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4,200 | clintons blitzkrieg campaign the savage politics of the oligarchs | shares
prince abdullah alsaud saudi arabias ambassador to the united states was confronted by a reporter from the intercept
will you continue to use cluster weapons in yemen the reporter asked the diplomat
alsaud laughed before answering this is like the question will you stop beating your wife
after the reporter repeated the question the ambassador again dismissed it saying you are political operators im not a politician
speaking at the annual arabus policymakers conference last week alsaud insisted that the saudiled coalition will continue its bombing campaign in yemen the intercept reported
if anyone attacks human lives and disturbs the border in whatever region were going to continue hitting them no matter what said alsaud
human rights watch hrw has accused the saudiled coalition of war crimes following an airstrike on a funeral in yemen on october in that incident at least two airdropped munitions penetrated the roof of a hall containing over mourners during the funeral ceremony of ali alrawishan the father of the sanaabased administrations interior minister jalal alrawishan at least people were killed and wounded
despite calls by us officials to review its support for its middle eastern ally washington continues to sell arms to saudi arabia approving more than billion in military sales in alone hrw reports
according to un data from august this year the saudi intervention in yemen has claimed the lives of at least people including almost civilians the un and hrw have repeatedly accused the saudi military of dropping cluster bombs in yemeni residential areas
recommended for you saudis foil isis terror attacks on packed stadium the saudi interior ministry on sunday announced that four men were arrested over plans to detonate a bomb at the king abdullah sports
by aht staff jaish alfatah leader admits receiving financial military aid from saudi arabia according to the syrian dissidents news website enab muhaysini has released a video recently in which he appreciated riyadh and other a
by aht staff yemeni forces fire ballistic missile deep inside saudi arabia at jeddah airport yemeni soldiers and their allies fired a borkan volcano missile towards king abdulaziz international airport located kilome
by aht staff no one supports defends saudi arabia without taking bribe german chancellor angela merkel | 0 |
4,201 | WATCH: Fox News A-Hole Spends Tax Day Shaming The Poor For Being Poor (VIDEO) | Fox News raging pile of upper one percent garbage, Eric Bolling, decided to use his time on cable news shaming the working poor of America for having the nerve to still be poor over the course of this past tax season.Bolling raged incoherently about how unfair it is that poor people are helped by the government, they don t pay ENOUGH in taxes (yes a Republican is whining that people aren t paying enough taxes but only the poor people of course), and how the rich jackasses like him have to shoulder the burden.He makes a good point, Right? A guy paid millions of dollars a year to sit in a chair for 1 hour a day and be an ass on national tv really has it ROUGH when he has to pay a portion of that in taxes to prevent the bottom 50 percent of the population from starving. I mean, after he pays his terrible 30 percent he only has millions of dollars left to live on. How can he survive this?Bolling went on to cite some statistics that he must have written down while drunk one night because they re so utterly stupid that it defies explanation how a political expert like him would think they sounded remotely accurate. He even went on to complain about the death tax which only affects people who literally have millions of dollars being HANDED to them as an inheritance.Only the wealthiest estates pay the tax because it is levied only on the portion of an estate s value that exceeds a specified exemption level $5.43 million per person (effectively $10.86 million per married couple) in 2015.Source: CBPPThe top rate for it is 18 percent. If you are going to whine about having to pay 20% of a 5 MILLION dollar inheritance (literally free money), you re simply a greedy, terrible person who doesn t appreciate anything.The cherry on the sundae really was when Eric threw a second hissyfit over the fact that President Obama paid less in taxes than he did. He ignored the fact that President Obama doesn t make millions per year as president, unlike Bolling who makes a fortune warming a seat for 1 hour a day.Watch Fox News blame poor people for hurting the rich below:Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
4,202 | Trump To Cut DOJ’s 25 Violence Against Women Grants And Programs | In an effort to slash $10.5 trillion in government spending over the next 10 years, Donald Trump has decided that the first target will be the Department of Justice s 25 grants and programs aimed at implementing the federal Violence Against Women Act. This means that every grant authorized by the law over the last 25 years will be eliminated in their entirety.To put it in perspective, Trump s cuts are double that of the cuts sought by House Speaker Paul Ryan and the Republican House caucus.The Violence Against Women Act, a bipartisan law passed in the early 1990s, has been reauthorized twice and is tasked with protecting, aiding, counseling and saving women from abuse, harassment, intimidation and stalking.Some of the 25 grants offered from the DOJ include:All of those grants will be gone, rendering the programs (and the act overall) moot.The man who loves women is about to defund all the services that protect them from abuse and battery.Let that sink in.The Republican war on women has taken a dramatic and ugly turn, and it s all thanks to Donald Trump.Democrats tried to warn America. It would make sense that a man who routinely calls women bimbos, bitches, and dogs, and brags about sexually groping them, would target the programs that help them when they re most vulnerable.There is no skating around this the incoming administration is vehemently sexist and misogynistic. Republicans in the past, including the Bush Administration, have not leveled the kind of assault on women that the Trump Administration is preparing to do. Again, it should be noted that this is an extreme position to take, one that diverges from even typical GOP standards.Instead of cutting the bloated Defense budget and rolling back fat-cat kickbacks for corporations, they re going to target abused women and children even as domestic violence becomes one of the largest public health crises in America.Hopefully House and Senate Republicans, including the female members, will stand up to these outrageous cuts.More importantly, where s Ivanka Trump? Isn t she supposed to be the new unsung hero of modern day feminism?Women of all stripes and ideologies Republican and Democrat should be outraged. Abuse doesn t pick a political party. Vulnerability doesn t pick a political party. And a political party (or administration) should not be making life harder for those in need.Featured image by Spencer Platt via Getty Images | 0 |
4,203 | BRILLIANT! President Trump Offers Congress Hard-Line Deal On Immigration…Shines Spotlight On Democrats’ Agenda To Put Votes Before American Citizens | AP President Donald Trump has told congressional leaders that his hard-line immigration priorities must be enacted in exchange for extending protection from deportation to hundreds of thousands of young immigrants, many of whom were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.Trump s list of demands included overhauling the country s green-card system, a crackdown on unaccompanied minors entering the country, and building his promised wall along the southern border.Many were policies Democrats have said explicitly are off the table and threaten to derail ongoing negotiations over legislation protecting young immigrants known as Dreamers. They had been given a reprieve from deportation and the ability to work legally in the country under President Barack Obama s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, which Trump ended last month.In a letter to House and Senate leaders released by the White House Sunday, Trump said the priorities were the product of a a bottom-up review of all immigration policies that he had ordered to determine what legislative reforms are essential for America s economic and national security. These findings outline reforms that must be included as part of any legislation addressing the status of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, he wrote, adding that: Without these reforms, illegal immigration and chain migration, which severely and unfairly burden American workers and taxpayers, will continue without end. Trump announced last month that he was ending the DACA program, but he gave Congress six months to come up with a legislative fix before recipients began to lose their status. Trump suggested at the time that he was eager for a deal, telling reporters, I have a love for these people and hopefully now Congress will be able to help them and do it properly. He d also tweeted that if Congress was unwilling to find a fix, he would revisit this issue! in six months. Congress now has 6 months to legalize DACA (something the Obama Administration was unable to do). If they can't, I will revisit this issue! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 6, 2017 | 0 |
4,204 | Factbox: One Planet summit turns to private sector for climate action | PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting dozens of world leaders along with global companies and movie superstars at a summit in Paris to accelerate efforts to combat climate change. The One Planet summit will not announce internationally binding commitments, but is counting on mobilizing money from public and private financial institutions and from corporations. Below are some key pledges made around the summit. * More than 200 institutional investors with $26 trillion in assets under management said they would step up pressure on the world s biggest corporate greenhouse gas emitters to fight climate change. They said that would be more effective than threatening to pull the plug on their investments in such firms. Divestment would only be a last resort. If big emitters refuse to cooperate, shareholders could ratchet up pressure with public statements, resolutions and votes. * The European Commission is looking positively at plans to lower capital requirements for environmentally friendly investments by banks in a bid to boost the green economy and counter climate change. The move could be part of a broader set of measures the European Union plans to present in March to meet the target of cutting carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030, for which it estimates around 180 billion euros ($212.2 billion) in additional low-carbon investments are needed per year. * The World Bank said it will no longer finance upstream oil and gas projects after 2019, apart from certain gas projects in the poorest countries in exceptional circumstances. As a global multilateral development institution, the World Bank said it is continuing to transform its own operations in recognition of a rapidly changing world. * Belgium will issue its first bond for use in financing projects to reduce the country s carbon emissions, following a number of countries that have sold or plan to sell green bonds . Poland became the first a year ago, followed by France with a 7 billion euro issue in January. Belgium plans to sell 3 to 5 billion euros ($3.5-6 billion) in the first quarter of 2018. * Dutch bank ING (INGA.AS) said that by end 2025 it will stop funding any utility that relies on coal for more than 5 percent of its energy. It will support new clients whose reliance on coal is less than 10 percent as long as they have a strategy in place to cut that to close to zero by 2025. ING also will phase out lending to individual coal-fired power plants by then. * French insurer AXA (AXAF.PA) will quadruple investments in environmentally friendly projects, adding 9 billion euros ($10.6 billion) by 2020, and divest further from the coal industry. Axa will target firms deriving more than 30 percent of their revenue from coal. It also will not insure any new coal mines or oil sands projects, including associated pipeline businesses. * French state-owned power utility EDF (EDF.PA) plans a big push into solar energy in France that is likely to cost around 25 billion euros. EDF aims to build 30 gigawatt of solar capacity by 2035 in response to a government drive for a massive deployment of renewables. * French gas and power utility Engie (ENGIE.PA) is prepared to invest 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) to improve energy efficiency in France over the next five years, its CEO said ahead of the Paris summit. Engie says energy efficiency contracts already make up 700 million euros of its operating income and that this is likely to increase fourfold by 2026. | 1 |
4,205 | Senators urge House to move on aviation security bill | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top members of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee have urged their counterparts in the House of Representatives to move forward on Senate legislation to boost aviation security and authorize the programs of the Federal Aviation Administration. In a May 24 letter released on Wednesday, the senate panel’s Republican chairman, John Thune of South Dakota, and its top Democrat, Bill Nelson of Florida, cautioned House lawmakers that Congress has only six weeks left to approve legislation before a temporary FAA funding patch expires in mid-July. The letter, addressed to House Transportation Chairman Bill Schuster of Pennsylvania and that panel’s top Democrat, Peter DeFazio of Oregon, urged movement on a Senate bill that passed with overwhelming bipartisan support last month. “We believe that this legislation represents a model for House action, which is essential to avoiding another round of funding extensions that will be disruptive to the aviation industry and only delay much-needed reforms,” Thune and Nelson said. House lawmakers have not taken up the Senate bill but have focused instead on their own multi-year measure that stalled due to disagreement over a controversial plan to privatize the U.S. air traffic control system. Aides to Shuster were not available for comment. But DeFazio said he agreed with the senators about the need to move forward. “We could pass comprehensive legislation with broad bipartisan support today if the Republicans drop their divisive scheme to privatize air traffic control,” the Oregon Democrat said in a statement issued by his office. Thune and Nelson described the Senate bill as “the only viable opportunity this year” to deliver comprehensive legislation to President Barack Obama for his signature. They added that the House privatization measure would face hurdles in the Senate even if the House reached agreement. “We understand the commitment to this (privatization) proposal, but the Senate is far from reaching a consensus on this issue,” the senators said. | 1 |
4,206 | Canada data shows 10 percent of Haitian border crossers get refugee status | TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada has granted refugee status to about 10 percent of the 298 Haitian border crossers whose applications have been processed this year, according to government data released on Wednesday. That could bode ill for the 6,000 Haitians still in the refugee queue who illegally crossed the Canada-U.S. border by foot fearing that U.S. President Donald Trump would revoke their Temporary Protected Status. And it may discourage more from illegally crossing into Canada after the U.S. government on Monday said it would end protected status for nearly 60,000 Haitians living in the United States in July 2019. Of the 298 Haitian applications processed so far this year, 68 were abandoned by the asylum seekers, which means they did not turn up for their hearings, the data released from the Immigration and Refugee Board showed. Another 62 withdrew their applications, according to the data from the quasi-judicial body whose tribunals determine refugee claims. Montreal-based refugee lawyer Eric Taillefer said he thinks the Haitians who already made the border crossing did not understand Canadian laws on granting asylum. They don t understand the evidence threshold, they don t understand, maybe, the definition of a refugee, he said. The Canadian government has dispatched parliamentarians to talk to U.S. diaspora communities and dispel myths around Canada s immigration and refugee systems. Haiti-born politician Emmanuel Dubourg was in New York City this week. The high rates of abandoned claims could be because asylum seekers had trouble navigating the system and were not aware they needed to show up at a hearing, Taillefer said. Haitians are among some 17,000 asylum seekers who have walked across the border into Canada so far this year. Border crossers from other countries fared better, with 46 percent of Nigerian claims accepted, and 94 percent of Turkish people and 88 percent of Syrians approved. The stream of people crossing the border has eased since August, when there were hundreds each day, but Canadian authorities are planning for more people in the winter months. The federal government is paying a Quebec company C$1.2 million to set up heated trailers to accommodate up to 200 people at a temporary encampment where asylum seekers have been staying while they await processing by the Canada Border Services Agency. | 1 |
4,207 | Czech president's spokesman likens EU to Third Reich in outburst over spirit ingredient | PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Czech president s spokesman likened the European Union to the Third Reich of Adolf Hitler on Thursday while criticizing the bloc s executive over a regulation on food safety. Jiri Ovcacek made the comment while citing the case of an ingredient in a Czech potato-based alcohol locally known as rum that cannot be labeled that way due to an EU ban which says the term must be reserved for cane-based spirits. The EU s food watchdog, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), has ruled that the ingredient, called rum-ether, should be discontinued and replaced gradually from April 2018 on the grounds that it contains a material that can damage body cells. Ovcacek shared an article from a Czech news website on his Facebook page on the issue, adding the comment: The Empire has decided that there will be no tuzemak (Czech rum) to drink in the protectorate. Empire in the Czech context is often understood to refer to Hitler s Third Reich, while the protectorate is what the country was called by the Nazi regime during World War Two. When asked about the comment, Ovcacek said his words were warranted because such actions by some in the EU damaged its reputation. It points to the absolute insensibility of the European Commission, Ovcacek said. Ovcacek s comments have led to controversy before, such as his outbursts against Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and some of his ministers, and even against the Czech media. Czech President Milos Zeman has portrayed himself as a Europhile and fan of a federal EU. But he has also expressed pro-Russian and anti-immigration views and built up relations with China, in contrast to the pro-Western and human rights-based style of Czech foreign policy established by the late President Vaclav Havel. | 1 |
4,208 | Faced with Trump and Clinton, Americans yearn for third choice: Reuters/Ipsos poll | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Americans’ demand for an alternative to the two main presidential candidates has surged since the last election, a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll shows, underscoring the unpopularity of Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton. Based on 2,153 interviews, Friday’s poll results suggest a strong potential for a third-party candidate - like Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party or Jill Stein of the Green Party - to take enough of the vote in the Nov. 8 presidential election to influence its outcome. According to the July 1-8 poll, 21 percent of likely voters will not back Trump or Clinton. That compares with about 13 percent of likely voters who opted out of the two main choices at the same point in the 2012 race between incumbent President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney. The poll also showed a majority of American voters have an overall “unfavorable” view of both main candidates, with 46 percent of Clinton supporters and 47 percent of Trump supporters saying their top priority when voting will be to stop the opposing candidate from reaching the White House. Demand for an alternative could be decisive in hotly contested battleground states. In Florida in 2012, for instance, Obama won by less than 1 percentage point. If this year’s race is just as tight, third-party candidates could draw enough support to flip the state from one major party to the other. Despite this, both Johnson and Stein have a problem that make their influence hard to predict - most voters still do not know who they are. Of likely voters, 23 percent say they are at least “somewhat familiar” with Johnson, a former governor of New Mexico. That drops to 16 percent for Stein, a physician. Johnson could appeal to both liberals and conservatives. He wants to legalize marijuana and replace income and payroll taxes with a consumption tax. Stein could make a strong bid to backers of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who ran a close race with Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. Stein wants to abolish student debt and raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. She also aims for the country to run on renewable energy by 2030. Stein’s communications coordinator, David Doonan, said that the campaign is working to boost her numbers and that the Green Party is circulating a letter that directly appeals to people who supported Sanders. “He also started very low” in the polls, Doonan said. So far it appears that Johnson and Stein draw support evenly from Clinton and Trump when they are included in opinion polls. In a four-way race, 45 percent of likely voters support Clinton, 34 percent Trump, 5 percent Johnson and 4 percent Stein, according to a separate five-day polling average on July 8. That compares with 46 percent for Clinton and 33 percent for Trump in a two-way race. Given a little more information about the two alternative candidates, respondents who back Johnson and Stein draw more deeply from Clinton’s support. Some 44 percent of likely voters support Clinton, 34 percent Trump, 7 percent Johnson and 5 percent Stein, after reading the following statement, according to the poll: “Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate for President, has taken an environmental position supporting a strong government role limiting carbon-based fuels, such as coal. Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate for President, has supported severely limiting the government’s role, including slashing taxes and reducing programs such as Medicare and the military and broadly decriminalizing currently illegal drugs.” The Reuters/Ipsos poll is conducted online in English with American adults in the continental United States, Alaska and Hawaii. The survey of voters who want an alternative to Trump and Clinton included 2,153 likely voters and has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 2 percentage points. The five-day average poll that ended July 8 included about 1,240 likely voters and has a credibility interval of 3 percentage points. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ U.S. Presidential Election 2016 cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=us-2016 GRAPHIC: Race to the White House tmsnrt.rs/1Tr5O3e Tales from the Trail blog here Reuters election newsletter here Poll: Your vote for president (Clinton-Trump-Johnson-Stein) polling.reuters.com/#poll/TM651Y15_26/filters/LIKELY:1 Poll: Your vote for president (Clinton-Trump) polling.reuters.com/#!poll/TM651Y15_13/filters/LIKELY:1/type/smallest/dates/20160601-20160708/collapsed/true/spotlight/1 Poll: Your vote for president (Clinton-Trump-Johnson-Stein-No.2) polling.reuters.com/#poll/TM952Y16/filters/LIKELY:1 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> | 1 |
4,209 | Sanders hits Clinton on campaign finance hours before New York votes | NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders accused front-runner Hillary Clinton of apparent campaign finance violations on Monday, ratcheting up the rhetoric against his rival one day before New York state’s crucial primary elections. Sanders questioned whether Clinton’s campaign violated legal limits on donations by paying her staffers with funds from a joint fundraising effort by Clinton and the Democratic National Committee, or DNC. Sanders has long maintained that the DNC has favored Clinton over Sanders. The U.S. senator from Vermont is a democratic socialist who has run as an independent in his Senate campaigns. “While the use of joint fundraising agreements has existed for some time - it is unprecedented for the DNC to allow a joint committee to be exploited to the benefit of one candidate in the midst of a contested nominating contest,” Sanders’ campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, said. The Clinton campaign dismissed the charge, with chairman Robby Mook saying Sanders was making baseless accusations. “It is shameful that Senator Sanders has resorted to irresponsible and misleading attacks just to raise money for himself,” Mook said. The accusations surfaced as the Democratic and Republican candidates engaged in a final frenzy of campaigning before Tuesday’s primaries. Both the Democratic and Republican primaries are expected to be the state’s most decisive in decades in the selection of the parties’ candidates for November’s general election. Former U.S. Secretary of State Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, the national front-runners, were favored to win their respective primaries in the state that both call home. Victories would be a tonic for both candidates following a series of losses. In recent weeks, Sanders has defeated Clinton in nominating contests. On the Republican side, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Trump’s closest challenger, has outmaneuvered the billionaire businessman in the fight for delegates to the Republican National Convention that will pick the party’s nominee in July. By the end of Monday - the last official day of campaigning before the New York primaries - tens of thousands of New Yorkers will have heard the candidates’ closing pitches. At St. John’s Riverside Hospital in Yonkers just north of New York City, Clinton spoke to doctors, nurses and others at a hospital cafeteria, asking for their votes and taking a jab at Cruz’s dismissal earlier in the campaign of “New York values.” “I think New York’s values are America’s values,” she told the crowd. Cruz defended his “New York values” catchphrase on ABC’s “Good Morning America” in Times Square on Monday, saying New Yorkers had “suffered under the left-wing Democratic policies” of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo. Sanders needs a strong victory in New York, where 291 delegates to the Democratic convention in July are at stake, if he is to overtake Clinton. With 2,383 delegates needed to secure the Democratic nomination, Clinton has 1,758 to Sanders’ 1,076, according to an Associated Press tally. That total includes unpledged superdelegates who are free to back the candidate of their choice but told the news service whom they support. For Trump, the question is whether he will make a clean sweep of all 95 Republican delegates at stake by earning the majority of votes in all 27 congressional districts in the state. Total victory in New York would help Trump avoid the possibility that the nomination could be wrested from him at the party’s July 18-21 convention in Cleveland if he arrives without a majority of at least 1,237 delegates. In that scenario, another candidate could win on a second or subsequent ballot. Trump has 744 delegates to 559 for Cruz and 144 for Ohio Governor John Kasich, according to the Associated Press. The count includes endorsements from several delegates who are free to support the candidate of their choice. In Wyoming, in the latest state-by-state delegate battle, Cruz was awarded all 14 delegates, according to a party official on Saturday. “Lyin’ Ted Cruz can’t win with the voters so he has to sell himself to the bosses-I am millions of VOTES ahead! Hillary would destroy him & K,” Trump tweeted on Monday. On ABC, Cruz responded by saying that Trump was throwing a fit because he has lost several recent state contests. “The stakes are too high to hand the election to Hillary Clinton, which is what nominating Donald Trump” would do, he said. | 1 |
4,210 | TOM DELAY DROPS A BOMB On What FBI Sources Say About Clinton E-mail Scandal [Video] | One way or another, she s going to have to face these charges Former Republican Congressman Tom Delay Note that Tom Delay says the FBI is ready to indict . The FBI cannot indict but the DOJ can indict. If the DOJ chooses not to indict, Hillary will be tried in the court of public opinion. This will be an interesting test for DOJ Director Loretta Lynch. The revelation that the Clinton team took highly classified e-mails and copy and pasted them is a big bombshell in itself. Just a bunch of amateurs on this team | 0 |
4,211 | Melania Trump BUSTED Committing Perjury – Lied About Having College Degree While Under Oath | Melania Trump has proved over the past year that she is just as dishonest as her husband. Now it appears that she committed perjury by lying under oath about her nonexistent college degree.Shortly after she was busted plagiarizing her speech at the Republican National Convention, stealing an entire paragraph from Michelle Obama, it came to light that she was also full of sh*t when she claimed that she had graduated from the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia with a degree in architecture. In truth, Melania dropped out after her freshman year when she moved to the United States to pursue her modeling career, possibly under a visa that was less than legal. When the blatant lie surfaced, her website promptly pulled her bio.But now, it looks like she didn t just lie to the general public about having a degree, she also lied in court while testifying under oath, which happens to make her guilty of committing perjury.According to a report by Racked.com, the case involved her caviar skincare line, which never made it off the ground. The line was promoted on Good Morning America, her husband s show The Apprentice and on CNBC. But when all was said and done, the skin care products never became a reality. The contract for the line was trashed when Steve Hilbert, who was a personal friend, was fired from the cosmetic company she was working with, New Sunshine LLC.The situation eventually resulted in a lawsuit and Melania was asked to testify in court. She told the judge how angry and frustrated she was that she had worked so hard to promote the product line that the company ultimately never launched. And here s where it gets interesting.The attorney asked Melania various questions about her personal background and according to the transcripts, she was less than truthful. Where were you born, Mrs. Trump? the attorney asked. I was born in Slovenia, she answered. Would you please explain to the Judge your formal education including what schools you attended and from which you graduated? the attorney requested. I attended and graduated from design school, from fashion and Industrial Design School and also attended, graduated from architecture degree, bachelor degree, she testified under oath.Court transcripts of Melania Trump s testimony via Racked.com screen shot.As already established, this is a boldfaced lie because she dropped out after attending classes for only one year.Perjury is a criminal offense that is not to be taken lightly. Being convicted of perjury in a federal case can land you behind bars for up to five years and get you slapped with hefty fines. Perjury in state cases is punishable by a minimum of a year in jail. Republicans certainly can t stop screaming perjury when it comes to Hillary Clinton, but surely this fickle bunch will have no trouble ignoring it altogether in Melania s case.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images | 0 |
4,212 | Clinton tells FBI she could not recall all briefings on preserving documents | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton, under questioning by federal investigators over whether she had been briefed on how to preserve government records as she was about to leave the State Department, said she had suffered a concussion, was working part-time and could not recall every briefing she received. Clinton, the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, raised the health scare during her 3-1/2-hour interview with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Justice Department prosecutors on July 2, according to an FBI summary released on Friday. Besides the 11-page interview summary, the FBI also released other details of its investigation into her use of an unauthorized private email system while running the State Department, in which it concluded she mishandled classified information but not in a way that warranted a criminal prosecution. Clinton told investigators she could not recall getting any briefings on how to handle classified information or comply with laws governing the preservation of federal records, the summary of her interview shows. “However, in December of 2012, Clinton suffered a concussion and then around the New Year had a blood clot,” the FBI’s summary said. “Based on her doctor’s advice, she could only work at State for a few hours a day and could not recall every briefing she received.” A Clinton campaign aide said Clinton only referenced her concussion to explain she was not at work but for a few hours a day at that time, not that she did not remember things from that period. The concussion was widely reported then, and Republicans have since used it to attack the 68-year-old candidate’s health in a way her staff have said is unfounded. The FBI report, which does not quote Clinton directly, is ambiguous about whether it was her concussion that affected her ability to recall briefings. The FBI declined to provide further comment on the report. Clinton, who is challenging Republican Donald Trump for the White House in the Nov. 8 election, has been dogged for more than a year by the fallout from her decision to use an unauthorized private email account run from the basement of her Chappaqua, New York, home. Republicans have repeatedly attacked Clinton over the issue, helping drive opinion polls that show many U.S. voters doubt her trustworthiness. Trump’s campaign issued a statement immediately following the FBI report’s release saying the notes from the interview “reinforce her tremendously bad judgment and dishonesty.” Clinton has said that in hindsight she regretted using a private email system while secretary of state. According to the report, Clinton told the FBI that she did not set up a private email server to sidestep the law requiring her to keep her business communications a matter of public record. At least one federal judge is examining whether this was the case as part of a lawsuit against the State Department concerning public access to Clinton’s government records, which the U.S. government said it had no access to in response to requests from members of the public. The documents also show that Clinton contacted former Secretary of State Colin Powell in 2009 to ask about his use of a personal BlackBerry phone. In his reply to Clinton via email, Powell told Clinton to “be very careful” because the work-related emails she sent on her BlackBerry could become public record. “I got around it all by not saying much and not using systems that captured the data,” Powell said, according to the summary. After her use of a private email system became public knowledge in March 2015, Clinton repeatedly said she did not use it to send or receive classified information. The government forbids handling such information outside secure channels. The FBI has since concluded Clinton was wrong to say that: At least 81 email threads contained information that was classified at the time, although the final number may be more than 2,000, the report said. Some of the emails appear to include discussion of planned future attacks by unmanned U.S. military drones, the FBI report showed. “CLINTON believed the classification level of future drone strikes depended on the context,” the FBI’s interview summary said. The U.S. government requires that military plans be classified. The FBI released its report on Friday afternoon before the Labor Day holiday weekend, a time many Americans are preparing to travel. State Department spokesman John Kirby said he would not comment on the FBI’s findings because the department “does not have full insight into the FBI’s investigation.” He declined to say whether State Department officials still discussed the planning of future attacks using drones in unclassified emails. “I’m not going to speak to past email practices,” he said. “We trust State Department employees to use their best judgment when conveying sensitive information, taking into account a range of factors.” The Clinton campaign released a statement welcoming the report’s release. “While her use of a single email account was clearly a mistake and she has taken responsibility for it, these materials make clear why the Justice Department believed there was no basis to move forward with this case,” Brian Fallon, a campaign spokesman, said in a statement. Some Republicans saw the files as confirming their belief that the Department of Justice should have prosecuted Clinton. “These documents demonstrate Hillary Clinton’s reckless and downright dangerous handling of classified information during her tenure as secretary of state,” Paul Ryan, the Republican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, said in a statement. “This is exactly why I have called for her to be denied access to classified information.” | 1 |
4,213 | Hungary not planning to move Israeli embassy to Jerusalem: PM | BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary is not planning to move its Israeli Embassy to Jerusalem, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Monday, adding that the government s Middle East policy was unchanged. This (option) has not come up, Orban told reporters in response to a question in parliament according to an audio recording of his remarks published on the website of private broadcaster HirTV. Hungary sees no reason to change its Middle East policy, Orban said. We will continue with the balanced politics we have been pursuing. He did not elaborate. On Friday Hungary blocked a statement planned by all EU 28 governments in response to Trump s announcement and the Foreign Ministry said Hungary was in favor of a negotiated solution in the Middle East. | 1 |
4,214 | no title | same people all the time i dont know how you can fix this corruption httpwwwfromthewildernesscomfreeww___krongardhtml | 0 |
4,215 | White House vows quick action as Harvey aid estimates soar | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Estimates of the size of a Hurricane Harvey aid package for Texas and Louisiana rose on Thursday, with one proposal being drafted for $150 billion, while the White House promised to make a request for funding soon to Congress. The Trump administration will make a request to the U.S. Congress shortly for funds to help recovery efforts from Harvey, which caused devastating flooding, White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert said. He told reporters that an aid funding request will likely come in stages as more is known about the storm’s impact. Trump has prepared a request to Congress for an initial $5.9 billion in aid, an administration official said. U.S. taxpayers are likely to face a bill for Harvey near the $110.2 billion for 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. Estimates on the amount of the Harvey aid varied widely. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat from Houston, was crafting legislation for $150 billion in emergency funding through nearly two-dozen government agencies and departments. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on Wednesday the state could need more than $125 billion. Figures of $50 billion to $80 billion were cited by Republican Representatives Pete Sessions of Texas and Leonard Lance of New Jersey on Fox Business Network. The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund had only $3.3 billion when the storm struck. A Republican leadership source said Congress was expected to consider and vote on an initial allocation of Harvey aid in the first half of September. The urgency of aiding areas hit by Harvey may also complicate a broader fiscal policy showdown that is coming in late September. When Harvey plowed into the Texas coast this week, Congress and President Donald Trump were already struggling to deal with the debt ceiling, which is a cap on how much money the federal government can borrow, and the need to approve a temporary federal budget bill by Oct. 1 to prevent a government shutdown. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told broadcaster CNBC on Thursday that the impact of Hurricane Harvey spending could bring forward the deadline by which the nation’s debt ceiling needs to be raised by “a couple of days.” He repeated that the limit needs to be raised by Sept. 29 Financial markets have been anxious about the possibility of the debt ceiling not being raised, which could cause a U.S. credit default and send economic shockwaves worldwide. A Trump administration official and a prominent House of Representatives conservative both said on Thursday that hurricane aid funding should not be tied to the debt limit. Bossert said the administration wants a “clean” disaster relief supplemental measure, free of unrelated measures, including any effort to raise the federal debt ceiling. Representative Mark Meadows, the Republican chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told the Washington Post that attaching Harvey aid to a debt-ceiling increase would be a “terrible idea ... conflating two very different issues.” Meadows told the Post, “We’re going to fund Harvey relief without a doubt, but I think it just sends the wrong message when you start attaching it to the debt ceiling.” That left open the possibility that the aid package could be linked to a broad, short-term budget measure that must pass by Oct. 1 to prevent a government shutdown. The prospect of that linkage was seen as making a government shutdown less likely because of the urgency of getting aid to hurricane-hit areas, and that has been reassuring to financial markets. Asked if there was still a chance of a shutdown, House tax committee Chairman Kevin Brady told Fox News Channel on Thursday, “We are going to keep this government open, we are going to pay our debts on time.” | 1 |
4,216 | Hillary Clinton says her family's foundation is looking for partners | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said on Friday the Clinton Foundation was seeking other organizations to partner with as it looks to wind down some of its charitable work, but defended her work as secretary of state as independent from her family’s foundation. Clinton has come under fire in recent days amid questions over the charity and its donors given her role heading the State Department from 2009 to early 2013. Critics have accused her of running a “pay-for-play” operation, a charge she and the foundation have denied. Even some supporters have said Clinton faces a perception problem over the issue. “I know the foundation is looking for partners, but that’s going to take some time to carry out,” Clinton said in an interview on MSNBC. “Winding down some of these programs takes time. You don’t just turn on and off ... a switch. Even trying to negotiate with partner groups takes a lot of serious effort.” “My work as secretary of state was not influenced by any outside forces. I made policy decisions based on what I thought was right to keep Americans safe and to protect our interests abroad. I believe my aides also acted appropriately,” she said. Several media editorial boards this week noted the foundation’s philanthropic efforts in areas such as global health and HIV/AIDS, but urged the foundation - formally called the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation - to transfer the work to other large U.S. charities. Former President Bill Clinton, who helped establish the global charity after serving two terms in the White House, would resign from the board if his wife wins the Nov. 8 election, the foundation announced last week. It also said it would stop accepting some foreign and corporate donations. Hillary Clinton’s Republican rival for the White House, Donald Trump, and other Republicans have called for a special prosecutor to probe the charity for possible corruption, an accusation her campaign has called a groundless political smear. | 1 |
4,217 | WAKE UP! GEORGE SOROS “Drastically Ramps Up” Effort To Destroy America | George Soros is trying his best to destroy America! He is ramping up his efforts now! James Woods said it best when he tweeted that Soros would be happy with what happened in Charlottesville: Attorney General Jeff Sessions released a statement that there would be an investigation into what happened in Charlottesville. We re hoping Sessions digs deep! If AG Jeff Sessions doesn t dig deep ASAP to uncover Soros involvement in Antifa and BLM, then this Soros-funded war will continue. We need a fighter to win the battle against this evil Hungarian globalist!Liberal billionaire George Soros s advocacy arm is ramping up its lobbying efforts this year, disclosure forms show.SOROS WANTS OPEN BORDERS AND GLOBALISM:The amount Soros spent on lobbying shot up to $11 million in 2013, a drastic increase from the $3.4 million the group had spent in 2012. The uptick could be attributed to the group s push for comprehensive immigration reform during this time.The Open Society Policy Center, a D.C.-based nonprofit that focuses on advocacy efforts and is a separate entity from the Soros grant making Open Society Foundations, has spent nearly as much on lobbying in the first half of 2017 as the group did in the entirety of 2016.The Open Society Policy Center reported spending $4.6 million in the first and second quarters, which runs from Jan. 1 to June 30, according its disclosure forms filed to the House of Representatives and the Senate.THREE IN-HOUSE LOBBYISTS? The group has three in-house lobbyists who lobby the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, National Security Council, the Department of Defense, and the Department of State.Soros even tried to influence the decision of the Supreme court on immigration according to The Daily Caller:Open Society Foundations, Hungarian-born billionaire George Soros stated vehicle for progressive social change, orchestrated a well-funded attempt to secure a desired outcome in a U.S. Supreme Court case on illegal immigration enforcement, according to a newly discovered memo between the organization s top U.S. officials and board members.Soros drastically extended the policy scope of his lobbying efforts as the year progressed, including to issues that have been seen as a direct strike against the Hungarian-born billionaire.IF HUNGARY (SOROS HOME COUNTRY) CAN TRY AND BAN HIS GOV T INTERFERENCE, WHY CAN T WE?From January to March, Soros s group lobbied on three issues. From April to June, the group lobbied 17 different issues, including the Bill on Foreign Funded Organizations in Hungary (LexNGo), Hungary s crack down on foreign-funded organizations in the country.Hungary s parliament approved the law that targets foreign-funded organizations in June, which they have said can threaten the country s political and economic interests and interfere with the functioning of its institutions, according to text of the law.Although the law does not mention Soros by name, politicians in Hungary previously said they wanted to sweep out organizations tied to Soros.Soros s Open Society Foundations has given money to a number of prominent NGOs in Hungary. The group has said that the country s bill seeks to suppress democratic voices in Hungary. The lobbyists also worked on issues such as the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017 and the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2018, among others.Soros s lobbying efforts have quietly skyrocketed in recent years.The policy center reported spending $19,120,000 on lobbying for policy and legislative efforts with Congress and government agencies between 2002 and 2012, which averages out to $1.9 million per year.WE HAD A PUPPET MASTER PULLING THE STRINGS IN THE WHITE HOUSE FOR 8 YEARS! IT S TIME FOR THIS TO STOP! READ MORE: WFB | 0 |
4,218 | Democrats enlist experts to scour Tillerson's business record | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democrats plan to enlist accountants and legal experts to pore through the business records of Exxon Mobil Chief Executive Rex Tillerson, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state, Democratic aides said. Tillerson could face a rocky confirmation process, given concerns among both Democrats and Republicans about his ties to Russia. If Tillerson can overcome the skepticism of Republicans, he could win confirmation since their party will control a slim majority in the Senate when Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Democrats’ misgivings about Tillerson go well beyond the worry that he might be too accommodating toward Moscow. They see risks of conflicts if the head of the $380 billion oil giant becomes the nation’s top diplomat and they want to ensure that his personal wealth and business interests get close scrutiny. Aides said Democrats began assembling experts to prepare for Tillerson’s confirmation even before his nomination was formally announced on Tuesday. “We will bring in people who have been through confirmation battles before,” a Democratic leadership aide said. “We want to have a very thorough review. We are very comfortable with this process taking as long as it needs.” In many ways, Exxon operates its own kind of diplomatic corps, dispatching executives to network with government officials in the more than 40 countries in which the company operates. “The scale and the reach of Exxon Mobil ... does raise some questions about those relationships and how his experience at the helm of Exxon Mobil will influence his decision-making as secretary,” said Democratic Senator Chris Coons, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which will hold Tillerson’s confirmation hearing next month. Tillerson, 64, is on the New York Times’ list of the 200 highest-paid CEOs, having earned some $24.3 million in 2016. He has a net worth of $150 million, plus a $70 million pension plan. He would likely need to divest his holdings of Exxon stock. Democrats are also consulting with foreign affairs experts as they examine his relationships with countries such as Russia. Tillerson opposed sanctions imposed on Russia after its annexation of Crimea. He has said they are often ineffective. Exxon has said the sanctions on Russia could cost it hundreds of millions of dollars or more. “We are looking at issues like, will he need to recuse himself from decisions on sanctions?” another Democratic aide said. Exxon has also come under attack for the financial arrangements of its oil production in Chad, where the company’s lawyers are negotiating over a $74 billion fine tied to accusations of royalty underpayment. Exxon also has development rights in Iraq, which is battling Islamic State, and Saudi Arabia, with its controversial record on human rights and complex relationship with U.S. ally Israel and Iran, whose international nuclear agreement signed by President Barack Obama has been harshly criticized by Trump. “Mr. Tillerson has demonstrated he knows the corporate world and can put his shareholders’ interests first, but can he be a respected secretary of state that puts the national security interests of the American people first?” asked Senator Ben Cardin, the ranking Foreign Relations committee Democrat. Tillerson enjoys strong support from Republican leaders, but some party members offered more muted reactions. Marco Rubio, a Republican member of the Foreign Relations panel, who ran against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, said he had “serious concerns” about Tillerson’s nomination. Even critics said, however, they were open to the appointment, if Tillerson gives satisfactory answers during the confirmation process. “There are lots of ways that energy and our energy dependence has influenced our foreign policy over decades, and hopefully he will bring some insights as a result of that experience,” Coons said. “It is not all bad that he’s got 40 years of experience globally in business,” he added. | 1 |
4,219 | WATCH: Cop Caught On Video Body-Slamming 12-Year-Old Girl | A Texas cop is under fire after video surfaced showing him body slamming a 12-year-old girl to the ground. Joshua Kehm is a uniformed police officer working for the San Antonio Independent School District at Rhodes Middle School.The incident happened on March 29, and was captured by a student on her cell phone.In the video, a uniformed officer is seen struggling with a girl, then slamming her to the ground. The officer appears to handcuff the girl before having her stand and leading her away.Gloria Valdez, the 12-year-old girl s mother, told CBS affiliate KENS it was completely uncalled for. Supposedly he was threatened by her that she kicked him, but in the video her legs never went up, Valdez said.Valdez s daughter did not want to go on camera but told KENS that she was having a conversation with another girl when a crowd surrounded them. She said that s when the officer put his hands on her.The mother told a local TV station that the slam was so vicious that her daughter lost consciousness, and doesn t remember being handcuffed by the cop. She also reportedly has bruises from the confrontation.The school district has suspended the officer, and a spokesperson told the TV station, we are not going to tolerate excessive force in our district. The video is the latest in an unsettling series of videos, often recorded by students themselves, showing police officers using what appears to be excessive force to subdue children. The videos, which have often gone viral on YouTube and other social media, have helped to create a backlash against so-called zero tolerance policies that became popular in the early to mid-1990s.At the same time, rather than admit that the videos show a disturbing pattern, some police unions and conservative politicians have supported legislation that criminalizes recording police, rather than assessing the obvious problem of poor police training and behavior.Featured image via YouTube | 0 |
4,220 | Federal judges order North Carolina to redraw legislative districts | WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (Reuters) - A U.S. federal court on Tuesday set a March 15 deadline for North Carolina state lawmakers to redraw legislative districts found to be racially “gerrymandered,” and ordered a new round of elections by next November for the 28 seats at stake. In August, the same special three-judge panel ruled that nine state Senate districts and 19 state House districts, as carved out in a plan adopted by the Republican-controlled legislature in 2011, were unconstitutional. The panel had told North Carolina’s legislature to start revamping its political maps immediately, but left the existing boundaries intact for the Nov. 8 state elections, because of time constraints. “While special elections have costs, those costs pale in comparison to the injury caused by allowing citizens to continue to be represented by legislators elected pursuant to a racial gerrymander,” the panel wrote in its seven-page order on Tuesday. North Carolina has already appealed the August ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has yet to act. Republicans also vowed to appeal Tuesday’s ruling, handed down by two U.S. district judges and one circuit judge. The ruling is a “politically motivated” abuse of judicial authority, said state Senator Bob Rucho and Representative David Lewis, the Republican chairmen of the House and Senate redistricting committees. If upheld, the court order “is a gross overreach that blatantly disregards the constitutional guarantee for voters to duly elect their legislators to biennial terms,” they said. Last year, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice challenged North Carolina’s latest political maps, saying legislative district lines were drawn in 2011 so as to dilute the state’s black vote and give Republicans an advantage. The three-judge panel that heard the case agreed, and Tuesday’s order, essentially an extension of its August opinion, was hailed by the North Carolina Democratic Party. A separate three-judge U.S. court panel ruled in a similar case a week ago that state assembly districts in Wisconsin, as redrawn by its Republican-led legislature, were unconstitutionally gerrymandered. Tuesday’s North Carolina ruling sets a deadline of March 15 for newly elected legislators to approve a redistricting plan that passes constitutional muster. It also requires the state to hold special primary and general elections in the late summer and fall of 2017 to fill those 28 House and Senate seats. Moreover, state lawmakers elected to any of the disputed General Assembly seats in 2016 will serve for just one year, instead of the normal two, the court ruled, a limit set for those elected next fall as well. | 1 |
4,221 | WATCH: Trump Just Told All The Anti-Gay Bigots And Mike Pence To Go F*ck Themselves | A whole lot of evangelical Trump voters just discovered they got duped.By picking Mike Pence as his vice-president, Donald Trump sent a message to the LGBT community that their rights are in jeopardy of being rolled back.In fact, one of the reasons why so many conservative Christians tossed their alleged morality out the window to vote for him was precisely because they believed he would pass a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage or pack the courts with anti-gay bigots to strike down all the rulings in favor of marriage equality.But during his interview on 60 minutes with Leslie Stahl on Sunday night, Trump once again backed off another campaign promise. Do you support marriage equality? Stahl asked Trump. It s irrelevant because it s already settled, Trump replied. It s law. It was settled in the Supreme Court. I mean, it s done. When Stahl pointed out that Trump s Supreme Court nominees could reverse Obergefell v. Hodges, the case that made same-sex marriage constitutional across the nation, Trump made it clear that he believes it s settled. These cases have gone to the Supreme Court, Trump said. They ve been settled. And I m fine with that. Here s the video via Twitter.Donald Trump on marriage equality 60 Minutes pic.twitter.com/ycjm0sY7tv blake (@CultGaga) November 14, 2016This suggests that Donald Trump has no intention of attacking LGBT rights, however, the LGBT community should continue to watch Trump like a hawk.Of course, this is going to especially disappoint Mike Pence, who has been an anti-gay bigot for decades and signed laws in Indiana designed to discriminate against gay people. It s also going to piss off all the evangelicals who voted for Trump with the expectation that he would be a puppet for their hateful agenda.Hopefully, Trump keeps his word, but he s already broken most of the promises he made to his supporters so it s hard to believe that he won t flip-flop again. For now, we can only watch and enjoy as conservative bigots howl in rage.Featured Image: Indiana Talks | 0 |
4,222 | Pressure grows on Hillary Clinton to release Goldman Sachs speeches | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton continued to resist calls to release her transcripts of paid speeches she gave to Goldman Sachs and other banks, saying she would hold onto them until Bernie Sanders and other rivals for the U.S. presidency released theirs. Sanders, her populist rival for the Democratic presidential nomination who has surged in polls with his furious rebukes of Wall Street and its role in the 2008 recession, said on Friday he had none to release because he does not give paid speeches to banks. Clinton’s reluctance to reveal what she privately told banks and other organizations has become an increasingly heated issue ahead of the election this November as she fights suggestions by Sanders and others from their party’s more liberal wing that she is too cozy with the U.S. financial industry. “I am happy to release anything I have whenever everybody else does the same, because everybody in this race, including Senator Sanders, has given speeches to private groups,” she said on Thursday night in a televised ‘town hall’ event with voters in Nevada. Nevada is the third state to vote for the Democratic Party’s nominee in caucuses to be held on Saturday. Clinton has earned more than $20 million for 92 paid speeches since leaving her job as U.S. secretary of state in 2013, according to records disclosed by her campaign, including $675,000 for three closed-door speeches to New York-based investment bank Goldman Sachs. Her husband, Bill Clinton, has earned even more since he stepped down as president in 2001. She says this income has no influence on her policies and that she would increase Wall Street regulation. Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, last gave a paid speech in 2004, according to his Senate financial disclosures, when he spoke about social activism at the California Institute of Technology in an event that was open to the public. He earned $2,000, according to his disclosures. On Friday, Sanders’ spokesman said the senator “accepts Clinton’s challenge.” “He will release all of the transcripts of all of his Wall Street speeches,” Michael Briggs said in a statement. “That’s easy. The fact is, there weren’t any.” Briggs said he hoped this was sufficient for Clinton to release her transcripts. Clinton’s standard speaker’s contract stipulated that the speech’s host make a transcript that would then remain in Clinton’s control. Spokesmen for Clinton and Goldman Sachs did not respond to questions. It remained unclear if Clinton’s Republican rivals would meet her demands. (Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Andrew Hay) 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 |
4,223 | Animal rights activists briefly disrupt Sanders' rally in California | (Reuters) - At least five animal rights activists on Monday rushed the stage as presidential candidate Bernie Sanders spoke at a rally in Oakland, video posted online showed. The protesters were led away by several Secret Service agents before they were able to reach the Democrat, whose speech was briefly interrupted by the disturbance, a video posted by CNN showed. A Secret Service agent rushed to Sanders’ side, grabbed him and wrapped his arms around the presidential candidate during the ruckus. “We don’t get intimidated easily,” said Sanders, as he resumed his speech. Animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere claimed responsibility for the protest, saying in a statement that it hoped to persuade Sanders to take a tough stance against factory farms. “Bernie Sanders claims to support the ‘good’ farms,” activist Rachel Ziegler said in the statement. “But as our repeated investigations have shown, even the ‘good’ farms are horrific.” The organization posted a video online showing at least five protesters being led away by security personnel after they climbed onto the stage. Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, is running far behind Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic nomination for the Nov. 8 presidential election. In March, a man stormed the stage as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump spoke in Vandalia, Ohio before being held by several agents. | 1 |
4,224 | Fire in South Korean fitness center kills 29 | SEOUL (Reuters) - A fire in an eight-storey fitness center in the scenic South Korean city of Jecheon on Thursday killed at least 29 people, most of them as they were taking a sauna, officials said. The blaze began in a car parked on the first floor and spread, one official told Reuters. The local fire station said at least 12 women and three men were known to have died. Thirteen bodies were unrecognizable. The fire station official said most of the victims were found in the sauna, and the main cause of the death was suffocation rather than burns. The casualty toll was likely to rise as efforts to find victims remained in progress, fire station officials said. Heavy smoke charred glass facades of the building as firefighters struggled to extinguish the blaze, some climbing up and down a ladder in desperate search of survivors. Local news channel YTN said President Moon Jae-in voiced deep sorrow for so many deaths while Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon vowed to expedite rescue efforts to try to minimize the number of dead and injured. Jecheon is southeast of the capital Seoul and is popular with visitors to its mountains and lakes. | 1 |
4,225 | Mediation to end Minnesota budget dispute fizzles | CHICAGO (Reuters) - Court-ordered mediation aimed at ending a funding dispute between Minnesota’s Democratic governor and the Republican-controlled legislature ended on Friday with the mediator declaring an impasse. The Minnesota Supreme Court earlier this month ordered the two branches of government to use a mediator to resolve a dispute over Governor Mark Dayton’s veto of funding for the legislature in the fiscal 2018-19 biennial budget. Richard Solum, a retired Minnesota judge who served as the mediator, said in a statement that after a day and a half of talks he concluded the two sides were at an impasse. Dayton’s veto in May touched off a legal battle with the legislature, which claimed the removal of nearly $130 million in funding from the budget was unconstitutional. While a Ramsey County District Court judge sided with the legislature in July, the state Supreme Court on Sept. 8 determined that the governor’s action was constitutional. However, the high court raised concerns over the ability of the legislature to continue to exist without funding. Dayton on Friday reiterated his stance that his veto was aimed at pressuring Republicans to revise tax measures, which he said “will seriously jeopardize Minnesota government’s future financial stability.” He added that mediation revealed the legislature has money available to operate until its new session begins in February. “They owe the Minnesota Supreme Court and the people of Minnesota an honest explanation of why they have dragged all of us into their costly theatrics over the past four months,” Dayton said in a statement. Republican legislative leaders issued a joint statement expressing disappointment that “Governor Dayton walked out and abruptly ended mediation today.” The demise of mediation returns the matter to the Supreme Court for a final ruling, according to Susan Closmore, a spokeswoman for House Republicans. Dayton’s veto raised credit concerns for the state by leaving $80.1 million of certificates of participation issued in 2014 for a Senate office facility without an appropriation for rental and debt payments next due in November and December. After the district court judge ordered the state to temporarily fund the legislature until Oct. 1, S&P on June 30 affirmed Minnesota’s AA-plus rating and removed it from a watch list for a potential downgrade. | 1 |
4,226 | Fabulous 7-Year-Old Protests Transphobia For His Trans Best Friend (IMAGE) | Children are proof that hate is taught and learned. We are not born with prejudice. It is our upbringings that make us hate those unlike ourselves. Case in point a 7-year-old boy and his little sister, who is 5, who are protesting North Carolina s sweeping anti-LGBT legislation, because their best friend, who is transgender, is being directly affected by it. The children s story was so inspiring that it was picked up by the popular Facebook page Have a Gay Day. // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![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')); // ]]>This.Posted by Have A Gay Day on Tuesday, April 5, 2016Their mother, Janna Harris Cadenas, is very proud of her children. She posted to the Have a Gay Day Facebook page:Now that I went through all the posts This is my son in the picture. His name is McCartney, he is 7 years old. He asked me to take him to this rally because his best friend is Transgender and for her privacy and age, she was not able to attend. My son is a beautiful, kind and intelligent soul. He was fully aware of why he was there this day and not only did he know what his sign said, he knew which song it references and can tell you every word of that song and just about any other Beatles song you can throw at him for that matter. That s his dog in the picture behind him. HIS name is Rigby, after the Beatles song. He s our newest rescue and he was proud to be mistaken for a girl all day while my Daughter Starkey Jude was mistaken for a boy. She didn t mind either and knew why she was there as well, she s 5. Guess I got pretty lucky to get the amazing, loving, accepting children I was blessed with. Oh, and they are both vegetarians and go to animal rights protests too. I m pretty sure I m winning at Momming these 2 amazing humans. If you doubt that feel free to ask them their opinions, they will definitely tell you.We need more citizens like Janna Harris Cadenas and her children. The sweep of anti-LGBT legislation across the southeast by bigots in power is nothing short of shameful. These lawmakers need to take a cue from these children, and realize that hate is not the way. It is not a family value or a Christian value, and it is certainly not an American value.You re awesome, Mrs. Cadenas, and thank you and your children for your support of our vulnerable community.Featured image via screen capture from The Gaily Grind | 0 |
4,227 | W. Virginia Clerk Screams ‘Abomination!’ At Newlywed Lesbian Couple Because ‘God Was Standing With Me’ | Proving once again that conservative Christianity is a religion of pure hate, a clerk in West Virginia decided it wasn t enough to process the marriage license of a newlywed lesbian couple, she also had to scream her anti-gay religious beliefs at them:Samantha Brookover and Amanda Abramovich went last week to get married, according to the Charleston Gazette-Mail. The couple had loved ones and cameras in tow.The West Virginia couple said Debbie Allen, the deputy clerk who processed their marriage license, gave them a biblical earful. They say Allen huffed and puffed, slammed things around then yelled at them for two or three minutes about her views that what they were doing was wrong in her eyes and God s.Allow me to be blunt for a second: No one, but no one, gives a flying fuck about your views Ms. Allen. They are as abhorrent and ugly as your soul. Period. Got that? Ok, let s move on.This is the lie at the heart of the right s demands for religious freedom. They don t just want the freedom to practice their religion (which they already have), they want the freedom to impose their religion on everyone around them. They literally feel persecuted because they can t persecute others without consequence.To see this in action, pay attention to what Allen says about her unwanted screed: I just told them my opinion, she told the paper. I just felt led to do that. I believe God was standing with me and that s just my religious belief. When people start to pressure Gilmer County, where Allen is employed, to fire or rebuke the clerk in even the mildest fashion, she is going to squeal about Christian persecution and she ll be the next Fox News warrior in the fight to defend Christian values that aren t actually under assault.But at least she didn t try to deny them their marriage license, so that s a bit of progress, right? Murika. Featured image via TheTab.com | 0 |
4,228 | Trump considering Senator Heitkamp of North Dakota for Cabinet: source | HOUSTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump is considering Democratic U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota for either the interior or energy secretary positions in his Cabinet, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. Trump is also considering Joe Manchin, another conservative Democratic senator who represents the coal state of West Virginia, and Gary Cohn, president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc, for energy secretary, U.S. media reported on Thursday. Reuters previously reported that Trump planned to meet with Heitkamp on Friday, according to his transition team. Trump requested the meeting with Heitkamp, the source said. In a statement, Heitkamp said she appreciated “the president-elect inviting me for a meeting,” adding she hoped to “work with the president-elect and all of my colleagues in Congress on both sides of the aisle to best support my state.” The statement did not address whether a Cabinet position was being discussed, but Heitkamp’s spokeswoman, Abbie McDonough, said the senator “has a long record of working with both Republicans and Democrats.” Heitkamp, along with Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, negotiated a deal in Congress last December to lift the decades-old ban on crude oil exports in exchange for a multi-year extension of tax credits for wind and solar energy. Heitkamp has been a supporter of domestic energy development, both in fossil fuels and renewable resources. North Dakota is a major source of crude oil, coal and wind power. Heitkamp is popular in her home state, though not all North Dakota state politicians voiced full support for the senator potentially joining the Trump administration. “I don’t see (Heitkamp) being in any Cabinet position,” Wayne Stenehjem, a Republican and North Dakota’s attorney general, told Reuters. She was elected to the Senate in 2012 in a close race, putting her up for re-election in two years. Should she join the Cabinet, her Senate seat would be filled by an appointment by North Dakota’s Republican governor. Republicans expect to hold 52 seats in the 100-seat chamber when the new Congress meets in January. Politico, citing unnamed sources, said Manchin was being considered for energy secretary. It quoted one of the sources as saying Manchin “is being considered to show the coal people how serious Trump is about coal.” Politico said Manchin told the website that he and his staff had not been contacted by Trump’s transition team, adding: “If I can do anything that would help my state of West Virginia, and my country, I would be happy to talk to anybody.” Manchin’s office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Manchin is up for re-election in 2018 in West Virginia, an increasingly Republican state where coal jobs have been threatened by cheaper natural gas prices. His 2012 election campaign stressed his opposition to climate change legislation that would have brought federal incentives for the United States to transition to cleaner-burning energy sources and away from fossil fuels such as coal. Reuters had reported on Wednesday that Goldman’s Cohn was being considered to head the White House budget office or another post in the Trump administration. Citing unnamed sources, Fox Business Network reported on Thursday that Trump was also considering nominating Cohn to head the Energy Department. Cohn met with Trump in New York on Tuesday. Cohn, a former Goldman commodities trader who joined the firm in 1990, has been widely considered to be the heir apparent to Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein. Another reported contender for the Energy and Interior positions, Oklahoma oil magnate Harold Hamm, said on Thursday he would recommend that Trump nominate Republican U.S. Representative Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, one of the president-elect’s energy advisers, for energy secretary. “I’ve put his name forward,” Hamm said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” program. “He’d sort of do a better job in that post than me.” | 1 |
4,229 | Republican ex-defense secretary Cohen backs Hillary Clinton | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Republican U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen on Wednesday said he will likely vote for U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election, citing her experience as secretary of state and former first lady. “In all likelihood, I would say yes,” Cohen who served as defense secretary under former U.S. President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, told MSNBC in an interview when asked if she had earned his vote. “I would not feel comfortable,” with Donald Trump, Clinton’s Republican rival and a political novice, having access to the nation’s nuclear codes, Cohen said. “I’d feel more comfortable with Hillary Clinton, certainly,” Cohen told MSNBC. | 1 |
4,230 | CHURCHES OFFER SANCTUARY To Protect Illegal Aliens Ahead Of DHS Raids | The DHS has announced that they ll be raiding places that house illegals and deporting them. This could get ugly and it will only garner sympathy for the illegal aliens who ve broken federal law by crossing our border. Over 10,000 illegal minors came across our border in Sept/Oct which is a record for this time of year. The big question in all of this would have to be why Jeh Johnson s rules for deportation have been so lenient. Because of his leniency, word has gotten back to Central America that you can just surrender to border patrol and you re in. Now we have millions and millions of illegals who re roaming around America and we have no clue who they are. The Sanctuary Movement is taking it upon themselves to bring in and protect illegals while putting Americans in danger. Thousands of criminal illegal aliens were simply released last year. Yes, Obama let them go All Americans are in danger from this open border policy and those in the church community should go to jail for aiding this invasion of our southern border. Leaders of the church-based Sanctuary Movement vowed on Friday to offer their places of worship as refuge for immigrants facing deportation under an Obama administration crackdown on Central American families who entered the United States illegally.The statement came two days after The Washington Post first reported the U.S. government was planning a series of raids to remove hundreds of undocumented families as early as January in the first such large-scale effort targeting the recent flood of border crossers.The Department of Homeland Security preparations to intensify deportations of Central American migrants, confirmed by U.S. government sources, drew immediate fire from Democratic presidential candidates and human rights groups.Leaders of the multi-denominational Sanctuary Movement, which has sheltered at least 10 immigrants from deportation over the past 18 months, joined in the criticism on Friday, alluding to the biblical Nativity story of Mary and Joseph seeking refuge before the birth of Jesus. As pastors we know that each and every family is a holy family, said the Rev. Alison Harrington, pastor of Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Arizona. We open our doors to today s Josephs and Marys. The gift we have to offer on Christmas Day is the gift of sanctuary. The Sanctuary Movement, which Harrington said encompasses about 50 congregations in a dozen U.S. cities, made headlines in January by providing refuge in Philadelphia to a Honduran woman whose two children were born in the United States. She ultimately won a two-year reprieve from deportation.The Rev. Noel Anderson, a coordinator for the affiliated Church World Service, put the overall number of congregations supporting the sanctuary network at about 300 in more than 20 states nationwide.Immigrants from El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua have been streaming into the United States from Mexico by the thousands since early 2014 many of them unaccompanied minors and families fleeing extreme poverty, gangs and drug violence in their home countries.Most were detained after turning themselves in at the border seeking asylum, but were released to surrounding communities after initial screening to await further proceedings.A 2008 U.S. anti-human tracking law bars undocumented Central American children from being summarily sent back, as they could be if they were from Mexico or Canada.Government sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said the new campaign by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency marks an expansion from mostly targeting individuals to pursuing families with undocumented members who have already been ordered to leave.Asked why the agency was singling out families, a spokesperson said the crackdown focused on individuals who pose a threat to national security, public safety and border security, whether alone or with family members. Support for the move came from U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, who said it would help eliminate the incentive that results from allowing 95.6 percent of these illegal immigrants to stay. Harrington said she feared the crackdown will ensnare many who lacked sufficient time or legal representation to prepare asylum claims and were too quickly put through the system. | 0 |
4,231 | NAILS IT! MIKE ROWE On Why Trump Won…Hillary Supporters Won’t Like This! [Video] | This is fantastic! Mike Rowe tells a fan why Trump won nails it! Here is Rowe s post from his Facebook page:Hey Mike. You ve been very quiet. Everything OK? I just wanted you to know that I voted for you. I was also hoping you might explain what the hell happened on Tuesday, and say something to make me feel better about my fellow man. Thanks,Carol SavoyWell, Mike answered Carol and he did so in a very thorough fashion.Hi CarolLast Friday, my dog posted a video that featured a man licking a cat with the aid of a device that s designed for the specific purpose of making it easier for people to lick their cats.I ve been silent ever since, because frankly, I couldn t think of a better way metaphorical or otherwise to express my feelings about this election cycle. The entire country it seems, has been preoccupied with finding a way to lick a cat without actually putting their tongue on it.Too oblique? Too weird? Ok, how about this analysis:Back in 2003, a very unusual TV pilot called Dirty Jobs, Forrest-Gumped its way onto The Discovery Channel and found an audience a big one. For Discovery, this was a problem. You see, Dirty Jobs didn t look like anything else on their channel. It wasn t pretty or careful. It took place in sewers and septic tanks, and featured a subversive host in close contact with his 8-year old inner child who refused to do second takes. Everyone agreed that Dirty Jobs was totally off-brand and completely inappropriate for Discovery. Everyone but the viewers. The ratings were just too big to ignore, so the pilot got a green-light, and yours truly finally got a steady gig.But here s the thing Dirty Jobs didn t resonate because the host was incredibly charming. It wasn t a hit because it was gross, or irreverent, or funny, or silly, or smart, or terribly clever. Dirty Jobs succeeded because it was authentic. It spoke directly and candidly to a big chunk of the country that non-fiction networks had been completely ignoring. In a very simple way, Dirty Jobs said Hey we can see you, to millions of regular people who had started to feel invisible. Ultimately, that s why Dirty Jobs ran for eight seasons. And today, that s also why Donald Trump is the President of the United States.I know people are freaked out, Carol. I get it. I m worried too. But not because of who we elected. We ve survived 44 Presidents, and we ll survive this one too. I m worried because millions of people now seem to believe that Trump supporters are racist, xenophobic, and uneducated misogynists. I m worried because despising our candidates publicly is very different than despising the people who vote for them.For what it s worth, Carol, I don t think Donald Trump won by tapping into America s racist underbelly, and I don t think Hillary lost because she s a woman. I think a majority of people who voted in this election did so in spite of their many misgivings about the character of both candidates. That s why it s very dangerous to argue that Clinton supporters condone lying under oath and obstructing justice. Just as it s equally dangerous to suggest a Trump supporter condones gross generalizations about foreigners and women.These two candidates were the choices we gave ourselves, and each came with a heaping helping of vulgarity and impropriety. Yeah, it was dirty job for sure, but the winner was NOT decided by a racist and craven nation it was decided by millions of disgusted Americans desperate for real change. The people did not want a politician. The people wanted to be seen. Donald Trump convinced those people that he could see them. Hillary Clinton did not.As for me, I m flattered by your support, but grateful that your vote was not enough to push me over the top. However, when the dust settles, and The White House gets a new tenant, I ll make the same offer to President Trump that I did to President Obama to assist as best I can in any attempt to reinvigorate the skilled trades, and shine a light on millions of good jobs that no one seems excited about pursuing.Like those 3 million shovel ready jobs we heard so much about eight years ago, the kind of recovery that Donald Trump is promising will require a workforce that s properly trained and sufficiently enthused about the opportunities at hand. At the moment, we do not have that work force in place. What we do have, are tens of millions of capable people who have simply stopped looking for work, and millions of available jobs that no one aspires to do. That s the skills gap, and it s gotta close. If mikeroweWORKS can help, we re standing by.If not, I suppose we ll just have to find another way to lick the cat.MikeBe sure to check out Mike s Facebook page. | 0 |
4,232 | HYSTERICAL…THE DEMOCRAT CONVENTION Schedule Is Revealed | LOL! You ll want to share this with everyone Democrat Convention ScheduleMonday, 25 July 2016 11:30 AM Free lunch, medical marijuana, and bus ride to the Convention. Forms distributed for Food Stamp enrollment.2:30 PM Group Voter Registration for Undocumented Immigrants.5:00 PM Opening Flag Burning Ceremony Sponsored by CNNTuesday, 26 July 2016 9:00 AM Address on Being the Real You Rachel Dolezal, former Head of the Seattle NAACP10:30 PM How to Bank $200 Million as a public Servant and claim to be broke Hillary Clinton2:00 PM How to have a successful career without ever having a job, and still avoid paying taxes! A Seminar Moderated by Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson5:00 PM Medals of Freedom presentation to Army deserter Bo Berghdal Baltimore Looters Wednesday, 27 July 2016 8:30 AM Invitation-only Autograph Session Souvenir photographs of Hillary and Chelsea dodging Sniper Fire in Bosnia9:00 AM Tribute to All of the 57 States Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi9:30 AM General vote on praising Baltimore rioters, and on using the terminology Alternative Shoppers instead of Looters 11:00 AM The White House Semantics Committee Meeting General vote on re-branding Muslim Terrorism as Random Acts of Islamic Over-Exuberance 1:00 PM Liberal Bias in Media How we can make it work for you Tutorial sponsored by CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, PBS, the Washington Post and the New York Times with Guest Speaker, Brian Williams3:00 PM Tribute Film to the Brave Freedom Fighters still incarcerated at GITMO Michael Moore5:00 PM Personal Finance Seminar Businesses Don t Create Jobs Hillary ClintonThursday, 28 July 2016 9:00 AM Group Condemnation of Bitter Gun Owners.9:30 AM Ceremonial We Surrender Waving of the White Flag to Afghanistan, Russia, and ISIS.10:00 AM Short film, Setting Up Your Own Illegal Email Server While Serving in A Cabinet Post and How to Pretend It s No Big Deal Hosted by Hillary Clinton11:00 AM Announcement of VP Nominee Chris Stevens, with a quick rebuttal and withdrawal when Hillary realizes he s someone she got killed in Benghazi11:30 AM Official Nomination of Hillary Bill Maher and Chris Matthews | 0 |
4,233 | Trump FURIOUS After Journalist Questions His Sexism, Stops Her In The Most DISGUSTING Way (VIDEO) | The insane thing about Donald Trump s horrific attitude toward women is that every time he is asked to defend himself, he only ends up validating the claims that he s a misogynist. His sexist, anti-woman views are so engrained in him that he honestly doesn t even know that he s proving everyone right and a post-debate encounter between the business mogul and a female journalist displayed this perfectly.Alexi McCammond is an associate news editor for Bustle, and was covering Monday night s presidential debate at Hofstra University. While she was there, McCammond managed to get close to Trump and nab a very short, but very revealing interview with the Republican nominee himself. As she got closer to The Donald, McCammond started filming with her cell phone, stuck her hand out and asked Trump, How would you respond to young women who are nervous about voting for you? What happened next couldn t have been a better representation of how women will be treated under a Trump administration. This is what McCammond described: Trump then looked at me, grabbed my right wrist (which was the hand holding the phone), said, Put that down, and pushed my hand down. And luckily, there s video of that:When @realDonaldTrump grabs my wrist, tells me to put that down and pushes my phone away #Debates2016 pic.twitter.com/0puNWFfhwC Alexi McCammond (@leximccammond) September 27, 2016While McCammond made it clear that she wasn t hurt (physically or emotionally) by Trump s actions, this was definitely an important moment because even though Trump had tried not to answer her question, his actions certainly DID answer.McCammond posted this video on the night of the debate, but it is just now picking up steam hopefully, women everywhere (and the people who care about them) take this into consideration when they head to the polls in November.Featured image via Spencer Platt / Getty Images | 0 |
4,234 | Trump Gets ANNIHILATED On Immigration At GOP Debate In Must-See Video (VIDEO) | For months, a debate has raged: Is 2016 hopeful Marco Rubio a robot, or isn t he? Thursday s GOP debate might prove once and for all that we were wrong about Rubio. It s unclear what happened maybe someone upgraded his operating system or maybe, just maybe, he is a flesh-and-blood person. But whatever he is, the Florida Senator wiped the floor with The Donald in a must-see catfight.It s unclear what got into Rubio. Maybe someone installed Windows 10. Maybe he got a good night s rest for once. Perhaps one of his supporters shared their crack pipe. We ll never know. In any case, Rubio was on fire during a surprisingly animated catfight with the billionaire bankruptcy expert (To be clear, he didn t blow a fuse; this was meant figuratively).During a discussion regarding Trump s promised Wall (with a capital W ) that will now be 10 feet taller thanks to a brilliant f*ck you from former President of Mexico, Vicente Fox, Rubio unleashed his inner something: If he builds his wall like he built Trump Tower, he will be using illegal immigrant labor to do it. After the two rambled simultaneously for a while, Rubio s CPU (or adrenaline) kicked into overdrive, he dropped the hammer: Here s a guy who inherited 200 million dollars. If he hadn t inherited $200 million, you know where he d be right now? Selling watches in Midtown. We won t spoil the rest of it for you. This is one of those things that you have to see for yourself, which you can do below:(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'));Trump Gets WRECKED For American Jobs HypocrisyDonald Trump got destroyed at the #GOPDebate by RoboRubio over this looks like somebody on Rubio's campaign finally updated him to Windows 10.Posted by Americans Against The Republican Party on Thursday, February 25, 2016Featured image via screen capture | 0 |
4,235 | Syrian rebels resist Jordan pressure to hand over border crossing | AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian opposition groups are resisting Jordanian pressure to hand control of a border crossing back to the Syrian government, a step that would be a major boost for President Bashar al-Assad and undermine rebel groups in southwestern Syria. Talks over reopening the Nasib crossing have gathered pace since a Russian-U.S. brokered ceasefire in July brought relative calm to southern Syria, the first peacekeeping effort in the war by U.S. President Donald Trump s administration. Jordan, which hopes to revive a once flourishing trade route and encourage Syrian refugees to return, has plenty of leverage over the rebels: many of the opposition groups in southern Syria depend on logistical support from the staunch U.S. ally. But rebel groups which seized control of the crossing in 2015 have so far resisted proposals for a return of Syrian government authority to Nasib, even in the form of civilian officials with no Syrian army presence. The possibility of the crossing being reopened underlines just how far the scales have tipped in favor of Assad, who is steadily winning back territory with Russian and Iranian help, forcing neighboring states to rethink their policies. The presence of any regime employee is like restoring legitimacy to a worn-out regime against which the Syrian people rose up, said Adham al Karad, a Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel commander who led battles in Deraa city against the army. Jordan has trodden a careful path during the six-year long war, maintaining diplomatic ties with Damascus even as it became a hub for a U.S.-led program that funneled aid to vetted Syrian rebels. Trump recently decided to shut down that program. Before the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011, Nasib served as a major transit route for hundreds of trucks a day transporting goods between Turkey and the Gulf in multi-billion dollar annual trade. Its closure has also had a knock-on effect for other economies in the region, including Lebanon s. Jordan has put forward proposals by which rebels would secure the road to Nasib, 100 km (60 miles) from the capital, while a civil administration from Damascus would run the crossing, according to Syrian opposition officials. Rebels would receive a portion of the customs fees as part of the deal. The proposals were discussed during a meeting between the Jordanian government and opposition-run local councils and rebels from southern Syria in Amman at the end of last month. The situation of the crossing is delicate and sensitive and until now we have not responded (to Amman s demands), Ali Salkhadi, the governor of opposition-run Deraa province, told a meeting of local figures on Sunday, footage of which was posted on YouTube. Jordan told the opposition delegation that it was obliged to deal with a recognized state in order to open the crossing and to allow trucks to proceed to third countries, he said. It also threatened the opposition delegation it could open another land crossing into Syrian government-controlled Sweida province, east of Nasib, if rebels fail to reach a deal. If they open Sweida crossing they would close the other humanitarian crossings ... this is what they are saying, Salkhadi said in the meeting. Syrian government officials could not be reached for comment. A Jordanian government official contacted by Reuters declined to comment. Though rebels stand to profit if the crossing were opened, they also risk losing local support if seen to make such a big concession to Damascus. They want long-standing demands, including a detainee release, addressed before talks on Nasib. We will not watch with our hands tied, we won t allow this and will work to stop all the efforts to hand over critical areas to the regime and to confiscate them from the rebels and impose a fait accompli on us, said Abu Jasem al Hariri, a rebel commander in southern Syria. Jordan last month succeeded in pressuring two Western-backed rebel groups operating in southeastern Syria near the Jordanian border, an order that resulted in them abandoning their territory to advancing Syrian government forces. But while Amman has recently sought to mend fences with Damascus, a full restoration of ties seems a distant prospect as Jordan remains deeply concerned over expanding Iranian influence in Syria. The Syrian army and allied militia are steadily seizing more and more of the Jordanian frontier from insurgents. But while the government is gaining ground at the Jordanian border, key crossings to Turkey and Iraq remain outside its control. | 1 |
4,236 | WATCH: Melissa McCarthy Adds To SNL’s Trump Admin Ridicule In GLORIOUS Sean Spicer Spoof | Saturday Night Live is having a high old time ruthlessly mocking the governmental train wreck that is the fledgling, incompetent Trump administration. First, they returned Alec Baldwin to his role as Trump, and re-enacted his absolutely disastrous first two weeks in office. Then, they debuted Melissa McCarthy as White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer specifically his bizarre meltdown where he scolded the press regarding Trump s continuing obsession with having a smaller inaugural crowd size than President Obama did.McCarthy appeared in an ill-fitting suit, much like the one Spicer wore to tear into the press during his very first official appearance as Press Secretary, and yelled and screamed, and even swallowed bunches of gum, in a mockery of the report that Spicer has a problem where he eats and swallows copious amounts of Orbit cinnamon gum daily. As he does this, McCarthy/Spicer says: I m here to swallow gum and take names! When challenged by a reporter at one point, McCarthy/Spicer took out a super soaker gun and shot the reporter with water. The spoof even had McCarthy/Spicer pick up the press podium and attempt to attack reporters with it. The erratic press secretary insisted on apology from the press for how they are treating Trump and him: Apologize to me! That apology is NOT accepted! This is hilarious, but it is also scary, considering how close it is to the person who is currently serving as the actual White House Press Secretary.Watch the clip below:Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
4,237 | FOX NEWS BUMPS TWO Surprising GOP Candidates To Bottom Tier Of Debate | Something about this decision really stinks of favoritism and cronyism. We d love to know who made the decision to punish the American viewers with yet ANOTHER painful appearance by John Kasich on the debate stage over Carly Fiorina and Rand Paul Rand Paul and Carly Fiorina have been booted to the undercard in Thursday night s Republican primary debate as the number of main-stage candidates was cut to seven by stricter polling criteria.Paul, who is struggling to gain traction in the presidential race, immediately cried foul, and vowed to not participate in the event.Fox Business Network, which will televise the sixth GOP presidential debate this week, announced the debate fields on Monday evening, after weeks of speculation that Paul would for the first time not make the cut for the primetime event. The seven candidates who will appear on the main stage in North Charleston, S.C., are Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, and John Kasich. Kasich qualified as a result of his strength in New Hampshire. Paul and Fiorina are set to join Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum in the undercard if Paul decides to participate. The Kentucky senator told CNN Monday evening, just before the official announcement, that Fox Business had made a mistake, and he wouldn t attend. We will not participate in anything that s not first-tier, Paul said. His campaign confirmed to POLITICO that he will sit out Thursday s debate.His campaign elaborated in a statement that multiple polls showed him well within the network s criteria for qualifying, and contended that the margins of error in polls make them a poor tool for determining who makes the main stage. To exclude candidates on faulty analysis is to disenfranchise the voter, the statement said. Creating tiers based on electoral results of real votes might make sense but creating tiers on bad science is irresponsible. Regardless of whether he takes part in the undercard debate, the downgrade could be a crippling blow for Paul who has insisted that he would remain in the race through the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses, even though he also faces a reelection campaign this year for his Senate seat.In an interview with POLITICO last week, Paul called for organizers to abolish the earlier undercard debate. I m not sure what the purpose is anymore, if there ever was one, Paul said. The Paul camp has fought hard to keep its candidate on the main stage, where he has appeared for the prior five debates. Earlier Monday, the campaign released a memo stating that multiple national polls have the Kentucky senator in 5th or 6th place even though he s in seventh place in the average nationally and in both early states. By any reasonable criteria Senator Paul has a top-tier campaign and has qualified for the stage, the memo said.But it was clear that Paul didn t meet the criteria Fox Business had outlined prior to Monday s qualification deadline. The network said it would average the five most recent polls nationally, and in both Iowa and New Hampshire. The top six candidates nationally would qualify and if any other candidate appeared in the top five in either early state, they would be added.Paul was in seventh place nationally and in both early states, according to POLITICO s calculations.Fox Business outlined specifically which polls were used in a subsequent statement to reporters, saying the outlet used the most recent national and state polls from non-partisan, nationally-recognized organizations using standard methodological techniques. Via: Politico | 0 |
4,238 | Japan says U.S. withdrawal from global climate pact 'regrettable' | TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan said on Friday the decision by the United States to withdraw from the Paris climate accord was “regrettable” and that climate change required a concerted effort by the whole of the international community. “Japan believes the leadership of the developed countries to be of great importance (on climate issues), and the steady implementation of the Paris Agreement is critical in this regard,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference that Japan would continue to call on the United States to engage on the issue of climate change. | 1 |
4,239 | Democratic Senate leader calls Trump's 'Rocket Man' remark at U.N. 'risky' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday that President Donald Trump s characterization of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as Rocket Man during a speech to the United Nations was risky. If I were giving the president advice, I would have said avoid using Rocket Man, Schumer said during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol. We know the leader of North Korea is erratic, to put it kindly. That kind of language I think is risky. | 1 |
4,240 | The U.S. Has No Legal Standing in Its Involvement in the War on Yemen | Patrick Henningsen 21st Century WireYemen is proving what should be clear by now: President Trump may never make good on his bold campaign promise of less senseless wars overseas. Watch as Trump defers to the Generals to double-down on a bad Obama bet.This week, we learned that the US Department of Defense, led by General James Mattis, would like to increase its support for Saudi Arabia and its Gulf accomplices, in their effort to continue to further destabilize and bomb Yemen, followed by the installation by force of a US and Saudi-friendly regime in that country.Following over 2 years of hostilities against Yemen, Mattis has also decided to ask Congress for help in drafting some sort of authorization to give the US some legal standing in its continual involvement with this war. Mattis is erroneously bundling the issue of Yemen into both Syria and Iraq, claiming that this is somehow part of the the fight against ISIS .What is it about Yemen that makes it such a gaping blind spot for members of the US government, its diplomatic corps and the US mainstream media?Fact: On its face, the joint Saudi-US War on Yemen is illegal under both US and International Law (see US legal analysis below).With that in mind, shouldn t every person in the US, from the Obama Administration forward and including the Department of Defense, the Pentagon, the CIA and so on, who has been involved in prosecuting this illegal, undeclared war of aggression be indicted and charged with high crimes?Is the United States not a nation of laws, as so many politicians and pundits proudly proclaim to their public over the airwaves each and every day? Are we really a nation of laws?Or is Washington DC merely a nation of self-inflated, self-reverential hypocrites? In a nutshell the Saudis, Emiratis and the USA are inflicting a war of genocide against the Houthis, (University of Illinois Professor of International Law, Francis Boyle)So what is the Trump Administration s solution to this collapsing situation? Of course, more sanctions. Because this war was initiated under President Obama, left-leaning and liberal media outlets and Democratic Party operators were bound to an unofficial regime of silence on the issue of Yemen hence, almost zero media coverage or commentary throughout 2015-2016. It was sufficient to focus only on Syria, and even then to streamline all mainstream media talking points with foreign policy directives from US State Department. With Syria, just look at the media coverage over the last 6 years and overlay it with the US State Department and British Foreign Office narratives. Totally seamless.For the US political right-wing and the Pentagon-oriented news outlets like CNN, the War on Yemen was simply reduced down to a binary argument, blaming the entire affair on Iran, claiming that the Iranian-backed Houthis were the primary antagonists. By framing it in the Iran-centric geopolitical context and not the true context of US-Saudi aggression and a battle to control some of the regions most lucrative untapped oil and gas reserves it served to somehow justify the organized, international crime which has been taking place. CNN s Wolf Blitzer was always careful to inject the correct qualifier (as he always does) of Iranian-backed Houthis when covering Yemen. By framing it as an Iranian plot, US neoconservatives also reinforced the operation as good for Israel, which by extension means its in US national interest by virtue of the neoconservatives doctrine.Since the War on Yemen began in March 2015, rather than reporting on the carnage and pressuring the US government to recuse itself from its daily military role backing of Saudi Arabia, the mainstream media foreign policy gatekeepers and CFR members like CNN s Fareed Zakaria have instead opted to ignore the conflict as much as possible, opting instead to continue pushing more fake news and extravagant lies spun regarding Aleppo along with other aspects of the other illegal US operation arming international terrorists in Syria.Members of the media should be ashamed of themselves, but that assuming the word shame still exists in their lexicon. By now, it should be clear that they simply do not care. While the establishment and auxiliary CFR public relations mascots like George Clooney have been crusading for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to take urgent action against the bad guys in places like South Sudan (a CIA project from the onset) and fawning over the US-UK government joint project and pseudo-NGO fraud known as the White Helmets in Syria, the United States government and its partners Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and of the course the United Kingdom have been allowed to get away with one of the most obvious and egregious, mass violations of international law and collective murder in modern history.In short, all the establishment and Deep State players; in Washington, the UNHRC (bought-off by Saudi Arabia), the mainstream media, Hollywood, and across the billion dollar think-tank industrial complex have all colluded through their collective inaction and media censorship in perpetrating an long-running and obvious international crime against humanity in Yemen. Add to this, holding in contempt the concept of the modern nation-state as it pertains to Yemen, by colluding in a violent, neocolonial fashion with the express intent to deny the Yemeni people their right to sovereignty. To compare Saudi Arabia s belligerent actions in Yemen to Nazi Germany s undeclared wars of aggression prior to WWII is no exaggeration. In fact, one could make the argument that this Saudi-US joint venture is much worse, and a far more dangerous precedent. Likewise, the failure of a corrupt UN (who effectively sold Saudi Arabia its seat as the head of the UN Human Rights Council ), led by an impotent Secretary General in Ban-ki Moon, to censure Saudi Arabia for its flagrant violation of international law, the Nuremberg Principles and the entire Geneva Convention content and implied framework leaves the UN in the exact same position as the League of Nations in 1938. This is most certainly the case on paper, and with each passing moment we are nudging ever closer to geopolitical d j vu. (Vanessa Beeley, 21WIRE, Oct 13, 2016)The following is a professional analysis, from a US legal perspective. The case is clear, and non-contestable under the current provision in both US and international law Yemeni resident in Taiz, who lost everything after another Saudi airstrike.. Trevor Thrall & John Glaser ReasonAfter almost a year of bombings, Yemen is a humanitarian catastrophe. Over 6,000 Yemenis have been killed [an extremely conservative estimate] half of them civilians. According to a recent United Nations report, the Saudi-led coalition has conducted airstrikes targeting civilians and civilian objects, including refugee camps, hospitals, weddings, and mosques. Saudi bombing has reduced large tracts of several cities to rubble. Some of the attacks, according to the U.N. panel, could amount to crimes against humanity.As of this month, over two million people in Yemen are internally displaced, millions lack access to potable water, and thanks to a U.S.-supported Saudi blockade on imports, more than 14 million Yemenis are at risk of starvation.Throughout, the U.S. has quietly but dutifully lent the Saudis weapons, logistics assistance, and diplomatic cover. It s time to stop.The civil conflict in Yemen has its roots in the overthrow in 2011 of long-time U.S.-Saudi ally Ali Abdullah Saleh. In the midst of the unrest, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. supported a political transition to a government headed by President Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi, in which he was the only candidate on the ballot. Yemen s Shiite Houthi rebels waged an insurgency against the Hadi government and captured the capital city Sanaa in 2014.The civil war then morphed into an intractable proxy war when, in March of last year, Saudi Arabia decided to wage a vicious bombing campaign under the pretext of destroying the Houthi rebellion and reinstating Hadi s beleaguered government. Riyadh views the Houthis as a proxy of Iran, and after the peaceful diplomatic settlement between the U.S. and Iran over the latter s nuclear program, U.S. officials have apparently felt obliged to reassure Saudi Arabia by supporting its war in Yemen.The problem is that Saudi Arabia s war in Yemen compromises both U.S. interests and its moral standing. Our interests are harmed because undermining the Houthis and contributing to the power vacuum in the country has benefitted the position of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which happens to share Saudi distaste for the Houthis.The Saudis succeed in garnering U.S. support in part by characterizing the war as a fight against terrorism. But the Saudis and al-Qaeda are actually in an awkward alliance in this fight, making U.S. help even more misguided.As for our moral standing, by supporting Saudi Arabia s military action, we are a party to serious war crimes and are indirectly at fault for the devastating humanitarian crisis the people of Yemen now face.The Saudi intervention clearly violates the just war tenet of jus ad bellum. That tenet dictates that nations not only have a just cause for going to war but also resort to military force only after all other options have been exhausted. Despite Saudi claims to the contrary, the intervention is clearly not a case of self-defense. The notion that Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East (kept afloat primarily by Saudi funds), represents a military threat to Saudi Arabia is absurd. And to argue Saudi bombs are justified to prevent future terrorist attacks is to argue for preventive war, which violates just war theory and the UN Charter.The Saudis insist that their actions are legal because the legitimate Yemeni government invited military intervention. But the Hadi government hardly deserves the label legitimate. Hadi was elevated to the presidency after serving in Saleh s autocratic regime as vice president. Once president, Hadi used his position to consolidate power against the Houthis and Saleh loyalists all while misappropriating billions of dollars. A better description would be to call the Hadi government a tool of Saudi Arabia, since Saudi Arabia not only brokered the deal that allowed him to replace Saleh but also enabled him to return to Yemen after the Houthis drove him from the country. Arguing that the Saudis are responding to a call for help is essentially to argue that the Saudis asked themselves to intervene in Yemen.So, if Saudi Arabia s argument for intervention is weak, what s the U.S. s excuse? Any claim that this is a part and parcel of the war on terror is dubious, considering the bombing of Yemen is, if anything, bolstering Islamic extremists. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia itself is a major exporter of the kind of jihadist ideology that drives groups like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.Even if it were about countering terrorist groups, if the threat to Saudi Arabia from Yemen is remote, the threat to the United States is certainly too small to justify violating the rules of war, international moral norms, and common decency.Beyond placating overexcited Saudi fears of a U.S. strategic tilt towards Iran, there simply is no moral, legal, or strategic justification for what the U.S. is doing in Yemen.About the Authors: Trevor Thrall is an associate professor at the School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs at George Mason University and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. John Glaser is based in Washington, DC. He has been published in CNN, Newsweek, The Guardian, and The National Interest, among others. READ MORE YEMEN NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Yemen FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 |
4,241 | U.S. welcomes royal order to allow Saudi women to drive | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday welcomed Saudi King Salman s order, reported by Saudi state media, allowing women to drive cars. We would certainly welcome that, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters. It s a great step in the right direction for that country. According to Saudi state news agency SPA, a royal degree ordered the formation of a ministerial body to provide advice within 30 days and to implement the order by June 2018. | 1 |
4,242 | ufo over the east valley here in az last night | you have a work bunker what is it exactly that you do man if the world went to crap the last thing i would be concerned about is ensuring my employer keeps the loot rolling in lol in fact if that does go down im jumping in my truck with a motivational item and coming to work to stock up the mine site has enough food for people a for weeks at a time i live out in the country im on well water liter propane tank for heat and out door boiler the genny is hooked up to a liter gas storage container my house that im building up the road from my current house already has the solar panels hooked up on a volt system everyday theres a buck or a couple does in the yard lots of partridge and bears around if things get rough only thing we would be lacking is fresh vegetables over the winterwhich could be problematic | 0 |
4,243 | Merkel says to begin three-way German coalition talks next week | BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel said her conservative bloc would begin exploratory talks next week on forming a three-way German coalition government with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the environmentalist Greens. Merkel s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), would hold talks with the FDP and Greens separately next Wednesday, she said. Then on Friday, October 20th we will have a first round of exploratory talks with all partners, Merkel told a joint news conference with CSU leader Horst Seehofer on Monday. Merkel s CDU appeared to make a concession to the CSU on Sunday by agreeing to put a number on how many people Germany would accept per year on humanitarian grounds. Merkel said she was pleased with the compromise, which was a very, very good basis to go into exploratory talks . | 1 |
4,244 | U.S. House Republicans to tackle tax plan later this year | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Republicans are unlikely to begin tackling tax reform legislation until the summer, after first moving to revamp the nation’s healthcare system, House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Thursday. In an interview with Fox News, the Wisconsin Republican said lawmakers had to make good on their pledge to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, before they can turn to rewriting the U.S. tax code. “It’s just the way the budget works that we won’t be able to get the ability to write our tax reform bill until our spring budget passes, and then we write that through the summer,” Ryan told Fox News. “We feel the need to rescue (healthcare),” he said. “That’s why we’re going with healthcare first, and that’s the first budget. And then in the spring, when we do our second budget, that’s where tax reform comes.” Ryan later told reporters at his weekly press conference that he hoped to move on healthcare legislation by the end of March. His comments came as Trump, who has called on Congress to act swiftly to enact his sweeping agenda, met with the Republican chairman and ranking Democrats on the Senate Finance and Ways and Means committees. The two panels oversee tax writing, among other issues, but the White House meeting appeared to mostly focused on trade. Any tax reform package would also have to pass the Senate, where it could face resistance over a border adjustment tax provision. Republicans, who control both houses of Congress as well as the White House, have pledged a range of overhauls after eight years of the Democratic Obama administration, even as tensions have arisen over timetables and priorities. “Enough ‘all talk, no action.’ We have to deliver,” Trump told Republican lawmakers at their retreat in Philadelphia last month, pushing them to move on tax reform as well as his planned U.S.-Mexico border wall and repealing Obamacare. Trump has also vowed major spending to overhaul the nation’s roads, bridges and other infrastructure. Democrats have said they could back such a plan but would not support privately funded efforts that could lead to people paying tolls and other costs. Ryan dismissed the idea of using taxpayer funds on infrastructure, however. Instead, he told Fox News, House Republicans will weigh how to “leverage more private sector spending” for projects such as pipeline overhauls and reforming the Federal Aviation Administration to revamp the air traffic control system. | 1 |
4,245 | HYPOCRITE BILLY CRYSTAL INJECTS JAB At Trump In Eulogy To Ali That’s Curiously Similar To A Clinton Speech | The bashing of Donald Trump is getting so old and tiresome. People with common sense know the truth and know what the left is trying to do. It s the same old playbook of demonizing what you don t like repeatedly. The problem is that Americans are finally wising up to this Alinsky strategy. You d think the liberals are all coordinating their talking points .hummm Billy Crystal bashed Trump during his eulogy of Ali in a line similar to Clinton s speech on Tuesday: life is best when you build bridges between people, not walls. Do you think for one minute that Trump would have gotten where he is if he d not reached out to people and built bridges literally and figuratively? The reason Trump wants to build a literal wall with Mexico is that, without borders, we don t have a country . We can certainly reach out to others but Trump knows open borders DO NOT WORK! Just take a look at Europe and the EU! What a mess! Trump has said he wants LEGAL IMMIGRATION and doesn t want ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION! He s protecting the people of America and that s putting America first!The problem with Billy Crystal s swipe at Trump is that he isn t practicing what he preaches. Anyone who knows Los Angeles knows that the homes have gates and walls. Well, Billy Crystal has walls and a fence surrounding his home people in glass houses!It was easy to get photos above of the fence and wall around Billy Crystal s home but we can t just walk onto his property uninvited. Isn t that the same as people walking over our border illegally?Comedian Billy Crystal gave an emotional tribute during Muhammad Ali s funeral on Friday, but may have sneaked in a low-key dig at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Crystal, a friend of The Champ s for more than 40 years, said at the end of his eulogy for the boxer in the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky that Ali taught us that life is best when you build bridges between people, not walls. That line Crystal said sounds similar to what Hillary Clinton said during her victory speech on Tuesday. We believe that cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls, the Democratic presidential candidate front-runner said. Read more: Daily Mail | 0 |
4,246 | Trump open to Social Security changes if elected: adviser | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Donald Trump would consider changes to Social Security and Medicare if he is elected U.S. president, a top adviser to the New York businessman said on Wednesday, signaling a shift from Trump’s earlier stance that he would not touch so-called entitlement programs. Policy adviser Sam Clovis said at a Washington conference that Trump would be open to a bipartisan look at entitlement spending once he implemented his other policies, such as his tax plan. “I think after the administration’s been in place, then we will start to take a look at all of the programs, including entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare,” Clovis said at an event hosted by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. The foundation is known for its attacks on deficit spending, and it supports revamping Social Security and Medicare. “We’ll take a hard look at those to start seeing what we can do in a bipartisan way,” Clovis said, adding Trump was not proposing any entitlement changes now. Trump, who became the likely Republican nominee for the Nov. 8 general election last week when his two remaining rivals dropped out, had said he wanted to leave those programs alone. On the campaign trail in Wisconsin last month, he attacked Republicans who he said would cut Social Security benefits. “It’s my absolute intention to leave Social Security the way it is,” Trump said during a Republican debate in March. “I want to make our country rich again so we can afford it.” Clovis said Trump’s economic policies would spur growth, and he estimated a $4.5 trillion to $7 trillion surplus over 10 years. The conservative Tax Foundation has estimated Trump’s tax plan, which calls for simplifying the tax code and slashing corporate rates, would cut U.S. tax revenues by about $10 trillion. Trump may retool that tax proposal to bring down the price tag, said Stephen Moore, a conservative economist with the Heritage Foundation. He said he and Larry Kudlow, who hosts a program on CNBC, have proposed changes to the tax plan. “What we were working with the campaign a little bit on is how can we get that cost down, cut it by half or more, without disrupting the main growth elements of the plan,” Moore told Reuters. Hope Hicks, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, said the tax plan was not being re-written. Moore said Trump had not yet signed off on any proposed tweaks. | 1 |
4,247 | CNN Guest SMACKS DOWN Trump Supporter For Racist Gun Violence Comments (VIDEO) | Infamous Donald Trump surrogate and supporter Scottie Nell Hughes thought she was going on CNN yesterday to make yet another pathetic attempt to get African-American voters to support The Donald (even though he is currently polling at ZERO with black voters) but her plans quickly went astray when political strategist Angelia Rye called her out for defending Trump.Cooper began the segment by running a few emotional interviews featuring three black women who had lost their children due to gun violence. In making her completely flawed case, Hughes told host Anderson Cooper that Trump would be able to bring hope to black communities as well as jobs. She said: It s these urban areas, 44 cities, where crime is going up as well as gang violence. So there s an issue that needs to be addressed by those kinds of those communities, and they need to be supported whether it s through law enforcement or education. Rye didn t hesitate to point out everything that was wrong with those comments, and drop a few truth bombs in the process. Rye jumped in, pointing out that Trump and his supporters are so racist they hardly realize it: A couple of things. One is gun violence specifically the overall crime rate has been on a steady decline since the 1980s. But I think that it s really important to watch the words that we use. When we say, Those communities, those people, who are we talking about? Referencing one of the interviews that had prefaced the conversation, Rye echoed a woman s doubts that Trump could really take on Chicago s crime in a week, like he says he can. Rye also reminded Hughes that Trump has had zero empathy for the black community and those who have been killed by police brutality, racial profiling and gun violence. She said: Donald Trump was busy calling people who look like me thugs, blaming the victim in these instances of gun violence and police brutality. That is deeply troubling to me and not only to me, but I m sure to several other I can t speak for all African-Americans but to other African-Americans. You can watch Rye lay into Hughes below:Featured image via screenshot | 0 |
4,248 | Trump shrugs off campaign funding lag, cites personal wealth | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Donald Trump said on Tuesday his “unlimited” trove of personal wealth would help compensate for his poor presidential campaign fundraising, even as he took steps to court new donors to help win the White House. The New York real estate mogul raised only $3.1 million in individual contributions in May and ended the month with $1.3 million in cash, leaving him far behind his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton who brought in $26 million and closed the month’s books with a $42 million war chest. The figures underscore the huge cash advantage Clinton is hoping to enjoy leading into the Nov. 8 presidential election, one that could allow her a large staff and millions of dollars of television and digital ads in battleground states. Trump, who openly shunned donations while winning the party nomination, rebuffed criticism from Republicans who say he needs to raise cash for the general election fight against Clinton. His campaign might need in excess of $1 billion by some estimates but Trump said money was not a problem. “If need be, there could be unlimited ‘cash on hand’ as I would put up my own money,” Trump said in a statement, which asserted he had already spent over $50 million dollars on his bid for the White House. The billionaire candidate added that his campaign also costs less than a traditional one because it is “is leaner and more efficient, like our government should be.” Trump has said he is worth more than $10 billion, but much of his money is tied up in properties and businesses. Estimates from outside groups have put Trump’s wealth as low as $1 billion. Forbes magazine estimates it at $4.5 billion. According to Trump’s most recent personal financial disclosure with the Federal Election Commission, in May, he had between $65 mln and $175 million in liquid assets – money in funds, equities and cash. Despite Trump’s professed lack of concern for standard campaign fundraising, he took steps to boost donations. Several sources with knowledge of Trump’s fundraising activities said he will attend a dinner on Tuesday evening to court hedge fund managers and other Wall Street donors. Woody Johnson, the billionaire investor and owner of the New York Jets football team, is also hosting a breakfast for Trump at a high-end restaurant in Manhattan on Wednesday morning. Targeting smaller donors, Trump on Tuesday also sent his first email asking for donations, telling supporters that he will match their contributions up to $2 million. Trump’s allies, donors, and other Republican operatives have expressed concerns about his campaign operation, which has been dogged by internal battles, a threadbare campaign infrastructure, and thin fundraising apparatus. “Without money you don’t have a campaign,” said Stan Hubbard, a Republican donor from Minnesota who owns a chain of radio stations and who has contributed to Trump. “He’s got to call on people to give money and stop all this nonsense about funding his own campaign,” Hubbard said. Trump this week fired his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who had been overseeing the campaign’s fundraising arm. Trump has spent much of the race so far breaking the mold of a traditional campaign, defeating a crowded field of primary opponents who vastly outspent him in ads and staff. During the Republican primary race, he often told his supporters not to contribute money and ridiculed opponents for accepting cash from special interest groups and wealthy contributors. He has so far showed little interest in calling donors to ask for money for his general election battle. He only began holding in-person fundraisers in late May. “Trump defeated the most talented GOP field in a generation with less staff, less experience and less money in much less time,” said Republican strategist Keith Appell. “That said, Trump’s campaign needs to transition quickly to a national, general election effort online, on the air and on the ground – his populist, anti-Washington, new leadership message has been muddled by sideshow issues.” Trump has loaned his campaign $46 million since launching last year, federal filings show. He often uses his own plane to travel to campaign events, and also uses his hotels and other properties as venues - expenses he is required by law to reimburse from his campaign funds. The campaign has spent about $6.2 million with Trump businesses including TAG Air and his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida. It has also reimbursed Trump about $390,000 for some payroll and other expenses. The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, announced it raised $11 million in May, and had $19.9 million in cash at the beginning of June. The RNC will help Trump’s effort to get elected, but also helps fund congressional races. | 1 |
4,249 | Republican Cop GOES OFF On The GOP, Slams Them For Being ‘Hypocrites’ And ‘Idiots’ (VIDEO) | Anyone following the current election has every right to be absolutely disgusted with the Republican party and the behavior of its candidates. Even more conservative Americans are coming around to the fact that the GOP hasn t been doing its part and is actually worsening the country while embarrassing us all.On Tuesday, Republican Sheriff Newell Normand had a moment of clarity during the Metropolitan Crime Commission s annual awards luncheon in Louisiana. Normand is a Republican himself, but he couldn t hold back his disappointment in the party when he slammed the GOP s elected officials and the state s former Governor, Bobby Jindal, in his speech.According to Normand, Jindal was a complete fool who made a mess of Louisiana s finances and was more like a cult leader than a governor. Admitting that he had once endorsed that idiot , Normand was left disappointed and regretted standing behind Jindal once he was governor and left Louisiana in shambles. The enraged cop entertained the audience by calling Jindal out: What a mess. Bobby Jindal was a better cult leader than Jim Jones. We drank the elixir for eight years, we remained in a conscious state, we walked to the edge of the cliff, we jumped off and he watched us. And guess what? Unlike Jim Jones, he did not swallow the poison. What a shame. Normand also accused Jindal of attempting to rewrite history by using social media to reframe his handling of the budget, even when the rest of the state doesn t even know what history is. Currently, Louisiana is facing a hefty budget shortfall of $2.5 billion, but Jindal is bragging on Twitter about what a great job he did as governor. Normand isn t having it. He said: We have to just say no! I m a Republican but I m not a hypocrite. We have to look at ourselves critically as a party and figure out where we are and what we re going to be about. Thanks to Jindal, the state is trying to fix is budget problems by cutting funding to mental health and closing several state prisons all which initiatives will cause issues for law enforcement. Suggesting that Republicans stop attacking and actually start working on solutions, Normand noted that a Medicaid expansion would take care of costs like mental health and drug addiction. The frustrated sheriff slammed conservatives once more, telling them to actually get to work instead of blaming Obama for the country s woes: And I have to listen to my Republican counterparts talk about gobbledigook. Blah, blah blah And I m so sick and tired of hearing: Obama, Obama, Obama. You know how much intellect it takes to blame something on somebody else? This much! (Normand held his hand up to signal zero ) Propose a solution. Work together. You can watch Normand s impassioned speech below. It s something that every Republican should hear.FOX 8 WVUE New Orleans News, Weather, Sports, SocialFeatured image is a screenshot | 0 |
4,250 | call on president obama to terminate fbi director comey on november | iraq iraqi firefighters work to extinguish the fire caused by a car bomb explosion at a gas station near the city of hilla november
a car bomb has reportedly exploded south of the iraqi capital baghdad killing around people mostly shia pilgrims
according to security sources a truck loaded with explosives went off on thursday at a gas station in the shomali village in the suburbs of the city of alhilla located kilometers miles southeast of the capital baghdad and around kilometers miles from karbala
reports say most of the victims were iranian nationals the photo shows the site of a blast at a gas station near hilla south of the iraqi capital baghdad november
the incident occurred at a time when buses packed with shia pilgrims were parked at the gas station the people were returning from arbaeen mourning rituals in the holy city of karbala
at least seven buses with pilgrims were inside the petrol station at the time an unnamed police lieutenant colonel told afp people carry away the bodies of victims from the site of a bomb attack near hilla iraq november
afp also quoted an unnamed police intelligence source as saying that those buses were loaded with iranians bahrainis and iraqis ambulances and civil defense are on their way to the site
the takfiri daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility for the deadly bombing
in recent weeks daesh has resorted to similar acts of violence in areas outside its control in a desperate attempt to undermine a large iraqi battle aimed at liberating the northern city of mosul the terror groups last remaining foothold in the country
iran wont waver in backing iraq
hours after the incident irans foreign ministry spokesman strongly condemned the fatal terrorist blast expressing sympathy with the iraqi government and nation as well as all the families of the victims
touching on reports that iranian citizens were among the victims bahram qassemi said the foreign ministry and the islamic republic of irans embassy in baghdad are investigating the issue with seriousness and will take necessary measures in that regard
the iranian official also stressed that such preplanned and savage assaults emanate from the desperation of the terrorists who are taking successive blows on the battlefield
these brutal and inhumane acts will not affect the iraqi government and nations determination and the islamic republic of irans support for the oppressed iraqi people in the unrelenting fight against terrorism qassemi said the photo shows the site of a blast at a gas station near hilla south of the iraqi capital baghdad november
terrorists killing pilgrims will be brought to justice
in another development iraqs president fuad masum strongly condemned the terrorist attack in hilla emphasizing that such terrorist crimes would not go unpunished
issuing an official statement hours after the terrorist attack which was claimed by the daesh takfiri group masum emphasized that terrorists who target the lives of innocent pilgrims traveling to iraq from islamic countries will be brought to justice
he also called on iraqs security forces to double their efforts and take necessary measures to uproot terrorist groups that endanger the life and safety of the pilgrims visiting iraqs holy shrines iraqi security forces gather at the site of a truck bomb attack targeting a gas station in the city of hilla south of baghdad iraq november photo by reuters
takfiris spilling blood in the name of religion
meanwhile lebanons resistance movement hezbollah condemned the explosion as a crime committed by the terrorists who have no conscience and spill the blood of innocents in the name of the religion
in a statement released on thursday hezbollah extended its condolences to the iraqi nation over the tragedy calling for more efforts to root out terror outfits in iraq and restore security to the country a man reacts at the site of a truck bomb attack targeting a gas station in the city of hilla south of baghdad iraq november photo by reuters
gruesome violence has plagued the northern and western parts of iraq ever since daesh terrorists mounted an offensive there more than two years ago and took control of portions of iraqi territory
iraqi army soldiers and allied fighters are trying to win back militantheld regions in joint operations
the united nations assistance mission for iraq unami says a total of iraqis among them lost their lives in acts of terrorism violence and armed conflict in october loading | 1 |
4,251 | Obama Puts Trump In His Place, DESTROYS Him With This One Statement During Farewell Address (VIDEO) | President Barack Obama gave an amazing farewell address last night as he captivated Americans across the country and said goodbye to his time as President of the United States. At a time when many of us were feeling heartbroken and depressed that this great leader would now be followed by an underserving former reality television star, Obama made sure to leave us with a message of hope and reminded us of what we re fighting for. It was a beautiful speech, and it highlighted everything we are going to miss about him.One of the more notable parts of the speech was an epic burn Obama delivered, aimed right at President-elect Donald Trump. While Obama never once said Trump s name, it was blatantly obvious who he was talking about as he spoke about the need for diverse groups of workers to unite and stand together. Slamming Trump s divisive rhetoric and policies, Obama reached out to workers of all ages, races, genders, and professions when he said: But we re not where we need to be. All of us have more work to do. After all, if every economic issue is framed as a struggle between a hardworking white middle class and undeserving minorities, then workers of all shades will be left fighting for scraps while the wealthy withdraw further into their private enclaves. If we decline to invest in the children of immigrants, just because they don t look like us, we diminish the prospects of our own children because those brown kids will represent a larger share of America s workforce. And our economy doesn t have to be a zero-sum game. Last year, incomes rose for all races, all age groups, for men and for women. Beautifully said. While Trump may have won the election by dividing Americans and speaking only to white workers in certain professions, Americans can stop him from dividing us further by standing together. Aside from preventing Trump from creating more division, united workers must also defy him by standing up to his greedy pro-corporation agenda which will only benefit the wealthiest.Obama knew that he had to inspire Americans enough to get them through the next four years under the worst administration they ve ever been faced with. He succeeded once again.You can watch Obama a full farewell address below, starting at around the 17 minute mark:Featured image via Darren Hauck / Getty Images | 0 |
4,252 | 16 YR OLD GERMAN GIRL IN VIRAL VIDEO PLEADS: “you Muslims have no right to physically assault or rape us…The politicians live alone in their villas, drink their cocktails, and do nothing” | This is what happens when a nation puts liberalism before their own children.The 20 minute video, apparently created by the 16 year old Facebook user Miss Wilhailm, starts with her saying that she is, so scared everywhere, for example if my family and I go out together, or if I see a movie with my friends. Usually I stay out until 6pm in winter, and it is so scary. It is just very hard to live day-to-day as a woman. The girl who some social media users report has now been banned from Facebook, though others say she has removed herself then goes on to talk about an incident that happened to her at a local supermarket saying, I ran all the way home. I was frightened for my life. There s no other way to describe it. She talks about her experiences over summer, when a group of Muslims said that her and her friends were sluts for walking outside in t-shirts. Yes, we were wearing t-shirts. It s summer! She adds: Another day, I was wearing this. My friend and I purchased it while shopping. If we feel like wearing it, we will wear it! And you Muslims have no right to physically assault or rape us for it! God willing, never in my life. You have no right to attack us because we are wearing t-shirts. You also have no right to rape .Miss Wilhailm then turns toward what she sees on social media, describing how she has seen, a 17 year old attacked, a 15 year old attacked, two 12 year olds attacked, so many, and questions, why should we, children, have to grow up in such fear? I cannot understand why they do this. But more importantly, I cannot understand why Germany is doing nothing! Why is Germany standing by, watching, and then doing nothing? Please explain, why. Men of Germany, these people are killing your children, they are killing your women. We need your protection, she goes on to say adding, The politicians live alone in their villas, drink their cocktails, and do nothing. They do nothing! I do not know what world they live in, but please, people, please help us! Please, do something! Continuing, Miss Wilhailm tells of her own personal experiences with Arab and Muslims migrants saying, One day, my friend and I were walking down the street, and a group of Arabs were protesting and demonstrating. They shouted, Allah! Allah! Allah is the one God! Kill those infidels! Allah Allah! What should I do? Should I wear a burka? Why should I have to convert to Islam? It s fine if you believe in Allah, but why do you want to make everyone else believe in Allah too? I just think it would be better if there were no religion. Stop trying to make everyone else believe in your God when they do not want to .According to the her experiences, the police are no help. She alleges, they say it is a problem and they ignore it. It is unfair. They laugh at us. They say we are dumb, and that, they don t care about our fears. This description matches many other cases where police have been afraid to be labeled as racist for taking a hard line on migrant crime and even victims of migrant crime have been accused of racism for speaking up.Free market liberal group Freiheitliche Aufklaerung or Liberal Education posted the video on their Facebook group page and made the following comment when it disappeared from Miss Wilhailm s page: How many have already noticed the video You make Germany broken! is no longer there. In this video, the 16-year-old girl said that she now is afraid to go out alone and that they can not understand the insane asylum policy of the German government. Europe and Germany are thus ruined Unfortunately, we live in a social dictatorship, in what critics of the establishment and its illiberal policies are tackled and accosted in the strongest terms. The group claims it doesn t have evidence, but says it can not rule out a censorship by Facebook 100% .Breitbart London understands from Facebook that while the matter has not been fully investigated yet, the usual reason for videos disappearing are down to the user taking them down themselves.The censorship fears come after Facebook announced last year that they would help the German government monitor for hate speech and as recently as this month Chancellor Angela Merkel s government has demanded Facebook remove posts and videos in the wake of the Cologne sex attacks. The company has not yet responded to Breitbart London s request for comment on the matter.The video ends with a stark message for German Chancellor Angela Merkel: Thank you, Angela Merkel, for killing Germany! I have no more respect for you, Merkel. I do not think you know what you have done. You do not see how our lives have changed. Open your eyes! Is this normal? Should I, a 16-year old who is almost 17, be so scared to walk outside my house? No, it is not normal. You have killed Germany! She closes: men please help your women. Help your children. I am so scared. My friends have the same fears. We are shocked that this has happened. I hope this video can convince you, and that these terrible events can stop. https://youtu.be/-BCrL8kDRdITRANSCRIPT: Hello, you can read the newspapers but this video is about the real situation in Germany. I would like to tell everyone about this on Youtube and Facebook. I am almost 16. I would like everyone to know what is going on, what I am authentically feeling at this moment.And I am so scared everywhere. For example, if my family and I go out together, or if I see a movie with my friends. Usually I stay at home, but sometimes I stay out until 6 pm in winter, and it is so scary. It is just very hard to live day-to-day life as a woman.I just want to say that I am not a racist. But one day, a terrible thing happened at the supermarket. I ran all the way home. I was so frightened for my life. There s no other way to describe it.My aunt and her friend have said you have to grow up. Why should we, children, have to grow up in such fear? It s not just me, my friends too. You can see on Facebook, a 17 year old attacked, a 15 year old attacked, two 12-year olds attacked, so many. It is really so sad that this is happening because of YOU PEOPLE. I cannot understand why they do this. But more importantly, I cannot understand why Germany is doing nothing! Why is Germany standing by, watching, and then doing nothing? Please explain, why. Men of Germany, these people are killing your children, they are killing your women. We need your protection. We are so scared, we don t want to be frightened to go to the grocery store alone after sunset. The politicians live alone in their villas, drink their cocktails, and do nothing. They do nothing! I do not know what world they live in, but please, people, please help us! Please, do something! I cannot understand why this is happening. One day, my friend and I were walking down the street, and a group of Arabs were protesting and demonstrating. They shouted, Allah! Allah! Allah is the one God! Kill those infidels! Allah Allah! What should I do? Should I wear a burka? Why should I have to convert to Islam?It s fine if you believe in Allah, but why do you want to make everyone else believe in Allah too? I just think it would be better if there were no religion. Stop trying to make everyone else believe in your God when they do not want to.Please, people of Germany. Do something!When I try to tell the authorities about what has happened, they hold their hand up towards me and they say it is a problem and then ignore it. and they laugh. It is unfair. They laugh at us. They say we are dumb. They think this not only of me, but of the entire state of Germany. They don t care about our fear. Please help us. This is an emergency! There are more and more of them.One time in summer, the Muslims said we were sluts for walking outside in a t-shirt.Yes, we were wearing t-shirts. It s summer!Another day, I was wearing this. My friend and I purchased it while shopping hehe. If we feel like wearing it, we will wear it! And you Muslims have no right to physically assault or rape us for it! God willing, never in my life. You have no right to attack us because we are wearing t-shirts. You also have no right to rape.The life of Germany has changed because these people cannot integrate. We give them so much help. We support them financially and they do not have to work. But they only want more babies and more welfare and more money. Men of Germany, please, patrol the streets and protect us. Do this for your women and your children. If you do that, I believe that we will have a chance.This sort of action would be wonderful. We would be so grateful and thankful. So many thanks, if steadily, more men would come to protect us. We are so scared.I am so upset about what Merkel has done.Thank you, Angela Merkel, for killing Germany! I have no more respect for you, Merkel. I do not think you know what you have done. You do not see how our lives have changed. Open your eyes! Is this normal? Should I, a 16-year old who is almost 17, be so scared to walk outside my house? No, it is not normal. You have killed Germany!This is the truth. We are no longer allowed to walk outside. We are no longer allowed to wear our clothes. We are no longer allowed to live the German life. This is the sad truth.I think it s about time to end this video. I believe I have given a full account from a normal person. I hope others can see this and understand.I only want to end with one message: Men, please, help your women. Help your children. I am so scared. My friends have the same fear. We are shocked that this has happened. I hope this video can convince you, and that this terrible events can stop.Via: Breitbart News | 0 |
4,253 | Mike Pence Abruptly Bails On PBS Interview, Crumbles Under Russia Pressure (TWEETS) | If Donald Trump and his team are trying to pretend that everything is fine and nothing s wrong, they re not doing a very good job.Earlier today, Trump kicked off the morning by indulging in his habitual Twitter habit whenever he s nervous about something. Providing a distraction from former FBI Director James Comey s testimony, Trump decided to announce his pick for a new FBI Director signaling that Trump is nervous as hell and desperate to take the heat off the Russia scandal. It turns out, his Vice President is also freaking out.Apparently, Mike Pence reacted to the release of Comey s opening statement by abruptly cancelling a scheduled interview literally right before it was supposed to happen! Now, Pence is cowering and has gone into hiding. Here s what went down, according to PBS:Pence bailed with no warning whatsoever!Comey s released opening statement has clearly taken the White House by surprise, and everyone s in panic mode now. The White House has been on media lockdown since the release of the statement, and Pence s response surely raised suspicions.Pence, without a doubt, cancelled that interview so he wouldn t have to answer questions about Comey because he could not only further incriminate Trump, but himself as well. Despite the fact that most of the focus has been on Trump, Pence is also in big trouble because of the Russia scandal. Trump s entire administration is in danger if he goes down.What happens tomorrow during Comey s testimony will likely change the entire direction of the Russia scandal, and it already looks as if it is going to mean bad news for Trump. All of the warning signs and red flags are present, and everyone close to Trump is now running for the hills. For Pence to cancel this interview certainly means something fishy is happening, and most of us can t wait to find out.Featured image via Alex Wong / Getty Images | 0 |
4,254 | South Africa's ANC decides on Israel embassy downgrade ahead of Jerusalem vote | JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s ruling ANC decided to downgrade its embassy in Tel Aviv to a liaison office over a U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital, ahead of a U.N. vote on Thursday on a resolution urging Washington to drop the move. The decision was taken at the end of a five-day African National Congress conference, in which Cyril Ramaphosa was elected as its new leader and South Africa s likely next president after 2019 elections, following Jacob Zuma. Delegates endorsed the proposal that we must give practical support to the oppressed people of Palestine and resolved on an immediate and unconditional downgrade of the SA (South Africa) Embassy in Israel to a Liaison Office, new ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule said on Thursday. There was no immediate comment from Israel s Foreign Ministry. South Africa s ministry for international relations and cooperation said on its website that it was deeply concerned about Trump s move as it would undermine Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, which has been frozen since 2014. The South African Board of Jewish Deputies and the South African Zionist Federation jointly condemned the ANC s decision. The 193-member U.N. General Assembly will hold a rare special session on Thursday at the request of Arab and Muslim states to vote on the draft resolution, which Washington vetoed on Monday in the 15-member U.N. Security Council. Most countries regard the status of Jerusalem as a matter to be settled in an eventual Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, although that process has been frozen for over three years. Israel deems 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 the 1967 Middle East War and annexed in a move never recognized internationally. The ANC s move comes at a time when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been pursuing closer ties with other African countries. Last month, on a visit to Kenya, Netanyahu announced that Israel was opening a new embassy in nearby Rwanda as part of the expanding Israeli presence in Africa and the deepening of cooperation between Israel and African countries . Israel is seeking to expel thousands of African migrants to Rwanda. On Thursday, Netanyahu described the United Nations as a house of lies on Thursday and said Israel totally rejects this vote, even before approval . Trump upended decades of U.S. policy on Dec. 6 when he recognized Jerusalem as Israel s capital, generating outrage from Palestinians and the Arab and Muslim world, and concern among Washington s Western allies. When under white-minority rule, South Africa was one of Israel s few allies on the continent. But after the 1994 demise of apartheid, relations cooled as the black-majority ANC took over. The ANC has condemned Israeli occupation of territories where Palestinians seek statehood, while maintaining full diplomatic and trade relations with Israel. | 1 |
4,255 | South African minister calls for ANC to discipline Zuma: report | JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s ruling African National Congress should discipline President Jacob Zuma for bringing the party into disrepute, housing minister and presidential hopeful Lindiwe Sisulu said on Friday. Sisulu s comments are the latest swipe taken at Zuma by former allies as the ANC fractures ahead of an elective conference in December where a new party leader will be chosen. Zuma can remain head of state until a 2019 parliamentary election. Sisulu, a veteran cabinet minister who comes from a prominent family in the struggle against apartheid, is seen as an outside bet to succeed Zuma. She said a report presented at the ANC s policy conference in July found that scandals surrounding Zuma had caused tensions and disquiet within the party. If we all agreed at the policy conference that that is what happened to the president, why was he not taken through a disciplinary process? Sisulu told Eyewitness News, a domestic news service. I have been insisting that there must be a disciplinary process so that if there is an interpretation that you put the ANC into disrepute, that is an offense. Spokesmen for Sisulu and Zuma did not respond to calls for comment. Members of the ANC have called for Zuma to step down in recent months following a series of corruption scandals, a much-criticized cabinet reshuffle and a failure to handle an economy that slipped into recession this year. Lawmaker Makhosi Khoza, a strident critic of Zuma, quit the ANC on Thursday, labeling Nelson Mandela s 105-year-old liberation movement alien and corrupt . Nkosozana Dlamini-Zuma, former chair of the African Union and Zuma s ex-wife, and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa are viewed as the frontrunners to take over as ANC leader. Dlamini-Zuma has the support of Zuma s powerful faction within the ANC while unionist-turned-business tycoon Ramaphosa is more popular with investors. | 1 |
4,256 | Mexico announces more help for migrants after tough Texas law | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico has been increasing actions to protect Mexican migrants in response to a law in Texas that allows police to question people about their immigration status, a Mexican official said on Monday. Deputy Foreign Minister for North America Carlos Sada said Mexico respected decisions by the United States but added that Mexico had increased the number of places where its citizens could seek information and legal aid from consulates. | 1 |
4,257 | North Korea would have to clear many conditions before Trump meeting possible: White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea would need to clear many conditions before a meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could be contemplated, the White House said on Monday. After Trump told Bloomberg News he would be honored to meet with Kim, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters the United States would need to see North Korea’s provocative behavior ratcheted down immediately. “Clearly conditions are not there right now,” Spicer said. | 1 |
4,258 | LISTEN UP! CHAIRMAN FOR TEENS FOR TRUMP Sends A Critical Message To The Never Trump Crowd [Video] | CJ Pierson is such a great kid! he s sending message to all the Never Trump crowd to think of their children and grandchildren in the coming election VOTE TRUMP! | 0 |
4,259 | House Republicans Forcing Fetal Tissue Researchers To Reveal Identities Despite Risk Of Violence | Using the long-debunked Planned Parenthood videos that were heavily edited to show the sale of fetal tissue, House Republicans have decided that if they can t punish PP, they would terrorize researchers instead:WASHINGTON A special House committee empaneled to investigate fetal tissue research is preparing to issue 17 subpoenas to medical supply companies and laboratories, seeking the names of researchers, graduate students, laboratory technicians and administrative personnel.The House investigation into how some of the nation s most prestigious universities acquire fetal tissue has prompted charges of intimidation and coercion, escalating a battle that some researchers fear could shut down studies seeking cures for Parkinson s disease, the Zika virus and a host of other conditions.Republicans know full well that the donation of aborted fetal tissue is perfectly legal and vitally necessary to life-saving research. But this is an election year, so they re willfully putting that same life-saving research in jeopardy just to feed red meat to their idiot base.If you listen carefully, you can already hear the so-called pro-life movement flexing their fingers, ready to start typing death threats to any researchers that have their names revealed. But don t call them domestic terrorists! They re just using fear and violence to get their way.Keep in mind, these researchers are literally saving millions of lives by curing diseases and discovering ways to fix traumatic damage to the human body. But once their names are forced into the public square, they will be called murderers and monsters by people who think the height of morality is screaming at teenage girls trying to get rid of their rapist s fetus.Even worse, if Republicans get their way, it s only a matter of time until some crazed, but somehow still responsible, gun owner goes on a rampage and shoots up a research facility to save the murdered babies or some such stupidity. Or maybe someone will just set the lab on fire. Or try to blow it up. The fact that they could be killing the person that cures cancer or destroying the research that could have ended birth defects won t even occur to them.This kind of short-term irresponsibility is all Republicans know how to do anymore. Exposing these people s names to the violent pro-life movement is a recipe for disaster but a surefire way to get votes. But it s not like they ll ever accept responsibility for the consequences, anyway.Featured image via AI archives | 0 |
4,260 | Tusk says EU to start transition talks with Britain | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The chairman of European Union leaders, Donald Tusk, said the bloc is ready to start negotiating a transition period with Britain after it leaves the EU, and it wanted more clarity from London on how it sees their new relationship after leaving. Tusk said Britain will have to respect all EU laws during the transition, as well as respect its budgetary commitments and the bloc s judicial oversight. But it would no longer take part in decision-making that will be done by the 27 remaining states. We are ready to start preparing a close UK-EU partnership in trade but also fight against terrorism and international crime, as well as security, defense and foreign policy, Tusk told reporters after British PM Theresa May arrived in Brussels with a Brexit deal. Tusk said, however, too much time was spent on negotiating the outlines of Britain s exit, which he said was the relatively easier part. We all know that breaking up is hard but breaking up and building a new relation is much harder, he said. So much time has been devoted to the easier task and now ... we have de facto less than a year, left of talks before Britain is due to leave in March, 2019. | 1 |
4,261 | WATCH: Joy Reid Shuts Down Trump Supporter For Peddling Lie After Lie About Hillary Clinton | Once again, a mouthpiece for Donald Trump gets their ass handed to them for blatantly lying on the air.During her show on Saturday morning, MSNBC host Joy Reid had to frustratingly correct Trump supporter David Malpass for making false claims about Hillary Clinton.It began with Reid talking about the alleged pay-to-play scandal Republicans have been accusing the former Secretary of State of conducting in conjunction with the Clinton Foundation during her years in the post.Reid explained that if Donald Trump gave $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation which then went to fighting AIDS in Africa, which benefits those who get treatment. Reid pointed out that getting a phone call from Clinton aide Huma Abedin is not proof of pay-to-play.However, Donald Trump giving $25,000 to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi s campaign in exchange for getting the investigation against Trump University dropped in that state is the very definition of pay-to-play.Malpass tried to claim that there were $10 million contributions but when challenged to provide proof of that claim Malpass could not do so. Reid called out Malpass for lying and went on to explain that the Associated Press found that only 85 of the meetings that Clinton had with people who were donors but not one of those meetings occurred after a donation was made.The AP story was pilloried, Reid said, because they attempted to find pay-to-play and found nothing. Huma Abedin emailing you back is not getting something, Reid continued. It s Huma Abedin emailing you back. Malpass, however, desperately tried to pin something on Hillary Clinton and brought up her emails, which have nothing to do with the topic at hand. Reid called Malpass out again, but he continued to claim that the emails brought out the information about the Clinton Foundation. Malpass also claimed that Hillary Clinton has not held any press conferences but Reid corrected him again by pointing out that she held two last week.As Reid repeatedly shamed Malpass for conflating press conferences, emails and foundations, her other guest Kurt Eichenwald broke out in laughter because Malpass was clearly making false claims.By the end of the segment, a frustrated Reid admitted that her head hurts after having to debunk so much bullshit from Trump s minions.Here s the video via YouTube.Trump and his team are desperate to make anything Clinton does into a scandal. And that s why any claims they make that they are somehow winning this election are complete bullshit. A winning campaign does not have to stoop to telling outright lies to the media every day. But that is what Trump is doing because his poll numbers have imploded and his campaign has fallen off a cliff.Republicans have waged countless witch hunts using taxpayer money in an effort to sabotage the woman who stands in their way of absolute power and they have failed miserably because the investigations have always cleared Hillary Clinton of wrongdoing. Rather than admit that, Trump and his minions would rather repeat lies because it s all they have left.Featured image via screenshot | 0 |
4,262 | White House official says North Korea is test for U.S.-China relations | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will discuss how to rein in North Korea’s nuclear program with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week in what a senior White House official said on Tuesday would be a test for the U.S.-Chinese relationship. Trump and Xi are to meet on Thursday and Friday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago retreat on the Atlantic coast in Palm Beach, Florida. It will be their first face-to-face meeting since Trump took office on Jan. 20, and trade and security issues are to figure prominently in their talks. “We would like to work on North Korea together,” the official said in a briefing for reporters. “This is a test for the relationship.” Trump wants China to do more to exert its economic influence over unpredictable Pyongyang to restrain its nuclear and missile programs, while Beijing has said it does not have that kind of influence. In an interview with the Financial Times last weekend, Trump held out the possibility of using trade as a lever to secure Chinese cooperation. In the same interview, Trump was quoted as telling the FT that Washington was ready to address the North Korean threat alone, if need be. The White House official — speaking just as North Korea fired a projectile believed by South Korea’s military to be a ballistic missile into the sea — said the situation had become more urgent. “The clock is very, very quickly running out,” the official said. “All options are on the table for us.” Trump does not plan to give in to Chinese pressure for the United States to withdraw its THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea, which Beijing considers destabilizing. Trump has said he expects the meeting to be a difficult one given his belief that China has taken advantage of U.S. trade policies to help its economy and hurt U.S. job creation. He plans to discuss with Xi a new “elevated” and streamlined framework for a U.S.-Chinese dialogue with “clear deadlines for achieving results,” the senior White House official said. He will discuss significant trade and economic concerns with Xi in what the official called a “candid and productive manner.” | 1 |
4,263 | Kenya opposition supporters urged to boycott three companies | NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya s opposition coalition has asked supporters to boycott three big companies it says benefit from ties to the government of President Uhuru Kenyatta, who won last week s repeat election after an opposition boycott. Wearing hats embroidered RESISTANCE , and speaking against a backdrop showing a clenched fist, members of parliament gave their supporters a week s notice to stop using products from telecoms giant Safaricom, dairy products from Brookside and Bidco cooking oils. We are calling for a boycott that will be painful, a boycott that will bring these companies to their knees until they stand for electoral justice, said Nakara Lodep, Turkana central lawmaker. Opposition leader Raila Odinga has called for a National Resistance Movement to protest the outcome of the repeat election, which was ordered by the Supreme Court after it annulled the results of an August poll over procedural irregularities. President Uhuru Kenyatta won a second, five-year term with 98 percent of the vote after Odinga boycotted the contest. Only 39 percent of registered voters took part. Lawmakers said Safaricom was targeted because it had helped transmit election results. Brookside Dairy is partly owned by Kenyatta s family and partly by French dairy giant Danone. A spokesman for Safaricom said the company had no immediate comment. Brookside and Bidco did not return messages seeking comment. Odinga has until Monday to file a Supreme Court case seeking to overturn the election. If there are no outstanding legal proceedings, Kenyatta will be inaugurated on Nov. 14. | 1 |
4,264 | JUST IN: DALLAS COWBOYS OWNER Jerry Jones Is Leading Effort To Oust NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell | Make no mistake about it, the NFL needs to show their fans that their players are serious about playing football, or the owners are going to continue to face catastrophic financial losses. The owners didn t hire Goodell to be their social justice director Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones led a conference call with 17 NFL owners on Thursday to discuss the possibility of halting commissioner Roger Goodell s pending contract extension.The owners on Thursday s conference call are unhappy with Goodell and the NFL s front office for a variety of reasons, including the player protests staged during the national anthem, issues regarding the relocation of teams to Los Angeles and the league s handling of the Ray Rice domestic violence case, sources told ESPN. You don t get to have this many messes over the years like Roger has had and survive it, one owner said during the call.Sources have previously said that Jones has tried to stand in the way of any extension for Goodell.Last month, ESPN reported that Jones was impeding the progress of contract negotiations aimed at an extension for Goodell. If not for Jerry, one owner said last month in regard to the contract negotiations, this deal would be done. The tension between Jones and Goodell is in part credited to the commissioner giving Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott a six-game suspension, which is currently being disputed in court.Another factor in the frustration with Goodell is the controversy surrounding players kneeling during the national anthem.Goodell won t mandate the players stand while Jones is threatening Cowboys onto their feet.Earlier this month, Jones said that any of his players who disrespect the flag won t be allowed to play. I know this, we cannot in the NFL in any way give the implication that we tolerate disrespecting the flag, Jones, also the team s general manager, said after a 35-31 loss to the Green Bay Packers on October 8.The previous week, Jones knelt along with head coach Jason Garrett and all their players in the middle of the field on September 26 in a show of unity before they all stood for the anthem before their 28-17 win over the Arizona Cardinals. Spoke to Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys yesterday. Jerry is a winner who knows how to get things done. Players will stand for Country! President Trump tweeted.On the other side of the debate, Goodell strongly backed the players and criticized Trump for an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL. For entire story- Daily Mail | 0 |
4,265 | One Of The Worst Right-Wing Trolls Just Got Banned From Twitter FOREVER | Right-wing super troll and Breitbart.com contributor Milo Yiannopoulos has been banned from Twitter forever. The announcement comes from the social network after years of Yiannopoulos using the service to direct his followers to hound and harass people with racist, bigoted, and sexist threats.That ended on Tuesday.But this week he went far. According to Twitter, it was Yiannopoulos who led the harassment campaign against Ghostbusters actor Leslie Jones that inspired the SNL cast member s decision to leave Twitter. The tweets, many of which targeted Jones for being black and a woman, were the final straw for Twitter, which is taking steps to try to solve its harassment problem.According to the company, the permanent suspension isn t a matter of speech as much as a matter of behavior specifically, a violation of Twitter s rules regarding the targeted abuse of specific users.Yiannopoulos and his rabid fan base went after Jones because they view her role in the all-female Ghostbusters as an attack on men, and believe the movie should be attacked, no matter the merits of the film on its own.As a result, when the so-called alt-right pundit directed his followers to Jones, the actress received numerous tweets comparing her to a monkey or baboon and a torrent of racist and sexist epithets.Jones, frustrated that Twitter was not responding to clear violations of its user policy prohibiting such actions, began to post the threats she received as a form of protest against the company. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey finally reached out to Jones, but only after hours of posting the clear violations.Yiannopoulos has styled himself as a provocateur on what he and his followers call the alt-right. The movement though is not really alt but is a throwback to some of the racist and sexist impulses that have lived on the right for decades. Alt-right supporters of Trump have often sent anti-Semitic images and messages to journalists who they feel are not supportive enough of the Republican nominee.Featured image via YouTube | 0 |
4,266 | Repeat Deceit: How US Tries to Link Iran to Al Qaeda | When it comes to interpreting current events, no one does official conspiracy theories like the Unite States.For years, Washington has tried to promulgate a propaganda campaign which tries to somehow link al Qaeda to Iran, or ISIS to Iran. For the mentally-challenged members of the right-wing media in the US, this isn t a massive feat, as a large segment of that audience cannot even locate Iran on a global map. There is also the issue of US warhawks like Lindsey Graham and John McCain being proven pathological liars who will say anything regardless of whether it s based in actual fact. All of this contributes to a number of shallow, creative narratives which continuously circulate between FOX News, The Atlantic Magazine, Tel Aviv, Riyadh and the US Senate.And just like the US and UK mainstream media s coverage of Syria, the deep throat source in this dossier is al Qaeda.This latest chapter in the US fantasy world of Iranian intrigue attempts to further the Israeli-favoured mythology, blaming Iran for all of the region s woes. Make no mistake: the American neoconservative wing and their Israeli benefactors are determined to invent new conditions for war with Iran IMAGE: Bush s al Qaeda No.2 Guy Abu Musab al ZarqawiGareth Porter The American Conservative For many years, major U.S. institutions ranging from the Pentagon to the 9/11 Commission have been pushing the line that Iran secretly cooperated with Al Qaeda both before and after the 9/11 terror attacks. But the evidence for those claims remained either secret or sketchy, and always highly questionable.In early November, however, the mainstream media claimed to have its smoking gun a CIA document written by an unidentified Al Qaeda official and released in conjunction with 47,000 never-before-seen documents seized from Osama bin Laden s house in Abbottabad, Pakistan.The Associated Press reported that the Al Qaeda document appears to bolster U.S. claims that Iran supported the extremist network leading up to the September 11 terror attacks. The Wall Street Journal said the document provides new insights into Al Qaeda s relationship with Iran, suggesting a pragmatic alliance that emerged out of shared hatred of the United States and Saudi Arabia. NBC News wrote that the document reveals that, at various points in the relationship Iran offered Al Qaeda help in the form of money, arms and training in Hezbollah camps in Lebanon in exchange for striking American interests in the Gulf, implying that Al Qaeda had declined the offer.Former Obama National Security Council spokesman Ned Price, writing for The Atlantic, went even further, asserting that the document includes an account of a deal with Iranian authorities to host and train Saudi-Al Qaeda members as long as they have agreed to plot against their common enemy, American interests in the Gulf region. But none of those media reports were based on any careful reading of the document s contents. The 19-page Arabic-language document, which was translated in full for The American Conservative, doesn t support the media narrative of new evidence of Iran-Al Qaeda cooperation, either before or after 9/11, at all.It provides no evidence whatsoever of tangible Iranian assistance to Al Qaeda. On the contrary, it confirms previous evidence that Iranian authorities quickly rounded up those Al Qaeda operatives living in the country when they were able to track them down, and held them in isolation to prevent any further contact with Al Qaeda units outside Iran.Taken by SurpriseWhat it shows is that the Al Qaeda operatives were led to believe Iran was friendly to their cause and were quite taken by surprise when their people were arrested in two waves in late 2002. It suggests that Iran had played them, gaining the fighters trust while maximizing intelligence regarding Al Qaeda s presence in Iran.Nevertheless, this account, which appears to have been written by a mid-level Al Qaeda cadre in 2007, appears to bolster an internal Al Qaeda narrative that the terror group rejected Iranian blandishments and were wary of what they saw as untrustworthiness on the part of the Iranians. The author asserts the Iranians offered Saudi Al Qaeda members who had entered the country money and arms, anything they need, and training with Hezbollah in exchange for hitting American interests in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. But there is no word about whether any Iranian arms or money were ever actually given to Al Qaeda fighters. And the author acknowledges that the Saudis in question were among those who had been deported during sweeping arrests, casting doubt over whether there was ever any deal in the offing.The author suggests Al Qaeda rejected Iranian assistance on principle. We don t need them, he insisted. Thanks to God, we can do without them, and nothing can come from them but evil. That theme is obviously important to maintaining organizational identity and morale. But later in the document, the author expresses deep bitterness about what they obviously felt was Iranian double-dealing in 2002 to 2003. They are ready to play-act, he writes of the Iranians. Their religion is lies and keeping quiet. And usually they show what is contrary to what is in their mind . It is hereditary with them, deep in their character. The author recalls that Al Qaeda operatives were ordered to move to Iran in March 2002, three months after they had left Afghanistan for Waziristan or elsewhere in Pakistan (the document, by the way, says nothing of any activity in Iran before 9/11). He acknowledges that most of his cadres entered Iran illegally, although some of them obtained visas from the Iranian consulate in Karachi.Among the latter was Abu Hafs al Mauritani, an Islamic scholar who was ordered by the leadership shura in Pakistan to seek Iranian permission for Al Qaeda fighters and families to pass through Iran or to stay there for an extended period. He was accompanied by middle- and lower-ranking cadres, including some who worked for Abu Musab al Zarqawi. The account clearly suggests that Zarqawi himself had remained in hiding after entering Iran illegally.Strict ConditionsAbu Hafs al Mauratani did reach an understanding with Iran, according to the Al Qaeda account, but it had nothing to do with providing arms or money. It was a deal that allowed them to remain for some period or to pass through the country, but only on the condition that they observe very strict security conditions: no meetings, no use of cell phones, no movements that would attract attention. The account attributes those restrictions to Iranian fears of U.S. retribution which was undoubtedly part of the motivation. But it is clear Iran viewed Al Qaeda as an extremist Salafist security threat to itself as well.Most of the Al Qaeda visitors, according to the Al Qaeda document, settled in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchistan Province where the majority of the population are Sunnis and speak Baluchi. They generally violated the security restrictions imposed by the Iranians. They established links with the Baluchis who he notes were also Salafists and began holding meetings. Some of them even made direct contact by phone with Salafist militants in Chechnya, where a conflict was rapidly spiraling out of control. Saif al-Adel, one of the leading Al Qaeda figures in Iran at the time, later revealed that the Al Qaeda fighting contingent under Abu Musab al Zarqawi s command immediately began reorganizing to return to Afghanistan.Waves of ArrestsThe first Iranian campaign to round up Al Qaeda personnel, which the author of the documents says was focused on Zahedan, came in May or June 2002 no more than three months after they have had entered Iran. Those arrested were either jailed or deported to their home countries. The Saudi Foreign Minister praised Iran in August for having transferred 16 Al Qaeda suspects to the Saudi government in June.In February 2003, Iranian security launched a new wave of arrests. This time they captured three major groups of Al Qaeda operatives in Tehran and Mashad, including Zarqawi and other top leaders in the country, according to the document. Saif al Adel later revealed in a post on a pro-Al Qaeda website in 2005 (reported in the Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq al-Awsat), that the Iranians had succeeded in capturing 80 percent of the group associated with Zarqawi, and that it had caused the failure of 75 percent of our plan. The anonymous author writes that the initial Iran policy was to deport those arrested and that Zarqawi was allowed to go to Iraq (where he plotted attacks on Shia and coalition forces until his death in 2006). But then, he says, the policy suddenly changed and the Iranians stopped deportations, instead opting to keep the Al Qaeda senior leadership in custody presumably as bargaining chips. Yes, Iran deported 225 Al Qaeda suspects to other countries, including Saudi Arabia, in 2003. But the Al Qaeda leaders were held in Iran, not as bargaining chips, but under tight security to prevent them from communicating with the Al Qaeda networks elsewhere in the region, which Bush administration officials eventually acknowledged.After the arrests and imprisonment of senior al Qaeda figures, the Al Qaeda leadership became increasingly angry at Iran. In November 2008, unknown gunmen abducted an Iran consular official in Peshawar, Pakistan, and in July 2013, al Qaeda operatives in Yemen kidnapped an Iranian diplomat. In March 2015, Iran reportedly released five of the senior al Qaeda in prison, including Said al-Adel, in return for the release of the diplomat in Yemen.In a document taken from the Abbottabad compound and published by West Point s Counter-Terrorism Center in 2012, a senior Al Qaeda official wrote, We believe that our efforts, which included escalating a political and media campaign, the threats we made, the kidnapping of their friend the commercial counselor in the Iranian Consulate in Peshawar, and other reasons that scared them based on what they saw (we are capable of), to be among the reasons that led them to expedite (the release of these prisoners). There was a time when Iran did view Al Qaeda as an ally. It was during and immediately after the war of the mujahedin against Soviet troops in Afghanistan. That, of course, was the period when the CIA was backing bin Laden s efforts as well. But after the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 1996 and especially after Taliban troops killed 11 Iranian diplomats in Mazar-i-Sharif in 1998 the Iranian view of Al Qaeda changed fundamentally. Since then, Iran has clearly regarded it as an extreme sectarian terrorist organization and its sworn enemy. What has not changed is the determination of the U.S. national security state and the supporters of Israel to maintain the myth of an enduring Iranian support for Al Qaeda.Gareth Porter is an independent journalist and winner of the 2012 Gellhorn Prize for journalism. This article originally appeared at The American Conservative.READ MORE IRAN NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Iran NewsSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE NOW & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 |
4,267 | Trump administration to expand groups of immigrants to be deported: documents | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration plans to direct immigration agents to greatly expand the categories of immigrants they target for deportation, according to drafts of two memos seen by Reuters and first reported by McClatchy news organization on Saturday. Two sources familiar with the plans told Reuters the documents have been approved by Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, but are under final review by the White House. They are expected to be released to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) early next week. Under the orders, hundreds of thousands of people would face expedited removal proceedings, including those that had not been prioritized for deportation under former President Barack Obama. The memos are guidance to instruct agents in the field to implement two executive orders signed by Trump on Jan. 25 intended to deter future migration and drive out more illegal migrants from the United States. One memo instructs ICE agents to ignore Obama’s memos on immigration priorities that targeted only recent arrivals and convicted criminal migrants for deportation. Instead, migrants who have been charged with crimes but not convicted would be prioritized for deportation. The guidance also allows ICE agents wide discretion in deciding who to deport and considers anyone in the United States illegally to be subject to deportation. The guidance does leave in place Obama’s 2012 executive action that protected 750,000 people brought to the United States illegally by their parents. The fate of the policy, known as DACA, has been hotly debated within the White House, according to sources familiar with the discussions. Trump said in a news conference Friday that DACA was a “very difficult subject” for him. The ICE memo also states that immigrants will not be afforded rights under U.S. privacy laws. The second memo instructs CBP officers to crack down on illegal migration at the border by holding migrants in detention until a determination in their case is made. The Department of Homeland Security did not deny any information contained in the draft memos but did not provide further detail. A source familiar with the guidance said the memos were scheduled to be distributed on Friday but the White House made a last-minute request to review them. It is not known whether the White House may alter the guidance. Kelly said in one of the memos that illegal immigration across the U.S. border with Mexico had “created a significant national security vulnerability to the United States.” | 1 |
4,268 | France urges all sides in Cameroon to show restraint after eight killed | PARIS (Reuters) - France called on all sides to show restraint and reject violence after soldiers killed at least eight people and wounded others in Cameroon s restless English-speaking regions on Sunday, during protests by activists calling for its independence. France is following the situation in Cameroon carefully and is preoccupied by the incidents that took place over the weekend, foreign ministry spokeswoman Agnes Romatet-Espagne told reporters in a daily online briefing on Monday. We call on all the actors to show restraint and reject violence, she added. | 1 |
4,269 | Factbox: Trump on Twitter (Oct 24) - Bob Corker, Stock Market | The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS. The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy. @realDonaldTrump : - Bob Corker, who helped President O give us the bad Iran Deal & couldn’t get elected dog catcher in Tennessee, is now fighting Tax Cuts.... [0813 EDT] - ...Corker dropped out of the race in Tennesse when I refused to endorse him, and now is only negative on anything Trump. Look at his record! [0820 EDT] - Isn’t it sad that lightweight Senator Bob Corker, who couldn’t get re-elected in the Great State of Tennessee, will now fight Tax Cuts plus! [0930 EDT] - Sen. Corker is the incompetent head of the Foreign Relations Committee, & look how poorly the U.S. has done. He doesn’t have a clue as..... [1013 EDT] - ...the entire World WAS laughing and taking advantage of us. People like liddle’ Bob Corker have set the U.S. way back. Now we move forward! [1020 EDT] - Stock Market just hit another record high! Jobs looking very good. [1035 EDT] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR) | 1 |
4,270 | Trump undermines U.S. birth control coverage requirement | WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday undermined requirements under the Obamacare law that employers provide insurance to cover women’s birth control, keeping a campaign pledge that pleased his conservative Christian supporters. New rules from the Department of Health and Human Services will let businesses or non-profit organizations lodge religious or moral objections to obtain an exemption from the law’s mandate that employers provide contraceptives coverage in health insurance with no co-payment. Conservative Christian activists and congressional Republicans praised the move, while reproductive rights advocates and Democrats criticized it. It was unclear how many employers would actually drop birth control coverage on religious grounds, and there were significant doubts that many big ones would. Within hours, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the administration in federal court in San Francisco to try to halt the rule, claiming among other things that it violated the U.S. Constitution’s requirement for separation of church and state. The states of Massachusetts and California also sued, and Democratic state attorneys general in another 16 states threatened legal action. “This is a landmark day for religious liberty. Under the Obama administration, this constitutional right was seriously eroded,” Republican House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said. “The Trump administration just took direct aim at birth control coverage for 62 million women,” Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards said. “With this rule in place, any employer could decide that their employees no longer have health insurance coverage for birth control,” Richards added. Trump, who criticized the birth control mandate in last year’s election campaign, won strong support from conservative Christian voters. The Republican president signed an executive order in May asking for rules that would allow faith-based groups to deny insurance coverage for services they oppose on religious grounds. The contraception mandate was implemented as part of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, Democratic former President Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement. Trump and Republicans in Congress campaigned against Obamacare, as the law is known, but could not get enough votes to repeal it as they had promised. In its reasoning for the move, the administration said among other things that mandating birth control coverage could foster “risky sexual behavior” among teens and young adults. It overturned the Obama administration’s view that the birth control requirement was necessary to meet the government’s “compelling interest” to protect women’s health. “This administration’s contempt for women reaches a new low with this appalling decision,” top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi said. The administration broadened narrow existing religious exemptions to include an exception “on the basis of moral conviction” for non-profit and for-profit companies. Federal rules implemented under Obamacare required employers to provide health insurance that covers birth control, but religious houses of worship were exempted. Some private businesses sued regarding their rights to circumvent such coverage, and the Supreme Court ruled in 2014 that they could object on religious grounds. Case Western Reserve University School of Law professor Jonathan Adler said it was unlikely publicly traded companies would seek exemptions. “Why would a publicly traded company risk alienating potential shareholders by taking such a step?” Adler said. Ellen Kelsay, chief strategy officer at the National Business Group on Health, a lobbying group for large companies, said, “Most large employers have provided coverage for birth control prior to any mandates and we expect most will continue to do so irrespective of any exemptions that may become available.” According to one estimate, only 3 percent of nonprofit groups offering health benefits have objected to contraceptives coverage. “HHS has issued a balanced rule that respects all sides - it keeps the contraceptive mandate in place for most employers and now provides a religious exemption,” said Mark Rienzi, one of the lawyers for the Little Sisters of the Poor. The order of Roman Catholic nuns, which runs care homes for the elderly, had challenged the mandate in court. The Little Sisters and other Christian nonprofit employers objected to a 2013 compromise offered by the Obama administration that allowed entities opposed to providing contraception insurance coverage to comply with the law without actually paying for the required coverage. The Justice Department released two memos that will serve as the government’s legal basis for justifying the rule and laying out a framework for how apply religious liberty issues in legal opinions, federal rules and grant making. In another decision popular with Trump’s evangelical supporters, the Justice Department on Wednesday reversed federal policy and declared that federal law banning sex discrimination in the workplace does not protect transgender employees. Trump also has removed protections for transgender students and moved to ban transgender people from the military. Trump’s support among evangelical voters, a major force in his 2016 election victory, remains strong, but has been slipping in line with his overall approval ratings, according to recent Reuters/Ipsos poll results. | 1 |
4,271 | Syria Strike Completely Backfires Against Trump; Even His Hard Core Supporters Are DONE | In case you just woke up, the United States is now at war with Syria. It was waged without congressional approval and by a man who ran on a platform of isolationism. Now, his isolationist followers are pissed.It doesn t help that the favorite conspiracy theorist of Trump and his followers called the Assad attack on his own people a false flag designed to take us to war. According to his followers, Trump fell for it, hook, line and sinker. Or, he was lying to them all along.The Trump of weeks past was firmly against any action in Syria. He even accused President Obama of wanting to wage war in Syria over falling poll numbers. Now that Trump s poll numbers are in a complete tailspin, he desperately attacked Syria.Now that Obama s poll numbers are in tailspin watch for him to launch a strike in Libya or Iran. He is desperate. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 9, 2012He also said that Obama would have had to get congressional approval. Obama tried to, but Trump didn t.The President must get Congressional approval before attacking Syria-big mistake if he does not! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 30, 2013Now that the man who s proven himself to have zero principles is occupying the White House, his rules have changed, but his supporters haven t. They feel duped.Deep State really pushing for a conflict with Russia. The desperation for a war is unreal. #SyriaHoax #StopWW3 #SyriaStrikes https://t.co/qjQplDt95u ?/K/aitilyn? (@kitty_Kaiti) April 7, 2017I think you should worry more about draining the swamp than getting America into new wars. #SyriaStrikes #SyriaHoax @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/gcHbeikEHf Jody Paulson (@JodyPaulson) April 7, 2017John McCain is far more of a threat to this country than Bashar al-Assad could ever be. #SyriaHoax Virginia Dare (@vdare) April 7, 2017Trump Told Us For Years to Not Bomb Syria >Help Elect Trump >Trump Bombs SyriaWhy Do I Even Bother? #SyriaStrikes #SyriaHoax pic.twitter.com/ioLuvfLfMY Battle Beagle (@HarmlessYardDog) April 7, 2017.@realDonaldTrumpPeople voted for you to stop the 3rd world invasion & to MAGA not for more neocon wars. Kushner is poison#SyriaHoax Gregory Montfort (@GregMontfort) April 7, 2017Sad day for the millions of Americans who voted @realDonaldTrump because they didn t want Hillary s wars. Sad day for humanity #SyriaHoax Ozreality media (@ozrealitymedia) April 7, 2017From a Vet to @POTUS 1.) Focus on infrastructure 2.) Focus on American jobs 3.) Focus on the homeland its what you ran on #SyriaHoax Based Monitored ?? (@BasedMonitored) April 7, 2017At least it s encouraging that people are beginning to see through Trump s shallow attempt at regaining popularity, but there s little doubt that his approval numbers will rise after the attack, just because so many Americans love war.Featured image via Mark Wilson/Getty Images. | 0 |
4,272 | Mexican President Tells Trump One More Time That Mexico Isn’t Paying For His Stupid Wall (VIDEO) | Donald Trump gave his first press conference since being elected today. He stood on that stage and told the American people yet again that Mexico was going to pay for the wall he wants to build along our southern border. But at the same time, the president of Mexico was insisting once more that they aren t paying for Trump s stupid wall.Speaking to a group of Mexico s ambassadors and consuls on Wednesday, Mexican President Enrique Pe a Nieto said that Mexico has some differences with the next government of the United States, like the topic of the wall that Mexico of course will not pay for. Pe a Nieto said that no matter what Trump may say, Mexico isn t going to foot the bill for the wall. He also said in no uncertain terms that Mexico s basic principles and sovereignty are simply not negotiable. In addition, Pe a Nieto added that if there are to be any negotiations between the United States and Mexico there has to be a concerted effort to stop the illegal arms and money that are flowing into Mexico from the United States.Meanwhile, Trump was saying this on live television: We re going to build a wall. I could wait about a year and a half until we start our negotiations with Mexico, he said, but I don t feel like waiting a year and a half. I want to get the wall started. I don t want wait a year and half to make a deal with Mexico. Trump now says that the American taxpayers are going to be the ones who will actually fund the building of the wall. But he says he has a great plan, the best plan, to bully Mexico into paying us back.Trump has been told repeatedly that Mexico is not going to pay for his wall, but he just can t seem to get that through his thick orange skull. He thinks he can bully anyone into anything. But it doesn t look like Mexico is planning to bow down to Trump anytime soon, and in case you didn t catch it, they most certainly aren t going to pay for that damn wall.Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images | 0 |
4,273 | Social media firms summoned to U.S. Congressional hearings on Russia | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Representatives of Facebook, Twitter and Google have been asked to appear on Nov. 1 at hearings on alleged Russian interference in U.S. politics called by the U.S. Senate and House Intelligence Committees, officials said. Facebook and Twitter have already agreed to send representatives to the Senate committee hearing, a Congressional official said. An official knowledgeable about House committee plans declined to disclosed whether the companies have agreed to send representatives to its hearing. Sources said that Google had not yet notified the committees that it would send representatives to the hearings, though ultimately the company was likely to do so. | 1 |
4,274 | Ted Cruz Goes FULL Right-Wing Lunatic Trying To Raise Support Off Obama’s Gun Actions (IMAGES) | As they say, desperate times call for desperate measures, and as all the right-wing lunatics of the Republican party seem to be drifting towards Donald Trump, Ted Cruz knew what he had to do go full right-wing lunatic himself.After President Obama announced his common sense executive actions for gun reform and a safer America, many Republicans were outraged. After all, fewer guns in the hands of the mentally ill means fewer massacres, which in turns means people won t be as scared and in turn go out and buy stockpiles of unnecessary firearms. Republicans, bought and paid for by the gun lobby, want to make sure people stay scared and have as many guns as possible.Well, Senator Ted Cruz, doing all he can to fear-monger his base of voters too stupid to realize they re being manipulated, decided he would have some fun with photoshop and scare people into supporting him. He sent out this to entice people:via tedcruz.orgOr from a mobile device: via tedcruz.orgMind you, President Obama said nothing of taking guns from anyone, or wanting anyone s guns. He s done nothing to, in any way, go against the Second Amendment which calls for citizens to be well regulated. Obama is simply trying to make sure existing laws are followed and the wrong people don t have access to buy firearms.Now, unless these right-wingers are terrified that they are going to be labeled the ones who are mentally ill, none of this effects them whatsoever. In fact, it strengthens the Second Amendment and the rights of law-abiding gun owners.However, Cruz, knowing his supporters are paranoid idiots, is preying on this fear for support and sends them an image of a militarized President Obama with the very false and simplistic phrase, OBAMA WANTS YOUR GUNS, perfectly catering to the fear these simple-minded, myopic voters have.We could say, shame on you to Ted Cruz for doing this, but to his credit, this sort of fear-mongering, albeit utterly inaccurate and unethical, works for Republican politicians. They have perfectly wrapped up the terrified conspiracy theorist vote, and this imagery play perfectly into that narrative.That being said, shame on you, Cruz. This is just pathetic.Featured image: tedcruz.org/flickr | 0 |
4,275 | Without Evidence, Trump Launches 59 Cruise Missiles, Destroying Syrian Air Force Base | Last night President Donald Trump caved into the Pentagon, the political left, the Neoconservative pro-war lobby and mainstream media pressure to act after the release of YouTube videos produced by the US and UK-funded NGO the White Helmets of an alleged chemical weapons attack by the Syrian Airforce in the al Qaeda stronghold of Idlib in Syria. Following the US missile strike, Al Qaeda leaders in Syria have hailed the move by Trump, expressing their gratitude for the US President s knee-jerk military action.Al Qaeda and ISIS supporters Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey have also expressed thanks to Trump for helping to degrade the Syrian military who have been fighting and winning against al Qaeda in Syria, ISIS and a host of other Gulf-sponsored terrorist groups operating in Syria.Salafist Jihadist group Ahrar al-Sham welcoming the strikes. Thanks America. pic.twitter.com/4PQzv1PVjw Ali (@Ali_Kourani) April 7, 2017Trump s strike on Syria also helped ISIS who have been losing to the Syrian Army recently in the area of Homs and Palmyra.The Guardian confirms: Tonight I ordered a targeted military strike on the airfield in Syria from where the chemical attack was launched.It is in this vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.There can be no dispute that Syria used banned chemical weapons, violated its obligations under the chemical weapons convention, and ignored the urging of the UN security council.Years of previous attempts at changing Assad s behaviour have all failed and failed very dramatically. There was an angry response in Russia, where the Kremlin warned that the strikes would cause significant damage to US-Russia ties .NOTE: Tillerson has now gone so far as to blame Russia for allowing Syria to mount this attack They would act as the guarantor that these weapons would no longer be present in Syria. Clearly Russia has failed in its responsibility to deliver on that commitment from 2013. Either Russia has been complicit or Russia has been simply incompetent in its ability to deliver on its end of that agreement. SEE ALSO: Reviving the Chemical Weapons Lie: New US-UK Calls for Regime Change, Military Attack Against SyriaDespite the fact that no evidence, other than YouTube videos, that the Syrian government launched a chemical airstrikes in Idlib, the US government and the mainstream media are ignoring multiple evidential reports of Rebels (terrorists) holding and using chemical weapons in Syria.What was these Saudi dangerous chemicals doing in Qaeda depos in E Aleppo last year?! Let's ask CNN or BBC!! pic.twitter.com/g6WTWTgpl4 Fares Shehabi (@ShehabiFares) April 6, 2017Three years ago the same chemical rebels bombed the Akrama school in Homs! 45 kids were killed. No Nato barking at the UN! Hypocrisy! pic.twitter.com/UXZHbReoTc Fares Shehabi (@ShehabiFares) April 5, 2017STAY TUNED FOR UPDATESREAD MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Syria FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 |
4,276 | Republican senator dismisses procedural claims on Russia sanctions bill | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee said on Monday that if the House of Representatives does not pass a Russian sanctions bill, it is because members do not want to impose new sanctions, not because of a procedural issue cited by Republican leaders in the House. “There is no issue, except do they want to pass a Russia sanctions bill or not,” Senator Bob Corker told reporters at the U.S. Senate. The Senate passed the sanctions measure by 98-2 on June 15, but it has been stalled in the House, where President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans hold a larger majority than in the Senate. House Republican leaders insisted the delay was purely because the bill violated a constitutional requirement that legislation affecting government revenues must originate in the House, not the Senate. They also blamed Democrats for holding it up. Democrats, and some Republicans, scoffed. They said the bill could have been fixed and passed in the House in a matter of minutes. Trump administration officials said they disagree with provisions in the bill requiring the president to get Congress’ permission before easing any sanctions, and the fact that many of the new sanctions are mandatory, so that the president cannot opt to waive them for national security reasons. Some Republicans have also echoed concerns raised by U.S. energy firms and European governments that the legislation could complicate investment in Russian energy projects, and potentially cost industry jobs. Corker said the bill was written to allow the Trump administration to address energy-related issues. And he said any White House would prefer to conduct foreign policy without Congress, but the administration had not asked him to kill the bill. “No one has called me and said, ‘We don’t want this legislation to pass.’ That has never occurred,” Corker said. Lawmakers and aides said administration officials had held meetings in Congress in the past few weeks to express their concerns about the measure. The Senate passed the bill a second time by unanimous consent on June 29, with a “fix” to address the procedural issue, but it has still not been taken up by the House. House Republicans said on Monday that the Senate change had not satisfied the procedural concern and that the Senate would have to change it and vote again. | 1 |
4,277 | Egypt's Sisi to meet Lebanon's Hariri on Tuesday - Egypt presidency | CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will meet Saad al-Hariri, who announced his resignation as Lebanese prime minister on Nov. 4, on Tuesday evening, the presidency said on Monday. Sisi and Hariri s meeting will address the latest developments in the region and developments of the Lebanon situation, a statement from Egypt s presidency said. Hariri has since Saturday been in Paris, where he met French President Emmanuel Macron. He has said he will return to Lebanon by Wednesday for the country s Independence Day celebrations. Lebanese President Michel Aoun has said he will not accept Hariri s resignation until it is delivered in person and all sides in Beirut have called for his speedy return. The resignation sparked a political crisis in Lebanon and put it on the front line of a regional power struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Hariri criticised Iran and its ally Hezbollah, which is in Lebanon s coalition government, in his resignation. | 1 |
4,278 | WATCH: Even CNN Admits Tax Bill That “Not One Democrat Voted For” Gives Working Families “Damn Good Money” | On Wednesday, a jubilant President Trump tweeted about the passage of the biggest in history Tax Cut and Reform Bill. Not one Democrat voted for the massive tax cut bill that will put real money back into the pocket of working families.The United States Senate just passed the biggest in history Tax Cut and Reform Bill. Terrible Individual Mandate (ObamaCare)Repealed. Goes to the House tomorrow morning for final vote. If approved, there will be a News Conference at The White House at approximately 1:00 P.M. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 20, 2017As it turns out, the Democrats embarrassing #Resist plan is not to do one thing to help parents put food on the table or take that vacation they haven t been able to afford for the past 8 years. As Democrats try to create mass hysteria over the Republican tax reform bill, left-wing news organizations like CNN have admitted that the tax bill is going to give working families damn good money. On Wednesday, CNN host John King said, The Republicans are making a big bet, taking a big risk. Will over time the American people say, Oh, actually I like having more money in my pocket. Oh, they did hire more people at the factory down the street. That s their big bet, King said. Not one Democrat has voted for a bill that cuts taxes by $1.5 trillion, King continued. To Abby s point, if you re a working-class family, a lot of people say, Oh, it s only $200, $300, but if you re a working-class family living paycheck to paycheck, $200-$300 is damn good money and you are grateful for it. Daily WireWATCH:CNN s John King: The Republican tax bill gives working-class families damn good money. pic.twitter.com/PG4TRJ1JF4 Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) December 20, 2017Businesses are also pleased with the new pro-growth, pro-business tax plan, and as a result, more workers will be hired in America and many of the current workers will see pay raises and/or bonuses.According to the Daily Wire, seven American businesses announced on Wednesday that they would both be investing hundreds of millions of dollars in their employees because of Republican tax reform bill that the Senate passed on Tuesday night.AT&T announced that once President Donald Trump signed the bill into law that they would invest an additional $1 billion in the United States in 2018 and pay a special $1,000 bonus to more than 200,000 AT&T U.S. employees. AT&T further noted that if Trump signed the bill before Christmas that the company will receive the bonus over the holidays.Boeing announced an immediate commitment to investing an additional $300 million in three areas that will directly benefit their employees:$100 million for corporate giving, with funds used to support demand for employee gift-match programs and for investments in Boeing s focus areas for charitable giving: in education, in our communities, and for veterans and military personnel. $100 million for workforce development in the form of training, education, and other capabilities development to meet the scale needed for rapidly evolving technologies and expanding markets. $100 million for workplace of the future facilities and infrastructure enhancements for Boeing employees.Fifth Third Bancorp, a bank headquartered in Ohio, announced that they would raise the minimum hourly wage for all employees to $15 following the tax reform bill and would give a one-time bonus of $1,000 to more than 13,500 of its employees.Wells Fargo announced that they will increase their minimum hourly pay rate to $15, and will aim for $400M in philanthropic donations next year due to the newly-passed GOP tax bill. Comcast announced that they will give $1,000 bonuses to over 100,000 eligible frontline and non-executive employees & invest $50 billion over the next five years in infrastructure based on the passage of tax reform. FedEx announced that the company will ramp up hiring in response to the tax bill.CVS Health announced in October that it the corporate tax rate went down that it would create 3,000 permanent new jobs.Here s President Donald J. Trump s latest tweet with a video explaining the benefits to farmers and middle-income Americans:WE ARE MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! pic.twitter.com/HY353gXV0R Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 20, 2017 | 0 |
4,279 | Highlights: The Trump presidency on March 31 at 6:19 p.m. EDT | (Reuters) - Highlights of the day for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday: Trump backs a decision by his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, to seek immunity in congressional investigations of possible ties between his campaign and Russia, but there is no immediate sign the request will be granted. The Trump administration slams China on a range of trade issues from its chronic industrial overcapacity to forced technology transfers and longstanding bans on U.S. beef and electronic payment services. Beijing seeks to play down tensions with the United States and put on a positive face ahead of President Xi Jinping’s first meeting with Trump next week. Senate Democrats step closer to having enough votes to block a confirmation vote on Trump’s Supreme Court nominee with three more Democratic senators coming out against Neil Gorsuch for the lifetime job as a justice. Trump seeks to push his plan for fair trade and more manufacturing jobs back to the top of his agenda by ordering a study into the causes of U.S. trade deficits and a clampdown on import duty evasion. Trump has neither a clear White House tax plan nor adequate staff yet to see through a planned tax overhaul, according to interviews with people in the administration, in Congress and among U.S. tax experts. Democrats are trying to counter Trump’s boldest move yet to defang the U.S. consumer financial watchdog, with 40 current and former lawmakers defending the agency in court. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s scientific integrity watchdog is reviewing whether EPA chief Scott Pruitt violated the agency’s policies when he said in a television interview he does not believe carbon dioxide is driving global climate change, according to an email seen by Reuters. Trump will seek to rebuild the U.S. relationship with Egypt at a meeting on Monday with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi focused on security issues and military aid, a senior White House official says. Trump will host Jordan’s King Abdullah at the White House next week to discuss the fight against Islamic State militants, the Syria crisis and advancing peace between Israelis and Palestinians, the White House says. A U.S. judge approves a $25 million settlement to resolve a class action lawsuit that claimed fraud against Trump and his Trump University real estate seminars. | 1 |
4,280 | Bus plunges into river in Nepal, killing at least 31 | KATHMANDU (Reuters) - A bus carrying passengers returning from a Hindu festival to the Nepali capital of Kathmandu skidded off the main highway and plunged into a river on Saturday, killing at least 31 people and leaving others trapped, officials said. The accident occurred around dawn, around 50 km (30 miles) west of the city on the Prithvi Highway that connects Kathmandu with the southern plains. We have recovered 31 bodies and are looking for more, government official Ram Mani Mishra told Reuters from the scene. It s highly unlikely for anyone to survive for so long under water. Rescuers on rubber boats and police divers managed to spot the bus hours after the crash and were trying to lift it from water with the help of a crane, Mishra said. Apart from the deaths, 16 people have been injured, government administrator Shyam Prasad Bhandari said. Two with grave injuries were taken to Kathmandu while the rest were treated at a local hospital, he said. Police said survivors were thrown out of the bus windows but another 13 people were still believed to be trapped in the bus. The bus had left Rajbiraj town in the southeastern plains on Friday night. Road accidents are common in mostly mountainous Nepal, where police say about 1,800 people die in crashes every year. Accidents are also blamed on poorly maintained and crowded vehicles. | 1 |
4,281 | One month in, anti-Trump movement shows signs of sustained momentum | BRANCHBURG, N.J./VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (Reuters) - U.S. Representative Leonard Lance, who has held more than 40 town hall-style meetings with constituents in his central New Jersey district, has never faced a crowd like he did on Wednesday. The Republican endured catcalls, chants and caustic questions from more than 1,000 residents at a local college, while hundreds of others outside brandished signs with messages like “Resist Trump.” Parallel scenes have played out across the country this week during the first congressional recess since Donald Trump became president. Republican lawmakers returning home confronted a wave of anger over a spectrum of issues, including immigration, healthcare and Trump’s possible ties to Russia. The raucous meetings are the latest in a relentless series of rallies, marches and protests that shows no signs of abating more than 30 days into the new administration. The anti-Trump energy has prompted talk of a liberal-style Tea Party movement, in reference to the protests in 2009 that helped reshape the Republican Party and arguably laid the groundwork for Trump’s surprise electoral victory last year. “Some of the lessons to draw from that are persistence, repetition, not taking ‘no’ for an answer,” said Victoria Kaplan, the organizing director for the grassroots progressive group MoveOn. Since the day after Trump’s inauguration, when millions of protesters joined women’s marches worldwide, left-wing organizers have sought to harness that anger to fuel a lasting political campaign. Hundreds of progressive groups have sprung up across the country - some affiliated with national organizations like Indivisible or MoveOn - to help coordinate. At town halls in New Jersey and Virginia this week, constituents came armed with red “disagree” signs they held aloft to register their disapproval of what they heard from their representatives. Some U.S. senators, such as Pat Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania, have faced weekly protests outside their offices, and a Pennsylvania healthcare network set up a “town hall” this week with an empty suit in place of Toomey, who declined to attend. More marches are scheduled across the country in the coming months, including several major events in Washington, tied to gay rights, science and a push for Trump to release his tax returns. The sheer volume of protests - last week, there were three nationwide calls for action within a five-day span - has some political observers wondering how long it can last. But several experts who study protests said the level of outrage may be increasing, rather than subsiding, after a tumultuous first month in which Trump’s words and actions created fresh outrage among liberals almost daily. “We’re not anywhere near reaching a saturation point for protest,” said Michael Heaney, the author of “Party in the Street: The Antiwar Movement and the Democratic Party after 9/11” and a University of Michigan professor. “If anything, it’s just getting started.” The key for organizers is to convert large-scale protests into sustained action by building databases of names and encouraging locally based events, experts said. “You can’t just have the diehards,” said Dana R. Fisher, a University of Maryland professor who studies collective action. “And then you need to channel them into new types of activism.” When Fisher surveyed participants at the women’s march in Washington, she found one-third were attending their first protest - the highest percentage she has ever observed. “This is unprecedented,” she said. “But there’s nothing that’s not unprecedented about the Trump presidency.” Some Republicans have dismissed the protests as manufactured. Trump on Tuesday tweeted that “so-called angry crowds” in Republicans’ districts were “planned out by liberal activists.” But Kaplan of MoveOn said the vast majority of actions were “organic.” A weekly conference call the group hosts to discuss the movement has attracted a bigger number of participants each week, with 46,000 people joining the latest discussion. “We are firing on all cylinders to catch up” with grassroots protests, she said. “That is a demonstration of energy and sustainability.” Experts also said social media has made it far easier to organize mass protests quickly and efficiently. In what Kaplan said was a sign the protests are having an impact, many Republicans have eschewed town halls this week to avoid confrontations. There were fewer than 100 in-person Republican town halls scheduled for the first two months of the year, compared with more than 200 in the same period in 2015, according to a Vice report. In Louisiana on Wednesday, residents shouted down Republican Senator Bill Cassidy as he tried to explain his healthcare proposal. Scott Taylor, a freshman Republican representative in Virginia, sparred with hundreds of impassioned constituents on Monday at his own event. Like Lance, whose district voted for Hillary Clinton over Trump, Taylor is already a midterm target for Democrats. Taylor said in an interview after the town hall that he recognized many of the attendees from the local Democratic Party. “It’s not like they’re just some new organic people who just came about and are concerned,” Taylor said. But not everyone was a Democrat. Austin Phillips, a 22-year-old Trump voter, told Taylor at the town hall he was worried about losing healthcare coverage if Obamacare is repealed. “Trump has talked about wanting to repeal it,” Phillips, who is self-employed and purchased insurance through an exchange created by the law, said in a later interview. “If they quickly repeal it with no replacement lined up, then theoretically everybody would lose their insurance.” | 1 |
4,282 | Clinton visits North Carolina in campaign trail return; Trump up in polls | GREENSBORO, N.C. (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton got back on the campaign trail on Thursday after taking three days off for pneumonia, and the Democratic presidential candidate faced a more challenging political landscape, with Republican rival Donald Trump rising in opinion polls. Senior Clinton aides said they always expected the race to the Nov. 8 election to be close. But it was clear from a raft of new polls that Trump had halted a summer swoon after taking steps to give a less freewheeling, more polished performance on the stump. Clinton, 68, appeared in good health on a visit to her campaign plane’s press cabin while flying to Greensboro, North Carolina, for a rally where she sought to refocus her campaign on the plight of the working class - which has turned out to be a potent theme for Trump. Leaving the stage to the tune of James Brown’s “I feel good,” Clinton told reporters she kept her pneumonia diagnosis last Friday quiet, telling only senior staff, because she thought she would be able to “power through” the illness and keep campaigning. “From my perspective, I thought I was going to be fine and I thought that there was no reason to make a big fuss about it,” she said. On Sunday, Clinton nearly collapsed while leaving a ceremony marking the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York. Her illness coincided with a mini-surge by Trump, who has drawn even or taken a slight lead in national polls. Polls in battleground states where the race is likely to be decided showed Trump now leading in Iowa, Ohio, Florida and Nevada, and tied in North Carolina. Following her appearance in North Carolina, Clinton was scheduled to appear at a Washington dinner. Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, said the candidate and her aides expected the contest to be close. “We always expected the race to tighten up, we still feel like we’re in a strong position with organizational advantage in Florida and Ohio,” Podesta told reporters on Thursday. “They call these states battlegrounds for a reason.” In a speech at the New York Economic Club, Trump stuck to his script, avoiding the more improvisational style that has produced a cornucopia of controversies. Trump pushed a package of tax cuts he said would help power the U.S. economy to an annual growth rate of 3.5 percent. The New York businessman said his goal would be 4 percent growth, a target originally championed by Republican primary rival Jeb Bush. Trump said the growth would generate 25 million new jobs. His economic package resurrected a decades-old debate on whether tax cuts can generate sustainable growth. But the overarching impression left by his speech was one of Trump talking about substantive issues and avoiding the frivolous. Bob Shrum, a Democratic strategist who managed 2004 candidate John Kerry’s unsuccessful campaign, said Clinton remained the favorite to win the White House, with demographic changes favoring her over Trump, who is heavily reliant on white voters. What has hurt Clinton, Shrum said, is not the time taken off from the campaign trail but rather her decision to keep her diagnosis secret until forced to disclose it - which reinforced a perception among voters that she has a penchant for secrecy. “Fairly or unfairly, what this was taken as was more evidence that she was not transparent and that’s what hurts her,” Shrum said. “She been far more transparent than Trump but she hasn’t gotten any credit for it.” Democrats have sought to pressure Trump to release his tax returns, but the Republican has said he will not release them until a federal government audit has been completed. Clinton has released her tax records. With the candidates’ health in the spotlight, Trump, 70, on Thursday released details of a recent physical examination, a day after Clinton released specifics on her medical condition. Trump’s campaign said the results of his physical showed the fast-food fan has normal cholesterol with the help of a statin drug, weighs 236 pounds (107 kg) and has normal blood pressure. In a not-so-subtle slap at Clinton, the Trump campaign said his medical report showed he “has the stamina to endure — uninterrupted — the rigors of a punishing and unprecedented presidential campaign and, more importantly, the singularly demanding job of president of the United States.” Trump also appeared on the “Dr. Oz Show” to discuss his health in an interview with host Mehmet Oz, a surgeon. Top Clinton aide Jennifer Palmieri said “one upside” of Clinton’s unplanned break was the chance to “sharpen the final argument Clinton will present to voters in these closing weeks.” “Our campaign readily admits that running against a candidate as controversial as Donald Trump means it is harder to be heard on what you aspire for the country’s future, and it is incumbent on us to work harder,” Palmieri said in a statement. Trump backers on Capitol Hill said they were heartened by the tightening race after a call on Thursday morning with his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, who mapped out what the campaign was doing. She promised a more policy-driven approach from Trump in the race’s final stretch. “The poll numbers are just looking phenomenal as you move away from registered voters to likely voters,” Republican U.S. Representative Blake Farenthold of Texas said. | 1 |
4,283 | NOTHING BIG MAC: Donald Trump Jr Caught in Latest Russiamania Ragbag | Patrick Henningsen 21st Century WireDespite repeated failures in litigating the Russian Collusion case, America s mainstream media and liberal establishment are still trying to manifest new episodes, hoping that one will turn up Trump.What was billed by the US mainstream media this week as a smoking gun, still hasn t produced anything remotely compelling, not by normal journalistic standards anyway.At first it looked salacious and on first read had all the makings of a Russo-American sequel to Get Shorty Last summer, well before Russiamania descended upon the US media and body politic, a former Trump Organization and entertainment agent associate, Rob Goldstone, emailed Donald Trump Jr about an interesting meeting in Trump Tower. Goldstone laid the bait, according to an email chain released by Donald Trump Jr this week, indicating that the purpose of the meeting was as follows: to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father. This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government s support for Mr Trump. No doubt intriguing, to which Trump the younger replied: If it s what you say I love it especially later in the summer. At last, no more vegan news. Russiagate has finally served up some red meat, and so it began.In a personal statement released on Monday by Donald Trump Jr, he maintained his innocence regarding the matter: The information they suggested they had about Hillary Clinton I thought was Political Opposition Research. Obviously I'm the first person on a campaign to ever take a meeting to hear info about an opponent went nowhere but had to listen. https://t.co/ccUjL1KDEa Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 10, 2017By that time the media had already made the jump to hyperspace. The headlines all hummed in unison, gleefully touting along the lines of, At last, they all thought, after 10 months and hundreds of millions of dollars spent, and public money wasted, and thousands of hours of hollow media coverage we ve finally got it! If the media is to believed, you d think that every Trump-Russia story is a precursor for his impeachment.If there s one thing we ve learned from the media by now, it s that even if it s an obvious cul-de-sac, they can still sustain a Trump-Russian story for most of the working week. Just this morning, an enthusiastic Washington Post, still going strong, pushed out the headline which read: Category 5 hurricane : White House under siege by Trump Jr. s Russia revelations. Not surprisingly, CNN was just as determined, like a dog searching for its chew toy under the couch. CNN breaking news voiceover presenter announced loudly, Another potential bombshell report from the New York Times the key word here being potential, but that s already a stretch. There are plenty in the media who would like there to be something there, but to paraphrase one of the great political eels of all time, Donna Brazile There is no there, there. While pushing the story on Tuesday, CNN s lead paragraph was keen to stress that President Donald Trump s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, met a Russian government attorney even though everyone already knew by that time that the attorney in question, Natalia Veselnitskaya, had already stated she had never acted on behalf of the Russian government.Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya (Source: The Australian) According to Donald Trump Jr s own personal statement and email chain released on Twitter, Russian lawyer Veselnitskaya produced no useful dirt on Hillary Clinton at the supposedly magnanimous meeting in Trump Tower and claims the meeting was really about the Magnitsky Act, signed by President Barack Obama in 2012 which contained targeted sanctions against Russian individuals and which also put the brakes on US-Russia adoptions. At the time we were told that Russian President Vladimir Putin viewed the Act as an affront to Russian national interests and retaliated by halting American adoptions of Russian children.The Magnitsky Affair became the cause de jour for the West as well as the opening salvo in the New Cold War, but according to veteran investigative reporter Robert Parry the real details of this scandal have been purposefully blocked from Western eyes and ears. Instead, a mythology has been perpetuated which persists to this day thanks to the efforts of one of the scandal s protagonists, hedge-fund operator William Browder.Beyond the palace intrigue and the Magnitsky angle, no mainstream journalists seem brave enough to ask the simple question: is there a story here? In the end, no information was passed to Trump, and no crime appears to have been committed. It s not just a nothing burger, it s a nothing Big Mac.Staying to the task at hand, the New York Times kept establishment s Russiamania on track. Right on queue, the New York Times responded to Trump Jr s email release by trying elevate the alleged incident to the level of Russian collusion with its headline, When the Kremlin Says Adoptions, It Means Sanctions . CNN also used the opportunity to recycle and repeat what should be by now a discredited piece of fiction by crowing, The US intelligence community concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin directed an influence campaign to hurt Clinton and help Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign Apparently, unhinged editors at CNN are still asleep to the fact that the New York Times had already jettisoned the 17 agencies fable when they retracted their yarn ten days previous:After seeming to ditch that big white lie which served as the mainstream s keystone anti-Russia trope since the last October, the New York Times has since tried to rehabilitate the narrative in Matthew Rosenburg s frail opus entitled, Trump Misleads on Russian Meddling: Why 17 Intelligence Agencies Don t Need to Agree. In other words, Yes, we misled the public on the 17 agencies tale, but he s still guilty. Assange InterventionThe most amazing turn in this story however, does not have to do with the contents of the emails, but rather who took them public first.We re told that someone had possession of the incriminating email chain, and had supplied this to the New York Times.On July 10th, while the story was still percolating, the New York Times boasted: The Times now has the email to Donald Trump Jr. offering Russian aid to incriminate Hillary. It seems that while the NYT was gloating over the potential of the story, editor Dean Baquet forgot the golden rule in investigative journalism: publish first, then celebrate. Champagne corks were already popping down on Eight Avenue in advance of the email release, and why not? They really believed they finally had a genuine Russiagate story this time.Here's my statement and the full email chain pic.twitter.com/x050r5n5LQ Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 11, 2017Once Trump Jr tweeted out the email chain, the story suddenly shifted away from how damning the revelations are for the White House to how badly the New York Times fumbled this story. If Trump Jr hadn t released the emails, it s a near certainty that the NYT would have cropped and dripped out what it felt were the most juicy bits, and wrapped those in a prefabricated Russiagate narrative, to be disseminated to the Washington Post, CNN, NBC et all. .What incensed the media more than anything was that he had beaten the media to the story by releasing his own emails on Twitter. That canny move by Donald Jr was in part due to the timely intervention and advice by none other than Wikileaks founder Julian Assange who tweeted out after the fact:Contacted Trump Jr this morning on why he should publish his emails (i.e with us). Two hours later, does it himself: https://t.co/FzCttGSyr6 Julian Assange (@JulianAssange) July 11, 2017Later, Assange explained his actions on Twitter: I argued that his enemies have it so why not the public? His enemies will just milk isolated phrases for weeks or months with their own context, spin and according to their own strategic timetable. Better to be transparent and have the full context but would have been safer for us to publish it anonymously sourced. By publishing it himself it is easier to submit as evidence. Nonetheless, Donald Jr humiliated the New York Times. By telegraphing their story, they gave him an easy opening, in effect beating the New York Times and sucking any available oxygen out of the story.Slightly further up the leftwing of America s east coast intelligensia food chain, The Atlantic Magazine attempted to re-heat this fabulous nothing burger. With no real story to follow-up on, as a consolation prize, writer Mark Galeotti instead focused on the bizarre as its cast of characters surrounding this story as he tried to surmise how indicative of an unelected network of wealthy oligarchs, captains of industry and powerful corporations who really run things in Mother Russia. In essence, The Atlantic s Galeotti is complaining that there might actually be a Russian deep state permeating the halls of power in Moscow. He states: These hybrid relationships extend to virtually every arena of state business. The state media is an engine of propaganda. Private banks and businesspeople are, for the most part, exactly who and what they appear to be, but they are used to funnel money to sympathetic foreign parties and politicians when the Kremlin pleases. So, Russia has a deep state too. Is the United States, the UK, or any other Western country any different?Interestingly, it was The Atlantic who ran a host of Trump-related deep state articles through the latter part of the US election cycle. So it s: deep state in the USA = an acceptable fact of life, but deep state in Russia = an evil Putinism.Music promoter Rob Goldstone (Source: Mediaite)Who is Rob Goldstone? If there was ever a dodgy actor in this story, it s this man. We re told that the instigator-cum-middleman of this affair is one Rob Goldstone, a former Trump business associate from the Miss Universe event, and former promoter of Russian-based pop singer and businessman Emin Agalarov. According to the email chain, it was Agalarov who is said to have prompted the meeting at Trump Tower between Trump Jr and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, along with President Trump s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort who was Trump s newly appointed campaign boss.Wayward music svengali Goldstone told the future US president s son, the crown prosecutor of Russia offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father. This has all the makings of a classic political set-up, with Goldstone positioned as the potential schlepper.Agalarov s family attorney Scott Balber told RT: Rob Goldstone was a publicist, a promoter for Emin s musical career. So, they certainly had a relationship in that regard, Balber said, adding that arranging a meeting about some top-secret information, allegedly coming from the Russian government, was obviously out of Goldstone s competence. Rob Goldstone is an entertainment industry publicist. So, I think it s fair to say that he was out of his alignment in making these communications. And what he said is not true. CNN s Kathy Griffin pictured here with Rob Goldstone, date and location of image unknown:Don't recall taking this photo with Russian intermediary Rob Goldstone, but I am in my Dynasty hat waiting for my interview with Mr. Mueller pic.twitter.com/VZ4iT1SuJX Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) July 10, 2017Goldstone appears to be a bit of an artful dodger who keeps some interesting company, including Kathy Griffin of CNN fame (see tweet above). Not surprisingly, Griffin can be seen on Twitter trying to milk the Trump Jr-Goldstone scandal for some extra publicity. It was Griffin, commonly referred to as a female comedian who had her CNN New Years Eve contract canceled following last month s mock ISIS-style beheading of President Trump.What REAL Collusion Looks likeThe word collusion is a new one for Americans. You almost never heard it before 2017. It came into our cultural lexicon after the previous two iterations of Russiagate were decommissioned due to repeated failures. The first iteration was Russian hacking of US elections which despite monumental efforts by the media and Democratic Party could not actually produce any evidence. Russian hacking was later downgraded to Russian meddling, which like the hacking meme, led absolutely nowhere. Then came collusion, which in the case of Trump, appears to be going nowhere. Since then, collusion has since been lowered to an effete, Russian influence. Back in January however, Politico revealed how the Clinton campaign had actually colluded with the Ukrainian government to spread anti-Trump stories and information during the 2016 election.Unlike the US liberal establishment s Russiagate Hoax, the Clinton-Ukraine story is real, and a definite breach of numerous codes, and possibly illegal. This incredible story was later summarized here by The Daily Caller:A veteran DNC operative who previously worked in the Clinton White House, Alexandra Chalupa, worked with Ukrainian government officials and journalists from both Ukraine and America to dig up Russia-related opposition research on Trump and Manafort. She also shared her anti-Trump research with both the DNC and the Clinton campaign, according to the Politico report. Chalupa met with Ukrainian Ambassador Valeriy Chaly and one of his aides, Oksara Shulyar, at the Ukrainian Embassy in March 2016 to talk about unearthing Paul Manafort s Russian connections, Chalupa admitted to Politico. Four days later, Trump officially hired Manafort. The day after Manafort s hiring was revealed, she briefed the DNC s communications staff on Manafort, Trump and their ties to Russia, according to an operative familiar with the situation, Politico reported.The Politico report also notes that the DNC encouraged Chalupa to try to arrange an interview with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to talk about Manafort s ties to the former pro-Russia president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, whom Manafort previously advised.To make matters worse, the Clinton campaign then actively coordinated a number of mainstream media journalists to spread the information:In one email released by WikiLeaks, Chalupa told Luis Miranda, then the DNC s communications director, that she was working with Yahoo News reporter Michael Isikoff and connected him to the Ukrainians. A lot more coming down the pipe. I spoke to a delegation of 68 investigative journalists from Ukraine last Wednesday at the Library of Congress the Open World Society s forum they put me on the program to speak specifically about Paul Manafort and I invited [Yahoo News reporter] Michael Isikoff whom I ve been working with for the past few weeks and connected him to the Ukrainians, Chalupa told Miranda. More offline tomorrow since there is a big Trump component you and Lauren need to be aware of that will hit in next few weeks and something I m working on you should be aware of. The Open World Leadership Center, which funded Chalupa s briefing of journalists about Manafort, is a taxpayer-funded congressional agency. Regarding the media colluding with Clinton, one of the most disturbing examples of this was when CNN s foreign affairs correspondent Elise Labott (image, left) was caught red-handed coordinating with former Hillary Clinton spokesman and State Department aid, Philippe Reines, on how to damage the public image of former GOP presidential candidate and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul during the 2013 Benghazi Hearings. A batch of emails which was released by Gawker showed how Labott took direction from Reines on how to craft tweets during the January 23, 2013 Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing. At the time, Senator Paul was pressing Clinton on the details of Benghazi, and the joint-attack by Reines and CNN s Labott looked very much like retribution. Both Labott and Reines conferred, before Labott tweeted to her followers: Sen Paul most critical on committee of Clinton, but a little late to the #Benghazi game. Not sure he was at many of the 30 previous briefings. This was a clear effort behind the scenes to defame a sitting US Senator by a member of the press colluding with a Clinton operative. You d think that Elise Labott would have been sacked for this, but after all it s CNN which means she not only kept her job, but probably got a pay rise to boot.We also learned how Clinton campaign operatives had paid large sums of cash to a shady Washington DC firm called Fusion GPS to conduct opposition research on Donald Trump. The firm was originally hired by rival GOP primary candidates to research Trump, but after Trump knocked out all 16 of his rivals and secured the Republican Party nomination, Fusion GPS was then re-hired by Democratic Party donors. Fusion GPS used a portion of that money to contract a former British intelligence agent, Christopher Steele, in order to help produce what would later become known as the Trump Dossier which was then handed to one of the establishment s information laundromats, BuzzFeed (owned by NBCUniversal), which was then seized (surprise, surprise) by CNN. Both media outlets happily seized upon the bogus report, claiming to have damning new information on Donald Trump s ties with Russia. Steele s colorful report claimed that Russia s FSB intel agency had Kompromat on Trump gathered during a trip to Moscow in 2013. It was this incident which eventually prompted then President-elect Trump to christen CNN and its frivolous correspondent Jim Acosta as Fake News, widely regarded as a well-earned label and one which the network hasn t been able to shake off ever since.How this cartel of disinformation goes unregistered on the ethics meter by America s liberal establishment is shocking enough and speaks to both the built-in bias, and cognitive dissonance that plagues America s bustling partisan media and political establishments.Interestingly, UK website The Independent reported how Ms Veselnitskaya is believed to be linked to Fusion GPS. If there is any truth in that claim, then it could lend further credence to the idea that this entire scenario was an establishment stitch-up, possibly to snare the Trump camp in another Russian scandal. According to their report: A complaint filed last year claimed that GPS Fusion headed the pro-Russia campaign to kill the Magnitsky Act. Fusion GPS is the company behind the creation of the unsubstantiated dossier alleging a conspiracy between President Trump and Russia, Senator Chuck Grassley wrote in the letter. It is highly troubling that Fusion GPS appears to have been working with someone with ties to Russian intelligence let alone someone alleged to have conducted political disinformation campaigns as part of a pro-Russia lobbying effort while also simultaneously overseeing the creation of the Trump-Russia dossier. Did Fusion GPS arrange this meeting between Trump Jr and Veselnitskaya?The firm denies any involvement stating, Fusion GPS learned about this meeting from news reports and had no prior knowledge of it. Any claim that Fusion GPS arranged or facilitated this meeting in any way is false. But that rabbit hole leads somewhere, although it s not clear exactly where yet.We do know for sure: that the US mainstream media, especially the New York Times and CNN, cannot be trusted to cover this story fairly or accurately.Watch as 21WIRE s Patrick Henningsen discusses the media s dilemma with RT International on July 11th: *** Patrick Henningsen is an American-born writer and global affairs analyst and founder of independent news and analysis site 21st Century Wire and host of the SUNDAY WIRE weekly radio show broadcast globally over the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR).READ MORE TRUMP NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Trump FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 |
4,284 | Sean Spicer HILARIOUSLY Branded As Chickensh*t After He Bolts From Briefing (TWEETS) (VIDEO) | Oh, Mr. Spicey. Our favorite press secretary because we love to hate him. His gymnastics around Donald Trump s antics and gaffes (along with his own) are already the stuff of legend, and not in a good way. It makes his relationship with the press acrimonious, and he may well have just about had it with that. Today, he turned chickenshit, tucked his tail between his legs, and ran away from his own press briefing, leaving the White House Press Corps absolutely stunned.Cries of, Sean! Hey Sean! Seeeeeean! Ah come on, Sean! He walked away! are among just a few of the loud and disappointed protests coming from a press corps that undoubtedly had a squillion uncomfortable questions for him.Watch below:.@PressSec literally fled press questions today pic.twitter.com/S9uIapiBn4 American Bridge (@American_Bridge) May 2, 2017Near the end of the video, you can hear someone say, Really? Yes, really, apparently. And people on Twitter are going at Spicey for being a coward with gleeful abandon:@American_Bridge @PressSec Live feed on sean spicer running out the WH.. pic.twitter.com/wt4J2Q45WE diane1261 (@diane1261) May 2, 2017@American_Bridge @PressSec pic.twitter.com/pqz03w8WhL Jas (@barteej) May 2, 2017@American_Bridge @glasgowdick @PressSec @PressSec Quick, the press are here. Run! Hide! pic.twitter.com/y2Jib6YrZB Sean Callaghan (@keanespirit) May 2, 2017@American_Bridge @PressSec Moments before: pic.twitter.com/U2XzJwewlF Judge Steve Reinhold (@Galileo908) May 2, 2017@American_Bridge @wycam1 @PressSec Maybe Spicey had to GO POTTY ??? pic.twitter.com/KeSHWDnYsM NY Justice Seeker (@NYJusticeSeeker) May 2, 2017Just in, footage of Sean Spicer at today s presser pic.twitter.com/BNVX2m9CmA Tynisa Walker (@Kalarigamerchic) May 2, 2017@American_Bridge @PressSec pic.twitter.com/lClJnDpGBt L M J (@ViewFrom14thFlr) May 2, 2017@American_Bridge @PressSec Damn Sean. At least do it with a little style. pic.twitter.com/YTB8hEt05Z Bob Parker (@BobusParkorum) May 2, 2017@American_Bridge @Marengel4 @PressSec I wouldn t put it pass you @seanspicer smh pic.twitter.com/6K8jCnqKgl R?G (@lastbreath8) May 2, 2017@American_Bridge @PressSec pic.twitter.com/6DMtkNi0W9 Allbizness (@TerniValentine) May 2, 2017@American_Bridge @PressSec A coward dies a thousand deaths pic.twitter.com/X0hCvrpzkn Erin Larkin Foster (@larkster_Erin) May 2, 2017Live look at Sean Spicer ghosting the WH press pic.twitter.com/W9vmc2Ef4g Andi Zeisler (@andizeisler) May 2, 2017@JakeTurx The childish nature of this Administration never ceases to amaze me. I honestly wish they would stop. pic.twitter.com/Z7uCwa8aaJ ACTIndivisible (@ACTIndivisible) May 2, 2017Scaredy Spice @PressSec is too much of a coward to face the free press reps in White House press briefing! @maddow #Spicer #100DaysOfShame pic.twitter.com/xNTmw4xYeQ Daniel Quinn (@MightyQuinnUSA) May 2, 2017Actual pics of Sean Spicer fleeing the press briefing today pic.twitter.com/NnogAnWC5w Prubjot Kaur (@prubjotkaur) May 2, 2017Sean Spicer fleeing the WH press corps like pic.twitter.com/S1jns97dfN Jenn Lerner (@JenniferLerner1) May 2, 2017Poor @seanspicer he s such a huge pussy that @realDonaldTrump is going to be grabbing him all day long. https://t.co/pJ9Ej1TMw1 Pretty Hat Machine? (@PrettyHatMech) May 2, 2017What s the rush? Sean Spicer leaves WH press briefing without fielding questions https://t.co/U1rd4B6cZ2 All American Girl (@AIIAmericanGirI) May 2, 2017Sean Spicer leaving that press conference was not shocking to me. That looks me putting my kids to bed everynight pic.twitter.com/BHwAJhOYGw Lulu Chatter (@LuluChatter1) May 2, 2017Sean Spicer leaves White House briefing without taking questions from the press Where s Spicer? pic.twitter.com/afi8EMgIqf Mangoman (@69mangoman) May 2, 2017Actual footage of Sean Spicer at today s press briefing. pic.twitter.com/2xHZdKhTkm (@slickvandal) May 2, 2017Some of the media are unhappy with this development, too, and really not afraid to say so. Mother Jones called it the soundtrack for a presidency. The Hill said that Spicer stunned reporters. Market Watch noted that the press was left volleying questions toward an empty podium: Sean? Sean? Hey, Sean, come on! What about the Putin call, Sean? The caption under their photo reads, It just like concluded. The Root had its own take: Perhaps Spicer needed some time to compose the alternative facts he knew he d have to present after Salmon-Skin Stalin said Tuesday that the new budget has enough money for a down payment on the wall, and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the Senate Appropriations Committee s ranking Democratic member, responded on Twitter with, To be clear, there is NO funding in this bill for ANY kind of down payment on construction of a new border wall. Or, maybe Spicer was nervous about responding to Trump s tweets from earlier Tuesday insisting that the government needed a good shutdown.' While some blindly loyal Trump supporters are saying that he just owned the press, unfortunately for their narrative and for Spicey here, answering questions he doesn t necessarily like or want to answer is part and parcel of his job. He doesn t get to run away when he doesn t want to talk, or without explaining that his time is getting cut short for something else. Really, Spicer just got owned here.Featured image via screen capture from embedded video | 0 |
4,285 | Trump administration's NAFTA demands make sense: Union Pacific CEO | DETROIT (Reuters) - The list of priorities U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer released this week for the renegotiation of NAFTA with Mexico and Canada is reasonable and in line with what the Trump administration has promised to focus on, the head of America’s largest railroad said on Thursday. “It was a very reasonable document,” Union Pacific Corp (UNP.N) Chief Executive Lance Fritz said in an interview about a list of priorities released this week by Lighthizer. “From our perspective, he (Lighthizer) hit all of the elements that we’ve heard from the administration and they make sense.” Republican U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to exit the North American Free Trade Agreement if it is not renegotiated in favor of the United States. Talks with Mexico and Canada on revisions to the treaty, which came into effect in 1994, are due to start in mid-August. The top priority for the talks listed by Lighthizer’s office was shrinking the U.S. trade deficit with Canada and Mexico. Union Pacific’s Fritz said that Lighthizer’s focus on intellectual property, labor laws and dispute resolution mechanisms all make sense. “What makes most sense to us is elements (of Lighthizer’s priorities) focusing on the streamlining of freight across the border,” he added. About 40 percent of Union Pacific’s freight volume is based on international trade and about 12 percent is based on cross-border trade with Mexico. Fritz said that Mexico should continue to be a “good driver” for Union Pacific’s growth. The CEO spoke to Reuters after Union Pacific posted a better-than-expected second-quarter profit that was lifted in part by a 25-percent jump in coal revenue. Major U.S. railroads have seen a resurgence in coal volumes this year, following two years of precipitous declines as many utilities switched to burning cheaper natural gas and as unseasonable weather resulted in large stockpiles of unburned coal. Union Pacific said on Thursday that coal volumes in the third quarter should be relatively flat versus the same period in 2016. “We expect coal to be a bit more stable moving forward and that’s dependent on natural gas pricing and to some degree weather,” Fritz said. “The large inventory overhang has largely been consumed and that’s the good news.” | 1 |
4,286 | JUST IN: Washington Post Exposed: Russia Story: ‘F*cking Crap Shoot…Maybe it Doesn’t Exist’ [Video] | The Washington Post has been pushing the Russia story for months but do they really believe their own bullsh*t?They were just caught on undercover video saying they really haven t found anything on President Trump Adam Entous of The Washington Post spoke the truth about how the reporters are pushing the Russia story even though it s a nothingburger: But we really haven t addressed Our reporting has not taken us to a place where I would be able to say with any confidence that the result of it is going to be the president being guilty of being in cahoots with the Russians. There s no evidence of that that I ve seen so far. We ve seen a lot of flirtation, if you will, between them but nothing that, in my opinion, would rank as actual collusion. Now that doesn t mean that it doesn t exist, it just means we haven t found it yet. Or maybe it doesn t exist. Frankly, it s a shame that these people keep up this charade. A crap shoot ? Why in the world are they pushing this non-story except to defame Trump with lies or are they getting paid under the table to smear POTUS? Maybe both?OUR PREVIOUS REPORT ON THE NEW YORK TIMES EXPOSED BY PROJECT VERITAS:Project Veritas latest installment in the American Pravda series takes aim at The New York Times, the supposed paper of record. In the first part of this series, Nicholas Dudich, Audience Strategy Editor for the Times extensive video library speaks candidly about how his left political bias influences his editorial judgement and reveals an unusual connection to former FBI Director James Comey, and a strange association with domestic terror group Antifa.Since this video came out, the New York Times released a statement saying they ve launched an investigation:This should have been done when hiring this former antifa thug who also worked for Clinton.RT reported:In the video, Dudich calls himself the gatekeeper for all the New York Times videos posted online, saying that his imprint is on every video we do. Any video that goes on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram I have a hand in that, Dudich said.When talking journalistic ethics, Dudich is captured sarcastically making air quotes while he said that he will be objective working for the Times before quickly admitting: no I m not. That s why I m there. According to the New York Times ethical handbook, employees must do nothing that might raise questions about their professional neutrality or that of The Times. As a journalist, I m not able to give any money to any political organization. I m not able to volunteer for any political organization. I m not able to work for any nonprofit or charity. Like, there s a lot of guidelines and ethics, Dudich said.However, before joining the Times, Dudich worked social media on the 2012 presidential campaign of former President Barack Obama and the 2016 presidential campaign of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.When asked how he was able to be politically active and still work as a journalist, Dudich said that he had to leave his job at ABC to take a job where he wasn t deemed a journalist anymore in order to work for the Clinton campaign.Dudich said he made the sacrifice in order to work against Trump, who he said was a threat. I saw the threat and I was like, I want to do something, Dudich said. Trump was a threat and still is a threat, right? Trump is a threat, the interviewer interjects. He s a threat. Oh, he s a threat to everything, Dudich added.Read more President/co-founder of The Dream Corps and CNN contributor Van Jones Rich Polk CNN s Van Jones calls Russia nothing burger video edited, right-wing propaganda At one point, Dudich explains his idea to make Trump resign or leave office by going after his businesses and his dumb f**k of a son, Donald Jr., and Eric. Target that. Get people to boycott going to his hotels, Dudich said. If you can ruin the Trump brand and you put pressure on his business and you start investigating his business and you start shutting it down, or they re hacking or other things. He cares about his business more than he cares about being President. He would resign. Or he d lash out and do something incredibly illegal, which he would have to. | 0 |
4,287 | Syrian opposition must accept it has not won the war: U.N. | GENEVA (Reuters) - Syria s opposition must accept that they have not won the six-and-a-half year war against President Bashar al-Assad, U.N. peace talks mediator Staffan de Mistura said on Wednesday. De Mistura suggested the war was almost over because many countries had got involved principally to defeat Islamic State in Syria, and a national ceasefire should follow soon after. The main rebel-held area, the city of Idlib would be frozen . For the opposition, the message is very clear: if they were planning to win the war, facts are proving that is not the case. So now it s time to win the peace, he told reporters. Asked if he was implying that Assad had won, he said pro-government forces had advanced militarily, but nobody could actually claim to have won the war. Victory can only be if there is a sustainable political long-term solution. Otherwise instead of war, God forbid, we may see plenty of low intensity guerrilla (conflicts) going on for the next 10 years, and you will see no reconstruction, which is a very sad outcome of winning a war. De Mistura plans to join ceasefire talks in the Kazakh capital Astana next week, which he said should help resolve the fate of Idlib, a city of 2 million where rebels designated as terrorists by the United Nations are gaining influence. I am confident...there will be a non-conflictual solution - let s say not a new Aleppo, that s what we want to avoid at any cost, if we have learned from the past, he said, referring to the greatest battle and humanitarian crisis of the war. If that takes place Idlib may become frozen in a way in order to avoid becoming a major tragic end to the conflict. Meanwhile Islamic State was facing imminent defeat in its two main zones of influence - in the city of Raqqa and around the city of Deir al-Zor. The fact is that Deir al-Zor is almost liberated, in fact it is as far as we are concerned liberated, it s a matter now of a few hours. Raqqa s fall would follow within days or weeks, leading to the moment of truth for a round of negotiations in October. Since early 2016, de Mistura has overseen a tortuous series of peace talks in Geneva that has made almost no visible progress. He said the next round could see an accelerated and more pragmatic approach. The issue is: is the government, after the liberation of Deir al-Zor and Raqqa, ready and prepared to genuinely negotiate and not simply announce victory, which we all know, and they know too, cannot be announced because it won t be sustainable without a political process? Will the opposition be able to be unified and realistic enough to realize they did not win the war? | 1 |
4,288 | Highlights: The Trump presidency on February 2 at 6:15 p.m. EST/2315 GMT | (Reuters) - Highlights of the day for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday: Trump is poised to impose new sanctions on multiple Iranian entities, seeking to ratchet up pressure on Tehran while crafting a broader strategy to counter what he sees as its destabilizing behavior, people familiar with the matter say. The White House says Trump is “extremely upset” with an agreement with Australia to accept refugees but will honor it. The White House says Israel’s building of new settlements or expansion of existing ones in occupied territories may not be helpful to achieving peace with Palestinians. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley blames Russia for the recent surge of violence in eastern Ukraine and warns Ukraine-related sanctions against Russia will not be lifted until Moscow returns Crimea to Kiev. Trump’s Treasury Department adjusts sanctions on the Russian intelligence agency FSB, making limited exceptions to measures put in place by the Obama administration over accusations Moscow meddled in the U.S. presidential election. Trump vows to free churches and other tax-exempt institutions of a 1954 U.S. law banning political activity, drawing fire from critics who accuse him of rewarding his evangelical Christian supporters and turning houses of worship into political machines. Trump defends his order to temporarily bar entry to people from seven majority-Muslim nations, saying it is crucial to ensure religious freedom and tolerance in America; he discusses establishing safe zones in Syria with Jordan’s King Abdullah. A Department of Homeland Security watchdog agency says it is planning to review how Trump’s executive order to temporarily suspend travel from seven majority-Muslim nations was implemented. Nobel Peace Prize winners meeting in Colombia criticize Trump’s immigration policies and accuse him of xenophobia and discrimination. Trump reiterates his concerns about the North American Free Trade Agreement and says he would like to speed up talks to either renegotiate or replace it. A Senate committee suspends rules to approve Scott Pruitt, Trump’s controversial choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, amid a boycott by Democratic panel members. Representative Mick Mulvaney is approved as budget director. Cerberus Capital Management LP’s chief executive, Stephen Feinberg, is in talks to join Trump’s administration in a senior role. Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] CEO Travis Kalanick quit Trump’s business advisory group after coming under criticism for taking part, the company says. | 1 |
4,289 | Factbox: Trump on Twitter (Sept 25) - NASCAR, NFL, John Kelly, Puerto Rico, John McCain, Alabama | The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS. The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy. @realDonaldTrump : - So proud of NASCAR and its supporters and fans. They won’t put up with disrespecting our Country or our Flag - they said it loud and clear! [0725 EDT] - Many people booed the players who kneeled yesterday (which was a small percentage of total). These are fans who demand respect for our Flag! [0731 EDT] - The issue of kneeling has nothing to do with race. It is about respect for our Country, Flag and National Anthem. NFL must respect this! [0739 EDT] - The White House never looked more beautiful than it did returning last night. Important meetings taking place today. Big tax cuts & reform. [0744 EDT] - #StandForOurAnthem [0902 EDT] - @CNN is #FakeNews. Just reported COS (John Kelly) was opposed to my stance on NFL players disrespecting FLAG, ANTHEM, COUNTRY. Total lie! [1826 EDT] - General John Kelly totally agrees w/ my stance on NFL players and the fact that they should not be disrespecting our FLAG or GREAT COUNTRY! [1828 EDT] - Tremendous backlash against the NFL and its players for disrespect of our Country. #StandForOurAnthem [1829 EDT] - Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble.. [2045 EDT] - ...It’s old electrical grid, which was in terrible shape, was devastated. Much of the Island was destroyed, with billions of dollars.... [2050 EDT] - ...owed to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with. Food, water and medical are top priorities - and doing well. #FEMA [2058 EDT] - A few of the many clips of John McCain talking about Repealing & Replacing O’Care. My oh my has he changed-complete turn from years of talk! [2124 EDT] - Big election tomorrow in the Great State of Alabama. Vote for Senator Luther Strange, tough on crime & border - will never let you down! [2150 EDT] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR) | 1 |
4,290 | One dead, scores arrested in unrest over delayed Honduran vote count | TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - At least one protester died, over 20 people were injured and more than 100 others were arrested for looting in Honduras after a delayed and disputed presidential vote count sparked unrest amid opposition accusations of electoral fraud. Honduras was due to publish the final result of last Sunday s presidential election at 9 p.m. local time (0300 GMT) on Friday, the electoral tribunal said, but opposition complaints about the count appeared set to impede that. Election results initially favored opposition candidate and TV star Salvador Nasralla by five points with more than half the votes counted. They then swung in favor of U.S.-backed center-right President Juan Orlando Hernandez after the count came to a halt on Monday and resumed over a day later, sparking protests. The tribunal has said it will hand-count some 1,031 outstanding ballot boxes with irregularities - or nearly 6 percent of the total - after the count halted with Hernandez ahead by less than 50,000 votes, or about 1.5 percentage points. However, Nasralla s center-left alliance has called for votes to be recounted in three of Honduras 18 departments, or regions, and refused to recognize the tribunal s special count until its demands for a wider review were met. If Juan Orlando wins, we re ready to accept that, but we know that wasn t the case, we know that Salvador won and that s why they re refusing the transparency demands, said Marlon Ochoa, campaign manager of Nasralla s alliance. International concern has grown about the electoral crisis in the poor Central American country, which struggles with violent drug gangs and one of the world s highest murder rates. Police sources said at least one man had been shot and killed at a protest in the city of La Ceiba, while about 12 members of the military and police force had been injured in demonstrations that snarled traffic outside Honduras main port on Friday and around the country. At least 10 protesters were injured in the capital of Tegucigalpa, according to the city s Hospital Escuela. Military officials called for peaceful protests after police reports of looting in the capital and other cities. In the country s second-biggest city of San Pedro Sula, thick plumes of black smoke clouded the air as protesters burned tires and police tried to disperse the crowds with tear gas. More than 100 people were also arrested on suspicion of looting in San Pedro Sula on Friday, a police spokesman said, and local media carried footage of shops being plundered. People flocked to supermarkets on Friday, stocking up on food and provisions as major roads and supply routes were blocked across the country by angry protesters. Lines appeared outside gas stations and cash machines. Banks clogged up with people wanting to withdraw or deposit money. I m filling the tank with gas in case anything happens, the situation looks bad and there are protests all over the city, said Carlos Valle, a 61-year-old pensioner, as he joined a long line of vehicles waiting at a fuel pump in Tegucigalpa. Both Hernandez and Nasralla, a television game show host allied with leftists, claimed victory after the election, and the challenger has said he will not accept the tribunal s result because of doubts over the counting process. Leading a center-left alliance, the 64-year-old Nasralla is one of Honduras best-known faces and backed by former President Manuel Zelaya, a leftist ousted in a coup in 2009. Zelaya weighed into the debate on Thursday in a letter in which he accused the tribunal of electoral crimes on behalf of Hernandez, who himself was standing for re-election enabled by a contentious 2015 Supreme Court ruling. One of the four magistrates on the electoral tribunal on Thursday flagged serious doubts about the counting process. The Organization of American States (OAS) on Wednesday convinced both candidates to vow to respect the final result once disputed votes had been checked. But a few hours later Nasralla rejected the OAS accord, saying his opponents were trying to rob him. He urged supporters to take to the streets in protest. | 1 |
4,291 | “Anti-Muslim”, “Anti-Female” Trump Makes Critics Look Foolish When he Does THIS for Group of Afghan Schoolgirls | A group of six, teen, Afghan girls was denied US visas to compete in an international robotics competition in Washington DC. When President Trump found out, he overrode the decision and allowed them to come to the US on a system called parole which allows them to stay in the for 10 days without a visa. President Trump took a lot of heat for his supposedly anti-Muslim travel ban and criticized for now supporting women or the sciences but his actions have proven speak louder than the voices of his critics. The State Department worked incredibly well with the Department of Homeland Security to ensure that this case was reviewed and handled appropriately, Dina Powell, Trump s deputy national security adviser for strategy, said in a statement. We could not be prouder of this delegation of young women who are also scientists they represent the best of the Afghan people and embody the promise that their aspirations can be fulfilled. They are future leaders of Afghanistan and strong ambassadors for their country. The girls, who are from western Afghanistan s Herat area, reportedly leaped over multiple obstacles to build a ball-sorting robot for the FIRST Global Challenge, which is set for July 16-18 in Washington, D.C.Equipment sent to them got stuck in customs, so they improvised and used household items instead. To apply for their visas at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan, they traveled hundreds of miles twice to Kabul, the Afghan capital, despite facing potential dangers on the road.Although the girls were first barred from the United States, their robot was not. If they hadn t been allowed to come to America, the girls planned to watch their creation compete via Skype. Politico | 0 |
4,292 | As Republicans aim to ride economy to election victory, a warning from voters in key district | KING OF PRUSSIA, Pennsylvania/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In the Fox & Hound sports bar, next to a shopping mall in suburban Philadelphia, four Democrats are giving speeches to potential voters as they begin their journey to try to unseat Republican congressman Pat Meehan in next year’s elections. Winning this congressional district - Pennsylvania’s 7th - is key to Democrats’ hopes of gaining the 24 seats they need to retake the U.S. House of Representatives next November. The stakes are high - control of the House would allow them to block President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda. On the surface, Democrats face a significant hurdle. In nearly two-thirds of 34 Republican-held districts that are top of the party’s target list, household income or job growth, and often both, have risen faster than state and national averages over the past two years, according to a Reuters analysis of census data. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2Bgq29K) That is potentially vote-winning news for Republican incumbents, who in speeches and television ads can trumpet a strengthening economy as a product of Republican control of Washington, even though incomes and job growth began improving under former Democratic President Barack Obama. “The good economy is really the only positive keeping Republicans afloat,” said David Wasserman, a congressional analyst with the non-partisan Cook Political Report. Still, trumpeting the good economy may have limited impact among voters in competitive districts like this mostly white southeast region of Pennsylvania bordering Delaware and New Jersey, which has switched between both parties twice in the past 15 years. Many of the two dozen voters that Reuters interviewed in the 6th and 7th districts agreed the economy was strong, that jobs were returning and wages were growing. A handful were committed Republicans and Democrats who always vote the party line. About half voted for Meehan last year, but most of those said they were unsure whether they would vote for him again in 2018. Some said they were disappointed with the Republican Party’s handling of healthcare and tax reform as well as Trump’s erratic performance. About half also felt that despite an improving economy, living costs are squeezing the middle class. Drew McGinty, one of the Democratic hopefuls at the Fox & Hound bar hoping to unseat Meehan, said the good economic numbers were misleading. “When I talk to people across the district, I hear about stagnant wages. I hear about massive debt young people are getting when they finish college. There’s a lot out there not being told by the numbers,” he said. Still, Meehan, who won by 19 points in last November’s general election, is confident the strong economy will help him next year. He plans to run as a job creator and a champion of the middle class. “The first thing people look at is whether they have got a job and income,” Meehan said in a telephone interview. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton carried the district by more than two points in the White House race, giving Democrats some hope that they can peel it away from Republicans next November. Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said the election will essentially be a referendum on Trump. The economy might help Republicans, he said, but other issues will likely be uppermost in voters’ minds, like the Republican tax overhaul - which is seen by some as favoring the rich over the middle class - and Trump’s dismantling of President Barack Obama’s initiative to expand healthcare to millions of Americans, popularly known as Obamacare. Indeed, healthcare is Americans’ top concern, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted earlier this month. Next is terrorism and then the economy. “Healthcare will be the No. 1 issue,” in the election, predicted Molly Sheehan, another Democrat running to unseat Meehan. Democrats have warned that dismantling Obamacare will leave millions of Americans without health coverage, and political analysts say Republicans in vulnerable districts could be punished by angry voters. Republicans argue that Obamacare drives up costs for consumers and interferes with personal medical decisions. In Broomall, a hamlet in the 7th District, local builder Greg Dulgerian, 55, said he voted for Trump and Meehan. He still likes Trump because of his image as a political outsider, but he is less certain about Meehan. “I’m busy, which is good,” Dulgerian said. “But I actually make less than I did 10 years ago, because my living costs and costs of materials have gone up.” Dulgerian said he was not sure what Meehan was doing to address this, and he was open to a Democratic candidate with a plan to help the middle class. Ida McCausland, 65, is a registered Republican but said she is disappointed with the party. She views the overhaul of the tax system as a giveaway to the rich that will hit the middle class. “I will probably just go Democrat,” she said. Still, others interviewed said the good economy was the most important issue for them and would vote for Meehan. Mike Allard, 35, a stocks day trader, voted for Clinton last year but did not cast a ballot in the congressional vote. He thinks the economy will help Meehan next year and is leaning toward voting for him. “Local businesses like the way the economy is going right now,” he said. In the 7th district median household income jumped more than 10 percent from 2014 to 2016, from $78,000 to around $86,000, above the national average increase of 7.3 percent, while job growth held steady, the analysis of the census data shows. Overall, the U.S. economy has grown 3 percent in recent quarters, and some forecasters now think the stimulus from the Republican tax cuts will sustain that rate of growth through next year. Unemployment has dropped to 4.1 percent, a 17-year low. In midterm congressional elections, history shows that voters often focus on issues other than the economy. In 1966 the economy was thriving, but President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Democrats suffered a net loss of 47 seats, partly because of growing unhappiness with the Vietnam War. In 2006, again the economy was humming, but Republicans lost a net 31 seats in the House, as voters focused on the Iraq war and the unpopularity of Republican President George W. Bush. In 2010, despite pulling the economy out of a major recession, Democrats lost control of the House to Republicans, mainly because of the passage of Obamacare, which at the time was highly unpopular with many voters. “When times are bad, the election is almost always about the economy. When the economy is good, people have the freedom and the ability to worry about other issues,” said Stu Rothenberg, a veteran political analyst. | 1 |
4,293 | Brazil election campaign fund not big enough, judge says | SAO PAULO (Reuters) - A political campaign fund set up in Brazil with public money to help fight corruption is not big enough for the country s 2018 general election, the head of the country s top electoral court said on Friday. Brazil s scandal-plagued political class voted on Wednesday to establish the 1.7 billion reais ($542 million) fund to finance election campaigns after corporate donations were banned in the wake of the country s biggest ever corruption scandal. Backers of the fund said organized crime would step in to finance politicians if taxpayer funds were not made available. But Gilmar Mendes, the head of Brazil s TSE electoral court, said the fund would need more money. This is a discussion we re going to have to continue, the debate on whether there are sufficient resources. It is evident that they will not be enough, Mendes, who is also a Supreme Court justice, said. The ban on corporate funding coupled with the drying up of under-the-table contributions and kickbacks during Brazil s Car Wash corruption probe has left lawmakers struggling to raise money for their campaigns. Critics of the campaign fund said it was aimed at providing funding for lawmakers seeking re-election to shield themselves from prosecution for corruption. Mendes said one possibility to boost campaign financing next year would be to increase federal transfers to another fund that finances political parties called Fundo Partidario. The current budget estimates transfers of 888 million reais to this fund in 2017. ($1 = 3.1557 reais) | 1 |
4,294 | Trump's tax cut proposal shines light on MLPs | NEW YORK/HOUSTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration’s proposal to slash tax rates on so-called pass-through businesses would deliver a windfall to investors in master limited partnerships and could offer a much-needed lift to this niche segment of the energy market. The tax plan outline released on Wednesday by U.S. President Donald Trump would sharply slash business taxes and discount the rate on overseas corporate profits brought back into the United States. The proposed changes include a cut to the top tax rate on pass-through businesses to 15 percent from the current rate of up to 36.9 percent. Pass-throughs get that name because taxes are not paid by the business itself but pass through to their owners’ individual taxes, at that rate. The change would largely benefit owners of private businesses, but U.S. stock market investors holding shares of master limited partnerships, or MLPs, would receive the same treatment. MLPs build the pipelines and storage tanks and are a common corporate structure in the oil and gas infrastructure sector. “If the average rate (for MLP investors) is in the 30s, reducing it to 15 percent would be tremendously attractive,” Robert Willens, president of tax and accounting advisory firm Robert Willens LLC, said on Wednesday. He said if the cuts come through they would make MLPs “the most attractive investment from a tax point of view.” Mike Bresson, a tax partner with the law firm Baker Botts in Houston said Trump’s proposed change would enhance an already-superior tax structure enjoyed by MLPs. “They’re talking about giving MLPs the same 15 percent tax rate that corporations get, so that would actually expand the benefits of MLPs over corporations,” Bresson said. “The devil is in the details and we haven’t seen them.” MLPs have broadly underperformed the wider stock market over the past several years, largely due to the weakness in oil prices. The energy sector was pummeled as crude prices tumbled from above $100 per barrel in mid 2014 to below $30 early last year. They only recently stabilized at around $50 for U.S. oil. “There has been a gradual improvement in MLPs now that energy prices have stabilized. It’s still a decent place to invest even without the tax cut,” said Bryant Evans, portfolio manager at Cozad Asset Management in Champaign, Illinois. “There should be an almost immediate bounce (in price) once the proposal is solid. It should create more demand for MLP stock in general. But beyond an immediate bounce, it all goes back to how their businesses are doing.” Even with their above-average dividend yields, MLPs have lagged the S&P 500’s total return in the last year by around 240 basis points. MLP stocks - more specifically, units - are up as a group so far this year, with the Alerian MLP ETF up 1 percent, though they have fallen 2.1 percent since Trump took office - even as his administration has been more friendly to sector projects like the Keystone XL Pipeline and the Dakota Access Pipeline. The ETF rose 0.8 percent Tuesday as details of the tax proposal were reported first by the Wall Street Journal. It was the largest gain for the fund in six weeks. Among the best performers in the sector this year are Shell Midstream Partners and Tallgrass Energy Partners, both up by more than 11 percent in 2017, while Plains All American Pipeline and Genesis Energy are down 5 percent and 9 percent year to date, respectively. | 1 |
4,295 | HILLARY’S BIGGEST GUN CONTROL FAN LET’S LOOSE AT RALLY [Video] | Are there any real men left in the Democrat party? This Hillary supporter cheering for gun control would be the first guy hiding under the skirt of a woman packing heat if a crisis went down and he was in harms way. Criminals love gun control maybe that s why Hillary s out pushing it This Hillary supporter has a hunger that only gun control can satisfy. https://t.co/rILuCoLpwH Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) October 2, 2015 | 0 |
4,296 | Proof Ted Cruz Only Wants The Already Healthy And Wealthy To Have Healthcare (VIDEO) | It has been the life s work of Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He s obsessed, really. And it really seems to stem from not wanting President Obama to get credit for being the president that completely overhauled the healthcare system. Proof of this is in his response to any question regarding what he would do instead. He wants to repeal it to make it his own.However, when Cruz was asked directly about his plan for healthcare during the most recent GOP debate, he answered, or rather didn t answer, the moderator s question.Fox News Bret Baier asked Cruz: Today there are millions of people who gained health insurance from Obamacare and they now rely on it. So the question, Sen. Cruz, if you repeal Obamacare, as you say you will: Will you be fine if millions of those people don t have health insurance, and what is your specific plan for covering the uninsured? And here s Cruz s non-answer, completely dodging the question: If I am elected president, we will repeal every word of Obamacare. Now, once that is done, everyone agrees we need health care reform. It should follow the principles of expanding competition, empowering patients, and keeping government from getting between us and our doctors. Three specific reforms that reflect those principles: Number 1, we should allow people to purchase health insurance across state lines. That ll create a true 50-state national marketplace while will drive down the cost of low-cost catastropic health insurance. Number 2, we should expand health savings accounts so people can save in a tax-advantaged way for more routine health care needs. And Number 3, we should work to delink health insurance from employment, so if you lose your job, your health insurance goes with you, and it is personal, portable, and affordable, and I tell you, Bret I think that s a much more attractive vision for health care than the Washington-driven, top-down Obamacare that is causing so many millions to hurt. To summarize: Cruz wants to make it so healthcare is only available on the free market, and with regard to what his plan for those who become uninsured due to the repeal of Obamacare, well, he doesn t have one.One of the key components to the Affordable Healthcare Act is making sure insurance companies can no longer deny coverage based upon preexisting conditions. If the law is repealed, healthcare companies will be able to go back to these harmful practices and leave control of coverage back in the hands of for-profit care. Thus, in the hands of those who see it in their best interest to deny care to those they may deem too expensive to cover, because it would harm profits. Cruz seems to be in favor of this happening, since he didn t even touch upon it in his response.In addition, Cruz wants to make it so those who are covered by their employers are no longer covered, and would have to completely pay out-of-pocket for care. This makes it remarkably hard for those in low wage earning positions to even remotely dream of having care. The only people Cruz s plan helps are the wealthy and business owners who will no longer be required to offer coverage to their employees. His plan is in no way whatsoever beneficial to the average American. However, he words it in such a smarmy, salesman-type way that the average American won t pick up on the scam.Cruz wants the government completely out of healthcare which sounds great on paper if you only think of things in black and white. However, the reality of the situation is millions of people rely on the government subsidies granted in the Affordable Care Act, millions also rely upon Medicaid, and even more rely upon the fact that Obamacare makes it so insurance companies can t deny a person based upon a preexisiting condition.Don t fall for the evils of Cruz in his effort to bring America back to an era of people dying because they can t afford coverage, which is exactly what he is proposing. Video/Featured image: Slate | 0 |
4,297 | U.S. Republicans reject Democratic funding proposals for opioids | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican lawmakers in U.S. Congress on Wednesday rejected two Democratic amendments to provide nearly $1 billion in funding for bipartisan legislation intended to combat America’s opioid epidemic, aides said. The rejection, which came during a meeting of U.S. House of Representatives and Senate negotiators on the measure, could undermine Democratic support for final legislation that could come up for a vote in the House of Representatives as early as Friday. The House and Senate each passed its own versions of the legislation in the last few months. House and Senate Democratic lawmakers are now withholding their support for the final version of the bill, according to two Democratic aides. Democratic opposition could prove to be an obstacle, especially in the Senate, where lawmakers need 60 votes to move legislation forward. Two amendments, from House and Senate Democrats, would have provided $920 million up front to finance program grants for states. Aides said the programs otherwise require completion of a lengthy appropriations process that could stall in a congressional session shortened by this year’s election campaign. Republican aides were not immediately available for comment. But House Republicans are separately considering a health spending measure that would provide more than $581 million to address opioid abuse. House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra said on Wednesday it was only the latest instance in which legislation with bipartisan backing fell short on funding. “It’s becoming a bit of a joke to say we’re concerned and want to do something, when the only thing we’ll do is shell of what it actually takes,” he said. | 1 |
4,298 | New Zealand's 'first bloke' hooks into new role | (Reuters) - New Zealand not only has its youngest female prime minister with the rise to power of center-left Labour leader Jacinda Ardern, but a renegade new first bloke who is a national celebrity in his own right. Clarke Gayford, who hosts his own fishing television show, has already broken the mold of his predecessors, stepping in to defend his partner against scaremongering old dinos including one political rival who made a disparaging reference to Ardern and lipstick on a pig . On Twitter, Gayford has thrown fishing buddy jokes to Winston Peters, the leader of the small nationalist party that decided Ardern s political fate and teased a nation that waited a month for an election result: heading out of reception for a while..... things always seem to happen when I do this. Gayford s social media followers are likely to surge following the decision this week of Peters New Zealand First Party to throw its support behind 37-year-old Ardern and her Labour Party to form government. Political analysts say the pair are a unique double act in a small country where the partners of the previous two female leaders, Helen Clark and Jenny Shipley, maintained a low profile. This political power couple will be interesting to watch, said Grant Duncan, associate professor at Massey University in Auckland. They re both clearly very media savvy, both independent and have public profiles that were built up before they became a couple. The couple met four years ago when Gayford, 39, went to complain to a member of parliament about the then National Party government s proposed changes to security legislation. He bumped into Ardern, a rising star of the Labour Party, they had coffee and were living together not long after. Gayford s television show, Fish of the Day, sees him traveling around the Pacific, fishing and finding recipes for his catches. The series has been sold into 20 countries and won a gold award at the Houston International Film Festival last year. Gayford, who grew up on a farm without a television in summer, has a long history in broadcasting across television and radio. He s an occasional guest on weekly talkback radio show The Panel. On election night last month, Gayford admitted to being a little on edge as he brought out barbecued sausages and fish bites - made, naturally, from a 42kg sea bass he caught off the east coast - to reporters staking out the couple s home in Auckland. And he told Radio New Zealand recently that he s still coming to terms with elements of his new life, including a security detail unfamiliar to somebody who spends much of his time out on the open water: It s been a hell of a ride. | 1 |
4,299 | U.S. West Point academy set for first woman dean in two century history | (Reuters) - The United States Military Academy is poised to have its first woman dean in its 216-year history after President Barack Obama nominated to the post a West Point graduate who currently leads the school’s Department of Social Sciences. Colonel Cindy Jebb, who holds a Ph.D. in political science from Duke University, needs confirmation from the U.S. Senate to take on the post. If approved, she would be promoted to brigadier general and serve as West Point’s dean of the Academic Board, the U.S. Military Academy said in a statement on Friday. “She’s revered amongst the faculty and cadets and we’re lucky to have her,” West Point superintendent, Lieutenant General Robert Caslen, said in the statement. The military academy in New York state was founded in 1802 and its graduates typically serve as Army officers. It accepted its first female cadets in 1976. In January, the academy swore in it first female commandant of cadets. | 1 |
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