees an opportunity to hold the president accountable for the pledges he made to the country s rural working class.While other celebrities merely attach their names to charities to promote themselves, actress Jennifer Garner is actually very involved in helping poor children in her home state of West Virginia.According to a study by British academics, when celebrities lend their names to a good cause, they are usually the main beneficiaries I m looking forward to helping him make good on what they saw as promises, a mandate from him, that he was going to make their lives better, Garner said in a 45-minute interview with The Washington Post.That makes Trump s presidency a psychological test of sorts for some members of the Hollywood elite, who can either demonstrate their true commitment to the causes they push or expose their charity work here as more about bolstering themselves.Very much in the former camp, Garner acknowledged that some of her friends want to turn their back to this administration . . . [and] just wouldn t even want to engage. Not her. If he s willing to help the poor kids who got him elected, then let s do it. They certainly think he s going to, she said.She grew up solidly middle class, but she knew plenty of poor children who started elementary school behind and never caught up. They lived in the same sort of communities that Robert F. Kennedy, Shriver s uncle, visited in the mid-1960s along the Mississippi Delta, shaping the ideas of his 1968 presidential campaign.Garner returned home to West Virginia last year to help raise money after devastating flooding in the state. Reliably Democratic during her childhood, West Virginia ended up giving Trump his largest margin of victory something she could see coming by talking to people in economically depressed areas. People felt like Trump really understood them, that he was going to come in and create jobs for them, she said. They felt like they needed something to just turn everything upside down. It s that level of despair that leaves Garner willing to deal with Trump when some of her friends want to offer nothing but resistance. She may even be willing to meet the president. Send me a ticket to Mar-a-Lago. I m ready to go down and have a steak and a good chat, she said, only half joking about the prospect. I really think it s great, if he s willing to help the poor kids who got him elected. Washington PostWe applaud Garner for her courage and her true commitment to poor children in her home state of West Virginia.Watch this short clip explaining why Garner s so passionate about helping these kids in West Virginia: | 0 |
2,573 | Is Nothing Sacred? Ivanka Trump’s Passover Family Photo Has Been Exposed As A Fake | There are big scandals like Trump s ties to Russia, his repeated flaunting of conflict of interest violations, the nepotism and then there are small ones. It s the small ones that are most disturbing because of how completely avoidable they are. The Trump family just assumes you re too stupid to notice.Here s a particularly galling example:Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump released a family photo during Passover. That, in and of itself, wouldn t be newsworthy except for the fact that it was a much-needed break from the Trump administration s repugnant treatment of the Jewish community. Kushner s Jewish faith is extremely important to Trump because his staff is rife with anti-Semitic thinkers.Trump s advisor Steve Bannon is a life-long anti-Semite, whose own wife once said he refused to allow his daughters to attend a school with Jewish kids. Trump s Press Secretary Sean Spicer went on a nonsensical Holocaust denial rant and only apologized hours later when the nation of Israel openly said he needed to resign. Trump s inner circle includes a guy who pledged an oath of loyalty to a pro-fascist Nazi-allied group. In the middle of all of this, Trump no-showed on a Passover seder dinner the White House hosted.So a photograph of Trump s daughter and son-in-law, two key members of his team, celebrating a Jewish holiday might send a positive message to the country. However, like clockwork, even Kushner s Passover family photo quickly turned into something offensive.It turns out that the photo was not, in fact, taken during his Passover celebration. It is an old photo taken on what seems like the Sunday after the inauguration. CNN s Betsy Klein noticed that fact when she realized the entire Trump clan was wearing the same outfits they were photographed in during services at the National Cathedral.It appears the Passover Trump-Kushner family photo was taken the Sunday after inauguration following services at the National Cathedral: pic.twitter.com/p0htM7V8Pi Betsy Klein (@betsy_klein) April 13, 2017Just so incredibly lazy. And unfortunately, that s the message they are sending.Featured image via Twitter | 0 |
2,574 | Factbox: First 100 days of Trump on Twitter | (Reuters) - President Donald Trump has cemented his credentials as Tweeter in Chief since taking office. Nearly 100 days into his presidency, Trump has posted 489 tweets, or about five per day on average, typically between the hours of 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. EDT, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters. Trump is the first U.S. president to use his personal Twitter account @realDonaldTrump. Since his account was created in 2009, Trump has sent out 34,800 tweets. One of the most active politicians on Twitter, Trump has previously expressed his love for Twitter. In Nov 2012, he tweeted: The tweet got 5,033 retweets and 5,399 likes. Trump currently has 28.4 million followers. His predecessor Barack Obama, the first U.S. president to ever have a Twitter account, had 13.5 million followers on his official handle @POTUS. He sent out only 342 tweets as president. The following is a chart comparing how Trump used Twitter as a president-elect and president: How frequently @realDonaldTrump tweets: As President-elect: 434 total tweets; Average of 6 tweets per day As President: 489 total tweets; Average of 5 tweets per day What hour @realDonaldTrump typically tweets: As President-elect: 8 a.m. EDT / 61 tweets As President: 8 a.m. EDT/ 74 tweets Hashtags/topics/handles used the most: As President-elect: Trump tweeted at news handles the most such as@CNN @FoxNews @nytimes, calling out “fake news” stories but used hashtags celebrating his win like #ThankYouTour2016 #AmericaFirst and promoting his inauguration like #InaugurationDay #Inauguration2017 As President: Trump tweeted the most at news handles such as @nytimes @foxandfriends @CNN about “fake news” reporting but topics changed to promoting his policies like #RepealANDReplace #Obamacare Most tweeted day and why: As President-elect: Jan. 16: 15 tweets promoting free tickets to Trump’s inauguration-related events As President: Feb 8: 11 tweets regarding Jeff Sessions’ confirmation and unfair treatment towards daughter Ivanka Trump; Feb. 15: 11 tweets regarding Russian intelligence probe and intelligence agency leaking How often @realDonaldTrump retweets versus tweets: As President-elect: 413 tweets, 22 retweets. Trump tweets about 19x more than he RTs As President: 464 tweets, 24 retweets, Trump tweets about 19x more than he RTs Followers @realDonaldTrump: As President-elect: 21 million total net followers As President: 28 million total net followers Followers @POTUS: As President-elect: 14 million total net followers As President: 17 million total net followers Most retweeted tweet: As President-elect: Nov. 9, 2016 As President: Jan. 22, 2017 NOTE: Data based on Crimson Hexagon, BrandWatch, Thomson Reuters, Zoomph | 1 |
2,575 | BOOM! Judge Jeanine to Obama: ‘Instead of blaming guns, why don’t you start shooting terrorists?’ | Another golden moment from the great Judge Jeanine-We love her! | 0 |
2,576 | Did Trump Go Full Nixon? Former Employees Reportedly Saw Him Taping Conversations | Amateur president Donald Trump sent out a threatening tweet targeting former FBI Director James Comey and it s backfiring. Trump tweeted, James Comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press! Members of Congress have demanded that the former reality show star hand over the alleged tapes for the review. At this moment, team Trump has declined in interviews to address whether tapes exist or not and Comey, for his part, doesn t seem concerned about it. The question over if they exist can be answered by three of Trump s former employees.The former employees and a former associate said it wasn t a surprise to them that Trump would mention taped conversations.The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump sometimes taped phone conversations with associates and others from his Trump Tower office in New York when he was a businessman, according to three people who say they have direct knowledge of the recordings.The former employees said that they were fearful of using their names and another employee said that he had signed a nondisclosure agreement. We do know that the former high-level employees worked for Trump over a span of three decades, so it appears they knew of the goings on at his office and they added that they saw devices in use recording phone calls.It wasn t just three employees.A fourth person said he knew that Mr. Trump had recorded a phone conversation with him because it was later entered into evidence in a lawsuit.During a Fox News interview Friday, Trump was asked whether there might be tape recordings of Comey as he suggested. Trump said, That I can t talk about. I won t talk about that. Former President Richard Nixon fired Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor assigned to the investigation into his scandal. Sound familiar? The night Cox was fired was called the Saturday Night Massacre. Nixon refused Cox s request to release the tapes. Instead, Nixon fired him.Ultimately, Nixon resigned before he could be impeached. The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, mandated that the White House release the subpoenaed tapes.The firing of Cox shocked America because it was the first time a president had ever brazenly and abruptly fired an official charged with investigating a president s conduct before. And now it s 2017, and Trump just shocked America by firing the man leading the investigation into his administration s alleged ties to Russia. Before Comey, it was Preet Bharara, then Sally Yates. History repeats itself.It s only a matter of time before we hear Trump say, I am not a crook! Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images. | 0 |
2,577 | WATCH OBAMA AWKWARDLY AND ANGRILY Tell Audience To ‘Choose Hope!’ Six Times In A Row…Looks nervous, doesn’t he? | Obama awkwardly and kind of angrily tells the audience to choose hope! six times in a row. Looks nervous, doesn t he? ? #HillaryIndictment pic.twitter.com/ItYOYmPq9C Comrade AJ (@asamjulian) November 3, 2016 | 0 |
2,578 | italian banks struggling to stay afloat | news bulletin iranian youngsters lost to saudi arabia at the semifinals of the afc u championship
after putting on a superb performance which resulted in qualifying for next years fifa u world cup iranian youngsters have narrowly lost to saudi arabia in the semifinals of the afc u championship
in what turned out to be an incredible goal thriller saudi arabia scored three times in the first half while the persians found the back of the net twice
the second half was no less exciting as both teams were in attacking mode throughout demonstrating an unprecedented showdown with both sides scoring three more times each to take the final score to for the saudis saudi arabia will take on japan who cruised past vietnman nil in the second semifinal loading | 1 |
2,579 | TUCKER CARLSON EXPOSES REFUGEE CONTRACTOR Who Got $43 Million From Feds…Gets $200,000 Salary! [Video] | WORLD RELIEF received over $43 million dollars last year from the feds! They are only one of 9 refugee contractors who make money off of each refugee they bring in. The program was started by Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden 35 years ago. It has exploded to be an industry whereby the agency gets paid per refugee so it makes sense for them to try and make the feds take in more and more of these people.THE BIGGER PROBLEM: The taxpayer pays for all of the goodies the refugee gets so World Relief never covers the education, healthcare and many other things that YOU end up paying for!!!The CEO of World Relief and most other agencies all receive a six figure income .YOUR MONEY! SCOTT ARBEITER, WORLD RELIEF S CEO, MAKES $200,000 A YEAR! Arbeiter was on Tucker Carlson tonight trying to explain away how it s ok to take tax dollars from Americans:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lfCv0eQX6cANN CORCORAN OF REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT WATCH:In September, World Relief settled 1,400 refugees through churches and its 26 offices across the country. In the past year, the organization has worked with 9,759 refugees, the largest number of refugees to go through its office since 1999, according to Christianity Today, having partnered with 1,180 congregations.World Relief is one of nine organizations authorized by the federal government to help resettle refugees. Others include Church World Service, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), Episcopal Migration Ministries, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.I laughed at the use of the word authorized as if WR only had to get an authorization (a stamp of approval) and then was completely operating with Christian charity instead of mostly federal tax dollars. This is how they spin the lazy media, never mentioning that this is a business a business that could not function without your money!Incidentally, it is World Relief (a member in good standing of the Christian LEFT) that sent around a memo to staff over a year ago to tell them to not give out any R & P Abstracts for any of you calling looking for the plan for your local community.Checking the most recent Form 990 for World Relief we see that they had a total gift/grants income of $58,487,081 and $42,589,050 was provided by you, the US taxpayer, making their federally-funded share of their budget 73% taxpayer funded.I went back 6 years and their income from you jumped about $11.5 million over that time. That of course correlates with the fact that they placed more refugees into your towns each year and since they are paid by the head, that makes sense.Here is a screen shot of page 9 (this info. is usually on page 9) of World Relief s most recent 990. You can find several years of WR s 990 s here if you want to have a deeper look into their finances. All IRS 501(c)3 organizations are required to make their financial information public, so remember that if you are trying to get Form 990s for a local group. | 0 |
2,580 | OBAMA’S GO BIG: Post White House Mansion Details | The Obama s know how to go big and their post-White House adobe is no exception! It s a HUGE (8,000 sq ft) mansion worth over $6 million! Of course, Obama made millions during his 8 years as president so it comes as now surprise that he ll be hanging around to make more in DC According to Market Watch, this move is raising some eyebrows:Already, some observers have criticized the 44th president s choice of Kalorama. As far as legacies go, the thought of our President of Hope and Change moving to one of the oldest, most established, filthy-richest neighborhoods in the city just doesn t jibe, sniffed Washingtonian magazine real estate columnist Hillary Kelly in a May 24 post. It s hard to imagine the Obama of eight years ago deciding to forgo the potential to move to a revitalizing area, or just a slightly less hoity one, in favor of a zip code where the blood runs royal blue and the servants stairs are still used by the help, she wrote.THE OBAMAS MOVE TO HOITY TOWN :By now you ve probably heard that Barack and Michelle Obama plan to relocate from the White House to a home in the upper-upper scale Sheridan-Kalorama neighborhood in northwest Washington.Like many Baby Boomers, they are downsizing from the 55,000-square-foot White House to a home of 8,000 square feet. Its interior is contemporary, and exterior inviting.The Obamas own a home in Chicago, so word about town is that they will be leasing the Kalorama home until both first daughters are finished with high school and in college.Kate Bennett of Independent Journal Review unloads lots of details on the nine-bedroom, eight-bathroom house:1) The house, located off Massachusetts Avenue NW, is owned by former White House press chief Joe Lockhart. It was purchased for $5.295 million in May 2014 and now has a current estimated value of $6.35 million, according to Redfin.2) The house is situated off Massachusetts Avenue NW and adjacent to Rock Creek Park.3) The Obamas, according to anonymous sources, worked privately with the Lockharts to reach a lease agreement for their bright and airy house, which features a large back patio, parking for up to 10 cars, and a full in-law suite (perfect for Michelle Obama s mother, Marian Robinson, who has since 2009 lived with the family in the White House), Ms. Bennett writes.Read more: WT | 0 |
2,581 | Ukraine shelves controversial corruption law after donor pressure | KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian lawmakers on Thursday shelved a draft law that critics say would have undermined the independence of anti-corruption institutions, which Ukraine s foreign backers this week said were under attack from vested interests. Reformists welcomed the removal of the bill from parliament s agenda as a win at a time when Ukraine s Western-backed corruption fight faces pushback on several fronts. But the victory was swiftly tempered by a separate vote later to dismiss the European Union-backed head of parliament s anti-graft committee Yegor Sobolev. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank earlier said the authorities must protect the anti-graft bureau known as NABU, following similar warnings from the United States and EU. The criticism helped persuade MPs to drop the law, which would have given parliament the power to dismiss the heads of anti-corruption institutions, lawmaker Mustafa Nayyem said. They have retreated, he said in a post on Facebook. The clear heads of individual politicians, the reaction of the public, the media and personal contacts of many activists in international organizations played an important role in this story. The United States, EU and Canada have thrown financial and diplomatic support behind the leadership that took power in Kiev after the 2014 Maidan protests ousted the Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukovich. But perceived backsliding on reform commitments has delayed billions of dollars in IMF loans and tested the patience of Ukraine s allies even as Kiev pushes for closer EU integration and more foreign investment. We are deeply concerned by recent events in Ukraine that could roll back progress that has been made in setting up independent institutions to tackle high-level corruption, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said in a statement. Later on Thursday parliament voted to dismiss Sobolev, a member of the opposition Samopomich faction, which helped the committee drive key reforms through parliament. The leaders of political forces no longer feel untouchable. They don t feel they are above the law. That is the reason for my dismissal, Sobolev said. Ukraine s backers are concerned too about actions by prosecutors that they say threaten the independence of NABU, set up after the Maidan protests and which has been at loggerheads with other law enforcement bodies. Lagarde called on Ukrainian authorities and parliament to safeguard the independence of NABU and repeated a call for the creation of an independent anti-corruption court. Parliament s failure to pass legislation to set up such a court has delayed the disbursement of an IMF loan tranche under a $17.5 billion aid-for-reforms program. President Petro Poroshenko urged parliament to speed up the process. If at the beginning of next week I don t see progress, I ll independently prepare and submit the relevant draft law, he said in a statement. | 1 |
2,582 | Indonesian police warn Islamists against raids in search of Santa hats | JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian police appealed on Thursday for tolerance and respect for other people s religious celebrations after an Islamist group threatened to raid businesses to check for Muslims being forced to wear Santa Claus hats or other Christmas garb. The hardline Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) said this week it would conduct sweeping operations in the world s biggest Muslim-majority country, and that forcing Muslims to wear Christmas attire was a violation of their human rights. Indonesia is home to several religious minorities, including Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and people who follow traditional beliefs. The constitution guarantees freedom of religion in an officially secular state though tension between followers of different faiths can flare. There can be no sweeping operations ... members of the public should respect other religions that are carrying out celebrations, national police chief Tito Karnavian told police during a security exercise in the capital, Jakarta. The FPI said it aimed to enforce a fatwa, or decree, issued by Indonesia s Islamic Clerical Council in 2016 prohibiting business owners from forcing employees to wear Christmas clothing. We will raid businesses in anticipation of them being stubborn about this and we will be accompanied by police, said Novel Bakmukmin, head of the FPI s Jakarta chapter. Employers forcing staff to wear Christmas clothes were violating their rights. Businesses should be aware that there should be no forcing, he said. The Islamic Clerical Council s decrees are not legally binding but serve as guidelines for Indonesian Muslims. Christmas is widely celebrated across Indonesia and holiday decorations are ubiquitous, especially at shops, restaurants and malls where many enthusiastic workers - even Muslims - don Santa hats or elf costumes. The FPI built its reputation with raids on restaurants and bars serving alcohol during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. In recent years, it has turned its attention to Christian celebrations. The group has also said it wants the Jakarta city government to stop sponsoring New Year celebrations, which attract many thousands of people. About 90,000 police officers will be on duty cross the country during the end-of-year holidays, in an operation largely aimed at preventing militant attacks. Attacks on churches in Jakarta and elsewhere on Christmas Eve in 2000, killed nearly 20 people. Ever since, authorities have stepped up security at churches and tourist spots for the holiday. | 1 |
2,583 | THERE’S A NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN: ISIS Gets Stunning WAKE UP CALL From General “Mad Dog” Mattis On Day One | President Trump has mentioned in the past that he would like to see ISIS completely wiped out within 30 days of taking office. If Mattis first day on the job was any indication, the president may just get his wish.In Iraq, Mattis continued to crush ISIS forces. One of the strikes, taking place in the city of Rutbah, eliminated a tactical unit, two weapons caches, a mortar and a vehicle. Strikes in the city of Beiji also demolished a unit and a vehicle, while another strike in Kisik blew up a building and a tactical unit.To cap it all off, Mattis oversaw two strikes against Mosul, the ISIS region capital in Iraq, which annihilated two units, a tank, a factory that manufactures car bombs, and three fighting positions.CNN Analyst retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling defends Obama s strategy and calls Trump s plan to defeat ISIS, A sophomoric approach to national security policy. Suggests that he might want to take a look at other countries to see how they defeat terrorism:Here s a video of Trump s new Secretary of Defense General James Mad dog Mattis reporting for duty on his first day:#SecDef James Mattis arrives at the #Pentagon on his first full day of office in #WashingtonDC, January 21, 2017. pic.twitter.com/KtOuwbTlQJ U.S. Dept of Defense (@DeptofDefense) January 21, 2017 | 0 |
2,584 | Ted Cruz’s Crazy Dad Goes Off About What Will Happen If His Son Doesn’t Win The Election (AUDIO) | Since Jeb Bush started to bring his mother Barbara Bush with him on the campaign trail, it s become more common for the parents of the Republican presidential candidates to swoop in and give their struggling little GOPers a boost.Pastor Rafael Cruz, the father of Texas senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz, tried to do the same for his own son during a chat with Greg Corombos of WorldNetDaily over the weekend, to basically talk about how his son is going to eclipse Trump and emerge as the nominee. Considering that Rafael is Ted s campaign surrogate and a religious man, this of course meant some fear-mongering and crazy Christianity references similar to the time he claimed that God was raising up Ted to be the next POTUS.This time, the elder Cruz was on a real mission to convince America that God is behind his son s candidacy and will make sure that he wins the election. Rafael said: I think what is going to happen is the body of Christ is going to rise up. Believers are coalescing around Ted Cruz and I think when the people of God realize that we need a man of faith, a man of integrity, a man that you can trust his word two things you can count on Ted Cruz, number one he will tell you the truth, and number two, he will do exactly what he says he s going to do. That Rafael called his son a man of truth is hilarious, as Cruz was just slammed in the media for spreading false information about Marco Rubio. Rafael also boasted about his son s ability to be the most outspoken homophobe running for president. Rafael reference the Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality, proudly stating that his son was the only candidate who said the ruling was not the law of the land, this is an unconstitutional, unlawful decision and five justices have no right to impose their view upon 320 million Americans. Rafael topped off his insane claims with a warning, reminding Americans that this election is the most important election of our lifetime, and that if they didn t vote Ted into the White House, a lot of our freedoms would disappear .You can listen to the crazy interview below:[soundcloud url= https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/248365072 params= color=ff5500 width= 100% height= 166 iframe= true /]Rafael Cruz honestly just makes his son look like an even more terrifying candidate whenever he speaks. And now that Jeb Bush has just dropped out of the presidential race, Ted might want to rethink having his bible-thumping dad involved in his campaign affairs. Clearly, the GOP needs much more help than mom and dad can give.Featured image is a screenshot | 0 |
2,585 | Islamic State flags not flying in Bosnia: PM | SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Islamic State flags are not flying in Bosnia, Prime Minister Denis Zvizdic said on Tuesday, dismissing allegations by some European leaders that radical Bosnian Muslims in the Balkan country were posing a terrorist threat for Europe. Bosnian Muslims generally practice a moderate form of Islam but some have adopted radical Salafi Islam from foreign fighters who came to the country during its 1992-95 war to fight alongside Muslims against Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats. Some joined Islamic State in Syria and Iraq but police said departures had stopped completely in the past 18 months and more than half of those who returned have been jailed under a law prohibiting people to fight in foreign countries. Czech President Milos Zeman has said there was a risk Islamic State may form its European base in Bosnia, where ISIS (Islamic State) black flags are already flying in several towns , according to reports. Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic has warned of thousands of fighters returning to Bosnia from Syria and Iraq , while Croatian magazine Globus last week put the number of radicalized Bosnian Muslims at 5,000-10,000. Zvizdic said such allegations were unfounded and politically motivated and could damage Bosnia as an investment and tourism destination. ISIS flags are not flying in Bosnia, Zvizdic told reporters after meeting the security minister and the heads of five security and intelligence agencies. There have been no departures to foreign war zones, we have not had any incident that could be characterized as an act of terrorism and we work to prevent the possibility of any such incident, Zvizdic said, referring to the last two years during which several terrorist attacks took place across Europe. Bosnia s security agencies say a total of 240 Bosnian citizens have departed to fight for Islamic State since 2012, and 116 remained there. Out of 44 who had returned to Bosnia, 23 were jailed. Security Minister Dragan Mektic said terrorism threats in Bosnia were mainly external and its agencies last month prevented a person with possible links to terrorists from entering the country. In 2015, two Bosnian army soldiers and a policeman were killed in two separate attacks in Bosnia. No links to wider groups was found. | 1 |
2,586 | Eric Trump Sent Fundraising Email Showing Trump Winning–There’s Just One Problem | The Donald Trump presidential campaign is in trouble. He s behind in the polls, by as much as double digits, and many of his donors are asking for their money back. It s crisis time, so naturally, they are asking for more money. Trump s middle son Eric signed his name to the latest fundraising campaign, and it includes a map showing Trump winning by a landslide with this message: As one of the most dedicated grassroots leaders in the country you know, momentum matters, the email, sent on behalf of the Trump campaign, reads. And right now all the momentum is on our side. We re making huge gains against Crooked Hillary that you can see for yourself. There s just one problem.The map comes from FiveThirtyEight.com s Nate Silver. Nate rarely screws up, so why does this map show Trump winning nearly every state?Because that map is a part of a little experiment. It doesn t show momentum, as the Trump campaign is trying to tell us. It is a map of how the election would look if only men voted. While that might be a dream of the Trump camp, more than half the electorate are women. Here s that map if only women voted:Here s what the map would look line if only women voted: https://t.co/sjVY67qouE pic.twitter.com/rrc3GuXmGl Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) October 11, 2016The United States of Women vs. The United States of Menhttps://t.co/F455bP3D8I pic.twitter.com/qjr6zLh640 538 politics (@538politics) October 12, 2016This is the actual electoral map, which gives Trump just a 13.8 percent chance of winning, and voting has already started in some states.Clinton lead now up to 6.5 points 27 days to go and voting underway in many states. https://t.co/WLXtJodIzD pic.twitter.com/GPmyueqczL Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) October 12, 2016Twitter, naturally, was brutal.#SNL was right. Eric is the dumb one. #NeverTrump #ImWithHer https://t.co/o4qQf8STlT LifeStories (@LifeStories91) October 12, 2016#MAGA by going back to pre-19th-Amendment days, eh, @EricTrump? #DumpTrump #LikeFatherLikeSonhttps://t.co/7oGXVkQDMA Amir Beshay (@Amir_G_Beshay) October 12, 2016Eric Trump s latest projection map shows election results and a HUGE #Trump victory if women were not voting in 2016. https://t.co/sPyCIrTYC9 Bob Segall (@BobSegallWTHR) October 12, 2016Eric Trump tweeted his electoral map to TRY to illustrate the power of men, when all it did was illustrate the power of women. Anson Ling (@ns0n) October 12, 2016Except like women have been able to vote for 90+ years, except that. #GetInFormation https://t.co/4CTf1FP6EJ Celestia (@ginjasnappy) October 12, 2016Shame about that 19th Amendment, @EricTrump, but good luck with this strategy, asshat. https://t.co/DjhyWRB2eD thereseodell (@thereseodell) October 12, 2016Guys hear me out here: it s very possible @EricTrump has NO IDEA that women can vote. https://t.co/EuTRbYlNys Heather Reid (@hkreid) October 12, 2016Perhaps pre-suffrage is the America Trump wants to take us back to, but at a time when the campaign is under fire for the way the GOP candidate treats women, this email was either really stupid or the campaign has no desire to get the women s vote, and no desire to win. Featured image via Joe Raedle/Getty Images | 0 |
2,587 | FIRST LOOK: Obamas Spotted In British Virgin Islands On Well-Deserved Vacation (VIDEO) | With everything being so utterly chaotic under the new seeming dictatorship of Donald Trump, it s left many longing for the days of former President Barack Obama.In only a little over a week, Trump has signed nearly two dozen Executive Orders, causing chaos at home and abroad.However, for all those desperately seeking a break from the new fascist regime of the Trump administration, the Obama family was spotted in the British Virgin Islands.According to TMZ: Barack and Michelle were spotted Tuesday on one of the British Virgin Islands with their pal, Sir Richard Branson. The former First Couple touched down on Branson s nearby Necker Island just over a week ago. The Obamas look happy and healthy and, best of all, relaxed. They definitely seem to be taking in the sun and sand of a very deserved vacation after being First Family of the nation for eight years. Goodness knows they need it.The last thing the Obamas likely want is to be brought into the turmoil of the Trump administration. However, knowing Barack Obama, and the fact the fact that he loves the nation more than himself, he ll undoubtedly do whatever he can to prevent Trump from unraveling his eight years of progress.In the mean time, enjoy the Obamas are enjoying their time off.Watch here:Barack Obama & Michelle Obama spotted out in the British Virgin Islands pic.twitter.com/IhWsoRXbxu MEFeater Magazine (@mefeater) February 1, 2017Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
2,588 | Moscow warns it may restrict U.S. media in Russia | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is within its rights to restrict the operations of U.S. media organizations in Russia in retaliation for what Moscow calls U.S. pressure on a Kremlin-backed TV station, a Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman said on Sunday. Russian officials have accused Washington of putting unwarranted pressure on the U.S. operations of RT, a Kremlin-funded broadcaster accused by some in Washington of interfering in domestic U.S. politics, which it denies. The foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said the full weight of the U.S. authorities was being brought to bear against RT s operations in the United States, and that Moscow had the right to respond. We have never used Russian law in relation to foreign correspondents as a lever of pressure, or censorship, or some kind of political influence, never, Zakharova said in an interview with Russia s NTV broadcaster. But this is a particular case. She cited a 1991 Russian law which, she said, stated that if a Russian media outlet is subject to restrictions in a foreign country, then Moscow has the right to impose proportionate restrictions on media outlets from that country operating inside Russia. Correspondingly, everything that Russian journalists and the RT station are subject to on U.S. soil, after we qualified it as restriction of their activities, we can apply similar measures to American journalists, American media here, on Russian territory, Zakharova said. She did not identify any specific U.S. media outlets that would be targeted. She said it made no difference from the Russian government s point of view if those outlets were backed by the U.S. state, or privately-funded. Late last month, Russia s state communications regulator accused U.S. TV channel CNN International of violating its license to broadcast in Russia and said it had summoned the broadcaster s representatives in connection with the matter. The watchdog did not publicly disclose the nature of the violation. The head of the regulator said it was a technical matter and denied that politics was involved. U.S. intelligence officials, in a report in January this year into allegations of Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election, said RT was part of a state-run propaganda machine that supported a Kremlin campaign to influence U.S. politics. Russia Today, and Russian officials, have denied any attempt to interfere in U.S. politics. They say that political forces in the United States are whipping up hysteria about Russia s influence to discredit President Donald Trump. | 1 |
2,589 | news a new era donald trump just whispered hope you like to make ham motherfucker to a white house chef | the king of scientific takedowns ndt doesnt mess around when he took down a climatechange denier on twitter when he was a guest on the late show with stephen colbert and claimed creationists have a right to their beliefs and i have a right to my belief that the most famous comet of all time is coming to send them all to early graves get ready for a peerreviewed ass clobbering at the hands of frozen ice and rock the time he went on a twitter rant about donald trump the time a guy was blocking his driveway the time someone called him ugly
holy crap looks like when neil gets pissed he gets really pissed we love you neil but please keep halleys comet up in space where it belongs | 0 |
2,590 | Congratulations, Republicans, You Got Played | Well, here we are. The last day of eight years that is the Obama presidency. For eight years, we all saw a swarm of friends and acquaintances regurgitate the most asinine conspiracy theories about President Obama imaginable. Whether they came from Sarah Palin or Alex Jones, right-wing looney tunes were always a far cry from the truth. Today we have a new term for it: fake news. But we must always remember what it truly is: conspiracy theories.Now that the great and honorable President Obama leaves office tomorrow, let s remind the economically anxious red America:Congratulations on letting yourself be played for the last 8 years! It was quite a sight to behold, both sad and funny that teetered on the brink of near insanity. Hopefully, this will be a learning experience to turn off the TV, quit with the fake news, and apply some common sense, no?Considering they just elected the biggest conspiracy theorist around, one shouldn t get their hopes up.Now that Trump has already broken a slew of promises, watch as red state citizens still bitterly cling to their guns and bibles while finding a way to somehow blame Obama.It is nearly impossible to record how much money, time and brain cells Republicans lost being perpetually lied to by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Alex Jones, Dinesh D Souza, Bill O Reilly, Michele Bachmann and the rest of the right-wing brigade.The fact that Republicans allowed their minds to be poisoned for nine years (counting the campaign in 2008) will have long lasting effects for generations to come and will continue to throughout the Trump presidency.President Obama got one thing wrong: there is a blue state America and a red state America. But it goes so much deeper than that. There s an alert America and an easily duped America. There s a truthful America and an untruthful America. Luckily, Democrats were the former, and sadly Republicans allowed themselves to be the latter.But it wasn t always like this. In January 2009, as President Obama prepared to take office, 71 percent of America came together to support the new incumbent. Then the power of talk radio prevailed, and America was to be utterly transformed, never to be the same again.President Obama will leave office with a 60 percent approval rating. Perhaps a chunk of the GOP electorate realizes they have been manipulated.Going forward, Democrats and progressives alike need to be cautious of what they share and believe. Allowing our disdain for Trump to border on conspiracy is a dangerous route to take.Be vigilant, but be smart.Featured image via Justin Sullivan/Getty Images | 0 |
2,591 | Iceland's Left-Green opposition leader to become new prime minister | COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Iceland s opposition leader Katrin Jakobsdottir will become the country s new prime minister, after her Left-Green Movement on Wednesday agreed to form a coalition government, state broadcaster RUV reported. Her party, which emerged as the second biggest party in snap parliamentary elections on Oct. 28, entered coalition talks with the Independence Party, the main partner in the current government coalition, and the Progressive Party two weeks ago. Current Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson of the right-wing Independence Party called the snap election in September, after less than a year in government, as a scandal involving his father prompted a government ally to drop out of his ruling coalition. The Nordic island of 340,000 people, one of the countries hit hardest by the 2008 financial crisis, has staged a remarkable economic rebound spurred by a tourism boom. The formation of a broad coalition government could bring an end to political instability triggered by a string of scandals. The previous snap election took place late in 2016, after the Panama Papers revelations showed several government figures involved in an offshore tax haven scandal. Still, some Left-Green members and voters have criticized the party s plan to enter a coalition with Benediktsson and his Independence Party. Two of Left-Green s mandates did not support the new coalition, giving the three parties a total of 33 of parliament s 63 seats. Jakobsd ttir, 41, campaigned on a platform of restoring trust in government and leveraging an economic boom to increase public spending. She failed to form a left-leaning government earlier this month, but said on election night she was open to forming a broad-based government. While both the Left-Greens and the Independence Party parties agree that investment is needed in areas like welfare, infrastructure and tourism, they disagree over how it should be financed. The Left-Greens want to finance spending by raising taxes on the wealthy, real estate and the powerful fishing industry, while the Independence Party has said it wants to fund infrastructure spending by taking money out of the banking sector. Benediktsson will become finance minister in the new government. | 1 |
2,592 | BREAKING: Acting FBI Director McCabe Contradicts White House, Says Russian Probe Will Continue | Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe testified today in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee. When asked if the rank and file employees of the law enforcement agency, he said, Director Comey enjoyed broad support within the F.B.I. and still does to this day. The vast majority of F.B.I. employees enjoyed a deep and positive connection to Director Comey, McCabe went on to say, It has been the greatest privilege and honor of my professional life to have worked with him. When asked about the current investigation into any ties between the Trump campaign, McCabe said that the agency considers this investigation to be very important and serious. As to what impact Comey s firing will have on the investigation, he said, The work of the men and women of the FBI continues despite any changes in circumstances, he said in response to a question from Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida. There has been no effort to impede our investigation to date. Simply put, you cannot stop the men and women of the FBI from doing the right thing. Given what the White House has said this week, both areas are important. Yesterday, White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders told the press that the reason Comey was fired was because, among other things, that he had lost the confidence of the agents there. One reason many believe President Trump fired Comey, and no one believes anyone but Trump made this decision, because he thought it might slow down the investigation. It now appears neither of those ideas are true.Featured image via Alex Wong/ Getty Images. | 0 |
2,593 | Factbox: International reaction to arrest of Reuters reporters in Myanmar | (Reuters) - Several countries, the United Nations and journalist groups are demanding the release of Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo from detention in Myanmar. The reporters were arrested on Dec. 12 after being invited to meet police officials on the outskirts of Yangon. They had worked on stories about a military crackdown in Rakhine state, scene of more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh since late August. Myanmar s Ministry of Information has said the reporters illegally acquired information with the intention to share it with foreign media, and released a photo of them in handcuffs. It said the reporters and two policemen faced charges under the British colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years, though officials said they have not been charged. Their exact whereabouts are not known. Reuters driver Myothant Tun dropped them off at a police compound and the two reporters and two police officers headed to a nearby restaurant. The journalists did not return to the car. Reuters President and Editor-in-Chief Stephen J. Adler said the arrests were a blatant attack on press freedom and called for the immediate release of the journalists. Here are reactions to their detention from politicians and press freedom advocates around the world: - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the United States was demanding their immediate release or information as to the circumstances around their disappearance. - British Minister for Asia and the Pacific Mark Field said, I absolutely strongly disapprove of the idea of journalists, going about their everyday business, being arrested. We will make it clear in the strongest possible terms that we feel that they need to be released at the earliest possible opportunity. - Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom called the arrests a threat to a democratic and peaceful development of Myanmar and that region. She said, We do not accept that journalists are attacked or simply kidnapped or that they disappear ... To be able to send journalists to this particular area is of crucial importance. - U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said countries should do everything possible to secure the journalists release and freedom of the press in Myanmar. Guterres said, It is clearly a concern in relation to the erosion of press freedom in the country. He added: And probably the reason why these journalists were arrested is because they were reporting on what they have seen in relation to this massive human tragedy. - Canada s Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland, the former managing director and editor, consumer news, at Thomson Reuters, tweeted that she was deeply concerned by the reports about the arrests. Global Affairs Canada, the Canadian government department that manages its foreign and trade relations, issued a separate statement on Saturday calling for the reporters release and said that no person should ever face intimidation in the exercise of their profession. - President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani called on Myanmar to protect media freedoms and release the two reporters. - Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, information adviser to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said, We strongly denounce arrests of Reuters journalists and feel that those reporters be free immediately so that they can depict the truth to the world by their reporting. - Japan s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe s spokesman Motosada Matano said his government was closely watching the situation, and that Japan has been conducting a dialogue with the Myanmar government on human rights in Myanmar in general. - Australia s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said its embassy in Myanmar was registering Canberra s concern at the arrest of the two journalists. A free and functioning media is an essential part of a modern democracy, the department said in an e-mail to Reuters on Monday. - The Committee to Protect Journalists said, We call on local authorities to immediately, unconditionally release Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo. These arrests come amid a widening crackdown which is having a grave impact on the ability of journalists to cover a story of vital global importance. - The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said there was no justification for the arrests. Daniel Bastard, the head of the group s Asia-Pacific desk, said the charges being considered were completely spurious . - Advocacy group Fortify Rights demanded the Myanmar government immediately and unconditionally release the two Reuters journalists. The environment for media right now is as hostile as it s been for years, and if adequate pressure doesn t mount on the civilian and military leadership, we can expect it to worsen, Matthew Smith, chief executive officer of Fortify Rights, said in a statement on Thursday. - Myanmar s Irrawaddy online news site called on Dec. 14 for the journalists release in an editorial headlined The Crackdown on the Media Must Stop. The newspaper said that it is an outrage to see the Ministry of Information release a police record photo of reporters handcuffed as police normally do to criminals on its website soon after the detention. It is chilling to see that MOI has suddenly brought us back to the olden days of a repressive regime. - The Southeast Asian Press Alliance asked for the immediate release of the journalists. These two journalists are only doing their jobs in trying to fill the void of information on the Rohingya conflict, said SEAPA executive director Edgardo Legaspi. With this arrest, the government seems to be sending the message that all military reports should be off limits to journalists. - The Protection Committee for Myanmar Journalists, a group of local reporters who have demonstrated against past prosecutions of journalists, decried the unfair arrests that affect media freedom . A reporter must have the right to get information and write news ethically, said video journalist A Hla Lay Thu Zar - a member of the group s executive committee. - The Foreign Correspondents Club of Myanmar said it was appalled by the arrests and gravely concerned about the state of press freedom in Myanmar. It called on authorities to ensure the reporters safety and allow their families to see them. - The Foreign Correspondents Club in Thailand, The Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines, and the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club, have also issued statements of support for the journalists. (Refiles to add dropped surname of Swedish foreign minister.) | 1 |
2,594 | Government will take over burned Myanmar land: minister | YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar s government will manage the redevelopment of villages torched during violence in Rakhine state that has sent nearly half a million Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh, a minister was reported on Wednesday as saying. The plan for the redevelopment of areas destroyed by fires, which the government has blamed on Rohingya insurgents, is likely to raise concern about prospects for the return of the 480,000 refugees, and compound fears of ethnic cleansing. According to the law, burnt land becomes government-managed land, Minister for Social Development, Relief and Resettlement Win Myat Aye told a meeting in the Rakhine state capital of Sittwe, the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said. Win Myat Aye also heads a committee tasked with implementing recommendations on solving Rakhine s long-simmering tensions. Citing a disaster management law, he said in a meeting with authorities on Tuesday that redevelopment would be very effective . The law says the government oversees reconstruction in areas damaged in disasters, including conflict. There was no elaboration on any plan or what access to their old villages any returning Rohingya could expect. The minister was not immediately available for comment. Human rights groups using satellite images have said about half of more than 400 Rohingya villages in the north of Rankine state have been burned in the violence. Refugees arriving in Bangladesh have accused the army and Buddhist vigilantes of mounting a campaign of violence and arson aimed at driving Rohingya out of Myanmar. In Washington, lawmakers in the U.S. Congress condemned the treatment of the Rohingya and some questioned the former Obama administration s decision to lift sanctions on Myanmar after a civilian-led government came to power. Ed Royce, Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told a hearing the Myanmar government s response to the crisis had been appalling. He said national leader Aung San Suu Kyi had a duty to speak out and that her statements on the crisis had been widely off the mark. Perpetrators of this ethnic cleansing must be condemned in the strongest possible terms, he said. Ted Yoho, Republican chair of the subcommittee, said the military crackdown had been characterized by sickening crimes against humanity and said Washington should look at what policy options were available to stop the military violence and encourage the government to take a firmer stand against it. The Trump administration has stepped up its criticism of the Myanmar military s behavior, but has refrained from using the terms ethnic cleansing or crimes against humanity and given no indication of plans to re-impose sanctions on the country where it competes for influence with strategic rival China. Buddhist-majority Myanmar has rejected U.N. accusations of ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in response to coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents on the security forces on Aug. 25. It has also rejected accusations of crimes against humanity leveled this week by Human Rights Watch. The government has said about half of Rohingya villages have been abandoned, but blames insurgents of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army for attacking civilians. It says nearly 500 people have been killed since Aug. 25, nearly 400 of them insurgents. The violence and the refugee exodus is the biggest crisis that the government of Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi has faced since it came to power last year in a transition from nearly 50 years of military rule. Myanmar considers the Rohingya illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and bouts of suppression and strife have flared for decades. Most Rohingya are stateless. Suu Kyi has faced scathing criticism and calls for her Nobel prize to be withdrawn. She denounced rights violations in an address last week and vowed that abusers would be prosecuted. She also said any refugees verified as coming from Myanmar under a 1992 process agreed with Bangladesh would be allowed back. Suu Kyi has little, if any, control over the security forces under a military-drafted constitution that also bars her from the presidency and gives the military veto power over political reform. Many refugees are gloomy about their chances of going home, saying they fear they lack the paperwork they expect would be demanded to prove they came from Myanmar. Myanmar is due to take a party of diplomats to the conflict zone on Thursday to let them see the situation. A group of aid organizations said on Tuesday the total number of refugees who had fled to Bangladesh since Aug. 25 had been revised up to 480,000, after 35,000 people were found to have been missed out of the previous tally. Aid agencies say refugees are still arriving, though at a slower pace. They have an overall plan to help 1.2 million people, including 200,000 Rohingya who were already in camps in Bangladesh and 300,000 people in host communities . They have absolutely nothing, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said in Geneva after returning from a visit to the camps in Bangladesh. It is very clear the cause of this crisis is in Myanmar but that the solution is also in Myanmar, he said. The risk of spread of terrorist violence in this particular region is very, very high unless the issue was resolved, he warned. Grandi said he had not been informed about government plans for redevelopment but it had to include all communities. If development is not inclusive, it will not be addressing the root causes and solve the problem, he said. | 1 |
2,595 | NO KIDDING! HERE’S WHY HILLARY SUPPORTERS Will Get Us ALL KILLED [VIDEO] | Wow! The Dems are so out of touch | 0 |
2,596 | Meghan McCain Tweets The Most AMAZING Response To Doug Jones’ Win In Deep-Red Alabama | As a Democrat won a Senate seat in deep-red Alabama, social media offered up everyone s opinion because that s what social media does. Democrat Doug Jones narrowly defeated accused pedophile and serial sexual assaulter Roy Moore in a special election for the Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions when he was appointed Attorney General. And some Republicans aren t exactly heartbroken about this.Take Meghan McCain John McCain s daughter. She went right after one of Trump s biggest supporters Steve Bannon as soon as the election results were announced:Suck it, Bannon Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) December 13, 2017Three simple words. It s amazing what three simple words can say.Steve Bannon spoke at Moore s election night rally, which we assume was supposed to be a night of celebration. Bannon endorsed Moore early on, against Luther Strange, whom Donald Trump himself campaigned for earlier this year. Bannon s support for Moore remained steadfast even in the wake of multiple allegations surfaced against him of sexual assault, harassment and even pedophilia. Bannon even said, There s a special place in hell for those who refuse to support Moore.On Dec. 12, the people of Alabama rejected Roy Moore s penchant for pursuing, even assaulting, teenage girls. They rejected his hate and bigotry. They rejected an asshat who has been removed from Alabama s Supreme Court twice for violating federal court orders, thus demonstrating he has no respect for the rule of law. And they sent a message to the Republican Party that this bullshit will no longer be tolerated. If deep-red Alabama can elect a Democrat, then anyone can. And that should have Republicans scared out of their minds.Well, we re going there, along with Meghan McCain and anyone else who believed Moore shouldn t ever hold public office. Even Republicans have their limits, it seems.Featured image via Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images | 0 |
2,597 | U.N. nuclear chief to visit Iran this weekend | VIENNA (Reuters) - The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog will visit Iran on Sunday for talks with senior officials there, as opposition from the United States threatens to undermine an international accord to curtail Iran s nuclear program. Yukiya Amano, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, will discuss Iran s implementation of the 2015 agreement, the IAEA said on Wednesday. The visit comes during a dispute between Washington and Tehran over U.S. President Donald Trump s decision this month not to certify Iranian compliance with the landmark nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers. The U.S. Congress now has less than 60 days to decide whether to re-impose economic sanctions on Tehran that were lifted under the deal, in exchange for restrictions on Iran s nuclear activities. Amano, whose agency is in charge of policing those restrictions, has defended the agreement as a net gain for nuclear verification and said Iran s commitments under the deal are being implemented. The IAEA did not mention Trump s refusal to certify Iran was complying with the agreement. European Union leaders have reaffirmed their commitment to the accord, hoping that Congress will prevent the deal from collapsing. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said Tehran will stick to the agreement as long as the other signatories do, but will shred the deal if Washington pulls out, as Trump has threatened to do. | 1 |
2,598 | TRANSGENDER TARGET SUING Good Samaritan Who Saved Girl From Being Stabbed To Death [VIDEO] | The timing couldn t possibly be any worse ***WARNING*** GRAPHIC VideoTarget is smack dab in the middle of a PR nightmare. The news of Target suing this good samaritan couldn t have come at a worse time In 2013, everyone agreed that Michael Turner saved the life of a teenaged girl who was attacked in a Pennsylvania Target store. Now, Target is suing him.When she was sixteen, Allison Meadows was shopping in an East Liberty, Pennsylvania, Target store when Leon Walls rushed into the outlet and stabbed her.With the assistance of surveillance video, Walls was convicted of attempted homicide for his attack on the girl.Here is the horrific video of the stabbing and more importantly, of the heroic act by Michael Turner (who Target is suing) that saved her life:The only reason the girl did not suffer more injuries is because Michael Turner interceded and, along with several other men, confronted Walls. Turner himself chased Walls out the store with a baseball bat.Unsurprisingly, Meadows was extremely thankful for Turner s efforts. I thank him, Meadows has said. I thank him every time I see him. But Meadows launched a lawsuit against Target, saying the store s lack of security put all shoppers, not just her, in danger.Target, however, is less grateful for Mr. Turner s heroics. And now the retailer is suing him for endangering the store s customers.According to the company s filing, Target says Turner and several others chased the suspect toward the store s entrance after the attack on the girl. The store insists Turner put other shoppers at risk with his actions.The victim of the stabbing and her family are furious with the retail chain and say Target is just trying to shift the blame away from its own security failures. Suing Michael Turner is just Target s way of trying to blame someone else for what happened under their own roof, the Meadows family attorney said. The family certainly doesn t blame Mr. Turner and they are thankful he was there that day. Target is already getting negative publicity; the chain is the subject of a major boycott effort due to its announcement that it is allowing men to use women s bathrooms and changing rooms.Despite the uproar over its decision not to mention the loss of up to $6 billion in stock values Target doubled down on its policy.Via: Breitbart | 0 |
2,599 | Brazilian prosecutor accuses ex-minister, congressman of money laundering: media | SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil s prosecutor general officially presented money laundering and criminal association charges against six people, including a former federal minister and a congressman, Brazilian media reported on Monday evening. According to newspapers Estad o and O Globo, the prosecutor general sent the formal accusations to Brazil s Supreme Court, which will now decide on further actions. The prosecutor officially accused Geddel Vieira Lima, the papers said, who was in charge of President Michel Temer s relations with Congress until November 2016. The charges related to a previously disclosed corruption probe, in which his fingerprints were found in bags hiding more than 51 million reais ($15.7 million) in cash. The prosecutor also accused Geddel s brother and a federal congressman, L cio Vieira Lima, their mother, Marluce Vieira Lima, a former advisor to L cio, Job Ribeiro, the ex-director of the civil defense force for the city of Salvador, Gustavo Ferraz, and a partner at construction company Cosbat, Luiz Fernando Costa Filho, O Globo reported. Among the possible sources of the 51 million reais of cash, the prosecutor said according to the paper, were bribes from embattled construction firm Odebrecht [ODBES.UL] and kickbacks related to President Temer s Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMBD). The prosecutor general s office, a lawyer for Vieira Lima and representatives of Odebrecht did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside normal business hours. Lawyers for the other defendants could not immediately be reached for comment. Brazil has been wracked by corruption cases that have reached all levels of business and government in recent years, shattering the public s faith in the political class. Just weeks ago, police arrested the head of the Rio state assembly and two other state assemblymen on corruption charges, all of whom were also members of Temer s PMDB. | 1 |
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