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4,300 | Clinton enjoys solid lead in early voting: Reuters/Ipsos poll | NEW YORK (Reuters) - With 11 days to go before the U.S. presidential election, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton leads Republican Donald Trump by 15 percentage points among early voters surveyed in the past two weeks, according to the Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project. Though data is not available for all early voting states, Clinton enjoys an edge in swing states such as Ohio and Arizona and in Republican Party strongholds such as Georgia and Texas. An estimated 19 million Americans have voted so far in the election, according to the University of Florida’s United States Election Project, accounting for as much as 20 percent of the electorate. Overall, Clinton remained on track to win a majority of votes in the Electoral College, the Reuters/Ipsos survey showed. Having so many ballots locked down before the Nov. 8 election is good news for the Clinton campaign. On Friday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that it is examining newly discovered emails belonging to Clinton’s close aide, Huma Abedin. Those emails were found on a computer belonging to Anthony Weiner, Abedin’s estranged husband, during an unrelated investigation into illicit messages he is alleged to have sent to a teenage girl. The Reuters/Ipsos survey was conducted before the news emerged Friday afternoon. It remains unclear whether the FBI inquiry will upset the balance in the race. The bureau disclosed nothing about the Abedin emails, including whether any of the messages were sent by or to Clinton. Over the summer, the FBI said it was closing its investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email system while secretary of state. Until Friday, her campaign seemed to have weathered the initial FBI email probe. Clinton has held a lead averaging four to seven percentage points in polls in recent weeks as the Trump campaign wrestled with accusations by women of groping and other sexual advances. Trump has said none of the accusations are true. He also struggled in the recent presidential debates and faced questions about his taxes. As of Thursday, Clinton’s odds of receiving the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency remained at greater than 95 percent, according to State of the Nation polling results released Saturday. The project estimated she would win by 320 votes to 218, with 278 votes solidly for the Democrat. Clinton’s lead among early voters is similar to the lead enjoyed by President Barack Obama over Republican Mitt Romney at this point of the 2012 race, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll taken at the time. Obama won the election by 332 electoral votes to Romney’s 206. But even before the latest email news, it had been a difficult week for Clinton. News coverage of Trump’s accusers had diminished, while Clinton confronted the almost daily release by WikiLeaks of emails purportedly hacked from her campaign manager’s account. This week’s leaked messages raised questions about former President Bill Clinton’s finances. And her lead in the States of the Nation project fell slightly from last week. Though the projected Electoral College votes hardly moved, the number of states solidly for Clinton slid from 25 to 20 this week. Trump didn’t see any additional states tilt solidly to him, but he did see some gains: The swing states of Pennsylvania, Colorado, Iowa and Nevada all moved from leaning to Clinton to being too close to call. Still, Trump’s path to a victory is narrow, and any realistic chance rests on his winning Ohio, North Carolina and Florida. As of Thursday, Ohio remained a toss-up. Florida and North Carolina were still tilting toward Clinton, according to the States of the Nation results. Early voting data for Florida and North Carolina was not yet available this week. In Ohio, Clinton led Trump by double digits among early voters. The project’s broader polling suggests the state is deadlocked between the two candidates. In Arizona, Clinton also was solidly ahead among early voters. In the past month, Arizona has gradually moved from a solid Trump state to a marginal Clinton state, although it is still too close to call, according to the project results. In Georgia, she enjoyed a similar lead among early voters. Overall, Georgia leans to Trump, but his lead narrowed to five percentage points this week, down from eights points last week and 13 points a month ago. Even in Texas, where Trump enjoys a sizable lead, Clinton has a double-digit edge among early voters, according to project results. The States of the Nation project is a survey of about 15,000 people every week in all 50 states plus Washington D.C. State by state results are available by visiting here | 1 |
4,301 | U.S. retaliates against Russia, orders closure of consulate, annexes | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has told Russia to close its consulate in San Francisco and buildings in Washington and New York that house trade missions, the State Department said on Thursday, in retaliation for Moscow cutting the U.S. diplomatic presence in Russia. The announcement was the latest in tit-for-tat measures between the two countries that have helped to drive relations to a new post-Cold War low, thwarting hopes on both sides that they might improve after U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January. Last month, Moscow ordered the United States to cut its diplomatic and technical staff in Russia by more than half, to 455 people to match the number of Russian diplomats in the United States, after Congress overwhelmingly approved new sanctions against Russia. The sanctions were imposed in response to Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and to punish Russia further for its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. “We believe this action was unwarranted and detrimental to the overall relationship between our countries,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement on Thursday, adding that the United States had completed the reduction. “In the spirit of parity invoked by the Russians,” Nauert said, the United States has required the Russian government to close its San Francisco consulate and two annexes in Washington, D.C. and New York by Sept. 2. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson informed Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of the closures in a phone call on Thursday, a senior Trump administration official said. The two men plan to meet on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in September, the official said. Lavrov expressed regret about Washington’s decision during the phone call with Tillerson, his ministry said. “Moscow will closely study the new measures announced by the Americans, after which our reaction will be conveyed,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. The latest U.S. move caps eight months of back-and-forth retaliatory measures between the two countries spanning two U.S. administrations. In December, the administration of Barack Obama closed two Russian countryside vacation retreats in Maryland and New York, saying the compounds had been used for intelligence-related purposes. The closures were part of a broader response, including the expulsion of 35 suspected Russian spies, to what U.S. officials have called cyber interference by Moscow in the 2016 elections. The Kremlin has denied the allegations. Trump came into office wanting to improve relations with Russia, a desire that was hamstrung by the election interference allegations. The new sanctions passed by Congress conflicted with Trump’s goals, but he grudgingly signed them into law this month. The United States said last week that it would have to sharply scale back visa services in Russia, a move that will hit Russian business travelers, tourists and students. The Russian consulate in San Francisco handles work from seven states in the Western United States. There are three other Russian consulates separate from the embassy in Washington. They are in New York, Seattle and Houston. The consulate in San Francisco is the oldest and most established of Russia’s consulates in the United States, the senior Trump administration official told reporters. An official residence at the consulate will also be closed. No Russian diplomats are being expelled, and the diplomats assigned to San Francisco can be re-assigned to other posts in the United States, the official said. The Russians can continue to retain ownership of any of the closed facilities, or sell them, but will not be allowed to carry out diplomatic activities there, the official said. “Even after these closures, Russia will still maintain more diplomatic and consular annexes in the United States than we have in Russia,” the official said. “We’ve chosen to allow the Russian government to maintain some of its annexes in an effort to arrest the downward spiral in our relationship.” | 1 |
4,302 | Fiscal Conservative Ted Cruz Just Released His Plan To Destroy America By EXPLODING Our Deficit | If you ever want to know how STUPID Republicans are when it comes to economics, you don t need to look back over the decades of Republican presidents and their associated financial disasters. All you need to do is find any potential Republican presidential candidate, and examine their tax plan.2016 s crop of candidates does not fail in this. Every single one of them that has come out with a plan has been universally mocked by legitimate economic scholars that use real math because their plans are more unrealistic than a stop-motion monster movie.The latest member of the idiot village to have his tax fantasy completely trashed is Ted Cruz. His plan reads like something a failed James Bond villain would try to do in order to destroy the U.S. economy.Here are some of the features included in Cruz s plan.A 10 percent flat income tax rate:Ted wants to replace our seven different tax brackets with one single tax rate of 10 percent. A flat tax always favors the wealthy while hurting the poor. To put it simply, the poor can t afford to have taxes deducted from their income like the rich can. When you pay 10 percent of 1 million dollars you have $900k remaining and you aren t starving. When you pay 10 percent of $15k you re left with $13.5k and you are starving worse because you were already starving at $15k. Don t forget, we would probably have to cut food stamps and other social safety nets because there is no money for them. Add into that the fact you are paying in taxes equal to about what a single individual would get in food stamps per year, while not actually getting food stamps.Elimination of many major taxes:Cruz wants to remove the estate tax (misclassified as a death tax by Republicans), alternative minimum tax, payroll tax, corporate taxes, and the Medicare surtax imposed by the Affordable Care Act. If you want a way to underfund the U.S. government to where it could cause a global financial crisis, this would be one of the ways to do it.Impose a VAT tax on businesses:Despite Cruz denying strongly that he is not in favor of a VAT tax, his business tax proposal is exactly that. The Tax Policy Center calls it that, so that s what we are calling it as well and the fact he is afraid to call it what it is shows the absurdity of his plan. A VAT tax will likely reduce wages because employers will no longer be able to deduct the cost of wages from their taxes. This will force employers to pay even less than they are currently. A good way to crush an economy is to hurt the buying power of the consumer base and this would be one of the most efficient ways to do it.Virtually nothing in this plan seems to be realistically paid for:Another very standard feature of Cruz s plan is that it would explode our federal deficit and debt by amazing levels. Estimates put it at over $20 trillion in 2 decades (8.6 in the first decade, 12 in the second). Republicans can t stop complaining about how President Obama has exploded our debt since he had to have the Bush years numbers on his books. However, he hasn t even come close to the costs Cruz would impose on the nation. It would make us unable to afford functional government.Most tax savings would go to the top 0.1 percent of filers: Top money-looters (I refuse to call them earners ) would get a post-tax income boost of $2 million approximately a 29 percent increase. Middle-income people would get an average of about $1,800 coming in at around a 3.2 percent increase, and lowest income filers would get an average of 0.4 percent of their income, or around $46. To put it more simply, if you are ultra wealthy, you could buy several extra middle-class homes per year just to pass the time. If you are poor you could buy about 60 percent of one McDonald s cheeseburger per week, per year with your savings.There s no other word to describe this besides insane, because it s the same thing from every Republican candidate every year, with them expecting different results every time. Democrats MUST vote in large numbers in November. We literally can t afford not to.Featured image from Flickr | 0 |
4,303 | Russia's Lavrov tells Tillerson U.S. 'aggressive rhetoric' on Korea unacceptable | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday that Washington s aggressive rhetoric had heightened tension on the Korean peninsula and was unacceptable, the Russian foreign ministry said. In a phone call, the two men also discussed further steps towards resolving the Syrian crisis and the situation in Ukraine, it added. | 1 |
4,304 | A Judge Just Gave Sarah Palin Some Very, Very Bad News | Remember how Sarah Palin sued the New York Times for mistakenly saying that a concrete link had been established between her Facebook post that featured crosshairs over former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords district and Jared Loughner s decision to open fire on her? Well, that didn t work out so well. Don t retreat. RELOAD, Palin famously posted on Facebook along with an image depicting gun sights over various states whose legislators she was targeting. Shortly after, Loughner shot Giffords in the head and pumped bullets into numerous others, killing six and wounding thirteen others.No concrete link between the two has been established though it is reasonable to assume Palin s encouragement played a role in the shooting.Speaking of shooting, District Judge Jed Rakoff shot down Palin s frivolous lawsuit against the Times on Tuesday. Nowhere is political journalism so free, so robust or, perhaps, so rowdy as in the United States, Judge Rakoff wrote in his 26-page decision. But if political journalism is to achieve its constitutionally endorsed role of challenging the powerful, legal redress by a public figure must be limited to those cases where the public figure has a plausible factual basis for complaining that the mistake was made maliciously. What we have here is an editorial, written and rewritten rapidly in order to voice an opinion on an immediate event of importance, in which are included a few factual inaccuracies somewhat pertaining to Mrs. Palin that are very rapidly corrected, Rakoff wrote. Negligence this may be; but defamation of a public figure it plainly is not. Judge Rakoff s opinion is an important reminder of the country s deep commitment to a free press and the important role that journalism plays in our democracy, a spokeswoman for the Times said. We regret the errors we made in the editorial. But we were pleased to see that the court acknowledged the importance of the prompt correction we made once we learned of the mistakes. This is, of course, bad news for Palin and her ally Donald Trump, who wants to open up libel laws to make it easier to people like Palin to file frivolous lawsuits against journalistic institutions for every little mistake even if a correction has been made.Lately, the Right has been practically masturbating over the idea of bullying anyone who reports something they don t like with expensive lawsuits as an attempt to keep criticism to a minimum.This is bad news for anyone who has recently filed a frivolous lawsuit against journalists, including alt-Right (a term employed by Nazis as a form of rebranding) journalist Cassandra Fairbanks, who sued a Fusion reporter for correctly reporting that she had made a hand gesture that had been adopted by the white power movement during a visit to the White House.Fortunately, Judge Rakoff refused to allow Palin s farcical lawsuit to get off the ground. Hopefully, this sends a message to the Right that bullying journalists with lawsuits will not go well for them.Featured image via screengrab | 0 |
4,305 | (VIDEO) BALTIMORE BBQ & BREW OWNER GUARDS RESTAURANT AFTER LEADERS “UTTERLY FAILED” | Midtown BBQ & Brew owner Tony Harrison was on Fox and Friends to explain that he saw video of a police line being breached and realized that [authorities] weren t going to be able to help us. That s when he decided he would stand watch outside of his business instead.Harrison said that he left his restaurant at one point. When he came back, a window was broken. He said he waited inside in the dark to protect his restaurant, but nothing further happened.Harrison said he s disappointed in the way leaders have responded to the rioting which began in the wake of Freddie Gray s death. They utterly failed, they failed the businesses, they failed the communities, they failed their own police officers, Harrison said. | 0 |
4,306 | SUPER BOWL CHAMP PLAYER Busts Into WH Press Briefing: “Need any help?”…Liberal Snowflakes Have A Meltdown! [Video] | IT S INTERESTING THAT A LIGHTHEARTED MOMENT LIKE THE ONE BELOW COULD CAUSE SUCH ANGER AND OUTRAGE FROM THE LEFT!Rob Gronkowksi popped into today s White House press briefing to ask Sean Spicer if he needed any help. Spicer, a Patriots fan, declined the offer. Mild laughs were had. Gronkowski then disappeared, presumably to cause more mischief in other parts of the building.It s not surprising that the tight end performed a bit like this. That he was wearing a shirt while doing it was a bit of a shock.Right after this video was posted Facebook comments were brutal about how unprofessional it was to have this guy pop into the briefing. We had Obama s antics for 8 years and these people can t take one light moment like this?The left went nuts with faux outrage: We can think of many moments during the Obama administration where some unprofessional antics took place. The only problem is that these antics are much more serious Remember Jay Carney? Well, here are 6 big moments he s caught in BIG lies. We consider this to be much more important than what happened today.6 OF THE TOP ANTICS FROM WHITE HOUSE PRESS BRIEFINGS UNDER OBAMA JAY CARNEY S NOT FUNNY BUT SERIOUS GAFFES : 1. When he said he knows 3 people named Hilary Rosen. After Obama adviser Hilary Rosen said Ann Romney hadn t worked a day in her life, it was discovered Rosen had visited the White House numerous times. When questioned on it, Carney claimed he knew 3 separate women named Hilary Rosen. 2. That one time he stumbled when asked why the Obama Administration withheld a crucial Benghazi email.3. That day when he called a reporter s repeated questions on Kathleen Sebelius lame. 4. That time he admitted White House staff knew of the IRS scandal and didn t tell Obama.5. That time he admitted that the Obama Budget wouldn t balance.6. That moment when he finally admitted Obama s Keep Your Plan promise wasn t true.Shouldn t the liberal snowflakes be outraged at what Jay Carney did? | 0 |
4,307 | Factbox: Trump on Twitter (Oct 5) - Ralph Northam, Stock Market, Rex Tillerson | 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 wonderful to be in Las Vegas yesterday and meet with people, from police to doctors to the victims themselves, who I will never forget! [0644 EDT] - Why Isn’t the Senate Intel Committee looking into the Fake News Networks in OUR country to see why so much of our news is just made up-FAKE! [0659 EDT] - Stock Market hits an ALL-TIME high! Unemployment lowest in 16 years! Business and manufacturing enthusiasm at highest level in decades! [0709 EDT] - Rex Tillerson never threatened to resign. This is Fake News put out by @NBCNews. Low news and reporting standards. No verification from me. [0750 EDT] - Ralph Northam,who is running for Governor of Virginia,is fighting for the violent MS-13 killer gangs & sanctuary cities. Vote Ed Gillespie! [2158 EDT] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR) | 1 |
4,308 | MSNBC HOST Compares Getting Close to Trump to ‘Hugging a Suicide Bomber’ [Video] | President Trump came out today and said he doesn t have tapes of former FBI Director James Comey but that the possibility of someone else taping the conversation is there. The lefty media went nuts and claimed that Trump lied. The political analyst on MSNBC even compared President Trump to a suicide bomber. Oh, the drama from these liberal news analysts!Elise Jordan CALLS HERSELF A POLITICAL ANALYST BUT WE THINK SHE S MORE LIKE A POLITICAL HACK!MSNBC s Craig Melvin and Jordan were discussing Trump s tweet on Thursday saying he has no recordings of his private conversations with former FBI Director James Comey. Trump had previously suggested such tapes may exist.MELVIN COMMENTED: Earlier in the broadcast I said bluff. I said the president was bluffing. I may have been perhaps too fair. It would seem as if the president may have been lying all along about the existence of these tapes. JORDAN REPLIED: He wasted the country s collective time speculating over whether these tapes existed or not. It s a sad day when you cannot depend on the president s word. My advice would just be to Republicans who do cozy up to him it s just like hugging a suicide bomber. He blows you up in the process with him. MELVIN REPLIED: That s a little strong | 0 |
4,309 | AFTER GM’S TAXPAYER BAILOUT AND $10 BILLION IN FORGIVEN DEBT…Cars Now Made In China [Video] | Was the GM bailout REALLY about American jobs? The taxpayers were sold a bill of goods on the GM bailout and still haven t seen anything but jobs going overseas. The American worker and American taxpayer deserve better!In 2016, General Motors will roll out for the first time in the United States a new model of Buick built exclusively in China: the Buick Envision.It s the first time the iconic American auto manufacturer will sell cars built in China in the United States since receiving a sizable taxpayer-funded bailout at the end of the George W. Bush administration and beginning of the Barack Obama administration.The Buick Envision which was available in China for purchase as far back as 2014 will make its official debut in the United States in the summer of 2016.The Buick Envision bills itself a luxury crossover designed to turn heads and welcome you in. A quick search of Buick Envision leads to the Buick Envision s website where one can explore all the features and design of the vehicle. The website doesn t appear to make any reference to the fact that the Envision is manufactured in China.The issue of U.S. auto manufacturers moving production facilities overseas has taken a center stage this presidential election, with the rise of both billionaire Donald Trump in the Republican Party and of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)16% of Vermont in the Democratic Party.Trump has drawn attention to GM competitor Ford for the company s decision to move manufacturing to Mexico, but Ford wasn t the recipient of a taxpayer-funded bailout. Sanders, meanwhile, has used his opposition to the bailouts to show that he isn t influenced by crony capitalism all while former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has tried to take credit for saving the auto industry with her support of the bailout.Breitbart News reached out to American Jobs Alliance to get its reaction to GM s decision to import Chinese-produced cars. When the taxpayers bailed out General Motors, we were told it was all about saving jobs in America. Now GM turns around and throws Americans under the wheels of Buicks made in China. Where does it stop? Will General Motors build Cadillacs, Chevys and GMC trucks in China next? Curtis Ellis executive director American Jobs Alliance told Breitbart News.General Motors has also announced plans to sell a Chinese manufactured hybrid Cadillac, the CT6 in American markets. Flint was known for decades as Buick City. It s now jobless, bankrupt and destitute, Ellis continued.Read more: Breitbart | 0 |
4,310 | Trump, Clinton camps both offered slice of dossier firm's work: sources | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The same political research firm that prepared a dossier on Trump campaign ties to Russia had unrelated information on Clinton Foundation donors that a Russian lawyer obtained and offered to President Donald Trump’s eldest son last year, three sources familiar with the matter said. The White House and Republican lawmakers have attacked the firm, Fusion GPS, over the dossier compiled by a former British spy that is central to investigations in Congress and by a special counsel into conclusions by U.S. spy agencies that Moscow interfered in the 2016 presidential election and wanted to help Trump win. The sources told Reuters that the negative information that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya wanted to give to Republican Trump’s campaign at a June 2016 meeting in New York had been dug up by Fusion GPS in an unrelated investigation. Trump’s congressional supporters have suggested that because Fusion also conducted research for lawyers representing a Russian firm in the unrelated matter, the dossier was part of a Russian campaign to help Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Trump backers call the 35-page report a “dodgy dossier” financed by Clinton supporters. Russia has repeatedly denied allegations of meddling in the U.S. election and Trump denies any collusion between his campaign and Moscow officials. In an interview with Bloomberg on Monday, Veselnitskaya said she went to the Trump Tower meeting with Donald Trump Jr., his brother-in-law Jared Kushner, and top campaign adviser Paul Manafort to show them proof of tax evasion by major Democratic donors. She said Donald Jr. asked her for written evidence that illegal funds went to Clinton’s campaign, Bloomberg reported. Emails made public earlier this year by Trump Jr. showed that a publicist for the son of one of his father’s Russian business contacts helped introduce Veselnitskaya and advised him that she and her associates had “sensitive” information that could damage Clinton. “I love it,” Trump Jr. responded, according to the emails. In December, 2014, the sources said, Veselnitskaya, who then was involved in litigation pitting her Russian client against British-American financier William Browder, received a legal research memo reporting that the Ziff Brothers, two New York financiers allied with Browder, had made a large contribution to a Clinton charity. The memo had been prepared by Fusion, which had been hired to conduct legal research on Browder by Baker and Hostetler law firm. The firm represented Russian businessman Denis Katsyv, who was engaged in disputes with Browder and U.S. prosecutors. Glenn Simpson, one of Fusion GPS’ founders, met with Veselnitskaya about that litigation before and after her meeting with Trump Jr., Kushner and Manafort, according to a source familiar with the matter. However, a source familiar with 10 hours of testimony Simpson gave the Senate Judiciary committee in August said he told investigators he did not know of Veselnitskaya’s Trump Tower meeting until reports of it appeared in the media. Representatives of the Judiciary Committee’s Republican majority did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Manafort declined to comment. Representatives for Trump Jr. and Kushner could not immediately be reached for comment and neither could a U.S.-based lawyer for Veselnitskaya. Two sources said the Fusion GPS work for Baker and Hostetler that produced the information Veselnitskaya offered Trump Jr. and his associates was unrelated to the firm’s work for Perkins Coie, a law firm that represented the Democratic National Committee and Clinton’s campaign. Perkins Coie has acknowledged that it paid $1.02 million to Fusion for research related to Donald Trump and his campaign. | 1 |
4,311 | BREAKING! MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD INVESTIGATION…Spokesperson For Voter Registration Project: Police Raid “Will Have Prevented 45,000 African Americans From Voting” [VIDEO] | LOL! This group gets raided for suspicion of massive voter fraud, and their defense is that the Republican Secretary of State and (of course) the police, are responsible for preventing 45,000 African Americans from voting? And you know what s even scarier? Indiana s not even a state that should be in play for the Democrats. Just imagine how they ve been organizing in the swing states where the vote is expected to be close. Pretty scary stuff Indiana police raided the offices of the Indiana Voter Registration Project in north Indianapolis on Tuesday in a growing voter fraud case.It is not clear who established or funded the Indiana Voter Registration Project. However, the group released a statement through spokeswoman Christy Setzer, whose PR firm s website says she has worked as a Democratic strategist for the presidential campaigns of Al Gore, Howard Dean and Chris Dodd. Indiana State Police investigators on Tuesday searched a voter registration agency on Indianapolis north side as they look into a voter fraud case that spans nine counties.The investigation began in late August when police learned of the filing of fraudulent voter registration forms in Marion and Hendricks counties.The investigation has expanded from Marion and Hendricks counties to include Allen, Delaware, Hamilton, Hancock, Johnson, Lake and Madison counties, according to a statement from State Police.Police said the growing number of involved counties leads investigators to believe that the number of fraudulent records might be in the hundreds. An investigation of this nature is complex, time consuming and is expected to continue for several more weeks or months, said a State Police statement. Victims of the activities by some agents of the Indiana Voter Registration Project may not discover they have been disenfranchised from voting until they go to vote and realize their voting information has been altered. Such action may result in the citizen having to cast a provisional ballot. Officials said a representative sample of voter registration applications received by county voter registration offices and suspected of being fraudulent have been copied and provided to investigators. The original applications are maintained by the appropriate voter registration office.The possible fraudulent information is a combination of fake names, addresses and dates of birth with real information. USA Today Via: Gateway Pundit | 0 |
4,312 | Trump HUMILIATED Over Name-Drop That’s Worse Than Frederick Douglass Gaffe (TWEETS) | Is The Donald really this oblivious to the entire world? And history? And, well, everything? Two and a half months after embarrassing himself by implying that Frederick Douglass was still alive, he embarrasses himself by dropping the name of yet another famous person who has passed away Luciano Pavarotti. He didn t just imply that Pavarotti is still living today (he died of pancreatic cancer ten years ago). While he and Italy s prime minister held a joint press conference, he must have decided to praise Italy for the gift of Pavarotti (or rather, he decided to use Pavarotti to puff himself up and appear more superior) by saying: Pavarotti, friend of mine, great friend of mine. First off, as stated before, Pavarotti is no longer gracing the world with his amazing tenor voice. Twitter made a point of reminding Trump of that:@kylegriffin1 @colattesipper @MSNBC Which is when I wish that Trump had died, instead of Pavarotti. Since at least Pavarotti could sing, and Trump can t do anything ..sad! Conversation Bug (@Conversationbug) April 20, 2017I can t get enough of this.#Trump #pavarotti such good friends.#FakePresident#FakeFriends#DeadFriends https://t.co/stId5Lkx0N Betsy (@studio_gal) April 20, 2017So Trump let everyone know that Pavarotti is a friend of his. Maybe he ll invite Pavarotti and Frederick Douglass to attend a WH dinner. Gail Stein (@gailstein) April 20, 2017@kylegriffin1 @jefferyrhenry @MSNBC Is Trump inviting Frederick Douglass and Pavarotti for unbelievable chocolate cake? Leticia (@ColinLeti) April 20, 2017@ALT_uscis We re still at zero for the number of days he hasn t been an embarrassment to this country. Kim Thompson (@KimYarnwrangler) April 20, 2017@ALT_uscis Chef Boyardee. The best chef. Great friend of mine. He cooks for me all the time. Love his food. Anybody s Guess (@boxcarbrenda) April 20, 2017@kylegriffin1 @MSNBC Since Trump and Pavarotti are such great friends I m sure he ll be saddened to hear of his passing #LobCitySoldier (@RealAnthony14) April 20, 2017Trump & Pavarotti were great friends. They d get together & wear each other s sports bras. Good DAY, Sir! (@xISaidGoodDAY) April 20, 2017Little known fact: Trump still gets together every weekend with Joe Paterno and Luciano Pavarotti for Trump s Little Italy club. https://t.co/h5z6faw64l Joe Bob #721 (@JHowieJr) April 20, 2017Trump should have asked Pavarotti to sing at his inauguration. William Peace ?? (@WilliamPeace81) April 20, 2017@sddphoto @ntned I know who Pavarotti is, but I don t know why Trump thinks he is still alive. sara caudell (@CaudellSara) April 20, 2017Don t worry, guys. Pavarotti told Marcello Mastroianni we should keep acting as if Trump s normal, and Marcello told me. Suzanne Munshower (@expatina) April 20, 2017@IMPL0RABLE @teka21bat Trump s presser with Italian PM is so cringe worthy, his good friend Pavarotti can t even stand to watch it. (((Shelley Rivlin))) (@srivlin) April 20, 2017But it s also not likely that Pavarotti was any friend of Trump s at all. Trump repeatedly used a recording of him singing Puccini s Nessun Dorma during his campaign, and his family asked Trump to stop. Nessun Dorma means None Shall Sleep, and Pavarotti s rendition has a climax where he sings Vincero three times, which means I will win. We all know how Trump likes to win. The family issued a statement that said: As members of his immediate family, we would like to recall that the values of brotherhood and solidarity which Luciano Pavarotti expressed throughout the course of his artistic career are entirely incompatible with the world view offered by the candidate Donald Trump. Trump may well have met Pavarotti at some point, but one would think that, if they had been great friends, he would have at least been able to act like he knew Pavarotti was gone. The family may also have taken that into account regarding the use of Pavarotti s aria at rallies if it were true.So not only did he again demonstrate that he doesn t know a damn thing about anything that goes on, and he likely lied about being great friends with that man. Pavarotti was a great man. Trump is an insecure, pathetic fraction of a man.Watch below:Featured image by Mark Wilson via Getty Images | 0 |
4,313 | Some Hispanic Republicans fear for party's future if Trump wins in Florida | HIALEAH, Florida (Reuters) - Conservative Hispanic activists fear a win by Republican frontrunner Donald Trump in Florida’s presidential nominating contest next week will deal a major setback to efforts to widen the party’s appeal beyond white voters, potentially dooming hopes of retaking the White House from Democrats in 2016. Some of the activists said in interviews they feared a Trump win could prompt many Latino Republicans, angry at his anti-immigrant rhetoric, to stay home on Nov. 8, Election Day, or worse, support the Democratic nominee. “Sadly, the damage is going to be felt by the Republican Party for years,” said Javier Palomarez, president and CEO of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, of a possible Trump win in Florida on March 15. “This is a turning point,” he said. Trump has dominated opinion polls and early nominating contests, in large part because of his pledge to build a wall along the border with Mexico; his labeling of Mexicans as criminals and rapists; and his accusations that immigrant workers steal American jobs. That kind of talk is well received by many white Republican voters, but not by minorities, polls show. That's a problem for the party, because while the American electorate has become more diverse in the last three years, Republican support among Hispanic likely voters has shrunk, from 30.6 percent in 2012 to 26 percent in 2015, according to an analysis of Reuters/Ipsos polling data. Meanwhile, Hispanic Democrats grew by 6 percentage points to 59.6 percent. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/1Oj9SPi) Trump’s campaign declined to comment, but he has consistently argued he can win the Latino vote, in part because his companies have employed thousands of Hispanics. “They’re incredible people. They’re incredible workers. I love them. I love them,” he said at a debate in February. Much of the establishment wing of the Republican party has thrown its weight behind Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a first-generation Cuban American. Rubio, however, lags Trump by 15 points in polls in Florida and may be forced out of the race if the New York businessman bests him. For Mark Gomez, a 20-year-old Cuban-American student at the University of Miami and a Rubio volunteer, the differences between Rubio’s and Trump’s approaches hit home when earlier this month on Twitter, a Trump supporter called him an “anchor baby.” Gomez was born in the United States of Cuban refugee parents. Immigration critics sometimes use “anchor babies” to describe U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants, usually from Latin America. Immigration groups say the phrase is offensive. Trump, Gomez said, “is just playing into people’s fears.” Rubio has toured Florida’s Latino enclaves in recent weeks, switching easily between Spanish and English at his rallies, while his allied super PAC, or independent fundraising group, has outspent all rivals combined in ads to boost him and erase Trump’s polling lead. Among Rubio’s challenges in besting Trump, however, could be drawing in younger generations of Florida’s Hispanics. Unlike conservatives of the past, who could take the Cuban-American vote in Florida for granted if they aggressively criticized the Castro government in Cuba, candidates are dealing with a new generation that is leaning more heavily to the Democratic Party. A decade ago 64 percent of Cuban registered voters nationwide identified with the Republican party. That’s now down to 47 percent, according to the Pew Research Center. And among young Cubans, from 18 to 49, more than half now identify with or lean toward the Democrats. “A lot of those Cubans who come from the island, that resentment, that pain, that hurt has really driven how they’ve reacted politically. Our generation is a generation removed from that in a lot of ways,” said Gabriel Pendas, 33, of Miami. He called Rubio “so outdated from how a lot of people feel.” Following Mitt Romney’s defeat as the Republican party’s presidential nominee in 2012, in which he received just 27 percent of the Hispanic vote nationwide, the Republican National Committee underwent an extensive and painful self-examination to determine the root causes of its failure. One thing was clear from the autopsy: The party needed to expand a voter base skewing too white and too old. The hope among party leaders, like Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus, was that a young, dynamic field of candidates like Rubio, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, and others, would position the party well to reclaim some share of Latino vote from the Democrats. Rubio stood central to those hopes. Young, telegenic, bilingual, and armed with a compelling backstory, he seemed made-to-order. “Rubio’s tone, his aspirational message, his shared language and culture, makes him an ideal candidate,” said Daniel Garza, director of the LIBRE Institute in Miami, a conservative Hispanic advocacy group. But Trump, as he has done so often during this election season, took a wrecking ball to those plans. His hardline immigration stance forced many of his rivals - including Cruz - to adopt a harsher approach on immigration, while leaving others such as former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who has dropped out of the race, adrift. “We’ve lost an incredible opportunity,” said Alfonso Aguilar, president of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, referring to Trump’s front-runner status. Addressing a rally on Wednesday night in Hialeah, home to the largest number of Cubans outside of Cuba, Rubio spoke in both English and Spanish and urged supporters to “come out and vote in massive numbers.” Awaiting Rubio at the rally, Cuban-born Ahmed Martel, 45, was asked what he would do if Trump, not Rubio, was the party’s nominee in the fall. “I won’t vote,” Martel said. “I can’t vote for him.” (Additional reporting by Grant Smith and Maurice Tamman; Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Ross Colvin) 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 |
4,314 | Finnish court bans neo-Nazi group | HELSINKI (Reuters) - A Finnish court banned neo-Nazi group the Nordic Resistance Movement (PVL) on Thursday, saying there was an urgent social need to shut down the group which it said spread hate speech and incited violence. Police had asked that the far-right group, which the Finnish intelligence service says aims to create a national socialist state, be closed down. The association offends ethnic groups and spreads hate speech, the district court in Pirkanmaa, in the country s southwest, said in its verdict. In addition to offending and hateful expressions ... the association urges its supporters to use violence and harassment against alleged enemies. There is an urgent social need to shut down an association like PVL, the court said. A member of the group was sentenced to two years in jail last year following death of a 28-year-old man he had assaulted during a demonstration in Helsinki. Anti-immigrant sentiment has been on the rise in Finland, a country of 5.5 million where about 32,000 migrants and refugees arrived during Europe s migrant crisis in 2015. | 1 |
4,315 | CLASS ACT: Trump Finds Out NY Man’s TRUMP Sign Burned Down And Does This | Donald Trump has done so many things that you ll never know about because the mainstream media refuses to report on them. We just reported that he bought 400 pizzas for the Jacksonville, FL police department. Here s yet another random act of kindness from Trump:Donald Trump weighed in Monday on the torching of a huge, Staten Island lawn sign supporting his presidential bid personally thanking the homeowner who put it up and commending the artist on his handiwork.Sam Pirozzolo said the Republican candidate called his cell phone around 4 p.m., saying: This is Donald Trump. I saw what happened all over the news. I appreciate everything you are doing. Pirozzolo s lawn sign that was set on fire. It s horrible what happened to you. I hope you and your family are safe, Pirozzolo said Trump added.Neighbors alerted Pirozzolo to the flames that destroyed the 12-by-8-foot, hand-painted T with a flag motif shortly after 1 a.m. Sunday.Both the NYPD and FDNY are investigating the incident as arson.Read more: NYP | 0 |
4,316 | Johnny Depp GOES OFF On Donald Trump: He’s ‘A BRAT!’ (VIDEO) | Johnny Depp will not be voting for Donald Trump, judging from the award-winning actor s comments during a recent sit-down Q&A at Arizona State University on Saturday.The Q&A was focused around the methods Depp uses in his acting, but the actor couldn t help but go off on a Trump rant while speaking with theoretical physicist and Arizona State University s Origins Project founder Lawrence Krauss about humanity in madness. Depp didn t mince his words as he railed against the GOPer, calling him a brat. Depp began by stating that he didn t think the candidate s offensive behavior was merely a result of him being a rich kid. Depp added, There s something creative about him in a sense of bullydom before ultimately coming to the conclusion that What he is, I believe, is a brat. Depp also commented on Trump s raunchy, brash language by stating how interesting it was to follow the absurdity of where his sentences might travel. Depp continued: Reagan back in the day, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall! Donald Trump, I m going to build a wall. And all of my billions are not going to have to pay for it. Because you know why? Mexico is going to pay for it.' What follows after those thoughts is one of the most amazing, dead-on Trump impressions by the actor, which the audience went absolutely wild for. You can watch Depp go in on Trump below:Depp has attacked Trump before, and seems to have his impression of him down pat. Last month, Depp impersonated the business mogul in a hilarious Funny Or Die video that was based on Trump s bestselling book The Art of the Deal.Depp is just the latest person to join the droves of celebrities speaking out against Trump. Just this weekend, singer John Legend also publicly railed against the Republican front runner when he called Trump out on Twitter. Trump has also recently been condemned by Louis C.K., Miley Cyrus, George Clooney, and Stephen King and we don t blame these celebrities for doing everything they can to wake Americans up. As long as Trump has a chance at the White House, America is in big trouble and we need everyone to speak up against him. Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
4,317 | Democrat Clinton picks Kaine as running mate, bypassing liberals | WASHINGTON/TAMPA, Fla. (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton named U.S. Senator Tim Kaine as her running mate on Friday, opting for an experienced governing partner who will help her present the Democratic ticket as a steady alternative to the unpredictable campaign of Republican presidential rival Donald Trump. The selection of Kaine, a self-described “boring” Virginian with a reputation for low-key competence, could appeal to independents and moderates, but it quickly angered liberal groups that object to his advocacy for an Asian free-trade pact. The Spanish-speaking former Virginia governor and Richmond mayor fit Clinton’s long-stated criteria that the vice presidential choice be a capable and reliable partner who is ready to take over the presidency if necessary. Clinton made the announcement via Twitter and a text message to supporters after the first day of a two-day campaign swing in Florida. She called Kaine to tell him about 40 minutes before the announcement, and called President Barack Obama shortly after Kaine. “I’m thrilled to tell you this first: I’ve chosen Sen. Tim Kaine as my running mate. Welcome him to my team,” she said in her text message. Kaine, 58, edged out two other finalists - Cory Booker, a U.S. senator from New Jersey, and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, according to a Democratic source familiar with the discussions. Clinton also bypassed candidates who would have generated more excitement among liberal and Hispanic activists, including progressive favorite U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren and two Hispanic members of Obama’s Cabinet, Julian Castro and Thomas Perez. The former secretary of state will be formally nominated as the party’s presidential candidate for the Nov. 8 election at next week’s Democratic convention in Philadelphia. She leads Trump in many opinion polls. Clinton’s choice of a running mate could give her campaign momentum heading into the convention, as the fight for the White House begins a more than three-month push to the finish. Clinton, 68, acknowledged in an interview earlier this week that even Kaine admits he is boring, and said she did not mind. “I love that about him,” she told Charlie Rose of CBS News and PBS. “He’s never lost an election. He was a world-class mayor, governor and senator and is one of the most highly respected senators I know.” A campaign official said Clinton was impressed with Kaine’s down-to-earth style when she campaigned with him in Virginia last week. Afterwards, Kaine went back to her house in Washington, D.C., for a 90-minute evening meeting. Two days later, Kaine and his wife, Anne, joined Clinton in New York for lunch, along with Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, daughter Chelsea and Chelsea’s husband. Kaine was the only vice presidential candidate to have a private family lunch during the vetting process, the official said. Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, who led the search, offered her advice. “It needs to be someone who whenever they walk into a room you are glad to see them and want to have them as part of any conversation,” the campaign official quoted Podesta telling her. Kaine’s first appearance with Clinton will be on Saturday at an event in Miami, a campaign aide said. “Just got off the phone with Hillary. I’m honored to be her running mate. Can’t wait to hit the trail tomorrow in Miami,” Kaine said on Twitter. Liberal groups, which had pressured Clinton not to pick Kaine because of his support for fast-track authority for the White House to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership, were dismayed by the choice. Critics of the Asia free-trade deal, including Trump and Clinton’s Democratic primary rival Bernie Sanders, say it would be unfair to U.S. workers and kill jobs. Clinton praised the deal when she was secretary of state, but has since distanced herself from it. “Republicans will run hard against Democrats on trade this year. Unfortunately, since Tim Kaine voted to fast-track the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Republicans now have a new opening to attack Democrats on this economic populist issue,” said Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. Hispanic activists also may be annoyed with the pick of Kaine given that Latino candidates were again passed over, though some Latino advocacy groups praised the choice. “She has chosen a running mate that has a track record of advocating and fighting for the issues that affect the Latino community and our nation: immigration, healthcare, women’s rights and the environment,” said Ben Monterroso, executive director of Mi Familia Vota. Top Republicans were quick to criticize Clinton’s choice. The Trump campaign called Kaine “an ethically challenged insider” and called Clinton and Kaine a “Status Quo” ticket. “If you think Crooked Hillary and Corrupt Kaine are going to change anything in Washington, it’s just the opposite,” campaign aide Jason Miller said in a statement. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus condemned the pick, saying Clinton spent the past week pandering to Sanders and grassroots Democrats, and now “has chosen someone who holds positions that she’s spent the entire primary trying to get to the left of.” But Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, who has been critical of Trump, said on Twitter that he was trying to count the ways he hated Tim Kaine. “Drawing a blank. Congrats to a good man and a good friend,” Flake said. Kaine could help Clinton in Virginia, a heavily contested swing state, and choosing Kaine will not cost Democrats a seat in the Senate, where Republicans now hold a majority. Virginia’s Democratic governor, Terry McAuliffe, a close Clinton friend and ally, will name a replacement for Kaine if he and Clinton win the White House. Some Democrats who know Kaine well dismissed fears that he lacks the toughness to stand up to Republican attacks, given how deftly Trump chewed up “low-energy” Jeb Bush and “little Marco” Rubio in the Republican primaries. “It’s not the Donald Trump sledgehammer. But he’s not a shrinking violet,” said Luke Albee, a former chief of staff to Democrat Mark Warner, the senior U.S. senator from Virginia. Albee, who has watched Kaine up close over the years, added, “I wouldn’t mistake a thoughtful and genial disposition for an inability to really forcefully articulate differences.” Kaine has good relations with senators from the opposing party, according to senior Senate Republican congressional aides. One aide speculated Kaine would be effective in reaching out to congressional Republicans if he becomes vice president, a role that Vice President Joe Biden has played for Obama. Kaine, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees, has been a leading voice calling for a formal authorization of war against the Islamic State militant group. He played an important role in securing congressional review of the 2015 international deal on Iran’s nuclear program, although he eventually backed it. He has a track-record of backing liberal causes such as ending across-the-board automatic budget cuts and providing a pathway to citizenship to millions of undocumented immigrants. Kaine, a Catholic who became fluent in Spanish speaker while serving as a missionary in Honduras, has expressed personal opposition to abortion, but has a public record in support of abortion rights. | 1 |
4,318 | GREAT SPEECH! PRESIDENT TRUMP Doubles Down On Border Protection: “We are going to restore the RULE OF LAW in the United States” [Video] | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEfQYHciqaQDuring his speech he honored some of the families who ve lost loved ones to illegal aliens. He said he d gotten to know people from The Remembrance Project over his time campaigning: I am joined this afternoon by parents whose children were horribly killed by people who came here illegally, Trump told the crowd. I will now read these parents names and ask them to stand. Many of them have become friends of mine over the past two years. | 0 |
4,319 | Short list of potential Trump administration picks | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump recently announced the first major appointments to his administration but still has many positions to fill ahead of his inauguration on Jan. 20. Trump announced on Sunday he will hire Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus as White House chief of staff and named Stephen Bannon, former head of the conservative web site Breitbart News, as his chief strategist and senior counselor. The selection of Bannon drew sharp criticism from Democrats, who criticized Breitbart News’ ties to racist messages. Below are people mentioned as contenders for senior roles. * Bob Corker, Tennessee senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee * John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush * Newt Gingrich, Republican former U.S. House Speaker * Zalmay Khalilzad, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq * Rudy Giuliani, Republican former mayor of New York City * Steven Mnuchin, former Goldman Sachs executive and Trump’s campaign finance chairman * Jeb Hensarling, Texas Republican congressman and chairman of the House Financial Services Committee * Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase & Co chief executive officer * Tom Barrack, founder and chairman of Colony Capital Inc * Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency * Stephen Hadley, former national security adviser under President George W. Bush * Jon Kyl, former Republican senator from Arizona * Jeff Sessions, Republican senator from Alabama and early Trump supporter, member of the Senate Armed Services Committee * Kelly Ayotte, outgoing Republican senator from New Hampshire and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee * Duncan Hunter, Republican congressman from California and early Trump supporter, member of House Armed Services Committee * Jim Talent, former Republican senator from Missouri who was on the Senate Armed Services Committee * Rudy Giuliani * Jeff Sessions, senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who takes a hard line on immigration * Chris Christie, Republican New Jersey governor * Pam Bondi, Republican Florida Attorney General * Trey Gowdy, Republican congressman from South Carolina who headed the House committee that investigated the 2012 attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya * Ben Carson, former neurosurgeon and 2016 Republican presidential candidate * Newt Gingrich * Rich Bagger, former pharmaceutical executive and former top aide to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie * Bobby Jindal, former Louisiana governor * Michael McCaul, U.S. Republican congressman from Texas and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee * David Clarke, Milwaukee county sheriff and vocal Trump supporter * Joe Arpaio, outgoing Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff who campaigned for Trump * Myron Ebell, a climate change skeptic at the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute who is overseeing environmental policy on Trump’s transition team * Robert Grady, venture capitalist, partner in private equity firm Gryphon Investors * Leslie Rutledge, Arkansas attorney general * Carol Comer, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management * Harold Hamm, Oklahoma oil and gas mogul, CEO of Continental Resources Inc * Larry Nichols, co-founder of Devon Energy Corp * James Connaughton, CEO of Nautilus Data Technologies and a former environmental adviser to President George W. Bush * U.S. Representative Kevin Cramer, of North Dakota * Robert Grady * Sarah Palin, Republican former Alaska governor who ran for vice president in 2008 * Jan Brewer, former Arizona governor * Forrest Lucas, founder of oil products company Lucas Oil * Harold Hamm * Robert Grady * Linda McMahon, former world Wrestling Entertainment executive and two-time Senate candidate * Lieutenant General Michael Flynn * Mike Rogers, Republican former representative from Michigan who chaired the House Intelligence Committee * Pete Hoekstra, Republican former representative from Michigan * Lieutenant General Michael Flynn * Stephen Hadley * Kelly Ayotte * Richard Grenell, former spokesman for the United States at the United Nations * Peter King, Republican representative from New York * Dan DiMicco, former chief executive of steel producer Nucor Corp * Jeff Miller, retiring congressman from Florida and chairman of the Veterans Affairs committee | 1 |
4,320 | Mexicans burn Donald Trump effigies in Easter ritual | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexicans celebrating an Easter ritual late on Saturday burnt effigies of U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, whose anti-immigrant views have sparked outrage south of the American border. In Mexico City’s poor La Merced neighborhood, hundreds of cheering residents yelled “death” and various insults as they watched the explosion of the grinning papier-mâché mock-up of the real estate tycoon, replete with blue blazer, red tie and his trademark tuft of blond hair. Media reported that Trump effigies burned across Mexico, from Puebla to Mexico’s industrial hub Monterrey. The burning is part of a widespread Mexican Holy Week tradition where neighborhoods burn effigies to represent Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus Christ according to the Bible. The effigies are often modeled on unpopular political figures. “Since he started his campaign and began talking about immigrants, Mexico, and Mexicans, I said ‘I’ve got to get this guy,’” said Felipe Linares, the artisan who crafted Trump and whose family has been making Judases for more than 50 years. Trump, the front-runner to win the Republican nomination for the Nov. 8 election, has drawn fire in Mexico with his campaign vow to build a wall along the southern U.S. border to keep out illegal immigrants and drugs, and to make Mexico pay for it. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has said his country will not pay for the wall and likened Trump’s “strident tone” to the ascent of dictators like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. Trump, who has also aroused concern among many in his own party with his proposals, has accused Mexico of sending rapists and drug runners across the border and vowed to increase fees on some Mexican visas and all border crossing cards to help make Mexico pay for the wall. Judas effigies are burnt in villages and towns in several Latin American countries such as Venezuela and in parts of Greece. Anthropologists say the practice serves a symbolic function to overcome divisions and unite communities around a common enemy. Linares has also done mock-ups of corrupt former union leader Elba Esther Gordillo and President Enrique Pena Nieto, whose popularity has been hit by conflict-of-interest scandals and the disappearance of 43 students at the hands of corrupt police. | 1 |
4,321 | Ahead of Trump's visit to Philippines, a big thumbs up from U.S. veterans | SUBIC, Philippines (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is no stranger to controversy and he has often come in for sharp criticism both at home and overseas, but in the town of Subic in the Philippines, he s a hero. Once home to one of the biggest U.S. naval facilities in the world, Subic is a haven for retired servicemen who seem thrilled that Trump is visiting the Philippines, and convinced the divisive tycoon can do no wrong. Trump, I back him big time, said Mike McCarthy, a former master chief with the U.S. 7th Fleet, drinking in one of the American-themed bars that line Subic s main street, with names like Alaska , Crazy Horse and Rolling Stone . They won t allow him to govern, but he s smarter than them, always a step ahead, he said of opponents of Trump. The U.S. president arrives in the capital Manila on Sunday for a summit of Asian leaders, on the last leg of a tour that has taken him to Japan, South Korea, China and Vietnam. He s just doing things a different way, his Tweeting, his strong words. But where has he made a wrong call yet? said McCarthy. A native of Florida who has lived in Subic for a decade, McCarthy said Trump s respect for veterans meant he s a big hit with them and among the military. If he asked me to come and meet him in Manila, I d be there in a shot, he added. Trump is set to meet Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and will try to shore up relations strained by the mercurial Duterte s notorious anti-U.S. sentiment and his enthusiasm for better ties with Russia and China. Others who will be in Manila for the summit meetings include Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Russian Premier Dmitry Medvedev and leaders from Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand and member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The Philippines will deploy nearly 60,000 police and army personnel to provide security. The Philippines has for decades been a key U.S. defense ally and although the base was closed in 1992, Subic has since received a regular flow of retirees and visits by U.S. warships for repairs, resupply and exercises. About 220,000 Americans, many of them military veterans, live in the Philippines. An additional 650,000 visit each year, according to U.S. State Department figures. Subic has maintained its American feel, with bars offering military discounts and restaurants serving anything from baby-back ribs, buffalo wings and steaks to burgers named shotgun and an omelette called the sheriff . It has tattoo parlors, liquor stores with signs advertising bourbon whiskey and a Harley Davidson repair shop servicing the easy-rider motorcycles that have long been a fixture in the town of 100,000 people, about a three-hour drive north from Manila. Veteran James Goodman, 51, has owned six bars during his 13 years in Subic. His latest venture, Sit-n-Bull , has bar games, live sports and rock music that competes with the lively chatter of tattoo-clad patrons in tank tops. The walls are adorned with vehicle license plates from Florida, Ohio, California and Nevada, next to a neon-lit USA sign in red, white and blue. A guitar hangs next to a wood carving of a native Indian and an American Football playoff schedule offering hot dog promotions. I m very glad Donald Trump is coming here, I believe he and President Duterte will get along, said Goodman, from New Jersey. He s for the American people ... I look forward to his leadership, I look forward to his re-election. I d love to meet Trump, I d love to buy him a beer. His business partner Ronn Oliver, 54, who runs a nearby restaurant of the same name, says veterans appreciate Trump and recognize his shrewdness. He knows what he s doing, he shocks, but he sets up his opponents, he plays them, he knows what reaction he s gonna get, said Oliver, a former serviceman and commercial fisherman from Seattle, Washington. He needs to build more support, so people can catch up with what he s doing. They ve gotta give him a couple of years to get into it. Christopher Lamb, 48, a fisherman who said he is from Florida, says he shook Trump s hand four decades ago. Wearing a baseball cap and white vest, he offers a few slurred words that show his pride in Trump s rise to the presidency. I met this man, he was nothing then, and now he s the most powerful man in the world, said Lamb. Retiree Mike Allen, 66, from Ohio, has lived in Subic for a year and recognizes he might be the lone dissenter when it comes to Trump. The military guys here, they love him, he said, with a shake of the head. He says one thing one day and another thing the next. He s isolating us and he loves white supremacists. An American president can t be like that. | 1 |
4,322 | DIAMOND AND SILK Give It To “Underhanded” Meryl Streep [Video] | .@DiamondandSilk wasn t pleased by the underhanded way that @MerylStreepPage used her platform, @goldenglobes, to insult @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/zVjDw9rah6 Diamond and Silk (@DiamondandSilk) January 9, 2017 | 0 |
4,323 | This EDM Remix Of Sarah Palin’s Trump Speech Makes Her Screechy Voice Totally Worth It (VIDEO) | If you re like me, listening to the sound of Sarah Palin s voice alone, regardless of what she says, is like being stabbed through the skull with a series of high-school geometry class protractors. Only then do I begin to actually absorb the nonsensical content of what she s saying. But, of course, leave it to the internet to take the pain away.A YouTuber called Tronovitch assembled the first what will inevitably be many autotune remixes of Palin s incoherent Trump speech. This one is built around Palin s white trash tendencies, illustrated by the mashed-up use of the phrase hee-haw as well as the 1970s television show of the same name.[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cs9jP2ILOw&w=560&h=315]While we re here, is there anyone else in politics who s less self aware than Palin? She seems to believe that liberals and the lamestream media are terrified of her because she goes rogue and challenges the establishment. She appears to be completely unaware of the fact that everyone outside of her retirement-aged fanboys are laughing at her her and her Idiot Strength. Consequently, she doesn t seem to grasp that she s embarrassing herself by going Full Dumbstupid. (You never go Full Dumbstupid.)She seems to believe that her speaking style is a threat rather than a source of accidental self-satire. In other words, every time she appears in public, she ratchets up her act, thinking that it ll totally flummox liberals, but in reality it just comes off as Full Dumbstupid. Frankly, it s one of many tell-tale signs that she s totally ensconced in white-trashery, which is often indicated by poor judgment and horrendously bad taste.Suffice to say, she clearly doesn t know. And if she s been told how insanely ridiculous she sounds, she s not paying attention which is yet another sign of being white trash. Besides, if she stops, the comedy ends. And that d be a tragedy.Featured image via video screen grab. | 0 |
4,324 | Rep. Franks to resign after staff members' complaints of harassment | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Representative Trent Franks said on Thursday he would resign after two female staffers complained that he had discussed surrogacy with them. Franks, 60, who has been a member of Congress from Arizona since 2003, said in a statement that he would step down on Jan. 31. The House of Representatives Ethics Committee said on Thursday it had opened an investigation into accusations of sexual harassment against Franks. The congressman said he was resigning because coverage of the committee’s investigation in the “current cultural and media climate” would “damage those things I love most.” Franks said he and his wife had struggled with infertility and sought a surrogate in order to have another child after they had twins with a surrogate. “I have recently learned that the Ethics Committee is reviewing an inquiry regarding my discussion of surrogacy with two previous female subordinates, making each feel uncomfortable,” Franks said. “I deeply regret that my discussion of this option and process in the workplace caused distress,” he said. Franks denied he ever “physically intimidated, coerced, or had, or attempted to have, any sexual contact with any member of my congressional staff.” U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan was briefed on the allegations on Nov. 29 and urged Franks to resign in a conversation the following day, Ryan’s office said in a statement. “The speaker takes seriously his obligation to ensure a safe workplace in the House,” the statement said. Franks, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, represents Arizona’s 8th Congressional District, a mainly suburban area of Phoenix. He won re-election in 2016 with 68.5 percent of the vote. Republican President Donald Trump carried the district by 21 points last year. Republican Arizona Governor Doug Ducey will call a special election to fill the seat. The nominating primary must be held between 80 and 90 days after the vacancy and the general election must be conducted 50 to 60 days after the primary, according to state law. Numerous prominent men in U.S. politics, media and entertainment have been accused in recent months of sexual harassment and misconduct. Earlier on Thursday, Democratic Senator Al Franken of Minnesota said he would resign in a few weeks following allegations of sexual misconduct. U.S. Democratic Representative John Conyers of Michigan resigned on Tuesday after accusations of sexual harassment were leveled against him. Conyers denied the allegations, while Franken said some of the accusations against him were untrue and he remembered other incidents differently from his accusers. Reuters has not verified the allegations against either man. | 1 |
4,325 | Kenya election board lawyer: repeat presidential election still on | NAIROBI (Reuters) - A presidential election scheduled for Thursday will take place as the Supreme Court was unable to hear a petition to delay it, said a lawyer for the election commission on Wednesday. It means elections are on tomorrow. There is no order stopping the election, lawyer Paul Muite told Kenyan television station Citizen TV. | 1 |
4,326 | Britain to submit 'Brexit bill' proposal before December EU meeting | LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will submit proposals on how to settle its divorce bill with the European Union before an EU summit next month and is expected to negotiate hard, finance minister Philip Hammond said on Sunday. The EU told Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday that there was more work to be done to unlock the Brexit talks, repeating its early December deadline for her to flesh out Britain s opening offer on the financial settlement. We will make our proposals to the European Union in time for the Council, Hammond told the BBC, referring to the Dec. 14-15 meeting of EU heads of government. He was speaking three days before he sets out Britain s budget plan, where he will have to find room within tight fiscal constraints to help May convince voters that the Conservative government is tackling Britain s domestic problems at the same time as negotiating its exit from the EU. Last week, May met fellow EU leaders to try to break a deadlock over how much Britain will pay on leaving the bloc, an issue threatening to derail British hopes for a negotiated exit and an agreement on a new trading relationship by March 2019. May has signalled she would increase an initial offer that is estimated at some 20 billion euros ($24 billion) - about a third of what Brussels wants. But Hammond, who has been criticised by supporters of Brexit for being too conciliatory towards Brussels and lobbying for a softer exit, said Britain would take a tough stance about how much it owes. There are some things that we re very clear we do owe under the treaties, other things where we dispute the amounts or even whether something should be included, Hammond said in a separate interview with ITV television. Of course we ll negotiate hard to get the very best deal for the British taxpayer. Asked about the prospect of Brexit without a trade deal, Hammond said he was increasingly confident that an agreement could be reached because it was in the interests of both parties. Despite scepticism in Brussels over the tight timetable, May and her chief negotiator David Davis have been clear they want to have a full post-Brexit free trade deal sealed by the time Britain leaves. However, Hammond set out a softer stance on the timing of the trade deal. We hope that it will be agreed, certainly in principle, that the big elements of it will be agreed before March 2019 so that everybody knows where we are going, he told ITV. | 1 |
4,327 | Lawmakers Condemn ‘Dangerous Abuse Of Subpoena Powers’ By GOP Panel | Only April 28, nearly 100 lawmakers sent a letter to Marsha Blackburn, Chairman of the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives. The letter condemns the panel s use of intimidation tactics against researchers, graduate students, laboratory technicians and administrative personnel, through what lawmaker s describe as a dangerous misuse subpoena powers.The panel was created by Republicans in October 2015, after the bogus Center For Medical Progress released a series of highly edited videos online. While the group claimed that the videos showed officials from Planned Parenthood conspiring to sell fetal body parts, the video transcripts (which you can read here) tell an entirely different story.Multiple investigations have cleared Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing in association with the video. If that s enough, in January a Texas Grand Jury indicted two of the key players involved in creating the bogus videos, David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, on felony charges.But facts are rarely allowed to get in the way of republican extremists, who continue to use the long-debunked videos as a way to push their anti-abortion agenda across the country.According to the 98 lawmakers who recently signed the letter to the Select Investigative Panel, members of the panel have moved beyond the point of repeating dangerous and false rhetoric about Planned Parenthood, launching a witch hunt which targets medical researchers, medical supply companies, students and others involved in fetal tissue research.The letter reads, in part:We are particularly concerned by the recent reports that the select panel has issued 11 subpoenas to medical supply companies and laboratories that will seek the names of researchers, graduate students, laboratory technicians and administrative personnel involved with fetal tissue research. The misuse of subpoena power is clearly aimed at not only stopping the crucial medical research, but personally intimidating the scientists who are engaged in this lifesaving work.The 98 members who signed the document strongly condemned the dangerous tactics employed by the panel, calling for it to be immediately dissolved.The letter goes on to rip republican lawmakers, saying: This body has spent more than enough taxpayer money doing the bidding of the Republican Congressional Committee. It is clear that this Panel serves no other purpose than to carry out politically-motivated attacks on Planned Parenthood. Not only is it insane that Republicans in Congress continue to waste taxpayer resources investigating these debunked videos, but it s reprehensible that they would use their positions as elected officials to intimidate and harass scientists, researchers and others, for their own political gain.Here are the names of the eight members of Congress who make up the investigative panel:Vote them out in November.Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images | 0 |
4,328 | NATO launches Black Sea force as latest counter to Russia | CRAIOVA, Romania (Reuters) - NATO launched a new multinational force in Romania on Monday to counter Russia along its eastern flank and to check a growing Russian presence in the Black Sea following the Kremlin s 2014 seizure of Crimea. The force will initially be built around a Romanian brigade of up to 4,000 soldiers, supported by troops from nine other NATO countries, and complementing a separate deployment of 900 U.S. troops who are already in place. The plans are to include additional air and sea assets to give the force greater capabilities. Our purpose is peace, not war, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis told the NATO Parliamentary Assembly of alliance lawmakers, which is meeting this year in Bucharest. We are not a threat for Russia. But we need dialogue from a strong position of defense and discouragement, he said, before flying to the Craiova military base in south-eastern Romania. At the base, as military bands played, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stood alongside Iohannis, addressed some of the troops in green face paint and inspected vehicles and weapons. We are sending a very clear message: NATO is here, NATO is strong and NATO is united, Stoltenberg told assembled Polish, Romanian, Spanish and Portuguese soldiers. Russia accuses NATO of trying to encircle it and threatening stability in Eastern Europe, which NATO denies. Around the Black Sea, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey are NATO members while Georgia and Ukraine aspire to join. The NATO force aims to develop its presence in the Black Sea region, rich in oil and gas, without escalating tensions as it seeks to counter Russia s own plans to create what military analysts say is a buffer zone . The 2008 Russian operation to put troops in Georgia s South Ossetia region, its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine since 2014 and its annexation of Crimea have raised the stakes, with all sides warning of a new, Cold-War style scenario. Apart from Romania, Poland is the biggest troop contributor. Bulgaria, Italy and Portugal will train regularly with the force in Craiova, and Germany is also expected to contribute. In additional to existing NATO Black Sea naval patrols, a maritime presence will include more allied visits to Romanian and Bulgarian ports, training and exercises. Britain is deploying fighter planes to Romania. Canada is already helping to patrol Romanian air space, and Italian planes are helping patrol over Bulgaria. Some Eastern Europeans want NATO s new ballistic missile defense shield, which includes a site in Romania, to be part of NATO s eastern posture vis-a-vis Russia. The Aegis Ashore system would add another level of deterrence, said Maciej Kowalski, an analyst at the Polish Casimir Pulaski Foundation, referring to the U.S.-built system. NATO says the system is to intercept any Iranian rockets. As in the Baltics and Poland, where the U.S.-led alliance has some 4,000 troops, NATO says the relatively light multinational model recalls allied support for West Berlin in the 1950s, when the presence of British, French and U.S. forces ensured the Soviet Union could not control all of Berlin. Under NATO s founding treaty, an attack on one ally is an attack on all, meaning all 28 NATO nations would be required to respond in the case of any potential Russian aggression. While months in planning, the establishment of the force comes as Russia winds down its biggest war games since 2013. The Zapad, or West, games showed off Moscow s latest weaponry and its ability to quickly mass forces on NATO s borders. The enhanced NATO presence in Romania and Bulgaria marks a diplomatic success for Bucharest, which gained greater persuasive power because it is set to reach a NATO goal of spending 2 percent of economic output on defense this year, a priority for U.S. President Donald Trump. Romania pushed for bigger NATO naval presence on the Black Sea for more than a year, but found its neighbor Bulgaria wary of provoking Russia. Turkey supports only limited NATO reinforcements, concerned about breaking international rules limiting the scale of patrols in the Black Sea. Turkey has played down the extent of Russia s militarization of Crimea, which NATO says involves deploying surface-to-air missiles and communications jamming equipment. | 1 |
4,329 | WATCH: MIKE HUCKABEE DEFENDS Daughter Sarah…Makes Hilarious Comparison To Media And Preschool Age Grandchildren | Mike Huckabee appeared on FOX s Hannity show where Kimberly Guilfoyle was filling in for host Sean Hannity. Guilfoyle congratulated the former Governor Mike Huckabee s daughter Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders for her handling of the hypocritical press. Guilfoyle talked about the media and how they attacked President Trump for retweeting a hilarious video made to look like he was body-slamming CNN, while ignoring the Central Park play where President Trump was stabbed to death on the stage in front of thousands.Huckabee told Kimberly Guilfoyle he was proud of his daughter and how she s handled the constant attacks by the media. Huckabee gave a hilarious example of why he believes his daughter is able to handle the leftist media so well: I think my daughter is handling this very well because she has three preschoolers at home. So she s used to dealing with petulant children who ask the same question over and over hoping to get a different answer, the one that they want. And so maybe that s part of the reason she s able to stay flat-footed, look those folks in the eye and handle it. | 0 |
4,330 | Kurdish leaders reject Baghdad demand to cancel independence vote, renew dialogue offer | BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq s Kurdish leadership rejected on Sunday a demand by the Iraqi government that it cancels the outcome of an independence referendum as a precondition for talks to resolve the dispute. Kurdish leaders who met to discuss the crisis in the town of Dokan renewed their offer to resolve peacefully the crisis with Baghdad. The Kurdish parties are ready for talks between Erbil and Baghdad, they said in a statement, referring respectively to the seat of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq and the federal capital of Iraq. The talks between Erbil and Baghdad should be under the supervision of international parties, the statement added. Among those at the meeting were KRG President Masoud Barzani, Iraqi President Fuad Masum a Kurd who holds a largely ceremonial position in the federal state and Hero Talabani, widow of Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish leader who died earlier this month. They rejected what they described as military threats from Iraqi forces against Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, and pledged to defend Kurdish-held territory in case of an attack. The KRG and the Shi ite-led central government in Baghdad have been at loggerheads since the Sept. 25 vote and its loud call for Kurdish independence. Tension between two parties has flared around the multi-ethnic oil city of Kirkuk, which Peshmerga forces took in 2014 when Iraqi security forces collapsed in the face of an Islamic State onslaught. The Peshmerga deployment prevented Kirkuk s oilfields from falling into jihadist hands. | 1 |
4,331 | analyst most americans like neither candidate | feds warn nyc officials about possible al qaeda attack
new york post
new york city law enforcement authorities are on high alert after receiving a warning by the feds about a possible attack by al qaeda on the eve of election day sources said
us intelligence officials alerted joint terrorism task forces of the threat which also included texas and virginia though specific sites targeted for monday in the three states were not mentioned a federal source told the post
mayor bill de blasio said friday he had learned of the threat several days ago during classified briefings
we are still very much assessing the credibility it is not at all clear how credible this is de blasio told wnycs brian lehrer on his weekly radio show were certainly in a vigilant position
hizzoner said the nypd is planning an extraordinary police presence for tuesday when americans go to the polls
for the first time in memory there will be two presidential campaigns having their victory celebrations in new york city on tuesday night he said quickly correcting himself that only one candidate will be celebrating
donald trump the republican nominee will be at the new york hilton midtown on sixth avenue while hillary clinton his democratic counterpart will be at the javits convention center across town on th avenue
police also will be heavily deployed for the new york city marathon on sunday de blasio said
meanwhile gov andrew cuomo declined to confirm the threat friday but also noted the high state of alert for election day
we have more state police more national guard more soldiers on duty than ever before he said so the bad news is new york is often a threat the good news is weve been dealing with this now for over a decade and we have prepared for it
the nypd and the port authority of new york and new jersey said they had been alerted to the possible attacks
we are aware of the information we have been working with the fbi through the joint terrorism task force and our counterterrorism and intelligence bureaus the nypd said in a statement
we continue to encourage anyone with any information that could be relevant to the safety of our city to contact law enforcement the department said
the port authority which operates airports tunnels and bridges in and around the big apple said it too was prepared
we are continuing the high level of security we have had in place at all of our facilities for many months spokesman steve coleman told the post
the fbi did not comment specifically about the threat against the three states but said counterterrorism and homeland security authorities remain vigilant and wellpostured to handle attacks
the fbi working with our federal state and local counterparts shares and assesses intelligence on a daily basis and will continue to work closely with law enforcement and intelligence community partners to identify and disrupt any potential threat to public safety an fbi official said
fridays threat followed a report by nbc news that the us government believes hackers from russia or other countries may try to unleash cyberattacks to wreak havoc ahead of election day
an effort coordinated by the white house and the department of homeland security and including the cia the national security agency and other elements of the department of defense is being conducted to avert attacks nbc news reported | 0 |
4,332 | BREAKING VIDEO: HILLARY CLINTON Seen Being Lifted Into Van After “Episode” [Video] | Hillary Clinton 9/11 NYC pic.twitter.com/q9YnsjTxss Zdenek Gazda (@zgazda66) September 11, 2016UPDATE ON WHAT WENT ON BUT STILL SILENCE FROM THE PRESS: The Democratic presidential nominee appeared to faint on her way into her van and had to be helped by her security, the source said. She was clearly having some type of medical episode. Clinton s stumbled off the curb, her knees buckled and she lost a shoe as she was helped into a van during her unexpected early departure, a witness told Fox News.The NYPD retrieved her shoe.The lapdog media is downplaying this medical emergency (as expected) but would we even know about this had it not been for people recording her departure? This was an area that press isn t allowed into. The Clinton campaign came out with a statement saying she felt overheated and is now resting at Chelsea s apartment. Do you believe this reason or are you skeptical like me? Even if it was a fainting spell, this woman seems unwell with all the coughing. Your thoughts? | 0 |
4,333 | Jared Fogle Sues Parents Of His Victim, Says It’s Their Fault She’s Screwed Up | Jared Fogle, the ex-Subway pitchman convicted of having sex with underage girls, is suing the parents of one his victims, claiming the girl s problems following the sexual abuse are their fault, not his. According to court documents that were filed on Thursday, Fogle is placing the blame for his victim s personal injuries and emotional distress squarely on the shoulders of her own parents rather than his own.The girl, who is listed as Jane Doe in court records, was secretly recorded undressing and bathing while she was in the home of Russell Taylor, who was a close friend of Fogle. Last year, Fogle pleaded guilty to viewing those tapes. He was eventually sentenced to almost 16 years behind bars for having sex with minors, as well as receiving and distributing child pornography. He was also ordered to pay $100,000 to each of the girls he had abused, including Jane Doe.In other words, there is no doubt of this pervert s guilt at this point.Earlier this year, Jane Doe sued Fogle for an additional $150,000 in damages related to his crimes against her. Fogle says her emotional distress isn t his fault at all. Nope. So who s fault is it? Her parents.In the lawsuit filed by Fogle, he alleges that the girl was depressed, had a history of drug and alcohol abuse, and was promiscuous long before he and his buddy decided to use her in their kiddie porn. He claims that Jane Doe s parents, named in court documents as J.T. and B.T. didn t supervise her properly. He added that mom and dad screwed her up with their own messy divorce and abusive relationship. The outrageous and reckless conduct of J.T. and B.T. committed over a period of several years inflicted personal injuries, emotional distress and psychological injury on Jane Doe from which she will continue to suffer, the document states. B.T. and J.T., by their actions, caused Jane Doe to suffer from emotional distress and depression which then resulted in Jane Doe engaging in destructive behaviors, including, but not limited to alcohol abuse, substance abuse, self-mutilation, and suicidal ideation with regard to which B.T. and J.T. are liable. Because of this, Fogle is asking the court to hold Jane Doe s parents liable for their daughter s emotional distress and all other relief the court deems proper. Featured image via Jason Merritt/Getty Images | 0 |
4,334 | UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS Warns Of 29 Offensive Halloween Costumes Not To Wear Or Else! | Leave your cowboy boots and Hawaiian leis at home this Halloween unless you want to hear from University of Texas-Austin administrators.Sorority and Fraternity Life, part of the Office of the Dean of Students, issued its updated costume and theme resource guide last week, instructing UT Greeks to avoid Halloween party costumes and themes that may appropriate another culture or experience. It s one of many school-sponsored guides or checklists recently given to the nation s college students, particularly members of fraternities and sororities, telling them what they can and can t wear in the runup to Halloween.Though schools generally don t list penalties for wearing a costume considered offensive, a Greek official at Pennsylvania s Gettysburg College went so far as to warn fellow Greeks their chapters could be shut down if they wear the wrong costumes.Don t think about sensationalizing transgender celebritiesThe UT-Austin document informs students right away that their costume and theme choices will be scrutinized year-round, not just for Halloween.It advises them to keep themed social events safe, appropriate, and fun, and to avoid offending other subcultures by obeying a 29-point checklist.The guide encourages students to avoid exotic or unique themes, especially those which may reference a living culture or current subculture. It suggests that sensationalizing transgender celebrities such as Laverne Cox and Caitlyn Jenner will be frowned upon. Have we consulted with experts? Is it educational? the guide advises students in the event they decide to portray a culture. Such experts include community leaders or faculty. Students should also be careful to avoid utilizing generic store-bought costumes that may not be fully authentic if the theme is cultural, the guide says. It suggests hosting a non-social event if students want to educate each other about a culture.It lists 11 separate harmful themes, including any generalized representation of Asian culture or Indigenous cultures, such as Cowboys and Indians, as well as tropical or fiesta. Read more: The College Fix | 0 |
4,335 | CHICAGO: 117 KILLED, 572 SHOT In 71 Days…Obama Terrorist Friend, Bill Ayers, Bernie Sanders, Black Lives Matter Make Violence Against FREE SPEECH Top Priority… Soros Group Openly Threatens Americans | Illegal aliens, paid Soros protesters, angry Black Lives Matter terrorists inspired by Obama s race war and Bernie Sanders supporters who have absolutely no idea why they showed up, sent four innocent police officers to the hospital; prevented thousands of innocent Americans from exercising their First Amendment right. Where are all of these concerned citizens (especially the Black Lives Matter terrorists) to protest for a solution for the murder of 117 people in Chicago already this year?George Soros Moveon.org group takes responsiblity for Alinsky style violent protests against free speech at Trump rally:Moveon.org shows its support for Socialist, Bernie Sanders. Here they warn anyone who opposes his radical ideology:Four police officers were sent to hospital:Violence against police officers is not only acceptable with Bernie Sanders and Black Lives Matter terrorists, its necessary to create chaos and panic:What kind of violent protest would be complete without Barack Obama s good friend, domestic terrorist Bill Ayers:Actual terrorist Bill Ayers is protesting against trump in Chicago. pic.twitter.com/7dqat4Dvmh Progressives Today (@ProgsToday) March 11, 2016It s probably just a coincidence that on a day that Obama was too busy to attend Nancy Reagan s funeral, he was able to address a crowd about his hate for Trump only hours before this organized chaos in Chicago: And finally, we re wondering how much our Organizer In Chief had to do with this Alinsky style chaos in Chicago: | 0 |
4,336 | Suicide bomber kills 13 others in northeast Nigerian city: police official | MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed 13 other people in the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri on Sunday, a police official said, the deadliest attack in over a month as the conflict with Boko Haram stretches into its ninth year. The evening attack, which also injured five people, struck the city s Muna Garage area, Damian Chukwu, a police commissioner, told Reuters. The area is home to a camp for just some of the more than 2 million people who have fled fighting with the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency, which has left over 20,000 dead. That conflict, the epicenter of which is in northeastern Nigeria, is showing little sign of slowing, despite assurances by the government and military that Boko Haram is on the verge of defeat. On Friday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned that attacks against civilians - including suicide bombings in and near IDP (internally displaced person) camps - continue to be a major concern. Two suicide bombers also injured 13 other people in a separate attack, said Chukwu. | 1 |
4,337 | Senator Cruz opposes Republican healthcare bill, casting doubt on vote: Politico | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz on Sunday said he opposes the latest version of a Senate attempt to repeal Obamacare, casting doubt on the healthcare bill’s chances of passage, Politico reported. Cruz, a Texas conservative, does not support the bill introduced by Senators Bill Cassidy and Lindsey Graham, and said Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee is also unlikely to support the measure, Politico reported. It said Cruz told the Texas Tribune festival in Austin, Texas that amendments that he and Lee proposed to bring down the costs of Obamacare premiums had not been included in the most recent draft of the bill. | 1 |
4,338 | SOCIALIST BERNIE SANDERS Can’t Explain Single Payer or Why Blue States Rejected It [Video] | Bernie Sanders should know his socialized medicine but in an exchange on Sunday he failed when he was pressed to explain why a single-payer health care system was rejected in Vermont and California, two staunchly Democratic states:CNN host Jake Tapper said that California and Vermont are cobalt blue states and asked how single-payer could be affordable at the national level if they rejected the system at the state level because of the expense:Single-payer failed to pass in both California and Vermont after lawmakers were unable to figure out how to fund the system. Voters in Colorado also rejected single-payer last year.Sanders pushed back against Tapper, citing studies that he has seen, and said that single-payer would save the average family significant sums of money. If you look at Canada s single-payer health care system per capita, their costs are far far less than the United States, Sanders said. If you look at the UK, if you look at countries around the world, all of which have different approaches to a national health care system, in every instance, they are spending substantially less per capita than we pay in the United States. Read more: WFB | 0 |
4,339 | Senator Warren criticizes Equifax potential to profit from breach | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren criticized Equifax Inc (EFX.N) on Wednesday, saying it failed to protect customers adequately after a massive data breach and stood to gain financially from a hack that exposed information on more than 140 million people. “The breach of your system has actually created more business opportunities for you,” Warren, a Democrat known for her consumer advocacy, told former Equifax Chief Executive Officer Richard Smith during his second congressional grilling this week. In addition to providing consumer credit reports, Equifax offers products to protect people’s data from misuse. Warren said this business mix creates a conflict of interest by making Equifax responsible for protecting consumer data while allowing it to profit from consumers’ attempts to mitigate the breach. “Equifax is making money, millions of dollars off its own screw-up and meanwhile the potential cost to Equifax are shockingly low,” Warren told Smith, 57, during the U.S. Senate Banking Committee hearing. Smith retired from the credit reporting company last week but led it during the time of the breach, which it disclosed last month. Smith conceded the hack created an opportunity for fraud, and the company could profit from consumers seeking to protect their data. But he defended Equifax’s social utility. The company gathers data on consumers which it then sells to banks to allow them to better assess a borrower’s creditworthiness. “The company has been around for 118 years and for most of those 118 years has done good things,” Smith said. Following the hearing, Warren told reporters that Equifax’s new product allowing individuals to “lock” and “unlock” their credit reports does not provide sufficient protection and only a change in law can fully shield people’s information. “It only applies to Equifax. Consumers are now vulnerable to the loss of their data and some thief going through one of the other credit reporting agencies. That’s why we need to change the law. We need to make it in place forever and make sure consumers have control over their own data,” she said. Wednesday’s hearing was the second of four hearings for Smith this week as lawmakers scrutinize the breach. Several lawmakers on Wednesday also questioned why Equifax had been granted a contract with the Internal Revenue Service to help verify taxpayer data. Speaking before Congress on Tuesday, Smith repeatedly apologized for the breach, saying it took weeks for the credit bureau to understand the extent of the intrusion. | 1 |
4,340 | Racist High Schoolers Chant ‘Trump! Trump! USA!’ At Racially Diverse Basketball Team (VIDEO) | It s becoming clearer and clearer that an America under a Donald Trump presidency would be racist and nasty. After seven years of an African-American president it seems all racists everywhere have come out from hiding, and now Trump is making them think its okay to be as horrible as they want to be.There s no greater example of this than in a recent story where an opposing high school basketball teams fans starting chanting Trump! Trump! Trump! and USA! at the home teams players who happen to be very diverse, with players who are Latino, Native American, and African-American. Trump! seems to now be synonymous with white pride! Perry, Iowa is a small town, but very diverse. Their high school principal, Dan Marburger, describes the school as, really more of an urban school in a rural setting. Here at the high school, we are 48 percent minority. And they embrace the diversity with open arms. Unfortunately, not everyone who visits the school for sporting events feels the same way.The visiting basketball team from Dallas Center-Grimes apparently brought a long with them their fans who seem to hold Donald Trump s hatred of immigrants and really anyone who isn t white.Unfortunately, these sort of chants aren t new to the players of Perry High School. Senior Shammond Ivory said: It s honestly disrespectful. That s how I take it. I hear it during the game, on and off the court. Everywhere I go. However, he takes what he hears and turns it around, saying as soon as I hear something like that, it just triggers me and it makes me strive for more and to do it for my team, coaches and my community. With the acceptance of Trump as a legitimate candidate for President of the United States knowing how openly racist not only his rallies are, but he is himself, we as a nation need to prepare ourselves for more and more racists thinking it s okay to be assholes. We, as a nation, need to make sure he gets nowhere near the Oval Office.Watch WHO s report of the story here:Featured image via screen capture | 0 |
4,341 | Radical Catholic Bishops Push Warming Scam: ‘Put An End To The Fossil Fuel Era’ | Our vision of the world ? Where are the Catholics who re against this scam? The Catholic church has been hijacked by leftists who re following the one world global agenda in the name of social justice: Fossil fuel is the cheapest form of energy man has these days, and these people have the audacity to talk about the cry of the poor while advocating for things that will make it far more difficult for them to exist and survive????? The only thing that makes life unfair is the delusion that it should be fair. Steve Maraboli Does this political agenda mean the church is now giving up its tax exempt status? You can t have it both ways. Please speak up against this! The ten-point plan advanced by the bishops calls for the adoption of a fair, transformational and legally binding global agreement based on our vision of the world. In the lead-up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris next month, a group of cardinals, patriarchs and bishops have called for a radical, legally binding international climate agreement that mandates, among other things, complete global decarbonization by 2050 and an end to the fossil fuel era. The nine prelates claim to represent the Catholic Church from the five continents and will address participants in the COP 21 in Paris taking place from November 30 to December 11, 2015. Signers include Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, the president of the U.S. Bishops Conference, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, president of the union of European Bishops Conferences (COMECE) and Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the Archbishop of Bombay. Drawing inspiration from Pope Francis encyclical letter on the environment Laudato S , the bishops express the widely-held hope that a just and legally binding climate agreement will emerge from the negotiations of the COP 21 in Paris, and to this end, advance a ten-point policy proposal. In their appeal, the bishops reference the dramatic acceleration of climatic change, which, they say, is the result of unrestrained human activity. They also claim that this ecological phenomenon is primarily due to excessive reliance on fossil fuels. The Pope and Catholic Bishops from five continents, the declaration states, appeal for a drastic reduction in the emission of carbon dioxide and other toxic gases. Human-induced climate change, the bishops continue, is having a dramatic impact on sea levels, extreme weather events, deteriorating ecosystems and the loss of biodiversity. The ten-point plan advanced by the bishops calls for the adoption of a fair, transformational and legally binding global agreement based on our vision of the world. Via: Breitbart | 0 |
4,342 | SLIPPERY SNAKE JAMES CLAPPER Resigns In Time For The Era Of Trump…Remember The “Not Wittingly” Moment? [Video] | Remember the famous moment when US NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE CHIEF James Clapper was testifying about the NSA surveillance of Americans when he let slip a sign he was not being truthful. Of course, we knew this was all a smoke and mirrors show. Clapper later said he misspoke last we checked it s pretty much the same thing as lying NOT WITTINGLY JAMES CLAPPERHere s the video below where he parses words in his testimony: Clapper took over in 2010 heading up 17 different intelligence agencies. His tenure was marked by the Edward Snowden leaks on US intelligence. He s always said he d resign at the end of Obama s presidency but we re wondering if he s jumping before Trump appointees arrive. Clapper and Gen. Mike Flynn have a history that s not so perfect:Two years ago, I was called into a meeting with the undersecretary of defense for intelligence and the director of national intelligence, and after some niceties, I was told by the USDI that I was being let go from DIA. It was definitely an uncomfortable moment (I suspect more for them than me).I asked the DNI (Gen. James Clapper) if my leadership of the agency was in question and he said it was not; had it been, he said, they would have relieved me on the spot.I knew then it had more to do with the stand I took on radical Islamism and the expansion of al Qaeda and its associated movements. I felt the intel system was way too politicized, especially in the Defense Department. After being fired, I left the meeting thinking, Here we are in the middle of a war, I had a significant amount of combat experience (nearly five years) against this determined enemy on the battlefield and served at senior levels, and here it was, the bureaucracy was letting me go. Amazing.This ll be interesting to watch. | 0 |
4,343 | U.S. judge views $25 million Trump University settlement favorably | SAN DIEGO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge on Thursday said he was leaning toward approving a $25 million settlement of fraud claims against President Donald Trump and his Trump University real estate seminars but deferred a final decision to a later date. At a hearing in San Diego, Judge Gonzalo Curiel noted that, under the class action settlement, former Trump University students were expected to recover 80 percent of the money they spent on courses and mentoring programs. “That is an extraordinary amount,” the judge said, noting the recovery rate in similar lawsuits is usually closer to between 11 and 20 percent. He did not specify when he would rule. A Florida woman objected to the settlement, saying she should have the opportunity to opt out and take Trump to court herself. Patrick Coughlin, a class action lawyer for the students, said the students would actually receive over 90 percent of their money back. Some 3,730 students submitted claim forms in the class action that dates to 2010, according to court papers. The students, who paid as much as $35,000 for the seminars, claimed they were lured by false promises that they would learn Trump’s investing “secrets” from his “hand-picked” instructors. Trump vowed to continue fighting the fraud claims during the presidential election campaign but agreed to the settlement soon after. He has admitted he did not personally select the instructors, but his lawyers have described the claim as mere sales “puffery.” Trump accused Curiel of bias last year based on the Indiana-born judge’s Mexican ancestry. Sherri Simpson, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who paid $19,000, objected to the settlement provision blocking students from opting out of the deal. She has said in court papers she would like to seek full recovery from Trump, plus punitive damages and other relief. Gary Friedman, a lawyer for Simpson, argued in court the notices were defective. Curiel questioned Friedman and said he would consider the objection. | 1 |
4,344 | Elizabeth Warren Has Found BREATHTAKING Hypocrisy In FBI’s Treatment Of Hillary’s Emails | Buckle up. Elizabeth Warren, continuing her crusade for the little guy, wrote a letter to FBI director James Comey over their transparency with Hillary s emails, because they didn t have that same transparency when investigating the big banks. In fact, they usually don t release anything when there s no indictment. They changed their standards for releasing information with Hillary, and Warren wants to know why that same standard can t be used on Wall Street executives. Your recent actions with regard to the investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton provide a clear precedent for releasing additional information about the investigation of the parties responsible for the financial crisis These new standards present a compelling case for public transparency around the fate of the FCIC referrals. If Secretary Clinton s email server was of sufficient interest to establish a new FBI standard of transparency, then surely the criminal prosecution of those responsible for the 2008 financial crisis should be subject to the same level of transparency. She s more than right; if Hillary s emails are of sufficient interest to release as much information as possible, then why isn t the information on those who have been proven to cause harm to millions of Americans by crashing the economy of the same interest? It should actually be of bigger interest than the witch hunt against Hillary.The FBI initially released information in response to several FOIA requests from the press, and sent more material to Congress. However, they didn t send over every last, little, tiny bit. The chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), incensed that they d spurn him like that, subpoenaed the full file earlier this week.Republicans all over Congress are pitching a hell of a tantrum over the FBI not releasing every last scrap of paper, but they really couldn t care less that the FBI didn t release anything after the Department of Justice decided not to prosecute eleven bankers that had a hand in destroying the economy. Why?Simple. When it s Hillary Clinton, everything has to be changed. She must be guilty of something; Republicans and Hillary-haters know things. When it s people who actually harmed America, though? Meh. Not that important why nobody was prosecuted. Here s hoping that Warren s letter has an impact on Comey, because we deserve to know exactly why bankers weren t prosecuted.Featured image by Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images | 0 |
4,345 | HAWAIIAN JUDGE WHO BLOCKED TRUMP WAS OBAMA’S CLASSMATE AT HARVARD GUESS WHO Just Made a “Surprise” Visit to Hawaii? [Video] | Activist judges are killing America! The judge in Hawaii who just blocked President Trump s executive order is wrong on his decision but who cares about the law when you re an activist Derrick Kahala Watson graduated from Harvard WITH OBAMA and is an Obama-appointed judge. WHAT S EVEN CRAZIER IS THAT OBAMA WAS JUST SPOTTED IN HAWAIIThe local news had a short comment on Obama s surprise visit:Coming off a string of high-profile meetings, former President Barack Obama made an unannounced return to Hawaii Monday.Just three months removed from his last official holiday visit as president, Obama was spotted dining at Buzz s Lanikai Monday night.President Trump vows that he ll fight a Hawaii judge who blocked his latest travel ban saying he will take it to the Supreme Court pic.twitter.com/by3N86M37g FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) March 16, 2017The court disturbingly ruled that these two provisions pausing refugees and foreign national entry from 6 nations target Muslims and violate the Establishment Clause.The court created a constitutional crisis where none existed. The court s Establishment Clause analysis is fundamentally flawed and ignores the separation of powers. Worst of all, it puts our national security at risk.As the Supreme Court has rightly held, the United States Constitution is not a suicide pact. As I explained earlier this week when we filed our amicus brief with the court in this case, the order in no way violates the Establishment Clause:First, the Executive Order (EO) does not even address religion, whatsoever. Second, the order has a secular purpose: our national security. As we explained: The EO, on its face, serves secular purposes, and no amount of rehashing of miscellaneous campaign trail commentary can change that. . . . [T]he mere suggestion of a possible religious or anti-religious motive, mined from past comments of a political candidate or his supporters, and intermixed with various secular purposes, is not enough to doom government action (along with all subsequent attempts to address the same subject matter). [A]ll that Lemon requires is that government action have a secular purpose, not that its purpose be exclusively secular, and a policy is invalid under this test only if it was motivated wholly by religious considerations. Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 U.S. 668, 680-81 & n.6 (1984) (emphasis added). The order singles out no religion for favor or disfavor. To conclude otherwise is unreasonable, and absurd. The six countries whose nationals are impacted by the pause were countries identified by President Obama and Congress as countries of particular concern. Policy disagreements, hurt feelings, and political agendas are not enough to support an Establishment Clause claim. The court s flawed order will invariably be appealed, and we will be ready to file crucial amicus briefs once again in federal appeals court.Read more: aclj | 0 |
4,346 | John McCain Just Savaged Trump On Twitter (TWEET) | Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), fresh off a brain cancer diagnosis that he is statistically unlikely to beat, is apparently all out of f*cks to give. Today, he tweeted an article in the opinion section of the Washington Post, calling it a must-read. The article in question? Trump s breathtaking surrender to Russia. And the op-ed holds absolutely nothing back. Here are a couple of my favorite excerpts from the piece:But once again, President Trump after extended personal contact with Vladimir Putin and the complete surrender to Russian interests in Syria acts precisely as though he has been bought and sold by a strategic rival. The ignoble cutoff of aid to American proxies means that Putin won in Syria, as an administration official was quoted by The Post. Concessions without reciprocation, made against the better judgment of foreign policy advisers, smack more of payoff than outreach. If this is what Trump s version of winning looks like, what might further victory entail? The re- creation of the Warsaw Pact? The reversion of Alaska to Russian control? There is nothing normal about an American president s subservience to Russia s interests and worldview. It is not the result of some bold, secret, Nixonian foreign policy stratagem the most laughable possible explanation. Does it come from Trump s bad case of authoritarianism envy? A fundamental sympathy with European right-wing, anti-democratic populism? An exposure to pressure from his checkered financial history? There are no benign explanations, and the worst ones seem the most plausible. The problem is the damage to U.S. interests done in the meantime. It now seems that the Russians by meddling in a presidential election and by playing down such aggression have achieved an intelligence coup beyond the dreams of the Soviet era. The result is an America strategically and morally disarmed.The fact that John McCain is posting such a strongly worded article about Trump s surrender to Russia is extremely telling, and begs the question: Behind closed doors, how many other Republicans feel this way? In public, it s obvious that Republicans feel they must present a united front against the Democratic Party and forces of the left. However, despite recent silence from #NeverTrump conservatives, it wasn t even a year ago that leadership figures such as Paul Ryan were dead set against him. Given the fact they are spineless, how much pressure will it take to get them to turn against him?If Donald Trump s numbers keep dropping, primarily among Republicans, I think you ll see it happen. And if that s the case, it might not take until 2018 to bring him down.Here s Senator McCain s tweet:Must-read @MJGerson @washingtonpost: Trump s breathtaking surrender to #Russia https://t.co/SkWocuF8dM John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) July 21, 2017Featured image via Win McNamee/Getty Images | 0 |
4,347 | Russia unveils monument to designer of iconic AK-47 rifle | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia on Tuesday unveiled a statue of Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor of the AK-47 assault rifle that became by some estimates the most lethal weapon ever made and the best known Russian brand abroad. Perched atop a pedestal in a tiny square on Moscow s busy Garden Ring thoroughfare, the statue of Kalashnikov, who died in 2013, has him dressed in a bomber jacket and clutching an AK-47 in both hands. I created a weapon for the defense of my fatherland, runs a Kalashnikov quote hewn on the pedestal. At the unveiling ceremony, a Kremlin guard of honor stood to attention as Russia s national anthem played. This weapon is Russia s defense. It s one of Russia s symbols. Alas, for life to continue, for lovely children to grow up, for beautiful women in Russia, there must be a weapon, the monument s sculptor, Salavat Shcherbakov, told reporters. The AK-47, the small-arms mainstay of Russia s armed forces for over 60 years, is also featured on the national emblems of several African nations and on that of East Timor. Every fifth firearm in the world is a Kalashnikov and more than 70 million of the assault rifles have been produced over the past 60 years, the Kalashnikov concern said on its website. Kalashnikovs are in service in 50 foreign armies, it said. Military experts say the AK-47 has killed more people than all other types of modern weapons taken together. Kalashnikov, who died aged 94, had repeatedly said that pride in his invention was mixed with the pain of seeing it used by criminals and child soldiers. As well as being embraced by armies, anti-Western revolutionary movements and leftist leaders worldwide, the relatively cheap and sturdy rifle has been used by gangsters, drug traffickers, militants and rebels of all stripes. The offspring of a large peasant family, Mikhail Kalashnikov started working on a new automatic firearm for the Soviet Red Army after he was wounded during World War Two. He won a state competition to select a new weapon, beating the Soviet Union s best designers of weapons, and it brought him the Stalin Prize. His first assault rifle was produced in 1947 and there have been numerous modifications since then. The Kalashnikov rifle is a true cultural brand of Russia , Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky said at the ceremony. The unveiling of the monument was timed to coincide with Armsmakers Day marked in Russia on Tuesday. Underscoring the importance of the military-industrial complex for Russia s economy, President Vladimir Putin sent best wishes to the workers of the sector. | 1 |
4,348 | New Poll: Trump Is Making Others More Popular – But They Aren’t Who You’d Think (DETAILS) | There s a new Gallup poll out showing that Donald Trump can, in fact, make other people popular. However, the people this poll refers to aren t Republican lawmakers. They aren t conservative television personalities. They aren t people working in the White House. The people gaining popularity because of Donald Trump are Barack Obama and George W. Bush.Obama s popularity has remained fairly steady since the final months of his presidency, and it s considerably higher than Herr Trump s at 63 percent. Nearly every demographic has a highly favorable opinion of Obama, including all age groups, and both men and women. Republicans are the only group with which he doesn t poll well, but that s not shocking. They re still convinced he was secretly the Muslim Kenyan communist socialist anti-Christ that ruined America.Surprisingly, George W. s popularity has soared since Trump took office. He s currently sitting at 59 percent overall. Among Democrats, who are supposed to loathe W., his popularity has shot up a whopping 400 percent, to a 41 percent favorability rating.Just Democrats view W. more favorably than everyone views Trump. That s really embarrassing for a man who considers his poll numbers to be more important than terror attacks in London and seven dead sailors aboard the U.S.S. Fitzgerald.Furthermore, Republicans are worried that working for Trump will damage their reputations. Many Republicans have turned down job offers in the White House, and they re making it hard for Trump to fill key posts. While Trump yells about Democratic obstruction on nominees, he hasn t nominated anyone to fill a lot of those posts.Of course, the administration claims that everyone wants to work there, but what can you expect from someone to whom lying is second nature?Trump can crow about the Rasmussen poll all he likes, and trash President Obama all he likes. He s just making everything harder on himself with his inability to act like an adult.Featured image via Joe Raedle/Getty Images | 0 |
4,349 | US Senate may vote this week to add penalties for sex traffic sites -sources | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate may vote as soon as Tuesday on a bipartisan proposal that would make it easier to penalize operators of websites that facilitate online sex trafficking, according to four sources familiar with the matter. Allowing a vote on the legislation would deal a major blow to the U.S. technology industry, which has vigorously opposed the measure, saying it would thwart digital innovation and lead to endless litigation. The proposed law was prompted in part by frustrations over failed attempts to shut down the website backpage.com, which many law enforcement officials have accused of facilitating the exploitation of especially women and children to perform sexual services against their will. The company has long denied the allegations. The Senate is expected to pass an annual defense policy spending bill this week, a process that will include consideration of amendments, some of which have yet to be publicly disclosed. Among the amendments being considered is the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, which would change a section of a decades-old law that shields companies such as Facebook Inc, Amazon Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google from liability for content posted by their users, according to a Senate aide and three technology industry sources. The sources, who requested anonymity to discuss ongoing private conversations, cautioned on Monday that the situation was fluid and the Republican Senate leadership might decide against allowing a vote on the amendment. But they also said it was likely to pass if there was a vote, a possibility that has alarmed internet companies. The underlying defense bill is considered must-pass legislation but would need to be reconciled with the House of Representatives and signed by President Donald Trump before becoming law. Republican Senator Rob Portman introduced the online trafficking bill in August and has gained support from more than a fourth of the Senate. Kevin Smith, a spokesman for Portman, declined to comment, saying only that the senator was focused on building more support for the measure. The legislation would allow state attorneys general and victims of sex trafficking to pursue legal action against social media networks, advertisers and others who fail to keep exploitative material off their platforms. Technology companies say the changes to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act would impose impossible demands on online publishers and quash innovation. But some lawmakers and attorneys have argued that the statute has been too broadly interpreted to give companies too much leeway in avoiding responsibility for harmful content. | 1 |
4,350 | ‘Something’s Coming’: Eric Holder’s ‘Be Prepared’ Tweet To DOJ And FBI Sets The Internet On Fire | Former Attorney General Eric Holder, who served under former President Barack Obama, unleashed a tweet at 3:00 a.m. to the Department of Justice and the FBI in which he warned officials to be prepared. To the career men & women at DOJ/FBI: your actions and integrity will be unfairly questioned. Be prepared, be strong. Duty. Honor. Country, he wrote.To the career men & women at DOJ/FBI: your actions and integrity will be unfairly questioned. Be prepared, be strong. Duty. Honor. Country. Eric Holder (@EricHolder) June 30, 2017Just after former FBI Director James Comey was fired, Holder tweeted something similiar, writing, To the career men and women at DOJ/FBI: you know what the job entails and how to do it. Be strong and unafraid. Duty. Honor. Country. To the career men and women at DOJ/FBI: you know what the job entails and how to do it. Be strong and unafraid. Duty. Honor. Country. Eric Holder (@EricHolder) May 10, 2017Holder s Friday morning tweet raised eyebrows on Twitter, with many speculating that something big was about to happen.Something big is coming. A 3am tweet from Eric Holder? Yeah, something's coming. Jack A Roe (@JackARoe12) June 30, 2017I don't think that's it. A storm is a brewin', treason is in the air, and it's gonna dump a holy incriminating load on Team Trump very soon U.S.O.U.S. (@hyperauxetic) June 30, 2017Damn DW. wtf . Dennis Herring (@dcherring) June 30, 2017??NOTE??the time stamp on fmr AG Holder's tweet: 3:17am!?Think something big is happening https://t.co/9rJ8ELUVZh Dr. Dena Grayson (@DrDenaGrayson) June 30, 2017A storm is coming. pic.twitter.com/QLtmKYRYIW Tina McD5 (@TinaMcDermott5) June 30, 2017Wow, what's about to happen? A 2AM Tweet from AG Holder. Sara Tonin, RN (@shar76) June 30, 2017Holy shit! Sounds like you're saying buckle up it's going to get a lot bumpier. diane (@dtheavenger) June 30, 2017 pic.twitter.com/Q3KreFrgr5 B b g (@hardhouz13) June 30, 2017Hmmm. Somethin's comin,' somethin' big .. Sybill Trelawney (@SybilT2) June 30, 2017#dutyhonorcountry? pic.twitter.com/bt13IshQqp heidi siegmund cuda (@foxycuda) June 30, 2017Holder isn t a frequent Twitter user so that makes his tweet seem peculiar. The Trump administration is plagued with scandals and alleged president Donald Trump seems to incriminate himself with his own tweets. The former reality show star s Twitter timeline is a goldmine for prosecutors and investigators. The amateur president launched a war on every U.S. Intelligence agency and that won t fare well for him. Trump s war against the free press is backfiring big time, too. Perhaps Trump should stop tweeting for a moment and read Holder s warning. Nah, Trump would just tweet about Holder s wife, saying she once had blood coming out of her whatever.We re not trying to go all Alex Jones on you but for a man who typically tweets about his objections to repealing Obamacare, this does seem a bit odd. Look out, Trump. You re about to lose this war. A former Attorney General doesn t just tweet out a be prepared message all willy nilly unless something is coming. The Trump administration fired Preet Bharara, Sally Yates and James Comey and all three were investigating Donald Trump. That s rather suspicious, don t you think?As of now, Holder s tweet has been liked over 30,000 times and it s garnered 13,00o retweets. I suspect the Twitter-addicted alleged president has already taken notice.Featured image via Chris Graythen/Getty Images | 0 |
4,351 | HYSTERICAL! Jimmy Kimmel Reads “WINNERS AREN’T LOSERS” To Donald Trump [VIDEO] | This is hysterical!Here s the entire interview: | 0 |
4,352 | Italian government gets economy bill through Senate despite friction | ROME (Reuters) - The Italian parliament approved the government s latest economic forecasts on Wednesday, but the Senate vote exposed deep divisions on the political left that could complicate the drafting of the 2018 budget. Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni s coalition won two votes in the upper house on the Treasury s Economic and Financial Document (DEF), even though parliamentarians with the leftist Mdp party walked out of one of the ballots. The Mdp was formed earlier this year following a schism in the Democratic Party (PD), with a small group of left-wingers accusing PD leader Matteo Renzi of shifting the ruling party too far to the right and shunning its Socialist roots. National elections are due in early 2018, and political jockeying is on the increase as Italy s myriad parties seek to establish clearly defined identities ahead of the vote. The Mdp, backed by former prime minister Massimo D Alema, is particularly anxious to put clear water between itself and Renzi s PD, seizing on the DEF to push its demands for more money to be spent on health care and job creation. We have sent a political signal, said Mdp senator Federico Fornaro. Gentiloni, who does not have a clearly defined majority in the upper house, was saved any embarrassment thanks to the backing of 12 Senators from the center-right ALA group, which is headed by Denis Verdini, previously close to former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. Centre-left politicians said the Mdp was trying to smear Renzi by portraying him as a rightwinger. The question of relations between the Mdp and the government is tied to its competition with the PD ahead of the elections, said senior centrist politician Mario Catania. The point is that the Mdp is following D Alema s line and pushing for the downfall of Renzi. The government has to present its budget by Oct. 20, giving parliament until the end of the year to approve the package in what could be the last major act of the legislature. Gentiloni hopes to get the backing of the Mdp to guarantee smooth passage through both houses. The DEF hiked the 2018 growth forecast to 1.5 percent from a previous target of 1.0 percent, giving the Treasury room to present a more expansive budget than originally expected. The health system is an area where we will weigh up measures to improve it and make it more efficient, Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan told the Senate on Wednesday in an apparent nod to Mdp demands. | 1 |
4,353 | audio tape of hillary leaked about rigging election | by dml daily november immigration
illegal aliens are flooding through the border at an unprecedented pace according to border patrol agents the surge is taking place because human smugglers are issuing warning that its now or never to get into the us
if trump wins the illegal aliens are told there will be a giant wall keeping them out of the us permanently if clinton wins they are led to believe amnesty will be granted both incentives are driving the illegal entries to a level not seen in years and according to agents in texas the border patrol is overwhelmed with apprehensions per night in just one sector
according to the department of homeland security in fiscal the border patrol apprehended immigrants from central america almost onethird of all apprehensions borderwide and more than during the socalled surge of the agency also apprehended haitians up from just last year the number of immigrants claiming to be from africa and asia also is up
when you stop somebody you ask their name and the first thing they tell you is im here for asylum i cant go home because theyll kill me when it takes a good five or six minutes just to get their name out of them they have a rehearsed story said chris cabrera a representative from the border patrol council told fox news once they get those papers saying they can pass through our checkpoint well never see them again
typically an illegal immigrant pays a to smuggling fee to the drug cartels once here he said the mexican government had given each a number based on their arrival
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4,354 | U.S. stance on auto industry sows more doubt about NAFTA overhaul | ARLINGTON, Va. (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Friday demanded that U.S.-made content account for half the value of the cars and trucks sold under the North American Free Trade Agreement, raising further doubts about any potential deal to renew the pact. Three sources briefed on the protectionist U.S. proposal, which is in line with President Donald Trump’s goal of shrinking a trade deficit with Mexico and stemming the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs, said it also seeks sharply higher North American automotive content overall. The proposal was made during contentious talks in Washington, in the fourth of seven planned rounds of negotiations to overhaul the treaty. Some Mexican sources denounced it as “absurd,” but Juan Carlos Baker, Mexico’s deputy economy minister, put a brave face on the state of NAFTA negotiations at the halfway point. “There’s no question there are some difficult proposals,” Baker told reporters at Mexico’s embassy in Washington. He said Mexico will consider all of them, though he said, “It’s clear to us that there are certain things that are proposals that go against the country’s objectives.” Trump, who claims that the original 1994 pact has been a disaster for the United States, is threatening to walk away from the agreement unless major changes are made. Washington’s auto industry gambit came hot on the heels of its demand that NAFTA also contain a so-called sunset clause. That could mean any new deal expires in five years, an idea that Canada and Mexico also strongly oppose. Although sources briefed on the talks describe the mood as sour, Mexican and Canadian politicians say there is no question of leaving the table for now. A collapse of NAFTA would wreak havoc throughout the North American economy, disrupting highly integrated manufacturing supply chains and agricultural exports with steep tariffs that would snap back into place. Trade among the three countries has more than quadrupled since 1994 to over $1.2 trillion annually. Sources close to the talks said Washington wants to increase the North American content requirement for trucks, autos and large engines to 85 percent from 62.5 percent over a period of years. That is in addition to its insistence that 50 percent of the products used in vehicle be U.S.-made within the first year of a signed deal. The proposal also requires that steel, aluminum, copper, plastics, electronics and other parts be sourced from North America for vehicles to qualify for NAFTA tariff-free status. Trump has made clear he prefers bilateral trade deals, and skeptics wonder whether the U.S. demands are part of an “America First” strategy designed to ensure the current talks fail. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has listed the demand for a greater use of U.S.-made products for vehicles among a number of “poison pill” proposals that it said would torpedo the talks. {nL4N1ML4JW] The chamber says the proposal would cost jobs, since automakers and parts suppliers would likely forgo NAFTA benefits and simply pay the 2.5 percent U.S. tariff for imported cars and many parts. Unifor, the union which represents most of Canada’s auto workers, said the U.S. proposals were deliberately untenable. “Frankly, I think this is a bully move by the American government,” Unifor President Jerry Dias said in a statement. Trump officials say current rules are too lax and allow auto companies to bring in too many cheap parts from China and other low-wage Asian countries. Mexico is heavily dependent on the United States and NAFTA for its economic viability, and uncertainty over the outcome of the talks helped push the Mexican peso to near five-month lows this week. Canadian officials said it was too soon to write off the deal-making process. They noted that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo were due to meet in Washington on Tuesday to take stock of the negotiations. Separately, U.S. negotiators on Friday formally asked Canada to address a bilateral dispute over dairy pricing, a request the Canadians are set to resist, sources familiar with the talks said. | 1 |
4,355 | Trump Voter SHOCKED That He’s Gutting Meals On Wheels, The Rest Of Us Aren’t (VIDEO) | If you haven t heard, the Trump administration is making conservative wet dreams come true by gutting every social program imaginable including Meals on Wheels, which provides elderly and disabled people with food and occasional company. This development is not shocking to most of us, but 56-year-old Georgia resident Linda Preast somehow had no idea this sort of thing would happen when she voted for a gigantic orange billionaire with a long history of telling the poor to f*ck off.Preast has been wheelchair-bound since she had a stroke two years ago and relies on Meals on Wheels for food. But now that it s not just about building a wall and getting all those damn Muslims out of the country, now that sh*t is getting real, Preast is realizing she may have made a mistake.Are you surprised? CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller asked Preast about the cuts to the Meals on Wheels program. Yeah, Preast said. Because he was told I was under the influence that he was going to help us. To be clear, there was never any reason to think Donald Trump would help anyone outside his tax bracket. We can t spend money on programs just because they sound good. And Meals on Wheels sounds great, says White House Budget director Mick Mulvaney, who calls the cuts to Meals on Wheels and other programs designed to help the less fortunate compassionate. Asked what she would tell Donald Trump to convince him not to cut funding to a program that helps her, Preast replied What if it was your momma? But it s not Donald Trump s momma and he doesn t care about the majority of Americans even his supporters.While the government has decided that a program that feeds 2.4 million people a year doesn t work, Americans disagree. Ever since the budget was announced, donations have been pouring in from people who desperately want to save a program that helps so many. The program has seen a 500 percent increase in volunteers and a 50 percent increase in online donations, but it s still not enough. The scary thing about that is that funding is already not keeping up with pace, Jenny Bertolette, vice president of communications for Meals on Wheels America says. There are already demands that we can t meet. There is already a waitlist crisis If this budget was enacted, it would obviously just make matters so much worse. Watch a report on the crisis below:Featured image via screengrab | 0 |
4,356 | Senate parliamentarian rules against tax bill provisions: Sanders | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate parliamentarian has ruled against three provision of the Republican tax bill, forcing the House of Representatives to hold a second vote on the legislation, Senator Bernie Sanders said on Tuesday. Sanders, an independent on the Senate Budget Committee, said the ruling could mean that provisions related to educational savings accounts for home schooling and private university endowments could be struck from the measure unless 60 members of the Senate vote to uphold them. | 1 |
4,357 | Iran foreign minister defends missile program, asks European support | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iran s foreign minister on Monday defended its ballistic missile program and urged European countries not to be influenced by U.S. President Donald Trump s confrontational policy towards Tehran. In an op-ed article in the New York Times, Mohammad Javad Zarif also urged European powers to help preserve the landmark 2015 deal under which Iran curbed its disputed nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of a number of international sanctions. In October Trump struck a blow against the deal, approved by his predecessor Barack Obama, by refusing to certify that Iran is complying with the terms of the deal despite findings to the contrary by U.N. nuclear inspectors. Trump has also called Iran an economically depleted rogue state that exports violence. Europe should not pander to Washington s determination to shift focus to yet another unnecessary crisis - whether it be Iran s defensive missile program or our influence in the Middle East, Zarif wrote. His remarks seemed to be at least partly aimed at France which has been critical of the Islamic Republic s missile tests and regional policy, including involvement in Syria s war, in recent weeks. Last month French President Emmanuel Macron said he was very concerned by the missile program and called for talks about it, an appeal rejected by Iranian officials. Iran s missiles are for defensive purposes only, Zarif wrote in the op-ed. We have honed missiles as an effective means of deterrence. And our conscious decision to focus on precision rather than range has afforded us the capability to strike back with pinpoint accuracy, he wrote. Nuclear weapons do not need to be precise. Conventional warheads, however, do. While criticizing the missile program, European powers that were party to the nuclear deal - France, Britain and Germany - have reaffirmed their commitment to the nuclear deal and voiced concern at Trump calling it into question. Zarif also criticized rival Saudi Arabia s regional policy and military campaign in Yemen but also called for dialogue. As Iran and its partners labor to put out fires, the arsonists in our region grow more unhinged. They re oblivious to the necessity of inclusive engagement, Zarif wrote. (Refile with full name of minister, para 2, inserts dropped word labor in last para) | 1 |
4,358 | China angered as U.S. considers navy visits to Taiwan | BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) - China accused the United States on Thursday of interfering in its internal affairs and said it had lodged a complaint after U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law an act laying the groundwork for possible U.S. navy visits to self-ruled Taiwan. Tensions have risen in recent days after a senior Chinese diplomat threatened China would invade Taiwan if any U.S. warships made port visits to the island which China claims as its own territory. On Monday, Chinese jets carried out island encirclement patrols around Taiwan, with state media showing pictures of bombers with cruise missiles slung under their wings as they carried out the exercise. On Tuesday, Trump signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for the 2018 fiscal year, which authorizes the possibility of mutual visits by navy vessels between Taiwan and the United States. Such visits would be the first since the United States ended formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979 and established ties with Beijing. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said while the Taiwan sections of the law were not legally binding, they seriously violate the One China policy and constitute an interference in China s internal affairs . China is resolutely opposed to this, and we have already lodged stern representations with the U.S. government, Lu told a daily news briefing. China is firmly opposed to any official exchanges, military contact, or arms sales between Taiwan and the United States, he added. Proudly democratic Taiwan has become increasingly concerned with the ramped up Chinese military presence, that has included several rounds of Chinese air force drills around the island in recent months. Taiwan is confident of its defenses and responded quickly to the Chinese air force drills this week, its government said, denouncing the rise in China s military deployments as irresponsible. Taiwan presidential spokesman Alex Huang, speaking to Taiwan media in comments reported late on Wednesday, said the defense ministry had kept a close watch on the patrols and responded immediately and properly. Taiwan can ensure there are no concerns at all about national security, and people can rest assured , Huang said. Both sides of the narrow Taiwan Strait, which separates Taiwan from its giant neighbor, have a responsibility to protect peace and stability, he added. Such a raised military posture that may impact upon and harm regional peace and stability and cross-strait ties does not give a feeling of responsibility, and the international community does not look favorably upon this, Huang was quoted as saying. Relations have soured considerably since Tsai Ing-wen, who leads Taiwan s independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, won presidential elections last year. China suspects Tsai wants to declare the island s formal independence, a red line for Beijing. Tsai says she wants to maintain peace with China but will defend Taiwan s security. Taiwan is well equipped with mostly U.S. weapons but has been pressing for more advanced equipment to deal with what it sees as a rising threat from China. The United States is bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself. China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. | 1 |
4,359 | WATCH DR BEN CARSON Hit Back At His Critics Like Only A Brain Surgeon Can Do [Video] | Dr.Ben Carson was speaking today at theHill s Newsmaker Series Event when he boldly said what only a brilliant neurosurgeon can say about people. Dr. Carson said that people who thought his past as a neurosurgeon did not qualify him for his HUD position are stupid. Oh yes he did!"People are so stupid." @RealBenCarson, 10/25/17 pic.twitter.com/IHxSsirxNs Matt Wilstein (@mattwilstein) October 25, 2017The interviewer asked, What were some of the obstacles that you saw. Was it maybe not thinking outside the box, that idea that you just raised. Have you changed the mindset at HUD? Dr. Carson replied that when he started at HUD, it was run by the book. Carson said there was a shift in focus toward the end goal rather than on the smallest rules and protocols.Carson continued: When I first came a lot of people were saying, But you re a doctor, so you can t possibly know anything about housing, how can you possibly run HUD? You know, people are so stupid. Wow! He went there and bashed the government bureaucrats who love all of those rules and regulations. It s what makes DC such a behemoth when it comes to getting anything done.DR. CARSON WENT ON TO EXPLAIN:Carson made an analogy to the CEO of a large medical center who may not know a lot about how to treat an infectious disease or perform a surgery, saying he doesn t need to know all of those things to be a successful and effective CEO.The secretary said he surrounds himself with people who know a lot about the different aspects of running a governmental organization like HUD, and they are helping to coordinate and create the vision and atmosphere of a successful organization.On a side note: If you ever get the chance to hear Dr. Carson speak, please go! He is so funny and so brilliant. It s worth it! We re so lucky he s serving our nation right now!READ MORE: WFB | 0 |
4,360 | MACHETE ATTACKER, Mohamed Barry Was Living In U.S. On Green Card [VIDEO] | Now we know the reason it took so long for anyone to release the details about Muslim attacker, Mohamed Barry. How long will we have to wait for them to tell us it was an act of terror? CBS News has confirmed from the FBI that the man who attacked a Columbus restaurant Thursday with a machete was living in the United States on a green card.The motives for the attack by 30-year-old Mohamed Barry remain unclear but investigators are looking for possible ties to extremists.Not far from Nazareth Restaurant, one of the only two relatives Barry had in Columbus says he was sleeping, unware of the nearby attack.That was until FBI agents woke him up with a knock on his door and questions about his nephew and possible ties to terrorism.The relative, who only identified himself as Barry s uncle, said Barry was a bit of a loner with a bit of a temper. I know that when he gets mad he, that s why he wanted to be by himself, he said.He said Barry was born in Guinea but that his family, including three sisters, lives in Philadelphia.His uncle said Barry lived with him while looking for a job when he first moved to Columbus from Philadelphia last fall.The uncle says he knew something wasn t right when he received a strange text message from Barry just five hours before the attack.He says the message was in Arabic and English but didn t understand the meaning. His uncle couldn t show or read the text because he said the FBI now has his phone.When asked if he thought Barry could have had ties to ISIS, his uncle said no.The four victims he attacked with a machete are expected to make a full recovery. Barry was shot and killed by police after fleeing the restaurant. Via: WBNS-10TV | 0 |
4,361 | HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY…Your First Grader Just Rated Your Mommy Skills For Her Public School Teacher | Rate your mom for Mother s Day sounds like the perfect project that only an intrusive, progressive public school teacher would assign. A first grade class at Ridgecrest Elementary in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, (and scads of other schools around the country, too, if the 1,994 downloads are any indication) made a Mother s Day gift to take home. Was it a sentimental card? A loving poem? Perhaps the impression of the child s hand forever memorialized in plaster of paris? No.Some teacher (or in this case it may have been Principal Teri Mattson) thought it was a grand idea to have six-year-olds rate their moms on personal behaviors. The report card reveals how well the mom lives up to expectations! Kids get to rate (with smiling, neutral, or frowning faces) their moms on these items:The mom cares for her children. The mom cooks healthy meals for her children. The mom has an organized bedroom. The mom takes time to enjoy her hobbies, such as reading. The mom works hard to make money for her family. The mom is funny and makes her children laugh. The mom takes care of herself by getting her hair done and taking bubble baths. The mom is a safe driver and does not get distracted when driving. Inspire Me, ASAP! the username of a woman who offers items on Teachers Pay Teachers created this worksheet. It is apparently receiving lots of positive feedback (and smiling faces!) with comments like:The moms will love these! How fun is this?! Can t wait to have my kiddos make this! Super adorable! Adorable idea. I can t wait to see their answers.Now the questions are:How many parents are going to speak up about this? How could teachers/administrators be this clueless? Whenever things like this happen, I see a ton of private griping and moaning and negative social media commentary. Few parents, however, are willing to push back.In a nutshell, parents are afraid of school employees. These taxpayer funded teachers and administrators hold so much power (grades, influence, activities, resources) that parents vehemently object in private while smiling and nodding in public.They work for us, people. They must be held accountable.Giving such a worksheet is not just invasive and stupid. In Utah, it s illegal.Title 53A Chapter 13 Part 3 Section 302Except as provided in Subsection (7), Section 53A-11a-203, and Section 53A-15-1301, policies adopted by a school district or charter school under Section 53A-13-301 shall include prohibitions on the administration to a student of any psychological or psychiatric examination, test, or treatment, or any survey, analysis, or evaluation without the prior written consent of the student s parent or legal guardian, in which the purpose or evident intended effect is to cause the student to reveal information, whether the information is personally identifiable or not, concerning the student s or any family member s: (e) critical appraisals of individuals with whom the student or family member has close family relationshipsVia: Mormonmomma | 0 |
4,362 | Hillary’s Running Mate Tim Kaine: The NRA Hates Him, And He Kicked Their Butts (VIDEO) | Virginia Senator Tim Kaine has been chosen by Hillary Clinton as her running mate in the 2016 presidential election. The decision was announced on Friday night on Clinton s Twitter and Facebook accounts.Introducing Kaine, Clinton wrote:Tim is a lifelong fighter for progressive causes and one of the most qualified vice presidential candidates in our nation s history. But his credentials alone aren t why I asked him to run alongside me.Tim s a man of relentless optimism who believes no problem is unsolvable if you re willing to put in the work. That commitment to delivering results has stayed with him throughout his decades-long career as a public servant.She concluded, So join me and Tim, and let s get to work and go win this thing. Kaine was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012, the year President Obama was elected to the White House.In 2005, he defeated conservative Republican Jerry Kilgore in Virginia s gubernatorial election, and served as governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010. After that he served as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2009 to 2011.Kaine received widespread kudos in Virginia for his response to the horrific Virginia Tech gun massacre where 32 people were killed:Kaine was universally praised for a sensitive and commanding response to the 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech. He returned from a trade mission to Japan and quickly gathered highly regarded experts to lead an inquiry. After the panel reached its conclusions, Kaine was able to get sweeping mental-health reforms passed in the General Assembly.That made him even more of an annoyance to the NRA, and while they have spent heavily to hurt him (and they gave him an F for his record on guns), he beat them and won. A few months ago he backed up Clinton for speaking out about guns and the NRA.Other Democrats argue that Clinton has nothing to lose. Sen. Timothy M. Kaine (D-Va.) said the NRA has become a paper tiger, noting the elections he s won despite the NRA s vocal opposition. Kaine said: I think she has no illusion that even if she didn t say a word about guns, the NRA would be out there blasting her to say she had a conspiratorial plan to work with the U.N. to take everybody s guns away, so why not go head-on on an issue that will improve safety. Well, if the NRA hates him, that s definitely a great check mark for Senator Kaine. Congratulations on your selection, Senator. Clinton/Kaine 2016!Featured image via YouTube | 0 |
4,363 | WATCH: President Obama’s Dignified Response To Belgium Attacks Puts Republicans To Shame | President Obama s response to the attacks on Belgium were dignified and hopeful, and it was exactly the opposite of the divisive and racist rhetoric of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, who took turns describing the frightening things they would do to Muslims if one of them is elected president. At a baseball game in Cuba, the president said: It s always a challenge when you have a terrorist attack anywhere in the world, particularly in this age of 24/7 news coverage. You want to be respectful and understand the gravity of the situation. But the whole premise of terrorism is to try to disrupt people s ordinary lives and one of my most powerful memories and one of my proudest moments as president was when I watched Boston respond after the marathon. Unlike the president, Ted Cruz s response was venomous and hateful and he had a sickening new plan, calling for Muslim neighborhoods to be under police watch. He said: We need to immediately halt the flow of refugees from countries with a significant al Qaida or ISIS presence. We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized. We need to secure the southern border to prevent terrorist infiltration. And we need to execute a coherent campaign to utterly destroy ISIS. Then of course there is the crazy Donald Trump. Instead of sending condolences and creating unity, here s what he had to say: I ve been talking about this for a long time. Brussels was a beautiful place. Zero crime, and now it s a disaster city. It s a total disaster and we have to be very careful as to who we allow into this country. As usual, nothing but opportunistic Republican politicians looking to cash in on a tragedy. But the president s words resonated hope. He continued by saying: They cannot defeat America. They don t produce anything. They don t have a message that appeals to the vast majority of Muslims or the vast majority of people around the world. What they can do is scare and make people afraid and disrupt our daily lives and divide us and as long as we don t allow that to happen, we re gonna be okay. Cruz and Trump are clearly falling into the trap of what terror is designed to do. Let s hope they don t succeed because if they do, that means that terror has succeeded.Watch Video Here:[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDdTiKLhCcc] Featured image via Wikimedia Commons. | 0 |
4,364 | clinton crime family must be taken down arrest them all clinton podesta abedin lynch mook stephanopoulos and all the coconspirators | hillary clinton is keeping her foot on the gas pedal by hammering donald trump for taking the day off to promote his hotel built with undocumented workers instead of campaigning
video
clinton said
hillary clinton could probably spend hours a day for the rest of the campaign doing nothing but targeting trumps hypocrisies
while trump was trying to drum up business for his struggling new dc hotel hillary clinton was winning more early votes in the state of florida there are two competing messages in the media currently about the election the first message is that democrats are blowing out republicans in early voting the second message is that a few state polls have shown trump leading by a little in florida and gaining ground in new hampshire
it is possible that both of these stories are correct democrats are blowing out republicans in early voting and with no new sex assault stories dominating the news some republicans may be coming back to trump
the important thing for hillary clinton and democrats is not to let up democrats are very close to generation defining win but victory is not sealed yet more polling will need to be done to see if the two state polls were outliers or if this is a trend but the polls may not matter
if most of the ballots in states like north carolina and florida are cast before election day the polls may end up meaning very little
hillary clinton is in a great position but judging from her own remarks she is still working hard to close the deal on november
as trump pimps his new hotel hillary clinton is pushing even harder to win the white house | 0 |
4,365 | Republicans in House seek protection for municipal bonds in tax bill | (Reuters) - A group of Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday urged keeping federal tax breaks on private activity bonds sold by the developers of hospitals, nursing homes, airports and toll roads to reduce costs. A tax bill in Congress to eliminate that exemption, plus tax breaks on advance refunding bonds used to lower interest costs, stunned the $3.8 trillion municipal debt market. U.S. Representative Randy Hultgren, an Illinois Republican and co-chair of the Congressional Municipal Finance Caucus, said a letter he and 20 other Congressmen signed to object to the proposals was aimed at highlighting the value of tax-free debt issuance. “It’s really important for projects. We’ve seen multiple returns in jobs created,” he said, adding that supporters will continue to push to retain these tax exemptions as the bills work their way through Congress. The proposals are incompatible with President Donald Trump’s push for greater infrastructure investment, the letter stated. “This change in policy contradicts the growing need of the federal government to rely more, not less, on states and municipalities, as well as the private sector, to help to finance needed infrastructure in a market driven, cost effective manner,” the letter said. It added that advance refunding of municipal debt issues over the last five years will translate into saving taxpayers in every state billions of dollars in interest costs. Legislation that passed the House earlier this month, as well as a bill pending in the Senate would disallow states, cities, schools and other issuers from refinancing on a tax-exempt basis bonds that are more than 90 days from the date the debt can be bought back by an issuer. This is done by issuers in order to save money by taking advantage of lower market interest rates. Current refundings of debt within a 90-day call date window would remain tax-exempt. The House bill would also yank the tax exemption for new private activity bonds (PABs) used by nonprofit organizations and governments to finance projects including hospitals, nursing homes, colleges, affordable housing, economic development, ports, toll roads and airports at lower costs. Tim Fisher, legislative and federal affairs coordinator for the Council of Development Finance Agencies, said the letter may help if and when a Congressional conference committee meets to hash out differences between the House and Senate bills. “(The letter) is a good sign that shows certain House Republicans are willing to go on the record,” he said. The elimination of PABs would raise nearly $39 billion for the federal government between 2018 and 2027, while removing tax-exemption for advance refunding bonds would generate $17.3 billion over that time period, according to an estimate from the Joint Committee on Taxation. | 1 |
4,366 | SECRETARY OF STATE REX TILLERSON Shuts Down Obnoxious Press Asking Why He ‘Puts Up With’ Trump [Video] | Secretary of State Rex Tillerson just shut down the obnoxious press. He responded to rumors of tension with President Donald Trump and reports that the White House is planning to push him out of his position, telling reporters that they need to get some new sources. BOOM!Tillerson s no nonsense style hit this reporter right between the eyes:Tillerson s comments came during a press conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, where Associated Press reporter Josh Lederman asked the nation s top diplomat why he has not quit amid multiple reports, citing Trump administration officials, that the White House has developed a plan to oust Tillerson and replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who in turn would be replaced by Republican Sen. Tom Cotton (Ark.). On several occasions, the president has publicly undermined your diplomatic efforts, Lederman said. In recent days, White House officials have said that you are going to be pushed out. And these are not media inventions; these are coming from the White House. Many Americans see these efforts as humiliating to you, Lederman continued. You have had an illustrious career. Why do you put up with it? Why don t you quit? The press keeps pushing but they re not getting answers from Tillerson who had been rumored to be leaving the Trump administration in January. The problem with this reporter asking is not what he asked but how he asked it. Rude! | 0 |
4,367 | BLACK MEN FOR BERNIE FOUNDER Campaigns In Swing States For TRUMP: “Bill And Hillary Did Major Damage To Our Communities Last Time In White House” [VIDEO] | Apparently, using thug Michael Ferguson s mom as a prop at Black functions was not enough to be granted the Black vote Black Men for Bernie founder Bruce Carter s mission to restore black communities didn t end when Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders lost to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary. He opposed Hillary Clinton and the Democratic establishment then because he knew that they didn t represent the minority communities he engaged in politics to fight for.After the leak of internal DNC emails, Carter is convinced that the Democratic Party rigged the primary against his candidate and that Hillary Clinton s Democratic Party has no intention of changing the policies that led to the destruction of the communities he s working to improve.Bruce Carter still believes that Hillary Clinton is the poster child for the kind of cronyism, corruption, and evil that the Bernie revolution was built to overthrow. He doesn t believe Hillary Clinton when she labels Donald Trump and his supporters as racists because he knows she falsely labeled her opponents in the primary as sexist Bernie Bros. Carter s preparing to take the experience, knowledge, and contacts his group built during the primary to campaign against Hillary Clinton and for Donald Trump and other Republicans in battleground states across the country.Bruce Carter and Black Men for Bernie are at war with the Democratic establishment, whom he says pander for votes but haven t delivered meaningful results to minority communities for decades. Carter became politically active to support Bernie Sanders, who taught him how the establishment s only real constituency was the donor class. When he paired that knowledge with what he knew about the decline in the black and minority neighborhoods he loves, he realized Democratic politicians and the media had been lying. Bernie inspired us to disrupt the status quo because it only works for the elites and not regular people who are struggling, Carter told Breitbart News. If black communities vote for Hillary Clinton and Democrats in November, nothing will change because Democrats will continue to believe they don t have to do anything to earn our votes. Carter became one of the most prominent and recognizable supporters of the Sanders campaign by traveling the country in a tour bus and fleet of vehicles wrapped with the Black Men for Bernie logo and a picture of Sanders being arrested during the civil rights movement. His online videos received millions of views and featured celebrities like Mark Ruffalo and ice cream makers Ben and Jerry.This guy knows what he s doing when it comes to rallying the troops to get behind his candidate. Watch Carter organizing supporters for Bernie before Hillary cheated him out of the chance to become the Democrat Party candidate:Carter told Breitbart News that his greatest awakening of how Democrats exploit minority voters came when he learned from the Washington Post that the Democratic Party spends less than 2 percent of its campaign resources with minority-owned companies, even though they get better than 90 percent of the black vote. It is a practice that Carter calls political slavery. Now Black Men for Bernie are rebranding and again planning to tour the country with an emphasis on battleground states. Carter says he s going to organize black and minority communities to vote against Hillary Clinton and the Democratic establishment. Donald Trump is a business man and a real estate mogul who could provide knowledge and resources to transform urban communities through the development of minority-owned businesses, Carter said. With this tour, we re going to show Mr. Trump and Republicans that the black and minority communities are ready to work with anyone willing to work with us to build opportunities in businesses, employment, and housing. We don t want welfare, we need opportunity. Carter had a lot of ideas when asked about what Trump could do to help him win black votes away from the Democrats. When Donald Trump tells black people, what do you have to lose by voting for me, he s getting close to a message that will work, but it s not quite there yet, Carter explained: We re going to go back to these communities in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and across the country to lead people to the facts about the Clintons and Democrats failures with our struggling communities, Carter said:For Carter and the Black Men for Bernie, they can t unlearn what they discovered about Hillary during the primary. We know that Hillary Clinton is for Hillary Clinton and the rich donors of the Clinton Foundation, Carter said. We know that Bill and Hillary did major damage to our communities the last time they were in the White House. We know they will lie about their opponents by unfairly labeling them sexists and racists and radicals. Donald Trump isn t a typical politician and he isn t beholden to the same old political powers, Carter continued. We want to earn our seat at the table in his administration and I think he and the Republicans are smart enough to realize that when we deliver them a historic number of minority votes, they better do a better job than the Democrats have done or they re never going to get an opportunity like this again. For entire story: Breitbart News | 0 |
4,368 | Trump wants to make sure U.S. nuclear arsenal at 'top of the pack' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Thursday he wants to ensure the U.S. nuclear arsenal is at the “top of the pack,” saying the United States has fallen behind in its weapons capacity. In a Reuters interview, Trump also said China could solve the national security challenge posed by North Korea “very easily if they want to,” ratcheting up pressure on Beijing to exert more influence to rein in Pyongyang’s increasingly bellicose actions. Trump also expressed support for the European Union as a governing body, saying “I’m totally in favor of it,” and for the first time as president expressed a preference for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but said he would be satisfied with whatever makes the two sides happy. Trump also predicted his efforts to pressure NATO allies to pay more for their own defense and ease the burden on the U.S. budget would reap dividends. “They owe a lot of money,” he said. In his first comments about the U.S. nuclear arsenal since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump was asked about a December tweet in which he said the United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capacity “until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.” Trump said in the interview he would like to see a world with no nuclear weapons but expressed concern that the United States has “fallen behind on nuclear weapon capacity.” “I am the first one that would like to see ... nobody have nukes, but we’re never going to fall behind any country even if it’s a friendly country, we’re never going to fall behind on nuclear power. “It would be wonderful, a dream would be that no country would have nukes, but if countries are going to have nukes, we’re going to be at the top of the pack,” Trump said. Russia has 7,000 warheads and the United States, 6,800, according to the Ploughshares Fund, an anti-nuclear group. “Russia and the United States have far more weapons than is necessary to deter nuclear attack by the other or by another nuclear-armed country,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the independent Arms Control Association non-profit group. The new strategic arms limitation treaty, known as New START, between the United States and Russia requires that by February 5, 2018, both countries must limit their arsenals of strategic nuclear weapons to equal levels for 10 years. The treaty permits both countries to have no more than 800 deployed and non-deployed land-based intercontinental and submarine-launched ballistic missile launchers and heavy bombers equipped to carry nuclear weapons, and contains equal limits on other nuclear weapons. Analysts have questioned whether Trump wants to abrogate New START or would begin deploying other warheads. In the interview, Trump called New START “a one-sided deal.” “Just another bad deal that the country made, whether it’s START, whether it’s the Iran deal ... We’re going to start making good deals,” he said. The United States is in the midst of a $1 trillion, 30-year modernization of its aging ballistic missile submarines, bombers and land-based missiles. Trump also complained that the Russian deployment of a ground-based cruise missile is in violation of a 1987 treaty that bans land-based American and Russian intermediate-range missiles. “To me it’s a big deal,” said Trump, who has held out the possibility of warmer U.S. relations with Russia. Asked if he would raise the issue with Putin, Trump said he would do so “if and when we meet.” He said he had no meetings scheduled as of yet with Putin. Speaking from behind his desk in the Oval Office, Trump expressed concern about North Korea’s ballistic missile tests and said accelerating a missile defense system for U.S. allies Japan and South Korea was among many options available. “There’s talks of a lot more than that,” Trump said, when asked about the missile defense system. “We’ll see what happens. But it’s a very dangerous situation, and China can end it very quickly in my opinion.” China has made clear that it opposes North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs and has repeatedly called for denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and a return to negotiations between Pyongyang and world powers. But efforts to change Pyongyang’s behavior through sanctions have historically failed, largely because of China’s fear that severe measures could trigger a collapse of the North Korean state and send refugees streaming across their border. Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earlier this month in Florida was interrupted by a ballistic missile launch by North Korea. Trump did not completely rule out possibly meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at some point in the future under certain circumstances but suggested it might be too late. “It’s very late. We’re very angry at what he’s done, and frankly this should have been taken care of during the Obama administration,” he said. According to Japanese news reports, the Japanese government plans to start debate over the deployment of a U.S. missile defense system known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, and the land-based Aegis Ashore missile defense system to improve its capability to counter North Korean ballistic missiles. The strength of Trump’s remarks in favor of the EU took some Brussels officials by surprise after his support for Britain’s vote last summer to exit from the EU. “I’m totally in favor of it,” Trump said of the EU. “I think it’s wonderful. If they’re happy, I’m in favor of it.” Statements by him and others in his administration have suggested to Europeans that he sees little value in the Union as such, which Trump last month called a “vehicle for Germany.” | 1 |
4,369 | Colbert Hilariously Humiliates Ted Cruz For Losing New York By A Landslide (VIDEO) | Ted Cruz paid dearly for insulting New York values on Tuesday night, and Stephen Colbert couldn t resist rubbing the loss in Cruz s smug face.During the Late Show on Wednesday night, the audience applauded after Colbert told Cruz to Suck it. The clearest message coming out of New York last night was: Suck it, Ted Cruz, Colbert quipped. Suck our New York values! Indeed, Ted Cruz had hoped to win New York even though he had been trashing the state throughout his campaign for not having the same values as him.And New York voters delivered a crushing defeat to the Texas Senator by voting overwhelmingly for Donald Trump.In fact, New York hated Cruz so much that Ben Carson received more votes than he did even though he hasn t been in the race for a month, a fact that Colbert found amusing. And in one county he even lost to Ben Carson, who dropped out of the race a month ago, Colbert reported. Though, to be fair, Dr. Carson may not be aware that he dropped out of the race. But even though Cruz was beaten like a speed bag in a loose suit, at the end of the night Ted Cruz managed to keep it positive, and also kind of creepy, Colbert continued before playing a clip of Cruz talking about America lying down with her back on the mat during his concession speech.Colbert smiled and chuckled and then interpreted Cruz s words. That is when America is at her best, lying down with her back on the mat, lights on and with a firm handshake and then back to your separate beds for some quiet weeping. If you know what I mean. Here s the video via YouTube.If Ted Cruz learned anything from his loss on Tuesday, it s that you should avoid insulting an entire state when you are trailing your opponent in a race you desperately want to win, especially if your opponent is a native of the state you are insulting.Cruz had hoped that New Yorkers would forget all about what he said about them and vote for him anyway. He was wrong. Featured image via screenshot | 0 |
4,370 | U.S. says it regrets Russia canceled diplomat meeting | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States regrets the Russian cancellation of a meeting this week between top diplomats but remains open to future discussion to bridge bilateral differences, the State Department said on Wednesday. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said earlier on Wednesday he was canceling his meeting with U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon in response to new sanctions against Moscow. [nR4N1JC012] “We regret that Russia has decided to turn away from an opportunity to discuss bilateral obstacles that hinder U.S.-Russia relations,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. | 1 |
4,371 | U.S. to discuss immigration efforts with Mexico: White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly will discuss the Trump administration’s stepped-up efforts to combat illegal immigration in talks with Mexican officials later this week, the White House said on Wednesday. “I think Secretary Tillerson and Secretary Kelly are going to have a great discussion down there and to walk through the implementation of the executive order,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters. | 1 |
4,372 | Pennsylvania governor signs law expanding wine sales to private stores | (Reuters) - Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf on Wednesday signed into law new measures to expand the sale of bottled wine to certain private stores, a move that could generate millions in state revenues through taxes and licensing fees. Pennsylvania is one of just two U.S. states, along with Utah, with full control over its liquor sale system - owning and operating retail and wholesale operations. “This is truly a historic day for Pennsylvania and the most significant step the commonwealth has taken to reform our liquor system in 80 years,” Wolf said in a statement. The new legislation, passed by lawmakers on Tuesday, moves wine sales beyond the state’s publicly run system, allowing supermarkets, convenience stores, restaurants and hotels that already have licenses for carry-out beer to sell up to four bottles of wine to customers. [nL1N18Z1W7] It also expands direct wine shipments by the case; liquor, wine and beer sales at casinos; and hours of operation at state stores, including on Sundays. The move is expected to increase retail wine sales overall and could add more than $150 million to state coffers. The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is the largest purchaser of wine and spirits in the United States. The state has an 18 percent liquor tax. | 1 |
4,373 | U.S. judge blocks transgender, abortion-related Obamacare protections | (Reuters) - A federal judge in Texas on Saturday issued a court order barring enforcement of an Obama administration policy seeking to extend anti-discrimination protections under the Affordable Care Act to transgender health and abortion-related services. The decision sides with Texas, seven other states and three Christian-affiliated healthcare groups challenging a rule that, according to the judge, defines sex bias to include “discrimination on the basis of gender identity and termination of pregnancy.” In granting an injunction one day before the new policy was to take effect, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor held that it violates the Administrative Procedure Act, a federal law governing rule-making practices. The judge also ruled that plaintiffs were likely to prevail in court on their claim that the new policy infringes on the rights of private healthcare providers under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. As explained in O’Connor’s 46-page opinion, the plaintiffs argued that the new regulation would “require them to perform and provide insurance coverage for gender transitions and abortions, regardless of their contrary religious beliefs or medical judgment.” The same judge issued a similar court order in August blocking a separate Obama administration policy that would have required public schools, over the objections of 13 states, to allow transgender students to use restrooms of their choice. It was not immediately clear whether the Obama administration, which has just 20 days left in office, would seek to appeal the latest injunction. White House spokeswoman Katie Hill decried the ruling. “Today’s decision is a setback, but hopefully a temporary one, since all Americans - regardless of their sex, gender identity or sexual orientation - should have access to quality, affordable health care free from discrimination,” she said. The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, was passed in 2010 with an anti-discrimination section designed to prevent insurers from charging customers more or denying coverage based on age, race, national origin, disability or sex. The rule in dispute on Saturday was adopted by the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Department to implement those provisions, including definitions for sex discrimination that encompassed transgender and abortion services. According to the court opinion, gender identity was defined under that rule as “an individual’s internal sense of gender, which may be male, female, neither, or a combination of male and female, and which may be different from an individual’s sex assigned at birth.” The state of Texas has led a string of legal cases brought by Republican-controlled states contesting various social policies advanced by President Barack Obama, most notably his 2014 executive action to protect millions of immigrants in the United States illegally and give them work permits. That plan, challenged by Texas and other states, has been barred by the courts. But the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 and 2015 issued rulings that kept the Affordable Care Act, his top legislative achievement, intact. | 1 |
4,374 | Poll: 0.0% Of Young Icelanders Support Creationism | For Americans, religion permeates almost every aspect of our daily lives whether we want it to or not. The United States is so religious, in fact, that when, say, a university instructs its professors to hold inclusive holiday parties, rather than focus solely on Christmas, many people believe Christianity itself is under attack. It is therefore always surprising to see just how non-religious other countries have become while America was busy having its pretend war on Christmas.A shocking new poll out of Iceland demonstrates the degree to which young people are abandoning organized religion. The survey of Icelanders found that while many older people (80.6%) still identified as Christian, those in their 20s or younger were astonishingly non-religious. In fact, when asked whether they believed the story of a biblical creation, like the kind found in American creation museums , a whopping 0.0% of those 25 or younger said they did. Inversely, 93.9% said they believed the universe was created during a big bang.Of those younger than 25 93.9% said the world had been created in the big bang and 0.0% believed God had created the world. 77.7% of those between 25 and 44 years old believed the world had been created in the big bang and 10.1% believed God had created the world. In all but the oldest age category a majority accepted the big-bang theory. Only 46.1% of those older than 55 believed in the big bang, and nearly a fourth, 24.5% believed God had created the world.Perhaps because of this growing lack of religion, the poll also found that a large proportion of Icelanders of all ages expressed support for the full separation of church and state. But before televangelist Pat Robertson goes dismissing the entire country as godless heathens, there is a bit of a caveat. As Icelandic Redditor avar points out, the implication that zero percent of young Icelanders don t believe in God is a bit misleading. The poll doesn t go that far.Now, what many outside of Iceland and I d say especially Americans need to understand is that even Christians in Iceland and for that matter in most of Europe don t literally believe in the origin story in the Bible in anything but trivial numbers. Maintaining the literal interpretation of that is very much an American evangelical thing. I bet if you polled priests in Iceland and asked them whether they thought the Big Bang happened you d get a 100% response rate in the affirmative.It s a fair point. In America, we often assume religious to mean creationist because so much of our religious discourse is consumed by conservative fundamentalists. Waking up to the fact that other countries and other churches don t have to be Bible literalists to still believe in God can be jarring for some. As part of a television show, an American religious conservative flew to Scandinavia to learn about how those countries worship. When he discovered how secular people were, and how even the church embraced things like science and same-sex marriage, his brain almost couldn t handle it.[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuDqEGlKOus]Meanwhile, back in America, the country remains an outlier in the Western world. Thanks to conservative lawmakers that work to undermine education and special interest groups that push religion into schools, American students still struggle to accept well-supported scientific theories like evolution or the big bang. Slowly, that appears to be changing. Recently, the United States had a bittersweet moment when new polls found a majority of the American public (finally) accepted evolution over Creationism. We still have a long way to go to reach Iceland s numbers though.Feature image via Wikimedia | 0 |
4,375 | IMMIGRANT With Soros-Funded Education, Who Earned $1.5 Million Per Year as DC Lawyer, Flees To “Somewhere in Africa” After Wife Is Caught Collecting Over $100,00 In Welfare [VIDEO] | An Arlington woman was arrested this week and charged with four counts of welfare fraud for collecting over $100,000 in benefits all while her husband was a high-earning attorney in D.C., police say.Police say a six-month investigation into Helen Agbapuruonwu, 41, found that the mother of four had collected benefits like food stamps and Medicaid assistance for the past six years. While Helen was collecting benefits, her husband, Fidelis Agbapuruonwu, was earning $1.5 million per year as a lawyer, according to court documents obtained by News4.In 2001, Fidelis received the prestigious Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship which helped pay his way through law school.The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans offers up to $90,000 for two years of graduate education. Paul Soros, older brother to Democratic mega-donor George Soros, created the fellowship program in 1998 to honor the contributions of immigrants and children of immigrants to the United States, and help fund graduate study for immigrants who are poised to make significant contributions to US society, culture or their academic field. As a lawyer at Mayer Brown, Agbapuruonwu worked on a number financial and civil cases, according to a search of federal court records.In one of his cases, Agbapuruonwu assisted a pro bono team in 2011, which helped a woman from El Salvador win asylum in the U.S. from the continuous and severe physical, emotional, and psychological abuse inflicted by her ex-boyfriend. Daily CallerFidelis LinkedIn page claims he works for the D.C. firm of Mayer Brown, but today the firm said he no longer works there. Court officials believe Fidelis, a Nigerian immigrant, has fled the country and is somewhere in Africa. NBC | 0 |
4,376 | SICK OF THE LIES FROM CNN? You’re In Luck! Today Is TURN OFF CNN Day! | Here are a few memes to spread around: | 0 |
4,377 | ACTIVE SHOOTER OR DRILL? The Cascade Mall Shooting | 21st Century Wire says There have been a string of active shooter events prior to 2016 s first presidential debate this coming week with many incidents appearing suspicious in nature. The Guardian reports that the apparent motive still remains unclear: A 20-year-old suspect was in custody on Sunday for the killing of five people during a deadly shooting at a mall in Burlington, Washington, two days before. Arcan Cetin of Oak Harbor, Washington, a legal permanent resident who had immigrated to the US from Turkey, was discovered zombie-like , police said, on Saturday evening after police responded to a tip-off following an intensive 24-hour manhunt. Cetin was unarmed at the time of his arrest, authorities said. Although a motive for the shooting remains unclear, authorities told local media that Cetin s ex-girlfriend had previously worked at the targeted department store but left her job months ago. The suspect had been charged three times with domestic assault against his stepfather and had been ordered by a judge not to possess a firearm, according to the Seattle Times. At a Saturday press conference, the FBI said terrorism was not a suspected motive. Memory Hole below Photo Illustration 21WIRE s Shawn HeltonCASCADE MALL SHOOTING AN ACTIVE SHOOTER DRILL ?Memory HoleVictim Corpses Remain in Mall OvernightWitnesses Sequestered from PressPhotograph depicts porta-potties, hugs and smiles at sceneAs we have sought to document at MHB on a routine basis, active shooter drills are now common occurrences across the US. Such training is a consequence of the heightened federalization of local and regional law enforcement.The September 23 Cascade Mall shooting north of Seattle in northwest Washington State took place shortly before 7:00PM local time, and has certain suspect features evident in photos, particularly evidence of tents and porta-potties on the scene, as observed by a MHB reader.There is an absence of footage of wounded or deceased victims in triage or being given ambulatory services away from the scene. Instead, news media were told victims remained in the mall awaiting the local coroner. The Washington Post reports, As of Saturday morning, the bodies of the four female victims were still inside the mall, Skagit County coroner Hayley Thompson said at a news conference Saturday. Thompson said when she gained access to the scene, the four female victims would be taken to Skagit Valley Hospital and undergo autopsies. Such events are reported on by major news media uncritically, thus supporting the call for strengthened gun control measures while ironically stimulating gun purchases by a public that fears such restrictions.The Cascade Mall shooting s police spokesperson for the event is Washington State Patrol s Mark Francis. A press release was issued over 18 hours after the event transpired. | 0 |
4,378 | BRAINWASHED CHILDREN MOCK President Trump in Disturbing Washington Post VIDEO | A disturbing video published by The Washington Post on June 29 shows a group of brainwashed students singing Twitter posts by President Donald Trump attempting to mock him. A group of about twelve children, entitled Washington Post Kids Chorus , are shown in a classroom banging on drums and waving American flags. The video is called The Washington Post s Kids Chorus Singing President Trump s Tweets . Following their mockery of President Donald Trump, the class sings the Post s new motto: Democracy Dies in Darkness .The Post does not state the name of the school or location where the mockery took place. The video, which was published on June 29 to the Post s verified YouTube account was also mentioned in the June 30 column, The Daily 202, titled The Daily 202 presents the world debut of the Washington Post Kids Chorus. Their first musical assignment had a political twist: the president s tweets. From our video team: .Viewers who were disgusted in the Washington Post video made some of the following comments: How about we leave 5-year-olds out of politics? Anything else is borderline brainwashing. Let the kids decide for themselves what their political beliefs are. No one else believes you so you have to trick children to push your narrative. This is just beyond wrong and twisted. The Left have always used children as political props. They control the schools so they have ready access. This is like North Korean propaganda. Let s use our children. Washington Post was once great, but no more. h/t Gateway Pundit | 0 |
4,379 | Back to school: China kindergarten weathers child abuse storm for now | SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - When RYB Education Inc became enmeshed in allegations of child abuse at one of its Beijing kindergartens, it touched off an angry online furor in China, a police inquiry and a precipitous fall in the company s New York-listed shares. Barely a week later, the firm appears to have weathered much of the storm, for now. Chinese police said late on Tuesday some claims of abuse were unfounded, although one teacher was in custody for using knitting needles to discipline children. The company s shares closed up 23.33 percent in New York on Tuesday, after falling over 40 percent last week when allegations first emerged of abuse that included sexual molestation and forced medication. However, shares fell over 10 percent in pre-market trade on Wednesday after the company said there were parent complaints about other RYB-branded kindergartens and that it was cooperating with police. It gave no other details. RYB s actions over the week represented a case of effective crisis management, experts said, rare in the Chinese corporate world where companies tend to hunker down in the face of adverse news and allow events to play out. RYB appeared to have taken some good corrective actions , said James Robinson, managing director of communications consultancy APCO Worldwide s Shanghai office, adding a well-oiled response and open channels of communication with government stakeholders were key. It s essential for companies to respond swiftly, even if it s just to acknowledge they are aware of an issue and are investigating further. Led by chief executive and founder Shi Yanlai, a vocal proponent for China s early child education sector, RYB appeared to have hit all the right buttons last week. When I heard the news, I was personally shocked and very angry, Shi said in an investors call on Friday. This issue has struck an alarm bell for us, she said, adding the firm would look to speed up the installation of blanket surveillance tools at its schools and day care centres. RYB announced a $50 million share buyback and said it had dismissed a teacher suspected of involvement in the case as well as the head teacher of the Beijing school. Shi helped set up RYB in 1998 when her own son was born. It now has over 1,300 play and learn centres and nearly 500 kindergartens in around 300 cities in China. Most are operated on a franchise model. As the case became a lighting rod for wider anger in China about a lack of trained teachers, low wages and poor regulatory oversight in the massive and fast-growing private pre-school sector, Shi underscored that she was a mother herself and repeated frequently in local media interviews that the children were the top priority. On Wednesday, the kindergarten in Beijing was operating as normal, with parents milling around waiting for children to finish class. A handful of police officers were the only sign of last week s troubles. At the company s headquarters in southern Beijing, an RYB official said the police had only released their preliminary findings and that the firm could not provide comment until the investigation had finished. Shi also refused to comment for this story. Teachers, investors and experts said RYB had so far had got off fairly lightly, with a lot of the anger being aimed at regulators and wider issues in the market. Beijing is sending inspectors to the city s kindergartens, while China s education ministry is doing a broad investigation into the sector. I m not really surprised, wrote Zhang Xiaolong, an education sector executive who has half a million followers online, referring to Tuesday s recovery in RYB s shares. After such a serious issue, the government hasn t taken away RYB s license to operate schools, and so it seems like it s being treated like an isolated incident. Teachers in China said the furor over the case - hundreds of millions posted online about it last week - reflected bubbling tensions over the fast development of the private pre-school sector and a lack of resources for teachers. Thresholds for kindergarten teachers getting into the profession are too low; but also status, social recognition and levels of respect for the role are lacking, said Zhong Qian, the head of a private kindergarten in Chengdu. Increasingly there s a mismatch between the demand from students and the need for teachers. RYB has survived similar scandals in the past, at another of its Beijing kindergartens earlier this year and before that at a nursery in northern Jilin province. Before it listed shares in New York in September, its IPO prospectus flagged abuse by teachers as a risk. Teachers and academics, however, said that it was tough to stamp out abuse, especially at franchised, private-sector schools where competition was tough, requirements and checks on teachers were less strict and salaries were low. It s often one of the poorest paid professions in China, certainly right down bottom of the pay scale, said Geoffrey Crothall, communications director at China Labour Bulletin. Schools often just want bodies in there who can supervise kids and pay them as little as possible. The state-run Global Times wrote on Wednesday that even after the police report, there was still fierce criticism online of the case. As often is the case when authorities intercede in a case that has touched a nerve about people s welfare, a raging debate has continued to ferment, the newspaper wrote in a commentary. Robinson, the communications consultant, added: For RYB, it seems they ve taken some good corrective actions, but I don t know whether it s enough. The facts are still emerging. | 1 |
4,380 | Trying to move on from the U.S. election? Tune into November 2020 | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Missing those presidential campaign highs and lows? Suffering post-U.S. election blues? Whether you loved Tuesday’s result or were dismayed, there are places to help you focus on the next presidential contest on Nov. 3, 2020. Online sites such as Ireland-based Paddy Power already are putting odds on the next man or woman who will take over the White House after Donald Trump’s first four-year term ends in January 2021. Republican Trump, who beat Democratic rival Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, is Paddy Power’s clear current favorite to win in 2020 and serve a maximum second term. His closest rivals are vice president-elect Mike Pence, the just defeated vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine and Republican U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan. They are followed by outgoing first lady Michelle Obama and Clinton. Some very long shots on Ireland-based Paddy Power's extensive list include Clinton's daughter, Chelsea Clinton, and the actor who plays a chillingly corrupt politician in the hit TV series "House of Cards," Kevin Spacey. (bit.ly/2fG1VYr) Britain-based Ladbrokes' online betting site has a shorter line-up but also includes Trump as favorite to win in 2020. (bit.ly/2emXXWH) Various websites allow you to set a by-the-second countdown until Election Day in 2020, including here. As of Thursday, there were 1,453 days to go. | 1 |
4,381 | Ann Coulter Goes Full Bigot – Calls Khizr Khan A ‘Snarling Muslim’ In Televised Rant (VIDEO) | Conservative commentator and devout Trump lover Ann Coulter let her bigotry all hang out on Monday when she attacked Khizr Khan, the father of a slain American soldier, calling him a snarling Muslim. During an appearance on Sky News Australia s The Bolt Report, Coulter attacked the father of Humayun Khan, who gave his life fighting for the United States in Iraq. His heroism saved the lives of the men serving by his side.But conservatives like Coulter could care less and have sought to crucify the grieving father ever since his speech at the Democratic National Convention. During his fiery DNC speech, Khan blasted Donald Trump for the blackness of his character. He then asked if the GOP nominee if he had ever even bothered to read the Constitution and offered to lend the bigoted billionaire his copy.Australian commentator Andrew Bolt, host of the show, told Coulter that he thought it was wrong for anyone, including Donald Trump, to viciously go after the parents of a soldier who died in battle. At this point, Coulter complained about the media s endless attack on Trump and then went full-on bigot, calling Khizr Khan a snarling Muslim. I don t know America very well if they want to listen to a snarling Muslim lecture them and tell us we re not allowed to have opinions on important public policy issues unless we had a son die in Iraq, she said.Watch Ann Coulter flaunt her bigotry here:.@AnnCoulter says Americans don't want a 'snarling Muslim' to lecture them. On #TheBoltReport @SkyNewsAust https://t.co/EdLxjScOOS The Bolt Report (@theboltreport) September 5, 2016Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
4,382 | SICKENING: SOROS’ PROTESTERS Block U.S. Air Force Vets From Entering Inauguration Ceremony [VIDEO] | #disruptj20 protesters blocking men in Air Force uniforms from getting through the #Inauguration checkpoint pic.twitter.com/XVErOHHBwg Ryan Lovelace (@LovelaceRyanD) January 20, 2017 | 0 |
4,383 | Watch How Obama Shoots Down Trump’s ‘Rigged’ Election Conspiracy (VIDEO) | Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has reacted to a series of state and national polls showing him losing ground to Hillary Clinton by promoting the conspiracy theory that this fall s presidential election will be rigged. At a press conference at the Pentagon on Thursday, President Obama was asked about the baseless claim, and the President reacted with derision and scorn, apparently disgusted that the idea was even being floated. Of course the election will not be rigged! What does that mean? Obama said at a news conference at the Pentagon. That s ridiculous. That doesn t make any sense. The president added Americans should not take Trump s musings on this seriously. We do take seriously, as we always do, the president said, our responsibilities to monitor and preserve the integrity of the voting process. Obama went on to point out that the move by Trump smells of desperation. The President pointed out that a complaint like Trump s is usually made on a schoolyard by children, not someone in the middle of an interview for the most important leadership position in the world. Obama said that those kinds of comments are like a kid complaining about a loss before the score is even tallied. Trump seems to have gotten the idea from his close ally Roger Stone, the Republican dirty trickster who helped to organize the Brooks Brothers riot during the 2000 recount in Florida. Stone and 9/11 conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, a Trump supporter, have promoted the bizarre idea for some time now.The freak-out has come as polls taken after the successful Democratic Convention have shown a major swing in Hillary Clinton s favor. Marist shows Clinton with a 15 percent edge on Trump nationally, while NBC s poll shows her up nine percent. State polls taken in so-called rust belt states key to a Trump victory show Clinton ahead in Pennsylvania and Michigan. Other polls also showed her in the lead in Florida and New Hampshire. Without those states, it is unlikely that Trump would have a path to victory.Featured image via Twitter | 0 |
4,384 | Bernie Sanders Explains The Exact Reason Trump Won’t Debate Him (VIDEO) | A pre-general election debate between Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump would have been a political event that would be talked about for years. However, such a debate will never happen because Trump is a giant chicken. Sanders blasted Trump on Real Time with Bill Maher Friday night.After Trump jokingly said that he would debate Sanders ahead of the California primary, Trump quickly backed out. Sanders expressed his disappointment with the presumptive Republican presidential nominee s decision. Sanders put out a challenge to Trump, saying: I would have loved [to debate Trump]! First, he said he would do it, then he said he wouldn t do it. Then he said he would do it, then he said he wouldn t do it. So I would hope if he changed his mind four times in two days, change it a fifth time. Trump claims to be a real tough guy, pushes people around. Hey Donald, come on up, let s have a debate about the future of America. That s when Sanders unleashed a savage takedown of Trump: This guy is a pathological liar. And I don t mean to be malicious, but that is just the damn truth. He would be not only an embarrassment; he would be a real danger to this entire world if he were to become president. Maher and Sanders discussed many things during the interview. Sanders, as he usually does, talked about the tough issues that the American people are facing, including the disappearance of the middle class, the enormous amount of poverty there is in this country, and the need for issues-based politics.Sanders also pointed out how Trump s constant lying and flip-flopping makes him hard to create an effective strategy against. How exactly does one challenge their opponent when said opponent s supporters don t hold that accountable to their stance on the issues or their character? While Sanders himself may have seemed unsure (or at least wasn t willing to lay one out in the open during the interview), Sanders has clobbered Trump on the campaign trail while staying classy. Love trumps hate, being a simple effective message that gets to the hearts of both Sanders and Trump s campaigns.Sanders knows that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, and he has an amazing platform that actually speaks to the needs of the average person an agenda that will be championed by many long after this current race is over.You can watch the interview in full, below.Featured image via video screenshot | 0 |
4,385 | HOLY WIDOWS AND ORPHANS! Over 5,000 ISIS Trained Jihadi’s Living Freely In Europe | Europe s new new take on our Statue of Liberty s poem: Give us your Sharia Law enforcers, your rapists and your trained ISIS jihadi s Unless we get a new President with a backbone and fight back against political correctness in America we re next. We can start by exposing the lie Obama told Americans about the Muslim invasion of the West, calling the male refugees looking for a free ride, widows and orphans! As many as 5,000 trained jihadis are believed to be living freely in Europe today, according to the head of the European Union s policing agency Europol.Agency head Ron Wainwright said between 3,000 and 5,000 jihadis who have trained with the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in the Middle East have been able to slip back into Europe. Europe is currently facing the highest terror threat in more than 10 years, Wainwright said, speaking to the Germany newspaper Neue Osnabrucker Zeitung. We can expect [ISIS] or other religious terror groups to stage an attack somewhere in Europe with the aim of achieving mass casualties among the civilian population. However, Wainwright said reports that the Islamic State is using the refugee/migrant crisis to sneak jihadis into Europe have been exaggerated. There is no concrete evidence terrorists are systematically using the flow of refugees to infiltrate Europe, he commented.Meanwhile, in Hungary, police reported an increasing number of migrants have been able to circumvent the four-meter, barbed-wire fence to enter the country illegally. In January, 550 people were caught trying to pass the fence compared to 270 in December. During the first 20 days of February, 1,200 people were caught.Those that have succeeded have either cut the fence or climber over it.Also in Hungary, the central bank recently bought 112 handguns and 200,000 rounds of ammunition for its security company. The National Bank of Hungary justified its purchases citing potential terrorist threats as well as the migrant crisis.The bank controls the country s monetary policy, including price stability and exchange rates, and manages Hungary s foreign-exchange reserves. Its profits are paid into the government s budget and its losses are covered by taxpayers.Via: ClarionProjecth/t UK Daily Mail | 0 |
4,386 | Thai court looks into lawsuit against owner of Leicester City | BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai criminal court on Monday said it would proceed to determine whether it would hear a case in a 14 billion baht ($423 million) lawsuit brought against Thai duty-free giant King Power International, the company that owns English Premier League football club Leicester City. The Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases in Bangkok said it would look into the allegations made in the lawsuit to determine whether there was a case to be heard, and would review the list of potential evidence and witnesses in February ahead of preliminary hearings. Charnchai Issarasenanark, at the time an anti-graft official, filed the suit in a private capacity in July against the duty-free retailer, which is owned by billionaire Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and his family. The committee of which Charnchai was a member has since become defunct as part of the military government s plan to restore democracy. The suit accuses King Power of criminally failing to pay the Thai government 14 billion baht from the operation of the airport franchise it was granted in 2006. The suit was also brought against executives from the state-owned airport operator, Airports of Thailand (AOT). In a statement on Monday, King Power said: The allegations in question have yet to be accepted by the court and are categorically denied. King Power has always followed and been absolutely committed to the highest standards in proper and ethical business practice. We are proud of our company s good name and honest reputation and will fight rigorously any attempts to discredit them. The AOT was not immediately available for comment. Self-made businessman Vichai founded King Power in 1989. The duty-free business took off in 2006 when it was granted an airport monopoly under the government of then prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, but it continued to prosper even after Thaksin s ouster in a coup that year. Vichai bought Leicester City in August 2010. The family s empire also includes Belgian football club, Oud-Heverlee Leuven, Accor s Pullman hotels in Thailand and a controlling stake in Asia Aviation Pcl, operator of low-cost carrier Thai AirAsia. | 1 |
4,387 | Thousands Of Advertisers Are Fleeing From Fake News Site Breitbart | Donald Trump s former Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon exited the Whitey House following the so-called president s widely condemned response to the Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia in which one of his supporters murdered a woman and injured 19 others. So, Bannon headed back to fake news site Breitbart.com. Sniff, I m gonna take my ball and go home! Bannon will be greeted by advertisers fleeing from the site. In recent months, nearly 2,600 advertisers have discontinued their ads from the site which is presently publishing smear pieces against Trump s National Security Adviser, H.R. McMaster.A boycott by a grassroots campaign was launched against the site and that seems to have been effective considering the mass exodus of advertisers.The campaign works like this: tweets are directed to advertisers, like this one which reads, @SimpleTire are you aware that your ads are running on Breitbart s hateful site? @slpng_giants can help! Just ask. Hi Mistie, Thanks for letting us know, we have removed them from our ad feed. @slpng_giants SimpleTire.com (@SimpleTire) August 21, 2017Boom! Simple Tire has removed their ads from Breitbart.The Independent reports:According to a tweet by Sleeping Giants, a campaign group aiming to pressure companies into cutting ties with media they deem to be racist or sexist, the number of advertisers that have ceased advertising is climbing towards 2,600 .The individual behind Sleeping Giants has been at this for quite awhile.Here are a few examples:CONFIRMED: @medpost has blocked Breitbart from their media buy! Thank you! https://t.co/FGXo8lsswY Sleeping Giants (@slpng_giants) August 21, 2017CONFIRMED: @VegaTeam has blocked Breitbart from their media buy! Thanks! https://t.co/OdwIJB4297 Sleeping Giants (@slpng_giants) August 21, 2017After so many have been fired or vacated their positions in the Trump administration, it might be payback time for the former reality show star. Bannon is reportedly ramping up for war against Trump now that he s been fired.Bannon friend says Breitbart ramping up for war against Trump. "It's now a Democrat White House," source says. Gabriel Sherman (@gabrielsherman) August 18, 2017Breitbart editor Joel Pollak suggested that Bannon s ousting means war. #WAR Joel B. Pollak (@joelpollak) August 18, 2017Well, we know what kind of war Trump can expect from the Alt-Right site. Twitter accounts with Pepe the Frog avatars will be launched, and perhaps they ll start conspiracy theories about Trump, maybe saying that he has low stamina, he s sick and doesn t have long to live (because he coughed), and who knows, Trump might visit a pizzeria where there is obviously a child sex slave ring in the basement even though it doesn t have a basement.Breitbart has even more to worry about. In May it was reported that Breitbart.com has fallen from 45th place to 281st place in news site traffic ratings since March, according to the web analytics company Alexa.com. As of August 19th, Breitbart has fallen to 298th place in traffic ratings.I know how Breitbart can get their traffic booming again. If Bannon has access to the pee-pee tapes and publishes them, he can give his site s servers a real test for how much traffic it can hold. You see how we try to help?Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images | 0 |
4,388 | This Touching Moment POTUS Shared With A Hiroshima Survivor Is Why He’ll Be So Sorely Missed (VIDEO) | President Obama s trip to Hiroshima would come and go without an official apology to the Japanese people for dropping hellfire on them to end World War II. The official position of the U.S. government is that the bombings were a necessary evil to end a war with no end in sight, ultimately saving lives and bringing the world back to peace. Just because the President wasn t in a position to apologize doesn t mean that he couldn t be the man we all know and have come to expect him to be.While the president s speech was eloquent, reminding us that the people of Hiroshima were just like you and I, it was a moment he shared with a man who survived the bombing that is catching the attention of the world. In this video by ABC News, you can see President Obama intently listening to the man s story through a translator. At one point the man begins to break down and our President, obviously working off of pure decency and instinct, put his arm around the man and gave him a hug.The Japanese are a proud people who prefer the bow and the handshake, but the elderly gentleman who had been to hell and back seemed grateful that the President of the United States would show him such compassion:Conservatives, who have been demonizing the president s plans to visit the site for weeks now are out in force, condemning the action as an apology rather than a human being connecting with another human being in a display of true compassion, something their shallow, selfish minds can t quite reconcile with. Anne Coulter, for example, tweeted this bit of assholery before the President hit the podium in Hiroshima:For someone "born in Hawaii," you'd think Obama would prefer visiting Pearl Harbor. pic.twitter.com/F3z1UwHVy9 Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) May 27, 2016Leave it to someone as crass as Coulter to take something as simple as a trip to a friendly state and turn it into the ugliest thing possible. She may have a point, though: All of the idiots harping on this trip and calling it something it isn t have a point. It s not like the Japanese government ever apologized for Pearl Harbor, right?Oh wait. Yes, they did.Regardless of what the clowns tasked with riling up the conservative base think of this particular state trip, it makes those of us who understand diplomacy proud to be Americans.Featured image via screen capture | 0 |
4,389 | U.S. officials cite need for caution in addressing Rohingya crisis | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sanctions on Myanmar and withholding of U.S. aid are among options for pressing that country s government to stop attacks on Rohingya Muslims, U.S. officials said on Thursday, adding that they must be careful to avoid worsening the crisis. We don t want to take actions that exacerbate their suffering. There is that risk in this complicated environment, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Patrick Murphy told a U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee hearing. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar s Rakhine state since security forces responded to Rohingya militants attacks on Aug. 25 by launching a crackdown the United Nations has denounced as ethnic cleansing. Myanmar rejects that accusation, insisting action was needed to combat terrorists who killed civilians. But it has left the world community counting the cost as international organizations and the government of Bangladesh, which has taken in the vast majority of the refugees, race to provide food, water and medical care. Many U.S. lawmakers have clamored for a strong U.S. response to the crisis and criticized government leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate once hugely popular in Washington, for failing to do more. Representative Ed Royce, the Foreign Affairs committee s Republican chairman, said her recent statement denying that the military had conducted clearance operations was factually false and said she should speak out. Those responsible for these atrocities must face justice. She and the military generals must rise to this challenge. This is ethnic cleansing, Royce said. Representative Eliot Engel, the committee s top Democrat, was one of several committee members who said Washington should reconsider its decision to ease sanctions on the country and military. In particular, they called on Myanmar to allow international inspectors access to Rakhine State. We re sitting here in our white shirts and our suits and these people are being slaughtered and thrown out of their country, Republican Representative Scott Perry said. Somebody needs to take action, he added. Murphy said efforts were under way to identify individuals responsible for rights violation. Representative Ted Yoho, chairman of the panel s Asia subcommittee, asked if it would be effective to suspend aid to Myanmar s government until they allowed U.N. inspectors into Rakhine state. Kate Somvongsiri, a witness from the U.S. Agency for International Development, said that would be considered. With the gravity of the situation, we obviously need to look at all the possible tools of leverage on the table, she said. | 1 |
4,390 | Comrade Trump Pushes Conspiracy Theory From Russian Propaganda Site | The ties between Donald Trump s presidential campaign and the regime of Russian leader Vladimir Putin have been extensive and troubling as they ve been revealed over the course of the campaign. Trump has repeatedly praised Putin, despite his invasion of Ukraine and his belligerent attitude on the international stage, including his support of Syrian dictator Assad.In exchange, Putin has also had nice words for Trump, and it is believed that Russia is backing hackers who have attacked Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party.Now Trump has escalated the back and forth by promoting a delusional conspiracy theory that began on Russian propaganda websites. From CNN:Trump didn t cite a source to back up his claim, but the most recent report alleging this came from Sputnik News, a Russian state-owned news agency. Google search engine was suppressing the bad news about Hillary Clinton, Trump said, apparently referring to Google searches during the first presidential debate on Monday night.Trump s remarks Wednesday night came two weeks after Sputnik News, a Russian government-controlled news agency, published a report claiming that Google search results are biased in Clinton s favor. Conservative news outlets, including Breitbart News, whose chairman became Trump s campaign CEO last month, linked to the report.Trump has surrounded his campaign with conspiracy theorists, including radio host Alex Jones, who is an ardent Trump supporter and who believes that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an inside job executed by the U.S. government. Jones also believes that the children murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary were crisis actors. There is no truth to Trump s claim about Google, and it is very possible he got the information from Jones, who has alleged that he is in phone contact with Trump.Trump s supporters ate up the claim, as a majority of them visit and believe the same propaganda false stories as their leader does.Featured image via Wikimedia Commons | 0 |
4,391 | WATCH: Fox Host Chris Wallace Scolds Fox & Friends For Saying Russia Investigation Is Over | Donald Trump s favorite morning propaganda program on Fox News just got their asses handed to them for counting their chickens before they ve hatched.Ever since former FBI Director James Comey confirmed that Trump is not personally under investigation for collusion with Russia, Fox News has been proclaiming victory and declaring that Trump has been vindicated.Specifically, they have been calling the Russia investigation a nothingburger. On the Sunday morning edition of Fox & Friends, hosts Clayton Morris and Pete Hegseth celebrated because they think the investigation is over now, only to have their bubble burst by veteran journalist and Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace, who brutally reminded them that the investigation is nowhere near over because of a guy named Michael Flynn and another guy named Jeff Sessions.Morris claimed that the Russia story imploded. Wallace responded by pointing out that Attorney General Jeff Sessions is testifying to the Senate Intelligence Committee and may detail Trump s obstruction of justice. You know, because demanding the FBI Director drop an investigation and then firing him for refusing to do so is interference and is the definition of obstruction.That s when Pete Hegseth jumped in to try once again to assure viewers that the investigation against Trump is done while also insulting Comey and trying to turn the investigation on him instead. Little evidence has been shown that there s collusion with Russia, Hegseth said Now we know that Comey was a leaker, potentially multiple times. Can the investigation move in those directions instead of the Russia investigation, which is proven to be pretty much a nothingburger? Wallace quickly disappointed Hegseth with reality. I certainly wouldn t say it s a nothingburger, Wallace said. We have to see where it goes. Among other things, we still haven t heard from Michael Flynn. And he s one of the key figures in all of this. He was the one who had the most contacts Russia. He s the one who got paid by Russia. Here s the video via YouTube.Once again, Chris Wallace smacks down Fox & Friends for being Trump s personal propaganda machine. Wallace previously criticized the Fox & Friends crew in the aftermath of Trump firing Comey because they would not take the story seriously.Featured image via screenshot | 0 |
4,392 | EPA confirms White House freeze on grants, contracts ends Friday | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said that a freeze handed down by President Donald Trump’s White House on new contracts and grants that has led to fears of delays in toxic pollution cleanups would be completely reversed on Friday or at latest on Monday. The freeze has led to widespread concerns in states and cities about potential delays in efforts to monitor and clean up toxic pollution, particularly lead pollution in drinking water, that would put the health of Americans at risk. The agency allocates nearly $4 billion annually on projects ranging from cleaning up polluted industrial sites to testing air and water for toxins. Doug Ericksen, a former Washington state senator who is the EPA’s new communications director, said in an email that $3.8 billion of the $3.9 billion in contracts and grants was cleared on Wednesday night. “The remainder should be cleared today. There might be a very small number left for Monday, but not likely.” The EPA has not issued any news releases about ending the freeze, which has led to uncertainty. On Thursday, a day after Ericksen said the vast majority of the contracts and grants were cleared, five Democratic senators, including Edward Markey and Tom Carper, wrote a letter to Trump “with alarm” urging him to “immediately reverse this troubling action.” Ericksen said they should rest assured. “No projects are delayed or cut. None. Not sure how much more clear I can be,” he said in the email. U.S. Representative Dan Kildee from Flint, Michigan, home to the lead poisoning crisis in drinking water, also wrote to Trump this week asking when the freeze would be lifted. An EPA spokeswoman told Kildee’s office that $100 million in congressional aid would not be affected by the freeze. But Kildee was uncertain whether contracts and grants centering on testing and expertise about the lead crisis would be delayed. A Kildee spokesman said on Friday that the congressman had still not gotten a written response to his letter from Trump or the EPA. The EPA sent employees an internal memo late on Friday, seen by Reuters that said it was making progress in lifting the freeze, which it called standard practice during a transition. “As of today, we have completed review of our grant programs,” the memo said. “The review of contracts is nearly complete, with very few contracts still under review,” the memo said, without elaborating. | 1 |
4,393 | OBAMA AGREES WITH MUSLIM NEWS Network Whose Facebook Page Celebrates Jihad Against Gays In Orlando…GUNS To Blame For Terror Act, NOT Hate-Filled, Intolerant Democrat Muslim | Liberals like to use the term right wing extremists . They like to blame the Christian faith every time a Planned Parenthood abortion mill is shot up or an abortion doctor is killed. But the minute a Muslim terrorists kills or harms another human being, religion somehow, has nothing to do with it. America woke up to the horrible news of an unimaginable mass murder against over 100 innocent people in Orlando yesterday, at the hands of a Muslim man, who openly pledged his allegiance to ISIS. Instead of addressing America with a call to vigilance against Muslim radicals, Obama predictably called for gun control. Not that it comes as a surprise, but his friends over at the radical Al Jazeera news agree.Omar Mateen called the cops to pledge his fealty to ISIS as he was carrying out his mass murder in Orlando early Sunday. Twelve hours later, the president of the United States declared that we have no definitive assessment on the motivation of Omar Mateen but that we know he was a person filled with hate. So I guess the president thinks Mateen didn t mean it?Here again, and horribly, we have an unmistakable indication that Obama finds it astonishingly easy to divorce himself from a reality he doesn t like the reality of the Islamist terror war against the United States and how it is moving to our shores in the form of lone-wolf attacks.He called it terror, which it is. But using the word terror without a limiting and defining adjective is like a doctor calling a disease cancer without making note of the affected area of the body because if he doesn t know where the cancer is and what form it takes, he cannot attack it effectively and seek to extirpate it.So determined is the president to avoid the subject of Islamist, ISIS-inspired or ISIS-directed terrorism that he concluded his remarks with an astonishing insistence that we need the strength and courage to change our attitudes toward the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.That s just disgusting. There s no other word for it. Via: NYPWe re seeing the demonization of the AR-!5 all over liberal media in the wake of the Orlando terrorist attack. As usual they seek to deflect from the real problem, the Islamic terrorism, and try to shift blame to gun. It s perhaps particularly galling given that their readership is cheering the attack.So some facts for Al Jazeera and other fact-challenged liberal media.AR-15 is not an assault rifle and is not an automatic rifle. Fully automatic rifles have been severely restricted from civilian ownership since 1934. AR-15 is semi-automatic like most guns and is no more powerful than any other common rifle. It fires only one round with each pull of the trigger.The AR in AR-15 rifle stands for ArmaLite rifle, after the company that developed it in the 1950s. AR does NOT stand for assault rifle or automatic rifle. The AR-15 is one of the most common rifles in the country, popular for hunting, sport or self-defense.Al Jazeera is even incorrect in referring in the graphic to a magazine as a clip . A clip is a device that is used to store multiple rounds of ammunition together as a unit, ready for insertion into the magazine or cylinder of a firearm.What they leave out in all this deflection of course is that the shooter was an Islamic terrorist, a registered Democrat, doing it in the name of ISIS. Via: Weasel ZippersAl Jazeera Facebook page celebrates Orlando terror attack: | 0 |
4,394 | Did Trump Just Accidentally Admit He Deleted Recordings Of Comey Conversations? | Conservatives love to tell us that Donald Trump speaks his mind and always tells the truth despite a mountain of evidence against the latter point, so when he told us he recorded his conversations with former FBI Director James Comey it s perfectly reasonable for us to take him at his word.Shortly after he fired Comey for requesting additional resources for the investigation into the Trump administration s collusion with Russia, Trump threatened to release the recordings in an effort to intimidate a witness recordings whose existence would be just the latest in a long history of Trump secretly recording conversations.James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017Apparently, The Donald has done some reading on Richard Nixon, because he seems to have destroyed the tapes he made. After Comey said Lordy, I hope there are tapes (the one time in history Lordy has sounded so badass), Trump realized that his plan wasn t quite working out so well so he now claims that they never existed. With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I have no idea whether there are tapes or recordings of my conversations with James Comey, but I did not make, and do not have, any such recordings, Trump tweeted on Thursday.With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I have no idea Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2017 whether there are "tapes" or recordings of my conversations with James Comey, but I did not make, and do not have, any such recordings. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2017Either Trump is lying about making the recordings or he is lying about them not existing .or he destroyed them. That final option, given Trump s history, is the one that likely occurred.Naturally, the American people once again proved that they are not as stupid as Trump thinks they are:WHAT THE FUCK, TRUMP? ????????? You lying sack of shit. Holly O Reilly (@AynRandPaulRyan) June 22, 2017Why should we believe anything you say when you just banned the press from covering the daily briefing? Alex Mayberry (@Alex_Mayberry) June 22, 2017you re such a gross failure and a slob. you can t even lie right. and look at this shit pic.twitter.com/TjKhwT0cEC Livia Scott ? (@LiviaLove) June 22, 2017You realize this makes your better hope there are no tapes statement evidence of attempted witness intimidation Ray Yelle (@ryelle62) June 22, 2017You lie about everything. James Comey was right, he was afraid of you lying about convos. James Comey 100 Trump 0! Jennie (@Jennie2004) June 22, 2017Keep tweeting. Robert Mueller will gladly use your tweets as evidence. Mario Velarde (@MarioV7) June 22, 2017HahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaYOU REFUCKEDhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha Blankety Blank (@agentZillah) June 22, 2017Trying to distract the country from your sad healthcare bill. You are becoming quite predictable Mr. President. #TrumpFearsPressY MJ (@TheMagsterBarks) June 22, 2017Notice he didn t say he that he didn t know about them or listen to them Bens The Best (@bens_the_best) June 22, 2017Translation I reviewed tapes with my lawyer and they don t support my point so all tapes and equipment have been destroyed. Brief Truth (@TheBriefTruth) June 22, 2017HE made/had no tapes. This, once again is was advised by his lawyers to shield him if and when they ever do surface proving Comey right TheUnsilentMAJORITY (@The_UnSilent_) June 22, 2017Does this mean that there really aren t tapes, or that there ARE tapes and you don t want to release them because the confirm Comey s story? Dave Branson (@popsiclemud) June 22, 2017Here s a disturbing, but likely scenario: There were tapes. And their existence just created problems Trump can t handle.Featured image via screengrab/Getty Images | 0 |
4,395 | Trump says will work with Congress on grants, loans for Puerto Rico | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he will work with the U.S. Congress to approve grants and loans to help rebuild Puerto Rico after it was devastated by Hurricane Maria a month ago. Trump, speaking to reporters before a meeting with Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rossello, said repayment of federal loans to Puerto Rico will come before repayment of the island’s private debt. Before the hurricane, the bankrupt territory was already struggling with $72 billion in debt. | 1 |
4,396 | Burn! George Clooney Turns On Hillary After Saying ‘There Will Never Be A President Trump’ | George clooney probably gave the folks at The Daily Beast a coronary when he admitted what everyone has known for months, years Hillary didn t have it. Ya think? Clooney said he believes she wasn t fit for the job.George Clooney, who supported Hillary Clinton amid the 2016 presidential campaign and once hosted a fundraiser for her, said he believes she wasn t fit for the White House. Being qualified for the job does not necessarily mean you re the right person to be president, Clooney said in the interview. It was frustrating because I never saw her elevate her game. I saw it. And I had a lot of liberal friends who were like, She s not good at this. And I see that, and I understand it.Clooney has been a huge critic of President Trump so chances are he s not turned totally to the right but he s seeing that Hillary just didn t have the right stuff.OUR PREVIOUS COVERAGE OF CLOONEY IS PRETY FUNNY BECAUSE HE IS WRONG ON PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING: THERE WILL NEVER BE A PRESIDENT TRUMP There s nothing quite like an arrogant actor who lives in Europe, supports Hillary, blames the press for making Trump popular, and for not properly vetting him, while hanging out at the White House with the least vetted President in American history.George Clooney is making his disdain for Donald Trump known not just here in the United States but also overseas.The actor was interviewed by members of the international press at the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday afternoon, and took some time to share with them his opinion of Trump. There s not going to be a President Donald Trump, said Clooney, who held a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton last month in Los Angeles where tickets reportedly went for $353,400 per couple. That s not going to happen. Fear is not going to be something that drives our country. We re not going to be scared of Muslims or immigrants or women. We re not actually afraid of anything. That whole We re not afraid of Muslims thing ought to go over pretty well with the victims and families of victims who have been attacked in Paris twice over the past couple of years. Tell that to French residents who live in or near no-go-zones George. Of course, you wouldn t know, because you have the best security detail money can buy hypocrite!Clooney, who was on the Croisette to promote his film Money Monster, went on to say; Trump is actually a result in many ways of the fact that much of the news programs didn t follow up and ask tough questions. Via: Daily Mail | 0 |
4,397 | Obama to reassure U.S. allies about Trump's commitment to NATO | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Monday he would reassure U.S. allies during his trip overseas this week that Republican President-elect Donald Trump plans to maintain core U.S. strategic relationships around the world, including with NATO. Obama, speaking ahead of a trip to Europe and Latin America, said one of the most important things he could do during his visit was to reassure U.S. allies who may be concerned following Trump’s victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton last week. Trump slammed NATO allies during the campaign for not paying enough for their own defense and suggested the United States was paying a disproportionate amount that was too much given the changes in the world. He also told the Washington Post the United States could not fund NATO at current levels. Trump’s comments echoed longstanding U.S. complaints that too many NATO allies do not live up to their pledge to spend 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense. Only the United States and four other NATO allies - Greece, Britain, Estonia and Poland - met the goal last year. France and Turkey have been close. Despite Trump’s criticism of NATO spending during the campaign, Obama said the president-elect, who takes office Jan. 20, had indicated he was committed to maintaining ties with U.S. allies. “In my conversation with the president-elect, he expressed a great interest in maintaining our core strategic relationships,” Obama told a news conference before his departure. “So one of the messages I will be able to deliver is his commitment to NATO and the trans-Atlantic alliance.” “One of the most important functions that I can serve at this stage ... is to let them know that there is no weakening of resolve when it comes to America’s commitment to maintaining a strong and robust NATO relationship and a recognition that those alliances aren’t just good for Europe, they’re good for the United States and they’re vital for the world,” he said. The European Union agreed on a new defense plan on Monday that could see it sending rapid response forces abroad for the first time, a move seen as giving it the ability to act without the United States if necessary. The action appeared to be galvanized in part by Trump’s criticism. Obama is visiting Greece, Germany and Peru on his last trip abroad as president. He is expected to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European leaders in Germany and Greece. In Peru he will see Chinese President Xi Jinping and other Pacific leaders at an economic summit. Obama said U.S. foreign policy remained quite stable despite changes in administration, in part because of the breadth of U.S. government interactions with other nations. “There is enormous continuity beneath the day-to-day news that makes us that indispensable nation when it comes to maintaining order and promoting prosperity around the world. That will continue,” Obama told reporters at the White House. | 1 |
4,398 | Factbox: Summary of Trump's comments in New York Times interview | (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump spoke on a wide range of issues with New York Times editors and reporters on Tuesday. The following is a summary of some of his comments as reported by the newspaper or its reporters. Trump said prosecuting Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for her handing of classified information while secretary of state or the dealings of the Clinton Foundation was “not something that I feel very strongly about.” “I don’t want to hurt the Clintons, I really don’t,” Trump said. “She went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways.” “I think it would be very very divisive for the country,” he said, referring to prosecuting Clinton or her husband, former President Bill Clinton. During campaign rallies, Trump often fired up his supporters by calling for pressing for investigations of Hillary Clinton, spurring chants of “Lock her up!” by the crowd. Trump, who previously called man-made global warming a hoax, said: “I think there is some connectivity” between humans and climate change. “I’m looking at it very closely,” Trump said about the 2015 Paris climate accord, which he had promised to quit during the presidential campaign. “I have an open mind to it.” * ALT-RIGHT AND STEVE BANNON Trump condemned an alt-right conference in Washington over the weekend where some members performed a Hitler salute and yelled: “Hail Trump!” after a speech about white nationalism. “I condemn them. I disavow, and I condemn,” he said. “It’s not a group I want to energize. And if they are energized I want to look into it and find out why.” Rejecting charges by some critics that his chief White House strategist Steve Bannon is a racist, Trump said: “I’ve known Steve Bannon a long time. If I thought he was a racist, or alt-right ... I wouldn’t even think about hiring him.” Critics say Bannon, a former head of the conservative Breitbart News, had made the website a forum for the alt-right, a loose grouping that rejects mainstream politics and includes neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites. The real estate mogul said he saw no conflict in his business dealings and being president. “In theory I could run my business perfectly and then run the country perfectly. There’s never been a case like this,” Trump said. “I’d assumed that you’d have to set up some type of trust or whatever and you don’t,” he said. But he added: “I would like to do something.” “The law’s totally on my side, the president can’t have a conflict of interest.” * DEALING WITH THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT Trump said his son-in-law and close aide, Jared Kushner, could help broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and that the president-elect himself could play a role in achieving what has eluded his predecessors. “I would love to be the one who made peace with Israel and the Palestinians,” Trump said. “That would be such a great achievement.” | 1 |
4,399 | Watch This FLAWLESS Depiction Of The GOP’s Off-The-Charts Madness | It s hard not to love Joss Whedon, the director of The Avengers films. Not only is he a great film director capable of seamlessly blending action, drama and comedy, but he can also be rather outspoken on politics. To that end, he created a very short film titled, If Congress Was Your Co-Worker, and it s, well, entirely too perfect for the situation in which we now find ourselves.Star Trek s Chris Pine stars in the video as Leonard, the biggest, most babyish obstructionist in the whole entire history of everything. His co-workers responsible people who actually know how to work and want to get things done have to put up with his ridiculous, puerile behavior that s stopping everything they try to do in its tracks.Leonard starts off opposing the company s new healthcare plan, and when he s asked what they should do instead, he says, Not that! and then shuts down the entire company while bragging that he still gets paid.Later on, the company appoints a consultant named Bob to untangle legal issues, and Leonard literally blocks him. He blocks everyone s views of Bob while screaming, BOOOOO! and says he doesn t like Bob. When the boss asks why, he shouts, Because you chose him! If any of that sounds familiar, it s because it s a perfect illustration of why neither Congress, nor Obama, has been able to get anything done since the Tea Party wave of 2010. Leonard is the Tea Party, and also the larger Republican Party that allowed the Tea Party to come to power and do this to us. That includes ridiculous and draconian views of the LGBTQ community, religious and racial minorities, and things like sexual harassment and assault, all of which are also touched on.The video ends with the company getting together to do something about Leonard. Watch what they do below, and remember to go vote on Tuesday, Nov. 8, if you haven t already done so.Featured image via screen capture from embedded video | 0 |
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