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2,600 | U.S. House and Senate leaders reach agreement 'in principle' on tax plan: AP | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican leaders in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have reached an agreement in principle on tax reform legislation, the Associated Press reported on Twitter on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources. The AP gave no further details and Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the report. | 1 |
2,601 | Trump's opposition to trade deals fuels internal party opposition | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Presidential candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday lashed out at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s scathing criticism of his stance on trade, highlighting divisions within the Republican Party that threaten unity ahead of the Nov. 8 election. At a campaign rally in Maine on Wednesday, Trump called the nation’s largest business association “controlled totally by various groups of people who don’t care about you whatsoever.” He said new trade deals should be negotiated because foreign countries are taking advantage of America. “Every country that we do business with us look at us as the stupid people with the penny bank,” Trump said Wednesday at the rally in Bangor, Maine. The Washington-based lobbying group, which represents the United States’ largest companies and business interests, is typically a reliable backer of Republican policies. But on Tuesday it took issue with Trump’s vocal opposition to trade deals, calling his proposals “dangerous” ideas that would push the United States into another recession. Trump said the Chamber’s argument that his policies would cause a trade war were incorrect because the United States was already at a deficit. “We’re already losing the trade war, we lost the trade war,” Trump said. “Nothing can happen worse than is happening now.” In speeches on Tuesday, Trump called for renegotiating or scrapping the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico, calling it a job killer, and reiterated opposition to the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership among the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries. He also lambasted China’s trade and currency policies. The Chamber has consistently backed trade deals. The public squabbling between the presumptive Republican nominee and the business group was unusual, one of a series of reminders that Trump still struggles to unite his party behind his campaign. The Republicans and many business leaders tend to share policy goals and work in lockstep, and many business leaders have traditionally been big donors to Republican candidates. So far, the Chamber’s political action committee has donated $134,000 to federal candidates or their committees, with $127,500 of that total going to Republicans, according to U.S. government campaign finance records. Billionaire Republican donor Paul Singer, who bankrolled an effort to try to defeat Trump during the campaign’s nominating phase, said on Wednesday that a Trump presidency and his trade positions would almost certainly lead to a global depression. “The most impactful of the economic policies that I recall him coming out for are these anti-trade policies,” Singer said during a panel discussion at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado, according to CNBC. But opposing trade deals has proven a winning strategy for Trump among voters concerned about the loss of manufacturing jobs. Art Laffer, an economic adviser to President Ronald Reagan who supports Trump, said he did not like the tone of Trump’s speech on Tuesday but thought it was an improvement over his past comments on trade. “It’s not terribly alarming to me,” Laffer said. “I didn’t see any 45 percent tariffs across the board. ... “I saw negotiating better trade deals rather than throwing away all the trade deals we have now. He points out the flaws in these trades, and that’s all true,” Laffer said. “I don’t like the tone of it, but I dislike the tone less today than I did three weeks ago.” Peter Navarro, a Trump trade policy adviser, defended the candidate’s position. “Here’s the central point to understand: The White House has been utterly and completely soft on China’s illegal trade practices,” said Navarro, a professor at the University of California, Irvine. “The status quo is the worst of all possible worlds for the United States.” Trump also took fire from for his positions on trade from Democrats. In a call organized by rival Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, U.S. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, a former businessman and tech entrepreneur, said that while the country needed to do a better job protecting workers, more resources should be put into training them for a new economy. He also noted that it was unusual to see a Republican standard-bearer and the Chamber divide. “You’ve really got a special circumstance when the U.S. Chamber of Commerce” responded to Trump’s economic plan with a “full-fledged onslaught,” Warner said. “No one could have predicted this kind of election season.” Clinton held no public campaign events on Wednesday but did announce she would appear next week with President Barack Obama, the first time this year that he and his former Secretary of State have campaigned together. | 1 |
2,602 | WATCH FUNNIEST MAN In American Politics Ridicule Liberals, Atheists And Anti-American Jackasses | You don t want to miss this!Here s a little info about Joe Dan Gorman and his website, Intellectual Froglegs. You can find his website by clicking HERE. My name is Joe Dan Gorman, and you can blame me for Intellectual Froglegs. I created it, I write & produce it and I host it. So, it s pretty much my fault.In case you haven t seen it yet the basis of Froglegs is to be covertly educational with humor, wicked cool graphics and classic tunage.And we re not following the media narrative or chasing the media-driven outrage of the day - but we will talk about things that matter, from the historical to the hysterical.I have no allegiance to a political party my allegience is to God, truth and freedom . Oh, and funny stuff. LOLThe best part I get to ridicule liberals, atheists and other assorted anti-American jackasses. How fun.The most flattering compliment I get is when someone asks me to thank my staff but as far as the writing, editing, researching and production of the show I m it. I also do all the website work.I ll steal jokes like a democrat, LOL Now there is nothing more important than God, so I invite you to enjoy some of the cool videos ay my God, Science & History page. Nobody quite articulates the incomprehensibly massive power of God like a physicist. God of Wonders is one of my favorites.You can help Joe Dan who runs an AD-FREE website by donating here: DONATE BUTTON Look for regular installments of Joe Dan Gorman s videos on our website. We found his videos by chance and have fallen in love with his honest and ball-crushing humor. We feel blessed to call him our buddy and hope you will find him as refreshing and hysterical as we do.ENJOY! | 0 |
2,603 | MUSLIM PREACHER CHARGED AFTER RANTING, SPITTING “Alluha Akbar” In Police Officers Face…Screamed At Woman On Streets For Wearing “Tight Jeans”…Muslim Bystanders Cheer Him On [VIDEO] | The best part of the whole video is when this pompous Muslim street preacher tells the police officer that the woman in the tight jeans confronted him. He goes on to say, if the cop doesn t believe him, to ask any of the Muslims who are surrounding and encouraging him to berate the police officer. Things are about to get very ugly in these areas around London where Muslims have formed very strong enclaves of citizens and refugees who have no intention of assimilating with British citizens An Islamic street preacher has been arrested and charged after allegedly screaming abuse at a woman for wearing tight jeans and shouting Allah Akbar in a police officer s face.Krissoni Henderson appeared to be caught on camera angrily confronting the officer who was investigating a complaint made against the 31-year-old.The unnamed policeman was called to New Street in Birmingham city centre at around 5.30pm on July 4 following a 999 call from a 38-year-old woman who said she feared for her safety after a verbal confrontation. She alleged she had been shouted and sworn at.In the footage below, a man alleged to be Henderson is wearing traditional Islamic dress and standing with another man and a woman. Here is my witness, he appears to yell, gesturing to the woman, if you want to arrest me arrest me. He vehemently explains that the woman who complained had walked up to him rather than the other way round, making him the innocent party. Do you think I m scared? he says skeptically to the officer who is trying to reason with them.He then begins to shout with increasing force over the policeman: Freedom of speech, we are not going to take your racism anymore. We re not terrorists and we are not suicide bombers, throw your television in the dustbin. This is a free country and we can speak freely in public! He goes on to claim that the woman who complained had threatened him when she approached him. But when the officer asks if he can give him the common decency of not shouting over him the preacher continues to bellow his reasoning.And as the policeman walks away slightly to attempt to defuse the situation he yells after him, Go, go find some rapists! Again the officer asks for the common courtesy of being listened to but the preacher repeats his argument of having a witness.He apparently works himself as he confronts the fluorescent jacketed man, screaming that he is scared of no one but Allah and spitting Allah Akbar in the officer s face.Eventually the policeman turns to the crowd which has amassed and explains: This young man has the right to assembly. He can stand here and shout and alarm. He can shock and offend If he commits a public order offense then he will be arrested. However it is clear the crowd is very much on the preacher s side and as the officer walks away they begin to gather in around the man, jeering and heckling the retreating policeman. Via: Daily Mail | 0 |
2,604 | Man Who Threatened To Shoot Muslims Uses The ‘Fox News Made Me Do It’ Defense | A California man who by his own account spent much of 2015 binge watching Fox News and getting progressively more angry about Muslims says that the only reason he repeatedly threatened to kill Muslims was because he had a toxic mix of alcohol abuse and Fox abuse problems.In 2015, after months of watching Fox News air thinly veiled hate speech regarding Muslims, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations activist group in particular, California resident John David Weissinger began leaving voicemail messages for the employees of CAIR in which he threatened to shoot them. Even more disturbing, Weissinger had already been known to linger around the front of the CAIR office.Apparently, Weissinger could have made good on his threats as well. After police went to arrest him for his threats, they found he possessed an illegal assault rifle. (In at least one of his voicemails, Weissinger insisted that he had enough guns and ammo to come and kill all of you. He wasn t kidding.)In many ways, Weissinger s story bears a striking resemblance to that of the right-wing terrorist who went on a mass shooting at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood that same year. Like Weissinger, the man charged with the crime gave verbatim right-wing talking points as justification for his murder spree. Also like Weissinger, he had plenty of guns and ammo to make his threats turn into a massacre.Weissinger pled guilty to hate crime allegations, making a criminal threat, and possession of a illegal assault rifle. At his sentencing hearing, his lawyer tried to diminish his culpibility by suggesting Fox News had whipped him up into a hate-fueled fury and alcohol had lowered his judgment. He barks when he s drunk, Malowney told a judge during the Tuesday sentencing hearing, as quoted by KFMB. He was reeling from depression and anxiety. Between Fox News, Donald Trump, and other conservative politicians, the most fanatical right-wing extremists have plenty of material to stoke their paranoid racial and social anxieties. In at least one analysis, Fox News was found to lie to its audience on a consistent basis over 50 percent of statements made by Fox News pundits were found to be blatantly false and many of those lies center around stereotypes of groups conservatives hate. Fox has always been a network built by and for conservatives, but increasingly, it has become a gross manufacturer of smears against minorities meant to confirm pre-conceived biases of its old, white audience.The results of all this hate-mongering is as disturbing as it is clear: Instances of hate crimes, particularly against Muslims, have skyrocketed. Mosques and other Muslim owned buildings are being vandalized. Many are being burned to the ground in a national outbreak of arson cases.And if there is any question as to who is stoking these acts, just listen to the right-wing terrorists themselves. They ll tell you. Weissinger has told you. Fox News made me do it. Feature image via Fox News screengrab | 0 |
2,605 | Clinton extends lead over Trump to 13 points: Reuters/Ipsos | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton extended her lead over Republican rival Donald Trump to 13 percentage points in a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Tuesday, up from 10 points at the end of last week. The July 8-12 poll showed 46 percent of likely voters supported Clinton, the former secretary of state, while 33 percent supported Trump, a celebrity real estate developer. Another 21 percent did not support either candidate. That compared with 45 percent who supported Clinton and 35 percent who supported Trump in the five days to July 8. Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has mostly led in the national online poll this year. The last time Trump came close to Clinton’s popularity was in early May, when his last two rivals for the Republican nomination dropped out of the race and party leaders started to line up behind his campaign. Trump, who is expected to become the official Republican nominee at the party’s convention next week, has since lost ground in the poll as he struggled to refocus his campaign from the Republican nominating contests to the Nov. 8 general election. Over the past several weeks, Trump has faced criticism for his past business dealings and has quarreled with Republican leaders over his rejection of international trade agreements and his promises to crack down on immigration. Clinton, meanwhile, has been dogged by criticisms of how she handled classified information as secretary of state. James Comey, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said last week that Clinton and her staff were “extremely careless” with sensitive information but recommended that the government not seek criminal charges against her. Still, Americans have become increasingly positive about Clinton this month, with half of likely voters now saying they have a favorable view of her, according to the poll, up from 46 percent on July 1. Some 60 percent of likely voters have an unfavorable view of Trump, compared with 58 percent on July 1. The Reuters/Ipsos poll surveyed 1,146 likely voters across the continental United States, Alaska and Hawaii. It has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 3 percentage points. | 1 |
2,606 | no title | shares
taksim square gezi park protests istanbul credit alan hilditch flickr
democracy grants people the right to protest to show their opinion on matters that affect their lives and their nations protesting is a universally acknowledged fact belonging to the modern world it serves to give voice to those who are disturbed by the faulty policies drawbacks and negligence of their governments and who wish to raise public awareness on these matters demonstrations rallies strikes pickets boycotts and so on are all ways of protesting as long as they are within the limits defined by the law protests and acts of similar nature are in essence an indisputable part of democracy freedom of opinion and expression
however in some cases protesting is exploited and used as a means of opposing democracy itself protests that give way to riots are now methods of staging coups to shut down administrations and overthrow democratically elected governments
legitimacy of protests and feasibility of demands
democratic protests are welcomed by societies and addressed by governments to the extent that their demands are tangible justified and feasible protests lacking those qualities are most likely to fail in having their demands met
the antigovernment movement in bulgaria in confirmed the validity of these qualities the protests took place in three separate cycles january and february witnessed rallies that objected to the high prices of electricity and demanded the government resign they were successful as the requests were sensible a later demonstration was against a government officer and resulted in his resignation yet another cycle of protests called for a change of the system along with some other illegal demands and faced defeat after turning into riots that were not supported by the overall society
more gruesome video shows turkish soldiers execute female kurdish pkk fighters by shooting in their heads bombers stopped by police blew themselves up in turkey dispute over kurds and coup attempt threatens usturkey alliance the attempted coup détat made turkey band together the gezi park protests in turkey in the same year followed the same pattern set in motion with a good willed and environmentalist approach it was likely to succeed considering its solid and feasible calls and legitimate ways at first the government heeded the nature lovers voices and took a positive step by postponing a construction project that required the destruction of gezi park yet the humanist approach of young people changed course in the wake of provocations of separatist and terrorist gangs and turned into a totally different nature demonstrations that began in gezi park in istanbul and that demanded the preservation of gezi park as a recreational area spread to other cities of the country and transformed into armed and bloody uprising imposing the fall of government it was a quite clear coup detat attempt that did not refrain from using violent methods and openly rejected the validity of a democratically elected government the protests were contradictory considering people took to streets using their democratic rights but then appealed to nondemocratic methods to lay their claims ignoring the will of the nation
though justified at the beginning these two cases of protests demonstrate that they are open to hostile manipulations and may lose their legitimacy if left at the hands of illminded people recently some dark powers have been using this latest technique to manage countries internal affairs as they see fit and stage coups to overthrow governments they bring in professional teams of brutal killers amidst peaceful protests which then lead to violent antidemocratic clashes these protests sometimes end up in civil wars where fellows of the same nation kill one another it all happens in the wake of a governments nonyielding to some dark powers demands and a democratically elected government faces antidemocratic attempts
methods of provocations and otpor
such dramatic outcomes come by the employment of social media social media becomes an instrument for organizing stirring and agitating the masses that are presumed to join the demonstrations various provocative organizations undertake the organization of some agents and provocateurs who take part in demonstrations by inciting them to get violent these illegal subcontractors organize the public relations part of the riots and channel intellectual circles of the country such as its authors academicians journalists and members of nongovernmental institutions to act against democratically elected government in the name of democracy and to lead the public
one of the most common groups among these professional revolutionary organizations is a serbiabased resistance organizationotpor independent observers state that otpor organizes coup attempts and civil disturbance by providing training and logistic support for the usbacked dissident organizations in many countries such as the former yugoslavia serbia georgia bulgaria ukraine egypt brazil and turkey there is a consensus that the cia has been creating riots and social disturbances in fifty countries otpor its offshoot canvas
a relevant source puts forward the following interesting findings otpor
the otpor s fistlogo would turn up years later in the streets of cairo illustrating further the preposterous foreignbacked nature of the egyptian uprisings serbias otpor would continue receiving funds from the west and become a ciacoup college of sorts under the name of canvas center for applied nonviolent action and strategies
the research article penned by carl gibson and steve horn and published on occupycom deals with the international financial intelligence and political connections of otpor and features the following information based on wikileaks documents
serbias srdja popovic is known by many as a leading architect of regime changes in eastern europe and elsewhere since the lates and as one of the cofounders of otpor popovic and otpors offshoot canvas have also maintained close ties with a goldman sachs executive and the private intelligence firm stratfor as well as the us government
such examples are easy to find the internal public opinion on otpor is that it is being employed as leverage to overthrow those governments which conflict with the interests of the us no wonder some media organizations that act on behalf of the us administration speak highly of otpor at every turn moreover the british media rigorously advocates that the executives of otpor have nothing to do with the organization of coups
likewise some turkish media organizations disseminated similar statements during the gezi park demonstrations the attempt to occupy the prime ministers residence by armed groups which is an act of rebellion against the state and treason by law was orchestrated by otpor according to reports yet the media deliberately defined it as the exercise of legitimate democratic rights and freedom of expression by the people and thus desired to create misapprehension to display the members of the marxist and separatist terrorist organizations who are far from representing even a slightest portion of the nation as the representatives of the nation these media organs called the nations security forces who risked their lives to preserve public order and peoples lives as the socalled enemies of freedom and democracy
in truth such mass demonstrations that aim to topple governments divide countries and organize bloody conflicts and even civil wars can no longer be called innocent rallies but subtle projects of deep states and shadow organizations to take over countries from within | 0 |
2,607 | Potential Trump high court nominee mocked him on Twitter | (Reuters) - A Texas judge identified by Donald Trump on Wednesday as one of 11 people he would consider nominating to the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly mocked the presumptive Republican presidential nominee on social media. Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett last month likened Trump to “Star Wars” villain Darth Vader in a Twitter post. "'We'll rebuild the Death Star. It'll be amazing, believe me. And the rebels will pay for it.' —Darth Trump," Willett tweeted last month with a photo of the Death Star, the giant spherical spaceship built to carry a planet-destroying weapon in the first "Star Wars" movie. Willett also linked Trump to liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. “Can’t wait till Trump rips off his face Mission Impossible-style & reveals a laughing Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” Willett posted on Twitter last August. Last June he mocked Trump’s judgment on picking a nominee to the high court. “Donald Trump haiku— Who would the Donald Name to #SCOTUS? The mind reels. *weeps—can’t finish tweet*” tweeted Willett (@JusticeWillett) on the same day Trump launched his candidacy. SCOTUS refers to the Supreme Court of the United States. Asked to comment on Willett’s Twitter remarks, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said, “Mr. Trump’s sole focus is considering the best potential individuals based on their constitutional principles.” Alabama U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions, a key Trump backer, was asked on Fox News Channel about the judge’s Twitter posts, replying, “I doubt he cares.” Sessions said it was more important to ask whether Willett “follows the Constitution,” is a good scholar, has integrity and meets the high standards expected of a Supreme Court justice. Willett’s enthusiastic tweeting would be a pivot from the current social media presence of Supreme Court justices. None of the eight sitting justices has a verified Twitter account. Willett did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment. | 1 |
2,608 | Putin warns U.S. not to supply Ukraine with defensive weapons | XIAMEN, China (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that any decision by the United States to supply defensive weapons to Ukraine would fuel the conflict in eastern Ukraine and possibly prompt pro-Russian separatists to expand their campaign there. On a visit to Kiev last month, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said he was actively reviewing sending lethal weapons to Ukraine to help it defend itself, an option that previous U.S. president Barack Obama vetoed. Ukraine and Russia are at loggerheads over a war in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces that has killed more than 10,000 people in three years. Kiev accuses Moscow of sending troops and heavy weapons to the region, which Russia denies. Putin, answering a question after a BRICS summit in China about the possibility of the United States supplying Ukraine with heavy weapons, said it was for Washington to decide whom it sold or gave weapons to, but he warned against the move, something Kiev wants. The delivery of weapons to a conflict zone doesn t help peacekeeping efforts, but only worsens the situation, Putin told a news briefing. Such a decision would not change the situation but the number of casualties could increase. In comments likely to be interpreted as a veiled threat, Putin suggested that pro-Russian separatists were likely to respond by expanding their own campaign. The self-declared (pro-Russian) republics (in eastern Ukraine) have enough weapons, including ones captured from the other side said Putin. It s hard to imagine how the self-declared republics would respond. Perhaps they would deploy weapons to other conflict zones. Putin also said Russia intended to draft a resolution for consideration in the United Nations Security Council, suggesting armed U.N. peacekeepers be deployed to eastern Ukraine to help protect ceasefire monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) there. It would help resolve the problem in eastern Ukraine, said Putin, saying that a slew of preconditions would need to be met before any such deployment happened. | 1 |
2,609 | Muhammad Ali Sent Trump A Powerful Message That The World Needs To Read | The right wing loves to appropriate revolutionary icons. Muhammed Ali is very much one of those icons. Since his passing on Friday, the boxing champion and political agitator s legacy has been praised by those who have agendas that are antithetical to the The Champ s views on the world. This is probably best exemplified by the message that he sent to Donald Trump (though Trump was not named explicitly) and anyone else who wants to take Trump s proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States seriously.Trump recently sent out a tweet, where he praised Ali for being a truly great champion and a wonderful guy. Muhammad Ali is dead at 74! A truly great champion and a wonderful guy. He will be missed by all! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2016That tweet stands out in stark contrast to the disgusting one that Trump sent out about Muslim athletes just a few months prior to Ali s passing.Obama said in his speech that Muslims are our sports heroes. What sport is he talking about, and who? Is Obama profiling? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2015People were quick to point out how vile and asinine the statement was.And dude, @realDonaldTrump, you've met @MuhammadAli multiple times. pic.twitter.com/tIiIBgY80b Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) December 7, 2015While Trump and Ali had a friendly relationship prior to Trump s political campaign, Ali sent Trump a letter denouncing the idea that Muslims should be banned from entering the United States. I am a Muslim and there is nothing Islamic about killing innocent people in Paris, San Bernardino, or anywhere else in the world. True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so called Islamic Jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion.We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda. They have alienated many from learning about Islam. True Muslims know or should know that it goes against our religion to try and force Islam on anybody.Speaking as someone who has never been accused of political correctness, I believe that our political leaders should use their position to bring understanding about the religion of Islam and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted people s views on what Islam really is. As we all know, Trump has not heeded that message. Trump s entire campaign stands in opposition to what Ali preached.Like the great man himself, Ali s powerful message floats with the grace of a butterfly, yet should sting those who they are addressed to like a bee.Featured image from Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images | 0 |
2,610 | Photo Of Hillary Reading About Pence’s Private Email Surfaces, And It’s The Most Heartbreaking Thing You’ll See This Week (TWEETS) | You remember that one company that used to stuff your mailbox full of coasters installation discs every single goddamn day of the week, your only reprieve from the madness being Sunday? Well, America Online finally discovered what it takes to be relevant: apparently Mike Pence uses it.On Thursday, the Indianapolis Star revealed that not only did the Vice President use private email something for which Donald Trump s opponent, Hillary Clinton, was demonized but he conducted state business on an insecure, almost-forgotten service that was presumed dead long ago. Unlike Hillary Clinton s private email server, Pence s AOL account was hacked.Clinton was spotted on a flight from Boston to New York on Friday and a passenger managed to catch the very moment the former Secretary of State saw the USA Today headline about Pence s private email. The passenger sent the photo to friends via Snapchat, and one of them saved it to share with the world:@jdawsey1 Hillary just checking the daily news. "Pence used personal email in office." The irony is palpable. pic.twitter.com/oia1ARiZ0g Pere Noel (@RealSaintNick6) March 3, 2017The what in the fuck? look on Hillary s face is priceless. It s OK, we know what she s going through. We watched the Right froth at the mouth over what Ted Cruz would call a nothingburger if Clinton was a Republican for what seems like forever.It is not against the law to use a private email in Indiana, but officials are expected to retain the exchanges to fulfill public records requests. Documents released via a records request shows us that Pence discussed national security and other matters with his top advisors via his private email, but an unspecified number were withheld because the state considers them confidential and too sensitive to release to the public. Once again, these are from an account that was hacked last summer. The Star notes that the scammer sent an email to his contacts claiming Pence and his wife were stranded in the Philippines and in urgent need of money. He responded not by increasing his security, but by creating a new AOL screen name.We will not be seeing calls to LOCK HIM UP from the Right, nor will we see GOP politicians calling for endless hearings and investigations. Normally, this would be fine but at this point there seems to be one set of rules for Democrats and one for Republicans in an administration that is easily outpacing even the accusations they leveled at Clinton.This photograph serves as a reminder of what Americans who knew better but decided that voting their conscience was more important than literally saving America from a despot and people who are too stupid to operate a fork without adult supervision yet figured out how to vote caused us to lose. We could have had a competent leader who isn t perfect, but she was at least smart enough to warn us about Donald Trump s cozy relationship with Vladimir Putin. And, of course, she isn t a walking human rights crisis.It s heartbreaking.Featured image via Twitter | 0 |
2,611 | Michigan governor names panel to fix Flint's contaminated water system | (Reuters) - Michigan Governor Rick Snyder on Wednesday appointed a group of government officials, health and other experts to implement long-term fixes for Flint’s lead-contaminated water system, which has become a national scandal. The 17-member committee would recommend ways to help people exposed to lead, study Flint’s water infrastructure and determine possible upgrades. The members includes Flint Mayor Karen Weaver and county and state officials. Snyder, a Republican, also said he wanted the Medicaid social health care program to be expanded to cover all Flint children. In an interview airing on CNN Wednesday evening, Snyder said that officials expect a higher tally of children affected than blood tests have shown so far. “There could be many more,” Snyder said. “And we’re assuming that.” Democrats in the U.S. Senate were preparing to unveil legislation as early as Thursday aimed at aiding Flint, but would not provide details. It could be debated on the Senate floor next week as part of an unrelated energy bill, aides said. Activists in Flint plan to present petitions with almost 20,000 signatures to Weaver and Snyder on Thursday calling for a moratorium on water bills. Snyder’s team includes two people who helped focus attention on the water crisis - Flint pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha and Marc Edwards, a civil engineering professor at Virginia Tech who would oversee all state and federal water testing. Snyder is asking for $3 million in state funds for water bills. “Flint residents should not have to pay for water they did not and are not using,” Weaver said. Also on Wednesday, a coalition of Flint residents and national groups filed a lawsuit asking a Detroit federal court to compel city and state officials to replace all lead water pipes promptly and at no cost to residents. The National Resources Defense Council, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and Flint residents asked for relief for any medical harm suffered. Lead is a neurotoxin that can damage the brain and cause other health problems. Snyder has repeatedly apologized for the delay in addressing Flint’s problems, which have led some critics to call for his censure or arrest. Residents of the city of 100,000 people had complained for months about elevated readings of lead in drinking water and the blood of some children. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette named a special prosecutor to look into possible crimes in the crisis. | 1 |
2,612 | Egypt "hunting down" gays, conducting forced anal exams - Amnesty | CAIRO (Reuters) - Six Egyptian men arrested for promoting sexual deviancy and debauchery on social media will be subjected to anal examinations ahead of their Oct. 1 trial, Amnesty International said on Saturday. Their arrest is part of a wider crackdown against homosexuality that started last week when a group of people were seen raising a rainbow flag at a concert, a rare public show of support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in the conservative Muslim country. At least 11 people have since been arrested, Amnesty said, and one man has been sentenced to six years in jail after local media launched a highly critical campaign against those who raised the rainbow flag at a Mashrou Leila concert, a popular Lebanese alternative rock band whose lead singer is openly gay. Amnesty said the Forensic Medical Authority was due to subject the six men to anal examinations to determine whether they have had homosexual sex. Judicial sources said any defendant accused of debauchery or sexual deviancy , a euphemism for homosexuality in Egypt, is subjected to a medical examination based on an order from the Public Prosecutor. Allegations of torturing or insulting those medically examined are lies not worth responding to. The examinations are carried out by a forensic doctor who swore to respect his profession and its ethics, one judicial source said. Amnesty said such examinations violate the prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment under international law. The fact that Egypt s Public Prosecutor is prioritizing hunting down people based on their perceived sexual orientation is utterly deplorable. These men should be released immediately and unconditionally not put on trial, said Najia Bounaim, North Africa Campaigns Director at Amnesty International. Forced anal examinations are abhorrent and amount to torture. The Egyptian authorities have an appalling track record of using invasive physical tests which amount to torture against detainees in their custody. All plans to carry out such tests on these men must be stopped immediately. Egypt s Muslim religious establishment is voicing its support for the government s moves against homosexuals. Al Azhar will stand against calls for sexual perversion the same way it has stood against extremist groups, a preacher at the 1,000-year-old seat of Sunni Muslim learning said in his Friday prayers sermon. Although homosexuality is not specifically outlawed in Egypt, it is a conservative society and discrimination is rife. Gay men are frequently arrested and typically charged with debauchery, immorality or blasphemy. The largest crackdown on homosexuals took place in 2001, when police raided a floating disco called the Queen Boat. Fifty-two men were tried in the case. | 1 |
2,613 | Al Gore Has The PERFECT Piece Of Advice For Donald Trump | Al Gore had hopes for Donald Trump at one time. He even met with him at Trump Tower, hoping he could influence the newly elected Trump to stay in the Paris Climate Accord. It failed, and Gore regrets the whole thing. I went to Trump Tower after the election, said Gore, who was on Colbert s show to promote his new movie, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power. I thought that there was a chance he would come to his senses. But I was wrong. Source: Huffington PostNot only has Gore lost all hope for Trump on his most passionate issue, climate change, he s lost all hope for Trump altogether, and as a former Vice President, he has one piece of advice for the dumpster fire of a presidency, end it. Resign. The interviewer asked if there was one piece of advice for Trump, what would it be? He responded: Resign. Source: Washington ExaminerThis piece of advice came before last weekend s violent fascist march in Charlottesville, VA and before Trump insisted on siding with the Nazis, the KKK and other assorted heavily armed white supremacists. It was before Gore s latest movie, the sequel to his original climate change documentary ( An Inconvenient Truth ), called An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, which was released earlier in the month.A number of people and media outlets have been calling for Trump to resign.The Los Angeles Times said:If Trump won t resign, Congress should find a reason any good reason to impeach and remove himRolling Stone says, Republicans Must Tell Trump to Go Now. Sadly, they aren t. While many have disavowed Trump s reaction to the Charlottesville violence and his support of the fascist fringe groups that make up a good portion of Trump s base, they are part of the Republican base as well, and Republicans need every vote they can get.Trump s biographer, Tony Schwartz, who was the real author of Trump s The Art of the Deal, has hope. He tweeted that trump will resign before the end of the year.The circle is closing at blinding speed. Trump is going to resign and declare victory before Mueller and congress leave him no choice. Tony Schwartz (@tonyschwartz) August 16, 2017Let s hope he s right.Featured image via Neilson Barnard/Getty Images | 0 |
2,614 | Most EU states push reform of labor rules sought by France's Macron | LUXEMBOURG/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Most European Union states agreed on Monday on reforming the bloc s labor rules that poorer countries value for giving them a competitive edge but French President Emmanuel Macron criticizes for undercutting his workers. The issue of the so-called posted workers pits wealthier countries against poorer peers keen to preserve current rules that allow their citizens to work elsewhere in the bloc for salaries higher than they would get at home but still lower than the local labor force. Macron has put reforming the so-called posting of workers directive high on the EU s agenda and is backed by Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, among others. After some 12 hours of negotiations among labor ministers in Luxembourg, most of the EU s 28 members backed a compromise that would cap posting workers abroad at 18 months and introduce a four-year transition between reaching a final agreement on the reform and its taking effect. Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland said they could not back the proposal, while Ireland, Britain and Croatia abstained over concerns that the new rules would hurt their transport industries. Europe is moving forward, I salute the ambitious agreement on posted workers: more protection, less fraud, Macron said in a post on Twitter late on Monday. The Dutch minister praised the deal, saying all workers deserved protection from unfair competition. His Hungarian colleague said the final text was vague and left too much scope for interpretation. Most EU countries were taking the floor on the matter throughout the day of negotiations on the politically sensitive reform, with one key point of contention being whether to keep international road transport covered by any new posting rules, as sought by Berlin and Paris among others. Spain, Ireland, Portugal and several states on the EU s eastern flank wanted that exempted and subject to a separate law. In the latter group, Poland is the biggest exporter of cheap labor force in the EU. The bloc s executive Commission in the end declared that part of the transport sector, namely transit, would not be regulated by the posting rules. The transport sector is a special case because of the industry s mobile nature, (and) there are several texts on the sector being discussed which will detail exactly how it will be applied, an official at the French president s office said. While one camp says cheap workers easy access to their countries is weighing on salaries and undermining the labor market, the other says tightening rules amounts to protectionism and weakens competition. It s about fairness on the labor market, said the EU s top jobs official, Marianne Thyssen. I am all in favor of freedom of movement but it must be organized in a fair way ... The internal market is based on rules, it s not a jungle. Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania and other easterners say they should be allowed to compete with lower wages to catch up with the wealthier west after decades of communist malaise. Macron embarked on a tour of eastern Europe over the summer as he tries to get countries on board, and some such as Bulgaria and Slovakia backed the agreement. The 18-month agreement written down as a 12-month cap with a possible 6-month extension bridged most differences over the maximum period allowed for sending workers abroad under posting rules before they fall under the host country s labor laws. The ministers gave a green light to opening negotiations on the reform with the European Parliament, which will likely bring more changes to any final agreement. Apart from the future of transport, other themes still open include exact remuneration rules for the posting of workers, which is profitable for companies because of the wage gap in the EU. While the estimated 2 million posted workers only make up a tiny fraction of the bloc s workforce, the issue has driven a wedge between the richer states at the center and their poorer peers on the peripheries. For Macron, the reform is seen as crucial to convince his voters of a need for difficult economic reforms at home by showing he stands up for their interests in the EU. European lawmakers last week agreed their own stance on the matter, including by proposing a 24-month limit on working abroad under posting rules, and ensuring that such mobile workers are entitled to the same bonuses as the locals. | 1 |
2,615 | Trump Is Trying To Discredit Bob Mueller, And Here’s How | With the news dropping that supposedly Trump isn t under an investigation for obstruction of justice, we re all scratching our heads. Especially since Trump admitted he s under investigation himself.ABC This Week with George Stephanopoulos has an idea of what s going on. The President wants to take down Bob Mueller. His lawyer wants to take down Bob Muller and the question is why? And I think the answer is they wanna lay the foundation to discredit whatever Bob Mueller comes up with, Stephanopoulos said in a video posted on Twitter.Given that Trump himself has admitted on Twitter that he is under investigation and that it s a witch hunt , it sounds like a very plausible answer.Stephanopoulos goes on to say that They re essentially engaging in a scorched-earth litigation strategy that is beginning with trying to discredit the prosecutor. He closes the video by saying that Mueller is just doing his job and is only just getting started, so we shouldn t just automatically dismiss Mueller or that Trump is being investigated.Stephanopoulos has a point. It does seem likely that Trump and his team would try to cover an investigation up. They don t want the public to know it would damage his reputation (not that he has a glowing one in the first place).Why shouldn t we believe what Trump tweets? He knows what he s tweeting. Why shouldn t we believe the other sources?An excerpt of This Week shows Pierre Thomas, ABC News Senior Justice Correspondent saying Now, my sources are telling me he s begun some preliminary planning. Plans to talk to some people in the administration. But he s not yet made that momentous decision to go for a full-scale investigation. If that s the case, it s possible that Mueller is backing off on the idea of investigating Trump. Why?Obviously, something is going on behind the scenes. Stephanopoulos may have just given us the real answer.Photo by Lorenzo Bevilaqua/ABC via Getty Images | 0 |
2,616 | MATTEL Features Boy In Girly Barbie Commercial…Doing Their Part To Help Letists Blur The Gender Lines [VIDEO] | Newsflash for Mattel, and any other company who is pandering to the Left this Christmas season: God did not create Gender-Neutral beings God made man and woman to be different for a reason Don t mess with God A boy is featured in the latest Barbie commercial for the first time ever. The commercial is receiving widespread praise for upending gender barriers. The ad displays Mattel s new line of Barbie dolls created as part of a partnership with the Italian fashion house Moschino. The dolls sport outfits of black mesh and leather, with edgy golden accessories to match.However, it is not the dolls racy clothing that steals the show, but rather, the mohawked boy playing with the dolls. Moschino Barbie is so fierce, he exclaims to the camera with an exaggerated head roll. This single line is garnering the Barbie boy a huge fan base worldwide.The public now accepts homosexuality and same-sex marriage. But the fight is not over. The offensive to reshape society in even more radical ways pushes forward.An effort is gaining ground to create a world where not just sexual orientation, but sex itself, is a choice. Where boys can be girls and girls can be boys, or something in between. Where people are expected to ignore the biological reality of sex so that all people coexist androgynously, or according to whatever gender suits them at the moment. Where everyone pretends that gender confusion is normal, if not desirable, and anyone who doesn t play along can be punished and silenced.This demonstrates unprecedented contempt for reality and common sense, let alone morality.Think of the implications with respect to public bathrooms, sex-segregated activities, locker rooms, college student housing and countless other areas of human interaction.Does the idea of a boy who thinks he s a girl showering next to your daughter in P.E. class make you uncomfortable? Then you d better brace yourself. This cause is winning critical legal battles and it is starting with our youth.Earlier this month, the California Senate passed a bill saying that throughout K-12 education, a student is permitted to participate in sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, and use facilities [e.g. bathrooms, locker rooms] consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil s records. Gender identity is the terminology these ultrasensitive, morally sophisticated lawmakers use to refer to the sex a person happens to identify with.Last month, a governing body in Colorado ruled that a 6-year-old boy who thinks he s a girl has the right to use the girl s bathroom at his elementary school. The Colorado Division of Civil Rights said that denying him that right creates an environment rife with harassment and is akin to racial segregation.See where this is going? The public majority already agrees that denying same-sex couples the right to marry is exactly like prohibiting interracial marriage. Now, denying someone access to a public bathroom on the basis of biology is just like excluding blacks from white-only facilities.These lawmakers and officials are determined to ensure that these children grow up in a world where sex confusion is welcomed, even encouraged.What about the girl who feels awkward about having a boy walk in while she s using the bathroom? Sorry. She is the one who needs to adjust her thinking not the boy.But there is something far more sinister going on here. Mattel is not just using the ad to connect with little boys who play with Barbie dolls; it is using the ad to smash gender roles.It s no secret that society is moving away from gender-based toys for children. Target is in the process of removing gender-based signs from their toy section, and Hasbro switched to a gender-neutral Easy-Bake Oven a few years ago.The Moschino Barbie commercial is just another step in society s pursuit to radically change social expectations. But is including a boy in a Barbie ad really progress and common sense, as one news source put it? Via: The Trumpet | 0 |
2,617 | No rest, high tempo - energetic Macron keeps Elysee agenda ticking | PARIS (Reuters) - From text messages at 2 a.m. to clockwork meetings and tight deadlines, 39-year-old Emmanuel Macron is shaking up how the French presidency is run, raising the tempo and stretching the limits of the largely youthful team around him. France s political magazines are full of snippets every week about the inner workings of Macron s Elysee, whether the comings and goings of his rescue dog Nemo or details of messages sent to the foreign minister in the dead of night. But foreign diplomats dealing with the administration also describe a different pace and style of work, saying the young president, with a background in investment banking and civil service, has injected fresh elan into the role. Half a dozen senior European envoys, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, expressed similar views on the sharpness, energy and openness of Macron and his team, whether on specific policy discussions or wider bilateral issues. While they were quick to emphasize that former President Francois Hollande also had a strong command of the files and a ready wit, Macron s focus, personal engagement and trust in those around him has quickened the rhythm, they said. There is undoubtedly a change in pace, said the ambassador of one northern European country. It s not just in terms of ambition, but actually engagement. They are very open, they want us involved, they want us there in meetings. Another described Macron s team as bringing a level of analysis and planning to the table that is more in tune with the worlds of investment banking and finance than politics. On EU policy in particular which Macron has made a priority, delivering big-picture speeches in Athens and at the Sorbonne he has established a tight group of advisers and envoys around him, combining youth and experience. As well as Philippe Etienne, 61, the former French ambassador to the EU, there is 36-year-old Clement Beaune, a graduate of the elite ENA school who was part of Macron s En Marche! Movement from the beginning and is now Europe adviser. Philippe Leglise-Costa, the new representative in Brussels, and Europe minister Nathalie Loiseau are also part of the mix. The question is whether the new energy and approach of the Macronistas which some French media have described as exhausting to the point of collapse can bear fruit or will prove more style than substance. Some of the early signs are positive, particularly on Europe policy. This week, EU labor ministers agreed to amend the rules on so-called posted workers , a divisive issue Macron had pushed since taking office in May. The policy allows EU employees to work elsewhere in the bloc on terms set in their home countries, which countries like France that offer strong worker protections say lets employers get around labor laws by importing workers. The ministers agreed to shorten the period of such postings. Last month, with Elysee input, Germany s Siemens and France s Alstom agreed to merge their rail operations, creating a European champion to compete with China. The same week, France agreed to cede control of shipyard STX to Italy s Fincantieri, another sensitive move shaped by the Elysee. The area where Macron s high-tempo agenda is proving less successful so far is euro zone financial reform. The president had hoped to work with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to overhaul monetary union, including establishing a separate budget for the 19 countries that use the euro. The results of Germany s election last month have made that more difficult, with both Merkel s likely coalition partners, the liberal FDP party and the Greens, opposed to a euro zone budget or any debt-sharing. Macron acknowledged some of those obstacles at a summit of EU leaders in Brussels last week, but said he remained committed to the budget goal, saying it would emerge eventually. | 1 |
2,618 | HILARIOUS! CNN President Jeff Zucker Is Hitler [VIDEO] | CNN s ratings have been in the toilet ever since they made falsifying news about our President and his nonexistent Russian connection a top priority. Earlier this week, CNN sunk to a new low when they threatened to release the identity of a private user on social media site Reddit, after he made a video showing President Trump body-slamming a CNN logo superimposed over the WWE Chairman s body. Perhaps it s a good time for CNN to think about replacing their vengeful, bully president CNN s president, Jeff Zucker, responded to the fiasco surrounding his network this week with a jab President Donald Trump s way, asserting it s the White House chief who s the aggressor in this tiff that the news organization is the victim.Zucker s like the playground bully, caught mid-punch, mid-push, now standing before the principal, trying to weasel out of blame. My job is to remind everyone that they need to stay focused doing their job, Zuckersaid to The New York Times. [Trump s] trying to bully us, and we re not going to let him intimidate us. You can t lose your confidence and let that change the way you conduct yourselves. Decoded meaning: CNN s not going to change their witch-hunting ways.The whole tiff is over a video clip that Trump retweeted showing him wrestling CNN to the ground. The media, as the media is wont to do, went overboard with the criticism of Trump s retweet, pretending like he was calling for arms against members of the media.CNN then went on a hunt to identify the creator of this video, watchdogging like it s not watchdogged in years. And once identified, the guy was then issued this rather cold, calculating message from CNN: Behave, or we ll name you publicly.Watch Infowars hilarious FAKE NEWS video that replaces the Hitler character with CNN president Jeff Zucker: Hitler reacts to CNN pic.twitter.com/zyjdJTknAN Trump in 2020 (@GOPin2020) July 8, 2017The hashtag #CNNBlackmail quickly gathered steam on Twitter. And rightly so. A media giant going after a private citizen for making a satire video seems a bit, well, Gestapo tactic. But instead of backtracking and apologizing, CNN seems to have dug in for battle.Hmm. Interesting strategy. Washington Times | 0 |
2,619 | GINGRICH RIPS “Open Borders” Paul Ryan For Not Endorsing Trump: “He Has An OBLIGATION To UNIFY The Party” [VIDEO] | Wow! Apparently Paul Ryan forgot that Trump won the nomination because the majority of Americans CHOSE HIM as their candidate. It s not about who the Republican elites choose Paul. Should we just do away with elections altogether and let the establishment Republicans choose our candidate for us? The people of the party he belongs to have chosen a nominee Thursday on Fox News Channel s Hannity, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich criticized current House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) for his lack of endorsement of likely presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump earlier in the day in an interview with CNN.Gingrich told host Sean Hannity it was a big mistake and that it sets the wrong tone for the rest of the Republican Party. [I]n the case of Paul Ryan he made a big mistake today and he needs to understand this, Gingrich said. He is the Speaker of the House. He has an obligation to unify the party. He has an obligation to reach out. Obviously he and Donald Trump are going to have disagreements. Some of them will work out and some of them they won t. That s fine. Our constitution provides that speakers and presidents can fight, but I think he sends the wrong signal and a signal which I think endangers the House Republicans and endangers the Senate Republicans. I much prefer what Mitch McConnell did, what John McCain did they both said, OK game s over, we have a nominee. I m for him, he continued. And I think Paul Ryan has some obligation institutionally to be responsive to the fact that the people of the party he belongs to have chosen a nominee. And frankly in the long history of American politics, Donald Trump is not outrageously outside the norm. This kind of vitriol you get does not reflect accurately people who have been nominated for president over the last 200 years. Via: Bretibart News | 0 |
2,620 | The Hilariously Amazing Video We’ve Been Waiting For All Election: ‘HOLY SH*T (You’ve Got To Vote)’ | We are now in the finally days leading up to the 2016 presidential election, and if there s one thing everyone must do it s vote. Donald Trump must lose, and he must lose, in his words, big league.Putting together the most epic music video of the entire election season is none other than the brilliant Rachel Bloom for Funny or Die with a cast of amazing talent a mile long.One of the most profound lyrics of the entire song is this: Look obviously only Hitler s Hiter but break out Mein Kampf into tiny parts and it reads like a Trump rant on Twitter. Followed with this thorough explanation: And if you need a refresher on post World War I Germany, they had an authoritarian political outsider stoking xenophobia in a nation where the poor felt marginalized, and blaming complex problems on scapegoating minorities. The song goes on, albeit in a silly way, to get the point across that Donald Trump would be absolutely devastating for not only the nation but the entire world.The final message is to vote for Hillary Clinton, and that a vote for a third party, while your right, is a conscience vote a lot of people don t have the luxury to have, because of how much they ll lose if Trump wins.Don t only vote, people. Vote wisely and for everyone s benefit, not just your own.Watch here:Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
2,621 | WOW! Watch Former Democrat Hammer Obama On His Weak Leadership And Hatred For America | Unlike our racist, anti-American President, this brilliant Louisiana State Senator, Elbert Lee Guillory is color blind. He is not however, blind to Obama and his radical agenda. His comments represent what so many Americans believe about Obama and the liberal Democrat party. His plea for Obama to stop leaving America vulnerable to terrorists and nations who hate us is heartbreaking History will remember you, Mr. President as a weakling. From his Facebook page: Today America is at war with ISIS. They attack our soldiers, our homeland and our friends. When our law abiding citizens need to protect our streets and communities most, President Obama chooses this same moment to limit OUR gun rights. This is my response to his unbelievable position. // <![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]>Mr. President: Disarm ISIS, not Us.Today America is at war with ISIS. They attack our soldiers, our homeland and our friends. When our law abiding citizens need to protect our streets and communities most, President Obama chooses this same moment to limit OUR gun rights. This is my response to his unbelievable position. Mr. President: Disarm ISIS, not Us.Posted by Elbert Lee Guillory on Tuesday, January 5, 2016 | 0 |
2,622 | Russia left troops in Belarus after wargames: Ukraine | MELITOPOL, Ukraine (Reuters) - Russia has left troops behind after staging war games in Belarus despite promising not to, Ukraine s Commander in Chief Viktor Muzhenko told Reuters. In an interview on a military plane on Thursday evening, Muzhenko said Russia has withdrawn only a few units from Belarus and had lied about how many of its soldiers were there in the first place. His comments could increase tension between the two neighbors and contradict the Belarussian defense ministry spokesman, who said the last train of Russian troops and equipment had left Belarus on Thursday. Russia s defense ministry did not respond to an immediate request for comment. Relations between Kiev and Moscow nosedived after Russia s annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and the outbreak of a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 10,000 people. Ukraine sees itself as being at war with Russia and has accused Moscow of sending troops and hardware to fight in the Donbass region, which Moscow denies. There are frequent casualties despite a notional ceasefire agreed in 2015. The Zapad wargames, held by Russian and Belarussian troops on territory in both countries in September, are a new source of concern for neighboring Ukraine and NATO member states on Europe s eastern flank. Russia has said the exercise was to rehearse a purely defensive scenario, that the scale of the wargames was in line with international rules, and that allegations it was a springboard to invade Poland, Lithuania or Ukraine were false. But Muzhenko said the wargames were of an offensive nature. Ukraine staged its own drills in northern Ukraine in response to Zapad and built up troops there. I wouldn t say that the tension has lessened. We can say tension is building up or rising, he said. We had information that they had withdrawn only a few units of the declared 12,500 troops, of which 3,000 were Russians, but there were significantly more of them there. Muzhenko said the Russians had withdrawn air units from Belarus to make a show of leaving. Russia demonstrated, and it was primarily a demonstration, the return of aviation units they took off from the airfields and flew to airfields in Russia. But we understand that 300-400 km for aviation is a distance that can be overcome in a very short time, he said. The 55-year-old, who became Chief of the General Staff in 2014, said Ukraine was still outgunned in terms of its air defense capabilities in the Donbass war and needed air reconnaissance and anti-missile systems. Kiev is hoping to receive lethal defensive weapons from U.S. President Donald Trump. Muzhenko said talks had been concluded. We expect the corresponding decision because all negotiations are over and the relevant issues have been agreed on the list and types of weapons and we expect only the political decisions of our partner countries, he said. | 1 |
2,623 | Arizona man challenges primary results, alleging misconduct | PHOENIX (Reuters) - An Arizona man filed a lawsuit on Friday challenging the results of the state’s March presidential primary election, alleging misconduct by officials during a nominating contest that is already mired in controversy. The lawsuit filed by Tucson resident John Brakey alleges that officials improperly handled voter registration requests and permitted illegal votes to be cast in the election, which was marred by long lines at polling stations and allegations of discrimination against minority voters. The three-count complaint, filed late on Friday afternoon against Arizona’s secretary of state and 15 counties, also claims that erroneous ballots were counted by officials on election day. It seeks to enjoin the state from certifying the results “until such election is properly conducted and in compliance with every requirement of Arizona law,” according to the lawsuit. The legal action comes amid an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice into the election’s handling by Maricopa County officials that saw outraged votes wait up to five hours to cast their ballots at polls. Some county residents waited long after the polls had officially closed and projected results announced to vote at one of 60 election sites, a reduced number of locations made in cost-cutting efforts by officials. Two hundred polls were set up for the same election in 2012. Officials immediately took the blame for misjudging the number of people who would show up at the polls to cast ballots, saying that their decision were based on turnout history and an increase in mail-in voters. U.S. Justice Department officials are investigating whether federal voting laws were violated after complaints of long lines at polling stations and allegations that there was disproportionate waiting times in areas with high numbers of minority people. Maricopa County officials have until April 22 to respond to the questions from the head of the voting section of the department’s civil rights division. Such an investigation was requested by Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, who called the March 22 election won by Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump “a fiasco” that was unacceptable. A hearing on the lawsuit has been set for April 19. (Corrects headline and first two paragraphs to show lawsuit alleges official misconduct over voter registration requests, not lines at polling stations or possible discrimination against minority voters) | 1 |
2,624 | Trump to give major North Korea speech, then press China to do more | SEOUL (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will wrap up his visit to Seoul on Wednesday with a major speech on North Korea and then shift focus to China, where he is expected to press a reluctant President Xi Jinping to tighten the screws further on Pyongyang, U.S. officials say. Trump s address to South Korea s National Assembly will come a day after he seemed to take a more balanced approach: threatening to use America s full military might against North Korea if needed, but also offering it a diplomatic opening to make a deal to end the nuclear standoff. While Trump presented no specific solution to his toughest global security challenge, his more conciliatory rhetoric toward North Korea could help lower tensions between Washington and Pyongyang that have put much of the east Asian region on edge over the prospects for military conflict. It contrasted markedly with Trump s earlier threats to totally destroy North Korea if it threatened the United States, and the personal insults he exchanged with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. It remains to be seen, however, whether the unpredictable Trump, in his final day on North Korea s doorstep, will build on this approach or return to the bellicose language that has characterized his handling of the North Korean issue. Trump s official talking points for his Asia tour show that he intends to use the speech in part to contrast South Korea s amazing rise with North Korea s sad, backward state and to urge resolve against Pyongyang, according to a confidential document reviewed by Reuters. He is also expected to condemn Pyongyang for its poor human rights record. Trump will then fly to Beijing where, according to senior administration officials, he will try to convince Xi to squeeze North Korea further with steps such as limits on oil exports, coal imports and financial transactions. Previewing his Beijing visit, Trump told a news conference in Seoul on Tuesday that China and North Korea s other giant neighbor, Russia, were among countries whose cooperation will be crucial in getting North Korea to rein in its nuclear and missile programs. President Xi has been very helpful. We ll find out how helpful soon, Trump said. But it is far from clear if Xi, who has just consolidated his power at a Communist Party congress, will agree to do more. China says its leverage over Pyongyang is exaggerated by the West, and points to its support in the U.N. Security Council for recent sanctions on North Korea as evidence that it is doing all it can to curtail the isolated nation s nuclear and missile tests. On this issue, China s position and stance is already very clear and staunch, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Monday. Everyone can see clearly that we don t need anybody to tell us what we should be doing. But with Trump appearing to crack open the door to diplomacy with North Korea something that China has long urged he may have a better chance of securing further promises to intensify economic pressure on North Korea, which relies on Beijing for more than 90 percent of its trade. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, however, has seemed willing to risk snubbing China when he deems it useful as he pursues development of a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. At the same time, Xi may be mindful that Trump has held off on trade actions against China that he loudly threatened during the 2016 presidential campaign to give Beijing more time to make progress on North Korea. For his part, Xi will also be looking to maintain the good personal chemistry the two leaders developed when Trump hosted him at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in April. The bromance is set to continue when Xi returns the favor by laying on a lavish welcome for Trump s visit starting on Wednesday. Trump is expected to go to the Forbidden City, possibly guided by Xi, and participate in an inspection of Chinese troops, though China has released few other details. | 1 |
2,625 | British PM May says Mugabe's resignation gives Zimbabwe a chance to be free | LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday Robert Mugabe s resignation gave Zimbabwe the chance to forge a new path, free from oppression. The resignation of Robert Mugabe provides Zimbabwe with an opportunity to forge a new path free of the oppression that characterized his rule, May said. In recent days, we have seen the desire of the Zimbabwean people for free and fair elections and the opportunity to rebuild the country s economy under a legitimate government. May added in a statement that Britain, as Zimbabwe s oldest friend , would do all it could to support the country. | 1 |
2,626 | JILL STEIN’S PA Vote Recount Effort Not Looking Good For Crooked Hillary | We mentioned in an article yesterday that the real objective behind this recount effort is probably not to find voter fraud, but to strip Trump of the electoral votes in the traditionally blue, must-win states of PA, WI, and MI. If these state are in the process of a recount effort, Trump cannot use their electoral votes in the final tally. A Republican majority Congress would then have to vote to allow Trump to use the votes. The hope is likely that this action would throw Trump s presidency into question with voters, thus setting him up as an illegitimate President in the minds of American citizens. The good news is, the possiblity of a recount in the state of Pennsylvania with 20 electoral votes, is not looking too good for Hillary right now Jill Stein s Hillary Clinton s effort to recount presidential votes in three swing states already appears to be sputtering in Philadelphia.While Stein, a former presidential candidate, has raised millions of dollars and filed for a recount in Wisconsin, the process in Pennsylvania is much more complicated. Candidates cannot file for a recount themselves. Instead, they either have to go to court and attempt to prove widespread voter fraud (there s no evidence of that at this point) or organize a voter-initiated recount effort.Stein s team is going for the latter, asking for thousands of volunteers across Pennsylvania to mobilize. For a voting division also known as a precinct to be recounted, three voters from that division must sign and file an affidavit.As of noon Monday, the Philadelphia city Board of Elections had received petitions for 35 of the 1,686 voting divisions in Philadelphia, according to City Commissioner Al Schmidt. He s spoken with organizers who expect another 15 to be filed. That means that only about 50 of the 1,686 voting divisions in Philadelphia, or about 3 percent, would be recounted as a part of Stein s effort.Stein needed more than 5,000 people in Philadelphia alone to sign petitions to file for a recount and would have had to mobilize about 30,000 people statewide to get a full recount going in Pennsylvania. She contends that though her campaign is targeting recounts in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, it is not coordinating with the campaign of Hillary Clinton, who lost all three of those states to President-elect Donald Trump. The Green Party candidate has so far raised nearly $7 million to spearhead the recount.Wanda Murren, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of State, said in a statement Monday afternoon that the state is working to gather information from the 67 counties regarding their progress in certifying election returns. She said some counties have already certified their elections, therefore closing the five-day window to petition at the county level for a recount.The deadline for voters to file for a recount is the end of the day today.Meanwhile, officials in Allegheny County have said they will delay certifying their election results as activists are filing petitions seeking a recount. BillyPenn | 0 |
2,627 | Trump starts paying his own legal bills on Russia probe: attorneys | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has begun paying his own legal bills related to the Russia investigation and will no longer cover the costs using political donations to his re-election campaign or the Republican Party, his attorneys confirmed on Friday. Trump defense lawyer John Dowd said that following payments by the Republican National Committee, the president began paying the bills and now wants to make the party “even.” The RNC confirmed it is no longer paying the bills. The expenses cover personal lawyers representing Trump in special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s probe of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in last year’s election. Moscow has denied meddling in the election, and Trump has denied any collusion. The investigation has hounded Trump’s presidency. Mueller already has secured an indictment of Trump’s former campaign chief and another aide, while a third former adviser pleaded guilty. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has offered shifting accounts of his Russia contacts while he was a campaign adviser, including with Moscow’s former ambassador to the United States, Sergei Kislyak, and his knowledge of contacts between the campaign and Russian intermediaries. But Sessions made light of the investigation during a speech on Friday before a conservative lawyers’ group. “Is Ambassador Kislyak in the room? Before I get started here, any Russians?” Sessions said, prompting applause and laughter from the crowd at the Federalist Society event. “Anybody been to Russia? Got a cousin in Russia or something?” Special White House counsel Ty Cobb said the administration was working with others to establish a legal fund for current and former staffers. Dowd said White House counsel Don McGahn and campaign lawyer Ben Ginsberg of Jones Day are working to structure that fund, which would be subject to rules that prohibit staff from receiving gifts or pro bono legal service. The president is exempt from those rules, Dowd said. “The geniuses are working on it,” Dowd said. “If it passes muster with the tax lawyers and accountants, then it has to pass muster with the Office of Government Ethics.” During former President Bill Clinton’s administration, private funds were raised to cover Clinton’s legal expenses related to the Whitewater investigation. Under former President George W. Bush, a legal fund was set up to help former Bush staffer Lewis “Scooter” Libby, but only after he had left White House employment. In August, Reuters first reported that the RNC was paying Trump’s legal bills, which amounted to more than $230,000 that month. The payments were made to Trump’s outside legal team, which includes Dowd. Additionally, Trump’s re-election campaign paid more than $300,000 this year in bills to lawyers representing his son, Donald Trump Jr., according to public disclosures. The campaign did not respond to a request for comment on whether it will continue to pay for Trump Jr’s legal expenses. The Federal Election Commission allows use of private campaign funds to pay legal bills arising from being a candidate or elected official. While previous presidential campaigns have used these funds to pay for routine legal matters such as ballot access disputes and compliance requirements, Trump is the first president in the modern campaign finance era to use such funds on the costs of responding to a criminal probe, said election law experts. | 1 |
2,628 | Investigators ask White House for details on FBI director firing, Flynn ouster: NYT | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The special counsel investigating Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election has asked the White House for documents on a range of subjects including President Donald Trump’s firing of the FBI director and his son’s meeting with a Russian lawyer, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. The Times reported that special counsel Robert Mueller’s office had sent the White House a document outlining 13 areas of interest about which investigators were seeking additional documentation. Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, declined a request by Reuters to comment on the matter. Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer handling requests from Mueller’s office, told Reuters, “Out of respect for the special counsel and its process, the White House does not comment on exchanges between the special counsel and the White House.” “The White House remains committed to cooperate fully with the special counsel,” Cobb said. The subjects in the request by Mueller’s office included the ouster of former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and the firing of Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey, the Times reported. According to the report, the special counsel has also asked for documents on how the White House responded to questions about a June 2016 meeting involving Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and a Russian lawyer who had offered to provide damaging information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The 2016 meeting was also attended by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and his former campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mueller’s investigation and two congressional panels are looking into conclusions by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia worked to tilt last November’s election in Republican Trump’s favor. Moscow has repeatedly denied any meddling in the election and Trump has denied any collusion by his campaign. | 1 |
2,629 | Speaker Of The Big House: Child Molester Dennis Hastert To Spend Over A Year In Jail | Former Speaker Of The House Dennis Hastert got handed the sentence of 15 months in prison for monetary payoffs he made to keep his sexual abuse of young boys silent. The judge in the case called him a serial child molester, and also ordered him to enroll in a sex-offender treatment program.Hastert was accused of molesting 4 boys aged 14 to 17, during his time as a coach at Yorkville High School in Illinois. The case came to light when one of them finally broke decades of silence on Hastert s conduct.If you re thinking 15 months for molesting 4 boys is outrageous, you d be correct. Unfortunately, the statute of limitations has expired on the molestation cases. This forced the court to focus on illegal cash withdrawals that Hastert made to pay hush-money in order to keep the crimes buried.As is always the case with your average Republican who does something criminal, there is a news reel of them being hypocritical by attacking others for somewhat similar conduct. Hastert was a very vocal critic of then-President Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair. Clearly, Bill was not in any sense as despicable as Hastert. However, that didn t stop Hastert from strongly attacking Clinton for it.Dennis Hastert on the House floor, 1998:When the allegations first came to light, Hastert did what all Republicans do; blame the victim. His initial response was to claim that the money withdrawal was because HE was the one being victimized by a blackmailer over a baseless claim of sexual abuse. This didn t end up working well for Hastert because the judge used it to hand down an even stronger sentence to him, with the judge telling him, You tried to make him a victim again. U.S. Attorney comments on Hastert:This is yet another case of the universal hypocrisy that is a chronic condition of the Republican party. During a time when Republicans everywhere are trying to pass bathroom laws to protect people from the theorized molestations they believe will occur if a transgender individual uses a public bathroom, their party heroes keep getting nailed for doing the very thing they claim to hate.Here s a better idea. Since Republican men do this more than transgender individuals, we will make a Republican Men s Bathroom. We can do voter ID checks to make sure Republican men can only use their assigned bathroom because it s a public safety issue, as they like to say regarding their anti-LGBT bathroom laws. While we re at it, we can make Republican male-only movie theaters, restaurants and stores to help protect the public from mass shooters.Featured Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images | 0 |
2,630 | Factbox: Key points of Trump's 2018 budget proposal | (Reuters) - The following are stories and tables about President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for the fiscal year 2018 starting Oct. 1, unveiled by the White House on Monday and due to be delivered to Congress on Tuesday. MAIN STORY - Trump’s first full budget would slash funding for healthcare and food assistance programs that help the poor while it trims the deficit. The plan - if agreed to by Congress - would cut $3.6 trillion in government spending over 10 years, balancing the budget by the end of the decade. More than $800 billion would be cut from the Medicaid program for the poor, and more than $192 billion from food stamps. THE WALL - Trump is asking Congress for $1.6 billion for fiscal 2018 to begin building a wall along the border with Mexico, far short of the amount needed for a project sharply criticized by Democrats and even some conservative Republicans. An internal Department of Homeland Security plan has estimated the wall’s total cost at $21.6 billion. AGRICULTURE - The White House budget proposed $46.54 billion in cuts to federal funding for the agriculture sector over the next 10 years, with the biggest cut in the form of a $38 billion bite out of farm supports, including new limits on subsidies for crop insurance premiums and caps for commodity payments. FOREIGN OUTLAYS - The Trump administration’s budget proposal would convert some of the United States’ foreign military grants to loans, part of a larger effort to slash spending on diplomacy, aid and programs abroad by more than 29 percent. ENERGY - Trump’s White House would sell half of the nation’s emergency oil stockpile and open the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to drilling as part of a plan to balance the budget over the next 10 years and ramp up American energy output. FINANCIAL REGULATION - Two Wall Street financial regulators, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Securities and Exchange Commission, would face cuts or major structural changes under Trump’s budget proposal. The CFPB, created to protect borrowers from predatory lending, would undergo a “restructure” that would cut the federal deficit by $145 million, while the SEC, which polices securities markets, would have its reserve fund used to supplement its budget. ASSUMPTIONS - Trump’s promise to balance the federal budget in a decade rests on a sustained rise to 3 percent annual economic growth and a vague “feedback” effect that lowers the annual deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars. The projections are a leap of faith that many economists and the Federal Reserve regard as unlikely. ECONOMY - A table detailing the main economic forecasts underlying the budget proposal DEFICIT - A table detailing the deficit projections from the budget proposal | 1 |
2,631 | “Get Out Of Your Trucks And Run Away”…OBAMA’S MILITARY Gives 45 Minute Warning To ISIS Before Bombing Oil Tankers | Why would any sane person choose to enlist in our military when we don t even have a Commander In Chief who is fighting this war to win? Last week, in the wake of Russian and US airstrikes on ISIS oil convoys, we asked three important questions:Who are the commodity trading firms that have been so generously buying millions of smuggled oil barrels procured by the Islamic State at massive discounts to market, and then reselling them to other interested parties? In other words, who are the middlemen?Can it possibly be true, as officials now claim, that the Obama administration refrained from bombing Islamic State oil trucks because Washington thought the group was only making $100 million per year instead of $400 million?Is it likely, considering how cavalier the US is about collateral damage from drone strikes, that The Pentagon refused to take out Islamic State s revenue stream because the military was afraid of killing a few innocent truck drivers who by definition knew they were transporting illegal crude for a terrorist organization?The first question is, for now anyway, unanswerable. As to the second and third, here s what we said:Perhaps the US overestimated the effect its airstrikes were having on Islamic State s oil production capabilities and perhaps The Pentagon was concerned with killing innocent truck drivers, but it could also be that, as Sergei Lavrov suggested earlier this month, the US has until now intentionally avoided hitting ISIS where it hurts in order to keep them in the game and ensure they can still be effective at destabilizing Assad. If you cut off the oil trade, they lose the ability to battle the regime.Whatever the case, it s too late now, because just as Russian airstrikes and the Iranian ground presence forced the US to do something anything to prove to the world that America is serious about fighting terrorism, Moscow s targeting of ISIS oil convoys has forced the US to get on board (the Russians are going to hit them anyway, so there s no point in vacillating).American airstrikes reportedly destroyed 116 oil tanker trucks earlier this month and another 280 today in Paris mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud s former fiefdom of Deir ez-Zor.Of course the US would hate to catch ISIS off guard risk killing innocent truck drivers, so prior to the November 16 strike, US planes dropped leaflets warning the drivers to get out of your trucks now, and run away from them. Here s the leaflet (note the stick figures running for their lives):Here s some commentary from Colonel Steve Warren from Operation Inherent Resolve (delivered at a press conference earlier this month):Early Sunday morning in Al-Bukamal, which is the southern blue circle number two, you see two blue circles there. They both represent Tidal Wave II operations, but we re in the southern one the one further towards the bottom of your screen, there.In Al-Bukamal, we destroyed 116 tanker trucks, which we believe will reduce ISIL s ability to transport its stolen oil products.This is our first strike against tanker trucks, and to minimize risks to civilians, we conducted a leaflet drop prior to the strike. We did a show of force, by we had aircraft essentially buzz the trucks at low altitude.So, I do have copy of the leaflet, and I have got some videos, so why don t you pull the leaflet up. Let me take a look at it so I can talk about it.As you can see, it s a fairly simple leaflet, it says, Get out of your trucks now, and run away from them. A very simple message.And then, also, Warning: airstrikes are coming. Oil trucks will be destroyed. Get away from your oil trucks immediately. Do not risk your life. And so, these are the leaflets that we dropped about 45 minutes before the airstrikes actually began.And here s an amusing bit from the post-presser Q&A:Q: On Bob s question, too, if if it s so important to cut off the oil shipments, the critical revenue source for ISIS, why did it take so long to take out 116 oil tanker trucks?COL. WARREN: No, that s a great question, Jim. Thanks for asking it.So, a little history on Operation Tidal Wave II. Initially, we, you know, we have been striking oil infrastructure targets since the very beginning of this operation.What we found out was that many of our strikes were only minimally effective. We would strike pieces of the oil infrastructure that were easily repaired.When we came to that realization, we conducted some more study I think I talked about this last week, a little bit we conducted some more study, and determined how to better strike the oil infrastructure itself, different pieces of the system.During the course of that study, we also determined that part of the illicit oil system, from the oil coming out of the ground at a at a pump head, to the end of that chain, which is the distribution network.So, this is a decision that we had to make. We have not struck these trucks before. We assessed that these trucks, while although they are being used for operations that support ISIL, the truck drivers, themselves, probably not members of ISIL; they re probably just civilians. So we had to figure out a way around that. We re not in this business to kill civilians, we re in this business to stop ISIL to defeat ISIL.So basically, it took the US 13 months to figure out that the best way to cripple Islamic State s oil trade was to bomb the oil.To the extent that occurred to anyone previously, the idea was dismissed because the truck drivers are probably not members of ISIL. Well then who are they? Sure, they may not be suiting up in all black and firing RPGs at Toyota Corollas packed with spies for a propaganda video, but it s not like they don t know who they re working for.Also, as mentioned above, the US hasn t exactly been shy about engaging targets even when there are women, children, and bedridden hospital patients in the vicinity so it s hard to imagine that anyone at the Pentagon was worried about Islamic State s truck drivers.Whatever the case, the US is apprently set to give ISIS a 45 minute heads up when The Pentagon plans to bomb an oil convoy which we suppose makes sense.It s the least the CIA can do for an old friend. Via: Zero Hedge | 0 |
2,632 | election law violation was hillarys idea | reprinted from palestinian media watch
fatah has posted several childrens drawings on facebook the drawings clearly show the success of pa and fatah brainwashing children to believe that israel only seeks to harm them violence is good and that all of israel really is palestine labeling the drawings innocent drawings that express the feelings of children of palestine fatah posted the drawing above showing israel as indicated by a star of david eating a palestinian body wrapped in the palestinian flag blood is seen coming from the body and a glass of blood is next to the plateanother drawing by a palestinian child showed a crucified woman wearing the colors of the palestinian flag with her body in the shape of the pa map of palestine that presents all of israel as palestine together with the pa areas the crucifixion also repeats the analogy that palestinians are martyr victims like jesus yet other drawings showed support for violence as legitimate means of palestinian opposition to israel one child drew a palestinian with a slingshot another drew a hand with a rifle see below these drawings echo the pa and fatahs encouragement of the use of violence against israel and their glorification of terrorists as heroes palestinian media watch documented that summer camps organized by the pa ministry of education and the plo educated children to see terrorist stabbers as role models
other drawings repeated the world view that all of israel is palestine showing the pa map of palestine which completely erases the existence of israel and its legitimacy see below this message is repeated endlessly by the pa and fatah children are told that it will all return to us on kids tv programs the pa national security forces regularly post photos from all over israel presenting the places as palestine and even crossword puzzles portray israeli cities as occupied palestine
the pas exploitation of palestinian childrens innocence is precisely what pmw has been highlighting and warning about for years the pa and fatah repeatedly demonize israel as a monster whose only intention is to harm palestinians israel is satan with a tail on pa tv childrens programs and satans project fighting allahs project in sermons delivered by mahmoud abbas advisor similarly palestinian terrorist murderers are being portrayed as innocent victims of alleged israeli executions a few of the drawings included doves some calling for peace and freedom a major focus of palestinian authority policy today is to demand freedom for all imprisoned palestinian terrorists including murderers one drawing specifies freedom for ahmad manasrah a child terrorist who stabbed and critically wounded two israelis one of them a yearold boy | 1 |
2,633 | furious parents slam damaging bbc sex change show aimed at sixyearolds | well we know that they think we are a basket full of uneducated deplorable rednecksand they can spoon feed us this garbage and we are going to believe them wrong | 0 |
2,634 | Beyonce Makes Powerful Statement About Police Shootings: ‘We Are Sick And Tired’ (VIDEO) | If you listen to Republicans, we live in a post-racial society. The fact that we have a black President, they say, proves that there is no racism, and to claim otherwise is racist. Of course, they ignore the unprecedented disrespect the President has had to endure. They also ignore the fact that black people, whether armed or unarmed, guilty or innocent, are far more likely to end up dead at the hands of police. Tired of the shootings, pop star Beyonc is using her celebrity to speak out on the issue and on Black Lives Matter.The home page of Beyonc s website, which used to be standard for a musician a list of upcoming tour dates, a promotion of her latest album, etc now includes this simple but powerful message. She s fed up with the recent rash of police killings of innocent black men. Who can blame her? We are sick and tired of the killings of young men and women in our communities. It is up to us to take a stand and demand that they stop killing us. We don t need sympathy. We need everyone to respect our lives. We re going to stand up as a community and fight against anyone who believes that murder or any violent action by those who are sworn to protect us should consistently go unpunished. These robberies of lives make us feel helpless and hopeless but we have to believe that we are fighting for the rights of the next generation, for the next young men and women who believe in good. This is a human fight. No matter your race, gender, or sexual orientation. This is a fight for anyone who feels marginalized, who is struggling for freedom and human rights. This is not a plea to all police officers but toward any human being who fails to value life. The war on people of color and all minorities needs to be over. Fear is not an excuse. Hate will not win. We all have the power to channel our anger and frustration into action. We must use our voices to contact the politicians and legislators in our districts and demand social and judicial changes. While we pray for the families of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, we will also pray for an end to this plague of injustice in our communities. Click in to contact the politicians and legislators in your area. Your voice will be heard. Beyonc On Thursday, she also paused her concert in Glasgow, Scotland, for a moment of silence and a tribute over the killing of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile:Beyonc takes moment during her Glasgow show for those who lost their lives to police violence https://t.co/peilooh3hghttps://t.co/QXNcKMXKMb ABC News (@ABC) July 8, 2016Hopefully, the powerful words of this wonderful musician and civil rights crusader are heard, along with those of others. It s time to stop the violence.Featured image via Mike Coppola with Getty Images. | 0 |
2,635 | THE ROBBING OF INNOCENCE: 12 Yr Old Students Given CDC Survey About Transgender, Gay And Oral Sex | The left believes these are all perfectly acceptable topics to discuss with our young children. Whatever you do, just don t mention God!A public hearing is taking place Wednesday morning in the Massachusetts State House to look into a controversial sex survey given to middle school and high school students.Developed by the Centers for Disease Control and called the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the survey asks students as young as 12 a series of very personal and highly ideological questions.The survey asks students if they are homosexual and if they are transgender. It also asks if they have had oral or anal sex and if they have performed such acts with up to six people.Whether or not they have carried a gun, smoked cigarettes, consumed alcohol and how much also appear on the questionnaire, as well as whether they have taken drugs, such as OxyContin, Percocet, and Vicodin. It asks how often their guardian uses a seat belt, if the youngster has a sexually transmitted disease, and where they sleep.The group MassResistance says the survey is psychologically distorting and will lead the child to think he is abnormal if he is not doing it all. The group stated that having children reveal personal issues about themselves and their family can have emotional consequences. They also complain that the survey results are used by radical groups from Planned Parenthood to LGBT groups to persuade politicians to give more taxpayer money [to] these groups. Though students fill out the survey anonymously, MassResistance warns that they are administered by the teacher in the classroom and there is often pressure for all kids to participate. The test is given nationally and not without controversy. The Chicago Tribune reported two years ago that a Chicago teacher was reprimanded for telling students they had a constitutional right not to fill out the survey.Via: Breitbart News | 0 |
2,636 | Dan Rather BURIES Trump In Epic Post-Debate Analysis That Everyone Should See | This is why we miss Dan Rather at the CBS News desk.At a time when the media often fails to dig deep and ask the hard hitting questions all for the sake of ratings, at least we still can rely on Dan Rather to deliver an analysis that makes people think.After the debate on Sunday night, the legendary newsman delivered a damning criticism of the Republican nominee and warned Americans of the dire consequences of this election. I am not sure it is possible to truly put into words what we witnessed tonight, Rather wrote. This election has long since passed the stage of rationality and reason, the realm of the written page, and into the territory of the heart and spirit, where emotions swirl that we cannot fully distill into coherent sentences and paragraphs. But I will humbly try Rather launched into talking about the Roman Empire and the barbarism that eventually led to its downfall. The debate last night was like watching a fight to the death between gladiators at the Colosseum. I had a sense we could, if we are not vigilant, fall into a similar downward spiral, Rather noted.But Rather was pleased with how the moderators did their job, praising Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz for demanding specifics from both candidates.Trump, of course, whined about the tough questions and that resulted in a meltdown that lasted throughout the evening as Trump preferred personal smears instead of actually giving the American people an idea of what his policies are and how he will enact them. Dan Rather definitely noticed the differences between the two presidential contenders.Trump went on the offensive, as advertised, drilling down to an attack on Bill Clinton. It was a strategy that was all Trump. And HIllary Clinton responded with a volley of all the other insulting statements and lies by Trump over the course of the election season. As Trump preened, paced and swayed, Clinton s steely face spoke volumes. As Trump stood, looming over Clinton, threatening her with a special prosecutor and even imprisonment, the optics of the GOP nominee could be seen as either that of a schoolyard bully or a determined pugilist depending on your point of view. Clinton was better answering questions directly and better at laying out what she would like to do as President. Trump was more determined to levy personal attacks to put Clinton on defensive, especially in the early going.Clinton engaged mostly with the audience and moderators. Donald Trump addressed her directly with hand gestures and eye contact. When she spoke, he sometimes stood pacing, or passively, gripping his chair. When he spoke, he often tried to tar his opponent with guilt by association calling into question Clinton s friends on taxes in particular and referring to Clinton s husband to avoid the glare of his own misconduct. It seems that Trump does everything he can to avoid personal culpability or responsibility. He argues that his faults are not so great because Clinton and her associates have done much worse his words are not so dangerous because locker room talk has long been excused for men. Clinton called for an apology to the many Trump has spoken ill of. None was forthcoming. I can t see any of that moving the needle compared to the tsunami that has engulfed the race in the past few days.In conclusion, Rather talked about the need for all of us to be engaged if we want to end this national nightmare and get back to the business of dealing with our problems with reasonable solutions. We have serious problems facing our nation, and our world, Rather wrote.Our ship of state must be prepared to navigate the perilous shoals of our complicated world and yet I feel tonight as if we have been hijacked into an alternate universe. This national nightmare will end one way or another and we will awaken to the same world from which we have been so disengaged. That is our challenge and it is a challenge from which none of us can opt out.Here s the full post via Facebook.Donald Trump must be stopped before our country turns into a barbaric nation that is primed to fall like Rome did. Hate, ignorance, violence, and fear will not make America great again. It will be our end. And that can only be prevented by the American people on November 8th by making sure Trump nevers sees the inside of the White House.Featured Image: Larry Busacca/Getty Images | 0 |
2,637 | EU leaders proclaim European social standards to woo voters | GOTHENBURG, Sweden (Reuters) - European Union leaders proclaimed a set of 20 social rights on Friday in an attempt to make the EU more appealing to voters and counter rising eurosceptic sentiment across the bloc. The set of social rights, supported by all EU governments and institutions, spells out what the EU believes are the foundations of fair and well-functioning modern labor markets and welfare systems. It encompasses principles ranging from equal access to jobs and fair working conditions and wages to social protection and unemployment benefits and training. Our Union has always been a social project at heart. It is more than just a single market, more than money, more than the euro. It is about our values and the way we want to live, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said. Today we assert our common values and commit ourselves to a set of 20 principles and rights. From the right to fair wages to the right to health care; from lifelong learning, a better work-life balance and gender equality to minimum income, he said. Recent elections in Germany, France, Austria and the Czech Republic, in which populist parties have performed well, have shown citizens have lost confidence in governments or in the European Union. There is certainly a need to respond, a senior EU official said. Britain s decision last year to leave the EU served as a wake-up call for the bloc and made it reflect on the way forward, including putting more emphasis on social policies. I think people believe there s been maybe an excessive focus in recent years on economic matters, banking, and we want to re-fire the engine of social Europe, advancing things like equality, workers rights, pension rights and other things, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said. Juncker and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven will now produce a report that will allow leaders meeting again next month to see how the principles should be followed. Some eastern European countries are wary that the push for social rights could be used by some nations to undermine current rules that allow their citizens to work elsewhere in the EU at salaries lower than the local labor force. The proclaimed set of rights - known as the European Pillar of Social Rights - says everybody has the right to quality education throughout their lives and that men and women must have equal opportunities in all areas and be paid the same. The unemployed have the right to personalized, continuous and consistent support , while workers have the right to fair wages that provide a decent standard of living . Minimum wages should be ensured to satisfy the needs of workers and their families, the leaders agreed. While the rights would not be directly enforceable by the EU, except where they already exist in national laws and therefore subject to national courts, they establish a common EU standard and language for discussion of social issues. Trade unions and business associations backed the set of European social rights, saying a particular effort was needed to boost the employment chances of young people. We want Europe to continue to have the most highly developed social systems in the world, the business and trade union organizations said in a joint statement. | 1 |
2,638 | Clinton hits rivals on immigration in California campaign swing | LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton fought on two fronts in California on Saturday as she sought to wrap up her battle with Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination, taking aim at him and at Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, with attacks on their immigration stances. Both Clinton and Sanders campaigned across California, stopping in immigrant communities, big cities and the agricultural heartland on the final weekend before Tuesday’s primary in the nation’s biggest state. Clinton used a stop at a Los Angeles-area college to criticize Trump for making “hateful, very prejudicial” statements about immigrants and Sanders for voting against a 2007 comprehensive immigration reform bill. “I was in the Senate then, so was President Obama and so was Senator Sanders. President Obama and I voted for it, Senator Sanders voted against it. And that ended it,” Clinton said. “It was heartbreaking,” she added. Latinos comprise almost 40 percent of California’s population of roughly 39 million. Clinton, also a former secretary of state, is expected to sew up the party nomination on Tuesday, when California is one of six state holding nominating contests. Except for Washington, D.C., those states are holding the last Democratic nominating contests before the party’s July convention. Clinton needs a win in heavily Democratic California to begin unifying her party. Though Sanders, a U.S. senator of Vermont, faces nearly insurmountable odds to become the Democratic nominee, he has invested heavily in California, where a win could pressure the party to adopt some of the populist policies that have driven his campaign. Polls show Sanders has chipped away at Clinton’s lead in the state, where Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have built a vast network of supporters, including increasingly powerful Hispanic voters. Recent tracking polls showed Clinton having a 2 to 10 percentage point lead over Sanders in California. At a town hall in Los Angeles, Sanders promised to fight for comprehensive immigration reform and said that trade deals, over which he and Clinton have frequently sparred, funnel “cheap corn” into Mexico and “drive small family farmers off their land.” California is home to one-fourth of the immigrant population in the United States, at around 10 million people, and also home to one-fourth of the 11.3 million illegal immigrants in the country. Clinton, with 2,312 delegates, needs 71 more to reach the required 2,383 for the Democratic nomination. Sanders has 1,545. California, the most populous U.S. state, has 548 delegates who are awarded proportionately to the popular vote. The other states holding nominating contests on June 7 are Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Dakota. Clinton also slammed Trump on immigration at a rally in Oxnard, a city of about 200,000 located northwest of Los Angeles that is almost 75 percent Hispanic. Trump on Friday escalated his attacks on U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over a lawsuit involving fraud at a failed Trump business, Trump University. Trump suggested that Curiel’s Mexican-American heritage was influencing his opinion on the lawsuit. Curiel was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrants. “This is not just another outlandish insulting comment from Donald Trump and it is not normal politics, this is something much, much more dangerous,” Clinton said. “Judge Curiel is just as much of an American as I am and just as much of an American as Donald Trump is,” Clinton said. The New York billionaire businessman has vowed to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and deport millions of undocumented immigrants. | 1 |
2,639 | Beirut activists hold vigil in tribute to murdered women | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Dozens of people gathered outside Beirut s national museum on Saturday evening to light candles for a British woman and three Arab women murdered in the past week in Lebanon. The killing of the British embassy worker Rebecca Dykes last week has sparked extensive media coverage in Lebanon, prompting activists to press for more attention to be given to widespread violence against women. Lebanese women s rights activists held the vigil to mourn the victims, demand better laws, and to protest against the violence - including the three reported murders in northern Lebanon alone over the past week. Society refuses to listen to us or see us until our blood is spilled, Leen Hashem, an organizer, told the crowd from the steps of the museum. This violence is structural and systematic. Justice is not only arresting the criminal. Justice is for all this not to happen to us in the first place, she said. Don t tell me to cover up. Tell him not to rape me, one woman chanted through a megaphone, a demand repeated by people in the crowd. Participants laid white roses over pictures of the four women, and lined the steps with candles. Wafaa al-Kabbout stood on the sidelines, holding a framed photo of her 21-year-old daughter Zahraa, whose ex-husband shot her dead last year. Now my daughter is gone, she s not coming back, she said. But all these young women are our daughters. And there is still fear for the young women after them. The United Nations says a third of women worldwide have suffered sexual or physical violence. A 2017 national study by the Beirut-based women s rights group ABAAD said that one in four women have been raped in Lebanon. Less than a quarter of women who faced sexual assault reported it, the survey said. Little by little, we are breaking the silence ... for women to come forward and talk about the violence they are facing, said Saja Michael, program manager at ABAAD. In the past five years, women have become more likely to report violence and seek help, she said, though sexual assault remains a bit more taboo. Part of the reason is that NGOs have set up new shelters and community centers, with psychological, legal, medical, and other services, Michael added. It s becoming more of a public discourse, she said. It s no longer what s happening behind closed doors. Lebanon s parliament passed a long-awaited law in 2014 that penalized domestic violence for the first time. But rights groups were outraged that authorities watered it down, and it fell short of criminalizing marital rape. Child marriage also remains legal in Lebanon. In August, parliament abolished a law that absolved rapists if they married their victims, joining other Arab states that repealed similar laws this year. Activists welcomed it as a major step, but said there was a long way to go on Lebanese legislation to protect women. Every day we are subjected to harassment, in college, on the street, everywhere, said Ramona Abdallah, a university student at the vigil. It really could be any one of us. Rebecca Dykes, 30, who worked at the British embassy in Lebanon, was found strangled beside a highway outside Beirut last weekend. A Lebanese Uber driver picked her up before assaulting and killing her, state media said. A security official said the suspect had confessed. Earlier in the same week, a Lebanese man killed his mother-in-law and wounded his wife by shooting them inside their home in the northern Akkar region, state news agency NNA said. Authorities have arrested him, it said. In another incident, Nazira al-Tartousi, a 15-year-old pregnant Syrian, was found dead with a bullet in her neck in the north, security sources said. Her husband, the suspect, has denied killing her, they said. And Yaman Darwish, 22, died after sustaining a broken chin and gunshot wounds in another northern village, the security sources said. The investigation showed the Lebanese woman had also been hit on the head with a vase, and choked. | 1 |
2,640 | MSNBC hosts accuse White House of trying to pressure them over coverage | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two television hosts assailed by Donald Trump questioned his mental health on Friday and charged that the White House had tried unsuccessfully to get them to apologize to the president for unfavorable coverage in exchange for his getting a negative tabloid story about them killed. “He appears to have a fragile, impetuous, child-like ego that we’ve seen over and over again, especially with women,” Mika Brzezinski, co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” said on the program. “He attacks women because he fears women,” added co-host Joe Scarborough, a former Republican U.S. congressman. Brzezinski and Scarborough fired back on their program and in an opinion piece in The Washington Post after Trump’s Twitter messages on Thursday, which attacked them, particularly Brzezinski, in highly personal terms. Trump called Brzezinski “low I.Q. Crazy Mika” and alleged that she was “bleeding badly from a face-lift” when she visited his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida around New Year’s Eve. He called Scarborough “Psycho Joe.” Scarborough said Trump packed “five or six lies into two tweets,” including mischaracterizing their meetings at Mar-a-Lago. Brzezinski said she has never had a face-lift. Presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway, speaking on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” defended Trump’s “ability to fight back when he is attacked.” She declined to endorse the content of his tweets. “Well it’s incredible to watch people play armchair psychologist, outright ridiculing the president’s physicalities, his mental state, calling him names that you won’t want your children to call people on a playground,” Conway told Fox News. Trump’s tweets, his latest attacks on the U.S. news media, were roundly condemned by lawmakers in both parties and became a distraction as his fellow Republicans in the Senate try to iron out their differences over major healthcare legislation. Brzezinski and Scarborough, who were on friendly terms with Trump in the past but have been critical of him since he took office in January, described White House pressure over a planned negative story about them in the National Enquirer tabloid newspaper. Trump was friends with David Pecker, chief executive of the National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media, Inc. The tabloid specializes in scandalous stories about celebrities and has been supportive of Trump. “This year, top White House staff members warned that the National Enquirer was planning to publish a negative article about us unless we begged the president to have the story spiked. We ignored their desperate pleas,” they wrote in the Post. Scarborough said on the program he received calls from three top administration officials asking the co-hosts to call Trump and apologize for their coverage of his administration. They told him that if he called and apologized, Trump would get the story killed, Scarborough said. He did not identify the administration officials. “The calls kept coming, and kept coming. And they were like ‘Call, you need to call. Please call. Come on, Joe. Just pick up the phone and call him,’” Scarborough said. “That’s blackmail,” said MSNBC panelist Donny Deutsch. In a Twitter post on Friday, Trump gave a different account, saying Scarborough “called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no!” American Media said in a statement “we have no knowledge of any discussions between the White House and Joe and Mika about our story, and absolutely no involvement in those discussions.” “I am very concerned as to what this once again reveals about the president of the United States,” Brzezinski, who is engaged to be married to Scarborough, said of Trump’s Twitter attacks. “President Trump launched personal attacks against us Thursday, but our concerns about his unmoored behavior go far beyond the personal. America’s leaders and allies are asking themselves yet again whether this man is fit to be president,” the co-hosts wrote in the Post column. | 1 |
2,641 | BILL O’REILLY EMBARRASSES Megyn Kelly…Publishes Letters She Wrote Thanking Him For Being A “Dear Friend” and For “Years” of Support After She Bashed Him On Her Flailing NBC Morning Show [VIDEO] | Megyn Kelly is quite possibly the least popular host on television. She s also quite possibly one of the highest paid hosts on one of the lowest rated morning shows on television. In her desperate attempt to do just about anything for ratings, the very unlikeable host went after Fox News and the former top-rated host Bill O Reilly. Was Kelly s on-air letter an attempt to jump on Hollywood s anti-sexual harassment bandwagon? Was she hoping to endear herself to a more left-leaning audience, since she clearly has no hope of ever regaining the conservative fans she lost when she attacked then-candidate Trump during a FOX News hosted GOP primary presidential debate? The NBC News host made the reveal before welcoming former Fox News host and O Reilly accuser Juliet Huddy onto her Monday talk show.Former Fox News host Juliet Huddy spoke out for the first time about her accusations against Bill O Reilly and what women face when going up against a corporation on Monday s Megyn Kelly Today.During an opening segment about this weekend s report of new sexual harassment revelations against O Reilly, former Fox News host Kelly revealed that she, too, had complained about O Reilly s behavior. She said she understands the roadblocks women see when speaking out about sexual harassment, something an emotional Huddy explained as You are just this one person about to go up against a machine. It s daunting and frightening and it holds you back from taking action sometimes. Earlier this year, the New York Times reported that Huddy said O Reilly pursued a sexual relationship with her in 2011 and that when she rebuffed his advances he tried to derail her career. Allegations included O Reilly calling Huddy repeatedly, sometimes sounding as if he were masturbating, and after asking her to return a key to his hotel room, he appeared at the door in his boxer shorts. In exchange for her agreement not to sue, she was paid a sum in the high six figures, though 21st Century Fox and O Reilly said her allegations were false.To open the show, Kelly made public for the first time a letter (below) she wrote to the co-presidents of Fox News about O Reilly, displaying the note she sent to Bill Shine and Jack Abernethy during the top of her show while discussing this weekend s Times report about a new sexual harassment settlement made by O Reilly. Fox News was not exactly a friendly environment for harassment victims who wanted to report, in my experience, Kelly said. However, O Reilly s suggestion that no one ever complained about his behavior is false. I know because I complained. Not so fast Megyn Bill O Reilly immediately revealed 2 handwritten letters from Megyn Kelly where she gushed all over him and how much she appreciated him on his website:My former FNC colleagues Megyn Kelly & Gretchen Carlson wrote me notes when we worked together. You can read them on https://t.co/rryWmyXe7C Bill O'Reilly (@BillOReilly) October 23, 2017Here are Kelly s letters to O Reilly: O Reilly even took it a step further and released a letter from sexual harassment accuser and former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson:Here is Carlson s letter to O Reilly:Bill Thank you for being the calm in the sea.Thank you so much for supporting me.Thank you for being my friend.It means the world to meGC[Gretchen Carlson]Megyn immediately got hammered on Twitter after O Reilly released her letters to him. This tweet is from NYC radio talk show host Mark Simone:Yet Megyn Kelly forgets to mention that NBC covered up the Harvey Weinstein story for a year. Must have had another hard break. MARK SIMONE (@MarkSimoneNY) October 23, 2017A desperate Megyn Kelly tries a Hail Mary pass to save her ratings disaster show: https://t.co/54BhadCVH2 MARK SIMONE (@MarkSimoneNY) October 23, 2017This is NOT Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, but the Twitter user who goes by the name of Rex Tillerson landed a knockout punch to the former top-rated Fox News host.Ahh, the sweet sound of Megyn Kelly diving off the cliff of relevance & gradually disappearing into the abyss of obscurity. Rex Tilllerson (@RexTilllerson) October 23, 2017Megyn Kelly has only sexism card left in playing the victim for relevancyThanks for playing, megyn, you're cancelled #MondayMotivation PinkAboutIt (@Pink_About_it) October 23, 2017 | 0 |
2,642 | Only one in seven Catalan see dispute with Madrid ending in independence: poll | MADRID (Reuters) - Just one in seven people from Catalonia believe the current standoff between Barcelona and Madrid will end in independence for the region while more than two thirds think the process has been bad for the economy, a survey showed on Monday. Spain s central government took control of the region after local leaders staged a poll on secession, slated as illegal by the Constitutional Court, and then passed a unilateral declaration of independence through the parliament. In response, Spain s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy fired the government, stripped the region of its autonomous status and called a regional election for Dec. 21. On Sunday, the first part of the GAD3 survey showed that pro-independence parties would win the election but may not gain the parliamentary majority needed to continue with secession. Fifteen percent said they believed the process would end in an independent state, according to part two of survey of 1,233 people conducted between Oct. 30 and Nov. 3 and published in La Vanguard newspaper on Monday. Optimism that a negotiated solution would be found was low, with just over a fifth thinking the crisis would lead to talks between regional authorities and Madrid. The push for independence has dragged Spain in to its worst political crisis since its return to democracy four decades ago and has deeply divided the country, fuelling anti-Spanish feelings in Catalonia and nationalist tendencies elsewhere. The uncertainty has prompted more than 2,000 companies to relocate their legal headquarters out of the region since Oct. 1, while the Bank of Spain said if the conflict persists it could lead to slower growth and job creation. According to the poll, 67 percent said they believed the process had hurt the economy and almost 40 percent said the company exodus would have a negative affect on growth in the short term. | 1 |
2,643 | U.S. veterans to Trump: Save bank customers' rights to sue | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The largest U.S. veterans service organization on Thursday urged President Donald Trump to veto recent legislation allowing financial companies to block customers from banding together to sue, saying it would hurt members of the armed forces. The American Legion, which rarely speaks out on bank policy or politics, said in a statement it would “not be silent while banks and payday loan shops rip off servicemembers and veterans”. But it will likely have a hard time convincing Trump to veto the resolution to roll back the Obama-era policy. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an independent federal regulator, finalized a rule this summer that barred banks, credit card issuers and other financial companies from requiring customers to agree not to join group lawsuits and only take any potential disputes to closed-door arbitration. In a vote of 51 to 50, the Senate on Tuesday passed a resolution killing the rule and prohibiting regulators from enacting a similar one in the future. The House of Representatives approved the resolution earlier, and now all that is needed to erase the rule is for Trump to sign it into law. “Our membership has stated unequivocally that we are opposed to situations where our military and veterans’ financial protections are chipped away to increase the profits of the big banks,” said American Legion National Commander Denise Rohan. “Repealing the CFPB arbitration rule takes away consumers’ most effective tool to protect themselves against predatory lenders.” Servicemembers can struggle to sue companies individually because they cannot afford legal costs, move frequently for work, or are deployed overseas, the Legion said. In class actions, individuals with the same complaint band together to lower lawsuit costs. Many veteran organizations tried for months to stop the Republican-led Congress from passing the resolution, and other advocacy groups have also pressed for a veto. That is a long-shot. The White House issued a statement shortly after Tuesday’s vote applauding the resolution, saying the CFPB rule would have given consumers “fewer options for quickly and efficiently resolving financial disputes” and opened “the door to frivolous lawsuits by special interest trial lawyers.” The rule’s supporters say arbitration is rigged against consumers because it is secretive, does not set legal precedent, and is controlled by the companies. They also say the right to sue is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. | 1 |
2,644 | “THANK YOU BABY”…YES, FEMINISTS WILL GO NUTS: President Trump Uses Endearment To Refer to Kellyanne Conway In Thank You Speech [Video] | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LNyx_DWzzA | 0 |
2,645 | Trump tells Abbas intends to move embassy to Jerusalem: Abbas spokesman | JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump informed Palestinian President Mahmolud Abbas on Tuesday that he intends to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, Abbas s spokesman said. The statement did not say whether Trump elaborated on the timing of such a move. President Mahmoud Abbas received a telephone call from U.S. President Donald Trump in which he notified the President (Abbas) of his intention to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah said in a statement. The statement did not say whether Trump elaborated on the timing of such a move. President Abbas warned of the dangerous consequences such a decision would have to the peace process and to the peace, security and stability of the region and of the world, Abu Rdainah said. | 1 |
2,646 | UNHINGED: White Male GOP Rep. Makes COMPLETELY Off-The-Wall Claim About How ACA Hurt Women | Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri spent International Women s Day advocating for women or so we re sure he thought. He s a supporter of the GOP s plan for repealing the ACA, which includes restricting women s access to healthcare via Planned Parenthood, and also severely restricts a woman s right to make choices about her own body. But the 10 percent tax on tanning salons? That has to go because it disproportionately harms women, and he will make sure it goes.As Slate reported: I wanted to see who predominantly is taxed with this tanning tax. Is it men? Is it women? So I went to a little Google search, he said. What I found on Google is roughly 80 percent of who s taxed are women. So out of the $600 million that has been created by this tax $480 million has come from the backs and the pockets of women. Today s International Women Day, noted Smith, who has advocated for legislation that would defund women s health clinics. It s interesting that no one is bringing that up. While yes, we could make the argument that we re unfairly taxing women with the tanning bed tax, we have to think about the fact that tanning beds also disproportionately harm women. Tanning beds aren t healthy. They re a leading cause of skin cancer behind the sun (and Smith wonders why we don t tax the sun oh please). They ve led to a massive increase in skin cancer in women under the age of 30.They re also a complete luxury, unlike things like pads and tampons, pap smears, mammograms, pre-natal care, maternity care, hormonal contraception, and yes, abortion. Where is he on all of this stuff? If not taxing women unfairly is so important to him, where was the impassioned plea for states to stop taxing women for pads and tampons?As far as abortion, he believes in shifting from abortion to adoption, and overturning Roe v. Wade, which is just going to send us back to the days of back-alley abortions, coat hanger abortions, and women dying because of these things. It could also lead to more women unnecessarily dying in childbirth, or being forced to carry a non-viable fetus (even a dead fetus) to term. Why is he not pleading for Congress to make sure none of this happens by enacting legislation that s proven to lower the abortion rate and improve the odds for pregnant women and their babies?This is a man who s dismissed the idea that cutting Medicaid, including its funding to Planned Parenthood, would leave more Americans without coverage. Stripping Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood would leave low-income women without access to basic women s care and birth control, which is most of what they do.But no, the tanning bed tax is the worst thing we ever did to women, in his view.If he wants to stand up for women s rights, he d stop with his faux, pseudo-feminist pleas and actually work towards policies that have been proven to help women and their families, and lower the abortion rate. This is just shameful.Featured image by Darin Morley, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia | 0 |
2,647 | Indonesian school a launchpad for child fighters in Syria's Islamic State | SUKAJAYA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Hatf Saiful Rasul was 11 years old when he told his father, a convicted Islamic militant, that he wanted to leave school and go to Syria to fight for Islamic State. The boy was visiting his father in a maximum security prison during a break from Ibnu Mas ud, his Islamic boarding school, Syaiful Anam said in a 12,000 word essay on his son and religion that was published online. At first, I did not respond and considered it just a child s joke, he wrote. But it became different when Hatf stated his willingness over and over. Hatf told his father some of his friends and teachers from Ibnu Mas ud had gone to fight for Islamic State and become martyrs there , Anam wrote. Anam agreed to let him go, noting in his essay that the school was managed by comrades who share our ideology . Hatf traveled to Syria with a group of relatives in 2015, joining a group of French fighters. Reuters spoke to three Indonesian counter-terrorism officials who confirmed the boy went to Syria. Indonesia is the world s most populous Muslim-majority country and most of its people practice a moderate form of Islam. But there has been a recent resurgence in militancy and authorities believe Islamic State has more than 1,200 followers in Indonesia while about 500 Indonesians have left to join the group in Syria. Drawing on court documents, registration filings and interviews with counter-terrorism police and former militants, Reuters has found that Hatf was one of at least 12 people from Ibnu Mas ud who went to the Middle East to fight for IS or attempted to go there between 2013 and 2016. Eight were teachers, four were students. At least another 18 people linked to the school have been convicted, or are now under arrest, for militant plots and attacks in Indonesia, including the three deadliest attacks in the country in the past 20 months, according to counter-terrorism police and trial documents of convicted militants. For details, click here: tmsnrt.rs/2wDwgPD Jumadi, a spokesman for Ibnu Mas ud, denied the school supported IS or any other militant Islamist group, or taught any extreme or ultra-violent interpretation of Islam. Ibnu Mas ud is one of about 30,000 Islamic boarding schools, or pesantren, across Indonesia. Most educate students in Islam and other subjects, but a handful are linked to extremism and act as centers for recruitment, Indonesian police and government officials say. Ibnu Mas ud has been in existence for a decade, despite its links to militants. Irfan Idris, the head of deradicalization at Indonesia s national counter-terrorism agency, blamed weak laws and bureaucracy for the lack of action against such schools. Basically, it s not our domain, it s the religious ministry, he told Reuters. We have informed the ministry that you have a problem with Ibnu Mas ud. Asked about the school s links to militants and why it had not been shut down, Kamaruddin Amin, the director general of Islamic education at Indonesia s Ministry of Religious Affairs, said: Ibnu Mas ud never registered as a pesantren. Jumadi confirmed the school was not registered with the ministry. The local government, Amin added, had requested an explanation regarding the status of their study but did not get a response. Jumadi confirmed recent discussions with local government officials about the school s teaching. We have no curriculum, he said, a reference to the emphasis on teaching the Koran. We re focused on the tahfiz, on memorizing the Koran, and the Hadith (the sayings of the Prophet Mohammad), he said. We teach students about the Arabic language, about faith and the history of Islam. Jumadi said Hatf studied at Ibnu Mas ud but he did not know the circumstances of his leaving. He said he was unaware of any staff or students traveling to Syria to join IS, other than three teachers and one student detained in Singapore last year. Mustanah, a former student deported from Iraq in August, has told police several ex-students from Ibnu Mas ud had traveled to Syria, two counter-terrorism officials told Reuters. Nestled in the foothills of Mount Salak, a dormant volcano, in the village of Sukajaya, 90 km (55 miles) south of Indonesia s capital Jakarta, Ibnu Mas ud is a ramshackle complex of classrooms, dormitories and prayer rooms that hosts up to 200 students from elementary school to junior high. A Reuters team entered the school in June but was not allowed to tour the premises and was eventually asked to leave. Inside a mosque that forms part of the complex, young boys dressed in Arabic tunics and skull caps could be seen sitting in a circle holding their Korans, smiling and fidgeting as they waited for their lessons. In a courtyard, young girls were scampering about. They looked no older than five or six and were wearing headscarves. In a video viewed by Reuters but later taken down from Youtube, principal Masyahadi outlines the institution s adherence to Salafism, an ultra-conservative brand of Sunni Islam that urges followers to emulate the lives of the earliest disciples of Mohammad and embrace sharia law. Ibnu Mas ud ensures that Muslim children are preoccupied with efforts to understand their religion correctly so they become a generation that understands the religion and will fight for the religion, he says. Asked if fighting for the religion included taking up arms, Jumadi, the spokesman, said it would need further discussion to answer that question before declining to elaborate further. According to documents presented in court, Ibnu Mas ud was founded in 2007 in Depok, a Jakarta satellite town, by Aman Abdurrahman, a jailed cleric and Indonesia s leading Islamist ideologue. The deed of establishment of the foundation that runs Ibnu Mas ud lists three people among its executives who were jailed with Abdurrahman for setting up a militant training base in the Indonesian province of Aceh in 2009. Sofyan Tsauri, a former militant who said he has made donations to the school, told Reuters Ibnu Mas ud was for the children of Ikhwan (Islamic fighters) to study while also serving as the hub of safehouses for Islamist fugitives. Dulmatin, who had a $10 million bounty on his head for taking part in a 2002 bombing on the Indonesian resort island of Bali in which 202 people were killed, prayed at Ibnu Mas ud while he was on the run, according to court documents related to the Aceh trials of Abdurrahman and the three foundation executives. Dulmatin was killed by police in 2010. After the trials, Ibnu Mas ud moved from Depok in 2010 but it ran into problems at its current location as well when a teacher tried to set fire to bunting celebrating Indonesia s independence day on August 17. The incident was confirmed by police and local villagers. People in the area were already suspicious about activities at the school, village chief Wahyudin Sumardi said. Every time there was a terrorist incident elsewhere, the authorities would come, he told Reuters in July. I m not comfortable with the whole situation. After complaints by villagers, local authorities have asked Ibnu Mas ud to leave by September 17, but Jumadi said this week that the school was negotiating to stay. The school may look for a new location if forced to move, he said. Pesantren have deep roots in Indonesia, harking back centuries, when they were the main form of education for most poor and rural people. Even as Indonesia s education system modernized and state-run secular schools were introduced, the overwhelmingly private Islamic boarding schools remain important. Amin, at Indonesia s Ministry of Religious Affairs, told Reuters in July that the ministry was working on a new policy to standardize the curriculum in pesantren and assume control of their approval. No policies have yet been announced. Anam, Hatf s father, told Reuters in handwritten comments in response to questions during a court hearing in Jakarta in July that he was proud of his son. Photos viewed by Reuters, which Anam said were taken in Syria and posted on social media by Hatf, showed the boy at a meal with older men and one in which the fresh-faced youngster is holding an AK-47 rifle almost as big as himself. Hatf could disassemble the rifle in 32 seconds, Anam wrote. He was also issued a 9mm handgun, 2 hand grenades, a commando knife and compass. By his father s account, citing messages sent by his son, Hatf survived one air strike, flying through the air from the force of an explosion and emerging with only a bloody ear and hearing loss. On September 1, 2016, two months short of his 13th birthday, Hatf was hit by another air strike. Shortly thereafter, the death of three Indonesians near the Syrian city of Jarabulus was announced by IS. The merry little mujahid was dead, wrote Anam in his essay, his tattered little body crushed by the bomb . I do not feel sad or loss, except a limited sadness as a father who was left by his beloved child, Anam told Reuters in the notes he provided at the court hearing. Instead I felt happy because my child has achieved martyrdom, inshallah. | 1 |
2,648 | After U.S. veto, U.N. General Assembly to meet on Jerusalem status | UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The 193-member United Nations General Assembly will hold a rare emergency special session on Thursday at the request of Arab and Muslim states on U.S. President Donald Trump s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital, sparking a warning from Washington that it will take names. Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour said the General Assembly would vote on a draft resolution calling for Trump s declaration to be withdrawn, which was vetoed by the United States in the 15-member U.N. Security Council on Monday. The remaining 14 Security Council members voted in favor of the Egyptian-drafted resolution, which did not specifically mention the United States or Trump but which expressed deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem. Mansour said on Monday he hoped there would be overwhelming support in the General Assembly for the resolution. Such a vote is non-binding, but carries political weight. U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley, in a letter to dozens of U.N. states on Tuesday seen by Reuters, warned that the United States would remember those who voted for the resolution criticizing the U.S. decision. The president will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those countries who voted against us. We will take note of each and every vote on this issue, Haley wrote. She echoed that call in a Twitter post: The U.S. will be taking names. Under a 1950 resolution, an emergency special session can be called for the General Assembly to consider a matter with a view to making appropriate recommendations to members for collective measures if the Security Council fails to act. Only 10 such sessions have been convened, and the last time the General Assembly met in such a session was in 2009 on occupied East Jerusalem and Palestinian territories. Thursday s meeting will be a resumption of that session. Trump abruptly reversed decades of U.S. policy this month when he recognized Jerusalem as Israel s capital, generating outrage from Palestinians and the Arab world and concern among Washington s Western allies. Trump also plans to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. The draft U.N. resolution calls on all countries to refrain from establishing diplomatic missions in Jerusalem. Haley said on Monday that the resolution was vetoed in the Security Council in defense of U.S. sovereignty and the U.S. role in the Middle East peace process. She criticized it as an insult to Washington and an embarrassment to council members. Israel considers Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital and wants all embassies based there. Palestinians want the capital of an independent Palestinian state to be in the city s eastern sector, which Israel captured in a 1967 war and annexed in a move never recognized internationally. | 1 |
2,649 | Egypt's Coptic Church rejects meeting with Pence over Jerusalem move | CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt s Coptic Church has rejected a meeting requested by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence during his visit later this month in protest against Washington s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital, MENA state news agency reported on Saturday. The Church excused itself from hosting Mike Pence when he visits Egypt, citing President Donald Trump s decision at an unsuitable time and without consideration for the feelings of millions of people , MENA said. | 1 |
2,650 | U.S. top court backs New Jersey cop's political retaliation claim | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a former police detective can sue a New Jersey city claiming he was demoted as punishment after getting a campaign sign for his bedridden mother supporting the mayor’s rival in a 2006 local election. The court, in its 6-2 ruling, found that Jeffrey Heffernan, a now former member of Paterson’s police force, was not in fact exercising his rights to freedom of association under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment because he picked up the sign for his mother and not himself. But the justices decided he could sue the city for violating those rights because the boss who demoted him believed, albeit mistakenly, that Heffernan supported the mayor’s opponent. “We conclude that ... the government’s reason for demoting Heffernan is what counts here,” Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the court. “When an employer demotes an employee out of a desire to prevent the employee from engaging in political activity that the First Amendment protects, the employee is entitled to challenge that unlawful action ... even if, as here, the employer makes a factual mistake about the employee’s behavior.” The high court reversed a 2015 ruling by the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissing Heffernan’s lawsuit on the grounds that a First Amendment retaliation claim cannot be based on an employer’s perception of a worker’s actions. The day before Heffernan was demoted, an aide to Jose Torres, Paterson’s mayor at the time who was running for re-election, saw Heffernan getting a large campaign sign backing another mayoral candidate. Heffernan said he got the sign while off-duty as a favor for his mother after her previous sign had been stolen from her front yard, and that the sign did not reflect his personal preference in the mayoral election. The next day, the police department demoted him from detective and transferred him to the traffic division’s walking squad, a move he saw as political retaliation. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the dissenting opinion, arguing that Heffernan should not be able to sue regardless of whether his demotion was misguided or wrong because he had not been exercising his constitutional rights. | 1 |
2,651 | FLASHBACK: Obama Mocks Trump’s Promise To Save Factory Jobs: “Your Jobs Aren’t Coming Back” [VIDEO] | Obama to crowd on lost factory jobs: Cuz some of those jobs of the past are just not gonna come back. And when somebody says, like the person you just mentioned, I m not gonna advertise for. That he s gonna bring all of these jobs back. Well how exactly you gonna do that? What are you gonna do? There s no answer to it. He just says, Well, I m gonna negotiate a better deal. How exactly are you gonna negotiate that? What magic wand do you have. And usually the answer is, he doesn t have an answer.' Sorry Barry .but Trump just saved 1,000 Carrier jobs and he hasn t even been sworn in yet.Here s a thank you message to President-elect Donald Trump from a Carrier worker whose job Trump saved:.@Carrier employee Robin Maynard's message to Trump and Pence: 'Thank you for sticking to your word and going to bat for all of us.' pic.twitter.com/TBxLDGlZmU FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) November 30, 2016 | 0 |
2,652 | Why Do Hillary And Barack Choose Islam Over Christianity Every Time? | The always brilliant Ben Shapiro answers that question in well, a brilliant way On Tuesday, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the American woman most responsible for the current refugee crisis in the Middle East, blasted Republicans for not wanting to accept unvetted Syrian Muslim refugees in the aftermath of last week s Paris terror attacks.She tweeted:We've seen a lot of hateful rhetoric from the GOP. But the idea that we'd turn away refugees because of religion is a new low. -H Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) November 17, 2015 This, to be sure, is odd. Hillary decrying hateful rhetoric smacks of irony she despises Republicans so much that she labeled them her enemies during the first Demoratic debate. Furthermore, Hillary is no fighter for religious freedom. In April, she told the Women in the World Summit that deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed to allow for abortion. And in the aftermath of the Supreme Court s egregious same-sex marriage decision in June, Hillary explicitly called for the government to force churches to sanction homosexuality, explaining, Our work won t be finished until every American can not only marry, but live, work, pray, learn and raise a family free from discrimination and prejudice. Pray as in attend church free from discrimination and prejudice. But she s sure hot and bothered about what she terms discrimination against Muslim refugees. This isn t particularly surprising the entire left has a peculiar soft spot for Islam.That seems weird, given Islamic countries fundamental rejection of leftist values ranging from same-sex marriage to abortion to women driving. But it isn t so weird when considered in the context of Marxist philosophy, which sees Islam not as a religious philosophy of its own, but as a sort of bizarre cultural outgrowth of poverty. Impoverished people believe weird things, say the Marxists; if we just gave ISIS jobs, they d stop all this nonsense and start behaving like members of the ACLU. Leftists see Islam not as an ideological force converting millions, but as a knee-jerk response to lack of basic living standards.In fact, leftists see all religion this way: as the refuge of the weakminded underclass. As Marx wrote, Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. Barack Obama agrees: as he said back in 2008, poor people get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren t like them. The view that all religious practice is essentially the domain of the exploited would cut in favor of seeing all religious practices as equally worthy of dismissal.But the left prefers Islam to Christianity. They ll fight against anyone drawing pictures of Mohammed, but they ll lose their minds if Christians complain about an artist soaking a statue of Jesus in urine.Why do leftists treat Christianity and Islam differently, if both are merely chimerical responses to the vicissitudes of life? Because leftists see Christianity as the creator of Islam s rise, and Christians as the victimizers of Muslims. The Obama State Department won t recognize Christians as victims of incipient Muslim genocide in the Middle East, but President Obama will equate ISIS violence in 2015 with the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition. President Obama believes, like many on the left, that Western civilization was founded in racism, sexism, homophobia, and other bigotry and that Christianity, as its wellspring, provided that impetus.Furthermore, Obama believes that Western civilization has exploited the rest of the world, and that it therefore bears culpability for the poverty that gave rise to the Islamic wave. Muslims are benighted victims of poverty; Christianity made them victims of poverty in the first place. Christianity thus bears blood guilt for the sins of Islam, but Islam bears none of its own. As Dinesh D Souza puts it, Obama is an anti-colonialist and believes that the rich countries got rich by looting the poor countries, and that within the rich countries, plutocratic and corporate elites continue to exploit ordinary citizens. Taken one step further, those rich countries Christian countries exploited non-Christian countries, impoverishing them and opening them to the opium of Islam.How else to explain the left s romance with Islam and simultaneous dismissal of Christianity? How else to explain the left s preoccupation with allowing Muslim refugees into the Christianity-founded West while demanding nothing of Islamic countries which are murdering Christians en masse?Hillary Clinton says it s hateful for Western countries to discriminate in choosing refugees based on religious philosophy. It s far more hateful to suggest that Christianity must bow and scrape before Islam, particularly when Islamic terrorists target non-Muslims the world over. Via: Breitbart News | 0 |
2,653 | Hilarious! CNN Anchor Outraged That Trump Retweeted Hillary Video of ‘Best Golf Shot Ever’! [Video] | The video discussed below had been making the rounds for weeks on twitter but the minute President Trump retweeted it, the liberal media went nuts. CNN anchor John King is horrified LOL! We ve added the original video below this one and the one from January of 2011 showing what really happened to Hillary.HERE IT IS FROM A COUPLE WEEKS AGO: A perfect video to start your day! Here s a video of our wonderful POTUS taking the best shot ever: Donald Trump ~He s even good at Golfing!! Have a Fantastic Week My Deplorables ! #MondayMotivation pic.twitter.com/Z8LBHl0BHM DeplorableGirl Bot (@eissolomon11) August 28, 2017The video clip of Hillary is old. She fell getting on the plane long ago. What s new is the added golf ball hitting her in the back to make it look like the ball made her fall. It s great because it starts off with a video of President Trump s golf shot and then you see the special effect of the golf ball hitting (but not really) Hillary. It s a joke but the left just can t handle it.This happened in January of 2011 boarding a plane leaving Yemen. There were no golf balls involved in the making of this video. | 0 |
2,654 | Australian police seize record A$1 billion methamphetamine haul | SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian police said on Friday they had seized a record 1.2 tonnes of methamphetamine with a street value of more than A$1 billion ($771 million) after a raid in a remote area of the west Australian coast. Eight Australian men were charged with offences carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, police in Western Australia state said in a statement. We are striking at the top end of drug trafficking before it gets further down the distribution chain, Western Australia Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said. The drugs were collected from a ship called the Valkoista, police said, and were then offloaded into a white hire van at a dock in Geraldton, about 375 km (230 miles) north of the Western Australia capital, Perth. Tactical police intercepted the van as it reversed away from the dock. Police arrested the van s three occupants, all from the eastern Australian state of New South Wales. Three others were arrested on the Valkoista and the remaining two were charged in Perth. Police said they suspected the drugs were destined for Australia s more populous east coast. | 1 |
2,655 | U.S. mayors ask Trump to keep young illegal immigration policy | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mayors from the largest U.S. cities warned President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday of the potential economic harm he might cause if he wipes out a program that allows young illegal immigrants to remain in the United States. They warned in a letter that as much as $9.9 billion in tax revenue would be lost over four years and $433.4 billion in U.S. gross domestic product would be wiped out over 10 years if he cancels a policy aimed at protecting these people from deportation. DACA, or The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, was created through an executive order in 2012. It allows undocumented young people brought to the United States before the age of 16 to remain without fear of deportation as they pursue a higher education, work or engage in military service. The deferred action is subject to renewal every two years. The mayors asked for the program to allow for initial applications and renewals to continue until “Congress modernizes our immigration system and provides a more permanent form of relief for these individuals.” As president, Trump would have the authority to undo DACA. “This program helps foster economic growth and enhances public safety and national security,” said the letter, written by the Democratic Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, and signed by mayors of other major U.S. cities including New York, Los Angeles, and Houston. “We are clear as mayors that these are dreamers who are seeking the American Dream, and we should embrace them rather than do a bait-and-switch,” Emanuel said after presenting Trump the letter at a meeting in New York. Trump has called for the deportation of illegal immigrants, an estimated 11 million people, and promised to build a wall on the border with Mexico. According to the letter, which was made available to the press, nearly 742,000 undocumented youths have participated in DACA. DACA is part of the broader immigration issue of municipalities that offer themselves up as “sanctuary cities,” where local law enforcement refuse to report to federal authorities undocumented immigrants they encounter. Trump has threatened to cut off federal funding for those municipalities. While he would have the authority to cut some kinds of funding, mayors of those cities have said they will not be pressured to report migrants to federal agents. Santa Ana city council voted on Tuesday to declare their community in Southern California of 325,000 people, half of whom are foreign born and 80 percent of Hispanic descent, a sanctuary city. In Los Angeles, the County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to ask county departments to provide plans for shielding undocumented immigrants from U.S. immigration authorities, said Jessie Gomez, a spokeswoman for Supervisor Hilda Solis. The board oversees health, law enforcement and social welfare departments that operate county-wide but it does not administer the city of Los Angeles. Nearly one million residents of Los Angeles County are believed to be undocumented immigrants, according to Solis’ office. White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Wednesday said he could not address the incoming president’s potential actions but that the current administration was working to ensure Trump’s team understood why Obama pursued the policy. “The president’s been crystal clear, both in words and deeds, about his view that young people who are American in every way but their papers shouldn’t be deported ... A policy of deporting them would be inconsistent with our values,” Earnest said of DACA. | 1 |
2,656 | Ted Cruz’s Daughter Reveals A Shocking Family Secret Live On CNN Town Hall (VIDEO) | Ted Cruz got a brutal lesson in why he should keep his children out of politics on Wednesday night, when his daughter let slip a family secret during a live television interview.The Texas senator and GOP Presidential candidate appeared alongside his wife Heidi and two young daughters for a live Town Hall on CNN on Wednesday night. During the interview, Cruz s daughter revealed that there is video footage of her father in women s underwear and a feather boa. The pronouncement left Cruz visibly nervous and no doubt has his PR team doing some immediate damage limitation among Cruz s Evangelical base.The Cruz family was on stage with Anderson Cooper on Wednesday night, and the whole scene is a perfect reminder of the phrase: Never work with children or animals. This week s Town Halls have placed their focus on the personal lives of the candidates more than the political views, and in a later segment of the event, Cruz began a harmless tale of a recent Daddy-Daughter picnic at school. Thrilled with the reception, Cruz went a little further, in an attempt to up his credentials as a folksy, involved Dad telling them that he often plays dress up with his daughters. She got to dress up Daddy in a pink boa and these like, big goofy-looking underwear he grinned at his daughter Caroline.However, Caroline then chimed in with a revelation that left the Senator briefly stumped. And [inaudible] it was on a videotape the whole time, she said, as millions of Americans watched the scene unfold from home. And that was a class video that they re sending out to all the parents. Cruz could only muster a brief Oh oh. while Heidi attempted to prevent her daughter revealing anything else ad lib. While host Cooper can t withhold a laugh, the audience is clearly as uncomfortable as the Cruz parents. You can almost hear Ted sending out a prayer to his Lord and PR team to double, triple and quadruple check that if that video footage exists, it gets disappeared immediately.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40fYlwHFCRgWe at Addicting Info suspect that far from Caroline making a naive PR stumble here, it might actually be a brutal attack of revenge for this campaign moment a while back.It s beginning to look like Caroline is reminding her father that if he continues to try and milk her for political ends, she will continue to kick him firmly where it hurts.Featured image via screen capture | 0 |
2,657 | OBAMA’S MUSLIM DHS Advisor REFUSED To Videotape Fellow Muslim During Investigation…But Wants Every American Gun Owner To Be FORCED To Do THIS | When a Muslim man with dual citizenship in Egypt and America tells his fellow agents: A Muslim doesn t record another Muslim and gets a promotion, every American should be concerned. When that same Muslim is in an advisory role in our government and is advocating for a federal gun registry, every American should be very concerned A Muslim doesn t record another Muslim, said Gamal Abdel-Hafiz (shown). This might not have been noteworthy except that Abdel-Hafiz was an FBI agent at the time and was refusing to do his duty, which at that moment involved taping a Muslim suspect. That was 2002, and this is now. And now the Cairo-born Abdel-Hafiz has moved on to bigger and perhaps better things he s a homeland-security advisor to Barack Obama. And while recording a single Muslim is a problem for him, putting every single American firearm owner on a gun-registry he fancies a good idea. WFAA.com reports on his idea: A former FBI counter-terrorism agent says lawmakers could make mass murders less likely. What we need to do is keep the ownership of guns known to the government, so we know who has what, said security consultant Gamal Abdel-Hafiz. And I know a lot of people are against that. He shouldn t have been able to buy a gun legally. He shouldn t, said Abdel-Hafiz about 29 year-old Omar Mateen [the Orlando jihadist]. He says 3 FBI interviews should have been enough to keep Mateen on the radar, but he also knows why he wasn t. Once you investigate someone and clear them, you have to remove them from the watch list by law, he explained Monday from his office in Dallas.And even if Mateen had been on a terror watch list, or no-fly list, that would not have prohibited him from legally buying weapons That means the list is useless then, the former agent said.Responding to this, PJ Media notes, Remarkably, he [Abdel-Hafiz] admits that the various terror watch lists and no-fly lists are useless. Moments after suggesting another list. He doesn t explain how a national gun registry yet another government list targeting millions of law-abiding Americans would prevent another terror attack. For sure. All car owners are registered, but that doesn t guarantee they re all sane and doesn t stop me, if I am unhinged, from plowing my vehicle into a group on a sidewalk. Likewise, let s say all legal firearms in America were registered. Then what? Given that the lists Mateen already was on ultimately had no remedial effect in his case, how would the FBI having knowledge of his weapons purchases have stopped his Orlando malevolence? We don t have to wonder, though, because the FBI already knew about them. As Breitbart reported last week: Robbie Abell, owner of a Florida gun shop, says he alerted authorities that a suspicious man had come in asking about body armor. The Wall Street Journal quotes Abell as telling them that his store, Lotus Gunworks of South Florida, shut him down on all sales after he began asking bizarre questions about body armor and bulk ammunition. The questions he was asking were not the normal questions a normal person would be asking . He just seemed very odd, Abell said. The armor Mateen asked about is not traditionally available to civilians.In addition, Abell witnessed Mateen talking on a phone in what the gun dealer believed was Arabic. In other words, Mateen fit the terrorist profile like a glove, yet this wasn t enough to inspire the FBI to take the gloves off. And now we re supposed to believe that somehow, some way, information about innocent American gun owners will help an agency that lacked the wisdom to act on already available information about a dangerous, un-American gun owner?Shockingly, Abdel-Hafiz was never fired by the FBI. This is despite allegations he perpetrated insurance fraud and then lied about it to the agency; despite his I won t record another Muslim remark; and despite the fact that a colleague of his, FBI special agent Robert Wright, and Chicago federal prosecutor Mark Flessner both attest that the Muslim agent seriously damaged the investigation inspiring the remark. Instead, here s what did transpire, as reported by ABC News in 2002:Wright said he was floored by Abdel-Hafiz s refusal and immediately called the FBI headquarters. Their reaction surprised him even more: The supervisor from headquarters says, Well, you have to understand where he s coming from, Bob. I said no, no, no, no, no. I understand where I m coming from, said Wright. We both took the same damn oath to defend this country against all enemies foreign and domestic, and he just said no? No way in hell. Far from being reprimanded, Abdel-Hafiz was promoted to one of the FBI s most important anti-terrorism posts, the American Embassy in Saudi Arabia, to handle investigations for the FBI in that Muslim country.Of course, there are no allegations that Abdel-Hafiz who has dual American/Egyptian citizenship has commissively aided terrorists. But given his infamous 2002 refusal to perform his duty, some questions must be asked. In what other ways did/does Abdel-Hafiz s Muslim faith constrain or even warp his actions with respect to Muslim terrorists? How is it influencing his advice? And how many of his theological soul mates are today working in intelligence agencies? Note here that Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson is himself a Muslim.And we should also ask, is this possible Fifth Column corruption responsible for something else Agent Wright complained of: FBI ineptitude? As he also told ABC News in 2002, September the 11th is a direct result of the incompetence of the FBI s International Terrorism Unit. No doubt about that. Absolutely no doubt about that. And as he related to another source prior to 9/11:Knowing what I know, I can confidently say that until the investigative responsibilities for terrorism are removed from the FBI, I will not feel safe. The FBI has proven for the past decade it cannot identify and prevent acts of terrorism against the United States and its citizens at home and abroad. Even worse, there is virtually no effort on the part of the FBI s International Terrorism Unit to neutralize known and suspected terrorists residing within the United States. Unfortunately, more terrorist attacks against American interests, coupled with the loss of American lives, will have to occur before those in power give this matter the urgent attention it deserves.And the rest is in the past. Unfortunately, unless political correctness is purged, it will also be prologue. Via: InfoWars | 0 |
2,658 | Ireland not ready to let Brexit talks move to stage 2: minister | DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland is not ready to allow talks on Britain s withdrawal from the European Union to move to the second phase next month, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said on Tuesday. Yes we all want to move onto phase two of the Brexit negotiations but we are not in a place right now that allows us to do that. We have very serious issues, particularly around the (UK-Irish) border, that need more clarity, Coveney told a news conference before a meeting with his British counterpart Boris Johnson. | 1 |
2,659 | BARACK AND MICHELLE Reportedly Offered $60 MILLION For Memoirs…Wait Till You See Our Exclusive Sneak Peek | It was just announced today that the Obama s are in the middle of a bidding war by publishers for their memoirs.The rights for Barack and Michelle Obama s memoirs will sell for at least $60 million, according to a report from the Financial Times.The eventual total price tag will include a book from both the former President and First Lady. The couple plans to write their memoirs separately, but sell the rights of their finished accounts together as a package, according to the Financial Times report. Penguin Random House, who published former President Obama s three other books, reportedly leads the chase, but HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan are also in the hunt, according to the Financial Times. TimeHere s our sneak peek at the Obama s memoirs. The good news is they won t need much ink or paper. This pretty much sums it up: | 0 |
2,660 | How John Oliver And A Cat Created An International Incident (VIDEO) | Since John Oliver left the Daily Show to take a spot on HBO, his is one of the few satirical news shows to regularly follow international news. As it turns out, dictators don t generally respond well to satire and Oliver has found himself in a bit of a brush up with the Kremlin-backed ruler of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov all over a lost cat.In a segment on HBO s Last Week Tonight, Oliver ridiculed the friend of Putin after Kadyrov took to Instagram to ask the world to help find his cat, which he called a toyger, which as you might guess, is a cat that has been bred to look like a tiger cub. . . , . - . , - , , , . . , - . , . , . , - . ???????? # # # # # A photo posted by Ramzan Kadyrov (@kadyrov_95) on May 16, 2016 at 4:29am PDTUnfortunately, without the help of unreliable translation software, we don t know exactly what the post says, but he did ask for help and he did say that we have begun to seriously worry, asking people who have seen the cat to get in touch.Now, Kadyrov is not a nice person, despite his apparent love of cats, so Oliver couldn t leave it alone. Not only did he release the video, but Oliver trolled the leader on Twitter.Here s the video:And this: .@RKadyrov Is this your cat? pic.twitter.com/2UacV3km7J John Oliver (@iamjohnoliver) May 23, 2016Featured image via Twitter. Kadyrov was not happy. Apparently, he follows American social media as carefully as the equally thin-skinned Donald Trump. He once again took to Instagram to mock Oliver, this time in English, although the text reads like he ran it through one of those terrible translation programs.Recently my tiger cat has left the house. It happens in spring from time to time. He also needs to meet with friends, mingle and share news. By cat rumors he has in our district a familiar she-cat with which he s going to start a family. I m sure that after spring affairs, the cat will return to native walls. Perhaps, he ll bring his sweet love with him. I got used to share with my friends in Instagram with all news, including cat issues. And this time I didn t want to leave as a secret the cat s adventures. I receive lots of photos. Some people say that they saw the cat in Vladivostok, Japan, Iceland, New Zealand, and even in the Oval Office of the White House! I am grateful to all, but this is NOT my cat. It became known that even the American TV channel HBO joined to search. The anchorman comedian John Oliver asks millions of viewers to look for a cat. I knew long ago that in the USA unevenly breathe to my younger friends. One day horses aren t allowed to jump, the other a cat is a real star of a show. Oliver laments a fact that we put on t-shirts with a photo of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin. Yes, millions of people rejoice t-shirts with the image of the national leader. For this purpose, there is a good motivation. Vladimir Vladimirovich is a wise, courageous, resolute Head, who managed to withstand unfriendly campaign, which is conducted by the USA and its assistants. Thanks to Putin, we have crushed terrorists among whom there were also citizens of the USA, and European citizens. The country directed by Obama under the guise of peacekeeping operations spark new wars and bloody internal conflicts, in which die millions of people. Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria That s why there is nothing surprising that Oliver also got a wish to appear publicly in a T-shirt with an image of Putin, but not Obama. #Kadyrov #Russia #Chechnya #USA #HBO #Oliver #findkadyrovscat #Ihavenotseenyourcat #IHAVESEENYOURCATA photo posted by Ramzan Kadyrov (@kadyrov_95) on May 23, 2016 at 11:41am PDTThis would all be funny, and well, it actually is, but Kadyrov is one of the most notorious human rights abusers in the world and if he has his way, he ll have a lot more influence in the coming months and years. At just 39, the anti-Muslim activist is looking for a position to be made for him in the Kremlin.Critics accuse the leader of kidnapping, torture, torching of homes and other human rights abuses. According to Human Rights Watch, Kadyrov shuts down all critics in Chechnya and now he s trying to shut one down in the United States. Kadyrov is also a strong admirer of Russian strong-man dictator, Vladimir Putin.He said it was no surprise that he liked to wear Putin T-shirts, and that millions of people rejoice t-shirts with the image of the national leader . This, said Kadyrov, was because Putin is a wise, courageous, resolute Head, who managed to withstand unfriendly campaign, which is conducted by the USA and its assistants .Source: The GuardianAs for the cat, well, he s apparently okay. He s apparently just a Catanova. By cat rumors he has in our district a familiar she-cat with which he s going to start a family. I m sure that after spring affairs, the cat will return to native walls. Perhaps, he ll bring his sweet love with him, Kadyrov wrote.For now, though, perhaps Oliver should have his food tested for polonium-210. Kidding. Sort of. | 0 |
2,661 | CLINTON CHARITIES RAKED IN TAXPAYER DOLLARS IN THE MILLIONS | This is like one big slush fund for Hillary 2016. The Clintons not only collected millions from foreign donors, they also rake in $7 million in taxpayer dollars. Really outrageous! The Clinton Foundation and its major health charity have raked in more than $7 million from the U.S. government in recent years, according to an analysis of public records conducted by the Washington Free Beacon.The Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), chaired by Bill Clinton and run by the former president s long-time associate Ira Magaziner, has received $6,010,898 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) since 2010. CHAI, the biggest arm of the Clinton family s charitable efforts, accounting for 60 percent of all spending, received $3,193,500 in fiscal years 2010, 2011, and 2012, according to federal contracts, during Hillary Clinton s tenure as secretary of state. The organization received an additional $2,817,398 from the CDC in FYs 2013, 2014, and 2015.The grants, including $200,000 awarded as recently as January, have gone to CHAI s Global AIDS program, and are filed under Global Health and Child Survival. The CDC is listed as a $1 to $10 million contributor to CHAI, according to its donor list released earlier this month.The Boston-based health arm of the Clinton Foundation has come under scrutiny for failing to disclose donations from foreign governments in violation of a pledge Clinton made to the Obama administration before she assumed office as secretary of state.A Reuters report found that the health initiative stopped making its annual disclosure in 2010 and that no complete list of donors to the Clintons charities has been published since. The group only recently published a partial donor list, which its spokesperson Maura Daley told Reuters made up for CHAI s oversight of failing to meet the disclosure agreement.When asked whether the CDC has any concern regarding its funding of CHAI or plans to provide grants to the organization in the future, an agency spokesperson told the Washington Free Beacon that it can t predict who will apply for and be awarded grants. CDC and potential grantees must follow federal guidelines when applying for or awarding and monitoring grants, said Shelly Diaz. CHAI, like any other organization meeting federal requirements, may apply for CDC grants. They would also be expected to meet the same ongoing requirements for grantees (e.g. reports, audits, performance standards). CHAI received hundreds of millions from foreign nations between 2009 and 2014, including: the United Kingdom ($79.7 million), Australia ($58.6 million), Norway ($38.1 million), Canada ($12.1 million), Ireland ($11.7 million), Sweden ($7.2 million), and New Zealand ($1.2 million).The Boston Globe found that foreign donations sharply accelerated to CHAI when Hillary Clinton became secretary of state.Read more: WFB | 0 |
2,662 | Pence tells U.N. that America first does not mean America alone | UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - President Donald Trump s policy of America First does not mean America alone, Vice President Mike Pence told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday as he urged reform to make peacekeeping missions more efficient, effective, accountable and credible. The 15-member council discussed how to improve peacekeeping operations during the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations. There are currently 15 U.N. peacekeeping missions, costing more than $7.3 billion for the next year. Since January, Trump s U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley has led a push to cut costs and is reviewing the mandate of each operation as annual mandates come up for renewal by the Security Council. Trump wants to cap the U.S. share of the peacekeeping bill at 25 percent, down from 28.5 percent, a level he says is unfair. The United States is a veto-wielding member of the council, along with Britain, France, Russia and China. Peacekeeping missions must support a political solution; have the consent of the host country; its mandates must be realistic and achievable; every mission must have an exit strategy; and the United Nations peacekeeping missions must adjust to progress and failure, Pence said. In short, when a mission succeeds, we should not prolong it. When a mission underperforms, we should restructure it. And when a mission consistently fails to fulfill the mandates of this council, we should end it, he said. The Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on Wednesday pushing for improved accountability, transparency and effectiveness and to make peacekeepers more flexible. Critics worry that harsh cuts could harm operations in volatile African states. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has pledged to make U.N. peacekeeping more efficient but has noted that the current budget to fund it is less than one half of 1 percent of global military spending. Across the years and across the globe, fifty-five peacekeeping operations have successfully completed their mandate, Guterres told the council on Wednesday. Many political missions have done the same. He appealed for the Security Council to ensure mandates for missions were clear and that operations were well equipped. | 1 |
2,663 | Trump Just Threatened To ‘Send In The Feds’ To March On Obama’s Hometown (TWEETS) | Holy f*ckballs, it hasn t even been a week since President Asterisk was inaugurated and he s already talking about martial law. Trump s presidency is off to a great start for people who like to sit back and watch the world burn (special shout-out to Jill Stein voters). Trump has taken the first step via executive orders to dismantling Obamacare, begun destroying our environment with two massive pipeline projects, and financially crippled any international health organization that so much as mentions abortion, and all of that is pretty f*cking scary, but a tweet he sent out Tuesday night is downright horrifying. If Chicago doesn t fix the horrible carnage going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds! Trump tweeted.If Chicago doesn't fix the horrible "carnage" going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017There are a couple of problems with this. First off, he got his facts wrong (there have been 37 murders in Chicago so far this year, not 42). Oh, yeah, and he threatened to actually declare martial law in Barack Obama s hometown. Republicans screamed for years that Barack Obama was going to declare martial law, and Trump hasn t been able to go a week without tossing out that sort of threat. Naturally, people aren t happy about this, and the response to Trump s remarkably horrible-even-for-him tweet is not good :@realDonaldTrump Republicans spent the last 8 years saying that Obama was going to declare martial law. Then you say this Mark Pygas (@MarkPygas) January 25, 2017@realDonaldTrump HOLY SHIT LITERALLY MARTIAL LAW Jules Suzdaltsev (@jules_su) January 25, 2017@realDonaldTrump Spoken like a true fascist. Mike Elgan (@MikeElgan) January 25, 2017@realDonaldTrump What the fuck are you doing?!?!?!? BenDavid Grabinski (@bdgrabinski) January 25, 2017@realDonaldTrump so this is the 10th Amendment, we can tweet it to you one line at a time if you'd like https://t.co/2iJNYUp4XH Alex Leo (@AlexMLeo) January 25, 2017.@realDonaldTrump Chicago youth needs someone to believe in them and support them. Not call them thugs and threaten to call in the guard. Al x Young (@AlexYoung) January 25, 2017@realDonaldTrump I would like Fascism and Martial Law for $400, Alex." Jeremy Pond (@JeremyPond) January 25, 2017@realDonaldTrump This would be more effective if you yelled it in German while you slammed your fist on the podium. Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) January 25, 2017@realDonaldTrump See, things like this are why people are worried about your fascist, demagogue tendencies. Kelly Scaletta (@KellyScaletta) January 25, 2017@realDonaldTrump Better idea than martial law improve federal gun control. The guns are coming from states like Indiana. Ask your little buddy. Jeff Rames (@jefframes) January 25, 2017@realDonaldTrump The "words" you "choose" to "put" quotes "around" are "odd" as "fuck." Eat "all" the "dicks" please. Kevin P. (@kevinlpotter) January 25, 2017@realDonaldTrump You'll send in the Feds and do what? Make it 7,228 shootings? Darren Goble (@DarrensThinking) January 25, 2017@realDonaldTrump Hitler did the same when the Reichtstag building burned in 1933. Martial Law was declared & the rest is history. @maddow https://t.co/WpPvDprekK markevans (@markevans08) January 25, 2017As it turns out, the feds (in this case, the Justice Department) have already been there and have diagnosed the problem with violence in Chicago: police brutality and racism, but Trump and his Republican compatriots typically dismiss such well-research opinions in favor of licking the badges of cops who make the rest look bad.What will happen when Trump sends in the feds? Well, we don t need to look past what Hitler did after the Reichstag fire:Using emergency constitutional powers, Adolf Hitler s cabinet had issued a Decree for the Protection of the German People on February 4, 1933. This decree placed constraints on the press and authorized the police to ban political meetings and marches, effectively hindering electoral campaigning. A temporary measure, it was followed by a more dramatic and permanent suspension of civil rights following the February 27 burning of the parliament building.Though the origins of the fire are still unclear, in a propaganda maneuver, the coalition government (Nazis and the German Nationalist People s Party) blamed the Communists. They exploited the Reichstag fire to secure President von Hindenburg s approval for an emergency decree, the Decree for the Protection of the People and the State of February 28. Popularly known as the Reichstag Fire Decree, the regulations suspended the right to assembly, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and other constitutional protections, including all restraints on police investigations.Justified on the false premise that the Communists were planning an uprising to overthrow the state, the Reichstag Fire Decree permitted the regime to arrest and incarcerate political opponents without specific charge, dissolve political organizations, and to suppress publications. It also gave the central government the authority to overrule state and local laws and overthrow state and local governments.Donald Trump is moving quickly, and we can no longer ignore the threat he poses. Write your legislators right now seriously, do it right now and demand that someone (anyone) begin organizing his impeachment immediately. The longer we wait, the more we lose.Featured image via Getty Images (Chip Somodevilla)/screengrab | 0 |
2,664 | Kremlin: accusations that Russia behind Kiev blast are "baseless" | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Accusations that Russia was involved in an explosion in Ukraine s capital that killed two people and injured a member of parliament are baseless and hysterical, the Kremlin said on Thursday. Beyond all doubt, these are new signs of this anti-Russian campaign which has unfortunately swept across Ukraine and Kiev, Russian President Vladimir Putin s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters. Ihor Mosiychuk, a Ukrainian lawmaker, was wounded in the explosion in Kiev that killed two people. He blamed Russia on Thursday for the blast that Ukrainian officials called an act of terrorism. | 1 |
2,665 | Trump says progress made in U.S.-China relations during Xi visit | PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he believed he and Chinese President Xi Jinping had made progress in the bilateral U.S.-China relationship during their first face-to-face talks. Sitting across from Xi, Trump declared that his relationship with the Chinese president was “outstanding” during brief remarks to reporters after talks on trade irritants and concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program at his resort in Palm Beach, Florida. (This version of the story corrects to show leaders were sitting across from each other, not standing beside each other) | 1 |
2,666 | Anti-Abortion Laws Collapse In Major Defeat For The Right | The religious right s attempt to stop women from exercising their legal right to an abortion is facing its biggest setback in years. After realizing that national abortion laws are a no-go, especially with a Democratic president, conservatives have attempted to use their control of state governments in order to roll back women s rights.But the recent 5-3 Supreme Court decision in the case of Whole Woman s Health v. Hellerstedt found that many of the roadblocks erected by the religious right through the Republican Party have put an undue burden on women seeking abortion services, and have to be struck down.As a result, there is a wave of anti-choice legislation being undone.Since Monday, laws restricting abortion and non-abortion Planned Parenthood funding have already been temporarily or permanently wiped out in six states. The Center for Reproductive Rights filed a new case Friday challenging a whopping seven of Louisiana s new abortion restrictions. And on the heels of Whole Woman s Health, Planned Parenthood Federation of America announced an effort to pursue repealing laws in eight states through legislatures. (Even lawmakers hostile to abortion may prefer the less expensive option of repealing a law, rather than having to defend one that is unlikely to stand after the Supreme Court s decision.)Now, Republican lawmakers who had planned more abortion restrictions are being forced to put their plans on ice or give up on them completely. They no longer have a blank check for their attacks on women s rights.And the right has a problem nationally. While polls show voters believe in some restrictions on choice, most Americans believe that a woman has a right to abortion services. The support is even higher among women, and Republicans have ceased to be a majority in presidential elections largely thanks to votes from women. It is a losing case for them to be so opposed to abortion rights.In this year s election, Hillary Clinton has already been hammering Donald Trump on choice. Clinton of course supports abortion rights, while since the campaign began Trump has argued in favor of punishment for women who get abortions once they are outlawed (as the Republican Party platform calls for).The current Supreme Court vacancy will be key to future battles over abortion, as will vacancies that are likely to open up over the next four years, in large part due to the advanced age of several of the justices, including liberal stalwart Ruth Bader Ginsburg.Featured image via Flickr | 0 |
2,667 | MARIA BARTIROMO Gets Into Heated Interview With DNC Chair Tom Perez: “Your party has been hijacked by the extreme left!” [Video] | The DNC Chair Tom Perez took his delusional and very nasty attitude on Fox Business this morning Maria Bartiromo let him have it with a dose of brutal truth about the direction the Dems are going in Your party has been hijacked by the extreme left, Barack Obama, Elizabeth Warren. Things got off to a fairly normal start, with Bartiromo asking the DNC Chairman about his party s victories in Tuesday s elections .Then Bartiromo hit a nerve when she mentioned the accusations about Clinton fixing the primary.Perez shot back: Maria, I understand that when the Democrats win as they did across the board last night that you would like to focus on other things Then, after Perez touted Obamacare and Bartiromo said the health care system was imploding the two went back and forth, with Perez attempting to defend the Affordable Care Act and Bartiromo grilling him on whether he has spoken to Sanders since Brazile s revelations.BARTIROMO KEPT COMING BACK AT PEREZ WITH TRUTH BOMBS: Does somebody owe Bernie Sanders a phone call, since now we know what took place, and everything was rigged, and you were behind Hillary Clinton? she charged. Maria I don t know if this is a lecture or a Q&A, you tell me, Perez lamented. She then asked Perez about why the DNC did not turn their computers over to the FBI for an investigation, to which he replied: Maria, you re in a fictional wonderland right now. Perez tried to turn the conversation back to Tuesday s election results, claiming them as proof that voters embraced the Democrats vision.BEST LINE OF THE INTERVIEW: I haven t heard a vision! Bartiromo shouted back. Your party has been hijacked by the extreme left, Barack Obama, Elizabeth Warren. READ MORE: MEDIAITE | 0 |
2,668 | Senate Intelligence chairman: Indictments do not change panel's investigation | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr said on Monday that indictments announced by Special Counsel Robert Mueller do not change anything regarding his panel’s investigation of potential Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. “It doesn’t change anything with our investigation,” Burr said in a statement. “We received documents from and had interest in two of the individuals named, but clearly the criminal charges put them in the Special Counsel’s purview.” | 1 |
2,669 | Trump adds antitrust expert to Justice transition team | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Republican antitrust veteran has been named on Monday to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team for the Justice Department, a choice that lawyers say signals a more hands-off approach to antitrust enforcement compared to Democratic President Barack Obama. David Higbee, a partner at the law firm Hunton & Williams LLP, worked for President George W. Bush’s administration from 2001 to 2005, spending the last year in the Antitrust Division. Since then he has advised clients on merger reviews, antitrust litigation and government investigations. Higbee joins Joshua Wright, an economist and former commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission, as the only two people on Trump’s transition team with a background in antitrust. The Obama administration has challenged an unusually large number of mergers in the last few years, leading to the collapse of Halliburton Co’s plan to buy Baker Hughes Inc, among others. Currently, the Justice Department is suing Anthem Inc to prevent it from buying Cigna Corp and Aetna Inc to stop its purchase of Humana Inc. While Trump, who campaigned as a populist, has talked tough on media mergers such as AT&T Inc buying Time Warner Inc, and singled out Amazon.com Inc for antitrust scrutiny, Higbee’s naming heralds a return to a traditional Republican view of merger enforcement, lawyers said. “Higbee will have that sensible caution,” said Bruce McDonald, another veteran of the Bush administration now at the law firm Jones Day. “He will be more confident in business and markets and less confident that government can identify and fix problems.” An antitrust division designed by Higbee would be tough on price-fixing and mergers of competitors but would be cautious in challenging deals where companies buy suppliers or incidents where companies are accused of breaking antitrust law to run competitors out of business, McDonald said. | 1 |
2,670 | CLUELESS NBA COACH’S Rant Comparing Trump To A “Game Show” Raises Eyebrows [Video] | In the realm of the NBA, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich has been one of Donald Trump s most vocal critics. He continued his cluelessness in the video below. He obviously is watching too much CNN OR MSNBC because he uses some of the same buzzwords flying around.This coach has no idea what s really going on in the White House. He only likes to spew lies about President Trump just like every other armchair President wannabe.Does politics belong in professional sports press conferences? We believe it doesn t. Stick to the game and what you know. Don t spew political talking points for crying out loud. Popovich only makes himself look like a bitter man who can t get over the election. | 0 |
2,671 | Greek PM Tsipras, Trump talk about cooperation, security | ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras spoke by telephone to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday, his office said, congratulating him on his election victory and underlining the strong ties between the two countries. Trump and Tsipras discussed Greece’s role for peace and stability in the region, its efforts to tackle the economic and refugee crises and the importance of boosting strategic cooperation between the two countries. “The two leaders agreed to maintain steady communication channels,” Tsipras’ office said in a statement, without providing further details. | 1 |
2,672 | Trump-Touted Wisconsin Deal Forces Taxpayers To Shell Out $3 Billion | Donald Trump is so desperate to take credit for job creation that he ignored the fact that the deal he bragged about takes money away from every person in Wisconsin.On Wednesday, Trump made a big deal about a Chinese company known as Foxconn building a factory in Wisconsin that could create up to 3,000 jobs.Thank you Foxconn, for investing $10 BILLION DOLLARS with the potential for up to 13K new jobs in Wisconsin! MadeInTheUSA?? pic.twitter.com/jJghVeb63s Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2017In addition, Trump claimed that the deal would not have happened had he not been elected, and went on to suck up to Foxconn chairman Terry Gou. His great company has seen our you know, you see exactly what I m saying our administration s work to remove job-killing regulations he s been watching to institute Buy American and Hire American, and all of those policies, and to pursue the steps necessary to revitalize American industry, including repealing and replacing Obamacare we better get that done, fellas, please. It should be pointed out that Foxconn was already planning to build a factory in the United States long before Trump ever considered running for president.But if Trump really wants to take credit, that means he is also taking credit for Republicans screwing over the people of Wisconsin to get the factory to come to their state.You see, in exchange for Foxconn choosing Wisconsin, Republican lawmakers and Governor Scott Walker approved a $3 billion subsidy for the company. According to Bloomberg, that amounts to taking $519 from every man, woman, and child in Wisconsin to fund what the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel points out would total more than the combined yearly state funding used to operate the University of Wisconsin System and the state s prison system. And let s remember that we are talking about a private company that is already worth billions. Foxconn does not need billions of dollars of government subsidies to expand. They have the money to do it themselves. This amounts to nothing more than Foxconn holding the people of Wisconsin hostage and Republicans letting them and complying with their demands.And that is especially disastrous for Wisconsin since Foxconn is known for promising investments and not delivering.As Bloomberg reported,Three years ago, Gou signed a deal with the government of Jakarta, Indonesia s capital and its biggest city, to invest $1 billion and employ local workers to make electronics. That never happened. Neither did a $30 million high-tech factory in Pennyslvania that was announced a year earlier. Just this past year, Foxconn is reported to have pledged investments of $5 billion in India; $3.65 billion in Kunshan, China; and $8.8 billion in Guangzhou. It s too early to know if those sums will ever be spent, but including Wisconsin, the tally now stands at $27.5 billion of commitments. That s more than Hon Hai [Foxconn s flagship company] has spent in the last 23 years.So while Trump is busy touting the deal to make himself look good, he is doing so at the expense of Wisconsin taxpayers, many of whom now have to worry about how they will get by after paying Foxconn s ransom.Featured image via Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images | 0 |
2,673 | Zimbabwe's Mugabe, coup chief meet with smiles and handshakes | HARARE (Reuters) - A smiling President Robert Mugabe was pictured shaking hands with Zimbabwe s military chief a day after the army seized power, throwing confusion over predictions that the 93-year-old s nearly four-decade rule had come to an end. Mugabe unexpectedly drove from his lavish Blue Roof Harare compound in Harare, where he had been confined since troops took to the streets, to State House, where official media pictured him meeting military chief Constantino Chiwenga and South African ministers sent to mediate the crisis. The official Herald newspaper carried no reports of the outcome of the meeting, leaving Zimbabwe s 13 million people in the dark as to what was happening as night fell on Thursday. Mugabe is insisting he remains Zimbabwe s only legitimate ruler and is refusing to quit, but pressure was mounting on the former guerrilla to accept offers of a graceful exit, sources said on Thursday. Earlier, a political source who spoke to senior allies holed up in the compound with Mugabe and his wife Grace said he had no plans to resign voluntarily ahead of elections due next year. It s a sort of stand-off, a stalemate, the source said. They are insisting the president must finish his term. The army s takeover signaled the collapse in less than 36 hours of the security, intelligence and patronage networks that sustained Mugabe through 37 years in power and built him into the Grand Old Man of African politics. A priest mediating between Mugabe and the generals, who seized power on Wednesday in what they called a targeted operation against criminals in Mugabe s entourage, has made little headway, a senior political source told Reuters. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai called for Mugabe s departure in the interest of the people . In a statement read to reporters, Tsvangirai pointedly referred to him as Mr Robert Mugabe , not president. The army may want Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, to go quietly and allow a smooth and bloodless transition to Emmerson Mnangagwa, the vice president Mugabe sacked last week triggering the political crisis. The main goal of the generals is to prevent Mugabe from handing power to his wife Grace, 41 years his junior, who has built a following among the ruling party s youth wing and appeared on the cusp of power after Mnangagwa was pushed out. The last of Africa s state founders still in power from the era of the struggle against European colonization, Mugabe is still seen by many Africans as a liberation hero. But he is reviled in the West as a despot whose disastrous handling of the economy and willingness to resort to violence to maintain power pauperized one of Africa s most promising states. Once a regional bread-basket, Zimbabwe saw its economy collapse in the wake of the seizure of white-owned farms in the early 2000s, followed by runaway money-printing that catapulted inflation to 500 billion percent in 2008. Millions of Zimbabweans, from highly skilled bankers to semi-literate farmers, emigrated, mostly to neighboring South Africa, where an estimated 3 million still live. After briefly stabilizing under a 2009-2013 power-sharing government, when Mugabe was forced to work with the opposition, the economy has once again cratered, with dollars scarce, inflation surging, imports running out and queues outside banks. A fighter, both literally and figuratively during a political career that included several assassination attempts, Mugabe may now have reached the end of the road. With the army camped on his front door and the police - once seen as a bastion of support - showing no signs of resistance, force is not an option. Similarly, he has little popular backing in Harare, where he is widely loathed, and his influence in the ruling ZANU-PF party is evaporating. ZANU-PF youth leader Kudzai Chipanga, a vocal Mugabe supporter, publicly apologized for opposing the army after being marched by soldiers into the state television headquarters to read out a statement, sources at the broadcaster said. He was then taken back to the army s main KGVI (pronounced KG Six) barracks in Harare, where Finance Minister Ignatius Chombo is also being held, an army source said. Video footage obtained by Reuters from the houses of two key allies of Grace Mugabe - cabinet ministers Jonathan Moyo and Saviour Kasukuwere - indicated that the army was also prepared to use force if necessary. Moyo s front door was blown open with explosives, scattering glass across the entrance hall, while the inside walls of Kasukuwere s house were pocked with bullet holes. The pair managed to escape on the evening of the coup and make it to Mugabe s compound, where they remain under effective house arrest, one political source said. Zimbabwean intelligence reports seen by Reuters suggest Mugabe s exit was in the planning for more than a year. Mnangagwa, a former security chief and life-long Mugabe confidant known as The Crocodile , is the key player. According to the files and political sources in Zimbabwe and South Africa, once Mugabe s resignation is secured Mnangagwa would take over as president of an interim unity government that will seek to stabilize the imploding economy. Fuelling speculation that this plan might be rolling into action, 65-year-old Tsvangirai, who has been receiving cancer treatment in Britain and South Africa, returned to Harare late on Wednesday. Ex-finance minister Tendai Biti added to that speculation, telling Reuters he would be happy to work in a post-coup administration as long as Tsvangirai was also on board. If Morgan says he s in, I m in, said Biti, who earned international respect during his time as finance minister in the 2009-13 government. The country needs a solid pair of hands so one might not have a choice. South Africa said Mugabe had told President Jacob Zuma by telephone on Wednesday that he was confined to his home but was otherwise fine. The military said it was keeping him and his family, including Grace, safe. Despite admiration for Mugabe among older African leaders, there is little public affection for 52-year-old Grace, an ex-government typist who began an affair with Mugabe in the early 1990s while his first wife Sally was dying of kidney failure. Dubbed DisGrace or Gucci Grace on account of her reputed love of shopping, she enjoyed a meteoric rise through the ranks of ZANU-PF in the last two years, culminating in Mnangagwa s removal. Zimbabweans, including the Mnangagwa camp and the military, interpreted the vice president s ouster as a move to clear the way for her to succeed her husband. In contrast to the high political drama unfolding behind closed doors, the streets of the capital remained calm, with people going about their daily business, albeit under the watch of soldiers on armored vehicles at strategic locations. | 1 |
2,674 | ALT-LEFT ATTACKS PHOENIX POLICE…Karma Hits Back Where it Hurts [Video] | Unhinged Democrat protesters converged on the Phoenix Rally to disrupt and create chaos during and after President Trump s speech. There were several instances of police officers being attacked. This is why the video below has gone viral. Watch how the protester kicks the tear gas away then receives a rubber bullet to the groin. Nice shot!Phoenix Trump Protester Ignores Police Orders, Gets Shot By Pepper Ball Before Being Escorted Away By Personpic.twitter.com/gFKq1Yxqnr Breaking911 (@Breaking911) August 23, 2017THE PROTESTERS BEAT ON A POLICE VAN:Protestors beating on police van arrested protestors inside pic.twitter.com/wTXHtRkWHT Susanna Black (@SusannaBNews) August 23, 2017ANTIFA ATTACKS TRUMP SUPPORTERS LEAVING RALLY:Antifa lunged at us leaving the #PhoenixRally. Even punched black Trump supporter in the face for being Nazi. pic.twitter.com/KwSFeLukv0 Democrats for Trump (@YoungDems4Trump) August 23, 2017GANG SIGNS FLASHED BEHIND REPORTER JEFF FLAKE:Alt-Left thug flashes gang signs behind @FoxBusiness reporter @JeffFlock outside @POTUS Trump rally! pic.twitter.com/V8aEWtlHoL Jim Hoft (@gatewaypundit) August 23, 2017 | 0 |
2,675 | Wilbur Ross sworn in as secretary of commerce | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross was sworn in as U.S. commerce secretary on Tuesday after helping shape Republican President Donald Trump’s opposition to multilateral trade deals. Vice President Mike Pence administered the oath of office to Ross, 79, a day after the U.S. Senate voted to confirm the corporate turnaround expert’s nomination, with strong support from Democrats. After the swearing in, Ross welcomed the Democratic support and said the vote suggested that “perhaps, finally building America up again may become a bipartisan thing.” Ross is set to become an influential voice in Trump’s economic team and was expected to start work on renegotiating trade relationships with China and Mexico. While commerce secretaries rarely take the spotlight in Washington, Ross is expected to play an outsize role in pursuing Trump’s campaign pledge to slash U.S. trade deficits and bring manufacturing jobs back to America. Some Democrats criticized Ross as another billionaire in a Trump Cabinet that says it is focused on the working class and for being a “vulture” investor who has eliminated some jobs. Reuters reported last month that Ross’s companies had shipped some 2,700 jobs overseas since 2004. | 1 |
2,676 | Popular St. Louis Bar Closed For Having A Clientele Too Black For The Neighborhood (SCREENSHOTS) | Tropical Liqueurs, otherwise known as Trops , a popular night spot that originated in Columbia, Missouri, thought they had struck gold when a beautiful building became available in the Soulard neighborhood of St. Louis. Specializing in frozen drinks and younger clientele, the new bar was immediate success unless you poll the neighbors. Trops doesn t just attract younger people, it tends to attract a diverse younger crowd that includes a hearty percentage of African-Americans.The neighbors, used to the noise and traffic of bars in this party-rich neighborhood, were happy to have the white college crowd for years, but for some reason just couldn t handle Trops. The bar came under immediate attack from local code officials who complained about everything from loud music to trash on the streets to parking all things associated with a bar.Trops immediately complied with every single one of the city s demands and, in fact, went far beyond what was expected of them. They hired extra help and off-duty police officers to pick up trash outside and direct traffic. They shut down their patio music at 11PM when other bars nearby raged on. They closed their doors voluntarily at midnight even though their license allowed them to stay open until 1:30AM. They even stopped serving to-go drinks in vacuum sealed, perfectly legal cups.To owner Billy Thompson, there was nothing left to do. Not only had he complied with the city s demands, he even instituted a dress code that disallowed baggy pants and hoodies. After all was said and done, the ruling came down: Trops will lose its liquor license on April 9th; bigotry wins. The bar s Facebook page announced the closure, which came as no surprise to some fans: Those are just a couple of the comments from patrons of the bar. Some have tried to take race out of the equation, blaming the closure on the bar breaking open-carry laws and serving drinks out of a drive-through window, but those claims are hyperbole considering the cups the bar used before they stopped serving to-go drinks were legal by the standards of the City Commissioner and the drive-through was an urban legend from the original location in Columbia. Local news has also pointed out that there seems to be little other than race keeping Trops from prospering in the vast community of bars in the area.This is just another case of a business that caters to everyone trying to succeed in a neighborhood where everyone means all shapes and sizes of white people. Featured image from stlmag.com | 0 |
2,677 | FEDERALLY FUNDED RIOT: BALTIMORE MAYOR WANTS FEDS TO PAY $20 MILLION FOR REPAIR OF CITY | After giving ROOM TO DESTROY , Baltimore s mayor now says she s confident she can get Uncle Sam to pay for the damage. What is this, the new age of federally financed riots? One month after the race riots that trashed Baltimore, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said that the city would apply for a $20 million Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant to replenish the rainy day fund being used to pay for cleanup and police overtime costs in the wake of the mayhem that she herself is on record as encouraging. In order to replenish this fund, we ve already worked with the state to apply for a federal FEMA reimbursement, and we are confident that we will receive a significant reimbursement from the federal government, CBS Baltimore affiliate WJZ reported her as saying Wednesday. This smells pretty funny, given that FEMA funds are meant mostly for natural disasters, not riot damage. But more to the point, it s effectively an escape from fiscal accountability and political responsibility, given Rawlings-Blake s role in fueling the riots. Rawlings-Blake, remember, is the one who lit the fuse by saying, We also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that a clear incitement to riot, even as she unconvincingly denied meaning any such thing while Baltimore burned. Instead of resigning, or being asked to, Rawlings-Blake is now more confident than ever that cash is on its way, according to press reports. This may very well be true, given all the evidence of political dealmaking with the Obama White House and Eric Holder s Justice Department. As the riots raged, Rawlings-Blake was in telephone contact with White House advisor Valerie Jarrett. Then she initiated a quickie-justice prosecution of six Baltimore cops, as well as a broader federal investigation of the city s police force that the White House wanted. Last week, she joined one group of Maryland officials and another of big-city mayors to seek federal dollars, using the riots as reason. No cash has been explicitly promised at this point, but in the world of one hand washes the other, it s pretty obvious that deals are being cut.Read more: IBD | 0 |
2,678 | FIRE THIS GUY! MUSLIM CNN HOST TWEETS Out Vile Response to President Trump’s Tweet After #LondonBridge Terror Attack | REZA ASLAN is a CNN host who is a Muslim religious scholar who should be fired but probably won t be. He tweeted out a vile response to President Trump s tweet from the DRUDGE Report. He also called our President a man baby who should be ignored . What kind of jackwagon disrespects our President like this?Aslan first tweeted that he considers Trump a man baby who should be ignored. This is after our President scooped NBC when he retweeted the DRUDGE tweet that it was feared that another terror attack happened in London. NBC tweeted (see below) that they wouldn t retweet Trumps tweet. Ridiculous move by NBC that turned out to backfire on them. The president is a man baby that must be ignored in times of crisis CNN s Religious Scholar Reza Aslan The next tweet from Aslan is the one getting the most press because of its hate and vulgar language: This piece of shit is not just an embarrassment to America and a stain on the presidency. He s an embarrassment to humankind. CNN s Religious Scholar Reza Aslan Does CNN condone this vile behavior from its hosts? We ll see if they do anything about this hateful man who is no journalist!More information on him reveals he s an Iranian-born CNN employee from his personal websiteREZA ASLAN is an internationally renowned writer, commentator, professor, producer, and scholar of religions. His books, including his #1 New York Times Bestseller, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, have been translated into dozens of languages around the world. He is also a recipient of the prestigious James Joyce Award.In addition to his role as a Consulting Producer on the acclaimed HBO series The Leftovers, Aslan is also the host and Executive Producer of two other original television programs: Rough Draft with Reza Aslan (premiered on Ovation), and CNN s upcoming documentary series, Believer. He also served as an Executive Producer on the ABC drama, Of Kings and Prophets. His book Zealot has been optioned by Lionsgate and producer David Heyman with a script penned by Oscar nominated screenwriter, James Schamus.In 2006, Aslan co-founded BoomGen Studios the premiere entertainment brand for creative content from and about the Middle East which has provided an array of targeted services ranging from strategic messaging to grassroots marketing to publicity and social media outreach, to producers, studios, and filmmakers including Jon Stewart s Rosewater, Netflix s The Square, Disney s Aladdin on Broadway and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, The Weinstein Company s Miral, Discovery and TLC s All American Muslim, and National Geographic s Amreeka.Aslan s first book, International Bestseller No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, has been translated into seventeen languages, and was named one of the 100 most important books of the last decade by Blackwell Publishers. He is also the author of Beyond Fundamentalism: Confronting Religious Extremism in a Globalized Age (originally titled How to Win a Cosmic War), as well as editor of two volumes: Tablet and Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East, and Muslims and Jews in America: Commonalties, Contentions, and Complexities.Aslan s degrees include a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies from Santa Clara University (Major focus: New Testament; Minor: Greek), a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard University (Major focus: History of Religions), a PhD in the Sociology of Religions from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa, where he was named the Truman Capote Fellow in Fiction. An Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, he is also a member of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities and the Pacific Council on International Policy. He serves on the board of directors of the Ploughshares Fund, which gives grants for peace and security issues; Narrative Four, which connects people through the exchange of stories; PEN USA, which champions the rights of writers under siege around the world; the Los Angeles Review of Books, and the Levantine Cultural Center, which builds bridges between Americans and the Arab/Muslim world through the arts.Aslan is a tenured Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside and serves on the board of trustees for the Chicago Theological Seminary and The Yale Humanist Community, which supports atheists, agnostics, and humanists at home and abroad. A member of the American Academy of Religions, the Society of Biblical Literature, and the International Qur anic Studies Association, Aslan s previous academic positions include the Wallerstein Distinguished Professor of Religion, Community and Conflict at Drew University in New Jersey (2012-2013), and Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion at the University of Iowa (2000-2003).Born in Iran, he lives in Los Angeles with his wife, author and entrepreneur, Jessica Jackley, and their three sons. | 0 |
2,679 | DEMOCRAT CHAIRMAN YELLS “All Together Now…F*ck Donald Trump!”…Crowd Shoots Middle Finger At Stage [VIDEO] | AP reported:California s elected Democrats had tough words for President Donald Trump and the GOP Congress on Saturday, urging their party s fired-up activists to work against the 14 Republicans in the state s congressional delegation.The party s leaders blasted Trump s alleged ties to Russia and presented California as the epicenter of liberal resistance to the president. The world, literally the world, is counting on all of you, counting on California to reject Trump s deception and destructiveness, said Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is among a crowded field of Democrats running for governor next year.U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, often mentioned as a potential candidate for president in 2020, accused Trump of putting Russia first, America second. In a sign of the vigor of the party s distaste for the president, outgoing party Chair John Burton, a longtime Democratic lawmaker and powerbroker known for his blunt and profane manner, extended two middle fingers in the air as the crowd cheered and joined him. F Donald Trump, he said:Outgoing @ca_dem chair @Johnburton gets standing O w final words to his party, finger upraised: F@ck Donald Trump! pic.twitter.com/VIqNQlhDJc Carla Marinucci (@cmarinucci) May 20, 2017And we though Tom Perez was bad! | 0 |
2,680 | Why A Wall Street Investor Endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders | Asher Edelman inspired the character Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone s 1987 film, Wall Street, played by Michael Douglas. The infamous stockbroker, who made a fortune buying and selling companies in distress, was recently asked on CNBC s Fast Money, who he would endorse for Bernie Sanders. His answer was surprising, but his reasoning is not: Bernie Sanders, no question, said Edelman. , I think it s quite simple again. If you look at something called velocity of money That means how much gets spent and turns around. When you have the top one percent getting money, they spend five-ten percent of what they earn. When you have the lower end of the economy getting money, they spend a hundred, or a hundred and ten percent of what they earn. As you ve had a transfer of wealth to the top, and a transfer of income to the top, you have a shrinking consumer base, basically, and you have a shrinking velocity of money. Edelman argued redistributing wealth, especially at the point we are at now with levels of income and wealth inequalities continually growing, is what is best for the economy. Greed and corruption may allow the wealthiest to gain short term profits, but as the middle class disappears and the working class becomes ever burdened, the economy begins to sputter into stagnation.Senator Bernie Sanders economic policies aren t radical, socialist, or unrealistic. They are simply what is needed to be implemented to fix a broken, rigged economy. Edelman may be a member of the top one percent, but he is intelligent enough to realize trickle down economics doesn t work, and the Republicans who insist on perpetuating economic policies surrounding that myth continue to damage the United States economy.The rich getting richer don t create jobs, customers do. If there aren t any customers to purchase goods and services, such as a middle and working class who earn enough to have disposable income, the economy will falter.Featured image via Addicting Info archives | 0 |
2,681 | UPDATE: 12 STATES NOW Giving Obama Middle Finger On UNLAWFUL Transgender Bathroom Decree | Only 38 states to go. Obama is going to do more damage to the fabric of America in his final 7 months in office than any other President in history The ink was barely dry on President Obama s guidance regarding gender-neutral bathrooms the administration told U.S. public schools on Friday to let transgender students use bathrooms and locker rooms according to gender identity when opposing voices started shouting.And at least 7 of those voices in 6 states so far belonged to high-ranking state officials, beginning with North Carolina, where HB2 brought the controversy to the forefront:North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory (R) Says the U.S. Justice Department is displaying overreach by warning legal action and withholding federal funds unless HB2 which limits bathroom/locker room use to the gender on an individual s birth certificate is scrapped.Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) Has declared that he will be working closely with North Carolina s governor in opposing the federal guideline.I announced today that Texas is fighting this. Obama can't rewrite the Civil Rights Act. He's not a King. #tcot https://t.co/vDgfQPZXjR Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) May 13, 2016Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick (R) Has stated that Texas does not want any dirty money tied to policies that amount to extortion:Texas Lt. Gov. @DanPatrick on Obama administration guidance on transgender bathrooms: "We will not be blackmailed" https://t.co/28tFsicoo8 CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) May 13, 2016Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (R) Advised schools in his state to ignore the guidance:As Gov., I recommend that school districts disregard @POTUS's guidance on gender identification in schools. >> https://t.co/mFxgtOcbml Gov. Asa Hutchinson (@AsaHutchinson) May 13, 2016Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange (R) Says the issue should be decided by parents, teachers, and principals not by federal bureaucrats.Alabama AG Luther Strange vows to fight 'absurd' Obama order on transgender school bathrooms https://t.co/VnCUcZ6jSz AL.com (@aldotcom) May 13, 2016Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin (R) Released a statement saying that the federal government had no authority to interfere in local school districts bathroom policies.Our statement regarding Obama's proposed bathroom rules for public schools: https://t.co/50Zg6PqXOY Matt Bevin (@MattBevin) May 13, 2016Missouri Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder (R) Released a statement saying that Obama was abusing his power, and that America needs guidance and prayer.Via: Independent JournalUPDATE: Six more states have joined in protest against Obama s unlawful transgender bathroom decree, they are: West Virginia, Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, and Maine. The number of states who will fight back will certainly increase, as the public becomes more and more active, contacting their legislators and governors, demanding they stand up to King Obama. | 0 |
2,682 | THE PURGE: NYC Mayor De Blasio to Review ‘All Symbols of Hate” on City Property | THE PURGE CONTINUES THE NYC MAYOR has just opened a can of worms so big that it ll be hard to control it. He wants to review all symbols of hate on city property then leave it to his panel of experts to decide what stays and what goes. This should be interesting. Isn t this subjective? Someone might think one thing is a symbol of hate but not another. Where does this purging end?Mayor de Blasio said late Wednesday that the city will conduct a 90-day review of all symbols of hate on city property in the wake of violence sparked by white supremacist groups in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend.A 32-year-old woman was killed and more than a dozen people were injured when a vehicle slammed into a group of counter-protesters on Saturday, and two state troopers died when the helicopter from which they were monitoring events suddenly crashed.Opposition to the removal of a statue of Confederate Army general Robert E. Lee was at the heart of rallies by white nationalists and KKK members in Charlottesville this year.New York City officials said they re putting together a panel of relevant experts and community leaders who will define the criteria and make recommendations for which items to remove.EXPERTS? WHO SAYS?MEANWHILE IN THE EAST VILLAGEThe South is rising in the East Village.Residents are seeing red over a pair of Confederate flags hanging in the window of an East 8th Street apartment building, following the deadly white power rally in Virginia this week.The flags have been hanging in the fifth-floor window of the building near the corner of Avenue D for months, but anger is boiling over in the aftermath of the weekend s carnage with neighbors pelting rocks and bricks at the window Wednesday morning. They re scary, we don t know who we are dealing with in the neighborhood. I feel uncomfortable because that represents evil. I see the protests in the news and I come home and see this, said local Louise Abddhal, 56, as a chorus of others yelled at the window.Residents had turned a blind eye to the offensive banners in the past, but started getting mad after Saturday s rally in Charlottesville, where a neo-Nazi fatally mowed down counter-protester Heather Hayer. It s been there forever and no one said anything. Now it s going crazy. Virginia is bringing more light and attention too, said longtime resident Janet Brown. .The Dixie-head has changed the flags around several times there was a neo-Nazi one for awhile, according to Brown and he now has two Israeli flags and an American flag between the Confederate ones.But the baffling collection is just making residents angrier. He is a Jew with a Confederate flag! Are you kidding me? said one neighbor, who wouldn t give his name. Confederate flags in the window, bro! That is a bunch of racists. Right here in the avenue, bro! In the hood! This sh-t is real. He is looking to start a f ing riot. The building s property manager said he s aware of the flags and is trying to get the resident to take them down.Footage of a man throwing rocks and screaming expletives at the windows on Wednesday morning shows police arriving and telling him to stop but witnesses say cops didn t make any arrests.Via: NYP | 0 |
2,683 | COLLEGE STUDENT SUSPENDED For Saying He Thinks Black Women Are: “not hot” | Would this student have been suspended for saying he doesn t think blondes are hot? Did Colorado College violate a student s First Amendment right to free speech when it suspended him for six months for stating online that he doesn t find black women attractive?We may never know, unless the student who was suspended takes legal action, and there has been no report of any such filing.But some free speech advocates would probably urge him to do so.On Nov. 9, an untold number of Colorado College students engaged in a Yik Yaks social media conversation regarding the topic black lives matter, according to a report from TheCollegeFix.com.What was supposed to be a serious discussion reportedly turned raunchy and over-the-top, with a number of participants posting distasteful comments.For instance, student Thaddeus Pryor said the conversation included a post describing white males as dirty hippies with undersized sexual organs who have sexual relations with relatives.At one point the topic changed to black women matter, to which Pryor anonymously replied, They matter, they re just not hot. The next day several quotes from the online conversation including Pryor s remark about black women were reproduced on full-sized banners and hung in the Student Center near a dean s office, TheCollegeFix.com reported.The next thing he knew, Pryor was brought before a disciplinary panel, and learned he had been accused by rumor of being the author of most of the controversial posts in the conversation, the news site reported.Pryor admitted to writing the statement about black women, but denied writing anything else. And there is no way for the college to determine who wrote the other statements that Pryor did not accept responsibility for. Yik Yak is an anonymous social media application on smartphones that restricts posts to those within a geolocated boundary, like a college campus, according to the Huffington Post. While student have frequently protested in recent years over racist and offensive posts on the app, colleges have no way to identify who says anything on Yik Yak. College officials quickly moved to suspend Pryor. Senior Associate Dean of Students Rochelle Mason, Dean of Students Mike Edmonds and Assistant Dean of Students Cesar Cervantes decided in less than 24 hours that Pryor should be suspended for 21 months the exact time it would take him to finish his degree and prohibited from being on campus. Pryor appealed and his suspension was reduced to six months, but he still claims that college officials neglected his due process rights as defined by college policy, and essentially pronounced him guilty of authoring far more than the one post he accepted responsibility for. Pryor said someone misled officials about the number of comments he posted, according to the news site. In a lengthy appeal letter to Edmonds, Pryor said he voluntarily admitted to posting the not hot comment despite Mason and Cervantes having no evidence other than hearsay that he was involved with the Nov. 9 posts, TheCollegeFix.com wrote. He said the college violated its own rules not only by failing to inform him of his alleged violations until he was sentenced, but by incorrectly recording in sanction papers that Mason and Cervantes had even informed him of alleged violations of the Student Code of Conduct. During my hearing, rather than presenting me with my possible violations then investigating my actions and how they may have constituted those violations, I was simply treated as broadly guilty, Pryor was quoted as saying.Apparently private schools like Colorado College have more legal authority to censor speech than public schools, there remains a question about whether Pryor s rights were violated.A nonprofit called the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) contend that the college violated a statement published in a student guide that says, all members of the college community have such basic rights as freedom of speech, the Huffington Post reported. Because Colorado College is a private institution, it generally does not have to grant the same First Amendment free speech rights that a public school would. However, FIRE insists the school s statement about free speech in its college guide creates a contractual obligation, according to the Huffington Post. Via: EAG | 0 |
2,684 | Art of the spin: Trump bankers question his portrayal of financial comeback | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump, who often says he only likes winners, tells one grand tale of loss: In 1990, he nearly went bankrupt and was forced to ask dozens of banks to whom he owed money to change the terms on their loans and forgive some of his debts. It was, the real estate developer admits in his 1997 book “The Art of the Comeback,” the darkest period of his professional life. In his telling, it’s a story of redemption, of resilience, and proof of his exceptional negotiating skills and shrewd thinking. Six people who participated in the loan workout negotiations have a different recollection, raising questions about a key part of the personal narrative that many of Trump’s supporters have found compelling as he campaigns to be the next president of the United States on Nov. 8. On the campaign trail he has portrayed himself as a survivor and a master negotiator. Trump says his comeback began when he recognized a downturn in the real estate market and quickly asked banks to renegotiate his loans. “That decision was perhaps the smartest thing I did,” he wrote. The six bankers and lawyers involved in the talks say the bailout wasn’t based on any overture Trump initiated with the banks - and the terms of the deal were dictated by what was best for the banks, not Trump. Three of the participants say Trump didn’t acknowledge he had a problem until his lenders reviewed his books, realized he was on the brink of collapse, and summoned him for debt restructuring talks. While much has been written about Trump’s financial troubles at the time, there has been little examination of his description of the bank negotiations in “The Art of the Comeback,” including his assertion that he chose to initiate those talks. Trump’s spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, declined to comment for this story. Following the U.S. stock market crash of 1987, a global recession hit New York real estate. New construction stalled, and several big developers declared bankruptcy. As the real estate market slumped, Trump ran out of cash. At the beginning of 1990 he owed a combined $4 billion to more than 70 banks, with $800 million personally guaranteed by his own assets, according to Alan Pomerantz, a lawyer whose team led negotiations between Trump and 72 banks to restructure Trump’s loans. Pomerantz was hired by Citibank but became lead counsel for the negotiations. At the time, Trump was not considered a major developer, but he was a New York celebrity. His affair with the actress Marla Maples and his divorce from his first wife Ivana Trump made national news headlines, and his first book, “The Art of the Deal,” was a bestseller. He didn’t have a large portfolio of real estate in New York, with the notable exceptions of his 5th Avenue building, Trump Tower, completed in 1983, and the Plaza Hotel, which he bought in 1988 after borrowing heavily from Citibank. He also owned three casinos in Atlantic City, having made a financial bet that he could revive the East Coast gambling destination. And in 1989 he added part of an airline to his portfolio, again turning to Citibank for a loan to help finance the acquisition of bankrupt Eastern Airlines Shuttle. He turned it into Trump Shuttle. In 1989, in response to growing concerns about the economic downturn, the Federal Reserve began asking big banks to review their exposure to the sinking real estate market. At the beginning of 1990, a credit specialist at one of Trump’s biggest lenders decided to take a look at the bank’s book of loans to him. The decision was prompted in part by the Fed’s questions, as well as concerns within the bank about its exposure to the real estate market. The credit specialist, who did not want to be identified, concluded at the time that Trump was “about to go into bankruptcy.” “The banks were onto the problem before he was onto the problem,” the specialist told Reuters. Pomerantz said some of the banks became aware of the magnitude of Trump’s financial problems when, on a single day, he drew down every cent of a $100 million line of credit one of the banks, Banker’s Trust, which was purchased by Deutsche Bank in 1999, had given him to meet his obligations. Reuters was unable to independently confirm this. “He did not come to the banks and say ‘I have a problem.’ That did not happen,” said Pomerantz. Pomerantz, who says he is not a member of any political party, argued in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal that Trump’s record in real estate was not a good way to measure whether or not he would be a good president. In “The Art of the Comeback,” Trump says he began loan workout talks in March 1990 when he informed his bankers he might miss a payment on his casino debts. “If I had waited just six months longer to renegotiate terms with the banks, I might have lost everything,” he wrote. “I would have had to stand in line with a whole bunch of other moguls who were trying to do the same thing.” Soon, in boardrooms of banks and law firms around Manhattan, Trump’s deputies and lawyers began a series of meetings with representatives of the 72 banks, which had billions in outstanding loans, according to Pomerantz. During the same period, Trump was separately renegotiating a series of loans on his Atlantic City casinos. One of the bankers involved in those negotiations, Ben Berzin, said Trump seemed unaware of the depths of his financial troubles even after the banks had stepped in. “There was a period during these negotiations when he was still spending money like a drunken sailor,” Berzin said, recalling the uproar among the bankers when, in a TV interview in the summer of 1991, Trump displayed a large diamond engagement ring he had given Maples. Media reports said the ring cost $250,000, and Pomerantz said the bankers complained about it to Trump in their next meeting. At one point, Trump invited all of the bankers to a Broadway show that Maples had a role in, according to Berzin and a banker who took part in the larger talks with the 72 banks. Both said they believed Trump was trying to curry favor to win better terms in the workouts. Berzin attended the show but the other banker did not. Trump described Berzin in “The Art of the Comeback” as a “jerk” who would “scream at people at the top of his lungs about nonsense.” Berzin said he was irritated by Trump’s characterization and denied ever raising his voice in a meeting. In his book, Trump says he told representatives of the 72 banks he would declare bankruptcy and “tie you guys up for years” in the proceedings unless they staked him $65 million to keep his businesses running until the real estate market recovered. He also wanted them to agree to defer all loan payments until that time. “The banks more than capitulated - they enthusiastically agreed to my proposal,” Trump wrote. The bankers and lawyers interviewed dispute this. Though it was true that a personal bankruptcy would have made it harder for the banks to collect what Trump owed them, he had little leverage in the talks, they said. He, too, would have been seriously hurt in a bankruptcy, especially since he had personally guaranteed so much of what he had borrowed. In Pomerantz’s analysis, he would have been able to hold on to little else beyond his home and his pension plan. During the 18-month process of negotiations and asset sales, Trump also asked for more time to develop his business ideas, like his plan to turn hotel rooms at the Plaza Hotel into condominiums, according to one of the bankers, who declined to be identified. That proposal was vetoed. While he did receive a $450,000-a-month allowance from the banks to keep his business operations going, it was structured and executed on the banks’ terms, several of the negotiators said. The banks decided they could recover more of the $4 billion they were collectively owed if they sold Trump’s holdings one by one, waiting until the market recovered, rather than taking possession of the assets, four participants in the talks said. These individuals said the banks agreed to forgive Trump’s personal liabilities in exchange for his help in selling the properties. The proceeds of the sales would then be split among the banks. Trump agreed that the banks could take away all his personal property, including his beloved Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, if he failed to execute the agreement. “We had to be sure he would pay attention,” Pomerantz said of the liens on Trump’s personal holdings. “We would meet with him every Friday morning. He was under very strict restrictions by the banks.” Trump worked with the bankers to sell his assets, even when he disagreed about the timing of the sales, most notably when Citibank eventually sold The Plaza. The banks did not recover 100 percent of what they were owed and several lenders vowed never to work with Trump again. | 1 |
2,685 | PRESIDENT TRUMP Makes Huge Announcement on Obama’s Cuba Policy: “We will not be silent in the face of communist oppression any longer” [Video] | PRESIDENT TRUMP S REMARKS TODAY IN MIAMI INCLUDE A TOTAL CHANGE FROM THE OBAMA POLICY another campaign promise fulfilled: I am canceling the last administration s completely one-sided deal with Cuba. We will not lift sanctions on the Cuban regime until all political prisoners are free We will not be silent in the face of communist oppression any longer, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uLN_ByJia4The president held a rally with a cheering crowd in Miami s Cuban-American enclave of Little Havana. He included Senator Marco Rubio, who helped with the new restrictions on Cuba.THE CROWD IN LITTLE HAVANA CLEARLY LOVES THE POTUS:The crowd in Miami yells We love you & @potus answers I love you, too standing ovation & chants of USA! pic.twitter.com/zKUtv76Jll Jennifer S. Korn (@jennifersks) June 16, 2017THE CROWD BEGAN TO SING HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE PRESIDENT:Crowd starts singing Happy Birthday to President Trump during his #Cuba speech. What a beautiful moment pic.twitter.com/eW3wEsbgcH Tennessee (@TEN_GOP) June 16, 2017THIS IS THE BEST TWEET OF THE DAY:President Trump "Effective immediately, I am cancelling the Obama Administration's deal with Cuba"Thank U Trump No More Leading From Behind pic.twitter.com/qAhgho8P3c Immigrants 4 Trump (@immigrant4trump) June 16, 2017 | 0 |
2,686 | HOW THE DEATH OF SUPREME COURT JUSTICE SCALIA Puts America’s Gun Rights In Jeopardy [VIDEO] | If our next President is a Republican, and if he is allowed to appoint the next Supreme Court Justice, it will be very difficult to find a replacement who has Scalia s brilliant mind and absolute defense of our United States Constitution Of course, I would not like to be replaced by someone who immediately sets about undoing everything that I ve tried to do for 25 years, 26 years, sure. I mean, I shouldn t have to tell you that. Unless you think I m a fool. Obviously, the [second] amendment does not apply to arms that cannot be hand-carried. It s to keep and bear. So, it doesn t apply to cannons. But I suppose there are handheld rocket launchers that can bring down airplanes that will have to be (looked at) it will have to be decided. -US Supreme Court Justice ScaliaGun rights groups like the National Rifle Association said that conservative Justice Antonin Scalia s death Saturday puts gun rights on the line. We are one justice away from a Supreme Court that would harm our Second Amendment rights, said the NRA.WATCH JUSTICE SCALIA talk GUN CONTROL on FOX NEWS at the 6:50 mark. You will likely want to watch this video to the end. This video shines a bright light on the brilliance of Antonin Scalia and his defense of our US Constitution. Scalia comments on his replacement in this video, and on Obama s radical SOTU speech where he called out, and attempted to shame the Supreme Court Justices in front of the entire nation:Scalia was a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, and an avid hunter. Via: Washington Examiner | 0 |
2,687 | Myanmar says U.S. sanctions against general based on 'unreliable accusations' | (Reuters) - Myanmar feels sad over a U.S. decision to sanction a military general, a government spokesman said, after Washington linked the commander last week to abuses against the Rohingya Muslim minority. This targeted sanction is based on unreliable accusations without evidence, as we have repeatedly said, so we feel sad for that, Zaw Htay, spokesman for Myanmar s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, told Reuters by phone late on Tuesday. The Trump administration announced on Dec. 21 that it was sanctioning Major General Maung Maung Soe, who was in charge of a crackdown on the Rohingya minority in the western state of Rakhine. The United States, as well as the United Nations, have called the crackdown ethnic cleansing . About 655,000 Rohingya have fled Rakhine state and sought shelter over the border in Bangladesh, according to the United Nations. The United States said American officials had examined credible evidence of Maung Maung Soe s activities, including allegations against Burmese security forces of extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, and arbitrary arrest as well as the widespread burning of villages . The military and the civilian government of Suu Kyi have denied allegations of widespread abuse in Rakhine. The testimonies of Rohingya refugees were only talking stories , Zaw Htay said, adding that Myanmar would act if it received reliable and strong evidence that its troops committed crimes. We have told international governments and human rights groups including the U.N. that the current government is committed to protecting and promoting human rights, said Zaw Htay. The U.S. Treasury said Maung Maung Soe, former chief of the army s Western Command, would have his U.S. assets frozen and Americans could no longer deal with him. Reuters was unable to determine if Maung Maung Soe had business interests in Myanmar or elsewhere. Maung Maung Soe was transferred from his post in Rakhine and put in reserve , an army spokesman told Reuters on Nov. 13. No reason was given, but the military said the same day action would be taken against officials who were weak in acquiring information and who allowed the militant Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) to spread through Muslim villages in Rakhine. Reuters was unable to contact Maung Maung Soe. Major General Tun Tun Nyi of the military s public relations division, the True News Information Unit, said he had no comment on the sanctions and declined to answer questions on Maung Maung Soe. As well as dominating the country s politics for decades, Myanmar s army - known as the Tatmadaw or Royal Force - has gained notoriety for brutal counter-insurgency tactics employed against rebels seeking autonomy in the borderlands since independence from Britain in 1948, according to historians and human rights monitors. But since it began ceding power in 2011 - albeit under a constitution that keeps soldiers in key posts - the army has sought to burnish its image as a modern fighting force. It has defended its actions in Rakhine, with military investigators concluding that troops adhered to rules of engagement and sought to minimize civilian casualties while responding to terrorist provocations. But the spiraling Rohingya crisis has dashed hopes of expanding engagement with Western armies, Andrew Selth, an academic who has researched Myanmar s armed forces, wrote in September. This is a significant loss for the Tatmadaw, which is keen to learn about foreign military policies and practices, Selth wrote on the website of the Sydney-based Lowy Institute. Such contacts would have also helped its officers learn about international norms of behavior and the role of armed forces in democracies. Myanmar s military does not provide detailed biographies of senior officers. In February last year, a state media report said Maung Maung Soe was a brigadier general in the far south of the country, near the border with Thailand. He was referred to as a major general in charge of the military s Western Command in October, 2016, shortly after ARSA attacked three border posts there, killing nine guards. In the weeks after the attacks, Rohingya villagers told Reuters of gang rapes by soldiers and extrajudicial killings. Two military sources told Reuters that Maung Maung Soe oversaw battalions Nos. 352, 551, 564 and 345, which led the so-called clearance operations , and he reported directly to a Bureau of Special Operations in the capital Naypyitaw. His forces were again in combat following more widespread ARSA attacks on Aug. 25 this year, although troops from elite units that report straight to Naypyitaw were airlifted into Rakhine ahead of those attacks. New York-based Human Rights Watch said in October that Battalion 564 was identified by villagers as taking part in an alleged massacre of scores of people in the village of Maung Nu, close to the unit s base in the Buthidaung area. The day Maung Maung Soe s replacement as the commander in Rakhine was announced, the military released a report saying its own internal investigation had exonerated security forces of all accusations of atrocities, including in Buthidaung. | 1 |
2,688 | Doubts about smoking gun as Duterte lauds China role in rebel killing | MANILA/MARAWI CITY, Philippines (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was eager to credit new ally Beijing in the death of militant leader Isnilon Hapilon, saying it was a Chinese rifle that fired the bullet that finished off Islamic State s emir in Southeast Asia. The smoking gun that took out the region s most feared insurgent on Monday was one of the 100 sniper rifles donated by China, Duterte said, although the ranger unit conducting the operation said the shot was fired from a heavier weapon mounted on an armored vehicle. Duterte is a huge fan of the Chinese rifles and took a pot-shot himself in the direction of militants in Marawi City recently. Addressing businessmen and diplomats, he singled out ambassador Zhao Jianhua for China s support that led to the crucial killing. I would like to officially inform you, Ambassador Zhao, that the rifle that killed Hapilon was a sniper rifle made in China, Duterte announced late on Thursday, to warm applause from the crowd. But the version of the final hours of the life of Hapilon and another rebel leader, Omarkhayam Maute, posted on the Facebook page of a member of the Army Scout Rangers, tells a different story. The blow-by-blow account on Scout Ranger Books , posted the day Hapilon was killed, tells of how the 8th Scout Ranger Company was engaging militants and was not aware the rebel commanders were among those they killed, until fleeing hostages told them. The soldiers operating at night used thermal imaging on an armored vehicle and the shot that killed Hapilon came from a gun mounted on top of it, according to the account. No mention was made of Chinese weapons or snipers. Prior to Duterte s remarks, two soldiers in that vehicle told CNN Philippines the fixed weapon was remote controlled. A general in Marawi in command of the armored assets told Reuters the fixed weapons are 50-calibre machine guns. Duterte has made a big effort to befriend China and has frequently praised its leadership while in contrast, chiding defense treaty ally the United States, its biggest source of weapons and expertise, for what he calls hypocrisy and for treating his country like a dog . Asked which gun killed Hapilon, Colonel Romeo Brawner, deputy commander of the Marawi task force, said he could not say for sure, as troops had used guns made by the United States, China and others countries. | 1 |
2,689 | Sorry Republicans, LaVoy Finicum Didn’t Have His Hands Up When He Was Shot | As much as many conservatives would like to believe that the Bundy militia were merely innocent victims of the government, a picture is emerging that makes it clear the now-deceased LaVoy Finicum intentionally provoked a reaction from the law enforcement officers after trying to flee arrest.Finicum was part of a large group of the Bundy militants who were stopped by the FBI en route to yet another propaganda appearance in a nearby town. Rather than simply let the group go unimpeded, the authorities finally decided to act. It was a long time coming. The group had occupied a federal wildlife refuge for over a month, and with no end in sight and violent, paranoid extremists flooding into the region the situation was getting more out of hand by the moment.Sadly, it was not entirely surprising to learn that it was Finicum who resisted arrest. He had frequently claimed that he would rather die in a shootout than be arrested. Whether that was his intention on the night of his death is unclear, but his hostility towards law enforcement and his paranoia certainly contributed.Not everyone is convinced, however. Almost immediately after Finicum s death was announced, right-wing sympathizers began spinning a conspiracy that he had been executed with his hands up while his fellow patriots watched. The myth wasn t relegated to the backwaters of the internet, either. Soon, even sitting Republican politicians and Bundy s own Facebook page were repeating the tale.Michele Fiore, an anti-government conservative who hypocritically happens to work as a state representative in Nevada, repeated the lie to her Twitter followers.My heart & prays go out to LaVoy Finicum's family he was just murdered with his hands up in Burns OR.Ryan Bundy has been shot in the arm Michele Fiore (@VoteFiore) January 27, 2016Jim Hoft, a conservative blogger who has been labeled the Stupidest Man on the Internet for consistently posting misinformation, ran with the story, repeating Cliven Bundy s baseless claim: LaVoy Finicum was murdered. Cold-blooded murder. They shot him with his hands up. Unfortunately for this convenient narrative, witnesses of the arrest say Finicum was the provoker. Melvin Lee was behind the Bundy convoy during the arrest. He recounts how Finicum tried to flee, and the wound up charging the officers. There happened to be some arguments between the guys in the truck. Somehow they got Ryan Payne pulled out of the truck, apparently. LaVoy had took off he ended up hitting a snowbank, I guess, trying to get around the blockade. After he hit that snowbank, he came out of that truck and he charged at the law enforcement, as I understand it. A bodyguard of Ammon s said that Finicum crashed his car, then jumped out and began charging at the agents. He also concluded that this was entirely in Finicum s character. He was not on his knees, none of that. He was none of that nonsense. You know, that was a miscommunication on somebody else s part. But he went after them. He charged them. You know, LaVoy was very passionate about what he was doing up here. Finicum is said to have been radicalized by the Bundy s during the Nevada ranch showdown. In an interview, he once said that Cliven asked him to be the first cowboy to show up to what would become the standoff. I said Cliven, don t let them take your cows, Finicum recalled in an interview with OPB. He says saddle up your horse and be here early in the morning. I was the first cowboy to show up in the dark. In fall 2015, Finicum followed in Bundy s footsteps and chose to stop complying with his lease contract with the Bureau of Land Management, in spite of a long positive relationship with the agency.His death was the culmination of years of right-wing paranoia being relentlessly hurled at him from conservative politicians and media figures. They exploited his anxieties and played on his fears until eventually he decided to take action. There s no question that Finicum died believing he was in a struggle with a tyrannical government. His charge at authorities confirms that. Perhaps that is why the right-wing so desperately wants to prove that his hands were up. If he was innocent, than so are they.But he wasn t.Featured image via screen capture | 0 |
2,690 | U.S. Congress to let Iran deadline pass, leave decision to Trump | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress will allow a deadline on reimposing sanctions on Iran to pass this week, congressional and White House aides said on Tuesday, leaving a pact between world powers and Tehran intact at least temporarily. In October, Trump declined to certify that Iran was complying with the nuclear agreement reached among Tehran, the United States and others in 2015. His decision triggered a 60-day window for Congress to decide whether to bring back sanctions on Iran. Congressional leaders have announced no plans to introduce a resolution to reimpose sanctions before Wednesday’s deadline and aides say lawmakers will let the deadline pass without action. By doing that, Congress passes the ball back to Trump, who must decide in mid-January if he wants to continue to waive energy sanctions on Iran. Trump’s failure to do so would blow apart the deal, a course opposed by European allies, Russia and China, the other parties to the accord, under which Iran got sanctions relief in return for curbing its nuclear ambitions. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and denies it has aimed to build an atomic bomb. It has said it will stick to the accord as long as the other signatories respect it, but will “shred” the deal if Washington pulls out. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the administration was not asking for sanctions to be reimposed. “The administration continues to make encouraging progress with Congress to fix the U.S.–Iran deal and address long-term proliferation issues,” she told a daily press briefing. Efforts to find common ground with Europe on the Iran deal were complicated again last week, when Trump announced Washington would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, breaking with international consensus. Trump has called the Iran pact the “worst deal ever” and has threatened to pull the United States out of it. His fellow Republicans control both chambers of Congress but their Senate majority is so small that they need some Democratic support to advance most legislation. Senate Democrats, even those who opposed it two years ago, do not want to tear up the nuclear accord. Republican Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, declined to say whether he thought Trump would carry through on a threat to tear up the nuclear pact in January if Congress does not pass legislation to further clamp down on Iran. Corker told reporters he and Democratic Senator Ben Cardin met national security adviser H.R. McMaster last week to see “if there’s language that fits the bill here within Congress but also ... keeps them (the Europeans) at the table with us and not feeling like we’ve gone off in a different direction.” Corker declined to elaborate on specifics of the discussions. Trump threatened to withdraw from the nuclear agreement if lawmakers did not toughen it by amending the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, or INARA, the U.S. law that opened the possibility of bringing sanctions back. Cardin, the senior Democrat on the Senate foreign relations panel, has said he would not support changes to the nuclear pact that are not supported by Europe. Democrats also insist that while sanctions should be imposed over Iran’s ballistic missiles program or human rights violations, they must be separate from the nuclear agreement. | 1 |
2,691 | Former Christie campaign finance chair slams Christie endorsement of Donald Trump | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former finance co-chair of Chris Christie’s presidential campaign on Sunday slammed Christie’s recent endorsement of Donald Trump, according to NBC, calling for the New Jersey governor’s supporters to reject the Republican front-runner. “Chris Christie’s endorsement of Donald Trump is an astonishing display of political opportunism. Donald Trump is unfit to be president,” Meg Whitman, chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard, said in a statement reported by NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. Christie, appearing on ABC’s “This Week” program, responded by describing Whitman “a great friend” with a different political opinion. “And that’s OK. That’s what makes this country great is that people can have differences of political opinion,” he said. Just days before the Super Tuesday nominating contests, Christie on Friday became the most prominent mainstream Republican to get behind the billionaire Republican front-runner and former reality TV star, declaring Trump to have the best chance of defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election. But Whitman’s statement said the New Jersey governor made his statement despite his own public misgivings about a Trump presidency. “Trump would take America on a dangerous journey. Christie knows all that and indicated as much many times publicly,” Whitman said. Trump’s unorthodox candidacy has shaken the Republican Party and has drawn increasingly vehement criticism from his rivals. But a growing number of senior Republicans are becoming resigned to the idea he will be their candidate in November. Christie, who withdrew his own White House bid earlier this month, denied that he reversed course on Trump after promising New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper publisher Joe McQuaid that he would not endorse him after the billionaire won the state’s Feb. 9 primary election. “It’s just not true. He called me two days after the primary and said, I was just told that you’re about to endorse Donald Trump. And I said to him, that’s absolutely untrue. I’m not about to endorse anybody,” Christie told ABC. (Reporting by Alana Wise and David Morgan; Editing by Ros Russell) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production. | 1 |
2,692 | Woman Publicly Disowns Her Parents After She Finds Out Her Mom Is A Trump Troll | Disowning your parents is an incredibly painful thing to do. These are the people who created you. The people who raised you and loved you and kissed your boo-boos when you got hurt. Unfortunately, sometimes it is necessary as Aubrey Perry, an Australian-based artist and author, recently discovered. In an article written for The Sydney Morning Herald, the young woman explained why she had to cut her parents out of her life and the life of her child.Perry was perusing a list of California Trump delegates when she discovered a horrifying name on the list: her mother s. I found her name when I was scanning the list to see if the white supremacist William Daniel Johnson had been removed (since he d said he would not be attending): there she was, #10 on the list. She said her parents have always been racist. Her mother, an ESL (English Second Language) teacher and basic English teacher at the college level, often referred to her students with contempt when Perry was growing up. She said: Greaseball. Wetback. Spic. Beaner. I grew up with these words in the house. Not because that s what people called us. That s what we called Mexicans. Perry explains that she knew her parents believed ignorant garbage, but because she lives in Australia and only speaks to her parents online, through text and on the phone it was easy to ignore they never spoke about politics. However, after Perry saw her mom s name on the delegate list she started investigating and what she found is what ultimately led to her decision to severe ties: And I don t use Twitter much. But, wow. My mum does. I recently checked her Twitter page for the first time in a while and was shocked. Hateful memes, ugly language, and appearance-based attacks, targeted at Hillary Clinton, stacked up. And not just hateful, but off-topic and malicious calling Hillary ugly , old and screechy . An unlikeable old bag. The woman card stinks! my mother wrote. My mother! A college instructor! She should know better. She s no internet troll. Is she? She was; her mom was a Trump troll and filled all of her social media accounts with racist, sexist, xenophobic memes and posts. She found videos of her mom being interviewed by Fox News at a California rally. Perry said the video shows her mom saying, He sounds like us, he talks like us I m all Trump, only Trump, always Trump, forever Trump! The video reminded her of the Imperial Wizard of the KKK saying that the Klan supports Trump because what he believes in, we believe in. Perry isn t just an ordinary liberal who is disgusted with Donald Trump just because she is a progressive and he is a conservative; his beliefs hurt her family. My husband is black. We have a daughter together. My parents support of a candidate who could not decide if he should accept the endorsement of the KKK is completely intolerable in our home and, ultimately, in our world. She finally confronted her mother, and her mom brushed her off. So, she decided to take screenshots of her mom s hate speech, saved the video clips of her interview on Fox News and posted everything on Facebook, slamming her parents for their ignorance. On Twitter she said, Your Twitter feed makes me disappointed and embarrassed of you as a person, a supposed critical thinker, and my mother. Shocked. Her mom responded by blocking her on social media. Her dad found out and sent her a threatening email, saying: I know you have never said anything you might not like to be made public, he wrote, so if you want to continue this attack mode, please remember all things have consequences. Perry said her parents response to her criticism hurt her but she wasn t surprised. More importantly, though, she said it was time to speak up and let them know that their hate and ignorance was not acceptable. Her entire life she had kept her mouth shut and let their rhetoric roll off her back and that, she explains, is her biggest regret: By ignoring racism, xenophobia, and misogyny within our families, we are accepting it within our culture. To ignore is to accept. As my daughter plays on the floor in front of me while I type this, I think about her ancestry. I think about the suffering that has been endured so that she can live in a free and just world, and I feel a responsibility to the continuity of that humanity. If I don t oppose my parents behaviour and objectives, if I don t reject Trump and all that he stands for, if I don t change my family s vocabulary so that my daughter never knows the hateful words I heard growing up, I m undoing the progress that generations before me have fought and died for. And that, I won t accept. She s exactly right. As a white woman with a mixed race child and a husband who is from Central America, I know where she is coming from. For a very long time I ignored the hate coming, not from my parents, but from other people who I was close to. People I d grown up with, gone to school with. It was easier to pretend they were not that stupid than to confront them and get into an argument. Like Perry, I came to the realization that by not telling these people how I felt, how their hate affected my son, my husband, our friendship, I was doing a disservice. I started speaking out, I m not friends with some of those people anymore and that s okay, they are not nice people anyway.The point is that by not speaking out, we lead these people to believe that what they are saying is acceptable and it isn t. Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel explains why it is important to use our voices to stop this kind of divisiveness, better than I ever could, while speaking to a group of college graduates in 2011: Do not stand idly by if you witness injustice. You must intervene. You must interfere. You are now going into a world which is hounded, obsessed with so much violence, often so much despair. When you enter this world and you say the world is not good today, good! Correct it! Featured image via Facebook | 0 |
2,693 | Macron taps author Slimani as French language emissary | PARIS (Reuters) - President Emmanuel Macron on Monday named award-winning author Leila Slimani as France s top emissary for promoting the use of the French language. The appointment of the 36-year old Franco-Moroccan writer as emissary for Francophone affairs follows Macron s decision to name a TV presenter and well-known ecologist as environment minister and an Olympic fencer as sports minister, opening up government to civil society. Slimani was propelled into the limelight when she won the prestigious Prix Goncourt last year for her novel Chanson Douce , which translates as lullaby. This year, she published a book about sexuality in Morocco. The Francophone affairs brief has in the past been a ministerial post or a junior minister position, and had often been occupied by career politicians. Macron, whose upstart centrist party trounced France s traditional political forces in an election earlier this year, has named a series of newcomers to his government. Nicolas Hulot was appointed energy and environment minister, while Laura Flessel-Colovic, an Olympic gold medalist, is minister for sports. | 1 |
2,694 | Spain hopes Catalans disregard instruction from regional leaders: minister | LONDON (Reuters) - Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis said on Sunday he hoped that people in Catalonia would disregard any instruction from the regional leadership if Spain moves to suspend the region s autonomy. All the government is trying to do, and reluctantly, is to reinstate the legal order, to restore the constitution but also the Catalan rules and proceed from there, he told the BBC s Andrew Marr Show. We are going to establish the authorities who are going to rule the day-to-day affairs of Catalonia according to the Catalan laws and norms ... I hope everyone will disregard whatever instructions they will be planning to give because they will not have the legal authority to do that. | 1 |
2,695 | Boiler Room #104 – War Sells… But Who’s Buying | Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room tonight 6:00 PM PST | 8:00 PM CST | 9:00 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for bar fly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher and Spore along with Jay Dyer of Jays Analysis, Patrick Henningsen of 21WIRE, Infidel Pharaoh (ACR contributor) and Andy Nowicki, author of Conspiracy, Compliance, Control & Defiance, for the hundred and fourth episode of BOILER ROOM. Turn it up, tune in and hang with the ACR Brain-Trust for this weeks boil downs and analysis and the usual gnashing of the teeth of the political animals in the social reject club. We re breaking down the developments in Syria and the Trump approval of military strikes in Syria.Listen to Boiler Room EP #104 War Sells But Who s Buying on Spreaker.Direct Download Episode #104Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved!Reference Links: | 0 |
2,696 | Trump taps retired general, TV analyst for NSC posts | (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced two appointments to the National Security Council on Thursday: retired Army Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg as chief of staff and executive secretary, and former Fox News Channel analyst Monica Crowley as senior director of strategic communications. Kellogg served in the Vietnam War and has worked in the private sector since retiring from the Army in 2003, said a statement by Trump’s transition team. The statement said Crowley is a foreign affairs and political analyst for the Fox News Channel, but a Fox News spokeswoman said Crowley’s contract had been terminated. The two will serve under Michael Flynn, a retired general Trump earlier named as his national security adviser. | 1 |
2,697 | Trump issues first public condemnation of anti-Semitic incidents | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump delivered his first public condemnation of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States on Tuesday after a new spate of bomb threats to Jewish community centers around the country and vandalism in a Jewish cemetery. Several of the centers were evacuated for a time on Monday after receiving the threats, the JCC Association of North America said, and another center was evacuated on Tuesday morning in San Diego, California, according to police. Also, vandals toppled about 170 headstones at the Chesed Shel Emeth Society cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri, over the weekend. “The anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish community and community centers are horrible and are painful and a very sad reminder of the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil,” Trump told reporters. He was speaking at the end of a tour of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, which Trump said showed “why we have to fight bigotry, intolerance and hatred in all of its very ugly forms.” The comments marked a change for Trump, who had not explicitly and publicly condemned the threats against Jews when asked last week. Instead, he spoke more generally about his hopes of making the nation less “divided.” The president reacted with anger at a news conference last week when a journalist from a Jewish magazine asked how his government planned to “take care” of a rise in threats. Trump berated the reporter for asking a “very insulting” question, appearing to believe the reporter was accusing him of being anti-Semitic. “Number one, I am the least anti-Semitic person that you’ve ever seen in your entire life,” the president said, adding that he was also the least racist person. Trump has often noted that one of his daughters is a convert to Judaism, he has Jewish grandchildren and he employs many Jews in his business. Trump’s daughter Ivanka, a close adviser to her father who practices Orthodox Judaism, responded to the latest threats in a message on her Twitter account on Monday evening. “America is a nation built on the principle of religious tolerance,” she said. “We must protect our houses of worship & religious centers.” On Tuesday, Trump again declined to answer a question about what action he would take to address the threats to Jewish organizations. Sean Spicer, a White House spokesman, said later that Trump would respond through “deed and action” over the coming months and years. ‘BAND-AID’ Trump’s derogatory campaign rhetoric against Muslims and Mexican immigrants won enthusiastic backing from prominent white supremacists who embrace anti-Jewish, anti-black and anti-Muslim ideologies. It also drew greater media attention to fringe extremist groups. Trump has disavowed their support. His chief strategist, Steve Bannon, is the former publisher of Breitbart, a news website popular among right-wing extremist groups. The Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect in New York, which has criticized the Trump administration repeatedly over anti-Semitism, said his comments were too little too late. “The president’s sudden acknowledgement is a Band-Aid on the cancer of anti-Semitism that has infected his own administration,” Steven Goldstein, the group’s executive director, said in a statement. Spicer rejected the characterization. “I wish that they had praised the president for his leadership in this area,” he told reporters when asked about Goldstein’s comment. “Hopefully as time goes by they’ll recognize his commitment to civil rights.” Jewish groups criticized the White House for omitting any mention of Jews in its statement marking Holocaust Memorial Day last month. The White House said the omission was deliberate since the Nazis also killed people who were not Jews, if in smaller numbers. The stated goal of the Nazis was the extermination of Jews. One day after speaking at a security summit in Munich, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence spent Sunday morning walking through the grounds of the Dachau concentration camp in Germany with a camp survivor. Over the course of the U.S. Presidents Day holiday on Monday, bomb threats were sent to 11 Jewish community centers, including ones in the Houston, Chicago and Milwaukee areas, according to the JCC association. They were found to be hoaxes, as was another threat that forced the evacuation of a center in San Diego on Tuesday morning, according to police. No arrests were made. The FBI has said it is investigating recent threats as “possible civil rights violations.” The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a prominent Muslim human rights group, has offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of anyone behind the threats, saying Muslims felt a duty to support any targeted minority group. The incidents on Monday followed three waves of bomb threats so far this year. In all, at least 69 incidents at 54 Jewish community centers in 27 states and one Canadian province have been reported, according to the JCC association. | 1 |
2,698 | Vietnam releases water from brimming reservoirs as APEC summit nears | DANANG, Vietnam (Reuters) - Vietnam released water from seven dangerously full reservoirs on Tuesday to avoid further flooding, after a weekend typhoon killed nearly 90 people. Authorities said particular effort was being made to avoid flooding around the city of Danang, which will host U.S. President Donald Trump, China s Xi Jinping and Russia s Vladimir Putin among Asia-Pacific leaders at a summit this week. Water was being released from seven reservoirs, in line with a flood relief plan, the Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention said, and observers had been posted at major reservoirs to monitor water levels constantly. Typhoon Damrey, which struck on Saturday, was the 12th major storm of the year. Eighty-nine people were known to have died because of the storm, 18 people were missing and 174 people were injured, the search and rescue committee said. As much as 1,700 mm (67 inches) of rain was recorded at one weather station in the week to Monday. Rains are expected to continue until Wednesday before reducing on Thursday. Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings began in Danang on Monday, and Trump, Xi and Putin are due to join other regional leaders at the main summit on Friday and Saturday. The schedule of meetings has not been disrupted by the rain, but the leaders spouses may not be able to make a planned excursion to the UNESCO heritage town of Hoi An on Saturday. Waters in the streets rose to head height at the weekend, although they had subsided somewhat by Tuesday. Because of its long coastline, Vietnam is prone to destructive storms and flooding. Floods killed more than 80 people in northern Vietnam last month, while a typhoon wreaked havoc in central provinces in September. The storm hit a key coffee-growing region of the world s biggest producer of robusta coffee beans near the start of the harvest. But farmers in Daklak, the heart of the region, said the damage was limited. | 1 |
2,699 | IRONY: [VIDEO] FLAG STOMPIN’ RAPPER, LIL WAYNE STARTS FIGHT At “Stop The Violence” Fundraiser | Just another day in the life of a thug rapper Things turned violent at a Stop the Violence charity basketball game Sunday in St. Louis, MO, after rapper Lil Wayne attacked and allegedly tried to spit on a referee, according to TMZ. The entertainment news and gossip site reports Weezy was coaching the Young Money team with little success. He lost his cool on an official after a series of questionable calls in favor of the opposing team, which was led by a man named Loose Cannon Slim, who was also the event s organizer.Wayne allegedly charged at the official and even tried to spit on him before the rapper s team chased the man away in an attempt to calm the situation.Police were reportedly called to the scene, but no arrests were made.WATCH Video here(Watch at the 45 second mark, as the big guy or woman? with a red basketball uniform assaults the referee because they didn t like a call she made):Some proceeds from the charity game went to Put Down the Pistol, an anti-gun-violence program based in St. Louis, TMZ reports.According to the group s website, Put Down the Pistol is an anti-gun violence program created to promote a decrease in gun violence through the use conflict-resolution skills, leadership, and anonymous crime reporting. Via: Breitbart News | 0 |
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